My weekly email 12/16/13

Hi people, first things first.

I am formulating the theory that penguins waddle to keep from slipping on the ice. So far the more I waddle when I walk on the ice, the less I slip. The penguins are onto something. I'll get back to you when my research is complete. In the meantime I continue to waddle.

The week was really awesome. 23 lessons! We now have 8 investigators and I love each of them with every ounce of my being. I don't know if I've told you about our newest one, but she's GOLDEN. Her name is Chenisse and she's a 22 year old single mom. Everything she's said is spot on. She's not super emotional but she said the moment she stepped into the church building, she started crying. She felt the spirit so strongly the moment she entered, she said that something just "felt right" here, and like she was so close to finding what she's been searching for. The hardest part is going to be the opposition from her parents. Anyways I just love her. 

The quote of the week is from a woman we contacted named Jamie. She said "Oh man, yeah, the missionaries stopped by last week and I meant to Cliff Notes that Book of Norman" I wanted to scream laughing so hard, but I held it in as she flicked the ash off of her cigarette.

I am missing music like crazy, I won't lie. This morning I had Booty Wurk stuck in my head, I don't even wanna talk about how many times I had to sing Nearer My God to Thee until it was out. 

We received a mystery loaf one night, upon eating it was discovered to be banana bread. And upon investigation it was discovered to be from Tiff, the one black girl in the ward. 

The snow is beautiful here. I like kicking icicles, I think it should probably be a sport or a hobby. 

I was able to play the piano this week (thank you mommy for the sheet music) at beehive home. My audience was a sweet lady in a wheelchair named Pauline at Beehive Home, and I played some Christmas songs. 

A cowboy made fun of me this week during a lesson because I have no idea what a rodeo is. All I know is that someone sits on a bull of some sort. I will get back to you when I have done deeper research. I hear it is actually "fun", but I have my doubts.

We helped one of the wards with a christmas party dinner and I cut lettuce like a mad man. No joke my wrist hurt for the whole next day. OH! And that day was my one month mark! SHOUT OUT TO ALL MY HOMIES WHO HAVENT WRITTEN, EMAILED, OR EVEN CARED ABOUT ME FOR A MONTH. I hope you guys stub your toes. No but really, I've been out for a month and I do miss everybody so send me stuff. I heard you can send even like a sandle in the mail if you put an address and postage on it, so you guys should try that. 

Okay you know how we always do SILENT AUCTIONS at home? Well the YSA branch did a LOUD AUCTION! You would not believe how much I loved it. You got "money" from donating cans, and bought services with that money. We had three sign ups:

1. Job Shadow the Sisters

2. Dinner cooked by Sister Heck (Sister Valdez plans on just watching cause she cant cook)

3. Popcorn and a Movie (Mr. Krueger's Christmas) with the Sisters

OKAY AND HOLD UP HOW COME NO ONE TOLD ME THAT MR KRUGERKRUGER IS JIMMY STUART AKA "I WISH I HAD A MILLION DOLLARS, HOT DOG" JIMMY STUART? I'm outraged and also its probably cause when I used to watch that movie, I didn't know how to read, so I didn't notice the credits. 

But that movie really is awesome we've been able to watch it for a few lessons, and the scene where he talks to Christ gets me every time. Imagine how meaningful our prayers would be if we spoke with that much sincerity to Christ every single time we prayed? If we really imagined him there in the flesh, how much would we thank him for, like Mr. Krueger does? He really has walked beside us through every hard time and I can't believe how often I neglect to thank him for that in prayer. 

Sunday afternoon we were able to experience the power of the priesthood as two of our investigators (Adrien and Jesus) received priesthood blessings to help them overcome their struggles with the Word of Wisdom. I know they will receive strength, but only according to their faith. They are set to be baptized next January.

A miracle that happened this week was with our investigator Jon. We were having trouble figuring out what to do for him, what lesson to teach that day, and nothing quite felt right. We realized that we had scheduled his appointment for the same time as the Christmas Devotional on Sunday night. So Sister Heck, being the genuis (not sarcasm) that she is, texted him and told him that he should come to the devotional and we'd reschedule the lesson. Now a thing that Jon struggles with is his testimony of Christ. He is solid in so many other ways but the one concern is sometimes his faith in Christ himself falters. But he studies the scriptures so well and understands so much and can't wait to have the priesthood. Anyways, the devotional that night, if you saw it, included a talk where the speaker spoke of a young boy named Jon. She, throughout the talk, addressed Jon, testifying to him that "Christ died for you". She even ended the talk by testifying personally to Jon that Christ was his Savior. There truly was a reason our investigator needed to be there last night. I hope that testimony in him grows. 

Sunday morning me and Sister Heck also gave talks, which was such a blessing (crazy, right? talks are supposed to be the pits). We were asked to speak on the best topic: The Savior.

Mine was organized as such: WHO is the Savior, WHAT did he do and WHAT does that mean for us, WHEN and WHERE will he "save" us, and WHY did he perform the atonement?

I really learned so much as I was able to elaborate on the Savior, his life, his purpose, and his love for each one of us. I testify to all you cute people reading this, that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World, that he suffered every kind of pain and affliction and sin for each of us individually, so that he can help us wherever we are in our lives, whenever we need him. He walked the path he did, and suffered the things he did, so that He could come to us. He will lift us from where we stand, if we will only reach towards him. I testify that he loves each one of us. That knowledge has been a light in every dark moment of my life. I miss you all but I know God is watching over each one of you, cause I've asked him to in prayer in night. And he's supposed to answer those, right? Right. 

I love you all lots and lots,

I miss your faces and your butts.

Love love,

Sister Cassandra Valdez

Email #1

Hey Mommy! I don't know dad's email address so you're lucky you even get an email this week. It's Pday and I'm in the laundry room and I can't even express how much I've learned in the past seven days but I'll try.

The biggest thing I learned in the beginning is that my flaws as a human being are also my flaws as a missionary. I left home thinking "Self-doubt won't be an issue in missionary work, cause it ain't about ME" but really, that was my biggest struggle the first few days and it brought lots of tears but also some amazing revelation. I can't let my self-doubt get in the way of the blessings ready to be poured out upon me and upon my investigators as well.
OH! My companion is Sister Fackrell and she's great in every way. She not only listens to but loves my random rants. She's super empathetic which has been a huge blessing when teaching lessons. She's a quirky girl from oregon and honestly reminds me a lot of Darlene. I've finally found out how to make her laugh at the drop of a hat, so I feel like her and I are as close as we can be. She says I "connect her dots".

The coolest thing was singing the opening hymn at the welcoming meeting and they changed the lyrics to "We are now the Lords missionaries, to bring the world His truth". Me and Fackrell both cried. I knew that first day when I peeked at her and saw her getting emotional too that her and I would get along really well.

My district is made up of me, Sister Fackrell, Sister Johnson, and Sister Wilson. And the Elders are Clem and Kellis, and Byram (District Leader) and Hathcock. Hathcock, Wilson, and Johnson are all from Utah. Clem is from Indiana and I think Kellis is from Oklahoma. Fackrell is from Oregon. Did I say that already?! They're all fantastic and ADORABLE. We are constantly pumping each other up about the gospel, but leaving room for cracking plenty of jokes between the waves of spirituality. The past few nights, us four girls have shared scriptures about Lamanites and we get so pumped about teaching the Navajos.

I think it was Saturday night, we were all kinda crashing, but especially Johnson was super down and just feeling homesick and awful and BLARGH. I started talking to her and just spilling spiritual vomit and she scooped it up and threw some back at me, and Sister Wilson rubbed that spiritual vomit all over herself and before we knew it we were more riled up than a cage of monkeys. Johnson was on her chair preaching like a baptist minister, and Sister Wilson had a Book of Mormon in hand and was punching the air and kicking and talking about how awesome it's gonna be to teach. We all just received, through each other and through ourselves, the answers to WHY we're here. And why we should be so excited about it.

But honestly it's just been life changing being here just a week, I've found so much joy in learning and me and Fackrell just rejoice in the gospel. Elder Perry came and talked on Tuesday which was AMAZING. The best part was he testified of everything in Preach my Gospel and it was just confirmation that it isn't just a textbook, it's revelation from God.
There have been crazy silly times, me and Fackrell have gotten majorly loopy but the biggest evidence of that is a quote from last week. "My... My messing just gets writier!" -Sister Fackrell. Thus we see the insanity of the MTC, turning our brains to mush. There have been so many times when I just grabbed my head and yelled in class "MY BRAINS ARE OATMEAL!" I actually talk way too much in class and it needs to calm down but I have SO MANY THOUGHTS.

Satan tries to sneak in hate-notes like "PS YOU SUCK - LOVE SATAN" or "YOU CANT DO THIS" or "WHAT IF YOU CANT REALLY TEACH LIKE THIS IN THE FIELD. PS U SMELL LIKE POO - SATAN" and I've had to crumple them up and just toss em. I'm so happy to be surrounded by a great district and just a great companion who is able to lift me up. Also everyone loves my words like dooble dob, goob gob, and the latest "zip zop" which is the little badge reels we use for our ID tags.

I played prelude in sacrament meeting on Sunday which was awesome. Oh and my Sister Training Leader was a girl named Sister Lambert, she's from Huntington Beach and I had met her like a year or so ago at Nate Myers birthday party! She was so awesome, she left a couple days ago.

I've missed everyone at home! Especially when I realized that Byram reminds me of Eduardo, the way he says little jokey things and rushingly says "JUS KIDDIN JUS KIDDIN", and gets super excited about stuff. And a few days ago a member of our Branch Presidency was telling us about travel plans and he mentioned "Just as advice, totally not related to mission stuff, be careful using debit cards, someone can just take all your money and its very easy to have fraud happen... etc." For some reason that made me SUPER emotional cause I thought of Daddy right away. It's weird to miss the dumb "dad-advice". And Sister Metcalf, one of the BP members wives gave us a hug and I teared up right then and there cause I was like OH ITS LIKE HUGGING A MOMMY AGAIN.

The two big lessons I learned this week were definitely to be BOLD! I can be a bold person, I know, but for some reason I can also be so unsure and timid. One of the teachers this week, truly working through the spirit, took me aside after we had taught a lesson and he said "Sister Valdez, I feel impressed to tell you that you need to stop comparing yourself to others. Don't be anxious, don't be worried. Stop doubting yourself. You're a great missionary. I want you to know that when you compare yourself to others, you will almost always put your weaknesses up against their strengths. It's not fair, and it's the adversary's way of dragging you down." That was the basic gist but he said a buttload more and I just broke down because I knew those words were straight revelation. It was as if God give the teacher the exact words that He would say to me if he was here. So, as Elder Kellis told me "Put a rock in your pants, and BE BOULDER"

The second lesson was today we went to the temple, and it was just so amazing to go through with our investigator in mind. Feeling the peace there and being able to feel so close to my Heavenly Father just reminded me WHY I am here. Why I've given up 18 months of my life. So that others can feel that same thing. I am so blessed and I can't wait to share all this happiness.

Also if you wanna share this email or parts of this email with people at home, thats cool.

Sidenotes, things i need, ETC:

Coconut oil would be nice for removing make up. But not a whole big thing of it.
The carrots went bad.

I leave Monday.

I forgot my red pencil skirt, I think it's in my room.

And the CD Nearer I left in Daddy's car.
Thank you for the packages! It was amazing to get stuff from home especially the letters. Sorry I haven't responded but the schedule is SO tight I barely have time to breathe. Hopefully I can write some tonight, but we'll see. SO SORRY. But I love hearing from everybody.

Can you also send the lyrics to Amazing Grace and My Hands are the Lord's Hands?

I love you lots and hugs and kisses and pinchy pinch and i wanna squeeze you and smush your face a lot of times and whack the dog and tell pants that she's a butt nugget and give everyone my love.

- Sister Valdez