1-20-2014: Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Hello Family!

 

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!  You must be getting old, huh? haha Just kidding :)  I hope you get lots of running in so that you can properly enjoy a large amount of cake and goodies. 

 

TRANSFER NEWS:  I am officially Staying in Hurst for another transfer!  At the end of these 6weeks, I will have officially been in this area for 7 and a half months!  That's a long time, but I absolutely LOVE it here so I can't complain :)

 

Business meeting:  Yes, I did get my new drivers license!  Thank you so much for getting that done for me!

 

This week was a great one, of course!  The Lord really loves us, we see so much that when we make goals and have faith in those goals, then the Lord will provide for us and put us in the places that we need to be so that we can fulfill those goals and plans. 

 

We saw B and A again this week, they made us Abuelita's hot chocolate and we brought Hermana Carreon who made EMPANADAS but like super legit ones with Pineapple and Grape jelly.  Soooooooooo I'll be getting fat this transfer.  Doesn't the average Sister Missionary gain like 30 pounds on her mission?  Don't worry, it's for the Lord.  I love food.  Also: B's still on date for the 22nd of February.  We're so excited for her!

On a less exciting note: N and E will have to be postponing their wedding-baptism party this weekend.  They're dealing with some legal issues (papers) that would be easier to be resolved without them getting married.  We're trying to help them figure out how to make it work and such, but they still have TONS of faith and we love them SO much, so we keep them in just about every prayer we say.  Something I've realized after being a missionary for 6 months is that your heart opens up and doubles in size.  It is insane how much love I have for these people.  I love it. 

 

This Saturday we'll have a super awesome conference with President Ames and all the Spanish Ward/Stake leadership to figure out how we can increase baptisms in the Spanish speaking community.  Man, my mission president is the best!  He is just recieving revelation up the wazoo of what we can do to improve our Spanish abilities (language wise and baptism wise!)  I'm super excited. 

 

AAAAND we went to the doctor today because Hermana Gwynn hurt her ankle in her last area and wanted to see if it had been healing well, and so it turns out that she has a stress fracture in her ankle...oops!  She has been walking/running on it and it hasn't been hurting except for a little bit so she had no idea...We'll be going to a specialist to see what to do next, but for now she's got a great attitude and a stylish looking medical boot to keep her ankle stable.  :) 

 

Have fun for the next couple months doing all your ward visists for Ward Conference and such, Mom!  Nice and busy, but a good kind of busy, I'm sure.  Bummer that Jeremy still has some complications with his visa!  Hopefully that will be resolved soon.  Or maybe the Lord just needs him in Texas for a little bit longer...Quien sabe.

I am really sorry to hear about Tyler N.  It's never easy to hear about the death of a friend.  I'm glad that Nat is finding peace throughout this trial and I will keep him and Tyler's family in my prayers.  Lately we've been dealing with the question lately of "why is there so much suffering in the world?"  My conclusion through prayer and reading the Book of Mormon is pretty much what you said, Mom, and what Father Ryan said.  We have our agency and that is an important gift that God needed us to have.  Sometimes, people misuse their agency to hurt themselves or the ones around them, but we know that this life is nothing but a tiny dot in the line of eternity.  Right now, Tyler is learning more and more about the love that God has for him and he's finding answers to questions that may have troubled his mind.  Thank goodness we have the plan of salvation to give us guidance and peace in our lives.  Many times, I don't know why certain things happen, none of us do, but I do know that God loves us and he wants the best for us. 

 

I hope y'all have a great week this week and know that I love you all SOOOOO much!  Thank you so much for all that you do and your testimonies. 

 

Con amor,

Hermana Sangre

 

1-13-2014: Sometimes, we look for service opportunities so that we can feel apostate and wear pants....

Just kidding, we look for service opportunities because we LOVE SERVICE!

 

But the reality is that I feel apostate every time I put on my jeans....Which is hardly ever, but it does happen!

 

This week we spent a lot of time with E and N, who are GETTING MARRIED ON MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!  Can you say best birthday present ever?! Then N is going to get baptized the next day!  So E is a member and N is an investigator and they are moving into this mobile home that needs a toooooooooon of fixing up to do, so we've been going over to help her paint and on Saturday all of the missionaries and some of the people from Elders Quorum went over to help them with their remodeling stuff and it was SO FUN! We took out their floor, and cleaned the walls so they could be painted and scrubbed all sorts of kitchen stuff, it was pretty successful.  There's still a ton to do so we'll be going back in a week to put in their new floor and such.

*sometimes, da memberss let us do service.  Ees da beeeeest* <--my best Nacho Libre impression? hmm.....

 

 

We also have been teaching this really cool kid named E.  He has been in the U.S for about a year and he works 2 jobs, so it's really hard to teach him more than once a week, but he is SO golden!  He has tons of great questions and he's basically already living the Word of Wisdom so he's practically mormon already...haha but really, he's legit.  We're excited to see how things go with him.

 

AND we have been talking with la familia S (we thought their last name was C, but that is actually the mom's maiden name...whoops.  Good thing they finally corrected us!) and they came to church last week and their kids LOVED primary and participated and we're pretty convinced that they're gonna get baptized and then she'll be called to Relief Society Presidency and he'll be EQ President.  So it's no big deal.

 

B y A are doing great!  B is still good to get baptized the 22nd of Febuary and we're going to eat empanadas and Hot chocolate with them and Hermana Carreon this thursday, so that's gonna be dope.

 

Teaching lots of people, having tons of fun, it's just awesome to be a missionary!

 

Oh, the Gamboa family are members!  Hermano just got called to be one of the assistants to the obra misional and they are super awesome.

 

I'm glad things have been going well at home!  Have a fun trip in the Netherlands, Dad!  And I hope Nat's procedure goes well, and that will be fun for when Caleb and Michele get to officialy move to LA!  Also, Mom, it sounds like you don't have enough on your plate--you need to take up some kind of time-consuming hobby, like quilt-making or miniature ship building. :)

 

The weather has been pretty nice lately, low 60's and mostly sunny with some wind, so nothing I can't handle (after all, I already survived that sick-nasty ice storm)!  But Hopefully y'all will get some rain in california instead of water conservation stuff (the phrase comes to mind "If its yellow, let it mellow.  If it's brown, flush it down"....eww. I regret typing that.) Good thing I'm not home right now to take super long showers! :) haha

 

For the Birthday box, I'm good on mascara and scarves, and I bought a mini Spanish himnal in the MTC, but maybe some cute earrings and a hat or two from my winter box?  Nothing I really need comes to mind.  And Transfers are officially the 22nd of January, so I'll know next monday if I'm staying or going. 

 

Thanks so much for the updates and I love you all so much!

Con amor,

Hermana Sangre

1-6-2014: Happy (Officially!) New Year!!!

Buenas tardes, familia!

Well...this week was an awesome week!  (of course, I'm a missionary, so every week is awesome!)  Unfortunately, it's like approximately zero degrees outside (give or take zero degrees...slash it's really 20 degrees.) But that's ok because we have a car with a working heater! And it's probably way colder in Utah or something...But annnnyways...

We had INTERVIEWS with President this past week!  I looove interviews.  President Ames is way cool and super inspired.  We talked alot about making goals and things of that nature and he challenged us all to make goals in 5 categories for this year: Spiritual, Physical, Mental, Intellectual, and Social.  Some of my goals for this year are to know the scriptures better and to be fluent in Spanish, among others.  Goals are awesome.

Unfortunately, I can't remember all the 500 things that I wanted to tell y'all about this week, because I totally left my planner in the apartment (d'ough! Homer Simpson...?  anyone?) buuuuuut from what I can remember, this week was just amazing and we taught a ton of people and saw B and A (B might be getting baptized this month!  We invited her to pray about it, and so she'll give us her answer tonight!) Also, I've started to read the Old Testament from the beginning....we'll see if I finish by the end of this year... :) haha

Mexican Food update for this week: I love food.  Of course.  :)  Yay for arroz y frijoles! 

This week just went by like a blur, sorry I don't have more updates for you!  But we're doing tons of work and it's been super fun and awesome and all that good stuff!

I love that quote from Joseph Fielding Smith, by the way!  And it's always so great to hear from you.  I'm glad that Jake is being super productive (keep the beard) and that Nat is getting ready to be a 2nd semester senior and that Mom and Dad are being asked to share their musical talents and whatnot (it sounds like Dad was actually the one to ASK to sing/volunteer for it...yes? yes. I'm glad you're watching lots of sports and hanging out and all that fun stuff, keep up the good work :)

And as for Karenna's mission prediction: I, too predict Fort Worth.  Don't worry, I'll be her trainer :)

I love you all soooo much!  And here are some pictures from the past little bit!

Me and Sister Gwynn, Christmas Eve in Hurst!

Bro & Sis Gamboa & family!

Love you sooooooo much!

Love,

Hermana Sangre