Bakersfield CA

It's probably been the craziest week of my life! Almost all the missionaries from the Nicaragua Managua South mission have been evacuated and reassigned.  We got a call from our zone leader during our companionship study and we were told we had 30 min to pack everything and be ready to be picked up and driven to a hotel about an hour away.  We spent three nights at the hotel while we waited to see if we could leave the country.  We had sacrament meeting in the hotel last Sunday. After the Santa cena we had a testimony meeting.  We held the meeting right next to the hotel pool where people were swimming but it was surprisingly very spiritual. Imagine 100 missionaries singing Nearer my God to Thee with so much power and conviction leaving the tourists and hotel staff speechless. It was pretty cool.

 We didn't do much the other days but we ate really really good food. President Brown read off our new areas that we would be serving in and announced which missionaries would be going home.  SO NOW I'M SERVING IN BAKERSFIELD CALIFORNIA! (Spanish speaking of course/thankfully)  We are all hoping that this change is temporary and we'll be able to return when things calm down because I know there are still people waiting to hear the Gospel.  It's definitely been hard to up and leave my investigators without getting the chance to say goodbye or remind them to read the book of Mormon and pray one last time. I've been praying for them everyday and I know the missionaries will find them again when the time is right.  We really have no idea what the plan is or if we'll be able to return but despite the adjustment and differences, I'm loving being here.  

We spent the first night at the mission president's house and we met our new companions on Wednesday.  Im in a trio with the bestest companions, Hermana Ruiz and Hermana Melendez. Hermana Ruiz is from Utah and Melendez is from Texas.  Sometimes its difficult to teach with three people but its fun and we're figuring it out.  Our apartment is so so nice and we have air conditioning and a stove and I am so so grateful for water without parasites. AND WE HAVE WALMART. Our ward is called a zebra ward so there are both English and Spanish speaking members.  We have a translator during sacrament meeting and third hour. second hour classes are taught in both English and Spanish. It's been so weird to switch languages as you go to different lessons and sometimes my head hurts a little bit. but its been good.

I think I got assigned to the second hottest mission on the planet ( Nicaragua is first obviously)  

I cant believe how hard it is to find and talk to people here. I give serious props to the missionaries serving stateside.  People in Nicaragua didn't always want to talk about the gospel but they were never mean! However I love our current investigators they are golden and although we're the ones trying to brighten their days, they are definitely the people who brighten mine.  I'll tell ya a little more about our investigators next week but in the mean time here's a selfie of Elder Uchtdorf to brighten your day! Thanks for all your emails I've had a little more time to email here so thats been a blessing. Oh and btw my new pday is Mondays!

Love,

Hermana Frank