Happy Two Days after St. Patrick's Day!!

Wow! Everyone wrote me this week and I have no time! Ha-ha sorry! I have soooo much to say and I won't be able to share it all, but maybe I can catch up next week :)

Hola Presidente,

As I expressed last week, training with Hermana Jones has been very much a learning experience. It requires a lot of patience, but I am also learning so much. She has been a little stressed with the language, not knowing how to learn it since she is not submersed in it, and so Hermana Ruiz asked me to share how I've come so far, seeing as I didn't speak much better than Hermana Jones just a short time ago. What I realized as I was sharing with her, is that the Book of Mormon challenge we have been doing (marking and reading every day) has helped so much. I remember in December thinking that it would be so much easier in English, but I had the strong impression that if I did the challenge in Spanish, I would be blessed and my ability to speak the language would increase more rapidly. That has been so true. Every day I read the Book of Mormon out loud in Spanish and I know that more than anything else I have done or studied, that has helped me learn the language and be able to speak it! What a blessing. Hermana Jones still doesn't love the idea because she can't understand what she's reading (she doesn't realize that that's not the point and it will help her gain the gift of tongues anyway), but we're helping her along. :)
We have seen so many blessings this week. We dropped some investigators that we have been teaching for a long time and we were really hoping they would be baptized, but they just weren't progressing and we realized that they wanted to know, but they didn't want to change. It was hard dropping them, but we have seen so many blessings from it, picking up 7 investigators last week! (Usually we get 2 or 3 on a good week). We fasted with the Branch Council this last weekend for the missionary work and we are having members falling into our laps to come with us for lessons! Literally - we were about to start a lesson with Priscilla and her family and one of the members knocked on her door and joined us for the lesson, it was ridiculous, and awesome. Also, Priscilla's son (who said he didn't want to be baptized) said he's feeling really good at church and is 60% sure he wants to be baptized! Ha-ha, we know he will be very soon and we're so excited for him!
I learned a lot from Hermana Schwegler during Intercambios (like always - she's so great!) and from myself, actually. I realized that even though it's not easy, I can do this work without having to rely on Hermana Ruiz. We saw a lot of miracles during Intercambios. Wow. Miracles all over the place! We have had a wonderful week! :)
Hermana Escalante

P.S. Sorry it's so long this week - there's just so much goodness to share in the work!

The investigators that were dropped are Magaly and Cristian. We were really sad about it, but it was at the point that they needed to get baptized or dropped and they we're ready to make that step. Maria is progressing again, so that is really exciting :) Rene wants to be baptized (most likely) and he is having his own spiritual experiences and it's so awesome! Priscilla and Oscar will be getting baptized the 30th and maybe Rene too! We'll see. The members are getting so much more involved and it's getting hard to keep up with the work, which is so awesome! Like I mentioned in the letter to President Cook, helping to train Hermana Jones takes a lot of patience, but I am learning. President has casually mentioned (more that once) to Hermana Ruiz that I need the experience and to be prepared...ugh. I'm pretty sure that means I will be training in a transfer or two, which I'm not excited about, but I don't really have much of a choice with all the billions of 19 yr. olds coming out. As for the area split, we will be losing the 3 most north areas of our mission (orange county area) and gaining the Murrieta stake, which is right by here in Temecula. It's so close that we accidently drive into it when we make a wrong turn :) So yeah, we won't be getting the Poway stake. Bummer. Like I said, I don't know which mission I will be staying in (here or Irvine), but I have a feeling I will stay here in Carlsbad.

I am learning and actually realizing how amazing the Bible is, and Jesus the Christ, and I use them more and more in my studies. I wish that every Jehovah’s Witness that we talked to would just read Roman's 8, it's so clear. Pretty powerful though. Intercambios were awesome, we saw a lot of miracles, and like I said to President, I lead out on everything and even though I felt uncomfortable, I was able to do it and I realize that I am able to do this work with the help of the Lord. I'm sad that I'm already out of time, but thank you for the updates on the family! I will print and read the letter from Ryan later. Thailand looks amazing and I would not be opposed to taking a trip there! I'm glad all my siblings are doing well and YOU are doing well mama! I love you! The conferences sound awesome and I'm excited to go to as many as I can when I get home! I love my Savior; this gospel is true and so real. I love the scriptures and our living day profets. I love you all! Gotta go! Bye!

Con amor,

Hermana Escalante