Week 76 2016

Well the first week of the year has gone by good so far. This week was definitely a week. 

Mommy i would love to be your escort :)

nah on new years we just had to be in my regular curfew. We didn't have to be in early because most of the partying doesn't start till later. 

Things with the comp are basically the same. President Mortensen and his wife came over Tuesday night around 9. He talked with both of us and told us to make goals. Well we have made goals but sadly nothing has changed. I'm a little bumbed that i have to end my mission with a companion that i have a hard time with but i know it's for a reason. And i have already learned a lot about myself. If that's all i needed to do was to learn things about myself then i guess it's worth it. Nothing too exciting happened this week. We've started teaching a lot of people and we have 3 baptismal dates. Right now they are set for the 23 of this month but i really don't know if that is going to happen. I want so badly to have one more baptism before i leave. There are only a couple options and i'm hoping that we can help them progress and have the desire to be baptized.

 I'm looking through my planner right now and really nothing note worthy happened. haha

Oh a forty year old stopped us on the side of the road and after talking to him for a while he asked us if we could help him find a girlfriend because he is single and his nieces always ask him why he is still single. 

on new years eve when we were contacting a guy tried to give us wine and he told us that it was a gift from god haha

I really can't believe how fast the time is going by. I swear at least once or twice a week i get an email from the mission department telling me things i need to do to start preparing me to go home. The other day President sent an email out and soon us departing missionaries are all going to have to complete these module thingys. There are six of them and they all take like a half hour. I'm waiting for an email to receive the instructions about what we have to do but basically it will help us create a plan for our life or something like that. 

I really love being a missionary. The thing that sucks being in your last transfer is that when you start teaching people and they start progressing, most likely they will not be getting baptized for you leave. We have met so many people and i love them so much already but yet i probably won't be able to finish teaching them. But i mean as long as they accept the gospel one day that's all that matters. I'll get to meet them again one day. 

Being a missionary has been such a blessing to my life. It has Definitely been the hardest thing i have done and ever will do but i'm so grateful for these past 18 months. It's so weird to think that i will only be writing 3 more of these letters. I have learned so much. I wish i could write it all here in this letter right now. But i wouldn't have the time to type all of it up. Even just the things i have learned this week. I have definitely seen the lords hand every day and it's so amazing. I don't know who i would be or where i would be if i hadn't chosen to serve a mission. I love when people ask me why i decided to serve a mission. My favorite part to tell is when i am at the MTC and i open the letter that i had written on trek a year before where it said i would be preparing to serve a mission. I get the chills every time. I know without a shadow of a doubt that this is where i am meant to be. I have met so many people that have changed my life immensely. These days, these 18 months will be experiences never forgotten. 

I promise this week will have more stories to tell!!!!!

 

 

Prospero Ano Y Felicidad! Week 75

It was so fun to be able to skype with you and talk to you guys on Christmas! It was so nice to meet Jeff and Jayci even though it wasn't in person yet.

Wait what does reporting to the iowa stake mean?

this week has been pretty good.

 Monday night was so fun. Our young women in the spanish ward put together a noche de hogar (FHE). they had a nativity scene set up and a ton of costumes. People would come, put on the costumes and they could be part of the natitivy set. I got to dress up like Maria...Mary because they were trying to figure out how to do her. It was so fun we met a lot of families that aren't members and they want to learn more! We started teaching one of them last night and hopefully we will get back in with the others sometime this week.

Tuesday we went on an exchange which was really good. hermana Larsen who is one transfer younger than me came with me to H10, we had a lot of success. It was really nice to be able to have some fun and talk with someone. hermana Larsen is a great missionary.

Wednesday we had the christmas conference and that was bomb! we watched the same video from last year and haha its so funny but so weird at the same time. We had a good lunch and all the musical numbers were so awesome!! We took a lot of pictures. Especially of all of us who came out together. It's so wonderful because none of us went home early. There have been so many of the smaller groups who have had missionaries go back home and ours was such a big group and every single one of us is still here.

Thursday was Christmas eve and we mainly just spent the whole day with families. We had a lot of people in our wards who invited us over. I love the families in both of the wards that i'm serving in!

Friday was Christmas. We had district meeting and that was fun, we brought a lot of treats to share. Sometimes transfers suck because the people in your district change and so you have to work on having district unity all over again. We went to a couple more families houses and ate with them. I love Christmas here on the mission. We were able to find some in active families in their house and we were able to visit them and wish them a merry christmas. :D then we got to skype!! I loved being able to skype with y'all. It went by too fast!! I couldn't believe how fast it went by.

Saturday we had efrains baptism and that was sooooo good!!!!! He was so happy and he looked great in his white shirt and tie! The service went really well and Gayler and her companion were able to come and Martin came as well! We had a lot of members from the ward come to support efrain! He is such a stud!!! My companion and i tried to do some weekly planning but that didn't end well so we just stopped. and we spent the rest of the day visiting people.

sunday was probably one of the better days at least for me. Primary was so much fun. I forgot how much writing helps me if i'm feeling down and so during primary while they were doing sharing time i was just writing and i felt a lot better. After church though is when the claws started to come out. It's a little rough when you're trying to stand up for something and you get told your wrong. As missionaries there are certain things you should do and you should not do while contacting. You shouldn't snap at the person at the door, and you shouldn't be rude. Long story short it was soooo awkward for me.

We had some good lessons last night.

Sorry haha i don't have much else to say about this week. It was good, but i'm ready for this next week to start!

Happy New year!!!!

Shalyn and Gayler

Shalyn and her Mission President's family

Missionaries going home in January

All the missionaries going home in January

MTC companions reunite!

"Coolest Primary Activity"

Went on an exchange w/ hma Larson

Week 74

Dear family and friends

It's definitely been a week. I'm tired of packing and moving. I stayed
in the same area while taking over the other hermanas area. We decided
that we would move into their apartment because it was closer to the
area. So I had to pack everything and unpack....I thought I wouldn't
have to pack or move anymore. So I have a new address but seriously
I'm not going to be here too much longer so if you end up sending
anything just send it to the mission office or just wait till I get
home. But if you already sent something to the other apartment that is
ok we still have the keys and so ill go to check sometime this week.

On Monday we had some awesome lessons with people and then also said
goodbye to a couple people. Well Hermana gayler said goodbye. On
Tuesday I got my new companion. Gayler went to jersey village! We met
up with the elders so we could redivide the area and then we went to
our new apartment and cleaned it....it was really bad. You would have
thought elders had been in there. The rest of the night was pretty
good, we went over and slept in my old apartment so that I could pack
all my stuff and on Wednesday we were out of that apartment. We had a
Christmas party in an English class that we teach at a school. All the
students were sad because Haslam and Childs weren't there but we
assured them that we would be good friends. They had a gift exchange
and hey all brought us things too. It was so cute. It was the most
precious thing ever. So in the English ward they were going to be
getting there own set of missionaries and we were going to mainly over
the Spanish ward, but on Wednesday the elders called us telling us
they were not going to be over the ward. That created more stress but
it will be good. I guess 3 missionaries didn't come to the mission
from the Mtc. So we are still over both wards.

We started teaching this nine year old boy in the English ward. For
some reason the bishop told the family to wait to have him baptized so
that he could be baptized with other kids. But in doing this he turned
nine and so he became an investigator. We had not been given any
information so we went in confused with the whole situation but
anyways we saw him Wednesday Thursday and Friday and then he was
baptized on Saturday :) I love this family so much. They are so
awesome and so strong. So surprise we had a baptism this week! And we
have one next week for Efrain who is also 9 years old. He had his
interview yesterday and he passed. We are so happy for him.

On Friday after district meeting we got to go to the nursing home
where we had the thanksgiving service dinner party and we did a
Christmas one. We helped pass out a,l the food and got to sing some
Christmas carols for the . It was really fun. I love those service
projects that we get to do.

On Saturday we had our ward Christmas party, a couple people from
jersey village showed up and it was really fun to see them. We had a
couple less actives come and some non members. It was fun. The primary
sang some carols and they also sang in sacrament meeting, they are so
cute. I love the primary in this ward.

We have a million people in our area book planner now, we had
president move everything that was on Fairbanks to just be on ours as
well and there are so many people who were taught just one time and
then never seen again so we need to follow up with them. We have meet
some cool people, they are all really nice. I'm excited to get to know
more and more people.

Tonight the Spanish ward is doing a mock nativity scene and so I'm
looking forward to that. They are going to have hot chocolate and
videos and then clothes so you can dress up like Mary or the
shepherds. We invited everyone we talked to. So hopefully we will have
a good turn out.

We have our mission Christmas party on Wednesday on my 17th month
mark, and on Sunday it will be my 1 month till I go home. And my
little bumble bees birthday :) I'm super excited for Christmas,
because on Christmas Eve and Christmas we have some great members that
we are going to go see. I'm super excited, I don't even care if I have
to eat a lot, I just want to spend it with the members in these wards.

Anyways, this week will be great! I love you all so much! Hope I
didn't miss anything, if I did I'll send another letter.

¡Feliz Navidad, próspero año y felicidad!

Week 73

This week was so good! We really had a great week! I'm sad because my companion is getting transferred. We've only had six weeks together and we had a great time together. We saw so many miracles. 

Last week when i wrote we were kind of struggling to have people to teach. Well we have two baptismal dates!! We have a part member family who just never baptized their son when he was 8 and he just turned nine a couple months ago. When i first got here it was so hard to work with them. They would cancel every appointment but now we have been able to see him and on our first lesson we taught the restoration and then played a matching game with all the commandments. We have to have all the lessons done this week. His baptismal date is on the 26th of this month. Then our other investigator who has been doing pretty good, we set a baptismal date with him as well for the 26th. He has a situation that he has to deal with and that has been what has stopped him from getting baptized before, we are just praying that he can make the decision now and do what he needs to do so he can be baptized on the 26th. We are still working with a couple other people but so far no one is to the point of baptism yet. 

we will see what God has in store for this transfer. So there are 3 sets of missionaries in this ward and they are taking the other set of sisters out. The one thing i really don't understand is why i'm staying. I barely know the area and the people. I've only been here for six weeks. I would think that president would keep someone in the area who knows more than i do. i mean i know God has a plan, i just hope that i can do what i'm meant to do in these last six weeks. I know that it will be good and that good things will happen here. Not by me or because of me but because of the spirit. 

One of the days this week we took our car in to get an oil change and they said that the wait would be about 3  hours so we walked back to our apartment which was like a block away, we worked on some things around the apartment and then they called us saying that we could come get it, but like 10 minutes later the car coordinator of the mission called us asking if we could wait another 2 hours so they could put on all new tires. So we deep cleaned our apartment. We didn't have a lot of time that night to do things but it was still good. 

Wednesday was our temple trip and it was soooo good! I just love the temple so much. It's always nice and refreshing to go. After the temple we went on an exchange and i got to go with hna marlowe. She dies this week. I went on an exchange with her and provost when they were in a trio at the beginning of our missions and so we talked a lot about that and then we both just talk about how we can't believe that we are going home. It was a really good exchange, that is when we got the baptismal date with Martin. 

The young women in H10 are so cute! they gave us stockings filled with treats :) 

We had zone meeting and it was really good, i realized i only have one zone meeting left and i think that that is crazy! We talked a lot about having charity. We got to have a mission wide conference call as well. President called all of us to talk to us about the Christmas video and how much success it is having. it's so cool what one small video can do! 

I really haven't thought that much about school and where i'll go mainly because i don't know anything about any schools other than snow. The thing i'm trying to figure out right now is finding a job when i get home. Is there a temp agency in Iowa? I need something that will pay good but isn't permanent so i can come spend time in Utah and then the cruise and coming to Texas and all the other things we do. Because i'm going to need a job but normal places i don't think would hire me if i'm going to be gone so much. I wouldn't hire myself ha-ha. 

Yeah if you could send me my info for Skype either this week or before Christmas that would be great. I really don't know anything yet, we don't know who we will be going over to that day to Skype, we will have to see. By  Monday next week I will know!

Yesterday we had temple tours and seriously every time we have temple tours, that morning it is the ugliest weather, yesterday it was down pouring rain and dark skies and it was cold. But every time right before temple tours start the sky clears up it stops raining and it's perfect for the tours. It's such a testimony builder. God wants his children to see the temple and to learn more about it and he won't let it get cancelled. It always happens. It's so amazing. 

I love being a missionary so much. It is hard, it's so hard sometimes, i'm not going to lie, but i love it so much. I'll never get tired of saying that this was the best decision of my life! 

shay's District

Temple Tours

Her District at the temple

Her Zone

She loves her comp!

Her Zone

Stake Christmas Party

District Gift Exchange

Companions!

Week 72

Well this week was crazy....especially yesterday...yesterday was the

most interesting intense testimony meeting ever...trying to decide if
I should tell you the story now or make you wait....ill make you wait
hahaha.

So this week we started ending people. You know in Utah when you get
boo'ed? Well we decided to start it in Texas. We made almost 100
cookies and we have door bell ditched 11 people. We still have one
more to go. It's so fun because we are doing it in the English ward
and I made our own template so we could do the Spanish ward. For at
least half we had a hiding place where we could watch the, as they
opened the door. Some...weren't as easy like having to run down 3
flights of stairs at an apartment complex so they wouldn't see you or
trying to be as ninja like as possible of the windows were open. We
did three actives and three less actives in both wards. It really was
so fun.

We had zone conference this week and there was a twisting point to
it.....I had to give my dying testimony!!!! We all thought we'd be
able to do it at the Christmas conference but nope....all of a sudden
my name was called and I about had a heart attack. But I'm just glad
that I still have a long time left....don't say anything. But anyways
it was really good. I love zone conference and I'm super sad because I
realized that it is my last one. :( everything is coming down to
single digits....1 more fast testimony meeting, 2 more interviews with
president, 1 month left, 7 weeks left....gulp.....I'm not going to
think about it anymore.

I'm such a baby! I've been accustomed to Texas weather and so I'm over
here freezing but I know in Utah it's probably worse. When I get home
I'm going to need like fifty blankets with me where ever I go. People
find out that we are from Utah and they then tell us that Utah is so
much colder but here we are shivering haha. That's mostly the nights,
the days are a lot better. I mean it's December and I can walk around
in a short sleeve shirt. It's awesome!

So our investigator who we thought was so awesome and she came to
church last week, we had a lesson with her and she almost dropped us.
She has a lot of doubts about church but they are small ones but the
thing is she is very knowledgeable win the bible....or she just thinks
she is. And so everything we said was replied with a "where does it
say that in the bible?" We would show her and she would tell us that
that isn't what it means. She said she will keep reading but she
doesn't want to come to church. We will hopefully get back in with her
this week. But now I'm studying all the lessons and trying to find
scriptures only in the bible about each principle. I've finished the
first lesson so far.

We had the English ward Christmas party and that was fun, I won
cookies by wrapping someone up in talker paper haha. We had two people
from English class come!! It was so awesome! They are like perfect
investigators. We gave them a chapel tour and showed them the
baptismal fount and in the chapel the Hermana told us that she could
feel something different. She wants to come to a baptism to see how it
is and they just seem like golden investigators! We have a cita con
ellos on Thursday after English class.

Ok so I'll tell you guys what happen on Sunday. It started off as a
normal day, we had an investigator come. Church started, we took the
sacrament and then it was time for the bears of testimonies. The dad
of our bishop come up and bore his and then this other hermano got up.
He bore a really strong testimony and then the relief society
president came up to bear hers. All of a sudden it sounded like
someone was snoring really really loud, I was still up on the stand
sitting at the piano bench and I saw one Hermana in the very back
stand up and started pointing and within two seconds so many people
were in the back. I couldn't see what was going on all j could hear
was hermanas saying "hermano! Hermano!" And hermanas asking for things
that smelled and things to check blood pressure with and everything. I
got down and went to my companion and helped them start moving chairs
away and a couple minutes later an ambulance arrived and everyone was
saying he had no pulse. We think he might of had a diabetic seizure.
We still haven't heard anything about him. At 9 last night he was
still in intestine care. Everyone was really shaken up after that. It
was kind of scary.  It's just so sad, if it was a diabetic seizure it
probably happened because he was fasting. He is such an amazing
member. If he does die it's almost a perfect scenario, he renewed his
covenants and bore a powerful testimony of the restored gospel.
Hopefully we will hear something later today about him.

I can't believe that it's already the last week of the transfer! I
made my last planner at the beginning of the week. I took a picture of
all my planners, front and back. It's crazy. Time goes by so fast. We
are hoping nothing will change this week when we get transfer calls. I
don't think anything will but I also didn't think I was leave jersey
village so we will see!

All of you have probably seen the new Christmas video and all the cool
things the church came out with. I hope to start seeing you guys send
me emails and have a picture of you holding the signs! Please post it
on Facebook, Instagram what ever you have and let's flood the world!!!
Christ is the reason for this season. If he hadn't been born nothing
would be possible. All pains would last forever and we could never
return to live with our Heavenly Father.

christmas.mormon.org

Hermana Medeiros
#hanacidounsalvador
#asaviorisborn

Zone Conference

2 beautiful elves!

Hmas Medeiros and Gayler

Add caption

Week 71 Thanksgiving

This week was really awesome! It was filled with so many miracles!

Monday we went to this cute little old ladies house, she is in the English ward but speaks Spanish so we always speak in Spanish to her. we were helping her with family history and we were fixing some things on her page and adding some people in and she almost started crying it was so sweet! She was so happy! It was really humbling. I love this lady so much. We have it set to see her every Monday and so we get to see her today :)

On Wednesday we went to a less actives house and we barely got a word in. we were there for about 2 or 3 hours. It was so long, but it was really good because she is going through a lot right now and just wanted someone to talk to. she also talked a ton about politics and other stuff.

Thursday was the crazy day!

We had our first lunch at 1230, there were a lot of members there and one member when he shook my hand he said "man and i thought i was white" but i'm pretty sure he is still whiter than me. haha anyways, we had a really good meal and then we quickly ran and went to the church where we ate with a family in the ward that is huge. It was fun, we grabbed what we wanted ate and then left to go to our next one. We stayed there for a long time. they have a pet duck and so we were playing with it. He was so cute! We fed it watermelon and it nibbled on our fingers. We took so many pictures. We spent two hours there and then we slowly made our way over to our last appointment. We got there and when we sat down to eat i could barely finish it. I got so full after i ate the turkey and i still had everthing else to eat. Lets' just say on Friday what i had to eat was crackers, some marshmallows. green beans and half a can of soup. I was so full on Friday.

On Friday i got to go on an exchange to Jersey Village with Hermana Parslow. It was pretty fun. We got to see a recent convert who has gone in active. She is so awesome but it just struggling with some things right now. it's really sad because she was super strong and now she doesn't have the desire to do anything. We also got to see one of my old investigators. she was surprised to see me, i was happy to see her. We had a pretty good lesson.

Saturday was so special. It was so cold that day and we already had a dinner appointment and one of our investigators wanted to take us to dinner, we asked if we could get some hot chocolate instead and so we met at panera bread. For a while we were just talking and then we felt that we should share a video so we did. We shared he is the gift from last year and afterwards we asked if there was anything that caught his attention and he told us so much. He told us that we are the first friends he has had in a really long time and now because of the video he knows he doesn't have to spend another Christmas alone. It was so special. Hna and I were talking in the car on the way home and we both felt so strongly that he is ready to receive the lessons again and that he is ready to accept it. We had so many of the same feelings it was ridiculous. But so cool. It was definitely the spirit.

On Sunday we had 2 investigators come to church! One of us told us a week ago that if she came to church she wouldn't come in a skirt but when we went with the member to pick her up she came out in a skirt and she said "i'm cheating" she lifted up her skirt and she had on thick leggings underneath it. It was so sweet. Then that night we took one of our investigators to see the Messiah. It was super awesome. It was two stakes that put it together. Yesterday was just so amazing!!!!!!

It was super sad this week. We visited so many members from the english ward, just trying to get to know them and so many of them told us they had no interest in coming back. They had had some experiences and they do not want missionaries or anything to do with the church. Hopefully one day they will have the desire to come back!!!!!

We are so excited for the people we are meeting, things are going so great!

Their last Thanksgiving dinner

Hermanas Medeiros and Gayler

Week 70

Dear family and friends

This week was soooo crazy!!

This was our schedule

Monday-Conference from 8-3ish

Tuesday-p day till 6 and then english class at 7

Wednesday-service from 7-2 and english class at 7

Thursday-service from 7-2 and english class from 230-4 and correlation with the spanish ward at 8

Friday-weekly planning

Saturday-district meeting from 1030-1 and another service from 3-5

Sunday-chruch from 8-4

We had so many things going on every single day! We were so tired!!

Anyways I already told y'all about monday and tuesday after we got back from downtown we basically had to go straight to english class. so we didn't do anything that day. That night we got a call from our zone leaders asking us to attend a service project the next day. So from 7am till 2pm we were at a school provinding service. It was nice because they gave us breakfast, snacks, and lunch. It was this dentistry that provides free cleanings for second graders. Hermana Gayler and i got to help the kids off the bus and give them their name tags and then while we were waiting for other schools we got to sit and talk with all the kids. We played games with them and asked them little questions like "how old do you think i am?" haha the oldest i got was 40 and the youngest was 13. there was a little boy who had to um...fart really bad and he kept asking me "where do people fart?" "i'm really gassy" When i looked at him haha he looked like he was about to explode, i told him to go talk to his teacher and so he could go to the bathroom haha. When he came back he looked a lot better. Another little boy i had been talking to came up and hugged me really tight and he looked up at me and said 'you are really nice" My heart melted. So after all the schools were there, gayler and I went into another room where we took the papers of the kids after they had their cleanings. We had to mark their names off on a list and so we jsut sat there and we watched movies haha one called tooth defenders which we watched probably 20 times and another movie called the twin princesses of legend dale. The kids were so cute...Some would come in crying and almost all of them looked so disgusted. I guess they had fluoride on their teeth or something and they hated it. We had one boy come up to  us and told us he likes to take care of his slobber. HAHA we just about died. We got to do this service for two days and on the second day the school did a fire drill....or maybe there really was smoke we don't know but we had a fire truck come and they had to check every building....imagine a ton of second graders getting their teeth checked and a fire drill haha...luckily we got to go back in after like 20 minutes. 

On thursdays we get to teach english class at a library and there are people who are from korea who come and they are so cute! They are the most precious people ever! We also have a couple hispanics that come. it's just super fun!!!!

on Saturday we had an awesome district meeting. It was one of the best ones i have had for a while. We have a  lot of district unity and so that makes it amazing. 

It was kind of sad, last night we went to visit two families that we don't know and one told us she is already with another church and doesn't want visits and then the other family didn't even open the door they just waved us away. i hope one day something will touch them and they will want to return. 

I'm looking forward to thanksgiving. I'm really excited. We really don't have anything set yet but soon hopefully. We have people in the spanish ward and people in the enlgish ward telling us they will let us know what time. They better buy me two seats on the plane when i come home haha. I love spending holidays with members. 

This week i started doing my personal progress in spanish :) I'm so happy!! I am doing one of the experiences every day during personal study, or deciding what my ten hour projects are going to be :)

Christmas songs are playing all over the place now! It's crazy! Last year i was still with my trainer at this time!!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!! Time goes by so fast!!! 

I invite y'all to watch this video and write a list of what things you are grateful for. put the list on facebook, or what ever social media or send it in a text to someone. :) you will touch someone's heart!!

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2009-11-39-in-the-spirit-of-thanksgiving?lang=eng

​Sorry i know this is kind of short but i've already gone over the most exciting things of this week!

HAVE A SAFE AND YUMMY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!