11 down... Que?

Hi everyone! 

This past week was pretty interesting...

We had transfer calls, and Hermana Aldrich and I are staying!  Literally no one in the mission is changing... 5 missionaries are leaving to head home, and only 12 are coming in, but we will be having a 3rd district in our zone! We'll be getting a new District leader, and our area will be split!  We will no longer cover the out distanced cities in our area that we haven't been able to visit, but it will be good because there's lots of potential out there!

Chesy did not end up getting baptized, but she will definitely be prepared for next week.

This past week I got some amazing news!  Burt Ramsey back in Toppenish had plans to get baptized this past weekend!  Due to our baptism falling through, and multiple other of our baptisms for our District falling through, we found a member to take us to Burt's baptism, and it was wonderful!  He'll probably be my last English investigator to be baptized, but who knows? Maybe I'll do some english work in the future again. His baptism was amazing, everyone from the ward was there, and still plenty of the people I knew from before.  Ever since he told us about his dreams of seeing multiple people and assuming it was a sign of family history work, I always saw him in white... and I got to see it actually happen!  He looked glowing!  I did not get a picture of him in white, but trust me when I say he looked like an Angel!

On Tuesday we had planned to have a FHE with Chessy and Francisco, but they never showed up.  They called us and told us that Francisco was working and plowing snow around town, so we weren't able to have them.  We were able to help the member who we made the plan with to have her first real FHE, and despite her kids going crazy, she pulled it together and shared her testimony along with her daughters' testimonies. She's literally amazing.

Wednesday we met Carla, who is outstanding!  She has so much potential, and she let us talk to her for 15 minutes while she stopped cooking in her kitchen, and she was so excited to accept a pamphlet. She's awesome!  We are going back to her this week!  We also did A LOT of walking on Wednesday, so my calves are definitely feeling like rock!

Friday we had a big discussion with Chesy about rearranging a new date for her baptism, and we had Hermana H. with us from the branch and her grandson Alex, who's going to be like... the BEST missionary ever!  We are patiently waiting as a branch to see where he will go, and he totally testified of the commandments to Chesy and promised her in the name of the Lord that she would be blessed if she used the atonement to do better everyday. It was perfect!  Then Alex got ordained an Elder this past Sunday.  WOOHOO!

Saturday night we went to Burt's baptism, and that was amazing!  Here are some pictures.  Hope they show up - and of course, a tag picture!  Sunday was also awesome because we had Francisco, Chesy, AND Delia at church, and they stayed the WHOLE time this time... YESS!  I'm so happy we've been seeing little miracles still.

Another crazy thing happened...   I hit my 11 months... Que?  No!  No Quiero!  I can't believe it's been just under a year since I got on a plane just as Sarah, and then arrived in Mexico as Hermana Marble, I absolutely love being here, wearing this tag humbles me, strengthens me, gives me the power.  I never thought I would change this much over the past 11 months.  I have enjoyed every minute so far of becoming more like Christ, and I have a strong testimony of the life of Jesus Christ.  As I put on my tag all I care is about representing him, and doing my best to put my personal worries aside and worry about teaching those who need the gospel and my time more than I need my own time. 

 Love you all, thank you for all the endless prayers and support. I feel it every day!

Planner out the window, JOANN!!

Hi everyone! 

When I saw this week flew by, I mean it literally flew out the door, and into the street.. literally. 

Not too much has happened, Molly is still on date for baptism, and we've received permission from our Branch President to have the baptism and the confirmation the same night. It will be December 6th, and we are extremely excited!  We've already got some talks figured out, Brother Ibarra is baptizing her, (her dad) and all their family from Yakima, Seattle, and some from Utah are coming. It is soooo exciting!

We didn't get to teach Burt this week, but luckily we know he went to a mid singles dance in Pasco with another mid single member in the ward. We haven't heard from him for a few days, but we are planning on pushing his date back to December 12 so we will have more time to teach him and help him get his interview. 

Best news of this week...  Remember the excommunicated member that is Sister Johnson's mom who wants to be baptized?  WE HAVE PERMISSION TO TEACH HER! She will just need to have her interview conducted by Bishop Stauffer and all will be well :)  We are so excited!  She and Burt have already come to church twice, but neither showed up this past Sunday. Oh well, we'll see them this week!  We are planning on teaching him and her this weekend! Woot Woot!

I have so much to share, but so little time, and I unfortunately lost my planner Sunday at church... I have no idea where it is, We've looked everywhere. Oops!  But on that note, this week... a LOT of appointments have fallen through, we've been trying hard to find, and in result, we've found 3 more investigators!  They are all thirsting for the gospel, and we cannot wait to visit them all again this week!  We are visiting Yolanda and her family tonight, and then we will be visiting George and Mari this upcoming week!  

Since this week wasn't too rewarding, we ended up buying Ben And Jerry's ice cream during a canceled dinner to make up for the feelings... Because you know... we are sisters, and sometimes we need a pick me up. Haha!

We are doing great, and I LOVE training. I feel inadequate sometimes, but I sure do love her and she understands that I tend to stress sometimes, but I've been doing better, and I know I am training her for a purpose only Heavenly Father Knows. She's my hija!  I can't wait to see what next transfer brings, but that's not until November 30th. 

Love you all, please keep Joann Gibson, Burt Ramsey, and Molly Clark in your prayers!

Buenas Dias de El Templo!

Hey everyone! 

I am emailing on a Tuesday this week because we went to the Columbia River Temple, so we are taking today as our P-day. This morning at the temple was BEAUTIFUL! It was just a bit chilly, but it was wonderful to go and to be with my trainee Hermana Parry and to be reunited with my Zone, Hermana Taua and everyone else. 

I don't have too much time today, its been busy week, but let me give you a run down!

We met Michael (just graduated high school and wants to be an example to his siblings) about a month ago and went back to visit him this week and we invited him to pray to know if baptism is the right thing for him.

We met Nanci this week, who's a junior in high school, who's actually friends with a member, but we knocked into her and we left her with a Book of Mormon and an invitation to read 3rd Nephi 11 about Christ coming to the America's. We plan on inviting her to be baptized this week when we get in with her.

Burt and Joann came to church this past Sunday! Burt was greeted by so many members and Joann was able to reconnect with everyone she knew before she stopped going to church. Burt asked if he could meet the Bishop, and commented on a young member's testimony about becoming a missionary, who's reporting to the Boston Massachusetts Mission Portuguese speaking, and told us she would be a great missionary. He and Joann, and even Tana Johnson are all coming to the Ward Harvest Dinner this week, and then we are having a lesson with them the night after that. It should go really well!

We had a funny little incident this week while knocking in a close-by neighborhood where Sister Parry, out of nowhere  had to use the bathroom really bad... We don't know why, I won't talk about it, but we then ended up leaving a guy on the phone who we started talking to, got distracted with a call from Mexico (Typical for the Hispanics) and left us hanging...  Well, she really needed a close-by bathroom, and asked me if there were members in the neighborhood... "Uhh.... There aren't any members in this neighborhood, Why?" 

"Hermana, I really have to use the bathroom!"  We zipped over next door where we saw a lady walk back into her house from taking out the garbage, quickly introduced ourselves, and then impatiently asked to use the bathroom, and Laura, who was currently home, let us in. It was a good save, but that's all I may say about that.... 

This week has been rewarding, and it all yet happened in a flash. Just goes to show how long It's been since I started my mission.... cough cough, 9 months.... next week...  Nope, can't face the realization right now, haha! I have 9 months left to live up the best job I've ever had, and all I am given in return is blessings, for me, for my companion, for my family, and the strongest testimony I've ever had of the gospel of the best person that ever lived on this earth, who I can't ever thank enough for His sacrifice, and His blood which was shed for me, for you, and for everyone on this earth!

My time is up, but I love you all and I wish you all the best week ever! Share the gospel with someone this week! :)

Transfer week, New Companera!

Hi Everyone! 

This past week was a little slow because of transfers, but I'll give you the short jist of it. 

Sunday night we ate with the Corona's non member family where we ate ceviche.  It's salsa but with shrimp and fish, (So incredibly good!) and said some goodbyes for Sister Taua.

Monday we went to P-day in Yakima and said goodbye to all the missionaries who just recently went home and finished their missions. So many wonderful sisters returned home this week that we got to know at ZTC's which was saddening, but it's exciting that they are all returning to go to school and such. We also had our first lesson with Molly, the Ibarra's daughter. We taught her the restoration and invited her to be baptized on December 6th, her 18th birthday, and she said yes!  It was a good leave off note for Sister Taua, as she loves this family to death just as much as I do. (You too Alaundra!) Our lesson ended in tears shedding down everyone's face and with some sweet goodbyes and pictures. We sure do love them!

Sister Taua gave me a Ei-lava lava before
she left. I'm Hawaiian now guys! #nbd

Tuesday we ate with some members who took us out to dinner to El Porton, which was super good. We've seen a particular truck around town with the letters spelling "Hawaiian" on the back window, and Sister Taua has been wanting to meet them. Turns out we had met him before at the post office, and we saw him again while we were at the restaurant. She got to talk to the wife and husband about Hawaii and then left on their way. Well, on their way out they paid for our dinner!  It was super nice, and we are trying to look for them in town to thank them, but we haven't seen them since that night. 

Wednesday, I received my brand new companion!  I was a bit jittery because we were supposed to get a ride to the transfer site in Yakima by a member so we could save miles, but instead, we had a miscommunication with her and we ended up driving ourselves to the meeting in Yakima, then we got lost in Union Gap after taking a different exit than normally... it was a stressful morning, but we made it just in time, where we were greeted by President and Sister Lewis along with the other missionaries moving around their luggage. We got in and everyone settled down. One of our President's assistants got released to train before he and the other assistant go home next transfer. It's been another transfer of crazy changes! 

This week, I received Hermana Parry. She is from Tucson Arizona, and she has 5 younger siblings, so she's the first child out on a mission!  She's super excited to work, she understands A LOT of Spanish, and I am just incredibly impressed with her and I am proud to be her trainer!

Thursday we went knocking doors, and I let Hermana Parry take the lead to where we should knock. We knocked on a door she picked where we talked with Jesus and his wife, strong Catholics, but with great big hearts, because they invited us to eat with them. This was Hermana Parry's official first Hispanic meal, and it was Chile con Queso (Big chile with cheese stuffed inside in a red broth/soup) Super delicious, and perfect timing because is was starting to get cold outside. She really liked it, and she didn't seem to mind the Chile. Haha! They sent us with water bottles as we left, and they thanked us for sharing our light with them. They were super sweet, and had a really cute, shy 4 year old. Gosh, the Hispanic kids are the best!

Friday we went to Yakima with the new Sunnyside sisters, who are now in our district, to our Trainer/Trainee meeting at the mission home, and this home... is so beautiful!  I had never seen it until now, and we are so lucky and fortunate to have a beautiful home for the mission.  It resides in Selah, a bit north of Yakima where we drove with a member and spent the afternoon in trainings, and separating into trainers councils and trainee councils. We had a wonderful talk with President Lewis about sharing our vision of our trainees with them, and giving them as much guidance as possible. We sure do love President Lewis and Sister Lewis... Homemade cookies and all!

Saturday our Elders here in Toppenish had a baptism for our ward, so we attended in support of the family, and also Molly and the Ibarra's came!  It was a sight to see this beautiful part member family get baptized.  After that, we went to a surprise birthday party for an elderly woman in our ward.  We walked in expecting party food, but this party... was CLASSY... Holy cow. We had courses - soup, salad, even a sherbet/pallet cleanser... Her son went ALL OUT!  We felt pretty awkward because we can't sit at the same table as the elders, so they sat at a table all alone and we sat at a different empty table..... I'm pretty sure everyone thought we were weird!  We also had a lesson with Burt coming up in the next 20 minutes, so we ended up saying goodbye and heading out, and we busted out laughing when we got in the car. #awkwardsignfordayz  We grabbed some McDonalds and headed out to Sister Johnson's to teach Burt.  Another awesome lesson, talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Not a baptism date... yet! 

That, I guess isn't necessarily slow, but it's been good. We should be picking up work soon! Have a good week!

A good friend from California sent me this adorable gift, and I seriously
have clothes just like the doll does. THANK YOU ELIZABETH

Fruits in our Labor, Fruits in the fall!

 

Hola mis amigos! Como esta? 

This week has been crazy so let me get straight to it!

On Monday we met our sweet less active girl, Mia and we've been challenging her to read and pray every day. She's got such a sweet spirit, we're hoping to take some of the YW with us to her lessons. 

Tuesday was a LONG day!  We went to Yakima for our Zone Meeting and we had awesome discussions and trainings on becoming "The 4th Missionary," which is a description of becoming completely dedicated, focused, and willing for the work. We were able to get some awesome stuff out of the trainings that we started working on personally this week. We went to our sweet Tia Ana Maria's house for a lesson right after, which went super well! She asked a lot of good questions about the Book Of Mormon. Later that day we visited a less active named Tim, who's been less active ever since he had a motorcycle accident in High School. He's finally starting to show a little bit of interest in coming back! 

Later that night we gave the car to the elders and caught a ride to our dinner in Wapato. On our way there we were talking with the two members who drove us, and one of the sisters just moved down here from British Columbia. She said she was from Kamloops which is were my best friend, Robbie served as his first/second? area on his mission. She loved him to pieces and talks very highly of him!  She rocks!  After they dropped us off, we were welcomed into the members' home, where they unfortunately couldn't feed us, but they gladly gave us some money for dinner and we left... but we were just brought by a member because we didn't have the car. Oh my gosh, we laughed our socks off!  We couldn't stop laughing that we were stuck in Wapato with no car and no ride. Then we missed a call from our Zone Leaders, which you know... typically means business about lessons and investigators.  Well, we called them back and all they wanted to know was the name of some girl scout cookies.... "Um, Elders, We have no idea!" "Oh okay, cool, awesome, no big deal sisters, have a wonderful night!" Yeesh. Funny Elders! 

We found our sister, Courtney could come get us as we started the evening with having a member come tracting with us, which she's been the first one who's wanted to come out with us, also because she's going on a mission! She's going to Boston, Massachusetts Mission, speaking PORTUGESE!  She's gonna do amazing, and she's literally on fire with the spirit!  We had two door step lessons with her, where she was able to bear her testimony about the Gospel in her life. She then took us back to the church where we ended the night with picking up our car from the elders.

Wednesday the elders had a lesson out quite a ways that they couldn't find a ride to, so we figured out getting a ride to where we were going for the day while they took the car. We had 4 appointments set, and 3 fell through, but we had one with Guillermina who is a sweet young Grandma. She LOVES her grand kids!  We later caught our car back in Granger and drove back to the house for a House inspection, in which a couple missionary came to the house and marked inspections of what we need. They said they'll be getting us desks soon!  We are super excited and can't wait to stop studying on the couch and on a table.  We miss desks!

Thursday we did service for a member packing up some living room things for her father-in-law to move. We packed away all of his China dishes, (Mom, you taught me how to pack them well! it worked!) while we also kept her daughter, Shawna busy. Shawna has a speech disability, in which she communicates through sounds. She spits at you when you ignore her too long. She's so cute! She kept throwing newspaper balls at me, that silly girl. She loves playing catch, so we played with newspaper balls for a while. Then we were on our way to dinner, where we stopped by a potential who has a troubled drinking son and husband, and she's been looking for a bit of peace lately. We gave her a pamphlet and testified of God's love for her and her family. 

Friday is when we had a MIRACLE!  Tanna Johnson's parents were always members when she was growing up, unfortunately they were excommunicated and divorced.  Her mother has expressed her desire to be baptized again in the church, and Tanna was asked to feed us one night.  She felt impressed to say yes, but hesitated. As she was out on her farm that same day, the Spirit told her that her neighbor Burt, was ready to take the lessons. She ignored it twice, and the Spirit literally stopped her and told her he's ready.  A few minutes after she was still taking care of stuff on the farm, she said the Spirit told her that her mom was also ready to hear the lessons again.  This lady is so amazing!  She's married to a nonmember, and he's unfortunately not interested in the church at all.  We had a sweet lesson with her Mom Joanne, and Burt their neighbor about the Restoration. She was extremely happy to see that Burt was getting along with us, which was sweet to see that she was eager to see things go well. She also pitched in on the lesson more than we thought she would!  It was super sweet!

Then Saturday we met a recent convert in Wapato who wants to marry her boyfriend, who's also a member but extremely less active.  They are working towards their civil marriage until they can go to the temple together next July!  She actually was baptized by an Elder who I came into the mission with, Elder Johnson, before the mission split. He's currently in the other mission sadly. 

That's all our biggest news this week, people!  We are so happy to see our little fruits growing!  We are extremely happy to have 5 new investigators this week! 

Hasta proxima semana!

Les Queiro!

The Itsy Bitsy Miracles... and Mishaps!

Hi Ya'll!

This past week just FLEW by! Holy Cow!  We had a chance to visit Berta this past Monday after returning to work after P-day, and she definitely grasped the Plan of Salvation. Well, but about halfway through our lesson she cut us off and said she only has about 15 minutes with us every time we visit. Typically, we keep our appointments with investigators around 45 minutes to answer questions, to teach, and let the Spirit work on them. This really tested our simplicity, as we only made it through the first half of the Plan of Salvation lesson. She said she would continue to read the rest, and asked us to come back in a week. We had a goal to visit her more than once a week, if we want to help her progress, so we worked out our next appointment, today after P-day, and we hope to establish our purpose as missionaries again, and about how we'd like to visit more than once a week.. It should go well!

Tuesday, We visited the Torres Family, a less active family in our area, and they got invited by family to go to Salt Lake City for General Conference!  Sister Torres's work conflicts, as she is expected to work every Saturday, and a very long shift.  So unfortunately, she won't be able to go. She gladly accepted our invitation to join us at the church when General Conference is broadcasted to our other church building in Zillah, about 15 minutes away!  We also had a good lesson with Rose Marie, and talked more about baptism, because she's on date to be baptized for October 24th. Ever since last Tuesday, we haven't been able to get back in touch with her, which is sad, but we will be meeting with her sometime this week!

Wednesday was our Miracle Day!  We started off our day with a sweet District meeting, and our Zone Leaders even joined us!  Later that day we knocked in Toppenish, and then finished our day off with knocking in Granger. We were able to meet some wonderful people. We started off in Granger without an idea of where to start knocking, but we felt inclined to knock a certain street with Hispanic houses and American houses, (Spanish missionary habit, always searching for Hispanic looking streets and homes) and started off with not many people answering the door, until we knocked on another door, who seemed not to be home. We started turning around when a lady next door asked us "Can I Help you!?"  We first expected an outspoken American lady.  We kindly started talking to her after she told us she lived in that house, but was visiting next door. She started sharing some experiences she and her four kids have had to suffer through this past few years. She's divorced, and being forced to evacuate her house after not being able to pay the bills. She broke her collarbone at work and has been unable to work for the past month, sending aside the money she needed to support her kids, because her ex-husband isn't helping to pay for the kids' funds. We started talking about our purpose and work as missionaries, and she started to talk about how the missionaries in the past had stopped by only once, and never came back to her house. We felt sympathy as she started crying to us about how difficult things have been for her lately, and so we started talking about how Heavenly Father loves us and has created each of us for our purpose to return with him again. We started talking about how Sister Taua and I have experienced trials where we didn't feel like He was listening. She continued to cry, but to hide it from her children in the yard behind her. We promised her as she would make the move to Oregon to live with friends that she would find missionaries there who would gladly love to come over and teach her and her children. We gave her our card and invited her to request the missionaries on Mormon.org when she got settled in, and she said she gladly would!

Still loving our members animals!

Then Wednesday night we loaned the car to the Elders, (No, still no car for them, so we continue to loan it to them two or three times during the week) and started exchanges with our Sister Training Leaders. All day Thursday, Hermana Johnson was sick with a head cold/allergies. We still don't know why she's been sick for a long time, it's probably just allergies. We started off by working in Granger again.  We started talking to some people as soon as we got out of the car, but as I was closing up the car, I couldn't find the keys... I looked in my bag, in my skirt pockets, guess where the keys were....... I'm a klutz!  Yes, I locked the keys inside the car. Pretty embarrassing, but funny at the same time.  We just continued to talk to Anna Maria who was very intrigued by our message of eternal families. We got a return appointment and then evaluated what to do about our keys. We managed to find a member who was in Yakima who offered to pick up our spare key at the mission office (in Yakima, 30 minutes away) and bring it to us.  In the meantime without the car, we walked to our appointment with Alberto, who we are still having a hard time understanding. He's distracted very easily and doesn't seem to all be there in his head. He said he used to have extreme drinking problems but is trying to stop, we figured he may be a bit delayed mentally. Unfortunately he wasn't there for his appointment, but we were able to meet our recent convert's son, who just got home from Rehab, and lives next door. Ernesto has been in rough spots since the missionaries tried teaching him. He was in and out of Juvenile, and just got home from Rehab in Seattle, and in the meantime, his family was all baptized.  He really likes the elders.... but unfortunately, we are not the elders... He was pretty reluctant when we first met him, but we made plans to visit him and his family this week!  We also Taught Noheli that same night, who is about to have her fourth child!  We will need to wait a few weeks until she is stable with time and the new baby to come back and teach, but she and her husband love the bible, have beautiful children and lots of potential!  We met a few less actives that same night and exchanged back to our real companions! 

Our next Miracle was on Saturday!  We met Bundy (short for Abundancia)  while knocking some doors, and started talking with her about how much Heavenly Father loves us.  She started to really let loose on her word and talked A LOT, but it just goes to show how lonely she's truly been after explaining to us how she hasn't been getting along with her husband lately.  She's received some blessings from the missionaries, and knows our daily dose teachers very well!  We have a return appointment with her for Tuesday and are taking our Daily Dose teachers with us. 

On Sunday we had the Primary Program combined with the Ward and the Branch, so we started earlier than usual, and unfortunately Rose Marie didn't come, but said she would commit to coming.  We had dinner with the Ibarra's, and visited with some members to have dessert, and then returned to finding former investigators. 

We turned in some lost cards and Food Stamp cards to the Police Office. Mind you, neither Hermana Taua or I have been inside a Cop's Office, so it was awkward but funny all at the same time, meeting the officers and explaining how we found these Insurance, Food Stamp Cards and Health cards on the side of the road, all around a wallet, which was not there when we went back to get it.... The wallet was taken by someone literally in less than 5 minutes.  Pretty sketchy, but we hope the person gets their cards back. 

It's been a great week filled with little perfect miracles.  I know this Gospel is true, and I know it blesses every person in this world. I encourage each of you who aren't currently serving a mission to help the missionaries in your areas and to go about your ward mission plans. 

Love you all! Have a great week!

Granger is known as the Washington Dinosaur land!

Ta-ta... Tap-a-What?

Hey everyone! 

We got transfer calls this past Saturday and I'm getting transferred!  So anyone who still has my physical East Wenatchee address, please send to my mission home address from now on. I'm headed to Toppenish... I hope that's how you spell it.  My new companion is Hermana Taua, a Hermana I served with in the Wenatchee zone, but she served in Chelan.  She's only been there for 1 transfer, and

Farewell from East Wenatchee 

was doubled into an area with a new companion who hadn't been there before.  We are basically trading companions.  Hermana Alcocer will be receiving Hermana Dee, Hermana Taua's companion right now.  Drum Roll please...... Hermana Alcocer will be staying here, receiving Hermana Dee, and will become a Sister Training Leader!  I can say for her she has been waiting for this day to come... ;)  Just kidding, she's nervous, but I know she'll do great!

This week has yet been another roller coaster.  Wendy, our investigator with down-syndrome will not be getting baptized.  Heavenly Father testified to both of us that she is not ready, but she WILL be ready in the future.  We pray that Heavenly Father will prepare her for the future missionaries :)

Conchita told us she is moving, and will be going back to her home in Mexico for a time to take care of her elderly parents. She is very ready, but we will be passing her to the elders in her area once she moves back to the states again :)

This week has been a crazy week of knocking like crazy.  We've lost 2 investigators this week so we are determined to find!  We had a super sweet lesson with Sabino about trails and hardships.  We both shared experiences with him about how the gospel has blessed us in our times of need, and while I was baring my testimony, I asked Hermana Alcocer for a few Spanish words while I felt lost, but with the spirit in trying to say everything in Spanish.  As she was helping me, he chimed in and commented and said, "That is why you two sisters are together, you complete each other."  That got to me hard, it made me so thankful she and  have been together this transfer. She's truly helped me so much!

Later that same day we had a lesson with Allejandro. He LOVES the idea of a modern prophet and of priesthood. We've loved visiting him, and have a return appointment this week before I get transfered.  

Saturday was pretty special because of transfer calls, but also because Hermana Alcocer and I were asked to join in on a musical number for a baptism that some elders were having at our stake center. All four of us sang "I know my redeemer lives" in Spanish, and let me just say, I've NEVER felt the spirit burn so strong within me.  I was asked to give a short solo and lead the music.  Let's just say I lost the knowledge of how to lead, and how many verses we were going to sing... because every verse I was about to walk down, so it looked like I was doing a lunge between verses.  The Spanish members didn't even mind :)

Me and my favorite street on exchanges in Wenatchee this past week

That's the gist of my last full week in East Wenatchee... I'm going to miss it so much! I've loved serving with our bishopric, with the Spanish speaking members, and most of all, the wonderful people I had the opportunity I had to teach.  I love everyone here, and I wont ever forget all the amazing members and investigators we had up here. I will greatly miss it!

Have a wonderful week everyone! 

Lo Siento, No Photos!

Hey everyone! 

I apologize in advance because I don't have any pictures to send home. I left my camera at our house today so I'll tell you the jist of my week!

This Wednesday is the MISSION SPLIT! This past week we had a ZTM with President and Sister Ware on Happiness and how we can better bring this happiness into people's lives. It fit so well because, well...  It was a big cry fest.  This was our last time with President and Sister Ware.  I have truly enjoyed serving with him and I will greatly miss him.  He's been such a great role model to me for the past 4 months.  He and I have truly grown close since I've gotten here. 

President and Sister Lewis will step foot on Yakima soil on Wednesday, and we will have a 'meet and greet' with them after they arrive.  We also have a ZTC Conference this Saturday.  We are just swarmed with meetings! We've also found 2 new investigators in Orondo, which is about 30 minutes away.  We attended the ward across the river, which will be the ward they will soon attend.  We had a great chance to get to know the bishopric and pitch in on the work in Wenatchee!  

We also did some phone OYMs this week (Open Your Mouth).  Our OYM goal every week is 70, which means we try to talk to 70 new people every week, whether it is knocking on doors, talking to old investigators on the phone from old records, or tracting from house to house. We did our phoning OYMs a bunch this week and we've set up multiple return appointments with them!  But we also scheduled one on Pday by mistake... #Woops!  We have it at 4:00 today and then we have a member dinner at 5:00, which isn't too bad, oh well!  We are stoked to meet them! 

We also hit a rock this past week. Our investigator Miguel dropped us because he doesn't have the time to get baptized or come to church.  It was super sad, but we know he will be prepared in the future for the gospel. 

That's all I've got. 

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

3 months, but no time!

All is well.  Everything is getting better, hotter, busier, and more fun!

This week is our trip to the temple!  This is extra special for me because the mission split is July 1st.  Next transfer will determine where we will go for which mission.  I feel that I will most likely stay in the Yakima mission because there is more Spanish work to be done here.  The only problem is that there is no temple within the Yakima Mission (soon to be) Boundaries.  If I stay in the Yakima mission, I won't be visiting the temple at all for the rest of my mission.  Anything could happen though!  So after this next transfer, if I am put in Yakima, I will not have temple trips at all.  I won't be able to attend the temple until I return home.  I look forward to going to a session with my wonderful Zone, and more importantly, not being the only sister companionship!  Ha ha!  We only have two sister companionships in our zone, so I am excited to go to the temple with the other sisters!  We have plans to go to a Deseret Book in Far West, which is out in Richland before we leave to come home.  We will wake up at 5 in the morning, leave at 6:30, attend a session at 9, shopping and lunch after, and then return home.  I am so excited to go!  This will be the 4th temple I have attended since I received my endowments! (Brigham City, Logan, Mexico City, Richland)

We have tried some new finding methods, which include chalking pictures of the Plan of Salvation, Mormon.org, etc. We also have started 'garbage tracting', which is picking up garbage as we talk to people.  Multi-tasking!  It is especially needed in the trailer parks, in which we met someone who came out and gave us water bottles! She was so sweet!  She thanked us for cleaning up her neighborhood. 

We also have had more members come to lessons with us, which has been a blast!  We have been talking with an older couple who are interested in learning how to read, and we plan on inviting them to take the Daily Dose classes, which are Spanish classes from members in the Spanish ward, who speak English as well. 

The work is slowly progressing!

Love you all! have a safe and awesome week!

My planner for this transfer: the Ukraine Temple