July 7th

This week was hard but amazing! One cool thing we did is we went to the Farmer's Market this week on Saturday because a member in the English ward had the idea for us to do a booth there, he even paid for the spot. We set out cards for our website, some pamphlets and Books of Mormon. It was actually the opposite of success. The only little bit of success out of all the missionaries there was us (the Spanish speaking missionaries!). We talked to a guy from Bolivia at a neighboring booth and we have an appointment with him on Saturday. I am more grateful everyday that I'm in Spanish work. Spanish speakers are so much more open and friendly! 

This week we were feeling pretty beaten down because we got bashed 3 days in a row. it was pretty rough. We somehow ran into several people all at once that were not just uninterested, but down right outraged that we are dedicating lives to helping other's come unto Christ. That's hasn't really happened to me on my mission much so I guess it was about time! It's gotta be hard sometimes because "salvation is not a cheap experience". But it was a little hard not to get down. But then we were able to have two amazing miracles!
1) There is a family that we are teaching. We've had many more lessons with the mom and the kids because the husband is always working. The wife and kids have attended a baptismal service and a ward activity, and the mom even came to Church by herself once. Then they disappeared for a while (they went to Mexico for a week long trip and didn't come back for 2 months). When we had a lesson with them the dad was there and told us he thought it was nice to listen but they would not get baptized in another church (they have been baptized Catholic already). But on Friday we went for another lesson and he had read in the the Book of Mormon! In the same lesson he and his wife accepted baptismal dates and they even came to Church on Sunday!
2) An eternal investigator, the son of a Convert who was baptized a year ago, picked his own baptismal date!!!! This was unbelievable! This 13 year old has been through countless missionaries, and has gone through varying levels of interest in the Church. The last few weeks he would barely talk to us and wouldn't sit down for any lessons! But yesterday we were fasting for a miracle with him and we brought a Young Men's leader who just got back from his mission and it was just what he needed. He picked a baptismal date! We could not be more excited for this miracle!!!!

 

Quick funny story:

So back when I was in a trio with Hermana Cuesta and Hermana Sanchez we happened upon a whole colony of critters. None of us knew what they were! They looked a lot like squirrels, but they were a lighter tan color and their tails weren't bushy like a squirrel. Also they were burrowing into holes in the ground. We were fascinated! We ruled out groundhogs, moles and prairie dogs. We've lived with the mystery haunting us for a couple of months. Then this week at dinner someone mention that the pest of california is the ground squirrel. Hermana Sanchez and I looked at each other and said in unison: Ground squirrel!

We explained: One time we saw these animals that looked like squirrels but were in the ground.....and we couldn't figure out what they were. Maybe they were.... ground squirrels?

Case closed!

hahahaha

love you all!
Hermana Hurley