It's already December! This is my favorite part of the year!!! You wouldn't believe it but it was raining all last night and there was even snow on the hills or mountains. Crazy huh?? So it's been pretty cold here. Probably in the 40s or so, burrrr!
Well, this was an awesome week. As of now our investigators are doing really well! Our Mission President, Presidente Jackson, challenged us to invite our investigators to give a gift to the Savior and be baptized in the month of December so as of now Josie and her mother Josefina still have a baptismal date for Dec. 26 and Hermana Lowry and I think that we should commit both Jose and Silvia to be baptized this month instead of January. We still have a lot to teach them but I think it will be good and we can get the lessons taught. They're all doing really really well. I love them all so much. Although Silvia has been so much more quiet and a little dissoriented ever since we talked about the law of chastity. I think she really wants to change and is feeling bad. I'm not sure how we can help her but I've been thinking to myself that if we commit her to baptism, this is what will help her because if she will commit to change and pray for more help she will receive a remission of her sins. I want her to feel that burden lifted off her shoulders and the wonderful feeling of being a member of Christ's church and following him. She is going to receive sooo many blessings and especially feel more happy. We've been planning on commiting her to baptism for a while and should have commited her already but everytime we planned to something happened where it just didn't seem right anymore. I need to have more courage and just do it. That's something I'm trying to work on, instead of just relying on Hermana Lowry.
So yeah they are all doing pretty well. So exciting, Mayra Bravo was baptized on this last Saturday, Dec. 5, and was confirmed a member of the church yesterday! Everything went sooo smoothly I thought it was fake or something bad was going to happen. She is doing great though and is so strong. A lot of it has to do with her suegra being a member and helping out so much. She almost was going to be baptized in cold water too poor thing. The Elders told us that there was no hot water and so Hermana Lowry and I were going to boil hot water to make it warmer but we ended up not having enough time to do that but luckily Hermana Lowry figured out that there was hot water after all, the switch for hot water hadn't been turned ha. Never listen to the Elders ;-) Anyway all we could find for Mayra to wear was a wrinkly suit. I felt so bad because she looked soo pretty and then had to put that on! You could tell she didn't feel to pretty and was a little embarrassed but she was baptized. Other than the wrinkely suit, oooops, it was wonderful. The spirit was strong and a lot of people went to the baptism, it was awesome awesome!
On Saturday, the same Saturday Mayra was baptized, we went to the temple. Mayra couldn't go, which we really wanted her to go, but Eva Lugo and her girls, Jessica, Lupita, and Venessa; Josie and Josefina went. Moises Campos, one of our less active members came also which was great. Laura Ramirez and her son Chris, who is Josie's boyfriend, came also. It was such a good thing for all of them. Chris is very inactive and doesn't want really anything to do with the church but he went to the temple and attended church because Josie wants him to. I think he'll start coming around with her example. At the temple we watched the "Families together forever" exhibit, watched a short film about the birth of Christ, the Joseph Smith movie, and walked around the temple grounds. They all absolutely loved it and even Lupita, who has 13 years, was talking about what temple she wants to be married in. I can't wait until they start going to church in January. There's just so much to say about each of our investigators and all those we are teaching but I'll just say that things are going well and I'm very grateful.
So on Wed. we got a call from President Jackson. We expected him to call because we pretty much were positive that Hermana Lowry would be training one of the new hermanas that would be coming in. So sure enough he called but none of us were expecting him to say what he did. He was talking to Hermana Lowry and told her that he would like to invite her and me to the training meeting. I could hear him on the phone and so my mouth just dropped open in shock when I heard that. Then he said now let me talk to Hermana Alvey before she drops dead to the ground, which I pretty much had ha. She gave me the phone and he told me that there would be another Hermana coming in that he wanted we to train and Hermana Vawdrey and Cowley would receive their chance to train in January, which is when I was planning on training. Oh my goodness I was so nervous, I'm going to me a mommy! So he called back later that day and asked to speak to both of us because he needed our oppinion. He told us that one of us would be staying in Las Colinas and the other would be going down to Watsonville to pretty much open up the area. We both didn't know what to say just wanted him to make the decision himself but he wanted our oppinions. Hermana Lowry gave me the phone and said here you tell him what you think and then left. I didn't know what to say but I told President that I felt like our members investigators were more comfortable or attached to Hermana Lowry, which is what I think. After I was done Hermana Lowry got on the phone and President told her what I said and wanted to know if it was true. She was like uuuh, well, I don't know. Maybe because I speak more spanish and then President said thank you that's all I need to know. So after that we pretty much figured that I would be leaving and she would be staying but didn't know for sure so it was driving us crazy! On Friday when we went to the training meeting we asked him and he said yes that I would be going to Watsonville and she would be staying. So guess what! I'm leaving and going to Watsonville, yikes! But don't worry President isn't sticking me in a place that I don't know and make me train an Hermana who doesn't speak spanich, she already speaks spanish thank goodness! Hermana Kelson told President that she wanted to train her because she speaks spanish already and he told us that he thought about it but he wasn't going to make me open an area and train an Hermana who doesn't speak spanish, thank goodness!!! So yeah that's what's going on. She'll be coming tomorrow and it should be fun. She'll probably be expecting a trainer who already speaks spanish very well and knows the people and area but nope she get me who doen't know either haha. I was a little nervous about all of this but I prayed about it and I feel like this is the best and it won't be all that easy but all will be well. I guess we'll see how it goes tomorrow! Oh one thing I'm kind of bummed about though is that in this area President had 2 sets of Elders there, spanish and english. What he is doing now is pulling out the English and just putting spanish missionaries there and we will be teaching both english and spanish. He told us that 85% of the people there were spanish speaking so it was pointless to have english missionaries there. I didn't exactly like the idea of teaching english and spanish but it will be ok, I know I'm going to learn spanish and this is where Heavenly Father wants me to be. So we shall see how it all goes. I'm glad that mi nueva can help me out with spanish though =-) So yesterday at church Bishop announced that me and Elder Garcia would be leaving and so we bore our testimonies in Sacrament meeting. It was so sad! I had to keep fighting back tears. I love the people here in Las Colinas so much! I'm really hoping that President will send me back here in Las Colinas the last part of my mission, I guess we shall see. And we're allowed to come back for baptisms, so I get to come back to Las Colinas to see our baptisms. That makes me so happy because I would be soooo sad to miss those. So that is what's going on right now. I'm sure I'll have lots to say next week! Wish me luck lol. And I have no more to say... I'm the queen at writing novels ha. I hope my emails aren't way boring for you guys hehe!
I love you guys mucho muchisimo!!!
Love,
Hermana Alvey
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