July 7, 2014...4 more weeks

Howdy hey!  So far it has been a blessed p-day.  We went to Nelson this morning with sister Ripplinger and let me tell you....that place is impressive!  We had a mine tour and it was the coolest thing ever.  The couple who owns the place are members of the church and have preserved the whole western town look.  It has some really cool history, too.  Typical old western town.  It happens to be a pretty famous place, too.  They've filmed many movies, music videos and TV shows there, among other things.  They have some really cool haunted mine stories, too and shows like Ghost hunters and all those scifi/history shows have filmed there.  Apparently one of those ghost shows wanted to interview them, but they refused because the production crew wanted to them to lie on air and say they were 'concerned' about the supernatural activity in the mines, which is not true and they don't want the place to be known for its spookiness. Haha.  What was really funny is that in the mines, the woman told us to take pictures in the pitch darkness and see if any ghosts pop up, just for fun.  Apparently a lot of people have weird things pop up in pictures.  It was so cool.  These people were even offered their own reality show several times by different people.  Super cool people, really good friends of Sister Ripplinger.  You've got to meet sister Ripplinger, she knows the most interesting people.  Haha, they also have aliens in jars chilling in the gift shop to poke fun at people who think aliens actually roam the mines.  The Colorado river is also over there, so we got to see that.  I have picture proof! 

Over all, this week was pretty good.  In the beginning of the week, we had a funny experience with an older woman named Olga.  We knocked on her door and she started telling us how she was a christian, blah blah blah...  we told her we were, too, but she insisted we tell her who we really were.  We kept giving her the full name of the church and then she asked if we were Mormons.  We said yes and she just started getting all defensive for no reason...going of on all these random things...'I'm a christian, I'm fine'  blah blah...we were just like, 'yeah, that's great, we're not attacking you'.  Haha.  Then out of no where she tells us this story about how she had a really bad accident and was brain dead and then when the doctors put her in a plastic sack, she came back to life. (Sounds like something you'd see in ET or something)  So anyway, she explained to us how she was brought back to life to be a messenger for God.  She then told us God had a message for us and says, "After this, there are no more second changes...are you ready?"  So we said yes and suddenly she gets all weird and closes her eyes and acts as if she's possessed by something and goes, 'I want all of my children to know...that in my kingdom... I will always forgive them... so that they can have a place...in my KINGDOM.'  She went off like that for about 4 minutes and we were trying really hard not to laugh.  THEN as she ends, she almost passed out.  Her eyes roll to the back of her head and she gets all dizzy as if whatever possessed her just fled from her body again.  As she's recovering from that, I go to slip one of our cards in her hand as an attempt to make a quick get away while she's half conscious...didn't work.  She just went on again about some random stuff.  By the end of it she tells us, "I might be brain dead, but I'm not mentally retarded...I'm just slow."  Quote of the year.  Anyway, that was a first on my mission so I thought I'd share it.  Needless to say, we are not currently teaching her. 

Gustavo came to church for the first time yesterday!  We taught Myra again this week, and she's still super prepared and interested.  Said she was for sure coming to church ,but had a family crisis last minute and wasn't able to make it. :(  Gustavo and her should have a baptismal date by the end of this week.  Gustavo is SO legit.  We had a really long lesson with him last week with president Pecjak...president LOVES to talk bastante and went off about temples for a while (which Gustavo knew nothing about), but Gustavo took it well.  We taught the plan of salvation.  Anyway, after that lesson I was praying hardcore everyday that Gustavo would be able to come to church.  He said he would, but I just felt so nervous he wouldn't for some reason and I was even a little scared!  I was just pleading with Heavenly Father... come Sunday morning, we come out of our ward counsel meeting and are waiting out in the lobby for Gustavo...turns out, he was already seated in the chapel.  I had to translate in the corner for the English speakers using headsets, so I didn't get to sit with him, but he told us after church that he really liked it.  He told us something else really cool, too.  One of the other lessons we had with him last week was focused on how to recognize the Holy Ghost, because he's a man who apparently hasn't felt a lot of peace in his life in we testified of how the spirit often communicates with us in very subtle ways.  So on Sunday after church Gustavo told us he was reading the book of Mormon the night before and felt a subtle sense of peace come over him.  I was so excited to hear that!  He is so prepared, I can't wait for you guys to meet him.  It's funny, too, because when I was with hna Hill, she didn't want to ever try him because with the sisters experience with him before was not that successful.  He was rarely ever home.  We were the sisters meant to teach him I guess.  It's his time.  It was actually cool how we first met him because he was a former investigator and we were driving around one day without our traveling area book with all the addresses and stuff, but all of our backups fell through and it just came to our minds to try visiting Gustavo.  However, we didn't know where he lived.  We decided to just go where we thought it might be and we pretty much turned a couple corners and boom, we were in front of his house.  It was a miracle and he happened to be home, we met him for the first time that night and have been teaching him ever since.  We shared that experience with him one night to help him see there really was a reason we had been placed in his life.  He was so happy we shared it with him.  He was like, 'wow, you sharing that with me makes me feel really good.  Wow.  Thank you so much.' Then he opened up at told us that before that day he had been praying for God to guide him.  He's an amazing guy.  He's one of the most sincere people I've taught on my mission. 

New mission president is cool.  I like him and his wife a lot so far.  I met them at MLC and again at our zone training meeting.  We have interviews with them on the 16th.  Looking forward to it. 

I'm supposed to be getting my "trunky papers" today.  We'll see.  Haven't gotten to pick up our mail yet.  

Love you all!  See you in like... a few weeks.