So Pharr, So Good!!

(Editor's note: Ty is in Pharr, Texas, FYI)

                                                                     [May 5th email]
I can't believe April is over.
Where the heck did that month go?

Oh yeah no where because we were stuck in quarantine. 😂

This week has been so good. We have been having tons of lessons and sharing so many messages it feels amazing. Definitely glad to. Be back in a Spanish area. I have been able to use it everyday and it feels soo good to get back in the swing of it. Luckily my comp's Spanish is fuego so she's been helping me with a butt load.

This area is popping we get at least 2 or 3 referrals a day from people who are willing to get closer to God. Can I get an AMEN??

Heavenly Father has truly been blessing us in our efforts to find, teach, and baptize during these times while stuck in our apartments.

Okay here is a list of stuff we did this week.

° CARD GAMES WITH THE ELDERS
-we have a little patio/concrete slab behind our apartment where we set up a table and chairs to play some games

° FOUND OUT WE HAVE AN ATTIC...
-may or may not have attempted to jump into it a few times 😉
-It was just barely out of reach on a chair. So I moved a dresser underneath it. Then I was going to put a chair on top of that. But that looked a little sketchy. But it was perfect with the dresser, just couldn't find a super good foot hold to jump up. But I totally booted my comp up into it. It's nothing too special. But we'll explore a little more this week. Updates to come.

°BIKE RIDES
-there is a little walk/run/bike path like 5 minutes away from our apartment so we went there one night when the temp was bearable. It felt so good to get back on my bike Samir.

° MY COMPA GETTING HIT ON??
-So we went for a walk/run/mostly walk on the same trail a few nights ago. We walked for quite a bit. Then there was a kid biking and he came up behind us saying something. But we couldn't really understand what he was saying. I heard please move over...so I did. But Hermana Donaldson heard... "remember me?" we were all sorts of confused. But this like 12 year old kid was asking for our number. So we told him that we're missionaries and we'd give him our number if we could share a message about Jesus Christ with him.

He was like uhhhhh sure. So we did. Haha

So we started walking again. Then like 2 minutes later his cousin bike's up to us. And asked if we gave that kid our number. Yeah we did. We eventually explain to him we're missionaries and what we do. He asked for our number also. And if we have snapchat. We actually set up a return appointment to go biking because he asked us too. He was older like 22. But he called us that same night and we told him more why we're in Pharr Texas of all places. It was cool. He also said that he would like to be a missionary.

What??  That's awesome!

So the next night we biked over there and waited at this Pavillion. There was a little canal type things so of course I had to throw rocks in it. Then I tried seeing if I could hit the light pole on the other side of it. I did. I love entertaining myself by throwing rocks at random objects. Anyway he never showed up. So we left and biked back home. But on the way home he called and my compa talked to him. He basically said he isn't to Jesus as much as we are and he didn't want to text because he didn't want her to read the text messages to me. He also said he though she was super pretty and really just wanted to get to know her.

So that was interesting but at least he was honest. Love when we get hit on by guys on the Mish. :/

° MONDAY NIGHT MOVIE NIGHT
-We have this thing in our mission where if we have a certain amount of lessons and return appointments or baptismal dates or baptisms we are allowed to watch a movie on Monday night. Well last Monday we did...even though I just got transferred in. But we watched Forever Strong. I LOVE THAT MOVIE.

-And we also get to watch another one tonight. I'm super excited. You have no idea how long it's been to just sit down and watch a movie. It's great. Little tender mercies from God.

°EMMA
-There is this sweet little old lady we are teaching and she loves talking to the missionaries. She had a lot of medical problems in the past so missionaries stopped teaching her because of her situation. But we've been able to teach her and she said she's never been baptized before and would like to prepare to be baptized!!! Woohooo!

-I love little old Hispanic men and women. They can talk to you forever about anything they feel like and you just listen and say Si every once in a while. It's great.

°DANCING
-Okay so there are times where we are sitting and calling people and having lessons on lessons on lessons. It's great but your butt gets numb which is probably TMI but it helps you understand what I'm saying. Anyway when we're doing that and we need a break we'll try these little dances from Hna. Donaldson friend. She'll post them on Facebook and we'll do them to take a break. It's sooooo nice to dance.

°JAVIER AND JILL
-Javier is a recent convert that was baptized a month ago in quarantine and Jill is his 14 year old daughter. Javier is so fire!! And Jill is super interested in learning. She was taught a few lessons before I got here.

-But we had a lesson over text and taught her the restoration. She was super interested in it. It was such a great lesson. We're hoping to be able to invite her to be baptized this month. The spirit was super strong too.

°MARIO SPRAYED OUR APARTMENT FOR BUGS
-This guy was hilarious. He came in to sprayer for Camel Spiders. They are big brown spiders that literally scream when they are running towards you. But they can be found latched on to the belly of camels and eating all the bugs off of their bellies.

-He sprayed all the perimeter of our apartment. But when he was spraying he wasn't even looking at the baseboards he was looking and talking to us. He kind of sucked at aiming.

He also tried Bible bashing with us but we avoided that. He also told me he loves my name and it's super beautiful. Mario was creepy. And smelled funky. Hahaha

° SPANISH CLASS
-We are helping these two cute girls that are getting prepared for their missions. They are both living in the Philippines. They are so cute and their Spanish is improving super well. They have their mission calls to Canada and Ecuador. So we're just helping them prepare for it. It's helping me too. ;)

°FIRE WITH BIG BLACK SMOKE

-We went on a walk to our mailbox...which is about 10 feet in front of our house...and we looked and saw super black smoke. So I turned to Hna. Donaldson and asked if she wanted to go check it out. So we did. We grabbed "food" that we could be bringing to someone if we get pulled over.

-These clouds were HUGE. And super cool. We think it was inside the wildlife preserve. Crazy.

I love being a missionary. Yes the work is different, but it's still moving forward. Yes it does suck being stuck inside our apartments, but you have to enjoy the experiences you have. You have to be grateful for the trails we have in our lives. We NEED to be grateful for the things we go through. We can look back and we can see how God helped us. How the Savior knew what we felt.

I love the quote "forget yourself and go to work", I've definitely been using this on my mission and reaping the blessings from it.
I love being here.
I love you guys so much.
I love my family.
I know the Church of Jesus Christ is restored on the earth.
I know Jesus Christ lives.

                                                                    [May 11 email]

Being stuck in our apartment sounds like it would be long but honestly our weeks are flying by...which is crazy. But I hope your week wasn't too bad.
We had a ton of things happen...
Exchanges--we went on exchanges with some sisters in our zone. That was crazy we had tons of lessons and tons of return appointments. Sister Hilton and I had a ton of fun.
Mary-- We decided one day to call a random lady and she said she doesn't have time but we could call her back. The next day we called her. Ended up teach the whole gospel of Jesus Christ, parts of the restoration and asked her to be baptized with proper authority...which she said yes to. WOOHOOO!!!!! Mary was found because the spirit led us to her.

Storms--One night when we were trying to fall asleep and it started storming. Then dumping rain. It was super loud and cool. So we obviously had to check it out. My compa totally ran out to take a video too. Then she was soaked when she went to bed. She regretted it like I told her she would do. Haha

More missionaries--we've been having tons of meetings with our president and the leaders about the changes we have to make because of the new missionaries coming in. We're going to get up to 250 by the end of the summer. THAT'S A TON. We're getting like 100 more because we've lost so many.

We've honestly been working super hard these past few weeks and it feels super good.

I know this gospel is true. I've prayed about it and felt the confirmation of the spirit that it is.
I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I am so grateful to be a missionary even in quarantine. It sucks being stuck in out apartment but God is helping us further his work.
I love you guys and will talk to you next week.
Stay 2 Legit 2 Quit!
Con todo mi amor,

Hermana Darling