hello people
another slow week here in mission texas. sister call and i are having a trial of our faith. and so are all of our investigators. they keep getting hit hard with things. but it's ok. we've seen miracles happen too. one thing that was cool this week was when we met elizabeth.
she was baptized about a year ago and has the craziest story ever. we actually got her number from a member of her original ward.
she told she had moved into our ward and gave us her number and address. so we tried to call her and we had the wrong number. we kind of forgot about it for a while but then decided this week to stop by the address and see if anyone was there. she was there. and she almost burst into tears. i guess she had just gotten off the phone with her mom who is a little crazy. she's into televangelism and calls us the "crazy mormon cult" and is very against elizabeth (who is 51) being in the church. she told us that she had been praying all week and asking god to help her figure out what she should do. she said she would go to a different church or do whatever it took to get her relationship back with god. and that her mom had kind of just given her a verbal beating maybe about an hour before we showed up. she said she knew it was an answer to her prayer. so we were excited and told her about the new ward and told her that we already had a ride for her on sunday and then she freaked out even more because i guess when we had actually knocked on the door she had been looking in the phonebook at churches and trying to see if any of them had ride services so that she could get there. she then told us about how the first time she ever met the missionaries she was out pulling weeds in her garden and crying and praying to find god. and mid-prayer the missionaries tapped her on the shoulder. she said she knew right from the start that what they taught her was right. so through fighting with her husband and mom, she ended up getting baptized. then the next sunday when she was supposed to go to church to be confirmed her husband drugged her up on sedatives (he's a nurse or something) so that she couldn't move. one of the members came (the same one that gave us her number) and found her and helped her up and they pressed charges on the husband and now they are divorced. i guess her mom was in on the whole thing too. it's absolutely crazy. but anyway, she is the sweetest woman ever and it's amazing how many prayers she has had answered in the course of the year. the best part is, she is PERFECT for one of our other recent converts and we are going to try and set them up on a date secretly.
:)
anyway. i just took up all of my time writing that story. we are still waiting things out with sister elizondo finding out about her husband in jail. as of right now it's looking like he'll be there three months minimum, if not a year. she's still staying positive about it and everyone in the ward is praying for her. it's still super hot and we still eat way too much. and that is about it. until next week.
xoxo
britt
Monday, June 7, 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Pig Stomach Soup Anyone?
hello people!
this was a hot week. once again. but all in all i still prefer it tothe cold. it's not too bad.my first story is another about a crazy thing i had to eat. pigstomach. pig stomach soup, to be exact. pictures to come. sis. calland i went to a carne asada that this investigator family of ours werethrowing. the woman had just had twins a few months ago and they hadhealth problems becuase the were premature. so this was kind of their"hooray our babies are going to be normal" fiesta? anyway, we had justcome from a dinner appointment but wanted to come and support. so weget there and one of the women offered us food. i politely said that ihad just eaten and just would enjoy the party. but ten minutes latershe handed me a plastic cup full of "frijoles." which happened to be alot more than just frijoles. the mystery meat of choice was pigstomach. there were huge chunks of it and you could see every singlelayer of the pig's body. like the muscle, the dents from veins, andbig chunks of fat. it was horrible. i ate a nibble of the meat, andthen just decided to dodge all the meat and go for the beans. luckilythere were some dogs around and dumping under the table wassuccessful.
my other story is not funny, but sad. there is a woman in thespanish branch here named sister elizondo. she is one of my favoritehuman beings alive, actually. she's about 28 and she is has been amember of the church for two years. she is the young women'spresident. she has two sweet little girls that are 4 and 2 years old.and an awesome awesome husband. i met her on my first day here and weclicked instantly. she is seriously the coolest person i've known.anyway, she's illegal, as most people here are. so they were alwayssuper careful to drive the speed limit and be safe and things. hehusband has a visa and is always crossing the border for work. well,immigration took him in this week and i guess they had caught him fromsome old criminal charge from when he didn't have his visa. so theyhave him in jail. it could be 15 days to three months until they findout what happens. the whole family runs the risk of being deportednow. plus sister elizondo doesn't work (since she's illegal.) so she'salone with the two girls who don't know where their dad is, with noincome, and no idea what is going to happen. i feel so bad for them.she is handling the situation very well. she's trying to stay positiveand knows there is just something she's supposed to learn from it andthat if she keeps doing what she knows is right, everything will workout. no matter what happens. she's getting a lawyer, and hopefullythey can work everything out. pretty sure they can't even hold him forsomething from the past even though now he has papers. but they aredoing it. so it's been a pretty loaded past couple of days. it getsfrustrating not being able to help people with that. and seeing goodpeople be treated like criminals for wanting live in our country.sigh. things will work out...anyway. that's about it for me. i hope this email finds everyonedoing well. until next
week.
xoxobrittany
this was a hot week. once again. but all in all i still prefer it tothe cold. it's not too bad.my first story is another about a crazy thing i had to eat. pigstomach. pig stomach soup, to be exact. pictures to come. sis. calland i went to a carne asada that this investigator family of ours werethrowing. the woman had just had twins a few months ago and they hadhealth problems becuase the were premature. so this was kind of their"hooray our babies are going to be normal" fiesta? anyway, we had justcome from a dinner appointment but wanted to come and support. so weget there and one of the women offered us food. i politely said that ihad just eaten and just would enjoy the party. but ten minutes latershe handed me a plastic cup full of "frijoles." which happened to be alot more than just frijoles. the mystery meat of choice was pigstomach. there were huge chunks of it and you could see every singlelayer of the pig's body. like the muscle, the dents from veins, andbig chunks of fat. it was horrible. i ate a nibble of the meat, andthen just decided to dodge all the meat and go for the beans. luckilythere were some dogs around and dumping under the table wassuccessful.
my other story is not funny, but sad. there is a woman in thespanish branch here named sister elizondo. she is one of my favoritehuman beings alive, actually. she's about 28 and she is has been amember of the church for two years. she is the young women'spresident. she has two sweet little girls that are 4 and 2 years old.and an awesome awesome husband. i met her on my first day here and weclicked instantly. she is seriously the coolest person i've known.anyway, she's illegal, as most people here are. so they were alwayssuper careful to drive the speed limit and be safe and things. hehusband has a visa and is always crossing the border for work. well,immigration took him in this week and i guess they had caught him fromsome old criminal charge from when he didn't have his visa. so theyhave him in jail. it could be 15 days to three months until they findout what happens. the whole family runs the risk of being deportednow. plus sister elizondo doesn't work (since she's illegal.) so she'salone with the two girls who don't know where their dad is, with noincome, and no idea what is going to happen. i feel so bad for them.she is handling the situation very well. she's trying to stay positiveand knows there is just something she's supposed to learn from it andthat if she keeps doing what she knows is right, everything will workout. no matter what happens. she's getting a lawyer, and hopefullythey can work everything out. pretty sure they can't even hold him forsomething from the past even though now he has papers. but they aredoing it. so it's been a pretty loaded past couple of days. it getsfrustrating not being able to help people with that. and seeing goodpeople be treated like criminals for wanting live in our country.sigh. things will work out...anyway. that's about it for me. i hope this email finds everyonedoing well. until next
week.
xoxobrittany
Monday, May 24, 2010
A Dog's Life
Hello, Hello!
This week thankfully went by a lot faster than the last one. We had a thunderstorm here and it was awesome. I thought they were crazy in Virginia, but no. everything really is bigger in texas. it flooded a good two inches. we have a little garden outside of our apartment and it knocked our poor little baby plants over. we are trying to revive them. we were all reminded that hurricane season is coming. i wouldn't be surprised if we get a hurricane this year, considering all of the natural disasters that have been happening. but don't worry, they'll evacuate us and we'll be safe. hopefully they'll evacuate us to laredo and i can see some old peeps! :) We have to make an emergency bag this week with extra clothes, non-perishable foods and a first-aid kit and stuff so that if we have to evacuate we'll be ready. and we have to keep our gas tank at half full at all times so we can just get out. kind of exciting.
this week was a week of crazy dogs. i almost got eaten by a horse-dog, and also a dog almost ran right into our car. i had seen the horse-dog before. we were coming to a return appointment at a man's house and it was his neighbors dog. it is HUGE. and the last time i saw it, he was so friendly. he came right up to me with his tail wagging and let me pet him. this time was not that nice. we had this recent convert, jessica, with us, and we were going back to the house. i saw the dog like fifteen feet away from me so i started calling to him and coming close to him. jessica said something like, whoa, he looks mean. then i noticed that his fur was standing straight up on his back. he started growling then i realized this was a bad idea. he ran toward me and i turned my back to him and he head-butted me. the look on jessica's face was pure terror. he went back to wear he was and then we noticed that he had a piece of chicken. hah. he was super protective of it. he head-butted me because he thought i was coming for it. so, lesson learned: never trust giant horse dogs, or look for hidden pieces of chicken before talking to them.
the dogs here are nuts. there's this dog on a street of a family that we visit that we have named "Brutus." he's this wimpy little brown dog and he'll always come out of nowhere and be barking at us and chasing our ankles. we'll think we're safe and we've made it all the way down the street but then he comes up behind us and scares us. but this week we scared him. we some him coming in advance and hid behind the car and i jumped and yelled at him and made my best warrior pose. needless to say, brutus has not been chasing us at all the rest of this week. i kind of miss him.
anyway, besides crazy dog stories, this was a pretty mild week. we're about to go do some double dutch jump roping with the elders. i love p-days. i hope this email finds everybody well. until next week!
xoxo
sister morrill
This week thankfully went by a lot faster than the last one. We had a thunderstorm here and it was awesome. I thought they were crazy in Virginia, but no. everything really is bigger in texas. it flooded a good two inches. we have a little garden outside of our apartment and it knocked our poor little baby plants over. we are trying to revive them. we were all reminded that hurricane season is coming. i wouldn't be surprised if we get a hurricane this year, considering all of the natural disasters that have been happening. but don't worry, they'll evacuate us and we'll be safe. hopefully they'll evacuate us to laredo and i can see some old peeps! :) We have to make an emergency bag this week with extra clothes, non-perishable foods and a first-aid kit and stuff so that if we have to evacuate we'll be ready. and we have to keep our gas tank at half full at all times so we can just get out. kind of exciting.
this week was a week of crazy dogs. i almost got eaten by a horse-dog, and also a dog almost ran right into our car. i had seen the horse-dog before. we were coming to a return appointment at a man's house and it was his neighbors dog. it is HUGE. and the last time i saw it, he was so friendly. he came right up to me with his tail wagging and let me pet him. this time was not that nice. we had this recent convert, jessica, with us, and we were going back to the house. i saw the dog like fifteen feet away from me so i started calling to him and coming close to him. jessica said something like, whoa, he looks mean. then i noticed that his fur was standing straight up on his back. he started growling then i realized this was a bad idea. he ran toward me and i turned my back to him and he head-butted me. the look on jessica's face was pure terror. he went back to wear he was and then we noticed that he had a piece of chicken. hah. he was super protective of it. he head-butted me because he thought i was coming for it. so, lesson learned: never trust giant horse dogs, or look for hidden pieces of chicken before talking to them.
the dogs here are nuts. there's this dog on a street of a family that we visit that we have named "Brutus." he's this wimpy little brown dog and he'll always come out of nowhere and be barking at us and chasing our ankles. we'll think we're safe and we've made it all the way down the street but then he comes up behind us and scares us. but this week we scared him. we some him coming in advance and hid behind the car and i jumped and yelled at him and made my best warrior pose. needless to say, brutus has not been chasing us at all the rest of this week. i kind of miss him.
anyway, besides crazy dog stories, this was a pretty mild week. we're about to go do some double dutch jump roping with the elders. i love p-days. i hope this email finds everybody well. until next week!
xoxo
sister morrill
Monday, May 17, 2010
Got Milk?
hello everybody!
this week was the longest week known to man-kind. it was so slow. so so slow. first of all, all of the investigators we had when i came in are just dropping off the map. i think i brought bad luck with me here. apparently they had all these awesome people coming to church and getting ready to be baptized.. and then i come in and i've only been able to meet one of them. they're not home and they're all going through sad crazy life things like miscarriages and children dying and families being unsupportive and blah blah blah. so we've been sad we can't help anyone.
second: our car broke down for a few days so we had to ride bikes. it's not bad when you choose to ride bikes. but when you're all of the sudden forced to ride bikes and your area spans about 40 miles so you can't reach everyone in time or make your appointments, it's kind of stinky. lots of things fell through and we sweated a lot.
i guess it's really just those two things. i don't know why. it was just a long week. spirits are still high though. we find lots of things to laugh at and things to get our minds off of the heat.
there's a big grapefruit factory here in mission. anytime you're within a 15 mile radius of it, it smells soooo nice. that's definitely a plus of this area. this week, we were walking down the street and saw a soda can rolling down the road. my companion said, "oh look, a mexican tumbleweed!" ha. no offense to any mexicans... but man they love their sodas. and they love throwing them in the road around here..
oh we went to one of our many food appointments this week and it's this sweet old woman who lives alone. she made us some really delicious food. and some cookies for dessert. everything was great until she pulled out the mystery milk to wash it down. she said she made it just for us. the first thing that turned me off to it was the large amount of foam on top. the second thing that turned me off to it was that it smelled really salty. i poured a little in my glass and she got offended. she said to fill my glass because she made it just for us. gulp. my companion had a look of shear terror because i guess at a previous dinner appointment with this woman she had fed them milk that was straight from the cow. not pasteurized or anything. thick and warm. maybe that's normal to my grandpa and my aunts/uncles/dad who were raised on a dairy farm. i don't really know the process of milking cows. but anyway, the milk was horrible and not refreshing. when we left her house we were just busting up laughing. we still don't know what it was from. we didn't dare ask.
anyway.. i think that's about all the adventure we had this week. i hope all is well with everyone. don't be afraid to write a letter every now and then...
xoxo
brittany
this week was the longest week known to man-kind. it was so slow. so so slow. first of all, all of the investigators we had when i came in are just dropping off the map. i think i brought bad luck with me here. apparently they had all these awesome people coming to church and getting ready to be baptized.. and then i come in and i've only been able to meet one of them. they're not home and they're all going through sad crazy life things like miscarriages and children dying and families being unsupportive and blah blah blah. so we've been sad we can't help anyone.
second: our car broke down for a few days so we had to ride bikes. it's not bad when you choose to ride bikes. but when you're all of the sudden forced to ride bikes and your area spans about 40 miles so you can't reach everyone in time or make your appointments, it's kind of stinky. lots of things fell through and we sweated a lot.
i guess it's really just those two things. i don't know why. it was just a long week. spirits are still high though. we find lots of things to laugh at and things to get our minds off of the heat.
there's a big grapefruit factory here in mission. anytime you're within a 15 mile radius of it, it smells soooo nice. that's definitely a plus of this area. this week, we were walking down the street and saw a soda can rolling down the road. my companion said, "oh look, a mexican tumbleweed!" ha. no offense to any mexicans... but man they love their sodas. and they love throwing them in the road around here..
oh we went to one of our many food appointments this week and it's this sweet old woman who lives alone. she made us some really delicious food. and some cookies for dessert. everything was great until she pulled out the mystery milk to wash it down. she said she made it just for us. the first thing that turned me off to it was the large amount of foam on top. the second thing that turned me off to it was that it smelled really salty. i poured a little in my glass and she got offended. she said to fill my glass because she made it just for us. gulp. my companion had a look of shear terror because i guess at a previous dinner appointment with this woman she had fed them milk that was straight from the cow. not pasteurized or anything. thick and warm. maybe that's normal to my grandpa and my aunts/uncles/dad who were raised on a dairy farm. i don't really know the process of milking cows. but anyway, the milk was horrible and not refreshing. when we left her house we were just busting up laughing. we still don't know what it was from. we didn't dare ask.
anyway.. i think that's about all the adventure we had this week. i hope all is well with everyone. don't be afraid to write a letter every now and then...
xoxo
brittany
Monday, May 10, 2010
A misson to Mission
hello from mission texas!
it is hot, muggy, and windy here. but... i have now lived in my apartment for 6 days and have YET to see a roach. it is an upgrade for sure. although there are some ants...
things are nice here. my area is about 5 times bigger than it was in laredo so there is lots of ground to cover. and the members here are awesome. we have a food appointment every day this week, and we even had to tell some people no and schedule them for next week. my companion said that sometimes they would get like 4 in one day before because her old companion could never say no. ha. crazy. my companion is great. her name is sister call and she is from washington state. we have fun together. we have very similar personalities and she knows lots of oldies music so we sing a lot together. she's also very organized, which is the complete opposite of me, so she's very good at scheduling our time and we get a lot done. i love it.
we're teaching some pretty cool people here. lots of spanish. a lot more than in laredo actually, and we were speaking it lots up there too. everybody here speaks it though and our area is on the border. right at the international bridge. it's pretty cool. the fence is super small from the border and i feel like people can cross it super easily. and they do. hmm... what else. it's still south texas, it's still super hot, there's still lots of delicious mexican food to eat, and lots of orange trees. i will have more next week hopefully, when i get to know the people better.
xoxo
brittany
it is hot, muggy, and windy here. but... i have now lived in my apartment for 6 days and have YET to see a roach. it is an upgrade for sure. although there are some ants...
things are nice here. my area is about 5 times bigger than it was in laredo so there is lots of ground to cover. and the members here are awesome. we have a food appointment every day this week, and we even had to tell some people no and schedule them for next week. my companion said that sometimes they would get like 4 in one day before because her old companion could never say no. ha. crazy. my companion is great. her name is sister call and she is from washington state. we have fun together. we have very similar personalities and she knows lots of oldies music so we sing a lot together. she's also very organized, which is the complete opposite of me, so she's very good at scheduling our time and we get a lot done. i love it.
we're teaching some pretty cool people here. lots of spanish. a lot more than in laredo actually, and we were speaking it lots up there too. everybody here speaks it though and our area is on the border. right at the international bridge. it's pretty cool. the fence is super small from the border and i feel like people can cross it super easily. and they do. hmm... what else. it's still south texas, it's still super hot, there's still lots of delicious mexican food to eat, and lots of orange trees. i will have more next week hopefully, when i get to know the people better.
xoxo
brittany
Monday, May 3, 2010
Tasty snacks.....
hello, world!
this seems like it has been the longest week of my mission life so far. it's because we were awaiting transfers. and sadly, i am being transferred. goo. i will be going to a place called mission, texas. i know nothing about it except that it's more humid than it is here in laredo. so that will suck. sister kellett and i are enraged. but it's okay because we decided we will be sealed in the eternal friendship room in the temple. so a few transfers without is nothing. :) i'm mostly sad that i won't be seeing frank and jesus' baptism in two weeks. they are so awesome. jesus this week told us he is going to read the whole book of mormon before the end of may. we didn't even ask him to, he just wants to! he's so awesome. and frank bore his testimony in testimony meeting this sunday. i love those kids. it's amazing how the lord really has prepared people out there.
in other news: sister kellett ate a cockroach this morning. she had a mug full of chocolate frosting (we had been eating crepes with choc. frosting for breakfast.. that was the first mistake..) and with what was left in the mug she put in the microwave and decided to drink it. huge mistake. somewhere in the events of this morning a roach climbed into her mug. and she did not discover until it was too late. she felt something squirming in her mouth and she spit it out and voila. it was a dead roachie. i HATE the roaches. our whole apartment complex has problems with them. the exterminator has come three times now and i feel like the problem just gets worse. i guess that will be nice about moving out...
i'm not quite sure about my new address yet so if anyone is sending me anything you can just send it to the mission office.
texas mcallen mission
200 w. la vista ave.
mcallen, texas 78501
oh. this is funny. have i told you about our investigator, sonia? she's awesome. an older woman in her sixties. she cried when we first met her.. anyway, she had a baptismal date. she came to church last week. she was awesome. then, the next tuesday we went to her house for our appointment and some new lady answered the door. we asked her where sonia was. she said,
no estoy segura. ella iba a casar, pero nos dijo que iba a regresar ayer.
in other words, sonia eloped. ELOPED. the sweet little sixty year old lady. ha. so we're not really sure what's going to happen there. we haven't been able to get a hold of her since then.
anyway... we're having an icecream party tonight with some of the members here and some of our recent converts. to say goodbye to sweet yolanda who is moving to dallas, and also to me now. boo. anyway. that's all i've got for now. i hope everyone is doing well. until next week.
xoxo
brittany
this seems like it has been the longest week of my mission life so far. it's because we were awaiting transfers. and sadly, i am being transferred. goo. i will be going to a place called mission, texas. i know nothing about it except that it's more humid than it is here in laredo. so that will suck. sister kellett and i are enraged. but it's okay because we decided we will be sealed in the eternal friendship room in the temple. so a few transfers without is nothing. :) i'm mostly sad that i won't be seeing frank and jesus' baptism in two weeks. they are so awesome. jesus this week told us he is going to read the whole book of mormon before the end of may. we didn't even ask him to, he just wants to! he's so awesome. and frank bore his testimony in testimony meeting this sunday. i love those kids. it's amazing how the lord really has prepared people out there.
in other news: sister kellett ate a cockroach this morning. she had a mug full of chocolate frosting (we had been eating crepes with choc. frosting for breakfast.. that was the first mistake..) and with what was left in the mug she put in the microwave and decided to drink it. huge mistake. somewhere in the events of this morning a roach climbed into her mug. and she did not discover until it was too late. she felt something squirming in her mouth and she spit it out and voila. it was a dead roachie. i HATE the roaches. our whole apartment complex has problems with them. the exterminator has come three times now and i feel like the problem just gets worse. i guess that will be nice about moving out...
i'm not quite sure about my new address yet so if anyone is sending me anything you can just send it to the mission office.
texas mcallen mission
200 w. la vista ave.
mcallen, texas 78501
oh. this is funny. have i told you about our investigator, sonia? she's awesome. an older woman in her sixties. she cried when we first met her.. anyway, she had a baptismal date. she came to church last week. she was awesome. then, the next tuesday we went to her house for our appointment and some new lady answered the door. we asked her where sonia was. she said,
no estoy segura. ella iba a casar, pero nos dijo que iba a regresar ayer.
in other words, sonia eloped. ELOPED. the sweet little sixty year old lady. ha. so we're not really sure what's going to happen there. we haven't been able to get a hold of her since then.
anyway... we're having an icecream party tonight with some of the members here and some of our recent converts. to say goodbye to sweet yolanda who is moving to dallas, and also to me now. boo. anyway. that's all i've got for now. i hope everyone is doing well. until next week.
xoxo
brittany
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)