East Coast meets West Coast-- California Los Angeles Mission: We are a Trio!!!

Hello hello dearest family!

It is so good to see that you had another wonderful week!!! I loved the pictures of you and Papi at Medieval Times! That must have been fun! :) That food at that famous grill looked really yummy too! Love you guys, glad it was fun in Dallas and that you had a nice little get-away! Ahhh that is so awesome about Riley! Its so exciting! I'll be home not this Christmas but next Christmas, either way it will be special, that time is awesome! Ooo a talent show sounds fun! I remember the last talent show with Butler ahaha. I actually did hear from Rachel, she emailed me about her mission call that is so exciting, I told her one of the Elders in my District in the MTC who is now with me in the mission is from Colombus, Ohio! And yayyy for Andrea, I am glad she finally was able to turn all that in, when does she go? I would love to see some pictures from MADS camp and such, love you all bunches!

This week was full of 1sts and miracles! Tuesday was Transfer Day and we had Transfer meeting which felt like almost the whole mission was there, just because there were like 32 departing missionaries and a good amount of brand new missionaries. It was crazy! When we got home, we got to work on moving around the desks and beds to make it a trio living space :) Oh my goodness! I love the trio life! Haha Sister Wehrhahn is the funniest sister you will ever meet. She is from Wisconsin and she has an accent, (she says bag like bay-g hehe) She has been out for a little over a year and she goes home in December, she is a hoot and a fantastic missionary. Heavenly Father knew what He was doing when He sent her to me, we have a good ol' time. Maybe too much ;) This week we have been getting to know a little more of our area because the South Bay YSA live all over so our boundaries are....well we have no boundaries haha. Not necessarily, but we have many YSA members all over so what used to be our boundary no longer is, which has been nice but we also have familiarize ourselves with other roads etc. (Thank goodness for Sister Hatch because I am TERRIBLE at reading maps :) )This week we went to visit a less active lady, Sister Wolper, (we visit at least once a week) she's had surgery for many different medical reasons and when we come over we get her mail and take her trash out. This week when we came to visit she was especially excited to see the new sister haha however Sister Wolper is a very particular woman, its her way or the highway and so she said that she thought Sister Wehrhahn talked too much and that she gets too excited. So when Sister Wolper prayed, she prayed that Sister Wehrahn could calm down her excitement and let others talk hahahaha oh man it was too good. She also made some chicken soup (which was not very good at all) that she forced us to eat, so I told Sister Wolper that my stomach was not feeling too good so she only made me have 1 cup of it, however she made Sister Wehrhahn eat like 3 cups of soup. Oh man Sister Wolper is too much sometimes, but she is so sweet and she loves it when we come over because she's very lonely.

We also had dinner with a sweet family, the Hirst family! but another funny thing is that Sister Hirst has a grown son who is very smart and into history and somehow at dinner it came up that Sister Hatch MIGHT BE related to John Hancock, anyways, Mike (Sister Hirst's son) was so excited and started begging Sister Hatch to autograph his journal. It was too much! Hahaha we were laughing about that for days! We laugh a lot. Sometimes we laugh at the smallest things, but as missionaries that's what you've gotta do to stay sane. :)

This week we also got to do temple service at the Los Angeles temple, which was awesome! Our zone was chosen to go and oh it was special. We worked with some sisters in the clothing area of the temple and it was so cool to be there so early in the morning, so quiet and so reverent. I love the temple! It was a cool experience to be able to serve there.

This Sunday was a madhouse! Well, not too bad but we had to try to balance attending two wards. Torrance 1st ward starts @ 11am but because we go to ward council, we get there at 9am, then South Bay YSA ward starts at 1pm, but we also try to go to their ward council which is at 12ish which is the same time as gospel principles. We were running around like crazies. Haha not too mention next week the bishopric in YSA ward asked me to speak this coming week, and the other sisters to speak the following weeks. Its okay though because the YSA is so fun. They have really fun activities every week: Monday-- FHE, Wed--Institute, Thursday--Sports Night. We have FHE tonight! There is such a special spirit in the YSA ward. Oh! And get this, a member of the bishopric in YSA is from Mt. Airy, SC! His name is Brother Haymore and he says he knows Jospeh Hamilton (big Joe, I think) It is so cool! I told him I was a Hamilton. It is awesome to have some connections! :)

Miracle of the week: John came to church again! With his son! We have been losing our deep faith, mainly because he's been kind of flaky with appointments and such but please please pray for John that he will be able to get baptized on August 22nd!!! As for other investigators we're working on finding and finding more YSA, we are trying to figure out a good balance for working in both areas and I think we'll get it eventually (probably when the transfer is over) ;)

So far on the mission I have been pondering a lot, (you have a lot of time to do that) and before I never really did understand how important the Book of Mormon was. In Preach My Gospel it says that the BOM is the keystone of our religion and it really is, it is evidence of the Restoration! It is the greatest book ever, I have come to appreciate it a lot more on my mission. It is a book that is for us. We were talking to a guy on the street who said that he had read the Book of Mormon and that he knew that it was true, however he believed that the Mormons misinterpreted it and that our doctrine was wrong. We tried to explain to him that if the BOM was true, then Joseph was a prophet and every single other doctrine is true. I am so grateful for the counsel we can receive and I know that anyone, wherever can read it to find out for themselves if it really is a true book.

I love you guys, you're awesome, praying for you erryday, no joke. Tell the branch I love em' too! Have a good week at work and such, can't wait to hear about going back to school goes. Enjoy the last few weeks of summer!

Love,

Hermana Abreu