Week 7

I dont know what it is about the first week of the transfer but I'm pretty sure that the best stuff happens then. This week has been so good and we have been so busy! At one point last night when we were adding up our numbers to send into our district leaders, sister boudesocque and I looked at each other and were like, "wait a second. how did we get 8 new investigators?" It just goes to show that when we get just go to work and not think about anything else, we arent focusing on numbers, we are focusing on souls, real people. Seriously good week. Okay so I dont really know where to start.... i should have thought out my email more before sitting here now typing aimlessly. The bruise count on my legs is definitely going up. I am forever grateful for shin guards. Soccer is brutal without them. but still so so so fun. So last sunday was fast sunday, and since sister boudescoque is almost done with her mission, she told me that she was going to do a 40 day fast. She explained to me that she was gonna pray and think about things that she could do better to become a fully more consecrated missionary and do or not do these things for the next 40 days. So I thought, well I might as well do it too! So we both prayed that sunday and when we came together, we found that almost all of our things were the same! And WOW what a difference I have seen in myself. I decided to give up saying "I'm tired" because, lets be real, did Jesus ever say he was tired when we was busy teaching the gospel? nope. he did not. I also decided that at every appt, I was going to knock on and walk up to two people around the house or something. During planning, we felt like we had to be at that place for a reason, so if the person isnt home, we might as well find out who is in that area that is prepared for us. Another thing is I took down a lot of my pictures. I would be easy for me to look of during my personal study and think, "I wonder what my friends or my family is doing right now!" (also my life before the mission all feels like a dream... like did I really go to BYU? I dont even know hahahah) Now, I just have a ton of these quotes or scriptures about missionary work that really motivate me and help me stay super focused. 

So something cool that happened this week was on tuesday night we went over to try and meet with this less active woman who lives in an apartment complex next to where we live! She has never answered or been home since we have been here. Before we left the car we prayed super hard that we could finally just meet her already! we were walking up the steps and we heard this girl say "Las misioneras!" Thats not a common reaction hahah she ran up the stairs and told us that she had been waiting for us! I thought for sure she was like 14 or 15 but nope she was 11. Reminded me of Paige! and she let us in the house and I just adore her and her little sister! They are so cute. They are dominican and their mom is the one who is inactive. It was so good to finally meet them and turns out they had been in the dominican republic for a month! Emely told me that she had been waiting for us to come! She said that she really wants to get baptized and that she had met with the missionaries before. So we are working with them now So amazing to see how the Lord puts us exactly where we need to be at the exact time. 

Oh my okay so fun fact about why I love sister boudescoque. So hispanics do not ask you how much food you would like on your plate. I think that they just assume that we are malnurished or something. So they feed us the equal amount of the men. actually sometimes more. Well that day, I just simply could not eat all of it. Like the more rice I ate, the sicker I felt. I looked over at sister b and was just like sister literamente no puedo. when they werent looking, she swapped our plates and finished mine for me. If thats not true love I dont know what is. 

Oh one other miracle that happened! So we take turns leading out planning and so this night was my night and I remember during planning having this little thought pop into my mind that we need to visit this less active lady over in princeton. I was like... ehhh she probably wont even be home but we wrote it down anyway. So we went over to her apartment and knocked and no answer so we tried a couple doors around there not knowing if they would even be hispanic or not. And then someone answered! and she was hispanic! We were talking to her and she invited us in right away! We were talking and she was so receptive and it was just so obvious that she is prepared for this message! She has 2 kids and a husband and they are from guatamala. We left her to read the intro of the book of mormon and when we went back this morning, she had the book right out on the table and said, "I read it and I loved it! My favorite part is when that man, jose smith, says that this is the most correct books of all books" Im sure i was smiling so big. She was like, "could you tell me more about him?" POR SUPUESTO (of course!!) It truly was one of the most powerful lessons we have ever taught (I probably feel that way about alot of the lessons but yeah its true hahah) 

Okay so one more thing! all these things are just popping into my mind so sorry if this makes like zero sense. Yesterday, in sunday school, the lesson was on the nature of god. So we were talking about how as children of good we have a responsibility to bring others to the knowledge of god because all of us are his children! Someone mentioned how they are super afraid to ever bring up God or anything because they dont wanna offend anyone are feel awkward. And then I raised my hand against my own will (I dont know how these things happen, ever since I was little I would subconsciously volunteer myself for commentary or answers hahah) I talked about how before my mission I would also be afraid to open my mouth and bring up religious topics in casual conversation but I just didnt now what it truly meant to be a child of god. In the Bible, in 1 John chapter 4, we learn the God is love. And perfect love casteth out all fear. I promised them that when we truly know who we are, we will never fear and will desire to call up our heavenly father to help us bring His children back. After I had said my 2 cents, the ward mission leader raised his hand and said, "I testify that what this misionera said is true and I know this because I have seen her grow in the language and teach with power" He said other things but I cant really remember because I just started tearing up and what not hahah I love our ward mision leader hermano pinto. For him to say that meant SO much to me. the language is coming and i love the mission. Until next week! 

Week 6

Okay so let me just start out by saying that I get asked out on more dates and a missionary than I have ever before in my life. I guess this is good because I'm getting really a lot better at saying no! Those who are friends of mine know how terrible I am with this hahaha sister boudesocque just laughs every time it happens. So heres one funny story. We were just finished up district meetings and then after that we have like an hour for lunch so we all went out to eat and this place near by. it was average. like an east coast cafe rio. so all us missionaries are heading out to the parking lot to leave and then this guy is walking over to me and he says "I dont wanna look stupid or anything but i have a question" and I was like "whats your question??" thinking that its like who in the world are you guys or why are you wearing nametags or the usual. But then he says, in front of my WHOLE zone, "will you go on a date with me?" I feel like the whole zone was just like waiting for me to respond and here I am the new greenie hahaha so I just said "aww thats so nice of you! but I am a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and I gave up all of that and left my family and school behind for 18 months to share the gospel" and then I quickly changed topics by asking him about his religion or something and he was like well I have a bible! and he pulled a bible out of his backpack thing. So then I was like "wow thats awesome! Youre half way there!!" I dont think he really appreciated that much. He wouldnt accept the book of mormon we offered him but hows that for a funny story. my zone just makes fun of me now hahaha. OH AND ONE MORE THING. So in all the mission cars there is this thing called a Tiwi and every time you go like 5 miles over the speed limit it says "CHECK YOUR SPEED" and lets just say thats its taking some time for me to adjust to having to drive 65 on the freeway. I'm having dreams that consist of the phrase "CHECK YOUR SPEED" 

So a couple things about this week! I have made an observation. The more I contact during the day, the happier I am and the more energy I have. So what we have been doing is trying to talk to everyone and then guess what happens, people have started coming up to us! I swear the majority of people in Princeton have english as a second language. We were teaching a less active outside of his home and this man and his two super cute daughters walked by and they were from Germany and had only been here for like a month! and then when on of our appointments juked us and we heard another language and we both thought it was spanish coming from the neighbors so we knocked on the door and they answered and they were Egyptians! The husband was wearing this giant like dress thing and it was like a mini party they were having cause he just got out of the hospital because of a heart attack and they invited us in and give us some coconut things and gave us thing mango drink and everything. This random things happen all the time. we asked to leave them with a prayer after talking to them for a little bit, and they asked if they could do their prayer. It was like this super intense chant and song thing in egyptian so that was definitely a new experience. 

Another thing that happened was when another appt juked us, (all too often people) so we tried the neighbors. Sister Boudesocque has taught me a few great clues to know if the house has spanish people are not. If the cable dish thing has 3 prongs and if there are a lot of plants just all over the place. This man opened and he was hispanic! so we were talking to him and asked him if we could share a message with him about jesus christ. he said of course and let us in! he was from Puerto Rico! I told him that my dad served his mission in Puerto Rico and he was like where are missionaries like you in other places? we replied yes!! we are just about everywhere!! He is sooo awesome and was so receptive. He was super interested in the Book of Mormon and kept saying, yes i'll read it I want to read it and kept asking us questions like, do you know what happens after this life. I just wanted to reach over and hug him. we told him that the evidence of the truthfulness of our message and the answer to all of our questions is right there in his hands! We set another appt with him and we asked him why he let us in in the first place. He said that we seemed really nice and that he felt like he really needed too. 

thats how you know people are prepared. When the spirit touches them, they follow the prompting and they let us in. 

One more cool thing. So we had exchanges this week with our sister training leaders! I was with sister Pack and she is so awesome! We had so many truly amazing experiences. I went up to her area with her which is an english area. I'm not gonna lie, I wondered for just a moment why in the world I was called to speak spanish! It was so nice to be able to understand every word they were saying and not thinking about little grammar things and stuff. But then one of the members found out I was with her and spoke spanish and referred us to one of her neighbors that only speaks spanish. So we went over there and I went solo folks. What a blessing it is to be able to learn another language. Everytime I wonder, wait a second... why was I, mallory mortensen, called to speak spanish, the thought always pops back into my mind, the Lord needs me the be able to speak spanish in the future. It is such a blessing to be doing this work. I love it people. LOVE IT.

one of our investagadores Ulises! ( we thought we was moving away but turns out hes not but we took a picture with him just in case)

Meeting with with our sister training leaders, Sister Pack and Sister Collins!

Transfer cleaning calls for some frozen pizzas and self timer pics feat. our colorful couch

for our zone activity today we went down to the Princeton stadium and played some ultimate frisbee. I think I missed my calling in life. I love Ultimate frisbee. Yes I am wearing basketball shorts. Yes this is just one of the many miracles that have occurred here on the mission

Week 5

SOME FUN THINGS: We played soccer on Saturday for a branch activity and oh my word it was so much fun. I love soccer. these people are so legit too. Its in the latin blood Im sure of it. Also I have maybe 14 mosquito bites on my legs. So my legs may or may not ever recover. Also I got to go to Vanessa's house and we talked with Vanessa and her mom (I call her mom) Karen!! I love those people. Seriously my second family. The spirit was so strong as we talked about the gospel. I wish that every missionary could have the opprotunity that I have to be able to have the responsibility to be a representative of Jesus Christ and share what we know now more than every to be true with their friends from before the mission. Its the best experience ever!! It also makes me wish so bad that I had been better with sharing my beliefs before my mission. 

Okay so wow. So picture this. Two people are jumping on a trampoline and they one of them gets launched due to timing of the bouncing. And then the person that gets launched gets launched SUPER high.(me) Okay then then someone comes along and takes the trampoline out from under them(satan) and whabam smack into humility. But then you just jump back on the trampoline again. This my friends is the life of a missionary at times. Emotional rollercoaster every single day. 

So our investagator that we were meeting (the mom) was all set to be baptized and then she finally told us that she actually wasnt divorced from her first husband that she was back together with her boyfriend and had no interest in marrying him. So yeah that ones gonna take sometime. So we told her to pray what she should do and the Lord will give her the strength she needs to make some changes that we understand are hard. Then we had a dinner with Branch President and his family planned for that Tuesday with our investagador and her daughters. Just hours before she calls us and told us that right now she doest have the money to pay for a divorce and just doesnt feel worthy to be in our presence or in the presence of the members. So yeah there a heartbreak for ya. What many people dont realize is the the church is a hopsital! we all have problems, that why we come to church! No one there is perfect! 

That day we tried really hard to put our trust in the Lord and remain super positive and not dwell on it. So we just kept working hard. And then Ulises called us! I dont know how much I have said about him but hes awesome. Hes from Mexico and we have been teaching him for a few weeks now. We pushed his baptismal date back in August to give him time to live the WoW and thatTuesday afternoon we taught about the 10 commandments and repentence. He would laugh occasionally about the commandments and we just couldnt understand why! So he called us like two hours later and told us that he was sorry for laughing but that he was just uncomfortable when he talked about adultery and not coveting and asking us for more council on how he can control his thoughts. We talked to him more on the phone and he expressed his desire to be completely obedient to these commandments. He then asked us why we pushed his baptismal date back. We explained that it was because we wanted to give him time to live the word of wisdom (not smoke or drink coffee). He told us that the night before he had a dream and a man (whose face he could not remember) came to him and kept telling him over and over that the book of mormon is true and the ulises needs to believe that the book of mormon is true over and over. His voice started to shake when he told us, "I know that the book of mormon is true. I want to be baptized any day." We told him to pray and ask God when he should be baptized so that he can recieve that confirmation and answer for himself and then call us after. About an hour and a half passed and we were walking out of the dinner appt that we had with the branch president and his family when Ulises called us! We told us that he had been praying for that whole time and as he was praying, everything bad that he had done that had caused feelings of shame and guilt came into his mind and he had repented of them and now all he wants is that remission of his sins through baptism. He just started crying when he said, "I want to be baptized this Sunday". I nearly passed out people. True story. We were so excited. 

So heres the thing: When people recieve this confirmation and want to be baptized, Satan works on them even harder because thats the last thing Satan wants is for us to make covenants that will lead us to everlasting happiness. Well a member who heard that Ulises was going to be baptized this Sundaycalled him on Friday and she told him that she thinks he needs to wait and take his time and not rush into baptism. This obviously caused him to be really nervous about baptism. When we met with him on Saturday we was really bummed and felt bad about canceling the baptism. My patience is definitely being worked on here. But in every prayer I pray that I will be able to accept the Lords timing before my timing. The important thing is that he will be baptized one day. 

Well we have dropped almost ALL of our investagators. so its back to the drawing board. I guess I didnt realize how tough this area was until a member told me that this area we are in hasnt had a baptism in almost a year. But Its a blessing for me to realize early on the i have to completely rely on the Lord to get anything done. I had my interview with president taggart and he made it very clear that proseltying is not working here. We have to do something else. So we committed us to serve. So go volunteer in hospitals, in soup kitchens, at food banks, the members, anywhere! He also committed us to focus on the members. Our branch really struggles with preisthood holders remaining active. So reactiviation and strenthening our branch is our main focus right now. We mowed a members lawn on saturday! My first time hollaaaa. And the grass was past my knees and it was a super super old lawn mower so that was an experience. 

My testimony grows more and more every time I share it. I am finding this council from my Savior to be more and more true, "He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it" (Matt 10:39). Its not about me or the numbers. It is about always being on the Lords errand and becoming more and more like him. One of the members gave a talk about preparing for a mission. When we came in he was really iffy about serving or not. he is 19 and his family are all members and they moved here from Guatamala 5 months ago. It was really hard for him to move from a place where everyone was mormon to here where we are few and far between. We have been working with him alot! He mentioned me in his talk about how I have been sent to a different place within my country but called to speak a different language and that we teach with power and authority. He said that it has caused him to think, well if they can do it, why cant i do it? He has started his mission papers! my eyes were welled up with tears that whole talk. My love for people have grown so much. so so much. I love this work. there is so much to do. and it is such a blessing to rely on my savior and redeemer. I love him. he is my best friend and he is with me always. I feel your prayers. Keep them coming!! The church is true. This gospel is perfect. 

okay so on pday last monday for a zone activity we went to washingtons crossing and i was like "oh how cute a nice little tranquil lake" then we left. and  then I was talking to one of the missionaries and he told me that GEORGE WASHINGTON ACUTALLY CROSSED THAT LAKE. thats a national monument people. I didnt even realize. Good thing I took a picture. 

Sister Stout!  i love her. Shes from bountiful like dad!

Elder Bell! hes awesome. Hes also from bountiful. and hes so tall and SO funny. hence the need to take a picture for height difference purposes. and leaves this transfer! 

MY BEST FRIEND VANESSA :)

momma dipersia!

eating at this little guatamalan place and its like so tiny and sometime i swear i am in another country. (rice on rice on rice i literally cannot with the rice)

Week 4

Hi! These week has been something else. So first of all for the weather. When it rains it pours. Like heavy warm raindrops and then it turns into some hail and then its like full on hurricane. And then the theres so ligheting and GUESS WHAT and saw lighting strike a tree. That was pretty exciting. I dont know what it is with me but I have the worst luck with housing. This week we have 20 bees fly in through the ventilation, I have no idea how and they came into our room! I prayed SO hard that we wouldnt get stung. Direct blessing: I didnt get stung. but yeah major stress. when they fly in they die cause their wings are broken. They have all been terminated. Bees better not mess with me for a while. 

I'm not gonna lie, this week was hard. People are quick so say yes and then over time they just totally lose interest and then totally start to avoid us! I dont like people avoiding me! So we went from 8 baptismal dates to 2 and about 5 other progressing to 2. Its really hard for me to drop people because, I guess its because Im a fresh and naive missionary, I just want everyone to embrace and love this gospel the way I do right now! But I know that there are people out there that the Lord has prepared to accept and act on this message, all we have to do it find them. So we have our english class and thats really good for finding people! We get a good amount of people coming to our class and its so fun. We taught about how to talk about your family and I know I say this every time, but I just love my family!! I brought a picture of my family to show as I talked about them. Fun fact: I had the smallest family in the whole class! All of them are from guatamala and have like 8-12 siblings! One of the funniest things to teach is "its nice to meet you!" thats one of the hardest things for them to say! I must agree that mucho gusto is much easier. 

Okay so heres for some awesome experiences this week. On tuesday we went to visit with an investagador and she was still struggling with stopping coffee. We were teaching and teaching and she was telling us a lot about everything shes going through right now and how its really hard to answer all her daughters questions like "why do people kill themselves" or "why does that man have one arm". Shes a  Single mom, and twin 7 year old daughters with special needs. As we were teaching I kept feeling impressed to promise her that if she stops drinking coffee, the spriit will help her know exactly what to say to her daughters and help her to be a better mom. I kept thinking, well let me think about how to say it in spanish first and this impression just kept coming. So i just opened my mouth and I promised her this promise as a representative of Jesus Christ. I felt like the Savior himself could have been in the room. The look on her face when I promised that was so awesome. She let our a big gasp of air like a weight was lifted off her shoulders. I testified that I know that the spirit has directed my own parents in times when I had questions or my testimony was failing. Then my companion told her that President Bagley (he is the branch president and our member present in the lesson) could give her a preisthood blessing to give her the strength she needs to over come. That was also so powerful so be in that room as she recieved her first preisthood blessing. She told us she was going to fast this sunday to know that she should be baptized on the 27th and we told her that we would join her in this fast. Then she came to church on sunday and guess what our lesson was on during Relief Society... BAPTISM. and why we need baptism to return to live with god and almost all the women in our little branch our converts and as they testified of how baptism has changed and blessed their lives forever the spirit was so strong. so so so so exciting. Miracles like this happen all the time!

Something else happened this week that has kinda been on my mind. So we ran into one of the guys from our english class walking home from work and we were talking to him about what we were up to. He was telling us that he thought it was great that we are teaching the word of god. We asked him more about his religious beliefs and he told us that hes catholic. We were asking him some questions and testified that our message would bless his life forever. And our church is the very same as the church that christ established when we was on the earth. We invited him to take  a Book of Mormon and read it. He declined. Which was a first. We asked why and he said that he didnt wanna play games and just test it out. he kept repeating the phrase "I dont wanna play games I dont wanna play games" This caused me to question why I was serving a mission. Was it just some sort of game? Was I just doing this to say I did it? Then the confirmation came to me quickly. I testified to him with the book of mormon in my hands that this is not a game to me. This is everything to me. I did not leave my family, my friends, my studies behind for a year and a half to play some game. I bore my simple testimony and we invited him to call us when we is ready to find out the truth of his message for himself.  

Everyday I am so grateful for the many opprotunites I have to testify of the truthfulness of this gospel. Every time I do my testimony is strengthened. 

hermana arruguren! Shes from Venezula and we try to visit her once a week. She calls us her angels and she is the only member in her family. She never wants us to leave. And she always wants us to take pictures with her. This week she taught us how to make colombian hot chocolate to delay our stay a little longer hahah last time she took our phone. the look on her face when we asked her were our phone was was like a 5 year old who got her hand caught in the cookie jar hahah so priceless.

HEY! church is this way (to da left to da left) it looks like we are in country town huh? so much green and no houses for quite a ways. 

my little nook! this is were studying goes down. 

Week 3

So many things are happening over here in good ole New Jersey. Okay so back story: I was in New Jersey last summer to visit one of my best and dearest friends ever, Vanessa! and then I get assigned to the area that she lives in!! We got permission from the mission president and I WENT AND SAW HER!! It was the most powerful experience for me to be able to share with someone who I love and know so well about why this gospel is so important to me and why I am serving a mission. The Spirit was so strong and I know the God puts people into our life so that we can learn and so that they can shape who we are. I am so bummed because we forgot to take a picture!! but we will just "run into each other" some other time :)  

Serving a mission is the best because I am learning so much about God's love. When I talk to people and how we can return to live with God again, I can feel just the tiniest amount of the love that he has for them and the urgency of our message! I dont know how I have been so lucky to have this knowledge my whole life. 

This week we had an awesome zone conference about making spiritual connections. I'm not gonna like, when I just talk to people, its easy to just be really social and surface level and then casual bring up the gospel. Then it can sound like im selling a product. Thats no good. We have been talking about asking people questions that lead into making spiritual connections. the Best way to do this is asking questions! Heres a little experience. 

So we were going over to this lady's house that we have been teaching and wanted to help her clean because it was seriously soooo messy. But when we came her mom and some ministers from their church were there and were really excited to see us and told us about some of their beliefs. They were talking about their beliefs and how they believe that god is all powerful and all churches are from god and have the power of god and sharing very sincere testimonies. I asked them that since there is one God, and God is not a God of confusion, why are there so many churches on the earth? If there is one god, shouldnt there just be one church? They didnt really know how to answer that. They started to say that church isnt important but God is. I agreed that God is very important. We talked about how when Christ was on the earth he established his church and called apostoles. Then I asked, "Would you like to know that there are people on the earth today that hold this same power and authority that the apostoles held?" It got really quite and the spirit was so strong in the room. We testified of the power of the preisthood and how it can only be found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and how there is a prophet and aposotles on the earth today and that Jesus Christ is the head of this church. I learn more about the truthfulness of this church everyday as I testify! 

Now heres for the comic relief:

Then the rest of the lesson just got kinda weird. Like all the sudden the mom started doing this weird singing and dancing thing. It was kinda terrifying. Then sister boudesocque started to pray and all of them started standing up and waving their hands in the air and saying their own prayers as loud as they could and i just started laughing. Like I was trying so hard not too. And then hermana boudesocque started laughing so it was game over. Then she prayed again and it was all quite and good. it was easily one of the most bizarre things that has ever happened to me. ever. hahahaha im laughing right now

On Wednesday we had our first english class! We told a couple of our investagadores about it and they brought friends... And guess what SEVEN PEOPLE CAME. I was so excited. And they are all so awesome. and fun fact: I am so much taller than all of them. gotta love those little guatamalan men. There seriously dont know a word of english! I didnt know that existed in the states but i guess it does! 

Also three of our investigadores came to church this sunday too! I was so happy to see how well the members fellowship them. They run up to them to meet them and get their numbers and are just such good friends to them. The members are so much more important than the missionaries, cause we are only here for a few months.

I love hearing from everyone back at home! 

And the best part is.... its all true folks. 

with president taggart

sister boudesocque made me pancakes for breakfast today because its my 2 month mark! 

with some of our zone and this legit pizza place after meeting president and his fam! 

Week 2

oh my word I dont even know where to being with this week! 

We finally met our new mission president!! President Taggart and his wife and family are seriously so amazing! They came to our area and both of their daughters bore there testimonies and out of no where I just started crying because I couldnt help but think about my cute siblings who all moved to Texas and are being so brave by having to go to a new school and all of that. But then the spirit just confirmed to me again that they are on the Lord's errand. So great to meet them. Something that President Taggart said really suck out to me. He said that our fear is stemmed from our pride. That had never occurred to me before. Every time we feel like we dont wanna do something because we are worried about what other people will think, or afraid of an outcome we cannot see, that is our pride!! That hit me like a ton of bricks. I have been working so hard to try to humble myself to the point where I am willing to submit to the will of the Lord without even a second glance. Im quite a work in progress but im working hard hahaha. 

So many things happened this week! We met with so many people and so many of them have accepted baptism! The more and more I teach the gospel, the less scary it is to ask people to be baptized. Because as soon as i really understand what the gospel is and how important it is that we live in a way so that we can return to live with our heavenly father, baptism is the greatest thing. 

I really dont even know what to say about this week! I am slowly accepting the fact that people are going to avoid me thats just how it goes hahah but its all good i dont take it personally ;) Its so funny the difference between talking to white people and talking to hispanics. So the hispanic people ALWAYS stop and let us talk to them. always. maybe because they are trying to figure out why this blonde chick is speaking spanish hahah the American people just roll their eyes and ask us if we have better things to do. Wanna know the answer to that? NO i dont have better things to do!! This is the best thing I could possibly be doing right now! 

Funny Experience: so we saw this guy we had met before and he was talking to his friend so we went up to them and were talking to them. Well I was talking to the friend and he was like(in spanish) "I wanna change religions" and I was like "well thats perfect! We can teach you about yours! and he said "only because God sent me an angel. I have seen you in a dream" and kept saying other strange things and then I was like woah thats crazy that hes seen me in a dream! but then I was like wait a second this is the most uncomfortable thing that has ever happened to me hahah seriously hermana boudesocque and i laugh about it all the time. 

Spiritual Experience: Okay so we were talking to this guy Edgar. He is guatamaelan and he cant read and is a really slow learner. Which is hard because he cant read the book of mormon on his own and he has a really hard time understanding! So I was feeling kinda frustrated inside and I know that Hma Boudesocque was too. We finally asked him why he thinks we are here. And he said he didnt know! So i testified to him that I am here because i know that God loves him. And Because i know this, I also know that God wants him to return back to live with him again. That is why i am serving a mission.

I know that this is the Lord's work! Whether I'm tired, sad, frustrated, happy, whatever emotion, I have a responsibility to get over myself and go do the Lords work. What a blessing! I am learning so much about myself and my relationship with my Heavenly Father. 

Week 1 in the mission field

one week down in the mission field. I cannot believe this is real life. What in the world. So many things have happened this week and I dont really even know what to say so if this email doesnt make any sens i am terribly sorry. Okay. So I LOVE my companion. Seriously love her. Her name is Hermana Boudesocque and she is so great. The whole mission came to the transfer conference because it was the last one before President Jeppson left so I got to see all the missionaries!! Literally all of the missionaries I talked to told me that Heremana Boudesocque is the best and that she is going to put me to work. They were so right. hahaha she is so awesome. She goes home this August and I hope that I am the kind of missionary she is. She is so bold and we are so similar is so many things!! Except the spanish part. Her mom is Colombian so she could understand spanish perfectly before the mission but couldnt speak it super fluently. Now her spanish is so beautiful so im hoping that rubs off onto me.  You will not believe this. I have been assigned to the Princeton area!! When President Jeppson announced that I could not believe it. This is the SAME area that I visited when I came to New Jersey last summer (and no President Jeppson did not know that). Hermana Boudesocque couldnt believe that either because she has never been in an area so south before. Which leads me to my next point. my comp and i were doubled in, which means that both of us are new to the area. It was very overwhelming at first cause we just had a big binder of names and didnt know anyone or where anything was. Its so funny cause ill be driving and then I will recognize certain places like "oh I got my nails done there!" or "Oh yeah definitely got a smoothing there" or "I remember shopping in that J.Crew and Vanessa left her keys in that Urban Outfitters" the fact that I am here is so crazy. The Lord truly does work in mysterious ways. 

I CANNOT believe how many hispanic people there are. I laugh every time i think about when i was worried that i wouldnt pick up spanish since I was state side hahaha literally everyone we teach and contact speaks spanish. There are areas were we go and just walk around and talk to people on the streets and they all speak spanish. They are mostly from Guatemala and I feel like a giant around here because these guatamalan men maybe make it to my shoulder. We have also taught people from Mexico, the Dominican Republic (WOW they are so hard to understand hahah), Peruivans, Colombians, just so many people. 

In our mission, we have to get at least 10 contacts a day. That scared me to death because going and talking to random people, espicially in Spanish is so nerve-wracking. But now its just super fun because 1) Hermana Boudesocque and I run into the craziest people (thanks to mexico losing in the World Cup last night, and can say that i am on my way to mastering drunken spanish) and 2) They actually want to talk to us and wonder why the heck this blonde chick is running to catch up with them while talking in Spanish  

I have found that before teaching appts, on the way there, I feel such a nice calm. Thank heavens, because Mallory before the mission would be so freaking out. I am surprised that I am able to understand almost everything during the lessons. I know for a fact its not me though. Its all with the help of the Spirit. I have felt the Spirit work through me every time I testify of something. Every where we go we have un Libro de Mormon in our hand and every time i start to feel awkward because of how many people are staring at me, the words of Peter pop into my mind. "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ". And guess what. If i repeat that in my head enough, I comes true!! 

We are missionaries in a Branch. We have enough members to be a ward, but there are so many inactive members. I didnt realize how many there were until we went to church and the attendance was so low!! We have a lot of work to do here and I'm so excited about it. Oh and from the pulpit the branch president asked us to come up and bear our testimonies. So that was super cool and it was so strange to be up there as a missionary for that branch. I feel such a responsibility in helping the members and strengthening them! 

So many things and its only the first week. Everyday is a rollercoaster but the ups are never far from the low points. I love you all and I know this church is true. I couldnt be more grateful for the opprotunity I have to be on the Lords errand everyday all day.