Man, when will I ever have time to share
adequately with you about my mission? Oh right, never. I can't describe
it in words! Also, I never have enough time. Like right now, no time.
This
week has been fun! Hermana Emerson and I went on excanges with the
STL's from Moreno Valley. Hermana Spencer and I stayed here in Hemet in
our area. She has served here before so it was fun for her to come back
and see a lot of her old converts and know a little bit already of some
of the people we were teaching! On our way to Moreno Valley to exchange
back, there was a huge fire burning down one of the mountains out there.
It was filling the whole sky with a bring orange and black smoke. It
was truly terrifying and beautifully majestic at the same time!
On
the 4th we had a real fun, real relaxing day! We started it out with a
big breakfast with all 3 of the wards who share a building with us.
There were pancakes and all that American stuff, and then we went to a
blitz in our area. Do you know what a blitz is? It's this: all the
missionaries in our zone meet up in one companionships area and then we
all get assigned to go walk in different areas or streets and then we
just go attack as hard as possible. We walk all the streets in our area
and we talk to every person we see for about 2 hours, inviting them to
listen more about our message and then we get return appointments,
addresses, names, and phone numbers for whoever's area it is. Usually
during a blitz we get about 10-15 English referrals and 5-8 Spanish
referencias. Since the Spanish ward covers a whole stake, when we blitz
an area we are technically blitzing one whole English ward's boundaries
and part of the Spanish. This week we blitz an area for the Sister's who
are serving in Valle Vista ward and we were the missionaries who cover
their boundaries (I hope this all makes sense), so we got quite a few
people to go visit as well! We usually do one blitz a week! So
effective! After the blitz we had a normal day of work until 6:00
(we had one of the best church lessons I've ever had with our new
investigators, Adan y Sonia, and now they're on date to be baptized!),
then all the missionaries in our zone went and had a game night and
activity at the Stake Center. Our Mission President approved 3 movies
that we could choose from to watch (Ephraim's Rescue, 17 Miracles, or
Meet the Mormons), but we were having too much fun playing basketball
and volleyball so we never got to the movie. By 9:30
we were safely tucked away at home and getting ready for bed. I only
saw one firework the whole night, but that's okay! There's always next
year :)
Right now we have a baptism planned for Sunday
(we had 2 planned but one of the brother's decided he didn't like
church and so he doesn't want to be baptized anymore). Rogelio, however
is so strong. Unfortunately, we got a call this morning saying that his
mom (Sulma) and his family are getting kicked out of their apartment...
They don't really have a place to go, and so we are trying to help them
in any way possible and praying that they will still be around for the
weekend when he will be baptized. I know that having the Spirit in their
home will be a huge blessing and that Rogelio will be that example to
his mother and siblings. Although he is only 9 he is very prepared and
is a great leader! We have contacted many members in our ward to ask for
help or ideas but so far we've had no success. Please keep Rogelio and
his family in your prayers!
Well, that's it
for today. I love you all! Please keep sharing the gospel. Never give
up or get discouraged, Heavenly Father has children out there that we
can all touch in one way or another.
Con Amor,
Hermana Rutherford
PS. Transfers are coming up, so please send any mail for the next week to:
5900 Grand Ave
Riverside, CA
92504