Hermana Tess Crawford: Feliz día de los enamorados!

Hey, happy valentines day! March 24, 2013

I finally got the package, but I'm waiting to open it until we get home from grocery shopping (: I read that there's t-shirts, candy, and letters though so I'm sure there's some awesome stuff inside- thanks so much! <3 I'm glad the trip to Cali was a success and you got a break from work. That's sick that the lax bros won the championship- way to go hermanos! What's sick in the other sense of the word is that they ripped our ward family apart and we had to adopt new members, what the heck! Haha no, but Bishop Wirthlin will be great, and he's got an amazing lady by his side too to help him out with all the craziness of what's basically a new ward. I'm sure the decision was made based on revelation so it's going to be a good change, but it's kinda sad that the ward I'll be coming back to will be way different than the one I left. It's all good though!

I loved hearing about all the future missionaries that got there calls! I can't believe that Spence is going to the same mission as Elder Willden- that's insane!! And that's so awesome that Kenna's going to Texas speaking SPANISH- yeahhhhhhh!!! That's so exciting! Also I can't wait to find out where Jake's gonna go!! My guess is Peru!

So this week was a lot better than the last ones! My favorite less active Salomé didn't come to church yesterday :,( but we did have lunch with her on Saturday... she's cray haha. She has a lot of theories about metaphysical Christian stuff (like our recent convert Cristina) and believes that we should enjoy being humans and not deprive ourselves of things like a good wine & stuff like that, but she's still awesome and definitely unique. She didn't tell me I was fat this time, but she did tell me that "she can tell by my face that I've done bad things in the past and that I like worldly things", but she says my comp "has always been on the path of God"?? Hahah with Salomé you never know what she's gonna say next.

Besides lunch with Salomé we also met a golden investigator! It's a lady I talked to on the street a few weeks ago that had a 12 year old and a newborn baby and was willing to hear what we had to say. We had a lesson in her house a few days ago and she's super prepared! She already has a really strong testimony of Christ, miracles, families, prayer, having patience in trails, etc. and she commited to read the pamphlet and pray. She's awesome and we think she might be married! We have another lesson with her this wednesday so I'll let you know how it goes- pray for her!

Funny story- yesterday Hna Sanford & I were singing Veggie Tale songs in the morning, and so as we went out to preach I was singing "oh where is my hairbrush", of course, and then suddenly this 25 yr old guy on a bike pulls up next to us and asks if I speak English.. haha so we talked a bit (my comp understands English almost perfectly) and he's actually Italian and is in South America working with some organization that helps people with disabilities. It was definitely a random experience, but he's a cool guy.

On Saturday we had a Relief Society activity where we got to clean the chapel (all 3 floors). I got to hang out with Carlita and Hna Inocenta and get to know both of them better. I told Carlita a few stories about my past and my conversion, which was cool, and the next day she told me that the stories helped her out a lot (: Hna Inocenta is super funny and was ordering us around as we were cleaning, and was singing the Peruvian national anthem. It was fun and it felt good to finally do service after a while of not having the chance.

Yesterday was awesome too. All of our recent converts came to church (there's 5) and we taught the Gospel Principles class about the scriptures and it went really well! Afterwards we had ASADO with Carlita's family (her mom and her three sisters, and then we had a lesson with Marfa (haha, I know- it's a strange name), Carlita's 23 year old sister who's really cool and is reading the Book of Mormon. She hasn't had a lot of time to talk to us because she's in college and has a boyfriend who she's thinking about marrying, but hopefully now that classes are ending she'll have time to talk to us more! She's smart, and has a lot of potential. She also told me that I sound more like someone from Buenos Aires than someone from the States, which scores her some extra points. Afterwards we had our Book of Mormon activity! Ok, only 9 people showed up (besides the 3 Elders) but it was still a hit. We took pics of all the families a few weeks ago and glued them in the front page of the Books of Mormon, and then we watched the Reflections of Christ video, and an elder read this story about Christ where they had to close their eyes and imagine that the Savior is there alone with them and He's smiling, then they imagine the Atonement, that He's suffering for them, etc. and it made most of them cry. As their eyes were closed we put the books on their laps and when the story was over they opened them and saw their pictures. They then dedicated it to someone and watched a video of the pictures of the families in the Ward. We also did a demonstration of how they can give it to their friend/family member. It was awesome even though only a few people came! We're going to see if we can do a mini version of it on Sunday so that the rest of the ward can have their pictures and have the chance to give it to someone too.

Those were the highlights of last week! This one should be fun too- my comp has to do some visa stuff tomorrow downtown so I'll be at the offices all morning/afternoon with some other Hnas, and then on friday we have exchanges. Thanks for figuring the school stuff out and for the package! Love you! Que tengan una linda semana!

<3,

Hermana Tess Crawford