Halloween Week 2011

This was a MUCH better week. We had a good Halloween. The missionaries in the Valley had to be at home by 6pm and weren't allowed to leave, but thankfully the desert is much more chill. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows with our elders' landlords, helped hand out candy, and visited our recent converts. Hermana Prince and I had exchanges with Hermana Erickson and her new companion, Hermana Blackburn. Hna Prince went down to be with Hna Erickson for the day and Hna Blackburn came up to experience Palmdale with me. Those sisters live in Sylmar, in San Fernando Valley, right next to uber-sketchy Pacoima, so Hna Prince had a very interesting time experiencing the Valley at its finest. She had been super bummed because there were quite a number of people who kept saying how she really needed to learn Spanish, but when she went to Sylmar, everyone complimented her on how well she speaks. She really is a rockstar at Spanish, I think there's just some people who, no matter how well you speak, will never believe you can actually speak their language if you look white. So her confidence got a major boost after that and I'm so so glad.
 1st MIRACLE OF THE WEEK: We had an AWESOME lesson with Zitlaly, her mother, and a young man named Christian who is renting a room from them. Her mom said she'd like to come to church and that she'd read the Book of Mormon when she was sad (kind of wierd, but we'll take it.)
2nd, 3rd, and 4th MIRACLES OF THE WEEK: Zitlaly came to church! She seemed to really enjoy it,a nd she really wants to come to mutual this week.  Her little brother came to church, too. Her mom and Christian didn't, but hey, they're still open to it. We're starting to teach this mother and son (Graciela and Bryan) but they have no phone and it's difficult to coordinate with them. They usually go to the Lancaster Baptist Church in the Church Bus on Sundays, but we left them a note saying that we would come by at 8:45 sunday morning to pick them up with a member. We stopped by at 8:45 to check if they would come (we were fairly sure they wouldn't)but Graciela's oldest son (very much a "too cool for anything in this dimension" teenager) told us they had already left. We didnt' have a way to contact our member to tell him not to pass by their house, so we just went to church. Magda (the one who read the whole Book of Mormon in a week) was waiting for us on the back row, then in walked Graciela, Bryan, Zitlaly, and her little brother. As it was fast sunday, we were a little nervous how things would go, seeing as members are sometimes a little unreliable on keeping their testimonies focused on the Savior, but all of our investigators seemed to really enjoy it. In fact, Bryan (who is 11) got up and spoke about how he wants to change his life and help his mom. Our branch welcomed them very warmly and they seemed to really like church. IT WAS SO GREAT!
Thank you thank you for all your prayers. They are helping me, us, our investigators, everybody so so much.

Also, we had lunch with a couple in our branch this week. The husband doesn't seem to recognize that any slightly scandalous or inappropriate comments or jokes should just be forgotten and the conversation should move on.  Somehow we got on the topic of the virgin of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Fatima, etc. Unfortunately, my brain/mouth filter was malfunctioning and I asked "How many virgins are there?"
Bad move, Hermana.
But I am curious. How many Catholic holy virgins are there?
Anyway, love you more than however many there are,
Hermana B