meet those mormons

okay wussssup. this week was unreal. like so decent and fun. on monday after we emailed, only a few missionaries went to sports...like 6 elders and 4 sisters. so we just played basketball for 3 hours. fun!!! the last game i really just wanted to play boys v girls, so thats what we did. sis ballard is a baller too so we were doing pretty good. then we were losing. then michael jordans spirit came to me and i hit 3 three pointers in a row and ballard made the game winning shot!!! omg it was so exciting. for the rest of the week i texted the elders, "ummmm so who won that game on monday...i keep forgetting." im the most immature and fun! then that night i forgot the phone at the stake center so it was a fun adventure looking for that. omg zealley said the funniest thing that night. so here we are walking out of dinner at night and this couple comes around the corner and its someone from the ward and theyre like "i thought that was the sisters" and zealley was like "hahah yeah whol else walks around at night in skirts...except prostitutes i guess." they were like uhhhh. and i was like LOLOLOLOL ROFLLLL!!! so funny. tuesday was a good day. we tracted into an excommunicated member....she was super nice and totally understanding of why things happened the way they did. some people can be really bitter towards the church because of their mistakes but she wasnt. that was cool. then we went and visited a mom and her daughter that are getting back into activity. they are so nice! the girl is my age and we be talking and she tells us bout her boyfriend...it was complete girl talk from that time on, then we shared a good message. they will be considered "reactivated" by the end of next month. exciting. lets not forget that reactivation is just as important as baptisms! dinner cancelled that night :( so we burritos from a little whole in the wall place! fun. wednesday was the most fun! i had my last zone conference of my mission. we were able to see meet the mormons! it was so good! i loved it! i loved all the stories and how they portrayed that mormons are really just normal people with normal lives and how much our savior jesus christ has influenced their lives. i encourage all of you to go see it and invite non members to see it as well. we also had to get flu shots -_________- a lot of the conference was talking about conversion and how we can make sure that our investigators are truly converted. how do you know you are converted to the gospel of jesus christ? does it show through your actions, words and deed?  that night after dinner we were driving to see a less active, heather, and on the way we run over this unreal, huge, rattle snake! i was like "TURN AROUND SISTER WE ARE GETTING THAT." So after running it over 20 more times we cut off the head and took it to heathers. sister ballard came over and skinned it for us. we have the skin and we are gonna hang it on our wall!!! we are soooo fun!! ive been in az for 17 months and now i can come home proud hahahah rattle snake. thursday morning we went over to an old ladies house and pulled weeds. omg my legs and butt have been sore for days. we tracted that day and had ward coorelation. i love the ward missionaries and our ward mission leader so much. we keep it real....and focused on the work of course. on friday we met with our investigator sandy and read form the book of mormon. she is doing good and will probably not get baptized until after i go home...but its been good to see her progress. saturday was the funnest! so sister zealley and sister ballard served in this city called clifton arizona and they have this ward member who loves to come visit them and take them out to a meal. he took me and lovell out one time when we were together. so he planned to come for lunch and will you just guess what he brought us...just guess. okay. HE BROUGHT US FREAKIN CAFE RIO!!! are you kidding me? it was like mana in my mouth! soooo good. i love this man. ughhhh so good!!! i could barely eat dinner because i was so full but soooo worth it. we went to a families house that night and the 12 year old needed help on his talk....so i kinda just wrote it for him or something. its fine. he contributed. sunday was a good church day. someone invited a non member to church...and they actually came!! it was real goood. we went to visit a less active 15 year old after that and she had one of those babies that you get from school so sis zealley was all about it and cuddled it the whole night. i guess since we cant hold real babies its fine. so i just wanted to share some things i learned from the continuous atonement this week. his last chapter was about how its okay that we sin and life isnt meant to be all peaches and cream. we all make mistakes you guys...whats important is that we dont just forget about them but that we learn from them and grow to be better and more improved human beings. lemme share a cute little quote from my favorite cute prophet gordon b. hinkley"

"Arent you glad it isnt fun all the time? the valleys of discouragement make more beautiful the peaks of achievement." 

okay i love you guys! have a great week!!! 

sista b

skunk on the side of the road. lol smelly.

elder flake is fun

lol snake

snake head

the guts ima bout to eat lol i didnt even eat it you guys

will you just take a look at that tan line rainbow

HE LOVES YOU!!

hey family and friend!!! ugh i swear each week it feels like i just emailed you guys and dont have that much to say. also, i think im getting lazy about writing. omg guys give me a break...ive written like 60 emails and theyve been pretty good lengthy ones. okay here we go. so on monday we had pday sports and it was pretty dang fun. we went to a park and played ulitmate frisbee and football and kickball. i loved it!!! we got to frolick around the field and be in the sun. ima have skin cancer when i get home probs. lol yolo...the resurrection is real. then we had a yummy waffle dinner. OH AND WE GOT FREE PIZZA FOR LUNCH. thats wassup. on tuesday we went out and walked to see some people but no one was home. so we just walked and talked to those who were chillin outside. im a sweaty mess by the time we get home so i lay over the AC vent and take a nap. tight. we saw doug and he showed us some of his anime characters and chose which one i was. idk who it was but i owned a dragon!! get at me. we saw our investigator enoch, the one thats not diggin on me, and we taught him about the word of wisdom and how much it would bless him and his response was "yeah, i don think i wanna do that. i like to drink and smoke." ummmmm okay we will pray that you get the desire. then we saw one of my favorite less acitves aaron. he has a autistic grandson who just gets 1 inch from your face a screams. i love it!!! wednesday we had distict meeting and me and sister zealley were incharged of giving a training on introducing scriptures so we decided that we would have every companionship make a "movie trailer" of their favorite book of mormon story. omg lol it was so fun. we are the funnest. we did ours on nephi getting the brass plates. it was our district leaders birthday that day too so we went to golden corral for lunch. i got chocolate all over my skirt -_________- so we hada go home and change lol im a mess. after dinner we saw heather and she is so fun. i swear i am a 15 year old girl at heart because i just connect with the youth so much. ima be the best YW president one day because we are just gonna talk about boys and one direction. fun! thursday we walked in the morning for like 3 hours before we saw a lady from the ward...get this. shes a mormon and a 7th day Adventist. lol is that legal? i guess. then we saw sami....its kind of sad because she loves hearing the lessons and having us come over but she told us the other day that she doesnt want to come to church with us :( we told her to pray an ask heavenly father what she needs to do. hopefully the spirit will speak to her. we had a coorelation with our ward mission leader that night and we both agree that we need to drop a lot of our investigators because truthfully they arent quite ready for the gospel and the covenant of baptism. we will see how it goes this next week. friday we had weekly planning -_______- 8 more. only 8. then our dinner cancelled....20 minutes before dinner. so me and zealley just got some pizza. WE LOVE PIZZA! that night a sister in our zone needed a blessing so we went with her and some elders to get it hahahah she got a blessing for her trunkiness because she goes home in 3 weeks. lol i might need one soon. I JUST LOVE YOU GUYS TOO MUCH AND MISS YOU!!!! is that so bad! no. saturday was fun! in the morning we had a service project as a ward and went to clean up a nonmembers house that said we could. his yard was a mess and we got everything cleared in about and hour and a half. it looked beautiful. it really shows the community that we are a religion that lives our faith, "by their fruits, ye shall know them." our fruits are pretty dang tasty. then that afternoon we went on some splits with some sisters because sister winkler has bronchitis! so i stayed with her while zeally and the other sister did some missionary work. my poor winkler...so sick. but we just talked and talked for 3 hours. until she got a blessing by our zone leaders. PRIESTHOOD IS THE BEST! that night we went to visit our investigator marissa and read some scriptures with her. she is really great but just works every sunday unless she fakes sick! dang. okay sunday was legit. we had church which was great. then for lunch we went to a members house and they live in a freakin airplane hanger!!! like there were 4 little airplanes all around their house. i hafta take pics next time i go over. then we went to a stake activity for the kids in mission prep. we had a little training from president passey about extending invitations to everyone. nothing happens in missionary work until we extend an invite!!! inviting is success. i got to go on splits with this girl who is 17. it was fun! i took her to meet our grump less active bill. he was a treat for her lol jk he said he was perfect and didnt need the sacrament. okay bill. it was a really great night and we talked a lot about the older missionaries and what advice we can give to the prospective missionaries. i said 2 things. 1: remember whos work you are doing. i love my mission and have grown so much personally from it. but it isnt for me. i am doing the lords work which is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. be as selfless as you can. 2: learn to lean on the savior and be his bestie. i am still reading the continuous atonement and this week i read about his love for us. brad wilcox talks about how heavenly father can never NOT love us. he is bound to love us. it is unconditional. the atonement allows us to feel and access this love fully. i have grown closer to the savior than ever serving for his church. go on a mission people. its great! we went on a hike this morning and i complained the whole time. fun!!!! OKAY LOVE YOU!!!! have a great week.

sista b

ummm yeah...kitties chillin in a truck.

just frolicking in a baseball field 

if you put grapes in your upper lip you look so hot

hikes suck so we take pics under the bridge

SWEEEEEET 16

oh hey wuddddddup!!! i hope you guys had a great week this last week. this week was better for me! on monday it was a such a fun time at pday sports. we played all the games. first we started with bumb/lighting....lol idk what people call it anymore. the zone leader said whoever wins would get to pick the next game so loooolllololol it was down to me and an elder and i got him. i win holler! so of course im like "we about to balllll". we played basketball for about an hour after than. then president came to play with us and i was like what the?! but i was just my regular irreverent, crazy, wild self and im sure he was like smh at sista b. hahah!!! we played 4 square (i suck at that), volley ball and dodge ball. once i get hit in dodge ball i just sit for the rest of the game. home girl is not tryna get hit multiple times. after pday sports we had a good dinner and then i was determined to go to our investigators house that said he didnt like me and figure out what the heck was up!!! we got there and i was like "enoch, im sorry if i offended you, was there something i did?" he said that i was smart with him on the phone but i wasnt!!! i was asking him a legit question. he said that it wasnt a big deal and that he wanted to continue studying and was excited for us to come back and see him. soooo that whole ordeal was over. on tuesday we had an appointment with sandy but we walked there so we got way tan and my feet hurt but it was good. we read joseph smith history and the story about how he saw the angel moroni and then the next day he was totally exhausted. sister zeally related that to how our spirits need to be worked out and how after we have big spiritual experience we are really tired. i thought that was so true!!! i remember how at the beginning of my mission i was so freakin tired alll the time....it was because i wasnt used to feelin/using the spirit so much. now my spirit is strong because i work it out all day. i havent fallen asleep during personal study in months!!! make sure you guys work out your spirits daily so it grows big and strong. that night we saw a man named larry. this guy is AMAZING. him and his wife adopt physically and mentally challenge children that dont have a home. theyve home more than 31 kids. even after his wife left him he continued to foster these kids. he has about 7 living with him right now. ive never been around a more selfless, loving man in my life. it must be so hard. then after dinner we saw another less active named aaron. he is so fun and has such a strong testimony but just wont come to church!! dang. on wednesday we had zone meeting which was good. we talked all about working with members and how they help so much in the work. guys, go find the misisonaries and ask who their teaching and how you can help them! lol feed them too. sister zeally had to give her  "dying" testimony. that kinda freaked me out because the next people giving their dying testimony will be ME!! lol idk what to say. we had dinner at the cutest little families house. their house had such a comfortable spirit in it. being a missionary i can definitely tell the difference between homes that have the spirit and homes that dont. make sure your home is a place that the spirit lives! thursday morning we went tracting. lol i love tracting and meeting the weirdest people. one drunk man and one man that told us the rapture was coming. so fun!!!! it was raining so hard that day i loved it!!! we met with one of our recent converts named lesa and she is great and loves the church but has to work so much so thats not so fun. on friday we were able to teach a group of 8 little kids about the plan of salvation. they loved it!!! i think kids love it so much because they remember it just a little more than adults do. we saw an old less active after that and she taught us some different patterns for crocheting...lol that is def a habit i will be picking up when i get home. we went to go see sheryl that night but she had just gotten off working a 12 hour shift and told us to come back next week. DANG!!! we saw doug instead and he showed us home pictures. we had service after that, helping a family clean their house. i love service! on saturday sister zeally went to give blood, but i couldnt  because i had just given the month before. we had to finish weekly planning. OMG I WILL NEVER MISS WEEKLY PLANNING!!! we saw sami after. she is so cute and loves the gospel but like any 9 year old little girl...she is afraid to come to church alone. we just need more little fellowshippers for her! our dinner apt was so fun. this family loves missionaries so we were there for like 3 hours talking about the mission and good stuff like that. sunday i was finally able to meet the ward. they seem like a good group of people. 230821089 pregnant woman. so thats fun. it was fast sunday and i couldnt wait for dinner. we saw another one of our investigators last night who have been taking the lessons forever!!! we have a lot of people who like to listen to the message but are not progressing. its kinda frustrating. i think heavenly father is trying to teach me patience right now more than ever!!!! its okay. i can be patient. oh yeah yesturday i celebrated my 16  month mark!!! 2 months. 2 MONTHS....thats so crazy. im excited but still have so much to learn and grow and people to help. im reading the continuous atonement by brad wilcox and it is SO GOOD. jesus christ loves us and he came to earth to save us from our sins. accept his atonement and he can make all the difference in our lives. love you guys and hope you have a great week!!!

sista b

we thank thee for tommy monson

helllllllo to all! how are you guys doing. i hope you had a fab week! this week was ok...just trying to adjust to everything and lol idk. so on tuesday we played sports and had a good time. then we went to a relief society activity and i got to meet some of the sisters so that was good. it was all about canning....lol so mormon! then for dinner someone bought us a pizza for dinner so we ate that with the other sisters that live out here with us. we are kinda in the middle of no where. about 20 minutes from tucson in a city called marana. lots of cotton fields and dirt roads. i swear once i got outta tucson the lord wanted to keep me out!! its okay though. i love the sisters that are out here with us. sister ballard and sister reeves (my old comp). ballard is a crack up. on wednesday lol i think it was my birthday!!! we had district meeting and they sang happy birthday to me. lol i love attention. then we went to the family history center and they taught us how to do more family history. but the coolest thing was that this guy showed us a website called relativefind.byu or something like that and you can put in your name and family history login and it shows you every famous person that you are related too!!! it was so cool. we are practically releated to everyone some how. i think the coolest one was that i am direct 12th cousins with ezra taft benson. lol famous. after that we went to in-n-out because i havent had that in ages!!! sis ballard bought my lunch for me <3 then it was back out to work. on thursday we walked alot which is fine with me because im tryna get tan and stuff before i get home. but lol i also got blisters!!! dang....i needa buy some dr. scholls inserts today if we plan on doing more walking. i met our investigator named april....lol i dont think she knows she is investigating the church though. we needa change that. i was soooo sore after i took my nap. that night we had ward coorelation and our ward mission leader knows whats up!!! he is so good about hearing about our needs and investigators and how we can get the ward involved. so good!!! ward mission leaders are a big deal as a missionary. on friday we met with another one of our investigators named sandy. she was a referral from a recent convert who i just think is the most hilarious woman. she totally speaks her mind and dont mess around! sandy is waiting to get baptized till her children can come so i dont think i will see it while i am here but she is super solid! after lunch and nap (<3) we went to meet with a referral named sheryl...she welcomed us right in and after one question she just totally opened up to us!! it was so great. she told us her worries, concerns and expectations that she has. she just wants to get closer to god, increase her faith and have more faith. sounds like something we can help her with. she was a member of the Reformed LDS church so she knew a lot about church history and joseph smith and the book of mormon. it was one of the best lessons i have been in in a really long time. the spirit was so strong and she told us she could feel it the moment we walked in and that we were an answer to her prayer. it was so great! we will see her again this week and hopefully set a solid date with her! then we weekly planned and saw another investigator named marissa....who cant get baptized because she works on sundays -_-. then it was conference!!!!! oh i love that conference. we watched it with a single lady and had lunch between sessions which was good! after we saw doug. oh doug what a special character. he loves pokemon and anime and power rangers so i was all about talking that stuff with him. oh yeah hes 24. so we are tight. he likes one direction. then i met another one of our investigators named sami. shes a 9 year old girl who loves to learn about god. didnt get to talk to her that much but she seems like she can progress well. sunday was conference again and we went with the sisters so that was fun. after dinner we got a text from one of our investigators saying he didnt want to study anymore because of me. so that was very very VERY disheartening. i said maybe 10 words to him....sister zeally said i shouldnt be concerned over it and that hes really sensitive. but yeah it was still hard. it is so hard to come into a new area and try and earn everyones love right away. people are imperfect and missionaries are imperfect! my goal is to be the best sister butcherite that i can. im working on love but it is soooo hard!!! ill buck up and see how i can turn this into a learning experience. anyways here are some things i learned from conference:

- who do i face? am i more afraid of man or god?

- kindness is powerful

- take 1 scripture from the BOM that you know to be true and share it.... ether 12:27

- is heavenly father pleased with me? have confidence in your answer that he is

- love everyone!

-follow the prophet

- stay in the boat

- be prepared

- review your testimony and how the gospel has blessed your life and share it with other!

hope you guys learned a lot this weekend and apply it to your life. be a little better than you were yesturday. love you alll!!!!

sista b