Week of Miracles!!

This week was full of miracles!!!!!! and also some really tough lessons. But sister warner and I got through them and the week ended so well! it started off with sis. hernandez taking us to chick fil a :) she was down here for work and called and took us out to dinner. It was so nice of her!

We had some interesting lessons with Jere this week. She is one of our investigators that got sent from the sisters in Conway. She is super elect she just doesnt know it. She has been to church 4 or 5 times now she just needs to make the decision. the last time we visited her we took sister hardway and they talked a lot about getting remarried and then afterwards she told us that she just kinda wants to take it slow for now. 

Sister washburn took us to the hospital for lunch and she is really cool. she did suzuki piano and also went on a mission to the philippines. she plays the organ and told me she wants to teach me. 

We had a lesson with some luz del mundo people which I believe is a church that formed from a missionary who served in mexico and then came home, got excommunicated, and branched off and formed his own church. so they believe a lot of things that we do. but the lesson was really long and they pretty much told us that we dont baptize right and that no where in the bible says to baptize in the name of the father, son, and holy ghost besides matt. 28:19. They werent making sense. But he told us he would read the book of mormon and if he finds anything that doesnt match up with the bible that he would give us a call and expect an explanation. but sis. warner and I just testified that what we know is true and it was really cool to be able to understand every thing that he was sharing and asking and to have the spirit with us to remember where scriptures are to share with him and that it was with us to bring power to what we were saying. it was a hard lesson though and he told us that we need to investigate the book of mormon more and our religion because it doesnt make sense and that it is not true. they invited us to come to their church. we stayed strong though and our testimonies were strengthened from this experience.

besides that and a few other miracles we saw this week, there was one huge miracle! Melinda, who is 64 has been taught by sis. warner since january. she has had a few baptismal dates in the past but they have fallen through. she used to smoke a lot, but gave that up in february. she is on oxygen and the doctors told her she would be for the rest of her life. she is home alone all day and doesnt have family here. one of the first days I got her we went and visited her and she didnt want to set a date to be baptized because she told us she is not physically able to be baptized with her health right now. so we were going to put her on hold for awhile. we went to visit at the beginning of this last week and she didnt answer the door or her phone. there was also a meals on wheels card stuck in her door with the date that they came by which was the day before. we were a little worried. we went back the next day and the card was still in the door. so we had the feeling to check the hospital. sure enough. she was there. we went in and she was hallucinating like crazy. she was way out of it. the doctors said she had been going on like that for 2 days and that this was the best she had been. she kinda recognized sis. warner but only for a few seconds. so we were super scared and sis. warner had a hard time with it. she loves her a lot and is really close with her. we went back the next day and she was completely normal. she told us that she had been praying a lot and that she wanted to be baptized this week. we could not believe it! she said that she had asked her doctors the day before (which couldnt have been possible because she was out of it the day before) and they said it would not be a problem for her to be baptized. so something happened while she was out of it and she knew she needed to be baptized. she told us that she had been putting it off and procrastinating and she knew it was what she needed to do. so we set the date for sat. but now we might do it this thursday instead. we went back the next day and she was off oxygen. she started crying and told us that ever since she decided to be baptized that every thing is falling into place and that the Lord has been blessing her. It just reminded me of the scripture Ether 12:6. she is so excited and so ready to be baptized. She even started talking to her hispanic roomates about the book of mormon and told us that she was testifying of it to them. and another miracle, they happened to be lost investigators of the spanish elders. one time we went in and about 10 minutes later the elders walked in to give this hispanic lady a blessing. when we decide to be  humble and do what we know we need to do to keep the commandments, God will immediately bless us (Mosiah 2:24). 

The rest of this week was good. We went and hiked Mount Nebo today with the elders. It was fun :) Sis. warner and I also taught the most lessons we had both taught on our missions so far in a week. It was a good week! 

Love yall! 

Hermana Goudita

Gotta love church signs in the South. ;)

Language study with the Elders (definitely helps to have a native).

Sis. Loftin gave us all of this food from her house when we went to
visit ;) she is so nice!

Mary and Joe Dickerson. Love them!

Sis. Warner and I had a sleepover downstairs in our apartment just for the fun of it!

Sis. Warner and I at Mount Nebo today!

Us at Mount Nebo.

Sis. Warner and I jumping at Mount Nebo

At the Waterfall.

RUSSELLVILLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bueno bueno!!!!!!!!!!! Como estan? I am in russellville arkansas! I came back over on the other side again :) I am loving it SO much! It has been such a good 5 days and this transfer is going to be awesome! 

So last week I did some packing up and then went to transfers on wednesday afternoon. I found out that I was headed to the other side so we hopped on the van after getting all our stuff in the back and started our 3 hour journey back to arkansas. I was in the van with sis. johnson who is now in North Little Rock where I was, elder dyorich who is now in conway, elder davis who is in monticello, and elder udall was driving. there were a few other missionaries to in the van. I had my uke and we played some songs on the way over. When we got over here, I saw sister warner and we had pretty much figured out that I was going to be with her. She was sis. petersons last companion and has been in russellville since november (this is only her second area and she has almost been out a year. crazy huh? I ran up and gave her a big hug and I knew that it was going to be a great transfer :) So pretty much all day wednesday we drove because then after transfers we had to drive all the way her to russellville (it is at the edge of the mission). The next day we did service for a member. we helped her empty a water bed ;) it was a bit nasty. but fun and the elders were there with us to help. The members here are all amazing! and love to feed us :)

So there are no english sisters up here so we teach both english and spanish. We go to both the english ward and spanish branch on sundays. So we get fed a lot because we work in both. and sister warner is loved here :) I dont know who couldnt love sister warner. Shes so cute. Sis. warner was in a zebra for the last 3 transfers (zebra means she had an english companion) and so she wasnt speaking much spanish. There are english elders up here and spanish elders up here just fyi. so we have been finding a lot of hispanics and teaching a lot of spanish. we found 14 new hispanic investigators this week. the Lord is blessing us. We are both really dedicated to increasing our spanish abilities this transfer so we have been speaking a lot of spanish with eachother, more than I have with any other companion. It is helping a lot. And pray works too let me just tell ya :) I have always prayed to be able to speak spanish but I have never put forth as much effort as I have this transfer. So prayer and effort put together is the best way to get answers to your prayers that is for sure! 

We did a Goodwill drop by too to talk to hispanics. We helped move someone out on thursday o algo asi. that was a lot of work. I also dont think I have ever held as many animals as I have this week. I held a brand new puppy (which pooped on me I might add ;)), a baby kitty, a turtle, and a teacup pig. I have a pic of it, it is super cute. 

On sunday I gave a talk in the spanish branch. It was really neat to see that I could write a talk without any help and without a dictionary in a fairly short amount of time. I had elder hernandez (native spanish speaker) correct it for me and there were only a few little errors. It made me happy and made me realize that God is blessing me and helping me learn spanish. My talk was only about 10 minutes though... there were a lot of people out of town in the branch. I wasnt even that scared to give it. I also played the piano in sacrament. 

well thats about it for this week. I love this gospel. I love the people here. I am excited to serve here and find those people here who are ready to accept this message. Love yall! 

Hermana Goudita

Jerry's snow shack in Memphis

Saying goodbye to the Torres Familia.

Lain!!!! I will miss this kid.

Some of my bestest friends! Sis. Peterson, Elder Ludwig, and Elder Jardine at transfers!

Transfer Van!

Sister Dube! She came out with me and is in Little Rock now! We went
to dinner with her and Sis. Johnson after transfers.

Emptying the water bed.

Elder Schoenfeld! After service.

Saying goodbye to Sister Hunt!

Teacup Pig!

Sidney Stokes is super cute! Her family fed us last night. She made this delicious
4th of July cake for us!

Me and my companion were twinners yesterday. We didn't plan it. Nos Igualamos!

I Am Getting Transferred!

Hey everyone!

So this week was a bit full of surprises. We had our last zone conference with Pres. Peterson. It was super good and I am going to miss them a lot! They have taught me so much. We get our new mission president from tonga in a couple weeks. When I saw sis. mitchell (I hadnt seen her in awhile) I realized how much I missed her and her lovely hugs. I really just needed to talk to her and a few tears may have been shed in the process. I love her so much :) she really is one of my favorites.

We went on exchanges with the Jackson sisters right after zone conference. As we were praying about it I felt that I needed to go to Jackson (and I wanted to go there with sis. mitchell) but sis. smith felt that sis. mitchell should come here. So I went to jackson with sis. Johnson and had a great time :) She is super fun. But crazy story! We went out to lunch with a member and she was asking a lot about me and my family. The conversation of my uncle serving in the mission got brought up. I was like "not sure if you know a todd ashby but he served in this mission awhile back" she was like "GET OUT! I remember him completely. He was an awesome elder!" It was super cool. I didnt know if I would ever meet anyone that knew him being spanish and all but jackson is an english area and they dont have a spanish branch. But I really hope I get to serve there some day. It would be cool to serve where my uncle did. being up there with lots of english members for the day, we got fed a LOT! It was nice :) and we got free snowcones too ;) the bishop up there owns it.

Just a random funny. Lain totally threw mangoes at me and sis. smith this last week when we stopped by their house ;) he loves us ;)

And crazy story. On exchanges sis. smith and mitchell met a jehovas witness guy that set up another time to meet with them. we went to the lesson and he had brought a friend with him (jdub missionary) and we had a 2 and a half hour lesson with them at the park. They were pretty much trying to convert us... it was funny. good thing I had sis. smith there to show them all the scriptures to back up what we were saying. she is really good at scriptures. it was interesting to be on the other side of it though and realize that sometimes my investigators might feel like this when we open to a scripture and dont explain whats going on or when we ask silly questions. It was a good teaching experience. I just bore a firm testimony that I knew that what we shared was true and it was cool how the spirit was there the whole time testifying to me that the church of jesus christ of latter day saints is the only true church on the earth today. \

We got to go to the temple today for pres. last time. Only the sis. training leaders and zone leaders got to go and since sis. smith is about to be STL we got invited last night. It was a really good experience. I love the temple :)

Well thats about it for the week. I am getting transferred and excited to have new adventures and find new people in a different area. Love you all!

Hermana Goudie

I got to see Elder Ludwig too at Zone Conference. I have missed my cousin!

Reunited with Sis. Mitchell!

The Yarbroughs who know Todd!

Sis. Tudon is the cutest person alive. I love her!

Like mother like daughter (Mission mother that is!)

I am going to miss the Zuccheros. Their Story is amazing.

We caught a lizard on our deck!

The Garcia Family. Love them. This is the little kid who got bit by a dog.

The Hermosillos! Love them too!

Bike Week Otra Vez

Hey family,

 

So this week we were supposed to get the car back on Tuesday originally, then it switched toThursday, then Friday. So we had another bike week! It was lovely. We got some definate tanlines and a great work out. We were supposed to be on bike week again this week but E. Pribyl felt bad so he switched the car share around so we have the car again :) It feels so lovely to have A/C again!

 

We went on exchanges this week and I met sis. bradford. She is so amazing! she has such a beautiful voice and we helped her find a song to sing at an activity that they were havingsunday night. It was like a music devotional with songs about the Savior. They live with members and they have a piano and a ping pong table in their house. It was so cool! I met some cool members that fed us a delicious meal and also met one of their recent converts Roselda who is 83 years old and just got baptized in March. She is amazing! We went over and played some go fish with her and then shared some scriptures. Her prayers are the cutest. In her prayer she said that she was so grateful for us and that she really likes us. She then said "I am not sure if they like me but I really hope they do." We love her. She does not like long hair though and told me I need to cut it off and donate it to the little kids ;) shes pretty hysterical. She reminded me of great grandpa a bit-maybe a little bit more crazy. But she loved to sing songs with us.

 

One of the days we were riding our bikes a huge storm randomly appeared and started raining super hard. We were in a neighborhood and were just knocking on doors because we couldnt drive anywhere. no one wanted to listen. We knocked on a door and asked to share a message with them and they said no but like we always do we asked if any of their neighbors were hispanic. they said across the street they were. So we tried but they werent home. We went back the next day and met Veronica who was super nice and really loved the message we shared and said she would come to church and be baptized but wants to learn more. She did not speak spanish but her dad did. So as we were leaving we wrote down her name and found out that her last name was orellana who is another way awesome family we are teaching. we asked if they were related and she said yes. we went over to the orellanas (the ones we have been teaching) house last night and veronicas dad happened to be there and we shared a message with him and he told us that his daughter had been reading in the book of mormon and pamphlet we left with her and he said that it was really interesting. we gave him a book of mormon and taught him the restoration and he said he too would be baptized but first wants to come to church and is excited to come to church. These two families are so cool and I know they are ready. I know at times in the mission we struggle at finding the elect but when we are at the hardest times and just want to go in from the storm is when God really sees that we are trying and doing his will that is when we find those that are willing to listen to us and act on the message.

 

Well I love you all and hope you all have a great week!

 

Con amor,

Hermana Goudita

Roselda :) 83 year old convert. She had to get dunked 6 times... she is so stinkin cute!

Sis. Bradford our Sis. Training leader. I love her and she has the most beautiful voice.
We sang together and played Jar of Hearts. It was so fun!

A friendly reminder from the South!

Memphis Bike Weeks! :)

Hey family!

 

So we were on bike week this week. We had to take the car in to get it fixed because someone hit the car when it was parked (this was before I got here). So we were on bikes and will be on bikes again next week. Gotta love bike weeks. I am getting some pretty great tanlines though. I dont have hardly any time at all today because we are going to play volleyball with the zuccheros in like 20 min.

 

This week I took a day trip to MISSISSIPPI!!!!! It was super great. I went on exchanges with sis. johnson and loved it! we had dinner with the Tudon family who are awesome and almost set a date with one of their investigators. in the morning for workout we played volleyball. Their aparment complex has a sand volleyball place and 4 sets of missionaries live there so that was fun. We also had some great time singing and playing the uke with the ASL sister that live with the south sisters.

 

Ruth got confirmed yesterday so that was lovely. We also spent the hours of sunday school and relief society in the primary because there were no teachers. Man that was hard to keep them entertained and quiet. we did lots of singing though and it was super fun :)

 

Besides lots of biking in the hot Memphis weather, the week was good :) Love you all!

 

Hermana Goudie

This is Ruths puppy that they just got. He reminds me SO much of Rascal. He is so
stinkin cute. His name is Roy. Lain (her son) is a little bit rough with him.

Volleyball in Mississippi. :)

Every 3rd fast Sunday or so we have a break the fast with the branch. Viri (the one braiding)
loves to brain my hair. I love it too. :)

"Today Was a Really Great Week"

Hey family! My week was good. My companion accidentally said this the other day at the end of a day and it was totally true. pretty much describes every day of this week. All the days were super long but really good. we had lots of success this week and taught and found lots of new elect people :)

Some other fun things. we helped a less active who is a professional at making dresses (wedding dresses, quincenera dresses, you name it). We met a white cuban this week. It was so weird seeing her speak spanish because she was whiter than my comp. who is pretty white. we had a lesson with connie saying shes not sure if she believes in god anymore. That was a fun lesson. It ended well though and there might have been a few tears shed ;)

Also, we went to go to the apartment gym the other morning and on the way there we saw lots of frogs at the pond. we tried to catch them but they were all too fast and jumped in the pond. they were pretty big too. there was this weird goosish (not a word I know) noise coming from the edge of the pond behind a tree and we went to see what it was and it was just a HUGE toad. It was cool. Then on our way back we found a little baby frog hopping around and we picked him up and my comp. wanted a pic. so we took him back to our apartment. He was super tiny and cute. When we got in the frog jumped out of her hands into the sink and started hopping around. It was small enough to fall down the cracks in the sink but somehow was surviving. we were trying to get him out but then the next thing we knew he fell down the sink and we were SO sad! we then undid the pipes under the sink to get him out because we didnt want him to die in there. The smells were terrible but we found him again and saved him! :) I have a pic of him. Hes super cute. oh the lovely adventures of a missionary at 7 in the morning.

There are so many hispanics here. In my last area most of them thought I was hispanic. Here it is a different story. Someone here the other day asked if I was from Samoa... I guess its time to start losing weight ;) Nah he said he thought that because of my last name.

We had an awesome less active family come back to church this week and bring their cousin with them! We are looking forward to teaching them and Jose said he would be baptized when he knows its true :) great things are happening here in memphis.

Ruth didnt show up for her confirmation. We hope everything is alright with her. We are going to stop by and visit her today and ask what happened.

The hermosillo girls are so cute! They always bring friends to church and us missionaries love that! Viri braided my hair beautifully (I will send a pic) at the baptism after church that the Elders had.

We also went out with a member named Almendra this week. She is super cute! She is 19 and used to live in Utah. She knows Russel Douros. That was weird talking with her about that. 

We ate with the Garcia family this week. They are incredible. They have a 4 year old son named Angelo that got attacked by a dog when he was 2 and doesnt have any hair on his head due to the damage. he was in a coma for 3 weeks so he wouldnt have to deal with the pain. anyways they went to Utah last year to see one of the missionaries get sealed in the temple and they went to visit the statue of Christ at temple square. when they got there Angelo say the statue and told his mom "El estaba conmigo en el hospital"- "he was with me in the hospital." That touched me so much. this little boy knew and recognized Jesus Christ because he was with him strengthening him through this time in his life. It is just a testimony to me that Christ always knows what we go through and is always here to help us in our most difficult times. I love this gospel and I know that Christ suffered for each one of us. His Atonement is not only for when we sin but when we go through pains and afflictions too. I love this gospel and know it is true!

Well thats about it for the week. Love you all :) Have a good week! 

Con amor,
Hermanita Goudita

Little Baby Bike!

Ruth at the Baptism.

Mango Popsicles that Sis. Perez made for us with lime juice and hot sauce. Delicious!

My Uke!

Little Baby Frog!

Ruth Got Baptized!!!

Hey family. 

This week was really good :) So cool thing about memphis. There are fireflies everywhere! They are so cool. I feel like I am in the movie princess and the frog, missionary style. We were on bike week this week and it was super rainy, but we did see the most beautiful rainbow ever. We biked through lots of rivers but also found lots of cool new investigators! We had a family home evening with the Perez family, went to a pancake house with sis. hunt (who is the most loving, generous person I have ever met-we went to a less actives house who is struggling financially and she asked what food she needs for the week and went and bought it for her and then gave her money for gas. such a sweetheart) had our last interviews with President before he heads out in a few weeks, ate dinner at the hermosillos (they have a guitar that I got to play for a little bit and they fixed my shoe-they are pretty awesome) did ruths interview for her baptism and she fed us afterwards, had a specialized training with Elder Kapishke and Meredith where they talked a lot about vision and how we need to constantly keep our minds and hearts on the vision of helping others gain eternal life, and RUTH GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!! It was super exciting. Her son was able to skype in for it from Mexico and he also gave the talk on baptism. Sis. Smith and I sang "yo se que vive mi senor." It was a really good program and Ruth is SO happy! Ruth was so ready and prepared to be baptized. 

We also set 2 baptismal dates with Connie and Jose. the dates are a ways out but its because they have to get married first and connie needs to find out who her parents are and get her birth certificate before they can get married. So we will be praying hard for them. Other than that this week was pretty chill. Love you all and hope you are all doing great!

 

Con amor,

Hermana Goudie

Ashley. She is so super cute. She kept asking what my name was. Sister Gabby is
what she calls me. Her dad is super sick in he hospital and might need a heart
transplant. This families story is so cool. They got baptized a little over a year ago
and sealed in the temple a few months ago.

La Familia Torres :)

Ruth and Lain and us at her baptism! Love her! :)