Hermana Medeiros Texas Houston Mission: Happy Easter! Week 37

I'm so glad you liked the picture! Lourdes always tells us that if we ever want to send a picture or a small message to our parents she will gladly do it and so we took her up on the offer and sent a picture :) Her son is on a mission in Washington. He left around the same time i did. Her daughter died at the end of January. Her brother was sick and she drank something out of his cup and then she got sick and then like two days later she died. We don't really know what happened but it was not expected.

Yup, Rupp is leaving, so is elder mitchell, Hermana Cross, Hermana maxwell and Elder Morgart. Murdock and I both want to train. And Carbajal thinks that I will either train or Haslam will come here. But really anything could happen. We'd know tonight if we are training...supposedly. But we will see, what ever God needs to happen will happen.

Yes I got the package! I love it all! Last night we took pictures with the lady bug and butterfly headband. I loved the skirt I wore it on Saturday to conference and the other hermanas really liked it. It is so cute! Yeah it fits me but I just can't gain any weight. Last I checked...about a week ago, I really haven't gained much but my stomach has definilty expaned. ughh And I've been really bad at working out. I need to start doing that again. My only goal weight wise is to not be in need of buying bigger clothes.

I would love to have my own copy (Meet the Mormons)! that would be super awesome! In a few weeks we are doing a missionary activity with our ward and I think that is the movie we are going to watch. It's just an activity where the members can invite their friends and maybe we can get some referals from that.

Sounds like conference was a lot of fun! I'm so jealous you got coffee cake! MMM I was thinking about that on Sunday. But it's ok we got handmade tortillas, scrambled eggs with some other stuff in it, bacon, beans, and fruit. :) but I can't wait till next April when I'll get coffee cake again!

That's so nice that she is so willing to take the kids places! I'm so happy about that. I will definitely pray that all will be well! (her bros and sis are on spring break and now that I'm working it will be interesting to see how they do.)

hmmm this week..haha where do I begin...we had some interesting moments this weekend, but i'll just start from the beginning of the week. On Monday we went to a park and played socccer and the louetta sisters threw a surprise party for Mitchell. His birthday was on Wednesday on April fools haha anyways we had pizza and cake and then we played with waterballoons. It was so much fun! our dinner appointment canceled but they ended up giving us some money instead so we went to Chick-fil-a. i love chick-fil-a so much! It is the only place i like grilled chicken sandwhiches. I try it other places and it doesn't even compare.

On Tuesday we finally saw one of our investigators who we haven't seen since the end of February. That was interesting. Her brother is a JW (jehovah witness) and she has been having those missionaries come and see her too and since we haven't seen her in a while it's really created a lot of confusion between the two religions. I learned a lot about JWs in this visit. She told us that she doesn't like the book of Mormon. (a few weeks ago in zone meeting we learned how to act when an investigator tells you that, basically you tell them it's your fault which in some cases it could be. tell them you didn't teach it very well. and you are supposed to be really sad) so anyways after she finished talking, it was seriously like a brick to my heart. I just looked at her and I told her that we were so sorry and that we haven't been good teachers and we haven't explained things well. We asked her if we could restart and re teach the things again so that it can help her more. she agreed to it. I've always known i have a testimony on the book of Mormon but sometimes i just wonder how strong it is. With this experience that i had I know that i have a strong testimony. Because i literally felt my heart break when she told us that she doesn't like the book of Mormon. It's always nice to have those experiences that help strengthen your testimony even more.

I made cake pops for Mitchell for his birthday. I ate some of them haha they were good.

Wednesday was April fools, the only thing i did to my comp is that I put food coloring in something that she eats, but she hasns't noticed it yet because she hasn't eaten it!!! So that was a big fail! since it was mitchells birthday we ran to the store and picked him up a few things. and then we went and decorated their apartment door and then visited people. We went to a members house to eat and the elders were way late. but we ate and had cake and it was fun. We then all ran over to another members house, Murdock blindfolded Mitchell while they were driving so he didn't know where they were going, we got there first and so we got with the family and hid in the house and once the elders came in we yelled surprise! We had more cake and we played pin the tail on the donkey and we did it multiple times and all three times i got it in the same exact spot! how does that happen??? i was blindfolded!! So one thing Hispanics do that I think is super cool and i want to do it when i get home. They take eggs and crack it so it is in half they fill it with either confetti or flour and then you put tap on the bottom and then it the birthday person in the head with it and crack it over them. at the second house we all got 3 and we had a fight with them outside and it was so much fun!

Thursday nothing exciting happened. We were stuck in traffic most of the day because we went up to magnolia and we got stuck in traffic on the way there and on the way back and then after heading to a lesson after English class. That was fun.

Friday...oh man we ate 4 times. After district meeting we went to see an investigator and they gave us pie, and then we went to a less active and they gave us ribs and something else, then we went to our dinner appointment and we went to fudruckers, and then we went to our investigator and we ate seviche. I don't know how to spell it but it is the most disgusting thing ever. At least the way that people from Peru make it. Because people from mexico say they make it differently. it's uncooked talapia. well it's in lemon juice and they say it cooks it..but it doesn't. and there were huge pieces of onion in it. Rupp managed to put most of hers in a napkin but I ate it all. we both felt yucky all weekend and I don't think my stomach has recovered just yet.

Saturday was conference and it was super awesome!! We went to the stake building in Louetta and it was just us missionaries there no one else was. During the break we ran to the mall and then picked up lunch for us and the elders and watched the second half all together but this time there was a young couple in there and it was just really funny. we had to run to the mission office after to drop off our gas receipts, and then we went and got pupusas from a pupusaria. I need to learn how to make pupusas. It's so funny sometimes being the only white people in a restaurant like that. The waiters when they speak Spanish to us almost do it mockingly like testing us to see if we understand them, and like everyone stares at us. but haha oh well. Ok so here are the two most interesting things that happened Saturday. When we were driving back to an appointment we saw we had three missed calls from a private number. All one minute apart. They started calling again, Rupp answered and it was just quiet for a minute and then all of a sudden this lady gets on the phone and yells "you're going to die Bi#######. We both flipped out and Rupp hung up the phone and a minute later the phone started ringing again but stopped before we could answer it. But don't worry we haven't received anything else like that. It was jut really weird. Then once we got to the trailer park where our investigator lives, we parked across the street like we normally do. (outside the trailer park) and we prayed and we were about to get out when this guy drives up next to our car and motions for rupp to roll down the window she did, and he was really creepy just smiling at us and asked if we were looking for someone we said no, and then we asked is it ok if we park here (there is a little office building) and he said like two times "yes it's fine, you can park here" then he drove down the street. we both looked at each other and i started the car again and we drove into the trailer park by our investigators house. Haha we were both weirded out. But don't worry! We are safe i promise!!

Sunday we woke up to a religious group across the street from our apartment singing christian songs. at 630 with a microphone. It was so loud! It was so funny though. We watched conference at lourdes house, we got breakfast and it was super fun. We then stayed after hanging out with her younger son Daniel and he turned on big hero six so we saw a little bit of that. And then a member called us and told us the elders were over then and talking about transfers and she wanted us to come over so we left and went over there. We ate dinner with them and talked and then we got the call that mitchell and rupp were leaving. Super sad but it will be good!

Today we are having a BBQ with our district and then we are saying goodbye to a ton of people.

How are your investigators? our investigators are good. The baptism is this saturday!! finally!!! We are so excited. None of our investigators are progressing besides the two getting baptized. Hopefully we will be able to figure something out soon.

Do you ever hear about Hugo anymore? i know that the elders teach him on saturday but i really haven't asked Carbajal about him. I should though...she called earlier and i was going to ask but then our elders called and so we hung up. I'll ask her tomorrow when i see her.

I thought i opened my call friday night? was it Saturday? I don't remember haha. :) but i can't believe it's been a year and I've already been gone for almost 9 months! I am so glad that i decided to serve too!! It's seriously been the best decision of my life. I feel I've changed so much. When my companions hear me talk about what i looked like or what i did at home they think i am a completely different person. They all say that no one is going to recognize me when i get home. I found a picture from before my mission and holy crap...i do look different. I have grown so much on my mission and i am only going to grow more! *hopefully spiritually and not side to side or outward...haha* but anyway it seriously has been so great! (This Saturday marks one year since Shayln opened her call--4/11--and yes, last year that date was a Friday.)

I love you!!! I hope this week is great! I can't wait to tell you about my new companion next week! Maybe this week we will go see Lourdes and i'll have her send a picture and another message :) that way you can know sooner! I love you so much!!!

PS you know how I said mitchell was getting transferred...well this just shows how fast president changes his mind. He's not leaving anymore!! haha that is super interesting!