"We're training each other baby!"

Dave and Liz Nelson who we live with took

me and Hermana Hill out to Sushi for my Birthday!

Hello!

Okay so soooo much has happened since last week it's crazy!! We finally found out what they were doing with me! hahah They didn't tell until Saturday!!! Anyway Sister Hill left to Argentina this morning and my new comp arrived and her name is....drum role please...Sister Martinez!!! I just met her a few hours ago but she seems great. Her mission call was an English speaking mission call but she is a native spanish speaker. So she will be teaching in spanish with me. YAY! I was so relieved to have someone that speaks spanish!!! But here's the kicker...we both have been out for only three weeks! We're training each other baby!!!! haha So it's going to be crazy and maybe a little stressful at times but we are both excited to learn together! It's going to be great! 

It was so hard to say goodbye to Hermana Hill! Like Davis said the mission is so full of goodbyes! We became so close in the last three weeks! But I know she will bring happiness to so many people in Argentina! She is such an amzing missionary! And I was lucky to have her for three weeks.

Anyway these last few weeks have been good! I did splits for the first time! It was AWESOME!!! We took some Laurels from the ward. The one that came with me was Breanna Robison. She is amazing and has a really strong testimony. We visited some less active's and one investigator. The investigator we visited was Mary. She is best friends with Julie the one I told you about. She also has a lot of hard things in her life but is an amazing woman. We taught her the first lesson and it was amazing to be able to totally lead out in a lesson. It was scary at first but once the lesson started rolling it was amazing! I was able to share the whole Joseph Smith story and recite the first vision, I think that was the strongest I have felt the spirit since I have been in Colorado! It was such an incredible feeling. Then (since she already has a strong belief in Jesus Christ) we talked about how the church Christ established is the same church God restored through Joseph Smith, then invited her to pray about if Joseph Smith was a prophet and if our church was true. I'm so excited to follow up with her. I know she could feel the spirit. She started crying when we were talking about Christ and his mercy! Ahh - it was so great! And this experience really prepared me to teach without Hermana Hill leading. AND we got 11 lessons in one day because of splits! haha Splits are awesome!

My Whole Birthday last week was so awesome so thank you so much for all those that sent me Birthday wishes and for the packages and such! You guys made my day great! We ate with some investigators that night and they had icecream and cake and sang to me. It was so much fun! Then When Liz and Dave got back in town they took us to get sushi!! :) And had cake that night! I'm glad you got the pictures they sent you :) The Nelsons are the best! When she read me the text you sent back I thought she had the wrong number because she said you were hiking hahaha...just kidding but seriously who are you guys. The picture was really pretty! It was good to see your faces. Bo wasn't in the picture though haha what's up with that? haha

Oh something random that happened this week...This lady was telling us this story about her sister and all of the sudden starts crying. We're thinking she's going to tell us something sad that happened to her or something but no...after a long dramatic crying pause she says...."my sister hung my cat".....Oh my goodness we didn't know what to say. I will probably be struck down for this but I was trying not to laugh! haha It was just so unexpected! Sister Hill and I kept our cool and were very compassionate! She was so sweet and we were able to help her feel comfort through the spirit. (Living proof that the Holy Ghost is a comforter :) But we both laughed later at how random it was! Super sad, but so random...RIP mitten!

Well thank you so much for all your love and support! I love hearing from all of you. Keep writing letters :)

Talk to ya next week!

Love, Hermana England 

Dave and Liz took us out for Sushi for my Birthday!  

We LOVE them! 

Happy Birthday Bong at the Sushi restaurant!

Back home - Dave and Liz made me

a Birthday Cake! They are the best!

(Look up Jello Poke Cake on line and make it

...so good!) 

Tons of pics and sweet notes!

After the deleted email Monday - It was ALL good after we received notes and memory card in the mail with TONS of pictures on it!  This note to her dad is so sweet!...

Dad!  

Thank you so much for the email and the dear elder! Thanks for all you advice and counsel about the language and everything! I am definitely struggling with it but I am keeping the faith and the Lord is helping me so much!  It's pretty awesome! Also thanks for all the sweet comments in the Birthday email you sent me.  I am extremely blessed to have such an incredible dad!  You are amazing!

The work is going well.  It always makes me sad when people fall through on appointments or don't keep commitments because it's so important!  But people have their agency and they must choose for themselves.  I bet Heavenly Father feels like that all the time with all of us! But, when they do keep those commitments it's amazing to see the spirit it brings them.  It's incredible how many blessing we receive by just keeping commandments and reading the scriptures.  I love showing people that.  

Well I love you more than you know Dad!  Thank you for the birthday package and emails! You are the best!  Miss you and love you!

Mace

 4th of July fireworks! 

(Thanks for the glow sticks and flags!)  

Pictures with all the "wardies"...

Hermana Wahlen

Elder Mansell

Sister Carr

Elder Hale

Me being studious at my desk

Giving Hermana Wilson a hair cut

(Don't really know if it's

against the rules?)

Besties!  (again)

Us 6 girls by our room ...321 forever!!!

Pic of my MTC tag - 

I'm so used to wearing this, it

will be weird without it!

All the girls in my district!

Last temple walk

Rach and me at the map...saying goodbye!

Whaaaaaaaaaaa!

Another pic of me by Riley's picture!  

I'm going to miss these fools... 

Last night in the MTC :(

I'm in Colorado!

Pictures of me and Hermana Hill with the 3 Anguiano girls...

Ruby and the twins (They look like Dora The Explorer)

On our way to Wendy's in the Anguiano's huge van

Us with Meng; a member in our ward

She's from China

One of our less actives has a million chickens...

so we tried to catch them!

We had a training in Fort Collins so we went to Rio!!!

Look who I saw...Hermana Varghe!

The car wash...yes, this is exciting for us!

I Accidentally Just Deleted My Entire Email

Picture with President and Sister Brown just

after arriving in Colorado!

Hey Fam,

Well I accidentally just deleted my entire email. I'M SO MAD! hahahaha I was almost done writing it! So I'll just have to email you next week because I am out of time! UGH I can not believe I did that! 

Quick overview of the email I would have sent...

Hope Cali was awesome! Hermana Hill got her visa and leaves me in a week. We have no idea what will happen with me..AHH pray for me! haha

I had an amazing experience where I bore my testimony of the Book of Mormon and this woman agreed to be baptized in the first lesson!...I don't think she really realized what she agreed to haha but we'll keep teaching her!

And we ended up teaching this eighty something year old woman that has no teeth...and her husband works as a dancer at 3 Margaritas.(The resturant where they sang happy birthday to me last week) ya they are cool.

Love you! Sorry I am technologically challenged and deleted my whole email!

Love, Hermana England

First Week In Colorado

Hey Yall!

I can't believe I have been in the field for A WEEK! It's so crazy! So much has happened since I got here! Mom, to answer some of your questions...We do see Dave and Liz everyday but mostly in passing. In the morning we see them alot because we eat breakfast in the kitchen and do our studies. They are so great! They have kids but they are all grown and out of the house. And one of their sons died on his mission! So sad! I think that's why they love housing the missionaries. They had a couple of Elder companionships before us. Last week we discovered that we all LOVE sushi...except Hermana Hill has never tried it...So they are going to take us next Saturday. But we usually dont eat with them. Our schedules are never the same. Although they did make us breakfast on saturday which was awesome!

We do all of our emailing at the Library. We are not allowed to use members computers. But the Library is only like 5 min. away so its all good. oh and I can print out emails so you can have people email me. But dont always email becasue it costs money to print things out and I dont want to do it too much. Oh and send mail and packages directly to mission office. They forward it on to us. They dont want family and friends to send directly to the memebers homes. And dont forget that packages you have to send first class or priorty mail or else I wont get it for like a month or untill next transfer or something.

We get fed by members EVERY night! I didnt know that they did that untill i got here. Man they feed us good! I am going to get so fat! The english speaking members feed us most the time and they always have amazing meals with desert...Its awesome...yet terrible....Im gonna be huge!..."why dont you go on a diet....because I like to eat is that such a crime!?"...story of my life right now. And when the spanish speaking families feed us its also pretty good, with the exception of some random things...like we had cooked cactus last night....no bueno. haha but the rest of the meal was good...however I was having a hard time eating because we had already gone to a dinner apointment...eaten ALOT...then went and visited the Chico family (cactus people) Who insisted that we eat!...So we said oh no no we already ate...but they INSISTED...so we said ok just a little please...and they bring a HUGE plate of meat (alot of meat!) , beans, rice, salsa, corn tortillas, and cactus...alot of cactus...We were SOO full after! And I felt like they would have been offended if we didnt finish. I still had a little cactus on my plate at the end but I could hold down no more. haha

Anyway we had an awesome week! We taught some really powerful lessons. I contributed alot more in the english lessons that the spanish ones...but hey, I try. I seem to undertand alittle bit more spanish each leasson so that is good. However I struggle speaking it ALOT! I am trying hard but its super frusterating! I wish I could be my normal self in spanish ya know..In spanish lessons I want to add my input or joke with them or share an experience but I cant put the words together. Ugh I cant even tell you how frustrating it is. However I pray all the time that I will beable to get the imortant things across and communicate enough that they know that I care for them. And I Think that is defilitely happening. So I cant complain. I just have to be patient and trust in the Lord! He always comes through!:)We had 4 investigators at church on sunday!!! Awesome right?! I know! haha Its was great....although I guess tecnically only 3 because one of them is an excomunicated member who we are teaching again, and they dont count them as an "investigator"...lame...he is totally investigating! And if...I mean WHEN he gets baptized again it dosnt count as a baptism for us...also lame...but hey its ok because Im not doing it for the numbers Im doing it because we care about him! And he knows its true so its only a matter of time.:) Im excited!

All of our investigators are so great! Alot of them have crazy hard lives! And I am amazed at their desire to live the gospel. Its incredible!

We also visit alot of less active members which I have found is SO imortant! We were visiting a less active woman in our ward named Julie. Julie had an extremely difficult upbringing. Her parents got devorced and her mom remarried and had a buch more kids with her new husband...and in their religeon they told her she was damed because she wasnt really a part of their family. Later in life her sister got into some hard drugs and ended up dying. Her ex-husband was abusive. And a few years ago she was struck by lightning and she still suffers from the effects of the lighting strike. It is hard for her to walk and she has tremmers. So as you can see she has a hard life. I have realized that even though she is a member of the church she needs our help and visits SO much. She is an incredible woman. I look at my life and realize I have NOTHING to complain about. I have been so incredibly blessed and I am sooo greatful. I know that is a HUGE part thanks to you Mom and Dad! Thankyou so much for rasing me in the gospel. For teaching me everything I know! I owe everything to you!...And utimately my father in Heaven! I thank him everyday for such an incredible family! I am blessed beyond belief! Serving a mission has allowed me to help and boost those people like Julie who need help or just need a friend! It is such a privilege!

Anyway Hermana Hill and I are having some good times out here. Betty Sutton, an older woman in our ward, had us for dinner and she took us out to this mexican resturant. Since my birthday is next monday they told them we were celebrating so they brought a huge sombraro out and sang to us and gave us icecream! It was so funny! I took pictures. Sister Sutton's husband passed away a few years ago and durring dinner she was telling us how the bishop wanted to set her up with someone. So she proceded to tell us...and i quote..."I cant get married again, I cant have sex again, I cant deal with that"....Hermana Hill and I just burst into laughter hahah Sister Sutton was already laughing. hahah we were like....uhhhhhhhh....ummmm...(Fat Amay quote) hahaha It was so awkward. Oh sister Sutton!

Then the next day we went to visit this spanish couple that lives in a trailer park that we had a referal for. We parked the car behind their triler...It was BRIGHT purple! Like a big bright purple trailer. And they saw us through their back window so we said hi. Come to find out they are not home but the people we are talking to are their house guests. We asked them if they wanted to her our message and they did...but hey felt uncomfortable inviting us into someone elses house....SOoo...we taught a whole first lesson through this tiny window! It was soo funny! We could barley her them because their trailor is by a busy streat. AND there was like a table of something infront of the wondow on the inside of the trailor so they were leaning over the table the whole time! hahah We laughed so hard when we got back in the car! But they were really listening! And that is a true testiment that the spirit is real because dispite all those things we could still feel the spirit! hahah good times good times!

Well I love you all! hope you have great week!

THE CHURCH IS TURE!

Love, Hermana England

I'm In Colorado!

Hey Fam!

I'M IN COLORADO! And It's awesome!!!! It is beautiful here! Yesterday we went right from the airport to the stake center in Fort Collins. We ate lunch did TONS of orientaion...then...I MET MY TRAINER! Her name is Hermana Hill and she is going to be amazing! She is so driven and excited about the work here. My first area is Longmont (In Colorado) and Hermana Hill was here last transfer so we have a bunch of investigators already. Anyway last night we also ate dinner at the stake center as well and then headed off to our areas. We were out all night taking other girls to their apartments and getting our cell phone..(they were left in another area) We didn't get to our place until 10ish so I hurried and half way unpacked, we had our first comp prayer and we went to bed.

Today we woke up bright and early to helped a sister in our ward set up tables for a flower arranging class she was having, and right after that we went to serve. We do service every week at the Our Center, which is a food donation place. We helped stack cans and do bar codes. A bunch of elders and sisters from our district come and do the service with us so it was a lot of fun! Plus they give us free food after because they usually have too much of some things.

We had our first apointment at 2 and I was SO EXCITED...and then...she canceled...:(....I was so sad! But hopefully we will get her in this week. So our REAL first appointment is in about an hour! AH! Wish me luck! I'm so excited! We have about half and half with English and Spanish speaking investigators right now I think. And Hermana Hill's spanish is amazing! She is actually a visa waiter and will eventually go to Argentina. She's been waiting for 3 months already...bless her heart.

We live with a member couple that is amazing! Dave and Liz Neilsen. They are the nicest people you will ever meet! So great! We are really lucky! Freaky thing here...there are Bats...a lot of bats...that fly really low. We're outside the stake center last night and I swear.....the bat cave was near. CREEPY!

Ok I have to go. I'll email again on Pday which is Monday.

Love, Hermana England

PS. I'll just forward you the email they sent me with the mission office address. You send all your mail there and they forward it to us. OH, and by the way they cannot forward packages to me unless you send them priorty mail or first class mail. If you send them regularly or through other things like Fedex or UPS then I have to wait like a month usually before I go to the mission office. So send all packages priority or first class. THANKS LOVE YOU!

Pictures Of Life In The MTC

Montana and me at the temple!...I saw her

all the time when she was here at the MTC :)

Picture by Riley's pic!

Elder Wengert and me getting Sassy!

Hermana Holloway - "er muy bonita!"

Elder Otros ... we got in trouble shortly 

after this picture for making hand signals - 

woops, didn't know that rule!

Sorry President Mortensen!

Hermana Wilkins, me, Hermana Bingham and

Hermana Wilson...Girls in our Zone!

Blue tongue from the blue candy in the 

package Kenzie sent me... Thanks Kenz!

Hermana Holloway and I love jumping

pictures...Just zoom in on my face/hair

in this picture...

Lord Farquaad from Shrek!

Hermana Wilson...actually using the 

sleeping mask you sent...you can't tell

but she is actually sleeping!

Thanks for the HLJ rings!

"Do The Just"

Today I curled Hermana Holloway's hair - 

It was so much fun!  I miss doing hair!

All I have to say about this is...

You are welcome!  Good time!

Beach Volleyball - every Friday night!

Looking so tuff after out

"non-competitive" game!

Walking back to the building after

field time!