5 months today!

Hey Everyone,

Wow! This is so unreal! Today is exactly 5 months from when I began my mission. Weird! I can't believe how fast/slow time goes. Some days it flies by and others it drags on forever. I have to say I've been missing things more this last week because I had to say bye to my two best friends, Sister Camille Whiting and Sister Lindsey Thaxton. It's been hard to adjust and have a new companion. I really miss Sister Whiting and Sister Thaxton.

At transfers, I kept trying to say bye to Sister Whiting and Sister Thaxton, but I couldn't leave. Finally, I left. We were the first ones to leave followed by the english sisters, Sister Glenn and Sister Houston. It was really weird to be driving a car again after not having done so for 5 months. I love/hate driving! And it's weird to be senior comp. So many things are up to me now whereas before Sister Whiting pretty much took care of everything. I didn't realize how much she did until now, when I have to do it myself.

It snowed/rained pretty much all day yesterday. It was cold, and we went and tracted in the snow. I didn't want to. I tried to avoid it all day, but we finally ran out of people to visit. We had 7 appointments, and they all fell through but one. :/ Yeah, it was a bummer. But we actually ended up having a good day. We found a new investigator, and we finally found Guillermo home. We haven't found him home since he came to church. We taught him and his friend, Jerry, who is our new investigator.

We had 6 investigators at church on Sunday. Gloria and Alex were there with all their kids (Junior, Sammie, Giselle, and Baby Eric), and Junior's friend Eric and his brother Marcos. Javier came to church to and he brought his friend, Noe, and they were like 5-10 minutes early. We didn't have sacrament until 35 minutes into the meeting, and all that extra time made it possible for Gloria to make it, and her baby, Eric was able to finally be blessed too. Also, Hna. Ordonez (one of the members) was there too with her brand new Baby Giselle, who was blessed as well.

Luz wasn't at church, which was weird. We were supposed to visit her yesterday, but Ismael called and cancelled. But we're going to visit tomorrow.

We spent Sunday afternoon trying to find less actives. I had a list of about 11 or so people/families who I've never met or taught, and we tried to find them. Most of them were not home. I also made a list of potentials (people who we've contacted who have said we could come back) to visit when appts fall through or we run out of people to visit. We were able to set some return appts. That was good!

I honestly feel like my spanish has exponentially improved in this last week. Hna. Martinez knows spanish and english and portugese, but I try to make the phone calls and take care of things. I feel like I can do and say things that I didn't think I could do or say. And as I sat in fast and testimony meeting this past Sunday, there was a girl named Kassandra who bore her testimony. She talks really fast, and as I listened to her I just thought how is it that I'm able to understand 100% of what she's saying? I know it's because Heavenly Father has and continues to bless me with the gift of tongues.

Well, I gotta go. I have to say I feel like things have been harder because I feel like I have to do so much more being senior comp, but it's good that I'm learning and doing things that I didn't know I could do.

I love you all! Thank you for your prayers, love, and support!

Also, no e-mail from Corey this week. Just so you know.

Love,

Hermana Christina Hogewoning