August 8th

This week went by soooo fast! I swear, every week is going by faster and faster! Holy cow! This week was really good. We worked VERY hard. We are really trying to baptise a family this month. That is our goal. We have a few positive families that we are teaching but they all have something major standing in the way. That is not to say that they{re not going to get baptised, its just gonna take a little more work and time thats all.

We are teaching 2 families right now and in both of the cases, the "husband" is an inactive member and the "wife" is not a member. I put "husband and wife" in parentheses because they are actually not married. Very few people get married here unfortunately. They just live together their whole lives. They both have been living together for more than 10 years and never plan to separate. So we are trying to get them married ASAP so the wives can get baptised. Both of them want to get baptised and married but they say it's "reeeally fast!!!". We tell them that it is DEFINITELY not fast. They have been living with eachother for 10 years now for heavens sake! But we{re working hard for those baptisms for the end of this month.

Sandy is getting baptised this Saturday so we are very excited for that. And her friend Evelyn WAS going to get baptised with her but we had a few hangups so it will need to be postponed.

All of our leaders have been pushing and pushing us to work with the members. Get references for them, teach with them, contact with them, everything! So we have been trying to be good little missionaries and follow their advice. So we{ve been working a lot with them and they{ve been teaching lessons with us a lot. Well now, I am beginning to think that that wasnt the best idea. Here are some experiences we{ve had with that.

- We were teaching a reference from a member and in the middle of the lesson, they bring each of us some hot freshly made coffee. Me and my companion respectfully decline and explain that as members of the church, we cannot drink coffee. RIGHT after we were done explaining, the member that we brought with us shouts "I CAN DRINK IT!" and grabs the cup out of the investigators hand. Thank you member. Very helpful.

- We were in a lesson teaching about the Joseph Smith story. After the lesson we invited the investigators to pray and ask God if the story was true and we promised them that they would get an answer that it was true. After that, we asked the member to share with the investigators how they recieved their answer that the church was true. She went into an elaborate story of how she was praying alone in her room and she asked God if the story of Joseph Smith was true when Joseph Smith walked through her bedroom door and smiled at her. She knew from then on that Joseph Smith restored the gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh dear. It was fun trying to fix that one.

- We were in a similar situation this time and we asked a Recent Convert to share with the investigators how they recieved their answer that the church was true. He also went into an elaborate story about how he was praying and shared that he had the same dream every night for 1 week where he saw a white circle in his dreams. And that was his answer! What does a white circle have to do with the church being true you ask? I have no idea.

Oh how I love the members here though. I really do, with all my heart and soul! hehe

Here are a few funny things that happened this week.

- We have a really creepy, 50 ish year old neighbor and he grabbed my hand and told me that he would love nothing more than to have a person like me as his companion. He said that he has plans to return home with me and ask me hand in marraige. Creepy.

- We were teaching a less active member and she was really wanted to prove to us that she could read. First, you have to understand that only about 50% of the people here can read. And you can pretty much count that if they are older than 45 years, they cant read. So she wanted to PROVE it to us. She made us pick a random scripture, "ANY ONE! PICK ANY ONE and Ill read it to you to show you how well I can read!" haha! Did I mention that she is like 60 years old. So cute.

- A drunk man walked up to me in the street and started yelling at me and pointing his finger at me. He was very drunk and I could only understand about 50% of what he was saying but I did catch that he tried to go to the United States and they wouldnt let him and its "ALL YOUR FAULT!!!!!!!!" hehe Oops. I should have thought a little harder before I made that law.

Well family, that{s all Ive got for you today. I hope I didnt bore you to tears. The church is definitely true!! It is amazing how many times a day the Holy Ghost testifies of that to me. Every time I hear the story of Joseph Smith or testify of the Book of Mormon, I just feel the most wonderful feeling ever and I know its true! I love you all! Have a FANTASTIC WEEK!

- Hermana Kami Alyse Alston