Baby, It' Cold Outside

 

Well another transfer has come and gone. I have been in the field for 3 now. I am on my fourth (and probably my last) transfer here in Union City. I only have 6 more weeks left of training Sister Stone! Time flies when you're having fun! So Carlos, the Dominican we contacted last week, has quickly become our main focus because he is progressing so fast! He is definitely the most prepared person I have ever found! He asks perfect insightful questions and always takes notes in a little notebook. In a lesson this week we were talking about how faith needs time to grow and then he said "So does that mean faith is like a seed?" and I was like "funny you should ask that because that's pretty much the whole point of an entire chapter in the Book of Mormon" so he immediately grabs his little notebook and asks what page Alma 32 is on so he can write it down and remember to read it. He's awesome! He is now on baptismal date for the 28th of December. His two sons Sebastian and Argus aren't as enthusiastic about the church as he is (probably just teen angst haha) but they come to church with him at least, and we know that if their dad continues to be such a good example to them they will eventually follow him. There were a lot of little miracles this week. One we really appreciated was on Thursday. Our dinner appointment cancelled on us, and we had a lot of other people to visit so we weren't going to have time to go home and eat. We were about to go into an appointment with a less-active lady and we were really hungry so right before the appointment we prayed that she would feed us even though she usually doesn't. Then less than a minute after letting us into her home, she asks us if we've eaten yet, and when we told her that we hadn't, she gave us a huge mountain of delicious Dominican food. Prayer works! We also had a lot of little funny moments this week, We were reading in 1 Nephi with our investigator Agner from El Salvador and Sister Stone mentioned about how in 1 Nephi 17, Nephi's brothers are trying to hurt him and then he puts out his hand and shocks them with the power of God. Then Agner just laughed and said "Es como Dragon Ball Z!" and then he just giggles for about two more minutes. We thought it was pretty funny that he likes that show (I never knew much about it but always thought it seemed super dumb) and that he could relate it to the Book of Mormon haha. But whatever works! Also on Saturday we were at dinner with Hermano Jimenez, the second counselor in the bishopric, who is from Costa Rica. His teenage son was there and I asked him "so if your dad is from Costa Rica and your mom is from Argentina, where were you born?" And he said "North Bergen" (a city right next door to Union City) but Sister Stone thought he said "North Korea" and was really confused for a bit...a Costa Rican and an Argentinian having a kid in North Korea... makes sense. It's getting pretty cold here... I don't think I'll ever complain about California or Utah cold again because East Coast cold is humid so it's so much worse. Everyone keeps telling me it's only going to get worse as the winter goes on :( This will be my first White Christmas! And speaking of Christmas, we finally got to see the "He is the Gift" video that the Church put out for Christmas! So now when we give out tons of cards and tell people on the street to watch the video, we won't feel guilty for telling them it's a great video when we haven't even seen it haha.  Have a great week everyone and spread some Christmas cheer! <3 Hermana Harris