Called to Serve: week 35: somos las HERMANAS de VERNAL

The Vernal return in Spanish, aka covering the entire basin!! And summertime means there is grass and flowers and creeks, and NO snow! A whole world of beauty out here! I missed my country people!! It's been a danggg bueno week!

Tuesday morning(literalmente 2 hours before transfers!!!) we were able to go to the Provo City Center temple with Paulo to do baptisms for the dead!:) It was a miracle to be able to pull it together, but man was it worth it!! He was as happy as his own baptism day and it made my little missionary heart so happy! It was the perfect way to leave Springville knowing that we were able to help him make it to the temple before he leaves for Perú so soon! Keep him in your prayers as he leaves the 17th of this week!!

My new compa is Hermana Hannah Miller from Chino Hills, CA. She has been out for about 5 months and was originally called to serve in Uruguay! Her Español is still fresco, so it's fun to help her improve her skills and confidence. We clicked right off the bat and she is an absolute G! We are seriously best buddies! Missionary work should not be this fun haha. We are excited to grind this transfer and see lots of success and miracles!!

De hecho, we already found one new friend together on Friday night named Silverio! We got a text from him out of the blue saying that he might be home soon for us to visit and then another text an hour later saying he was home and asking if we were coming. We dropped our plans and drove all the way across town to go teach him. We taught him about faith and the Book of Mormon which he told us he already had a copy of, so we invited him to read and pray about it before we came back. He was so friendly and invited us to hike and have dinner with him next weekend and to bring any friends from our ward, so that is actually awesome! He drives truck (Spanish Tim?!) between Salt Lake and Dallas, so he is gone lots but he told us he would text us next time he was home for a lesson and we def believed him because that's how that lesson actually happened haha. Bueno!

There was a ward potluck on Saturday night that was a blast and a half! Whitest Spanish ward I've ever seen(and none of the kids speak Spanish?!)! We ate and met some members, then Hna Miller and I pulled everyone together to play a huge game of kickball!! Talk about ward unity right there!! The members were all talking about it in church the next day and multiple members asked when we were going to do another sports night that they could invite their non member friends to! Vaminos!!!

Other highlights:

-sis Taylor (my MTC compa) is in the district and serving in my old stake!!! makes me soooo happy!!!

-first two dinners were ribs and brisket! the Utah protein mission is real when it comes to the basin haha!

-we had district sports on Saturday morning and got to play ultimate Frisbee! I miss the old district, but we are already getting close through service, lunches, and sports together!

-we have a neighbor that always smokes on his porch at dinnertime that we wanted to become friends with, so we always talk to him when he's outside and found out he's moving next week! we offered to help out and he told us he had people coming, but instead he brought us HOT pizza!! I think you can say we're friends now! we're gonna bake him cookies or something before he leaves...maybe slide in a Book of Mormon y'know haha!!

Milagro: A girl that Hermana Miller and Esko had been trying to teach the last 2 weeks, Layla, came to church yesterday with her friend! We pulled her aside and asked if we could talk after church and she was down. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and invited her to be baptized July 19th! She is 17 and already friends with the YW, so she should be solid!! Completely impromptu miracle lesson!!

alma 34:38 dice, "That ye contend no more against the Holy Ghost, but that ye receive it, and take upon you the name of Christ; that ye humble yourselves even to the dust, and worship God, in whatsoever place ye may be in, in spirit and in truth; and that ye live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you." We read this in a meeting this week and talked about the benefits of being positive and grateful in our lives. When we are focused on the good and giving thanks for the blessings that we have, our days are exponentially happier! Factos!! We were challenged to do prayers of gratitude throughout the day and to really express heartfelt gratitude for our blessings. It has been awesome to see how truly blessed we really are! I want to encourage each of you to do the same prayers of gratitude and see how happy you can feel when you watch for the mercies and blessings that God is wanting to bestow upon you!! You'll feel it, I promise!

"les quiero mucho, cuídense"

-hermana dougall