I'll go where you want me to go....

Well, I am leaving Casa Grande. I am really sad about it. I was really excited to hopefully spend Christmas here and I love my companion to death so I was hoping for one more. Plus, I say this every time, but I hate packing. Anyway it will be interesting to see where I go. Maybe I'll go back to a biking area so I can lose some weight. Although I never lost weight when I was in a biking area before either. Guess we will find out on Thursday!

So this week has been alright. We've had quite a few things fall through so that was a bummer deal. But we also had a super awesome day where we found quite a few potential investigators! That was a testimony to me that God always knows what he is doing. Our newly wed convert had to cancel her appointment with us, so we had nothing to do that day. I had a terrible headache the night before, which caused me to feel sick. So I had left Sister R to plan by herself. So we had a lot of random people put in besides the ones we had put in during weekly planning. So we had put a bunch of people in the boonies in to visit since that is where our appointment lived. We decided to go out there anyway even though she cancelled so we could see a bunch of the other people! Well, we ended up being in places that I have never been before and we had a lot of success! We found this neighborhood way out there that we had never been to before. However, the people we were looking for weren't home so we called another guy that was supposed to live out that way too, and he was actually on his way to the Mesa Temple to see the lights! So that was cool :) He told us to call him at the beginning of next year to see him. Then we drove to another part of the boonies to find some part member families and share the "He is the Gift" video with them. We knocked on one of the doors thinking it was this one family...well it was actually a different lady. Apparently the family we were looking for lived across the street. However, this family turned out to be a part member family too! We shared the video with this lady and she said she has studied with Baptists, Jehovah Witness, and Catholics and had been searching for the truth but didn't feel like her husband knew all the answers. So we asked her if she would like to take the lessons so she would know for herself what we believed. She said yes and that she would prefer to come into town to do the lessons! So we get to have our lessons at a church building :) So that was exciting in and of itself but then she went on to tell us that she had been in a car wreck earlier that week and it had made her start thinking about what is really important in life, "and then you showed up." She then said that the only reason we were even able to catch her at that time was because of the car wreck. Her car had been totaled. So she normally would never have been home at that time. Miracles! I love being able to see God guide us. But usually we don't get to hear of those things and we think we are just running through the motions or making it up :) But God knows what he is doing! So that was awesome. After that we only had a few more minutes before we started to head back, but we wanted to try one more. So Sister R just picked a "random" house and we knocked. There was a guy who recently moved down here and he didn't really want to listen, but I softened him up ;) haha but it turns out that he is YSA age! So that was so awesome because it is terribly hard to find new YSA investigators here! He was super nice and seemed interested by the end so it was just a really awesome day :) We also had a few other random lessons that people said we can start coming by regularly in the New Year. One of them was a cute lady that had a full table of food set for us when we got there. She had tea (herbal) and tons of snacks and she wanted to hear about what we believe in while we ate. She is a historian and we ended up giving her a Book of Mormon. It was really good! She was so nice!

We had another good lesson this week too! He is awesome. We talked about the Book of Mormon with him as well and were able to go over some of the questions he had and address some of his concerns. He seems really solid though. He talked about how he might have to redo his work schedule and how it will really be stinky hours and such but he might be able to do that so he can come to church. :) If he takes all of the things we ask him to do, into his life and really ponders it, I know that he will be baptized someday :)

Also, our mother investigator bought us a Christmas tree! She loves Christmas and was so sad when she heard we didn't have a Christmas tree. She said she was trying to figure out how to make it a surprise, but couldn't, so she just told us and we went to pick it out at a Christmas tree lot together. She had ornaments and lights for us too. It's so cute! I felt so bad because it was a real tree! Expensive! But she was so excited :) I love her so much. I have grown really close to her. I'm really sad that I am leaving because she is getting baptized this weekend. Hopefully I can come back for it though. Who knows.

This week we also sang in the YSA. They put together a Christmas program and we were one of the lucky ducks who got asked to sing. So Sister R and I sang "Angels We Have Heard On High." I always get so nervous. I'm tired of singing haha. Which is funny because we were told that if any of us wanted to do a musical number for the Christmas conference that we needed to get it together and tell Sister T. I suggested we do something as a zone. So the zone leaders jokingly delegated that responsibility to me. Well jokes on them because I did it. We asked ladies in our ward for music and one of the ladies actually had a piece that her mom put together! It is "What Child Is This (lullaby)." So it has a girl part that is different from the regular song, then the boys sing the regular song, and then we sing our separate parts at the same time. Then there is chorus that we all sing together. It is super cool, so i am really excited! We are just going to sing as our zone now so that will be kind of awkward at the conference when I walk up and I'm not in the zone anymore but oh well :) So we are going to practice it today. The whole zone agreed to do it so we will see how it sounds today! It will be our first out of two practices sooooo wish us luck ;) haha I'm excited though. Hopefully it works out. It's really cool because no one will have heard this version before :)

Anyway I'm out of time for the day, but I just wanted to share a little thought. I have been reading the Book of Mormon and today I read about Alma and Amulek preaching in the city of Amonihah. This is the time when Zeezrom tries to discount what they say and make them cross their own words and in the end Alma and Amulek are thrown in prison. However, because of their faith they are able to break the bonds and the prison ends up falling and killing all those who had opposed them. Then after that, they travel to Sidom and those people who had listened to their words in Amonihah had fled there and so they were willing to listen to Alma and Amulek. Well Zeezrom was also there and he had become super sick because he felt so guilty about all that he had done. Long story short, he ends up calling for Alma and Amulek to come heal him. They didn't even hesitate, but immediately went to him! Although he had done some wicked things and had caused Alma and Amulek much grief and persecution, they instantly forgave him. Then through Zeezrom's faith, he was healed and immediately baptized after. It then says that he preached the gospel. I think there are so many things we can learn from that story! Faith, Repentance, Forgiveness. That just really stood out to me this morning as I was reading that when we have faith, it doesn't matter what happens in our lives, that we can get through it because God knows best. So even though I am sad, I am ready and willing to go wherever God has me go. If I trust in him, then it will all work out :) Anyway love you all! Thanks for all your support and help that you give me.

P.S. I'm so behind on letters right now, so if you have written me, I will write back I promise, but it might be around Christmas. I have to pack and have a lot to do today! So sorry!

Lead me, Guide me.....

This week has been pretty good. Last P day was really fun because we were able to go to the Stake President's house and play games. They have a huge house and a volleyball net in their yard ,as well as basketball and tennis courts. So we played a fun new card game that Sister Walton taught us called Cover Your Assets. You should look into it, it's really fun. Then we played some fun volleyball! It's always fun to get together as a zone and get to know each other and take a little time to relax and just have fun. There are always so many things that you have to do on P day and never enough time, so it's nice to take that break and work out some stress.

We got to teach one of the member's grandson tonight for FHE. He is living with them for the school year and is not baptized. He is 10 and is not currently interested, but they are reading scriptures with him and having FHE and he comes to church, so we are teaching him little lessons so that he can learn more. It went really well last week and he had some good questions. We also got to help decorate their Christmas tree so that was fun :)

We finally saw  one of our investigator's again and still, it is amazing to see the progress that has been made on her. She didn't get to read the Book of Mormon on her trip and she is leaving on another trip this week so we told her to bring her Book of Mormon and she said she would this time and she would put it in her purse right then. It is amazing that she was smiling and lighthearted about it because in the beginning, it definitely wouldn't have been that way. She loved the Christmas video (He Is The Gift) though and really opened up about things after that. That Christmas video is so awesome and is such an easy way to do missionary work so make sure you are using it!

Our single adult investigator was doing really well this week too. We backed up and started over so that he can take things slower and not get so overwhelmed. So we taught the Restoration over a couple different days. I also told him I read the Book of Mormon in 12 days before my mission so he wanted to read it in 11.5. haha he has been reading a lot and he has grown so much in the past week just from reading! It has been super cool to see him grow and he said he knows the part that he has read is true. So he was doing awesome and we also taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he said he needs to start preparing for baptism. Then he came to church on Sunday and he was fine in Sunday school, but apparently he left church after priesthood and told one of the members that he was never coming back. What? So we called him and he said he just can't be something he is not and can't be surrounded by such good people. He said we have other people who are worth saving. It broke our hearts and he asked us not to come anymore but promised he would keep praying and finish the Book of Mormon. Of course we aren't going to not go by, he needs a little boost and needs to know that God loves him and that we all are trying to become better. It's not about fitting into the church and changing WHO you are, but it's about changing to become WHO God wants YOU to be. He wants you to be the best YOU that you can and that is what matters. So we are hoping some members of the branch will stop by tomorrow and we will stop by the next day. We wanted to give him a little space from us and have members stop by and show he is cared about. 

We had exchanges this week and Hermana D came with me to our area. It was fun because it was her first exchange ever! We had quite a few lessons that day too so it was a good day for exchanges. We even contacted a former and shared the Christmas video with her and set up a return appointment. We caught up with another investigator as well. It is really hard to teach her because she basically knows the doctrine. It now just comes down to her acting in faith and taking the steps she needs to, to grow in her testimony, such as coming to church. So it's hard to know how to help her because she is the type of person that if you are too bold with, she will probably turn away. As well as her husband. So we are trying to be careful and really seek for inspiration and revelation to know how to help her.

We got a new investigator in the YSA! Yay!!!! He came to institute (we met him at a dinner last week in our family ward. He is the father's oldest son and has only known his dad for a few years). He showed up and the lesson was on the first vision. Boo ya! But they didn't actually tell the story, it was more like what can we learn from the story and apply it to our lives. So we set up an appointment to teach him the "story". The lesson went really good and you can tell he is a thinker. However he has had bad experiences with churches in the past so he isn't ready to jump into it, but the members with us were super bold and told him he can just take this as information or his life can be changed by it and it can resolve the concerns he has. So he seems promising :) He even said a prayer without just trying to push him at all. It was awesome! So we also taught at ton of recent converts this week as usual. That is something we really need help with from the ward because it is so hard for us to keep track of all of them and all of our investigators on our own. So we are hoping to making progress there soon. We don't want to be a burden on the bishop, but the ward has really got to step it up to help these people who are making HUGE changes in their lives. However, I am super grateful for all they do for us. I know they have their own lives and families they need to worry about as well, so I am very grateful for all the help they offer us.

My thought this week is from one of the testimonies I heard on Sunday in the YSA. I have been fasting and praying a lot to know what I should do after my mission and yesterday one of the men said "If it makes you want to be a better person, then that's where you need to be." So it doesn't matter whether it is applied to dating, schooling, your job, or whatever it is, that is where you should be. I really liked that and it really made me think about where I should be in order to keep learning and growing the MOST. So keep that in mind as you are making decisions in your life. God has a plan for us, but he wants us to put forth the effort and make our own decisions too. Which is extremely stressful I'll tell ya! But I know that as we put our faith in him and do our best to serve Him, that everything will fall into place. I hope you all have a wonderful week! Try to Share the Gift with someone! :)

Thanksgiving round 2!

So, it is the holidays again...good gracious the month of November just

flew by! Before we know it, it is going to be Christmas! Anyway I hope you

all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. This week was pretty good! We didn't get

to talk to many new people this week, however, we had a ton of recent

convert and less active lessons.

We did a referral from headquarters! A sixteen year old boy sent it

in with a request for a Bible. So we got to meet them. They have their own

church that they go to and they had a hard time fully understanding the

importance of the message we had to share. It was a Mexican family and the

kids like English but the Mom didn't speak English as well. I'm not sure

how much of it she understood. However, she knew that we had "a" temple in

Utah and she has seen that before. We taught a mini-restoration lesson and

left a few Book of Mormons. One of the daughters was probably 11 or 12 and

she was just soaking everything in that we said. She asked how she could go

on a mission and such and we told her she had to be a member of the church

she said, "oh, that's gonna be hard." haha so they don't understand everything 

exactly and said they had to go to their own church on Sunday. So we have 

another appointment set up with them and we will be on exchanges

that day, so it will work out because then the Spanish sisters can get a

feel of how the mom feels about all of it.

We taught one of converts again this week. She had kind of fallen off the face of the

planet for a while but she is now meeting with us regularly and has been

coming to church! She looks great and is even bringing another family to

church with her. She really seems to be turning things around and changing.

She loves church and understands the importance of keeping the

commandments. It has been awesome to see the change in her. She has gone

through a pretty rough time lately and has gotten a divorce. I think that

hard time actually helped her come closer to God though and helped her

recommit.

We also have been having our newly weds teach us the lessons. It has been

going really well. The wife is awesome and does all the extra studies in the

back of the pamphlets and she understands things really well! They are SO

excited about getting sealed in the temple too. They keep asking where they

can buy white clothes and we keep telling them that when it gets close that

people will help them shop for the things they need and that they will take

temple classes to help them be prepared. They are awesome :) We are trying

to get everything lined up for our recent converts to go to the temple to

do baptisms for the dead. It's been a little hard with the change in the

bishopric and stuff to get everyone on the same page so hopefully we will

get that figured out soon!

We had an AWESOME lesson with another investigator this week! So this guys

house is really chaotic and hard to have a lesson in so we finally got

things set up to have a lesson at the church with him. We got another

recent convert to come too so we would have a third female and we had another

guy in the ward go pick him up. Well a few hours prior he said he couldn't

come anymore. I was pretty upset because he has been so flaky lately and we

went to a lot of work to make this lesson at the church work out. So I got a

little frustrated and was really bold and stern with him about him needing

to come (he hasn't been to church in at least 3 months.) Well long story short,

it turns out he was just joking with us! So he came and we taught the gospel of

Jesus Christ and used the footsteps. However, at the beginning we had him stand

at one end and had the picture of Christ at the other and I decided to get him

back for messing with us. So I told him he had to sing "I Am a Child of

God" while skipping to the picture. He kept saying he was shy and he

couldn't do it but I insisted. He said he couldn't skip and he would just

jog and he said he also didn't know the song. So we sang him the first line

and he kept saying he was too shy to do it. At this point I was about to

tell him I was joking and he didn't really have to do it, when all the

sudden he started doing this weird skip/jog/prance thingy singing, "I am a

child of god...I am a child of god." I died I was laughing SO hard. You

should have seen it, this big Mexican who works security, covered in

tattoos and such...and singing while running toward a picture of

Christ. I wish I would have gotten it on camera. Luckily he takes things

well and was a good sport about it. Anyway, after our funny experience we

had a really good lesson and he did not want to leave the church. He said

he felt so good and was so happy to be there. He could feel the spirit so

strong and he basically taught himself and said he knew he needed to come

to church and he wasn't keeping the commandments. Even though he isn't

doing bad things he isn't coming to church so he knows that he could do

better. So it went SO well! However....he didn't come to church on

Sunday...we called him and called him to wake him up (he tells us to) and

he texted us and said he was awake and then when the ride went to get him,

the mom said he was asleep...then we called and called and he wouldn't

answer. AHHH! So frustrating.

Our Thanksgiving was really good too! We had a low key dinner at our ward

mission leader's home. It was fun! We also stopped at a non members house. It was

the home of a lady that wants to feed us so we stopped in there and ate there

as well. This was all like 20 minutes apart too so needless to say, I was

STUFFED! We also had time to just relax as well. We also decorated our

little foam Christmas tree so that was fun! :) We then had an activity with

all the missionaries. We took popcorn and the ZL's took hot chocolate. We

played games like signs and then broke up into little groups and played

board games. It was really fun and nice to just relax and hang out has a

zone family.

We had another lesson this week that went really well!This lady wants to

take things really slow however. She knows a lot already so it is

a little different teaching her. Also her husband was there for the lesson

and he seemed to be a lot more open than in the past and was actually

making comments and such. It was really good! We also had a member there

and they actually live really close to each other. Also the member is a

convert so it was really good for this lady to be able to ask her a lot of

questions about how she changed and how it has helped her family and such.

It was awesome :)

Also our mother/daughter investigators came to church! It was so good! The mom

is on fire and is ready to make that commitment and be baptized, but her daughter

is thinking about it again. She isn't sure. She says that she feels that she just

hasn't gotten that huge affirmation yet. Her mom thinks it has something to

do with some of her friends. So we are trying to help her through her

concerns. It really helped for her to be able to come to church and she is

going to go to mutual this week too so that will be super good! I'm really

excited for them. We are going to go see the Christmas lights with them too

next week. :) It will be fun! Then the week after that, it is transfers....

I kind of hope I get to stay here one more transfer. Then after that, I

will only have 2 transfers left...so I will most likely only have one more

area. That is seriously so crazy. I don't like it. But I really love my companion

and it would be a bummer to get transferred right before Christmas. Plus I really

want to be here for this mom's baptism. I love her and her family so much! :)

So I'm running out of time so I'm going to give my quick thought. I'm sure

you have all heard of the "He is the Gift" initiative so if you haven't...then

I'll attach the link. It is seriously the best thing ever! I love it so

much. The church is putting so much work and money into this so we need to

embrace it and help share it with others! I love that it is all about how

God loves us SO much that he sent his son as the real gift of Christmas. We

need to discover the gift of Christ and the peace that it brings to us.

Once we discover it, then we need to embrace it and make it be a part of

who we are. After that, we should WANT to share it with everyone we can! We

are all sons and daughters of God and he wants us to help others along the

path once we are on it. This is such an easy way to do missionary work so

embrace this and help #SharetheGift! If you don't know much about it, then

talk with the missionaries! They will know :) I love you all and I hope we

all remember the true meaning of the holiday season and help spread the

true joy that comes from knowing that Christ is the real Gift of Christmas.

:) I feel so lucky to be able to be a missionary for 2 Christmas seasons!

What a blessing!

Find Joy in the Journey

This week was filled with tons of preparation and meetings. We had MLC lastweek to help us know what we need to train our zone on. However, then thisweek we had Zone Conference, so President and the assistants came down andtrained on basically the same thing. THEN we had zone meeting on Wednesday,which is when the zone leaders and sister training leaders train on thosethings we learned at MLC. So basically we had to make a tentative plan withthe zone leaders of what we would do, and then wait till after zoneconference to finalize those plans and make our trainings so that wewouldn't say the same things. However, this MLC was really vague and mostlyon us rededicating ourselves to the purpose of our missions and why we cameout here. So, we could take it a couple of different ways. They alsofocused on how we are in a battle. We are at war with the adversary and wehave to stand up for truth and righteousness. So we spent a lot of time onthe phone with the zone leaders trying to get everything figured out. Wecame up with a fun activity about saving people who are "down" around usand how it's not enough just to be a missionary, but that we have to beworthy and obedient to be able to teach with power. It's not just enough tohave the authority. It went pretty well. We did things a little bitdifferent this time, instead of all of us taking a chunk of time andtraining on part of it, we all stood up there together and just all taughtat the same time. It was pretty good I think. I was a little worriedbecause there was zero structure to it when we got there. Our zone leadersjust wanted to give general topics and we all talk about them, so I feltlike we were flying by the seat of our pants! haha but we got a few thingsorganized and us sisters had some quotes and scriptures prepared so weshared our thoughts with eachother, made a little outline, and then wentfor it! It all worked out.

This week was kind of a downer at some points because we had quit a fewpeople that we dropped/they also agreed they weren't ready or interested.That is always a bummer, but hopefully we planted some good seeds andsomeday they will come around.

We had a good example of that this week actually! So when I was with SisterW (2 companions ago), we found a part member family. The wife isn't a memberand the husband is a RM but married a non member and the ward and hisfamily offended him and he fell away. Well, the wife has taken lessons onlineyears ago and was looking into it. So we would drop by every once in awhile and share little messages and once we taught the Plan of Salvationand she said she would pray about it and see if that is the direction thatwould be best for her family. Well after conference we texted her to see ifshe watched it and to see how it went and she said she wasn't wanting thatfor her family at this time. So bummer...BUT this week, out of the blue,she texted us and asked us if we could start coming back over! WOOHOO! Sowe went over and talked to her and she was pretty upset because her husbandwasn't all that good with us coming back. He said it was good, but once shereally jumped on it and had us come over, he wasn't too excited. So shetold him she was going to do it without him because she knows this is thedirection she needs to pursue. So we are going to start teaching herregularly and hopefully the ward will get involved and it will softenher husband's heart and help him see that not every ward is like the one he wasin and that isn't what it is about anyway. She is so awesome and it is socool to see how she had a seed planted years ago, we found them and it grewa little bit, and then finally now she is ready to pursue what she feelsmight be right! MIRACLES! It was the best.

One of our investigator's smoked again so he fell off date. He is really 

struggling with stopping and he just doesn't understand some things still. 

It takes a lot for him to understand. But we are definitely making progress!

 He is starting to come to more activities and he is now eating with the branch 

on a few occasions. (He always refused to eat because he felt like he was 

showing a sign of weakness....weird). We had a YSA Thanksgiving dinner on

Saturday night though and it was SO good! We had 10 non members come! 

That is also a miracle! Hopefully they all come back another time too! 

Good job YSA! We met all of them and just were present so people could 

see us and such :) It was really good.

We also had our little investigator's baptism this week! He was SO nervous, but he did sogood! He is seriously so adorable. He just doesn't do well with crowds. Heis a completely different person at home than he is at church or something.He won't even talk to us at church, but at home he is so funny and cute!So that was really fun :) I love their family.

We are teaching a new guy. His wife died a while ago and he hadto pull the plug on the machines so he is very sad about that. We haveawesome fellowshippers for him...which is also a miracle. An older couplecalled us and said they were snowbirds and love working with missionariesand would come to lessons with us all the time! I wish everyone was likethat! haha. So that went well. We touched on the Plan of Salvation andespecially the Atonement :)

Lastly, we got a list of part member families and started visiting them. Sofar all of them said we would be able to come back sometime. Some of themmight have just been being nice and didn't want to say no, but a few ofthem gave us their number :) So hopefully those pan out well!

My companion and I sang at yet another baptism this week...PresidentT was there too so that was terrifying. OH! And I saw Sis W 

(my companion 2 times ago) this week! She came to church with her 

fiance this week! They are so in love..it's kind of disgusting ;) haha just kidding.

they are so cute and she looks so happy. So that was fun, and also kind of weird :)haha! 

Anyway it was an awesome week! My thought this week is to just notice andrecognize the little miracles in your life! There are so many and sometimeswe get caught up in the things that are hard or monotonous and we don'tnotice God's hand in our lives :) Focus on that this week! Maybe keep agratitude journal or something! Love you all! Have a great Thanksgiving!

Dedication

Well hey! This week has been pretty repetitive actually. There isn't much
new going on. There was some really exciting stuff that happened though! We
were able to get in with a potential that we met the other day.
Missionaries use to stop by her house in a different city because she was
staying with her dad to take care of him. He passed away a while ago and
she said the missionaries were so nice and would stop by to see if she was
ok. So that left a good impression on her and she was willing to let us in.
We taught a super short version of the Restoration and mostly talked about
how we have a prophet on the Earth today, and because of that, we know
about the Plan of Salvation and how we can be families forever. We told her
we would love to come by and share that knowledge with her next time. It
was super interesting because we taught the Restoration in a way where we
actually didn't even talk about Joseph Smith. We weren't expecting that or
anything, but the main points we talked about were just the fact that the
church was no longer on the Earth after Christ was crucified (over time of
course) and that it has been restored and we have a prophet today as well.
It was interesting because I have never taught it that way before but
somehow I didn't feel it was really important to talk about Joseph Smith at
that time. She will be gone this week but she said she would read the
pamphlet and we could come back next week when she is home. So that is
cool! It just showed me that we always need to do our best to help everyone
even if they don't seem interested because you never know what will happen
later! It is all about planting seeds. Those missionaries helped her and
because of that, she was willing to let us in. It was cool how we found her
too because we were actually trying to find someone else and apparently
they had moved.

We taught all of our recent converts as usual. One of our newest converts
is going through some very hard struggles right now and was gone, but is
back again because she needed to be by her doctors...long story short, her
husband is having an affair with her best friend (oops), so she is no longer
there and is living out of her car. Luckily the car is in her mom's name or 

else she wouldn't have gotten that either. Poor woman. She was supposed 

to meet with the Bishop yesterday so we hope all went well.

It has been fun because with some of the recent converts we have actually
been telling them what we are going to talk about, and then have them study
the pamphlets and do the scripture study in the back so that THEY can teach
it to US. It has been fun that way :) So we told our married/baptized couple
to be prepared to teach us next time. It was something we did with someone else
and I like doing that, then I don't feel like I'm going over the same old stuff
with them again. So that way we can see what they know and what they
learned and expound on those things and how it has helped them and such.

This week we also had MLC. So we were gone all day and this week we have
spent many hours with the zone leaders getting ready for zone meeting this
week and getting our training ready for that, as well as creating a
training plan for the district leaders for this transfer. We were much more
involved in this process this time than in the past. But we are focusing on
recommitting to the work and being obedient and consecrated. We want this
meeting to be fun, but to also have some spiritual moments and in one of the
Elder's words, "Give all of them a spiritual kick in the face" so that our
zone can buckle down and be better. President T is worried that people
are getting too casual, which is definitely true. So that has caused me to
think about myself as well and where I could be better and be a better
example.
Our mother investigator and her family fed us dinner this week to "thank us."
They are absolutely adorable and I really just love them so much. They also gave us
a cute bag with candies and little sayings to go with them. It was really
fun. They couldn't come to church this week since it was the temple
dedication, so we left the Joseph Smith movie with them to watch.

Also, one of the families we were teaching dropped us this week.
It was the weirdest thing and came out of the blue. We confirmed
our appointment and they said they were good to go. A couple hours
before the appointment they cancelled and said the kids were sick
so they would just see us on Thursday. Then a few hours
after that we got another text that said they would no longer be taking
discussions and wouldn't be joining the church, but thanks for your time
anyway. So that was weird. But oh well! Got to find those people who are
prepared so it's sad, but good so that we can have more time to find those
who are ready.

We also had quite a few lessons with our youngest investigator because his baptism is
this next weekend! woo! He is so cute. Pray for him that he won't be scared
of the water and it will all go well! He is the smartest and cutest kid
ever. He is very sheltered though so sometimes he is hard to teach. Plus he
is always worried that he is sinning but he's definitely not. haha.

The Phoenix Temple Dedication was this weekend! It was really good. We went
to the first session and 2 of our new converts were all there as well so
that was really awesome :) I'm hoping that will help them keep their sights
on the temple to be able to go in a year. President Monson dedicated the
temple and gave a really good talk about how we need to rededicate our
lives to the savior as well. President Uchtdorf and Elder Oaks were also
there. President Monson is definitely getting old and sometimes he seems a
little unsure of what is going on (like during the cornerstone ceremony)
but it is so amazing that once he gets up to speak, he is just a power
house. The spirit is so strong and he is completely normal. You would never
know that he is getting older because he speaks with power every time.
However, he didn't even go to the other dedication sessions. It must have
wore him out. I love that man and that is my thought for you this
week...Rededicate your life to the Savior! Give Him all that you have and
consecrate your life to him and to being a good disciple of Him. I was
reading in Mosiah this week and chapter 2:21-24 as well as a few other
verses such as 34, and 41 all really touched me. We will never be able to
repay Christ, we all know that. The only thing he asks us to do, is keep is
commandments and be good disciples of Him. When we do that we continue to
get blessings as well and we are even more in debt! Our lives are not ours,
we are to do what God would have us do. We are to be instruments in his
hands and do align our will with His. I know that this time I have to fully
dedicate my time and efforts to God are so short, but I hope to be able to
continue to dedicate my life and efforts to God when I get home too. I want
to be an instrument in His hands no matter where I am.

I hope all of you have a great week and try your best to be an instrument
in God's hands each day. Love you all!

Round 3 for me

Man, I am just cycling through these companions! haha. I'm still here in the 

same place, and I now have my third companion in this area. My new companion

is super sweet and I'm really excited about the transfer. She and Iactually flew here from the MTC together so that is cool. She also is a STL so I nolonger have to fly solo on that one. That's nice!

Anyway this week was really good. We were able to see one of our investigators 

again this week and it went really good. We took a member who has a daughter that is nowserving a mission in Michigan. However, before she left, she worked withthis investigator with us so it worked out really well to have her mom there. We read from theBook of Mormon with her and discussed how the stories can help God speak tous and what we can learn from the scriptures. She said she was intriguedand it made her want to keep reading to see what happened next. Sohopefully she really does read it and we can get back with her soon :) Itwas a really awesome lesson.

Also, for FHE the singles branch is doing "Mormon Idol." SO they have totake songs and make them Mormon basically. So since Hermana R, wouldn't be here for it, we made up a song and posted it on the branchfacebook page. We sang a missionary song to the little mermaid song "Partof Your World." It was kinda funny and everyone loved it. The leaders can'tget over it they loved it so much. haha it was kind of funny.

Our newest convert is doing really good and we had a good review and discussion aboutthe Restoration. She is awesome and they have their sights set on thetemple! She was able to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost this week and itwas awesome. She looked so happy. Also it was so adorable in our lessonbecause they were acting much more lovey dovey and her husband kept saying thingsabout how she is his "beautiful wife" and such. It was cute.

We also taught a family this week! We thought they were going to cancelon us again because we taught them forever ago, and then every other timewe have had an appointment they have cancelled a few hours before. So wethought that would happen again, but it didn't! We went and had a reallygood discussion with them and talked about how this is a serious commitmentand its a big step and such. They said they understood that and that theywant to be baptized on December 20th. They brought it up that we shouldmeet twice a week so that showed us that they were taking this a littlemore seriously. We told them that their son was old enough to be baptizedas well and they wanted that. So we are going to go twice a week and teachthe whole family on one day and focus on the parents another day. So thatis exciting! Hopefully they commit to it and actually do it!

We of course had transfers this week, but we were still  able to teach a few lessonsthat night. We have been focusing on one particular guy, trying to help him gainthat desire and motivation to stop smoking. He wants to be baptized but heis having a hard time wanting to stop smoking. So we have focused a lot onthe Word of Wisdom and following God even when it's hard or we don'tunderstand the reasons. We also saw our mom investigator that night and we had a reallygood lesson with her on tithing. She totally just accepts things, it isamazing. She did tell us that her daughter doesn't want to be baptized anymore.She went to a friends house and when she came back, she had concerns...soshe has been sick and we haven't been able to address her concerns, buthopefully as she sees the blessings and the change in her mom and as shecomes to church, she will also want to be baptized. It was really cool too 

because on Thursday the mom told us she was going to do Nicotine patches 

to quit smoking but that she wouldn't be done with the

patches by the time she got baptized, so she was wondering if that was ok.We told her we didn't know for sure, but probably not, but that we wouldfind out. However, when she came to church on Sunday she told us that shehad been praying about it that morning and told us she was going to come upwith her own program to stop smoking because Nicotine is Nicotine and thatis what is addicting so we shouldn't bother someone by asking if it was ok.She said she had just prayed about it and that was the answer she got! Howawesome! It is so cool to see her doing those things on her own andrecognizing the answers she is receiving. I love her family so much. Theyare amazing.

We taught our little 9 year old two more times this week. He is so stinking cute! We taughtthe Restoration and it all made so much sense to him! Some funny things hesaid this time.... we asked if he knew what a miracle was and he said no.So we explained how Christ healed people that couldn't see. His response,"Woah! Are you kidding me? Woah!" haha. He just understands things so well.We asked him if he could read a page from the Child's Book of Mormon eachnight and he said, "How about I read a chapter?" And he totally did! Heread and explained things he learned to us. He also remembered everythingwe taught last time. He's a genius. Then we taught the Plan of Salvationand when he found out that everyone would get a chance to hear the gospeland there were three kingdoms he said, "Woah! That's a relief! Now I won'thave to worry!" Adorable. He gets so nervous that he is not doing what isright.

Needless to say it has been a good week! We have found a few people that wecan hopefully start teaching actively soon :)

SO my thought for the week...I have been focusing on the talks from GeneralConference and reading one talk each week. Then I make goals and plans totry and incorporate and apply it to my life. Well a few weeks ago I read afew talks on the sacrament and how we can make it a more edifying anduplifting experience and how it can give us the strength that we needthroughout the week. So yesterday I was really focusing on the sacramentand reflecting on my week and thinking about what I could do better andsuch. But I really paid attention to the sacrament prayers and also thesacrament hymn that we sang. It really helped me to be reverent and readyto take the sacrament. I felt the spirit throughout all of sacramentmeeting, and especially as I was praying. Then all of sacrament meetingwent by so fast and I think it is because I was much more involved andinvested and could feel the spirit, that it went really fast. It was reallygood and I truly felt more uplifted and prepared to face the week. Then inSunday School in the branch we were talking about how you grow love. One ofthe people mentioned they had studied it a lot and had found that there arethree things that involve growing love.1. Memory2. Sacrifice3. AppreciationHe went on to say that he didn't know if that was doctrine but it wassomething he had noticed. The teacher replied that it was absolutelydoctrine and it related to the sacrament prayer. When we take the sacramentwe promise to keep Christ in our memory always. We also promise to keep thecommandments and in a way we are sacrificing our sins to do so, as well asdo all those things that a disciple should do and it sometimes requiressacrifice. And he didn't have a direct correlation with appreciation, butwhen we take the sacrament, we should be appreciating all that Christ hasdone for us and appreciate his sacrifice. So I thought that was really cooland that is how we can grow more love for the Savior.

I hope everyone has a great week! I invite all of you to pay more attentionto the sacrament and find ways that you can be more in tune to the spiritand appreciate the sacred ordinance that takes place each week. I love youall! :) Thanks for all your support.

Ay, Mujer!

Ay, Mujer, that would be a phrase from my companion...look it up. I can't believe it is already November! There must be something aboutNovember though because it brought cooler weather! It was the weirdestthing because it was in the 90's on Halloween and then the next day itdropped down into the 60's and today it was in the 50's so far. Fall/winteris finally coming!

We did the usual things we always do this week. A bunch of lessons withpeople that we are trying to get progressing and lessons with those whohave baptismal dates!

On Wednesday we got a new investigator with a baptismal date! He is nine years old and he has been afraid of the water. He is so so shy and hardly talks, 

but he opened up during the lesson. Well, his family has been less active for 

a while until they moved to Arizona right before I got here. The 9 year old son 

wants to work toward baptism so we taught him about the Gospel of Jesus 

Christ this week and what it means to be baptizedand things like that. He is SO cute. We used little footprint steps toteach about the things that we do to reach Christ. Well, I was trying toteach repentance so I asked if he had ever done something that his mom toldhim not to. He looked at her and then at me and had a horrified look on hisface; then while shaking his head vigorously he said "no." So I looked at his momexpecting her to be like, "oh ya right," but no, she says, "no really, he'sa really good boy! OH! Actually there is that one time when you were six(keep in mind that he is 9) and you watched TV when we told you not to? Youwent to your room and thought about it and then you said sorry." Then shewent on to say that they had no idea how to handle that situtaion when ithad happened because he had never disobeyed before! Are you kidding me!?What an angel child. So that was funny. Then later I was teaching about theHoly Ghost and how when you receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, he becomesyour companion. So I was using chapstick and took off the cap. Well when you dogood things the Holy Ghost can come touch you, but it can't stay with you(because you can touch it but then it falls), but when you have the gift heis always with you (so you put the cap on). Well when I snapped the cap on,he had this look of amazement and said, "Woah! So the Holy Ghost will justsnap into me?" haha. Such a fun lesson. But he is really smart because weasked him why he wanted to be baptized at the end and he talked about howhe wanted to follow the commandments and do what Jesus did and stuff likethat. When we were leaving we asked him what he wanted to learn about nexttime and asked if he wanted to learn about how the church was started. Hisresponse, "Oh ya! I've been wondering how it was started!" It was awesome.So he is afraid of the water, but they are going to work on that with himand hopefully he is ready by November 22. His grandparents will be therethat weekend so they are aiming for that day. So that is exciting and willbe fun to teach him!

We visited one of our other investigators this week and it seriously is so cool to see the small progress we are making with her. She read from the Book of Mormon! We had her read in 3 Nephi about when Christ comes and those are the chapters that you can compare to the chapters in Matthew.I think it really helped her realize that they teach the same things and help each other. She said she was thinking about reading it from the beginning too so I hope she does :) She will be out of town for a few weeks so we won't see her for a while :/ But I have been so blessed to see the spirit slowly work on her and help her be more open to things.

On Halloween we had to go inside early and wouldn't have much time toproselyte because we also set up for the wedding that day! It was a reallynice wedding too! We could not have done it without help though. A sister from the ward helped us so much! She thought of everything and made sure everything ran smooth. So anyway, we made cookies for our investigators 

and members and delivered them on Halloween. We forgot to buy plates 

to deliver them on though..BUT I usually save boxesand things that you wrap for me under my bed until I get transferredbecause you never know when you will need them. SO! I used the cellophanethat I had to wrap some of the cookies and used the toole to make a cutebow. Then Sister R used her art skills and made some cute tags. (Sheis going into art education at school so it was really easy for her to whipthose out). When we ran out of cellophane we used tissue paper and they alllooked really cute and nice. So it worked out! So thanks for thosesupplies! It must have been inspiration to keep them ;) We also had to be in by 5 Halloween night so we ate pizza and watched littlemissionary movies while we wrote letters and relaxed. It was fun but notvery exciting! haha. One of our converts brought us some candy though. She was dressed up as a banana on her way to a singles dance. haha She's sofun.:)

We were able to have another lesson with one of our investigator's finally. She has been busy I guess but she still remembers the good feelings of peace that she had when we came and taught her. She was talking about that and started crying and saying that missionaries were an answer to her prayers. She just needs to get Sundays off so she can come to church! She is so sweet and we have another lesson with her tonight. The wedding was awesome! We had it in the relief society room,then had a lunch in the gym, and then had the baptism! I spoke and led themusic at the baptism. Our convert was really nervous, but she did so good. Shehad to tuck her arm up and she said she felt no pain at all when she wasbeing baptized so that was definitely a blessing because I was worriedabout that. She was nervous to bear her testimony but she did awesome andsaid she felt so amamzing. It all went so good but we were so exhaustedafter it all! We sat down afterward and just wanted to crash. It was crazyhow much energy it took! I didn't realize it until we were done though.

We also had stake conference this weekend so our new convert will be confirmed nextweek. We sang in the choir with the young single adult branch during theSaturday night session. On Sunday they had a broadcast from Salt Lake forall the stakes! I had never seen that before. It was like a minigeneral conference just for us. It was super cool. ElderChristofferson and Elder Uchtdorf spoke as well as a few others. It wassuper good! It was focused a lot on temples and how we need to live up toour covenants to help raise a righteous family and become like Christ. We also got transfer calls late last night....Hermana R will beleaving and going back to a Spanish area and I will be staying. HermanaG lives in our apartment and she will also be leaving. Hermana J will be training so she is a little nervous for that but she will do awesome. So we will be getting two new roommates ;) I just want to share one of the thoughts that I loved from StakeConference. A lady from our ward spoke and she talkedabout what our purpose in life is. She spoke about how we are living inunchartered waters in these last days because in every other dispensation,the earth has been cleansed when the world was this wicked. But we have tolive through the wickedness and share the gospel and stand up for what isright because that isn't going to happen now. Our purpose is to build upthe kingdom of God and do His will. She said, "Our mortal lives are basedon being instruments in God's hands." She went on to say that anything elsewe do in our life is just a vehicle to do that one job. The job we have,where we go to school, etc, all those things are just vehicles to help usbecome associated with other people and help them come closer to Christ.Those things are only important in the eternal perspective because theyhelp put us where God needs us to be in order to help build up the kingdom.I thought that was so cool! As members of the church, we realize thatthings in this life are temporary and that they are just a necessary partof life in order to live, learn, and grow. However, more importantly, theyare important because they CAN help us be instruments in God's hands if wedo our part. :)

Anyway I hope you have a great week! :) Love you all. Thanks for yoursupport and all you do for me.

A Break-in, A Blonde, and a Baptism

This has been such a fast week. I can NOT believe the transfer isalmost over! We get transfer calls this next Sunday. I sure hope Istay again. I'm just loving it here and I haven't really gotten tiredof the area because 1) it is so huge, and 2) because we barely got theYSA branch.

So the Spanish sisters found a lady a few weeks agothat lives in our area. So we had an appointment with her. She isreally cool. She is Jamaican and has like 6 kids. She is Pentecostal(and guess who else was Pentecostal....! The girl who just got baptized onSaturday so she will be an awesome help to us, but I'll tell  you about 

her baptism later). So she really wanted tolearn about the church and was really open to things but she had areally hard time with the difference between a prophet and the spiritof prophecy. But she wants to meet with us again and she seems to havea really strong faith in God already so hopefully she will pray and beable to feel that it is true. We have another appointment with herthis week so we are excited for that.

We got to go to the Phoenix temple open house this week! A sister from our ward

took us and our mother investigator and her family came behind us. It was a tiny templebut it was really pretty. It had an oval baptismal font and I reallyliked it. The mother investigator seemed to fit right in with everyone. I'm sure anyonewho saw her and her family would guess that they are members. Sheseemed to like it but we weren't able to talk much after because shehad to leave to babysit. Also, the temple was so small that the carshave to park at a water park and then they have a bunch of charterbuses to bus you to the temple and back. Crazy! But ya it pretty muchtook up our whole afternoon once we drove there, went through it, haddinner, and drove back. 

Our soon to be married couple is getting excited about their wedding! 

We planned all the details this last week and made assignments to people 

in the ward so hopefully people come and support them. The bride was 

nervous this week that she isn't going to be a good enough member. 

It really made me think about the different lifestyle and commitment 

that is made when you become a member of the church. 

We truly are a peculiar people. So fellowship is so 

important because we need to be there to help themalong the way as they make this huge transition. Most of the convertshave always expressed that they don't feel they know enough or thatthey are way too far behind, so we need to be there to support andhelp them feel involved and needed in the ward and as our friends.

I heard from the older man from my last area who got baptized. He 

contacted me on Facebook! He recently got his patriarchal blessing andis doing so awesome. I hope to be able to come back next year when hegoes through the temple. He is also in charge of the home bound for thesacrament. I'm sure he loves that :) It is so good to here about howwell others I have taught are doing, and it's so sad to hear about theones that have fallen away too...it's so heartbreaking.

This week the church building got broken into! Hard core. Thepeople threw rocks through the windows on one side, and then smashedthe glass on the door to get in. Apparently they think they werechecking for alarms when they threw the rocks through the windows. Sothen they grabbed the stone roof tiles that they keep in the back incase they need to replace one, and smashed the door handles on all theBishop's offices. They also broke into some file cabinets. It was sobad. So we are assuming it was done by someone who knows the church alittle because they didn't go into the library or take/mess with anycomputers. Assumption: they were on foot and we're looking for cash.Silly people, don't they know Mormons are way more efficient andresponsible than to leave any money at the church? Haha. So the policecame and dusted fingerprints and found some blood as well, so they arelooking for the culprits!

We also had the Halloween party this week in both the family ward andthe branch. So guess how we dressed up!??? We dressed up as eachother, but we don't do that sissy stuff where you ONLY switch nametags...no. We wore each others clothes and we bought wigs!!! Yes, Iknow...I look hideous as a blonde...but it had to happen. I even puteye shadow on my eyebrows to lighten them up as much as possible so itdidn't look quite as ridiculous. Not many people got it in the family ward.They thought we were just wearing wigs...but the ysa on the otherhand. They appreciated it :) They took tons of pictures of us and wewere pretty much the life of the party there. They were having a danceparty and dinner though so they turned on church music while we werethere. Haha, it was a good time.

So our young woman got baptized this week! It was so good. 

She was so happy. There was so much support for her too! The Branch Presidentbrought table clothes for the podium and seriously every girl who camebrought refreshments. I have never seen so many refreshments in mylife. It was a full on feast! We literally didn't eve go home forlunch, we just ate the snacks. So many people came to support her aswell. It is so awesome how willing the ysa is to help and to supportothers. We all need to take a lesson from them! But the baptism wasso good and she was confirmed on Sunday :)

Also, we taught Elders Quorum on Sunday...ya they didn't have ateacher so the ysa elders quorum president asked us to teach. Not sureif it's against the handbook or not, but the high councilman said itwas fine so we did. It was so weird and I'm sure I'll never get thatopportunity again. Haha everyone was like "hey! You can't come topriesthood! Why are you walking down this way." So that was funny andit was definitely a surprise for them when they announced we would beteaching the lesson. :) haha good times.

Anyway this week was really good. This week in gospel principlesthe Patriarch here said, "You can't sink a ship unless you let thewater in. Satan can't influence us unless we let him in." Then HermanaR and I were talking about the story where Lehonti is on thehill and Amalickiah wants him to come down. He asks him three times tocome down and each time he says no. But then Amalickiah says hewill come half way up and Lehonti can bring his friends with him too.So Lehonti does it and he eventually is killed because of it. Thepoint is, that is how satan works too. He works on us multiple timesand keeps trying to get us no matter how many times we resist histemptation and tell him no. So he compromises and makes things seemnot so bad. If we aren't careful, we too can die because of this. 

Spiritually die that is. But there is always a way out. 

The Savior is there to help us get back up the hill.We can get out of Satan's grasp by repenting and enduring to the end.So be careful and never let the adversary into your life! But, he willkeep trying so if you slip, repent and get back up on that hill beforeit's too late.

Anyway I love you all! Thanks for all your prayers and support! PS: that story is found in Alma 47.