Is it March already?

Hello everyone! 

Oh my goodness, how is it March? How is this transfer almost over? How have I been out over four months? I think something happened and I missed some time. I have heard missionaries say that the days feel like weeks, but the weeks only feel like days. It is feeling like that...

This week has been a good week. Let me start with Monday night...

For FHE, we played minesweeper. It was really fun. John (a member of the Branch) laid a bunch of rags all over the floor of the cultural hall and we divided up into pairs (I was with Sister Chu Shing). One person in the pair was blindfolded and the other person guided them verbally (no touching allowed) around to collect the rags. The pair with the most rags at the end won. Sister Chu Shing and I did really well! :D It was fun. 

On Tuesday, we had service at Veggilution. We were weeding. Makes me think of home. We then had lunch at the Institute. We actually have an appointment tomorrow with one of the guys who comes to lunch! We are excited. We also helped Sister Fitzpatrick clean up before going to do visits in Alum Rock (to convince people to come to the Branch). We also ended up finding an older, samoan woman who is in the Alum Rock ward. And, once again, as with every samoan we find, she is somehow related to Sister Chu Shing! :D Anyways, we had a fun visit with her. She also invited us for dinner later this month! :D We also had a lesson with Cindy (a member of the Branch) before having dinner with Shane and the elders. We went to Johnny Rocket's. I love that place. 

On Wednesday, we had district meeting before we went to lunch with Ismael. He took us to this neat Indian buffet place called Punjab cafe. It was yummy. I got to try curried goat! I wasn't a fan of the curry, but the goat meat was cool. We then did service for the Laytons and helped them get dinner ready. Dinner was great. We also had a lesson with a couple of members of the Branch before getting home. It was awesome. 

On Thursday, we went to service at Guadalupe and while we were there. While we were there, someone called us. It turned out to be someone from last Monday when we played pukana on campus! We gave him our number and he called us. He called us to invite us to a Bible Study he and some friends do on campus! We asked him to text us the information and he said that he was going to call the elders too. We then had lunch at the apartment before going to see Colin. We are still reading Preach My Gospel with him and we finished chapter 6. We then met up with the elders to go to Bible Study. There was a big group of them (about twenty). When we arrived, they were all so welcoming! We all sat in a circle and one of the guys in the group taught a short lesson. We then had some discussion about it. We didn't get bible bashed! It was great! We plan on going again next week. We also invited some of them to come to Institute. :D We see some potential in them! After that, we had dinner with Spencer before going off to see Manny and teach him. It was a great day!

On Friday, I was on an exchange. Sister Chu Shing and Hermana Gilvarry had a leadership meeting so Hermana Reyes and I were running around doing things in her area (Las Colinas) and in mine (Washington Square). We had language study too and I learned more about how to pray in Spanish. We saw Lorena, the one who fed us tomales last time I was in Las Colinas, and shared a message with her (I listened). Hermana Reyes had me pray in French and Lorena was so impressed! She told Hermana Reyes that I needed to teach her French and she (Hermana Reyes) needed to teach me Spanish. It was funny and made me smile. We then went to lunch before meeting with Jessalyna (another woman in Los Colinas). She had just had a baby and we got to see her baby too. We then went to the Institute and taught Michelle. We taught Michelle about baptism and confirmation. She is praying about being baptized! I hope she gets her answer soon. She will also be going to Israel this month and we told her to really think about it as she walks where Jesus walked. I also had Michelle help me translate my testimony into French. Thank heavens she loves all the nitty gritty grammar stuff! We then had MCM before Hermana Gilvarry and Sister Chu Shing came back. Sister Chu Shing and I started our weekly planning before having dinner with Johnny and some of his friends in the Branch. It was fun. 

On Saturday, we had morning sports. We played kickball. I am so bad! XD We also finished our weekly planning and went out to frozen yogurt with Christina. Unfortunately, Daniel (our baptismal date) cancelled on us, so we couldn't see him. We hope to see him this week on Wednesday. Anyways, we got caught in a downpour on our way to Froyo and were soaking wet by the time we got there! After that, we had a phone call from Jessica (a recent convert who we have started meeting with just to get to know. She is the elders' recent convert, technically). Apparently she thought that we were meeting! So, we rushed back to the Institute to meet her. Man, what a lesson. She wanted to know why women don't have the priesthood and what the role of women is in the Church. Thank heavens her boyfriend was there. He was so helpful in answering questions and giving his opinion! We later called the elders about it. Apparently, she had asked them the same thing and they had tried to answer before telling her to talk to us! Thaaaaaaaaanks elders... Anywho, after that, we had dinner with Viliami. He is a new member of the Branch. He is Tongan and from Hawaii. He is awesome. He has offered to feed us whenever we want and has signed up for every weekend on our calendar! He is a returned missionary and he knows how hard it can be to get dinner!

Sunday was the day of me coming out of my comfort zone. In Fast and Testimony meeting, I got up and bore my testimony in French. My plan was to do it when Michelle was there, but she was in Sacramento. So, I will try again next time. Afterwards, I had a lot of people tell me that they really enjoyed my testimony! It isn't very often that I get to use my French and I was glad to use it (even if no one understood me). In Sunday School, I was teaching. Sachin asked us to teach and Sister Chu Shing let me take the lead. It was so scary, but I did it! I survived! I taught Sunday School! After Church, Sister Chu Shing had another meeting and I was with Hermana Reyes again. We taught Linda (she is doing so so so so well!!!!) and then went to Break the Fast. Yay! We then did some visits in Milpitas. We ran into some weird people. O.o We then went to see Colin and we went over Chapter 7 in Preach my Gospel. That chapter is so awesome and so under-rated (it is the chapter on learning your mission language). It was fun.

Today has been good. We got all of our errands done and now it is about time for the Zone Activity. We also plan on going to Cream with our roomies for ice cream sandwiches! :D It has been a great day and it will be a great week!