Labor Day Pday and daily stuff

 Note from the editor/Mom... her letter arrived on Tuesday because of the holiday, but it was an insanely busy week for us.... sorry for the delay.

We weren't able to email on Labor Day, because our preferred library was closed, and no others in the area were either! So we got some time today to do so. I would have been very upset had we been denied the opportunity to email home, especially since my next p day isn't until the 10^th (yay transfer weeks! P day gets moved to the day before transfer days so those who are moving have time to pack... Of course we don’t know whether or not we're moving until the Monday before, sooooo).

The reasons they're having missionaries teach members the lessons are many. One is so they can have the opportunity to practice without fear of TOTALLY ruining someone toward the church. Members, especially converts and those who have served missions, are able to ask questions or share stories to help them with those they might be teaching. It gives them the opportunity to get to know the families on a spiritual level. Of course the big thing though is to get families comfortable with the missionaries and with talking about the gospel, because every member is supposed to be a missionary, and ideally missionaries would never have to tract because they're too busy with all the referrals that they've received from members. It also means those investigators already have a fellowshipper who can help them after the missionaries are gone. Its way easier to work with people who are already somewhat prepared by a member and it also allows them to find out if you're up to being a missionary with them- missionaries ideally bring members to their lessons, so they can make friends, fellowship, and also testify of the missionary's message.

(response to a question we asked). We get 155$ a month to live on. That covers everything from food to hygiene stuff. It’s fairly cheap all things considered. We get a fair amount of food from the members too (I think we've not had a meal with members/investigators maybe 2 or 3 times since I've gotten here. I understand that it’s more normal to not eat with others in places with lower member populations, but really good meal coordinators will ask non-members they know to feed us too. So it works out. I usually save a chunk of that to cover when we eat out with the district once a week, so I'm getting pretty good at budgeting. It definitely helps that we can only buy stuff once a week, so I write it down and usually by the time P-day rolls around I know if I actually need it or not. PB&J, mac and cheese, bagels with ham, tuna and tomato soup... I like the recipes you sent me, and ones with under an hour prep time I'll probably try when I'm in an area where we don't get fed as much so I can actually get through all the left overs. Definitely gotten good at just eating what we have, since the opportunity and finances don't really allow for much else. We're also fed really regularly by members and investigators, so we've never once so far gone hungry. Mom sent some recipes I'll be hoarding for when we're fed less in smaller areas. I haven't been left wanting, though I have used my card once or twice for the things I'm not supposed to use those funds for (mattress pad, pens, tape, etc.) I'm good. I'll definitely let you know if there's anything I can't get. I pulled some money out for a rainy day/getting cold weather gear. There's a lady here who sells alpaca socks, and they're apparently really good for rain/snow, because they wick moisture and stay warm and stuff.

Things are pretty good here. Staying relatively cool. We have 4 investigators with a baptismal date, and will hopefully have a 5th by the end of today. We'll see how our lesson later goes. Two are siblings of Cindy, a recent convert who was baptized last month. One is our Jehovah's Witness teen who won't have a home by the end of this week over it, and the other is Ana, the daughter of a returning active. We'll be working with Sue tonight, she's really keen on the gospel. We've got a date picked out for her in mid-October, but it means her boyfriend of ten years either has to marry her or find a new place to live for a while until he is ready to marry her. I would hope he'd get his act together and do it, since they have 2 kids together and he cares enough to stick around...? So we'll see how that goes.

We had an investigator drop us today because she couldn't quit smoking and didn't want to stop going to her other church, even though she says she knows the Book of Mormon is true and she wants to be baptized? But she still wants to feed us and visit us though... As much as I would be okay with being friends, that’s not what we're out here to do.

It’s hard to explain some of the things we do to those who haven't seen it themselves. Tracting (knocking door-to-door) is still baffling, even to me, and the polite 'let’s make another appointment' and then not showing up and leaving us to make sure we ALWAYS have a backup plan to fill in the hour time we set aside for these people is frustrating. I never feel quite good enough, but it's coming.
I'm coming to love the people, and I'm coming to love the area. It’s like a humid, green slice of down town LA. I don't know what I'll do when they transfer me to a little podunk town even the locals have never heard of. But it’ll come then too I guess.

Much love. I think of you and the family daily, and pray a lot.

Christine