First Transfer

This week has been pretty good. I do feel like I was just as tired as I was last week. I don’t know why. Yesterday when we got back to the apartment I had a headache and I really just wanted to go to sleep but we have to do these zone calls on Sunday nights and so I had to stay up for that. I didn’t get to bed until 10:30 but that’s usual I guess. I had this headache and I thought if I just go to sleep, it will go away. But I kept waking up with my head hurting. Eventually I thought I would just get up and get some ibuprofen so I could actually keep sleeping. But it was already 6:00 AM so I only had 30 more minutes left anyway.

I didn’t get sick this week but Elder Astel got really sick this week. It was really sad because it was our last week and I wanted to get a lot done. And then two days were wiped out and we couldn’t do anything because he felt like he was dying.

I am being transferred to Academy YSA in the East Fresno Zone. So I am leaving but Elder Astel is staying. I am with Elder Winters and Elder Price. I think I am leaving for Singapore on May 4th. I sent in my passport and vaccination information for the visa so hopefully that goes through.

Church was really good. It was my last week so we were able to get people to come. We had a lady named Diamond there. Marie and her family actually weren’t able to come, her sister had an emergency at the hospital so she dropped off her kids that morning for Marie to watch them so Marie couldn’t come. We had Nuwatha there and we have a lesson with her on Tuesday. Sarah and Keith both came and they are doing a lot better. The Gera Grande family came. That’s a family of 6 but it’s like the only family in the ward so them being there was huge. Adding six people and it seems like they’re going to keep coming back. I have one more lesson with them tonight. We told them it might be one of our last weeks so we invited them to come and they made it. But they didn’t text us back and they are usually pretty good at texting so I was afraid they weren’t going to come. But they came so that was super awesome.

Marie’s husband joined in one of the two lessons this last week. We talked a lot about marriage and family. I don’t know if the date of the 23rd will work out for her to be baptized just because she didn’t make it to church this week and she has to go at least three times. But she is still progressing well. She seems to be doing pretty well so if they make it to church then I don’t see any other big issues. Well, I guess they’ve got to get married. Her husband wants to get involved. He’s not as into it as she is but he wants to start moving in that direction. He had a lot of issues with drugs and other things in the past and just really wants to restart and get his kids and his family set on a good path. So I think he’ll follow her but maybe a month or two after.

Sarah and Keith did not set a date for marriage. She actually kind of had an issue with some drugs this last week. She went a little crazy and got detained for a little bit but they were all good by Sunday so she was back home. They did get a new phone and actually Keith got a job too so that was huge.

We finally had a lesson with Elizabeth yesterday. It went pretty well. She said she is willing to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. She seems to think that it’s from God but she also doesn’t seem to read the Bible too much. Her family is Jacobite so even if she thinks it is true, I don’t know if she will change. But we will see. It’s funny because she tells her family and her parents everything. When they call her she tells them everything about me and Elder Astel and everyone in our ward. She was sad that I was leaving but hopefully they will continue teaching her and she will be reading and praying.

We didn’t stop by Juan and we dropped Carol. Maybe some missionaries will stop by in the future. Nothing with the parking lot lady but I did get the link for the ring to give to her.

We weren’t able to teach Bertha and Annabella. We talked to Annabella quite a bit and we were finally able to get her number because Bertha’s always busy. So we may be able to set something up with her and her sister if they are able to because they are pretty close to YSA, they graduate this year.

We were able to talk to Mary a little bit this week but I actually don’t think we had a full lesson with her. She had her anniversary this week so we had to move our usual day. We are stopping by tonight because she wants to see me before I go. You said you love her and maybe that’s because I really like Mary so maybe I display that in my writing somewhat. So far she hasn’t gotten an answer. I don’t think she has the greatest intentions. She really likes us genuinely but I think she really thinks we are in the “not true church”. Part of me thinks a lot of her concerns are her just trying to point things out to us and we’re like, “ok, we are aware of this but are you reading and praying,” so we’ll see. We are just going to have a little bit of a super bold lesson tonight. Letting her know we know the Book of Mormon is true and we know this church is true without a doubt and we are given this opportunity to come closer to Christ and fully accept His gospel but it’s going to take some faith and some sincerity on your part.

Nothing from Hao Ming. I should let him know that I am leaving soon and hopefully he will call me back or something. That actually makes me really sad that I haven’t talked to him in a little bit. Elder Baak and I haven’t really talked. However, despite not working with him, my language study has been so much better and more focused. Honestly, he would probably distract me more than help me at this point. Both of my new companions in the YSA are English speaking so hopefully they are chill with me doing language study every day. I’ve heard some people don’t like doing that but it’s pretty important to me.

We weren’t able to meet with Caleb this week. It’s kind of crazy though because he actually lives in a house that someone had previously been taught at. No one was home when we went by and we haven’t been able to catch him.

Miracle: For me it’s just everyone that came to church. Maybe it was for selfish reasons in the first place or maybe not because they think it’s true but because they were just supporting us but that still got them in the door. It lets us know that if they make it a priority they can make it to church. I think that’s a big step for a lot of them. It was Diamond’s first time going. The LeGrande’s it was their first time in like three years. I think they will keep coming so that was a really big miracle I think.

Good News: I’m leaving and getting some change so I’m excited for that. YSA, we’ll see how I do with that. A trio is also weird, I hate teaching in trios because I never know who is supposed to talk next. It’s easy when your companion goes quiet, you just start going. But with three people it’s a little iffy. We’ll see, we’ll get used to it.

Prayer requests: Marquita told us she missed us and the new elders aren’t working out for her as well. She asked if she could start meeting with us. We told her we were moving and that she was in a different area. So pray for her to like whatever new missionaries she gets this transfer. And to be able to keep progressing. She said the missionaries are awesome for her mom there but she doesn’t feel like they include her as much. It’s kind of funny. Her mom is like 70 and Marquita is in her 40’s or about 50. I think it’s kind of funny that she’s feeling left out with her mom and the missionaries being that old. But it’s also kind of sad so pray for her. Sarah with the word of wisdom. Marie and her husband marriage wise.

Challenge: Elder Astel got sick this week and it just destroyed our plans. We had to cancel 4 lessons. We only had 3 lessons this week, it was so sad. We had so many on our schedule this week. But that happens. I can’t blame Elder Astel for getting sick.

Love You!