Dear Family and Friends,

What a week! That is literally all I can say. I feel like I squeezed a years worth of missionary experience into one week and that it went by in a matter of seconds. I know this email is extremely long, but I hope you'll read it because this past week has been one of the greatest of my mission so far. I feel like I have become a better person because of it. 

For starters, we traveled all week again. We started the week in Clearwater. Because we had run out of miles for the week, we spent the entire day of our P-day in Clearwater just walking around contacting people. It was so much fun! The city is really pretty and we actually met a couple Latinos walking around. We met this one guy Steve who seemed really interested, but we found out that he lived in Tampa so we would probably never see him again. We also took pictures of all the sights and just checked out the Latino markets there. That night we taught two lessons that went really well. One with a less active recent convert and one with a new investigator of ours named Juan Gabriel.

Clearwater

Clearwater Capitol Theater

I love Clearwater! This little city is so pretty!
It's got tons of little shops and fun things to do.
It's on one of the best beaches in Florida.

Our goal this week is to ride one of these trolleys
and meet some new people.

On Tuesday we visited Antonia (one of our investigators), Hermana Duong made us authentic Chinese food and I entertained on the piano. We ate and had a fun lesson on the apostasy. Antonia is doing so great! She was able to look through our picture book and tell us some of the stories that went along with the pictures! She's really been reading. We also explained Christ's coming to the America's to her. The spirit was amazing. That one lesson made our entire day.

The city of Clearwater has a ton of Dolphin statues,
so I decided to get photos with as many as possible.

Wednesday we went to Odessa for our combined Zone conference and President Cusick taught us more about using pamphlets and door approaches. We're super excited to receive our i-Pads this month so that we can pull up the pamphlets in whatever language we want right on the spot. We are teaching a woman who only speaks Portuguese, named Dayana, and it will be super helpful in teaching her. Haha she lives in the Tiki room. I could be wrong as she only speaks Portuguese, but from the sounds of it, she told us she has about 14 birds in her tiny apartment! They are all really bright vibrant colors too! She's doing really well too, she's been reading in the Livro de Mormon we gave her and she's starting to understand more English too. I'm so proud of her!

This is where is gets really fun. We went to Tampa for the weekend!!! It was so great! We had a training there with the Metro sisters (Birch and Larsen) and they had us contacting the whole time! It felt like we walked 1000 miles this weekend! Haha, we're a bit sore. The idea of the training is that our whole zone would go to Tampa and just pass out mormon.org cards in the streets. It was genius! We taught several lessons, mostly with homeless people, and made several other new contacts for missionaries all over the mission. I learned so much about being bold and just sharing the gospel with everyone.

Beautiful Tampa!

The first couple rejections were awkward, but after a while you just go along with it. There is this really big theater called the Straz there where we spent most of the first night passing out cards to people who were going in to see the show. Amazingly, a lot of people talked to us! We also went to the downtown area where we practiced mostly because everyone was inside because it was really cold. But we were able to find this Latino guy who we taught for a while in front of a Jimmy Johns. He was homeless, but it felt nice to teach in Spanish again. I have learned from that trip that I actually prefer teaching in Spanish. It's actually easier for me.

Our second day in Tampa it was raining all day. Nevertheless,  we took to the streets bundled up in whatever we could find. The metro sisters were all prepared with umbrellas and tights for everyone. We went out and taught in the rain. I was super surprised to find that there were actually more people out in the rain that day than there had been the night before! Isn't that crazy?

Anyway, after about 3 hours of walking around soaked to the bone, the Metro sisters came and picked us up and took us to the mall. Haha, me and Hermana Duong were like, "We're not cute enough to go to the mall right now!" But it was actually a good thing we did. We showed up and the first guy we taught was a worker for an Irish pub who was on his smoke break. We talked with him for a while and found out that one of his best friends was Mormon and had served his mission in Utah. Just goes to show, everyone needs the gospel, even a guy with several piercings standing in the rain in a kilt smokin' his cigarette. He said he would check out the website and that he really wanted to call his friend now. Who knows if he will, but hey, we planted a seed. I would invite everyone of you who are reading this to do the same, just invite!

The night in Tampa was about 30 degrees. Brrrr!

The mall was crazy busy and NOBODY wanted to talk to us. We began to become discouraged but we just walked around passing out cards anyway. Then a miracle happened. We were passing Tiffanys and Hermana turns to me and says, "Steve works at a Tiffanys." So we walk in and sure enough, there is Steve! We never thought in a million years we would see this guy again! We started talking with him and he gave us some more of his information. He was super warm and friendly and although he couldn't talk to us long because he was working, he came and found us on his lunch break and talked with us! Our minds were blown! I am continually amazed to see how God works His miracles. We've been in contact with him and we'll probably go to see him this week.

The rest of the Tampa trip went by in a blur, even though it was icy cold. Thursday and Friday was like walking around in a sauna! Friday our area was down by the coast and at the Hyde Park Mall. After walking around there for a few hours, I've come to the conclusion that I have got to bring some of you back here to visit! It's beautiful here and so much fun! The coast is gorgeous! Hermana Duong and I were so tempted to just hop right in the water. We didn't have as much success that day, but I still had fun. I loved the whole experience. I couldn't have asked for a better time in the city! I think the one thing that I learned that stuck out to me most is that it is impossible to be unhappy when your heart is truly in the service of the Lord. 

But wait! There's more! (Tee hee.) After our Tampa trip, we had two more AMAZING lessons. I tell you I am on a spiritual high right now! I've learned so much! I fully trust in my Father in Heaven. He has helped me out so much. Through Christ, I have found the strength to overcome any trial I have come up against, the courage to do so, and the wisdom needed to teach unto understanding. I have found that the simplest lessons I received from my parents when I was 8 have become my greatest allies. Thank you Mom and Dad for raising me in this gospel. Keep going with family home evenings. Those lessons have stuck with me and I know they will stick with Karen and Mckell. I could not have asked for a better family, or better friends for that matter. I know that I would not have been here if it weren't for the example of each and every one of you! Thank you!

Con Amor,

Hermana Mathis