Sister Alex Hartvigsen-- May 21, 2012

Dear Familia , This week has been an adventure. On Monday we had a noche de hogar ( family night) with the L. familia and several other members, part member families and investigators. It was really good and Hno L. shared his testimony about how living the gospel brings blessings. On Tuesday as I was getting in the car to go to the Visitor's center, a member pulled up to us and asked us if we had a copy of the Book of Mormon. We gave him a copy that he is going to to give to a lady who lives on his bread route. ( There is a bakery around her that makes this amazing bread and then delivers it to your door.) He gave us a loaf in exchange for the Book of Mormon. He looked at my tag and then asked me if I had a brother that served in Frankfort Germany. I said that my cousin Michael had. This guy's name is Nathan Smith and he said that he was Mike's mission companion. It was cool. It is a small world and a much smaller church. We had the chance to attend the temple Wednesday morning. It was really nice to go. It was weird to think that it was my last time to go here in Mesa as a missionary. I love this temple and it is such a blessing to be able to be on temple grounds every day at the visitor's center. The Spirit is always there. The temple here is in a rougher area of town and people come all the time and comment about how different it feels the minute they walk onto the grounds. I love my mission! We had dinner with the a part member familia. We talked to them about the role of the Savior and read 2 Nefi 25:26. We also talked to them about the gospel blesses families. We are going to start the new member lessons with them this week. We had a lesson set up with another part member . Our plan was to talk about Jesus Christ and invite their son (12) to be baptized. As we walked up the the apartment, their son came out with some of his friends and headed to the swimming pool and told us that his Mom had gone to Phoenix. We scheduled another appointment for tonight and then went over to a recent convert's apartment. We shared with her Ether 12:27 and talked about how the Lord will strengthen us in our trials. As we were walking out of her apartment we stopped and talked to 2 men on the sidewalk. Sister Slater explained who we were and we talked about religion for a few minutes. They are both Catholic but seem open to talking to us. We said a prayer with them outside and are planning on going by tonight to meet their families and pray with them and invite them to learn more. On Thursday we had a lesson set up with an investigator. We had arranged for a member to come with us but she got sick the last minute and we couldn't find another member in time. We went over and watched Finding Faith in Christ with her and talked about her relationship with the Savior. We found out during this meeting that she can't read. We talked to our Branch President about that and he is going to arrange for someone form the Relief Society to come over and teach both this lady and her Sister in Law to read using a program that the church has. This branch is so good!. On Friday and Saturday I was on exchanges in Sister Romano y Sister Christensen's area. It was really good. Their main focus was inviting people to come to church and the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy. They were really good at talking to everyone. While I was in their area, Sister Slater was with Sister Solorzano y Holladay. They went to our area for about an hour because we had an appointment set up to meet with an investigator. They had brought Presidente Solorzano with them. the appointment fell through because the lady was not there. ( we think that she may be avoiding us) but he did have a good visit with her sister in law. This week is going to be great! There is so much work to do and we are going to use every minute. The time has gone by so fast it is unreal. I am so grateful that I have had this opportunity to serve. It has been the best decision of my life. I love you all. Thank you for all of your love and support over the last year and a half. It has helped so much. Love Alex