08.25.2014 Email

I swear I really do not know what I am going to do if every week for the rest of my mission goes by as fast as they have been going! It's crazy. I am actually really glad this week is over, it felt like forever but then again i still can't believe it's pday right now. It's a really weird thing. Missions are really weird i guess.

Okay before I say anything else, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO GRANDPA. Sorry I totally forgot to say that last week. I swear I knew, I even had it written down in my notes. But hope it was a happy happy day fo you. I'm sure 25 years old never felt so young. :)

So this week we went out to Eloy, we go every week but just one or two days because it is so far out there. Also, fun fact about Eloy, it has the most unreported murders in America... apparently. i don't know how true that is, but it sounds cool so I'll just go with that. There is SO MUCH Spanish work out there and it is a little sketchy-- not gonna lie. But i like it, you really feel like you are in Mexico.

This week we got lost in Eloy, which is a problem because neither of us really know where we are going hahaha. So we finally found our way home and now we have to use bikes for the rest of the month because we have no miles left. 

But that's okay because I LOVE BIKING. I was so excited to have a car when I got here, but I didn't realized how much I actually missed biking! It has been so fun. Our first night biking we got stuck in another dust storm which was obviously a BLAST. (see what I did there? BLAST OF DIRT!!!) I now know what I look like with gray hair, it was awesome.

So I don't know what is up with ice cream trucks and Casa Grande, but there are constantly ice cream trucks driving around here. It's really weird. And every time I hear one, it takes all I have to fight back this childish urge to run after it and chase it down. So finally one day we hear an ice cream truck and i am like okay, you know what?? if that truck drives past us, I don't care what you say, I am buying an ice cream. So the whole time we are walking around I am waiting and desperately hoping that this truck will come by. 

Finally as we are getting in our car to go home, the truck drives by! So I jump out of the car and run after it. honestly I probably scared the guy because all of a sudden this 19 year old girl comes running out of no where waving her arms to buy an ice cream. He has probably never seen anyone so excited to see him before. But goodness I have been waiting months for this moment to happen, I couldn't just let it pass! 

My companion was like "ohh my gosh! wow it's JUST ice cream". But guess what? It was not JUST ice cream because the driver was a kid about 21 and he is interested in talking to us! Miracle right? He lives out of our area, but now we are teaching him on facebook!! So like I said, "Good things come from ice cream!!!"

All of our investigators are turning into "internigators" which really sucks. We have had to drop quite a few people this week. Pedro is still super awesome though. The only thing is that he is really sneaky at church and manages to slip away before the sacrament starts. So we're working on that. But he is really nice and he LOVES to talk to me. (sidenote: he reminds me of the little mexican guy on the Ringer that cuts his fingers off. hahahaha) okay anways, so he will just sit there and talk to us for 30 minutes straight if he had the chance. My companion understands pretty well Spanish.. but for me, not so much. But it's okay because whenever he talks to me I have gotten really good at the smile and nod thing. I've even got it down to where I can crack up laughing at his jokes even when I have no idea what I am laughing about. Sometimes i am able to throw in a few Spanish words to the conversation. This is how i get people to think I can actually speak Spanish.

We were supposed to go to the visitors center Saturday night with Anel, but randomly she fell off the face of the earth and we are unable to find her. I'm sure she just forgot we were going.... pretty disappointing but whatever. It is her salvation!
 
We have been able to find quite a few new investigators this week which has been a huge blessing. The Lord has prepared people for us to meet and teach. It is so cool to see the Lords hands in this work! There are miracles every single day, we just have to look for them. We have a lesson later today with one of them named Vanessa. I am so excited to teach her, she is supes interested. 

On Friday we went to Tempe because we had a new missionary meeting with the Mission President. It was really good, I learned a lot of new stuff. I also talked to the missionaries that are in my old area in Tempe and asked how everything is going and they said that Blanca is getting baptized!! I almost died right there when I heard that, but it made me so freaking happy! I hope I will be able to get a ride to go to her baptism!!

So that ended the week really great. And yesterday was a really great Sunday and I don't even know why. We went to a family in our ward for dinner named the Carr's. They are so awesome I love them. They have 10 kids and 3 foster kids. Their house is CRAZY. But at the same time super organized. I really do not understand how all of the kids are so well behaved, but it is so fun. Wow it just makes me SO excited to grow up and have 8 kids when I am older.  

So yeah, me and Hermana Greenhalgh are having a lot of fun together. It has definitely been a little bit of a struggle getting used to working with and teaching with someone new, but we are learning so much from each other and loving every second of it! We have a lot of fun together, and our Spanish is doing really good. Neither of us are anywhere close to perfect and most likely won't for a really long time. But both of our Spanish has already improved so much! And I know it is just going to keep improving! Sometimes I struggle with Spanish and I get down on myself, but I know I just have to keep in mind that the Lord knows me better than I do and that he knows what is best for me and how I am going to grow the most. This past week I have already learned how important it is to rely on Christ. It's amazing!!

Anyways, hope you all are having an awesome time in Utah enjoying the nice weather and everything else awesome that Utah has that Arizona does not. Jk!! I do love Arizona, promise. Although I did just find out that all the time I have been complaining about how hot Arizona is and apparently this is  one of the coolest summers Arizona has ever had. AWESOME!