Happy Easter

Alrighty. Not to brag or anything but this week was a-w-e-s-o-m-e awesome.
So last P-Day me and my fellow district sisters decided to go shopping
(bad idea). We went to Old Navy and found matching dresses on sale!
Woot woot. So we did what any sane person would do and bought matching
dresses. And then we wore them for district meeting and presidents
interviews.

Get on our level.

Also my companion and I bought matching BIKE shirts (also on sale
don't freak out) because we ride bikes . . . And we liked the way they
looked. That's all. So we have a few matching outfits now. People gave
us really weird looks those days. But we also got a few comments. Good
conversation starter I guess.

Whenever we tell people we are on bikes they ask us if we've gotten
jumped yet. The English Elders told us they pray for us when they see
us riding at night... I don't know if they're just crazy or if we are
just oblivious but we haven't seen anything sketchy going. Plus we are
protected by the spirit. Come at us.

Just out of curiosity what does black mold look like? We have some
suspicious black spiky stuff growing on our door frame that Clorox
wipes just can't seem to get off. We sleep with our door shut now.

Our investigator Patricia is still doing awesome and she came to
church and loved it! She was born to be a Mormon.

Oh and something else amazing happened this week. We got to hear Elder
Andersen speak!! Yay! He came on Saturday and spoke to us all. Man he
is a super nice guy holy smokes. So that was cool. We had a lot of
cool speakers that day. Pretty edifying if I do say so myself.

And guess who was there? None other than Elder Kyler Clements. That's
what's up. It was so cool to get to see one of my best friends in my
mission!! We didn't get to talk for too long but we snapped some
pictures and talked about our missions and stuff and shook hands like
the missionaries we are.

So I got shake an apostle's hand and see one of my besties all in one
morning. NBD.

Also on that blessed day I got your Easter package Mom!! Woot woot. Me
gusta. Thank you very much. I was so happy. I pretty much stalked the
district leaders until they gave it to me.

Also convinced my companion to dye Easter eggs. Except for I
accidentally bought weirdo Easter dye so it didn't work out too well
but it kinda worked and we still ate them for breakfast so I guess
that's what counts.

Also last P-Day I adopted a Dog named Casper. Elder Dougherty paid for
it. Don't be annoyed that I document his life. We are just going to
have so many adventures He and I.

I really love Easter. I spent all my lunch and dinner hours yesterday
watching Bible movies. I just love watching church videos. They make
me see things in a way I never thought of before and they bring the
spirit so strong so fast. I am SO grateful for my Savior!  I know that
he loved me so much and knows me so well and is my best friend. I
can't even imagine what he went through but I'm so grateful that he
did. Christ is amazing.

Anyways you guys are awesome. Love you all! Have a great week!

Love Hermana May

Member Missionary

Life this week was good. We got an investigator who is awesome. She
understands everything we teach so clearly and already has a testimony
of it. It's ca-razy. Man if she doesn't get baptized I won't know what
to think.

We've been working on trying to get the members involved. Members are
soooo important. They read us the statistics of how many people that
we find that get baptized and of how many people members find and
refer that get baptized. And holy moly. Member referral baptisms are
like a bajillion times higher. If I could remember the numbers I'd
share. But I don't. Awkward. Anywho don't be afraid to refer people
because the chances of them getting baptized are super duper higher.
For real.

My companion got a new bike which is great and all . . . But I miss
her old bike. Her old bike and Ronda were the same size. Her new bike
is bigger which means it's longer. Which means she goes farther with
every pedal. Which means I have to pedal faster to keep up with her.
Which means I'm sore.

We had a sister meeting this week! It's where all the sister
missionaries go to a church in Anaheim and eat delicious food and
desserts (Subway sandwiches and a chocolate fountain . . . Need I say
more?) then we have a devotional kinda thing. So it was fun to meet
all the sisters we have her and talk with people. They were impressed
with my ability to sound like a horse. Sadly it gets less impressive
the more I do it. So I try to keep it to a minimum.

In other news I'm learning how to make pretty bubble sounds with my lips.
And I'm going to start me a hat collection.

For district lunch we ate at Souplantion. It was a good lunch. Buffet
style. Only bad thing was we had our dinner appointment two hours
later. I was so full it hurt. I almost considered getting an eating
disorder.

You know your a missionary when you get a kick out of someone else's
description of a lesson in your teaching record.

This is my life.

Hardest day on the mission? Sundays. Why? Because people don't come to
church. Why else? Because church is all in Spanish and you realize
just how much you don't know. Why else? Lots of people try to talk to
you and you look like an idiot trying to figure out what they said and
how to respond. Man. Gets rough.  Whateva.

Hey I'm learning to like food! I'm starting to like tomatoes! Yay! And
spicy things like peppers! But not mushrooms. Still nasty.

My companion and I decided on Saturday we were going to celebrate the
worldly joys is Easter. We are going to go out to lunch and wear
pastels and dye Easter eggs to eat on Easter morning. Woot woot.
Pictures will come. Don't worry. Next week.

Anywhoo love you!!
Have a great week
Love Hermana May

Conference Watching

Okay so my week as been pretty good. I get discouraged about Spanish
every now and then but I keep plugging along.  All the people we teach
are Hispanic. A few of them like speaking English better than Spanish
but for the most part we speak Spanish to the people.

The food here is pretty good so far. Lots of food I've never had
before. The members feed us dinner almost everyday. Breakfast and
lunch we just eat cereal or salad or something like that and pretend
like we are healthy. Which is kind of a joke at this point.

There was this one cool guy we met this week. He was really excited to
get a Book of Mormon because in his town in Peru there is a legend
that a while ago this Angel with white skin came and talked the
village about commandments to keep and he said his name was Moroni, so
this guy heard that there is a person in the Book of Mormon named
Moroni and has been looking for one ever since. We are going back to
teach him tomorrow.

Oh man volleyball follows me everywhere. It's what my district always
wanted to play in the MTC and that's what my zone here wanted to play
last p day. Sometimes they tell me that i can just throw the ball over
the net because they know I won't make it over the usual way. But I
decline because i ain't about that life. Man lets just say volleyball
and me aren't friends.

So guess what? Because the Irvine (kylers mission) mission is only
English the Spanish missionaries in my mission take over some of the
people there. So we had 2 dinner appointments in Irvine last week. One
of which we had to bike to. Seven. Miles. One. Way. Let's give a
moment of silence to all the calories that were lost that day.  Thank
you.  Luckily the next day we hitched a ride. I keep hoping to run
into kyler but no such luck. Oh well.

Conference was good. I paid a lot of attention and was very grateful
we got to watch it in English. And we watched it in a church so that
was different but cool in all senses of the word.

Well that's about it for my week! Love you guys!!

Love Hermana May

Anaheim

Um yeah so the weather is fantastic. I know it'll get hotter but I
don't want it to. My companions name is Hermana Budge. She is pretty
cool. She is 23 and from Utah. We get along really well and she is an
awesome trainer so I really lucked out.

I am in Santa Ana 11 central. My area is teeny tiny but there are A
TON of people here so it's all good. I live in downtown Santa Ana.
It's pretty cute. I still haven't taken pictures of the area but don't
worry I will.

Before we get to the other stuff, YES!  I felt the earthquake. It was
amazing. I have felt 4 since I've been here but only 2 are worthy of
mentioning. Yeah so me and my comp were sitting at our table planning
when all of the sudden our building starts to shake. At first I was
confused but then I got really excited. I got this huge smile on my
face and was like "yes!!"

I know.  Wrong reaction.

I still loved it.

After a few seconds we decided to get under the table but it was still
exciting.  The next earthquake we felt was during a lesson. Haha.
Awkward. Whatever.

I decided earthquakes are cool as long as they don't destroy anything.
Especially the temple .. . Or Disneyland. Don't worry.  I have my
priorities straight.

Anyways the area is good and the members are great. Guess what though?
I got a bike. Snap. First I thought that I wouldn't like it but I do
now. It's way easier to talk to people on a bike. My bike is short and
red and I named her Ronda.  I love her. And I'm positive I look
ridiculous riding it but that's okay. I try to not to be jealous that
my companions bike has the sweet hook ups like a water bottle holder,
bell, and basket .. .  But Ronda is twice the bike my companions bike
will ever be so whatever.  I think the reason why Ronda and I are so
close is because of all accidents we've almost been in. Maybe you guys
should start praying that I don't hurt myself. For real though. I'm
still building bike expertise so I'm not that coordinated. The first
day no exaggeration I almost crashed over 10 times. It's gotten better
though. Only like 3 to 5 times a day now. Just image how good I'll be
next week.

Scariest moments on a bike?
Picture this: SKINNY sidewalk, underpass, and a big ol' semi about five
feet away from you. Welcome to my life.
Another scary moment was when we were crossing train tracks. I had
just crossed the first set of train tracks and was heading for the
other when the bells started going off and the bars coming down. As
you can imagine, I peddled my little heart out.
 My muscles better rock after 12 weeks of this. Biking got a lot
easier once I realized I was in the highest gear .. .

Other than that I got an I pad the first day here.  Makes everything
so much easier as you can imagine. I didn't even have to find a
computer to email home. And our area book on this thing is easier to
navigate.

Thanks for sending my the stain stuff mom. Already saved my life. Dang puddles.

I had to bear my testimony in my Spanish ward yesterday. I just let them
know that it was my first week and my Spanish sucked then we were all
on good terms. Luckily it doesn't scare me to talk to anyone in
Spanish. Sure, i feel kinda stupid while doing it.. . But it doesn't
bother me and that's what counts I think.

Anyways dad I think you would like it here. They have every other car
you look at online.

Well I love it here so far. The people are amazing and it's fun to
teach people.  I feel like my testimony has grown just since I've
been here. I'm so lucky to be a missionary and tell people all about
how much God loves them. The church is true!! Love you guys!

Love Hermana May

Hermana Budge

Me and Ronda

Last District