Miracles are happening in the land of lawn flamingoes!!

GUYS! This week was crazy!! Crazy awesome! I think I'll start with the miracles this week.

Miracle 1: we had a good lesson with R- this week on the plan of salvation and she had lots of questions and was learning a lot. Remember she's known about the gospel for 20 years and been through like 7 sets of missionaries. She said the scriptures have been making a lot more sense now. She's noticed the difference the gospel makes in her life and how much she missed it when the missionaries would teach her. Then she said that she really wanted to be baptized which surprised us! We were planning to invite her but then she brought it up. She's living with a man which makes it hard and why she hasn't been able to in the past but she said that she'd honestly just sign the marriage papers, get baptized and then divorce him if she had to 'cuz she wanted to get baptized so bad. It was awesome. We told her to pray about a date. Then Thursday out of the blue she messaged us and said she'd prayed and had a dream about her whole family being baptized! She wanted to get baptized March 23rd. Then later when we were confirming with her she said she actually wanted to do it sooner on the 17th. WOAHHHHHHHH. So crazy!!! She also wants all of her kids to be baptized too! She has 7, 5 that are old enough. And they still have to decide but she's going to talk to them about it. Ahhhh!!! Can you imagine? 6 baptisms??

Miracle 2: We had a really cool experience with a less active. Her names M- and she's from Jamaica. She was baptized in New York but heard some weird things about FLDS and it pushed her away.. but we visited her and went over the restoration and tried to clear up any misconceptions. She mentioned she was in a lot of pain and she had a head tremor which had been giving her problems (she's in her 80s) so we told her about priesthood blessings. She wanted one and we brought over some brothers from our ward to give her a blessing. We called her to invite her to church the next day and she told us that her head tremor had stopped and it was a miracle! She said she was telling all her friends and family about the "latter day saints" and how they were the best church. She said even if they don't believe her that she would always come to church after that. So that was incredible! She loved sacrament and really bonded with M- hahaha they were hilarious these two little old black ladies gossiping the whole time.

Miracle 3: We had 7 investigators and 2 less active come this Sunday. Holy cow!! It was like trying to run a 3 ring circus making sure everyone got to the right place. We had lots of ward help though which was awesome. R-, her 6 year old, and her 14 year old (which we didn't think was interested at all) and they kinda knew where they were going. Ro- went around with Bro Caldwell. M-, O- and B- (our new Spanish investigators) went around with Sister Burgoon who is the most wonderful lady ever. P- our 11 year old investigator came with the Mazza family which was great. She loved primary!! Then M- and Sister S- came!!

Honestly, I've never been happier though. And for other people too! There were so many moments where I'd just sit there and think "this is good" I never thought I'd love it this much and so soon. Yeah I'm exhausted most days and there's a lot of disappointment and people flaking out and so much CALLING!! But I know I'm supposed to be here. I have no idea why we're being so blessed. I know I'm not that good of a missionary. God is so good. I see his hand constantly. These are only a few of the big miracles but there's so many small ones that happen daily. I've already learned so much in the time I've been here.

Also, shout out to the members of the ward!! They are incredible people. Brother Caldwell came to our appointment with Roland, gave M- a blessing, cut O-'s trees and fixed my bike tire (yes that's what the charges on my credit card is about, mom.) And Sister Burgoon came to both of our appointments with our Spanish investigators and helped translate and fellowshipped them. She drove us and our bikes to Wal-Mart to get supplies then bought us lunch. Then she invited both our investigators over to her house for dinner tonight and FHE!! She's incredible. We also got help from everyone in getting all our investigators/less actives to church. Cuz literally none of them have cars... and we have meals almost every night. They treat us so good. And it just feels like a big family. Sorry Utah but you have nothing on Florida! 

Sorry... super long email.... I'd love to hear from everyone individually. I have no contact with the outside world so let me know even the mundane things that are going on in your life. Also I challenge you ALL to share your testimony on Facebook today.  Right now. Also send it to me so I can see it to. Don't put your light under a bushel!!! Love you!!

I Just Got Hugged....by a Dude!!!!!!

Hello everyone!!! So I've been in the mission field as long as I was in the MTC and that's weird.... this week has been a pretty crazy one! We had zone conference which was pretty lit because I got to see some of my MTC sisters.

We also got smart phones at zone conference!!! Ugh it's so nice. Now we can copy and paste!! And send pictures! And navigate! What a world! What a day to be alive!

We also had a super cool experience to meet and listen to an apostle.  Elder Stevenson came and he is awesome! He is seriously so inspired, you could feel the power when he spoke. And he didn't just speak from the pulpit, he had on a body Mic and walked through the audience and interacted with us. Ugh what a guy he talked to us about how our calls are divine and there are specific people that need us in our area. There was a moment where he looked at me in the eyes and said "you might not want to be here right now, but this is exactly where the Lord wants you" and I about cried. Afterwards we went to this random little restaurant by the temple called Yellow Dog Eats and it was so good!!!! 

We've been getting to know the members a lot better which has been fun. Ugh the ward members are the best and so willing to help us and feed us and give us rides. The ward mission leader and his wife are like our adopted parents. They literally always have our back. One of my favorite people is M-. She's this old black lady from Haiti who got baptized about a year ago and we're teaching her the new member lessons and she's hilarious!! She told us this story about how the Jehovah's witnesses came over and we're asking her all these questions and being super invasive and she couldn't get them to leave. So she went into her closet and put on a white bikini and came out and they booked it!! Hahahaha!! She's so funny. And she just did baptisms for the dead for the first time and she raved about it. She wanted to take pictures and take the oxen home to put in her house.

It has been a good week for finding!!! Of course there are always some that are nice and you never hear from again... And a lot that slam doors.. But overall we got 3 new gators!!! And we have a couple progressing and some that want to learn more but are so hard to get in contact with and we feel like they're just stuck.. so we don't know what to do about them.. So I think overall we have 8ish? Pretty good for whitewashing if you ask me! 

R- and her 2 kids came to church again!!! They loved primary and wanted to come again, her daughter is 6 and her son is 9. She actually had a decent week and we helped her connect that it was because she came to church last week. She seriously has the worst luck and every time she meets with missionaries something bad happens. So please pray for her! We hope she's getting really close to baptism. She's been taught by like 7 sets of missionaries. She knows it's true is just making the leap of faith. 

Miracles!!!  we had a Meet the Mormons movie night at the church which we were trying to get investigators to come to. All of the other missionaries in our district were bringing people and we had called and texted everyone!! Even less active members and active members, Potentials, everyone. No one could. Then we were biking down this street and we said hi to this chick and she asked us what we were doing. We stopped and talked to her for awhile then she told us that she had an emotional breakdown the night before and had been thinking she should get back into religion and she was taking this as a sign. We told her about the movie night that night and she agreed on the spot. Then she brought 2 of her sisters and the youngest was the cutest little black girl ever! She loved me and Sister Hunsaker. When we picked them up she gave me a hug and held my hand wherever we went. So we're hopeful we can teach her family.

Then we were doing a blitz with the elders in our area doing more finding and the people were pretty friendly but not really interested. The last door we knocked on this 16 year old came out and we started talking to her and asked if she was religious and she said her family was but she kinda felt like she'd been abandoned by God and almost commit suicide. Sister Hunsaker shared a message and I told her that we share a message about peace and direction and that she has a Father in Heaven that loves her so much and never left her and that it wasn't a coincidence that we were here right now, that this was God reaching out to her right now. And she starred crying!!! Ugh the spirit was so strong and she felt it too and she said we could teach her. Ugh she's the cutest and I really hope it works out! 

Oh I never said what my caption was about. We were biking and ran into these guys and started talking and realized he was dating this girl whose mom was a member and when he was leaving HE HUGGED US WHILE WE WERE STILL ON OUR BIKE!! Sister Hunsaker was traumatized. It was a crazy day!!

It's the Ocean!!

Ok so week one was a little rough but week 2 we're definitely getting somewhere! We finally got to meet more of the members yesterday at church and introduce ourselves! We actually had a few lessons this week too and that was awesome. I feel like I'm kinda getting the hang of it. Days are still long and there are definitely times I wish I was back in college but I know I'm where I'm supposed to be right now. The fact that it's 80 degrees most days help. ;)

Splits with the STLs

We've started teaching this previous investigator R- who's known about the church for almost 20 years. She's been taught by many different companionship and knows the church is true and that she should get baptized but is scared to take the leap. She has 7 children and has been living with a guy for 10 years... and every time she meets with missionaries something bad happens. So that's the tricky part. But she came to  church this Sunday and brought her son! He loved primary. So we're hoping that maybe this time around she'll be ready. 

It's a bird, it's a plane...it's a rocket?

We also got 2 new investigators this week which was a blessing. One boy named DJ who's a senior in high school. We went on a bible referral for his mom and she wasn't super interested when we didn't have a French one and weren't Baptists hahaha but he was all about the Book of Mormon. The other one is named O- and her husband has dementia. She met the missionaries a couple years ago and never called them back and said that was her biggest regret. So she said she's not going to let go of the church this time around. So pray for R-, DJ and O- this week! Oh and D-, he's got a baptismal date but is struggling with his health.

Some miracles this week : our phone battery was dying and we had to get in contact with this other investigator and we hadn't heard from her yet. We went in to visit an older lady and talked for awhile and sang for her and after we came out our phone was at more than half battery. Like WHAT??? 

When we went to visit our investigator B- for the first time and we were trying to find her apartment. Sis Hunsaker was looking at the address and we found it and it wasn't our investigator. We were super confused. But we told her why we were there and extended the invitation to learn more and we set a follow up visit with her. Then we called B- and got her correct address and we went to put it in area book and IT WAS ALREADY CHANGED BACK!! What?? God wanted us to find her.. just saying. 

This dude also fixed my bike while we taught him some gospel principles. That was good.

I had my first exchanges this week with the STLs and it was awesome! I was with Sister Knapp and she's the best! We have a lot in common and are both quirky and like musicals and were both in Beauty and the Beast. So we had a blast. Not a ton of success but a couple potentials that needed to meet us and we taught a new convert lesson and had a super yummy dinner! She is so optimistic and I really needed some encouragement. It was a blessing! 

Today was Sister Hunsaker's birthday!!!!! And we went to the beach! We woke up at like 5 and went over to Melbourne. It's like 9 miles away but our of our area and we'd never seen it before! I guess we can go once a transfer. And it was beautiful! We watched the sun rise and took aesthetic pictures. We ate cake. It was a party and a half. We saw a tiny crab and a jelly fish. Because we didn't have any balls or frisbees the elders did dumb things like jump off of stuff and do backflips. Or wrestled. Sister Hunsaker was in heaven!!!

This week is gonna be crazy!!!! We have zone conference on Tuesday and are getting smartphones!!!! I think its going to be really hard to not look at stuff but so nice to have data and to be able to copy and paste stuff. Never take your phone for granted!! We have a brick phone.... also we're having an apostle come this Saturday and it's gonna be lit! I'm not supposed to say which one though.

Sorry this is so long hahaha!!! Umm spiritual thought!! If you're going through a hard time, read Mosiah 24 or D&C 6. Seriously helped me so much! The church is true!! A mission is crazy hard but I'm learning more than I could anywhere else. Everyone deserves to hear the gospel. It's selfish if we don't try to share this awesome knowledge we know with everyone we come in contact with. They're our brothers and sisters and in the premortal existence we knew and loved them and wished with all our hearts that we'd see them all again too. They're family. And family doesn't leave anyone behind. Open your mouths and it will be filled!

From a Jungle Somewhere in Florida...

So..... when I first got to the MTC I didn't think I would like it very much but it seriously was a blast. My district was wonderful and we all got super tight. The food was great contrary to popular belief. And we could show up to the teacher resource center and have investigators automatically ready to teach. Our teachers were incredible for being so young and they helped me learn a lot about myself and strengthened my testimony more than I thought could happen in a few short weeks. And they were short weeks! The first few days dragged on forever but before I knew it I was on a plane to Florida.

That's a lot of biking!!

Let me tell you...... the mission field is nothing like the MTC. It kinda reminds me of high school. They teach you a lot of good things, you make new friends, have awesome experiences and so much fun but they didn't tell you how to do taxes or apply for a job or fill out a loan application.... that's what coming to the mission field is like. My trainer is Sister Hunsaker from Logan Utah and she's super sweet! She's been in the college park area her whole mission. This is her first transfer in 8 months. So I guess we're doing what they call "white washing". Which kinda means neither of us know what we're doing. Oh by the way I'm in Palm Bay or in other words the jungle, or in other words the boonies of Florida.  Just kidding they have a chick-fil-a and panda express and Wal-Mart. So we'll survive. We're also nowhere near a bay.... So I'm not sure where the ocean is. Anyways Palm Bay is split into 4 areas 2 sisters and 2 elders to each of the 2 wards. But before we got here it was only one pair of sisters and it was a lot to handle. So some people kinda got left behind and we have to figure it out. And neither of us knew the area or any of the members and had 4ish investigators. 

So this week has been an adventure! We've definitely both cried a few times.. ok maybe a lot.  I am seriously so grateful to my Heavenly Father for helping me get through it and for answering prayers.

It's a lemon tree!

 Holy cow a mission is hard!!! Harder than anything I've ever done. And believe me there are so many times that I wish I could just get a hug from my family or hear their voices or that I was back in college with my friends. Sometimes honestly homework sounds more fun. All I want to do at the end of the day is go on Facebook or watch a movie. And believe me there is nothing more intimidating than knocking on doors and a huge guy with tattoos opens the door, takes your card out of his daughter's hand, gives it back to you and slams the door. So why am I doing this??? Because it's true. When I write about the hard things that are happening it's not to complain or get sympathy but to prove a point. In a week I've truly learned what sacrifice is. I would not be here if it wasn't true. No matter how many people slam doors, say they're  not interested, or drop appointments doesn't change that fact. I would be selfish if I didn't share the one thing in my life that truly matters. Everyone deserves to hear the restored gospel and if me knocking on doors is there only chance to hear it, then I'll do it till I pass out. We can't keep what we know to be true to ourselves. If we actually do know it's true than why be afraid to share it? Why be afraid it might offend someone? Speaking up and sharing with love can change someone's life. This gospel has changed my life. And I don't want anyone to be denied the same blessings God has so generously given to me. 

I'd love to hear from you all! If you have any advice or words of encouragement please send them. Because while I know what I'm doing will pay off in the end, the days can be a little discouraging. And any email gives me so much comfort and makes me feel I still have a connection to home.