Hola Familia!
I just love you all so much! It sounds like you've had quite the week! I'm glad to hear Cam actually graduated. Woohoo! You're done with that for a few more years. And you're so close to graduating too! I hope you go for the RN to BSN thing. I'm pretty sure that's what Jenny Taylor did, so you should talk to her about it. And I'm so glad that you're liking the ER so much. I think you would be great at that. After raising us, it should be a piece of cake. I can't believe that it's basically summer. We've had some hot days. In the mid 90's. My companion is dying of the humidity. I don't think it's too bad. It still not as bad as Mexico was, so I don't have too much to complain about. I actually kind of like it.
This past week was transfers and it was the determining transfer on who ends up in what mission. So here's the news. Hermana Sorensen and I are staying here in Centreville. So we'll be together for another transfer and we'll both still be in this mission. I was pretty sure that was going to happen, so it wasn't that big of a surprise. Hermana Wallis, though, got sent to Woodbridge, so she'll be in the new mission. I'm kind of sad abut that. I'll miss her. She's training and opening up an area. Elder Rivera got switched too and that was Elder Phillips last transfer so he's home. Elder Creager is now our district leader (We finally get a Spanish district!) And Hermana Stewart is training and opening up an area too. But Hermana Stewart is staying. Maybe we'll get lucky and be companions again sometime! But half of the Old Town district is gone. I miss that district. We learned a lot together. But this transfer is going to be a great one!
This week has been kind of rough. We had a crazy lesson with a less active who had decided that he had outgrown the church. His problem is with the Word of Wisdom and coffee because he just doesn't feel like that can be scientifically supported. I think there's a bigger underlying issue though. We talked for a long time about the issue not really being about coffee, but being about obedience and faith. At one point the Spirit was so strong and we could see it working on him. He changed his mind and decided to try it out until he understood and he told us he would come to church on Sunday (he's recently moved into the area) if we would be there. We left the lesson feeling really good because of that. And then the next day we got a text message from him saying, "I've thought about it some more, and I'm out." It was horrible. I don't think there's anything more heartbreaking than seeing someone who has felt the Spirit testify of truth and felt the beginnings of something growing and then use their agency to completely shut it down. Later in the week we also got dropped by a family that we found the week before. We were so excited to find them, too. It was a grandma and grandpa and two teenage girls. We taught them the first lesson and it went really well. And then when we went back one of the girls finally answered the door and told us that they decided that they didn't want to listen to the lessons anymore. It broke my heart again. But at that point there's not much you can do except bear testimony and love them. So we told them that everything we taught them was true and promised that it could change them for the better and we told them that we would be here if they changed their mind or ever needed any help. It stinks to have that happen after you feel like you've done all you can to help them. And we found out that another of our investigators in moving back to El Salvador. We've seen our fair share of trials this week. And we've seen agency in action. It's such a two edged sword.
Jhoana, though, is doing so well. She came to church again on Sunday and is getting ready to be baptized this Saturday. I am constantly amazed by her and her faith and her receptiveness to the Spirit. And her love of the gospel. Even after we had the absolute WORST law of chastity lesson in Gospel Principles. It was nothing according to the manual and all according to the opinion of the teacher. All of us missionaries were dying. Even Hermana Sorensen leaned over to me and asked if the teacher just said what she thought he said. We definitely had to do some damage control after that. Thankfully we had already taught and retaught her that lesson and she already understood it. That was a tender mercy.
We also taught her and Esperanza about fasting this week and they both fasted. And even though Esperanza wasn't able to come to church, she still fasted. Jhoana was telling us how Esperanza's boyfried was going to pick up breakfast and asked her if she wanted anything and Esperanza just told him she wasn't hungry. Apparently it was really funny because they were both starving. During Relief Society Jhoana leaned over to me and said, "Are you fasting too? Because I'm not enjoying it too much." It was so cute. We're seeing miracles occur in that family. The older sister, Adela, is pretty Pentecostal and she was not interested in listening to us when we first started coming over. But slowly she's become more and more interested. All week she's been joining us in our lessons and she's been asking questions and she hugs us when we leave. And then on Saturday we took the movie Special Witnesses of Christ over so Jhoana could listen to President Monson's testimony. Before we started it she was explaining the prophet to Adela and she said, "This is our prophet." And then she explained the Apostasy and the Restoration to her sister perfectly. Right after we started the movie though, Jhoana got a phone call and had to leave. But Adela told us to stay because she wanted to watch it. Afterwards she told us how much she liked it. We really are seeing the Lord work on this family. They are so special and I love them so much.
That's about been our week. We've had a lot of downs, but we've had some pretty wonderful ups as well. The companion situation is still not ideal, but I think I just have to let that vision of ideal or the way that things were or the way that I wish things were go. There's a lot of things that I've been having to just let go and accept that things aren't going to be like that, and that it will be okay. And it's not easy. But the only person I can really change is me. Every single day (multiple times) I plead for patience and for charity and for understanding. Because I need to love my companion. For her, but also for me. This week has been a little bit better. Not any easier, but better. And I'm really proud of how much Hermana Sorensen has progressed this week. She's started taking initiative in teaching portions of the lesson and I can tell how hard she's trying. And I respect that a lot. It's been a challenge for me to understand that a lot of the things that come naturally for me are really difficult for her, but as I've tried to understand where she's coming from, it's helped me be more patient. Every day I'm trying to look for the good and sometimes it's hard, but it's so much better that way. I'm really learning a lot from her, and they're not easy lessons to learn, but like I said last week, I'm grateful to have the opportunity to learn them because I know that it's helping me to become more Christlike. I still have so far to go, but like every experience I've had on the mission, this one is changing me too. For the better.
So that's about it for this week. I love you so much and I hope you have the best week ever! I know we will!
xoxo
Hermana Simpson
I'm not quite sure what order these are in, but there's us with Adela and Jhoana in their matching dresses, ice cream truck that will NOT make your event special because it's so annoying, with Elder Makwenkwe (going home to South Africa) and Hermana Williams (going to new mission), Hermana Wallis (she used to always make fun of me for wearing keys around my neck...I taught her well), and our last district. Also, I've never seen a car with a purple mustache. Weird. It made me think of Todd.
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