Such a great past week. Another happy week indeed.
This past week went by so quick, and yet so slow. 
We had this super crazy wind storm Tuesday night. It was
ridiculous. Wouldn't have been surprised if we got hit by a tornado!
It was so insane. All of our appointments cancelled on us as
the evening went on, and so we were just going to go out and try people until
we received a text from the ZLs indicating us to not leave our houses because
this storm was going to get worse. It was roaring outside, and it was insane to
hear all this shaking and watching our screens shake. It was insane. I shot out
a text to the sisters in our zone to see if they were okay, and I found out
that one set completely lost their power, and so we had them drive to our place
and spend the night. We did a ton of updating, watched fun little "mormon
messages", made dinner, and I made us all frozen hot chocolate. We really
did have a great night roughing this storm out. It was honestly a blast. I felt
like I was in High School and having sleepovers all over again. There were
moments where our lights dimmed on and off, so we thought we'd be powerless
too, but luckily we weren't. However, we got to finally try out our couches
that night (:
We decided to do an exchange with the YSA sisters since they
spent the time with us, and it'd be the best time for me to do it with them due
to all the crazy meetings I've had and all the departing things I need to be
taking care of within these next few weeks.
I was with Sister Paget the following day in her area, and
the first thing we did after studies was look for opportunities to serve
people. It was insane because we drove out of our neighborhood, and saw HUGE
Evergreen trees out in the middle of the streets, on cars, and all over yards.
There were fences torn down, shingles ripped out of houses, and a trillion
trampolines and basketball hoops just scattered in the middle of streets.
We went around and asked people if we could help them clean their yards, and
what not. Everyone totally shut us down, so we went around for a bit, and just
fixed basketball hoops that were knocked down. We felt like winners.
There were so many homes that were without power, and who
still are!
We were so lucky that our place was one of those rare
exceptions. So many missionaries had no power, and it was so sad! Everyone
helped them though.
Because of all that, no one has been home, or has had time
to listen to us or anything, which totally sucked because we have tried so many
people all week, but oh well!
I'm still grateful for the cold experience!
So Thanksgiving is this week!
I feel that we just had Thanksgiving last month or so. It's
insane.
We'll be with quite a few members, so we'll be well taken
care of. We're excited!
Okay, so I'm so extremely excited for this weekend!
James Branca is getting baptized on Saturday! (:
Happiest thing, ever!
Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it to his baptism,
and it was so heartbreaking to have to tell him when he called me to personally
invite me.
He expressed so much gratitude towards me and thanked me for
contacting him when his friend referred him to us. It was insane, because he's
getting baptized! Bishop Neilson from the Cheney YSA ward will be baptizing
him, and he is just so content. He had just had his baptismal interview that
day, and he expressed how ecstatic he was. He told me his future goals, and how
he wants to be married in the temple, and how he wished he could serve a
mission, but just missed the age deadline. He told me to make sure I put his
baptism on my "scoreboard", and I laughed so hard! I just love James!
He became such a brother to me. I truly feel that I came to this mission to
help him and find him. I just feel that I knew him before this life, and had to
come to teach him and help him find the beauty of the gospel. He told me the
happiness he's been feeling from fully living the gospel, and how he's gonna go
and do baptisms at the temple after he's baptized. He actually is looking to
move to Utah. Some of the best experiences and lessons I've taught on my
mission were when we taught him. I truly felt that I was at my highest
"game" as so to speak when I was teaching him. He is just converted.
I had received an impression when we were teaching him, and having these
awesome miraculous experiences that he was going to be baptized one day, and be
a great leader in this church. I am just so excited for him. The talk I was
able to have with him was just a very sacred moment I was able to have on my
mission, and absolutely a cherry on top. The Lord just had to work a little
more on him to help him be deeply rooted in to the gospel.
Remember how I mentioned that President gave me a blessing
last transfer after a hard week?
He mentioned that I would be able to see a fruit of my labor
and experience someone I taught enter the waters of baptism before I went home.
I honestly expected this to happen here in the valley, but it's happening in
Cheney (: This helped my testimony on Priesthood blessings grow. It was
incredible.
Aside from that incredible experience and one of the
happiest moments of my mission, I've been on this super weird obsession with
singing and over playing the song Christmas Bells. Weird, because I usually
refuse to listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving.
This Sunday, the church is launching a new Christmas
Initiative called A Savior is Born. It's such a good one to share with friends
and family regardless of religious standpoints! The site is christmas.mormon.org (:
I love and am so grateful for you all, and I wish you all a
Feliz Accion de Gracias!
Nos vemos muy pronto!
Hermana Robles
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