April 23, 2015

This has been such an AWESOME week. sister Chirstiansen and I are headed to DC today to see the cherry blossoms, so in order to save time and still let you know about all the awesomeness, I'm going to just give you a lot of pictures. Okay? Okay. 

We went to the Manassas Battlefield last preparation day with the sisters from the Manassas 2nd ward (we're in Manassas 1st). It was SO gorgeous and so much fun! We just walked around and read signs and took pictures.

The trees here have EXPLODED!!! Popcorn is popping everywhere and it is so beautiful! Spring in northern Virginia is incredible. 

I'm sending a random assortment of other pictures, too. Sister Christiansen's mom sent both of us Easter candy! (I don't like Easter candy all that much, but its the thought that counts, right?) 

The Blodgetts are a couple in their late 20s who just moved back out here from BYU and who had us over for dinner on Sister Christiansen's birthday on the 2nd. We had chicken enchiladas. They're having us over for my birthday, too! Kirk and Spock are political candidates. 

We had a Sister's meeting for all the sisters in our Zone. It was wonderful. We went and saw Vivian Sims again! If some of these pictures didn't come through, I'm really sorry. I'm having wifi issues. :P

The most exciting thing this week was, of course, the baptism!!! Patricia and her husband Antonio cried pretty much the whole time. Raphaella was a combination of excited and nervous, but you could tell she was feeling the Spirit too. They are such a special family! Patricia wrote down her testimony and showed it to us in Relief Society yesterday. It nearly made me cry. I have absolutely LOVED working with these three special people. They have already made it their goal to go to the temple in a year and be sealed as a family. I'll still be on my mission, so I can get permission to go with them! It has been such a privilege and a blessing to teach this family. They are so faithful and wonderful. Any of the fears they have had in this process have been healed by their incredible faith. We have a sign-up sheet that goes around Relief Society every Sunday for women who want to come on splits with us to put their names on. Patricia turned to me when it came by and asked me if I thought she would be able to do it. She was concerned that her English isn't good enough, but I assured her it was, and that we would love to have her with us sometime. She was very excited, and added her name to the list. I am just so happy for them, I can't even contain it!!! We have discovered that there are SO MANY Portuguese speakers in our ward. Two sisters are from Brazil and one served her mission there. Antonio's home teacher served in Brazil and so did Raphaella's primary teacher. The bishop served in Portugal, so he speaks Portuguese as well. This was definitely the right time and the right place for Patricia and Raphaella to join the Church, and for Antonio to come back. It couldn't have been better. :)