Hola!

June 13, 2016

Hola!

This week was a bit of a blur for me trying to figure out things with my new assignments. There was just a lot of new things going on that we felt thrown into, but good things are happening and this coming week should be more calm and collected. It did not help sister winn and I both got a little sick this week in the midst of it all, so we were struggling to keep up with all the new work! We think we got food poisoning or something. It has mostly passed though and we are feeling better. 

Kelly our investigator from Ripon and her finace Marco go terribly sick this week! So we had two good lessons in the beginning of the week then didn't hear from them for days. They were supposed to get married on saturday but had to postpone the wedding till this coming saturday. We were bummed to find this all out, but we are really praying for them and we trust that God's timing is really just in play here. We have some more lessons set up this week and I hope that no one obstacles keep Kelly and Marco from learning more and following Jesus Christ more fully. We got to see Loud and Lisa this week twice which was awesome. Some lady gave me this beaten up guitar and Lou said he wanted to string it up for me so we went over. The guitar ended up being unsaveable, but we stayed and talked a lot with them about religion. Even though they don't choose to have formal lessons with us anymore, they are still reading and researching more. We had dinner together at President's Palmer house this week and Lou said he is really exciting about joining a bible study group with a group of friends from Modesto who are LDS, and one of them is a stake president. This will be really awesome for him. He has felt the spirit so strong at church, and in lessons with us. I know things are going to workout for him, just in a timing that only God knows. 

Robert and Trisha, who got baptized a few weeks ago, are doing so awesome! We love them so much. They are really loving the ward. Their car broke down this week and we found out a ward member who never met them, came and worked on their car for 5 hours for free. He fixed the problem and was an answer to their prayers. It is those silent acts of service that go unnoticed in wards but that mean the most. For one of our new member discussions we watched the restoration video, about Joseph Smith. It was seriously so HILARIOUS. Remind me never to watch a movie with Robert again hahaha. He comments on everything and it was so funny, he got so into it. He was like "why they per-sa-cutin him? why they doin that?! aint they know he is tellin the truth and only the truth!" or he would say "wooooow.man. wooooooow. I just cant imagine. He just a boy!". It was really funny to hear, but after we had a really powerful discussion on the restoration and Robert and Trisha both gave really beautiful testimonies about it. We love teaching them, they have this really strong spirit about them. They are willing to just do whatever it takes, and sacrifice whatever needed to follow Jesus Christ. 

Working with the YSA ward. Oh my. Where do I start...well I am actually still trying to figure that out myself right now haha. We got doubled into the ward and there is not much history or support to fill us in on the work that was going on. We figured it out a lot more though as the week went on. They have a family home evening every week together so we went this week and it was kind of weird I won't lie. I felt like new kid trying to fit in. Everyone was my own age and just got back from missions or going to school. We are finding out groove though. It is tricky trying to coordinate with two separate wards now, but we will figure it out as well. On sunday we go to double church, 6 hours of church which we figured out is kind of killer haha. We will need to bring snacks to get us through it for next week. This week at the YSA ward I gave a talk on the atonement of Jesus Christ and it went really well. It was a nice way to introduce us to the ward and to gain their trust. I think I am really going to like serving in the YSA ward, I just need some time to adjust to their work going on there.

We got our list of sisters this week, and it turns out they are not dividing sisters by language anymore, but by geography. We are over 6 companionships of sisters, and one of them are spanish speaking which will be really awesome to work with them!!!!!! I am so excited!! Not going to lie we are kind of sad to not work with as many of our sisters as before- we got really close with them all- but we are slightly relieved we will have more time now to work between the ripon and the ysa ward.

So this week's email is not the most flowing, but my week was not the most flowing haha. This week will be better and more organized! I love you and miss you!

all my love,

sister neeley