Oct. 20th

and the fun continues!

Well hello everybody!

How is it goin?

Well we are doing just great here! Hermana Porter and I are loving our new area. We haven't had tons of success yet but we feel really strongly that the time is now for the people in our area and that we have been sent here for a purpose and we are so excited to find the people that the Lord has prepared here. We are still organizing and getting on our feet but we finally are most put together and ready to work like crazy this week. 

We did have some cools lessons this week with some part member families. The Spirit was really strong and we feel so blessed to be a part of teaching these people eternal gospel truths, even if they aren't ready to accept them right now. We know we have been able to be a part of the preparing process. Please pray for them that they will let the Spirit change their hearts and they will join their family in following the path of Jesus Christ.

We had a cool experience this week. It's a little complex but hang with me and the details will all make sense.

Ok so we have an "Area Book" that has records of people that were previously taught but "dropped" because they didn't have time/interest. We often go back and check in on those people and see if they are ready to hear more about the gospel.

So our Area Book has been left to Elders for a long time who, let's just say are not the best at neat and orderly record keeping. So we had a few incomplete addresses in our book. We got a little frustrated so I said "Let's just drive down the streets looking for these apartments." We actually ended up finding different apartments that we had been looking for earlier that day and stopped in to look for a drop name Avelardo, which is a really strange name I had never heard of before.

Then, we were walking around in the Apartment complexes looking for this drop but we couldn't find the right building. It was dark at this point (mom, don't freak out) and there were two guys smoking outside. So we approached them and asked for directions. It was a miracle! Turns out the younger of the two was actually living with members of our ward that had just moved in that we had been unable to find! Also, he'd been doing research about the Church on Mormon.org and wanted to know more! He went on to express his love for the beauty of our temples and that he was sure that they were more than just man made. He said he could see the Spirit when he looked at the temples and would like to take a road trip and visit all of them in the US one day. How amazing!!!! 

We sent his information to the English elders and he gave us directions to the apartment we were looking for.

We knocked but no one answered. As we were leaving I saw a Latino man sitting in his car and I went up to talk to him (I don't usually approach men in their cars in the dark but it was the Spirit ok?) and guess what? IT WAS AVELARDO! But that's not the weird part! He said he didn't even live there! We talked for a while but I finally asked him- Did you used to live here? and he said 'oh yeah I did a couple years ago! but now I'm just visiting a friend." crazy! We were so guided by the Spirit that night! We know this is the Lord's work and we are so glad to be here!

Love you all!

Hermana Hurley