Week #39: Hump Day

Hey family! How is everything going?
This week has been pretty good. We have been able to teach a lot with members this week and honestly the highlight has probably been working with Ebony Williams and having Erma Zendejas come with us. We met early in the week with ebony and she told us that she wanted to be baptized on June 22! And she knew that she needed to come to church twice before she could be baptized so she asked if we could find her a ride to come to church. Well she has four kids and two of them are in car seats...do you know how difficult it is to find enough seats for that many people especially in the same car? Pretty intense... Any who we were able to take Sister Zendejas with us and oh boy, if ebony hadn't been prepared by the lord she would have dropped us like a hot potato! Erma kept going on about the word of wisdom and how she had to be clean and holy before she could step into that holy water! It was so strong and powerful and ebony made the decision then and there that she would be completely through with cigarettes on the 29th of may! We were finally able to get her a ride and when she was at church she felt like the speaker was talking directly to her and her needs. That speaker just happened to my the stake president who was visiting for the week and had prepared an entirely different message but felt wrongly impressed to speak about the symbolism of the sacrament, baptism, and the temple! ....during the meeting ebony asked me what a seventies was... After i explained she said, oh I want to be one of them too!....sooooo we might have some explaining to do... But we will deal with that when we get there.

I lost my planner this week. There is nothing quite as disconcerting as a missionary as not having your planner. I was pretty lost but I was able to find it again! Whew! (which reminds me... Mom, do you want me to send home my planners? Because I was thinking about tossing them... I have all the important information that I need/want elsewhere...)

Yup....ummmm... I am now officially on the downhill slope of my mission! I have overcome hump day and am now speedily flying through my mission. I can't hardly believe at I have been out that long...

Yep, yep... Sorry about not sending pictures last time... My bad. I switched all my pictures over from my memory card to my USB and forgot to email them teehee, please forgive me.

Man, washing a house that sounds like a blast... If I had been there though everyone would the a lot wetter than they needed to be...me and my silly lack of self control.

Sea foam chocolate??? Ummm....that sounds kind of gross to be completely honest...but what ever floats your boat I guess...

Love,
Hermana Ives

Week #38: Humility... why did I pray for humility?

Hey familia!

So this week has been, ummmm, crazy??? You know that Christ-like attribute thingy we are doing in 9 weeks? Yeah well I have developed this weird complex about praying for Christ-like attributes because I know that Heavenly Father will give me experiences to test those attributes... and when you are working on an attribute such as humility, that's just not very much fun... to be honest this hasn't been the funnest week. But I have learned a ton and I know without a doubt that the promise in Ether 12:27 is true and that as we truly do humble ourselves and work on improving ourselves, Heavenly Father will turn those weaknesses into strengths and into ways that we can bless others with those new found strengths. 

We had an awesome p-day in Monticello. I bought some new skirts, an ugly tie and we had some pretty delicious Italian food! Talk about yummy! We went shopping and I have found that the 70s are coming back into style...who knew! But I am looking forward to rocking that look when I get back! lol, jk...kind of...

We tried to teach Tacho... he pretty much "commended me to pray to know that God the Father, the Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are one, and that they are spirit"... So, I made a deal that I would pray about that if he would pray to know that the Book of Mormon was true... Being Bible bashed in English is bad...being Bible bashed in Spanish is ten times worse! 

We have a recent convert Alvin. Whose goal is to visit every temple in the world, starting with the one in Salt Lake City! We are so excited to start working with him to get him ready to make that step to be worthy to go and to live worthy to those covenants. 

We saw Barbara, she is a 12 year old that is just living in a super hard situation. We were talking to her about random stuff and temples... she eventually said that she didn't want us to get married in the temple. We asked her why and apparently something I said hurt her feelings... I still have no idea what I said or did! But somehow she forgave me and we are friends again. Sister Williams were able to have a heart-to-heart and that was really special. Barbara endures a lot of bullying not only from her school mates but by her own family as well... It is sad to see it and to know how much the gospel could help her and her family but she has no way to come and participate and we can't talk to the mom because she is always working and the step dad is always drinking... 

We had a crazy lesson with Darrius. He has a baptismal date for the 7th of June... We felt super prompted to go through the interview questions with him... mind you that we had only taught him the restoration... yeah, that was pretty intense and we felt so bad about throwing all the commitments to him, to live the law of Chastity, Word of Wisdom, and to learn about Thomas S. Monson... but we were so prompted and he is so prepared by the Lord! He is excited to start working on it all and to really devote his life to God! =D

Sister Williams and I are working on sorting through our investigators and how we can best help a lot of them to become progressing. Sister Williams is awesome and we are going to be working on building more trust with the members. We passed around a sign up sheet in RS for splits and a lot of the sisters signed up! We are super excited to start working with them more and to get them truly pumped up about missionary work. I think the meeting with Elder Kapishka really helped a lot of the auxiliary leaders in our branch excited about reaching out and retaining! Oh yeah, on Friday Elder Kapishka and Elder Merideth came to our zone meeting and shared some wonderful insights! I learned so much and I felt like a lot of the things that they were saying were said just for me! The Spirit was the true teacher in that meeting and I want to be able to teach like them someday! 

Yesterday we were talking to an older lady and her daughter walked in and bashed us with the Bible... I thought that it was very interesting that as these ladies were trying to tell us how we were being deceived by men that wrote the Book of Mormon.As Beverly was waving around the Book of Mormon and quoting Revelations about not adding to God's words..the Spirit witnessed so strong to me of the truthfulness. And all I could feel was how much Heavenly Father loved these women and how sad He was that they were rejecting the fullness that He so much wanted for them. We tried to leave with a prayer but they essentially told us that we were too unrighteous/unworthy to pray... so that was a new and interesting experience! lol, wow...

So, yeah, mission life is great! I made some good food this week and I took pictures as evidence as well!

I love you! This work is awesome!

Hermana Ives

 

Week #37: Y'all

Hey yall (I guess it is official...apparently I have picked up a southern-ism!)

In answer to your question yes I wear my hair in braids, pony tails, buns... but whenever I wear my hair down I get a lot more compliments... so maybe it's a vanity thing... ooops! 

I would like the melaluca in oil form. It helps clear up acne (and with the humidity my face is freaking out a little bit... so yeah...that's fun..)

Hey congratulations on the bike riding success! You are going to be in better shape than I am going to be by the time I get home... that just means you can help push me right?!? I am pretty excited to go bike riding with you as long as I don't have to do it in a skirt.

It is super cool that I have the blessing to be with sister Williams again. The first go around, to be completely honest, was super rough. But I am so excited to be with her again. Transfers are truly inspired by the Lord. I have really been able to see my growth as a missionary by being with her again. I have become a LOT more talkative (which I was beginning to wonder would ever happen.) And so that has been really neat. I've been learning a lot about the Atonement and repentance this week. And how if we really want to change we have to have more than a mere thought, I want to change." But a complete desire, "I AM changed"... you have to own it, kind of like the secret! Anywho, pretty neat stuff!

Our plan is to baptize 5 people in may and June. So that is going to be pretty awesome. Right now we have two dates set for Anthonese Spears and Darrius Clary. 

We have had a pretty good week as far as lessons go. We were able to find quite a few new investigators. And my testimony of how effective street contacting compared to knocking doors has grown exponentially. I am now a huge fan of just walking up to people while they are outdoors, because then you know that you aren't interrupting them. Pretty neat stuff.

Sister Hicken is now a sister training leader in my zone so maybe I'll get to go on exchanges with her! That would be pretty sweet! 

Ummm...what else? I'm sure there is more...President Petersen is down to 7 weeks left in the mission! :( That is going to be super weird not having him here... But he gave all of the missionaries the challenge during his last 9 weeks to study and work on a different attribute from the Christ like attributes chapter in Preach my Gospel. I have absolutely loved this! I would encourage yall to do it too. It is so cool how all the attributes are correlated. As you work one improving one the others improve as well!

Love yall so much! 

Keep pushing/swimming on!

Hermana Ives

We gave Sister Bryant a giant Mother's Day card!  She is the greatest and we love her so much.  She is our "Mommy away from home".  

 

Week #36: Tornado Cleanup

Ummmmm.....so crazy stuff.

Sister Hicken is getting transferred... I am staying in Warren. I'll prolly be here for the pink tomato festival... I am actually pretty okay about that. 

Can you believe that it is May? Cinco de Mayo?!? and that I'm not serving in a Spanish branch to get any yummy food?!? lol oh well. We had breakfast with Erma this morning so that was more than enough. 

We were able to help with the tornado clean up this past Saturday! That was pretty neat to wear a helping hands vest and to help clean up all of the trees and branches that were uprooted and blown down. We were in a part where the tornado was just starting and all the actual damage had been done by straight winds. But it was really neat to see how much can be accomplished when we all pull together and work hard. And there isn't a better feeling in the world than being completely exhausted from helping someone else! Service for a missionary is like going to the movies. You don't have to think or concentrate you just do, so fabulous. Yup, I wore gloves... I might not have worn any sunscreen... but I didn't get burned so it is all good. and I stayed super hydrated! 

I am super excited for this coming Sunday... Still have NO idea where I am going to be skyping or calling from... but something will work out I am sure! 

Ummmm....what else has happened? Really not much. I've gotten to this point where missionary work is missionary work. I do it every day and nothing much really changes... 

I got hit on and asked if I believed in inter-racial marriage... so that was a pretty interesting conversation. Being in the ghetto has really made me wonder about black guys' success rate with 'hitting'... I would be pretty curious to see some stats. Because it has to be some what successful or they wouldn't waste their time doing it. 

Sorry about this e-mail... I left my old planner at the apartment and I can't remember anything else that really happened. 

But I love yall!

Hermana Ives

Week #35: Humidity

Wow....so the humidity is absolutely disgusting. I am disgusted not to mention disgusting. You step outside and it is like you are wearing a coat of hot air. You are practically swimming... I'm just a little freaked out that it is only April and it is already this bad. Oh well, I like to think about it as the refiner's fire, all I'm doing is sweating out the bad stuff! lol ;)

Bike week is just crazy and we finally got the car back on Wednesday but the Pine Bluff elders used 1461 miles (the limit is 1200) and.... it was only half way into the month! So, Sister Hicken and I are on bike week until the beginning of next month! The Monticello elders also went over so essentially our entire district is walking right now. Sister Hicken found in her personal study the other day a precious missing gem in the Articles of Faith. Article 2.5 We believe that missionaries should be punished for their own sins and not for Pine Bluff and Monticello elders' transgressions. Ah well, besides the fact that it is character building, if it wasn't easy for him we shouldn't expect it to be easy for us. 

We have been keeping pretty busy which is awesome. On Fridays we are supposed to have weekly planning...but we had an appointment every hour of the day from 9am to 9pm! It was ridiculous, and awesome! We also found a ton of potential investigators.

It is really miraculous how the Lord is able to fill your time. And I have found how important it is to plan. If you don't have a plan for what you are going to do with a certain investigator or you don't follow the Spirit while planning Heavenly Father is going to make that appointment fall through. These are His children and their salvation and He isn't going to let you mess it up, by your lack of preparation. 

There is nothing that I love more than testifying of Heavenly Father's love for our investigators, to our investigators. His love is so real. And if you can help someone feel that in their lives, that is the best feeling in the world. 

Something else I learned was that Heavenly Father isn't going to force us to be happy. He is going to align things perfectly so that we can achieve the most happiness but we still have our agency to choose to accept or to reject that plan that He has for you. 

Oh fun story of the week...we locked ourselves out of the apartment on Sunday afternoon... our landlord was out of town and was driving back but it took him a little over 4 hours to get back... Sister Hicken and I quickly discovered that we could never make a career out of being criminals because we tried and tried to pick the lock and slide a credit card through the door... to no avail... I guess I am just going to have to stick to being a goody two shoes.. 

The Rodgers have a little boy named Joseph that loves the sister missionaries. Apparently they invited the elders over for dinner the other day and little Joseph kept referring to them as the sister missionaries! So cute! We have a little fan!  

Oh hey! Exciting news today is my 8th month anniversary! Can you believe that? My mind is a little blown! Where does the time go? So ridiculous.

What else what else? 

I don't even know. 

I love you bunches more than oats! 

Love,

Hermana Ives

Week #34: Easter

Hola Familia!

What a crazy week! Rod and Erma loved your special gift! (thank you so much for thinking of them and sending that you really don't know how much it meant!) I hope it is alright that I gave your number to sister Bryant. I just think that you two are kindred spirits. Plus she has a son that is struggling with a computer game addiction and thinking seriously about whether or not to go on a mission (She is looking for ideas and suggestions of how to help him.)

Spanish lessons without a Spanish speaking companion are really hard... But the gift of interpretation is SOOO real. My comprehenion has skyrocketed since being with Sister Hicken. And that is only possible through the Spirit. I have decided that after I come home I want to do a study abroad program/internship/vacation, I don't know yet but somewhere, where I can be completely immersed in the Spanish language and really become fluent. 

It is super crazy the things people tell missionaries... do they not realize that we are only 20 year old kids that really don't know anything at all? I mean really we have NO life experience and just barely graduated high school, and it is no secret how silly and dumb high schoolers act. Man oh man, the mission has really showed me how stressed out I get, about things that I can't really fix. Sometimes I wish I weren't a missionary so that there would be more I could do. But then if I were a missionary I doubt I would even know about all of these problems.... so that's the dilemma that I'm facing right now lol. And it makes it super difficult that the branch president doesn't speak Spanish...the language barrier is just so frustrating!

The most awesome thing that happened this week was that Rosa and Yaireth were baptized! We had their baptism during the 3rd hour because branch president was afraid no one would stay for the baptism if it was after church. I can't tell you how beautiful it was to have a baptism on Easter. Plus a recent convert, Bro Jerry Benton (he used to be a preacher) was able to exercise his priesthood, performing the baptism! It was so cool to be able to see everyone progressing in the gospel so much and the spirit was super strong! I am still in shock that they were baptized! FINALLY! =D  They were practically glowing! 

For Easter Sister Hicken and I weren't invited to come to one until after church. Sister Wright was an answer to our prayers because she invited us over for an Easter dinner. It was fabulously delicious! 

Easter was good. I've decided that I need to find someone else who needs to quit smoking so that I can quit eating ice cream...lol, and bread... and marshmallows...

Well, that was pretty much our week... fun stuff. 

Thank you for all the Easter wishes! The food and shopping for bikes sounds like fun. lol, is biking really on our list of activities to do when I get back??? Shoot, I am going to start to be more serious in my bike riding too... lol, this has been bike week and I think I maybe rode it twice... (That's mostly because of Sister Hicken though.)

Yup, well I'm doing good. Probably need to stop stress eating... but a gallon of ice cream just sounded so good! lol ;) 

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Hermana Ives

Week #33: Re: Icing - Prayer - Repentance

Hola Familia!

Can you believe it is Easter this coming Sunday! I hope you both have a wonderful trip to visit Tyler and Laura and Melody! Tell everyone hi and give them lots of hugs! Thank you so much for your package! It was so much fun to come home and find a package in front of the door! I love you so much and I am sorry that there was such a mishap with trying to get it sent off. 

I am glad to hear you enjoyed conference. Man, I wish I had thought about Gru during that conference talk, or that I could hear it again! That is so funny!

This week, man, so crazy it went by so super fast and yet each day seemed to last forever! Those last three hours right after dinner, the main thought on my mind was, "It's only three hours, I can do anything for three hours..." But it really has been pretty awesome. 

So I have been praying pretty hard that we would be able to find a family of 5 with kids that were all baptismal age... I know now without a doubt that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. Sister Hicken and I felt prompted to go through the former investigators and to contact some of them. We happened upon Freddie and his girlfriend Christina (she has three kids all baptismal age...) They are so amazing. I have never taught a lesson where the Spirit is present so strongly the entire lesson. We invited them to be baptized and they both accepted and they just looked at each other and grinned as big as can be! I am so excited for the 4th of May!

Rosa and Yaireth had their interview but it became very important to Rosa to be baptized on Easter instead of the 13th. If it was anyone else we would have pushed a lot harder to get baptized on the date they set but the symbolism of the 20th the 2 of them getting baptized is really important and she isn't going to let it slip so it is going to be alright.

We have two investigators that are getting married this week. and the best thing I have ever heard on my mission came out of Anthony's mouth... because Rabbit was talking about maybe having a small cake. And Anthony said, "I not be trippin' bout no cake. I want me some hot wings!" LOL isn't that the greatest? "and Kool-aid I can't have tea but I can still drink Kool-aid, right?"

Church was super sad. We had 8 people coming and only the 3 regulars came. Which is fabulous don't get me wrong but we worked super hard to call everyone to get them pumped up, we swung by their homes, and no one answered or showed up... 

Anywho, life is good, I can't believe that I have been out for over 6 months and that I don't have a year left anymore! Craziness! I am glad that my polka-dots are an acceptable stand-in for right now. I love you both lots and lots!

We get to talk on Skype here pretty soon! Isn't that going to be great ;) Not like either of us are counting down! teehee!

Stay awesome! And I am glad to hear that you won the Albertson's monopoly! That is so cool! You have to tell me what you finally decide to spend your prize money on! ;)

Love,

Hermana Ives