Transfer Tuesdee

Querida Familia,

"Transfer Tuesdee" is for Berkeley who taught me the dees of the week. :) I would like Berkeley's address, by the way. She went to Brazil for the summer, and I have no idea where she is living now.

Another week, another transfer! We got our new calls last night. Drum roll, please . . . I'm staying in East Sac! We're going on transfer number 5.5 in this blessed area. I hit my 6-month mark last week. Sadly, my Hermana Toro is going to Sacramento to serve in the Spanish branch. She is going to be serving with my other trainee, Sister Beale! I am a little worried about the horror stories they're going to swap about their trainer. Yikes! But I am happy for them. I think that might be the most Spanish area for sisters in the mission--and it looks like I'm never going to serve there! That's okay. East Sac has treated me really well, and I'm excited to stay with Hermana Marroquin who has been in Stockton her whole mission (3 transfers--which is how I started out).

Let's see. This week is all a blur to me. That's what happens after almost 16 months. The days and weeks and months are all just smothered together now. I feel like September just started yesterday. Time is reaaaaally flying.

This morning we went to the temple. I am spoiled here in East Sac because the temple is a hop, skip, and a jump away. The mission office is in my area. And Deseret Book is right down the street from the mission office. I am staying with Sister Schow--she can never get rid of me! The members in the new part of our area make us cheesecake and offer their services as fellowshippers and for dinner. :) We have some great investigators--and we will get them to church! 

I don't know if I've told you about the mother and son who we were teaching--I probably have. This is a miracle story. I went on an exchange one day with the ASL sisters, and we had a member lined up to go out with Sister Toro for the whole day. She is a returned missionary, so she knows the drill--how this all works! At the last minute she cancelled because she had to take care of her nieces and nephews. Sister Toro sent me a message, and I started rattling off all the people I could think of in our phone that she could call. Couldn't, couldn't, couldn't. I was thinking I would need to tell the sisters that I couldn't go out with them that day (they actually live in our area because our area is huge and covers about 10 English companionships--maybe?). I thought about Sister Druyon who is a senior missionary in the office--she served in France way back when and her first companion was Sister Brinkerhoff. Sister Druyon always wants to come out with us because she is so passionate about missionary work and really loves to be out proselyting. We were able to take her to one lesson with Rebecca, and then she treated us to Cheesecake Factory--spoiled! Well, after thinking about how long she would need to be with Sister Toro and how she needed to work in the office, I decided against asking her. But my district leader gave Sister Toro her number and Sister D went! They went to a few lessons/houses, and one of them was Car and Fre. Sister Druyon connected with Car, offered to completely redo her bathroom amongst many other things. We had been teaching them because her husband only speaks Spanish. But Sister D brought the English elders over who happen to be the APs, and one of them speaks Spanish, and after going to church and knowing a lot of people there and this and that, they're getting baptized this Saturday!! In an English ward!! haha I promise I'm not a bilingual missionary. Sister D has been a dream come true when it comes to fellowshipping and leading others to baptism. We are so happy for Car and Fre--this is exactly what they needed right now. If Sister Toro's companion hadn't cancelled on her, we wouldn't be having a baptism on Saturday morning!

But we do, and we also have a baptism Saturday evening! Ang just turned 8. For the time being neither of her parents are members, so she is a convert baptism. We are hoping to baptize her mom very soon! Our ward is having a temple trip this Saturday, and practically the whole ward will be going, so it wasn't possible to have the baptism any earlier. Somehow Sister Toro will have to figure out how to come for baptisms at 11 and 7. Not a very bad problem to have. :)

As for our other investigators, we have a really great group of people that we are teaching. We visited a former investigator who we were teaching in May and June and was going through some very difficult trials. We just visited her last week, and since then she has been able to find a job (2!) and get eye surgery so that she is not blind (she was going blind from diabetes). She was going to come to church on Sunday but ended up backing out because she was called in to work. :( And we were going to have a less active and her sisters come, but they ended up going to Oregon to visit a sick uncle. Strike two! And someone else was going to come, who didn't end up making it. So we had three strikes on Sunday morning, but the meetings at church were great and perked up my mood again. They will be coming to church soon!

The gospel is a great blessing. I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for giving me the chance to serve. Although I wish absolutely everyone I talked to would gladly accept this message, that isn't the case. I wish I could stay by people's sides all day and tell them how the gospel would bless them with this, this, and that in their everyday lives. How it brings so much peace and purpose. But even if I don't change the hearts of a whole multitude, my heart has forever been changed. Every day I think about how I will apply this in my life, with my own family, with my friends. This is all that matters. 

Something I did learn this week from a woman that we visited is that I will teach (even force) my children to play piano. :) This 75-year-old woman, Gladys, gave us two pieces of advice. That was the second piece. I thought, "Done!" She said, when they don't want to practice, you make them. They'll say no, no, no, but don't back down.

Love you all!

kates