NOVEMBER 07, 2017

BOYNTON BEACH CAN’T GET RID OF ME, AND I'M NOT COMPLAINING!!

GOOD NEWS: 

We got transfer calls last night and Sister Dimond legit tackled me to the floor because WE ARE STAYING TOGETHER. I was seriously bouncing off the walls. I just love this place so much and seriously never want to leave. These members are just like family and I am so excited to spend some of the holidays with them and all my recent converts in this area! AHH!!! So much is going on and I am just so happy! 

Other than that, this week was awesome but nothing too crazy happened just the usual "hood-rat" stuff? <- not sure if that appropriate to say???? but that’s really the only way I can explain this area and the people we talk to all day. 

We met a less active a few weeks ago while we were knocking, and his neighbor yelled at us so he invited us over for dinner on Monday. It was quite the experience. The first thing he does when we got there was make us sit there while him and his girlfriend smoked a cigarette and finished off a beer. We are pretty sure he was trying to send us a strong message. After we hear that message loud and clear we had an awesome dinner with him and his girlfriend and he is just so funny. He made it clear that he probably wasn't going to be coming back to church anytime soon, but we are always welcome back to his house... so that was interesting! 

On Halloween we had to come in early so Sister Dimond and I reorganized our entire room and the other sister roasted some pumpkins seeds so all and all it was an extremely productive night. We also took Sister Isham and Davis out to Texas Roadhouse.

We also had some amazing member meals. A recent convert in our ward is from India and she cooked us authentic Indian food that her mom makes, and it was incredible. The next day we went to another one of our members house who is from Ghana and she cooked us food from her country and it was off the hook. SO YUM. (either I’m just really hungry right now or everything cool that happened this week revolved around food..)

We had a hilarious lesson this week. We were just out contacting, and we ran into this big African American man who was out for a walk to get his daily exercise. Sister Dimond and I just started walking with him and talking to him about the church and we ended up walking a straight up mile or two and teaching him the restoration of the gospel the entire time. He was super interested and said he’s coming to church so that’s always good! 

​We had an amazing lesson with one of my favorite families ever. The Alvarado's . I’m sure I’ve probably written about them before just because I love them SO much. The husband is a super less active and a self proclaimed "jack mormon". He later explained that that means that he believes in everything about the church but just doesn't live it. But he really is just the coolest guy and has such potential but there are just certain things he has to overcome. His wife is not a member of the church but just the most amazing woman. She will be the most incredible primary president. We have been working with them off and on since I got to this area but on Sunday we took Bro. Lopez out with us to come and talk to them with us and IT WAS AMAZING. The husband and him just got along perfectly and he just loves us as missionaries and so we were able to kinda "throw down" (I can’t think of another word for it) so lovingly that it really just hit him deep. We are now working with them more consistently and they are just so awesome!!! 

That was kinda a common theme this week. Sister Dimond also felt inspired to go and visit this less active woman in our area. We got there, and she just started giving us all these reason why she won’t come to church (coffee/rules/etc). We legit threw down. AND SHE LOVED IT AND INVITED US BACK..... We got back to the car and just looked at each other like what in the world..... 

But anyways, I have completely run out of time! I just love you all so much! Please don’t worry about me here, LIFE IS AWESOME. I will continue praying for you and just don’t forget I love you!!!! HAVE A GREAT WEEK! 

OCTOBER 30, 2017

HACE FRIO!!

My goodness, I am seriously freezing. There was a serious cold front that came in (mean like 60-80's) all week. I even had to break out my sweater and we ate soup at Panera! It’s been crazy. 

What a GREAT week. This week was different than any other. I just felt the spirit so much stronger this week. It was a noticeable thing. It funny how sometimes that's just how God works in our lives, sometimes he’s just right there sitting next to you and you can feel and it know it and other times he is still right there but you just can’t notice it as much. 

Right now, we are teaching a woman named Evonnie. She is seriously the cutest. She requested a free bible and we went to go deliver it to her. We sat down and talked to her a lot about the Bible and what it means to her and how it can help us in our life. She really opened up to us about so much that is going on right now. We had such an amazing lesson after that. The most amazing thing to me was the love that I had for this woman. It wasn’t like anything I've ever felt before. The spirit was so strong in the lesson and we all just left each other speechless. She actually told us that she had met with missionaries a while ago but it didn’t feel the same back them. She recognized that God has been preparing her for this time right now to get closer to him and learn more about this church. She is just such a cool woman. 

This past Sunday I was reminded of Gods individual love and care that he has for each one of us. We got a member referral from someone up in the Palm Beach ward of a guy named John Lee. We called him as soon as we got the referral and spoke to him on the phone, just getting to know him and introducing the church to him. We invited him to church and he gladly accepted. He came to church this past Sunday. The miracle here is that at the service every single thing from the talks that were said, the prayers that were offered, our other investigators that were there and the comments they made, and the songs that were sung were perfectly tailored to him. He kept saying "this is my mom’s favorite song" "this reminds me of my mom". His mom had just passed away a few years ago and he hasn't been to church since. He recognized that his mother ways talking to him. It was such an amazing reminder to me that God is well aware and loves every single one of our investigators and takes time to make it special for them. 

ROBERT GOT BAPTIZED!!!! It was seriously the most stress-free baptism that I have ever had. this whole time we've been teaching  him has been amazing. He is just so solid. His baptism was awesome. There was some crazy tropical storm and so for a little bit it was looking like our members weren't going to make it but there wasn't an empty seat in the room. It was so awesome. Robert is such an amazing kid and has taught me so much about resilience and faith.

We also had a boss ward Halloween party but also ward parties are the highlight of my year as a missionary. It was super fun and all of my recent converts came and it was just so great. We had a chili cook off and a trunk or treat and everyone got really into it. Sister Dimond and I dressed up as a Floridian Tourist, everyone thought it was pretty funny! 

That’s all I have time for today! I just hope you all know how much I love and pray for you every day! XOXO!!! 

PS if you want to send a sister missionary some of your left over 100 grand bars from trick or treating, I wouldn't complain!