Serving in San Antonio Texas: Coronavirus = moving into the shed!!!

Well hello everyone!! This week has been INSANE if you havent guessed! We had a lot of good lessons, I had two exchanges with AMAZING hermanas, we had zone conference, and we moved into a shed! I apologize for this coming out later than usual, we were advised to run to the store as early as possible today so we went first thing to try and get what we needed, and we were able to get some stuff haha it's crazy how empty the stores are (there were people from Laredo that drove up to Carrizo for food) and how much everybody is freaking out about it all! Of course it's a big deal or else church wouldnt have been cancelled, but everybody is still freaking out haha.

On Monday we had an awesome lesson with Giselle and she is someone that we stopped teaching right after I got into the area because she wasn't keeping appointments and was super busy, but she was about to have a baby, and now she had her baby and she is still super prepared to hear and accept the gospel! We talked a lot about things she learned from past missionaries and they even showed her the Restoration movie! She had such a big smile on her face while talking about how much she loved meeting with missionaries and learning more (she is from the DR) and we asked her if she would like to be baptized and she said YES! She was even planning on coming to church this week, and when we texted her Saturday telling her church was cancelled, she was super sad because she was already getting everything ready for her kids to come as well! We hope and pray she keeps that desire for when church starts back up again!

Tuesday I went on an exchange with Hermana Thayne (who is the comp of my fav Hermana Abadia Pazos) and it was so awesome! We had dinner with someone they are teaching named Gwen, and it was so sweet! She has a baby girl who is so adorable, and we were able to have an amazing lesson after dinner! She is super duper smart and would seriously be the best member ever! We committed her to pray to figure out exactly how the Spirit speaks to her, because that is super important to know in order to come to know the truth of the gospel, and she totally said she would! One of her holdbacks is that there isn't "physical proof" of the Book of Mormon... if anyone has any help for that, send it my way!! I've got that question a ton on my mission!
We went by one of their self referrals named Danny and he is SUPER cool!! He is so spiritual and talked our ears off about all the experiences he has been through and how he knows without a doubt there is a God. He asked us to go visit his mother and so we did the next day and ended up finding two more people for the sisters to teach! Josie and Jerry, Danny's mother and brother! They are also super awesome and Jerry talked our ears off as well, they are definitely brothers! Danny even happened to stop by at the same time we were there and when we were headed out he thanked us again for going by his family and told us how much it meant to him that we kept our word! It was so sweet, and that family would be so solid! I hope they continue with that desire to know the truth!

Wednesday we exchanged back, and I went with Hermana Chamberlain (my Sister Training Leader companion and my little sister) to her area in Adams Hill for the evening because our companions wouldn't be coming from Carrizo Springs until late that evening. We had quite a cool experience that night! We had a lesson with someone named Flor, and when we went by she wasn't there so we texted her and she didn't reply until a little bit later that she was at walmart but she was on her way home and asked if we could come by again. We were actually just about to enter Walmart because we had to go grab something, but the crazy part is that Hermana Chamberlain had never met her either, so we were joking about "we are going to see them and not know it's them" and that's exactly what happened! We were entering Walmart as they were walking out, and we saw her and her son walk out and when I saw them, I said to Hermana Chamberlain "what if that was her? just kidding haha" and it was kind of a joke of ours as we were walking through the store as if everyone was Flor. Well, we go back to her house, and we walked up to her house and sure enough, there were her and her son, the same ones we saw walk out of Walmart! Well we had a great visit with her, and she told us what her son had told her and this is the best part! She said that when we all walked past each other, her son said "mom, they have the same hearts as those other girls that have been coming to our house" and they had never met either of us, but apparently her son saw something in us, the same thing he saw in the other sisters that had visited with them, it was so cute!

Thursday we had zone conference and it was a crazy day haha. My fav part about it was being with Hermana Abadia Pazos all day and getting to catch up about everything! We also had to wake up nice and early and go pick up other sisters in a different area and they don't have a car so we got them, and then we had zone conference! This is the day that everything got insane with the virus as well haha. At the beginning of zone conference, our mission president told us we didn't need to worry very much, just keep washing our hands and have good hygeine. By the end of zone conference, he told us we can't shake any more hands or give any hugs, and that was hard to not hug my BFF! After zone conference we exchanged with the sisters from Del Rio, and Hermana Leister came with me, and we had a long drive home so we asked President Tveten where a good place to eat was and he suggested a cafe with a good burger and he was right! While we were there, he actually stopped by and chatted with us a little bit longer and told me that when we get home that we need to go to the store because we are in little carrizo and if anything happens, there isn't much there, and that kind of scared us haha so we did! It was cool that our mission president stopped by and spent time with us at dinner though, he is so amazing! We got home that evening, and we had a mission call which is when he told us about church being cancelled and things we need to be cautious about as missionaries, and it was crazy to think about how quickly something like this virus can spread and make everyone go insane haha.
We also found out we couldn't do Donovans baptism this week which was sad, but we are working to figure it all out for this week hopefully!

Friday I had an awesome day with Hermana Leister and she is a killer missionary!
We also received a phone call and were told that WE HAVE A SENIOR MISSIONARY COUPLE COMING TO LIVE WITH US, and they're coming from Singapore so they're being reassigned and coming down to Carrizo, and so this weekend has been CRAZY preparing for them to come this week. The Russo's (the house owners where we live) are also coming back this week until May, and so we were thinking about it, and that would have meant 6 people and 2 bathrooms, and we were like there is no way.. so we asked President Tveten if we can move out to the shed where missionaries lived before, and he said we could! So Friday and Saturday we spent the majority of our personal time in the morning and evening moving our stuff out into the shed! We also had to move stuff from one room to the other in the house to prepare for the senior couple, so it has literally been crazy and a long weekend haha, we've decided there should be moving SISTERS because that would be fun haha.

Saturday we spent the day in Cotulla and weren't able to contact a ton of people but it was still a good day! Most of what I remember is moving a ton hahhah it was a lot of moving, we moved our beds, study desks and a dresser.. oh and we had to clean the whole shed too because it was abandoned for 8 months, sooo yeah it was quite gross haha.

Sunday was a crazy day as well haha it didn't feel normal... We obviously didn't have church, so we had a ton more time to do things and visit people.. like way too much time hah. We went by 26 different people.. so crazy.. haha and so we did our personal study and then some come follow me, and then we went to Toni's house and her dad blessed the sacrament and we partook of it there, and then Toni also got confirmed and it was so super special! We told her she will never forget that she was confirmed a member of the church in her own living room! We also delivered the bread and water to two different families and we arent exactly sure if that was right to do or not but out priesthood leaders told us to hahahh.
We also had an amazing lesson with Jose who we found a couple weeks ago and he told us he has been wanting a Book of Mormon! He scared my comp a little haha because we got there and his car wasn't there so I wrote him a note and my comp was running it up to his door, and he was sitting on his porch and he scared her because she wasn't expecting him there hahah it was funny! Then we sat down and got to know him and he is seriously so awesome and we are excited to start teaching him!
We were also able to find someone named Rey yesterday and we met him walking out of someones house and he was walking up to visit that person, and we started talking and he knows the Russos and it was awesome haha Rey is super sweet and drives a motorcycle so that was cool to talk about!

As y'all can see, it's been a crazy week haha but we are excited for what's to come! A little nervous for the possiblity of being quarantined, but it'll all be ok! I'll try and have my mom attach a video on my blog of the shed! The last picture is my side of the shed haha my bed and desk and dresser! Craziness! I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Mucho love,
Hermana Griffin