September 24, 2012

Well this week was very eventful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I forgot to bring my planner to SMU today so my email isnt going to be very long because i cant remember everything off the top off my head!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But on tuesday i got to go on exchanges with Elder Snow which was so much fun!!!!!!!!!!!! It would be so great if we were companions!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is from Huntington Beach!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was so much fun contacting people and when they would ask where we were from we both could say southern california!!!!!!!!!!!!! We even met with some members and they told us that we need to tell our mission president to put us together because they have never seen a companionship where both of them are from southern california!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We also got to meet with Jared and Becka that night and teach The Restoration to start the new member lessons and it was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The spirit was so strong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love teaching about the restoration of the church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Becka also got a calling this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is the young womens personal progress advisor, she is going to do great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All the young women already love her!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited for her!!!!!!!!!!! We also got to meet with Christian this week and he had his baptismal interview!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited for him, I cant wait for this sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is so excited to get baptized and he is going to be able to baptize his son in a few weeks which is going to be even more great!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had specialized training on friday which was a great meeting!!!!!!!!!!! We practiced a lot with contacting people which was really fun because thats my favorite thing to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i love tracting and contacting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday was also a great day at church!!!!!!!!!!! It was the primary program in the ninth ward!!!!!!!!!!! I love that ward so much, it is so multi cultural!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It has really helped me to learn about how all cultures can get along with each other!!!!!!!!!!!! The ward has such a big heart for everyone, it is so great!!!!!!!!!!!! I love serving in a bilingual ward!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Im so sorry this email is so short!!!!!!!!! Im so mad at myself for forgetting my planner today!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope all of you have a great week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

September 17, 2012

Well this week has been another great week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It seemed a lot longer than some of the other weeks but it was still good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On tuesday i got my new companion!!!!!!!!!! He is brand new and his name is Elder Benard and he is from Salt Lake City!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is a brand new missionary and so far he is settling in well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy that I got to stay here in Dallas 1/Dallas 9, i love this area sososososo much!!!!!!!!!!! Its the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On tuesday we had the new missionary meeting in the morning which went great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we got to get back to our area and i showed Elder Benard all around!!!!!!!!!!!! We went tracting for a little bit and then we got to meet with Rosalinda, she is the best, I know i talk about her a lot!!!!!!!!!!!! Then after that we had dinner over at the Hardens and then we had an appointment with Jaime and Caridad!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are doing great!!!!!!!!!!! We got to set a marriage date with them for November 10 and then they can get baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They love the church so much and they have been coming every week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On thursday we had weekly planning in the morning which was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and i got to tell Elder Benard about all of our investigators and more about the area!!!!!!!!! Then we went contacting in the afternoon which i LOVE doing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then that night we got to meet with Jaime and read a chapter from the book of mormon with him which was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The spirit is so strong when we meet with him and he really has such a great desire to learn more!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we got to meet with Beatrice and she is great too!!!!!!!!!!!! On friday evening we got to meet with Christian cooper!!!!!!!!!!!!! i love him so much he is great!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is getting baptized the end of this month!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got to teach him the plan of salvation and the spirit was so strong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love that we are able to have answers to all those questions!!!!!!!!! On saturday I got to see Elder Seager!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He went home on saturday but he stopped by to say goodbye to me and i loved it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sunday was a great day at church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I realized that I havent really said anything so far about what i love about texas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love barbeque now and i also love fried okra!!!!!!!!!! i never had it before until i got here and it is so good!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I have started to say yall sometimes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well I hope that you all have a great week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I miss you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

September 10, 2012

GUESS WHAT GUESS WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IM STAYING HERE IN DALLAS 1 AND DALLAS 9!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i love it here so much!!!!!!!! i want to stay here for the rest of my mission!!!!!!!!!!!!! and im training a new missionary again which will be fun!!!!!!!!!!! Well tuesday was a fun day!!!!!!!!!!! it was elder Saengers birthday!!!!!!!!!! We went to downtown dallas for lunch which was a lot of fun!!!!!!!!!!!! and then we got to teach some great lessons to some of our investigators!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On wednesday we got to go to the temple which was so great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i love the temple so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we only get to go every six months which makes it that much better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After our endowment session we went to get lunch in the cafeteria and the temple president was there and he bought us lunch which was so nice of him!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so thankful for that!!!!!!!!!!!! Then afterwards i got to go on exchanges with Elder Taylor which was so much fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got to meet with one of our investigators John that night!!!!!!!!!! He is the one that went to the temple wanting to worship with us so he came to church the next sunday!!!!!!!!!!! But anways we got to teach him the plan of salvation and it was so great to see how he was feeling the spirit and how many of his questions got answered from the plan of salvation!!!!!!!!!!!! We are so lucky to have that plan and it answers so many of our questions that we have about life!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so grateful that Heavenly Father has created this great plan for us!!!!!!!!!!! On friday night we got to meet with the cooper family!!!!!!!!! Sister cooper is a member of the church but her husband is not!!!!!!!!!!!!! He has already come to church twice and he is doing so great!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got to share the message of the restoration with him on friday night and he brought the pamphlet with him to church and was showing it to everyone and telling everyone how great it is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love him so much, he is so great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i am so excited for his baptism which is happening in a couple of weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! then saturday was transfer calls night and i found out im staying here which is so exciting!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on sunday night there was a back to school fireside that was organized by Preisdent Durrant for the whole dallas metroplex and i was invited to speak at it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There were so many youth there, like over 1000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! there were people sitting all the way to the back of the gym!!!!!!!!!!! it was a great fireside on how to get the youth to invite their friends to church!!!!!! We need to get one of those firesides in newport beach!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sorry that this email is so short and scattered this week!!!!!!!!!!!! E mails are always hard for me to do on the first week of the transfer!!!!!!!!!!!!! ill tell you all about my brand new companion next week!!!!!!!!!! I am excited to get another brand new missionary!!!!!!!!!!!!!! have a great week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i miss you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

September 3, 2012 ( Labor Day )

Well this week has been very interesting, a lot of meetings and reports which I dont like very much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On tuesday night we got to meet with Jaime and Caridad which was great!!!!!!!!!! They are doing so good except they didnt come to church yesterday!!!!!!!!!!! We got to teach them the word of wisdom and they really like it a lot and they said they are going to try very hard to follow it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on wednesday I had to go to zone leader council which was basically all day, i was about to die!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hate sitting inside for that long!!!!!!!!!!! I would rather be outside working!!!!!!!!!!! But it was a very good meeting and I got to learn a lot!!!!!!!!!!!! we did some great role plays and we talked about some things that our mission can improve on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But then when i got home that night we got to help this lady move out of her apartment that isnt a member of the church!!!!!!!! she called the bishops phone looking for help to move!!!!!!!!!! So we got to go over there and help her, she is a very nice lady but she isnt very interested in learning about the church!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on thursday i had to work on the stak presidents report with the spanish zone leaders which took all morning but i am so happy that we got it done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we got to go on exchanges with Lakewood!!!!!!!!!!! I got to spend the day with Elder Christensen which was great!!!!!!!! He is such a great missionary!!!!!!!!!! On friday we got to go tracting in highland park which i love doing!!!!!!!!!!!! On saturday we had a baptism in the ward which was great!!!!!!! the spanish missionaries were teaching this girl for a long time!!!!!!!!!!! and she finally got baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Im sorry that this email is so short!!!!!!!!!!!! I dont have much time!!!!!!!!!!!! But i miss all of you and I hope that you have a great week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

August 27, 2012

This week has been a great week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On tuesday I got to spend the day over in the Lake Highlands and Garland 1 wards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was cool to be in that area for the day but I missed my area, thats one thing I dont like about exchanges!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But I got to spend the day with Elder Shuman and he is an awesome missionary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He was serving out in Hemphill for 6 months and then he came her to the city to our district, so this is his second area!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got to have a lot of fun tracting and talking to people and it was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got to teach some lessons that evening and that was great too!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got to share the story of the restoration of the church with someone and it was so cool to see their immediate change and to see the spirit working with them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love seeing all these miracles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On thursday we had a meeting with President Durrant and Sister Durrant which was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!! President Durrants son just got back from his mission so we got to hear a little bit from him!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have another meeting this next week, I do like going to meetings but somtimes i just wish that we can be out doingn normal missionary work, I dont like being inside all day at a meeting!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then at night time we got to meet with the Son family and they are doing great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love them a lot, we just need to really help them with the Word of Wisdom, because the kids understand it, just the parents dont!!!!!!!!! I wish we could speak vietnamese!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On friday we got to have a full day of tracting which was great!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got to talk to a lot of people and give a lot of cards out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hopefully some people will take a look at the website!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on saturday morning we got to meet with this man named Nano!!!!!!!!!!! The carrollton elders texted us earlier that week and told us that he came to church up there and he lives in our area, so we didnt know too much about him!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we met him at the hotel he lives at and guess what?!?!?!?!?!?!!? He just moved here from spain about a month ago and he is so cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He was already taught all the lessons by the missionaries in spain and he wants to get baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!! he still has all the pamphlets which is so cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He looks exactly like Carl which is also so cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its so great to see someone that appreciates the gospel so much and is not even a member of the church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know this church is true with all my heart and I just love it so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Jaime and Caridad came to church yesterday which was so great!!!!!!!!!!! I love them so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so great to see how much they were loving church!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sunday was a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rosalinda was having a bad day because she didnt go to church so we went over there for a little bit to see her and Tiny, her dog, ran away which is so sad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is the only other person that stays there with her and she loves him so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Today we are putting up signs everywhere in case someone has found him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love all the help we get to do for everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Missionary work is the best thing ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope that everyone has a great week and everyone that is going back to school, have fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I miss you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

August 20, 2012

Another awesome week here in texas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So on monday after we were done emailing and shopping we met the youth from the 1 and 9 wards at the church and had a lot of fun and played games and the spanish missionaries came too, it was the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on tuesday we had district meeting and I got to go on exchanges with Elder Sorensen!!!!!!!!!!!! He came over to my area which was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he is such a great missionary and so enthusiastic, i love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Except for a majority of the day I had to do the stake presidents report because thats when the spanish zone leaders wanted to do it!!!!!!!!!!!!! I felt so bad for Elder Sorensen because he just had to sit there and watch while we worked on the stake presidents report!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we got to have dinner at Hermana Villalobos house, i love her so much, she is so nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then afterwards Christian came teaching with us!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was so great to have him teach with us!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had an appointment with a lady we found about two weeks ago but she wasnt there so instead we met with Tim since he lives in those same apartments!!!!!!!!!!!! We caught him as soon as he was walking in his apartment which was perfect!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got to go in and read 3 Nephi 11 with him!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love that chapter so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It just makes me so excited for the opportuniy that I will get to hug Jesus and personally thank him for everything that He did for us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Christian did so great!!!!!!!!! He was answering all of Tims questions and teaching him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is already a great missionary and he has been a member for less than a week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It just was a great example to me that any member of the church can be a great missionary no matter who you are!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Lord is there helping you 100 percent of the way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On wednesday we exchanged back and then I had to work a little bit more on the stake presidents report and then it was finished, i was so happy it was done, that thing is so stressful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At night we got to teach the montoyas about the ten commandments which was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the oldest daughter, Angelica, really wants to get baptized!!!!!!!!!! The mom has been less active for a while but she is wanting to come back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! they just wont come to church!!!!!!!!!! i think they might be scared so we are trying to help them and members are trying to help them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On thursday we got to meet with this man who just started investigating the church but he lives down in houston but he works up here in downtown dallas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he comes here every two weeks and he wants us to teach him all the lessons before the missionaries down in houtston go over to his house and teach his family!!!!!!!!!!!!! he is a really nice guy but im not sure if he is investigating the church for the right reasons!!!!!!!!!!! the first question he asked us was "if i get baptized in the church can i become the mormon leader???" So we are working with him and trying to help him understand the importance of Jesus Christ and our church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we got to meet with Jared and Becka that night which was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i love them so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We answered all of her last questions before her baptism and then we started preparing for it on saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Saturday was such a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was Becka's baptism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but it was also sad because it was the day we had to say goodbye to christian!!!!!!!!!!!! but I'll talk about Becka first!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So her parents came and all of Jared's family came and they were all so happy that Jared is now back at church and that Becka was getting baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!! There were SOOOO many people there, like over 50!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the service was so great!!!!!!!!! Jareds family gave a musical number which made everyone feel the spirit so strongly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then at the end of the baptism Jared's dad came up to Elder Saenger and I and told us that our mission is now complete and how happy he was that we got to teach Jared and Becka and help Becka get baptized!!!!!!!!!! It was such a great moment of my mission!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know I have a lot more work to do but that baptism was definitely a highlight of my mission!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we had to go over and say goodbye to Christian, it was so sad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but the young mens president in his new ward has already called him and apparently there are over 30 youth in his new ward so that will be great for him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he is now off to colorado!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On sunday morning we had the meeting with the Stake president to go over the stake presidents report!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was one of the most intimidating meetings i have ever been in!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sometimes i think i just need to keep my mouth shut haha i think i talked too much during it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But I was happy that it went ok!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And then we had church right after which was a relief, i love the dallas 1 and dallas 9th wards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love being a missionary and seeing all these miracles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it is just so great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! have a great week everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

August 13, 2012

Well this was most definitely an exciting week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On tuesday we had the mission olympics which was soooooo much fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We all went to the carrollton stake center because thats where the olympics/specialized training was going to be at!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was cool to be back in carrollton for a little bit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had it with all the missionaries that are in the city!!!!!!!!!!! the out east missionaries had their own olympics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had events like speed walking and who could do the most pushups and jumping jacks and scripture memory games and stuff like that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a lot of fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got the most contacts on the day we had to count our contacts and we got the gold medal for that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a great day and we had a great training afterwards about the book of mormon and about this runner that pushed himself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He did something that no one in the world thought it was possible to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and we can do the same thing as missionaries!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We can see miracles that no one else in the world can even think of seeing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then after the meeting we went over to the mission office to get some stuff and then we went right back to our apartment to get ready for the night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its so nice living so close to the mission office!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we had Christians baptismal interview that night!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course he passed with flying colors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A lot of our appointments fell through this week which was very sad but we did get to have a baptism which i'll talk about later!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On friday we got to go on exchanges with the zone leaders down in oak cliff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got to go down there with Elder Ricks and Elder Crockett came up to our area with Elder Saenger so he could do the baptismal interview for Becka!!!!!!!!!! Her baptism is this saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But anyways, Oak cliff is so scary!!!!!!!!!! I have heard so many things about it and now I got to spend the day down there!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh I was scared to even get out off the car!!!!!!!!!!!!! But it humbled me to see how people can live in such poor conditions and still be happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We didnt really get to do too much tracting because the missionaries down there arent really supposed to go knocking on doors!!!!!!!!!!! But we did get to visit a lot of great and nice people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And while i was there I got to do three baptismal interviews!!!!!!!!!!!! I love doing baptismal interviews!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on saturday morning we had to exchange back bright and early so we could get ready for our busy day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had coordination meeting in the morning at our ward mission leaders house and then we got to drive out to mesquite so I could do a baptismal interview for the sisters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was great to meet this investigator because the sisters talk about her all the time and she was so nice and you can see how the gospel has changed her life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then after the interview we had to rush back to our area so we could get the baptism all set up!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The spanish missionaries were nice enough to go to the church for us and turn the font on so it could be filled up in time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we had Christians baptism!!!!!!!!!!! It was so great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got to speak which was really nice, I love Christian so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! His mom came and his grandparents who live all the way up in oklahoma came!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was such a special day!!!!!!!!!! His mom also got desserts and food for everyone at the baptism which was super nice of her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The spirit was there so strongly!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so thankful that the priesthood has been restored back here on earth for all of us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on sunday Christian was confirmed which was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so spiritual and all the members in the Dallas 1st ward were so happy for him!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love being a missionary and seeing all these miracles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We also get to see Becka get baptized this saturday which is going to be so great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have a great week everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!