20,000 y.o. cleaning lady 8/9/2021

This morning we are making zucchini bread!! It's gonna be awesome. We'll take pictures and send them to y'all next week! We found out this week that we have to wear masks to church again. Tears. We took a picture and, I don't know if you can tell, we were not amused.

We had a great lesson with Thee! We taught him the plan of salvation and he had some great questions. He was and is not afraid to learn. I'm looking forward to teaching him about the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is one of my favorite lessons to teach :)

We got our oil changed which required us to drive to Santa Fe. Not only is Santa Fe sketch, but uh...it's sketch. We did our studies at a park and I was paranoid the entire time. There were several homeless people lounging around, so we went to the playground because it was more of a public part. It also took 2 HOURS for us to get our oil changed.!! We had to sit for 2 hours at this sketchy park. We did make it safely and now Rebekah (our car) is driving like the amazing car she is.

We had a really REALLY good lesson with Lucina. She is from the Facebook page. She is so prepared and is in the perfect spot in her life to hear about the gospel. She made us cry telling us about it. 

We had a lesson with my favorite person Mary. We have put a lot of focus on the sacrament and church. Well, Mary believes. She really does. Again, it is that comfort zone. We specifically asked her why she hasn't come in the previous times we have asked her. She said that she just needs time and prayers. Please please please pray for her! Our ward does a mission fast every couple of months, and I have a feeling this mission fast is going to bring lots of miracles like it did last time. 

Now, you are probably curious about my subject line. We went and talked to our new friend Alma. She has 2 little girls that are very energetic. We walk in and they immediately asked if we were there to clean again. We said no because Alma had made tacos for us. They then started giggling and asked how old we were. We asked them to guess because you know...they are little kids. Well, the youngest goes you look 20....000. I was gonna say she almost got it spot on, but them she betrayed me lol. That proceeded to get more giggles and then she pulled the I-can't-remember-big-numbers card XD.

It was raining. Hard.

We planted orchids and little cacti.

A nasty bug that I killed. I took a picture. If you can't tell what it is, it's bc my hand was shaking.

My bag of weeds.

Some flowers in a member's backyard.

Our district

                                                        We have to wear masks at church again. 

                                                "The chicken is not amused" (I did that just for you Jess!)

We did face masks last night. 

                                                 Sister DG and I last pday w/ a gorgeous view behind us.

I had a cool subject line once... 8/2/2021

I had a clever subject line earlier this week. However, I cannot remember it to save my life. #embarrassing  This is why I write everything down.  My favorite line this week: "Wow. Phyllis* and TIWI must be sisters....because they are both ANNOYING!" -Sister DeGroot. *Phyllis is what Sister DG calls the Google maps voice

I had a lesson with Thee and it went so well!! He is reading the Book of Mormon AND he says it makes sense. Talk about blessings! I was really nervous about the lesson, but luckily the spirit is the teacher. It was really good, and I am looking forward to teaching him again.

There is this old couple we do service for. They are fun to talk to. I think Doris and I have a connection because she grew up in Blackfoot, too! Ah it's fun to talk to her. 

Don't want to brag, but I am going to be a master gardener by the end of my mission. The people here are either really smart or they garden. It is fun getting to know the people through the things they love.

We met a new person. Her name is Alma. We did some service for her and she was asking us a bunch of questions. We are excited to meet with her again this week.

As SMTs, we get to call all sorts of people to get to know them and pass them off. We called this one lady the other night and said a prayer with her. Well....our service has been absolutely  TRASH! She only heard a little bit, but the spirit was strong. She asked about church! And we didn't even say anything about that. We hope she continues to have this desire.

The work has been really slow this week, and we had a lot of people reject us. Sometimes tears are shed out of frustration, but you just have to remember that the Lord is on your side. That this is His work. It is our job to keep our covenants and commandments.

We picked a lot of weeds!

They had training, but we thought the helicopter was going crazy.

Comp pic!

A Sister in the ward picked us some flowers and put them in our hair 

We went to sopapialla factory today.

Sister Thompson always takes a picture of us.

Our lesson with Thee!

Beans beans the magical fruit. 7/26/2021

First off, my brother got married this week...so I was super homesick. Luckily we have this handy dandy booklet called adjusting to missionary life. It has a whole bunch of tips and tricks for the things missionaries struggle with including getting homesick. Followed those and now I am good! All it takes is canceling the pity party you were throwing and focusing on the work :)

It was nice because we have 3 weddings happening this month in the White Rock ward. We painted the famous rock to help out a family with wedding preparations. It was so fun. We actually talked to several people in the process. That definitely helped with being homesick because I felt like I was celebrating in a way.

We had an AMAZING lesson with my buddy Bruce. His wife Florence didn't join for the lesson. But let me tell you, the spirit was so strong! We did weekly planning, and I just had a feeling that we needed to focus on prayer. Guess what? Bruce prayed!! He hasn't done that in a while. It was such a humble prayer too. Best. Day. Ever.

We have this guy in our ward that looks like Robin Williams. His name is Brother Stradling. Anyways, he met this guy at Jiffylube and they started talking. The guy said he has been going through some hard things. Brother Stradling bore his testimony on the gospel of Jesus Christ. The guy was like tell me more. Just goes to show that simple testimony is the way to go. We have been in contact with him and will be passing him off to the Española elders soon!

Our friend, Mary, has been progressing really well! We invited her to church last week and she never came. Well, long story short, she broke her arm. She cancelled her lesson, too. However, this has given us some time to think about fellowship. We have some great names in mind!

I have THE best story to tell you. When we knock on doors, we ask to sing them a song. Anyways, we have been going around for an hour and everyone has been like no or doesn't bother to answer. We were walking down this road and Sister DG and I see this lady weeding. We look at each other and say "we need to talk to her". Her name is Beto and she is mostly deaf. We still asked if she wanted to hear a song and she said yes. After, she goes "do you want some beans?" (as in green beans.) Well...we didn't have anything to put them in. I said we could put them in our bags. I go forward to get a handful, and she pulls the bucket back. I was like "oh no. I just messed up. That's not what she meant." Nope. She just looked me dead in the eyes and said, "give me your bag." She proceeded to dump the entire bucket of beans into my bag. On top of my Book of Mormon, PMG, and hymnal. Sister DG and I lost it. We were laughing so hard. 

We laid sod this week. I have it down to a science now because this is my 3rd time doing it. Sister Thompson says I could open a business...I don't know about that.

There is this handy dandy app called Gospel Living. It. Is. AWESOME! It has a whole bunch of videos and activities you can do to share the gospel. There is this video called "To Love Them All". It is all about developing the culture of patience because people in the church aren't perfect, but the gospel of Jesus Christ is! I would recommend you watch it. I will be posting it to my Facebook today so you can have easy access to it. 

Laying sod.

Sister Thompson and I.

THE BEANS!

Zone conference left us feeling confident.

A weed I pulled that was as tall as me!

The famous rock!

We went to Overlook Park

No gracias, Satan! 7/19/2021

 Remember when I posted in a group and got a ton of hate for it? Well miracles because we found a new person to teach! Her name is Jasmine, and she is the coolest. We have loved getting to read the Bible with her because she isn't afraid to ask questions. She really has a desire to know. She has a lot to learn, but she has the potential.

We met with Mary this past week and she had a lot of questions about the priesthood. We asked her if she would like to come to church and see the priesthood in action. She straight up told us yes which was crazy. Mary has never done that. Yesterday morning we called her and she never picked up. You wanna know why? Because Satan is the worst and is working a number on the people of White Rock. I am over it. Just gotta keep loving the people.

We met with Kevin this week, and he accepted the Book of Mormon! We are meeting with him later this week to ask him how it is going. He also said he would love to come to church with his family. Talk about amazing!

We talked with Sister Webster yesterday and she gave us a fabulous idea. She would go caroling. Her and her companion would sing primary songs and then ask to share a message after. Guess what? Sister DeGroot and I both love singing so we are going to do that this week. 

We were supposed to have exchanges, but President Weathersby decided to have the trainer/trainee meeting the next day. We had already switched with the STLs. We were together for about 5 hours. Due to scheduling and the meetings they had to go to, we had to switch back that night :( We are planning another exchange soon. 

Last night, Sister DeGroot couldn't remember what goal she wanted to set for herself. She started going "ah! What the heck?! I can't remember my freaking goal!!" So I straight up looked at her and said, "maybe it should be language." We got a kick our of that and couldn't stop laughing. 

I read in Matthew 26 this week. This is when Christ finishes in Gethsemane and is betrayed. In verse 50, Christ refers to Judas as "friend". Christ really is the pure form of love. And I have the best job in the world where I get to teach people about that 

there was a bug on the wall so we grabbed the closest thing to kill it....which lead to a photo shoot

Panorama from rooftop balcony.

Rooftop Balcony

I really, really love Canyon Rim.

Are you ready to party?! 7/12/2021

 This week has been CRAZY! Not only did we have transfers but I was thrown into the fire called training. Turns out...training is not as bad as I thought. I haven't stress cried which is a win!! It's probably because my companion is a DREAM!!

Everyone meet Sister DeGroot (yes like Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy). She is from the Ogden Utah area. She loves music and coloring. She also has a gorgeous singing voice. Like wow. She is a party and a half, and I am, too. That means we make up 3 whole parties!!   It was hard to say goodbye to Sister Brown. I did have a come apart the night before transfers, but we are strolling now. They announced Sister DeGroot as my new companion and we were on our way.

We were walking home from church and we passed this house. Sister Brown and I have passed this house a gazillion times...no sign of life. Yesterday, I was like, should we take a different route to church. I said nah and stuck with our original way. We passed this house and this lady walks out. We had the best conversation with her. We had so much in common it blew my mind! Her name is Jennifer (that makes 3 Jennifers we are in contact with). We hope to meet with her again. 

Sister Brown and I dug trenches for a guy named Thomas. Remember him? Well, Sister DG and I went to his house because we were in the neighborhood. We talked to him for an hour. We tried sharing a message several times, but he just kept going. This made me think. He is huge into physics and engineering. I know nothing about either of those. He kept going and didn't stop to clarify or anything. As a missionary, you constantly stop, clarify, and ask questions. If you just lecture them, they are going to pretend they know what you are talking about. That was my "ah-ha" moment this week. That's why this week I am really working on asking questions and defining words. 

I have the best opportunity in the world. Not only am I training, but I get to teach the people of White Rock. As senior companion, I get to drive. Proud to say I haven't gotten any violations or check your speeds *high 5 to me* 

Sister Brown and I with Sister Thompson. She's the best.

Sunset the night before transfers.

I'm not a greenie anymore! 7/5/2021

This email is going to be a little different. I started last week off by posting in a group. Boy did I get some backlash for it. We got 92 comments in about 2 days and only a couple of those were positive. Let's just say... I broke down. As a social media trainer, they tell us to use our Facebooks so we can develop a testimony. After that experience, I was not the biggest fan of social media. 

However, I took that into my personal study. We had back to back lessons that night, but I ended up reading Matthew 26-28 and Mark 14-16. The phrase that kept popping into my head was a quote from Jeffrey R. Holland. "Why would we ever think it would be easy for us when it was never easy for Him?" This phrase has helped me through this entire week. Reading about Christ's own rejection and what He went through shows how I can respond. I wiped my tears away and kept going. Here we are folks. Taking part in the most important work.

Oh but the best part was a bunch of people messaged me to apologize for people's behavior. This lead to more conversation and potential new people to teach. The Lord is preparing His people. 

On another note: HOME GURL IS TRAINING!! Which means I have to say goodbye to Sister Brown. She will be in Santa Fe so we are in the same zone. Watch for next weeks email to find out who my next companion will be!!

Canyon Ridge. This is one of the reasons White Rock is so small. That plus the site and Bandelier Nat. Park.

This is Pat. She's a lady we are teaching. She took us to the canyon ridge 

We made fig chicken stuff...  idk what it was called.

We are with Josie, our most recent convert.

Right there. On the spot. 6/28/2021

Boy oh boy have I got a story for y'all. We had zone conference this past week. I am sitting there paying attention to the speakers and I see President Weathersby talking to one of our STLTs. I smiled at him and then he leans over to whisper something to her. I KNEW I was about to do something, but I didn't know what. Turns out he chose me to give a 5 minute talk. Right there. On the spot. So your girl got up and gave a 5 minute talk on the Christ-like attribute knowledge. Sister Brown has been going on and on about it. She said it was a proud mom moment lol. Plus everyone kept coming up and telling me that my talk was really good. I was so relieved that I cried. Yes I cried. 

At zone conference, one of our goals was to find 7 people this week. 7!! I was like seriously?! Finding 7 people in White Rock would be a miracle. Guess who found 7 people!?!? Woot woot!! God really is preparing his people y'all. We almost had 8, but the guy we met yesterday dashed before we got to talk to him more.

We met with the Gardners this week and they told us about their friend Mike. Apparently, he has been super interested in the church! The Gardners sent his number to the Santa Fe missionaries and they never contacted him!! Ah say what? So they gave us his number. Home boy is GOLDEN!! GOLDEN!!! He is so prepared and I think he is going to be baptized. Cause wow.

We met with Sister Taunia. She is my favorite member. She just brings the spirit everywhere. We went to film her playing the piano and I somehow got roped into singing. Right there. On the spot. Be watching for me on the Santa Fe page. My video drops on America's birthday. Sadly we didn't know it was going to be posted on the 4th (which is hilarious because we make the post calendar) so it isn't patriotic, but oh well. I might be doing another one with Sister Hardman, too! I'll let y'all know when that happens.

We met with Athena this week in person!! She is so nice. You can tell she has had a hard life, but it was nice getting to meet her face to face. We just found out she is moving, so we will be referring her to other missionaries. Please pray for her that she will continue to meet with them.

I got to go on exchanges with my "grandma" Sister Ing!! It was so fun because she has served in the area before. It was so fun teaching along side her. I'm sad she is leaving. Exchanges also meant I got to drive. I only got 1 check your speed!! I was really proud of myself.

 

Sister Ing and I.

Sister Schafer and Sister Hardman on our hike this morning. 

We went to  Bandalier National Park