Transfer 10

Transfers have come and gone and I am staying, yet another transfer, in Sparks.  Number 10!  Pretty sure it's a mission record, staying in the same stake for that long.  It's been great, I love it.  Sis Sweany and I will be staying together again, which will be boss!  She is such a great missionary and we have a good time together.  But President always has to mix things up somehow.  Since so many missionaries are going home in the near future, a couple areas are going to be closing.  So for the past couple months we have only been covering half the ward but now the Elders that cover the other half are being taken out and we are now going to be covering the whole ward.  Just like it was the first time I was here!  That's going to be weird.  I finally stopped having to say "yes, you have seen me before, I was here a year ago" and now I'm going to have to do it again.  They see a lot of the same people I did before but they never went to church so I haven't seen them since I've been here.  So that'll be fun.  Actually I am pretty excited.  We are going to be so busy which is going to be awesome!  I love being busy.

So.  Now onto the week.  The stake has started something called Why I Believe firesides.  And basically the idea is to have a couple recent converts come and share their testimonies and how their lives have changed because of the gospel.  Then we can invite all those that we teach to come and hear them speak.  It was so powerful.  A couple of the people that talked have only been members for a couple weeks so it wasn't very refined but you could feel the spirit so strong.  I think it's a great way to help them put into words why they joined the church and then to help those that are learning or coming back or recently baptized themselves to hear the experiences of people that were in similar situations to their own.  

Then!  We got to go to the temple and do baptisms with our recent convert.  Probably the best experience I have ever had doing baptisms.  There were a couple people that were also there for the first time in the temple and so it was just amazing.  They brought family names which made it even sweeter.  The temple is the best place ever; I wish I could just live there.  We also took someone up there to walk around the temple and then a member of the presidency came out and talked with him.  They are so inspired.  We didn't give him any background or anything but he addresses his concerns perfectly.  The church is true and the spirit is awesome!  That's the only reason we see any kind of success at all on the mission, because it is true.  Otherwise what we did would never work.  That's been one of the biggest testimony builders on the mission.  

Oh, P.S.  This week I went on exchanges twice, both to biking areas.  And I am a little sunburned and a little sore.  Life of a missionary! :)

Well!  Love you all and enjoy the warm weather!

Love,
Sis Rae