Happy Valentine's Day!

Me and my companion love Valentines!! We had so much fun. We had
parties in both of our English classes and we made cookies for all the
single moms in our wards. We happenchanced already had the same shirt,
we didn't buy it together. We are literally the same person.
One of my favorite scriptures: Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13
Nobody gives us more love than the savior!

So besides the wonderful Valentine week, I actually fell quite ill
this weekend and almost died. Literally, I have never been so sick or
in so much my pain my whole entire life. We don't know what it was but
it could of been one three things; the flu bug that has been going
around, food poising from all the gross Hispanic food I eat, or the
tub of raw cookie dough that me and my companion ate. 😁
But because the church is true, I got a preisthood blessing and I'm
almost all better now:)

16 meces joy

Psalms 118:24
This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Stake Conference with President Nelson

On Sunday our stake had a very special opportunity to have conference
with Pres. Nelson.
So our stake is really special because we're one of only five
completely Hispanics stakes in the United States. Usually Hispanic
wards are just mixed in with English stakes but we have so many
Hispanics here we have our own stake! It's the best stake ever. We
have a lot of amazing wards and leaders. The conference didn't start
until 10 but everybody wanted to be there early to get seats because
once the chapel was full, they had to send people away. So we got a
ride with members and we left at 6:30am to be one of the first ones
there to get a good seat. We arrived around 7:30 and had to sit and
wait for two and a half hours until the conference actually started.
But it was a amazing of course. We heard from the temple presidency
and the mission presidency and Elder Falabella from the seventy. One
of the youth in my ward was asked to speak, Jayline Gonzalez. She's 18
and super cool! She was so nervous, but she asked us to help her write
her talk! She spoke on family history work and temples and it was
awesome I almost cried. Something that president Mortensen said that
caught my attention was: "The best thing we can do is have our
children hear us share and testify of the gospel." It reminded of how
blessed I am because I have the most missionary-minded dad in he
world. I have so many memories of my father sharing the gospel and his
testimony with everyone. His coworkers, students, wrestlers, football
players. He probably has brought more people to Christ than I have as
a full time missionary ha!
President Nelson knows Chinese but not Spanish, but he gave his whole
talk in Spanish. He had to read the whole thing and his accent was
very gringo but it was amazing that he loves the people so much he
wanted to do that. The most amazing part of the conference is at the
end of his talk, when he stopped reading, he gave his testimony and a
blessing to the stake, and he began to speak in perfect Spanish! It
was amazing, the gift of tongues is real and it was just another
witness to me that he is a servant of the Lord and the Church is true.

I love my mission

This will probably be the best email I've written my whole entire
mission so invite all of you to actually read it because I had the
coolest week ever:)

So we had transfers on Tuesday and I am trainee breaking again, my new
companion is Hermana Sheirbon! She is the best and I love her so
freaking much! We are like the same person it is crazy how alike we
are. First of all we look alike we both have blonde hair and blue eyes
and are super white, so everyone asks if we're sisters. We have like
the same birthday, and we have the same exact scripture on our
missionary plaques. D&C 31:3 it's crazy! We love a lot of the same
things. So this week has already been a whole lot better than last
transfer:) Hna. Sheirbon is from Tacoma Washington. She is a convert
to the church. She was just baptized two years ago when she was 18! So
basically she is my hero. She is the only member in her family.

So this week was crazy with transfers and even crazier this weekend
because we had a very very special event! We had a tri-mission
conference with all three missions in Houston. Because the President
from the quorum of the twelve apostles came to visit!! Like I don't
think y'all understand how cool this was. PRESIDENT NELSON. Not just
an Apostle of the Lord, but the future prophet! We all got to meet him
and shake his hand. Even though he is 92 he is so lively and fun and
nice. We got to listen to him and Elder Corbridge from the 70. It was
an amazing spiritual experience. I want to share with y'all some
things that I learned.
From Elder Corbridge I learned that we are literally and physically
separated from God on the earth, but he was us to have his power and
presence during our time on the earth which is the Holy Ghost.
From The president of the south mission I learned that we literally
connect people to heaven. And we are apostles with a little "a"
From the president of the east mission I learned that all our Heavenly
Father desires for us is to return to his presence with all our
friends and family.
And from mission president of the THM aka the best president I learned
that Heavenly Father desires all his children to know their true
identity as his children. And that we are the restores of sight/vision
just like Jesus Christ was.
President Nelson shared an incredible almost unbelievable story with
us that he said he has never shared before. Just from hearing
strengthen my testimony so much of revelation and how God works
through his servants.
President Nelson met with the new mayor of Houston the day before and
he said he was being interviewed and someone asked him what the
purpose of missionaries is or what we do. He said their purpose is to
simple "make people's lives better" it's true. Most people complicate
too much. What I desire more that baptizing people's is just helping
them have a better life through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Also I learned from president Nelson that more revelation and
scripture has came through the the prophet Joseph Smith than any of
the other prophets COMBINED.
He taught me that I'm strengthening my family more from leaving them
than I could from being with them.
He taught me that we are from the lineage to prepare people for the
second coming of the Lord.
He said The miracle of having the Book of Mormon is something we
should never take lightly.
But my very favorite thing I learned from President Nelson is quote:
"Be careful what you write home, that is scripture to your family."
When he said that it was like a slap in the face. I'm sorry I have
never been very good at sending uplifting email homes. All I want is
for my younger siblings and friends to read my emails and letters and
feel moved to share the gospel. So forgive me, I'll be better.
I also ran into my long lost from the the Texas Houston South mission,
Tyler Carter. That was cool!

Then on Sunday we had stake conference but I'm going to write about
that next week because I think if this letter gets any longer none of
y'all are gonna read it!

Les amo muchismo! Cuidense

Conroe Baptisms

This week I was able to go back and visit Conroe for two baptisms!
Paulina and Milton. Paulina's baptism was really special for me
because out of all the baptisms I've had on my mission she is the only
one I've found knocking doors. Me and Hermana Christensen found her in
October. And she let us right in. BEST FEELING. I was so happy to see
her baptized.
Also Milton was finally baptized, the one who had his wedding in
November with Gabby, a member.
My best friend took me up to Conroe, Sister. Bulnes. She is from
Honduras and she is like my favorite member. It's like an hour long
drive there so we got to talk and it was awesome. She was my companion
for the day while my companion stayed in Houston. She put on my big
fluffy coat because she's making fun of me.

Freezing!

So if y'all remember, last week I told y'all how hot it was here, and
it was. But then we we had this  freak drop of like 50 degrees and now
it's freezing. And also if you remember, all my coats and jackets are
lost/stolen/missing so I froze and had to go by a coat and fleece
tights.
Of course it's not as cold as Utah and there's not snow, but the
difference is that in Utah, it's a dry cold, so you can just bundle up
with more clothes and you get warmer. Here, it's humid cold, so it
doesn't matter how many layers you put on, you don't get warmer. I'm
so grateful for the boots I got for Christmas because I wear them
everyday.

So we are finally starting to pick up the area. We have two amazing
families we are teaching. One in the Spanish ward and one in the
English ward. Frank and his two kids are scheduled to be baptized at
the end of the month. And nelly and her family are amazing! They are
progressing so well. We just started teaching them last week and they
are already reading in the Bom and they all came to church yesterday
and loved it. She has three kids. They are so cute. The youngest one,
Jaelin, loves me and made me a necklace and drew a picture of
me(attached)

I have lots of new year goals! Mostly just to lose weight, but other
mission and spiritual goals too:) hope y'all had a safe new year! I
got to drink some fake champagne, watch meet the Mormons, and go to
sleep at 10 so #lame 🤓

Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time!

So there is only one time in the whole year we get together as a whole

entire mission and that's the Christmas conference! It is the best.

It's all day and we just sing and eat and watch movies.

Here is the one and only perfect Mortensen family.

So many wonderful amazing things this week. First, last Tuesday I got
to go on exchanges to my fist area in the mission, bear creek. It was
the best. I got to see some of my converts and member friends. The
first picture on here is of a this girl that I found with hermana
coley in March. She was baptized in June and she is going to go on a
mission! She is so excited, and so am I! The next picture is of the
Alcaraz family. The first investigator family that I ever taught on my
mission. They were so excited to see me. I surprised them! The
daughters and mom are baptized, but we still have to work with the dad
and the boys to be baptized so one day they can be sealed! Wednesday
was the Christmas conference and I sent a separate email for that.
Then on Thursday we had a Christmas Eve dinner with my mission mom,
Claudia Alvarez and her friends and family. She has known me my whole
mission and is always taking care of me. I love her like my own
mother! So much food. We ate so much, 3 dinners. Then on Friday,
Christmas, we had district meeting, the picture with the tree. But
most importantly I got to skype with my FAMILY! Yay😄 it was wonderful
to see them. I got to see Vince who was skyping in from Japan, and I
meet my brotherinlaw for the first time..I was skyping outside to get
wifi and it was so hot I was sweating. It was 85degress. On Christmas!
I was jealous of the snow back home. But I am also grateful that I
don't have to tract in that. And we ate with a white family on
Christmas from the English ward and they gave us a complete American
meal and it was the best day of my life, I almost cried.
Then on Saturday, we had the baptism of Efrain! He is a little boy
that the hermanas had been teaching. I only got to teach him a couple
times but he's cute.

This week I am ponderizing 2 Nefi 10:23

Feliz año nuevo!