Lighthouse!

Today we hiked up to this lighthouse!

As far as our area goes and the missionary work we are doing, things are going really well. We contact a lot on the streets and we are finding a ton of people that seem interested, but then later when we call the,m or passby, they are too busy. A few of them seem pretty golden, so we are working with them, it just seems like no one is progressing quickly. Which is kind of frustrating. We are inviting people to be baptized daily, which is something our zone has really been focusing on.

A miracle contact we had the other day was when I contacted a guy, and he immediately started talking to me in English! And he was like, I know you! And I couldn't remember him, but then as we talked to him I realized that me and Hermana Wiseman had talked to him around Christmas time. Hermana Wiseman saw them at the very end of the day as we were walking home and saw that they were taking a selfie and offered to take a picture of them. Something so simple, nothing came of it at that moment, but now we are going to start meeting with him! He's cool. He's from Ecuador!

I'm getting really nervous about transfers this week, I'm scared that I'm leaving! And I really don't want to leave! I love this area and we are seeing so many great things! Also I love working with Hermana Crofts! I don't want to leave!!

Me and Hermana Crofts

sights from the prettiest area of the mission! ;)

So it's been a great week. I'm so grateful for all the members that help us so much. This week we had a family home evening and a convert of like 2 years brought her friend. A member that is putting in his mission papers gave lesson on the atonement after we explained the Book of Mormon, and it was probably the most spiritual lesson Ive ever had in my mission. The investigator was crying. It was so beautiful. The friend of the investigator was testifying of the truth of he Book of Mormon and of Jesus Christ and it was so amazing. That's how missionary work works!

I love you all so much, I'm so excited to be a missionary forever!

Love, Hermana BirchHola a todos!

This week was a crazy week, they just keep flying by so fast! I
started the week off with some weird sickness where I was like feeling
really nauseous and faint and couldn't walk very fast without feeling
sick, so the elders gave me a blessing of health. It was a super
special blessing, my first one in a while, and I felt God's love for
me and that he really does know me. The blessing didn't even talk so
much about my sickness, but about my mission and who I am. It was
really cool, and since the blessing I've been feeling great and back
up to normal!

How Many Awkward Moments Can We Fit Into One Week

Dear family and friends,

How are you all? I hope you're having an awesome week. It's really
cold here. There is snow on the mountains and it's really rainy.
Luckily I bought a pair of rubber rain boots and a member gave us warm
scarves, so we're good to go.

So because it's been raining a lot, it means that we are talking to
lots of people in the rain. But if we can find an open building, we
knock it. So we had just finished knocking a building, and we actually
found some really awesome people there, and we were by the elevator
and a black guy walked in the building, so naturally I started talking
to him. He was super nice and cool, from Ghana, and we said a prayer
right there with him and he said we could visit him another day. So
later in the week, we passed by. His Spanish wife answered the door,
and when we said that we were missionaries she didn't look too
impressed, but she went and got her husband and he let us in! Which
was a big deal, this was the first house I've been let into in 2
weeks! So we were pretty excited! He speaks English. We were on the
sofa with him, and the wife was at the table on her computer. I wanted
to speak in Spanish so that just in case she was listening would
understand and feel the Spirit. Sabes? But the guy would keep
switching to English so it was super weird. Also we are supposed to be
inviting people to be baptized in the first lesson, but his wife was
like there listening, and I don't know how much English she knows, but
I didn't want to like scare her off by asking him to be baptized, so
instead we went from talking about the video we watched, to
introducing him to the Book of Mormon, to talking about the plan of
salvation. Then he said he didn't want or need 2 bibles. Then we told
him he could learn even more about God and receive even more
blessings. And then he was like, I don't even need more blessings.
I've got my house, my wife, my job. I send things to kids from my
country that don't have anything, I'm good. And in my mind I was like,
all we have to give this guy is blessings, what can we do for this
guy?" Anyway there's not like a miraculous end to this story, like he
wants to be baptized or anything but it just goes to show that some
people need more help than you think.

Love you all, Hermana Birch