Trainer in Harlingen

This week, has been a mix of emotions. To start, last week on Monday I got a call saying that I would be training (meaning I would get a brand new missionary) and that I would be in a whole new area! I thought I wouldn't be training yet.  I am still relatively young on the mission.  

Also, it was really sad to say goodbye to Sister Eggett.  Hopefully we can continue to be friends up at BYU though.  

Anyway, I came down to McAllen, Texas on Wednesday (about a 2 1/2 hour drive) for a training meeting to discover that Sister Schaffner was going to be my new companion! I had a feeling that it was the other sister missionary, but turns out I was wrong.

Anyway, we then discovered that we are in a huge area!! We cover the whole Harlingen zone because we are in the young single adult branch. So, as you can probably imagine, it is pretty stressful.  Luckily, we have been fortunate enough to have a GPS to get around.  However, the first 2 days here, I just felt like there was a big cloud over me because we didn't know where any of the investigators lived and nobody was very nice to us, but Saturday we had a day of miracles.  After biking all over the town, we decided to knock on a random door because we couldn't find the other addresses we were supposed to go to, and they let us in to have a quick lesson.  That almost never happens!

Also, I was able to get to know Sister Schaffner a little better.  She is from Wyoming and she was going to school at BYU-Idaho before the misison studying to be a high school teacher.  She didn't know any Spanish coming out, so that has been fun haha.  

Then, yesterday, we really got a treat.  Elder Holland came to the mission! I got to shake his hand.  He said some very kind remarks to the mission and kept stressing how happy he was that he didn't have to get on us for not staying with our companions or getting up on time.  His main focus was teaching with the spirit.

Love you,

Sister Findlay

P.S. sorry I didn't have a lot of time today

Another week in Corpus Christi

This week was a great, busy-filled week.  I am starting to feel the Texas heat and humidity more and more now. At least it is still the rainy season, but yesterday, I probably sweat the most I ever have on the Sabbath. Haha.  A member invited us over for dinner, but the thing is that they live outside of our area.  It took about 40 minutes going the fastest I could to their house.  It is a very good thing that both Sister Eggett and I bike pretty fast.

This week, we still didn't see anyone of our investigators make it to church.  It was really sad because we are teaching this little 11 year-old boy and his grandpa, however the little boy, Brandon is really interested, and I don't think the grandpa is.  We taught Brandon about the 2,000 strippling warriors, and when we came back a couple days later, he remembered who the Nephites and the Lamanites and everyone were. He is steller! However, last minute, his grandpa couldn't take him to church :(.  I wish the parents here could just be a little more supportive!

Today has been a really fun day.  We went to the aquarium in Corpus Christi.  We had to go through our district leader, zone leader, and the assistants to get permission, but they eventually said we could go.  I got to see the ocean today! I don't even care if it wasn't that pretty.  Also, we got to see dolphins, sea turtles, starfish, sting rays, jelly fish, and sharks! Pictures to follow.

One day this week, after being sad that many of our appointments had cancelled and being a little discouraged, we knocked on a referral.  Next thing we know, Dawn answers the door and cries out of thankfulness.  Turns out that she has all this guilt from getting into drugs earlier in life, then started an addiction recovery, and cried when we gave her the same card of Jesus Christ that past missionaries had given to her.

Also, this week we were able to give lots of service again.  I got to finish weeding the big field we weeded last week, and we also mowed Pedro's lawn (recent convert).  He is one of my favorite people.  Like a grandpa to me.

Also, another grandpa-like figure that we went and visited was Brother Lopez.  He has an amazing garden with tons of fruit trees and veggies.  He even gave us an entire bag of chard! It was the best.

Also featured in the pictures, are when my whole district did facials together. So funny!

Con amor,

Hermana Findlay

Love You,

Sister Findlay

Mini Missionary

Hey y'all!

How's it going?  This week Sister Eggett and I have had a mini missionary with us.  She is really cute, and I think she will serve a mission now.  She is actually 26, but she is so little that she looks really young.  

On Tuesday, we had a pretty great zone meeting.  Then, after, we had zone exchanges.  I have had them ever transfer so far, but people say they are pretty rare...I got to go with my sister training leader and her sister training leader.  We were still able to have lots of fun, hence the Kickapoo St. picture.  Also, that night, we went to the Bower's for dinner.  We go every Tuesday night.  It was really funny though because I texted them about celebrating for Sister Eggett's year mark, but they thought it was her birthday, so they got her a cake and birthday candles and everything haha pretty funny.

On Wednesday, we had the privilege of having interviews with president.  We had to wake up at 4:30 AM, but it's okay because we get to sit and talk with President!  He talked a lot about how it is a choice to be happy. I think I am generally pretty happy on the mission. 

On Thursday, Sister Eggett and I got to share a musical number in District Meeting, so we had fun and whistled to the tune of Popcorn Popping.  I don't know if it was as reverent as it should've been but we had fun!

On Friday, it was Sister Eggett's year mark, so we had a pretty good lunch with her favorite food, crepes.

On Saturday, we got to help the Forest family pick their weeds.  We were there for about a good 2 and a half hours.  I was pretty sore the next day, but it was fun! We even got to wear jeans!

This whole week we have been trying super hard to get people to come to church, but then Sunday rolled around and nobody came. It was so upsetting!!! I bet this week will be really great though if we just keep hoping for that miracle.

Have a great week!

Con amor,

Hermana Findlay  

"Love the Work, and Love the Gospel"

Dear friends,

I feel like I always say this, but this has been a great week.  Conference is like a holiday out here on the mission.  It was kind of crazy getting to conference on Saturday morning though.  We were going to go to stay at Sister Tavarez's house and watch it there, but it turns out one of our investigators thought that he was supposed to meet at a recent convert's house for the morning one instead of afternoon, so he called us right as Elder Eyring got up to the pulpit, and as a result, we missed his talk and the next lady.  I was pretty upset, but the good thing is that we can watch it when we go to the library for an hour this week on mormon.org (mission rule).  Anyway, my favorite talk was Elder Bednar's about blessing AND sanctifying the sacrament.  Also, this morning, during my personal study, I wrote out all the ways that I can apply their talks to me (kind of like commitments) I was amazed at how many I could find.  Probably something like 20.  Who knew how many things we could do to better our lives.  

One day this week we had a pretty awesome miracle happen.  We found 6 new investigators in one day! In my last area I would usually get about 3 in one week! God has blessed us tremendously.  Out of those 6 people, 3 were in one family and we get to teach them in Spanish! Such a blessing :)

We had a lot of fun/funny things happen  as well this week. 

Last P-day, we got to fly kites and play tennis and volleyball with the zone.  It turns out that I really miss playing tennis, and it was great to play even just for a little bit.  Before we were about to leave from the P-day activity, we saw that the kite string was stuck to the fence of the tennis court, so I went and climbed the fence and unhooked it.  It was pretty fun but also scary.  I think everyone in the zone knows how strong I am now though haha.  Every morning, I consistently do 25 pushups and 1 min plank and lots of other things, but I don't think I have lost very much muscle.

Also, on P-day, we found out we had lots of extra money at the end of the month when the other missionaries are running out because of lack of planning or something, but we got to buy all of our favorite foods.  With it, I got my favorite pineapple Chobani yogurt, chocolate almond milk, and coconut water and several other things.  Also, we got to go out to eat this week to a Mexican restaurant.  I don't know why so many missionaries run out of money. 

Also, this week, as you'll see in some pictures that we found a huge cockroach, so next thing you know, Sister Eggett grabs a cup and says that we'll give it to the district leader.  I had to agree because I love adventures.  You should've seen their faces when they opened up their present haha.  

Also, we had a pretty fun April Fool's day this week.  While the sisters were out running, we put a fake spider (I found it in the street) on the toilet seat, we put saran wrap across the hallway, and we teepeed their room.

Hope you have a great week! Love you, love the work, and love the Gospel.

Con Amor,

Hermana Findlay