My Shoes!

 I DID BUY SOME NEW ONES WITH BIRTHDAY MONEY!
Two pair for $50 at Burlington

Baptism!

It's been a long but short week. It seems long cause it's 7 days! That's long! But somehow it always just seems to fly by. It's a blessing and a curse. Cause I hear the second year of your mission just goes SO much faster. It does sound like you got a lot done though. That's always been a blessing too. Though time flies, we truly get SO much done cause we wake up so early and don't go to bed til 10:30. So in that way we make effective every hour of the day. We're receiving our MSF tomorrow, so I shouldn't need to buy food on my personal flow anymore. But we are going to Play It Again Sports today, so who knows what goodies I'll find...muahhaha. This week was so much better. Elder Welch....well, we're working. I do my best to help him and teach him to be a better missionary but often times constructive feedback is read more by him as criticism and that he is doing something wrong. I think he struggles to understand the importance of those called as senior companions and other leaders. Often times simple tasks are asked of him by either myself or another leader and he either dreads doing it or tells little lies to get himself out of it or to make it appear as if he is never wrong or at fault. I do my best to love and lead him as well as my whole district. I truly want them all to trust me and be able to turn to me and the Lord for help. TATIANA GOT BAPTIZED THOUGH! After a crazy end to the week, which you'll hear about in the recording, she finally came to the baptism and got confirmed! Such a miracle and blessing. Now we just have to make sure her Grandma can continue to get work off! We have another baptism lined up for this Thursday too. Zanyah! Her and her sister made us Easter baskets, so you can say they're pretty cool. We also received our Heavenly Ham, and LOVED it. All the missionaries in the house say thank you! And me too of course. But I love you all and thanks for everything over the past few weeks!

Birthday Week!

These past few weeks have been crazy. They've been the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Don't really know what to do sometimes. I find it hard sometimes to take control of my own area, and yet I'm expected to take care of a 4 areas total. It's crazy. It was great though. We had a zone conference which was a quick review of what we are expected of and lots of the Senior couples spoke. We got to go to this super good food place afterwards. My birthday was fun too. Not too much crazy happened. Baked myself a cake, got some funny gag gifts (missionaries these days). It's been nice our family doesn't blow everything out of proportion, so that way I'm not really missing anything huge. I love how we have all of these ordinances and covenants we make, but often times we forget that we can make personal and sacred promises just between us and the Lord. It's such a blessing being able to do it. I've seen it affect my mission a ton. Thanks for all the birthday love. It's weird saying I'm 22. I'm not quite starving yet, but definitely getting close. But I love you all! Keep me in your prayers! I need it especially to finish this transfer in high spirits and hard working. 

Happy Birthday!

Just another week!

It's so nice when we find someone who is humble and is looking for help that realizes God is their only source for hope. It's so saddening when you find those people who are in need, yet they still choose to not come closer to God. It's very sad. This past Sunday we had nobody at church. It's been another week of frustration for me. I'm trying hard, but it's SO hard to keep giving your all when you aren't seeing any results from it. I'm trying though. I did have one day sick this week though. Something I ate or drank really did me dirty. I couldn't move my stomach hurt so bad. So I slept all day. Which isn't the worst thing I guess ;) I really have come to love the scriptures. Being able to read them in two different languages is really a blessing. Cause things that fall through the crack in one are caught by the other! I love it! 

It's very hard to eat healthy on the mission because of time to cook, food prices and where you are during dinner. But we've been going to find like, meal replacement shakes because all you need is a bottle of water! And then you put the powder in and you're set! And we've been finding the uber healthy ones too. So like, all of these foods I've been missing in my life are now part of my diet! I've been telling everyone there's gonna be a big party at Lake Blaine in the summer of 2017, so prepare yourself for missionaries and friends! I've been dropping hints to dad that we need a new boat too... hahaha!!

A Mission Tradition: Power Wheeling

 

Jon Christensen is going on his mission so we ate at their house. Elder Welch took the picture and cut our feet off. So of course I asked him to take another. And yet he still cut my foot off. Some peoples kids...

Weirdest week!

This week was so tough. One of the weirdest weeks of the mission. The two things I truly have been able to learn this week is about faith and the Lord's tender mercies. I learned that it's easy to have faith when things are going super. But when crap hits the fan, it's hard to keep that faith high. Elder Welch and I have been doing great to continue this attitude of high faith. The other thing I learned about are the simple tender mercies of the Lord. We knocked one day FOREVER. We said zero prayers, helped no one with service. We decided to knock one last door and finally we were able to share a prayer. Though she didn't want to come to church or be baptized, it was a tender mercy of the Lord to even allow us to share one prayer with her. I've been studying in Ether and the mind blowing (well for me at least) thing I learned this week, is that our bodies are an exact representation of what our Spirit's look like. I also learned that when the brother of Jared saw Christ's body, that he saw a spiritual representation of what Christ's physical appearance would be. Super cool stuff. The district is doing great. As a district leader there are things I need to do every week to improve. I feel at the end of each week there's something more I can improve on and try my best to do so. Elder Chaparro and Cutler are great examples of hard work and leadership for me. I love being able to turn to them for council and direction. Our big black lady Diane didn't come to church this week because she got anti'd by her family. So we are praying for a member to help rescue her. We've also started teaching this girl named Tatiana. Her mom and grandma were baptized in Belize ages ago, so we're reactivating them and baptizing their 10 year old. I'll keep you updated. The mission tour was great! He's such a funny guy! We really focused on teaching simple truths from the Book of Mormon and keeping it short and powerful. I'll make a recording of the notes that he left us and send it next week. As for what else happened this week, not much. I've been working out a lot which is cool. Losing weight. Eating healthy. I feel good. I'm having fun. I'm loving the mission. Time is starting to fly. I love you all and I miss ya! Have a great week!