I Get Another Transfer in Hialeah With Sister Ware!!!!!

Hermana Ware, Alma, and Hermana Houghton--We didn't match on purpose!

Dear Family,

I GET ANOTHER TRANSFER IN HIALEAH WITH SISTER WARE!!!!!

That's the big news for today :) After an FHE last night at a member's house, I told Sister Ware that I could not leave Hialeah. Happily the Lord blessed me and I get to stay! Also, I will be here for L and J's wedding on the 16th!

AL, A, J, A, A2, and O (friend/relative of AL, whom L keeps on inviting to church - she's already a missionary!)

Speaking of them, some little tidbits:

-L is hilarious. We had an activity on Saturday night at the church and she asked me how I liked the tamales she'd given us, then when I told her we'd eaten them for breakfast she casually asked if we'd had some coffee with them. I said no, of course, and my mind was racing. 'We have to teach her word of wisdom again!' I thought. Last night at the FHE she asked me again if I had drunk coffee for breakfast, a little bit of cafe con leche. One of the members, scandalized, told her that we don't drink coffee. L couldn't hold a straight face anymore. She knew the word of wisdom and had been messing with me the whole time!

-At the FHE last night J was our volunteer in an object lesson. We were teaching the role of the holy ghost and blindfolded him, spinning him around and then telling him to listen for the voice of the Holy Ghost to help him find the door. It was a little bit too easy and he went straight to the door. But he made up for it by saying that he didn't need any more promptings, he knew where the truth was, in the church, and he was going to go straight there and never vary. So awesome!

-A turned six about two weeks ago. We got her some cute earrings from the Dollar Star and gave them to her on Wednesday night during the activity. She ran into the RS activity and made her mom put them on her during the middle of the lesson :)

JO passed the sacrament for the first time yesterday!! And I forgot to tell you about AL. She is the YW president in the ward but had been in Honduras on a business trip for my entire time in Hialeah until about two weeks ago. JO had told us, his first Sunday at church, after seeing some pictures in the hallway, that he knew her. J (L's fiancee) has been her best friend since elementary school. Sister Ware met her months ago when she came on an exchange to Hialeah. I was the last one to know her :) but finally met her two weeks ago. She's great. When she first saw JO at the activity a week and a half ago she jumped on him and cried. She told us last night that he was her first neighbor in this country, and was like a father to her. The gospel truly brings families together - families of blood and families of spirit. 

I've told you briefly about the older gentleman who had left the church for 40 years, and then met and married an amazing active member and came back to church. He's the one who we challenged to read a page of the Book of Mormon every day a while back. They feed us about every other Sunday. His wife has told us numerous times that she has seen President Hinckley's promise about reading the Book of Mormon come true in their lives. They're going on a trip today, for about a month, and he called yesterday to tell us that he was going to keep reading while he was away. His wife sent us a farewell text last night (knowing that most likely one of us would be gone by the time they got back (but not anymore!)) with the hope that we 'sean siempre esa luz que brilla en cada hijo de nuestro Padre Celestial.' SO SWEET!

We have a new family to teach! They're very busy so we're having the actual first lesson tonight, but they are wonderful. C and N are the parents of NA and another girl whose name I've forgotten, who are 11 and 12. We walked up just as they all got home last Tuesday. We left a blessing, which they loved, and then told them where the church was. N got so excited! She told us that some kids (missionaries) had visited her mom for a while when she'd lived with them, and that she (Noemi) had been wanting to go to our church for a long time. They came to church on Sunday and are committed to coming back and getting baptized. The Lord truly prepares people. 

<3HH

Our district! Elder Carver (just finishing up his first transfer), Elder Allen (crazy face, Elder Carver's trainer), Elder Williamson (so funny, leaving Hialeah tomorrow), Elder Hunter (our district leader, looks to me a lot like Cory), Sister Espinoza (Utah-Chilean, fireball), Sister Fletcher (her companion, also a bit of a fireball), the crazy one, Sister Ware (a lot crazier than you would think :)