Hey Ya'll!!!

Hola Familia!

I still cannot believe that I am out serving a mission! I forget I am until I look down and see the black plaque I get to wear every day. When people said missions were hard, they really weren't kidding! I just have to remind myself each day that each one of those people who said it was hard, said it was worth it and that it was one of the best things of their lives. I have my up days and my down days. Mostly my down days is just the fact that I am frustrated with myself. I am trying to learn to be patient with myself, but I just want to be the best missionary now! and it's frustrating that I am not :) I have to learn a lot of people skills and how to get people to trust me and it's just hard. But! I do not feel sorry for myself, I know what I got to do and I am ready to do it. There is nobody to blame for when I'm feeling down, but myself. 

So just to answer a few questions. We do drive most of the time. We've rode our bikes a couple times but we are mostly in the car and I have to drive because my companion is from Ecuador and does not have an in state license. Sister Intriago is from the Temple Square mission, but they send those sisters out into the mission field when they feel prompted to. They are usually only out for a couple transfers so she will be leaving me soon :( I don't really understand it all. She is from Ecuador, she is a convert and was baptized when she was 15. Her parents are divorced and her step dad and step siblings are not members. We actually don't eat very often at members houses, which we were actually just complaining about ;) so we make a lot of our own food... and I honestly don't know how to make anything good without a recipe so I feel bad because my companion always makes food and gives me some and I only know how to make a good plate of spaghetti, peanut butter and Jelly and a delicious bowel of cereal ;) The sisters we are living with are with us for good. Which is fun because they are really great girls, but they are english speaking so I find myself speaking english alot. Most of our investigators are in English too, so I really need to start pushing myself to learn this spanish. Sister Intriago helps a lot. She usually only speaks in spanish to me which is good, sometimes frustrating, but good :) We do live in a two bedroom apartment, and we have two bathrooms which is good. It's not like a super nice apartment, but it is just find for a few missionaries. We are able to listen to Music and the president said that we pretty much just follow the rule that we listen to music that is uplifting and brings our thoughts to the Savior and he leaves the rest up to us. I asked for CDs because we can listen to music in the car. We mostly just listen to it then and then when we're getting ready in the morning and on pDays. I am feeling okay. I am still a bit tired, but getting used to that. I think I have an ear infection but I am not totally positive. It hurts, especially when I touch it, but it seems to go back and forth from hurting to not hurting. I talked to the Mission nurse and she said if I get any other symptoms or if it doesn't go away I should call her. It's been like 3 days so I will probably call her tomorrow.

It is such a great time to be a missionary!! So many people have so many questions and so many people are starting to hear about the church. Some guy at the library last tuesday (where we write our email and watch mormon.org videos (the mission pres wants us to watch about 2 hours of videos per week to share with people)) asked us for an ensign... that was a strange request. He didn't want anything else though. We've had quite a few people ask us if we're voting for Romney for president. We are not supposed to talk about politics so we usually say something like, "We are not here to talk about Politics, but he is part of our church!" That kind of implies it right there ;) We know the field is white and ready to harvest!... maybe not in some parts of Alabama though. We knocked on a door yesterday and found this hard core Baptist guy... He was not friendly. He was trying to tell us how wrong we were and how the Book of Mormon is so evil and that he believes Joseph Smith is in Hell. Right when he started to talk I knew we were wasting our precious time at that door, I bore my testimony of the Book of mormon and joseph Smith and I was ready to go, but my companion was pretty hurt, especially by the Joseph Smith comment, so she kept trying to talk to him. Finally I held out a mormon.org card and said it was nice talking to him. He of course didn't take the card but at least it ended the conversation. It really hurts your heart to know there are people out there who do not understand and don't know what they are missing out on! There are so many blessings from this gospel and I just want everyone to experience the same blessings in their lives and the lives of their families. I told Sister Intriago to not worry about it, but it bugged her for a while. Pres Holzapfel said that we are not here to find the people who already have their religion, we are here to find the ones who are ready and willing to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Knocking doors is getting a bit easier. I still dread it because of people like the previous guy, but it's not as bad as it sometimes is. I love when we get to go to houses where they have  children. The kids just bring a special spirit to the house and I love involving them in the lessons. I remember something we learned in the MTC from the Primary General president. She said, "The way to the parents hearts is through your love for the Children." And I can definitely attest to that. They will love you if you love their children. We actually had a "Sisters Training Meeting" in Birmingham on Thursday and all of the sisters are asked to either teach something or bear their testimony (we have about 20 sisters). I was asked to teach on how we teach children in the lessons. That meeting was great. It definitely gave me the extra boost I needed. And President Holzapfel is the greatest! He is extremely smart, he has his masters I think in New Testament... Er old Testament in some like Hebrew and some other language. And his wife is the Cutest! she is so fun and energetic. She has her masters in New testament and Greek i think. They are a perfect team out here and we are so blessed to have them. Some lady from one of the Newspapers came because she was writing an article on Mormons in the Faith section. President Holzapfel chose two companionships to come talk to her and he chose ours! She wanted to know what we believe and what we think about the age change and all of that.

Bah! I have so much to say and not enough time. To keep it brief because I only have 10 minutes left. We had our baptism yesterday for Terry. It was AMAZING, cannot wait for more! We sang as the sisters and it was horrible ;) Sister Martinez, a member in the ward, is the greatest. She brings us food a lot and really looks out for us. She is like our mom out here. We got to go to the other's sisters area on saturday and talk with alot of people. We were hoping to find more spanish over there but we really didn't. We wanted to go find this one spanish speaker but we kept getting lost so we decided to just go home, but had extra time so we called the sisters and they said to go see this lady named Sherry and I know that we were not supposed to find the spanish speaker because we needed to go visit this inactive lady. She didn't want us to leave by the end and I think she desperately wants something but doesn't know what.

Okay. Still so much to say but thats all I got! I love you all so much and miss you so so so so much!!!! I love you all and am so excited to hear where brayden is going. Im Guessing Argentina!!! Ahhhh!!! so excited for you bray!! it really is the best! And I will get to see you about a half of a year earlier!! Serph and colby, you better be getting ready!

Love, -your favorite sister missionary ;)