What an awesome week! I had my first exchange on Tuesday/Wednesday. My STL came down to my area, so I felt a lot of pressure to know the people and the area! Luckily Hermana Gattin has served in my area before, so she was at least familiar with the roads and everything. Hermana Gattin is awesome, it was so fun working with her. 

We've started doing service at this organization that helps women in poverty. Many of the women are trying to learn English, so we help them practice. Last week I had the opportunity to help a woman, who only spoke Spanish, to check her email. It is so cool how knowing another language is already opening the doors for me to serve others! 

It rained for the first time yesterday! I took a picture because I wouldn't believe it either if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes! The rain reminded me of a talk by president Uchtdorf; I have definitely felt blessings "raining" down from heaven this week!

In Branch Council yesterday, I tried to say "pero..." but I accidentally said "perro" which means "dog." My branch president thought it was the funniest thing. I am just too good at rolling my r's. What a funny problem for a gringa to have!

This Saturday we had a branch picnic, so the rest of the week Hermana Martinez and I invited everyone we possibly could to come. On Friday we decided to stop by and see an investigator named Maria, and she was actually home! We were so excited, because we've been trying to track this lady down for weeks. We have seriously been stalking her house; we thought she disappeared off the face of the earth. We didn't have time for a lesson with her, but we talked to her and her kids for a few minutes and invited them to the picnic. Saturdaymorning, Hermana Martinez and I were stopping by the house of another family to try and make them come to the picnic. Well, they never answered the door, but I told Hermana Martinez: "All I want is for Maria to come. If she comes I will be so happy." My wise trainer then asked, "Have you prayed about it?" so I decided to stop and say a prayer right there. Seriously 10 seconds into praying, the phone rang, and it was Maria! We were a little scared because we figured she would be calling to give us an excuse. We answered the phone, and she said that she was already at the park, and she wanted to know where we were! We were so excited, we ran back to the car and drove over as fast as we could. Talk about a miracle. She came with 4 of her kids and 2 grand kids! It was awesome, definitely the best part of my week. 

Don't forget: prayer is powerful!