Reese's Puffs! :D

Hola! How are you all doing? First off, I´m glad you made it back from the hiking adventure. It sounds like it was a good time. And Shari and Orrin, it sounds like you´re all into your house great. How fun to have a new house! And, AK, Ryan, and Nyah, thanks for the fun package! I´m thoroughly enjoying the candy, and Reese´s Puffs (you know the way to my heart!) and I´ll try not to eat it all by myself so I can run Ragnar 2010. jaja.

Ryan, Happy Birthday! One year old and wiser! Pumpkin squares? Jami, if you read this, Happy Birthday this next week as well. :o)

First off, some business... I bought some souveenirs (sp?) last week. Like $50 worth I believe. The lady said that she ran my card as debit, so I hope. But today, I was talking to a store worker, and he said that if I´m a foreigner, everything will be run as credit. So you might want to check that out. It´s weird because the ATM´s here don´t want to accept my debit card. I don´t know why. But anyway, so if I use my card, it seems as though I may have to do it as credit. Let me know what you all think, and if my last week´s spending was really debit or credit.

Also, I just sent the recorder that Lisa and Jordan sent back home. I was going to send it to Lisa and Jordan, but then realized that I don´t know your new address! Therefore, I sent it home. I just sent the recorder and a couple of my favorite treats with it. :D

Things here are going well. We changed Ester´s baptismal date to September 26th. She´s doing really well with about everything ( the commitments) except for the sabbath day - going to church. So we told her yesterday that she has to go to church for the next three weeks or she won´t be able to get baptized the 26th. So hopefully she´ll be able to go to church.

Alright, so now Nelida, Belen, and Ester all have baptismal dates for September 26th. I so hope that they all make it to their baptismal dates. It´s going to require a lot of faith and some changes for them, but they can do it. Ester told us yesterday that she has been complying 100% with the Word of Wisdom since we taught her last week. :D Yay!

The Talent Show went well on Saturday. I felt like we spent a good amount of time trying to get everything prepared and ready to go, but I think it was worth the effort. Hna. Porter and I were first. I played the duet of ¨Amazing Grace, As Now We Take the Sacrament, and How Great Thou Art¨as she sang. She did very well, and I just had a few minor errors. :o)

Then we just had a couple other little things. A family here in our ward has a little band so they played. A girl and her friend sang a song. All in english so that was a little crazy. The Bishop´s little brother has a band so they played as well. Two little girls ( 2 and 3 yrs old) danced so that was cute. It went well.

And we had a good turn out! Members did very well inviting people who aren´t members. Several people came and I think everyone really enjoyed it. And it was the first ward activity in a LONG time. And we had investigators come as well: Pablo, Mónica and their family (Flia. Barientos), Ashelen, and Angélica and her daughters. Pretty good. :D

Mariana is still doing well. We weren´t able to teach her as much this week as we would have liked, and she didn´t go to church, so we don´t know for sure what is happening. But we´re going to do everything possible to help her be baptized on September 12th still. It´ll all work out like it´s supposed to.

The work continues to progress. I can´t believe we´re already half-way done with this transfer. The time is just flying by.

I´m reading in Acts and I´m thoroughly enjoying it. It has been quite a while since I read Acts and I´m loving it! The Apostles were absolutely amazing. They were such powerful teachers. I love hearing about what they did to preach the Gospel. Miracles. And they were so in tune with the Spirit. I want to be more like them.

I was readying about Paul this morning in Acts and it made me think a lot about Joseph Smith. He and his companion, Bernabé I think but I don´t remember how it is in english, (Barnabus?) were teaching and the people were pretty upset. So the magistrates ordered the people to beat them, so they beat them with stripes. Afterwards, they put them in prison. So I tried to put myself in this situation, and wondered how I would be feelings at this moment. So that night in prison, they started praying and singing praises, and the other prisoners heard them. Amazing... praying and singing praises in that situation! So then the prison walls started to shake and basically fell down. The prison guard was worried that his prisoners had escaped, so he was about to take his own life. But Paul stopped him, and said not to worry, they were still there. And so they preached to him, his whole household, and they were all baptized in the church of Jesus Christ.

I thought that was such an amazing story! It made me want to be more like them. They took advantage of every opportunity to preach, and did it without fear. I love it.

Well, I need to go. I love you all very much and appreciate your love and support. Choose the Right!

Love always,
Hermana Jana Banana Pincock