Hi family! I love you all so much! I'll let you know when I get the package. I am more and more amazed with every e-mail. I'm going to come home to a family of prodigies. Not that they weren't already. :-) That's so cool that you got to see Elder Costa from the quorum of the seventy. He came to speak at the MTC when I was there and he was so funny! It was weird to see him speak in general conference and be so serious. That's sad that the stake presidency got released. You'll have to give my gratitude to the former stake presidency. They served well. I'll be released by a different stake presidency than set me apart. My companion goes home April 13, in between transfers. That's when her visa expires. She is the second oldest of 4 girls. Her older sister is a preschool teacher and her next youngest sister just sent in her mission papers. She is studying to be an accountant (and actually is planning to transfer to BYU :-)!!!!!!!!! That would be amazing!).
I think it's funny, everyone in the ward thinks I'm a musical genius. We sing in the ward choir and the director always asks me for input. We have a little time before church starts after meetings and I like to practice the hymns. I've been experimenting with changing keys and making up accompaniment. It's fun. But people heard and are impressed. I don't play that well, I just have fun. There's just not very many people that play instruments in the ward. Thank you Mom! :-)
Hi everyone! The work is going good. We're having trouble finding new investigators. Many that we have just aren't willing to progress and the ones that actually want to be baptized can't right now. They're kind of on hold, still progressing but with no set baptismal date yet. Those are frustrating because they have already been taught everything so we're just repeating until we don't know when. It's kind of like playing keep-the-balloon-off-the-ground. You also get frustrated as a missionary because YOU want to see that baptism and the only way that would be sure is if they have a baptismal date within this six-week period. After that you might have to pass the balloon off to another missionary and you almost don't trust them to keep it in the air. Anyway, we're still working with those. We are REALLY praying and working to find new investigators, ones that sincerely want to learn. There's plenty of people that don't mind listening but have no intention of ever actually coming. Well, we keep praying and working and testifying.
Another tip for future missionaries: ALWAYS count your blessings and have a prayer of gratitude in your heart. If you're riding your bike and a bug hits you in the face, say a prayer of gratitude that it didn't land in your eye or your mouth. If it does land in your eye or your mouth, well you've got a bug in your eye or mouth. What are you going to do about it? Stop the bike and get it out. Then say a prayer of gratitude that you have an eye or mouth for a bug to land in. Afterwards you will always appreciate your bugless eyes and mouth because you know how uncomfortable it is to have a bug there.
We had some instruction from President Gonzalez last week. There is a new mission president that will take over in June so there's a big push to work our hardest, as always, but to "run the race to the finish." Which is good for everyone. President interviewed each companionship and gave us each a wooden baton to symbolize "The Lord's baton" that will be passed to the new mission president. He asked us each individually by name "Are you with me till the end of my race?" Since both Sister Alvarez and I are leaving before then he committed us to work as if we're going to be here till then. We are already planning on doing that. It's not hard. If you're focused on the work, the time flies.
James 4:12-14
The weather's good. It's rained on and off the past few days. Mostly it's sunny and cool. I love this time of year! The trees are all blossoming again. Madera is surrounded by fields and vineyards. So now's about the time everyone's allergies start acting up. I've heard that missionaries get called here without allergies and leave with them. I didn't have allergies before. I don't know if I have them now. My nose always runs more when it's cold so I don't know if it's because of that or allergies. I'll be optimistic and say it's just cold.
I hope everyone has a wonderful week! Keep Smiling!
Hermana Evans
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