The party is today. I actually have to go to a dress rehearsal like right now. I'm super excited!! It will be fun! But I'm also nervous about us all getting in trouble...

The Bowens are leaving sometime next week. The new pres sound super scary! He's going to change everything and shackle us down with rules!!! We will basically be his slaves. I snuck into transfer meeting today to hear Pres give his last talk and he was basically like good luck, because you're going to need it.

Yeah I'll take an afghan. My favorite color is black. So maybe Black and a very light blue? Did you ever order concealer?

Why are you going to Guatemala again? You should wait so that you can take me. Then I could talk to everyone for you. When are you going?

I get another transfer with Hulet! She's not that excited because she's been in Anaheim for forever but we are very happy to still be together.

Here's a picture of my district from this transfer. And our ward mission leader. Love you!

 

My weeks been good. Imagine that you're in high school again and that your best friend is the the most popular girl in the school. She's the head cheerleader and everyone is obsessed with her. Her life is pretty dramatic. So naturally, so is yours. You've now successfully experienced the first three transfers of my mission with my mom, Morley.

Even though I'm not with her now, I'm still involved in all of her drama. I'm not complaining. I would be so bored without her.

Anyways, she's really good at getting her way. And because I'm her best friend, her way frequently involves my presence. On Thursday I found myself going with her to a secret dance practice. We're going to perform it for president right before he leaves. Did I tell you were getting a new president soon? Well they're throwing a surprise party for him. All the language programs are doing something. Because ours is so big, they decided to just have the older leaders do it. But somehow I ended up kinda being in charge. I thought it was all coincidence or just the result of bad planning until I looked around at nine thirty and realized were were hanging out with all of Morleys favorite people. I still don't know how she did it.

Yeah, they're really bad at keeping track of who has a bike. They keep on telling me to buy a new one and that they're going to take away my car. And I'm like you're telling me this while I'm talking to you on the phone on my BIKE.

Mommmmy,

 

Your emails always crack me up. They remind me of British novels set in the 80s. Hilarious because nothing seems to go right.

I'm pretty sure I will always have a wonderful companion. All the Spanish sisters are super cool and once July comes Ill be one of the oldest ones because everyone is leaving so I will have the right to boss everyone into being cool. Looking forward to it!

 

Hahah I fell asleep during my graduation ceremony. I was just so tired!! And I had slept through all my classes that year so why not graduate in the same state, right?

 

That lady, and dad, and charles all sound very immature. Im sorry you have to put up with such people. Courage mother! I want to go camping! I miss being outside. There are too many buildings here so it never feels like we go outside. and it never rains. We live next to the city museum so we checked it out the other day. It was pretty cool! And I learned a lot about the history of anahiem. Apparently its origins can be attributed to three germans from san Francisco picnicking in the area and saying, "Boys, I have hit upon the right idea. We should make this into wine county." And then they named their vineyard town thing anahiem because it is the heim or home of the santa ana river. And then a bunch of catholic missionaries came and converted everyone. And thats where I come into the history. Slowly breaking the ties that everyone here has to the San Bonifacio church. Lame.

 

Hello! I'm doing quite well. How are you?

I love my companion so much. She is becoming my favorite. Maybe second after the ccm one though. She reminds me of Fara Sneddon. Imagine knocking doors and doing daily planning with Fara and you will understand how happy I am and thoroughly entertained. She is a well read theater major with an excellent vocabulary. She is a touch dramatic but in a sarcastic way. She loves me because her last companion was emotionally draining. She appreciates that I'm always happy and that I am able to make my own decisions. I appreciate that she has a brain and a sense of urgency. She's even taken psychology before! So we can strategize how to get our investigators to go to church using esteem friendly techniques and what not. This is probably my favorite transfer even though the area isn't doing that well. It makes such a difference who you spend your time with! I miss biffy and Morley too though. But I see Morley pretty often now.

Today is the elotada!!!! The whole stake gets together every year and eats elotes, which is corn with mayo, cheese, and spicy stuff. It's really good! And I'm so excited to see Biffy and the members from garden grove and other missionaries. I'll get to see Gomez!!!!!!!!!! Max got the melckezedek priesthood yesterday!!!!! Yayyyyy!!!!!

Downtown Disney was fun. I didn't buy anything. We'll probably go back soon.

I went to the farmers market!!! Best thing ever!! It's Bunch of fruit and vegetables being sold by Mexicans!!! They even gave me a discount because I spoke Spanish to them!! Definitely going every week. Everything is organic and tastes so much better than the stuff at the store. The mangos mother!!!

There is always random festival stuff going on where we live.

Love you!!!

Hola!

Yeah, the Gomezs wanted to give me a balloon but we could never quite
find time to meet up. I did get to talk to max on the phone for awhile
though. :) They are handling the birthday thing a lot better than I
thought they would. Christmas was pretty bad.

Honestly when I first got here they weren't teaching anyone. In this
mission we make boards and draw a "baptism escalator" on it. It has
the dates underneath and you put the people on top, they're supposed
to keep moving closer to their baptismal date and the if they're not
progressing you reset it. Well anyways mine in garden grove was full
of people. And this one only had six and they were all at the bottom
of the escalator. I was confused because this is a good area and my
companion is a really good teacher. She said that everyone they had
been teaching all dropped them at the same time about a week before I
came in. Super weird.

At first, I just followed Hulet around because she knows the area, but
this past week I started taking charge more. I developed a finding
system that works well for this area and we went through all the
potential investigators and made a plan for each of them. I feel so
much better now!

Because we aren't teaching anyone steadily we just walk around talking
to everyone. We've met a lot of cool people! And we've gotten a lot
better at reading people when we first meet them!

Gaby wants to be baptized in June. Were also teaching her husband and
son. The whole family has been very sick lately though. They keep
going to the doctor.

Everyone else doesn't really know anything yet. But they will! I'm so
excited to teach all of them.

I really like living in downtown Anaheim. It fits me better. During
lunch one day last week we were walking through a fair and an old
painter genius man asked us to paint some leaves with him. We gladly
obliged.

I'm going to downtown Disney today!

Have a nice week! Love you!

Hola!

It was nice to see you too! It was pretty weird though...
Yeah, I love this area. Way more places to knock. Right now we don't
have that many solid people, but I think if we keep talking to
everyone we will find them. I'm kinda glad the area wasn't doing that
well before I got here. This way I can build it up the way I want it
too and I don't have to scramble through other peoples sloppy work.

We did find one person that wants to be baptized already! We met her
on Thursday! Her name is gabby and she is a complete sweetheart. Very
willing to learn and accept. She couldn't go to church because she was
very sick. I swear people I teach are always in the er.... We are
meeting her husband and son tomorrow. :)

Have a nice week!!! Keep your crazy family in check!!!

Oh I was just at a cafe and saw you didnt write me and I thought it might be more likely that you would if I shot you an annoying email. It worked!!!

Yes, transfers were today. They happen on Mondays every six weeks. I'm now in Anaheim with Hermana Hulet. I've met her a couple times and so far she seems pretty cool. This will definitely be different from the last two transfers where I could do whatever I wanted to. On Wednesday the aps called us and told us we were getting a new companion, Herman Witham. But they wouldnt tell us why they were emergency transferring her or for how long. So me, Biffy, and her were a trio fri sat and sun. It was soooo much fun!!!!!!! Before me and biffy were a little put out because we wanted to be alone for each other during our last couple days together, but it ended up being amazing. I'm pretty sure I laughed for three days straight and took a million trio selfies.

I was pretty sure I was going to leave just because Ive been in garden grove for so long, and I'm definitely ready to start in a new area. I'm only really sad to leave Gomez. It is really hard on them to have the last two missionaries that were here when the baby died leave. They said they will come and find me in anaheim haha. We were with them last night and it was so sad! Biffy is not attached to them, so she won't visit them. But I assigned an Elder that is still there to take care of them.

I'm also sad to leave our investigators. We have so many people that are finally taking off!! Especially Saul and Maria. I told them to listen to everything the hermanas say and to make sure to invite me to their baptism.

I saw Charles' prom pictures on facebook this morning. So cute! They really are quite a cute couple.

Yessssss sunday is mothers day. I was going to send you something today but what with transfer craziness I don't know if I''ll have time. Sorrrryyyy. Were thinking of skyping around 2:30 on Sunday. Does that work for you??

Love you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hiiiii!!!

Were having our pday today because we were supposed to do a service activity on Saturday and the training for it was on Monday. It was to help people get citizenship, but now were not even doing it because the brethren said there were too many legal complexities.

I'm still very sad about Alessandro. He hasn't been coming to church anymore. We teach upwards of twelve other people on his street and it's so tempting to go over there and talk to him but we really can't.

Ismael sounds very nice. And I wholeheartedly approve of pink dining rooms. That will make everything taste so delicious!!!!

Yeah probably not the best thing to have in the bishops office.... I think a sign that says: "So you've made a mistake? Stop feeling so special about it. Join the club." Would be more appropriate.

I eat with people every single darn day. Meals usually take two hours or more even though it's only supposed to be an hour because they feed us sooo much. And they all talk a lot. Sometimes I eat with two people in a day. The rest of the time I wobble around trying to teach people feeling soooo full. My other meals are very small. But the food is super good!! So there's that.

 

And it's really hot here. And really windy. Going outside hurts.

Hola!

 

We ended up passing Alesandro. We didn't feel comfortable going over there anymore and Denise said us teaching her husband looked bad to the neighbors. We were teaching the Gomezs and the Elders were teaching Abe on the porch. I couldn't hear what they were saying but I could feel the Spirit strongly and I could tell that they loved him. I felt that we needed to pass Alesandro. So far it hasn't gone well at all but whatcha gonna do. I know The Lord has a plan for him.

It was like finding all the ingredients to make a very complicated chocolate cake. Mixing them laboriously together. And then right when the cake is ready to be put into the oven, you realize your oven doesn't work. Then you're like," oh I know! We can ask the nice neighbors if we can use their oven." You go next door. "Hey, we made this delicious cake but our oven doesn't work. Could you bake it for us? We'll even let you eat it." They're all like,"yeah! We don't have any cakes right now! We would love to." But then a week later you go over and the unmade cake is still on the counter..... Who leaves unmade cakes on the counter!!!???

We had a conference with our mission and the Irvine mission and Elder Andersen came to speak to us. He was so nice, and young, and funny! It was very enjoyable and I would have been fine if he had talked to us the whole day. He is so smart and spiritual! We got to meet at the church across from the temple.

Have a nice week!!!!
Sent from Tommy the iPad

Guess what!!! I'm in a telenovela!! I told dad the details but I guess I can put them in this email too.

Alesandro wants to be baptized so badly, but his wife is growing more and more opposed to us. We've only been able to teach her once. She says that we are bringing more problems than peace and she does not want us teaching him in her home. Their relationship is very strained because he doesn't have a job right now, and she is struggling to make ends meet. She also feels like she does all the work at home. She is bitter that he takes the time to let us teach him when he should be doing other stuff. He didn't come to church yesterday because she said if he left the house to church, she wouldn't let him back  in.

Part of me wants to say never mind! You can join the church in a couple years after you guys have sorted everything out. Forget I said anything. But he's too far in. Leaving him would be like leaving a newborn baby alone to fend for itself. He wants to be baptized. He wants to be a part of this church. And he said he will leave her before he stops following God. He has found so much new peace from reading the Book of Mormon daily and praying. Maybe this is exactly what he needs in this very stressful part of his life. And honestly it's nice that we can teach him whenever we want because he's not ever busy.

I hate that were part of the reason they're arguing. But at the same time, I know we're right. And the truth really will help them, no matter what she thinks. Yesterday we went by with a member couple. Denise, the wife, wasn't there. It was amazing because Hermano Ramirez told his conversion story. He said he had been sold from the start, just like Alesandro. But his wife wasn't baptized till two years later. Then his wife shared how grateful she was that her husband was persistent in seeking the truth even when she thought he was crazy. Now their whole family is Mormon and their son is on a mission and she is so grateful for her "crazy" husband.

That's so cool that you have a baby!! I wish I was there!!

I liked everything a lot except for that teal shirt. I'm not really sure why though. It's just sooo.... I don't know. I will give it to someone else. Yes, everything fit I just wish I was skinnier so that things would look better on me. You should buy me more skirts like that black one! I'm so bored with my clothes that I've taken to wearing my companions and she super tiny so this is not a good idea.

I don't have any plans for Easter. Talk about Jesus??? Just a thought.

Happy birthday to Charles!!!!!! I can't believe you're paying him to make dinner. That ridiculous.

Love you mom!!!!!
Sent from Tommy the iPad

Hola mom!!

Did you watch general conference?? It was amazing!!

They were showing it in the Greenville building in English in one chapel and Spanish in the other so a lot of the missionaries had their investigators go to that chapel. We dropped them off and then went to the English side with the other young people. Best group to watch general conference with ever! We are very easily entertained, and whenever anyone said anything cool we would all look at each other with awed expressions and say, "did you hear that?? That was crazy!!" Then afterwards we all air dropped our notes to each other. People got some pretty interesting revelation!

Alesandro went to the first session alone. When we asked him if he liked it he said it was amazing! And then he started listing off all the people he was going to bring to the next one. He says the prophet seems like a very considerate person and he's glad he has his help. Awwww so cute.

Because the chapel was too far away from our areas we got permission from pres to eat lunch in Santa Ana. So we went out to eat and on Sunday we had a picnic. It was so fun to be able to hang out with people again! We didn't have to stay with our district so we were with the people we get along with! What an interesting concept! It was so nice to see people I haven't seen in a long time. One of the things I miss most from real life is people choosing to spend time with me. It's just not the same when people are assigned to be around you. I've felt really lonely lately so it was a good reminder that I actually have made a lot of real friends here. It just doesn't usually feel like it because when they leave my zone I'm not allowed to talk to them. Lame.

My birthday was awesome! I've never gotten so many sincere birthday wishes before! My mom (Morley) came to the last session on Sunday. It was so good to see her! And then in the middle of that session Farny came and sat next to me and said happy birthday!!!! He's an elder that left here in February. I think you met him on skype? He's the Farnsworth that you said I'm not related to. But I still think we might be because he reminds me of family. Anyways, were very close because he was super depressed and I helped him a lot. It was so good to see him as well!! Best birthday present ever. I kept thinking, if I'm this happy to see this random kid, I wonder what it would be like to see my family! When he came in and sat next to me, im pretty sure I looked like I had just won a game show. Haha.

Then we had an impromptu party at Gomez complete with Farny.

I felt so loved during conference. Partly because of the beautiful messages that were bing shared and because I was surrounded by happy righteous people I love. I thought Heavenly Father was trying to make me less needy by separating me from the people I want to be with, so feeling this outpouring of love from all sides was an unexpected blessing.

Probably one of my favorite birthdays ever. Thanks for everything in the package! I wore the black and white skirt on my birthday. Hope you had a wonderful my birthday/conference weekend as well! Hahah I liked your Facebook post. I was so adorable!

That was max that sent that to dad hahaha.

Are you getting paid to watch that baby??

Where is the love?? Where is the love?? Where is the love, the love, the love???

Love youuuu!!!!!

Yeah as far as the language thing goes, you're definitely weird. And everyone in our family is weird too. So that's probably it. My comp also right now doesn't have the greatest vocab so that's making the way I talk feel extra not normal. The words I have had to explain to her today are auspicious, flippant, reprimanding, and what a round is. How do you not know what a round is!? It's also weird because even though she speaks Spanish better, I have to explain longer Spanish words to her that have English cognates.  Like Hipócrita or parelelismos. Because she doesn't know what hypocrite or parallelisms are in English she doesn't understand what members are saying to her....

Yeah me and my comp are good. We actually get along perfectly! It's just forced me to work on my patience because she is sooo slow!! She is the nicest though! And I'm actually happier than I was with my other comp because there is a lot less drama and I like running the show. It's just stressful because I'm not sure how good of a job I'm doing. I never get any feedback good or bad. People just tell me to pray and I am like goodness I am praying!!! And He told me to ask you!! It's not like you always get answers from angel visitations or something!!!

On Wednesday we went to visit our investigators in the hospital. Lizbeth Mejias son has leukemia and has been in the hospital a lot lately because the treatments they're giving him make him have almost no immune system. They are very worried that he will die from the common cold. We haven't been able to teach them because she doesn't want anyone to come to their house. She did agree to a blessing though. Obispo and hermano Alfaro came with us but  they didn't remember that she wasn't a member until they started talking to her. Then they explained what a blessing is and gave Sergio one. It was very nice. We were in a meditation room within the hospital. And you could feel the spirit very strongly. I felt an overwhelming approval from God for arranging the blessing. Lizbeth is super solid but she she can't progress right now because we can't teach her and she can't go to church. It's so sad!

On Saturday the elders baptized 6 people! Since I've gotten here mine has been the only area in the ward baptizing except for one so this was super good! Lots of missionaries had taught these people so we had a cute missionary reunion of sorts. Everyone was so happy! We brought our investigator Alessandro and he loved it. The members were joking with him, saying he could just change into white and get baptized too! We had to explain to him that he wasn't ready yet hahahaa. We haven't even taught him the plan of salvation yet!

Gomez' are good. Valerie had a dream that it was the second coming and Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father descended from the sky in front of their house and gave them back Maxi. Everyone was crying because we all realized that even if it doesn't happen exactly that way that dream will happen and they will be reunited. Also max thought the dream was amazing because no too long ago Valerie didn't have hardly any knowledge about what Jesus and Heavenly Father were like let alone what the second coming is.

I can't find Lizbeth Cruz. She stopped going to church and no one is ever at her house. Her number is disconnected. I'm worried about her and the worst part is I think I'm the only one. The ward and my comp don't seem to care. #toomanysheep

There was an earthquake mom! But it wasn't that big. And lots of after shocks!! Saturday night during the millions of after jiggles I woke up, looked around and was like oh it's okay I'm just on the cruise. Feeling comforted I was about to go back to sleep when I realized no I'm not!!! Freaking after jiggles. Disneyland closed for a day but it's back up again. It was very interesting to see who texted us during the earthquake and in what order and what they said. Max Gomez wins the prize for most sincere concern. Successful natural disaster social experiment!!!! I'm pretty sure I'm fine, but if something does happen you can find me with Gomez. :) and then maybe grandma and grandpa smith if any of the trains still work.

No, the Gomez' haven set a date yet. He still needs to take a class to get the Melchizedek priesthood.

They are showing conference in my building. I've told a couple people that's it my birthday but I've tried not to tell too many because I don't want to have to eat 5 times on Sunday. But I'm going to tell my investigators and then invite them to my party at the church. Then when they're there I'm going to be like let's watch my favorite movie. You've probably never heard of it because it just came out today!!

Loveeeeee you!!!!!!!

 

 

Hiiiiii MMMoommmm!!!!!!!

Belated happy saint Patricks day to you too!!!!! I did wear green!! I
stole my comps shirt.

I'm still super excited that Michelle is pregnant too!!!!! Except that
she has been pretty sick. But that just gives me a better excuse to go
over there and help her more. :) Also they finished their temple prep
classes!! I'm so proud of them.*tear* Now Max just needs to get the
Melchizedek priesthood and get their recommends and they can be sealed
for always!!! Yayyy!! They asked Elder Summers to stand in for baby
Maxi. This probably doesn't mean anything to you, but Summers has been
here even longer than I have so he has been a huge part in helping the
Gomez family. He sang with us at the funeral and has helped us teach
them, so he is super close with them too. Haha they told me before
they told him and it was SO hard not to tell him because I was
ridiculously happy about it. When they did tell him everyone was
crying.

I love your service club thing! Not only are you helping others but
you are helping the children learn how to give service too!! Qué
lindo!! Which is a combo of nice, beautiful, and cute all rolled into
one.

I finished el libro de mormón!!!! I'm so pleased with myself haha. Our
stake president asked everyone to read it in the month of March. I
even finished early! I give it a ten out of ten stars. It was so good!
The perfect mixture of action, spirituality, and heartfelt sorrow. It
was so cool to read it that fast in Spanish! I still don't understand
all the words, especially in the Isaiah chapters... But I did learn a
lot of new words! It's so cool when the prophets repeat a word like
five times and then on the fifth you're like ooooohhhhhh they're
talking about robbers!! Or something like that. It was also cool that
a lot of the scriptures made sense just because I've read them in
English so many times. I guess reading the Book of Mormon a million
times was good for something after all!! Haha completely kidding.
Broma! Broma! In order to complete this goal I had to be reading at
any possible moment I could while still keeping on top of everything
else I had to do. This was really hard! But it was good for our
companionship because I think it made her realize that I probably
shouldn't be the only one washing the dishes, calling people, and
updating peoples teaching records. *no bitterness* Plus I lost weight
because I didn't have time to eat. So all in all a good project, but I
am looking forward to being able to clean more often and make gifts
for all the children again.

Somewhere in preach my gospel it quotes a promise that if you read the
Book of Mormon in your mission language you will be fluent. Still
waiting..... Nahhh my Spanish isn't that bad. Still can't understand
my bishops Panamanian accent though. We were teaching this boy named
Eric who is 17 and his mom in Spanish because she doesn't speak
English. But she decided she didn't want to be taught anymore. I guess
he felt bad? Because he has been helping us find more people to teach
in his neighborhood. Anyway, the point of the story is that we were
walking around, me biffy and Eric, and we were speaking English with
him because he speaks that better than Spanish. He had never heard me
speak English before and he told me before he thought my sentence
structure in Spanish was weird because it's not my native language but
now he realizes that I just talk weird no matter what language I'm
speaking. He said maybe you have your own native language? Thank you?
I didn't really know what to say.

We had a really cool ward missionary activity!! It was a tad stressful
because it was all planned last minute but it turned out great. We set
up an obstacle course and put a rope through it that was the "iron
rod". Then we all went to the chapel to talk about what he had learned
about the trials that life brings us. Super insightful! And definitely
helpful to the investigators there! One of ours that was there is
named Alesandro. He is super funny he soaks up everything we tell him
like a sponge. Everything that the members talked about he was just
like YES yes ysysesyesss. He wants to be a better father and person so
badly! His new favorite movie is the one that we gave about the
restoration. He thinks it's super chistoso or funny for some
reason.... And he made his family watch it seven times. Oh dear.

Love you!!!!! Tell Phin happy birthday from me. Hope you are doing
well and staying happy. Mwah!!

Ohhhh and transfers happened but everything is staying the same.
Almost my whole zone is the same! Yayyyyyyyyyyy garden grove. Everyone
at church was like are you leaving???? No???? Ok when do you want to
hang out. And we had a celebration dinner at Gomez complete with made
up song about president Bowen thinking we still have so much to learn
from each other and all that jazz.

Sent from Tommy the iPad

Hola!!

I've been doing ok. My eyes have been super dry and I haven't been
able to stop crying!! I'm not sad though but I feel like I've been
bawling since Friday. This has made me kinda sad. It's just really
annoying. And I don't know what caused it or how to stop it. And it's
not bad enough to go to the doctor or call the nurse.

My friend Whitney Manson, I'm not sure if you know her. She was in our
stake. Well she sent me a talk type thing written by a missionary. In
order to be more successful he wrote down all the things that were
keeping him from feeling the Spirit down on a piece of paper and then
fasted from those things for 40 days. And the end of the 40 days he
was able to testify better. I've been doing this but only one thing at
a time. I didn't have enough faith or strength to do it all at once.


Oh and my mission leader told me to tell you that he says saludables
which means something along the lines of greetings! Except its a
little nicer. And that I'm doing a good job and am a good girl and
that you did a good job doing whatever you did with me.


Love you!!!
Sent from Tommy the iPad

Yes that was Katie's baptism. Isn't she and her brother adorable???
 Obispo Gomez baptized her. She was so nervous for her interview and baptism that she hasn't been able to eat! I was nervous for her interview too..... I kept reminding the elder giving it to make it easy for her haha.

 Guesssss whhaattttt!!!!!! Michelle is pregnant! She is due in October and she thinks it's a boy, I'm so excited for them!!!!! This will be really good for them. I can't believe Ariana died. We weren't super close but we were friends at school. She was one of the nicest people ever with very high standards. We always respected each other a lot. And had a lot of classes together. Wow that's super sad. She would have had a great life.

 One of the families we are teaching (villa señor) has a little boy about four years old. His mom told us that he has taken to sleeping with the restoration folleto. He told her that he loved the Jesus picture on the front and knew they would be safe at night if they slept with it. Isn't that the cutest!!

 Love you!!! I will try to send you pictures later!!!,

 Sent from Tommy the iPad

I forgot to tell you that I went to the temple today and did initiatories!!!!

And I got to see Morley on Sunday because she came to the baptism!!!!!!!

And that I think you might have been born the wrong race. I was
feasting with a table of Argentinian women on Sunday because Katie's
mom is from there. They were making fun of me for speaking Mexican
Spanish and teaching me cool new words. They also all reminded me of
you.

Hello!!

Michelle basically passed her immigration thing but it could still be repealed. But she is not worried about it. Yeah, she has been really depressed lately about her son. It is so hard to watch, especially since I don't feel like I can help her in anyway. I think they will be fine eventually. Right now they are on the right path and using the gospel for strength. They are still working towards going to the temple. But if they ever stop, especially after I get transferred I don't know what I'll do! I think they should have more children.

Katie is adorable. She will be baptized this Sunday. I'm so excited!!! I'm worried about her interview though. She has a very bad memory, but we have been quizzing her and we made flash cards for her so she will hopefully remember everything. Her mom is back as far as her testimony is concerned but church attendance is hard for her because of her job. Because they went to Argentina for a month she has been working overtime and she is not in a position to ask for Sundays off. But she has this Sunday off!

I think all of gods children's lives are a lot more similar than we realize. Sure we live in a country where we don't have physical hardships, but that doesn't mean we don't go through anything. Tango lessons, clothes and food aren't everything. If anything they distract us from what we are actually supposed to be doing. Also you have to take into account that people experience their trials in comparison to what else they have experienced. Even though the facts are different, everyone feels a certain  amount of heartache and misery. God puts people where they will best be able to learn to be like him. Sometimes I feel like I haven't gone through any trials, and it makes me angry when people talk about how they wouldn't be the same person without (insert terrible life problem here). This problem has been further amplified by the fact that I got sent to easiest mission ever. Perfect weather, nice people, America, etc. But then I remember the times when I was really really sad for little reason. I didn't know how to handle it because I didn't have any actual misfortune to compare it to.  But my feelings were still real. And terrible. Even if I was just being a baby. Hopefully you can make some sense out of that.

Love you!!!!!!!

Sent from Tommy the iPad

 I hope he goes to a Mormon school! One of my best friends went to BYU Idaho for a year and then was convinced by one of his teachers to go on a mission.

Thanks for the update on everyone. I appreciate it. I hope you guys are all happy. I know I am! I love being with my new companion so much! Everything is super easy now and I'm completely  addicted to missionary work. I'm also addicted to my iPad. At the risk of this email turning into an advertisement I would like to mention how AWESOME it is. I named it Tommy. He makes everything easier to do!

Harrison (my car) had to get a new tire again! This time it wasn't my fault though. A piece of metal got stuck in his poor tire! We had an unexpected meeting the next day until 4 so we couldn't fix it until the afternoon and it took forever! We had to reschedule so many things! I wanted to be out teaching so bad but I just had to take a breathe and tell myself not to feel guilty. It is so hard to find people again if you don't go to the cita because they all work like 3 jobs.

Katie came back! I can't remember if I told you about her. She is the nine year old daughter of a less active member named Mercaides. She was supposed to be baptized in January but then they left to visit family in Argentina for a month! I missed them so much! But now they're back!

Because Morley left, I don't get to see the Gomez family as often. I knew this would happen when she left. In fact I did it to myself. It doesn't make sense to visit people who are fully active now. And I knew Biffath wouldn't want to see them everyday because she is not attached to them. So I purposefully only scheduled them in once a week, maybe twice if they feed us. But it's so hard because the girls don't understand! They always ask me to come tomorrow but I can't because we really don't have time. And Michelle and max still need us. She had to get a lawyer because they are filing child abuse claims against her. They want to make it so that she can't a job working with children. They are both still very sad and cry. It's just hard not being able to be there for them, when I still live here. I kinda want to be transferred for this reason.

I love you!!!

Thank you thank you thank you! For the package, it was very nice. That shirt is so cute. I wore it to my "Anaheim mission would like to give you an iPad" meeting and I got a lot of compliments! Also the hearts were cute. Tell Lucy yes. Everything was good. Thanks.

That service thing is a wonderful idea!

Sorry I didn't email you last week. I ran out of time. It ran into a curb and had to get a new tire! Luckily I'm a princess, ahem, I mean missionary and all expenses were paid for.

I get mail on Mondays and Wednesdays so it doesn't really matter when you send things. I have gotten way less picky mom! I never have time to buy anything and I have to stay in a certain place so choices are limited. I would be happy with anything! As long as you like it too.

I do have a new companion! Her name is Hna Biffath. She is from West Jordan. It is going absolutely fantastic. We've been in the same district since I came her so we were already best friends. Haha of course I lucked out again! Except luck isn't really the right word. I basically picked her a month ago. I won't bother you with Anaheim mission politics but all you need to know is that I'm not planning on facing reality anytime soon.

 I got an iPad! It is super nice and I love it, but it takes some getting used to. I think I will buy one when I get back. I'm already addicted.

My ward is pushing member missionary work too. It is great! Yesterday
we took this couple knocking and we taught this lady who invited us
in. We taught her for an hour and a half and now she wants to be
baptized! The best part is I didn't even do anything! We just taught
and the members extended all the commitments!

Hola!

 

That sounds crazy! I wonder why it is so cold.

 

A lot of the youth in the ward here behave very badly. They cuss and talk in English because their parents don't understand them. The younger adults do, but no one really knows what to do about it. Nearly everyone is a recent convert or has always been in a ward full of recent converts so no one really knows what it is supposed to be like. Even the bishop doesn't know all the rules, or he knows them but doesn't understand their importance. It is really frustrating, because as missionaries it is not our job to correct the bishop or do half of the things we do for the ward, but because it is so bad a lot of the missionaries "tell" on him to the Stake President or the Mission President. Anyways, Max Gomez got called to be in the Young Mens presidency!! Even though he is so new and unfamiliar with the church, he has a deep sense of what is right and wrong and he wants to help these boys out. I think he will be able to make a difference.

 

Sergio Ortiz got the priesthood yesterday. His family was there with him and it was very touching. He is such a sweet boy and he loves giving his family hugs and kisses haha. Max says him and this other kid are the only ones who pay attention in class and that he gets all the answers right! I don't think the other boys are nice to him at all. It is amazing that he likes going to church so much.

 

Valerie Gomez was baptized yesterday. Even though it wasn't technically "our" baptism, it still felt like it was because we set it all up and we were stressed out about it haha. Also, we've been teaching her and her family since October and we love her just as much if not more than any of our investigators. She is the sweetest girl ever. She reminds me a lot of Ibby. She was HYPER all day yesterday because she was so excited to get baptized.

 

This is my last week with Morley which is super weird! Have a good week!! Love you!!!

 

Lizbeth is doing pretty well at church, the members are all being super nice to her. Lizbeth and Oscar are both sweethearts so it's not that hard to get a long with them. Michelle is still her main friend. They haven't even given the Gomezs callings yet! So no. Yes, having a Spanish ward is such a blessing. It's almost more of a cultural thing than a language thing though. Most of the ward has both moved to America and been introduced to the gospel within the last 10 years. So it's definitely different. Last week was Stake Conference. The whole stake is Spanish. And it is HUGE. They had a separate chapel for those who were better watching it in English, so all the missionaries, mixed couples,  and people under 25 went to that room, haha.

 

Haha sorry about "my little note". But I was really sacred too! And I don't have anyone else to tell anything to! That guy was caught, so we're all good. President was about to pull us out of our area! Wouldn't that have been terrible! The mission office would call you if something happened to me.

 

Michelle is taking an immigration test tommorrow. Me and Morley have been quizzing them on this one test about their relationship with eachother. They have to prove so many weird things. Make sure to keep any and all pictures of me that prove I was where I said I was at all times just in case I marry an illegal and he wants to get a green card. Also, pray for her! It would be really sad if she got deported.

 

We were talking to a member yesterday who was helping us find people. Her name is Dania. She is a convert of 2 years and when we asked her how the missionaries found her she said they were chasing ducks unsuccessfully and asked her if she thought she could catch one. After she caught one with some bread they asked if they could teach her. I don't think this method is in Preach My Gospel, but I'm glad it worked! Dania is awesome.

 

 

Letter to Matthew

Hola!

 

We still haven't gotten our Ipads yet. They keep pushing back the date. I really want mine because I think it will be so much easier to not have to carry so much stuff around. And it will be easier to keep the area book. But I agree that shaing those videos with people sounds super weird. I think I will stick to using the scriptures and testifying. I'm also worried that having Ipads will distance us more form the people we teach. I felt like they respected us a lot more when we didn't have a car. Every sign of wealth that we have scares them into thinking that we won't understand them.

 

Why is it so cold there?? And is it just Illinois?

 

That's so cool that they want to serve a mission. That is what Elder and Sister Collette do in my mission. They are really good at it. Apparently before they came here, all the apartments were super ghetto and not entirely safe. Now they are all super high quality and they standardized all the furniture and the appliances. (Matthew's parents are going to serve as missionaries in their area starting in April).

 

OBBPCT is going well I guess. Right now the Cruz family has someone else living with them. A workmate of Oscar's. He is super nice and wears University of Illinois Sweatshirts even though he doesn't know where that is. We have taught him with Lizbeth and Oscar a couple times now, mostly answering random questions about the Book of Mormon and differences in between Catholicism and Mormonism. But he doesn't seem very interested. Apparently he has been telling people at work about us and making fun of Oscar for letting us visit them, so Lizbeth is keeping her baptism a secret from him.

 

Also, now that Lizbeth is baptized, the ward randomly decided to be super helpful. We had been begging members to help us with her ever since we got here but I don't think they took us very seriously. Now they are all obsessed with her and her family. Better late than never I guess.

 

Right now we are teaching a million recent converts, because we have our own and we found one that everyone forgot about from about a year ago. Also we have one that the English ward baptized and then decided maybe she would understand Spanish better. They are all super nice and people I would have been friends with in high school. Do you remember Kasia? They are the kind of people that would be in the friend group that me and her put together. Especially the Luna family. Jeannette is the one who was baptized a year ago. She is 19 and married to Julio who has always been a member, and they have a little baby girl. When we go over there to talk to them about faith, they start talking about the Law of Attraction where if you think good things will happen they will, gracias a Dios. And then Julio breaks into some random rock song and then proposes some sort of eating contest. It's great. Also Julio is best friends with Abraham Torres (Michelle's brother) so we might start including him in their lessons too.

 

I read that section in the Doctrine and Covenants. I want to study it further, but I think fullness is referring to all the knowledge/light/truth that God wants to give to us so that we can reach our potential of being like him. Apparently getting all of it at once would be breaking an eternal law.

Good Morning!

Thank you for their addresses! Can you buy me a watch? Because I'm allergic to the one I have. I don't know if it's because of the material it's made out of or if I'm just allergic to keeping track of time or what. I don't know, but it's giving me a rash. Also could you send me face lotion that is ultra hydrating? My skin is soo dryyy. And I can't find any type of face lotion here at all. I thought that was a normal thing to buy. Also could you send me a llama? And one of those things that makes it easier to put boots on? And confetti? Just kidding. But I'm serious about the watch and the lotion. Don't go to dress barn. I want a different grey skirt por favor.

It is really warm here. I spent my MLK day sun bathing with Valerie.

Wowww that couple sounds uptight. I recommend teaching pregnant illegal immigrants. They're so much nicer. Did I tell you about that one girl that started having contractions in one of our lessons?

Can I guest author for the one about how no one in California speaks English even though it is technically part of America? We can have all the vocab be in Spanglish with asian people yelling in the background.

So Lizbeth got baptized!!!!!! Yayyyyyyyyyy!!!!! I'm so excited. Finally! I've been teaching her from October 9th, my second day in the field. We went out knocking because we didn't have any investigators. (The Elders before us were too creepy to have any of those). We knocked on her door and started telling her about who we were and what the restored gospel was. Then she invited us in and we taught her about the Book of Mormon. I was like YO! You should totes read el libro de mormon guuurrl. And she was like claro que si! I totes will!! And then she agreed to be baptized and has been awesome ever since. Jesucristo for the win.

She told us a super cool story the other day. Apparently around Christmas they didn't have enough money to buy a Christmas tree. Both of her boys were super bummed and that's what they wanted for Christmas more than anything else. The first time we brought Michelle with us, she brought a little Christmas Tree to them just to be nice. (Michelle is famous for her thoughtfulness.) At the time Lizbeth did seem pretty happy to receive a dinky Christmas tree from a stranger. But she told us later that that is when she for sure decided to be in Jesus's church. Because she knew that if God loved her and her family so much, that he had some random Mormon give her family a Christmas tree then she should probably do what she knew what was right all along and be baptized.

Step 2 of Operation Baptism Because of Pequeno Christmas Tree: Get the rest of her family baptized.

Maybe its just the way Hermana Morley teaches (she comes from a family who watches rated R movies too) but if something isn't a direct commandment we tell people it's not a sin and that they can make their own decision. People really like making their own decisions. Was the guy who talked about dating a lot Brother Ames? Because he has given me that speech on multiple occasions. It was like he thought I thought I had found my one true love in high school and didn't realize there were other people out there. He seemed very worried about it. I recommend not telling him dad didn't date. So what did you say??? Haha I miss you. And your liberalism.

We had a lesson this week with an AWESOME family. The Castalans are beyond nice. They asked a lot of questions about missionaries and what we thought we were doing. Once we explained it she had each of her kids individually thank us for coming to their house and telling them more about God. And then she told them to pray and thank God too. It was so cute. She is under the impression that her family sorely need more religion in their life if two random girls showed up at their door wanting to talk to them. I think she is right.

We took Lizbeth to the temple tour on Saturday. Michelle has been going to all our lessons with her so she was there with us too. It was very special. You can always feel the Spirit so strongly at the temple. Michelle and Lizbeth have become really good friends. It is the most adorable thing I've ever seen!!! Me and Morley were walking behind them at Newport and they were giggling with each other and rubbing each other's backs. (They're both super short which makes it even cuter) Me and Morley look at each other and were like "awwww" an unforced friendship!

We also helped set up and attended a wedding reception for a daughter of a member of our ward. We've only met her about 4 times but each time we talk for an hour so we're pretty close. We probably shouldn't have gone to the reception though.... But it was so much fun!!! Mexicans really know how to party.

Did you know??????

You can make a cake with solely a boxed cake mix and a can of soda?

Hermana Estudillo got married two weeks ago without telling anyone??? Her and her husband are both in our ward and we spend a lot of time with them. They've been dating for decades and then moved in with each other two weeks ago secretly!!! I'm furious.

Both of the companions I've had so far have a mutual ex boyfriend???????????

I speak perfect Spanish in my sleep??? Course of action: spend rest of mission not awake.

I love you!!!!