Semana 69 La Sombra/Hillpointe: Tocando todas de las puertas

Gooood morning everyone! So excited to have you here with me today! As I sat here writing this I realized I only have to write 3 more of these bad boys and that was a weird but celebratory thought. Let's get into it! 

Monday: Started off our morning  early with a hike with our district! We decided today that we needed to all drive down to the Rancho swap meet and get some beautiful hand embroidered dresses to all wear at zone conference together and it was seriously so much fun! After we picked our dresses we went out and got some Latino food from Cardenas for Sister Milla to feel like she was a little more at home with us. Fun day but lots of driving so we are ready to have a chill day this pday! We ended the night knocking doors, and a dinner with my favorite family the Watabaughs. The coolest part though was that we had knocked so many doors, it was about 8:45 and we had our fourth floor last door moment. We got in with a beautiful Latino family of 5 and had a great lesson with them. We prayed and set up a return appointment to do a family home evening with them. We can't wait to see where this 8:45 miracle takes us. 

Tuesday:  We had a meeting filled day today. It started with district council where I gave a training on how to receive personal revelation for those we teach which I absolutely loved! There's such amazing tips in PMG and it was nice to get to share that with everyone. Then we headed out to La Sombra Huddle and lunch and that is always a blast. Then a hop skip and a jump away to some door knocking time. Sadly we didn't find anyone, but we did have a great dinner with the Forred family who I love. Then it was off to correlation for the Hillpointe ward and luckily that one wasn't quite as long. We ended the day with language study and I convinced my comp to learn Portuguese!!! How fun! 

Wednesday: Today was exchanges with Sister Lusk, but the tables were turned! She was the STL and I got to be the one who relaxed and got to hang out with my best friend! So fun. We started the day off with studies and then had a lesson planned with this lady named Courtney I had never met. We met at a little cafe and she is seriously probably one of the most Christlike people I have ever met! She runs two local charities here in town and doesn't have a lot of family. We started off chatting about missionary work and what we do as missionaries, then we decided to do a Book Of Mormon read with her. We read 3 Nephi 11 together and the sprit was so strong. We discussed baptism and the trinity and so many things that came up in the chapter as we went along. Towards the end of the chapter Sister Lusk tied it into prophets and from there we were able to teach the entire first lesson. This was by far one of the most powerful and spiritual lessons I have ever attended. I felt the spirit speaking through me and Sister Lusk. I can remember as I said the first vision the clearest thought came reaffirming to me the Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, that he translated the Book Of Mormon, and that my message is 100% true. We set up a return lesson and found out she doesn't actually live in our area, but I know we were supposed to meet Courtney today. It reaffirmed to me how much I love being a missionary, how much I love to teach, and how much strength can come through the power of the Holy Ghost. We finished our day driving up to the Just One Project and teaching English classes. Then we were able to enjoy mutual with the young woman where we got absolutely destroyed in the Meme game. All in all one of the best days, it really boosted my moral and felt so nice to finally have someone looking after me after looking out for so many Sisters my whole mission. God knows when we've reached the end of our stick that's for sure. 

Thursday: You know that awkward moment when you plan your day, make goals and then literally nothing goes according to plan? That was today for us. We accomplished so many good things, but none of them were in our schedule. We ended up having everything we planed can el, but something else came up instead. We have loved getting to visit sisters in the Branch and were able to report our hard work the the SS (Sociedad de Socorro/Relief Society) they were do excited to see who has potential in rejoining the flock and are so excited about missionary work. All in all a crazy driving filled day, but we got a lot of laundry list items done so we could grind this weekend. 

Friday: Today was session 4 of my plan. I always said once missionaries started my plan, especially the Elders, they started getting really weird. Like this awkward personality shift. Well, I'm sad to announce that I think the weirdness has occurred. I think it's because you feel this weird desire to go all our while at the same time wanting to just fall over and take a nap. I think of it like the sprint at the end of the race. You're literally pushing so hard through the longest marathon of you life and you kind of just do weird stuff. My and Sister Milla have been having a good time though and she's definitely been cheering me on, on this weird sprint that I have going on. We were able to visit a few families from the branch today and had awesome conversation with both of them. Then we knocked some doors and were able to get in contact with several ladies the the SS didn't know which was awesome. We ended the night with language study and went to bed at 9:10 the only people that do that are newbies and oldies so it worked out perfect for us. 

Saturday: We literally grinded so hard today. We started out with contacting everyone we knew to invite them to the ward party. Then we knocked 15 inactive members doors in 2 hours which was a feat to be accomplished. Then we took a small break for shakes at In and Out purchase thanks to my awesome grandparents, and then headed over to a lesson with the Capdivilla family. They are a PMF and we did an awesome object lesson with a PB and J sandwich where Sister Milla followed the kids instructions exactly. It was quite entertaining and involved some sticky hands. We were able to have have amazing chat with the mom afterwards and are hoping to see her back at church soon. 

Sunday: Wowzah what a week. Sunday we didn't have any friends at church sadly, but we were able to set up lots of appointments and even scored a dinner with the Ballards tonight. They always make the best food and I love their kind spirit. We went to young woman's today and I was able to bear my testimony of family history and the importance of knowing your ancestors. It was a cool time and I think a lot of the Young Women are going to go find some ancestors tonight. As I'm writing this email i can't help but think that there are so many people cheering us on, on both sides of the veil. Keep on keeping on, there are people waiting to help you. 

All in all I love you guys and I hope you enjoy some of our fun pictures from the week. Bonus fact, Sister Milla is from Guatemala and made us the most amazing tacos Guatemalan style and of my goodness I'm never going back. I love all the amazing cultures you get to find on a mission in Vegas.

Semana 68 La Sombra/Hillpointe:

 Buenos Días mis amigos! I have had a pretty normal week but luckily we had Easter so I'm excited. 

Monday: Monday Monday, so good to meeee. I love pdays, our dinner ended up canceling so we ended up going to Chickfila and contacting while we ate super quick. Then we had a zoom lesson with Romina and she is the best! Moroni 7 is one of my favorite chapters and we were able to read it together. 

Tuesday: We started off the day with DC and decided to do a contacting competition on who could knock the most doors and you got more points if you got in and taught a lesson and it ended up being super fun. The rest of the day did not go as planned, so it was kind of a weird day but we got a lot of fun things done. We had a good time doing studies and trying to make the most out of canceled lessons. 

Wednesday: We spent a good chunk of our morning trying to fix Sister Milla's phone which took forever. Then, we went to Beatrice's house and were able to teach her a lesson, sadly we aren't sure if she's willing to change but we were excited to teach. Then we jumped to packing for this lady named Pamela who is a little bit of a hoarder so that was a hoot. Then we drove all the way to HandUp to find out that they are not having class which was super sad, so we picked up some meds for our roommate who was sick this week and tried to be an amazing service oriented companionship. 

Thursday: We started the day with Reese's Pieces and our Huddle for LaSombra which was super fun and very long..... so then we went off for our first weekly planning and learned so many things. We also knocked several doors to try and get some points for our competition. We finished the day off at the Farrar's house for dinner. 

Friday: Today we had both T&MT and My Plan in which we stayed at the church building for a very long time and then we knocked so many doors my knuckles are bruised and yet we are still losing the competition..... :( we had such a good day and finished it off with some language study dinner with the Witbeck family and contacting on the phone. 

Saturday: Honestly nothing much to write home about today! Just more knocking and contacting and good old fashioned missionary work. 

Sunday: Easter is so happy! CHRIST LIVES, I have loved the video the church put out about Mary Magdalene and her drive to run to share the good news. We all need that drive to share the amazing news of the restored gospel. I love Christ and I've loved my mission. We had dinner with Sister Maynez and she cooked the most amazing food. Then we headed over the the Ogden's for dessert. We finished the day with calling home and studies. Sadly none of our friends came to church again but we will get them this week. Love you all! I'll write a better email next week I promise.

Semana 67 La Sombra/Hillpointe: How to become Latina 101

Ok, today is gonna be an interesting email because I wasn't in my area for 4 days and got a new companion! We will hear all about it so let's get started! 

Monday: Today I got to be in a trio with Sister Tveten and Elmer which was seriously SUCH A PARTY. I love Sister Tveten and Sister Elmer and I think super similarly and and had such a fun time. We went to this cute French pastry place and got fruit tart croissants and man. Life changing. We also got to go to the cutest hole in the wall place called Antojitos you can't can't find it on Google maps so that's how you know it's ghetto and local aka the best food. All in all we had a fabulous pday and really lived up Sister Tveten's last day in the mission. 

Tuesday: Today I spent the whole day in Pennwood which was a blast, but we came back to Summerlin for dinner because porque no? Basically Sister Elmer and I became best friends in 2r hours and had the most fun ever. It really helped me get out of my weird funk and got is both hyped up to train. We taught some cool people and got to use our Spanish which was super nice. 

Wednesday: I swear today me and Sister Elmer were just nesting hard core for our babies to get here. We cleaned and prepped and organized to our hearts content. It was really tender and we were getting so excited to meet our new companions. At 5pm we finally got to meet them and I got Sister Milla! She is half Guatemalan and half White and she is fluent in Spanish! Huge tender mercy because she has already helped me so much in the Spanish department and I can't wait to continue to grow. She is confident and sassy so I think we will get along great. Tonight we unpacked, got groceries, and did a lesson and a dinner and that was about it! Pretty good night if I do say so myself. 

Thursday: Orientation day! Kinda like correlation day but not quite as exciting. We spent forever and a half being oriented in the mission but, bonus I got to hang out with Sister Elmer and Susman and it was a blast. Sister Milla got a ton of her questions answered and it was super informational. We finished the night helping out at a primary waster activity which was a blast and a half. Then off to dinner and correlation with Brother Ogden. It was good to meet some more people in the ward and we had a grand old time wandering to streets of Vegas. 

Friday: I had the infamous My Plan today which was nothing short of entertaining..... I don't know about that but, it was definitely informational. We had a good time and then it was off to do some good old fashioned tracting. We grinded out so many doors and on our last one we got bashed for about 30 minutes.... Sister Milla is already experiencing the joys of being "persecuted all day long" ~Elder Ballard. We ended the day with dinner at Sister Ballard's house and finding more inactive hermanas. 

Saturday: We started the day off with studies and then headed out to lunch with the Cruz family. Then we rushed off to a baptism of one of the ladies the Elders are teaching to help lead the music. Then we had a quick lesson with Luz and her kiddos and she was so funny today. Then it was off to more door knocking and cup bop for dinner which is a spicy Korean place. Sister Milla loves spicy and is the first comp I have ever had who likes spicy food so that is a success. All in all a successful day. 

Sunday: I got to lead the music today in the branch which was a weird experience because no one picks a tempo so trying to lead was an absolute nightmare. But, it was fun at the same time. We barely made it to the end of our English ward because we had to stay for the whole sacrament meeting and it ran 20 minutes late!!..... Luckily we made it and were able to meet a ton of people and set up lots of appointments. We ended the day with studies, dinner with the Soderburg family and a lesson with Sister Maynez who is so kind and we had a really good time charlando en Español. 

I'm loving my last transfer and just soaking up everything I can! Keep me updated on your lives! Love you all. Sorry there's not a lot of photos.... I will repent and do better next week... ;) 

Goodbye Elder and Sister Smith

Goodbye Sister Tveten

Semana 66 La Sombra/Hillpointe: More fit for the kingdom part two, my plan and my last transfer call.

Wow! So much happened this week! So many cool new things and experiences. First off, I got my final transfer call of the mission which is so sad/happy/scary/exciting to think about. I will be staying in my area and training a new missionary! The even better part is that I get to be roommates with Sister Lusk and Shannon and they will be in La Sombra with me as STL's! I love both of them and am excited to get to train a new missionary. I am not longer an STL, but after a few prayers I'm actually excited for the break. Being in leadership is fun, but it's a ton of work, and honestly a little bit lonely. So, all in all, I'm excited for the new changes. 

Monday: The 5K was today and was so much fun! We had a blast with our friends and it reminded me I am NOT in shape anymore. After the 5K we made bracelets with Sister Ballard and her handmade glass beads. It was super cool and we loved being artistic. We finished off the day with a fabulous dinner with the Anderson family and some HandUp ad management. We only had to take like a 45 minute drive home because literally all the way home was blocked off with flares and there were 3 crashes in very inconvenient places, so that took up a good chunk of our night. 

Tuesday: Honestly not a ton to write home about, except that I thought my mission would help me to like dogs and be more comfortable with them, but unfortunately it has done the opposite. I dislike them even more now... At our dinner tonight they have these two huge dogs and I swear I have whiplash from being jumped on so many times. I guess I'll have to be the bad guy when my kiddos ask me for a dog one day. 

Wednesday: Today we had correlation with the Branch which is always a party and then sadly my dress ripped so a quick pit stop home and then off to do language study. After our study we decided to talk in Spanish for the rest of the day and totally killed it! We ended up having a blast and feeling comfortable in Spanish is just such a good feeling. We finished our night with the usual English class, and mutual for a quick minute at La Sombra which we made these adorable pillows with the youth! 

Thursday: Today was rough.... literally all our appointments canceled so we spent most of the day doing studies or planning. Luckily the weather was absolutely beautiful and we spent most of our day outside and enjoying to 80 weather with the beautiful sun and cool breeze. We had a blast! 

Friday: Today I had my very first My Plan meeting! Crazy town! It is a course that helps set you up for life after the mission and I am excited to see what I learn and how I grow. It's like having a free life coach. After that we did studies, knocked some doors, and ended off with some dinner at this cute old ladies house and man.... I was so gross. I am not that picky but this was pretty bad. All in all a great day and we got to have a great gospel conversation with a Jewish person which was pretty cool. To end we finished the day with FHE at the Paz families house and they have the cutest kiddos with LOTS of energy. 

Saturday/Sunday: Conference we had at several different members houses and were able to watch 3 in Spanish! It was a great opportunity to practice and realize I know more Spanish than I think which is always nice. Conference on the mission is like a big holiday where you get to relax and receive personal revelation. So many amazing talks and I loved how much the importance of missionary work was emphasized. Let me know what your Conference insights were!!