mark your callenders (7/10)

¡Hola!

I hope everyone had a good week! This week was AMAZING!!

On Tuesday night we had our Spanish party (FHE) with all of our English connect people and members of the ward. It was epic. Hermana Masner made some BOMB salsa and guacamole, and we had a ton of desserts for our cake walk we did! At first everyone was freaking out because none of our people had shown up, but I knew we just needed to give it time; and sure enough José showed up thirty minutes in, then Maria, then Oscar, then- with only 30 minutes left in the party- Karla, Monste, Lupita y Javier showed up! So, it was a pretty good turnout!

On Thursday we had a mission tour where Elder Whiting (of the seventy) spoke to us! It started at 9, and car inspections were at 8, we we had to wake up at 5:30 which hurt....but all was well! Anywho it was pretty cool, except at one point he pulled some people out of the audience and I almost died thinking he'd call on me; but it was super cool aside from that 5 minutes! And I got to see my old Zone (we were paired with Corvallis!) and my old quad-pan mates! :)

José is such a legend! We were having our lesson with him Thursday and he told us this story about how he and his friend spontaneously went to Seattle and then to the Canadian Border! I didn't understand a lot of the story (por que 'twas en español) BUT what I did understand is that his friend ended up driving too far (into the stretch between the US border and Canada's) and they ended up having to reverse all the way back on the freeway! :) José also showed up to escuela dominical this week!!....Unfortunately this apparently wasn't one of the weeks we have it! Our bad, fifth Sunday messed us all up!

We ended up blowing up balloons for a hot minute the other day to help Hermana Masner set up for her daughters tenth birthday. Everyone was pretty impressed at my the rate I could blow up balloons. Guess I've got good lungs. We also went to the party for a while and ended up talking to a few of Hermana Masners nonmember friends. One's name is Jennifer and she's from the DR, so hopefully we can get in contact with her again.

Haylie texted us an hour before we were planning to meet her this week, and told us she had a migraine and couldn't come to crumble with us (our original plan). We were pretty bumed but I figured we should just go get a cookie and take it to her, I was just about the suggest it to Hermana Coca when she told me the same thing! So, we went to crumble, ordered two cookies...got two more forced on us by members, the usual. :)

We then drove to her house and talked with her for a while in the dark (the light was hurting her head). Before we left we decided to share a spiritual message. We pulled out Mosiah 18:8-10. Which I had read in personal study earlier that week, and we had been using for every member lesson since. I found it in her Book of Mormon for her, and handed it to her. She's not super comfortable reading the scriptures out loud to us (it's an acquired language) so she handed it back to me and asked me to read it. So I read it for her, and when I got done I looked up and saw her eyes were all watery. I instantly knew we were putting her on date right then. Hermana Coca asked her if she'd been thinking about baptism. Haylie said "Yes". Then there was a slight pause, and I asked a really intellectual question like "So...?" And she told us all her fears about it, and we talked about them. We watched the first vision video to show that moment of Joseph Smith struggling in the Sacred Grove. Then we asked her if she wanted to be baptized. AND SHE SAID YES!! We then started looking over a calendar with her, but her (low-key anti-) parents came home then. Whom we talked with and took a selfie with before heading out to the car to pick a date for Haylie to become a member of the church they hate so much. The mission is wild. It took a while for Haylie to pick a day, I was having some VERY strong impression about the 10th of June, but Haylie hates even numbers so she choose the 17th, for a day... She texted us the next day and said she realized she'd be confirmed the day after, so she wants to be baptized on the 10th so that she can be confirmed on the 11th! Guess the Holy Ghost and I weren't eyeing the 10th for nothing! :)

For other, way less fun, news. One of the members of the Bishopric texted us on Saturday afternoon and asked if Sister Laymon could talk. IDK where they got that name, but Hermana Coca and I ended up playing the most intense round of rock, paper, scissors to see who got the honor. Unfortunately I chose paper, and the glory was mine. Which wasn't great, especially because we were so busy that day that I had to write it at 9:45 PM hoping it was still coherent when I woke up the next morning. It kind of was.

But the real kicker was when we went to the church printer the next day, 30 minutes early so I could print it out and read over it once. A guy was in there, the stake technology man I guess, he was fixing some of the computers; so we talked to him a bit and I logged on and tried to print my talk. Now if I have learned anything throughout my mission, it's that not only do the truths and doctrines of the gospel not change wherever you are a member, but you can also rely on the church printer not working when you need it most. I asked the guy- interrupting him from his conversation with himself about how he'd a distant relative of Joseph Smith- that was there, and he came over, told me to close out of the print menu I had open for him, then proceed to try and find the same print menu himself for 5 minutes, only to open it and do the same thing I had done 10 minutes earlier. He then assured me it would print then continued talking about his family history to no one. While I had a mild panic attack. Needless to say, nothing ever printed, and that man literally didn't even notice he hadn't helped at all, he just kept talking about his family tree. Anywho... I ended up having to read my talk off of my phone, which sucked; but all is well.

Also we had a member lesson with the Bishop and his wife last night and we shared the "Because of Him" video and she said it did nothing for her. That's preposterous!! The Because of Him video is the best video the church has ever produced. How DARE she say such a thing! I was awestruck! To each their own, I guess, but she's wrong and I stand by that. :)

Anywho, the work of the Lord is so good! Hope you all have a great week!

Much Love,

Hermana Shelton

Fotos (if they send in order):

1- Johnny's with the Sisters

2- selfie with Haylie's anti-parents

3- selfie w/ Haylie :)

4- Hma Coca got an acne light mask so I put on the hockey one from the closet

5- ran into my Sister Piena in Eugene

6- selfie with the sutherlin sisters in Eugene:)

7- wildlife safari with the Sisters

8- the Spanish party on Tuesday