FOXY MOXEE

So I'm actually going to go through my week backwards just because the beginning of the week was boring and Sunday was amazing so I don't want to run out of time to write about it.

Today has been a great day so far. We had our housing inspections this morning and the only thing we forgot was to clean the microwave, so that was good. We also started learning a song called "Hallelujah" that we are singing at the Terrace Height's sisters' investigators' baptism. It's going to be awesome. So weird though because it's going to be on the 22nd of April, which is the last Saturday of my mission! 

ALSO I forgot to tell something important last week. There is this cat that keeps hanging outside of our apartment door because he apparently thinks that he lives here or something, and it's always a mad dash to get inside because if we open the door he will run in really fast. It's pretty entertaining actually. And sad because if we forgot something in the car we're like, "Is it worth it to open the door and risk the cat coming inside? NOPE." So then we just do without. Haha Hermana Powell, Sister Don and Sister Adamson all said it wasn't a problem at all until I got here. #chronicbadluck 

Yesterday was AWESOME. Some of my favorite moments were in Spanish Correlation in the morning, Elder Sanchez became obsessed with my water bottle. Also English sacrament meeting was like a spiritual firehose! And 3 of our English investigators were there, so we were so happy about that! Then, we were planning on going to Spanish Sunday school with our investigator, Maria. But then right after the opening prayer, Elder West pokes his head in and says, "Hey Moxee sisters, one of your members needs you!" So we slipped out without our bags or anything thinking it would only take a few minutes, and it turned out Sister Thayer had brought 3 of her nursing students with her to church! They are doing a diversity class, and Sister Thayer said, "Well you can come see what my church is like!" So they came and ended up having a ton of questions after Sacrament meeting so Sister Thayer came and found us. We had a little member-present lesson right there in the foyer. They are such smart girls! We hope that we can see them again. They had such good questions and really seemed to love church. We could tell they have big hearts too, they were so loving. 

After that we had to run back to the Sunday school classroom and grab our bags because we were already running late to go to Spanish relief society with Maria. BUT THEN. We got interrupted again by elder Sanchez informing me that Pres. and Sis. Lewis were going to be giving talks in the Spanish branch sacrament meeting and that I needed to translate for sis. Lewis. GULP I have translated going from Spanish to English a few times now, but never English to Spanish- which is like 10000x harder! It was so scary! I was SO NERVOUS all through la sociedad. But it went really well, actually! Everyone was congratulating me and telling me good job afterwards! Haha except I didn't know how to say the word "Orchard"! That's okay. People in the congregation helped out. During sacrament Maria had a "close moment with God" and feels now like she needs to get baptized soon! We are so happy for her. 

After church was fun we did a district language study. Which I had missed SO MUCH being in an all English zone for 6 months in Ellensburg! We played a fun game and I ended up learning 5 new words. Then Last night for dinner we got invited to the JUAREZ CLAN HOUSE! It was sweet. Basically about 80% in the Spanish branch is somehow related to the Juarez, and apparently every Sunday they all get together at the grandmother/great grandmother Juarez' house and have dinner together. There were like 50 people there! we had tamales and they were delicious!

Okay other highlights from the week:

Saturday we put Matt Walters on-date! He will be getting baptized April 15th! We are so happy for him! 

Also on Saturday we went to a potluck dinner at the church for the Women's conference and it was so delicious. Also the Cooks from Ellensburg were there! They said they were passing through Terrace Heights on their way home from a trip and stopped by the nearest meetinghouse to catch conference and it just happened to be ours! Crazy. Fun to see them though. 

Friday we had dinner with the cutest older couple in the ward, the Bayleys. They told us some amazing stories about their life together. We also kind of a little bit turned Sister Powell into a Mexican. Well we tried. You see, sister Adamson is Guatemalan, so we used her makeup on Sister Powell to see what she would look like as a Hispanic woman, but it mostly just looked like her face was dirty. Hahaha.

Thursday we met a bunch of weird people just walking around! Haha it was funny. There was this one guy, Nate though. He was Buddhist and super not interested in changing religions or anything, but we did get to talk a lot about family history and that got him really interested! Pretty sweet! #spiritofelijah. We also had some fun doing service for Callie, and had two amazing back to back member present lessons with the Komans and Alfonso and his kids. It was such a great evening! I'm so excited for all of those investigators. And so proud of the great work the members are doing with them, too! They are such great friends to these people. #foxymoxee

Wednesday we had District Council which was SO GREAT and so refreshing! It was fun doing things in Spanish and also a lot different for me because I'm used to being in districts with more Sisters than Elders. But in this district, we're the only sisters! I'm already making so many new friends in my new Zone. I love it and I wish I could have more than one transfer here! 

After District Council I had to do MY PLAN. Aka "trunky plan". It's basically an online training thing that we do to help us prepare for going home. Like set goals and make plans and things like that... 

Tuesday we had the best lesson with Maria! Sister Vera was there and was the perfect fellowshipper for her! We talked about the Word of Wisdom and it was really cool because as soon as we told her about all the aspects of it, she was like, "wow that's so crazy because when I first started meeting with you guys a couple of weeks ago I had the strongest feeling like I should stop drinking coffee and alchohol. I didn't know why I just had a strong feeling from God that I shouldn't." SO COOL. #milagros 

That night we had "Noche de Visitas" (Visits night) with the branch. It's really cool. Basically a bunch of branch members and us missionaries all come to the church Tuesday night and Brother Esteban assigns us families (especially ones that are struggling). 

That's it for this week! 

Love and miss you!

"Hermana Nice"

Hello Everyone! So as usual, the Spanish speaking members are having a struggle trying to figure out how to pronounce "Knight". So this week my name became "Hermana Nice"... good enough for me!

This week was great! Monday I had my last P-day in Ellensburg. I don't know if I mentioned it last week, but there were these really cute Mexican sandals at Rosa's store that I've been wanting for the last 6 months ever since I got there, so I finally went in and bought them before I left. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture before I packed them up and sent them home. I sent home so much stuff this week! I also got rid of a lot of things. I'm so grateful to be going home in springtime and not winter. The 50 pound suitcase weight limit on the plane is a killer!

Just shaving some cactuses at Rosa's store...

She didn't want to say goodbye! :(

We went to Selah after email time to play some sports and say goodbye to people in our zone. It was so sad saying goodbye to Sister Carroll and Sister Michalek. Also sad because before, they were planning on having all the "dying" missionaries meet at the mission home at 4 PM, so I was totally going to go there and say goodbye to Hermana Luevano, but then they changed it to 6 PM so I couldn't! I was so sad. I'll get over it eventually.  Let's just have a moment of silence for my Mom.

Goodbye Sister Michalek!

Goodbye Sister Carroll!

After P-day we went over to the Reina's house so I could say goodbye. It was so sad! Everyone was trying to act all tough, but then before we were about to walk out the door Sister Reina teared up a little and said, "You can come over tomorrow if you want... if you just happen to be in the area..." I so so so soooo wish we could have, but they just live so far away! This time of saying goodbye to people wasn't as hard fortunately because I will get to Instagram/FaceTime/Facebook /whatever other new social media things I don't know about with them in just 5 weeks! Crazy.

goodbye Reina's!

We also went to say goodbye to the Robins family. It was sad, I love them so much. It was so sweet though. They are from Hawaii, and when I got there they sat me down on the couch and all the kids came and gave me different colored leis! It was so sweet.

Tuesday we had a lot of appointments fall through, so that was disappointing. But that's okay. We still made the best of my last day in Ellensburg. We went in the morning to work on the Days for Girls project, so that was fun. Then we went to have lunch/language study with Bea Garcia for the last time :( Not that sad though, because her family is all in the Terrace Heights branch (my new area) and the Garcia's go there to visit all the time, so I knew it wouldn't be too long before I saw her. Then I went to say goodbye to Rosa. That was just emotionally exhausting. There was so much packing and packing and packing going on at the apartment too, with Sister McCourt and I both leaving. It was pretty entertaining actually, Sister McCourt (she went to Wenatchee btw) has been out for 9 months now so she's right at that point in her mission where she's gathered a lot of things, but still has another winter so she can't get rid of a lot of things yet, so she had ELEVEN bags. We eventually narrowed it down to about 7-8 I think. To be fair she only came out with 2 suitcases instead of 3 like the rest of us and her suitcases are small, and most of the bags were like backpacks and large purses, but still! It was funny. That night we went to $1 scoop night at Winegars with the Reina's twins, Karina and Jamie, and they brought Karina's non-member boyfriend, too! He's been coming to church the last couple of weeks and says he really likes it and wants to know more. So that's cool.

Hermana McCourt being stressed about all her stuff

Packing!

Wednesday morning I had to say goodbye to Sister McCourt, which was really hard because I lived with her longer than anybody else on my mission (nearly 5 months together!). It wasn't as hard with Hermana Tolliver because I saw her the very next day at Zone Conference, and I'll see her at the mission home when I die (her new companion is dying with me) but I most likely won't see Sister McCourt again. Super sad. Then Sister Robins came and picked me up and drove me to the Yakima Stake center. It was so sweet of her. The transfer site was fun, weird that it was my last time being at a transfer site, though! I think I'm in denial. Fun to see a bunch of friends one last time who were going up North. I also got to meet Sister Finch! She's from Texas and is being "born" in Royal city! Also her companion is from Flower Mound, Texas and her name is Hermana Cluff. She's a cousin of the Cluff's I grew up with there. I told Sister finch she's the luckiest missionary here. I love Royal so much.

Sister Cluff and I

ALSO I found out HERMANA HULL AND I ARE IN THE SAME ZONE NOW. I'm so happy! I've missed her so much. And then I got to meet my new companion, Hermana Powell! She is SO SO SO SO sweet. I love her so much already. It's funny because her first name is Violet and everything she owns is purple, haha :) Then we went home to Moxee to shop and unpack. It was super easy unpacking this time because I sent so much stuff home! Then we went to meet some of our investigators and the Bishop. It turns out I'm actually covering an English ward, too! Which I'm excited about because I've missed English work. It's like Royal all over again. An English ward and a Spanish branch. Yessssssss best kind of area in my opinion!

Thursday we went tracting together for the first time and taught our first lessons together and HOLY COW I AM GOING TO LEARN SO MUCH FROM HERMANA POWELL. She is a powerful teacher!  We had lunch with a few of the older single ladies in the ward. They are so cute and funny! But it was like getting interviewed by 6 grandmas about my life! They were all like so where are you gonna go to school? Where are you going to work? Are you gonna get married soon? etc. Then we taught Marisa. She is so sweet and is praying about a baptismal date right now! Her husband just died recently so she's really open to God right now and especially loved learning about the Plan of Salvation, and how she can be sealed with her husband in the temple.

That afternoon/evening we had Zone Conference! It was weird to have it on transfer week, but it was a mission tour Zone Conference, and was SO GOOD. Elder Juan A. Uceda of the 70 came. Some of my favorite parts was when he talked about when we got set apart as missionaries how even though it was our Stake President giving the blessing, it was actually Jesus' hands on our heads. Then Elder Sanchez (in my district now) commented. "Those hands that were on my head were the same hands nailed to the cross for me." Then Elder King pointed out how everything that Jesus' hands touch gets healed. Then I thought of how the cross is really symbolic of our sins! Our sins are healed because Jesus' hands touched them.

Me and my daughters!

Sister Young, Hermana Tolliver, Hermana Hull, Hermana Knight

My last Zone Conference :(

Elder Juan A. Uceda thumbs upping Elder Donakey

Elder Uceda also taught us a lot about teaching by doing things with our investigators, rather than just talking to/at them. He pointed out a verse in Matthew 28:19 where it says to teach to all nations. Then he showed us that the word "teach" in that verse was translated from the Greek word, "Matheteuo" which is actually a verb that means "to make one a disciple". I thought that was just so cool! We aren't just teaching people, but we are literally helping them to become a disciple of Christ. He talked about how we learn by doing and it clicked for me about Spanish. I have studied Spanish in school for most of my life and have had this intense desire for such a long time to be able to speak Spanish, but it wasn't until my mission when I had to actually do it, speak Spanish, that I actually could! Now I'm super comfortable speaking Spanish and on my way to fluency. It's like that with the gospel, too. Maybe these people have studied a lot and have a desire, but they'll never actually learn unless they do things. Act!

Friday weekly planning (weekly awesomeness) was kind of weekly stressing again, but it's okay. It was just hard because Hermana Powell has only been in this area for a few weeks, so she doesn't even know it that well yet, and now she has to take over! It was good though. We work really well together. And we decided we are anti-stress.

Saturday we went to Sister Michael's house and she went over the ward and branch directories with us so we could find out who is active/not active and what people's church callings and careers are. It was so helpful. I already love the Michaels. They remind me a lot of mama and papa Abken in White Salmon <3

After that we taught Brittney, Albert, and Mike. Albert's first wife died a few years ago, but she was actually Mormon so that's how they all got interested in the church. (Brittney is the second wife). Then we went to a Relief Society activity for the branch. (BEA GARCIA WAS THERE) it was SO fun! I am so so so so so soooo happy to be in a branch again. I loved the food too, of course.
That night when we went tracting we accidentally knocked into 3 members! Haha it was funny and great to get to meet them.

Sunday was SO GREAT. I love the ward and the branch and am so excited to be here!

My new apartment!

I guess that's about it. I'm out of time! I love and miss you all!!

Moxee here I come! One last Adventure!

So as y'all can probably tell from the description, I'm being transferred for my last 6 weeks! Pretty crazy. It really could have gone either way, because I've been here for 6 months already. I'll be serving in the Moxee Spanish area, which means I get to be part of the Terrace Heights Spanish branch! I am so excited. I'll also be serving in the Yakima Valley zone, which is a completely Spanish Zone (so Spanish meetings! ) AND that's the zone that Hermana Hull is in right now. (freaking out!!)  It's also exciting because all of Bea Garcia's family lives there! So I will get to meet her parents and brothers and uncles, etc. Anyway this will probably be a pretty short email just because I've got a lot of packing to do. 

Some highlights from this week: 

I got to go on exchanges with Sister McCourt on Wednesday and it was SO fun. I was so glad to have  a little break from my area because man was I stressed out last week. I don't know if I've been that stressed out since I had to double out of Royal! We got to meet a lot of interesting people, including the Monton family. The dad looks like Big Tex. I really should have taken a picture with him... We also had a lot of fun the past few days saying goodbye to different families. I think one of my favorite parts of this week was getting to sing a special musical number at church yesterday with Hermana Tolliver. So many people loved it, too! And the spirit was very strong. I love using our talents. Also, Rosa was such a good missionary this week! she gave away 3 copies of the Book of Mormon to her friends, and also introduced us to her friend Jorge, and invited him to church! Last night we went to the Reina's house and watched "The Testaments" with them. If you haven't see it you should! It's a little old but so so so good! 

Tomorrow will be my last day here (CRAZY) I'm going to miss my Spanish group people, but I'm also just so excited for one last hoorah before I go. I think it hasn't felt as sad leaving here because I know that I can just talk to everyone and FaceTime and call, etc. in only 6 weeks. Can you believe it? Time is flying by!  

I got to play a mandolin this week!

Roomies after exchanges!

Elder Powell and Elder Vejnar

Me beating up Elder Vejnar at morning workouts

Delicious chips from Rosa!

The Spanish group of Ellensburg, WA! (well most of them, at least)

Hermana Knight and Sister Walter

Hermana Knight and Sister Doman

Hermana Knight and Sister Roberson

The Halls and Hermana Knight

Sister Cook and Hermana Knight

The Shipmans and Hermana Knight

Hermana Knight and The Alemans

Goodbye Rosa!

Best Friends Forever!!!

I think that's all! I gotta pack! 

Finally March!

This week the weather has just been heavenly. Today it actually got up to 55 degrees! It was amazing. and has made the work a lot more pleasant. This week has definitely been a rollercoaster though!

Monday we went to Sister Olsen's house to do some watercolor painting with her. It was fun and relaxing. Then we had a great visit with Maria Mortalez that evening. She gave us a bunch of mom advice and talked a lot about how much she loves the free English classes at the church. It was awesome.

painting!

sketching

my watercolor fruit

Hermana Tolliver being cute

Sister Olsen's studio

Tuesday we had a lunch and language study date with Bea Garcia. She is the cutest and we sure love her! Then we went to do some service for Sheila and Esther. We went to a few local nursing and retirement homes after that to find out about singing/piano/talking to lonely people opportunities. Then that night we had a lesson with Yesena. Turns out she's been taught a lot more than we thought! It's a little frustrating because usually as missionaries we try to take really good notes about the people we work with so that the next missionaries who come along will know what the person has been taught, but there aren't many notes about Yesena. She's actually thinking about baptism right now, so that's exciting! But she can't go to church because of her boss. Can everyone please pray for her? Either that she can get a new job, or her boss can be more understanding?

Wednesday we knocked into Yesenas sister, Amor! Haha it was actually pretty funny because their trailers, even though they are in separate trailer parks on opposite sides of Ellensburg, are painted the exact same shade of blue! I thought that was kind of cute actually. After that, we went to Rosa's (bae/calabaza) and had an amazing lesson about God's love and the power that comes from reading the scriptures daily. There were tears involved. I love her so much. After Rosa's lesson, we went to Pacifica (local rest home) to sing! It was so fun and so refreshing. Afterwards Hermana Tolliver and I were both just like, "WE LOVE SINGING! WE'VE MISSED IT SO MUCH!" So we made it a weekly thing! Every other Wednesday we'll go to Pacifica, and the other two Wednesdays we'll go to the Meadows (other rest home in town). I'm excited. I love old people!! This one little lady named Shirley was so sweet and cute and actually started tearing up when we sang "Be still my soul". CUTE. After Pacifica we went to help out at the Hispanic food bank (APOYO). It was great as usual. There's a new guy that's volunteering there now who is 6' 5"!!!

That night we went to see Edumundo. He's doing pretty well, but we're not sure the desire to actually change is there. He loves everything we say and says it's "interesting" and "makes sense" and he reads the Book of Mormon every day and prays, but for some reason just doesn't want to come to church...

Thursday we had District Council. It was pretty fun because Elder Vejnar told us all the day before to dress up old-fashioned. So I did my hair and makeup kind of retro (but not too much because I didn't want it to be distracting the rest of the day). Sister Michalek dressed up like an old lady, it was funny. And a lot of the elders decided to mismatch their suit jacket and trousers because apparently that's retro and also something old men do. Haha.

me before district council

Sister Michalek and Sister McCourt

all of us at district council

That evening we FINALLY got to meet Bishop G from the 2nd ward. It was funny because we got to his house for dinner and he was like, "So, Hermanas, how long have you both been in Ellensburg?" When I told him 5 1/2 months he was like, "Wow I really am a slacker."  Haha turns out he speaks Spanish too! Gah. They were super different than what I was expecting but they are really cute. Sister G is 43 but looks like she's my age or younger! It's freaky how good she looks! That night we visited the Reina family. Sister Reina is so sweet and helpful. We were having a hard time finding these people's house because we thought it was on strange road, but it was actually on Strande road. Turns out, Carina (the lady we were trying to find), works with Sister Reina so she texted her for us to help us figure out where she lived!

lab puppies at the Reina's!

Friday at Bishop S's company we ate Mexican hot dogs. MEXICAN HOT DOGS = GROSS. No me gusta! But all the employees are starting to feel a lot more comfortable around us and talk to us more, so that's good! That evening I had veggie lasagna for the first time ever and it was really delicious! Then we went to Fred and Carina (because now we know where they live) and had a great visit with them. We didn't end up getting to teach much, but we got to know them pretty well. We actually took the twins with us and it went well! They were nervous because it was their first time going out with the missionaries but they did so good! Also we figured out that Carina and Fred are related to like everyone we know! Fred is one of our other investigators, Lena's brother, and Carina is the aunt of Edmundo! And Israel is Carina's nephew, which means he's also Edmundo's cousin. Also our other investigator Martha, is Carina's niece, and also her husband is Carina's mom's godson.... I could go on and on it's crazy. Also every single Hispanic in this town knows Rosa!

Saturday we went tracting in Millpond and met a couple of new families. They actually used to go to a popular local church, but their Spanish-speaking pastor moved to Royal City, so now a bunch of people are looking for a new church to go to... When we got home and started doing studies we heard a knock on the door and it was Sister Richland with a bunch of groceries for us! She is SO SWEET. We were like, "Oh my goodness, you didn't have to do that!" And she said, " I just love you girls." We felt so loved! Then we went to eat lunch with Rosa at her store. She's such a good cook! Her food is always so simple, but delicious! Then Brother Reina and his nephew Miguel (also an investigator) showed up to buy some tortillas and they started teasing Hermana Tolliver so hard! It was cute and funny though to see how much Rosa was defending her. They are like best friends. That afternoon we finally saw the Gonzales' again. We'd been trying to get in contact with each other for 3 weeks! That's forever in missionary world. Then we ended up seeing one of my former investigators, Lauren. Sister Shewell and I taught her like 4-5 months ago. It was crazy to see her like a huge feeling of deja vu or something. That night we stopped by the Hernandez's. They are struggling. Please pray for them!

a painting at Rosa's store

new piñatas at Rosa's store!

pinky promise with Rosa that she will read her scriptures every day

Sunday was pretty rough. The actual church part was good, but before and after was hard. In Relief Society we did speed dating/friendshipping! It was pretty fun and a good way to get to know some members I hadn't had the chance to talk to much before. Then last night we went to the Garcias' house for dinner and she made us POSOLE! It has been so long! I'm pretty sure the last time I had posole was at least 9-10 months ago. It was so good. It was Hermana Tolliver's first posole, she likes it a lot!

I straightened Sister Michalek's hair!

I guess that's all for now! We get transfer calls this Saturday so we'll get to find out if I'm dying in Ellensburg or going to have one more area before I'm finished!