June 9, 2014: Conroe: ONE YEAR HERE. SIX MONTHS TO GO. DONT THINK ABOUT IT OR YOUR EMOTIONS ARE GOING TO BLOW.

 She's almost on the top row now!

HOLA EVERYBODY!

       How are you doing?!! I just want to start off my little email telling you all how much I love you! How supported I feel!! I really love everyone of you! I hope you know that I can feel of of your prayers. And most importantly I know God hears our prayers and so I know I am being blessed as well as you! THANKYOU!

ALSO!! Thank you if you have EVER sent me a letter or wished me happy birthday! I am so sorry that I wasn't able to thank everyone or get a message in the mail, I am really the worst at finding time to do that! I love you though and it truly made me feel loved. You helped uplift, and support and give me, a servant of the Lord, a little more fire to keep going! I promise that your love does NOT go unnoticed! It means the world to me!!

This week was the craziest week ever!!! I HIT MY YEAR MARK! ahhh. The Barrera's had us over and they did the classic Hispanic tradition of smashing your face, that they do on birthdays, because they missed my birthday! ahha This week was seriously full of miracles. I can't even explain them all, there were spiritually miracles, physical miracles, small, big, happy, peaceful, etc. The Lord loves us! It was the HARDEST week of my mission, and I survived it because the Lord is so good. This week started my 6 months to saludable, I don't like the other 's" word they use so I chose to change mine to saludable ahha it means healthy in spanish, I thought that was clever... any way it means you work out like CRAZY! So you can be normal when you go home :) I don't really care too much but it's nice to have motivation to keep working out harder and harder! It makes me happier :) that's what I figured out when Kate told me that and so I started hard on Monday and Tuesday and then... GOT HEAT STROKE. BLUGH. That put a dent in things hahha so I haven't been able to work out hard or really at all BUT this morning was the first one where I woke up normal! So I shall try again. ahha if only it weren't so hot in Texas. You'd think thered be some mercy in the morn's... NOPE YOU'RE WRONG.

Jose is getting baptized!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOHOOOOO!!!! THIS FIRDAY THE 13TH!! He is sooo funny. We are so happy for him. We have to teach him EVERY SINGLE DAY! To make sure he gets taught everything because it was so fast! We have only been teaching him for like a week! haha it's so awesome :) He seriously makes us laugh SOOO HARD. He texts us all the time and he moved here from Mexico a year ago and doesn't like us to think he doesn't speak english. Which I am impressed that he seems to know quite a bit, and he is for sure going to learn super fast because he sometimes refuses to talk to us in the beginning of our conversations in spanish. So its going like this….

"-Hola jose! como esta!
- Hi :) good. whazup?

- estamos bien gracias! esta bien si pasamos y compartir un mensaje? 

- uh ya!"

hahha and then he will finally switch into spanish hahha that's when we talk to him...... when we text him ahhahaha he talks espanglish, spanish and english mix and it is so funny!!  We have to play mad gab with each other. Hermana  Buno will read it and then I'll tell her what it sounds like. ahha At first we didn't know what was going on and then we asked our ward mission leader and he quickly translated for us and we were in AWWWW like hermano, you seriously have a talent!! ahha and then we realized you just have to mad gab it out which gives a significant amount of entertainment! :) ahhaa example

"Hokey...nopoblema...hastatu..morro..baybay" --> "ok, no problemo, hasta tomorrow, bye bye" hahahha 

" hey.....keasen....yuenbor..kin" --> " hye, que hacen, I'm working"

It really makes us smile, he is a super cool kid. so so prepared! He loves everything that we teach and understands the first time we teach it! He is having Jonathan baptize him, one of the friends he made when he started coming to teach. The YSA, or here they are called the JAS, are so awesome! They bring everyone in under their wing! We are going to share a message tonight at the noche de hogar! "FHE" about the commandments! God truly prepares his people through the members! Jose already believed and felt the spirit at church, we as missionaries just get to fill in the blanks and that is the coolest part! Just pray for us that he will get taught everything and be excited!!

Jenni is really just one of my favorite people! I realized I haven't really explained her! Even though there isn't much to explain! She is so sweet and is a young mom and loves everything and accepts and believes everything :) She was having a hard time getting to church and the last Sunday I don't know if you remember but I said she came! and then... she came again this Sunday!! She is such sweet little mom. She finally is starting to keep her reading commitments too!! All because a sweet member in our ward came with us to her house!! She loves her! We kept feeling like it was right so we brought her and they are a perfect match! We brought her to 2 lessons at her house and the spirit was so strong and Jenni told US! That she would see us at church! and she did! It was so fun! She and the hermana just walked back to the class without us! We didn't even have to go get her and take her!

Mauricio and Paula are so sweet. They had their birthdays this weekend. We hadn't been able to visit them, only Paula and her mom but it's ok we are going to try tonight!!

SO ONE YEAR! SORRY THIS IS SO LONG! haha but I just felt like I needed to get everything down! Well as you know I pretty much had a break down on my year mark!! It was sooo hard! Satan is real! He tries to get us down! BUT! CHRIST IS REAL TOO. AND SO IS HEAVENLY FATHER. They can get us out of anything. They save us from our everyday battles including our internal ones. I chose again to serve a mission this week. I chose to keep going these next 6 months, and to me that was just the same and noble as turning in my papers! This is the hardest thing I have ever done but I have no complaints! I am so happy and so determined to help others with all my heart for my last 6 months! I know the Lord loves these people and so do I! I realized that sometimes we have to choose. well pretty much all the time. Agency that God gave us isn't just about physical choices but also mental. Am I going to choose in my mind to love myself? To keep caring? to love God enough to be obedient? Every day questions in life! Am I going to be nice and smile? Am I going to only think nice things about other people? Those little mind choices have an every lasting effect on our spirits. I learned a very valuable lesson that Dad has always said.   Don't be too long in one attitude! (Pride and Prejudice)

I learned to keep moving and to not dwell, to choose to be happy, TO CHOOSE Heavenly Father's light, in your MIND over satan's gloomy disruptive distractive darkness.

I love God, His power is real! His children, His worthy males have the abilitly to have the priesthood, the authority to act in God's name. That's pretty big. And it's REAL. I know it is, with every fiber of my heart. I know it's real. He is real. He is REALLY our Father. I testify of that in the name of Jesus Christ, our brother.

Love you all! have a wonderful week! Read your scriptures and say your prayers EVERY NIGHT!

CON MUCHO AMOR

Hermana Beanerbop Koch