Week #70 - Good Morning

Hola Familia!

 

Merry late Christmas and a Happy New Year!!! It was fabulous to see everyone on Christmas! You all look beautiful!

I'm really not sure what to say... I pretty much said everything on Skype...

I'm happy to say that bike week is over now! Hallelujah! No more walking in the rain! at least for another 3 weeks. (I think I only have 2 bike weeks left so I might be counting those down.... lol)

As for watching the Saratov Approach (It is super awesome. But mom, don't watch it until I'm home... we can watch it together and then you won't have to worry about anything ;)

It is so weird to think that 2014 is almost gone. In just a few short days it will be a new year. We were talking with a less-active member the other day and Hermana Warner asked her if she had thought about any new year's resolutions yet. Well, that got me to thinking about mine and then our less-active member said something that made me quake a little bit. She said, you must be so excited you both will get to see your families, and give them hugs, and, and, and etc... I have no idea how I am going to make new years resolutions that aren't my mission goals... so weird, some of those goals have to apply to real life. YIKES, what am I going to do???

Ummm... what else, what else?

That really was about it.

If you have any questions.... now would be the time to ask....

Love,

Hermana Ives

Week #69 - Oh What Joy and Wonder

Merry Christmas everyone!

This week has been absolutely crazy! We had our first ever sisters' meeting this past Tuesday. It was a blast (They used to do them before they had the huge wave of sisters, but then there were just too many people to get to one meeting and all this stuff so they were cancelled.) But Sister Wakolo put one on and it was a blast. We made Christmas ornaments, did a message circle, learned about natural skin care, exercise, etc... it was a really awesome day! Super special just to be all the sisters in the mission.

Then the next day was the Christmas Zone Conference!!! AHHHH, so much fun! We had a beautiful Christmas story reading with some hymns thrown in (I got to play the piano! So much fun!) We learned a lot more about teaching when you find and finding when you teach. There was an awesome talent show and a delicious baked potato and ham dinner. (so much love and work, the Lord and the people here love the missionaries!)

And then we got to see a movie... can you guess what movie we saw?? ...I really think the elders picked the movie... we watched the "Saratov Approach"... Have you seen or heard about this movie (first of all, I absolutely loved it, learned so much about the atonement and staying true to God) but, it is about 2 missionaries being kidnapped...I think there were a more than a couple of sister missionaries who went on a little higher red alert...(lol, my companion for example, will randomly say, "run!", I will then calmly ask, "why?"... to which there have been several responses. But my favorite was, "there is someone just sitting in their car, and they have been there for awhile!..." - we do that ourselves ALL the time)   

On Saturday, Geraldo Ibarra, a recent convert of almost a year, in 7 days. went out with us from 1-6pm. He is so awesome! Fearless in sharing the gospel and sharing it with everyone! He is super helpful in teaching us Spanish too!

Man, even on my mission I can't get out of special Christmas music numbers! What is this? The hour before Sacrament meeting, President Barrientos comes up and asks me if the missionaries can do a special musical number, with it being Christmas and all. So we called in another missionary from the English ward to accompany us. Right, now I am the only piano player in the entire branch... Then we pulled in Hermana Franklin to sing with us and we did a really pretty on the spot "Angels we have heard on high" with yours truly doing a SOLO! Don't ask me how that happened.... I was shaking so much! It made it really hard to sight read the opening and sacramental hymns...

But hey, ELIZABETH came to church again with her family! I am so happy for her and the changes she is making in her life!

Yup, some pretty awesome stuff has happened this week. We even had a lesson with Elizabeth and we talked about baptism. She doesn't want to be rushed into anything but she likes what she is learning. Then she started asking when Hermana Warner and I went home, with an interesting look on her face. I am thinking she is going to try and be baptized before I leave (that is my prayer at least! Love that woman so much!)

Anything else happen? Prolly, but those were most definitely the highlights. I am working on finishing el Libro de Mormon before Christmas (wish me luck! I am in Mormon)

It is so funny. Hermana Warner and I share an apartment with 2 ASL sisters. This is both of their first Christmas in the mission, and this is both mine and Hermana Warner's second. It is just funny to see the difference in attitudes and how giddy they get with each package and letter... and then us "older sisters" are over here just like, I just want to go shopping when I get home... It is really chistoso. at least I think so...

I love yall!

Super excited to talk to you on SKYPE! In a few short days!

Love,

Hermana Ives 

Week #68 - Christmas is Fast Approaching

Hola mi familia!

How exciting that you got to visit gma Judy and then that she was able to come down for Christmas with you! That is super neat! (In your Christmas plans you better make sure you have time for computer gaming! That needs to be a tradition that lasts ;)

The work has been going pretty awesome! We had exchanges this past week. I got to go down to Bryant for a day. I love teaching English but I love teaching in Spanish more. (It just comes more naturally, probably because of all the practice.) I've said it before and I'll say it again, the gospel is true but it is truer in Spanish!

We have been working like crazy to get all of our investigators to the branch Christmas party. (We really want it to be a huge success) So we have been calling, txting, showing up randomly just to invite people. It has been great! The Christmas party was this past Friday and we were able to get 12 of our investigators there! It was an absolute Christmas miracle! Our investigators brought friends and family it was crazy! At the Christmas party there was a bunch of pollo, arroz, y frijoles, (my companion and I were put in charge of warming up 360 tortillas! needless to say my fingertips were a little singed after that...oops), there was an awesome Christmas program and nativity, Santa Claus - with actual gifts, and a dance! It was an absolute blast! I have never had so much excitement and fun at a church activity. And our investigators loved it!  Even Elizabeth came - she is so impressed with how kind everyone is!

I love the gospel it is so true! You can just tell with Elizabeth a greater energy and happiness in her life! And she is actually excited about God and religion. Her friend Araseli is one of our investigators as well, and Araseli told us that she was talking with Elizabeth the other day, and for the first time in the 5 years that she has been friends with her she has never once heard Elizabeth talk about God until yesterday!!!! AHHHHHH progress!

And there really are awesome experiences just waiting for us as we talk with EVERYONE about the gospel. It was late one night and all of our plans fell through so we went to Shackleford trailers to try and contact some potentials. There was a guy sitting out in front of his trailer smoking. We went up to talk to him. You could tell at first he was NOT interested, Hna Warner kept trying to share the gospel and in my mind I realized that I was telling myself, "He's not interested. We are wasting our time and his. We should just leave..." then I realized what I was doing and immediately started praying for charity for this man and to have a desire to better be able to help him feel the Spirit. All of the sudden, out of nowhere he started talking about his life. How he had quit drinking and had stopped for 3 years now. And how he was struggling with quitting smoking. He had quit once for 9 months but had slipped back into it.. We were able to share the Book of Mormon with him and testify how it could help him develop the spiritual strength that he needed to quit. He finally accepted the Book of Mormon, came to the Christmas activity. And we later found out that he is actually the nephew of  one of our recent converts!

We had gumbo Sunday evening with the Franklin family. Can I say, DELICIOUS! Plus I found out that I actually do like shrimp (the texture still isn't my favorite) but it tastes pretty good. ;) Missions truly do change you. lol

I love you!

Hermana Ives

Week #67 - A Good, Spirit Filled Week

How fabulous was this week? It was FABULOUS!

 

I am glad that the advent calendar actually made it! And thanks for the reminder that I need to send the next installment (I wrote all of the cards in September/October...so sure you can share them...) Are you going to leave them all up until I come home to see them ;) lol you don't have to do that, just thought I would be funny!

 

So, I was transferred. I am now serving in north little rock Spanish (yup, I opened this area for 3 weeks last year) I am serving with Hermana Warner (this is her last transfer) so I get the blessed opportunity to kill yet another missionary. lol, but it is really awesome. Hermana Warner is such a diligent missionary. She is from Utah and we have really helped each other improve our Spanish!

 

The aerospace museum was such a disappointment... mostly because it doesn't exist anymore :'(  yeah, that was super duper sad. I was looking forward to it so much, we ended up going to a Arkansas historical museum and looking at the Native American exhibit. It was pretty cool... just not as cool as aerospace things...

 

Awesome miracle about being here in North's area is that one of my favorite investigators (Elizabeth Palmas) moved from my area down south to the north area. We had the opportunity to go visit her this past Friday and she committed to coming to church. And she ACTUALLY came! I was ecstatic!  She felt a little embarrassed about coming late and then she wore pants instead of a skirt so she felt pena to come in but she worked up the courage and she said she liked it. Plus she is planning on coming to the branch Christmas dinner on Friday! I really feel like I am in this area for her!

 

We had a different investigator, Mirna Girdon bring a friend, Cindy, to a Christmas YSA activity (she didn't want to go by herself so Hermana Warner and I went too...) So, YSA activities are awkward... but they are ten times MORE awkward as a missionary... lol but it was good and I think they had a good time. I hope so at least.

 

Did y'all get the opportunity to see the Christmas devotional?!? It was SO good! We were able to watch it with hna Romero and their hyperactive dog Skippy... So I was a little distracted trying to keep a dog intent on giving kisses away from my face. But I absolutely loved Elder Christofferson's insight on keeping the spirit of Christmas or of Christ with us at all times throughout the year.

 

It is super weird how it is December and in the 60s... no snow, no ice, just a little chilly wind...

 

I don't know about Christmas phone calls yet... we will probably be going to the Bowen's in the evening for Christmas dinner and to call so the 25th in the evening??? 

 

I hope you have a fabulous week. and that I answered all the questions that you had!

Love,

Hermana Ives

Week #66 - Oops

teehee,

sneak attack! I bet you didn't think you'd be hearing from me today... actually I'm a little surprised too. Hermana Smith had some last minute e-mail checking to do before her parents arrive to pick her up... Yup, her parents are flying down, they are going to tour the mission for a week and then fly home. (It had kind of been interesting, tying to line up all of the schedules and everything. 

So hermana Smith had her departing interview with President this morning. 

I got a call this morning telling me that I was being transferred.... yup, my area is closing (but then again it is a little bit expected, with the huge rush of missionaries that came out with the age change there is now a HUGE departure... 11 areas are closing this transfer and probably 11 more next transfer as well... sigh...(Still don't know where I am going to be serving) So I not only have to pack all of my stuff but also the entire apartment... without Hermana Smith... it is gonna be a little weird trying to juggle the hand off and everything...

Thank you so much for my package! I am SOOOOOO excited! All that chocolate =D And the hats and headbands are perfect! Just what I wanted!

Thanksgiving was so much fun we were able to go to a couple of less active's homes (well I guess they aren't so much less active any more because they have been coming to church...) but any who it was AWESOME. 

This month our mission had a big push to baptize 100 people get them confirmed and 100 reactivations. It has been absolutely amazing to be able to see our branch grow! We actually fill half of the chapel now! And even though our companionship did not see any baptisms, the other companionships did and we were able to have the great blessing of helping people to come back to church, back to their covenants, and back to the fold of God! It has been a super huge blessing/miracle for me.

Have you gotten your mail yet? I am so excited for it to actually get there! teehee! 

Ummm... as for the rest of the week it has been pretty slow. 

I just want to say that I LOVE you! 

Love,

Hermana Ives

Week #65 - Almost Thanksgiving

Hola Familia,

 

Can I tell you first off how excited I am for thanksgiving??? I am hoping beyond hope for tamales! Just so you know how culturally diverse I am now ;)

 

Let's see what happened this week???

Ummm. I found what I think I would only be able to find in the South... a plush toy... but get this it was of Jesus! It was huge and they had it in the passenger seat of their car! I want to know where they got it so bad! Make me want one and make a sign that says, "Jesus take the wheel!" teehee gotta love the South! There is absolutely nowhere like it!

 

I also learned that some Spanish words are so close and yet not quite there to qualify as cognates.... Baptism/ Bautismo is one of those... We had one of our investigators ask us not to come by for a little while because she was getting ready to bautizize her child... yeah, we are going to have to work on that one with her... but in the meantime it is just really fun to say bautizize. Focusing on the positive right?

 

Some things are awkward to purchase...some things are even more awkward to purchase as a missionary.... we went to the store looking for the equivalent of icyhot but the mission nurse told us bengay... How do you ask for that, "Umm, yes, excuse me... have you bengay??? No, I mean have you bengay here?".... so we just resorted to looking on all the isles by ourselves before asking anyone, luckily we found it! whew that was a close one ;) LOL 

 

Sooo... now that we have gotten through all of the funnies of this past week (and there have been some really good ones... on to the more spiritually uplifting part... The area seems to be in kind of a stand still. It feels like everyone knows the importance of finding it out the truthfulness of our message for themselves but no one wants to make the actual effort to come to the truth. So I have decided to focus even more on the Book of Mormon and to help my investigators to actually study the Book of Mormon looking for the answers to their questions that they thought were unanswerable. I know that the Book of Mormon really truly answers any question of the soul that we might have. I have seen that over and over again as we have been able to answer people's concerns through the Book of Mormon, Thank you Nefi and Alma!

I have been learning from my studies of the Old testament and the Book of Mormon about keeping your eye-single to the glory of God and not getting distracted by the little things. Every time I read about the Israelites I think why couldn't they stay righteous for just 5 minutes, why of all things were they worshiping cows?!? And then I started thinking the same thing about myself... why can't I keep virtuous undistracted thoughts all day long? Why of all things to I let myself be absorbed by thinking what I am going to have for dinner? And then I realized that an idol is really anything that distracts us from our purpose of living the gospel. Therefore pick out the things that distract you and start weeding them out. That is my goal for this week.

 

I love the gospel, I know that it is true and that it changes lives!

Love,

Hermana Ives 

Week #64 - This week... cold

Hola Familia!

What an awesome week. I survived my first bike week in 3 months... it was a little bit of a shocker especially since we got the week where the weather decided to drop down dramatically. But other than that and a super sore bum, everything worked out. And I am happy to announce that Hermana Smith and I debunked the running of South Spanish Sisters accidents during bike week. No one got hit by a car or broke both of their arms or got bed bugs! Hallelujah!

I finished reading the Book of Mormon looking especially for grace. It was so amazing, There is something marked on practically every page. What I've learned... do EVERYTHING right and you get ALL the blessings =D Super awesome formula right?!?

I am getting over my fear of talking to people on the telephone! Hermana Smith and I have taken it upon ourselves to call all of the contacts in our phone to try and set up an appointment and resume teaching them... you always are guaranteed an interesting experience talking with people you have never met before...

Ummmm... there was a lot of bundling up this week. Gotta say that I love wearing double tights, leggings, shorts, knee high socks, and a long skirt... you can't really move... but at least you are giving your mind the illusion of warmth.

One of the members in the branch has realized my love of scarves and brought me an my companion a scarf last Sunday! Super cute.

I have decided that I absolutely love the name Iveth. So don't be surprised if somewhere down the road I name a little girl that! lol (But that is WAAAAAAAYYYY down the road.)

Thank you so much for all the letters and e-mails! They are always the BEST!

November tis the season to be grateful! And I am so grateful for the gospel. It truly changes peoples' lives. The members', the investigators', the missionaries', every ones' lives are changed for the better as the gospel is embraced and lived to the fullest!

I hope you all have a wonderful week. And that it is filled with awesome missionary experiences. Also I invite you to make a special outreach to the Spanish missionaries in your area. They love member present lessons, rides, and food just as much as the English ones. LOL, it's true though!

Love,

Hermana Ives/Iveth

Week #63 - Awesome Week

          This week has been pretty good. Last week with the car and we got lots accomplished!  Hermana Smith and I have been having quite a few good laughs, remembering past jokes and coming up with new ones... our latest and greatest joke is what we call the 'awkward porch award'. Pretty interesting how people react to the missionaries knocking on their doors sometimes. One of our investigators is holding the awkward porch award 3/4 awkward porch approaches! lol, the best time was when we were standing on their porch knocking... their friends pulled up came up on the porch with us knocked the door, the door opened just enough for them to squeeze through and quickly close the door behind them... SO FUNNY! 

 

          We were able to help the Riviera family reactivate this Sunday! So exciting finding lost sheep and helping to motivate them to come! They are such an awesome family. The branch can really utilize them so I hope we can get them callings really soon. 

 

          We had exchanges again this week. They are always so interesting when an English sister comes to a Spanish area (with no knowledge of Spanish)... all the questions, "What'd they say?" "Did you invite them to be baptized?" "Tell her that her baby girl is so beautiful!" etc... not terrible but weird catching someone up while still standing on their porch in the middle of trying to explain church services and setting up a return appointment. Always an adventure ;)

 

          Playing the piano is such a blessing. But I have found in the church if you say that you play piano they expect you to be able to play anything at any time. Just a shout out of great thanks to my piano teacher, Mary Simpson! Thank you SOOOOO much! I was asked last second to play for a baptism of Carl Lewis. Then in the middle of the service there was an impromptu musical number and I was asked to accompany without practicing before! So crazy, I'm sure the Spirit helped calm my nerves but it was so awesome! I love accompanying so much more than straight up solos. 

 

          So for the most part of my mission my morning workouts have been less than stellar... but with Hermana Smith we made a workout activity. We have a jar of various exercises such as sit ups, burpees, tricep dips, jumping jacks, planks, etc... and then another jar that contains the number that we have to do ranging from 5 to 60...super awesome stuff. I can actually do a push up now :D I know right?!? Huge accomplishment! But now for the real point I was trying to get to. During weekly planning last week while trying to set goals we got to the new investigator goal and we started to get a little sidetracked with the story of Nephi and his brothers drawing lots to see who would go and get the plates from Laban. When we decided we should draw ''lots'' to see how many new investigators we should try and get this week. Got up drew out a number, 10! (that was the only truly acceptable number in the jar because 5 wasn't enough, and 15 would be a big stretch since we've been averaging about 7, and 45 would have been ridiculous) And we felt super good about it so we went with it. Last night we were lacking 2 investigators to be able to reach our goal. So with the hour we had left at 8:00pm we went spiritual harvesting and Heavenly Father lead us to a beautiful little family and our goal of 10 new investigators was achieved! I know that God has a plan for us and that as we exercise our faith and work hard to the very end we can accomplish everything that he has for us to do! Keep going, keep the faith, stay strong, and always remember who you are. 

 

          It is super funny how people butcher my name sometimes... we had an interesting experience with this one lady. She told us of all the times that she had told Mormons that their beliefs were wrong. And then she proceeded to find out our first names so that she could pray over us. Ives is not such an obvious last name as Smith so I got away with just saying my last name. So in her prayer she said, "please bless Silvia and Isis to know thee better." She was praying for my companion and then all of the sudden a terrorist group... that escalated quickly ;) My companion could hardly keep it together. It was pretty funny. 

 

          I've been reading in Alma in my book of Mormon study this month. So awesome! So many things that relate back to Preach My Gospel (mostly because it is all mission stories...) but still it is cool to see how the awesome missionaries like Ammon, Aaron, Amulek, and Alma used the scriptures, taught the basic principles of the gospel, used How to Begin Teaching points, and commitments to help the people progress. Something that I have realized is the importance using a scripture, checking comprehension, and then testifying. Works every time.

 

          Ummm...how is it already November??? Where did all of 2014 go? Cherish the time, use it well, and be anxiously engaged in a good cause. This is the equation for having no regrets!

 

          I hope you all have a wonderful week! Love you all lots!   

 

Love,

 

Hermana Ives

Week #62 - It's November? Whaaaaaat???

Hola Familia!

Soooooo, it's November... may I please ask when that happened? Craziness, this year is almost gone! Sometimes I really wish I understood time better, I get that it is a wibbly wobbly timey wimey ball of stuff instead of a linear line... but yeah, I still don't quite grasp all of the intricacies. Like how looooooong the individual days are but then how quickly the weeks and apparently years fly by.

The mission goal for November is to baptize and confirm 100, reactivate 100, read the entire Book of Mormon by the end to November, and to cut P-days in half (so no there are only 4 hours to do laundry and shopping, and e-mail...) So if you don't get a letter from me in a little while, it isn't because I am a complete jerk now. It is simply because there isn't enough time to get everything done. But it is all for the Lord so it is all completely worth it.

Halloween came and went without much fanfare. Halloween is widely disputed between all the various religions as to whether it should be celebrated or not. So at least in Arkansas (in the trailers) there weren't many decorations at all.

None of my pairs of shoes made it through this week. They have all bit the dust so I joyfully get to purchase some new ones today. Wish me luck in finding practical cut shoes that will last for 4 more months.

We were able to set a baptismal date with Gabriela y Martin Flores for the 29th of November. They are a cool family. Martin most definitely has felt the Spirit and I think that he really believes that Joseph Smith did see God. Now he just needs to pray and recognize that spiritual confirmation for himself.  They have a little girl (10 years old) that suffers with epilepsy, her name is Ivet (and that is how Hispanics pronounce Ives) So they always just call me Ivet. I LOVE it. So awesome. I can't wait to teach them the plan of salvation and being sealed together as an eternal family!

We Finally got someone to come to CHURCH!  Oh my GOODNESS so stinking exciting to have someone there! Their son is actually a member and the dad wants to get baptized but the mom isn't sure about the whole "Church scene" so getting them married and on the same page will be interesting but I am so excited to teach this family.

We have been having success going through the branch list and trying to find less active members. There are so many people who have a testimony, they just don't quite know how to make the effort to come back.

Ummm... yeah, so that has been my week. pretty awesome stuff.

Love,

Hermana Ives

Week #61 - Transfers

Hola Familia!

Como estan? This week has been a good one. The first bit was sad as there were a lot of saying good byes and all. Hermana Stevens has served in this area for 7 1/2 months and made a big difference in a lot of people's lives. 

The funniest good-bye was with Cynthia Flores (she is the elder's investigator but she has come to church a lot and we have been working to help fellowship her.) She told me that I was going to cry the most at seeing Hermana Steven leave (she's prolly right) and then we took pictures. Can I say that there is nothing quite so awkward as missionary pictures. The first two were completely normal because the first one was Hermana Stevens with Cynthia and Agupito - Cynthia's boyfriend. Next one completely fine because it is Hermana Stevens and I on either side of Cynthia. The third one however was Hermana Stevens and I on either side of Agupito with Cynthia telling us to get closer... yeah, I did this weird twisting thing to look like I was closer but not really and Hermana Stevens just refused to move... So yeah, they look super funny.

We drove up to transfers... 

We got to the meeting RIGHT on time...

And transfers were announced... 

Hermana Stevens is now serving in Russelville (they just had a baptism this last Saturday - Lord's blessing for all the hard work she has done in this area) ...

And I am now serving with (I bet you can't guess... do I always repeat companions?) HERMANA SMITH!!!! Boo-yeah! I am pretty stoked! This is actually her last transfer, so in missionary vocab/slang/i-don't-know-whatcha-call-it, I am 'killing her off'. Pretty crazy stuff! I am so happy that I get to serve with her again! This is going to be AWESOME!

There was a trunk-or-teat activity this last Saturday. We actually had an investigator show up... but we didn't find him until he was leaving :(  But it was still exciting that he was there. And we have an appointment with him this coming Miercoles so we are pretty excited about that. 

I've learned this week that we should never close ourselves off from opportunities. We went to this one neighborhood that I considered "spiritual harvested out" but with Hermana Smith's new eyes we found a new family to teach and a referral that we had never knocked before. Super awesome!

I loved your quote "Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss enthusiasm." -Winston Churchill. It reminds me of a section in Preach My Gospel in Chapter 9, called No Effort Wasted. There are things that we do everyday of our lives that we may consider failures because they might not have rendered immediate results. But like a story that Elder Zwick shared with us when he was here, "There was a time when the Brazilian government was being rather stringent about how many visas they would give to churches. It so happened that the law was that each church group would only be allowed 60 visas a month. This was clearly not sufficient as there were 15 missions in Brazil. So Elder Zwick and a local leader were given the task to prepare a presentation to give to the President of Brazil and to ask for more than 60 visas per month. The time came that they were to meet with the President they arrived for their meeting. But there was an emergency that the President needed to take care of so they were given the option to either wait for the President, to reschedule for tomorrow, or they could meet with the secretary of state instead. They chose to talk with the Secretary of State. Before they said anything the Secretary of State came in and said,'oh you are from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints? My family used to be taught by the missionaries when I was younger. Those missionaries were awesome, they were punctual, polite and we learned a lot from them even though we didn't get baptized. So what can I help you with?' Elder Zwick hadn't presented anything and they didn't even really know how many visas they should ask for but it came to him to ask for 200 visas a month. The secretary of state arranged it so that the Church received 60 visas per week." What is so amazing about this story is that the efforts of those missionaries even though their efforts did not result in a baptism at that time resulted in thousands of baptisms years later because of their diligence and hard work.

Moral of the story. NEVER give up. You know what you are supposed to be doing. So do it. And even though we will never know the full extend of influence we have had in this life we will be able to know that in the next life and I am sure that we will all be astounded. We will be astounded that some of the experiences we considered failures were absolutely crucial years down the road. 

Well... That was about it as far as super awesome insights... 

A little funny, My companion walked into a spider's trap... there was a tootsie roll on the ground so she went to pick it up and when she stood up she stood up into a gigantic spider's web... we were picking off bits and pieces of web off of her for a while... It was pretty funny. That diabolical spider hoping to catch some innocent little kid and it got a missionary instead. 

Well, I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Love you bunches more than oats!

Hermana Ives

Week #60 - Another Week, Another Transfer

Hola familia!

 

I love the feeling of breaking open a new missionary planner. What is the most exciting about this one is that I have decided that I will ONLY write in Spanish in it. So wish me luck! lol I have already decorated the pages for Halloween and Thanksgiving in beautiful orange and green colors. The only sad thing about this planner is that I know that Hermana Stevens won't be here for all of it. She is being transferred this Wednesday. But I know that she has a lot of other people elsewhere to bless and that it would be selfish to tell her she can't leave.

 

This is probably the last walk week of my mission (as now we will be back to biking...) A miracle of this last walk week was that I finally have a real hole in the bottom of my right shoe (you can actually SEE through it! I can't tell you how proud I am of these shoes! :D It is terrific!) Now my goal is to make a visible hole in the left shoe too! (I know, I know, I'm such a nut!)

 

We did Spanish exchanges this past Tuesday. I went up to the North sisters' area... It was crazy... no one was home. We went to Good year to get the oil changed and the tires rotated, no big deal but the TV was playing and it was on the news... So I am innocently reading my Libro de Mormon when I started hearing things like, "highly contagious," "you touch it you die..." "eats your internal organs"... it was some story about Ebola (sp?).... okay, I understand that as a missionary you just really don't get news but I have found that Spanish missionaries are even MORE out of the loop than English speaking missionaries... Crazy stuff! (This is the first time I've ever heard about this disease! What the?!?)

 

Hermana Stevens, Sister Lopez and Hermana Ives

We took the bus once this week... the bus is such a joke here (it comes maybe once an hour...maybe, and it is usually super early or super late...) It was super crazy, we got a ride out to Stanton and then missed our bus going back to our apartment so we had to call the Otter Creek sisters to come rescue us!

 

Something I learned this week from the people we talked to and the experiences that we had is that, Heavenly Father knows what's up, trust Him and know that blessings will come even though they may not come in the way that you expect. Heavenly Father lets us go through trials and difficulties so that He can bless us. He may bless us with counsel when we need it, an added measure of patience or endurance. No matter what He blesses us and wants us to succeed. It is okay to recognize that something is hard and that you may not like it. But instead of asking, "why? Why me?" look for the compensatory blessings (I promise they are always there we just have to look and recognize.)

 

Well. Time is up. I gotta go. But always remember that no matter what Heavenly Father loves you!

 

Love,

Hermana Ives

 

 

Week #59 - The Gift of Tongues

Hola! 

What a week!! (I feel like that is how I open all of my e-mails but it is only because each week is a different adventure with its own ups and downs) But really this week has been pretty good all things considered (like NPR ;)  - that was for you dad ;)

We had exchanges this week. This has been my first exchange with an English Sister Training Leader in a completely Spanish area... So I was pretty nervous to be the only Spanish speaker. But let me testify right here and now that the Lord qualifies those that He calls. He more than makes up the difference when we humble ourselves before him and trust that we will turn our weaknesses into strengths! I can honestly say that I have never been so mentally exhausted as I was at the end of this exchange being the only Spanish speaker teaching all day in Spanish, but it was probably the most Spirit-filled day of my mission so far. I absolutely LOVED it. I usually don't go off on how awesome the Spanish language is but it is completely AMAZING :) yup, yup the Spirit will fill our mouths all we have to do is stop worrying and stressing and just open our mouths. Heavenly Father is just SOOOOOO cool. I can't even express it!

Can I just say that homemade Mexican tamales are about the best thing on the planet earth??? (i just wish it wasn't a 5 hour process...) 

On the 9th was the mark of a full year IN-FIELD! It is pretty cool that I am with the same companion that I was with when I first came to the field! We are just trying to tear it up in Spanish! 

Yesterday we got Bible bashed in Spanish by a drunk guy... it was interesting to say the least... lol, you just gotta laugh when that happens because you can never feel the spirit, they get upset that you don't get frazzled... Anywho after about an hour and half because he wouldn't let us leave I just stood up and said thanks for his time gave him an Articles of Faith card and left. I am hoping he can read the card when he is sober...

We are starting to do more work in the Benton and Bryant areas... a little far to travel but also very untouched by Spanish missionaries :D pretty much a treasure cove full of potential! We are very excited to go back next week (when we have a car) and keep working down there. 

This week is walk week. I am excited to see the miracles and to meet new people (maybe members ;) who will see us walking, have pity and drop us off on the other side of town! It is going to be a blast. It is also nice that the weather is really starting to cool down. Not that I don't love being hot and sticky... but I am super excited to not be hot and sticky ;)

I found some banana pudding ice cream... don't knock it till you've tried it because it is DELICIOUS! So is blue bell red velvet cake ice cream. Yup, I am an ice cream addict pretty crazy stuff.

 

Oh, another awesome miracle this week. We had the mission president's wife, Sister Wakolo, come teaching with us this past week. To our investigator Sarah. Sarah is super Catholic, not very interested in changing, but you can just feel that she has so many family members on the other side that are just waiting for her to get baptized so that their work can be done. The only thing that captivates her attention is when we talk about families or food. So naturally after talking about family history we jumped to word of wisdom! lol, it was a pretty crazy jump but we were able to have a pretty awesome lesson. She absolutely loves her coffee, and was a little confused about how no where in the Bible does it say not to drink coffee, but after a while she admitted that she was a diabetic and that her doctors had told her 10+ years ago that she needed to quit drinking coffee. So we invited her to pray about it and if Heavenly Father wanted her to quit. Her response was, "If Heavenly Father says stop, I'll quit, but if He doesn't say so, I'm just gonna keep pouring." Who could argue with that. Sister Wakolo was able to share with Sarah how difficult it had been for her to stop drinking coffee as well. I think that really helped Sarah. 

Can I also say how awesome the members are here? They are willing to go Spiritual harvesting (knocking doors) with us! Super crazy, I know before my mission I would not have been up to that. Just so willing and so ready to share the gospel! What a miracle and blessing. 

Ummmm... yeah, that is pretty much my week....

I hope all is well!

Keep going strong and loving life. (also a note, don't decorate your house too scary for Halloween... it is hard enough to work up the courage to go knock a door without having to work up the courage to walk past the scary decorations....) Actually, maybe I'm just a wuss. But the closer it gets to Halloween, the less excited I get... 

Have a crazy successful week!

love,

Hermana Ives

Week #58 - Wonderful Autumn Week

Hey family!

Sorry that my last e-mail was so short... Hopefully this one will be better!

This last Monday I had the greatest P-day ever! We were invited over to a dinner with Rhoda Green (the nice lady who had given us a ride two weeks previous!) We had a lovely dinner - super fancy, i felt very out of place (me being used to eating with chopsticks in the apartment and then with tortillas when we eat with members) A little difficult to try and remember how to use a fork correctly ;) 

We have had a couple of storms this week... really not all that bad but they make for a rough night when the little weather alert station thing goes off beeping wildly to let you know that it is raining outside... it when off 4 times last night!!!!!! Super difficult to fall asleep after it goes off, finally do drift off and then it is off to beeping again... (personally I want to just turn it off but Hermana Stevens freaks out a lot when I even joke about it... but then again it doesn't wake her up nearly as often..)

We have had the opportunity to go teaching with a returned missionary from Mexico. She is so amazing and it was such a blessing to be able to see someone (native to the language, who understands PMG, and teaching) I learned so much, and have realized a higher way of teaching! We always do role-plays with other Spanish missionaries at district meetings and zone meetings but a very high percentage of us do not speak Spanish fluently and it is difficult just getting over the language barrier let alone the simplicity and teaching for understanding barrier. 

We are teaching such wonderful people, who are truly starting to understand the importance of our message and yet have no desire to actually act. It is a little disheartening how each of our investigators were invited, followed up on, they committed, and never showed then up to general conference. They had 4 golden opportunities! And they missed all 4. So ridiculous! But we are still working on it. Eventually they will all come to church and when they do, there will be no going back. :) hopefully... 

I absolutely loved general conference. It was so beautiful. It was really sad to think that it was my last one as a missionary. I get a little freaked out when I think that I can count the months I have left on ONLY one hand :(  But back to conference. I loved the talks that were in the native languages of the speakers, what a beautiful addition to general conference. I loved Jorg Kingblat's (sp?) talk. It gave me a lot to think about and to improve upon. 

The weather is turning a bit cooler which is nice but I'm not used to it. I'm going to have to start pulling out even more of my sweaters! Boo-yeah, I'm not one bit disappointed about that :)

Well, that pretty much sums up my week. I love y'all. I know that the gospel is true. It changes lives (every day we change, it is up to us to change our lives for the better)

I love y'all,

Hermana Ives

Week #57 - Fried Chicken

Hola mi familia,

Yo no se que decir...esta semana pasada fue muy loca, nada pasa! (I'm not a 100% sure that that is a gramatically correct sentence...)

Highlight was probably Elder Zwick (of the quorum of the 70) coming to tour the mission. So we instructed us on Tuesday with the assistance of his wife and the mission president and his wife. It was really awesome. They talked about their experiences being a mission president in Chile... so many crazy stories and they were able to relate to what I've been feeling like (at least in a small part) all of the drama and craziness that goes on in a small Spanish branch... 

The General Women's Meeting was so awesome.... we invited ALL of our investigators and then some... but lo and behold somehow the Spirit communicated to our investigators that there wouldn't be any Spanish translation set up... so no one came. But the meeting was really good. And I learned so much! It is a little weird to me that it has been almost a year since the last time I've been to the temple just because I have been serving sooo far away from Memphis. I am excited to serve there again so I can go back to the temple. 

As far as investigators go... nothing really new to report. 

We had homemade chicken with the Franklins the other day. SOOOOOo delicious. That was the second time that I've had fried chicken on my mission and it was so good. 

The gospel is true. Go out and share it!

Con amor,

Hermana Ives

Week #56 - Eaten Alive and Strange Rides

Hola everybody!

I survived another walk week. Really I should just call it miracle week. The hand of the Lord is just always so obvious when you really have no other option but for the Lord to provide a way.

Do you like the subject title of this e-mail? I thought it was pretty clever. I have been eaten alive by mosquitos, chiggers, and possibly bed bugs (I'm actually not quite so convinced about the last type of bug bit me... oh well) May I just say that my feet an ankles look leprous? I can't even count how many bites I have, lol. Oh well that is the joy of being 9:30 pm missionaries.

I can't tell you how many rides we have been able to receive this week. And not even from our branch members. We received rides from the members of the Little Rock and Benton wards as well as investigators and a super friendly old Baptist lady! :) Who knew that hitch-hiking was such an effective way to find and teach?!? Lol, just kidding.

Anywho, craziness went down this week. Our most progressing investigator, Maritza is... (drumroll please...) ALREADY a member... super less active but she was actually baptized when she was 16 years old... So, now that is now a huge reactivation project. But she is ready to come back and repent and make changes in her life. It was just so funny because all of her lessons were preach my gospel perfect and we were just gearing up to set a date with her when she finally let it out that she had already been baptized...

Ummm....I'm not really sure what else to say. We walked EVERYWHERE. Craziness, we even got Bible bashed in English AND in Spanish! What are the odds?

I can testify that water and soap works miracles after a long hot and humid day ;)

My shoes are so close to having an all the way hole. But with as much walking as we were doing those shoes started giving my blisters, so I had to switch to my other ones. But now that we have a car again and aren't doing that much walking. Maybe I can get my hole!

This is a super lame update... I'm sorry... this week has really just been filled with walking... and then some more walking I truly felt like a pioneer child singing... I even sang the Children's hymn "Pioneer Children Sang as they Walked" for comic relief.

I have never appreciated Gatorade as much in my life as I did this week. Blue Frost is the best flavor..

The gospel is true. We have to WORK as though it all depends on us. And PRAY as though it all depends on God! Then the miracles will flow.

Love,

Hermana Ives

Week #55 - I'm Still Alive

What a week! 

Life has been crazy, lots of ups and downs but whatcha going to do that's just life! :)

I have made the determination that Arkansas drivers are the Utah drivers in the South. They are just really not very good at obeying traffic rules... I can't tell you how many people run red lights! 

It actually got super cold this week! Thanks for sending the tights! I actually had to pull out some of my winter outfits. Not that I am complaining. I much prefer the cold to the hot humidity. Plus I feel like my winter wardrobe is a lot cuter than my summer wardrobe. Gotta see the plus-es where you can. 

Ummmm....I can't believe I am on transfer #10! Where did the time go? And Halloween decorations out already? (I really don't like Halloween, especially as a missionary) Everything just gets creepier at night when you have to be out knocking doors and there are really weird decorations. 

(side note: Hey, mom... I've been having headaches daily ranging on a pain scale of 1-7. I've talked to the area nurse and she said that they were most likely stress induced... I've been taking ibprofen, I even invested in some migraine relief pills... but they really have been doing nothing... I am pretty sure that the headaches aren't coming from dehydration... I have been trying to do deep breathing and some progressive relaxation techniques but they really only help for a couple of moments... do you have any suggestions?)

There was an awesome fiestas patrias activity that our branch put on to celebrate a lot of the independence days in south and central america. It was pretty awesome. Lots of good food and awesome music. Even some traditional folk dances, those really made me miss dancing... 

Thanks for the gluten free pizza recipe. You are going to have to try it out and then let me know if it is worth trying! 

Yup....I don'y know nothing super out of the ordinary happened this week...

Something exciting that is happening next week is that Elder Zwick is coming to our mission and we will get to have a zone conference with him! Boo-yeah! (yup Elder Zwick the once who talked about "What were you thinking?" in general conference!)

We are going on bike week today... oh wait, I mean walk week because Hermana Stevens still isn't allowed to get on a bike. I am planning on my shoes finally breaking through... I was hoping they would last until the end of October but I think realistically they will only make it to the middle of this week before they have gigantic holes in the soles... so I'm excited to send pictures of those.

Ummmm....yeah, that's mostly it for this week. 

I've learned that stressing out about being stressed is a vicious cycle. It's better to just avoid that. Allow yourself to be stressed, that's fine just don't freak out about it. 

The gospel is true. And it is even truer in Spanish!

Love,

Hermana Ives

Week #54 - Whew, That Was a Close One

Hola mi familia!

 

Say what?!? A year and a little bit. Man oh man. Time really is flying by! Good news though! I'm NOT being transferred! Hallelujah! I love serving with Hermana Stevens so much and this area is about to explode. (Which is awesome because these last two transfers have been a crazy lot of hard work!) We found 49 new investigators this transfer!

 

This week was crazy cool because for the first time in my entire mission we reached ALL 6 key indicator goals in a day! What really makes that awesome was that they weren't all 1s! teehee! So that was pretty awesome. We got a member present lesson without even asking a member. We went to teach Roberto y Flor Barrientos and they are actually relatives of the branch president and he just happened to be over there visiting his family when we showed up!

 

Hey, I was wondering if all of you amazing peoplee reading this e-mail would be up for a fun little service project. My companion, Hermana Stevens, is having a hard time right now (and her mail hasn't been getting to her) and I think it would be really cool if you would send her one of your favorite "pick-me-up" quotes/ scriptures/ pictures/ anything you feel so inclined or guided by the spirit to send. Sound fun? It could even be turned into an FHE activity! Could you please help me out :)  Thanks you are all the best!

 

What is super duper awesome is that I first met Hermana Stevens and served with her for the first three weeks in field. And we will get to be together exactly one year from then! Boo-yeah!

 

Fun fact. From actually serving in an all Spanish area. My Spanish has actually been improving! So that is really cool too.

 

Hermana Stevens and I have a goal of 15 baptisms this transfer. It is going to take a ton of work, a ton of faith, and a ton of prayers. But all things are possible with God. And he does all things according to our faith! It is our dream and goal to turn this branch into a ward!

 

Ummmm...this week I have learned a ton about staying motivated. And really something crucial that I've been learning this week is that nothing, I mean NOTHING has besides the Savior has the lasting strength to keep us motivated. There is a youtube video entitled, "Missionary work and the Atonement" we were able to watch this video at Specialized Training. (It focuses on excerpts from the talks found at these sites, https://www.lds.org/ensign/2001/03/missionary-work-and-the-atonement?lang=eng and from https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2010/04/act-in-all-diligence?lang=eng) This world and this work is hard. But with the Savior we can be and will be given the strength to endure and to do His will.

 

I kind of left my old planner at the apartment and it is kind of hard for me to remember everything that happened this past week...

 

I love y'all! Remember always that I love you and more importantly you have a Savior and a Heavenly Father that love you!

Miracles are real and they surround us daily all we have to do is open our eyes.

 

I love my mission,

I love you,

I love our Savior,

Hermana Ives (it's pronounced Eeeee-vez)

 

Week #53 - holllllllllla

Hey now, one whole year. Do you want to hear a precious comment that my companion made on her year mark? "I could be married in a year from now." Yup, that same saying is now true for me... yikes, lol jk!

I am glad that you are enjoying your labor day by spending it at the temple. That is a beautiful way to celebrate. I miss the temple so much! 

I found the coolest vanity license plate ever! It said TRU DAT! teehee! I absolutely love it. I wish I had a camera to take a picture. 

I'm not really sure what all to tell you. We did a TON of spiritual harvesting. Knocking and then some more knocking and then a little more. 

We are teaching Dilan (14 years old) and his younger sister Fidelia (14/13 years old). I am excited for them to read in the Book of Mormon every day at least 2 verses (that was our invitation to them). Dilan is so impressive of his knowledge of the gospel. I can just see him as a missionary he is so amazing. He and his sister committed to coming to church next Sunday too!

Amanda Reed (one of my recent converts passed away last Monday from cancer.)

We found a very potential Chinese home the other day complete with Chinese dragon statues and EVERYTHING! We are very excited to go back and to knock that home!

Thank you for the package everything was wonderful and fits awesome!

Love,

Hermana Ives

Week #52 - Walk week

This week has certainly been interesting to say the least.

We spent the first part of the week washing, drying and moving all of our clothes into the Otter Creek sisters' apartment because our apartment was being sprayed again by the terminator. So, that was quite an adventure and then we had to move back in... yikes.

Also, this week is our turn on bike week. However, Hermana Stevens is not allowed to ride a bike for another 3 months because if she were to fall and hurt the bones again she would have to have surgery... yeah.... When your area is an big as ours, literally everything south of Coronel Glen and Asher that is A LOT of walking. No worries we set up a ton of appointments with members to go teaching with us.

Monday evening we walked to Alex trailers and found some new investigators.  

Tuesday we were supposed to have a member come with us but she never responded to our texts. So we set out walking to our apartment (no biggie it's only a 15 minute drive on the highway) An hour later we were 10 minutes late for our apartment and MAYBE halfway there. So we called our appointment and she actually said that she had forgotten to call us but that she needed to cancel. So we set back towards home.

Tuesday evening we just caught a ride with the Otter Creek sisters and worked in the same areas that they were working in.

Wednesday we had an awesome zone conference. President Wakolo is really focusing on the individual conversion of the missionaries and increasing our spiritual capacity. He doesn't care how many we baptize but how devoted we are as disciples of Christ. And that is really inspiring.

We got dropped off in Bryant by the STLs and did more spiritual harvesting. I never knew how many English members there were until I stood on the edge of the road waiting for our member to come pick us up and drive us home. So many people honking, waving and stopping to see if we needed a ride! Crazy stuff.

Thursday was a testimony builder for me. Miracles are real, I know that they are! And I know without a doubt that anything and everything that is important to us is important to our Heavenly Father. Really in our area the only plausible place to walk to is Alex and our member that was going to come out with us had some crazy goings on. So we walked to Alex planning on Spiritual harvesting ALL DAY LONG. We went we spiritual harvested for about an hour and a half and we were able to talk with some wonderful people. A little later we stopped and prayed to figure out where we needed to go we felt like we needed to go to the second part of the trailer park but instead of taking the shortcut (which we were standing right next to) we felt like we needed to go and visit Elizabeth (she wasn't home) But now we were going to be walking to the second part of the trailer park on the main road.  We had walked maybe a minute when a member from the Benton ward pulled over and asked us if we needed a ride. We gladly accepted and she dropped us off in the Mabelvale Pike trailers (yeah, I know that is a lot of trailers, but it really is where most of the Hispanics live). We had no appointments and we had pretty much spiritual harvested this park out but we started walking and decided to knock #21 one more time. Lo and behold all I had to do was say, "Hola soy Hermana Ives" and the next thing I knew the door was swung open wide and Abel and Benita said, "Pasen se!"

We had an awesome hour long first appointment with them and it was absolutely amazing! I truly know that they have been prepared by God because there is no way we would have found them without His help and His hand leading and guiding us to them that day!

 

After our appointment we started our long walk home... no kidding right after we had finished our last gulps of water we were walking past an elementary school and the security guard called out, "Can I talk to you ladies?" She asked us if we wanted to fill up our water bottles and then asked us where we were coming from and where we were going. She then offered us a ride home! Hallelujah!

Thursday evening we had our Book of Mormon class and it was awesome like always. I love book of Mormon class! In a couple of weeks we are going to be doing Lehi's dream! We are so excited!

Friday we had weekly planning and we actually had people to truly plan for! It was so exciting! Our gigantic whiteboard is finally being used to its full capacity! Woot woot!

Hermana Barrientos was able to come teaching with us in the evening and we took her to meet Abel and Benita. They love to talk and love the Lord. We had a 2 hour lesson with them! It is so amazing to see them make connections to read in the Book of Mormon and to understand.

Saturday once again spiritual harvesting. And English members are super awesome at giving rides! YES!

And that brings us to Sunday when we finally got a car again! Woot woot. Super great!

The gospel is true!

Love,

Hermana Ives

Week #51 - Asphyxiation...

Dear family.

 

I'm glad to hear that you are all well and/or on the mend! Sounds like you have had a crazy week. Just makes me feel loved that I was able to contribute to the craziness in my own small and unique way.

 

Let me share the crazy happenstances that happened to me.

 

Monday: We had a pretty normal P-day. Nothing too new. We were able to eat some super spicy salsa verde! It was, dare I say, delicious?

And we were able to teach some lessons.

 

Tuesday: Sooo... today, Hermana Stevens discovered that she had bedbugs... so morning studies went out the window as we sprayed with permetherin (that is supposed to kill them, we just happened to have some extra from the last time missionaries had bedbugs in this apartment.) Small problem... I think I am allergic to permetherin. I started having breathing problems so we got out of the apartment and I got super sick to my stomach, my throat started burning, and I had an awesome headache.

Yeah, we txted the Mission nurse and she told me to not go back to the apartment... so we got to have a sleep over at the Otter Creek sisters' apartment.

 

We had an awesome lesson about families with Sarah. Even though I felt super sick. She is from a family of 10 kids and she has 5 of her own and almost a billion grandkids (alright so billion was a big exageration... but she does have a lot.)

We were able to meet Dilan's parents! That was super cool.

 

Wednesday: We had exchanges.. Super stressful just because you have to plan two full days of proslyting activities in the same area for 24 hours... but they were good.  I learned a lot.

 

Thursday: Sister Stevens got discharged from the Doctor's today. But she can't go on a bike for 3 months because if she were to fall again she would have to have surgery. ...Soooo, walk week this next week is going to be a thing... and it is going to be ridiculous!

 

Friday: we had interviews with President Wakolo. He has a super deep voice. Kinda sounds like Mufasa from Lion King. It was super awesome. I love our new mission president.

 

Saturday: We spent most of the day packing. our apartment because the exterminaters are coming today... yeah, it is super duper crazy.

I got to go

Sorry this letter is super scattered and not very well written. Oh well

Love yall!

Hermana Ives

Week #50 - Oh what a beautiful weeeeeeek!!!!

Hola familia!

Alrighty I am excited to tell you about this week! There have been some awesome goings ons!

Monday: it twas awesome we had the Ottercreek sisters over and we made tortillas and microwave chocolate cake! It was awesome to associate with some sisters other than the Spanish ones. So that was really fun. Our AC still wasn't working... so it got pretty hot, but that's besides the point.

I can't say this past week has been the best as far as sleeping goes. But a majority of that has to go to it being unbearably hot in the evenings. So sleep has not been the greatest but studies have been better just because of the sheer amount of time that you would rather been studying in the morning than laying in bed not being able to sleep =D Yup yup. Silver linings!

Tuesday: We had an awesome evening! The Sister Training Leaders came and made threesomes with us and the North sisters. So meeting up with them kind of shot our miles in the foot. But we did have a wonderful evening and met a lot of new investigators. Several of which had met with missionaries previously in their native lands! It is really cool to be able to see the different teaching styles of different sisters as well.

Wednesday: Our car had issues so we took it to the Good year in our area. (mistake number one) And then we left our car in their care (mistake number 2) We received a call an hour later saying, "we popped one of your tires... would you like us to replace the other ones too?" and then they tried to make us pay for the tire that they had popped! We will probably not be taking the Lord's car to their shop ever again. But positive we were able to meet with Flor y Roberto Barrientos (the branch president's brother and his family) and we watched Finding Faith in Christ. It is so cool how strong the Spirit was. It was also interesting to see that if we do not allow ourselves to feel it we can miss it completely no matter how strong it is present.

Thursday: WEEKLY PLANNING, note to self. NEVER get behind in updating the area book. That is a grand mistake that takes a very long time to remedy. However this week's planning session was awesome because we had the opportunity to actually plan for some investigators instead of just finding activities! Boo yeah! It is going to be great!

Friday: we had an awesome zone meeting! I really love how President Wakolo is all about increasing our spiritual capacity in order to help our investigators. It is really just making sure that you are converted to the gospel yourself before you try to help someone else become converted.  And he is very big on trying things that have never been done before. So instead of being instructed and then doing role plays we made a huge list of things that we needed help with as missionaries in our own perspective areas and then we broke off into 5 groups to discuss 3-4 of those topics on the board. And then the last 25 minutes was spent having the group leaders relate what had been found in the groups. It was really neat. I loved it so much better than regular zone meetings.

Hermana Stevens and I have decided to own our zone goal of 15 baptisms. So we have decided that as a companionship we are going to help 15 souls enter the waters of baptism.

We had an awesome lesson with Dilan! He is 14 years old just like Joseph Smith and we asked him to pray right there with us for him to know if it was true or not. So he did and received his answer! It was super cool to be able to see prayers be answered so quickly!  Heavenly Father really does hear and answer!

We were also able to meet with Juanni. She had met with missionaries before in Mexico. She really liked comparing our beliefs with her own Catholic beliefs and seeing all the similarities. We explained the differences and the importance of having a prophet as well. I think that having her see that it really isn't all that different will be helpful for her in making the transition.

Friday evening we were able to meet Mario. A friend of President Barrientos. He invited us to come and join his women's soccer team that he coaches. We had to decline but we invited him to come to the soccer activity that the Elders have every other Saturday! He was pretty excited about that. So we are excited for him to go and then get taught by the Elders.

Saturday: We had an awesome lesson with Ariseli. She was a referral from hno Zaragosa. She really wants to have God in her life for her kids. She has a 5 year old son and a set of 7 year old twin girls! Such a beautiful family. She believed everything we taught and wants to learn more. She said she was coming to church... we aren't quite sure why she didn't come or call us back.. but we are going back by tonight.

Sunday: This is probably my favorite story of all. We went to Olga's house and her husband and another guy were outside grilling. We asked if she was home and he said to go inside. We went in and started talking with Olga and her friend Veronica.  We had an awesome lesson about the Book of Mormon and Olga shared with us how she really doesn't like reading so she has been listening to it on You Tube! As we were getting ready to say good bye another lady walked in. She looked oddly familiar but it took awhile for me to place where I had seen her. As it turns out we had Spiritual harvested her earlier that week. She has responded to us with, "I'm Catholic and I don't have any friends for you to teach." How awkward that she walked into her friend's house and there we were teaching them! Gotta love missionary work!

The gospel is true!

Love Hermana Ives

Week #49 - Shall we say... stressful?

Hola familia!

Como esta?  This week has been CRAZY!

Monday:] we saw our miracle of the week. We were spiritual harvesting in the Azalea area, and as we were walking down the street we saw a lady that was clearly Hispanic but she went back into her home before we could talk to her. And so we continued walking but I made note of the house number in my handi-dandi planner. We were able to talk to some other people and as we were walking back to our car we were passing that first house again and we decided to heed a prompting and go and knock it even though by the way the lady had retreated into the house made us think that she was not very interested in talking. Anyways, we knocked she answered the door and was shocked that we spoke Spanish. We were able to share some of our message and she was very interested to have a pamphlet and read it. She said that this was her sister's house and that she was only visiting and that she was leaving tomorrow. But that the next time she was in town, about a month that she would like to come to our church! We are excited to go back and contact her sister! And I am excited for her to come to church in a month.

Tuesday:'( We were able to teach Olga again today! Our visits are very short with her. But she is so amazing! We were able to teach her some more about the Book of Mormon and the role of prophets.

We also went to an authentic Chinese restaurant for lunch! Delicious!

Sister Stevens got her splint off. She is now sporting a brace... it has Velcro... and she likes to pretend it is an instrument... nuff said...

It was just an emotionally stressful day... but what is super great about our companionship is that we never have emotional/mental breakdowns at the same time... otherwise that would be completely disastrous! lol   Yeah, this beautiful little branch has had trouble with rumors for forever. And a certain rumor has made one of our favorite families not want to ever come back to the Spanish branch... so that was super depressing to hear (especially since we didn't even know there was a rumor going on...)

Wednesday xP we decided to go all the way out to Benton to contact a less active family. It was an awesome lesson. And we committed them to read the Book of Mormon every day hopefully together... but they have crazy work schedules so that might not turn out.

We also heartattacked the family that is struggling right now. And that reduced our stress a lot. Just knowing that we were being proactive about a problem.

Thusday :\ Stake Outreach was tonight. Mormons' time is bad... Hispanic Mormon time is 5 times worse! We got to the church at 6:50pm because the outreach was supposed to happen at 7pm. 7:45pm people actually start showing up... however no sisters like branch president had said there would be... soooo, that was super awkward.  But we were able to meet some awesome less actives that I hadn't ever met before.

Viernes :) Weekly planning. and scrambled egg jaozi. Yummy!

We were able to set up a church tour with Olga for Saturday! I am so excited it is going to be my very first church tour. I have been wanting to do one SOOOO bad.

Sabado :D We went spiritual harvesting with a determination to share a scripture with everyone we met... so we ended up doubling the lessons that we taught this week! yeah! It was super awesome and productive! However... Olga never showed up to our church tour... so that was pretty sad.

Domingo 8) we had 2 people coming to church and neither of them showed up... I swear church/Sundays have NEVER been this stressful. But now they are the most stressful/stress reducing thing ever. It is really weird but the atonement is real.

We even had an impromptu district meeting with President Wakolo and the APs. It was super awesome. Just to hear how much they expect of us and how we need to pick up our game. I loved it.

And yeah, we have also started a newsletter from us to the branch. Highlighting a miracle that happened in our missionary work, a Study highlight, and a quote from the
Apostles.  You can put it into Google translate...

Yup,

I love my mission, and I love y'all

Hermana Ives

Week #48 - Warning: Crime Scene DO NOT CROSS!

Hola familia!

 

Estoy aqui en Little Rock y tambien estare en Little Rock por 6 semanas mas! YEAH!!! No one is getting transferred. And Sister Stevens still needs to be in full car. So, that intense bike riding regimine (that I know you both -mom AND dad, are planning....yeah probably not going to happen the first week I'm home... we might just need to ease into that ;)

 

Ummm... Hermana Stevens y yo have been getting pretty worn out with Spiritual Harvesting so we decided to try some "other" finding ideas. We have started up un clase del Libro de Mormon! Cada Jueves a las 7:30pm. We held our first class last Thursday (at 6pm) but not as many people as we were hoping were able to come because they have work so we decided to push it back. But I have to say that it was awesome and the spirit was super strong. The Book of Mormon is powerful, the personal experiences of members are touching, and the questions of the investigators fuel the class! We have put a lot of effort into this class so I am hoping and praying that we will be able to get a better turn out this coming week.

 

Thank you mom for the AWESOME package! The Caution tape is awesome! We use it for EVERYTHING. I even decorated the back of my old planner with it! Super great. (That is important information for a little later in the storyline... just keep reading ;) The clothespin chopsticks are adorable and the chocolate disappeared VERY quickly.  We even have the Saturday to Monday package deal in Little Rock! boo-yeah!

 

So, we have been able to find and talk with some SUPER awesome people this week. Just answers to prayers and a testimony to me that Heavenly Father is truly aware of His children. Their specific needs and wants. Olga in specific is super amazing! We had our first lesson with her last Friday and she talked about how when we first knocked on her door she could feel the Spirit of the Lord and really wants to hear more of our message. She told us that she really doesn't like to read too much but that she would read the folleto (pamphlet) and the Intro of the Book of Mormon! We are so excited to teach her and her family!

All of the Spiritual Harvesting is starting to pay off!

 

Okay, sooooo... hypothetically speaking....where would someone potentially go (in terms of celestial glories) if they ran over one of the Lord's creatures (let's just say a raccoon, for the sake of the hypothetical) with the Lord's car??? ...

I'm not admitting anything. Just wondering...

 

Okay actually yes... yes that hypothetical isn't quite so hypothetical. We were driving home and a raccoon ran out in front of the car in front of me. The raccoon was still alive and staggered to the side of the road just to run back into the road right in front of me...It was sooo disgusting (you know how much I hate squishing bugs because of the feeling?? Yeah, I have come to the conclusion that road kill is about 10 times worse.. So, we make it home and I may or may not be crying and struggling through some PTSD we get through planning we kneel down to pray I flip over my planner and my gorgeous warning tape decorations. The irony sent me crying and my companion laughing... It was a very interesting evening.

 

Sister Sims is the mission nurse and we have to txt her for any medical advice or whatever. So we know her pretty well because of Sister Steven's injuries. I had some pretty bad stomach cramps and I asked Sister Sims if she knew something that I should take... and she suggested anti-acid. I thought she was nuts and clarified but she again recommended anti acid. so I took one (did nothing..) It wasn't until a couple days later that Sister Sims txted and asked sister Stevens if her stomach cramps had gone away.... she had recommended the anti acid for Sister Steven because of all the anti-inflammatory medicine that she has been taking... yeah... so I am still not too trusting of medical people..

 

Sister Stevens has a recent convert that went back to Mexico. But he sent us some pumpkin seed cookie things... Pretty good... but COVERED in tiny little ants... It wasn't until we had eaten a couple of bites that we realized quite how MANY there were... (one or two, I can handle that, I lived in China...more than that... I have been in America for 9 years since that... ) It gave me the heebie jeebies...

 

I love you all, I know the gospel is true!

Keep sharing

Keep going

Keep doing!
Love,

Hermana Ives

 

Week #47 - What a Climb!

Hola familia,

So this week has been interesting. Hermana Stevens got the splint on her elbow taken off (nothing broken in the wrist just pain from hanging out of the splint at a funny angle. whew) Now the challenge is just getting it straight. It has been fun to be able to help do hair! I have had very few opportunities to do hair on someone, that had very little other option, in my life! teehee, I have to say I have done some super nice and impressive hairdos that are still compliant with mission rules of being modest. Don't worry I haven't gone apostate yet ;)

Ummm, there was a RS activity of climbing Pinnacle Mountain! We were able to get several less actives to come as well as a few investigators! It was super fun too (don't fall out of your chair dad. yes, you did read that right, I said fun.) It was a 2 mile hike and we had a beautiful lesson about temples and then a testimony meeting... The way down was a little more treacherous... especially if you have 2 broken arms... Hermana Stevens and I were joking that if she broke a leg she wouldn't be sent home because of that but because of stupidity. Our justification in going in the first place was that if a very pregnant RS president could do it she could too... It was just a little sketchy all the way around! But still fun.

We have tried to do a couple more ayunos de Ingles... pero I just get disappointed or frustrated so I have yet to complete a 24 hour fast... But I WILL get there. If it's the last thing I do.

A lot of this week has been devoted to less actives and helping them to come back to church. neat thing is that the extra attention seems to be helping them. So that is super neat.

Oh! Food specialty of the week! We had CHEESE ice cream! yup, de queso! I think it was cream cheese and let me tell you it was delicious! So was the watermelon ice cream... If you come to South Little Rock you have to go and see Tino and get some supper yummy ice cream!

Ummm...so Thursday was a little depressing because we had a day of teaching plan of salvation (not that the plan of salvation is depressing but the reasons for having to teach it.) There are so many people who are going through such difficult times and circumstances.

This week I have really learned that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ knows the intent of your heart and blesses you accordingly. Spiritual harvesting is not one of my favorite things (just another witness that I will probably never knock doors as a job) but as you do things that you know you need to that you don't necessarily want to do you Heavenly Father will bless you with success! We were able to talk with many people and add to our teaching pool. I know that He knows each of us personally and what each one of us is struggling with. I know that we are all precious and he will give us the strength necessary to overcome any trial/test/temptation.

Transfers are next week and I am really hoping that neither Hermana Stevens or I are moved. I want to stay here and I am not ready to fly solo in this area. Since I haven't been able to develop super strong relationships with the members since it is really hard to have more than a basic, "hi, how are you?" conversation.

Oh something cool that Hermana Stevens and I have decided to do is to start a Book of Mormon study group on THURSDAY night not Wednesday (because EVERYONE has a bible study that night) So we made super impressive handouts and have been trying to tell everyone about it. It was super funny that the second person we invited declined because they have a prayer group on Thursday evenings. Hermana Stevens and I were shocked! Who EVER has a church activity on any other evenings besides Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays? Oh well, opposition in all things lol.

Ummm... yeah that has pretty much been our week in a nutshell. Not too shabby!

Love yall bunches more than oats!

Hermana Ives

Week #46 - What a crazy week!

Hola familia,

Okay so first thing first before I forget! HAPPY BIRTHDAY Grandma Cullimore! I hear that you are becoming another year wiser! When I get back you are going to have to shed a little of that wisdom on me! I need all the advice I can get ;) Any who! I hope you have an awesome birthday and you are going to have to have an extra bite of cake and ice cream for me! okay?

So, there have been some complications with Hermana Steven... we found out on Monday that she has a fracture in the radial head of her right elbow... Tuesday we found out that she had fracture in her left wrist... and today we will see if she has a fracture in her left wrist.... so she has been in Splints all week long.. who knew that broken bones were such a great conversation starter though! I certainly had no idea.

We taught RS last Sunday! It was in Spanish and it went relatively well. I am pretty pleased with it. Plus we had an awesome dinner of Posole with the Arroyos. However the members are WAY to used to feeding the elders. The portion sizes are ridiculous!

Ummm... let's see what else. This week has been super crazy just because of trying to heal some bones... so it has been a pretty long week with nothing super exciting happening. I am even more sure now than ever that I will never be a home health nurse.

Ummm, I love you all!

I hope you have an awesome week!

Sorry this one is so short!

Love,

Hermana Ives 

Week #45 - Ahhh... Feel the Heat

Hola! familia!

Alrighty this week has been an interesting adventure...shall we go into detail?

Please keep in mind that this week has been bike week... oh joy.

Monday: We had our second lesson with the coolest family! When we first met them I could imagine them in the temple being sealed together soooooo easily. So that is my goal for this family. (Nancy, Felix, Karen, and Carlos)

We also worked with Ana y Salvador. Ana has studied with the JWs for 5 years and did not appreciated how pushy they were. She also said she had prayed about their doctrine and that it just didn't feel right to her. So we are excited and cautious to start working with them. Oh, we are teaching the RS sisters how to make Chinese food tomorrow so we bought wanton wrappers to cut into jaozo wrappers and we went to a Chinese restaurant to buy 15 chopsticks for 2 bucks! Score! (hermana Stevens and I think it will be hillarious to watch Spanish sisters try and eat with chopsticks. Us and our cruel sense of humor)

Tuesday: We came home and I crashed on the floor. I have only once felt this completely physically exhausted and that was when we helped with the tornado clean up. South Little Rock is gigantic compared to Warren, which has a ten mile diameter! We spend pretty much all of our time biking and when we aren't biking we are spiritual harvesting. We were pretty dissapointed when the RS activity was cancelled. The sister who was going to let us borrow her kitchen had a son that got really sick and there was no one else who had a big enough kitchen... (oh well, more Chinese food for us then!)

Wednesday: I had the best night's sleep I have EVER had on my mission! It was dream like! I woke up like people do on TV commercials, unrealistically awake, happy and full of energy. I wouldn't mind waking up like that everyday. We biked everywhere and tried to see people and no one was home...we ended up teaching 1 recent convert (for the last time because he is going back to Mexico, Rio Verde)

Thursday: Because of some funny scheduling issues we had weekly planning today. for lunch Hermana Stevens and I made jaozi and rice and we feasted! It was delicious! We were so crazing Chinese food that we may have eaten all the jaozi that we made in one sitting... (22 a piece) I have absolutely no self control when it comes to Chinese food. We ended making it out of ground turkey and just winging the recipe but it was pretty darn delicious!

And today my bike decided to have a midlife crisis... My brakes have been getting pretty bad but they decided to stop working altogether, my front tire came loose. Somehow the alignment got SUPER off and my left pedal broke...don't ask me how don't ask me why. I promise I am pretty careful with my bike but everything just decided to freak out today. There were only 4 incidents that were really sketchy, since I had no breaks...

Friday: THE FOURTH OF JULY!!! ...all I can say is it is pretty boring as a missionary. However we did have zone meeting and we were able to meet President and Sister Wakolo as well as their 2 children (Glet, and Jasmine) They have super cool accents too because they are from Fiji.

Hermana Stevens and I decided to celebrate the freedom of our wonderful county in the most patriotic way possible... by having China's national dish of eggs and tomatos! It was SOOO good. The first meal I want when I come home is real Chinese food!

Saturday: This day...was not my favorite day... just being tired... our only plans, spiritual harvesting ALL DAY. Just to say the least I was not the most happy camper. But Hermana Stevens was super supportive and patient. Sometimes my motto for really hard days is, "There is only 3 hours left, I can do ANYTHING for 3 hours.." Finally it was time to bike home. It was a bit dusky and there is constuction on the road that leads to our apartment... in order to get on the sidewalk there is a little 1 inch curb that you have to go over. Hermana Stevens didn't go directly at the curb and so it caught her tire and flipped her off.  Her scrapes and bruises weren't too bad but she couldn't move her elbow... so that was a bit disconcerting. The Otter Creek sisters came and picked us up and dropped us off at our apartment. (Angels from heaven) We called the mission nurse and she told us ice it and then go get xrays in the morning... So that was a really fun night getting up everyso often to get pain meds...

Sunday: We went and Hermana Stevens got xrays. Nothing aappears to be broken or cracked but it still gives her a lot of pain and she can't straighten or move her arm without it hurting. Hermana Stevens wins the award for most fashionable sling though! Who knew how handy scarves would be in this situation.

And that has pretty much been our week...

Love yall bunches

Hermana Ives