ARVIN LAMONT AND TEHACHAPI (bakersfield..same area). I'm super pumped. I really didnt think we would change but its good to finally know for sure. My companion Hna Randall is staying here with me as well. YAY! I am so not ready to leave here. Actually my prediction is that i will atleast be here until December (wishful thinking?).
First off! Mom and Mariah thank you so much for the pictures. My companion can testify that I have looked at them almost every night. I love them. Hahaha then for my spanish study I looked through them and tried to describe what was going on in the picture in spanish just in case I decide to share them with some of the people we teach. I now know the word for "keg" in spanish..hahaha. The kitchen looks wonderful and SO different! I love it. Good color choice. I also like that you moved the hutch, the dining area looks much bigger. Oh and randomly I saw the white board on the floor and it says "kayla was here" hahaha what the...Not going to lie though, the pictures kinda freaked me out. How does everyone look so old and different?? Especially Mariah, she looks like a little adult, I hope you are keeping her locked up in the house. Millie also looks so grown up...and eryka...branden...kendall...and ryanne. AH! I LOVED the pictures though.
So this week....
Well the most important news...I BOUGHT A MUMU. Yeah. I am converted. They are so comfy. Mine totally has this rockin grandma print and pockets. LOVE IT.
So I told you last week that we were going to do an exchange, so last thursday I went to bakersfield south (so like in the city of Bakersfield), and was with Hna. Hulme. It was so fun and me and her are a lot alike. However she only has like 6 weeks in the mission so it was so weird being the one that pretty much had to lead everything and talk, but I think it was good for her because I told her that we are going to take turns talking and teaching and she really stepped up to the challenge. A fun thing about the switch was that both sides of the switch saw huge success. We found 5 new investigators and taught 8 lessons in S. Bakes and they did just about the same in our area. AWESOME.
We saw a lot of miracles this week and we were able to teach in total 30 lessons this week. YAY! We also now have 3 people with a baptismal date and if all goes well with Mario in the next few days he will be baptized on Sept. 10th!!!! Just around the corner but he has been ready for so long, he just now got rid of his probation! YAY! Im so happy for him, he is pretty much a member already, but Im just excited for him to be able to have the companionship of the Holy Ghost and a remission of his sins!
So I told you guys how people just like to give us fruit randomly..well the other day some one gave us a HUGE bag of chiles. Which we are totally good with because...well....we are Mexicans too. So the other day i made some rice, beans, corn, salsa, ext. then I threw the chiles on top (just one)...i started eating the rice (not even the chile) and my mouth was on FIRE. Seriously on fire. I started like crying and sweating as I was eating it and my companion was like come on they arent that hot. So I was like "probelo entonces!" (try it then)...so she ate a little part and was like, "where is the milk??" Hahaha. Needless to say I dont know what kind of chile's these are but they are HOT. But...I was eating them again the other night and after dinner I went to take out my contacts...and well....I had forgotten to wash my hands...ya...my eyeball was pretty much on fire. Oh chiles....
We are going to play soccer next Monday! Im so excited. We are doing it for family home evening and everyone is going to bring a friend, our investigators are going to be there, and after we are going to teach a mass BOM lesson or the Restoration. Im really excited to find new investigators this way (and to play soccer of course). However...they all think I'm really good, but I'm pretty sure I'm really rusty.
Our investigators are wonderful..
Antonia was able to come to church on Sunday and I think she had a really good time, she just seemed so calm and content. We have an appointment with her tonight. Oh and get this...after she was taught the Joseph Smith story she said this/...."This is what I have been looking for, Ive gone to so many different churches and read the bible a bit and this just makes sense". Hello ensign story. Shes amazing.
Rodrigo has been studying the scriptures for an hour every day, he gets up early before work and reads. Also he changed jobs and he was going to have to come to church late on sunday but he kept praying that he could go to all of church and he called us saturday night and told us that they had kept him late that day so he didnt have to work on Sunday! He was telling us how he knew it was a blessing from God and that he needs to be in church. Yay yay yay. Hes totally ready for his baptism. It takes him a little longer to understand but he really has the faith and the desire to do what God wants him to do.
I already told you about Mario...hes awesome.
We went to visit Luis Angel and he had read up to chapter 9 in the Book of Mormon! Wow...he did have a little problem with the whole "Nephi killing laban thing"...details...details. But we invited him to pray about it and to continue praying about the Book of Mormon.
We havent been able to get ahold of Fidel and Estela (that random people that came to church), but I am NOT letting them fall through the cracks.
there is more but I am out of time pretty much, so I LOVE YOU ALL.
Thanks Dave and Chrissy for the emails I will write you back next week ( Im really happy about Jaden PS)
Also tell Eryka, Ryanne, and Branden thanks for the letters!
YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING!
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
week 6
FAMILY!!!! How is everyone?? Welp...Im just hear at the begininning of week 6 (last week of transfer), and im TERRIFIED to leave this place. I mean I loved all my other areas but I really really don't want to leave. So yeah. BUT I really dont think we are going to change. YAY!
This week has been so crazy.
First off I would like to say that I am a mother. SUPRISE! Seriously though...being a missionary makes me feel like a mother because I am always worrying about the people we are teaching and the recent converts. (especially a certain few recent converts....mmm), Its ridiculous haha. So sorry Mom if I ever made you worry, because its not fun. I understand that.
Oh and question, Im really confused whats going on with Mariah...you said shes at training for a job, what kind of job? And then you said something about music...is it a music teaching/something of that sort job or is that have to do with school? What school is she planning on going to? ....Sorry for the confused questions from a really confused daughter/sister.
Well this week we had zone conference!!!!!! It was amazing (zone conference is when the President, his assistants, and wife come to a zone and do some training). So we had it wednesday and it lasted from 9 in the morning to 5 at night. Yeah...I totally felt like Joseph Smith and Lehi...i just wanted to pass out, it was so spiritually exhausting...BUT AMAZING. I learned so much about how I can better use the Book of Mormon in my teaching. Also we talked a lot about focusing on the temple and it really relight a fire in me to help these recent converts and less actives to get into the temple. I LOVE IT. I also just love President Castro and his family. Such amazing people.
At zone conference we found out that we are going to be doing exchanges (me and my companion with the other Hermanas in Bakersfield). So this Thursday I will be working with an Hna who has 6 weeks in the mission over in south bakes. Crazy. But I'm really excited. Normally Elders only do exchanges so we are really excited for this learning experience.
OH another news from zone conference....SISTERS DONT HAVE TO WEAR JACKETS ANY MORE TO ANYTHING!!!!!!!! WOOO HOOOO. I'm almost tempted to send mine home.
OH and we can play sports with members now so we are in a process of setting up a soccer night so people can come and invite their friends. YAY soccer.
So funny story. We have a family home evening every friday night in Lamont. So we were in Lamont last friday working and we were taking this member with us (Hna Migdi) to all of our appointments. Well we went to take her home to find out her daughter wasnt going to go to Family Home Evening so Hna Migdi didnt have a car to take...so we figured it was like 3 blocks or so, so we would just walk with her to make sure she went. Well after FHE we were getting ready to go and Hna Migdi comes running up and is like "im coming with you" (shes like 60 something) and we were like no Hna, Anastacio is going to give you a ride home...but she would NOT allow us to walk back in the dark with out her, she we let her and we were on our way. So we were walking and I was like Hna...really...what are you going to do if someone attacks us?? And she was like "this" and she totally just high kicked and then looked at me. Oh man...I seriously about died. DIED. I was laughing so hard in the middle of this dark Lamont street. I will never forget it. Hilarious and I love her sooo much.
SO MIRACLE. Remember last week how I told you about the two random people we met in the street who said they wanted to come to church? well we were out looking for one of their houses saturday and night and we get this call...IT WAs HER asking if she could come to church the next day. So Estela and Fidel both came to church and we have appointments with them this week! We are really excited about them.
Louis Angel. Hes a young man we met up in Tehachapi knocking doors (right after we had been told we were going to hell by some baptists), and we were super distracted but he agreed that we could come back, we gave him a book of mormon and invited him to read the introduction. Well we came back, he was home and had read the introduction...AND the testimonies of the 3 witnesses, the 8 witnesses, and of Joseph Smith. WOW. We were so excited and were able to teach him more about what the Book of Mormon is, Hes really really awesome.
Antonia, she is a friend of a recent convert here in Arvin. Carlos (the recent convert), told us we should stop by. We've now had 3 appointments with her and she has a baptismal date!!!! Shes amazing. We gave her Mosiah chapter 4 to read and gave her a question like "How can we find peace and happiness"...she read it all and totally understood everything. Shes changed how she prays and shes just amazing. I love her so much. She even wanted to go to church really bad but we only had one member that was going to church that had a car and it was only full. We were really sad....but NEXT WEEK!
Guadalupe...shes this amazing 19 year old girl that we found knocking a couple weeks ago who is really curious about religion and really wants to have a strong communication with God. Shes really humble and is really seeking the way God wants her to take.
Rodrigo hes still progressing towards a baptism date...hes having some problems but thats ok. Hes still trying.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this area. SO MUCH!
Oh and mom thank you so much for sharing more about your baptismal day with me. It really means a lot to me. You should share that with Grandpa, I really think it would touch his heart.
I challenge you all to invite a friend to learn about the gospel, or atleast bring the gospel up in a conversation with someone who is a nonmember!
I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH.
Oh by the way I got a letter from Eryka yesterday, she is just so sweet. Tell her good luck with preschool!
Also you can tell Jed and Chrissy (and Jaden) I have them in my prayers for sure. Let me know how everything turns out.
Oh I sent Mariah a letter yesterday with my photocard. Could you maybe send it back as fast as possible, I was trying to take pictures last night at our FHE and the other card wasnt really working.
Thats really crazy Cody is going to be home, Im sure the Lehr's are super happy.
This work is amazing.
Love you all, HAVE A GOOD WEEK!
This week has been so crazy.
First off I would like to say that I am a mother. SUPRISE! Seriously though...being a missionary makes me feel like a mother because I am always worrying about the people we are teaching and the recent converts. (especially a certain few recent converts....mmm), Its ridiculous haha. So sorry Mom if I ever made you worry, because its not fun. I understand that.
Oh and question, Im really confused whats going on with Mariah...you said shes at training for a job, what kind of job? And then you said something about music...is it a music teaching/something of that sort job or is that have to do with school? What school is she planning on going to? ....Sorry for the confused questions from a really confused daughter/sister.
Well this week we had zone conference!!!!!! It was amazing (zone conference is when the President, his assistants, and wife come to a zone and do some training). So we had it wednesday and it lasted from 9 in the morning to 5 at night. Yeah...I totally felt like Joseph Smith and Lehi...i just wanted to pass out, it was so spiritually exhausting...BUT AMAZING. I learned so much about how I can better use the Book of Mormon in my teaching. Also we talked a lot about focusing on the temple and it really relight a fire in me to help these recent converts and less actives to get into the temple. I LOVE IT. I also just love President Castro and his family. Such amazing people.
At zone conference we found out that we are going to be doing exchanges (me and my companion with the other Hermanas in Bakersfield). So this Thursday I will be working with an Hna who has 6 weeks in the mission over in south bakes. Crazy. But I'm really excited. Normally Elders only do exchanges so we are really excited for this learning experience.
OH another news from zone conference....SISTERS DONT HAVE TO WEAR JACKETS ANY MORE TO ANYTHING!!!!!!!! WOOO HOOOO. I'm almost tempted to send mine home.
OH and we can play sports with members now so we are in a process of setting up a soccer night so people can come and invite their friends. YAY soccer.
So funny story. We have a family home evening every friday night in Lamont. So we were in Lamont last friday working and we were taking this member with us (Hna Migdi) to all of our appointments. Well we went to take her home to find out her daughter wasnt going to go to Family Home Evening so Hna Migdi didnt have a car to take...so we figured it was like 3 blocks or so, so we would just walk with her to make sure she went. Well after FHE we were getting ready to go and Hna Migdi comes running up and is like "im coming with you" (shes like 60 something) and we were like no Hna, Anastacio is going to give you a ride home...but she would NOT allow us to walk back in the dark with out her, she we let her and we were on our way. So we were walking and I was like Hna...really...what are you going to do if someone attacks us?? And she was like "this" and she totally just high kicked and then looked at me. Oh man...I seriously about died. DIED. I was laughing so hard in the middle of this dark Lamont street. I will never forget it. Hilarious and I love her sooo much.
SO MIRACLE. Remember last week how I told you about the two random people we met in the street who said they wanted to come to church? well we were out looking for one of their houses saturday and night and we get this call...IT WAs HER asking if she could come to church the next day. So Estela and Fidel both came to church and we have appointments with them this week! We are really excited about them.
Louis Angel. Hes a young man we met up in Tehachapi knocking doors (right after we had been told we were going to hell by some baptists), and we were super distracted but he agreed that we could come back, we gave him a book of mormon and invited him to read the introduction. Well we came back, he was home and had read the introduction...AND the testimonies of the 3 witnesses, the 8 witnesses, and of Joseph Smith. WOW. We were so excited and were able to teach him more about what the Book of Mormon is, Hes really really awesome.
Antonia, she is a friend of a recent convert here in Arvin. Carlos (the recent convert), told us we should stop by. We've now had 3 appointments with her and she has a baptismal date!!!! Shes amazing. We gave her Mosiah chapter 4 to read and gave her a question like "How can we find peace and happiness"...she read it all and totally understood everything. Shes changed how she prays and shes just amazing. I love her so much. She even wanted to go to church really bad but we only had one member that was going to church that had a car and it was only full. We were really sad....but NEXT WEEK!
Guadalupe...shes this amazing 19 year old girl that we found knocking a couple weeks ago who is really curious about religion and really wants to have a strong communication with God. Shes really humble and is really seeking the way God wants her to take.
Rodrigo hes still progressing towards a baptism date...hes having some problems but thats ok. Hes still trying.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this area. SO MUCH!
Oh and mom thank you so much for sharing more about your baptismal day with me. It really means a lot to me. You should share that with Grandpa, I really think it would touch his heart.
I challenge you all to invite a friend to learn about the gospel, or atleast bring the gospel up in a conversation with someone who is a nonmember!
I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH.
Oh by the way I got a letter from Eryka yesterday, she is just so sweet. Tell her good luck with preschool!
Also you can tell Jed and Chrissy (and Jaden) I have them in my prayers for sure. Let me know how everything turns out.
Oh I sent Mariah a letter yesterday with my photocard. Could you maybe send it back as fast as possible, I was trying to take pictures last night at our FHE and the other card wasnt really working.
Thats really crazy Cody is going to be home, Im sure the Lehr's are super happy.
This work is amazing.
Love you all, HAVE A GOOD WEEK!
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
4 heads up pennies
Welp...HELLO again. Im trying to upload some pictures...but its not really working. Ill have to send this card home because I cant even print off pictures at most of the photo places becausse there is that like huge file you put on here. But thats alright, Ill send it home next week and you can have more pictures.
ANYWAY. Hows it going? I saw that you planned on emailing again today but Tuesdays are crazy and since we have to make a reservation ahead of time sometimes the times will be different and we like to do our emails as early as possible so we arent taking away from good proselating time. So para que sepa...(just so you know).
Oh stinky 'ol Arvrin. How I love it here. Really. I have just felt so good the last couple of days. I feel really at home with these people here. Of course I have loved every area I have been in and all the people I have taught but its just really awesome here.
Speaking of areas....ERIKA and GENARO GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!! Friday during lunch we got the mail and I had a letter from Hna Burch and I was so nervous to open it....but the first thing I saw was a happy couple dressed in white. Seriously...I think I jumped like 5 feet into the air...like 3 times. They are so amazing and Im a little sad that I wasnt there for it, but it really doesnt matter. THEY ARE BAPTIZED!!!!!! Then a few minutes later I read this scripture and it fit that ppicture perfectly its 3 Nephi 19:25. I love it. Happy Happy Happy.
So some experiences we had this week:
So last Wednesday for district meeting we talked a TON about pray and it was really inspiring and we all felt really uplifted. So we went out to work and like an hour later we are walking down this street and we see this shirtless smoking man sitting on his porch. gross. Well...you can ask my companion....i just talk to everyone (she teases me for it but now shes doing too haha...actually I caught her waving to people in the street while we are in the car..just like I do..its precious)...anyway i thought...mmmm maybe we can just skip this guy...but we thought better of it and went and talked to him. IT WAS AWESOME. Well actually first he starts telling us about these voices that he hears in his head and we are just talking to him (and of course it occurs to me that Im totally acting normal while this person is telling me that they hear voices in their head...) but long story short we were able to sit down with him and teach him about prayer and use all of the things we just learned in district meeting. (and of course by this time he had put on a shirt and stopped smoking. MIRACLE). THEN, he prayed. It was awesome.
Then just yesterday we had an appointment with Doris, but she was "showering". Bummer. But as we were leaving her house we found 4 pennies heads up....4...different places. So we had plans to go some where else but we thought.."hey we are probably on this street for a reason..lets go knock some doors". So we head over to the other side of the street and as we turn around the corner from a car we almost run into 2 people and we said hi. Normally we have to like stop someone, but they just stopped and started talking to us. Come to find out..Estela lived in Mexico and had gone to our church a few times and really liked it, but she didnt know there was one here. So we asked her to go to church and she just said yes. Like...we didnt have to do anything, they both just want to come to church. So we have their phone numbers and address. So awesome. So they were the first two lucky pennies (just so you know I none of this happened because of pennies). So then as we are driving to our next appointment we get a phone call from Rodrigo (an investigador that has a baptismal date but had kinda fell off the face of the earth for 2 days) and we were able to get him a ride for FHE and set up an appointment.
THEN we were able to contact one of our referals named Antonia. SHE IS AMAZINGGGGGGGGGGG. Shes a single mom with a couple kids and she was referred to us by one of the recent converts that we work with and he just told her how much the gospel has helped him (hi, I was super proud of him). While we were teaching her I actually had a really cool experience...while she was talking I kinda thought of a scripture that I would love to share but I had no idea where it was..so I just kept listening and then I opened up the BOM and THERE IT WAS. Right and front of me. I know God lives, I know He loves us, and in moments like that I really know that He is taking care of all of His Children. It was amazing. I cant even describe it to you.
Oh and then on sunday...I was just super bummed out in the morning (not super..super), but none of our investigators were coming to church and I know its what they need to progress and 2 of the recent converts here havent been coming to church and they went to a party the night before but I was so worried they were going to come, but we walk in the doors and there they were sitting on the bench AND with a friend they had brought. I was super happy. Then as we were taking the sacrament I started reading the English handbook and decided to read "Be Still My Soul", and it was such an answer to my prayers....I know that God answers prayers and if we will "be where we are suppose to be doing the things we are suppose to do we will be blessed" (thanks bishop horlocher). We need to be in church...we need to be reading the scriptures and out doing good. God will bless us with what we need.
We have zone conference tomorrow which means we get to see President and learn from all the other missionaries. Im so pumped!
I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOO MUCH AND MISS YOU!!! BUT! There is no where else on this earth I would want to be than stinky ol' Arvin (Lamont and Tahachapi)
I really hope you all have a great week!
ANYWAY. Hows it going? I saw that you planned on emailing again today but Tuesdays are crazy and since we have to make a reservation ahead of time sometimes the times will be different and we like to do our emails as early as possible so we arent taking away from good proselating time. So para que sepa...(just so you know).
Oh stinky 'ol Arvrin. How I love it here. Really. I have just felt so good the last couple of days. I feel really at home with these people here. Of course I have loved every area I have been in and all the people I have taught but its just really awesome here.
Speaking of areas....ERIKA and GENARO GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!! Friday during lunch we got the mail and I had a letter from Hna Burch and I was so nervous to open it....but the first thing I saw was a happy couple dressed in white. Seriously...I think I jumped like 5 feet into the air...like 3 times. They are so amazing and Im a little sad that I wasnt there for it, but it really doesnt matter. THEY ARE BAPTIZED!!!!!! Then a few minutes later I read this scripture and it fit that ppicture perfectly its 3 Nephi 19:25. I love it. Happy Happy Happy.
So some experiences we had this week:
So last Wednesday for district meeting we talked a TON about pray and it was really inspiring and we all felt really uplifted. So we went out to work and like an hour later we are walking down this street and we see this shirtless smoking man sitting on his porch. gross. Well...you can ask my companion....i just talk to everyone (she teases me for it but now shes doing too haha...actually I caught her waving to people in the street while we are in the car..just like I do..its precious)...anyway i thought...mmmm maybe we can just skip this guy...but we thought better of it and went and talked to him. IT WAS AWESOME. Well actually first he starts telling us about these voices that he hears in his head and we are just talking to him (and of course it occurs to me that Im totally acting normal while this person is telling me that they hear voices in their head...) but long story short we were able to sit down with him and teach him about prayer and use all of the things we just learned in district meeting. (and of course by this time he had put on a shirt and stopped smoking. MIRACLE). THEN, he prayed. It was awesome.
Then just yesterday we had an appointment with Doris, but she was "showering". Bummer. But as we were leaving her house we found 4 pennies heads up....4...different places. So we had plans to go some where else but we thought.."hey we are probably on this street for a reason..lets go knock some doors". So we head over to the other side of the street and as we turn around the corner from a car we almost run into 2 people and we said hi. Normally we have to like stop someone, but they just stopped and started talking to us. Come to find out..Estela lived in Mexico and had gone to our church a few times and really liked it, but she didnt know there was one here. So we asked her to go to church and she just said yes. Like...we didnt have to do anything, they both just want to come to church. So we have their phone numbers and address. So awesome. So they were the first two lucky pennies (just so you know I none of this happened because of pennies). So then as we are driving to our next appointment we get a phone call from Rodrigo (an investigador that has a baptismal date but had kinda fell off the face of the earth for 2 days) and we were able to get him a ride for FHE and set up an appointment.
THEN we were able to contact one of our referals named Antonia. SHE IS AMAZINGGGGGGGGGGG. Shes a single mom with a couple kids and she was referred to us by one of the recent converts that we work with and he just told her how much the gospel has helped him (hi, I was super proud of him). While we were teaching her I actually had a really cool experience...while she was talking I kinda thought of a scripture that I would love to share but I had no idea where it was..so I just kept listening and then I opened up the BOM and THERE IT WAS. Right and front of me. I know God lives, I know He loves us, and in moments like that I really know that He is taking care of all of His Children. It was amazing. I cant even describe it to you.
Oh and then on sunday...I was just super bummed out in the morning (not super..super), but none of our investigators were coming to church and I know its what they need to progress and 2 of the recent converts here havent been coming to church and they went to a party the night before but I was so worried they were going to come, but we walk in the doors and there they were sitting on the bench AND with a friend they had brought. I was super happy. Then as we were taking the sacrament I started reading the English handbook and decided to read "Be Still My Soul", and it was such an answer to my prayers....I know that God answers prayers and if we will "be where we are suppose to be doing the things we are suppose to do we will be blessed" (thanks bishop horlocher). We need to be in church...we need to be reading the scriptures and out doing good. God will bless us with what we need.
We have zone conference tomorrow which means we get to see President and learn from all the other missionaries. Im so pumped!
I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOO MUCH AND MISS YOU!!! BUT! There is no where else on this earth I would want to be than stinky ol' Arvin (Lamont and Tahachapi)
I really hope you all have a great week!
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Hey Howdy Hey
Holllllaaaaaa....I cant believe its Tuesday again and time to write home. Being the noob I am I lost my little post it note that had all the stuff I wanted to write down for you guys...so Im just going to start by replying to your letter and then see where my brain takes me.
First off THANK YOU for Blake's address, I will write him next P-day. Hopefully he will get it before he gets home. Crazy! I always love to hear how Millie is growing and playing. How is Erika? Is she going to start school this year? Thats insane. I cant believe the girls are going to be in middle school and Branden in High school. Kill me.
Sorry this thought just came to my head so I thought I would tell you it. So this week I endeavered to make my own soup totally from scratch. I didnt have any kind of recipe so I just bought a ton of veggies at the store on monday...blended some tomatoes (which people gave us) and some garlic together...mixed it with water and then added a bunch of veggies.....yaaaa. It wasnt the tastiest....but i ate it for 3 days straight because I made a lot of it. Hahaha...oh man.
Anyway...I laughed out loud when you told me about Brother Fotheringham and the candy bar...seriously brought me back to institute...he would totally say something like that. Did you talk to him at all? I really want to write the institute but I dont really know how...
Wow...Mariah on a road trip...thats weird but it sounds like they were safe and had fun.
Chrissy wrote me an email this week so I will write her back in a moment (hopefully), it was REALLY nice to hear from her.
Did school start this week? It did hear..oh yeah you can google map me but I dont have the address with me right now.
Lets see so this week was crazy. Like a ton of bad things happened...like people just werent there for appointments and we would bring members and erverything...but nothing. But also I was just able to feel the love of God really strongly when we were teaching some people and feel that God really cares about me. Like after one day of just..no one being home for appointments I read an article that I totally needed and a couple days later I got a letter from my companion from the MTC (Hna Spiller) and she shared a scripture with me that was perfect. And I was thinking how cool it is that God knows us so well that he knew that I was going to be put in a situation, and he knows me SO well that he knew exactly how I would feel so he inspired someone else to send me a letter. I love it.
Ok so a little bit about some of our investigators...
Rodrigo- Hes awesome. He always reads and prays and is preparing to be baptized on the 20th of August.
Mario-hes pretty much a member, he even taught our Family Home Evening the other night and ROCKED it. He really has the desire to be baptized but he just has to work a few things out legally to be able to, but we are working on it. Oh and it was so great. Since we live out here in Arvin and Lamont sometimes its really hard to get people to come from the ward to help out but we knew that Mario was going to teach the FHE so we asked the ward council to send someone to support and we had 26 people there!!!! Normally there is like 7 including us. It was so awesome. So many people are supporting Mario now.
Doris- we just met her the other day but w have been able to teach her twice, we found her knocking after we had prayed to find someone who would let us in to teach them.
there are plenty more but these are the people that we are teaching pretty regularly.
Then there is Carlos, Alvaro, and Anastacio who are 3 recent converts that we teach every week and they are all so cool. Especially Anastacio, he has just taken the gospel and run with it. Hes like 25 so its fun to talk to him and teach him because hes making the same goals that we have. He's also trying to learn english and so we are going to start an English class.
Lets see...I think thats good. I had funny stuff written down but I cant remember them right now.
I sweat a lot.....haha. Ill send a picture next week haha.
HAVE A GREAT WEEK AND TELL EVERYONE I LOVE THEM!!!
First off THANK YOU for Blake's address, I will write him next P-day. Hopefully he will get it before he gets home. Crazy! I always love to hear how Millie is growing and playing. How is Erika? Is she going to start school this year? Thats insane. I cant believe the girls are going to be in middle school and Branden in High school. Kill me.
Sorry this thought just came to my head so I thought I would tell you it. So this week I endeavered to make my own soup totally from scratch. I didnt have any kind of recipe so I just bought a ton of veggies at the store on monday...blended some tomatoes (which people gave us) and some garlic together...mixed it with water and then added a bunch of veggies.....yaaaa. It wasnt the tastiest....but i ate it for 3 days straight because I made a lot of it. Hahaha...oh man.
Anyway...I laughed out loud when you told me about Brother Fotheringham and the candy bar...seriously brought me back to institute...he would totally say something like that. Did you talk to him at all? I really want to write the institute but I dont really know how...
Wow...Mariah on a road trip...thats weird but it sounds like they were safe and had fun.
Chrissy wrote me an email this week so I will write her back in a moment (hopefully), it was REALLY nice to hear from her.
Did school start this week? It did hear..oh yeah you can google map me but I dont have the address with me right now.
Lets see so this week was crazy. Like a ton of bad things happened...like people just werent there for appointments and we would bring members and erverything...but nothing. But also I was just able to feel the love of God really strongly when we were teaching some people and feel that God really cares about me. Like after one day of just..no one being home for appointments I read an article that I totally needed and a couple days later I got a letter from my companion from the MTC (Hna Spiller) and she shared a scripture with me that was perfect. And I was thinking how cool it is that God knows us so well that he knew that I was going to be put in a situation, and he knows me SO well that he knew exactly how I would feel so he inspired someone else to send me a letter. I love it.
Ok so a little bit about some of our investigators...
Rodrigo- Hes awesome. He always reads and prays and is preparing to be baptized on the 20th of August.
Mario-hes pretty much a member, he even taught our Family Home Evening the other night and ROCKED it. He really has the desire to be baptized but he just has to work a few things out legally to be able to, but we are working on it. Oh and it was so great. Since we live out here in Arvin and Lamont sometimes its really hard to get people to come from the ward to help out but we knew that Mario was going to teach the FHE so we asked the ward council to send someone to support and we had 26 people there!!!! Normally there is like 7 including us. It was so awesome. So many people are supporting Mario now.
Doris- we just met her the other day but w have been able to teach her twice, we found her knocking after we had prayed to find someone who would let us in to teach them.
there are plenty more but these are the people that we are teaching pretty regularly.
Then there is Carlos, Alvaro, and Anastacio who are 3 recent converts that we teach every week and they are all so cool. Especially Anastacio, he has just taken the gospel and run with it. Hes like 25 so its fun to talk to him and teach him because hes making the same goals that we have. He's also trying to learn english and so we are going to start an English class.
Lets see...I think thats good. I had funny stuff written down but I cant remember them right now.
I sweat a lot.....haha. Ill send a picture next week haha.
HAVE A GREAT WEEK AND TELL EVERYONE I LOVE THEM!!!
Monday, August 1, 2011
I'm just not an American...
Welp...good afternoon. Im sitting in the good ol Arvin library typing my email to you. Thanks for the emails every week. I know many missionaries that their families dont send them an email every week and i think I would maybe be really sad if i didnt get an email. ANYWAY. so thanks :) I kinda feel like sleeping right now haha sooo if this is kinda scattered brained you know why.
Im excited to see the pictures of the kitchen and from mariahs graduation and party and such. So much stuff is going on! Did Jamie and Jeff show you pictures from their trip? I bet they were awesome! That sounds like a lot of fun.
I got a letter from Vanessa like last week and she told me she was going home to Las Vegas and I just sent her a letter yesterday so she should get it soon. You should invite her over for games or something. Shes probably super busy though. Have you seen Lori too? Hey also..speaking of my friends could you ask Blakes Mom to give you his address so I could send him a letter? That would be grrreat. We can write in spanish :) yay. Also have you been forwarding my emails to my MTC compy? kay.spiller@myldsmail.net thanks.
Well the work here in good ol Bakersfield is HOT just like the weather, I love it. Thats so cool that Grandpa has heard of tahachapi...I LOVE that town...we only go there once a week but its sooo pretty there and they have like a billion windmills there. Its pretty cool and the drive is lovely...and I get to drive it. Ah how blessed are we to have cars in this mission. It really is a huge blessing. Speaking of blessings...we also get fruit..ALL THE TIME because that is where all my people work..in the fields. We have recieved watermelon, cantelope, grapes...grapes...grapes, plums, ext. Its awesome.
We have a couple people preparing for baptism here. One named Rodrigo, he is pretty awesome. Like he just went and asked his boss for Sundays off. Members who have had the blessings of the gospel for YEARS are afraid to do that, even when we promise them blessings and Rodrigo just went and did it with out being asked. Its awesome, he will be baptized next month.
The Lord is really blessing us to meet wonderful people here and is teaching us how to teach. love, and care for his children. Its amazing and I have absolutely nothing to do with it. I think that might be one of the main things that I have learned on the mission is that I can show people scriptures, and saw a few good words, but God and the spirit and these amazing people do everything else.
My companion is wonderful...6 weeks younger me in the mission...still freaks me out, but her spanish is wonderful and so I never have to worry about that and shes a really hard worker.
So I guess some funny stories from this week would be good....haha so here...its straight up Mexico...I mean there are dogs...EVERY WHERE. every where....anyway. So we always like make a lot of noise with the fence before we walk into a fenced yard. Well we walked in to this one yard, turn around the corner of the car and there is this HUGE dog sitting there and my compy was in front of me and she was like BIG DOG....and we booked it. Oh man it was funny....and terrifying.
Also so...we were home for lunch and there is a soda machine in our apt complex (yes we live in apts) and I felt like a soda...not often but I wanted on...so I had changed my shirt while we were home because I was cooking something so I had this HUGE unlv shirt on with my long gray skirt and my hair was on top of my head in braids (ill have to send you a picture, someone told me I looked like I was from germany so thats what inspired it). So I asked my comp to stand on the balcony to watch me and I went...and I was like I dont care if I look like a red neck...anyway so I ran across the parking lot looking like a fool...put in some money and it didnt WORK. Iwasnt happy. But I still push all the buttons every time I walk by haha.
Oh yeah...so the story I wanted to tell you all last week. I have been studying the maps of this area so that I can get all the roads down (im sure youve google maped it all and can see all the towns are nice and small). Well I saw a Newton road and i was like I WANT TO KNOCK THAT ROAD. So we FINALLY got the chance to knock it a bit and we ran knocked into this english family (of course) and come to find out hes a member...has been through the temple...was in the bishopric but hasnt gone to church for like 7 years. Hes a convert, Hes remarried and his wife is a doll and wants to learn more about our church. He even told us he knew it was a miracle that we knocked his door, hes hasnt seen missionaries in a really long time..ext. It as pretty awesome, even if we had to give them to the Elders. I know she'll join the church and he'll reactivate.
Oh and don't worry about looking up the music, I really dont need anything, Im good :) promise.
I dont know what else to say except the work is moving forward, sorry I dont tell you about every single person Im teaching..but thats something I want to do because they are what matters to me here and the only thing I really think about. So I will do better with that. I love the mission, its so awesome and I am so happy I get to go to all these different areas and learn spanish. There are so many amazing people in this world to get to know and Im glad I have double the chance to get to know people because I can speak to them in English and in Spanish!!
LOVE YOU ALL TAKE CARE!
Im excited to see the pictures of the kitchen and from mariahs graduation and party and such. So much stuff is going on! Did Jamie and Jeff show you pictures from their trip? I bet they were awesome! That sounds like a lot of fun.
I got a letter from Vanessa like last week and she told me she was going home to Las Vegas and I just sent her a letter yesterday so she should get it soon. You should invite her over for games or something. Shes probably super busy though. Have you seen Lori too? Hey also..speaking of my friends could you ask Blakes Mom to give you his address so I could send him a letter? That would be grrreat. We can write in spanish :) yay. Also have you been forwarding my emails to my MTC compy? kay.spiller@myldsmail.net thanks.
Well the work here in good ol Bakersfield is HOT just like the weather, I love it. Thats so cool that Grandpa has heard of tahachapi...I LOVE that town...we only go there once a week but its sooo pretty there and they have like a billion windmills there. Its pretty cool and the drive is lovely...and I get to drive it. Ah how blessed are we to have cars in this mission. It really is a huge blessing. Speaking of blessings...we also get fruit..ALL THE TIME because that is where all my people work..in the fields. We have recieved watermelon, cantelope, grapes...grapes...grapes, plums, ext. Its awesome.
We have a couple people preparing for baptism here. One named Rodrigo, he is pretty awesome. Like he just went and asked his boss for Sundays off. Members who have had the blessings of the gospel for YEARS are afraid to do that, even when we promise them blessings and Rodrigo just went and did it with out being asked. Its awesome, he will be baptized next month.
The Lord is really blessing us to meet wonderful people here and is teaching us how to teach. love, and care for his children. Its amazing and I have absolutely nothing to do with it. I think that might be one of the main things that I have learned on the mission is that I can show people scriptures, and saw a few good words, but God and the spirit and these amazing people do everything else.
My companion is wonderful...6 weeks younger me in the mission...still freaks me out, but her spanish is wonderful and so I never have to worry about that and shes a really hard worker.
So I guess some funny stories from this week would be good....haha so here...its straight up Mexico...I mean there are dogs...EVERY WHERE. every where....anyway. So we always like make a lot of noise with the fence before we walk into a fenced yard. Well we walked in to this one yard, turn around the corner of the car and there is this HUGE dog sitting there and my compy was in front of me and she was like BIG DOG....and we booked it. Oh man it was funny....and terrifying.
Also so...we were home for lunch and there is a soda machine in our apt complex (yes we live in apts) and I felt like a soda...not often but I wanted on...so I had changed my shirt while we were home because I was cooking something so I had this HUGE unlv shirt on with my long gray skirt and my hair was on top of my head in braids (ill have to send you a picture, someone told me I looked like I was from germany so thats what inspired it). So I asked my comp to stand on the balcony to watch me and I went...and I was like I dont care if I look like a red neck...anyway so I ran across the parking lot looking like a fool...put in some money and it didnt WORK. Iwasnt happy. But I still push all the buttons every time I walk by haha.
Oh yeah...so the story I wanted to tell you all last week. I have been studying the maps of this area so that I can get all the roads down (im sure youve google maped it all and can see all the towns are nice and small). Well I saw a Newton road and i was like I WANT TO KNOCK THAT ROAD. So we FINALLY got the chance to knock it a bit and we ran knocked into this english family (of course) and come to find out hes a member...has been through the temple...was in the bishopric but hasnt gone to church for like 7 years. Hes a convert, Hes remarried and his wife is a doll and wants to learn more about our church. He even told us he knew it was a miracle that we knocked his door, hes hasnt seen missionaries in a really long time..ext. It as pretty awesome, even if we had to give them to the Elders. I know she'll join the church and he'll reactivate.
Oh and don't worry about looking up the music, I really dont need anything, Im good :) promise.
I dont know what else to say except the work is moving forward, sorry I dont tell you about every single person Im teaching..but thats something I want to do because they are what matters to me here and the only thing I really think about. So I will do better with that. I love the mission, its so awesome and I am so happy I get to go to all these different areas and learn spanish. There are so many amazing people in this world to get to know and Im glad I have double the chance to get to know people because I can speak to them in English and in Spanish!!
LOVE YOU ALL TAKE CARE!
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