Greetings from the Creepers!

Hey Mama!

Wow, fun letter this week. Ha-ha, but good to hear from you, all the same. I'm glad to hear the family is doing so well J The Bishop forwarded the Ward Bulletin to me so I got to read the missionary updates - fun stuff! I also saw the post about the Single Adult Fireside coming up, are you going? ;) I hope so! Speaking of, are you still signed up for LDS singles?  How has that been going? Any dates yet?

Sounds like you had a fun date with Kimi and Sharron to see Les Mis! Ha-ha I'm glad you enjoyed your popcorn. I'll be honest, that is the first movie I want to see when I get home. I'm so excited for it! Should be so good! But don't worry, I'm fine with waiting another...15 months. I'm sure it will be just as good then as it is now.

Wow, sounds like a fantastic testimony meeting. Ours was pretty great too. There always seems to be some underlying theme in every testimony, and ours was the temple. Sadly, only one of our investigators (Magali and her kids) was able to make it to church this week (we were hoping that 4 of them would come), but the testimony meeting was very powerful and really touched her. Her husband lost his job last week and since then has been a bit more humble and willing to listen to what we have to say. He would listen to us before, but not take it very seriously. He committed to coming to church this Sunday, but I guess he was stuck up in Perris where his parents live, without a car, so he didn't get back in time for church. Magali was pretty upset that he said he would come and he didn't, so that's good news that she cares and wants him to come so much.

Also, she and her kids stayed the whole time this week and I think her kids are really warming up to it. We went and visited her that evening and she seemed so much happier than usual! We can feel the gospel and the support of the branch lifting her spirit. We had a lesson with her last night as well with her uncle (recent convert) and Anel and Rigo (the ward mission leaders). Anel and Rigo were baptized last April and are on fire! They are so great and want to share the gospel so much! Anel and Magali are good friends and she is such a good support for her. We were talking about the Family Proclamation last night and how we can bring the Spirit into our homes. Magali was having a hard time, crying, and talking about how her kids are crazy and she doesn't feel any support form her husband. Anel helped so much with her testimony and counsel, as well as the spirit that was present and the scriptures, of course. We can tell that Magali really wants to be baptized; she just has some more steps she has to take. Hopefully we will see those blessings soon :) We are having a dinner/FHE with her family and the Piñeda family tomorrow night and are excited to help her husband warm up to the members and the gospel.

Another tender mercy: Maria has been really hard to get ahold of since Hermana Vidal (her good friend) went out of town. She has canceled on her appointments, hasn't come to church, and hasn't been very responsive. After the lesson with Magali, we had planned to see Nubia (a less -active), but I suggested we go see Maria instead. As we were visiting with her, she received some really hard news about her nephew who is bi-polar, he wants nothing to do with the family, and is alone somewhere in LA (they have no idea where). She was crying and asked us to pray for him. We shared a scripture, talked about the support of the Lord in our lives and in the lives of our families, and prayed together. Wow, what a tender mercy that we were there right as she received that news and were able to help her feel the comfort of the spirit. We are meeting with her in a few days and hopefully setting up a date for baptism J

Did I tell you about Fernando last week? Well, we're not really sure how he's doing. We're supposed to see him tomorrow, but haven't been able to get ahold of him much this week (bad sign), so we'll see how that goes. We also picked up a new investigator Alejandro who didn't seem very promising at first. However, when we arrived for our apt, he was waiting for us and was excited that we were there! He was drinking during the lesson, but was still very involved, was asking a lot of great questions, and even offered a prayer with us. We committed him to baptism and he says he will if he finds these things are true. He didn't come to church on Sunday, but we saw him last night and he has been reading and had more great questions for us! Neither of us was expecting much out of him, since he's usually drunk or drinking, but we're excited to see how things go! We love him already and are exciting to help him change his life and come closer to Christ!

 We recently received a list from Hermano Piñeda (who works in real estate) of all the houses with Latino last names out in French Valley. We spent quite a while there yesterday, tracting the list. Tracting isn't something we do all that often and man, it's tiring. It wasn't very fruitful, but we did get one return appointment for today. French Valley is very rich and the people there are not very humble, I'll tell you that. We'll see how much we get from this list, but I know that if nothing else, blessings will come from working hard.

We had interviews with President Cook this week and all went well J I'm sad that he'll be leaving in the summer - he is a great mission president. He complimented my Spanish and is very pleased with how I'm doing J It's comforting to hear things like that, as some days are pretty rough and I feel anything but confident in the work. Nevertheless, this is the Lord's work, and it will go forward J The English sisters are moving out this week, so we will be a little lonely in our apartment, but only for a little bit, as new sisters will be coming in next transfer (in 2 weeks, I believe). There are going to be so many new sisters in the next few transfers...it's going to be crazy.

Well, I better wrap this up, but I just want to share how much I love the scriptures - the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the D&C, and the Pearl of Great Price - all of them, side by side. They are so amazing. I hope all of you take advantage of the words of God that we have available in our hands. They truly are amazing and they guide us so much. This work is crazy and kind of weird, but it's awesome. We feel like "creepers always creepin", but Hermana Ruiz prefers to call us "righteous stalkers" ha-ha.

I hope all is well with the family. Tell Ariana to email me! Ok, I have to go for real. LOVE YOU!!!!

Con amor,

Hermana Escalante