Updates from Hermana Goudie: NUNS!

So this week was good. We had a car. The temperature is lovely. We found lots of new cool investigators, and the flowers are all coming out :) Last P-day we went to the park and did something CRAZY!!!!! I will send pics. It was so fun. Also, I love ukeleles. Just throwing that out there. We went to BJ's Monday night for a farewell to sis. richardson. Sister Richardson and Sister Ross left back to Nauvoo this week. President picked them up from our apartment at 5:30 in the morning last Tuesday so they all had a sleepover at our apartment. There were 6 sisters! It was fun :) So now sis. Christianson and Wilkins are companions and they can either stay at our apartment or theirs. This week they have only slept at ours once.

I went on exchanges with Sis. Johnson this week. It was really good :) It was nice to go on exchanges that are in spanish so that we can help eachother teach. When we go with sis. training leaders they dont know any spanish so its all up to just the one person that stays in the area to teach all day. But this exchange was good. I learned a lot from sis. Johnson. she is an awesome missionary. She really loves the people and it shows. We were able to visit Esteban who has a baptismal date for the 26th. He is here visiting his daughter who is a member. We also learned on our exchange that if you knock while saying "Hola!" they are more likely to answer. We were at a door contacting someone and they werent answering but we knew someone was home (this happens a lot) the thought has always come into my head to say hola as you are knocking so that they know you speak spanish and think maybe you are their friends or something but I have never done it. I asked sis. Johnson if she has ever tried it and she said no but then decided to try it and afterwards the lady answered! It was hilarious. On the exchange we stopped by the Arroyos (members) after getting yelled at by some guy across the street and us telling us that one day we are going to look back and realize we were wrong and regret all of this. But he doesnt even know what he is talking about ;) We just bore our testimonies, shared some scriptures when him and stayed strong :) at the arroyos she was cooking food for the Elders who were on their way over... so we were going to leave but then she started making us something quick to eat too. she made esquite. It was delicious. Its like a corn soup with cream in it and chili sauce with lime. YUMMY!

Wednesday we had permission to go and visit NUNS!!!! So Ben and Tom who helped everyone get unstuck from our hill at the ice storm (who has also fed us a couple times) are tight with the nuns. They do the maintenance at their house (these nuns cannot leave. They live here all their life) and he called them up (because sis. richardson said she wanted to meet them) and they agreed to let us come. it was awesome. It was like sound of music :) not really. But they are not allowed to come out so we have to talk to them through like wooden bars. We ended up talking for about over an hour about their beliefs and our beliefs and they gave us a book about a carmelite nun (thats what they are) which talks about prayer. These nuns do nothing but pray all day every day. That is their main purpose. I bet their prayers are so meaningful. They told us they had a book of mormon in their library of books and said that they would read it! Cool huh? They were so cute! They ranged in age from about 20ish to 80ish. They were really interested in what we were sharing. They will get baptized. Someday.

Luis birthday was this week! We bought the ingredients and Elder Ludwig made a delicious cake for him. We went over and sang to him and he fed us pupusas and showed us the punta and cumbia dance. And guess what? Luis bought a piano! It is super old and reminds me of our piano at home. I played it a bit. It is so beautiful! He bought it but no one there plays piano so he told me that since I am a 'professional' I have to come over and play it to make sure it sounds alright.

We went to Maria Angeles house to do service for her. We cleaned and then she taught us how to make enchiladas. After eating we had a really good lesson on the plan of salvation and why it is so important to get baptized so that she can go to the temple to make more covenants so that she can live with her family forever. She talked to us more about her son that passed away. She is such an amazing woman and mother. But a bit frustrating at times too because she knows the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet but she doesnt want to change religions because her whole family is Catholic. Although she understands why she needs to be baptized. Ugh... people. I just love her and her family so much and I want the best for her. She has gone through so much and I know this will bless her life like nothing else. Anways... after the discussion she taught us how to Zumba.

On Saturday we went to the Bowens for a missionary Easter dinner and egg finding. It was so fun :) There were all the missionaries in the area and Elder Dalton and Reay from Conway came with their investigator who got baptized yesterday. It was so good to see them :) Dinner was delicious as always and the egg hunt was fun too :) (although me and sis. peterson hid them so we knew where they all were). After that we put together a soccer night to bring investigators to. It went really well! There were lots of people that showed up.

Other than that its been pretty chill here in Little Rock. I love it here. I never want to leave. We had dinner with sis. lopez and randi last night and then went and visited Esteban who hopefully is getting baptized the 26th. Nery Polanco came to church :) We went and visited them a couple weeks ago and he promised us he was going to come this week and he totally showed up with his family! It was so good to see him there! I am getting a lovely tanline on my feet from my shoes too. LOVE it! I have been working towards getting the Hold to the Rod so I have been memorizing about 2 scriptures a day. It really has helped in my teaching too. I have been able to use them every day.

Funny story! Haha last night the Elders had to be high maintenance after we were already in our apartment and made us go down to the car to get the mile info and it had been raining a lot. I went down in flip flops (which are super bendy) and the edge of the stairs have a metal piece so that they dont chip which is super slippery. Well... I fell. All the way down the cement stairs. Right into my companion at the bottom. It was hilarious. I am fine :) Just a few bruises.

Little note from our friendly radio that warns us of tornadoes and thunderstorms and flash floods apparently: "turn around, dont drown!"

Love,

Hermana Goudie

Just chillin' in the hammock

In front of the nuns place.

A pic with Tom! Who took us to see the nuns.

Beautiful flowers! :)

The yummy enchiladas Maria taught us how to make.

The soccer crew.

SO SCARY!! We had to use out homemade hammocks sometime. Didn't think
we would end up using them like this though... ;)

Saying bye to Elder Johnson :(

Sleepover in the front room (don't worry we weren't going against the white
hand book. We all had our own beds still ;) )

Esquite!

Familia Arroyos :) (They got sealed in the temple a couple weeks ago)

The lovely flowers. :)

Went on a short little bike ride the other day to Juniors to save miles.

Caterpillar webs! HUGE!!

Maria braided my hair beautifully before helping her clean. Her grandaughter
kepts putting my name tag on herself. It was cute. :)

Hiding Easter Eggs!

Found a pile of wood that had a TON of lizards in it. We tried to catch them but I don't
have dads lizard catching skills. They were blue bellies and we saw one that looked super slimy.