6/8/2015

Hi Mom! Ask me questions, I'll answer them... AND I DON'T WANNA WRITE A LETTER OF THIS WEEK, because I have no stories and it was a week of rejection... no one wants to hear about that.

     Mom: It's okay to tell about rejection. It is what it is. Were you rejected knocking doors? Visiting members? Part-member families?

Kate: Everyone rejected us- people in doors, people in the street, our investigador of gold (well, her teenage son... I dunno what she thinks because she's never in her house).

     Mom:  Ok. Can you think of a time this week that you were led by the Spirit?

Kate: Ummmm, that's a good question... when we went to a house of menos activos for a noche de hogar, who live really far away and in a dangerous part of town, and I managed to get us on a bus without dying... what else, oh, we had plans to visit some menos activos who lived in one area, but I felt like we should visit our investigators instead. So we went to visit them and they were home and said they wanted to go to church.

     Mom: Easy question- What is your new companion's name? If you can't spell it, guess. Or look at her placa!

Kate: She is Hermana Fasanando... she's from the jungle of Peru.

     Mom: Do you ever call her Hermana Fascinando? I bet she's fascinating...

     Mom: What do you find yourself praying for? How do you see your prayers being answered?

Kate: Right now, I'm always praying that the hearts of the people of Tandil can be softer, that we can find people who want to listen to us, that we can work better with the members. I think I'm still in the waiting phase of these things. Before I always prayed that I could be stronger and have more self confidence and I dunno what changed but that's not a problem anymore.

     Mom: Maybe what changed is that your prayer was answered, and you were helped to become stronger and more confident? BTW- we pray for many of the same things- that the hearts of the people in Tandil will be softened, that you will find those who are prepared to listen. We also pray for your safety. You know, cuz we're parents and we worry.

     Mom: Tell me more about your golden investigator and her son. How did you find them, who are they, how far have they gotten, etc.

Kate: Her name is Cristina. She got to know a member in the ward who's awesome, super strong, and he always talks about the church, so she wanted to know more about the church. This was way before I got here. She works a lot and when Hna Lopez arrived and then when I got here, we lost contact with Cristina. And then she moved. Then she ran into Hno Ferrando one day, and passed him her new address and her phone number and asked him to ask us to visit her. We finally got in contact with her and started teaching her. She's awesome. Super spiritual reads the bible and prays everyday. She loved the things we were teaching her. She started reading the Book or Mormon everyday, and told us that it was true. And then we passed by her house a few times and she wasn't there. The last time we passed by, the son told us that she wasn't interested in the things we left her and started going to a different church. Yeah, I dunno what's happening with her.

     Mom: Wow! That's amazing about Cristina. I wonder if she has some concern she hasn't told you about- like not wanting to give up smoking, or if someone told her something negative about the church? I really hope you get a chance to talk to her, and find out the deal. This sounds a lot like a story from your dad's mission- I think he also had an investigator that seemed golden, and then quit meeting with the missionaries, and started avoiding them. You'll have to ask him the rest of the story- I don't remember the details.

     Mom: Where did Hermana Lopez get transferred to? Why?

Kate: We were together for two transfers of 6 weeks, and at the end of the second transfer, she got transferred to Necochea. I dunno why she had to go. And what's worse is that they took away our lider de districto who was awesome, and now we have an inexperienced lider de districto.

     Mom: Tell me more about the family that got sealed recently- what's their story? How long have they been members? How did they join? etc

Kate: That is a really great story, but I'm out of time. I always go to cyber at the same time, so next week you can wait for me and we can keep chatting :) Oh, and tell Jacob that if he doesn't get his papers in this month that the same thing that happened to me's gonna happen to him- all the apostles go on vacation and he'll have to wait and he'll get a departure date after school starts and that's the worst!!!!

love you tons :):)

Hermana Long