Investigator Success, Valentine's Fun, and Bronchitis

This week has been pretty good, and our investigators are coming to church and progressing! Yay! We have been working hard to help our investigators progress, reading the Book of Mormon with them and bearing our testimonies in every lesson. Everything hinges on the Book of Mormon, so the progress of our investigators hinges on their reading and gaining a testimony of it. We have a family of 7 that we have been teaching, and we are helping them to read the Book of Mormon. The father of the family is the one who is really interested, and so our goal is to help him first gain a testimony. He has accepted to be baptized when he finds out it is true, but wants to learn more about the church before accepting a date. We have high hopes for this family!

I have been able to feel the Holy Ghost testifying to me during this week, helping me to bear a strong testimony and know what to say. My faith has increased as a result of testifying of the Book of Mormon and how the Gospel has blessed my family. I want all the blessings that I have to be enjoyed by those I am teaching. All they have to do is to use their agency to commit to living the commandments and make sacred covenants. I have been working with this ward for a while now, and I feel like I am feeling the Christlike love that is charity for many of them. Heavenly Father is helping me to change and be better, and has put many people in our path that we can help.

We have three investigators that have accepted to be baptized the 1st of March. Please pray for them that they will gain a testimony and have the desire to be baptized and change their lives.

Valentine's Day craziness

I want to start running again, but it is just super hot! Even when I wake up in the morning, I just want to lay there and stay cool. Still, I am happy that I don't have to shovel snow. It seems like every day we try to escape the sun. I am sure pretty tan, though! Lots of people don't realize it until I show them my tan lines and how white I really am, and they tell me I should stay this tan. We'll see if it lasts until I get back.

The birthday girl is in the dark blue shirt on the right.

So this week we celebrated Valentine's Day in our own awkward way -- ha ha. We ate manjar blanco and made faces and told one another how much we loved each other -- ha ha, but there's only so much you can do when you're a missionary.

We also went to a birthday party for the daughter of one of our less active members that we are teaching. She turned 13 and it was the first birthday party that she has had in her whole life! It was super sweet and fun! Hope everyone back home had a great Valentine's!

This past Wednesday was crazy! In the morning, Hermana Morales had to be in the offices at 6:30 AM to go to immigrations. In our hurry to leave, she didn't realize that she put on two different pairs of shoes -- ha ha. Super funny. While she was in immigrations, I went with Hermana Leyva and Hermana Lopez to San Diego. We got back to the offices at around 3:30 PM. I've been fighting a nasty cough for a couple of weeks, and finally I was sent to the clinic. The appointment was at 4:00, so once I got back to the offices to pick up my companion, we just stayed there for 30 minutes and then walked to the clinic.

Nervously waiting for my shot. The screaming girl isn't helping.

Hermana Morales telling me not to scream.

We waited in the clinic for about four hours to see the doctor, and it was so long! I finally got in, and they told me it was bronchitis or something like that in Spanish, and he gave me a list of five different medications. So, we went down to the  pharmacy, and it turns out one of the medications was a shot! Ack! After running around getting things Ok'd by different departments, we found the room for the shots by listening for the screaming...literally! When we got there, there was a little girl screaming inside! I was already a little nervous, but when I heard that I was freaking out a little.

 Well, I got a big shot in the butt, so I know how Ashley feels -- ha ha. The problem was that the shot was some pretty poweful stuff, and I needed oxygen for 15 minutes, wait 15 mintues, and then 15 minutes of oxygen again. At the time I got the shot, it was 7:55 and the clinic closed at 8:00. So, they gave me the shot and sent me to the emergency room for the oxygen.  It was great fun, and definitely an adventure. We didn't get back to our apartment until 10 pm.

Already starting to feel better.

I had to go back on Thursday as well to get an X ray of my lungs, but that only took about 30 min. The mission is really taking care of me, and Hermana Archibald called me and told me I needed to sleep more. Wow!  For the past few days I've been sleeping an extra hour, and I think I am starting to get a little better. I should get sick all of the time if I get to sleep more! Chiste! No quiero estar inferma. The mission is taking care of me, and all is good, so don't worry! It's been quite a week.