Ice Cream and Hot Dogs

Hey, 

I ate ice cream and corn dogs for dinner on Thursday.... 

So I am really excited because Pearlas esposo is back from his work trip and we have a noche de hogar planned with them for tonight. So pray for them! We are going to invite them to be baptized and will be teaching about the Book of Mormon it should be a really powerful lesson. They are doing SO good. They are such a prepared family. They have been praying together every night and are well on their way to 2 Nephi :) We just have to get the husband on board and they are set. 

Church yesterday was a joke because Mexico played at 11 (which is when church starts) so there was only like 15 people at church. But we still got 4 investigators there! Jaime came again and this time he brought with him his friend Guzman who we have taught a couple of times. Haha Guzman is SO funny. Apparently he is super rich in Mexico and owns like 3 huge ranches and his own business but he had to move here because a couple of things went wrong and there were people who were trying to kill him for his money? IDK something crazy like that. He came walking in to church with this huge cowboy hat, wearing all denim, with his way nice cowboy boots just to give you a good picture haha. Everyone loved him. The members in this ward are so great. They are always so friendly to the investigators who come to church. 

We had to say goodbye to the Crawfords on Tuesday :( The Drakes came in on Saturday and we are going to meet them this next Tuesday. I know I will love the Drakes. But I am going to miss the Crawfords so much, I was bawling saying goodbye to them. President Crawford gave us all hugs. 

We also taught this woman named Adela a couple of times this week. She has been kind of a toughie but we had such a powerful lesson with her on Friday. She has been having a couple of small doubts about things we have taught her but we invited her to be baptized for July 20th and she said yes! She is SO excited. We had the bishop's wife with us and she was so awesome and I think the lesson got her more excited about missionary work. 

Love you all so much!

Hermana San Juan 

P.S.  Sorry no pictures I forgot the things to plug my camera into the computer!!!

Eight People at Church

Hermana Williams and Hermana San Juan 

Things are going so good here in Channelview. I really am falling in love with this area more and more everyday.

Agh first, before I forget, here is my new address:

555 Normandy Apt #1311

Houston TX 77015

 You can send everything to this address I will be here for a while!

WE GOT 8 PEOPLE AT CHURCH YESTERDAY. It was the most stressful thing ever but it was worth it! haha One of our investigators, Jaime, didn't have a ride so we called around forever trying to find him one and no one could do it!! I was about ready to call one of yall and ask if you could give him a ride to church haha. But God is good and we found him a ride and he loved church, the members were all so nice to him. We found him last week outside of his apartment smoking a cig. He talked to us about all the problems he is having in his marriage right now.... Well last night we had a really good lesson with him about the Book of Mormon and he told us that before we met him his world was dark and he felt that there was no hope but now that he has found the gospel he can see a tiny ray of light. He has been reading the Book of Mormon daily and says he can feel a difference. He says he still has hate in his heart and is hurt but now he has faith that over time he can be healed.

Hermana Williams, Brenda, Katelyn, Brian 

Pearla and her family are doing SO well. Do you know about Pearla yet? We are teaching her and her three little kids. Her husband has been out of town so I haven't met him yet but we are excited to teach him too when he gets back next week! They are friends of Hermana Fernandez (a member in our ward). We eat dinner with both of the families (together) like two times a week. Ahh they are so awesome. They are so excited about the gospel and come to church every week. They want to wait to get baptized until Perla's husband gets home so he can do it with them. So exciting!

A little girl threw like a whole case of glitter on me the other day and I am still finding it everywhere! ahhh

We got to go to the temple this past week! It was such a COOL experience. After the session we had the opportunity to have an open question and answer with the temple president and his wife. We got to ask any question we had about the temple or anything. They told us that would probably be a once-in-a-lifetime experience so to take advantage of it. It was such a powerful experience. My eyes are completely opened and I for sure see the temple and the importance of it in a new light now.

Hermana Salcido!  We are reunited!

I love you all so much.  This Church is true!

Con Amor, 
Hermana San Juan

 

We threw water balloons at the Elders.




                              They loved it.

New Area--Channelview, TX

que tal? 

First of all Happy Fathers day to the greatest dad in the world!

Hermana Williams

Hermana Williams and Katelyn

 

So GREAT week. (I really think I say this every week?) Every week is great on the mission...haha.

But really great week. So my new area is called Channelview and my companion's name is Hermana Williams! She is so awesome. She just got finished training but she is already such a great missionary. She is from Draper Utah and we have SO much in common. I seriously have been so blessed with the greatest companions in the world. Channelview is going to be a really good area I am excited to work here! I'm pretty sure this is where I'm going to die (end my mission no se preocupen). It's a little bit different than my other areas because it's HUGE and not as ghetto haha. We are teaching a couple of really great families right now. I'm missing Broadway 2 a whole lot but I know I'm going to love Channelview.

 

But guess what! I got to go back to Broadway this past Saturday for Betos baptism! He is such a rockstar. The baptism was beautiful and everything went perfect. So happy for him.

Hermana, Hermana McCormick, Betos, Hermana San Juan

 

I love yall so much! Thanks for all the support you guys brighten my days with your letters, packages, and e-mails. :) Being a missionary rocks.

 

Con Amor,

Hermana San Juan  

 MARTIN so sad saying bye to him

             Elder Davis! He's back in Bountiful everyone...if you see him give him a hug for me!

My new comp Hermana Williams! (Not the turtle, the person.)

Katelyn with Elders

and

Hermana McCormick

in Houston

Que lastima pero adios!

Best District Ever! 

So sad news! I'm leaving South Houston :( I'm SO sad to leave and I really don't want to but I know its the way it needs to be. I'm so sad to leave my pal Hermana McCormick. She has been such a good companion and friend. I am going to miss her a ton. I will find out tomorrow where I'm off to next!

So Beto is doing SO well. He is getting baptized this Saturday and he is still really excited and we are so happy for him. We only found him about 2 weeks ago.  He was just really prepared to receive the gospel! We had a lesson with him last night on tithing and we brought Alex with us. I honestly think that was one of The happiest moments of my mission. Alex just has the purest testimony in the world. Beto was freaking out a little but because he thought it was all happening really fast and Alex just calmly bore strong testimony about baptism and about the truth of this Church. While he was bearing testimony you could just see the change in Beto. He went from being really nervous and uneasy to being excited and happy! I was so grateful that we had him there to help Beto, we couldn't have done it without him. It just made me so happy because 4 months ago when we found Alex he was a very different person. He was depressed, sad, lost, mad....and now he is the complete opposite, happy, hopeful, loving, kind, and filled with light. I was just sitting there thinking "life could not be any better." The gospel changes lives!

So I feel like I have a lot more to tell yall but I forgot my journal and I can't remember....haha but don't worry the pictures explain it all!!

Oh p.s funny story:
We were in a lesson with Beto and mosquitos were attacking us so he was all "let me go get some repellent." And so we assumed that he just went inside or something but he was taking FOREVER. So about 15 min later he comes back with repellent and we were all "Bro where did you go?!" And he told us that he went to the store! In the middle of our lesson! Oh my gosh I just read this story out loud and its not even funny...hahahah. I guess you had to be there hahah. 

 Hermano Campos with his guitar.

Ahorita no puedo...mejor otro dia

Hermana Shannon, Alex, Hermana San Juan, Hermana McCormick 

Hermana Katelyn, friend, Gloria, Hermana McCormick 

Buenos Dias!

So this week was stressful yall but SO GOOD.  

Gloria and Alex were baptized. Oh man it was seriously one of the happiest days of my life. Everything turned out perfect and they were both so happy.  

Also we met his guy named Beto the other day and he is so humble and prepared. He came to church on Sunday and told us after, "I prayed about the Book of Mormon and I believe it's true." God is really blessing us in this area! We set a baptismal date with him for June 14. He is so excited.

Sorry this is really short I don't have a lot of time today! I love you all so much. The church is true!

Also I hit my year mark the other day...whhhhatttt? 

We play tennis with the Elders every morning at 6:00.

Elders, Katelyn, Hermana McCormick 

People have the weirdest objects in their front yards.

Too Much Tennis!

Hey hey it's me again!

So I hope yall are prepared to hear a really weird story. So last
Monday we played tennis basically all day with the Elders in our district.
It was a BLAST but by the time 6:00 came around and we had our first
appointment we were exhausted! (It seemed like a good idea at the time). So
we go try the person and they aren't there and we are walking back to the
car and Hna McCormick tells me that her head hurts and she feels kinda
weird so I asked if she wanted to go back to the apartment but she said she
was okay to keep going. So we went to our next appointment which was with
Alex and on the way there she is acting SO WEIRD. You guys she couldn't put
a sentence together and she couldn't remember any Spanish at all. So we are
at our cita with Alex and she is trying to speak to him in Spanish but it
came out as weird Spanish/pure English. At first it was really funny and we
were all laughing because she was trying to tell him that her dog had
puppies and she kept saying "my perro had poopies!!" haha but then she
almost passed out and couldn't remember where we were or what we were doing
or how to speak any language so I started to freak out a little. So I told
her I was going to take her home but we had a lesson at 8:00 with one of our
investigators and she was insistent that we went to that lesson.  So we
went, and to be short, it was probably the worst lesson of my life...our
investigators mom told us to never come back again and hna McCormick was in
the bathroom throwing up and yeah...haha.  It was something else that's for
sure! Hna McCormick didn't remember any of it the next day so I told her
everything that happened and we laughed about it basically all day haha.

President Crawford told me one time that the secret to life is turning a
negative into a positive!

Anyway, in better news! Alex and Gloria are getting baptized this
Saturday!! I could not be more excited! It's so interesting to me to compare
the two because getting Alex to this point has been such a long journey and
getting Gloria to this point has been so easy! I just know that God loves
his children and he will guide them to the truth in the best way for them.
This week is going to be a little stressful trying to teach Gloria
everything she needs to know before baptism and getting Alex moved out but
I couldn't be more grateful and happy. You guys the Church is true!

I love you all so much! And Hayden I'm so glad you are okay.  That is truly a
miracle story.  You are a champion!

Con Amor,
Hermana San Juan

Elder Mamea trying to pump up our flat tire with a bicycle pump.

Three Miracles

Hey yalllll (I promise I will never say that when I get home)

Three miracles this week:

#1 The most important one. I found $11 on the ground.

#2 We were walking out of an apartment complex and this lady came up to us and asked if we were Mormons and then told us that her sister is a member of our Church and that she has been wanting to talk to missionaries forever but she could just never find any! Then she asked if we could come back the next day! uh yeah! 

Katelyn, Gloria, Hermana McCormick

#3  I can't believe I haven't told you guys about Gloria yet!!! We have been teaching her for about 2 weeks now and she has a baptismal date for May 31st. It's basically the coolest story ever how we started teaching her. So she is a friend of Hermana Badillo (a member in the ward). And they met about a year ago but hadn't really talked since then. So one day Hermana Badillo was on her knees praying to God for an opportunity to share the gospel with someone. Then not too long after she hears a knock on her door. It's Gloria! Gloria came over because she had been feeling a little empty inside and knew that Hna Badillo went to a church and was really happy there so she decided to go over to her house and ask if she could go to church with her. Hna Badillo of course said yes and called us right after and invited us to go over to her house and teach Gloria! We invited her to be baptized and she accepted. She is SO prepared. This experience has strengthened my testimony even more that miracles do happen and that God loves all his children.

 

There was a big rainstorm the other day and the streets were flooded. 

I love you all so much! Thank you for all your support and love! I love getting letters, packages, and e-mails from you all they really make my day.

Thanks for the muffin mix Dad. They were delicious!