Hello and welcome to week 6!

It's hard to believe that this transfer is almost over. I'm pretty confident that I'll be spending another one in Rio Rancho but I guess that you never know for sure. It's also weird to think that today is my 6 month mark. Can you believe that I've already been at this for half a year? I can't! Ha, it's making me think very worldly today. Like what did I do back in regular life? Although I'm sure I'll get over that soon. This week we got three new investigators which is fantastic for us! One of them is a guy named Greg, who we first though was named Gred. Along with mastering the skill of eating green chili I am also learning to master the skill of talking to people without calling them by name. Because it seems like we always hear that people have strange names, like Gred. And sometimes it's true and sometimes it's not. 

This week we did service at a ranch called Loving Thunder. We groomed horses, and shoveled stalls. It really wasn't too bad, but I just am not that big of a fan of horses. I'm sorry but they're just not that cool. This week we also spent a lot of time focusing on contacting referrals and potentials and making sure that we know who everyone is on our ward list. It's a slow process but it will be super beneficial in the long run. We also went to a baptism this week for one of our previously less active member's sons. It's just so cool when people come back to church. Everybody go to church! It's awesome! 

Yesterday was a bit of an interesting day. We had planned to visit a man who the Elder's had told us about but when we got to the house it was empty. Apparently no one had lived there for years (according to the neighbor). So we thought that was pretty interesting, getting a fake address was a first for me. But it turns out that we had just written his address down wrong, which was good, because he was actually a pretty cool guy. Yesterday we also ran into a old man who let us in and then proceeded to tell the three of us (we had a member with us who is 19) about how beautiful we were and how attracted to us he was and how he can't understand how one church can have  so many beautiful women. Sadly, he was not interested in learning more but we are more than welcome back any time...

Honestly, that's really about all that I can think of that we did this week, sorry it wasn't very exciting. 

This week I have been reading the conference issue of the Ensign and I recently read President Uchtdof's talk on being genuine. It is really good, and is a really good reminder I though. It reminds me a lot of his talk last Priesthood session "Lord is it I." which is just amazing as well. Sometimes it's hard to know why we do things, and sometimes, once we do know, it's hard to change. I know that is something that I've seen in different circumstances in my life. Ok, so I know that I am doing this because I have to and not because I want to, but how do I change how I feel? I want to do it out of love, but I don't know how. It's a question that I'm still trying to find a complete answer to, but I think that a big part of it comes from that desire Even though we don't love doing it, we want to. When Alma talks about desire in Alma 32, we often only compare that to the Gospel as a whole. But he says to exercise a particle of faith, even if we can do no more than desire, let that desire work within us. I think the same principle applies to individual aspects of the Gospel as well. I don't like to serve but do it because I should or because God wants me to, or I don't like to do home teaching but know that it's a good thing, or whatever it is. As long as we let the desire work within us, we can transition, from duty to want. It'll be slow, at least it is for me, it will take a lot of time and a lot of transition, and it will sometimes be duty, sometimes be love, sometimes be half and half, but eventually, as we continue to work, and to try and to have and strengthen that desire, then we eventually get to Alma 32:42-43. "And because of your diligence and your faith and your patience with the word in nourishing it, that it may take root in you, behold, by and by ye shall pluck the fruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet, and which is white above all that is white, yea, and pure above all that is pure, and ye shall feast upon this fruit, even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither shall ye thirst. Then, my brethren, ye shall reap the reward s of your faith, and your diligence, and patience, and long suffering, waiting or the tree to bring forth fruit unto you." We will be more like Christ, we will act out of love. Even if it's just that one aspect, service, or church, or visiting teaching or whatever, we are more Christlike than we were before, and part by part, task by task, doctrine by doctrine we will become all that we know we can be. 

Hope you all have an amazing week! 

Love, 

April

Its Nice to be Nice

This week has been an interesting on for sure and strangely full of ridiculously nice people. On Tuesday some nice lady bought all of Sister Markus's and my groceries! We were in the checkout line and she came up to us. At first I just heard her say "Excuse me mam" and I braced myself because that is almost never a start to a good conversation but then amazingness ensued! Seriously, I need to be a much more charitable person when I get back to regular life. All you people don't let me forget how nice people are always to me! We also met a super nice guy who after we talked to for a bit told us that he wasn't interested but he said that he wished he could give us something but didn't have any water or anything. We started walking away and he started running after us down the street after a few minutes. We turned around and came back and he gave us $20! For real! Who are these crazy Christ like strangers and why can I not be them! That same day we knocked on a door and the couple not only invited us in (which never happens) but also invited us back for dinner tonight. So that's where we're going tonight and hopefully it will be awesome! They say that they are pretty set in their faith but are willing to listen but hey, that's all it takes sometimes! 

This week on exchanges I played the trophy missionary. For some reason we ran into a ridiculous amount of people who only spoke Spanish. As you know, I don't speak any but thankfully my companion knew a little. Thank goodness for serving in El Paso right? So she talked to like 5 people and I stood there and smiled. Ha, but I'm sure the love of Christ was radiating off of my countenance or something like that. We also met a sassy Black man named Virgil who as we were talking to his neighbor literally poked his head out from his doorway and said "Can I just ask ya'll somein real quick? Do ya'll let my black brothers into yo church?" and we said yes of course so we'll have to go back some time to "talk about and praise the Lord" with him some time. We on the same day met a southern Black woman who insisted that we call her Grandma but was actually really excited to see us. She pulled up to us in her car and asked if there were any good shopping centers nearby and when we told her that we were missionaries she got really excited and told us that she knew all about us and wanted to come to our church. She gave us her contact info as Grandma Brady Bunch and then her number. After that we went and taught a lesson to an (at the time) potential investigator, a Native American named Kenyo. It was interesting... he closed us in his weed hutch while he went to move his car but he's a pretty cool guy so we're going to see him again soon. But I think that encountered more ethnic diversity in that one day than I have in the entirety of my mission!

This week we also went to two baptisms, not our investigators but it was still really good. We went to one on Friday with our investigator Dennis. He is doing really well and should be baptized in the next month or so. He called us the day before the baptism and told us that he really needed to know what to wear because he knew that it was a privilege to attend another person's baptism and he wanted to make sure that he was showing the proper respect the occasion deserved. He is also trekking through the Book of Mormon and is almost finished with Alma. Honestly I'm always impressed when investigators do so amazing reading. I remember my freshman year at BYU when I was taking the second half of the Book of Mormon. Our professor wanted us to read it (the second half, Alma 30 to the end) in two weeks. I assumed it would be easy, after all, you hear stories all of the time about people reading the Book of Mormon in a day or two. Let me just tell you, to read it that quickly and actually get things out of it is not easy! It takes a lot of time!! 

We attended another baptism Saturday morning. The girl who was getting baptized, Gabby, is the adopted niece of a family in our home ward. We were able to teach the first two lessons to her but then had to pass her off the YSA Elders. It was really cool to be able to see her get baptized though. She's probably the quickest person I've seen get baptized, it only took about 2 months! So one of the things that I am learning on my mission is how to do things with little to no prep time. The Elders had told me that Gabby had wanted me to speak on baptism at hers. I thought about it thought that I came up with something pretty good that went a little beyond "Baptism is that gate that we all must enter in order to continue down the path to return to live with our Heavenly Father." All of that is true of course, but we've only heard it a million times. So, when we got to the service the Elder's surprised me by saying "Oh... sorry we told you wrong. Can you talk on the Holy Ghost?" Ha, so it went well enough but it's teaching me to prepare quickly! We also spent a few hours at a family history conference this weekend and helped out little. The stake is really into family history here! 

This week I have been thinking a lot about hymns. Since we are only allowed to listen to hymns, primary songs, and stuff by MOTAB I've started to get to know them kind of well! Something that we have also been doing to kind of mix it up a little is to sing or listen to renditions to hymns to different melodies. One of my favorites is Joseph Smith's First Prayer to the tune of Come Thou Fount. It really changes the song around and it makes you pay more attention to the actual lyrics of the hymn. Who knew that so many of the hymns and primary songs were so awesome! I mean seriously, who wrote these things? Sometimes I think we just tune them out because kids aren't that great at singing or something, I don't know. But some of them are really pretty cool. Anyway, the song I have been thinking about in particular this week is Savor Redeemer of My Soul. 

For some reason I can't get the words to copy into here normally but you all should go look at them or listen to them. Some weird people (like Elder Campbell) don't like Vocal Point but I think they do an awesome job at this song. The second and third verses in particular are great. "Never can I repay thee Lord. But I can love thee. Thy pure word, hath it not been my one delight, my joy by day, my dream by night? Then let my lips proclaim it still, and all my life reflect thy will. O'er rule mince acts to serve thine ends. Change frowning foes to smiling friends. Chasten my soul till I shall be, in perfect harmony with thee. Make me more worthy of thy love, and fit me for the life above."  

That's like my life ambition right there "Chasten my soul till I shall be, in perfect harmony with thee. Make me more worthy of thy love, and fit me for the life above." Anyway, hymns are cool if you actually pay attention to them (well, some are still boring I'll admit), who knew! Some of my other favorites are Lead Kindly Light and As Now we Take the Sacrament. But, try listening to them with different melodies, it's pretty cool some times! 

So, hope you all are doing well! Talk to you soon! 

Love, 

April 

So, something I wasn't expected happened this week.

During our studies someone knocked on our door. We weren't expecting anyone to come pick us up and no one ever comes over of course so we didn't know who it was. Well, it turns out that it was Jehovah's Witnesses! They were tracting in our apartment complex I guess. They weren’t super excited though when we opened the door and saw our name tags ha ha, poor guys. 

This week Sister Markus got sick as well and kind of randomly too. So I have to admit that despite the guidelines that "I consecrated missionary doesn't wish for things to prevent work" I kind of always wondered what having a sick companion would be like. You know, you can't go out so it has to be at least a little relaxing. Well, let me tell you that it is not! We still had a lesson that we had to teach that night so I had to call like a million people to get everyone we needed to come with us and stay with her and all of that, which was crazy because the clock was counting down until we had to leave. And then, when that was finally taken care of, we had like two hours until the lesson but couldn't go anywhere. So, this is where the supposed "relaxing" part is supposed to be right? False. For two hours I was sitting around with nothing to do while I kept thinking to myself "are you being productive? why aren't you being productive? Why aren't you doing something useful? Stop just sitting around!" Ugh, stressful. 

Other than that though, things in the Rio Rancho world are going well. We've received a lot of referrals recently which is awesome and our one investigator on date is making real progress! Before this transfer we had hardly ever met with him and now we are meeting once a week, so seeing his progress is really pretty cool. We've mostly just been working a lot on teaching better together and teaching Sister Markus in the ways of the missionary. It's crazy the difference another hour inside can make. There have also been a lot of freak rain storms this week. Apparently New Mexico has a monsoon season but I have heard all kinds of crazy things about what that actually entails. Some people make it sound like the monsoons of Africa and some people make it sound like it's going to sprinkle a little more than normal. So.. Who knows what is really going to happen. What I have experienced so far is that it dumps rain for about 10 minutes and then goes back to being 90 degrees like nothing ever happened. So yeah, this place is weird. 

So, I've been thinking recently about something that I read in Exodus that I'm not sure what it means. So I'd like to throw it out to all of you smart people. If you can figure it out, let me know. I have been reading recently about the plagues in Egypt. You know the story, Moses says "Let me people go" Pharaoh says "no way" and something bad happens and we repeat the cycle until finally all of the first born children die and then Pharaoh gives up (kind of). Anyway, here is the interesting thing. The first 3 or 4 miracles are performed by Aaron. God tells Moses to tell Aaron to do something and he does and then bad stuff happens. At first I was thinking that it was symbolic of priesthood power, because you know that later Aaron is ordained as the priest and the Aaronic priesthood comes through him and his descendants. But then on miracle like 4 or 5 or something Aaron stops doing them and Moses starts. So I don't know what the significance is. Maybe it's just that Moses is getting more confident and doesn't need Aaron to do it anymore, maybe I'm just reading too much into it, (wait no, who are we kidding, this is the Bible, everything means like 10 different things) so, I don't know, what do you all think? Another cool thing that I learned is that the first Passover was eaten standing up with your shoes on and your staff in your hand. And that if you ate unleavened bread during the 7 days of the feast that you were like banished from Israel. Crazy stuff. 

But anyway, on to something that we actually understand. This week I read Ephesians 6, which talks about the armor of God. What I really like though is verse 12, 19 and 20. You should read through that section, verses 11-20, its super good. And I know that we talk a lot about the armor of God and how awesome it is and everything, but I really like that we put on the armor of God because of verse 12 and that if we ask and try, we can have verses 19 and 20. But we have to keep asking and we have to keep trying, because it isn't easy for any of us, not even for Paul, who is writing here. I also read 3 Nephi5:13 this week too, which is pretty awesome. 

Anyway, I hope that you all are doing amazing! Happy early mother's day and hope to hear from you soon! 

Love, 

April   

A little short, craziness

Sorry this might be a little short, craziness has ensued this week as far as having other things to get done so I've almost run out of time! This week we had the opportunity to go to the temple, we get to go twice a year, right around conference, so that was pretty cool. It was also fun to see some of the other missionaries that I had worked with before. Now that I've transferred and been out of a little bit, I actually know people when we have big meetings and stuff. Although I guess that the real sign that you're an old missionary is that you don't know people at meetings because they're all too new. I can't actually think of anything else super exciting or interesting that has happened this week, sorry! We have been doing a lot of training and introducing so that S. Markus can know people and know what we do. We have been teaching a man named Dennis a lot, he actually has a baptism date so that is pretty exciting! Our most prospective investigator though, who is the epitomy of a Black Baptist man is now moving to North Carolina for at least a month. But on the bright side, he said that he and his wife were going to finish The Book of Mormon by the time he got back! So, hopefully that will happen! Honestly I think that Amos 8:11-12 has become one of my favorite scriptures, at least for now. When you really do find those people who are hungering after the word of God, it is an amazing thing! Now if only it would happen a little more often! If I didn't tell you about Amos though, you probably would have thought I was in love with Alma 32, just from how well I know it. I think by the end of my mission I'm going to have it memorized, just from using it so many times. 

I don't remember if I told you about Charles and Tracy and their sign already. Their dog was killed in a hit and run on the busy road outside of their house. So to make the person feel bad they put up a huge sign that says "YOU KILLED OUR DOG!" on one side and then on the other side "WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP!". It kind of reminds me of the signs you see on the way to the Arlington Stake Center from our house. You know the ones that are like "JESUS LOVES YOU! WHY?" 

Anyway, sorry I have to go. I promise I'll make this longer and more detailed next time! 

Love, 

April

Hello from the real windy "city"!

 We had winds this week up to 45 mph. I have found that riding a bike on a dirt road in a skirt with crazy strong winds blowing against you is less than ideal but hey, that sounds just like one of those "when I was a kid" stories that old people tell so I guess God is just getting me set for my old age. I can't remember if I told you all or not but when Sister Morco and I were companions we decided to make it our goal to be translated by or before we were 70. Once you're older than 70 it just seems (on average) like life just gets way too difficult. I'm trying to assess how realistic that goal is though because Enoch and his city were translated when he was like 120 but I'm just trying to do myself, not a whole city, and I'm sure that with inflation and whatnot 70 is about right. 

My new companion's name is Sister Markus and she is from West Jordan, Utah. I never realized how many people in our ward originated from Utah until now. They all apparently know exactly where her house is, it's kind of weird. Like I said before, forget Rome, all roads eventually somehow lead to Utah. She is 19, graduated from high school, worked for a year and then came out. And she says "Oh my heck", and other cute little Utah things all the time. She is a good missionary though and is very willing to learn and try new things (except for food. She doesn't like milk, meat on the bone, most vegetables or anything that came from or around the ocean) so I think that things are going to go well this transfer. 

This week we picked up a new investigator named Charles. We had met him and his wife Tracy a few weeks ago but were finally able to meet with him actually twice this week. It's funny when you talk to people, especially during the first lesson or two how they try to test you to see what you or the church is like. The first time we met with Charles he asked us if he could smoke but as soon as he saw that we weren’t having a spaz attack he stopped. The second lesson he also kept referring to Joseph Smith as Will Smith (I've noticed by the way that it's pretty easy to tell when people say they don't know or remember something but obviously still do) to see how we would react. He and his wife have real potential though and in a little time I can really see them making real progress. When we invited Charles to church he said something along the lines of "You guys talk about Christ though right? I've been hearing a lot about this Will Smith guy, I'm not going to hear all about him there am I?" And we told him that of course we would talk about Christ. He didn't end up coming to church but, the third hour lesson was also all about Joseph Smith so... maybe this time it was for the best, ha ha. 

Our other potential so far is Dennis, who has a schizophrenic son. (Seriously there is something in the water here. I have met at least 5 schizophrenic people so far and I'm pretty sure before Rio Rancho I had never met any). We were finally able to convince him that the Book of Mormon takes place both before, during and after the time of Christ's mortal ministry so, that was a big step. But he's another person who in time I can see doing very well, particularly after he gets off his substances. Honestly, I can't tell you how big of a testimony of the Word of Wisdom I have developed in the past few months. 

Probably the most interesting thing that happened to us this week was that we talked to a UNM student who was taking a History of Christianity class and was writing a paper about The Church and wanted to talk to a reliable source. She talked to us for forever about all kinds of different things, but most of all about our experiences as missionaries. How and why we decide and prepare to come, how we deal with rejection, and what we like best and that kind of stuff. I'm pretty sure that she isn't going to become an investigator any time in the near future (she was pretty opinionated herself about how wrong we were on several issues) but it was still pretty interesting. 

So I don't remember if I told you all this before or not but a few months ago I decided to read all of the standard works. I'm almost done with Genesis, it is taking forever! One reason that it is taking me so long to read it though is because I am really trying to understand what on earth is going on. As a result, the Bible dictionary and Joseph Smith Translation have become some of my new best friends (by the way, if you want to read something interesting, read the section in the Bible dictionary about Joseph Smith Translation). Something cool that I read about today was the blessing that Israel gave to Joseph's sons Ephraim and Manasseh. In the JST it talks about how just as Joseph saved his brothers from literal starvation by selling them corn during the famine, his children's posterity will do the same spiritually. And that just as his brothers literally bowed down and worshiped him their descendants will figuratively bow down to Joseph's because of the ability and information they have to help them spiritually. So you know of course that the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh are charged and privileged with being some of the first to help to gather Israel and spread the gospel to the rest of the world. What I though was cool though was that by doing so you are fulfilling a prophecy that Israel gave forever ago! That you will help to spiritually save the lives of the rest of the tribes of Israel. So, go out there and be prophecy fulfillers! Ha, ha, it reminds me of the end of the animated Hobbit movie where Bilbo is like "psh, prophecies fulfilled? I had a hand in all of that you know!" and Gandalf is like "surely you don't disbelieve the prophecy just because you helped to make it happen?" 

Anyway, I hope you all are doing well! Talk to you soon! 

Love, 

April

Thank You Bishop Vaughn

Hello friends, guess what tomorrow is? Transfer time! I remember one time talking to a Sister who was having trouble adjusting to her new area, she felt like the old one was better and and more successful and blah, blah, blah. I told her to think about it like a video game. Every transfer or period of change is like a level. And of course if you were doing well and having an easy time in your last area or period of time this one is going to be harder, you just leveled up! It means your are making progress and now you are moving on to harder things. Well, I must have seriously leveled up without my knowledge or something because I've got a lot coming my way this next transfer! As you know from my whining last week we are losing our car and are moving to a bike area. I know that I probably sound really lazy complaining about that but my biggest concern is that it is going to slow everything down so much! Especially considering how wide spread Rio Rancho is. But, people have been doing it for forever so, what can I say? Anyway, it's be an adjustment. I am also taking over the area for the first time, yay! Ha, it's crazy how I've been here for 6 weeks already but I still really don't know where anything is. And my new companion is also fresh off the MTC boat. So it'll be fun! I don't mean of course to complain, I have absolutely no doubt that is it entirely possible to do amazing and have lots of success and fun with these situations, just that they will take a little getting used to! Ha, Sister Morco and I were also talking about how really those and most of our issues, while annoying and stressful at the time really aren't that big of a deal, but that they were probably predatory or Aaronic problems for to help us later in life when we have real crazy things happen or Meckezedeck problems. You know like family issues and debt and all that fun stuff. 

Since this was our last week with our car we have spent a lot of time exploring the outskirts of our area which would be much more difficult to do with a bike. So we have been listening to our banjo hymns a lot this week. In one area we searched we only found three houses. We also found a lot of houses that have pretty good Edgar Allen Poe potential. We chose to avoid most of them. I think our general rule was that if the door is missing or might as well be to skip it. We also found that the days that we committed to spend time out in the super dirt roads it was also always increabily windy. Everything gets dusty here and tumble weeds are now a lot less comical and a lot more normal (they'll always be a little funny, you have to admit). By the way, it kind of hurts when they run into you. Those things are prickly! 

We discovered this week as well that despite my being an FHE group leader for three school years, when it comes to kids and doing a fun activity/object lesson with them that also a gospel principle we only have one card up our sleeve! So thank you Bishop Vaughn for doing that activity about prioritizing your time with the Mason jar when I was in Young Woman’s because I've already done it twice! Maybe one of these days we'll think of a new one but so far it's worked out alright and it's a good secret lesson for the parents too. 

I think that I mentioned last week that President Miller has asked us to spent time learning more about Family History so that we can teach it to others and use it as more of a tool. So this Wednesday we went to the family history class at church and did some of it. I connected my relatives on the Baker side to myself and connected a census to some of the ancestors. We even found some kids on the census that weren’t on family search, so I or someone will have to do a little more research to figure out if they were lost kids that need work done or if they were part of something else or what. It's a little bit crazy too because there were like three different marriages involved. 

This week we found a new investigator! Huzzah! Now we have one! Ha, ok it's not quite that bad but it is cool. We actually did find a few people that might be investigators in the future though which is what we are going to work on this week. One of whom is a guy named Demetrius who we almost didn't go talk to because I am a coward and he looked scary. But we did because Sister Morco is awesome and inspired and he told us that he had just gotten out of prison and was looking for a way to turn his life around. He had been asking God to show him what to do. How cool is that? I guess that's what I get for not wanting to talk to him. Maybe I should not want to talk to people and my companion should make me do it more often so we have more people to teach! Just kidding, maybe I should just talk to more people. By the way, this is completely random but I just remembered something cool. The clouds here are like Toy Story clouds. You know how they just have a ton of texture? A lot of the time it's the same thing here. 

So, something that I have been thinking about this week is the difference between Moses and Enoch. In Exodus 3 and 4 Moses sees a burning bush and God commands him to return to Egypt and free his people. Moses tells Him “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.” And God tells him basically, who made man’s mouth? Go and I will be your mouth. But Moses still tells Him no, I can’t do it, so he sends Aaron to be his spokesperson and they get the job done. In Moses chapter 6: 27- 31 a very similar experience happens to Enoch. God tells him that he is to declare repentance to the people and Enoch says "Why is it that I have found favor in thy sight, and am but a lad, and all the people hate me; for I am slow of speech; wherefore am I thy servant?" And just like he does to Moses in the next few verses God says, go and do as I say and my spirit will be with you "wherefore all thy words will I justify; and the mountains shall flee before you, and the rivers shall turn from their course; and thou shalt abide in me, and I in you; therefore walk with me." and then it says about Enoch that "and he did so". Moses 7: 13-17 it talks about a lot of amazing things Enoch was able to do as he was preaching repentance, the very things that God had promised. And that "he spake the word of the Lord, and the earth trembled, and the mountains fled, even according to his command; and the rivers of water were turned out of their course; and the roar of the lions was heard out of the wilderness; and all nations feared greatly, so powerful was the word of Enoch, and so great was the power of the language which God had given him." Enoch and Moses both did the will of the Lord, they both did amazing things and were amazing men, in fact, both of them were translated. And I’m sure that as he went on, Moses gained a lot of confidence and faith and no longer needed that spokesperson. But that small difference of faith, of going and doing from the beginning, and trusting that the Lord will fulfill his promises made the difference between Enoch, who walked with God, and Moses who saw God face to face. Anyway, maybe it’s just my crazy interpretation, but I thought that it was interesting at least. God knows what we can do when we arewilling and work with Him! He has confidence in us! So should we!

Anyway, I hope you all are doing well and have an amazing week. Talk to you soon!

Love,

April 

 ps Those two kids, the Molina boys, were ridiculously excited about our name tags. Every time we see them they would yell "We're going to take your names! I'm a missionary!" Right after they "stole" them they started saying "We're going to leave in our car, its right there. You live here now. You live in there" And pointed to their room 

This week we also explored "area 12"

Today Sister Morco and I recived terrible news!!! Next transfer (next week) Star Heights is turning into a biking area! And just a few week earlier we had made a commitment to try and be healthier. We were just planning on eating a bunch of salads or something but *sigh* I guess God really does answer prayers and righeous commitment. The really funny part about it though was that right after we got the news we went out to our car to go somewhere and Count Your Many Blessings starting playing. At least we don't have to buy the bikes and who knows, maybe we'll get transfered, ha ha. 

Our mission president this past week has told us to become more knowledgeable about family history work so that we can teach it to other people. He wants us to meet with the family history consultant for an hour a day twice a week. So in the next little while I ought to be at least somewhat knowledgable about family history! No promises that I'll get super into it though, I'm still pretty sure that the Spirit of Elijah skipped over me during that whole returning the keys and turning the hearts thing. 

This week we also explored "area 12" and although we looked, we didn't see Katniss. Our area in order to help us figure out where people are is divided up into 12 different areas. And just like the hunger games, most people live in area 2 and almost no one lives in area 12. It's huge and the houses are miles apart. When we asked the ward secretary how we would know where the area ends he said "When you can't drive anymore." Apparently the "road" ( and by that I mean dirt path) just stops and there is a giant wall. We drove and drove but we didn't find it so eventually we gave up and turned around. The day that we were out in area 12 and really a lot of days here recently have been super windy! And when it gets windy here the dirt blows like crazy. So, I might be buying some kind of face mask in the near future. Just kidding, kind of... 

Our big focus this week was getting people ready to watch conference, or trying to at least. Since it was spring break we didn't have as much luck as we had hoped for but we did what we could! Conference was of course really good and this was the first year that I actually wrote down questions. For a few conferences I had thought of but not written down questions and of course before I had just watched but this year I actually wrote down about 10. One of the things that I really liked that was said Sunday afternoon was "How are you going to change because of what you have heard this weekend?" That is something that I need to figure out this week as I look at my questions and what I got out of the different sessions. It will I'm sure work it's way into one of my 500 goals and commitments. By the way, you set so many goals as a missionary it is crazy! People give you commitments for everything and you have to make weekly goals and commitments for all kinds of subjects. It's funny because in the adjusting to missionary life book is says something along the lines of "make sure to avoid setting too many goals at once" but just by the nature of going to meetings and doing your regular planning you have at least 10 going at a time. Sister Morco and I were saying that we should count up all of the goals that we have made so far to see how many you make thoroughout the course of your mission. Our prediction in all seriousness is 500. But what was I talking about? Oh yeah, Conference. My favorite session was the Saturday afternoon one, particularly the middle talks. I remember liking them all but the two I remember in particular right now are the ones were they talked about hearing the music and about a saint being a sinner who keeps on trying. 

Speaking of goals, Sister Morco and I gave a training at Zone Training on how to have effective weekly planning and a big thing that we talked about was making sure that your daily plans pointed back to your weekly goals and that sometimes, even if it's a good idea, if it doesn't point back to the goals, either the goal needs to change or you need to get rid of the plan. We also incorporated in some of the idea I learned from advertising and also from all of Dads goal setting tapes and stuff that I've heard so many of. So, I don't know if that makes us cool or lame, but that's how it went. 

Well, I hope that you all had an awesome Easter! Talk to you next monday! 

April