Hey everyone!!!

Lots of Love and news:

This week, my mini went home and Hermana Lila Madariaga came from Goya to work with me here. She is from Buenos Aires, Argentina, although her English is a million times better than my Spanish. She has only been on a mission for a little over two months, and I am her second companion (Madrastra, asi dicen). She is really smart and friendly and we seem to work well together. She helps me refine my language, develop a better accent, and encourages me to be more obedient. The funny thing is, that she knew who I was long before I knew her.

Before my mission, (with the help of my dad) she stumbled upon this blog and read it and found out many details about me and my experiences. Its a little disconcerting when you begin to tell a mission story and she already knows it.... jaja. But its great... lots of laughs.

But we work hard and study hard together... we had record numbers this week with 19 new investigators and 6 references contacted. Arguably the best numbers I have ever had in my mission. I know that God put us together for a reason...

We made leaps and bounds with Natalia, the woman who had been attending church but did not know how to read well.... This week we were trying to put a baptismal date with her for the 26th of June but when we gave her the commitment she asked us if the baptism that she had when she was a girl still worked... Many people tell us that they have already been baptized because they do not understand that the baptisms of other faiths really don´t work for God... only the faiths that have the authority to do it, so we were not immediately alarmed.

So we began to ask her questions about her baptism to clarify... what age were you baptized? how was it done? do you remember anyone putting their hands on your head later? and the and the answers were all correct... that she had been baptized in Candelaria (another branch) when she was 12 years old. she remembers elders with tags and filmstrips, and a bunch of men putting their hands on her head... and lo and behold, our progressing investigator, really is not an investigator at all, but really and INACTIVE MEMBER!!! NO WONDER SHE WAS SO RECEPTIVE! jaja.

So now we are working to reactivate her and are teaching her husband and oldest son (the only one that is old enough to baptize) How´s that for a drastic change of events. I am happy that she is a member, but at the same time, I am a little dissapointed because she was our only progressing investigator.

We also started teaching two girls Maria and Damaris, two 17 year old girls that the missionaries taught in this past year, but could not get baptized because their parents refused to give them permission (thats an understatement...) They turn 18 at the end of the year, and thus will not need parental permission to baptize, and their friend Luci, a member asked us in their behalf to teach them again... I first knew them algunas meses atras, and I remeber feeling like they were already members because they had a spirit about them. We know that they will get baptized, either now or when they turn 18, but we are trying to make it so when they do get baptize that it will not destroy their families. I see them and hear their stories and I feel like I have heard it before... Its resoundingly similar to that of Dad´s.

They came to church in secret yesterday... I hope it does not blow up later.

I love you all very much and thanks for all of your letters.

Hermana Sarah Tritsch