I LOVE MY PEOPLE!

So, before I forget, two things. First, did you know that people being from the tribe of Ephriam is an American thing? From Hna Organista's country, almost everyone is from Manassah! I thought everyone was from Ephriam. But it's a white people thing. Weird.

Two, the Relief Society President says I'm getting an accent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAHA! Super excited about that. I was speaking English and then apparently I just sounded hispanic! Just like two words. But enough that she commented on it. So that's pretty legit.

Ok. Random stuff is over. Maybe. Transfers you ask? Well, nothing happened to me and Sister Organista! So weird. We thought for sure she was leaving, and if not her, for sure me..... they don't really like to leave new missionaries with their trainers because they want us to fly free and become our own missionary. But we are baptizing the heck outta this place so their just not fixing what isn't broken. Sweet. But our Zone Leader is becoming the new Assistant to the President, and then we are getting a new one, and then our District Leader is becoming a Zone Leader for a different Zone, and his companion is becoming our District Leader, and then his new companion is fresh off the plane this coming Wednesday... so pretty much every thing else changed. I'm really going to miss those other elders, they're like family and they've helped me grow a TON, but I'm excited for them to move on to bigger and better things. And Elder Cook is our new District Leader, he's never been one before and he's going to be great! Really excited for him. And I'm super excited to not move, because I LOVE MY PEOPLE.  My ward, my investigators... can't leave. Plus we're BAPTIZING in February, and I'm not missing those!

From President Gelwix:

Although we do not validate a missionary or a mission by the number of baptisms (you can’t compare Norway to Brazil), I am pleased to note that we finished 2013 as the top baptizing mission in California. (There are 19 missions in CA.) Please remember there are no “bragging rights” in the Kingdom of God. This does not make us any better than anyone else. I do want to say, however, “good job!” I am proud of you and your selfless and dedicated effort. Remember: “Attitude and effort are everything!” Never Surrender! Never Quit! No Regrets!

So that's pretty darn amazing. And my stories from this week:

So we turned our attention to J last week. We started officially teaching just him last Sunday. Sunday night I kinda really pushed him to set a baptismal date. He finally agreed. I asked him about 20 times. He knew he was going to be baptized and he should have had a date a long time ago, so I just kept at it. We are persistent. Anyways, finally he agreed to the end of February. We were pretty excited. And we taught him how to pray and that was about the extent of our lesson. So Wednesday we had a great lesson about the first half of the Restoration. Ok. Thursday night. So good. Two more members came with us. So great. We finished the lesson of the Restoration. I looked at J and asked him, "Do you believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet?" and he just looked at me seriously and nodded his head. WHAT?! We've had so little feedback from this man, it was amazing! So I just smiled and Sister Organista asked why. He just said that no one could have written a book like the Book of Mormon if they weren't a prophet basically. And so then I asked him to pray that night to know that the Book of Mormon was true. He just looked at me again and said "I already did." WHAT?!?!?! So after I closed me mouth which had dropped open in surprise, I asked him what happened. He said that he prayed one night and then the next morning, without touching his tablet, the Book of Mormon flashed on the screen. He hadn't had the LDS Library App open the night before or anything. So I asked him if he felt that was his answer and he said yes. So then I asked "J, will you be baptized in two weeks?" AND HE SAID YES. And then I reminded him as part of that he needed to quit drinking coffee that second, which he had been fighting for... the whole time we'd been teaching his family. He said he'd do it. So that has been our miracle. And he has been way happier. I can already see it. He loves it when we're over, you can just see a new light in his eyes. He used to be very closed off, very nice and polite, but closed. And now he just seems so much more relaxed and happy... President, it's a beautiful thing.

Yeah so pretty much I'm over the moon about that. Also:

So we are baptizing in February. We've just got J as a solid, but we have four dates. I'd say two of them are fairly likely, depending on fellowship and how many times one of them is actually home to teach. One of them is a woman named Maria... haha that's a funny story. I've started subnumbering the Marias we teach. Maria subscript one, Maria subscipt two, Maria Garcia subscript one, Maria and Pedro, Maria and Jose.... it never ends. Literally every woman's name is Maria.

We are working hard. We have been very blessed. We hurt every day from the accident and it has been so hard to just keep working and keep knocking and keep teaching, but we do it. We haven't lost almost any proselyting time. And Heavenly Father knows it and he is blessing us for it. It's the best feelings. I can confidently say that I have no regrets about the last transfer. And we are working hard to have no regrets this coming transfer. I have also never felt so close to my Heavenly Father. I feel like I am learning a lot more about our relationship and what He thinks about me since I've been on my mission. I'm realizing how much He trusts me to do the right thing, and I know that He knows that He can count on me to do my best and to work hard until it's done. Nothing really can feel better than that.

We think Sister Organista tore her rotator cuff.... she might have to get surgery. We're getting an MRI for her on Thursday, right after I go to Physical Therapy. So we're just a hot mess, almost two months after the accident. But I really feel like I'm progressing. SHOOT... forgot my camera chord. Well I have more pictures from them doing the cup treatment on my back again. This time it was four cups and it heckahurt. It was way worse this time. It hurt to wear a shirt for like two days. You would love Sis O at therapy though... so here I am laying face down on my table while the doctor is checking out my extremely inflamed back. There's a face hole so I can breathe. I see Sis O's shoes next to me all the sudden, and then out of no where a little brown hand just comes up and tries to grab my face! WHAT THE HECK? Haha so that was funny. Then the doctor tells me he's going to cup me again... and I was mega not happy. But I laid there and I hear her say "Can I have the honor of placing one of those cups?" WHAT?! TRAITOR!!! Haha so she totally did two of my suction cups. Which is pretty cool. I would have done it to her. Just not with so much relish in my voice. Haha. We're like sisters, it's great. Big sister I never had. We have a lot of fun. She calls me Chicken Little, I don't know if I told you that. Cuz I'm scared of everything. And then I do a lot of stupid Kelsie things and she teases me for days... like you shoulda seen my parking job last week..... hahahahahahaha..... oh boy. she's actually taken pictures of the car after I've parked because it was so bad. HAHA.

Well I think that's about it for now. I love you all!

<3 HZ