Mi marvilloso familia,
So good to hear from you all again this week :) I love you all so very
much and it's so fun to hear all your personalities in the way that
you write.
This week has been hard but great again. We had miracles and a lot of
funny moments too. I think I've told you a little about Victor, our
investigator, who is the nephew of another investigator, Rosalinda. It
is a miracle that we found him because he is SO prepared for the
gospel. Heavenly Father has completely prepared him for our message,
it's amazing. And, he is hilarious. He is in his mid twenties but he
is like a happy little kid in an adult body. I wish you could all
speak spanish (actually, I wish I could too) and see him because I
won't even be able to describe how funny he is. The first time we
taught him, we were teaching about prophets and there's a box in one
of the pamphlets we asked him to read out loud that says, "when people
reject the prophets, revealed truths are lost". After he read that, he
said, "ooo, i love that! can i read that again?" and he read it again.
It was pretty funny because usually that's not the part of the gospel
that people get real excited about.
He is the happiest, funniest guy in the world. I don't always
understand what he says but it is so much fun to teach him because
he's so hilarous. The other day after our lesson I remembered that
we're supposed to ask everyone for referrals. It's sometimes hard to
ask everyone, because usually people say no. But, I asked him in
broken Spanish if he knew anyone who could benefit from or be
interested in our message. To my surprise, he told us that next time
we met he would make a list and that he had about 30 people in mind! I
started laughing because he was just so happy and matter of fact about
it all. We still haven't seen this list, but it made my day.
Victor is so ready to change his life around and he knows the
importance of making and keeping committments. Every committment he
makes, he keeps. He has so much faith that the Lord will bless him for
being obedient and he loves feeling the spirit. Every time we bring a
member to a lesson with us he tells them about how good he feels when
we come over or when he reads the Book of Mormon. He asks, even though
we've answered this question a few times, "why do I feel the spirit?"
and they tell him their thoughts. He is so fantastic. He is getting
baptized this sunday!!We were worried yesterday because he was late to
Sacrament meeting, but he made it. He wears lots of cologne to church
and a really shiny suit and it makes me so happy because we know he's
dressing up to look his best for church. When we taught him about not
drinking alcohol or smoking, he asked us if it was ok to wear perfume.
We told him it was ok :) He's awesome. He's so excited to get baptized
and we're excited too!!! Probably more than him. Last night after our
lesson, he reminded us on the way out, "Don't drink coffee!" Hahaha.
Oh, and he also wants to come to Canada and visit after our missions.
I told him that you'd all love to meet him!
This saturday there was a baptism in our branch of a lady named Maria
:) She and her husband and their 11 year old daughter have been being
taught by the missionaries and the husband used to be a really bad
alcoholic but has changed his life around. The 11 year old daughter is
so proud of her parents. The baptism was quite the event. Sister
Lawrence and I were to hold the towel for Maria by the stairs of the
water and we invited her daughter to come stand by us so she could
have a better view of the special moment. It was Elder Deborah's first
time baptizing someone and he was a little nervous but everyone loves
him because he is mexican. And awesome. Victor loves him. Anyways,
Elder Deborah said the baptismal prayer and then immersed her in the
water, and then she came up out of the water sort of but then kind of
laid limp in the water and fell back a little. She fainted in the
water and Elder Deborah was holding her up in the water and her little
girl thought she died (I did too for a second) and started bawling and
crying her name, and I had to hug her and comfort her while the rest
of the branch tried to figure out what was going on. It was like 1 or
2 minutes before Sister Losano, a big lady from Argentina, burst into
the little stairs room we were in and hiked up her skirt and charged
into the water to help Maria out. Maria was still limp and the little
girl was still crying and then more ladies came into the little room
and the curtains of the font were closed and Sister Lawrence and I
went out - everyone asked us if everything was ok and we had no idea.
The service carried on and later we found out that everything was ok
and that she had fainted because she had felt the spirit so strong and
it had just come over her! It was like a Book of Mormon moment - we're
just glad she didn't faint for 3 days! Hahaha. I was just worried for
her poor daughter who may never want to get baptized after seeing
that! Hahaha. It was quite the event. But she was given the gift of
the Holy Ghost the day after and it was beautiful. I went up to the
couple after sacrament meeting and in broken spanish tried to tell
them about how their daughter was telling us all about how proud she
is of her dad and the changes he's making. He got tears in his eyes
and told me they were doing it for her. It's so amazing how much the
gospel can change hearts and lives. It makes all the rejection and
hard times worth it to see these changes.
Sister Lawrence and I are still having a lot of fun together. It's not
always great or fun, but we sure get along great and she has such a
great sense of humor - it's such a blessing! The other day we were
talking with one of our potential investigators out on a bench and
this man sped past us on his wheelchair scooter thing. He sped past us
back and forth a couple times before stopping right in front of us
really fast and saying "In case you didn't know.. HOSTESS IS BACK!
Twinkies, hoho's and wonder bread! I'm going to the store right now to
get some!" And then he sped past us again. It was awesome. And then
the guy we were talking to was like, "He's weird. He rides by here all
day even at 4 in the morning, but he walks fine, I see him walking
sometimes, I don't know why he has that scooter" hahaha. It was
awesome! Hermana Lawrence got some twinkies and has been loving them.
We keep quoting, "Hostess is back!" in his awesome voice.
Also, we got to learn a bit about family history in our training this
week - everyone should go check out the new family search website! It
looks so great! Gran is either loving it or hating it loving it.
So good to hear from you all again this week :) I love you all so very
much and it's so fun to hear all your personalities in the way that
you write.
This week has been hard but great again. We had miracles and a lot of
funny moments too. I think I've told you a little about Victor, our
investigator, who is the nephew of another investigator, Rosalinda. It
is a miracle that we found him because he is SO prepared for the
gospel. Heavenly Father has completely prepared him for our message,
it's amazing. And, he is hilarious. He is in his mid twenties but he
is like a happy little kid in an adult body. I wish you could all
speak spanish (actually, I wish I could too) and see him because I
won't even be able to describe how funny he is. The first time we
taught him, we were teaching about prophets and there's a box in one
of the pamphlets we asked him to read out loud that says, "when people
reject the prophets, revealed truths are lost". After he read that, he
said, "ooo, i love that! can i read that again?" and he read it again.
It was pretty funny because usually that's not the part of the gospel
that people get real excited about.
He is the happiest, funniest guy in the world. I don't always
understand what he says but it is so much fun to teach him because
he's so hilarous. The other day after our lesson I remembered that
we're supposed to ask everyone for referrals. It's sometimes hard to
ask everyone, because usually people say no. But, I asked him in
broken Spanish if he knew anyone who could benefit from or be
interested in our message. To my surprise, he told us that next time
we met he would make a list and that he had about 30 people in mind! I
started laughing because he was just so happy and matter of fact about
it all. We still haven't seen this list, but it made my day.
Victor is so ready to change his life around and he knows the
importance of making and keeping committments. Every committment he
makes, he keeps. He has so much faith that the Lord will bless him for
being obedient and he loves feeling the spirit. Every time we bring a
member to a lesson with us he tells them about how good he feels when
we come over or when he reads the Book of Mormon. He asks, even though
we've answered this question a few times, "why do I feel the spirit?"
and they tell him their thoughts. He is so fantastic. He is getting
baptized this sunday!!We were worried yesterday because he was late to
Sacrament meeting, but he made it. He wears lots of cologne to church
and a really shiny suit and it makes me so happy because we know he's
dressing up to look his best for church. When we taught him about not
drinking alcohol or smoking, he asked us if it was ok to wear perfume.
We told him it was ok :) He's awesome. He's so excited to get baptized
and we're excited too!!! Probably more than him. Last night after our
lesson, he reminded us on the way out, "Don't drink coffee!" Hahaha.
Oh, and he also wants to come to Canada and visit after our missions.
I told him that you'd all love to meet him!
This saturday there was a baptism in our branch of a lady named Maria
:) She and her husband and their 11 year old daughter have been being
taught by the missionaries and the husband used to be a really bad
alcoholic but has changed his life around. The 11 year old daughter is
so proud of her parents. The baptism was quite the event. Sister
Lawrence and I were to hold the towel for Maria by the stairs of the
water and we invited her daughter to come stand by us so she could
have a better view of the special moment. It was Elder Deborah's first
time baptizing someone and he was a little nervous but everyone loves
him because he is mexican. And awesome. Victor loves him. Anyways,
Elder Deborah said the baptismal prayer and then immersed her in the
water, and then she came up out of the water sort of but then kind of
laid limp in the water and fell back a little. She fainted in the
water and Elder Deborah was holding her up in the water and her little
girl thought she died (I did too for a second) and started bawling and
crying her name, and I had to hug her and comfort her while the rest
of the branch tried to figure out what was going on. It was like 1 or
2 minutes before Sister Losano, a big lady from Argentina, burst into
the little stairs room we were in and hiked up her skirt and charged
into the water to help Maria out. Maria was still limp and the little
girl was still crying and then more ladies came into the little room
and the curtains of the font were closed and Sister Lawrence and I
went out - everyone asked us if everything was ok and we had no idea.
The service carried on and later we found out that everything was ok
and that she had fainted because she had felt the spirit so strong and
it had just come over her! It was like a Book of Mormon moment - we're
just glad she didn't faint for 3 days! Hahaha. I was just worried for
her poor daughter who may never want to get baptized after seeing
that! Hahaha. It was quite the event. But she was given the gift of
the Holy Ghost the day after and it was beautiful. I went up to the
couple after sacrament meeting and in broken spanish tried to tell
them about how their daughter was telling us all about how proud she
is of her dad and the changes he's making. He got tears in his eyes
and told me they were doing it for her. It's so amazing how much the
gospel can change hearts and lives. It makes all the rejection and
hard times worth it to see these changes.
Sister Lawrence and I are still having a lot of fun together. It's not
always great or fun, but we sure get along great and she has such a
great sense of humor - it's such a blessing! The other day we were
talking with one of our potential investigators out on a bench and
this man sped past us on his wheelchair scooter thing. He sped past us
back and forth a couple times before stopping right in front of us
really fast and saying "In case you didn't know.. HOSTESS IS BACK!
Twinkies, hoho's and wonder bread! I'm going to the store right now to
get some!" And then he sped past us again. It was awesome. And then
the guy we were talking to was like, "He's weird. He rides by here all
day even at 4 in the morning, but he walks fine, I see him walking
sometimes, I don't know why he has that scooter" hahaha. It was
awesome! Hermana Lawrence got some twinkies and has been loving them.
We keep quoting, "Hostess is back!" in his awesome voice.
Also, we got to learn a bit about family history in our training this
week - everyone should go check out the new family search website! It
looks so great! Gran is either loving it or hating it loving it.
Spanish is still hard but I'm getting by. I do a lot of smiling and nodding. :)
Rachel, thank you for your big long email! You are so great. Thank you
for your testimony and for making me laugh. I love picturing mom and
dad "leaping to the windows" to see the pelicans! I miss those
pelicans! When we run in the mornings I sometimes see some Canadian
geese and it makes me happy :)
I'm so excited for Madeline this week going to the Temple! Give her a
big hug for me and Tyler too!
Aaaand, HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNTIE MARY LOU!! I got lots of your letters
these past few weeks and I looove them. You're the best missionary
supporter in the world. Love you lots and lots.
Monica, you're wonderful and I miss you lots! I'm so proud of you for
helping so much with the flood stuff. I got your letter and loved it!
Short ones are fine!
Tara, I'll reply to your letter soon! I often think of how you're such
an amazing missionary and I'm so inspired by you and so proud of you.
Thank you for sharing your experiences. I hope you're doing well!
Scott, I got your package this week :) thank you soooo much! I loved
it. Hope work is going well!!
And I'm glad the family week went well. Tell all the Hills that I love
them! I'm sad I missed it but I know this is where I'm supposed to be!
Well, I'm out of time again :) but I love you all very very much. Dad,
I got your letter this week with the journal of Jennie and Byron. It's
so great. Thank you so much! I have the best family ever and I am so
blessed.
Until next week and lots of love,
Sister Vance :)
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