Week 21

Jan 28, 2013

Well Hello There Family Dearest!

Oh Fam! It is just always so great to hear from ya'll and be reminded that you are all still real. You guys are the BEST! I just love that the whole family is so close together now. What a blessing! I heard from a few of you that is was rainy there this weekend we also got hit with it. Bikes, dresses, rain and cold are not the most ideal conditions to be in but we didn't die so we just laughed through it. Bless our little hearts.

So this week has been fantastic! Our dear precious Gregorio is doing so well still! He is so excited for his baptism this Sunday. We are going to visit with him everyday this week to be sure he is still going strong. He is just the most humble guy. He has been through so much in his life and just wants to do what’s right and help people. We went over to teach him tithing the other night and before we even started the lesson he pulled out some money and said that he wanted to pay his 10% and that he really wanted to help out. We asked him if he even knew what the 10% was for and he thought for a second and then said nope I just want to pay it because I know its God. AWWW we just love him so much! He has always been one step ahead of us.

We took him to a baptism last night in one of the English wards. Wow first of all it has been a loooong time since I have been to a church meeting in English and dang, it is different! There were like 130 people there with a table full of treats and special musical numbers and everything. We were super pumped that we could even find a piano player for his baptism. Anyways he really loved it. With so many people there he couldn’t really see the baptism he just heard the water, he looked over at me horrified and asked "how long do they hold you under there??" Ha he is so funny. Anyways he is doing amazing and we are super excited for him!

We had a zone conference this week with President Hall and it was so good. He is such a great president. He is so sincere! We have a mission goal this year of getting 1000 baptisms; this has only been done once here in the 90s so we are really gearing up for a great year! It will require one baptism a month, from each companionship. In my short experience that is a lot! But I am excited for it! It is so sweet being a missionary right now and to see how the work is changing and getting ready for the hit of new missionaries. The Lord really is hastening His work!

I am super happy and healthy and love you all!!!!

Week 20

Jan 21, 2013

HeyyyOHHHH!!

Well Hello There!

I am sorry I couldn't write you all but apparently the world stops for MLK Day.

I LOVED the emails this week! Especially the one of my BEAUTFUL sisters, and their amazing talent. My companion and I were dying! I just LOVE my family!

(Amanda's sisters decided it was sad that she couldn't hear the new Taylor Swift song...so they took matters into their own hands)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9Ak39trwmQ

Ya'll This week has been CRAZYY!!! It has definitely been a growing week.  We have had so many stressful and scary moments but they have all turned pretty ok as of now.

Gregorio is doing great! He is so awesome! We love him a lot! We had a bit of a scare with him this week but he is back on track and is really looking forward to his baptism, which is set for the 3 of Feb. He has lived quite the crazy life and he just is loving the peace he is finding through church and reading the Book of Mormon and becoming closer to Christ. He found out the other day that we could send some missionaries over to his friends in Mexico and he got so excited! He hugged us. That was a bit awkward; thankfully we handled that so awkwardly that I think he has zero desire to do that again. ha He is just such a champion.

The other family we are teaching are going through some rough stuff right now. We are trying to just be there for them and help them realize they can turn to Christ for any help that they need. I hope that they will be able to work through their challenges.

We have been really blessed with awesome investigators, people who really want to know the truth. We have a few others that we are working with as well and I am just so grateful that I get to serve these people and get to know them! God just loves all of His children!

We are doing really well and we are just laughing through all the scary, rough, and awkward moments we have. Oh awkward moment we had this week is we caught a kid trying to steal my tires from my bike. We came out of our apartment the other day and a couple of kids were over by our bikes. One kid saw us coming and just took off and left his friend there confused and calling after him. He realized why he took off when I was standing next to him unlocking the bike he was messing with. He looked at me and said "uhh he's trying to take your stuff" haha I just didn't know quite how to respond to that and all I said was "well could ya not?" and then he walked off too, uncomfortable and super funny.

The next day I had to bike to church which is up a hill and for some reason it was extremely difficult this time and when we got to the church I realized it was because the kid had taken my tire pin and my tire was one bump away from coming off. Nice, ha got to love the hood.

I love you all so much!!! I hope all is well and I pray for you everyday!




Week 19

Jan 14, 2013

Hello hello!!

Thank you soo much for the birthday wishes everyone! It was a super great day! I loved everything ya'll sent too! I have THE GREATEST FAMILY!!!

I am so happy you got the pictures that Hno Lopez sent! I wasn't sure if that was the right email. They are so sweet. Hno Lopez is a less active member and has a nonmember girlfriend that we teach. We have visited them every week since I have been here so we have gotten to be good friends. They made spaghetti for me and had cupcakes. We just love them. We have been eating a lot of cake this week! Our investigators Joel and Angelica got me a cake too, which was so sweet. I also had other investigators and ward members call me to wish me a happy birthday, only a couple actually know my name but they are sweet to remember the white girl's birthday. Gregorio our new investigator called and wished Hna Gretel a happy birthday. I was only a tiny offended that he looks at me and just thinks Gretel. :)

It has been a pretty good week. Not a lot of news to report on. All of our investigators skipped out on church yesterday so we have some chastising to do. :) But other than that it’s been a good one. We have visited Gregorio a few times this week. We saw him last Monday night and he just said straight up "I want to be baptized how do I do it?" He is so humble and teachable. He is so ready to do the right thing. He has been MIA for a couple of days which is stressful we just really hope all is well with him. His roommate is a member and he said he saw him reading the Book of Mormon for an hour the other day which, is always a good sign. I just love him so much! I really want to help him!

We had a visit with Joel and Angelica this week as well. It was a tense visit. They are working through some stuff in their relationship and it all came out during our lesson with them. We are supposed to council people on stuff like that so all we could do is read them scriptures… ha awkward. I still get very scared to just go off in Spanish with people. I don't have a ton of confidence in it yet. Anyways I really felt that I should suggest that they pray together everyday but I was so scared to interrupt the argument and speak not in my language, but I finally did. I just butted right in and with my guerita accent asked if they every prayed together, they said no. I then did my best to explain to them that if they would pray together and as a family they would invite the spirit into their home and into their relationship and God could help them work through their problems. Then they were like that's nice and kept going. But at the end Joel said he liked the suggestion to pray together, he said he had never thought about doing that and wants to do it. I really hope that they do it and it helps them! I love them a lot!!

Anyways…that has been our week. It has been a good one! We are really trying hard to work with our investigators and help them see the beauty of the gospel! I love what we do! :) I love you all so much!!!

Week 18

Jan 7, 2013

Oh my wonderful family. I just love you all so darn much! Ya'll are just the BEST!

My week has been stupendous! We are just seeing so many miracles! God is so good to us! So this week Hna Higley has been sick, poor thing, so she needed a couple of days down but it worked out real nicely because we had exchanges scheduled for those days and one of the other Hnas was sick as well so they stayed home and Hna Zepeda and I covered both areas...in a CAR!! Dang I love being on bike but a car is suupeerrr sweet too.

It was a really fun exchange, Hna Zepeda is so awesome she is from El Salvador but has basically perfect English because she went to a bilingual school all growing up. I just love her so much! We had so much fun! We realized that we will probably never be compas because we are just too much alike, we need our comps to keep us in check ha. It was really fun though and I learned A LOT from her! She is a great missionary!

We also met a new solid investigator and his name is Gregorio. He is adorable. We love him so much. We met him through a less active member. The less active member, Hno Casco, just recently moved and Gregorio is his new roommate. He walked in while we were talking to Hno Casco and Hno Casco invited him to listen to us and Gregorio was all in. He is a little bit crazy but a super awesome guy. He has real desires to completely change his life around. We taught him the restoration and told him about church and he was so excited to come to church! He showed up to church yesterday with a brand new white shirt and tie! He was so proud of that tie, he kept saying it was his first time wearing a tie. So precious! He told us that the other day when we met him that he was just on his way out the door to relapse (he is a recovering alcoholic) but that we stopped him. He has been reading the Book of Mormon every night and just loved church! He was crying during Sacrament meeting and said this is where he is supposed to be. He is so prepared! Keep him in your prayers!

We just found out this weekend that we are going to have another transfer here together! WOO!!! I am so happy about that!! Today is day one of my 4th transfer, so crazy. I also just hit my 6-month mark this week. That is scary to think that 1/3 of my mission is already gone! I still have so much to do and so much to learn! I love being a missionary it’s the greatest!

I love you all!!!!