Am I REALLY doing this??

Well. It's been another great week here in Los Angeles! I am really having such a great time. This week was pretty crazy. A lot of miracles, a lot of weird things too....

So remember Jay that I told you about? Well, we had this amazing lesson with her on Tuesday. The Spirit was so strong and at the end we asked her if she would committ to be baptized the first weekend in December. She said yes! So we will just keep teaching her and preparing her for her baptism. It's pretty cool to think that we almost didn't talk to her, and now, she is so close to receiving the most important thing she will ever receive in this life. The Lord really has prepared his people for us! She is such a humble person who was just seeking for answers. When she prayed at the end of the lesson, the spirit was so strong and she asked specifically to know if this was the path the Lord wanted her to take. When she was done, we asked her how she felt and she said "I think my Spirit isn't done yet." So cool.

People are asking about Daniel. Daniel is actually being taught by the Elders now because he is going to the singles ward and we don't cover that ward. We see him at the Sober Living from time to time because we are teaching a guy named Sydney there. He seems to be doing well and is still progressing toward his baptism... He needs to read the Book of Mormon though! That is SO key. All of our conversions have to come from the Book of Mormon. Sydney is a 53 year old man also living at the Sober Living house. It's amazing how much he knows about the Old and New Testament, but

also pretty sad how messed up his brain is from all the booze and drugs. He has such great questions though and he seems to really want to learn more.

A really sad thing happened this week. We were teaching a guy named Skylar who lives at the Manor (where all of the recovering addicts live... there are A LOT of these facilities in CA) and he was pretty into what we were teaching him. We needed to give him to the Elders too because he was 22 and needed to go to the singles ward. So us 4 missionaries taught him together on Tuesday so he would get to know them. The Elders went to teach him on Thursday, and they called us and told us some crazy news. Skylar had overdosed the night before and died during the night. It was pretty crazy news. He was so close to having everything he needed to be happy in this life, and then one night of relapse and he is gone. He is in good hands now.

We got to do a Temple Session this week! Needless to say, AMAZING! Man, the temple is just a swell place.

There are other miracles, but that's all for now : )

I really do love being a missionary. Sometimes I find myself thinking "Really?! Am I REALLY doing this? I seriously have to follow these rules for the next 16 months?!" and then a miracle happens and I am totally pumped. I do miss my family and friends of course, but when I get letters and 10 mormon ad posters from my Mom, I realize that I can do this. Thank you so much for all of your support!

Love,

Sista Brink

p.s. Just so we are clear, I'm really not supposed to get e-mails from anyone but family. So if you have e-mailed me and I haven't written back via e-mail, its because I am not allowed to. But I will write back via snail mail! So just write me real letters from now on if you are not family :)