Transfer meeting was Tuesday and it was so sad to say good bye to Hermana Watts. We love her and she is such a good missionary. But she is going to do great things at home. Hermana Jensen's new companion is Hermana McGlothlin. They are both blondies in the most densely hispanic part of town. They stand out so much! They have people calling them "Los Angeles." It is pretty great. :)
Also, on Tuesday we found LICE in my hair!! It was awful. My head was itching so bad and burning from all the bites. I think I got it teaching these cute little children on exchanges with Hermana Jensen. Luckily no one else got it. We called the mission nurse who told us to get delicing shampoo and wash all our sheets, towels, and pretty much everything. The only problem is we found it around 10 pm. So she told us to do it first thing Wednesday morning. However, we had to go to Mission Leadership Counsel all day Wednesday. So, she told us that I had to put my hair up in a bun and not hug any of the hermanas. Needless to say it was a pretty long MLC. That night it took 3 hours to delice. Long hair isn't fun when you have lice! Thursday morning Sister Lisonbee (the mission nurse) came to check my head and it looks like I'm now lice free! Yay! But goodness gracious, I hope I never have to deal with lice ever again. {We hope Hermana Watts didn't take lice home with her. They are head to head in the picture above!}
The Hermanas...
Thursday we prepared a lot for Zone Training Meeting. It was a pretty rough day for me. I was feeling so inadequate and had a lot of fear teaching and training everyone in spanish! I just felt a lot of responsibility and felt like I couldn't do as good of a job as someone else. But I have a wonderful companion who helped me prepare for ZTM. Elder Linford came to give both of us blessings. I am so grateful for the priesthood and for the knowledge we have that God is our loving Heavenly Father who truly cares about us and wants the best for us. He blessed me that as I taught at the ZTM, I would be filled with the spirit in order to teach the Zone. And of course, just like he promised, ZTM on Friday went really well! I could feel the spirit working through me. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father's help this weekend. :)
Friday night we got to teach the Soto's daughter Gaby. (Gabita) She has decided to start listening to our message! We are so excited to be teaching her and we hope that she will feel of the truthfulness of the things we teach!
Saturday was the baptism of Peter and Rebecca. It was the cutest thing ever!! That morning, Hermano Chavez called us saying "guess where we are driving home from hermanas?? The temple!" It made us so happy!! We are so blessed to be working with this family. We are so proud of them for embracing the gospel fully again and renewing their covenants in the temple. Hermano Chavez was emotional at the baptism. It was sweet. The spirit was so strong there. After their baptisms, the kids were confirmed by Hermano Jolley, the High priest leader in the rama. Now listen to this amazing story: He home taught the family every month throughout all of their years of inactivity. He could have given up on them, but he didn't. When Hermana Francis and I came knocking on their door a few months ago, they were ready to accept the invitation to return to church. We didn't do the hard work! But I am so grateful for a wonderful home teacher who did. So I have learned to always always always do my visiting teaching. Do your home teaching or visiting teaching too! It really does make a difference. Hermano Chavez said that even though they weren't ready to go back to church, they always felt the ward's love for them. I am so happy that Hermano Jolley took care of them for all those years! :) In their confirmations, Hno Jolley told them both that they would remember the things that the hermanas have taught them so that they could prepare to go on missions and teach others. It was so cute! I am excited to see them do just that. ;) Then I can show them all the pictures of them with their little handmaid name tags when we talked about missionary work! I love them so much. After the baptism and confirmation, we asked the kids how they felt. Peter said, "I feel SO good!" We gave them pictures of Jesus with children to put in their rooms. they were so excited!
I have such a strong testimony of missionary work! I used to think about missionary work as finding non members to teach. But I have realized that more than anything missionary work starts in the home with parents teaching their children. And, with members of our ward families. I have such a strong testimony of reactivation. It makes me so happy to work with less actives and help them come back to the love of the gospel. Now all these children get to spend time at church learning about our loving Heavenly Father and His plan for us. One of the songs the kids sang was the one that goes "I will follow God's plan for me. Holding fast to his words and his love. I will work, and I will pray, I will always walk in his way. So I will be happy on earth, and in my home above." I know that is true. When we follow his plan, we will be happy. Part of His plan is missionary work. And I promise happiness in that, too :)
I love you all so much! xoxo
Love,
Hermana Buxton