10-21-2013: This Week Was a Whirlwind!

Hello, my beautiful family!

First order of business, I'm pretty sure I have the best mom in the world.  The package arrived safely and everything inside! :) Hermana Gomez and I devoured the cookies in seconds.  And I plan on showing off how cool my family is to everyone that I meet since I have those sweet pictures! Thanks so much! 

This week was a whirlwind!  We had Elder Pino from the first quorum of the 70 come and it was basically the coolest thing ever.  On Tuesday night he did a fireside in our Ward building for all of the Spanish speakers in the DFW metroplex, and that's when we did our musical number: Fuente de mis Bendiciones.  It ended up being Hermana Gomez at the piano, Me singing with members Jason, Debahni, Michael, Melissa, and Magaly, and investigator D (a member's sister) with Elders Atack, Brueggeman, Wood and, Taylor.  Basically it was a choir and it was so fun!  I was impressed that we could involve so many of the members and even one of Elders Atack and Brueggeman's investigators who is super golden.  Elder Pino was able to instruct us in his native tongue of Spanish and it was amazing.  He talked about how important it is to create good habits in the home, because we will reap what we sow. 

If we plant tomates, we will get tomates. 

If we plant papas, we will get papas. 

If we plant good habits like reading and praying, we will be blessed. 

He also talked about la obra misional (missionary work) and said the following about asking our friends to learn about the gospel:

"Esta persona que usted y yo mismo conocemos, puede cambiar. Aun la persona que conocemos."

"This person that you and I know, can change.  EVEN the person we know."

That struck me.  People change, and that's cool to see.

So Tuesday night was a night full of spiritual nourishment, and then Wednesday morning we had a mission conference with a few zones and Elder Pino.  Because he was born in Venezuela and doesn't know much ingles, he needed a translator, so good ole Elder Atack got to stand up for 2 hours and translate for a member of the Seventy.  Our district was so proud of him.  Elder Pino talked more on Wednesday about how we need to raise our standards of understanding: When we hear from our leaders about being obedient, are we on a spiritual level trying to understand the blessings that come from obedience, or are we on a lower level trying to justify our disobedience?   "Be ready and attentive to rise up to the level of your calling.  Our invitation is to rise to the level of what we're teaching, and we're teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ." 

Basically this week was super dope.

Also: Hermana Gomez and I went over to a less-active's house this week to learn how to make "hueraches", which they only eat in the DF (i don't know what that means, but everybody says it...) and they're basically really thin fried tortillas with beans in the middle. She also made some green salsa and I almost died it was so good. Now I can cook 1 type of hispanic food, I need to increase my wife-able attributes for when I meet Bubba from Waco...oh wait...

Also I went to Ward Council in Spanish.  That was exciting.

I'm over my cold!  And we are seeing B and A tonight to talk to them, that's exciting!  The work is progressing and we're staying busy :) 

Stink, dad, I would have waved "hi" back to you if I had known you were flying over my area the other day!  And that's great advice about member homes, we were actually just talking about how we need to focus on that more.  I'll let you know how that goes this week!

Bummer about Nat's game, better luck next time!  He looks like a ladies man next to all them girls in the pictures you sent me. Keep it up, Nat!

In terms of traffic Haltom City is a bit like San Mateo?  A little more spread out, though.  And the area we cover is pretty huge, other cities we cover include Saginaw, Watauga, Hurst, North Richland Hills, so we get a bit of everything.  Pretty Suburb-y, but we try to avoid the freeway for the most part because there's basically construction all up and down the flippin countryside with that... :)

Also: thank heavens, but I have not encountered any enormously big, grotesque bugs yet. PHEW!  But i'm sure I will by the end of my mission...haha

Sorry this letter is like 10,000 pages long...haha

Glad the stake temple day food thingy went well and that all is awesome with Uncle Lane being there!  It's always fun to hear about what's what and such :) I hope y'all have an awesome week this week!

I love you soooo so much!

Love,

Hermana Sangre 

10-14-2013: Hellooooo!!!

Helloooooo!

 

Man, this week was a dooozy.  I had a bit of a cold on Thursday and Friday, but the work went forward regardless! :)  I felt heavenly assistance as we taught lessons even though I wasn't feeling my best.  Asi es.  And we had a Zone Training this week where we focused on taking members with us to lessons, or getting "exchanges."  So that's what we've been focusing on as a companionship and we're improving a ton on that!  We also had a surprise transfer this week.  President felt like Elder Guttierrez would have some more success in Stephenville so he left on Tuesday and Elder Wood's new companion is Elder Strang!  Hermana Hansen served with him in Arlington and he was in like all of her stories so I felt like I already knew him...haha but he's from Star Valley, Wyoming (isn't that where they're building the temple?)  and this is his 2nd time being in Hurst.  AND him and Elder Wood  AND Elder Atak are going home at the end of this transfer, so that will be a big change in our ward. 

 

AND Hermana Gomez's birthday is today!! She turned the big 2-0, so basically she can follow all the rules for "senior Sisters" in the white handbook :)

 

We taught O y M this week again and they are so sweet!  They are always super busy so it's been hard to teach them for the past little while, but we finally fixed a time where we could stop by this week and it was AWESOME.  When you read in Doctrine and Covenants about what is required for baptism, it's basically just a description of them.  They are so sweet and have so much faith.  We're hoping they'll be able to get baptized in the next few weeks. 

 

The work is progressing and I'm just loving every minute of being a missionary!  (especially since it's cooled down a ton in the past week.  It's raining right now, I'm pretty content.) :)

Way to go Nat!  He is a rockstar, as usual, on the football field...and say hello to Hattie and Kyle for me!  It's been forever since we've talked to them, send them my love :)

 

and I didn't know that matt and angela were having another baby!!!  Or maybe I did...Regardless, Congratulations to them! That's awesome! I'm sure she's a cutie.

 

Have I mentioned how much I love being a missionary?  Sometimes I realize that what we're doing is "hard," but we never think about it during the day to day work--we're just happy and loving what we do!  Seeing the joy that the gospel brings people makes everything worth it. 

 

Thanks for the Love and support.  I love you so much!

 

Love,

Hermana Sangre

P.S. congrats to Courtney!!! :)

10-7-2013: I Stinking Love Conference!

Oh my heavens.  This week was just chalk full of AWESOMENESS.

First of all, we practiced our song for the Elder Pino conference on Tuesday night and I'm feeling pretty good about how it will turn out! 

Second of all, we had Interviews with President Ames this week and while we were waiting, we got to get trainings from our Assistants to the President: aka the two Elders responsible for the amazing amount of nerves we have acquired regarding the Elder Pino conference....haha just kidding. Elder Border (If he were a spanish elder we'd call him Elder Frontera) and Elder Henderson are really cool and both like 10 feet tall.  But Hermana Gomez left for her interview the second they wanted us to do a short role play between companions, so I had to practice with Elder Border, which was the 2nd most terrifying role play I've done in my life.  The first was my first night in the mission with the very same Elder, except for in front of all 25 new missionaries. Sooo that was great...  But we learned a ton!  And President is so great, he said he feels really good about me and Hermana Gomez as a companionship so we're even MORE ready to get some work done here in Hurst. :)

THIRD of all, it was General Conference Weekend!  Which, as a missionary, is just about on par with Christmas in terms of coolness.  The talks were all so good!  And, I'm pretty proud of myself because I watched every single session in Spanish :)  I got most of it, though, of course, I got lost in a few of the stories, but I found it was easier for me to listen closer to the Spirit and write down what I needed to learn as apposed to a page full of direct quotes (and Elder Packer emphasized the importance of what the Spirit tells us rather than the exact words they say, so I felt good about watching in Spanish).  I feel like so much of the topics were about Member Missionary work, but that may just be because I'm a missionary right now...But I realize now that I could have been a better member missionary when I was home--I'm glad I felt like I could live my standards no matter what, but we can always take a step further to invite a family over for Family Home Evening with the missionaries, or something of that nature.  Something I thought during conference is that it's hard to live these standards sometimes, but the blessings make it so worth it. To take it one step further, to ask someone else to listen to WHY we have these standards is even harder, but it's even that much more worth it.  The worst they can do is say "no," right? But seriously, though, Conference is so awesome.  I am coming closer and closer to the reality of how absolutely important it is to rely on our Savior in every little thing we do. 

Fourth of all, and this may or may not be social suicide to admit to but I'll do it anyways, my district went to Cici's Pizza this week.  It was my first time, and I am pretty proud of myself because I may or may not have eaten 12 pieces of pizza. :)  It wasn't as much as one elder's 20....but it was so fun!  But Hermana Gomez and I made sure to go on a REALLY good run the morning after...haha

B and A are doing well, we still have to re-set B's Baptismal date, but she's so golden that we're not so worried about her.  But we've been thinking about A a lot and trying to think of how we can help him feel a sincere desire to repent, and of course with Conference, we found that we will probably show him a few clips of President Uchtdorf's talk.  And in the beginning of Elder Oaks' talk when he started talking about the 10 commandments and how we shouldn't adore other Gods about our Father in Heaven, I pretty much had a heart attack because that's what A needs to hear!  He still is worried about not being able to pray to his saints...So we're going to show him parts of that talk too.  But they're such a cute couple and we're so excited for them to progress in the gospel.

We also have still been working on the 21 tips program and we've met some really golden families through it!  We're getting the hang of how to start talking about the gospel from the begining (versus awkwardly transitioning from "hey we can help your kids get good grades in school" to "oh and by the way we also teach the gospel...") and most of them are way open to hearing more from us!

It sounds like the Marathon went really well!  In the picture, Jake and Dad look dang skinny.  It must have felt super awesome to accomplish that together after all that preparation.  I'm excited to hear how the next one goes in 2 weeks... :) And way to go Jake with sharing the gospel! (Flirt to convert...?haha just kidding.)

Oh my gosh!  Send my congratulations to the future Hermana Watkins!  That's so exciting!  Make sure to inform her that PuertoRicans talk super fast, but I'm sure she's probably so excited to go.  She'll have a blast! She's going to be such a good missionary.  And it's so awesome that she has 2 fluent spanish-speaking parents to practice with until she heads out!

Which actually brings me to a thought: it's starting to get "colder" (aka it's like less than 90 degrees sometimes) so could you send me some of the winter clothes I set aside in a package sometime? Please? Muchas Garcias :)

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers and don't forget how much I love you all!

Love,

Hermana Sangre

9-30-2013: It's a New Week!

Why, hello my lovely family!

 

This week our beloved Sister Hansen got to go up to Gainesville!  She was so excited to get out of her "transfer limbo" and left on Thursday.  She's going to do so well up there. :)  So now Sister Gomez and I are solitas aqui in Hurst as the Hermanas. 

 

These past few days we've been having citas (or appointments) up the wazoo!  A few weeks ago we participated in a service at a school where this group gave out school supplies to struggling families, and quite a few there were spanish speakers.  Our part of the program is "21 tips to better grades" and people could sign up for us to go and teach their kids these tips.  We've just barely been getting these referrals now and following up has been crazy! There are nights when we have appointments every 30 minutes because of this program.  I like feeling busy and the families that we've been visiting are super cool so hopefully they'll be interested in hearing about the gospel, too! 

 

This week we got a call from the Assistants to the President (we just about had a heart attack, they hardly ever call us!)  and in a few weeks the Hurst Stake Center will be hosting Elder Pino of the 70 for a fireside for all spanish speakers in the metroplex.  AAAAAND, since that's in our Zone and Sister Gomez and I are both trained in Music, we've been asked to put together a musical number!  I'm a little bit nervous but the good news is that we're making some other elders in our district sing with us along with 2 members and an investigator (she's 15 and the coolest girl you'll ever meet. She's in a similar boat as Shawn Fajardo, in that she'll be baptized the second her parents give the go ahead.  Our Zone Leaders are teaching her, btw so she's not our investigator).  But I'm so stinking excited!  We're singing "Fuente de mis bendiciones" or Come thou Fount in spanish.  It'll be dope.

 

B and A are doing alright.  They had their baptismal interviews this week and B's already to go, but A isn't quite.  So they're going to wait a little bit and we'll keep teaching them and preparing him.  That night was one of the most stressful nights of my life, I never expected to be so worried for someone's salvation!  B is so rock solid, though.  We have a cita with them this Friday so we're going to review the Restoration with A to strengthen his testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. 

 

Yesterday President Ames and his daughter came to our Fast and Testimony meeting, so that was a surprise!  And President doesn't speak spanish, but he prepared a short and simple testimony in spanish and it was so cool!  He is such an awesome leader and even though he struggled a little with his broken spanish, the spirit was definitely there to testify that what he said was true. 

Question: How are Emma Watkins' mission papers going? Any updates? 

 

MOM.  That Apple butter was SOOOO stinking good!  I loved it! I'm not going to lie, I just about finished it in 3 days... :) I couldn't hold myself back!  I completely approve of your idea to start a cooking show.  I'd watch it!

 

I look forward to hearing from the ward through emails!  So far no one has done it, as far as I can see.  But then again this email isn't super reliable...haha  I'll let you know next week once people have had some time :)  Debra Carlson is a rockstar because she writes me every few weeks.  It's always fun to hear from her about her family.

 

I absolutely love that clip from Elder Holland's Book of Mormon General Conference talk.  I keep meaning to find it in Spanish one of these days so that I can show it to some members and less-actives.  That reminds me--I'm so stinking excited for Conference this week! 

 

Also: I completely approve of the use of "obispo smith" :)  Spanglish! Yeah!

 

Thanks for the constant prayers and support.  I love you so much!

Love,

Hermana Blood

 

9-23-2013 It's Officially Autumn!

Hello!

 

Thank you soooo much for the package!  Everything arrived safely, and I'm excited to try the apple butter!  (I figured i should wait until we go to the store today to try it, because I don't think that apple butter would go well with the tortillas I have...haha so I'll grab some stuff today to try it on!)  And the photos arrived on the same day, it was better than Christmas! :) haha they're fun photos to have, thanks for sending them!

 

This week was a little crazy.  Remember how Hermana Hansen is going to be opening up an area in Gainesville? Wellllll, we usually have transfers Wednesday morning at 9 at the Hurst Stake Center (where we meet every sunday), and we got a call at like 7:20 that morning from our Zone Leaders, who had just talked with the Assitants to the President and they said, "well, Sister hansen's apartment in Gainesville isn't ready yet.  She's living with members on their property in a side house and they're still working on the carpet and cabinets and appliances, so she's not shipping out till Friday" so that was crazy.  Then they called us Thursday morning during our weekly planning session and said "actually, Sister Hansen, we don't know when you're leaving."  SO she's kind of in transfer-limbo right now, which is hard because she doesn't know if she should unpack or just live out of her suitcase or what so that's been a little hectic.  But a fun adventure! 

I learned some Spanglish during Relief Society this week.  Every Spanish verb un-conjugated ends in -ar, -er, or -ir.  (for example, caminar=to walk.  venir=to arrive) so this Hermana was talking about "textear, facebookear, and chatear" that was pretty dope slash super funny. 

 

This same hermana, however also said something really profound: "si hacemos 5 minutos cada dia para lear de las escrituras, este nos traera un eternidad de gozo" which basically means, if we take 5 minutes every day to read the scriptures, this will bring us an eternity of joy.  So true.  And I read in Alma 37: 35 this morning and I'm so thankful for you, Mom and Dad, to have been such a great example to me of having habits to read and pray every day and make time for the gospel in your lives.  You have taught me wisdom in my youth. :)

 

This week we talked with B y A, who are our investigators de oro!  B is always super firm in her faith and belief, she's consistenly reading the Book of Mormon and just all around angelic.  A is hilarious and loves B soooo stinking much it's adorable, but he's a bit of a flojo when it comes to keeping committments like reading and praying.  So B will probably get baptized this Saturday (we have faith!  She wants really bad to get baptized with Alberto, but we're pretty sure he's gonna need a little more time than she'll want to wait...)   And we'll keep talking with A about not praying to his saints....:)

 

The weather here hasn't been too bad.  low 90's is a usual, it rained the other day and that cooled things down.  But the traffic is HORRENDOUS.  Super feo.  Everything is under construction so we never even take the freeway anywhere anymore.  But we survive and we're (mostly) on time to our appointments!

 

here are some pictures of the party!  We had a blast, and it was way fun!  The last picture is of me and mycompanions being goofballs in our matching shirts... :) 

I'm glad to hear that nat's tearing it up on the football field!  and that Mom got to sit next to Ms. Wang at the game. And I'm glad Garrett's homecoming was good!  But not so glad to hear about UT winning...silly utes. We need a cougar win!  next year will be the year, I'm sure...

 

I love being a missionary!!!!  Thanks for the love and support. :)

 

Love,

Hermana Sangre

 

(p.s. B offered the closing prayer at our lesson and she prayed for each of us by name, and she called me Hermana Sangre.  That may or may not have been the coolest thing ever.)

9-16-2013 Sometimes We Prefer to Speak Spanglish!

HELLO!

 

Ok. fun fact: yes, dad, transfers are this week.  Zone Leaders found out last saturday the changes, and they couldn't tell anyone until this morning, and all changes will be made on Wednesday.  So we got our call at 7:20 this morning, and we were basically expecting to stay the same because I still have one more transfer (6 more weeks) of training left to be done.  But alas, the Lord has another plan.  Sister Hansen, my most senior companion trainer is being transfered all the way out to Gainesville to open up a Spanish Area!  We are gonna miss her so much but we're also so stinking excited for her!  She's a little nervous but she's always wanted to serve in an are outside of the "Metroplex" so she's stoked!  So as of Wednesday it will just be me and Sister Gomez as the Spanish Sisters in the Hurst 3rd Barrio.  Loco!

 

Andele pues, this week was absolutely awesome.  Tuesday we had our monthly Zone training and our Zone Leaders Elder Bruggeman (the Hispanos call him Elder B or Elder Boogeyman) and Elder Atak told us what the huge emphasis was in their last meeting with President and we've basically been asked to not go tracting anymore.  (!!!!!!) Instead of knocking doors, we'll be working with the ward and visiting Less Active members, Part Member families, and people we just don't know that are on the ward list.  Of course, we're still going to talk to people we see on the street, but we can no longer just fall back on the plan to knock a few doors in every area we're in.  The work is truly hastening.

 

AND Elder Anderson from the 12 came! It was so exciting!  There were probably 500+ missionaries there (Fort Worth and Dallas Missions) and we all got to shake his hand.  He seriously is a prophet of God.  He instructed us on many things, including the commandment (basically) for us to get to know the Bible better, he said, "Be familiar with the New Testament--especially here." Which is perfect because in my studies lately I've been reading a chapter in the Book of Mormon and then a chapter in the New Testament.  He also emphasized the fact that we should never compare ourselves to other people, "You just keep working with yourself and don't compare yourself to others, focus on yourself and helping others."

 

Other quotes from is address to us:

"Don't ever underestimate the power of your testimony.  If you don't know what to speak about, speak about Christ.  If you've already done that, speak about Joseph Smith, and do it with a smile."

"We want you to become great missionaries, yes, but more importantly than that, we want you to become great disciples of Jesus Christ."

"The sting of death, sin, and not being what we should be are swallowed up in Christ."

He is an prophet of God.

 

And we had our Fiesta friday!  It was SOOOO  FUN!  and the food was so ridiculously delicious.  I love hispanic food.  All the kids danced with their little traditional mexican dresses and we drank horchata and agua de jamaica and had tamales and rice and beans and pandulce and i just about died.  We decided to wear our matching blue shirts and we looked pretty darn adorable, if I might say so myself. :)  I love this barrio so much!  They are so fun and cool. 

 

It's only like 97 usually, so kind of cooling down, but it should be some thunder storms this week, we're excited :)

 

It sounds like y'all had a lovely week this week!  I'm glad Carrie and Lyss could go to an exciting game to see Nat be a stud quarterback like always!  (I send my love to them as well!)  I don't know Sister Ram, but Hermana Hansen does!  Hopefully I'll get to serve with her! :)  I'm glad to hear that Karenna is going to Caleb's concerts haha tell her hi for me!  And say hi to garrett Jones for me! Hopfully he'll get to adjust quickly, or he'll just hang out with the Elders, like Mario in our barrio does (Mario just got back from his mission, but you'd think he was still an Elder since he goes out with our Zone Leaders like every day!)  Keep running, Dad and Jake!  I'm sure y'all will be prepared as ever for that marathon.  SooOOOOO much respect.  Say hello to Michelle and Josh for me, I'm so excited for them! 

 

Thanks for sending me the t-shirt sizes!  And I'll be looking for those pictures, thanks so much for sending them!

 

I love being a missionary.

:)

Love,

Hermana Kate

9-9-2013: Que pasa calabaza!

Que pasa calabaza!

 

This week was awesome, as usual.  Nice and hot, staying around 99 to 102 on the daily, so that's always nice.  I would try to sympathize with the "Heat Wave" in Foster City buuuuut low 90's is heavenly over here...hahaha :)

 

I've told y'all about A, right? He's the 5 year old that is basically the coolest kid ever and we have dinner with his family basically every Thursday.  (cada jueves es el dia de Adrian!)  And Hermana makes the most delicious y picosa comida ever.  It's not TERRIBLY pica (spicy) but it's more than I'm used to, and it's soooooo good!  Isn't there a saying that spicy food makes your spanish better? I'd say it's pretty dang true.  Like a few weeks ago, we had hamburgers, but Mexican style because there were jalapenos in the patty and we put homemade salsa with the ketchup.  Pretty legit.

 

We also have been helping Hermana V for the past week a little bit, she's in the relief society presidency and we're having a ward party this friday (i've heard Spanish Barrios have the craaaaaziest fiestas! I'm sooooo excited) and so we were helping her make papel picado for some decorations as service, and we loooove this Hermana because she's this cool Grandma and just makes us all this gourmet food and delicious strawberry lemonade and basically just pampers us and pretends to talk gringa spanish.  She's a funny lady.  AND she gives us referrals like every time we go over there so that's pretty awesome.

 

So fun fact, there are 100million different churches here.  We drive past like 20 during our 5 minute drive to church.  SO you know how some churches have those little billboard/signs where they have a scripture and the name of the church or whatever they want, right? So we saw a sign that said the following, "After School Child Care" with the quotation marks and everything.  Note for the future anyone who's making signs for anything: NEVER put quotation marks around anything if you want it to sound legit.  We think it's so funny, but then again we're missionaries and we're weird like that...asi es.

 

Also, my studies brought me across a beloved scripture that I'm sure is Dad's favorite: Alma 19 verse 5.  :)

This week we met this really cute couple named O and M and they're so cool! It turns out they have family in Mexico that are LDS and we taught them the first lesson and they're like "yeah, this all makes sense!" and so we set a baptismal date for October 21st!  They basically have the cutest family ever and so we're really excited to keep visiting with them.  It's actually a bit of a miracle that we found them, we were looking through an old list of potential people to visit, and we saw this lady that used to live in their house, knocked on their door, and even though it was a different family than we expected, we found this super golden family to teach!

 

AND 3 of our favorite less active families came to church yesterday!  We were soooo happy :)

 

That Applesauce y'all made sounds delicious!  I want to learn how to do stuff like that some day, that sounds fun!  And way to go Aragon on the game with Jefferson, it sounds like a good start to the season, and that will be fun that Aunt Lys and Aunt Carrie will be able to see Nat play this week.  And good thing BYU finally won a game, especially against Texas!  (don't worry, I haven't been converted to any of this longhorn business.  Hispanics only watch futbol, not football.)  And that's so fun that Jody and Melia were in town por un ratito!  I'm glad they're all doing well :)

Send my love to everyone!

 

I love being a missionary, thanks for all your love and support!

 

Love,

Hermana Sangre

PS:  Here's a couple of pics w/Elder Hardy--thanks to his companions for the photo bombs.  ;)