Semana 26 Red Rock YSA & Foothills Ward: On the gas

Good morning everyone!! We had an amazing week but yet again I failed at pictures...... #momfail........ #mytraineehasnopictures......... So sorry about that one, we will take lots this week I pinky promise cross my heart. This week we were sooooo busy. 

Monday: Today we had dinner with the stake president and he announced the church approved a new building in our stake!!! Only catch, we have to create a new ward by the end of the year..... oof. Well looks like we have our work cut out for us. We aren't really teaching anyone so I guess we better get on it. We spent the rest of the night at FHE with the YSA! We played board games and got to know each other which was so fun!! Being in a YSA rocks because everyone is fresh off their mission and so willing to help, but it's also really fun to go to the activities and meet new people our age. 

Tuesday: Today we had our first District Council with our new district which was awesome. Our new district leader Elder Gerlach is very much a people oriented leader not a number oriented leader which is really good for this area. After that we went to the gas station and man am I glad I'm not paying for gas....!! After that we had an awesome appointment with Sister Seagraves who is originally from Colombia!!!!! We did the whole chat and lesson in Spanish and let me tell you the gift of tongues is real because I was actually able to chat with her and do small talk! It was crazy and so awesome. Sister Lusk was happy to hear some Spanish and I think it helped her realize she might have thought she learned everything she needed to know in the MTC, when in reality learning a language is a long haul type of ordeal. We ended the day with an awesome chat with our Relief Society President who told us about all the women who need some love and then we went to a lesson with Allen! Allen recently got baptized and then decided to go back to the Catholic church but we had a meeting with him and he really feels like he should stay! So that rocks! 

Wednesday: Wednesday was a slow day, but we did a ton of contacts, contacted our hearts out, did all of our studies and then headed out to a lesson with two recent converts, one person we're teaching and a awesome returning member. The Casolari family rocks!! They are so fun! We are now pen pals with the girls and I can't wait to see where that takes us in hopefully getting dad baptized. We ended our day at the ward RS activity and had some yummy food, and got to know a lot of the new members of the ward we weren't able to catch last Sunday. 

Thursday: Today we did our first weekly planning session which took 3 hours......! But, we survived and we have a plan for our area which is so refreshing. Sister Lusk about died when she found out how long weekly planning takes every week ;) After that and our studies we went out to visit the Godfrey family. Their house is ALL WHITE. Like very well decorated but it's all white. Sister Godfrey is from Japan and man. She wants her house to look like a temple. After dinner with her and her husband we headed over to picnic in the park. Sadly no one in our ward brought their friends, but we got to meet a bunch of new members and build trust with the ward. After that we rushed out to teach study group at the YSA which was a blast! We had a lot of recent converts there and had an amazing discussion on the love God has for everyone of his children. That's something I've been thinking about so much this week. So many people don't feel like they are wanted do loved, and one of the coolest things about being a missionary is you get a glimpse of the Christlike love Christ has for everyone. You really can't beat that feeling of overwhelming love for someone you've never met. 

Friday: Today we had some awesome training and we went to another very long meeting. But, it was super fun to see all the trainers and having all the same things as them. We went out to lunch afterwards and then headed home! We did our studies and ended the day with a lesson with Ery! He is a really cool guy who wants to get baptized we just have to get his family on board so wish us luck! 

Saturday: Exchanges!! I got to go with Sister Knight my very first STL! It was such a blast we saw so many milagros!! We found this awesome guy named Gray (yes like the color) he works in the front office and is really interested and even read from the Book Of Mormon! So that was awesome! We also called a ton of people from the YSA and let them know we were here from them. At the end of the night we met this amazing girl named Samantha! She has had friends who are members and is going to come to FHE on Monday. All in all it was a good day full of fun chats and getting to laugh and teach together. 

Sunday: Well I didn't escape the 7 hours of meetings but, it's kind of fun to still have variety and a very busy day right before pday! Nothing too eventful today just a lot of church and ward councils! We ended the night with dinner and a meeting with our Ward Mission Leader. 

It rained! Pictured below!!

It rained!

Busy week!  Working hard!

Semana 25 Red Rock YSA & Foothills Ward: I'M SO FULLLLLL!

Oh my goodness!!!! What a crazy week! New area, new companion, new aparment, new, new, new. I have had a very weird week. I picked up Sister Lusk on Wednesday around 5pm and life has been nonstop crazy since then. We got double transferred into a YSA and a family ward. My new stake is the second top paying tithing stake in the world.... hence the title. We have had the fanciest meals all week. My greenie is going to be so spoiled. But alas, I have totally enjoyed being spoiled. Ok, onto the weekly update. 

Tuesday: I got to be in a trio with Sister Batt and Tiechart for the day which was super fun. I just met all the new zone and then we came home, watched the devotional and relaxed. We totally go to chat and enjoy our time together. I had to sleep on the floor, which was super lame, but it was a blast being in a trio. 

Wednesday: I was in a trio until around 5:00 when I went to the building and waited for Sister Lusk to come! All their planes came in late and we barely made it out of the building before we had to go to dinner with the Law family. The are super nice and had Mexican salads for dinner with Mexican corn (bascally corn on he cob rolled in mayo, cheese, spices and then baked). Afterwards we went and got some food from Albertsons because for the life of me I couldn't find a Walmart. Apparantly millionares don't shop at Walmart or something...... AKA our grocries were not cheap. Oh well. After we got done we drove to our apartement, got locked out, parked in someone else's parking spot and ended up parking at a park for the rest of the night..... OOF. Sorry new comp. She handled it like a champ but we finally got everthing into out apartment around 9:00 and we crashed! 

Thursday: Today we had a six hour orientation! We got up, did our normal thing and then from 11-5 we were getting oriented up! I did weekly planning by myself which was really hard, but, luckily I at least got somewhat of a plan to last us until Thursday. She got to learn all the logistical things about being a missionary. How fun! Then we went to dinner with the cutest little old lady named Sister Gardner who gave us an hour presentation about symbolism in the ancient temples and how they match up with the temple today. Then, we drove over to our building and did a little study group activity with the YSA. Only one person showed up, but, we had a really awesome discussion and she rocks! We ended the day with some Spanish study and making a language study plan. 

Friday: Boy oh boy! We drove up to Red Rock national park to help clean out an old estate. This place was massive and the lady who lived there was a hoarder. So, we cleaned for about two hours and then headed down the mountain. After that we did our studies. Had two awesome dinners (we took over two wards so we have double booked dinners a couple times this month) and then did some contacting and former calling. 

Saturday: On Saturday we enjoyed another service project! We helped some people move out of our ward and in the process met a lot of really good people from the Foothills ward. After that we headed over to a normal morning of studies and lots of contacting. I taught Sister Lusk how to use area book and so we spent about 2 hours contacting...... After that we had an awesome dinner with the Jacobsons and played a really fun game with their family. Then we went to a YSA pool party and just made an appearance and dipped out 🤣 We ended the day with more training on area book and other random things you need to know to be a successful missionary. 

Sunday: WHAT A DAY! Our wards are amazing. So organized, so on top of it. Ward council was so productive, we have a ward mission plan. I could not be more excited for this. Everyone was so nice. They made us introduce ourselves at the pulpit so everyone could know who we are! After our first meeting we had lunch with the Ross family. They made French toast which is Sister Lusk's favorite and made her feel like the Lord was looking out for her. After that we rushed to the next church at the YSA building 30 minutes away. We had an awesome time and then ran back to our family ward area for dinner! We got fed steak and the yummiest mashed potatoes. I am so spoiled in this ward already!! 

We have been sharing a lot about how the Book of Mormon teaches us about Christ in every section. This has really touched me as I have done my own studies and seen Christ in every detail of these peoples lives. I know he is in every detail of yours and I know that as you ask in prayer, you will be able to see his hand more and more. 

I don't have a ton of pictures I know...... I'll do better next week I pinky promise.

Hermana Sellers with her trainee Hermana Lusk

Lunch with the district

Semana 24 Painted Mountain/ Blanco Vista: LAST WEEK :( 1ST OFFICAL TRANSFER!!

Hello everyone!! Its official. I have finally overstayed my welcome in the Blanco Vista and Painted Mountain areas! I am being moved to South Summerlin and TRAINING A NEW MISSIONARY! We are over the Foothills Ward (which is basically all super boujee mountain mansions on Red Red National Park's land) and the Red Rock Stake YSA (young single adult)! How cool is that?! I'm so excited to change it up and learn some new things! The YSA will be kinda weird, but I'm excited to see how missionary work with a bunch of recently returned missionaries goes. I don't get my new companion until tomorrow so I can't tell you guys anything about her until next week... :( Currently in a trio for the day! How fun. Ok, on to the actual email. 

Monday: Tonight was actually super cool! We had two crazy miracles back to back. First we went to this cool guy named Gib's house. He isn't super interested in the church but the family that he is living with, is! He is a caretaker for them and lives in part time. It was just a crazy miracle that we were able to find two new people to teach in Rhodes Ranch without knocking on any doors. This just goes to show that the Lord will magnify your efforts if you give it your best. A few minutes later we went to knock on a families door who hasn't come to church in years. Turns out they had moved from their house, but..... the people who had just moved in a week ago, were recent converts to the church and were so glad to see missionaries, because they had no idea when church was or how to find out!! This story gets even better because last week we were going to stop by this same house, but we had a feeling to wait a few more days. Which was just in time for Charles and his family to move in and need our help. God is truly good. I'm bummed I won't be able to get to know these people better, but I'm so thankful to the Lord for showing us the fruits of our labors today. 

Tuesday: Tuesday's are always odd because of our 12 hour day, we have 6 hours of meetings. So, not a whole lot of actual "missionary work" gets done. But, the meeting are nice, fun and a really good way to be accountable to your goals with fellow missionaries. So, we were feeling like our day was super unproductive and we decided to go knock on Zoila's door. She was home and we ended up having an amazing lesson with her. She felt the spirit enough that she accepted a baptismal date on July 3rd!! How exciting!! She has really progressed a lot these past few months, and through this visit we were able to start teaching her son as well. Miracles are all around us this week. 

Wednesday: This morning we taught not one, not two, but three of our friends! We taught Shaaun (yes there are two a's) and Maria, and Pam! Shaaun we found a while ago but has never gotten back to us. He finally answered, we taught him the Restoration and he loved it! He even wanted a Book Of Mormon. Sadly he doesn't live in our area so we sent him to the Elders where he lives and told them to take good care of our friend Shaaun. Pam is the woman we met in Rhodes Ranch. She and her 9 year old daughter came to the church and learned some piano from one of the Elders. While he was teaching piano we had an awesome convo with her mom and invited them to church! After that we headed over to Maria's house and taught Bella and her. All in all it has been an amazing week. But wait!! There's more! Then Brnach had a really fun fútbol activity and ENRIQUE CAME! And he stayed for a lesson afterwards. He's gonna get baptized I can feel it. He is such a cool guy and works so hard. He's come to church the past 3 weeks in a row and has loved it. All in all the actual best day. 

Friday: Today we went on yet another walk with our guy Sonny. This man. He is so bad at committing to things. He totally has a testimony he just won't come to church! One day ge will come I know it. Most of the day was spent contacting and doing Facebook ads, but for dinner we went the the Cisternes' families house for dinner and had completos, which are basically crazy fancy Chilean hot dogs? They were super yummy!! However they didn't agree with Sister Edwards too well....... :( To finish off the day we did some additional studies and taught a quick English class. 

Saturday: Today we had another lesson with Josiah about the gospel of Jesus Christ and how much it has changed him. Then, we taught Ismari, Charles, and the Mendoza family. I think it is safe to say we have had more lesson this week than the past month combined. Crazy right?! But so stinking fun. Seeing the light of Chrust in people's eyes really makes the mission all worthwhile. All of our friends we taught today were super interested and progressing. No big news there, but it was nice to really teach and see them learn as you go. To finish off the day we had the adult session of stake conference and TRANSFER CALLS! 

Sunday: THE ACTUAL MOST BORING DAY EVERRRRR. I usually love Sundays, but today was so stinking boring. We had two hours of church (we usually have 6) and then literally nothing else. I packed all my belongings, no one was around to feed us dinner, and we did so much studying and calling people! It wasn't a bad day but I've never had the problem of not having anything anything do at all until today. Weird feeling.... ;) Luckily we ended the night by saying goodbye to a couple members in Rhodes Ranch. 

Monday part 2: Today we say bye to a ton of people, put up yet another Centro ad, made a reel and packed some more. But, the best part of the day was the last three hours. We went to the Richard's for dinner and they gave me the cutest flowers and card. It made me really feel appreciated and loved. Then we had dinner take two with the Stewarts!! I haven't seen them in three weeks and they drove all the way down here to say goodbye. They wrote me the nicest card as well and I couldn't help but tear up when I read it. I really am gonna miss this place. 

All in all a fabulous last week in my area! I have some pictures, but if I'm being honest, stake conference made it really hard to get a lot. I have tons from throughout the past 7 weeks here though, so it's all good! Love you guys! First time I've written a quality email in a while, so i hope you enjoyed it!

Flowers from the Richards

A package Mom sent from Hawaii filled with all things passion fruit

Sisters!

Semana 23 Painted Mountain/ Blanco Vista: Service week

Monday: Today the night ended off with some good old Memorial Day fun at the Harley family's house. We did an object lesson about service for Memorial Day and talked about how when we are centered on the Book of Mormon nothing around the world can hurt us. The simple object lesson of putting your finger on a Book of Mormon and pressing hard, then smashing your finger with a can gets the kids attention every time. The can bends under the pressure and doesn't hurt your finger. But, if you were to smash your finger not on the book,  the can wouldn't bend, and your finger would be black and blue. As we related how important being centered on service, Christ and the Book Of Mormon was, it truly helped me reflect on my focus. Even though I am a missionary, where is my focus? Where can I turn for peace? As a person, where is your focus, where is your foundation? I can promise that as we center our lives on Christ and the Book of Mormon, we will be able to stand against everything that comes our way. 

Tuesday: Today we had a meeting with Maria Garcia, someone Sister McBride and I were teaching when I first got here! She had be meeting with other missionaries, but we are now teaching her again. It was cool to see her tell the story of how she met the missionaries and how kind they were bringing her gifts when she was really struggling. We also did a ton with our new video ad for Centro Hispano, and taught at Centro Hispano today! It was a day packed full of appointments which was awesome! 

Wednesday: A very normal day today! We had a couple teaching appointments, our studies, a dinner with the Lowe family, and that's about it. Nothing too exciting today. However, I did want to share this really cool quote my mom sent me. A lot of times the mission, and life, can feel like it's wrong to make mistakes, that you need to be perfect all the time. Exactly obedient, perfectly in shape, have a prefect relationship and partner. The list could go on and on. But, that's not the case. Life is meant to be a learning and growing experience. "Making mistakes is part of learning to choose well. No way around it. Choices are thrust upon us, and we don't always get things right. Even postponing or avoiding a decision can become a choice that carries heavy consequences. Mistakes can be painful-sometimes they cause irrevocable harm-but welcome to Earth. Poor choices are part of growing up, and part of life. You will make bad choices, and you will be affected by the poor choices of others. We must rise above such things." Fablehaven book 5. Don't let your mistakes or the mistakes of others get you down. I know for a fact your Heavenly Father loves you, no matter the circumstances, no matter what gets thrown at you, or the mistakes you've made. 

Thursday: Today we did a palate unloading service project and we got to use our muscles a little bit. So, that was awesome! I love doing big service projects. The rest of the day was pretty normal. Lots of contacting and our weekly planning session. 

Friday: We did a members focused day! We started off hauling probably 60 square feet of sand into the Harley's backyard in 100 degree weather.... I have never sweat so much in my life. It was hard work but the yard looks amazing! Afterwards we went home, showered and did our studies. Then we did some service for a struggling companionship and then went and knocked on some part member family doors. That was rough, but at least we know who doesn't want to talk to us!! We ended the day at the Young Woman bake sale! All in all a fabulous day. 

Saturday: Today we did a ton of teaching! We had a lesson with Sonny, Josiah, Jennifer, Elias, Tim, and a dinner with Ismari! Crazy right? We taught the Plan of Salvation a lot and it was awesome to have that focus on family and that God truly has a plan for each one of them. 

Sunday: Enrique came to both hours of church!! And he's gonna come to our Thursday night sport night with the branch! That was our big news today! Other than that we did more for knocking and finished visiting all the part member family doors!