Losing Sleep

Hi wonderful people,

I'm not really losing sleep at night. We just went to sleep at 11:30 on Friday night and I'm still trying to catch up from that. I do just fine when we follow the 10:30-6:30 schedule but when that gets off, woo--it's no bueno. Oh, I probably shouldn't mention this, but I will since it's so funny. The night before--Thursday--we were making a cake for Jose because it was his birthday on Friday. We put it in the oven and ended up falling asleep because it needed to cook for 45 minutes. An HOUR and 45 minutes later... Sister Carlos said, "Mama. I mean, Hermana! The cake!" And I said, "Is it burned?!?!" You know how I look when I wake up. And she was like "I don't know! I just woke up!" So we scrambled to the kitchen in the groggiest state possible and took the cake out of the oven. Don't worry--we just cut the burned edges off, made chocolate frosting (I frosted it--thank you, cake-decorating class), and delivered it to him. Haha yikes. Hope it tasted good...

Friday night we had a temple tour for all the Spanish missionaries/investigators in the Sacramento Mission. We got there early to help set up all the food, the art exhibit (an LDS painter from Argentina displayed his gospel artwork that came from various museums, etc.), the decorations, practice a special musical number, receive our assignments for the night, etc. The event was well attended. Sadly Stockton is really far from Sacramento (about 1.5 hours) so none of our investigators were able to make it, but we got to see and meet a lot of the members and investigators from all the other Spanish areas. All of the Spanish missionaries sang The Spirit of God and it was so powerful--I could feel the spirit so strongly as I sang those words in Spanish. "How blessed the day when the lamb and the lion shall lie down together without any ire." I think that's my favorite part of the song.

Sister Fernandez (one of the coordinating sisters) came again on Wednesday to train/evaluate/help us. I always learn so much from her and am trying to do everything that she does so well--she's about 6 months ahead of me on her mission but is such an inspiration to me in how she organizes and plans everything for the week/studies/teaches people. I have been blessed to be surrounded by so many great leaders/missionaries in the mission. In all the craziness, the real focus is on people--helping them receive the message of the restored gospel, and I try hard every day not to forget that.

We added four new investigators this week, so now we have seven investigators. A former investigator came to church on Sunday and Jose came for the fourth time! A family is getting baptized this Friday (the elders' investigators), and one of them had questions in Relief Society about some words in the Gospel Principles manual. She asked if we had a book in English, and I was thinking, "I'm right there with you, sister." :) Anyway, I still tried to translate what I could and explained what I did understand and expounded on it. It talked about Lehi and his family leaving Jerusalem before it was destroyed in 586 B.C. I explained why/how we have the Book of Mormon and how it relates to the Bible--where the history fits in and everything. She was so thankful that I explained that to her because things start clicking and making more sense. Sunday night we had a fireside and a counselor in the Mission Presidency spoke. The investigator thanked me again for helping her during Relief Society and said that she'd actually been praying the past few nights to know for certain that the Book of Mormon was true and that the Church is true. She said that I answered that prayer. I've heard people say things like, "Oh you're an answer to prayer" or "You came at the right time," but never an answer to a specific prayer. Something I said along the way confirmed her testimony, and I'm so grateful that she has truly been converted and is getting baptized this weekend. It will change their lives forever.

Today we had a sisters' luncheon for all the sisters in the mission. We weren't going to go because we didn't have a ride, but bless her, one of the members who makes dinner for us every Sunday took us. About 3 hours round trip. We had a fabulous lunch, plenty of dessert, took pictures, shared scriptures that have really helped us lately, and made those cute flowers you can wear on your blouse or in your hair.

I don't have much time. Everything's going well! Love you all. Hope you're as excited for Conference as I am! Like Jose said, I wish everyone knew that we have a living prophet on the earth today who guides us and tells us the things we need to know. We can be prepared not only spiritually but also physically. What a blessing.

Love,

kates