Oak-Town!

Yes, I am in Oakland. I was transferred here last Tuesday so it's almost been a week. Last week's preparation day was too crazy so I didn't get around to writing this email. We had to pack up and clean the apartment and a whole bunch of other stuff. Sister Ure and I both left the area and two new sisters came in to take our place. It was hard to leave all of our investigators and ward members but we saw it coming. What I didn't see coming was another English area - I thought I'd for sure go to Spanishland. I went on an exchange to Hayward a couple weeks ago to Spanishland and I was no help so I'm probably not ready to go there anyways. We got the transfer call Friday night and we had already stocked up with Wendy's frosties, prepared for the worst. Sister Ure already knew she was leaving because she is training again - she only has two more transfers left and she'll be training for both of them and then she goes home to Utah in May because her parents moved from Colorado to Utah a couple weeks ago. So Saturday night was filled with ice cream and tears, as was Sunday. We had a hard time keeping it together during church but we made it. Then we went to see Jackie that afternoon, teaching her and saying goodbye. We set up her baptismal interview for Monday night so we could be there for that and MAKE SURE this baptism is going to happen, but she ended up going to the ER the next day and found out that she had pneumonia AND strep throat. The new missionaries in the area, Sister Lau and Sister Mitchell, haven't even seen her yet - they just got in touch with her over the phone this morning. She was doing so well. She goes to the clinic every morning to take some prescribed pills and but last weekend was President's Day weekend so the clinic was closed on Monday so she took home one day's dose. Usually, she used to take both doses in the same day, but she actually waited until the next morning to take them!!! You may not understand this unless you have been addicted to something as addictive as heroin, but it was a complete miracle!!! I'm just praying that the baptism happens next month.

Sunday night at the VC was ok - it was Sister Ure's last VC shift ever. We video-taped God's Plan and the Christus narration. It wasn't very busy, but these two women came in. One was visiting from Utah, the other from Australia, and they served in this mission four years ago. What's even crazier, though, is that they both served in Castro Valley! Actually, one of them trained the other in Castro Valley, just like my situation with Sister Ure! We talked about all the people in the ward and all their converts and it was really amazing. We had one other really great tour that night - a man and a woman who were both very inactive had gone to the single adult fireside nearby and then came over. I felt emotionally drained, but as we talked to them in God's Plan, I felt an overwhelming love for this couple (I think they were dating). It was almost as if my heart and my whole body were overflowing with joy. It's not easy to admit you're wrong and come back. I'm terrible at doing so. Even with this recent exchange, I was so prideful, thinking that I was supposed to stay in Castro Valley. Apparently that wasn't the plan for me. I need to remember that the Lord has a bigger and better plan for me than I have for myself. If I had it my way, I probably would have stayed in Castro Valley forever. It was an interesting experience because as hard as it was to leave Castro Valley, I know that I felt only a fraction of the disappointment that I will feel when I go home in 13 months. I don't even want to think about that right now.

So we packed all day last Monday. We got to see the Garrisons one more time - we taught them about holding family home evening. Then we stopped by Noelle's home and the Barajas' home. We didn't get to see everyone we wanted to see before we left, but it was enough closure. And I have a copy of the ward directory so I can write these people. Noelle is getting baptized in two weeks, and hopefully Christine and Jackie will too soon. And then I'll get to go back for a bit! It should work out. Transfer Tuesday was CRAZY. And of course it was the only day of the week where it rained. That was something I'd rather not do again.

Now onto this week - I love my companion Sister Sia! She is such an inspiration to me. She is the only member of her family - her family hasn't even replied to any of her emails since she's been on her mission because they're very unsupportive. We actually went to the MTC on the same day and met each other at the New Missionary Orientation! She came to the field before I did because she didn't have to learn a language - she's from Singapore so she knows Mandarin and English really well. She works so hard, and she had a tough companion before me, so she's really excited that I am here to find, teach and baptize. Sister Ure's companion before my was hard for her too....I might be the designated relief companion after the trial and testing of a difficult companionship. It just makes me worry about who is going to be my tough companion.......

I really like the area I'm in - it's the safer part of Oakland, but we still have to be very careful. The assistants cover the worse part of Oakland. My ward is the Oakland 1st ward. Church was really great yesterday, but I'm not sure how missionary-minded the ward is. They talk the talk but I'm not sure yet if they walk the walk......we have very few members that are willing to come on lessons with us and are afraid to do missionary work. We have one investigator right now, Chameka, and she reads everything but she has never come to church. We have a couple referrals that seem great but we might have to transfer one of them to the single adults' ward. Sister Sia and I are starting to advertise service to help the people of the community to make 72 hour kits and teach them a little bit about the role of prophets in order to find investigators on our own. We didn't have any lessons this week - we couldn't get in touch with any less active members or recent converts. So, it's going to be very different than Castro Valley but we're working hard to find people to teach.

I've also decided I'm not really a fan of the Asian culture. We went to an Asian food market today and I bought five things - avocados, spinach and three American snacks. And that literally took all morning. But we went on the Bay Bridge! The sister that was driving missed her exit and before we knew it, we were on our way to San Francisco!!! But we got it figured out before we hit it. I'm just excited that we got to go on the bridge! I am also glad to be driving - Sister Sia is the senior companion but she doesn't drive so I get to drive. We don't have very many miles per month, but it's still nice - I missed driving a lot. We also live in a house with one other companionship so it's big and spacious, more room than we need, and it's weird living with more than one other person.

Anyways, we'll see how our 72 hour kit creation goes this week - hopefully it'll be a hit! And even if people don't want to learn, we'll still be bringing the Spirit into their homes, planting the seed for other missionaries someday.

No pictures this week - I left my camera at home.

Love you all!!!

Hermana Hunsaker