HELLO there.

                                                               

THIS WEEK WAS 'GRAPE'!!!! 

             Sister Mackay, Sister Rendon, Sister Burnside

missionary puns eh. 

specifically to missionaries who serve in the CFM. 

the actual vineyard of the Lord. 

Here are some really important things. 

-Reuben is changing his life. 

Literally. He is investigator shaped gold. We love him. We were going over the baptismal interview questions and we hadn't taught all of the commandments yet-so we just explained them as we go. He was just accepting them all and kept saying 'I just want to hand my life over to God.' 

He had a meeting to get to know our Bishop and then we started making guesses about where he would serve his mission. 

Just in the few weeks we've known him so much has changed. He was telling us about how he was talking to his friend (who we are also teaching) and his friend was saying that his life was boring. AND THESE ARE SOME REAL QUOTES FROM REUBEN. "Well if you're bored, why don't you go to church? or you could read the Book of Mormon?" Which is so true. There is no time to be bored when you're trying to learn about the restored gospel. 

Which brings me to Claudia, who is living proof of that last statement. 

-We met Claudia right after a dinner one day and she asked us to come back and talk to her daughter about God. Which of course we said yes. So we went back and taught her daughter who is so cute and then set a return appointment. When we went back she wasn't there because she had missed the bus. So we taught Claudia. It was a great lesson on the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and then we pulled out the Book of Mormon and wow her eyes lit up. Then her daughter got home and she said a cute prayer that went like this...."thanks for letting my friends....I mean....my sisters come over and teach me today!" So tender. Then we went over like two days later and the daughter was there but Claudia wasn't. When we asked if she had seen her mom reading the Book of Mormon....it went kind of like this. ''YA. that is all that she has done. She reads it all day and then all night. I think I saw her at five in the morning reading it with the light on her phone. She can't put it down. I think she is almost done with it." We are super pumped to go back tonight. See no time to waste when you are learning about the restored gospel. 

-We also teach this cute man named Ben Lack. Ben lack will be 85 next month. Ben Lack is also 85% blind and 85% deaf. So teaching him reallyyyyy means teaching with short, powerful, statements of truth. He also tells a really great Ben Lack'ified version of Jacob and Esau. Where Jacob is a 'coward and a momma's boy' and Rachel is a 'foxy little thing'. Sister Burnside and I are convinced we could have a hit youtube channel called....SCRIPTURE STORIES AS TOLD BY BEN LACK. 

-WE WENT GRAPE HUNTIN'. 

Which I've probably explained a little bit but also probably not nearly well enough. 

In the California Fresno Mission they have a church owned vineyard. Huge, vast amounts of grapes. And because the Lord is all about service. It requires huge, vasts amounts of latter-day saints spending Saturday hunting for grapes. Which are laid out to turn into raisins. Which are taken all over this place we call Earth to feed the hungry. It literally feels like Zion out in the vineyard. 

-Transfers happened. 

Sister Burnside and I are staying together in Tulare. Which we are super excited about. A genuinely true fact. The Elders in the area are both leaving and that is a wee bit intimidating because we are teaching so many people we feel like we can't give them the attention they deserve and now we are taking on the Elders investigators as well. But hey if you are going to have a problem as a missionary this is a good one to have. 

ONE LAST NOTE. 

Once upon a time quite a long while ago I was reading an email Jace Iverson had sent home about his mission. He said something like..............''My life has become the life of my investigators." I've remembered that and as a full time missionary I've experienced that. 

When my investigators have good days, I have good days. 

When my investigators have hard, I have hard days. 

It's all about them, It's all about Jesus Christ and it's not even a little bit about me. 

71 And the Lord of the vineyard said unto them: Go to, and labor in the vineyard, with your might