1 week left (1/18/10)

Well howdy hoe neighbor...
It has been an amazing week. Life is great here in California, it is raining like crazy and I cherrish every second of it. Seriously I do I love the rain (some of it might be that I get to wear my amazingly cute rain boots). But really life is great!! We added 4 new investigators this week and while adding those 4 investigators we had 5 lessons to investigators that members came to with us. That is unheard of in the deaf program. And that is why life is great. We reached our standard and our investigators recieved a greater spirit while we taught.

Ok back to the regular schedule of things...
Monday: Prep day we played sports in the gym with the zone it was super duper fun, we played volleyball and I think I got smacked in the face more then I hit the ball (they, the elders, were trying to spike it and I was defending). Then we went to a deaf ice cream social and chatted with some deafies and ate some delicious ice cream. The deaf program is good, eh? That was basically my day.

Tuesday: We had interviews with the mission president, they were amazing and he told me that I have some big responsibilities to take on next transfer. Eeek pray that I will be ready for that task. Then I went to teach Evan a 17yr old boy who has aspbergers(spelling) he is so great, he loves to create floor plans and really they are amazing. He taught himself everything. I am amazed by him he has a strong testimony and such a desire to learn about the gospel. His mom is great and very inspiring. I love to teach him because well that is what I want to do for my job. Then off to the Ellsworths for dinner oh which by the way this week we have had more dinners then ever before, (you don't get fed much in the deaf program because deafies don't have a lot of money). So dinner with the Ellsworths is always great. Then we taught the a practice lesson which went really well. I was so happy. We have dinner next week with them.

Wednesday: We went to play sports in the morning and one of the elders said he was being emergency transfered (ET) to the marshallese program. So we went to lunch with him and the zone leaders to an indian restaurant Shari Pun-job, it wasn't very good but the music was great. (like the music video on youtube we make fun of that we are going to recreate when i get home.) Then we taught Roberto about prayer and he totally understood it all it was amazing. We are excited about his progress and he remember everything about the priesthood that we taught him. When he spoke in a hearing ward Crissy Campbell said she had a deaf friend and brought her to listen so we interpreted sacrament meeting and she loved it. So we set up a dinner and lesson with the deafies and the Campbells. It was wednesday. We had a great lesson Mark and Ivetta are the parents and both are deaf, their daughter Simoneka is hearing but pro at sign language. They loved the lesson and we are teaching them next week.

Thursday: we went out with a Single adult Melinda she is awesome and loves to go out with the missionaries. We taught Gilbert Dodson, it was a great lesson but he had a few questions about the book of mormon and so we told him he just has to read it and pray about it to know that it is true. He said ok, we are meeting him next week also. When melinda dropped us off sister brennan felt really tired so we went inside to get her some water and juice. She could not stay awake for the life of her. She would fall asleep mid sentence. So I carried her to bed and made her sleep. We were banned to the house the rest of the night so I just organized our area book and such. It was good.

Friday: we talked to some awesome people and accomplished some things around the area that needed to be done. Visit some people and referals none of which were interested but still a good day.

Saturday: was a bomb (good) day. We had 2 member present lessons. Jin Park our branch mission leader came to a lesson with Ellen and Roberto this week. We taught Ellen about the atonement and Roberto about the history of the church. He was mesmorized by Jin signing and so were we. It is so good. Then we went up to Roseville to teach Ron about the Word of Wisdom. We always meet him at Denny's and he always has his coffee so we get there and teach him about the word of wisdom. The waitress asked if he wanted more coffee he said no. Woot Woot go Ron, he said that he wanted to obey the word of wisdom. We will see how he does.

Sunday: We taught Relief Society today and it went pretty good. we only had 2 of our 9 investigators come to church but we knew Ellen was sick and Mark, Ivetta, and Simoneka couldn't go, Gilbert I dunno what happened to him and Scott was sick also. Ron and Roberto are faithful to the end. They are precious. I love all of them. Then we had a blitz with the zone tracting door to door in the rain. How amazing is life. I love the rain, seriously. My umbrella almost blew away a few times while I was writting things down in my planner. I felt like marry poppins with my black umbrella, skirt, and boots. She is cool so I was fine with it.

So all is well and hopefully my last week in this transfer will be a blasty. I know the Lord has great things for me next transfer and I can't wait to tackle it. Time is flying by I don't like it. I have been out for more than 4 months now. What? Feels like I just left home. Next week p-day is on Tuesday so that is when I will be emailing. Hope to hear from some more of you this next week. Love you all and have a great week.

Love Sister Holt
Be happy and Keep Smiling.