Happy Birthday Sister Valdez!!!!

Transfer 6 Week 5

The picture of me crying at the sign indicating how far away we were from the California border.

Not feeling top notch this morning, my dears, so please excuse any evident lack of enthusiasm. Had a pretty rough night last night and I'm still recovering!

First I will explain the pictures I'm sending: We had a crazy fun two hour drive to St. Michaels last week for exchanges. Why did they assign us a Sister Training Leader who lives a billion miles away? I'll never know. But we had a blast, and enjoyed talking and sharing stories during the ride up. I told Sister Garcia about the time I put a snail on my hand to avoid holding hands with a boy. That's a Sister Valdez Classic. Also I love snails and miss them cause they pretty much don't exist here ever. There was a ridiculous amount of dust at one point, and very beautiful clouds towards the end of the day. The last picture is a tribute to "Kyle" who I can only assume died at this same gas station we got lost and stranded at. We were freaking out calling our leader since it was ten minutes till curfew, little did we know that she had lost her phone at a members house and was freaking out trying to find it. I left a voicemail nervously singing "Heeyyyy sisters, we're stuuuck at a gas station... and I think we might get.. stabbed.to.death. BYE!" Which we laughed about later once we were safe ("safe") in their tiny little dirty trailer next to the church building. I slept on a big red rocking chair similar to the one the Heymans used to have, the kind you can just sink into. 

driving to the Rez

 Exchanges were fun though, we met a lot more natives, got to see what the reservation is like over there. Our leader is Sister Nava and she's one of the few other hispanic sisters in this mission. (Brown power!) Her companion is Sister Clark who is beyond the point of awkward and completely adorable and I want to wrap her up and stick a bow on her head. She is, in fact, the third person I've met on my mission who has the same love of websites and TV shows that I do. There was much screaming and giggling occurring in our part of the exchange together.

and I convinced Sister Garcia to be a handstand master like unto myself

Sister Garcia takes the cake this week for the most awkward door approach:

"So... Do you... get a lot of flies?"

*mild applause* Very well done, Sister Garcia. Good form, good form.

Our miles are shot this month since our tire got a slow leak and we had to drive to Farmington twice, along with the trip to St. Micheal's and our Zone Conference in Bloomfield, we will be walking lots. That's all I have to say. 

Someone fed us taco salad with Doritos, which changed my life forever. And our beloved Sister Johnson got Emergency Transferred to Dove Creek, so I am beyond the point of devastation. 

Things are lining up for the baptism this weekend and I am super excited, especially for Sister Garcia since this will be her first! 

Oh yeah one more thing I wanted to mention, Dad asked about 4th of July. 4th of July here in Kirtland is like President's Day in Taiwan. It meant very little. Well.. I over dramatized that. People did set off fireworks all night. But during the day pretty much the whole town went to Farmington or went out camping so this place was a ghost town. HOWEVER. Pioneer day is the world's biggest event. People have been talking about it since Sister Garcia got here in February. It's seriously the hugest deal since... since.. anything. So it's pretty much a three day celebration, dances, parties, picnics, PARADES. What did you say...? Did you just ask me.... if I was going to be on a FLOAT? Why yes. Yes I am. How'd you know? What a clever little thing you are.

Yesterday I wrote a song about a grasshopper that involved silly voices and sang it all during tracting and I think Sister Garcia contemplated beating me to death with her bag. 

Probably the greatest miracle this week were the tiny miracles. Especially last Monday, because I was an emotional wreck. I think even just a fly landing on my arm would've made me burst into tears. I cried all during writing letters (for no apparent reason at all), suddenly remembered how my dog died last year and decided to cry about that too, cried on the way to dinner with Sister Garcia's tears accompanying mine as well because we started talking about mothers. Before going into dinner we wiped our little baby faces and I looked at her and asked:

"How in the world am I going to walk into that house and see a mother feeding and loving her children and not start sobbing?" 

We collected ourselves and braved into their house. This was the family I've talked about before, less active husband, semi active mom, adorable kids, one of which gave me an arrowhead because he's adorable. We get in there and play it cool like we weren't just blubbering about being randomly homesick. We enjoy dinner, and then the young mother asked us about how we can only go to Farmington once a month. She freaked out about having fresh produce (like any good mother would), and grabbed a list, and insisted we tell her what fruits and veggies we like. She made a long list and bought us grapes, strawberries, cut us some pineapple, got me this fruit juice that I really like. And I don't think she realizes what a difference that makes. Because on that exact day, all I needed was a little love from a mommy. The Lord knew that and I am grateful for tender mercies. 

I love you all and hope your week goes great!

I miss everybody like the madness, 

also I wish I could pinch everyone individually wherever it hurts the most!

xoxxo

Sister Valdez

beautiful sky

also I painted a pony because Pdays here are pretty rough

Transfer 6 Week 4

Pics: my progressing watch tan,

fireworks,

fridge drawings

wiggle flower

and regular flowers

A little girl living tHE GOOD LIFE: falling asleep whilst consuming a taco

The cutest card from the hawaiian old ladies husband, he passed away last december and she wears his wedding band around her neck. They met at the turtle races, I think he was 20 and she was 17, it was "love at first sight!" she says, holding her hand to her chest.

And two pictures from the desert this morning

but please admire my dark complexion 
please ignore my very Asian eyes

Sorry I'm emailing so late, but we spent the morning with our potential investigator! He's a hoarder (like dad but one or two notches higher) and we go over and force him to throw away things. His phrase is, "But I might use that later!" He's the one with the thick Brooklyn accent and we have thrown away four broken vacuum cleaners, recycled at least seven bags of aluminum cans, and seen many many piles of old rusty pieces of metal that he "might use later!". We got him to throw away the vacuum cleaners, but he chopped off the cords that he "might use later". We let him keep his old pile of bed frames because his fence for his horses is made out of it. I asked him, "Hold on, when you go to the dump to drop stuff off, do you come back with more stuff?" He says, in his thick accent, "Of COURSE! That's da fun of goin to da dump!" I told him my father did the same exact thing. Anyways he took us out dinosaur bone hunting, AKA we walked in circles and picked up cool rocks in the desert.

Our new investigator, the Jersey girl is still going strong! She told us that she tried grape juice with sprite and its just as good as wine with sprite, so goodbye alcohol! Hello grape juice! If only it were that easy for every drinker. 

An old man who we help in his garden said he saw a vision of my future, and I am a 48% believer of that story. Among the rest of his visions and 'Nam stories. He's straight out of the movie Big Fish, I swear.

We did service last Wednesday for the Brooklynite, leveled dirt. He has a big mustache and a hilarious little grandson. 

The blessings of service are blooming! Sister C in our ward told us that the woman across the street from her has a huge yard of weeds. The woman was away for her sons funeral. So we got some shovels and started going to work. We've been working on the weeds for days now, and one night the woman opened the door and was surprised to see us there. We told her that we heard she could use some service, she sheepishly and quickly thanked us. We tried to ask her the casual "How've you been?" and she choked back tears and she told us about her sons death. She seemed embarrassed and shut the back door quickly after handing us some bags for all the weeds. We continued to come back every couple of nights to pull her weeds, we'd talk and she'd pop her head out and give us more bags. Her husband did the same, a quick 'thank you', and not much more. 

We were out tracting last Wednesday at a door who has answered a few times but given us the "we're busy come back later" response. We take that response very seriously because this is a small town and there are only so many doors who haven't given us a firm NO. This time the man opened the door all the way. Before we had time to invite him to hear the restored gospel, he asked "Are you the ladies who have been pulling my sisters weeds?" He pointed down the street to the woman's house where we had been weeding. We told him, yes, we had heard she needed some help. His voice was soft as he thanked us, he said "I'd let you in, but we're in the middle of dinner right now." Usually, that response was an excuse, but we could tell he was sincere. He told us we could come back, and smiled, he thanked us two more times for the service we were doing for his sister. It is amazing how service softens hearts. How sometimes we think that our small acts go unnoticed. But they don't. They never are

A couple of days later on the fourth of July, the woman's husband came out as we were pulling weeds. He said "I have a little gift for you ladies." He put down two of those solar powered wiggly flowers and quietly slipped back into the house. I don't understand the wiggly flowers, but I understand a sincere thanks when I see one. It's interesting how naturally we wait for the "Thank you" when we really shouldn't. I want to serve without waiting for it, because it makes it so much sweeter if it does come.

We received many other gifts on fourth of july as we walked around in the hot sun:

Potato salad

a bag of jelly beans

roses

and most importantly, a dinner appointment! 

A member pulled up beside us on the road and invited us. 

The next day, a 9 year old gave me an arrowhead necklace because he maybe perhaps is madly in love with the sister missionaries. 

Transfer 6 Week 3

Googleable question is the difference between digress and regress. I have been pondeirng that one. This week we sheered a sheep. Sister Garcia is not QUITE as skilled as me and that poor sheep had several wounds by the end of it.

I felt so bad and cringed when I saw the little cuts on him. We also planted corn, pulled weeds, and painted the Hawaiian old ladies little chair on her porch.

We found two new investigators, and both of them are now on date! One is for August 2nd and the other for August 9th. One is a native man who is living in a house of less-actives. The other is an energetic woman who is trying to quit smoking, and just learned how to read a couple years ago! She is several chapters into the Book of Mormon and the Bible and is eating it right up.

She was so nervous before church this Sunday, chewing gum rapidly and talking 100 miles an hour. She kept holding her stomach and saying "I'm so nervous I'm so nervous!" After sacrament meeting we found out that the reason she was so nervous was because she had heard that the Mormons shout and yell in church and fall to the ground and convulse and scream PRAISE THE LORD! She said she was SO relieved! The reason she came, despite her fear, was because she said she felt unbelievable peace when she first opened the Book of Mormon. She knows it has to be from God. She has been so prepared. 

The man who gave her the Book of Mormon was her boss. He always talked about the church and how much it blesses his life and his family, and she was actually the one to ask for the missionaries, to ask for the book. 

The earplugs came in the mail, I will assume they are from Daddy or Mommy but I laughed so hard when they got here. I actually put them to use that night since people were setting off fireworks.

I included a picture of my progressing watch tan,

us putting the earplugs to use 

our door

my walrus face

polariods I've taken this summer

I love you all lots and can't express my thanks for the packages I received this past week. They actually make me feel super guilty to receive so much. I miss you all like crazy. 

The Lord is blessing this area so much with new people to teach and I know it's because we've had the faith to press forward, to drop investigators who weren't progressing, to find new ideas on how to serve people. I am horrified that after this transfer I will hit my halfway mark. So I just refuse to talk about it.

xoxoxo

Sister Valdez