Happy April!

So this week was really good. Kind of flew by though! I'm so excited it is April. April is the best month of the year :) 

I love April!

Pink trees!

Spring time at the mission home 

Tulips outside our door

Something funny and nasty that started out my week is at a member dinner, we ate this ground up fish paste. IT was NASTY. Like a meat sponge. SO GROSS. Eww, just thinking about it makes my stomach turn. Hna. H and I both felt really sick after that... So I am totally counting that as my new food of the month for April. Also I may count it for May too, it was that bad! So far this year I have tried one new food every month. Most of them were gross but at least I can say I tried them! 

Another fun thing this week was on Wednesday. Hna. S and D had Mission Leadership Conference, so Hna. H and I drove them there and picked up Hna. Juarez to work with us for the day (her comp is an STL too). It was fun for 2 reasons, #1 because Hna. J and H were best best, best friends in the MTC and they got to work together for the day. It was so cute to see them reunite! #2 I got to see Hna. Luevano! Except, she actually hurt herself...twice! She fell off a bike and hurt her wrist, so now she has a wrist brace, and then at p-day last week she and Elder Cordon collided playing volleyball! So now she hurt her ankle as well and is using a crutch. (She can't use both crutches, because she hurt her wrist!) It was sad but kind of funny too, she was cracking up when she saw me. I walked in the room and just gave her this look like, "What did you do?" and she started cracking up and said, "Hi Hermana!" then she and Sis. Hirsche started explaining everything. 

 Hermanas Hawkins and Juarez

 Hermanas Hawkins, Knight & Juarez

 I got to see Hermana Luevano!

Hermana L's injuries!

Another funny thing at MLC was that it was on April Fool's day. So Hna. S and Hna. D decided to play a prank with the zone Leaders, E. Oliver and Johnson, and they all switched name tags. It was funny to hear about how long it took people to notice.

April Fools joke

Wearing elders' nametags!

AWESOME THING ELDER SHUGART TOLD ME: ANA IS ON DATE FOR BAPTISM!!!!!!!! This is soooooooooo exciting, because first of all it is literally a miracle, and second of all that means I will probably be going up to visit Royal soon! His goal is for April 23, so keep your fingers crossed. He has been investigating for over 10 years, and it wasn’t' until the last few months that he has actually made significant progress. Go ANA!! Woo hoo!!! 

On Wednesday night we had an AWESOME lesson with our new investigator, Ismael. He is Daisy’s (one of our recent converts) cousin. He’s only 12, but he is SO smart and so ready for the gospel. Sis. Lewis came with us to the lesson. It was so fun! We watched “Meet the Mormons”, and Ismael said he wants to go on a mission when he is older. 

Speaking of the Lewises, we actually got to have dinner with them the other night!  Well, actually, it ended up only being Sis. Lewis, because it was Saturday night and President was going to the priesthood session of General Conference. (which was SO GOOD btw) It was fun having a "girls night". She showed us a bunch of awesome pictures she's taken lately, and we got to see some of the new things that have been on the blog lately. If you haven't, you should check out the blog, SIs. Lewis takes a ton of pictures!!

 Cool bracelets Sister Lewis got in Africa.

The village girls make these and sell them to support themselves and their families. 

The mission home is so pretty. I love this picture of the Sacred Grove above the fireplace.

Thursday I made Enchiladas for lunch. THEY WERE DELICIOUS and pretty much the taste of my childhood.

Last night Emma dropped us :( It was so sad. She's been one of the best investigators, so ready for the gospel in her life. She was so excited about what she has been learning, so she told her mom and sister in Mexico, about our lessons, and her mom flipped out. She got really mad, so now Emma is not talking with us anymore. We went over last night to see if there is a way we can work it out or help her feel more comfortable, and she just kept making up excuses. Then we would resolve her excuse and come up with a way around it, and she would make another excuse. It was really sad, but I guess it is just not her time right now. I will continue to pray for her family that they can soften their hearts and support her in whatever it is that SHE wants. 

Okay, last but not least, General Conference. I loved it! To answer your questions, as missionaries we go to the chapel to watch conference, they usually stream it in English at all the stake centers, and smaller churches stream it in Spanish. We didn't have any investigators who could make it :( so we just watched it in English for all four sessions. Some of my favorite talks were Elder Oaks, Kevin R. Duncan, Gerrit W. Gong, Pres. Uchtdorf, and, of course, Elder Holland. It was sad to see President Monson so sickly and sad that he could only address us the one time, but it was cool to see Elder Holland give the closing remarks. If someone wants to send me a picture of that meme, I would not even be opposed. Just the fact that he used a meme, and then that it was so hilarious on top of that!  Gah that was so good, Elder Holland! One of my favorite things he said: " Love God, is the 1st great commandment, God loves us, is the first great truth." so true and so powerful. 

 Gathering at the church to watch General Conference

Eating lunch with other missionaries between the sessions of Conference

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from Conference:

Well, I gotta go check lds.org and see if the talks are up yet, Talk to you all next week! Love you!