Zero time. Have pics.

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Dearest Amigos,

Zero time. Have pics.

1. We played pictionary with Ezra using gospel terms. This one, by Ezra, is Heavenly Father.  

2. EZRA WAS BAPTIZED ON SUNDAY.

Just kidding. My comp has that photo. Next week. 

3. We broke the number-of-lessons-in-a-week record recently!

Hasta Luego,

Hermana Valentineprint YSA w Adddress.pdf.

Arizona is pretty cool

Dearest Amigos,

Arizona is pretty cool. We have a baptism scheduled for Sunday in our
Spanish ward, and the Elders in the ward have one for the same time!
We will have a double baptismal party, and everyone will come, and
then everyone else will want to be baptized if they haven't already
joined the Church! Yay! We were going over the baptismal interview
questions for Ezra by playing headbands. He had to teach us the
concept and to the point we would be able to tell him what it is. He
just says the funniest things! One was the law of chastity and he said
something like "That's where you only hold hands after you're
married." During his baptismal interview, he told the Elders
interviewing him, "Sometimes I forget things, so please don't fail
me." ... We are excited for him! (That's a funny story. Just so you
know.)

I burned rice in the microwave. Well, it was just super crunchy and
lame. I don't actually remember when that happened, but it was the
first and only time I will try to cook rice in the microwave.

We've been teaching several less actives, and one has a temple
recommend now! We started doing some family history work with her,
too!

Spanish is pretty fun. I shared the spiritual thought in Spanish at a
dinner appointment last week, and I have been chatting with members in
Spanish. It's cool, but it might not be as cool as I made it sound
just then.

This week I really liked the lesson we had with someone about reading
the scriptures. We compared it to the story about the Liahona (a
compass of sorts) in the Book of Mormon using this scripture:

44 For behold, it is as easy to give heed to the word of Christ, which
will point to you a straight course to eternal bliss, as it was for
our fathers to give heed to this compass, which would point unto them
a straight course to the promised land.

45 And now I say, is there not a type in this thing? For just as
surely as this director did bring our fathers, by following its
course, to the promised land, shall the words of Christ, if we follow
their course, carry us beyond this vale of sorrow into a far better
land of promise. (Alma 37:44-45)

How true it is! I love it when the scriptures are straightforward and simple.

Hasta Luego!

Hermana Valentine

Teaching Ezra! (That's his mom in the background.)

Eating nopales (maybe that's how you spell it. It's cactus) it was actually really good. 

Also, we use tortillas as a second utensil instead of actually putting food in them...we eat the tortilla too. Just so you know. 

Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh

Dearest Amigos,

Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh. How does this always happen? Next week, maybe, I will email in this order instead: President, family, you (Christal), probably Libby since I need to respond to her (I hope you still like me Libs!), THEN Aaron. Ha. Everyone can let him know he will be the last one next week. If you want. 

This week was crazy. I went on splits for an hour which means I went to lessons with a member as my companion instead of Sister Pierson. We had exchanges which means I went to lessons with a different sister on the mission for 24 hrs. So. Many. New. Things. 

On the bright side, Sister Pierson and I have decided to be healthy. Sometimes we also aren't. We probably have too much candy in our apartment. 

I think it rains too much here in the desert. It rained all day Sunday and has rained two or three other times in the three weeks I've been here. The hottest it's been is 101 and the coldest, during the day, that I remember, was 60. And I wore a sweater. 

I'm pretty sure I never shared pics of the super cool happy birthday/welcome home things from my first day! I will include a few pics. One poster was on our door and one was inside the apartment. 

The top one was outside, and the Elders dropped some mail off one day and added this:

How nice.. And creepy, because we just noticed it recently. 

Sister Pierson and I also are super nice. We gave the sisters who live with us some snack cakes:

They actually really enjoyed being ding-dong ditched since it involved receiving food. 

We are also super awesome at planning:

The Spanish is coming along nicely. So is the English. 

Hasta Luego,

Hermana Valentine

Arizona is so fun!

Hola amigos,

Arizona is so fun! It's super dry, though. My dear friend Christal saved my life and sent me her humidifier. It is starting to get hot, but it doesn't feel hot. Not yet. 

I don't even know what I tell people anymore! So, if I repeat things, enjoy them again!

I can't get over the variety of plant like here. It seriously blows my mind that normal trees, flowers, and grasses are growing right beside palm trees, cacti, and desert-like-or-just-different trees and flowers. It's probably the coolest thing I think of when we drive around. 

General Conference was really good, and I know that all of the cool people say that, but I'm being serious. It was awesome. Well. Sunday was awesome! I watch both Saturday sessions in Spanish. I had a hard time translating most of it back to English, but I know I understood the parts I really needed to understand at the time. Besides, I will enjoy the talks all over again once they are in the gospel library. 

My testimony of the power of the Holy Ghost was definitely strengthened this week as we taught members, less active members, and individuals who were new to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Um, I don't really have time to type the stories out. But. They exist. 

Hasta Luego!

Hermana Valentine

In Arizona

Sorry I'm so far behind. Laney made it to Arizona and is doing great! Her mission might have rules about blogs, so I might need to be collecting e-mails from those that want to be kept updated. I'll keep you posted. But for now I'm slightly bending the rules. - Christal

Week 1:

My first area is super neat. The plane ride was for an hour and a half. My trainer is nice and helpful and fun. I'm not allowed to drive because I am blind, which is good. but I will be the official backer-upper for my entire mission. Unless I am ever in a trio. ha. 

Week 2:

This week was weird. Easter was good. I had Spanish Easter and YSA
English Easter. For Easter dinner, we and the elders from our Spanish
ward ate with Presidente Azua in the mission presidency. His family is
so funny! They are Hispanic, but we ate America food plus a fancy not
delicious traditional Mexican Easter desert.  I even used Spanglish
there. I was forced to tell my conversion story. But rlly not. People
just give me funny looks when I say no. So I did. And they love me.
And they know your name. But I've started saying "You first" when
people ask because EVERYBODY ASKS ME ITS LIKE COME ON. I just want to
be normal sometimes. But it's impossible. It's ok. Because I said
that, presidente did share his story. It was the best story. He's been
a member all his life, but he was converted when he was six on the way
to a tortillaria (...espanol...). Even though he was six, it's the
best story. I loved it.

It actually reminded me of the YSA. Speaking of which... There are 120
or so active YSA in this YSA ward. It's the strangest thing! I thought
it would be super cool to have an English and Spanish ward, but now I
realize that it's all foreign to me.

We do a lot of reactivation in YSA, so we've been meeting with quite a
few less actives. When we do have lessons that don't fall through,
it's fun. Otherwise it is hard.