Heyy team!

Scary ice cream truck!

Not much new here, since I only write you last Wednesday.

EXCEPT WE FOUND OUT that Hna Hudson and I get to stay together for another transfer!!! We'll be together for Christian's baptism next Sunday. And general conference round 2. And the other baptism we'll have in Oct. (I'm being vague because we don't actually have anyone yet who is ready to be baptized in Oct.) HOORAY!! #prayersanswered

After this transfer it will be Halloween. And after the next two transfers it will be Christmas. 2013 is going to finish so quickly. I am already so excited for Christmas- it really feels like it is just around the corner.

This morning I spent an unheard-of $48 dollars on groceries. Hahaha it's the most food I've had in a long time and I'm feeling reallllly happy about it.

This weekend was really good. The members here are really catching the fire of sharing the gospel with their friends, family, and neighbors. It is just so exciting to see. Tonight we're having a noche de hogar with a family (semi-active) who we had a movie night with on Saturday- they invited over their neighbors and Christian came, too. It was so cool.

Before my mission, I thought the Testaments was just a cheesy, poorly-cast church movie for white American LDS parents to show to their children. During my mission, I think the Testaments is brilliant because it is simply scripted, written for Latinos who are new in the church and need a visual aid to help them understand what the Book of Mormon is. And the high drama works, because have you ever seen a telenovela??? I still laugh to myself for the first 1.5 hours straight and then start crying as soon as Jesus comes. It gets really personal really fast haha.

So there are some songs that exist only in Spanish, and some songs that exist in Spanish and English but are new to me just because I don't know them. I'm not sure which category applies here.

In a lesson with a menos activo this week who is SUPER sweet and a little socially challenged, he picked a hymn neither of us knew. We suggested we just sing the next one, which was Where Can I Turn for Peace, but instead he was like "No, let's just all try it" and proceeded to start singing #68, "La Fe."

 I realize that it's been 8 years since I was last in choir, but gone are my days of being able to sight read. The three of us guessing at random notes the whole time was the worst and best thing I have ever heard. I was laughing so hard I didn't think I was going to be able to make it through saying the prayer, let alone teach a spirit-filled lesson, but we kept it together and the ship didn't sink.

 Still though, priceless. I wish you could have heard it hahahahaha

This Saturday was awesome. We planned a lesson for Zulema (less active- the one who put a birthday candle in the ding-dong for me) and we wanted to teach her about the Restoration and focus it around coming to church, but the scripture that felt right to share with her was Helaman 5:12 (not overtly "come to church"y but a solid choice.) So we get there, find out that Luis' mom's tumor is too big to remove- and that she's been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and is too weak for chemo; the doctors gave her 8 months. She sounded like they were all kind of optimistic about it, and I guess that's all you can do is hope for the best- but to me, advanced pancreatic cancer in a woman over 60 kind of sounds like a death sentance. I don't know. Anyway, we were able to go over and see Maria and her mom and sisters right after and I just, can't really explain it. So good and so bad all at once. Just being able to be there was such a blessing.

Most of what happens during the week- every week- I just don't have words for. Stories never seem to do anything justice. Mehh, I feel like I kind of know what the prophets wrote in the Book of Mormon when they said they couldn't say a hundreth part.

Anyway, Zulema came to church this Sunday, which was so great.

We fasted as a mission for the goal of 30 baptisms in Sept, and 700 new investigators. We had a zone training on using the book of mormon more and I'm super excited.

The Church is true.

The past couple days have felt like they were not in the 100s, which has been really nice haha.

Last week after I emailed I was watching Mormon messages because we were at a really nice library that had headphones and the computers. (It makes me feel good to realize I can understand the spanish "I'm a mormon videos")

THEN I stumbled upon one of a lady who is a BYU Law professor. It showed little snippets of the classroom and the atmosphere looked terrifying. I am now enjoying my mission more because I know how scary and mean law school is.

Also, I am hoping that at the end of my mission someone will just ask me to be in a movie and I can avoid going to school altogether.

Love and Not Kidding,
HNa Simpson