Called to Serve: 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