Week dos in the Hood!

Heya Everyone!!

How are you all?? I'm doing pretty good. Florida is moving swiftly into summer mode so the hummidity and heat is turning up FAST! Makes me wish I could just be in the ocean all day every day, and it sounds like that's what most Floridian's do haha 

I keep making this list of things that I want to write home about and then we get ready to leave to come here and I forget to grab it!! So, I'll do my best to remember this time because I feel like my letter last week was a little lame haha

Obviously, my life now is ALL about investigators/less actives so all my stories pretty much have to do with them :) Oh and meals with the members are the bomb too! We ate with the Tatton family this week, they are super cute, but it was crazy cuz Sister Tatton was talking about she was from Burbank and how they were extra's in movies and tv shows are their service projects for shows that normally had to pay people to come be extra's haha but anyway, she remembered Mackey and Lisa! It was cool to feel how small the world is! I haven't talked to Mackey in ages. . .I don't even know if he knows I'm in Florida haha I have so many people to write and such little time to do it!

This picture has nothing to do with Florida... it's at the MTC with Elder Thompson, but it's adorable and she sent it with this e-mail, so...  yeah.  :)

So one of the greatest things about this week was we had 2 of our investigators at church!
I think I talked about both M and C in my last e-mail. C is super quiet but he's a hoot when he actually talks. We didn't get to see him a ton during the week this week, but whenever we saw him he would be like "So, can I still come to church with you Sunday?" so that was awesome, and then on Saturday he said he wasn't sure that it was such a good idea since he used to be Methodist, and we told him that didn't matter and he was good with the idea again. It was SO cool though cuz when we introduced him to Bishop Groves he told C that he was a convert as an adult and was asking him about his religious background and he said he used to be Methodist and the Bishop had been too! He bore his testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel and that he knew that this church was the place he needed to be. It was super powerful and awesome!! Silly M though haha oh man. . .so we met with him on Saturday to teach him about keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. . .and he had talked about how excited he was for church ALL WEEK and then Saturday he told us "something" came up and he wasn't going to be able to make it. . .ugh that was rough... Then Sunday morning and I was like, I really feel like M is gonna be here today. . .sure enough, V (he was baptized about 4 months ago) pulled up with C. . .and M!! Haha apartenly he thought it would be funny to trick us. . .when we taught him the Word of Wisdom he did the same thing and had an empty coffee cup in front of him to try and psych us out. He's a great guy!  haha I couldn't stop smiling all of Sacrament Meeting, so that was pretty cool.

Elder Webb & Hermana Conger at the MTC

Tracting is tough. . .it takes a lot out of you. I just have to look forward to the people who are willing, and even those rare happy, to talk to us. Yesterday was the BEST! We have been praying this week to find a family who is ready for this message, and we've had a few that seemed like they were it but didn't really pan out. . .but yesterday, right after we got done talking to a guy who had no interest in religion or wanting to even talk about it. . .we came across this Father and daughter playing darts and we just started chatting with them then the Dad was all like, "I've got a whole audience inside, how about I bring them out for your message!" we OF COURSE very enthusiastically said bring them out! They were super fun and you could tell how much they love each other, I had the privilege of saying a prayer to bless their home and family, and Omar (the Dad) is in the military so I asked for their safety as well and they just went on about how beautiful the prayer was and then we told them about the Book of Mormon and left them with one and they told us to come by again! We tried to get a time out of them but you know how it is with families, it's hard to know when everyone is around haha I understood that, but it was awesome :)

The last thing that really stood out to me this week was R and J. They both live in a retirment home for veterans which has been a fun place to stop by. J is in his 30s and R is a bit older haha but the first time we met with them R was super skeptical and said he couldn't really believe in organized religion or one God, he just liked researching everything. So we left a Book of Mormon with each of them, J was mostly just curious too, and invited them to pray everyday. J had been trying to get a job and apparently finally got one, he told us it's pretty sure it's because we started coming around and because he's been trying to pray more, I have no doubt that's part of it :) Then, Saturday when we went to go see R, he told us that he knows the Book of Mormon is true and that there has to be one God because it come together perfect with the bible and he said thank you for helping him out with his "research project" haha and we all felt that we wanted to invite him to baptism AND THEN WE DIDN'T! Probably cuz we are all so new, but we learned from it and he offered to cook us dinner sometime this week so we're gonna go back probably on Wednesday and give him that opportunity.

Elders Jaggi, Thompson, Webb, and Connors at the MTC

My companions are awesome. Haha Sister Mevs gets impatient with me. . .we are VERY different personalities. . .but I'm trying to be tolerable for her! The area is great. I haven't been speaking any Spanish yet. . .I heard from Sister Campbell (we are still in the same district actually. . .) that Hermana's Naylor and Tolman have been having a pretty rough go of things down in Arizona. . .I feel grateful that Florida seemed ready to accomadate me! 

Oh my word the pictures of you all are GREAT! I miss you tons all the time <3 I'm gonna try to send some here in a minute. I need to read the e-mails still I just pretty much have to print them out so I have time to do everything I need to in an hour haha Mom the blogs look so awesome too! Thank you for all of the support and prayers, boy oh boy do I need them!! Send some to my sweet Aaron too would ya? <3 I love you all so much! This gospel is the best thing that could happen to anyone of us! I love my Savior and I know my Heavenly Father loves me and trusts me. I just have to try to be a little better everyday and work as hard ad I can everyday to be what he needs and wants me to be/become! Keep the faith all of you, and share the gospel, cuz it's TRUE!!! 

I LOVE YOU ALL!! Hugs and Kisses!

Your Rissy :) Larissa, Hermana Conger, Rizzo or whatever :) <3