MONTEBELLO WEEK 9!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So.... guess what.... THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!!! It is amazing how much God helps you when you are doing the right things. Like this week, like basically EVERYONE cancelled their appointments. But, like, since the church is true we didn't get downhearted, it is their choice to not accept it, their loss not ours. We carry the best news ever so there's never any reason to be downhearted as long as you are working your hardest! And because we were determined to keep working we had a ton of other really cool experiences that only happened because people cancelled their appointments. Like we were out street contacting one night because our appointment cancelled and we came across some Jehova's witnesses and talked to them for like 40 minutes. And they told us to come back and talk to them whenever. A lot of the talk was them just talking at us, but as soon as we just bore our testimonies it shut them up and they started listening to us. Testimonies are powerful things. It is the fastest way to bring the spirit always. And what I've seen is that even though it can be scary to do, bearing a sincere testimony is almost always respected by other people even if they don't jump up and get baptized right away. Also on a tangent, I really like Jehova's Witnesses, I don't know why they have a bad reputation. Also on another tangent, we had to leave their house because their was a police search going on in the neighborhood with like ten cop cars all with their lights off, but like they would put their spotlights on anyone who they saw. It was scary. But, I like to live on the wildside, wouldn't have it any other way. Sometimes we hear gunshots haha.

Here is a cute story. We have one investigator named Hercilia who has been investigating the church forever but she is really old and really really poor and so she cannot usually make it to church because no buses go by the church from where she lives and she does not have any other means of transportation. Well we had been trying to find her a ride, but since not very many people around here actually have cars it has been hard. So, yesterday, we told her we would walk with her to church. So we got to her house at 8am and departed. Well, she is a cute old lady who can barely walk, she has to use a walker, but she did it. It took us 40 minutes to walk there, but we told her the story about the salt lake city temple stone cutter who walked 20 miles with one leg to get to salt lake to continue his calling as a mason on the temple every week. Well, Hercilia loved church, and afterwards it was hot and we knew she was probably really exhausted and so we were like "we have to find her a ride home". So we did, but then when we told Hercilia, she said that she didn't want a ride home, that she wanted to walk. So we walked the 40 minutes back with her. I think the stone cutter story inspired her. It was so cute. I love stubborn old people.

And yea we are still teaching Arath's brother Kevin! He is awesome. He is just a little scared to make big commitments. But he loves going to church now. He says he gets his clothes ready the night before and gets up early. So right now we are just working on making him want the blessings of baptism and having the holy ghost a little more. Hopefully he can get do it soon so that he can baptize his mom. And their mom is the one working on the divorce. We think it will all work out, she is worried that if she just gets married it will affect her papers when she tries to become a citizen, so we are waiting a little bit to try to figure that out. 

Also, I AM TEACHING A DANCE CLASS!!!! It is starting next week on September 4th. We will see if this actually works, but president keeps telling me to do it, so we will give it a try and see if it is actually a good way to get investigators with kids to the church.

We found some really cool new investigators this week because of all our spare time! So this next week is going to be AWESOME!!!!!!! EVERY WEEK IS AWESOME HERE ON THE MISSION!!!!!!!! GO BE AWESOME MEMBER MISSIONARIES!!! Members who are excited about missionary work are seriously THE BEST HELP TO MISSIONARIES THAT THERE POSSIBLY IS. Keep it Real!

Love you guys!

Hermana Bardsley