February 8, 2016 What Up Yo?

Hello fam! Here's my week for ya!

Got a  sweet Valentines Day package from the fam who hooks it up real good every time. I got a bunch of chocolates so Sister Nelson and I made a spin the bottle game with them. Whatever one it landed on we would eat. lol. super complicated.

There were a few nasty nasts:

On Tuesday I got to go to New Missionary training and hang with my main chica, Sister Leininger. (pronunciation: line - inger. like singer without the s) She was trained by Sister Johnson as well so we are actually sisters because we have the same mom. I love her.

We bought a cactus, wrapped him in my crocheted cup holder, and put it next to the stained glass fire woman.

The other night we had a little scare that turned out hilarious. It was a super stormy night and we were driving at like 8 something. We were about to go try to see a less active but Sister Nelson and I both had a very weird feeling about getting out of the car. We decided to go somewhere else and we had the same weird/ really terrified feeling. We decided to pray to know if it was just us scaring ourselves or if the spirit was telling us to get outta there. We also wanted to know what to do if it was the spirit telling us that. We both decided that what we were feeling was the spirit and that we needed to just go in early and weekly plan or something. We drove home and immediately felt so much better. We got into the apartment and decided to cover all the doors and windows because we were paranoid so this was the result of how stupid we were acting after the fact: 

Although we don't really know why we were supposed to go home, I know that we were directed by the spirit and that we were protected because of it. The spirit is my best friend out here. It's the best.

Im also very grateful that I have a companion that is also very sensitive to the spirit. She also likes hot cheetos. I call her my lil Hot Cheeto. (shout out to my camera for some sweet effects)

This week we taught Doug how to pray! We got him a little prayer plant to remind him to pray every time he waters it. He always says he will "get around to it" but this time he said that he would actually do it! WE ARE SO PUMPED!!

Last night we had dinner at the Crandall's house and they warned us before hand that they were going to have the super bowl on so we asked them to put us in chairs at the table facing the opposite way from the TV. haha. I wasn't too worried because I don't even get into the super bowl anyway but as I was eating my tacos and minding my own business I heard a very familiar voice behind me singing like a sweet sweet lullaby. NOBODY TOLD ME BEYONCE WAS PERFORMING. I had a heart attack and had to contain myself. Probably the toughest thing I'll have to go through out here. Glad it's over.

Oh look, still sweet. (not surprised) 

So Sister Nelson and I have started some contests together. The first one is for getting more referrals. You get a point for every referral you ask for. It has gotten out of control because Sister Nelson asked our District Leader last night if he knew anyone that would be interested in hearing our message. lol. Doesn't count. The winner will be dubbed "Referral Queen Champion of the World". We also have a "30 Minute Ruler of Time, Space, and Dimensions" contest for whoever gets us out of a lesson at 30 minutes. We are tied. Not for long..

Okay I love you all!!! HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!!!

Love,

Sista Troublemaker

February 3, 2016 Sweet Week Brah

This week was definitely one of the best weeks I've had so far on my mission. I AM SO HAPPY!!

First things first. My new companion is Sister Nelson from Scottsdale, AZ baby! I am seriously in love with her. I have been way blessed with some awesome people to train so far. I am so glad that the person I am spending 2 transfers with isn't a complete wacko. Ain't she pretty?

The start of this awesome week was when Emilie Ronhaar got her mission call! I guessed Salt Lake City and guess what? That's where she's goin! I'm a hero.

So we went to go teach the boy that is super excited to be baptized again this week and we had dinner with them. While we waited for dinner, the kids wanted to play Pokemon so we had a good time totally wrecking them with our Poke skillz. One of the cards said "Trainer" on it and then we found a green card for Sister Nelson because she's a greenie. Good times. Love these kiddos.

Funny story: we saw these lights in the sky that totally looked like Harry Potter was driving the car over Mount Vernon and we died. I actually started to convince myself he was coming to pick us up to go to Hogwarts. This is what dreams are made of. I tried to take a pic but this was the best I could do:

​Oh my goodness!! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!! Sister Nelson and I have seen countless miracles this week. It started with the baptism of Gwen Hill. She is the coolest woman ever and I love her so much.

About Gwen:

-She was a music major from UCLA

-She is a well known historian

-She traveled to Hong Kong, Italy, France, India, England, Japan, and 9 countries in Africa

-Teacher, Mom, Women's rights activist, "rebel rouser" and a black panther

-She went for a walk with Martin Luther King

Shout out to Black history month! 

I love her so much! I am so blessed to have taught her.

Last night we were kind of worried because we really wanted to hit standards but we still needed one new investigator. We were headed home and then Sister Nelson says "Lets go tract those three doors!!"

I quickly pulled the car over and we knocked on the first door. nothing. Knocked on the second, nothing. Then we knocked on the third door and a guy named Rudy answered and we talked to him for a while and taught him the first discussion, he wants to read the Book of Mormon, and we are going to go teach him again on Tuesday! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!! I know miracles happen when we show our faith. Its amazing.

Washington is so pretty folks! Its off da chain.

​I don't have too much time left today so I will tell you all about the other miracles from this week in next week's email. I love you all! Have a great week!! BYE!!!

Love,

Sister K-Sizzle
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January 25, 2016 8 Months? Nah.

So this week was just a bit crazy and next week is going to be ten billion times crazier because of transfers. SO.. I will be staying here in Mount Vernon but Sister West will be leaving me because this little squirrel is training again! WOO!! My brand new baby missionary will arrive tomorrow! Fresh off the plane and straight into my sweet sweet embrace. I'm super pumped to train again, but also super not pumped to spend an extra hour studying every day. Because we were pretty sure Sister West was leaving, we took a lot of pictures with our members and investigators. Here's the low down:

This is Doug and Diana! They are so great. Doug is one of the most stubborn people ever. Almost every time we tell him to read the Book of Mormon he gets this little wooden coin out that says "TUIT" on it. He says he'll get "a round tuit". Funny. READ THE BOOK DOUG. haha I love them so much though and he is actually really coming along. I tell him I'm gonna get him soon. Stay tuned.

This is the Beavers family!! Not to be mistaken by my Mesa home squirrel Lolo Beavers family. They are so nice to us and they take such good care of us wow I love them. Brother Beavers collects elephant figurines and statues. Every single one has a story to it so you better have a lot of time and not have to be home in 5 minutes to hear all of them. (we had to be home in 5 minutes)

Sister Agard is my homie. We teach her every Friday night at 8:00 sharp. Very big contrast to what used to do on Friday nights at 8:00 a few months ago. haha. I love her.

Last but certainly not least is the wonderful Axthelm family. Brother Axthelm is our Ward Mission Leader and Sister Axthelm is the best fellow-shipper you will ever meet. They feed us dinner every Saturday night and we have a blast and a half.

I even have evidence:

I'm super sad to say goodbye to pretty much half of my district. actually it's exactly half. Its been a good run kids.

Mount Vernon is pretty neat if you ask me. I'm super excited for things to come. Wish me luck with this new companiero! Pray that she doesn't hate me and my constant singing and crackin sick jokes. Love you all!

"Happy to be here, proud to serve!"-Grandpa Bradshaw

Love,

Sista K bby

January 19, 2016

Hello again!! What's good in tha hood? Really though, let me know by sending me a letter because those are awesome. Thnx. Now for my week. This week was pretty average. We saw a lot of people and taught a lot of people! We are actually on fire over here. We are seeing the Lord blessing the work here. I can truly see people changing and I feel so lucky to have a front row seat.

One of the people I have seen changed so much by the gospel is Michelle. She is a woman we are teaching and she is the sweetest person ever. She has made big and difficult choices in her life to be closer to God. She has expressed to us that she has never felt so holy in her entire life as she does now. That is so amazing to me. I love seeing that in people. This is Michelle!

We had dinner with her at the Barrett's house. The Barretts are the greatest family ever. As great as it is meeting people who are investigating the church, I love love love the members that I have met. They are amazing examples to me. This is Sister Barrett and also a pic with her cute daughter!

Weekly small animal pic: (Bishop's puppy)

Yesterday was probably one of the funnest P-days ever. We all decided to go on a hike and it was awesome! Washington is pretty beautiful I must say. 

Had to showcase Elder Kartchner's sneaky moves. Quick as a fox that one is.

Part two of yesterday's awesome P-day was after our hike we went back to the church to play games and what not and there were a bunch of teenagers in there playing with those huge knocker ball things. We went to go talk to them and ended up just hanging out with them and goin nuts on those things. I got a few bumps and bruises but it was way worth it. Ps. I'm now a basketball hero. Spread the word. I'm lookin for scholarships.

Last minute funny story from this week: We are teaching a recent convert and her husband named Heather and Martin. Martin is hilarious. He told us his "Fart Theory" the other night. He said that he never holds in a fart because it isn't healthy for you. He says that if you hold it in, the toxic gasses will go up to your spine and into your brain and give you bad thoughts. He said this as we were teaching them the law of chastity and how we need to keep our thoughts clean. I guess a good way to do that is to never hold in a fart. Something to think about for sure. haha I love these people.

Good week for sure! Transfers are next Tuesday so we will see if anything happens! I'm betting nothing will considering I've been here for only a transfer but there's always a possibility. I LOVE YOU ALL!!!! HAVE AN A+ WEEK!

Love,

Sister Becks

January 11, 2016 Spoon

Hey family and friends! Look how good I look in a spoon:

​Sister West also got me into sunflower seeds as you can see by the bag and water bottle full of them in that pic. Good stuff. I'm changing a lot.

Funny story: This week we were tracting and this nasty cat kept following us to every single house. We just kind of used him as a finding tool. We knocked on a door and said "Hey, is this your cat?" and then maybe after they said no or something we would say something like "oh well we are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and boy do we have a purrrfect plan for you!". Everyone on that street is getting baptized now. Thanks kitty! But really, this cat kept following us to every door and then when we finally went to the car to leave, we looked behind us and the cat was GONE. I swear it was some kind of ghost cat or something. We even tried looking for it as we drove off in the car but it was nowhere to be found. I took a pic with it and we were worried that the cat wouldn't be in the picture when we looked at it on the camera but all is well and here is the stupid ghost cat:

​We had exchanges this week! Sister Tennant came to Mount Vernon with me and Sister Jackson took Sister West to Lake Stevens. I love them so much. Sister Tennant and I stayed up talking until 12:30 that night. haha at home 12:30 seemed so early. out here its like we stayed up all night or something. I'm becoming such a freak its awesome.

GUESS WHAT?!?!?! 

I GOT TO GO TO ARLINGTON AND SEE SISTER THOMPSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHH!!!!!! It was so great to see her it made my whole week. I don't know if I will ever have a companion like her. Wow friends for life. 

also, Sister Thompson's new companion's name is Sister Pickup and I asked if I could pick her up because I'm hilarious and so witty and amazing and she said yes so here's the result:

​Another funny story from this week: Sister West and I were way pumped because we had just gotten a new investigator the other day and then we went to the car to grab something and we locked the dumb keys in the dumb car and it was funny. We had a lesson at the church pretty soon so we booked it over there (feet style) and made it just in time to teach the lesson. #blessings 

It snowed! You already knew that but here's a Sister Snowoman:

​People are coming out of nowhere to listen to us lately! I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to share with everyone the message of the restored gospel with them. Yesterday we had 4 of our investigators at church and we almost doubled standards this week! Such a good week. I know that any success we have is because the Lord is with us in every step we take. I love it so much. I feel the spirit more deeply than I ever have before. I love you all and pray for you! HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!

Love,

Sista Krummenacha
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January 4, 2016 Bling Bling 2016

Happy new year ya big bums! This year I got to go to bed early! WOOO!!! Party hard #NewYears2k16. To be honest, the best part of my week was probably this fortune cookie that Sister West got the other day:

​lol I'm perfect.

Also, this sign that some jokester defaced. it says "WATCH FOR MICE" hahaha

​But in all seriousness, this sign is RELEVANT guys. IT SNOWED YESTERDAY AND ITS STILL SNOWING TODAY AND IT IS BEAUTIFUL AND I LOVE IT. I had to take a pic of my first snow here and also my third snow ever in my life. This stuff is pretty! Did you know that snowflakes actually look like the paper ones you make in Elementary school? (Go Entz Explorers)

So to be honest with you, not much else happened this week.. 3 of our investigators came to church on Sunday! haha we have a lady we are teaching named Gwen and she is so hilarious I cant even explain her. She is an older, black woman and she don't take no nonsense from anyone. I love her. She has trouble getting to church because of some health issues and because her doctor is afraid that she will slip on ice so she said that we needed to help her inside when she got to church. We got to church at 8:30 (church starts at 9) and right as we were about to go inside, we hear a woman shout for us. It was good ole Gwen. She starts saying "I've been waiting here for a long while and now I'm all cold and I will probably just go home now". I told her that it was warm inside so we helped her out her car and into the chapel. haha I love her. It was a great fast Sunday meeting and nobody gave sketchy testimonies which was really great. It seemed like every testimony was exactly for Gwen. It was awesome!

We also sat next to a lady in our ward who's husband just passed away. (side note: 2 people have passed away within the first two weeks of me being here. Call me Grim Reaper or somethin' cause I'm cursed for sure) I felt like I should go share my testimony because it was my first fast Sunday in the ward but I was just waiting for the prime time and then the lady next to me asked me to help her up to the stand so I took that as a little budge from above. Great meeting. My ward is great and I am really liking them a lot. 

I love being a missionary! Probably haven't heard that before.. Its so true though! I am learning and growing so much and I am learning to LOVE THESE PEOPLE. It is amazing how much you can love people as you share the gospel with them. so guess what, GO DO IT. Its the best thing ever. I love you all! BYE!!

Love,

Sister K Bae
​