Ohhhh Texas

Hi Family,

How is everyone doing? I hope it is G.R.E.A.T. I am doing wonderful. These weeks are flying. I can't believe it is almost march. We had a great week here. I am getting used to my surroundings so I don't need to use the GPS only if we are going somewhere I haven't been before. It is nice because then I am not always wondering where we are. It has been a bit of an adjustment trying to figure out it all. haha :)

The week of the Aminals. I can't remember if that is how you spell that but yeah. We had a few funny stories with animals this week, so I'll tell you those.

I wish we could at least have a fish in our appartment but we can't sadly. We do want to get one though! This week we were knocking in a trailer park one day and this pretty little cat started to follow us. He would come and we would knock and no one was answering and then he would follow us to the next house. He was just sitting right in the middle of Hermana Gutierrez and I. He would just look at the door and just wait. When they didn't answer he would just look around and then we would leave and so would he. He followed us through about 9 doors. Too people opened and he was just all cute. One of them we got a return appointment! I think it was because of the little cat! haha.  His name is Hildalgo...Well that is what we named him. :)

Today, we were walking out of our apartment and Hermana Gutierrez saw a little snake. I just grabbed him after making sure he wasn't going to bite me and we took some pictures and I almost took him with me but then I decided not to. Hermana Gutierrez was a bit scared cause she was like ahhh what if he gets you. I told her to hold him and she liked him a lot. She named him Ruppert. I don't know what it is with all of her crazy names. He then returned to the grass.

We found a few more people this week. We have some people who are quite soild, which is awesome! We have been trying to get at least 12 people/families in our teaching pool. Sister Pingree told us that on her mission they tried to keep that and that they were able to baptize monthly. We have about 6 solidish people right now which isn't terrible but we need a few more. We hopefully will get some of our potentials to become solid this week!

I learned how to make Tamales this week. Well sorta. I can half make them. I think I could do it though. We helped one of our investigators Catalina make them. She was going to cancel on us at her doorstep because she was making them and then Hermana Gutierrez said ohhh can we help you please and she was a little unsure but then let us in and we got them done really quick and I think normally it takes a long time because there are a lot of steps. It was fun because she got to just chat with us and we did all the cutting of the vegetables and meat. The raw meat was SOOOO NASTY but I cut it. :) I think she opened up a bit because we were willing to help her out.

We had another awesome lesson with Alex and Brenda last night. I don't remember if I told you but Alex is super good at the guitar and he played for his church. Yes...played. They left their church cause of some bickering that was going on or something. We were a little excited to hear that cause now...they can come to our church! :) But anyways they sing songs together. The songs are about Jesus and Heavenly Father and are actually really good. I love listening to him play. He always plays something for us. We talked about the Book of Mormon again last night and we read a bit out of it. They were asking more questions about Joseph Smith. We were inviting them to pray about Joseph and Alex just started laughing and put his head down. I said what alex and he told me I just know he was a prophet because I can feel of the purity. I don't feel anything false. He said I can just feel it. He was motioning around his chest and heart when he was saying this. I think he is accepting of the book of mormon too as scripture. :) We were excited. They are doing great. I think we need to explain to them a little bit more about authority because I don't know if they realize that this is the ONLY church with the authority but it is okay. Paso por paso.

We had a neat little experience with knocking. A lady let us in and her kids were SOOO cute. They were talking to us as we were teaching a little message about Jesus Christ. We sang I am a child of God for them and the little girl  - Stormee - stands up and puts her arms around Hermana Gutierrez and I and says You are my New Best Friends. :) She kept telling us funny stuff. The little boy said I really like your earrings to me and the mom said Mikey no Flirting and then he shruggs his shoulders and said Ohhh Mom I just being nice! haha He also said I know who Jesus is and I said who is he and he said he went on the cross to save our souls! I was impressed because he is only six. We are giving the referral to the english sisters because they are english speaking. There was just a sweet little spirit in there home. She told us that she needed to find a church too. All these people are prepared to be taught the gospel. Elder Ballard, when he came kept saying, The Lord is Hastening His Work. I believe that statement. He really is and all we got to do is find them and teach them...It is the members who need to help find them too though. So Be on your toes looking for missionary oppurtunities!

Our other investigators are doing pretty good. A lot of them are busy at first but then after they get to know you they let you come back faster. We are in the beginning stages with this group but we are doing our best to help them come along. I really love being a missionary. I know I say that all the time but it is so true. It is just so fun. We get to help people all the time and we get to share a special message all the time. When I begin to think about the things we do it is sooo weird that we go talk to strangers and even stranger that they just let us in their home and let us teach them but it really is because of Heavenly Father preparing them.

Randomly it will start raining really hard and so I finally broke down and bought boots. I couldn't wait. They are the exact same rain boots as Hermana Gutierrez but they were cute and she was like yay!! we can be matching and they were only 18 dollars originally 34.99 soooo i did. They will be very useful. It has been really nice weather but from what we hear it is supposed to gett a little chilly again.

I know i am probably missing some awesome stories but I can't remember right now. I try to write down things to tell you all during the week of neat little experiences but i didn't this week soooo these are from what I remembered this morning!  :) I love you all a lot a lot and I hope you are all doing fantastic! I hope you all have a super deee duper week and I will talk to you sooooon. Happy March too.

I loved this in my scritpure reading. Matthew 4: 18-22

18 ¶And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were ^afishers. 19 And he saith unto them, ^aFollow me, and I will make you ^bfishers of men.
 20 And they straightway left their nets, and ^afollowed him.
 21 And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of ^aZebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he ^bcalled them.
 22 And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.
It makes me think, if Jesus called me to do something would I drop my stuff and leave. If there was someone I needed to serve would I just do what he would do. The Bible is a beautiful thing. I started the bible. I am going to read it this year.

Off finding the 10s of 1000s in texas. Remember who you are and to whom you belong to.

Hermana Rife

pictures

Hildalgo our kitty cat

The Stonewells. Our knocking Miracle with Mikey, Stormee, and Cora

Alex and Brenda

Mr. Ruppert

Kynsie and "Hildalgo"  their kitty cat  :)

The Stonewells -   "Our knocking Miracle" with Mikey, Stormee and Cora

The "Guitar Man"

Alex and Brenda

Kynsie and her snake "Mr. Ruppert"

Wow...this totally amazes me that she is holding a snake!  The girl that would not come within 10 feet of a little creature of this kind!!!  

 Just a little side note for you all. In Kynsie's email she states, "The week of Aminals". This is not an error!  As a little girl, I would read her a book called "The Aminal" by Lorna Balian. Cutest Book EVER!!! Read it if you have a minute...you will love it just like Kynsie did and remember it forever!!!