WEEK 32: Valencia ward!

Hola! We had such a great week and the Valencia ward is SO GREAT! All of the members are super loving and always come out teaching with us, they all welcomed me into the ward knowing I was new. It was hard to leave Liahona 4th, but I definitely feel very loved in this ward so it wasn't too bad! Also my companion Hermana Morris is super great and super fun, and she's from West Jordan, Utah! So we are a classic Utah companionship. But there are a lot of great people in this area that we are teaching as well! I'll tell you about a few of them.

First of all there is an online investigator we are teaching named Trevor and he is really interested in the church and has a ton of questions. Sister Morris has been teaching him for a while now, and now that I'm her companion I cover to help teach and get to know him! He used to read a lot of anti stuff and use that against them, but now he is just reading the standard works and stuff from lds.org. So we taught him the restoration this week and it answered a lot of the questions he had. And so hopefully he will be able to have a more open heart to accept the message. We also asked him if he would be baptized once he know the church is true and he said yes! So not sure when it will happen but he definitely has a lot of potential.

We are also teaching the Vasquez family and they are sooooooooo great! So the English missionaries were teaching Selene the mom, but then they found out the husband, Andres was interested as well and had been reading a lot in the Book of Mormon but he only knows Spanish so they handed him over to us. We just recently taught them the restoration and they had a lot of really good questions and comments about it. They LOVE to talk so sometimes the lessons get a little bit distracted, but it always finds its way back to the point of the lesson. They weren't able to come to church this Sunday because one of their sisters got in an accident but they are going to come next week! It's amazing to see that God really does prepare people who are in need of the gospel. I know this family is one of those that God has prepared to receive this message!

Then we are teaching someone named Sandra. Her son Richie just recently got baptized and she is starting to see the blessing so the gospel. She comes to church every Sunday but is still seeking and searching for her answer. We read 3 nephi 11 with her this week and it went really well. She told us how she feels like the people in the story and she is still waiting to receive an answer. What it seemed like is that she already knows the church is true but she's just waiting for an extra confirmation of the truth. So we are going to work on setting a baptism date with her and also the Vasquez family because they are all so ready.

The other thing that makes this ward so great to work in is that the bishop is very very supportive of the missionaries and helps the ward work together. He used to be a mission president in Argentina so he is very inspired. He likes to meet with the missionaries after church every Sunday and talk about the people in our area and gives us very inspired counsel.

So it was a very eventful week and I'm very excited for the work that needs to be done in this area! It's amazing to see how the work continues to move on no matter what area you are working in, there are always people who are ready to receive the gospel. President Jenkins is going to leave at the end of the month and we will get a new president. There will be a lot of changes made but the work will be the same and continue to move on. So you all can make the work go in as well! That's the challenge for the week! Love you all!

Hermana Brown

So the familia Gastelum used to live in Liahona 4 when I was there for my first transfer, but now they live in Valencia! They have this rattlesnake that people always take pictures with and I didn't have my picture yet, sooooo there's this....

We bought paletas but they turned out to be minis so sister Morris wanted the regular sized one but I thought it was a good size!

Us with Hermana Soto who came out with us! I forgot to tell you about her husband who recently got baptized. He used to be a Jehovah's witness and talked with missionaries for 7 years because he finally received his answer. He gave them all a pretty hard time, but now he has this amazing testimony!