Arlington; Sunnyside Branch - Week 12

Monday, 18 November 2019

Heyooooooo fam.(:

So this week was great!!! I didn't do super well of documenting everything, but I'll try to recap a lot of it.

HALF MISSION CONF
Half mission Conference was AMAZING. President Pearson came and he just ripped us apart. It was so amazing. I have never been so spiritually recked in my life. Hahaha. But in all reality, it was really spiritual and amazing and I feel so inspired to do better and be better. Literally, none of my friends were there, though.): Everyone I know was at the southern conference, so that was a little sad. Haha.

After the conference, they gave us all flu-shots (WHICH ALL OF YOU BACK HOME SHOULD GET) <---- Seriously though. So that was great. I saw Sister Twede again, too (The sister who I ran into at BYU before I left on the mish)!!!

AIDA'S BAPTISM
Aida was baptized (AND I didn't flood the font this time. Haha.) We really wanted to make sure it was warm for her because she heard that it was FREEZING for Miguel, so we were really careful about making it "calientito" like she asked. But when the time finally came, she was like, "this is too hot." Hermana Luker and I were SHOOK. We were all like lol PLEASE get in the water. Hahaha. But we ran the cold for literally 2 seconds and she was like, "oh it's perfect now!" So it all worked out. She was the last member of her family to be baptized and now they can go to the Temple and be sealed for eternity!!! It really is amazing to see the Gospel bring a family together. Congratulations to Aida.(:

JAIRO
So last Sunday we found an awesome guy named Jairo and it was literally a miracle and when we were walking away from the doorway he literally said the words, "well I guess I'll be Mormon, then." it was WHACK. Haha. Well. We texted him throughout the week and he read in the scriptures and really liked everything he read! This Sunday he met us at church and it went really well, other than me bursting out laughing during the closing Hymn because it was really awkward.

Hermana Luker was the chorister and no one for a 10-foot radius was singing the Hymns, but I held up the hymn book and was and was singing next to Jairo and let me tell you, it was BIEN awkward, haha. I started laughing during the final verse and he started laughing and it was a vicious cycle, but I think it made him feel a lot more comfortable.

SEATTLE
So I'm currently serving with Sister Bird who had just served 4 transfers in Seattle YSA, so we decided to use our out of zone to yeet over to Seattle and spend the morning!! It was so awesome. We started on UW's campus and saw all the awesome architecture (I was getting some serious flashbacks to Orchestra tour, haha). I guess they based Hogwarts architecture off of the library at UW. Super cool, huh!! Anyway, when you walk up the stairs you literally feel like your on your way to Defence Against the Dark Arts, so that was super fun. Haha. Then we went to Pike's place to hang out. After that, we went to Ivers on the water and threw French fries at the Seagulls. It was BIEN terrifying, but all in all a good time. We ended the day by meeting up with the Seattle missionaries to hang out for a bit, it was a good time.

I hope all is well back home! I love you all so much and I'm so thankful for all of the prayers and letters. Speaking of things I'm thankful for... I invite you all to think extra hard as Thanksgiving approaches about someone you're thankful for! I invite each of you to do something nice for that person, whether that's writing them a letter or bringing them a treat or making their bed, just make sure they understand that they are important and loved!!

I love you all, but more importantly, you have a heavenly father who knows and loves you. He wants the best for you, and he wants you to understand that you are His! When I think about our divine nature, my mind is drawn to a scripture in D&C 50:41-42

41 Fear not, little children, for you are mine, and I have overcome the world, and you are of them that my Father hath given me;42 And none of them that my Father hath given me shall be lost.HEAVENLY FATHER LOVED US ENOUGH TO SEND US A SAVIOR. We belong to Him. He overcame the world and we are His, and because we are His, we WILL NOT be lost. I invite you each to ask Heavenly Father if these scriptures are true. Because they are, and really understanding that can AND WILL change your life.

I love you guys!
Hermana Jimenez

PS - Transfers are on Wednesday. She uploaded this fortune... but she's not leaving Sunnyside, she's getting a new companion.

Arlington; Sunnyside Branch - Week 11

11 November 2019

It's been a good week!!! Let's get to it!!

YSA (KINDA)

So last week we had an awesome lesson with a guy named Jose on his doorstep. He is around our age and was really happy to hear the message we had. We asked him if we could meet again and he was like, for sure! So this Monday we went over there, but when we got there, no women were inside. #triste. But I was like," yo, you wanna just meet at McDonalds" and he was like, "Yeah!" So this guy follows us to the McDonalds where we have our first lesson and it is SUPER spiritual. It's just so funny how things work out sometimes. This experience reminded me a lot of the good ol' days on eternal exchanges with YSA. It's so awesome to teach someone who isn't so set in their ways! The people who will just follow you to McaDee's to hear the good word. Haha. He's progressing, so that's awesome!

TEMPLE!

The Elders called us on Tuesday and asked us if we'd like to go with their recent converts to help them with baptisms. We were like, uhhh are you kidding!?! Of course. But then they were like, lol, the thing is the trip is tomorrow and we all need rides. We were shook. Haha. Classic Elders. So we were able to swing some things around and get rides for everyone (we had to ask people in the YSA ward) and eventually we had our rides 1 hour before we were supposed to leave. Haha.

But like always, it all worked out!

We headed down to Belleview and when we finally got there and got out Elouisa, our most recent convert, said: "I DON'T HAVE MY RECOMMEND." I was shook. We decided to send it and just see what they could do. They looked her up and everything was all good. She got in! We did baptisms, and yes, I DID get my hair wet on day 3. It was totally worth it and it was so amazing to be in the Temple again!!

PACKAGES!

The next day the Elders came with a bunch of packages!! It was so great. I got a much-needed SD card (I hit 98% storage the day it came, haha), a clip-on flashlight for finding time because it's pitch dark outside and there are no streetlights out here in good ol' Washington, a new journal, and a NEW SWEATER. Bless up. It's so cute and I kinda' look like an American Girl doll when I wear it, haha. So thanks momma. Coming in clutch for me out here.(;

OSO AND DARRINGTON

So during weekly planning last week Hermana Luker was like, "yo, why have we never gone up to Oso" (country-country town). I was like, yeah I mean I'm sure there are people up there that need the gospel. Miguel is from Oso and so we were feeling pretty confident about it. But BOY OH BOY were we in for a treat. Other than driving for an actual hour we had to wade through waist tall grass and hop fences, walk around strange, purgatory-like properties, and all kinds of things of the sort to contact people. Surprisingly, no one yelled at us, but kinda not surprisingly they were all super white. At one point we contacted a guy that was like "NO SPANISH PEPPLE LIVE HERE. You could maybe, MAYBE find 3 families in Darrington, so we drove to Darrington and walked a super long road knocking like 3 properties every mile. Haha. No fue divertido, but it was super pretty and I'm pretty sure I met the real Santa Claus, so can I really complain? And now we know that it isn't worth 80 miles unless we have a reference. Hahaha.

9 NEW FRIENDS WEEK

You heard it. We found NINE new people this week thanks to the Lord. Crazy town. We finally got all of the English ladies from the food bank on board (4) and we started teaching Monse's kids (2). Additionally, we taught this AMAZING lady named Rufina who has a book of Mormon from a friend and told us she loves the story of Joseph Smith - I KNOW, an awesome guy named Juan, and HAIRO!!!!!

Listen.

Hairo is a miracle.

We were knocking doors Sunday before our lesson with Aida and we knocked a door for a former named Edward. A super nice man named Juan opened the door and we did our little shpeel and he was like, "Listen, I have my own church, but I have a friend who is looking for a church, let me get him."

So he goes to the living room and out comes Hairo. We start talking to him about Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon and he really liked all of it. We read Moroni 10:3-5 and he was really interested. He was intently listening on a door contact. LOVE IT. We are at the point where we are trying to give him a Libro and a folleto and neither of us can find our pens, so he goes and gets one for us. When he came back he was like, "I only have one question" and we were like, sick, shoot, and he goes... "Where and when is church." WE WERE SHOOK. Right then another one of his friends came in and was like, "Ahhhh Los Mormones!!! Me gusta mucho su iglesia. Se que donde esta. Voy a traer mi amigo (Hairo) este domingo." At this point we were like !!!!!!!!!!!  And then Hairo goes, "Yeah, well I guess I'm going to be Mormon."  GET RECKED. God is good. He really leads us to where we need to be to find the elect.

COSTCO!!!

So turns out Hermana Luker has a Costco card, and YOU ALREADY KNOW I'm out here wishing I had my costco pillows from home. So we sent it!! Haha. We went to Costco, got some cushy mushy pillows, I got my favorite Christmas treat, we looked at all the christmas toys (they've got some good stuff), and then... We went to the checkout

And the Lady was like, "Um we don't do guests anymore" and my spirit was completely broken. Haha. BUT then she was like, "This time I'll let it slide." WE MADE IT FAM. I got my pillows and it was truly a Costco dream come true. Then Hermana Luker bought us some buck 50 hotdogs. A dream, fam.

BOWLING

Turns out time flies when you're in Costco and when we came out it was past time to meet the Elders for bowling (it's Elder Larchar's last day in our Mission, he is off to Spain now) so we swooped by Target so I could buy a quick pair of socks and my Uncle Funky's.

And then

We bowled!!

Turns out I'm amazing at bowling until the 6th frame! Haha. Maybe it's the Christmas socks.

CONGRATS CONNIE AND JAIMEE!! I'm so happy for you guys!!! I love you all so much and I'm so sad that I missed the wedding, but I could feel the excitement of it all the way in Washington!

Love,

Hermana Jimenez

Arlington; Sunnyside Branch - Week 10

4 November 2019

PUMPKINS

Last P Day the district carved pumpkins and I got my hand stuck in ours because it was bien pequeño.(:

DRESS UP

Monday night I was feelin' trunky, so I dressed up like the normal Sofie HOOPS AND ALL. It was a good time. Lol. Miss that.

ICECREAM

Our district leader, Elder Montour, is going home soon (Like 14 days) and he always wants to go get food, so this week we sent it and went to icecream after district council!! It was a 10/10 good time. I got huckleberry & Chocolate caramel brownie. I know. Lol.

I HAD MY FIRST BAPTISM THIS WEEK. I ALSO FLOODED THE FONT. Let's get to it, fam.

ENGLISH CLASS

We now have a solid attendance at our English classes and everyone LOVES it. This time. When class ended we had some awesome gospel conversations with some of our students... I think we might start teaching them the real important stuff!!! SO exciting!!!

PACKAGES!!

We got A BUNCH of mail on Tuesday and it was so great! Hermana Luker got a bunch of food and her parents put in caramels and cheese it grooves for me, so that was 10/10 awesome. Then we got matching Halloween socks and snacks. I got my DEVACURL WHICH WAS SO EXCITING and some WWJD bracelets just in time to gift one to Miguel at his baptism!!! The best part if it all, though was a bunch of letters that the Young Women sent me!! It was such a surprise and it MADE MY WEEK!! I love you guys.(;

EXCHANGES

Sister Bird and I started out the exchange strong by getting pulled over by the cops for not having our lights on.🤷‍♀️ Hahaha. It was a good time. The other sisters saw that we had been pulled over and we made up this crazy story about how they made me breathe into a breathalyzer because I was yelling out the window and waving my hands at the car next to us because they left their phone on top of the car. GOOD TIMES. They totally fell for it. Hahah. Then we spent the whole day at Lake Steven's finding and serving at the Food Bank. Gorgeous, huh!? We went back to our house at 5:00pm to start handing out candy!! We made these cute handouts that were dumb-dumbs that had a paper that said "I am a child if God" on them. We had good candy too, so all the kids loved it. Haha. Then I got to call the fam. On HALLOWEEN. Augga made us noodles, too, so it was a great day. President is out here being extremely generous with Holiday calls. 

SO BASICALLY... WE FLOODED THE FONT.

LISTEN: I'm a beginner at all of this mission stuff. We also had to jump through all the hoops in the entire world to have this baptism for Miguel. Sooooo... let me just start this story from the entire beginning.

6:30 AM

We wake up and pray, I do my PT

7:00 AM

We text all the people that need to know we're having a baptism today, we are officially PUMPED for the day. We skirt and get ready.

8:30 AM

We start to plan our day, what we are going to do and when, the entire list of things that have to be done before Miguel's baptism.

10:00 AM

Comp study starts, we make cards for Miguel and plan out some more of the logistics of the day. The elders told us that the plight o  the long didn't work and that we would have to fill it on full blast for two hours and the. Another 40 minutes before Miguel is baptized. AND THEN that someone would need to step on the drain. We were like, chill.

12:30 PM

We leave the house and go to Panda Express because we can. And it's BAPTISM DAY Y'ALL. We get to the church and start the font.

1:30 PM

We realize that we never talked to the single adults to make sure it will be okay to use the gym for good until 8:00 PM. We call all the way up the chain to call Hailu who tells us to call some white chick who is NOT happy that we are tryina' swoop on the cultural hall and yadda yadda about how SINGLE ADULTS ARE IMPORTANT, TOO. So finally, I'm like, "listen, the cultural hall is yours, you have it reserved, but it would be such a help if we could use it until 8:00PM. We will set up the entire activity with signs to get to the Primary room." And she's like, "okay fine, enjoy your baptism." So we start sprinting around setting up the primary room for this single adult event and putting up signs. Everything is set up great and I decide we need a couple more signs, so we go back to the clerk's office to print them.

2:30 PM

We leave the clerks office and start walking down the hall when I hear Sister Luker scream, "HERMANA, OH SHOOT" I look down and water is POOLING OUT OF THE BAPTISMAL ROOM DOOR. I rip the door open and see the water slowly BUT SURELY trailing out of the font.

I don't think I have ever been more shook in my life than at this exact moment in time.

We sprint through the bathroom to get to the font and Hermana Luker rips her boots off, Flings her dress off and dives into the Font. She wades to the other side to turn off the water and then DIVES TO THE BOTTOM to unplug the font.

I grab her a towel and she starts drying off while I frantically begin to SQUEEGEE water from the carpet back into the font. We clean up as best we can with the mops and then lay the two towels in the church down to try to soak up water. They just immediately saturate and we start to really panic. I FRANTICALLY SQUEEGEE FOR 20 MINUTES while Hermana Luker calls the Elders 6 times. (One of the times we forgot to hang up so they got a frantic voicemail saying, "Get FREAKING RECKED what are we going to do. Who knew today would be the day we died." And stuff like that, lol).

3:30 PM

We decide we need to leave for Hermana Luker to get a new change if clothes and for us to get EVERY towel in the house and our box fan to try and clean up as best we can before the baptism. We get home, frantically run around the house collecting towels, and I say a kneeling prayer while Hermana Luker changes her clothes. We grab our fan, towels, some stress eating snacks, and SKIRT.

4:00

We arrive at the church, to find the ZL's laughing their heads off while they stomp on towels. We put them to work and THREW THIS BAPTISM TOGETHER. Everything came along PERFECTLY. Hermana Chatfield swooped at the perfect time to help us out (SHE CAME W CHICK FIL A, TOO. Bless up. The only chick fil a in the mission is in her area and she brought me some.) The baptism literally was so cute and the programs were so great and the board was decorated and we had a card for everyone to sign. It was so great. Haha.

5:00

We take pics with Miguel and hide our towels and box fan. There's 10/10 still a huge wet spot. The program goes great, but when everyone walks in, they're all like, "que PASOOOO???!?!?!" So then we told everyone and they all thought it was hilarious. We got laughed at A LOT. Then the water was freezing cold when Miguel got in because we used all the hot water. Lol.

6:30

The program ends and we everyone goes to eat snacks. We take pictures with Miguel and set the fan back up, and when we come back no one had gone I to the cultural hall. Everyone was just hanging out in the kitchen and the hall. RIP. Lol yeah. So all of it was for not, But Miguel got baptized and that's all that matters.

So that is the story of the longest day of my life so far.

STAMPS

I FINALLY got stamps to start sending letters back to my Abuelita and the cashier at Fred Myers didn't even give me an option, so looks like I'm going to be sending letters with Santa stamps for the next little while. Hahaha.(;

Anyway, that was A LOT. Hahah. I hope you all get a good laugh out of my 1st baptism and if you ever swing by my parents' house ask them to show you the videos, because they are pretty hilarious. I know that God is with us and that he cares about the little things, too. I know that as we make and keep covenants we will be blessed beyond our wildest dreams! Being away from home is hard, but honestly, my entire mission is worth it for Miguel!

I love you, Fam!!!

Hermana Jimenez

Ps: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BRO, ALEX ON THE 7th!!!!! 22. What a ride. You're awesome, Alex. Thanks for being the best brother ever.

Pps: GOOD LUCK TO CONNIE AND JAIMEE NEXT WEEK AT THE WEDDING!! It's going to be great!