week 33: somos las hermanas FELICES :)

Paulo's baptism can only be described in una palabra: FELICIDAD!! So so so much HAPPINESS! He told us he feels light and joyful when he feels the spirit and I can 100% say that everyone else felt that way too! The poor guy was drowning in his large jumper and had to get dunked twice, but his smile was huge!! He bore his testimony and it was one of those missionary moments when you just know you are doing the right thing!! Because it was his birthday, we celebrated after with cake and singing, so it was a 10/10 birthday baptism!!! He was supposed to leave to go back to Peru yesterday, but told us it is being bumped to early June. Yay!! We taught him about the temple yesterday and he is so excited to be able to go inside before he leaves Utah!! His smile when we told him he would be able to go inside was absolutely precious and when bishop told us they were booked out until July he was crushed!! We're going to need a miracle with how busy temples are getting to squeeze him in for baptisms, so mega prayers on Paulo's behalf!! 

5 other reasons I was a happy camper this week:

1. I bought a light-up hammock last p-day and set that up for studies and meals a few times! Feels like summer!! 

2. We dog sat for Hermana Garrido all week! It started out kinda awful and she wanted us to go 5 times a day(did not have time or miles for that...), but we figured it out and were able to do studies on her back patio furniture and take him for walks everyday which was a blast!! The number of times people asked if missionaries could have pets now haha! 

3. On Thursday, our stake was in charge of landscaping at the Provo City Center temple! We ripped up all the spring flowers, scrubbed the tiles, and started planting the summer flowers. It was gorgeous and so fun!! (I felt like meggy g working on temple square last summer)

4. I got to see lots of fam/friends!! Boppa and Diyah came to drop British chocolate off on Thursday and Kate, Krista, and Logan surprised me at dinner on Friday!! It was so so soooo good to see family and friends after so long! Seriously the best surprises! 

5. Last Monday evening, my bike tire got another flat and we asked some kids outside to borrow their pump so we could bike home. Their dad came out and fixed my tire speedy fast(second time someone has done that-people are soooo nice!!) and we started talking with him and his wife. The kids introduced themselves as London, Sutton, Camden, and Britain, so of course I asked about the connection to England. Brother James served in the England Birmingham mission!! We set up a member lesson for later in the week and he was able to show me some cool maps and things from his mission and tell us stories! It was awesome!! (His wife also grew up with my mom in Centerville, so she showed me some fun pics of my uncle in elementary school hehe) I love how small the world is! 

And some updates on our friends:

Maribel is a solid potential we found knocking doors! We had knocked her door a few months back and her husband answered and told us we could come back another time, but it wasn't exactly legit. We went knocking in the afternoon and their house was on our list, but I was hesitant to knock since we had already done it. I had the strongest impression that we should just knock it again because it was earlier in the day, so we might catch the wife and could at least get their phone number. We did and that is exactly what happened!!! Maribel has lived in Utah for 11 years and had met missionaries in Orem, but never had time to meet with them before because of her work schedule. She only works evenings now, so she wants to learn more about our church because so many of her friends are members! We are planning to meet with her once she gets back from vacation in 2 weeks, so hopefully I am still here after transfers!! 

Francisco was a new and a quick pass. We knocked on a door this week of a member who had moved into the house of a previous Spanish speaker, so we just talked with him and let him know we were the Spanish missionaries. He got our number and then called us the next day with a referral for his friend, Francisco! He told us that we didn't have much time with him, but to come introduce him to missionaries and the gospel! When we had a lesson Saturday, he told us he was moving to Minnesota on Tuesday!!! So we heard his life story and all the blessings he had seen lately, bore testimony of God's love for his children, and invited him to read the Book of Mormon and let us help him find the missionaries in Minnesota for him. He will be awesome, but at least we got to help plant the seed with his friend!

Annabelle was originally supposed to be baptized yesterday and then her mom bumped it to next Sunday to get more family there. Sadly, they are postponing it further because her mom had some serious health issues come up and is already scared of COVID, so the additional health concerns put her over the top. Please keep Annabelle and her mom in your prayers!! 

Milagro(lots as you can already tell, but here's one more!): Our phones all got updated this week and as nice as some of the new updates are, it big time messed up my phone! One of the things that got taken was all 1200 of my songs from my music app!! They were still on my SD card, but we couldn't play more than one song at a time. When I first found out, I was too shocked to even know what to think. I had spent SO much time even before the mission organizing and labeling all my songs! But later, they all came back and the app was better than ever(sadly, the same thing did not happen to my comp and she had to remake all her playlists)!! Small miracle, but something that mattered to me and Heavenly Father knew!! 

Love you all, Hermana Dougall:)

PCC temple landscaping

Visits from grandma! ft. the hammock!

 Another bloody nose at 10:20 pm?!

Said goodbyes to elder Heilner this week :(

Walks w Wrinkles...he is un poco camera shy

Bautismo de Paulo!!

The mountains. 10/10!

All my bffs!!! <3

week 32: somos las hermanas MUSICALES

Time is flying! I've officially been a missionary for 7 months and each week just goes by in a blink of an eye!!

Monday night was a blast and a half with our friend Annabelle! We had FHE at one of the member's homes with their kids and some of Annabelle's friends. We taught plan of salvation Candy Land, made ice-cream sundaes, and watched Soul. It was awesome and Annabelle has some awesome new friends so it was a win win! We had to bump her baptismal date to June 5 bc of some family stuff that came up, but she is set and ready to follow Jesus!! 

On Wednesday night we got a call from our district leader asking me to give a training on diligence the following morning in district council. I was lowkey stressed, but when our 8pm lesson cancelled, I planned a bomb training haha. We all had a plank competition and talked about being diligent and consistent during the 18-24 months we have as missionaries and the strength that comes from our diligence. Then I mathed out our weekly hours to show that only 19% of the week is spent proselytizing and how we need to use our time effectively!! Learned some new Spanish vocab along the way and it was definitely a memorable training haha. 

Hermana Holt became the primary pianist 2 weeks ago and this week I became the primary music leader(hence the caption). The ward is really putting out talents to work and it is FUN! We played hot/cold singing the song "cuando venga Jesus" and the kids had a blast. It also helps me practice my accent so I'm all about it!  

Paulo was taught his last lessons this week and had his baptismal interview as well. It went so well and his testimony is FIRE!! He gets baptized tomorrow at 7(lmk if you want the zoom link to meet this awesome kid!) and it is his 18th birthday, so we are so so excited!! 

Milagro: One of our miracle referrals from last week, Oscar, was added to our teaching pool this week! And his cousin Erica too! They are both from Mexico and and while Erica has been here for like 10 years, Oscar has only been here for 2 weeks! He is taking English classes in salt lake and wants to learn more about the church because so many people are members here in Utah. They were very interested in the Book of Mormon and we are excited to keep teaching them. As we left, we asked if there was anything we could do for them and they asked us to come back next week to help them translate as they encourage their roommate to stop smoking weed (looks like Word of Wisdom will be an easy one), so we are excited for that haha!

I shared this in my diligence training, but I love the scripture in Mosiah 4:27 that says, "and see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order." 

As a runner this totally stands out to me and I can hear Coach Barkley's voice in my head saying "chilllllll!" The Lord knows each one of us. He knows our limits. He knows our hearts and desires. And he wants us to work diligently in all things to do the best we can, but He will always help us along the way. No matter what we are going through in our lives, Jesus Christ is there to help lead and guide us if we put in our best effort and work towards Him!! I have seen so many blessings from hard work and diligence in my own life and I know that the Lord will bless each of his children with success as they do the same! 

love you lots!! hermana dougall :)

p.s. good luck to all my England friends leaving this week!!!! 

 Painting w THE Elder Hiatt

Doing service and our friend tells us she can't do blood right as I get a bloody nose...its been a while oof

Our elders quorum district that I love with my whole heart!!

Mapleton lateral trail on p day! (Hitting the other half today woohoo!)

Pre baptismal interview photoshoot w paulo :)))

Again, best district en el mundo!

MTC comp reunion!!

Rustezeeeee

Pulled the office jello prank w Elder Thomas' tag...happy birthday to him! 

week 31: somos las hermanas de SERVICIO

SERVICE SERVICE SERVICE! Our week was full of it and it made the week fly! Summer missionary work is the best! Tuesday we did trash pick up with the English elders, Wednesday was weeding, Thursday was spent in dry creek cleaning out moss, and Saturday we fed animals on a farm and did yard work! It was so fun and so busy!! 

Our friend Paulo is a beast y'all!! He and bishop exchanged contact info on Sunday at church so bishop could invite him to the  young men activity and the ward picnic this week. When we showed up for dodgeball on Tuesday with the YM/YW, he wasn't there and we were confused until bishop told us that the other priests had taken him to mission and temple prep with them!!! How amazing is that?! And he loved it!! It was so so so good and that man is so ready for baptism next Tuesday! He is so involved, so excited to learn, and just loves the happiness he has been feeling as he reads the scriptures, comes to church, etc. Everyone needs to be more like Paulo!! (ps he asks us daily what we ate for lunch and it cracks us up!! "Que almorzaron?" )

Annabelle, our new 9 year old, is on date for baptism May 30! We taught her first lesson this week, played Jesus Jenga (which she loved btw!), and gave her both a kids book of Mormon and a painted one in her favorite color. We invited her to read the entire kid's Book of Mormon and she was so excited!! We have an FHE planned for tonight with a bunch of girls her age to learn about the plan of salvation and watch Soul. Should be fun!! 

Hispanic wards are the best hands down!! We had ward conference at church on Sunday and apparently in South American countries, ward conference is a huge deal. So we had a big ward picnic on Saturday afternoon that was so so fun! We played soccer with all the guys and gained some mad respect! All the members of the barrio pulled out their soccer cleats and I was barefoot so they were v impressed that we held up against their Latino skills haha. I have a feeling this will be my last transfer with this ward and it makes me sad because I LOVE THESE PEOPLE!!

MILAGRO: We received 2 referrals out of the blue on Friday morning! One was from a member in the English ward-they had gone ministering to their neighbors who said they wanted to learn more about the church! We visited them on Friday night and our old friend Hector(VICTORS COUSIN?!?!) opened the door!!! I was shocked bc we had been trying to teach him before, but he was always busy. He admitted that he was busy and hadn't read the book of Mormon, but was ready to change and come to church with us. Wowzers. The other referral was from a guy who took English classes in Salt Lake, but lives here in Springville, that sent us a text and we set up a lesson for Tuesday evening! It was cool because in my interview with President, he told me that as we work hard, even when it seems pointless, the Lord will bless our efforts and lead us to people who are ready to hear the gospel! Our teaching pool was emptying out the last 2 weeks, but it's filling back up with some solid potential yayay! 

other fun stuff:

-met a kangaroo named Simon who tried to bite my hair!!! luckily I'm not bald now haha 

-someone paid for our entire district's lunch at Art City Trolley!!! people are seriously too kind!(but I saved them $ by splitting a full rack of ribs w Elder Heilner and then got roasted by hna Holt bc it looked like a date...oops)

-found out 3 of my friends are leaving for Mexico, England, and Germany this week so I'm probably not too far behind! mixed feelings there :/

-interviews with President and probably the last one because he leaves in a month too ahhhh

-also prank war ended when elder Richins got sent to red rock...sad, but now we're service buddies

-shattered my screen when it fell of my bike in front of bishops house. Oops!

-soooo many animals this week, it was great haha (see pics)

Spiritual thought for the week comes from ether 12:41 that says, "And now, I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever." I love the simplicity of what we are being encouraged to do. Simply, SEEK THIS JESUS! Do whatever will help you come to know Jesus Christ better in your life. Reading the scriptures, going to church, praying, serving others, the list goes one. I would encourage all of you to do one thing this week that helps you to seek Jesus in your life and see how much joy you feel as you come closer to Him! Jesu Cristo te ama mucho! 

Y yo tambien! Con amor, hermana dougall 

Our English Elder trio!!! 

Art City Trolley with the Spanish district

Llama farm!

 I want a pet Lamb...and the whole farm, but we'll start there haha

Knocked 17 doors and 1 member opened

Little chicksss

Before Simon, the kangaroo, ate my hair

After Simon, the kangaroo, ate my hair hahaha

The fourplex roomies :) 

week 30: somos las hermanas EN BICICLETA!!!

Happy mother's day to my mama and every other stand in mom reading this!! Love you all!!!! 

I told hna Holt this week that I finally felt like a "real missionary" because we were biking, had backpacks, and were speaking another language. Her response was, "that's exactly why I feel like YSA." Oof lol, but it's been a week and we're not dead and no skirts were caught in chains, so that's a win in and of itself with me and my less than athletic comp haha. We somehow saved no miles though with all the times we had to drive across our area for visits, soooo good thing we're tight with the ZL haha. 

And speaking of the ZL, prank war update! The elders plastic wrapped our car, we put cans on the back of theirs, then they broke into our house and made a mess of our room. We resent the referral for "Eduardo" and the elders were pumped to go in and start teaching him. They taught part of the restoration and then the one elder finally goes, "wait, are you the Spanish ward bishop?!" Bishop laughed SO hard, but we got them good!!! One of them is being transferred, so it sadly might come to an end, but we have salty brownies in the freezer waiting for the next attack lol. 

Now to missionary work...We joined the primary! We went to kid's second hour of church last week and then accidentally showed up at their weekly activity instead of the young women activity. So we learned "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam" in Spanish and then made mother's day flowers and bracelets. And became best friends with the primary kids obviously!! We planned to join the YW this upcoming week, but we got a call from the primary president asking sister holt to be the primary pianist and for us to plan the next primary activity. So now, we are officially primary children again haha!! 

MDC this week w the zone was awesome when the first thing that was said was, "Take off your masks! And keep it that way!!" That's right, no more masks in lessons, church, etc. Just in public places where they're already required for everyone. Yay!! We also talked about our purpose as missionaries and the privileges we have as servants of the Lord right now. Why we chose to serve, why we stay out, and how we can more fully be "All In Missionaries" each and everyday of our mission so that we finish with no regrets!! Almost all of our mission leadership is leaving in the next transfer or 2(including the mission President!!), so it was really inspiring to learn and hear from all of them! 

Paulo Paulo Paulo!! He loves reading the book of Mormon!! He thought it was hilarious that Lehi is the name of Nephi's father as well as a city in Utah and also texts us prayers when we remind him to pray. Love that little man! Pray for his legal paper situation to work out so he can stay in Utah and not have to go back to Peru at the end of the month!!! We spent all afternoon with him on Saturday going to lunch, teaching him the gospel of Jesus Christ, and taking him with us to the elder's baptism. He sat with Elder Angel who chatted with him and asked if he could come to his baptism along with encouraging him to move up his baptism to the 25th of May(his birthday!!). Yayay!! He is elect and my best buddy! 

other fun things:

-found a new for the English elders when I commented on this man's awful farmers tan haha. "Wow your farmers tan is impressive! That's what I'm shooting for this summer as a missionary!" 5 min later, after explaining what missionaries are, we got his number and now Cody is gonna have a baptismal suit tan line if you get my drift ;)

-learned to play spikeball last district sports w the boys, so now I'm officially a real Utahn lol 

-got Joe Bandido's for lunch on Cinco de Mayo and after an hour of sitting there eating chips and salsa, the waitress came over v confused at why we didn't have our food...turns out they gave it all to the wrong table and had to remake it, so we got a free meal from the restaurant after an hour and a half haha 

-visited the Springville art museum and saw some beautiful mountain artwork!!

-hit 6 months in the field! 1/3 baby!!

miracle: On Wednesday, we had a RS activity for an English ward, so we went to go meet some people. When we walked in, I immediately felt drawn to sit at a table with a few older ladies. We started talking and found out one of them was from Brazil! We talked about her life there for the first 60 years of her life and all the things she missed about the food, beach, weather, etc. At the end of the activity, she showed us a FB post she had made about a week ago. In it, she talked about how one of her friends had left the church and tried to bring her out of the church as well. She had reflected on her days as a missionary on Brazil and decided to stay strong, but was struggling. She had been praying for a sign that was she was doing was the right thing. Then we sat with her during that activty and helped remind her of the joy that the gospel has brought into her life. We were able to be an answer to her prayer and it was so awesome that she recognized that!! 

My spiritual thought for the week is a reminder to BE KIND and BE POSITIVE!! Positivity is powerful and kindness is killer!! Go serve someone today with a smile and lmk how it goes!! :)))

love, hermana dougall 

The Hobblecreek Zone 

Wrapped prank

My great grandpa's house!!!

Biking hermanas

Duda is my bff!!!

My helmet twin hehe

The elders noisy ride 

Mother's day facetime! 

Cookie deliveries by bike:)

Six meses! 1/3 wowza

This is for your brothers text thread @mom

We promise we keep our room clean! 

week 29: somos las hermanas FUERTES

hola hola!!

It is officially summertime, because we helped 2 families move this weekend and spent 3 hours moving boxes all over Springville with the other missionaries. It was a blast and my arms and back are soooore now haha! But the elders quorum was v impressive when we showed up and were the only girls lol, so strong is the word for the week! 

Being in Utah, I feel very lucky to have never really been yelled at when knocking doors...that is until Thursday night when we were hitting every apartment door with no clue who we would get. We knock and were waiting and talking when all of a sudden the door swings open and this man just starts screaming at us. I had absolutely no clue what had happened and just stood there. Finally, I asked his name and then introduced myself and my companion. The guy, Victor, starts to laugh and told us that he had yelled at us in Japanese. In my head I was like ok weird, but out loud I just said, "Well sadly the only other language I speak is Spanish, but I can write my name in Japanese!" He laughed and then went on to tell us he was 13% Japanese, grew up in Peru, met his wife when she was a missionary in his ward, yadda yadda, anyways he was a member in our ward and we just had no idea. Super nice family in the end, but sure made for a funny first impression!! (Also his wife is making us ceviche and bistec del pobre so we're excited to try some authentic Peruvian food bc apparently it's the best food in the WORLD! we'll see if it beats ribs)

Our other funny for the week was Friday morning at the Provo City Center temple. We had extra miles for the month and decided to use some to go up to Provo and do studies on the grounds up there. It was so awesome to be at the temple and the weather was PERFECT! So perfect in fact, that the sprinklers went off on the grass halfway through comp study! We heard them coming up and grabbed our stuff as fast as we could, but still got pretty soaked. It felt pretty good ngl, but it was sooo funny and the elders got a good laugh when they came over after their studies and saw us all wet. Good times!

Ok and update on the prank war w the elders!! They are not the most creative bunch haha. They confettied our car this week while we were on a walk to get back at us for the confetti we threw on them...silly. We talked w the Spanish elders in our district and got some good ideas, but then found out they had a hard day and decided to send them some happy balloons filled w candy and encouraging letters instead. They gave us Chic Fil A cookies as a thank you, so things were getting too nice. We had a meeting w bishop and told him about our prank wars and he laughed so hard it made my whole week!! He told us he wanted to help, so we told him we would send the unsuspecting elders his way. We made an investigators profile for bishop right on the spot and sent it to the elders a couple days later and told them to stop by sometime. Bishop was out of town all weekend, but there will be good updates to come in the next weekly(and hopefully a video too if bishop can pull it off haha). 

Now to introduce some of our new friends...

MARIO: We started teaching him this week and he is a homie G. He loves to clean his red car and I always sing his name when I see him haha, "mario kart Wii!" We knocked his door probably 2 weeks ago and gave him a book of Mormon and got his number, but couldn't get ahold of him to set up a lesson. We stopped by his house and his wife said he was busy, so we just figured it was another nice Hispanic guy. Last Saturday, we were on a walk and saw Mario was outside(cleaning the car haha), so we stopped and talked for a bit. We were on out way to a lesson, so we cut the convo short and just asked if we could come back the following night to talk more. Well it worked!! We taught him the restoration this week and are planning to teach the plan of salvation soon! 

PAULO: I love teaching YSA and we started teaching a guy our age who is so awesome!! He came to English connect with us a couple weeks ago and we started a group chat with him and his cousin. He ended up making a new chat with just us and asked if he could meet with us!! We taught him the restoration and invited him to be baptized on may 29 and he accepted! And crazy thing is that he may be going back to Peru on may 30!!! So mega prayers for him and that everything goes well so he can be baptized before he leaves!! 

And the miracle for the week...

Anyone remember Jerry, our miracle man, from a couple months ago? Probably not because that was all it was and then he ghosted us for a hot sec. Well, we were on a walk this week and talking to a member outside her house and saw Jerry walk out to his car. We quickly ended the convo and told her we had to chase him down haha. We ran up to him and he was like "Sisters!! I've been wanting to meet with you! My life is a mess and I'm trying to get things together!" Talk about right time, right place moment!! We called him the next day and got ahold of his brother who scheduled for us to go back for a lesson tonight!! Wish us luck! 

love y'all!! 

hermana dougall :)

Hermana Holt got BURNTTTT

Hermana Schaffner, the new STL(also cason's 6'7" twin)

Our profile set up for the elders prank 

Spanish Fark!!

Downtown Provo walls!

Happy face balloons for the elders

Dumb confetti prank by the elders lol

My "daughter" follows in my footsteps for those pday shopping trips so we can run after haha 

Provo city center con elder Heilner y elder Hiatt!! 

I was told it looks like I'm eating a toad lol

Sadly no lion bars at the British store :(