Late Night Phone Calls, Albuquerque, NM

Week 5 of transfer 2 has come to a close! only one more - and this is the week in which our fates for the next month and a half will be determined - training calls will come on Wednesday with other calls coming between Wednesday and Sunday. I have no idea what to expect - Sister Smith could easily be training again. Y'all will know next week- don't you just love the suspense? I know I don't.

This has been quite a good week though - we had a some great opportunities to serve- we went and weeded at the home a part member family - or I guess couple is the right way to say it. The y are an older couple- grandama and granpa age- He is a member and comes every week while she is an active member in her church (community of Christ maybe??) They were married later in life after they had both been married previously- and the crazy thing is they knew each other really well when they were married before. It is actually a really cool story - but the point is, when they got married they made an agreement that they cannot try to convert each other - Brother Stoleworthy (the husband) said to us though that just becasue he can't say anything doesn't mean the sisters can't! so that is what we are going to do - work on her slowly - first by serving them so she can see the good in the church! This last week we went and weeded. this coming week we will probably go iron for her. She is a big time quilter and has some incredible ones! I will maybe take some pictures so you can see em mom. But he was so funny when we went to weed - he told us we could only weed for him if he could supply us with gloves and knee pads and screw drivers to dig out the weeds. He even threw in the hat as bonus! I chuckeled at the gloves becasue who weeds with gloves? but I was sure thankful for them becasue the weeds we were pulling had stickers on em! They werent your typical goat-heads - they are what they call here sand burrs. and they are horrid! they just look like crab grass but have about 8 little stickers on the ends. Keni do you know what I talk of? so the gloves were a good thing - except they were huge!

The other exciting news for the week is Brian! He was at church last week - I told y'all about that I hope - if not - he was at church last week - before we even taught him a lesson! We were able though to teach him the restoration this last week though and it went so well! We were ouside on his porch/courtyard thing becasue he is just a single guy - ye know - following those rules to keep us safe and avoid all appearance of evil - but it was a nice day - slightly overcast. We recited to him the first vision and when we finished we asked how he was feeling and he looked up to the sky and said something along the lines of it being so powerful that he was shaking - then he pointed out that as we were sharing it the sun came out. It was real cool. He is really excited to be learning more. We committed him to read the bnook of mormon and to pray about it to know if it is true - and the we commitetd him to baptism. and he said Yes! Yahoo! and he came to church again yesterday! this time only for sacrament though- but he came at 9:00 to the right ward. oh we are excited! Yesterday night (last night maybe..ugh my language skills are dashed) he gave us a call becasue he had been reading and had some questions - mind you this was at 9:40. Sister Smith and I had just finished planning and were ready to get ready for bed. and Brian likes to talk. We discussed his reading in the book of Enos - he did not want to start in the beginnning so he picked Enos. but he loves it so I won't say anything! anyway we just chatted about it and had a good discussion on the phhone. I was slightly bummed at first becasue this call was taking away my time to lay on my bed in my clothes for 10-15 minutes that I do every night just becasue I am too lazy/tired to change yet - but then I was so excited that he was reading and wanted things to be clarified right away that he couldn't wait until we see him on tuesday so I got over myself real quick. We are real excited about Brian needless to say!

Also we are so excited about Bobbie! She has been on date for the 14th of September - but that is gonig to change to probably October which is a bummer but it is not becasue she isn't ready - it is becasue she wants her family to be there. They were just here last week and she is going to see them this weekend so it might not be until October that they can come back - Momma, I told you I would love for her to meet you but sahe won't be getting north to Utah until late Friday and is leaving on Monday - so you probably won't see her this time around, but I still did give her your phjone number- and she said she would give it to her daughter so you will have to meet her too! But the real exciting thing about Bobbie is that she was at church yesterday and stayed for the full three hours! For the first time! And it was a really good meeting. In Sunday School the lesson was on Honesty and a really good discussion ensued- one in which she participated. She had an experience at work this last week where she hadn't been completely honest and it had just been eating at her and eating at her - and she knew that she needed to correct it. and then she made a cmoment along the lines of " This is how In know that this is the truth becasue Heavenly Father knew that this was the lesson I needed to hear today. He knows just what I need." It was so neat!oh I just love her and am so excited for her to be baptized! then her sweet husband will be and then they will all be sealed together in the temple! 

This letter is long enough now I think - I only told you about three people even! shees I can talk! Tonight I am headed to help a single lady in the ward weed in her backyard - another gal in the area is getting married in her backyard this weekend - I know how that goes -so we arehelping her prep - goodness with all this weeding I am dong, I am giong to need to go find me some good gardening gloves! 

Oh one more thing - we had interviews with Presidentand Sister Miller this week - where they came to our apartments to see how we live and such and I tell you what, they loved my u-state blanket! Go Aggies! and they also loved all my pictures of my sweet family. They thank you for your support - as do I.

I love you all!

Sister Stuart