Amazing Exchange

(What you are about to read is sort of a journal-entry-type letter.  We are only allowed to send letters on p-days, so I'll just kinda keep you updated on what's happening day to day until I send this on Monday:)

Mamacita and Family:)
Holy Cow I miss you all so much.  I think of all of you every second.  The mish has really made me appreciate you all so much more:)
It's rainy here all the time.  So many people are not interested in the message we have to share with them. It's super frustrating, but I keep telling myself they're not rejecting me or my companion...they are rejecting Christ's message.  It's pretty dang sad sometimes.

So, for the past couple of days a ton of our appointments have been falling through.  But when it reaches about 8pm, we're not as discouraged because miracles happen!
 For instance, on Sunday, literally no one came to answer their door, but at 8pm, we knock on a door, and a gal named Kataline invited us in and we stayed for a whole hour teaching her!  That is seriously so rare for something like that to happen.  We're going to continue teaching her, and hopefully more miracles will happen:)
Oh, and a side note: her husband is baptized.  An elder, by the name of Elder BEESON baptized him!! Weird, huh?

Monday night, same kind of thing was happening; appointments falling through and no interest in the message.  Then about 8pm I was suuuuuuper thirsty.  We stopped at a gas station to fill up my water bottle, and as I was looking for a water fountain, I made eye contact with an older man, dressed classy, smoking, sitting on a lazy boy in the back office and he motioned for me to come.  
He pointed to the water fountain, then we got talking.  I told him who we were, he told us who he was, and as about 5 minutes passed, he told us to pull up a chair and offered us orange juice.  We chatted for nearly an hour about everything! From polygamy to baptism, to prophets, to church, to word of wisdom, etc.  He literally had soooo many questions.  It was awesome.  His son is/was a Jehovah's Witness and supposedly "knows his Bible like the back of his hand." We  told him about the Book of Mormon and he is super interested in looking through it.  Anyway, the old man's name was Zuhair and told us that we are always welcome to come, especially if we are hungry or thirsty and they'd have food for us!  VERY nice people.

June 5th...yay!  I got sooo many letters today!  Perfect timing too because today was a rough day: 
White people scare me! 
Buzz would actually love Minnesota because there are lots of Africans. I LOVE them!  
I got letters from Mom and Dad, Grandma Gaye, Scott Gunther, Kailey Voucher, Matt Carlson and others! What a blessing.  

I went on my first exchange a couple of days ago! It was SO great!  I was companions with Sister K.  Sister K IS Hannah Peterson!  She talked like her, laughed like her..EVERYTHING was just like her!! It was soooo fun.  And to answer Dad's question: Sister K, is definitely the funniest person I've met here!
Anway..Sister K and I dropped by the H family's house.  We knock on the door and I hear a billion barks.  3 pit bulls :/ AHH! 

They were huge and they were jumping all over me and licking me like cray cray.  Sis. H is about mid 30's, has brown hair and her husband has lots of tats everywhere, gadges in his ears and a goatee.( you will soon learn here that looks can be deceiving)  We came to help them pack.  About two hours later, Brother H told me his life story.  Ready? I'll make it brief:
Brother H was just mean to everyone and everything.
He was a druggie and drug dealer.
He was in and out of prison and jail several times.
He told me a story about when he was on a train from Minnesota to Utah to go to work on some houses.  On the train with him was an 18 year old girl headed to BYU.  This girl was getting hit on by creepers on the train and was getting offered drugs.  Br. H protected her all the way from Minnesota to Utah. ( he beat up a few people who were treating her badly and helped her with her bags,etc.)
Well, once they got to Utah, they went their separate ways.  Later he got a letter from our church thanking him for protecting that gal all the way to Utah and gave him some money.  He sent the money back and told them it wasn't  big deal. 
Well, later he ended up meeting Sis. H. on some dating website.  Well, they met and totally hit it off and Brother H was introduced to Sis. H's mom.  Her mom was not fond of him.  They butted heads.  Sis H. wanted Br. H to meet her dad.  He was nervous to meet him because he didn't want to be treated badly or judged.  Well, Bro H met Sis. H's dad and it was not what he expected. Her father was sooo nice and accepting of Br. H. Later, Br. H found out he was a Mormon.  Because of Sis. H's father's kindness towards him, Br. H became interested in the church and wanted to be nice and caring like Sis. H's dad.  Long story short: 
-the missionaries met with them
-they got married
-they got baptized BY Sis. H's dad:) All this happened in February!  They have already been in the temple to do baptisms for the dead and are going to be sealed next February, so I'll still be here!  (They said they would invite me:)
Anyway, it is just SO neat to hear stories of people who made a complete 180 turn in their lives and it's amazing to hear that all that happened JUST because it started with kindness:)
Br. H speaks at firesides all the time and has given plenty of talks and is going to be speaking in stake conference soon.  Also, where are they moving to?  Shingle Creek!  My ward! Wahoo!

Anyway, that exchange was so great.  I  felt the spirit on that little 24 hour exchange! I love you all so much!
Love, 
Sister Beeson