November 16, 2010

Hey! Today is a day full of packing and getting ready to go. I'm
getting transferred tomorrow. I'm sad because I LOVE my companion and
I'm really going to miss her but she's going to do so good without me.
We already had our christmas tree up and lots of holiday plans but
she'll get to share them with someone else. This area has definitely
been my hardest and tried me a lot as far as relying on the Lord to
know it's not baptisms that make a good missionary. We knock on doors
for hours every day and do everything they tell us to do to find
people and it just hasn't hapened. But I have learned many things
about myself as well as what I want in my life and for my future
family. This week we sat down with L and A’s mom because we
helped her with a science fair project. It was the perfect opportunity
to just talk and ask her questions. She knows the kids are ready and
wants them to be baptized but Hermano still doesn't want to change.
She said the kids have really latched on to the commandments and are
really good at picking out their parents disobedience. I was really
excited to hear that. They aren't going to be baptized any time soon
but it will come. Keep praying for them. I am really going to miss the
members of this ward. We have some really good friends here. Some are
widows, some are adults and some are little kids. its so fun! we have
little primary girls that follow us around every where we go. Today we
got to have breakfast with Hermana g and put up her Christmas
tree. It was so fun. She wanted a bow on her tree but didn't know how
and was kind of bummed. I told her I could do it and she was SO
excited. We made a huge one for on the top of it with pink and silver
ribbon. I knew all that floral design would pay off some day haha. It
made her day. Yesterday we also got to go to lunch with the English
sisters in our area. Its been fun.

ps i'm not a grinch this year. I already have my christmas tree up and
i've been singing christmas songs for about a week. I'm memorizing
them in spanish. and I've got the christmas spirit... YAHOO

November 8, 2010 Pictures

Hermana T and I

Fun at the Everglades

Alligator

sign - had to be by the sierra club or something- RIDICULOUS

Scripture cases I make for people

hats that were given to us as we were contacting garage sales haha-
mine still has the tag on it $50!

November 8, 2010

This has been a pretty eventful week. We had our PPIs with president
and it sounds like I'm leaving. Next wednesday is transfers. It has
gone so fast! there is a small chance I will stay here one more
transfer but probably not. I'm going back to YSA again but down here
in the south. President wants me and Sister Lowe working together
again and so she'll be in Miami Beach and I'll be in Snapper Creek. At
first i was a little nervous because it's english again and it
includes both thanksgiving and Christmas but as i've prayed about it
i've just gotten really excited. I LOVE YSA so much. My area right now
will still be in my YSA area so I still have a place to go for
thanksgiving. My FAVORITE lady here is letting me go to her house.
She's my mom here ;) her name is Hermana T. She does a turkey and
everything and her food is SO good. I don't know if Niki remembers
Rachel from our Europe trip but it's actually her Mother in Law. Also it has been so cold here. The other day we wore long sleeve shirts, long sleeve jackets and had our heater on the whole way to the church.... it hit 57 degrees.... i've turned into such a wimp! it's pretty much an embarrasment. The people from here are worse though. They were at church with wool coats over their suit coats! Also this week I was sick AGAIN. I was in bed for two days but i've been sick for like 10 days. I've gone through two boxes of medicine and like 1/2 a bottle of robitussin- thankfully they have a new and improved flavor so it hasn't killed me. i'm a lot better now though. I think i've been sick more on my mission than the last 10 years of my life combined but oh well.

ok time for the more spiritual things. This week we had a really good
lesson with L and A. They want to be baptized SO bad but the
parents just won't change. The dad says he's going to baptize them but
he's not ready yet. So frustrating! This week we told them to talk
with mom and dad to pick a date to be baptized. Then we asked L
to say the prayer. They are just learning to pray so it's always the
same things- help in school, grateful for their family but this one
was different. It was completely lead by the spirit. She prayed that
her family could pick a baptism date and that they could go to church
and that she was grateful we came to teach her. Sadly we went back
last night and she was really upset. We asked her what was wrong and
she said she tried to talk to them about it but they wouldn't do it
and they didnt' go to church again. It is so hard to watch her strive
to be good without support from her parents. Also we met a new family this week we are teaching. We had been knocking for 2 hours with 0 references. She let us right in and asked how we know which church is true and then even prayed to know
for herself. Her name is B. She's from the DR and she is a single
mom. She has 3 kids ages 9, 6, and 5. We're going to teach her again
this week so hopefully all goes well.

(Mom asked what the “mighty prayer” she keeps mentioning in her letters is about) Mighty prayer is at 9:30 pm and 9am every day. All of the missionaries
and also ward leaders and our families pray at the same time. we pray
always for the temple and also for cuba to open and then for anything
else we need. An opportunity to unite together to pray mightily :)

Niki here- I have no idea why her e-mails keep copying over so weird. I have tried to fix it but can't figure out how (if you know let me know). Sorry!

November 1, 2010

You never even told me jeff was going on a mission! I heard from Cody and Ave! which mission in Georgia is it? I have a recent convert that lives in Atlanta. Anyway sounds like you had tons of fun in Disneyland and Dad had a good birthday. I'm kind of sad I didn't get to go with you but that will be another time. I'm way jealous you went to schatz without me- SO GOOD! however I had some amazing food this week too. We had a huge ward party and it was "fiesta latina" where everyone brings the typical food from their country and do dances and songs and stuff. we only got to stay for the food but it was way good- all of my favorites! Baleadas, arepas, papusas.... yep amazing. I just need to learn how to cook all this stuff... actually I do know how to cook some of it. At the end of the night the elders qoruom suprised everyone by hiring a mariachi band so I heard it got a little crazy. It didn't get over til about 1 in the morning and it started at 6. This week we also had a really cool experience with the v kids. we asked L if she remembered to pray and ask if Joseph Smith was a prophet and the Book of mormon is true. she said "Yes.. and it's yes. After I prayed I was playing a game and I just stopped for a second and yes came into my head and I knew it was an answer to my prayer" She is so incredibly receptive to the spirit and she's only 10. Then we asked A if he has been praying because he usually forgets. L told us he had been and she said "the other day he was doing his math homework and it was really hard and he didn't know how to do it. He was thinking so hard that he couldn't even write. He just kept sitting there holding his pencil. All of a sudden he got up and walked in mom and dad's room. I went to check on him and he was in there praying out loud asking for Heavenly Father to help him. When he got done he immediately walked downstairs and started writing and finished his homework. It was the craziest thing... he immediately knew all of the answers." It was such a blessing to see that their faith is growing. They are only 9 and 10 and yet they have more faith than their parents. So sweet

Also thats awesome steeds are coming to visit.... I'll be ready for some canadian tossed salad! also- tell steed to e-mail me some pictures of their little girl. I want to see if she's super cute and looks like corey jo or if she's called monster for a reason and is the spitting image of her dad :)
out of time but love you tons and tons!!!

October 25, 2010

Well this week has been interesting. We had brother
watson come from
the missionary department... ps he comes from the truman line
somewhere.. his name is Tracy Watson. Anyway we just talked a lot
about how to teach, what to teach, and then just some things we want
to do. We did role plays and stuff too. our role play was a disaster.
The girl totally played the wrong thing and so president thought we
taught horribly. Anyway we left feeling like complete garbage... but
what do you do right?  you just get back to work. We've tried to make
a lot of changes this week and implement new things but its still not
finding us new investigators. It's been really hard but we know that
there are things we need to learn from it. I guess if it was easy we
wouldn't appreciate the little successes. In our time here we've
helped to reactivate 5 members of the ward but unfortunately they
haven't been to church in a long time and so hardly anyone knows them
and so they don't see the progress that is coming. It all just takes
time.

Also today I'm going to the everglades so i'm excited. I get to
finally see some alligators. It means I don't get any rest though and
I didn't get any last monday either so I'm running low on energy and
stuff but i'll deal with that later.
I'm really jealous you're going to disney land. disney world when i
get home???? ;)
LOVE YOU!
another funny story I forgot to tell you- we almost missed the bus on
tuesday to go to district council so we were running and I was holding
a plate of cupcakes for my companions birthday and I tripped on a
giant tree root sticking out of the ground and totally biffed it. my
knees got all scraped and covered in bruises and were bleeding but we
were able to salvage the cupcakes... i made the bus... and i was able
to wash everything out when I got to the church 40 min later and it
didn't get infected... it was quite funny and painful... but more
funny

October 18, 2010

Studying

I guess some things will never change

Paint before

More paint before (are you puking yet?)

Paint after :-)

Hey everyone! I got your package
and I LOVED it! We were so excited.
Those cookies were SO good! Two thumbs
up for Aaron! I waited to do
the pinenuts today when I get home.
I'm excited. You are the best!


I'm going to send a few pictures real quick

October 12, 2010

Sounds like you have all been busy as usual. I'm jealous you've been hunting. You'll have to send me some jerkey! I have to admit I don't really miss pricing. Not my favorite part of the year, but next year i'll be there ready to help you.
i'm good. Things have been a little slow this week but we're plugging along. The Hogge's came down on friday and we had a painting party. It was way too much fun! we painted our whole apartment cream and it looks SO good. Hermana G loves it. She is the best. This week we got to have another tea party with her... well hot chocolate but tea party just sounds better. She makes the best hot chocolate in the whole world. Its milk, anise, sweetened condensed milk, cinnamon stick. cinnamon extract and I think a few other things. I can't remember. Tell the youngs i said Hi! They are such an amazing family.
Well thank you! I rarely feel like a good missionary. As a missionary the first thing you see is all of your weaknesses because they are so out in the open. It's hard to see when you are doing things right. Especially when your numbers aren't showing the success you want and should have. This area has definitely taught me a lot. Especially with the language and not excelling in the way that I'm used to. The Lord is definitely teaching me patience.
I love you tons and tons and i'm so glad we got to chat. You're the best mom in the WHOLE world!

October 5, 2010 Pictures

My Zone

Our incredible investigator- looks just like Wolverine from X-Men!

Dragon Fruit

Hermana Briggs and I