new transfer! also a new week (in case no one noticed)

This week was transfer week! And that meant, because Sister Pass was transferred, we went down to the valley! It was really really really really really really hot. I mean, it wasn't the amazing 120 degrees that they'd been having, but MAN!! I was so glad that I was wearing a white shirt! It didn't help my face, though. That stayed beet-red almost the entire time :)

Anyway, we had something really cool happen this week.

We got FOUR (yes the number 4) new investigators!!!!! I was seriously blown away! All of the work that we've been doing with the members is really paying off! Up here, in the wilds of New Mexico, we can't really go tracting (houses are 10-20 minutes apart in some places up here) or street-contacting (the same 5 people sit in front of the general store every day) so the member finding is NECESSARY. I think I may have bolded that word in another letter. Goes to show just how important it is :) Anyway it's been fantastic! We were also able to meet with Cynthia this week. She's the investigator that took the lessons in the 70s. That lesson was incredible! She read every single section in the Book of Mormon that we asked her to! Not only that, but we'd asked her to read Moroni chapter 10 and she looked at the book of Moroni and said, "hmmm well, may as well read all of the chapters if there are only 10" and she read the whole book of Moroni on her own! In fact, before we left, she asked us if we could give her some more passages to read and said that she really liked reading the Book of Mormon because it's so easy for her to understand.

Yep, I was pretty dumbfounded. She said that she needed to pray about being baptized again, but she is one of the "seekers of truth" that they talk about in the scriptures. She'll get baptized, it's just a matter of "when".
A miracle that I realized today: My companions asked me to explain the war chapters in Alma for them (the mechanics, why the war started, who was so-and-so, etc) and I kind of stunned myself with how much I was able to explain to them. I never thought that I would understand the scriptures all that well. Even at the beginning of my mission, I struggled with it and I remember praying desperately for understanding so that I could teach my investigators effectively. It's funny that I didn't realize that my prayer had been answered until today when my companions pointed it out to me. And, looking back, I also realized that my prayer had been answered months and months ago. I have been blessed to completely understand the things I read and if I don't understand it, I've been blessed to know which resources that I can look at to gain that understanding. I just want to testify to you all that I KNOW that Heavenly Father answers our prayers. I know that he blesses us when we are obedient to his commandments and the laws that he's given us. I also know that, as mortals, we forget. We forget the blessings that we've been given. We forget to look for those blessings. Sometimes, like in my case, we even forget what we've asked for and therefore don't recognize the blessings. This is my 2nd time reading the Book of Mormon on my mission and I've made a special effort to highlight the word "remember" whenever I come across it. Because when we remember, we don't fall into the pride cycle. It's been pretty cool to see how many times we are told to "remember" in the scriptures.

Also something that my companions and I were talking about in our Companion study yesterday. We were talking about the difference between "hoping" and "wishing". In a letter or a talk or something, someone explained hope as being an expectation based on faith. And we decided that "wishing" wasn't an active thought. When you hope for something, you work for it and have the faith that God will make up the difference. Wishing is simply wanting it to happen without work. So we decided that "wishing" is discontent in the moment and that "hope" is the expectation that something better will come. Yep, I've learned a lot this week.

I love you all so much and I'll definitely be thinking of you all going back to school and work and all the fun Fall stuff that we'd do as a family. I thought about it yesterday and I only have one school year left until I see you all again. It kind of freaked me out because time doesn't seem to be going THAT fast. And who knows? Maybe I'll extend ;)

Have a great week!

Love,
Steph

pics for the week: the scorpion that we found in our house and us with a black powder gun (unloaded and we did NOT shoot it! We're obedient missionaries :)