Transfer 9 Week 2

Holbrook, here I am! This is the town that Cars was based off of. The Wigwams are the little Cone motel things, and the red rock is real here, but it reminds me of Disneyland. The streets glow with neon lights, but not quite as many as Walt puts up, and so far none of the cars have talked to me.
I'm actually over FOUR wards now instead of one itty bitty one. We're over:
Painted Desert- The biggest ward, all of our investigators are here.
Little Colorado- I've meet a couple people here, so awesome.
Petrified Forest- Named after all the petrified wood around here
Woodruff- Tiny town. TINY town. It's outside of Holbrook and everyone is related. Everyone walks to church. There was a tiny dog outside of church who just sat there, I'm assuming he sat and waited for his owner. It's tiny. Can I emphasize tiny enough? There are supposedly 5 people in the whole town who aren't members.

I rode here in the transfer van and was the only sister. It was fun, despite what other sisters have complained about. I got down to the nitty gritty and psychologically evaluated the ones I could in those hours we drove down the road. I asked one Elder why he was so confident and if it was just overcompensation for the lack of self-confidence he had as a fat kid. It sounds like a rude question when worded that way, but the answer was great and I got to hear a story about a girl in high school drama class and how Britney Spears song Toxic was what got him out of his shell. Anyway, I arrived and met Sister Jeffery and went STRAIGHT to taco bell. Dad made me laugh sending me directions to taco bell! As if I wouldn't find it FIRST thing!

I met the woman we live with, she's in her 70's and she's adorable and classy. We have family prayer with her every night and she gives us hugs. I hug her extra tight for grandma. The members here are beyond fantastic. They all want to come to lessons and have lessons in their house. Every time we talk to someone we walk out with a referral. I am so humbled to be in such a blessed area. The youth are amazing. The leadership is amazing. We met with the Stake President last night, and apparently we do that every Sunday! It makes me so sad though, because I don't think the missionaries here realize what a great blessing it is to have members like this. I am so humbled, but they're so used to it. It reminds me of the scriptures I've been reading in Helaman- How quickly we forget the Lord, how slow we are to remember Him. And yet He blesses us anyways.

The best thing that happened to me all week was that the Bishop in Woodruff let me MILK A GOAT! Her name is Leche. And let me tell you, goats milk tastes SO MUCH more like real milk than almond milk does. I asked him for three glasses. Apparently the makeup of it is different so lactose people can drink it, it's amazing, it tasted so good, I wanted to cry. I think I might've swallowed one of Leche's hairs though. Worth it. So what I'm saying is that when I get home I want a goat and I will milk it every day if it means I can drink milk.

I am so blessed to be here. This area definitely has it's own challenges, but the blessings outweigh it! We're traveling to St. Micheals, Shiprock, and Farmington between tonight and tomorrow morning, so pray we won't get lost on the way! (Dad, I might want that GPS!)
I cannot wait to work with the wonderful people here. There are so many good things to come, I just know it! The most amazing thing about a mission is learning that the Lord can expand your capacity to love. I never thought I could love my companions so much, the members so much, or complete strangers so much. Love is unlimited- I am just now starting to understand that. But God has infinite love, so what are we here to do if not to learn to love like He loves? I am studying Charity for the 100th time and there is so much to learn. The best way to learn is to act. I'm learning that too. So many people think they know the gospel, they know the doctrine. But you do not, and you can not know it until you live it.

I miss you all so incredibly much, I hope to have enough time to write you crazies back. I love you and I love hearing about what's going on at home. Everyone be good and be nice to the missionaries!
- Sister Valdez

my companion's profile

a goat named "Lucifer"

Holbrook

Holbrook

some people I will miss in Kirtland

more people I will miss in Kirtland

and this is the sister above when she was young

Holbrook

the town that inspired the movie "Cars"

I milked a goat!  Delicious milk that I can drink!

Transfer 9 Week 1

HOLBROOK, ARIZONA! What I've heard about it so far:

"There's a whole lot of..."

- Dinosaurs

- Rocks

- Petrified Wood

- Nothing

There's an Arby's, a Carls JR., and a Jack in the Box. 

My new address is:

3800 McLaws Rd. 

Holbrook, AZ 86025

Put that all over the place and send me a million things! 

Heres an update on the Panooz:

- Bought a new EPI pen

- Vacuum packed her clothes in those AS SEEN ON TV bags

- dropped her Lochness Monster earring in the AC vent

- tripped over the same box three times in a row

Things got deep this week as Sister Panoussi and I wrote a list of truths and lies. Our first night together I told her "Every fear and unwanted behavior you have comes from a lie you have stuck in your head. The key is to replace it all with truth." I told her also that the greatest lesson she needs to learn is this: "The world is not the home you grew up in". So we made a list of lies that she has stuck in her head from being in a not-so-ideal-home. (But what home is, right?). Anyway, it had a lot to do with her self confidence and self worth and there was a lot of fears on there that needed to be replaced with truths. Truths like "I am of eternal worth" or "what I have to say matters" or "I have the right to express my emotions" or "there are good men in this world". We wrote them all out, I helped her with a few, but mostly she did it on her own. We then shared this fun little activity with the other sisters in our house and things got really deep. There was tears (because we're girls) and hugging and bonding. It's sad because we've gotten so much house unity in the past few weeks, more than we've had in the past six months. We've enjoyed being in a house together and spend free time all laughing together and... now it's over! Off we go!

Packing and cleaning was a nightmare. We wiped down walls, baseboards, everything. We wanted it spick and span! It was crazy hard, but feels so good to be mostly packed and ready to go.

Our area is being turned over to Elders, just like Bri's! And it's hardbreaking but it's life! I know they'll do great things here in K1st. I was able to bear my testimony yesterday at church and also thank all the members for everything they've taught me. Members don't realize what an impact their testimonies have on the missionaries. The hard part now it moving forward and walking towards what's next, taking with me what I've learned, and having faith in good things to come! 

The sweet tidbit I wanted to share was our goodbye to our RC, Sister Hall. She held my hand and cried as she said:

"I will never forget you. Really. You're the ones who knocked on my door and brought me the truth. It has changed my life. And I know like you said you have more doors to knock, and of course I know you do more than knock doors, but somebody else is waiting for you. 

I will see you again. If not in this world, then I will endure to the end and see you in the next.

And I promise I'll endure. I mean that. I love you."

Oh, tears never flowed so freely. But she's right. Someone else is waiting. I cannot wait to meet them.

Much love

Sister Valdez

PS WRITE ME!

-Photoshoot pictures with the sisters in our house!

Transfer 8 Week 7

This week was crazy! We were in and out of town, I picked up my mouthgaurd. It fits alright but it pushes on that weird glued in retainer and it makes my teeth sore so I might have them try and remake it, if it won't cost me. 

 Learning a lot of things working with Sister Panoussi. Learning about expression, especially since she seems to struggle with it. I am a poetry writer, you know that. I can't say it's good poetry, but it's a way to vomit my feelings on paper. I've let Sister Panoussi read a few. At first she didn't get it. She frowned and was confused and looked back at me and shrugged. And that's hard for me because I don't like everyone hearing my stuff. And I especially get frustrated when they don't understand it. It's like "HEY HERE'S MY SOUL! OH WAIT YOU DONT GET IT? NEVERMIND." 

So I broke them down for her, we went through them line by line until she understood the dusty corners of my mind. I helped her see how abstract thoughts and strange words can portray a message. This week she got really upset with me. There were small things that bugged her, but she didn't know how to say them out loud. In the back of my mind, I knew exactly what was wrong. I know her well enough to see it on her face. But I waited. I wanted to see how she would bring it up. Finally one morning she pushed over her notebook. Written in it was a simple poem. She cried as I read it. I smiled when I was finished, despite having been rebuked through poetry for the mistakes I had made that week, I was so proud to know she had found a way to express it. Especially a way that I understood so well. I won't say it was Shakespeare. But it was self-expression. And that's a beautiful thing. We were able to sit and talk openly about what she had been feeling. We both had apologizing to do and humbling to do, and it was great for both of us. I'm grateful that I've been taught so much about self-expression. I've found that I do pretty well at telling my companions how I'm feeling. It's important. And it's hard. To take what's in my brain and my heart and vomit it out into words out into the open and spread it out on the table and watch them try and take it all in. But it's so important. 

We participated this weekend in an activity for the Laurels and Priests called a Mini-MTC. They spet a day with us. Studied, received training from missionaries. We role played together. Each missionary was assigned a companionship of two youth. One of my Sisters was named Sabrina and it made me want to cry when people said her name. Neither of these girls have huge plans on serving missions, but they're awesome girls. They taught the first lesson to "investigators" and I sat back and watched, and helped them improve each time. It's amazing how imperfectly you can teach, and yet how much can be gotten out of it simply because of the spirit. This is what members don't understand. The most powerful part of it all is bearing your testimony. Nevermind the details. Nevermind explaining it all perfectly. It won't be perfectly. Even when missionaries do it, it's not perfect. But when you bring the spirit, people will feel it and it might not make sense but they'll think "what the heck is this feeling?" and if they're ready- they'll want it. And if they're not- they still need it. We even got to go to a dinner appointment in Farmington, someone than none of us knew. The dad had served in the Philippines. So I did what I always do and pretended to be more filipino than I really am. It's amazing just to see how much I've changed. How confident I can be in a strangers home. How much I can love people I've just met. It was a great time to look back, to reflect, to gain the courage to keep going forward.

I miss you all lots, I'm expecting to be transferred next week, but only God knows whether or not that'll happen. I've enjoyed this time in this strange corner of the universe so much. I love you all, and I am grateful every day for the things at home that have prepared me to do this great work. 

Pinches on everyone's tum,

Sister Valdez

1 the original black eyed peas

2 a homegrown golden delicious

3 last night when the power went out

Transfer 8 Week 6

I don't know if I already said this, but the packages I've gotten this month are the best in the WORLD! This week was fantastic, I don't know how I used up so much emailing time but I don't have a lot left to say how everything went! 

I spent two straight days in meetings, one was a leadership meeting and the best part about it is that it was at President's house so all the missionaries had to leave their shoes at the door. Can you even comprehend how much I love seeing all the mission leaders in their little sockities?!  I am just tickled to see shoeless missionaries. It's adorable. Their outfits say "Dignified and professional" but their feet say "I have toes! I'm a person just like you!".

Found out I can't even have a dollop of whipped cream, I am apparently THAT lactose intolerant. Probably my own fault, I've tried to milk it (pun) as long as I can. Alas, it has begun to make me sick to even have a few dollops of sour cream on my navajo tacos. Last night I dreamed about whipped cream. This is going to be rough. The stomach pains keep me up at night so my love of creamy toppings is a forbidden love.

A great miracle this week was learning to SMILE while tracting. As we were knocking doors I remembered a line in my setting apart blessing that mentioned one of my talents being "a beautiful smile and countenance". I thought that was a load of chicken nuggets at the time, but as I knocked the next few doors, I realized the difference. No one got baptized from my pearly whites, but the encounters were more pleasant. I felt better walking away. I felt less afraid as I stood at each door. And I noticed the edges of their lips start to turn up when they glanced my way. It didn't make a huge difference in the results, no new investigators from tracting, but it made a difference in me. I found myself caring more, is that weird? But that's really part of it, pouring out your soul at the door step, being there really emotionally there, and ready to love whoever is behind that wooden splintery door. 

Conference was amazing! Elder Kacher and Robins were the ones who spoke to us when Elder Holland came so it was great to hear from them again! 

The biggest thing I've learned this week is the importance of "FORGET YOURSELF AND GO TO WORK". It's scary how slow time goes when I try and mull things over in my head and evaluate everything and try and think of such specific solutions, but sometimes I just need to get up and get going, and thats when time flies. It's scary really, this whole past week was a huge blur. Between MLC, Zone Conference, and exchanges.

ALSO I GOT A FLU SHOT. No flu for me, Satan!

I am keeping up my faith, trying to put all my energy into finding those who the Lord has prepared. I miss you all a lot and I hope everyone is happy and healthy and pinching each other at a frequent rate!

Planner Cover

and still being ridiculous with my reading glasses ok stop judging me, thank you.