First of all, thank you to all who have sent me stuff. You have no idea how much it makes my day. I do feel the support from home, and I'm sure that, some days, the only thing that keeps me going are your prayres. This mission stuff is hard. I'm going to try to attach some fotos today as requested, but I don't have too much time.
You see, I'm getting transferred.
Hooray! My first transfer! I'm pretty excited about it, though I'm sad to be finally separated from my "mom." Hna. Corless and I have been together since I got here--three transfers, which equals 18 weeks. Hna. Little has been with us for 4 weeks, and we were really having a blast. That's probably why Hna. Corless and I are both getting transferred--we were getting too comfortable. That can really be a problem as a missionary.
And it's an exciting transfer--5 out of the 8 Hnas. are being transferred, and they're also closing an area, so two of us get to open something new! I'm pretty stoked. Wednesday is going to be fun. Packing, though, probably not.
This last week was really good, though Hna. Little got sick on Sunday which is NOT fun, but then we got to stay home after church and actually get some studies done and such. We had three investigators at church, and one who has a baptismal date--Gustavo. Sweetest little man ever. He's probably around 40, but with the simplistic mind of a 7-yr-old. Not unintelligent, just very simple and humble and sweet. When we were trying to teach him how to pray, Hna. Corless wrote him out an outline:
1. Padre Celestial
2. Te doy gracias por. . .
3. Te pido por. . .
4. En el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.
He asked us three times if he should just read that, and we said no--you need to fill it in with your own words and feelings. So we all bow our heads, and Gustavo says, "Padre Celestial, te doy gracias por, te pido por, en el nombre de Jesucristo amen." It was the cutest thing ever. His sister, Maria, a less-active member coming back, told him to just listen this time and she'll say it for him. It was cute because he got a little grumpy. He's so funny. And Maria--she was going to some Christian church, and I think that's where she picked this up--she prays outloud with you. I was saying a prayer one time and she was sitting next to me and I almost couldn't keep going because she was practically praying louder than me! I had to cover the laughing with a cough. Then I was grinning afterwards and I told her it was because I was embarrassed for coughing in the middle of the prayer. They're both so dang cute.
Raul came to church with his boys and nephew Isaac. He's the one with cancer. In our Gospel Principles class, he basically told everyone his testimony of prayer--how since he has started praying and reading the scriptures, he has had very special experiences, and he knows that Someone is listening. He feels the Spirit when he prays, and he's learning for himself that it's true. It's awesome.
Then our young investigator, Maria, had a birthday on Friday. So we remembered last minute and decided to head over at 8:30pm to give her a gift--I gave her envelopes and stamps and my address so we can keep in contact because I promised to take her to Vegas when I go home. Anyway, we got there and found out that her mom hadn't even remembered that it was her birthday, and she was grounded so she couldn't go to the surprise party her friends had planned for her. She was pretty dang upset. So we asked her mom if we could take her out for a "lesson", and we took her to Sonic for a smoothie. Which was a good thing, since she hadn't eaten in two days because she was so upset. The worst thing is--she's an awesome girl. Yeah, she's angry, but she's had a crappy childhood. All of her siblings are really awesome kids--helpful and relatively respectful--at least, they like us. That's good enough for me. Their mom is just overwhelmed and kind of ignorant. The gospel will be good for them.
Anyway, I'm going to go now. I'll put up some fotos too, promise.
I love you all, and I really appreciate what you do for me from home. I'll write you again next week, from my new area. Man, this is exciting!
Love,
Hna. Crowley
Fotos:
Elder Soto's goodbye lunch at Olive Garden
The day all three of us came out wearing green shirts, white undershirts, and brown skirts--on accident
The day we borrowed bikes from the Bishop (one got flat before we even left the house)
Elder Soto and I as nijas, beating evil Elder Jepsen
Us Hnas dressed as Muslims--literally. We've been teaching this woman from Iraq, and we were all wearing that type of scarf that day, so she wrapped them around for us the way she does it. So we took a picture. It's radical. She's very cool, but doesn't speak English. Her oldest daughter reminds me of Bethany. :)
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