Happy Easter!

This week was super good, yet a little long. We do a lot of knocking the same doors every day because there aren't very many people in the area book to go off of. A lot of times the people aren't home or they say they aren't interested. However, BLESSINGS! We got three new investigators this week! Holla! I also had two people on facebook request more information from me! I had found them on a Christian page a while ago and messaged them to answer their questions that they had and then never received a response. Well I just got a reply from a girl and she said she barely saw the message and she was thankful for my wisdom in answering her question. She said she also looked at my posts and enjoyed them a lot. She said if she has more questions that she would ask and that she would love to learn more about Christ. She hasn't responded again yet, but that was super awesome! Another guy simply responded by saying he was someone who would like to know more about Christ. Woo!!! So hopefully good things come of those. They are both from out of the country, but I'll have to check where for sure :)

So we stopped by a part member family and said we were introducing ourselves to the members and also wondered if we could share an Easter message. They said yes and we set up a time to come back because they were busy. So we went over the next day. They have two little kids. Long story short, we got to know them a little bit. The dad isn't active and he also works on Sunday so he couldn't come to church even if he wanted. The wife is Catholic. We shared a little video about Christ and bore our testimonies and then asked the wife if we could teach her the missionary discussions. Her husband said she could learn more if she wanted.

So she said yes! WOOO! It seems like she was maybe just being nice, but we will see :) The Elders said that was a huge improvement and they have never been able to get in with them. So that was one new investigator there.

Another day we were knocking the same doors as usual and came across one we hadn't gotten to yet. We got a little lost trying to find it, but we eventually got there. We knocked on the door and the wife of the guy we were trying to find, opened the door. We explained who we were and that her husband had talked to missionaries before and we would like to share more of our message. She said her husband was taking care of their new born so she just talked to us and said we could come back this week. We told her about church and gave her a Book of Mormon. She gave us her number so we can set up another appointment for this week. YES! New investigator number two.

The last new investigator is one of our ward missionaries’ friends. They recently moved into the retirement homes in our area. They are awesome! They have come out with us a few times. But they have a friend that isn't in our area, but will be moving into the same retirement place soon. So they brought him to the Easter Pageant and he loved it! So we are teaching him tonight at ward missionaries’ home. New investigator number three :)

So hopefully these investigators pan out well! We are really excited about them. We also stopped at another lady who was in the area book and she said she is super busy and travels a lot, but that we could come back in a few weeks when she gets home. So maybe we will have another new investigator in a few weeks too. :)

We worked at the Easter Pageant again this week and we were also able to stay because the ward missionaries brought their friend. So we got to watch it and it was really good! It was a production of Christ's life and the spirit was super, SUPER strong. It was amazing. The man we had there said he could just really feel it and it touched him!

We also are going to start practicing our lessons on a family in the ward who has an inactive son that lives at home. We asked them if we could practice on them and the parents said yes. We had dinner at their house one evening, and the son was really standoffish at first but eventually seemed to warm up to us. So when we came to ask if we could practice on them, their son came out when he saw us. So the dad told him that we didn't have many people to teach so we want to practice on their family. So I jumped in and said, "You're going to be there too right!?" He said yes :) So hopefully we can get the spirit to touch his heart and he can return to the church.

We had a pretty good Easter! My companion and I opened our packages together in the morning. We also had a fun Easter present and woke up to terrible colds. The other sisters in our house had gotten super sick and had terrible colds and we tried our best not to get them, but we did. So we both thought our heads were going to explode and my nose was rubbed raw from blowing it so dang much. But it's all good. Church was really good and then we went to a member’s home for dinner. They have a daughter that is leaving to Mexico in 10 days and they also have 2 other missionaries out! Crazy. They were super nice and we had some fun there. We then went to another house and had cake and ice cream there because it was a guy’s birthday.

SO, let me back up. These 2 guys are from China and they are going to helicopter school here in Arizona. One of the guys found a Chinese Book of Mormon in LA at the airport just lying in a corner but had no idea what it was. Then later while they were flying in their helicopter, the other guy saw the church steeple and felt impressed to go there. So they have been coming to church faithfully ever since October! They are definitely converted, but they can't be baptized because of the government stand in China. The company they signed with has a contract with them until they are 60 years old! If the company finds out they were baptized, it would be detrimental to their lives. So, we pray that either the government will change its stance, or the company will so that they can eventually be baptized in China. They will both be going home here in the next couple months. But they are awesome. We shared an Easter message and also played spoons as a little celebration.

Also, one of the members here used to be in the mission presidency when I first got here, but then he was called to be a Stake President in the YSA stake so he no longer is. But he knows a lot about mission stuff because of it and he is super, super nice. I love their family. So that was really fun! My companion and I also got blessings from him and another member in the ward (who is beyond hilarious by the way) to help us get better quickly. So that was really nice. It was a good boost.

So some fun things this week for sure! We are starting to kind of get into the groove of things so that is nice. I finished that missionary book and it is super good. I still encourage all of you to read it as a family! Members are definitely the key to missionary work!

Anyway I hope you all had a lovely Easter and remembered the true meaning of Easter! I know that Christ lives and he loves us. I know that through the Atonement we can always become better. I'm trying to use it every day to become the person that He wants me to become. I know that without Christ, we wouldn't be able to do anything and I am so grateful that he died for me, but more importantly, that he LIVES for me. Because of him I will get to live after this life as well. No failure or end is ever final because of him. I love you all! Have a great week!

Switch Up!

This week has been so crazy getting all packed and ready to move to my new area! So I said a lot of goodbyes and taught a few last lessons. Bishop L collects antique books and then signs them and gives them to missionaries who come say goodbye to him, so he gave me Jesus the Christ, and Articles of Faith (both my Elder Talmage). They are from the 1950's or so, so that was a cool little gift.

This week I also had my last zone activity in the Mesa zone. We played beach volleyball which was super fun, but it was also super HOT. It's really starting to warm up and I just feel disgusting all day because I get so dang sweaty. But whatever:)

SOOOOO I got transferred to the Gilbert zone. (However, I live in Chandler. It is super messed up. I used to be in the Mesa zone yet I lived in Gilbert, and now I am in the Gilbert zone and I live in Chandler. Before you know it,

I'll be in the Chandler zone and live in Mesa ;) haha. Anyway, my new companion is from Seattle, Washington. She is 21 and is super sweet. She graduated from BYU-I and is awesome.

This week has been interesting considering neither of us know anyone. Plus, there aren't very many people in the area book for us to go off of, but it's all good. Oh, and the Elders lost the church key so we can't go to the church for wi-fi. We were supposed to have two baptisms this weekend, but one of the kids fell off date and the other one didn't show up for his baptismal interview. We have tried to get in contact with him, but haven't been able too. Plus, he lives out of our area so it's not like we can just stop by. So we will see how that goes. It is weird to jump in on someone else's investigators without either one of us knowing them or what has been happening. So it's a learning experience for sure! We have had some cool tender mercies this week though.

For example, the very first day we were trying to figure out the area and just find dinner. Well we rolled right up to the house as the last breath of air wheezed out of my tire. Ok, that is an exaggeration, but by the end of dinner I wasn't going anywhere cause my tire was so flat. So he fixed it for me cause he is super into bikes. Tender mercy number one. Also, WE GOT A CAR!!!! wooo! So we originally didn't have a car....ya, we live 4-5 miles away from the nearest street of our area. Needless to say, it takes us like 45 minutes to bike to the top of our area and the church building. We are sweaty messes by then and it takes a lot of energy. So the zone leaders got us a car so we can at least drive to our area, park the car, bike all day, and then drive home. I currently cover one ward but the area covers as much as my last area when I had two. There are cows and a few dairy's here too, so it smells like home. That was kinda interesting! 

Our ward seems really awesome. The Bishop and mission leader are SUPER good and love missionary work. The whole ward is reading "The power of an Everyday Missionary" by Clayton Christensen. It is SOOO good. So they are all pumped and each family is also creating a family mission plan. So that is super awesome! So hopefully we start getting some referrals! But you guys definitely need to read that book and create a family mission plan too. It's so fun!

Anyway! The Easter Pageant is going on and we are lucky enough to work at it! We get to greet people and hopefully get some people interested in the gospel. We also get to stay and actually watch the production as long as we get an investigator to go with us. So we are working on that because I really, REALLY want to go. We get to work there again this week too, so that is fun!

Anyway I don't have too many other specific things to talk about since it's been kinda slow trying to get to know everyone and get things in order. But it's been a pretty good week! Hopefully we get things moving a little more in this area. This area has never had sister missionaries. So it's something new for them and they are all super excited! Sounds like we have a huge impression to give to this ward, plus they all loved the Elders that just left soo....no pressure or anything! ;) But I'm excited to be here, but it was definitely sad to leave my old area. I loved it.

Anyway read that book and create a mission plan! We also got permission to read the book so we can be in focus with our wards and it is even pumping me up to do missionary work! And I'm already a missionary! haha. I know this church is true and God loves each of us SO much! I am working on having charity for EVERYONE and always remembering that they are children of God and they deserve to hear the message we have NO MATTER WHAT. We have to give them the opportunity so that they can use their agency to choose or reject the message we have. But, hopefully they are smart and use their agency to choose it :) I love you all! Thanks for all you help and support. It means a lot! :)

My new area.  Feels like home!!!

One Year to Go...

Can you believe I have been out for 6 months!? CRAZY. I am 1/3 of the way complete with my mission and I cannot believe it. It seriously has flown by. So transfer calls came this week and I'm leaving after 6 months in one apartment! So packing has been crazy today and trying to get everything in order for Sister C. I also was called to be a trainer...again. Soooo, that means that neither of us will know the area. So not only do I not know where I am going, neither of us will know who the bishop is, the area, how we will get there, etc. AAAHH. I know it gets done all the time, but I didn't think I would ever be someone who whitewashed. (That's what we call it). Anyway, so it’s going to be a crazy, hectic, stressful week! But it will be good :)

This week we had some really good experiences. Last week we went and saw our old friend. She did NOT look good. She hardly talked. She only mustered out, "I love you", "you're adorable",  and "thank you." She was having a lot of pain in one of her legs, and she was wheezing pretty hard too. So she just sat there holding our hands. It was adorable. So since she didn't talk much and she looked really awful, we sang her some primary songs. It was probably one of the most spiritual moments of my whole mission. The spirit was so strong in that room. I thought that she was maybe going to die right then, and that’s why the spirit was so strong. It was really cool, she really needed us to lift her spirits. She doesn't have much longer I don't think. We were going to go see her again this week, but she was put in a care facility. So that was the last time I will see her. :( Sad. She kept kissing my hand before we left. She really has softened up to us and we have become great friends. She would hardly talk to us before and she would never let us hug her! Now she doesn't let go of us and she loves when we come over.

We went and saw our stubborn friend on Tuesday and she was going off about how much she hated that the kids were crying in church. Sister C and I were both getting super frustrated with her and we have been thinking of dropping her, so we were about to just drop her right then (because she seriously was freaking out about it, and didn't even get anything out of church because she was focusing on the kids. She thinks church isn't a place for kids to be. We even talked about how much Christ loves kids and so forth and shared scriptures, but nothing worked). So just when we were about to give up and tell her that our purpose is to help others come unto Christ, so if she doesn't want to do that, then we need to use our time talking to people who do, she starting crying again! Man, she just looks so helpless when she cries. She then softened up and we talked about how she should watch General Conference. She said she would watch it, so I guess we'll find out tomorrow if she really did watch it!

We taught a kid teenage boy on Wednesday. He has had a rough and violent past, but he says he wants to change. Sister C found him when they were on exchanges so it was our first lesson with him. We took a recent convert with us. That was INSPIRED! They hit it off so well. This young man has a similar past and could totally relate to him (The teenage boy is 18 and the convert is 19). It was so amazing. The lesson was done completely by the spirit and it was so powerful. The boy talked about how it touched his heart and how it was super powerful and just penetrated his soul. So we talked about the Holy Ghost and such and he said he wanted more and more. So the convert testified of the Book of Mormon and took one home to mark up scriptures that had helped him in his life, and then he is going to give it to the teenage boy when he was done. They guy was so excited and happy for that! He just couldn't get enough. It was so awesome! We even soft committed him to be baptized! But he said he would come to general conference on Saturday with us, but he didn't show up and he wouldn't answer his phone...so that was a bummer. But hopefully he comes around again!

We have another girl on date as well! She is supposed to be baptized this next week! She is super cute so we are excited for that. Also we had a great lesson with another guy. We were going to teach the Law of Chastity, but then his brother wanted to sit in on the lesson to see if this is something he wants to look into as well, so we decided to teach the Restoration instead and to just focus on prophets and talk about General Conference. So it was super, super good! The brother agreed with everything and it was really good because the guy we went to teach explained a lot to his brother so it was so good for us to get to see where he is in his conversion. I thought he was doing this just for his girlfriend, but at the end he bore his testimony to his brother and said he knows this church is true and he has received that testimony from God. YES! It was SO good! We scheduled to go watch the last session of conference with them on Sunday. I love this so much! For some reason I just feel a connection with him. He is super cool and way sweet.

He says he wants us to come back after our missions and we are welcome to stay at their house anytime and we have to hang out after our missions and stuff. So cute.

I really like him so I'm sad I'm going to miss his baptism. President T is being strict about people going back to old areas for baptisms, so I can't do that :(

Anyway General Conference was AMAZING!!! I loved it so much. I especially loved Elder Ballard’s talk (do your missionary work! ;) haha but it was all so, so good. Side note: a lady from my first area died this week :( She had breast cancer and left behind 4 young children. It was super sad and a ton of people showed up to her funeral. I didn't go to the funeral but it was between the Saturday sessions of conference so we were at the church when it was going on. She was such an awesome, Christ like woman. Her family is really strong too. She died in the morning and five hours later, her daughter was in early morning seminary. Amazing family. Anyway we watched the last session of conference at that guy’s house so that was super fun. It reminded me of conference at our house though because his girlfriend’s whole family came too, so it was super rowdy. Soooo I didn't necessarily get much out of it with all the screaming kids, but it was good. We had lunch there and stuff so that was fun. We also talked to the guy who had a stroke. He is home now and we showed him a message about trials and he really liked that. It really touched him so we told him we would come back soon and share another message! He looked really good though and he had quite a bit of mobility and has made excellent progress.

We also had a "last supper" at our favorite member family’s house on Sunday night just in case one of us got transferred....and I did. So it was fun to do that! We had a BBQ and we also did an experiment. We rolled bacon into some cinnamon rolls...it was actually super good! haha that was so fun. So their son reminds me so much of Travis. They look alike, only this guy is a huge boy, and they act a lot alike too. So pretty much I still have had Trav with me for 6 months ;)

I really hate saying goodbyes and it seriously just gets worse while I’m on my mission. These people have become my family away from family! But I'm anxious to see where I am going on Wednesday and who my new companion is! It's going to be quite weird to be living somewhere else since I've lived here my whole mission. But a new adventure awaits!  I hope you all have a great week. I absolutely love being a missionary and I KNOW this church is true. I just want everyone else to know it too! (I guess I'm in the right place then huh ;) Be good and be Christ like...always! :) I love you all! :)

Working out at the playground!

Cactus!

Let us all press on!

What a great week! This week has seriously flown by. (Don't they always).

Anyway we have had some great things happen this week and also some not so great. (As usual). Tuesday was a great day, yet Satan was WORKING HARD. We had so many things planned and many of them fell through. To start off, we had a lesson with our soon to be baptized investigator! On our way, there was a baby haboob (aka dust storm that looks like it is the end of the world). Apparently those are super bad here. But this one was tiny and it didn't actually come where we were. We could just see a wall of dust in the distance. Luckily we didn't have to ride around in it :) So we had a great lesson, confirmed the program for her baptism, and answered questions she has. She is so solid and has such a strong testimony! So that was great! Then on our way from there, we had a member cancel with us (on coming to a lesson with us) and another member hurt his back so he also cancelled on us. Bummer. YET, a tender mercy came along and while we were riding our bikes to dinner right after all this happened, a girl yelled to us in her car and asked to talk to us. So we pulled over and it turns out that she is in the singles ward and wants to come out with sisters! So she gave us her number and said to call her and check on her schedule so she can come out with us! Yay! So that was awesome :)

After dinner we had another lesson to teach. The guy’s wife was gone so we had to take a girl with us so there are enough women vs guys. So, one of the young women was supposed to come with us. When we showed up to her house, she wasn't there. Her mom called her and she had ended up doing a favor for someone in the ward and had to pick up one of the other young women. However, the young woman she was picking up didn't have a cell phone so she couldn't find her. So she was far away and had to cancel last minute. So we had to hurry and find someone else because our lesson was supposed to be right at that moment. So we called another young woman that lived near where we were. She ended up saying that she could come and that it was so lucky because she was supposed to babysit, but then the family cancelled on her. So her mom needed the car, so she couldn't drive us, so we had to find her a bike to ride with us. She borrowed the neighbors and we started going and then we realized that her tire was COMPLETELY flat. So we turned around and she just got her little sister's bike and made it work. So then we booked it to our lesson. We were super late and Satan was working hard for us not to get there. But, it was SUCH a good lesson! Their son sat in and totally understood everything. He said he wants to be baptized but his dad isn't so convinced yet. However, I think it touched him to see how much his son understood. His son said he feels he wasn't baptized "for real" since he was a baby before, and they didn't put him all the way under the water like in the video (from when we took him to the Joseph Smith Restoration video!) He takes so much more in than we think he does! So that was so awesome. And the young woman with us testified and said the most perfect things. It was definitely meant to be for her to be there. It all worked out; the son must have some great things in his future because it seems like whenever we are supposed to have lessons with them, Satan does everything in his power to make the lesson fall through. AND they ended up not coming to church this week and we don't know why. They didn't answer our texts...so that was super sad.

Anyway, on Wednesday we were going to have to do a really hard thing and

give the old stubborn woman the drop talk. She is just so stubborn and likes to argue the little knit picky things. For example, when she went to the temple open house, she was going off about the "booties" that they put on your feet instead of paying attention to the temple and the spirit that you feel there! So we were going to have to tell her that we can stop by every once in a while to help clean her house (since she can't move around very well),but as for staying and talking and spending a lot of time there, we needed to use our time to find those people who were searching and ready to accept the gospel. However, when we got there, we asked how she was and she just broke down crying. I hugged her and she just sobbed in my arms. It turns out she has a blockage in her legs. She thought she had neuropathy and they have been treating that for her and nothing has really helped. So they found that out and they have to do an extensive test to see how far the blockage is. So she was crying and telling us this and then said, "I read some of the Book of Mormon too." We were shocked and once she started crying we knew we couldn't drop her that day because she always says how she feels she can tell us anything and we are her best friends. So we needed to be there for her, but then when she said she had read I was thinking that maybe she was actually starting to be humbled! I was ecstatic and we talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and then taught a mini Plan of Salvation lesson. She wasn't as stubborn and sassy so I thought for sure the Lord was getting through to her. She even willingly accepted the invitation to come to church! She asked how many more Sundays we had before I could be moved and we told her only one, so she was all over that. She really likes me for some reason. Who knows if it's because I’m sassy too or what, but she always says that I could do great things and I know a lot. She also says that I should become a minister or someone "high up" in our church. I told her that's why I'm a missionary ;) haha but we were so happy that she was so willing to come to church. But she came and of course she was her stubborn old self again and only paid attention to the kids crying, which drove her nuts. She even chewed the Bishop out for it! She was huffing and puffing on her way out because she said her body could only handle one hour. But it was ridiculous that she focused again, only on the little knit picky things. So that was sad.

We also had a lesson with another man this week. It was our first lesson with him and he is divorced with two little girls so we had to take a woman with us. We found a lady in the ward to come with us and we were so excited because we had worked hard on his lesson plan. We made it fun for the girls and just talked about things that we want to implement with the dad since it was our first lesson and such. So the beginning of the lesson was super good. We taught the Restoration and focused a lot on prophets and such and everything was going well. However, once we got to talking about Joseph Smith, his face turned red and he just blew up. He just burst out that he did NOT believe in the Book of Mormon (even though the week prior, he read some of it with his girls and we taught him about it). He was totally fine then) and that it was wrong and a lie because the Bible said not to add to it and a whole bunch of stuff. He even brought up polygamy. So we were super confused and didn't know where this was coming from because he was totally fine before that. So then he said that he had talked to his Bible study group and they had asked him all these questions and apparently riled him up. Sooo, that was a huge bummer. The spirit was gone and we were trying to calm him down and testify that the only way to know if it is true is to read it. Then he asked why he would even want to do that and goes off again. He is just super uneducated and is just repeating random rumors and things that his Bible group told him. And of course his preacher, who he pays, (ya let's trust him....not) is going to say things to make you stay! Anyway so long story short, it was a trainwreck. BUT he still wants us to come over so he can learn more. He said that he hopes he didn't offend us but that he is just saying what he thinks and such like that. Ridiculous. Pretty sure the lady in the ward thinks we are the worst missionaries ever.

This week we had another bike crash.... we had passed some people on the side of the street and I was looking at a little map trying to find the other half of the street (because streets here stop and go and get cut through and such...it's ridiculous) so I slowed down and decided we had better talk to the people we had just passed. So I stopped so they could catch up to us, meanwhile I looked at the map. Sis C was behind me and to the side of me. So apparently she looked back at them and when she turned back around, she had drifted into me and she screamed and smashed into my handle bars (they were slightly turned) and so my hand got all bruised and it knocked me off my bike. I have no idea if I landed on the ground or what because I just saw her start face diving and all the sudden she does some matrix moves and her bike crashes yet somehow she landed on her feet facing me. So I may have fallen and then rushed to help her because I literally thought she was going to die. So I have no idea what happened to me other than I have a tiny bloody finger from being smashed by the handlebars. So no one really got hurt but the people thought we were so weird and just kinda ignored us and she hit me so hard that it blew my tire. My front tire was instantly flat and you just heard a big whoosh of air come out and then it was flat. So we had to walk our bikes to dinner.

The Elders borrowed our car (we have it for meetings twice a week. We only get 200 miles a month) that day and we had a few miles left so we called them and asked them to put their bikes on the back, drive to their dinner, and then come give us the car after. So they did but they had no idea where we were at. They were supposed to call us after their dinner and they didn't. So we called them after our dinner(oh, which the member luckily had another inner tube so he actually was able to fix my tire!) and we head out because we had a lesson that we had to get to. So we call the Elders and look over and they are on the same exact street we are on! Out of our WHOLE area, they randomly picked the same street we were on. And it was back off of a main road a good ways too! Crazy right! Yet another tender mercy. So we were able to load our bikes up and get to our lesson a little after we were supposed to be there. CRAZY!

SO the lesson we were headed to was a guy we had taught before! He called us and said he wanted to start meeting with us again! yay! So we met with him to see what his desires and intentions were, and he said he is willing to change if he knows that is what he needs to do. He said he is open minded though so that is good. He also said he didn't have a testimony of modern revelation and prophets. So lucky us, he can listen to General Conference this next weekend! Woo!

I'm running out of time, but another quick tender mercy...Our dinner cancelled on us so we decided we wanted to go to Chick-Fil-A so we were headed there and street contacted a group of people. Long story short, they weren't interested in our message but they gave us $40! What!? Just random people gave us a bunch of money! How nice!

So I have so much more to tell you, but I'm out of time. SO the best part about the whole week was our baptism! It was SO good! This girl is seriously the cutest thing ever. She bore her testimony and she is just so solid. She said she can't wait to start her new life as a follower of Christ and having the Holy Ghost with her. She also used to be atheist so this is a huge change for her! It is so amazing to think that I went through this whole process with her. She has changed drastically and just hearing her testimony makes all the hard days worth it. She is so amazing. She was so nervous to bear her testimony but she did so good! Also the Woman's Broadcast was SO perfect for her! It was the best thing ever and the spirit was so strong! I pretty much cried through it. It was great. I was so tired that night from being so spiritually drained! But man, it was SO good!!!!

I wish I had more time to tell you everything else, but it was a great week, people take good care of us, and I love being a missionary :) I seriously love it. I had a dream the other day that my mission was over and I pretty much woke up almost in tears. Then I realized I was still a missionary and it was all good :) I miss you all, but I love doing this and helping others. It's the best experience of my life so far. I know this church is true and I'm so excited for General Conference! I promise if you have questions or concerns and you spiritually prepare and listen with the spirit, that your question will be answered! Have a good week! :)