Reeses out the wazoo!! 3/31/14

Woo this week I got 3 packages when the president came for the conference!!!! I have the best family in the world!! Shout out to the Kingdons for the awesome package love you all! Mom and dad I was so stinkin' happy for all of the Reeses!!!!! Best day ever!! Mckay and Malorie here are your shoutouts. I got your letter that you sent with grandpa! Love you thanks for remembering me!! And the rest of you slackers don't forget to write me haha!!

Oh boy today we had pretty low numbers but the week was pretty fun because we had a million activities at the church this week and we usually never have anything. We have some investigators who went to all of the activities and are getting excited about the church so that's good but we also had 6 baptism dates drop this week so that was pretty sad. Hopefully one day I can get a baptism for my companion! Things were pretty slow when she came and we don't have any baptisms planned until the end of April. Oh man its bad. 

We met the cutest girls this week! They're 15 and 9 and the little 9 year old waits outside in a chair waiting for us to come and she drew us pictures and a card to give to us. I love them so much!!! The 15 year old, Fernanda, started crying during the lesson and said that her life had been sad before we came and whenever we visit she feels better! I almost started crying and oh they're so cute, Ana Karen always prays and thanks God for sending people so marvelous to their house! Their mom doesn't want anything to do with us and I think its going to be hard to get them to be able to go to church or progress anymore, but at least for the minimum we have been able to help at a hard time in their life. 

Nobody wants to go to church!!!!!! Why is church at 8 in the morning! Its the perfect excuse for people not to go because they're tired! Dumb!! Oh well we will find people who are prepared and willing to go to the church even though its early! Things were pretty slow this week and hope we do better next week! But its all good. 

The other day we were on the bus and the driver was freaking loco and was driving like a mad man! We hit a bump and it was like that funny YouTube video of the little girl hitting the ceiling in the school bus. We literally lifted off our sits and bounced around the bus a little bit haha! 

That's all I can think of. I love you all so much and miss you but I'm having fun out here so don't worry about me! Shout out to my main man for his birthday yesterday!!!!!!!! Hope it was amazing Devin!! Watch out ladies...stud muffin 16 year old Devin is single and ready to mingle haha!!! Have a great birthday this Sunday coming up Kierstin love you all!!!!

Les amo muchisimo!!!!!!!!!

Aaaaah Im a stress bomb!! 3/24/14

Hola familia y amigos como estan??????? Ok this week has been crazy I dont even know whats going on or whats happened but here we go. Kaity I cant remember if I remembered to wish you happy birthday last week but someone pass the message to her haha. And Thomas happy birthday last Wednesday and Devin happy birthday this Sunday!!!!!!!! Love you all so much and am thinking about you!!

Ok this week was pretty scary to start! I thought I was going to poo my pants the day we started teaching lessons but I survived so thats a good start! No actually Ive learned a lot in just this week and I discovered that when youre forced to be brave its possible haha. Ive had to do things this week that would have killed me before the missino but Im getting a lot better at talking to people and everything. dont get me wrong Im still totally confused and stressed a lot of the times haha but Im having some awesome moments here that I didnt have before when I was in my own training.

First awesome thing that happened this week is we visited this less active lady. She hasnt let us in the house for more than two months and she very reluctantly let us in this time, who knows why. but I totally saw her change during the lesson. By the end she was just smiling and so happy and participating and bearing her own testimony. She said that seeing my improvement in spanish in the short time of being here was a blessing for her to see and she could see a miracle that Heavenly Father gave me! Woo!!!! Then she laughed at how white I was when I got here but is happy to see that ive got some color in me now haha! But she invited us to come back and said to feel free anytime we wanted to pass by! Yay for the spirit!!!

Then this week we invited a lady to be baptized and she said no. Then of course Im not a very good missionary yet and I didnt know how to help her so we visited her again another day and invited her to be baptized. We read a scripture together and you could see the lightbulb go off in her head and she was like "I have to be baptized to go to the celestial kingdom with my family" It was so awesome!!! Then she accepted a baptismal date and went to church and it was awesome!!!!!!!!

We had 4 investigators come to church!!!! I was so stinkin stoked because two of them came on their own and were surprises! We got Juan to church!!! Weve been working on him for weeks and when I saw him driving down the street on the way to church I almost peed with joy!!! We have some awesome investigators that Im excited to see how it goes these next couple of weeks! 

Well I love you all so much and hope you have the best week ever! Lets hope I can keep doing this haha! Wooooooooo!!!!!!!!! Ciao Bellas!!

Ummmmm........What happened? 3/18/14

Ok yesterday were transfers and Im staying in Ensenada......to train. Im dying a little on the inside with fear but you know its all good! I survived the first 3 months I guess I can do this too! My new companion is Hermana Rosas and she is from Mexico city. She seems really nice so far but we are still not way comfortable together. Saying goodbye to Hermana Ortiz was pretty much the saddest thing of my life! She just looked at me before I had to leave and was like "hija amada you have to leave" and then we just started crying and I died a little on the inside. I didnt realize how much I freakin love that girl until she left! Even just today I havent laughed as much and its sad to miss her but pretty soon Im going to be more comfortable with my companion and we are going to party. so who knows how Im going to be capable of training when I just barely finished my training for myself and still cant speak a ton of spanish. Yesterday in the bus I had to pass the phone to my companion to talk becuase the guy on the phone couldnt understand me. Haha story of my life. I got to meet some new missionaries when I went to Tijuana to pick up my companion  and they were all awesome I loved them1 The Americans didnt come until today so I didnt get to meet anyone but I think that Will Rose came this transfer and Joey Stevens from Olympus the last transfer so thats pretty cool! Hermana Ortiz is going to Mexicali to train a new North American companion and open a new sector. Haha poor child is nervous but I know she will do great because shes the best!!!

Also the good news.....we had a baptism on Saturday!!!!!!!!!!! Omar!!!!!!! It was awesome he is so happy!!!! It was awesome to have a baptism on our last week! And now we dont have any baptism dates until April but we have 7 so I have hope that we will get one soon!! We are teaching a guy named Juan and pretty much we started teaching all of his family around town and they are all so amazing!!!! I love this family!! We had some amazing lessons this week with the family and have seen some good progress! I cant remember everything else that happened this week because I died of shock a little bit on Saturday when they called and told us our transfers, but we had a lot of fun Im just a little anxious for the week to come. I just keep reminding myself "who the lord calls, the lord qualifies" 

I love you all so much and miss you and hope you have the best week ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry I forgot the cord to connect my camera so surprise surprise no more pictures for you. But Im getting freakin tan everyone is going to be so jealous when you see the pictures!!! Even today one Hermana was like whoa youve gotten really tan since Ive seen you last week, you need to wear more sunscreen! Haha dont worry mom Im going to wear sunscreen and not get burned! Love you and have an awesome week!!

Get that corn out of my face!! 3/10/14

First off I found some of that corn on a stick!!!!! They actually sell a lot of it here I just didn't know that it was called elote haha! But yeah hopefully my picture will work! They're not very good. But I'm going to train myself to love them so that i can be a legit Mexican haha! All of your emails made me laugh so hard last week! Devin I hope you just got some dang bread and I hope you're recovering after the punch from Carter haha! 

My mind just went blank and I cant remember a lot that happened this week but we will try and see if I can do this from memory. First off this Saturday we have a baptism set with an investigator, Omar, and we are so pumped!! Hes a giant teddy bear we just love him!  He gave us quite the scare and almost didn't come to church this week but its all good, he came, just a little late!
We tried contacting a lot more people on the streets this week and it seemed like a lot more people didn't want to listen but we are going to work like crazy this week!! This is our last week together before transfers!! I'm dying it really is going to be so sad! I'm probably going to stay here in Ensenada and Hermana Ortiz will leave so we will see what happens this week. Don't panic if i don't write next Monday or i'm late or who knows what but I don't know when we will have the chance to write on transfer days. so just in case nothing comes Monday don't panic. I'm doing ok.

I went to Tijuana again today for the visa stuff! It was pretty mellow today and there weren't many people there but I got to see Hermana Muir so you know that's always the best!!!!! We havent had water here for 4 days so that's fun stuff. Hmmmm what else. I finished my 12 week training and am kind of okish at Spanish and am ready to go....not. No but its all good I'm feeling a lot better about the language and am interested to see if my next companion will speak any English or not. Well that's all I can think of sorry I'm kind of lame this week. I love you all so much and cant wait to hear from you all again!!

Am I in Roma? 2/24

We had an activity with the zone today and it was way fun!! We were supposed to be going to the Bufadora which is the big tourist thing in Ensenada, but we didnt end up doing that.  I dont really know what we did. I just got in the van and didn't ask questions. Haha that sounded sketchy but it was a van full of probably about 15 missionaries, so its all good. We went to lots of vineyards and I felt like I was in Rome!! Holla to my Paula!! But yeah the vineyards in Rome are probably way better but it was the first time Ive seen anything pretty since Ive been here! We were all in shock and just so confused even the bathrooms were way nice! We saw the ocean and it was just some good stuff I was digging it!! We went on a "short tour" and you know the joy I find in the tours of who knows what that we take as a family so I'm sure you can picture my joy haha! Plus to top it off it was all in Spanish so that was the highlight of my mission! Haha, no but it was a way fun day! There were these roosters running around and all of the sudden one started flying at my and I just freaked out and started screaming haha so that was a little embarrassing.  Then I just about face planted it on the stairs so the Elders probably think I'm a crazy person!! 
I LOVE my companion!! We seriously just laugh all the time!!! It's going to be so sad when we have transfers in 3 weeks! Oh one highlight this week too was we were at Carolinas house and she was brushing her teeth and she started laughing and totally spewed it all over me! Haha projectile spewing always makes me laugh so I wasn't mad, plus it was payback for when I did the same thing to Hermana Muir in the MTC!  I got a package from the Barneys!!! Thank you so much it was seriously the best thing ever!!! Mmmmmmm my companion and I have been loving all the snakcs this week so thanks for everything I totally loved it!!! And I got a letter from Marissa Neeley and a Christmas card from the Evans that they had sent to the MTC haha, so thanks everyone for all the cards and everything youre the best!! No time today but I love you all so much and miss you like crazy but, I'm having a lot of fun out here and can kind of speak Spanish! I totally saw a difference in my spanish this week so I'm feeling pretty good! "Peace and Blessings peace and blessings"

3/2/14

Hola mi lovely familia y amigos!!!! This week was pretty awesome!!!!  I'm having a lot of fun and feeling like my old self again.  My homesickness has gotten a lot better this week for some reason and I'm not dying to see Americans like I was before so I'm going to live haha.  I'm having so much fun with my companion and we had a lot of success this week and are getting sad for transfers coming up! First of all we had 5 investigators come to church yesterday!!! What????? We were so stoked!! We met some AWESOME new investigators this week who we are so happy about and things are looking really good! One of our investigators at church yesterday came up to us and says, "I'm sorry I have a problem with my baptism date, I cant get baptized on that day"....so my little heart broke a little bit and then he goes "I want to get baptized earlier. The earliest day possible!!" Milkawhat???? We are so stoked he is way ready and all of his friends are members and he's totally getting baptized soon! Then he surprisingly brought his wife to church and she wants to get baptized too, as soon as she gets a new job that she won't have to work Sundays and woooooo I'm just so happy!!

We had companion exchanges this week and I had to direct the sector for the first time and that was pretty scary. I didn't get lost or anything but I was really nervous but its all good I survived! 

Oh and yesterday we had shark tacos.  That's why I said live every week like its shark week haha! I didn't know it was shark until I had already eaten them so hopefully I don't get bad karma now and get eaten by a shark! Forgive me sharks haha!! 

We had a couple of rainstorms this week that were way fun!! My companion's umbrella is broken and its the funniest thing in the world to watch her battle with that thing! When the wind comes it flips it inside out and she cant control it and I die laughing!! It covers her and she's like a little human taco walking around with that thing haha! We got SOAKING WET one day in the rain! One second its normal and fine andhe next minute its pouring. Its way fun though we loved it!

OK in my pictures I know I'm fatter.  I'm crying on the inside. I've been told numerous times this week that I'm looking fatter. Oh boy the people here are blunt! If you ever need a little pick me up the people in Mexico can help haha!! Today we were studying and its p day so I haven't looked in the mirror yet and my companion looks at me and goes I've never seen your hair look so ugly. Haha I just started laughing!! Woo hoo I'm feeling pretty this week haha! Its time for me to get a better workout plan and diet so that I don't come home a chunky little munchkin! The food in Mexico tastes even more processed than the food in America. And we eat tortillas with EVERY meal! But its so tasty! I've got 14 more months to work it off haha!! Well love you all so much and hope you have an awesome week!!!!