Chapter 37: I´m doing WHAT again??

What a crazy week! The last week of the transfer always seems to fly for me. This week we were definitely blessed with a miracle. We were continuing to have the worst luck with our investigators, and then my companion told me how she felt prompted that we should pass by an investigator that we found a couple months ago that seemed to have no interest. Well, we did, and we got the usual response, "I can´t today, but come back tomorrow, and I´ll be here." I just looked at my companion and thought ya right. I didn’t even know if we should waste the time coming back. Well, we did and it was incredible. She was completely changed. We taught her the Restoration, and she wanted us to come back. We had the Relief Society President come with us to an appointment to teach the Plan of Salvation, and she said she wanted to be baptized! There is always power in the Plan of Salvation. I love to see the look in people´s eyes when they find out for the first time that they can live with God and their family for Eternity.  Her name is Ana, and she is from Peru and she has a husband and son. She´s by far the most interested out of the three, but she is just learning so much. She really is asking questions and diligently seeking to find the truth. We came back the next day and she told us, "Before we start the lesson, I didn´t have an opportunity to read out of the Book of Mormon today; can we start our lesson by reading a chapter?" She is truly incredible. What´s even more incredible is she came to church! And the members just loved and accepted her. I am so excited. I think we may have some Word of Wisdom problems, but she has enough faith to overcome them. I am really excited to continue working with her and her family. Sunday night, the Relief Society President invited her over for Family Home Evening, and I think she had a good time. Have I ever said that I love the members here?  Which is why I am so glad that....drum roll please....I am staying in Castellón for another transfer! I was completely and utterly shocked. I knew that either me or Hermana Jarman was leaving, and it´s almost always the senior companion that leaves first when they open an area. In fact, I had pretty much begun my farewells, shed a few tears at one house (for the record, they started crying first, and I just couldn´t help myself) but then we received transfer calls. I was honestly panicking all day in anticipation of this call. I hate transfer calls.  Anyway, our district Leader finally called us, and he told us where all the Elders in the district were going first (He was trying to kill me, I am sure of it) and then he said, "Hermana Jarman, you will be opening the area Gerona with Hermana Benson (my MTC comp! lucky duck...) and Hermana Hopkins, you will be staying and training." WHAT??? Training again?? So yes, I am right back into the training program. I can´t believe I was called to train back to back, especially since only 4 Hermanas are coming into the mission. But, I know it´s what the Lord wants me to do at this point. So, we went around and let Hermana Jarman say her goodbyes. We visited our Spaniard family, Ana and Cristina. And the Grandma is about 80 years old, and just cried and cried. It was so sweet. Then she tried to teach us the pasa doble. hahaha I don´t think I will be making it on Dancing with the Stars anytime soon, but it was a sweet memory. It was definitely a bitter sweet weekend. I was grateful I got to stay in Castellón for the Holidays, but it was really hard to say goodbye to Hermana Jarman. I felt like her mom getting her ready to leave on her mission. She´s been trained, well, actually she trained me, and I know she will be so great up there. Maybe a little bit colder, but she will work miracles. As for me, I am nervous to train again, but I guess it´s what I signed up for.  I really do love being a missionary. Fernando has been really flakey this week, so we need to keep working with him, and Gris said she wouldn´t be able to meet with us this week just as a quick update. Happy Thanksgiving for real this week.  The Elders had us all convinced that it was last week, and we had a full out party! I even made a pie, and when we called the senior couples to tell them Happy Thanksgiving they informed us that we were wrong, it was next week. hahaha! We all had a good laugh. But hey, now we just get to celebrate it twice! So yes, I am so grateful for all the prayers and support, especially during this week.

Les Quiero,

Hermana Hopkins