4/23/12

4/23/12

Hola Familia

I hope you had a great time celebrating Lindsay’s birthday. It was a great time for me to think back on her life and remember all of our great memories together. Cry a little bit (as Hermana Turk called me), but to think more about the Plan of Salvation and the Plan of Happiness that we have in our lives. I bought some yellow flowers that morning in the market to have on my desk throughout the day to help keep me happy. I hope the carnival was a success.

We have had a great week, working really hard. This next week is my companions last week in the mission. So we are working really hard and making sure that she finishes strong and hard.

We will be finishing with the baptism of Edwardo. He is another Teenager of the area. He is friends with a lot of the youth around here. He has been attending seminary for most of the school year and is looking forward to be baptized. We received permission from his dad this past Saturday, which was awesome because his dad freely gave permission and then after he had signed the paper he had questions for us. It was funny and it made us laugh. But it was good, He had lots of questions for us. He is a great dad, except that he drinks a lot.

sunsets in Casa Grande

So the area of Casa Grande is doing great, the recent converts are doing good. Some of the recent converts before my time are struggling with the change of life style, so that has ben hard. There is a lot of gossip and a lot of disrespect for the bishop, leaders and missionaries. It’s sad. It’s hard to demand respect but still want their friendship.

So this is a cool experience I heard this past week. Remember my companion Hermana Ballena from the Lima ccm. Well I got a letter from my friend Chelsy Broome. She is home from her mission from Boliva. Well small world. She was the trainer for Hermana Ballena in Boliva. Crazy huh. haha I love it.

This last baptism photo is of Anita, Orlando, and Anna. We met Anita´s sister, Santos through a contact and she said ‘my sister is going to be baptized in your church this next Saturday’.  We were kind of confused because we don’t know who she is; and she lives in our area. But we got her directions and went to look for her.  Well we found her and found out that some other elders of ours had been teaching this family and that they were indeed going to be baptized and were going to be participating in another ward.  We were bugged for a while, but that has passed.... (kind of). But we assisted in their baptism because Anita asked us to and because we have a great relationship with her. She has been reading the Book of Mormon for 28 years; wow. She is amazing! More to come about Santos!! Pray for her, she is a chosen one.

Well, as I said, this is my last week with my Hermanita Herrera.  She is the BEST! I have learned so much from her and we are going to send her off with a bang!

I guess she's telling us she's shrinking

Love you all!

Hna Sandstrom