Well, it finally happened

Well, it finally happened. I wasn't here in California for very long, but it was long enough that now I am terrified to leave. We have 8 Spanish sisters leaving this transfer and only 2 coming in... that means that our mission president has to close down areas for sisters... that terrifies me because we are doing a lot of work here and I don't want to leave all of the people! I love them all so much. I am especially going to miss Ana (my recent convert) and la familia Lozero. I never want to leave them I love them so much, but I have learned through all this that I am on the Lord's errand.

Heavenly Father has a plan for me. I have no idea what it is and I get frustrated sometimes wondering why He is making me jump through so many hoops, but I know that it is for my good. He is looking out for me.

So first off, remember that car accident? Yeah well a few weeks ago while the car was in the shop we met a lady named Deidre (deedra) and she works at the zoo. It is called the Living Desert. So last P-Day we called her and asked us to give us a tour. She was thrilled! And we got in for free! It was pretty cool. I took a ton of pictures and turns out our member took a video of us... don't know if you saw that, but I think it is on Facebook. She asked us about our stand on Evolution.. and Dinosaurs. We told her that we believe God created us and that we didn't evolve from monkeys... but Hermana Stuber has an interesting theory about Dinosaurs. She thinks that because God created the world from already existing matter, that it is very possible that Dinosaurs lived on a different planet and some of their remains just got put on the earth during the creation... what do you think? Also, at the zoo there is this plant that if moisture gets on it the pores open and it smells like rain... coolest plant ever. It is my new favorite. I am going to own so many of those.

On Tuesday.. and Wednesday.. IT RAINED! I was so excited! Then Wednesday President Van Cott called me and told me I got my visa.. so now it will be raining all the time!! I am so excited! me encanta!!

So I don't remember if I told y'all, but we met a man in Little Caesars and on Wednesday we took President Parks (our branch president) to go see him and his family! They are amazing. We are going to put two of their kids on a baptismal date tonight... but I won't be here... This is so bitter sweet. We also taught Ana that night. She is one of the strongest spirits I have ever met and I love her like she was one of my sisters. I can't imagine my life without her. When I had to say goodbye to her she gave me a huge hug and said, "I love you and I will miss you" and gave me her email address, then her mom gave me a place mat and said that it was for me to always remember them. I hope ya'll like Cali because in 15 months we are coming back here and visiting them.

So because I am leaving the mission.. President called us and told us we could go to the temple! So of Friday we were able to go to the Redlands Temple! It is so pretty and small and I loved it. I feel like it has been forever since I was able to go. I walked in and I just felt peace. I thought about all of you, about my mission so far, about my investigators and members here, and about panama. Sister Van Cott was able to come with us. She let us have all the time that we wanted. I Love The Temple. It is so precious to me. I hope that I will get to go to the Panama Temple as well. I just can't even describe how much better I felt. My cares just melted away for a little while.

So I don't know if you have heard about the video "He is the Gift" or "El es la Dadiva" but the church created this video for Christmas and if you haven't seen it go watch it.. right now. I love it. It is so powerful. So in our mission we are promoting it like crazy. We have pass-along cards for it and we give out 10 a day. The church bought out the top banner on YouTube for the whole month of December and a screen in Time Square, NYC until after the ball drops.... OUR CHURCH IS SO COOL!!!!!!!!!! Man we are awesome! Do you know how popular YouTube is? EVERYONE USES YOUTUBE! HOW MANY PEOPLE WATCH THE BALL DROP? HOW MANY PEOPLE LIVE IN NYC? WE ARE SO COOOOOOOLLLLL. I am so pumped. Our church is so amazing. I will never not pay my tithing. That is what I have learned. I will never not pay my tithing.

Saturday night the stake put on a Christmas concert. It was super cool (especially since we helped set it up a couple days before). It was beautiful and they did such a good job. First time in 3 months that I was in the church hearing English.. that was pretty cool. I love English.

I spent a lot of this week packing and saying goodbye to everyone. It was super sad to leave, but I know that I am needed in Panama and I am excited to go. I can't wait to get to talk to y'all tomorrow and to skype (hopefully I don't know what resources I will have over there) in 17 days.

I love you all! Thank you for your support and your love.

Love, Hermana Eardley