Semana 43 Rancho Ward: Ceiling fans

Pues! Here we are yet another week down here in the Rancho ward. We had a lot of fun stuff happen this week so let's get right into it. 

Tuesday: We had a bomb lesson with Amber and her kiddos. We read the Book of Mormon kids edition and all the kids were engaged and it was really cute! We are hoping Amber will get baptized soon and we know her kiddos will follow. 

Wednesday: Today was a crazy action packed day. We started off with yet another lesson with Amber and really connected with her on a spiritual level and hopefully she starts really praying about the things we've taught! If everyone could pray for her that would be awesome. After Amber we met with Geoff a recent convert who I actually used to teach English to way back at the beginning of my mission. He's really awesome and we got him started on temple prep. Next we headed to our park lesson with the Smith family and Tyson we did the ten commandments competition style and it was super fun! Tyson remembers all the commandments now so that's huge. Finally we ended the night with Amanda and Alex and Violet and we did a scavenger hunt, commandments style. The girls had a really fun time with it and we had a fun time hiding all the clues. 

Thursday: Today we had an awesome lesson with Nene one of our new friends about the Plan of Salvation and she seriously is the cutest ever. Her kids are adorable too. Hopefully they really find their way to the gospel. After that we had a super crazy lesson with Emily and Evie and tried to teach them the Restoration but it was a little bit of a train wreck. However they are still getting baptized on the 30th so all is well. Finally we taught a lesson at Hand Up NV and had an amazing spiritual discussion with Alejandro. Hopefully the Sisters in Pennwood will be able to start teaching him soon. 

Friday: Today was meetings day! We started off with our stake breakfast, left that early to go to new leader training (NLT) then headed off to mission leadership council (MLC) That all lasted until about 4:00 so it was a lot of sitting all at once. After all our meetings we had a lesson with Sis. Crump our new friend. Her cute daughter Melody wanted us to get all dressed up with her. Pictures below. We talked about fasting and are going to do a fast for her this next fast Sunday if you would like to fast for her with us please message me and I give more details. We ended off our day with another lesson with Wanda! We talked about the priesthood and invited her to be baptized. She is going to pray on it, but hopefully she will join the fold soon. 

Saturday: Today we didn't do anything to elite home about, until the trunk or treat! We made a pumpkin cinnamon roll cake and everyone really liked it. We also made up a silly costume with our limited resources. You'll have to guess what we were! Shirlee came with her grandkids to the trunk or treat and they all really enjoyed the company and atmosphere so, we are excited for that. 

Sunday: Today we had some of our friends come to church with us again which is awesome! They are all really progressing. Emily and Evie are getting baptized this Saturday and we are so excited for them. We also got to go visit Sarah and Amanda and do a bean boozled lesson about following the promptings of the spirit. We ended the day with a lesson with a different Sarah in the ward and helped her know that even when we stumble we still need to stay on the path. I know that Christ's Atonement is truly there to lift you to a higher and holier way. 

I love you guys lots and I hope you have the best week! Casual reminder that next pday is my birthday! I accept cash, card, packages, and letters ;) 

Get it?  CEILING

FANS! ;)

Dress up

Eating healthy with Sister Hunter

Semana 42 Rancho Ward: Transfers and Tortugas

Never fear! I did not miss sending an email yesterday. It's transfer week, I am staying in Rancho with Sister Hunter for her last transfer in the mission and honestly we are so excited. The only change is that Sister Hunter convinced the AP's that we needed one of the three red Tacomas in the mission because her hair is red.... and drumroll please...... it actually worked! Catch us driving the most coveted car in the whole mission🤣 It's such a joke because I literally am the example of what not to do when it comes to driving and somehow get to be driven around in the red Tacoma. Anyway it's kind of a party. I love the Rancho ward and we are teaching so many amazing people here. 

Monday: Tonight we had literally one of the best lessons of my whole mission today. We are teaching this sweet girl named Amanda so we had a 11 year old party with her and two other girls that are members. We made cupcakes and related that to the gospel of Jesus Christ. At the end we talked about baptism and she said she wants to get baptized! But, she is super nervous. Before we could say anything the two girls from the ward resolved all her concerns and now she is on date to get baptized on Halloween! It was so tender to see the girls bear their little testimonies and help Amanda want to enter the waters of baptism. 

Tuesday: So, I'm not going to lie, today was super boring, but, we did have one awesome miracle. We went to mutual to celebrate Emily's birthday and so many of the girls just supported her and Emily and Evie are getting baptized on the 30th! They are so ready and have even gotten their mom to become active again in the church. Hopefully they can all go to the temple temple do baptisms soon. 

Wednesday: Today we got to meet some awesome members which was super nice because they have kind of all been avoiding us. We also got to talk to Amber who is such a cool lady. Her daughter got baptized 4 months ago and now we are teaching her and her two other kids! We are hoping they get baptized here soon too! She is so kind and literally should be a member. I can't wait to see how the Holy Ghost blesses her life. 

Thursday: Today we got to have a lesson about commandments with Emily and Evie and they soaked it all up. It was cool to see Evie soak up the hand motions. We also had a really awesome lesson with a returning member who told us today she wants to make steps in her life to receive the gift of the endowment. Super hype and we are so excited to see her progress. 

Friday: Today was pretty slow 🐌 Sister Hunter and I street contacted and knocked doors for literally 5 hours straight because all our lessons canceled. Let's just say I'm so grateful that I'm serving my mission now and not 20 years ago. Also, our girl Amber broke her phone so we have been communicating through notes we leave on her door and she tapes them up. Check below for some cute pics. The one awesome miracle from today is we got to truly help one of our members out of a faith crisis which is my all time favorite thing to do. I love getting to testify of God's love and the Atonement, so after a long day it really finished off strong. 

Saturday: Honestly the only thing worth noting today was that we had another really awesome lesson with Emily and Evie about tithing and their mom really committed to paying that again which is huge. But, since today will be super short, spiritual thought time. Our Mission President asked us to really ponder what we would ask Jesus Christ right now as a missionary if we could ask him the desires of our hearts. This is what I came up with.

"Magnify my dedicated efforts to bring many of your beloved children here in Vegas to the waters of baptism, by allowing me to truly see them as beloved children of God with a divine potential, and to be the vessel by which the spirit can speak to their minds and hearts whispering to them the magnificent blessings of the Atonement and waters of baptism". I know that as I ask the Lord, what lack I yet, and truly dedicate myself more and more each day that he can answer these prayers and hopes. I also know that the Lord councils in the scriptures so many times by asking what you feel or what you want. So, my challenge for you this week is to really ponder the question, "what will you that I should do?" from the Lord. Then, write it down and dedicate yourself to working to receive those blessings. More often than not our will is aligned with God's will he just needs us to ask. 

Sunday: We had 5 of our friends come to church! Yay! They all really enjoyed it and hopefully we have more next week. One cool miracle is that Amber was really having a rough week and church really helped her feel the love her Heavenly Father had for her. After that we went and talked to Wanda who ditched us at church! Turns out her friend was sick and so she stayed home to help her out but we set up a lesson for Tuesday and hopefully we will put her on baptismal date too! We have been so blessed here in Rancho and I'm so grateful to be seeing the fruits of my labors a little more. 

Monday: We had a great time today knocking more doors and had some surprise lessons with several older ladies in the ward which was awesome! We finished the night out finding a new person named Nene who wants to come to church! 

All in all a fabulous week and I'm so thankful to be staying and to see all these people I have come to love get baptized (hopefully) Here's some pictures of shenanigans with Sister Hunter. Honestly my phone is cracked so some of these are terrible quality 🤣 But, they are fun.

Vegas, baby!

Look at that view!

Creative messaging, lol

Chik-fil-a for the win!

Queen

The Gospel of Jesus Christ cupcakes

Cupcake fun

District shenanigans

Semana 41 Rancho Ward: Aprender y mejorar

 This week we have had so many opportunities for ourselves to "aprender y mejorar" (learn and improve). However, we have also had so many opportunities to help others on their path as well! No insanely crazy stories this week, I'm running out of things to lose or break ;) BUT! Stay tuned because there's some good spiritual insights coming your way. 

Monday: Today we had dinner with the Sprague family! They are an older couple and they LOVE the missionaries. We had lasagna and they gave me some clips for my hair how sweet is that. I love how giving people are here, even when you know it was hard for them to afford that. After that we had an AWESOME lesson with the Bley kids and put them on date for the 16th! Two of the we shall see if they want to get baptized for sure, but, Emily is so excited to get baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 

Tuesday: Today was an action packed day! While we were contacting I had this impression that we needed to visit one of the people who we had been talking to on Facebook through our ad. It was a long drive and we were running low on miles, but we went. Shirlee answered the door and she needed us right then and there! We talked about prayer with her and she practically jumped out of her chair when we gave her the Book of Mormon. Aren't we glad we listened to that prompting?? After Shirlee we played some basketball with the youth, and then headed off to exchange number 1 for the week! 

Wednesday: I GOT TO GO WITH SISTER LUSK!!! I miss that cutie, and I loved going back to my old area. But, the coolest part of that whole thing was seeing how fast she's grown just in these 4 weeks, it was a proud momma moment for sure. We got to go help Linda Ence with some service and I think I convinced her to paint me a mural with the Nauvoo temple and I'm kind of excited. But, the best part is that we got to teach her husband who isn't a member, and get him excited for their trip to the Pocatello Idaho temple open house later this month. We had dinner with the Ferris family and it was fabulous. I loved knocking doors and just catching up with my cute companion. After that I went straight to another exchange!

Thursday: Sister Black and I got to serve in the Portuguese branch today and it was a blast. I can kind of, get the gist of the message in Portuguese but not enough to get the entire conversation. Kind of exciting though! We ran around like chickens with our heads cut off but it was super fun. Sister Black was my STL a while ago so it was fun to see her again. 

Friday: Today was such a good day! We had a meeting with Elder McKay of the 70 and the two area 70 in the other mission!!! We counseled together about ways to make the mission more successful. Elder McKay is one of the best speakers I have ever heard and I hope one day to speak with as much power and love as He does. We went straight from there to a lesson with the Bley kids! Sadly Evie and Jack aren't quite ready to be baptized, but Emily is getting baptized next Saturday! We had a great lesson about the plan of salvation and I am so glad we got to meet these cuties. After that we had dinner with the Bergin family and cute Wallace who loves quinoa! All in all a fabulous day full of motivation to do better and be better. 

Saturday: Today was our first chill day in 1 million years. We got to go out knock doors, contact so many people and just be led by the spirit. It was amazing. Especially after our pep talk from Elder McKay. Sadly not a ton to report but we enjoyed doing the work. Also, spiritual thought time! 3 Nephi 18:21 is one of my new favorite scriptures because it talks about the blessings of praying always. Go give it a read, then act on the promptings you receive, I promise it'll be worth it. If you need a Book Of Mormon let me know ;) 

Sunday: Today we had an awesome stake conference where we got to hear from our English, Spanish and Portuguese members of our stake. I loved how everyone was able to speak in their native tongue. I love hearing Spanish and the spirit was so strong in the meeting. The temple president and matron are amazing and made me want to go to the temple! Sadly none of our friends came but we had an amazing lesson with our woman Wanda!! She is seriously elect. We walked in and the first question she asked is how does she pay tithing because she knows there's big blessings she's missing out on!! Literally crazy. We didn't commit her to be baptized because she really wants to pray about it but next week.... hmmm. She loves God and is so excited about everything we learn. Basically a miracle. 

Here are some amazing pictures from this week, ft. The afro duck from the park, hot chocolate when it got cold (don't worry only 70 degrees), smoothie bowls because we are obsessed (our punch card is almost full guys), me and Cali messing around with filters on her birthday, a rainy day in Henderson, Handel's ice cream and Sister Lusk!

RAIN!

Ice Cream. Yum!

Smoothie Bowls! Even better!

Filter fun with Cali

Afro duck

Hot chocolate for the win!

Back with Sister Lusk for exchanges

Cute Hermanas!

Semana 40 Rancho Ward: Bad luck = BIG miracles

 So this week was like a yoyo! We had some really bad luck stuff happen, but we also had some amazing miracles. The coolest thing about being a missionary is that you literally can't have a bad day. It's taught me a lot about myself and honestly a lot about Jesus Christ. Jesus had lots of bad moments but he never had a bad day and I love that. Well, my guess is that you're dying to hear about my crazy week here in the crazy streets of downtown Las Vegas so buckle up and remember that God is truly in charge of the universe. All things denote there truly is a God. 

Monday: Ok, action packed night. We had an awesome dinner with a lady in our ward who's husband is deployed right now. She was really sweet and we had a good time with someone a little closer to our age. Next we headed to Sister Linderman's house. Turns out Claudia is now living with her and so we got to finally do a lesson with Amanda! She is the cutest 12 year old and hopefully she will feel at home at church so we can get her baptized! 

Tuesday: Today we had a crazy busy day first we went to seminary and I was really fun. There were like 20 kids there and probably 5 weren't members so that was super awesome. After that we had district council land a lesson IN SPANISH with a recent convert family. When you are married you can't split your records to two separate wards, so this cute lady who doesn't speak English at all, transferred to our ward so her husband can understand better. She is truly a Saint. Sister Hunter translates for her during church and it is so cool to see her translating! We finished our day with door knocking, ad making and a whole lot of good food from our Philippine members.

Wednesday: Today was zone conference! We had such a blast giving a training in how to use the Book of Mormon more effectively in our teaching and finding. I realized I don't know a lot of references so my new goal is to memorize 200 by the end of my mission! I love getting to see everyone and learn and grow from zone conference. This time it was a little different because we taught a workshop. Ok so after zone conference we went to dinner with the Armstrong family and oh my goodness on the way home angels were truly protecting us. We were about to hit a red light and a car going 45 or 50 miles an hour came flying over the median and missed our car by half an inch. We immediately said a prayer of thanks and we moved on with our day! Next we had an awesome lesson with the Williams family and Amber (the mom) is really starting to progress! Hopefully she will soon see how much having the ward family and holy ghost will bless her life. 

Thursday: Today was probably on the top 5 list for craziest days of my whole mission. We started out with every single one of our lessons canceling which is always a sign that someone needs you somewhere. We did our studies and contacting and headed off to lunch at olive garden with some members! Super fun. But, wait the crazy is yet to come. Shortly after we headed to the park, which is a little sketchy but nothing our legion of protective angels can't handle. There ended up being a fight starting to escalate between some people so we decided to leave the park in a rush. As we were leaving my phone bounced out of my pocket.... but by the time I turned around (less than 20 seconds later) someone had stolen it...... we searched for a few minutes to no avail. We then rushed to our Centro Hispano shift because we now had no Sim card or anyway to contact anyone. Hopped on a computer, used another person's phone and remotely logged out of all my accounts and wiped my phone. We used tracking devices and it was already in Henderson which is a 30 minute drive away. I was pretty upset because I felt like I had followed a prompting to rush out of the park and that caused my brand new phone to get stolen. But, my wise companion said we are lucky all that was lost was my phone. On our way to our next event a bumper flew off of the car in front of us and we escaped by inches yet again. All I can say is I'm glad we have angels and the blessings of obedience on our side. After that big fiasco we had to go to women's conference for the stake. There were probably about 200 cars there and with no phone we had to find Elder Reese so we could get a Sim card. We finally found him and we could stop worrying. The conference was super nice and the theme really helped a few of our friends that came. It was a happy ending to a pretty crappy couple of hours. Something I've learned is that when we let bad things that happen during our day affect us for the rest of the day, we end up sad and frustrated, but if we pray and give that to the Lord, we are able to move on and enjoy the good for the rest of the time. 

Friday: Well, thank goodness after one of the craziest days in my whole mission we had a chill day. We had some great lessons with inactive members, finished our ads for the month, knocked some doors and found two new people to teach. The Lord truly does see us and he knows our limits. I was so gratefull to have a day with no meetings where we could truly do the fun part of the Lord's work today. We found two amazing new people Talia and Trinity and hopefully they start along the covenant path. Milagros do exist you guys!! 

Saturday: General Conference=Christmas in the mission. I can not begin to describe how much I love hearing words from the prophet, apostles, and the holy ghost. We got to listen to the first session while painting with on of the people we are teaching named Leslie, which really brought the spirit to her home. Then we went to Sister Linderman's house for the second session and we love her! She's a single lady that is super amazing, and we loved eating Twix and really focusing in on conference after painting. All in all a fabulous day! 

Sunday: We love getting to watch conference with our friends! Our cute friend Amanda we watched the first session with and learned a ton. She enjoyed the conference packet we made for her. After we did some contacting and then headed to the Dunning's for the second conference session. We watched and then got to have ribs and roasted veggies and honestly a really awesome meal. Which doesn't happen very often around here. Then we went to the Fellhaur's house for dessert, knocked some doors, worked on some ads and then crashed! 

This week was crazy, but all I can say is that God is real. God is watching out for us and he loves us more than we will ever know. Hold onto your covenants, listen to the prophet and I can promise you, you will qualify for the blessings you receive.

Vegas Zone!

Training at Zone Conference