The Craziest Week of my Mission Yet!

What a crazy week. The big news is, I´m being transferred on Wednesday. I´ve felt for a while now that my work is done here and I need to move on. I feel sad to leave the members who have taken such good care of me, to leave Hermana Figueroa (we are so close... I feel pain when she feels pain, I feel happy when she feels happy. Can we all go to El Salvador in a year and visit her and her family? Thank you.), and to leave my sweet converts and investigators. But I also feel that it is right for me to go.

On Friday morning we had a zone meeting and almost impulsively afterward, Hermana Figueroa decided that we would do a companionship exchange and I was to be here in my area with Hermana Judd (from Michigan and with only 6 weeks in the field). My first companionship exchange ever, and I was to be the Senior companion! At first we were scared and thought it was crazy to put two junior companions together, but the day ended up amazing! I was so surprized. Hermana Judd kept apologizing and feeling bad that I had to ¨deal with¨her lack of Spanish, and I had dejavu... I remember myself saying that exact thing all the time with my trainer. It was amazing to hear her simple but so very sincere testimony and to teach with her. The biggest highlight was at the end of the day when we were going to go for Baleadas in the house of the familia Cervantes but the spirit prompted ¨Abner¨ so I said ¨Let´s go to one more house¨and we went to contact a reference from the Rojas family closeby. Hermana Figueroa and I had just met the son in the family, Marlo, before. They were all sitting around watching television, but let us come in and teach them a simple lesson about faith. Abner´s wife, Leslie, is a member of an evangelist church and their neighbor was there and is Catholic, and at first seemed pretty cold to us. But by the end of the lesson, all was quiet and I really noticed a change in their reaction. They said we could come back any day of the week after Monday. It was amazing. The whole day the Spirit guided us and we were able to bring comfort through many and had a lot of good street contacts too. Anyway, it really built up my faith and confidence, and I know now that I can´t use the lack of Spanish as an excuse. I really can do better than I have been doing. I need to trust more in the Lord and He really will make miracles happen.
Hermana (Rachel) Judd lived for a while in Bountiful Court Apts. in apt. 1 and knew a lot of my friends from there, so it was nice to talk in English when we were back in the casa. =)

Another huge thing this week!
Hermano Silvano Contreras was baptized on Saturday!! I can´t even tell you how happy and blessed I felt to see him baptized and to hear his longwinded but happy testimony afterward. I almost feel like he was the reason that I was here (I´m sure there were more reasons... I grew and learned quite a bit... but as I´m sure you can tell from my emails, Silvano and Sofia mean quite a bit to me). I´ll never forget the night we met, and all that has happened in the last 3 months. It´s crazy to relate so much with a 50 year old man who has troubles with alcohol but has found peace and hope through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I already miss them.
Sofia was there and also came to church with us on Sunday for all the meetings. She´s waiting to see if there´s a real change in Silvano before she joins the church, but I´ve seen a change and I know she will be baptized someday.

This week we were in the house of Glenda and Alex (every time we teach them I feel like we are teaching at the TRC in the MTC. They are so receptive and the Spirit is very strong with them) and se fue la luz or... the lights went out. Sometimes that happens in the whole town and as missionaries we are intructed to go immediately home. We left the house with the help of my little flashlight and almost before we could be afraid came a moto taxi... the only light we could see, and took us safely and quickly home. We were able to testify how Christ is our light and the only Salvation we can gain is through Him and His atonement. I am so happy to be so protected and blessed. I´ve almost never been afraid here... well... I´ve been afraid for the lessons and to speak and things like that, but never for my safety.

This week Hermana Figueroa read in Genesis 3:16 and shut her bible and said ¨ya no voy a leer Genesis¨. Ha ha.

This week I also ate crab for the first time. It was excellent but it´s pretty hard to eat in my opinion.

I love you all so much! Thank you for all the letters... I feel bad...I try to hide them as soon as I get them in the Zone meetings because I´m getting more in a two-week period than many get in their whole mission. (a.k.a. 6 or so) But I´m not going to tell you to stop writing! =) Know that I love you all very much and am grateful for your prayers and support. How blessed I am to be here and to be learning patience, charity, and faith.

I´ll let you know about my new companion and area and everything next week! Love, Hermana Francis
Xoxoxoxoxoxoxox