Hola Familia!
I just love you oh so much! And you did it, Mom! Woohoo! I was thinking about you a lot on Saturday. I'm so proud of you! And I loved the pictures! Especially Grandpa's face in the one of the three of you. Mom, you're beautiful! And Nate looks like a little grown up. And my Baby Alex isn't a baby anymore. I can't believe it! Everyone's growing up so fast! And Kelley, you're super cute...I've taught you well! Now that you've figured out how to send pictures I expect to get them on a more frequent basis. Can you believe it's already the middle of June? It feels like it was just February and Hna Wallis and I were walking the Route One and freezing. We're definitely not freezing now. And I've found the one redeeming quality of winter: No mosquitos. I don't know what I did, but those things are after me with a vengeance. I look like I have some crazy skin disease all over my legs because they are just covered with bites. Oh well.
So this week has been interesting. We went on exchanges on Wednesday and it kind of threw me off for the whole rest of the week. Hna Sorensen stayed here and I went to Fredricksburg. And this might be bad to say, but I really don't mind that Fredricksburg is going to be in the new mission and I'll never get to serve there, because I did not like it one bit (I guess there's always the chance that I could get emergency transferred there and end up in the new mission). It's all forest and mosquitos and cicadas (Have you ever seen one of those? They are the most horrid creature I have ever seen. Like a big evil fly that makes the sound of a lawnmower. They are everywhere and they make me want to die.). Hardly any people. Especially of the Spanish speaking variety. I did meet a mean old Mexican man though. I was with Hna Sevilla, who is a native speaker and he assumed that I couldn't speak Spanish so he was talking to her about me. Then I told him that I could speak Spanish too. He was surprised, but not any nicer.
We've been continuing to work with Jhoana and she's great. We started reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning with her, because the last time she did it she didn't understand it so she didn't really like it. Mostly she prefers that we give her chapters to read according to different principles that will help her. But we explained the background and everything and she's been on fire. She loves it. And we got her a triple and she was so excited. She's been asking about how to get a copy of the Doctrina y Convenios and she was so excited that she would finally be able to read it and find the cross references. We've also started teaching her sister Adela and we met her sister Mary and gave her a Book of Mormon too. Adela is going to be a bit harder than Jhoana because she always works and I think she's scared. She knows that it's good and she feels the Spirit, but she also knows that it's going to be hard. And we're still working with Esperanza. She's so good and she feels the Spirit and she wants to get baptized, but she's not married. She also has this idea that after she gets baptized that if she ever makes a mistake then it's going to be even worse than commiting a sin before baptism and that it's going to be even harder to repent. So we're trying to help her understand repentance and the atonement and why it is we get baptized in the first place. We really can't be forgiven completely if we don't get baptized. So we're working on it. That whole family is great though. We love them. And they're basically our entire teaching pool right now. Which is hard because they live in Manassas, which is about ten miles away and our miles just got cut big time so we're not going to be able to make it over to see them as frequently. But the elders can't see them either because there's never a man in the house and it's basically impossible to get anyone to go on exchanges with you. So if the missionaries ever need you to go out with them, Go! Because it stinks when you don't have help from the members. But anyway, we're going to have to figure out some way to get creative about seeing them and helping them progress.
Here's the funny for the week: Last night we went to teach one of our investigators, Patricia, and she's great! I love her, but her kids are crazy. There's three of them ages 8-10. They had gone to Ocean City for the weekend and had gotten home about two hours before we came. We got there and the kids were sitting on the floor playing gameboy or something and we sit down and realize that the boy had no pants on. Nothing! And the one of the girls had this big t-shirt on which was fine, until she sat down and hiked it up around her waist. And their mom just said, "oh don't mind them, they just didn't want to wear pants." So we spent that lesson trying to avoid a bunch of naked little bumskies. Apparently pants aren't a priority in that house.
Personally for me this has been a bit of a rough week. I feel like after Jhoana's baptism we just hit a wall. None of our other investigators are really progressing and we're working so hard to find new ones and to help the ones that we already have and I just feel like nothing is working. I'm trying to constantly be better than I am and to do my best to help our investigators and my companion and I feel like I'm not getting anywhere. Hna Sorensen kind of shut down on me this week, especially in teaching lessons. She's letting herself be convinced that she can't do this and so I've been trying to battle that and she hasn't been participating as much in lessons, so I feel like I've had to pick up a lot. It's almost like we're back where we started. I feel like Satan's just working really hard on pretty much every single person that I know and I don't know what do to. I feel like I'm trying everything, but I just haven't felt that inspired this week. And I can't figure out what it is I'm doing wrong. I'm worried that our area isn't progressing and I'm stressed about how we're going to stay within our miles allotment for the month and I'm more exhausted than I've ever been. I finally felt like we were making progress here on all fronts and now I just feel overwhelmed. But I'm doing my best to stay positive and to be obedient and to have faith. The Lord has His plan, and I just have to trust it.
So that's about it for this week, nothing too exciting. We have zone conference tomorrow though, so we're looking forward to that. And then we have exchanges again on Wednesday. So it's going to be a busy week. I said that I would do the musical number at zone conference. What was I thinking?! Not the best plan I've ever had, because I have no idea what I'm going to play. I guess I'll scramble to put something together. It's going to be great!
I love you all so much and I miss you and I think you're the best family in the whole wide world. And probably the best looking too! Hope you have a great week!
xoxo,
Hermana Simpson
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