Hello family and friends,
How was everyone's Halloween? Did you all get a lot of candy? Thanks
for the emails and letters! They make my week! Oh an explanation for
the title. So everyone knows who elders are (male missionaries)
because they are pretty recognizable when 2 young men are wearing
white shirts and ties. But for sister missionaries people don't
recognize us as missionaries as quickly. So a member in our Ward calls
us Eldercitas not Hermanas. It's funny.
This week was pretty good. Our branch was dissolved (it is now
combined with another branch to make one big branch). It was kinds of
sad but good for both branches.
We were street contacting and started talking to a gentleman. We were
talking about Mormonism. He said, while drinking a beer, "oh I'm very
Mormon. My uncle is Robert Hales." It took me a second to realize that
he was talking about the apostle, Robert D Hales. Only in Utah will
you easily run into family of apostles. Oh and Quintin L Cook lives in
the stake I serve in... That's cool
I was curious to see how big our mission is compared to the Vegas
valley. I mapped out the time from the southern tip of our mission to
the northern tip takes 35 minutes. I then mapped out how long it takes
to get to desert book from my house at home, 40 minutes. So my mission
is pretty small compared to other missions.
Cool story. We were on temple square to do a lesson. This young male
adult walks up to us and askes if we were going to do a lesson. He
wanted to be a member present if we did. Unfortunately our lesson fell
through but we did get to talk to him. Turns out he served his mission
in Vegas. So I told him I was from Henderson. He asked what stake. I
said Anthem. He served in the Summit Ward but has family in the
Carnegie Ward. Turns out he is relate to the Kehoe family. Small small
world
Church was really goo this week. Since our branch got combined the
church changed to 9am. Both of our areas have church at 9 so my
companion and I had to do splits. I went downtown to the Arbor Branch
with a lady in my Ward. It was Fast and Testimony meeting, which means
members have the opportunity to bear their testimonies in front of the
congregation. I felt like I needed to bear my testimony. So I did.
Granted my Spanish was terrible and I even apologized for my Spanish.
But I could feel the spirit and people came up to me after and said my
Spanish was good. So I don't know if they are lying or not. But this
really adorable 11 year old convert bore his testimony. It was so
precious. He was crying and that made me cry. He has such a powerful
testimony. And I was able to understand it all. The gift of tongues is
real.
I hope everyone has a good week. My ponderizing scripture this week
is Alma 34:32, what's yours?

Con mucho amor
Hermana Olivas