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!

July 26, 2010

Uh so i've failed you... i didn't have time to take the picture! It has been one of the busiest weeks of my mission and I've loved it! also I LOVED your message! N let me listen to it on Saturday. We have met some of the most amazing people. Last week we had 2 investigators and one with a date. This week we're back to 11 with 4 dates. Sunday we had another baptism and it went SO good! his Name is D. We had a few issues to work out the night before but it was all good. He never showed any emotion or excitement about his baptism until the day of and then after that he was happier than ever! it was so fun to watch! He also brought his family which was so wonderful. The way we met him was actually really funny. His sister was a referal from a set of elders. We kept calling her house but she was never there and he always answered. We asked him who he was and a little bit about himself. One day we just decided we were going to call her and then if there was no answer go to her house. He answered the phone and she wasn't home so we just asked him if we could teach him about Jesus Christ. He said sure and the rest is history. The funniest part is we never met the sister until she showed up at his baptism! hopefully we can teach her next.
Be sure and tell Crystal hello for me and that I love her! I haven't heard from her my whole mission. I'm sure she's been super busy. Is there any way you could send me a catalog some day :) I was trying to tell some people some of the stuff we sell but they don't have the same brands here so they were confused. I can't believe how much I miss all of the fishing stuff. I never thought it would happen but whenever I see poles or anything at peoples houses I always look at them and they think i'm crazy haha. It sounds like you have been really busy at home. Eating healthy is a hard thing to do but its good. I've kind of failed the last week though. My companion made AMAZING banana pudding and her boyfriend sent us a 3lb bag of gummy bears. I jokingly told him I wanted gummy bears and thats what he sent us! so yeah...failing. but I still excercise so thats good. I can't run right now because I'm adjusting to my shoes and I don't want to get shin splints again but I should be able to soon. I actually really enjoy it. Also- You haven't sent me any pictures from home in all this time! ok a few but still... some more would be nice. UMMM Pretty much I just am really happy and loving being a missionary and thats about it. I laugh way too much and I work harder than I've ever worked in my life. I have the best companion in the world and she takes really good care of me and keeps me in line :) We have tons of fun together. I'm really hoping to stay here together longer. We started teaching in spanish again so I'm letting president know- hopefully he'll let me stay! Either way I'll learn a ton and have the opportunity to teach the gospel and that's what it's all about.

July 19, 2010

Last night we had a stake YSA fireside with Elder Gay from the 70. He was one of the last mission presidents in Ghana actually. It was really good. I was really lucky to go because only the YSA missionaries were invited. He is also doing our zone conference this wednesday. Elder Gay just talked about how the hardest thing to do in life is do things the Lord's way and to allow him to refine us. It was actually a question and answer session. I'm really excited about wednesday though. Sisters conference was tons of fun. They talked a lot about how important education is and having a stable testimony and stuff like that. Also it's really funny that the person at home getting baptized is named D because our investigator who is getting baptized on Sunday is D as well. Just spelled differently. Austil will love hearing from you 2 times. You're an amazing speaker and teacher. Hopefully some day I'll be as good at it as you! I loved your testimony as well. I'm so greatful to you and Dad and the other kids for your examples to me and your strength. It really helps me a lot! You're the best- I hope you know that. Our ward has changed SO much since sister Lowe came. The members LOVE us. we had 3 sisters last week give us their schedules for the week and ask if they could come out with us. We also had one girl- K- she's amazing!- spend nine hours with us on exchanges one day. It was so fun! as soon as sacrament gets over we have 9 or 10 people come up to give us hugs and say hello. It is so nice. I just love all of the members and I love the change in the branch. They're like whole new people. Thank you so much for sending the shoes. They will be WAY better- make sure you stick a little note in there too though because thats better than the shoes :) also i need some recipes from you since we cook for ourselves. I need your biscuit recipe- your poppyseed muffin base recipe- your blackberry cobbler recipe- and your raspberry cream cheese coffee cake recipe- and any others of my favorites. Every day for breakfast I eat oatmeal with fresh peaches or nectarines- YUM and then we make tons of tortillas and eat tacos but I want some stuff from home too.
HAVE A GOOD WEEK! LOVE YOU ALL!

July 13, 2010

This week has been incredibly busy for me. Friday was the sisters luncheon and it was really fun. It was on things I wish i'd known sooner. It was funny because president told me that day again that i'm the mission china doll. About 6 hours later M told me I look like a porcelain doll. The next day we did the Habitat for humanity service project as well. it was really amazing. Then that night we did a workshop on the atonement. It was really amazing as well. We also had transfers and i'm staying for one more. Our ward mission leader called president and asked him to keep both of us here so he did. I'm really excited! I love this branch and things are really starting to grow.
I wish I could just call Fred and the kids and tell them how much I love them but a letter is all I can do for them. Give each one of them a huge hug from me. Our ward mission leader now LOVES us. He is definitely going above and beyond to help us. We can't just go out and find investigators for ourselves because it would be really hard to seek out only 18 to 30 year olds who aren't married and don't have kids so we just find for everyone else and then we have 16 companionships looking for us. Unfortunately in 3 weeks we have only got 2 referals so things got really slow. In 11 days we passed 44 referals, which is an incredibly large number. Our ward mission leader decided that he is doing an all day exchange with all 16 sets of elders to find us investigators. He's amazing. We didn't ask him to talk to president either. He did it on his own. President told me my first day in the mission that I look like a china doll because he says my face is "perfect" (yeah right but i'll take it) so he was just telling me again. It was just really random that M said the same thing the same day.
The teaching is going well. I love teaching with Hermana Lowe. We have been doing lots of member missionary work with the branch. The running was going good until I got shin splints. My shoes don't have enough support to run outside so i had to slow down a little bit. My headaches come and go. The last two days have been bad but not really before that. I'm definitely less stressed and loving life. I'm trying to eat good but it's been so busy the last week or so that I haven't. I didn't find another skirt but i'll probably need more money for when i find one. I am DYING from the heat. I've never been so hot in my life and most places here don't have air conditioning. especially in peoples homes and so you just talk while sweat is pouring down your face. its fantastic! we've haven't had too much time to bike but we're working on it. I know how you feel on the ill part. You get used to it. add humidity to that! uggh I'm glad things are working out with the business. Its about time. I love you tons and want you to know I'm truly happy and the Lord is changing me so much. I love it. I am so blessed. You're the best mom in the world! I have no clue why Kyle's letter got returned. Tell him to print it and put it in the mail or else try sending it again.

July 6, 2010

Wow you've had a busy week. ours has been pretty slow with the holiday and everything but we're working on building things up. This week will be busy. Friday we have a sister's conference with president and sister Hale and then Saturday is a multi-stake YSA conference. Well its Friday and Saturday but we're only helping saturday because its a huge service project. We're building houses for Habitat for Humanity and i'm REALLY excited! then me and my companion are doing some rotating workshops for the evening. It will be a busy day. This week m told us about her life and it's amazing what life is like in other countries. She has only been here for a year. At 21 she had her own orphanage over there and she is just incredible. It is amazing how the Lord protected her along the way and prepared her for the gospel. She was able to come to a lesson with us the other day and her testimony is so powerful I love it. For the 4th we just ate crap food but it was fun. It was just another normal day. Yes i'm still running. We run every other day and i'm loving it. I'm still not very good but i'm working up to it. my clothes are definitely different than what i came out with but they are much cooler. The skirt i just bought actually got stuck in my bike chain and tore really bad so i guess i'm back to square one again. I guess there's no hope for me :( I also have to get some new shorts to work out in because when I run mine fall off now even when they're tied as tight as possible. I'll probably grab some at walmart today. I also have to pay the mission office like 30 dollars because they ordered me a magnetic tag for my jackets and also a book. We got special permission to read the continuous atonement by brad wilcox so i'm jumping on the opportunity! its a little pricey but worth it i'm sure. He came and spoke to the mission last fall- i think he was mission buddies with president Hale or something. I also probably have a charge on my card from walmart for groceries because when i moved into the apartment there was no money on the laundry cards but they had already given the laundry reimbursement money to the elders that lived here earlier in the month and so i was out like 30 bucks that i would have had for groceries. I also made the coolest lesson plans this week. They are all the parts of the plan of salvation. we copied them and then laminated them because the rainy season has hit and everything in our back packs are getting destroyed. Next week is transfers but I have no clue if i'm staying or not. I thought I would be here until august but president really wants me in the spanish as well so he hasn't decided. That also means p-day will be on tuesday again next week. This week it was because of the 4th.
also I LOVE LOVE LOVED the cds and letters from the YSA. Thank you SO much! All of my songs by motab are on there. You are all so wonderful. Also anytime you're sending something again throw in my tennis shoes. They are either in my room or in one of the tubs in Utah... the plastic ones. They have lime green on them. The ones I have don't give enough support when running and they have holes in them... just like everything else I own :) who knew being a missionary was so dang distructive!?!

Photos

June 28, 2010

his week has truly been a miracle for me. We taught m every day so that she would be prepared for her baptism this sunday. She honestly didn't even need us to teach her, because the lord already had. She knew everything we taught her and was SO prepared. Often times she was the one teaching us. I just love her so much! we've only known each other 7 days and yet i feel like i've known her forever. Her baptism went so well. We did it right after church so there was a great turn out. she was bursting with joy! when she went in the dressing room she had to cover her mouth with a towel because she was screaming- what she doesn't know is that we heard a little of it haha. everyone loved it. D is also one of our AMAZING investigators. Sunday was his first day at church and he loved it. he stayed for church, the baptism, and the linger longer. the night before I was in charge of a huge ward activity and both of them came for that as well. it was awesome. we did a picture scavenger hunt all over miami beach and then showed them on a projector while the kids ate ice cream. one of the things to do was give away book of mormons and pass along cards and they all did it! D loved the activity as well. He has a date for July 23. He asked how we had given him that date. I told him that me and Hermana Felton had got on our knees and asked our heavenly father when he could be ready and thats the date we were told. He told us that was the coolest thing he had ever heard and that its really special. I think he's getting really excited! I bought the new skirt and it worked with the bike but it already got stuck in my chain and tore. JUST MY LUCK! it's killing me but whatever. can you check my wells fargo again this week because i need to get a picture frame to give to marie with some pictures from her baptism and i also have to print some up of mildred's as well. The lord is truly blessing us! I love being a missionary. It is definitely the HARDEST thing i've ever done in my life but it's so worth it. Tell dad that i'm keeping a journal and i've tried to write in it every day since i entered the MTC. there are a few days i've missed but i've tried to write about them later. I'm so excited for how everything at work is going! sounds like you are super busy. also its funny you talked about the hands thing in rs. we've been talking a lot about that too lately.

June 21, 2010

I wish that i could express to you everything that has happened this week but i don't even know if I wrote for a full hour if i could. On thursday night president Hale called us to tell us that we were having a transfer and the next day Hermana would be moving to Hialeah and Sister Lowe would be my companion. She is So amazing. The first night she moved in at around midnight we heard someone pounding on our door and they wouldn't stop. we went to look who it was and their were two men standing outside our door. We were scared to death! so we just prayed and went back to bed. The next morning we woke up to drive to plantation for mission conference. we had to be there at 7am but we couldn't find the car keys anywhere. we searched and searched and they were no where to be found. so we were worried the people the night before had found them or something but our car was still there so we just hoped we would find them. the sisters from homestead came and picked us up on their way and we made it to the conference, which was AMAZING. I really learned things that I'm capable of and ways I can be a better missionary. That night we had the elders check our apartment and make sure everything was ok and we got a spare set of keys from the mission office. The next morning we got up and walked out to church and found out the crazy person trying to break down our door was actually our super nice neighbor who found our keys in the door and was keeping them for us. So much worrying! then at church we met a new investigator who was a referal from a set of elders. we had called her and invited her to church and got her a ride but hadn't met her yet. Her name is m and she's 25. after sacrament she told us she felt settled. We went over last night to teach her about the restoration and it was the most incredible lesson i've taken part in. The spirit was so strong and she received her answer of the truthfulness of the gospel. By the time it was over all 3 of us were crying. When we told her the first vision tears just started pouring down her cheeks. We asked her how she felt and she just said "I have a home now. He told me the fight is over and everything is going to be ok" at the end of the lesson she accepted a date to be baptized next sunday after church. We will have known her for 7 days. The Lord had been preparing her for a time and she heeded to his council. Any missionary could have taught her and she would have accepted. I owe so much to my Heavenly Father for allowing me to take part in it. Miracles are truly happening every day. 2 weeks ago we had one investigator and 1 baptism date. this week we have 10 investigators and 6 baptism dates. The Lord is aware of His children and their needs, Ours included.

Sister Lowe is amazing. She's from Amarillo Texas and we were definitely supposed to be together at this time. Right now we have dates for H, D, W, S, E, and M. I don't know which ones i've told you about. I love the branch! it has just taken some time and a new companionship to gain their trust. I know its not always going to be easy but the Lord is definitely blessing me right now to enjoy it. Sister Lowe is also teaching me how to run and build up endurance so i'm working on that. it's tough but its going to be worth it. she also sings BEAUTIFULLY. she was an orchestra teacher before she came on her mission-very musically talented. We are having an awesome time together, even when we thought someone was trying to break into our apartment and we were scared and stressed that keys were lost we were still enjoying it and i wasn't a total stress case! which for me is really good because worrying is what i do best. It was a little stressful just doing the emergency transfer and getting everything planned and together so fast but the Lord has prepared the way.I love you so much and I pray for each of you and your needs. i hope the lord is taking good care of you.

June 14, 2010

Well this week has truly been a miracle. I went on exchanges with sister May and it was exactly what I needed. Our goal for the exchange was to work on attitude and overcoming fears. We knew that wouldn't work unless we gave ourselves a little opposition so we went out on bike. President told sister Felton to help me like my bike and in the same e-mail said he's getting ready to do bike only sister areas. I'm hoping that's not where i'm headed but i probably will be. its just SO hot. its hitting a hundred plus the humididty. It was tons of fun though. Sister May has only been a member for a year. She got kicked out of her house and disowned when she joined. She also totalled her car in a wreck the night before she went in the mtc. she is truly amazing. she's from las vegas. Things are going really well in our branch as well. When I left we had one investigator and she had a date (Henrietta). On yesterdays progress record we had 7 or 8 solid investigators and we have 4 baptism dates! most of our investigators we met either this week or at the end of last week. We are working really hard right now. We are also going out on bike every day so i can keep trying to love it. sadly its not working yet but maybe some day it will. i had to go get another skirt for my bike though. we can not get my skirts to stay down! we've tried binder clips and all kinds of things. i started tucking them in my garments but that doesn't work very good either haha. hopefully this style of skirt will. Its a killer. my normal schedule is 8-personal study 9-comp study 10- biking 10:30-phone calls to confirm appointments 11- language study 12-lunch 1-5- lessons or tracting 5-dinner 6-9-lessons or tracting 9-planning. we also have district councils once a week and meetings with our branch mission leader... sometimes... and also weekly planning time. the members aren't really helping us yet but thats really what we're working on. They don't realize how much better it would be if they were a part of it. They should be finding, fellowshipping, and attending lessons. They don't understand their responsibility but i can't say much because i didn't before I was a missionary either.

I'm really loving the work again though. Plus i'm super glad we don't work with white people. they're mean! we talked to a few in plantation and they are not friendly like latins and haitians and blacks (that aren't haitian haha) . Almost all of our investigators right now are black and they are just so fun. we get to learn all about their culture and how they do their hair and wigs and fun stuff like that.

The atonement is so real. It covers everything in our lives. Our Heavenly Father loves us so much and just wants us to be happy. We are so blessed to have His gospel in our lives. LOVE YOU ALL!

May 24, 2010

the last couple of weeks have been pretty... ok really slow but we're hoping they'll pick up soon. This week i'm spending 3 days up north on exchanges in plantation at the YSA branch there. Also- i never got your letter. maybe i'll get it today. and we had ppi's this week with president and i'm going to be in Miami Beach for quite a while. He said "I haven't accomplished what i need to here yet and i will be here for a time so unpack all my suitcases. put them away and get comfortable" which means i'll be in the hottest area of the mission for the hottest months of the year. i'll probably be here until at least August. That means i'll be spending all of hurricane season here as well. It was a good interview. I think hermana is leaving. Transfers are June 2 so my P-day will be next tuesday instead of Monday. I'll be spending 3 days with an english only companion. It will be good though. Fort Lauderdale is a pretty normal place and is pretty normal people unlike the beach. We got a new investigator a week ago and she loves everything we teach. she's a black girl named H. she's 18 and lives in liberty city. She's funny. she loves grits on toast with jelly and eggs...weird. she has a baptism date for the 13th but she kinda dissapeared the last 3 days and we haven't heard from her. We are meeting with L again. She's amazing but we didn't hear from her for like 2 weeks. We also have W. He has a baptism date for the 5th but we have to change it because he hasn't come to church. He's 22 and from Columbia. He's been here for about 2 months and only speaks spanish. Thats pretty much it for now.

Way down at the bottom of southbeach you find all old people- REALLY old people. They're pretty much all cuban and they'll all listen to us but none of them will come to church so we don't spend much time down there. For the most part we know if they're sincere. Thankfully we have the gift of discernment to see. One of the hardest things honestly is getting people to come to church. They're used to just going to mass on christmas and easter and they have "jesus in their hearts" all the time. There isn't really a normal age. We had our lemonade stand and some days were good others weren't. Mostly we ended up with brazilians. The problem with that is they can understand us but we don't understand them. They used to have a portuegese branch here and port. missionaries but they got in trouble for some stuff and got pulled out. There is a sister in the mission right now from brazil and Hermana Felton is predicting she'll be in here next with me, but we'll see. The YSA branch loves us but the spanish branch still isn't super excited.

May 17, 2010

there are some changes at the libraries here so i only have 10 min on the computer and will have to mail a letter today instead of e-mail. I didn't teach much this week because I had the flu for 2 days and hermana had it for 1 and then the another day we were in Ft Laud for her doctors appointments. its been a crazy week but thankfully the Lord helped us to both be healthy on Saturday so we could have a baptism for Carlos. I got a blessing from Elder Hogge though and am feeling way better today. Elder hogge is a senior elder. He and his wife take REALLY good care of us. They serve in the YSA branch with us. Sister Hogge is our FAVORITE. out of time... I LOVE YOU

May 3, 2010

i'm pretty good. i think we got rid of the fleas this week but we got new friends... cockroaches! ugh SO GROSS! and they aren't just regular cockroaches, they're florida cockroaches which are like 4 inches long but we bug bombed again so hopefully we have killed them too. i'm seriously terrified of them haha

Q from Mom: Is there anything besides bugs there?
A from Hermana: yeah lots of crazy people haha

Q: Are you safe? Are you riding the bike at all? What are you doing about clothes? Are you eating at all? Are you feeling better?
A: of course i'm safe. the lord protects us when we're doing his work if we're being obedient. we aren't riding the bike right now because our area is easier to walk than to ride because of the traffic and stuff but we have a couple times and i will in other areas. For clothes i'm just making do with what i have and watching out for new ones when we're in stores that have them. a few of them don't have holes all the way through yet the fabric is just threaded so i just wear something else under it haha yes we're eating. we get groceries every monday at publix and i'm feeling a little better. i heat my back a few times a day and the knot is starting to go away and now i'm just trying to get rid of the headaches. i think its from dehydration and stress so i'm working on drinking more water. the second you walk out the door all your clothes are wet and its been almost 90 degrees. killer. but i'm doing fine. don't worry!

Q: How far are you from South Beach? Is that a separate zone? How many miles does your area cover? Are you getting lots of rain?
A: south beach is like 10 miles away and its part of our area but we don't go down there very often. its a huge party and drug area. its the spring break area and its the largest population of gay people in i think all the united states. we just try to keep it at like once a week.

Q: Did you ever find out why he made the change (Mission President putting her and her companion as teaching all YSA in the area)? How often do you talk to him? How would you describe your mission? How much longer will he be your mission president? What is your favorite part of the mission? Did you get any new investigators yet? We do pray for them to be receptive.
A: yeah we always have new investigators. the crazy thing about here is we've been meeting quite a few brazilians which is rare. my comp says i'm a brazilian magnet because i love them and we keep finding them. she has a hard time working with them though. president hale will go home one transfer after me so i'm really excited about that. he's amazing! he is ALWAYS changing things and very in tune with the spirit. we are actually the only mission in the world that can text people and also the last day of our missions he has gotten permission to take us to Orlando for a temple session. we're also praying right now for cuba to open and it would possibly start out with missionaries from our area if it does

the brazilians have a hard time committing but they're really receptive to the message and they're really nice people. they like to ask tons of questions though. i'm enjoying it. Every day at 9 am and 9:30 pm the mission has mighty prayer where the entire mission is praying at the same time. there are specific things we continually pray for at this time as well as specific things we need in our area. for the 6 months before a temple was announced that is what they prayed for and they were told it would be a few years and then it was announced! there is so much power in mighty prayer. right now we are praying for the temple to be built quickly for the members here and also for cuba to open. they have been working on it but there have been some political problems. it was so good to chat with you today. i love hearing from you and knowing what is going on in your lives. I'm so grateful for you all! families are truly a great blessing from the Lord and the foundation of this gospel. I hope everything is going well and i will call you on sunday! i'll call your cell phone. LOVE YOU!

The following is a copy of what she sent to her Mission President this week:
This week has really made me appreciate my family and the life i've grown up with. We are continuing to see satan's attack on the family every day and especially here in Miami Beach the last couple of weeks. It's so hard to see marriages just fall apart after 4 to 18 years or even more. The worst though is to see the affect on the children. They don't deserve it and yet they have to live through it. They grow up without the guidance of both of their parents and often times the gospel on one side or the other. I never realized how much i've taken advantage of the fact that i have a mom and a dad who are both very active in the church. They have raised me to find out for myself if the church is true but guided me along the way. They love each other and i've never seen them yell at each other or fight. I didn't realize how few children in the world are given that blessing. I'm so grateful to my Heavenly Father for giving me the life that he has. I can't imagine where i would be without it. The family truly is the foundation of this gospel. I love it!

April 26, 2010

hey Fam! so there have been some major changes in our area this week. On thursday night we were told there would be a conference call we needed to be in but didn't know who else would be on it or what was it for... needless to say we were a little nervous. When we called in we found out it was all the missionaries in our stake which is about 18 sets. The assistants announced that Me and my companion will now be teaching all YSA investigators. They will find them and we will teach them as well as the work that we have with our spanish branch. They will be giving us more miles and we will be doing a lot of driving around Miami. The bad part is they told me i'm driving this month... Hermana is right now and they've changed it on us every month which is really weird because you're not supposed to drive until like your 3rd transfer. I asked if I have to drive and they said they might think about having her. I just don't know my way around. plus the drivers are CRAZY. They all think they're still in their countries where there are no laws so they just do what they want. lights and stuff mean nothing. They're definitely worse drivers than in Europe. way worse!
The Book of Mormon program is going SO good. It has completely changed the branch. They are actually motivated to do it which is an amazing thing because normally they are only motivated by fiestas. We talk to at least two familys every night to check up on their reading. Almost everyone in the ward has said that at the beginning they thought it was an awful idea and they didn't want to do it but now they have seen the change and know that its what they needed. Its amazing to see such a physical change in people as they learn and grow in the gospel. This week on sunday something else cool happened. There is a samoan kid in the branch and he brought his fiance this week and she's samoan too. she's prob like 6 foot. way tall but i was talking to her and she said she was a return missionary from the kirtland historic sights mission. as it turns out she was b (my roommate)'s companion! so fun. and i also met a girl the sunday before who is a return missionary and my roommate at the mtc replaced her in her companionship so she got to work with her for a day and then she was just here visiting miami beach. it is such a small world when you're a member.I'm trying to think what else has been going on but i can't really think. We still have our couch but i think we'll haul it out this week. most of our bites now are just mosquitos. they're way bad here. oh and that epistle thing was awesome.. yeah?? haha i got it from some book in our apartment and i just had to send it. I thought it was hilarious and totally me so i just had to.

This week we started teaching a few new people. One of them is l and her daughter S. They are the sweetest. she's prob about 20 and s is 3. They are loving the lessons. Especially the plan of salvation. And s absolutely loves primary. L was really worried because she had never left her before anywhere. we told her we would just show her where the class was. S walked in, waved goodbye to her mom and started playing haha. the next week she ran down the hallway and straight in her class and didn't even say goodbye. I think L will be baptized in a few weeks. Last night we went on our first exchanges with the relief society president. It was me with the two members who speak no english and hermana went with the one who speaks fluent english. I wasn't very excited at first but I loved it! it was so fun. Plus even though i speak horribly I can at least understand and they know what I'm saying. plus they said i know more spanish than they've learned english in over 9 years and they know how hard it is so they're really understanding. We went and visited some of the hermanas in the ward.

You asked what the hardest part has been so far and its definitely seeing the family situations and broken homes. Its just devastating. Especially families that have problems with abuse. Most children don't have a clue who their fathers are. Mostly its single moms. The ones that do have parents watch them fight all the time. I'm so grateful for the family i have.I have been more blessed than i ever knew. The Lord has been so good to our family. I love you all. Take care!

April 20, 2010

The fleas are still alive as ever and now something else is coming out. the other day i got like 20 new bites in like an hour but i don't know what from. I hate bug spray but i'll definitely will be using it. we're gonna have some members of the ward help haul out our couch this weekend and we'll just sit on the floor until they can get us a new one. When your at the store and in reno can you keep your eyes out for rice krispys. we use them alot here but they are now 5 dollars a box! the latins have never had them before and are loving them so we do some sister proselyting and take rice krispy treats and notes to people in the ward or investigators sometimes. it has been really successful in this area. and also any mormon tabernacle choir you can get your hands on. its the only music we can listen to now and we don't have any.
its going to get more humid because the rainy season is coming. Plus we're in the most humid area of the mission i think anyway just because of our location.

So i noticed the craziest thing this week. When it rains worms don't come out. I was so dissapointed. Instead it's snails. I'll always be a worm girl. Every day while i'm here i try and find the strangest animal i can. it's been really fun. There are lots of weird fish and stuff. Plus there are green parrots that got out of the zoo during hurricane andrew and now they're everywhere. I've also seen snails, an iguana, tons of lizards, parrots, horseshoe crab?? (it was like 2 feet long), squid, dolphins, a stork (about 3 or 4 feet tall). its so fun. i always try and get pictures so i can send them home to courtney and the boys but i haven't printed them yet.

K so as far as the work goes right now its a little slow but it's picking up. I love it here though. Right now we are building trust with people and just trying to help where we can. the leadership in the branch is really burnt out so we're just letting them know we care. Hopefully c will be baptized this next week. He is a friend of in inactive family that just came back. He has been very religious but now wants to get baptized. He's just waiting to receive an answer wether Joseph Smith is a prophet. We're probably going to fast with him this week. He has accepted everything else and is progressing really quickly. We found out because of some stuff M may not be able to be baptized for about 10 or 12 more weeks. Thats a bummer because we might not be here still but we're still working with her. She's AMAZING. I really like working with the YSA. Another funny thing is that last week I got called up to speak in the YSA branch for the second time without warning but not Hermana. Thats just my lot in life i guess haha. i had 3 people come up to me afterwards though and tell me i'm a really good speaker and asked where it comes from. I got to tell them about my experiences with public speaking with Mr Dahl. I knew all that would pay off some day! also on the FFA topic I was visiting with one of the YSA kids and he was talking about how the newspaper was saying how bad slaughter houses are and how chickens are locked up and treated cruely and stuff. I about died... i can't believe people believe that stuff. We had a long farm talk so i could clear things up haha Life is wonderful and this gospel is AMAZING. I'm so grateful to be a missionary and have this opportunity to be his servant. I love you all! thank you for all your support and love and prayers!

April 12, 2010

I love getting your letters. As far as fleas go they aren't quite so bad, someone told us that Borax kills them and that is helping but not completely. We found out they have even been sprayed or bug bombed at least 5 times in 3 months- we're suprised we're still alive let alone them haha but Pres told us this week that he's getting us a new couch which should solve the problem. The new problem though is the bugs outside. The mosquitos eat us up really good and i just can't bring myself to pay 10 dollars for some cutter bug spray... such a rip off! that and i'm poor so my legs are just covered in random bites haha the worst is when they get under your skirt and bite you like crazy.

I'm glad you enjoyed the pictures. This place is beautiful. We love it! The work this week has been really slow but we're praying it will get better. Here is a little update on our investigators

A- He has so much knowledge and knows its true but is trying everything he can to prove it wrong logically. He's hardened his heart quite a bit and we're not sure why. We're just praying for him to soften it again and accept revelation.He is in the YSA branch but we think he might be over 30 and he doesn't speak spanish or have a car so i don't know what we'll do. He would have to take the bus for like 30 minutes and i don't know if he'll do that. He likes the people in the YSA branch.

M- We love her! she turned 18 this week so we decorated her room for her birthday which was great because it gave us the opportunity to talk to her mom who for now isn't interested but she loves us so we're making progress. It was her mom's b-day this week too and we wrote her card with our testimonies telling her the greatest b-day gift we could give her is the opportunity to live with mildred as a family forever. We haven't seen her since then so we'll so how it goes.

S- He is the husband of a member. He is way awesome. He had some problems but is changing. They got in a fight this week though and he decided he doesn't want anything to do with learning about the church. But then the whole family showed up to church on sunday! we were so excited! we were actually the first set of missionaries or people from the church he's been willing to meet with. He has always hid in the back room when they came over and most recently wouldn't let any males from the church over to their house. we love their family!

P- He is a beach bum from Brazil. We lost contact with him and have "randomly" run into him everywhere since then. The Lord is definitely helping with this one. This week he asked us if we were always so happy and if we always had this light about us and if we were for real or just faking it. A great opportunity to teach! He is also YSA. Pray that he comes to church this sunday. We've really been trying to work on that. Also he worked and lived with the natives in brazil for a while and learned how to make the most GORGEOUS jewelry and with amethysts and pearls and all kinds of rare stones from Brazil.

Those are our most solid investigators right now. We love them all and pray for them constantly!

Also this will suprise you mom but you sent that make up and the beige one is the one that matches! i'll use the other one and just mix it with some bronzer. I really appreciate you sending me everything. We get a lot of sun around here! I have an amazing farmers tan. I'd venture to say it beats kyle's in the summer :)

Every P-day since we got here it has rained and you just get kind of chilled and then the other days you melt and i think its that change that is getting to me. I can't believe it took 5 weeks to find out we're 3rd cousins! so fun though. Her mom was so excited to talk to you about it. And her Grandpa was even more excited! i heard he's going to call aunt Frances and talk to her about it. I know that us being companions is one of the reasons i have been placed in miami beach.

Our branch here is on fire! when we got here they were the smallest and weakest they have ever been. We asked to do the book of mormon reading with them and they weren't too excited about it but they have been having AMAZING experiences with it. Their testimonies are truly blooming! We call 2 families every night to talk about their reading with them and they have actually been doing it! its truly a miracle. this week we also called some random inactive families to invite them to church and 2 of them came! so even though work with investigators is going slow things are starting to pick up with the members.

I love you all so much! this church is true. We have a living prophet who leads and guides us. The book of mormon is true. God lives and Jesus is the Christ! Have a good week!

And i'm so glad work is picking up! every time i look into the bay and see fish or see people fishing or carrying poles i get really excited! we have some in our apartment and just looking at them makes me feel at home :) i think they are Daiwa D-shocks haha

Hermana Hendrix

April 4, 2010

I've had to buy quite a bit of stuff since i got here. When i first arrived i had to get bedding, pillows, shampoo, conditioner, ped socks($50 yikes!) and all my other living supplies. then i had to get the shoes which are sketchers by the way and are MUCH better. all my blisters are turning into callises so i'm much better now. then i had to get some summer skirts and jackets- we're melting here and most of the skirts i had don't dry thats a problem. then we had to get a bunch of stuff for lessons for investigators. they do really good with visual aids and diagrams and stuff. needless to say its been pricey but i haven't just been shopping I PROMISE! also we are given money for food but thats all it covers and barely that. Not any times we have to eat out when we are going to district council or hygeine products or anything. because we live on the beach there is only one grocery store thats really close and its across the street from the beach so they charge what they want. its pretty expensive and for the first 2 weeks here no one really fed us because they didn't know who we were.

ok so conference was way good definitely all about the family kind of strange because i'm not a mom or a kid at home but it was still really good. i got your package and LOVED it! thank you! i was way excited to get the back pack and i think my watch is on my book shelf. we ate mac and cheese for easter dinner- no one signed up for like the next 5 days. our branch is tiny and they already all feed us once a week. there are only 3 high priests in the branch, yeah LITTLE. A new kid moved into the area this week and we met him at conference. He grew up in Reno and went to hug and wooster. He is Lalo Otuafi's cousin. His dad was president of the first tongan branch in reno- crazy. He asked if i new a stephanie hunter from fallon but i didn't recognize the name. also we don't walk from the islands haha we drive over the causeway. Hermana's mom asked her the same question. you should call and talk to her mom one day. find out if we're related and then let us know. I love my companion she is so fun and just AMAZING in every way. we have tons of fun together. she just said that her family is trumans and bowlers! oh my we just found that out in the library HAHA ok find out and let me know. i'm going to try and send some photos of the area and some kids of people we are teaching and then write some more if i have time LOVE YOU

the sign is for dad of an area we tract in


these are pictures of across the street from my apartment (sooo totally jealous!)

k these ones include a puffer fish- look at the teeth they're horse teeth and they hiss- SO COOL and then my hermana and then me and then the elder that was on our ceiling when we moved in- he's been there for years so we aren't allowed to take him down so we're going to put a sister on the other side of the room for balance (They are actually backwards in order)

these pictures are of the bay across the street and that skyline is all lit at night in different colors- GORGEOUS the next one is our chapel which is also beautiful and then the last is a bone fish
(also backwards)

March 29, 2010

Thats funny that you wrote about the talk by Elder Holland. It's my FAVORITE! I actually spoke about it in sacrament a week or so ago. It is so powerful. I LOVE the Book of Mormon. Me and my companion are starting a program with our spanish branch this week. We found out most of them don't have testimonies of the Book of Mormon and don't read it. Others don't even have a copy in their homes! So sad. We decided we are going to do a reading program. We will read a chapter a day and finish on Christmas day. Sunday we are having a ward potluck and together we will read the introduction, the witnesses and watch the restoration movie. Then as we meet with the members we will talk to them about the importance of reading the Book of Mormon as a family. Each week we will have one day a week that everyone can meet at the chapel and read the chapter together, for those who don't understand it or live alone. Then we will call two families a night to see how their reading went and then each monday we go to a family's for FHE and we will read with them. It's going to take a lot of encouragement and time but i'm really excited about it. I know that it will bring a strength to the branch that isn't here right now.

Something not so exciting is that we have fleas! thats right FLEAS. The senior couple came and drowned our apartment with pesticide stuff and everything was soaking wet (elder welch got a little carried away... it was like dad attacking weeds haha) then they were still here this week so we bug bombed all three rooms- thats a lot of stuff too. and then today we found more! they are here from when the elders lived here because they didn't ever clean. and you can't kill them. Even smashing them doesn't work. We have little bites all over our legs. They itch way bad. BUT... Elder welch is coming back on friday to see what he can do. We'll get them if its the last thing we do haha. At least we aren't the sisters in homestead. They've had cockroaches for 3 transfers. They said they were killing them by the hundreds. They got moved into a new apartment today though. So ours definitely isn't bad.

We meet some STRANGE people but its really fun. There are some people- we haven't met them yet- who live under the bridge by our house. They escaped from an insane asylum and i guess the lady used to walk around in her straight jacket . I really want to see her (Mom may have freaked out a little at this one).

This week has been slow because we are eliminating all of the potential contacts we had from the elders. Some people react different to sisters than elders. We actually met with a recent convert this week who we didn't know anything about. We later found out he's dangerous and we weren't supposed to meet him and salt lake said to stay away. He was nice though. He showed up to church on sunday too and went up for testimonies saying that he had demons in him and he thought that by going up there they would leave him (This one pretty much did freak Mom out). We were in another meeting at that time so we didn't see it. We have so many fun adventures i love it! also- there were some people fishing in the bay the other day and they caught bonefish and pufferfish. i got pictures- they look AWESOME the puffer fish have teeth like a horse and they like hiss at you. i'll try and send them home soon

Right now we are really working on binding the Lord. There are so many promises blessed to us if we desire them and the scriptures tell us how to get them. The Lord is bound when we do what he says, and thats exactly what we are doing. We are searching for specific blessings that we want. we are then looking in the scriptures for everything we can do to bind the Lord in receiving it. Its a really amazing principle.

This isn't the rainy season but when it rains it POURS its the craziest thing. We've had a few days of rain but not many.

Things with my companion are amazing! I love her so much. We get along really well and definitely have the same vision for this area. Something that has really unified us is revelation. We have asked the Lord in some specific things and he has given us both the same answers. It really helps us to move in the same direction. It is really awesome to figure out how to work with the spirit and how he speaks to me. The Lord is very aware of each person in this area.

Tell Mitchell and Kieran i said good job! I wish i could have been there to see it. I hope someone taped it so i can watch it in a year and a half.

I hope you have fun in Idaho! tell everyone i said hi and i love them!

Oh something else really exciting is that i have a tan already- in March! i got burned twice already and i'm about 2 to 3 shades darker than i was when i got here. The bad thing about that is people are starting to thing i'm latin and so i should speak spanish! some lady asked me yesterday if my mom was latin... i said no we're all white and she didn't believe me. I'm gonna be way dark by the end of summer though. so awesome.

I haven't heard from Crystal either (Hint, hint). I've written to her once but she never wrote back. I'm going to try and write to her again today. We have a convert that reminds me So much of her and her story is a lot the same to. I always wonder how she's doing.

Tell H and G I'm so excited for them! that's so awesome. Have they picked out any names yet?

Oh so yesterday we went to M's house- she's a convert that is getting baptized in like a week, she's the one like crystal. We went to her house for dinner and her mom made us honduran enchiladas- so good! they're on corn shells and its meat, potatoes, cabbage, and a red sauce. Loved it. Next time they are making us tripe soup. i'm a little scared about that but i'll eat it. This week a lady made us a fish soup- with the WHOLE fish. scales, eyes, bones, everything. Thankfully we don't eat with members we just pick up the food so we didn't feel so bad not eating it. we let a set of elders eat it and then dumped out the rest. it was crazy. We get some crazy stuff.

This place is a whole different world. There are people from EVERYWHERE. Right now is spring break so its crazy too. In southbeach the clubs and everything open at like 11 in the morning and probably actually never stop. there are so many people and no one has houses. its all apartment buildings. It kind of reminds me of the set up in Italy.