Work is starting to pick up!

Hi Mom and Dad! 

How are you? I'm doing alright. I'm still stressed and super super tired. But the work is going good.  I got your package. The dress fits great! I love it! , Sometimes I just want to wear something simple and easy :) It’s perfect! I wish I had some others just like it :)  Especially now that they changed the rules about cardigans, I only have to wear something like that at meetings and church.  Just like when the elders wear their coats. I still do most of the time because it’s cold here. Super cold. :/  

It’s a good thing p-day is today!  Especially since we are almost completely out of food.  We are going hiking again! Its super fun to go :) All I can say is it’s a good thing that some of these Elders are protected. The first time we went I watched one Elder eat a poisonous plant and the second time another nearly fell off a cliff. It’s a good thing the Sisters are there to make sure they don’t kill themselves. :)

It’s been interesting getting to know a new companion. She has a waaaay different type of humor than mine. A really good way to describe her is that she reminds me A LOT of dad’s sisters. It’s kind of creepy how alike they are. And it’s kind of funny, because her name is Camille. :) 

In our zone there has been a big emphasis on specific prayers. So we decided to pray for a family that would be baptized before the end of the transfer and who would be a strength to the Belen ward. :) We've been doing a lot of finding and talking to people and we've had a lot of success.

We’ve started meeting again with one of the people we had been working with before, his girlfriend suddenly got a little interest.  We took a member to a lesson and he just talked and talked, but it was all good. He said exactly what she needed and said it in a way that she wants her family at church. It was great! And we have a lesson tonight with them, hopefully it goes well.

We knocked on a famiy’s door and they were super interested in the Book of Mormon. He took it and said "yeah I'll read it with my wife." I’m sooo excited for them, I hope they actually feel the spirit :) Hopefully they will do it.

Then we had a crazy experience where we ran into a pastor and we talked for a while, and we gave him a mormon.org card and told him we do service and teach about Christ. About a week later we got a media referral form mormon.org and it was him! He said he needed help with yard work and couldn't afford to pay. So we are excited to talk to him a bit more. Hopefully he doesn't think he is going to save our souls....

But it’s mostly been a good week. 

I was wondering if you could get me a CD? All my comp has is Mormon Tabernacle choir and is making me crazy.  Sister Smith had this awesome CD by vocal point. I think it’s called Lead thou me on. It’s got some amazing versions of nearer my god to thee, come thou fount, and a few others :)

Also if you could make me a Josh Groban CD that would be awesome! Most of his music is not mission appropriate, but some of it is.  Some of the good songs are Lu'ltima notte, mai, oceano, all'improvisso amore, You raise me up, Jesu joy of mans desiring, si volviervas a mi, mi mancheri, february song. And any others that are in English but don’t talk about romantic things.... that may be a job for Jess :) 

Yes, I got the DVDs you sent. I’ve only watched one, but it worked.  They actually help a lot. A lot of these people have had all the Preach My Gospel lessons and they just need something that can help them feel the spirit :) Especially some of the less-actives we work with.

Also my district leader was wondering if you could make him a DVD of some of the other Mormon Messages. He really wants mountains to climb, but some other good ones are testimony of the Book of Mormon, look to the light, you will be freed, wrong roads, and the one about seminary. :)

Thanks! Love you!
Em

New Companion

Hi Mom and Dad!

Happy birthday Dad! :)
I hope you’re having a good day!

I’m so glad to hear that warren is doing so well!  That’s so exciting to hear!

I’ve been trying to study all of the gospels as well right now I’m trying to work my way through the Old Testament.  Which is fascinating, I haven’t read some of those stories in a really long time, and they are really useful as missionaries :)

It’s been a very long week. I’m so exhausted. The work is going good, because now I have a companion who will work, but..... All I have to say is be careful what you ask for.  Her name is Sister Walker and she is from Oregon.  She's nice.  She is a talker, which is good, I suppose... she has been out for about 7 months. She has had 2 prior companions, and one of them she was training. So I’m the first missionary that she’s had to work with that comes from a different area with different training.

The work is going well.  That is something I am grateful for. I’m trying to learn how to be a better teacher.  We have a couple new investigators, which is good. 

I love you!
Em

Happy New Year!

Hi Mom and Dad!

How was your Christmas break?

I didn’t exactly get a break, but my holidays were still fun.

Transfers are tomorrow, so P-day got moved to today.  I get to stay in Belen, Sister Smith is leaving.  I am so happy for many reasons. I love Belen and I was sure that if I had to stay with this companion again, so I was going to go nuts.  But I’m also super nervous because I still feel like I’m about a week out and have no idea what I’m doing. I’m not sure I am ready to take over this area.  At least I’m not training...

Tomorrow will be the interesting part of the week. I don’t know who my new companion will be, but one of the Elders said that she will probably be newer than me or out the same length of time.  That is very scary to me.  But as long as she’s a talker, it will be ok.  Whoever this new Sister is, I hope she has a good work ethic, because she’s going to work hard :)

All of the days are starting to run together, I can’t remember what happened this week and what happened a month ago. Time is going so fast.

These past few weeks have been super hard, and I’ve been being extremely patient with everything.  Thank goodness for kind members and the Elders. Without them I would have gone crazy.  I was super stressed and didn’t know what to do. So I asked a member for a blessing and in the blessing he said that my trials are for my learning and as soon as I’ve learned what I’m supposed to my burdens and trials will be removed.

We are going hiking with the District today and then Sister Smith wants to say goodbye to some people in the ward. Then the Socorro Sisters are coming to spend the night at our apartment. So it should be a good day, just not too sure about the rest of the week. 

This is the Belen missionaries. Me, Sister Smith, Elder Lee and Elder Goff.  Then the Spanish missionaries and The Sisters in Socorro, about an hour south of us, then the Alamo reservation Elders, about an hour south of Socorro.  We are all super close, and it’s great when we have zone training and can all get together.

This is a picture of our district.

I guess something interesting is that we got in trouble with the car.  We are only allotted a certain amount of miles a month, and last month was zone conference and car inspection so we all had to drive to Albuquerque (About 100 miles round trip) and we ended up going over about 90 miles. So we got our car taken away for a couple days. Which is fine, we can walk, but we live 8 miles outside of our area. It takes 3 and a half hours just to get to our area. I’m super sore.

We’ve had some fun experiences these past couple weeks.  Haven’t had a whole lot of teaching experiences, although we did manage to find a couple new people to teach! Hooray! That makes my life a whole lot less stressful.

The ward gave us a list of people to go find. We got lost in the middle of nowhere. Dirt roads. Nearly lost the bottom of our car.  I don’t know who it was we were supposed to find, but they don’t exist.....at least not there. We did find some random cows though, that’s kind of interesting

I’ve learned so much in this area, it’s amazing! I’m so glad I get to spend some more time here.

Thanks for the pepper spray! Nearly got one of the Elders in the face, he was lucky, but even if I had got him, he would have deserved it. Serves him right for jumping out from behind our house in the dark and scaring us.  It was funny though.  Sister Smith was really upset but it made my whole day better, because the day had been extremely long and stressful.  I was laughing for hours afterwards.

I hope everything is going well there. Love you!
Em