!!keeW israF

Another week! I believe I officially hit 10 months. Yay! Celebrate, Im so old on the mission...NOT. I still feel new, but then again missionaries coming now, even sisters go home after me so thats good. haha

We had a cool little tender mercy last night. We were calling a ton of people, inviting them to attend a Visitor Center event with us, but no one was able to go or answering. So we kind of gave up and were just listening to dinner during our music hour (yes thats right) and we get a call from the VC! We shot over and met this super cool Persian guy who wanted to come to the event! Apparently he had met missionaries earlier in the week, was invited to Stake Conference (which was in Korea Town like 40 minutes away) and came, and was now at the VC in Santa Monica! We talked with him for a little and then went to the event and had a great time! We are super excited to start meeting with our new friend Nick. 

Speaking of Stake Conference. I am so grateful for the things that I have been learning as a missionary. The past couple months, it has seemed like I hear exactly what I need to hear every time. Now, I dont think its me being a missionary, but rather our preparation and ability to be influenced by the Holy Ghost. Im not saying Im this super spiritual monster, but I do know that after we are baptized, we have the authorized opportunity for the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. It is up to us to live worthily of that influence and guidance. 

Our stake president shared this and I enjoyed it: "True happiness is when we know who God is, we know who we are, and we have confidence that we are in align with His will."

God's ultimate will is to get us home, and he wont force us. We have to allow Him to change us into the people that we are to become. We have all been foreordained and called. All things are present before God and He knows the help we need now and the help that we will need. Keep going! 

We had the opportunity to give two priesthood blessings this week. The Farsi Elders have kind of been dubbed "the blessing elders" or "the hospital elders" because our area is the mission. So we are on call to give blessings. It is such a neat and unique opportunity to use the priesthood on a regular basis. It is also a very humbling experience being able to sit and talk with so many people going though different things and offer the little help we can. I am very grateful. Also, one of the particular blessings we gave was to a Hispanic lady, although she understood English. In my mind, I was thinking in English, then we started the blessing, Spanish came out. It had been so long since I had done a blessing in Spanish and I know it was God, not me. Although the words were far from perfect, pretty sure I said half the words in Farsi, the Hermana thanked us so much afterwards and couldnt have been happier. Super cool. 

Heard this story, I dont remember all the details but Ill try. There was some small town that was going through a drought. The bishop one Sunday told the ward that they were going to pray together all week for rain, then fast on Saturday to Sunday and come together at church to end their fast. The ward did so, they started their fast. Sunday morning came around and the bishop was getting his family ready for church. It was taking a little longer than anticipated and he started to get frustrated. Finally, everyone seemed ready and they piled into the car. One of his daughters said, "Wait, I forgot something!" and ran back inside and got a bag. The ward had a great service and it was time to go home. When to everyone's surprise it was raining outside! As everyone was running to their cars to try and stay dry, the bishops daughter reached inside her and took out her umbrella and said, "Dad, we can share my umbrella." May we all have faith that God will hear and answer our prayers like this little girl. She had no doubt that it would rain and so she was prepared. 

arepas

PB and bread :) 

Tuesday morning, E Arguelles made some Venezuelan food called Arepas. Mission life calls for meals of peanut butter sandwiches. Also, I thought itd be cool to share some pictures of my Farsi notebook. Some sentences to practice grammar and gospel teaching and vocab words from the Book of Mormon. :) 

Sentences

vocab

I love you all! Have an awesome week! :)