...Nuffing

(Title references this Kid History episode.)

Let's work backwards this week!
We had all 3 investigators at church! True we went and made pancakes for Pedro and his family that morning and then made them give us a ride to church, and TRUE none of them made it to the 3rd hour ("Sergio hace un pupu!"), but this is progress, people! We're pumped! Especially when 2 of those 3 are on date and we're putting Pedro our etern-igator on date this coming week! The work is popping here! This is weird.  ;)

Friday, we fasted with Maria Alejandra. We biked in the mid-day Florida summer heat, and then when we called her to break our fast, she had totally forgotten. Oh well. What a testimony of I have of fasting and how much food gives you energy. BUT! We put Lorean On-date!! So yeah, there ARE blessings in fasting! Thursday we finally made it to Angels house (he's been on date for 3 weeks now. And we haven't been to see him in... 3... "yes... days...") And so he felt super overwhelmed especially cuz he had some legal matters to sort through, so we reset the date to the end of September. RIP. BUT!! He still loves God and probably actually WILL be baptized in September. It's not a set-back, it's just us finding the actual truth.

And that's all I remember. We had Zone Conference. That was good...
I dunno. I remember being so busy we had no time to do anything. So apparently nothing happened.

I hope y'all had better/more experiences than I did:)

Have a flabby week!!

Motivation from Zone Conference.

Maracaibo Mía! We had 4 arepas in 3 days. #Gotwrecked

 This made me smile.

 

Why Is There a Piano on My Cake?*

*References this Veggie Tales scene. 

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!! I love and am grateful for all the priesthood holders and father-figures in my life! Thank you!!

-- EXCHANGES!! I got to go to Tuskawilla and bike on a very tall person's bike for 5 hours:) I got tan. -ner BUT! After a long and grueling day of biking through and eating a lot of bugs, we decided to start heading to dinner. While about still a mile out, the windows of heaven opened up and shared with us their love. Por medio de la lluvia. We got super soaked:) But, now that we're soaked, we may as well just keep going! So we kept biking. About 4 blocks from their house, the lightning came out. Like any smart, melon-using people we are, we took the proper precautions. And by that, we definitely just biked faster and prayed harder. 😅 Don't tell my mom! Besides, Sam Cloud and I are good friends these days! And I've never eaten more comfortably!

-- We taught an 8 year-old all of the lessons in one week! Poor Gabriel had to sit there and take it! I'm so proud of him! We met him on Sunday after bishop announced to us that Gabriel was getting baptized on Saturday and we needed to teach the lessons. One crazy week later, baptized he was! (even if his baptismal interview was 5 minutes before the program began! So much sweat!)

-- We were asked to fill the font for the baptism on Saturday, so we went to help set up. Turns out, pianos are a lot lighter on their feet than we thought they were. To make a long story short: Don't Look, Dad! (Don't see picture)

-- I honestly don't remember the rest of the week. Sorry😁

But there I was, studying Lehi's vision, when I suddenly realized that Jesus Christ is everything! He is the Word of God; He is the Living water, where if men come unto, they will never again thirst; He is the Greatest gift God gave to us, whiter about all other whiteness! WOAH!!

Ok, thanks y'all! Hope the summer isn't too hot for you there! Praying for y'all!!

Hna Baer the Younger

Shout out to the Little Family! Thanks! My shirt said "Kiss Me, I Work Out" I don't even work out!! *sweat sweat!*

Pianos are heavy! We worked so hard for 2 hours to inch by inch pick that thing up! Then, the elders came and straight up lifted. |:"
 ...Still grateful...

 If we ever get pictures from the baptism from the member, I'll let you know!

What Are You, Like, Thinking Ahead?!?

11 June 2018

 Did you Know? If you think through things, it's WAY easier in both the long run and generally the short run.

So much happened this week:

-- We put Angel on date! He didn't like the number 14, so he bumped it up to 12:) What a pal!

-- We biked through the rain to give brownies to Claudia (who was a recent convert friend in Windy Ridge then moved here, in case I haven't said that enough) and she was THERE!! THAT'S never happened before! We got to bring her some love, chocolate, and ...a little chastisement. #alreadylessactive   :(

-- We drove up to a baptism in the Valencia area where Hna Robbins was before this. Baptisms are so cool! You just feel so good in that moment right after they come out of the water. Mmm. The Holy Ghost  :)

-- The ward figured out I play piano. Estoy frito! 

-- We got a call from a Brother Storm who lives in one of the other 49 states of America, and he gave us the information for a less active who wants to come back to church. [For those of you who HAVE served missions, you know that sometimes these are not the most solid of referrals, so... slacking happens. Sorry.] But then, about 5 hours later, we're literally between parking our bikes and walking up to the front door of our investigator's house when we get a phone call from the mission office. There's no delaying those calls, but upon answering, it turns out that our beloved ..."Secretary"(??) had just received a call 100% Spanish phone call and called us with the number to call back. It turns out that it was the SAME LESS-ACTIVE MEMBER! Apparently, she really DID want to come back! We pulled some strings (and a couple teeth) and got her to church. She's the cutest!! We'll pump her up full of love and hope, then send her back to Colombia in 4 months! ... :(

That was about it. But I read a super cool talk that explains WHY we need a body; think about it: Why DO you need a body?? Well, let Elder Bednar tell you! It's a fabulous talk called "Ye are the Temple of God." I invite all of you to read it! But here's my favorite quote: "The body that has been given to us was for the purpose of allowing the spirit to exalt itself to a nobler condition. The lightning that is seen flashing from cloud to cloud, from mountain top to mountain top, is an electrical force that may tear down buildings, set fire to property, and destroy life. Conduct electricity through the dynamo wire, and motor, and behold its wonderful results working for the service of man, accomplishing something under the control of a physical instrument, it thus becomes a power for good. So with steam, if allowed to evaporate freely it does little good, but restrain it in the boiler, send it through the engine, and under its power you may travel across the continent or sail from shore to shore. And so, too, with this highest, most potent of all spiritual forces, the intelligence that is in man; enshrine it in a spiritual body, that it may have the experiences of spiritual life; and then give it a physical body, that it may enter into and obtain the joy and experiences of physical life, and you have enlarged its powers immeasurably.”

Mmm. On that note, Ciao!!

I LUV CHURCH! Alejandra made it!

The one time we remembered to take a picture...

Because it was raining SUPER hard and biking in lightning is scary.

She's moooooving!

Transfer calls came, and Hna Stowell FINALLY made it out! She's been here in Semoran for 8 months now, so we're really proud of her!
BUT!! Wonder of Wonders, Miracle of Miracles: my new companion is going to be - WAIT FOR IT!! *drumroll* Hna Robbins! Wut.
Let's just say, ¡ESTOY ANIMADO!!¡!

But, to make the subject line/title even funnier, here's a story for you:
Es war einmal, we were just finishing up studies on a Thursday, when we get a call from our bishop.
"Sisters, you need to come to my house ASAP!"
"Ok Bishop, we'll be there in 10 min!"
We book it! 7 minutes later, we arrive.
"We're here! What's happening?!?"
"Sisters, we have a lot of milk and we want to give you some." *smiles😀*
"...?"
And now we are a lot closer to dairy intolerance. :]))

But we had some really good lessons with Angel and some inactive families in our ward. We had 2 different less-active families at church along with an investigator named Oscar. And Sunday school was PACKED! It was really cool (in the not literal way; it was TOAST-EE in that room!) To see everyone all crammed together and learning about baptism! I'm so Pa-rood!

But, sorry to not be spiritual. If you read in the Book of Mormon, you can have spiritual moments of your own! You can treasure them forever, and if you send these moments with me, we can "rejoice" together!! And then not only are spiritual moments happening, but you're also sharing!! The blessing will rain down from above! So go! Get ta' readin', kid!

Got milk?

Cuz we sure do!

Our district. We're cool!

P-day fishing anyone?

I caught nothing.

Our investigators: Lorean, Hna Stowell, and Stephanie.

A Series of . . . Events

* Refers to the book series (and movie, and TV series) A Series of Unfortunate Events.

It's not like they were unfortunate, they just HAPPENED.

> We jacked up a car. But... in the best way possible. (I'm looking at you Dad)

> We had an amazing lesson with our investigator Danitza. She loves everything we tell her, especially Josef Smith and his first Vision!! SHE'LL PROBABLY GET BAPTISED!! (I'm working on Faith this week :)

> We got an amazing referral from West Jordan, UT. We met with him once, and before we taught the Restoration, he said he wanted to join the church, and then came to church on Sunday. Still haven't taught him the Restoration

> We had dinner with the Elders at the bishop's house then helped our recent convert clean the church! But the best part happened afterwards: Hna Stowell challenged Elder Haderlie to a watermelon eating contest. Pictures are following! Under 5 min. OOf.

> We went to visit Hno Cerrato in the Hospital. It was really good for both him and Hna Stowell. And I understood none of his Spanish. :)

> We showed up at church Sunday, and because we were so focused on helping Oscar get to church, it wasn’t until Sunday School that we noticed there were like 20 OTHER PEOPLE THERE!!!?! Ok, really only like 6, not including Oscar, but neither the elders nor us knew who they were or where they came from. Apparently, one of them signed up to feed us and he lives in Pine Hills! #BacktoWindyRidge!

That's about all that really happened Besides a really cool week of studies learning all about Shiblon, Zeezrom, Corianton, Pahoran, and the servant of Helaman!! I JUST ABSOLUTLY LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON!! Y'all should take a moment and notice for yourself how Corianton repents, or how Zeezrom repents... or how Pahoran continues to fight until the end of the war, even though he's the chief judge.

Wow.

Well, I've got some solid faith unto repentance to go study! See you around! [Or however Bill Nye signs off.]

 

 

Serve Him with all your strength: CHECK!!

H-what a week folks! I'm not even sure what happened there! Let's take a look at the highlight reel!

-- I suffered the consequences of my companion’s goal for submissiveness. We biked all day: through the heat, through the rain, through bugs as thick as the rain (:P) (#Extraprotien!!), through puddles, but, sadly, not through the curb. Let's just say, my bruise is never going to heal! ✌😄✌ (Nixon!!) But we had a great lesson with our investigator Angel! He said "that chapter (meaning 1 Nephi 1) just left me hungry! I wanna keep reading!!" It was awesome! :D

-- One more door: it was about to rain, so we decided to knock one more door. We knock the door, and as it opens, God fulfills his promise in 3 Nephi 24 to "open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it." Blessing meaning rain in this instance. It. Poured. The resident wasn't interested, but he was also 'too kind' to let us leave his porch, so he pulled out chairs and we sat on his porch while he showed us pictures of Idaho and Arizona (he deleted his pictures of UT |:" ), getting soaked slowly by the mist instead of quickly by the rain.

 -- We had an awesome lesson with Dantiza! She's crazy busy and life's hitting her hard, so we introduced the Book of Mormon, and before we could offer it to her, she was asking if she could have it! SHOCKED!! Then we were trying to commit her to read every day, and I had just started saying "We understand that life is super crazy right now, but--" when she interrupts with "Well, He gives me all of His time, I can give Him some of mine." *smiles* DOUBLE SHOCKED!! I'm pretty sure I staggered out of that lesson.

-- We then moved Angel out of his house. The elders packed up everything in the Apartment, my companion made sure it all fit in the truck, and I carried things between them. Let it be known that Angel lives on the 3rd floor. #Legday!!

And there it is, Folks! What a shocking play! Who would've seen the extra 4 hours of service and no new investigators move coming?

... ANYWAYS...

HAVE A GREAT WEEK Y'ALL!!

I LUV DA RAIN!

Moving day! My companion "after" the rain... (#sweatnotrain)

While moving, we were watching the little ducklings (patitos!!) And we noticed how there were 4 of them and for of us. We then watched a hawk swoop down and snatch up a patito. Now there are only 3. Super traumatizing.

A lot of rain and no submissiveness.

A couple thousand words*

[*references "If," by Bread] 

Mother's Day was good! Sorry not all of you could be there, but I'm newsed-out. Here's some photos.


Photos of our area.

Mud ducks. They're so ugly

A bird we saw coming out of our apartment.

The city!

The view of the lake from our apartment. All I see is baby mosquitoes.

Better city!

More of our area.

Mother's Day lunch the priesthood brought in during Relief Society. Wow.

The return of Thlitherz!!

Our Zone. I'm not going to name names unless you bribe me with chocolate.

A cute complex (under construction, of course. Be grateful, those of you living in Utah, that winter breaks up the construction season.) On the way home from service.

My companion wanted in.

Ducklings! Turns out, mud duck ducklings aren't hideous

Plants. I miss em.

Hna Stowell made a bathroom trip, so I thought I had time. Nope. She caught me.

cue Pokemon biking music

(Title references this . . . thing.) 
 
🚲🚲
YAY!! I'M SO HAPPY!  We got to bike quite a bit this week! Like, 20-ish miles on multiple days! Mostly because Hna Stowell thought she knew the area better than she does... But more sightseeing for me! Also, due to months of running for exercise in the morning, I didn't even feel it the next day! #blessings

I'm . . .  I dunno what to talk about. We are working with a joven named Lorean. She's technically on-date, but hasn't yet been able to make it to church due to work. It's kinda frustrating, as we visit her twice or thrice a week and nothing is progressing, so if y'all have some advice, I'd take it. We did fast with her on Tuesday, which ended up being one if the days we biked 20 miles:) While we did get really tired and slow, we didn't die! The spirit was there strong and everything! That was really cool to see. Fasting is the best! Next to Tithing! Next to the Word of Wisdom! Wow I luv da gospel!!

Um, I don't know what more is there. So, best quote of the week: If everyone's ugly, NO ONE IS! I can't even remember what the circumstances were, but it was funny. And true. And oddly comforting.

Well, I guess we'll see not quite all of you next Sunday!
Enjoy until then!

I give you permission to shout "Get yourselves Organized!" But this is my study desk with a view of my comp. She's studying or Something...

A snake. I named him Thlitherz

Pre-biking joy!

Post-biking joy!

Cinco de Mayo! We had tacos at our recent converts. If we're lucky, you may be to meet them in Tuesday:)

I dunno whose idea it was to put a mini dart board on the same pin as a picture of Jesus, but I still can't hit a bullseye.

... Oh Yeah, Hispanics

Culture shock 2.0 It was a good time.

I forgot that in the Spanish areas (in which actual Spanish people live) they sign up to feed you! No longer am I the one making the rice! Someone else does! It's kinda weird. I finally figured out how to make fries really good, and how to ratio salad dressing to chicken!

But, I DID miss the Besitos at the door at church and the overall "WHEEEEE!!!" mentality that comes with a Hispanic ward. And it turns out one of the recent converts from Windy Ridge (she was baptized right before I made it into the field, and she gave us juice on my first [or maybe second] night in Florida) moved into this ward while I was in exile! And she lives only a mile away from our house! BUT IT'S IN THE ELDERS AREA!!!! So much bittersweet. I may have been counting down the hours to see Claudia at church yesterday, but then she didn't show up!! Long story short, The Lord loves and wants to bless me, but patience is required. [Ugggggfinefienfienfinefinefine!!]

Some more bittersweet news this week: we had basically no miles, so on Wed, Hna Stowell (My wonderful new companion) warned me to prep for biking tomorrow. Thursday rolls around and I wear leg prisons in anticipation. But guess what we didn't end up doing. We kept pushing back which appointment we would bike to, and then, 3 days later, we were suddenly swimming in miles. I guess we'll just go to Cafe Rio. *dramatic sigh*... Here's a picture of my best friend who I'll probably name Patience. Or maybe Promised Blessings. Or maybe Promised Land... BUT! We got news that we'll be Car-Sharing! Hah! There's no way I can’t not ride my bike NOW!!
...wait...
But the area looks good. I'm still a little glazed and don't really remember anything, but my blessed companion has been here for her entire mission so far (she hit her 7-month mark two days ago!) So she's pro at the area. #Blessings! (4 me!!) I look forward to getting to know more of the people we work with, but I'd be happy to have y'all pray for Lorean to continue to progress to her baptismal date of May 19. It's looking a little grim, but hope is still alive! (somewhere...)

This week I had a lot of fun comparing Helaman to Captain Moroni. When help wasn't coming, Captain Moroni just kinda spit fire while Helaman prayed in faith that they'd be alright. And in the end, Helaman remained hopeful and strengthened by God and Moroni took the army into town and cleaned up everyone's act. While the ways in which they solved their problems varied a little drastically, they both trusted in God and came out on top. Sometimes I forget that there isn't a "Right" way to life. As long as we are having faith in Christ and striving to be better disciples, we can either have silent and strong courage or call down brimstone. This was a good reminder for me.

Well I hope y'all keep doing whatever y'all do. Maybe hunt down your local missionaries and either give 'em some delicious dinner or $20 so they can decide what they want for dinner. Either way is good as one allows for agency and the other has the potential of good memories!

Ciao, ciao all!

Pobrecito

All of my best companions. We call it Hermana Land!! We get to see Good ol' Hna Wade and Robbins again! Every Mon and Wed!!! Woot!