Its been crazy and about to get crazier!

Hello family! 

This past week has been pretty crazy and is about to get crazier tomorrow with transfers and all the new changes that are happening! Yeah, its crazy to think that I have been out for so long, and its sad because a lot of the missionaries that I know are starting to wax old and leave. How sad. 

So starting with Monday, I will share the highlights of what happened this last week. 

On Monday we found a little family that we are now teaching. 

On Tuesday we spent a lot time finding people. We walked the streets of West Oakland. Oakland is really growing on me here and I really like it. There are so many crazy people though, but its great. Later that day we stopped by to visit a part-member family and had a great lesson with them. The wife is a non-member and so we are now teaching her and she is really willing and open. We are excited to see where it goes.

On Wednesday we had exchanges which was really fun. We went to a district meeting in Pleasant Hill on request of President Meredith to see how our district leaders are doing, to help prepare us for the coming transfer and the next 5 week one.(Transfers have been every 6 weeks, but are going to every 5 with the increase in missionaries). We met with President Meredith after and he gave us back the map and had gone through it and gave us the green light on the changes for transfers. 

After the district meeting, I went with our district leader on Exchanges in East Oakland  We had a great dinner appointment where I was able to show Elder Gonzalez how to utilize the "Feed my Sheep" program. That is my forte. The family was really excited to start putting names down and praying for missionary experiences. After that appointment we went over to check on an investigator that I was going to interview for that night. The interview went great. No Problems (Thank Heavens).

On Thursday, we went and taught that investigator that I had interviewed. They gave us ribs for lunch. We then had a district meeting and ended exchanges. That night we met with Sister Garcia and we practiced the baptismal interview and she is so ready and prepared. We also went with Elder and Sister Olvera, the mission nurse and husband. They came because Sister Garcia's husband asked them to come so that Sister Garcia knew that there are older missionaries too.She is excited for her baptism this next week. 

Then the week began to become crazy. 

On Friday we had to go pick up the bike Elders in  Berkeley because one of the Elders was hit by a car on his bike. He is fine, but broke his wrist. We picked them up and took them to the mission home and got them a car. Everything went well though! Poor Elders; everything goes wrong with them. We were laughing because the Elder was Samoan that got hit and so he was saying that he felt bad about the ladies car that he hit haha. 

After that adventure, we went to the International Stake Center by the temple and had our weekly planning in the library because there was a Chinese music concert going on in every room. We hid ourselves in the library and did weekly planning. The thing though about this planning, was because we were splitting our area, we had to plan for our area and the new sisters' area. We didn't have a whole lot of time because we had two baptismal interviews to do that night in Richmond and in Martinez so we were rushing. I sent some pictures of our planning in the library, it was awesome.

 So yes at 4 we had a baptismal interview in Richmond which I really like. Richmond has a good feel to it, but its a little rough. Elder Bradford did that baptismal interview. I was out waiting with the Concord Zone leaders. One of the Zone Leaders reminded me so much of Ryan Shaw. I had a good time talking with them and all their crazy stories of things that happen in Richmond  

After that we ran to a members home to barge in on the assistants and grab some papusas and go. We came in and ate some and they were so good. We sang a hymn with the assistants to the family and then left with some to-go food. We then headed to Martinez and this gets crazy. 

I was interviewing Sister Balcazar. She was going to be baptized in a ward of single adults of 30+ and they hadn't had a baptism in over 3-4 years. This was a big moment for this ward. I did the interview and I know why I did it. As i interviewed her, I did it in the bishop's office which was weird, but everything went well.... she passed the interview, but with one little problem. HER DIVORCE ISSUE!! I asked her if she was married and she said yes and then I explained that she needs permission to be baptized. 

She understood that, but she said that he does not want contact with her and filed for divorce a year ago. So I got the information I needed because I knew where this was going and went out to call president. He just told me, "Elder, These Latinos just don't understand that when they are married they just cant run off and separate." He knew that I had a lot of experience on these issues and I gave him all the info and we came to conclude that she needed to wait for the divorce. The thing is is that her cousin had one of the "final" divorce papers and so she needed to get a hold of him to find out what the papers was. I went back in and explained that to her, she was sad but understood and was going to call her cousin that next morning. 

The bishop wasn't too happy with the situation, but accepted it and said that he was going to prepare for the baptism that Sunday anyways. The missionaries were really discouraged, but I explained that it isn't a big deal, everything will work out, and they didn't know what the issue was, so that was crazy. 

Saturday was great. We were able to teach an investigator of ours that we hadn't been able to visit for a few weeks. She was so accepting and understood the restoration better than our other investigators which was good. That night we taught our investigator Sister Flores again. Oh boy she asked a good question, "So if I am not baptized as a Mormon, this book is saying I will be condemned?" We handled it well and we taught the importance of prayer and praying to know for herself. She agreed and said she wants to so that she can come to know.

That night we met the assistants at the mission home to get the transfer sheet. We then went home and spent the rest of the night getting the transfer calls out. We are so excited for the new changes. This will be a 5 week transfer which is going to be weird. I am staying, but we are finally getting sisters in the sixth ward. We worked with president and found an area to put sisters in the ward with it still being safe. We are also gaining little Guatemala in our area which we area excited about. We inherited a new area which came with a baptism date for next week, but we will see. 

We are excited for the new changes this next transfer will bring. So many people are training in our Zone to prepare for the next transfer which is when we are getting a ton of new missionaries. 

So Sunday went well. We tried to finish our weekly planning, but were interrupted by a call from the bishop from the ward of Sister Balcazar that I had interviewed with the divorce issues. He said that he wants to talk to president and that he was filling the font. I was like OH dear. I called President and we had a good nice talk about what he was going to tell the bishop. After the discussion, he finally decided that with the situation and the pressure of the bishop he would give her permission to be baptized. I told him with all these experiences that I have been having, I know now that missionaries need to understand this so they can avoid it in the interview at the last moment. He agreed and said that he will think about doing a training on that to the leaders. I was also getting so many calls from members of that ward wanting to know what happened and I couldn't tell them anything. I know way to much now about divorce issues.... 

So Sunday church went well. We fasted for our investigator Rosa for her preparations. The Garcia family showed up to church all dressed up and they looked so great. After church we went to the baptism of the man I had previously interviewed on exchanges. Our investigators were there also so we were happy. After the baptism, we had a ward dinner thing and it was good. Indicators that night went well also; got to bed somewhat earlier which was nice. Tomorrow is going to be crazy with all the moves and transfers. We might have to assist the assistants in picking up the missionaries from San Francisco, but we will see. 

Thanks family! Everything is going well. I am happy and still kicking. Love you all! Good luck on everything and Tyler on his farewell. 

Love Élder Hill de españa :) Oh! also next Monday we are going on splits with the Missionary Department from Salt Lake. They are taking us to dinner and then we have to take them to our appointments and things. Oh boy.