Spiritual Fire Hose!

Hello everyone! How are Ya'll doing? 

So this past week was amazing! 

First, We went back to an investigators house... the same investigator where we got stuck in traffic trying to get back home.. We went to her house, and sat down while having a pre-chat before we started our lesson. Pretty soon her dog starts freaking out about something in the corner of the room under a pile of boxes. She told the dog to "Knock it off" and explained that sometimes he's a wuss about silly cobwebs or spiders. We continue to talk, but pretty soon the dog started to growl and Sister Knight heard a "hiss" come from where the dog was. Ellen jumped out of her chair, screamed a few words I won't ever repeat, and told us to get out of the house.. "IT'S A RATTLESNAKE!" We literally sprinted out of the house while she quickly picked up her dog and ran out with us.. 

We ran next door to her neighbors who are members, and the father wasn't home because he was with his family working 20 minutes away at their business office. As we walked back to where she was on the side of the road, we told her what happened and she said, "I give up, I'm getting the Mexicans!" She ran next door to her Hispanic neighbor, who followed her over with a Machete in his hand and his wife followed behind with a few random things. We looked at each other with bizarre looks on our faces. "Don't worry ladies, I've dealt with them rattlesnakes before."  

*GULP* okay mister! We then held the dog down outside while they took care of the snake. 45 minutes later we were sitting down again in her house, all calmed down after it all happened. 

As for our exciting conferences, It was amazing! Holy cow, it was just a fire hose all day, for two days. We heard from Daniel L Johnson, and we got so much out of it!  He made a lot of progress with teaching us the basics. Something he taught us was that we can compare our investigators to tomatoes; If we pick a green one, and yell at it to ripen it won't do us any good. But if we set it aside, and keep looking for the RED tomatoes (the investigators who are prepared and ready to keep commitments and are serious about taking the time to learn about the church) then it will be an easier time waiting for the green tomato, and it saves a lot more time as well. 

So, after our two days of conferences, we learned about teaching Hispanics and the role we must fulfill as THEIR missionaries.  We also learned about preaching and teaching repentance and baptizing converts... Now at first that sounds strange.. correct? Baptizing converts basically means that we should be baptizing and teaching those people who we know are prepared and who are ready to come to church, THIS Sunday, who are ready to read the Book of Mormon, EVERY DAY, and who are ready to pray for answers, EVERY DAY. I have loved these conferences, especially seeing and spending time with the other amazing missionaries I love. 

Rainbow and rain while I went on exchanges in Yakima after conferences 

Hna Harston and I

I got to see Sister Reynolds from my second area at the Yakima church building between traveling for conferences, bittersweet moment!!

Feliz Dia de Madre!

Hello Everyone! Happy Mother's Day!

So this past week has been quite interesting to say the least... Trevor did not end up getting baptized, but it will need to be in a few weeks. He passed his interview on Monday Night!  It's just that there's some scheduling that conflicts with his family's schedule, so that will continue to follow in the weeks to come. This week we talked about the footnotes and study helps in the scriptures with him, and he's very excited to continue to read in the Book of Mormon and receive his own set of scriptures!

Hermana Knight and I have been able to get really close this past week. We've both been having some personal things come up in our companionship, but we are proud to say, we are SOOO thankful to be companions. Video chatting with my parents was fun and excited to hear about all the changes happening at home. I am very thankful for my parents and for all that they do for me, and I can't wait to hear more!

I don't have much to email about today, because today is not P-day for us. On Thursday we are heading to the TEMPLE!!  I am so excited to go be in my home mission boundaries and to spend the day in the temple with Hermana Knight and also with our Zone.  We will be stocking up on our Costa Vida, since we don't have one in the Yakima Mission. We only have a Cafe Rio in our mission boundaries, and it's in my first area in Wenatchee.... Costa Vida here we come!  

Anyway, I love you all! Have a great week!!

We walk by Faith, not by sight..

Hello Hello! Howdy Ya'll! (Thanks to my Texan companion)

So this past week was so awesome!  We have some amazing new investigators we will be working with this upcoming week! The Derek Family is awesome, they have 2 kids, and they have TONS of questions, they are super amazing. Their Son, Japhia, said the first prayer, and he simply asked... "Please bless me with enlightenment and knowledge of my purpose."  Mind you, he's 10 years old. #yeahdawgie  The weather has been AWESOME this past week as well, it got into the 90's already... Hermana Knight LOVED It, but I couldn't stand it... until I remembered it gets darker later in the evening, so that means we can tract until 9:00 pm in our area now. Woot woot!

I was really struggling this past week with some personal things, and Monday night I kept bottling them up until I couldn't take it anymore. I am SOOOO glad that I am with Hermana Knight because she has truly taken me for who I am. Wow. I couldn't be more happy with any other companion! After she and I talked some things out, I realized I hadn't had a priesthood blessing in over 2 months... I usually can't go a month or so without a priesthood blessing. So we called up my 2nd counselor in our bishopric and asked if he would. He and his wife are amazing! I love them to death, and the blessing was exactly what I needed. Short and Sweet!

We drove out to a far part of our area called "Carson" and contacted a referral.  We hadn't ever been up in Carson before, so that was really cool!  He wasn't too interested, but we left him a Book of Mormon anyway. Hermana Knight has a special medical condition called Insulin resistance, which is very similar to Diabetes, and she can't eat a lot of carbs, bread, etc. or sweets.  She drank some soda this past week and she was NOT doing well, so on our way up to Carson she got very car sick, and took some motion sickness pills, which made her super drowsy, and then we had to go eat at a members house and after that let her sleep it all off. It was hilarious! She was so out of it, but she's doing better now.

Here's a scripture for Ya'lls souls. 

2nd Corinthians 5:6

 5. There fore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.

6. (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

I know for sure I have not walked by sight this week, it has all been by faith.  Through it all, He has lead me with His hand, and He has never let go of me. I am so happy and thrilled to be a missionary, and it's probably never going to hit me that I am almost done... It's so strange... but I'm not thinking about it. 

Love you all, have a good week!

I KNOW I CAN.

Hi Everyone! 

This past week it rained, like a lot, but it was also sunny a bit as well.

I went on exchanges with Hermana Juarez, who has been out in the field for just over two months. Our Sister Leader came to my area with Hermana Buss, and then I went to the other sisters' area. It was awesome! We taught an amazing lesson where I really learned to discover one of my spiritual gifts as a missionary... Being BOLD!  

Now, being bold as a missionary, is sometimes difficult, because it shows that you love the people, members, and investigators, but it's also a bit scary to see what people's reactions are.. so I learned how truly bold I've been, and I didn't realize until she had pointed it out, and asked if I would do a "DTR" with their investigator while we were on exchanges. (Determine The Relationship)  Maria is very sweet, and very nice, but she has some things to straighten out before she gets baptized. She is struggling to want to read in the BOM, and throughout the whole lesson we were able to find a balance and a level with her. She wants to be baptized, but can't until she starts reading.  I'm glad I had Hermana Juarez right there with me, because It's sometimes hard being bold all alone... She's awesome, and it was awesome. That lesson went AWESOME!

Over all, this past week didn't go as what we planned. 

I'm learning even though we both struggle with different things, we CAN work well together.  It IS possible to work effectively together. I KNOW it will happen. In the mean time, It's just still a bit hard. It WILL get better. I can't wait to start again this week. 

On a happy note, I was asked at the last minute to give a talk in Sacrament meeting and it was a total uplift this week. I was asked to talk about home teaching and visiting teaching, there's so much I want to share, but so little time... next time! :) 

Love you all, have a great week!

Yakima's warming up, so is my time...

Hi Everyone!

I don't have too much to share today, so forgive me for my short email...

This past week has been busy, and also long. 

This past week, I've grown to love the scriptures more.

This past week, I've learned to lean on my Savior more.

This past week, I've TRULY learned to love despite differences.

This past week, I've learned to be patient.

Missionary work, is not easy.. but it's worth it. 

Learning to live with differences is a task, but if you learn to love, you don't reside on those things.

Missionary work has taught me these things..

Joseph Smith was truly a young boy, and desired EVERYTHING out of his own heart and will and of Heavenly Fathers. We should be doing so as well, as often as possible. Relying on Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father just as much as Joseph Smith did ever since his first vision.

Trusting in the Lord takes our own faith and action. Our future is as bright as our faith!

Loving everyone is the BEST way to show them how Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father love them. If you learn to serve out of love, and of desires to make other happy, you have exactly what you need to be a representative of Jesus Christ.

I have learned much more, but unfortunately I am out of time....

I have yet to learn so much more and I've been out for a year as of this week! 

I love being a missionary!

Yakima is melting, not me!

Hi everyone! 

This past week was great!  We had a sweet District Council, and we even had it in Spanish, which was fun because I haven't done that before!  We had some sweet practice in Spanish for our lessons with role plays, too. We talked to a ton people this week too, it was great!

We had a missionary training broadcast, which was worldwide, and that was awesome.  I felt the spirit so strong. It was a lot of what we already talk about as missionaries -- living the doctrine of Christ to grow our testimonies, and then to be able to testify even more.  Our two hours of listening to them was a blast!  Later that day we had a set lesson with Chessy and Francisco, her Dad, but we couldn't find a member to come with us, so we asked them if they could meet us at McDonald's.  Francisco called us back and said they could!  So we were still able to have a lesson, haha!  We just had to have it in public, which is always a little awkward the first time around, but it went great!  

Later that night we had a lesson with Jorge, who is our sweet golden referral.  We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and he loved it!  He's reading the Book of Mormon, and really enjoying it!  We hadn't gotten too far with him and the lessons until he called us the day before our last lesson and told us he'd be leaving to move back to San Francisco to start over.  I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but he was married to his partner for about a year, who died last July, and that was around the time he was walking around Pike's Market in Seattle when two sister missionaries kind-of -- sort-of chased him down to talk to him.  He felt a bit weird, but he loved talking with them, so that turned out well!  But he's now officially out in San Fran.  He said he'd request the missionaries to visit him though, he's awesome!  Just looking for a bit of peace in his life!

After having the broadcast, and preparing to have a Zone Conference this week, I've been evaluating myself and my personal goals.  Hermana Aldrich and I have been talking things out, between us and personally our mission goals, and I've come to a conclusion.  I don't always look at the time I have left, but in thinking about how far I've come so far on my mission, this past transfer I have truly changed more than I probably have over all my mission. This past transfer has truly taught me what it takes to be a true disciple of Christ. Patient, long suffering, faithful, knowledgeable, charitable, virtuous, diligent, and especially humble. I am who I am right now on my mission because of the endless experiences I'm having with Hermana Aldrich, and my situations right now. 

One thing that has helped me out this week is the Youth 2016 music.  Wow!  How uplifting!  We've listened to a lot of hymns, I love it.  I am so motivated to become more like Jesus Christ everyday!  I truly now feel like a real missionary!  

I LOVE being a part of the W.Y.M. Couldn't ask for anything else!

Sick again & Chessy's Baptism!

Hi everyone! 

Wow, you wouldn't believe how my week went!  This week we had a lot of wonderful lessons with Chessy again, and she even got her interview!  We've had really sweet, simple lessons with her, and then she had her interview with our new district leader, who is Elder Jimenez. He's great!  Chessy's Dad even told him during their interview that he still wants to get baptized, and after talking about the priesthood authority, how he could give blessings to his wife and Chessy after he receives the Melchizedek Priesthood.  He's completely on board.  He already has a testimony of Joseph Smith and that he was a prophet of God!  On the other hand, Delia his wife, Chessy's Mom, we haven't been able to visit with for quite a while.  But she will come a long soon.  They both gave permission to Chessy to get baptized, and our Branch President went ahead and baptized her and confirmed her!  The spirit was so strong as we watched her from the top of the stairs of the font while He was baptizing her. She said she felt relieved from everything.  We emphasized this week on the sacrament and the Laws & Ordinances lesson from Preach My Gospel this week to finish her up.  It was amazing!  Wow, she's glowing!  All during her baptism, I was becoming sick with something, not really sure what.  Let's just say I thought it was reasonable to eat fast food after Chessy's interview lesson because of celebration... Either way, my body isn't too happy with me.  I was able to push through her baptism and feel the spirit so strongly, and I couldn't believe that it happened!

WITHOUT FAITH, GOOD WORKS ARE DEAD!  

Her confirmation was even more beautiful!  The blessing was perfect for her.  Soon we will be teaching her parents, hopefully, if her mom's work hours allow.  They all know that the church is true, it's just fitting in the time to teach them both together, and having members come with us every time. This week was amazing!

I LOVE being a missionary, I never ever EVER want to come home... no offense to my family... but I just love Washington so much... I still can't believe I'm here.  I always dreamed when I was young of serving a mission in Washington with a lot of rain and preferably Seattle, so I could see my Uncle, but Yakima is even better!  I love being so close with President and Sister Lewis, and seeing them so often. They even came to Chessy's Baptism! 

I love seeing the Gospel change people's hearts, their perspectives, their complete lifestyles... It's incredible how much relief and refuge the Gospel of Jesus Christ provides. I stay on my mission for every perfect reason because he stayed in the Garden for me.  I dive into the Book of Mormon every day for something to share with others, and this is what I'll share with you all today..

3rd Nephi 16: 19-20

19. Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. 

20. The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God. 

Feliz Navidad de Yakima!

Buenas Dias Mis Amigos y Amigas!

This past week has been interesting to say the least... miracles, another bad cold, exchanges, and a WHOLE LOT SNOW right outside. It's been so beautiful! and of course, I have the best companion in the world!

So Monday we met some wonderful people, including Veronica, who let us right in when we offered to say a prayer for her family, and we could just feel the strong spirit in her home, she LOVED it!  We left her with the Christmas video card!

Tuesday we had a super fun district meeting, and then we taught Karen again, we put her on date for January 16th, she is so excited!  She hasn't decided if she really wants to go to English or Spanish, so in the mean time, we will continue teaching her!  Then we left cards with so many people!  Heavenly Father truly blessed us with the spirit to let those doors open despite the cold weather!  At the end of the night we stopped by a member who we just recently met.  She's slightly less active but she LOVES the missionaries!  She is a single Mom of 7 kids... 7!  She is the rock of everything in their family!  She had bought pan dulce in celebration of us coming over, (mexican donuts, delicious bread sprinkled with sugar, chocolate, and all sorts of goodness). The kids could barely sit patiently. Then we heard her pray... She has the mind of an Angel. She is so sincere and thoughtful in her prayers. She prayed for us and for our families, our investigators, and every single person we come in contact with.  She told us her conversion story as we talked about our many blessings and how much more carefully we can count them each, especially around this time of year. 

Wednesday we attended our Christmas Gathering where we got our packages, had musical numbers from each zone, and luckily, since my zone is the only full Spanish zone, we sang all the original Christmas songs everyone did, but in Spanish.. of course!  Por que no?  It was so much fun to be around everyone and enjoy our time at the Tree's house. Elder and Sister Tree are stake missionaries and own a beautiful home out on the edge of our area, where we all met and ate lunch. They provided lunch and then we all watched Meet the Mormons and watched some special videos shared by President Lewis.  We came in contact with two sweet referrals over the phone.  One was from a member and one was a Self Media Referal... GOLDEN!  He kept saying on the phone that he wants us to teach him TODO, which means everything.  He's such a blessing to us!  We are so excited to meet him! 

Thursday we volunteered at the Salvation Army Food Bank, where we met and talked to lots of wonderful people getting ready to celebrate Christmas with their families. We were without the car that night and so it was pretty difficult to get a lot done without the car in the snow, but we did talk to some sweet people!  Then we had a church tour with Karen, and showed her around church to get her excited for Sunday, and she said she loved it!

Friday we planned like crazy, and then we had our branch Christmas party, which President and Sister Lewis came to, and they had a blast with our Hispanic traditions!  We even had a WEDDING!  The other sisters' investigators has been preparing to get baptized and so we ended up having the wedding at the Christmas party! It was so cool! Then we had a Santa Claus come to our party, and the kids, as tradition, dance in a circle around Santa before they sit on his lap, and the Santa is a member of the YM in the branch, and loved doing it!  I don't have pictures from the wedding or party, except for the ones of our investigator with the elders which I forwarded to most of you before now.  We started exchanges after the wedding, and even though we already live with the sisters who we went on exchanges with... Haha, we just switched rooms for the night! 

Saturday we did service for a member, whose home the other sisters are skyping at for Christmas, by packing up her house and moving her to the other new house!  It was fun and energetic, she even made us rice, beans and tamales... Heaven on a plate, I'm telling you!  Later that night we taught Francisco and Chessy, who came to church the next day with Chessy's Mom, Delia!  They came!  So did Karen!  And then Jose was there with his family, just like every week as if he's member, cough cough!  He is doing great as well!  We are visiting them on Christmas!  We also eat with the branch this week, so we'll get to spend time with these wonderful brothers and sisters Heavenly Father has blessed us missionaries with. 

This past week was all great! Except for having a horrible cold towards the end of the week, and a burning sore throat, which I passed to Hermana Aldirch... So we bought juice, some kleenex and some cough drops, so we should get better in no time!

Feliz Navidad a mi familia y mis amigas.  Yo se que Cristo vive, y El es la razon que vivimos, y vamos a vivir otra vez, el es nuestro salvador, hermano, consejo, amigo, y mi todo! Voy tratar mi mejor durante mi mision por que le amo, El is todo para mi!  Gracias por todo lo que hacen para mi, especialmente sus oraciones, siento sus oraciones cada dia cuando tenemos seguridad y felicidad en nuestras corazones. 

Yo dicho estas cosas en el nombre de Jesucristo.  Amen. 

FELIZ NAVIDAD, EL ES LA RAZON POR LA.... SEASON. :)

The guy with the elders of our branch is Jose, who is our investigator who has already taken the temple classes and taken all the discussions.. just waiting on the divorce! 

And the sweet girls in the branch, who brighten up my day every day, and with their broken Spanish/English.

Love these people!

Temple Pday and Itsy Bitsy Miracles!

A member fed us dinner at the church while they participated in a lesson with the elders at the same time.. Best Chicken Noodle soup for all the rain and our colds. 

Hello everyone! 

What a WEEK! Let me get down to business!

Monday sadly we dropped Paula, and then we went off to visit a member in the nurse and rehab center. Sister Arnold was married and raised her family in Wenatchee (I got to ask her all about where she lived and I got to connect with her a bit).  Afterwards we were on our way to go knocking, we had stopped in the car behind a truck that was about to turn left, when the car behind us hit us... Oh snap! I was about to stress out until I pulled over and I got out and looked at the car and there wasn't a single scratch...  The person had just bumped us, and they were even members from the Sunnyside ward, down the highway 30 minutes.

 Mis hermanos y hermanas, Les amo!

Tuesday we went to the temple! Holy cow, I missed this beautiful place... Sitting in the Celestial room again brought so much comfort and peace. I was surprised that it came in a way that wasn't very strong or significant. I just felt, p e a c e . . . and that's all I needed, and I'm so glad Heavenly Father knew that!  Later that day we found Marissa, who we had a lesson with the next day about the restoration. While teaching her she expressed her feelings about how close she has come to Heavenly Father through prayer. She was a drug addict since she was a YOUNG teenager.  After years of guilt and shame, she searched diligently for help, and she has been clean for 6 years!  She has a solid testimony of prayer and Heavenly Father's divine help.

Wednesday we had that lesson with her, and we also stopped by a potential Hermana Taua and I met before transfers. Guillermina has the great responsibility of taking care of her grand kids after working in the harvest all morning. She has told us she wants to be baptized, but she wants to come to church before she makes the decision of when.  Well, perfect Guillermina, because you have to go to church to progress, and in order to be baptized, you have to progress... It just all fit in! Then later that day we helped the Young Women make cookies for the great big Harvest Dinner for the following Friday. 

Thursday was full of fallen-through appointments, no service to be done at the food bank, and not too much happened...  We did get some good knocking in and visited by some other potentials and members, and shared some short messages of encouragement and of strength. 

Friday we finished planning and went to the Ward Harvest Dinner, and it was a great turn out!  Burt came, Joann came, Joann even brought a friend who we were introduced to, and we even had a short lesson with him before the dinner about what we do as missionaries. He knows the Bible in and out!  He wants to read Daniel this upcoming week, and wants the missionaries to read it with him... Haha, of course!  Why not?  We passed him to the elders at the dinner since he lives in their area, and they hit it off pretty well!  They have an appointment with him on Saturday, and he lives over 30 miles away, almost to the edge of the elder's area... Haha, good thing that they have a member taking them!  A whole bunch of our less actives even showed up!  It was so awesome!

Yakima Valley Spanish Zone

Saturday we went to Yakima for a Zone Training Meeting about inspired questions and discerning the needs of our investigators and less actives. We later went to another baptism of the Elders' investigator Masae, who's originally from Samoa.  With permission, Sister Taua came down to Toppenish with a member to the baptism, and it all ended up going well!  We were planning on seeing Molly, but she made different plans with her Dad, but she's been doing so well anyway! Then, we had a lesson with Burt that night, which went so well!  We reviewed the Restoration and the Gospel and invited him to be baptized!  He said yes!  I was personally prompted to ask him for November 21st, when we had planned to ask him for November 28th. It turned our that Burt was very close to his Dad growing up, who sounds like may have passed away some time ago, and his birthday was November 22nd, which will be Burt's confirmation date!  We've truly been able to work well with him and help him see the plan that Heavenly Father has for him. He agreed to November 21st! 

Sunday, Burt, Joann, and Joann's friend were all at church! Then later that day we had a lesson with Molly, and invited her to highlight Christ's name in yellow or underline it every time she reads it in her scriptures. She's growing so much! We've made plans to have her confirmation the same day as her baptism, and her Dad (Brother Ibarra) is going to baptize her. She's become so wonderful!

I guess I might as well mention that I'm hitting my halfway mark this Tuesday.... *Runs and hides under bed crying*   NO! It's flown by sooooooo incredibly fast!  I can't face it right now... Nope, can't do it... And Hermana Parry hits her 2 months tomorrow... its an unbelievable week for both of us. It's so weird....  I can say I have truly enjoyed the journey of these 9 past, crazy, happy, sad, disappointing months. It's help me grow so much even when I have become frustrated and wanted to give up, I've always had Christ to lean on, and my Heavenly Father to talk to.  It's brought so much comfort to me with in this past roller-coaster time. There's no where to look but up from here. If I didn't change many hearts within this past year, I know mine was changed for the better. I have come to know my Savior better than I ever have since I have been sent to this earth. I can't wait to see what's in store for my next 9 months.   I am in no way, shape, or form a perfect missionary, but I have become perfected in Christ, and I am still becoming perfect in Christ. I love my mission.  I wouldn't trade it for anything else in the world.  It's time to live up and take advantage of every moment I have, because I've got these few months left, and I can't let any moment pass by without coming closer to Christ with my companion or with my investigators. I continue to love my sweet trainee, she is a hard worker, and I don't doubt she will train after I leave, whenever that is, but that's not my point. :)

Have a wonderful week everyone! Love you all!

Elder johnson and I saw eachother at The temple! He's the only spanish elder Hermana Harston and I came in together with from the CCM, he even gave me a few blessings before we left the CCM. He's doing well and has now become a Zone Leader already! He says Hi to my email list, including Elder Asher Chia, Hermana Hooker and Hermana James!

Received a cute little gift from a member while we were out knocking doors, knocked into her and she gave a little prayer box for both of us!

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!

Good morning everyone!

Hope everyone back home is doing well.

Not much has happened this week so my email won't be too detailed.  We visited Rose Marie who is an investigator that Hermana Taua found before I got here, and we've been having a hard time finding her home. We finally got to visit her this past week and she updated us on her concerns. She speaks mostly English, but she's Hispanic. We are teaching her in English because she wants to learn it more and more. We expressed a lot of love from our Heavenly Father to her when she started explaining her trials. We felt the impression to ask her to be baptized, so of course, following the spirit we went ahead and asked. She exclaimed she would LOVE to be baptized! We got super excited and continued to promise blessings to her and her children as long as she would continue to make an effort to read in the Book of Mormon, until we got her a copy of the children's Book of Mormon in English for her and her kids and grand kids. 

On Thursday it was Hermana Taua's one year mark!  Which is more sad for us sisters because it means they only have 6 months left...... and never want to leave their missions. Which is totally her!  We were blessed with some sweet members who offered to feed us and even offered to feed us dessert from another member that same day. We sure do love our tiny branch members!

I had a little bit of a downside to this week which I won't detail too much. My investigator Sabino, back in Wenatchee, he planned to be baptized this past Saturday!  Unfortunately, due to lack of communication between our Zone Leaders, I couldn't get any more information on it. I was extremely sad when we were told we could not go due to length of driving!  NO!  I still haven't gotten any information on his baptism, but I hope to today when we stop by the Mission Office!

To end my email on a happy note...   We had a HUGE conference this past week with Elder Packer of the area of the 70!  He's the Apostle Elder Packer's son, and man! Is he amazing!  We had a sweet conference about becoming the pioneers of the Washington Yakima mission.  A lot of discussion with him for advice about our areas and our teaching.  We received some great trainings on faith, leading by the spirit, and understanding our investigators! We LOVED being with him and enjoyed having time to talk with him and counsel with him for our new mission.  Mom, His grandma's maiden name is HARMAN! and lived back in Boston!  I was able to talk with him about his lineage a bit after the conference, we may possibly be related, but it would be very far back. 

Hermana Taua had the opportunity to sing at the conference as well, she really enjoyed it and so did everyone else back in the congregation!

Today's my MTC companion Hermana Harston's birthday!  This sister and I go WAY back.  I appreciate her for all she did for me when we were companions, and we are celebrating our P-Day today with her and with lunch in Yakima. 

Yesterday I had the opportunity to give a talk in Sacrament meeting about the living day prophets of the church, and it definitely made me choke up a few times giving my testimony of the prophets of our day, but I can't express enough how much I love our prophet, Thomas S. Monson.  Hermana Taua and I even sang together yesterday for the rest hymn during Sacrament meeting. We haven't had too much happen this week teaching wise or investigator wise. We continue to search high and low for the elect people to teach, but as of right now, We know heavenly father is testing us.. :)

Have a great week!