May 13, 2013

So...we skyped with Samantha for over an hour yesterday and today she didn't have anything left for an email.  She asked me to update everyone.

Sam looks great.  She is curling her hair and looks very girly.  She loves her companion.  She told us that things have changed a lot because of all the sisters in the field now.  Her companion, Hermana Franco is a training leader which is something like a non priesthood zone leader.  She coordinates exchanges and teaches at zone meetings.    Sisters did not do exchanges before because there were so few but now they do them just like the elders do.

Thomas is still scheduled for baptism.  They are still working with the Valdez family and another family, the Paz family.  Sister Paz operates an illegal dental clinic out of her house.  Sam says that she doesn't like the missionaries and they can't figure out why.  I suggested that she was probably afraid of getting deported if she got caught.  Sam said, "Quien sabe" (who knows?)  The Spanish is flowing.

Speaking of language, She and her companion both gave talks in church yesterday.  She says that it flowed out of her and she felt the gift of tongues doing its thing.  She spoke for 6 minutes in Spanish and people were surprised that she couldn't speak a word of it 3 months ago.  She asked me to share that.  She was really stoked about it.

They have 2 other investigators, both named Victor.  You might remember the "espionage missionary", Sister Anders, they met last month from one of the English language wards.  She had a list of people that she was prepping for the missionaries to teach but didn't want them to talk to anyone on her list until she was sure they were ready.  Well, another sister gave them a referral(one of the Victors) that happened to be on the list.  They didn't want to upset Sister Anders so they asked the ward mission leader about it.  he told them that sister Anders was a bit crazy and they should not worry about it.  So, they contacted victor, he was very receptive and now they are teaching him and awaiting an irate phone call from sister Anders.

Anyway, as I said, she is very happy and thriving out there.  She looked great and it made us feel good to see how well she was.  Also, Hope got permission to wear Sam's clothes while she is gone.  (;