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