ski trip with a side of vandalism

 Hola todos!


Today was transfers and so it's been a little crazy! I'm staying here because I only have a week and a half left until I leave for Chile (loco!) but we got a new companion, Hermana Smith! I really like her. Too bad I'll only be her companion for a few days. We got to drive to Alexandria today to pick her up, so I got to see a few places I recognized, but we didn't go to my area. There were also so many sister missionaries there at the apartment and they were hugging and talking for a long time and taking pictures without their masks so hopefully I don't get covid because I kinda want to not get Covid so I can leave :||||

Hermana Morley is leaving on Wednesday and it's crazy! It's sad but she's going to do so well at home.

We had a lesson with Erick and the elders in his area, and we got talking about skiing. Basically he flies out to Utah sometimes just to go skiing. And he couldn't come to our devotional last sunday because he was skiing. He asked us all if we skiied and everyone except Hermana Livingstone does. Then he said (in spanish) "Well we should go skiing this weekend, I've got a truck, everyone can just pile in!" We were laughing a little but he was serious. We had to explain that we couldn't because we're missionaries. But definitely if he comes to Utah I would go!

We had a virtual temple tour with some missionaries from the Washington DC visitors center and  Maritza (our abuela) and she LOVED it. Highly recommend for anyone! The sisters explained so well and answered all the questions Maritza had. They were english speaking sisters, but fortunately Maritza is fluent in english. She was so funny the whole time. At the end, she was sharing her testimony about how she wanted to be in the temple in a year, and how she was going to be baptized in April. She also said at one point, "just like how the Bible says, if they smack you, put the other face so they can smack your other face."

Something I've come to learn while I've been here is how powerful the Holy Ghost is. It's seriously the best. I had quite a few phone calls this week where I finished the call and I was just like "Wow the holy ghost is real," I could talk to them, and be confident when I was talking. I used to dread phone calls but now they're okay! I talked to two people in English and my companions were just like, "wow, English is your forte" and I was like "I couldn't even do that when I was in the English program!" Also guys, the gift of tongues is the fricking best. People ask us all the time where we learned Spanish, and of course Hermana Morley tells them "I studied in Mexico for a little bit" (which is true because she went to the Mexico MTC) but Hermana Livingstone and I are just like "Yeah we studied in our houses for 6 weeks" and people are like, "Wow! How did you do it?" and usually I just tell them that we have God helping us.

This week we had zone conference and it was really good. This one was in person (last transfer wasn't). We talked a lot about working with members. Basically we are going to have a pool of members to teach like we are teaching our friends. We already had a big focus on meeting with members, but now we have to send in reports of how many members we met with and how many invitations we gave them! So that's super great, we can strengthen them more and get to know them better! Also we have to report how many conversations we start on Facebook.

We didn't have district council this week because of zone conference, so we had to drive to the Elders' apartment to pick up our mail. We found out that some other Elders in our district lived across the street in the same complex! We looked through their window and were like, yup, that's a missionary apartment. The other Elders said that they were gone playing pool in the community center. (which is a big no no btw) We came back the next day because they said they had more mail for us, and the other Elders were gone again. So naturally we sprayed some fake snow on the other Elders' window and spelled out "feliz navidad." Totally worth it.

We have quite a few friends that are basically baptized, there are just various obstacles in the way that prevent them from being baptized. As a result, we teach about baptism very frequently and I get to share my testimony about baptism. I have come to realize that being raised and baptized in the Church is a great blessing, and it has truly changed my life! I had to come to know that what we believe is true on my own, but I definitely have been on the right track my whole life.

I wish you all the best! Que pase una linda semana!

Hermana Smalley







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