Well, I am in Aruba! And I love it so much! I was sad to  leave Bonaire and didn't think I could love my next area as much as I did the last one, but I've only been here since Thursday and it's already been some of the best days I've had so far! Even though Aruba is smaller in size, it's way more populated than Bonaire and a lot more "city-ish". It's a lot like America, they have almost every kind of fast food and there are malls and lots of American brands here. It's a big change from Bonaire but I like it.

My new companion is Sister Hardy! She is from Calgary, Canada (shout out to Vic and Barry!) and has been out on her mission for almost 6 months. She is so awesome and we get along so well already! I love that she's training me because she's experienced enough that I can learn a lot from her, but she's also new enough that she knows exactly how I'm feeling when I'm homesick or when I have questions about missionary work or when I feel discouraged. We've barely been together and I've learned SO much from her! I'm super happy we are together, we have so much fun (but we also work really hard too!)! Another great thing about Sister Hardy is that she loves eating healthy. And I definitely need that. She's great at thinking of things to cook for meals that are healthy and creative. After last transfer, I really need more vegetables. Our apartment is so nice! It's really small which is awesome because we can clean it really fast. And it's pretty new and updated. It's a great change from our really old one in Bonaire...I meant to take pictures, but I forgot. I'll do that next week. 

Our area is called Oranjestad, the capital of Aruba. The area is pretty small and flat which is nice for biking. But it's really windy here so when we ride against the wind, it's really hard. Church on Sunday was a shock! After being in Bonaire with a branch of 40 members that meets in a small house, it was crazy to be in an actual church building in a branch of about 100 members! It reminded of home because it was so big! But all the members are amazing and so welcoming and they love missionary work and helping the missionaries! (And feeding them...our food calendar is completely full for this month. It sounds amazing but Sister Hardy said they feed you so much that you just start to feel so sick after a few days. But I'm excited because we rarely got fed in Bonaire!) I haven't been able to meet too many of the investigators here because a ton of our appointments have been falling through. But that has given us a lot of time to contact and find a lot of people to teach. We had one really amazing experience with that this week that I shared with President:

This week while Sister Hardy and I were contacting, we met a man named David. He is probably in his late 20's and from Colombia. He was home with his 3 little kids while his wife was at work. When we called into his house, he came out from around back and got a huge smile on his face when he saw his and gave us a big wave. We told him who we are and the message we share and he seemed so interested and willing to listen. We gave him a pamphlet and he said we could stop by the next day to visit him. I was really surprised but also excited about his amazing reaction. We went back to his house the next day to have a lesson about who God is for him and get to know him more. He said he believes in God but he doesn't belong to a specific church, and he prays to God every night. But then he added that he's not sure if God hears or is answering his prayers. We testified that He does listen, and as the lesson went on, we started testifying of God's knowledge of him individually and His love for him. When we started testifying of this, David got really emotional and started crying. The Spirit was really touching him and it seemed to be just what he needed to hear. We asked if he wanted to share anything with us and he didn't, but Sister Hardy and I both felt like he has something going on in his life and our testimonies of how much God loves him could really help him. He kept thanking us at the end of the lesson for our beautiful message and invited us back for a day this week. It was so amazing to see how our message was able to speak to David so personally and how it was just what he needed to hear. Sister Hardy and I have been praying really hard for him this week that he can feel God's love and comfort in his life and that he can know that God is listening to his prayers. I have such a strong desire to go back and teach him our message, I feel like it is just what he needs. I am so thankful that we were able to find him and this was such a strong testimony to me that the Lord leads us to people who need the message of the restored gospel. I know we are truly on the Lord's errand and if we listen to the Spirit, we will find those who are prepared and ready to come closer to Jesus Christ.

I've borne my testimony, but I haven't given a talk. When I arrived in Bonaire and when I left, they had us bear our testimonies. They didn't have us do that here in Aruba, but Sister Hardy said we (the new missionaries) might do it next week. One difference between Bonaire and Aruba (I just remembered this, sorry it's random) is that Bonaire always had church in Papiamento. The person conducting and the talks were in Papiamento. But in Aruba, it's in Spanish. I think they try to do it in Papiamento because the person conducting speaks Papiamento, but almost none of the members are Arubians. They are mostly from Venezuela and Colombia, so they speak Spanish. Most people can understand Papiamento because they've lived here for a lot of years, but they just prefer to speak in Spanish.

Pictures (lots are from Bonaire since I didn't send any last week):

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Brother Vaquero and I...I love him so much! He was always cracking me up. In the second picture, he kept copying everything I would do for the picture :)

​Beautiful Bonairian blue sky

​Sister Nuris and I, one of our amazing investigators in Bonaire!