week 51: pinetop here i come!

Monday, October 17th 

Hello again!

I feel like I just had pday! Okay so President called me yesterday (before transfer news came out) dud I have no idea why but he told me my transfer news and I am staying in the mountains and going to Pinetop and I will be with Sister Suter. It's going to be hard being so close to Eagar dahhh. Like seriously it's going to be one of the hardest things I have done on my mission to leave this place. It's crazy how much you love the people you serve & serve with.

Monday we saw Crystal and her family. We had a good lesson with them. They told us they drove by the snowflake temple and they were SO amazed. It was really cute and funny. They were like so scared to go up to it so they just drove around it. They are funny.

Tuesday we show up at the Tisdell's and he is cutting wood haha. Like with an ax, he is so old so I was like hey I got this and chopped some of his wood for him in a skirt. We had a lot of appointments that night but like all of them fell through! We got to see the Nelsons though, they are doing good. They just need to come to church though! They were doing so good for a while.

Wednesday we had ZTM, it was kind of a call to repentance. It was good though. The stls did a good training on the atonement & love. It's so important to love the people we teach. We talked about we can increase the love for the work by sacrifice. When you sacrifice you will have more ability to feel His love. We saw Nancy Ward, she is so funny. We saw this family named the Burnetts. And I guess it was a miracle cause they NEVER let anyone in. We had dinner at PJ's, she is the funniest ever. We had a lesson with Tayler and we had a really good lesson with her cause her kids were asleep. She has a hard time with Joseph Smith so we invited her to read the Book of Mormon every day and pray about it.

Thursday was temple day! Our zone got to go to the temple and it was great. We did baptisms, confirmations, endowments, and sealing to parents for ancestors! It was a long but good day. We saw Erin Cordova and her kids. We taught them the plan of salvation and they were really into it. We then saw the Armijos. Haha we had a really funny lesson with them and couldn't stop laughing for some reason...

Friday we went by and saw Dave & Haley. Dakota was also there. Dakota was mia and like not responding to us. He still wants to get baptized but is just not like really motivated I guess. Idk we were like when do you want to get baptized and he was just like eventually...so set a new date for Nov 26 for the third time! Haha so we will see if he gets more serious about it. I think he is sincere, he is just a typical teenage boy. We had dinner with someone in MV Ward and one of our investigators randomly showed up, I mean we only taught them once cause they are super busy but it was still pretty good. We then had a lesson with Raydan. He is so cute. I love teaching him. We then saw the Eagars. They are doing well. Ah but I ate so muchhhhhhhh. They fed us so much for dinner and I wanted to perish.

Saturday we went and helped at Living Hope. Milligan Valley Ward was helping with it. We then saw Brylee that afternoon. She is so funny. Her dad's girlfriend's kids were there and we all made prayer rocks with them. It was cute. Brylee has been going to their church though and sounds like she likes it more, cause it's fun. And she doesn't really keep commitments anymore. She can't get baptized until her mom approves it which might take years...so sadly we have to drop her. I know that we have taught her a lot though and that one day she will remember the lessons we had with her. We saw Dollie. She is doing good. She moved trailers which is good cause it's a lot bigger. We had a good lesson with her. We had another lesson with Raydan. He is doing great. It was Brother Ayres birthday so we decorated his house, it was fun. Sister Penrod in our ward was putting on a night to remember babies who have passed away because it was national pregnancy and baby loss remembrance day. It was a beautiful night by a pond. There was such a sweet spirit there. Many people came and we lit lanterns into the sky. It was really pretty.

Sunday was good. It's always the best feeling when people come to church, but when they don't it's the worst. It's like you know how many blessings they are missing out on. A lady in relief society 3rd Ward gave me the nicest compliment. I didn't even know her but she started by saying how she has always wanted a good relationship with her daughters and how I did two things today that really impacted her and helped her. I have no idea what those two things were but she started crying. Sometimes when you're in an area you start to wonder if you have done any good in that area. It was a good confirmation to me that you have no idea whose life you affect and impact. Especially on the mission. People really are watching you, which is kind of intimidating but I know that if I am working my hardest & being myself, I can be my best missionary self. Anyways we then saw Dave Jr and Dakota. I have grown to love that family so much. I definitely feel that I was supposed to meet that family. We then saw Raydan, oh I love him! He is the cutest little boy. And then we saw the Gallegos. I have really grown to love that family even though we pretty much just met them. There is something special about them. I wish I could stay here and teach them even more. But God has a plan for me.

I was looking through my ponderize scripture little notebook last night and I saw this one & it stood out to me.

Alma 26:27 "Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success."

I know that God wants to comfort us and to be successful. Even in hard times because those are the times we grow the most.

Elder Bednar said, "We grow to love those whom we serve. And because serving others is serving God, we grow to love Him and our brothers and sisters more deeply. Such love is a manifestation of the spiritual gift of charity, even the pure love of Christ."

I have learned so much in Eagar. I think mostly I have learned love. I truly love the people, the work & love for my Father in Heaven. I have learned how to be the best missionary I can be. I have worked so hard here. Like to me it's amazing to see the progress here, we had 9 lessons with a member present this week, that's good for us I promise! I think back to when I first got here, oh so much has changed. We have just found so many people to teach and it's hard to leave them. But that's how missionary work is. I know that Pinetop is where I'm supposed to go. I'm ready to work hard!

--xo: sista fisha

it's still summer here

Benalleys!

cuttin' wood!

John Phelps!

SISTAS!

Nancy!

Temple trip!

Holley!

Cordovas!

Our 18th weekly planning...

brother ayres

basic

prayer rocks

brother ayres birthday!

selfie

night of remembrance

our sarcastic dave

Gallegos!

week 50: man vs. spider

Monday, October 10th, 2016

Shalom!

How are you doing? My week was good. Kind of a blur but good. Weeks are just going by so fast, like we only have one more week of this transfer.  I don't want to leave & it has been the most perfect weather here! It gets cold in the morning and at night but the rest of the time it feels like summer, perfect fall days. so the past couple weeks we have been finding SO many spiders in our house. They get progressively larger each time. Seriously they have gotten SO big, I'm like where do they come from?! There is a lot of screaming in our house to say the least...

Monday we saw Sheila before our stake FHE. We hadn't seen her in forever! She is doing good but just working a ton. We got out of there in 20 mins! I was very impressed cause she talks a lot. Stake FHE was good, we talked about repentance and how it is a gift and a CHOICE. We also talked about how He cannot save us in our sins but FROM our sins. It was really good, reminding me of a lot that they said at conference.

Tuesday like no one answered their door. We got to see Marilyn Davis. Her life is kind of sad. She is an older lady and she said she really never has had good self esteem. She has really bad social anxiety that's why she doesn't come to church. And she doesn't want to have home or visiting teachers. So there isn't much we can do cause she doesn't really want to progress. We tti'd a cop, haha it was really funny. We thought it was another cop cause he waved. And so we stopped and he came behind us and passed us and then stopped and then we went by him again and rolled down our window and he was like "you wanna play leap frog?". Haha and so we did...and then we gave him a Book of Mormon and such. He will be baptized one day. We then had our first lesson with Meredith! It was so awesome! The Spirit was very strong and she is just so sincere. She was telling us how the missionaries came in a perfect time in her life and how we are what she needs. She said she would be baptized if she knew it was true!

Wednesday we saw Susan and her son Walker. They are cute. Walker is working toward the temple but Susan says that's not really her goal right now but maybe some day. I don't know what is really holding her back. We then went to Nancy Wards, her boyfriend left already...we are wondering if he doesn't like her cause she hasn't heard from him since...who knows. We then saw Tayler & it was a miracle because she had already put her kids to bed. We then saw Gaylon. He is doing alright. He might move to Reserve. We then saw Brylee and watched Finding Faith in Christ with her cause she ordered one haha and then we got a referral for it. She is so funny I love her.

Thursday was awesome because we had a mission tour with Elder Zeballos of the seventy! His wife came as well. They are from Chile & they are the cutest! They are both converts and traveled all the way to Brazil to be sealed. It was so uplifting and inspiring!! The Spirit was so strong and it was just what I needed to hear. We talked a lot about preach my gospel and being a pmg mission. We talked about how we need to read it everyday so that we can become converted. I loved Sister Zeballos' talk! She talked a lot about loving our mission and being HAPPY! We need to take advantage of our mission and to enjoy every day! Sure there are days that are hard but find joy! She talked about not seeing the fruits of our labors now, but later. I loved that. It might not be til heaven that I can see the fruit of my labor but I know the Lord has sent me a here for a purpose! And Elder Zeballos' talk was just amazing. I loved when he talked about seeing his missionaries that taught/baptized him. They are now leaders in the church. He was happy they are still active and he told us to continue to be an example to our investigators and less-actives. We talked about how it is not enough for our investigators to gain knowledge and to feel, they need to ACT. He said our ground is not the common ground, our ground is unique! No other religion compares to this one. He talked a lot about our full potential and how we can know when we can do more. He talked about it like climbing hills or mountains. When you climb one you can see the next mountain that is higher. So in order to know something that's higher you have to go to the first one. When you reach a certain goal it is a starting point for the next goal. Anyways it just made me more excited to be a missionary and more motivated! I want to be the best missionary I can be. It really is a privilege to be His representative! There are many reasons to have joy! I then got my flu shot! Dad be proud! We then had dinner with a less-active that we teach, her name is Samantha. Her husband got called into work right when we got there which was sad because we want to teach both of them. But we had a really good lesson with Samantha. We had a lesson plan but the Spirit told us otherwise when we got there and we talked about patriarchal blessings. She has one boy and it was really hard for them to get pregnant and she doesn't think she can have another one. So we asked her about her patriarchal blessing & she hasn't read it in years, she briefly read it to herself and it said "children" and that they would be sealed in the temple. It was a really special moment because the temple is what she wants. We told her that if she continues on Christ's path, that is a promise to her. We then saw the Eagars. I love them, they are pretty much family.

Friday Sister Ciminski took us to go see a former named Davina. We just wanted to see where she is at. She isn't ready right now but we had a really good discussion with her. She comes to church almost every week and says she likes it more than other churches. It's weird cause she says she doesn't have a testimony of Joseph Smith but she does of the Book of Mormon so it's kind of just on her own time. Basically she just hasn't gotten her answer yet. She is seeking though! My companion got sick the rest of the day so we didn't do much else.

Saturday we saw Daryl! He is doing good. He might have to get back surgery though :( we then saw Jennifer Todd. She is pretty much less-active cause of health. She is related to the Armijos. We had a good lesson with her and showed her the courage Mormon message. We had a lesson with Brother Ayres grandson named Raydan! He stays with his grandparents on the weekend and they finally said that he could be baptized! So he is on date for oct 29! He is ten and is so cute!! He knows a lot about the gospel but it is still fun teaching him.

Sunday, it felt like no one came to church! Lots of visitors though! Probably cause it's fall break. We had a lesson with the Gallegos. They didn't read the Book of Mormon so we read the introduction with them instead of teaching the plan of salvation and I'm glad we did. They asked so many good questions and they are really seeking to know the truth. Martin was like out of all the missionaries I have had you guys have actually helped me understand instead of giving me all of this information. And it's true, you have to go where the investigator is. We told them we can't teach them the next lesson until they read the Book of Mormon for themselves haha so hopefully that motivates them to read! We had another lesson with Raydan, he is a cutie.

So I finished the Book of Mormon this week! Woop woop. Here are a few verses that stood out to me this week.

Ether 2:25, “And behold, I prepare you against these things; for ye cannot cross this great deep save I prepare you against the waves of the sea, and the winds which have gone forth, and the floods which shall come. Therefore what will ye that I should prepare for you that ye may have light when ye are swallowed up in the depths of the sea?” The Lord has provided the waves, rain, and wind to help us reach our destination. If we look at our trials from God’s perspective we see that the waves of life carry us, the winds guide us and when it rains God is pouring out blessings upon us.

AND

Moroni 7: 27&29, "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased because Christ hath ascended into heaven, and hath sat down on the right hand of God, to claim of the Father his rights of mercy which he hath upon the children of me? And because he hath done this, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men." I know that God is a God of miracles! The Book of Mormon has so many miracles in it, and is a miracle in itself.

Just like Elder Stevenson said at conference, "as you look to the book, you look to the Lord!" It is tangible evidence of the restoration and has brought a lot of peace to my life. I know the Book of Mormon to be the word of God, it truly has changed my life!

--xo: sista fisha

Zone conference 9/27

Sheila!!!

trees

Taco Tuesday

Norma!

Raydan

FALL

The Hunt kids

week 49: #genconf

Monday, October 3rd, 2016

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a great conference weekend! I know I did! It's weird to think it has already been a year since last oct conference. I was in Utah for it! Dah time flies. I love listening to the prophet & apostles. They are so inspired & passionate about what they do. I'm grateful for them and their service!

Monday we had a referral to go see a less-active in 3rd Ward named Debra. We had a really good lesson on general conference/prophets and the spirit was there. But she is just very stubborn and doesn't want to progress so we probably aren't going to go back. She was very nice though. Her husband isn't a member but is really not interested haha.

Tuesday we had zone conference. It was really good! We talked about a lot of things but I think the main message we talked about was the doctrine of Christ. It reminded me of women's session how we need a bedrock understanding of the doctrine of Christ. Something I loved what Sister Robinson said was that "we need to be better to speak of repentance as a gift." Repentance is a good thing & I am so grateful for it. We saw Peggy and had a lesson on temples with her. I don't think she has that strong of a testimony of temples and doesn't really think it is possible to get there. We kept telling her it is possible! She is slowly progressing though, she told us she is starting to read the scriptures!

Wednesday we had a second lesson with Jessica which I knew we had to drop. I should have dropped her in the second lesson but oh well. She texts us before and asks us if we wanted to watch the Bible vs the bom. Were like whattttt oh dear. She talked about it in the lesson and it was made by ex mormons. She was just trying to convince us that there is factual evidence that the bom isn't right. We kept trying to tell her that we can only know from God if what we are telling her is true. She just doesn't get it, she says she knows her church is true because of facts. The Spirit just wasn't in her lessons cause there was contention. It was only there when we bore testimony. It just makes me sad that she is missing the gospel in her life. She would make such a good member. So yeah we dropped her, she just wanted to discuss the differences. We then opened her front door to leave and Susan her neighbor was there. She took her name off the records several years ago and I see her come to 1st Ward sometimes, even though she is in third. So we had a lesson with her, and our member was great and came to both. Susan is Japanese and likes to TALK. I mean that is an understatement. I felt like I got hit by a train after I left. Like we barely shared a message. Basically just talked about the Book of Mormon but yeah. She says she will get baptized again when she moves which will be good cause she is moving by her daughter who is active. We then went by to see a prospective elder PMF. His name is John and he is actually our bishop's dad haha. They are way awesome. It's crazy how fast I fall in love with people here. We then had a lesson with Gaylon. He is doing pretty good.

Thursday I was on exchanges with Sister Doxey in Taylor! It was way fun and we definitely saw miracles! We had a really good Spanish lesson with potential investigators. It was a family and I got to bear my testimony and the little boy translated to the mom. It was pretty cool. It was a fun day being with her!

Friday we went to the homecoming parade to talk to people. Only in this small town could you block off a whole road for a little parade. We saw Tyric. He still isn't coming to church but we had a good lesson on general conference cause they have never actually watched it before! We then had an AMAZING lesson with a new investigator named JC! I think I talked about meeting him in my last email. We knocked on his door trying to find a former but we found him instead. Anyways we had a lesson with him and it was a miracle cause we couldn't find a female to come with us but 30mins before we did! JC wants to understand our religion and growing up I guess the mormons weren't super nice to him. He says it's because of his ethnic background. He is catholic but stopped going when he got cancer & then his friend committed suicide so he has been through a lot. All of these experiences could have pushed him away from God but they brought him closer. I know trials & afflictions do prepare people for the gospel. JC is so prepared! The Spirit was so thick, it is always so strong when the person is prepared. It's pretty cool, he just kept saying how he was lost. Idk the lesson was just so good. It's lessons like this that make missionary work all worth it. Being a worthy vessel to do His work, ah there is nothing better. I know there is a higher power with me, or I wouldn't be able to do what I do. We then volunteered at the dome for the football game. We worked at the concessions stand. Holy cow it was insane but so fun. We got to talk to a lot of people too.

Saturday was good cause genconf!! We watched them all at the Henrie's, haha love them. And her biscuits & gravy are so good! There was so much that I like so I could go on and on. I loved all the talks on missionary work of course. I liked when Kazuhiko Yamashita talked about being ambitious for Christ. I felt like they talked a lot about prayer which I needed. We then saw PJ after church. She is in mv ward. She is really cute I like her a lot. She just doesn't quite get the temple, so we are going to help her with that. We had dinner at the Moore's & Crystal & her kids were there who are recent converts. They are such a funny family. We then saw Kim, it was our first lesson with her. We had been trying to see her for forever. She was also pretty funny.

Sunday we watched the morning session at Steve & Mindy's. They made us bomb breakfast. We then had a lesson with a guy named Joe. It was our first lesson with him. He is dating a member in our ward. We had the lesson at our stake presidents house. Joe is so awesome! He technically lives in the valley so idk if we can keep teaching him but we will see. He is just taking everything in and wants to be baptized! He is a great guy and is truly seeking for answers. We then got a text from the Eagars and they invited us for the second session! General conference is so good for less-actives. We played conference bingo and she made us so much food, like I was gonna die. I loved all the talks & my questions were definitely answered! I love the spiritual upliftment conference brings. I loved the talk about joy. It's very true that we can have joy amidst trial. I always tell people the happiness the gospel brings me! We are not telling people they aren't happy, but how much happier they can be when they live the teachings of Jesus Christ! We had a lesson with the Gallegos. We taught the restoration and it went well! They are a really cute family and the gospel will be so good for them! He has really good questions too. We then contacted a referral the elders gave us and she is so solid! Her name is Meredith and she is the sweetest. I swear you get more miracles when you white wash!

So I am in 3 nephi right now and it is so good. Cause Christ comes & He is just the man. Okay let me just share some scriptures I like:

3 nephi 5:13 "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life." This is a new recitation for our mission & I just love it!

3 nephi 9:14 "Yea, verily I say unto you, if ye will come unto me ye shall have eternal life. Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me." Christ is merciful &He wants us to come unto Him.

We also on Saturday started reading the Book of Mormon as a mission in 65 days. We all got a copy & are searching out & marking the doctrine of Christ! I really like it so far! I think our mission is going to see lots of miracles from it! I love my mission & all the people I get to meet everyday! I hope you all take what you learned from conference & live it!!

LOVE YOU ALL

--xo: sista fisha

Peggy & Gary!

Amorie!

Exchanges w/ Sister Doxey

homecoming parade

my cute pumpkin