Letter #59 11/23/15

I love my sisters and people from Mexico and Mexico.

I've been sick as a dog so #dontjudgeit

Hermana Chee is a real Native American, born and raised in the Four Corners. :)

I love my companions and miracles and our amazing ward and the Spirit and talking to everyone and CHINCHES.

THIS WEEK reminded me just how much I love being a missionary. Just like it's easy, at times, and if you're not doing everything you can to stay converted, to remember that you do have a testimony, or that you have felt the spirit, sometimes it's not always easy to remember how much you love being a missionary. Things are hard, life is stressful, you feel like you fail others, yourself and the Lord a lot more than you'd like.. But then, there's like all of the other beautiful things that sometimes just hit you like 3,000 bricks and you feel like crying tears of joy/screaming from the rooftops that you LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! 

I love my companions: Okay, can I just tell you how much fun we have always? It's such an incredible tender mercy to be with two of the neatest, most dedicated missionaries on the face of the planet. We're the cheesiest companionship, so full of love and silliness. Heavenly Father knows exactly what we need. And they're both going home so at times life is really emotional and needless to say I cry a lot but they've really taught me how special it is to serve the Lord. 

I love miracles: TOO MANY TO COUNT. God is so good.

Chicken fiesta=ALL MY DREAMS COME TRUE.  The day you arrive in the Richmond, VA mission
they make you way hungry and excited and tell you that your mission life will not be complete until you've
stepped foot in this restaurant.  We think Pollo Party has a nicer ring to it, but hey.

The sweetest lady ever aka Sister Worthen.  We helped her open jars and reach high things
and she shared her old book collection and her story of sacrifice, traveling 4 days to SLC to
be married and sealed on the same day back in the 40's.  Needless to say the Spirit was SO
strong and I cried and I love being a missionary!!!!

I love our ward: This ward is chalk full of some of the most amazing recent converts that ever exist. You've met Hermano M through pictures, and I don't know if I've sent a picture of Hno R yet but they're both SO incredible. We had this reachout night with the ward last night, and they both got assigned to go out with us. Instead of visiting members, we were assigned to visit a few of our investigators that will be getting married and baptized soon (Namely J y Es, and El). We had just the funnest night of missionary work ever, but Hermana Powell was SUPER sick. So after we visited, we went back to the church and Hno M gave his first priesthood blessing ever. The spirit was SO strong and I was just so grateful for the priesthood, the love and understanding that I've received of the priesthood on my mission, and just for good humans who love the Lord and serve Him with all that they have. 

I love the spirit: We had the most special experience on our exchange in Swiftcreek. I can't even express it in words because it was just so special, but basically they have this investigator named J. He is just the most incredible teenage boy. He comes from a really difficult home situation, but has such a desire to do good. We had the most incredible experience with him as we read from Alma 7:11-12. He had just told us about some things that happened at home the night before and the spirit was tangible and he was like, "guys.. you're making me cry" and, naturally, tears were streaming down my face and I am completely full of love and gratitude for the atonement, that, even though he feels alone in all of it he isn't. We never are.

I love talking to everyone: This week we have had a goal to sweep out the corners, be super thorough in talking to EVERYONE.. and it's been so much fun. We haven't been perfect, but we have definitely seen miracles. When we were on our exchange with swiftcreek, we needed to eat. We decided on chick fil a because, of course. And things had happened the whole night to kind of deter us and stop us so we ended up getting there at a really weird time. When we walked to the door, we held it open for this lady. I just started talking to her and we became really good friends really quickly. It was crazy, because she was just super open to learning and I just know that she was placed in our path at that exact moment. It's been really cool, because at first we didn't meet a prepared person every time we stopped someone on the street, and we passed out a ton of cards, but as the week has gone on Heavenly Father has trusted us with even more people that are really prepared. I know that Heavenly Father only really desires a willing heart from each one of us and that He will work miracles in our lives and the lives of the people we meet. 

“Brothers and sisters, this is the Lord’s Church. Let Him guide you through constant prayer. With a prayer in your heart, talk to everyone you can. Don’t prejudge. Don’t withhold the good news from anyone. Talk to everyone, and trust in the promised power of the Spirit to give you the words you should say. Let them make the decision to accept or reject your invitation. Overtime, the Lord will put into your path those who are seeking the truth.”

I know its true. Our Heavenly Father needs us. He needs YOU. 

And.. I love CHINCHES: AKA we have bed bugs. Disgusting, no? I still haven't gotten bit, but my companions get destroyed every night. Hahah. So instead of crying every day, we just draw bed bugs on our fingers and laugh at how incredibly hilarious our life is. 

Okay, LOVE Y'ALL <3

Look what I found??! I MISS BURKEVILLE SO MUCH! We went on exchanges with the
Midlothian sisters, the area that took all of Burkeville Spanish.  I had a nice little trip down memory lane.