Email - May 26

   Mi companera es Hermana Savage!!!!!! Do you remember her from my MTC district?? She is the one that got really sick, like her mouth had blisters and she had to go home for a couple weeks in the MTC. She is from Cedar City. She is really sweet and patient, and quiet, unless you break her shell open. She is really fun to be around, very pleasant. So we were super excited to be together!! She was in Phoenix for 9 months, almost as long as I was in Yuma. So she is a little sad from leaving there, and it is just so weird for her to be somewhere else. Her Spanish has became real good, better than mine. The part of Phoenix she was in, is pretty dangerous and full of Latino people. She liked it a lot, spoke a lot of Spanish there. My last companion, Hermana Segura is from Colombia originally, she moved to Arizona when she was 6 and lived here, ever since. Her home is right outside the mission boundaries in Mesa. Haha, she would always say how she can't believe she got sent here, but then we would see miracles everyday of why she needed to be in this mission. She needed to be here to be my companion and bless my life the way she did, seriously.

   This week was kind of crazy and probably the worst stat week I have ever had, besides when I white-washed into Yuma, our first week or two. But we are having a blast! I love my companion because she has so much faith and hope for this area. Our area got split because 2 more sisters came into our ward so now there is 3 companionships in our ward. Pretty sweet!! But... they took our only investigators :( They now are teaching the Venezuelan family. I am super excited for them, but also super sad because I love them so much. Hopefully, they will come to church so that I can see them. We only have 2 investigators right now. There names are both Fabiola, haha. But they aren't super solid. President Toone has set a goal for every companionship to get at least one baptism this transfer. That would be 130 baptisms, or more, in our mission!! That would be doubling what we usually get. Our mission is really pumped up right now :) We have a lot of faith and hope and prayers towards this. And helping the other missionaries in our zone meet it, as well.

   Sister Savage and I had a funny encounter the other day. We were going to contact this potential investigator named David. We knocked on the apartment door and this African lady answered. She hardly spoke English, they just moved there 3 days ago. She had 3 kids and they were climbing all over us and the little boy looks up at us with huge darting eyes and a missing tooth and says "what are YOU doing here???" haha, it was so funny. He was climbing and hanging on my purse. And the other one was pulling on my companions skirt and pulling off her watch. The other one went and grabbed the TV and brought it to the door and invited us to watch TV with her on the ground. And we are just acting normal and trying to have a conversation with the lady. We tell her that we are from a church and suddenly she goes and pulls out her bible in some African language and starts reading it. No wonder so many are being baptized in Africa!! She said we can come back, who knows if she understood, but we are going to send the English elders... ha good luck!!

   That is about it this week, we are just trying to find new investigators. Life is great, it was sad saying bye to Sister Segura. Now, she is in Maricopa in an English area... but she will do well!

   I forgot to tell you from the baptism/wedding last week, so you know how the ex-sister missionaries came, well, Sister Escobar(ex-sister missionary) turns to us during the baptism, grabs our hands, and says "You two are so great. Do you know why you are so great? Because you are missionaries." She said this as she started to tear up. I am scared to leave here, I know I am going to miss this time of my life so much. I think these last few months I have really been learning what it means to be a missionary and how powerful it is to be a representative of Christ. I know that my whole life has changed drastically from being here for just a year and a half. I will never again get the chance to put on my name tag proudly and fully experience this life as a missionary. This is a once and a life time chance. This is truly incredible. I love it here, I love experiencing these hard times and these BEAUTIFUL times. I am amazed at where I am and amazed at the people God has given me to meet and bless their lives, even though they have blessed mine more than I could ever give to them. I never want to not be a missionary. I know that all through out my life, I will look back to my mission with gratitude of the choice that I made and the promptings that I received to go on a mission, and to stay on a mission. It is not just a one time choice that I made when I was twelve, I had to make that choice to serve every moment from 12 years old -19 years old. And then once I started my papers, every interview, every question on the mission papers, and even once I  received my call to Arizona, I had to choose again to serve. Once I was ready and left and arrived at the MTC, I chose to serve, when I couldn't learn the language anymore, I chose to serve. Once I got here and realized what a mission really is, I chose to serve. When I was out in the burning sun, sweating like a lobster in a pot, I chose to serve. When I couldn't find anyone to teach, I chose to serve. When I had Satan against me in all that I did, I chose to serve. When I was having the hardest time of my life and I felt alone and hopeless, when I hated myself and when I saw others give up. I CHOSE TO SERVE. And today, I choose to serve because I love my Savior, I love my Heavenly Father, I love the people here, I love my family, my friends, I love the life God has given me. I love being a missionary, and I would not trade it for the world. I love it.