Cambios‏

You all didn't pray hard enough! Hermana Grubbs got TRANSFERRED! Haha it was very much unexpected and really rough, but good thing I've got Hermana Bacy now! She's great. And she speaks a lot of Spanish which is also great. Get ready world, my Spanish is going to improve this transfer.

So last Monday, I was all sad because no one was progressing or anything, and then that night? BOOM. Miracle. 

We've been teaching Esmerelda for the last month or so. She's progressing really well! She's excited to be baptized, but there are a lot of things holding her back. It's been rough, trying to figure out how to help her. Hermana Grubbs and I just turned it over to the Lord - we both had so much faith. Well, Monday evening, we got a call from Esmerelda. She asked us if we could come over and meet her husband! She said he wanted to talk to us. We made our way to her house - a little nervous, a lot excited - and prepared to teach him the Restoration. I can't even tell you how perfect the lesson was... it wasn't us at all! The Spirit was tangible. He held the Book of Mormon in his hands and told us that this is what he wanted. He wanted this for his family. He told us that it all made sense - he felt so good about what we had taught him. He told us he felt comfortable - that he knew we could help him progress and become clean. We set both him and his wife for baptism in August! They came to church on Sunday, and I can't even explain how much happiness I felt when I saw their little family of four sitting together during sacrament. After church, he shook our hands, invited us back to his home, and thanked us for everything. We told him it was all God! SO AMAZING.

The morning we found out about transfers, we sat on our bedroom floor in shock and then the tears came. It was just so overwhelming - we had so many plans all set up and we both knew what everyone needed to progress and everything was just going so well. We prayed for comfort and understanding. I prayed that my new companion would feel welcomed and loved when she got here. Lots of prayers were said that day and have continued. Well, that same day we got a call from Dulce (the girl who we visited in the hospital). She asked us if we could come visit her. Of course we could! We were so excited. When we got there, we met her friend Joey, a super friendly 19 year old. We started getting to know each other, when Dulce asked, "So, can we talk about God now?" So we did. We found out where Joey was spiritually, what he believed, and what he wanted to do with his life. He told us he had a christian background but it was always so confusing - churches just contradicted each other all the time. So we bore strong testimony of the Restoration, teaching him about our Heavenly Father all the way to the amazing gift we have of the Book of Mormon. The whole time we were teaching, his whole attention was on us. He asked us questions, and as we answered them, you could see understanding coming to his mind. The Spirit was tangible, again, just like with Jose and Esmerelda. Joey was so enthralled in everything we had to say. When we handed him the Book of Mormon, he hugged it to his chest and told us how excited he was to read it. He said we had answered questions he'd had his whole life... he said it all just finally made sense. Hermana Grubbs and I held back tears - tears of gratitude for this golden human being, tears of happiness for the gospel, and tears of sadness, knowing that we wouldn't be able to teach him together after that day. We set him for baptism in August, and promised him that he would feel ready as he kept learning and reading. It was incredible. Absolutely incredible. I would do my whole mission over again just to relive that lesson.

I know that this is God's will - cambios, or changes, are meant to strengthen us. Although it's been hard, I know that my new companion, Hermana Bacy, will be so good for this area. I have so much faith that miracles will happen. She's a great missionary. She's already gotten along so well with our investigators and members!

God is good, and He knows what we need. I'm so grateful for those two amazing miracles I got to share with Hermana Grubbs and for all of the other memories we have together. I sure got lucky. She not only became my best friend - she was also my sister. 

I love this work! So much! I can't wait to share with you all more about Hermana Bacy and all of the awesome things that will happen! We've got lots of hope for this transfer :)

I love you all so much!

xoxo

Hermana Brie Gould

ps I'll have pictures with my new comp next week... it's been a crazy weekend. But she's beautiful! And so great!