Week 69 Sister Calderon arrives!

Hermana Calderon

So. The adventure continues in La Mesa. Sister Amendola and I are still companions, and we have a new trainee, Sister Calderon. She's from North Carolina, but her parents are Dominican, so she has a sweet accent and a lot of spunk. She's SUPER pumped to be a missionary and loves tracting and teaching and just being with people. She has the gift of being social. So I'm trying to pick up some tips from her, haha. It's like magic. It's fascinating just watching her talk to people. People are literally spellbound. She just makes insta-friends. On her way here she placed two Books of Mormon! Like, on the flight over from Utah and then in the bathroom at the airport. She's on FIRE. So basically, watch out La Mesa, because we are going to tear it up! She's super funny too. She makes us laugh. A lot. She's just hilarious. We've got a lot to teach her and we've got a lot to learn from her. It's going to be quite the adventure!!!

I left my planner at home so I don't have my usual notes to know what happened this week so I'll give a few highlights. Yes, they're ranked. :)

4. We visited the branch president with Sister Calderon. We taught a lesson about 1 Nephi, and we acted out Nephi getting the plates from Laban. Mia (the 3-yr-old) was Nephi, Cristina (her 7-yr-old sister) was Sam, Sister Amendola was Laman and Lemuel, Sister Calderon was Lehi, and I was Laban. Oh and their dog Stick was Zoram. No they did not decapitate me, but they did take my cardigan and put it on Mia, so then Stick gave her the 'plates.' (a quad... haha) It was really neat. :)

3. An investigator came to conference!!! :D She watched like 30 minutes of the 1st session and stayed for the intermediate meal thing and watched the last session too! It was so awesome. We haven't seen her yet since then but we'll be sure to follow up on it. Follow up is important! :) Oh. And conference itself was just so incredible!!! LOVED IT.

2. This comes from our trainee. She was having a hard time at the Battalion, because she felt like it wasn't doing real missionary work. She was struggling with that a lot, and then suddenly Heavenly Father gave her a tender mercy: someone came up to her and started asking her missionary questions, and she was able to testify and teach and do all the things she felt she was missing out on. Heavenly Father knows us so well, and He knows what we need and helps us when we need it most!!

1. Yesterday we had a follow-the-Spirit miracle. We had planned to see someone as a backup, but as the night went on we felt really really really strongly like we needed to visit them regardless. So with only a few minutes left we raced over and stopped by. We're working with her on quitting smoking, and when we opened the door she looked really sad and she told us she had just smoked a cigarette. She then told us about how she hasn't seen her grandkids since Thanksgiving and her daughter lives literally a 2 minute walk from her house. She feels lonely and sad and rejected by her children and she's struggling so much. We listened and comforted and we read some scriptures and all knelt and said a special prayer for her. We all cried and hugged her, and it was such an incredible moment for all of us. What a blessing to be an instrument in His hands!

I love being a missionary! Here's to another excellent week!

--Hermana Harris