Tenes goes to Tempe...: It's All A Blur

Holy cow, I can't even remember the details of this week in order to write this letters! The days honestly just melt together. I feel like I have been here for months, yet that I just barely left at the same time (which I did, so that would make sense :) Anyway, good thing I write in my journal each day so I can remember some details for my letters!

This last Tuesday we got Ipads! Woohoo! It is really nice because we literally have every talk, broadcast, and so forth right at our fingertips. We don't have wireless internet at our apartment so we have to go to the church in order to download videos, but slowly we are downloading mormon messages, conference talks to watch, and other helpful videos. In that aspect they are really nice. However, they are such a pain in the rear right now. We have to move everything from the area books (which are huge binders that have a teaching record for each person the missionaries have ever contacted in that ward) and move them to the ipads! Talk about time consuming. So we now have an extra hour inside each day to do our area books. There is so much that we do inside that I never realized. My typical day is:

6:30 (or 6 sometimes) exercise

7:00 breakfast and getting ready

8:00 personal study

9:00 companionship study

10:00 training (you have training for 12 weeks, its kinda like companionship study continued and helping you learn to do things better)

11:00 facebook (we now use facebook to proselyte for an hour each day

12:00 lunch

1:00 area books

And the rest of the day we get to do whatever it is we have to do that day. There are three days that we have meetings as well so then our time outside is limited even further! It's crazy, I didn't really realize how much we would be inside. But EVENTUALLY we won't have to do the area books and training anymore. On Tuesday we had dinner at a member's house and we were able to carve pumpkins after dinner! We had to leave before we could finish, but we started and they finished it for us. That was kinda fun to do :)

So we have started to teach some "formal" lessons. The first week we mostly left spiritual messages or just talked about the gospel, but this week we have really taught each bullet point in the lesson or just went more by the book and had a formal lesson, if that makes sense. So that has been really good!

So, I haven't worked out really hard since after basketball my senior year. I've done good and done a few things here and there but I haven't continuously worked out. Needless to say, exercising in the morning has been brutal. Not to mention, we do INSANITY. And let me tell you, it really is insane (especially when you are SO SO out of shape!) I have never had sore calves like I had for the next FIVE days. I waddled around like I was a grandma! When you would rather bike in a skirt, than walk, you KNOW something is wrong! ;) haha but seriously, I thought my calves were going to rip in half. I haven't ever been sore like that in my calves before so that just goes to show how out of shape I really am. But no worries, I'm slowly getting back into shape.

On Halloween we had to be in our houses by 4:30 because they didn't want us out and about on Halloween night. The four of us in our apartment had treats and played games. We sat around for hours and just told stories about ourselves. It was really fun! We were supposed to be updating our area books.....ya it never really happened. It was nice to have that little break and just get to know each other better. Oh, we also dressed up for a little bit. haha There is a box of clothes that missionaries have either left or that members have donated. Some of them are pretty interesting if I do say so myself. So we dressed up as we thought missionaries might dress in the 90's. Haha then we all wore "matching"/similar pjs that were in the box as well. When you're stuck inside with only scriptures, clothes, and food, you've got to be creative ;)

We haven't been teaching very many people, because most of the people we are helping right now, need our help basically all day. So lately we have been with one person each day and trying to help them out. But,we did get to teach a lesson on Friday! We had a woman walk into church last week; my companion had talked to her a few times before trying to get her to come to church. Finally this week she felt prompted to come! So she cancelled three times on us this week, and finally on Friday we were able to teach her! Can I just say, she is so prepared by God. She has been fasting, praying, studying, and watching General Conference talks online each day. She is so hungry to learn more and she is also trying to give up coffee (we haven't even taught her the Word of Wisdom yet!) We had a really good lesson on the Gospel of Christ though. It went SO well. She is mostly just nervous for what her family will think of her and she doesn't want to be judged. So even though I think she should be baptized ASAP, she wants to take things slow. So hopefully she doesn't cancel on us this week and we are able to teach her some more. I was so pumped after that lesson, cause it was that AWESOME! On Saturday we were with our recent convert of one week all day. She is have some personal trials that we are trying to help her through. We took her to dinner and ice cream that night and had a great time with her. She is 18 so we all get along really well. It felt like I was just going out with my best friends for the night! She is such a sweet girl and I love her to death.

We had stake conference this weekend. We were invited to the adult session on Saturday night. Well apparently only my companion and I understood that we were supposed to go, so we were the only ones there (out of 4 companionships in our area). Elder Stoddard (the general authority who was there) made us stand up and we looked around and realized we were the only missionaries there). President Toone (our mission president was there) quickly sent a text out and pretty soon our zone leaders texted us (and the other missionaries) telling us to get our little bums to the church as fast as we could. Luckily we were there, or how embarrassing would that have been if there were no missionaries there when they asked us to stand! At the end, Elder Stoddard put us right on the spot, made us stand up again, (we were in the back by the way) and then come up and talk about how the members can better help the full time missionaries! Uh, What? No, I hardly know anything! I've only been here like a week and they want me to tell them how they can help me!? Luckily, I did have a few things up my sleeve :) haha kinda crazy though. On Sunday, they had a meeting before the next session of conference that was specifically for the recent converts in the stake. It was SUCH a good meeting and there were many amazing testimonies bore about how great the missionaries are and all the different conversion stories and such. I wish everyone could have been there because it was so great to see how many are converts and to hear their strong testimonies.

Sunday night went pretty well too. One of the members invited us over to have dinner because they had a non member friend coming. We ended up having a formal lesson with her as well! We taught the restoration and it went really well. Hopefully she wants to keep learning more! She seemed really interested and we are setting up another appointment in a few weeks (she's busy right now). Also, we had dinner at a members house that same night that was already planned, (double dinners are the worst, I felt so fat) and it totally made me a little homesick. Their daughter was almost four and she looked and acted like Kinsley. It was adorable. She sat with me and sang songs and watched some videos on the Ipad. Ya, it was a little tough since I still have yet to cry/have a breakdown. I'm sure it'll come though.

So the bike situation is super fun. NOT. I think I have almost fallen at least five times daily. I'm sure the people driving by get some good laughs from watching me. However, most of the time its my companions fault I almost die ;) Seriously though, she's crazy :) Yet, I love her. haha we had some pretty scary "almost" wipeouts yesterday, butttt....what can ya do :) It's not too bad, mostly it's just funny :) We usually just laugh the whole way home as we each almost fall constantly. I'm sure one of these days I won't be so lucky!

Basically, I LOVE being a missionary. It is so amazing. I can't wait to keep meeting new investigators and to help people understand the importance of our message. It is so awesome for me to sit down and pray during personal study, and then as I read the scriptures and everything else, thoughts just pour into my head and my questions are answered, regardless of whether it has anything to do with what I'm reading. Now I really know what people mean when they say the Book of Mormon can answer all your questions. It really can! Even if what you're reading has nothing to do with what your question is. Super cool.

So everything this weekend at stake conference was on how members can help the missionaries. Yes, I've only been here a week but I realize how crucial the members are in helping converts stay at church as well as helping us find and teach them. SO DO YOUR PART! I feel guilty because I hardly did anything at home. Find people for them to teach, mention the gospel in your everyday conversations and fellowship those that are coming to church!

Anyway, love you all :) I wish you could all have the experiences I'm having!