10 10 10

Happy Birthday to me...

TWENTY TWO!

Hello hello,

So first of all I just want to say thank you all SO much for all the birthday love I received! You are all the best! Especially you mom! I loved absolutely EVERYTHING in the package and everything fits perfectly! I even got it on my Birthday because the zone leaders brought it down from Loveland! It was a great birthday! Hermana Snow decorated the apartment and made muffin cake...muffins in a cake pan because we don't own a muffin pan. haha (problemas de las hermanas pobres)  and I got to do missionary work ALL DAY :):) Best birthday ever! 

The rest of the week was CRAZY but AMAZING! We tried this new 10 10 10 thing where we have 10 member present lessons, 10 other lessons, and 10 less active lessons. And we did it! We had a lot of appointments fall through but it was so cool to see how the Lord provided for us when that happened. Especially when members were with us. It's very stressful when you have a member with you and an appointment falls through but in every case that that happened we found someone else to teach that perhaps needed the testimony of that member even more. Everything happens for a reason!

 
One of those instances was when we found Ricardo and Claudia. We had a specific appointment set and we brought our Relief Society president. The lesson fell through so we started walking down the street and that is when we met Ricardo. We started talking to him outside his house and he allowed us to teach him. We found out very quickly that he has some serious health issues physically and mentally. He is an alcoholic and has severe depression. We bore testimony and taught of the power of the Atonement. His wife Claudia came out at the end of the lesson and expressed to him and to us that several things had happened that week to bring Jesus into Ricardo's life. She told him that God had sent us and that he needed to listen! THEN the member that we brought (Sam Corrales..return missionary of 5 months and RS pres aka AMAZING!) was able to bear testimony that it really wasn't a coincidence that we were there and that God put us in his life so that he can accept the gospel. It was a powerful lesson. 

They both committed to come to church so on Sunday we stopped by early and they were still planning on coming! :) Well sacrament meeting starts and they were still not there. But hey everyone is late so we weren't worried but after about 20 min in we started to worry. During the sacrament I was just so bummed that they didn't show up. After all the work we had done that week I had a "throw in the towel" moment...but then I thought...NO! If Heavenly Father helped us get our 10 10 10 goal then he can bring these people to church! So I said a little prayer basically pleaded with Heavenly Father to some how bring them to church and that I knew with out a doubt that He could do it! Turns out Hermana Snow was doing the same. Well the meeting went on and on and still no Ricardo and Claudia. BUT in the last five min of the meeting we got a missed call on our phone. We rushed out to the hall and called it back and it was RICARDO! He told us that they had come in late but they thought it was the wrong church because it was in English (Spanish branch had sacrament meeting in the Relief Society room) So we explained that the Spanish meeting is at the same time but in a different room and they said...okay we will be there in a few min! They showed up just as sacrament meeting was ending and were able to enjoy that last two hours of church! It was SO amazing to see how Heavenly Father really answers our prayers. I feel like I am really learning what it means to exercise my faith!

I don't remember if I told you but Miguel's new church building is an hour and a half away from his house!!! Before he moved we gave him the directions and committed him to go to church even though it is in English (I think they have translation) and an hour and a half away! He said he would but we were still worried. We called him on Saturday to make sure he knew where it was and he seemed pretty hesitant to drive that far away for church. We were so worried about him!!! But Sunday morning we get a call from him saying....Okay I'm about a half hour away, do the missionaries there know I'm coming? Haha he is so awesome! Such a solid convert! I'm so glad he is making the sacrifices necessary to have the gospel in his life! We haven't been able to meet with his daughters but we pray that this week we can get in touch with them! Some extra prayers for that would be awesome!

Well it sounds like another big wave of missionaries are going out from the Sandy Granite Stake! That is crazy another Kenney boy is going out...I remember seeing Andrew Kenney in the MTC!! Wish them all luck for me! So exciting! 

I hear Bo killed it in his first soccer tournament! Good job Bo! You rock! And Dad killed it too in his golf tournament. :) I have a cool family! I hope you all have an incredible week!

Hermana England

PS. That same dog took another nip at me but just got my shoe this time. (less active people's dogs are the worst because you have frequent contact). That thing growls at me all the time too...it can sense my hatred. ALSO WE ALMOST DIED from another dog! This huge one comes barreling down the street at us (seriously like full speed) Hermana Snow and I screamed then just held each other (comp unity! If we go down we go down together) haha we seriously were holding hands huddling together and squatting a little bit hahahaha and right as the dog got about two feet from us it just stopped. Like point blank stopped. From a full speed run to a halt! I am convinced that it was a heavenly shield! I'm not kidding it was a miracle!

Love my "Golden Birthday" box!

22 on July 22nd!

Sharing my golden cholocates!

I love my new clothes!

(I'm ready to burn all my other clothes...

I'm so sick of them!)

More Birthday celebration!

So Much Hilariousness

Miguel's baptism...We are so happy!

FAMILIA!

Okay so first of all HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY TO HALEY BUG!!! Sorry I forgot to mention that last week! I will always have you as my July birthday buddy! Hope your B-day was GREAT! Also everyone else...remind me when your birthdays are because I always forget birthdays! I'm so sorry if I have missed anybodies while I have been on my mission. I am the worst at remembering things....ask any of my companions. haha

Alright...TRASFER INFO!!!...I will be staying in GREELEY with HERMANA SNOW!!! I am so happy! Hermana Snow and I already had made SO MANY goals and things to improve next transfer so we are stoked that we are staying together to work on them and help more people in this area find the gospel!

This last week was awesome! Miguel was baptized and confirmed!!! :) The baptism went great! We had a little bit of a scare because he was late and we thought he wasn't going to show up to his own baptism. haha We were freaking out!! But everyone else was late too so it was all good...Hispanic culture thing. Church usually starts ten min after the hour and people still aren't there. haha Anyway the spirit was so strong at the baptism. After Miguel changed into his white clothes we asked him how he felt and he said (translated into English)..."I'm so excited, it's so hard to stop from crying". haha He was so prepared, so ready!! Best part is that ALL THREE of his daughters came!! AND they totally felt the spirit. Hermana Snow and I, in attempts to get out of speaking, sang ''Soy un hijo de dios" and his two younger daughters (11 and 14 yrs old) were both in tears. After the baptism we asked them how they felt and they said they felt really good. We were able to talk to all three daughter for a while after the baptism as well as at church on Sunday. Hopefully we will be teaching them soon. Miguel will be moving to Nebraska this week :( We are so bummed because the branch could really use his strength. But he always tells us how important it is to him to endure to the end so we know he will be okay. We are going to get in contact with the missionaries there and make sure the transition goes smoothly. Anyway it is so cool that we are in contact with his daughters because in almost all the prayers he said when we were teaching him he prayed that his family would be able to accept the gospel. We have seen so many answers to prayer! 

Oh we had the most hilarious lesson with Miguel the day before his baptism! We brought Hermano Bugarin because he was the one who baptized him, anyway we wanted them to practice to make sure they had the hand position down. So they go to practice and Miguel is like oh...I don't need to plug my nose, I like to swim and I don't need to plug my nose. So we are like...umm just plug your nose it's just something your supposed to do! haha So they practice and he doesn't do it. So I'm like okay Hermana Snow and I will show you. So we demonstrate and I "baptized" Hermana Snow and she is really light so during the demonstration she was like really close to the ground. So after Hermano Bugarin is like...oh we have to do it again like that! And were like...uhhhh I don't know about this. So they do it again and Hermano Bugarin starts to dunk him and puts his hand to his face but he doesn't plug his nose...then leans him back even further!! So Miguel almost tips over and almost takes Hermano Bugain with him, (luckily they caught themselves) while Hermano Bugarin is shoving Miguel's hand into his cheek because he refuses to plug his nose. hahah The whole thing was just too much! We were trying so hard not to burst into laughter. At the real baptism everything went fine and he actually plugged his nose :) Mission accomplished!

Guess what! I passed a big missionary mile stone yesterday! I GOT BIT BY A DOG!!! hahaha Before you get nervous mom don't worry the injuries were very minimal....only like a scratch. haha It was a Chihuahua! I hate those things so much. In fact I hate all dogs....as a missionary. They always bark at you, sometimes bite, they chase the spirit away by being loud during lessons, they lick my skirt and legs all the time blahh, and the worst is that when we knock on peoples doors the dog barks from the inside of the door the people obviously know there is someone there and they still don't answer. :l...No! THE worst part is that you have to act like you like them or else it's awkward so you pet them and you break out in an allergic reaction! Not to mention sometimes you drop your pen in their cages...

OH hey guess what! We are teaching a Guatemalan family! They don't dig the Book of Mormon yet but we are working on them! haha we'll see how it goes!

Something awesome is that this week we were fed Tacos de lengua y tacos de tripas...translation....Cow tongue tacos and cow intestine tacos. yum yum! We felt a little sick the next morning! All in the missionary experience right?

Sorry this email was less spiritual than most...there was just so much hilariousness of this week. haha

Love you all!

Hermana England

Filling the font...

Miguel with his family - 

We love this man!  

Miguel with the Elders...

We went in to clean up after the baptism

and found Miguel's glasses set on top

of his Book of Mormon...

Adorable!

Another Photo Op

Hermana Snow's year mark...She is sad it's

going so fast!  

Red lipstick photo shoot

tradish!

Love the Spanish market!

Julian, Brian and Brandon...The Young

men in the branch - planned suspender's day!

Look who cam to visit...

Hermana Soto!

Delicacies of Hermana Leos...

Stealing?

Stealing sand from the park for our

Fireside Object Lesson...

Then we returned it because we felt guilty...

Our District!

Me and Hermana Snow with Julian!

Missionary Heaven

Temple visit with Sister Livingston

and Hermana Snow

HOLA HOLA

First of all FELIZ CUMPLEANOS TO RACH!!! I am so grateful to have you serving a mission at the same time as me! You are such a huge example to me and I am so happy you survived your mini tsunami!!!

So sorry about the no email Monday! We ended up going to the temple this morning!!! (and changed our P day this week :) Hermana Snow hadn't been yet so lucky me I got to go again! It was wonderful! Such a blessing that we have temples so close to us!

Ok so this week I have been in missionary heaven!!! So many miracles it's insane! I know I usually say that but this week it's like even more true!

First of all MIGUEL QUIT SMOKING! He hasn't smoked for 8 days!!! He has been smoking since he was 12! We are just so blown away by him! So after emails last week we had another lesson and we decided to focus on why he wants to stop smoking. We thought his answer would be that it was bad for his health because that is what he has said in the past. But when we asked him why he said...I want to join with my new family in this church and I  have to stop smoking in order to do that. He went on to talk about how he knows that the things we are teaching him are true and he has to do it. We talked to him about how if he makes up his mind to do it and relies on the Lord then si se puede! And he did! He hasn't smoked since. We have had a lesson with him almost every day this past week and he will be getting baptized on Friday! It has been just incredible to see this man change so much. I wish you could all just meet Miguel haha there is just no way of explaining him but he has just changed so much! His countenance is completely different. In our last lesson with him he offered the closing prayer and he was just pouring out his soul in thanks for bringing the gospel into his life and pleading with God to help his family come into the gospel as well. It just blows me away how prepared he is. Hna. Snow and I feel that we have had nothing to do with how converted he is. It was seriously all the spirit. I feel so blessed to have just been here along the way to witness these miracles. OH and Miguel brought his daughter to church and she will hopefully be going to girls camp:) AND Miguels roommates have sat in on our lessons and we will begin teaching them all the lessons soon!

Another amazing miracle is we met a man named Alfredo and HIS DAUGHTER IS ON A MISSION!!! He was like oh ya I think my daughter is on a mission for that church. (we were thinking that he thinks we are Jehovah Witnesses or something)  But then he pulls out this key chain from the Mexico MTC!!! So I guess she was a convert and left on a mission and her dad still knows nothing about the church! So we will hopefully be teaching him the lessons starting this week. I think the huge miracle is that Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers! I bet that sister missionary has been praying with all her heart for her family to be able to accept the gospel! I mean considering how much I pray for my family I'm sure she does too! Alfredo has some weird job where he is always moving around so I bet she couldn't even give her dad as a referral to the missionaries. So anyway I think that Heavenly Father put him in our lives for a reason! And it was such a testimony builder that God answers prayers!

In other news Hermana Snow and I are about to kill over because of how many trainings we have had to give as of late! There must be a lot of things Heavenly Father wants us to learn this transfer. We gave a training at Zone meeting, then a training at MLC, then we both gave trainings at different District meetings, then we gave a recitation at Zone conference, then we gave a training at another Zone meeting, then I had to speak in sacrament meeting (IN SPANISH...so scary) then we had to give a lesson at the Relief Society activity!! hahaha it has been a crazy transfer but one of the best on my mission so far. I can't believe transfers are coming...(on my birthday...lame) 

Side note of awesomeness...We ate at Hermana Leos last night (Julian's aunt) and she made home made tacos. Well Julian, Hermana Snow, and I got a little competitive and tried to out eat each other....we all tied at 15 tacos each...not to mention arroz con leche for desert.....I'm gonna need an extra wide seat on the flight home. :l We get fed like crazy around here! And you can't refuse it or they will be offended and stop coming to church. Sacrifices of a missionary.

Awkward moment of the week...while knocking a door I dropped my pen in this ladies huge dog cage....I have no idea how to say I dropped my pen in your dog cage so I was like...."Lo siento.....uhh...yo.....dropped mi pluma....en su dog cage...okay not worth it ADIOS!" but then she realized what I was trying to say and bent down awkwardly putting her upper body in the cage with her bottom in the air (not to mention she wasn't wearing a bra and the shirt wasn't doin her any favors) anyway longs story short I have my pen and all is well. hahah good times. Perks of knowing very little Spanish.

Well I hope ya'll have a fantastic week! Love you!!

Hermana England

The Beautiful Denver Temple

Saw this van in the temple parking lot...

haha

Completed the temple visit with a

stop at Cafe Rio!

Dying of heat :/

I Know I Am Right Where I Need To Be

Asinet - She cut her hair to be twinners with me!

I didn't think she'd actually do it 

 (The Sarabia family's little girl)

Hello everyone!

Okay first of all I don't know if you all heard what happened to Rachel but I am so grateful she is okay. She was teaching a lesson on the beach when a mini tsunami hit and she and all the people there were swept away under water. Luckily no one was seriously hurt but I will forward you the email I got from her! I am so grateful Heavenly Father was watching out for her and the other people there! The power of prayer is real!

Also WHAT! Davis hit his year mark!!! Lucky little poop that he still has a year left...Hna. Snow and I are banking on President Monson making the announcement that girls can now serve two year missions in the October general conference. Fingers crossed!

Wow this week was crazy. We were laying in bed last night and Hna. Snow says...."I don't think we will ever be this tired again!" haha I agreed. We worked our tails off! Let's start out with the 4th of July. Every year there is a big parade in Greeley and we got hooked up with some people to do service there! So we woke up super early and got off to direct traffic at the parade at about 6:30...well on the way there we were just driving and all of a sudden we hear this...thud thud thud thud thud....ya something punctured our tire and was stuck there and since the wheel was still spinning the thing was whacking the car. So we pull over and we have a completely flat tire with scratches all around the wheel well. :( not a great start to the day. So we pull out the instruction manual and start changing that tire by ourselves...we were so confident that we could do it! But eventually this guy named Robert covered in tattoos pulls up, gets out of his car and says....."Two females trying to change a tire wearing dresses, that just doesn't look right!" haha so he helped us out. What ever it was that popped our tire left a big whole and after Robert looked at it he goes..."Do you girls have someone that hates you because this looks like a SLASH!" haha we were like...uuhhh no? hahaha but we got it all figured out and at the tire place AND we got a potential investigator so all is well. Oh we invited Robert to church too but he didn't seem to interested....but hey he will be blessed for his service! Also there was a Mexican tienda near the tire place so we language studied with the Mexicans.

After that fiasco was over the day was awesome. Crazy but awesome! We taught Miguel the stop smoking program the church has. It is amazing! I highly recommend! The program is made up of 15 steps that stop the cravings for cigarettes. Miguel did awesome at the lesson but when he came to church he said he had smoked a little bit. We had another lesson last night about the reasons why he wants to get baptized and he basically told us he knows he can quit smoking with God's help but he is having a hard time committing himself to do it! It is frustrating because we feel we have given him all the tools to do it but he must be the one to make the decision. Some times agency is frustrating as a missionary. hahaha It makes me wonder how frustrated Heavenly Father feels when I don't do what he asks....I must remember that Heavenly Father will never take away my agency so I can't take away Miguel's. We are continuing to work with him and hopefully he will be able to use the program effectively.

Okay HUGE miracle for the week! So our less active Patty that we have been working with has come to church three times in a row!! We are so proud of her and her efforts in returning and living the gospel. We have not been able to talk with her one on one for a few weeks but a couple of days ago we finally did. It was an amazing lesson! Not because of us but because of the spirit that was there. Patty opened up to us about all the blessings she has seen in her life since she came back to church. She and her boyfriend live together with their 3 year old daughter. Patty and her boyfriend have a strained relationship and fight quite a bit. Patty explained to us that since she has been coming back to church she has been able to communicate with him better, control her temper, and receive the words she needs to say to him. She said that for the first time in a long time she resolved things with him without yelling and that the words that were coming out of her mouth were not her own. She then talked about how this will bless her daughter and how the gospel blesses families. She basically taught us the first few principles in lesson one. She then expressed her deep desire to partake of the sacrament. With tears running down her face she told us how much she wanted those blessings in her life. She told us that she wants to one day marry Freddy so that she can partake of the bread and water...and one day be sealed in the temple. We are helping her toward these goals. It made me realize how much I take the sacrament for granted. Those 15 min are the most sacred minutes of the week. How blessed are we that we have that ordinance to help us be clean and have the spirit. I have learned so much about what taking the sacrament really means this week.

Another awesome thing is that, Julian, our recent covert of 4 weeks blessed the sacrament for the first time! Yet another thing that made me appreciate this ordinance! I have never heard the sacrament prayers read with more meaning. ALSO I don't remember if I told you but Julian also decided to SERVE A MISSION! We are just blown away at how much he is progressing! He is such a huge example to me. His mom does not support him in joining the church and he still has a hard time with her but he continues to stay strong. He also went on trek last week and said it was an amazing experience! He is just amazing!

Sorry this email is getting long! There are just so many miracles happening! I am so grateful to be serving at this time, in this mission. I know I am right where I need to be! I feel that I do not deserve all the incredible blessings I am enjoying. I am grateful and humbled.

Have an amazing week! Love you all so so much!

Hermana England

PS. Learned how to make an amazing home made salsa this week...be excited. 

Learned how to make an amazing home made

salsa this week...be excited!

More rejoicing that we are companions again... 

4th of July ...Flat tire and service

at the Parade...