Personal Mormons

December 29, 2014

So this week was perdy good.
We went on exchanges this week. I went up to the singles ward with
Sister Bingham. She is a good sister training leader, I like her.
Anyways so we had this one lesson with this guy...and you know the
lesson is going to be super awkward when he first walks out in a
towel. Don't worry, he changed. Then he comes and we start teaching
about prayer and he gets sooo distracted every few seconds and in mid
sentence just decides to tell us how beautiful we are. Then he asks us
what is the difference between us and Mormons. So we tell him that we
are Mormons and he goes "man, I hate those guys! They tried to
brainwash me." Guess he had a bad experience before with Elders and
now seems to think that's what missionaries do - brainwash people. I
must have fallen asleep during that portion in the MTC. Anywhoo, he
doesn't seem to mind again after a minute and after almost forty
minutes we finish teaching him how to pray. So we get him to pray and,
I'll tell ya family, I have never had anyone be so grateful to God for
my beauty. "Thank you For these beautiful, beautiful, beautiful,
beautiful, beautiful ladies..."
So after we established a little bit about our rules and how we can't
go off and just do what we please he asked us when we were going to
come back after our missions were over. Then when we would come back
to teach us again. Not especially eager to set a return appointment,
we told him that we could whenever he had time, just to text us and
let us know. Then he goes "so you're my own personal Mormons?"
... "No, we teach a lot of people."
"Oh,"
Awkward.

Good exchange though haha

On Christmas Eve we had district meeting. Afterwards we had a potluck
and a white elephant exchange. Elders don't understand potluck I
think. Sister Johnson made home made noodles for us to bring, and some
of the elders brought left over Mac and cheese... All was well though.
Since most Hispanics don't really celebrate Christmas on Christmas
Day, but on Christmas Eve we were super happy that Cecilia, our recent
convert invited us all over again to eat at her house. She fed us
American food plus tamales so it was a good night. Afterwards we went
caroling! It was a lot of fun.

On Christmas Day after I talked to all ya'll, we did some Facebook
like good missionaries and then drove to Buena Park to eat with the
other elders in their district. It was good. We ate outside and that
was a little cold, but the food was pretty good. The lady that fed us
was 65 years old and had a 37 year old boyfriend.  Haha sooo funny.
She kept calling him "mi precioso." Don't even know the guy's name.
They were very nice though.

Later that night, we went caroling again with two of the elders in our
district and with a member. It was way fun.  Definitely one of my
favorite parts of the day. Everyone was happy to see and it was cool to
just look around and see that all of these people (minus the member)
were sacrificing spending Christmas with their family to do what I was
doing, to share the gospel. So while Christmas on a mission wasn't the
funnest I've ever done, I'm glad I got to experience it and I don't
think I would trade it for any a different Christmas.

Other That our week wasn't super eventful. We ate at Denny's one
night. Unlimited hot chocolate. We taught a ton of lessons and
hopefully found some good people to teach. I will let you know how
that plays out. Oh and I bought a new purse and made a new year
resolution to keep it looking nice the entire year.

Okay well I hope you all have a wonderful new year! Goodbye 2014!
That's crazy huh?
Love Hermana May

Caroling

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve Selfie

It's Almost Christmas!

December 22, 2014

This week was good!

It's almost Christmas!!!!

We got to hang out with sister Galicia in Monday and Tuesday. She is a
lot of fun. I miss seeing her all the time. But her new companion
seems cool.

Yesterday at church there was this white guy (an English ward also
meets in our building) and he usually tries to talk to us for about a
half hour and he saw us and stopped us and looked at my feet and was
like "you need new shoes!" Then he pulls out a card from his pocket
and tells me all about this guy who sells $100 leather shoes in
Huntington Beach.  I'm sure they're nice shoes, but man they're ugly.
Not to mention way outside of my mission. If he only knew how many
shoes I have currently in my closet.

Sometime last month we stopped by a lady who has been less active for
several years and now she is coming to church again every week! We
stopped by yesterday to share a Christmas message and the spirit was
so strong and she bore such a powerful testimony and then thanked us
for bringing her back. It was really cool. We all felt the spirit so
strong and I could feel how much love Heavenly Father has for her. I'm
so grateful the Lord uses us as instruments to find and re-find his
children.

We had our Christmas party on Friday for the ward. It was sick (in a
good way) people were decorating all day long. We had a Christmas tree
and a balloon arch, piñata, bounce house, crazy amounts of food, all
sorts of stuff. Ain't nobody throws a party like garden grove 10. Some
of our investigators came too! And random people we invited! It was
awesome! Kind of felt like a chicken with its head cut off running
around all night trying to make sure all was good with them...but it
was still fun.

We went over to another less actives house this week because they fed
us dinner and it was delicious. The little girls named it "lasagnaroni
pizza" it was sooo good. Afterwards we helped decorate their Christmas
tree and set up a train around it. It was a lot of fun. I love those
little girls they're adorable.

We are excited for Christmas here! We have plans to go caroling and
not too much else since most of our investigators "can't meet until
after New Years" sheesh. That's okay, I'm sure we will find something
to do, right? Fingers crossed.

Nothing else too exciting happened this week...but I'm super excited
to talk to you all on Christmas!! See you Thursday!
Love Hermana May

Hat she finger crocheted.

Ward Christmas Party

Ward Christmas Party Pinata

Santa Cake one of our recent converts made

found this while out tracting

Spanglish

December 15, 2014

Okay so this week was good.  It rained again so that was nifty.
Spanglish is alive and well in the Anaheim mission. We were at a
members house for dinner and her two year old was watching a cartoon
and a whale showed up and he goes "whaleo!" Haha so funny.

One cool thing that happened this week  was we went knocking and one lady
opened the door and knew exactly who we were. She is also a member who
goes to a different ward. She was like "my grandson here has a
question that I have a hard time answering." His question? What is the
purpose of life?
That usually doesn't happen, ya know?
Anywhoo it was a cool lesson. We read some good scriptures and he
liked them a ton and asked if he could take a picture of it and we
were like "take the book" he was a cool kid.
After the lesson the grandma said that earlier that morning she had
been praying that someone could come and answer her grandson's
question. It's so cool to see how much the lord loves people and
answers their prayers and it's also cool to be the one the Lord lets
answer other people's prayers.

So transfers went well. Sister Johnson and I are staying together in
the five for round three. We both are excited. We were hoping to be
together for Christmas. :) Most of our district is the same once again
except for one elder. It'll be fun. Probably the best transfer ever
because it's Christmas and my birthday all in one transfer. It will be
epic!

I got my hair cut this week. I like it because the lady got off all
the dead ends and nastiness and stuff but it's just kinda short now
and I have crazy layers. It's all good when it's straight but I kinda
hate it when it's curly... That's okay. It'll grow right?

I finished my hat! With my hands! It's cool. I'll send a picture. Okay
sorry I'm all sorts of frazzled and stuff so this is the end of my
email.

Have a great week! I love you!

Love Hermana May

No pictures this week.  Guess she was really busy! We felt lucky to get the e-mail since it didn't arrive til the evening! Would have liked to see her haircut and new hat!  Maybe next post! Glad things are going well though!! :)

Rainy Days

December 8, 2014

This week was cool. Literally. It rained this week for two straight days! It was wonderful and magical and everything in the world was right for a moment. It made me realize however that Southern California doesn't really know how to deal with any kind of weather aside from the sunshine. So it's probably good that it doesn't rain or do anything here much because I don't think the people or the roads could handle it. But it was great. I've missed the rain. 

One night Sister Johnson and I were singing the Christmas song in the dark, by the light of our mini Christmas tree, listening to the rain outside and I thought "this is as Christmasy as its going to get" it was a happy, jolly night. 

We went and saw Bodies last Monday! It was super fascinating. A little creepy thinking the bodies we were staring at used to be real people, but super duper interesting. I think the nervous system was the coolest. 

There are two families here in the ward who I'm pretty sure are in competition with each other to see who can make the sisters throw up on their table first. It's nice to know they love us, but really, I haven't been hungry since Thursday. 

I got a new I-pad this week! Woot woot. I named him Bart. So that's been exciting. 

Oh! And guess what? While we were in the office getting Bart the assistants were there, so I wondered over and said "so one of the days that we have temple trips is my birthday. So that would be pretty great if those were on the same day."  And then one of them turned around in his chair and was like "when's your birthday?" So I told him and then he put it into his computer then he asked what session I wanted. Wow! Best birthday present ever. I'm sooo excited!!! 

We have this new investigator that's the girlfriend of a less active member and she is awesome. She is straight forward and asks questions and answers questions and she really wants to know what our church is all about. Please pray that things will go well! 

We got to go to the Christmas devotional yesterday. It was great. I really liked it. Did you guys watch it? Also apparently next Sunday our stake is putting on a production of the testaments. That kinda sounds like the coolest thing ever. I'll let you know how it goes. 

This cute lady in our ward is teaching Sister Johnson and I to crochet...with only our fingers. It's pretty fun. And then she gave us two cute hats she crocheted. People are so nice here :) 

Anyways, I'm sure I'm forgetting to tell you guys about something. So sorry about that. Have a super duper Christmasy week. 

I love you!

Love Hermana May

Rainy Day

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Our cute crocheted hats!!

I think my district leader decided to put me in a diet...he served my
food for me and this is all I got. He broke my fork in half too so it
was the right size haha

Thanksgiving

December 1, 2014

My week was just peachy.

So we had a lot of fun plans for Thanksgiving. Turkey bowl with the
ward? Canceled. Service feeding lots of cute families their
Thanksgiving meal? Canceled.
It was sad. So after that got canceled I thought "well this is
awkward, we don't have anywhere to eat for Thanksgiving..." Denny's
was my back up plan. But tender mercy, Cecilia, the cute recent
convert I told you about last week called us and invited us and the
district over for dinner. It was a good one too. She made a Huge-ole turkey
and there were mashed potatoes and corn and rolls and pumpkin pie ...
And of course rice. It was all good. Couldn't have asked for more.

In the day time we found another service project thing to do. The
Honda center down here does a big Thanksgiving dinner for all the
folks around that need it. So we got to come and help clean up. It
wasn't bad, kept us entertained and feeling like we were doing
something. And we got a free t-shirt out of it. I'll do almost
anything for a free t-shirt.

Oh and in the morning our zone set up our own little "turkey bowl" for
us to play at 6:15 for exercise time. Except for they wanted to play
soccer. You learn a lot about yourself on a mission. For example, I've
learned I'm really not that athletic, at least when it comes to
sports. Running? Fine. But throw a ball in there and that's the end of
my skill level. I've also learned that there is no other sport I loathe
playing as much as soccer. But I tried to be a good sport. I pep
talked myself all morning long. And I wasn't going to complain or
anything. After all, it was Thanksgiving. So I got there, I joined a
team and tried to be a good sport. It was slightly awful. I have no
coordination. And for starters I have no idea how to even kick a ball.
Then to make matters worse, the rest of the team kept telling the
goalie to throw the ball to me and then they'd keep kicking it to me
when all know very well that I'm perfectly content jogging back and
forth, pretending that I'm doing something. It was a trying morning.
But I persevered and lived.  You wouldn't believe how many bruises now
cover my legs from that plus service.

We ran into a few anti people this week, who just stop us and tell us
how awful our church is and all sorts of crazy rumors. I feel like the
best way to deal with those people is just to smile and play stupid so
they leave you alone and don't try to start bashing even more. It
works most of the  time.

We went on exchanges this week. I stayed here with Sister Huelet and
Sister Johnson got to go up to Anaheim. It was a good day. We all got
a lot done and got new investigators and all sorts of things we needed
to help our numbers.

Yesterday we found a new investigator. She came to church with her
boyfriend and then we ran into her again after church. The lords timing
rocks. He always puts us in he right place and the right time.

Also, I found the old movie of Johnny Lingo on our gospel library. You
know your a missionary when:
1) you actually watch
2) want to watch it again
Good movie. I like it.

So the church came out with a new video "He is the Gift" it's awesome!
I really, really like it. If you haven't seen it already you should go
watch it. It's on LDS.org of christmas.mormon.org. So after you watch
you should put it on Facebook. The church is working super hard to get
this movie out to everyone, so please watch and share it okay? I'll
bug about it next week so you need it do it this week. Deal? Also in
the ensign they should've put cards with the website for the video on
them. Give them out. It's what Sister Johnson and I do every single
day, so then you can know what it feels like to be a missionary. And
it's super easy. You just walk up to someone and go "hey can give you
a card?" And they go "yeah sure" then You go "sweet, it's for a
website with a video that's like two minutes long about how Christ is
the greatest gift we have" or something to that effect. And pretty
much everyone believes in Christ and it's Christmas season so everyone
is nicer around this time anyways and it all works out. Just do it.

Okay I love you guys! Hope all is going well!
Love Hermana May

Thanksgiving with Cecilia

Sister Johnson and I

Pumpkin Pie! Mmmm

Our District

Our District

It Broke!

November 24, 2014

My week has been good. Ya know, mission life in the regs.

We've been trying to contact all the members in our ward, active and
not, just to make sure all their information is right. It's a hassle,
I'll tell you that. You got a love that one family who says "oh he
doesn't live here anymore" and their four year old goes "yes he does!
He's my dad!" Then the mom yells at him and quickly shuts the door. So
not sure what to do about his records...

Something truly tragic happened this week. I was in the passenger seat
of the car, being the gps for my companion, using my I pad to figure
out the streets, and luckily I know my way around Garden Grove now, so
I got us there no problem. So we pray and get out of the car ... And
my I pad also decides to get out of the car....  Yep. Broken. The
screen is all sorts of cracked. I'm still wiping off glass bits from
the screen. Still using it though. Luckily no one yelled at me when I
called to tell them of the mishap. But it'll be two weeks before I get
another one. So in the mean time, I'm still using it. Still emailing you
beautiful people on it. Luckily it still works.

We had a big ol' Hispanic pachanga this week for Thanksgiving. We
spent a few hours of the day passing out flyers to everyone and their
dog. We actually had a really great turn out. A ton of people who
we've never met before showed up. And most of them left with a Book of
Mormon and a restoration pamphlet in hand. Success.

So one of our recent converts , Cecilia, just funnier and funnier
every time we see her. She is old and walks slow and mumbles all her
spanish words but she is a little sweetheart. She fed us dinner this
week and as soon as we come in she sits us down and says "I'll turn on
the news for you to watch!" Doesn't bother listening to our
objections. Then whenever her little dogs, brandy and whisky, bark she
sprays them with windex. I guess it really does work for everything.
We are going over on Tuesday to help her decorate for Christmas. Super
excited.

Yesterday, we were so sad because no one shows up for church and even
sadder because Elvia, still hadn't gotten confirmed. The first Sunday
after her baptism, she was in the hospital and the next, no one stopped
by to pick her up and then this week she had to sign some papers for
her son, I don't really know what or why but she couldn't come. So we
were sad because she is moving to Oklahoma next Sunday, but she said
she would come to church before they moved to be confirmed. So then
during church she shows up and says that her daughter called and said
they were going to move Saturday instead.  So she got home from
signing papers as quick as she could and some how found someone to
drive her to the church so she could be confirmed. Then she asked for
a smaller Book of Mormon to read in the car in the move over. She is
so cute.  And soooo happy. It's wonderful.

Well I think that's about it. Have a wonderful holiday and eat lots of
yummy things. Love you!
Love Hermana May

Cute Elvia!

Our cute investigators!!

My broken Ipad ;(

Cali Missionary!