I would recommend sending mail and whatever else here because the mission office is a ways away and we don't go down there very often. Also, because of all the missionaries in our mission, forwarding mail from the mission office out to us is a little slow I think. just FYI.
I am serving in a Spanish Ward here (big surprise, I know). There are 6 missionaries assigned to the ward, 4 Elders and then 2 Hermanas (that's me). Our ward boundaries include 3 cities, but our area is just one city. The Elders cover the other two.
My companion is Hermana Monical, she is 21 and from Wisconsin. We get along really well, she has been out for 3 Transfers. She was trained for the first 2, then she was transferred to Redwood City for 1 transfer, and now she is training me here in Redwood City. We are both still getting to know people, haha. It is great though, because she is really motivated to work hard so we are getting along really well. Her Spanish isn't much better than mine though, so we are learning Spanish together too. Generally President leaves companionships together for 2 transfers, so I am glad we get along. She doesn't have much experience in the field, but she knows a lot because she is a good missionary.
We do a lot of work with less active members in our mission, because there are a lot of people who are baptized and then fall away. We have a huge list of less actives that we try to go visit. Then we have our investigators, we have 6 investigators. Some are progressing better than others. Yasmin and Lourdes are progressing the most, Yasmin is basically ready to be baptized, and Lourdes, her mother would be except that she works on Sunday. She was introduced to the missionaries by her friend Olga Lidia, who is her coworker. Olga Lidia has a strong testimony, but her boss only lets her have Sunday's off once a month. It is really sad that their job at KMart is more important to them than coming to Church. Especially because they both have the desire to attend Church. I know that it is important for them to have jobs to provide for their families, but it is important for them to come to Church.
On Sunday, Lourdes actually got work off so she could come to church with us and Olga Lidia got work off too. It was great! It is so valuable for investigators to have a friend in the ward. It works a lot better that way. Anyway, after Church on Sunday we got permission to take all of them to the temple visitor's center. So Olga Lidia and her husband drove all of us up to the Oakland Temple Visitor's center. It was pretty great because we were able to help them feel the Spirit. Lourdes cried during the Christus Statue presentation. Then we had her watch a Joseph Smith Restoration movie. Then we talked a little bit, and then we just walked around the visitor center and the temple grounds. I was lucky to be able to go to the temple, which is out of the mission, in my first week here. Yasmin wasn't able to go with us yesterday, so we are hoping to take her up there soon. The temple is actually closed for construction right now, but luckily the grounds and visitor's center are still open.
Things are going really well overall, there are still some times when we have lots of people who aren't home when we try to come visit them, and those time are discouraging, but there are other times where we teach someone something and I feel so wonderful because I know that we are helping them to come unto Christ.
Keep me updated with how things are going! Let me know what questions you have for me. I forget what things I need to tell you because they become so routine for me.
I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!
-Hermana Bair
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