Guess what . . . I'm staying in Casa Grande!!! woo hooooooo I love it here so much!
I love the investigators and some of the members here so much. Especially our recent converts.
We had a Mission President's Fireside this past Saturday where recent converts bare their testimony and their story, and President and sister Howes speak. We took a "bus" full (it was really just a big Mormon van) of all our recent Spanish converts to Mesa wih us. It was so great. One of the recent converts told me that she had been praying about serving a mission :) Ah, that made me so happy. I hope she does, she'd be great.
Short but sweet :)
P.S. It has been 12 weeks and I am officially no longer a greenie!!! Yea!
Another week full of teaching, testifying, praying, baptizing, going to the temple and being silly . . . .
This week was weird. We went on exchanges, but it wasn't real exchanges. The two sister trainers came down from Mesa and we were in awkward threesomes. It was just weird. Then they called us the next day and told me and Sister White that we were coming up to Mesa Saturday for another exchange. So we did, and it was weird. I didn't really feel lilke there was a purpose. I followed them around and that was basically it. Kind of a waste of time in my opinion, but I did learn a lot from the sister trainer, Spanish-wise.
I don't know if I ever told you about our investigator Amy. At first we had a really hard time getting in with her because she is an alcoholic. But we finally saw her at church one day after she checked herself into rehab. She is the coolest we've taught English-wise. So fun and funny. She is putting together a care package for us :) She really wants to be baptized but says she wants to wait a year so she feels like she can really have a handle on her drinking. Her kids are so cute. They're all members except for her. But we really think that she could be baptized very soon if she wanted to be. Everytime she sees us she tells us how many days sober she is. And we put our old maintenance man, Jose, on date for the 15th :) woohoo!
I don't think I ever told you that our investigators Shawn and Monica lived in Pahrump, too! We gave each other an extra long hug because we know how hard Pahrump is.
This past week since President Howes will be leaving in less than a month he has started us a Book of Mormon challenge. We are reading the entire BofM by July 2. He gives us goals to reach every week. So instead of having district meetings we have district Book of Mormon reading meetings. I'm almost done with 2nd Nephi, focusing on the doctrine of Christ. It's really interesting.
Well, today we had our first heat warning. It's supposed to be 110 degrees today. Thank goodness for P-days, except we're biking to the trailers this evening. Oh well.
Well, things here are great! I love it here so far.
This week has been really good. We're baptizing a lot of people so we've had to go out and find people. We found three new investigators this week, two of which are Jehovah's Witnesses. It'll be fun . . . they have a ton of questions.
We rode our bikes for the first part of this week a lot. Sister White has her license for skin stuff, I forget what it's called, but she always tells me to put on sunscreen. So, I didn't. haha. But I was humbled when we were eating STEAK (delicious, on the BBQ steak) with our ward mission leader and his wife when they said that I looked really bad. So, they gave me an aloe leaf to squish up and put on when I got home. Aloe leaves are really slimey. And they smell like B.O. But I'm hoping it'll turn into a tan one day.
We've been teaching a couple, Shawn and Monica. They are so cool. The first time we met with them a few weeks ago they asked about missions for their daughters and before we even had met them, Shawn had changed his work schedule around so he could come to church. Before our second lesson with them we heard from her boss that Monica already said she wants to get sealed in the temple and be baptized. We taught them the Plan, and they already knew everything before they even knew it. It's crazy how in tune with the spirit they both are. They were definitely ready to hear the gospel! So their baptism is June 8 :)
We went to the baptism of Selia (Emilio and Veronica's granddaughter). And Emilio baptized her :) It was cute to see how happy he was.
Anyways, it was a super good week. Oh, and I am starting not to like the trailer park now, just because of how many wandering dogs there are. We got into a few chases this week, one of which at night - and BIG dogs. It stinks. I wish we could carry around a big stick. Dumb dogs.
One of our wards asked us to give talks yesterday, so I gave mine on Elder Holland's talk, "Lord, I Believe." Normally I HATE giving talks. I get nervous and my voice shakes. But this was the best talk I have ever given. First time people have ever asked for my references :)
Well, I love you!
This week was pretty good! I'm going to tell you my favorite part of the week first!
Saturday we had two baptisms, a 9 year old little boy and Estela. Estela is the woman whose door we accidentally knocked on when we were trying to find a different former investigator. It took us a little bit to get her to realize she needed to be baptized, but it happened! And! Guess what?! Andres baptized them! He was so happy! He gave me and Sister White a gift - he gave me a glass angel playing a violin. And . . . we gave him an illegal hug. But don't tell anyone. It was much needed and it was a fast one. haha.
And interviews with President went really well. I asked him for a blessing, and it was one of the best blessings I've ever gotten. It was like a second patriarchal blessing. He mentioned things that I didn't know that I was really worried about until he said it. He said let go of your concerns of what you're leaving behind and giving up at home -- as you're here the Lord is preparing your future. It was really cool.
This week also Sister White made me and Hermana Adams bike to the trailer park to teach our Spanish investigators the plan of salvation . . . At first I wasn't too happy with her. "They're going to think we believe in reincarnation and hate us and kick us out!!" But, I drug my feet there anyway. And it went really well :) They understood everything and ended up coming to church on Sunday. Their names are Jose and Viviana. We met Jose because he was our maintenance man at the Colony Apartments and was always our favorite person there He'd always ask us what we were doing. So one day we were in the trailers and knocked on a door and he opened it! Every once in a while we'll get a reminder that someone's guiding our feet as we walk.
This week we had to ride our bikes a lot. We rode 24 miles in 105 degree weather on Tuesday and 21 miles on Thursday. We'll be riding our bikes all this next week, and I actually like riding that much. It makes me feel like a real missionary when we're drenched in sweat knocking on investigators' doors :)
Oh, and we found out this week that the Tempe mission was supposed to trial test iPads for area books, but the Mesa mission got them instead :( BUT by the time I leave the mission we will all have iPads instead of having to carry around these bulky area books. So, that's cool.
P.S. While biking to the trailers, in their one green harvest field I glanced over and swear I saw a deer and got really excited. But then I thought . . . wait. I'm in Arizona. And I looked again and it was just a brown plastic bag. Que triste.
Sister Limburg's new address: 1182 East Jardin Drive, Casa Grande, AZ 85122.
Now that you have it, write!!!
New address:
1182 East Jardin Drive
Casa Grande, AZ 85122
Same city, new digs. . . . a house with five other sister missionaries!
