Laman and Lemuel

Mexican Markets - They are great!

Hey Yall,

So first this week I would like to give a shout out to the best prima en el MUNDO!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ON WEDNESDAY KENZ!!! You are seriously the best! Thank you for being my best friend!....Don't get married...

So anyway this week has been awesome! Every week as a missionary is awesome! At zone meeting we made some pretty sweet zone goals for this week and totally killed it. We reached almost all of them and the others we got pretty close on. But it totally made us come together as a zone. ZONE UNITY BABY! I love when we feel unified as missionaries. It makes me feel like we can conquer the world...AND WE ARE!...well were working on in:)

So this week we finally got to teach Bertina La lay de Castidad (The law of chastity) And it went amazing!!!!.....But - we don't think she really got the fact that she can't live with her boy friend. We thought we were pretty clear but obviously not clear enough. At the end of the lesson we asked her if she would live the law of chastity and she said...Yes! The blessing from this law are so beautiful!...nothing about having to move out or get married. So lucky us...we get to revisit the law of chastity and be more specific. We are secretly hoping that Larry is her brother....even though he is a gringo and she is Mexican...it's possible right? Let's all pray for that...haha :) But the amazing thing with her is that she has soooo much faith to follow the commandments! She comes to church every week now and one of the sunday school lessons was on The word of wisdom. She said she is already trying to live it...she is struggling to give up coffee but she already believes in it. The same thing happened with tithing. We haven't taught her about tithing yet but she heard about it at church. She said she was skeptical but talked to her daughter Marium about it and Marium explained the blessing of it and how Heavenly Father will prepare a way. So She was thinking about it. Then one day she and her daughter were driving and saw a homeless man...Bertina had 10 dollars that she was going to use for gas money and that was the only money she had left for that month. She decided to give it to the man, then went to the atm to see if she had just a few dollars to put in for gas. To her supersize she found 200 dollars. She asked the bank about it and they said no there is no mistake..you have 200 dollars in your account. A similar experience happened to her the next day and after that she said she had faith that if she paid her tithing she would be provided for! It was so awesome! Heavenly Father is literally hand leading her to the church! Oh AND! Bertinas 12 year old son is starting to come to church and we will hopefully start teaching him this week too! New investigator WHAT WHAT!! We gonna have ourselves a big ol' family baptism :) OH AND! At church Isaias (Bertinas son) Showed up and the first thing he said to us was...I have 2 dollars, where do I pay my tithes? Oh my goodness he is to die for...Soph were going to bring you to Colorado after the mish and make this happen okay!? Okay! But ya anway the Lord has for sure prepared their family! It's so amazing to see them change for the better! :)

I had my first training meeting as the trainer and not the trainee...it was pretty cool! I got some good insights from Pres. Brown and the other missionaries. Man I totally agree with you Davis when you were talking about how it's hard that people have agency! That has been sooo hard! We know this gospel will change their life, and sometimes THEY even know that this gospel will change their lives...but they do not act. It is heartbreaking! 

Hermana Snow and I were talking about how we can feel a small fraction of the sorrow Heavenly Father has when we use our agency poorly. Man I can't imagine how hard it was for Him to even give us agency, knowing that a lot of us would choose poorly. But he did give it, because He loves us. And if he resects agency then so should I...even thought I just want to wack some people in the head with the Book of Mormon. :) But keep up the good work Davis! :) I have the exact same feelings!  But you are right...all we can do is keep trying and keep loving!

So in other news, this week my skin has been particularly horrendous. I got 2 HUGE zits right smack dab in the middle of my forehead!...not cool! They would not go away and were persistently rebellious so we named them Laman and Lemuel....One of the new investigators we had last week named Raul dropped us and gave us back the Book of Mormon we gave him...it was soooo sad!!!! Pretty much a stab to the heart when you get a BOM handed back to you. But I am convinced that it was Laman and Lemuel's fault!...Raul opened the door and felt of their murmuring contentious spirit and turned us away. Then later in the week more popped up and I have the whole band of Gadianton robbers on my forehead!...again...not cool. Hopefully that will clear up sooner rather than later!

Mom it sounds like the trek to the temple was a success! I know that was an awesome experience for all the girls! You are amazing at planning stuff like that:) AND a relief society activity! You are a man woman. I was laughing so hard at your water bottle accident haha but I hope your hand is feeling better!

Oh DAD! I don't know if you guys have read Rachels emails but she got transferred to Kiev and her ward meets on the third floor of this super nice building. And guess what it is right over?! The Kiev Ferrari shop! Isn't that awesome! Church and cars combine...it's your dream come true! :) You should go visit Rach in Kiev!

OH! Dalt and Kenna and who ever else was there (I can't remember) I was going to tell you this last week but I forgot...Remember when we were talking about how at general conference how they should announce the prophets and apostles names like they do at basket ball games? Well Elder Neilson (I think that was his name) The one that gave the 'Exclamation point' talk, should totally be the announcer!!! ANNNND now the one you've been waiting for......YOUR PRESIDENT....YOUR PROPHET....IIIIIIT'S.....THOMAS....S......MOOOOOOONSOOOOONNNN! That would be awesome! He deserves that kind of intro :)

Well that's it for the week folks! Thank you for all your love and support! I am so overwhelmed with how blessed I am to have such an amazing family!

Love you all so much!

Con amor, Hermana England 

Chicken feet - Apparently hispanics like them :/

Making a Salvidorian dish for Liz and Dave