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 :)

10-19-2014: Re: Family Weekend in Salt Lake City

Hello Beautiful family!

Man, LOTS to tell this week. where to start.....

First of all, this week we got visited by a member of the 70!  Elder Cardon.  He's pretty cool, VERY intelligent.  We had a 6 hour conference with him on Friday and he explained in detail with lots of scriptures about the abrahamic covenant for like an hour, I ate it up!  It probably looks like it would have been really boring, but I promise it was way legit the way he explained it.  I probably will never be able to do it justice. 

 Want to hear a cool story? I saw Sister Ford at the conference and she told me about someone that we had taught in Arlington. We Met the family of Aracely Garcia because the English Elders in our area referred us to them and the Mother in Law from Houston was staying with them. The two teenage daughters answered the door when we stopped by so we went ahead with the 21 tips service and just as we were about to leave, their grandma from Houston asked us if we could come by again to pray with them! So we did another day, we taught the 1st lesson, got her address and sent missionaries to her house in Houston. Sister Ford told me that she just recently got baptized and that they are still teaching her family in Arlington and they have baptismal dates. Isn't that so cool? I love it when people make covenants.

On saturday we were able to participate in a community service project where we basically did a bunch of yard work for like 6 hours, it was actually way fun!  I am the official bag holder for leaf-raking.  It requires an incredible amount of skill and expertise, i promise.  :)  

Also, I finished the Book of Mormon on Friday and at the conference, President Ames told us that we read the Book of Mormon in about the amount of time it took to translate it.  That book is most definitely the word of God and not the word of Man.  Just over 60 days? A farmboy from upstate New York could NOT do that unless he were directed by God.  

Remember the S family?  They dropped us a few weeks ago and it was really sad for me, but we felt like we should go back so we did and she said that she had been thinking about coming back to church!  We've got an appointment this week so we'll see how they are.  

And we're teaching this super cool 12 year old named Axel.  He's very intelligent and understands the doctrine very well.  He's getting baptized in December!  

We teach a TON in spanish.  I love that language so much!  Hermana Kofe is still learning poco a poco, but it's a good transition, I bet for her to be here before being dropped in Panama.  We don't know how long it will take for her to get her visa, up to 3months?  They don't tell us anything hah SOOOO out of the loop!

Business Meeting:  My former companion says that Pro Witherspoon for spanish 321 is a good choice?  Just sayin for classes and such.  

business meeting concluded.  

I'm glad the gathering for Uncle Lane went well.  And I ditto what Mom said--I'm so grateful for our knowledge of the plan of salvation and the covenants we make in the temple.  

Caleb and Michele--I hope that small studio apartment has enough room for me and a sleeping bag. :) hah just kidding (but only a little)  Good luck michele on the interview and the internship!  

Also, you'll all be happy to know that even though hna kofe is from oakland, she is a niners fan.  :)

Love you all so much!  

<3

Hermana Sangre

10-13-2014: Greetings from Hurst!

Hello!

Yay! I love pictures!  :)  And thanks, Dad, for going ahead and sending in that application for Spain and doing my classes, I appreciate it!  

This week was super fun, as always.  Of course, the weather is bipolar here in Texas so on Friday it was like 90 degrees and then Saturday it dropped to like 60, so we never know what clothes to wear.  It changes every second which makes life exciting.  hah  

On Thursday we had Zone Conference and *gulp* it was my last one!!!  AH!  So I gave my departing testimony (all the missionaries that go home before the next zone conference give a final testimony) and it was sooo weird, I don't feel like I'm going home still!  Well, it's because I'm not, I've still got toooons of time left, right? Well...anyways... :)  During Zone Conference we watched a screening copy of "Meet the Mormons" IT WAS SO GOOD!  I laughed, I cried, I felt the spirit, it is amazing!  If you haven't already seen it or seen a theater it's playing in, I absolutely recommend it.  100000%.  meetthemormons.com  check it out.  It's a documentary made by the church that follows 6 Mormon Families from around the world and their stories and why they believe in God.  It's really a powerful movie.

I also participated in the Primary Program for our ward :)  Man, i love being around the primary kids, they're so fun!  But they needed me to help with a song or something so I sang a little verse to the new song "families are forever" or something like that?  It's a cute song.  It was fun to participate!  

Hermana Kofe says that her mom isn't in the stake YW, she's a gospel doctrine teacher? I think?  But she's in the Oakland East Tongan stake if that sounds familiar.  They meet in the Multi-stake center.  She's super funny, it's fun having her as my companion.  

So a cool experience this week: on Monday I had this impression that we needed to visit with the Flores family from the ward.  But our plans that night wouldn't allow it, and we had appointments the next few days so I made sure to put it in our backup plans for the next few days.  That thought kept coming back to my mind so I made sure to keep them on my mind as a first backup for when our appointments didn't work out, and to make sure to schedule them for the first open opportunity.  Well, Friday night we finally were able to stop by their house and it was neat because both the hermano and hermana said, "man, when you walked through the door we were so relieved, we really needed to feel the peace that the spirit brings tonight!"  Things ended up working out just like the Lord wanted it to.  :)  

Oh, and I keep forgetting to tell you mom, that we have a Bike store here in Hurst/North Richland Hills that will take apart and ship my bike.  The box/disassembly will cost about 50, and then on top of that to ship it.  For Sister George to send her bike to Orem it cost about 120, so do you still want me to send it home?  It will probably cost more to send it to San Francisco.  

Also, thank you for still loving me despite my transgression against Texas State Law :)  

Thanks for keeping HM in your prayers!  He's doing well, he came to General Conference last week and we didn't even know it until we saw his family this week for our appointment!  That's awesome.  

I'm glad y'alls week went well, and that Dad won't have to fend for himself anymore. :) hah  

I love you all so much!

<3 Hermana Sangre

P.S. I got my "trunky packet" this week. (hah)  It's the packet with my flight plans and a letter from President and stuff.  I forgot the exact time of my flight, but I'm flying into SFO on December 18th around 10:30ish in the morning. 

10-6-2014: Conference and Marathon Success!

Hello!

Ok, business items first:

1.)  I got the package of papers!  Thanks for the talks and the email and the school information.  I saw President at a meeting on Wednesday and asked him about the ecclesiastical endorsement--he got out his ipad and did it right then and there.  He's so good!  One thing I don't really know about is the study abroad--the two that really stood out to me were the one in spain during spring and the one in mexico where you go and teach for the summer.  So....basically I don't know which I want to do!  I'm going to do some thinking today, but any thoughts/guidance?  Also for classes: I like the thought you had, Dad, to take it slow.  I don't necessarily have to be decided right now on what I want to do for school/major.  But go ahead and sign me up for some classes and I'll go ahead and change whatever I need to when I get back? I don't know, I trust y'all.  :)

2.) How much do you love me? :)  Ok.  So last week I got a speeding ticket in Blue Mound, TX (basically the smallest town in our area) and it will cost about $180.  I'm sorry.  I was going 13 over the speed limit, and honestly I wasn't even paying attention to the change in the speed.  I'll do better, I promise.  I went ahead and transfered enough money to my debit card and then I'll go ahead and pay it this week.  So if there ends up being only like $5 in both my savings and my checking...that's why. 

But onto the fun stuff! My new companion is a brand new missionary named Hermana Kofe, she's from Oakland!  She's Tongan, 20, has 14 siblings (!!!!) and is super cool.  She's actually just here on a re-assignment waiting for her visa to Panama, but I'm really excited to have her!  

We had a great week with lots of success.  We committed H.M. to be baptized on November 1st!  He's been taught by missionaries on-again-off-again for about 2 years and his wife is a returning-to-activity-less-active.  :)  It was a great lesson and he offered a really sweet prayer at the end.  I love that family a lot.  

We also had a really sweet lesson with the G family, a less active family that I was working with the last time I was here.  The Husband--who is normally very quiet and stoic--thanked us very sincerely for our support.  They've gone through a lot but they are ready to come back to church.  We saw them on Saturday and right after we left the Hermana sent us a text saying that they had just started watching the recording of General Conference.  It made me smile :)  

Speaking of General Conference!  I loved the whole thing!  Literally, there was something cool that i wrote down from every talk.  One particular piece of revelation that I received during one of the talks is that during the time I'm home before going to school, I want to go to the temple at least twice--once to do an endowment session, and a second time to do sealings as a family if at all possible, for family names.  I just love the temple and that was an impression of something that I would like to do while I'm home.  I loved all the talks, some that stood out to me in particular were the one from Elder Bednar, from the member of the 70 who's first name is jorg?  and others that I can't remember at the present time...hah.  But it was great!  It's like Christmas but better!  We have a living prophet on the earth today.  I know that he leads and guides our church.  

Glad to hear that the marathon weekend went well!  When is the next marathon scheduled for so that I can join! (JUST KIDDING.)  hah.  Hope you both have a good week ahead of you.  Love you lots.

<3

Hermana Sangre