Well, I'm happy to report that this week was a good one, filled with miracles! The weather continues to be perfect, sitting around 75 degrees every day, and Sister M** hasn't gotten sick of me yet, which is good! Haha the more time we are together, Sister M** and I realize we have soooo much in common. Like same friends at UVU common. And we were in the dance hall all the time and we never met each other. Crazy!

The work is going well in Santa Maria. Our lesson with the H** family was great! The Spirit was so strong and you could tell we all felt it and we knew it. It was Sister M**'s first time taking the lead in a lesson and she did AMAZING! I'm so proud of her and how hard she works! She also extended the invitation to be baptized...A** said yes! That was her end goal and she was excited to work towards it! So as of right now she will be baptized on September 23!! We are so excited for her and her family. Their light is growing and you can see how much happier they are. They even made the effort to come to church yesterday when A** wasn't feeling well. She knew she needed to come and so she and her family came. They are amazing!

We are also teaching a little boy named C**. It's a long complicated story, but he is 9 and has grown up in the church and needs to be baptized. He is considered a convert though because he is 9. 

We participated in a cool service project on Saturday. It's called Serve Santa Maria. It's set up by a pastor of a church and there are a lot of different church organizations and people in the community that come together and complete a bunch of different service projects. It honestly was so cool. To have so many good people come because they want to help and uplift their brothers and sisters. There were over 20 missionaries who were there, too, so we all split up to different projects. Gotta spread the love! Sister M** and I planted a bunch of plants at a veteran's center. We got to talk to a lot of great people and explain what our black tags were for! 

I was reading an article this past week in studies and I just wanted to share a little bit of it. The article talks about being a consecrated missionary, but there were some points that I think can apply to everyone because we all are trying to become better servants of the Savior. One quote I really liked was "Eventually we must do more than tell the stories of the Book of Mormon; we must live them." POWERFUL!  How often do we talk about the people in the Book of Mormon and share their experiences? Probably a lot! But are we living like them? These people are examples to us and how we should be every day! You may think that they are too far of a reach and that you could never reach their level. I DISAGREE! We all have the potential to become like them because we have the potential to become like Jesus Christ. The important thing to remember is that the Lord never expects immediate PERFECTION, but He expects immediate PROGRESSION. Just a little step each day in the right direction will get you farther than you think. 

I hope you all have a great week, and for those who started school, good luck!!

xoxo, Sister G

We celebrated Sister M**'s one-month with some frozen yogurt!