FOCO

Fort Collins Temple

I can't wait to come back when it is done!

Hey Hey,

First off...Hope you had the best birthday EVER Kenz! I am so proud of you for not getting married while Rach and I have been on our missions. Keep warding them off with a stick for a few more weeks!

Alright so I'm here in FORT COLLINS! This is so crazy. As hard as it was to leave Greeley I am excited to be here. Fort Collins is such a fun town. There are tons of restaurants, and shops...it's crazy. I didn't really realize it while I was there because we don't exactly go out on the town a lot but Greeley has nothing! Haha OH and I can see the mountains again! :) Greeley is too far out to see them but FoCo is right next to them. I love it!

When I first got here I was a little bummed because most of our work here is in English....BUT...I arrived in Fort Collins just in time for stake conference and a HUGE announcement!!! Drum roll please....WE ARE STARTING A SPANISH BRANCH HERE!!!! We are so excited! Before it was like Longmont where it was just a Spanish group in an Enlgish ward but now we will be our own branch. I was a little confused at first because the group is tiny. But I guess there are several bi-lingual families that just go to their english wards because they don't want translation. So it is our objective this transfer to find all the families that speak Spanish and convince them to come to our branch. It will be hard because I really wanted to focus on finding investigators this transfer (they only had two when I got here)  but the stake presidency has told us to spend most of our time with Spanish families in the stake and Spanish less actives. But I think it will be amazing to help the stake get this branch going. When Elder Cook came to our mission he told us that we are ward and branch builders. So it will be amazing to see miracles as we find people to build our branch....and we will find and baptize as well :)

One thing we want to do is use our less actives to find investigators...two birds with one stone. And we have already seen success! One of our less active's wife Consuelo used to be very anti-Mormon. But I guess a few weeks ago she was VERY ill and the sisters offered to bring some men to give her a priesthood blessing. She accepted and recovered miraculously. Ever since then she has been much nicer but still not interested. Well we went to visit Carlos, her husband, last night and he was sick but Consuelo answered the door. We asked her if we could teach her a lesson. A little reluctantly she said...Okay but only if it is short. So we went in and started with a prayer. We asked her about her life and her beliefs and it lead to a conversation about what is different about our church than the others. We answered her question by explaining Prophets, priesthood, and the Book of Mormon. Then she had a question. She asked...Well how is a prophet called to be a prophet. This lead perfectly into Joseph Smith and how he searched for the truth, saw God and Jesus Christ, and was called as a prophet. I will never forget the look on her face as I recited the first vision. She looked amazed. After sharing she said that it would make sense that we would have a prophet today. It was such a miracle! She accepted a Book of Mormon and said she would pray about it! Totally a sneak attack restoration lesson! It is amazing how Heavenly Father really does soften peoples hearts. He is preparing people we never thought would accept the gospel!

Oh we had this awesome meet the Mormons activity where they could come meet real Mormons and take a tour of the church. It was awesome! We have a Taiwanese couple in our ward (Enya and Allen) and they brought their friend Paul (His actual name is Chang Yin but Paul is his American name) who was visiting from Indiana. They also invited us to have lunch with him. Turns out he is interested in the gospel and wants the missionaries to come to his house in Indiana. Our church tour with him was awesome! We are also teaching another friend of Enya and Allen named Patty. She is the tiniest little Taiwanese person ever. She is awesome! I'm hoping she will be baptized this transfer!

Well I have only lived here for one week but I already love it! The work is hastening and this branch is the next step in the hastening here in Fort Collins. :)

I'm glad you all had an awesome trip to St. George and Vegas...way to be adventurous! :) Englands rock...Wallace's slightly less...but also rock...haha just kidding.  

Love you all so much!

Hermana England