3 Months Done!

I feel like so much has happened this past week! 

We're always busy of course. We have been teaching a lot of recent convert lessons lately which has been good. We have also been trying to work with less active members also. 

The Best thing about this last week is we finally got in with the Alcarez family. A little bit about them, The mom Judy, was baptized about 20 years ago and has been inactive ever since. She is married to Alfredo, and they have 4 kids. Amanda 16, Vanessa 12, AJ 8, and Joshua 6. Judy says that she wants her kids to get involved in the church. Her oldest daughter Amanda has a lds friend and she is really interested. We went to their home and Judy says that she wants her kids to be baptized! I am so excited for them. And the dad, Alfredo, is super funny. I showed him my photo album and i have a picture of my baptism and he said, his own words, "so when i get baptized i will white too??" yeah, i almost cried right there. they are so ready! They just need the lessons, and to come to church of course. And if they get baptized before April, I will be able to go through the temple with them:) 

On friday we had our English graduation. I love all the girls we teach so much. and they were all so excited to get their certificates!

The cold has passed, its 70 degrees now everyday. so today were are going to play in the park. 

Yesterday was the Mission President Fireside. It was amazing of course! They had recent converts speak and we sang and the spirit was so so strong! and all the spanish missionaries were there so it was awesome.

 

the sunrise this morning when we went running.

First Transfer Done

so i have completed my first transfer which means nothing for me because im in my 12 week training so i am still in the same area with the same comp for another 6 week transfer. which is great because i love bear creek and i never want to leave. not until i see at least one of my investigators get baptized! so but this past week i set my first baptismal dates with Elaine and Rolando! for january 31. which is great, but if they dont come to church we cant keep this date:( all i want is for somebody to come to church!!!!! geez, its so difficult here right now because seriously in texas, people dont leave their house when its cold. They just dont leave! its the strangest thing. even active members will stay home from church if its too cold

its funny because every house we go to they all offer us coffee or tea, and when we say no, they give us hot chocolate, and its funny because i hattteee hot chocolate, its makes me sick. and you cant say no to people here and you have to drink it all! ugh its horrible. a lot of lessons this week but not as much contacting, because its freezing and nobody is outside.

oh i almost forgot! this past week we needed to go on exchanges with our sister training leader, hermana diez, she is from honduras. so usually, i would go with her, and her companion would go with my trainer. because i have only been her a month and so has her companion. but hermana diez cant drive and neither can i, sooo my trainer had to go with her and me and hermana parslow were put together. both brandnew white girls from utah that suck at spanish! i was so afraid. because i had to lead the area. so basically we took a member with us to our lessons that spoke spanish and english so she could help us ha. and it ended up being alright. i was praying so hard this day. maybe one day ill be able to drive! and this next sunday me and my district are singing at a spanish fireside so pray for us ha!

well i have to go but thank you for all your prayers and support, i love you all sooooo much!

I have the best sister in the whole world and I love her:)

so awkward moment when last monday was my sisters birthday and i forgot! Sorry LonBon. hope you had a great 21st, you are so supportive and helpful i love you!

Pues, two weeks ago it was all about contacts here and finding new investigators. now its all about lessons. we found like 8 to 10 new investigators this past week. so that means i taught the restoration like a million times. its so powerful! i also invited two more families to be baptized in my broken spanish. when the spirit is there, they just cant say no! so many miracle lessons. so we have a lot of investigators right now, but no progressing investigators because none of them come to church:/ it is the most upsetting thing when you invite like 15 people to church that week and then on sunday you just wait for at least one to show up, and no one does:( so ive really been trying to study about the doctrine of the sabbath day and promised blessing from keeping this commandment for our investigators and less actives. if any of you return missionaries or active missionaries want to help me out with some ideas thatd be great, just write me:) 

with my spanish, i can understand almost everything now, but speaking is a different story. i am great with gospel words and phrases which is good for lessons. but i just need to know so much more im really impatient. But I already know The Lord has blessed me so much with the language and I am so grateful for the gift of tongues.

its still freezing here and im super over it. ive been in the mission field a month now! dont worry, it only feels like TEN YEARS.... :) i dont know why time is going by so slow, probably because this is the hardest thing i have done in my whole life. Pues, transfers are next week, which means nothing to me because when you are being trained, you stay in the area for 12 weeks, or two transfers, which im super happy about because i love Bear Creak area!

congrats to Brade for being a great wrestler and good luck to Loni at BYU this semester:) love you all! thanks so much for your support and prayers:)

Brrrr!

so if anybody tries to tell you it doesnt get cold in texas, theyre lying. it hasnt been cold since i got here until last week the day after christmas. IM FREEZING. it doesnt snow here, it just will rain all day. and your just cold and wet. so contacting is quite difficult now. but oh well. i am just grateful for the scarf, gloves, umbrella, and legwarmers that my grandma sandy and lowry sent me!

so im really excited to tell y'all about some of the miracles that have happened this past week. first with our new investigator Norma. We found her last week contacting. When we went up to her house, she had a gate. so i told hna. reese that we just shouldnt bother. but she insisted and opened gate and knocked on the door. she told "pasan, pasan" which means come-in in spanish. which was odd because strangers usually dont let you in to their homes. she said that she had been looking for a church. so we sent up a return appointment with her. we taught her the restoration, and i invited her to baptism, she said yes even though im sure she has no clue what it means. and she ask for a priesthood blessings from the elders because she is sick. it was awesome!

With Elaine and Relando, they are so great! he speaks spanish, but she speaks english. so basically we just teach in both different languages. we gave them both a book of mormon and un el libro de mormon. and they read and have a lot of questions! which is good. we just need to get them to church because he works of sundays. that is our problem with a lot of people here. they all work of sundays! but im super excited for them.

The Alcarez family. okay so i dont remember how we found them but they are a part member family. The mom was baptized around 11 years ago, and then her husband and 4 kids are all none members! we went and visited them for the first time last week. and said that she wants her kids to be in the church! and her 16yrold daughter has an lds friend and she is really interested and wants to start coming to church! i am so excited for them

On christmas i got to skype with my family which was fab. Seems like everybody is doing so good! im so pround of my two brothers. Brady is doing awesome in wrestling and Vince is such a stud serving or country! and Im so excited for my sister to go to BYU again. Kind of really upset that they are in florida right now, soaking up the sun while im dying of frostbite. i also got more packages and letters this last week! one from wendy sorensen and the other from my favorite family ever, the giles:) i am so blessed, that you guys!

ill send a couple pics. 

les amo. muchas gracias por sus oraciones y por su apoyo. Feliz nuevo ano!