Sister Alex Hartvigsen-- August 22, 2011

Dear Mom , Things have been good this week. We have been working in the visitor's center every night but one. This means on those days we get between 2-3 hours a day to work in our area. It has been good and we have been able to have some really good lessons. This next week we work almost all mornings at the Visitor's center so we will have a lot more time in our area. Most of the Hispanics that we visit work all day so it is better when we have the opportunity to work in our area at night. We have been working with some really cool people and the work is moving forward. I am still in the Spanish Ward that I started my mission in. I love this ward and the people. I have the opportunity to speak in church this next Sunday on missionary work. The last time I spoke in church, a mom came up to me after the meeting and told me that she had a 9 year old daughter who was not baptized and wanted us to teach her so that she could be baptized. I am excited for this opportunity especially now that my Spanish has improved.
Sometimes things get thrown at you when you least expect it. We had a moment like that yesterday when we were informed by the housing coordinator that we will be moving into the home of a member this coming Monday. It is very important to live with members but it also creates some challenges especially because these members live far from the visitors center and from where all of our investigators are and we have a daily miles allotment of 14. But that's ok, I know that things will work out in the way that they need to. I am excited to continue to work hard in our area. I love my mission. The work is going really well and I am seeing little miracles every day. We were able to get some bikes last week and we have been biking as much as possible. Last week when I started it was really hard for me because I am not in the best shape but I have grown a lot stronger and faster even on the big hills. I was thinking about that yesterday and I started to compare faith to riding my bike. We need to exercise faith in the same way that we do our muscles. As we do that our faith is strengthened and we find that we can do things that at first seemed impossible. The scriptures Ether 12:6,27 have really touched me this last week as I realize that my faith is being strengthened a little each day and that my weaknesses are slowly started to become strengths.
On a slightly random note, 2 weeks ago I found our that the Nashville Tribute band new tribute to the missionaries is out. It is called the work. I bought it and I loved it. I would highly recomend getting it for you. It is so good. Anyways, I thought you would enjoy that . Dad said Grandma is having more health problems, please let me know what is going on when you get a second. Tell Grandma hi for me and tell her that I love her.
I hope you have a great week. Thank you for all your support. I love you
Love Alex