Happy Valentines!! Love ya'll! :)

Ah!!!!!!! The weeks are just going to fast!!!!!!!! It was a great week though :) We had some real neat experiences this week. Here are a few of them:

1. It was our last night of bike week and we didnt know what to do and my companion said, lets go to Conny and Emilio's house (spanish investigators) because they live close and we can just walk there. Well when we got there there was someone else there that was making decorations for her baby shower. She was due in a week. We started talking to her and come to find out she is A MEMBER!!!!!!!!! Her mom served a mission, and her parents were married in the temple, her brother served a mission, shes been to the temple to do baptisms for the dead, and she used to go to the Clarksville ward like 5 years ago with her mom. But her mom passed away and she hasnt been back since. She is going through a tough time right now and it is just so cool seeing how God leads us to the people that are ready to come back. The Spirit was SO strong in there and I really could feel the prayers of her family wanting for her to come back so badly. It is the best when you find lost members! :) As in I mean, we dont have their records. We are excited to start working with her. She just had a baby but after that she should be coming back to church with us! Right place at the right time! 

2.We have been working out real hard and eating healthy :) Got to be looking good when I come home ;) We are doing the 30 day challenge so by the end of it we will do 230 squats, 100 leg lifts, and 40 push ups. We are on day 12 and did 110 squats, 80 leg raises, and 12 push ups. We are getting there! 

3. We found another less active this week! Its moments like these that really make your week! Our car was way behind on getting an oil change when we got it from the zone leaders (so it wasnt our fault) but we took it in and they didnt have any openings right then so we made an appointment for the next day at 11 to bring it in and guess who we found sitting in there? 2 hispanics so of course we had to talk to them! One of them was named Patricia and she kept telling her friend all about what missionaries do. She knew a lot. All of a sudden the Spirit was like "This is Gloria Patricia" and I was reminded of a few months ago when we were planning for the next day and I had this Gloria Patricia written down in my planner but I didnt know who it was and I didnt remember writing it down but I told my comp. that we need to find out who this is and try this lady. So we asked the missionaries if they knew who it was and then we found her name in the roster. We got her address and had been trying to contact her ever since. Well, here she was in the Goodyear getting an oil change the same day and same time we were. I asked her if she was a member and if she was Gloria Patricia and she was like, ah you caught me! Haha it was funny and really neat how the Spirit can tell us things. She told me that she knows its not a coincidence that we were there at the same time and that she knew it was a sign from God that He was telling her that she needs to come back to church and she promised us she would :) It was real neat. Right place at the right time again :) I love when I can see that I am being an instrument in the Lords hands. 

4. We read What is the Blue Print of Christ's church this week because the last time we were with Jaime and Daniela that popped in my head and wanted to share it with them. If you havent read it, YOU NEED TO!!!!!!!! It is the best talk ever! :) It is by Tad. R. Callister. I love it. We went over and read it with them (most of it, its like 18 pages of amazing) and it was answering so many questions that they had. Afterwards Hna. Dube was explaining that when they get baptized in the church, they will become members of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints. he started getting all offensive and was like, no I already told stevens and goudie that I wont be baptized in the church. I thought we had lost him, and then I figured it out when he started talking about the dream he had about being baptized outside in a river. he was thinking that when sis. dube said in the church, she literally IN the church, like inside of it. We got that one cleared up! Haha ;) 

The rest of the week was busy getting everything ready for Tommanieshas baptism. Here are some of my favorite quotes of the week: 

1. "and the deskroying angel will pass by you"-teaching Laporsia and the fam the word of wisdom. notice the k. yes, thats how they say it! 

2. walked by a guy at Subway and he suddenly turned around real fast and stared at us and said, oh my gosh. I think I just ripped my pants. sis. dube just goes, "well we didnt notice, but now its like I really want to look!" I love  her! 

3. we were teaching Laporsias family getting Tommaniesha all ready for her baptism and in the middle of the lesson the 14 year old looks up at the cielieng and goes, "Is that Rosy?" Sis. Dube starts screaming because there was a spider coming down from the cieling right in front of her! I guess Laraneisha (the 14 year old) loves spiders, names them, and keeps them ;) I love this family!

Love yall! Happy Valentines. I am so grateful for all the love, support, and prayers. Dont forget to show lots of love this week. I will be. But dont worry, its not that kind of love. Charity-the pure love of Christ ;)

Got to drive the truck for like an hour and felt really special :) It was in our car share but it kept getting hit when the Elders had it so E. Cahoon decided to take it out of our car share and give it to the ZL's in Conway :(

went bowling with the Elders this week! I got a 93... not bad for not bowling in over 16 months ;) the elders all call this the "Goudie" face.

Our lovely little district. This district used to be  huge! There used to be 12 missionaries. Now it is down to 6 :(

Doing our language study in the car :)

SUBWAY!!!!!!!! Italian BMT is where its at. 

At Tommanieshas baptism. Eldrick wasnt there though.

I love this girl! She was so excited to be baptized :) I am grateful for all the members that helped us out too :)

this is sis. murphy. She is 95 years old! Love her :) She just kept telling us, you girls are 21 and its time to get married ;)

oh goodness... dont mind us crazies :0

 Isabel Salcedo got married :) these are all the hermanas from the branch that went

Look how beautiful this girl is on her wedding day. love her! I totally made the wedding video ;)

just being a little crazy! 

Familia!!!

Well... guess who came this week??????? SISTER WARNER!!!!!!!!! I guess thats not really her name anymore... But I just have a hard time calling her Ashleigh. She is just as beautiful as ever. She came for Keriannes wedding but was in Russellville for a few days. It was weird having her over, it was like I was living in 2 complete different worlds. Mission world, and real world. Not sure if I am ready for the real world yet... Sis. Warner said the weirdest thing about it is not having someone with you for 24/7. That is going to be a skruggle. But it was so good seeing her! Haha and she sat by me during Spanish sacrament meeting and went to bear her testimony and she totally set her gum on my skirt! Haha I love that girl ;) I love being able to bear my testimony twice each fast and testimony meeting. The blessings of serving in English and Spanish. It was funny because sis. Dube got emotional when she shared her testimony in English and I was fine but in Spanish it totally flip flopped. Haha I totally lost it up there ;) I just am so grateful for the opportunity that I have had to come here and I know the the Lord knows me and knows that I needed to be HERE to know these amazing people and have their testimonies touch me. I have learned so much that I would never have been able to learn anywhere else. My perspective on life has completely changed! A members testimony really touched me this week when she said, "Just look at the big picture!" We need to remember why we are here, to prepare to meet God. And how do we do that? The simple things like reading the scriptures daily, praying, going to church. Sometimes they seem so simple that we make them more complicated than they need to be ;) Yes we are here to enjoy and have fun too but we need to remember the bigger picture always and strive to be like Christ in all times, all things, and all places :) And the best thing about being a missionary is we get to represent Him and strive each and every day to be better and help others come unto Him. 

So some interesting experiences this week. We were on bike week and we always seem to meet the most interesting people on bike week, probably because we talk to everyone. We met a guy that invited us to his birthday bbq on the weekend and then had us put our hands up against his and said, "do you feel that? I used to have 6 fingers." Awkward! And then he started talking about human trafficking and how sis. Dube would go for 50 but I would go for 70 because of my long hair. Even more awkward!!!! not even sure what that's supposed to mean ;) Oh the people we meet on our missions ;) We also talked to some guy that didn't speak any English at all! I think he was like Japanese or something. Sis. Dube was just trying her best to communicate with this man. she just kept pointing to her tag and saying MISSIONARIES and pointing to the picture of Christ in the Book of Mormon and saying JESUS. It was hilarious. I wish I could have been recording. We gave him a card with a website on it though so I hope he checks it out and can actually understand ;) I am so grateful that I can at least speak Spanish ;) Right before we went on bike week we took the car to one of our investigators house Carolyn and lees and dropped off a talk for them in the mailbox, His Grace is Sufficient by Brad Wilcox. We didn't want to take it to the door because it was early in the morning (for them, they are an older couple) so we just left it in the mailbox. Well we called her a few days later and she said, "Don't you know that's against the law?" oops... missionaries accidentally breaking the law here ;) We had a good lesson with them at the Plumbs. I am so grateful for all the members help :)

We made our own homemade salsa this week! We taught the D&C class for the Spanish branch Saturday night, we had sports night and Chino came! I scored 2 goals, I am getting pro ;) and we had some awesome lessons at Laporsias house! Tamaneesha is getting baptized on Saturday. She is 8 and super excited :) 

Quote of the week: "The capacity of Christ is to serve others a midst our own trials" - sis. Watts

Well... I love yall! Have a great day! :)

Look at the cute puppy we found while we were biking and sharing the gospel :)

Just riding over the tracks!

There are so many trains in Russellville, so we had to get a few pics to remind us of them. ;)

Self-timer... I promise we were being safe. ;)

Our homemade Mexican meal ;) Okay it doesn't look that good but it tasted great! Thanks Sis. Dube! :)

Earl received flowers and he shared them with Sis. Dube and I :) Love that old man!

All the Ninos at sports night for Cesars birthday party. He turned 2!

Pro-Mexican soccer players ;)

SISTER WARNER!!!! Aka Ashleigh and SAMANTAH! :) Love them!

This Week!!

hey yall, 

So, this email might be short... I am being lazy today and dont want to write a ton ;) but I will just share the best things that happened this week.

This week we had specialized and my mission president is just awesome! He shared his conversion story and it took him 8 years to join the church. It just gave me hope for the people that I love that I am teaching that are not choosing to act now. Maybe it is not their time but we should never give up and keep trying because we never know when it will be there time. I often think that the people that take the longest are often the strongest members down the road. 

We also watched a video that I have seen multiple times before but it really hit me this time. It shows Christ doing the different things he did while he was here on Earth and with each thing it lists the attribute like humility, obedience, love, things like that. Well, I just realized that that is one thing I have learned on my mission, is more about my Savior. And because I am learning more about him, I am trying to become more like him. And the only way we can become like Him is if we come unto Him. Two of my favorite scriptures: 3 Nephi 27:27 and Moroni 10:32. What manner of men should we be? Like Christ. So lets go unto Him and be perfected in Him. Thats what brings us the greatest joy and just like 2 Nephi 2:25 says we are here to have joy and the footnote to that is Potential to Become Like Heavenly Father and we do that by being perfected in Christ. Man I just love being a missionary and all the cool revelations I have and things I learn. I know that I am learning so much here that I wouldnt be able to learn anywhere else. I love being a missionary! 

I also worked on my fear of man this week and was trying to be more bold like my companion sis. Dube. We are just trying to talk to everyone even though it is awkward but somehow sis. dube has a way of making things not awkward. I am learning a lot from her :) We talked to a random person this week trying to see someone who wasnt there and this guy pulled up so we talked to him and he said, "it was definitely a sign that we talked to him! yahoo! Isnt that just great? we started talking to him in spanish because he was totally hispanic but turns out he didnt know any spanish because his parents only spoke to him in english. that was a bit awkward ;) I also met a hispanic that didnt believe in God this week. That was a first. 

Hey everyone just dont stop smiling okay! It really makes a difference. there was a member that came back to church and he said that the only ones that were nice to him and smiled at him were the missionaries and it made him feel bad that no one else did. So KEEP SMILING!!!!!!!! 

funny quote: "whats a dingleling?" oh sis. dube. its so silly some of the differences in language. Like instead of garbage she says bin and she says toilet instead of bathroom. I love her! 

We had exchanges and I learned so much from sis. Tu'ifua. I love her! Found out that her sis. is in Xanders mission I think and that she knows my great aunt and uncle who served as a mission president there. I just love learning from others!

And guess what! Wow... remember how I said that this email was going to be short? oops.... we we had 4 people at church yesterday! It was lovely :) I have learned that dilligence, prayer, and sacrifice brings blessings. Jaime, Daniela, Carolina, and Zach came to church and it just sure makes a missionaries day when you have people come to church :) We also had 3 of our recent converts there as well! CHINO CAME! :) yahoo! We had a bomb lesson with Jaime and Daniela and I am so grateful for the scriptures and members who help us so much. I think Jaime agreed to live the word of wisdom. His prayer was awesome when he was praying to not have that temptation again. 

Well... we are going on bike week this week. Hopefully it will not be too cold. I love yall.

Hermana Goudie

Playing frolf with the elders!!

Reading scriptures with the elders and our recent convert Ben outside ;)

Throw down with our investigator! We couldn't go in because his mom wasn't there :( but we stayed warm!

We had lunch with the Chapmans and we found these cute guys outside ;)

Exchanges with the best sistas ever!!!!!!! sis. neal and tu'ifua

Ben Got Baptized!!

So this week was exciting :) It first started out in Little Rock with Sis. Ives visiting less actives, recent converts, and investigators. It was a great time! We played ping pong with the missionary crew in little rock and then signs which was a lot of fun. We tried to play chairsketball but 2 of the office rolley chairs broke :( it wasn't us though. Wednesday I got my new comp. and she is awesome! She is so smiley and bubbly and is going to teach me a lot :) So since she leaves the mission the same time I do I think I will only be in Russellville for 5 more weeks :( But its all good. I have been here for a good minute ;) We drove back down and it was back to work. We had dinner with Bro. Bruce, went and watched the restoration video with Lindsey, Kelsey, Zach, (who came to church Sunday) and Cole which was awesome, then had the usual correlation meeting and met with Ben one last time to finish teaching him and preparing him for his baptism. 

The rest of the time was spent visiting people, and making plans for Bens baptism. I cant believe  how fast this baptism was. I think we taught him everything in 4 visits. But he was so ready! It is so neat how God puts people in your path when they are ready to act. The members helped us out a lot with the baptism and I am so grateful for them! Bens whole family who are recent converts came up for the baptism and his dad baptized him! It was so awesome to really see how the gospel does bless FAMILIES!!!!!!!! 

Saturday was super busy because there was a baby shower, bridal shower, getting everything set up for the baptism, katie taking us out to eat, getting the interview figured out, and I swear something always goes wrong on baptism days. Its like no matter how much you plan and how ready you are, something goes wrong. The baptismal programs that we usually use got erased off the computer, the nob to twist the drain so the font fills up was broke, but the elders helped a lot. And everything worked out just great! 

Some other fun highlights of the week. We were contacting a spanish referral and she was totally holding a dead chicken the whole time we were talking. it had like blood gushing out of its head. it was sick! we also saw a lady beat up her husband as he was trying to get in his car outside of a different girls house. sis. dube totally went up and stopped the fighting. it was awesome. oh the things we do as missionaries ;) 

Well, dont have much time because we went and helped move someone in with the elders and now they are all yelling at me to finish so we can go play frolf because its like 65 degrees! But everything is going good. 

Love yall! 

Hermana Goudie

Spanish missionaries in LR. When I was with sis. Ives for a few days because her comp. and mine both went home so we stayed together until transfers. It was so good to be my first area again and see everyone!

sis. foster!!!!!!!!! she came out with us. it seems like just yesterday that we would go and do visits with her. cant believe its been a year. love her!

Got to see Madelyn, one of my recent converts in LR. She took us out for hot chocolate. She looks so much older. I have missed her!

La famillia HERRERAS :) de Little Rock. love them! I had not even met the baby yet so that was fun.

sis. hernandez had sis. Ives and I over for dinner! It was delicious as always. man. I just miss people from LR so much!

Got to see Madelyn, one of my recent converts in LR. She took us out for hot chocolate. She looks so much older. I have missed her!

My cousin left me :( but we were pretty excited because at transfer meeting they announced that we now have EL NUEVO TESTAMENTO en espanol! Wahoo!!!!!!!! So now we can carry this around with our Libro de Mormon and as them as 1 in our hands ;)

This is the new sister spanish missionary. She is awesome! she is originally from the philippines. sis. ives is going to be SUCH a great trainer. I LOVE THEM BOTH!

my new comp! Sis. Dube is awesome! She is from zimbabwe but moved to england when she was 12.

I have always wanted a picture by this which is on the way to the stake center. I finally got one :)

Katie (Danville's recent convert) took us out to eat the other night. Her conversion story is so cool. That is one thing I love about being a missionary is how many cool stories I get to hear and how people came to find out that they know these things are true. I know that I came to AR for a reason on my mission because so many people have taught me.

Ben got baptized!!!!!!!!!! This was his family who drove in from Oklahoma. They are recent converts over there in OK. And sis. stevens played a fun surprise visit :)

I am in LITTLE ROCK!!!

So... my companion left this morning with sis. warner to the temple and they spend the night at the mission home and fly home early this morning so sis. stevens and I drove here last night and I get to be here until Wednesday when I get my new companion. It was so hard to say goodbye to sis. warner. But its alright. She is coming back in 2 weeks to visit. I get to see all my recent converts within the next few days, some less actives, and some members here in LR. I am so excited! I cant believe it has been a year since I have taught the people here. I love this place. And sis. ives is just the best :)

 

So I left my old planner in the apartment... lets see if I can remember what happened last week. Well there is some exciting news! Bens phone finally got turned on, we have not been able to get ahold of him for a week so we weren't sure if he still wanted to be baptized on the 17th. But we were weekly planning and I just decided I would try his phone one last time and IT WAS ON!!!!!!!!! Yahoo :) He said he still wanted to be baptized. He is solid. He was at drill this last weekend but he told us that he talked to his dad who is a recent convert in Oklahoma and that he is coming down on the 17th for his baptism! So... we will be communicating through texts until wed., meet with him that night, finish teaching him, get him ready for the interview, do the program, and there should be a baptism on Saturday! I am so excited :) way to start of the transfer!

 

We also just had a lot of goodbyes to do with sis. stevens leaving. it is so weird watching someone pack up and get ready to go home... I just love being a missionary. I cant picture not being one ;)

 

We had interviews with pres. this last week. They were good. "as beautiful as you are, I have to ask, is your heart locked?" "Yes president!" It was silly. Don't worry, he is asking everyone ;) and another funny thing happened. we met this older couple the other day walking around and they seemed interested so we gave them a book of Mormon and made an appointment. we showed up for our appointment and a younger lady comes out right after knocking with a book of Mormon in her hands. So we asked her name and she said "You can have this back (the book of Mormon) and I looked through this pamphlet (the restoration) and this is really just not what I am looking for. I cant believe my dad let yall come back here." I kindly told her that we respect her decision but that we have many copies of the book of Mormon so I told her to just keep it incase she ever had a question or wanted to look at it sometime in the future. She decided to take it back ;) I think she came out prepared to be a lot meaner than she was but when she saw that we were just 2 young gals she decided to be reasonably nice ;)

 

I just finished reading the New Testament :) it was awesome! I learned so much about Christ's teachings and really want to strive to become more like Him. I am reading the Book of Mormon again this transfer and can I just say that Lehi and Nephi have got all of the Christlike Attributes down! ;) humility, gratitude, obedience, everything. Some of us are just slower okay? ;) Well I am excited for this new transfer and the things that lay in store. Love yall!

 

Hermana Goudie

P.S. Oh and one more thing... church was cancelled. For sis. stevens last Sunday. it was quite sad. Supposedly there were supposed to be icy conditions but I never saw much. Definitely did not feel like a Sunday without church...

Dia De Reyes. In the Hispanic culture they have this holiday where they make bread and there are still dolls in the bread and whoever gets the piece of bread with the doll has to make everyone tamales for a Holiday in February. Jaime and Daniela bought us this and there were 4 dolls in this one! Their 2 year old daughter got 2 of the dolls, I got one, and Sis. Stevens gone one. Well, since she went home and since I don't know how to make tamales... guess I am going over their place so they can teach me! ;)

Sis. Stevens had to drop her bike off in Conway on our way to zone meeting. Well.. it didn't fit in the trunk. So we had to sit cross legged the whole way down. :)

Jaime, Daniela, and Elizabeth, the coolest investigators ever! This is who we celebrated Dia De Reyes with, they pushed the wedding date back to April, because their family is working on getting Visas from Mexica, but then after that they are planning on getting married and going to the temple!

We had dinner with Sis. Ruby Montegnese this week who is deaf. Sis. Stevens signed her testimony in sacrament last week and we got her n umber and text her and she invited us over for supper! She taught us some sign, gave me a sign name which is the letter C up by my mouth (I think its for like smile or something), and signed to us some of her experiences. Her nephew was there and he helped translate for us when we didn't understand. Her testimony is amazing. She has had so many trials in her life, but she has always had such strong faith in God and He has helped pull her through cancer, going blind, losing her husband, and being deaf. She is such an example to me! She made me cry just listening to some of her experiences.

Marcy fed us this week. She is another great example in my life of accepting Gods will and changing.

Ashley Allee, one of our recent converts, informed us that they are moving to Texas :( So we had to take a goodbye pic.

Love this family!

Love the Judds! Sis. Stevens was saying lots of goodbyes so I thought I might as well take pics with them all too! Sis. Judd gives the best hugs! And Bro. Judd is hilarious!

LOOK AT MY CUTE PLANNER!!!! I love it. :) Families can be together forever, that is the goal!

2015!!

So every time I would get freaked out about going home my cop out would be "oh I dont even go home till next year... I still have a long time!" But... I cant really say that anymore... because I go home this year! But I still have 2 more transfers so... 

Well. Last Pday we played PING PONG!!!!!! with the new set my parents gave me. It was so good to play again! I havent played in over 7 months. I need to do some brushing up so that I can defeat my dad when I get home ;) we also played nerf wars with the elders... reminded me of good ole little rock times with the elders last year. man... I cant believe that was a year ago. 

I have changed so much since then... well atleast I feel like I have... I have a better understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the scriptures. My testimony has been strengthened of my Savior and I know that it is only through Him that we can be forgiven and return to live with Him in eternal families. I am so grateful for all the things I have learned, ways I have grown, miracles I have seen, and lives that have been changed in this last year. I look forward to this next year and know there is so much in store and that this year I will learn and come even closer to my savior through His Atonement and trying to become more like Him everyday. I know I wouldnt be who I am today if it werent for the things that I have experienced on my mission and for my amazing friends and family and for my Savior Jesus Christ. 

We were finally able to stop by sis. loftins this week, a less active and we hadnt eaten dinner but like always... she offered us something to eat. She gave us the yummies apple pie and rootbeer ;) and it was like 9:10 pm when we finished and we still had to bike home. She asked if we wanted a ride home and said that she really doesnt drive at night but said "if youre not scared, I am not scared." Talk about faith in the Lord protecting us! I know he watches over us :) She wasnt even that bad of a driver ;) and we only lived just down the street. Some other things that happened this week:

1. got super tired when we went to visit a member and while my comp. and her were talking about the maps in the bible... I may have fallen asleep... I promise that has only been like the 2nd time I have fallen asleep on my mission... and atleast it wasnt an investigator this time ;)

2. practically lived at the plumbs this week. They helped us out so much! We had an awesome lesson with Ben at their house. He is so ready to be baptized. But he got sick on Sun. so he couldnt come to church and the lesson we had planned for after. His phone isnt turned on so we havent been able to get ahold of him yet and we dont have his address because we always meet him places for lessons... talk about hard to get ahold of! I dont know how missionaries used to do this whole preaching the gospel thing without phones and technology ;) 

3. Ashley Allees window broke at like 9 pm one night and she texted us saying that she had cardboard but no tape. Thank goodness for sis. hardway who picked us up with cardboard and tape and we went over there and fixed it for her... it was way too cold for them to sleep with the window wide open. turns out Luna was doing flips on the bed... people! This is what being members of the Gospel is all about. Learning to love and serve others! 

4. saw melinda! It has been over 5 months since I have seen her...

5. taught spanish institute to the members. D & C is awesome! 

6. It was sis. stevens bday yesterday!!!!!! 

Well the elders just came in and said they are leaving and we still have to do a mordida (the spanish tradition where you shove cake in her face) to sis. stevens... so I better get going. 

Love yall! 

The Maddens. This family is cool.

Happy Birthday Sis. Stevens!

Trying to do Mordida to Sis. Stevens