Week 66

We had the coolest miracle on Monday! We were looking for a referral
and so we stopped at the house the gps led us to and when we walked up
the gate was locked but we both had a feeling that we had to talk to
who lived there. We tried knocking on the gate but that wasn't loud
enough. So Hna went and knocked on the window and the lady came out.
We started talking to her and after a couple minutes she let us in and
we had a great lesson with her. She told us that she felt that she had
been blind and that our message could help her to see again...sadly
this miracle doesn't have a happy ending yet. She called us a few days
later and told us she wanted to return the Book of Mormon to us so
that we could give it to someone who is actually interested. We
haven't had the chance to get back in with her but we will be seeing
her on Tuesday to try to see if we can help her feel the spirit and
figure out her concerns.

Tuesday I got to go to lunch with my favorite person from oakcrest!
Lourdes! We met at chickfila and ate lunch together. It was so nice to
be able to catch up with her. I've missed her a lot. We had an awesome
lesson that night where we taught the plan of salvation to our newest
investigator. The one from the member that randomly stopped us. And he
now has a bap date! For the 14 of November. He has come to church
twice and is progressing really well. It's awesome because he lives
with a member.

Friday was really long. It turned out that Hermana provosts companion
went home. It's really sad. She had started her mission in chile but
came home after a couple months due to anxiety and depression. After
being home she decided to come back out and she was being retrained by
provost. Things I guess got a lot harder for her and she ended up
going home after being here for 5 weeks. It's really sad and we will
miss her a lot.

Friday was our quince, can't believe that I've been here for fifteen
months. It's super crazy how fast it's gone by. We went to a store
called king dollar to look for some Mexican candy and I ended up
finding Cadbury eggs! Needless to say for 1.25 each I bought two
things. Of course they were old and not as fresh but I was so happy.
After English class we had a training and we learned about a new
program we are going to start using for English class. There were some
missionaries from the south mission there. The training was super
awesome and i really learned a lot.
That night we had a super awesome lesson with a less active family. We
talked about having more unidad en las familias and we had figured out
what we were going to do but while we were singing we both had a
thoug, but we didn't know the other person had had the same thought.
And Hna started and she worded the same question that I had just
thought about in same exact words. I was blown away. I told her about
it afterwards and she was so surprised as well because it wasn't what
we had had planned to do. The spirit is awesome!
We then had an awesome lesson with a new family we are teaching. We
thought the restoration and it went really well. We got home a little
later but it's ok.

Saturday it poured all day...it was awesome! I  was soaked and I was
barefoot and stepped into an ant hill without knowing and I have about
thirty bites on my left foot. Shout out to the Morgan's in Brazos for
giving me itching cream before I left Bryan! Inspiration at its
finest. But seriously working in the rain is always going to be the
best qmemory for me. We had such a good day. We had district meeting
since we couldn't have it Friday and then we started working. Everyone
we talked to couldn't believe that we were outside in the rain and
during our gospel Principles class an Hermana was in there and told
everyone how we came to her house soaking wet and cold but we had a
smile on our face and as soon as her son was ready to come with us we
turned back out into the rain to visit someone. We ended up having a
really good lesson with our progressing investigator and then we went
back to the same members house and she gave us towels and hot
chocolate. I know God protected us while we were driving because one
area of a street was completely flooded and we had to drive through
it. There were a lot of puddles and the tires kept sliding but we made
it home safely.

Sunday was amazing, we had our family of three come to church, and our
progressing investigator come and a new investigator come as well. All
of church was just so good. It was still raining for most of the day
on Sunday. We had he fireside and it was so amazing. I got to see my
recent convert from woodlands and talked wi him for a while. It's
almost been a year since he got baptized. It was so wonderful to see
I'm. The spirit was so strong during the testimonies and the musical
numbers. Hna sumsion, Reese, Bohn, and I sang his hands (sus manos)
while Hermana provost played the piano. I wish I would have gotten am
actually recording of it. But I just have one from a practice. I also
played the piano for elder Mitchell as he sang el es el cristo (this
is the Christ) then the last song was my absolute favorite. When all
of us missionaries stand up and sing the efy medley in Spanish, it was
really so amazing. The spirit was so strong and the music was so
powerful.

I'm glad you guys had such a great trip. I'm really not sure what I
want to do for school. Right now I'm still thinking Utah, I know that
will suck but I haven't really put much thought into it. I will start
praying about it though. I just don't know anything about the schools
in Iowa. I don't even know where I want to go if I go to Utah. Maybe
back to snow for a year but idk. And I don't know what I'd do for the
party....you know ,e I'm really simple....Just friends and family and
I'm good haha...I really don't know, you don't have to do anything
special. So sadly the bap date with had before is probably not going
to happen. She basically dropped us, we have been trying to get back
into contact with her but haven't had much luck.

It's super awesome this week we are getting elders into our area. We
are still working it how it's going to work because they are going to
be on bikes which sucks but...we will make it work.

The members are really good about feeding us. This is the first area
where I feel that the members will be ok if we don't take seconds. I
rarely take seconds and so eating has been a lot better here. But I've
gone back to never having an appetite so that's rough but oh well. I
am eating don't worry.

As for me and my companion I mean things have been good it's just hard
cause she's like Coronado and mcomber where she likes to take over the
lessons and takes credit for everything. And so that's the man thing
that's been hard and we try to talk about it to fix it but it only
works for one lesson and then it's back to however it used to be. I
would love to be companions with her for a second transfer but then at
the same time part of me is hoping for a new companion this coming
transfer because I don't want to get a new companion my last transfer
because the first transfer with someone is usually the hardest and I
want to already know my companion well enough so thaI we can just work
our tags off my last transfer and make it the best. But we will see
what God has in store.

I can't believe it's Halloween this week! Take lots of pictures for
me! We have zone meeting on Friday and so we are all going to wear
costumes and have a party :) I can't tell you what our costume is you
will have to wait till Monday!

I don't want to leave my mission, I decided I'm never leaving! Gah!!
I'm coming back for the wedding and then I'll come back to my mission
:D

Love y'all!

Practicing their Quartet for the fireside

Ant bites

Shalyn and Lourdes---

Shalyn and Hermana Provost

Puppy!!!!

After being out in the rain!

Shalyn asked this be put on her blog

Week 65

Hey

This week was really good. We had a lot of success! I love being a
missionary so much! We had some really cool miracles that happened
this week! But first I want to share the biggest miracle the happened
this week. My mom is engaged to a man who will be the best husband to
her and the best father to my siblings. I know that God led my mom and
Jeff together so that they could find true love, happiness and peace.
I'm so grateful that my mom has found someone who will make her happy
and treat her right. So after I get home they will be getting married
and he lives in Iowa so the week after I get home I will be moving to
Iowa with them so I can spend time with my new family. For those of
you who live in Utah don't worry haha I'll come and spend time in Utah
because there are so many of you who I want to see! I'm so excited for
what the future brings. I was reading over a blessing I received
during a hard time at the beginning of my mission and it told me that
I will have happy things awaiting me at home. This must be one of the
happy things. I never knew what it meant but now I do.

On Monday we had a really good Fhe with a part member family. We
watched meet the Mormons and they loved it! The husband has heard the
lessons so many times and knows that he needs to get baptized but he
isn't willing to change and repent. It's so sad to see families in
that situation. They marry someone outside of the church and then the
person the marry end up holding back their family from the blessings
they could receive.

On Tuesday we went to visit a recent convert, we don't have the
records for the mom so we figured she wasn't a member and so we
weren't sure what to expect when we got there. Turns out the mom was
baptized when she was younger but her records have been lost and so
she has to be baptized again. The only problem is that she works on
Sunday's but she is actively looking for a new job and she wants to
get baptized again. We are excited to work with her. We then went to
visit a contact we contacted the other day and we found out that she
had been baptized when she was 14! But we will have to look for her
records. She hasn't gone to church for a long time. We had dinner at a
members house and it was fantastic, I took seconds and that was a
mistake...she gave me double...you'd think I'd learn haha. She makes a
bom chocoflan and I couldn't enjoy it because I was so full! Hna had a
meeting with the other stl and some other people so we went on an
exchange and I had Hna Rivas with me. We had a lesson with a part
member family and it was super awesome because the son was willing to
stay for the lesson and he didn't look at his phone the entire time!

Wednesday we went on another exchange and I stayed in the area again.
I had Hna provost with me. We've always wanted to be companions but
going on an exchange was good enough :)  we saw a lot of miracles!
Since she had served in louetta she knew were some of the people
lived. We had the wrong address for a part member family and she
remembered how to get there and we got their correct address. We had a
really good lesson. We then got in with a referral who we had been
trying to contact, we finally got in with her and we taught the
restoration. It was super good. The spirit was so strong and she said
that it made sense and she said it reminds her of what she learned
when she was little. I'm excited to get to know her more.

On Thursday we met up with the Hnas to exchange back and we went to
bahama bucks. It's like a snow cone place but not really at the same
time. I don't know how to describe it. But it was good. We then had
lunch with with a less active family and they ended up coming to
church on Sunday! We got in with Brenda and we filled out the colander
that we have for those who have a baptismal date. She seems really
excited to be baptized but we don't think that she really understands
what it means. We need to teach what it means and what it is exactly.
I hope that she will be willing to do the work that comes with
baptism. Ok now here is the really cool miracle that we had. We were
driving into an apartment complex and this car was leaving he waved us
down and yelled "are you the missionaries?" He told us that he was
Mormon and had a friend he wanted to teach. We got his number but they
we had to drive because there were cars behind us waiting to get in.
But we texted him so he had our number and he asked if we had
something set right then and we didn't and he told us he was on his
way back right then. We went over to his house once he was there and
met his friend. He just barely got here from Salvador. The member was
baptized four years ago and his testimony is so strong. The lesson was
super awesome. He ended up coming to church on Sunday! He loved it!
God provides miracles when you work hard and have faith in him. As
long as you are doing your part he will provide tender mercies.

We had English class on Friday and we played...well tried to play the
telephone game. It was hilarious! Hna would whisper into their ear the
sentence and haha Hispanics can not whisper! They would basically yell
it into the next persons ear. It was so funny but they enjoyed it. I
love seeing people who want to learn English. I'm glad that we have
the chance to offer this service to these people. We had district
meeting and I was asked to be the Spanish leader. Uh...haha we have
district language study before district meeting and I have to lead out
the lesson. This week was crazy so I didn't have a lot of time to
prepare something but next week will be better.

Saturday we did our weekly planning because we didn't have time on
Monday. We had some really good lessons. I'm just so humbled everyday.
I love being a missionary so much! My testimony has really grown. I
love that I have this time to study and dedicate this time to share
what I've come to know. There are so many people who are just waiting
to know the happiness they can have. I love seeing the change in
people's eyes when we are teaching  them. Being a missionary has been
the best decision of my life. If I could I would ask for an extension
but I'd rather be at home for the wedding. This will be a decision I
will never regret. I have met so many people and I'm so grateful for
all that I've been learning.

Sunday was super awesome. Julio came to church like I said. Hna went
to a baptism from her last ward, we had some appointments set and so I
thought it would be better to just go on a split. We butted heads a
little with that. But we found a member I could stay with and we ended
up having two really good lessons. It's been a little rough the past
couple days we've been butting heads a lot. Mainly because I wanted to
stay for the lessons that we had just set the day before they changed
the time of the baptism and since I wouldn't know anyone I thought it
would be more productive if I stayed to get work done. I'm just
praying for patience and humility so that we can get a long.

Today we got to go to the school where we teach English class and we
got to read with first graders to try to beat a genius world record of
students being read to the same book and the same time. The kids were
crazy but it was super fun. We are going to the mall and then do some
other things as well.

We have some awesome plans for this week! I'm so excited to work!

I'm praying for all of you! I love you all!

Hermana medeiros

Week 64

Hey  Mommy

This week was really good. We have a baptismal date! But now we just
have to woo with her to actually make it happen. She is fifteen and
when we talk to her she seems to really like what we share with her.
We need to get people in her family involved so that she has a support
system. And so she can get permission. It's set for the 14 of
November. We've had some really good lessons with her. So far she's
been taught the first two lessons and has told us that she loves it.
It's always super humbling to be a missionary, we got to go into her
house and her bed is a mattress in the middle of the living room
floor. And she has some decorations on the wall to make it hers. Being
a missionary just makes me even more grateful for all that I have.

Sometimes the hardest thing a missionary faces is when you think
you've taught something so clearly such as why we should keep the
 Sabbath day holy and the things that are best to do on Sunday, but
then the person still doesn't get it. We were teaching a part member
family, the husband is not a member and we were talking about things
he can do to keep the sabbath day holy. It was a pretty good lesson,
but then at the end when we invited him to come to church he told us
that he had to go out and do other things. Sometimes you wonder if you
went wrong somewhere or if they didn't understand it or if they did
and they are just choosing not to care.

I love the English class that we teach. It's so much fun. All the
people that come just want to learn English, it's also super cool
because I'm used to it just being Hispanics, but in the English class
we teach at a school there is a lady who is from Iran and speaks
Persian. During class we were doing this activity where we had a ton
of words written up on the board and we would say it in Spanish for
the Hispanics and then they would turn around and have to find the
word in English and circle it. Well we really couldn't do that for the
lady who speaks Persian so we had to get on google translate and type
the word in their. The writing was just characters and it was so cool
to see that they are actually words. She really appreciated that we
did that for her. She said some of the words in her native language
and everyone was just in surprise. It was so cool! Being a missionary
gives you the coolest experiences!

We ended up having interviews last week, they were supposed to be this
week but something got mixed up and so we had them on Thursday. They
went really well. It's always nice to get advice from president and
listen to his council. We might be getting elders in the area soon.
President hasn't said anything to us but he's talked to the elders
already haha I wonder when he will let us know what's going on.

I got too to a Vietnamese restaurant on Friday. The food was pretty
good. They had probably the best lemonade I have ever had. It was a
cool experience to try food from another country.

So on Saturday something funny happened. So to say gender in Spanish
one word for it is sexo but it also means something else. We were
talking with a little girl and this guy and the girl had a dog and the
guy said something about where it didn't matter if it was a boy or a
girl that it was the same. Hna then said "si es important! Los perros
tienen sexo!" (Yes it is important, the dogs have gender/sex.) And the
girl turned to hna and said "como tienen perritos?" (Like how they
have puppies) after we walked away we just started laughing. It's just
in the context where you can really tell what the word is but haha it
was so funny.

So on Sunday we got some more callings, we have the relief society
president, young women and men president, primary president, Sunday
school president and we got a ward mission leader! Almost all the
people who have callings in presidencies right now have never had a
calling before so they are completely new to these things.  Like our
ward mission leader has never had a calling and is almost blind, it's
going to be really interesting to work with all these new people. But
it just shows that this is the lords work and he knows what these
people can do for this ward. I'm just so happy that I get to help
participate as a missionary in building up this ward and getting it
started.

We found a really cool family. The first time we saw the dad was he
was outside cooking, he invited us to come back Sunday. So we went
back and at first they were all super cold and super shut off. We both
were scared to even go in because we didn't know if they really wanted
us to come in. But they invited us in and by the end of the lesson
they had completely changed. I could see it in their eyes. We got to
know them and ended up talking about lehi's dream. We introduced the
Book of Mormon and the lady was like "I need to go buy that book,
where can I find one?" We pulled one out of our bag and gave it to her
and told her she doesn't have to pay for it. We have a return
appointment and we are excited to see what will happen with this
family. The only thing is that they are only engaged, they have a
couple kids together but they have the exact date in 2017 when they
want to get married. When we asked why they are waiting till then,
it's because someone in their family is in jail and they want him to
be apart of the ceremony. So....that will be something fun to work
with. There is always some little stumbling block that investigators
have to get over. It's to test their faith like all trials.

On Thursday my companion cut my hair! I did part of it by myself but I
wanted it shorted but couldn't do it the way I wanted to, so she
helped me out and did it. It looks super cute we both think :)

I can't believe it's already the forth week of this transfer, it's
just going by super fast. It's really crazy, we've passed conference
and now we have Halloween, thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Eve
and then I'll be home. Sometimes I wish I could extend my mission haha
I just love it so much! I don't want it to end!

I love you all so much!! Xoxoxoxoxo

It's great to see she still loved photography

How Hermanas do General Conference

We were being silly and she fell off her chair

YMCA Fence

Hermanas Sumsion and Medeiros

New hair cut

Comps

Purdy Flowers

Week 63-Jersey Shore

"Once again on jersey shore...."
So this week has been really good, kind of busy but good. I loved
general conference it was super good! We ended up having one
investigator Come to the Sunday morning session. The member he came
with had to leave a little early but we have a return appointment and
so we will be able to talk to him then about it. I was super happy to
be able to watch conference in the comfort of my idioma English.
Saturday morning they didn't realize they set it up in Spanish so we
watched elder utchdorfs talk in Spanish. It was a little rough to
understand. I will have to re watch it or read it. We thought they
would show it at our building but at 1050 when we got there the only
people at the church building were just parking there so they could go
to a festival at the iglesia catolica across the street. So we rushed
to another church building and got there right as he began speaking.
There were so many good talks! I am super excited for the new apostles
they all had really good testimonies. I did miss hearing from our
loved apostles elder packer, perry and Scott. Hearing from president
Thomas s monson was such a comfort, I love hearing from him and was so
happy that he spoke.

Anyways to the beginning of the week on Tuesday I went on an exchange
with hermana Rivas who is on her third transfer, we taught two English
classes and had some pretty good lessons. We went and got papusas. In
the restaurant there was a movie on super loud and it was blaring a
ton of swear words, we asked if they could change the movie but they
just turned it down. We tried to eat fast. But it was alps funny
because on the table their salt shakers are beer bottles. Really????
Anyways the exchange was super good.

We exchanged back on Wednesday at English class and after we taught
English class we went and met up with the other hermanas and went on
an exchange with them. This time I stayed in the area and had hermana
gayler my seester! Come with me. We had to drive back to our apartment
and when we got there we realized well j realized that I hadn't gotten
the phone for, hermana sumsion and so we used the office phone of our
apartments to call them and anyways being on an exchange without a
phone is really rough. But anyways we had a good time. We met this
little boy outside of an apartment complex and he followed us around
the rest of the night. I don't remember what his name is but he says
everyone calls him slim shady. He is eight years old. We knocked on so
many doors and even members doors but no one was home! We did our best
though.

We switched back Thursday and that was fun, trying to meet at the same
spot without a phone, luckily we had found a phone to use to confirm
the time and place. It was nice to  be back with my companion after so
long. Haha we had a good day Thursday, got to meet some more members
of the ward because we still don't have a ward list or anything!

Friday we had zone meeting and we had to start later than most because
half of us teach English in the morning. So we started at like 12, and
ended around 430. It was really good though. We learned different ways
to extend baptismal date invitations. When it came to layer in the day
we still needed our contacts so we went into a store to get them. I
swear I always get the most awkward situations because I tried to
contact this lady in the store that didn't speak Spanish OR English!
Hna had a fun time laughing, aye aye aye. We got to make papusas that
night with a member and her in laws who aren't members. It was pretty
good, it was funny because one of the elders was there with a member
because they were handing them off to us, anyways the nine year old
wanted to say the prayer to start dinner and he wanted us to hold
hands, well it just so happened that the elder was in between me and
sumsion haha after everyone had grabbed hands and we were holding the
other persons hand we realized we had to hold his hand, it was super
funny.

Saturday was conference and we mainly just did that all day. We got
sugared out because we bought sugar to eat during it.

Then Sunday we tried to get some part member families to come but they
ended up all being busy, that was a bummer but oh well.

Your questions for the week

1. Tell me about your new area now that you’ve had another week to
settle in. It's really good. We have a really big area. I really hope
president puts another set of missionaries in this ward in the coming
transfers. It's just so big and a ton of miles to constantly go across
it. I really like it though. I just don't like the roads. I miss the
roads in Bryan, country life. And now I'm basically in city life.
Freeways everywhere and it actually makes driving stressful. I think I
forgot to say this last week but my first week in this area I
accidentally got on to a toll road. That was awesome....still don't
know if we have to pay or what.

2. Is the ward supportive and helpful with missionary work?  I think
so...I mean last Sunday we sent a list around in the priesthood and
relief society so members could put their name and numbers and times
they would be able to go out with us and we got a lot of people on it.

3. Do the members feed you?  Yeah, we have been fed almost ever day
this week. They are all super awesome. We have some really great
members in the ward.

4. Have you bonded with anyone yet?  I mean maybe? Some of the members
that we've seen more than once which hasn't been that many. It will
all come in time. But I found out today (Sunday) that we have a family
who is related to Blanca Arredondo from woodlands :)


Anyways this week has been really good. I'm really excited to work in
this area. One thing from conference that I loved was when we were
told "works without faith is dead" we are always told that faith
without works is dead but I never really thought about it the other
way around. It's so true as missionaries. We can work as hard as we
want but if we don't have faith nothing is going to come of it.

"Stay tuned for next weeks letter from jersey shore"
Hermana medeiros

(Shalyn is serving in Jersey Village--hence the Jersey Shore references)

Her mission Seester

Hermanas Sumsion, Haslam, Childs, Gayler and Medeiros

I'm assuming this is her Zone

Probably her Zone

Hermana sumsion drew this pictures of Shalyn

Hermanas Medeiros and Gayler

I think this was her going away party in Bryan

Lesly--the sweet girl shalyn helped teach in her last area

Pupusa