CG Mountain

Why hello there. Guess what I just got done doing? Going on a hike! This
morning our zone woke up bright and early so we could begin hiking up CG
Mountain at 5:30a.m. It's our zone activity for the day, but could not be done

in the heat of the day, so we got permission to go early this morning! It was really fun.

The beginning wasn't too bad and there is a little landing halfway up, but the Elders

wanted to be adventurous and go all the way to the top. Which there was no trail.

It wasn't any worse than paving your own trail on any other mountain, except that

you have to be careful not to step on the cactus!!! That definitely made it a little (a
lot) tougher. There is a cactus that is called a jumping cactus and it is
allll over the mountain. If you get close enough it'll just latch right
onto you and then "climb" up your body without you realizing it and then it
gets smashed into you. Luckily I didn't get any cactus stuck on me! But
Sister J had one on the back of her shoe and it got jammed into her
calf when she was hiking. So it took some time to pull it out. haha it was
a sight to see as we were all pulling cactus from each other. It was super
fun though! Although going to the top was very steep. I basically rock

climbed on the way up! haha. It was really fun though. Apparently some

people behind me said we all went right over the top of a rattlesnake. I didn't see it,

and it's probably a good thing cause if I had I probably would have freaked

out and slipped! But it was a super fun zone activity.

This week was really good. We had interviews with President T on
Tuesday. Interview are always really short and fast. Sister T said one
of their biggest regrets will be that they don't have time to get to know
the good missionaries who don't have problems because they always have to
deal with the people who are struggling. So I try not to add to their
stress and just figure things out on my own. I love them though. They are
super awesome and they do so much for us.

This week we had some super exciting things! We taught the trailer park friend's about
the  Book of Mormon and read some with them. They love it. They said they
read together and talk about things together all the time. They take their
books with them everywhere they go. It's adorable. So we asked them to be
baptized on August 9th and they said yes! :) It was awesome. I asked one of them
if she would be baptized, and before I could even ask the other one, she said, "Well I will
too!" So we are really excited about that. They are just so prepared and
willing to do anything. One of the ladies just found out this week that her brain tumor
is back. This will be her third time fighting cancer. (Please keep her in
your prayers.) Later this week we taught them again. We taught them about
faith and repentance and told them one of the ways they will have to repent
and make a change in their lives, is to live the Word of Wisdom. We were a
little nervous how they would take it, but they were super optimistic.
Luckily one of them just drinks tea and said she will just drink herbal instead,
but the other smokes. She was strong though and just said, "It's fine! It's
going to be hard, but I can do it!" We are super proud of her. It's been 3
days now and she says it gets easier by the day.

They were supposed to come to church on Sunday but one of the ladies wasn't feeling
well and she woke up late. She texted us and said that she would still come
though because she just needed to have the faith and do what is right.
However, after she got all ready, her husband had to take the car so they
didn't have a ride to church and it just had one hour left so we didn't go
get them. However, we had a mission president's fireside that night so we
asked them to go with us to that instead. They both loved it. One of them started
crying and said she hadn't felt anything like that with such a strong peace
until that night. The other lady really enjoyed it too. She is so strong. She didn't
feel well that night either but was persistent on coming. I'm really glad
they did though. They had a really fun time I think.

This week we also went with a brother in the ward to give a potential
investigator a blessing. Her mom had cancer and was just waiting to
die because she no longer wanted to do treatments. The daughter was having a hard
time with that so we went and gave her a blessing and it was really good.
She listened really intently and it was powerful. Then Brother C also
gave her mom a blessing. The mom wasn't really awake and coherent but she
seemed a little more peaceful after the blessing. The daughter told us the next
morning that her mother passed away that same night. I think the blessing
was a blessing of comfort to her and a blessing of release. She was no
longer in pain. The daugher isn't doing very well right now, so hopefully when
things pass a little with the funeral and such, we will be able to teach
her about the amazing plan that God has for us and for her mom.

We also taught the father/daughter investigator's this week. The dad kept saying that
this is going to be a really slow process for him and that he just wants to
take things slow, and it takes time for him to take things in, and he
hasn't even read the Book of Mormon yet, and has only been to church once...and
on and on. He seemed a little on edge or perturbed or something when we got
there so maybe he is going through something right now that made him a
little grumpy. But we read some of the Book of Mormon with them and they
liked it a lot. It went really well. They were supposed to come to church
as well but the daughter called us when we were driving to church and said her
dad was sick so she wanted a ride. So we sent someone to get her. It is so
awesome that she still wanted to come! Then the dad ended up showing up
half way through Sunday School. He was super happy to be there and you can
tell he's getting to be more comfortable there. This week he was in a nice,
green button up shirt and we gave the daughter some extra clothes we had lying
around and she wore one of the new outfits we gave her. It was cute. So we
had some good things this week for sure!

We also helped a member paint this week. She is opening a school! It is a
smaller school. Apparently there is an LDS man who made some curriculum

that gets around the common core. She hated common core, so she decided to open

a school with his curriculum. It's super cool because it is only three days a week and
parents can come sit in on the lessons as well. Public education seems to be going really

downhill I guess. So anyway she is trying to get this school done so we helped her
paint this weekend.

Lastly we had a really fun night on Saturday. We asked a family in our ward
to host a little dinner and movie at their house. We invited our recent converts and

we also invited the father and daughter, as well as the two women we are teaching.

Another member family brought our recent converts and also helped
bring dinner. The father and daughter enjoyed the dinner but ended up having
to leave before the movie because something unexpected had come up. The
rest of us watched "The Mountain of the Lord." It's a movie about the
building of the Salt Lake Temple. It was really good and I think they all
really enjoyed it. It was a nice change and fun to have them get to know
other people.

So this week we made some good progress! We still need to find some new
investigators and such but it will come! I'm so happy and blessed to have
the investigators that we do have. They are really great and I admire them
a lot. They are all so strong and have been through a lot. I'm so grateful
that I was raised in the church and have had this gospel to help me
throughout my life. I'm glad I get to be here and learn more about the
church and come even more fully converted myself. One of my favorite things
to do is to study the gospel now. I wish I could just sit down and study
for hours instead of only one. It's not enough! So make time to do
your studies! It will help you greatly. Have a good week! :)