Week 34: Another baptism!

hoooooola!

This week was the one year mark since I got my mission call! Crazy!

It was such a good week! I LOVE being a missionary! I LOVE Louetta! I LOVE my companion!!!

This week we had Zone Conference. AHHH!!! It was unreal. I literally couldn't take notes fast enough during President's lesson. I LEARNED SO MUCH. Mind blown. Then we practiced teaching for an hour and a half. We're trying a new method of teaching and it is hard hard hard! But as we've applied it this week we have seen so many miracles!

F was baptized this week! YAY! Although the service was an kind of, sort of, an absolute disaster, we did our part, and he made a covenant with God, and that's all that matters. :) It was so sweet to see his little boys pushing their noses against the glass to watch him be baptized. F's baptism was years and years in the making, and it was such a blessing to be here to help him reach that goal and get those blessings.

Excerpt from Courtney's companion's (Hermana Miller) letter about the baptism this week:

Well the highlight of this week was..

FRANCISCO SE BAUTISO!!!

AYYAYAYAYAY ARRRRRIIIIIBBAAAAAAA!!!!!! <------ (I think that means "Hallelujah" in Spanish. Honestly that's probably what everyone was shouting in heaven. Guaranteed.) 

It was so fun and so awesome. It's funny because we've been planning this baptism since last week and making sure everything was perfect. We were so excited because last week we were sure we were going to beat the odds and actually have a non-stressful baptism where everything goes according to plan. Well, it was a good thought. And just like life itself, when you think you're doing great, everything seems to go wrong. Its a blessing and a curse - blessing because you learn and grow and curse because its the worst thing everrrrr. Anyways, everything was set perfect until about 2 hours before the baptism. First, our pianist canceled. Now, for all of us Utah Mormons, that would not seem like a big deal at all. Just walk next door and ask your neighbor right? Wrong. Virtually no one in the ward plays the piano except for that one person who canceled. And neither do the missionaries. Ahh!! But then, I remembered that my grandma taught me to play the piano and I happen to know how to read the notes. So guess who was assigned to play the piano? Yup. It was a struggle. And then, we didnt have enough miles to drive all the way to the church so we called our ward mission leader for a ride and he said he would be there at 5:45 - well at around 615, his wife shows up to take us. My nerves are a little on edge at this point, but I'm like "Please, I can do this. Put together a baptism in half hour? Give me a challenge!" and we pile into the car. Weeelllllllllllll maybe it wasnt the best thing to ask for haha. Fastforward to 35 minutes and 10 miles later.... we arrive at the chapel. At 6:50, and the baptism is at 7. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. Well the good news is, we actually got everything ready by 7. (Thanks to the Elders filling up the font) Everyone important is there - us, ward mission leader, bishopric, and Francisco. Bad news... we're in a Hispanic ward and 7 actually means come at 720. So we all sat in our seats for a while until people finnnalllly came. Honestly there's like this '20 minutes late' trend with hispanics - 20 minutes after something is supposed to start, they all rush in at the same time. It's so weird. Well then, we have everyone there except for Carol - Francisco's girlfriend/basically-wife/mother of his children. I'm going to save you the pain of what happened next so fast forward to 8:30... THE FIRST COUNSELOR IS STILL GIVING HIS TALK AND NO ONE IS BAPTIZED YET. Yup, he gave a 45 minute talk. But I mean, at least it was less that 50 minutes right? Yeah. Thats the first thing that came to my mind too. Somewhere in that hour, Hna Hoj showed up to play the piano for the rest of the night (Ayayaya Arrriiibaaaa [see above] ) Well, then Francisco was finally baptized. And it was the most beautiful and flawless baptism I've seen in my life. It felt like it was in slow motion. Francisco came out of the water, opened his eyes, and smiled so big. And then he and Hno Brooks hugged eachother. Oh my heck so precious. SO worth it. And from that point on, all was well in Zion. And me and Hna McOmber slept soooooo well that night. (:

Rest of Courtney's letter:

One night we were teaching one of our potentials outside his apartment when his roommate S came out and said, "I need a Book of Mormon!" After a few seconds the shock wore off and we were able to stumble out, "We'll get you one right now!" So we ran to the car and got him one, and asked him how he knew about the BOM. He said that we had met him one day in passing and had given him a Restoration pamphlet. He said that he read it and felt something so beautiful and knew that he needed to read the BOM. New investigator!

My favorite miracle of this week: My second transfer in the mission I met a recent convert named Jenny at a wedding in the Woodlands ward. She really wanted me to come visit her, but she lived out of my area! I sent her info to the sisters in that area but they never visited her. Yesterday Bishop Martinez in consejo de barrio gave me her info and assigned me to visit her! I'VE BEEN TRANSFERRED IN TO HER AREA! I had no idea! Ahhh! The Lord works in mysterious ways, and I love being part of the work.

Funnies of the Week:

A guy asked us if he could buy us drinks. It was so hot and humid Hermana almost said yes, until I reminded her what kind of drinks he was talking about.

Everyone here thinks I'm Hermana Hoj! I have to reintroduce myself to everyone over and over!

Pulled into our member's neighborhood for a dinner appointment to find 10 squad cars and a low flying helicopter tearing apart the block for a shooter with a machine gun. Welcome to Houston!

Drove past a woman pruning her tree with a sword. Literally.

The Church is true! The book is blue!

Hermana McOmber

My desk

Found one of OUR old pamphlets taped to their door!

Best bumper sticker

One of our members has a MORKIE!

Tex Mex at its finest!

Baptism

Love him

Heavenly Father saved my sisters to be my mission companions!

Step into my office

Half the billboards here are in Spanish

Elder and Sister Lindsey - love them!

Names of real people the sisters teach - haha

My favorite meal:  torta de fajita con agua fresca de melon!

Week 33: I love the temple!

Hey hey!

Such a good week! 

We are the extremely lucky companionship of the mission... we have the temple in our area! 

So we had a lesson with F up there! It was so special! We just stood there, looking up at the temple, for a few minutes and he turned to us and asked, "Do you feel that?" 

This week I had exchanges with Hermana Marlowe! She's only been out for 3 weeks! It was so much fun! We contacted 45 people! 

On Sunday we got a ride with a member couple and they brought one of our investigators. We had correlation after and they had him wait IN THE ROOM with us. So awkward! "Well, F's baptism is this week, M is reading her BOM, and J is here!" hahaha Then after church the hermana ushered us into her house for arroz con leche, and then proceeded to make us pupusas! 6 HOURS with this poor investigator. hahahah He was loving it though.

Walking down the street one day we saw a guy in his garage and decided to say hi. He runs up with his missionary tag in one hand and pictures of his mission in the other! He had made his garage into a taekwondo studio, with posters of the karate kid and his belts everywhere! He was like, "Take a seat on the mat!" So we sat on his little karate mat and talked! He is a jiu jitsu master! hahah 

Met a couple coming out of the temple who was from Chelmsford (SPENCE) whose father was mayor of Chorley (PHILIPPA) and who served their missions with Sister Pingree, and their son is on his mission in Sacramento (DAD)! So many connections! 

Hermana Miller and I have acquired quite the little fan club in our three weeks here... but hey, at least they're coming to church! Puttin' our blue eyes to good use!

Funnies of the Week:

As we were planning and setting goals we got to mark that we have a baptism this week, so Hermana Miller shouted "TEN POINTS FOR GRIFFINDOR! ...ohh wait, TEN POINTS FOR GOD!" 

Met a man who wants to be a preacher... he literally danced his testimony, thowing up his arms up and crying and shouting about the vision he had. Missionary work would be a whole lot different if we all did that!

We run in the parking lot of our apartments in the morning and one morning while we were stretching the garbage truck stopped and the guy hopped out to ask Hermana Miller who in the world these four girls who run in circles every morning at 6:30 are.

During the prayer with the cat lady we teach I got a mouthful of tail when cat #9 jumped on my lap.

We always sing (to the tune of All I do is Win)

"All I do is sweat, sweat, sweat no matter what! 

I've got Jesus on my mind and I'm never givin' up!

And everytime I put this little tag on,

every body's faith goes up!

And it stays there! And it stays there! And it stays there!"

There is a literal PINK LIGHT on the turn signal at the light by our apartment!

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!

Hermana McOmber

Got caught in another storm!  Looks like I showered in my clothes!

Best p-day... made pasta and a craft!

Barred window, gated front door with padlock, ADT security sign....and they left their ipod outside.

Pretty views here!

Gorgeous Temple

Temple

Temple trip with F and the Berrios

Cleaning out all of our cupboards for them to spray for cockroaches.  Not worth it...didn't even work!

Planning Popcorn

Milk and cookies? ... No, Horchata and cookies!

Found a GIANT pinecone! Haha

Dangerous little chilis!

Found a street called Chelmsford on our map!

District Meeting

I made it to Blackpool after all!

Pretty city

Exchanges with Hermana Marlowe

Best chocolate ice cream I have ever had!

Week 32: HAPPY!!

I'M HAPPY.

 

 I feel happy! Really, truly, incredibly happy. What a blessing!

 

I am finally feeling better too! I am sleeping more at night, stress is gone, and I can eat again! Working back up to running in the mornings and my cough is slowly getting better.  Blessings, blessings, blessings. I went to the mission doctor this morning to update him and he just about hugged me he was so happy for me. It's been a long time comin' and we are all so excited to see what I can do now that nothing is impeding me. I feel unstoppable! There are still hard days where I drag and I just can't perk up, but they are fewer.  I still have a whole year to become the best missionary I can be! HERE WE GO. :)

 

It was a crazy week! We accomplish so much in a day!

 

Sometimes I get homesick and miss normal food that doesn't kill my insides, and I start to crave things like mashed potatoes, cooked carrots, garlic bread, or brownies and ice cream. And sometimes Heavenly Father knows how happy it makes me, and He surprises me with members who make me these foods. haha It's happened probably every other week!

 

We were walking down the street and a truck pulled up alongside us and the guy rolled down the window and said, "Teach me something that will help me stop drinking!" So we read Helaman 5:12 through the window to this random guy. haha

 

We tracted into this young, black college football player who was so nice! We got a couple houses down the street when we heard someone calling out for us. We turn around to see him running down the street after us, waving his hands over his head. hahah He came and gave us protein shakes because it was deathly hot outside. I literally wish I could be his best friend. haha

 

We have had a CRAZY week with our investigator named F. He was living with a member and they have two sons, so he had the missionary lessons and went to church for years. They separated this week, and we got a text from him saying that he really wanted to meet with us. So we had a lesson with him and brought the ward mission leader. He is really, really ready to be baptized, and has a sincere desire to do so. {And now he finally can because they're separated!} So our ward mission leader invited him to be baptized... three days later. haha We were so shocked, and neither of us felt good about it, so we told him to give it two weeks and we have continued to teach him. A lot of things have come up and it has been a huge blessing that we followed the prompting to wait. It is so amazing to see the truly prepared people though! He read all of our pamphlets in two days, the articles of faith, comes to church and activities during the week, never cancels lessons, says such meaningful prayers, reads and marks the Book of Mormon, listens to the mormon channel on his way to work, and the background of his phone is even a picture of the angel Moroni! haha He's a "dry member," and we're really blessed to have the opportunity to teach him. 

 

One day we tracted for maybe five minutes before an appointment and ended up finding this DARLING girl who just came here from Honduras, and was baptized with her whole family there! She is living with her older sister who has been here for two years, and was so sad because they could never find the church here. She told us she had prayed the night before that she could find the church, and that the next morning we knocked on the door! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

 

The best miracle this week was yesterday when we had dinner with a family in the ward. After dinner with them we felt prompted to visit the referral she had given us last time we were there. So we drove straight over and knocked on the door. We had been talking with her for a few minutes, and she had just been telling us about her friend that is a member of our church... when that Hermana walks up the driveway! hahahah We were all so surprised and laughed so hard! Because she came we were let into the house and had a lesson! FOLLOW PROMPTINGS.

 

 

 

Funnies of the week:

 

Met a hispanic named Vladimir.

 

We ran into our police man friend that told me "Welcome to the Hood" and in hushed tones he gave me his number and told me to call him if we ever needed him {"I don't usually do this, but y'all are special"}. We now have our own personal body guard!

 

We were walking through these apartments looking for people to talk to, when we heard someone trying {key word: TRYING} to play the trumpet and trombone. We came around the corner and found two rough lookin' young hispanic guys teaching themselves how to play by mimicking what they heard on the mariachi band playing on the radio next to them.

 

We encountered a very, very drunk man one night who sang to us and called us beautiful angels, and kissed our hands goodbye. hahah AY AY AY.

 

Everyone wears cowboy boots to church.

 

We tracted into this cute old, white Christian man. He told us jokes for 20 minutes!

"Two friends argued their whole lives about whether Jesus was black or white. They both died and went to heaven, and they were greeted by their Savior at the pearly gates, "Buenos Dias!"

 

"A priest ordained a cab driver to the ministry, saying "I have never seen one man inspire so many people to pray."

 

"Two friends wondered their whole lives about whether there are sports in heaven. One friend died, and came back to tell his friend. He said, "I've got some good news, and some bad news. The good news is, there really are sports in heaven! The bad news is, you're up to bat next Thursday..."

 

 

Les amo muchisimo!

 

Hermana McOmber

Can you see the steam coming off the roof after the flash thunderstorm?

The cutest guy with his ice-cream bike - looking at the card I gave him!

Tacqueria!  Love my mega size "agua de melon"

Can't reach the doorbell!

Finally reached it!

There are huge, beautiful mansions right next to the temple - can't wait to tract here!

Don't do it!

So much swag

I love Texas!

I love my companion - Hermana Miller

Guard dogs - and a duck!

I love Texas!

There are several Ginormous Asian churches here

Caught in a thunderstorm!

Even my watch got steamed up!

Tracting with a member - we know what pamphlets are really used for - fans!