March 6, 2017

El Valle!

Dear Friends and Family,


Thanks so much for all of your love and support! It is truly felt!

I'm still fascinated by the phrase "seek this Jesus" found in Ether 12:41. I love the promises for seeking Him, most of all the promise that we will find Him. I found a couple of more scriptures worth pondering in reference to seeking the Lord, which are: 2 Chronicles 26:15 and Deuteronomy 4:29. Anyway, my stories are about to get a whole lot more exciting.

The San Fernando Valley is basically part of LA. It's pretty crowded. It's pretty dangerous. It's full of humble people and it's a great place to do missionary work! Our ward mission leader, Hermano Cabrera, is SO helpful and supportive! I can't imagine that it's very easy to be a ward mission leader in a ward with 4 companionships of missionaries, but he does so much for each of our investigators. 

Here's a crazy thing that happened! On Tuesday night we had correlation at the church, and later that night, an electrical short started a fire that burned down a couple of rooms, so now we're meeting in a different building until the repairs are done. It could take a couple of months. 

What else? Oh! On Wednesday, we got a call from a man named Lorenzo. Neither of us had any idea who he was, investigator, member, or stranger. He said he wanted us to come for a visit, so we set up a time and got his address, and to our surprise, he really was at home waiting for us with his wife and 9 year old son! His wife Corina had met with the missionaries in Mexico in '98, and when he told her that he wanted to start learning more about God, she told him to come to us because we would teach it clearly. Their son has been asking a lot of questions about God lately, and they want to go to a church with him, and this son, Saul, wants to learn to pray and everything! To give you and idea of how much Saul knows about the gospel, we asked him what faith is, and he said he thinks it's believing in yourself. We get to teach this family everything about the gospel, and they are so ready to follow Christ!

We're also teaching this man named Luis, who really wants to know if the Book of Mormon is true, and he followed us to church yesterday in his car. Well, we also had met this man who is neither a potential nor a current nor a former investigator but wanted to come to church. He asks us trivia questions about the Bible, like how many chapters it has. These two coming to church was just the funniest thing. It's amazing how when we get creative, more people come to church! 

Some people have asked me about my new companion. Her name is Hermana Hopkin! I suppose I probably could afford to take a picture with her. She is from Powell, Wyoming, and she's been the the Mercantile in Farson! She was very excited to learn that my Grandpa goes there. She's done 3 semesters at BYU, and she is a very good listener. She's curious about everything about me. She speaks with so much love, even to strangers. I have a lot to learn from her this transfer.

I had the privilege of attending the baptism of Yajairah and her dad Carlos this week. I hope their story is properly recorded here. We found them around Thanksgiving. These are true converts. Carlos bore strong testimony of how reading the Book of Mormon makes him a better person. Yajairah expressed gratitude for the missionaries. They have goals to go through the temple in a year, and I really hope that I can be there with them. 

I love you all! Have a great week! Do something for the Lord!

Love,
Hermana Sleight