11-23-2014: Happy Early Thanksgiving!

Hello Beautiful Family!  

Business Meeting: Thanks for forwarding me that email about the apartments and whatnot.  

AND thanks for the Puppy Chow and the scarf and mints and mentos!  :) It is NEVER too early for Puppy Chow season.  Also.  I am currently wearing the scarf. 

This week was really great!  We had an exchange with our Sister Training Leaders and I lightweight abandoned Hermana Kofe as I left her in our area and went to an English ward for the day ;)  haha But Hermana Kofe did great, she's learning more spanish every day!  

We also had our ward Thanksgiving Party, it was a blast!  That day two investigators from some other elders in our ward got married, so the party ended up being a combination ward party/wedding reception and it was SO FUN. I wish I was Mexican so that I could legit go to their ward parties.  And that couple that got married is getting baptized this week, so it was even that much more awesome!  

We also contacted this super sweet referral from a member, and the member went with us to teach her.  She seems pretty open to our message.  We'll be teaching her tomorrow so stay tuned for more.  The bummer: her husband is giving her zero support, and he is her only ride places...so looks like we'll be coordinating a way to get her to church!  

We taught this OTHER super prepared referral from a member and he is like seriously searching for the truth.  We taught him and then he was like, "oh by the way, I'm moving back to mexico tomorrow" jaw drop.  Like, it's cool or whatever.  Sending missionaries to Mexico, no big deal.  

Interviews were this week.  President told me exactly how many days I had left in my mission, but I forgot how many it was.  I'm sure Mom's keeping a paper chain or something and counting down the days ;)

Played piano in sacrament again.  Fun stuff.

This week for Thanksgiving we've got 2 families that we'll be going to.  The Gamboa family (one of my FAVORITE families ever.  So great.  They're returning to activity and I love them lots.)  and the Franco family.  Little Gabby Franco is 16 and she's a super cute, sassy girl.  She comes with her 2 younger sisters to church basically every week with another member that gives them a ride, their Parents work a ton on Sundays, but they've invited us over for Thanksgiving!  yum.  Both said they'll be having Turkey, so it will probably come with a side of Rice and beans ;)  Don't worry, I've got some recipes that I'll be testing with y'all when I get home, but be prepared because just about EVERYTHING they make is fried at least once.  #healthy. yeah right. 

We haven't been able to see the P family this week, but for sure this week.  I'll let you know how it goes with them!  And E too, she is probably having her baby right now.  She was soooo pregnant.  

That's so cool to hear the update about Yuhan!  I hope things keep going well with her.  

Thanks for the Study Abroad app and the Spanish class.  REALLY appreciate it!  

Have a fun Thanksgiving!  Make sure to take pictures and to have fun (as if you need me to tell you...) hah  Don't get into too much trouble.  Tell Nat to follow his own advice, just once won't hurt. everyone's doing it blahblahblah :) 

Love you SO much

Hermanita Sangre

11-17-2014: What a week!

Beautiful family,

This week was quite the week, full of surprises and fun things!

Probably the highlight:  so it's getting cold.  (I think I've been converted to the heat....i'm ashamed to say it.)  And the other week someone rear-ended us (really minor, teeeeeeeny tiny dent in our trunk. AND not my fault, thank you :) so we had to take our car in to get it repaired, and the mission office was going to give us an old car to use for 2 weeks or so, so we drive our fancy newly-dented car to the auto shop and walk about 10 minutes in 40 degree weather (we were prepared with MANY layers) to the mission office to find out....IT WAS CLOSED.  It was right around the time that all the new missionaries were coming in and so all the office people were with them giving them training and such.........so we had to walk ALLL the way back to our car, sheepishly ask for our car back and drive back home.  

Then we got to do the same exact thing the next day, but this time the mission office was actually open :)  Hah.  Me and Hermana Kofe were just laughing the whole time, we felt so silly, but it was fun.  A good story, right?? hah that's what i'll tell myself...

Next highlight, our ward had a baby shower for this lady that just moved into the ward, her name is hna Galo and she is soooo cool.  She comes out with us about once a week and she's living with her inactive sister while hna Galo's husband is in Korea for the military.  So the cooool thing was that her sister (who isn't active) came to the baby shower and afterwards we stayed and talked with her for like a solid hour and agreed to have us come over!  Really neat.  

We're teaching a super cool family that I swear is the most prepared family I've met in my mission. (we met them a few weeks ago, but were JUST able to teach them this week.) They're the P. family, the wife is a less-active Jehovah's Witness and the husband is just a good Christian man. We knocked on the door and immediately he recognized us as representatives of Christ and invited us back for another appointment. We went back and he had all these great questions like, "How can I know which of all the paths are God's path?" and "What makes someone a prophet?" and "How would Christ's church be organized?" I almost started crying I was so excited! We taught the First Lesson and they want to learn more, he wants to know more before coming to Church, but he is committed to reading and praying. His wife also asks questions and seems pretty open to our message! I just have such a great feeling about them. 

Then on Saturday the Stake Young Women's president asked us to help in a conference for the Beehives in the stake. We taught a little workshop about the importance of sharing their testimony, and then they went ahead and took a brand new copy of the Book of Mormon and wrote their testimony in it. They had the option to write it and give the book to a friend, or to give the book to us for us to hand out to someone. Out of the 30 or so girls, we only received 4 copies of the Book of Mormon. Success! I am so impressed with the youth in our stake, truly. Even better, was to hear that some of those girls were hoping to serve missions :)

We're also teaching this super cute lady named E who was taught by missionaries a few years ago but never ended up getting baptized, and we taught her the Restoration a few weeks ago and seemed more open to the message this time around.  Then this week we taught her the first part of the Plan of Salvation and she had TONS of questions, it was great!  She said, "man, the last time the missionaries taught me they didn't tell me about all this!"  (which I'm sure they did, she just wasn't as interested at the time!)  But she's like 9 months pregnant and about to pop so we'll probably take a few weeks break before we go back so that she can rest up and such.  But she's just so sweet and it's cool to see how the Lord prepares people to receive his gospel in HIS time.  

A is still a super cool kid, but as usual it's nearly impossible to teach him when his mom is available.  We won't give up, though.  But we are recognizing more the importance of how he won't progress as much unless his whole family is involved.

Hey, did Dad sign me up for a Spanish class next semester? I can't remember.  If not, I'd like to get on the waiting list for one. I think Span 321 or something is a prerequisite for the spain study abroad.

Thanks for the heads up on the speaking assignment on the 21st, I shall prepare :)

Thanks, Mom, for sharing that spiritual experience, I love it when the Spirit touches us like that.

That's so cool to hear about that lady that just walked into the church building!!  President Ames says that there are 3 types of referrals: 1.) Member Referrals (when a member tells the missionaries about a friend) 2.) Missionary Referrals (when the missionaries give an assignment to a member to fellowship an investigator) and 3.) God's Referrals--aka people that are just so prepared that they come seeking out the church.  Sounds like this girl falls into the 3rd category :)  

Speaking of referrals, our ward gave us 2 this week! that hardly ever happens for us, so it was so cool to see it all work out!  We're going to teach them both this week WITH our members, so i'll let you know how it goes next week. 

And Dad, you're exactly right.  I mounted that bike a total of 3 times. hah so much for biking in a skirt...

I love you all soooooooo much.  Cuidense y portense bien, ok?

<3 Hermana Sangre

7-10-2014: In Honor of our Veterans

Hello Family!

This week was a good one, nothing much to tell.  Something we've been struggling with lately is finding new investigators to teach, so that's something that we'll be working on this week.  Axel is an awesome kid, but I think we've been pushing him too much, so we're going to slow the lessons down and try to involve his Mom more.  

This week we had a GREAT lesson with Kristy, and we brought a member and her 3 year old son with us and it was SUCH a great lesson!  Honestly, we didn't teach a whole lot, but Kristy and our member got along GREAT and the kids were all playing and it was so cool to see.  Members truly are KEY to this work.  

So Hermana Esparza comes out with us to teach people every Thursday and afterwards she buys us a shake...sorry if I come back weighing 500 lbs.  :)  

Also, I hope you know that I have been using my piano skills to good use whenever the usual sacrament pianist doesnt come, and sometimes the Primary requests our help during singing time when the chorister is sick.  Fun times in the Hurst 3rd ward.  I love serving here.  And it's official, I will be finishing the last 5 weeks of my mission here!  

No news about Hermana Kofe's visa yet, I figure we'll just get a call one day and she'll have to pack her bags or something the next day.  It will be an adventure!  Sometimes she even forgets that she's a visa waiter, but then when I'll be explaining something about being a missionary/rules or something and I'll say "this is how we do it here, but I don't know how they do it in Panama" and she'll respond "Man, I completely forgot I was going there!"  :)  She's here 100%.

No iPads yet.  Darn.  

Health has been good!  I have miraculously avoided any cold or flu symptoms (knock on wood) unlike y'all, man, I hope you get feeling better!

The members are still wonderful cooks that feed us alllll the time.  I love it :)  When they ask me if I like spicy food I say "yes, I'm from Mexico, remember?"  hah.  They laugh and then bring out the chiles.  

Glad to hear that y'alls week went well, besides the dreaded colds.  Any cool spiritual experiences this week? Do we still have sisters in our ward?  Tell Jake he's not running enough.  He's getting out of shape.  (hah.) 

I love you all so so much!

<3

Hermana Sangre

11-3-2014: And, all of the sudden, it's November!

OK, sorry, i didn't plan my time very wisely...hah So i have like zero time, if this sounds like a babble I apologize!

Yes, I paid my speeding ticket.  They said it would be an additional charge to use my card, so i took cash from my savings instead.  But i did use my card for the bike, thank you!  I really appreciate, you Mom, for keeping tabs on that type of stuff.  

This week was good!  We had lunch with a member on Tuesday and the hermano asked what Dad did, so I said he was a lawyer.  He asked what I wanted to do and I said business.  He then proceeded to lecture me on why I should be a lawyer instead.  hahhaha His main point of argument was so that I could be like my Dad.  Thought you might appreciate that.  

This week we had a suuuper cool dinner with some members the Zunigas.  They are so awesome.  They have some youth-age kids and our Stake President asked the missionaries to teach the youth all the missionary lessons so that they are encouraged to serve missions.  So we went ahead and taught them the Restoration, just like we would to investigators.  The Spirit was SO strong and at the end we were all bearing testimony of why the church was true and how awesome it was for them to have worthy priesthood holders in their home.  Then on Sunday the Hermana went and bore her testimony and said how grateful she was for our visit and how it came at just the right time.  God is aware of each of us and sometimes the people we influence aren't just the less actives or the investigators, but the completely active members as well.  

Axel is doing well!  We're teaching him and his mom tonight to talk to her about his baptism.  We'll see how that goes, she seems pretty open.  

I'm still running every day!  I run for about 15-20 minutes and do situps and pushups for the rest of the 10 minutes of daily exercise.  We don't have a gym here in Hurst so we run outside to the library about half a mile a way and I run around the parking lot while Sister Kofe does situps and stuff.  How about a few group jogs to run off all that puppy chow i'll be eating at home? i think so :)

Halloween was good! no trick-or-treaters.  We did some good planning. :) I love Jake and Dad's halloween pictures!  hahaha  What studs!  And Nat sent me an update about the date he went on, i'm so proud.  I'll respond to him next week. 

Thanks for the classes and everything!  I love you all so much!  I'll keep uncle tom in my prayers.

<3 Hermana Sangre

10-27-2014: Happy Oct. 27th!

Hello Family!

:)

This week was pretty uneventful.  Good things happening, of course, but nothing that really sticks out where I'm like, "MAN that was the coolest thing ever!" ya know?? 

Some highlights:

We had stake conference this week!  It was good.  We have a really great stake president who is just SO dedicated to the work of salvation.  So I got to hear a LOT about inviting our friends to hear about the gospel, Temple work, and Family History Work.  I've basically decided that I want to be involved in all those things actively for the rest of forever, k? k.  :)

We also had dinner with the Gamboa family this Friday.  They are sweet sweet members that have been in and our of activity since I got here a year ago and I have a special place for them in my heart.  But they took us to Chick Fil A (I CANNOT BELIEVE I hadn't discovered that before my mission.  It's like the most delicious thing ever.) and they were talking about their conversion story and everything and the Hermano was just saying some really nice things about how ever since I've gotten here I've watched out for them and made an impact on their lives.  I love them a lot.

Axel is still as bright as ever!  He's a cool kid.  He couldn't come to church on sunday because something came up last minute, but we'll get him next week :)

The S family is soooo sweet.  We had a good visit with them on Wednesday and she expressed more her desires to come back to church and we set up a return appointment.  One day they will be baptized and I will be there.  Then they will get sealed in the temple and I will be there, too.  

AND ok, so super cool story.  I think i told you about how one time we were with a member, we took Hermana Casarez with us to go teach an appointment but the appointment fell through last minute and she was like, "hey, I've got a friend who lives just down the street, let's go visit her!"  So we did and she was interested in hearing our message!  A few weeks later, we come to find out that a family member of Judi (the friend down the street)  passed away in mexico, so she was really sad about that.  We stop by a few days later after we find out (last sunday night) and we awkwardly interrupt a Rosary prayer of her family members (I guess a bunch of her Catholic family members stopped by to pray for the one that passed away) and we happened to stop by right in the middle of it...so she invites us in and they continue their prayer for another 30 minutes and I was just confused the whole time because I had never seen anything like that before and then all the family members leave.  Then we shared a brief message with Judi and she offered the prayer at the end.  It was very sweet, and most people hesitate to pray in front of us, (she was no different) but after we taught her how to pray, we all knelt down and she just said the most humble sweet prayer with a sincere desire to grow closer to her Heavenly Father.  She was crying by the end and it was just a beautiful experience.  

Man. I just love being a missionary.  

Thanks Mom and Sister Kartchner for making sure me and Aub aren't homeless next semester! hah I am A-OK with whatever ends up working.  :)  

Glad to know that the Giants are doing well and in the world series! I had no idea...hah 

Also, unfortunately our ward is not having an activity for Halloween, they're piggy-backing on another ward's party for the kids and we get the great privilege of staying inside our apartment and planning for 3 hours Halloween night! :)  So yes, i'll be dressed up as a sister missionary... :)

Love you all, hope everyone has a wonderful, safe halloween this week!

<3

Hermana Sangre

P.S. I will be sending my bike back today!!!!! OK?? Gracias :)