Happy Halloween! 

This Thursday I will hit my 9 month mark on my mission, which means I will be halfway done! That doesn't even seem real to me. Half of my mission is over. I hear that time just passes crazy fast from here on out.

I forgot to tell you all about a miracle that Sister Paine and I had last week, so here it is. We were at a relief society activity and really felt that we needed to leave. We were pretty far from home so we decided to go to the chapel to finish up our studies there. We were inside for about 2 minutes before we hear the doorbell ring. We thought that was super strange so we decide to go check out who is ringing the door bell. We wind up meeting the cutest old man named Claude. He read about our church online and was wondering if he could get a book of Mormon for him and his sister-in-law. We were able to give him contact information, and get him all set up. It was the coolest thing! Imagine if we hadn't listened to that prompting and left the activity.

This week was good, despite some minor setbacks. Sister Paine was sick for a lot of it which resulted in us spending a lot of time at home, helping her recover. However, it did allow me the time to go through our area book and contact some formers. There were a lot of people who were not very receptive to the idea of meeting with missionaries again. But there were a couple people who were willing to set up appointments with us! One of the women I called was a former potential. She caught my interest because I saw that she spoke Spanish. I was able to speak to her in Spanish and find out that she has a great desire to learn more about the Church. She loved what the missionaries shared with her on the bus. Only problem is that she works a lot, and has about 15 minutes a day to herself. I told her we do this work 24/7 and would be more than glad to share messages with her over the phone to which she gladly accepted.

I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Sister Zobrist who was my companion in the MTC! We spent a lot of the day doing passbys, knocking doors, and street contacting. As we were outside it even started snowing! Yes, snowing, in October. We went to an apartment building to try and visit one of our former investigators and he wasn't home. Rather than go back out into the cold we decided we should just start knocking all the doors. Well, luckily for us, we knocked into Arnold. Arnold is from Benin, Africa and was so excited to talk to us. He loves what we're doing as missionaries, giving 18 months of our lives to serve others and teach them about Jesus Christ's restored gospel. He's a non-practicing evangelist, and feels a great desire to get closer to God. He loved everything we taught him, and wants us to go back and teach him and his brother!

Saturday we were able to see somewhat of a small miracle. Sister Paine and I had some plans set up for the day, but were running super low on the amount of kilometers we could use on our car. We noticed that we were by some former investigators houses, and decided to walk around the street and see if we could visit them. This is where we ran into Rafael! Rafael was found a few months ago, and became super interested in the idea of eternal families. But Rafael didn't have a job, and couldn't afford to feed his family. After searching for a long time, he found a job...in Montreal. So he spends Monday-Friday in Montreal and sleeps all day Saturday, and then travels on Sunday. It was a miracle that we were even able to see him at all, but as soon as we did he told us that he's kept up with his book of mormon reading! He wasn't able to have us over at that current moment, but he said he gets home early on Friday and the first thing he wants is for us to come over and teach his family!

Funny moment: We haven't been getting meals from the members...like at all. And as missionaries, we don't receive that many funds, and as STLs we're also responsible for feeding 5 other sets of sisters on exchanges, so we're extra poor. Our ward mission leader found out about this and was not happy. So during 5th Sunday when everyone was gathered together he got up there and pretty much called everyone to repentance and told them they should feed us and allow us to come over and bless their home with our spirits. It was pretty embarassing, because he's like a dad. But it worked! We have 3 dinner appointments just this week alone.

Well, I hope you all have a Happy Halloween! Sister Paine and I will be in by 6, making some calls, and eating candy 

love,

Hermana Garcia

Scripture of the week:

D&C 58:3-4

 Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the presenttime, the design of your God concerning those thingswhich shall come hereafter, and the glory which shallfollow after much tribulation. For after much tribulation come the blessings.Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned withmuch glory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand

Quote of the week: