Monday, May 23, 2016

"Blessings"



Hello,  

One awesome thing that happened this week was that we all got blessings from President Maluenda.  He is going to leave in about two months, and it is an awesome privilege to get a blessing from him.  I know that the words he said could have only come from my Heavenly Father, as well as all the other blessings I have received.  His blessing was a lot like my patriarchal blessing, and I felt so much love from Heavenly Father during it.  Also, after President was done, we gave all the sisters a hug as well as the elders.  He said he usually does it when the sisters go home, but that "this time it is an exception."

After the interviews, the whole Harlingen zone got together for a pizza party from a place called the Pizzeria.  It was sooo good! We got pizza because the senior couple, the Tracy's, were really impressed with the cleanliness of our apartments :)

This picture is of Sister Sanchez and me, and a lady named Socorro.  It was a referral, so we expected to just do the normal thing--introduce ourselves, share a letter message, and see if she was interested or needed any help.  Instead, she invited us in, we were able to share a message, and she even invited us to eat dinner with her and her husband.  They weren't too interested, but they were so nice to us! It was really a miracle because I was getting really hungry, and I thought I would be having yet another granola bar for dinner.  Also, that is her parrot in the other picture as well.



This picture is one with the Sister Schaffner and I with the afro tree is great.  We got to go down to Brownsville for FHE for the branch, and Elder Clark (a senior missionary) was in charge of it.  While we were waiting for everyone to show up, he took a picture of us attempting to have afros. 



This one is of my district taking a picture with face masks is really great because we all took the challenge from our district leader to buy the strangest thing under $5.  One of the Elders bought those face masks, and we ended up buying fake snowballs.  We had a lot of fun with those too--throwing them at each other after district meeting.  



 

On Saturday, this week, a cop pulled me over.  It was the first time ever that I was pulled over.  Apparently I was going 40 in a 30 mph zone.  Good thing it was just a warning! It was so ironic that the first time I have been pulled over is on the mission!

Love you! Have a great week :)

Monday, May 16, 2016

Another good week.



Well today is yet again another p-day. Good thing I wrote everything that happened in my jourAnothnal this week and took lots of pictures because without that, I wouldn't know what to write! 

This week on Tuesday, we found another tarantula yet again. I think that is 3 times now.  This time, however, we caught it and put it in a container.  That night, we put the tarantula on Sister Holloway's (one of the girls that lives with us) bed.  You have to understand though, she is deathly afraid of spiders, so when she saw it on her bed, she screamed, ran away, and started to cry.  We had some help of our friends in the YSA to catch it, and it was the talk of the branch this week haha.


On Wednesday, we got to go to lunch with Victor (a member in the branch) he actually cooked pretty well! He made rice and a meat stir-fry thing.  A lot of the members actually feed us, but we still go out with them too.  It's pretty cool that they are always willing to feed us and come to lessons with us.

On Friday, we went to a recent converts house named Ana for lunch.  Hopefully she will want to go to YSA (young single adult) soon! There aren't very many girls at all in the branch.

On Saturday, our zone service project was to clean missionary apartments.  However, since there is only one sister apartment, we basically just cleaned our own.  It was so great doing a very good deep cleaning since we usually don't have a lot of time. 

 I was freaking out because we knocked on a referral that we had and the first thing they said was there is a tornado warning, so we need to go inside!! I was freaking out, but then The two members that were with us calmed us down and said they rarely happen and it wasn't even windy, but it still was some crazy weather--there was a lightning and thunder storm.  We decided that we better not bike like what we were planning to do haha.  


Oh my goodness, then, Sunday came, and someone came to church!!!! Her name is Nadene!!! She is awesome and accepted to try out our church without even knowing who the member was that was picking her up and not knowing who would take her back either.  You could tell she was a little uncomfortable in church, but everyone was just so friendly and came up to her and introduced themselves.  That's why the YSA branch is so cool.  I feel like I just hang out with my friends when they come out with us. 

I hope you all have a great week!
Helped with the set up of "Mormon Prom"






Monday, May 9, 2016

"The Power of Everyday Missionaries,"


This week was awesome just like any other week on the mission.  I think what makes the mission really fun for me is to see change in myself.  We make goals every week, and I think through making those and sticking to them, we can reach so much of our potential.
First, I am going to talk about Tuesday.  On Tuesday it was another one of our bike days (we are required to take at least two every week) and Sister Schaffner and I still don't know the area that well, so we biked for around 50 minutes just to get to an appointment with a 30-year-old lady named Yvonne, but turns out when we got there she wasn't there.  It was her second appointment with her, and she seemed really solid on the first lesson.  Anyway, after her dad said she wasn't home (nobody moves out of the house in Texas), we had to find some place to wash my hands because my bike chain fell off right before getting there.  We decided to walk to the library, and we found Yvonne sitting there at the library! We were able to explain how devastating it is when someone tells us one thing (like going to church and being there for the next appointment).  She continued to not have any interest, but then I was thinking that missionary work is just like starting relationships and having a bunch of break ups. It really is!
Anyway, on Wednesday, we had exchanges with the sister training leaders!  It is pretty hard to leave your companion even if it is just for a day, but I learned lots at the exchange, and one thing that I've started doing is getting more trust with the members.  Through their trust, they will be able to become member missionaries and bring their friends to church. In fact, I have been reading this book called "The Power of Everyday Missionaries," and one part that we want to share with every member is setting up a date to invite someone to talk to the missionaries.  M. Russell Ballard (an apostle) said if you set the date before the person, and talk about the gospel in as many situations as you can, you will find that person.
Then, on Friday, we had another exchange, and I was with Sister Holloway.  She is one of the sisters that lives with me. We found a pretty cool 18-year-old named Junior.  Do you know what that means?? He is YSA!! Woo hoo! We actually had an appointment with his sister, but turns out she had to go to jail.  Anyway, Junior had lots of questions for us, and he really confided in us.  I hope he will want to go to church this Sunday!  Then later, we had a lesson with a guy named Joe, and in quick lessons I like to show this little object lesson of burning a q-tip and having it burn on fire on one side and talking about that's what Satan can do to us.  Then, on the other side, I first dip the q-tip in hand sanitizer and the flame is only around the q-tip, but doesn't leave a mark.  Then I talk about as we go to church and read and pray, Satan doesn't control us.  Anyway, after sharing that, I had one of our members share his testimony, but instead of saying Steven, I said Satan when I referred to him.  Hahaha so funny!
On Saturday, we got to go play soccer, so we woke up at 5:45 AM and biked over to the soccer field.  I love playing soccer so much! During the game, someone crossed me the ball from a corner kick, then I kneed it up in the air, then I headered the ball into the goal.  It was awesome!   Then after studies, we got to wear jeans from around 11-5!! We first had a zone activity on the same farm that I was talking about last week, then we went to our branch president's house, and helped in his yard.  I love service projects so much, and an added bonus is we can wear jeans!!!
Then, yesterday, we went over to a huge ranch (a member's house) with 40 acres, and we ate the best dinner ever with smoked all-natural and organic chicken, swiss chard, corn tortillas, pork chops, and really good mashed potatoes.  It is so rare to get healthy food like that here in Texas! I was very happy :).  Also, I got to skype/talk on the phone to my family (because it was Mother's Day).  My Dad, however, decided to text me on my mission phone before I called.  He got it through my lds account, and I couldn't believe it.  I definitely didn't reply to that text because my mission phone is only supposed to be for mission purposes.  We had a pretty good laugh about it when I used the member's phone to call them a couple minutes later.
I love you all! I hope you have a great week :)

Enjoyed dinner with this family






Monday, May 2, 2016

Tarantula!


Hey everyone!! 

How are you doing? I would love it if you sent me an email or letter! My email isrfindlay@myldsmail.net.  This transfer I have grown so much.  Being a leader or trainer takes a lot of humility and help from the Lord.  I think the biggest struggle for me right now is being in a YSA (Young Single Adult) branch because we can only teach those people and we have to pass all the rest over to the other missionaries.

This week one of the cool things I found was a tarantula! It was huge!! I thought it was fake because it looked like one of those ones for halloween decorations.  


Also, a fun thing we did as a district was we played soccer together!! It was sooo fun! 

K, now on the more spiritual side of things, we got to teach this girl named Yvonne this week.  It was really cool because we were able to relate everything she was going through to the gospel.  It's amazing how we can teach so individually as missionaries.  We were able to testify that she can live with her family forever, but she has to keep doing those things like reading and praying and going to church.  We like to call it CPR.

Love you!

P.S. Oh, about all those other pictures, that was at a service project.  They had a 700 pound pig, donkeys, chickens, a turkey, goats, you name it.  It was pretty awesome.