Happy Groundhog Day!

Wow, I completely forgot about that. We don't have winter here. It's a beautiful day.

Jesus didn't get baptized!

On Tuesday he decided that he was getting baptized for sure. He really wanted to get the gift of the Holy Ghost as soon as possible.

On Wednesday we went to the temple to walk around and he still seemed super solid. He said it still hadn't hit him that he was really getting baptized.

Thursday and Friday the same. He seemed completely calm and fine.

On Saturday he had his interview and he did really well! Dehlin said he is definitely ready to be baptized. Then he texted us after that and started freaking out! Apparently it "hit" him that he was getting baptized during the interview. He was hanging out with a friend who was trying to convince him not to get baptized. So then he spent that whole night researching the church. He got into a lot of anti Mormon stuff. He didn't go to sleep until six because he was so worried about it. Then he woke up at six thirty because he was still worried about it.

Which takes us to Sunday morning when he texted us that he can't get baptized because he didn't believe that Joseph Smith is a prophet. We were like can we come over and talk to you????

But then! And this is where it gets confusing so hold on. He texted back and said yeah I'll just come early to church so we can talk.  Bingham and I looked at each other so confused. He's coming to church???? So he came to church and told us all his doubts. He stayed all three hours stumbling around from lack of sleep. He really liked testimony meeting. He was fasting, too! The elders got super concerned and sat him down to have a talk but he couldn't process anything because he was so out of it. We told him go home and take a nap! And then when you wake up break your fast. And then as a side note we added, do you want to come to someone else' baptism with us tonight? He said yes but we were sure he wouldn't make it because once you take a nap after not sleeping you don't get back up right? Am I right??!! But then he did come and it was all the way in Cypress which is suuupperrr west. He got to meet president Taggart. I asked him if he ate and he HADN'T. So miracle of miracles I find him a delicious spearmint dark chocolate chip cookie and forced him to break his fast. "But I need help!" He said. "You need food" I replied. So he said the prayer to end his fast right then and there in the middle of a crowd of members from Buena Park with all their crazy niños running everywhere. Then we watched the baptism. It was really nice. He said that it gave him a spiritual energy boost and that it made him really happy.

So where are we at now?? I have no idea. I'm so confused by him. He's coming tonight to the Noche de hogar. It's his first time because his crazy calculus class finally ended!

Sorry I told that story so crazy. I don't have a lot of time today and that's how I would tell it to you if I was in person anyway so I guess we're going for the realistic style this week.

Enviado desde mi iPad

Happy Monday!!

We wake up at 6:30 everyday. It's a rule! I'm sorry you're so tired.

Last Tuesday night Jesus decided that he was going to pray about whether or not to be be baptized and then turn to a random page in the Book of Mormon and read the chapter there. The first passage he read was about infant baptism so he decided to try again. The next chapter he read was about the importance of baptism in general and told the story of when Alma baptized a bunch of people. He definitely got an answer but in our lesson on Wednesday he lied to us and said he didn't! We assumed he hadn't recognized it or something because it was so obvious!

That night he came to the very end of institute after his class. (Fun fact: We have an institute building on the campus of Santa Ana College.) He wanted to talk to us after before playing pool with the other kids. He started by apologizing to us about being so hesitant. We let him go on and on apologizing until I interrupted him. "Jesus!" I said, "You haven't been that hesitant. You meet with us everyday in the thirty minutes you have between work and your intercession calculus class. You read the Book of Mormon and pray everyday. You go to church with us. Even right now you're at institute with us. What are you being hesitant about?" 

After that I'm not entirely sure what everyone said because it was entirely guided by the spirit. Over the course of my mission I've felt the spirit less and less strongly while I'm talking to people because I learned how to speak Spanish and that God trusts me to say the right thing without help. At first it would always tug on me to make sure I would say the right thing. But this conversation must have been super important to God! Because he completely took over and basically dragged me through the dirt with the spirit! It hurt so much! And my companion was really confused. I'm not really sure what I said but it was crazy.

Basically what it summed up to was that I got him to admit he was hesitant about baptism even though he'd gotten a clear answer. Then I promised him he would feel prepared by the time of his baptism if he did everything we asked. I showed him a calendar and let him choose when he wanted to get baptized. I thought he was going to pick April but he picked February 1st!

He's still working on feeling prepared. He has trust issues with God. After our lesson yesterday he said one of the most sincere prayers I have heard. He told God that he really wants to be baptized and he asked him if he could please take away the part of him that doesn't want to be baptized. He started crying. We will see of his prayer is answered or not.

Henry blessed the sacrament yesterday! He looked so pleased with himself. I feel like he gets more joy than the average person out of doing the right thing. Oh! And last Monday at the Noche de hogar he told me he wants to serve a mission! He asked me lots of questions about what it's like. He also asked lots of questions about snow and Illinois. He wants to serve either in Guatemala or English speaking to learn English.

Everything is staying the same for transfers. All the girls are staying, too. One companionship is getting a baby though! So they will be in a trio and now we are over 15 hermanas! She's from Mexico and is part deaf. She can read lips perfectly but only in Spanish. So that should be fun!

We had a seven hour long meeting with the proselyting department from Salt Lake. They are so pumped! And it made me feel like anything is possible.

We met this new kid named Pedro who is also from Guatemala and doesn't speak English. He is really sweet! He is looking for a church with order so he was super impressed with church at the Greenville building. It's one of the biggest chapels in the world and there are a million classrooms and Mormons there. His first language is actually a lengua from there called chesckA? Or something like that. So it's super weird because he will slip into his lengua when he doesn't know a phrase in Spanish and we're all like whahhhhh???? Switch back to Spanish! And then he gets mad when we switch into Spanglish because he doesn't understand it and he reminds us that he's not Mexican. Lessons with him will be fun.

We're also teaching this guy named Ozzie. We got him from a member as a facebook referral. But then we saw him on the street one day and we recognized him. We flagged him down and we're all like are you Ozzie?!?!? He was really confused and we asked him if a random white girl messaged him on facebook. He was like yeah.... I said, "That was me! Why didn't you respond?" He tried to comfort us and he accepted a Book of Mormon but didn't seem that interested in being taught. That was a couple weeks ago and he messaged us and told us he's in 1 Nephi 12 and if we could please meet to explain some parts of it. Now he wants to be baptized! He works a lot so it might take awhile to teach him.

Have a great week! Love you!

Sent from my iPad

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!