Looking Back while Moving Forward

Well, its been over a year and I figured that its about time I post a few photos from my last week in my mission. After all, it was one of the best, most eventful weeks I had! It included Jaime and Daniela's wedding, which turned out perfect thanks to the help of the branch, but more importantly their baptism in the beautiful Buffalo River. Then came the hardest part of my mission, saying goodbye to everyone :( The Memphis temple and sleepover at the mission home with all the returning missionaries was such a blessing, especially being able to spend time with the spanish hermanas that I grew so close to. So grateful for the photos I have to help me remember all these wonderful times. And a few pictures never hurt anyone right? So here we go! 

Their wedding cake was so cute!

All the missionaries with the newlyweds

All of the women in the branch... and Jaime ;)

Such a perfect family

The best time of year for a wedding

How I miss them!

So perfect!

#Goals

Elizabeth was the most adorable little girl.

Couldn't get enough of this cake.

True Love. 

The happiest day at their baptism in the Buffalo River.

Saying goodbye to my best friends.

More goodbyes.

Love them!

Favorite pic of Elder Dyorich and I

Where it all happened

Just sneaking a peak ;)

Hasta Ver!

All of the returning missionaries at the Memphis Temple

Jumping for Joy. Mission accomplished.We get to see our families soon!

#ALRM Best mission in the world

Pres. and Sis. Wakolo

The blanket Sis. Ashley made me. Love her!

One last goodbye to Sis. Foster.

Got to see Luis, my first convert the night before we left. 

Driving to the airport

Last goodbye to the Bowens. Love them!

"Where you go, I'll go" Amorcita

All in all, if I had to go back and do it all over again I would in a heartbeat. I never knew how emotionally challenging a mission would be, all the heartbreak and devastation of people rejecting the gospel was worth it. It was worth it because I was able to create lasting friendships and experience the true joy of those that were converted. I was able to change and understand how the gospel can bless our lives as individuals and families. The gospel changes lives, and it sure changed mine. I wouldn't be who I am today if it weren't for the Atonement of Christ that allows us to start over. I wouldn't be able to be sealed to my family or husband and be with them throughout all eternity, which is one of the greatest blessings I could ever ask for. As I look back on my mission, I am eternally grateful for all the lessons I learned and people I met. And that gives me strength to move forward. 

Holy Cow!

Well folks, I cant believe that time is actually here. I have like no time at all but I did want to just tell yall thanks for your love and support. I am so grateful for my mission, for the people I met, and for the experiences I had. I know this gospel is true and I am so grateful that I was able to strengthen my testimony and help others gain a testimony. I know this church is true! 

We have a very busy next couple of days. Today we watched conference which was awesome :) and now we are doing last minute decorations with the hermanas for Daniela and Jaimes wedding today at 5 and then tomorrow after the 1st conference we will head to buffalo river so Daniela and Jaime can get baptized! SO EXCITING!!!!!!!!!! :) I am SO grateful I had the opportunity to find and teach them and be here for when they decided that this is what they wanted to do. I am so blessed. I know Heavenly Father loves us so much, even though we dont always deserve it. He wants to give us what we want. We just need to be patient and diligent and put Him first in my life. Jaime and Daniela have taught me so much! I love them SO much!!!!!!!!!! I am planning on coming back in a year when they go through the temple. They are going to be strong members I know it! 

Then tommorrow night we will be driving down to Little Rock, yeah there will be lots of driving tomorrow. We will be spending the night with the hermanas there and then early monday morning we are off to the temple in memphis, more driving :) Then drive back to LR and spend the night in the mission home and then Tuesday I will be home! This is so weird. I sometimes still dont feel like its real and that I will get to see yall in a few days. But I am so excited!!!!!!!!!! I miss yall a lot! Keep watching conference and I will catch you on the flip side! 

Love yall! 

Hermana Goudie

Last Photo For the Blog!

Note from family:

She comes home tomorrow! Yay! Thanks for sharing her experience with us all and for all the love and support! Can't wait to hug her again!

Miracles, Almost Tornado, and Last Bike Week!

This week was SO AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!! but for reals. If I have said that before, I really mean it about this week. So... it all started with last monday night. We went over to talk to Daniela and guess what she told us???????? she said that she has been thinking about her doubts and concerns and realized she doesnt have any so she said she wants to be baptized!!!!!!!!!!!! wahoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! she said that ever since the very beginning the whole purpose of them getting married was so that they can get baptized so that they can go to the temple. and sis. lewis and her amazing questions was like, so if we were able to go on the 5th, would you be baptized that day with Jaime? and......... SHE SAID YES!!!!!!!!!!! I was so stoked! 

Well then came all the stress. this whole Jaime and Daniela getting baptized before I left would really be a miracle. Jaime had a dream of being baptized in the buffalo river and that is like an hour and a half out of mission boundaries. And they both said that they will get baptized on the 5th if we would be able to go to the river. So I kept telling myself, it would just be easier if we waited till after I got home because then we wouldnt have to throw all this on the members on top of their wedding thats happening the day before and we could just plan it out and hopefully be able to come back. But I am so grateful for my companion who has so much faith and kept telling me, lets just try for it. So we got the guts up and decided to call and ask president if we would be able to go to the baptism. and after a few quiet moments of him thinking, he said, "I would say... yes." sis. lewis and I were jumping up and down for joy :) haha it was one of the best moments on my mission. So its going to be amazing. Jaime and daniela are getting married this saturday (they are so dang cute btw) baptized this sunday, conference weekend, at the buffalo river, on easter, and it is my very last day in the mission. CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!! miracles exist. They are real. 2 nephi 27:23. They passed their interview, they both came to all of church, they met with pres. hernandez, and they are going to be strong members in the church. they know it is true. That is the best part! and Jaime will be able to baptized Elizabeth when she turns 8. I love this family so much and am going to miss them like crazy! 

some funny moments. Gotta love knocking the door and them answering, looking at our tags or the book of mormon, and saying before we can ever even get any words out "sorry girls I am not interested." Well I have had quite a few of those on my mission but the other day the lady almost decapitated her little baby Chihuahua in the door because she went to shut it so fast. it was quite sad actually. But pretty funny ;) We started teaching danielas niece who is way cool. Jamie keeps referring to the church as "nuestra iglesia-our church" so cute! 

and then came the crazy storms!!!!!!!!! We had been on thunderstorm watch all night and when it got late we were starting to see lightning in the distance. then we got a call from katie saying it was supposed to be pretty bad. well at 11:40 we got woken up by some CRAZY thunder and wind and rain and the top of our house was like shaking. So we got our mattresses and took them downstairs and grabber our helmets because it seriously sounded like a tornado and got ready to jump in the closet. well, after a few minutes it died down but it was fun to pretend. haha that was a joke. it was not fun at all. it was terrifying. the stls told sis. lewis before she was my comp that i was scared of storms and after this storm sis. lewis told me, I can see why they said that about you. Those storms are so scary. well. We were safe throughout the night sleeping downstairs on our kitchen floor and in the morning come to find out that there actually was a lot of damage done. A huge tree fell down in hna. leals front yard and crushed her truck and part of the house and there were signs that were torn through and the roof of planet fitness was taken off and the side of another building just down the street from us was ripped off too. So I guess we had a reason to be scared. But the Lord protected us :) 

Met this way cool guy at the park the other day. There are the weirdest swings at this park and I have always wanted to try them so we took our bikes in the gate and started swinging on them and then this guy walked by and we said hi and introduced our selves and he said, do you have a minute, I actually have some questions to ask you. And I was like yeah but in my head was thinking, oh no, here he comes to bible bash with us #inthesouth but he didnt at all. He legit had questions and was actually listening and wanting to learn. He is going to be the greatest sunday school teacher is what sis. lewis said. But he was bomb. and the lesson was bomb. we just sat on the bench at the park and he would bring up a concern, we would use the scriptures, teach, and testify and he was like, yeah! That makes sense. Its moments like these that I am going to miss so much. Knowing that you are in the exact place at the right time and being able to testify and feel the spirit so strongly as you are doing so that this is the only true and living church upon the earth today. I know it! And I love being able to share that with others so they can find out for themselves. 

I love this gospel. I am so grateful for my mission. It has taught me so many things. I know I had to come to the Arkansas Little Rock mission because I had people I needed to meet. My testimony has grown in so many ways and I know that Jesus is the Christ. I am so excited for conference and that we get to listen to our living prophet. All of yall better watch it okay! I promise you will learn just what you need to and have the strength to do what you need to. love yall! 

Hermana Goudie

David and samantha took us and the elders to bayou bluffs. it was beautiful!

the gang last monday!

enjoying every last minute with this tag!

last bike week! this bike has gone many miles. its been places

crazy storm. dont make fun ;)

crazy tree that got blown down in front of the leals

These swings led to meeting an awesome guy!

the smiths took us up to mount nebo today :)

its springtime! 

Time is Slipping By

Well... where to start? I am running out of time! Everyday I am like oh we need to go and see this person and this person and we just run out of time! But we had a great week :)

Started off in Little Rock because my comp. was at the temple so I got to spend the day with hna. dube which was SO FUN! I miss her! There is a chiropracter there so we got to go and get adjusted for free and then guess what was sitting right outside? It was like a taco stand but it sold INDIAN FOOD!!!!!!!!! I have not had indian food for 17 months and it looked so good so sis. reed and I gave in and went and bought some tikka masala with rice and naan and a mango lassie. SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!! now dont get me wrong the homemade mexican food we get fed is delicious but I really enjoyed that indian food. we dont have indian places here in little old russellville. Okay its not even that little but still. then we went and hung out out the church with all the missionaries in the area. we played some hackey sack which is SO FUN and I won e. meyers and hes pro at it! Okay so it was probably just luck but it was real fun. then we played signs and we also have a good time doing that.

On our way home the smiths stopped at chick fil a which i love (wow I feel like more than half my emails are about food-guess it just goes to show how much I love food ;)) and while we were there we got a text on sis. smiths phone (SOMEONE accidentally left their phone on the desk in russellville and had to go 2 days without a phone. way to go sis. goudie. believe me. it was stressful. but it all worked out just fine. the elders went and got our phone from our apt. and were keeping us updating on anything that came through.) anyways back to the story. the elders texted us and said that daniela had texted our phone and asked if we were busy today and asked if we could come over. I was a bit worried. shes never really asked us to come over. Usually when that happens its either real bad info like they dont want to keep being taught or it could be really good. Well I was expecting the worse cause I have never really had a good experience like that and we showed up and Jaime was there which was a surprise. So we got talking and they were saying anything good or bad so then I really started to worry that they were just holding off till the right moment to tell us the bad news. But then something caught my attention. DANIELA HAD A RING ON HER FINGER!!!!!!!!!!! this is happening for reals. She is getting married. HE PROPOSED!!!!!! Yay :) So we figured out thats why she wanted us to come over! I love good news :) Jaime also told me that if we are allowed to go to the buffalo river he will get baptized on the 5th, and if not, he will wait a couple weeks until I will be able to come back. Yay! He is getting baptized! And daniela will too someday. I know it! It will be so hard leaving them. I love them so much! They are like my family away from family. 

Can I just say I love mormon messages. We have been using those a lot and thats why Ipads are going to be so useful. So glad at least my comp. will be able to be here when the ACTUALLY come. haha ;) 

At our zone meeting e. fiso told me I could pick the song to sing for the closing. Of course had to play a joke and picked 309. He didnt have the time to ask what it was. So I went up to start playing it and all the missionaries started laughing and finally he was like, OKAY! We are not singing this! Haha got to love "as sisters in zion." he made me change the song. Went on my last exchange so that was weird. met this lady Roseann and my testimony that Joseph Smith did see the Father and the Son was strengthened. 

Got to see ben this week! That kid is doing awesome! And chino. wish I could say the same ;) Haha no hes good. Just got to get him to church ;) He really does have good intentions though. Had my last sports night. So sad but so fun! 

At church daniela and carolina were there. Daniela showed up with a stuffed Dory and I guess while they were in Little Rock looking for a wedding dress they found this and it reminded her and Jaime of me because I never remember what I am going to say just like Dory. #shorttermmemorylossisreal. Veronica y su esposo and sis. lewis and I sang in sacrament meeting. Had a carne asada with the members after church. Knocked on a door with a Utah license plate. Hes not from Utah but was legit. Him and his girlfriend are awesome and I am so excited to start teaching them! 

Well things are going good. Time is flying. I am so grateful to be a missionary and to see my testimony grow so much. I know this is the true church. I know we have a living prophet who leads and guides us. I know the book of mormon is true. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. Testimonies come over time! Be patient! But also be diligent.

Love yall!

Hermana Goudie

The new family that just moved in from El Salvador have an ostrich or emu. Not sure what but it's pretty legit.

SPRING TIME!!!

Playing with light sabers!

INDIAN FOOD!!!

Look whose getting married!

Always wanted a pic with this!

I love this little boy. CESAR!!! COCO!!!

DORY!!!!