Transfer 8 Week 5

My darling people,

Hope your week has been just as great, but much less stressful than mine! I've been working out a lot harder in the mornings, not because I need to shed the pounds (in denial), but because I needed to sweat out the stress! This week was exchanges and it was also Jenny's baptism. She asked me to sing at her baptism and I was ridiculously nervous, because our mission president also decided to attend the baptism. You all know how I get when I'm stressed about musical number stuff. I'm like brainless for a week. I'm frantic. I'm bashing my head against the wall and screaming and smashing piano keys and pulling my hair out till I look like a baby eagle. 

But exchanges went great! I was so nervous to have the sisters come to our area considering how small the area is. But we found things to do while each sister was here, and Sister Panoussi enjoyed a day out on the reservation! (PS: parents, if I get sent to Shiprock, do not panic, but I wanted you to know that all of Shiprock is covered by sisters and for all of Shiprock there are only about 5 cops so it takes at least an hour or two for them to come if you call. These girls carry knives.) I learned a lot from both of the sisters. One is a Utah girl and the other is a Hawaiian/Tongan/Puerto Rican/Chinese. I had a blast with both of them and there was lots of giggling and an equal amount of soul searching. Shout out to everyone who makes fun of me for over evaluating people like an obsessive psychologist! I still do that. And I love it. And the amazing part is, for every psychological issue there is a gospel truth that can fix it all. 

The hardest work we did this week was shoveling rocks and sifting the dirt out of them. Why? I just don't know. The Sisters in 3rd ward invited us to do service with them out on the reservation. It was a lot of fun, but why we were doing it made no sense. Plus it was exhausting. 

I've been practicing piano a lot this week since they asked me to play along with a celloist at zone conference. I am ripping my hair out about that too. Six pages polished in one week? I'll need a miracle.

Drumroll!

Highlight of the week was the baptism! She came out in her jumpsuit and said "I LOOK LIKE A PILLSBURY DOUGH GIRL!" I put it in all caps because she yells almost 50% of what she says. Jersey girl. She let out a big cartoonish laugh, and we took pictures.

I sang How Great Thou Art and choked through the last couple of verses. 

And when I think

that God his son not sparing

sent him to die

I scarce can take it in

The last few words of that verse were barely a whisper, because I'm an emotional wreck. But I wasn't the only one crying. Jenny must be deaf because she loved it, and tears were streaming down her face. I gave her a huge hug and she headed to the font. As she went down into the water, I swear my spirit sighed. This is why. This is why we work and knock and walk and cry and bang doors down, and spent hours staring at our planners whining about what we need to do. Because of this. Because of a daughter taking one step closer to her loving Father and Savior. But it's funny, my first baptism I was all fist pump and hopping around. This time a voice inside me says "This is just the beginning. The beginning of the journey, of worries, of nights on our knees, of trials, and of trusting in the Lord. This is just the humble beginning of a rough but rewarding path to eternal life." You have no idea how much missionaries worry, for then, for now, and forever about the people they teach. Mommy and daddy, I can't express how touched and grateful I am that you are being so involved in the missionary work happening in our are. You don't know how much it means to wrap an arm around someone. You don't know how much it means to do such small simple things, though right now you're doing quite a big thing. I am grateful always for your examples to me. I love you all.

Sister Valdez

Transfer 8 Week 4

Not a whole lot going on! Another beautiful week in the desert. It felt about a million degrees earlier this week, and then last night was a rainstorm. I had a dream that Darlene sent me a super huge envelope of like 10 letters. Our investigator (the fast talker from New Jersey) passed her interview! She's now gone a month without smoking. Her baptism is saturday (:

A member lent me his guitar so I'll be playing that all day! We ate Cornish Hens and it reminded me of mom for some reason. Probably because I've only ever heard her say the words "cornish hen" before. 

I played a musical number at a zone meeting this week and stressed myself out to the utmost degree until the point where I finally went up there and noodled my way all over the piano. 

I'm just super exhausted this week for some reason! Like I don't know how, emotionally, I'm going to keep moving forward, but somehow I just have to do it. 

Sister Panoussi almost died cause someone put pecans in her cake, luckily I stopped her before she took a bite otherwise I would've gotten to use my epi pen skills. 

The most spiritual part of the week is just making it through. I have found that the tender mercies are what pull me through. Small things. Little visits. Hugs from someone else's mom. Lunchtime for poem writing. Giggles and things. I don't know what else to say this week. Me? At a loss for words? I know. I love you all. I am trying to work my hardest. 

I can't express how much the mail this week perked me up. Especially the recorder. 

The best part about having a hard day on a mission is that you already know all the answers. You just gotta use em! 

- Sister Valdez

Our wide window,

Sister Panoussi's nap,

and treasures from my mail this week.

Transfer 8 Week 2

TOO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT. TOO LITTLE TIME. Elder Holland came and it changed
my life.
I met a lady who spoke only spanish and she sat us down on her couch and we
sat awkwardly with her and her friend and her grandma who hid in the corner
like a little raisin. We all smiled awkwardly and looked around awkwardly
and tried to say things but neither of us understand each other's
languages. She went off and I understood very minimally what she said, but
from what I understand she was really excited to see us because in
Chihuahua, Mexico, she had met a pair of missionaries, she had gone to the
Mormon church, and she had read the Book of Mormon. She told me this
Elder's name, repeated it two or three times so I knew how important he
was. It just reminds me of the seeds planted. I'll never know if this woman
is a baptized member or if she took the lessons in Mexico and never saw
missionaries again. But we sent the Spanish elders over there to sort it
out.
We've also been harvesting corn like crazy. When I first got here we
planted it, we weeded, and now we are picking, and enjoying! One lady on
the reservation let us... de-kernel the corn. And then she's going to teach
us to steam it so it can be stored and eaten all winter long in stew.
But okay the great highlight of the week was....
SISTER PANOUSSI almost passed out. Actually she pretty much did and I have
no idea why. I was brushing her hair and she started to blink slowly and
she mumbled "I think... I'm gonna pass out..." and then her knees gave out.
So I did the only logical thing I could think of, which was yell at her. I
grabbed her shoulders, pulled her up and said "NO! NO PASSING OUT. NOT
ALLOWED. NOOOO PASSING OUUUUT!!!! NO. NO. NO" And it worked. She sat down
and rested her head for a second and then we went about our day. Should we
have called someone about this? Maybe. But we were hours away from the
meeting with Elder Holland so we ain't got time fo' dat. (internet
reference)
But really the highlight was Elder Hollands talk. It was everything I
could've wished for. Yelling, crying, pulpit slamming. More than that,
before it started I wrote down three questions I had been praying for. And
all three were answered. Such a huge blessing. I don't know how God sorts
it all out, but he does. He manages to take one fireside and 200+
missionaries and answer all their questions and fit all their needs- HOW?
Through the spirit. and some other magic I don't yet understand.
He started out telling us how passionate he is about missionary work.
Anyone who's heard him talk knows this. "I'm *intense *about this. I
can go *ballistic
*about this!"
He reminded us of what every less-than-fresh missionary needs to hear and
he gave his first pulpit slam: "*DO NOT MISS IT! DO. NOT. LET. THIS. PASS."
*He told us to savor it. To not let "one solitary day go by".
"I want you to be wonderfully, enthusiastically, merrily, cheerily *serious
*about this."
He reminded us of obedience. "If it's *HIS *work, we do it *HIS *way."
He encouraged, uplifted, and passionately expressed his great love for us,
and God's love for us. He delivered the classic line:
"Salvation was *never *a cheap experience."

My favorite was he talked about how hard it is. How it's going to be hard,
and it's going to be worth it.
"Do not fear the wounds of faithful service." Even our Savior, a
resurrected being, chose to keep his scars. "Do not ever worry about the
scars you earned in righteousness and the sacrifice you made for the truth."

What was most powerful was just his presence. And his testimony. And the
same fire that burns within his heart may just be a small burning twig in
mine, but I know that same passion for the gospel is in me. It's what makes *me
*so excited to teach. It's what makes me rant off to Sister Panoussi about
some doctrine of the gospel that I want her to understand so that *she *can
be happy, so that *we *can become better missionaries. I am so grateful for
this time I have to learn so much. I miss you all lots, I love you,
Sister Valdez

-my bloody nose

- my wall of postcards

- my growing stack of planners

Transfer 8 Week 1

At the end of this transfer, I'll have been out a year. Don't talk to me. And oh yeah, this transfer is a 7 week transfer, last transfer was a 5 week transfer. Everything is confusing and it doesn't matter anyways. I'm staying in Kirtland with Sister Panoussi, but sadly Sister Heck is leaving our house to be out on the reservation! I'm so excited for her. She's wanted that since day one. 

My googleable question this week is:

Were Fanny Packs supposed to be worn on our fannys?

Because otherwise they should be called Pooch Packs. 

The cutest thing this week was the 101 year old sister in our ward watching Sister Panoussi use a digital camera. 

"You mean it holds all those photographs in that tick-tock box?!" 

We laughed at her while we tried to explain it all, then a few minutes later she was laughing at us when she found out we've never canned jam, or picked corn, or eating fresh grapes. She then sent her 80 year old son to pick us some fresh grapes from their front yard. They smell like Welches but they have so many seeds! 

Things I have come to appreciate on my mission:

- Homemade jam

- Freshly picked corn

- Fresh eggs

- Warm banana bread

We've been meeting with a lot more active members lately, since our stake president asked us to start teaching the active members all of the missionary lessons. An interesting thing I've noticed is that you can distinguish how old someone is if they call it the "missionary discussions". Woops, you just dated yourself, Harry! 

Our investigator is quitting smoking and she's on day 8! We've been challenging her and challenging her to quit because she wants to be baptized, she wants to go to the temple, and get her patriarchal blessing! But she kept telling herself she'd quit next year. Finally she just told us "I've decided, I'm quitting Sunday." and since then she hasn't had a smoke.

On the other side of addictions, we have a less active who the missionaries have been meeting with for ages. She was baptized a year or two ago and is a very bad alcoholic. She goes on binges and drinks for days and days and ends up in the hospital. Meeting with her was hard because some days we would come and she's be completely drunk and start getting upset and yelling at us or trying to argue. She was doing really well since she got in legal trouble for it all. She had to start going to counseling and addiction recovery and all that. But then I went over to her house on exchanges for our usual lesson. She was asleep on the couch drunk, and my sister training leader didn't realize, so she banged on the window and woke her up. We went in and I can't tell you how hard I was praying throughout that lesson. Especially for peace inside of me, so I could think clearly and figure out an exit strategy. The funny thing is that I managed myself really well, I treated her like I would if Eduardo was upset, throwing a fit. She kept trying to get me to argue with her, and I knew that would take away the spirit. So I spoke very calmly until she finally agreed to let us share a scripture, pray, and leave. She sobbed on our shoulders and I decided it was time for her to be dropped.

I am learning the value of leave-and-believe. There comes a point when spending time with someone is no longer productive for you, or for the other person, and you need to leave in faith that the Lord will take care of them. On the way to our drop-lesson Sister Panoussi was so nervous I thought the car would crash. We prayed and role played and prayed again. 

Amazingly enough, the lesson went extremely well. She was sober and she was very understanding. I know it was only through the spirit that we were able to have the words to explain to her how we felt. It's hard to explain "because we love you, we have to let you go". Trust me, I'm the worst at breaking things off. But we did it. And she did cry during the prayer. But she didn't throw a fit. We saw her at church yesterday. And it's amazing thinking that sometimes we are freaking out about things we're afraid of and God's up there saying "C'MON, it's all gonna work out! JUST GO FOR IT!"

The funniest thing that happened this week was a drunk guy interrupted our lesson that we were teaching in the bed of a truck. He came and handed us watermelon slices. During our closing prayer, he came back and handed me a peach, and Sister Panoussi an apple with a bite out of it.

Also Sister Panoussi let me pluck her eyebrows so my life is complete. 

- Sister Panoussi laughing while I made fun of her

- I rescued a cat while we were tracting, it climbed too high and I got a chair and took it down. PS I love cats now for some reason. I'd call it a mighty change of heart.

- Scenery on the reservation

Actual Cowboy

Doodle

My toenails (Jamberry, check it out)

The best outfit ever.