Changes happen'n in the Country

Hey Y’all!!

Well first off I want to say that the Lord has plans for each of us and sometimes they are unexpected. What I mean by that is… Sister Larrosa is being transferred. I am pretty sad to see her go- we only got to be together for one transfer, but I know that the Lord needs her somewhere else. She is moving up to Senior Comp and she is gonna be a step mom now (aka she is getting a comp who is fresh off her trainer). I am pretty sure I know who I am getting as my new companion and if I am right then I will be in good shape! Ha ha I will tell y’all the details about my new comp next week after I find out for sure who it is! Lol But for now I will tell you about this week!!!

This week was SWEET! First off… Clarissa. She came to the new member lessons on Wednesday and we took her on a tour of the church afterwards. She loved it all. Then on Friday we went over and taught her. When we first got there her boyfriend wasn’t there yet- so I felt the need to teach the Law of Chastity so that she could start thinking about it and pray about what she should do. She understood the law of chastity and we committed her to Pray about her situation. She says that she and Gary (her boyfriend who she lives with and is the father of her 2 children) will get married eventually. Sister Larrosa and I truly would rather she left him- he is not a good guy, he doesn’t treat her right and we are pretty sure he is cheating on her. But we figure the more she gets into the gospel of Jesus Christ the more she will have the desire to change her life and hopefully dump the jerk. So anyway then after we taught that Gary came home from work and sat in on our Gospel Of Jesus Christ lesson which went well. Then on Sunday guess who showed up to church, Clarissa and the boys!!! Yay! Clarissa’s member friend didn’t even come, but Clarissa did- she is SO AWESOME! So we sat with her at church and helped her with the boys. She was so self conscious that her children were so rowdy during sacrament meeting, but they really weren’t that bad. I brought my little bag of tricks- toys and snacks- and kept the 4 year old busy while Clarissa tried to put the baby to sleep and listen to the testimonies at the same time. Then when it came time for Primary- Aaron (Clarissa’s 4 year old) didn’t want to go, the poor kid had never been to church or day care or anything like that before, so it all was a very new concept for him and he didn’t want to be alone. So because I love my investigators so much and want them to progress in the gospel- I went to Sunbeams! Ha ha Sister Larrosa and I went on “exchanges” and the Sunbeam teacher was my companion for 2 hours. Lol Aaron did just fine in Primary since I was there and he is used to me. Man I have to say though that I am not sure which is a tougher job- Sunbeam teacher or missionary! Ha ha after my two hours with the sunbeams I was EXHAUSTED! Sister Larrosa said that Clarissa did well in her classes and enjoyed them. So that was great! Clarissa said she is going to come to church every week and Aaron will get used to it and I won’t have to stay with him anymore. I don’t care man, as long as she comes to church!! So anyway that was all good and then Yesterday we called Clarissa just to see how she was doing- daily contact is so crucial with progressing investigators- and she said that she was cleaning and organizing all day. I offered to help, but she said no she was fine. –No one EVER lets us do service and we hate that, so I have to FORCE people to let us. So I kept telling Clarissa we wanted to and she finally said we could come over to keep her company while she cleaned. Ha ha well when we got to Clarissa’s I went into Aaron’s room with two trash bags and said ok- one is for garbage (broken toys etc) and one is for goodwill. Let’s get sorting. Sister Larrosa went into the kitchen and started washing the huge pile of dirty dishes and sweeping the floor etc. Clarissa and I worked on Aaron’s room and organized like crazy! Man that kid has TONS of toys. But man when we were done it looked SO good!! And she was SO grateful!!! She kept saying how can I ever thank you, let me make dinner for you, etc etc. Well we already had a dinner appointment that night so we said well, how about you let us teach ya a lesson real quick. She of course said sure! So we sat down and went over the scriptures we had left her to read which of course, she read cause she’s awesome! So anyway then we asked her if she had any questions or comments. She then said “well I wanted to tell y’all something. I told Gary that I am gonna live the law of Chasity and if he doesn’t like it, well then there’s the couch” ha ha man we were so excited! So she is not sleeping with her boyfriend, but she is still living with him, so we are still gonna have to work on that part but man it’s a start!! So she is just progressing way nicely and I am watching as the gospel is taking over and changing her life- it is such a treat!!!! :) So ya Clarissa rocks and I love teaching her!

Next we have… Toby!! He is the 10 year old son of our recent convert Shaun Roberts. Shaun finally moved in to a new place –our apartment complex, ha ha so sweet. And Now he has his boys for the summer (he is divorced) and so yesterday we went over and had Family Home Evening with them! It was so fun!! We taught them the restoration (with my magnet board visual aids- so helpful!) and then we taught them about the Book of Mormon by having them act out the story of Nephi getting the plates. We used props and dress up clothes and everything!! Oh man they LOVED that!! It was awesome. After we finished the lesson they asked, “can we do it again?” Ha ha those kids rock! So then we played a game with them and ate the cookies I baked the night before. The Oldest son Toby is so cool- that kid is elect!! I have never seen a kid be an elect, but he is!! He is so prepared for the gospel and he loves it! He wants to be baptized the only problem is his mom, we have to get her to be ok with the idea. But for now we are just gonna keep teaching the boys and know that God will make everything work out somehow. The other 2 boys, Mallory who just turned 7 and Billy Boy (yes that’s his name- remember we’re in Texas) who is 6 were bummed that they can’t get baptized yet but we are getting them excited for when they turn 8! :) So anyway we have an appointment to teach them again this week and they are so excited- they LOVE to “learn about church”!

So other than that we don’t have any other super sweet investigators, but two man- that is a blessing right there!! I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve down here in the boonies! Lol It is truly an awesome experience and I am learning so much! I think I am becoming a country girl- oh no!! lol So in other news, this week I was able to go to the temple. Our district carpooled up there and since there is 6 of us in our district and our Chevy Colorado has six seatbelts we all squeezed in the truck to the temple. It was pretty hilarious. Sister Larrosa in the middle front seat with her hip jabbing into mine as I drove, Elder Cozza (our district leader) in the front passenger seat squeezing himself as close to the window as possible so as to not be butt-to-butt with Larrosa. Then three big elders in the back seat!! Ha ha when we got to the temple people literally stared as we piled out of the car! Ha ha We looked hilarious! But man it was worth it for the temple. We had a great time and I saw people from my old wards. It was pretty fun being in the celestial room and having people come up to me saying hi, we miss you!! It is pretty cool to have so many great friendships with people here! So ya that was a fun trip and the other cool thing about it was we got to go to the only “church” bookstore in San Antonio. I was so excited cause I wanted to buy a new cd. We get so sick of the same stuff! I was like a kid in a candy store- so many cds all of which I was ALLOWED to listen to… and do you know what I bought… Scripture Scouts!! Ha ha If any of you are familiar with scripture scouts you will be laughing right now. When I was a kid we would listen to scripture scouts tapes as we laid in bed to go to sleep. I LOVED them! They are kids tapes that have songs and stuff about the scriptures and the characters act out parts. Oh man, I have now listened to those cds like 12 times! Ha ha Sister Larrosa woke up one morning and was like um, I think your scripture scouts songs were in my dreams last night! Ha ha I was like um, actually once you fell asleep I went and brought the cd player next to my bed and listened to Scripture scouts to help me go to sleep! Lol So funny!! So ya, scripture scouts- are awesome!

Alright well before I sign off I wanted to leave you with a thought. There is a very interesting little pattern that Sister Larrosa and I have noticed that I want to share with y’all and apply to your lives. Whenever we watch the Restoration DVD with investigators the spirit is of course so strong but the peak point of the spirit comes when Joseph Smith goes into the grove to pray. “Joseph Smith’s First Prayer” plays in the background as he walks through the field- Sis Larrosa and I get goosebumps every time at this point. Then as he kneels down to pray, without a doubt every time while we watch it Satan gets mad!!! Something happens EVERY time, the baby cries and we can’t hear it, the dog barks, the kids run in front of the tv, the phone rings, the dvd skips, SOMETHING happens EVERY time!!!! Sister Larrosa and I were talking about this the other day and came to the conclusion that Satan KNOWS how powerful that part is and he does his best to keep our investigators from feeling it. Now to me I take something very meaningful from this whole thing. As soon as things start to get rough, as soon as Satan really starts to work on you- you know that you must be doing something right!!! He is preventing you from doing whatever it is that you were doing cause he knows that is gonna bring about some good in the world and he HATES that! So the next time Satan starts messing with you, just think “Alright, I must be doing something good cause Satan is mad!” There is a quote I heard at Education Week when Mom and I went a few years ago, this is something I tell myself every night. When I get up in the morning I want Satan to say “Oh no she’s awake again!!!!” Cause he knows just how much good I am gonna do in the world- and he isn’t strong enough to stop me! :)

Well y’all I love you so much and hope you have a great week!!!
SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler