Latins Party HARDDDDD/Coolest Miracle 🙏

 Hello everyone!! This week was actually pretty cool! We had a ward party for Valentine's Day and let me tell you, they party HARD!!! We had to leave at 9 when the dance started, but they went until 12 am and we got lots of videos from the members!! 

Funny things: We got a call during English connect from one of our friends and he said he brought a friend and they were waiting outside. We went to get them and there were 6 GUYS out there!!! It was so funny. 😂 We felt like we were part of the squad walking them into class! 

We painted a sign for English connect and it turned out pretty good! We're going to ignore the fact that I wrote out FREE in English... don't worry. We spray painted over it and changed it to gratis 😂 

For P-day today, we went to Dolphin Mall!!! It was HUGE!! So cool!! We walked into Bass Pro Shop and I said, "woah! This is like Cabelas!" Haha... turns out they are linked... There was country music playing and I about died of happiness!! 

Also, I got a Bass Pro hat, so now I'm part of the club... 😏

🚨Miracle🚨: This was kind of a big one for me. Everyone on this email list gets the inside scoop, so y'all know that I have definitely been struggling a bit. Missions are HARD and learning a language is hard!!! These past couple of weeks it felt really heavy and I was very anxious. I decided that I have been fighting this for too long by myself, so I decided to get down on my knees and ask for help instead of being stubborn. As I was praying, it just hit me that I needed to get a blessing and then there was this peace that I can't even describe and it literally brought tears to my eyes because I felt like I hadn't felt that way in so long. I decided to follow the prompting and it was the best decision I have ever made. The blessing was EXACTLY what I needed to hear. I know that it was Heavenly Father speaking directly to me. I felt that same peace from the night before and I just knew that everything would be okay. Ever since that blessing, my mind has been calm and I have seen so many blessings. The priesthood is real! I have a firm testimony of that, and I invite all of you that are struggling to get down on your knees. I promise that Heavenly Father will hear you and answer you. Some of the things said in that blessing I had been waiting for years to hear! He will answer you when you need it most. 

Sorry that was so long, but I felt like I should share it. I hope you all have an amazing week!! Love you!! ❤️  Happy Valentine's Day!! You matter and you are loved!! 

Email February 6, 2023

 Hello everyone! This week was full of ups and downs.

We had zone conference which was amazing until the roleplays... They were supposed to be in Spanish, but after a little mental breakdown and some cheerleading from my group, I ended up doing mine in English. 

I went on exchanges and that was fun!! We got fed lots of pizza and got the Elders Frosty's because they helped us out! A lady came in bawling and she just couldn't stop, so they gave her a blessing. It was so powerful! 

We did a service project where we helped bag food for homeless people and it was super fun!! 👌 

We played uno and made cookies with some less active members, so that was awesome! It was a miracle that other members were at the church and they fellowshipped them!

I tried to learn how to play the game 'Magic' today. It didn't end well. 😂 Elder games are hard!!! 

I learned a lot about staying in the fight even when it's hard this week. So I challenge all of you to not give up!! There is something better waiting at the end! 

Here's a baby lizard I saw at the church.

Fat Cats and Spanish Miracles

 This week was very interesting and very busy over here haha! Hope y'all's week was good!! 

Here are some highlights! 

We were sitting at a bus stop right by the street and these people in a car were staring at us, so I waved at them and they waved back and kept staring and we felt super awkward, so Sister Morales started playing rock paper scissors with them. 😂 I about died!!

I had a really bad day. We had a bunch of things back to back and we were running late and it was so stressful. I accidentally broke a glass light doing service, I messed up during English connect, and then I dropped a table on my foot. So my companion took me to get ice cream and I got to see my favorite Wendy's worker and I felt better. 😂

Fernando and Pilar are still missing.

We had an adventure!! We walked 20 minutes, bussed an hour, and walked 40 more minutes to get to a member's house. Why did we do this you may ask?? Because we ran out of miles. So... we left our car at the church for zone conference and we are carless for the next 2 days. Woo-hoo!!!

The Elders hid the paint from us and turns out it was on top of the exit sign. 😂 Well done. We had a good hunt for it! 

My companion chopped a big chunk out of her hair and handed me the scissors and said, "fix it" so... I did!! It turned out great!!

Miracles: We were on the bus and I decided to talk to the person next to me and to use my Spanish, so I tried and he responded in English lol. He was practicing his English on me and I was practicing my Spanish on him. It was funny, but he asked why I was holding a Spanish BOM and I told him we were missionaries and then left him with a pass along card. He called the next day wanting to come to church!! So cool!! He said that the card changed his life and that he knew that God was looking out for him and sent us to him.

I have been trying really hard to talk in the lessons and I can only say simple phrases, but the people we are teaching are hearing the spirit through what I say!! It's kind of insane!! They always tell me they got something completely different from what I said, but it's what they needed! Really cool. The Lord still does his work even if we can't!

I saw some of the fattest cats in my life this week. Hope you enjoy and have an amazing week!!! 

Angel Eyes/ Stalker #2?

 Hello everyone! So, quick list of things that happened this week.

Apparently in the Latin community it's really cool to have colored eyes, so everyone was complimenting my eyes this week!! There was a man that told me that his wife was on so many medications that if she were to see me with my eyes she would have thought I was an angel. 😂 I was like, was that a compliment?

Pilar is still gone. 🥲 Hopefully the missionaries in Texas find her! 

We tried to visit our recent convert Fernando because we COULD NOT get in contact with him and apparently he hasn't been home in 9 days!!! His roommates asked us for a picture of him and filed a missing person report for him. 😭

Now for the craziest story... We met this man on the bus a few weeks ago and he was really nice! He works at Home Depot, so we call him Home Depot man. We ran into him 2 or 3 times on the bus, so we decided to give him a pass along card with our number on it. We honestly forgot that we did and this week we got a call from a random number. We were hoping it was Pilar or Fernando, but when we picked up, it was Home Depot man!! He started asking weird questions like where we lived and how old we were and he was being creepy. We just kept turning things back to the gospel and then he said he was getting a call and hung up. We just assumed he was on something and moved on. Then he called us like 3 times throughout the night (we were asleep) and then again the next day. We thought he was sober, so we answered and he asked where we were at and my companion said church, even though we weren't, and he said ohhhh okay... Sounded like he was contemplating coming and then hung up really fast. It was so scary!! We blocked him, but fun fact. If you block someone, you can see when they have called still. Well, he has called 6 TIMES!!!!! So that is the story of Home Depot man. 

I've added a new section of the email: 

Embarrassing stories 😳 because I AM EMBARRASSING 

The buses took FOREVER this week and we walked a lot and one side of my face got a little crispy, but not the other side.

At English connect, this man came up and was giving everyone hand shakes, but I guess in Latin culture they do a kiss on the cheek to welcome people. Well, the men in the ward know not to do that to us, so I thought it was just an Hermana thing... I was wrong! He came up and I stuck my hand out and he yanked me over to him and I didn't kiss him. I just sat there by his face and then my comp was like, "we can't do that" and he said oh and walked away... My face was BURNING after and the Elders were on exchanges. The Elder that exchanged looked down at his Spanish paper and pointed to "rojo" and said, "that's your face right now." 🤦‍♀️ 

Miracle: We were trying to get into this gated community to visit our friend Patty and she gave us a fake code. 😑 As we were sitting there, this man came up and offered to help. He was so nice and he opened the gate for us and drove off!!! It was so cool and the lesson was good!! 

Our friend is going through it!! He's 16 and he just doesn't feel like God loves him. We were having a lesson with him and all of a sudden he hit his knees and told us that he can't feel God's love. We joined him on our knees and had him say a prayer. We opened our eyes and I could just feel that something was wrong. He couldn't speak and we told him he could write it down. As he was writing, I kept having thoughts come to me and I wrote them down. His letter was so sad, but I shared what I had written, and my comp said some super spirit led things that helped him a lot. It was cool! Miracles do exist!! 

I love you all!! Thank you for all the support! ❤️

Getting Made Fun of in Spanish Hits Different

 Hello everyone!! You know how I said a long time ago that I was getting better at volleyball?? I lied. I'm terrible again. 😂 Everyone was making fun of me in Spanish, and it was so funny! 

We went to dinner at a member's house and her daughter was SO sassy!! She dressed up just like her doll and went roller skating after roasting me for not knowing Spanish. 😂

We ran into one of our friends drinking outside of a restaurant... It was so sad. 😭 He used to have a baptismal date. 

Pilar vanished this week!!! Her number is disconnected, and her car wasn't there when we went to her house. We are so sad!!! 

We played chess at a less active member's house this week and had pizza. They were so excited to have us over and it was so fun!! The Elders got creamed by her son at chess. During the dinner he also pulled out the 10 commandments scriptures and read them ALL. 😂 

Miracle: We got a call from one of our friends during Sunday school so we ran into the hall and then he ended it and wouldn't answer, but as we were out there our bishop gave us an awesome referral!! This adorable couple from Nicaragua! Turns out they are in the Elders area, but at the same time the Elders met someone cool in the hallway that's in our area, so we traded referrals!! 😂

I said my first complete prayer in Spanish in a lesson and the lady complimented me!! Yay!!

I love you all! Don't give up!! You are stronger than you think! 💪 

Pilar of Light (pun intended)

 So... we met a new friend this week. Her name is Pilar and she's crazy. I LOVE HER!!!! I'm just going to lay out what has happened with her each day.

Day 1: Calls us and tells us to come over right away to pray with her. Continues to talk for 2 hours...

Day 2: We went on a walk with her and her dogs and she basically taught herself the first 3 lessons. Then she told us to keep walking while she goes and uses a bush to use the bathroom... Then she started running and we were trying to keep up. 😂 So funny. THEN the zone leaders called her!! That was the moment when we realized that we were all teaching Pilar. Luckily she lives in our area, so we get to keep teaching her! We put her on date to be baptized and she is sooooo excited!

Day 3: She drove us to the temple with our member and it was so fun! We got to sit in the waiting room with her and the spirit was so strong!! She took us to lunch at this really cool Cuban restaurant after! Then she tried to take us to the beach!!! We were like no, we're not allowed, as she's trying to map it. 🤦‍♀️😂 She is THE CRAZIEST DRIVER too!! 

Day 4: Tells us that she's not coming to church because she prefers a church with a preacher and really hype music...

Day 5: We went over and said a prayer all together and it was so cool!! Then she took us to the hospital to visit her friend that had been in a car accident and lost half his skull. We walked through the "employees only" section and it was so awkward!! They were all staring at us following her!! (She works at the hospital.) He was a musician before the accident and he played the guitar for us!! 

The rest of the week was just as crazy as those stories. There were two elders from Peru that had to stay in our mission for a few days on their way home due to a storm. They joined our district council!! It was fun!...until one of them started picking dirt from under his nails with a knife... in the restaurant. 😬

I drew some characters for an English connect game and I think they turned out pretty well... Guess which ones are mine😏🤫 

Miracles: We were walking and ran into a man multiple times, so we decided to talk to him at a bus stop. This other guy pulled up in his car and walked over, but we thought that he was waiting for the bus and we were already walking away. Then as we were walking away he pulled up in his car and yelled that he wanted our card too! We gave him our info and started teaching him this week. 

The other miracle is that 2 of our friends came to church!! It was so exciting! Both were YSA age, so my dream of getting YSA to church finally came true!! 🙏 😂 

I know that God has a plan for each of us and that He knows our plan better than us! If we trust Him everything will be okay.

A Miami New Years Eve 😀

 Hello everyone!! Hope you all had an amazing week!! Now I'm sure some of you are wondering, "what was New Year's Eve like in the heart of Miami?" Well let me tell you... we weren't allowed to be out after dark because things get crazy, but we all set our alarms for 11:55 and went out on the porch when it hit midnight and it was INSANE!!! The whole sky was filled with smoke from fireworks and everyone was playing Mexican music super loud and PARTYING IT UP! At 12 the fireworks went crazy and everywhere we looked we could see them in the air! A ghetto car went in the middle of the road and revved its engine for a whole minute straight and all the neighbors were screaming haha!! Then a car drove by suuuuuupppppeeerrrr fast and almost hit them!! We went inside after that hahaha! 😂 That morning, the senior couple that serves in our district and a lady in our stake threw a party for us!! It was sooooooo cute! They gave all the sisters SquishMallows (little stuffed animals) and the elders were really jealous, so the lady (Hermana Cruz) went and bought them some too!! 😂 Funny thing about Hermana Cruz: she served in this mission at the same time as my dad and Sister Morales' dad and she said she knew them both!!! 

My birthday was really good!! The sisters surprised me with decorations and cake and I had lunch at Olive Garden!! 

Funny stories:

We talked to a man on crack on the bus this week and he was so funny! He kept high-fiving my companion for literally everything she said haha! 

We did an on the spot object lesson at a ward FHE this week and had the elders close their eyes and walk through a maze of chairs. One of them was "the holy ghost" guiding the other one, but the ward wanted to make it difficult, so they kept moving the chairs right in front of his feet and eventually put chairs on every side of him. 😂😂😂 We were like... "hmm... what do we do with this..." GOD CAN CONQUER ALL THINGS!!!! 🙏 

Lastly, the Elders put aluminum foil down on a giant table and covered the whole thing with nachos. Not gonna lie, it was pretty awesome haha!! 😂

We had a lesson this week and the lady's dog was licking my foot the entire time!!!! I was trying so hard not to laugh and I kept moving my feet and he wouldn't stop! 

Miracles: There were a lot this week.

We met two of the coolest people I've ever met this week! They are both so prepared for the gospel!! Irlan is one of them. He had a very hard time traveling to America and went 12 days without food and water. That is when he found out that God was real! He saw Jesus' footsteps and knew that he had to follow them. Then a few weeks later he found our number!!! The other lady is Pilar. She is going through a lot and was very very lonely. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation and to see the hope in her face afterwards is something that I will never forget. It was so cool and she is so excited to learn more!! 

Another Sister was struggling really bad this week and she was telling me all of her thoughts. She decided she wanted a blessing, so we met the elders at the church and she didn't tell them much at all about what was going on. They did the blessing and literally EVERYTHING she had talked about earlier was answered in the blessing. The spirit was so strong and it was so cool!!! She is doing much better now! 

Lastly, I was able to teach 2 lessons this week!! It was crazy!! Thank you for all of your prayers for my Spanish! Heavenly Father is helping me so much!! 

I love you all!! There is so much more prepared for us because of Heavenly Father's plan and because of our Savior. So don't give up!! You have the most powerful amazing friend on your side and He will never leave you. ❤️  Have an amazing week and keep praying. God is listening!