8 Months! Week 35

I'm so glad that you guys got my package!! And i'm glad that you guys liked it all! I was thinking about you guys and wanted to send you a little surprise! and i'm glad you liked my videos! I already have some funny ones to send to you next time. If you want with the videos you can delete them or you can just put them onto your computer that way we never run out of room! I enjoy sending the videos!!

Sounds like a really great week! I am so happy that everything is going well!! I hope things continue to go well! 

This week was pretty good, the weather got really crazy, it rained really really hard one day. we were outside for like two minutes because we had to run into a store and we were soaked! i'll send a picture of it! Driving was a joke haha. 

On monday after we emailed we went to the church and played sports with our district. Some how i managed to beat everyone in speed during one of the games. It had to have been luck because i was the second one out the next round. We played kickball and soccer. I tripped haha and i have a really nice bruise on my knee. It used to hurt to just kneel down which is hard because we are on our knees a lot but now it doesn't hurt anymore. 

On tuesday,  We finally taught the restoration to one of our investigators. We bascially skimmed a lot of it and then just watched the restoration video. if we had tried to teach it any more we never would have taught it. SHE LIKES TO TALK!! we went to the store and bought things to make crepes and then we found a place that sells pupusas and we each bought one. They were so good!

Correlation ended up getting cancelled and so we just took pictures of all the st. patrick day stuff. Then rupp and i went and got little ceasers pizza and then we took our mattresses outside and we slept on our balcony! It was probably the best i had slept in a long time haha we both were out. Which is crazy because we live in front of a really busy road and a fire station. 

On wednesday about 5 minutes after we took our stuff inside it started raining. Good thing we moved our stuff! We will have to sleep outside again sometime! That was so much fun! Nothing else big happened on wednesday. it was a chill day. we did a lot of contacting. It was hermana Rupp's nine months!

Thursday we just visited a lot of people, most of our appointments cancelled. And we ate twice in a row which was fun. Luckily the second house we went to both of them are returned missionaries so they told us if we were full and didn't want to eat more then we didn't have to. They told us about mexico and how the place they used to live turned really dangerous. Made me really grateful to live in the united states.  

On friday we had district meeting and then after that we went to one of our investigators house with the elders and the elders gave the two of them a blessing. (they both have cancer) and it was a really good expiernece. We then saw one of our less actives and this less active just always seems mad and upset about something and it's always really awkward to go to her house but with this visit we felt that it was really good. She was asking us about our families and asking us what we like and by the time we left we both felt really good. 

On Saturday we spent basically all day at hermano morales house. We went to see how he was and then after a couple hours we had to go run and do something, he told us to come back and we could eat with him so we did and we basically spent until 930 there. He is the sweetest old man! I love him so much!

Church was pretty good, no one ended up being home and so we didn't have any appointments. It was a pretty good day though. We tried to visit a less active and she told us to not come back...hopefully one day she'll open her heart again. 

Today as a district we were going to go miniature golf but we realized it was farther than we thought, then we were going to go bowling but they didn't have any lanes open until later because they had something going on, so we just went to the park and hung out and played some games, then we went to chick fil a and we ate then these two girls came up to us and said "i bought you all shakes!" she had just gotten back from her mission two weeks ago from Brazil and bought us all shakes :) it was so nice

We received some really great referrals this week and some of them seem really promising! So we hopefully will pick us some more people to teach!

Oh this week hermana Rupp and I (on different nights) both had dreams where we went to visit the same investigator and it ended with us yelling at each other and fighting with each other. Haha hopefully that doesn't happen...who knows when we will see them next. they haven't been answering our texts so we will see!

I can't believe this transfer is almost over! I swear it just started! March is almost over! My 8 months is today! I'm almost at 9 months! Half way through my mission! That is so crazy to me! I love being a missionary!!

I love this gospel with all my heart and i know that this church is the true church of Jesus Christ. That Joseph smith was called as a prophet by God to restore his church. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that he died for each and every one of us. He didn't just die for our sins but he died for everything that we will ever feel. All the sadness, trials, temptations, the happiness, the stressfulness of life. Everything. That paper cut you got the other day or that time you stubbed your toe into the wall. The heart break of saying goodbye. Everything. Christ felt it all when he suffered in Gethsemane and on the cross. I know that he died for us. But it doesn't end at his death. He rose, and he still lives. After three days of being in the tomb he arose and walked again. He loves each and everyone of us more than we can ever imagine. 

Green Crepes for St. Patty's Day

fun times with the st. patty stuff

we learned how to make baby rattles out of balloons!

Pizza and a balcony sleep over!

"Amistad means friend in Spanish"

Sometimes as a missionary you get so caught up in it that you try teaching cats! just to get rejected. haha :D

Make a wish

Lo mejor district eva

Week 34

I'm so glad to hear that things are going well! I love always reading your letters and reading about everything that is going on! So glad to hear that work is going well too! I can't wait to hear all about ava's competition! That sounds like so much fun! i bet it will be great!  I know you are doing so great in your new job! And i'm so happy that your boss is allowing you to do so much!

Sorry! I'll have pictures of st. patty's day stuff next week! I'm going to wear your scarf that you sent me tomorrow! i'm also going to take the stuff to correlation and get the elders in the pictures to! it's going to be so much fun! (I sent her a package with silly St. Patrick's Day things to wear.)

Monday we just visited a couple families and we got back in with an investigator and it was really fun. We shared a scriptures and tried helping her see the importance of reading the book of mormon. They have been investigatings for quite some time now and really haven't been progressing in any way. One day it will be their time and they will be more open to listening. 

on Tuesday All of our appointments worked out which was really great! The Rodriguez bap date is now for sure on April 11th! it's so far away but it's going to be so good! We are all really excited to have them finally be baptized! We finally taught part of the restoration to 2 of our investigators! We've been trying for so long to teach them the restoration and we got through the first two principles with one of them and we got all the way through the apostasy with the other one! It was so great! 

Nothing much happened wednesday. We went to a less actives for dinner and she ended up giving us so much food! Don't think we'll have to go shopping for food for a little bit. 

Thursday we taught english class and we taught prayer for the 1 person who showed up. It was so great! I love teaching these people english! We then met with another less active and he told us that he was ready to start coming out with us to lessons and so we set up a day for him to come out with us. We had a really good lesson with him. 

Friday we had district meeting that was really fun. Rupp and I got to help teach a principle. I then went with hermana Carbajal on an exchange and every single one of our appointments canceled so we just improvised. It was really fun though!

Saturday Carbajal and I taught a lesson in the morning, it was for a little girl and so we did it in english, and afterwards carbajal told me how much I have improved with my teaching and that she is really proud of me.  later we had a trio ward party at a park. We had hispanic style bbq meaning rice and tortialls and some meat. All of us missionaries got together and played volleyball in a court that was filled with water. We found a baby turtle. We also played tug a war with the people from the wards and we also played frisbee with some of the elders. It was a lot of fun.

Sunday was really stressful as a lot of sundays are. A member got mad at us and another member tried to take the place of our ward mission leader but in the end both the members apologized to us after church. We then tried calling every member of our ward to give our investigator a ride to the temple tours and no one was answering or everyone was busy. In the end we convinced her son to come with us so he drove them. when we got there, there was supposed to be one more spanish tour but for some reason they didn't do it, so hermana Carbajal gave us a personal tour with our investigators. President stopped us and said that he's been hearing a lot of good things happing in our ward and that he is proud of us. The tour was really good and we think our investigators liked it a lot. 

Tell me about sometime when you felt the spirit this week.

We had brought a member with us to a lesson but then that lesson cancelled and so we decided to try an investigator that we haven't seen in a long time. They ended up being home and we had a really good lesson. We invited them to church and to the temple tours, they said they would come and that they really wanted to but...in the end they didn't. But it was still a really good lesson and we felt a difference in that lesson compared to the other ones. 

Best moment? finally getting our investigators to the temple. When we were driving once we saw the angel moroni over the trees at the same time rupp and i both let out a sigh. We had finally made it and got our investigators to the temple. We both just felt so relieved as we walked around the temple. the temple is so pretty!

Random moment? We were teaching one of our investigators the restoration and we asked him what he knew that jesus christ did and he said "well he built his church and did miracles." he paused and then said "and then i think he constructed a hospital." it was really funny. 

Have you started bonding with the families in Tomball?  Yeah I've bonded with a few familys :) they are all really great!

Is the man who gave you the sweaters the one whose wife died? yeah, he is so cute and sweet. We visit him about once or twice a week and he has this box filled with papers it's his treasure box and each week he gives us papers to make copies of. Sometimes we just go over and i'll play the piano and we will sing hymns. I love going over to visit him. 

Wow 8 weeks! That's crazy! That's going to come up so fast! (Until Mother's Day when we'll get to skype.)

I love being a missionary! 

http://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/child-of-god-1

Just a video for you all to watch. We are all Children of God. He is our father and he loves us more than we could ever imagine. He is always there for us. Even though sometimes it may feel like he isn't he always is right there. We are his children and he wants us to be happy. We just need to pray and do the right things and we will be able to feel his love and his presence in our lives. He is the way to happiness and to peace. There is no greater joy that we can feel then when we feel the joy of coming closer to our heavenly father. 

Just think about that, how does it make you feel that God, the creator of all things is YOUR father. He created you! He took time to create every part of you. He loves you so much, more than you can ever imagine.  How does that make you feel?

 

I love being a missionary! 

 

You know you're in Texas when...

One of our members

sometimes we go to members house to eat and then we come home with a ton of food! haha

baby turtle!

Playing Volleyball with other missionaries...the pit is filled with water

Rupp and I, elders gibbs, hernandez, morgart, and allen

Tug a war

We found Texas shirts and we loved them! Mine says Who loves Texas? We do! And on the other side it says Texas girl Rupps says I'm a Jesus lovin texas girl

Rosa and I

us missionaries and 1 investigator

Houston Temple

 

 

Week 33

Hey mommy!!

Haha yeah sister Ardmore walked in and that was the first thing she said to me :) haha man thanks for reminding me!! 

How was your week? So this week was a week. It was definitly a week to rely on God and trust in him and the plan that he has for us and the people we teach.  (When the time changed in the fall, they didn't realize it had until they arrived for church an hour early.  So I messaged a lady who works with Shalyn and asked her to remind Shay it was day light savings time on Sunday.)

On Monday we went and visited this member in the english ward. Her daughter died at the end of January, it was a really unexpected sudden thing and she has been struggling. They don't have english sisters in their  ward and so she asked someone in our ward to send us to her house. We ate dinner with her and we listened to her talk. It was really good. We ended up staying there for the rest of  the night. 

On Tuesday we went to a few of our lessons that worked out, we got a bap date for two of our investigators! The ones from Louetta :) can't wait for that! We saw one of our other investigators and we were ready to teach the restoration. We know that once we teach it, it will be something that she needs. But she ended up just talking to us the entire time. So we just shared a scripture telling her that we have a message for her that can help her heal from all the things that have happened in her life. We taught english for the elders that night and there were 7 people! It was really awesome!! 

On Wednesday all of our investigators cancelled with us. We went to two members houses and that was awesome. We Went contacting that night and we had a guy tell us that his tree was his God...awkward...haha. We did some LDS.org time and that was well needed.  

On Thursday we went to see our investigator again but i guess she forgot we were coming because about 10 minutes after we were there she told us she had to go and that she was going out with her son. So we didn't get to teach the lesson again. We finally got in with a family in the English ward that we have been trying to see for a while. She's been having a hard time since her boyfriend/husband got pulled over. We shared a couple scriptures and then we hurried to our English class. People didn't show up till 730. We taught the lesson that was about prayer and at first it was weird but by the time we were at the end of the lesson the four people that were there loved it. We had them write down a prayer and then we let them practice it. They were so happy once they learned it. I seriously will say this every time but I love teaching English! It really is so great! Man these people that come to English class...we both just want to teach them! I just want them to ask about something that we teach them and then we can talk to them more! After English class our appointment cancelled and we took some pictures of us jumping. We tried to get a hold of a few people but nothing really worked out there so at 9 we just went home. 

We had zone meeting on Friday and i got to meet my mission baby sister! She is really sweet! She is from Riverton Utah. 

On friday only one of our appointments didn't cancel and it was our dinner appointment. All of our appointments when we went to them and if they weren't home it didn't even phase us. But by the end of the night we both couldn't believe how many things had cancelled and we didn't know what else to do so we went to a store and bought face mask and ice cream and then we came home and planned while having our feet in the bathtub.  

Saturday was a lot of fun. We went to a less actives to eat breakfast and that was a lot of fun. She has two cute little girls and they kept teasing each other. We then saw hermano morales and spent some time with him. He is just so sweet. We sang hymns with him the whole time we were there. I had monicas baptism that night so we went to the woodlands, it was a lot of fun!  Man when ever we go contacting i always get the really awkward people! We had some really funny door contacting. When i feel awkward i act awkward! Haha rupp says i handle it well but oh my gosh ahhh it's so crazy i always get the awkward people! 

Sunday was really rough with the time change. We both were dead! Church was really good and after church we ended up taking a longer nap then we meant to. We both fell back asleep after the alarm went off. We went and visited the lady we saw on Monday she invited us over this morning to have breakfast with her. So that is what we did this morning. We did so much this week. It was such a good week. We met some really awesome people while contacting and overall the week was really great. Sometimes we just have to have faith that God is preparing the people and that there is a reason when everything cancels. 

We went contacting in a trailer park and at one house this lady invited us in and we shared a scripture with her and she loved it. She asked for the information for our church and we gave her the address. She is going back to Mexico today though. But she said that she wants to move here so that we can teach her one day. I wish we could have gotten her address in Mexico to send her some missionaries but it was just really great to meet her. We got a lesson with someone we contacted into and it was a pretty good lesson. We taught half of the restoration. There was a lot going on in the house and so we decided to wait to do the first vision. One thing that is really good is that she's never been baptized into another church! So that is one thing less to worry about when we start getting farther into the lessons. 

 Best moment of the week? when we went to an investigators house and we thought it was going to be really good but we actually just eneded up sitting there for 2 hours listening to her and her son fight and them trying to have us take sides. it was really awkward...

Best thing you ate? this morning we had eggs with bacon, beans habenero pepper sauce and home made tortillas. and pancakes Mmmm it was really good, best breakfast i have had in almost 8 months. 

Best spiritual insight? yesterday in Sunday school we talked about prayer and one of the elders shared a quote that i remembered how much i love. It says, "when life gets to hard to stand, kneel." this week wasn't hard but it included a lot of prayers. In the end when i look back at last week it was sooo good. 

Are you being a good driver?  Lol! haha i try but man i hate tiwi! Especially when an 18 wheeler can go faster than i can go! I'm not the old person driver that everyone hates! haha i've made tiwi go off a lot. Just because the split second i stop paying attention to the speed i end up going 8 -10 over and we can only go 7 over. Ugh man tiwi is annoying haha

How is your baby missionary sister? She's good. She's really sweet. 

Did you get chased by anything? haha kind of! We were by some trailers tracting and these two small dogs started running up to us barking, hermana Rupp literally grabbed onto me haha it was so funny, the dogs didn't do anything which made it even funnier. On Sunday night we had three dogs come running up to us barking and one of them tried to jump on us but we just walked away. Haha it's the best. 

Plans for the rest of your day? We are just going to a few stores and then depending on what time it is when we are done we might go back home. We have three appointments tonight starting at 5 so we are excited for those!

Is that elder who had the companion in your area still around?  Did he get a better comp? Yeah elder Mitchel is still here and yeah his comp is a lot better this time. 

Easter is in just a few weeks! I can not believe that easter is coming up. Easter is on general conference and that is the night of transfers! 

oh hey just some thoughts on a birthday present this year :) a mate cup and bombilla (straw) you can find them on amazon :) and also spanish scripture cases ones that are sepertae for the triple and then the bible. The ones that look like they are from a different country and they are really colorful :) just some ideas that i thought of this week!

I watched this video a few minutes ago and i love it! Please watch it!

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-06-8-book-of-mormon-testimonies?category=topics/scriptures&lang=eng

​ Yo se que el libro de mormon es verdadero. Por medio del libro de mormon podemos sentir mas paz en nuestras vidas. Estoy muy agradecida por el libro de mormon. Cada vez que yo lei este libro, aprendi algo diferente. Podemos saber la verdad de todas las cosas cuando leer, meditar y orar cerca del libro de mormon! ​

 

rocking xl texas shirts :) because they didn't have any small sizes

Mate!!! I love Mate!!! It's a drink they have in Argentina and it's really good! once you get used to it...

​When all your appointments cancel in one day...​

Haha when you're bored and remember you have lego candy​

"Sometimes after English class you just have to have a little fun"

My new zone :D

My companion and I!!!

My mission momma and my mission baby sis!

"When it's the third day in a row when all your appointments cancel..."

Had breakfast at these two cute girls house earlier this week :) they are adorable!

My old investigator Monica got baptized!!!

The reason we have ditches in Texas...the roads would over flow...it rained from Saturday night to Monday morning

 

"Let your soul delight in fatness" Week 32

How is my favorite missionary?  I am really good :) I had to visit the
mission doctor again today but I don't have to see him again unless
something happens with my meds so I'm pretty happy about that! Seriously
having it at a full dosage has been so much better. I really never knew
that I could feel as good as I do. I thought what I was living was normal
and that it was the only way I could ever feel, but ever since I got on the
med stuff I know that I have missed out on what I could have been feeling.

I'm so happy for you mommy! I'm so glad that you are finally done with
school! That is so awesome! You have worked so hard and all your hard work
has paid off! You are so amazing mommy! (I finished my MBA last week and started a new job.)

I'm so glad your new job is going so well. I thought about you a lot this
week wondering how your new job was going and if you were liking it or not. I'm so glad to hear things are going well!



Have you met you mission baby sister yet? (Her trainer is training again.) No, I said hi to her over the phone because carbajal called, but we have zone meeting on friday so I will
meet her then. I'm really excited!

Did my letter come last week? No not yet but I'm sure it will be there
tonight. Haha when ever you ask if i got a letter I always say no and then
we go home and it's in our mail box. The mail is pretty tricky haha. I
can't wait to get it though!


Nothing really exciting happened this week. Oh with my subject title we
both just wanted our chocolate and sweets gone and so we decided to follow
the last sentence in 2 nefi 9:51 "let thy soul delight in fatness." and so
we melted all of our chocolate...it was a lot! and then we made 2 bags of
popcorn and ate it. We tried to finish it in one night but it was too much.
it was milk chocolate, dark chocolate and peanut butter cups all over the
popcorn. It was so good but it took us two days to eat it. We also splurged
on saturday and sunday and had peanut butter cup smores. But starting this
week we are going to be better. We are going to buy better food, do better
exercising and just be healthier haha. It will be fun.

The weekends are always the hardest. No one was home saturday or sunday. It
made visiting people really hard. The weekends can either be really good or
really bad. And when it's cold it's even worse. haha I'm so ready for it to
be warm and to not have cold or rain anymore!

Some good news! By tomorrow we will have a baptism date for two of our
investigators! The two that I talked about that we got from Louetta. The
dad met with the bishop and he gave us the go ahead for him to baptize
them! So this week or next week they will be baptized! I talked to Carbajal
this morning and she told me that one of our old investigators is getting
baptized this weekend! So if the two here don't get baptized at the same
time I will get to go to that one too! Ahhh this investigator has been
investigating for years and she had a couple dates when I taught her and
she is finally getting baptized!


Sorry I didn't have many pictures this week. I'll take more this coming
week!  today we are just going to finish going to a few stores and then we
are hanging out with our district. Going to do something fun probably haha
:) We are having a week of fasting as a district for all of our
investigators. So each day a different companionship will be fasting. It's
going to be so good!


I have gained a strong testimony on personal study. I love my 1 hour that I get every morning to study. I've never wasted my time during personal study
but there are some mornings that I don't use my time wisely. But each day I
find new ways to study and find better things to do. This morning I had a
really good study. I felt so good this morning and I kept finding so many
things that I didn't think I could keep up with it. I love reading my
scriptures more than anything in the world! I don't have a lot of time to
study for myself but on the rare occasions when I study for myself I find time when I wake up or before I go to sleep or when I have a couple spare minutes  I love reading  them and
marking up my scriptures. My favorite is when my scriptures become marked.I  have loved marking my Spanish scriptures and putting new things in them.  I love doing things in Spanish. I love reading and praying in Spanish and studying in Spanish. Once in a while I do my personal study in Spanish.
Sometimes it gives things a new meaning. If I don't understand something
I'll look it up in English but for the most part I'll do it in Spanish on those
days.


Anyways I hope you have a great week! I missed talking to you today but I'm
just so happy for all the good things that are happening back at home! It
gives me comfort and peace to know that you are all being blessed. I love
you all so much!! I'll hopefully send the videos back next week :) I just
have to make one other one for you guys and then I'll send it back.


"trust in the lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own
understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy
paths"

We were contacting and we were talking to someone at this door and he told us just a minute and he walked away and left the door open. We were waiting for a couple minutes and we weren't sure if he was going to come back haha he did a few minutes later

I'm in one of the sweaters I got from hermano morales and she's in something she bought haha we tried to be old people...

We made Smores!

We decided to have a "lets get fat week" and so we melted all the chocolate we had in our house and we made popcorn and we ate it over two days. man it was soooo much!

Hermano morales was worried of us being cold so he gave us each two of his sweaters to keep us warm. he's so cute!

This is one house! Sometimes we work in the hood the other things the woods! haha (The Woods is short for the Woodlands--a very very upscale area)