Last Transfer Call!

February 13^th, 2017

Last night I got the last transfer call of my mission...we're both staying! Dang, Gina! We thought for sure that because Hna Maya and I get along so well, and because we're both about to go home, that we'd be split apart! But no! We will be staying together! We are excited to be companions until the end. 

Haha I love your stories! You are the cutest parents ever! And yeah, I was totally born with flojeritis, too.

This week was really good! One time, we were trying to find a street that wasn't on our map, and we asked someone on the street for directions, but they neglected to tell us how far away we were biking to. We accidentally biked to the next town over, Ripon! It took over an hour to bike there. We are so smart, haha! It was crazy though because as we were biking in the middle of nowhere, a member of the Church saw us and was like, "Do you know how far away from town you are?!" She was super nice and went back to her house to get her bike rack so that she could drive us home. But yeah, anyways we biked all the way out there, and the person we talked to seemed interested but he lives in Tracy so we gave him as a referral to our Spanish elders out there. All-around that was an experience of tender-mercies!

This week we were struggling yet again with the fact that it has been so hard to find investigators here. But we were blessed in other ways. One day, we had dinner with a prospective elder, Hno. Cxxx, and his family, and he said something very nice. He said that his favorite hour of church is Gospel Principles, which is taught by us 6 missionaries. He said that he has learned so much. We really appreciated that because, you just never know how much your teaching actually affects people. 

We stopped by to see some members in our ward who we haven't seen in quite a while, and we must've been inspired because Hno. Axxx told us that he has a friend who is interested in the church, and he wants to give a Book of Mormon to his friend who lives in Stockton. We gave him a Book of Mormon and we are so excited that he gets to have this missionary opportunity!

We met with a less-active, Hno Oxxx, for the first time. He is such a spiritual giant! We planned on teaching him the Restoration, but it felt more like HE was teaching US. It was so cool. I hope he comes back to church soon. And he is Nicaraguense so his accent was super fun to listen to!

There was one night where it was raining pretty hard, and I was feeling kind of cold. But I wanted to stay positive, so I simply thought about you, Mami and Papi, and just by thinking about my loved ones, I didn't feel cold anymore. Another tender mercy for me!

This week it was super funny because Hna Maya was sitting in her desk chair talking, and she leaned back and fell over but the couch stopped her from completely falling to the ground. I tried grabbing her hands and pulling her up, but I have no arm strength at all, so instead of lifting her up I actually made her fall all the way to the ground. Haha it was great!

Here is a picture of Hno. Rxxx. He is our favorite! His humor reminds me of Bugs Bunny, since he's always able to turns things around on you and makes it a joke and he just has fun with himself. Like, last Monday we were asking if he had read his Book of Mormon and he said he hadn't read much, so we asked him where he was in his reading, and he was like, 1 Nephi 4, and we were like, "That's where you were last time, so you didn't read at all!" And he was like, "Really? I thought you were saying that I HAD read a lot this week!" Haha I don't even know why but that made me laugh so hard.

This is Hna Jxxx, who is an awesome missionary-oriented member in our ward!

District picture! Me, Hna Maya, Elders Schoenfeld, Jarvis, Baker, Ashton, Spikes, and Gifford.

Love you!

Hermana Aburto

These are our favorite elders in the zone; they are all so funny and cool! Elders Pope, Schultz, Perry, and Beus. This is the food bank where we all do service every week.

These are our elders in the Spanish ward! They are also all so funny and cool!

This is how I will propose to my future husband! Haha

This is us with the Bxxx and Axxx family. The kid in the middle with the hat on is Dxxx, and he is the recent convert who we've been teaching. He's a great kid!