Florida says hi

Hi, I went on my second exchange this week, to sarasota, with hermana Rodriguez. it was a blast, something about being in a different area and teaching with a different missionary just opens your eyes to new ideas and ways of teaching, it was successful and I walked away with a lot of things that my companions and i can apply to our teaching, it was incredible. We were really busy at the beginning of the week, had a lot of opportunities to teach, our plans were all going through for the most part. we were feeling on top of the world. the Elders in our branch had just had one of their tougher weeks and we were counseling them on how they need to be positive, it'll all work out, just three days later we were humbled by a similar experience. On thursday things we're alright, we had a lesson or two but at the end of the night we had english class which kept us busy so that was fine, we were running low on miles as the end of the month is just around the corner so we had to do things close to home. That was fine, well except hermana binks doesn't have a bike, as she was called to an all walking mission, well we'll just have to walk, and we need to find some new people to teach too so we'll just go knocking. ALL. DAY. LONG. it was rough, and we were humbled by next to no success, the brethren of the church aren't kidding when they say there's a better way. Then saturday, we have to do the same thing.. a few people at least talked to us today, one white guy named chris who's retired and got his tv stolen so he had nothing better to do than talk to some missionaries, he however was not at all intrested in what we had to teach so we politely didn't waste our time. IT was exhausting, hot and a bit discouraging as our attitudes were also affecting our companionship. We followed the spirit and had one mighty companionship prayer, the best thing you can do to have unity and success, we learned this from hermana carson. IT was beautiful, unifying, refreshing and just what we needed after a few days of what felt like nothing. Sunday, Miracles happen when you give the lord your 100 percent. we were still lacking new investigators for this week and so after church, we had to do some tracting again, we prayed about an area that we should go the night before in planning. we parked the car. got out and headed toward a house we had once been referred to but they didn't answere. again they didn't answere but as we were walking away i decided to ask this white man if he know's anyone in the area that speaks spanish, not an uncommon thing for us to do :) he directed us to Diane, a woman who is both fluent in spanish and english, form puerto rico. perfect. We went and Knocked on Diane's door. She was friendly and accpeted our invitation to have a prayer with her. (A peace and blessing prayer, my companions did a few of these when hermana Birch came to Bradenton and it was successful so we decided to put it in to action as well) we had a return apt before we even prayed, it was beautiful, her daughter who's probably in her 20's wasn't super friendly at first but after we prayed with them she was much kinder. I tihnk we'll be teaching her soon. We were also blessed to meet Fauola, a woman and her tow childern from Haiti. We said a peace and blessing prayer with her as well. It was the best way to end a rather rough week and a testimony builder of how working to the last minute and giving our all the lord is really able to make miracles happen through the work which we do. IT's a lesson i seem to learn over and over again on sunday nights. I love you all and i love the lord, i pray for you and I know that the lord is taking care of you as i'm away. Have a wonderful week. Hermana Hafen