natalie ann: week 30: "how's your name?"

Monday, May 23rd, 2016

Hello again! It honestly feels like just yesterday that I emailed, weeks are going by so fast. Good news is I finished my first mission journal! Only took me 7 months to finish it...

Let's see here. I finally feel like I am figuring out Eagar, I'm still really bad with names. It's still so weird to be in a small town but I love it. LITERALLY everyone is related to everyone.

Monday we had a lesson with Cheryl, a potential. We brought Sister Stewart. It was good, Cheryl is kind of all over the place and she can't get baptized for 7 years cause she is on probation. But it was a miracle that we saw her! We found some less-actives, the Ellis family, they were way nice and let us share a message. We then had a lesson with Daryl and his family. I love that family SO much. Daryl has some nerve problem so it is really hard for him to get to church. He really wants to go but is always in pain so it's pretty sad. He expressed his love for us and how much he appreciates us - it's moments like this that make being a missionary the best thing in the world.

Tuesday we went to trail riders with Bishop Gleaves and Brother Ayres. That was way fun. Our bishop doesn't even have an email...so that makes it difficult. And some people here don't have cell phones, it's like I am living in a different era. The Ericksons were out of town in Mexico so Sister Ballew and I went to their property and picked up a bunch of stuff and threw it away. Haha I don't think Dave even noticed. It looks SO much better but still needs a lot of work. We saw Tyric and talked about temples & family history. He was supposed to have his interview with Bishop after church this week to get the Aaronic Priesthood and he wasn't there at church so that's frustrating. We really want him to be sealed to his family. We had a referral for a 9 year old, Brylee, who wants to get baptized. The Armijos told us about her and we get there and brother Armijo was there taking Brylee to his house to babysit her so it was perfect! So we went over to the Armijos and taught her the first lesson! She is the cutest and wants to get baptized because she doesn't want to end up like her parents. Which was a bit heartbreaking, her dad isn't active and her mom isn't a member, they are divorced. She does not want to smoke, she emphasized that a lot. It's amazing the light of Christ that is in her, she is just so sweet. She wants to be better and follow Jesus. She loves to color and draw, it's so fun teaching a 9 year old! Her aunt and uncle are active so we are going to have lessons at their house and get her involved in activity days.

Wednesday we had district meeting and I have a training on finding. Which the mission is really pushing right now and our area needs it!! We found 3 new investigators this week which is a MIRACLE for this area. We went out to lunch as a district, that was fun. We had a lesson with Chelsea, she is going through the temple on Saturday and we get to go! :) I'm super excited. For prime time we took out someone who is preparing for a mission! We had a lot of good contacts! People are so nice here and everyone knows everyone!

Thursday was fun, we got to paint rooms in a house! All of us missionaries went and helped out. Painting is the best service I think. We saw Sally (LA) and read the Book of Mormon with her. She didn't meet with bishop to talk about tithing..ugh. We saw Jessica and she is doing well, she hasn't been coming to church though so we brought the relief society president. We're not sure if she made it to church or not. We ate dinner with the Armijos, they are the cutest family ever. Marty wants to make all of the missionaries burritos, like 200 of them! He is crazy, we are no gonna eat all those. We went to seminary graduation because Donna graduated seminary!! She did three terms her senior year. She is so awesome. Also they had a dance afterwards and Sister Ballew and I creeped and it was the best and most entertaining thing ever. I miss stake dances.

Friday we made cookies and did the cookie chain for prime time. You give someone cookies and then you asked them who else needs cookies and you give them cookies and so on. Nothing really came of it but we are hoping to have success this week. People's problems here are just so different than Scottsdale. People really open up to us and tell us everything about their life. That night we saw Erin (LA) and her family! Oh my goodness was that a good time. She has 8 kids and is divorced, she adopted 3 from her sister that passed away. She works at the gym so we see her every morning, she is so nice. But funny story, Sister Ballew was scared to talk to her, she knew she was a less-active so I said I would. We were walking out of the gym passed her desk and Sister Ballew was booking it so I had to say something fast and I said "How's your name?" Ugh it was 6 in the morning so that's my excuse, the Elders were behind me and thought it was the funniest thing ever. But it was a good ice breaker and we all laughed about it. I love going into people's homes and sharing the gospel with them. The gospel of Jesus Christ truly does bless families, no one is perfect, no family is perfect but with the gospel we can be our happiest self :)

Saturday was good...idk Saturday's no one is home it feels like! It's like isn't this the day people are supposed to be home?! Sister Jones (my trainer!) was here in Eagar cause she was on exchange with Sister Oldham so that was good seeing her! The Elders gave us a referral that day for less-actives, named the Youngs. They are way nice! They are converts and we got to share a message with them. I'm excited to get to know them more. It's a dad and daughter.

Sunday we did splits so that we could go to both wards! Donna came yay!! We then had lunch at the Larues with the Ericksons and we had a lesson with Dave Jr, he can't wait to get baptized. We then had a lesson with Donna, she explained that she doesn't want to get baptized this summer while still living with her parents cause she doesn't want to cause contention, which makes perfect sense. She wants to respect them and get baptized once she is at school. I love teaching her though cause she is so into everything. She still goes to Catholic Church in the morning and she says it's hard to feel the spirit there. We went to Dave and Hayley's, they got back from Mexico. Dave was in a bad mood so we just taught Haley. Haley is so so sassy and I love her.

SPIRITUAL PART (cause I'm a missionary): "Heavenly Father’s greatest desire is that we follow the light we were born with so we can receive more light. As we continue to follow the light our Father sheds on us, we receive more light and we become more like Him." {elder Lawrence} I love this quote. Something that Elder Arnold said that I loved was that receiving revelation is like God giving us a bit of his knowledge. We are here to receive light and to grow brighter and brighter. LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE✨

Xoxo

Sista fisha

My companion is BAE