Amber's Post

heyyyy!!
alright so first off my companions name is kellie not shelby but shelby is her older sister!!! hahah so crazy!! its such a small world in mormon world. I just love my companion so much! I was so blessed to have her as my trainer! We haven't had any problems one bit! It just makes me sad to think i'm gonna get a new comp in a couple months. ! It seriously doesnt feel like christmas here at all! NO SNOW!! me & my companion decided we wanted to pray for snow so hopefully it comes on christmas day! That would be the best christmas gift ever, except talking to the family of course! We also made a christmas count down chain & hung it in our room & on each chain theres a scripture about christs birth. Its great! We also have a 'miracle wall' we're doing in our room. Its where we write little miracles down that go on throughout the day & & put them on the wall. I'll tell you a little miracle that happened....A couple days ago for dinner we had it at this member's home that lives in Muscoy. Ok so muscoy isn't really a safe area & they tell us not to go there past dark, but on this day we had dinner at 6 & it gets dark here around 5:30/6ish so it was dark when we went looking for the house. Well it was really hard to see the numbers on the houses & usually we would just park & walk down the street a little till we saw the number but we didn't wanna get out of the car so as we were looking for the house from our car we both saw one house that had numbers on it but all the rest didn't & we both said outloud "Please Heavenly Father let this be the house were eating at!" We got out of the car & went up to the house & when we saw the number is was the house we needed!! We both were so thankful! I don't know what we would have done if it wasn't the house we were eating at.
So i'm warm now with the blanket grandma gave me. I have a total of 5 blankets that i sleep with at night & then i also where my sweatshirt to bed. haha so i'm loaded with layers so im good now. (The member Amber lives with keeps her house very cold)
So things with teaching have been really slow to be honest. Since we were white washed into this area we are SLOWING starting to find people to teach. Tracting is NOT easy but we're trying & we are finding people so i think it will start picking up soon. Most people here are less actives which honestly kinda irritates me! but oh well i'm gonna do what i have to do. SO yesterday we went to this man's house & when he opened the door he yells "oh my friends!!!" ahah hes like come in come in! so we walk in & start talking to him. He tells us that he has a ton of friends that are mormon & just loves them. He then explained that he was muslim.....uhh what? haha He was from Lebanon but moved to cali like 26 years ago. His wife converted to muslim around the time she met him & then he told us that he is a professor that teaches muslim religion!! yeah i don't know how you work with that & it wont be easy converting him but we'll try our best. I asked him about what muslims really believe & its actually very similiar to mormons but they worship muhammad & we worship christ. They don't believe he was the son of God! hmmmm i don't get it. ANyway we also met this other man when we were going to this ladys house & she wasn't home but he was there & we started asking him if he was religious at all & he said well no not really just christian then he says "honestly im okay with every religion out there except the mormons" hahah me & my companion then smiled & he goes "oh no you 2 aren't mormons are you?!" we both said yes but said we weren't offended at all but wanted to know why he wasn't ok with our religion. He told us that he had an x girlfriend once who was mormon & she told him some crazy stuff about our religion that wasn't even true! we told him how people can spread rumors & they aren't always true but you need to always find out for yourself what you believe. He then instantly said he would be okay with trying our religion & we were like uhh wow okay i guess we''ll come back sometime & talk with you more. haha he was a good guy.
Oh yeah so the lady i live with is Sister Adams & she is so great!! Really i love her a ton & we just love talking with her but her son is in Melanie & reys ward!! Cool huh. Also another one of her daughters had a son that served in Guadalajara mexico & it was the same time that adam served there but i can't remember what the last name was. Hopefully i'll remember next time & let you know. Well today for p-day my zone is going on a hike! WOOT WOOT! It's like i'm in Idaho again! It should be fun though. I really like my zone. So yesterday was the 1st Presidency Christmas devotional & i hope you got to watch it cause it was good. Well things are going great here & I can't believe i have been out for already a month! :D There are so many troubled families out there & i have never realized how blessed i have been to grow up in a family where my parents actually taught me correct principles & gave me good examples to follow & have brothers who all set a good life & example for me. It's amazing to be in a family where i'm the 6th to serve a mission & i love it!! I couldn't have asked for a better family. I love you all & thanks again for your prayers & could you please ask a specail prayer that we can find people to teach & Be guided by the spirit to places where we can help this area grow spriritually! Thanks!
Love, Sister Amber Ruth Heward!