Well, you probably figured out why there wasn't any email on Monday... And then Tuesday was our zone conference in Wichita.
My new comp Hna. Nuckles is great! She is super nice and we get along very, very well. I love her perspective in lessons and in comp study and when talking about investigators, etc.
We had SO many crazy, interesting, powerful, poignant, out-there experiences last week. I'll try to pick a couple.
On Friday, we had been trying to contact a bunch of part member families without success and by then it was after 8 (and people don't want you in their house after 8 unless you were already there) so we were on our way home to practice some Spanish when we passed by the Church of Deliverance. A strong surge of curiosity caught us and we turned around, parked and walked in. We were ushered into a row toward the front and heard a lady preacher. I was surprised at how many things we agreed with. They were AMAZING at fellowshipping, that's for sure. The whole congregation told us they loved us. Twice. And then afterward basically everyone there hugged us, told us "God bless" and how much they wanted to see us again. We were invited to their Bible Study on Tuesday. And the craziest thing... one of our investigators was in the audience: Trujilda, the Colombian, and her sister. We came home and I just had an overwhelming feeling that we had been there for a reason, but I wasn't totally sure what it was.
Saturday... we ate at a Spanish branch member's home--SO good--and then not much success to speak of that night.
Saturday night/Sunday morning I kept waking up with the worst stomach ache and nausea I've had in years. Finally, after hours of it, at 5:30 a.m. I got up and puked. Puking is such a weird experience. You sweat (and I'm not a sweat-er), your heart rate is like 130, you go all pale and dizzy.... yuckgh.
Then I went back to bed.
Then I got up again at 6:45 and puked again.
And my comp made me go back to bed again.
Then I puked again at 10.
I was in bad shape all day Sunday. I was obviously super dehydrated so I had the massive headache and then the hot 'n cold thing and the achy skin and nausea. I was super mad cuz we had an appt. that night with Diana and Pele, our main Spanish investigators, and we can only see them on Sunday evenings so it would be another week before we could see them. Plus we had a team up with the Vegas... GRRR. But whatdya do? Sunday was super long and we both just read a lot of scriptures and I slept a lot.
Monday I woke up a little better. Not throwing up, but definitely not back to normal. And then we drove to Wichita that night and spent the night there.
Tuesday was zone conference. AMAAAAZING. The last one (Every one) was (is) very good. But I gleaned a lot more from this one and it was just better all around for me. And the Lord blessed me to start feeling better as zone conf. wore on. That night when we got back to JC and went to the Bible Study..... I dunno. It was just super interesting to me. A new experience. Something I believed but hadn't experienced up to that point for myself. After the spiritual feast at zone conf... the Bible Study.... it was like a drop in the ocean, basically. They went off on tangents. Only a bit of it was doctrinally incorrect, but the full force of the Spirit of the Lord just wasn't directing that meeting and it was so evident after the Spirit we'd felt just a few hours before.
Haha, so I found some black boots in our pantry someone left here that I tromp around the snow in.... they are HIDEOUS. I'm wearing them right now. =0)
And they're too big for me. But hey, if you can't wear deplorable boots on your mish when can ya? Another thing, I chopped my hair again!! Yay. It's so fun. I'll send pics soon.
So today it's blizzarding. Good thing I know how to drive in the snow... But we're not going to go to our dinner appt. in Enterprise cuz that's 30 min away via freeway and farm road... just not smart, right? What else is new... well, lots of things actually, like we've been finding a lot of people to teach lately so we have a large pool. It's just terrifying when you get sick or have other things happen you can't control that thwart your visiting them and teaching them. You don't want to lose 'em.
Now for a blog shoutout:
Emily Blotter~ WHERE IS MY LETTER??? I hope you got mine. And I know school's busy... but I need updates from you on MANY topics!!!!!.....
Brady: Hahahaha so the story of how I finally got your package is kind of funny/ridiculous. But I did get it and it was awesome and the letter [aka novel] you wrote me was awesome and I hope you are doing grrrrrreat. I'm jealous of your temple working opportunity every single day. But it's ok. Cuz I'm here!
Rachel P: Hope to hear from you soon! I dreamed about you the other night!
Okey dokey, I need to wrap it up and write Pres.
I love you all "so muches" (as Hna Morelos would say) and hope to hear from y'all very soon.
Tengan una buena semana.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Enero 10
This week was... of course... awesome. :)
It's so crazy to me every week how the beginning of the week seems like a year ago, how the end of the week is so different from how it began. At the beginning of last week, my companion Hna. Morelos was so sick. She ran a fever and her throat was killing her and I did as best I could to take care of her. On Tuesday we got the transfer call. Sister Morelos was to be transfered to Concordia, MO ..... where my former comp Sis. Birch is!! They are like night and day, but I love both of them SO MUCH and they'll be wonderful. They're ushering a couple Spanish families into the Gospel! On Wednesday, I took Hna. M to an NP to get her checked out. Luckily she didn't have strep. They gave her some amoxicillin and tylenol with codeine (THAT helped lol) and then she was outa here on Thursday morning. So needless to say, Tuesday thru Thursday was a bit rough. It was so hard to say goodbye to each other. We just kept on giving each other things and telling each other things... She did NOT want to go. Not at ALL. And I didn't want her to go either. But I was blessed to receive Sis. Nuckles as my new companion--Hna. Morelos's other favorite companion. :) Haha, a couple weeks ago we were driving and she goes, "You're not supposed to have favorites... but... mine are you and Sis. Nuckles." hahaha
So Sis. N came in Thurs. morning and it has been great serving with her and getting to know her. We've taught some really good lessons since Thursday and both gave talks in the Spanish branch yesterday haha. crazy! And last night we gave the first lesson to a young Spanish family. Son MUY buenos! haha But yeah, it's a little stressful to take over an area when you've only been out 6 weeks! It's almost like training. But Hna. N is already a good missionary so it's easier than training, I'm sure, ha. But yeah, just keeping track of everything that needs to be done in both the ward and the branch and with all the investigators is a tall job at times.
So we're trying our best to take care of our investigators and 'los menos activos' and being obedient so that we can actually do that. I love this quotation in PMG: "Your calling gives you authority and your obedience gives you power." something like that...
Thanks, Mom, for having those tights resent. I've really been missing them! But yeah, actually last night/today has been our first snow here in JC. So far it has snowed like 6 inches!! So great. Today is my comp's birthday so we're going to try and do something kinda fun today for p-day... not sure how much we can do, though, because the roads are covered ha. Good thing I know how to drive in the snow. She's from St. George and has only driven in it once so on our way out today she goes, "Umm... you wanna drive today?"
Por favor busque oportunidades misionales!!!! iCompartan el evangelio! Gracias.
Tengo que emailar mi presidente misional ahorita. iHasta luego!
Hna. Underlin
It's so crazy to me every week how the beginning of the week seems like a year ago, how the end of the week is so different from how it began. At the beginning of last week, my companion Hna. Morelos was so sick. She ran a fever and her throat was killing her and I did as best I could to take care of her. On Tuesday we got the transfer call. Sister Morelos was to be transfered to Concordia, MO ..... where my former comp Sis. Birch is!! They are like night and day, but I love both of them SO MUCH and they'll be wonderful. They're ushering a couple Spanish families into the Gospel! On Wednesday, I took Hna. M to an NP to get her checked out. Luckily she didn't have strep. They gave her some amoxicillin and tylenol with codeine (THAT helped lol) and then she was outa here on Thursday morning. So needless to say, Tuesday thru Thursday was a bit rough. It was so hard to say goodbye to each other. We just kept on giving each other things and telling each other things... She did NOT want to go. Not at ALL. And I didn't want her to go either. But I was blessed to receive Sis. Nuckles as my new companion--Hna. Morelos's other favorite companion. :) Haha, a couple weeks ago we were driving and she goes, "You're not supposed to have favorites... but... mine are you and Sis. Nuckles." hahaha
So Sis. N came in Thurs. morning and it has been great serving with her and getting to know her. We've taught some really good lessons since Thursday and both gave talks in the Spanish branch yesterday haha. crazy! And last night we gave the first lesson to a young Spanish family. Son MUY buenos! haha But yeah, it's a little stressful to take over an area when you've only been out 6 weeks! It's almost like training. But Hna. N is already a good missionary so it's easier than training, I'm sure, ha. But yeah, just keeping track of everything that needs to be done in both the ward and the branch and with all the investigators is a tall job at times.
So we're trying our best to take care of our investigators and 'los menos activos' and being obedient so that we can actually do that. I love this quotation in PMG: "Your calling gives you authority and your obedience gives you power." something like that...
Thanks, Mom, for having those tights resent. I've really been missing them! But yeah, actually last night/today has been our first snow here in JC. So far it has snowed like 6 inches!! So great. Today is my comp's birthday so we're going to try and do something kinda fun today for p-day... not sure how much we can do, though, because the roads are covered ha. Good thing I know how to drive in the snow. She's from St. George and has only driven in it once so on our way out today she goes, "Umm... you wanna drive today?"
Por favor busque oportunidades misionales!!!! iCompartan el evangelio! Gracias.
Tengo que emailar mi presidente misional ahorita. iHasta luego!
Hna. Underlin
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Enero 3, 2011
This past week was really, really good. Especially Friday--Sunday. On Thursday we increased our commitment to be exactly obedient, to not even let the small things slip, and the Lord blessed us immensely. He used us to find SEVEN new investigators. Now the trick'll be KEEPING them all. Not letting any slip through the cracks, things like that. But I love these people already. They're all so different... It's interesting how everyone's life has taught them different things. I know I've already said this, but it's SO TRUE.... The Holy Ghost is the ONLY One who knows them intimately and perfectly and can communicate through us to these people exactly what they need. It's a big responsibility to make sure we're the clean, willing, loving, at least somewhat knowledgeable vessels through which He can do that.
We found one lady by going out earlier than usual. We decided that I would do my language study when we came back to the apt. that night and to go out at 10 a.m. :) We went to talk to a potential investigator named Virginia (veer-hin-ee-uh) at a Mexican store, but she wasn't there. We were about to leave when some crazy zebra shoes caught my comp's eye and she window shopped for a second. The lady inside opened the door and said, "Well, come in!" and then she said it in Spanish to my companion. Spanish always makes us perk our ears because you really have to search for the Spanish in JC. So we went into the store. At first I just wanted to get out of the store because it wasn't pday... but there wasn't anybody in the store and she said it was fine to sit down with her and "talk about the Bible". So we sat there behind the front desk and taught her! We talked about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration, mostly. She's from Columbia and speaks English with a Jamaican accent and obviously fluent Spanish.... even though she looks like she's from Kenya.
Then there's Miss Faye. We volunteer with her at the food pantry every Thursday, service day, and she lives in a senior apt. complex. We visited her and taught the Restoration. She's sweet. She's from Ireland, has the accent and all. :) I think for now she passes us off as extra-religious-young-people haha and ya know she says how she appreciates that there are still some young people who are religious because all the stuff she hears the kids say today is..... yeah. Not exactly "God-fearing".
Mary is the daughter-in-law of Sis. H. in the ward. Apparently she had a good friendship with a couple of sisters a few years ago, but she said they mostly just talked with her and were her friends but didn't teach her formal lessons, etc. We got to know her, shared a message about the Book of Mormon, and gave her the same challenge our mission pres. gave us to read the Book of Mormon in 60 days (about 10 pages a day if YOU guys wanna do it!!) and she accepted. :) She's a great person, very friendly. She and Sis. H. talked about their trip to England.... where they visited MANCHESTER AND YORKSHIRE and London.... I was all sorts of excited/envious/hanging on their every word haha. Someday, I tell you, someday...... I WILL do a study abroad in London.... Anyway.....
Marina is the friend of a less-active, Cristina. She said she wonders what the correct religion is and is apprehensive about joining the wrong one. She's currently Catholic. It's super hard to find her, get a hold of her, but we are definitely not letting her go. She actually came to sacrament yesterday (and brought her son!) and I had a strong prompting to bear my testimony. While we were sitting there, I just wanted so badly to be able to share with them what I know and feel because I'm usually not able to do it in lessons as easily. I got up and bore my testimony with all my heart to them, hoping that somehow they'd open their hearts to the Spirit that the sacrament meeting holds, to let it touch them so that they might have the desire to investigate more...
After the meeting, the way they looked at me changed. The way they talked changed. In a good way. I could tell that they had felt the Holy Ghost during that meeting, at some point, and that they could tell from the testimonies they heard from the wonderful members of the branch, that there's something different about this church. I hope that doesn't die. I hope it grows and grows.........
Well, we have more new investigators, great ones that we ... ugh... the feeling that comes is so hard to describe.
But I'm thankful for the extra measure of Spirit Heavenly Father gives His missionaries. For the opportunity to be used in His hands for the welfare of my brothers and sisters. It's so humbling and motivates you to be the best you can because it's someone else that is involved and you LOVE them because he/she is your brother/sister. And to claim that I love Christ, my Savior and Friend, I must love all men and women.
I hope everyone is well. My companera is sick right now and I'm doing my best to use what little nursing experience I have to take care of her. :)
And yes, transfers are tomorrow... but I don't think either of us are leaving. Neither of us will allow it haha.
We found one lady by going out earlier than usual. We decided that I would do my language study when we came back to the apt. that night and to go out at 10 a.m. :) We went to talk to a potential investigator named Virginia (veer-hin-ee-uh) at a Mexican store, but she wasn't there. We were about to leave when some crazy zebra shoes caught my comp's eye and she window shopped for a second. The lady inside opened the door and said, "Well, come in!" and then she said it in Spanish to my companion. Spanish always makes us perk our ears because you really have to search for the Spanish in JC. So we went into the store. At first I just wanted to get out of the store because it wasn't pday... but there wasn't anybody in the store and she said it was fine to sit down with her and "talk about the Bible". So we sat there behind the front desk and taught her! We talked about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration, mostly. She's from Columbia and speaks English with a Jamaican accent and obviously fluent Spanish.... even though she looks like she's from Kenya.
Then there's Miss Faye. We volunteer with her at the food pantry every Thursday, service day, and she lives in a senior apt. complex. We visited her and taught the Restoration. She's sweet. She's from Ireland, has the accent and all. :) I think for now she passes us off as extra-religious-young-people haha and ya know she says how she appreciates that there are still some young people who are religious because all the stuff she hears the kids say today is..... yeah. Not exactly "God-fearing".
Mary is the daughter-in-law of Sis. H. in the ward. Apparently she had a good friendship with a couple of sisters a few years ago, but she said they mostly just talked with her and were her friends but didn't teach her formal lessons, etc. We got to know her, shared a message about the Book of Mormon, and gave her the same challenge our mission pres. gave us to read the Book of Mormon in 60 days (about 10 pages a day if YOU guys wanna do it!!) and she accepted. :) She's a great person, very friendly. She and Sis. H. talked about their trip to England.... where they visited MANCHESTER AND YORKSHIRE and London.... I was all sorts of excited/envious/hanging on their every word haha. Someday, I tell you, someday...... I WILL do a study abroad in London.... Anyway.....
Marina is the friend of a less-active, Cristina. She said she wonders what the correct religion is and is apprehensive about joining the wrong one. She's currently Catholic. It's super hard to find her, get a hold of her, but we are definitely not letting her go. She actually came to sacrament yesterday (and brought her son!) and I had a strong prompting to bear my testimony. While we were sitting there, I just wanted so badly to be able to share with them what I know and feel because I'm usually not able to do it in lessons as easily. I got up and bore my testimony with all my heart to them, hoping that somehow they'd open their hearts to the Spirit that the sacrament meeting holds, to let it touch them so that they might have the desire to investigate more...
After the meeting, the way they looked at me changed. The way they talked changed. In a good way. I could tell that they had felt the Holy Ghost during that meeting, at some point, and that they could tell from the testimonies they heard from the wonderful members of the branch, that there's something different about this church. I hope that doesn't die. I hope it grows and grows.........
Well, we have more new investigators, great ones that we ... ugh... the feeling that comes is so hard to describe.
But I'm thankful for the extra measure of Spirit Heavenly Father gives His missionaries. For the opportunity to be used in His hands for the welfare of my brothers and sisters. It's so humbling and motivates you to be the best you can because it's someone else that is involved and you LOVE them because he/she is your brother/sister. And to claim that I love Christ, my Savior and Friend, I must love all men and women.
I hope everyone is well. My companera is sick right now and I'm doing my best to use what little nursing experience I have to take care of her. :)
And yes, transfers are tomorrow... but I don't think either of us are leaving. Neither of us will allow it haha.
December 20, 2010
Oh boybee this week was interesting. As always. :) Last week was hard and disappointing... and this week naturally had some of that too, haha, but I testify of the power of the Atonement through the sacrament once again because it's real. The Lord blessed our efforts this week. We visited more members than usual this week in order to give them copies of the Book of Mormon that they will prayerfully place and give to people they feel inspired to give them to. Hopefully we will gain some investigators through this, but more than that, I hope that it will at least plant seeds, or start some balls rolling, even if that's not an immediate missionary visit or baptism. And we're really trying to get the ward and branch more involved in the missionary work by having more of a relationship with them and asking them to help us with different things, etc. And we're seeing that it's helping. We're receiving more referrals and feel closer to the ward members.
We have two new investigators: Chenoah ("Shen-oh-uh"), the new wife of a returning-to-activity Tongan RM, Bro. L.--he wants to take her to the temple very much, but there are a few issues that have to be worked out. :) And Don, his friend, whom I contacted at the wedding. They live far away (our area is huge) so that's an issue, but yeah. Pray for them. Boy, at one point in the lesson (we taught them both at the same time last week), their friend Petie came in who's a very strong Christian and completely chased away the Spirit, which had been very palpable before. Very argumentative and we tried the best we could to keep the Spirit there, answer calmly, but he was just kinda one of those who was bent on disproving us and not really listening anyway... which then planted some bad seeds in Chenoah's and Don's minds....
It... was an interesting lesson.... :)
But we know they felt the Spirit. Don even said that, as he read the introduction to the B of M, he felt a burning in his chest. I'm not trying to blow it out of proportion--he's not reading the B of M on his own, sadly, and he didn't come to church, but I hope that he remembers that. Sometimes it takes people 8 or 34 times of feeling the Spirit strongly to to soften their heart. :) He believes in Christ, though. I believe he's been prepared to hear the Gospel. Maybe we're the ones who'll bring it to him, maybe not. But we're doing our best to bring him closer to Christ than he was before, at least.
Thank you for telling me some of the things Dev said in his homecoming talk. I LOVE that kid. He's amazing and now he's even better! :) Zach also just returned from the mission. So weird to me... and Tanner... And Brant comes home in February.
Anyway, I love you all so very much and thank you for the package! I received a package today straight from the mailman's truck haha. We had just checked our mail (empty) and came around the corner to get in the car and we both screamed (my comp and I) at the mail truck hahahaha and he slammed on his brakes, jumped out, and said, "I have a package for you!" I have NO idea how he knew he had a package for me--it's still a mystery to us both haha--but he handed me my package! And I haven't even told you guys our apt (#207) number yet so it's amazing I've been getting mail.
I love you all again! I really gotta go now!!
Con mucho amor,
Hna. Underlin
We have two new investigators: Chenoah ("Shen-oh-uh"), the new wife of a returning-to-activity Tongan RM, Bro. L.--he wants to take her to the temple very much, but there are a few issues that have to be worked out. :) And Don, his friend, whom I contacted at the wedding. They live far away (our area is huge) so that's an issue, but yeah. Pray for them. Boy, at one point in the lesson (we taught them both at the same time last week), their friend Petie came in who's a very strong Christian and completely chased away the Spirit, which had been very palpable before. Very argumentative and we tried the best we could to keep the Spirit there, answer calmly, but he was just kinda one of those who was bent on disproving us and not really listening anyway... which then planted some bad seeds in Chenoah's and Don's minds....
It... was an interesting lesson.... :)
But we know they felt the Spirit. Don even said that, as he read the introduction to the B of M, he felt a burning in his chest. I'm not trying to blow it out of proportion--he's not reading the B of M on his own, sadly, and he didn't come to church, but I hope that he remembers that. Sometimes it takes people 8 or 34 times of feeling the Spirit strongly to to soften their heart. :) He believes in Christ, though. I believe he's been prepared to hear the Gospel. Maybe we're the ones who'll bring it to him, maybe not. But we're doing our best to bring him closer to Christ than he was before, at least.
Thank you for telling me some of the things Dev said in his homecoming talk. I LOVE that kid. He's amazing and now he's even better! :) Zach also just returned from the mission. So weird to me... and Tanner... And Brant comes home in February.
Anyway, I love you all so very much and thank you for the package! I received a package today straight from the mailman's truck haha. We had just checked our mail (empty) and came around the corner to get in the car and we both screamed (my comp and I) at the mail truck hahahaha and he slammed on his brakes, jumped out, and said, "I have a package for you!" I have NO idea how he knew he had a package for me--it's still a mystery to us both haha--but he handed me my package! And I haven't even told you guys our apt (#207) number yet so it's amazing I've been getting mail.
I love you all again! I really gotta go now!!
Con mucho amor,
Hna. Underlin
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