3-17-2014: Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hello family!

 

Have no fear: I shall not be pinched today because I am wearing my lovely green skirt!  Happy Saint Patrick's Day.  Hope you find some gold at the end of a rainbow and get some four leaf clovers and stuff.  What else can one do to celebrate this holiday...? Maybe I'll ask around :)

 

This week was amazing!  Hermana Ram and I are recieving tons of revelation for Gainesville and we're working really hard to get the members involved in the work.  This area is super cool and I am LOVING it!  We've been able to come in contact with some less actives that are developing desires to come back to church and we're excited for all of our investigators we're teaching!  One of them is a 9 year old named R.  We were teaching him the Plan of Salvation the other day and when we asked him what he understood about the part we had just gone over, he basically re-taught us the entire first half!  He's a smart kid and he's a goof, so it's fun teaching him.  His Mom is less active but hopefully she'll be returning to activity because she recently got a new job that will let her have sundays off! Yay!

 

I also went on my first exchange as Sister Training Leader!  We went alllllll the way to Justin, Texas which is in a newlly formed stake and it was way cool!  I was with a really cool sister and we learned a lot.  We had lots of little miracles that day, including a less active who's non-member son needed some help, and when we were there her Hispanic mother was also there and I was able to talk to her in Spanish!  It was pretty cool.  Man, having a second language is such a cool blessing. 

 

We're also preparing to have interviews with President Ames this week.  He sends everyone a letter every week and it is really cool to see how inspired he is.  He's so cool!

 

It sounds like everyone's week was a blast!  Glad the Hearst Castle trip was successful, and I'm excited to go visit!  Happy almost anniversary tomorrow!  I'm glad Mom and Dad could go celebrate in the city, it sounds like it was awesome.  And I loved the pictures! :)

 

To answer your question, Mom, something that I wish I would have done before I went on a mission as a young woman (and I know that they completely re-vamped the youth program this past year, so they might already be doing this) but I wish I studied Preach My Gospel more, especially the Lessons.  I had always had a testimony of the gospel, but once I read through the lessons in my Mission Prep class, it suddenly not only made sense to me spiritually, but also intellectually.  And I wish I was more involved in the Less Active work in our ward with the young women.  I always felt uncomfortable going over to say "Hi" to the girls that I had never met before as an activity, but it's such a great preparation for the mission because that is a part of what we do.  AND it doesn't have to be uncomfortable/weird, I always made it to be a bigger deal than it actually is (I think that's what all teenagers do with everything...) but any feelings of discomfort or "oh that's weird" in those types of things can be solved with charity: if we love the Savior, we will go outside of our comfort zone and feed his sheep.

 

Something that I've thought of frequently while I've been on my mission that gives me energy and drive is something the Spirit taught me in the MTC: "Why am I here if I'm not willing to go outside my comfort zone?" 

 

And I look forward to seeing Dad's talk from Sunday, it sounds like a great one!

 

I love you all so much!  Have an AWESOME week this week :)

 

Love,

Hermana Sangre

3-10-2014: Wellllllllllllll, Greetings from Gainesvillleeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh man.  So, surprise.  The address I gave y'all last time was incorrect.  We're actually living with members (in like a garage behind their house that they converted into a sweet awesome apartment) so the real address is...

 

227 E. Hird St.

Gainesville, TX 76240

 

Another surprise.  So I got to transfers on Wednesday and met Hermana Ram (who is AWESOME by the way!) and she told me that we were also whitewashing into the English area! Craziness. So Whitewashing is when two completely new missionaries go into an area and take over the previous set of missionaries' investigators.  Summary: Hermana Ram was already in the Gainesville English ward working with the Spanish population, but the day I got to Gainesville, the English elders left and now we're the only set of missionaries for the whole ward (plus the senior couple in our ward, who are super sweet!).  AKA we're the first set of "SPANGLISH" missionaries here.  Probably ever.  The ward boundaries cover half of the Denton Stake and Gainesville the town itself is preeeeeeeeetty tiny.  But there's TONS of Hispanic people, so that's awesome.  Lots of open space and "county roads" and cows and chickens and farms and lots of driving (yes, we still have a car! yessss). 

 

In terms of Sister Training Leader stuff, we went to my first "Mission Leadership Council" this week with all the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders for this mission: 15 zones and 7 sets of Sister Training Leaders.  I hear it's grown a ton and it was an AWESOME meeting.  We all counseled together to work on the things that the mission needs to improve and now we get to go on exchanges and tell all the sisterswhat we learned!  We serve 4 sets of Sister in the Denton/Justin/Decatur area and we should be going on an exchange this week.  I'm excited!

 

Hermana Ram is suuuper cool!  She's from Hawaii and she has been out about a year.  She's been in Gainesville for 3 months and we're anticipating she'll be here for a total of 6 but we'll see what happens there.  She's super chill and a really hard worker and does great missionary work!  I'm excited to work with her. 

The work here is crazy, because we can literally teach anyone we want to--we don't have to worry about English or Spanish because we cover both!  But this week we taught more Spanish, and that's probably what we'll focus on more throughout the transfer, because President wants there to be a Spanish Branch in Gainesville eventually, so that's what we're gonna get.  Lots of Hispanic less actives and LOTS of potential investigators, so we've got our work cut out for us! :)  We will never be bored ever because there is literally so much work to do and it's going to be AWESOME.  I LOVE gainesville! I know I'm going to learn a lot (heck, I've already learned a ton and I haven't even been here a week!) and we're going to be eating lots of good southern cookin ;)  I may end up missing my good 'ole Spanish Ward rice and beans :) but I'm way excited for this area!

 

Not a lot of time, but we have a cool story about this guy named "J F" that I'm going to tell y'all next week---remind me!

 

Sounds like y'all had a good week, glad Youth Conference turned out well and that Nat's concert went well!  (Great to Hear from you, Nat!) :) Have a good time at Hearst Castle with Lisa and Riley!  And good luck to Caleb and Michele who officially moved to LA!!!

 

Also: please excuse my frequent use of "y'all."  I swore I would never say it...and here I am all Texan and stuff.  What can I say....

 

I love you all soooooo much!

con amor,

Hermana Sangre

(p.s. President called on me in MLC's to share a thought I had and he called me "hermana Sangre." it was a pretty proud moment.)

3-3-2014: Texas is Bipolar

Literally. Saturday it was 80 degrees outside, and over night it dropped to like 25 and we had snow on Sunday.  Ridiculous!  Apparently Texas is incapable of making up its mind, which makes packing for transfers a little difficult and unpredictable.

 

And I guess Hispanics REALLY do not like the cold, so we got to church at noon (sacrament meeting starts at 1:30) for our Ward Council and basically we got there and our Bishop decided to cancel church since it was too cold and it was supposed to get worse...so all the missionaries were there and we were like "man, we want to take the sacrament!" so we went ahead and drove to the nearest church building in our area (with permission from President, of course) to go to another ward's Sacrament meeting.  And we hadn't exactly made a back-up plan for church when we were planning the night before...so we had 3 hours to fill in our Sunday!  We got a lot of work done and stuff, it was just a surprise.  Gotta love Texas weather...

 

Dad, I LOVED your greatGainesville facts!  It looks like I'll be doing lots of hanging out at casinos and stuff...oh wait...  But I have heard that it is COUNTRY out there, so that will be fun and new! 

 

me and MAGALY. she feeds us every wednesday

So how transfers work for us: the entire mission has one central church building that is designated as the Transfer church building (right now it is in Grapevine) and if we are getting transfered, all the missionaries get a member to drive them to that Grapevine building and the switches are made there, and then you drive to your new area!  Thank heavens we don't have to strap any suitcases to bikes and stuff like you had to do, Mom...sounds like it was a blast! hah

 

I'll confirm my new address when I get to Gainseville. 

 

THE BONILLAS.  They invited me to go hang out with them at their house in Puerto Rico post-mission.  I'm thinking that's a YES. :)

Mom, it sounds like Youth Conference is going to be a BLAST!  I hope it goes really well, and I'm sure you'll be nice and relieved once it's over.  And good luck to Nat at In Concert, I'm sure it will be super dope.  Have fun on that trip to Hearst Castle, take lots of cool pictures and photoshop me in! haha just kidding. 

  

Thanks for thinking of some Conference talks, I personally don't have a copy of the November 2013 Ensign, but hopefully the apartment in Gainesville will...we'll see.  I'll keep you posted on that.

 

Elder Hardy at that meeting i went to!

Well, have a wonderful week this week with all the many things that y'all have planned and have a safe trip to Orlando, Dad!  I love you all soooooo much!

 

con amor,

Hermana Sangre

2-28-2014: SURPRISE!!!

Hi Family,

Sooo...funny story.....we didn't end up going to the temple today....

 

Here's what happened.

 

Monday Night at like 10:34 (approximately...ya know) President calls us, and I was already passed out so Hermana Gwynn answers the phone and he basically says, "Sister Gwynn, your companion is leaving this next coming transfer and I won't tell you where.  BUT you and your new companion will be Sister Training Leaders in Hurst for all the Spanish Sisters in the Metroplex.  We'll have a meeting this Friday for all missionaries that haven't been Leaders before (this meeting happens once a transfer) and I want you there." 

 

WHAT. Yeah.  Basically I found out Monday night that I would be leaving but I had no idea to where!!! So i was freaking out all week until......thursday during our Weekly Planning Session.  Our Zone Leaders gave us a call and said, "uhh...so  Sisterblood....has President called you about Friday...?"

me: "uhhh...he's called sister gwynn but not me....why?" 

them "No reason, let us know if he gives you a call." [here is where my heart starts beating 1bazillionmiles per hour]

*20 minutes later*

PHONE CALL FROM PRESIDENT.

"Sister Blood, you've been assigned as a Sister Training Leader in Denton North Zone in GAINESVILLE with Hermana Ram.  Be at the meeting on Friday"

HOLY CATS! I almost asked President if he was sure about his decision....i decided not to question the whole revelation thing....

 

So basically we couldn't go to the temple because we were at the meeting for new trainers/leadership positions.  I learned a TON and found out that I have a lot to work on...  But basically as Sister Training Leader that means that I get to be a part of the Mission Leadership Council (all the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders) once a month to council together and help the mission grow.  And I get to go on exchanges with 4 or 5 sets of Sister Missionaries every transfer.  At first I was SUPER nervous, but now I'm more excited!  I'll get to grow a lot.

 

Transfers will be happening this Wednesday, so I'll give you more of an update on Monday about all that information and whatnot after Transfer Calls Monday morning.

 

B decided not to get baptized this Saturday....a little sad, but I feel OK about it.  After a lot of prayer, I understand more of where she's coming from and I know that she'll be ok.  She's been going through a lot of hard life changes (she canceled the Surgery and everything) and said she needs some time to work things out.  She's still going to meet with us, and she will get baptized, just not right now.  She's still a rockstar and I think this will help her understand more of why she needs the gospel in her life.  I love that lady so much.

 

The S's are doing GREAT! They come to ALL the ward activities basically and everyone keeps asking when they're getting baptized.  They are so awesome, I stinking love that family!

Mom-to answer your question about the temple: we are allowed once every 3 months if we live within an hour of the temple....aaaaand I'm getting transfered outside of that radius so it will be another couple transfers until I get to go again maybe. (assuming after Gainesville I move back into the metroplex...we'll see!)

 

Speaking of Elder Hardy, I saw him at that New Trainers meeting!  (it was also a follow-up meeting for all the new trainees so I got to see his little visa waiter).  I'll attach that picture in another email. He says hello!

 

Happy Belated Birthday, Nat!   It sounds like his surprise party was a success and I'm glad he had a good time.  Kelly sounds like an awesome friend.

 

By the way, say hello to Bonnie Oscarson when you get to basically hang out with her in March! That will be AWESOME. 

Dad-I like your thinking on the bigger portions for the Elders in the ward.  Keep those Samoans well fed! :)  And thanks for the talks/devotionals.  I appreciate it! And thanks for the BYU basketball update...hahaha :)

 

I love you all SOO much and I'll give more details on transfers and stuff on monday.  Have a wonderful weekend!!

con amor,

Hermana Sangre

2-17-2014: Happy Day after President's day!!

Greetings from Arlington, Texas!

We're on an exchange right now with our Sister Training Leaders, so for the day I'm in Mansfield/Arlington (Arlington 5th ward to be exact) but tonight I'll go back to Hurst and get back to normal Spanish missionary life :)  

Yeah, we celebrated our President's day pretty hard with some laundry and apartment cleaning and grocery shopping and basketball playing for a zone activity--I'm actually not terrible at Basketball!  AKA once every 10 shots I make it....the next female version of Lebron James right here, people. Watch out.

Question: do y'all know an Elder Trevor Hill? He's serving in San Francisco/Oakland and he knows my friend Sister Syler.

aaaaaanyways.  This week was great, we're still working with la familia S and we committed them to live the Word of Wisdom!  Obsispo Delgado is convinced that Hermano S will be the next bishop--that's what we think too :)  This family is so stinking prepared for the gospel!  La Hermana likes to take things slow because she knows that Baptism is a pretty big commitment and she wants to make sure that they really understand what they're doing.  But yeah, they're awesome.  

We also set a wedding date and baptismal date for N!  We got the feeling that he was feeling a little lost--as in E and Us were making all the decisions and he was just along for the ride, so we took a different approach to the situation and asked him when HE wanted to do these things and WHY.  So he basically set his own Baptismal date!  It's gonna be end of April, which seems like forever away, but we feel really good about it because it's something that he chose for himself and for his family.  

AND B should be getting baptized this Saturday!  She's getting some major surgery tonight, but she seemed pretty set on getting baptized no matter what, so we're really excited for her and praying really hard that the surgery goes well and that she's ok.  

But man, I stinking LOVE this area!  I feel like I am a part of this ward, it's ridiculous, at the end of this transfer I will have been here for 7 and a half months! Dad, we might as well send my records here, ya know? :) haha  But It's such a great ward here and there is a ton of work to be done.  I imagine that I'll be transferred these upcoming transfers, just since I've been here for so long, but I wouldn't mind being here another 6 weeks either!  That's how much I love these people.

Mom-I didn't know the El Camino Ward had so many missionaries!  That's awesome!  We work a lot with our ward council and ward missionary, here in Hurst.  We try to have daily contact with our Ward Mission Leader to let him know about the lessons we teach and how our progressing investigators are doing.  Then we go into Ward Council every 2nd and 4th sunday of every month to let the ward know about how our less-active members and progressing investigators are doing and how we can fellowship them and make them feel comfortable.  We also try to take our members out on exchanges as much as possible--Tell Nat to go out with the missionaries as much as possible, then His members will go out with him a ton on his mission and that's GOLD.  (P.S. I am completely supportive of any family efforts to learn spanish!!! Me and Jake will need some people to talk with so that we can keep it up!)   :)

Also: me and Hermana Gwynn are going to the temple next week on Friday, which means we have to change our Preparation Day to the 28th of February, so we probably won't be emailing until then.  We're not really sure how that will work, though, so emailSunday night/monday morning anyways just in case, but don't be surprised if i don't respond until Friday. :)

Glad to hear that everyone is doing well!  (Happy Valentine's Day, and Happy Birthday to Nat on Saturday! Make sure to pick out some dope looking ties, ok? ok.)  Sounds like y'all are keeping busy between track/school/work/booster-law-stuff/running and everything in between.  (by the way, we run every morning, Dad! And I will happily give moral support for any marathon you or Jake decide to run in the future...haha)  Oh, and Elder Toolson, I'm pretty sure I've heard of him but I have yet to serve around him.  He sounds like a hard working elder, doing Lone Peak proud, I'm sure.   AND Hermana Gwynn actually knows the Clement's daughter that is my age! She was in the ward that the Mission Home is in, I'm pretty sure. That's fun that you could see Elisa this week!

The works going great and I love every second of it!  Thanks for everything and I love you all soooooooo so much!

con amor,

Hermana Sangre :)

2-3-2014: What a week!

Hola!!

 

Oh man. What a week!  On friday we felt the hope of springtime with a beautiful 75 degrees all day only for all of our dreams to be dashed by suuuuuuuuuuuper cold weather Saturday that should continue for the rest of the week.  Thankfully, no snow yet, just a little bit of freezing rain but it already melted.  MAN, Texas! Make up your mind! (speaking of Cold, it actually would be nice to have those hats and scarves from my winter box just in case it doesnt warm up anytime soon....I can't remember honestly what box it was in my closet though...I thought it was just a cardboard box ?  Who knows.  But i'm not picky, so just send me a couple of whatever you find. Thank you!)

 

This week we had like 3 days of double dinners--SOOOO much food!  I almost wanted to burst, my stomache was so full!  But I guess that's better than starving, right? We'll see when I'm done gaining the average sister missionary 30 pounds....haha 

 

This Sunday was crahazay (the cool way to say Crazy) because we started with a slight bummer but then ended on a spiritual high--all because of the same family!  So Saturday night we called the familia S to see if they'd be coming to church on Sunday and she gave us the most firm "Yes" i've ever heard in my life.  Then she texts us Sunday morning to tell us their truck doesn't work!

 

I swear, Satan is working really hard...Good thing Good wins in the end! 

 

So we find a ride for them and we're driving in our car showing this family the way to the S's house when we call Hna S to say we're on our way and she says she's not ready and won't be able to go...ugh. 

So they didn't get to come to church yesterday, but we decided to visit them that night and show them the Restoration movie.  When we visited them, turns out one of our texts didn't get to her and there was some sort of miscommunication (that made us feel TONS better!) and the spirit was SO strong when we watched the Restoration.  Afterwards, Hna S told us that they were going to commit themselves to reading from the Book of Mormon every night  as a family (at 7pm, she even made an appointment for herself!) and pray to know if it was true, and then come to church this Sunday.  We didn't even have to say anything!  Man, this work is REAL and true.

 

They are so cool.  We love 'em.

 

Have I also talked about how much we love E and N?  They're basically rock stars.  E has been worried about if they get married then it will mess up their papers and stuff, but she said something really cool: "But being married is a Law of God, and if He says that I need to be married in order to live with someone and have my family, then I'm going to do it because I want to do this right.  If he wants us to get our papers done, then he'll help us do that afterwards."  Isn't she so cool!?!?!  What 20 year old says that?? Someone with TONS of faith, that's who.  She has been through so much in her life and she never wavers in her faith.  So we'll talk with her tonight and see when they want to go ahead and do the wedding/baptism for N. :) 

 

They rock.

 

Oh, and did you know that when you're a missionary, you're immune to awkward social situations??? Like when you call your less active and they invite you over to the restaurant they're at and let you order food even though they've already finished eating and are basically ready to go.  This nametag must make us invincible or something... (BTW the Denny's baja skillet is super good....)

:)

That's so cool that story about fasting for rain!  I love fasting.  And Prayer.  And rain (when I'm not a missionary....).  And send my love to Sister Gurney!  Sounds like the McBride-Strait concert was fun, of course I have a new appreciation for country music as a re-born Texan :)  I looooove Jazz Festivals.  Sounds like the Aragon one went well, and that's so fun to run into everyone at the theaters!  I actually heard about that movie from Haley in one of her letters, it sounds really cool!  I want to see it when I get home, so let me know what you think! (But don't worry, Mom, we are extra safe and extra careful and we have an extra nice area, I promise!)

 

But really.  You should look up pictures of Saginaw.  That is dang nice.  Did you know that if Glenn Beck and the Jonas Brothers spoke spanish, they'd come to our ward?  Yeah, that's the kind of area our ward covers.... ;)

 

Sounds like everything's going great!  I love you all so much and I hope this week is SPECTACULAR.

 

Con amor,

Hermana Sangre

1-27-2014: Remember that time...

Remember that time when I was in my Book of Mormon class in BYU and all the people with mission calls got to stand up to say where they're going and the girl right before me said "Texas Fort Worth Spanish Speaking"....?

 

Yeah. That's my companion.

 

CRAZY right???  Hermana Gwynn and I were talking about the classes we took at BYU and we discovered first that we were in the same Book of Mormon class and then I remembered that THAT happened!  Insanity.  Whodathunkit.

 

So that was one of the many highlights from my Birthweek!  :) 

 

Thank you SOOOOO much by the way for the AWESOME Birthday package! :)  It was perfect and came exactly on time.   I also got the Downeast package and I'm just waiting on the LDS Distribution one.  You're the best! 

 

This week was a GREAT week!  I got to celebrate my birthday on Friday with the Bonillas (hermano cooked DELICIOUS food, like always) and they sang happy birthday to me and everything!  Then on Saturday morning I got to celebrate again with a super awesome Spanish Conference!  So President Ames got together all the Spanish Ward leaders in the Metroplex (Hurst, Arlington, Fort Worth, Denton) and their Stake presidents and some of the missionaries (really just all of the Hurst ward missionaries because our building is where they have all the mission meetings) and we talked specifically about how we can further the work of salvation among the Spanish-speaking community.  It was a GREAT start.  We talked a lot about the barriers that could be specific to Hispanics and what we can do to overcome it.  There's still a ton of work to do to understand fully the potential this part of the work has, but Saturday was AWESOME to have everyone there working together. 

The Spanish ward missionaries with our favorite couple, Debanhi and Mario!  They're pretty cool.

We've been seeing Eand N frequently to make sure that N is doing what he needs to in order to prepare for Baptism, and we have grown to really love them a LOT.  They're still working on Paper things, but hopefully they'll be able to get married on the 15th of february if they have everything done by the 14th!  Another option they've been considering seriously is having N move out for a month or 2 so that he can get baptized while they figure out the paperwork stuff.  Before, we weren't completely sure if he really understood the importance of what he was doing, but we're so grateful for E who has SO much faith and is really helping N to understand the importance of this step.  So hopefully things will work out to where he'll be baptized in February! Man, we just love 'em.

 

We haven't been able to see a doctor yet for Hermana Gwynn's ankle, but she's been a trooper.  She is still convinced that she's capable of running in the morning, boot and all, so that has only slowed her down a little bit!  (Her running has turned more into speed-walking, but she refuses to let anything get in the way between her and her Personal Exercise!) :)

 

And I'll work on that Abuelita's recipe!  I've been actually really good about writing down how these people make all their good food.  I've also learned how to make Bunuelos and some really legit cheesecake.  FOOD. :)

 

Sounds like y'all were nice and busy this week!  With Dad coming home from his European excursion and the Folsom Festival (man, I loved going to that in High School back in the olden days when I was still in my teens....*sigh*) :)  and the SCRIPTURE BOWL!  (I wish I was better at doing scripture mastery in seminary now that I'm a missionary...) and Nat finishing up the eagle scout project paperwork!  I'm also slightly baffled and extremely impressed that Dad, maybe for the first time ever, stayed awake for an entire movie at the Stanford!  Is there some sort of celebration that will be formed to mark this momentous occasion??? :)

Me and Adrian Lopez!  He has a nametag that says "Futuro Misionero" so we basically match. no big deal

Hermana Gwynn bought me a cake, so sweet!  We made good use of the 20 candles that i got in the birthday package :) Thanks!

 

Hey, keep being awesome, ok? ok. :)

 

I love you all soooooooooooooooooo so much! Les quiero!

 

Con amor,

Hermana Sangre