Catfish

Hola familia!! Como estan?

 

I loved reading your emails this week, as always. Dad, my new address is

19366 Mountain Meadow South, Unit B
Hidden Valley Lake Court
Hidden Valley Lake, CA 95467

 

That sounds awesome about going on Splits with the Sister missionaries! Nice work family :) and Dad, you sound happy. I'm proud of you for all you're doing and all that you take on. I thought of you this morning as I read Alma 26. Alma was stressed and didn't know what to do to help the people he was leader over, but I love how the Lord was proud of Him for his efforts and helped him know what to do.

Emma, where is this fancy petstore? That sounds exciting! How many pets are we going to have when I come home??
As for the coat - sorry, I didn't want you guys to stress out about it. I'm not exactly sure where it is or which one I want, but just do/send what is easiest. I can definitely wait for thanksgiving, and if it's easier to buy me another one and have the store ship it for free, you can do that too. You could get Madeline and Rachel to pick me out one. No worries and don't stress about it :) Thanks so much for all you do for me!

 

Mom, how is your health doing? I've been thinking about you and worried for you more lately.

I want you to know that I am so grateful for you, every single day. I sure took you for granted when I had you :) but you really are the best mom in the whole world. I think often to when I was a little girl and the wonderful memories I have of you singing to me and teaching me to be kind to others and to live the commandments. Even when we resisted or when we made you feel bad, you stayed strong and you kept to what you knew was right and what was best. I am so grateful for your love, strength, meekness, and example. Every day we see mothers and people who are struggling and it breaks my heart to think of the lives that their children are going to have. I am so grateful for you and for your love! Hopefully it doesn't get old that I say this all the time, but I feel it all the time :) Love you lots and lots.

 

We had another wonderful week here in Lake County - there's never a dull moment here! :) The wonderful thing about it here is that people are so nice and generally willing to chat with us...or even tell us their life story! It doesn't always mean they're interested, but there are so many friendly people! It's great!! We have been trying really really hard to take Elder Adjukitis (of the 70)'s advice to talk to 20 new people each day as a companionship. It's hard, especially when we have lots of things scheduled, but we decided to challenge the Elders (winner gets ice cream) and we achieved the twenty 4 times this week!! Guess who gets ice cream? Hermana Tracy is fearless when it comes to contacting people. It's awesome to have her as a companion. We have seen so many miracles from it too - on Thursday, we went on exchanges with the English sisters we live with. I went with Sister Johnson to Middletown to visit some potential investigators (in English). (Ps. I LOVE Sister Johnson. She has this high squeaky voice and at first you think she might be kind of awkward/nerdy but then she ends up being absolutely hilarious). Anyways, it turns out that one of the english potentials (it was a miracle in the first place that we found his house!) is lots better in Spanish and really wants to learn English. I started talking to him in Spanish (which always feels good when you realize you can hold your own without a companion who speaks spanish), and asked if we could share a bit about the Book of Mormon with him. They had given him an English copy originally, but I asked him if we could read part of the introduction in Engish while he followed along in Spanish. After reading a few paragraphs and discussing them, I really think he felt something, because he said, "why didn't they give me one in Spanish?!" and I told him he could have the one he was holding, and he got really excited. He has friends who are members of the church in Mexico, and he prayed at the end that he could learn more about the book. So, we have a new investigator! His name is Rafael. I'm really excited to teach him more. We have an appointment on Wednesday.

 

Another wonderful thing that happened this week is that we had interviews with President Alba. He and Sister Alba are amazing. Sometimes I get nervous for interviews like this, because I know I could be doing better, but during our interview I just felt so much love from him and I thought about how much love Heavenly Father has for us. He doesn't want to scold us, He just wants us to know how proud He is of us.

Sister Tracy asked if afterwards he would come to a lesson with us as our member-present, and he and Sister Alba came! It was so much fun. The hispanic in him totally came out and he was chatting up a storm back-and-forth with Maria, the lady we were teaching. It was so great.

 

Last but not least, I won some points with the ward this week! We have dinner and correlation meeting with the Jessip family on Saturdays, and this saturday we had dinner on the dock to celebrate some birthdays. It was so much fun and so beautiful. The men had all their fishing rods resting against the railing to try and catch some fish, and as the night was ending, all of a sudden they start yelling that someone got a fish, and yelling at me to come reel it in! My friend Carl (he's like 75) told me I should do it, so I went for it, and I caught my very own catfish :) (with a little help from the Bishop). I hope you all are proud of me :) I even took a picture of it for you!

 

Oh, and Hermana Tracy is from Kansas City, Missouri (your mission I believe dad!). She keeps the energy level high in our house :) Did I tell you she bought a pink sparkly christmas tree? :) She loves sparkles. Its hilarious.
Oh, and yes, we sometimes have to use the 4 wheel drive. Some of the dirt roads here are CRAZY. It makes for an adventure :) I can't wait to tell you about some more adventures next week!

I love you all so much! Happy Rememberance Day and happy 6 months to me this week!

 

Love,

 

Hermana Vance

 

Ps. Also, I forgot to tell you but I had been talking with Cam (mom's brother) over facebook a few weeks ago, and I asked him if it was ok if I shared a message about the Plan of Salvation with him after he shared with me what happened about his brother Tony. He seems pretty sad about it and I know he would benefit from the peace that comes from the plan of salvation. I think he would be better in person because the conversation was a bit slow over facebook but mom and dad he told me to tell you thank you for helping get the stone for Tony. Will you talk to him and ask him if you can have him over when the missionaries are there or something to that effect?

Pps. Rachel - I love you! Write me!

Emma - I love YOU! Write me too and tell me what's new (when your project's over of course!)