October 29, 2012

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am excited for halloween!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love seeing everyones halloween decorations that they have put up while we go tracting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! some people here have some pretty great decorations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well a lot of change has happened this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got a new companion and both the spanish missionaries in the wards got new companions so there are a lot of new elders in the dallas 1st and 9th wards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So on tuesday we drove up to transfers and I got my new companion, his name is Elder Stufflebeam and he is from Cedar Hills, Utah and he is fresh from the mtc!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got to go tracting in the afternoon and then we had dinner at the Asays which was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 Afterwards we had a lesson with Jaime and Caridad and they are doing awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We talked with them about obedience and why God gives us commandments!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They still really want to get baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On Wednesday we had district meeting in the morning which went great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We talked about ways we can encourage the members of our wards to do missionary work and how we can seek for referrals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then in the afternoon we got to do some service which was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we had dinner at the Alders which is always so awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love that family so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then at night time we got to meet with Beatrice and invite her to the halloween party on friday for the ninth ward!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thursday was another great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had lunch in the afternoon with Brother Smith which went great!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we got to do some tracting in Highland Park which is always good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we had dinner with the Son family and they are another family that I love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Friday was a great day too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We did some more service in the morning and then afterwards we got to teach BJ about the ten commandments and about praying and reading the scriptures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She really really wants to come closer to Jesus Christ, its just hard for her to come to church because she is in a nursing home so we are going to have to drop her but we will still see her when we go there and do service!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Us teaching her now will help her in the spirit world and I know that she will get baptized there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then after that we did some tracting and we went to go and heart attack Jared and Becka since they have been going through so much lately!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We wrote a bunch of notes on some sticky notes and put them up all over their door and we left some chocolate and then we rang the doorbell and ran away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! they are great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then after that it was time for the halloween party in the ninth ward!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got there 30 minutes early so we could practice our dance with the spanish missionaries for the talent show!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The party was so great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had some investigators there and a lot of less active people that we invited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We did a dance in the talent show with the spanish missionaries which was sooooo much fun hahaha. The ward thought it was hilarious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the talent show was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The 9th ward has so much talent, i love the 9th ward sooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the final act was with some Sisters from the relief society!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They were called the plungettes and they did a dance with plungers, it was hilarious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a lot of fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On saturday we got to do some service with the stake since it was the day of service for the church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is a cemetery right by downtown dallas called oakland cemetery and its over 60 acres!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we got to help cut down branches and rake leaves and just fix it up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There are people buried there from the 1800's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And sometimes we would cut down a bush and there would be a tombstone under it, its so sad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!But it looked so much better after our stake was done, it was great!!!!!!!!!!! Sunday was a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was looking forward to church all week and it was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! About a month ago a member from coppell called us and told us he got our number from President Durrant!!!!!!!!!!! He has a business partner that teaches sunday school at a presbyterian church and he wanted missionaries to come to his class that morning and talk about missionary work, it was a great experience!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and all the youth asked really great questions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we got to drive right over back to our church and we made it just in time for 9th ward sacrament!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then after church we had dinner at the Hatch's, i love that family so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bishop Hatch is a great bishop, hes the bishop in the 1st ward!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we did a lot of contacting and tracting and it was a great end to the week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope everyone has a great halloween!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I miss all of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have a great week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

October 22, 2012

This week was a very interesting week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On tuesday we had district meeting in the morning which was great and we got to talk a lot about using our time wisely and planning and stuff like that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we got to go on exchanges and I got to be with Elder Snow in the lake highlands ward!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love that we finally got the chance to serve together and this is going to be his last transfer and we still get to serve together!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Him and I are great friends!!!!!!!!!!!! The day was going great, we were tracting and contacting people and having great lessons and then dinner came!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We ended up having barbeque and it was really good!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After dinner we got back on our bikes to ride and stop by people and my stomach started feeling really weird but we still kept working!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we got home and my stomach started to feel worse and we got ready for bed and i was just going to try to go to sleep and feel better then i woke up at midnight and i had to throw up really bad so i ran to the bathroom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and then like every hour after that i kept throwing up, it was horrible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We woke up in the morning and I wanted to start to get ready but elder snow wouldnt let me, so i layed in bed and rested and he helped me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we didnt exchange back until thursday since we had a lot of appointments in my area so elder benard and elder shuman stayed over there while we stayed inside and did the stake presidents report and stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were supposed to go to mutual that night in the 9th ward to talk about missionary work and getting the youth to invite their friends but i couldnt go since i was sick so Elder Benard and Elder Shuman went to it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so sad that i missed it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But on thursday I was feeling much better and we had planning and got to go and visit people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On friday we did service in the morning after studies and we did tracting and then we had dinner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Saturday we got to meet with a bunch of people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got to teach Michael and his brother which was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just wish that we could speak bermese!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got to go over the plan of salvation with them and they loved it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can tell that they feel the spirit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At night time we got to see Yvette and Jesse and they are doing great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Church was great yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was Elder Benards last day so he said goodbye to a lot of people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is going out to East Texas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IM STAYING HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM SOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had transfer calls on saturday night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Im going to be training another new missionary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Most of my companions have been new missionaries hahaha. You'll get to hear about my companion next week, all i know about him is that he just landed in TEXAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well i hope that you all have a great week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

October 15, 2012

This week flew by!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cant believe it is already halfway through October!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It feels like October just started!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Monday night was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We stopped by this less active ladys apartment!!!!!!! We met her by the elevator at parkland hospital!!!!!!!!!! We run into so many people there since we go there so much to give people blessings!!!!!!!!!! I love it though, its so great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love going to childrens medical center too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we also got to stop by Kaw Htoo and Mary Weh (the karen speaking family) and they are doing great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On tuesday morning we got the priviledge to teach seminary again!!!!!!!!!!!!! But only Daniel came so we talked with him for a little bit and then we all left!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was still fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we went to district meeting and then we got to go on exchanges with the elders in the lake highlands ward!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I spent the day with Elder Shuman in lake highlands which was great!!!!!!!!!! Its a biking area so i got to be back on a bike for the day which was fun!!!!!!!!!!!!! We talked with some great people and we got to teach some fun lessons!!!!!!!! Elder Shuman is great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on wednesday morning we exchanged back!!!!!!!!!!!! On thursday we had planning in the morning and then we got to go give some blessings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got a call about how there is a member down at childrens medical center and they are from oklahoma!!!!!!!!!! The whole family was there and the little newborn baby is the one thats in the hospital, she was born with a heart defect so she has to stay in the hospital for about 6 months!!!!!!!!!! The family is going to stay down here but the dad is going back up to oklahoma because he cant miss more work!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BUT we got to give the baby a blessing which was so great!!!!!!!!!!!! Childrens medical center is such a great hospital!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we got to go to Presbyterian hospital right after that and give a members co worker there a blessing!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its so cool that we have all the major hospitals here in our area!!!!!!!!!!!! We get to give blessings all the time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we had a great dinner in a highrise apartment building up on the 14th floor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we took some pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was us and the spanish missionaries!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! im going to send my camera card home soon so everyone will get to see some pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we got to teach the son family that night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We read Mosiah 2 with them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love Mosiah 2 sooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Lord really loves us so much and we follow him and keep the commandments he will show his love to us through the things he blesses us with!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This week was stake conference in the Dallas East stake and it was so great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On Saturday in the afternoon we got to teach BJ the gospel of Jesus Christ and even though she is 89 years old she is so great!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She has the best questions ever and she loves when we come over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The gospel is for everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on Saturday night we got to go to the adult session of stake confernce which was really good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Elder Franco from the seventy was there and his talk was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stake Conference on sunday was also really good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got to hear from President and Sister Durrant and Elder Franco again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then that evening we met with our karen speaking family again and now we are teaching one of their friends that is 17 years old and he understands a lot of english which is great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We also got to meet with Sister Chavez and she is doing really good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love being a missionary, this church is so true!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well i would love to hear from anyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I havent heard from all of you in a very long time!!!!!!!!!!!!! Missionaries love to get mail!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope all of you have a great week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! See Miracles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

October 8, 2012

This week has been a GREAT week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I absolutely loved conference!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so good and I loved every minute of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Especially all of President Eyrings talks, he is my absolute favorite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So on tuesday we got to do a TON of tracting and contacting in highland park which was so much fun and we talked to A LOT of people which was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And we were inviting people to watch general conference!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On wednesday we did service in the morning at the Parsons House and then we did some tracting and we met with Rosalinda which was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then in the evening we got a call to go over to Parkland to give someone a blessing!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got there and we couldnt find out anything about him because he couldnt talk and his family was there so we didnt really know what to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But we gave him a blessing and he was really happy afterwards so we knew we were at the right room!!!!!!!!!!!! Then while we were in the hospital walking to the elevator this patient with an iv in her arm walking down the hall yelled "ELDERS!!!!!!!!!!!!" so we went up to her and talked to her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We found out that she lives in the ninth ward and she hasnt been to church in a LONG time so we are going to stop by her house this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On thursday we had lunch with Brother Smith, a member in the 1st ward in downtown and then we ate really fast and he took us and the spanish missionaries on a tour of the Free Mason lodge in downtown which was really cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its a really cool building and has a lot of history and symbolism in it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we got to meet with Jaime at night and he is doing really good!!!!!!!!!!!! We got to read with him and then we invited him to watch general conference, hopefully he did, we will find out tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On friday we had interviews with President Durrant which was great!!!!!!!!!!!! We got to have some really great trainings to!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then saturday was general conference!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can everyone believe the announcement they made about missionary work?!?!?!?!!?!? I cant believe it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One of my future companions could be 18 years old!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Conference was so great, I LOVED all the talks!!!!!!!!!! Its so fun being a missionary and watching conference!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All of us missionaries serving in the dallas east stake watched it at the stake center and you should have seen us all when they announced about the new missionary ages!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All the members that were there were laughing from our reaction hahaha. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On sunday night we got to meet with Sister Reyes which was great, she was baptized about a year ago but she hasnt been to church since then and we have been trying so hard to get her to come, she is just never home!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But last night we were driving past her house and i saw her truck out front so i swerved over to the curb and we parked and ran to her door and she answered!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And we got to have a great lesson with her and read 1 Nephi 8 which is my FAVORITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love reading about the tree of life and how we are all able to partake of it!!!!!!!!!!!! We just need to hold to the iron rod!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a great ending to the week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope that everyone enjoyed conference!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have a great week everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! See miracles!!!!!!

October 1, 2012

OHHH THIS WEEK WAS JUST SO GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So on tuesday we had district meeting in the morning which was really good!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then afterwards we had the new missionary meeting for all the new missionaries this transfer and their trainers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was really good, it was probably the best new missionary meeting I have been to so far!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had pizza afterwards with everyone which was a lot of fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then that evening we got to meet with Christian to prepare for his baptism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Which went great and I'll tell you more about later in the email!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On wednesday we got to do some service in the morning at the parsons house which is always so much fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then afterwards we got to contact people in highland park for a couple hours and pass out pass along cards and invite people to go on to mormon.org!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we had dinner at the Alders which is always so much fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thursday was a really great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! President Durrants father and his fiance came to our mission, Sister Susan Black, and we had a special devotional thursday afternoon for all the missionaries that are in the city and it was really great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Brother Durrant is so funny and his talk was great!!!!!!!!!!!! He talked about how we need to be missionaries with personalities!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We cant just go around like robots sharing the gospel with people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I agree so much with his talk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When we have fun it makes the work so much better and it helps people feel the spirit more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then Sister Black spoke a lot about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith!!!!!!!!!!!! She is really knowledgable and she knows so much about Joseph Smith's life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She gave us some answers to concerns that people have about Jospeh Smith and the Book of Mormon and how we can resolve them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then that night we got to meet with the Son family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are still  working on finding a vietnamese translator!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Friday was great, we did some service in the morning and guess what happened while we were doing service at the parsons house!!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!? One of the residents there, BJ, asked us if we can start teaching her, it was sooooo exciting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even though she is 89 years old she is so great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we set up an appointment with her to come back on Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then guess who met us at our apartment after the parsons house?!?!?!!? CHRISTIAN HARRIMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He was in Dallas for the weekend because his mom had to finish up some business stuff here!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So he spent all of friday evening with us teaching people, it was so great!!!!!!!!!!!!! Christian is the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On saturday we went back to the parsons house to teach BJ and Christian came with us!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It ended up pouring rain that whole day which was really sad because it meant we couldnt go tracting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But we taught BJ about the restoration and she said she is really sad because she hasnt put Jesus Christ first in her life for over 20 years and she said her heart feels like it has a hole in it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But once we taught her she said the hole has filled in and she wants us to teach her eveyrthing hahaha, she is the best, i love her so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It worked outn perfectly because when we were done teaching BJ in her room the Parsons house eneded up needing our help for this activity they were doing that afternoon and it was pouring outside so we were able to help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then sunday was Christian Coopers baptism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was the best day ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Christian was so excited to get baptized and his wife was so happy too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The spirit was so strong!!!!!!!!!!!! I got the priviledge to confirm him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The gift of the Holy Ghost is one of the most important gifts ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so lucky to hold the priesthood and act under the direction of Jesus Christ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Christian is going to be able to baptize his son, Christian Jr, in the next couple weeks which is going to be so exciting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love being a missionary and seeing all these miracles and seeing all these people change their lives, it is so awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have a great week everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!