Week 45--Our Biggest Lessons as Missionaries (with a little Spanish thrown in!)

I'm kind of at a loss of how to start this email this week, because it seriously just flew by! I can't believe it's already Monday again! Today has already been a fun day. Yesterday I had a KILLER migraine. I've been getting them more and more lately, which is a little concerning, but hopefully it's just tiredness. But anyway after about 11 hours of sleeping and a rather large dosage of Tylenol this morning, I feel great! Well, almost great, but a whole lot better than yesterday! We also got to go SHOPPING this morning. Like, real shopping. Like adorable and comfy dresses shopping. I got three new dresses and it is SO refreshing. I was getting so tired of my clothes after 10 1/2 months... I'll send some pictures next week of them :) A bit of advice for future sisters- most of us like dresses better than skirts and shirts. It's a LOT easier and we have a very limited time in the morning to have to worry about picking out a skirt and shirt combo that match. So it's good to have a few skirt/shirt combos, but you'll most likely tend to wear your dresses a lot more. It's just so much easier. 

SO this week-

Monday I had a really bad headache. Not to the migraine level of Sunday, but pretty bad. There's a lot of new people in the zone, so hopefully my zombieness wasn't too bad of a first impression. I was so exhausted! 

We've been watering the Fore's garden for them while they're in Alaska for the last two weeks. It was stressful, because it's been like 105! But the plants are still alive and doing okay, so that's good! 

Watering the Garden

Monday night we had to say goodbye to Larissa... She's going to Alaska for two months! I probably won't be here by the time she gets back :(  It's okay though, because at least we can still talk to her on the phone!

Tuesday we went to the Doctrine of Christ. It was SO GOOD. It's a training by President and Sister Lewis all about 2 Nephi chapters 31-33, really in depth. It was even better than last time. (Trainers/trainees go in their 2nd transfer of training) I was pretty tired though, because we had to wake up at 4:45 to get there on time! But fortunately this transfer the meeting was at the mission home in Yakima, so not nearly as long of a drive as last time. We did some roleplays reading the very beginning of the Book of Mormon with someone for the first time. It was cool to go in depth. We found a lot of cool things I had never noticed before! That's one thing I love about the scriptures a lot, is that you can read the same verse 10 times and get something new about it each time! For example, in chapter1 verse 2, Nephi says he's making a record in the learning of the Jews, but in the language of the Egyptians. We read that and then President was like, why don't they write it in Hebrew? That's the language of the Jews? and then we found 3 Nephi 5:8 and Mormon 9:32-34 So cool! 

At Doctrine of Christ Training

Wednesday we took a trip to the doctor. Hermana Hull's weird throat thing happened again!! Every three weeks, almost on the dot, her right tonsil swells up and hurts super bad for about 4 days, and then it gets better. It's happened four times now! The doctors can't figure out what's up. They even did a blood test for mono, but it came back negative. Please keep this in your prayers! It's so weird! 

Waiting at the hospital

 Dreading the blood tests

Ouch! They poked her twice!

Wednesday we also got to have nachos for dinner at the Abkens. I don’t know why I felt the need to share that, but they were delicious. We also had our missionary correlation meeting and our new ward missionary, TYLER came! It was so awesome! He is a GREAT missionary and progressing so much as a recent convert! He got the Priesthood last week and passed the Sacrament yesterday! I was literally crying, it was so beautiful. He's doing a great job of reaching out to Max too, because their stories are so similar. We also are loving our new ward mission leader. He's doing a great job! 

Thursday we had plans to have a lesson with Tyler, and he surprised us by bringing his friend, Raul. We taught him the Restoration, and he actually found it all very interesting! He actually asked if he could have a copy of the Book of Mormon, even before we gave him his. New investigator! finally! We also have a few potentials that look very promising.

Friday we had dinner with the Line family. It was COMIDA MEXICANA REAL! I was so excited. We also had a chance to call the STLs for our weekly Spanish practice, and it was Hermana Luevano's Year mark! WOW! 

Fuimos hablando en que hemos aprendido lo mas/ lo mas grande leccion de nuestro tiempo como missioneras. Ella dijo que ha aprendido lo mas que es posible hacer cosas muy muy duras. Yo he aprendido que esta bien para cambiar. Aun si antes de mi mission, ya me gusta mi mismo, esta bien para todavia cambiar y mejorar no solamente como missionera pero como mi persona. Hna Hull tiene 3 meses ahora, y ella dijo que su leccion lo mas grande es como ser valiente y tener confidencia! Fue un conversasion muy espiritual. 

(We were talking about what we have learned the most and the biggest lesson of our time as missionaries. She said that she has learned that it's possible to do things that are really, really hard! I have learned that it's okay to change. Even if before my mission I already liked myself, it's okay to change and improve, not just as a missionary but as a person. Hermana Hull has three months now, and she said that her biggest lesson has been to be bold and have confidence! It was a very spiritual experience.)

Quiero usar mas espanol en mis correos electronicos :) (I want to use more Spanish in my emails.)

Saturday we went to the Damans for a visit and Loretta surprised us by teaching us how to paint with watercolors. It was fun and good to help her out with a project. We had an awesome conversation about talents that God gave us, and Hermana Hull and I sang " Brightly Beams our Father’s Mercy" for her before we left. She was crying. It was a great day! 

 Painting with Loretta!

This is random, but ya’ll should read the article "Love Where I Least Expected It" from August 2016 Ensign. It's really good! We read it to a less active family that we had dinner with on Saturday. They are really sweet, especially the wife, Kendra. She actually does a lot of energy work and physical therapy on horses and people, and was able to help me with my shoulder that was sore. (I think it’s from my bag). It was so crazy she just touched some certain points on my back and shoulder and the pain was gone the next day!

Well, yesterday was an awesome day at church. Like I said, Tyler passed the Sacrament, and I had tears rolling down my cheeks! They grow up so fast. ;) Also, we cried in RS because we were talking about nurturing and how to nurture others, then we talked about our safe place, and everyone started talking about their moms! That one sure got us as missionaries! I love and miss you, Mom! After church my headache started getting a lot worse! I barely made it through dinner! I got really nauseous too, because the pain was so bad, so it's really good it was CHORIZO (aka my favorite food ever besides fried pickles) or I probably wouldn't have been able to eat! Fortunately, I'm feeling better now though. Thank goodness for Tylenol! 

I think that's about it. I love you all!!