Letter 07/28/14

Buenos Tarde Familia!

How is everyone doing? Hopefully enjoying the rest of the little bit of of summer you all have. It's summer here 24/7.. This whole week has been 115 and higher. DYING! Just kidding, but it has been really hot here. 

 

So here's a weekly round-up of my week:

 

Monday: We went hiking, hopefully you got all the pictures I mailed home. Later that day we played zone sports, and then I got a surprise package! Thanks MOM! 

 

Tuesday: BEST DAY OF THE WEEK. I got to go on exchanges with Sister Westfall in the English area. I absolutely loved it!  I made my first street contact in full Spanish! I was so happy! It was a big accomplishment for me because my companion usually buts in as I start speaking so it was nice to actually have a chance. That night Sister Westfall, who is actually from Boise, and I went to a members home to eat dinner. They had 8 cats... EWW. But they also has like 5 baby kittens that were really cute.  They gave a us pizza which I was super happy about because I was afraid I might eat cat hair. Later that night we went to a guy named Victor's house, and his niece started painting my nails during the prayer.. haha she was only 6, she did a great job!... except for the fact she got nail polish all over my Ipad case, but it's all good!

 

Wednesday: We went the the Mejias Barber Shop. They are a couple in our ward who always go to lessons with us. Hermano Mejia played in the movie 3 Kings with George Clooney and Mark Walberg, He also played Saddam Hussein in a Madonna video. He looks identical to him haha. Anyways when we got to the Barber Shop we taught a lady named Marianna. She is awesome, and we put her on date for September 13. While we were there, there was this lady named Sandy, who is in the Episcopal Church, who was Bible bashing us the whole time. It was one of the worst bible bashings I've been in yet. Well we finally got out of there, and headed to dinner. I have never been so happy to leave some where in a long time. We had dinner at the Seabrings, the husband is from here, and the wife is from Argentina. They are super nice, and really ODD. 

 

Thursday: We went to Arizona City today, and found Alma and her mom Marianne. They are solid investigators, and are super interested in finding the truth. When we got to the end of our lesson we asked them to kneel in prayer with us, Marianne kneeled and then cramped up and was stuck on the floor.. it was super embarrassing.. Later that night we taught our English class again, it wasn't as good of a turn out as the first one.

 

Friday: Today we had weekly planning, and then went to Chick Fil A for lunch, the Elders went to InNOut Burger and snuck it into Chick Fil A.. The cow wasn't very happy, but they wouldn't kick missionaries out haha. There was about 25 missionaries in there! Later that night we had dinner with the Montelongos, and then went to Coldstone with our investigator Antonio.. He hates ice cream... Awkward. We just got it anyways.. He didn't tell me thank you or anything for buying it. Oh well, he later told me my Spanish sucks. 

 

Saturday: Today was Waylin's Baptism. Waylin is a foster kid who lives with the Carr Family (they have 14 kids.). It was a really neat baptism, later we had dinner with the Sanchez Family, She gave us pizza and donuts... UGH So much unhealthy stuff. But it's all good.

 

Sunday: Today was a really bad day, I woke up with a migraine, and had it all day. I also made Antonio cry because we showed him a video and it reminded him of his home back in Honduras, and he got mad and stormed off. He came back later and wouldn't talk to me.  Later that night we watched scorpions fight with black widows. Don't ask me why we do weird stuff. When you're a missionary you have to find ways to entertain yourself.

 

Today: We went golfing at this members golf course. We got to drive the golf carts, and I'm really bad at golf!! But it was still super fun, after we went to Coldstone!

 

Well that about sums up my week.

Have a good week everyone! 

 

Love you all,

Hermana Greenhalgh

Playing golf with the District

My district. Elder Bronson the one with the glasses on went to Hillcrest. I've known him since 7th grade.

Little girl painting my fingernails

Letter - 07/21/14

Hola Familia,

Como Estas? Hopefully everyone had a good week. Thank you all for emailing me. I hardly get letters to it's good to get emails. So just a recap of the last week:

 

Monday: Today we played Zone sports, and did our usual preparation day things. Later that night we found a guy named Antonio, he is from Honduras, and doesn't speak a word of English. but we have been teaching him. He knows a lot of stuff on the Bible, but doesn't believe that there is only one true church. 

 

Tuesday: We had interviews with President Toone, and had a training on how to be more Christ-like disciples. My interview went really good, and I also had one with Sister Toone. She is awesome, she reminds me a lot of Mom.

 

Wednesday: We had District Meeting and talked about the Christ-like attribute of Charity. This week we are focusing on Hope. Each week we try to implement a Christ-like attribute. 

 

Thursday: We drove out to Arizona City for the first time, as we were looking for one of our investigators who recently moved.  We found her mom. Her name is Deanna. We began teaching her and it went awesome. She is legit, and we are super excited to be able to teach her. Later we went to Eloy, and had dinner with Hermana Bautista! We love her she reminds me of Grandma Pat because she will feed you and feed you and feed you even when you don't want anymore! After dinner we went to the Church. My companion, me, and the trio of elders are teaching an English class. We had about 8 students show up, so we are teaching them all how to speak English. It's super funny to hear how they pronounce words. I'm sure people feel that way about me when I try to speak Spanish. The class was a success, and we will continue every Thursday to teach.

 

Friday: Today we had Weekly Planning, and got to go to INandOUT Burger! It was super good, I love it! They have scriptures on the bottom of all the cups and trays! We also got new updates on our Ipads, that now show us when we get emails. It's super distracting because I get everyone's emails! As if Facebook isn't a big enough distraction. Anyways later that night we ate the Montelongos and they know Marde Rutt, one of the nurses that works at Onesource! They wanted me to tell her Hi! 

 

After we got this weird phone call from Hermana Habana to come over to her house. We have been working with her daughter Kelcey since I got to Casa Grande. Missionaries have been working with her for over 3 years. She has a strong desire to be baptized, but her dad won't let her. Anyways we went over to their house and she made us dinner.. again! YAY.. Anyways she goes "do you want the bad news or the good news first?" I said "hit me with the bad" she then preceded to tell us that Kelcey couldn't get baptized... the goes JUST KIDDING KELCEY's getting baptized! She is on date for the 9 of Agosto! We are so stoked, and humbled to finally have this miracle brought to pass. Kelcey has been waiting for a really long time. Many prayers have been in her behalf.

 

Saturday: We had an awesome lesson with Deanna, and she is super excited to continue learning more about the Gospel. Oh... so I ate cow stomach... that was the nastiest thing ever. Don't ask me why I eat the weird stuff I just kinda have to. The goat wasn't that bad, but still after watching die.. yeah no fun.

 

Sunday: Today we had the Mission President's Fireside. It was really good, and super spiritual!

  

Today: We hiked CG Mountain and 5 this morning! It was so much fun, I got jumping cactus caught in my foot! Woohoo. Next P-day we are going golfing, and the next one after we are going to the TEMPLE! I'm so excited. It's been forever seems like.

 

Well that's about all I got right now! PLEASE send me letters, everyone in my house gets letters everyday except me.. And I never got Melissa's letter that she sent a week ago.

 

Have a good week! Love you all

 

Hermana Greenhalgh

Letter - 07/14/14

Hola Familia,

Thank you for all the emails. I love hearing from all of you each week. This week has been pretty good. There have been some rather interesting things happen, but I will get there haha!... How is everyone doing. Sounds like everyone had a pretty busy week. Glad to hear Mandie and Kip are moved in to their house. Also sad to hear Zach, and Joe are home. But they will be back out soon enough! 

So some things that have happened this week is we had a horrible Monsoon. My companion and I were in a middle of a lesson and the dust came out of NO WHERE. We had to run to our car and were stuck there for an hour. When I send my memory card home, you will be able to see the lightning and dust. The lightning was every second...literally pretty much the coolest thing I've ever seen. 

Next we found several more people to teach this week, they are also interested in what our message is. I asked a lady to be baptized and she accepted. She is on date for August 2. Francisco still won't commit to a date but we continue to teach him. Raul is on date for July 26, and then Kelcey is on date hopefully for August 12. We also found our former investigator Anel! YAY! We have been trying to locate her for the last 2 weeks. She finally accepted us in, and we plan to teach her the Plan of Salvation tomorrow. That's about it for investigators right now.

Next we had a surprise baby shower for a lady in our branch. It was so fun! We took lots of pictures. Our branch is really growing. Yesterday was a day to remember we got to use the Chapel for the first time! It was super spiritual, and I'm glad to not be cramped in a small room with 80 people anymore. I had to lead the music during sacrament. I don't know why, but every where I go they ask me to lead the music. I'm either singing at baptisms, or leading the music never fail. But it's okay I didn't take 5 years of voice lessons for nothing, right!?

Now to the gross part... So we were in Eloy #tootoughtodie City, and we found this cockroach that was the size of a mouse. You bet your socks I screamed. It was so sick! Next on Saturday we went to a investigators house and watched him kill a goat... then we ate it. Don't ask me how I did it.. I just did. I deleted the nasty picture of the bloody head for everyone's well-being not a sight anyone would want to see. But me and my companions faces are pretty priceless in some of the photos.

Well that's about all I got for this week. I hope everyone has a good week! Stay safe! 

Love,

Hermana Greenhalgh

Baby shower for Hermana Carr

 Goat killing at the Habanas

Miracles - Letter 07/07/14

Hola Familia,
 
How is everyone doing? Hopefully you all had a fun, and safe Fourth of July. This week has been really good. Me and Hermana Jacobsen are trying to find new people to teach, and are continuing to work with our investigadores. So a few things that have happened this week is the start of Monsoon season. We have had crazy lightning storms, and lots of rain. In the mornings it is super humid and hot but we survive.

On Friday for the Fourth, we were invited to the Branch President's house. He has a huge house with a pool, and ping pong tables, pool tables, and a basketball court. We had a barbecue over there with the new Spanish Elders who are actually a trio. The one elder used to be an AP (Assistant to the President) so whatever he says we do.  He is from Rupert Idaho, and is 7' tall just like President Toone. But anyways, we had dinner and did fireworks and played pool it was really fun.

 

So something really weird that happened this week was on Saturday afternoon. I had the master key for all the church buildings and I unlocked the door and we went and did Facebook as usual. Well, when we went to leave we couldn't find the key, which is super bad because it puts all the other missionaries in jeopardy because we use that key for everything. Well we looked literally every where throughout both of our bags, the bathroom, the library and NO LUCK. Later that night we came back and still couldn't find the key. We prayed all day, and never found it. Yesterday I was feeling pretty down because it was my fault for losing it, so I got down on my knees, and poured out my heart that we could find the key. I prayed to just have the miracle to find it. I asked Heavenly Father to send me a miracle. After I finished, my bag made a clink noise... My companion and I both stopped and looked at each other. I ran over to my bag and started going through it again... There was the key inside of the lining it got through the tiniest hole which is not even possible. I know for a fact the key wasn't there before! MIRACLES!! Ahh me and my companion were freaking out! We literally had looked through bag at least 12 times as well as other people looking through it. I know that was definitely a trial of my faith. Have FAITH, things will work out!

 

Another miracle is my Spanish is flourishing, My companion can not believe how much it has improved in a week. Thank you so much for all your prayers in my behalf, I'm humbled to know that I have so much love and support back home. 

 

I hope everyone is doing good, and if there is anything I can do to help any of you, PLEASE don't hesitate to ask me. As a missionary I pray a ton, So if my prayers need added to it would be best coming from you guys! I encourage all of you to read your scriptures. I have found a ton of peace from that, and the examples of the prophets. Remember who you are, and the name you hold.

 I love you all! 

Hermana Greenhalgh

 

Fourth of July with the Carr Family (13 kids one they way) and the Branch President's Family (6 kids one on the way)