Email #32 (Queen Creek, AZ)

March 31, 2014 Hello Hello familia (spanglish-it's a real thing)! Really, Spanglish is a real language down here in AZ. People will insert English words randomly into there sentences when they're speaking Spanish! It's way funny. Por ejemplo, there was a lady we were trying to contact and she said she would call us, but she didn't. So we went to her house one day and she invited us in and she felt bad for never calling us and she just kept on saying "I'm so sorry" in her cute little Hispanic accent and then she would start speaking Spanish again (hahaha) it was funny. She said she would call us and she has yet to do so again so... she is a sweet lady though. I hope we get in with her some day! Anyways, HOLA! Sounds like your spring break was fun! I'm excited to get your letter tomorrow, Mamita. I am happy to hear of the “small Milagros” happening in the Orchard ward. Even if it seems like things are progressing slowly, if we have the eyes to see the small miracles from day to day, we will understand how much the Lord blesses us each and every day. That's actually something I saw this week for sure. It was a difficult week work wise, all of our appointments were falling through, our investigators didn't come to the women's conference, and it seemed like we were working our hardest but nothing was happening! It was frustrating. Saturday was especially rough. Sister B. had another meltdown, but we worked through that and I hope my words and my actions helped her at least a little bit. I did my best to just be loving and understanding. All in all, it was just a rough, fairly slow week. BUT. There were many, many miracles. One of them being that we FINALLY SAW MIRSA!!! It was a miracle just to see her. I was so afraid that we'd be starting from scratch with her and that her testimony and faith wouldn't be as strong as before, but it was exactly the opposite. She experienced a few amazing miracles herself during the time apart, one of them being that her son Paquito was extremely sick and in the hospital, but through a priesthood blessing, he was healed! Her faith is so strong. She wants to be baptized, and the only thing holding her back is Paco (del gato). She is living with him and they are not married. We haven't met with her since Tuesday because she canceled our other lessons, but we are hoping to see her soon so we can talk to her about it. Pray that she will have the courage and desire to make the choices necessary to receive the blessings of baptism and the Holy Ghost in her life. Another miracle we saw was yesterday during church our AWESOME ward mission leader, Hno. Allred gave the third hour class to all of the adults in our barrio. It was amazing. We have seen so much progress in our ward since I first got here with the member missionary work (they struggle a little bit, mostly because they just don't know HOW to do it), but with Hermano Allred as our ward mission leader, things are really starting to change and our ward is beginning to see how they can do missionary work just by living the Gospel of Jesus Christ every day! There were other miracles throughout the week, and that is a witness to me that despite the difficult times that will come in life, if we truly try to see what the Lord blesses us with and recognize the milagros that he gives us every day, we will automatically be happier. It's like the people of Alma when they were under the burdens and labors of Amulon and the Lamanites. Despite this trying time in their lives, they recognized the mercy of the Lord and trusted in His ability to deliver them and through earnest prayer, the Lord heard their cries and their burdens "were made light; yea the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord." (Mosiah 25:15) We have trials in life to make us stronger, to give us the opportunity to trust in the Lord a little more so he can bless us with a lot. It is our choice to accept those trials and submit to them cheerfully and have patience, and opening our eyes to seeing His love, mercy and miracles. Anyways, Mamita here are the answers to your questions: 1. We've been told we're getting ipads soon…several times, but still haven't. 2. Our lesson with Maybelin, Ariel and Brian went well, but they are essentially the same. Maybelin was going to come to the conference but texted us right before and told us she thought it would be better if she watched it at home:( BUT, keep on praying for them this week because we are showing them the Joseph Smith movie this friday! We hope it will touch their hearts. There aren't any huge updates on anyone else this week because a majority of our lessons fell through. But, this week looks very promising, and Isabel is back in town! HOORAY!:) I'll let you know more on that next week. 3. Sister Adams and Hibbard are the other two companions we live with and they are AWESOME! We love them! Plus, Sister Adams likes to come to soccer with me in the mornings, so that is fun. They are both stellar missionaries and are super funny. 4. We'll watch conference in English unless one of our investigators comes! So hopefully we'll get to watch a few sessions in Spanish:) I can't believe a year ago we watched the young women's conference in Salt Lake together! Crazy! I also teared up thinking about that. Such good times!:) Wasn't it an amazing conference though?? Ah I loved it! I can't wait for general conference!!! It's going to be so great! Okay, well have an amazing week. Les quiero MUCHISIMO!! Hermana Lattin

Sunrise Hike to the San Tans!!!