BIG CHANGE

HOLAAAA ok folks how are ya?!

First off I need to apologize for my email last week I felt like it consisted of me complaining about things and I dont really remember what I wrote because I was kind of in a hurry and also trying to figure out how to use an english keyboard after spending six weeks on a spanish one haha. so any ways... I am so sorry about that and I promise I am not the worst missionary ever. After our email time I was like oh crap they probably all think that I hate my life haha. 

I had A BIG CHANGE of attitude and a BIG CHANGE of heart this week. The house that I live in really isnt that dirty, I just so happened to get here during sister michells canning week, which explained the food/fruit flies all over the place. My companion is the reason that our room and bathroom were so gross so thats something I have been working on and offering to help her organize all of her stuff. THANK YOU MOM for teaching me to be clean and how to clean because I really think there are people who dont know how to! 

But really hna. Mohuns stuff is everywhere and she has been here since march which explains why nothing has really gotten cleaned hahaha. So we're working on it. But like I said earlier I had an attitude adjustment or in other words I have started to look on the brightside of things rather than looking for or noticing the not so great things. 

Now for my weekly update... On tuesdays and saturdays I am not sure if I mentioned that we go and read with Cindy ( an EXTREMELY less active) This past tuesday with her was good. We started from the beginning of the book of mormon and I shared with her Alma 37:6-7 which talks about by doing small and simple things, great things will come. Also in 1 Nephi 2:19-20 I had her substitute Nephi with her name and land for the word plan. I was trying to show her that the scriptures can apply to everyone and that it is SO important that we use them not only for spiritual growth, but for guidance also. She didn't really say much so I was thinking she didn't really get what I was saying... but when we went back on saturday we were only going to read one chapter with her and we ended up reading four chapters because she wanted to keep reading and she was pointing things out to us in the chapters!! So I'm thinking the spirit got to her and she is starting to understand the importance of doing the small things. 

On tuesdays we have district meeting. Our district leader is elder palmer and he is from cedar city. We had a great meeting about how our district is doing in teaching, finding, and sharing the gospel. We set some goals and did some practice role play teaching. 

I think I mentioned Araceli and Jose last week. They are our two investigators that had baptism dates... but when we went to see where they were on sunday for church, we found out that Araceli's mom had passed away. We havent been able to meet with them since, but we got her some flowers and wrote her a note.. so we are just going to keep praying for her and hopefully we can start meeting with them again because if they need anything right now it is the gospel of jesus christ!! 

One thing that our mission and probably other missions is trying to do is have more lessons with members present. We have some awesome young women in our branch and so we call them alot to see if they want to come out with us. This week we had Itzel came out with us. It always seems that when we have a member with us, our lessons tend to fall through.. and thats exactyl what happened... So we decided to knock a couple doors with her. And MIRACLE... we found Erica flores and her family. They are awesome, we taught them the restoration and I think we got them excited for church. They are seriously so great. Erica genuinely seems interested and we are going to go back next week. 

The biggest problem we have with Mexicans is that THEY ARE ALWAYS WORKING. She works a lot so hopefully we can find a time when she will be home. We had A LOT of rejection this week and the knocking kind of felt never ending. And since Hermana Mohun has been here since march she seems to be not that motivated. I dont know, maybe its just the GREENIE FIRE that I have but I feel like she moves in SLOW MOTION. No joke. and it is kind of hard because sometimes It feels like she is wasting time, like WTH she likes to take an hour for lunch?! We could get 5 new investigators in that time hahahaha. I am learning a lot from her though, and ways that I can learn to be a better missionary. And thats something I am working on also is trying to figure out my companion... because she stresses me out! haha one second we are doing great and laughing and then one second she COMPLETELY ignores what I am saying... so that makes things difficult. but I am persevering!! 

We had some great lessons this week though. One with Javier a kid we met while knowcking. He is about 15 and super chill. We taught him the restoration and he seemed genuinely interested and it was super funny because we gave him a book of mormon and then we see another kid walk out of the kitchen and he said hey can I have one too? turns out his brother Johnny was listening the whole time from the kitchen! haha It was a great lesson... BUT SO SAD when we went back the next day and he told us he wanted to stop taking the lessons. 

We decided to knock a few more doors in the area and found Pilar and her grandson Anthony. We made an appointment for the next day! Pilar wasnt too interested in what we had to say but anthony who is 17, is having a REALLY hard time in his life right now. His parents are divorced and both remarried, and he has a bad relationship with his dad, he just barely moved in with his grandma a few weeks ago. He seems to be really struggling with his belief in God and having faith. We taught him the restoration with an emphasis on faith and developing faith. Also I tried to apply the apostasy to his life right now and that he is sort of having his own personal apostasy, being that he feels lost and alone. It went good and He prayed at the end. I have heard from other missionaries that there is nothing like hearing someone pray for the first time and it is SO TRUE! When he was praying I felt so strongly the love that Heavenly Father has for him. After he said that he feels like the gospel could really help him. During this lesson, Pilar his grandma made us lunch. She is so sweet! We had chicken tamales. 

That day we also had a lesson with the Dominquez family who got baptized just about a week before I got here! THEY ARE ADORABLE. We reviewed the plan of salvation with them with an emphasis on temples and baptisms for the dead. I cant remember the boys names, but the one who is 11 was counting the months until he can go do baptisms, it was so cute. They are excited to get to work on their family history. 

So I think I mentioned last week that the michells have just about every kind of plant/fruit/vegetable in their yard so one day this week during exercise time we went into the garden and picked a bunch of fruit for breakfast!! The raspberries were SO GOOD. 

Every thursday night we go to the junta, which sounds like a party.... but its actually just a meeting with the ward missionaries and ward mission leader in our ward (there are 8 missionaries in our ward). We reviewed all of our investigators and talked about what we can do to help them. We ended about 10 minutes early so we all headed to sonic to get half price shakes... YES THERE IS A SONIC HERE. If only there were a chick-fil-A. 

We also had trainer/trainee meeting this week in quincy which is about an hour and a half away. We dont have the miles to drive that far but the michells were so sweet and took us and some of the elders in our district up to the meeting. It was like Christmas seeing the elders from my MTC district, I had missed them! haha We had some great training on our purpose as missionaries and how to have the spirit while teaching and all the time. President ware and the APs taught the meeting or whatever you want to call it. We did some practice OYMs (open your mouth) and watched a really powerful talk by elder holland, the one where he talks about the part in the new testament when Christ asks peter 3 times Do you love me? And elder holland related it to us as missionaries. If we love HIM, we need to feed his sheep. And we cant do anything UNLESS we love HIM. Definitely super powerful and makes you think about why you're here and how you can dedicate yourself more fully. 

I know that my mind wanders quite a bit thinking about all life and what not but I know that I am here because I LOVE THE LORD and I am ready to listen to otheres and do what I can to help them realize the importance of Jesus Christ in our lives and how the gospel of Jesus Christ will bless their lives. It was a great morning and the Michells were so awesome and stopped on our way home to grab us some lunch and sister michell made cookies! They are the sweetest. 

Overall it was a pretty solid week and I hope to apply the things we learned at the training meeting in my teaching! One of the main things I am struggling with right now is that my companion doesnt have my same sense of humor hahaha... so we have had some awkward moments, but I am trying to loosen her up a bit.. because WHAT IS LIFE WITHOUT LAUGHTER am I right???? yes I am. 

Anyways I love you all and I hope you have a great week full of awesomeness. Thank you for all your prayers I need them!!

con mucho amor

Hermana Wortley

1. me with my fresh raspberries.

2. me and hna. mohun emailing LOLZ

My primero semana!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOWzers is the only way that I can start this email.... this week has been one heck of a roller coaster. I have hit all time highs and definitely a few all time lows. 

Well to start off our day of traveling was super long and I told mom about how no one in our house woke up and so they gave us a wake up call just 5 minutes before we had to get on the bus haha so that just gives you a little idea of how that day ended up going IT WAS LONG. but we made it to washington!! and the elders that I traveled with were so adorable and watched out for me the whole day so that was a huge blessing being that I was kind of a mess from not having any sleep haha. 

ok so I am just going to write everything pretty much straight from my journal so I am sorry for the details and if it bores you to death but here goes nothing.... 

On tuesday president ware, the APs, and one of the senior couples were waiting for us when we got off the plane, and dad you were right he is AWESOME. He is such a great person/mission president. Anyways we loaded up all of our luggage and headed to a church where we were having dinner and a little bit of an introduction to being a missionary in the washington kennewick mission. We had honey baked ham and funeral potatoes.. boy have I missed normal american food after all that weird stuff we had at the ccm. By this point I was EXHAUSTED and had almost zero energy. We had our little meeting with the 27 or so missionaries that got there that day and although I was fighting to keep my eyes open, it was still such a great meeting. 

President ware interviewed me first (I think because he could tell I was falling asleep haha) and then I waited for the other sisters to have their interviews and sister ware took us to the mission home where we were going to be sleeping! THAT BED WAS A DREAM. after sleeping on rock hard bunkbeds wowzers and also that was the best shower I had in 6 weeks haha. 

The next morning we got ready and went to the church to have orientation and to find out where we were going to be serving! yada yada yada.... I am serving in Selah in the moxee spanish branch and my companion is Hermana Mohun! The drive to moxee was about an hour and a half but it felt like I was driving all the way to Ephraim especially since it was 1000000 degrees but I made it!! 

Hermana mohun is from californa I cant remember where.. but she has been out about a year and this is her 4th transfer in moxee. I cant decide who she reminds me of and I also cant figure out her personality yet..... she is super nice but also slightly awkward to talk to hahaha. we are still warming up to each other but I think it will be a good transfer! 

We live with members, the michells. They have a beautiful garden in their backyard with just about every fruit and vegetable there is. but one downside about that is that because of all the watering they do.. the shower doesnt work. no water comes out of the shower head, only the faucet of the tub and even then it is a VERY small trickle.. and the drain wont plug so yeah #thestruggleisreal when showering if you can even call it showering haha I think I would rather shower with a bucket outside.. and its not the cleanest house ever (in other words it will be clean by the time I leave even if I die cleaning it because my ocd is really in full force right now haha) but on a more positive note it is a place to live and im sure it could be much worse! 

Every night our district goes to one of the members of our branch's house for dinner. It is pretty great and a great way to get to know the members! So far they are all so awesome and I cant wait to get to know more. 

On wednesday we dropped off my stuff at the house and went straight out tracting. WE talked to a bunch of people, everyone we saw, and we got a few potential investigators. But the real miracle came when we were walking through a trailer park and saw a lady bringing in her groceries. We stopped to see if she needed any help and what do you know, she said yes!! So we carried in some soda for her and then she invited us to sit down and we taught her the restoration. It was awesome. We left her with a book of mormon and planned on stopping by the next day but unfortunately she wasnt there.. and hasnt been there since so we are hoping maybe she will be there tonight! 

Ok yeah so it sounds like things were just going great right... well I dont know why but I had THE HARDEST morning I have had since being on the mission on thursday. I was struggling with spanish, with wondering if I was strong enough to be a missionary and I felt homesick. It was the absolute worst. But I kept telling myself that I could do it. so what did I do.. I PRAYED my little heart out that I could have the spirit with me and that I could be confident in my teaching. I needed to humble myself. So we went out tracting and we went to a house that hna. mohun had been to before and they said she could come back. This lady her name is Lisa and she also speaks english so we ended up talking to her in english, but yeah she invited us in and we started talking to her about the gospel and about her life. She told us EVERYTHING. she has a ton of family issues and has had a crazy hard life. I was just sitting there listening to her and everything she was saying and it was making me that much more humble and grateful for the things that I have in my life. I have things that are hard for me right now but all of these things are temporary.. the shower doesnt work (haha I know it seems so first world of me), the language is hard, the house is kind of unsanitary, I miss all of you, and I am completely out of my comfort zone but all of these things CAN CHANGE. 

I am SO blessed to be here and I chose to be here and I want to be here and so right in that moment when we were talking with lisa. It was like Heavenly father threw a humble pie right in my face. I shared with her about the atonement and that Christ really does know each and everyone of us personally. he know us perfectly and he wants nothing more than for us to be happy and to have the gospel which is a way for us to be happy and a way for us to become closer to him. I know that the spanish WILL COME and that its going to take a lot of hard work but it will be so worth it to be able to help people come unto Christ. 

Ah I am sorry I am kind of running out of time but we do have 2 investigators with baptismal dates of August 2nd! Araceli and Jose. They are GREAT. They werent at church yesterday because they were camping but we are going to teach them wednesday about the commandments so we'll see how that goes. 

I also had my first baptismal invite on saturday! This is a different jose, but he said YES! so we are going to teach him tomorrow and we will figure out more of when he will be baptized. The work is great here in moxee and I know that there are a ton of people who need the gospel.. we just need to find them!  

Two things I have learned about being a spanish speaking stateside missionary so far is that it STINKS when you find great potentials that speak english.. haha I kind of despise white people and also I swear every hispanic is catholic. The days just keep getting better and I am so ready to work. Sorry this letter wasnt very funny!!!!! I love you all so much and I am so grateful for you in my life!!!!!!

HAVE A FANTABBY WEEK

con mucho mucho amor

hermana wortley

sorry I dont have any new pictures but here is a picture of some of the people in my ccm zone! The poly kid in the front played football for the U so we bonded over how awesome the U is. 

Awesome Missionaries

My husband and I are Senior Missionaries at the Mexico MTC.  During the past six weeks, we have grown to love your wonderful missionaries.  I miss them already!  I thought you would enjoy seeing their district picture and departure tribute. Robert and Sue Jones

Made it to Washington

Dear Missionary Family,

We are delighted to inform you that your missionary has arrived safely to the Washington Kennewick Mission.  We already love them and are excited to serve with them.  We have enjoyed becoming acquainted with them and are confident that they will become an effective instrument in the hands of the Lord in sharing the gospel with the people of Washington and Oregon.

We have assigned them a companion who is an experienced, devoted, and motivated missionary.  All of our missionaries understand that one of the greatest privileges available in the mission is to train a new missionary.  This first companion will be a special person in your missionary’s life and will help give them a great start here.

We feel that our greatest responsibility is the care and welfare of your child.  We want to assure you that we will be in regular contact with them.  We will be observant of their physical health, happiness and spiritual well being.  We will work closely with them throughout the mission to help them succeed and fulfill their calling as a representative of the Church and as an ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Please be assured that we will be in contact with you if we encounter any concerns that would call for your attention.  We see you as a great asset to the success of your missionary while they are serving here and will work closely with you if the need arises.  You would help us immensely by informing us of any changes to address, phone number or email for you, your bishop or your stake president.  We want to keep our records current so that we can keep in touch whenever necessary.

Attached are photographs of your missionary taken with us at the welcome dinner at the mission home, along with a map of the mission.  Please feel free to contact us at the mission office with any questions that you may have.

Thank you for the sacrifices you are making at home to have your missionary in the field.  We have seen the Lord bless the families of missionaries who are serving in untold ways.  We know that His blessings will be upon you as well.

With love,

President Boyd S. Ware             

Sister Linda P. Ware

Washington Kennewick Mission                             

8202 W. Quinault Ave., Ste D

Kennewick, WA  99336

voy a washington!!!!!!!!!!!!?

HOLA my favorite people ever!!

This week was good! It was a little bit stressful because we were trying to learn as much as we could in our last week! YES.. last week. Can you believe I leave for washington tomorrow?? Its going to be THE BEST. I am super nervous/excited/every emotion known to man, but I cant wait to wholeheartedly serve the Lord. 

I was terrible at writing in my journal this week so I am sorry this may be super boring and I will totally understand if you want to stop reading now. 

Guess what was my favorite part of this week? you got it.... TRC. Our lesson was great but after was actually my favorite part. There were two real investigators that came and once everyone was done teaching we all got together in a room and sang I need thee every hour (en español of course) and the spirit was so strong. It was amazing! and we also got to see blanca and marianna the adorable girls we taught last week. 

Thursday night we got another district in our zone. And guess who is in it? Elder Anderson from Bountiful! Emma is probably the only one that knows him but emma, Elder Anderson AKA Bill says HI! 

Its so fun being sister training leaders because we get to know the other districts really well! Friday was hermana johnsons birthday and also our in field training. It was a SUPER long day, but not too bad because we are all getting excited to leave. Hna. Johnson and I taught two elders in our district on saturday and it was cool because they just acted like themselves and we taught according to their needs. Hna. Johnson shared a really great scripture in John 8:29 and it is such a good scripture especially for when you are having a hard time/ when you are a missionary. 

Also on saturday we did our interviews as sister training leaders and usually all the girls are like oh Im doing great, I love it hear... blah blah blah, but this week was a little different. One of the sisters who just got here was (and still may be) seriously considering going home. So that was something new... We did a zone fast for her and have been doing all we can to help her feel comfortable and ready to serve. so we will see (or not since we are leaving haha) what happens. 

Sunday was a great day. Our district sang Israel Israel God is Calling in sacrament meeting and at the end of the night they did a slide show of all the districts that leave this week and it was adorable. 

Today has been good. We got all packed during breakfast and ready to go, and then it was back to work. It was sad saying bye to our teachers because we love them so much. but we are off to bigger and better things! I CANT WAIT TO GET TO WASHINGTON!!!!!!!!!!! next week I will be writing from the field SAY WHAAAAAAAAT!!!!!!!!!!!

I love you all so much and cant thank you enough for all the love and support you have given me!!

"we need to have the power of the word within us"

mucho amor

hermana wortley

no longer a teenager SAY WHATTT?

HOLA!

Ah I can´t believe I leave for washington in less than a week!! (I leave for the airport at 3am next tuesday) but yeah anyways some of the other people who got here the same time as us have mentioned that it kind of feels like they have senioritis because it feels like we have been here forever and now that we are leaving we just want to get out of here haha. but don´t worry I am still working hard and studying my little brain off. 

Last pday was super fun because hna. johnson and I were in a trio because the district above us left and she had a later flight so it was way fun! she was from lehi and she knows kenzie weeks, one of the girls I went to africa with so that was cool too! 

drum roll please... hermana johnson and I got made the sister training leaders this past week for district 12! Its not a huge responsibility but hey its still a calling! haha because elders aren´t allowed to interview sisters individually, the sister training leaders get to do the interviews and we just check up on them and make sure they are doing good. It is actually super fun and we have gotten to know the girls so well! 

we have 3 districts in our zone right now and there are 8 girls but we get a new district this week that will have 4 more girls and 8 more elders. the ccm is GROWING LIKE CRAZY. the group that I came in with was a group of about 85 and now groups are coming in with at least 200.. so you can imagine how crazy the comedor is. 

Ok usually my favorite part of every week is TRC and what do you know... this week it was TRC.. we taught 2 seventeen year old girls who are both members, Blanca and Marianna.  THEY ARE ADORABLE. ok no joke they have the strongest testimonies ever and they both spoke super fast haha but we were able to understand them (the girft of tongues is real folks) ahh but honestly the spirit was so strong as we talked with them about the difference between testimony and conversion. They strengthened my testimony by how amazing they are. They gave us a huge hug after and gave us their emails so we are excited to email them! 

The 4th of july was so much fun!! I think about 95% of the american girls were wearing red white and blue and they did a super american lunch with apple pie and everything and they put out red white and blue tablecloths. oh and during lunch we all stood up and sang the national anthem! haha oh the joys of being american. gotta love it. It was so cute though how the people working here put so much thought and effort into making sure we had a good fourth of july. 

So every saturday we have book of mormon discussion and hna. johnson and I taught it this week. we chose to talk about mosiah 5 and it was great! lets be real though... every chapter in the BofM is great. It was kind of weird because mexico starts their fast (and probably other south american places) right after lunch on saturday and then go until right before lunch on sunday so that was something new! haha it was funny because instead of going to dinner on saturday since we were fasting, our zone just got together and played signs.. oh the life of a missionary. 

I don´t think I ever wrote about this but there is some sickness going around (I think I got it last week) but so many people are getting sick and so they have banned any contact for the next little while.. which means no handshakes (because thats all the contact you have as a missionary anyways hahahaha) 

My birthday was GREAT!! thank you all for the birthday wishes and what not! Oh and the package was AWESOME! My companion wrote me an adorable note and got me some candy from the tienda and one of the latinas (the crazy one that likes to shower in our room) came running in our room on sunday morning (in her garments haha) with a note and some candy saying "happy birfday you are supa cute" she is the best. and the a couple of the girls in our zone made me a card too!! so that was adorable. but the most adorable thing was, so every night we get together as a zone and sing a hymn together and pray together and for some reason hna. johnson and I were the last ones there but right when we got there they all started singing feliz cumpleaños so yeah that was so sweet of them! 

Sacrament meeting was soooo good. It was fast and testimony meeting (in spanish of course) and it was great to hear so many testimonies and the spirit was so strong. I bore my testimony... and guess what?! I didn´t use any notes or anything, guys the spanish is coming.. slowly.. but its coming!!! 

Our sunday night movie was the joseph smith restoration movie which is a classic LOVE IT. 

Yesterday was kind of an off day.. let me explain.. it started off great because we took pictures with all of the people that came in on June 4th for the slide show this sunday (our last sunday) and we had a great lesson with juan jose, about tithing and fasting.. but now are you ready for the awkward thing.. our district leader called hermana johnson out because she was taking pictures and you can´t take pictures unless its pday and so he just said I think since you guys are sister training leaders you need to set better examples for the new people and you need to be more obedient... ok I kind of agreed with him that she shouldn´t have been taking pictures but he is always goofing around (and he is 26) so it was super weird for him to call her out when he never does his class work or anything but anyways hna. johnson did not like that AT ALL and she told him off big time and it was so awkward I wanted to die haha. she was HEATED and me and the district leaders companion were just dying of awkwardness in the background, and then after she wanted me to side with her but I was just in the most uncomfortable situation ever because I didn´t want to side with anyone so I just talked my way through how I could see where he was coming from but that I could also see where she was coming from... this was like right before dinner so the rest of the night was so AWKWARD hahaha and it was the worst because I couldn´t talk to anyone about it because I am always with my companion.. oh geeze haha anyways I am just glad there is less than a week left because there is some serious tension in our class now... but on to a happier note!! 

Hermana johnson and I threw ourselves a birthday party today since her birthday is on friday and mine was sunday. We made some adorable decorations and got some snacks from the tienda, and made up some games. We invited all the girls in our zone, our house, and just some girls that we always sit with at meals. It was super adorable and way fun/funny. so that was good! 

I AM SO EXCITED TO GO TO WASHINGTON. I am not sure how good my spanish will be but I could not be more ready to peace out of the ccm. I already feel like I have grown so much since being here and not just the spanish side of things.. I have a much stronger testimony of Jesus Christ and the atonement, and the gospel and all things churchy. We are SO blessed, we really are.

some powerful quotes from Elder Hollands devotional sunday:

"Your investigators DESERVE someone who studies and knows the gospel with their whole heart"

"You cannot be what you have to be and say what you have to say unless you LOVE HIM (Jesus Christ)"

"the spirit is the key and ultimate ingredient"

I LOVE YOU ALL. Have a great week!!!!!

hermana wortley

hola peeps

Hola!

this has been an interesting week... there have been some super awesome moments and some super "crappy" (literally I was sick this week (TMI?)) but yeah the good parts were great!! 

Ok so for one of my favorite parts.. we got latinas in our casa! THEY ARE THE BEST. I cant remember any of their names but no joke they are hilarious. It is hilarious because they stay up until like midnight and then they wake up at 5 because how crazy is this.. they are all going to mexico on their missions... english speaking! so we are helping them with their english and they are helping us with our spanish! 

I can´t remember which day it was because all the days run together here but one day last week was the 1 year anniversary of the ccm! so we had cake and enchiladas it was great. 

oh and surprise surprise we swept walls again for service day hahaha it seriously gets funnier every time. 

On thursday hna. johnson and I fasted both food and english... and if you dont know what an english fast is, it is when you only speak spanish. it was good because It helped us a ton to use the spanish the we know but it was also hard not to use english. 

I dont know if I have told you about our "investigators" but we are teaching juan jose and josue (our teachers) it is so fun to teach them and to practice (because boy do we need it) 

Ok I wish you could meet hna. johnson she is SO funny. I am always laughing and our awkwardness goes so well together haha. 

On saturday our day started out hilarious, one of our latinas (from costa rica) came into our room with just a towel on, wanting to get in our shower so she went in the bathroom, turned on the shower and then left and we were super confused, but she came back with soap, and then she left again and came back with clothes, (the whole time she was rambling in spanish and the shower was running) hahaha and then after she showered she asked me to braid her hair. oh man she cracks me up. 

During gym the past few days we have played sand volleyball with our district and its super fun except i am horrible at volleyball and it is always raining so it was super cold.. but esta bien. 

SUNDAY was the best day ever. I love sundays because after a week of trying to learn spanish and teaching in spanish and learning the gospel in spanish, we get a day to just focus on our personal spiritual growth and to take a deep breath. but yeah church was great I got randomly called to say a prayer which I would way rather do than give a talk haha and I also taught sunday school. We have sunday school with our district and our district leader asked me last minute (literally one minute before) if I would teach so YOLO the lesson was on the restoration from preach my gospel chapter 4. It went really well and people told me it was good so thats a blessing, with the whole not having time to prepare haha. 

We also sang in the devotional!! IT WAS AMAZING. the spirit was so strong and it was so fun to share our testimonies through song. One of the members in the presidency liked it so much he recorded it and is going to send it to our families! I wrote your email down mom so feel free to share it when you get it! 

For our sunday night movie we watched How Rare A Possession, which is a movie about the book of mormon and how we need to take advantage of what we have and read, and re-read and search the book of mormon with full purpose of heart. It was definitely a good reminder about how important the book of mormon is. 

Ok now for my favorite part of the week.. we had THE BEST devotional ever. It was a re-run from a few christmas´s ago by Elder Bednar. It was honestly one of my most favorite talks I have ever heard. He talked specifically about how we need to turn away from the natural man and turn outward in service and compassion for others because no matter what Christ was going through He ALWAYS turned outward to help others. You should for shizzle look this one up.. im sure if you type in elder bednar cookie monster talk you will find it, you wont regret it! 

THE RAIN is insane. It has been nonstop raining for the past at least 5 days, sometimes it is raining SUPER hard and other times it is just sprinkling but yeah its always raining. 

This is super random but I will tell you anyways, have you ever heard that the mtc is kind of like the hunger games? well you will hear now because I am going to tell you. this place is pretty much the hunger games... let me explain.. EVERY DAY we hear at least 5 or 6 sounds outside of the ccm that sound like cannons going off and our teachers have told us that its fireworks, but there is no way people do fireworks that much, and I am convinced that they are gun shots (we are in mexico right?) hahaha, anyways so theres the whole ¨cannon¨ thing then the district thing, and ours is district 12 so that reminds me even more of the hunger games, and people leave every week so its kind of like they die (not creepy at all) and all of the ccm is within a giant fence and who knows what is going on outside that fence?! and we go in two´s everywhere... see what I mean??? I am living in the hunger games. 

Ok I am starting my 5th week this week!!!!! WTH (what the heck) but yeah so crazy. I can already see that the mission is blessing my life and I can feel it changing me for the better (I hope) I am still my weird crazy self but I am definitely recognizing how important our lives are here on earth and how important they are to the Lord. I know now more than ever that the Lord knows me and is watching our for me and is watching out for all of you!! I love being a missionary and its going to be so great when I get to washington!! I love you all so much and I pray for each and every one of you everyday!!!

here are a few quotes that I loved from this week:

"strive for the mind and character of Christ"

"Our conversion to the gospel is our actual knowledge that our actions are in line with Christ´s teachings"

"the strength of Christ is promised to everyone who is pressing forward and seeking Christ"

LOVE YOU

hermana wortley :)

sorry we didn´t take any pics this week so here is a selfie as I write this email LOL