We're Not Tan, We're Just Permanently Covered In A Mix Of Mud And Bike Grease

Wow! As always so much has happened the past couple weeks. We just got back from all the craziness of transfers, and I'm follow-up training!!  I'm going to miss Hermana Hill so much, but I'm SO excited!!  My new companion (and stepdaughter) is Hermana Jorgensen and she's so cute 😄

My last two weeks with Hermana Hill were awesome!  After six weeks of dropping people over and over again, we finally have some solid truth seekers that we're teaching.  It's like they all came out of hiding this past week.  One woman, Stephanie, came up to us on the street. She told us we had met her a couple weeks ago and shared our card with her.  A little while after that she had surgery and went into a coma. Immediately after getting out the coma she tried to call us but she couldn't find the card we gave her, so she just started praying that God would send us her way again.  That day we caught her right as she was walking out to her car, and now we're teaching her!  She loves the Book of Mormon even though she hasn't even read it yet and she has two kids that want to get baptized!  And the only reason we were in her complex to begin with was to visit a member referral (who turned out not to live there anymore). Members are key!!

So is following the Spirit. Hermana Hill is SO good at that, and a majority of the appointments we've had in the past two weeks have been a result of her following promptings. All she has to say is "I have a feeling we should..." and I'm ready to go.  Every time we happen to get there right as the person is getting home.

We finally figured out how to use Pick Up Sticks in lessons!  We've used it twice with families in the ward for a Noche de Hogar (FHE) to teach the Restoration and they love it!  It really helps people to visualize the apostasy, and it helps to keep younger kids entertained and focused.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for sending it! 😊

Más que nada we've done SERVICE this week. Hermana Hill and I helped a member for a combined total of 12 hours in setting up for youth conference. It was SO awesome!  (Pictures attached!)  And the blessing of serving members: she calls us about every other hour now asking where we are, if we're okay, and if we need her to pick us up or bring us food.  I love loving the members 😁

I love this area.  With all the rain lately it feels like we're off-roading on our bikes.  I literally had two inches of mud caked on my tires at the end of the day yesterday.  But I LOVE the rain!!!  It cools everything off and makes people more sympathetic to letting us into their house. Sort of... 😂 but really this area has so much potential, I've just come to the realization that it takes WORK to bring that potential to light.  Something I already know about Hermana Jorgensen is that she's a hard worker, so she'll help me be more diligent and I'll help her learn Spanish 🙂 I'm so excited for this upcoming transfer.  President Hall leaves in a couple weeks, 7 areas just got closed, and almost all of my favorite missionaries just went home. LOTS of changes (every companionship in my district is training), but I'm excited to see how they play out and what happens with the mission and the work!

I love you all!

-Hermana Thunell

Studying by the pool in our apartment complex! 

REAL Root Beer!

Youth Conference Decorations (a member in our ward PAINTED that Liahona!)

Flowers that look like butter!

These little guys are called charales and I ate about a hundred of them!  You just roll them up in tortillas and eat them. Or you can eat them by themselves. They're all dried up so they're like little fish chips and they're so good! 

Jesus is My Chicken Nugget

Just got back from the zoo! P-Days in this area are so great, there's so much to do!

This week we saw SO many tender mercies. I also fell off my bike again. Apparently this is going to be a weekly thing 😂 luckily we have bus passes so when it gets really bad (and REALLY hot) we can take the bus to our appointments.

We found some AWESOME people to teach this week! One of them was a referral from a member (#memberworkisthebest). We stopped by one night to meet her and talk with her for a bit and when we left and thanked her for her time she said "No I should be thanking you. You're trying to help me change so I can be better!"

I think change is a good theme for this week. Hermana Hill and I have been working SO hard to change ourselves to become better missionaries. We've been working on obedience, positivity, and MEMBER WORK (clearly it's starting to pay off because we've gotten a few referrals this week).

We also found this kid Marco just walking around on the street. He just moved here from Honduras and upon meeting him he told us he had lots of sins and really just wants to know how he can change and be clean. It's like Heavenly Father dropped a piece of gold right into our lap! Luckily for Marco, that's exactly what we do as missionaries 😊

We also got pulled over for speeding on our bikes.

Okay not really (though apparently that's happened to President Hall twice). We pulled up into the church parking lot for a water/playing the piano break and this police officer pulled in behind us. He asked if we were okay, told us he was a member from another stake, and then offered to buy us dinner! We went to Chipotle which I haven't had in 6 months and it was SO GOOD 😋 he also gave us his phone number and said if we ever need anything or find ourselves in some sketchy situation to give him a call and he'd send the troops running 😎 so now we have the police on our side, which makes me feel a lot better because we get hit on by lots of creepy dudes.

Less-Active Member Experience this week:

Member: Hey did you hear they're getting rid of chicken nuggets in 2020?

Me: Who?

Member: Like the whole world

Me: That doesn't sound right...

Member: No it's real. You're going to have to get chicken strips at Chick-Fil-A now

Me: I don't even like chicken strips...

Member: It's the same thing, just in strip form

Me: They taste different. I just want my chicken nuggets...

Member: That's right, you don't settle for chicken strips over nuggets, just like you don't settle for boys, only Jesus. Jesus is your chicken nugget.

(Just to explain the title of my weekly.)

I think that's all the crazy stories I've got for this week. Thanks for bearing through my Chick-Fil-A obsession!

-Hermana Thunell