Halfway Point! What?!?!

Hello family! 

I can't even believe it. I am half way through my mission. I don't even understand where the time gas gone. Seriously. A mission goes by so fast. 

Anyway, on to some of the miracles of this week. Andrea came to church! She's an investigator that we've been working with. Damien (her should be husband) was supposed to come too but he was having a lot of back pain and had to work the next day so he stayed in bed. It was just so great to have Andrea at church, though. We had a really great meeting and she seemed to enjoy it. I'm sad, though. Damien is going off to work down in Tacoma and then will be coming home on the weekends. He just ended a job like this a few weeks ago. The teaching just seems to go better when both of them are there. So this'll make it a little more challenging because we want them to progress together and start keeping the commandments together. But we just have to trust in the Lord and His timing. He loves all of His children and wants them to receive the gospel. 

We met a Turkish man, Joe, so that was really cool. He was really nice, but busy. He invited us back, though so hopefully we can start teaching him and his family. 

This weekend the elders from our ward had a baptism. Her name is Duryae. She is really sweet. Really needed the peace and comfort that the gospel brings. We're not allowed to go to baptisms unless we have an investigator come with us. We invited all of our gators to come to the baptism and a few people who were going to come. Then Saturday morning every single one of them bailed. We really wanted to be there at the baptism though to support Duryae and we knew that it would be a really great experience for whoever we brought. We ended up calling almost every single former investigator from our area book inviting them to come. No one. So then we walked to the church and invited everyone we talked to along the way to come to the baptism. Still no one. There's a Filipino family that lives across the street from the church who Sister Salabao and her last comp used to teach that we tried. Their grandson told us they were at the library. So we walked to the library as our last attempt. Anyway, a few things had to fall in place but finally Sister Picar (the grandma) ended up being able to come with us. It was her first time in the church and she liked it. What a miracle! It was funny though. After Duryae's baptism she went swimming in the font. No joke. For a good 20 seconds. haha.

Read your scriptures! We're so blessed to have the scriptures in our lives. Study them everyday. Look up Elder D. Todd Christofferson's April 2010 talk about the Scriptures. It is so wonderful. The other night in a tracting situation we met this man from Ethiopia. He was nice, but pretty much just ended up preaching to us. It just broke my heart. He loves the Bible and knows it really well. But he's very set in his own ways and convinced of the trinity, etc. He refuses to read the Book of Mormon. He is blinded to the truth. Which is sad. Because the Book of Mormon is true scripture. Directly from our loving Heavenly Father. As we study it we invite the Spirit to be in our lives. There is power that comes from reading the Book of Mormon everyday. We need to become familiar with it and its teachings. Yesterday was Ward Conference and during Sunday School someone from the Stake Presidency talked about how important our gospel study is. Too often we get causal in our gospel study and get so busy that it often gets overlooked. But please read and study your scriptures everyday. The Lord has asked us to. And the only reason He asks us to do something is because He wants to bless us and He knows that we'll be happier if we do. I love the Book of Mormon so much. It has changed my life. God loves us all so much. And I love you all!

Love,
Sister Veronica White