February 10, 2014

Hello my lovelies!

I hope you are all having a fantastic week! I don’t mean to brag but I think mine might have been a teansie bit better ;) "Why?" might you ask? Well, sit on down and put your reading glasses on because this is a good one.

Scene: CARLOS. He’s been taking the missionary discussions for the past couple of weeks. He has a good friend in our ward named Bro. Mathis. He has 3 daughters, but one passed a couple years ago. He’s probably like the sweetest little guy I’ve ever met. He accidentally gave me a hug at church 2 weeks ago... Ha, but yes. He is the best. He has all these different church books including Predicad me Evangelio, so when we go to teach him he ends up teaching us. It’s the best. Also when we asked him about baptism he set his own date! It wasn’t until April 8th though, but still, his enthusiasm is contagious.

So, Carlos. He lives outside of our ward boundaries, but we got permission to teach him because he’s moving at the first of March. The good news is he’s moving right down the street from us! The bad news is that we don’t live in our area either... So, we had to go through our Zone leaders, President Berry, and both Bishops of our ward and the ward that we will be moving into and the final decision was... Dun da da Dunnnnn! We get to keep teaching him! Why? Well, because we have given him a new baptism date of FEB 22!!!!! Like 2 weeks. I am so happy for him. President said that he can be baptized into our ward and hold callings but he needs to be transitioned to the Lake Nona ward by the end of this year. BUT, Bro. Mathis works with houses in some way and said that he’s going to try to find Carlos a house in our ward so he won’t need to worry about transitioning into a new ward! Oh boy. I’m just so excited for him. He started crying. And he is just so sweet. Both his daughters though are JW and so far they haven’t wanted to sit in on any of our lessons, but I have hope! Just a little bit of time (:

So yes. That was so wonderful. Also I went on my first exchange this week! It was the best. I love our STLs. And Sister Collins is just the funniest person ever. One of the pictures I’m sending is when we were departing. I had all my things and wore my helmet and they were all making fun of me at how silly I looked. So yes. That’s a thing... haha 

Also we had a ward fiesta the other day and some kids brought snakes. So I played with those. 

FINALLY. A less active owns a restaurant and always has us come there for dinner. It’s like the only Mexican food I will ever eat while here in FL. It’s just great. 

I seriously just love it here. The people are all so sweet. We've been turned down multiple times but I’ve never encountered a rude person. Granted, I’m still new. But they are all just so sweet. Even after people say they aren’t interested they tell us to be safe. I think even though they have their own religions, we all believe in one God. I think they can tell who we represent without even knowing it. People are awesome. Just in general. I feel so lucky to be here and having the opportunity to serve them all. 

I hope you all have a great week! I love you all! (:

Hermana Halverson