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!

Arlington; Sunnyside Branch - Week 9

28 October 2019

This week was pretty awesome!!! Filled with some whack experiences, too. Haha. Alright fam, LET'S GET TO IT.

I Got Asked Out on a Date:
Lol so during finding time I got asked out on a date. I know. Lol. We street contacted this guy that seemed super interested in the Book of Mormon (I honestly think he really is) and we were telling him about it and how it's the reason we're serving missions and then he was like asking us if we could date during the mission and we were like lol NO. And explained how we have all these rules and he was like. You guys are totally worth waiting for. I would wait 18 months to date you which is sweet and all but this guy was like mid 30's. Lol, I was shook. We sent the story to the district and Elder Helms sent this meme:

100 DAYS:
Wednesday was my 100 day mark in the mission. I know. Lol I made it folks. If I can do 100, I can do like 400 more. Anyway. Hermana Luker and I SENT IT and got Panda Express and it was the best night if my life. We watched "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" while we ate Panda. Almost felt like home again. Casi.

CRAZY LADY:
Okay to make a long story short I talked to maybe the most actually insane person I've ever met in front of Sister Auna and now she loves me. Lol. This homeless person came into the church during interviews to use the bathroom and then came out and asked us if we were the Mormon church. I did the whole "Church of Jesus Christ" shpeel and then she was like. Oh, well one time I tried to go into one of your church buildings and you didn't let me in. So THEN I did the whole temple shpeel. Then she was asking me if there were pelicans in Utah. Then she started talking about some whack island that Charlee Scheen's dad made a movie on and how every day since the 80's the virgin Mary has appeared to someone and been like "Yo WHACK stuff is about to happen." And how she's starting a non-profit for it and she told us what the website was and I was like, "Here's a card with our website on it where you can find all the answers. You should check out the Book of Mormon app, too, have a great day." And now sister Auna thinks I'm a legend. She called me poised. Lol.

DEREK:
This was SUCH an amazing experience. Hermana Luker and I received a referral to a place we had been tracting last week and didn't finish, so we headed back for finding time. We ended up talking to our referral and she said she was taking lessons with the JW's, but I didn't understand, so I taught her all about the BoM while she waited patiently. I bore my testimony, gave her a BoM and we left. Pretty sure we won't get a call from her at least in this transfer, but we went on tracting.

And let me tell you, tracting like the white missionaries do it is BIEN DIFICIL. People yelling at us constantly and talking about how their life sucks, but then wanting nothing to do with Christ when we tell them he can make a difference. TANTO DIFICIL. #respect to all these state-siders out here. So I'm feeling discouraged and frustrated about everything and just praying constantly for the faith to find, and we come to this door and have a really meaningful contact with a man named Victor. He was so excited and got emotional when we showed him El Vive. 10/10. Made him a friend. And we kept trucking on with hope. 7:00 came along and my companion wasn't doing too hot and just wanted to go home, but there were 3 doors left. I said, "Let's just do these few and then we can leave." As we passed the one we planned on knocking last we saw this big burly white dude inside and Hna Luker was like, "whelp we def don't have to do that one." We knocked the other 2 doors and had 2 great meaningful contacts. As we were walking back (in the pitch dark, mind you) I was like, let's just knock this door really quick. Lol and let me tell you my comp was NOT happy about it. She was like, "we can either end the night on a good note or we can knock." But I went stomping on and knocked. I see his big burly shadow emerging from the hall through the window and IMMEDIATELY I was thinking "WHAT did I DO?" This dude is terrifying and we're going to die right here on his doorstep.

And then...
He answered the door.

He was like, "Well hi there, how are you doing!? Let me turn the porchlight on."
HE WAS SO NICE. And he kept being nice to us after we said we were missionaries. We told him about Christ and his atonement and that He loves him and this guy starts BAWLING. I'm talking about tears streaming down his face, can't speak he's so emotional. Immediately I just started testifying about how God has a plan for HIM and how the BoM will bring him closer to Christ than any other book. I gave him a book of Mormon and finally, he said "I really needed you guys tonight." He went on to tell us that he works nights at the casino and today is his only day off and if we could meet next week that would be amazing.
I've knocked on that door 3 times before with no answer. GOD IS MINDFUL OF US. HE MAKES THINGS HAPPEN SO THE ELECT ARE FOUND. Get freakin' recked. I've never been so happy in my life. We got in the car and I just screamed at the top of my lungs, "FOURTH FLOOR, LAST DOOR SUCKA'!!" A miracle.

SOCCER:
Our branch started doing these soccer nights to encourage less-actives and friends to come and to build fellowship in the ward and it was super fun. All of the Hermanas just sit on the stage and cheer everyone on, but Hermana Luker and I play and every time one of us gets the ball they're always like, "Si Hermana! Como asi! Fortaleza! MIEDOOO!!!" Anyway it's good fun and I scored a goal, but I definitely biffed it in the gym and popped one of my ribs out of place, so RIP. I'mma need some more workouts from Kev. Haha. We had bacon-wrapped hot dogs, donuts, chips, and jamaica!! The people out in Washington know how to eat, fam.

7th Day Adventist:
Hermana Luker and I headed up to Granite Falls to spend the day because we had 2 lessons planned and it's 30 minutes away so it's kinda a whole day adventure. (I've only been there once before). So we pull up to this ghost town out in the boonies and knock on our first appointment and... 

we got stood up.😭😭😭

So then we stopped at Shell to get some caffeine to get us through the next 3 hours of weekly planning and finding we were about to do. After that, we had an awesome appointment with some Seventh-day Adventists we've been teaching. They fed us enchiladas and we laughed and enjoyed and then we taught our lesson. Then she showed us a really crappily dubbed over 40-minute long video in Spanish about all of the evidence towards the sabbath day being Saturday, but how at the end of the day it is just a day out of seven and we were like...

?

????????

??????????????????????

Because the video just basically said it didn't matter what day we have the sabbath on and the family is really held up on this SILLY little thing and none of the answers we find satisfy them. BUT they're awesome and we love them, so we watch the weird vids they show us. They also gave us the journal of the chick that started their church and I promised her I'd read it after my mission. So yeah! Fun times in Granite Falls.

ACCIDENTAL RHYME:
So we were in this contact with a guy that legit thought he was the moral compass of the world and we were talking about all of this stuff and I can't remember why, but I ended up just blurting out, "We share the SAME gospel at every door, from the rich of the rich to the poor of the poor." And then I was like, "wait, did I just rhyme?" Anyway. That was WHACK, y'all. He really liked us, but he wasn't tryina' learn.

AUGGA
I'm living the boujee life out here in Washington. Not even going to lie, the members we live with are my favorite part of Washington. They always give us food, ALWAYS. They always talk to us about normal stuff that makes me feel like a real person again, and they make us feel like part of the fam. I'm going to miss them so much when I leave this area.😪 Anyway, peep the actual Chinese FEAST Augga made for us on Saturday. They also gave us chocolate strawberries and grapes and cheese and crackers. The boujee life. Lol.

Hopefully my emails are a little more entertaining with these little experiences!! Haha. I'm going to try to start doing this every week.

Other than all that jazz, we have the baptism of Miguel this week!!!! I am so excited and so proud of him. He was SO ready to hear the gospel when we started teaching him and I'm honestly just so excited and grateful that I've been able to teach him this whole time, from the first lesson to the baptism. It's crazy to see how the gospel changes people's lives. We were talking yesterday and Miguel told me, "When you first taught me you promised me that God would answer my questions and I was like '¿how? He's just going to talk to me or something, yeah right' and then I opened the Book of Mormon, and the answers came." I know that God is mindful of us and that he listens to and answers our prayers. This Gospel has the power to change your life. It really does. But, maybe even more valuable than that is the power the atonement of Jesus Christ had to change our hearts. He's waiting for us with open arms, we just have to be willing to let him change us.

I know this Gospel is true, fam. I wouldn't be out here in Washington grinding every day only 15 hours away from my house if it wasn't, so do me a favor, if you aren't 100% in just FREAKING do it. As Elder Rasband said in this past conference, "FREAKING YEET WHATEVER GARBAGE IS HOLDING YOU BACK INTO THE WATERFALL AND COMMIT." We don't need lukewarm people in this gospel. We need YOU and we need ALL OF YOU. You will be blessed beyond your wildest imagination as you sacrifice things of no eternal importance to the Lord. I promise you.

I love you guys! 

Hermana Jimenez

PS: Someone PLEASE go to Chick-fil-A for me. Haha.

Oh also I dropped my phone and it hit the side of the curb completely shattering the screen protector. So it's great that I had another one!!! 

Woohoo for blessings. Haha.

Arlington; Sunnyside Branch - Week 8

21 October 2019

Sorry I missed a week we were wildin' out here. Things are great in Washington. It rains every day and it's starting to get really cold, but people respect us a lot more when we're out knocking, so that's awesome!

This week has been pretty awesome. We hit standards again. THAT'S A MONTH HERE IN SUNNYSIDE WE'VE HIT STANDARDS. So crazy.

I'm teaching English classes every Tuesday. We have so much fun. It started with the Elders teaching the class, but the Hermanas in the ward asked me if I could come to teach conversational classes so I did, and I don't know exactly how. But I kinda ended up just teaching the whole thing. At first, there would only ever be like one of the Elders' friends ("friends" being the word that they use in Sofia's mission for investigators) and an Hermana from the ward. Now we have at least 7 people every week!! We had a huge number jump because we serve at the food bank and whenever I take someone through in Spanish, I invite them to come to the English classes. One woman accepted my invite and brought 3 of her sisters!!! It's a blast. Everyone is just laughing the whole time but really they're learning (that part's a secret). I started making these sheets for them with difficult words to pronounce, for example, a column of b words and a column of v words or I made a whole sheet for w sound words with the Spanish translation and a corresponding audio file so they can practice. My little sheets and audio files are actually working super great!! English class is actually my favorite thing because a lot of it is SLP (speech-language pathology) and seeing people's speech improve is everything for me!! (Sofia decided after her freshman year at BYU that she wants to study speech-language pathology - we'll see if that sticks.)

We have 3 progressing friends, but I want to talk about Miguel today. He is THE perfect convert. Haha. A fun story about him today is that when we taught him the Word of Wisdom he told us that for the past two days he just had 0 desire to drink coffee (which he was usually crazy about). After we taught the lesson he quit Cold-Turkey. The guy is so willing to do ANYTHING for the gospel. It's insane. I love him so much and he's getting baptized on November 2nd!!!!

The gospel is great, the gospel is good. It's the way to find joy in any circumstance, in any place. I love it and I invite each and every one of you to live it. Live the gospel with all your heart and see how it can change your life. Because it can AND will. I love you guys and I'm so thankful for all of the emails and prayers and thoughts. Keep bein' awesome.(;

Hermana Jimenez

Ps: Momma check out the allergic reaction Augga gave me!! (This stuff was well worth the risk. Hahaha)

Pps: Fitz is still out here hanging out with us every day. He's my favorite dog.

Arlington; Sunnyside Branch - Week 7

14 October 2019

LISTEN

I had my first bible bash on Wednesday and it went a little like this.

We walk into this lady's house and start talking about the Book of Mormon. She puts her hand up and says, "can I make a call?" We're like, "uh, sure" she calls her friend to COME TO HER HOUSE TO BASH US. Her friend shows up and starts shooting a bunch of questions at me that I answer. Then she gets all mad and asks harder questions that I answer. At one point I use a scripture to explain my point and she goes, "THAT'S GARBAGE. THAT SCRIPTURE IS STUPID AND NOT TRUE" and I was like, "WELL IT'S FROM YOUR PRECIOUS BIBLE!!!" she was shook. Then she started talking really fast, so she would speak some Spanish at me and I'd whip around to my companion and say, "WHAT'D SHE SAY?" and then yell some Spanish back at her. Eventually, it ended with her saying "You're just going to WAIT for me to die to SPITE BAPTIZE ME." and I was like, "LOL NAH you CAN WAIT." And then we asked if we could pray and she offered and it sounded like some kind of Satanic chanting and I'm pretty sure I got cursed, so yeah. That was that.

Hermana Luker is Sofia's new companion. She has about 8 months in the mission and has served in 5 areas. They had a pretty good week. Sofia was able to maneuver the area and they met Standards again this week.

Arlington; Sunnyside Branch - Week 6

7 October 2019

Alright peeps well here's the Tea... I'm being half-trained. Hahaha. No one saw that coming, but I'm staying in the area and my trainer is coming to me so that's 10/10 stressful because I guess she's in charge of me, but it's my job to teach her all about the area. #RIP.

Everyone and their dog is getting whitewashed or half-trained, so that's whack. BUT THAT MEANS THAT I'M PROBABLY GOING TO GET TO SEE HERMANA NILSSON AND THAT MAKES ME REALLY HAPPY.

This week was 10/10. I got my package with all the goodies (including some sour gummy Alpacas) Love how my family still finds a way to roast me even from hundreds of miles away. 

WE HIT STANDARDS AGAIN which is basically unheard of, that's 2 times in a row. What a wild ride out here, haha. This area is being blessed A LOT right now, so that's amazing. We got Jose on date (woot woot!!). And it was GENERAL CONFERENCE YALL!!!

Also, we taught one of our new friends and the whole time he was so preoccupied with how "powerful" my voice was. Lol get recked. He was like, "if you chastised me I would die." "Your voice is so good for this job." "You're going to go so far in life." Get recked. Hahaha. It was really weird, but he's progressing a lot and doing good, so that's amazing!

Whatta' ride. General Conference was amazing. Everyone kept mentioning one of my favorite chapters in the Pearl of Great Price (and scriptures in general) Moses 1 when Satan comes to Moses and says, "Moses, thou son of man, worship me." I was always shook that Satan had the kahunas to try to convince Moses that he was worth worshipping directly after he saw the literal FACE OF GOD. Like, are you KIDDING me!?!?! But he's a convincing dude. He uses fear and deception to try and leverage himself to seem more important than he is. FAM. SATAN IS GARBAGE. Don't let him think you're of less worth than you are. You are a Daughter or Son of God.

Love you guys,
Hermana Jimenez

Also EAR BAGS. No one knows they're there and when I tell them, they're shook!!! Hahah. I took them for a spin one night and everyone and their dog wishes they had them. So thanks momma.🧡🧡🧡