How cool is that?!!!

It’s been a crazy morning!

I’m doing great! Our crazy morning started with doing laundry at a member's house. It was kind of a last minute thing. We helped her four kids make eggs and pancakes for breakfast. It was a fun morning. Then we ran to do grocery shopping. And then at one o’clock we had to trade our car back. But it ended up being earlier than that. (That’s another story I’ll tell in a second.) Then unload everything from the car into the apartment and off to San Rafael to do email at the family history center. It’s been kind of crazy!

Yes I’m further south and closer to the [Golden Gate] bridge but the weather isn't much different. Actually it may be slightly colder because we're closer to the ocean. In two weeks our branch president and his wife are most likely taking us to the beach for our birthdays. Hermana Osorio's birthday is March 1st.

My first week has been great! We’ve had some fun and many laughs. The branch is so fun! The members are a little crazy. Our correlation meeting with the ward council was entertaining and fun. And yet we stayed on task and accomplished a lot.

As we were tracting one day one lady told us we should check to make sure we weren’t being lead astray and that we needed to find the truth. She told us to read the Bible. She also said some other things like that but I can't remember what. Anyway, it was interesting to me because for someone else it may have shaken their faith or sown a seed of doubt but I found that it didn't for me. In fact it just strengthened my testimony. I know that I received an answer to my prayer that this gospel is true and that this is the church of Jesus Christ once again on the earth. I know we have a prophet of God that leads and guides us. I know we can and do receive revelation. And I’m so grateful for it.

We started teaching a family. We’ve actually taught them three times already. And they're reading in the Book of Mormon! They read what we gave them and then started from the beginning. The mother is two week s away from giving birth. She mentioned that she likes the name Nefi. So we're hoping they have a boy and name it Nefi. :)

Another experience while tracting happened on exchanges in Rohnert Park with Hermana Garo. We were knocking a door and no one answered so we knocked again. Then we heard the roof-roof of a big dog, but there was something wrong with the bark. It was actually a man pretending to be a dog! He thought that by barking he would scare us off. Instead we just laughed.

While on exchanges with Hermana Garo she told me about the Santa Rosa branch. It’s grown since I’ve been there. They have almost 100 people coming weekly. Where as when I was there it was around 50. She also told me about a brother that Hermana Christensen and I found. He was less active. If you remember he's the one that lives in the vineyard. And we would teach him and watch the sun set. Anyway, Hermana Garo told me that he's the branch mission leader and that they've started to teach his children! And that his son and daughter-in-law came to church. How cool is that?!!! A brother Hermana Christensen and I found and started teaching now has a calling and his children are being taught! I'm still marveling at it! I’m so excited to return one day to the branch and see the growth.

So I realized the other day that this is my fourth area. And there's only one more Spanish sister area left for me to go; Napa. So either I’ll spend a lot of time in both of these last two areas or, I’ll go back to an area I’ve already been to, or a new area will open up and I’ll go there. We’ll see but it is kind of interesting and exciting to think about.

So the story of the car; last transfer on their way to zone conference Hermana Osorio an her companion, Hermana McKay, got rear ended. So the bumper needed some repair. So this week they finally were able to get it into the shop. So during district meeting on Wednesday they took it. Which left us without a car and we needed one because we have church and dinner appointments in San Rafael and our area is pretty big to be walking for a few days. (We don’t have bikes) so what ended up happening is we used our district leader's car, Elder Hunt and Elder Camper. So they were on bikes. Originally we were supposed to have our car Friday afternoon. That didn’t happen. But we got a call this morning from Elder Neuenschwander saying our car would be dropped off at one o’clock at our apartment. So we hurried and finished laundry and shopping. We were hoping to get Elder Hunt's car cleaned before one so we didn't have to drive it any more and rack up more miles. But the man who dropped off our car was earlier than we thought. So we went there to get the keys and then back out to wash and vacuum the Elders' car. It was an adventure this morning! We finally have our car back after 5 days or so. And now we have to clean it. The elders are happy to have their car back. :)

So we have a few goals we're working on and one of them is speaking more Spanish. It’s going okay so far. My hope is to have a day without English. My Spanish is going to improve so much. I’m so excited to have a native speaking companion! Already my Spanish has improved, a little. She’s pretty good at helping me. I’m grateful.

Time’s up. Hope I remembered everything I wanted to tell you!
Hope you have another great week!
Love you forever!
Hermana Stephenson

P.S. Thanks Andrea for the package! And no, I haven’t opened it. I’m just excited to have it sitting by my desk [waiting for Friday]. :)