August 31, 2010

So this transfer brought huge changes for me and a lot of stress. I'm white washing an elders area AGAIN. President didn't even realize my whole mission has been white washes and i've only lived in elders apartments. He thought it was hilarious. He said he likes me cleaning all the apartments for him. He said i've set a record with 3 white washes in a row too. Also i'm senior companion and the area is all spanish. When we arrived to our apartment we were in for quite the suprise. The whole apartment is smaller than Niki's bedroom. The kitchen is way smaller than my one up in idaho at my last apartment. We have no oven or dishwasher or counter. We have a microwave and a little toaster oven. The elders just painted (they did a terrible job) and so one room is bright blue and the kitchen is lime green. It's hilarious! They also took all of our records with them. We have no records for the area since May and we were left with one investigator whose record hasn't been updated since 2009. They also left us with no miles on our car for the rest of the month. We had enough to go to church and back on sunday. So i'm back on foot knocking doors. My feet are covered in blisters again and i got my first sunburn of the year. I love it! My companion is AMAZING! her name is Hermana Briggs and she came into the mission one transfer after me. She's from Utah and grew up on a farm. We get along really well and thankfully she knows how to work. I'm super overwhelmed by everything but i'm still really happy which is a huge blessing. We have tons of fun together in the sun all day long. Yesterday (don't worry about this) we were tracting in the middle of a drug deal. It was hilarious. I love being a missionary. Every day is such an adventure. This whole area is cubans. I have the hardest time understanding them but its great.
Leaving Miami Beach was SO hard. I got to say goodbye to one of my investigators and had to call and tell the rest. M was really upset that i'm leaving. She was so excited to be baptized and was doing so good. She has problems with detachment and she just cried and cried when she found out I was leaving. Hermana Lowe said they haven't heard from her all week. R started yelling "This sucks!" over the phone. He'll be fine though. D also started screaming. His was hilarious. JP was really mad I was leaving as well. He told us he won't get baptized since I am leaving. He said he "chose me" and the next missionary wouldn't be as pretty so he won't listen to them anymore. Crazy guy. They transferred him to the elders yesterday. I got to say goodbye to D. He is the sweetest guy i've ever met. He LOVES the gospel. He's the one preparing to serve a mission in a year. He started crying when he heard I was leaving. It was so hard to watch. I loved it there but I'm SO SO SO excited to be here serving with Hermana Briggs as well. This area has a ton of potential and we just have to find it.

August 24, 2010

On friday President Hale called us and told us he was really please with what we are doing and that he was keeping us both here and making us a trio! we were so excited and started jumping up and down screaming. Members had been texting him and our investigators started praying we both stay. we didn't even tell them too! then last night the transfer call came and i'm leaving!!!! I cried for like two hours. I love it here so much and I LOVE our investigators. President Hale called today to talk to me and make sure I was ok since he knew it would be such a shock for us. I'm really sad about it but I know the Lord has a hand in it. I will be going up north and if I go spanish I'll be in hollywood hills. Otherwise I'll be english again. There is also a possibility I open a new area again. President said he really wanted to leave me here and tried but he just couldn't because a sister had to go home for medical today and it would have left our his numbers off. no clue whats going to happen.
Way to go! i'm so proud of you! It's so hard to stay commited to that. We get up at 6:10 every morning to run until 7. otherwise we go to the gym for that time. I'm so grateful you are taking care of the sisters there. It's so great to have a mom in the mission that you can run to when you need something. Sister Hogge does that for me. She ALWAYS takes care of me. My latest was I got my skirt stuck in my bike and it got a black grease stain about the size of a basketball on it. It was SO bad. I tried oxy clean and it didn't do anything. So I asked her what to do. She told me to bring her the skirt and she would get it out. She said its all done I just have to get it from her. She said cascade dish soap will take out ANYTHING. She's the best! I'm so grateful you are helping the sisters and supporting them. You're the BEST!

August 16, 2010

Good Morning! This week has been really awesome. We found out our area has been leading the mission for the last three weeks in numbers after just one transfer of being open for missionaries. We were so excited! We have been so exhausted though this week because we didn't take lunches or dinners all week because we were so busy. Not a good idea! they give us those for a reason. We'll have to work on that. That's really interesting about the headache stuff. Since I started working out every morning more intensely and cutting way back on sugar I get headaches way less. The only time I get them really bad is fast sundays. I might just not be able to fully fast. Its just so hard because I want to. But I know that the Lord will still bless me if i'm doing the best I can. This week has been really hard for some of our investigators. Also Saturday D got baptized! We were SO excited. We only taught him for like 2 weeks. He already knew everything from looking on mormon.org. he was already living every commandment and didn't have to change anything. When he was 6 years old and living in Nicaragua he saw two missionaries and told his mom that when he grew up he wanted to be a mormon. He thought they were like doctors or something. He is AMAZING! He's preparing to go on a mission in a year. Life is just great. I love being a missionary SO much! Also the Hogges took a few of us to lunch to celebrate the baptism so that was really fun. Sister Hogge has taken me out to eat way too many times. She spoils me way too much!
This week has also been really hot as usual. I'm SO glad we don't wear nylons anymore. I don't know if I ever told you about that but the brethren have decided we don't have to wear them anymore!!! that was like a month ago but it was one of the greatest days of my life haha. Also this week has been amazing because I don't have to get us all around miami from an atlas book anymore!! those things are such a pain! you have to flip from page to page just to realize you're getting more lost. One of the elders in Miami beach let us borrow his GPS. It's like heaven in a machine. I love it! It's the greatest invention ever! It did lie to me though once. I looked for a sonic because i REALLY wanted a vanilla coke and I found one like 2 miles from our house. The next one was over 90 miles away. They don't have them anywhere here. So we went to the one by our house and its been closed for quite a while. I was super dissapointed. BUT it gets us to all of our appointments fantastically so its cool. Also I need your recipe for blackberry cobbler and grape chicken. PS my companion LOVES your almond muffin recipe. I've made them for her a couple of times. I was also wondering if I can just use regular milk instead of powdered milk for biscuits because powdered milk is expensive.
It's been about a 100 plus the humidity because it rained a lot last week. As a missionary we don't do the whole flip flop thing so i'm really glad we have the blessing of not wearing nylons but after living in miami I also see the purpose. Sometimes people forget to get dressed before coming to church. Or their clothes don't cover half of them but Its the culture and it changes over time. Everything is good!

August 9, 2010

The weeks are getting busier and busier and I get more and more exhausted. This week I started taking vitamin b12 and that has helped a ton! our area is on fire right now! We have 10 baptism dates and one of them is this saturday. He is AMAZING! his name is D and he is the sweetest kid ever. He's from Nicaragua. He taught himself everything from mormon.org before we met him and then he just showed up at church. He didn't have to change anything in his life. Not even coffee which is amazing. Right now the biggest struggle we are finding with our investigators is drug addictions. It is such a hard thing. We are looking at 8 baptisms for the rest of this month which is amazing. It is quite possible I will get transfered on the 25th though and like 5 of the baptisms are on the 29th. I'm praying I get to stay for them!!! I love them all SO much! Also I got your package. It was so sweet! I loved the photos! Buggy has grown up SO much! it made me cry! she is so beautiful! Tell them all how much I love them! also I need crystals address so I can write back to her. Sounds like her reception and everything was a success. I wish I could have been there. But I am so grateful to be here! I LOVE IT!

August 2, 2010

Wow you have been busy! I love it! Tell everyone congrats for me and you'll have to send me some baby photos! I didn't get your package but it probably came today and I'll have to pick it up some time tomorrow. What is in it?

This week has been the most wonderful, exhausting week of my entire mission! I have never been so happy in my entire life. I LOVE being a missionary! When elder Gay came he promised us with dramatic increase in the mission. We have been promised those hundreds and then thousands of baptisms! Right now we're not even close. However me and Hermana have started to increase our faith and we have seen HUGE increase in our area! We went from 1 investigator at the beginning of the transfer to now 17 and the 1 date to 8 dates. We have set up a corner office for me in our car for record keeping, phone calls and everything else! I'm making like 30 phone calls before noon! Its insanity. Yesterday we had 8 investigators at church and 3 of them bore their testimonies. It was the happiest moment ever. I just started crying. They are all just so amazing. The Lord is spoiling us SO much! plus it was D's confirmation which is always a fantastic moment. I got a HORRIBLE migraine yesterday from fasting but i felt very strongly that I needed to get a blessing and everything would be ok. It was one of the sweetest blessings I have ever received and my headache went away immediately. It came back super lightly later in the night but it's just incredible the power the priesthood has. The Lord has taken such good care of us and I have never seen so many miracles in my life. He knows the needs of every single one of his children and I have never been so aware of that in my life.
I LOVE YOU!