October 6: General Conference (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2014/10?lang=eng)

Dang!!!! Was it just me or was this General Conference the best we've ever had (or at least since I've been born/watching them)?

It was probably just me.

I learned that eating cinnamon rolls and sitting on your couch is not, contrary to popular belief, the best way to watch conference!! Who knew!?

Being in the church building, being physically and spiritually prepared, and sitting with other people who are paying attention changed everything. When you’re not getting up to serve yourself another glass of milk, distracted by the burning pancakes, or asking someone to pass the maple syrup, Conference is another story. A way more interesting one. Every session of conference passed sooo fast. There’s no way I’m going back to watching Conference like I used to. I’m gonna sleep and eat enough before that I’m physically prepared. I’m gonna act like I’m in church. Cause it’s at least as important as church. The part with the good food—that’s gonna be in between sessions, and it’s not gonna run into my time and opportunity to listen to the prophets, apostles, and leaders called of God.

If you guys had the same kinda-distracted, kinda-sleepy experience with Conference I used to have, you’re missing out of so much!!! I invite you to make it a goal to have a new Conference experience in April and every General Conference after. And I invite you to look up my fav talks from this one :D

·  Lynn G. Robbins

·  Tad. R. Callister

·  Jorg Klebingat

·  Dieter Uchtdorf

This week, I turned 6 months old—in the mission. See y’all soon!

October 13—El Rancho

Today one of the members of our ward took us out to her ranch!!!!! Nona and Oldie, I was thinking a lot about you and about all of the mountain men you have known in your lives. I was thinking about your stories about your acquaintance who lived in his cabin, a hermit, and about Nona’s cousin who built his log cabin by himself.  Because she built this house herself!!!!

 It was so much fun to go out in nature and I felt so happy.

Also wearing pants was cool haha. I love wearing skirts, they’re so comfortable, but it was cool to wear pants for the first time in almost 6 months haha!!!

Here are some pics of the road trip…

…which wouldn’t be complete without a pitstop.

These tortillas are made by hand and cooked on a giant round stone :DD

Lately, I have been thinking about prayer. I never understood before the effort that is required to really communicate sincerely with God in prayer. I was reflective and grateful when I prayed, but here in the mission I have been studying the scriptures and found that when people prayed in the scriptures, MAN THEY PRAYED. That's why they got such amazing results. 

Remember the story about Socrates? A man came to him and asked him to help him acquire knowledge. Socrates said, Yes of course, meet me on the beach at 6 am. So at 6 am the guy comes out to the beach ready for some transcendental knowledge. Socrates says, We just need to go out in the waves a bit. The guy thinks, Okay... So they go out. And suddenly the guy's head is underwater and he's choking and gasping and scared. He tries coming up for air but Socrates seems determined to drown him. At the last moment, Socrates lets him up. What was that?!?!?! And Socrates says, What did you want more than anything when you were underwater? AIR! 

...When you want knowledge as bad as you wanted air just now, you will find it.

I invite you to change your prayers. To offer them with all the energy of your heart, mind, and body. Why was Alma the Elder's prayers answered with an angel scaring the pants off his son and turning his son into one of the greatest prophets of all time? He must have wanted it as bad as Socrates' student wanted air. He must have "wrestled in mighty prayer." It is only through this kind of prayer that we become one with Divinity. Prayer is not about changing God, it is about changing me. Offer your prayers as if Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ were sitting right there next to you: be focused, be sincere, beg them for spiritual eyes.

Sep 29—I’m gonna let the pictures do the talking this week… They have a lot to say

Day 1: It floods like crazy. Check out the background of the picture, where it looks like there must be a waterfall going downward because the street disappears? There was a waterfall. Hahaha. Everything was fine.

Day 5: Check out what came riding down the street today. Advertising is way more exciting in Mexico.

Day 8 (aka today): We went to a haunted cabin! Awww I was remembering when we went to the Haunted Cabin in the Black Hills. Do I look cool in this photo?

Dad!! I took a photo of cotton candy being sold out of a giant stone duck—I thought so much of you!!! I remembered going to the zoo with you and I thought it was so funny that literally it’s the same here!!!!

How would you like to live in this house?

August 25- Mom, I´m definitely not undernourished

Sorry y'all. The blog this week has one purpose and one purpose only: convince my mom that I don´t have a parasite, or a lack of food. If you don't like it, talk to my (crazy), wonderful, loving mom.

Carbs. Pure carbs. In the bag, in case you can't see, is a pound of tortillas.

The family that cooked me BBQ chicken, mashed potatoes, and rolls!!!

step 1

Step 2

Step 3 

Giant chicken sandwiches for breakfast? When your companion is Hermana Moran it's a pretty normal occurrence... 

September 1 - Congratulations Aurora!!!!!!!!

Wow!!!!!!!!!!

I remember when we knocked on Aurora’s door and out came a timid woman. She had a baby on her hip and she was blinking in the sunlight. Hermana Rueda had met her before I even got to the mission field, and when Hermana Moran got here we were still working on that list of addresses. She let us in and she hardly said a word. We had no idea if she understood the message we shared with her. She doesn’t have much education or experience. She lives with her mom and her brother, and she is a single mom of two little boys.

But as time went on, we realized that she was one of our most prepared investigators. She was accomplishing every reading assignment we left with her and understanding the Book of Mormon perfectly. She was offering family prayer every night with her sons and coming to church every week. Each lesson she became more confident with the answers she gave to our questions, and the first comment she made in Relief Society left me cheesin so big, I was so surprised and happy to see her raise her hand. She started a little business out of her house selling snacks and treats, and often when we went to teach her, she and her 6-year-old son were preparing the little baggies together happily.

I know that this Gospel changed her. She was just waiting to hear it, and neither us nor she even knew it.

The day of her baptism came, and we told her we were going to be there early to set up the font, and that she should come at 6:00  to eat with the Relief Society and then have her baptism at 7:00. But 6:00 came and went without her. Then 6:30, and then 7:00!!!! At 7:15, she rushed in, all nervous smiles, saying that her 6-year-old had fainted earlier in the afternoon and she wanted to make sure he was okay before she left him with her family. Wowwww!!!!! This young woman’s commitment is incredible. Hermana Moran and I were concerned about her son, but she said he was fine when she left, was in good hands, and they’d only be apart an hour.

Never would I have known the day I met Aurora that she would develop that strong of a testimony that this church is the Church of Jesus restored in its original form—the form he organized while on earth. Over the course of our time with her, I often asked her if she felt the church was true, and she always said yes. Then I would ask her why, and she always said, “Because I feel so different ever since hearing this message.”  I loved asking this question because her answer was sincere, simple, and spoken without doubt. This message changes us. That is our Heavenly Father’s purpose. I invite all of you to let this gospel change you. Let the Creator mold you.