I got hugged by another grandpa HAHA

HI EVERYONE oh and happy memorial day!

Something super crazy exciting happened this week!!!! WE GOT TIWIS. If you are wondering what the heck a tiwi is, I wondered the same thing. We had a zone conference this week and they installed a tiwi (or teenage something something something) in all of the mission cars. A tiwi is a device that monitors your speed, whether or not you are wearing seatbelts, and aggressive driving. Luckily for me, the mission has already made me drive like a grandma (no offense to all you grandmas out there) so it hasn't really been a problem haha.  The box tells you to check your speed, to put on your seat belt or to drive safer and the crazy thing is that the box records all the information and it goes to president ware and our vehicle coordinator so if we have a certain amount of violations they will put us on driving suspension or take away driving privileges for extreme cases. It is super exciting (i'm not being sarcastic haha it really is an adventure). 

We have been trying a lot of new ways to find people this week. We did something that we named garbage tracting, it may already have a name haha, but we put on gloves and each carried a big black garbage bag and headed to a huge trailer park (mini mexico) to pick up trash! We filled up one of those huge bags on only 2 rows of trailers. It was so fun. Part of our idea of doing this was in hopes that people would see us serving and ask questions or that we would soften their hearts a bit before we knock their doors :) We had a cool experience because a lady came out of her house and asked us what we were doing and we said oh just cleaning up your neighborhood, and she said Why? .... exactly what we wanted her to say! Then we were able to tell her that we love doing service because we are missionaries etc etc.. She went and grabbed us waterbottles and hugged us and told us thanks. It was so sweet. I love serving people. We also had some members come with us to chalk the plan of salvation on one of the main roads in our area. 

So this week I will be honest has been one of the harder weeks for me. I have just felt a lot of pressure and stress from training, trying to start a new branch, we got dropped by a few investigators, and the other ones we had to drop because they weren't keeping commitments, you know just the usual stresses of being a missionary. And you know me, if I am stressed or whatever I just deal with it and figure it out but for some reason this week was different. On friday we had planned to do a group church tour with the other missionaries in our ward and we invited a ton of people and so did they, but no one showed up.  Before we left the church I felt prompted to ask one of the elders to give me a blessing. I wasn't really sure why, and my companion was super confused when I asked haha but I felt like I needed one. So we went into the chapel and I got a blessing. I wish all of you could have been there to experience the spirit in the room during that blessing. It was one of the most spirit filled powerful moments that I have had on my mission. I was blessed that my burdens would be made light and I knew more than anything that He was talking through Heavenly Father because he said things that I had been earnestly praying about for the past couple of weeks.  I literally felt a weight lifted off my shoulders and a direct connection with heaven. My testimony of priesthood blessings was strengthened this week. I am so grateful for worthy priesthood holders and their strength and power. I am still stressed haha but I was reassured that I am not the only one that has gone through what I am going through. I know that Jesus Christ has been in my shoes. He knows me perfectly and is willing to help and strengthen me as I rely on Him.

We did a lot of less active work this week! We have been working with Jessica a less active from el salvador. She is incredible. She came to church and we are excited to bring her with us to some lessons this week :) Also we helped the hernandez family clean their house. WOW. They had an entire room full of dirty clothes, not an exaggeration. We helped them bring all of the clothes to the laundry mat and we filled 5 of the 4 loader washers full of clothes!! It was quite the project. Then we helped fold and put away the clothes. I was so grateful to be able to serve them, especially because the dad isn't a member and I really felt that we softened his heart as we served them. They may be moving in the next couple of weeks, but veronica is having her baby at the end of november and told me that when I finish my mission I can come back up here and help her with the baby!!

We had some really cool lessons this week with new people that we are teaching and I am grateful for the chance I have to be here. I love being a missionary. I love the trials that have helped me to grow. I AM SO BLESSED. I love you all so much thank you for everything!!!

con mucho amor

hermana wortley

this is the only picture I have from this week hahaha

HI THERE :)

HOLA PEEPS!

Yesterday was great because I got to see your beautiful faces!! I tried not to tell you everything that happened this week so that I would have something to write in my email haha. So yeah it was an awesome week! Something I thought was really cool at church yesterday was the lesson in relief society.. I was translating so it was kind of tricky to pay attention haha but I was looking over the handout this morning and IT WAS SWEET.. they gave us 15 simple ways to be happy:

1. love your choice

2. gain unshakable faith

3. spend meaningful time with those you love

4. do with what you have

5. have faith in yourself

6. maintain integrity

7. prioritize your desires

8. remember what matters most

9. be what you want to become

10. be kinder

11. don't whine 

12. know and do

13. persist 

14. exercise meekness

15. remain faithful

Being happy really is just that easy! and it is way more fun than being a bummer am I right?? My challenge to you all this week is to not only be happy, but to find someone that is having a hard time and give them a chance to be happy as well!

Anyways this saturday our district had this awesome idea of having a movie night at the church and inviting all of our less actives and investigators. Well we all passed out a ton of flyers and the elders bought a bumload of popcorn and we show up at the church and we wait and wait and wait (mexican standard time aka being on time is not a thing haha) and one less active family showed up! No one else showed up but we had a sweet movie night with the Tapia family haha, we know that as we continue to act in faith and search for new ways to find people that the Lord will place people in our paths but we can't get discouraged for not having success the first time! 

So I don't know if any of you remember in January hermana pulido and I were teaching a lady named Evonne. Well what happened was that her and her boyfriend were living together and they wanted to get married and baptized but they were waiting to get some papers from Guatemala because he was apparently married to someone down there.. anyways Evonne called his mom down in Guatemala to see what was taking so long to get the papers and turns out her boyfriend was actually married to someone here in wenatchee!!! So it was a big mess and then they fell off the face of the earth and we haven't talked to them since... BUT the other day I felt like we needed to go visit her and SHE WAS HOME. straight up milagro. We had a really great lesson with her and she asked us if there was a day that she could feed us dinner. So we have another lesson set up with her this week! It was such a miracle that we found her.

Also miracle with Julissa yesterday! She is the daughter of a less active who came to church yesterday :) AH she is the most adorable thing ever. We are excited to work with their family to get them back to church.

I sort of had an epiphany this week about why Heavenly Father puts us with certain companions. There is so much that we cannot only learn from each other, but things that we can learn about ourselves. I was pondering about why Heavenly Father has faith in me, what is it about me that can bless my companions because I am kind of a crazy one haha but I came to the conclusion that my craziness or lack of confidence in myself doesn't have anything to do with the work we are doing here, it is our faith and confidence in Christ. One of my favorite quotes in Preach My Gospel says: 

"As the Lord’s servant, you are to do His work in His way and by His power. Some

missionaries feel confident that they know how to be successful. Others lack such confidence.

Remember, however, that your confidence and faith should be in Christ, not in yourself.

Rely on the Spirit rather than your own talents and abilities. Trust the Spirit to guide you

in every aspect of your work."

Such a great reminder for everything we do as missionaries. My companion is doing a lot better this week! I think she just really needed to talk to her family to see that there is nothing more important than the work we are doing here. I am so grateful for all of the experiences that I have had so far on my mission and for the millions of things I learn each day. And millions is not an exaggeration hahaha :) I LOVE YOU ALL and hope you have a fantabby week!

con muchisimo amor

hermana wortley

tengo gozo en la obra

HELLO

It was a great week! We had a bunch of appointments fall through because of the apple blossom festival, did I mention that Wenatchee is the apple capitol of the world?? Well anyways every year they have a huge apple blossom festival with a carnival and parades and all kinds of other stuff, so pretty much all of the people we are teaching and less actives and just about everyone in wenatchee was at the festival! Fun for them, not so much fun for us hahaha. But we still managed to talk to a bunch of people and see some miracles! 

This week at district council we had a really sweet training on new ways to find people. Because everyone knows the good ol way of tracting but although it may be efficient a lot of the time, there are so many other ways to find people! We are working on coming up with some new ideas (if you have any cool ideas that you have done or heard about feel free to send them to me) and one of the ideas we decided to do as the missionaries together in the spanish group was to have a movie night on saturday! We are going to watch a church movie and invite EVERYONE. We are pretty excited about it. 

This week I read Believing Christ, and really pondered how I can help my companion. A couple of quotes that really stood out to me were, "We're not trying to reach God and touch his heart with our sacrifices, rather God is trying to reach us and touch our hearts with his infinite sacrifice" and "God loves us not because we're so lovable he can't help himself- he loves us because his nature is loving, because God is love" Heavenly Father is SO MERCIFUL, we really need his help and support in everything that we do.... but he is not going to help us unless we are open to receiving his help. My companion ​still doesn't trust me and is extremely homesick... BUT its not stopping me from finding joy in the work because I am here for Christ and the people, the Lord is pushing me, but he wouldn't give me this trial unless he knew I could handle it! 

I had a cool experience yesterday at church! We were in relief society and everyone was sitting in a circle and people were sharing experiences about how they have had moments of spiritual uplifting or received spiritual light in their lives. One of the sisters raised her hand and shared this experience, she said, I have been having a really hard time these past couple of weeks, I have been stressed at work and I feel like my burden is heavy.. but today I was sitting in sacrament meeting and I was sitting next to the sister missionaries (me) and as they passed the sacrament I was reflecting on my life right now and how much I have been struggling and the spirit told me to look next to me and sister wortley was reading the scriptures, the page that she was reading was exactly what I needed and I knew that Christ was there to help lift my burden..... It was such a cool experience for me, I had no idea that what I was reading would be such a blessing to the sister next to me. I wasn't sure why I was reading that chapter but now I know that it was for her. 

Yesterday we saw pretty cool miracles! We were out talking to people and we get a call from our zone leaders and they asked us how many people we were going to find in the rest of the night, it was 8:30pm!! Without hesitation I said 2. haha and my companion looked at me like I was crazy (because everyone seemed to be at apple blossom haha) but I said I believe we can find 2 people tonight! We knocked like 10 doors in an apartment complex and couldn't find anyone to teach... at this point it is 8:50 just about time to go home... we just stopped for a minute to figure out where the spirit was telling us to go. I could feel the spirit but I wasn't quite sure where it was telling me to go.. and almost simultaneously h. marble and I said we should cross the street. So we cross the street and there is this big apartment complex but we decided to knock the little house next to it... and we knocked like 4 times and no one answered, but h.marble dang the doorbell and we immediately heard someone running to the door! They answered and it was the coolest family ever! They told us that we could come back another day just a little bit earlier :) MILAGRO.

I am grateful to be here. I love missionary work with all my heart. Thank you for all your love and support!!!! I LOVE YOU MUCHO :)

SEE YOU SUNDAY!

con MUCHO amor 

hermana wortley

(hiking last pday :) )