Hello Hello!

Hi family,

How is everyone doing? It sounds like everyone is doing quite well! I hope the internet gets back up and running! This week seemed like forever long but was good.

You are all probably wondering what happened.....ready ready? I am training! surprise surprise! haha With 14 missionaries I don't think anyone had the chance of escaping that. Sister Pingree told us that we are getting a bigger group this next transfer and even bigger the next so it should be an adventure. My new companion is Hermana Crandall. She is from spanish fork.

Kynsie and her new companion...Sister Crandall

She is really nice. She is a hard worker and positive and we already laugh together so I am really excited for our time together. It was kind of funny because Hermana Gutierrez and I were in the office a few weeks ago looking at the pictures of the incoming missionaries, and I saw hermana crandall and I said, that girl looks so familar. I think that I know her! Now, we are companions. Soooo maybe. It was a premortal connection! ;)

President Pingree told us tuesday morning that we were going to train. We spent a lot of time on tuesday and wednesday visiting members and trying to get Hermana Gutierrez's stuff in order. haha She has SO MUCH STUFF. basically the whole back seat and the whole truck was STUFFED with her stuff. It was crazy. haha. She is opening a new area in the heights which is down town and training, so it will be busy for her but good. She will do awesome!

 

On thursday we had transfer meeting and ate lunch and then came back to tomball with hermana crandall and we got to work! We went knocking during power hour and oh boy did we encounter a surprise. We started talking to this lady named patrica. She is pentacostal. Oh my. She ripped both of us to shreads. She was like going on and on about where is that in the bible and it was a disaster. I was doing the best I could to give her the references I knew in the bible about the restoration and the apostasy but it was hard because she wouldn't even listen to what we did say and when we tried to testify of the things we knew...she just would interrupt us and she was saying like I don't mean to be rude but shouldn't ya'll be a little more prepared and shouldn't y'all be able to do this and that. We tried to show her about the book of mormon and she was like. uhhh no! Show me in this book the bible. I don't need no other book and on and on. It was super hard. I was just being nice the whole time and then when I said I am sorry but we have to go teach an english class...she was like oh I know you are all packing up because you don't have the answers and all this stuff. It was crazy. Poor hermana crandall was like...ummm are all people like her? I said no, because she was one of the meanest people i have come in contact with in texas. She told us that she would come to our church if we would go to hers and I felt bad that I couldn't give her more references in the bible and so I told her that I would look up some more scriptures and maybe we could talk a little more. It made me realize again..how much I don't know about the bible even though I have been trying to study it. I told her thank you for helping me have the desire to study more and that we would talk to her in a week. This week I have learned SOOO much about the apostasy and about how the churches actually were established. I am reading Jesus the Christ. It blows my mind. I have been preparing and reading a lot in the bible too and it has been helping me. If she will not listen we are going back to bible bash because contention is not of the spirit but we do have to follow up. I want to get a member to come with us to to do the restoration. We will see. It definately humbled me and made me want to study more. I am glad we had some good knocking experiences so that hermana crandall doesn't want to go home! haha :)

On friday it was great because we were able to find about 4 new people to teach who we have appointments with this week! We are excited to teach them about the restoration.  It has been an awesome weekend. It rained a lot on saturday and all of our appointments were canceling but we went and taught Brenda and found some people to teach. Yesterday was a really busy day. We were asked to teach young women's, as well as gospel principles and Chris and John were getting their interviews AND it was hermana crandalls first sunday. I felt like we were running all over the place. The lessons all went really well and hermana crandall did awesome her first day. I helped her figure out some stuff that she could say to help teach the gospel principles class. We got to teach the young women's class in english so that was really nice. We taught them about the restoration and why there was a need for it.

 

John and Chris passed their interviews and did really well from what elder trotter said. I was really happy. Tirza came to church yesterday as well so she is officially reactivated! :) Yay!! They are getting baptized on the 4th. This saturday. Daniel, their dad, wasn't able to come home this weekend yet and Tirza told us that he said he thinks he will be home this weekend for the baptism so that is really exciting. Please pray that he will be able to be there. Tirza is changing. She looks a lot happier and I think she is happy to be back. What a special family they are!

 

randomness of the week...or day...This morning we were doing some service at the Ruiz's house and the elders found this baby frog, like the ones we used to catch in nebraska, and then this SICKO worm. He was super chubby and was white. It was gross but a good find. Elder Barney just came and said put out your hand and gave me the frog and It reminded me of when we used to catch them. They are cute! Wellll I don't know what more to say...:) 

 

I love you all, hope you are well and I pray for you always! Remember who you are and to whom you belong to. :) Let me know when Matthew and Tucker are calling so that we can figure out when i can call. I think...it will most likely have to be in the night time...so just let me know and we can work something out for mothers day! Oh by the way the arredondos are coming to provo next week so they are going to drop a little something off to you! :) 

 

Okay random question. Whitney Hoopes is getting married or got married? I saw something about that in the last email and I was like WHAT? I didn't hear that news.

 

Off finding the tens of thousands

 

hermana rife

 

"Found a picture of Amy (Bingham) in an ensign! haha :)"

It is always fun to see someone you recognize...even if the picture was from a few years ago!!!  :)

Elder Pliego, Sister Gutierrez & Sister Rife

"Saying bye to Elder Pliego!!!"

Texas Skies and Kynsie's Church Building!

pssss HELLO

Hi Family!!! 

How are you all doing? It sounds like you had another busy busy busy week. Tyler looks sharp in his tux. I knew he would though. Speaking of tyler....Aaron Perry, Sister Annette Burrnet's granddaughter called me and said hey we are passing through tomball and wanted to come say hi. We had an appointment close to where they were so we went and said hi. I had NO idea who she was. I felt so bad and then after I realized that she and her sisters or cousins were always hanging out at our house last summer with Tyler, Tanny, and Max. I was like ohhh I remember now! She is nice. I don't really know how she got my information but its okay. She and her father were here on business for Doterra and so yes. They were with a member of their ward who ended up giving hermana gutierrez a quick trim and she was SO grateful because this other lady messed up her hair. She seems nice and it was nice that they wanted to say hi! 

Anyways. Okay for the weeeeeeek! Our investigating friends are doing really good. Chris and John aren't going to be able to be baptized this weekend though. We were a bit bummed because they weren't able to come to church. Something happened and they couldn't. Tirza their mom feels so bad but they can't because they haven't been to church 3 times. :( We are just pushing it back one week but it is still a tiny bit sad. It will be okay though, it is in Heavenly Fathers hands. I know that we are working for him and He knew this was how it would be. They are doing really good other than that little thing! 

We met this new girl named Diana she is 14. She is the neighbor of one of our old investigators. She is super sweet and has lots of good questions about the different churches. I am excited that we are getting to teach her. We invited her to read the book of mormon and she is like um okay i can't this weekend but after I will read it. She wants to come to church and told us that if she finds out it is true then she will get baptized. I have a really good feeling about her! I love sharing the restoration with people. It can be so powerful if the spirit is strong and if they are wiling to open their heart a little to listen! 

Benardina is doing well. We helped her son kevin work on a school project about a zebra. It was intense and he is only in 1st grade. She didn't know how to help because she doesn't speak any english and didn't know what the teacher wanted. I think it helped her to know that we love her and that we really are there to help her. We also got to see her a few times this week to teach her. Her prayers are progressing and she is still reading the book of mormon! We just need to get her married and then baptized. :)

it is....Miracle time! About 3 weeks ago, we ate dinner with the Arzacs. They are from Argentina! We invited them to pray about people to share the gospel with and then to give them a pass-a-long card. They said well, we don't really know anyone here but we will try.  At english class hermano arzac said Hermanas I need a book of mormon. He said our neighbor found us and we are sharing the gospel with them. We were really excited. This last week when we ate with them they explained to us more about her and they are planning to give her the book of mormon and invite her over for a family night. It was neat how they prayed for someone and then she found them. Heavenly Father has it planned out and at times we just need to ask. :) 

This week I made swedish pancakes for Hermana Gutierrez and I. She loved them and it was really fun. I wanted to print a picture for Grandma Jensen but I don't know if I will have time. I hope I will. Oh the good memories with swedish pancakes. 

This week, I caught a frog. I kissed him and he didn't turn into my prince. I guess I will have to wait a few more months...haha  Just kidding. I didn't kiss him but we did catch him and then we saw our friend rupert the snake again. "Oh the oddessy of a sunday" okay. sorry other random story. Hermana Gutierrez likes to make up songs sometimes. We ran out of miles so we drove half our miles 3/4 way to church then walked the rest of the way and then after church the lopez family gave us a ride to our car so we could drive the rest of the way back. The whole way we were walking that is the song she was singing. She would add in other stuff like ohhhh we almost got hit by a car, we are walking by some smelly road kill, i think i see a aligator....ohhhh the oddessy of a sunday!!! and on and on. It was pretty funny. It was quite the adventure but hey you do what you got to do to be obedient.

Okay well I think this email has gone on long enough. Sorry it is so random today. I am glad to hear all is well with ya'll. This week is transfers and I was told there are 40 missionaries coming this transfer. It is going to be quite the experience! I am loving my mission. Please pray for the Rodrigous family. Thank you for all your love and support. Ps...Guess who is coming this weekend to TEXAS?  HERMANA RIVERA!!!! yay :) I am so excited. 

I love you all and i hope you all are reading the book of mormon. Remember who you are and to whom you belong too

Off finding the 10s of 1000s

Hermana Rife

Kynsie's $1 Sunglasses Broke...poor girl!!! 

The Rodrigous Family at church 

Kynsie at the Temple

"This week, I caught a frog. I kissed him and he didn't turn into my prince. I guess I will have to wait a few more months...haha  Just kidding. I didn't kiss him but we did catch him!"

A little better view of her friend the Frog!  

Trust Kynsie!

Hellllooooo to my peeps in provo

Hi Family,

How are you all doing? It sounds like you had another fantastic week. I am glad to hear it. Thanks for your email and pictures. Thanks for that little update on christian terry too. I am glad he is progressing and that is sweet of Eric to keep people updated. Eric is a special guy. 

We had a busy week but it was great. We got our carpet replaced and our whole apartment painted and so we had to take all the stuff out and down and out and covered. We ended up putting pretty much all of our furniture in the balcony and our beds in the bathroom. It was quite the job but we got it done pretty quick. Its nice to have it all freshly clean. It had been five years since the first elders moved in and it is supposed to be cleaned and retouched ever year at renewal but I guess it hadn't ever been done so they just decided to redo it all. Lucky, Lucky us! :) 

We had zone conference this last Wednesday! It was awesome. I always feel so energized when i leave. President Pingree talked a lot about the baptismal covenant and how important that is. He also was talking to us about how we have to talk to everyone. I guess that he has even been trying to do it and he said that the other day he was scared and didn't want to talk to this guy because his forearms were as big as his thighs but it ended up being really great and the guy told him " my mama always taught be a follower of Jesus and I think it is time that i get close to him again" If he hadn't had talked to him then he wouldn't have been able to help him. I think it is quite admirable that he gets out there to share the gospel too so that he can testify and share his miracles! As we tried to talk to everyone, we had some really neat miracles! God is always blessing us when we try to do what is right!

This is kind of a fun story. On saturday, our ward had an activity. They were doing a few games and did that one where you have those 2 2x6 boards that are kind of like ski's and they have the rope and you have to walk fast with everyone in sync and it is like a rely? I don't know if that makes sense but anyways. The elders tell us, sisters the members want us to race each other so can you two come over here (because we were talking to this lady) We said yes. We were in our skirts and all and I am like ok hermana I am going to say left right and just step in sync and hang tight. She hasn't played many of these mormon games...haha. She is like ahhh okay. We start to go and we were in the lead. The elders say, oh don't worry we are okay, they'll slow down. We just keep going and I am dragging poor hermana gutierrez. We ended up winning and she told me. Oh my gosh hermana you are so tough. You were like picking up the whole board and me and I was just hanging on and trying to keep up. They elders thought they were totally going to beat us but oh no, not with us. :) I guess I shouldn't let my competitive side come out. It was really fun though. The elders couldn't believe that they were beat. They thought they were going to beat us and that is why THEY brought up the idea to the members to have us race. Silly Elders.... 

Catalina, Kevin & Charlie; It has been a while since we started to teach them. I suppose it just wasn't right timing. We went over I think last week and had an awesome lesson about prayer. They hadn't been reading, praying or coming to church and then it was like night and day after we gave them some space. They have been reading and praying daily and Catalina, the mom is actually listening and reading. She told us yeah, we can't come to church this week but we will come next week! It is so exciting. The little boys are so sweet. Their prayers are so special. Charlie always has like a huge list of things he is grateful for and then hardly ever asks anything. I think he is a good example for me because sometimes when I begin to pray I forget to thank Heavenly Father for all the blessings I have and just start asking him for more things that we need help with. I am excited to see their progress! 

The Rodriguez family: They are doing great. This week they will be getting their baptismal interviews. Yesterday, they all came to church and even her husband who isn't a member came. He is really nice. He is sooo quiet but said that he really enjoyed priesthood and expressed thanks for all the friend shipping he felt. Tirza's daughter who is 6, said mom I really liked this do we get to come again? Tirza said, yup, every sunday! Yay!! They are coming back. It is two weeks in a row. The ward was pretty good about fellow shipping them and helping them feel welcome too. Hopefully if everything works well, we will have a family night with them and another family in our ward tonight! I am so happy for them. We took a picture but it is on Hermana Guitierrez's camera. It was so fun to have them all be there. I really think they can feel the changes and they are going to be able to build that solid foundation for their children! 

We are holding off on eddies baptism because some doubts have come up but please keep praying for him and that he can feel the influence and understand the power of the holy ghost. He is so sweet and he is just struggling a bit right now but he will be okay!

On saturday, we talked to this guy who wouldn't tell us his name. He came up to us with 2 beer cans and a beer bottle in his hand. He said..oh your the mormons? We told him...yes and He started to talk with us a bit. He had done some really bad stuff in his life and told us basically that he believed in Jesus and God but that he was going to have to pay for his sins because of how bad they were. We talked to him a lot and testified to him about the power of the atonement. By the end he got a little teary eyed and he told us that he drinks to get the pain and guilt to go away. It was so sad that he didn't realize the power that the atonement has and that he has to forgive himself in order to move on. He promised us he would start to read the book of mormon and that we could send missionaries to his house. It made me so sad that people don't realize that it doesn't matter how far they have gone or what they have done but that Jesus Christ and God are waiting for us to come back. It is true that we will have to deal with the consequences of sin but that we have a way to repent. What a terrible life it would be if we didn't have that hope. We have never gone to far or done too much. They are always waiting for us to let them help us.

I know that the atonement is real and that we have the power to change and become new people in Jesus Christ through the atonement. We can repent and be cleansed of sin at baptism and then every week as we take the sacrament. I am so grateful to be here in texas sharing this good news. I love my mission and I love the gospel. I am so grateful to be here at this wonderful time! 

Next week is transfers, so you will hear from me again before changes are made. I don't know what will happen but a lot of hermanas are coming in. I will let you know when I know. I love you all a lot and pray for you daily. Keep making good choices and doing the best you can in all you do!

ps there is all kind of birds here and wildlife. This week I have seen, a bunch of cardinals, blue birds, yesterday I saw a woodpecker (that was really cool) and then A possum crossing the road. It is fun to see them all!

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

Much love
Hermana Rife

Pictures with the Bowcutts. They are going home and I LOVE THEM!!!

:Eating Lunch at Zone Conference 

Everyone who got the "Clean Apartment"  Award!!!

Good Job Kynsie....your Mama is pleased with you!  :)

What a Wonderful Week!

Hello Family!

It sounds like you had a wonderful spring break as well as conference weekend! Thanks for your letter it was wonderful to hear all the things ya'll are up to. We had a great week! I really really enjoyed conference. It was a beautiful weekend of messages.

My birthday was a lot of fun! Yes, I received the Flowers from Kate & Nick. They were beautiful! I loved them. Our office lady Laurie came up to tell me that I had received a delivery because they were so pretty! She is so sweet!  I really enjoy visiting with her! She was so kind and bought me a balloon and left it on our door! :) I got in the shower in the morning and when I got out Hermana Gutierrez had decorated our apartment with balloons and signs and then she sang me this mexican happy birthday song in Spanish. The whole time I am just standing there in my towel. She then gave me an awkward hug and we had a good laugh. She said she was praying for Heavenly Father to make me take forever in the shower and I was trying to go so fast in the shower but it was seriously like I had to keep rinsing more conditioner out and I was like dang it is taking forever today. Well we know Heavenly Father answers prayers! :) It was nice of her to decorate. We ate at Hermana Calderon's home for lunch. She made these super good tacos and homemade tortillas. She told us how to do it, so that makes me excited to be able to do it. We bought some cupcakes from this little cupcake store and some ice cream and ate them as well as took a few to Elder Trotter, Barney and Then our two office ladies. They are like Gourmet Cupcakes. They were pretty good. We went and taught Benardina after and she said her first prayer out loud with us! She is so hard to read but she thanked Heavenly Father for bringing us to teach her and helping her know more so we know now that she is feeling a difference. It was a nice little birthday gift. :) 

We had exchanges Tuesday to Wednesday so I went to Waller with Hermana Auten. She only has been on the mission 1 transfer and she thought she knew how to get back to Waller but she didn't...So we ended up being really lost being in downtown Houston like 45 minutes away from Waller and then we finally got directions to get back on the right road and as we were on the side road to get on the freeway when our car starts going bumpedy bump bump bump... I said I think we should pull over and see what is going on. When we got to the nearest parking lot we got out to take a look and we had a flat tire. :) Yup. It was AWESOME. haha She is super quite so i am calling the car coordinating missionary and Elder Ohern says...well do you have a tire in the back and I am like I don't know! Do we? He said you don't know how to change a tire do you? I am like....yeahhhhhh NO! I am a girl, what do you expect. :) Just in my head I said that. As I am talking to him the phone beeps...yeah it definitely was going to die. He was so sweet and called the elders in the area and they came got us all set to go! There was a horrible storm hitting on the way back that Elder Ohern had warned us about. We we stuck right in the middle of it. It was raining so hard that we couldn't even seen what was in front of us. The lighting was lighting up the sky so bright and then it would be pitch black again. Hermana Auten has only driven a few times since before the MTC so I was thinking that it might be my last night alive! :) Not really but I was praying really hard the whole time for angels to lead our car and for us to be protected. We finally got to Waller about 10:13 PM after leaving our area at 6:30. We planned and went to bed. It was a very memorable birthday to say the least! I probably won't ever forget it! I thought it was quite funny all a long and it was one of those things where it just kept getting worse and worse and worse and worse. :) Its okay though! Anyways. Elder Ohern said we did exactly the right thing and that we are going to be used in the zone conference as an example of what to do if this happens. Notoriety. WooHoo. I did learn how to change a tire. It isn't as hard as I thought it was. Thanks again for all the birthday wishes and love! It was a nice day. 

Conference was awesome. I loved so many talks. My top favorites were...Elder Perry, Elder Holland, Elder Bednar, Elder Uchtdorf, President Monson, and Sister Wixem but I really loved a lot of them. We watched it at the church all the sessions except the Sunday Afternoon. The elders brought quite the stache of candy. On sunday, The Rodrigous family came. It was so awesome. We said we would be at their house at 10:15 to pick them up and they were all super ready to go. Jonathan who is 10, even invited his cute little baptist friend Leo. He is already being a missionary. Leo asks some good questions as well. They all really enjoyed the conference. Tirza, the mom, loved it! We have a family night with them tonight! They have been making a lot of progress. We watched the testaments and the Joseph Smith Movie with them last week and in the testaments they started to cry. Tirza said that they really felt the spirit. We had to leave because we had another appointment but she said they all loved it. Her husband who isn't a member said that he wants to come to church so hopefully we can catch him one of these days when he isn't working! They are a great family! Very strong. Tirza recognizes how Satan is doing everything to distract her but I think she is finally fighting him hard and overcoming it! 

We ate at the Arredondo's between sessions and then we watched conference there. It was awesome! I love that family. Hermano Arredondo is so funny. He is always doing all of this stuff for us. He always makes us the lemonade that is so good and he keeps filling our cups over and over again. He made us this chocolate cake too and keeps giving us food. He is so generous! Hermana is so sweet and has a lot of quiet dignity. She is so great too. It was nice that they let us come over! I felt at home far from home. 

A neat miracle happened the other day. We were headed over to teach Brenda and Alex and they weren't home. We decided to go contact this lady that we had talked to a few times. A man answered the door instead and said Ana wasn't there. He asked if there was a message we could leave her and then we just said well we talked to her and then also we wanted to remind her of the english class on thursdays. With that he opened up a lot and started asking us about the class. He finally said...what church are you all even from. We told him and he just started to ask us a ton of questions about when we go home, what we do on and on. We ended up sharing a very brief version of the restoration and he said. What are the requisites to becoming a member of your church? What do I have to do to become a member. I was in shock! :) Hermana Guiterrez explained about listening to the lessons and then getting baptized. She gave him a soft commitment challenge. He said he would get baptized if he knew it was true! He said he is going to study the pamplet we gave him and then we are going to go back and teach him. He told us something of the following... Isn't it amazing how this happened. You came her to talk to my cousin but then I was blessed to have your visit. He said God works in different ways. He knows what he is doing. It was AWESOME! He told us that he doesn't drink or smoke and from the sounds of it...I don't think he is breaking the law of chastity. We are excited to go back and teach him. There are people prepared. 

It sounds like you all did lots of fun activities as well as lots of work over the break. That is good. I am glad you are spending time together. I loved how Sister Wixom told us to turn off technology and enjoy time together. I am learning on my mission that we have to make time for the things that are important. If we aren't making the time then they aren't going to happen. We have to make time to read our scriptures and say our prayers, we have to make time to serve and be a devoted member of the church, we have to make time to spend with our family and loved ones. If we don't then before we know it our lives are going to fly by and we will not have a whole lot to look back upon. We can make time for whatever we want to thought but we are the ones who decide what fills our time. 

Well It was a wonderful week. Lots of wonderful things are happening in Oakcrest. I am grateful for all your love and support. I'll answer some of your question in the letters i send home, hopefully but now it is time for my dentist appointment so I have to get going. I love you all a lot and I am thankful for your encouraging words! :) I love my mission and I am so thankful to be here

Remember who you are and to whom you belong to. 
Off finding the tens of thousands

hermana rife

An Exchange to Waller with Hermana Auten and their Lesson on How to change a Flat Tire!  

Fun Times and Fun Memories!!! :)

Conference Weekend

A visit to a Gourmet Cupcake shop for Kynsie's 22nd Birthday

HaPpy BiRthDAy!!

"Purple" Tulips for her Birthday from a thoughtful sister and brother-in-law!

Thanks for thinking of this Katelin and Nick!  You were wonderful to do this for her.

Why HELLLLLLLO!

Hello Family,

 

How is it going? It sounds like you all had quite a wonderful Easter. We had a good Easter too! We had a beautiful sacrament meeting about the Savior, his atonement and the Resurrection? I can't remember how you spell that word. Sorry. :) We also did visits to a few members in our ward as a ward council. I went with our relief society president and hermana guitierrez with a different hermana in our ward. It was so weird leaving her. It was really fun though to get to be with hermana garcia. She is so special I learned a lot from just talking to her. She is a fantastic woman.

 

This week was good! It went by quick again. Time flies. Alright where to start. Hmmmm

 

Eddie is doing well. He is starting to remember things better. We taught him about tithing this week as well as a few other things but he was able to explain all the principles of tithing when we asked him. He is still reading and praying. He wasn't able to come to church yesterday because he had a family activity but he is doing well. He (without even being taught the word of wisdom) is trying to stop drinking. We talked to him about some of the blessings. Later on in the lesson yeseddie (his daughter) came over and then she is sitting there and randomly says. Daddy, no smoking, no drinking and No bad words or God is going to get mad! hahaha :) Look at her go! :) We just told him, Eddie you have to listen to what she is saying! He was laughing. Yeseddie's mom, Yesenia came to drop her off and we talked to her for a minute. She said she is going to come to church next week. We asked Eddie if he had invited her to come and he was like...nope she invited herself! Maybe this little family can come back together...:)

 

Fun Story. We were at our investigator/less active's house. Julio and Rossy. We were eating dinner and then we were talking about cereal and I told them how I love cereal and how i always liked to eat it at night time. Rossy said well I guess we should just have some right now. After eating our cow tongue tacos (yup-that ain't no lie - quite tasty...tastes like chicken! slimy yet...satisfying! lion king...bahaha) we had a bowl of special K and it hit the spot. I was just smiling that we were eating a bowl of cereal. It made me happy! It was funny but it made my night. Speaking of food. You are never going to believe what i ate last Tuesday. I ate a whole fish. From the fish. Like a dead fish, just cleaned with head, eyeballs and all. All the fish. I thought I was going to die. I was giggling because i was thinking...how am i going to do this? Hermana Gutierrez was saying why did you keep laughing. I think it was like a nervous exertion of energy! :) I told her how i would have NEVER eaten anything like that before.  It was super good though. I also ate shrimp this week. Still not my favorite but I survived. I am becoming less and less picky which is good for me. Crazy though. I am sending pictures of the fish.

 

Lopez - Mormons at the Catholic BBQ peeps. We haven't been able to get in with them for a bit because they were out of town and then not catching them. We ended up stopping by and we had an awesome lesson with them. We read in Alma 32 about experimenting on the word and acting to see if it is true. Good stuff right there. We asked Hno Lopez what the passage was saying. He totally knew. He just starts going on and on and he got it right but then he said but i am catholic and i told my mom ya'll are visiting me but that i am catholic and just learning more about God. Hermana Gutierrez was able to bear a strong testimony about how she left what she knew to be true and is the only member and told a bit of how her family is being blessed for her decision. It was really neat that she can tell him that. She said it isn't about doing what your family did or what your culture is or anything. It is about doing gods will and doing it his way. It was powerful. He and Josephina (who is so sweet and humble and willing to learn) committed to reading the book of mormon and praying every night as a couple. I was able to testify of how dad you always said if people, married couples specifically, would do those little things it would change their marriages around. It is true though because when we have the spirit we don't have a desire to do evil. We want to be more Christlike and everything gets better. We have an appointment on wednesday with them.

 

We put on an activity for the youth this last friday. It was really fun. We had them do scripture jeopardy  scripture mastery relay races and a balloon pop with the balloons tied to feet and then you have to pop them. I think it went very well. I had fun. We had hotdogs and a guest speaker too from another ward. I felt it was very successful. It was a bit crazy putting it all together but it worked well. I think it helped strengthen the testimonies of some of the members of the ward who didn't trust us as much because they heard our testimonies and hopefully felt our intentions. I feel like we are gaining a lot of trust from them. Some of the people who didn't talk to us as much are coming up to us and inviting us to eat or just asking us more about the work which is awesome!

 

Saturday we went to Magnolia which is in our area. We were trying to contact some less actives up there. We thought on was in our area but it was the elders, they told us we could just contact them since we were there. It was like 8:30 at night on a super dark road. We can't see anything. We were sacred. As we are walking up we see this huge dog...up to my hip huge. It had a rope and it was broke and it starts running at us full charge. We are screaming...and then He jumps on top of us and and I fell over and he bit my arm. It didn't break skin but I was like ahhhhhh he wouldn't get off and it was just so crazy. Hermana Guiterrez just was like oh my goodness what do i do and it is definitely April fools. so ha ha got you. :) Back to the story. He starts running towards us and we are like yah he isn't chained and it was quite scary but he was nice. We hurried and knocked on the door and she let us in. She, Hermana Martinez, is soo nice and has a strong testimony but kind of just stop coming to church because sometimes her husband works and she hasn't come back but she said she wants to start coming again. We had a great lesson with her and hopefully the elders can continue to help her come back.

 

Okay well I think i this is it. This is the end. Thank you so much for the birthday wishes. I got my cards today. Thank you for all the birthday wishes. I still haven't heard anything from Kendra...hoping to get that letter soon! Well Have a beautiful week and enjoy your time off and conference! I love you all a lot and keep reading daily!

 

Remember who you are and to whom you belong! Off finding tens of thousands!

Hermana Rife!

At the Youth Activity with Bella, Yeseddie and Angel's daughter

Two cute sister missionaries

& 

The "Balloon Pop" 

Yummy Fish Kynsie got to eat!  :)

 "I ate a whole fish. From the fish. Like a dead fish, just cleaned with head, eyeballs and all. All the fish. I thought I was going to die. I was giggling because i was thinking...how am i going to do this? Hermana Gutierrez was saying why did you keep laughing. I think it was like a nervous exertion of energy! :) I told her how i would have NEVER eaten anything like that before."

Yup...Kynsie managed to eat the WHOLE thing!!! 

Another little creepy creature from Texas!

Kynsie is having quite the adventure and learning to enjoy all kinds of FUN  things!