FUN FACT ABOUT MY AREA THAT I LEARNED TODAY: Michael Jackson lives here (Well, lived here, of course.:)!! Yep, his "Neverland" is right here in Los Olivos. Our church is actually next-door to the Jehovah's Witness church he attended. And...his doctor used to be our ward mission leader. (But don't worry...Brother Saunders is not the one that killed him. ;)
Well...with THAT good news out of the way, our week went about like this:
So, Euell had surgery this week. :( It was one that he thought would be just a day in the hospital, but it turned out to be a lot harder than he planned. We had to cancel our lessons, and he wasn't able to make it to church this week. BUT it's okay. Everyone in the ward LOVES him, and has been so supportive as he's gone through these surgeries. They bring him dinners, give him rides to his doctor's appointments, and he says he really feels like part of the ward family. We'll start teaching him again this week, and hopefully we'll be setting him with a baptismal date! Lenore's doing great, too. She's a little bit crazy, but we love her.:)
She says she believes that Joseph Smith is a prophet, and that the church is true. She says "She's a Mormon at heart, so she doesn't really need the official label." Ooooh, Lenore. I'll let you know how that turns out. :) We've also been teaching Tomas, a man that we met tracting a few weeks ago. He's Spanish, but speaks English very well. He LOVES everything he's been taught, but we thought he'd understand the Book of Mormon better if he could read it in Spanish, and since we aren't much help with that, we're passing him over to the Hermanas this week. We're a little sad, cause we love him...But it's okay. He'll get baptized and we'll get to see him at church.
We had a really great lesson with one of our investigators, Albert. He's met with us consistently every week since I got here, but he tends to get distracted and sidetracked in lessons. At first, it seemed like he hadn't been absorbing much of what he was being taught. This week though, we were able to teach him about the Book of Mormon, and he TOTALLY gets it all! We took the chance to read with him, and the spirit was so strong. He's committed to reading the Book of Mormon, and we'll keep meeting weekly. We also met with a woman named Christina earlier today (we accidentally planned a lesson on P-day :), and it went SO well! She knows a few families in the ward, and she thinks really highly of them, so she was so excited to be able to learn more about why they do the things they do. She set up another lesson for tomorrow morning!! She also has the cutest little kids in the world -- Jonas and Clive.
Tomorrow, I have exchanges with...SISTER COX!! I seriously couldn't be more excited. She and her companion, Sister Hegstrom, are coming down from SLO (San Luis Obispo) to spend the day in Solvang and Buellton with us. Man, I've missed her. I'll tell you all about how it goes next week! Transfers are coming up on the 12th. It seems like this transfer has gone by SO fast (it was even a week longer than usual!) I have a good feeling that I'll be staying in Solvang, but I guess you can never be quite sure.
Well, I have to go get my haircut...but I figured I owe you a quick update on the work, since I've been such a slacker these past few weeks! (I don't know why, but P-days here are CRAZY busy! Maybe it's because we have to drive to Lompoc to shop, and have sports with the Elders.) I love you all, and miss your cute faces. But I know I'll be seeing them soon, and that I have an eternity to spend with you all.
♥ Love you guys!
Sister ShayShay
