Seneca, Seneca, Seneca News!

I'm not even in the Seneca Zone anymore, but that is the song going through my head right now.  When I was there, our zone leaders would leave us weekly voice mails beginning with their little "radio show" diddy.  And it's so catchy it just keeps coming back.

This past week, my Dad emailed me your guesses to what the mysterious "32" could mean, and I am so pleased that you all think so highly of me!  But none of you came quite close enough to qualify for the prize.  And now I'm a little embarrassed to give you the real answer, but just in case you were worried about me getting translated, I'll let you know what the truth is.  Ultimately, I'm still very human, and still very much a girl, and the number 32 does not represent anything near as spiritual as you were all thinking.  And, I know you're all DYING to know the answer, so the big 32 represents this: the number of skirts I have!  haha.  Don't worry, I'm getting rid of a lot of them.  And one has a hole in it because I tried to iron it and the iron was too hot. Yep.  The miracle of it is, though, that I haven't let myself go shopping in 11 months, so all of the sisters feel bad for me and give me their clothes.  :]  Pretty smart, huh? Tee hee.  And a little ridiculous.  Sometimes I think Washington D.C. North isn't a mission.  It's too good!  So anyway, there's the answer.  (And the prize would have been one of my skirts.  Bahaha!)

On to more spiritual things.  I am so grateful to be in this area.  I am really learning to appreciate the little tender mercies.  For example, now when people are nice, it's a huge miracle.  This past week has been the week of less actives, and we have been able to see so many that have been hostile before.  That's huge.  I wish I could describe the feeling of standing on a stranger's doorstep, with another girl that you don't know that well, waiting for that stranger to open the door, only to see your badge and not even look at your face before slamming the door right as you go to testify, but then realizing that your companion is testifying and the less active is saying, "Come in! Come in!"  It's glorious.  (Did that even make sense?  It was a little convoluted, but oh well.) That same experience kept happening this week!  We saw so many people that we didn't think would be willing to listen.  It was incredible.

It strengthens my testimony that Heavenly Father is in control, and I love the way that he chooses to remind people of our existence.  Meaning, we ran into Samuel last week.  Samuel was the Dad that was in the army and had been deployed to the Middle East twice.  His wife is Jehovah's Witness, but loved us and wanted us to teach him.  So we ran into him, and committed him to come to church. Our exchanges are always such a spiritual experience that it gives me faith in him, but he's still struggles to keep his commitments, so pray for him.  We also saw Devon, the only nonmember in a less active household and ran into him a few more times last week.  We're supposed to teach him.  (Signs like that make life a lot easier).  

And Tevin came to church!!! Such a huge miracle. I'm giving the credit to Sister Wankier, because it was really her doing, and she is the one that got him to commit, and helped him to be excited.  So much faith, that girl.  Please keep Tevin in your prayers too.  This gospel has the answers to his questions and he's the type that has to figure it out for himself.  And he will.

Now, I've been realizing lately that I don't talk about the little things and the details of my specific mission, so I wanted to tell a little story about that.  Last night was a program called, "Night of Music and Inspiration."  This is an event that lasts about an hour and it includes talks and songs that follow a certain theme.  Each month, a different Sister is in charge of planning this event.  Sister Bleazard had this month, and hers was in Spanish. Well, most of the people that come to these speak English, so we needed someone to translate.  Translating here is pretty fancy because we have a booth in the main theater where the translator sits, listens to the speaker through headphones, and then translates into a microphone so that those with the headsets in the audience can hear without disturbing anyone.  The problem with last night was that all of the sisters that could translate were in the program.  So I needed to ask one of the Elders, and Elder White happened to walk through the door right as I was looking for a translator.  He's been out the same amount of time I have and is great with Spanish, so I asked him, and he got this nervous look on his face.  But Spanish to English is a lot easier then vice versa, so I told him he'd be fine, and he said he'd do it.  Then he told me, "But if I don't understand what they're saying I'm just going to start telling jokes.  I might even say, 'If you thought that joke was funny raise your hand...'"  I had to laugh because I had this image in my head of all of the English-speaking audience members raising their hands in the middle of this incredible program.  Too funny.  Luckily, he understood everything and the night went smoothly.  Just another moment in the life of a VC Sister.

And I wish I could share more.  But next time.  I love you all!  Stay true to what's eternal.

Love, Sister Welch