Oh! Susanna! Oh Don't You Cry For Me, I've Come From Alabama With My Banjo On My Knee

I love how my allergies turn on and off.  Yesterday I ate peanut butter and had no reaction, but on Tuesday, after I FINALLY got to hold a kitten, I spent the rest of the day sick and sneezing.  I hope one of these days Heavenly Father will realize I'm not going to stop holding animals and he'll take my allergies away...Until then, I just have to limit the number of strays I cuddle in one day. 

Something I'm grateful for this week: so many people gave us food during the week (soup, pasta, pupusas) that it didn't matter that our dinner appointment fell through yesterday. We broke our fast with a feast of leftovers :)

We've had a lot of miracles this week. Our investigator Katy has been coming to church finally!  She doesn't like driving (I can totally relate) but she's been driving herself anyway. I'm just so proud of her for coming this week and last week, because when I think about it I know that feeling of getting into the car and thinking "Wow, I REALLY don't want to do this," But she's been doing it anyway!  And the members are SO great at fellowshipping her, I'm super proud of them, too. 

Yesterday after church we had to go out to the far reaches of our area to check out a referral, and in leaving church we realized we only had about 50 miles of gas left. We prayed that we would have enough at least to get there (because we had to go out of our area to get there and it would be really bad to run out of gas in the middle of nowhere outside our area). When we did get there we saw that we had a little less than 30 miles of gas left, and it would take about that much to get home, so we decided we'd have to work that area (a trailer park) for the rest of the night. Turns out everyone who lives there is from Mexico, so not only did we find some awesome news and potentials, but we also found like 6 pregnant dogs, 3 racing horses, and a PYGMY GOAT (you bet I took a picture). 

We ended up leaving later than we thought we would and the GPS said it would take 45 minutes to get home so we were afraid we would be late and/or stranded.  BUT the power of prayer is REAL. We made it home exactly on time and somehow still had 16 miles of gas left!

Favorite investigator find of the week: This lady Susana who's from Guatemala. We met her and her husband taking care of their trees outside their house and she was super nice and funny. She really likes her trees, though. When we asked how long she and her husband had been married she said "Oh we're not married, we're just together.  I don't like marriage because I'd really just rather marry one of my trees.  My only problem is that I can't decide which one to marry, because I'm in love with all of them!"  She'll be an interesting one to go back and visit.  Honestly, I get the plant obsession though.  My sunflowers are finally growing again!  They're so cute so I decided to name all of them.  Pictures included, but I know my handwriting is hard to read, especially in chalk. Their names are Faro, Abish, Russel, and Menta 😊 thanks go to my mom for brightening up my life and our apartment.

A really REALLY great video that we watched this week with a less active family is "The Hope of a Mother" (I hope that's what it's actually called in English. It's "La Esperanza De Un Madre" in Spanish) on the Mormon Channel.  It's amazing, and you should all take a minute to watch it this week. 

Sometimes it feels like everything is spinning out of my control out here, or like I'm completely lost and I don't really know what I'm doing, but I know that I can always pray to my Heavenly Father and that He will and WANTS to give me direction.

Just a few of my miracles this week. 

Thanks to everyone!

-Hermana Thunell ❤

The Week of Dogs

Hi everyone! 

As always, this week was a mix of ups and downs. We had some miracles, some grumpy people, and some days that we just wanted to sleep (I have never enjoyed taking naps so much in my life). But you know, welcome to mission life. Hermana Jensen and I had great success as far as finding people to teach this week. We found 8 new investigators: Elizabeth, Jennifer, Jonathan, Juan, Juana, Julian, Rob, and Tania. I think I've finally learned the secret to finding: talk to everyone whose name starts with a J! 

This week was also the week of dogs. I swear all the animals in Houston know I'm allergic to them and so all the dogs flock to me. But of course when I want to pet the cats they run away 🐱😒

Speaking of dogs, we met this guy Juan the other week who's a German Shepherd breeder, so he has EIGHT German Shepherds. We met him at his mom's house, so we didn't get to see them the first time we met him, but for our return appointment we went to his actual house and walked up to the gate to meet 8 German Shepherds barking in our faces. 

As we waited for Juan to come out (because there's no doorbell or anything), we heard some very loud, very Hispanic music blasting from a fenced-in field behind us. We turned around to check it out and saw a horse DANCING TO THE MUSIC. The man that was training it saw us staring and yelled to us "Come! Come touch my horse!" (but in Spanish). So naturally we hopped the fence and ran on over. He wasn't very interested in our message, but he did tell us we could come over and ride his horse whenever we wanted to 😂

We went back to Juan's house later and his daughter came out and threatened to let all 8 of the dogs out on us if we came back, so I guess that's that. But meeting Huracan the dancing horse was definitely worth getting yelled at.

I love having the protection of the Lord on our side. He always protects us from people who try to let their dogs out on us and turns them into cuddly puppies instead 😊

Well, I've run out of focus to write anything else in this weekly. 

Thanks everyone for dealing with my crazy stories!

-Hermana Thunell

Houston, We Have a Problem...

(I've been waiting 4 months to use that as a subject title...)

Well, I hope everyone loved General Conference as much as I did. From the emails I've gotten this week it seems like the answer is ye!  But let me just say that this has definitely been the best General Conference experience I've ever had. Maybe that's because I'm a missionary and Conference is a chance to just sit and relax for a minute and soak in the Spirit. Regardless, it was amazing! The whole time I was watching it I was just thinking of how proud I am to be part of this Church. I love the push to LOVE everyone and to be unified as members in loving others and serving them. I'm so excited to work on loving people even more than I do now!! 

I know that Russell M. Nelson is a true prophet of God!

In others news...I still hate driving, especially because I popped our tire this week. We were running way late to one of our appointments and as we pulled up I accidentally rammed into a corner of the curb. I parked and when we got out we could hear the tire letting out all its air. But because we were so late to the appointment we decided to go in and deal with the tire after. Well the appointment ended up lasting until 9 and by the time we came out the tire was completely flat, of course. We called the vehicle coordinator who was on his way to the airport to pick up his wife, so we then had to call the elders who live close by. They came and changed our tire for us so we could get home and then to Firestone the next day. It took about an hour and it had just rained so the elders were pretty much rolling around in mud and puddles trying to change the tire. Their white shirts were so dirty afterward and I felt so bad. But, I'm so grateful that the Church is organized and that we didn't have to worry about all of that ourselves and there are always missionaries nearby that can rescue us.

My new companion, Hermana Jensen, is a super hero! Thanks to her we found 8 new investigators this week, and really connected better with some others that Hermana Bent and I haven't seen in a while. She's got this crazy ability to make total strangers completely open up about the deepest parts of their lives, and then she'll just weave gospel principles into the conversation and suddenly we're being invited inside their house and giving them a Book of Mormon and being invited back.

My absolute favorite investigator is Katy. She's the sister-in-law of a recent convert and she and her family are so cute and she's so funny and sweet. I love them so much. Yesterday we went to visit her because we haven't been able to see her in a while, and as Hermana Jensen started talking Katy started crying and telling us about all the trials in her life and how she wants to go to church so bad but her husband doesn't want to drive her and she doesn't drive (I can relate). She, and people like her, is one of the biggest reasons I'm out here. Because every time we go over I can see how much she wants to be happy and I can see clearly that the gospel can bring her that happiness and that peace that she's looking for. 

I'm so grateful for the knowledge of the gospel that I have and that I can be out here sharing it. I loved the invitation that Brian K. Taylor mentioned in Conference yesterday: "Every time you feel hopeless, lost, or sad open the Book of Mormon." I've definitely seen that the Book of Mormon is the quickest way to make myself happier or more grateful or better directed. I'm so grateful that I have such easy access to revelation from God, and I know that I'm out here because I want people like Katy to realize that they have that same access.

I love you all and invite you to accept that invitation as well: When you feel sad, hopeless, or lost READ THE BOOK OF MORMON. That's what it's there for.

Thanks for all the great emails this week!

Hermana Thunell