I ate a Cricket!

Hello everyone, 

Another week has flown by in San Jose! I'll give you a quick thing about last P-day (I wrote you an actual letter about it) and then I will dive into the rest of the week. *pulls out Missionary Planner*

We had a super busy P-day last week. I had to go to the podiatrist (which went well), bought groceries, did laundry (yay!), ran errands, wrote home, and spent most of our time in the mission office. We had to fill out an accident report for what happened in the accident and it took longer because there was another pair of sisters who got in a car accident who needed to do their paperwork too. I will be so glad when this whole accident is behind us. Someone came to look at the damage to the car today (it is very minimal, scratches on our bumper) and will be working with the mission office. Hopefully, this is almost over! We also taught Jose about The Restoration. He has some concerns, as he was raised Catholic and doesn't believe in prophets. We then had dinner with a member/recent convert named Carmina. We then went and taught a member named Ceydi. Ceydi and I are a lot alike and we are already good friends. I think that we are both good for eachother.

On Tuesday, we did service at a farm called Veggilution. We do our service in the mornings and then we go and teach and contact in the afternoon and evening (well, we don't contact in the evenings unless there is someone else with us). We then had lunch at the Institute Building and showed The Restoration video to an investigator named Michelle. She's not looking to convert, but she is interested in learning about the Church. Maybe we can change her mind? :) She is also studying Farsi! How cool is that?! Sister Bliss then had a meeting (she is a Sister Training Leader) and I contacted with Sister Hill's (the other Sister Training Leader) companion: Sister Lytle! We went contacting on campus and I was able to teach a lesson on the street! :D We then had two more lessons, one with a member and the other with a recent convert.

We then went to dinner with a recent convert, Ali and her boyfriend, Guy (he is a member). We went to this Mexican place and I ate a cricket! You read that right. They had an appetizer where you could eat crickets. The elders and Guy ordered it, and I was brave enough to try one. I have a video of Elder Ball, our District Leader, eating one. They don't really taste like anything. They're really crunchy though...

On Wednesday, we had District Meeting. We reported our numbers for last week and introduced eachother. My district was super excited when they found out that I speak French and I was asked to say the Closing prayer in French! After the meeting, we went to this ice cream place called Cream. You pick two cookies and a type of ice cream and they make it into an ice cream sandwich for you. It is super yummy. I also got to go to a Greek place and get gyros! We then did some training and such before coming back to the Institute for dinner. They have a big dinner at the Institute on Wednesdaynights and we get to go.

We also had an amazing lesson with an investigator named Kyle. According to Sister Bliss, they had been teaching him for a long time and he wouldn't commit to anything. This week, we had a talk and decided to drop him if this lesson didn't go well. Last Sunday, the day after the Elder Bednar devotional, he texted us and said that he had an amazing experience there. So, when we taught him on Wednesday, we tried to focus on that. He said that that was the first time he had really felt the Spirit. We invited him to be baptized, and he agreed, but he was hesitant about the date. Sister Bliss asked him why and he finally opened up. He started to cry and told us what was going on. We are now praying for him that he can resolve this. This was probably the high point of our week!

On Thursday, I went on my first exchange! As an STL (Sister Traning Leader), Sister Bliss has to go on exchanges with sisters about once a week and help them. Sister Bliss and Sister Hill thought long and hard about what to do, since they are both training, and decided to put Sister Lytle and I together anyways! So, I was in Alum Rock (Sister Lytle's area) and we did what they had planned for the day while Sister Bliss was with another Sister in our area. Sister Lytle and I went to lunch and then did some contacting. 

The weather was bad (it has been raining the last couple of days) so we didn't get much contacting done, but we met the Zone daily goal. I even contacted a woman in Spanish! I walked up to her and started talking when she said "No ingles". I told her who we were and invited her to come to Church in my rusty Spanish. I had a hard time understanding her (I accidentally mixed up my pronouns) but I understood her in the end. It was so cool! 

After contacting, we had an appointment with a man named Raymond. He lives in a home for people with mental illness because he has schizophrenia. He was really nice and we had a good conversation with him. I would love to teach him again. That is, if he doesn't run away again. We then went back to Sister Lytle's apartment for dinner (no appointment) and then left for another lesson. We got lost on our way to the lesson and had problems at the gas station because we didn't know how to use the gas card. Thanks to a very helpful gas station attendant, we were able to fill up and go to our appointment. Sister Lytle was able to talk to him about the Church too. Maybe that is why we had so much trouble! After that, we had a member-present lesson with two Chinese guys. They were so fun to teach. I also saw Alisa's grandpa! I thought it was him and I stopped him to ask if he was Alisa Flaherty's grandpa. He said that he was and I told him to tell everyone "hi". It was so nice to see him, but sad that it had to be while I was on exchanges!

On Friday, I was returned to Sister Bliss (I spent the night with Sister Lytle). Fridays are a fairly slow day for us. We had a lesson with Manny (a less-active) and received a call from the mission office while we were eating lunch. Apparently, President Mella wanted to talk to us. We did some contacting and then left for the mission office. President Mella knew that I was struggling. He wanted to talk to me and then to me and Sister Bliss to help me figure out ways to cope. He really cares and he just wants to help me. 

We were then supposed to have dinner with a member and her fiance, but she has been so stressed with wedding stuff (the wedding is this weekend) that she just asked us what we wanted and brought it to us. It was nice of her. We then helped the YSA set up for their activity that night. They were having a movie night and turned the place into a movie theatre! Sister Bliss and I worked in the concession stand and then went home. It was fun. 

On Saturday, we did service before going to lunch with a member named Alan. He's a really nice guy. We then had training and did contacting. We then did our weekly planning because we didn't have time to on Friday. We then had dinner and visited a recent convert/less active named Chris. He's a really nice guy. We wish he would come to Church though. As forSunday, we had Branch Council, Church, contacting, dinner, and training. When we were out contacting we were able to teach two lessons on the street too! We were going to meet with a referral from the sisters who live with us, but he never showed. His name is Mohammed. He gave the sisters who live with us four copies of the Koran, so we got one too! It is in the original language, so I can't read it, but it is so beautiful. The cool thing about Mohammed, is that he is willing to change religions if he believes that this is what God wants him to do! Wow!