Week #44 - sups

Hellos and what's sups?!?

 

This past week has been a little cray cray. But good. Being in a Spanish area is super hard to readjust to. But the food is delicious! ;)

 

Last Monday I decided to finally take an actual nap so I slept for 4 hours straight. So for anyone who is waiting for a letter from me...I am sorry... just have to be patient. We were able to find 3 new investigators (so it was a great start to our weekly goal of 9!)

 

Tuesday Hermana Stevens and I decided to start a fast from English! It was pretty awesome but I think I might have to work up to a full 24 hour fast from English... I made it until about dinner time and then I was done not being able to communicate effectively... Plus complete Spanish takes a LOT of brain work and my brain felt like it had been beaten into a nice creamy pulp by 5pm.... We had an awesome RS activity at Hermana Benitez's home. I can't tell you what we made all I know is that is was delicious....

 

Wednesday we were able to do a lot of Spiritual harvesting. In the sun with the humidity it really was/is quite enjoyable... (that was sarcasm if you didn't catch it...) But there are always blessings that accompany difficulties. (the hard thing that I learned on Sunday was that the blessings don't always accompany the trials right away... in fact it may take several YEARS before the blessings can be seen/realized) Oh, the virtue of patience...

 

Did you know that teaching the Word of Wisdom in Spanish is difficult when you don't know the terms for plant anatomy... but I think we got across the point that she could still drink herbal tea just not TEA tea... yeah...she eventually pulled out a bag of flowers labeled in Spanish and handed it to Sister Stevens (who had no idea what it was) I however was able to recognize it without l ooking at the label! It was chamomile, thank you mom for drying chamomile so that I could quickly identify it on my mission! (see! Blessings that were realized several YEARS later!)

 

So many investigators found. So much work accomplished. So many China stories swapped.. (no china towns in our area...we actually looked)

 

But all in all pretty good.

The gospel is true.

The Book of Mormon is the convincing evidence of the restoration.

And if you don't know anything else. Always remember that you are a child of God!

Love ya,

Hermana Ives

Week #43 - Estoy en Little Rock

Hola mi familia!

Estoy en Little Rock! Otra vez. Pero este tiempo estoy en el sur! Yeah! I am companions with Hermana Alice Stevens otra vez! She has a crazy love of Chinese too... so we shall see what language we decide to study during language study. Lol, just kidding, it will be Spanish... but maybe on P-days! Anywho, it is awesome! She speaks Spanish super bien! ... i kinda speak Spanish so it is going to be great. I really need to work on understanding native speakers now... that's the hard part.

the apartment in Little Rock is SOOOOOOO much nicer than the last apartment I was in. It is actually cockroach free! YEAH.

The address is: 44 Nadina Circle, Apt #12, Little Rock, AR 72210

So some mail would be awesome ;)

I am glad that you had an awesome time at the cousin reunion! Did gma Caye go? (I know she isn't a cousin... but still.)

Passing Warren off to the elders was easy because all of our investigators had dropped us... but hard because I love them all so much! I am really going to miss teaching everyone. And all the poeple in the branch have been so amazing I really didn't want to leave just because of them.

Erma cried when I told her that I really was leaving! Sad :'(   I am really gonna miss her lima beans and okra.

We are essentially rebuilding the area her because Hermana Millington had to go home because of health issues which prevented her from doing much proselyting... but it is going to be aweomse and we are going to hit it hard and find teach and baptize!

It was so much fun being in a Spanish branch again! I have missed hearing so much Spanish! We had a RS activity where we learned how to make Chilean empenadas and Kuchen. So delicious! And Hermana Arroyo gave us some homemade tamaleas! They weren't spicy they were super moist and they were DELICIOUS!

...mmmm....yeah so that is what has happened....

I love yall!

El evangelio es verdadero!

Hermana Ives

Week #42: 5 Days to Summer Solstice

Hola mi familia y amigos!

Ummm... what a week! It has been truly crazy and busy. Funny that the attribute I have been working on this week has been diligence and the motto for this week has been, "diligence until the end!"

Fasting is amazing and it brings miracles. I was especially able to see this with Ebony this week. We were able to teach her and her spirit felt completely different and she was excited about the gospel. It was neat being able to go through the baptismal interview questions with her and have her understand and testify of truth. She was a little concerned about her date on the 22nd because she is still struggling with quitting smoking. But I know with enough faith and prayers she can do it and I know how much it is going to bless her entire family as well!

Days have been pretty long, hot, and not much success. But as we were spiritual harvesting after a couple of doors that never opened we felt prompted to knock this one home. The door opened and a lady and her two little girls opened the door. She was super interested in having us come back and in hearing more about our message. She is amazing and she has the cutest little girls. I'm just sad that our return appointment is after transfers :(  oh well, the next missionaries will do fabulously I am sure. 

Zone Conference was on Thursday. It was our last meeting with President and Sister Petersen and the senior office missionaries Elder and Sister Shaw. It was a pretty awesome meeting but then came the time for departing missionaries' testimonies and I pretty much lost it. I am going to miss the Petersens sooooooo much! They have taught me so much about the gospel and how to be a better missionary and to truly love to repent. I was able to achieve my hold to the rod (memorizing a scripture for each point in the missionary lessons) it was pretty awesome I'm just not sure how to pack it all in my suitcase! 

Oh, another piece of news... President Petersen came up to us at zone conference and announced that the worst apartment in the mission was being closed. (yup, it's official, I have lived in the worst apartment in the mission for 6 months!) Also, he doesn't have enough sisters to keep the area open...(several have left because of medical issues) So good ole Warren is going to be closed and the Monticello elders will be covering our area as well. I have super mixed emotions about it. I really feel like it is the best thing for Warren to have the priesthood teaching here. And I think it will help the members realize how much more they need to be supporting the missionaries in the work, we truly can't do it without them!

We went on exchanges on Friday and Saturday... During the pink tomato festival... on bike week...sister William's bike decided to freak out and malfunction. So walking was fun. No one wanted to talk to us. Or if they did they quickly told us they were baptist and NOT interested in changing any time soon... exchanges were pretty difficult because everything that we had set up fell through (just like the rest of the week) I can really see how the Lord has been preparing the missionaries and the area to be shut down. It is super heartbreaking but I know in the long run it is going to be best for the area. I am just not excited to have to tell Sister Bryant... She isn't going to be too excited about that. 

Pink Tomato festival really wasn't all it was cracked up to be. but there were definitely some cute clothes that I would have gotten if I weren't a missionary (not because they are immodest but kind of super expensive...) We didn't even get funnel cake or cotton candy (what is wrong with us?) 

Saturday and Sunday was Stake Conference and it was AWESOME! Elder Parker of the seventy came and presided! On Saturday we had a missionary choir and we sang the Spirit of God. It was super powerful... President and Sister Petersen cried... and that was pretty hard to see. :'(

So both Sister Williams and I received the call that we are being transferred.... Fun stuff,

 Love yall 

Hermana Ives

Week #41: A Week of Faith

Hola everybody!

This week has been a week of faith... or should I say a trial of said faith? It is crazy how when you are working on a certain attribute all the trials of life seem focused on that attribute! Ridiculous! Everyone of our investigators seem to be dropping/avoiding us like the plague!

We have had the opportunity to do lots of spiritual harvesting to try to increase our teaching pool. It is always interesting and thought provoking when you knock on doors that are completely NOT interested. And the thought always is, "Heavenly Father? Why did I knock that door? What was the point? If anything they are more ticked than they were before we knocked..." But alas we are just planting seeds! Oh joy ;)

Friday was a pretty interesting day, I like to term it as the day of promptings. We felt prompted to go street contact this lady so we did and we were able to set a return appointment and she said her neighbor would be over to listen as well! We felt prompted to share Mosiah 2:17 with an inactive member and as sis Williams was reading he was mouthing the verse (I was super confused because he hadn't been reading his Book of Mormon for like 12 years at least.) Then come to find out he had just read that chapter the night before we came over and he was completely shocked that we had picked that scripture to share. It was just an awesome testimony that God really is aware of each of us and what each one of us need. It helped him and us to be able to feel God's love for him!

We had made the decision that we weren't going to contact this one investigator anymore unless we saw him out and about and he sought us out...well, we had the prompting that we needed to make cupcakes to take to Potluck on Sunday...so as we went to the store lo and behold the before mentioned investigator walking out of the store and asking us why we haven't been by to see him. He then explained that he had been staying at his mom's house trying to better live the law of Chastity! How awesome is that?!?

Saturday was going to be an awesome day! we had lessons planned for every hour of the day... and we only saw one of them... they ALL fell through. It is bad but I really prefer just dropping by because it feels like people purposely avoid us... we were able to meet Kenneth and Norma and they are Super into canning. It made me feel right at home to talk about food storage and all that fun stuff!

Sunday was cool we were able to give talks in Sacrament. I taught Gospel Principles and Potluck was delicious. I have decided that I really love teaching in the church! Spirit is strong, the gospel is true and the people want to listen and learn. SOOOO amazing. Plus Gospel Principles was so cool because the topic was Baptism and we had 3 recent converts share their testimonies of their baptisms! So neat to see their faces glow as they talked about that special experience!

I was able to make some interesting concoctions this week. I made a ground turkey meatloaf! It was really good. I made some thrown together soup. Egg salad... pretty fun stuff. I think I've actually decided that when I get back I am going to go back to the basics. I want to study message therapy and culinary art! book yeah! Fun stuff. 

Well... I think that was pretty much our week.

mail box was a little empty this past week though... ahem... ;)

LOVES,

Hermana Ives

Week #40: Repentance = Change

Hello Beautifuls!

How is everyone doing this glorious week! I love how Heavenly Father always follow ups difficult times with rainbows, lollipops, and rainbows. Everything is always made right through him. 

Something that finally clicked in my brain this week. It probably was a causation of my mission's mid-life crisis (do you realized that I only have 5 transfers left??? Say WHAT?!?!?!?!)  Anywho, are you ready for this revolutionary thought? REPENTANCE = CHANGE. So I know that that really isn't that profound but really repentance is just a fresh view about yourself, about your Savior, and about the world. Every time we change we are utilizing the Atonement in our lives and we are allowing our will to be lifted to a higher plane! Repentance is glorious and joyous because change is glorious!!  And the fact that we have the opportunity to repent and change daily is such a magnificent miracle!

I love that there are miracles surrounding us daily all we have to do is open our eyes! Just like your glasses. If we open our eyes exercise our faith that He is truly there for us in our time of need then miracles upon miracles will happen. 

Sister Williams and I has the opportunity to teach RS this past Sunday on the VT message for June. To tell the truth I was pretty terrified to teach something other than the missionary lessons. But I have never enjoyed a teaching experience more than being able to share personal stories of service and being able to hear theirs as well. The RS is such an amazing program and it truly has so much potential to continue changing the world!

I am glad to hear that you and Gma Caye are starting to go to the temple together! I am hoping that I will be able to go to the temple soon! I have really been missing that opportunity! 

We had interviews with President Petersen this last Wednesday! I learned a lot and I found out that I am going to be transferred to a Spanish area. To tell the truth I am a little nervous but SUPER pumped! It is going to be great! Maybe I'll be serving in Barttlet TN so I can go to the temple! I am going to be super sad to be leaving Warren! I have met so many wonderful people and I have been changed and have learned so much from my experiences here.

On Thursday we were able to see miracles happen in Warren. woot woot! We talked to everyone in sight and invited EVERYONE to baptism... yeah, pretty much just fulfilling our purpose... anywho, it was an awesome day we were able to teach a total of 9 lessons! I don't think I have ever taught that many lessons in one day! Crazy stuff! We were also able to commit 3 people to baptism! Holla!

I love you so much! I am truly grateful for your prayers! I am so grateful for this awesome work and I hope and pray each of you are able to have a missionary moment this week and feel of the love that Heavenly Father has for each of His precious children!

Love,

Hermana Ives.

Trying to eat better...
and yes I do cook when I can