Transfer 6 Week 2

This week my googleable questions were answered before I even got to P-day! Just so you know, praying mantises eat small birds. And whales cannot sneeze.

Fresh Eggs from a member!

This week we met a deaf man with a blind dog. We played Rack-O with an old lady wearing a neck brace and she made fun of me 80% of the time (but it's okay I teased her back, I don't let 80 year olds get the best of me). She referred to herself as a "toothless, braless old hag", aka everything I want to grow up to be. At Walmart I bought granola bars without looking and accidentally got Mocha Bars and wanted to throw myself off a bridge because of COURSE I would accidentally buy coffee granola bars. 

I want daddy to be proud of me because I went to buy some mesquite smoked turkey breast (for nostalgia's sake) and the lady ended up selling me NINE DOLLARS worth of ham for ONE DOLLAR AND NINETY CENTS. Yes. Very very thickly cut delicious breakfast ham. As soon as I had it in my hand I twirled and said "DADDY WOULD BE SO PROUD OF ME!" (Please praise me now, thank you.)

We got a new investigator who is from Tennessee and said he has been looking for a church, but never felt like any were right. And he didn't want to join unless he had a way to know it was the right church. *DING!* Lightbulb. Restoration. Amazing lesson. I danced around afterwards with joy. 

For service this week we worked for a funny Jewish man who is Italian and I am constantly tempted to ask him to say "Go buy yoself somethin nice!". We picked up rocks out of the mud and brushed his donkey and talked to the emu and called it a day. Also we hung out with his nephew, Chaz, who is 10 years old and wants to be an engineer and is from Arkansas and wears glasses and shorts that are a bit too short and told us about space camp. He is all I've ever wanted out of life.

We brought the old Hawaiian lady some flowers this week after painting her porch, and I also gave her the pictures of her dog. She could hardly stand it. She was so happy, she screamed and held her hand to her chest. She was shaking as she took the flowers. She cried and wrapped her arms around us. It is comparable to the time that I gave grandma her Twilight shirt. 

Our investigator shared Mosiah 5:2 with us and told us it's exactly how she feels. Her baptism date is getting closer and we might move it to the 5th or the 12th depending on how she feels about it. 

Filipinos gave us fresh eggs. And yes, fresh eggs are the best things on the planet. I also got an all organic shampoo bar from the same guy who gave me a homemade soap bar. 

The best spiritual experience this week was a testimony builder of listening to the spirit during planning. We had dinner with an active family with a less active father. We were planning the dinner message we wanted to share. We reviewed the record of things we'd already shared with them. Though it made no logical sense the word "prayer" popped into my mind. I sat in silence for a few seconds, then asked Sister Garcia if we could share a lesson on prayer. It made no sense, prayer was so simple, and I was sure they were all doing stellar in their prayers. But she nodded and we wrote it down. 

When we sat down after dinner and shared the message. Her husband had already left to bring one of the sons to football practice. We began to discuss the blessings of prayer. She looked at us and sighed, then she poured out the feelings of her heart. She expressed that she struggled in prayer. She felt as if she was failing as a mother to teach her children to pray. Tears filled her eyes as she admitted to us that she felt unworthy to pray. She didn't get down on her knees before bedtime. She didn't establish family prayer since it's hard with her husband not being comfortable with it. She didn't know how to muster up the courage to get down on her knees at night before getting into bed. She had experiences that week that made her realize that her children didn't understand the nature or power of prayer. She apologized for the mascara tears smudged on her face. We talked with her, encouraged her. She asked if it would be wrong to pray silently, since she would find it strange to pray aloud in front of her husband. We read to her the scripture in Mosiah:

12 And Alma and his people did not raise their voices to the Lord their God, but did pour out their hearts to him; and he did know the thoughts of their hearts.

She said "Thank you, that answers my question perfectly."

I felt impressed to read her the next few verses.

13 And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.

14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.

I watched more tears stream down her face as I promised her that the Lord's promise to the people in the Book of Mormon applied to her. I looked around at her beautiful home; gorgeous portraits of her family, her three kids, cute decor everywhere- and I realized how many burdens a mother must carry. Especially this great sister, trying to raise her children in the gospel without support from her husband. Mothers are great warriors. I pray that the Lord will continue to help this great sister. 

I love you all, keep being silly and pinching each other

xoxox

Sister Valdez

The college from where I am emailing.

Transfer 6 Week 1

Here I am once again in the SJC West Campus library. On the white board there is a note that says "DO NOT USE INTERNET EXPLORER" (You can say that again). To my right is Sister Garcia typing away, and to my left is our temporary third companion, Sister Anderson. Being with Sister Anderson (our sister training leader) has been a great blessing. It started out as an intimidating experience, but we have both grown to love her and value all that she has taught us this past week. I have included a picture of her making very wide eyes (her signature look). She literally uses wide eyes for every emotion.

Happy: Wide eyes with a grin

Surprised: Wide eyes with small mouth

Angry: Wide eyes with gritted teeth 

 

 

 

 

 

She's also very different than Sister Garcia and I, as far as emotional expression goes. We are both very open people, talk freely about our feelings and personal lives and experiences. Sister Anderson has taken a significant amount of time to reveal anything personal. It has been a fun experience to get to know and understand her, and figure out why she is the way she is. Last night she even let us read through some letters that she was throwing away. For the record, I have never and will never throw away letters. I am a hoarder. Opposite of Sister Anderson, who cannot stand having anything even remotely useless in her presence. 

Anyway, the week has been fantastic! I first must tell you about the meal I ate last night:

Bottom layer: off brand ritz crackers smashed up

2nd layer: rice

3rd: beans with ground turkey

4th: Nacho cheese

5th: Lettuce 

Beverage: lukewarm kool aid

None of you should be surprised that I absolutely loved this meal and was practically wiggling in my seat with joy to be eating crackers, beans, and rice all together!!!! It was BEAUTIFUL. 

The sleeptalking did not cease after the first night, and I got quite exhausted after sleepless nights. Some nights I considered throwing things at them. Other nights I would talk back at them. One night I recorded every word they said and the time of night that they said it. Eventually I think my brain learned to sleep through most of it. Though I do remember Sister Anderson two nights ago said "Thank you for letting us come into your home and teach you."

This week we also got to teach a lesson inside a meat factory where our less active Bro. A works. The goat picture I included is from behind the meat factory. I photographed this goat because, you can't tell, but it is half naked. It is the goat equivalent of a shirtless man wearing fuzzy pants. But I sent it only to show the impressiveness of this goats silky smooth beard. Find me a man who can grow a beard similar, if not exactly the same, as this goat, and I will come home and marry him. (Half serious)

I can't remember if I mentioned this, but we have recently dropped a few people who the Sisters here have been teaching forever. It takes a lot of faith to drop people especially in such a small area- cause who else in the world will we teach?! At times it feels like we have knocked on every door, and gotten rejected by every nonmember in the area. But Sister Anderson kept telling us to have the faith to drop people. We worked up the courage and dropped those who we needed to. The Lord blessed us and we now have three new investigators!

Two of them are daughters of a less active, one of them is the grandson of a different less active! The daughters are cute native girls, 12 and 15. They are skinny little things who are baseball fanatics. The grandson is also native and has a strong testimony of Christ. He has always been in the next room when we met with the less active, but I felt very strongly this week that we should ask him to turn off the xbox and join our lesson. (Even though we all know how hard that is to do... ah.. to turn off an xbox..)

And we have one very strong potential who is the son if a lady who kept sending us away saying "Too busy, come back next week."

He has already started to read the Book of Mormon we left with him, and we'll be meeting with him next week. He has a thick southern accent and is 19 years old. 

The Lord is constantly reminding me how much I need to trust him! Abandon fear and hold to faith. 

The most tender moment this week was that our investigator brought her niece to church. The niece, Cailley, has down syndrome and is mostly a quiet girl except when she makes few little outbursts. She is a sweetheart and loves her auntie. During Relief Society I folded her a paper crane out of a Dairy Queen receipt. She held it in the palm of her hand and treated it as if I had given her a golden egg. She didn't put it down even to open up her hymn book. She stared at it for the whole hour long meeting. I made her a second one and I thought she was going to scream with joy. It is amazing how often we miss out on the joy of small and simple things. 

Have a great week, I love you all! 

Sister Valdez

Pictures include: goat

new couch we found in the desert

sister andersons wide eyes

and pretty views

 

Transfer 5 Week 6

Week 6?! Jenkies! (Shout-out to the Scooby fandom)

The pictures I have included are of some very cute kittens that reminded me of Amanda and Eduardo tumbling about trying to kill each other. Also Sister Garcia and I got sunglasses this week and spray bottles because this is the driest heat I've ever experienced. I literally don't produce any sweat in New Mexico and I don't know what's going on. I thought I hated sweating, but being dry is even worse. So we spray each other periodically and it is extremely refreshing. 

 

Dad is definitely in tune with the spirit lately because I was going to ask this week for the picture of us dressed up in India garb, and the same day I sent him that request, I got a letter from him with the picture in it. 

 

Tuesday we had a fantastic lesson with the investigator/maybe-less-active who I will name OJ. OJ is the one with really bad pain, she broke her back in two places. Sister C from our ward has felt very impressed for the past 8 years that she needed to find OJ's family and get permission to do their parents temple work. We invited Sister C to our lesson, and when we got there, they realized the connection between the two of them. Sister C was relief society president when OJ's mother was on her deathbed. The both had tears in their eyes as they expressed the feelings of their hearts. OJ felt as if her mother had been guiding her back into the church. Sister C felt as if that same mother had been prompting her to find that family. OJ is on date for July. When we arrived at her house she had been studying for hours. She had all her materials sprawled across her lap and told us that she had gotten up with the sun to study the material we had left with her. She had tears in her eyes as she testified of the Plan of Salvation. She was touched at the knowledge of a premortal life. She immediately began teaching her grandchildren these beautiful truths. 

"Did you know that before you were in Mommy's belly, you were with God?"

She said his eyes got wide. She came to stake conference this weekend, even though it is hard for her to sit for very long. So did our new investigator on date, Andy. Andy is the daughter of the less active who is best friends with OJ! (Everyone is connected). Andy is very eager to be baptized. She fell right into our laps. She came to us asking to be baptized. Mentally she seems much younger than 20 so we will be teaching her slowly and taking it a bit at a time. 

 

We learned again how to make fry bread from the old woman on the other side of the river. She has very few teeth left and I cannot even explain how much she reminds me of grandma. We laughed together and I teased her just like I do to grandma. The frybread was delicious but I am for sure going to get fat from it. 

 

 

 

 

 

This week Blue told us that America is actually called "Turtle-land".

The last bit of news is that Sister Baird, who was living with us, went home. So her companion, Sister Anderson, is now a floater. She is in a tripanionship with us, but pretty much having to work her area by herself and we just tag along to eachothers areas. It's been really rough on her but we're excited to have her with us. Sometimes she scares my pants off because she's very authoritative at times, but she's also a lot of fun and we learn so much from having her with us It was sad to see Sister Baird go, I don't think she realized how much her sweet spirit blessed the lives of all those she came in contact with. She was very sick though and bedridden for pretty much the entire transfer. At district meeting they made us sing God Be With You Till We Meet Again. WOW THANKS. A cryfest, just what I needed! 

One last note,

Sister Anderson ALSO sleeptalks. This is my worst nightmare. I got almost no sleep last night. They were talking to each other. All night. In their sleep. It is both confusing and hilarious.

It started at 11 pm when Sister Anderson mumble/shouted: "MOMMY... Momm.. Mommma.. Mommy."

A bit later Sister Garcia asks, very aggressively:

"How many...? HOW MANY?"

I wracked my half-awake brain for a number to give her, how many? I don't know.. 6? or... 1000?

I was desperate to answer even in my less-than-conscious state. 

Finally Sister Anderson (also in her sleep) asks

"How many WHAT?!"

I laughed as I realized that we were all unconsciously communicating. 

I bumped my head while I laughed and started laughing even harder. 

Sister Garcia, in her sleeping state, thought I was making fun of Sister Anderson and very harshly said "BE NICE!!"

The ridiculous conversations continued throughout the night, most of which I don't remember. 

And I mean all through the night.

All. through

the whole night.

6:15 I think was the last time I heard Sister Anderson mumble something.

It is going to be a fun week until transfers.

Love you all!

Sister V