Wenatchee bound!!

Hi everyone!

It was so good seeing you on Christmas!! Sorry I was so awkward but I just didn't know what to say because it was just great seeing all of your beautiful faces!! I LOVE YOU. 

Christmas was definitely one to remember! After we skyped we ate dinner with the Fourniers and then Hermana bailey and I played the piano for them and we headed over to the Moreno's house because they invited us over for posole. Hermana Moreno makes THE best posole! We were SO FULL after haha. And then we went and visited less actives and brought them cookies. The Mitchells are the best, they gave us both some stationary and stamps for Christmas! They know missionaries needs too well haha.

Well as we predicted on Christmas... I am getting transferred!! I leave wednesday for Wenatchee (not sure if I spelled that right haha) but anyways I am so excited! My companion is going to be hermana Pulido and I have heard great things about her! Also pretty awesome news, in an effort to get the mission ready for the mission split, they are creating 2 all spanish zones, one here in yakima and... one in wenatchee!! It is going to be so awesome! The work is hastening so fast here. We got the call saturday morning because hermana bailey is going to be training next transfer, but it didn't really sink in that I am leaving until church yesterday. MY HEART BROKE saying goodbye to the members of the branch. I have grown to love this place and these people and it is going to be really weird leaving! But as much as I hate to go I am really excited to be somewhere new! And I am already planning on coming back to visit the branch after my mission haha. 

As sad as church was saying goodbye.... we had 5 investigators at church!!!! It was amazing! The branch is on fire right now (not literally). 4 of the 5 were that family that I was telling you about on Christmas. The Vaca family (yes, that means cow in spanish haha). I LOVE THIS FAMILY. you probably think I say that about everyone, which I pretty much do love everyone, but I am serious... I was meant to teach this family. I seriously feel like they were part of the reason I came to this area even if it was just to start the teaching process with them because I am leaving. We haven't even been teaching them that long, but I am dreading saying goodbye! Alma, the mom, was with me when I was saying goodbye to one of the sisters in the branch after church and she was like "you're not going to be here next sunday?" can you say dagger to the heart? haha but I am so excited for hermana bailey and her greenie to continue teaching them because they have so much in store for them!! We also found out that they are really good friends with some recent converts in the branch, and one of their daughters is friends with some of the young women! They are going to do so well in the branch.

JESUS IS THE BEST. He brought 2 friends to church and he got the priesthood yesterday! Hermana bailey and I can't even get over how awesome he is. 

I am so grateful for the time I have had here in moxee. Other than bountiful and lake powell, I am convinced there is no place better!! I have grown so much here and developed relationships with people that i'll have forever. I'm sure Wenatchee will be pretty great too!! 

I LOVE YOU ALL and I hope you have an awesome week!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Les Quiero

hermana j. wort

#1 dinner with the moreno's on christmas

#2 saying bye to the Ibarra's :(

!FELIZ NAVIDAD!

HEY.

It was probably one of the most stressful weeks yet... BUT drum roll please.. JESUS GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!! It was such a good day and we couldn't be more excited for him! Everything went well this week and we were able to finish up the lessons and find out that he doesn't actually have 2 wives which was great news haha. 

On wednesday he had his interview with our district leader and Elder Wright (our district leader) couldn't get over how awesome and prepared Jesus was to be baptized, and the best part about it was that he was prepared before we even started teaching him. 

So saturday came around and we headed over to Jesus' house so he could follow us to the church (because the baptism was at the stake center not our building) and he was waiting for us! And he also had a friend with him who he had invited to his baptism. So we get to the church and he gets dressed in the jumpsuit along with the other two people who were getting baptized from the branch and then it was time! 

It was such a cool experience to watch someone who is so willing to follow Christ make that next step, the step that ultimately will lead to his undeniable happiness. Our branch mission leader Manuel baptized him and helped him tie the tie that hermana bailey and I got for him :) Ok the baptism was great, but it was Jesus' testimony that he gave after that made it that much better. He gave the most simple sweet testimony about how grateful he is to be in this new path in life and that we were able to teach him about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I guess 10th times the charm haha :) 

I am so grateful for the opportunity that we had to teach Jesus and to help him find the truth. My testimony has been strengthened by his example of faith and perseverance. THE CHURCH IS SO TRUE. 

After the baptism it was the branch christmas party and Jesus came with his friend! It was so cool because there were probably 20 investigators there from all the missionaries. Christmas really is the time that people recognize Christ in their lives, if only it were December all year round!! 

We had a Christmas conference on thursday with our zone and the Yakima zone with a bunch of musical numbers and a slideshow of pictures that missionaries has sent in! It was great! We also did a big service project at the Salvation army with our zone getting Christmas boxes ready for the food bank that they have. We packed about 600 boxes with different canned and boxed food and what not! 

Well this week is Christmas!! Its going to be an awesome week. I love you all and I hope you have a great week! See you thursday :)

con mucho amor

hermana wortley

#1 Us with Jesus and Manuel before the baptism

#2 the baptism crew :)

fui al dentista

hola :)

It was a very interesting week!! It seemed like it was just one weird thing after another happening haha. Hermana Bailey and I are convinced that we have the weirdest luck out of all the missionaries probably in the whole world. Anyways so as some of you know I formerly had a permanent bottom retainer... yes you read that right.. formerly! hahaha So i'm not sure what happened but I think it may have been because of the 500 million apples that I have eaten since I have been here but the good ol retainer came loose. So I called sister ware to get some information about a dentist in our area and luckily there is a member dentist here in yakima! So we went to the dentist and they decided to just take out my permanent retainer rather than just fix it haha so I now have a retainer for the bottom that I wear at night! But it was free so that was pretty cool haha. Hermana bailey was laughing at me the whole time because I was freaking out (I was jokingly freaking out haha don't worry I wasn't really scared). 

We also had exchanges this week! It was super awesome. I went to Yakima with Sister Toomer and Hermana Bailey stayed here in Moxee. It was pretty cool because we were able to teach someone on exchanges that I taught on exchanges back in July when I first got here, and he is getting ready to be baptized! Sister Toomer is so great and it was good to change things up a bit because I kind of feel like i've been here my whole mission... oh wait I have hahaha! But really I love this place and I wouldn't mind if I spent another 7 months here :)

We got an email from President Ware today.... kind of big news but they aren't announcing it until wednesdayso don't tell anyone I told you... They are splitting our mission! They are making a Yakima mission and then the Kennewick mission! The official split happens July 1st. We won't find out if we will be changing missions until it gets closer but that's pretty crazy huh?!

We aren't 100% sure yet if Jesus is going to be baptized this week... we still have some things to figure out about his marriages haha. He is so great though! We finally found him a large print spanish book of mormon because apparently they don't make them anymore... so it has been a LONG process trying to find one but we did!! And he came to church this week :) We also got some miracle referrals this week because we never get referrals!! It was when I was in yakima so I haven't met them yet, but we are super excited to start teaching them!! 

So our mission has been doing an 80 day book of mormon challenge and we are supposed to finish on Christmas but I finished a little bit early. I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON. It gets better every time I read it and I learn new things each time! One of the scriptures that really stood out to me this past week was Moroni 8:16, "perfect love casteth out all fear." As we recognize the perfect love that Christ has for each and every one of us, there will be nothing to be afraid of. His grace is infinite and His love is perfect. As we rapidly approach Christmas, I pray that we can each remember our savior more in our hearts and #sharethegift that we have! 

HAVE A FANTASTIC WEEK! I love you all :)

Les Quiero mucho

hermana wortley

(sorry I forgot my camera cord so no pictures :/ )

on cloud 9... literally we have been in a cloud for 2 days

HI

wowzers has it been a crazy day! well first off I am emailing today because today was temple pday!! the best kind of pday there is :) It started off normal, we woke up got ready and drove over to the members house who was going to drive us to the temple... but it was SO FOGGY. you couldn't see anything! We got to her house and then we headed off for the temple, both hermana bailey and I noticed that we got on the freeway headed the wrong direction but we just thought that she was taking a back way to get there or something so neither of us said anything... that was our first mistake! 

So that would be the first advice I have for this email is NEVER DOUBT promptings haha. Anyways we got going and we were really headed the wrong direction and it was about a half hour and hermana bailey, since she was in the front seat, was like "are we supposed to be going north?" and sister goos, the sister that was driving, was like "no we are going south..." AHH yeah so we pulled over and figured out where we were which was not where we wanted to be haha. So we jumped on the freeway heading the right direction but by this time we were running super late! and it didn't help that it was as if we were driving in a cloud! Anyways we call our district leader and told him that we were going to be getting there right when the session started and to see if maybe they would hold the session for us, he said that they could only wait 5 minutes. So we drove as quickly and safely as possible hahaha but to our disappointment we ran in the temple just as they closed the doors for the session! It was probably the saddest 1 minute ever, but all of the temple workers were so awesome and trying to help us out and they ended up getting us in for a later session! 

I LOVE THE TEMPLE :) wow after having such a crazy morning there was nothing that could have been better than soaking up the spirit of the temple. I feel like every time I go to the temple something new sticks out to me and today I just gained such a greater appreciation for our Savior Jesus Christ. He was and is at all times ready to do the will of the Father. He never questioned or doubted the Plan, He simply did what Heavenly Father needed him to do. He is the perfect example of obedience and love. Everything he did was out of love for the Father, and out of Love for us. As every day, I am grateful for my Savior. After the session we even had time to go to costa vida! haha so it has been a crazy but good day!

Not a lot of new things happened this week... Jesus is still on track for his baptism on the 20th! He is so great. We have taught him all of the lessons except the laws and ordinances which we are going to start teaching tonight. Our tithing and fasting lesson with him was so great. He totally understands tithing but it was hilarious when we told him that we go two meals without food on the first sunday of the month. He was so surprised! haha and when we committed him to fasting on sunday he said yes but he might have to bring a bag of tortillas to eat after church! hahahaha #onlymexicans #spanishmissionaryprobs 

The only thing that would be keeping him from getting baptized on the 20th is that there is a slight chance he has 2 wives..... hahaha its kind of a long story but he was married in mexico over 40 years ago and hasn't seen any of his 6 children since then (sad right??) and then he got married when he was in the states.. so yeah we are going to try and figure out that situation tonight! 

Also he couldn't come to church because someone stole his car! Poor guy!! He was praying the other night at the end of our lesson and I just had an overwhelming feeling that wow, he is a child of God. That probably sounds kind of weird but being a missionary has opened my eyes so much to the fact that we are all children of God, that no matter who we are, what our circumstances are, or what choices we are making or have made HEAVENLY FATHER LOVES US. Sure we all go through different things, no one is perfect, but when we take a minute and remember that we are all children of God things just kind of work out even if it wasn't the way you planned.

Did you watch the Christmas devotional on sunday?? IT WAS SO GOOD. I loved the focus on the importance of the christmas story and Christ's family. Just everything about it was great! 

Something that has been super cool these past couple of weeks is the sharing of the He is the Gift video! We try to watch it with as many people as possible. The spirit that it brings is incredible. We went over to a member of the branch's house last night to pick up some food that she made us and we watched it with her and then her son in law came over who isn't a member and doesnt speak spanish but she wanted to watch it with him too so we watched it with him in english! If you haven't watched it, do it. And if you have watched it, watch it again! haha 

Thank you so much for all you do. I am so beyond blessed to have such incredible friends and family! :) 

Les quiero muchisimo

hermana wortley

we almost got a puppy!!

HI everyone!!

This week went by really fast but thanksgiving was good! So turns out that the mitchells (the people we live with) signed up to feed us on thanksgiving but they signed up on a copy of the dinner calendar so someone else signed up to feed us too! But we didn't find out that the other people signed up until the day before so we couldn't tell them that we already had another dinner and we couldn't tell the mitchells that someone else signed up to feed us because they we excited to have us eat with them...it was crazy but we pulled off having two thanksgiving dinners one right after another! hahahaha! Dinner at the mitchells was crazy because they are the coolest nicest people ever and they just pretty much invited everyone in their ward and the terrace heights ward who didn't have anywhere to go for thanksgiving over to their house! There ended up being about 36 people! The Fourniers were our second thanksgiving dinner and they were so awesome and hilarious! They also told us that they signed up to have us over on Christmas too so we will be skyping from their house! Thanksgiving was not your usual day but it was still good!

Good news about Jesus. He is back on track for his baptism!! He is working towards December 20th! We were super excited because we taught him the Word of Wisdom on saturday and we were kind of worried beforehand that it was going to be a problem, but he is so ready to live it and make changes in his life. He told us that he quit smoking in 1995 and only occasionally drinks a beer but committed to stop. HE IS PROGRESSING. He also came to church again yesterday :)

the puppy... well hermana bailey and I were walking, and visiting some people and while we were on our way, we ran into or should I say she ran into us... the most adorable puppy (not as cute as boomer of course). But it was about 16 degrees outside and she was freezing!! Ah we were freaking out because she was shaking and so hermana bailey took off her sweater and wrapped it around the puppy while I held her and we tried to find the owner! We knocked all the doors in the direction from where the puppy came but no one answered their door! We had to leave because we were about to head to dinner and we couldn't take the puppy because its a rule that we can't have pets... I know weird right?? haha but our hearts broke because we had to leave her behind but at least we warmed her up right? We laughed and said that its a blessing and a curse to have big hearts hahahahaha i'm serious.

Ah the work is so good here. We have found a bunch of really cool potentials and someone told me that my spanish is good which is the best thing ever. I CAN'T BELIEVE ITS DECEMBER!! Happy month of remembering the birth of Christ!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (because he was actually born in April haha) #HEISTHEGIFT 

sorry this email is so random but it was a pretty random week!! I LOVE YOU ALL :)

Con mucho amor

hermana wortley

pic#1 THE PUPPY

pic#2 thanksgiving with the Fourniers!

# heisthegift #sharethegift

Hi everyone!!

Wow it was a week full of spiritually uplifting meetings! Yay for stake conference, the spanish conference and zone conference!! Stake conference was on saturday night and Sunday and the member of the 70 that spoke was Elder Arnold and his wife. THEY ARE AWESOME. I loved it because it seemed that one of the main themes was missionary work and getting the members involved. They talked a lot about how easy it is to start a gospel conversation with people everywhere you go. Its something we do every day as missionaries but as members it can be kind of scary or intimidating to bring up the gospel... but as Elder Arnold said "fear is the opposite of faith." The gospel brings so much joy and happiness into our lives that there should be nothing stopping us from sharing it with those who aren't a part of the church! Elder and Sister Arnold both gave a bunch of examples and stories of how they turned conversations about random things like quesadillas or dirt into a gospel conversation! It was so great and I think it really got the members fired up about sharing the gospel with their friends! 

They showed a mormon message called "I'll go where you want me to go" which just shows how easy it is to do acts or service with a missionary mindset, I recommend looking it up!! 

Also Jesus came to stake conference and he LOVED it. He totally started crying because he said everything they said was just so beautiful. what a gem.

The Spanish conference was all the way in Pasco which is really only like an hour and a half away haha but it felt super long because I drove. All of the Spanish branches and stakes from the south side of Washington, and all of the Spanish missionaries were there from the south part of the mission so I got to see Hermana Mohun!! It was so fun to see her! The conference was with Elder Arnold and Sister Arnold again and it was pretty much the same as the stake conference about missionary work which was awesome!! They did do a couple of really neat things that I want to invite all of you to do. They passed around a piece of paper to everyone and had them write down all of the nonmember and less active people that they know. then they said you can either give it to the missionaries if you feel comfortable, or take the list and pray for each of those people. Pray for them that you can find a way to help them, and pray for opportunities to share the gospel with them. How powerful is that?! so that is your challenge for this week! And I expect to hear stories of miracles that happen :) 

Zone conference yesterday was in Richland so we had to drive about an hour and a half again to get down there. It was also with Elder and Sister Arnold!! It was incredible. Our mission has so many things that we are trying to work on and improve so that we can create a culture of high expectations and personal righteousness. Sister Arnold emphasized the importance of us as members of the church, that "our voices are important because we know spiritual truths." Ah I wish I could have just recorded all of the meetings we had and sent them to you because it was like a mini general conference haha. 

I AM SO PUMPED about the new video that the church is launching on thanksgiving!! it is called He is the Gift. and it is SO GOOD. so thanksgiving day you will have to look it up!! We were laughing yesterday because we got to see meet the mormons before it came out and we got to see He is the Gift before it comes out and we were like missionaries are like VIPs for the church projects haha. I guess its only funny if you are a missionary hahaha 

anyways I hope all of you have an amazing thanksgiving! Don't eat too much... LOVE YOU ALL.

oh my... I can't believe Katelyn comes home tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are a rockstar hermana st. john. 

con mucho amor

hermana wortley

pic#1 the crew that drove down to richland together yesterday! 

pic#2 one of THE funniest people I have ever met.. sister faulkner! I cry of laughter every time I am with her.

The mission is "cool"... Literally it's freezing up here!

Well another week has gone by faster than the last!

I am happy to say that hermana bailey and I will be staying together another transfer here in Moxee!! For some reason I was panicking that I was going to get transferred and all day Saturday I felt like I was going to be leaving which would have been terrible because I don't feel like I have done all I need to do in this area... and apparently the Lord felt the same way! Hermana Bailey and I are SO pumped because this transfer is going to be the greatest and we also get to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas together!! So yay!! Its weird to think that when this transfer is over I will have spent over one third of my mission here! crazy. 

Anyways this week was interesting haha... there are some super cool things happening in our area but also some not so super cool things. First off we were able to find a ton of service this week which rocked!! We are going to be going to a food bank two times a week to pack boxes and what not. This week we packed apples and carrots and I wish so bad that I had brought my camera because no joke there were carrots thicker than my arm and some pretty crazy shaped ones too! We also did some service at an assisted living place. Old people are the best. Hermana Bailey played hymns for them and they were singing along (very loudly hahaha), it was so great though because what better thing can we do for them than share the gospel through music! 

Oh yeah... IT'S SO COLD. First of all it gets dark at like 4 so people think we are straight up nut heads for knocking on their doors and we just laugh because we're like "its only 6:30." but yeah its been fun! Hermana Bailey has been dying because she is an AZ girl and this is her first winter haha but we are trekking forward! 

So Jesus.. well he is still progressing! He didn't come to church because it was his wife's birthday.... yeah we didn't know he was married until yesterday!!!! hahaha and we had a lesson with him Saturday where he told us that he has been baptized 9 times so he doesn't really know if he needs to get baptized again.. WOW. The poor guy is trying so hard to find the truth and to follow Christ! We are still working with him to explain things, its just hard because he accepts everything we teach him which you would think would be awesome.. but the hard part is that it doesn't sink in, he just accepts it and doesn't necessarily understand the importance of applying it. So he is still on track for his baptism but he still has A LOT he needs to learn/understand/do before! 

We had a GREAT lesson with Lisa and Mario last Monday and they LOVED church! They said that there was a reason that they went that Sunday because the whole lesson was directed at them and their questions. We started teaching their nieces Jasmine and Sabrina this week and they are great. We also had to drop a ton of our potentials this week because none of them were willing to make this a priority, but APPLE SEASON IS OVER!! so we are hoping to find the elect people who are willing to make this a priority! 

I have been reading in Alma this week and a verse that I really liked was in Alma 44:5. This verse talks about how Moroni's army defeated the Lamanites but I found it really applicable to not just missionary work, but every thing we do! It says that by our faith, religion, rites of worship, church, wives (or husbands), children, lands, country, that is how they were able to overcome the lamanites or for us these are some of the things that can help us to overcome Satan. I especially like the line that said "and also by the maintenance of the sacred word of God, to which we owe all our happiness." Isn't that powerful?? No matter who we are or what we are doing with our lives, everything good in our lives, our ability to overcome satan comes through the sacred word of God or the scriptures! Our happiness depends on our reliance on the Lord! Those were just some random thoughts...sorry if none of it made sense! haha I love the Book of Mormon. 

This is going to be a good week and I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for us this transfer! Thanks for all you do for me!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!

con mucho amor

hermana wortley

pic #1 our district..painfully awkward

pic #2 some of the girls in the branch! I LOVE THEM.

I bet none of you made Christmas tutus last week

Hi

It was a week of miracles!!!!

Ok one of the best things ever happened... Lisa and Mario came to church! I don't know if you remember me talking about Lisa like forever ago when I first got to this area, but anyways she is great. We decided to try by her a couple of weeks back and she was so excited to see us! She told us that her and Mario (her fiance) wanted to come to church and that they were going to make time to come, but last week they didn't come and we were pretty disappointed. We also tried by them a bunch of times this week and no one was ever home so we figured we might have to give them some time before we could go back since no progress was being made. BUT church was just about to start and we were super excited because Jesus came for the 3rd time (more about him later :)) and then all of the sudden we get a text from lisa saying that they were lost... So we hurried and called her and she said that her and mario were on their way to church but they got lost, so we ran to the car (literally we ran and it was probably hilarious) so we could go find them! We found them and got back to the church just as they were singing the opening hymn!! THEY CAME TO CHURCH. Ok it was the best thing ever. There is nothing better than seeing someone you love start to make changes in their lives for the better. Sunday school was a pretty intense lesson on the plan of salvation, but they seemed to really like it! 

Also good news about Jesus.... really good news!! He is working towards the 29th for his baptism! We are so excited for him. It was so awesome because we went over Saturday to kind of go over with him again the importance of the restored gospel and priesthood, because he has been baptized before in another church and we wanted to make sure he understood it, and he is just so willing to make these changes in his life!! He is a miracle. He also said the BEST prayer at the end of the lesson about how happy he is to be learning about the church and that we care so much about him. Ah he is so ready... and he also told us after church yesterday that he was going to start inviting his friends to church! He is already doing missionary work and he isn't even a member (yet)!! 

I think something that has really helped us this week to keep focused is recognizing these miracles as blessings for our diligence. This area has been pretty rough and it has been hard to find people that will keep their commitments, but despite all that, we haven't stopped trying. It just goes to show that in order for us to recognize the Lord's hand in our lives we need to show him that we want his help, that we NEED his help in everything that we do! Wow the Lord is a miracle worker and I feel so blessed to be even just a small part in this incredible work!!

Something Hermana Bailey and I have started doing this week is writing down things we are grateful for. We got a big piece of paper and wrote, "Estamos Agradecidos" on the top (we are grateful) and every time we walk by the paper or think of something, we write it! We are so blessed and have so much to be grateful but it really makes you recognize those blessings as you write it out and think about them! 

As for the title of my email... yes we made Christmas tutus this week! hahaha we started going over to an assisted living place twice a week to do service aka do crafts with them and play the piano for them and help/get to know them! Old people are the best. We also started eating with the English wards in our area this week because of the new rule of only one companionship per dinner. The branch doesn't have enough members to feed 4 companionships every night so the english wards in the area offered to feed us on the days where we don't eat with the branch! At first it was kind of weird being with English members haha but it was also SO FUN! And you're never going to guess who we ate with on Saturday.... some Featherstones (yes they are Hannahs cousins)!! It was so fun and a tender mercy to run into some fellow Utahnzzz :)

Well this is the last week of the transfer so I may find out that I am leaving this area but WOW did this transfer go by fast!! I am so excited for this week, this is my favorite area that I have been in (and only one haha) :) I hope you all have a fantaby week!! I LOVE YOU

con mucho amor

hermana wortley

#1 dinner with the Featherstones!!

#2 the many apples of washington

Jesus came for the 2nd time!!!... (This is not a 2nd coming joke)

Hola familia! 

Things are great here in the good ol' Moxee and union gap area! This week went by so fast!! I feel like I just barely sent my last email. But it was a good week! Oh did you guys know that yesterday was daylight savings? WE DIDN'T! hahaha it was hilarious because we were up and ready for the day and brother Mitchell comes in and was like, you guys know its only 6 right? well lets just say we got an extra hour of personal study yesterday haha. 

Well I will start off with what happened last Monday. For P-day our zone went to a members house (or should I say hotel). no joke I have never been to a bigger house! they have llamas and cows and horses and a tennis court and just a ton of things to do! I was in heaven playing tennis for like 3 hours haha #tendermercy. but yeah just a fun side note.

So President Ware is wanting all the companionships to try and get at least 10 hours of service each week in the community and so this week we have tried a bunch of places and have been looking for service but people are so hesitant to let us serve! they are like.. you want to do service? YES we want to do service haha. Anyways this week was a little better and we found some very unique service opportunities! We were knocking in this trailer park and we knocked into this old guy who had a room full of his girlfriends clothes who is now in a retirement home... and he wanted all of the clothes gone! so we offered a helping hand haha! it took a couple hours but we got all the clothes out and in our car (which then smelled like a nursing home/old people (not that all old people smell haha s/o to those old foggies back home I love you!)) It was actually really fun! we found some legit ugly sweaters that we may or may not have kept for ourselves and the rest we hauled off to goodwill because no one wanted the clothes from the branch. But unfortunately our car smelled for like 3 days haha! 

Thursday we had interviews with President Ware! We headed to the chapel at about 9 for a training by the APs on the Book of Mormon. It was really good and gave us some great ideas about how to apply the Book of Mormon into our lessons and teaching! So the training lasted until about 1 and hermana bailey and I didn't end up having our interviews until about! It was a long day but a good one nonetheless! It is always fun to be around a bunch of missionaries! 

Halloween was just like any old weekly planning Friday except that we had to be in at 6! Hermana bailey dressed up in some of the grandma clothes and I dressed up as harry potter for dinner with our ward mission leader haha the elders in the branch said they were going to dress up but they didn't. It was hilarious though! 

So yesterday hermana bailey and I went to branch correlation (we take turns with the other missionaries in the branch because there are so many of us) and it ended right at 10:30 when church starts so we go in to the chapel and look for Jesus because he said he was going to come... but we couldn't see him anywhere! So we went out in the hall to call him but no one answered. we walked back into the chapel kind of depressed that he wasn't there and that's when I saw him!! he had been there all along! and turns out he was actually like 15 minutes early! It was the best!! To tell you a little bit about Jesus, he is an old guy probably mid to late 60's and he is so great and so open to learning more about Jesus Christ! He really likes church and the members of the branch! 

I am really excited that its November because this is the month of thanksgiving (which should be all the time am I right??)! but anyways I was reading in doctrine and covenants this morning and came across the scripture D&C 98:1 which says:

"Verily I say unto you my friends, fear not, let your hearts be comforted; yea, rejoice evermore, and in everything GIVE THANKS"

how perfect is that scripture for this time of the year?? First of all this is Christ speaking in the scripture and He is calling us His friends which is so awesome right? Anyways I just really love this scripture and as we get closer and closer to thanksgiving I am going to work on being more aware of the things I am thankful for because I have SO MUCH to be thankful for!! I am so thankful for each and everyone of you. For reals I am so blessed!!!!!!!! I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week! 

con mucho amor

hermana wortley

#1 our halloween costumes

#2 my legit suitcase that I got from the grandma clothes service project

Jesus came to church!!!

HELLO

well there were a lot of things that went wrong this week haha but I don't know if I have ever been as happy as I was when Jesus came to church!! I know for all you gringos, (because I am straight up latino now) you probably read that as Jesus came to church rather than the spanish pronunciation of Hay-sus so I hope you got a good laugh! But it was so great! We had an awesome lesson with Jesus on saturday and hermano and hermana Varela (my adopted Mexican grandparents) came with us.. and he committed to coming to church. which was awesome but we weren't 100% sure if he was going to make it because he had committed to coming the week before too, and we waited and waited and he never showed up... but this week we met him at 7-11 and he was not only early... he also brought a friend!! We were about 15 minutes early to church so we went and sat in the chapel and explained what we were going to do at church and talked a little bit about the sacrament. The only thing that was hilarious was that the lesson in sunday school was on the law of chastity so that was interesting haha! I was so grateful for the branch though because they were all so welcoming and I don't think there was one person that didn't shake their hands or introduce themselves so that was great! We have a lesson with him tomorrow so we will see how he liked church and hopefully continue teaching him and his friend!

On saturday we had the opportunity to go to a womens broadcast because Linda K. Burton was up in Wenatche and our stake was included in the broadcast! It was so good. She talked a lot about our purpose as women in the church and also how we can progress with and through the atonement. Once again the atonement is INCREDIBLE. I forgot my notebook or else I would write some quotes from her I will try to remember it next week! 

Towards the end of the week things started getting better and more people were home, but the beginning of the week was kind of rough! Luckily we only have about 2 weeks left of apple picking season and then we'll be able to find all of our investigators that dropped of the face of the earth! The saddest part of the week was that we had to stop teaching Maribel :( Me and and Hermana Bailey love her so much but she just wasn't willing to act, and we know that without action then there is no way that we can progress. The elders came with us on wednesday to give her a blessing to help her with her drug problem and to get some guidance. The blessing was really powerful and she was smiling and we knew that she felt the spirit after, but after about 10 minutes she went right back to her old "i don't know" attitude. It broke our hearts but we know that she isn't ready at this point to make the gospel a priority, but one day she will be and she will be amazing!! 

Last night after dinner we were knocking and it kind of seemed that no one was interested and it was kind of a bleh couple of hours but as we were headed to the car so we could go to a lesson I was felt like we needed to knock two more doors, and these were doors that we had knocked a couple of weeks ago but no one was home. So we knocked them... and we had a couple of miracles!! One of the apartments was a girl named Yesi and she told us that her and her boyfriend were looking for a church but that they had no idea where to start.... MIRACLE! :) and the next door it was a guy named fernando who told us to come back tomorrow which is today! Also hermana bailey was laughing at me because fernando spoke to us in english but I was speaking back to him in spanish and I didn't even notice hahaha its just an instinct to speak to hispanics in spanish! 

Hermana Bailey and I are working really hard and we have a bunch of goals that we are going to be working towards this week as we seek to become better and more effective missionaries! I love being a missionary. and I 

LOVE ALL OF YOU!!! have a great week :)

con mucho amor

hermana wortley

#1 our investigator sofia with her new puppy... SHE IS SO CUTE/HILARIOUS

#2 me and hermana bailey being cool

A week of starting fresh...

Hey everyone!!

This week was a good one! The reason why I titled my email a week of starting fresh is because that is what we had to do this week... all of our investigators either dropped off the face of the earth or weren't progressing so we had to start fresh with our teaching pool! I felt bad because as I have been training Hermana Bailey and we haven't been able to find any of the investigators that we were teaching before she got here! Dang apple picking season... haha. 

This was a huge leap of faith on our part because its kind of hard to do missionary work if you aren't teaching people haha but we felt that by taking a break from the people that we were teaching to look for those who are really searching for the gospel that we would be blessed for our efforts! 

So as I was saying our main focus this week was finding with faith. Hermana Bailey and I talked a lot about whether or not we have been truly acting in faith.. and we came to the conclusion that yes we have faith, I mean we chose to come on missions and we are striving to fulfill our purpose, but we weren't necessarily allowing the Lord to do His part. A couple of weeks back Sister Wilcox, aka Brooke, sent me an awesome talk about faith and how no matter how hard something is or if it may not seem like its really making a difference, IT IS MAKING A DIFFERENCE. So as we have been applying finding with faith we have been able to talk to a ton of people not just about the message that we share, but about what this message can do to change their lives. It has been awesome! 

At district meeting this past week we had a training on OYMs which just stands for Open Your Mouth.. aka talking to people haha. As missionaries it is our responsibility to talk with everyone that we see because everyone deserves to hear and everyone needs to hear about this message. But I feel like a lot of the time missionaries, including myself, get caught in kind of a rote presentation of how we approach people... so what we talked about in district meeting was changing things up! Our district leader challenged us in our OYMs to not use the phrases: we have a message, can we leave you with a card, here is a website to check out... and there were a couple more that I cant remember haha! but it was hilarious because after district meeting Hermana Bailey and I went out to work and we were super pumped to apply the things that we learned.. but the first person we saw we said every single rote phrase that there is hahaha literally all of them... after we talked to him we walked away and just started laughing our heads off because it was everything we were challenged not to say! So right after we said ok for the rest of the day we are going to be completely UN-rote. and we did it! We had some awkward moments where we had to think of things to say but as we used the scriptures and testified from the heart it became so much easier! We felt that we were truly giving people a chance to hear the message rather than just telling about the message!

So yesterday during studies in the morning we got a phone call from one of the members saying that she was sick and was wondering if we could teach young womens! Well it was really short notice being that church was in a half hour haha but we teach people all day so we accepted the challenge! It went pretty well! we taught about the Christlike attributes in preach my gospel and how we can work on developing them. But young women are so hard to teach! haha we felt like we were teaching a wall because no one was participating and they were all on their phones except two of them... So I gained a huge appreciation for youth leaders yesterday! growing up I always had the best leaders who were always so patient and willing to help us out. So THANK YOU to all my young womens leaders and sunday school teachers. I seriously learned so much from young women's and was truly blessed with amazing leaders! 

We also had exchanges this week! I was with Sister Peatross from West Jordan and no Cortney she doesn't know you or any Maples :( I got really excited when she said where she was from though! haha The theme for the exchange was Finding Joy in the Lord's Work. We had such a good day as we focused on why we do missionary work... and thats because it makes us happy! The gospel brings us so much joy that all we want to do is see it bring happiness to others! I am excited to continue applying finding joy in the Lords work as we look for new investigators! 

Update on Maribel (the one who does weed haha).. She is all the way in 1 Nephi chapter 11 in her reading!! She said she was bored the other day so she started to read! We are still having some issues with her smoking thing and the fact that she doesn't really want to stop haha... but that fact that she has been reading is progress!

Random thought from my studies this morning... In 2 Nephi 33:3 it talks about how Nephi is crying unto God in faith because he knows that He will hear his cry. I LOVED this verse because it is exactly what Hermana Bailey and I have been trying to apply. Praying in faith and believing that we are going to get answers and believing that we will find new people to teach! I also like this verse because it says that Nephi has a pillow which I don't know why I think is so hilarious but it is. Just picture Nephi sleeping in a tent with a fancy fluffy pillow.... oh how I love the Book of Mormon!!! 

I LOVE YOU ALL so much and I hope you have a super rad awesome week full of miracles and good things!! 

con mucho amor

hermana wortley

tengo la gripe :/

hola peeps!

This week was SO GOOD. Seriously it has been one of my favorite weeks of my mission so far... I'm not even sure if I can pick out anything particular that made it so awesome but yeah it was great. So to explain the title of my email... yes tengo la gripe (aka a cold haha). I have been super sick since friday with a nose that won't stop running and a brick in my chest haha... but although I have been kind of a walking zombie we have had some super awesome miracles! 

I LOVE hermana bailey. She is so sweet and guys.... she thinks I'm funny!! haha I know it sounds dumb but its a tender mercy when your companion thinks you're funny. She is from Mesa Arizona and did a year of school at ASU before her mission. She has a twin brother who is on a mission in Scotland (or somewhere like that.. haha) and yeah she is pretty great! So far being a trainer has been great! I feel like since I haven't even been out that long that we are learning together and working together and I feel like we have already grown so much just in one week! President Ware told me that out of all the companionships that they were considering while preparing for transfers, he had one of the strongest impressions or feelings that hermana bailey and I needed to be paired together. So that was really cool to hear! We have been talking to so many people and working hard. I felt bad because in her last area they didn't walk very much and I have been making her walk a lot and she got a blister :/ but she has had such a good attitude. But hey what's a trainer if you don't work your greenie hard right??

Ok now for the miracles.. we were walking on I think thursday night and doing a bunch of knocking and we saw a lady sitting on her front porch so we went to talk to her and at first she was in kind of a bad mood, she said that her phone was shut off and that she had a bad day at work.. but we started to tell her about what we do as missionaries and her whole countenance changed. We asked her if she had ever heard about the book of mormon and she said that one of her co-workers actually gave her a copy but she hadn't had a chance to read it. We taught her a simple restoration lesson about why we have the book of mormon and the spirit was so strong! We said a prayer with her and she said that she knew God had sent us there for a reason that night because she felt so much better and she told us that she would pray about and read the book of mormon... so AWESOME referral for the english sisters in our area haha! 

For our next miracle.. some of the elders in our branch had a baptism on saturday and our investigator Maribel came!! I seriously don't think I have ever prayed as hard as I did that she would come and what do you know.. my prayer was answered! The only thing that we are struggling with her is that she does drugs... which is kind of a big thing haha. WHY DOES WEED HAVE TO BE LEGAL HERE?? I feel like we have had some really solid lessons with her but sometimes she is so zoned out and out of it because of the drugs.. we have a lesson with her tonight and we are going to talk about the word of wisdom so pray that she will have a desire to make that change because if she doesn't we are going to have to drop her :(

On friday hermana bailey and I went to the Doctrine of Christ training for all the people that came out at the same time as her. As all the meetings we have with President Ware, it was awesome! One of the things they focused on was in 1 Nephi chapter 17. This is the chapter where Nephi is commanded to build a ship and something they focused on was in verse 9 how it says: Lord, whither shall I go that I may find ore to molten, that I may make tools to construct the ship after the manner which thou hast shown unto me?... This verse just shows how ready, faithful and willing nephi was to do the work of the Lord. He started from the very basics, he first asked where do I go to get the materials so I can make tools, so I can build the ship that thou wanted have him build. In the meeting we talked about how this applies to missionary work and that sometimes, more often than not, we need to start at the very basics to build our ships (or ourselves/testimonies). And as the chapter goes on they explained that if we don't have our ships built.. then we won't be able to help others to get to the other side, we won't be able to carry anyone. The scriptures are THE best!

I am so grateful to be a missionary and to have this time to serve the Lord! I LOVE YOU ALL!! :) have a fantaby week!

con mucho amor

hermana wortley

(sorry no pictures I am trying to hurry because its columbus day and there are a buttload of missionaries waiting for the computers!! but I have a hilarious picture of me being sick with tissues up my nose so get excited for that next week LOL) 

"actively responding to His invitation to come unto Him"

Hola everyone!!

So this week was a super awesome week! There were some really great things that happened with our investigators and conference was amazing!!

One of my favorite talks was Jorg Klebingat. His was the one where he started out by saying, 'what if you had a personal interview with the Savior today?' His talk was so straight up and straight forward about how we can and need to change! I loved the 6 steps he gave us as we move forward in our spiritual progression..
1. take responsibility for your own spiritual well-being
2. take responsibility for your own physical well-being
3. embrace  voluntary obedience wholeheartedly
4. become really, really good at repenting
5. become really, really good at forgiving
6. accept trials, set backs, and surprises as part of mortality

I loved all the talks this conference and I especially loved how it was the first conference where they had people speak in their native language! Richard G. Scotts was crazy good, and I want to print off Elder Bednar's and hand it to everyone I meet haha.

Something Hermana Mohun and I have been talking about is how we are going to apply the things we learned during conference because we always hear awesome things and we are super motivated and excited to change for like a week after conference, but the things we learn and hear are meant to last longer than just a week or so! So yea, I am excited to apply the things I got out of conference!

We had a couple of sweet lessons this week with one of our investigators named Maribel. She is HILARIOUS. She comes up with questions out of no where and she is so innocent and sweet. We had been praying about a date for her that we could invite her to be baptized on, and so in one of our lessons this week I invited her, and her response was to die for... she said "wait, you're going to baptize me on Nov. 1st?" and we said "no.. remember, someone who has the priesthood will be the one to baptized you and we are just inviting you because we think you'll be ready on that date" It was really funny.. but I guess you had to be there hahaha.

We also had a great lesson with Hugo and Erica! Hugo really understands the importance of only one true church and he was asking super solid questions! They were really excited about coming to church... but they didn't come :( One day we will have investigators at church!!
Also, it was cool because remember our investigator Elena who had a baptismal date? Well she went MIA for a couple of weeks and so we weren't sure what happened.. but we found her this week! She also said that she will have more time to read in the Book of Mormon this week and will pray to know if what we have been teaching is true. She is the best.

Ok I love the hispanic people, but there were two days this week where we had two dinners because people just gave us plates of food before we could even say we already ate! hahaha Last night I was super full from dinner and then we were knocking and a family invited us in and then before I knew it, I was eating chicken and tortillas... haha!

So for the biggest news of the week... we had transfer calls and drum roll.. I am staying here and training!! I was so humbled when I got the call from President Ware and still feel  humbled that the Lord trusts me enough to train already! I am so excited and pretty nervous, but it is going to be really good. I am going to be training Hermana Bailey from Mesa, AZ and yeah, transfers are Wednesday so that should be exciting!

I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to be a missionary, and so grateful for all of you!! I love you all!!

con mucho amor
hermana wortley :)

#1 awkward self timer conference picture haha
#2 weekly planning with apples