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| The weather balloon that we found |
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| Flat Tire! |
"And it came to pass..."
Monday, August 12, 2013
Week 42 - August 12, 2013
Querida Familia,
It was good to hear that you all made it through fair. I wish I could have taken Logan around the cow barn a few times. Hehe, at one point this week we were exchanging companions back right next to a dairy farm and I took a big whiff and said it smelled like Ridgefield. Then I told Sister Bills that Sister Fallentine would not be amused by the smell. Sure enough when we pulled up she had some good "this is the most disgusting smell in the world" faces going on. When they first got there she asked what the smell was and the other sister pointed across the street to the huge dairy that was baking in the 100 degree sun in all it's cow-ey glory! So even though I missed the fair, the Lord still decided to send a tender mercy and let me smell the fair, even though I am sure there were tastier smells at the fair besides cows.
My dad thinks I need to stop having "I am graceful" moments, so I guess I will have to confess that the Texas sun may be bleaching my hair blonde because Hermana Fallentine and I had a really good blonde moment this week. It happened after an exchange with the 3rd ward sisters. Sister Fallentine got to take a ride on the wild side and use my bike for the day. Anyway because they had the bikes we drove all the way to their apartment. (where normally we just meet in the middle). So we exchanged back and Hermana Fallentine and I were about to start planning when she was cleaning out her back pack and realized that she still had one of the bus passes! We knew that the sisters would need their bus passes, so that meant we would have to drive all the way there and back again. So we get in the car and we are driving and we are listening to a talk on CD. Just as we are about 10 miles from our house I am pretty sure inspiration spewed from my mouth when I turned to Hermana Fallentine and asked "Do you have the bus ticket?" Well after pulling over we ascertained that indeed we did not have the bus ticket, but that we must have left it on the table at home. We drove back to the apartment and sure enough the little bugger was on the table! I guess we were spared even more humiliation because had we driven all the way to their apartment and then realized the ticket was at home I probably would have just have bought them another ticket instead!
So I had an exciting exchange with Hermana Bills this week. I was up in Las Cruces working in her area. It was a really good day. One of the highlights from the day was we got a flat tire. It was funny because we must have rolled over the screw right as we parked, because she looked at the tire pressure on the dash and it said it was at 27 then 30 seconds later it was 15 and then dropped to 11. I got out of the car and you could hear the air escaping from our tire. I was super excited to change a tire in spite of the fact that I was wearing a skirt! We managed to get the tire out of the trunk along with everything we needed before the Lord sent someone to help his sister missionaries out. A nice man came and what would have taken us probably an hour took him 10 minutes. We still got our hands really dirty because we had to put the flat tire in the trunk, so that made us go to a nearby gas station. Just as we were pulling in something big and orange floated down from the sky and landed in the middle of the road. We parked and went to investigate. It was a parachute with some weird rubber coating and note that said if inflated could be dangerous. It wasn't, so no worries. Then we saw a white box on the other end so timing it with the traffic that was speeding by we managed to haul it across the road safely. To our delight it was a weather balloon. My favorite part was the sticker that said harmless weather instrument. :-) UFO! We took some pictures with the weather balloon and then sent it off in it's prepaid package to Kansas and of course we couldn't resist putting a mormon.org card in the bag when we sent it to the national weather service. Always a missionary!
So the most exciting thing to happen this week is that Carmen, Sergio, Lizzete and Ali came to church. They were so cute! They all came dressed in their Sunday clothes, so I bet some people didn't realize they were visiting. The cutest thing to us was when I brought out silly putty to entertain the kids and the 2 year old very loudly started telling her mother to "Mira el moco!" or in english to "Look at the boogers!" Hermana Fallentine and I were having to stifle our laughter from that comment! The ward was wonderful and a family has invited them to come to an FHE tonight at their house, so we are excited about that. We weren't sure they were going to stay for the whole three hours and they almost left at the end of the second hour, but Sergio was acting like he wanted to stay, so they did. This family is so amazing! We also taught them this week about the plan of salvation and forever families. As part of our lesson we gave them a piece of the left over marble that was used to build the Juarez temple that a member had given us. I really feel like there are unseen forces at work on this family and that everything is just working out so perfectly that the Lord really does have something special planned for this family. I am so happy right now. Being a missionary is so awesome. I hope that everyone has a super great week!
Los Quiero Mucho!
Hermana Klaus
It was good to hear that you all made it through fair. I wish I could have taken Logan around the cow barn a few times. Hehe, at one point this week we were exchanging companions back right next to a dairy farm and I took a big whiff and said it smelled like Ridgefield. Then I told Sister Bills that Sister Fallentine would not be amused by the smell. Sure enough when we pulled up she had some good "this is the most disgusting smell in the world" faces going on. When they first got there she asked what the smell was and the other sister pointed across the street to the huge dairy that was baking in the 100 degree sun in all it's cow-ey glory! So even though I missed the fair, the Lord still decided to send a tender mercy and let me smell the fair, even though I am sure there were tastier smells at the fair besides cows.
My dad thinks I need to stop having "I am graceful" moments, so I guess I will have to confess that the Texas sun may be bleaching my hair blonde because Hermana Fallentine and I had a really good blonde moment this week. It happened after an exchange with the 3rd ward sisters. Sister Fallentine got to take a ride on the wild side and use my bike for the day. Anyway because they had the bikes we drove all the way to their apartment. (where normally we just meet in the middle). So we exchanged back and Hermana Fallentine and I were about to start planning when she was cleaning out her back pack and realized that she still had one of the bus passes! We knew that the sisters would need their bus passes, so that meant we would have to drive all the way there and back again. So we get in the car and we are driving and we are listening to a talk on CD. Just as we are about 10 miles from our house I am pretty sure inspiration spewed from my mouth when I turned to Hermana Fallentine and asked "Do you have the bus ticket?" Well after pulling over we ascertained that indeed we did not have the bus ticket, but that we must have left it on the table at home. We drove back to the apartment and sure enough the little bugger was on the table! I guess we were spared even more humiliation because had we driven all the way to their apartment and then realized the ticket was at home I probably would have just have bought them another ticket instead!
So I had an exciting exchange with Hermana Bills this week. I was up in Las Cruces working in her area. It was a really good day. One of the highlights from the day was we got a flat tire. It was funny because we must have rolled over the screw right as we parked, because she looked at the tire pressure on the dash and it said it was at 27 then 30 seconds later it was 15 and then dropped to 11. I got out of the car and you could hear the air escaping from our tire. I was super excited to change a tire in spite of the fact that I was wearing a skirt! We managed to get the tire out of the trunk along with everything we needed before the Lord sent someone to help his sister missionaries out. A nice man came and what would have taken us probably an hour took him 10 minutes. We still got our hands really dirty because we had to put the flat tire in the trunk, so that made us go to a nearby gas station. Just as we were pulling in something big and orange floated down from the sky and landed in the middle of the road. We parked and went to investigate. It was a parachute with some weird rubber coating and note that said if inflated could be dangerous. It wasn't, so no worries. Then we saw a white box on the other end so timing it with the traffic that was speeding by we managed to haul it across the road safely. To our delight it was a weather balloon. My favorite part was the sticker that said harmless weather instrument. :-) UFO! We took some pictures with the weather balloon and then sent it off in it's prepaid package to Kansas and of course we couldn't resist putting a mormon.org card in the bag when we sent it to the national weather service. Always a missionary!
So the most exciting thing to happen this week is that Carmen, Sergio, Lizzete and Ali came to church. They were so cute! They all came dressed in their Sunday clothes, so I bet some people didn't realize they were visiting. The cutest thing to us was when I brought out silly putty to entertain the kids and the 2 year old very loudly started telling her mother to "Mira el moco!" or in english to "Look at the boogers!" Hermana Fallentine and I were having to stifle our laughter from that comment! The ward was wonderful and a family has invited them to come to an FHE tonight at their house, so we are excited about that. We weren't sure they were going to stay for the whole three hours and they almost left at the end of the second hour, but Sergio was acting like he wanted to stay, so they did. This family is so amazing! We also taught them this week about the plan of salvation and forever families. As part of our lesson we gave them a piece of the left over marble that was used to build the Juarez temple that a member had given us. I really feel like there are unseen forces at work on this family and that everything is just working out so perfectly that the Lord really does have something special planned for this family. I am so happy right now. Being a missionary is so awesome. I hope that everyone has a super great week!
Los Quiero Mucho!
Hermana Klaus
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Week 41 Pictures
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| I didn't get to do the bear song at camp, but I gave a bear hug... |
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| At Sparky's in Hatch |
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| Another moment of gracefulness |
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| Our cool new mugs |
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| This was waiting for us in the empty apartment we stayed in up in albuquerque and it scared us pretty good. It was hiding in the shower originally. Well played elders! |
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| Another statue at Sparky's |
Week 41 - August 5, 2013
Buenos Tardes Familia - or maybe I should just say amigos because my family might be too busy with fair this week to actually read my letter! :D hehe
Ok so wow what a week! I don't think time has ever gone so quickly on the mission before. And I can't believe that this week I hit my 9 months mark! Crazy! They are really going to keep us busy with this whole sister training leader thing. This past week we had one exchange and then we went up to Albuquerque on Wednesday and Thursday for Mission Leadership Council. The exchange was my first one with an English speaking sister. Sister Chatwin came to Rio Grande. It was a really good exchange, but it was interesting because I was the only one who spoke Spanish. We had a good laugh when we saw an apartment complex that had a sign that said "Biggest Apartments! Biggest Deals!" and then I added "And biggest Cockroaches!" Which reminds me that those stinky roaches still live in the Rio Grande apartment, and let me tell you that Hermana Fallentine does not like roaches! I've heard a few good squeals from her when she sees one on the counter.
On Wednesday around 3 we headed up to Albuquerque. The drive was good. The funniest thing was probably the rain. It was the weirdest looking rain. It kept hitting the windshield and floating up. I don't really know how to describe it - just that it was weird and entertaining on the drive. We of course got lost in Albuquerque. 2 of the sisters had served there before, but we still got lost. The funniest part was we were looking for a street named Martin Luther King drive and it wouldn't show up on the GPS, so we just got off the freeway to head back toward the area that we thought it was in. Then Sister Silva said oh wait it found it, so we start following the directions for several minutes when up ahead I see the freeway we just got off. At about that same time Hermana Biancardi says the destination is 200 miles away! Well we stopped again and after a few phone calls we finally found the apartment we were staying at that night. Then in the morning we got lost again on the way to the mission home. One of the sisters thought the elders said 9th street, but he really said Knight street. Hijole! But we finally did make it. It was neat to see Hermana Cruz again. It's the first time I've seen her since we split down here. I can't believe this is her last transfer! The meeting was all about how we can be better missionaries and then help those missionaries under our stewardship. President and Sister Miller are so funny. I love them! After the meeting we drove back to El Paso, with one stop in Hatch (a tiny little cow town) that has an awesome BBQ place called Sparky's. I ate my first green chili burger and it was delicious. It was funny to remember reading about New Mexico food and thinking it was so weird that they put chili on their burgers and yet now I love it. I also got some good pictures with some of the weird statues around the restaurant.
The next day we had zone training. The Elders had us do a training and it went really well. Hermana Fallentine and I even got a fist bump from the zone leaders. Two highlights from that meeting... First was the joke the zone leaders played on the zone. They had a big official looking box and said we are going to be passing out something from the apple store. There is one per companionship. I was watching some of the missionaries faces - it was pretty comical. Then out of the box they started throwing green apples (one for each companionship)! Good one elders. The other one was the joke we played on the Elders. About two months ago the Zone Leaders showed up to zone training with these mugs that said world's greatest ZL's. Now they bring them to every meeting and they always fill up the cups with their water bottles. Well not to be out done. Hermana Fallentine and I made mugs in pretty pink sparkle letters that said "World's Greatest STL'Z" Then when the zone leaders left for break we went and sat up in their chairs and instead of water we poured poweraid in our water bottles. It was awesome! The entire zone was laughing and the zone leaders just kept shaking their heads. It was so funny! 10 points to the sisters! Good times as a missionary.
In other exciting news, Maria one of my investigators in Barrio 3 is getting baptized this Saturday. I am so excited for her and I wish I could be there. Maybe I can find an investigator to take to the baptism so I can go too. Either way I am so happy for her. She is amazing and wonderful and this is going to bless her life.
If you remember the miracle story I shared last week with the woman and her daughter, so we went back yesterday for our first lesson. It was an amazing lesson. The spirit was so strong. Carmen (the mother) cried when she heard the first vision. We all agreed that this was a miracle. The whole family has agreed to be baptized on September 9! At the end of the lesson Sergio, the dad, gave the prayer without even hesitating even though he had never done that before. The spirit was so strong the entire time and after the prayer we just sort of sat on the floor and just took in those warm feelings that come from the spirit. This family is so special and we are so blessed for the chance to get to teach them.
Well good luck at fair Kara! I know you'll do great because you're great! I miss you all! I'm sending lots of happy thoughts and prayers your way!
Con Amor,
Hermana Klaus
Ok so wow what a week! I don't think time has ever gone so quickly on the mission before. And I can't believe that this week I hit my 9 months mark! Crazy! They are really going to keep us busy with this whole sister training leader thing. This past week we had one exchange and then we went up to Albuquerque on Wednesday and Thursday for Mission Leadership Council. The exchange was my first one with an English speaking sister. Sister Chatwin came to Rio Grande. It was a really good exchange, but it was interesting because I was the only one who spoke Spanish. We had a good laugh when we saw an apartment complex that had a sign that said "Biggest Apartments! Biggest Deals!" and then I added "And biggest Cockroaches!" Which reminds me that those stinky roaches still live in the Rio Grande apartment, and let me tell you that Hermana Fallentine does not like roaches! I've heard a few good squeals from her when she sees one on the counter.
On Wednesday around 3 we headed up to Albuquerque. The drive was good. The funniest thing was probably the rain. It was the weirdest looking rain. It kept hitting the windshield and floating up. I don't really know how to describe it - just that it was weird and entertaining on the drive. We of course got lost in Albuquerque. 2 of the sisters had served there before, but we still got lost. The funniest part was we were looking for a street named Martin Luther King drive and it wouldn't show up on the GPS, so we just got off the freeway to head back toward the area that we thought it was in. Then Sister Silva said oh wait it found it, so we start following the directions for several minutes when up ahead I see the freeway we just got off. At about that same time Hermana Biancardi says the destination is 200 miles away! Well we stopped again and after a few phone calls we finally found the apartment we were staying at that night. Then in the morning we got lost again on the way to the mission home. One of the sisters thought the elders said 9th street, but he really said Knight street. Hijole! But we finally did make it. It was neat to see Hermana Cruz again. It's the first time I've seen her since we split down here. I can't believe this is her last transfer! The meeting was all about how we can be better missionaries and then help those missionaries under our stewardship. President and Sister Miller are so funny. I love them! After the meeting we drove back to El Paso, with one stop in Hatch (a tiny little cow town) that has an awesome BBQ place called Sparky's. I ate my first green chili burger and it was delicious. It was funny to remember reading about New Mexico food and thinking it was so weird that they put chili on their burgers and yet now I love it. I also got some good pictures with some of the weird statues around the restaurant.
The next day we had zone training. The Elders had us do a training and it went really well. Hermana Fallentine and I even got a fist bump from the zone leaders. Two highlights from that meeting... First was the joke the zone leaders played on the zone. They had a big official looking box and said we are going to be passing out something from the apple store. There is one per companionship. I was watching some of the missionaries faces - it was pretty comical. Then out of the box they started throwing green apples (one for each companionship)! Good one elders. The other one was the joke we played on the Elders. About two months ago the Zone Leaders showed up to zone training with these mugs that said world's greatest ZL's. Now they bring them to every meeting and they always fill up the cups with their water bottles. Well not to be out done. Hermana Fallentine and I made mugs in pretty pink sparkle letters that said "World's Greatest STL'Z" Then when the zone leaders left for break we went and sat up in their chairs and instead of water we poured poweraid in our water bottles. It was awesome! The entire zone was laughing and the zone leaders just kept shaking their heads. It was so funny! 10 points to the sisters! Good times as a missionary.
In other exciting news, Maria one of my investigators in Barrio 3 is getting baptized this Saturday. I am so excited for her and I wish I could be there. Maybe I can find an investigator to take to the baptism so I can go too. Either way I am so happy for her. She is amazing and wonderful and this is going to bless her life.
If you remember the miracle story I shared last week with the woman and her daughter, so we went back yesterday for our first lesson. It was an amazing lesson. The spirit was so strong. Carmen (the mother) cried when she heard the first vision. We all agreed that this was a miracle. The whole family has agreed to be baptized on September 9! At the end of the lesson Sergio, the dad, gave the prayer without even hesitating even though he had never done that before. The spirit was so strong the entire time and after the prayer we just sort of sat on the floor and just took in those warm feelings that come from the spirit. This family is so special and we are so blessed for the chance to get to teach them.
Well good luck at fair Kara! I know you'll do great because you're great! I miss you all! I'm sending lots of happy thoughts and prayers your way!
Con Amor,
Hermana Klaus
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Week 40 - July 29, 2013
Buenas Tardes Familia!
Wow what a great week in the missionary field. So I was pondering this morning and I realized that it was exactly one year ago that I opened my papers and started working on going on a mission. I can't believe how quickly time has gone. I will forever be grateful for my mission and for everything that I am learning. Although I will admit, for the first time on my mission I am almost wishing I were home. I might mope a little for girls camp this week. I wish everyone a super fantastic time and know that even though I will be a good missionary in bed at 10:30 every night, I will be dreaming of late nights playing dice games and making my some of my favorite people in the world laugh so hard their sides hurt! :) So carry on camp people and try not to burn down any u-hauls!
This week has been a little crazy because of transfers, so here it goes. I am back in Rio Grande, the place that I started my mission. The ward and investigators seemed really happy to have me back, so that's good. My new companion is Hermana Fallentine. She is from Salt Lake City and she was Hermana Mitchell's companion in the MTC. We get along great and I am really excited for this companionship. We are also both newly called sister training leaders. I am excited because we get to participate in the missionary leadership council in Albuquerque this week, and we are going to go on 7 exchanges this transfer! Yikes! I am pretty sure these next few weeks are going to go by at lightning speed.
It was really hard to say good-bye to everyone in 3rd ward. I loved it over there. Princess's family is still wonderful. They are so cute. My favorite story on Monday was that she said she was at work and she was talking to a lady about religion. Then the lady held out a piece of caramel chocolate coffee candy and in her mind, as she took the candy, she said "You're not a mormon" It made me laugh. She says that now she is always thinking what would the mormons do? :)
Since both my companion and I are new to the area we have been going around and meeting all the investigators. Some of them are new and some of them are the same. We are teaching a new family and we set a baptismal date with the wife for the first of September, so we are going to be working a lot with them. They have the cutest big chocolate lab, and if you put your nose to his and say nariz he will basically stop breathing and close his eyes and just touch noses. It is probably one of the cutest things I have seen.
The other little miracle we had this week happened in parts. So on Friday we have been trying to get a hold of a family who lives in this one apartment complex. We went by and had a lesson and then when we were leaving we saw these two teenage-ish girls and we stopped and chatted with them for a minute. We set up a time for us to come back on Sunday to talk to them. Then on Sunday we were at that same complex trying to visit a different person and we were walking up a smallish hill, but with the heat, everything is like climbing Mt. Hood. There was a nice patch of shade, so we decided to hide in the shade for a minute. As we were having a breather, a lady walked by and we started talking to her and she has invited us to teach her more. So wanting a little shade was a little miracle. Then we went off and made more visits in the other part of town and then came back at 6pm for the lesson we had set with the one of the girls. When we knocked her mom answered and looked a little confused, but she invited us inside and we had a warm visit and we got to know her. The mother expressed how she wanted to make God more of a priority in their lives and so we are going to start teaching them. On the way out she told us that she had seen us that afternoon talking to the lady under the palm tree shade as she was doing laundry and had offered a little prayer/wish that we would come talk to her family. The Lord's hand is in this work. The fact that she had prayed that we would come to talk to her and her family, and us being on her doorstep 3 hours later would explain the look she gave us when she opened the door. I am so excited to work here again and I know we are going to have lots of success. I also look forward to writing about my new adventures as a sister training leader. Have a super fantastic week!
Con Amor,
Hermana Klaus
Wow what a great week in the missionary field. So I was pondering this morning and I realized that it was exactly one year ago that I opened my papers and started working on going on a mission. I can't believe how quickly time has gone. I will forever be grateful for my mission and for everything that I am learning. Although I will admit, for the first time on my mission I am almost wishing I were home. I might mope a little for girls camp this week. I wish everyone a super fantastic time and know that even though I will be a good missionary in bed at 10:30 every night, I will be dreaming of late nights playing dice games and making my some of my favorite people in the world laugh so hard their sides hurt! :) So carry on camp people and try not to burn down any u-hauls!
This week has been a little crazy because of transfers, so here it goes. I am back in Rio Grande, the place that I started my mission. The ward and investigators seemed really happy to have me back, so that's good. My new companion is Hermana Fallentine. She is from Salt Lake City and she was Hermana Mitchell's companion in the MTC. We get along great and I am really excited for this companionship. We are also both newly called sister training leaders. I am excited because we get to participate in the missionary leadership council in Albuquerque this week, and we are going to go on 7 exchanges this transfer! Yikes! I am pretty sure these next few weeks are going to go by at lightning speed.
It was really hard to say good-bye to everyone in 3rd ward. I loved it over there. Princess's family is still wonderful. They are so cute. My favorite story on Monday was that she said she was at work and she was talking to a lady about religion. Then the lady held out a piece of caramel chocolate coffee candy and in her mind, as she took the candy, she said "You're not a mormon" It made me laugh. She says that now she is always thinking what would the mormons do? :)
Since both my companion and I are new to the area we have been going around and meeting all the investigators. Some of them are new and some of them are the same. We are teaching a new family and we set a baptismal date with the wife for the first of September, so we are going to be working a lot with them. They have the cutest big chocolate lab, and if you put your nose to his and say nariz he will basically stop breathing and close his eyes and just touch noses. It is probably one of the cutest things I have seen.
The other little miracle we had this week happened in parts. So on Friday we have been trying to get a hold of a family who lives in this one apartment complex. We went by and had a lesson and then when we were leaving we saw these two teenage-ish girls and we stopped and chatted with them for a minute. We set up a time for us to come back on Sunday to talk to them. Then on Sunday we were at that same complex trying to visit a different person and we were walking up a smallish hill, but with the heat, everything is like climbing Mt. Hood. There was a nice patch of shade, so we decided to hide in the shade for a minute. As we were having a breather, a lady walked by and we started talking to her and she has invited us to teach her more. So wanting a little shade was a little miracle. Then we went off and made more visits in the other part of town and then came back at 6pm for the lesson we had set with the one of the girls. When we knocked her mom answered and looked a little confused, but she invited us inside and we had a warm visit and we got to know her. The mother expressed how she wanted to make God more of a priority in their lives and so we are going to start teaching them. On the way out she told us that she had seen us that afternoon talking to the lady under the palm tree shade as she was doing laundry and had offered a little prayer/wish that we would come talk to her family. The Lord's hand is in this work. The fact that she had prayed that we would come to talk to her and her family, and us being on her doorstep 3 hours later would explain the look she gave us when she opened the door. I am so excited to work here again and I know we are going to have lots of success. I also look forward to writing about my new adventures as a sister training leader. Have a super fantastic week!
Con Amor,
Hermana Klaus
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| Me and my new companion, Hermana Fallentine |
Monday, July 22, 2013
Week 39 Pictures
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| Princess (The dog that can't use her legs) |
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| Look at those sun-tanned arms! |
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| Forever a dog shower... |
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| Meerkats on missions? |
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| Elephant |
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| At the Zoo. |
Week 39 - July 22, 2013
Familia y amigos!
Buenos Tardes! Decidí que quiero escribir en español...chiste!
Well the end of the transfer has come upon us. I really thought that I wasn't going to have to move, but I received the call on Saturday night. Yep I'm being transferred. (sniff) It is going to be so hard to leave El Paso...wait false! I am being transferred, but I am still staying in El Paso. I am starting to think that I might spend my entire mission down here in one city and never actually serve in Albuquerque! So Robert you might have to make me another plaque and put The Texas Flag and Texas instead of New Mexico flag and New Mexico.
This is the worst part about missionary work. Making friendships and loving people more than I would have thought possible and then having to leave, before you feel like you have finished everything. We have seen a lot of miracles this week. We have 8 people with baptismal dates right now. It is such a blessing to see people learn about the gospel and begin to change their lives one step at a time. We are teaching so many amazing people right now and it has been very hard for me to say good-bye. All of these people are my family down here and I want to keep helping them. But I know that the Lord needs me in another area right now and I know that this transfer is inspired. It's just the waiting in between part that I really don't like.
So last week we went to the Zoo with all of the zone sisters and it was a lot of fun. It was the greenest thing I have seen down here! I have included a few pictures. One of the cutest things that happened was we were in the bathroom washing our hands and this little girl walked in. She looked at us and then said "Are you a mormon?" I said "Why yes I am. Are you a mormon?" She replied "Yep!" She was really cute. When we went to the sheep it smelled really bad and I turned to hermana Mitchell and said "We might smell a little bad after bike week, but at least we don't smell that bad!"
So this Saturday the Elders in our ward had a baptism. Her name is Eva and she is a miracle story. A brief version of the story: Eva has a brother who has been a member of the church for over 30 years and has spent the last 30 years trying to get to her learn about the church. Eva always said no. Then about 2 months ago she was in a bank and started talking to some people in line. She mentioned how she needed a TV and they said they had one if she would like it. That started a friendship. They are members in our ward and they asked Eva if she would like to learn about the Church and she said yes. The Elders started teaching her and she accepted everything. She didn't tell her brother that she was taking the missionary lessons until a week ago. She finally had to call because she wanted him to baptize her. When she told him, he didn't believe her at first, but the missionaries talked to him and assured him that she was indeed going to baptized. It was such a sweet experience to watch Eva being baptized by her brother, who no doubt has uttered many prayers in behalf of his sister. Then to take it even farther. We were at her house having lunch this week and she was telling us about her family and she mentioned the name Imelda as her daughter. I was like hmmm we are teaching an Imelda. All of the sudden her granddaughter walks out of the back room and I think my mouth probably dropped open because it is the daughter of one of our investigators! About 2 months ago we were going through our big area book pulling out some names of people we would like to contact. We came across this one who had an uncle who worked in the temple in Juarez, so we decided to try and visit them. They let us in and we taught them about the restoration and about the Book of Mormon and they were interested. This past month we've only had really short visits with them because they are super busy with work, but it was a miracle that two different sets of missionaries in the same ward started teaching two members of the same family at roughly the same time without even knowing it. I hope that Eva can now be a great example to her daughter and her family. The Lord's hand is in this work and there is no way to deny it.
So you may remember that I wrote about the amazing lesson we had the other day with princess's owner. Well she is absolutely amazing and I love her to death. I could spend hours talking about the gospel with her! She is just soaking it in and you can see her desire to learn. We were texting earlier in the week and her co-workers said "you're not going to the movie with us because of the mormons?!" Apparently she talks about us to them, so I sent her a text and then told her to tell her coworkers hi from the missionaries. She got a kick out of that! She has been talking about the church so much that her roommate and our friend too said "we are taking so much about them that I am dreaming about mormons!" We had a good chuckle about that one. The other funny thing that happened during one of our lessons is we started teaching her the word of wisdom and we named the things that we don't put into our bodies. She was talking to Hna Mitchell and then jokingly Hermana Mitchell started saying and we don't eat pork, beef, chicken, fish and asparagus. I looked up when she started listing those things and when she said asparagus there was a slight flash of worry - maybe horror - across her face! Quickly I jumped in and said she was just joking and we all laughed afterwards, but she was so cute when she said "I was doing ok at first because I am working towards being a vegetarian, but asparagus!" It was also funny because all of the sudden green tea didn't seem so hard to give up anymore. I guess we learned our lesson, not to joke about asparagus anymore! It has been such a blessing and privilege to teach her. She came to the baptism on Saturday and has set her own baptismal date for August! She told us this story of how she heard something on a youtube video that confused her and she really wanted to ask us about it, but it was like 1 in the morning. So she went to mormon.org and she sent an email to the ask a mormon page. She said they responded in 2 hours and answered her question perfectly. She wanted to go back to the youtube video and say you're wrong, see this is what the scripture says... So I guess we now know that if you ever have a question apparently people will even answer in the middle of the night!
Words can't describe what a miracle this has been for me. I have felt the spirit so strongly and I know without a doubt that El Paso Texas is where I am meant to be right now. I will forever be grateful and blessed for serving a mission. I look forward to telling you next week where I'll be!
Con Amor,
Hermana Klaus
Buenos Tardes! Decidí que quiero escribir en español...chiste!
Well the end of the transfer has come upon us. I really thought that I wasn't going to have to move, but I received the call on Saturday night. Yep I'm being transferred. (sniff) It is going to be so hard to leave El Paso...wait false! I am being transferred, but I am still staying in El Paso. I am starting to think that I might spend my entire mission down here in one city and never actually serve in Albuquerque! So Robert you might have to make me another plaque and put The Texas Flag and Texas instead of New Mexico flag and New Mexico.
This is the worst part about missionary work. Making friendships and loving people more than I would have thought possible and then having to leave, before you feel like you have finished everything. We have seen a lot of miracles this week. We have 8 people with baptismal dates right now. It is such a blessing to see people learn about the gospel and begin to change their lives one step at a time. We are teaching so many amazing people right now and it has been very hard for me to say good-bye. All of these people are my family down here and I want to keep helping them. But I know that the Lord needs me in another area right now and I know that this transfer is inspired. It's just the waiting in between part that I really don't like.
So last week we went to the Zoo with all of the zone sisters and it was a lot of fun. It was the greenest thing I have seen down here! I have included a few pictures. One of the cutest things that happened was we were in the bathroom washing our hands and this little girl walked in. She looked at us and then said "Are you a mormon?" I said "Why yes I am. Are you a mormon?" She replied "Yep!" She was really cute. When we went to the sheep it smelled really bad and I turned to hermana Mitchell and said "We might smell a little bad after bike week, but at least we don't smell that bad!"
So this Saturday the Elders in our ward had a baptism. Her name is Eva and she is a miracle story. A brief version of the story: Eva has a brother who has been a member of the church for over 30 years and has spent the last 30 years trying to get to her learn about the church. Eva always said no. Then about 2 months ago she was in a bank and started talking to some people in line. She mentioned how she needed a TV and they said they had one if she would like it. That started a friendship. They are members in our ward and they asked Eva if she would like to learn about the Church and she said yes. The Elders started teaching her and she accepted everything. She didn't tell her brother that she was taking the missionary lessons until a week ago. She finally had to call because she wanted him to baptize her. When she told him, he didn't believe her at first, but the missionaries talked to him and assured him that she was indeed going to baptized. It was such a sweet experience to watch Eva being baptized by her brother, who no doubt has uttered many prayers in behalf of his sister. Then to take it even farther. We were at her house having lunch this week and she was telling us about her family and she mentioned the name Imelda as her daughter. I was like hmmm we are teaching an Imelda. All of the sudden her granddaughter walks out of the back room and I think my mouth probably dropped open because it is the daughter of one of our investigators! About 2 months ago we were going through our big area book pulling out some names of people we would like to contact. We came across this one who had an uncle who worked in the temple in Juarez, so we decided to try and visit them. They let us in and we taught them about the restoration and about the Book of Mormon and they were interested. This past month we've only had really short visits with them because they are super busy with work, but it was a miracle that two different sets of missionaries in the same ward started teaching two members of the same family at roughly the same time without even knowing it. I hope that Eva can now be a great example to her daughter and her family. The Lord's hand is in this work and there is no way to deny it.
So you may remember that I wrote about the amazing lesson we had the other day with princess's owner. Well she is absolutely amazing and I love her to death. I could spend hours talking about the gospel with her! She is just soaking it in and you can see her desire to learn. We were texting earlier in the week and her co-workers said "you're not going to the movie with us because of the mormons?!" Apparently she talks about us to them, so I sent her a text and then told her to tell her coworkers hi from the missionaries. She got a kick out of that! She has been talking about the church so much that her roommate and our friend too said "we are taking so much about them that I am dreaming about mormons!" We had a good chuckle about that one. The other funny thing that happened during one of our lessons is we started teaching her the word of wisdom and we named the things that we don't put into our bodies. She was talking to Hna Mitchell and then jokingly Hermana Mitchell started saying and we don't eat pork, beef, chicken, fish and asparagus. I looked up when she started listing those things and when she said asparagus there was a slight flash of worry - maybe horror - across her face! Quickly I jumped in and said she was just joking and we all laughed afterwards, but she was so cute when she said "I was doing ok at first because I am working towards being a vegetarian, but asparagus!" It was also funny because all of the sudden green tea didn't seem so hard to give up anymore. I guess we learned our lesson, not to joke about asparagus anymore! It has been such a blessing and privilege to teach her. She came to the baptism on Saturday and has set her own baptismal date for August! She told us this story of how she heard something on a youtube video that confused her and she really wanted to ask us about it, but it was like 1 in the morning. So she went to mormon.org and she sent an email to the ask a mormon page. She said they responded in 2 hours and answered her question perfectly. She wanted to go back to the youtube video and say you're wrong, see this is what the scripture says... So I guess we now know that if you ever have a question apparently people will even answer in the middle of the night!
Words can't describe what a miracle this has been for me. I have felt the spirit so strongly and I know without a doubt that El Paso Texas is where I am meant to be right now. I will forever be grateful and blessed for serving a mission. I look forward to telling you next week where I'll be!
Con Amor,
Hermana Klaus
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