Transfer 9 Week 6

Some Old Pictures I found in the house. This one is of a seminary class in Joseph City!

Week 6? Wow stop it. This transfer has gone ridiculously fast. Tonight we are headed to Farmington again, I'll be carpooling once again with Sister Heck while Sister Jeffrey is in St. Michael's. But this time I have a GPS from Auntie, I was so happy to get it.  

The best meal we got this week was homemade EVERYTHING! The RS president had last minute volunteered to feed us since our DA canceled. When we got there she had just put a pot of water on. Within half an hour she had simultaneously made homemade turkeynoodle soup with turkey she had canned, homemade noodles (which I watched her make with wide eyes), freshly baked chocolate chip and snickerdoodle cookies from scratch, and mashed potatoes. I just stood in her kitchen with my mouth wide open and whispered "You're a magician". We laughed together as I told her that I didn't realize people made noodles from scratch till just then- and she told me she didn't know people bought noodles from the store till she was 18! 

I have also been educated on all the different rodeo events and have decided I should probably see a rodeo one day. I can't believe I just typed that sentence. 

The great miracle this week is our new investigator, Philbert! He just got out of jail and has had a miraculous journey finding religion. In jail he learned to pray and found great peace and comfort in it. He even said he got to the point where he no longer prayed to get out of jail, he just prayed for the peace to accept God's will. What a great example that is to all of us. He seems pretty interested, but I will keep you updated. He wants to go to church and be baptized. He feels as if he has repented but said that in jail he just got the feeling that baptism would be the right decision. In the closing prayer he prayed that he would "be lead to a church". I can't wait to see what he thinks of the Restoration lesson. 

Mommy thanks again for the cardigans, I am loving them! 

I wanted to let the family all know something sweet that I was thinking this week. That is that you are being prayed for. Almost every dinner appointment or visit we have with members, or any correlation meeting with church leaders- they pray for our families. They ask blessings and protection upon the families of the missionaries. And it's a great comfort to me to know that I am not the only one praying for each one of you. I love you all and I hope you feel the strength of those prayers this week.

xoxoxoxxoxoxoxo pinches

- Sister Valdez

Transfer 9 Week 5

So I realized I haven't described my companion very much. She's from Bountiful, Utah. She has a very sarcastic sense of humor. But I have gotten her to giggle lots with me. She's really sweet and tender, but she hides it. She is not touchy feely. Her love language is quality time. But I still put my arm around her during church sometimes because it makes her kinda uncomfortable and I just adore her uncomfortable face. If you leave us alone long enough we get weird, and I'm happy about that. Last night there was a strange exchange between us. I had a sudden urge to smack her, so I smacked her arms, she screamed at me like a chimpanzee, and then in her frenzy she accidentally dropped her pill bottle of anti-biotics for her toe, and so I threw it with all my might in one swift motion while grunting and it fell behind our whiteboard. We laughed forever after that. So she gets the weirdness. But sometimes still looks at me like I'm crazy.
This week was the Phoenix Arizona temple dedication! It was amazing. We saw the first session and my eyes got leaky. I just never realized how much the temple covenants mean to me. It really is a sacred place. I remember being really weird when asked about the temple before my mission, because friends would ask what it was all about and what happened in there, and why they can't go in. And it was weird to try and explain. But it's just so sacred to me now. The feeling there is unlike anything else. I can't wait to go home and go back again.
During the week I was thinking, for some reason, about hair and nails and how I never have time anymore to just do my eyebrows right. We were at a dinner appointment with a family from one of the wards. As I was pondering trivial things a voice came into my head saying:
You're going to have to stop caring so much about yourself and what others think of you.
What? Excuse me?
I thought about that for a while. It's true right now in missionary work, and it's true for the future as well. If I want to do the work the Lord has called me to do right now, I am going to have to just stop caring so much. And I don't mean to imply not caring at all- I cannot go looking like a homeless woman. Buttoo much caring about trivial things, like having time to take a bubble bath and paint my toenails and curl my hair. These things just don't matter. The time to care about those things is behind me and it isn't something I am going to ever fully indulge in again. Now don't you get preachy on me when I get home and start painting my nails again. But, I'm just saying, this is what I imagined: in the future life will be chaos. The future I imagine involves gaining a college education, sticky-faced children, and all the joys of motherhood. The time to care about myself and what others think is behind me. If I am to truly apply myself to all the things I want to accomplish, there must be selflessness. Especially right here, right now, doing the work of the Lord 24/7. I can't be caring so much anymore. I am not a flighty teenager obsessing about eyeshadow colors- though I have the tendency to regress to that level. The point is, I don't want to. I want higher things.
Anyway,
Another deep thought this week was doing VS becoming. On the subject of obedience- many missionaries are obedient to just be obedient. Let me widen that statement: many members of the church are obedient just to be obedient. Oh, how I want to shake them! That's not the point. Where's your motivation? C'mon!
God does not want us simply to be obedient so that the world is in order, everything is in its place, and no one is making a mess.
God wants us to become obedient people. Which is a whole different thing.
I thought of Mommy. My messy room didn't damage her. The fact that you couldn't see the floor made no difference if she just closed the door. But that's not the point. That's not what all the nagging was for. Cleaning my room was not something she wanted me to do just so that the room would be clean (though it was somewhat of a concern); having a consistent habit of keeping my room in order is to help me become a clean person. It is the same with God. He thinks on a larger scale. A mother can think "Oh, golly, I hope my child can manage to keep their future home clean", while their child's perspective is of the here and now. We are the same way. We don't understand what God is wanting us to become through our obedience. That's what it's about. Like Brad Wilcox said: we are not earning heaven, we are learning heaven.

Now we can't comprehend what it is God wants us to become,

but we must be obedient and try always to see what he wants us to become through our obedience. He will make us into so much more than just kids who keep their rooms tidy.


In other news:
I got catholic blessed while tracting,
and I heard a CD I really want:

Penatonix's christmas cd

look into it
please
I love you
I miss you all
xoxoxoxo
Sister Valdez


A truck

A billboard

my eyebrows

temple dedication

and my companion shaving her eyebrows off

Transfer 10 Week 3

We were all over the place this week! I had an MLC meeting in Farmington, so we drive to Gallup, spent the night in Shiprock, spent the day in Farmington, and then went back to St. Micheal's to pick up our companions (Sister Heck and I spent a day and a half together), and the back to Holbrook! Thank goodness I am not the driver or I would've been lost a hundred times! 

It was amazing to be with Sister Heck again. I think most missionaries would say that about their trainer. It's also crazy to see how much we have changed. There are little things, like we wear way less make-up, Sister Heck doesn't tease her hair anymore, and I've probably lost a bit of that winter weight we gained together. But there are other things, like we understand the rules, we get so many principles and concepts that were way over our heads a year ago, we've gone through so much without each other. We talked nonstop during all the driving and laughed and reminisced down the streets of Farmington. "Remember when you chased that tumbleweed?" "Remember when you ate nachos and french toast for dinner?" 
We talked about our investigators and the things we could've taught better, and also the things we could look back on and say "We did our part". There are some people we taught that never made it to baptism. Or who fell away. And at the time it was labeled FAILURE. In perspective, it was not so. Our job is to help others come closer to Christ. Our work is to do all we can to teach the principles and invite them to act. And, looking back, we did that. We sure tried. 

I almost miss being so green. This week we attended a Zone Training in Gallup since I'm over the sisters in that zone. A man quoted a friend of his who said:

"Don't be afraid of being green- Because green things grow."

That's true in any circumstance. Things are so much better when we are running around with no idea what we're doing. Things are so much better when we are nervous, when we are thirsty for knowledge, when we are humble. 

Last night we got fed a delicious dinner by a member who made us shrimp salad, chicken, fancy pasta, and smoothie. The dishes were beautiful. The house was beautiful. They were an older couple. We got on the topic of "what's next?" and they found out I have no idea what to do with my life. The woman happened to have worked as a school psychologist and she expressed the love she had for that job.

"I was there to do more than just evaluate children and find their weaknesses, I was there to help them see their strengths. Everyone knows that they struggle with reading or they're bad at math, but often those kids have amazing visual spacial skills. They can become pilots, and architects, and photographers. And when I tell them that, their eyes light up."

How amazing it must be to tell children their strengths. She said so many times parents would say to her "Why can't anyone else see that in my child?". And it's true in the world in general. We are so limited on how we see other people. And yet God sees our strengths as well as our weaknesses. 
I was reading Matthew chapter 26 this morning, the moment in Gethsemane. I sat in wonder, thinking, How can anyone love me this much? What does He see in me that I don't? Because He sees something. He sees unlimited potential. My view of myself and my view of others is so limited. But He made that sacrifice because He sees something that I don't. 

This week I got to try homemade caramels and they changed my life! We got the recipe and are buying ingredients today and hopefully I will be able to send some home, if all works out. I am so sad to miss Eduardo's birthday, give him lots of hugs and pinches for me! I can't believe he'll be 12 years old. Squish him. 

I love you lots and miss you all so much!

Took some pictures on the drive
and elders left junk on our car this week for halloween!

Frump 101

Wigwams

our messy room

pictures on the drive

stuff the Elders left on our car for Halloween