Feliz dia de la madre!

Before I forget- there's actually a sister in my zone right now who is in the hospital, really sick, so if you could, please keep Hermana Juarez in your prayers!!

I don't have a ton to say, because I just barely talked to my family yesterday! But I do have a few interesting things I can share! 

Skyping with my family!

I had to hang up and call back, and when 

the Skype call connected, THIS was my view!

I just love my crazy sisters!!!

I went to the doctor Tuesday for my hip, and it turns out I pulled a muscle, and I had to get an anti-inflammatory shot! It was the last thing I was expecting. I thought maybe an x-ray, or physical therapy or something but not a shot! But it did actually help quite a bit, so that's good. I've found that if I stay really active and don't sit too much and let it get stiff, it's a lot better. 

My favorite Hna. Marble quote this week: "I love you, you're amazing, sorry I'm a butthead, now gimme some chocolate!" (I got some Ghirardelli dark chocolate squares from my dad for my birthday last week.) 

Something really cool that happened on Wednesday was we got a text from Aaron (Tyler’s friend) that said " I really want to meet up with you guys, I have some questions. Are you available next week?" That NEVER happens! It is really exciting teaching him, he is so prepared! 

YESTERDAY I ATE CHEESECAKE. I just really love cheesecake! Thank you Sis. Curtis! 

On Tuesday we had Zone Training Meeting, and it was actually super motivating and encouraging. It got me really pumped up to go out and talk to everyone. One thing we focused on is what our fears are about talking to the people we see. Then we talked about how there really is no excuse! Why not talk to everyone? What's the worst thing that could happen? You get rejected? They are a stranger, and you'll probably move in a couple of months anyways, so who cares? It's very freeing and liberating when you think about it that way. 

After ZTM some members showed up at the church and surprised us by taking all 18 of us in the zone out for lunch!! It was delicious! We went to this pizza place in Hood River. 

Mount Hood

I get to go to the temple Thursday!!! Since we do not have a temple in our mission, I haven't been able to go since I was at the MTC. But we got special permission to go to the Columbia River Temple as a zone and with President and Sister Lewis. I'm so excited!

Something really cool that I realized this week, while studying about the Plan of Salvation (more on that later) is that to be damned really means to not live up to your divine potential. It's like eternal regret. 

Some of my favorite verses this week:

1 Ne 17:13

2 Ne 2:11 <- what doesn't kill you makes you stronger!

All of Isaiah chapter 29. SO COOL. 

Remember who you are and what you believe in. SUPERAR

 Our car was getting SO DIRTY and there are no car washes here!

We said, the only thing we can do is pray for rain!! Then the next day it poured!

 Making Mothers Day Cards!

"Everything really is bigger in Texas, Especially your heart."

 Hermanas Knight and Marble

I have the sweetest companion ever! Earlier this week, she said to me, "Everything really is bigger in Texas, Especially your heart." I love her! It was a bit of a weird week, with a couple of bad days mixed in there in the middle, but it started and ended on a good note, so that's a good sign.

Something funny that happened to start of our week. We were at dinner at the Hovinghoff's and Bro. Hovinghoff is a huge tease. He was being really goofy and weird and then he just got really serious and was like, "So, Sister Texas (my nickname around here), tell me what you want to know." I asked, "What do you mean?" and he said, "Tell me something you would like to know, and I will help you answer it." I was like, "Hmmmmm" for a while. I figured he was just trying to be funny or something, so then I was like, "I'm sorry. I already know everything." Everyone just started cracking up so hard. Bro. Hovinghoff was pretty quiet after that. I thought my dad would be so proud of that response. 

I hurt my hip at p-day about a month ago playing basketball with some elders back in Yakima, and it hasn't gotten any better like I thought it would, so I'm actually going to the doctor tomorrow morning. Wish me luck! Hopefully it's nothing too bad. 

Tuesday we had interviews with President Lewis! It was fun to get to see him and Sis. Lewis. I got kind of used to seeing them all the time in Yakima, so it was nice to not have to wait too long. Sis. Lewis got us super pumped up about writing in journals. She pointed out a few really true things to us about journals and record keeping. She said most people just think they should only write about how they feel or what they think, and only write positive or smooth things, but the truth is, if you don't write about it, it might as well have not happened. Write details! Write about what your routines are, write about what you ate for breakfast, and write about specific experiences. Don't write just about how you feel, write the facts. If you write what happened in detail, your kids and grandkids won't have to be told how you feel, because they will understand just from the events. She also challenged us to write for at least 8 minutes every day. SO far I’ve made it every day, but usually it's more than 8 minutes. Ha ha! on Wednesday at lunch I wrote 5 1/2 pages just about that morning.... maybe I'm putting in too many details!

This week we have been trying a couple of new things that are going really well! The first is nightly companionship feedback. We really like that our companionship is really open and we aren’t' afraid to talk about things, and we want to keep it that way, so we have started talking about specific lessons at the end of the night. What went well, what we did wrong, if there was anything our companion needs to tell us, etc. It's been going really great! Another thing we have been trying is OYMs over the phone. After we organized our Area Book last week, we realized we have a TON of potential investigators (people that other past missionaries have met and that seemed interested, but we never got back to) that have never been contacted! We are looking for new people to teach, so we figured the potentials list would be a good place to start. A lot of them only have phone numbers though, and no address. SO we decided to just call them! We were like, "Hi we are the missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is this Chris?" Then they would be like "Um, yeah! Hi, how are you guys?" Then we say something like "We are good! We are actually new in the area and saw on our records that you have met some missionaries before, how was that experience for you?" and then that's when we hit the gold mine. Usually that gets them talking a ton! It's really awesome, and we've ended up with 3 or 4 new investigators this week because of it. There was one lady in particular, her name was Emma. She was so nice and so cool! She said that she really admires everything that we are doing and knows that it must be for a really good reason if we are going to be away from our moms for a year and a half. She was interested in our message, and she said that we can come over any time if we want some free food and a good mom hug. I can't wait to meet her in person tomorrow!

Check out the name of the street!

(Shout out to my Coxes!)

Wednesday was pretty much a huge joke. Oh my goodness! We had ALL of our appointments cancel on us, and then we got lost on the side of a mountain in basically an ATV trail on our way trying to find a member’s house for dinner. It was stressful but pretty funny looking back on it. Then we had a SUPER weird lesson with an investigator. Not sure if we're gonna go back there....

Thursday was pretty good though. We went to help a sister named Larissa. She reminds me so much of Yvonne in Royal City. She is so sweet! But she is moving right now, so she really needed some help going through all of her stuff. It was so cool, because we got to see so much cool old stuff! My favorite thing was seeing her dad's briefcase he carried on his mission in the 1940’s to England! It still had all of his missionary things in it too! SO COOL! My favorite was seeing his super old scriptures and flipping open to my favorite one in 2 Corinthians 4:6-10 and seeing how it is exactly the same. It just reminded me how God is eternal, and his word stands forever, never changing, like such a rock when everything else is so unstable. 

Some other cool experiences this week--we met the Whites, from North Carolina! And the Whites (not related) from Nashville (totally loved talking to them), and we also met a family who gave us 2 dozen eggs and some freshly butchered, home-grown meat! It was at least $100 worth. The people here are so cool and so nice!

A mini-miracle happened with an investigator named Hayley. She and her boyfriend have been having some major financial struggles lately, and seemed really interested in talking to us, until they found out we couldn't give them any money. We tried for two solid weeks to text, call, and stop by their place, but they didn't respond. So we figured they weren't actually interested and dropped them. But then, the other night we saw that we needed to get gas. We went down to Bingen (local town) and started to pull into the gas station we usually go to, but then for some reason we felt like we should go to the other one across the street, even though it was a little more expensive. Then, as soon as we pulled in, HAYLEY comes pulling up right next to us. We got out really quick and were like "Hey Hayley!" She was so surprised to see us but seemed really happy, and then she started crying a little. She said that she has been praying a lot lately that God will give her some direction. She said she just barely got done praying for like an hour and then decided to read a little bit in the Book of Mormon that we gave her, looking for some guidance. She didn't need gas but decided she wanted to go to the station to get a Slurpee, which is pretty out of character for her, and when she was driving there she just felt like God was going to give her a sign. She knew he was going to answer. Then as soon as she pulled up, there we were! How cool and crazy and amazing is that?!

Okay, last but definitely not least, TYLER IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!! WOO HOOOOOO! HIs date is set for this Saturday! We are SO excited. It’s so fun being able to actually be here for this baptism, and to help him plan it, and stuff. He's only 17, so the youth have been really involved the whole process. Even one of the priests in the ward is baptizing him! It's so cool to see everyone coming together for this. The youth here really are amazing. GAH! I'm so excited. Plus on Sunday is Mother’s Day, and I get to Skype with my family! It's going to be a great week! I can already tell :) 

Love you all! 

Genius 10-Year-Olds, OYMs, Birthdays, and 6 Months Already?

Springtime in the Northwest

Okay, it literally feels like I just barely hit my four month mark, and now all of the sudden I'm a third done with my mission?! Wow! It's actually pretty exciting :) And sad at the same time. I'm starting to understand the whole wanting to be in denial about how short of a time you have left in the mission thing. I'm starting to really, really love being a missionary, and really want each day to last as long as possible!

This week was AWESOME. First of all, thank you so much to everyone who has been writing me for my birthday! It seriously means so much! It's so fun when I open my P.O. box to a bunch of letters. Thank you specifically to Jaina, Sis. Rogers, Noemi, Gma and Gpa, Candi, Jessy, and Katie! I also got a package from my mom this week, and am expecting one from my dad today! 

 Birthday Package!!!

My companion made me birthday breakfast!

So we started off the week with a challenge from the Hood River Elders to try to get 50 OYMs (open your mouth and talk to someone new) the way you do that is either talking to someone on the street, at the store, knocking on their door, etc. It counts as an OYM if you introduce yourself, get their name, and tell them you are a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints. In my past areas it has been very, very hard to get even 20 in a week, just because it has been cold and winter, and nobody was out! And in Royal all the houses were really spread out, so we spent a lot of time driving. So we worked really, really, really hard this week at talking to literally every single person we could possibly see, and got 40!! We were so close! This week we are going to shoot for 50 again. I think we can do it! 

We met so many cool new people this week, including a girl named Kira. She actually walked up to us! (that never happens) and asked, "Hey are you guys church ladies?" and we were like, "Well, yes, we are missionaries.... etc., etc." Then she was like "I have never grown up with any religion or anything, but I believe in God, and I have been searching for the truth for a long time. I saw you ladies and your name tags and just had a huge urge like I NEED to talk to you." It was INCREDIBLE. We are teaching her tonight, and I am so excited! We also got a new list from the Executive Secretary of the ward, of part-member families and found an awesome new family to teach. The Merrills' mom is a member, but none of the 4 kids or husband have ever been baptized. We are also teaching them today, and I'm excited to see how they go! 

Park where Kira found us

Tuesday was my birthday! Woo hoo! I already talked about that a little, but something also fun that we got to do was do some service at a thrift store, and we got some free clothes! And then for our member dinner that night, the Kings (AWESOME COUPLE) took us out for dinner at this delicious local pizza and sandwich shop. We had these amazing sandwiches (I love, love, love sandwiches) and tons of extra pickles! Unfortunately no one makes fried pickles here, which is a birthday tradition. So that was sad, but I got some Tillamook ice cream. I guess that makes up for it. :) 

Wednesday we had a really good day filled with tons of companionship bonding. I finally got to meet Erin, an eternigator (investigator for eternity) that has been being taught in this area by missionaries for nine years! My last eternigator, Ana, just got baptized last Saturday, so I'm excited to crack down on this one too! It's funny because everyone's so afraid of offending them or hurting their feelings or something, and I'm just like, what have you got to lose?! They're not progressing anyway! I believe in being bold with people, it’s the only way things get done! There's an awesome quote that I heard from a missionary who is super inspiring to me: "The difference between being bold and being overbearing is, overbearance is boldness without love." How true is that?! It's like the difference between tough love, and just being mean. So anyway, I'm excited to start working with Erin.

 Companionship bonding!

We also got to meet the most interesting little kid, James. He is only ten but is SO smart! We met his mom a couple days ago and shared our message with her, and she asked if we could come over and share it with her son, too because he would be very interested. When she said he was ten we were like, hmm that's kind of weird, but okay. Then we got there and met him and holy cow! His vocabulary was insane. We asked him what he would like to get out of our meetings and he said, "I would like to have enlightenment and knowledge about my purpose in life" We were like ............. wow." So anyway, I'm very excited for him, too.

Thursday we stopped by the church for a meeting with our bishop for a while to talk about the work in the area and saw a bunch of the youth going in and out of the gym with a bunch of random supplies and ladders and lights and stuff. So we got curious and followed them in there and found them decorating the gym for a stake dance like Harry Potter themed!! IT was so cool! It looked just like the great hall in Hogwarts. Thursday night we had an awesome member dinner with the Rogers, a cute older couple who actually went to Utah State! My comp, Hna. Marble, is from Logan and wants to go to USU after she gets back, so it was really fun to be around a bunch of Aggies! (We even sang “The Scotsman” together. It was so fun!)

Harry Potter dance--You walk through

the brick wall at platform 9 3/4--get it?

Friday night we had so much fun because we had a ward barbecue. At first when they said barbecue I was like, "Yeah right, it's probably just hamburgers and hot dogs on a grill... it's a grill-out." But then to my pleasant surprise it was legitimately a barbecue! A brother in the ward brought his Traeger and made pulled pork! It was so, so, so delicious and refreshing! I think he was using maple pellets, or maybe cedar. It was also really fun because our investigator Tyler (who is on-date for baptism, btw!) brought his non-member parents, and a non-member friend, Aaron! It turns out that Aaron ended up getting his hands on a Book of Mormon a few years ago and actually read it and has been having some questions for a while. But he never knew how to get a hold of the missionaries. SO anyway, that was a miracle.

Legitimate barbecue!

 Fun at the ward barbecue

I ate cactus!

Friday we had a lesson with an almost eternigator (it's been two years), named Dory. Her issue is that she has a ton of questions about deep, deep, deep doctrine that we can't answer! I don't know if anyone can answer it but God himself! She is just studying literally everything she can get her hands on. We’re not sure where to go moving forward with her, so if you could pray about that it would be great! We could use some inspiration. We also accidentally knocked into a less-active named Juan. It turns out he hasn't been to church for 20 years, but he never stopped believing. Now he has a heart disease and can't go out. It was so sad! He told us his conversion story, and I was almost crying by the end of it. I am so glad we found him and can start helping him now! 

Saturday we got to go over for lunch to a less-active’s home and have Mole Verde! I had eaten mole rojo a lot before, it's a really common dish, but never verde! It was really good. I'm not a huge fan of mole, but now I really like it. I also ate cactus! It was surprisingly not that bad. It just tasted like a not-ripe-yet cucumber. I also ate Aloe.... very strange. 

Hermana Marble eating Mole Verde

Saturday in the day we drove up to Carson to contact a referral. Carson is a little town on the very edge of our area, and it is SO gorgeous up there! I have tons of pictures. Something kind of funny is that on the way up there, we were winding through tons of mountains, and I got soooo carsick. I was about to throw up... so we stopped at a gas station to grab some Dramamine for the drive back (it's about 45 minutes). I took a Dramamine but totally forgot that they make you really drowsy! So ha ha, when we got back that evening, I was totally falling asleep during the member dinner! I was so drowsy the rest of the day.

 The drive to Carson

My favorite quote from church yesterday: "Who you are is good enough, don't be so hard on yourself! Keep going, keep trying, keep progressing." 

My favorite thing I learned this week: "Restauracion= Restoration AND restitution, in Spanish. How perfect is that?!

Welcome to Washington! 

Welcome to Oregon!

 Her last name is Marble! Hee hee!

 These cute vans are everywhere

I LOVE this street sign!

 Strange sign we saw

Everything about this town is so cute and woodsy.

Even the post office looks like a cabin!

Bridge over the Columbia River

 Beautiful scenery around White Salmon