Week 72: Merry 4th of July!!

Monday: (like June 27th) for p-day we went to the zoo. It was fun minus the fact that it was soooooooo hot!!! Hot enough that most of the animals were inside, or hiding in the shade or water. You know that when it is too hot for the elephants to be outside, it's HOT!  We had a family night with the DeLeon's. little Adriana, who is 11 gave the lesson on Obedience. She did way good. Then we had dinner at a members home. I will leave out the name, but family, friends, I have never been more angry at ***** my entire life. I wanted to reach over and rip her head off. I won't bore yall with details, but that night I came home and I was so angry that I had a hard time praying. I just lashed out to the Lord and told him everything. Then I felt the Lord's hand on my shoulder telling me everything was going to be ok. That's when the tears started coming. I knew that this anger wasn't good. It wasn't Christ-like at all. But as I was praying I knew that Christ understood exactly what I was feeling. After finishing my prayer and not being able to sleep and not knowing what else to do I decided to open up the Book of Mormon. I just flipped open and Helaman 10:3-5 opened up.

3 And it came to pass as he was thus pondering -- being much cast down because of the wickedness of the people of the Nephites, their secret works of darkness, and their murderings, and their plunderings, and all manner of iniquities -- and it came to pas as he was thus pondering in his heart, behold, a voice came unto him saying:
4 Blessed art thou, Nephi, (Hna Hilton) for those things which thou hast done; for I have behold how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but has sought my will, and to keep my commandments.
5 And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to the word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will.

This was an answer to my prayers. It was what I needed to hear at that time. Thanks to a loving Heavenly Father we can receive answers to our prayers and comfort to our souls.

Tuesday: We got to see a loooooot of less active members. That is what we are focused on right now. The members that need a little bit of help and love. We visited Hermana Escobar and then were biking over to our dinner appointment with Hermana Applegate's tire popped!!! Yup.... so we walked the rests of the way. Luckily the elders had Nerry coming out with them so they gave us the car, otherwise we would have spent the rest of the evening walking home about 8 miles. woop woop! thanks elderen!

Wednesday: We had our first lesson with Irvin since he got back from Mexico. It was really good. We talked to him about reading. He told us that he hasn't been doing it, but that he would start reading again. We had Junior come and Irvin was sooo happy to see him. It was a sweet reunion.

Thursday: We got a new mission President. As of Thursday President Walkenhorst was released and Presient Mansell got here. We got to briefly meet President Mansell as he walked into the mission office while we were there. They are big tennis fans, so I think we will get along :) We taught Ashley and Irvin at their house that evening and we talked about the Doctrine of Christ. Ashley said she doesn't know if she is sure about baptism. I think her hold us is that she doesn't want to give up the coffee. Their parents came in the last five minutes of the lesson but we had to head out.

Friday: So In my studies Friday morning I found a bunch of really really good quotes. I want to share them with yall.
"Every man eventually is backed up to the wall of faith, and there he must make his stand."
"I am enough because I am His."
Both very very true points that I have come to learn this week. With what happened on Monday and other things that have happened this week with members and investigators and other missionaries I have had to look at that wall of faith and decide what to do. It has been a really trying experience all week and honestly it is still going. It is something that is always going. I am daily facing that wall of faith and deciding to give my will over to the Lord. I found a quote in the 12-step book it says, "This submission to the Lord is hard doctrine. It requires us to rededicate ourselves to His will at the start of each day and sometimes every hour or even from moment to moment. As we are willing to do so, we find the grace, or enabling power, to do what we could not do for ourselves."

Saturday: We spent 4 hours of our morning doing service for Hermana Escobar. Her daughter bought a house, but the house was in a fire. So the kitchen and the front room were burnt. They bought the house and are remodeling in little by little. We went over and helped her. Our job was to knock down a wall and strip all the walls and ceiling of everything. Man was it an adventure! we had a lot of fun :) There were a couple times when someone should have gotten seriously hurt, but thankfully we all made it out alive. Saul at one point was trying to cut a floorboard with a machete knife!!! We were pulling off burnt sheet rock and burnt insulation out of everywhere!

Sunday: HAPPY BIRTHDAY IRVIN!!! Irvin turned 16 today. The sad thing is that I forgot.... I did remember on monday though, so we went over and told him Happy birthday. Everyone was on vacations, so a lot of people didn't come to church, but guess who did???? THE GOMEZ FAMILY!!! the whole family came. Even with the holiday weekend and even with Irvin's birthday. They loved testimony meeting. When they all walked in my heart jumped. I was so excited!

Monday: MERRY 4TH OF JULY AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHLEY GOMEZ!!! So yup today was the 4th of July it was pretty uneventful this year. President Mansell told us we have to be home at normal times, so 9pm We had p-day which was a blast! We couldn't email so us and the elders and two other sisters went to old-navy! we had waaaay to much fun. We all bought matching shirts and rolled up to sports all wearing them. It was way funny. They were super cheap too! we had dinner at a members house and it was one of the fanciest dinners of my life. Then we taught the Gomez's the word of wisdom. It went well. They are so prepared. The kids are still trying to figure out if they want to get baptized but the parents are all in! Then we headed home. We planned for the next day and decided to go on a night stroll to see if we could see any fireworks. We saw a total of 3! woop woop! but yup that was our 4th.

Well yall. I just want to say that I know this church is true. I love the gospel and more than anything I love living it. It has brought me so much joy.

Last monday we went to the zoo. It was a blast! 

We aer still biking every other day! I think this day it was about 100 degrees outside with crazy crazy crazy crazy humidity. I've never been so sweaty in my entire life!

 

On Saturday we did service for hermana Escobar. This is the house that was burnt that they are trying to save. And yes that is saul in the ceiling 

 

For the 4th we went to old navy as a district and all got matching t-shirts! we rocked p-day sports!!! #datcrew

 

The Chavez family prepared us a super fancy 4th of July dinner. We had a lot of fun spending a little bit of time with them 

 

An adventure trying to find the fireworks!! We say a total of three! woop woop happy fourth of July!