Hola! It was a successful and eventful week! Lots of fun surprises :)

Santa showed up at church yesterday!!!! We were so shocked! She is the less active mom of Rocio and Uriel. She was baptized when she was about 13 and has been less active for about 15 years or more. Her kids usually go to church with her brother Abel who has recently activated and is now preparing to get the Priesthood :) He has an interview tomorrow and if everything goes well he should be able to receive the Priesthood on Sunday and be able to baptized his niece and nephew. We love them so much and our excited to see them all progressing together in the gospel.

Earlier in the week we had the most powerful keeping the sabbath day holy lesson but Santa just didn't get it. We shared with her the promised blessings that can come but she would only shrug and say "But Hermanas I have to work" She was also really unsure about her kids getting baptized because she feels like they are still too young and need more time to decide. Rocio is almost 18 and Uriel is 9 and they LOVE church. But the Lord worked miracles and her heart was touched. She let Rocio go the the Stake Young Women's camp out over the weekend, came with us Saturday to the Stake Relief Society Activity and by some miracle came to church!!!! Rocio and Uriel have their interviews tonight! So excited for them. They were also so happy to have their mom at church with them. Rocio is adorable and so sure about the gospel path. Definitely a chosen young girl. We love her.

And from our district activity today! We made sandwiches and played some card games. It was really fun and relaxing. Our matching zone shirts :) Pretty sweet. Hermana Fowler and I also went to the gym today. Best 2 dollars I've spent in a long time. Gonna go more often on pdays!

We have been praying really hard and trying to do all we can to help a woman that was baptized 6 months ago now and never got confirmed. So sad. We have been trying to do all we can to find her, serve her and show her how much we love her and her family. This week we found an opportunity to surprise clean her door and window. I'll be honest. It was pretty nasty. Covered by so much dust and SO many spider webs. And spiders. She wasn't there for her cita so we grabbed some supplies and got to work. We haven't seen her yet but are really praying that she goes back this Sunday. She doesn't have anything against the church. Actually her 14 year old daughter Fernanda has a golden testimony and says she would like to be baptized. Hopefully soon :) 

In our district meeting we focused on some gospel doctrines and how we can teach them with more clarity. I have been working on improving my teaching skills and teach the gospel as it is, simple life changing truths. Trying to help the people understand that the gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to completely change their lives for good and forever. It is clear and simple and true. It's so sad when seeing people not understand the power and importance of the gospel truths. Especially the Atonement. 

Speaking of which, our gospel principles lessons was on the Atonement this week and it was so incredibly good. Our convert Eduardo made some really good comments which made me so happy to hear. He has really changed. That was another happy thing about this week, seeing lots of recent converts and menos actives at church. Our ward counsel meetings are getting better too and I feel like we are gaining the ward's trust more and more. More members are volunteering to have family nights held in their houses so we can bring less actives, converts and investigators to their homes. We are going to make a calendar to pass around so they can just start signing up what days they can.

My family booklet! It's finally done and all decked out inside. It's so fun to teach with. Thanks mom for sending me pictures and info. I love teaching family history with it!

Also Saturday night at the activity we realized that someone had been breaking in and vandalizing the chapel. Just little silly things but it was still sad to see. Lots of things broken and random messes. Decided we won't be going their alone anymore. Oh also felt like we had a really cool miracle with our district contacting activity on Saturday. We all contacted in our area this time. It's so cool because this is our third time doing it and every time we put a goal of how many people we want to find and pray about it together and every time we've reached it. We found some new young families to teach and are so excited about it. 

It was kind of a harder week because I've still been sick whenever I eat but I started taking some meds today to kill all my little parasite friends that I have to use for the next week and a half and then they should be gone. Not gonna miss them. Good for a losing a quick and unhealthy 10 pounds but that's about it. I was a little discouraged and tired of feeling sick and asked myself "what am I doing here?" I decided to pray and ask God just like we invite each and every one of our investigators to do. To ask to make sure baptism is the right step, or if they should stay on the gospel path or keep a commandment. I tried it out and the Lord confirmed to me that this is where I'm supposed to be and the path that he wants me to follow. I'm so grateful for the power of prayer and also for the power of the Priesthood. The gospel is great. 

I'm about out of time but have a spectacular week! Hope Madison has the best 17th birthday ever! Can't believe she's that old. And Ryker and Kennedy too! Looks like it's gonna be a week full of lots of parties :) 

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Rhoten 

 PS: Also we have cambios next week so I won't be on til Wednesday!