Aiming High 7/30/12

Howdy ho!

 I'm glad you guys are getting some rain over there because we've been having some nice sunshine (:  I have quite a strange tan line on my feet because of my shoes. Sis.Benson says I have monkey feet because my toes are all white and the top of my foot is really brown.  I feel very tan in this country because everyone is so white from the lack of sun.  But it has been another good week.  We actually didn't go on exchange because the other sisters got sick.  We're planning on going this week, but I am not too sure because one of them was still sick yesterday, but we'll see.

This transfer our district set goals to reach and I just know that we are going to reach them this week.  Last week we got really close, but this time we're going to do it!  Pres.Ogden had set a standard of excellence that we are always striving to reach and when I first came here it seemed impossible to reach it, but now it is totally possible.  It is really exciting because when I first came here we only had 1 investigator - Aled.  But now we have 9! And we plan on getting 3 more this coming week.  One of the hardest parts is getting members to come with us.  One of the standards is to have 10 member present lessons, 5 of them with investigators.  And I am just realizing how much planning in advance it takes.  We can't just call up memebers the night before, but we have to set things up a lot earlier.  The other hard part is that the ward is so spread out and not everyone has a car so it takes more planning than just giving someone a phone call.  It is suprising how many people don't have cars in this country.  A lot of less-actives are less-active simply because it is hard to get a lift to church.

So this past week we gained 3 new investigators!  There's a lady named Leila Darby who is good friends with some members and she was taught by elders a long time ago, but they were too pushy.  She let us come in though and teach her about the BoM and we'll go back tomorrow.  She's very religious so she's sceptical of what we say, but she's willing to learn more.  And then we tried by some potentials we met about a month ago - Anna and Antonia.  They are from Portugal and Antonia (the mom) doesn't speak much English.  Anna (the daughter) is 17 and she speaks both languages fluently so she had to translate for us.  When we first met them we gave Anna an English BoM and said that we would come back with a Portugese one for Antonia and that's what we did on Tuesday.  Antonia was so excited to have her own book in her language.  We were going to leave a chapter for her to read, but she said she just wanted to read the whole thing.  She doesn't do anything so she probably will.  We left Anna a chapter though and when we asked her what she thought about the things we had said and read, she said that she couldn't describe it, but she felt something inside, she felt light inside.  Bingo!  The Spirit is amazing!   They are both so sweet and we'll see them tomorrow as well.  There is one member in the ward who speaks Portugese - Diego, the guy who baptized Aled.  So we'll have to take him teaching with us and if they come to church maybe he can translate. We'll see (:

Do you remember Andrew Lemmon? We totally saw him again this week.  We went by his house and his mom was home as well.  Her name is Julie and she let us in. Andrew had told her about us and she said that the only thing she's really going to struggle with is giving up her tea.  We didn't get to teach them anything, but she said we can also come back tomorrow and we can teach them.  Hallelujah!  Oh they are so ready!  Andrew is what we call a dry mormon.  He believes it all, lives the right way and now we just need to get him wet (baptized). Ha ha!

The olympics have started and everyone is watching them.  It is a pretty big deal, but we don't have anything do with them. I don't even know if the Welsh have any olympians or if they all just fall under the UK.  Yeah the true Welsh people are proud of their heritage, culture, and language.  All of the schools are in Welsh because they are trying to preserve their langauge.  It is one of the oldest langauges, but it's funny because they don't have Welsh words for things like Ipod, socks, and other modern words.  So someone will be speaking in Welsh and all of a sudden you'll hear 'computer'.  It's kind of funny, but sad because it is dying despite their efforts to save it.

I hope that the LeFevre reunion goes well and that you guys have fun!  That is so crazy that school is about to start again!  Next week is transfers already! I'm betting that Sis.Benson gets transfered, but it's possible I could go since she has only been her one transfer more than me.  So I won't be emailing on Monday, maybe Wednesday, we'll see.

 But I love you guys Sooooo much!

 Sister LeFevre