Week of las Moscas

So to start thing off on a rather comical note. So it was Tuesday night. coming home after a long hot day. We stumble in the house and start nightly planning halfway through, I hear these weird sounds coming from the kitchen. I open the door of our cool study room and glance above and there are 48 mutate sized flies buzzing around the ceiling. I start flipping lids. sister Kramer comes over and to see what the rucus is and immediately starts saying "I cant. I cant. I cannot even." she walked over to the kitchen blinds, gives them a shake, and at least 40 more fly out of their colonies hiding place. I have goosebumbs as I'm writing this. SO gross. So we calmly close all doors so they are trapped in the kitchen, run back into our room, finishing planning and decided to take matters into our own hands. We have no idea how they entered because all our windows are closed. We think they came in through a hole in the dry wall or something. So we went RAMBO and start killing them one by one with the back of our flip flops. It was gruesome. Then we whip out the vacum and start sucking them up through there. It was grizzly seeing them flying around in there. (don't worry folks... I recorded the whole thing) Then we whip out the hair spray and try to fumigate them. I don't think that did anything other than might it smell super bad. as the days went on, more would enter, but we got really good at killing them. so yeah. they are all dead now. just the occasional corpse is left behind. luchenos.

Anywho. onto more important things. this week definitely had its ups and down. the days are long but the weeks just flew by! So we talk to Dominicans and Cubans most of the time and its pretty funny because I will sometimes look over at sister Kramer and she just has the most confused look on her face. hahaha I console her that they a different language all on their own and that when you can understand them, then you know you know Spanish. its crazy because my brain just runs on Spanish mode todo el tiempo. sister Kramer asks me all the time "what does that mean" and its an ordeal to try to figure our the English equivalent. we feel like we are opening up a new area. we have no phone numbers of NO ONE. just the members, the few investigadors we were left with (which are mainly dropped) and yeah.. that's is. so I'm SO DONE walking all the way over to Africa to a potential that doesn't live there anymore or a fake address. so we are just gonna buckle down and knock and talk to everyone we can. I'm looking forward to seeing some awesome miracles next week.

Speaking of miracles! This week we had a HUGE ONE! so we were knocking and doing all that jazz and we get ot a door and its a woman who andswer and she looks super surprised to see us. Like speechless surprised. we tell her who we are and she says come in please! We enter and she immediately starts offering us everything. It turned into like a three course meal of juices, ice cream and sandwiches. she is from cuba and her two best friends live in florida and are members of the church and always talk to her about the church and said that she was waiting for us to come. WHAT? then she opens up to us a ton about the death of her son and after that, she was just super mad at God. but he knows that he loves her and is waiting for her to come unto him. she said that us coming shows her that now is her time. the spirit totally guided the discussion and the following Sunday, her and her cute 5 year old daughter came to church! She even asked if we could take a picture together in the church to send to her friends in Florida. she said she was so grateful we came and that she would have opened the door 1000 times over again. I love her. she will be on baptismal date next week!

well the church is true. I love you all. the theme of this week for me has being testifying that families can be together forever. we have met with so many part member families and it is just a constant reminder to me of how blessed I am to have been born into the covenant and have grown up with the knowledge that the Lord has shown me how I can have an eternal family. that is the good news of the gospel. there is no, "until death to you part".

paz.amor.bendeciones.

Hermana mortensen

Hey hey hey from West New York!

So miracles happen people. i am in a WALKING AREA. seriously. dream come true. I feel like I'm in a foreign mission or something. we are the first sisters to serve here. life is so good in a place where everything is in walking distance! and you know what that means... everyone is hispanic. I'm not kidding. like constant Spanish music in the streets. so yeah. I couldn't have pick a better place to die hard in the mission :) OKAY AND OH MY GOSH let me tell you about my hija. she is rad. we became friends so fast. so first of all, the new missionaries flew in on Monday (last week) and the APs called us to go up to Newark to welcome them and like break them in by contacting with them in Newark. well, this cute new missionary runs up to me and grabs me and says, "oh my gosh you're Mallory I totally have seen you before I am friends with Kristina Baker" and all that jazz. everyone was just like laughing inside because little did she know I would be her trainer! Her face was priceless when I walked in with the trainers at transfer Conf. its weird because we look so much alike. like straight up sisters. and the funniest part is that in our area, two white blonde girls stick out like sore thumbs. 

its funny because every time we leave the door to go out to work  I feel like I'm Daniel in the lions den. I'm not sure if its cause the evil of the world just hits ya in the face or for all the creepy people around here that look at us like we are carne hahah but I must say, there is nothing better than crawling in your bed at and your feet are throbbing and you're dead tired but so happy at the same time because you worked your hardest. 

Being doubled in is always really super overwhelming for the first 2 days but you just gotta grind it out and then miracles come. One of those were the two new investigadores. So Sister Kramer and I went to go meet with a long lost less active. As we were talking with her, we started teaching her 10 year old son who has not been baptized as well as her friend that she works with. Her friend, C____, told us that she had a dream where she saw three elders walking in the street (there was a trio here before we came in) and then she and her friend (the long lost less active) stopped them and told them to visit them. Later on she felt that the people that would come to teach her would be two women. the less active was like, no way. it will definitely be elders. But C___ insisted. and then we showed up! It's crazy how Heavenly Father works. She was so prepared. The lessons were totally led by the spirit. 

Another highlight was a less active that we met. She had been baptized a couple years ago, but after her baptism, never returned. We asked her why and she said it was because she is just so tired. I really love the hispanic people here in jersey and I cannot even imagine how much they have to do and work and especially this sister. You could just see in her eyes how tired she was. I felt impressed to have her read in Matt 11:28 when Christ says, "come unto all ye that labor and are heavy laden" as soon as she read that, the tears started to flow. The spirit touched her heart and she knew she needed to come back to truly find the rest that she so desired. For the first time in years, she was in church.

I had the sweet blessing to go back to Morristown for the baptism of two people that Sister Dubon and I taught. its so amazing to see the growth there. When I saw the L____ family, C______ and J______ wouldn't let go of me. They kept saying "no se vaya no se vaya otra vez" I love all these people. everyone kept saying "Morristown needed you" but I felt as though the spirit whispered to me "YOU needed Morristown" I was stretched and pulled and I feel every area does that to us to that we can become the people the Lord wants us to be. 

Love you all!!

hermana Mortensen 

i know. lame. no pics. camera cord has gone MIA in the transition of areas.  

Baby #3 on the Way!! I'm Training Again!

So many emotions folks. Well I am so sad because my six weeks in Elizabeth are the only six weeks I will have here. That's right folks. I've "one and done" it. I am so grateful for the people I have met here and for the many miracles that I was able to witness. I am especially grateful for the short time I had to serve along side sister Ivie. I learned so much from her and her sensitivity to the spirit. There's nothing quite like a friendship between companions. she has become one of my best friends in this short time. We quite enjoyed this summer together. so many laughs. we seriously are life twins and I cannot wait for us to keep hanging out up in Provo.

Sooo much has happened too, so I am sorry right of the bat because I know this will probably be obnoxiously long. So Monday, we taught a noche de hogar to over twently people. It was a super last minute thing, so the winging it was very real. There was like a ton of investigators there which was awesome (including belyruth and her family!) It was super well and I was really happy with how it went. We had an idea to play the game telephone when we got to the apostasy in the restoration. It was down right comical. Hispanics are crazy.

Tuesday- miraculous because on the way to district meeting, we spotted a brand new chick fil a. You better believe we husseled bunnies over there. First chickfila in 15 months and wow did it hit the spot. I cant quite remember anything else... obviously that was sufficiently distracting hahah its the little things.

Wednesday- COUSIN REUNION!! so I went to ellis island and guess who I met up with. TANNER! oops... I mean Elder Driggs. it was so good to see him. okay Borgquist family listen up: The guy definitely has facial paralysis thanks to bells palsy and in his tanner like fashion, shrugged off Lyme Disease like it was no big deal and laughed about the fact that everyone has been so worried because he says he is fine! he is always the last to stress out and the first to laugh at everyones stress hahaha I love it. He definitely its not just sitting around scowling (well... I mean not on purpose.) He is going to work and doing great. He's a happy obedient missionary (trust me, I asked his comp) He says its no big deal and that he will be fine and back to normal one day so he's not worried at all. It was good to talk with the primo :) later that day, we visited C____ who is awesome. he is the funniest Peruvian and everytime we see him he says something about machupichu. He is getting baptized next week!

So Thursday- walking day, transfer apartment cleaning day, and weekly planning day. locoisimo. I spent my time scrubbing dark black mold off the shower. I feel like our apartment is breaking many health codes. it was disgusting. scrubbing the walls so hard and with no success in our hot little humid underground apartment make me slightly naseaus and delusional. all I remember is rolling up in a ball on the floor and telling sister ivie that I just wanted my mom to call the Grout Doctor. later that day, a huge hunger came over us, so we walked over to Los Primos for dinner to eat tacos. a recent convert works there ands its like less than a block from our house. when we were about to pay for the tacos, a man named J___ told us he felt really lonely in this country. he hadn't see his family for 10 years. he felt like he couldn't feel Gods love. We helped change that the best we could :) we gave him a book of Mormon and read with him and the spirit was so strong. it was awesome. we plan on seeing him again. inspired taco runs are a real thing.

Friday- went to the mission home because president had called to night before to call me to train! turns out I am the only Spanish sister training this transfer and P.T. told me that the girl coming is from cottonwood. That's when I remembered that Kaye Baker and told me about Kristina's friend from Cottonwood coming to our mission... Well small world folks because I will be training her!! I am so excited. P.T. also kinda spilled the beans (he is good at that with me hahah) and told me that I'll be getting doubled in to an elders area and that theres a lot of work there waiting us. I am so pumped.

FIN DE LA SEMANA: okay so I went on an exchange with a sister that was really struggling spiritually. she really didn't have a testimony at all. we sat down and I felt impressed that we needed to read out of PMG chapter 3 lesson 3 on the gospel of jesus Christ and just talk about it together. she looked at me and said "why would people even want to follow jesus Christ?" I just got filled up with a lot of love for her. I told her that I wanted to her come to find that answer for herself. so we went to the scriptures. I can't tell you how many scriptures came to my mind. I had her write a list. I committed her to read the book of Mormon everyday during personal study for at least 20 minutes and just add to the list every morning of the blessings that come when we follow Christ. I promised her that if she does so faithfully, she will see the own blessings she writes down come to pass in her own life and she will know of its truthfulness for her self. she was so grateful and at so much more peace. I also made her promise not to step foot out of NJ until her time is up so that she can truly come to know her savior and grow in that testimony. I was a good last exchange for me to end my time as a Sister Training Leader.

Then we vistied tia R____. She hasn't been super successful with quitting smoking so we had the H______ family (the recent converts) come with us to have a little intervention.It was an incredible lesson. We talked about the Holy Ghost. We read Juan 14:26-27. We talked about how it can only dwell it pure vessels. We asked her what the savior the savior would

tell her to change if he was sitting next to her. The spirit was basically visible. C_____ started talking to her and it was all SO PERFECT. We told her she had to stop smoking right then and there. All at once. It was then or never and she knew it. She began to cry. She went around the room and cried on each of our shoulders. The love was powerful. She handed us every single pack of cigarettes she had. Every single cigar. She handed us her every-thirty-minutes-for-forty-years addiction and told us she was ready to do anything in order to follow Christ. Oh my heavens. It's going to be tough, but she has help from both sides of the veil, as do we all.. But I know that she is surrounded by countless concourses of angels at this very moment. Please keep sweet little R______ in your thoughts and prayers.

September 6th is when she will enter the kingdom!

I love my Jerseyites. I love being a missionary. 

fotitos:

-pic with tanner. windy and difficult. not the best picture, but considering he cant blink and he eye was red from being so dry I didn't have the heart to make him pose again hahah

 

-saying goodbye to familia Castillo grande. I love them

-with assistants. they are Buena gente

-familia guerrero surprised me on sunday. for real. I love them to pieces. Oscar is preparing for a mission and going to UVU in the fall!! (ps dad I may or may not of told fabiola and Oscar that they can get jobs as care takers up in Salus ;)

-marisel, one of my fav investigadores from urguay. cant wait for her baptism.

-looove this fam. little Giovanni is nine and getting baptized next sunday. I will miss these peeps.

Week 58!

Hey Heeeeey!

So this week has been rad. people are for real. prepared people are just coming out left and right. it really is a blessing because the Lord provides when your week is super full of exchanges and leadership councils and what not. I decided I know why I get head aches in those meetings. I am just thinking about all the time I would rather be spending in my area. But ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

So today I will tell you about someone super special. Her name is R____ and she is from Uruguay. Her ancestors come from Poland which is why she looks white but she only speaks Spanish. She is one of the people when as soon as you meet them you just absolutely love them. I told her that she looks like she could be my tia (aunt) because now im not the only blonde haired and blue eyes haha and she calls me sobrina (niece) now hahah

So she is a referral from N_____ and C_______ (the people that just got baptized) Wow R______ has had a super tough life. When people tell me what they have been through and the testimony of Jesus Christ they have gained through their trials, I feel privileged to have the opportunity to meet them. I feel like I am the student! I think the moments we teach R_____, the spirit is the absolute strongest. We taught her about the book of Mormon and did some setting expectations. She said she would read and then we visited like two days later to teach the restauracion and when we were talking to her about how Christ established his church she said, "oh just like he did in the Americas too when he gave his authority to nefi!" My mouth dropped. I was like "wow R_____ you really did read!" she said "well I felt so good when I read it that I read it 3 times, and then some more of the book" Sister Ivie and I just wanted to cry right there. She said she prayed to know if it was true and she said she felt for herself that it is. And so right there I just blurted out "so will you be baptized?" I don't remember a point in my mission where the spirit filled the room so strongly after inviting someone to be baptized. She looked square in the eye and said yes. also the woman is like the funniest person I know hahaha she was like "wow why did it take you girls so many years to come and find me! Ive been waiting for this. I don't wanna be locked out of the kingdom of God. Don't you even think about leaving me in the dust." hahah I love her. keep her in your prayers. but we fasted with her and she received a blessing of forteleza so we are hoping all will be good to go for the 16th. She's been to church twice already and she looooves it.

Sister Ivie and I are looooving the work. We for real have so much in common and its just too weird sometimes to think about how drastically different our life would have been if we hadn't served missions.

Have a blessed day folks

love

Hermana mortensen

With R____

Week 55--I'm in Elizabeth!

Oh my word I feel like I died and went to heaven... IM IN ELIZABETH.
For real I love this place already. It's like the complete opposite of
Morristown. Elizabeth is like a fully functioning ward here. Just so
you get the idea of the demographic here, the English branch takes
people out of the Spanish ward for leadership callings. Coming from a
branch where 40 in attendance at sacrament meeting was a lot, sitting
in that ward I was just in shock. There were so many people. And get
this, people call US asking us when they can come out with us. Yes.
This is real.
I was shocked when president said sister mortensen to Elizabeth
because this is a STL area so this will be my fourth transfer as
sister training leader.1-2 exchanges weekly lives on haha. I loooove
my companion. For real I am getting so lucky I'm the comp department.
We already are great friends. Her name is Hermana Ivie and she's from
Alpine Utah. She's only been here one transfer before me and she left
a lot on the exchanges last transfer so we are feeling it out here
together.

There is a lot of work here but I would like to see us get more solid
progressing investigators. We are planning like an hour a day to just
straight contact. It's so nice because I haven't been able to do that
since Kearny! And even then we couldn't really because hardly anyone
was outside because of the snow. So this is awesome. This week was
kinda a blur because I've met so many new people and I'm trying to
keep them all straight.

I think something that has stuck out to me this week is how we truly
will never know the impact we leave or the good we do in the lives of
others when we are in the work of the Lord. When we were walking up to
go to church, a man was walking up at the same time and sister Ivie
said to me "ahh he's the best you're going to love him" I look at him
and said "I've met you before where have I met you before?" He said,
"oh my goodness! It's been so long! You were there with sister Childs
when I was taught by the missionaries for the first time!" Then it all
came back to me! I remember having taught him on an exchange to
Elizabeth back in January and that was one of the most powerful
lessons on the restauracion that I can remember. He told me that he
had been baptized three months ago and he was sitting up blessing the
sacrament at sacrament meeting. I couldn't believe it! I was filled
with so much happiness when he told me that. I got a glimpse of how
great our joy with be if we bring, save it be one soul into the
kingdom of God.

Something that I took away from this past week is how we as
missionaries are sometimes really good at leaving commitments, but
fail to help them keep their commitments. Our purpose is to invite
people to come unto Christ by HELPING them... There was a less active
family that hasn't been to church for sometime now and their daughter
had just turned at 8 years old. I wanted to meet them so we went on
Thursday and had a great lesson with them. The mother seems pretty
desanimada and like she really wants to go back, but everything just
kinda seemed hopeless. We invited her back to partake of the sacrament
and receive the blessings of Christ's atonement and she said we would
do her best. I testified to her that we truly do love her and want to
help her be there. I asked her how many people would come with her if
she went. I then told her that someone would come to pick her up at
8:45 and bring her to church. Her eyes kinds lit up and we was kinda
like "really?" I couldn't believe that no one had offered her that
option before! It's so simple and yet so effective because when we
came to church, that family was waiting for us and said "misioneras!
Les ganamos" (we beat you ) hahah that made me so happy to see them
there and looking so happy to be back. El enemigo doesn't want us to
receive help so he tricks us into thinking we are better off not
asking for it or we will just feel too embarrassed. That's where we,
as missionaries and all members of the church, need to come in. We
should never wait until someone asks for help. I have decided to take
out of my vocab "how can be help you?" And instead observe, seek the
gift of discernment and do all I can to offer specific help that is
inspired by the spirit according to their needs. Then we truly become
the Lords hands here on the earth.

Love you all!
Hermana mortensen

Selfie with my new companion Hermana Ivie. I love her!

First week in Elizabeth I met the former Hermana Ordonez who served with my parents in the Texas Houston Mission! I am serving in her ward. We went on an exchange and she is awesome.  I asked her what it was like having my dad as her Mission President and she said, "Hermana Mortensen, your dad for real changed my life" It almost brought tears to my eyes to think of the impact that my parents are having on people's lives. People I don't even know.

Week 54--4th of July

This week was soo awesome. I don't even know where to begin. It makes it even harder to leave this area :( yes. I got trasferred and will be going to my next area tomorrow. I have this feeling they are gonna send me south to the Jersey Shore. That would be heavenly seeing as I haven't seen a beach for over a year now. The craziest thought is that this next area will probably be my last! I am so excited to see what the Lord has in store for me. I am quite relieved to not have to go on constant exchanges! but I will miss sister dubon so flippin much. I love that girl. We became companions with snow up to our knees and now we ended with a bang in July. She's the best. Couldn't have picked a better companion myself :) we both feel like we agreed to be mission companions in the pre mortal life.

So this week, sister dubon and I decided that if we want solid new investigadores and we really want the members in on it, we needed to get referrals and be persistent about it. So we first went directly to our recent converts and less actives. Let me tell you. in one day we got 7 referrals. M_____ is my favorite human beings in all the world. She called us one day because it was Jenny from the Blocks 10th birthday. so we drove over to enjoy some cake with them and it was so funny to see the faces of her girlfriends when the missionaries walk in. They get so anxious and look around like "who invited them?" and j______ squeals and like jump tackles us when we walk in and we meet all her friends and her friends are like "j_____ has told us all about you, could you come to my house too?" so cute. we told them that of course we could! then the women that were friends of M____ totally softened up to us. M_____ kept saying "VAMOS a la iglesia!" its funny because members are so scared to invited people because they feel like they don't "know enough" but M______ has been baptized for only 2 weeks now and all she said to her friends was that the church makes her so happy and her kids are so much more well behaved. and she kept saying "you see? thats what happens when you put God first" by the end, all of her friends were coming up to us saying that they would be at church and they wanted us over. It was amazing the turn around. Unfortunately none of them came to church because of the holiday weekend but I'm sure many will come next week :)

The fourth of July was so fun! I don't want to eat carne asada for months now. We got to see the fireworks with a member family and that was way fun. i couldn't help but realize that I have been in the mission for a good amount of time now seeing as last 4th of July feels like a long time ago back in Princeton with Sister Boudesocque.

Last but not least, A______ got the Holy Ghost yesterday. It was such a beautiful blessing and when we came and sat back now next to us he said "it is complete" I felt the spirit so strong when he said that. He is someone who really gets it. I found him in a corner filling out his fast offering after church. I love that little Mexican :) I feel like he was one of the people that i was sent to New Jersey to find. He will be a kingdom builder.

Love you all!

heres some pics

 okay first: we work at a booth at the fair for familysearch.org it was actually super successful. it was outside our area, our whole zone did it. but wow that was hick town. i felt like i was in a movie.

2:with the zone leaders. sister dubon and i have 5 months of zone meeting trainings and elder way has been there that long as well. it was good times

3. A_____ baptism! happy day. hermano carvajal, our ward mission leader baptized him

4. one of my favorite cutest couples from the newark ward. when i saw them as i was speaking at the fireside and got so excited.

5.fireworks with the morales family and hermana garcia :)

6. cheesin it with my home girl other half. im gonna miss my dearest comp. peace america

Week 53

Ahhhhh this week was so unreal amazing i cannot even begin to tell you. where to begin where to begin. okay so A______ got baptized!!! whooooooooo :) okay so sister dubon and i learned a big lesson on this one. so he got interviewed on Saturday evening the day before the baptism. (first mistake) in the interview, something came up that had to be addressed with President Caycho (consejero of presdent taggart) A______ had tears in his eyes when we were walking up to him. it was a really tender moment as we explained to him the power of the atonement. he kept saying, " i was just so excited for tomorrow" it just broke my heart. but i could tell that he has repented. he kept saying, "the person who did that was somebody totally different. i didn't know what I know now" THEN we told the whole branch council and the relief society women making food that it was canceled and would be the next week (second mistake) President Caycho got back to us and told us that he would be at our chapel on Sunday morning to interview him. and.... HE PASSED! which meant... HE WAS GONNA GET BAPTIZED. so good think and stressful thing. stressful thing was that we hadn't even started filling up the font so yikes. also we thought there would be no food and after church, everyone is starving to thats a problem. well luckily one of the women doesn't read texts so... she brought all the food anyway and it was enough for everyone to have seconds!! and the members were major troopers. they whipped up really good talks and everything came together super well :) A_______ felt super good and bore his testimony on his own! and said how grateful he was to us. he said before he was lost, but now he has a testimony of God, his eternal Father and that Jesus Christ is his Savior. what more could a misionera want?? I am so happy.

Then that night we had a huge fireside. all the spanish units of the northern part of jersey were invited and the spirit was so strong. in these firesides, the missionaries perform musical numbers and talks and it was great. i got to see some of my newark homies. that was awesome :) I was asked to speak at this fireside on prayer. I will never get tired of seeing the gift of tongues working through me. Sometimes phrases just come out that I didn't even know I knew. its so humbling to see how the Lord works through me. I shared about how the mission has been the most spiritual experience for any missionary because it is porpotional to how often we pray. we probably pray at least 40 times a day! I talked about how i prayed to find someone prepared to teach and who would be baptized before we left the car on the street we parked at, and that's when we found A_______! As I was telling the story I testified saying that I am a witness that God answers our prayers because that very day, A______ was baptized. There was an audible gasp in the congregation. the spirit was so strong. afterwards, many people introduced their selves to me and thanked me for what i said on prayer. and as far as half of the congregation is concerned.... I'm from Costa Rica ;) hahah i wish.

one more amazing piece of news: While i was serving in Kearny, there was a man who was less active and struggling from a rare blood disease. the doctors told him that he was on a donor list and that hardly anyone would be a match so it would be up to 20 years before he got operated. they said that with that much time he would die before he got the chance. He was confined to a wheel chair and refused to go to church or ask for the sacrament to be brought to him because he thought that would be shameful.To this day I remember sitting at their tiny kitchen table, feeling the spirit overpower me. My hands were even shaking and trying to hold back tears, I promised him, as a representative of Jesus Christ that if he would take the sacrament, he would be healed and they would find a donor for him. I remember leaving that appointment thinking to myself... well flip, that was a big promise. Last night at the fireside, I asked a member from the newark ward how he was doing. He said that he has been miraculously operated on and that he is even walking! He said that he never misses a sacrament meeting. this member said, "sometime he missing an hour or two, but always there for the sacrament, I'm not sure why" I smiled and said, "i know why" I cannot tell you how happy I was. Its amazing to see how the Lord works through a sister missionary like me. I don't have the priesthood, but in that moment, I understood for myself that I do have authority in this work. I love it.

I forgot my camera cord! but I will try to send pictures later today :)

Love you all!

Hermana Mortensen