T4W5 Exchanges in CityView

Dear Family,

How was everyone's Fourth of July?! The Woodlands Mall had a huge fireworks show and everyone was on their blankets alongside the freeway and ready to watch them when we were heading in for the night. We celebrated Independence Day at Taqueria Arandas with delicious fajita marinada.

This work was another week of hard work. Alex S. will be baptized soon. We just found out the building is already scheduled on Sunday so we might have to push the baptism off to next week. He was interviewed and so excited. He speaks more English than Spanish so we teach him in English. He is 14 years old and way solid on his testimony. We are so excited for him. His father just received custody of him this last week so after months and months of waiting to be baptized the opportunity has finally come.

I set a personal record for new investigators- 15 in one week. We are leading in the zone in numbers but I think more than anything we are really helping people progress towards baptism.

This week I had the opportunity to go down to CityView with Hermana Frieszell for exchanges. We had such a fun time. We found some amazing families in just one day. I learn so much from doing exchanges. Hermana Frieszell will go home next transfer so she has a lot of time in the mission. We ate with a member family and they are the first to ever ask if I am Filipino. They all expecting a huera (white girl) to come in with Hermana Frieszell but when each went in for the kiss on the cheek had to take a double take when they saw the dark skin. We taught a good lesson about how the standards of liberty was raised on every tower to be seen by all. So should our personal witness as members of the church be raised for all to see. Hermana Hollenbaugh came up to the Woodlands with Hermana Gurney and it was a good experience for Hermana Gurney to really step up and take the lead being the only one to know the people and the area for the day. Their area is really small but has about as many people in their area as ours. 75% of the people there are morencitos, or black people. It reminded me more of home. Ha ha. We did some bike riding for our morning exercise, which I enjoyed. Actually, today for P-day, Hermana Gurney and I borrowed the elder's bikes and are going biking around Lake Woodlands.

We had an interesting experience this week when the police came to the house during our lesson with our investigator. He has a lot of problems with a recent divorce and his son is involved in bad things but I know the gospel is what he needs.

I am enjoying the work. Still I continue to find my weaknesses and try to be more led by the Spirit. I know that this is the Lord's work. With our 3 investigators getting baptized soon I know that we have been blessed but I also know there are still those looking for the gospel.

I hope everyone is doing well. Don't forget to write!

Love you, Mom, Dad, Emma, Miriam, Clarissa, Rae, and Ben!

Camille