August 7, 2017

Hey guys!!!! So this past week has been pretty good! We got ALOT of new investigators actually! Which is soo good! So last week after our district meeting, Sister Van and I sat down and looked at the investigators that we have. And we decided to drop quite a few. But it was okay! This led to us being able to find more potentials and more investigators! But the week actually started off kinda discouraging! We would knock houses, but no one would accept our message, or no one would be home. And we never lost hope, and never gave up, but we were like, why is this happening. But we kept pushing onward, and now we have amazing new investigators and because of our faith we are teaching this sweet family. The Selenas family! They are so cute! There is the mom, dad, and 2 sons. A 12 year old and 16 year old! The APs actually called us friday night and were like hey we found this family and we are giving them to you to teach. So back story, the APs are to teach in Spanish, we teach in English. So since this family is English, they couldn't teach them and had to hand them over to us! So we were gonna visit them Saturday night, but they ended up not being home, and then Sunday before church, we went over to visit them! And they are so nice! they were telling us that after the Elders were there and had taught them the Restoration, they said everything changed for the good! They are so excited to learn more! The Elders invited them to read 3 Nephi 11. And the 16 year old boy stayed up until 2 in the morning reading it! He said he didn't understand a lot of it just because reading the Bible and Book of Mormon, with old English is kinda difficult. Like it is similar to learning a new language. So on Sunday we sat down and read it with them! They are so intelligent and were able to understand the message! We are going to go back to night to see them and teach them the Plan of Salvation! Which I am sooo excited for! 

We also met this boy who is maybe 12, and we just had knocked his door, and we asked if we could come back another day to share a message with him and his family. Well we came back, and we met his older brother Hector who was really receptive to the message!! We gave him a Book of Mormon! I think he will read it because he was really excited learning about the restoration! We actually taught him 2 lessons that night because he was so interested! 

We have this investigtor, Valdemar! he is amazing and so sweet! He has soo many good intentions and wants to know more about the church! We introduced him to the Book of Mormon! So he speaks really good English, but when it comes to the scriptures he can only  understand it fully in Spanish, so we got him a spanish el libro de mormon, and he loves it! We read a chapter with him, and he kept saying wow, and no way. He was so interested in it! I am so excited for him to know more! 

So last Monday after emailing, we went and got our new car! Which is like really nice!

On Tuesday evenings we do this thing called ward visits, where members in the ward come with the missionaries to knock doors, in either the Elders area, our area, or in the other Sisters area. This last one we knocked the other sisters area. And yeah there are 3 sets of missionaries in our ward! The Zone Leaders, the Sister Training leaders, and us! But the other Elders in our district the District leaders are in the Hidalgo Spanish ward! 

On Wednesday we met a kid named Max! He was super receptive to our message! Oh also Wednesday morning we did a service project at this food place. So basically H.E.B donates a lot of food that they cannot sell anymore because it almost the best by date, and so they give it to this one place. and workers bag it up to give to people who I think can not afford a lot of food. So we helped with that. But it was kinda gross. We saw 2 cockroaches! Like EW! But ohwell... we weren't eating the food. 

On Thursday we came to the Library to do family history and read conference talks online! That was really good! I read some stories from my ancestors! And it was so cool to see the faith they had in some of their hardest situations. We then went to an investigars house for a Bible study, but while there we try to express what we believe in the church too! 

Nothing much really happened since thursday. We just taught and knocked doors! 

Funny: Last night Sister Van and I made brownies! And we did not eat all of them. And so left them out last night. Then this morning we cleaned. And during lunch, she brought up how she threw away the brownies that we made last night. She said that it was because she was wanting us to try to eat healthier. But we have this thing where we get a new kind of oreos each Monday to try them during the week! And we had just gotten oreos, so I just didn't understand why we got the oreos, but she didn't want to keep the brownies. I almost started crying... Do not ask why. Then she went and got here camera, and started doing a video, apparantly it was just a prank! She just put them in the oven, and she wanted to see what I would do when I found out! I freaked! It was a priceless moment!! hahah! 

So in this mission, to keep working and learning Spanish, we have this thing called capitan! And so we have to do all these different things, to get it done! And reading the BoM (to Enos for now) is one of them! And my goal is to finish capitan by Sept 2! I am so excited for it! But it is alot of work! But my Spanish is not getting bad! I might actually be getting better! I have had to use it a few times actually! 

This morning, we cleaned, went shopping and then wrote letters and worked on Spanish. And we are going to go have a Zone/District P-Day in Hidalgo and also play chair soccer and then teach later this evening!

I am so excited for what this week brings!

I love you all!!

Have a good week!

Love, 

Sister Riley