10.20.2014 Pictures

Our adorable pumpkins

Estela at our english class! she was the only one this week. But wow, aren't our drawings so cute?

10.20.2014 Email

This week absolutely FLEW by. Seriously, can't even believe it. We are already in the 4th week of this transfers which means that there are only TWO WEEKS LEFT. I think this may be one of the fastest transfers so far. 

Also, it's October. I know it has been October for awhile, but I just love October, and I love fall. It definitely does not feel like fall, but i'm just trying to convince myself that it does so that I can love it. 

But, the best part about October? CARVING PUMPKINS. which we did last week. It was a blast. Of course, everybody did something really cute and creative but I  am not creative at all, so I just did a normal face. But i think it was cute so I don't even care what anyone else says. We set them outside on our deck to decorate and be all cute so that everyone can see them, but we probably should have waited a little bit longer because now they are already dying. Maybe we will just have to carve some more.  
We all saved the seeds and had a huge cook off to see who could cook the best pumpkin seeds. (we obviously won by far). 

  

This past week has been a really good, full of spiritual moments! 

On Saturday the elders in the Spanish branch had a baptism for a girl named Jasmine. She is so cute, and it was honestly one of the best baptisms that I have ever been to. The spirit was SO strong. 

Saturday Hermana Greenhalgh and I  found out that we had to speak in sacrament meeting on Sunday. We were kind of freaking out because we had only a day to prepare. But everything turned out really good. I talked about President Uchtdorfs talk in the last general conference about receiving a testimony of truth and light. It was really fun, and I actually really enjoyed it. And i don't even know why I was scared, because there is about 30 people there every week.. (but that is about to change!) Then that night we had another Mission President's Devotional. We went with the elders and a couple of their investigators and we took a recent convert, Noe with us. We were supposed to have one of our investigators named Shaley meet us there, but she ended up not being able to come! We were really sad. But overall It was a really really good devotional. It was by far the best one I have ever gone to. I say that every time I go to one, but really, they just keep getting better and better! Also, after it was over we were about to leave and guess who was there. BLANCA AND ALEX, and their cute little familia :) It was the best surprise of my life. So we talked with them for a little bit and it was an awesome little family reunion we had.   

Also, real fast funny thing that happened this week. Oh my gosh, I don't know if you will think this is funny, but we were literally DYING laughing. So the other day we were driving in the car and we were just driving past all these huge fields of cotton and just farm land. So my companion says, "wow, why don't we just go teach all these cows." and then without even thinking I was like, "oh yeah, i think that would be a great addition to our 'steak'..." hahahah oh my gosh i am just so funny! I am sure you all miss my super funny sense of humor!!!!

10.13.2014 Pictures

It rained!!

Hospital Selfie

10.13.2014 Email

Hello my dearest familia.

 I hope all is going just fantastic for you all. (I can't put ya'll anymore cause my companion will kill me)

Anyways this week has been pretty crazy. So last Monday was great of course. We had a zone activity in the church, we made breakfast and played chair soccer and gator ball. It was so fun, wow!!! I miss soccer so bad. Later we were washing our car and I accidentally sprayed my companion with the hose. I swear I seriously did not mean to, I just totally underestimated the force that came out of  it. It got blue soap all over her arms and her face and a little on her shirt. I felt so bad,  but oh my gosh it was hilarious.

This week we had we had Zone Meeting AND interviews! I love interviews. My President is the BEST. We had an awesome training, then we got to watch Meet The Mormons!! If you haven't seen it, you should definitely go see it. But be careful because the end is a real tear jerker. 

Also, this week we had our FIRST skype lesson. It was so fun! Remember that guy from the ice cream truck? His name is Phillip and he is so cool. We have been talking to him a little bit on facebook, then we actually skyped him this week and taught a lesson. MY FIRST SKYPE LESSON WHOO! (we took a pic to document it.) The only sad thing about Phillip is that he actually lives in the Elder's area so we are going to end up having to give him over to them, which is so not ideal.

Thursday we were in Eloy all day and basically had no success. We were able to have a couple lessons with some less actives which is good, but we could not find ANY of our investigators. Serious, this has been our problem this entire week. NONE of our investigators have been home and almost all of our planned lessons have fallen through! Everybody just needs to STOP GOING TO MEXICO. It's a real problem, people will just drop off the face of the earth for weeks. 

Friday we had weekly planning, then had ANOTHER SKYPE LESSON! With this kid named David. The cool part is that he lives in Atlanta, Georgia and he wants to keep having lessons with us! The only problem is that we don't know if he is more interested in actually learning about the church or just talking to us.. but we will find that out real soon. cool potential investigator!

Saturday was a busy busy day. We went to two baptisms, in the morning there was one for a little boy in our ward, then there was another one that afternoon for one of the other elder's investigators. We got to go because I played the piano and my companion sang a musical number. It was so fun I love baptisms so much.

Sunday also was a crazy day. So Friday night me and Hermana Greenhalgh decided that we wanted to use teeth whitening strips (thanks to an awesome package from my family) so we put them on and then realized that they were two hour ones and we had like 30 minutes before we had to be in bed. So Hermana Greenhalgh is like "oh no its okay, the elders sleep with teeth whitening strips on all the time" (how would she know this???) . At first I was like no way, that is so dangerous, but then of course she convinced me.. although I will say that I woke up two hours later and took them off! But my companion on the other hand... slept with them on all night. Well, when she woke up she realized that she had SWALLOWED ONE OF THEM, she could feel it in her throat. So i am like fa-reaking out and telling her that we need to go to the hospital ASAP, but of course she doesn't want to make a big deal about it so she goes all day with this teeth whitening strip in her throat! Finally Saturday night we call the mission president's wife and she tells us to go to the hospital. Still my companion refuses to go so we go to sleep that night and neither of us can sleep all night. So we wake up in the morning and finally we decide to go. So we end up in the emergency room for 5 HOURS Sunday morning. They had to stick this camera thing down her throat, take an X ray, and give her this IV to open her throat up. Finally we were able to leave and barely make it to church on time!  So yeah, we were there all morning with nothing to do, just sitting there! I think I have now seen every single Bible video ever made. But i love them so it's fine. 

Anyways, so everything else is going just great and neither of us are dead/dying. Now we just know in case you were ever wondering, No, you should not sleep with teeth whitening strips on.

10.06.2014 Pictures

Yes, I am awkwardly in the middle, but IN N OUT is thee best!

10.06.2014 Email

Wow this week has just been GREAT. 

I feel SO blessed and SO loved from all ya'll. So thanks for the letters and emails. I have the best family ever, no doubt:)

So Monday was a great pday, we played ping pong with the other elders in our apartment. It was really great and,  wow!  I forgot how good I was at ping pong, haha jk.. but no really.  I love ping pong.

That night we had a lesson with this guy named Jose. He is so funny and just laughs at all of his own jokes. The first time we met him we thought he was probably drunk, but I think that is his personality, he LOVES us. 

Tuesday was district meeting. Our district is the best district EVER! Our district leader has been out for one transfer less than us and he is training a new missionary. Then the other companionship is an elder that just finished his training and is second half training. So yeah, Me and Hermana Greenhalgh are the oldest in our district.. say whaat???  It's crazy, I think we are the youngest district out of every mission. But we had our entire district meeting in Spanish which was really fun! Then we had some super great lessons with some super great peeps. Also got a referral from one of our investigators which was a MIRACLE.   

Wednesday we found a former investigator. (kind of on accident, but that always happens to us) She is really nice, she talks so extremely quiet i don't even know what she says half the time. But her husband loves us, he had a stroke, and so he can't talk very well or move very much. He talks Spanish and English.. i don't know if he realizes he is speaking both at the same time or not.. but it's really funny. 

Thursday, we were a trio for a day with Hermana Rawlings, she is Sister Schroeders new companion. We went to Eloy and hunted down all of the less actives that live out there. Well tried to anyways. WHY DOES NOBODY COME TO CHURCH. We actually found this lady named Rosa who is really nice. She has been to the temple and everything but then just stopped coming to church because it is too far away. sheesh mujer!

Friday we had weekly planning and then went to In N Out with the other sisters. After we had a really good lesson with Margarita. We brought one of our members with us and they ended up already knowing each other from years before. It was great! Actually side note: everybody knows this lady because her and her husband have a barber shop and her husband is like secretly famous. They are in our ward and EVERYBODY loves them. His name is Frank Mejia. go look him up on the internet or something because apparently he has been in a bunch of movies. I guess a couple weeks ago he went to Frank Sinatra's birthday party hahahah idk something like that.) Anyways, Margarita is awesome. She loves talking with us and learning more about our church. We gave her the Book of Mormon and the next time we went over she said she had read to chapter 13 in 1 Nephi! That does not just happen. The only thing is that she is really hung up on prophets, so yeah we are hoping we can get over that real fast!

We had a really good lesson that night with a Hermano Favela in our ward. We have been going by to see his friend and his wife every friday night and having lessons with them. They are really nice! At first they we super stand-offish, but they are actually starting to open up to us more now. 

Saturday, CONFERENCE. Oh my gosh.  Can I just say that I absolutely love General Conference? I LOVE IT. I can't even express in words how amazing it is. We went to the church to watch it and the first session was for some reason in sign language. So we had some guy occupying 1/3 of the screen signing while there was a little screen in the back with the person actually speaking. I am sorry but it was so hard to concentrate and stay focused. But good news, I know a lot of sign language now!

But really, all the sessions were so great. I learned SO MUCH. Seriously,  so many of my questions were answered and I just felt the spirit so strong! The last session on Sunday margarita showed up! We were so excited that she actually came. And Elder Bednars talk was PERFECTO for her! I think she really enjoyed it, we haven't seen her since, but I am excited to talk to her and see what she thought about it. 

Anyways, listening to Conference this week has been such a BLESSING. I really know that we are so blessed and it is such a privilege to be able to listen to the Prophet of our church speak to us. And all of his apostles as well. I know that for me, i really received so many answers to my prayers and I was able to receive so much revelation for me and for my investigators. I have felt the spirit and Heavenly Father's love for me so strong the last few days, it has been such a great experience. 

I love General Conference. I love President Monson. I love this church and I LOVE being a missionary. Even though it is not all easy.. it is SO worth it. 

So I would say that if you didn't have a chance to watch all of the sessions of conference, go back and watch them ALL!  

I hope you all have a very wonderful week. Love you!

09.29.2014 Email

So this week flew by and to be honest I have like literally nothing to write about.. so we'll see how this goes.

Oh wait, good news this week! It is FINALLY starting to cool down and I am so close to being able to wear sweaters. It has been in the 90's this entire week and it is just amazing :) (i feel so cool saying that)

Sister Westfall went home last week, so we were in a trio for a few days with her companion Sister Schroeder. It was really fun and also so nice because we could go everywhere and do anything with her. 

On Thursday we went to transfer meeting in Tempe. They changed everything so now transfers are completely different, I guess we go find our name on a paper and then that's how we know our new companion.. idk I didn't get a new companion, but weird. Also, we have added 4 new zones to our mission. SWEET. 

Before the meeting I was standing outside with Hermana Greenhalgh and guess who came to the meeting. ALEX!! i know right? Oh my gosh I almost tackled him when I saw him because I was just so excited. It was the best surprise ever. I got to talk to him for a little bit, then he called Blanca so I could talk to her on the phone. I was so happy! They said they are going to come take us out to lunch sometime. So I am definitely looking forward to that!

The last few days we have had a lot of really good lessons. We have met SO MANY new people this week, which is really awesome. We have decided that this transfer we are just going to really focus on finding new people and helping those investigators that are super solid, just continue to progress. I'm excited, we are already off to a pretty good start, so it should be an exciting transfer.

Saturday night we got to watch the Women's Broadcast. I am so happy that we have the opportunity to be able to have meetings like this. I learned so much! President Uchtdorf's talk was so amazing, it really got me thinking about some really awesome things. I love it. 

Yesterday our branch met with the English ward for sacrament meeting because they had a primary program. I LOVE PRIMARY PROGRAMS. It was the cutest thing ever, little kids are just so cute. 

Okay funny story, so we met this really awesome guy named Roberto the other day. He is this cute little old Mexican guy that lives by himself. So we had a little lesson with him outside of his house the other day. We were going to show the video "Because of Him" to him. Okay well, if you have seen this video you know that there is no one talking, you just have to read the words, it turns out he does not know how to read. So I'm like oh, that's okay i can just read it to you as the words pop up. So the video starts playing and I start saying the words as they come up and everything is going all good. Then all of a sudden the words come faster and they are like legit sentences. So i'm trying so hard to read these words in Spanish, but I can't because I don't even know half of these words! So my companion is dying laughing and I of course can not stop laughing either. So i'm like struggling to read while I am trying my hardest ever not to laugh. It was so difficult. Then out of nowhere this huge dust storm comes in, so we basically end up having to book it to the car and try not to die. It was a crazy way to end our lesson that was not really going anywhere anyway!  

We have been having  quite a few lessons with Maria and Lupe, that couple that got money from the church. They didn't come to church this week, but they seem to be doing really good. We usually have lessons outside of their house because they are too embarrassed to let us inside. But the last couple lessons we have gone at night so they let us inside. Seeing the inside of their house was a HUGE eye opener. I am so grateful for everything that I have, it just made me realize how much I have been blessed with my whole life. This family really needs a lot of help, and I wish i could help them with money and everything they need. But out of everything, what  they REALLY need is the gospel in their life, and that, i can help them with! I am so glad that I am able to be here and have this opportunity to share it with them. That is the best thing about being a missionary, being able to help people!!