It's already March!

I can't believe how fast the time is flying - I'll have my six-month mark this month in just a couple of weeks. I'll only have a year left! A year is a long time, but it doesn't feel like a long time when you reach some of those checkpoints. But I've got plenty of time to keep working here. I think I'll be able to keep this email short - we're still working on building up our teaching pool, but things are definitely starting to happen!

Last Monday was preparation day - I think I already talked about the Chinese supermarket and crossing the Bay Bridge. After that, we wrote emails and went to play rugby with the zone - which means I sat and wrote letters. I'm incredibly behind on all my letters so sorry to anyone who has written me! I'll be working on that today. We went over for dinner at the home of a Tongan member with a bunch of the other missionaries - they give us SO MUCH FOOD. I'm glad I'm not in the Tongan program - I can't afford the calories.

On Tuesday I got to go to Spanishland! It was only my second day ever in Spanishland and it was so much fun. Sister Garcia is the VC trainer that took Sister Ure's spot and so I got to go to San Leandro with her. I was her first exchange as a VC trainer and we both really needed it. She covers the Spanish area in Castro Valley so we got to drive there and I had a little bit of closure. We also played soccer with the zone for our morning exercise so it was good to see everyone again. We had both lunch and dinner from members while teaching them some English, visited a less-active sister, and taught their investigator Luz, who is just a total doll. We taught her about obedience and told her the story of Abraham and how his obedience blessed him. She is such a golden investigator, and I just love the Spanish culture because you just feel like you're at home. Even if people aren't interested in learning more about the gospel, they're nice and they want to talk to you. Luz just kept saying over and over "mi casa es su casa" (I understood that one). Sister Garcia gave me the opportunity to talk at every lesson, which was good but it was so so hard. I'm starting to understand them more, but I still don't get most of what they're saying. We also did some finding in San Leandro - we drove over to the San Leandro Marina and there were TONS of people - it's the closest thing to a beach that I've seen since I've been out on my mission. I didn't realize how close I was to the ocean! There were so many people there, and most of them were Hispanic. We didn't find any investigators but I got to get out and practice talking to people in Spanish, which is exactly what I needed and she knew that. It was a really great day.

We were supposed to see two potential investigators on Wednesday, but they both cancelled and we haven't gotten in touch with them yet. I haven't taken detailed notes in my planner this week because I've been writing in my journal a lot so I'm not sure what happened most of the week. We've just been working really hard and trying to find people and we didn't have much success. On Thursday, we ran into this lady on the road named Marjorie. She just graduated from her year-long addiction recovery program and she had met with missionaries before in Sacramento. She's in the process of finding a place to live so we need to figure out where to meet her and keep teaching her, but we're planning on seeing her this week! We also received a phone call from a man named Steve - he said we had met with him before and he wanted to meet again! We haven't been able to see him yet - neither Sister Sia or I have ever taught him before - but it's not everyday that a potential investigator calls you to find a time to meet! So things are looking up. Because we've been working hard, the Lord is starting to send people our way.

I almost forgot to talk about the VC trainings we had this week! Two men from the Missionary Department, Brother Lusvardi and Brother Mitchell, came to our mission this week. They had two trainings with all of the VC sisters on Thursday and Friday from 8am-10am. It was long - and early - but I learned so so much. We focused heavily on learning to use short and powerful statements, to teach people for understanding and overall how to really make every tour a converting experience. It reminded me a lot of the VC training I received in the MTC that I've had a hard time implementing. The VC can be very slow, but when we take a very serious approach to each and every tour, it will always be a meaningful day at the VC.

Saturday was our full-proselyting day and it was pretty busy. We've had so many meetings this week that we haven't been advertising our 72 hour kits as much as before - we just have a few more organizational preparations to make in order to get the ball rolling this week but the people we've talked to are really interested. We need to create flyers and a signup sheet and then we'll make sure that this starts happening. We saw two less actives on Saturday - Melanie and Jerome. We found Jerome just by going through the ward membership records and contacting them. We've been doing that for awhile and we haven't had much success, but we found Jerome and he's ready to come back. Even if all our efforts to track down these people were just for him, that's enough. We taught him a lesson and then invited him to a play about African-American pioneers that night. He even said he wanted to come to church so we arranged a ride for him. It's truly a miracle. Melanie was less active for many years and came back after quitting her job that had caused some major health problems. She loves coming to church and the people there - we're going to teach her all the missionary lessons again because even though she was raised LDS, she's blocked out a lot from her past. She's super sweet and we're excited to start working with her.

We had district meeting on Saturday as well - our district leader Elder Doney is great. He's got his work cut out for him - he's a bike elder, he's training right now, and he is the district leader for two companionships of sisters, three of which are Asian. I don't mean anything by that except for that fact that they're a little more high-strung than the one laidback Coloradan. He's just trying to help, and it's hard, but I've been able to recognize all the work he's putting in while they don't always. District meetings are always a little rocky, but he teaches me a lot. His training was based off the training he received as a district leader from Brother Mitchell and Brother Lusvardi, focusing on helping us study and plan better for our lessons. We went to the play that night with Jerome and the Simms (members) and the play was not that great unfortunately - it felt like a dress rehearsal and I found out later from the two missionaries that were in the play that they hadn't had a dress rehearsal so that's essentially what it was. It was full of interesting stories though - I want to study more about the African-American pioneers after my mission. They had such great faith, like all the pioneers - I'm working on developing that kind of faith, but it's hard.

After the play, we came out to our car which was parked along the road, and the whole front left corner of the bumper was dented inward - it was HUGE. Sister Sia has a picture - I think I'll add it on here. I almost didn't notice, but it had popped off a bit and was sticking out so I saw it right before getting into the driver's seat. We called the mission home and they told us to call the police, but the police wanted us to go to downtown Oakland to file a report and it was dark so.....Elder Bailey said we didn't have to do it. So there's my first accident report. It wasn't my fault, just a stupid hit-and-run, but I just hate when that kind of stuff happens. Luckily the next day was Sunday.

Sunday was pretty good - but kind of crazy. We had a Jewish convert to the church bear his testimony - he goes to the synagogue still but he believes that Jesus Christ is the Savior and he wants to serve a mission with his wife soon. It was kind of odd, but kind of cool. We also had Sister Sia's recent convert, Barbara, bear her testimony about going to the temple to do baptisms. She was a little more toned-down, but not much, as she used to have her own TV ministry. But it was interesting - you only get stuff like that in church in Oakland. We planned for most of the night, and then had a lesson with Jason about temples. He was baptized back in September, and he's still just soaking it all in. He's great.

So yeah, that's what happened. Sister Sia is going on exchanges tomorrow and leaving me in our area for the first time by myself with a brand new missionary. SO......that should be fun. We've planned pretty well this week so hopefully I'll know what I'm doing. And hopefully Sister Sia's GPS will work. Who knows. We have a rental car until our cute little Corolla is fixed so things will work out. Just working hard up here in Oakland!

Love - Hermana Hunsaker