Happy Valentine's Day!

Talofa!! 

Hope you all had the best week!!  We had such a good week! 

 Since mission conference we have really tried to talk to as many people as we can, and we feel like Heavenly Father is blessing us for our efforts in all aspects of the work.  He has guided us to more people who are prepared to hear the gospel, and helped us in being more confident as we teach as well.  This last week I have invited more people to be baptized than I have at any other point on my mission, (it's still not a ton, but it is an improvement),  and all of them have said yes if they find out that it is true they will be.  Now we just have to guide them carefully so that they can find out for themselves, and always follow up! 

We survived Friday the 13th--it was a bit rough ha, but what can you do?

 And the next day was VALENTINE'S DAY!!!  I love Valentine's Day.  Don't ask me why, it's just a happy day.  But anyways, we kind of did a similar thing to what we  did on Halloween with handing out the suckers as ghosts, but we made valentines for people!  We picked a few different scriptures about love and charity and wrote them on the inside of some paper hearts and then we delivered them to people we are teaching or people in the ward and gave them to people as we biked.  You can see the difference it makes in someone--you start talking to them and they can be really closed off or grumpy, but once you give them a valentine, often they open up and are much kinder and happy to talk to you.  One lady from England was nice but didn't want to talk at all, but once we gave it to her, she started telling us about how one of her really good friends was a member of the church and how much she admired her and her family.

We had an apt with one of our investigators this week.  When we went to teach her, her friend and her friend's son were staying with them, and were in a pretty bad situation.  We were able to teach them.  The mom soaked in everything we taught and agreed to come to church on Sunday. But then Saturday night, our investigator texted us telling us that her friend had left, but thanking us for trying to help them.  When we called her to ask about it, she was really upset, but we were able to share some scriptures with her, and sing a hymn and pray with her.  We invited her to come to church and asked her to read a chapter in the book of Mormon.  She was much calmer after we talked, and we arranged to help wake them up for church.  So many things went wrong that morning...It was a struggle, and we got there at 9:30, but she came with her 3 daughters.
She is much more open to us now.  Her and her children need the gospel so badly.  I know that our trials can humble us enough to seek Heavenly Father's will, and sometimes it is only when we feel that there is no other place to turn to that we turn to Him.  And He is always there with arms outstretched to embrace us and lift us up.

We went to pacific area presidency broadcast on Sunday and it was great!  I am excited to work in a more unified way with the ward council!  That's something I haven't really understood how to do, but I think that I am beginning to understand it better.
I am teaching Sister Parks sign language--she already knows a bit, but we are practicing signing to each other.  It's so much fun!  I forgot so much!  We were sitting across from each other in choir, and talking whenever people weren't looking, but we got caught ha.  Oops.

I can't believe it's February...time flies.  I love being a missionary!  The gospel is the best!  It brings so much joy and hope into people's lives.  I am grateful for Heavenly Father's love and for my Saviour!  I am so grateful for all of you!  We taught someone who is just starting uni and I realized that I do not miss school right now haha. 

Love you guys soo soo much!!! 
Love,
Me
P.S. I know last week I said I had some funny stories, but I forgot them...my bad ha.  They probably wouldn't have been that funny anyway haha.