Rain Storm!!!

WOW! This week was fun! It went by pretty quick, but it ended with a bang on Saturday night. We had a ward bbq which the Velazquez family were going to come to, but then the rain storm hit. We still ended up going, but there were maybe 3-4 families there.... and they were the ones who planned it. I felt bad! But really, this was a crazy storm!!! The streets were completely flooded up to our knees (not joking), so we had to park our car and walk after the bbq to go to an appointment. And I've NEVER seen rain or floods like this one. We ended up pushing a few dead cars out of streets with people and it was actually pretty fun! Our shoes are ruined, and our clothes got drenched, but we laughed lots and we didn't want to go in early, but the assistants told the district leader to come find us cause other sisters cars were flooding and they didn't want us to get stuck. We told them we parked our car in a safe place and we would be fine till 9:00 and we kept going down the street, but they followed us and then told us our apartment flooded.... So they took us home and our apartment was fine. I was so mad! haha But the next day Sister Hinton and Petersen asked Elder Nottingham (the assistant) why he lied to us about our apartment, and he said that was the only way he could get me to go home. Oh well!

I guess there are supposed to be more storms this week, so we'll see if it happens again. I'll have to send pics.

Guess what?! The Velazquez family came to church again! It was their 3rd week in a row and they are loving it. We had a linger longer after church and they stayed for that and I'm pretty sure every person in the ward went up and greeted them! I was grateful a few ladies even invited Jessica to have her kids do play groups with them. They really like the ward. Earlier last week I went over there teaching with a member in our ward while Sister Hinton and Petersen went to another lesson. We taught them the Word of Wisdom and that seriously has to be one of their biggest hurdles cause they love coffee... But they both said they would live it and just pray for the strength to overcome it. I love their family so much! I can't wait to see them get sealed next year! The quote that says, "Missionary; someone who leaves their family for a short time so other families can be eternal." is so true! I love getting to see their progress in the gospel :) On Friday night they invited us over for dinner and they really opened up to us. I just felt bad cause I was a little sick on Friday and so trying not to get sick at the dinner table was a little hard, but Heavenly Father blessed me. :)

President Ashton called us last week with a referral of someone he contacted while he was out to eat. We contacted her the next day and we've been teaching her. Sister Hinton went on Splits with a less active sister in our ward who said she would come teaching with us and she had a great lesson with her. I think it even helped the less active out way more than the investigator cause she was able to teach 50% of the lesson with Sister Hinton and bare testimony of the truths she knows. She even asked to share something in church on Sunday in Sunday school and she said how big of an impact that made on her! We are trying to do that with more less actives so they will have the fire burning in them to do missionary work.

I was able to go to the District leader council this morning to set some zone goals for the month with the elders. It felt so weird being the only girl and having NO companion by my side... I think I'm going to be awkward when I get home! Anyway, it was a cool experience to set those goals with the Help of Heavenly Father. We all got the same number in our heads for how many baptisms they zone can get this month! It was definitely inspired. Tomorrow we have a mission leader council and I've been asked to talk about how mission exchanges are going with the sisters and how we can improve. I just wish everyone wanted to be obedient so they could receive the blessings. So many people want to get blessings without doing their part. But for the most part this mission is doing really well! We just have to Increase our Faith to bring more people to Christ.

We've also been teaching with several of the youth in the ward still and they are doing great! We have missionary correlation every Saturday morning at our bishops house (and his wife makes yummy breakfast!!) and he told us and the elders that the youth in the ward have made a 180 degree change the past few months and he can see several of them serving missions where as before he would have never thought they could make it! President Ashton is inspired to have us working closely with the youth. They need just as much strengthening as anyone else, if not more!

I love being a missionary!

I was able to go back to Memorial this past week to help some sisters there and we had a really cool experience! We had several of our lessons fall through and we were knocking at this one persons door and I saw across the way that there was a door open and I told the sisters we needed to go try them. We went up and knocked on their door and it ended up being a Spanish couple that spoke zero English. I told them we would be right back and we went to go get some Spanish pamphlets in the car. We ended up teaching them a 45 minute lesson!!!! They are going to be baptized. We sent them to the Spanish elders and told them this is a golden referral. After the lesson the lady told me she wanted this for her son as well and he lived in Mexico. She called him and had me speak to him about the gospel. We told him about mormon.org and contacting the missionaries there.

I think Heavenly Father needed me to learn a little Spanish from Sister Moreno so we could at least tell the family about the beginning of this great plan God has for us!

Things are going great! I will try to send some pictures from this past week. :)

I love y'all so much! Can't wait to talk to you in a few weeks.

Sister Avery