Transfer News is Killian' Me... haha

 Hello everyone!!! This one's going to be pretty short, but I figured I would give an update. Also, sorry that title is so cringy, but I couldn't help it. 😅 😬 😂

Our friend Olivia is getting baptized this Saturday!!!!... And I'm missing it again BECAUSE... I'm getting transferred to Killian (South Miami) to train!!!!!! It's kind of crazy, but luckily it's her second transfer, so I'm just half training and she's a native! It will be so fun!! I'm sad to be missing Olivia's baptism, but I'm very excited for a new adventure! 

2 of my favorite parts of the week:

1. The sisters in my house came across half a cat this week... so they got one of our stray cats a collar so that she wouldn't get sacrificed by the people in our neighborhood that practice Santaría... 😂 She looks really cute.

2. We got to babysit this week! I never thought that I'd get to do that, but because the girl was over 18, we got to watch her while her mom went to the store. Her name is Carol and she has special needs. She is SOOOOOO CUTE!!!! We got to watch My Little Pony with her and sing karaoke, and by the end of the 2 hours her wrists were completely filled with all the bracelets we made her!! She is SO sweet!!! 🥰 

Pictures: We went to my favorite place in all of Florida, Coral Gables. We got some fancy ice cream and this bougi car pulled up and these super fancy people showed up!!! It was so cool. The rich dude tossed his keys to the valet driver and kept walking, just like in a movie!! 

The next picture is one that my companion took of me during conference that I just barely found in my phone. I was FREEZING!! So funny. 

Thank you for all your support and I hope you all know how important you are. God is watching over you and He will always be by your side. You are INCREDIBLE and you are loved. Don't ever forget it!

I'm Never Saying Hola Again.

 Hello everyone!! I hope you are all doing well! I pray for you all every night! 

As for the title of my email: We were walking on the street and I said hola to a lady and she FREAKED OUT!!! She said, "do I LOOK like I speak Spanish?!" She was not a happy camper. She went off on a rant and we just sat there. It was so funny. 😂 

My favorite quote from these two weeks is from the Elders. Apparently they have been playing a lot of monopoly in their house and according to them they have to be "sophisticated" so they only play in British accents. The accents haven't really gone away though lol. They called us and at the end they said (in a terrible British accent), "goodnight, and may the Lord bless you in your sleep." 😂

Another funny thing was my companion and I were having an English fast on Thursday (we don't speak any English on those days) and we got surrounded by ducks at this park! One was walking past and all of a sudden just had an accident very aggressively right in front of our feet. 😅 We were both freaking out and couldn't say anything lol!

We were having a lesson outside the church and there was a man on a four wheeler basically tearing up the church grass because he was driving so angrily! Our friend just kept watching him and we would all laugh because he would leave and then all of a sudden he was back!

Then we were sitting in the car and there was a car that got very impatient with the light and started honking and then went over the median and turned left!!! It was crazy!!! 

We witnessed a car crash at 6:30 in the morning when we went on a walk and it was a hit and run! By our neighbors!! The other neighbor walked out and we told her and she kept calling them dishonest. 😬 It was awkward! 

We went to the temple and it was INCREDIBLE!!!! The new changes in the session are amazing!!! I encourage anyone who hasn't seen them to go!! You won't regret it! 

I ran into one of our friends (Olivia) at lunch one day and she has been coming to everything and LOVING it!! 

Now, the best 2 for last:

I GOT TO RIDE ROLLERCOASTERS LAST P-DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The fair came to Miami and it was so fun!!! 🔥 I did get mega sunburned, but luckily my mom came in clutch and told me to get a hat 😂 so I did and it helped. We also had to search a long time for our car afterwards... always remember where you park. Note to self.

We had stake conference this week and it was so good! Afterwards this man in our ward came up to us and said that our dresses were "very mormony, but in the best way" and then just kept rambling on and on and at the end was basically like "I just like your dresses! They look very nice! It's good that you're both wearing a lot of clothes. Most people here don't wear many clothes anymore" then goes, "man. I have lost my charm." 😂😂😂 We were DYINGGG

Miracle: A miracle this week was that we had some people come to Stake conference! It was awesome!! I think something that I've learned this week is that family is one of the most important things we have and also that God wants us to be happy. He never wants us to suffer. Sometimes we have to go through hard things and we don't really know why, but I know that God has a plan for all of us. ❤

So Chocolate Can Burn...

 Hello everyone!! Sorry I didn't write last week. This week was awesome!! A lot happened!! Here are some highlights:

I wanted to make chocolate covered oranges, so I put some chocolate chips in a plastic cup in the microwave... they burned... 😂🔥

We accidentally trespassed in a park! We were somehow on the wrong side of the fence and there was this worker that didn't speak much English and we were confused and asked if we were allowed to be there. He said, "No. Punishment!" So funny. 😂 

My companion took me to get my toenails done, so we did our contacting during that lol. It was pretty fun! 

The most interesting part of my week was the end of it... 

I noticed something painful in my mouth a couple days ago and I had some other symptoms.

Sunday: Church was WILD. This lady went up to speak and it was suuuuuuuppppper intense!! She was yelling into the microphone!! Then this man brought out this giant speaker and started harmonizing with a recording he had made of himself for a special musical number and it was so funny! Then we ate spaghetti at a member's house... I had just texted my mission doctor about the thing in my mouth and then I wasn't feeling great and I went to bed. I woke up at 3 am IN PAIN!!!! Let's just say I might have gotten food poisoning from that spaghetti. My favorite food is ruined for a bit... The doctor said the thing in my mouth is fine, so hopefully that will go away soon.

Miracles: SO COOL!! These 2 ladies walked right into church and they were literally sooooooo prepared!! They said they felt like they belonged! Our other friend Olivia came as well and she is just soaking everything in! It's so cool to watch! 

God will bless us when we do what we need to and ask for His help. We are never alone in this life. One thing I've learned in the past 2 weeks is that God truly does stay by our side even if we feel alone. He'll always find a way to reach us if we let Him. 

Spanish Is Hard, But God Loves Me

 Hello everyone! Hope yall are doing well! I'm alive. My comp and I are learning Spanish together, so it's a little stressful, but we have seen so many miracles already!! Heavenly Father is saying the things that we can't, through the spirit. 

Funny: We had to teach English connect to 4 guys outside the church in a circle and we were all laughing the whole time because we didn't know Spanish and they didn't know English. But, they clapped for us at the end, and 2 of them came to church!! That's probably also the miracle of the week! 

Keep doing things that bring the spirit into your lives! It is worth it! 

The Cat Really Does Always Come Back 🎶

 Hola todos! Esta semana fue muy buena! 

I finally got my Hermana tags!!

I am skipping straight to the embarrassing moments this week:

We were on the bus and I dropped some bread and it slid up like 4 aisles... that was awkward! 

Someone told me that I had cold hands when I shook their hand (in Spanish) and I thought they were complimenting me so I said thank you. 😂 My companion was laughing so hard! 

My companion and I have been wanting to make this funny music video, so we were practicing in the gym and we heard laughing and we looked over and the Elders were at the door!!!! We didn't hear them come in hahaha!!! 

We went to top golf and let's just say I missed the ball... more than a couple times. Hehe.

We helped the Elders set up for a baptism and we put a cute vase of flowers on the table in front of the door! It was adorable... until the man getting baptized bumped into the table and the glass broke all over! 

Valentine's day was so good!! We started out having breakfast with this member and she told us afterwards that the meat and soup that we ate were the food sac of a turkey's stomach. Sounds appetizing doesn't it? 🤢 It was pretty good though. Then we had district council and interviews with President.  It was so good. President Pingree is THE BEST!! He knew just what to say to help me. He even gave me a blessing for my Spanish. It actually improved a lot this week!! 

MAMÍ THE CAT (MY FAVORITE CAT) IS BACKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!! She's so cute and she's been missing for over 2 months!  I'm very happy!

You know who else has been missing for a while? That brings us to our miracle...

I was praying the other morning and it just hit me. "Visit Pilar" just came clear as day into my mind. I told my companion and we started trying to figure out when, then the thought came again, "visit Pilar now." So we left the house, and guess who was there??? PILAR!!!! She said that she had also been praying that morning and she asked for God to present himself so that she could know what she should do next in her life... then we knocked. It was a really cool experience for us all and the lesson I learned from it was to listen to spiritual promptings no matter how weird they seem!! If y'all are looking for an answer to something, get down on your knees and pray! It works :) 

Oh, by the way, we got transfer news. I am staying and getting a new companion that has been out for a couple transfers less than me, but hopefully her Spanish is a lot better than mine! She is not native. She seems awesome though!! Pray for us haha! 🙏  Have the most beautiful week!! 

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.