TRANSFERS = NEW COMPANION!!

"Okay, transfers were yesterday. We found out Tuesday at our district meeting where we´d be going and who with then the changes were Wednesday morning at 8am at the terminal. There were so many missionaries there, it was fun! Saw some old MTC friends! Yay. Okay, now for the news.....I am in the Leopardi ward still (city San lLorenzo, Barrio Barcequillo)...but I do have a new companion! Hermana Castaneda went to another area about 20 minutes away. My new companera is Hermana Jara (pronounced ha-da) from Lima, Peru. I think I´m bound to have comps from Peru or something! I had met her before a couple times at zone conferences when we combined with another zone. She is so different from Hna Castaneda. She is 23, talks alot (at times its hard to understand her...shes a fast talker), wears make up, knows a tiny bit of English, and is a little more HM(high maitenance)..like last night she wanted the ac and the fan on, and she wants to have someone else wash her clothes! Makes me laugh! She was just recently companions with Hermana Rencher. Her parents are converts...7 out of the 8 in her fam have served or are serving missions...and this is weird, her little sister is serving in the Paraguay North Mission right now! I have realized in the past 24 hours that change is good, but hard. I feel like I´m starting all over again in a way. The mission is a roller coaster for sure! I think Hermana Jara will be good for me though. She has already helped me a ton with my Spanish which i´m really grateful for. And honestly, its nice to have someone that likes to talk! It made me laugh, last night when we were both laying in our beds, lights out, the first thing she asked me was if i had a boyfriend. And then she asked if i liked to dance. I think we´ll get along well. haha!"

"Well, the work is going really well right now, I feel like, in this area. Oscar has a baptism date for next Friday, the 18th! He is awesome! Definitely a prepared person. For instance, when we taught him about the Plan of Salvation and the 3 Kingdoms of Glory he told us how in his mind he had always thought there needed to be more than just Heaven and Hell. He reads from the Book of Mormon, pamphlets and Gospel Principles book a lot. Very intelligent. I am praying, praying that all goes well between now and the 19th! We are also teaching 13 year old, Lisa who is so cute! She wants to be baptized, she goes to church and mutual, but her parents are a bit hesitant. They don´t want her to rush into anything. However, each visit with her mom is better and better and now she sits in our lessons and participates too!"

"I finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish last week for the first time. It was the copy of the Book of Mormon that Pres. Callan gave me to mark all references of Christ and His doctrine. As I browse through the pages I´m amazed to see how many markings there are! I love the Book of Mormon! It is a true book! "

"Oh! This is random...but okay, Oscar has this big black dog and his name is Kenny!! How funny is that?!"

"The ward is really helping us out here in our missionary efforts. Usually at our missionary meetings on Wed nights its all young adults. They are awesome and so willing to help further the work of the Lord. I am so grateful for their help! Last week, one afternoon, we were doing service...cutting down some of the jungle in an invesitigators backyard and then off we went carrying shovels and pirate knife type things down the street to another appointment all together. I feel like we are the buttercream gang or something! ha! Remember that movie?!!"

"Well, this weekend will be an interesting one with a new companion. We have lots of appointments planned out so that will be good! I´m glad that pday is Monday again so I can fill you in on how our first few days together went. To be honest, I don´t even know how I feel right now. It's weird. Like I said, change is good, but hard. I´m excited to have a new comp, but almost feel like anxious about it too. This morning I kinda had a small melt down and I don´t even know why really! But seriously, the things that keep me going every day are the constant help of the Lord and the people here. I love the people in this ward. This will probably be my last 6 weeks with them, and I´m grateful to have another transfer here. They are awesome!!"

"Have a wonderful day! This church is true! How blessed we are to have the knowledge of the Gospel in our lives!"

Because the internet failed Shauna that day...they had to go back and write their Mission President so she dropped us another little note... Here are the highlights!

"Today has been a good pday. This morning when I woke up I was kinda dreading it because with a new comp and not quite sure how it´d be. Some times I´d rather just be working with the people and not in our apt. But todays been good. I really am going to like Hna Jara. We´ve already talked about things that took me and Hna Castaneda like 3 changes to talk about! After using the internet this morning we bought grocreies....it was fun though cuz she really likes to shop too so I think we spent about 15 minutes choosing out food and then like an hour in the shoes and clothes section of Salemma trying on stuff. I felt like I was shopping with my friends or you guys in a way! We both ended up with a new blouse! Yay! When checking out we realized that it was almost 2 so we decided to eat lunch at Salemma instead of cooking when we got home..there is a big food court kinda thing there. I´ve always wanted to eat there but Hna Castaneda never wanted to. It was fun!. Totally made me think of being at Chandler Fashion Center out to lunch or something! It was fun! When we got home I made brownies and wrote a couple letters. And now, we´re here in this little internet place...sketchy....and then off to appointments!!"

"Thank you for all your prayers and fasting for my health! And basically for all your support and encouragement!!"

"Much love to you all!! I´m excited to write you and hear from you again on monday!!"