First and foremost, a very happiest birthday to my dearest mother (feel free to send her dark chocolate and/or fruit trees), and a very very happy Father`s Day to my wonderful father, both whom I love very much.  Dearest familia, I have been sworn to secrecy with regards to my secret agent of cakes and rootbeers, at least until my mission is over.  You will all just have to wait six more months to find out.  

Anywho, since I was running low on time last week, I`ll share a little bit about what happened. FIRST OF ALL, as an early birthday present to me, we found the most GOLDEN investigator ever.  We received a reference from the mission office, and the same day we went to contact her.  When we knocked, her dad answered the door and told us that she wasn`t home, that she wouldn`t be home for a couple of hours.  Well a couple of hours later, we went back and she answered the door.  As soon as she saw us, she came right outside to open the gate for us and shy away her absolutely huge, man-eating dog that barking madly and spitting saliva all over us.  Well we went right inside and as soon as we sat down, she came over and sat down and said "I`ve been waiting so long for you to come!!"  Well people don`t say that to us every day, so my companion and I sat staring at her in silence for a few seconds (we`re so VERY on the ball), until we had processed that she wasn`t joking and that she really was excited to see us.  

She then proceeded to explain that her older brother, (she`s 18) had been baptized a couple years ago after he started dating a member.  He went to church once, and from there on out, started coming home every day with more and more books from the church in his backpack and reading and meeting with the missionaries until he was baptized a month later (also golden).  He`s now on a mission in Cordoba, Argentina and comes home next year.  She said she saw the huge change in him, that he stopped doing drugs, drinking, smoking, that he changed his personality and very being completely when he joined the church.  She said that he was always talking to her about the church and always inviting her to come (and once she went to General Conference) and showing her movies from the church, but that at this point in her life, she didn`t feel the need really to know more.  She said that it was only recently that began to feel that she really needed to know what he was talking about, as he has been writing her continuously throughout his mission.  At this point, my companion and I were sitting there dumbfounded, with our mouths hanging open.  We invited her to read the Book of Mormon and ask her Heavenly Father if she knew these things were true, and that if she came to know if they were true, if she would be baptized.  She said of course and immediately accepted a date.  My companion and I drank hot chocolate that night in celebration as we tried to dry ourselves off by the fire (that really wasn`t a fire because our wood is aboslutely drenched).  BEST DAY EVER.

Anyway, for my birthday, our Mamita, (the woman in the ward who we eat with every day except for Sunday and Monday) made an incredible cake for me.  She studied cooking and specialiezed in dulces y pasteles y tortas.  Oh dear.  The cake was a giant alfajor.  Which is something very chileno that I haven`t ever described.  An alfajor is a type of cookie sandwich with manjar (also something very chileno that doesn`t exist in the United States, but is one of the most delicious things I`ve ever eaten - a type of caremal sauce) in between to crackers made of flour and eggs.  I did NOT just describe that very well, but you can all look it up.  Imagine an alfajor but BIG and with lots of layers.  And that was my cake.  Very delicous.  I`m going to bring manjar to the United States and be a millionaire.

Anyway, this week we had our very last zone conference with President Rappleye and Hermana Rappleye, who finish this transfer.  At the end, they let us just ask them whatever questions we wanted, and at the end, one of the missionaries asked him what was the last thing that he wanted us all to know.  And he said, "that it`s true."  I wish I could express to you all, through a very rapidly-written email how much I know that it is true.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not simply just another church, nor is it the Mormon church, no matter how much it`s called that.  It is the Church of Jesus Christ.  Of that I am certain.  I know that God has called a prophet, just as He did in times before, to restore the same church that Jesus Christ established, with the same authority and power that was used to create the worlds of the universe.  I know that the Book of Mormon is palpable evidence that we have of this Restoration, and whoever reads it with the intention to truly know, and asks God to know if it is true, will receive their own answer.  If I can know, anyone can.  It is true, and no power in heaven or earth can change that.

In other, rather very important news, transfers have come again.  My companion, Hermana Estrada, will be going to another ward, and for the next three months, I will be training a brand new missionary here: Hermana Rojas from Bolivia.  In the same transfer that I begin training, my sister Kate will go to the MTC and start her own training in the mission field.  I will do my very best to train Hermana Rojas exactly as I hope my sister will be trained.  I`ll let you all know how it goes, and I hope you all have a lovely week.  

I love you all!!!!!!!!