March 31

Dear family and Friends,

Well it is the last day of March, Where has the time gone? April
starts tomorrow! It is the summer season here, we are feeling the heat
and everyone is out of school! We are working to contact more people,
now that everyone is less busy.  Last week all the schools had
graduation so we had a lot of dinner appointments which was a change
because we never have dinner appointments.  Whenever there is an
occasion here, they always have a big dinner and invite all their
friends and family.  It is actually a good finding activity, so that
was fun, and lots of yummy philippino food.

We had one investigator an women named Chona that we met tracting on
my first day in this area finally come to church! It was so great.
She said that she had somewhere to go after sacrament meeting, but she
just didn't want to leave, so she stayed for the whole three hours.
 Hopefully now she will really start to progress.  And her husband
will come next week. Of course we continue to teach the Corrido
family, and they are excited for their baptism next month.

We also have some other investigators that we are working with.  We
have had to contact all the investigators that we found last week and
teach them again. We also have a lot of less actives that we teach in
this area.  Less actives are a huge challenge.  I have heard so many
stories of why they can't come to church.  It's too hot, It was
raining, but there is always a deeper reason.  It is different to
teach less actives, but it is all the same purpose we are inviting
them to come back unto Christ.  They know these things they just need
to increase their faith and testimony.

You have to take a look at this (the article I attached here from the
May 2012 issue of the Liahona entitled Funds help members to the
temple), I have told you that Sister Iqbal is from Pakistan right? She
showed me this article from the liahona earlier to day.  It is her
cousin that introduced her family to the church.  It is about his
experience of going to the temple.  The closest temple for them is the
Manilia temple, which is really far away.  I just can't even imagine
that.  It makes me think a lot of how blessed we are that we have
temples so close.  We have 2 temples in our city.  That is so crazy.
There are some members that wait a lifetime to enter the temple.

Also this week we went to Legazbi to the Patriarch's house so that
Sister Iqbal could receive her Patriachtical blessing.  It was a
really special experience for her.  She is actually really cool.  She
has been through so much.  She has only been a member for 2 years. It
is really interesting to learn about what life is like there in the
church.

Well this week should be exciting we are working to keep the energy
and enthusiasm high and find, find, find, teach, teach, teach.

Have a great week!

-Sister Richins