Week 30 - Papillion

Highlights from this week: (From Mom)

*Chole set a baptism date!!! She prayed about it and had her own conformation and has decided to be baptized. 

*An apostle will be visiting their mission and speaking to them in a few weeks and they are very excited!

*They had a very successful thrift shopping excursion on P-Day. It is getting hot and humid and Madi found a cute summer dress and a few other cool things. 

*The Stake President gave her a rock, (a polished gemstone). As many of you know, Madi loves rocks and has since before she could walk. Somehow she has acquired a collection of pretty rocks and crystals from people and places on her mission. People find out she loves them and give them to her.

Picking up packages and large print Books of Mormon at the mission office

Cool mural

In the mission office, in the new dress

Me with a lil dead snake

Thrift findings, $4 dress!!

He's cute, huh

I just like this picture

P-day adventures in La Calle Arriba de Mexico with the Hermana's

Week 29 - Papillion

Highlights this week (from Mom)

*Chloe arranged for Madi and Sister Nelson to be given a LOT of fully stamped cards for her restaurant, which allows them to come in anytime for a free sandwich for EACH card! 

*They found out Chic-Fil-A gives them (and all missionaries) the military discount :) (I don't think they will go hungry)

*On Mothers Day, Madi had a huge surprise. Her 1st cousin once removed (Mom's cousin) was in town and showed up in her ward. She said she "literally almost fell over and then started crying!" They sat together during church and got permission from President Ence to go to breakfast together the next morning. Madi says she is invested in her work and the people in her area, that she has learned how to recognize the spirit and how to be a good missionary. She is very positive and upbeat about life and missionary work. 

The only picture I got from exchanges with Sister Welch

Free Banh Mi!!!!

Breakfast with Stephanie

Stephanie's visit

Week 28 - Papillion - Actual Tornados

Hello everyone. I jinxed it in my last email. There were real tornados in Lincoln this week. Scary stuff.

We had transfers and I stayed in Cottonwood, my new companion is Sister Nelson (no relation to President Nelson, bummer) shes from Arizona and she's so fun to be with! She had been serving in the YSA ward for 8 months before coming here, this is her first family ward she is serving in and she said its wayyyy different. I've learned a lot from her already and I'm stoked for this transfer. 

We had transfer day and another lesson with Chloe, she made us beef & broccoli and Asian sweet soup for dessert, which is basically a really thin sweet almond syrup, almond-flavored gelatin cubes and crushed almonds sprinkled on top. It's soooooo different but soooooo good

We walked around a LOT this week. The weather was really nice, so we just went out and walked everywhere. We had so many cool miracles and talked to a lot of amazing people (most of them spoke Spanish. My Spanish is getting better though and I was able to communicate with them pretty well. We do free English classes for anyone who wants to come, so I gave out a lot of cards for that, hopefully, people show up hahaha.

I love being a missionary! 

One of my studies this week that I really enjoyed was from Ether 2-6. The story of the Brother of Jared building the barges to go to the promised land. I had always focused on the first part of that story, him praying and working to receive answers to his prayers (because we must work to receive answers) but this time I focused more on chapter 6 and their actual journey to the promised land. It's such an amazing. and overlooked the miracle that the wind always blew toward the promised land though they had no control over any of it. Sometimes that's how we feel, like we have no control over anything. Like the whole world is against us and weighing on our shoulders, but there are always those small things that we do have control over. We have control over our own actions and our own conversion. We have control over our own thoughts and prayers and the way we treat others. These people on these barges didn't sit and complain that the journey was long, or that the boat smelled, or that they were sick of each other. They didn't just give up and ask God "why me??? why do I have to do this??" Instead, they chose to be positive. They chose to sing and praise and uplift each other even with all that seemed against them, and the wind never ceased to blow towards the promised land. 

The promised land for us is the celestial kingdom, right? Eternity with our families and loved ones and with our Heavenly Father. A lot of our journey is going to be filled with pain, and suffering, and trial. How we choose to act and what we choose to do in those times of trial will determine where the wind will blow and where we will end up. The only way for us to get to our promised land is for us to give up the things we can't control to God, and focus on what we can control in our own lives, striving for good continually and enduring to the end with faith. As long as we are doing that, the "wind" will never cease to blow us toward the promised land.

Ulysses! We met him outside his apartment while walking and taught him the whole restoration!

Florence, NE

This weird smoker we saw while walking

Pretty blossoms

Dinner with Elders and Chloe

We live in the apartment above the Spanish Hermanas now so we hang out at night and work out together in the morning. They are so fun. Hermana Hansen and Hermana Jorgensen

Me and a tiny puppy

New companion Sister Nelson!

One of the Spanish Elders recent converts, Rafael

Another one of the weird smoker

Week 27 - Papillion - TORNADOS!

Hi everyone.

This week was so wild. I love being a missionary in Omaha, Nebraska.

Tuesday 4/23 

Nothing very noteworthy happened. Sister Soares had an MRI appointment so we went to the hospital with her to do that and basically just did a lot of studying and contacting people by text or facebook. Then we went to dinner and that was about it. 

Wednesday 4/24

In the morning we went over to do some service for some members in the ward. We helped them sand their whole deck so that they can refinish it. Then we went and met some cool people, planted some seeds, and went to see this man we are teaching named Jeremiah. He is in the air force and his wife is Japanese. He's really cool but we've never met his wife because she's been in Japan for a couple weeks. We are teaching him and his son Kentaro. He has been taught in the past and has some friends that are members so he knows a lot. Also my 6-month mark!!!! WHAT!!!

Thursday 4/25 

We had Zone Conference! It was a really good one and I learned a lot about faith and the significance that faith has in missionary work. After ZC we went to dinner with the Spanish Elders and Brother Thompson and his girlfriend Chloe! backstory on Chloe and Bro Thompson: Bro T has a daughter who is serving a mission in Orem UT right now and because he hears all about her and her stories and miracles, he loves to feed and support us here. So we have dinner with him and Chloe at least once a week because Chloe is a Vietnamese chef and she makes the most DIVINE food I've ever eaten. We never knew if Chloe was a member or not though, because she doesn't have records in the ward, but she has been with Bro T for about 4 years and comes to church sometimes and fits in very well. We never asked because we didn't want to offend her or something. Today though, I had a really strong prompting to ask her. Long story short, she isn't. She grew up Buddhist in Vietnam and religion wasn't really a big part of her culture so she never really thought about God until she came to the US when she was 18. But she feels the spirit all the time and knows that he is there and that the church is true. So we taught her the Restoration that night. (she already knew it all though) She is so incredible, I love Chloe.

Friday 4/26

Me and Sister Miller were sick and throwing up all day. We didn't get to go out :(

Saturday 4/27

Jeffery got baptized! I was still pretty sick but I couldn't miss it, so I went anyway hahaha. So many people were there! Jeffery invited everyone he knew. His grandson even drove out from Portland. It was amazing and spirit filled and we are so happy for him.

Sunday 4/28

Kim & Savannah & Jeffrey were all confirmed. We were on top of the world. The work is progressing and the Lord's hand is in all things. 

I love being a missionary here and I know this is the true church of Jesus Christ. This is truly the Lord's work and I see miracles every day. I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!

P.S. There were no tornadoes this week even though the week felt like a tornado itself. That was pure clickbait. If you read all the way down here shoot me an email and tell me how you're doing because I love & miss you.

The Trio

Eating with Jeffrey and his family after the baptism. All I could stomach was plain veggie rolls, no soy sauce. I made it out alive.

Pretty Tree

Talking to Mom on Pday :)

Me & Sister Sorares

Pretty Trees!

Pretty!

Me, at Jeffrey's Baptism, dying because I was super sick this day and the day before

A member gave me a flower press and it's my favorite thing

Chloe!