Second Week in Seattle

I am going to pick excerpts from both her email and her letter. So, if you already got her email, there might some information that you have already heard...

"I am still trying to get the language down. I am starting to understand a little more, and I am starting to have more patience with myself. "

"We have 3 people on date for baptism. One is a mom, Gabriela and her daughter Natalie. Gabriela called and ordered a 'Finding Faith in Christ' DVD and then asked for the missionaries to come. When I got here they had been teaching her for a couple of weeks. She is amazing though. She always says 'when I get baptized I'm going to...' She knows the Book of Mormon is true and all of the laws we have taught her, she is willing to live. Her daughter is only 7 but turns 8 next Friday, so she will be able to get baptized too. She comes to all of the lessons and usually offer the opening or closing prayer. It is good. Although Gabriella needs to find another job so that she won't have to work on Sundays."

"The other person on date for baptism is a guy named Jaime (sounds like Hi-may). But he doesn't have a car and would usually get a ride with his nephew, who is in jail now because he didn't pay some traffic violation tickets. We haven't been able to meet with him again since we put him on date to be baptized. So I guess we'll just have to wait and see what will happen with that."

"This week (last Thursday) I went on splits with the other companionship of the Spanish-speaking sisters. I went with Hermana Williams and Hermana Weston cam here and spent the day working with Hermana Munoz. I was nice to talk to Hermana Williams. I guess she went through almost exactly what I have been experiencing these past two weeks. I guess every other week we have exchanges so, not this week, but next week I will go with Hermana Weston to the other area. "

"I am starting to get to know some of the people in the ward. There is one guy, who is a returned missionary, but has been less active in the church for awhile, named Memo. We taught him last Wednesday and he said that he felt the spirit for the first time in a long time. He said that he has seen how Hermana Munoz teaches and that he felt the spirit a lot from me, so he is going to trust us to teach one of his friends. He gave us the name, but not a way to get in contact with him yet, so we haven't been able to teach him. It was nice to know that even though I can't teach in Spanish very well, I still have the spirit and the spirit is able to testify through me."

"I don't know what everyone was talking about with the rain in Seattle. I has only rained about 2 times since I've gotten here." It has actually been pretty nice, except in the morning during personal study, I am always freezing."

"Next week, on Tuesday, we are going to go to the temple. I'm excited to go to the temple. But after this I'll have to wait 3 months to go again. I guess we only get to go once every 3 months."

"Every month I get $160.00 on my card - except this month I only got $60.00. It doesn't seem like very much, but it will be good to teach me how to budget better. Oh, and did I tell you that I am the driver of our companionship. So I have to learn the whole city! The car we have is a 2009 Chevy Malibu. It has horrible gas mileage - only like 16 -17 mpg. But is is nice to drive. Luckily we don't have to opay for gas out of the $160.oo they give us. But we do have to stay within our miles. For each month we get to travel 1,200 miles."

"Our mission president puts a lot of focus on teaching members to do missionary work. So we are actually supposed to teach member families throughout the week, too. We don't actually do as much tracting as I would have imagined. And the other sisters in Kent (our area is Seahurst) don't do really any tracting at all, because the members in their branch are so good at finding people for them to teach, that they are busy teaching and don't have any time to tract. When the members help, the appointments are more likely to go through and the people are more likely to keep their commitments. And when people keep their commitments, they get baptized because the Holy Ghost testifies to them. So the work in Kent is booming. Here is Seahurst, its a little harder to get help from the members - but it is possible."

"Oh, and I can't believe how much they are trying to feed me. I have a feeling I am going to gain weight here. So don't be surprised if I end up weighing 500 pounds when I get home."
"I love you all! I hope all is well and I hope to hear from you soon."