Birthday parties🥳 & dinner galore😯

October 25, 2021

 Well this last Monday we didn't do very much. We went shopping and prepped for Hna. Marvin’s birthday. I bought her a jumanji board game, so hopefully that will be fun. Later that night, we went and visited Luz and her family. It was a fun lesson with a puzzle to represent the Apostasy. 

On Tuesday we had our DCM. It went really well. For lunch, we ate at a place called Broncos Mexican Restaurant. It was pretty good. I got a chimichanga. Then we went and visited some people. One wasn't interested and the other answered the door holding her naked child. That was pretty funny. We met a lady named Milvian. She is just the absolute sweetest. We sang her a song with the ukulele and she opened right up. She wants to learn more about God and English. She has the cutest daughter. Afterwards, we went to Colecio’s house for dinner. Hna. Colecio fed us Tinga. I love that stuff! It is chicken with this red juice/sauce over a tostada with sour cream and lettuce. We taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and hopefully their 8 yr old daughter will get baptized soon. Before English class that night, we stopped by this one house. We were set up a lesson with this one guy and then his friend came over. His friend wanted to do one as well. There was a heavy blanket of awkwardness during this whole thing. Later that night, I made two pies. I got out some frustration after an interesting call with Esteban. He is very confused and doesn't know what he wants. 

We went and visited Doris on Wednesday. It was a really good lesson and the spirit was strong. It was cool to see Hna. Marvin progress in her teaching skills. Then we went and visited Caren and her family. It had been a little while since we had been in touch. They let us right in and invited us to their giant birthday party. As we were teaching, Angel (the husband) told us that he wants to get baptized! We are so excited to help him. After this our day fell apart for about two hours. We needed gas, wrong turns were taken, and people are psychotic drivers here. Hna. Hanson couldn’t take it anymore, while Hna. Marvin and I are cracking up hysterically watching this. We got ice cream from a place called Hounis, a Little Caesar Pizza, and finally gas. After that we went and had a pretty good lesson with Bella. She is having a hard time. She is ready to be baptized but doesn’t understand the word of wisdom fully. Jerlinson and Natalie invited us over again. It has been cool to see them reach out to us and invite us over. We are hoping that they will accept more of the things that we teach. Jerlinson gave us another one of his coconut things. Natalie said his favorite things all include some form of coconut and I’m not surprised. It was actually good. Then we went to visit Marla and Martin. Marla is a member and we have been trying to meet Martin who is not. Bro. Bright tagged along with us and the lesson went great. We got to know them much better. This weird looking cricket interrupted the lesson. All six of our legs went up at the same time.

On Thursday, we went over and had a lesson with David. He had been asking for another apple pie and he kept his no drinking coffee for a week plus challenge. So Wednesday night I made him a pie and it took FOREVER! It turned out delicious because I made a couple adjustments from the time before. He was super happy and gave us hot chocolate to drink with it. He wants to be baptized sooo bad. We are setting up a time for him to meet with President Monson. Afterwards, we went over to Milvian’s house again. We did a really good Bible study. We taught her some English. Hna. Hanson was nice and gave Ashley (her 10 yr. old daughter) some art supplies. Then we went and visited Lucero. One of the babies was laying on the couch right next to me. He kept kicking me with his feet. I started to play peekaboo with his blanket and he loved it. Over a couple of minutes he was laughing and normally he is silent. I just want to hold all these cute Hispanic babies. For dinner, the Mejias fed us this meat dish with rice. It was really good. I was having a hard time finishing that. Then they gave us a tamale and this pecan pudding stuff. I left very full. After we taught English Class, we taught Daniel. We taught him about the priesthood and it's organizations. The longest part of my day was the hour-long call. He called us and just kept going and going. I was so exhausted by the end.  

Friday was Hna. Marvin’s birthday!! We had such a fun time. For breakfast we had blueberry muffins. She wanted Arbys for lunch. The Arbys that we went to first wasn't even done being constructed so we drove to another one. The lobby was closed… but we found a really cute park to eat in. It had ducks, geese, a big pond, a bridge, and a gazebo😍. We ate and I just wanted to stay there all day. The trees out here are starting to change colors and I am so excited!! I remember how beautiful it was last year. Some of the trees are turning red and purple! Afterwards, we went to see Hermana Zapata. We told her we didn't have time to eat. When we walked in the table was set. We ate dinner with her and Gloria. Hna. Zapata told us that she is going to come to church again! After that, we had our actually dinner with the Mellors. They fed us French toast, bacon, eggs, hash browns, grapes, oranges etc.. For dessert we ate ice cream. They are just the cutest family ever. Very loud and fun children. It reminded me of growing up. There was show and tell, dress up, and 3 unexpected hugs from their middle child. He wanted to keep my watch and charm bracelet. Afterwards, we raced over to our lesson with Reyna and Luis. They gave us three carne asada tacos. We taught them about prayer and set up another lesson. They said we are going to have pan dulce and hot chocolate this time. Throughout the day we ate SO much. I felt like I had gained 10 pounds and I probably had. We went to bed very very full.

We went out to lunch with Macario on Saturday (We didn’t eat breakfast because we were still full!). He finally got home from Tennessee. He came dressed very nicely. When we walked in the hostess didn't see my companions so she asked, "party for 2?" Very quickly I said, "4 people!!"😅 We ate Mexican food of course. Macario ate a really spicy pepper and was sweating the whole time (and he said it wasn't hot, sure). We gave him a Book of Mormon and explained it to him. Then we went to two Mexican birthday parties. We went to Caren’s first. Anthony is turning 8 years old soon and Ashlyn is turning 12. It was awesome. They did it in Doris’s house and the living room was covered in decorations. They were playing Shrek 2, loud music and they had a disco ball. We ate tamales, rice, and some other things for dinner. They honestly brought enough food to feed 50-75 people. We gave the kids their presents and they got so excited. Never underestimate the power of chips, chocolate, and a picture of Jesus. Then, we went to the birthday party for Hermana Ramirez’s sister-in-law (the lady who told me to smash Sally’s face in the cake). We had to leave for futbol night for an hour. I kicked the ball around and star-gazed for a minute. After that, we drove back to the party and ate dinner again. We had tacos with chicken, rice, and beans. Dessert was a giant piece of tres leches cake. We drove home full (like the day before😂).

Yesterday went really well. I translated sacrament meeting and that was interesting. I wonder how much the people understood what I was saying. David, Daniel and Hermana Zapata came. During the sacrament I was really sad. These two families had told us they were coming and they didn’t. I just want everyone to receive all the blessings that they can. Afterwards, we went and had a lesson with Esteban. We aren't going to visit him for 2-3 weeks so he can figure out what he wants. Then we went and visited a lady named Irlanda with Hna. Rosas. I could not for the life of me understand what she was saying. Maybe it was a consequence of my food coma from the days before. Hna. Marvin was fighting to stay awake during it. Hna. Hanson and I talked after how we both didn’t understand. Later, we went and visited a guy named Jesus. He was really nice. We followed him from Walmart to his apartment in our car. It was gated so he had to let us in. What started as us thinking we were just teaching him changed to teaching him and his 3 cousins. They were waiting outside because they forgot their keys to get in. It went really well and we are going back next week. They said they are going to make us tacos. Turns out, one of the guys went to an English class three months back when we had first gotten here. We didn’t remember him… a little awkward. After that we went and visited someone else. It was even more awkward! They were eating at a table outside. We asked them what they like to do and the sister said be borrachos. That was hilarious. We taught them about prayer and are going back. We don’t know how interested they actually are.

 

I wanted to share with you all the study that we did with Milvian. We read Matthew 4:17-20. It is when Jesus is calling some of his 12 apostles and they are out fishing. In verse 17 the first words that Christ said in his ministry were, "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Repentance is the process of us becoming better people and more like Christ. Some of the questions I thought of while reading 18-20 were: What are some of our nets? What can we do to leave them behind and follow Jesus Christ? I just want to invite you all to think about this. I need to do it too. :)

¡Les quiero! ¡Espero que tengan una semana muy buena!😊

 

Here are some pictures!:

Miracles & Elote

 Well hello again!

This last Monday was super fun! We had a zone p-day at a park. We played kickball, soccer, and ultimate frisbee. I accidentally kicked a ball right where my giant bruise is still. Needless to say, it has turned back purple and I’ll probably have it for the rest of my mission. Later that night we went and visited Luz and her family. Mia, her daughter, is finally warming up to us and joined the lesson. (I have been helping her with reading and writing sentences for the past couple of weeks.) We talked about the Atonement and did a little object lesson. We used water in a bowl, dumped pepper on it, and then dropped dishwasher soap in it. The soap moves the pepper outwards and down. We related the water to us, the pepper to sin, and the soap to Jesus Christ. Through him we can push our sins away and become a better person.

Tuesday we had our DCM and it went really well. We talked about something I love… CHARITY! The gospel of Jesus Christ is love. True Christianity is love in action. How do we manifest that love to God? By showing love to others. We did an activity where we changed “charity” to “Christ” in Moroni 7: 45-46. I loved the last part of 46 it said, “Wherefore, cleave unto Christ (charity), which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail-” I am trying to become better at this in my life. Something I’ve learned is the importance of serving others. It isn’t always easy to do. People aren’t nice sometimes. No matter how many times you do something, you never get a thank you and lots of other things. All that doesn’t matter. We serve others and have charity because we love God. I just want to invite you all to cleave/hold onto Christ and charity. After that, we went and ate lunch at Lil Piggies BBQ. It was really good. I got a BBQ pulled pork sandwich, fries, and corn on the cob. Then we drove up to Gaffney and taught a lesson to Esteban. We taught him about living prophets and Hna. Rosas pretty much taught most of the lesson. It was what he needed. Later that night, we taught English Class. We met a lady named Crystal, who wants to come to church! We are excited to see how that goes. 

We had exchanges on Wednesday!! I finally got to go to Columbia. It was super awesome and I learned a lot. I went with Hermana Oyler and Eubanks. We went and visited some people and sang with their ukulele. (I might end up buying one because Hna. Maxfield left and took hers, and Hna. Hanson is going home soon with hers.) Singing really does bring the spirit and touches peoples’ hearts. We got to their apartment and had a late lunch. I attempted to learn how to play the flute. It is a lot harder than it looks! It takes some lung power. For dinner we went to this place called Manny’s. We got elotes and mexican shaved ice. It was awesome. Elotes are the corn with chili powder. The, “Get that corn outta my face,” corn from Nacho Libre. Both things were delicious and I can’t wait to get them again! Then we went and taught this cute family. We played down by the banks and the kids loved it. To end the night, we got free hot chocolate from their gym and drank it while we told stories.

Thursday morning, we exchanged back and went to a late lunch with Daniel. He is someone we are teaching english and the gospel. He is just the sweetest. He took us to his two favorite places. We got Huaraches for lunch and then ice cream for dessert. Huaraches are pretty much giant sopes with beans, steak, and avocados. I would definitely recommend eating it. Then we had dinner with the Mejias. Don’t eat a late lunch and then early dinner, it doesn’t go well. I could hardly eat anything and knew if I ate more I would definitely throw up. Eric looked at us and said, “What do you think you are doing? You know wasting food is frowned upon down here.” It was hilarious. Hna. Mejia being the sweetie she is, let us take our leftovers with us. Afterwards, we had a Relief Society activity. We made trees with hot glue on a canvas and then painted over it. We tried to finish it really fast because English Class was right after. Daniel stayed after and we taught him about living prophets! 

We were able to go and visit Lucero on Friday. It had been a couple weeks since we had seen her. We also taught them about living prophets. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We had prophets in ancient times, so wouldn’t it make sense to have a prophet today. After that, we weekly planned and went to Hna. Zapatas house. She made us Spaghetti, patacones, salad, and garlic bread. We invited her to church and she said she would try to come. Then we had a lesson with Doris and her daughter. After, we zoomed over to this member. Her name is Maria. She is super adorable. She had this cancer so she has a tube in her throat now. She can’t talk, but can mouth words. Reading lips in Spanish is super hard, but we were able to get the gist. I asked her if she wanted the sacrament brought to her and she said she wanted to go to church. She was able to go! 

On Saturday, we went and visited Brother Bright. He is doing better everyday. He gave us ice cream and played us his harmonica. He can’t wait to help us in lessons with his Spanish that he learned on his mission a long time ago. We went and had a lesson with David. He is doing really well. He hasn’t drank coffee in two weeks, so we will be making him an apple pie. Then we went and played fútbol. It was freezing and I re-bruised my ankle yet again. It ended up being good because I was able to talk to someone about the difference between churches and temples and a lot of other things. The climax of our night was our Circle K lesson with Wilson. We had just had Wendys for dinner at 8:40pm and drove straight there. It was freezing outside, so he bought us hot chocolate. The guy at the cash register offered us a job because we speak and understand Spanish. We taught our lesson as we sipped the hot coco.

Sunday was great! Daniel, Bella, and David came to church. Hna. Zapata was able to come! When I saw her walk in I about cried. I have been praying for miracles and that was one. It made me so happy! After that, we went and taught Johany, Emilio, and their family. We brought them cookies, and I have never seen 9 cookies disappear so fast. They promised us that they are going to come to church next week! They are super awesome! We went to have a lesson with Luis and he wasn’t there. It made me laugh because he asked us if we would actually be there and he wasn’t. His sister Reyna invited us over for tacos on Hna. Marvin’s birthday on the 22nd. Afterwards, we went over to Bella’s house. She got a priesthood blessing and will hopefully receive the things she is needing right now. 

Here’s the link to the video we watched in a couple of lessons. It is super good and you all should watch it! 

The Will of God

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/video/inspirational-messages/2012-01-014-the-will-of-god?lang=eng

Here's some pictures!:

Rain Dancing from Hermana Lott

 Oct 11, 2021

Last Monday we didn’t really do much, but I got a haircut! It was very needed. Then we went to Bojangles. It is more common here than McDonalds. It was all right. It was a milestone I had to have in my life. Afterwards, we went and visited Bella. She gave us this cookie cake with fruit. The cookies soak up milk… so soggy, but it was really good. 

On Tuesday it was raining so much! (My umbrella, boots, and raincoat are being put to use.) Then we had DCM but it was a bit different. It was us five sisters running it because everyone else was gone at another meeting. We split the blackboard into two and wrote good things on one side and bad on the other. There were so many more good things than bad. When we focused on the bad, we started to feel worse even though we had this bigger list of good. When we focus on the good, how little it may be, we can be so much happier. We can be grateful in any circumstances. After that, we had a lesson with David. He gave us each a painted card. He explained mine  that it represents how I am always sharing (the flowers strewn on the ground). It made us all happy that he took the time to do that. Then we went up to Esteban’s for a lesson with Hna. Rosas. It went really well and we had more animals join us. Esteban earlier had called bambi a borracha and I didn’t believe him. During the lesson I look over as she shoves her face into a beer can and drinks it!! At least the puppies didn’t do that. Later, we had a lesson with Maria and Diego. We played “don’t eat pedro” with him and explained the importance of church, scriptures, and prayer. It was super cute and they loved it. Something gross is that I found a cockroach in my bed that night.  

Wednesday morning it was still raining, but this time even more. We went out and danced in our little parking lot river. For an earlier dinner that day we went to the Mejias. It was a surprise from them. We got to eat pupusas and then learn how to make them. It was super fun! Their dinners are turning into cooking lessons. Hna. Mejia said the students have become the masters. After that, we had a lesson with Jerlinson. They contacted us and asked us to come over again. We are hoping they are interested and are ready to keep learning. Then, we went and sang a song to Bella to help her feel better. We read 2 Nephi 22:2 with her. It says, “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation." I love this scripture because it is so true. I know that I don’t have to be afraid. I trust that everything will be all right. He is always with me and He gives me strength. When ever you feel alone just remember this scripture. :)  The climax of the night was we did two lessons at once. I was doing a phone call lesson and then Macario called. So they taught him while I kept going with the phone call. During that call I caught two roaches. Straight after I found three more in the bathroom. Hna. Marvin was just cracking up as I was trying to kill them with our cleaner. Throughout the rest of the week we killed two more. You would think that our apartment is not clean.

 

On Thursday, we had a lesson with David again. It went great and at the end he told us he would do anything for another apple pie. So we told him if he doesn’t drink coffee for a week, we (meaning me) will make him one. Afterwards, we drove all the way up to Gaffney to do Esteban’s baptismal interview. We were 30 minutes late because of rain and traffic. We did it over video call and we expected everything to go well… it didn’t. We were really caught off guard. Please send prayers for Esteban, so he can have a stronger testimony. We decided to postpone his baptism for a week or even longer. Then to make the day even better, all of our lessons canceled. So we went to Popeyes for dinner and then taught English Class. Alex was the only one that showed up. We taught about weather and I think I learned more than he did. 

I can’t remember if it was Friday or not but in the morning I heard this loud knock on the door. I went and opened it and this lady said our keys were in the door. Hermana Hanson forgot them overnight. I think this is the second time that this has happened. Hence this picture down below. Then we went and had our interviews with President Monson. I was in there for 30 minutes which is way longer than usual. We were figuring out things to help our area. After that we came home for lunch and to plan for our week. Hermana Marvin did a rendition of Napoleon Dynamite’s dance and it was hilarious. All of our lessons canceled again, but Macario’s and Daniel’s lesson. They went great. They have come to church and love learning! We are super excited to help teach them and bring them closer to Christ!

Saturday afternoon we went to another funeral. Brother Bright’s wife passed away. It was a really nice service with beautiful music. Brother Bright has told us that he can’t wait to come out and help us teach people even though he is going through this. There are so many wonderful and amazing people out here. To keep up the pattern of the end of this week, all of our lesson canceled again but Esteban’s. A good thing that happened is we finally saw Rene at fútbol night. He wants to be taught and come to church!

We had Spanish Testimony meeting on Sunday. It was super amazing. I was scared that we wouldn’t have anyone there like last time, but we had 30 people there! Maria came with her baby and Bella drove her. Esteban, Daniel, and David came as well! We went and visited Johany after church and sang a song to this guy with a ukulele. We went and taught Bella about church, praying, and reading the scriptures. We emphasized the sacrament because it is the most important part of sacrament meeting. We renew our covenants and we remember Jesus Christ and what he did for us. Right after that, we also had another lesson with Macario. He told us he is so grateful that we are helping him. After that, I taught an english class over video while Hna. Marvin finished prepping our late night Cheez-it Chicken. We are now going to start teaching this guy english and about the gospel!

During my study this week something that really stood out is the small and simple things. Alma 37:6 says, "...by small and simple things are great things brought to pass." This phrase is repeated many times throughout the Book of Mormon. I have seen this as I have been away from home. Doing the small things that we think are insignificant is so important. For example, reading the scriptures, going to church, praying, little acts of service, giving more of yourself to God, etc. I know that doing these things and more will bring blessings. I have seen them come to me. I want to invite you all to think of a small thing you can do. I promise it will help and you will see a change. :)

Here are some pictures!: