Walking on water

Hermosa familia,

This week has been a wet one. Oh yeah, and I went on two exchanges, one of which was on bikes. That was an adventure--squeezing my backpack under my raincoat and not caring one bit about the state of my frumpy hair. And the poor bike I was riding is one of the elder's, and it was all duct taped and one of the brakes didn't work. I was a sight to behold. But the end of the night brought an amazing miracle. That morning during companionship study, Sister Angimarau (from Kiribati) and I role played contacting someone whose husband recently passed away. Well that night I asked Sister A if we could go visit one of her investigators, and on the way she turned to go see a potential that they had been trying to visit. We rode up to the house and they invited us right in and made us some hot chocolate--she felt so bad for us on our bikes. The potential is Jackie, and she told us that her ex-husband had just passed away the Thursday before. It made her think a lot about the purpose of life and where we go after, and she said her daughter has been struggling with the passing of her father. Sister A and I had a flashback to companionship study--it was a little trippy. We taught Jackie about the plan of salvation and she said that this is something she really needs in her life right now. She couldn't stop talking about how grateful she was that we would remember and visit her out in the rain and cold on our bikes. She is excited to go to church and read the Book of Mormon. We invited her to be baptized when she knows what we teach is true and she said, "Oh absolutely." Miracle Jackie. The bad thing about exchanges is that it makes me really sad when I can't keep teaching them...

My other exchange was in El Dorado Hills, which is a ritzy city. The sisters live in a literal mansion. For morning exercise, we played volleyball and racquetball in the indoor gym. They have a theater room and I don't even know what else--it was incredible. I didn't feel like a missionary. That's why they moved in with the Gomms after the exchange. :) And the Gomms--this is a good one. I was roommates with their daughter for two years at EFY BYU. I guess it's a good thing I didn't serve in English work. I also met Kamille's in-laws during the exchange... Oh yeah, so I slept in a queen-sized bed during the exchange (attached pic).

We had a mission-wide Spanish activity on Friday night after zone conference with Elder and Sister Porter. President wanted me to have an interview with Elder Porter, and Elder Porter was probably really confused why because I'm going home so soon. But he gave me soon good tips of what to do when I get home. The Spanish activity was a tour of paintings from the Book of Mormon by a Brasilian artist, folkloric dances from Mexico and Brasil, the missionaries sang a song, President and Sister Lewis spoke, there was a video about the Book of Mormon, a potluck from different countries, photo booth. I got to see people from my first two areas, which was really neat, and one man from Stockton now lives in Lodi, and he told me his daughter (my first convert Alicia) lives in Mexico and is still active. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And it's been raining a ton and luckily I have boots that can withstand anything. I'll attach some pics from yesterday--outside our church building.

Love you all,

kates

Pictures:

Dances and flood and a family I LOVE. Hermana Ramirez was the first person I met in the ward--she went on an exchange with me 3 months after being baptized and now they're sealed! And hermano is really proud that he can say my name. :) He always smiles when I tell him WOW GOOD JOB HERMANO!