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

Two Heart Attacks in One Night

Hi everyone! 

The weekly's coming a little late today because of transfers! My training is officially over and now I get to take over the area because Hermana Bent got transferred! 😭 It's super sad, I already miss her so much. I don't know if I'm ready to take over the area and it's super hard to think about getting used to the habits of a new companion all over again, but so far that companion, Hermana Jensen, is super nice and seems to be a really hard worker. She's a native Spanish speaker so I'm either one step closer to fluency, or I'm about to be left behind in the dust. Wish me luck!

My last week with Hermana Bent was pretty great, mostly bittersweet. We saw our highway horse friend again yesterday with a second horse, but I wasn't able to get a picture 😑

This week was also the week of heart attacks! 

We've been asked to make 10 member connections a day, because honestly "out of sight out of mind", and we want the members to always be thinking of how they can do missionary work. But I also like being creative and texting members every day is great, but it gets boring. So we've starting heart attacking people!! It's super fun because usually by the time we get to the end of the night all of our plans have fallen through, so whenever we have time, we look up what members are in the area and heart attack a few of them! It makes people super happy and it's something fun we can end our night with.

I'm super pumped for General Conference, and I hope you all are too. The reason we have prophets is for them to receive revelation from God, and General Conference is the opportunity to listen to those revelations and apply them to our own lives.

We're challenging all of our members to start thinking of the questions they want to bring to General Conference, and I challenge all of you to do the same!  Heavenly Father wants to give us direction, we just have to bring Him the questions and challenges we need help with. I know that when we do that and prepare to act on the answer, He will give it to us.

-Hermana Thunell

Happy Pi/Cheesecake Day!

I can't believe it's P-Day again! This week has been a real rollercoaster, but I've really seen God sending me tender mercies right when I need them most.

Pretty much this has been the most stressful week of my mission so far. Transfers are coming up on the 26th and we all have a feeling Hermana Bent is getting transferred. So I'll be out of training and taking over the area with a new companion. With that I know I'll have to start driving again, because it's a hassle to have someone driving when they have no idea where they're going. That sort of hit me last Monday as we prepared to have exchanges with the sister training leaders and I got ready to practice taking over the area. In addition, we had a mission-wide call with President Hall that night where he pretty much shwacked all of us and said we needed to be talking to more people and working harder. From then on we've been counting the number of people we talk to and invite to do something every day. We're supposed to invite 20 people to act every day (140 a week that we report at the end of the week), which is reasonable for our area, but still stressful because we have to keep track of it. 

Tuesday morning was rough. I didn't feel like a good missionary and I was super stressed out about taking over the area for the day and also the thought of driving. We got to our meet-up place and Hermana Bent went with Hermana Montoya while Hermana Tucker came with me. Hermana Bent handed me the keys and I just looked at them, realized how much I DID NOT want to drive, and started crying.  Hermana Tucker decided to drive instead.

Taking over the area turned out a lot better than I thought it would be and Hermana Tucker and I got along super well. She assured me at the end of the day that I was a good missionary and that I'll be able to do this without Hermana Bent, but I was still REALLY happy to be back with her by the end of the night.  

Wednesday was rough. I was nauseous and dizzy and super tired because I didn't sleep well- all from stress- and I pretty much just wanted to lay on the floor all day and throw up and cry. We went out anyway and worked super hard on this one street for 2 hours, trying to get all of our contacts, but just as I was starting to feel better because of our effort, our district leader called us and told us that the way we were counting our contacts didn't count. So we went from having 10 contacts from the morning to having only 3. 

Thursday morning was a floor morning, until Hermana Bent told me to get up or she would pour water on me (in a loving way). We had an appointment with a member from one of the English wards (the reason why we had the appointment is a long story), and that turned out to be super weird but super fun. Somehow we ended up at McDonald's where Hermana Bent and I sang and played the ukulele. I think the member was hoping we'd become famous or something, but no one really paid attention to us 😂 but it was fun anyway and she bought us lunch. 

Friday was our service day. Since the mission office is in our area Hermana Bent and I clean it every Friday, which is so fun. This past week President Hall needed our help erasing all the phones from missionaries who have gone home, so we did that as our service instead of cleaning. It was only supposed to last two hours but it ended up taking 4 and a half hours and we missed an appointment with one of our investigators. So that was kind of a bummer, but we did find some really really awesome music on one of the phones and Bluetooth-ed them over to ourselves so now we have 5 songs that we've been listening to on repeat every waking hour for the past 4 days 😊 

President pulled me out for a quick interview during the service project to talk about how stressed out I am and he told me 1. That I should see the counselor and 2. That I should start driving.  So after leaving the mission office I drove to our next appointment! It was awful and I really didn't like it but I'm one step closer to taking over the area. 👍

Saturday and Sunday we had baptisms in the zone, but none of our investigators showed up to either so we couldn't go. It's been really hard this week because I feel like we're giving our best effort and I come home exhausted every night, but we're not seeing the numbers as evidence of it. But this week we're going to keep working even harder because we want people at church! And we want people on date! And we want to baptize someone!

We also have Savior of the World coming up! I've never heard of it before so I don't know if they do it in other places, but it's a musical all about the life of Jesus Christ put on by the stake. They're doing shows in English and in Spanish and all the members are a part of it so they're all really excited to perform it. There's a lot of hype building up for it and I'm super excited to go, but we can't watch it unless we have an investigator with us, so we're handing out invitations like crazy.

We're not really teaching anyone consistently right now, but we're excited to change that this week, and hopefully get someone we can bring to Savior of the World. I hope I get to see at least one showing of it. And hopefully in Spanish because our ward is basically completely in charge of the Spanish showings. 

That's really all I've got this week. Thanks for all the emails, I'm sorry I can't respond to all of them.

-Hermana Thunell

P.S. It was Pi Day on Wednesday but all we could find was cheesecake 😂😂

1/2 a Baptism, Full Tray of Cookies

Speaking of cookies, I'm pretty sure I cured myself of my peanut allergy, because I've been eating Reese's Pieces and peanut butter cookies all week (much to the dismay of my companion. Don't worry she knows where my Epi-pen is at all times). So pretty much I'm living the life I've always wished I could live 😂 now if I could just cure myself of my animal allergies...unfortunately no matter how many stray cats I cuddle I keep coming home sneezing ☹ 

Other than pushing the boundaries of my allergies, I've discovered this week that I also love biking as a missionary! We biked about 12 miles on Tuesday and I've decided that the trick to it is to be prepared to be embarrassed. Not only is it a process to figure out how to ride in a skirt (mine got stuck in my tire and ripped), but it's also super fun to be riding, see a person on the street, yell good morning to them, and then hit the brakes and do a nice little awkward backup to ask if you can share something with them. 👌 Biking is seriously so fun. As President Hall says: the happiest missionaries bike. And it's so true. We didn't bike all day, but we biked all morning and found that we were pumped for the rest of the day. I honestly couldn't stop smiling.

Sundays are miracle days! We seriously have at least one miracle every Sunday. This past week we've been trying to set up an FHE with one of Hermana Bent's recent converts and her daughter who we're teaching but we haven't been able to get in contact with them. We wanted to have it with another family in the ward but Saturday night our plans for that fell apart, so we went to church on Sunday knowing that if we wanted to have the noche de hogar (FHE) we had to find a family that day at church who could do it last minute and is also friends with Sandra, the recent convert/has kids the same age as Annie, her daughter. We went to church with one family in mind and planned to talk to them, but they didn't end up coming to church. And Sandra didn't come to church either so we forgot about the whole thing. Until the end of church when one of the members came up to us as everyone was leaving and said "Hey my family is having a noche de hogar with some of our friends tomorrow and we were wondering if you had any families you're teaching that you want to invite." I LOVE IT WHEN PEOPLE FOLLOW SPIRITUAL PROMPTINGS. He has no idea how much he blessed our lives.

We also had a baptism yesterday. We've been teaching a little boy named Eugenio whose parents are members but they asked us to teach him the missionary lessons because they wanted him to understand the importance of his decision to be baptized. So it only counts as a half baptism, but it's still way rewarding to see someone you've taught get baptized! It was actually SUPER stressful because I had to give the talk on the Gift of the Holy Ghost in Spanish and I was freaking out, but when it was all over the family gave us all their leftover cookies so we have even more cookies to eat, besides the peanut butter ones we made, and most of them won't kill me 👍

We get a surprising amount of food, and not even just from members. There's a lady that lives in the apartment across from us and one day we asked her if we could borrow a cup of milk. She came back out with a GIANT glass of milk. So naturally we had to repay her, so we made her some cookies and left them on her doorstep a few days later. Well, last week she knocked on our door at about 9:45 at night (side note: it's actually super creepy when people knock on our door at night) and gave us a bowl of this delicious ice cream creation on the plate that we gave her the cookies on. And then the next night she knocked on our door at about the same time and gave us a GIANT plate of rice and meat and homemade cucumber ranch stuff. She told us that she just recently quit her job so she just cooks all the time and she thought we might want some lunch for the next day because she knows we're out all day. She's like our mom, it's so sweet. We now have three of her dishes so if anyone has any ideas of what we can make her to step it up, please let me know (I'm thinking empanadas and quiche). I love nice people.

Still trying to figure out how to send videos, because we've got some really funny ones. But for now here are some pictures of fun things we find on people's doorsteps, the stickers one of the kids we're teaching put all over my arm during the lesson, and Hermana Bent's favorite daily planning outfit 😂

- Hermana Thunell

Holding Birds and Accepting Challenges

Well, I finished reading the Book of Mormon. 

I love the chance I've had to take on Moroni's challenge again:

4 Y cuando recibáis estas cosas, quisiera exhortaros a que preguntéis a Dios el Eterno Padre, en el nombre de Cristo, si no son verdaderas estas cosas; y si pedís con un corazón sincero, con verdadera intención, teniendo fe en Cristo, él os manifestará la verdad de ellas por el poder del Espíritu Santo;  

5 Y por el poder del Espíritu Santo podréis conocer la verdad de todas las cosas. 

Next go round of reading will be in Spanish!


Speaking of Spanish, here are some things that have been fun to explain to one of our sister training leaders who is from Venezuela:
-The meaning of the word "edgy"
-Bop-It
-Scavenger Hunts
-What roadkill is

I'm sure there will be more to come. In return here are a few of the words that I've learned this week:
Merendar- to have an afternoon snack (I'll be using this a lot)
Ardilla- squirrel
Cazar- to hunt (not to be confused with casar, which is pronounced the same but means "to marry")


We were challenged to lead with an invitation to baptism this week in every contact, which I found wayyy intimidating at first. We can't even get our investigators to commit to baptism, how are we supposed to walk up to strangers and do it?? But, I know that if we take on the challenges we've been given, we will see results. We got 2 new investigators out of inviting everyone we saw to be baptized. Mauricio and Jennifer both said yes even though we had just met them! So that's super cool. This week has been a good one to see results. We aren't teaching a ton of people and our most recent progressing investigator literally disappeared this week, but on Sunday almost all of the less-actives we've been working with came to church! They told us that our visits with them really helped them remember that the Lord loves them and that church is the place they need to be on Sunday. We also got a call from the Vietnamese elders that a referral we had sent them had become a new investigator for them so that was awesome! Most of the time we send referrals and never hear about how it goes, and just hope that they actually contact and teach them, so it was really nice to hear from the elders and know that the short conversation we had with a man who didn't really speak much English, the seed we planted, was starting to sprout.  


I also supposedly drank cashew juice yesterday? But I didn't have an allergic reaction so it's highly likely that I misunderstood.
Thanks for the support as always!  Please enjoy this picture of me with a bird on my arm 😊 (on that same night I also held a bunny!)

Love, Hermana Thunell

"What's that hairstyle called? I want to do it on my sister so she'll look ugly?"

I could probably just pick a kid-quote every week for the title of my emails. It's a good thing I have high self esteem considering how many kids we're working with and how often they don't have a filter on what they say. The above quote is from 11 year old Celso, who made up for it by telling me sincerely that it slipped out of his mouth and that he really does love us. He just doesn't like my hair apparently 😂

Well, I officially don't know how to pray in English anymore. Hopefully that means I'm getting better at Spanish. I feel like I've turned a corner this week in my Spanish. Last Sunday I could understand all the talks and lessons so much more clearly, and all of this week I've found myself able to express myself in Spanish better and slipping into it much easier than I could before. A lady answered the door the other day saying "Hola" and before I knew what I was doing I was introducing ourselves in Spanish. 

This week has been on the rougher side. We've dropped more people than ever, and been dropped just as much. We probably lost about half of our investigators, BUT it's okay because now we get to fill that space with real truth-seekers. We're making a push to work with members and get referrals, so it'll be exciting to see how that turns out. 

This has been the week of crazy dinner appointments. For some reason the ward went crazy last week in filling up our meal calendar and the calendar of who can come out with us and when. We had some young women come up to us yesterday and offer their help if we ever needed anyone to come out teaching with us, which is awesome because when I was their age I needed a major kick in the butt to go out with the sister missionaries

 (#mydadwasthebestwardmissionleaderever).

We got double-booked for dinner appointments yesterday and today, so that was a fun challenge to work out. We had to reschedule the remaining two dinner appointments to during the week, which we can only go to if they bring a non member to dinner. Fingers crossed that happens, because I LOVE dinner with members. The last time we had dinner with Obispo (the time we ate cow stomach) he invited another family from the ward to eat with us too, the familia Diaz, who made this AMAZING dessert with plátanos, queso, and guayaba. We brought it up with Hermana Diaz in our last video call with her, asking her to make it again for our upcoming dinner appointment. We asked her what they were called and she cheerfully answered "Plátanos".

"No, hermana, like what is the dessert as a whole called?"

*thinks for a second* "Plátanos con queso".

"But is there like a name?"

*thinks again* "Plátanos con queso y guayaba".

Not as cool as I was hoping it would be called, but they're so good so I guess they don't need a cool name.

So I was reading about the 3 Nephites this week, which a super super cool topic. And then it got me thinking if maybe I've met one of the 3 Nephites before, and if I had, who would I guess it would be? So that's my question to everyone this week, just something fun and hypothetical: if you were to guess that someone you know was one of the 3 Nephites, who would that someone be and why?

This is fun to ask to random ward members or missionaries, because essentially the question is: who's the most interesting and simultaneously righteous person you know? It brings up lots of interesting stories. 

Thanks everyone for all the support! Three months down, 15 more to go. Not that I'm counting 😂

Hermana Thunell

Pictures:

There are lots of really pretty flowers and super cool plants. If people turn down salvation, I just ask if I can take a picture of their plants.

Whenever we make videos we always get distracted and just end up taking random videos and pictures of ourselves. I can't send videos, so there's just an example picture. 

A part of my picture collage on the wall at my desk. I have 80 pictures, so I had to do SOMETHING creative with them. 

The last one is a picture one of our kiddos took of us while we were teaching her how to post on Snapchat. 

The Spider Whisperer

Hola todos!

This week I have learned the importance of journal writing. I didn't write in my journal at all, so I don't really remember what happened or know what to write about. SO, I'm just going to share this really cool part of the Book of Mormon:

Alma 46:12-13

"And it came to pass that [Moroni] rent his coat; and he took a piece thereof and wrote upon it-In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children-and he fastened it upon the end of a pole.

And he fastened on his headplate, and his breastplate, and his shields, and girded on his armor about his loins; and he took the pole, which had on the end thereof his rent coat (and he called it the title of liberty) and he bowed himself to the earth, and he prayed mightily unto his God for the blessings of liberty to rest upon his brethren, so long as there should a band of Christians remain to possess the land-"

Moroni was riled up, ready to fight the enemies of his faith and to defend the truth. I imagine him running home, rifling through things until he finds a coat, something to write with. He tears it and scratches out quickly the thoughts of his heart. I doubt he took the time to find the best material, or write in cute bubble lettering. He was inspired to defense and ready to show it. He puts on his armor, grabs his makeshift banner-and prays. Of all the weapons of war, he chooses the humblest, the smartest, the strongest. And then, armed fully with God's power, he shares his light and rallies others to his righteous cause. I love the intensity of these verses, like action scenes in a movie with this mighty, but probably quiet prayer tucked in between lines.

Prayer is our best weapon. USE IT!

Mornings are really hard for me out here. When most people are tired they're grumpy, but when I'm tired I feel sad. But on mornings that are the hardest, I always have to take the time to stop and realize that I haven't prayed. Prayer makes everything better, and we should never be going out to face the world without its protection.

We've met some really awesome people this week, and because of the power of the Book of Mormon we've been able to teach them and get to know them a little better.

One of those people we met just lost his wife on New Year's Day, the day I came into the mission. We shared Alma 40 with him, and later taught the Plan of Salvation. He shared with us the grief he feels over the loss of his wife, the guilt he feels for not being a better husband, and that he knows she's accepted the gospel and he asked us how he could live in paradise with her.

The Lord prepares people. It's crazy to think about where I was on January 1st, tired and nervous and missing my family, versus where he was: in a hospital, holding his wife's hand as she died, thinking it was the last time he would see her. I miss my family so much, but I'm grateful to know that this sacrifice is only temporary, and that I can live with my family eternally. That's why we're out here as missionaries: to share that message with people like Eddie and help them know that they don't have to hold onto that grief and guilt.

In less spiritual news, there has been a spider in our apartment for the past couple days that I affectionately named Reggie. I don't mind having him crawl around on my desk, but Hermana Bent HATES spiders, so this morning when he was crawling on the wall she told me if I didn't get him out of the apartment, she would kill him. Twenty minutes and lots of screaming later, we released Reggie onto the balcony to be free. I'll miss him, but it's probably better this way.

Thank you everyone for all the love and support! I'll be better at keeping my journal this coming week.

-Hermana Thunell

Whoever Sent Me Root Beer, Thank You

Hola everyone!

This week has been a rollercoaster of events. So many that I wasn't sure what to title this email. I felt like my own series of Harry Potter books:

Hermana Thunell and the Fake Phone Numbers

Hermana Thunell and the Dreaded Sacrament Talk

Hermana Thunell and the Cow Stomach

Yep. We ate cow stomach. We also got chased by dogs, taught a dental health class, laughed until we cried, and got put on bed rest. Well. I got put on bed rest. 

Hermana Thunell and the Attack of the Chihuahas

Hermana Thunell and "Agua De La Llave Es Mejor"

Hermana Thunell and the Jokes That Really Weren't That Funny

Hermana Thunell and the Mysterious Illness

The whole collection will hit a bookstore near you in May of 2019. 

BUT this week has also been really really great. We got to eat cactus (which made up for the cow stomach), played Language Study Pick-up Sticks (thank you Grandma and Grandpa), and made a video about the Book of Mormon. 

I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON

For those of you who saw the video (it's on Facebook) I know we were kind of flat and not very excited. But the great thing about taking on a challenge like that is that now I know what I want to do better next time. The next video will be better, I promise. But for now: I LOVE the Book of Mormon. Seriously the best part of my day is in the morning when I get to spend an hour reading and taking notes and dissecting the word of God. It's like that TV Show with the Great Big Book of Everything. The Book of Mormon is the Decently Sized Book of Everything. IT CAN ANSWER ANY QUESTION. I carry around this life-changing book in my bag cada día. We have 4 in the backseat of our car and about 10 more Spanish ones in our trunk. I have the word of God, access to personal revelation, in an app on my phone that can fit in my pocket. How cool is that??? (Answer: very)

This book is meant to be read, it's meant to be marked up, it's meant to be understood. So read it! Mark it up! Understand it! It has changed my life and continues to be my source for daily course correction. Not to mention it's like reading a high-action novel, or the sickest history textbook ever. The Book of Mormon: It's interesting. It's real. It's ready to give YOU personal guidance. 

Read it guys. Hands down my favorite book. 

Seriously, Sabrina, Emily, Lauren and Liz, get your hands on one of these. I can send it to you if you want, but please just take a glance through it, read a few pages, just hold it and revel in its glory. I love this book and I get to pour out my love for it to strangers every day. I want to share this thing that has made me so happy with all the people I love too. 

Thank you everyone for all the letters and emails this week...and for the care package of root beer! 

-Hermana Thunell

Persistencia

As missionaries, our job is pretty much to annoy people until they finally give in and listen to us. Just kidding, but that's what it felt like this week as we got to see some of our persistence finally pay off.

I'm not really big on second chances, and when people ignore us for three weeks straight my first instinct is definitely to stop trying, but last week while we were knocking we accidentally knocked on a member from the English ward's house. They let us in and gave us cookies and hot chocolate, and told us their conversion stories. Essentially, the wife was converted by persistence, because her home teachers would NOT leave her alone (her words). As she told us her story I immediately thought of all the people we've been trying to get a hold of but couldn't, and I decided that this week I wanted to make more of an effort to knock on their doors, rather than just call or send a text. 

So on a whim one night we stopped by the house of one of our referrals. The one that's been ignoring us for 3 weeks. She pulled into her driveway about 30 seconds after we parked in front of her house and we made some calls to give her a chance to get inside before we spiritually assaulted her.

When we finished our calls we got out of the car and she was walking out her door. She told us that she had been avoiding us but when she pulled into her driveway and saw us sitting across the street she knew we were there for her, even though she's never met us before. She told us she admired our persistence and that she was ready to hear our message because it must be important (it is).

We taught her the Restoration and she promised us she'd pray about it because she believes God sent us to her for a reason. The next day we called her to check how her prayer went and she didn't answer. We continued to call her every hour after that, afraid she was avoiding us again. Finally she answered at the end of the day and said she hadn't received an answer to her prayer yet so she started reading the Book of Mormon to help her figure things out!

On Sunday we invited her to come to church but when we called her she didn't answer so we figured she wouldn't come. Five minutes before sacrament ended she showed up with one of her friends! She told us she couldn't find the address of the church and she tried calling us three times but we didn't answer. So she looked up the address online and came for the last two hours anyway!

Persistence, everyone. When you put effort into people, they put effort into listening to your message and acting on the word. And that was just one example. 

This week has been crazy. On Tuesday we got snowed in, but Hermana Bent and I got picked up by a member of the English ward and we did service for them all day. I now know the ins and outs of putting on doorknobs. We also watched President Nelson's broadcast and that was awesome! My favorite part was when he said "We're going to begin with the end in mind", because that's the THSM motto! So pretty much it's been confirmed by the prophet that our mission is the best!👍😄  I'm glad to be serving in the best mission in the world! Sorry to all my other missionary friends who don't have the same opportunity. 

But persistence!  I may not be one to give second chances, but God is. He gives second chances and third chances and two thousandth chances, because He wants us all to have the opportunity to hear His word and return to live with him again. So while I'm out here I just need to forget myself and the amount of chances I think people deserve. My job as a missionary is to be that second or third or two thousandth chance. 

Thanks everyone for all the emails! I love you all!

- Hermana Thunell

Gatos y milagros

Another week has disappeared!  And another month!  Today marks two months on the mission.  Just 16 left!  But, who's counting, right?

This week was...interesting. 

Hermana Bent describes me as "sweet but cynical," and out here I definitely agree with that.  I wish I weren't so cynical and I'm working on it, but it's just so common for people to cancel, or ignore us, or drop us.  Our plans fall through every day, people leave us at the door more often than not, and we're not really teaching any of the lessons we plan for. 

It all sounds negative, and it is hard, but I'm not feeling as negative as it sounds. I love talking to people who make us laugh, and knocking on cute blue doors, and doing service, even if it means cleaning out a hoarder's bathroom closet (thank you to my mother for making me watch Hoarders so I could be a little bit prepared to deal with that.) 

I'm not discouraged, though it's hard to get to 6:30 every night and be stuck in the same situation of not knowing what to do because everyone has canceled.  I'm just trying really hard to magnify my calling and find my purpose in everything we do. I'm trying to be Alma and find the back way into Ammonihah.  That's a great chapter in the Book of Mormon, by the way.  Alma and Amulek were some bomb missionaries and I've been trying to emulate their examples this week! 

Also. Cats. Welcome to Houston, the land of stray cats. There are four we see pretty regularly around our apartment complex-just found four more as I'm looking out the window right now-and four others in a neighborhood that we visit and knock in a lot. The funny part is that all the stray cats of the world seem to be drawn to us. Whenever we come back to our car there are cats all over it or under it or leaving cute little pawprints on our windshield 😊 it makes me so happy to be driving and see little kitty tracks across the windshield. Tender mercies, everyone. 

We've had some bigger miracles, too. Yesterday we left the apartment early to go do some major Church and Rescue with two of our investigators that are on date but haven't come to church yet.  They're 8 and 10 years old and their mom is a recent convert.  We stopped by and pounded on the door three times, called them once, and then pounded on the door four more times.  We were not going to let them sleep in.  Finally their mom answered, but she said that the kids were sleeping and she didn't want to wake them up.  She told us they'd all had a late night and so she wouldn't be going to church either.  We left feeling pretty discouraged.  When church started our spirits sank even lower when we saw that our other two kids that are on date weren't there either.  Sacrament meeting started and it was good.  Then a little while into the meeting I saw some people walking in out of the corner of my eye.  I turned to look and saw the niños walking in!  Then someone sitting behind me tapped my shoulder and I turned around to see the recent convert with her two kids!

I don't even know what else to say about that except that it was the best feeling ever! 

When I woke up yesterday morning, I didn't feel like being a missionary.  I buried my head in my pillow and just wanted to cry.  But the day turned out so much better than I thought it would.  The mission is dang hard, but I'm so grateful for the little things like watching kittens play in the grass outside our window, and the big things like seeing our investigators in church.  The mission is hard, but it's SO great. 

And also everyone should read the story of Alma the Younger this week.  Pre-conversion AND post-conversion.  His example is an amazing reminder of what it really means to repent, and how we can replace our sins with good works. 

Sorry this is a long email, but thank you everyone for all the support!

I love you all!

Hermana Thunell