It is SO beautiful here (: August 25th, 2014

Well, things have been just wonderful here (:
Found a giant scorpion last night, but don't worry! He's under a cup...and we will probably never touch it because we're too scared.  BUT, we caught him and miracles happen and God knows us (: 

Good lines from my favorite family, the famous 5 year old Thomas, "Helloooo beautiful!" I love that I'm still his favorite haha his little brother Joseph has taking a liking to me lately as well.  He is 2.  He came up to me while we were at dinner at their house and just smiled at me with his arms up, waiting for me to pick him up.  I said, "I am so sorry, but I can't pick you up.'' and he told me, "That's okay! Then I will just climb your ladder!"  and he grabbed my arm and started trying to climb up me. haha I love children (: 

Oh! I also got this fun comment this week when someone was trying to explain how happy I am. "You know, I could just picture you as a garden gnome...not that you're ugly or gnomish...but you know?" haha I don't know that I really caught on to what was being said.  But I enjoy variety in my days. 

I have been learning so much lately!! Having the be the one to show someone else the ropes for their first time is kind of intimidating.  I am always being watched and so I decided that that is why I was called to this calling!  I need to learn to be as gooooood as I can be and I always need to make sure that I am doing what I am supposed to be doing.  It has been a wonderful opportunity for me and I have learned so much thus far.  I know that I will continue to learn so much and I am so grateful for that!  (: I know that if you apply unto the Spirit, you will receive His presence and He will guide you!  He will even comfort you when you have a creepy man that lives by your mailbox who takes pictures of you when you drive past his house/walk near his house...(He hides behind the wall with  his little flip phone and snaps pictures!)...haha One stocker per area?  Is that even allowed?  Don't worry, though.  We try to be as safe as possible! 

One thought that I had this week was how cool it is that we get to be in Families on earth! (: I love the fact that these ties and relationships extend beyond the grave.  D&C 130:2 "And that same sociality will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy." 

I love that!  Our relationships will be glorified.  What a better reason to treat each other as the celestial beings we are destined to become (: 

I know that we can be changed through the Gospel of Christ--Through Christ and His Atonement.  

Love you!

Transfer & Training August 19th, 2014

Well! First of all, today is the start of our new transfer (:

Hermana Jenkins is off and I will miss her so much!  But I get the opportunity to train a new missionary this transfer.  Her name is Hermana Dominguez and I am so excited! I can already tell that I am going to learn so much from her! She seems so good and so ready to serve and I love that!  It's a little motivator for me to keep pushing foward STRONG! Lovin' it, lovin' it.  We are going to have so much fun this transfer!  It already started out with a downpour so lovely, we looked like we just got out of the shower.  Not a bad start. 

Hermana Jenkins and I had a little insight in one of our companion studies this last week and I wanted to share it!  We were talking about Adam and Eve and cosas asi.  We noticed how that when Satan tempted Adam, he didn't give in.  But, as we all know, when he tempted Eve, she did.  We decided that that is how most things will be in life! Satan will tempt us when we are alone.  We wondered if they would have ever taken the fruit if satan would have approached them while they were together.  Instead he approached them individually and because of that, the fall resulted.  I wonder if we as families would make better decisions if we first talked them out with our family members?  If we are to stick together as a family, we will always be stronger than if we are alone.  Like one of this year's primary song says: "God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be."  We are all in our unit of family to be together!  We are in it to grow and to better each other; also to lift each other and strengthen one another.  What a blessing it is!  I wouldn't think that anything would break a family if they were to be together in spirit and mind.  It is when we separate ourselves from family that we get into trouble.  AND that is why it is so important to create an environment where the Spirit can dwell.  If we do so, we will always have something to fall back on no matter where life takes us.  Family prayer is important.  Family home evening is important.  Reading the scriptures as a family is important.  These things strengthen and bind us as families. (and I get off my soap box here...)

Well. All I can say is that I love it here! As always.  I love what I do and I love who I serve. It's almost like this is all I know now haha it's all I know how to do and I feel like I've been doing it my whole life.  I also love how my world is bigger  here.  I still miss my mountains, but my sky extends from one end to the other in this world.  (: 

I just want to end with 2 quotes!  they are really good (: Okay?

"Every challenge you face, every hard thing you confront, every bad thing that happens to you, every unfairness, every conflict, every sadness, tragedy, every disappointment and heartache, every temptation and every opposition happens for one purpose only: to give you opportunity to respond by applying in  your life the teachings of Jesus.  As you do so, you are changed to become more like Him."

I just love that! (: Look forward with hopeful eyes because it will all be worth it in the end.
AND

"There are two ways of evolving: deliberately and accidentally.  You can either decide who you want to become and deliberately work toward that end, or you can just go with the flow and become whatever life makes of you.  In that event, you will become whatever the fickle circumstances and forces of life and society will make of you; whatever is currently considered to be popular or in; whatever is easiest.  But, whatever you become accidentally, it will not be nearly the full measure of your potential.  You will become someone, somewhere in the middle."

(I may have shared that before?) these are both from Lawrence E. Corbridge.

I love these thoughts!  In the end, it really just comes down to following God's plan for us and trusting in Him only.

Love!      

The Closest to Christ I Have Ever Felt. August 4th, 2014

So you know those bugs that you see in the bug exhibit at the Zoo? The ones that are pinned to the wall and you always think to yourself, "I never want to see anything like that in my LIFE!" ?? And you might even wonder why there are on this earth in the first place...yeah. Those live here.  Okay, call me dramatic (I probably am (: haha) but I'm not even kidding! The biggest things you've ever seen in!...Covered in mosquito bites, sure, but this week was incredible! Just. I feel so blessed to even be here.  I don't know what I did to deserve this golden experience. But I am forever grateful (:

I think that one of the funnest things that happened this week was as we were leaving our dinner appointment.  We walked out of the house and up to the truck, my companion was behind and ready to back me out of this really long, steep driveway...and BAM, just out of nowhere, not even a hint of warning, these big raindrops instantly soak us to the bone.  It was phenomenal!  I couldn't even help but smile.  I love the rain! And I love the rain in Rio Rico, AZ.  

Hmm, I just want to share this little piece of gold with you that I learned from good ole' President Killpack in the day.  He said this, "Be a Hell Shaker!"  Be someone that when you wake up and your feet hit the ground, satan trembles at the knowledge of your arising.  What a concept!  I love that.  It really just puts it into perspective of how we should be in this life haha we are fighting this war every day but we literally are given the power to not only fight it, but to win it!  We have every advantage to do so as well because we are endowed with power on high!  We fight for the cause of Zion and so the Lord is ALWAYS on our side as we are standing with Him.  Just like it tells us in Jacob 5, we are working in this vineyard, but the Lord literally works with us.  SO, my invitation to you this week, be a Hell shaker!  Go out and shake the foundations that crumble under righteous feet.  We are built upon a rock!

I want to share with you probably the most spiritual experience I have had the entire time that I have been out here.  I haven't seen Christ here in person, but I have seen Him because I experienced this.  

There is a woman in our ward whose husband had a tumor in his brain.  He went in to surgery and came out worse than he went in.  Everyone seemed to love this man sooo much because of the person he is.  I only met this couple once.  They went in to surgery and a life of a couple months in a hospital the second week after I came into this area.  I didn't know them at all.  But the light in their eyes was something I will never forget.  They shone with so much righteousness and I knew they were wonderful people! After everything I had heard about them, I knew they were.  A couple days ago, and after a long battle of hardships, this man passed away.  The ward, and even the Spanish ward, was absolutely devastated!  We heard about it all day long throughout our church meetings.  Then we went to Hermana Noble's home after church, as we always do, to sing hymns with her.  When we got there, there was an unexpected woman in the room talking with Hermana Noble.  She had glowing eyes that I recognized, but I didn't know her name.  She spoke with the Hermana for a moment and then left to the store to go pick up some food for her.  After she left, Hermana Noble said,"That was my Hermanita Gonzales." The same lady whose husband had just passed away 2 days before.  Hermana Noble has very bad cancer and she lays in bed almost all the days long.  Sister Gonzales had come to visit her and had just left to buy her some food so that she could make it through the week.  When I realized who it was that had just left, the Spirit filled my heart.  Hermana Noble didn't feel like singing that day.  She cried and told us how sad she is that her friend passed away and what a good person he was.  We ended up still being there by the time Sister Gonzales arrived again.  She came in, hugged Hermana Noble and told her that she had to leave.  She slipped a good amount of money into her hand and told her that that was to hold her over until she returned again.  She then consoled Hermana Noble for a moment as she expressed how much she missed Sister Noble's husband.  She said goodbye and left, without a tear in her eye.  I had just witnessed a woman of Christ.  The Spirit filled the room and we all cried together.  I could not believe what I had just seen!  This woman who just lost her husband had driven all the way down from Phoenix (where her husband passed away) to serve another widowed woman whom you knew she loves with all her heart and then told her that she'd be back soon to see her again.  Wow. I am a new person. 

Service is love.  Love is Christ.  We are His hands and feet.  Don't forget that.

Love.

Shine on!

I Love This Life. August 11th, 2014

I feel like I have so much to say this week that I almost have no idea what to say!  Everything has been going so well and we have been so busy that I don't even have time to breathe haha in a good way of course! (: I love it here! I love the people SO much! I love this work and I love this gospel! 

If you're ever wondering how to get through a trial in life, think back to the night the Savior suffered just for YOU. Pray to know what He did to get through your trial.  You will be guided and you will be comforted. (:

President Uchtdorf said, "Never surrender.  Never allow despair to overcome your spirit.  Embrace and rely upon the Hope of Isreal, for the love of the Son of God pierces all darkness, softens all sorrow, and gladdens every heart."

You are doing alright! (: The Atonement makes up for our little weaknesses that we all have.  And as we use it, they become our strengths.  Reach out to people! LOVE them.  We're all the same on the inside: searching for hope; seeking acceptance.  Just love.

All that matters is what God thinks of us.  If we're doing our best to please Him and keep our covenants.  And if we do so, we will be able to rejoice!  Because we are on the path to Salvation. 

D&C 25:13

"Wherefore, lift up thy heart and rejoice, and cleave unto the covenants which thou hast made." 

If we are doing that, we are always in the right!

 

Best line of the week....(background story: we knocked on a families house and they opened the door right as a trantula went into their house and we saw it just too late! haha) "El Diablo esta entrando!" (the devil is coming inside!) hahaha watch out for those spiders.....

 

love.