Gratitud Por Lo Que Ya Tenemos

Hola a todos! Feliz lunes!

Ok, here we go! Officially summa!!! Aka blowdryer heat in your face, random monsoons, prime firefly hunting season (im licensed dw), all you can eat watermelon, andddd beach volleyball my personal favorite. Summer pretty much makes every aspect of my life better except for door knocking...but hey thats why theres thorntons. Me and hermana beebs have been working hard this past week to find new friends, its been a rough few weeks without a lot of success, but this week we set a goal for 7 and smashed it. We tried lots of different spots for door knocking, contacted referrals, and reached out to people who were past referrals. Lots of prayers, doors, and calls later, God got us to our goal. He seems to love when we set goals, make plans, and then act on them, because when we do so, He always pours out blessings upon blessings 

Before I jump into this week, just a couple miracles last week cause someone forgot to write:

we drove into Georgetown for the first time since being here in lexington, and when we looked through our areabook I saw a member Leticia who had some kids who werent baptized and felt like we should knock her trailer. When we got to the row she lived on, her number didnt exist. Looking back through her history we noticed other missionaries had also tried contacting her and couldnt find them. We tried calling and texting, and then knocked the trailers nearby with no luck. Finally there was one more trailer that didnt look that latino, but we said why not and went up to the door. Some trailers have these like stubborn gate things so we have to america ninja warrior it in our dresses, gracefully of course, but this one we could just move to the side. There was this cute puppy that ran up to me, got too excited, peed, and then wagged its tail in the pee and sprayed me in the face. Lovely. But we decided to knock anyways and this lady answered and was so sweet, her name was Pearla and she was related to Leticia! Leticia was gone, but we got pearla's number so we could come back! After all that it was the best feeling to see the miracle that God had in store all along, He loves the effort and also loves rewarding it!

went back and visited Jamilet! Her nickname is Jammy, even though we didnt have her number and couldnt stay in contact, she told us shed been thinking of us and wondering when we would come back. We got to share a message about faith and how we need to not only believe, but also act and she totally got it! We invited her to read from the Book of Mormon intro so well see how it goes!

Zone conference!!! Holy cow that feels like forever ago lol, we talked about chapter 10 teach to build faith from preach my gospel. A couple things that stuck out to me:

- you may not always notice, but your example does something every day

- if you love God with all your heart, He will turn your heart to the wellbeing of others

I got to do sealings for the first time with our member Graciela! Her parents were sealed and then she was sealed to her parents and it was such a beautiful experience to see the Spirit touch her and everyone in the room. Hearing the blessings and feeling the power of heaven was something ill never forget.

Ok I promise the rest will be shorter!!! 

Monday we had noche de hogar at a sand volleyball court and played vball, probably still have sand in my hair. Also bought stuff to make green drinks this week and ive been downing them, thankfully these ones are drinkable... iykyk

Tuesday we visited Gloria with the other hermanas, eventful as always. Then we had a videocall lesson with our friend Valentine about the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the uno cards, we invited him to be baptized and he said he wasnt ready yet, but maybe in the future cry. We're really hoping once he gets all better he can come to church and get fellowshipped by the rama. After his lesson we went to visit this guy named Walter and he was just coming out of his house when we pulled up. He was super nice and we set up a lesson for later that week. But as we were sitting in the car, we saw two other latinos further down and decided to go talk to them. One of them said he wasn't interested, but as we kept talking and told them about english class all of a sudden he was asking about what our church is like and literally speaks perfect english. Then he goes, yeah me and my wife are actually looking for a church right now! They lived in Paris, but we gave them the Paris missionaries' number! That night we had english class and so many people came! I sat with two latina ladies Melissa and Eva, they were both super sweet, and Eva asked about our church services so I got their numbers to send them the info!

On wednesday we made another trip out to georgetown and oh my i just love that drive its SO pretty. We dropped off a Book of Mormon for our friend Brenda, and then just started knocking around her. We ended up finding three friends, Eva, Ilsi, and Bryan! Bryan is a teenage boy who is so elect! We saw his stepmom Maria outside and went to knock the door and he answered! He got us chairs and we just sat on his front porch and talked with him. When we asked if he was religious he said oh yeah big-time:), he reads the bible and prays every day! We introduced the Book of Mormon to him and he took it super well. Its hard because Georgetown is a trip from the church, but because he speaks english really well he could go to the ward there!!! After that we had a phone call with this guy Darvi and now we're teaching him! We had dinner with the Rodriguez family and it was like authentic hawaiian food 10/10 so good, thanks brother rodriguez! We went to visit Jamilet again but got there late so we just talked with her for a bit and rescheduled the lesson.

Thursday we had a lesson with our girl Maria! I love her so much! We taught her the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity and she took both really well and said she would be willing to live them! After maria we had 3 phone call lessons with new friends Felix, JJ, and our friend Emejido.

Friday we did our weekly planning because district council got moved to saturday because of interviews. We studied at Barnes & Noble and then had dinner with Presidente & Sis Munguia and their daughter Eva. Eva is the cutest little girl ever and is usually pretty shy around everybody, but when we sat down for dinner she just talked with us the whole time about dora and elsa in spanish with some random english words, mostly sparkly:). We sang frozen songs with her and just kept making her laugh, and after dinner the parents thanked us and told us this was the first time shes ever talked like that with missionaries, made my heart so happy so now we're Eva's besties that are "not chiquita." 

Saturday we had district council and interviews with President McGinn! Some things I loved from dc:

- church is supposed to be a sanctuary, a place of gathering, hearts united in faith

- covenants are individual, but we live them together

- we need to study the doctrine deeply, not study deep doctrine, dont look past the mark

We had district lunch at Cosco, which fyi the chocolate ice cream is back!!! Then we had a lesson with our new member Aldo about the Plan of Salvation, he remembered it as we went along, and at the end we invited him to read the BoM and pray daily and he laughed and said he was already doing it! That night we played soccer and I made the best goal Ive ever made on my mission, top left corner perfection. Also, we had set a goal as a zone to invite 1000 people to church and we got 1129!!!

On Sunday none of our friends were able to make it, it hurt especially with the amount of people we invited, but Antony and Aldo were there and we got to play with Laurieth's kids and get covered in stickers so that was a highlight of the day. We had coordination meeting, did some personal study, and then drove to the Bobadillas for dinner. We left early to drive to walter's house so we could be on time for him but first have two back to back calls with Gabriel and then Eddy which both went really well! Walter didnt end up being home and after knocking i was about to put a card in the door when i look up and this guy looks down at me from the door window, i think i jumped a literal foot i was so scared. He opened the door and we told him we came by for walter and gave him the card lol.

Random moments 

- Our friend Jhumet compared the iron rod to Cane's chicken fingers

- Ive got my kindly-say-no to the internet guys at walmart line down, they had no chance, hermana beebs was impressed 

- we almost won scripture chase in zone conference, matthew 3 came in clutch, but the frenchies beat us somehow

- we spent about an hour in the temple office trying to figure out how to print out a form for Graciela to do her live sealing, I got to sit at the computer and feel very official, also shout out to the office guy who pulled out the treat drawer and saved us from hunger, bless his heart 

- after the temple we drove through me and hermana beebs old stomping grounds in ola to get to a cuban tienda for lunch, there was the slight possibility of us losing our minds being in louisville together again

- ended up giving an impromptu fathers day talk, got to brag about how incredible my dad is love you:), dw i didnt mention a cat or tractor 

Spiritual thought time 

The beautiful thing about converts is getting to watch them do everything for the first time and just the awe and sacredness they feel is really touching. I think we can learn something about always being in awe and wonder of the temple, never taking it for granted, and always making it a sacred and holy experience. In zone conference our President told us about a convert Dawn who said: "when i enter the temple, i feel like im standing at the throne of God." I think more than anything, God wants us to feel at home in the temple, at home with our Father. I'm so grateful for temples and for the sealing power that binds mi familia loca forever.

I love you guys! God loves you even more! Make it a good week! 

- hermana Neil 

Pics in next email