I have felt so much more joy as a missionary

Hey Momma!!!!

So I'm a bit late, today we went and played volley ball this morning, it was super fun! Super hot, but super fun. We got a couple good vollies in. Big fun.

Ohh hey, cool story! Just met an Elder Hancock today, was chatting with him a bit, and he asked me where I was from.... long story short, he's Jim Hancock's nephew from Virginia, Minnesota!!!! So cool. So we've been chatting it up today, he's super cool, just finishing his mission in August. So that's fun, tell Bro. Hancock hello for me and tell him I met his nephew Austin Hancock. So that's pretty cool. We talked about our majors and stuff and I've pretty much converted him to BYU and bioinformatics. So that's fun.

Other cool stuff:

This week as far as miracles. We are really trying to keep our teaching pool moving. Those who are progressing we're trying to keep moving along. We are trying really hard to get all of our finding time in, and then through our invitations see who really wants to progress and who doesn't, clear our pool of those who don't want to, and continually find. Before in my mission my teaching pools would get kind of static, and that's where you fall into the problem of being more friends with people and not missionaries, and then when they stop progressing you love them to much to leave them. So this is really helping me keep my focused streamlined and essentialized. I've learned so much from Elder Garcia since I came here to Ceres, he really has been the district leader to teach me the most about how to do work in my area more effectively by helping talk through our obstacles and challenging me to make game plans and then continually holding me accountable to them. He always motivates and has faith in us as a companionship. I'm really so grateful for his leadership and example.

We should be baptizing  Myra Diaz this Sunday. She is so awesome. She reads the Book of Mormon all the time, and even though she doesn't really understand almost anything she reads, she says that she feels like a different person when she reads. She prays faithfully every night and she is keeping the Word of Wisdom. The only thing that could keep her from being baptized this Sunday is if we have enough time to finish the lessons! They're really busy and so are we with exchanges and zone conference and stuff, but we're going to do everything we can to get her baptized and prepared for this Sunday! Her mom as well hopefully will be baptized, she's keeping the Word of Wisdom as well but we're not 100% sure she's married to the man she's living with. So that's that. Super excited.

Our teaching pool suddenly exploded with less active women and their non-member boyfriends! We knocked into 3 less active/non active Mormons this week. And we're starting to teach. I'm really focusing on talking with everyone this past week, and I have seen so many miracles from it! Like you said, maybe door knocking isn't the most effective, but it's good for the soul. Since I have focused on finding daily and on talking with everyone, I have felt so much more joy as a missionary, and I feel like I am a missionary! I didn't really realize before I didn't feel like I was doing missionary work so much when I wasn't just teaching but also finding. It has filled the hole and reminded me how many prepared people there are on the streets!!!

So this week was cool. I ran my first exchange this past weekend, went out to good old Chowchilla with Sister Villalobos. She's so awesome, it was just a pure joy. I really love being able to work with so many more sisters, there are like no sisters up here in the north, and it's really starting to affect me. The elders are so great and we're like family, but the only woman interaction I get is my companion, and that's just not enough. So I'm going on 5 exchanges in the next two weeks-ish with 5 different sisters, and it's just really refreshing and helps me feel more connected. I love it.

Went to Leadership training this past Wednesday... just busy. Honestly life right now is a big game of tetrus, with conferences, exchanges, and normal missionary work with investigators to help. I was never good at it... but luckily I'm getting a lot of help from everyone else.

I love you so much!