Week 7 - Bennett Valley, Santa Rosa

Hola!

Hermanas Foster and Burton

It's my first week in Santa Rosa and wow so much has already happened! My trainer is Hermana Burton!! (Super small world since when I lived in Utah we were actually neighbors so really cool we are together) I'm serving this transfer in Bennett Valley. Santa Rosa is absolutely beautiful! Like so so so pretty and the people we have seen are super nice so far! 

Wednesday night we ate dinner at Hermana Magnas house with three other Hermanas. The fun part is that she has this plant that is on a desk in her kitchen but it grows up and EVERYWHERE! It goes up the wall and she has nails in the wall and all over the ceilings of her house that guide the vines where she wants them to go! But dinner was good, she had a cute dog, and I probably understood maybe 25% of what was being said. Super bien. It's also rainy season here so it randomly just rains pretty hard which is super fun when you are trying to walk places and such.

On Thursday we taught our new investigator Yuri and her family the restoration and it was so great! They totally absorbed the lesson and basically said yes to baptism and asked us to come back again and teach their kids in English! The spirit was super strong right when we got there and the Lord has definitely been preparing them and watching the spirit work in them was such a cool thing! And I'm actually communicating I'm Spanish! Whhaaat!!! And I don't sound totally gringa thanks to choir! Whoop whoop! 

Alma

Anyway that night we went to a house with some recent converts and a girl named Alma in sixth grade was there so we read the children's Book of Mormon with her and helped with her homework for quiet a while.   That was really good and she is so sweet and nice.  She said the closing prayer and that helped me feel the spirit more and remember why I'm here. 

We are teaching a guy named Sebastian, he is 13 and his mom is a LDS but is having us teach him the lessons and he is the absolute cutest! He is so so receptive and cute and is so excited when we bring him pamphlets! 

This week has been cool seeing all over Santa Rosa but it's been really tough it's definitely a hard adjustment.   One of the most powerful things is hearing the prayers of the kids here, they have the spirit with them so much and give an excitement to the gospel that nobody else can! I love it and them so much! It's crazy how much love you can have for people so quickly. 

We also did meals on wheels and went to the food bank and that was really fun.   They played Van Halen over the intercom too so that was a plus.

This week we also got to have a mission conference with one of the seventy! Brother Hamula and his wife were here and both spoke and trained and it was awesome! Their talks were so great!   Two things that really stuck out to me was when they talked about how you can't teach anything in this gospel without love.  The other was when they talked about how small and simple things are what bring the great things to pass, the little things make the difference between a good performance and a miraculous one. 

So yea it's been a stressful week but I have already learned SO much and the members here feed us super well which is both a good and bad thing. We ate at one members house and I'm going to have to get used to spicy food.  My mouth was on fire! But it's ok the rice and beans are bueno for sure and they have those for days.

Anyway I'm ready to see how settling into missionary life is and so excited to see the Lords hand as he helps us! Love you all so much and miss you!

Con amor

Hermana Foster

P.S if you wanted to know corn ice cream or elote is soo good!

The view from their apartment