Week 53--Faith

So this week was kind of crazy. I've definitely been learning how to have faith. This week almost every day all of our appointments cancelled. But it's OK because we also got so much done. We finally figured out the area. We've been working on splitting the area between us and the elders. to have a fine line drawn so we don't go finding in the same areas and stuff. And then we spent all day Saturday calling almost every single number on our ward list to figure out what numbers still work and 94% of them were disconnected. We visited as many people that we could and a lot of them have moved but we've found a couple who still live in the area. We are trying to help this ward be a little more organized so that miracles can really start happening. 

We had a really fun FHE on Monday night with a less active family. We taught the plan of salvation. We went to the dollar store and bought clay and so we gave each person a part of the plan of salvation and had them create something that represents it and they all enjoyed it. i ended up being really bold with them and at first i was a little shocked and scared that I offended them, but then i really thought about it and it was something that the spirit had guided me to say. And i might have been bold but i was lovingly bold and they needed to hear what i said to them no matter how hard it was for them to hear. We also had a really cool miracle that happened, we had been tracting and i had prayed that we would find someone and we would be able to teach the restoration. I had a feeling that we should go to the very end of the street and start down there. We ended up talking to this one lady and she was super cool. She invited us to sit down and guess what! We ended up teaching the restoration. She told us that she was so happy that she saw us walking down the street and then she laughed. and said "you guys look so out of place walking around a neighborhood like this!" We had a really good lesson with her. But she went out of town a few days ago and so we haven't been able to get back in touch with her. Hopefully we will find her again. 

On wednesday we got to teach the elders recent converts wife who isn't a member and she just came from mexico. We had a really good lesson with her. At first she was closed off but we started off just getting to know her and everything and she opened up by the end. She asked us some of her questions and we were able to help explain some things that she had heard. We taught the restoration and after we shared the first vision she asked "well what happened next??" Mcnabb and I have never had anyone ask us that before. We were so happy. She isn't going to be in the states for very long. She is going back to mexico really soon. But hopefully we will get to see her again. Mcnabb had her 9 months on Wednesday so i made her pancakes that spelled out 9 months and i put happy birthday candles all over them. haha she loved it.

Thursday was my year mark! I can not believe that i have been out on my mission for a year. During weekly planning i made a cake. With one of the  cake boxes you sent from amazon there was a smore's cake picture on the back and we decided to do that. So we ran to the gas station that was really close to our house and got a chocolate bar and we made it. It was soooo good. On Thursday the elders had to go down to the office in Houston and they came back with some mail and i got a little bag from that lady who dropped things off at that office. It was so sweet! It took me a minute to connect the dots. But make sure you send her a message and tell her thank you! We got to teach English class on Thursday and that was super fun. We got home and i was super sad because i hadn't done anything for my year mark and so i found a shirt that i never wear and i burned it haha. It was super fun and we video taped it. It went a lot better than my skirt. And then on friday i let go of a balloon at first it wasn't going to work but the wind picked it up and took it away. So i didn't do anything to special but it was pretty fun. 

We went to a funeral Saturday for a lady in the English ward. I got to play the piano for them and it was super sad. We didn't know her but the spirit was so strong there. 

Sunday i had a really cool little miracle. Mcnabb had asked brother morgan for a blessing and i was thinking about getting one i was praying about it but i didn't know. So i decided that i was going to wait but if they asked me if i wanted one i would get one. Right after she got hers we were about to leave and then they asked me if i wanted a blessing so i got one and it was really good. I love getting blessings :)

I

 'm sorry i haven't answered everything and tell awma i'm sorry too. Sometimes i'm also looking for talks or fhe ideas and i feel bad keeping mcnabb waiting so i just hurry. And sometimes with the questions i see them but then i think of something else to write and i get to be in a hurry and i just keep writing and then i send the email and then later i realize that i never answered it. 

Today we are going to Joanns with sister Morgan because she is going to help make one of my dresses just a little longer, the one you sent me for my birthday goes right to the top of my knee so we took out the hemming at the bottom and that should make it go down a little longer. But i have a skirt that i bought that i need to just get a little longer. It's super funny when i first tried on the red skirt you sent i thought it fit really good but then when i really went to wear it  was huge! Haha so i pinned it and to hide the pin i put the scarf around like a belt. So i wore the blue shirt you sent and used the scarf as a belt and it was super cute! 

Definitely pray that we will be able to find people to teach more than just once! And that we will start having progression with some of the people that we are visiting!! please! That would be great! 

I love you all so much!! I hope you have a great week!

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be one of the people who lived in the ancient Americas when Christ came to visit them? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to feel the prints in his hands and his feet? It would be so special. As a companionship we have been reading 3 nephi and today we read chapter 11. It is such a great chapter. and i invite all of you to go and read it when you have time. Find 10 minutes of your day to put down technology and all other distractions and read that chapter. in the beginning of the chapter they couldn't understand what the voice was saying to them, but once they turned their ears towards the noise and looked upwards towards heaven they were able to understand the voice. We need to be doing the same. God is constantly trying to talk to us and we aren't listening. this world has so many distractions. We always say that God's not answering our prayers or that he isn't listening to us. But that is a lie! I refuse to believe that God doesn't listen to us. WE ARE HIS CHILDREN! he loves us more than we can imagine. He is always talking to us but we block him out. We need to turn our ears towards his voice and look up wards towards heaven. God is reaching down to us but it does nothing if we aren't reaching up to him. He isn't going to force himself upon us. He won't make us believe in him, he won't make us read the scriptures, pray or go to church but if we don't do those things we are going to spend our whole life thinking that God isn't answering us. Have you taken time today to listen to God? If you haven't I invite you do take some time now. It is my testimony to you that i know we are all children of God and he is constantly raining down blessings upon us. he is our father and just like our earthly parents he wants the best for us. Take some time and have some one on one time with God today. He is waiting for you. But you need to do your part. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen. 

We found a Christian bookstore in the mall

My companion made me waffles for my 1 year mark

S'more Cake--yummy!

I love to blow bubbles

Now we know where all the mailmen go for lunch!

Big Dog

Dancing with a big dog

There are some really big, ugly bugs in Texas

Nothing better than eating Texas Sheet Cake in Texas

I love birds

 

Week 52--1 Como estan??

Hey Y'all!!! It's so funny I've been wanting to say Ya'll a lot more often now! So don't get mad if once i get home i constantly saw Y'all! Or switch into Spanish words!! Haha there are some words that i literally can't say in English anymore. 

Thank you so much for the packages! I was so sad i didn't get the one with the decorations till this morning but we are going to decorate this week for our 9 month and year mark! Thank you to all those who sent emails and/or cards! i love you all and miss you all!! 

 Sunday was good, it stunk because i had a headache all day and i couldn't find any ibprophen or anything. It would go away and then come back and then go away. i got really frustrated. But anyways church was pretty good. One of the speakers cancelled and so the obispo asked me to read a talk in sacrament meeting so i did and apparently i talked really fast haha. When i finished it he sounded like he was laughing when he whispered thank you that was awesome. Later it clicked. He had thought the talk would take 10-15 minutes. We aren't sure how long i took but maybe 8 or 9 minutes. Haha It was super awkward because i was looking down the whole time, when i tried to look up i lost my spot. But i'm not counting it as me giving a talk, so far i haven't given a talk in church on my mission! 

no one came to church on Sunday. We had an investigator who promised us she was coming. She has a baptismal date for August 8th but she didn't come and she hasn't been answering our phone calls :P ugh. WE had a less active come to church and she's trying to come back! So that's pretty awesome! After church we ran home and i broke my fast (we fast every Sunday) because i had a headache so i drank some water and ate a granola bar hoping that it would help. And then we went to visit a couple people that we had contacted into. We were able to cross off some people because they aren't interested. WE went to go visit another man that we met the other day and his wife came out and we were going to show the el vive (because he lives) video and she brought her two girls out and we made another appointment with them for Tuesday. They seem super cool. They speak English. It's different being in this area because if we contact people who speak English we can still teach them instead of giving them to the English missionaries. We've been doing a lot of dropping and contacting lately. I'm trying not to worry about it, i just know that God has a plan and sometimes people just aren't ready but we needed to plant the seed in their heart. So right now we are working on finding new people. anyways back to Sunday we then went to dinner at a members house and they made really good food and made me cupcakes :) got 2 cupcakes smashed in my face, we then went over to an English members house because i share a birthday with her and she had some friends over, she gave me a panda bear necklace. We had cupcakes and ice cream. The hermanos mom bought me blue berries (because she thought that i would think that chocolate bars were unhealthy :P) haha (but i like blue berries and they will make good smoothies so yay!) and a balloon. It was so sweet of her. We then contacted a few more people before we headed home. 

Last night was rough. i went to bed at like 1015 because i was so tired, woke up at 1 with a head ache fell back asleep, woke up at 330 with a headache then at 350 my companion woke up thank goodness and i asked if she had any ibprophen or anything and she found some and then i went and took a hot shower until 445 and then got back into bed around 5, so i'm just a little tired today haha. 

Nothing too exciting happened this week. Went on an exchange on Tuesday and that was pretty fun. Non of our plans happened but we still had lessons and saw people. Got in with some less actives and an investigator who we haven't seen for a while. On Thursday we had district meeting and we had interviews. It was fun, we made a cake and i got some of it smashed in my face. It was really funny. We went and visited Our investigator with a baptismal date and we had a good lesson with her. We then had dinner at a members and it was super super good tacos. Then we had English class and we taught a 10 minute restoration. We brought in book of Mormons and pamphlets. we left them at the front and just said that after class anyone who wanted one could take one. we left it at that so no one felt uncomfortable or pressured and people ended up taking them!! we were so happy! Friday we weekly planned for 4 hours. and our brains were fried. We got the box with the food from amazon and i took all the food out and sat in the box and then it bent a little bit and i guess i said "oh no! que paso!? in a really funny way and we died laughing for about 10 minutes. I went to the bathroom and i heard my comp still laughing. It was hilarious. Most of our appointments cancelled this week but it's ok! Because we did our best!

interviews went really well. I was able to speak to president about some things that our bishop has said that i haven't agreed with and he told me i need to speak up more because things he said are not right. He told me to laugh more and to be nicer to myself. He tells me i spend time driving myself crazy worrying about some many little things and i need to stop. He was super loving. I really love my president. He is amazing. 

This week was pretty good hopefully we will have an even better week this week! sorry i don't have much to report but next week i'll have more!! I love y'all!! Stay awesome and safe!!!

Sister Broadus and I on our exchange :) she is so awesome!

​eating shipley's donuts for the first time​

my companion made me a cake!

blowing out candles :)

 I made popsicles but the thing came out when i tried to get the popsicle out so i had to use a knife haha

what our cupboards looked like before the amazon package...

and after haha

Cup cake and snickerdoodle ice cream with the morgans

you can't read it but this family threw me a little party and wrote happy birthday on this white board

birthday with the morgans, we share a birthday!!

my sweet companion made a sign for me on my birthday and a family member of the morgans gave me a balloon :)

Week 51--Her Birthday Week!

Gah!!!! How does time go by so fast?? I can't be in the 100's! That's just not possible haha. Oh geez I've been gone almost a whole year! That is so scary! (198 days until she comes come)

Aaaannnyyywwwaaayyyssss haha let's not talk about that right now..........

So this week it was kind of crazy...we ended up dropping 3 of our investigators that i worked with all of last transfer. One of them just never answered the door or her phone never responded to our texts or calls and so we left a note telling her to call us when she is ready to have us back. Another one told us she is Catholic and will never come to our church, she only liked us to come over so she could talk with us. And then the other one i'm super sad about because she had a baptismal date but she started avoiding us. She didn't show up to 2 appointments, never answers her phone and so we left a note like we did with the first and told her to call us when she is ready. So right now we are on the search for some new investigators. We've had a couple really cool miracles. I told hermana to pick a street to tract and when she chose one we knocked on every door, didn't have very many people open up. So then she told me to choose where i wanted to go to tract and i decided to just walk over to the next street. We knocked on one door, no answer so we went across the street and knocked on the door, a little girl opened up but a huge family was sitting in the living room and kitchen. one of them started talking to me in english, we talked to her for a minute and then we asked if they had 5 minutes for us to share something and she said "well i'm the only one that speaks english" i was like "perfect! We speak spanish!" so we got to go in and share a video with them and it was super cool. we got all their numbers so hopefully we will be able to get in touch with them again to be able to visit all of them.  

Last night was temple tours and we were dying to go. We literally called almost every single person in our phone but no one could go, but then an investigator that i haven't met yet called us back and said he wanted to go. We had a member that was willing to drive us so we were going to meet them at the church and half way there we got a text from the investigators girl friend telling us that they are too busy and he can't waste time going to the tours with us. So we sat in the car for a while because we were super sad. But then we got a call from a random number, and we've been calling a lot of former's and so we didn't know if it was someone who we called a few days ago or what, but anyways we answered and this lady told us that she just moved into bryan with her non member husband and she talked to the bishop and got our number. So she gave us her address and we went over to go meet her. Well she forgot to tell us if she was apartment a or b so we knocked on a and this lady opened and she told us that they were the new ones next door, i did an awful contact but we asked her if there was another day that we could come by and visit her and almost without hesitation she said yes. So that will be really cool!

This new member is so awesome she has a non member husband and they are both so cool. Haha expect i felt so bad last night, the husband is black and he was talking in perfect spanish and without even thinking i said "now how do you speak spanish so well" he said "well i'm Hispanic and from costa rica." haha i felt so bad! I apologized and wanted to crawl under the table! luckily he wasn't offended at all. but anyways this member has the coolest conversion story and she told us that she has gone 2 months without going to church and she says she feels like she is about to explode! haha i mean dang she is so awesome she is going to help our ward so much! and hopefully we will be able to teach her husband!

On tuesday we ended up being stuck at a car place for like 2 hours. One of our small light things on our car was dangling out of place and so we took it in and at first the guy said he could just glue it back in but then he didn't have any of the right glue. Then we had to wait 2 hours for the part to get there and for him to put it on, we ended up going to the dollar store across the street.  That night we had an awesome lesson with our investigator who has a baptismal date we taught her family history and it was so cool! it went really well. Expect she didn't come to church on sunday :/ so we have to move her date. gah!!!

We had zone meeting on Friday and we learned an entirely new way to contact! When we are door contacting we are not going to say "hi we are missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints" we go about it totally differntly now. It's a little awkward but it will get better as the time goes on.  we had dinner with the morgans that night and (man mom you'd love her) haha she calls me her short imp. She kills me. I'm so happy to share birthdays with her. 

We had a lesson with a potential investigator and we tried using a technique that we learned in zone meeting. We show the bible video "thou art the christ" and then we ask them a couple questions and then we ask "how would you feel if this same church that Christ built when he was on the earth, if it was back on the earth today." we've used that twice since zone meeting and both times it has back fired on us because they say "well that church is the catholic church...." and then they go on talking for a long time. But anyways this one particular lesson was insane. We got up to the aposotasy and then she started saying all the things that she didn't agree with so many of them were things we didn't even say or that we could have fixed her understanding if she would have just let us talk. But that didn't happen. So when she finally stopped talking after 45 minutes or so, i looked at my watch and said "oh my i'm so sorry but we have an appointment to run to" we didn't set up a return appointment. i mean we really did have an appointment to go to. We got into the car and pushed back the seats and just sat there for a minute. It was even all in english and it still drained us!

Saturday we had the best breakfast ever with an investigator who made hand made tortillas. Mmmmm we ate eggs and beans and something else all with our hands and tortillas haha it was so much fun!

through a lot of the lessons that we had this week i felt the spirit really strong. Sometimes we are in a lesson and i'll be speaking and then when i stop i just start thinking about how cool it is how much i can speak and understand in spanish. My spanish has improved so much...not boasting or anything. But really the gift of tongues is real. it's so wonderful because sometimes after those moments are the times where i really know that God is helping me with my spanish and i feel the spirit so strongly. 

This week was really good, and we have some cool stuff coming up this week! hopefully we will have new investigators and more people to work with. We are working really hard and everything is going so great! Going on an exchange tomorrow, we have interviews on thursday and my birthday is sunday! woot woot!! I finally won't be a baby anymore! maybe i'll start getting companions younger than me! Instead of older than me haha. 

Pray that we will be able to find new prepared people!

Always do the things that will help you to grow in your faith. Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge. 

Hope---> Faith --> Experience --> Knowledge

This is a cycle that is continuous. I have grown in my faith so much since i have been here on my mission. I can't believe that i have been out almost a year. My testimony has grown so much stronger. I pray every night to be able to stay strong in my faith and to be able to stay faithful every day. I invite you all to do the same.  

Her First Birthday gift arrived

Lots of bubble wrap

Being kids and playing w/ bubble wrap

The girl who always hated smoothies has now learned to like them!

Watermelon and Strawberry smoothie

Sandia Popsicles!  Watermelon Popsicles!

Her new Scripture Cases

New skirt!  So Pretty!

Just a picture of downtown

Week 50--New Companion

Sometimes Mondays are really nice. It's nice to let my brain relax a little bit and rest a little before jumping into our work tonight. We might be going on an small exchange tonight with the sister missionaries because they have an investigator who speaks spanish and english but the husband only speaks spanish so they want to pass them off to us but they want to to do it slowly and the appointment is tonight and we have all set appointments tonight so we are probably just going to go on an exchange from around 6 till 9.  It will be fun!

Last monday our ward through a good bye party for McOmber and Christensen. It was pretty fun. 

Tuesday was really saddedning. I hated saying goodbye to so many missionaries. Especially carbajal. The last time i walked away from her i felt like my legs were filled with led. But i'm so happy for her. She sounds like she is having a great time back at home. And anyways i have an awesome new companion. Her name is Hermana Mcnabb and she is from Idaho, she is almost at 9 months on her mission and she is still older than me! I wonder if i'll ever have a companion that is younger than me! She is super awesome. She was in my last district in oakcrest. We definitely got a lot done this week. We've just been working on gettings things more organized than they were so that things are easier for us. 

Wednesday we had some cool lessons. We met with Sabina and we brought the relief society presidnet along with us. Sabina doesn't know if she still wants to be baptized or not. She doesn't know if she is willing to change for it. We are going tonight to master teach her into remembering her desire and seeing what she says. We went tracting and radmonly this lady just let us in, before we even introduced ourselves. It was really funny. It was pouring so hard when we walked back out it was crazy!

Thursday we had weekly planning and we got bored so we took some pictures that were fun. Haha we also bought a thing of popcorn and a bag of chocolate and the chocolate lasted about 2 days and then it was gone. haha. one thing that is hard about being a missionary and switching zones is that when president tells the leaders something and the leaders relay it back to us it's changed in every zone. there was a difference in the way that mcnabb and i did something because of what we had been told in our missions and so we had to call president because even our zone leaders weren't even sure and we had to get a final thing and he told us one thing and then he told us if we are ever confused about things like that to just look in preach my gospel but in preach my gospel it says the opposite of what he told us and so when we told him that he had to think for a few minutes and then give us the final answer. It was a process haha. 

Friday was district meetinng and we went and got panda express as a distrcit it was super fun. we were heading to the other side of town for a lesson and then she cancelled and so we started heading to our other appointment and she canceled. and so we found a road with no one on it and just parked in the midddle of the street becaue we were literally in the middle of no where and we tried to figure out where to go and we were  using the map to see who would be beneficial to visit. We ended up going home to finish weekly planning and the we tried a few people on the way to our next appointment. We've been going through our formers binder to see who still lives there and what not. We have records from 2000!!!! They are so old!!!!

Saturaday or the fourth of july literally no one was home! and all our appointments cancelled but we ended up getting a lot done. We had a really good lesson with Daisy and her whole family ended up listening and so we got 2 new investiagators and they let us eat with them and we set liek 50 return appointments with them. 

we were going to decorate our house with some stuff that we had bought but we were too tired when we got home so we just went to bed. 

Then on Sunday 2 of them came to church and we found out that they are related to someone in our ward. that was weird. We went over to their house sunday night and had dinner with them and watched the restoration video and then we started talking about joseph smith and his story and then the mom went off on an hour tangent story. Mcnabb and i were brain dead by the tiem it was over. WE tried to leave like 5 times. My brain was so dead that i got confused at a stop sign haha. Luckily we made it home with out dying. Got home and drank more of my orchata from the taqauria and ate some more of our cake. 

It's been pretty hot here it's really humid. It gets so bad that we will be tracting and standing on a doorstep and i can feel the sweat going down my back. it's so nasty but i mean i'm getting a watch tan line and a shoe tan line as well. 

This transfer is going to be so good! We've been doing a lot of prep work so that we don't have to worry about doing it the rest of the transfer! A lot of miracles are going to happen, i'm so excited to see what happens this transfer!

 As a representative of Jesus Christ this is what i do. My companion and I, along with the other thousands of missionaries in the world we teach people about Jesus Christ and how they can have a happier life. We use the book of Mormon as one of our sources for how to gain greater knowledge. One thing i learned this week is that the Bible is the what and the Book of Mormon is the why. For example the Bible explains that Jesus was baptized and in the Book of Mormon it states the reasons why. And along with so many other things. We use the Book of Mormon to help us grow in the faith that we have. And as a missionary i promise all of you that if you read it, ponder it and pray about it you will receive an answer. God loves each and everyone of us and he wants us to know as much as we can about him. So why wouldnt' he give us more doctrine to get to know our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ a little more. Put your faith to the test and even if you already have read the Book of Mormon read it again and ask God with a sincere heart if it is true. I have gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon and that is why i am a missionary. I love the Book of Mormon and it has helped me so much in my life. I am so grateful that God loves us enough to give us more scriptures to learn. I invite you all to watch this video and read the Book of Mormon. I promise that you will feel the spirit. 

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid853948122001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAAwY-

wg3E~,CCjDZJW7GXDxqyDe7k_mBp1YVeadu2DM&bctid=1101418669001

Les Quiero mucho!!

Last ward picture

My new comp! Mcnabb

good bye Mami

good bye Mami

some of my favorite missionaries going home! :(

Hermana Mcnabb and i

how weekly planning starts out

pic of us-i love this ranch

after someone talks really fast spanish for over an hour and an english person talks non stop for an hour i'm ready for some orchata and cake

Week 49--wedding and a baptism

How are you?  I'm super good! i don't know why but i'm really tired haha. I've been sleeping good but man haha i'm ready for a nap! I even went to bed a little early last night!

How is hermana McOmber?  She's doing good, she's almost all packed. It's super weird. But i'm excited to see who my  next companion will be. Hopefully a good one! haha jk. But yeah it's been super weird. We had dinner last night at a members house and they bought her a cake that says we love you hermana mcomber, and they made a super cute note and put balloons on the wall. It was really so sweet. and tonight we are having an "FHE" with the ward to say good bye to her. Been trying to keep it a secret but it's a little hard. I think she might know what is happening. 

 What are the plans for today? Today we are going to go to Freddy's for lunch and then finish making the picture book for mayte and marco (the elders recent convert) finish packing, i need to keep organizing my desk, I've been working on something and going through a lot of my papers that i don't need any more and so my stuff in a mess. I might steal her desk because i like it better haha.   

I really haven't talked to Carbajal a lot this transfer. I haven't let myself text her or anything. But I'll see her tomorrow...i'm super sad. I decided to go through my journals and write down all the funny memories we had and i'm going to give it to her. i am going to miss her a lot, she's been the best. I was reading over my journal from when I first got to Houston and she was a huge support for me. .

I'm so glad that work is going so good! I'm so happy for everything that is happening in your job! And i'm so glad that you were able to get your wallet back and that the lady was super nice and that she was trust worthy!

 Do you have any idea what you’re going to do?  Will you have a curfew?  I don't know if we will have a curfew for the forth of July...i haven't heard anything. my companion and i might just have to make a stop at the dollar store and buy some stuff and have a party in our apartment when we get home for the night and we do all the things that we need to do. Haha Right now we really don't' have plans and not to make Hispanics celebrate it like we do :/

I keep meaning to ask you, in your pictures I see you with a brown bag…where did you get it?  what happened to your blue one?  It was hermana Rupps old bag that she didn't want anymore because one of the sides broke but after she left i found it and fixed it so i use it sometimes. I've started using my blue one again because it's easier since it has a pocket made for an iPad haha

On Tuesday I got to go to Huntsville and it was super cool. I love the sister i was with. I was able to talk with her and ask for advice on things and we really bonded. But she's leaving tomorrow too! She bought me ice cream for my 11 months :) we got mcflurrys at McDonald's. She dyed my hair. The color is called Coco Red. So it's more brown but it still has a little bit of red in it so i like it :) On Wednesday we had a super interesting lesson with an investigator. She was in the middle of telling a story and she stops, points at me and said "this is a special child" and then she started saying things and i was like "what the crap! You don't know me! I've known you for 5 minutes! How can you know those things!" it was really interesting. But she was super sweet. I met a man who is just like hermano Morales. His wife had a stroke and so she can't speak, she just lays in bed and stares at the wall and he just loves her so much. It broke my heart. Friday we had the wedding and it went super well! Saturday we ate with the Morgans. I love them so much it's always so much fun to go over to their house. They gave us Texas shaped noodles to take home with us. Hermano gave hermana and i a blessing and mine was super cool. I loved it. Also there was the baptism and that was awesome too! Also a family in our ward got sealed Saturday and so after the baptism we had a reception. So two weddings in a row! Haha it was a blast! The family was so cute! No one knew that they weren't sealed. So i'm so happy that they finally got sealed. Church went really well we had a guy that we contacted into a few weeks ago show up haha it was so awesome and so many of the hermanos in our ward were talking to him and helping him out. We gave his information to the elders because we think it will be easier for them to teach him. I finally met some of the other less actives which is super nice because a lot of the less actives are just names and i have no idea who they are. We went to the members house to eat and they had friends over and i really connected with her. She has 7 siblings and her parents are divorced and 4 of them are with her mom and 3 of them are with her dad and step mom. HOLY CRAP! That's the same as me! i really felt something special with her. We talked a lot and at the end i gave her our number and she gave us hers! i hope we will see her again! We had an FHE with a less active family and it was super good. It was so cute they have  a 3 or 4 year old girl and we were getting ready to say the prayer and we asked one of the other kids to say the prayer and she ran into the other room crying because she wanted to say it. We had to say a second prayer for her to calm down. Haha most the time we have to fight to get kids to say the prayer. 

 You’ll get to see Carbajal at transfers—right?  yeah :( but i probably won't let go of her. 

How was the wedding?  It was soooo good! The ward really came together and helped us out! It was beautiful! The food was great and they were so happy. 

Did the baptism happen yet?  Yeah they and the elders other investigator got baptized and it was super good!

How are you investigators?  They are good! We got another bap date this week for July 25 she's super awesome and super prepared. When we go over she tells us how she got 100% on her midterm or 100% on her final and she knows that it's because she's reading the book of Mormon and praying. She says she feels so good when she comes over. our other bap date we have to move it because she didn't come to church...Satan is working really hard on her. A boy friend came back into her life and has made things harder, we haven't been able to get in contact with her since last Monday and it's just been crazy. Are the progressing? so right now really no is progressing :/ even though we have two bap dates. But neither of them came to church. We will have to work on that this week.   

How is your ward?  It's good, I'm trying to think of ways to keep things positive but there is one thing I'm really not sure how to fix because all my other bishops have been natives but in this ward he is American and one of his biggest concerns are the peoples status. if they are legal or not and when we told him we had a bap date it was the first thing he asked. It's just hard there has to be a balance and i don't know how to find that with him. But our ward is doing good. I'm hoping since i'm taking over i'll be able to do a little more to help this ward and keep a positive attitude on it. 

Looking forward to get a new companion! It will be interesting because they are white washing the leadership for this zone. 3 of them are going home and 1 of them is getting transferred. So either we are getting a completely new leadership or they will combine the two zones that are up here. Can't wait to see! I hope you have a great week! And i hope that Zurgy get's better!  i love you lots!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

I love being a missionary. I am so happy that i made the choice to serve a mission. As some of you know it was something that i never wanted to do. Being a missionary has been the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. i meet so many cool people and i get to share my testimony with so many people.  My testimony has grown so much in the past 11 months. I have changed in ways that i never thought i could change. i just want to share my testimony with you all. That i know Jesus Christ died and suffered for us. Not just for our sins but also for our pains. I know that he did live again and that he is still here with us right now. We need to strive everyday to become closer to him and our Heavenly Father. To build a better relationship with them. I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was restored through Joseph Smith and that he really was a prophet in our day. Just like the prophets in the bible. He was called of God to restore his church. We still have a living prophet today who guides and directs this church. While the world is changing and becoming more corrupted every day Gods standards will never change. For he is the same yesterday, today and for ever. I love this gospel and i love seeing it change peoples lives. Always trust in your Heavenly Father. I promise that he loves you and that he is aware of each and every one of you. Never forget him. he will never forget you. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. amen. 

 

Railroad track

streets of Bryan

ummm....definitely a man made church...

It's the perfect size for me!

This dog picture is my favorite!

THE WEDDING!

THE WEDDING!

Their baptism the next day!

the texas flag wall!

the texas flag wall!