Worth More Than Gold!

Well this week was a pretty good week! :)  

First off, we got iPad minis. Whaaaaat? Crazy. I found out very quickly that being away from that kind of stuff for 8 months has definitely hindered my technological savy-ness. Sister Woodbury thought it would be funny to have Elder Ray dress up in a Santa-suit and pass them out to all the missionaries shouting "Merry Christmas!"

He did and it was so funny.

Elder Ray tried to make me promise I wouldn't send the picture of him in the Santa suit home. But let's be honest.... I will anyway ;)  

My new I pad delivered by Santa:)

One thing that's kind of funny about Facebook is because I put Curitiba Brazil as my current city before I left, I keep getting portuguese ads and stuff off to the right hand side. And almost every time I reload a new page, I get a pop-up window from the explorer that keeps saying "this page is in portuguese, would you like us to translate it?" Ha funny stuff. The cool thing is that between my spanish and the picture that pops up with it, I can usually read it. welcome to my life.

*****

Anyways, Sister Graham are still trying to get everything going with that. We're still trying to figure out how to use them effectively, and since we only really have wifi access when we are in the church or on FB, we don't have a ton of functions we can use on there. But we're downloading videos and materials, and we're going to be experimenting with it for the next little bit :) It's pretty crazy how the work is moving forward, but I feel like having FB and iPads and stuff has a lot of missionary work potential. It's really great! And kinda weird! 

Sister Graham and I ended up having an AMAZING lesson with a Less Active member this week. She is the cutest, most fun and sweet lady ever, I absolutely adore her and love visiting her! But she's been visiting with the missionaries for a year and is almost no more less active now than she was before she started meeting with them again. 

Sister Graham and I have not really known what to do or how to help her exactly. We just haven't really figured out what it is she NEEDS. So, we decided to show her Finding Faith in Christ and talk to her about her Savior.  I watched the DVD (brand new) the day before and it worked flawlessly.

But guess what happened when I slipped the DVD into the player?  It was skipping like cRaZy. Whaaaaat?  Guess that wasn't the lesson the Lord had in mind :P

On a fly, I opened up to 3 Nephi 11 and 3 Nephi 17 which is my favorite part in the Book of Mormon to read and talk about the Savior.  I asked her before we started "who is Jesus Christ to you?"  She thought for maybe .2 seconds and was like, "well, he's the Savior."  only the Savior?

We read in 2 Nephi 11 about how Christ came and visited the people in the Americas- they saw the prints in his hands and in his feet. We talked about that experience, what it would be like, how Christ would act, what the prints mean for us, etc.

The Spirit was so thick in that room.

Then Sister Graham started asking her questions, and she just broke down crying and told us the things that she was struggling with in her life and why she wasn't coming to church.  We felt SO MUCH LOVE for her.  Then we read in 3 Nephi 17 the part where Christ invites the leprous, the halt, the maimed, the blind, etc, OR any who are afflicted in any manner.  We talked about how that last phrase covers us ALL. We are ALL afflicted in some manner. This phrase jumps out of the scriptures and applies to every one of us! He's inviting us to come unto him! 

We talked about how Christ can help her feel whole, loved, worth while, etc. He can help her get rid of shame and guilt and pain.  The Spirit was so thick.  We told her how she is a daughter of God. She didn't think she was worth very much at all, but Sister Graham and I sat there and just told her that she is loved so so much!  Sister Graham asked, "do you think God sits up there on His throne and says, 'oh sorry, you don't know the scriptures well enough- DON'T come to my church'? OR, 'oops, you missed the mark- not your whole family is baptized into my church, so just go away- we don't want you here.'"

NO! 

God NEVER says that 

That, my dear friends, is Satan.

She started crying again, and we kept reading scriptures and bearing testimony about how much we are loved and noticed

It was easily one of the best lessons of my mission (maybe THE best). What a blessing it has been for me to be a part of that lesson. Everyone just needs to feel loved. And even though people fight it and try to hide it, they need God. They feel some sort of frustration or worry or pain that they just hide. Christ can help with that.

*****

We finally got someone to church! A Less-actives step son. He's a 16-year old who doesn't really look like someone who would accept the gospel. But when we came and invited his Mom to church, he said he wanted to go. We got him a ride and he came! And he said he liked it better than the other church he was attending! He said our church was so much more personal.

High hopes there

*****

Sister Graham and I taught Combined YM/YW yesterday on the Atonement. It went pretty well, we think. We really enjoy discussing and preparing for lessons. Sister Graham is just ridiculously excited to actually be teaching now. Ha she loves just sharing what she knows and what she's found to be true. She also LOVES applying it to people's life directly- she makes everything personal to people.

*****

There was an older LA (less active) woman we visited this week who had studied with another religious group before. She just COULDN'T get over the fact that the Bible didn't have a verse that specifically said that Jesus is Jehovah, or something like that. I tried my best to help her and answer her question, but at some point, Sister Graham came in and was just like, "Carol, why is that even important? I mean really. You're focusing so much on little tiny detailed facts that don't even matter to your salvation. I mean look at you right now- where is this focus on facts even doing for you? Nothing. I'll tell you what CAN do something for you- the Book of Mormon! It's a personal guide to happiness. This can make you feel happy when your sad, strengthened when your down, etc. Your SAVIOR WANTS to help you! But He can't do that if your too busy worrying about evidence in the Bible to even turn to Him and let Him help you!"

It was so awesome.

And by the end of listening to Sister Graham, the LA was like, "you know, you're right! And I HAVE been feeling a little depressed lately because of my health. Maybe this book CAN help me! When will you be back?"

Uhh what? 

Ha it's the best. I love it. She just says it like it is, all love and no fear. 

*****

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but we volunteer at some stables where they have a program for disabled people to ride the horses. It is SUCH a cool deal- and I love learning about stuff like that. We've loved volunteering there- grooming the horses and scooping poop and cleaning bunny cages. It's so fun :) 

*****

There's another LA we visit who, two weeks ago, told us we needed to "eat more vitamins". She gave us the most delicious bag of dark chocolate truffles and prescribed us to have at least one a day, but we may have more as necessary. It's the best. Sister Graham and I, before we leave for the day, or during studies, we're like, "hold on I need a vitamin!" 

I love it :) 

*****

There's a sister in the ward who I absolutely ADORE. I think she's from El Salvador. We went over to her house this week for dinner. She made Mexican food. Like legit Mexican food that I used to get served in Midway. I almost DIED, I was SO HAPPY. And I loaded on the pica! That meal made my entire month, and I woke up yesterday craving her chorizo quesedillas. Gosh dang I miss that food

Anyways....

This lady is really impressive for a lot of reasons in a lot of ways. But I will share just one that I was really impressed by.

There's a less active named Rosie. When Sister Graham and I stopped by to meet her like 2 weeks ago, she told us she hasn't been to church in a few months. But she told us about one member. She was like- oh, I just call Blanca if I need I ride. Oh, I LOVE Blanca!

This sister, Blanca, invited Rosie to dinner with us. And even though Blanca was her visiting teacher, you could tell that Blanca really loved her a lot. 

Yeah, she was assigned Rosie, and told to teach her and be her friend. But Blanca took it to the next level. Like, she really truly and genuinely loved Rosie. It was clear throughout the night that Blanca talked to Rosie a lot and had invited her over to her house often. They joked together and asked questions about each others families, and every thing. That pair was such a hoot! Sister Graham and I almost died laughing. 

But I was just so impressed at what sincere charity and love Blanca had for Rosie. 

I left feeling confident that Blanca is an amazing example of a visiting teacher. If every visiting teacher took their assignment like that, I'm confident that not a soul would ever be lost. 

And to Blanca, Rosie wasn't just 'someone I'm supposed to talk to once a month'. To Blanca, Rosie was a precious and loved friend that she truly cared about. That makes a big difference.

*****

Well that's pretty much it for now! That was certainly a long one. So much happened this week- that's not even a half of it. 

Even though sometimes I get a little sad during language study, I am genuinely so happy to be here. I love it, it's an adventure. The people here are amazing and I absolutely adore Sister Graham. Ha I feel like I learn WAY more from her than she learns from me! (aren't I the one thats supposed to be training??). 

I love this gospel, I love this work. 

We're not coming around sharing the same old message about the same old God.

I didn't leave my schooling, family, dating life and work just to go around and teach what anyone else can teach.

The message we bring is priceless.

We're not here trying to force our religion on anyone. We're not here to try and make our church more popular.

We are here because THIS message can change your life and your family. And it can change it forever.

This message brings hope.

This message brings purpose.

This message is the message of Jesus Christ.

We are here to invite ALL to come unto Christ and prepare to live with God again.

No other church can do this.

Good Christian living cannot do it.

The "Oh I believe in God," or the "Oh, we all believe in the same God, so I'm good" attitude is not enough.

Only this gospel- the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Book of Mormon (like Sister Graham says) is LITERALLY YOUR PERSONAL self-help book.

I mean... that's kinda cool.

Stay strong, fight the good fight. 

Peter write that our trials are worth more than gold- through them, we can build our faith and be found believing when we meet our Savior again.

I love you all! Have an awesome week :) 

Sister Walton

Our Zone having a fun activity on P-Day

The Sisters of our Zone...

Time flies when your having fun, I guess!

Well this week went by really fast. I remember Monday night thinking "oh dang, Pday is over already! I have to wait a whole week for it to come again. Blehhh :P" And then yesterday night on our way home from a dinner appointment, I was like- "Oh my gosh PDay tomorrow ALREADY??" 

Time flies when your having fun, I guess!

Yeah, there were tornados here yesterday- there was a lot of crazy wind and really dark clouds. But we went to the church for a meeting at 11 and didn't leave until 4:30 and the storm came and went during our time there :) Ha blessings for obedience for sure. I didn't even really get a minute to look outside to see what it was doing, so I don't know what it was like in our area (but when we were driving around after, there were a lot of fallen power lines and really big trees and branches that had fallen in the road)... it was probably pretty crazy. But yeah, there were warnings by us but nothing too crazy :)

This week was nice because we had a lot that we were doing. We finally had a couple days in a row where we just were busy all day going from one thing to the next. I LOVE when that happens! It's the best :) When your just busy busy busy all day and you get home at 9:15 and just crash on the floor and you feel so good. I loved it. We met with a lot of less actives and found service to do and had appointments with investigators and meal appointments with members and the whole deal. It was great :) 

We have one investigator named Ashley that we are teaching- she's super cute. She lives actually 2 doors down from us in our apartment, and her mom is a less active in our ward. She has a super cute 5 year old son too. Our first lesson with her, we ended up talking JUST about God and who He is and what He means in our lives. It's really interesting- I haven't had to have a lesson where I just sit down and tell them about God. It was kind of like taking 6 years of Young Womens "We are daughters of our Heavenly Father who loves us and we love Him" stuff and condensing and simplifying it to help her see and realize that she is a daughter of God with value, importance and purpose. It was a really neat lesson. Next time, we are going to talk to her JUST about Jesus Christ. 

It's amazing how important the basics are. Especially with the less actives. The most simple doctrine we have is that we are children of a loving Heavenly Father. So simple but so easy to forget or lose sight of. That's how/why like 99% of our less actives are less active. Really. They lose sight of that simple fact that they are a child of a loving Heavenly Father. That's something Sister Graham and I love reminding people and helping them realize :) 

I always thought my Dad was really weird for being such a clean-nerd. I didn't like that he would clean so much and then walk into my room and be like, "woah, did a tornado come through here??" (my response was always that it was organized chaos)

Organized or not, it was still chaos.

And I have seen some chaotic places the past couple weeks.

Not the usual "oh sorry, I've been really sick this week and just haven't had a chance to pick up yet" or a "yeah, we just got back in town from a big vacation and are still unpacking"... that happens, I get it. But that's not what I'm talking about

It's like the really dirty messy cluttered unhealthy disgusting chaos.

Oh my goodness.

There is such a big difference in those houses. I simply don't understand how or why people continue to live in a pit like that. 

And the most obvious thing for me and Sister Graham is that because of how disastrous their living space is, they are suffering spiritually, physically and emotionally. 

That link is NOT a coincidence. 

The people with houses like that are ALWAYS the people that are struggling the most.

It's so hard to feel the Spirit in a place like that! It's so hard to stay healthy in a place like that! It's so hard to move forward confidently with purpose in your life when your in a place like that!

It made me think twice and really appreciate my parents for being so concerned about having at least a clean house- not a perfect house, that's unachievable. But a clean house where you can feel the spirit and find things and be healthy and all that jazz

Oh and by the way, I made my bed every day this week again.

Yesterday at church, Sister Graham and I gave talks in Sacrament meeting with Connor (a youth in the ward who spends time with the Elders) who got his call to Vina de Mar Chile (leaves in 30 something days), and the EQ Pres. It was a great meeting :) 

And then Sister Graham and I turned around and taught Relief Society. It was about doing good to others, and it worked out really well! We really enjoyed teaching it- we have such an amazing group of ladies in the ward :) 

This week, Sister Graham and I taught some investigators the Restoration lesson. And, as with every first lesson, we invited them to be baptized. And since Sister Graham is the newbie, she was the one who was to extend that invitation.

Ha the whole lesson, she was building up her courage.

We testified of the Book of Mormon (and I didn't get tongue-tied, thats kind of a big deal..)

We testified of Joseph Smith

We all felt the Spirit!

Sister Graham: "And we want to invite you to follow the example of Jesus Christ and-"

"CAN I HAVE AN ORANGE?!?!" 

Their really old hard-of-hearing grandma suddenly awoke from her recliner chair and demanded an orange.

Welp, there goes the moment! 

We built it up again, Sister Graham asked again, and she said maybe.

We laughed a lot about that one later.

We laugh about a lot of things on the mission 

Either that or we go crazy!

Plus we see a lot of funny/crazy/weird things. All the time. But it's not an appropriate time or place to bust out laughing about it, so we hold it in and let it all loose once we get back into the car. Ha oh man..

Well as far as a more spiritual thought, I read Acts yesterday for like the whole hour of personal study. It was the best! For the past like year, I've been hearing random stories and stuff about Paul being thrown around, and I'm like- "Hey, I want to learn more about that guy!" But I keep forgetting, or I have other more time-sensitive things that I need to study. But yesterday, I just sat down and read about Paul. It was awesome. I didn't get all the way through it. I read and skimmed the whole thing, and I intend to study it more in depth here pretty soon, but here are some random thoughts I had in my brief reading, going along with what others have said about him:

1. There was a devotional a few weeks ago by a guy named Clayton Christianson. He said that one time, there was this guy on an airplane who went on and on and on about how Mormon missionaries just go up to people and try to make them change religions, and are so persistent.... whatever, the whole shebang. And he asked Bro Christiansen something to the effect of, 'why do you mormons always feel like you have to push your religion on everybody??'

He thought for a minute, and asked the man "Do you know the story of the man in the Bible named Saul?"

The man said, "yes I do"

Bro Christianson responded, "do you remember what happened after he walked with Christ on the road to Damascus?"

The man thought for a minute and said, "I see your point"

After an encounter with the living son of the living God, Saul couldn't help NOT preaching the gospel to everyone! After something like that, you can't just stay quiet. Saul, then Paul, spent the rest of his life trying to help others come unto Christ.

That's like us.

We know this is true. We've had our own personal encounters with the living son of the living God, and after an experience like that, it's so amazing, so beautiful, so wonderful, that we spend a lot of time and energy and effort for the rest of our lives trying to help others receive this amazing, glorious, beautiful change of heart and encounter with their Savior.

Think of Lehi and the vision of the tree of life. What was his first reaction? To invite his family and others to partake of it also. It filled him with such joy and love, he couldn't help but have the desire to help them feel and experience that for themselves.

2. Paul had one heck of a mission.

I mean really.

He preached, was thrown in jail, got out, converted the jailer, got bit by a viper, was stoned, came back to life, kept preaching, he was brought before leaders who threatened him and told him to stop preaching, he went out and preached anyway, then got beat for it, then was happy about it, and he got shipwrecked.....

That's only a list of the few I remember off the top of my head.

Man, that guy could not be contained! What a powerful missionary! What devotion and diligence.

I love it!

It makes any excuse or complaint I have look like total weak-sauce.

3. Paul experienced a mighty change of heart

Acts 9 is STRIKINGLY similar to the story in the Book of Mormon of Alma the younger. They both are examples of what the gospel and atonement can do.

I think the Book of Mormon describes Alma as being "the vilest of all sinners" if I remember correctly? And within just a couple days, he flipped around, got his act together, and became one of the most powerful missionaries in the Book of Mormon. 

Saul was the guy that was trying to kill/persecute/imprison those who believed in Christ. And then He came to him and was like, "Man, what are you doing? Shape up!" And he did. Total 180 degree turn. And it wasn't just his actions, but his heart too.

So cool.

Miracles all the time, big and small.

Well, I think that's it for me! I'm loving being out here on the mission! I spent some time this week feeling so inadequate. So so inadequate. Luckily I had an awesome companion who helped me and rekindled my testimony and my belief that our Savior covers all. The Atonement can help us with everything- when I feel sick, the Atonement can strengthen me. when I feel like I fail, the Atonement can help me see the hope and realize that I succeed. when I fall short, the Atonement covers that because the Savior has already paid it all.

Super cool.

When you start realizing the power and strength you have available to you through the Atonement, it's amazing.

In the words of Brother Romig, "this gospel is so stinkin' true"

Love you all!!!

-Sister Hayley Walton 

Raising Lazarus From The Dead

Well, this week went pretty well! 

As some of you may or may not have noticed, I've been messing with my Facebook account (my actual one)-- I decided that I don't want to have to deal with two facebooks when I get home, so I'm working through doing everything through my old one, and I'm going to delete the new one I made when I finish up with all of that :) Fun stuff!! So bear with me. I don't know how Elder Ray set his all up- I haven't been able to ask him about it yet, but I'll get it all worked out :) 

Sister Graham and I taught our first real lesson together- the Restoration- to a PNI and her neice, who ended up being another PNI. Ha it was definitely our first real lesson together... Sister Graham got really nervous during it and no matter how many practices we did beforehand, she started second guessing herself. And then I couldn't really get out of my spanish-teaching mode- I had THE HARDEST time saying "ancient inhabitants of the americas" and "here". Man, it was rough- I couldn't get out of spanglish for the LIFE of me! Haha but we got out of the lesson alive and they invited us back again, so the next day we went over it all again, decided what we could change, and ultimately just laughed about how the whole thing went :) That was fun

We did a TON of service on Thursday! After studies and lunch, we went to an appointment with a less active sister and she talked our ear off for about an hour, then Sister Graham changed her lightbulb and dusted her horrendously dusty fan, and then we almost burned out our vacuum trying to help her vacuum her carpets- we still need to go dig all the hair out of the poor thing...

Then, we went straight to the stables where our district groomed the horses of this therapeutic horse-riding place. That was pretty fun, and Sister Graham did our horse's hair all nice :) 

Then the relief society president called us and asked us to go help clean the house of some members who were moving out and we went with the elders and some other members to help out there.  Then we went to Missionary Correlation Meeting and discussed all sorts of random stuff about the ward'  Then we finally went home to eat dinner and we crashed on the floor to do daily planning.

That's pretty much all we did on Thursday.

BUSY DAY!

We drove... a lot.... this week trying to make contact with everyone we need to. It ultimately was not as successful as we wanted it to be :P

Sunday was awesome- our ward is seriously incredible. And on top of that, we totally steal the elders' thunder. TOTALLY. The ward is so excited for sisters. And it's ironic because it's only because of the elder's help that we're even still alive! 

This week, a member family we knew well invited us to dinner again. When we called to confirm, we invited and encouraged them to think about a less active or a nonmember friend/neighbor/whatever to come to dinner with us. We promised we wouldn't push baptisms or taking the discussions- we simply wanted to make sure it was a low-key environment with no pressure where the member could invite someone, and we could get to know them and share a message that would allow the member to bear testimony and share the gospel. They DID! They invited a member and her nonmember sister. We felt it went really really well, and hope to continue to encourage other members to do the same.

Ultimately, the members are WAAAAY better at sharing the Gospel than missionaries are. Seriously. When we take members to lessons with us, it is so much more powerful, and the investigators connect with the members at such a better level than we ever could, no matter how hard we try!  Just make the invitation. It will bring the spirit more strongly into your life, and your love for and testimony of this gospel will grow so much stronger simply by sharing it with someone else :) I promise!!

 Here's a miracle story-- there is a family in the ward who is really awesome. They have a daughter who came home from her mission after about 6 months because of health reasons. She's been home for two months, literally just sick in bed the whole time. she hardly ever goes out and she hasn't been seen at church since she's come back. 

Well, I really wanted to meet her. don't know why. I just did. Really bad.

We went over and I asked the mom if the daughter would join us. She said no, and that she probably wouldn't want to come anyway. I asked if I could go up to her room to meet her and say hi and invite her down. The mother said she would probably get mad if anyone went up there, but I could call up to her from the stairs. I did, and she said she felt really sick and didn't want to come down.

I thought of her all throughout dinner. I don't take the first no. Ha it blows Sister Graham away cause she thinks its kind of awkward, but I do it anyway. When we were about to share the spiritual thought, I asked the mom if I could invite her.

"You can, but she won't come!" she promised

I went to the stairs-

"Amy, it's Sister Walton again! We are going to share a quick thought with your family- it will only be about 5 or 10 minutes. can you please come join us?"

..."yes"

I was AMAZED. I didn't quite know what to say, so I asked if she needed help coming down. She said no and she'd be along shortly

I turned around and the Mom was looking at me like I'd just raised Lazarus from the dead.

It was awesome I was so glad she came down, and I was so glad I just felt that love and desire to meet her. She's really awesome- I really hope that she can come out and visit people with us sometime really soon :) 

That's pretty much it for the week. Sister Graham are trying to find ways to work with more less actives, and find more people to teach. The members had a lot of service suggestions in our area, so we're going to try and find service opportunities :) 

The leaves are falling off the trees and a slushy snow has been falling today

Sister Graham is awesome- we laugh our way through stuff. I love when we can do that.

We love the members.  Facebook missionary work is weird.  I think we're getting iPads next week.

At this very moment, I am craving the Cookie Butter my mom sent me from Trader Joe's

District Leader Johnson apparently found us a couch yesterday.

Our water still smells like rotten eggs, but luckily there's so much bacteria in the water, the city is making them chlorine it all out tomorrow- fingers crossed there!

Sister Graham is a crossfit boss and I'm getting whipped back into shape :) 

I've made my bed perfectly every single morning this week, and it looks so pretty and nice (mom and dad can thank hna toney for that one)

I love you all

The church is true

The Book of Mormon is AWESOME. 

Just read it

Invite the Savior into your life.

then invite others into your life so that they can know their Savior.

It's awesome

Love you!!

"still not sure whether to sign hermana or sister" walton

WELL....

Ha this week has certainly been one of the most interesting weeks on my mission, hands down. So much has happened and I want to tell you EVERYTHING but I can't so I'll just see how much I get out. Know that this week was super crazy, so if my email is weird, it's just because there was so much going on and so many emotions and thoughts that I had that your just getting a glimpse.

So anyways, flash back to Monday night where I say goodbye to Edyn and the girls and the Najera family (gosh that seems forever away). Pretty big bummer to be leaving such an awesome ward and area and language and everything. Then I ended up running out of time to pack and write notes to people in the ward and I ended up staying up an hour or so late to finish that up. THEN, Hna Toney and I had to wake up at like 5 or 530 (don't remember) to wake up, finish packing, get ready, and be out the door by 7 so we could do a smorgasboard of things before we ultimately ended up at the training meeting by 9. No, we weren't on time for a plethora of reasons: traffic, wrong address, and late. 

Awesome!

We get to training meeting and it goes great, but by the end of the meeting, I just started to get a little stressed out (which has shown to be really abnormal for me). And then I kept getting more and more stressed out. I was just getting nervous, and I didn't really have a reason, and yeah. Fun stuff. But I chilled out after a few minutes, and Transfers started and I got my new greenie, Sister Graham who is super cute. She's from Orem and she's 22 and she never really wanted to go on a mission, but here she is and she is excited to teach people "in real life, not just MTC role plays". And also, she is a hairstylist, which saves my life because I've been needing another hair cut :) 

THEN, I realized something I did not know I did not know before... I'm OPENING an area! Yay! Didn't realize that until I sat down and Elder Griffin introduced himself and somehow I figured out I'm also opening an area. Awesome. Ha as if I didn't know what I was doing already...

Transfers ended and we drove back to our new apartment. The Elders helped us take our suitcases up and then left. That is when I found myself alone (kind of) in an area I do not know in an apartment that is weird in with people I don't know, yada yada. Great.

Our apartment is pretty great though! We're still working out the kinks. We have a nice front view of JC Penney and a nice back view of WalMart. We've been working out in the WalMart parking lot :) We can tell that the former resident is a smoker- that's cool. And our stove didn't work for about 5 days. And the water here smells like rotten eggs, I'm not even kidding. Mom and Dad, I KNOW you were praying for me to learn how to take shorter showers- here ya go! :) Ha :P Welcome to your shower that smells like rotten eggs/sulfur. We feel like it's almost counter productive for us to be showering..... like I said, still working out the kinks.

We were dropped here in the middle of nowhere without a GPS. Awesome. Walmart was the only other place we knew for the first 2 days. Luckily, a lovely family signed up to feed us Wednesday night, and they gave us directions to their house- we've been getting around by asking people to mapquest things for us or by calling the members. They are awesome :) 

The first couple days here, we didn't have like anything to do and I didn't know where to go or what to do. The only thing that was in my head when I was trying to figure out what to do was when Bishop Gibb told me before I left- Sister Walton, when you get to a new ward, get a list of the less actives from the bishop. Bishop Gibb, I literally CLUNG to that advice my first couple days. That's the only thing that I knew of what to do :P We tried getting maps to figure out where the heck we are and what our borders are. That was not very successful. Then slowly, one at a time, pasito a pasito, stuff started coming- we met with the leaders of the ward and got less active lists and started getting the elder's old investigators and getting to know families in the ward. Things started forming and coming together. 

Sister Graham and I are so excited- we feel kind of like that nervous anxious excitement before a big game- we feel like something big is being prepared to happen here and we are a part of it. We are so excited :) We feel it!!! We have incredible leaders and members here, and they love the Lord- this is going to be awesome :) 

Thursday, Elder Martino and his wife of the 70 came and spoke to us. It was stellar. I really truly loved it and learned a ton. That's in my journal back home :P

Stake Conference was this weekend- I saw the Holbrooks and it was so awesome to see them :) I met Sarah Smiley's parents (freshman Summer roomie) and that was so fun- I didn't realize she had gotten into the BYU Nursing program! Props to her wohoo! :) Then the Stake President is the dad of someone in one of my BYU singles wards who is serving with David in Cochabamba, and Lauren said they are awesome, so I HAD to meet them. I didn't realize that President Eyre was called to Brazil too, but he never got his visa and was reassigned to Guatemala and stayed there his whole mission. I thought that was cool :) 

I am SO SO grateful for the service that has been rendered on our behalf by various members of the ward. Wow. Sister Graham and I are incredibly grateful for all of them. They have just gone above and beyond and taken SUCH good care of us. They are always willing to feed us or give us rides or even offer to do our laundry for us! The McClane's came over and fixed our stove and that just made my entire month. 

This happened in Midway too- just throughout my mission, we as missionaries, have been the recipients of incredible acts of service by members just bending over backwards to help us. I cannot express my appreciation for these people. The things they do literally make our day every single time, and we couldn't do it without your constant help!

We went with the Elders to meet some of their investigators- they are awesome. The guy was the one who designed the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland (remember how I made you ride that with me a million times, dad andrew and parker??) Ha yep, cool stuff :) And I had an opportunity to just bear my testimony there with them. It was a really good experience.

I'm still getting used to english-speaking. I went back to studying in spanish again. I tried in english one or two days, but just frankly hated studying in english. So I study in spanish as much as I possibly can. I'm working on studying spanish and portuguese together. It's interesting I'm still trying to figure that out.

I'm determined to give the spanish elders a ton of referrals while I'm here

I didn't realize how much of a Mexican I am when I eat. Not just in the chile. Ha I have gotten used to hunching over my food and eating a million servings and eating everything with a tortilla or piece of bread in my left hand and all sorts of stuff. I need to remind myself to sit up and take time eating, and that I don't need to stuff myself every meal, and stuff. Anyone who's served hispanics, please tell me you know what I'm talking about! 

I miss singing hymns in Spanish.  Ha i miss spanish. I try really hard to keep it up

My greenie, Sister Graham is awesome. Like I said, shes from Orem, 22, and a hair stylist. Shes super cute and super excited to teach lessons. Ella es como una jefa. Por seguro! She is so excited to work and be here and feel productive. She has an incredible talent of talking to people I'm constantly amazed by it! She will do awesome out here in the field :) 

"His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox, BYU Speeches '11-'12. It's awesome.

Bleh, so much has gone on this week. Sorry my email is scattered.  I'm just out here doing the best I can and knowing that the Lord will take care of the rest! I'm so grateful to be here with Sister Graham who literally came out pre-trained. 

There was one day this week, I don't remember when, when I was literally EXHAUSTED. I hadn't been getting much sleep because of transfers and meetings and whatnot, and I was feeling sick, and totally out of my element, and I missed Midway and I was trying to put my heart here with Sister Graham and be the kind of trainer she needed and all that stuff. It was just a lot at once, and I was starting to really feel it and struggle with it and not know what to do, and it was only 1:00- we had a whole day ahead of us still.

I went to the bathroom and just prayed and was like- Heavenly father, I have the desire but I don't have the strength. Strengthen me to do the things I need to do today.  I got up, went out, and within like 2 minutes, I was strengthened. The sick feeling went away, the tiredness went away, and Sister Graham and I were able to have one of the most fulfilling, busy days ever- we didn't get home until 9:15 and we just crashed on the floor, so grateful that we were able to work so hard.

I'm learning how to ask the right questions so I can get the right blessings. The Lord strengthened me. I just needed my capacity to be a little bigger, and it was :) Suuuuper grateful for that.

I know my Savior lives- I come to know him more and more every day now that I'm out here. With Sister Graham being a greenie, I keep going back to those days when I was a greenie with Sister Ouimette in Belvidere. I realize I've changed quite a lot. I still have a long ways to go but I am incredibly grateful for how far I've come- I didn't even realize that until just now! :) It's good stuff.

Well, I'm tired and this week has been crazy. Sorry this email probably wasn't super fun to read. Ha oh well. I hope everyone out there has an awesome week- I love you all so much and I pray for you every night! :) The church is true. Read the Book of Mormon- it has the answers your looking for. come to know your Savior- it makes life a million times easier to deal with. Learn about the Atonement- there's more to it than just cleansing you from sin, and its amazing.

Love you all :)

-Once-an-Hermana-always-an-hermana-but-currently-serving-as-a-sister walton