Exploring Charleston

A picture from Sister Schempp!

Hey Y'all!

I hope everyone's week has been great:) We had a pretty good week here in Teay's Valley for not being in Teay's Valley as much as we would have liked. First, we had interviews with President Lindhardt at the mission office in Charleston which was so great! He gave me good tips on how I can study so I can keep improving in my missionary work! I love him so much and know that part of the reason I came to West Virginia was so that I could have him as my mission president. 

Charleston

A house built by the governor in the 1930's 

On Friday we had to travel to Montgomery for District Meeting in the Furniture store again. I can't tell you enough how much I love the other 6 missionaries in our District! Sister Condie and I made Pumpkin Gingerbread for it that was a lot harder to make here than in Washington! I have to learn how to bake all over again but it still turned out good. Then we went to Charleston to get an oil change and to get our car looked at because it was making a weird noise when we turned right.  They said it would take a couple hours to complete so one of Sister Condie's old Ward Mission Leaders and his wife gave us a tour of Charleston. We went to different view points and visited some really cool old houses. I love the old architecture and how much history the city has. It's SOO pretty!  We got back to the car place and they still hadn't figured out what was wrong with it so we had to wait even longer. In total we had to wait almost 4 hours. And then they told us a strut was broken so we have to go back on Wednesday so they can fix it and they said that will take about 5 hours! Because it's out of our area all we can do is plan during that time. 

 Our neighbors, Bill and Louis. They had taken us out to lunch that day.

John, the awesome guy we found last week, came to church yesterday! He was so excited to come and there was a kid's baptism after church so we asked him if he wanted to stay for it. He told us that he couldn't because he'd have to have a blow dryer to dry off a medical thing he has when he gets baptized. We just laughed and told him that he wouldn't be getting baptized that day, just the kid. I'm so excited to see John become a part of this ward family!

My GORGEOUS companion!

Ok, another story about people being put in our path. So, earlier this week we were on our way to see a less-active member that we hadn't met before. As we were walking down the street we saw two ladies who were talking outside their house and one of them had a dog on a leash. As we walked past them the dog started going crazy and pulling one of the ladies towards us. She was finally able to yank the dog inside and turned to say sorry to us. They looked a lot like twins and so Sister Condie asked them if they were sister and we just had a brief conversation with them. They were sisters and one of them asked us what we were. We told them that we are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "Mormons!" one of them shouted. She then went on to explain that she had done a ton of research about Mormons and thought we were the coolest people ever! She had watched videos about missionaries, she knew about the welfare programs we have, and loved how much the church is focused around families. She even said that whenever she's not feeling great she'll google "Mormon Beliefs" just to be uplifted. Talk about being prepared. And she told us that Elders had knocked on her door right before she moved from Tennessee and talked to her a bit. She is so excited to have us come back and teach her more and really wants to come to church! She said that her only set back she has right now is that she smokes but she can work on it.  

The Lord really does work miracles. I have seen them occur with so many people as they put their trust in him. I love it here and wish you all a happy and successful week!

I love you all!

Sister de la Cruz

Also, 
Side note: Next week is transfers so P-Day will be on Wednesday. And I don't know if I'm getting transferred so if you are planning on sending me anything send it to the Mission Office just to be safe:

888 Oakwood Rd Suite 310
Charleston, WV 25314