March 27, 2012 Cesar Chavez' Day?!

Who the heck is Cesar Chavez? Can someone google that and get back to me? I want to know why the state of California made up a holiday for him and closed the library yesterday! haha Anyway, things in North Hollywood are... REALLY DIFFERENT. It's only 15 min away from my old area but wow. It feels like a completely different world. I don't have much time to write about our experiences, but I can tell you a bit about my new companion, Hermana Tara Prince. She's from St. George, Utah, and she's been out on for about 9 months. Her Spanish is really good, thank goodness. She is a rockstar missionary. She's really different from all the other companions I've had, but I'm learning a lot from her.

 

We did have one experience on Sunday where we had asked the Bishop if there was anyone in the ward he had been thinking about or wanted us to visit. He named a family that has been active-ish, but  much less so recently. They've only been members for a year and the husband still isn't a member. They actually live in the Elders area but when the Bishop asks, we can visit anyone in the ward. So after searching for their house in the POURING RAIN and having no luck, the hermana finally called us back and told us how to get to her house. We visited with her for awhile and then she opened up and had said that just a couple hours earlier she had prayed to know if she should stop going to church altogether for awhile. Turns out she's having some problems with a couple other hermanas gossiping really hurtful things about her and her family and it has just caused her to feel so uncomfortable at church that she doesn't want to go anymore. Luckily she saw our very timely visit as God's answer so she's determined to not quit on coming to church. We had a good heart to heart with her and truely gave her counsel as the Spirit directed. Such a neat experience.

 

So... GOD LOVES YOU. He DOES answer prayers. So pray harder. And don't gossip.

 

Love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Blackburn

 

P.S. In my reading I am now in the Book of Joshua in the Old Testament and in the middle of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon... SO COOL. I LOVE THE SCRIPTURES!!!!!!!!! And I hope I never act like the Children of Israel... haha. ;)