week 14

MEMBER MISSIOOOONNAAAARRRIIIIEEEEEESSSSSS!!!! WOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

who watched the broadcast last night? seriously who? it was AWESOME. i feel like... well.... i feel like we're taking over the world kind of... hahaha if i wasnt a member and i saw that i would honestly be a little scared! and everyone should be..... :) cause EVERYONE IS GETTING THE GOOOOOSPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL!!!!!!!

anyways sooo yeah mission work is awesome and whether you're on a mission or not you need to be doing it! guys the point of life is to get back to God! why would we NOT be doing missionary work every day??

 

okay hello everyone :) let's seeee let's seeeeee.....

okay stories of investigators and such!

well. vladimir! we went to visit him, he moved into a new house with a friend and he had to go get ready for work so this old lady was there came up to talk to us and she was so sweet and looooved us! and was like okay lets talk about jesus :) and then she said SO what religion are you? pentecostal? jehovah's witness? methodist? and we were like MORMON! :) and she paused and said mormon...? and then threw her hands up in the hair and gasped and from then on we were being yelled at about why the book of mormon is terrible.... hahaha seriously I would be like ooooOOOKAY let us talk! and she would stop for a second so we could try to explain it and then the minute we said it's comparable to the bible! the same teachings of christ and his doctrine! she said nooo NO NO NO! and started yelling again. hahaha i was trying SO HARD not to laugh. at one point she said please please go home tonight and PRAY about this book!! cause i know god will answer you! and when he tells you it's false you better run away from the mormon church! okay?? and we said okay we PROMISE we'll pray about it tonight :) we asked her to do the same and she refused. haha ay ay ay... but uh good news guys. i prayed about it.

IT'S STILL TRUUUUUUEE!!! WOOO!! :)

yeah i wish we could bring her with us to lessons though! she would get people to pray about it probably better than us! and then everyone would be converted........ :)

but then vladimir came back in and he's catholic and they started fighting too and we were just sitting there two little white girls smiling on the couch while they had it out. hahaha so funny.

 

anyways!! NOEEEMI!!! oh my gosh you guys i can't describe this woman! never met anyone so able to feel the spirit! every lesson we have she describes it as a bucket of water pouring over her and she feels so refreshed! she loves it ALL and can't stop reading the book of mormon and is SO excited about temple work and everything, and we have a BAPTISMAL DAAAAATE! :D we just had to adjust it though cause she missed church cause she got really sick........... SATAN. just kidding but seriously. haha anyways she's amazing though, so excited to spread the word to everyone. that is true conversion, a sign of it anyway! when you have a desire to SHARE everything! cause you KNOW it's true and it has brought you joy and you want that for others! she is so awesome.

 

well here's a funny/kinda scary story/not really scary. so we were knocking in a neighborhood and just found a cute couple so were pretty excited and it was night getting dark but we decided on one more house and met this guy eddy outside and he was nice! and we told him who we were and he said oooh come around back i want you to meet my friends! so we started going back and he introduced us to these two guys on the porch and they were drunk... haha and so we gave them our information and when church was and then were gonna leave when 3 more guys came out!! haha unintentionally the 6 men surrounded us and then i saw this huge bin of empty beer cans and we were like ooooookayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.............. this is probably not a mission approved situation...... ha BUT DON'T WORRY they were all really nice turns out :) they said they'd come to church but ya know... didn't. haha don't worry we KNOW WHERE THEY LIVE!!!!!!!! we'll get 'em :)

 

well i have lots more investigator stories but i don't have ENOUGH TIME EVER...... it's okay that's enough for now! we're kind getting a new pool, we have to drop a lot of people, it's so sad :( cause the hispanic people here just LOVE so much. and they want to give you EVERYTHING. seriously my sunglasses the side thing broke off but i was too lazy to get new ones and they stay on my head still and so i wear them and i have so far recieved 4 pairs of sunglasses... haha people just give them to me!! I love the people here you guys. i love ALL PEOPLE!!!!!!! I love all of you :)

 

I am SO SO SO indebted to the Lord it is insane. I never have realized how indebted until now. and even NOW i still don't understand. every day though i realize HOW merciful and forgiving the Lord is every day. we make the stuuupidest mistakes all the time.... haha and he is SO PATIENT WITH US. it is crazy. I love learning, and i love growing and i love my LORD! i cannot describe. I am so blessed, i am SO GRATEFUL to be a member. to have been handed on a silver platter the gospel, through an incredible family and people in my life. and now i'm on a mission, the Lord let me come out here to learn even more to gain EVEN more happiness, to experience SO MUCH, to be a part of this work, this incredible missionary work at this important time. to help bring people to happiness, to God, to repentance (which is a BEAUTIFUL wonderful thing!!) to gain more friendships, and see all the blessings in my life, to recognize the Lord's incredible power and appreciate everything just that much more. i am so far from being perfect but he still blesses me every day. this gospel is true and i will never deny that. I will be bold about it and never back down, because i love you guys, and the people i'm teaching, and I know for myself the truth of it all, and i know the happiness that you can feel, that you can't imagine, when you come to christ, and your heart truly becomes more converted. let the Lord kill the natural man in you! seriously give your will to him! he knows how to make you the happiest, i read this in a talk, dunno the exact words... but something like, if you give your will to the Lord, your whole heart, he will make a masterpiece, you would make a smudge, you will make a decent person, he will create a God. TRUST HIM!!!!! you guys, just trust him. do not question what he says ever, do not let the natural man in you take control, stop fighting the will of God, he only wants your happiness! isn't it crazy how so often we give in to the person who literally wants to destroy our souls and make us miserable? and continually reject and rebel and fight against the person who wants our complete joy and salvation and peace? our very own father? when you think about it is is funny! it seems ridiculous, but we are human, and will never be perfect here, so rely on the atonement. repent the crap out of every day!!!!! let the Lord give you the blessings he is waiting to give you :)

 

I AM SO HAPPY!!!!!!!! guys. i'm pretty happy.... i dunno if you can tell. haha but seriously. i am.

i love you all so much. i am so grateful for every one in my life, and for everyone who will come to be in my life!

what a beautiful thing the gospel is right? RIGHT????? IT'S INSANNNEEE!!!!

LET'S GET HIGH ON THE GOSPEEEEL!

 

invitation to ALL!!! - go find someone the missionaries can teach this week. it's possible! i promise!

love you guys :) BYEEE!!!

week 13

GUYS i'm engaged! seriously! okay not really but i feel like i'm engaged... hahahaha lots of investigators want to set you up with their children. it is so funny. i'll tell that story later!

OH BOY! i feel like there is never time to write! haha and i hope you all don't get sick of reading so much........ look I'M SORRY MY MISSION ROCKS EVERYONE I CAN'T HELP IT!!

okay this week actually is pretty short i think! lets see....

first of all let me tell you something crazy that happened.... the solo tear. ever since the MTC the solo tear is just crazy, haha, ya know?? when someone just has one tear fall and that's it? well. anyway, we were at a training zone conference thing and it was presidents last one :( and it was WAY good but there was one part where he showed this video of a marathon runner who was supposed to take first and started and then his hamstring tore or something in the middle but he refused to stop and i guy broke through security and ran to his side and told him he didn't have to do this and he said yes i do! while crying and screaming, and so he said okay well then we're doing it together! and they walked to the end of the finish line, and turns out it was his dad :) and the whole time you raise me up was playing so OBVIOUSLY everyone was crying. and i had a SOLO TEAR. yeah that's the story it's not that great but i thought i would share. haha but look up that video! find it somehow! it was so good. they just talked a lot about fathers and stuff, and just being on a missionary knowing you have that heavenly father at all times looking out for you, holding you up, same with everyone. it was cool :) AND I LOVE MY DAD RUSTY RUSSELL TOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

GUYS we're teaching the guy who ran into our car! i knew we would :) i'm sure he'll be baptized soon!!! haha

OH and get this we were knocking one day and this lady was so sweet and let us right in and we started talking to her about the church and she was like wait you're mormons? i'm a mormon!!! and we were like... WHAT??? surprisingly enough that happens a lot down here! cause all these people from mexico or dominican or all these other countries get baptized and then move here and can't find a church! and so they go inactive for years! it's nuts, but yeah so that was cool :) her kids aren't members so hopefully we'll get to teach them.

hmmm... OH one night we were getting rejected ooover and over and we went to this guys house who'd we'd recently given a Book of Mormon and knocked and he opened it a tiny bit, and then shut it real fast! and hmn judd was like well... that's that! but i was fed up with these people! haha so we refused to leave, i said if he wanted to reject us he could tell us with words! so we knocked a few more times and he came out finally, and we talked to him and well long story short we explained more about the Book of Mormon and church and had an awesome talk and he shared some CRAZY stuff about when he had died as a child and came back and how he used to not be able to read and wanted to read the bible and learn about God so he prayed to be able to and then he could read! it was sweet. I love all these stories people have.

Remember Maria sanchez? the one who said hi through me to you guys? well it's been rough with her lately... she lives with her son, and he just tried to kill himself. she found him on her bed and it wasn't pretty and she freaked and he's in the psych ward right now, we went and visited him the other night, it was crazy being in a pysch ward... it was really hard seeing so many people in such a hard state. but anyways he said she overreacted and he's fine but he's not really reliable right now to tell the truth, his life is crazy and he's been way stressed. but things are getting better!!! and she didn't have a car and then called us and said i got a car!!!!!!!!! WOOO!!! it was a blessing from god! a miracle! and we were like what?? HOW? and she said she won the lottery..... hahahahaha oh my gosh i cracked up. so funny. BUT! even still, now she can come to church :)

SO we've been teaching Noemi more, she is PERFECT. it is crazy cause she is accepting EVERYthing and it's so easy for her to feel the spirit! she loves it so much, she's getting baptized july 6th if everything goes well!! :) but we might have to switch her to the english missionaries cause she kinda prefers english and so she might wanna go to the english ward... that'll be rough but it's about her! sooo we gotta do what we gotta do!

but anyways so we were talking and she ALWAYS talks about how great her son is, and how he needs a wife and how her life is so crazy right now and she's needs God to open doors for her. and we were having a lesson and suddenly she's like.... you are PERFECT for my son! oh my goodness he will love you so much.... i'm gonna give him your address okay? and he will send you so many gifts! (he's in the navy right now) and i was like woah WOOOOAH! haha i'm on a mission! not available! and she said noooo don't worry you guys can be friends till you get off! and you and hermana judd can come to the dominican republic with us next summer! oh MAN he will love you! DOORS ARE OPENING THANK THE LORD! (she really said that...HA)

and i was kinda just in shock... didn't know what was happening. hahahaha we got in all worked out though DON'T WORRY GUYS I'M NOT GETTING MARRIED! it was so funny though we were crackin up.

let's see. basically i just love people. we were teaching a couple the other day and were about to say the closing prayer and suddenly maria starts singing a song for us and then sandro starts rapping for us after, and then he says hey! watch! and he turns music on and starts robot/awesome dancing for us for like 8 minutes. hahahahah most random thing ever, what the? i love my mission. one thing i don't love is the smell of BEER..... oh my goodness it makes me sick, we have been talking to a lot of drunk people lately. pretty interesting stuff.

BUT GUYS!!!!!!! that's all i have time for i gotta go!!! so uh i never remember what i write in these emails...... remember this week people that you are on a path towards God and are always moving! you can't stop! so you're either moving towards God and the qualities he wants you to gain, or you're moving backwards towards the qualities of satan, it sounds harsh but it's the way it is. don't ever stop doing good! don't ever stop trying! okay?? we can't learn or grow or develop attributes of Christ without the experiences so bear through them and cling to the Lord with all your heart might mind and strength! the REASON we are here is to make it back to him, and to be HAPPY! don't forget that :) he loves us! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! words cannot describe how much! i pray for all of you, there is so much work to do, no time to be lazy! i gotta go!

get the spirit in your life and KEEP it there! there is no better protection that having him with you :) WEEEE the church is true WOOO!!!

yeah we're doing the splits or whatever EVERY NIGHT while we write in our journals!!! hahaha

aaaand the sunsets are just always incredible so yeah.

aaaaand there was a lizard on my book of mormon :)

week 12

first of all i don't have Kaari's email so HAPPY BIRTHDAY YESTERDAY KAAARIIIII!!!!! WOOOO LOVE YOU TONS!!!!!!

MIRAAAACCCCCLLLLEEEEESSSSSSSSS.

that is the theme of my letter today everyone. well. yeah i dunno it was just an AWESOME CRAZY WEEK!!! seriously i'm warming up my fingers, gotta type fast!

first of all we got HIT BY TORNADOES!!!!!! it was the coolest day ever, crazy tropical storm with scattered tornadoes, we got tons of alarms and warnings and had to go in lock down all day, i have the funniest pictures, haha our zone had a picture contest since we were all in lock down and ours is pretty good i'm not gonna lie.... :) 

anywho, lets see. this week was just awesome, where to begin? 

INVESTIGATORS!

well. this is where the Lord has been SO merciful and helpful and blessed us a ton, we have lots of investigators but we have the hardest time really getting them to progress, with real intent! but here are some that we honestly see with a baptism soon.

Emilio! we found him and his family knocking, i dunno if i've told you guys about him! but he's great, we went to a lesson with him and he said he didn't have time then but then as we were talking someone backed into our car, haha and so we had to do lots of paperwork stuff and then he was like well hey come in!! and we were like... okay! haha he had TONS of good questions, he really wants to know about everything, he's reading pretty solidly and uhhhhh yeah. so it's great :)

okay Noemi! she's the one we did the prayer for in the hospital, she is awesome, we went back and taught her the plan of salvation, she freaked out about it! she was like wait what?? we lived with god with eachother before this life?? and jesus is our brother?? haha it was great, she loved it, she's genuinely interested and needs this she says, she has strong faith and knows god will answer her prayers about if it's true or not! i'm so excited with her, the spirit was strong EVEN though her nephew was playing a zombie slashing game in the backround.... yeah it was nasty i hate video games. haha they are a pain in the field with trying to bring in the focus and the spirit! but it was still awesome, extended the baptism invitation and she said YES when she knows it's true! WOO! so we'll see with that :)

next prroooobably is vladimir!! he is just so much happier. it is crazy. he was so quiet and you could see so much pain in him every time we talked to him, but he is changing so much, he talks a TON more and is so much happier, and can probably get a CAAAAARRRRRR WOOOOO!!!! which means he'll be able to finally come to church :) SO HAPPY!!! 

lets see....

okay favorite experience of the week, it's small and simple but guys you have no idea how AWESOME IT WAS.

so we were driving back home from a far away appointment and we had literally just eaten a twinkie, sprite and fried sugar stuff for a dinner... given to us by a member, hahaha, and i was sick that day already so i was not feelin it at all, and i saw this english guy getting his mail and i thought yeah we need to talk to him. but then i was like he's english, aaaand yeah... and we kept driving but then i was like yeah nope we HAVE to go talk to him. so we stopped and turned around and he was still slowly walking into his house and kept looking at us and we got out and went up to him and he was like are you guys here for me? and we said YES! we're representatives of Jesus Christ and we felt like we had to turn around and talk to you. and he asked about our missions and said it was awesome and he's a christian, and started talking about how unworthy he is and how we all are and ya know he's just gonna feel guilty all the time but what are you gonna do? and we talked about the atonement and how you don't have to feel that guilt, and then i just randomly told him he needs to pray again, and he said he hasn't prayed in a long time, and he knows, and then we shared some scriptures and gave a prayer and he started sobbing!! he was so emotional, and so grateful, his life is so stressed right now and he had forgotten to have the Lord in his life and he said (trying to hide his face and walk inside) that we could come back ANY time, please to do so, and he took a book of mormon and said he's coming to our church, it was awesome, just a solid testimony that the spirit knows what he's talkin about and to LISTEN to him! always, it was just so crazy how strong the spirit was, i loved it. such an awesome experience. 

okkay aNOTHER cool story!!! the blitz this week was spanish but we split the companionships so every english missionary could be with a spanish and i went with an english missionary...... :0 meaning any spanish was ALL ON ME!!!! it was SO SCARY! haha but we met a lady who invited us right in and she already had a BoM and i taught her about it more and we had a whole conversation and it was AWESOME!!!!!! guys the Lord can work MIRACLES. for real, me and hmn judd have been on an english fast, only spansih basically forever now, haha and it has helped so much, i am so so so grateful how much God is helpin me out every day. 

okay ONE MORE! Juan :) (the one that has the gang past and tons of tattoos and stuff) we finally got a lesson with this punk!!! after like a month a swear!! and him blowing us off every sunday! but it was such a solid lesson, we taught about the atonement and repentance and he was like man i just thought you did stuff and that was that and you just always had the guilt, i didn't think you could do anything about it, i didn't know you could ask god for forgiveness! it's crazy the simplest things to us are so big and new for some people, and awesome! i love teaching i love my mission! anyways he said he'd be baptized too! and get this, we asked him to commit to stop smoking and he said he ALREADY HAD! oh my goodness. the Lord is preparing him fast! so excited about it. 

WELL i feel like i'm lacking on funny stories but i just can't remember any.... haha SORRY!

but guys let me just tell ya how grateful i am for this, and for all of you back home, and everything i'm learning. I love you all so much, you have no idea. love is such a gift, the emotion of love, being able to feel it, is seriously a gift from God and i think we forget that a lot. it is so powerful and makes you capable of so much, without love i would not be here. for so many reasons, and if i didn't have love for my investigators i wouldn't wake up every day and work my hardest to get them to christ, it's just an emotion that has SO MUCH POWER!!! it's the reason we have the atonement, it's the reason we can even go BACK to live with God! it's just crazy and i'm learning more about it every week. i'm praying for more love and i'm gettin it! 

everyone God loves you guys so much. it's so crazy every day i see people reject what we have without even giving it a chance, they are sure they don't need it and they are happy enough. but god has given us the church, prayer, scriptures, EVERYthing he has given us, for OUR BENEFIT. haha it kills me! with myself too! how many times do we think of those things as obligations? and that we don't have time for it? and that we're doing that for God? no no no, those are gifts from God to us, we think it's so hard sometimes to do what he asks and i can just picture him with his jaw down like.... uh.... are you kidding me? that is SPECIFICALLY to make you happy!! but thankfully god is patient with us :) i'm grateful he is patient with me. every day i am humbled even more! pride is such a dangerous thing, could you imagine if heavenly father had pride? we would all be done for! we reject him every day! but he NEVER would reject us. man i am just super grateful this week, i don't think this all makes much sense and it's coming out in blurbs but honestly guys God is good. so merciful, so loving, i just am crazy about my mission :) haha it's the BESSSSTTTTTTT WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! HOOORAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!

k i am OUT of time BYE! 

our poor dent :(

CUTEST little tiny frog :) i'm in LOVE!

another of the cute baby frog cause i was obsessed.

and torndao warning! did i already send that one? haha

our picture contest pictures :) hahaha

picture 1, waiting for the tornado! ahh! 

picture 2, suddenly before it hits, we're TRANSLATED!

and we find ourselves suddenly in heaven :)

-best part toilet papering our bathroom. haha

week 11

HEY everyone! so uh first things first HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOLLY!!!!!! everyone wish her a happy birthday :)

okay guys second of all i've discovered a weakness..... spanish..... SOAP OPERAS... hahahah seriously though they are SO FUNNY and people are always watching them when we come over, and i dunno why, probably the really really good acting skills.... and the intense music.... but i have the hardest time not watching. haha they get me every TIME. but don't worry!! I don't let it stop me from teachin the word :)

also i have a problem lately.... i can't seem..... to stop..... eating....... foooOOOOOOODDDDDDDDD!!!! haha guys it's for real a problem, don't worry i haven't gained much weight yet but every time we eat, i'm full, and my body says no more food! you're good! and then my brain says... weeeeeell..... and i go eat more, and then my body says okay you're too full! and then my brain says... look at all the delicous food you have.... :) EAT! so i do. and then i'm like okay i'm DONE. and then i see my nutella and my heart says... how can you resist that? and so i don't resist that, and anyways what i'm trying to say is that i'm trying to control my eating more :) that's all. and if i get fat soon, well, what are ya gonna do right? haha just kiddin. anyways.

Investigators!!

well funny story we have an investigator named Jorge and his wife Lily is kiiinda of one but she just got surgery so she's in and out, and we were talking to him the other day, i met him the second day in the field!! we had been riding by on bikes and i saw him waving or doing something so i was like let's GO!!! and we went back and were all like oooh hola hermano como esta and all that, and he told us this week that that day he had been cat calling at us, hahahahah and we turned right around and went up to him to talk and he said he was SO embarassed and took it as a huge call to repentance, hahaha so funny.

SO listen God ALWAYS puts people where you are... always. one of our appt's didn't show up and when that happens we just knock in the area because we know God has someone else waiting for us! so we knocked and this lady immediately sent us to go see her sister in the hospital, and give a prayer for her! so we went and this lady was great just not too interested, but then we gave the prayer and it was waaaay powerful and after the prayer she was like ya know girls i needed you, i really needed you today, and i wanna talk more, here's my number, where's your church? etc etc etc, and she loved it, it was great :) small experience but just another testimony that God always has something for us to do!

here's a cool story. SO we were going on a blitz in a mixed spanish english area, and we knocked on this lady shirley's house, and sheeee was super cold to us. and just smirking like oooh the mormons, of course, but we didn't feel like leaving, so we kept talking to her, and i was like well, have you read the book of mormon? and she said yeah i've read some! and i was like mmhmm... okay well can we explain it to ya a little more? and she sighed big and was like ooookay fine come in. and so we went in and explained it all and the whole time she was just smiling a little smirk and going yep, yep, uh huh, yep, and at the end we had her read the moroni 10:3-5 promise, and then we testified, and then i told her she could look at whatever she wanted to online, listen to us talk for hours, see what friends thought about the mormons, but the only way to really honestly know for yourself, is to put in the effort to read it, and pray with sincerity about it, and she looked at us and said, well ya know what? you're right... so how much is it? i'm gonna read it. and we said FREEEEEEE! :) and she said okay! and then after that she was the SWEEtest lady ever, so weird, but she changed JUST like that! and she LOVES US NOW, haha seriously she wanted to know everything about our families and our missions and how they work and it was just awesome. and what made the change was that SHE read the verses in the BoM, because no matter what anyone says, the book of mormon changes people, it has an indescribable power that can honestly just change them, and after she read those verses everything was different! it was super cool, i loved it, so she's reading! and said she's coming to church to see what we're all about :) haha WOO!

I don't have a ton of stories to tell right now all the other ones are too long and i'm too lazy! sorry! haha but just know that there is SO MUCH WORK! seriously it is amazing how much we can do when we have been set apart to do so and have that authority from God, he helps us triple the amount of work normally you could do, i know i could NOT ever do this emotionally spiritually or physically without him holding me up constantly. and giving me courage and strength and power, and it's just amazing. 

Guys I'm doing this thing my mom told me about forever ago that she got from Monica or something? i don't remember! but something like writing 10 things you're grateful for every day for a month, and i didn't do it before cause i was lazy, haha,which by the way everyone STOP BEING LAZY! man i was SO lazy and that is one of the BIGGest blocks of the spirit, and blessings, and one of satan's favorite tools, i'm serious! haha cause if you JUST will put forth that little amount of work (which everything God has ready for us requires some work) you will just see the blessing and gain the strength and be that much more happy! it is worth it! trust me! anywho so i'm doing that! and already it's awesome, sis. hatton was telling us about one of her professors or someone saying something about how your brain takes about 27 days or somethin to kinda rewire! and when you constantly work mentally on something like being grateful, or anything, it's like exercising! and that part of your brain gets stronger, and so if you do it you will automatically be a more grateful person cause that's how your brain works! how cool huh? i dunno how right that is, but it's cool :) Guys don't let satan get ya down! it's not worth your time, when he comes at you with ANY thing just throw back in his face some scriptures and nice solid prayer and faith, be happy, have faith, don't give up on anything! I promise the Lord is there, there is so much to do in this life, there is so much happiness available that so many people don't realize, just take the steps of faith you need to take! You never fail until you quit trying! I love you all so much :) so blessed in my life! WOO! THE CHURCH IS TRUE AND EVERYONE IS GONNA KNOW IT!!! :) okay till next time! hasta la vista baby :)

that is a gumball in my hand... :) i love it... :)

sorry there aren't a lot of pictures this week! but look i saw an ALIVE armadillo! can you believe it??? i can't :) no wonder they get hit all the time though this one walked right under my bike! haha so funny.



i saw a lonely seagull so i fed him food.... then THAT HAPPENED! hahaha in like ONE second! so funny.



BIG alligator!! AHHH scary!!!



and thaaaaaat is an elder who face planted on his bike, OUCH!

week 10

EVERYONE!!!! good news guys. listen up. THE CHURCH IS TRUEEEEE!!!!! WOOOOO HORRAAAAAY HOOORAAHHHHH HUZZAAAHHHHH YAHOOO BAZINGA!!!!!!

okay lets se.. good week like USUAL. but where to begin... we went bowling as a zone!! that was super fun and weird but awesome. haha uhhh

stories with investigators/people!

so we met this italian guy and were talking to him and LONG story short i just realized i don't have much patience for stubborn arrogant people who call our church just business and gets yelling at me that I shouldn't be teaching if i know nothing about Jesus and why he was crucified and all these weird things............. hahaha yeah I have been reeeeally trying to humble myself and learn how to still react lovingly and not react! yeah i punched him and am actually on missionary release for a week...

just kidding :) haha but i did get frustrated. ANYWAYS okay let me tell you all about tuesday :) first of all we counted it out and we ended up having mini lessons with 18 people!!!!! WOW! and gave 6 or 7 book of mormons!! it was so awesome. we really just went for it and stopped letting ANY fear hold us back and we saw awesome results.

then that night..... we met a man... (pretty sure he's an ANGEL. read further to see why :) ) he was drinking and smoking. and his name was Carlos. he was like... who are you what are you doing at first... but THEN he starts talking to us about his crazy life, shot three times in vietnam, problems with his family, when he saw God, when he became religous, when his brother died (lots of tears from him there :( ) and other stuff, and it was nuts, we made a BIG promise that if he started to read the BoM he would be able to stop smoking, which he's been trying to do for a looooong time. so hopefully he does, and then at the end he kissed both our hands, said he loved us, then looked super intense at us and was like... you know girls. some times God sends angels to the earth, to help people, and sometimes to test people, (and both of us in our minds, we talked later, were like, OH MY GOSH HE'S AN ANGEL TESTING US!!!) and then he said something like and they don't always have wings, or something! and then we left and were like woooow! hahaha and we haven't been able to find him since...... the number he gave us the lady said no one lived there by that name, and.. yeah... WHAAAT!!! hahaha he probably isnt but i'm claiming he was until we see him again! keep you guys updated on that :)

OH. yeah terrible sad news. but great news!!! remember vladimir? the guy who's sould is yeeeearning for the gospel? his work life just got CRAZY so we haven't been able to see him for 2 weeks, but he called today just to see how we were doing, and then he was like, well... my wife fell in love with another man, and left me, and took Willy. (his 4 year old son) .... :( i wanted to cry. but then he was like. don't worry though now i will be able to read that book you gave me! and try and come to church! WHAT. i was so happy. usually people we teach turn away from the gospel when huge life challenges happen but he GETS that you need to turn TO the gospel :) hope things keep goin with that.

uhhhh hahaha okay so we went to go see this family and the son said sorry my mom's in the shower! but i was like... yeah right. so i said okay well would it be okay if i used that bathroom? (cause i really was gonna lose it, haha) and he said uhhh... looked inside. yeah sure, we went in and i went to the bathroom and the mom was in the hallway and quickly smiled and left to the kitchen. hahaha people hide from us... but it's okay once they let us TEACH them they love us :) nobody know's what they're missing!

okay so we got a third companion for two days! poor Hmn. Judd got sick for both days though so we were confined in doors... guys i have never been so tired. haha seriously the only cure for homesickness and tiredness out here is WORK. working always, we did get a lot done though going through all the old progress records from old area books and found like 50 people we decided we wanted to go see! so that's exciting.

yeah i had to make some phone calls in spanish since she was so sick........................ just picture my face. .................................................... hahaha it was the worst. i'll just tell you this. every time i freaked out and forgot all my spanish, and one time an english speaker got on the phone, we talked, and then he said okay next time make sure you have someone call who knows spanish................................ hahaha guys I KNOW SPANISH I PROMISE!!!!!! i just got nervous on the phone.. anyways.

lets see things i've learned this week, HOW IMPORTANT FAMILY IS. seriously. it is linked through EVERYTHING in the gospel. love your family. strive to get a family of your own, and juuuust hold onto everyone and make sure the gospel is there and strong. obviously satan is workin hard on destroying families. and when he works hard to destroy something that shows how important it is!! apply that to yourselfs too!

also i just watched a video about the book of mormon, this italian guy finds it on the street, doesn't know what it is, but reads it, and he's a priest, and starts preaching from it, refuses to burn it when the councel tells him too, he gets banished from his priest stuff or whatever, and his WHOLE life he teaches from it and searches for the religion it is from, and eventually he finally got baptized when he was SUPER old and it was just awesome. we take that book for granted SO MUCH. reading it is a gift, having it is a gift, it has answers, guidance, CRAZY AWESOME STORIES! everything. can i just... okay listen for a minute! you guys it is like an adventure mission impossible awesome movie! like when nephi sneaks through the city, kills laban, dresses like laban, MEETS A SERVANT who somehow didn't recognize it wasn't laban, gets the plate, gets out without being seen??? oh my. just read it. just read it from the beginning and realize how awesome it is! haha never forget!

okay i gotta go. but i love my LIFE!!!! it's so wonderful. i had a lot more to tell you i think but time is RUNNING OUT! haha sorry, love you guys :) LOVE YOU ALLLLL!L!!!!!!!

week 9

Hola amigos y familia!

HOW IS EVERYONE???

i'm great :) love it here still. and got to talk to my family yesterday. WOOOOO. everyone who sees my mom every week, she is lookin DANG good these days huh?? anywho.

Okay this email won't be AS long as last week cause i keep forgetting to write down stories soooo i don't remember! haha but lets see, OH! remember Juan? the tatto crazy gang past guy? well he was gonna come to church but his dad had a stroke! so he couldn't! and afterwards he called us and said for the first time in his life he prayed :) WOOO!!! and his dad is fine, so that's wonderful, he bailed on us again though this sunday, as did all 8 of the investigators we were planning on coming! haha but it's okay because the part member family in the ward, the wife isn't a member and she HATES the church big time, and the missionaries, and we visited her saturday and SHE CAME TO CHURCH!!! you guys don't understand HOW big of a deal that is :) haha your heart breaks when people don't show up and when someone DOES it's the best thing in the universe.

and we did a blitz this week!!! i love blitzes, i love knocking!! and we went to a mexican restuarant afterwards and i was like how am i gonna speak to these servers.... and then i remembered that i speak spanish now :) haha and we ended up giving the entire staff a book of mormon, that was pretty neat.

OH and one day we were riding bikes and hmn. Judd stopped really fast by this woman and we just said hey! and she said i'm good.... and looked away and we just kept looking at her and i said your good...? and she paused and said. no... no i'm not okay. and asked how she knew she was sad, and apparently her boyfriend and left her across town at a bus station cause she went to smoke or something and she started crying and we just talked about how God has a plan for her and he wants her to be happy cause he loves her and anyways that was crazy. good thing we followed that prompting. sometimes we just think it's inconvenient or they'll reject us or whatever but goodness who cares! we're here for the Lord, and we should only care what he thinks about us, not the people.

lets see, we have a member going through a really hard time and all so we were with her and her family (her son hates the church too) and we were teaching a lesson and her son SAT IN. which is also a HUGE deal. and THEN he waited for the prayer after..... can you believe it... i can't!! haha and then we talked to terasita (the member) outside for a while and she just expressed her depression and all this stuff and we decided to say another prayer and the mninute we started it was like WOOSH! spirit, my heart was just sooo happy and peaceful and it was crazy, she started sobbing and said for the first time she just felt in her heart like things would be okay. it was so awesome. okay i feel like all these stories are BORING but hpefully you guys see how awesome they are!! they're awesome!

uhhh we also met a poor homeless guy who got abandoned here by his friend when they came down from california :( so he's been here for 4 years trying to survive and all and it broke my heart. we gave him a book of mormon and promised him if he read it things would start looking up, so i hope he does!!!

hahahahahhaha here's a funny story. me and hermana judd were bikin down south and i saw a potential investigator on the trail and so i stopped really fast and she was like aaaAAAHHH.......... and ran into me and fell over. but it she didn't quickly fall i looked back at her and her face was frozen and she was just sloooowly falling. hahahaha oh man if only you guys could've seen i can't even describe it. the investigator was just like.. yeah. appreciate that. and walked off! didn't even smile. hahaha we couldn't stop laughing. anyways.

uhh I SAW A TURTLE!!! a live one!!! we always see empty shells and dead armidillos and dead EVERYTHING but we've never seen a live one! and i pet it and then it started hissing at me so i freaked out and started walking away and then it started CHASING ME. i'm serious......... that turtle was dang fast. i dunno who said turtles are slow but they are LIARS. i ran away and it hissed some more and then started snapping at grass and eating. so. pretty exciting experience i guess.

I'm sorry this email sucks everyone! i feel like it's uh.. i dunno. haha but i know the church is true!!! i do! and I KNOW that we need to endure to the end, never stop progressing never stop trying!!! and i also know that every single person needs to help strengthen the church, i've been learning that a lot through member work, it's the little things that keep the church strong. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God and if you don't know it then GOODNESS get ON that!!! go read it! pray about it! with REAL intent! and find out for yourself! because this life is too hard to live without it! I love this gospel and I love the Lord and i LOVE MY MISSIOn!!!!! I am so grateful God got me out here, and let me know so strongly that i needed to go, because it is changing my life and fixing my priorities! YOU GUYS IT'S ALL TRUE!!!! how great to know that huh. :) i love it. well i gotta go! love you ALL!!!! byeeeeee :)

had to sleep with a towel cause i forgot my blanket at the hermanas apartment...

uhh the turtle! before it started chasing me.

our house! yaaaay.

the family on skype! WOOO!!!

my watch tan line. super awesome!! hahaa aahh....

can't remember the other pics i attached. love you guys!

week 8

OKAY PEOPLE! big week. gotta write fast!

so lets start with announcements! We moved into our new apartment finally! kinda sad... miss the couches... miss waiting for the bathroom... miss carrying the bikes up all those stairs... haha but i LOVE our new apartment! it is just so cute. except that we have NO food... we had nutella sandwiches for breakfast. and lunch.. and dinner.... hahaha i'm getting back into my old routine, NOOOO!! anywho.

alsooo it has been raining ALL WEEK!!! wow best times of my life getting poured on, i'm serious! i love it! i wish it on everyone! it's so refreshing! except we can't ride when there is thunder and lightening :( so we often get stuck in stores and stuff, which ALWAYS turns into a great finding opportunity, God never puts you anywhere where he doesn't have someone waitin for ya!

the thunder is AWESOME AND I WANT TO DIE EVERY TIME I GET SO EXCITED!! i couldn't sleep one night cause i couldn't go outside with the lightening but i could see the flashes every two seconds and hear it and i was just too excited... haha

lets see. hahaha okay BLONDE moment for the week... so. there is this bug that has like two horizontal bodies, and i've always been so confused and they are everywhere! and i asked my companion what they were and explained what they looked like and she said... uh... love bugs........ and i was so confused. and then understood. and felt like an idiot. and THEN we were riding and i say this weird deformed looking lizard, and thought it was DEAD! and was like oh no! the poor thing :( and looked closer and saw another lizard under it! and was like! wow! it probably died saving it's life or something... hahaha and then i realized..... and THEEEEEN. we were going into the apartment and i saw a huge frog!!! and love frogs so i got closer to look at it and it looked really weird like it had two heads... and i was like what the... hmn judd look at this weird frog! and then i screamed... cause i realized again. hahaha AY ay ay... dunno if that is mission appopriate story... hmmm... hahaha

okay stories/investigators this week!!

well we got five new investigators and a lot of potentials! we had a terrible lesson with one eduardo, the spirit was not there and it was kinda getting contentious on his end and it was just bad. he was gonna get baptized and then just decided no he's good, so we're working with it but the problem is we're trying to convince him about the authority thing and all that too much! but we we were studying for him and both felt strongly that the problem is he doesn't have a relationship with god, and he can't know of the truth without that! so spirit? SUPER important. especially cause when it's not there they can't understand my spanish even if the grammar and words are perfect, and i can't understand them, it's interesting! super cool though.

anyways so after that we were just like OKAY. lets get the spirit and follow some promptings! and we did and it was wonderful but i don't wanna tell all the stories i'm too lazy... haha

but we got two named juan and richard! crazy lifes... both from puerto rico and have some insteresting drug and gang stories... and they were smoking and i got sick to my stomach and head ache the whole rest of the day from it.. haha BLEH. but anyways they were both WAY interested and were impressed that we didn't run in fear from their tatoos and everything, said they would come to church and have been looking for purpose in life and such :) WOO! hopefully that goes well.

hahaha AWKWARD EXPERIENCE. we went to talk to this family and said holaaaa coma esta! and the mom just looked at us and looked down... so we walked up their driveway a little and repeated and she said didn't say anything... then we offered if we could help her with anything and she said no... and for some reason we were just stuck there, didn't know how to leave, didn't know what to say, so we all just stood there awkwardly for like five minutes... then her daughter came and said mom what do they want? she said, i dunno... and walked inside. hahaha and then a bunch of kids came and hugged us and left. and then we gave them pictures of christ. words can't describe that tension though. hahaha

anyways, i also got offered wine/rum mix! we started talking to this guy who was drunk and he started talking about his priest who can heal any woman problem and angels and weird stuff aaaand it was going weird places so we gave him a book of mormon and speed walked away... haha

 OH! we did this blitz the other day, where our whole district just goes to one area and splits up and knocks EVERYwhere, it was awesome. one guy opened and said sorry i'm not interested and i was like OOOKAY no enough of this ridiculousness and stopped the door and was like uh... do you even know what you aren't interested in? and he was like yeah... i see your name tag, and he was white, and i said it's in spanish........... and he said yeah, i speak a little... and shut the door and i should've put my foot in it and said okay sir if you can tell me exactly what you know we're gonna tell you will leave, and then he wouldn't have been able to and we would've gone in and he would've been baptized two weeks later :) so NEXT time. i'll get that down.

AVER. uhh. spiritual stuff, mosiah 24:12-15, whatever is going on in your life JUST KNOW that if you pray for help the lord will help you. he might not take the burden away RIGHT away, but he will give you the strength to get through it, if he took it away all the time and didn't make you work you would never grow! it's like working out! if you were doing weights and were like oooh trainer this is hard help me out... and he helped you right away you wouldn't have to push yourself! he waits and THEN helps us when we can't do it anymore, he approaches every situation different every time, but bottom line he will NOT let you fall. he will be there and help you IF you accept him. trust him everyone :) it's hard, life is hard, but it is GOOD. and wonderful. I love being a missionary more than anything. I know SO STRONGLY that it is true and that it is the way, get through the lazy natural man side of you and work! work for the spirit and you will be happier. i promise!

okay i love you all so much! one more thing. some dumb punk kids made fun of our helmets the other day... can you believe it?? those sexy helmets?? i wanted to tell them to come over here and i'd shove a book of mormon down their throats! haha but that wouldn't be christlike... so. i didn't :) ANYWAYS LIFE IS AWESOME SORRY THIS WAS LONG BUT YOU BETTER HAVE ALL READ IT ALL!!! love you guys :)

week 7

HOla hola hola :)

 

Okay first thing! I have been hearing that apppppaaaarently my bad spelling and puncuation is bothering everyone... WELL I'M SORRY! hahaha i just have no time to write so i go so fast i can't even look back and correct it! don't worry I'll try to be better!

 

so I'll start with good investigator stories! okay so we have this one guy named Vladimir, we met him working our by these apartments we like to go knocking at, and he didn't talk much and didn't look that interested ever but was after we talked about some gospel stuff he was like... well. when could you come by? and we were like ooookay... hahaha what? OKAY!! anyways so we've only actually taught him twice because it's interesting, he is always hesitant to have a lesson and always never says much, but he says he looks okay but on the inside he is a disaster, and he has  alittle boy names Willy, cutest thing ever, and yeah, so one day we were there and looking for someone's apartment we had an appointment with and we ran into them! and he said we couldn't teach him that day, maybe another, but he stayed with us looking for her apartment, and held our bikes for us while we knocked, and then we found out she was gone getting her nails done... haha so we said well. vladimir! you and willy want a lesson? and he didn't say anything... but he just stood there! so we got out this little story thing for Willy, and starting teaching him and it was just a fun little story but the end of it you find out it's all about the atonement! so we got a sneaky lesson in, and i dunno, he is interesting... cause we knoooow his spirit is DYING of thirst!!! and he can feel the spirit, but something is holding him back.

and on sunday he called us to say he couldn't come to church, and we were like well you can! just bring Willy! and we'll get him food and everything! so he SAID HE'D COME!!! i haven't been so excited in... well i dunno. like a week, but STILL!! i was jumping up and down!! and then.... he called again... and said it was too late to take the buses. :( i was devastated... BUT! still, that's progress :) he actually tried! ahhh it's crazy how much you care about these people so quickly!

okay we're also teaching someone named Joel, he is about 50, losing his sight, and has been investigating for like 6 years... but what a gentleman! it was super hot and we always have our lessons in his front yard with his chicken cause he lives alone so he was wearing a tank top thing and after the prayer said stop stop, i can't be dressed like this, and went and put a button up on, oh man, what a sweetheart. anyways, heeee is close to baptism :) he just doesn't understand the authority thing, cause he'd been baptised already, but we're almost there! he has such a good heart.

hmmmm... oh! weeee are teaching a jehova's witness.... we can't tell if he is trying to convert US or is actually interested. haha but he actually took our book of mormon and said he'd read! so that's cool!

 

okay let's see. my weeeek has been good :) a little up and down, we had one day that we had five appointments in a row cancel, and only got one lesson in for the day, and then we ran over a frog....... so yeah... if you could imagine, that was a pretty rough night with the frog thing and all. hahaha but then we met this sweet lady Doloris, she veeery obviously was not all there, cause she repeated most everything 4 or 5 times, but she was so inspiring, and just lifted our spirits, and just the love in that woman made us so happy! then we got attacked by 5,00000000000000000000 mosquitos so we ran for our lives. 

 

SO we are on full bike :) i actually don't mind! cause it's great exercise and there is this BEAUTIFUL bike path that is my favorite thing in the universe, i'll send a picture! and we haven't been hit yet! so that's good :) haha 

oh let me tell you! I have techniques to get in people's houses! my main one though is to not go to the bathroom before we go out, so if anyone is stubborn or says they don't have time i say well could i use your bathroom real fast? and of course they say yes cause the people here are SO sweet and we go in and i take my sweeeeet time while my companion talks to them :) that usually works pretty well. 

 

interesting story for the week. multiple times this week i have been sitting up in the night yelling things... and i had a dream where I met the reba cast and we were at the zoo and a couple ducks were throwing up fish to feed to their babies and i started clapping yelling circle of life!!! and i woke up clapping sitting up, and my companion said i was yelling that.. haha and last night said i kept sitting up yelling green... i dunno WHAT IS GOING ON. I'm going crazy. it's awful. haha 

 

spiritual thought :) 

EVERYTHING in the world somehow reflects God or teaches a doctrinal principle, as most of you know i LOVE THE STARS. especially on my mission, i've been obsessed! and the other day me and my companion were talking about the world and all and she pointed out that even the stars testify of God, cause the sun (christ) circles around, and you can clearly see him, but even when the sun sets, and it's on the other side of the world, where you can't see it, the stars (us) reflect it all night :) so there's proof even when he's not right in front of you. 

 

ROMANS 1:16 - don't be ashamed of the gospel everyone! God is the ONLY person you should care about what they think of you! and the gospel is the only reason we are on this earth, look at the big picture! not the moment. so own it! and live it! and love it! I love this, I love my mission, it's already been hard at times but I've already learned more than i could've in ten years the way i was living before! so.. i'm pretty happy about it :) life is hard but you can do it so much easier with God. LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!

Adios amigos :)