I'm doing pretty good myself here. Salida is crazy! It's hippie-ville haha
and I LOVE IT. Like, it's unreal how hippie this town is. But everyone here is
super friendly.
My new girls name is SIster Hansen. She is 19! Super crazy. She is from Pleasant Grove, Utah. Yesterday we were both
sick.. I think the elevation and weather change is killing us. She has a great testimony and talks a ton for being a new missionary.
We live in an apt. It's pretty nice, but freezing!!! Like we woke up and
our place was 50 degrees even though I had it set to 70. So we need to figure
that out haha.
Salida is super small with tons of antique stores and little downtown
shops. The branch is crazy haha the average age in the branch is 60.. and there
are only 3 active youth. It's weird hah. But I already love it here. :)
I'm kind of struggling. Opening a new area has been rough. But the branch
has been really nice to us! We are super far away from everyone, too, which is
hard. THe closest elders to us are about an hour away. Our district meeetings
are an hour and 15 minutes away haha. It's crazy! So I just feel kind of lost
right now, but I know
in due time it will all get better! I know I am supposed to be here, so that is
comforting. We also have a senior couple here with us, they are Elder and SIster
Chandler.. and they are great! They have helped me not feel so alone.
As for the ------'s baptism.. IT was wonderful :) When they got baptized, we walked behind the doors
with them to put their hair up and stuff before they went into the water, so we
got to be watching from the side when they got baptized. -------- went first
and when she came out of the water, her and her dad embraced and she started to cry. The spirit was so strong! Then she came and stood by us as
-------- went down to the font. When she came out of the water, same thing, her
dad and her embraced and she began to cry. It was so wonderful. It was amazing
to see it finally happen. I know that our fast. It was great. I am
so happy I got to witness them finally be baptized. What a great way to leave
the area.
I miss Sister Kartchner a lot! We got along so well, it's sad that it only
lasted for 5 weeks!
So, that is all the updates. I can't believe how fast my mission is flying
by. It makes me want to cry!! I hit my year mark on the 28th. Unreal. What a
blessing it has been to serve.
Also, I was reading the other day in Ether about the Brother of Jared. I
love that he asks the Lord how to get light and how to breathe. The Lord answers
how to breathe in the barges. So, then the Brother of Jared takes the question
of how to get light a second time to Lord and the Lord asks him what he thinks
he should do. I was thinking about my mission and how I got an answer that I
needed to be out here, and now the Lord puts a lot of faith in me to know what
to do! I was thinking about how important prayer is and that when we really
pray, that is when we build that relationship with Heavenly Father. Then when we
follow the revelation He gives us, He puts more faith in us. I just love the
scriptures. I am just about done reading the Book of Mormon a second time
through out here. I'm learning so much from it.
I LOVE YOU ALL :)
there are signs like this all over town |