I held a baby ALLIGATOR!

I feel like my whole mission experience here in Texas has consisted of animals. And the amazing people too. But sooooo many animals encounters I've had!! Good thing I love animals. This morning we went to a state park called Brazos Bend State Park and it was sooooo fun! We went with the stake president's wife and daughter and we had so much fun. We walked around and saw about 5 alligators. And as we were walking back to the car, we heard a growl but we couldnt see anything. It still freaked us out though!! Because we knew it was an alligator. So we turned right back around and walked the other way. Soooo fun :) Then we got to go and hold a baby baby alligator. They are so cute. 

Well this week was really really awesome. Wasnt the Womens Conference SO good?? Well to those of you that watched it. I just felt sooo much love from my Heavenly Father and that He really is our Father. And how important the temple is. How lucky are we to have the priesthood restored here on the earth today that makes it possible for us to perform saving ordinances in the temple?! I am so grateful for the temple and the opportunity that we have to make covenants and live with our families forever and our Heavenly Father one day for eternity. Such a great blessing and gift given to us. 

So Ines and Sofia are doing great!! They werent able to go to church yesterday but they will eventually! Sofia LOVES having us come over and teach her. She reads all her assignments in the Book of Mormon and is on time for all our appointments! She is the cutest. We have a lot of fun with her. This week we got to teach them twice. The second time was with Hermana Torres who will be her primary teacher. That lesson was so powerful too because Hermana Torres had the same problem when she was investigating the church with having to work on Sundays. So that helped Ines have the desires to do the same. They both want to be baptized so bad and understand that they need to so we are just working with them to have the faith to progress. We love them so much! Pray that they will be able to go to church and be baptized! :)

This week we started teaching the nephew of an active family in our ward. He is from Pasadena but is living with the members right now. IDEAL SITUATION. It is perfect. They come to church every sunday and they have gospel discussions with him all the time. This week we taught the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation and it was so key that those members were there. They basically taught the whole thing. Israel, the nephew, is reading and thinking about baptism. Hopefully he will make the decision to repent and come unto Christ soon! 

This week we saw a miracle. Well, lots of miracles but just listen to this HUGE miracle. So we have the Familia Espitia. They are an awesome familia. Just suppperrrr less active. I have been trying to work so hard with them the entire time i have been here. She stopped answering us for a while but thursday we found them outside and she was cooking so she couldnt run inside. It was so sad because she was like " i dont like the mormon church. and i dont like the catholic church! I am just confused right now." So i was just like no. There has to be something behind this. So we testified about how this is the true church. Then she invited us to eat. We had already had a dinner appointment and we were so full..... but we said yes! So we got to sit down and eat with them and talk with her and her husband. It was amazing to see the Spirit change and guide the conversation to the temple and then we taught them about the temple and being sealed as a family. They told us they would come to church. They didnt come but our bishop is going to invite them to his house for conference this weekend. they will come!! It was just so cool! 

We also did service for a family in our ward. This family is awesome. But their situation is just so hard and so sad. But i love them so much. We sat down with Hermana and she just vented to us about how sad she is and just started crying. I was sitting there crying just praying for the Lord to help me know what to say. Hermana cant see well and cant walk well either and her family is struggling. So we went there planning on just sweeping and mopping. Instead we turned their kitchen around. We cleaned, scrubbed, organized, swept, mopped, did everything. It was crazy. But not once did I complain because this family needed us that day. It may have taken 5 hours and i may have been really dirty  but i didnt care. My love for this family was a lot more than my worry of germs :) It felt so good to just serve and help them!!

Well, that was our week!! :) I hope yall have a fabulous week this week!! Keep the faith and share the gospel with EVERYONE. 

Con amor, 

Hermana Dorian