Well, in some ways I'm surprised about transfer info, and in some ways not (we found out on Friday). This is what's happening: Elder Debora is going to Sonoma and an Elder named Elder Alcivar (who I know very, very little about) is replacing him. Also, the Spanish Sisters that cover the other half of Vacaville are getting "evacuated" as the Zone Leaders called it, which means that there won't be Spanish Sisters here and my companion and I will be covering all of Vacaville now. Those are the news worthy changes. And they were pretty big.
I was pretty sure that Elder Debora and I wouldn't be together again, and I'm going to miss serving with him. We've been pretty working well together, and I've always enjoyed Elder Debora's personality from the beginning. Needless to say things aren't going to be the same with him gone. It really did surprise me though that the Hermanas' area is getting merged back with our's. I think it's probably a good idea for the area at this time (and it must be because the Lord commissioned it) I just didn't see it coming at all. I'm kind of a little apprehensive about it because I haven't yet been on the side of an area getting bigger... It'll be a very different experience, with very different difficulties than I've faced before. But that seems like how it always goes and I'm very excited to work with the expanded area and to pick up the investigators that the Hermanas had. They've been doing good work in a pretty difficult area from what I saw from the outside looking in. And they have a few people that have been well prepared! All in all I'm looking forward to next transfer with an attitude of excitement!
This week as far as work goes has been pretty good. We were able to teach Magdalena, Marleny, and Carlos Flores who are all less-actives. And we also had an AMAZING dinner with Marleny, it was fried tilapia with white rice and black beans, which sounds kinda plain, but the fish and the beans were super well spiced and very, very yummy! This week we also had lessons with Alex Loayes and Anita who are both new investigators this week!! We taught Alex the Restoration and he is so awesome!! He payed great attention and soft committed to baptism. He knows James 1:5 by memory and we were very impressed with his knowledge of Biblical/religious things for only being 17! Anita is someone we found last week and she's met with missionaries before. She is a grandma and has like 9 kids! She seems pretty open, although pretty Catholic in tradition as well. The trouble is that her son who seems to be there fairly often is pretty, well, not anti, but not interested at all and a little argumentative. We just have to avoid teaching Anita while he's there in the future I think. Also, we were unable to see the family of David and Leticia this week. We talked with them on the phone and invited them to the Trunk-or-treat on Halloween night, and we've been trying to catch them to give them an invitation in person, so hopefully we'll be able to get them to that.
I love you all and have to go now, but I hope everything is going well!
-Elder Whitaker