WEEK SIX OF THE TRANSFER

Hello Everyone,

 

I hope that everyone had as good of a week as I did. I had a blast this week. We stayed BUSY this past week. We are always busy, but this last one was extremely filled with things to accomplish. One great experience our zone had this past week was translating for Parent/Teacher Conferences of a local school within the zone. We volunteered to translate for the parents of the students and the teachers obiously as the teachers only spoke English and all the parents only spoke Spanish. It was a neat experience. It made me realize how much I actually know Spanish being around people that do not know it. At times, I felt that what the Spanish speaking parents were saying was so easy to understand, but yet the teachers had no clue what they were saying. I guess, I just have not really been around people that do not know Spanish and when I went to the Parent/Teacher Conferences, the Teachers saw me as a fluent Spanish speaker. Although, there is much more vocabulary to learn as well as rules with the language, it just just helped me realize how far I have come with my efforts in learning a language. I was grateful for that opportunity. It was fun translating. Although, it was awkward at times explaining to the parents things their children need to do better on or did poorly on. I still enjoyed it a lot.

 

This last week, we went to Santa Ana College with an investigator who is a mother of four children, not married, and wants to be Baptized; Hermana Campos. We went to Santa Ana College to get her enrolled in a free English class that she could attend for a period of time to then recieve a school ID which she could use to get her matricula to get married and then Baptized. What a process, right? At first, it was over my head. She successfully was enrolled into the class and will be starting them this week. In the meantime, we taught two of her three children that are over the age of eight lesson four of Preach my Gospel. We taught them everything just in time for them to have Baptismal interviews on Saturday and be Baptized on Sunday. It was organized chaos and overwhelming at times teaching them all they needed to be taught before their Baptism, but we did it. I believe the other son of Hermana Campos that is over the age of eight will be Baptized next transfer with her after she is married. A lot of happening in this great family. I must say again, it all started as a member referral. ALWAYS ASK FOR REFERRALS! 

 

Familia Solis who we Baptized the last week was confirmed this week on Sunday. That went well. Yesterday(Sunday) as well, Hermana Sanchez spoke in Sacrament meeting on the Plan of Salvation. Yes, Hermana Irma Sanchez who was Baptized only five weeks ago with two of her children spoke on The Plan of Salvation. She was given the asignment last week and we helped her on Saturday night to help her out as she had not prepared at all prior. She had two scriptures in mind from the Bible, but that was about it. It was her first talk though, I do not blame her. She did wonderful though. We gave her a couple other scriptures she could use and told her that rest of the talk was to be delivered by the promptings of the Holy Ghost. She accepted and had no problem speaking for about 10 minutes. One of the many blessings the Lord has given me on my mission; the opportunity to listen to a recent convert that I taught and Baptized speak in Sacrament meeting on restored truths of the Gospel. In the evening, we also had the Baptism of Brayan and Kelly(the children of Hermana Campos). It went very well. This Baptismal service was combined with the Hermana's in our district as one of their investigators was Baptized as well. I had the privilage to Baptize Kelly. She is an awesome little girl, and a future missionary too. Elder Flake Baptized Brayan and Elder Janne Baptized the investigator of the Hermanas. Many members and investigators came to support. I actually was one of the speakers at the Baptism. I spoke on The Gift of the Holy Ghost as the original speaker we had cancelled last minute. I had a half hour or so to prepare the talk during my language study, but it all worked out fine. I was grateful for that opportunity to speak nevertheless. 

 

This week is week six of the transfer. Next Monday when I send e-mails, I could be with a new companion in a new area, and that fact just kills me. This area has truly grown on me and I feel that there is more work in front of me next transfer that I need to do still. I do not know what will happen. I have no clue, but I know what will happen is according to the will of the Lord. I know that the Lord knows where He wants His servents, the missionaries. If I leave and when I leave whenever that may be, it will be hard. Remember, I am still in the original Ward I was trained in. I have not changed Wards yet on my mission. I do not want to either. Time will tell. I pray that you all have a great week. I love you all. Look forward to hearing from any of you. Take care! 

 

Until next week, 

Elder Harvey