Hello Everyone! I hope ya’ll are having a wonderful snow-filled week while I am freezing here in Mesa when the temperature drops down to 50.
Well, the beginning of my week was filled with sister Dyer. She is so fun. She is the type of person where you can easily pick up on her personality, words and characteristics. So we had lots of fun together. Most of the time we had together was p-day, so we didn’t do much other than wash, write, and eat… but it was nice to take a break. Sister Dyer is now Full Field with Hna Tejada, who went from spanish to English speaking. The possibilities are endless. Actually its funny because I’ve heard rumors of the mission going bi-lingual. Which would be interesting. Anyway, I love sister dyer and I know that she will help Hna Tejada pop more so out of her shell.
Wednesday I got Hna McKenna! I love my MTC companion. But there are things that have changed. Which is understandable. One of the biggest things we ‘fight’ over is the temperature. I am used to having a room at 80 degrees (past companions…) and she can’t handle it. So she likes it down to 70 or so and I just freeze at night. So I turn it up every once in a while to warm up and she eventually turns it down. It’s highly entertaining. I now sleep with my sweatshirt, long pants, and socks on (as opposed to the shorts and t-shirt of before).
Another thing is that she is tired all the time. Which yeah, we’re missionaries, but it’s not normal to be that tired. Maybe it’s just cause I’m lazy and don’t work as hard as she does. Plus getting used to a new area is always difficult. Or so I’ve heard. I haven’t changed areas. But it’s still fun to be with her.
We work well together and of course, because we have the same amount of experience, we have no idea what we are doing. When Hna Hndz and Lopez left, our teaching pool was dwindling. And now it is becoming smaller. So we are working on the investigators that are actually progressing (in other words, working with them more so they actually progress) or work on trying to find new families to teach. It is extremely difficult when the leads we get don’t work out. We have a couple of referrals that we are trying to contact, but they are never home. It’s a problem.
One of the first things we did during our weekly planning was organizing the apartment. We put of the white board and got that organized with our investigators and goals. We got a map of our area (because I don’t know the boundaries of my area) and we now update the area book nightly as opposed to weekly. I feel so much more organized.
So, as for our investigators: We are making good progress with Irma. She really loved the Fireside and we talked with her a bit yesterday, because she wasn’t able to go to church. She did say that she wanted to be baptized, but we didn’t set a date because she was hesitant. But we will ask her at our next appointment.
Also, beatriz came to church, which is a big step in the right direction. She has been an ancient investigator and is interesting. She is upset because he kids don’t listen to her (parenting style…) and her house is never clean (well, what do you expect to happen when you don’t let the dog outside…). She wants a new job (doesn’t have an education past 3rd grade) and is just frustrated with life. Understandable. So we are working on developing faith.
We had a really good lesson with Judith yesterday and 2 of the 3 kids. The kids are crazy and don’t pay attention so we acted out Nephi building the boat. Tons of fun and the kids (and Judith) loved it.
Nancy and Manuel came to church! We haven’t been able to meet with them but they came so that’s progress, right?
And there is more drama on the Cristina Front: apparently Alma (member living with) changed the locks on the door so Cristina, who had her daughter Amanda with her, couldn’t get in. So Cristina called the police. The Sanchez family (who owns the apartment and is renting it to Alma) refused to take sides between the two and Hno Pimienta got dragged into it. So Cristina didn’t have a place to stay that night. She sent us a text and I was like, what am I supposed to do? I can’t find someone else for you to live with. I guess she asked a lot of people for help because we got a text an hour later saying that Ricardo had found enough money for them to get a motel room for the night. The next night she was at her dads and then I don’t know what. She needs a place to live and a job by today or she is in violation of her probation. She is in trouble. Entonces…We haven’t been able to meet with her a lot this week. She did come to church.
Adrian we haven’t seen nor heard from. He avoids all of us and this is a problem.
We have two new sisters: Mckee and Harvegson. I haven’t gotten to know them very much but they seem to be pretty cool
So that’s my life! I love you lots and hope to hear from you soon!
Monday, February 28, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Transfer News
Happy P-day people!
Well, as you can guess, this has been an extremely busy week. I am getting ready to send home my two companions, Hermana Lopez y Hernandez. They are finally going home. It’s bitter sweet, as with most things on the mission. Anyway, this week, they needed to say goodbye to so many people. So that mean that we went out to lunch many times with people. We went over to the Youngs (a senior couple at the VC) home and had a wonderful soup. Elder Young is allergic to gluten. Its amazing what you have to find to feed people with food allergies. Poor man. But it was a lot of fun. The Youngs are very kind and sweet. I love the Youngs. The other person we ate lunch at was Sister Valentino’s. She is a lady that houses some of the sisters and just loves the missionaries to pieces. She always has us over before we go home. It was so much fun because we all put on shorts under our skirts and jumped on the trampoline for a while. It was the first time that Hna Lopez had done such a dangerous game and had a hard time keeping balance. It’s funny what we here in America consider universal, when to others it’s a foreign object.
Another meal-date we had was with the Zone Monday morning. Elder Harral (Zone leader) is being transferred out to Apache Junction. Sad Day! I really like him because he is really sincere. So we got together to say our last goodbyes and have some breakfast fun. After that (and five bajillion pictures) we finally go over to this place called Crackers and Co. for breakfast with President Smith (branch) and his wife. They are really fun and it was so nice. Three of the 5 missionaries are going home from our branch. Yikes. But it was fun to listen to Babylonia music and talk about what they are going to do when they get home. We’re all betting Hernadez out of Hernandez, Lopez y Clark gets married first. She disagrees. The last meal we had with people was with the Whites from the VC. They take out the VC sisters that are going home, the month’s birthdays and their companions for dinner. We went out to this Thai place on Main street and it was pretty fun. There was this one dish that I wanted to try just because of it’s name:Evil Jungle Princess. Doesn’t that sound appealing? I didn’t get it though, just because it had a whole bunch of exactly I don’t know what in it.
Anyway, The rest of the week was just crazy. We have had to randomly go into the VC for last minute meetings for sister hernandez and just a lot of random stuff that we have to do. For this past week I just feel like I’ve been following Sister Hernandez around, because I have nothing to do and she has to do everything before she leaves. Anyway. The comps have been trying to pack all week. It’s been entertaining. I wonder what it’ll be like for me trying to pack. Henanadez is so sentimental that she has to take anything that was a gifted and Lopez has to take everything home. I finally figured out that she wanted to take a lot home because she wouldn’t have it in Bolivia. So she has to take it home now. It would be interesting what she would have taken had there been no weight limit. As for me, I plan on leaving a lot of stuff here, because, well, I wont need it. Lots of clothes and silly knick knacks.
The other highlight of this week was a Spanish Fireside. Pres Ellsworth trades off every other month having a english or Spanish fireside and having RC talk about their conversion. Generally missionaries are to bring their investigators to it. And one of ours came! Irma has been on and off for the past while but its looking like she is making really good progress. So that was a lot of fun. A few of the companionships sang songs in between testimonies. My comps, Scott y Clark and McKenna and Nishiguchi sang Divina Luz (lead kindly light) for it. It was fun. We drove up with Hno Pimienta in his minivan with Scott y Clark. And we just had a ball. Of course, Brother Pepper made sure we had fun. Road Trip to Phoenix!
During this past week Sister Dyer and I have been comps for an unusual amount of time. The other day we went to a seminary class at one of the High schools and we talked about missionary work! It was so much fun! Mainly because the kids paid attention to us. The teacher had some questions for us about what our missions are like, what we would have changed preparing and how we see the world differently. So we talked about the differences between english and Spanish speaking-english area work. It is a huge difference in case you didn’t know. I am having a hard time being not jealous of the english sisters. So, I spoke of how difficult it was to get members to help (seeing as one of our members told Pres Smith and Hno Pimienta that they weren’t doing their callings correctly or following the Lord’s way, it has become quite interesting). Whereas Sister Dyer has yet to baptize someone over 16. She has had like 6 or so and most of them have been high school friends being member missionaries. How cool is that! Anyway, as for how I would have prepared, well, seeing as we were talking to seminary students, we talked about paying attention in class. More personally I talked about developing a relationship with Heavenly Father. Changed views, we both talked about seeing people as children of God. It was a great experience.
Okay, transfers happen every 6 weeks, you ready for this? Generally we are supposed to get a call by 10:30 pm by our District Leaders. Elder Armour didn’t call until 11:15. So I was asleep and, well, you know how it goes when you get a phone call and you are still half a sleep. So ya’ll ready for transfer news, seeing as I killed (AKA sent home) my two companions? Alright, I am staying in my area, and my new companion will be SISTER MCKENNA! Oh holy cow, this is going to be interesting. We are going to have no idea what the heck we are doing but according to some of the ‘seasoned’ missionaries, young companionships are the best because they try to follow the spirit more as opposed to habit. Lucky us! I am insanely excited about this.
So, as for getting the sisters to the mission home, the Hnas rapidly packed as fast as they could because we wanted to go out to lunch before we had to be at the VC for the Crandalls (a family we went to Tia Rosa’s with and they lived with) to take them to the mission office. But alas, they failed, so we went to Filibertos and grabbed something to eat. We chilled on the steps to the VC. It took everyone forever and a half to say goodbye. I love them but I don’t think I feel bad about not crying when they left. I don’t believe that goodbyes are forever so why cry about it. I’ll see you again someday. Happy thoughts. Anyway, I was companionless so I was supposed to get sister Dyer because her comp, sister Allen was going home too. Well, sister Allen is known for being late. Not a little bit late, but a lot late. So we waited an hour or so and they finally showed up.
It was hilarious because some members, well a member Jeana and her excommunicated boyfriend, Danny, who is working on getting back into the church, were going to take her. Sister Dyer wanted to go with her, but you have to have 3 females to every male and vice versa so I ended up going with them to Scottsdale. Against the rules? Who knows, but we did it anyway. It was so fun. I hadn’t laughed that much in a long time. Danny is an ex army special forces but a huge teddy bear that is amazingly kind. His truck is named Leroy and he has to open the doors for the women and refused to let us take the luggage from the truck. I was like, well I feel useless as a female. So he explained it that as men, they have the responsibility to respect and protect their queens and priestesses. He said a lot more about it but I like it.
After more good byes to sister Hernandez we finally piled back into Leroy. Hna hernandez whispered that she wanted me to let her know if I was going to go home honorably (meaning leaving the mission to marry greg). I don’t know if she was joking or not… Anyway, we got some ice cream at DQ and then over to his place where he fixed us all deer and elk stakes. Pretty good stuff. We had some fun looking at some pics he took (he loves taking pictures) and we tried teaching Jeana’s 5 year old daughter the 10 commandments. But she was way tired. So finished up and came to my apartment and had a party! I love sister Dyer!
So that was my week. Slightly emotionally draining but its all better now that I have Sister Dyer until Wednesday and sister McKenna for this transfer! See you all next week!
Well, as you can guess, this has been an extremely busy week. I am getting ready to send home my two companions, Hermana Lopez y Hernandez. They are finally going home. It’s bitter sweet, as with most things on the mission. Anyway, this week, they needed to say goodbye to so many people. So that mean that we went out to lunch many times with people. We went over to the Youngs (a senior couple at the VC) home and had a wonderful soup. Elder Young is allergic to gluten. Its amazing what you have to find to feed people with food allergies. Poor man. But it was a lot of fun. The Youngs are very kind and sweet. I love the Youngs. The other person we ate lunch at was Sister Valentino’s. She is a lady that houses some of the sisters and just loves the missionaries to pieces. She always has us over before we go home. It was so much fun because we all put on shorts under our skirts and jumped on the trampoline for a while. It was the first time that Hna Lopez had done such a dangerous game and had a hard time keeping balance. It’s funny what we here in America consider universal, when to others it’s a foreign object.
Another meal-date we had was with the Zone Monday morning. Elder Harral (Zone leader) is being transferred out to Apache Junction. Sad Day! I really like him because he is really sincere. So we got together to say our last goodbyes and have some breakfast fun. After that (and five bajillion pictures) we finally go over to this place called Crackers and Co. for breakfast with President Smith (branch) and his wife. They are really fun and it was so nice. Three of the 5 missionaries are going home from our branch. Yikes. But it was fun to listen to Babylonia music and talk about what they are going to do when they get home. We’re all betting Hernadez out of Hernandez, Lopez y Clark gets married first. She disagrees. The last meal we had with people was with the Whites from the VC. They take out the VC sisters that are going home, the month’s birthdays and their companions for dinner. We went out to this Thai place on Main street and it was pretty fun. There was this one dish that I wanted to try just because of it’s name:Evil Jungle Princess. Doesn’t that sound appealing? I didn’t get it though, just because it had a whole bunch of exactly I don’t know what in it.
Anyway, The rest of the week was just crazy. We have had to randomly go into the VC for last minute meetings for sister hernandez and just a lot of random stuff that we have to do. For this past week I just feel like I’ve been following Sister Hernandez around, because I have nothing to do and she has to do everything before she leaves. Anyway. The comps have been trying to pack all week. It’s been entertaining. I wonder what it’ll be like for me trying to pack. Henanadez is so sentimental that she has to take anything that was a gifted and Lopez has to take everything home. I finally figured out that she wanted to take a lot home because she wouldn’t have it in Bolivia. So she has to take it home now. It would be interesting what she would have taken had there been no weight limit. As for me, I plan on leaving a lot of stuff here, because, well, I wont need it. Lots of clothes and silly knick knacks.
The other highlight of this week was a Spanish Fireside. Pres Ellsworth trades off every other month having a english or Spanish fireside and having RC talk about their conversion. Generally missionaries are to bring their investigators to it. And one of ours came! Irma has been on and off for the past while but its looking like she is making really good progress. So that was a lot of fun. A few of the companionships sang songs in between testimonies. My comps, Scott y Clark and McKenna and Nishiguchi sang Divina Luz (lead kindly light) for it. It was fun. We drove up with Hno Pimienta in his minivan with Scott y Clark. And we just had a ball. Of course, Brother Pepper made sure we had fun. Road Trip to Phoenix!
During this past week Sister Dyer and I have been comps for an unusual amount of time. The other day we went to a seminary class at one of the High schools and we talked about missionary work! It was so much fun! Mainly because the kids paid attention to us. The teacher had some questions for us about what our missions are like, what we would have changed preparing and how we see the world differently. So we talked about the differences between english and Spanish speaking-english area work. It is a huge difference in case you didn’t know. I am having a hard time being not jealous of the english sisters. So, I spoke of how difficult it was to get members to help (seeing as one of our members told Pres Smith and Hno Pimienta that they weren’t doing their callings correctly or following the Lord’s way, it has become quite interesting). Whereas Sister Dyer has yet to baptize someone over 16. She has had like 6 or so and most of them have been high school friends being member missionaries. How cool is that! Anyway, as for how I would have prepared, well, seeing as we were talking to seminary students, we talked about paying attention in class. More personally I talked about developing a relationship with Heavenly Father. Changed views, we both talked about seeing people as children of God. It was a great experience.
Okay, transfers happen every 6 weeks, you ready for this? Generally we are supposed to get a call by 10:30 pm by our District Leaders. Elder Armour didn’t call until 11:15. So I was asleep and, well, you know how it goes when you get a phone call and you are still half a sleep. So ya’ll ready for transfer news, seeing as I killed (AKA sent home) my two companions? Alright, I am staying in my area, and my new companion will be SISTER MCKENNA! Oh holy cow, this is going to be interesting. We are going to have no idea what the heck we are doing but according to some of the ‘seasoned’ missionaries, young companionships are the best because they try to follow the spirit more as opposed to habit. Lucky us! I am insanely excited about this.
So, as for getting the sisters to the mission home, the Hnas rapidly packed as fast as they could because we wanted to go out to lunch before we had to be at the VC for the Crandalls (a family we went to Tia Rosa’s with and they lived with) to take them to the mission office. But alas, they failed, so we went to Filibertos and grabbed something to eat. We chilled on the steps to the VC. It took everyone forever and a half to say goodbye. I love them but I don’t think I feel bad about not crying when they left. I don’t believe that goodbyes are forever so why cry about it. I’ll see you again someday. Happy thoughts. Anyway, I was companionless so I was supposed to get sister Dyer because her comp, sister Allen was going home too. Well, sister Allen is known for being late. Not a little bit late, but a lot late. So we waited an hour or so and they finally showed up.
It was hilarious because some members, well a member Jeana and her excommunicated boyfriend, Danny, who is working on getting back into the church, were going to take her. Sister Dyer wanted to go with her, but you have to have 3 females to every male and vice versa so I ended up going with them to Scottsdale. Against the rules? Who knows, but we did it anyway. It was so fun. I hadn’t laughed that much in a long time. Danny is an ex army special forces but a huge teddy bear that is amazingly kind. His truck is named Leroy and he has to open the doors for the women and refused to let us take the luggage from the truck. I was like, well I feel useless as a female. So he explained it that as men, they have the responsibility to respect and protect their queens and priestesses. He said a lot more about it but I like it.
After more good byes to sister Hernandez we finally piled back into Leroy. Hna hernandez whispered that she wanted me to let her know if I was going to go home honorably (meaning leaving the mission to marry greg). I don’t know if she was joking or not… Anyway, we got some ice cream at DQ and then over to his place where he fixed us all deer and elk stakes. Pretty good stuff. We had some fun looking at some pics he took (he loves taking pictures) and we tried teaching Jeana’s 5 year old daughter the 10 commandments. But she was way tired. So finished up and came to my apartment and had a party! I love sister Dyer!
So that was my week. Slightly emotionally draining but its all better now that I have Sister Dyer until Wednesday and sister McKenna for this transfer! See you all next week!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Happy V-Day!
Hello one and all!
Thank you so much for my valentines! I greatly appreciated all of the gifts! And the chocolate was greatly appreciated.
As for the rest of my week, it has been highly entertaining. I know that sisters at the VC have been talking about how to have Greg gain some weight and really, the solution is to go serve a spanish speaking mission state side. Because they feed you. A lot. I have had a couple of days this week where I have had about 5 meals within a few hours. Not that I don’t like the food, okay, that’s a lie. I like some of the food. Other food is questionable as to how well prepared it was. As in cleanliness. One day, we went to Tia Rosa’s with a family that Hna Hernandez and Lopez had lived with, and was fed two meals after that within the next 2 hours. Some members get confused as to what days they will feed us and so we get a couple of meals at the VC. Sigh. If I don’t gain any weight on this mission it will be a miracle. Oh, and I ate cactus for the first time the other night. I tried to pretend it was green beans. It didn’t work. But I had fired platanos matchos (sp? bananas) with sour cream, sugar and cinnamon. Not so bad.
This week we had zone conference. Which actually includes 3 zones. It was all morning Thursday where we learned about our mission goal of having 1500 baptisms this year. Oh dear. That’s a hefty goal. So Pres. Ellsworth encouraged us to have a Nefi (Spanish for Nephi)-like experience and pray to see the same vision he has. Times like this I get very overwhelmed with the amount of work that we have to do. Partially because of the VC. We spend half our day there and don’t have time to visit people the say I would like. Pres Ellsworth says that every companionship should baptize every month. No pressure there. I hate it when people make it sound as if you don’t reach this goal, you’re a failure. Other than that it was grand. I got to talk to Beth Tanner (old college Roommie) for a while. We have the hardest time not calling each other by our first name.
I have had some interesting experiences at the VC this week. First off, I have finally been able to confirm some PMRs! That’s an accomplishment for me. One of the people I confirmed is named Ginger. She works with LDS people and was referred by some people she served at PF Changs. I finally got a hold of her after 3 weeks and she is going through a rough spot but was finally like “I don’t know if this is what I need know but God has always given me what I need, when I need it.” Yeah. That was a great day in the Call Center. The other was a 15 year old girl that had gone to seminary with some friends.
I also got an MTC call, which is a rarity. Its when someone calls the number on the pass along cards. Anyway, Thomas, was an interesting fellow. And I had a headache through all of this btw. We talked for about an hour and I’m not exactly sure what about. He started saying that he wanted to learn more about the mormon faith and throughout the conversation I discovered that he has read the BoM and D&C and A marvelous work and a wonder. And he really just wanted to debate. So I was very confused about the whole thing. He ended the conversation saying that he felt prompted to tell me that I was not yet too far that I couldn’t feel the Spirit. Gee, I haven’t heard that one before. So felt horrible the rest of the night feeling that I failed in my calling as a missionary. I probably should have called him to repentance or something to that sort. I really didn’t feel like making calls after that so I found a talk by Pres. Benson about absolute truth that made me feel somewhat better. Odds are I’ll see him sometime after this life. It will be an interesting conversation then. (maniacal laughter fading in the background).
We have a new Art Exhibit in the VC! It’s art by Walter Rane about the BoM and it is absolutely amazing! I love it. I helped Elder White and Hna Hernandez hang up the art work and that was a pain but when people are OCD you do what they say (aka Sister White). Sister Dyer was in charge of the layout and music for it and I think she did a pretty good job. I eventually send you pics of that…
Well, sometimes I can hardly believe the drama that my investigator gets herself into. Cristina is going to be the death of me, I swear. This 32 year old is acting like a teenager! But I really can’t blame her. She raised herself and her little sister. She doesn’t know how to live any other way than to find some man to take care of her. Ricardo is just being used. Cristina wants to get back with Adrian and Adrian kinda does too. Except that Cristina apparently did something that really ticked him off. He was going to get her a ring for V-day but since that event I guess it’s a no go. Cristina and Adrian are playing the ‘if you want to know something about me talk to the other person’ game. That’s not how it works with us.
We’ve had some good lessons with Nancy and Manuel. Hno Pimienta came with us to one lesson and played with the kids for awhile.
We had a snow ball fight with Leo. Don’t ask how we got the snow.
Pres Ellsworth and Elder White came and talked to our Branch on Sunday about missionary work. That was great experience. We had dinner after words with Pres smith and his family and the family of Elder White, and Pres Ellsworth and the other missionaries and us. It was homemade Carne Asada Pretty darn good!
On Saturday we have prep meetings and for those that are going home we do something called a spot light. So I did one for sister Hernandez. I got different dollar store Items to talk about different things about her life. For example, I got some shot glasses to represent each member of her family. Ugly earrings of her favorite color, a picture frame for her desire for time control and so on. It was hilarious according to some people.
So yeah, that is my story for today! I love you so much and hope to talk to you soon!
Love, emily
Thank you so much for my valentines! I greatly appreciated all of the gifts! And the chocolate was greatly appreciated.
As for the rest of my week, it has been highly entertaining. I know that sisters at the VC have been talking about how to have Greg gain some weight and really, the solution is to go serve a spanish speaking mission state side. Because they feed you. A lot. I have had a couple of days this week where I have had about 5 meals within a few hours. Not that I don’t like the food, okay, that’s a lie. I like some of the food. Other food is questionable as to how well prepared it was. As in cleanliness. One day, we went to Tia Rosa’s with a family that Hna Hernandez and Lopez had lived with, and was fed two meals after that within the next 2 hours. Some members get confused as to what days they will feed us and so we get a couple of meals at the VC. Sigh. If I don’t gain any weight on this mission it will be a miracle. Oh, and I ate cactus for the first time the other night. I tried to pretend it was green beans. It didn’t work. But I had fired platanos matchos (sp? bananas) with sour cream, sugar and cinnamon. Not so bad.
This week we had zone conference. Which actually includes 3 zones. It was all morning Thursday where we learned about our mission goal of having 1500 baptisms this year. Oh dear. That’s a hefty goal. So Pres. Ellsworth encouraged us to have a Nefi (Spanish for Nephi)-like experience and pray to see the same vision he has. Times like this I get very overwhelmed with the amount of work that we have to do. Partially because of the VC. We spend half our day there and don’t have time to visit people the say I would like. Pres Ellsworth says that every companionship should baptize every month. No pressure there. I hate it when people make it sound as if you don’t reach this goal, you’re a failure. Other than that it was grand. I got to talk to Beth Tanner (old college Roommie) for a while. We have the hardest time not calling each other by our first name.
I have had some interesting experiences at the VC this week. First off, I have finally been able to confirm some PMRs! That’s an accomplishment for me. One of the people I confirmed is named Ginger. She works with LDS people and was referred by some people she served at PF Changs. I finally got a hold of her after 3 weeks and she is going through a rough spot but was finally like “I don’t know if this is what I need know but God has always given me what I need, when I need it.” Yeah. That was a great day in the Call Center. The other was a 15 year old girl that had gone to seminary with some friends.
I also got an MTC call, which is a rarity. Its when someone calls the number on the pass along cards. Anyway, Thomas, was an interesting fellow. And I had a headache through all of this btw. We talked for about an hour and I’m not exactly sure what about. He started saying that he wanted to learn more about the mormon faith and throughout the conversation I discovered that he has read the BoM and D&C and A marvelous work and a wonder. And he really just wanted to debate. So I was very confused about the whole thing. He ended the conversation saying that he felt prompted to tell me that I was not yet too far that I couldn’t feel the Spirit. Gee, I haven’t heard that one before. So felt horrible the rest of the night feeling that I failed in my calling as a missionary. I probably should have called him to repentance or something to that sort. I really didn’t feel like making calls after that so I found a talk by Pres. Benson about absolute truth that made me feel somewhat better. Odds are I’ll see him sometime after this life. It will be an interesting conversation then. (maniacal laughter fading in the background).
We have a new Art Exhibit in the VC! It’s art by Walter Rane about the BoM and it is absolutely amazing! I love it. I helped Elder White and Hna Hernandez hang up the art work and that was a pain but when people are OCD you do what they say (aka Sister White). Sister Dyer was in charge of the layout and music for it and I think she did a pretty good job. I eventually send you pics of that…
Well, sometimes I can hardly believe the drama that my investigator gets herself into. Cristina is going to be the death of me, I swear. This 32 year old is acting like a teenager! But I really can’t blame her. She raised herself and her little sister. She doesn’t know how to live any other way than to find some man to take care of her. Ricardo is just being used. Cristina wants to get back with Adrian and Adrian kinda does too. Except that Cristina apparently did something that really ticked him off. He was going to get her a ring for V-day but since that event I guess it’s a no go. Cristina and Adrian are playing the ‘if you want to know something about me talk to the other person’ game. That’s not how it works with us.
We’ve had some good lessons with Nancy and Manuel. Hno Pimienta came with us to one lesson and played with the kids for awhile.
We had a snow ball fight with Leo. Don’t ask how we got the snow.
Pres Ellsworth and Elder White came and talked to our Branch on Sunday about missionary work. That was great experience. We had dinner after words with Pres smith and his family and the family of Elder White, and Pres Ellsworth and the other missionaries and us. It was homemade Carne Asada Pretty darn good!
On Saturday we have prep meetings and for those that are going home we do something called a spot light. So I did one for sister Hernandez. I got different dollar store Items to talk about different things about her life. For example, I got some shot glasses to represent each member of her family. Ugly earrings of her favorite color, a picture frame for her desire for time control and so on. It was hilarious according to some people.
So yeah, that is my story for today! I love you so much and hope to talk to you soon!
Love, emily
Monday, February 7, 2011
My first baptism!
Hello Family and Friends!
President has now changed all P-days to Monday. Just so you know. But that really doesn’t affect me, because I am a VC sister and we have P-days whenever we need them. Being a VC sister does have its pros and cons.
Let’s see. I’ve had a pretty darn good week, and the reason is: ADRIAN GOT BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!!! Yeah, that counts as a good week. Throughout the whole week, we were getting him ready for his interview, which was on Thursday. So before his interview, we took him to Modern Prophets at the VC and explained a little about Pres. Monson, he had is interview and was all set! Psych! We talked for him for about an hour after that. He just likes to talk. The kid is so funny.
It was his birthday on Friday. Hna Lopez had training all week so she was in Scottsdale the whole time, so Hna Hernandez and myself went and took what candy we had and stuck it to his door. We tried to be super quite about it too. I couldn’t help but laugh the whole time. We knocked on his door and ran and hid. We couldn’t see him come out, but he eventually found us. He thought it was us, but couldn’t see our car so he decided to go out and look for us. So we talked again for a while. We came home, talked to Hno Pimienta who got the program all set up and didn’t have to worry about anything else.
We get ready for the baptism, and Cristina calls us and she wants to go but doesn’t have a ride. We are kinda not all thrilled about her desires to go. Not that it’s bad, but that she really wants to get back with Adrian (more drama to follow). So we ‘can’t’ find a ride for her and go to the stake center. Hno Carlos Valencia is helping us out with Adrian. He just got off his mission 4 months ago from Colorado Springs. He’s a good guy. WE had gotten some cakes for his birthday and used them as dessert for the baptism. Only 4 members showed, Pimienta family, sick President Smith and a high councilman and the Stake President. And I got to play the piano. It was amazing service and it was a happy day!
So that was the most exciting news. He got confirmed on Sunday, but we weren’t able to go because we had to be at the VC. Silly VC. As for the rest of the week, I’ve just had a lot of time at the VC. I’ve had some interesting conversations and some success. I talked for a long time with a guy named Jeff. He has lived in PHX for the past 7 years and is moving back to live with his mom in TN. He was just talking about how he was tired. Tired of life, of sadness, of alcohol and so on. He just wanted to rest. So I talked to him a bit and gave him a Book of Mormon. He’s an avid bible reader so I invited him to read that. He left today for TN so hopefully things go well for him. He seemed so lost.
I Top Boxed a couple of people this week. The first was named Rebecca. She said that her husband wanted to go back to church, so I helped her find the church she goes to. She was never baptized, so she had a lot of questions about sacrament and other things. I answered her the best I could and invited missionaries to come and explain more! And so that was cool.
The other one was in Spanish (I know, shocker). I was actually in the call center with Hnas Hernandez and Chacka and they were working together on something when Sister Brox pokes her head in and says, Can someone come speak Spanish? I looked at Hna Hernandez as if for her to go and she gives me that ‘you-know-you-can-speak-
I also saw Jessica Gower the other day. She gave me a hug from Sarah. That was pretty cool. I also talked to a young man whose mission papers were rejected. He doesn’t know why but that he can’t serve a mission. I felt so bad for him because you could tell he wanted too. It’s surprising the number of people I have heard about that have been refused mission service. Odd.
I had a pretty good conversation with a Peruvian the other day. I had just ended the Joseph Smith Movie and he was really grateful for my testimony. He was baptized 4 years ago and was overwhelmed with joy he started crying. It was a nice talk about life and how the gospel helps us out. We switched from English to Spanish and it was fun.
In the call center, I have had some interesting conversations. One person got pretty mad that I call her, mainly because she has her own religion and said I should be looking for people who are lost. Well, I am, your name just happened to come up. So she was very unpleasant and not very polite about the whole thing. Occasionally I’ll get pretty cool ring-back tones, which means I listen to Babalonia every once in a while. My favorite has been the Rihanna and Eminem song Love the Way you lie.
It has been surprisingly cold this past week. At night we get down into the 30’s and in the day only up to the 50’s. I’m not fond of it.
Hna Lopez has had to go to the training this past week. Hna Hernandez said that she couldn’t come home if she didn’t have any mail. It worked! I got mail every day. I guess I get mail when I send someone up to Scottsdale to get it every day.
We are now teaching a new family Part member and Less Active. They were referred by his mom so that was neat. They have 3 kids together and he said that they are ready to go back to church. So that was exciting. We hope to be able to meet with them more.
We haven’t been able to meet with Nancy and Manuel for a while, they are always sick. Mercedez’s daughter Beatriz is pregnant and ran off with her boyfriend. Refugio doesn’t know and so that is troublesome. Sigh. The decisions we make.
Cristina is getting herself into some trouble. Ricardo activated a phone for her, and she has been calling Adrian. Adrian gave her a ride to church yesterday and she really wants to get back with him. We still don’t know what he wants yet. He said he wanted some me time so hopefully he will stick with that. Ricardo came to church with a friend and was very upset that she had come to church with Adrian. She is feeling very discouraged because she can’t find a job and when we come over, we teach Ricardo and not her. So we’ve had to separate their lessons. Ricardo has stood us up twice at the VC. So we talked with Cristina about reading the scriptures and likening them to our lives. Silly girl! Just focus on yourself and you will be fine! You don’t need a man in your life right now! Ricardo is somewhat interested in the church. We gave him a date for the 19th and hopefully he will stick with it. Cristina is getting frustrated that everyone else can be baptized but not her.
This morning we wanted to do a zone activity and climb superstition mountain. At 3 in the morning. So we got up at 2:30 because we needed gas and wanted to get some treats to eat. And we get to the meeting place (MT View Stake center) at 3 when we are supposed to. We wait for 15 minutes for the DL and ZL to show up. We wait a half hour more for everyone else to show up. We then go to another stake center to meet another companionship that woke up late. And then everyone decided to go get gas and water. I was so mad, and so was elder Harral (ZL). So Hna Lopez and Hernandez were sufficiently irritated that they decided that they wanted to go home. I kinda wanted to hike but when your comps want to do something else, you go with them. Sadly, we leave everyone, and don’t know if they are even done yet with hiking.
So that’s my life this week! I love you all and hope you have a great week yourself!
Welcome February!
Hello my family! I hope you are all doing well and enjoying your freezing weather, while I am sitting at a nice 70 degrees. Just so you know, anything below 50 degrees and I freeze. I am going to be such a pansy when I get back home it won't even be funny. There was frost on the ground today. Yes, it does frost here quite often. But that's okay. I will enjoy what weather I can before I get burned.
So on Saturday mornings, we now have preparation meetings at 7 at the VC, where we go and learn different things. For example, they are trying to get us more motivated to make our phone calls. Well, lets face it, no one likes to call people and invite them to talk to missionaries. Mainly we get discouraged because no one answers their phone. It's a long process. So we had some of the sisters talking to us about that. We learned more about the life of Joseph Smith and that was fun. We show the Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration movie all the time so it only seemed fitting to learn more about him. We also have talks from our senior couples. They are just like sacrament talks and we love them. I love our senior couples. Yesterday, we have 6 hours scheduled for phones. It was so not fun. After a couple of hours, I was done for a while and went out and talked to sister shaw (sister to sister white) and talked to her about the talk she gave during the prep meeting. She has gone thru a lot and still is amazing. Then I went and talked to the Romrells (friends of the whites) and elder Romrell couldn't believe that I was an introvert. They like me. :) It pays to be nice to people. The Senior couple on duty let us leave the VC to go get some food. I have discovered that I love Floutas. Pretty much rolled up tortillas with meat in them, with sour cream, salsa and some cheese. I love it.
So, one of my phone calls was quite funny. I have been trying to find a card for over a month for someone. Paul Rodriguez gave me a referral but he wasn't sure if she was already a member or not. So I finally found the card, called him, and found out she was a member. He still wanted me to call her and ask her for referrals. So I called and talked to her for a long while. It was hilarious. She is 29, works at Victoria's Secret, has never gone to college (because it wasn't for her) and wants to publish her memoirs in a book called, 'you never forget the first time.' Awesome, right? So we chatted and she was really cool and wanted to look me up on facebook. Alright, you go for that. I called Paul back to let him know how it went and he was like, well, she must have really liked you, she said that was personal. She must have liked you. Yep, people like me. But that phone call totally made my day.
I had a tender mercy at the VC the other day. I was feeling like a horrible missionary. I didn't want to do my phone calls, I don't participate in lessons (you try speaking up when there are 3 missionaries, 2 of which are native speakers, and some investigators and possibly a member. I feel so 3rd wheel) So I walked around the VC and helped with the Cristus. 10 minutes before we close, a young lady walks in and she knows what she wants: to listen to the Cristus narration. No problem, I can do that. In the few minutes that we talked, I learned some things about her life, but I really learned how she knows how to stick the the Savior. She probably learned it the hard way, and is still struggling to do the right thing, but she knows where she needs to go and what she needs to do. While we talked, I was able to feel like I was an actual missionary and could share whatever scripture/piece of advice I could. I appreciated that moment. She will do the right thing, no matter what. It may hurt, but she knows what she must do.
Entonces (meaning "soooo...." or "anyway" in Spanish), Last p-day, I finally went to the much talked about Tia Rosa's. Its an authentic Mexican place and where Elder Carter worked before the mission. We enjoyed the music, actually speaking spanish when ordering food, and the place was beautiful. Real tile floor, pictures, paintings, I loved it. Anyway, some kind soul paid for our food. We had a lot of fun taking pictures outside it afterwards. :)
We finally did a service project. Sister Jolly loves the VC. She puts together our Christmas stockings and does a lot for us. She always decorates the VC and is quite busy. She is divorced, so we went over to her house, and we cleaned it up for her! She does weddings, and other special occasions so we just helped her out some. I cleaned one of the bathrooms with sister Shaw and we had a blast. We got done really fast too. In and out in 45 minutes. That's what happens when 25 sisters come clean your house. :)
On Thursday we had exchanges! Sisters don't have exchanges as much as the elder's do. Which is fine. It seems like quite the hassle. Sister Hernandez and Lopez went to Hna Vause's area, and sister Dewitt came to me. So I took her home with me after our VC shift and it was like a sleep over! Except not really. I haven't worked much with the spanish sisters so I had to get to know her a little bit. Her grandma just passed a way a week ago and she goes to BYU-I with her sister. We had a good time together. Like any companionship, it would take me a while to get used to her. But we had a day full of lessons and it went really well. We taught Adrian, and we planned on teaching him the word of wisdom, but he had a question about adultery and so we taught the law of chastity instead. Luckily, we planned on giving him the little folleto (or "pamphlet" in Spanish) to read so we just used that. He didn't tell us initially but he got the words chastity and castrate confused. It was hilarious. I spoke quite a bit of spanish that day too. Sister Dewitt was surprised at how good I was. Earlier in the day we were walking around one of our apartment complexes that we go and visit, and one of Cristina's friends was moving to the complex next door. Well, lovely lady Gail, is a chain smoker but has a heart of gold. She helped us out a lot when Cristina was in jail. So we helped them clean their disgusting apartment. I thought it was hilarious but sister Dewitt's face said otherwise. It didn't help that she had a guinea pig. They never cleaned. But that's okay. The man that was helping her out was like, can I donate? We were like, no, but you could come to the VC! So that's always fun.
Cristina has had 3 of her 5 court dates. She got her big one over with and she has 3 years probation. The judge was nice and gave her a year of credit, so cristina will get off of probation March 2013. And you can't get baptized until you are off probation so it will be a while. She is getting so stressed with things. I think I explained the love triangle to ya'll last week and so things are still up in the air. Amanda (her daughter) came over for the weekend. Cristina slept through one of her community servce and almost missed court. Sigh. She is so tired and stressed. She had to go to the hospital for a kidney infection and she got fired. Not so good. So she is back on job search. I love learning about the legal system.
Adrian is getting baptized on saturday! Way exciting! He has progressed so rapidly. Hna Dewitt was jealous that we had such a good investigator. So hopefully, if all goes well, he will make it to the fount. He even came to church in a suit! He's so cool!
Otherwise, we are having a hard time meeting with people. Nancy and the kids are always sick. Denise refuses to open her door still. But we have found a Part Member Family and have a return appointment. The work will move on. The goal of 100 baptisms for the branch will happen as we have the members help. We had a meeting with the ward missionaries and that was very productive. Most of them are RC (recent converts) and a few RM. A couple family guys and lots of willing helpers. We enjoy having company.
We had an Ice Cream night as a trio. I was getting ready for bed and was like, no, I want to be a fat kid tonight and eat ice cream! So we all pulled out our pints (hna lopez her half gallon) and ate for a while. I love my comps. We have good times together. A lot of times i'll just be with Hna Lopez and we get to talking. I try to make her laugh as much as possible. She needs too. A lot of times she just laughs at me because of the way I do things or the noises I make. She is such a sweet heart.
The other day Hna Hernandez pulled me aside as a part of her trainer responsibilities and we talked about phones and what I could do to improve. Well, after a long while and a couple of roll plays (which I hate) I figured out that I don't like doing them because I don't know what to say. All I was ever told was to go and make phone calls. Um, yeah. So sister hernandez and I wrote down questions I could ask to get the conversation going and to then move it to a religious conversation and then an invitation. So it was pretty cool. Hopefully I will be more dedicated in making those stupid calls. Bah! Why was I ever called VC!?!
Oh well, it mattereth not. I love being a missionary and I hope you all have a wonderful, cold week!
Love, emily
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