7/28/14

 

Well! It's been a very long month hahaha but! Things are looking up on this end. I have a new plan and a new course of action all laid out that I am very excited about. We will be focusing our efforts and our time on serving, teaching and loving the members. We were kinda heading to a standstill in the work. We would find a bunch of investigators every week and we'd have a bunch of lessons, like our indicators/numbers were really good! We got calls from our zone leaders, and sister training leaders and whatnot about our numbers but we would literally have 0 PROGRESSING investigators. There would be days where we literally had no one to go see cause all of those "new investigators" forgot we were coming or had to go sit on their porch and stare at the sky so they were too busy. We weren't finding the prepared and we KNOW that the prepared are in the lives of our members yet they wouldn't give us referrals!! So! It was really frustrating and I cried a LOT but God literally wiped out all of our investigators and told us to focus on the members! SO! We're gonna do it! We're going to show the members how much we love them, we're going to teach them and serve them and we know that our numbers will plummet but we'll be going about doing good, like the Savior would and for that, I am VERY excited! I love serving! And hanging out with members! So I am feeling much better. We already had a chance to serve on Saturday. We got to clean somebody's nieces, boyfriend’s, brothers trailers....welcome to Arkansas haha. It was DISGUSTING. We got to clean up piles of clothes covered in cockroaches, dog poop and cigarette buds. After that we got to sweep up cockroaches, dog poop, and other substances that could not be identified. It was great! We went home and washed all of our stuff on HOT and took a shower. We were sweating like animals and I told Sister Booms to watch my ankles cause I was wearing capris so she did. Luckily she caught all the cockroaches that I couldn't and we actually made it out of there without any noticeable diseases or bites. Hahaha we also have 3 more projects lined up for us this week with serving the members. We are definitely on the right track because the opportunities are being placed right before our eyes. :) Heavenly Father Is great. ALso, I watched a Mormon message that completely explained my life right now. You should all watch it. It's called "The will of GOd" I'd seen it before but it really stuck home this week. I should've known that the person I wanted to be, and the person GOd wants me to be wouold not be the same. We already didn’t' agree on this whole mission thing and on the school I'll be going to haha BUT! So far, his plan is working out and I will continue to trust in the person he wants me to be. I just didn’t' realize how painful the pruning process would be. However, that's what the Savior is for. If we allow CHrist to take away our pains, he will. Keep pushing on! I love you all and am so grateful to be apart of this marvelous latter-day work.

oh little town of Berryville :) Also, that was 9:36 am....ya we almost died

 

Love you forever,

Sister Moreno

7/21/14

Jul 21

Welp! It's official! I'm 7 months along........dahaha I couldn't help it :) I am 7months old I should say I didn't really do anything to celebrate because it's just 7 but! I love the number 7 and it's the number of perfection so it spoke for itself. :) I don't have a whole ton to say today. SIster Booms and I officially HATE Chinese food.......we have LITERALLY eaten Chinese food 10 times within the past 3 weeks. THat's an honest number. Kill my kidneys or arteries or whatever it is that filters this stuff cause they're just bout dead anyway. YIKES! Let me tell you......the members love to take missionaries out for dinner cuase they're special or whatever or maybe they just don't want us to see their messy houses or something but when you live in a small town and there's only 3 restaurants...pickins er slim and sister Booms and I have the menus memorized...yes it's true...I am a fat cow. hahaha oh well. You'll just have to roll me off the plane! We already had this planned before I left.Bring the wheelbarrow :) OH! So! Sister Booms and I have this list of stuff that she needs to experience while we're together because she's lived under a rock in Utah hahah just kidding ;) but really she hasn't experienced very much...like an iguana....she has no idea what that is hahahah SO we're gonna hunt down an iguana by George if it's the last thing I  do. Anyway, oneof the things we have on our list is to catch fireflies, but not to keep them cause in the handbook it says no pets and we cant' take the risk of no blessings haha anyway! We were out tracting on night this week and we were kinda having a bummer day and so we were like, well let's catch fireflies with the giant sonic slushie cups we just got to waste our sorrows away in! Well, I just barely tossed out my lemons and there's this firefly (or lightning bug as locals call them) just floating right in the air next to me and I caught it! HAHAHAH It was insane! It was like slow motion! Those things are unbelievably easy to catch haha they just kinda hover in the air so it was awesome right?! WRONG. The end of the story goes to show that when lightning bugs touch cherry limeade residue and lemon juice there light dies and they can't fly anymore. Ya. lesson learned. HOWEVER! We did catch one! Also, our first family history class was this week and it went really well! We had met this guy at the library and we have this goal to tlak to 10 new random people about the gospel everyday and so we're like hey why not! So we turn around and we're like "SO! We're misisonaries for the church of jesus Christ of latter day saints and we wanted to invite you to a family history class we're starting" Well! It turns out he's a history major and he's been working on getting going with his own genealogy AND HE ENDED UP COMING WITH HIS DAUGHTER AND SAID HE'LL BE BACK NEXT TIME TOO!!!! It was AWESOME. It's amazing how much heavenly father blesses us when we even try to put in a little effort. Cool beans. :) Oh ya! Also, I got a stupid ticket this week........ya. i'll try to include a picture but yes I got a stupid parking ticket cause stinkin Eureka is a tourist spot and we have to pay every time we park and cute little cops ride aroundon their bikes looking for expired meters. 10 bucks. Yuck. However! I did, in the process, meet a girl who was raised wiken ...wicken?...hahah I don't know how to spell it but ya! THe religion where they have like healing powers or something so that was cool! There are so many different religions out here it's CRAZY! We are also teaching someone who was apart of a cult called the purple people. THey believe purple ot be a powerful color and they always have to be wearing something that has purple in it. I personally would fit in with them pretty well. I love me some purple! But ya its' really cool to get to know so many different beliefs and people. What a blessing it has been to be in Berryville. Who woulda thought THIS would be a place of so much culture haha?! :) Well, I think that's about it for today. I'm excited to spend the rest of the day painting my flower pots I bought and planting theseeds I picked out Hahaha I have this giant bag of potting soil in our apartment for 2 little pots but oh well! Thank you to everyone who has wrote or helped me on my mission thus far. I hae been so SO blessed to have this experience and I couldn't be out here without the support and encouragement from all of you, my friends and family. ;) I love you all and I know this gospel to be true meaning that it comes from GOd and that if we follow the teachings Christ has given us in these latter days, we will surely find undeniable, irreplaceable happiness with our families and with our Heavenly Father forever.

Love you forever,

Sister Moreno

07/14/2014

 

Mom I just got the dvds TODAY and just watched them! Oh my gosh I bawled like a baby! I'll send you a picture of me right now in the library and how I looked when I finally worked up the nerve to watch his call haha

HOLY COW................................................I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN....CANADA????????????AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I CAN'T EVEN BELIEVE IT! Actually I can! It totally suits him and I'm actually pretty sure we were talking about this and Kalen said he wanted to go to Canda and that just blows my mind!!! Actually I'm pretty positive we talked about him going there and oh my goodness I am just so SO excited for him! AND HE LEAVES IN A FEW WEEKS!!!!! OH MY GOSH! When is he going through the temple??? Oh I wish I could be there SO BAD! But I will just have to be there in spirit. Ya. I sobbed like a baby when I was watching it because I was so excited for him, so proud of him, and I wish I could be there. It hit me really hard that I won't be seeing him for like 3 years and that hurt. :( I miss the kid already and now we get 2 more years to wait. BUT! I also know that he's in for an AMAZING ride. And I wouldn't want anything different for him right now. Shout out to my little brother: "I love you soooooooo much! I am SO proud of you and I know EXCATLY how you feel right now. Don't freak out...well actually ya go ahead and freak out, BUT haha know that you are doing the right thing and that literally only good things will come from this experience to serve the Lord. Also, my mission president tells us something all the time. He told us that there's no right or wrong reason to come out on a mission. THe fact that you're going on a mission is good enough, just put your heart in it and trust the Lord will be there for you because he will.   I miss you A LOT but I have a feeling that time will fly :) Plus I will write you all the time so you will always have mail...unlike you, writing me... but that's another story and I'm the bigger person ;) Be strong. Go to the right places, do the right things during this prep time and everything will be taken care of. I am SO PROUD OF YOU!! Love you with all my heart!" Ok now to kyle: "You exhaust me.....hahahah YOU SHOULD'VE KNEELED ANYWAY!!!! Now you have to live with the fact that you didn't even ask her and I can bet that she'll bring it up for the rest of your lives haha. But alas haha I am super mad that you're getting married while I'm gone but I'm glad that you have found somebody. PLEASE include me in what's going on! Colors?where?I want to meet her...through email or something haha and when are you actually tying the not? LOVE YOU SO MUCH! Send me a picture of the ring the video broke up right as you were going to show me :)"

Ok I think that's all for them. Man That was emotionally exhausting haha poor sister booms had to deal with me freaking out all over the place and squeezing her arm cause I was so nervous and she had to hunch over and listen to the whole video as she emailed cause we can't listen to headphones without our companion hearing what's going on. Man! I just am so excited and happy and proud and sad all at the same time but I will keep all of you in my prayers. I just had transfer calls again and I'M STAYING IN BERRYVILLE AND I AM SOOOOOOOOO HAPPY!!!! Seriously I love it here so much and I will honestly probably move back here to live in a few years or something. I don't necessarily want to raise kids here but maybe I'll live down here for a summer or something. We are DEFENITLY coming back through here mom. Also, We are taking a road trip to harry potter world when I get back and also a road trip to seattle.....I have realized just how much I loved all of our road trips and awesome family outings haha. Remember  when Cass and I really didn't want to go to South Dakota then it ended up being the best trip of my life? :) Ya. We're doing another trip. Plan it out and we'll go right after the summer semester at BYU right before I go up for the fall semester. I'm beign serious. Thank you!

Also, I have had a GREAT week! We got to go to the temple with HIlda on Thrusday and it was AWESOME!! We did baptisms and basically were gone the whole day. THen we had zone training on Friday where Siter BOoms was called up to the front to share what Christlike attributes she thinks I have and it was really sweet. SHe even cried a little haha. AND then on Saturday we decided that we are going to be amazing missionaries. We WILL talk to at least 10 random people everday about the gospel and pray to be led to the prepared and man! On Saturday we did it! We talked to 10 random people or OTMd them and got 2 new investigators and one potential. THe 2 new investigators are a couple who have been looking for a church to get baptized it...what the? ya haha it was amazing. The young women had a yard sale and we went to help out / catch people while they were scoping out cheap stuff haha we're sorta creepy but it worked! :) THEN! This sunday we had 2 of our investigators who have never come to church come! PLUS! WE HAVE 2 BAPTISMS THIS SATURDAY THAT ARE GOING TO BE HELD AT THE RIVER....cause they want it to be like Jesus' haha whatever floats your boat. :) Goodness. I love being a missionary. It's hard, it's exhausting, it's emotionally draining, and it's the best thing I could ever be apart of. :) I love the gospel and I love learning! Gotta go! We're going bowling with borther coley and his girls and proabably we'll invite a bunch of people and make it a party haha. I love you all SOOOOOOO much! Alos, there were NO pictures of abby. SEND THEM!!

Love you forever,

SIster Moreno

 

7/7/14

Jul 7

WHY WON'T ANYONE TELL ME WHERE STINKIN KALEN IS GOING ON HIS MISSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? You all exhaust me! AND???????? KYLE'S PROPOSAL????????????? Apparently I don't need to know anything about anyone cause I'm just a missionary!!!!! I mean, it's not like these people are my brothers or anything like that.....:l oh wait. SIGH. Ok well haha since apparently there's a dvd in the mail for me, I shall be patient, because I have no other choice but to do so. Hahaha you guys! This is cruel. Anyway! I will tell you what happened in my life this week :) First of all, thank you for the package!!!!! I LOVED IT!!!! It was so fun! SIster Booms and I both got a package on Thursday and we had made the long trek to the mail box only to find it empty, but when we got back inside, SIster Coley had set to big packages on our stairs that had just been dropped off!! The picture included is of us beign super happy that our family does in fact remember our existence and may even love us :) The red white and blue popcorn was so cute!!! Mom, you are so crafty haha How did you make it?? THe red was really good! As for my 4th of july,it was great until it came time for fireworks. We did get permission to stay out until 10 instead of 9:30 to watch them as long as we were with members and we had this great plan to go hang out with the President Grat and his family (whom I LOVE) in Holiday Island cause they were doing music and dinner and fireworks but then this family that lives near us invited us to join them, and we've been trying to become their friends and so we're like; "You know! we could just do both!" So! We were over in Holiday Island visiting a lady but it took longer than planned so we got to the park late and then we went to go get food and stood in line for 45 minutes! SO! We only ended up hanging out and sitting by them for like 30 minutes before they were gonna start the fireworks. Well, we got up and told them that we had to leave and SIster Grat got all sad and upset and I didn't think she was gonna care cause figure we're just "the missionaries" tagging along but the fact that she did care made me feel really bad cause I didn't want to leave them anyway but we told the other family we would be there so we left and when we get back to Berryville we find out that Berryville wasn't even doing fireworks on the 4th....they were doing them on the 5th SO. We missed a huge party in Holiday Island, missed hanging out with an awesome family that I wish I was best friends with, made a lady feel bad and caused awkwardness, AND missed fireworks. Most depressing fourth of july ever! ........so haha ya it was sad. BUT! I looked pretty cute! I wore my white skirt, that blue old navy shirt and a red tank. Plus I did a cute updo and wore my new white shoes that I love and a white headband! HOWEVER! I didn't get a picture! Sigh. That's my life haha. BUT! We did call the zone leaders, explained the situation and we got to watch fireworks on the 5th. :) That was nice. Why they did them on the 5ht? I don't know but it was a mess.  But I guess it worked out the way it was supposed to. And! THis week is gona be great! WE GET TO GO TO THE KANSAS VITY TEMPL WITH OUR RECENT CONVERT, HILDA (WHOM I LOVE)!!!!!!!!! The primary is taking that trip up Thursday and we're gonna hitch along but go inside and do baptisms! We are going on Thursday and I can't wait! This week is also transfer calls...again! Crazy how these tings keep popping up! I have made a few deals with God again and we'll see if he holds true ;) hehe I don't know if that's bad or not. Anyway, I told him I'd talk to more people on the street and bring up the gospel in as many conversations as humanly possible AND work super hard if he kept me in Berryville for the next 3 to 6 months. ...... I CAN'T HELP IT! I LOVE IT HERE! :) Seriously, I've become apart of the branch and I love them all so much my heart's gonna burst. SO, I figure 3-6 months will give me enough time to figure out where I'll be moving back to after my mission. ALSO! I'm dong family history work all day today with a super genious named Kurt that we (sis ratto and me) found by asking him to open a pickle jar at the gas station! He's already found long lost realtives!!! I've never been excited about this before but it's great! Ok I gotta go but I love you all and I can't wait to get the dvd!!!! :)

Love you forever,

Sister Moreno

 

6/30/14

6/30/14

Oh my goodness!! It's finally July!!!! Happy happy day! :) President Shumway has given us special permission to stay out until 10 to watch fireworks with members/less actives and I shall be taking advantage of that! :) I'm gonna miss all of you on Friday and we aren't allowed to handle fireworks so it'll be my first year without doing sparklers but the Lord is worth it I suppose hehe. This week has been crazy! We have gigantic spiders ALLL OVER THE PLACE!!! Not inside, but outside of our house and everyone elses...it's disgusting. I though that there was just a clump of dirt or something on someone's door but no! It was actually like 30 super huge long legged spiders clumped on top of each other. Wasn't that a treat to realize! Also, We had one of our recent converts get interviewed for her temple recommend and to receive her patriarchal blessing and she "passed" both! We'll be going with her to the temple on July 10th! Which is also the day that our primary is going to the temple. It's really cool actually. They're taking the primary kids and all of their families to the temple to have lunch on the grounds and then a member of the temple presidency is gonna come talk to them dressed in his temple clothes, and they actually get to go inside and sit in the waiting room. Plus, they're gonna stop by liberty jail. Isn't that cool?

 It's like a 4 hour drive and when we tell our investigators about it they're like: "All that way for lunch?" And we're like "yes! That's how important the temple is to us, because that's where families can be together forever." :) SO ya, cool stuff. And yes! Mom I did get that bracelet but I was really confused casue the address said Arizona and rhianna and I had no idea what to think haha so did you order it? I really love it! Thank you! :)And abby is HOME???!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! That is CRAZY awesome! Did you guys go see her homecoming talk? I can't believe that! I actually can...it slightly feels like forever haha. And Kenya is leaving soon??!!! Wow. Life just keeps on scootin along. I sent her a letter today so hopeflully she gets it before she leaves! Also, I think you all should know that my Spanish is getting better, a little bit at a time. I can actually say medium decent prayers haha. Sister Gilbert, the traveling sister training leader that came down to spend the day with us Saturday said that we only have two Spanish speaking sisters in our mission and one is going home at the end of this transfer...who knows, maybe I'll be transferred to the Spanish ward somewhere. Scary but awesome. Oh! And we also had an AMAZING branch fireside last Monday. Our branch mission leader, brother jim coley is AWESOME! We watched the John tanner story...SOOOOO good. You guys should really watch it. It helped me realize how little faith I really have in Jesus Christ and I realized that I have been relying on myself and not him way too often. I'm working on that now by learning of his life, his atonement, and his love for ALL mankind. I guess it helps to know somebody before you completely trust them. I will definitely be working on that, because as of right now I can't fully say that I KNOW the Savior. We all have places of improvement though I guess. Well, I think that's about it. Mom? You kept all those letters I sent home with your present right? I'm keeping them ALL. They mean a lot to me. Maybe stick them in a tub or something in my room...if it's still my room and not a gigantic walk in closet or something ;) OH YA!!!! BEST NEWS OF ALL!! We've started to volunteer at this thrift store that gives all of their money to a non-killing doggie shelter and we get 4 doggie bucks every hour we volunteer!!! AHHHH!!! Which means we get $4 in store credit haha in addition to the clothes that have like little hole or stain or something on them...IT'S AWESOME!!! A sister missionaries dream haha we're accepting bribes from other sister to find things for them with our doggie bucks :) tehe it's a beautiful thing really. I already got a new sweater, hoodie (which was unnecessary but hey it was free!), two new dresses, and a new top! AHH! Fun times haha. I mean teaching the gospel is great, but you can't beat doggie bucks;) Ok, now I think that's all. THank yous to Manda! I LLOVED MY PACKAGE!!! You're the BEST! :D I got glitter everywhere and had a little party with myself haha I'll try to stick a picture on here. And also thank you to Erma and Grandpa and everybody. I LOVED my package from you guys too. I literally sobbed when I read Grandpas hand card. I am keeping that safe FOREVER. I have the best family in the WORLD. I love all of you SOOOO much! Happy 4th of July and eat lots of watermelon for me! ...just kidding I'll probably still be doing that! :)

Love you forever,

Sister Moreno