Buenos Dias Familia,
So another bike week conquered and we are still alive! Yes win! Haha I think biking gives me a little taste of maybe what it would have been like to a pioneer crossing the plains...yep I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have made it, so it's a good thing I was born in this time period instead! The bikes have been good this week. We had no break downs or flat tires! I love the perspective that comes from riding a bike in this heat. We were getting a ride home and she apologized that her car didn't have any air conditioning. We just smiled and we said bikes don't have air conditioning either, so this is great - don't worry! Now we start a glorious truck week, but I don't know why the Elders bike week is always when the temperature decides to go lower. I have determined it can be one of two causes. A) Sisters are just awesome and the Lord knows we can handle the horrible heat on bikes better than Elders or B) The Elders have more powerful prayers than us... hmmm I still haven't decided which it is yet. :-)
This week went so quickly, but it was still really good. One funny little story. Our new mission president is all about talking to people and being interested not interesting. So we have been working on talking to everyone we see. We started talking to this young mom and her kids at the bus stop. At the end of the conversation we asked if we could teach her more and she said yes, so we asked for her contact information and she said she didn't have a phone right now it was broken. That caused her to tell us how it broke. The mom finds her phone broken and tells her kids I won't be mad I just want to know who broke it. The little 5 year old girl said I did it. Mom asks her how did it happen. The little girl says I dropped it. Mom asks why did you drop it? Little girl "I wanted to see if it would bounce!" Little kids are so cute!
The "I am graceful moment" of the week: I was walking into church yesterday and the Relief Society president was complimenting my shoes and I was looking at my shoes and I ran right into the open library door. Solid wood door vs. missionary, yeah the wood door won! Ouch!
We asked someone to be baptized and she said "Oh no I am scared of commitments. That's why I don't have a tattoo!" It was pretty funny, but we were able to talk about why baptism is important and she is reading in the Book of Mormon right now.
Our investigator from last week is still amazing. We have had 3 more lessons with her and her roommate. We even had the chance this week to help them deep clean their house because they have inspections this week. She was a little unsure about us coming at first, but in the end she was so grateful that we came and she said that she had been super stressed all morning and that we had changed her whole day around. I love getting serve on my mission. Not because I can wear pants (although that is a plus!), but I love serving because it is what the savior taught us to do. There is a very special spirit that comes when we serve. I love the quote that "If you want to find yourself, loose yourself in service." One of my favorite scriptures is Mosiah 2:17, "And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." You don't have to be a missionary to serve those around you. We all can find ways to serve and I know that when we serve we will be filled the pure love of Christ. I hope everyone has a lovely week!
Con Amor,
Hermana Klaus
"And it came to pass..."
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Monday, July 8, 2013
Week 37 - July 8, 2013
I teased Katie a bit about how her emails were getting shorter and how Katy Vance (another missionary from our Ward) was giving her a run for her money on email length. I think she outdid herself this week... :-)
Rick
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Buenos Dias Familia!
So first off we acknowledge the date...It's my half birthday. Yay! Which means I have been in El Paso for over 6 months! Double yay! I am also starting to feel old. We had a zone lunch after zone meeting on Friday and I was sitting with all the sisters in the Zone and almost all of them were 19! At least I don't look like an old maid. People are always really surprised when I tell them I am 23...and a half, because they always think I am younger than I look. I know I must sound like a broken record, but I love being a missionary! This week has been filled with blessings.
First this week starts off with the Great Turtle rescue! Once upon a time in a land very hot and dry there were two missionaries. One of the missionaries had a history with turtles and it seems like her trend of turtles is going to continue. One day the missionaries were driving around in a big magical carriage with a wonderful thing called air conditioning. As they were driving, the driver saw what looked like a weird brown rock in the middle of the road, so she steered the carriage with the wonderful air conditioning over the brown rock so as not to hit it and then in unison the two missionaries realized that the rock had a head. Quickly with the skills of a nascar driver they pulled over and jumped out of the carriage to do what missionaries to do best. They set off to serve. They battled the dragonish heat, but they finally were triumphant and they recused the little turtle from the middle of the evil road. Then the two missionaries had a problem. What do with a little lost turtle. They couldn't keep the little turtle because they were too busy battling the dragonish heat everyday and there was a law throughout the land that missionaries can't have pets. Besides they knew the turtle must belong to someone. So they decided to do what missionaries do best...well best after serving. They decided to knock on the neighboring castles to see if any one had lost one of their guard turtles (so much better than guard dogs. ;) I can see the signs now, Beware of Turtle!) The missionaries looked at all the houses around and then they decided on the brown castle with high walls. As they approached the house and walked into the yard, to their delight they saw another guard turtle sadly walking all alone around the big castle grounds. When they knocked on the castle door the lady of the castle exclaimed in delight over the rescue of her lost turtle. She thanked the missionaries and told them sad tales of other turtles who had been stolen from the yard, but didn't have two brave missionaries to battle the dragonish sun to rescue them. So the missionaries prevailed and the deed was done. They wielded their backpacks once again and returned to the magic carriage with air conditioning and set off into the sun looking for their next good deed. The end!
Our next adventure was just a normal "I'm graceful" moment. We were sitting down to start a lesson and they had very graciously given us poweraids to drink in water glasses. I'm not exactly sure what happened. All I know is that one minute I was contemplating getting a cookie and the next minute I had poweraid all down my front. When will I ever not spill food on me?! My only consolation was that I was drinking red poweraid and I was wearing a red shirt. I know the Lord can inspire us in the little things because that morning I had almost decided to wear my one white shirt, but at the last minute I decided to wear the red one instead. Little blessings. It all turned out ok because we had a great lesson. The only sad part (for us) is that she lives in Juarez on the weekends so she is going to go to church and be baptized in Juarez. I know the church is true where ever you go, but I wish we could get permission to jump over to Juarez so we could be there when she is baptized. One thing that has stayed with me very powerfully this week is even though I won't always be right here to help these people and some I might not get the chance to see after my mission, but I know that one day we are going to have one of the biggest sweetest reunions ever in heaven.
So the fourth of July. We had a good fourth of July, but nothing too extreme. We started off the day with a ward breakfast picnic. Well I thought it was going to be breakfast, so I didn't eat anything. We got there at 8:30am and what are cooking... Hotdogs wrapped in bacon. I don't know if this is something people have just started doing or if it's because my family never eats hotdogs that I never knew people made hotdogs wrapped in bacon. Whatever the case people eat them all the time down here and I must admit they make hotdogs enjoyable. Especially when you can throw a couple of jalapenos on top. yum! :) But normally I try to lay off the chili until at least 11am. The breakfast also included nachos with chili. I decided to go with a burrito to start and then I moved on to the nachos and chili all before 9am :) Good times at the border. Then it was just a normal work day. I guess that is the one good thing about teaching in Spanish is most of our investigators didn't really do anything big for the fourth of July. We did have a yummy dinner as well. I had the biggest burger ever. It had the works including jalapenos, guacamole, and a hotdog on top. (Again I haven't seen people do that before my mission, but it could just be me.) Also at that dinner I bonded with a little scaredy-cat chihuahua named killer. Hermana Mitchell says it's my mission ambition to bond with every dog that hates missionaries! Then at the end of the day we walked out with some of our investigators and we watched the fireworks at the stadium from a distance. It was almost time to be home so we started walking back to the truck and 30 seconds later we could hear, but sadly we couldn't see the finale. We were a little bummed that we missed it, but at the same time we were happy that we got to see some fireworks.
What else did we do? Oh this week we meet the new president. President Miller the second. We drove up to Las Cruces and it was fun to see all the missionaries. I saw Hermana Biancardi for the first time and she is doing great. President Miller is amazing and so is Sister Miller. She told about how they have 9 grandkids under the age of 4 and she says when they have family gatherings "it's like puppies!" Anyone who can bring puppies into the conversation in the first 5 minutes is good in my book! Sister Miller has a beautiful bright smile and such a sunny bright personality. She told us all about how they received their call and a little bit about them. Then President Miller spoke. He is really big into last names and as he was having all the missionaries stand up and introduce themselves he asked several Elders what their last names meant, but none of them could answer. Then about 2/3 of the way through he got to an Elder who went off on a 3 minute speech about the history of his last name. President Miller then turned, staring down at the rest of the missionaries and said "take note and learn from him" If I had been thinking I should have said I am Sister Klaus and I am from the north pole, but I didn't think of that until after my turn, so no such luck. President Miller also had us laughing when he told us that the first thing we were going to learn about him was that he was old and deaf (he's not that old) :) We all laughed, but the best part was one of the senior couples stood up to introduce themselves and the husband said I have one up on you..."I am old, deaf, and blind!" hehe oh missionaries. I am so excited to work with President Miller and I know he is suppose to be here, right here, right now. I felt that confirmed to me very strongly as I was sitting in that meeting. That he is a man who has been called of God to be the Albuquerque New Mexico (including me down here in El Paso, Texas!) Mission President.
The last two little miracle stories. The first has to do with a family we are teaching. The husband has been looking for job. We had been asking people in the ward, if they knew of any work, but we hadn't been having very much success. Then we were at another one of our investigators houses and we had just finished a lesson. We were getting ready to leave and some how it was brought about that our investigator was tired and it had to do with he had a ton of work, but he was the only one doing it. I then asked if he needed help and he quickly said no, I am sure because he thought we were offering to help. I told him not for us, but that we knew of someone who knew construction and was looking for a job. He told us to give him his number. Right after that we had a lesson with the family. We gave the number and he was very grateful. After we left he did call and our investigator told him to come to work with him tomorrow. He gave him a job. What a blessing in both of their lives. From what we have heard from both ends they are very pleased with the working arrangement. It was a really neat blessing to witness.
The final story of the night has been one of the biggest miracles on my mission and it all starts with a puppy named princess. We have been teaching a girl who likes and fosters a lot of dogs. She has loved learning about the gospel and told us how it feels right and that she really likes the plan of salvation. She has a roommate that at first we didn't think really liked us, but after a few meetings we started to get to know her too and we became friends, but we didn't think she was really interested in learning about the gospel because at first she would always go inside when we taught her roommate. The last time we visited them we had a really good get to know you type of a meeting. We shared stories about cow hustlers trying to my family's cow at the rest stop to her almost petting coyote puppies without realizing it. On Saturday we stopped by to see them, but the weren't there, so we texted her. She told us that she was at work. (she works at the humane society) Then yesterday happened. We stopped by again and we knocked and no one answered so we gave her a call. She told us she was almost home, so just wait for her. We did. She got home and we did the usually greetings. I told her of the dream I had about her "dummy pigeons" (background: dummy pigeons are the pigeons that live at their house in the rafters but haven't figured out that it is too small so they keep laying their eggs and the eggs keep falling and splattering on the front step. The first time I saw the splatters I thought they had been egged! I guess they had, just not by teenagers but by dummy pigeons.) Anyway so we were sitting on the front porch talking and she talks about people asked who texted her yesterday at work and she said the mormons. She said they gave her these looks like what?! They said are you serious? She said yeah they're really cool you should come over and meet them! Not even a member of the church or investing the church and she's inviting her friends to meet the missionaries! So then she brings out one of the dogs who we love and who she is fostering right now. An english bull dog named princess that is handicapped. Princess can't use her front legs, but she wants so badly to walk. We have watched princess go from not being able to move at all to now she can walk down stairs! So princess starts doing this weird hop crawl and that got us talking about army crawling. That reminded me of the mormon message Dare to stand alone. As missionaries we try and ask inspired questions. I think yesterday's inspired question was "do you have internet?" She did and we asked if she would like to see the message. She said yes. We watched the video and she really liked it. Then we watched the video Dayton's legs. There is one particular part in that video when the distances flash across the screen that just are very powerful. Right at that point she started blinking really hard and at the end she said man you made me cry. Then she told us that she didn't know very much about our church. We then told her that's what missionaries do is that we teach people. Then we talked about how God is our heavenly father and we showed her "our true identity" After that mormon message she asked us "what makes your church different?" We then shared the message of the restoration. After we quoted the first vision we asked her what she thought and she said something that I will never forget. She said "It rings true." I have never had anyone say something that simple and straightforward. It was like being hit by the spirit truck. We testified about the Book of Mormon and she kept saying that makes sense. I have never heard it like that before. Then at the very end we ended up testifying about the priesthood and how that power has been restored. I told her of an experience that I had with a brother's blessing my first year of college and that lead us to watch the last of the mormon messages of the night, "sanctify yourselves." That message had been in both Hermana Mitchell's and my mind, but we didn't know how to tie it in or if that was just us really liking that video. After that video we just sat there and then we asked if she would pray to know if what we were telling her was true and she said and I can feel it all over that it is true. She said all the videos, but that last one in particular hit me really hard. It was one of the most inspired, relaxed, and powerful lessons I have been a part of. We literally flew up the hill on our bikes we were so happy. It is amazing the power that the gospel of Jesus Christ can have in people's lives and I am so blessed that I can see this effect everyday in people's lives.
I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week!
Con Amor,
Hermana Klaus
Rick
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Buenos Dias Familia!
So first off we acknowledge the date...It's my half birthday. Yay! Which means I have been in El Paso for over 6 months! Double yay! I am also starting to feel old. We had a zone lunch after zone meeting on Friday and I was sitting with all the sisters in the Zone and almost all of them were 19! At least I don't look like an old maid. People are always really surprised when I tell them I am 23...and a half, because they always think I am younger than I look. I know I must sound like a broken record, but I love being a missionary! This week has been filled with blessings.
First this week starts off with the Great Turtle rescue! Once upon a time in a land very hot and dry there were two missionaries. One of the missionaries had a history with turtles and it seems like her trend of turtles is going to continue. One day the missionaries were driving around in a big magical carriage with a wonderful thing called air conditioning. As they were driving, the driver saw what looked like a weird brown rock in the middle of the road, so she steered the carriage with the wonderful air conditioning over the brown rock so as not to hit it and then in unison the two missionaries realized that the rock had a head. Quickly with the skills of a nascar driver they pulled over and jumped out of the carriage to do what missionaries to do best. They set off to serve. They battled the dragonish heat, but they finally were triumphant and they recused the little turtle from the middle of the evil road. Then the two missionaries had a problem. What do with a little lost turtle. They couldn't keep the little turtle because they were too busy battling the dragonish heat everyday and there was a law throughout the land that missionaries can't have pets. Besides they knew the turtle must belong to someone. So they decided to do what missionaries do best...well best after serving. They decided to knock on the neighboring castles to see if any one had lost one of their guard turtles (so much better than guard dogs. ;) I can see the signs now, Beware of Turtle!) The missionaries looked at all the houses around and then they decided on the brown castle with high walls. As they approached the house and walked into the yard, to their delight they saw another guard turtle sadly walking all alone around the big castle grounds. When they knocked on the castle door the lady of the castle exclaimed in delight over the rescue of her lost turtle. She thanked the missionaries and told them sad tales of other turtles who had been stolen from the yard, but didn't have two brave missionaries to battle the dragonish sun to rescue them. So the missionaries prevailed and the deed was done. They wielded their backpacks once again and returned to the magic carriage with air conditioning and set off into the sun looking for their next good deed. The end!
Our next adventure was just a normal "I'm graceful" moment. We were sitting down to start a lesson and they had very graciously given us poweraids to drink in water glasses. I'm not exactly sure what happened. All I know is that one minute I was contemplating getting a cookie and the next minute I had poweraid all down my front. When will I ever not spill food on me?! My only consolation was that I was drinking red poweraid and I was wearing a red shirt. I know the Lord can inspire us in the little things because that morning I had almost decided to wear my one white shirt, but at the last minute I decided to wear the red one instead. Little blessings. It all turned out ok because we had a great lesson. The only sad part (for us) is that she lives in Juarez on the weekends so she is going to go to church and be baptized in Juarez. I know the church is true where ever you go, but I wish we could get permission to jump over to Juarez so we could be there when she is baptized. One thing that has stayed with me very powerfully this week is even though I won't always be right here to help these people and some I might not get the chance to see after my mission, but I know that one day we are going to have one of the biggest sweetest reunions ever in heaven.
So the fourth of July. We had a good fourth of July, but nothing too extreme. We started off the day with a ward breakfast picnic. Well I thought it was going to be breakfast, so I didn't eat anything. We got there at 8:30am and what are cooking... Hotdogs wrapped in bacon. I don't know if this is something people have just started doing or if it's because my family never eats hotdogs that I never knew people made hotdogs wrapped in bacon. Whatever the case people eat them all the time down here and I must admit they make hotdogs enjoyable. Especially when you can throw a couple of jalapenos on top. yum! :) But normally I try to lay off the chili until at least 11am. The breakfast also included nachos with chili. I decided to go with a burrito to start and then I moved on to the nachos and chili all before 9am :) Good times at the border. Then it was just a normal work day. I guess that is the one good thing about teaching in Spanish is most of our investigators didn't really do anything big for the fourth of July. We did have a yummy dinner as well. I had the biggest burger ever. It had the works including jalapenos, guacamole, and a hotdog on top. (Again I haven't seen people do that before my mission, but it could just be me.) Also at that dinner I bonded with a little scaredy-cat chihuahua named killer. Hermana Mitchell says it's my mission ambition to bond with every dog that hates missionaries! Then at the end of the day we walked out with some of our investigators and we watched the fireworks at the stadium from a distance. It was almost time to be home so we started walking back to the truck and 30 seconds later we could hear, but sadly we couldn't see the finale. We were a little bummed that we missed it, but at the same time we were happy that we got to see some fireworks.
What else did we do? Oh this week we meet the new president. President Miller the second. We drove up to Las Cruces and it was fun to see all the missionaries. I saw Hermana Biancardi for the first time and she is doing great. President Miller is amazing and so is Sister Miller. She told about how they have 9 grandkids under the age of 4 and she says when they have family gatherings "it's like puppies!" Anyone who can bring puppies into the conversation in the first 5 minutes is good in my book! Sister Miller has a beautiful bright smile and such a sunny bright personality. She told us all about how they received their call and a little bit about them. Then President Miller spoke. He is really big into last names and as he was having all the missionaries stand up and introduce themselves he asked several Elders what their last names meant, but none of them could answer. Then about 2/3 of the way through he got to an Elder who went off on a 3 minute speech about the history of his last name. President Miller then turned, staring down at the rest of the missionaries and said "take note and learn from him" If I had been thinking I should have said I am Sister Klaus and I am from the north pole, but I didn't think of that until after my turn, so no such luck. President Miller also had us laughing when he told us that the first thing we were going to learn about him was that he was old and deaf (he's not that old) :) We all laughed, but the best part was one of the senior couples stood up to introduce themselves and the husband said I have one up on you..."I am old, deaf, and blind!" hehe oh missionaries. I am so excited to work with President Miller and I know he is suppose to be here, right here, right now. I felt that confirmed to me very strongly as I was sitting in that meeting. That he is a man who has been called of God to be the Albuquerque New Mexico (including me down here in El Paso, Texas!) Mission President.
The last two little miracle stories. The first has to do with a family we are teaching. The husband has been looking for job. We had been asking people in the ward, if they knew of any work, but we hadn't been having very much success. Then we were at another one of our investigators houses and we had just finished a lesson. We were getting ready to leave and some how it was brought about that our investigator was tired and it had to do with he had a ton of work, but he was the only one doing it. I then asked if he needed help and he quickly said no, I am sure because he thought we were offering to help. I told him not for us, but that we knew of someone who knew construction and was looking for a job. He told us to give him his number. Right after that we had a lesson with the family. We gave the number and he was very grateful. After we left he did call and our investigator told him to come to work with him tomorrow. He gave him a job. What a blessing in both of their lives. From what we have heard from both ends they are very pleased with the working arrangement. It was a really neat blessing to witness.
The final story of the night has been one of the biggest miracles on my mission and it all starts with a puppy named princess. We have been teaching a girl who likes and fosters a lot of dogs. She has loved learning about the gospel and told us how it feels right and that she really likes the plan of salvation. She has a roommate that at first we didn't think really liked us, but after a few meetings we started to get to know her too and we became friends, but we didn't think she was really interested in learning about the gospel because at first she would always go inside when we taught her roommate. The last time we visited them we had a really good get to know you type of a meeting. We shared stories about cow hustlers trying to my family's cow at the rest stop to her almost petting coyote puppies without realizing it. On Saturday we stopped by to see them, but the weren't there, so we texted her. She told us that she was at work. (she works at the humane society) Then yesterday happened. We stopped by again and we knocked and no one answered so we gave her a call. She told us she was almost home, so just wait for her. We did. She got home and we did the usually greetings. I told her of the dream I had about her "dummy pigeons" (background: dummy pigeons are the pigeons that live at their house in the rafters but haven't figured out that it is too small so they keep laying their eggs and the eggs keep falling and splattering on the front step. The first time I saw the splatters I thought they had been egged! I guess they had, just not by teenagers but by dummy pigeons.) Anyway so we were sitting on the front porch talking and she talks about people asked who texted her yesterday at work and she said the mormons. She said they gave her these looks like what?! They said are you serious? She said yeah they're really cool you should come over and meet them! Not even a member of the church or investing the church and she's inviting her friends to meet the missionaries! So then she brings out one of the dogs who we love and who she is fostering right now. An english bull dog named princess that is handicapped. Princess can't use her front legs, but she wants so badly to walk. We have watched princess go from not being able to move at all to now she can walk down stairs! So princess starts doing this weird hop crawl and that got us talking about army crawling. That reminded me of the mormon message Dare to stand alone. As missionaries we try and ask inspired questions. I think yesterday's inspired question was "do you have internet?" She did and we asked if she would like to see the message. She said yes. We watched the video and she really liked it. Then we watched the video Dayton's legs. There is one particular part in that video when the distances flash across the screen that just are very powerful. Right at that point she started blinking really hard and at the end she said man you made me cry. Then she told us that she didn't know very much about our church. We then told her that's what missionaries do is that we teach people. Then we talked about how God is our heavenly father and we showed her "our true identity" After that mormon message she asked us "what makes your church different?" We then shared the message of the restoration. After we quoted the first vision we asked her what she thought and she said something that I will never forget. She said "It rings true." I have never had anyone say something that simple and straightforward. It was like being hit by the spirit truck. We testified about the Book of Mormon and she kept saying that makes sense. I have never heard it like that before. Then at the very end we ended up testifying about the priesthood and how that power has been restored. I told her of an experience that I had with a brother's blessing my first year of college and that lead us to watch the last of the mormon messages of the night, "sanctify yourselves." That message had been in both Hermana Mitchell's and my mind, but we didn't know how to tie it in or if that was just us really liking that video. After that video we just sat there and then we asked if she would pray to know if what we were telling her was true and she said and I can feel it all over that it is true. She said all the videos, but that last one in particular hit me really hard. It was one of the most inspired, relaxed, and powerful lessons I have been a part of. We literally flew up the hill on our bikes we were so happy. It is amazing the power that the gospel of Jesus Christ can have in people's lives and I am so blessed that I can see this effect everyday in people's lives.
I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week!
Con Amor,
Hermana Klaus
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Week 36 - July 1, 2013
Buenos Dias Familia!
I guess we should all take note that it is the first of July and I can't believe it! I feel like Hermana Mitchell and I were just talking about how we couldn't believe it was June and now is gone! Time is a funny thing on the mission. Today is my new mission President's first day. We will get to meet him and his wife on Wednesday. We are going up to the Las Cruces to have a little get-to-know-the-president meeting. It should be fun, but it will be sad to see the other Millers go.
We have had a really great, but hard week. Bikes are hard! Bikes in skirts are hard! Bikes in skirts in heat is super hard! :) But we made it through. I think it was Wednesday that we had dinner in our apartment. I just fell on the couch and Hermana Mitchell thought it was funny enough to take a picture of my dead fish flop! On Saturday after a really long day we were sitting in our room and we decided to listen to some music. I just hit play and the first line of the song that played was "I ache" we both busted up laughing. It was the best song for us! The message of the song is how we can rely on the Savior and that he lives, so it really was a beautiful song, but that first line just really hit home in that moment. :) Some other things that make biking hard is that you are riding around outside and then you hit this wall of BBQ and you're mouth just starts to water and you get massive cravings for some home cooked BBQ! hehe It's really funny because whoever is leading on the bikes gets hit by the wall first so you have this 5 second period to brace yourself against the wall of smelly deliciousness!
The family we are teaching is still doing well. This week we taught the kids the song I am a Child of God. They loved it! During the first 10 minutes of the lesson the two 7 year old twins were singing softly together to practice. When we left, the mom was rocking her 2 month old baby singing her the song as well. It was one of the sweetest things I have seen on my mission.
We also had a miracle story this week. Normally on Monday we have Zone activities or do things on our own, but we were told to have a district P-day. So our district decided to play board games. We tried to find a place to play closer than the church, but nothing would work and we almost decided not to go, but in the end we ended up going to the church. We hadn't been there very long because we only were on the third or fourth go around the board for monopoly when a lady popped her head into the room. We asked if she was looking for something and she asked if we were the only ones here. We said yes and I asked if there was anything we could do for her. She said she just needed some one to talk to. My companion and I instantly jumped up and walked out to the foyer and we ended up talking for almost 2 hours with her. She is a member who hasn't been to church in over 10 years and is going through a hard time. She said she had received an email from her mother a few months back about some missionaries in Montana trying to track her down. She said she called the church building about a month ago and no one answered, so she just left it at that. She was driving home when she passed the church building and she felt like she should go inside. I know that it was no accident that us missionaries decided to play games at the church building. On any other Monday she would not have found anyone at the church building at that time and this was the first time we had ever come to the church building on a Monday. We were able to talk to her and give her the numbers for her bishop. It was a miracle. Then two days later she called us and told us that her 10 year old son who has had a hole in his heart since he was a baby went to the doctor and the hole is gone. She was so happy and relieved and we were so excited for her. Then the elders told us that she came to church yesterday and that she and her son are very excited to get involved in scouts and that the ward was really welcoming. Heavenly Father knows all of his children and it is so interesting that it happened the day after the broadcast too. Well I hope everyone has a great week! I love you lots!
Les Quiero Mucho!
Hermana Klaus
I guess we should all take note that it is the first of July and I can't believe it! I feel like Hermana Mitchell and I were just talking about how we couldn't believe it was June and now is gone! Time is a funny thing on the mission. Today is my new mission President's first day. We will get to meet him and his wife on Wednesday. We are going up to the Las Cruces to have a little get-to-know-the-president meeting. It should be fun, but it will be sad to see the other Millers go.
We have had a really great, but hard week. Bikes are hard! Bikes in skirts are hard! Bikes in skirts in heat is super hard! :) But we made it through. I think it was Wednesday that we had dinner in our apartment. I just fell on the couch and Hermana Mitchell thought it was funny enough to take a picture of my dead fish flop! On Saturday after a really long day we were sitting in our room and we decided to listen to some music. I just hit play and the first line of the song that played was "I ache" we both busted up laughing. It was the best song for us! The message of the song is how we can rely on the Savior and that he lives, so it really was a beautiful song, but that first line just really hit home in that moment. :) Some other things that make biking hard is that you are riding around outside and then you hit this wall of BBQ and you're mouth just starts to water and you get massive cravings for some home cooked BBQ! hehe It's really funny because whoever is leading on the bikes gets hit by the wall first so you have this 5 second period to brace yourself against the wall of smelly deliciousness!
The family we are teaching is still doing well. This week we taught the kids the song I am a Child of God. They loved it! During the first 10 minutes of the lesson the two 7 year old twins were singing softly together to practice. When we left, the mom was rocking her 2 month old baby singing her the song as well. It was one of the sweetest things I have seen on my mission.
We also had a miracle story this week. Normally on Monday we have Zone activities or do things on our own, but we were told to have a district P-day. So our district decided to play board games. We tried to find a place to play closer than the church, but nothing would work and we almost decided not to go, but in the end we ended up going to the church. We hadn't been there very long because we only were on the third or fourth go around the board for monopoly when a lady popped her head into the room. We asked if she was looking for something and she asked if we were the only ones here. We said yes and I asked if there was anything we could do for her. She said she just needed some one to talk to. My companion and I instantly jumped up and walked out to the foyer and we ended up talking for almost 2 hours with her. She is a member who hasn't been to church in over 10 years and is going through a hard time. She said she had received an email from her mother a few months back about some missionaries in Montana trying to track her down. She said she called the church building about a month ago and no one answered, so she just left it at that. She was driving home when she passed the church building and she felt like she should go inside. I know that it was no accident that us missionaries decided to play games at the church building. On any other Monday she would not have found anyone at the church building at that time and this was the first time we had ever come to the church building on a Monday. We were able to talk to her and give her the numbers for her bishop. It was a miracle. Then two days later she called us and told us that her 10 year old son who has had a hole in his heart since he was a baby went to the doctor and the hole is gone. She was so happy and relieved and we were so excited for her. Then the elders told us that she came to church yesterday and that she and her son are very excited to get involved in scouts and that the ward was really welcoming. Heavenly Father knows all of his children and it is so interesting that it happened the day after the broadcast too. Well I hope everyone has a great week! I love you lots!
Les Quiero Mucho!
Hermana Klaus
Monday, June 24, 2013
Week 35 - June 24, 2013
Familia!!!
Ok I have no idea where the time is going?! I can't believe it's the last week of June! We've had a really great week. We taught a ton of lessons this week! When we counted up, we were a little shocked. We had probably 12 more lessons then we average normally. I guess the Lord really decided to bless us this week in the truck. I hope he decides to do the same this week on bike week.
Thank you so much Daddy for letting me know how it will be over 100 every day! Ahhh! I am a little worried that I might freeze this winter :) People always used to ask me if Washington was really cold and I always used to say no, but now I might have to change my answer. Washington just might be really cold. I mean you know it's bad when it's 93 and you're thinking "Wow, this is nice!" I was surprised to find how pleasant the apartment felt even though it was in the 80's. Yep there might be something wrong with me after a summer down here. I am still working on my tan, but I decided to send a picture to show you my progress.
Ok so last monday we had the best adventure ever! We went to a huge dulceria and we were like kids at Christmas! We were so excited by the rows of Mexican candy!
We bought a variety of deliciousness. One of my personal favorites is chilibonchas. You may recall way back when, on my first day at the mission, I had my very first one of these candies. I couldn't finish it because it was too hot. Well now I eat them like...candy! They are so yummy. If you ever are a little sleepy during personal study you just pop a chiliboncha in your mouth and it does wonders! You are wide awake! I think mom might want to invest in some chilibonchas for seminary next year. Any kids that just can't keep their eyes open, just pop one in and they will be good to go!
This past week we have been teaching the most wonderful family. We have been over almost every day and are teaching them about the gospel. They are so interested and really want to learn more. We had a little scare because we found them a ride to church yesterday, but they called the ride and said they couldn't come. We were a little bummed, but we were going to pass by later. When we stopped by we thought we heard people inside, but no one answered and we thought they were hiding from us. But then she called us last night at 9:20 and explained that her parents had an accident with their roof, so they had to go over and help them. I think I was doing a little jig while talking to them on the phone because it meant that they weren't avoiding us! We have another appointment with them tonight, so we were on cloud nine last night because they still want to learn about the gospel!
I loved the broadcast last night. If you didn't get a chance to watch it I would highly recommend going online and watching it. It was fun for us missionaries to be a part of the largest Zone conference ever! We are all looking forward to the new technology and there are several rumors already floating around. I guess we'll see what happens. I am so grateful that we have a living prophet to guide us and we have apostles to give us direction. I hope everyone has a great week!
Con Amor,
Hermana Klaus
Ok I have no idea where the time is going?! I can't believe it's the last week of June! We've had a really great week. We taught a ton of lessons this week! When we counted up, we were a little shocked. We had probably 12 more lessons then we average normally. I guess the Lord really decided to bless us this week in the truck. I hope he decides to do the same this week on bike week.
Thank you so much Daddy for letting me know how it will be over 100 every day! Ahhh! I am a little worried that I might freeze this winter :) People always used to ask me if Washington was really cold and I always used to say no, but now I might have to change my answer. Washington just might be really cold. I mean you know it's bad when it's 93 and you're thinking "Wow, this is nice!" I was surprised to find how pleasant the apartment felt even though it was in the 80's. Yep there might be something wrong with me after a summer down here. I am still working on my tan, but I decided to send a picture to show you my progress.
Ok so last monday we had the best adventure ever! We went to a huge dulceria and we were like kids at Christmas! We were so excited by the rows of Mexican candy!
We bought a variety of deliciousness. One of my personal favorites is chilibonchas. You may recall way back when, on my first day at the mission, I had my very first one of these candies. I couldn't finish it because it was too hot. Well now I eat them like...candy! They are so yummy. If you ever are a little sleepy during personal study you just pop a chiliboncha in your mouth and it does wonders! You are wide awake! I think mom might want to invest in some chilibonchas for seminary next year. Any kids that just can't keep their eyes open, just pop one in and they will be good to go!
This past week we have been teaching the most wonderful family. We have been over almost every day and are teaching them about the gospel. They are so interested and really want to learn more. We had a little scare because we found them a ride to church yesterday, but they called the ride and said they couldn't come. We were a little bummed, but we were going to pass by later. When we stopped by we thought we heard people inside, but no one answered and we thought they were hiding from us. But then she called us last night at 9:20 and explained that her parents had an accident with their roof, so they had to go over and help them. I think I was doing a little jig while talking to them on the phone because it meant that they weren't avoiding us! We have another appointment with them tonight, so we were on cloud nine last night because they still want to learn about the gospel!
I loved the broadcast last night. If you didn't get a chance to watch it I would highly recommend going online and watching it. It was fun for us missionaries to be a part of the largest Zone conference ever! We are all looking forward to the new technology and there are several rumors already floating around. I guess we'll see what happens. I am so grateful that we have a living prophet to guide us and we have apostles to give us direction. I hope everyone has a great week!
Con Amor,
Hermana Klaus
Monday, June 17, 2013
Week 34
Querida Familia!
Well first things first. We survived two weeks in a row on bikes. It was hot and hard, but we are still in one piece. We were pretty exhausted by the end of the week, but luckily we received great news. For whatever reason, they have decided to have us be a bike/truck area again! Yay! So this week we are basking in the air conditioned truck. I feel like we had a little trial of our faith. :-) When we got into the truck this morning at around 10 it was already in the 90's! Ahhh! Soo hot! So we have decided to rename El Paso, El Horno! (The oven) We think it is a much more appropriate name. For example, this week we were walking in an apartment complex on Saturday and we saw some crayons that were left outside in the parking lot. We accidentally stepped on one and it gushed out. We were very entertained by this, probably more than we should have been, but as missionaries we are very easy to please. Yep a little thing like melted crayons makes a 100+ degree weather enjoyable! I don't know if crayons will do that in Washington, but if they will you should give it a try.
In other news, this week we are in "Monsoon" season in Texas... I am not sure what they would do if they decided to move to Washington. It is so funny that if it barely starts to sprinkle they run for cover. People must think we are so odd because Hermana Mitchell and I both love to walk in the "rain" (cough, sprinkle). It only lasts for about 5 minutes and then it's over. I miss a good rainstorm. But the one thing Texas does have are some pretty neat lightning storms. One night it was like we were in this circle of clouds and there was lightning flashes all around us, but none over us. So we were safe, but just got to enjoy the show! Nature's fireworks!
One of my favorite things to happen this week was at dinner on Wednesday night. One of our investigators, Maria, and her cousin Conchita took us to dinner. Conchita has also just began to learn more about the church. They took us to Golden Corral and bike week paid off big time! Hehe we were super hungry and there was lots of yummy food. Hermana Mitchell had never been to one before, so she had a mind-blown moment. Well the funny thing happened when we were all eating our desserts. The waitress came and put a cup of coffee in front of Maria. She had been doing so well and had completely given up coffee. My heart just sank, but we can't force anyone to do anything. Our faces must have reflected our feelings because she looked at us and asked what's wrong. Then she looked at the coffee and said oh no! She said she just ordered it out of habit and then passed the cup to Conchita and said you can have it, but it will be your last! Hermana Mitchell and I must have been grinning ear to ear. They are about the sweetest two people on the planet. Conchita owns the bakery, so she keeps us well stocked in all sweet things. The took us to the bakery for dessert and now they bring us right into the back part of the bakery. I feel like we are family! They take good care of us. We had a lesson later that night and our bikes were at Maria's house probably 6 -7 blocks up the hill. They kept asking us what we wanted to do, but in the end they decided for us. They were dropping us off at our appointment and then we were just going to walk back up and get the bikes, but as they were driving us they kept saying oh no this is much to far.. no no. So in the end they made us promise to come out and wait for them and they would be back to drive us back to get our bikes. We really do teach some of the most wonderful people.
We have had so many great experiences this week. We had an investigator take a whole page of notes on the reading assignment we left. Another investigator came to church for the first time. She said she felt so peaceful and filled with joy. We had someone ask us for a copy of the Book of Mormon. When we gave a lesson on the first vision to a man while his wife was in the kitchen, when she came in to join us he asked us to repeat it, so she could hear it too! We had a less active and her daughter cry when they watched the Prophet of the Restoration video. We visited an investigator right after their family had a fight that left people in tears, and we were able to talk and make the little girls smile. She said we were an answer to her prayer when we showed up. Missionary work is filled with miracles both big and small. It is amazing to see and be a part of this great work and to watch as people change their lives. I have been so richly blessed and I am so grateful to serve my Heavenly Father. I love each and everyone of you! Tenga una super buena semana!
Con Amor,
Hermana Klaus
Well first things first. We survived two weeks in a row on bikes. It was hot and hard, but we are still in one piece. We were pretty exhausted by the end of the week, but luckily we received great news. For whatever reason, they have decided to have us be a bike/truck area again! Yay! So this week we are basking in the air conditioned truck. I feel like we had a little trial of our faith. :-) When we got into the truck this morning at around 10 it was already in the 90's! Ahhh! Soo hot! So we have decided to rename El Paso, El Horno! (The oven) We think it is a much more appropriate name. For example, this week we were walking in an apartment complex on Saturday and we saw some crayons that were left outside in the parking lot. We accidentally stepped on one and it gushed out. We were very entertained by this, probably more than we should have been, but as missionaries we are very easy to please. Yep a little thing like melted crayons makes a 100+ degree weather enjoyable! I don't know if crayons will do that in Washington, but if they will you should give it a try.
In other news, this week we are in "Monsoon" season in Texas... I am not sure what they would do if they decided to move to Washington. It is so funny that if it barely starts to sprinkle they run for cover. People must think we are so odd because Hermana Mitchell and I both love to walk in the "rain" (cough, sprinkle). It only lasts for about 5 minutes and then it's over. I miss a good rainstorm. But the one thing Texas does have are some pretty neat lightning storms. One night it was like we were in this circle of clouds and there was lightning flashes all around us, but none over us. So we were safe, but just got to enjoy the show! Nature's fireworks!
One of my favorite things to happen this week was at dinner on Wednesday night. One of our investigators, Maria, and her cousin Conchita took us to dinner. Conchita has also just began to learn more about the church. They took us to Golden Corral and bike week paid off big time! Hehe we were super hungry and there was lots of yummy food. Hermana Mitchell had never been to one before, so she had a mind-blown moment. Well the funny thing happened when we were all eating our desserts. The waitress came and put a cup of coffee in front of Maria. She had been doing so well and had completely given up coffee. My heart just sank, but we can't force anyone to do anything. Our faces must have reflected our feelings because she looked at us and asked what's wrong. Then she looked at the coffee and said oh no! She said she just ordered it out of habit and then passed the cup to Conchita and said you can have it, but it will be your last! Hermana Mitchell and I must have been grinning ear to ear. They are about the sweetest two people on the planet. Conchita owns the bakery, so she keeps us well stocked in all sweet things. The took us to the bakery for dessert and now they bring us right into the back part of the bakery. I feel like we are family! They take good care of us. We had a lesson later that night and our bikes were at Maria's house probably 6 -7 blocks up the hill. They kept asking us what we wanted to do, but in the end they decided for us. They were dropping us off at our appointment and then we were just going to walk back up and get the bikes, but as they were driving us they kept saying oh no this is much to far.. no no. So in the end they made us promise to come out and wait for them and they would be back to drive us back to get our bikes. We really do teach some of the most wonderful people.
We have had so many great experiences this week. We had an investigator take a whole page of notes on the reading assignment we left. Another investigator came to church for the first time. She said she felt so peaceful and filled with joy. We had someone ask us for a copy of the Book of Mormon. When we gave a lesson on the first vision to a man while his wife was in the kitchen, when she came in to join us he asked us to repeat it, so she could hear it too! We had a less active and her daughter cry when they watched the Prophet of the Restoration video. We visited an investigator right after their family had a fight that left people in tears, and we were able to talk and make the little girls smile. She said we were an answer to her prayer when we showed up. Missionary work is filled with miracles both big and small. It is amazing to see and be a part of this great work and to watch as people change their lives. I have been so richly blessed and I am so grateful to serve my Heavenly Father. I love each and everyone of you! Tenga una super buena semana!
Con Amor,
Hermana Klaus
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Week 33
Hola Familia!
So this week has been an interesting one. We were on bikes all week in the ridiculously hot weather. On top of bike week I was a little sick at the beginning of the week and then, because I didn't want Hermana Mitchell to feel left out and since we spend every minute of every day together, it was only natural that she was sick too. The only thing that kept us going was the bright ray of hope that we would have the truck in a week with the wonderful invention of AC. We had our plans Saturday night to exchange the truck back on Sunday, but the Elders just wanted to wait for the transfer call to come to finalize the exchange time. So we waited anxiously for the transfer call to come. The district leader called and the normal pleasantries of salutation were conducted, but really we were both trying not to yell "Well what's going to happen?!" So then he delivered the news. Well sisters I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is we are staying together and we are staying in 3rd ward. (sighs of relief from us) The bad news..."you are going to a full bike area!" (Long silence) Us: "Are you serious?!" It then took about 3 more minutes before we actually believed the district leader that yes indeed we did just get switched to a full bike area. Yep no more truck sharing. I now have a very strong testimony that the Lord answers prayers. Back in my first area when I was a young, green missionary, I once prayed that I would get sent to a bike area. Well that prayer has now answered in a big way and I think I need to think through my requests a little more carefully next time. :) We are now gearing up for 6 weeks in the 100+ weather on our bikes. Mom you should send me a thermometer that I can attach to my bike, so I can keep track as I slowly cook to perfection in the El Paso Oven. :) Hopefully we will survive and we now are free to eat as many tacos, nieve and pan dulce as we want! Yay! We are also pretty sure that we might be the toughest, tannest, best looking missionaries (helmet hair included) in the mission by the end of this transfer! Or we might be the stinkiest! Hehe I guess we'll see what happens.
So with being on bikes I might need to find a bike shop and have them undo whatever Walmart did when they put the bike together. This week my chain popped off while we were riding. I didn't crash or anything, but we got really dirty with all the grease. We looked at the houses and then picked a nice bright house to ask if we could wash our hands. The lady that answered was really nice. She didn't even hesitate to let us in and later she said it's because "Mormons" have a lot of social capital in her book. She isn't interested in religion at all but she said the LDS people she has met are some of the nicest and happiest people she knows. It made me really happy to think of those good member examples that touched her life and as a result blessed two sister missionaries. It really does show how people are always watching and what we say and do really does and can make a difference.
What else happened this week. Well because it's the end of the transfer we had inspections which means we have to do a deep clean on the apartment. So we both were cleaning the tub and there was water that wasn't draining, so I thought bummer we have a hair plug. So I got to work trying to dislodge the plug, so the tub would drain. The whole time Hermana Mitchell is telling me that I am brave for trying to unplug it. Then after 5 minutes of no success I get up to try and find something else to use when all of the sudden I hear mad laughing from the bathroom and Hermana Mitchell has just realized that she plugged the tub...hence the tub was not draining! We had a good chuckle over that and we we managed to finish cleaning without further incident.
Even apart from the craziness of being sick we still had some really great lessons this week. One of my favorite lessons was when we were teaching two women and a third one, who walked into the room after getting her glass of water, brought a chair over so she could sit down and listen to the plan of salvation. The other really neat experience was one of our investigators told us how she had been praying and thinking about the plan of salvation and how she thinks it's true and that it really rings true to her. It is amazing to see people find answers to their questions through the gospel and it always touches my heart when they describe the spirit that they are feeling. I know that it is through the spirit that we can know the truth of all things.
I love this gospel so much! Hopefully I'll still be around next week after our first 2 bike weeks in a row and can tell you more about the joys of being a missionary!
Con Amor,
Hermana Klaus
So this week has been an interesting one. We were on bikes all week in the ridiculously hot weather. On top of bike week I was a little sick at the beginning of the week and then, because I didn't want Hermana Mitchell to feel left out and since we spend every minute of every day together, it was only natural that she was sick too. The only thing that kept us going was the bright ray of hope that we would have the truck in a week with the wonderful invention of AC. We had our plans Saturday night to exchange the truck back on Sunday, but the Elders just wanted to wait for the transfer call to come to finalize the exchange time. So we waited anxiously for the transfer call to come. The district leader called and the normal pleasantries of salutation were conducted, but really we were both trying not to yell "Well what's going to happen?!" So then he delivered the news. Well sisters I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is we are staying together and we are staying in 3rd ward. (sighs of relief from us) The bad news..."you are going to a full bike area!" (Long silence) Us: "Are you serious?!" It then took about 3 more minutes before we actually believed the district leader that yes indeed we did just get switched to a full bike area. Yep no more truck sharing. I now have a very strong testimony that the Lord answers prayers. Back in my first area when I was a young, green missionary, I once prayed that I would get sent to a bike area. Well that prayer has now answered in a big way and I think I need to think through my requests a little more carefully next time. :) We are now gearing up for 6 weeks in the 100+ weather on our bikes. Mom you should send me a thermometer that I can attach to my bike, so I can keep track as I slowly cook to perfection in the El Paso Oven. :) Hopefully we will survive and we now are free to eat as many tacos, nieve and pan dulce as we want! Yay! We are also pretty sure that we might be the toughest, tannest, best looking missionaries (helmet hair included) in the mission by the end of this transfer! Or we might be the stinkiest! Hehe I guess we'll see what happens.
So with being on bikes I might need to find a bike shop and have them undo whatever Walmart did when they put the bike together. This week my chain popped off while we were riding. I didn't crash or anything, but we got really dirty with all the grease. We looked at the houses and then picked a nice bright house to ask if we could wash our hands. The lady that answered was really nice. She didn't even hesitate to let us in and later she said it's because "Mormons" have a lot of social capital in her book. She isn't interested in religion at all but she said the LDS people she has met are some of the nicest and happiest people she knows. It made me really happy to think of those good member examples that touched her life and as a result blessed two sister missionaries. It really does show how people are always watching and what we say and do really does and can make a difference.
What else happened this week. Well because it's the end of the transfer we had inspections which means we have to do a deep clean on the apartment. So we both were cleaning the tub and there was water that wasn't draining, so I thought bummer we have a hair plug. So I got to work trying to dislodge the plug, so the tub would drain. The whole time Hermana Mitchell is telling me that I am brave for trying to unplug it. Then after 5 minutes of no success I get up to try and find something else to use when all of the sudden I hear mad laughing from the bathroom and Hermana Mitchell has just realized that she plugged the tub...hence the tub was not draining! We had a good chuckle over that and we we managed to finish cleaning without further incident.
Even apart from the craziness of being sick we still had some really great lessons this week. One of my favorite lessons was when we were teaching two women and a third one, who walked into the room after getting her glass of water, brought a chair over so she could sit down and listen to the plan of salvation. The other really neat experience was one of our investigators told us how she had been praying and thinking about the plan of salvation and how she thinks it's true and that it really rings true to her. It is amazing to see people find answers to their questions through the gospel and it always touches my heart when they describe the spirit that they are feeling. I know that it is through the spirit that we can know the truth of all things.
I love this gospel so much! Hopefully I'll still be around next week after our first 2 bike weeks in a row and can tell you more about the joys of being a missionary!
Con Amor,
Hermana Klaus
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Week 32 - with Picture
Buenos Dias Familia!
Ok yep, I can't believe it's June! I feel like I just said I can't believe it's May and now it's Junio! All of the kids down here in El Paso are going loco with it being the last week of school. How is Kara holding up these last few days of school? Yep it's officially super hot down here en El Paso. We have been very spoiled these past two weeks because we have been in the truck...the nice, air-conditioned beautiful truck. Somewhere in those two weeks El Paso decided to go all desert on us and jump into the 100's, so now we are out of bike shape and scared for triple digits, but what is the bright spot? That would be we can eat ice cream again. Yay! For our first day on bikes we had a sort of storm yesterday. We were riding our bikes and you could see this wall of dirt blowing north so we had to brace ourselves when the wind hit us. It wasn't horrible, but it hurts when dust gets in your eyes. We loved when it sprinkled. I think they would call it rain, but coming from Washington, 5 minutes of slight water dropping just doesn't count as rain. However, it was nice to smell "rain" again.
This week was really busy and full. We also went on exchanges this week. It felt a little odd being back in Rio Grande for the day. I saw some of my old investigators and there were some pretty surprised faces as they saw me at their doorstop. I really like exchanges because you can learn so much from watching how different missionaries work. I learned some good things and it inspired me to work harder to be a better missionary.
It wouldn't be a complete week in the mission field if I didn't have some kind of adventure. This week is the phone book adventure. Several times during this transfer we have needed, or it would have been nice to have, a phone book. Then this week we saw them being delivered to different houses. It was driving me bonkers seeing so many phone books on doorsteps or hanging on fences knowing that hardly anyone uses phone books anymore - except poor missionaries who don't have smart phones or access to google! So then we turned it into a game for scoping out which houses looked empty or the phone book had been out for a few days so obviously the person didn't care about it. We started planning on how we could sneak around the killer watch dogs so we could take a peek at the yellow pages! We actually did need the yellow pages and we saw one on a fence of a senior center that was chained shut - maybe for the day or longer....anyway we borrowed the yellow pages and then put it back but I am sure to passing cars two girls wearing skirts happily looking in a phone book was quite a sight to see. Then oh little blessings that make you so happy... we came home one night and what was sitting on our doorstep? I am sure packaged with loving care into a little blue bag just for us was our very own phone book! We did a little jig when we back into the apartment because we were so excited to have our own phone book! It felt like Christmas had come early. Yep it's the little things in life. :)
So I am really happy right now because yesterday we helped make the Sunday dinner and I learned how to make tacos! I didn't really like Taco Bell that much before, but I don't think I can ever justify eating there again. It comes nothing close to the deliciousness of the food that I get down here. I really enjoyed frying the tacos and one of the sisters said I was a natural Taco fryer! Yay! The only thing was it made the kitchen super hot! So maybe frying tacos will have to be a winter activity, but they are so good I think I will have to persevere through the heat.
We are teaching some really wonderful people right now. We set a baptismal date with two girls this week for the end of June. They are both super cute and they both want to be baptized. The younger one who is only 11 talks about how she wants to know this is Christ's true church for herself and so she reads and prays about it. It makes me so happy to see the wisdom of an 11 year old because some of the other people we talk to don't understand that the Lord has given them the way to know whether or not our message is true. If they know the Lord can answer prayers and they are willing to read and to ask, then we know the Lord will bless them with that confirmation through the Holy Ghost. The other experience that just filled me with joy was when our investigator Lupe started testifying to her cousin about the restoration. She is working on changing her work schedule so she can come to church and as soon as she can start coming to church she wants to be baptized. It filled me with tingles to hear her testify about prophets and the restoration knowing that just 2 months ago she was being taught those same things for the very first time. The gospel really does change lives.
In closing we also had a zone conference this past week. It is the Miller's last Zone Conference so it was very bitter sweet. It will be so hard to see them go, but I know that they are leaving this mission inspired. They talked about the glad game of Polly Anna. Now Sister Mitchell enjoys playing the glad game as well. For those who don't know, the glad game is that no matter the situation you can always find something to be glad about. For example, we are riding our bikes in 100+ degree weather. Glad Game: Well at least we don't have to worry about frost bite! The world is a much better place when we focus on the good and find things to be glad and grateful for. The other piece of advice that I loved from the Miller's was "Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape!" What an excellent reminder that we can always choose to act or be acted upon. I hope everyone chooses to be a little flexible and to look for the good things in life! Have an excellent week!
Con Mucho Amor,
Hermana Klaus
Ok yep, I can't believe it's June! I feel like I just said I can't believe it's May and now it's Junio! All of the kids down here in El Paso are going loco with it being the last week of school. How is Kara holding up these last few days of school? Yep it's officially super hot down here en El Paso. We have been very spoiled these past two weeks because we have been in the truck...the nice, air-conditioned beautiful truck. Somewhere in those two weeks El Paso decided to go all desert on us and jump into the 100's, so now we are out of bike shape and scared for triple digits, but what is the bright spot? That would be we can eat ice cream again. Yay! For our first day on bikes we had a sort of storm yesterday. We were riding our bikes and you could see this wall of dirt blowing north so we had to brace ourselves when the wind hit us. It wasn't horrible, but it hurts when dust gets in your eyes. We loved when it sprinkled. I think they would call it rain, but coming from Washington, 5 minutes of slight water dropping just doesn't count as rain. However, it was nice to smell "rain" again.
This week was really busy and full. We also went on exchanges this week. It felt a little odd being back in Rio Grande for the day. I saw some of my old investigators and there were some pretty surprised faces as they saw me at their doorstop. I really like exchanges because you can learn so much from watching how different missionaries work. I learned some good things and it inspired me to work harder to be a better missionary.
It wouldn't be a complete week in the mission field if I didn't have some kind of adventure. This week is the phone book adventure. Several times during this transfer we have needed, or it would have been nice to have, a phone book. Then this week we saw them being delivered to different houses. It was driving me bonkers seeing so many phone books on doorsteps or hanging on fences knowing that hardly anyone uses phone books anymore - except poor missionaries who don't have smart phones or access to google! So then we turned it into a game for scoping out which houses looked empty or the phone book had been out for a few days so obviously the person didn't care about it. We started planning on how we could sneak around the killer watch dogs so we could take a peek at the yellow pages! We actually did need the yellow pages and we saw one on a fence of a senior center that was chained shut - maybe for the day or longer....anyway we borrowed the yellow pages and then put it back but I am sure to passing cars two girls wearing skirts happily looking in a phone book was quite a sight to see. Then oh little blessings that make you so happy... we came home one night and what was sitting on our doorstep? I am sure packaged with loving care into a little blue bag just for us was our very own phone book! We did a little jig when we back into the apartment because we were so excited to have our own phone book! It felt like Christmas had come early. Yep it's the little things in life. :)
So I am really happy right now because yesterday we helped make the Sunday dinner and I learned how to make tacos! I didn't really like Taco Bell that much before, but I don't think I can ever justify eating there again. It comes nothing close to the deliciousness of the food that I get down here. I really enjoyed frying the tacos and one of the sisters said I was a natural Taco fryer! Yay! The only thing was it made the kitchen super hot! So maybe frying tacos will have to be a winter activity, but they are so good I think I will have to persevere through the heat.
We are teaching some really wonderful people right now. We set a baptismal date with two girls this week for the end of June. They are both super cute and they both want to be baptized. The younger one who is only 11 talks about how she wants to know this is Christ's true church for herself and so she reads and prays about it. It makes me so happy to see the wisdom of an 11 year old because some of the other people we talk to don't understand that the Lord has given them the way to know whether or not our message is true. If they know the Lord can answer prayers and they are willing to read and to ask, then we know the Lord will bless them with that confirmation through the Holy Ghost. The other experience that just filled me with joy was when our investigator Lupe started testifying to her cousin about the restoration. She is working on changing her work schedule so she can come to church and as soon as she can start coming to church she wants to be baptized. It filled me with tingles to hear her testify about prophets and the restoration knowing that just 2 months ago she was being taught those same things for the very first time. The gospel really does change lives.
In closing we also had a zone conference this past week. It is the Miller's last Zone Conference so it was very bitter sweet. It will be so hard to see them go, but I know that they are leaving this mission inspired. They talked about the glad game of Polly Anna. Now Sister Mitchell enjoys playing the glad game as well. For those who don't know, the glad game is that no matter the situation you can always find something to be glad about. For example, we are riding our bikes in 100+ degree weather. Glad Game: Well at least we don't have to worry about frost bite! The world is a much better place when we focus on the good and find things to be glad and grateful for. The other piece of advice that I loved from the Miller's was "Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape!" What an excellent reminder that we can always choose to act or be acted upon. I hope everyone chooses to be a little flexible and to look for the good things in life! Have an excellent week!
Con Mucho Amor,
Hermana Klaus
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| The Taco Master! |
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