Missionary Moments: Second week in Mesa! (plus pictures!)

Hello my family and friends!

Just so you know I have a really short P-day. We end at 3 so if I sound rushed, I am.

So, week 2 in Mesa is proving to be just as busy and tiring as the week before. I still have the bed time at midnight and getting up at 7:30. Elder White (President of the VC) let us sleep in until 8:30 one day. Never thought that would happen on my mission, did you? I don't think that I have ever had a normal day while I've been on my mission. We rarely have study in the morning and pretty much only see our investigators once a week if that. Other than that I am always at the VC.

I attend the Valencia Branch in the Citrus Heights Stake. There is some comfort in the fact that Sundays, no matter what language or size of church you go to is always the same. RS is full of women chatting. In Sunday school no one answers. Sacrament is full of testimonies and talks of which I lose focus because I have a hard time understanding them. So church will always be the same. We had a 70 come and talk to us, Elder Leusueur and he spoke on the importance of identifying the hand of the Lord in our life. He compared it to a garden, about how we think that we have done all the work with the weeding and planting, when in reality, we sometimes don't see who provides the sunshine or rain. And after church there was a pot luck. I asked what the occasion was and one of the sister missionaries that came out with me, Sister Juarez, says that it was “we're Mexican and we like to eat” occasion. Okay, I can buy that.

I realize that in my last letter I really didn't explain to much what goes on in the VC. Let me better explain. There are 2 shifts that we cover during Christmas (it's different in the off season): Morning and evening. Morning shift is easy. We pretty much make phone calls to all the people who gave a PMR (potential member referral) and invite them to listen to the missionaries. Other wise we give tours to people, answer the phone and start movies like Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration. In the evening, we stand at our assigned post (Christus, theaters, Savior of the World etc...) for an hour and talk to people, invite them to listen to the missionaries (Top Box - TB) or ask them if they have friends or family that would like to meet with the missionaries (PMR). At the end when we close (10 pm) we count up what we got and enter in the TB into the computer to send texts to the missionaries where they live. And so the cycle goes on. Each night we are paired with a different sister so both languages are covered. I love having the opportunity to work with other sisters because I am able to learn new and different things.

I have had the privilege of meeting people from Japan, Israel, and other countries.

I have given a few tours in the VC. One was to a guy named Marshall who wanted to learn more about the church b/c his girlfriend is a member. The other was to a couple of snow birds (people who come to live here in the winter).

So, as for our investigators, we have one that I really know a lot about because we taught him last night. His name is Leo and he is just a great guy. He has a 11 year old daughter and is so willing to learn. It's amazing as to how humble he is. He said he would get baptized when he knew that it was true. I can go with that. He also agreed to pray and wanted to come to church. Yay for willing people!

The other is Cristina, who is about 6 months pregnant. She was able to move out of her boyfriend's apartment last night and is now able to be interviewed. We have set a date for the 18^th for her to be baptized. I wish we had more time to work with them and talk with them but the season doesn't allow us to spend more time away from them.

We had a farewell for the sisters leaving soon. It was fun to see them progress on their missions.

But I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love you all!

love, Emily