Harbor City Week 13

Buenas Dias!

Wow. Transfers always seem like the craziest time in the mission. Pair them up with the 4th of July and you've got quite an exciting week :D The day before transfers I stayed with the Spanish sisters down in San Pedro and then the next morning went back to Harbor City to wait for my new companion...SISTER SNYDER! She's awesome. She's from St. George, has a tons of siblings, is 6 feet tall, blond, and has only been on her mission for 5 months.


Sister Snyder on the left.

That means that this transfer I became the senior companion! I know - crazy huh? And so on transfer day I had to pick up some other elders and we all went up to Santa Monica for leadership training and were there until late in the afternoon. And since the 4th can be a slightly dangerous holiday we had to be in our apartments by 7pm. We got back into our area just in time to go to our dinner appointment and then head back to the apartment. Which is weird because we had a whole day without any missionary work.

I'm learning a lot things about myself now that Sister Malani is gone. Like, I know the area a lot better than I thought I did, the people in the ward actually like me, and that the Lord trusts me and has blessed me with a companion who is excited and ready to learn and grow and serve. Truly this week has been one full of blessings and miracles.

First off, we have a baptism this Saturday! Txx is being baptised! He truly has progressed so much in the past few weeks. He hasn't had any cigarettes for 2.5 weeks, he reads from the scriptures daily, prays daily, comes to church and actively participates, keeps all of his appointments with us, and has a true testimony of the Book of Mormon. The most amazing thing I've seen change, is his countenance. It seems like every time we go over for a lesson with him he is just beaming. IN fact, they announced his baptism in church this Sunday over the pulpit and when he stood up he had the biggest smile on his face - he was so happy. And throughout the meetings that day people kept coming to him and saying how happy they were for him to be baptised. It's going to be a great service

Mxxxxx is also progressing really well. This week he told us that he prayed about his baptismal date and that even though the 28th is right around the corner...it's ok because he's ready and he wants a new clean start so why wait? He's facing a lot of opposition from his family - he's African American and so a lot of his family members have a real problem with him joining the church.  They have many misconceptions about how the church treats other races and cultures. Mxxxxx though has a strong testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel, and has been defending his testimony to his family. It's going to be hard when he's baptised.  His family has pretty much told him that he won't be welcome in their homes anymore, but he has LDS friends that are reaching out to him, and also the ward is starting too as well. In fact, we had a really great experience when a member came with us to a lesson with him yesterday. This member is a recently returned missionary and he and Mxxxxx got along really well. In fact, Mxxxxx even asked us for his number afterwards so that he could ask him more questions! It's so great to see when member and investigators bond, especially because as missionaries, we change. You never know when we are going to be around. But the members will always be there. SO yes. Mxxxxx is doing SO so well and preparing for baptism. In fact, funny story, after our lesson with him on Tuesday we assigned him to read Mosiah 16:6-10. But when he wrote it down he wrote Mosiah 6-10 instead. And you know what, even though he thought it seemed like a lot of reading - he read it all! all 4 chapters! And highlighted verses and had questions for us. He is elect. The Lord has such great things in store for him, I can just feel it.

Well, I think that's all of the majorly exciting things that happened this week :) The work is good and the church is true!

I love you all!
Sister Hensley