St. Petersburg Week 6

Hola Familia! Muchisimos gracias por su cartes! siempre! y tambien su "recording" de Noche de hogar! Tuvo bueno sentamientos mientras eschuchando a su testimonios de este obra y deseos. Te querro!

So, this week was amazing like always! I am really really starting to love this work more and more! I really wanted to stay in St. Pete another transfer. I am getting so close with the members here and we have had some amazing progress with the work. We have sooo many people close to baptism it is going to be amazing to see what happens this transfer. So much potential! Got the call Saturday morning and Hermana Murray and I are both staying!!! Yay!

Frank is baptized and confirmed!!! Yay!!!!!!!!! He is happier than I have ever seen him. and I am so excited for the month I come back because they will be sealed in the Salt Lake Temple and I will get to go!!!! Yay!!! :-) I am sooo blessed! Frank and his wife have been through a lot and it is amazing to see how much the Gospel has changed their lives!

Another amazing person we are teaching lives clear up in Palm Harbor! We will be burning a lot of miles this month! Hello bicycle! His name is Eddy Pederosa. He is from Cuba, which has one of the hardest Spanish dialects to understand. They don't pronounce all of the words and it kind of sounds like one run on sentence that is gobbed together, but its fun! Where he is from, they weren't allowed to practice religion of any kind. He always had a desire to but couldn't. Hmmm, reminds me of a story out of the Book of Mormon in Mosiah :-) I'll be sharing that with him tonight :-) So, the only knowledge that he has of Jesus Christ is from reading the Bible in "secret." His testimony is so strong and he is so fluent in the bible. Oh boy, I'm soooo excited to teach him. The Elders are teaching one of his sons and he is being baptized in a week. There is I think 6 in the family. His wife is a member (inactive). She really likes us sisters so she has asked us to come about 45 minutes before his lessons to have scripture study with them. They are a bilingual family. I'm not totally sure on the whole situation, but I know that they were recently married and I don't think that the children are his. He has been reluctant to listen to us, but he seems to have a huge desire to now. He wanted us to come over the next day. he really loves the principles of dispensations and the apostasy, and why there needed to be a restoration. He is just going to love the plan of salvation. I know that if he is baptized his entire family will follow! so exciting!

We missionaries of the St. Pete ward hosted and organized a musical fireside that we had last night, and it was AMAZING! We took the lesson and taught it through song and testimony. I had the privilege of bearing my testimony and teaching about Joseph Smith. Hermana Murray did an amazing job playing the violin. We had about a 100 in attendance. Lots of investigators. That's almost as good as sacrament meeting! The spirit was so strong. I think we will be doing things like this more often. In the South, the people really love music in church, especially gospel music. So it was a really nice change to teach the second lesson in this way. I think more than anything, the members (especially in the last weeks) have gained a lot of trust with us (the missionaries) because they have seen us try to work hard. We had a lot of people participate in the musical fireside and that seemed to help a lot. It is amazing how much serving people can bring you closer together.

I love tracting... I mean, "finding people to baptize." :-) There is no greater feeling than to go to the Father and ask Him in prayer where he would like us to go and where there are people that are prepared to hear the message of the restoration. Then to act on those feelings that you get and trust them. You have to trust them, and when you do act on them, you KNOW you are in the right place. I'm not sure how to describe the feeling, but every time you knock on a door you know you are planting a seed. it truly is amazing. We did this on Saturday. It was a golden street. Plenty of potentials and we had the opportunity to teach on almost every door step. My favorite part was walking back to the car. we were walking next to two little 7 year old girls that were skipping and holding hands while there uncle was walking them to a girls sleep over. They were soo cute. We laughed together as I told them about my experiences I had with sleep overs. Sleeping on the trampoline... they thought that was funny. The best part is that their uncle said to us that they were learning Spanish. I was like, "Oh, well, como esta... como fue su dia... etc." They responded. It was sooo cute. I can't remember what I said, but I didn't pronounce something right, and she said very sternly, pointing her finger at me "Now remember, Z's are like S's!" Oh I about died... so cute and funny. I got put in my place by a 7 year old. :-)

Funny experience yesterday. Hermana Murray really laughed at me. We were "finding people to baptize" and sister Murray was on the phone with the AP's and this old Korean lady riding a big trike came by. So I started to contact her. She kept riding so I walked by her. I said I was a missionary and showed her the card of Christ and she is like "I don't speak English." But she looked at her basket behind her and I thought she wanted me to put it in the back. so I did, and she said "I don't speak English!" Oh it so funny! Just little tender mercies of the Lord to keep your spirits up. The lady later turned around at me and smiled :-)

Love you all!

Hermana Vaughan-Schultz