Who're you calling Old! ...Ok, I'm old*

Oh King Boomy*. He's still fantastic.  *references this scene from Avatar, the Last Airbender

The subject line applies to sister Bond, and if you change the word Old to Fat, it applies to me too!!
Because it was Sis Bonds last week, we got offers for food from Everyone and their dog!! Yesterday we literally ran from appointment to appointment. We had 2 lunches and a dinner in a 5 hour period. And these are not just mere lunches or snacking, these are Hispanic heaping piles. Let's just say, ..... ouch. My poor bod.

Our wonderful friend "Debbie" who's fiance got kicked out was baptised yesterday! We're so proud of her! I'm so excited for the many blessings she'll see in her life now that she's got the gospel!! We've already had some miracles as she's got an oak tree of faith in God. (an oak tree comes right after a pine log and right before a weeping willow on the metric scale of measurement.)

We also had a slight moment of missionary failure as one of us left the phone in the car, and the other one locked the keys (whoever was in charge of driving.... I dunno who that poor sap is) in the trunk. Heh heh heh........ oops!😅 Missionaries are supposed to head home at 9:00, 9:30 if a lesson is going really well. At 10:00, we finally figured out how to call Elder Gould, the mission office person in charge of cars and their problems. The members we were with spent a full hour trying to break into our car with a hanger, but finally, Elder Gould and his wife showed up at 11:00 with a spare key and some cookies. Wow! I'm impressed on so many levels!

Gotta run, but I'll see y'all next week! If any shocking news comes in, I'll try to let you know, picture style. But.... maybe not. Things are pretty out of control right now. Wow. How fun!

Ciao ciao all!

 

SHE MADE IT!!

Second lunch. Oof

Blurry photographic evidence

Heh heh. I'm sending this to Sis. Bond in a week!

What the-- It's Cold out here!

Hey y'all! Carma hit so fast! Here I was, mocking your pain (please feel free to say "You mock my pain!") And Florida was all like "Probs not." Thursday it was 86°. Saturday was 45°     |:[   Sister Bond has been really struggling with the cold. We'll be praying for her when she hits Utah in a week.

We also had exchanges on Saturday (oh what a day Saturday was). Blessed Sister Sorensen came and took Sister Bonds place. Sister Sorensen is in English work. Which means I got to teach a lesson in Spanish all by my one-sy. C-c-c-coolcoolcoolcoolcooool. *insert nervous sweating face* BUT, I know God was there and taking care of me. We had 5-ish people we tried to see. We saw one (who in hindsight would have been the most patient and understanding one) of 5, then we got stuck in traffic for an hour. God knew and took care of me. :] But really, God knew what I could do, and that whole lesson was all things I had practice with. Aka, we read 1 Nephi 8 out loud. That's basically all I do in language study! Wow. Church is true.

Also this week we got some crazy news from "Debbie," our investigator. She's recently decided to turn her life around and find God. (She's the one who was found wandering the temple grounds one day, wondering about the beautiful white building. Already a Fabulous sign!) She has been trying so hard to get married to her boyfriend, who she's lived with for the past 4 years, so she could get baptised next Sunday. We've been a little worried when he just wasn't being especially helpful or easy in this matter, but we trust that God loves her and will take care of her. Her wedding license ran out on the 10th, so we were going to hold the wedding Saturday evening. We meet with her Wednesday, and she tells us this story: "I'm watching TV with my fiance and a commercial about divorce comes on and informs me on how you can get a divorce super fast here in Florida. I make a casual remark to him, and he gets unnecessarily defensive. Things escalate, then he leave the room, but he leaves his phone on the sofa. In all 4 years living together, I've never looked on his phone, but I suddenly feel like I need to check it. Sisters, he's been cheating on me." Cue jaw drop. Here's a little more crazy though: he's already moved out, she's feeling really calm and peaceful about it, and now she's all set for baptism next week. ... Wut?

"Debbie" is over 9000. And so is God for that matter. But that was a bit of the crazy from this week. But you should go read the other Sister Baer's letter. You'll like it. It's gooud. (Bloop bloop bloop)*

Have fun y'alls, and make it a merry Christmas!

Hermana Beer

Studies are obviously going well...

Junior Columbian Burger joint. Pretty darn good.

Chicken burger anyone?

Sister Sorensen's crazy day in Spanish work

The Spanish Elders. I promise we do actually do missionary work in Spanish.

JÖRG KLEBINGAT!!!!!

Elder Jörg Klebingat

Wow! The Lord loves me. He sent me one of my favorite members of the Seventy, right to my Zone Conference. And, as President Monson once put it, "Tears could not be restrained, nor should they have been. Such tears produce a certain cleansing of the soul." We ended an amazing conference with “I Believe in Christ,” and I could only sing about one line before I couldn't speak anymore.

It was really amazing to be so close to someone so spiritually strong and to be the recipient of his wisdom and knowledge. He didn't just say 'You should baptize more people.' He said 'You should be the kind of person that could have the spirit work through you to touch others in a critical moment to not only save their life, but the future lives of your family.' He treated us not as harvesters in the field, but as a gathered group of volunteers who've sacrificed precious years to do what God had asked.

I can't begin to say how grateful I am, so instead I'll leave you one or two of his thoughts. "You have been asked to do it, so you can't just choose not to do it." I learned a lot about obedience from him, another being "Obedience is freely given." Are you freely giving it? "The greater your faith in God, the less you will worry. The only thing you have to worry about is sin. And you've got a choice over that." I love that. All you have to fear is sin. And nothing more. Nothing.

Sorry it's so short and poorly written, but I gotta run. I love you all and I hope you realize just how close God is to you. It's Close. Rul close.

Ciao ciao all!

Axolotl!

Fall???