Hello April 22, 2013

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Hello fam,

How is Boston? I'm glad to hear everyone is doing well...hopefully still the case. I still can't believe that happened. So sad. They (and you) are in my prayers.

This week was great. We were in Arcadia on Wednesday for a sisters meeting, it was really good. They want us to step it up, so we're going to. Our mission for the sisters is pretty crazy, pretty much every spanish sister is training right now, and if they aren't they will be in a couple weeks. They've started to open areas and move people around outside of transfer cycles because sisters are coming in outside of the normal cycle. Out of the 7 months I've been in the field I've had 1 week where I haven't been training or been trained. Just with the way the mission worked out and the spacing of the hermanas that came in, I'm now one of the 3 oldest spanish sisters, which is funny because I still feel like I'm a newby. Anyways, it's fun. There's alot that's been required of us, but it's good because it makes us learn faster. I got to talk to my companion from the MTC. She's so sweet, it was really fun to talk to get to talk to her. She's serving in an area close to my first area in Tujunga.

This week, we were walking down the street from an appointment, and ended up stopping to talk to a couple Latino men sitting outside (drinking beer...ALWAYS). One of them, Hector, ended up being a less active from the DR who just moved to LA 3 months ago from Spain. He's awesome, we set up an appointment to meet with him and when we went over there it got even better. We met a woman that he lives with (still not sure if they're "together", I don't think so) and she said that she had been wanting to go to a Mormon church for a long time. She was even looking up online where the chapels were close by. She talked to Hector about it and he told her that we would be coming over later that week. Her name is Lucy, she's really sweet and is really open to everything.

We've been trying to meet with a family of investigators all week and they never were home. But! 2 of them came to church yesterday. It was crazy, they're ride wouldn't pick up so they called us to tell us they couldn't find a ride. Sacrament meeting had just barely started when they called us. One of the members pulled up right then and we asked her if she wouldn't mind picking them up. she said yes, so we called Josefina back and told her we'd be there to pick her and her hija (aka her boyfriend's hija) up. We found out later that Yadira (the hija, she's like 14) told her that they needed to pray to find a ride. Right after they finished praying, we called them back to tell them that we were on our way!

This area has so much going for it. The members are also amazing. We talked to this one woman, she's a recent convert, like a year or 2 ago. She told us her conversion story and it's so cool. She said that she had seem the missionaries walking down the street and always wanted to talk to them, but she thought they only spoke english. So, she started learning english just so she could talk to them. When we finally did, she realized that they also spoke spanish! she was so surprised! I think she said she was baptized like 2 or 3 weeks later. She's gold- she has made it her goal and purpose in life to make sure that everyone in her family has the gospel. And everyone else she knows! While we're talking to her if she see's someone she knows, she'll chase them down and have them come and talk to us. The other day we were teaching a man that lives in the same trailer park as her and she came over, grabbed a chair and just started bearing testimony of what we were teaching. Amazing. We also went to a wedding reception on Saturday of a couple who had just gotten sealed in the temple that morning. They wanted us us to be there so that we could introduce ourselves to their friends. We were able to pick up a potential investigator and a really good referral for the elders I served with in my last area in Rimgrove.

I also got to go back to Rimgrove yesterday for Juan's baptism! He asked me to speak. It was one of the best days of my life. He has changed so so much. After his baptism, he told me that he had called a family meeting kind of to talk to his family about his baptism and to bear his testimony to them. His whole life has changed from where it was 2 months ago. He's a totally different person. He told me that he's stopped working so much because he realizes now how there is so much more to life than just working. He wants a family so badly (his favorite general conference talk was the one about the principles of having a good marriage). I am amazed! I would have been shocked to hear him say those words 2 months ago. He's on fire!

I was able to see one of my other investigators there as well who is also doing really well! Hopefully, we'll be able to go back next week for his baptism as well. I'm so excited!

I love you all and hope all is going well.

Love and miss you,

Hermana LaPierre