Hola All Y'all: November 23rd - Alabama and Alliteration are Awesome

Dear All Y'all,

Ok this week was fairly uneventful sorry haha. I think answering your questions will best explain the adventures of the past week!

1. What are your plans for Thanksgiving this week?

~We have 4 families who have invited us to their homes for Thanksgiving and we don't want to offend anyone, but we don't have that cool Hourglass thing that Hermione had from Harry Potter to allow her to be in more than one place at a time, so.... we'll work on deciding between the Lopez/Santos group, the Cruz's, and the May's. This should be joyous. xD

2. Are there Spanish speaking missionaries in areas outside Birmingham and Huntsville? I could not see Spanish speaking church units (branches) outside of those two cities on the Church’s website.

~Huntsville is specifically Spanish, but there is Sparkman, Capshaw, and Madison missionaries nearby that are English. There are 2 other Spanish branches: Lorna and Birmingham. Often Spanish missionaries will be sent somewhere other than those three areas, so they will teach and find English people as well and not pass them off to other strictly English missionaries. Sometimes Spanish missionaries and English missionaries get paired up together in a companionship, and this is called a Zebra.

3. Is there an all-Spanish speaking zone(s) in your mission or are Spanish speaking missionaries integrated with English speaking missionaries (zones)?

~There is no strictly Spanish zone, only Districts are all Spanish sometimes in the three above mentioned areas.

4. Tell us what a typical day is like for you?

~6:30, Breakfast and get ready, Study from 8-11, lunch, lessons and tracting, dinner, sometimes go back out tracting, planning, bed at 10:30.

5. How much do you ride your bike in a normal day?

~ok, Mom, deep breath. We've only ridden our bikes once so far because we haven't been out as much or we've had the car because everyone has gotten really sick except me, so sometimes we had to stay home to let Acosta rest or Moline or West was home resting/not feeling well, so we've had the car a lot. But we'll use them more this week I'm sure. Normally we wouldn't have as many miles as we do this week as well. We were given 290 miles for a trip to Birmingham get the car fixed as well as 300 to compensate for miles they want us to use at night for driving instead of biking because it's not safe. I have reflectors and lights and all but haven't ridden at night yet. Huntsville is one of the few areas in Birmingham that has sidewalks though so I need to brace myself for riding on the roads soon. Agh.

6. Are the members in the branch missionary-minded?

~Some are. But the branch is really small. If the people giving talks on Sunday sat on the stand like they do in our ward, a tithing amount would be on the stand. The active branch members could all sit in the choir seats I'm sure.

7. Tell us more about Sister Acosta? Where has she served so far? Has she remained in Spanish-speaking units her whole mission?

~She served in Albertville for 4.5 months (2 transfers), Altadena/Birmingham for 6 months (4 transfers), and now here with me, on her 2nd transfer.

Ok. summary real quick of the week.

Went tracting at a trailer park. I've never seen so many cats in my life. It was pretty sketchy but it was light out and we met some cool people that we're going to try to get a hold of this week again :) *fingers crossed*

Ok. First, Hna. Acosta met a guy named B. on a short split with Hna Moline a week ago yesterday. We ran into him again when we tracted his neighbor's house, namely D. Though he was initially uninterested, B. teasingly told him to come out and listen to us because he needs Jesus too haha. B. had told Moline and Acosta that he normally wouldn't listen to missionaries, but they decided to listen to them because they seemed different and working so hard. But, we talked to D. for a while and gave him our number. Acosta invited them to come to church, and they agreed! And then cancelled. But, we gave them our number and D. texted us and asked us to come back to teach him. So that happened Saturday when Friday fell through. but we learned from his mom who we ran into that his fiancee died and he also lost both of his grandparents on her side and his aunt, so she said he really needs us right now, and I'm glad we got a lesson with him the next day. His friend C. happened to be there too, so we recapped what we had taught about the plan of salvation and he joined in and seemed really interested. We brought some recent converts, Carlos and Angy and their two little boys, with us, and Carlos helped explain a lot and bore his testimony beautifully. It was such a blessing to have him there. C. agreed to meet with us again as well as D.

We also taught LeAnn, the blind woman, and she started us out with a tough question about re-marriage and divorce because she had some issues in that area. We had Sister K. with us, who had been remarried! She explained that God wants us to be in happy, healthy relationships and that sometimes we have to cut marital ties for our own benefit because the relationship isn't safe of healthy or what not, and I also shared the story in the NT that explains where Christ says "Let he who is without sin first cast a stone at her."

Howard, our contact from the mall, was very receptive to the knowledge of the plan of salvation on Wednesday. He accepted a baptismal invitation, once he learns the truths of the Gospel, and agreed to read in the Book of Mormon. We're hoping to do a pass-off with the Madison Elders and teach a lesson on the Restoration to explain authority, Priesthood, and the Book of Mormon since we didn't really get the chance to go deep into explaining that last time. He's very quiet but a great listener. We asked him to say the closing prayer, and he agreed. As we were kneeling in his living room, he said 'thank you for the knowledge that has been given me' - KNOWLEDGE. He totally believes everything is true without questioning it! The Spirit was sooo strong in that lesson, it was probably one of my top three favorite experiences so far. :) I'm going to be sad to let him go. He's golden.

I think that's all the important experiences for this week!

Any more questions?

The Church is true,

The book is blue,

and God loves you!!

~Hermana Martin II