August 19 - Email

   Some interesting things happened this week... I went to an Elvis concert, haha ;) There was a ward party in the Foothills ward and it was Asian themed. We had rice and yeah... Asian food. And then all of a sudden, Elvis came out! haha. In the ward there is an Elvis impersonator. I guess he does shows all the time everywhere. It was so funny!! He is like in his 50's, oh it was good... I was cracking up when he would try to do the dance moves like shake his legs way fast.  haha. But the great thing is that at the ward party, some members brought their nonmember friends, so we gave a tour. It went well.

   So my companion and I went out to Wellton one day. In Wellton, there is one of the biggest cow farms in the U.S., I think. haha anyway, TONS OF COWS!!!! And you know the smell which comes along with all those cows right? We were driving by the cow farm and it stank already. But then I noticed a fly in the car, so I decided to roll down the windows without thinking. My companion yells "NO, NOT THE WINDOWS!!" hahaha oh man it stunk so bad and we were just cracking up laughing. But hey, guess what, that little annoying fly was gone, so it's all good :)

   OYM(open your mouth), which is pretty much street contacting people, is pretty interesting here because NO ONE is outside in this heat!! Who would want to be, ya know!? So every time we see someone, we pull over in our car and run after them. Haha, literally we run sometimes. A lot of times people are scared that two little girls are running after them! They start running away or pretend they are talking on their phones. We just want to share this amazing gift that we have...

   At the end of the day, you know your companion's tired when you have to go wake her up from her prayer... haha It always feels good to come back home, with no energy at all, knowing you did your best that day and did all you could do. I have really learned that I can get so much done in one day.

August 12 - Email

   Everything is going so well with my nuevo companera. :) My spanish is not doing too well :( My companion doesn't really know much Spanish, so I guess this is a time where I can't rely on anyone else besides myself and the Lord to help me. I mean I can roughly teach a super simple lesson and get by and I can understand roughly what the people are saying, but I just wish I could share what I want to or what the Lord wants me to. I know how to help these people, but I don't know how to say it. Frustrating! And with learning Spanish, some of my speech problems from when I was younger are coming back. It is really hard for me to say things sometimes, like I sometimes stutter when I speak and when I read in English and Spanish. I think my mind is confused. haha
  One day this week, we street-contacted a guy at a little-family-Spanish party(they have parties a lot!). We talked to him and gave him a Book of Mormon and didn't think much of it. I mean he seemed interested, but not a ton. The next day he calls us (this never happens from street contacts!) and he says that he has been reading and has a few questions. (His name is Javier and he speaks English more than Spanish) So, we decide to go teach him that night. We brought this girl named, Kaycie Dahl, with us. She comes with us a lot because she is soon turning in her mission papers. Also, we need someone to come with us because he is a single guy. We taught him the first lesson, the Restoration, and everything went really well. He is really loving and interested in the Book of Mormon. He is like a golden investigator. So, a couple days go by and we have another appointment with him. We called this older lady in the ward, a ward missionary, to come with us. She has been on two missions before and so she knows everything. This is the first time she has been able to come and she sounded so excited to come! My companion and I go to some other lessons that we have that day before Javier's appointment. The older sister calls us about 20 mins before the lesson with Javier and says that she isn't quite feeling well and that she wouldn't be good company because she got the runs! haha So we hurry and call up Kaycie Dahl to come with us. She is the best and comes with us right on the spot. We get to Javier's and he has a friend over. They had been drinking and didn't exactly have the clearest most spiritual mindset. Javier's friend, lets just say he was a complete disgrace to our Heavenly Father, was bashing the religion with all these dumb jokes about polygamy and other things. The spirit was absolutely, not there. We tried to start teaching the second lesson, the Plan of Salvation, but he kept ruining it with more polygamy jokes and he would just laugh at us and did not take us seriously. My companion said, "I am sorry, but we will come back another time and teach this lesson, we can't be here." Javier looked disgusted with his friend, he felt so bad and  sad about what had happened. We really felt sad about it too. It is sad what people think is funny and where the world is going these days. Later that night, we realized that God gave that sweet older lady the runs so that she wouldn't have to be there in that lesson. Haha, it is kind of funny. But really God will do what He has to do. God knows what is going on. The next morning, Javier called us and said that he is so sorry and that he was praying and reading all night and that he absolutely will go to church next Sunday. It is incredible the lessons we can learn from mistakes. And then at church that day, that sweet old lady said she feels completely fine now, and that she must of ate something not good, but she is great now. Poor lady, but God knows what is best. I am so thankful Heavenly Father was looking out for us, for Javier and for that sweet old lady. Moral of the story: Heavenly Father will give you the runs if He has to.

August 5 - Email

   My companion is the BOMB!!! Her name is Sister Pinnock. She is from Holladay and she is 20. She reminds me a lot of Kelli, so that is great! :) She works hard and likes to be organized. I am very happy to be working with her. She is waiting for her visa to Argentina, but will most likely be here for quite a long time.  Way great! Oh and is a dance major at the U of U. Sister Pinnock is a very hard and fast worker, she is up for anything, it is awesome! And she always shows others how much Heavenly Father cares for them. This week we have really gained our testimony in OYM's. Here in the Foothills, a lot of people leave for the summer and not many people even step outside throughout the hot summer days. But we have been praying to get 20 OYM's each day together. We know that the Lord will provide us with those 20 people. We have learned that those 20 might be few and very difficult to contact but if we see a person while we are driving we will absolutely pull over and OYM them. This is the way that Heavenly Father can provide these 20 people at this time of year so we have gone to great lengths to contact them and at the end of the day we absolutely feel accomplished. God is looking out for us. God is looking out for His children. I have no doubt about that."