Priesthood Power!

This week I am just going to give you the lowdown. It snowed again on payday, like always!

Tuesday we had a lesson with Beatrice. She is an investigator who doesn't really understand a lot, but she says she always feels these bad spirits on and around her. She said that she was cursed when she was younger while she was living in Chicago. Her son has even been choked in his sleep before, and they are always haunted. We were going to do a handoff lesson with the Elders because she speaks English. She said not today, but I was really worried about her and when I asked her, she said that the spirits were really bothering her. She asked if we could find a priest to help her cast the spirits out. We explained about the power of the Priesthood that the Elders have and that they could give her a blessing. We met Elder Selijaas and Elder Kline at the church and they were able to give her a blessing. Elder Selijaas said that it felt like someone was trying to push his hands off of her head the whole time, that they clearly did not want her to get a blessing. It was crazy. He said it was a weird blessing and they fought through the whole time. Next day, Beatrice called us and thanked us. She said she felt so much better and wanted a blessing for her son too. It was a great experience for her, even though it seemed pretty sketchy to me!

The next day we had new missionary training in Iowa City. It's like two hours away, and of course I drove because I’m such a good driver. We went to the training, and it was pretty repetitive, yeah, because I have been here like 11 weeks. It was us and a bunch of the new missionaries. We drove back and had a lesson with Alisa. She's the one who said she was born Catholic and will die Catholic. She had a lot of questions about the Plan of Salvation and it went really well.

Thursday we had zone conference in Cedar Rapids. That was like an hour and a half away. Zone conference is where we found out Elder Selijaas is leaving this Monday. It was really sad, but he has to go get his shoulder taken care of so he can keep playing basketball. The Zone trainings were really good. Then we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch – I'm not going to lie, we may or may not have watched a little bit of March madness! Then we went and visited a member that Hermana Pearson knew in Cedar Rapids. Then we drove back home.

St. Patrick's Day we visited a bunch of ladies that are in our ward.  We spent most of the day knocking even though we didn't really find anyone. Friday was a day when everyone was kind of mean to us. One guy was talking to my companion and told her how impressed he was by how well/fast she speaks Spanish. Then he looked at me and said "Tú necesitas más practica!"  Yes, I know! It was really sad, but that's OK.

Saturday we went to a baptism. His name was Thomas and he was this cute old man. After he got baptized, I asked him how he felt. He said he was just really relieved because he knew that this was what he needed to do. It was really sad to see Elder Selijaas there because he is just so heartbroken about having to go home.

Sunday we went to church and had lunch with Sister Warner and her daughters and dinner with the elders at Bishop Moose’s house. We tried to visit a couple of people after dinner, and then we went home and studied for a bit. We ran some treats by the Elder’s house and Elder Selijaas wrote us the sweetest note!  He shared his conversion story and about how sad it is to go home. He is going to be so, so awesome – we just think he is great!

I love you all so much – it's not that I don't miss you but I really don't! I love you tons but I LOVE being here and getting to serve the Lord.

Smooches!

Monday – After we emailed our families and washed our clothes; we went and bought food. We had Pday in Davenport and we played basketball and then trash ball, which is kind of like ultimate basketball. We went on exchanges with the STL's – I went with Sister Marhrt and Hermana Pearson went with Sister Kimber. We pretty much just went looking for people and we had dinner with that Atchleys. There are some crazy tornado warnings going on. There are sirens going off everywhere and we have to go inside all the time. It's pretty sketchy – but today was a good day!

Tuesday we went on exchanges again. Sister Mahrt is so, so cute. She is super bold when it comes to talking to people. She is really quirky and I love her a lot. We tried a bunch of potentials, but no one was home and we could not find anyone to talk to us, but it was good. Sister Mahrt does not speak Spanish, so I had to talk to people all by myself! It was really, really scary. But, I did better than I thought I was going to do, so it was really good. Afterwards, we went to dinner at that Bringas family again (it was delicious) and then we came home and studied, and went to bed. It was a great day! Wahoo!

Wednesday – today was pretty chill. We didn't write letters, but we mailed some this morning. Then we had district meeting and our zone leader, Elder Jenkins, gave us some great training. He talked about how to incorporate members more into our lessons. We went to lunch at Sam's Club. I ate yummy pizza. Then we went and did Mormon.org for a while and I cried a lot because of the video about two old people. Afterwards, we helped the elders move one of their investigators into a house. Her name is Lea and she is really adorable. We had dinner with the Brushares, but, before that, we dropped a birthday card and cookies off to Elijah, Tisha son. Tisha was super happy that we did that because she thought we were coming to teach her and she was making all kinds of excuses. She was grateful that we were there to serve her son and she was really touched. After Spanish study we went to bed. Today was Muy Bien!

Thursday – Today was so cute! My family sent me the cutest package and I'm so grateful. It brightened my entire day. We tried a lot of potential's today, but no one was home. We visited a sweet lady that lives in an assisted living home. She is medically less active. We had dinner with Grandma Johnson, the cat lady.  We helped her clean up her house a little bit today. Seems like a more mellow day, even though we tried really hard this morning to find someone. Basically, we spent the day with cute little grandmas!

Friday was kind of weird! We had an appointment set up with Stephanie and when we drove to her house, we saw some Jehovah Witnesses go into her house. Say what? We said a prayer and went up and knocked on her door. When we got there, she was super awkward. We just said hi to her. She clearly forgot that we were coming over and they were just knocking through the neighborhood so she let them in because she is so nice. She was super apologetic and we just told her that we would come back another time. It was a little weird! Then, we knocked some more doors. Our car had a recall and so we took it in and got the oil changed and stuff. We did planning meeting while we were waiting. Later we went and visited a less active named Sister Schumacher. She loves the Scriptures! I don't understand why she doesn't come to church because she has such a strong testimony. She is really, really cute. We had dinner with a new convert, Sarah, and her daughters. They are really cute also. We did a practice lesson with them and role-played. We put sticky notes on Grandma Johnson's door because she broke her ankle and then we went and visited another less active named Sister Dunn. Another great day as a missionary!

Saturday – Today was the day I met my “grandmother”! My grandmother – Hermana Rodriguez!  She was Hermana Pearson's trainer! She just showed up at our doorstep knocking to surprise her. It made my companion so happy, even though her trainer had just come back to visit the mission since she left this last transfer. We went to Panera Bread for breakfast. It was super fun and super weird! It made us really grateful that we are missionaries! The world is always going to be there – Instagram, Facebook, Twitter but, we are growing and changing so much! It made us super grateful to be where we are at. Then we went and worked super hard! We knocked doors and planned. We met a funny lady named Nika! The mom let us in and was like "oh hey girl, what's up?!" Hermana Pearson asked her where she worked and she said Fazolis. I said that I really liked it and Hermana Pearson said she had never been there and asked if it was good.  Nika's mom was like "I don't know girl. I have never eaten there. If I ate there, my booty would be so big I would be knocking trays over and hitting white girl’s husbands in the back with my booty!"  We started laughing and she was all "girl, I ain't playing". She asked us if we wanted some food. She was like "girl, don't be playing with me. We have chicken and barbecue in the back, or cake!"  I told her I would love some cake and she said "that's right!" They were playing some crazy hood music and it was so fun. They were all so nice! I walked into the kitchen to put my plate away and her brother was there. He was like "hey sweetie!" And then he started checking out my companion, which made her feel super uncomfortable! I was all whatever! It was funny. Nika never came out and the mom said "hey girls, if y'all ever just want to come over and hang out you are so welcome. We are always barbecuing, you are always welcome to every party!" We told her thank you and she was like "girl, holidays around my house… You have got to come. We have turkey, ham, everything you can pray for. And it is so, so good!"  Then she said "When you come over, you girls just do you, just dress the way you are dressing. I have 11 brothers and if they see booty, please!?!  I'm just saying, they get crazy. Y'all just do you."  We said goodbye and she said "Y'all are just so cute! Smooches, Smooches!" She was so adorable and fun. Best part of today for sure!

Sunday was whack! Today was daylight savings time and we forgot, so we missed Ward Council, but we were on time for church! Last night this random number texted us and this guy told us he wants to join our church. We told him great, just come to church tomorrow. I honestly thought he was a weirdo that just wanted to talk to two girls. When Hermana Pearson called him, he was at the church waiting for us. His name is Ted (Theodorus). He is from Greece. He speaks Greek, Spanish, and English. I guess he got our number from some Latino guys he’s been living with. He seems like a really cool guy and he stayed for all three meetings today. We have never had a lesson with him and so he really didn't have any idea about what was going on. We invited him to be baptized and set up a date, and he was totally ready to go. We are meeting with him tomorrow. We are thinking he has a Word of Wisdom problem but we are hoping that it is going to gain a testimony, and try. It has really felt kind of like a miracle! Then we went and tried a bunch of potential's, and then we had dinner at Bishop Moose's house. We had really yummy lasagna. Hermana Pearson got a blessing from the Elders and we came home and did our studies. We worked on our numbers and now we are getting ready to go to bed. It is just so fun being a missionary!

Dream Weaver!

Monday – Hi family! Today was Pday and we emailed. Yesterday was Sacrament meeting and I started crying a little bit. I saw a little brother getting his back scratched by his sibling and it just made me miss Dane so much. Dane, I just want you to know how much I love you and miss you. We got food today and it was fun. We kind of just hung out. Elder Higley and I played volleyball for a while. We peppered for a bit and he's pretty good. I guess that he has sisters that play. Then we had dinner with the LaFevers and it was really good. They are from the first Ward and fed us yummy chicken. They have the cutest, cutest little kids. Then we went and visited a couple of older ladies in our ward named Sister Down and Sister Johnson. They have the cats that really like us, much more than we like them. But the Sisters are super cute! We had ice cream from McDonald's later and then we went to bed!

OK, so Tuesday was kind of weird! I had a dream last night that Hermana Pearson and I went to teach this less active that we have been trying to visit, for quite a while. Her name is Mago (actually Margarita, she goes by Mago) and she has never answered before. We have tried so many times, but I have never seen her. In my dream, she is a little Latino lady who has glasses and her hair is up in a little bun. So when we woke up, I told Hermana Pearson we should go to her house. When we drove up, she was outside with her little girl waiting for the bus stop. We ran over to catch her and try to set up an appointment with her. It was pretty awesome that we finally met her, but she definitely was not the lady in my dream that I saw. But we were super happy she was home and we will meet with her soon. Then we went and knocked around, and tried to visit Menelva. She was super awkward and told us to text her, but she seemed very flaky and I am a little discouraged about it. Well, what are you going to do? Afterwards, we went to a referral that the Elders gave us, his name is Luis, and his wife answered the door. IT WAS THE LADY FROM MY DREAM!!! It was pretty cool! She said that she is Catholic, but that we could talk to her husband. Luis was not home but we set up an appointment to come back. Then, while we were knocking, there were all these crazy tornado warnings. People would open their door and tell us they aren't interested, but that we should really go inside because there are tornado warnings everywhere. We just kept knocking. We had dinner with the Bringas family and had super yummy tacos. We were talking about Spanish and discussing how my comp speaks really good, but how much I am struggling. Hermano Bringas said that I probably cannot see it, but that I am getting better! He is a very soft-spoken man, and it just warmed my heart so much that he said that to me. Then we went to the church and studied Spanish. At home tonight, there is tons of lightning, thunder, and huge a windstorm. But it is awesome!

I wanted to tell you about another dream that I had this week. In my dream, Hermana Pearson and I were on our missions but it was the Second Coming. Christ came again, but we did not see Him. It was not scary at all, in fact, we were super excited. The only thing that was sad was that we were not with our parents because we were still on our mission, but we were super stoked! We got sent home to see our families and we were with them a while, but we kept going back-and-forth from our home back to our mission. We kept walking through an airport over and over. It reminded me of Spirit Paradise and Spirit Prison. We kept going back to teach the people. It was kind of sweet! We were going back-and-forth for a while, and then we were going to go and be judged. We didn't see Heavenly Father or anything but we were together and were being taught about the different degrees of glory. The Telestial Kingdom was like the world right now, but everyone had perfect bodies and there was no crime and no discomfort. The Terrestrial Kingdom was the same, only a little better. The Celestial Kingdom came before us and we could fly, and breathe underwater, and everything was so awesome! Everyone wanted to go there so bad! So then we got judged. But it wasn't scary, I was just so happy. Our family went to the Celestial Kingdom and everyone from my mission and their families went to the Celestial Kingdom also. It was awesome! The first thing we did in the Celestial Kingdom was have a Sacrament meeting, but the presiding authorities were Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ! I thought it was so funny because they were sitting up there in suits and ties and stuff. I think judgment day is going to be so awesome! Before that dream, I have always been nervous about judgment day. But now, I am learning that it is OK and it will actually be a wonderful day. I know that God loves me and He wants me to succeed! I don't have anything to fear as long as I keep striving to be better and keep living the life that I am living. There is no way that I can really be away from Him. It was super, super cool to have that dream!

Wednesday – Today was really cold! We started the day by going out to Cole Valley and doing Mormon.org time. Then we went and visited a lady named Beatrice. There were kind of weird vibes in her house and we tried to teach her about the Restoration. I don't really think she understood everything and actually, it was just really strange being in her house. She kept talking about all of these different spirits and stuff. After we left, we actually felt like we could breathe clearly again. It was weird and I didn't like it! We prayed that she would be OK and we hope that she is doing all right!  I made pasta for lunch and then we went and knocked some more doors. We went to Tisha's house and taught her kids. It was sad because she didn't even come upstairs! We taught the kids the Restoration with gummy bears and they are just so adorable! Then, we tried to go to Imagins house, but she was not home.  Our car would not unlock afterwards and we could not get in. Our car has an automatic unlock and it was so cold! As we were freezing and walking around the car trying to figure out how to get inside, Hermana Pearson suggested that we call a member and just wait by our car. We called Hermana Bringas, and it opened while we were on the phone with her. We got in the car and drove away – it was really weird!  We tried a referral that wasn't home, so we ate dinner and went to bed. Today was a good day though!

Thursday – Today we had interviews with the mission president. I talked to President Badger a lot about faith. I want to have the faith so that everything I say as a missionary will come to pass. That I can make promises to investigators and not be afraid and that what I say is of God. I want to have the faith to know that I have the authority to make those promises and that they will happen. It is really heavy for me to think about, and I just want to know that I can be that kind of missionaries/person. We talked a lot about that, and he said "I know that you don't see yourself the way that I see you. But, I can already see you becoming that person and truly becoming the missionary that I want and need you to be." It was really awesome! But, interviews take so long! We just hang out and wait for the whole district to be done so that we can all go out to lunch. I really love all of the Elders in our district! They are so fun and easy to get along with. We went to lunch at Chipotle – for my very first time! It was pretty good. Then we went to Mago's house. Her little girls are so cute. She has two daughters, one named Jimena, who is eight, and Luna is five. They are so cute! Mago has a really strong testimony but she works every Sunday and she doesn't seem to care. She did say she's trying to get a new job so that is good. We will see her again soon!  We had dinner with the Joneses and they are super sweet. We had yummy sub sandwiches. Interviews took up most of today, but it was awesome.

Friday was pretty chill. Kind of gross, honestly. You know how I am not much of a cat person and today we went to do service for the cute old cat lady, Sister J. We went over to help her decorate her Christmas tree. She has a tree that she decorates for every holiday and this time we did it for St. Patrick's Day. Then she asked us to do one more thing. We had to clean out the cat litter box! It had been a while since it had been done, since she is older and it would be really hard for her to do. Yuck! It was so gross! Afterwards we tried a couple of people, but I was feeling really gross so we went home for lunch and I took a shower which made me feel much, much better! Then we did our weekly planning and went to the Cleminsons for dinner. I love them so much! Cutest kids ever! We went to the church afterwards and studied Spanish. Today was a hard day because we did a lot of knocking and stuff, but it feels like we had nothing to show for it. But it's OK, because I love to be a missionary! It is awesome and fun and I love it!

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!

Hola familia! Today was Pday so we sent emails and just kind of hung out. The elders are so great. They make me feel less like a girl trying to live in a girl’s world and let me act more like a boy sometimes – which is awesome! We tried to contact a media referral but she wasn't there and so then we went and visited a less active family. The husband was not home but we shared a little scripture with the wife who is not a member. Whenever we go over, she tells us about how hard it is to be in America. How her husband's job is really hard and stuff like that. It is really hard for me to open my heart to her and I know that is really bad. We were over there until about 9:00 and then we just came home and went to bed.

Tuesday we knocked a lot of doors. We tried a referral named Luis but he was not home. So we went to East Moline and knocked, we tried Minelva. I forgot to mention, Minelva came to church Sunday! We set up a whole bunch of translation equipment for her but it stopped working right when Sacrament meeting began! So we were running around trying to get it to work. Hermana Pearson just came and sat next to her and translated in her ear the whole time. It was really sad, and she was pretty discouraged about it. She left after Sacrament meeting even though we had a lesson planned for her. She was not home when we tried to visit her today. We had dinner with the Bringas family. They fed us Molé which was heavenly good! They gave us so much food! They always fill us up when we go there. She just grabs our plates and keeps putting more food on them. Then we went and visited another family in the ward, the Jenkins, and they fed us some taco stuff. Two dinners! Which is why I have my food baby belly now! Afterwards, we went home and started some Spanish. It was like 70° today and it was so, so nice. Knocking was awesome because we were out in the sun and talking to people. I am so much happier when the sun is out; it is like night and day!

Wednesday we went to go visit a less active sister; she lives down by the Mississippi River. She wasn't home so we decided to go down by the river and call people, like potential's and stuff. We hung out down there and it was so nice – like 75° again today! I didn't have to wear tights, or boots, or anything and I even wore flats! It was so awesome! After that, we knocked for a while but we didn't find anyone. There are not a lot of Latinos down by the river. Then we went and did Mormon.org time in the library. Later we went to visit a media referral named Patricia. She wasn't home. We went back to Little Mexico today to try to find some people’s addresses. We also ran by the chiropractor, who is so amazing. Our beds are pretty sketchy and the chiropractor whips us back into shape so I don't have any headaches. We went to have dinner with Grandma Johnston, but we ended up just sharing a lesson. She pretended to be Catholic, which she was for most of her life. It is really a good experience for us and afterwards she was so nice. She said that she took the lessons for four years and that this was one of the best lessons she's ever had. It was so sweet and nice. We went to the church and practiced Spanish and then ate some dinner and went to bed. It was a really good day today – especially because it was warm. I just love it when it is warm!

Thursday we had zone conference. It took up most of our day. Beforehand, we had a lesson set up with a lady named Nicole. We have been trying to call her for weeks trying to meet with her and she says she wants us to come, but hasn't been able to meet yet. We had finally set up a date and time and when we got there, she was not there. So, we are going to give her some time to simmer. We had some great training's by our zone leaders, and STLs, and the district leaders, then we went to Taco Bell with the whole zone for lunch. We had a less active lady call us the other day and say "por que no han venido?"  We were surprised that she asked us why we didn’t come, so we scheduled another appointment to visit her at four. When we knocked on her door, no answer. She and her boyfriend were gone. We were kind of confused because she called us to have us come over?! So we went home and studied. Then we had dinner with the Knighting's in Bettendorf, they are such a cute family and we had “walking tacos”. Then we had a lesson with Claudia who is a Jehovah witness. We met her at church and she cleans a member’s house. We taught her about the Restoration and she was super nice. She is pretty set in her ways. We tried to give her a Book of Mormon and she did not want to take it because she doesn't want to be converted. She did say the closing prayer, even though she told Jehovah that she is just getting some information and is never going to leave Him. Today was not as warm, so it was good, but not as nice!

Friday was really, really fun! We started the day studying and then we knocked doors. We headed over to Bettendorf and visited Sister Orrick. She is medically less active because she cannot walk so it is really hard for her to come to church. We had a great visit with her. Since the sisters left, we have taken her over even though she does not speak Spanish. She is such a fireball and so funny. She lives in an assisted living house and we walked her down to lunch. We met her friends at lunch and they were all members of the re-organized church of Jesus Christ. Such nice people. It was funny because they all had coffee to drink and me and my comp just looked at each other and started laughing. I think we will go back and visit her next week. A recent convert named Sarah called us and asked if we could come help her move. She needed help unpacking and organizing. It was almost 1 pm and we hadn't eaten lunch so we were super excited when she called back to see if we wanted some pizza! We were going to go to McDonald's, but it was awesome that we did not have to buy lunch. Then we shared a little message with her and it was really awesome. Minelva could not meet with us and she is seeming more distant lately. We went home and studied for three hours. We have to study three hours additional study every day – one hour of Spanish, one hour of training because I am new, and one hour of companionship study. That is not even counting our personal scripture study!  Hopefully I am learning a lot.

Saturday we went to go see a potential that Hermana Pearson knew named Kevin. My companion woke up this morning not feeling very well but she drug herself out of bed and then Kevin was not there. So we came home and she slept from about 11 till 3 in the afternoon. I spent the time studying, watching The District, and working on my Spanish. It was actually really nice to spend the time studying. We went and took piano time afterwards and then we went to the Alan's for dinner. Brother Alan is the ward mission leader and so we and the elders came over. They had to leave for a trivia night at the ward but we didn't go because our investigators all speak Spanish. We tried the media referral, Patricia, again and she was finally home! She is a cute 69-year-old lady. Her husband died a few years ago and she had gone to Mormon.org and ordered a Bible. We talked with her for a while and she is such a fireball! She reminds me of Nana. We shared about the restoration and asked her if Joseph Smith was a prophet, what would that mean to her. She said if it is true, the church she has been going to for the past 15 years is wrong. She was pretty sad and so we explained that our message would just add onto her faith and we encouraged her to read some of the Book of Mormon and learn more about Him. She was just super happy to have visitors come over to her house and we were there for quite a while. It was a really good day!

Sunday we went to church. The less active named Tisha and her boyfriend and her kids all came to church! She participated in relief society and it was all so, so awesome! She totally surprised us today. We called her and invited her to come to church. She told us that she could not come at 9 AM but that she would go to the 1 PM church. We told her as long as she goes that was fine, but we were so happy when she showed up at 9 in the morning! Her kids were all spic and span and it was all awesome. We had lunch at the Davidson's and it was so sweet. We went home so that we could do our weekly planning and then we tried a new referral named Junior, but he was not home. It was a good day filled with many surprises.

Because Luis and Alena have dropped us, we really only have a few investigators. We are trying to meet with Minelva and then we have Stephanie, who is the Jehovah Witness who we taught the Plan of Salvation to. She has so many questions because she thinks that the world is punished for Adams transgression and that is why Jesus came to the earth. She doesn't think that God came to suffer for her also?! It is really sad to me. We go back to her house on Friday. Then we have a guy named Ronjual who has been very hard to get in with and then we have Patricia, who is the super cute lady we met on Saturday. We are busy finding a lot and working to get with the potential's that we have. My Spanish is fine. It is nothing special but it is fine. It is really hard! But, we are going – we are just going forward.

Valentine's Transfer

This week we have transfers and so we won't have a regular Pday. We woke up this morning and got ready, studied, and then came to email our families. After lunch, we went and knocked doors. It was really awesome knocking today. We found a new investigator and taught a lesson, kind of the street contact, named Carlos. He is a really nice guy. He said to us "I know you guys don't know a lot of Spanish but I will work with you and talk slowly." We were like "No, sabemos bastante español." We let him know that he could just talk to us. Hermana Pearson wasn't happy about that, but it was pretty funny. We have another lesson with him on Saturday. We had dinner with a cute family – the Pedersen's. They have such cute, crazy kids. They are just so cute and squishy! We had a lesson with them with the Hershey’s kisses that Nana sent. Shout out to Nana and her kisses! We wanted to eat them all but we are trying to get “swole”!

We were driving around in Cole Valley which is just a little random town and we found a zoo! It is called the Nairobi Zoo! Here we are in this teeny, tiny town and it’s crazy. What the junk? There is a zoo in the middle of nowhere! I saw an alligator exhibit and I tried to drive by really slowly. There was a gate that entered into the zoo and when I turned in, the gate started to close. We hurried and left because I was super stressed that they were recording us and we were going to get busted. But it's all good. By the way, I started to drive! Hermana Pearson hasn't been feeling very well, and she doesn't love to drive, anyways, and honestly, I am just a better driver! Just kidding. It has been super fun!

Happy Valentine's Day! Today was pretty rough; I am not going to lie! We worked out this morning and it was super hard. My legs have been like jelly all day – it is kind of embarrassing and how out of shape I have become! I hobbled around all day because all we did was knock doors. I was trying to climb up the stairs and it was just so, so embarrassing. We taught a cute lady today from the Philippines named Leah. We taught her about the restoration and she seemed pretty interested but she was really the only one that let us into her house. We had dinner with the Bringas’s tonight. We had tostadas and I ate way too many! They were really good. We are on exchanges with the STL's tonight and so me and Sister Kimber tried to meet a couple of people. No one was home so me and Hermana Pearson came home to study Spanish. Sister Kimber and Sister Sarvela just kind of stayed and hung out with us. They are so cute! About 9:00 tonight we just hung out and sang songs together. It was so stress relieving and really wonderful! It was a really great day!

Wednesday was our last payday before transfers and it was fun! We cleaned our house and washed our clothes, and then went grocery shopping. I desperately need shoes and so we tried to go shopping for clothes. I really want to find some new boots to go tracting in. All I have are my heavy winter boots, flats, or the nice boots that Nana gave me that are way too hard to walk in for tracting. I had a hard time finding anything – the struggle is real. We went to Bettendorf and helped the Sisters pack because they are closing that area and they are leaving our zone. We will take over a lot of the people over there. So that is cool. We went to Pday in Davenport and we made planners for everyone and said goodbye to everyone that is going to be leaving. That was fun and very sad too. We had dinner with the Aucklands, who are this really cute and cool young couple. Then we helped the sisters move some more because they were freaking out about moving all of their stuff. My comp hit 9 months in the mission also! See her "baby belly"?!

 Elder Olsen, Elder Seljaas, Hermana Pearson

We made this cute door thing so that we can have self confidence! We write nice things about ourselves and each other on sticky notes and put them on our door. I know, we are the cutest people ever!

Thursday my companion wasn't feeling very well. She slept in a little while I did studies, then we went to Cole Valley and went to the library and did Mormon.org time. We tried to meet a media referral, but they were not home. So, we came back home and ate lunch. Later, we went to visit people and try to knock some doors. We met a couple of guys in their car that were super hammered. One of them was like "I know all about y'all Mormons. I know all about Brigham Young and Brigham Young University. I don't really want to talk about religion right now because I am pretty intoxicated." So we gave them a card and tried not to laugh too hard. We continued to knock and then they pulled around the corner in their car. I was super bummed because they were clearly drunk and they were driving. So we went up to them and said "hey, were you just driving?" He said "yeah, I just didn't want to go to the bathroom in public so we just went around the corner." I was like "don't you know it's not ok to drink and drive?! You have to promise me that you will never drink and drive again!" He looked at me and kind of brushed his chin. I said "C'mon, you have to promise me!" So he stuck out his pinky and we pinky promised that he wouldn't do it again. He said "Ok, I promise I won't do it again." Then his friend started telling us about Mormons and the pioneers, and how he knows everything about the pioneers. Then he said, "and you all don't celebrate Christmas either" and we said "oh no, we celebrate Christmas!" Then he asked who it is that doesn't celebrate Christmas. Hermana Pearson said it's the Jehovah's Witnesses and he was like "oh yeah, I know all about the Jehovah's Witnesses." He was so drunk and it was just so funny! Other than that, we just knocked a lot of doors today and it was awesome!

Friday we had a get to know you for zone meeting. We have a new zone leader and two new people in our area. Elder Blouse's new companion is Elder O’Bray – he's really cool and tall and stuff. Elder Fackrell’s new companion is Elder Jenkins. He is our new district leader. He is really nice. Elder Higley is our new zone leader. He is from a town on the border of Nevada and Utah. He is really into hunting and stuff. We went to lunch at a random Chinese place that was pretty good. That was pretty much the whole day- so yeah!

Saturday – Today was like 75° today! Outside we went tracting for most of the day. We made up a story the whole day about our district and stuff. It was super fun! We had dinner with the Coleman/Adams sisters. They are a mom/daughter duo who are converts to the church. We taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it was super spiritual. Then we came home and cleaned our house. We clean our house every Saturday so that it will be nice for Sunday and so that we can keep the Sabbath day holy. We do have a brand-new investigator named Minelva! She is super! We knocked on her door a few weeks ago and she said she was sick. Then we knocked again a couple of weeks ago. We taught her about the plan of salvation and sang I am a child of God in Spanish. The spirit was really strong. She was really nice to us the whole time and invited us back. We had invited her to be baptized and she said yes if she decided these things were true. Of course she's going to know these things are true! We had invited her to church at that time and she couldn't come. This last time we finished teaching her about the plan of salvation and invited her to church. She promised she would be at church tomorrow! I am so excited… She will be the very first investigator that I have coming to church! She is about 50–54 and super shy. She is pretty hard to read. She has definitely been an answer to prayers! Super exciting!

Sunday – So last night at about 8:30 pm we were driving home, I was driving and we were traveling down the road going about 50 mph and it was all dark and stuff. Then, OUT OF NO WHERE, a deer jumped right in front of our car, a big buck (probably like a 5x5)!  I slammed on the breaks as hard as I could and swerved out of the way. The deer ran away and I seriously don't know how we didn't hit it. We seriously missed it by like half an inch I swear. It was super scary and so I got out of the car to see if maybe we did hit it – there wasn't a scratch to be seen. It was seriously a miracle ha ha but ya that's all :)  I wanted you to freak out because it’s not like ANYTHING CRAZIER THAN THAT IS GONNA HAPPEN IN IOWA except maybe like if we have an investigator that wants to listen to us! Ha ha!

Snow and Sniffles

Monday was Pday. We woke up and did our studies and got ready. Then we decided to go back to sleep until about 10:00 – so we kind of slept in, then we sent our emails which was as awesome as always. Then we went to the store and bought food, got pictures, hair stuff, and then we came home. Pday was in Davenport and we were the only sisters there. So we hung out with the elders and it was really fun. They played basketball. Hermana Pearson always has to make cookies because the elders convince her to. They say "will you make us cookies if I they make a shot" which is totally lame! I always try to get the elders to do stuff like buy me lunch, and even though I win, they never buy me lunch which is DUM. Whatever. We had dinner with the Josie's tonight. They have three little boys and one girl – all under the age of 10. One of the little boys was talking about how all the girls chase him at recess. So we asked him if the girls ever catch him and he said "no, I bail on them – I am a playsta gangsta!" That made us all laugh. They made us delicious taco soup and it was really good. Luis wasn't home when we went to visit him tonight. He just seems really lost and unwilling to do the things that we are asking him. So we are just trying to find a lot of new investigators to teach right now.

Tuesday was really, really warm! I mean it was really, really warm. It was like 48-50° outside. It was really, really nice! It wasn't overcast today; it was clear and beautiful out! In fact, at 6:30 this morning we got up and rode our bikes along a beautiful trail! It was so wonderful to be outside and have it beautiful. It was very foggy this morning. We were surrounded by trees riding along the bike trail and I was so happy, it was so awesome. At least it was really nice until about 4:30, then it got really cold! Then we went home, and did some ab workouts and had some breakfast and stuff. Honestly, I have been pretty grumpy lately because I haven't been sleeping very well.  Right now I am reading a talk by Elder Holland called "the Divine Companionship". It is about having a good relationship with the Holy Ghost. It is really cool, especially since that is what we are asking people to do, to receive the Holy Ghost in their lives. It is a really good talk and I recommend it!

Anyways, then we went and “found” pretty much all day. We looked for some less actives that we were asked to look up in Ward Council Sunday by the Bishop and none of them lived at the addresses that we had. So we just scratched them off the list, then we spent the rest of the day knocking doors. It was really fun because it was so nice outside! We went to the church for a while because Hermana Pearson practiced the piano. She gets to practice once a week for an hour because she plays for the church. And I kind of took a nap on the couch which made me a lot less grumpy! That was really nice.

I have been working very hard lately on becoming a consecrated missionary. I think I am having a hard time with faith right now. Just faith that I will learn Spanish and that we will find people to teach. Our investigators are being pretty flaky. We did find a new investigator named Alisa that we taught with a member. She was very open but informed us that she was born Catholic and would die Catholic. But she was really nice! She made us some Jell-O and some cornbread. We are going back tomorrow to teach the plan of salvation, but as you can see, I am having a hard time believing that she was going to progress. I need to work on my faith. Knocking is actually pretty fun and I am working on building up a callous! We had dinner with this cute couple named the McDonald's. It was a good day!  I love you guys a lot, my Spanish is really bad, but I am learning! So yeah!

Wednesday – so apparently it decided to snow all night last night! So much for riding our bikes. We just stayed home and worked out in our house. It was really awesome and fun though – it was the first snowstorm since I have been here. Knocking was very cold! We did however get to teach a couple of lessons! So that was good. We had a lesson with Minelva. I have only met her like twice, and she kind of blew us off, but always invited us back. She didn't seem super interested but today when we went back we were able to teach her part of the plan of salvation. The spirit was so strong. We sang I am a Child of God in Spanish to her and she said she got the chills. To be honest, we really felt the spirit enter the room at that time. We had an amazing discussion and everyone shared. It is not like our Spanish was anything amazing, but the spirit was definitely guiding our lesson. We were only able to get to “earth life” and started talking about repentance, then we bore very strong testimonies of the principles that we were teaching and then we invited her to be baptized. We asked her that when she came to church and read the Book of Mormon, when she knew these things were true would she be willing to be baptized and she was like "Si" I will do that. So awesome! I was having such a hard time not jumping up and down and sharing and hugging her in her house. She was so nice and so receptive to the message. It was so awesome! Then we went and had lunch with the sisters in our district. We invited them over and made hamburger helper. It was really good and I just love the sisters in our area. They are just super fun and cute and they gave us some referrals to a guy across the river over in Bettendorf.  We were so excited because we have never found a Latino in Bettendorf because everyone over there is too rich. We never even go knocking doors over there! They just don't live over there. We went and knocked on his door and he told us to come back another time. We tried to set up an appointment with him and he said just come back a different time. Then we tried to get his name and he wouldn't tell us. He basically told us not to come back and that he really was not interested. It was pretty funny. It was so weird!? We went over to Luis’s house and asked him what was going on. He has not been answering our calls or even acknowledging us. Hermana Pearson told him "Listen Luis, if you don't want to listen to our message, it is fine you need to just let us know." He just told us that he's been really tired and he informed us that even though everything we had taught him is good and he knows it is, he just does not see himself as becoming a Mormon. It was so sad! He literally broke my heart. He basically just said "hey, I know that your church is true but I just don't want to do the work to be a Mormon." He just wants to be lazy. I was so bugged. Oh well. We had another lesson with Alisa and we taught her part of the restoration. Hermana Martinez-Bringas had come to the last lesson with us and it was really great even though she was not so committed to anything but her Catholic religion. This time we brought Hermana Quinn. She went to Venezuela on her mission. She bore such a great testimony about the Book of Mormon and it was a really awesome lesson. My Spanish was really bad in that one, but it's OK. We are good today, the lessons we had were really great and when Hermana Pearson asked her what she thought, Alisa said when she reads these things it makes her want to listen to more of what we have to share. Sweet! When we got back to our apartment – BOOM our door was all decorated. ;) It was seriously the cutest thing I have ever seen and we think it was our Elders!! Ha ha, they are so cute. Transfers are this week so we are going to be saying goodbye to some of the people in our district :(

Thursday was OK. But I'm kind of sad. We had district meeting at noon and so in the morning we went and did Mormon.org time and then we went to district meeting. We learned a lot about trying to get our investigators to church and stuff. I really love our district and I am sad because a lot of them are getting transferred this next week. I'm sure it will be fine. Then we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch with everyone and that was really fun. I forgot how much I miss sports. It was really bad – I just wanted to watch TV the entire time. What are you going to do? I honestly haven't been feeling very well today and I started feeling bad last night. Hermana Pearson made me come home and go to bed. I have a really bad headache and I am pretty congested in my sinuses. I am sure it will be better tomorrow though.

Friday – Hermana Pearson made me stay home today. I wanted to go out and was really mad but she drugged me with some Nyquil and she made me delicious food and cleaned the house. We went out for a little while and took cookies to some fun members in our ward. We went to the chiropractor for a little bit and came home because I was starting to feel dizzy. I slept for a bit. While we were home we realized that we could not find our phone anywhere. We were super worried that we had put it in the washer while we were doing laundry but a miracle happened and we found it at the chiropractic office! Then we studied for a while, oh and we also took a chair from the church… because we ARE the church! So that's really fine. Just kidding. It really is okay. Hermana Pearson is super drugging me with Nyquil even though she swears that I am an adult and can take that much. My eyeballs were sealed shut this morning and I was not feeling good, but I am sure that I probably will sleep through our work out tomorrow. Also, thank you for the Valentine's Day stuff. We were able to decorate our house and it is super cute, we can't wait to open our presents!

On Saturday, I slept through our alarms and everything because I had taken so much medicine last night. It made me feel bad because I slept through studies but Hermana Pearson called Sister Badger and told her I was sick. Today was a really, pretty day and it was over 50° and we tried to be outside as much as possible. We spent a lot of time knocking doors and looking for potential's, it was really nice. We went to a ladies house that was a referral from a member in our ward. Her name is Tisha and she has four kids, one is a little baby. The two little girls let us in because she was sleeping. Oh my gosh! I have never seen cuter girls in the world and they are getting baptized! They were telling us how she only needs one more lesson and has to take her “test” (interview) and then she gets to be baptized. Tisha is baptized but less active and her boyfriend is a nonmember. They are really cool people and we are hopefully going back tomorrow after church. I cannot get over how cute her daughters are! We really did spend most of the day just knocking; we did not really have any lessons today. I still am feeling a little sick. Just kind of cold and flu-ish and it is hard to keep moving because my head starts pounding. It is fast Sunday tomorrow and we are preparing for that. Spanish is coming along slowly but surely and everything is really good. It is really fun being a missionary. My companion is so awesome and I love her.

Consecrated Missionary

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!! I love you more than life itself! Sister Sarvela is so cool. We went proselyting and she is SUPER bold. We went to an investigators house and he was have a hard time focusing and she asked him what was going on and he just said "I'm just pretty hungry" so she stood up walk right into his kitchen and opened his fridge. He didn't have a single thing in his fridge or freezer. He had a box of mac n cheese in his cupboard but nothing to cook it in. So she said, “we will be right back" and we went back to her apartment and she CLEARED OUT her fridge and shelves and brought his as much food as we could carry. She was super clear about this not happening all the time but that for now he won’t go hungry. Her confidence and willingness to give all that she had reminded me SO much of mom. I just love her so much.

OK – so these pictures are kind of all over the place but they are the cutest family ever – LA FAMILIA BRINGAS!! They have the cutest kids! Also we talked to their grandma and we are going to go over there once a week for an hour and speak Spanish with her so we can better learn – which I really need! Nana sent me a cute package for Valentine’s Day so I took a little photo shoot for her but I wanted to send you guys a pic too. I just thought it would be selfish of me not to share the love that is my face – LOL. The sky here is SO PRETTY. Never in my life have I been able to see so much sky. Oh and that girl is sister Sarvela, she is my STL. We went on exchanges this week and we became best friends – but she leaves this transfer :( but she’s super cool.

Yes, I am writing in my journal, but it’s so hard because I just want to sleep! Zone conference was cool –President and Sister Badger spoke to us. Sister Badger talked about closing our hearts to the elders (and vice versa) and staying focused on the work.... there have been some problems with that in other districts and President Badger talked to us about having our own visions. Like to set goals of the kind of missionary you want to become. He wants us to be FOCUSED, be CHEERFUL, be BELIEVING, and be STILL and KNOW THAT I AM GOD. Which was AWESOME!  I have gotten really good at setting goals while being out here. I also really want to be a consecrated missionary. Like throw all of my energy, heart, might, MIND, and strength into this wonderful work. I am super pumped. I feel like so much of the time I really like to work hard and study and stuff but my mind isn’t really in it – like I will be thinking of other things. So I am really working on keeping my thoughts centered in Christ. Zone Conference was in Davenport and the Assistants to the President gave a training on being sanctified missionaries and the STLs (Sister Training Leaders) gave training on the Higher Law of Chasity. It was awesome. You guys, I am seriously loving this work. It has been hard to find people who want to talk and learn from us but we just keep chipping away.

By the way, I didn’t forget I just have been saying other things but HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!! You are amazing and beautiful and everything in between! I love you guys so much and I have to go, but just know that I am loving it here. I wish I was speaking more Spanish, but I know that God has a plan for me and everything will go great!! Oh and PS – we get to go to this chiropractor whenever we want because he is a member! By the way, we found this magazine in his waiting room. Coincidence? I don't think so.