Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!

Hola familia! Today was Pday so we sent emails and just kind of hung out. The elders are so great. They make me feel less like a girl trying to live in a girl’s world and let me act more like a boy sometimes – which is awesome! We tried to contact a media referral but she wasn't there and so then we went and visited a less active family. The husband was not home but we shared a little scripture with the wife who is not a member. Whenever we go over, she tells us about how hard it is to be in America. How her husband's job is really hard and stuff like that. It is really hard for me to open my heart to her and I know that is really bad. We were over there until about 9:00 and then we just came home and went to bed.

Tuesday we knocked a lot of doors. We tried a referral named Luis but he was not home. So we went to East Moline and knocked, we tried Minelva. I forgot to mention, Minelva came to church Sunday! We set up a whole bunch of translation equipment for her but it stopped working right when Sacrament meeting began! So we were running around trying to get it to work. Hermana Pearson just came and sat next to her and translated in her ear the whole time. It was really sad, and she was pretty discouraged about it. She left after Sacrament meeting even though we had a lesson planned for her. She was not home when we tried to visit her today. We had dinner with the Bringas family. They fed us Molé which was heavenly good! They gave us so much food! They always fill us up when we go there. She just grabs our plates and keeps putting more food on them. Then we went and visited another family in the ward, the Jenkins, and they fed us some taco stuff. Two dinners! Which is why I have my food baby belly now! Afterwards, we went home and started some Spanish. It was like 70° today and it was so, so nice. Knocking was awesome because we were out in the sun and talking to people. I am so much happier when the sun is out; it is like night and day!

Wednesday we went to go visit a less active sister; she lives down by the Mississippi River. She wasn't home so we decided to go down by the river and call people, like potential's and stuff. We hung out down there and it was so nice – like 75° again today! I didn't have to wear tights, or boots, or anything and I even wore flats! It was so awesome! After that, we knocked for a while but we didn't find anyone. There are not a lot of Latinos down by the river. Then we went and did Mormon.org time in the library. Later we went to visit a media referral named Patricia. She wasn't home. We went back to Little Mexico today to try to find some people’s addresses. We also ran by the chiropractor, who is so amazing. Our beds are pretty sketchy and the chiropractor whips us back into shape so I don't have any headaches. We went to have dinner with Grandma Johnston, but we ended up just sharing a lesson. She pretended to be Catholic, which she was for most of her life. It is really a good experience for us and afterwards she was so nice. She said that she took the lessons for four years and that this was one of the best lessons she's ever had. It was so sweet and nice. We went to the church and practiced Spanish and then ate some dinner and went to bed. It was a really good day today – especially because it was warm. I just love it when it is warm!

Thursday we had zone conference. It took up most of our day. Beforehand, we had a lesson set up with a lady named Nicole. We have been trying to call her for weeks trying to meet with her and she says she wants us to come, but hasn't been able to meet yet. We had finally set up a date and time and when we got there, she was not there. So, we are going to give her some time to simmer. We had some great training's by our zone leaders, and STLs, and the district leaders, then we went to Taco Bell with the whole zone for lunch. We had a less active lady call us the other day and say "por que no han venido?"  We were surprised that she asked us why we didn’t come, so we scheduled another appointment to visit her at four. When we knocked on her door, no answer. She and her boyfriend were gone. We were kind of confused because she called us to have us come over?! So we went home and studied. Then we had dinner with the Knighting's in Bettendorf, they are such a cute family and we had “walking tacos”. Then we had a lesson with Claudia who is a Jehovah witness. We met her at church and she cleans a member’s house. We taught her about the Restoration and she was super nice. She is pretty set in her ways. We tried to give her a Book of Mormon and she did not want to take it because she doesn't want to be converted. She did say the closing prayer, even though she told Jehovah that she is just getting some information and is never going to leave Him. Today was not as warm, so it was good, but not as nice!

Friday was really, really fun! We started the day studying and then we knocked doors. We headed over to Bettendorf and visited Sister Orrick. She is medically less active because she cannot walk so it is really hard for her to come to church. We had a great visit with her. Since the sisters left, we have taken her over even though she does not speak Spanish. She is such a fireball and so funny. She lives in an assisted living house and we walked her down to lunch. We met her friends at lunch and they were all members of the re-organized church of Jesus Christ. Such nice people. It was funny because they all had coffee to drink and me and my comp just looked at each other and started laughing. I think we will go back and visit her next week. A recent convert named Sarah called us and asked if we could come help her move. She needed help unpacking and organizing. It was almost 1 pm and we hadn't eaten lunch so we were super excited when she called back to see if we wanted some pizza! We were going to go to McDonald's, but it was awesome that we did not have to buy lunch. Then we shared a little message with her and it was really awesome. Minelva could not meet with us and she is seeming more distant lately. We went home and studied for three hours. We have to study three hours additional study every day – one hour of Spanish, one hour of training because I am new, and one hour of companionship study. That is not even counting our personal scripture study!  Hopefully I am learning a lot.

Saturday we went to go see a potential that Hermana Pearson knew named Kevin. My companion woke up this morning not feeling very well but she drug herself out of bed and then Kevin was not there. So we came home and she slept from about 11 till 3 in the afternoon. I spent the time studying, watching The District, and working on my Spanish. It was actually really nice to spend the time studying. We went and took piano time afterwards and then we went to the Alan's for dinner. Brother Alan is the ward mission leader and so we and the elders came over. They had to leave for a trivia night at the ward but we didn't go because our investigators all speak Spanish. We tried the media referral, Patricia, again and she was finally home! She is a cute 69-year-old lady. Her husband died a few years ago and she had gone to Mormon.org and ordered a Bible. We talked with her for a while and she is such a fireball! She reminds me of Nana. We shared about the restoration and asked her if Joseph Smith was a prophet, what would that mean to her. She said if it is true, the church she has been going to for the past 15 years is wrong. She was pretty sad and so we explained that our message would just add onto her faith and we encouraged her to read some of the Book of Mormon and learn more about Him. She was just super happy to have visitors come over to her house and we were there for quite a while. It was a really good day!

Sunday we went to church. The less active named Tisha and her boyfriend and her kids all came to church! She participated in relief society and it was all so, so awesome! She totally surprised us today. We called her and invited her to come to church. She told us that she could not come at 9 AM but that she would go to the 1 PM church. We told her as long as she goes that was fine, but we were so happy when she showed up at 9 in the morning! Her kids were all spic and span and it was all awesome. We had lunch at the Davidson's and it was so sweet. We went home so that we could do our weekly planning and then we tried a new referral named Junior, but he was not home. It was a good day filled with many surprises.

Because Luis and Alena have dropped us, we really only have a few investigators. We are trying to meet with Minelva and then we have Stephanie, who is the Jehovah Witness who we taught the Plan of Salvation to. She has so many questions because she thinks that the world is punished for Adams transgression and that is why Jesus came to the earth. She doesn't think that God came to suffer for her also?! It is really sad to me. We go back to her house on Friday. Then we have a guy named Ronjual who has been very hard to get in with and then we have Patricia, who is the super cute lady we met on Saturday. We are busy finding a lot and working to get with the potential's that we have. My Spanish is fine. It is nothing special but it is fine. It is really hard! But, we are going – we are just going forward.