We Had A Miracle Happen......

Hola Familia!

I love you so very much!  It sounds like you've had a pretty busy week!  We have too!  And Mom, I'm so proud of you.  I just think you're the coolest person in the world.  And the best mom ever.  I'm really excited for this next quarter for you.  It sounds like it's going to be really good.  You're going to learn so much so that when you start working you're going to be the best nurse in the whole wide world.  You're such a good example to me and I'm so glad to hear that things are going well for you.  I absolutely love the skirt that you sent!  It's so cute and so comfortable!! I would wear it ever day if I could.  And it is so fun.  It looks super cute with boots (see below picture), but I can't wait to wear it in the summer!  And my hair is so long.  I'm thinking about cutting it today, but it just seems like such a boring way to spend a Pday.  And I'm scared to get it cut because I don't trust anyone as much as I trust Amber.  So we'll see what happnes.  And yes, there is a couple in my mission, Elder and Sister Harris, that work in the office, and they are the parents of Connie's daughter in law.  They told me that a couple of weeks ago and were pretty excited about it. They're so sweet.  Elder Harris is the car czar and we've talked to him quite a bit the last few transfers because we are always having car issues.  Speaking of transfers though, I'm still in Old Town!  I almost cried in relief when we found out.  I had been really praying to be able to accept the Lord's will with where He wanted me to go this transfer but also praying that if it was His will, I really wanted to stay in Old Town.  I think I would be perfectly content to spend my entire mission here.  I'm so grateful to be here and I love the people here and I love the work.  And I feel so blessed to be able to be in such a wonderful area.  Transfers are starting to get really scary now, especially with the formation of the new mission this summer.  We still don't really know what's going to happen with that, other than we're loosing Woodbridge and Stafford.  So it could be that when they form it, whoever is in those zones might just end up in that mission.  And that's scary.  I know that wherever I end up is where the Lord needs me to be, but I really hope it's in this mission.  It's so exciting how much the work is progressing though.  We got 25 new missionaries this last transfer and it has been crazy trying to figure out new areas and zones.  Rumor has it that next transfer we'll get another set of Spanish missionaries in this zone, so we'll have four sets of missionaries in the ward.  That's so many missionaries.  

We survived walk about Wednesday.  It was snowing and freezing and we got soaked.  It was really cute because we went to eat lunch with one of the grandmas in the ward and we got there and she saw how wet we were, went back to her closet and came out with this two pink nightgown things.  She told us to put them on and then she took our clothes and went and put them in the dryer.  It was the sweetest thing ever.  And so funny.  I wish I had had my camera with me so that we could take a picture.  Just imagine it though.

The work is going so good here.  It has really just exploded this week.  Last transfer we had a hard time.  None of our investigators were really progressing and we were focusing so hard on finding.  All of that hard work is starting to pay off.  Heavenly Father has blessed us so much.  We are finding like crazy and we have people that are so nice and super cool.  And they're reading the Book of Mormon.  We met this one guy a couple of weeks ago knocking on his door.  He was busy then, but told us that we could come back a different day.  We left him with the Restoration pamphlet, but weren't able to visit him the next week.  By the time we stopped by he had read the Restoration pamphlet and wanted to know if we had anything else he could read.  His wife still wasn't home, so we couldn't come in, but we scheduled another appointment.  So the time comes for the next appointment and he wasn't home, so we just left a copy of the Book of Mormon on his doorstep.  We came back a couple of days later and he thanked us for dropping that off and told us that he was reading it!  He really likes what he's reading and is super excited to learn more.  We couldn't believe that he was reading the Book of Mormon all on his own.  We can't even get our investigators that we've had for months to do that.  We've seen so many little miracles like that happen this week and it's been amazing.  We are so busy, and I love it!  

We also are seeing so much progress with Junior.  We had a miracle happen this week with him.  He was supposed to be working in North Carolina this weekend, so we didn't really have any hope for him for coming to church this Sunday.  But Saturday afternoon we were teaching a combined lesson with the Elder Rivera and Elder Creager and they told us that they had just visited the Castanedas and that Junior was there.  So we went over and visited him and read with him.  It's been so hard to try to help him understand why he needs to read the Book of Mormon.  But we read just the first three verses of Nephi and explained them and he asked us questions.  He never asks us questions!  So that was really good, because if investigators are asking questions it means they're thinking about it and trying to understand.  And Junior is starting to understand.  So we also invited him to church, and he said maybe.  Saturday night we bought doughnuts and Sunday morning before church we took him some doughnuts and said that we just wanted to help him get up and get ready for church.  And then we invited him and he said he'd come.  We also invited Hermano Castaneda who is super inactive and he said not this week.  I then I put my bold pants on and when we were leaving I said, "Well hermano, it was good to see you, but I really hope you change your mind and come."  And guess what.  They came!  The whole family came.  And Junior really liked it.  And last night we had a baptism and Junior came.  And he loved it!  We asked him how he felt afterwards and he said that he just felt really good.  Like this feeling of peace had just washed over him.  There was a different light about him last night, and he's changing.  It's taken a while, but step by step he's learning and he's progressing, and he's starting to grow a testimony.  And that's what this work is all about.  I love it so much.  It's so good.  We've had a ton just amazing experiences, I could spend hours telling you about it, but that gives you a taste of it.  Missionary work is so hard.  But words can't describe the sweetness of experiences like this.  This is really what it's about, inviting people to come unto Christ.  And when they do, step by step, there's no greater happiness that I've experienced.  I wish I had words to say what my heart is saying.

I also realized this week during our weekly planning session that I'm changing too.  It's been so subtle, and I don't even know if it's that big of a change, but I was so scared that I would be too stubborn or maybe just too thick headed to let the mission change me.  But it is.  And it hasn't been easy.  There's been a lot of really hard things, but I can see how Heavenly Father has been using these experiences to help me grow and to help me become the missionary and the person he needs me to be.  I'm so thankful for this opportunity that I have to be a missionary.  I couldn't have picked anywhere better to be right now.  

Also, I've really grown having Hermana Wallis as my companion.  We're still together, and I've learned a lot from her.  It wasn't as easy for me to love her at first as it was for me to love Hermana Stewart.  We're very different and we have different opinions.  But we've learned a lot from each other and I have so much respect for her.  And we do love each other now and we've really learned how to work together and we've seen so many miracles.  It's just so neat.  I can't say enough how much I love being a missionary.

I've also learned a few things this week.  Mainly this:  Bedbugs are more than just a silly rhyme you say before you go to sleep at night.  They're real!  And they bite!  And we are about 89% sure that we have them.  It's disgusting.  We're going to try and figure out where they're coming from today.  Happy Pday to us.  And yep, I'm allergic to them.  They're way worse than mosquito bites.  

So that's about it for this week.  I love you so much and I hope you're doing so well!  

xoxo

Hermana Simpson

Pday bowling last week.  I may be the worst bowler in the history of ever.

Last district meeting of the transfer.  Except none of us got transferred.  So we took the picture for nothing.  And I have hippie hair.

Chinese food after district meeting with the Sanchez family.  We love this family so much!  And I want Melina's purple pants.