Week 23

Hey!! :D

 I am so glad I got to talk to you on skype! I couldn't believe how fast the time went by but I loved every second of it! It makes me so happy to know that you are all doing well and that you guys are happy! It was nice to see that my siblings haven't changed! And that they are still crazy! I miss having my crazy siblings around sometimes. When it's quiet I'm just waiting for some noise to start but it never does haha! And mom I'm serious you look super skinny! You look so good! I'm so proud of you mommy! You work so hard and you never give up! I was sad how fast the time went and I wanted to talk more and more! But it's ok :) I get to see pictures of you and I'm getting the videos ready to send to you and then I will be able to see you guys in the video and then mothers day is going to come super fast! It was so great to be able to talk to all of you and to tell you all how much I love you guys! I am the luckest person to have the family that I have. You guys are so great! I have the best family in the world!! I couldn't ask for a better family :D Yeah we made it to the rest of our apointments haha well we didn't go to the Hernandez family because we didn't have time but we went to the Rodruigez family and we just ate a little bit and she gave us earrings! :) mine are little white flowers and they are super cute! I love them. That family is one of my favorite families in our barrio...I shouldn't have favorites! but I do! And, then we went to our last appointment which happened to be across the parking lot from our apartment and we ate with them and got to help the husband figure out some things in English. 

How did the rest of your week go?  It was good! Evodio got baptized!! Hermana Carbajal and I found him my first transfer when we were contacting one night outside the lavadaria. He asked us to teach him how to pray and so we did and then we saw him every time we went to the lavandaria and we always talked with him. It was a while before we actually taught him the restoration. We decided he would progress faster if the elders taught him and he just got baptized! On coley's birthday!! It was really good! His whole family came (well a lot of his family came) The only problem that came up was that The Elders didn't fill up the font with enough water and so every time he went down he had to go really far down and his leg would come up. Elder Perez baptized him and they had to do it so many times, they put a chair in the font for him to sit it but his feet still came up and in the end they had to have him kneel on the ground in the font for elder perez to get him completely under without having a part of his body come up out of the water. At the end of the baptism the first counselor in the bishopbric explained why they had to do it so many times and it was really good. I love Evodio and I am so happy that he got baptized! I found out later that night that Grecia was also baptized that day! I wish i would have known!

Anyways on Monday we saw Hugo and Edilma! It was so good! I was so happy that we got to see them! We are going to stop by tonight to see if they are home...crossing my fingers. 

On Tuesday we went and met Jeysel (hazel) for an actual lesson and she is so good! She was a referral from the English elders and we taught her the restoration. It was a little rough but it was good! She is leaving to go to Mexico with her daughter and she isn't sure how long she will be gone! Hopefully we will be able to see her again soon! she accepted our invitation to be baptized but she didn't say yes to the date we gave her. Hopefully we will be able to start teaching her again soon and then she will feel ready for the date that we extend. We then went over to the Hernandez family and helped put together the Tamales. It was really hard at first because I had no idea what to do but in the end I got it down :) it was really fun to make them! That night we taught the Obispo's son and he was so tired, he had gotten home from vacation that morning and so he was almost falling asleep during our lesson. His mom had to come sit with him and help him. We taught him how to start on his family history.

On Wednesday (Christmas Eve) For Hispanics Christmas eve is Christmas. We decided to open our presents that morning :) Thank you for all the presents! I loved the shirts! I've been wearing a different one every day! I think I have two or three more to wear :) I'm wearing the red sweater today :) and I loved the stocking and the gifts from my siblings! And I can't wait to start using the gift card set that you sent too! Those gift cards will be used very well I can promise you that :) We saw a couple investigators that morning and then we went over to a family's house for dinner and ate this soup (I don't' know how to spell the name) and it was good, there was so much meat in it and I was so full after but then we had to go to another dinner appointment with the Hernandez's so that we could eat the tamales that we helped put together. All the missionaries were there (the elders and other hermanas) and then they also had some friends over. The tamales were so good, I want to learn how to make the stuff that is on the inside so I can make tamales once I am home from my mission! They are a lot of work though...but they are so good! We took pictures and we stayed there until it was time to go back to our apartment for the night :) On Christmas morning we got up early stayed in our pjs and we went to our car so that we could go pick up the elders to go to the hermanas' and we got to our car with a lovely Christmas present from mother nature. Ice all over our car, we had to defrost it. I guess it's the closest thing to snow we will get! I mean it looks like snow in the picture i sent you :) we picked up the elders and then went to the hermanas' house where we made breakfast, ate and got ready, the elders couldn't come inside and so we left the door open and put the couch by the door so that we could eat and talk with them. It was so much fun! Then we headed over to the Ardmore's house where we played games and they gave us a thing of chocolate :) yummmm and then we ate lunch and played more games! It was so much fun to be able to hang out with our district for Christmas! We then drove the elders back to their apartment Pretty sure all of them fell asleep in the car haha it was a half hour drive and we went down the the Ovalle's- another half hour drive (an hour drive from the Ardmores) and there we got to skype!!! and as soon as I logged on you were calling me! Haha I could tell you were waiting for me to get on! Those 40 minutes were the best! They were so fast but so good! I am so thankful that we got to skype instead of just a phone call!  

On Friday we went to the doctors and we were there for so long. Hermana has been sick and so we decided that since she wasn't getting better she needed to go to the doctors. We waited there for ever and then once she went back it was like another hour before she came back out maybe more than an hour. We went and visited a former investigator and she seems interested in learning again. Maybe it's her time now..I don't know but we will see! We finished handing out our El es la Dadiva cards...there were supposed to be given out before Christmas but we didn't have time to hand out all of the ones that we had and so we just did it after christmas :)  

Saturday morning We went to the church and helped cleaned :) I vacuumed the chapel and all the benches. It took a really long time but it looked pretty good afterwards. Blanca the relief society president picked us up because we have like no miles left! and then she and her husband took us out to lunch at chick-fil-a before they took us back to our apartment. It started raining really really hard. we got back to our apartment and figured out how to use the miles that we had for the day and we ended up driving down south and we left our car at an investigators house who wasn't home and we walked to our next appointments. We probably walked about 5 miles in total. It was really cold and there really wasn't a shoulder on the road so we walked in the ditch. It was nice to walk we had a lot of fun. We ended up seeing one of our less actives and had a lesson with her. We headed back to our apartment  and we got a ride from our apartment to the church for Evodio's baptism! It was so wonderful! I am so grateful that I got to be a part a little bit in his conversion! 

On Sunday we got another ride to church and then we had lunch with the hermanas at a members house and they drove us back to our apartment. We ate more tamales for lunch with this family, they were different but they were really good! We then went to an appointment with the former and we tried to teach the restoration, we got to how the gospel blesses families and I asked her why she thinks we have families and then she didn't stop talking for the next hour. Hermana and I both almost fell asleep, I could barely keep my eyes open haha. I almost thought I did fall asleep but hermana said I didn't. We don't know if she is ready. We didn't make a return appointment but we are going to stop by again sometime to see her and try to teach the restoration and if we can't then we will drop her for now. We went and saw a former but there wasn't a woman in the house and so we walked to McDonalds because it was too cold to have a lesson outside and we just sat in McDonalds and talked with him. He is really cool and right now he just has to be willing to change a lot of things in his life but he said maybe it's time for him to change he needs to figure it out for himself though. He is a really nice person and I hope that he has the desire to change. We then visited the Hernandez family and talked with them about building their foundation on the gospel and how they can become stronger. We talked with them for a while and before we left we played connect four with Edgar :) This week was really good and we got 4 new investigators again! Woooo!!!

I'm glad that you guys got the package! Haha did you like my reused wrapping paper and the decorated box? :)

Are you used to getting up at 6:30 or is it hard?  It's pretty easy, I mean the alarm is closer to me so I turn it off when it goes off at 620 and then I just have to make sure I roll out of bed and say my prayers right as I turn it off. and then i get up and go into the bathroom so there is no way for me to fall back asleep. We haven't been exercising this week since hermana has been sick and so I've just been reading the new era, and the ensigns on the couch and sometimes I let myself fall asleep for fifteen minutes before I have to start getting ready. Sometimes it's really hard but if I can just get out of bed to say my prayers it's all good. 

What are you excited about this coming week?  hmmmm well this week we don't have really anything going on besides the normal stuff but we don't have really any lessons planned for this week yet. That will change soon though haha :) Looking forward to finding more people to teach! and reactivating the less actives!!

With the New Year, will your church time be changing?  We are going to 11  :) which will be a lot better because people don't like church at 9 in the morning, hopefully this will get our less actives to come back to church! 

It has been raining and the past few days have been so cold! I've been wearing tights to help keep my legs warm when we are out walking! We've been trying to save our miles so that we don't go over! it's so hard to keep track of miles sometimes and it's annoying to have to "stress" over it. It would be so nice if we had 100 more miles at least. 

What would you like us to include in our prayers this week?  if you could pray for our investigators that would be awesome :) just pray that some or all of them will be progressing investigators :)

Thanks so much for all your prayers! I love you all so much! I'm so grateful to be here on a mission! There is no place i'd rather be! I can't believe I'm almost at 6 months! Time goes by so fast! You better not blink or else it will be gone! Take in every moment and spend every moment to it's fullest! don't leave room for regret :) Have a great week!!

Con Amor

Hermana Medeiros

Working on the Nativity set you sent us

Mary fell over right after this picture was taken

Trying to fix Mary....

Here is us working on the nativity set, Mary fell over after Hermana Got a picture with it and so I was trying to fix it and then it collapsed and she took a picture of me. Haha it was a lot of fun! Thanks for sending us the stuff to do it! I guess i was just impatient  and didn't let the frosting harden enough. haha oh well we all learn one way or another ;)

Edgar and I haha he is so funny!

Eating the tamales we helped put together

I love Deisy!! I am so grateful to be a part of this family's life!

Jimena and I :)

Christmas time! :D

Shalyn's Christmas box from home!

Look what we woke up to Christmas morning! Almost snow haha ;)

Christmas Breakfast

Christmas morning with the hermanas and the Elders, they couldn't come outside and so we left the door open and sat by the door while we ate breakfast!

Companions!

District Christmas Party

Me!

We found really big leaves while walking on Saturday!

Evodio got baptized!!!!

Evodio got baptized!!!!

Merry Christmas-Week 22

Things were busy but good this week! We got 4 new investigators! We met one of our referrals on Wednesday and he came to the baptism of M*** on thrusday and we had a lesson with him and he was going to come to church but he went to San Antonio for the weekend. But he is pretty legit and then we met another referral that was from some missionaries and she just wants her kids to grow up in a good church with good standards. She is pretty awesome too! Then we went and visited a former investigator and they are open to learning again :) and, last night we met some pretty awesome people that said we could stop by sometime so hopefully we will have more investigators pretty soon and we still haven't seen H*** and E*** but we left a note last night and he texted us today saying he would see if we could come over tonight or sometime really soon. :D we've just been working super hard and it is so good. This area has so much potential!

How are things w/ you and Hma Coronado?   Things are getting better every day we are just working on having more and more unity so that we can baptize this area and reactivate it as well :) we are working so hard and it's so good :) 

Did your ward have a Christmas party? yeah but it was just eating, they were going to have a dance and the kids broke a piñata but we left before they did the dance. The food was good though :) 

Would you like me to send you some pancake mix?  What about syrup?  yeah that would be awesome :) that is something easy to just whip up in the morning :)

 How was the baptism this week? Man the baptism was so stressful because before it started the 2nd counselor in the bishopric told us that he wouldn't be able to preside and both our talks didn't show up and the bishop couldn't come and the 1st counselor didn't come and so the elders quoroms president had to direct it, preside at it, and give the welcome to the ward/elders quorum. And then we asked the elders to prepare a talk for baptism and for the holy ghost. They did so good and in the end it went well but it was stressful oh and the font overfilled haha. Hermana and I sang I need thee every hour and it was really good :D 

What did your ward do for Church yesterday? Nothing really exciting, the bishop talked and then I think it was someone from the stake that talked. But we didn't have a Christmas program or anything :( 

 Tell me about your Sundays…are they different than the other days of the week?  kinda but not really I mean we have church and then sometimes we go back to our apartment...I meant to read my scriptures but I had a headache and was tired so I fell asleep on the couch for a little bit and Hermana took a nap too and then we went contacting and met some awesome people and made some appointments, we were going to go caroling with the hermanas and the elders but the elders couldn't and 5 minutes before we were going to start caroling the hermanas cancelled so we went back to contacting. It's basically the same as any other day besides that we go to church in the morning :)

Tell me about your Christmas party! They were so mean to us!!! They made us sing home for the holidays and I'll be home for Christmas!! haha when they said that we were singing that everyone made some type of  groaning noise! The first part was hearing from president and sister mortensen, Hermana carbajal sang her song and I played for her and then we watched a version of the nativity and it was really good and then we ate and talked with people and took pictures and it was all really fun. Yeah we sang to sister Ardmore and we gave her a card that we bought her and she felt really special and we were so happy that we bought her a card. We then went back into the chapel and watched a slide show of pictures that all of us sent in and then we heard testimonies and there were musical numbers and I played a song that might make it into the primary song book. Sister Edwards wrote a poem and then it got put to music and I got to play for her and some other sisters that sang with her. So if this song is ever in the primary hymn book I was the first one to play it where it was performed!!! I got your package and I'm saving it :) it's really hard but I put it up high so I don't open it :) 

 Do you have any plans to go to the temple anytime this transfer?   it's once a transfer but we haven't set anything up this transfer yet :( I want to go but we haven't really talked about it and we dont' have anyone that is preparing to go through yet. we might get to once deisy decideds to get her recommend to do baptisms for people in her family but we haven't gone yet :(

Yesterday I ate the weirdest hot dog I will ever eat, it was hot dog wrapped in bacon, with mayo tomato and onion and ketchup haha it was pretty good but really really weird!! 

​We are just out here working hard and trying to do everything we can for this place! Our numbers are horrible this week but we know we worked hard so I don't' care about our numbers. We know we haven't wasted any time and so I don't' care what our numbers are. It's like a test in school. I never felt like my test scores showed what I know so I don't' like numbers haha especially when they don't show how hard you work. but oh well. we are going to start having some good numbers soon! Hopefully we will get a couple of bap dates this week!!! We have so many people who are lined up and perfect. But now we have 4 couples that need to get married before baptism, H*** and E***, J*** and her husband (she's a new investee) C*** and her husband (she was baptized years ago but never received the holy ghost) F*** and A*** and there's one more but I can't remember right now. Also we are going to start working with M***'s kids and get them baptized to because they've seen how it's changed their dad and hopefully they will want to take the same step too!!! Can't wait to do more work this week and talk to you on Thursday!!! :D it's going to be so great!!!​

 

Me being stubborn and refusing to take more than one trip to the car haha

On our way to the baptism

M's Baptism

Me and Hermana Coronado at the Mission Christmas Party

MTC Companions--look our hair is all the same color-almost.

Shalyn and Hma Provost

Shay and friends

Mission Christmas Party

Merry Christmas Texas Houston Mission

Companions!

Santa's nice list

Making cookies

CTR cookies

Another Baptism!

Share the Gift cards

Share the Gift

Working hard!

Texas Houston Mission--Shalyn is on the 5th row from bottom, on the left half. the guy behind her is leaning really far to the left.

 

Week 21

 Shalyn has been struggling the last few weeks please remember her in your prayers

What is going on?  I don't even know. Every day is just another day trying to get through. I had my coping ways at home but I can't do any of them here and that's why I thought I had everything taken care of because I never had to face what I was feeling, I could go on a walk or a bike ride or a run by myself, I could play the piano, I could watch a movie, I could bake I could do what ever I wanted. I never had to face anything that was going on and because of that it was a lot easier to say that I knew how to take care of everything and that I knew how to make myself happy. But I can't do those things here. Being a missionary is really hard. It takes a lot. I've set really high expectations for myself and I'm working on lowering them a little because all I'm doing is causing myself stress and anxiety. I've been telling myself that I need to be better and be better at Spanish and at teaching and doing all these things, knowing everyone, and their needs and when I feel like I'm not living up to where I think I should be it gets discouraging because I feel that I'm not working as hard as I could be. But I am working hard and I need to realize that. I don't have to be a perfect fluent Spanish speaker or be able to teach all the lessons right now. That will come with more time. I've just been stressing myself out and being with a new companion has been hard. 

Does President Mortensen know you're struggling? Yeah a little. And I meant to tell you last week but I forgot and then you had to be somewhere and I didn't remember till later but I actually went and saw someone last week from family services. Hermana Carbajal talked to me and had me call president and I talked to him and he set up a time for me to talk to someone at family services. ​I went and talked to the lady that was there and she gave me a few things to work on , like eating, sleeping and exercising, because I've been feeling really sick when I eat lately and so it's been really hard for me to eat because I haven't been hungry and I feel sick as soon as anything hits my stomach and so I went a week where I really didn't eat all that much, it wasn't that I was trying not to eat I just didn't feel good and so I didn't. I mean it went away after a transfer when I was constantly feeling sick but then this transfer it started coming back. Hermana Carbajal thinks it's just stress and stuff, but I've really tried this week to get all three meals in, it's been ok, I still don't feel the greatest but i just want to be healthy haha and we've started going to the gym every morning and exercising for about 20 minutes. And trying to get to bed on time but that's hard because there is just so much to do. But yeah I went and talked to someone and it was ok.  I felt that I was just told to do these small things like other counselors but it was a blessing because I went on the day that we had the exchange and so Hermana Carbajal was with me and she just helped talk me though it afterwards and I'm actually going back tomorrow, I just hate it because I feel like I've been doing everything I can and working so hard at doing all the things I should do and trying to rely on the Lord and trust in Him and do the things that make me happy but I feel that sometimes it just doesn't do anything. I feel like I've always worked so hard to try to fix my emotions and I still just fall back into the same place over and over again.


How are things going w/ you and hma Coranodo?    We both just haven't been very open with each other which causes us not to talk to each other a lot and makes it seem like there is contention. But today we talked and last night we talked and we started building the bridge that will help us to begin start coming closer and being better companions. I just felt like everything I suggested was tossed out the window and given five reasons why it was wrong and I finally expressed that to her and she said that that has happened before where people thought that. But we both just talked and I mean things haven't been bad but they just haven't been the way they should be.  She was born in Peru and moved to the united states when she was 8. She is the youngest in her family and she has two older sisters that are married. Her family doesn't really write her, she goes a while without hearing from her family sometimes. How long has she been serving? She's been serving for almost 9 months. She's like three transfers a head of me. She goes home next October. 


When they say that any problems you have before a mission are magnified on the mission is really true. Not that I didn't believe it but it hought I knew how to take care of things but when they get blown up in your face it's a lot harder. But I really am doing ok I am struggling but I'll get over this mountain. Nothing is going to stop me. I'm just trying to work as hard as I can and I just need to get better and showing my faith in my heavenly father and really doing the things that will help me. I'm trying to have time before I go to bed to read my scriputres but it's been a little difficult because we get home a little late sometimes and then we start doing other things. 

I got a message from Sister Ardmore saying you were learning how to play the organ! Yeah she is teaching me how to play and it is so fun!! It's so much fun to use the pedals and to learn something new. It was really awesome :) I can play silent night :) and I might have some time to play it tonight because M*** is getting his baptismal interview and so we are going to be at the church!!  We are so excited! He is getting baptized on Thursday! He is so ready and we've been working really hard with him and he has stopped smoking and drinking alcohol and he stopped drinking coffee we have like 40 ounces of coffee in our apartment haha. He gave it to us so he wouldn't drink it. But it is so wonderful because we've been working for so long with him and he is finally understanding all of these things and Thursday is going to be so great!!!  

Ahh I love meet the Mormons! I'm so glad that you liked it! I loved it! it is such an amazing movie and every story that is shared is so wonderful. Oh little tater bug! That is so sweet!! He is the cutest little boy in the world! I bet that was so cute when you saw him doing that :) that would melt any heart in the world :) (her little brother was pretending to be the 'candy bomber' with a toy parachute.)

They made a movie out of that book!!?? I want to see it!! (Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, no Good, Very Bad Day)  That has to be the funniest movie in the world!!  Aww I'm glad that you guys are having so much fun! We are going to buy stuff to make a ginger bread house! And make little missionary ginger bread cookies :) It's going to rock! 

Driving is bad! I finally proved it!!! I sprained my toe while driving! Yup that's right sprained my toe while driving, it's possible. I think I drive wrong or sometimes just drive with my toe instead of my whole foot without meaning too but it's been hurting all week and it's just now started to stop hurting but driving is evil and I finally proved it! (Shalyn has always hated driving.  I had to force her to get her license.  Her companion's DL is about to expire so Shalyn is doing all the driving.)

Did you do exchanges w/ the sister training leaders?  How did that go? Yeah we went on an exchange on Wednesday and it was really good. Hermana Carbajal came to me :) and Coronado went to Hill. It was really good and it turned out to be a blessing because we went over to a members house and she shared with us a miracle that happened and I know she wouldn't have shared it if it was me and Hermana Coronado. One of the times when we went over to this family's house she made us pasta and she had just made enough for her and her husband and us. She was the last person to serve herself and she said there was no more pasta in the pot. Her husband didn't know that and asked us if we wanted more and we both said yes. Meanwhile this Hermana is panicking because there wasn't any more left and she said that she was just praying that somehow there would be something that he would bring out to give to us. When he came back with our plates there was more pasta and after we left she asked him where he got the pasta from because the pot had been empty and he told her that it was all right there in the pot when he went into the kitchen.  This was so amazing to hear. God really does provide miracles, this family isn't poor, this family is pretty well off but it just shows that God provides miracles to help boost the faith of his children and that he knows what we need and this miracle is what this Hermana needed at this time in her life because maybe she was having a hard time and running low on faith. I don't know but God gave her this miracle and it was so wonderful that she shared it with us.

I am so excited about your mission Christmas Party this week (when she'll get her presents from us).  Me too!!! Ahhh!! hermana carbajal is singing a song and I'm going to play the piano for her :)

What was your most spiritual moment of the week? Teaching manuel with a young single adult in our ward. when he finally started understand the word of wisdom and gaining a testimony about Joseph Smith. We've seen manuel almost every day and he is just progressing so much. He's stopped so many habits within like two weeks, it has been really great. 

What was your greatest insight? When you feel you want to give up just keep walking one more house that's where the miracle is. We've had so many appointments fall through this week and so we've just been calling formers and referrals and trying so many house and we've made like 5 appointments with referrals and former investigators so we have a lot of potential this week!

What made you laugh? oh geez...where do I start...haha we knocked on one door and a man opened up and saw our name tags and said "no I'm catholic, no, go away." after he slammed the door we just started laughing, it was really funny. Then at another house I got told that since I've been going to church since I was younger that I am not a true believer because I've been "forced" to go to church. Haha that was really funny I hope I handled it well when I told him how I have come to know for myself and how I wasn't forced and that if I didn't want to go I could have stopped going because I can choose for myself. haha and then at another house there was this little puppy that just wanted to play, he was stuck on the porch because it couldn't go down the stairs and it grabbed on to my skirt and started pulling on it haha almost pulled it down and I have little teeth marks in my skirt that I am never going to forget. haha there's a couple of laughs for you this week :)

Best moment of service of the week? hmmm service...we took our investigators coffee away from him...haha no he actually just gave us his coffee but still that's service! Now we just have to dispose of it :)

What specific thing would you like me to pray for? That we will be able to find new investigators because we might have to drop some people soon and once M*** gets baptized we won't really have any fully progressing investigators.

Hermana and I have started learning this rap song that other missionaries made up for this mission and I have most of it down it's pretty awesome! We will record it once we really know all the words but it's coming pretty good! haha

​Love you so much!! Have a great week!!

 

#comparteladadiva #sharethegift

 

 

Love always,

Hermana Medeiros​

 

I almost had a heart attack. I went to open the drivers door and this was about 1 inch from my hand...nasty bug

We put stickers on our hands while we waited for dinner to be ready

We put stickers on our hands while we waited for dinner to be ready

Time for the candy of the night! (Her Christmas countdown)

There are only leaves on the ground...no snow!!! This is not December!!

Waiting outside for he man to come and open his gate for our appointment.

We walked a whole street trying to find a house and it was at the other end and when we walked down there they weren't even home :(

Us and the coffee that we stole haha

 

#Sharethegift Week 20

How’s my favorite missionary? I'm good! This week has been pretty stressful because i have a new companion and I've just been feeling that i'm not where i should be and that i haven't been doing my hardest but i know that's not true. I'm just struggling with knowing what our menos activos and what our investigators need and knowing how to best use our miles and figuring out how to help all the people in our area progress and just doing everything that I'm supposed to do has just been stressful. 

 

  Hermana Coronado is from Peru she has been in the United States since she was 8. She's really good but so far I just really don't' feel any connection with her. I pray every night to find ways to bring us closer so that we can work better together but she's just used to doing things differently than who I was trained and so we are just trying to figure out everything together. She's knows some of the area because some of our ward used to be in her area but then when they changed the boundaries we got part of her old area. So it's good especially with one of our investigators. My grandma (crandall) found him and then hermana Coronado has been teaching him and then the other hermanas in our ward and now us. He is so close and we actually got him to accept the baptismal date for this Saturday to be baptized. We had a lesson with him on Friday that was really good. We had him kneel down and pray to know that the 13th was the right day and after he prayed he tried to say that he still didn't know but we told him to not talk and to just listen and we sat there for maybe ten minutes. And the spirit was so strong, and he told us afterwards that he would have an answer for us on Sunday. We texted our whole zone and asked them all to pray for him and on Saturday we fasted for him and on Sunday he came to church, he was crying all during testimony meeting and during Sunday school. He told us that he would give us his answer after church and so after church we met with him in a class room and had a small lesson and he told us he would be baptized on the 13th. WE were so happy! then later Sunday night we called him because when the other hermanas called to schedule the church for Saturday they were told that there were Christmas parties going on and so we couldn't do it that day (they have kori's daughter getting baptized this week!) and so we called him to see if we could move it to Friday and he said yes and then he told us that he was with his friends and the pressured him to drink and so he did, but he said he was able to only drink a little. We told him that still wasn't ok for him to do, we expressed our love for him and told him that we are here for him. We might have to push his baptism date to next week because we also need to make sure he really does have a testimony on profetas and that he has stopped drinking coffee. Tonight we have a member coming with us and he is going to give him a blessing. The week before and after baptism are always the hardest for converts it's when the adversary is going to work it's hardest. Any little thing will be done to keep these people from accepting the gospel. 

 

Yeah hermana Carbajal is still in my district and in our ward still! which makes me so happy! We might be going on an exchange this week not sure if hill or Carbajal will come with me. But I'm glad that she is still so close! 

I hope you like meet the Mormons! It's a really really good movie!!

 

Oh awesome mommy!! well even if they don't give it to the complex office there is a ups store like five minutes away from our apartment but we will see what happens if they will just give it to the complex or if i'll get a note on our door :) Thank you so much mommy!! (Re: a package I sent her)

 

awww mommy i'm so happy that you had a good birthday!!! That makes me happy :D I woke up and saw it was the 4th and i just wanted to yell happy birthday and hope that you could hear me ;) but i said it in my heart :D <3

 

That sounds like so much fun! i'm glad you and Ava got to go on a date! 

 

 awww that is the sweatest thing ever!! I'm so glad that zurgy got to bear his testimony! and little tater bugs!! Awww that is the sweetest thing ever! I bet you felt like a proud mama having your little baby go up and bare his testimony and having your best Zaners bearing his testimony! I was going to try to do mine but then it was too late and so many people were up on the stand. I could have gone up but it was already going over time so I decided not to. 

 

How is the mission life this week? It's good, i'm just trying to figure out the area and figure out how to visit all of our menos activos because we have so many! We've been able to weed out a few that are definitely not interested in coming back to church at this time. But we still have so many!! We made a new map of our area and marked it and now we just have to write all the people who live next to each other that way when our plans and back up plans don't work we have other plans and a good way to use our miles!  

 

We had an interesting night last night we were going to visit a less active family and we were sitting in the car getting ready to pray and we saw this lady walk past us pushing a stroller and hermana turned to me and said "she's crying we have to go see if she's ok" so we jumped out of the car and ran up to her and she saw us and burst into tears when we asked her if she was ok turned out her boy friend had just  beat her up. And if he had done more he probably would have killed her. It was really heart breaking. She moved here from michagin for him and they have the cutest happiest innocent five month old baby. She has no family here. She moved out for about two months and then he told her that he changed and so she decided that her baby needed his father and so she went back to him. she doesn't know what to do. he literally broke her phone in half. it was really heart breaking and she really wouldn't let us help her in any way. I really am praying for her that she will be ok and that God will protect her. We called the missionaries that cover that area in english and told them to go visit her sometime and be a friend and to share uplifting messages with her. 

Any progress with any investigators?  Only with manuel. We've tried seeing H*** and E*** but they are never home and they don't answer our text or calls. So not sure what to do with them. I don't want to give up on them but i don't know what else to do. Just got to show them that we still love them.  But other than that M*** still isn't coming to church and F*** hasn't put it as a priority to file divorce papers and get the money to do so and A*** really just doesn't care. It's frustrating but God knows best and he has a plan and i'm just going to have faith that what ever needs to happen will happen. 

 

Any word on how J*** and G*** are doing (they were investigators she found who decided to go to an English ward and not Spanish)?  I've heard that they have been going to church and i think she is getting baptized in two weeks...i think that's what they said when the missionaries called us the other day but i could be wrong. 

 

I know!! It's almost been five months! It really is crazy how fast the time has gone! It all feels like a dream really. it's crazy :D

 

You can tell spanish is getting into my head because I was trying to search for prophet in the index of the book of mormon and I realized after a while the reason why I couldn't find it is because I was looking up profeta. I was looking up the spanish word in an english book. Man...haha Spanish is really getting to my head!

On Friday I tried speaking spanish all day. I did really badly because we had district meeting but besides that I spoke in spanish for the most part of the day. I just really feel like I need to get better at it and the only way I can do that is to push myself harder. 

So I don't know if you have seen this video but please go onto christmas.mormon.org and watch the he is the gift video!! and share it with the world!! The church bought the big advertisement on youtube and so the whole world will see the video when they go onto youtube and they can watch it! It's very short but it is so powerful! Don't forget to #sharethegift! or #comparteladadiva navidad.mormon.org el es la dadiva :) Please let's get this video all over the world so that everyone can know the true meaning of Christmas!! 

#sharethegift !!!!!!!!!!!

i love you all!! 

 

Trio forever!  (MTC companions)

Shalyn and her new companion, hermana Coronado

This whole street was cover in Christmas lights!

haha just found a picture that hermana Coronado took of me when we were working on our maps haha

Happy December! Week 19

Happy December!!! "December first to Christmas is the longest time of year" especially because I get to talk to you guys in a few weeks!!!! I can't wait!!!

How was your Thanksgiving?  It was really good, we actually had 6 appointments! But one of them called us in the morning and the food wasn't going to be ready so we didn't go over to their house. We started the day going to a members house and they had their whole family there and it was so much fun! We went around the table and said the things we were grateful for. Then we went to a member's house and she let us take the food to go because she knew we had a lot of appointments to go to, and then we went to our investigators house but the people who were bringing the food were not there yet so we didn't eat there, and then we went to another member who is less active and we had to wait a while for the food to be ready and we ate there and it was really good, and then we went to one last member's house but they were already eating dessert so we kind of ate by our self and it was pretty fast. 

Do Hispanics serve the same types of food we usually eat for Thanksgiving?  yeah...mainly. The turkey was different at every meal and at one house we just had ham. Not a lot of people like turkey. We had a deep fried turkey but it wasn't deep fried with oil, it was with something else but it was still really good, and we had a jalapeno turkey with jalapeno poppers which is cream cheese, salt stuffed into a jalapeno wrapped in bacon. 

I didn't eat any pie this year!!! You know how sad that is!!!! I ate 2 small little squares of cheese cake! No pie!!! Because the only pie that was really there was apple and pecan and we mainly just got the pie to go and so we have it all sitting in our fridge. I am making my chocolate pie tonight. I decided to wait because we got really busy and I didn't really have time to make it. But all in all it was all pretty good. I was full by the end of the night but out of the six appointments we only ate at 3 which was a huge blessing! Now we just have to finish all of our left overs in our fridge!

At all the dinner appointments we've had since Thursday have been eating everyone's Thanksgiving left overs. I finally had some pumpkin pie last night at a members house. It was so good!

Oh man black Friday shopping. We went to target on Friday because Hermana wanted to find a dress for the Christmas conference with the whole mission that is coming up and she finally found a dress that was on sale. That was the length of my black Friday...I wish we could have gone to walmart Thursday night because the memory cards that were 16gb were only $5! I know that because we got all the ads on Monday. oh man, oh well though :) Were the stores busy at all at the time you went?

Aww thanks for buying me an ornament this year!! I can't wait to see it next January! Hey...you really should leave the Christmas tree up next year until I come home...haha only a few extra weeks ;)

How have things gone in the mission world this week? Things have been pretty good, still just trying to go out and visit everyone and we finally organized the area book and figured out all the menos activos that we still need to find, which means me might have more than 32 of them. We just have to go see if these people still live in the address that we have. 

Updates on your investigators?  Still haven't seen H*** or E****...:'( but they came to the baptism that the hermanas had on Friday! They talked to everyone they even talked to our bishop! We were hoping that that would mean we could start seeing them again but they still aren't answering us. But when Hermana Hill asked them when they were getting baptized H*** said "pronto" which means soon. But they hardly ever answer us! And M*** who is supposed to be getting baptized on Saturday is having a lot of doubts and isn't coming to church. But we had a really really good lesson with him with another member on Saturday, and our other investigator who is supposed to be getting baptized next Saturday isn't coming to church! and the other two investigators that we have, come to church, read and pray but aren't married! The guy just needs to move out! He is married to someone in Mexico and it costs a lot to get a divorce and he wants to move out but his "wife" doesn't want him too. It's really just kind of frustrating and we really aren't sure what to do at this point. We are just going to keep praying for them. Things will all work out in the Lords timing.

We are close to reactivating this one person, he's come to church twice and it's really frustrating because no one sits by him! But we have a feeling that he needs to meet one of the hermanas in our ward and then they can get married :)  haha we both think that he needs to marry this one person, and I mean we need a woman to come with us when we visit him so we might just bring her with us and then they can meet and if it's right then yay!! haha things we do as a missionary....

But anyways this week was really good, I'm really bummed that Hermana Carbajal is getting transferred but it's time for me to get a new companion and everyone says that once she leaves my Spanish will get better and my teaching will get better because I will have to stand on my own and not rely on her. 

We got to help out Santa again this week and that was really fun! We just stuffed letters and got them ready to send off. We started teaching one of our members English which is really fun to do.  We are about to get on our bishops good side because we are going to start teaching his son the lessons because he is going to get baptized in a few months and he wants his son to understand more about everything and so we get to teach him! :D

I'm Hoping that this week we will finally be able to see more of our investigators!! And find out what they need so that they can progress. Here's to hoping my next companion will have some ideas...

Love you all!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!! Feliz dia de accion de gracias!

Meal numero 1

I love this family so much!

This family is pretty awesome too!

Meal numero 2

After a long day of eating I was tired!

One of the hermanas in my district who is leaving forever!

We had fun outside a members house :)

The tree we decorated at the Ardmore's apartment