Oh *BLEEP*... You Speak Spanish??

Hellllloooooo my people! Another week zoomed by, here are some of my miracles/highlights of my week...check em out! 

A huge toad- We got back from our appointments one night and Hna Miller like yelled and was yelling at me to come over and see this huge toad. So of course I picked him up and tried kissing him...but didn't put my face too close to his. But then he peed all over the concrete hahaha
I guess I have that effect on toads.
Edgar and his cars- This guy is pretty interesting haha he told us we're his friends because he can literally count his friends on his hand. But he's been reading the book of Mormon. He also has like a bunch of really cool cars. I mentioned that a couple of weeks ago. But he also has a huge collection of hot wheels cars. He gave me 10 of them! Hahaha to start my own collection...lowkey wished they were all real though. But we also asked him to be baptized this week. He said yes but when the time is right. Bro...the time is now! But we're working on our patience with him. He's pretty nice to us. He also came to church again!!
Our videos-This week we made some videos for the Facebook pages. Like I don't want to sound prideful...but they came out pretty good. We made one about our "roots" from our ancestors. We also used plants...because they have roots.
And the second one is all about the power of the Book of Mormon and the Bible. They can help us overcome evil in the world. That one is one of my favorites. We used different backgrounds from all over Zapata and it definitely catches your eye.
ADOLFO-THIS GUY IS GOING TO BE SUCH AN AMAZING BRANCH PRESIDENT. Like I mentioned last week he has a baptismal date for November 19th. Luckily...or I guess hopefully I'll still be here for that. But he reads his scriptures and he comes to church everytime he's in town. We talked to him about callings this week and how important it is to serve in the church after we're baptized. He told us he would be honored to have a calling. We flipped out we were so happy. Hahahha
Carlos- Okay Carlos is 73 years old and he calls us Mija...WHICH IS MY FAVORITE WORD THEY USE HERE. But we had a lesson with him and he has a bit of a mouth so he'll slip some swear words in here or there. He's old so like it's kind of okay. Hahahaha
But I said it's my turn to pray and I told him I'll do it in Spanish because he speaks both. That's where the title of my email comes from... Oh ****, you speak Spanish?? He yelled that after I said I'll pray in Spanish haha
We both though he was going to fall out of his chair because he was so astonished. Hahahha it was hilarious. And his dog is my new best friend.
We saw Alan!!!!- Alrighty so everytime we have a lesson with Alan it's through phone call. And we've never seen his face because well I guess we never asked. But even on our church zoom calls he always had his camera off. So we were getting pretty worried that he was like a major creep. But then one night he suggested having our lesson over zoom call. AND WE FINALLY SAW HIS FACE. And he's not creepy so yayaayayay!!!
Lisa and Jorge-We found this name on area book that looked really cool so the spirit smacked us in the face and told us we need to go visit them. So we tried by last week and saw their two sons. Then we tried by this week and they let us right in. There is Lisa, Jorge, Junior, Rene, and George. They are so amazing!!!!! And she was making Carmel apples and gave us some. They were pretty flipping yummy. They have had missionaries come before but they stopped when Covid hit. But they were so happy to see us. We were actually able to show them the video we made and invited them to church and they are so excited for us to come back. GOD IS BLESSING US SO HARD. I actually gave a training this week in district council about finding families to teach. I told everyone to pray for a specific number of people to find because that has happened to me so many times. My comp prayed to find a family of five and BOOM we did!!!! How amazing! 💙

That's basically how my week was. We've been trying to go by tons of members to get them coming back to church again because a ton of people have gotten lazy and haven't found the need to go back again. But we actually had a quite a chunk at church like almost 20 haha we were pretty happy about that too.
God loves you and I know that for a fact. If you need help he's there, he won't ever let you fall.
And I'm also here is you need anything. Let me know:)
The church is definitely true. And I know Jesus is my homie. He's my amigo.

Stay 2 legit 2 quit out there.
Con todo mi amor,
Hermana Darling 💙


Dem pics tho
Our relief society meeting
Cactus wall again
Big huge toad
Us
Us and Carlos!
Me and my puppy
Alan through zoom haha
Sunset across the bridge

My cars 😍

Look...he's got a chicken nugget!

Woohoo this week was full of some milagros over here by the border.
Check em out!
Edgar-Okay this dude was a phat miracle. Last Sunday we were walking around this area that didn't have any notes about people being taught. So we went out to find some. We walked past this guy who was talking to a border patrol agent. He looked up and like kind of ran towards us. Anyway long story short he wanted us to stop by and teach him 😱
Uhhhhh we can do that. So we stopped by and he showed us his CARS!!!! He had some awesome cars and I got to sit in some of them. It was pretty cool. But he accepts everything we talk about and reads the book of Mormon too. He's a blessing from God.
We went by again and taught him the restoration he liked it!
His daughters also made us a cake!!!!
He's a single dad of four teenage girls. They are such sweethearts too.
ANDDDDD HE CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!!!!!! YES!
Alan...yet-This guy is pretty awesome. He just has a bunch of questions so we just help him answer them. He literally knows so much about the church. He has mentioned so many times that he probably would've been baptized if it wasn't Covid. He doesn't leave his house. He's super scared of getting it and dying. Haha
But during one of our lessons he said he isn't a member...YET. Hna Miller and I were freaking out in silence because it was over the phone hahahahahah. Ahhhhh Pray for Alan. He's literally a dry member. He also joined our zoom call for church again! Woohoo.
300 book- So I think I've mentioned this before but I made a list of 300 goals I'm going to achieve in my life. Well I finished the list and made an adventure book out of it. It's been pretty fun. My artsyish side has definitely shined a few times since I've been on my mission. It's crazy. But super fun.
Funeral-There was a father of a recent convert who passed away. So we went to the funeral and supported her and her family. It was pretty interesting. But he actually passed away because od Covid. So they had to cremate his body because of Covid. That was super weird to hear. But it went pretty well.
Mexico-We were driving to our lesson with Edgar and we literally are so close to Mexico you can look at it the whole time haha. So we pulled over and of course snapped a few pics. I love how close we are. It's pretty awesome.
Laredo Conference-On Sunday we drove to Laredo and had an awesome conference with the Area 70 Elder Rascon. We drove with the elders back down that was pretty fun.
On our way home...literally 4 minutes away from our apartment Sister Miller got pulled over. He was really confused why I got out of the car too. But we explained how we were missionaries. It actually turned into a pretty cool contact and we gave him our information because he seemed pretty interested in learning more about the church. But he gave my compis a warning for following too closely haha he was probably bored or something because it was a really stupid reason.
Adolfo-He set a date for his wedding and baptism to happen on the same day...but on November 19th. Uhhh okay okay we can work with that. He works in the military and he'll be in Colorado sooo. It's aight. I'll still be here hopefully. But him and his fiance came to church! Woohooo!!!!!

I love seeing God's hand in my life. It reminds me why I am put here in a mission in the first place. I'm here because I love the Lord. I love God's children and I know that by serving a mission we can help others recieve eternal happiness in the kingdom of God.
He loves us unconditionally!!
I love you guys so freaking much. Keep killin it and stay 2 legit 2 quit!


Con todo mi amor,
Hermana Darling

Oh also the caption for my weekly is something my comp said when we saw a cat running away from McDonald's. Hahah the cats here are flippin weird.

Pics! 💙
We went to the food bank again and the ladies there love us!
I tried giving a cat a picture of Jesus. It just smelled it.
Us and Edgar at church
Sunflowers 🌻
A corvette we found... I was going to ask to sit in it...but they never answered the door. I was sad
Me pointing to Mexico

Sitting in one of Edgar's cars! 

Wait...you know Poptropica???

What is up my friends!!! 

Man another week in the books. Fun fact...I have journaled every single day of my life for the past 15 months and I have filled up almost 4 journals. And I'm pretty sure I'll get another one before I finish here. But that's crazy to me haha anyway... Here have been some of the highlights of my past week...enjoy! 

°Rain, rain, and more rain-it has been dumping all week and I absolutely love it! There have been tons of puddles to jump over. And tons of times to dance in the rain so you know I've been having a blast.
°Sister Neatherlin- We finally got to meet the relief society president here...oh another fun fact I am now the secretary in the relief society hahaha. It's fun to have another calling besides a missionary. But anyway. She's old and super cute. And hilarious. One thing that's crazy that my comp and I realized this week is that if people see the badge on your chest they feel like they can just spill their whole entire life story to you. Sooo she did that to us...many times. It was a pretty cool experience too. We're her new best friends. She texts us for everything...like helping her find her apps on her tablet. Ah love her. 😂

°Knocking doors!-So we can like knock doors of recent formers that have talked with other missionaries. We got to do a lot of that this week while walking the streets and carrying our dog beating stick. My knuckles have never been more happy. 

°Yelling at kids-Hermana Miller and I were walking around this neighborhood and we like actually had to wear a jacket because it was a lil chilly but these teenagers were in front of us the whole time and as we were walking back to the car Hermana Miller was like...
Her: we should have asked them if they wanted a Jesus card
Me: do it...go ask them *they were ahead of us a pretty good distance
Her: they're kind of far
Me: just yell at them
Her: I'm not going to do that
Me: why not
Her: that's weird
Me:*yelling so they'd hear me HEY CAN WE GIVE YOU GUYS SOMETHING?? *my comp a little embarrassed staring at me by the car
Them: what?
Me: CAN WE GIVE YOU A PICTURE OF JESUS
Them: no it's okay
Me: IT'S JUST A PICTURE OF JESUS
ARE YOU SURE??????
Them: it's okay *keeps walking farther away
Me: OKAY HAVE A GOOD NIGHT
*we get in the car
Her: I would never ever done that in my entire life
Me:why not it's fun to yell at people
Her:continues to stare at me and just busts up laughing 😂😂

She's a funny one...I'll get her to do it one of these days hahaha

°Food bank-We volunteered at the local food bank and moved some meat from one freezer into a plastic bag and then into the other freezer. The little old ladies were pretty happy...they gave us little Gatorades! SCORE!!! And they said we can come anytime we want.

But when we were moving meat we both realized we loved a ton of the same old PBS and random kid shows when we were little! AND POPTROPICA the computer game. We were laughing SO HARD 😂 we're both big nerds so it works hahahah 

°Alan-this dude is pretty cool and has the best questions and is just extremely grateful we call and teach him things. He also joins our zoom church and participates!! Phat blessing. 

°Movie Night-WE WATCHED THE LION KING LIKE THE NEW NEW ONE I HAVEN'T SEEN BECAUSE I'VE BEEN A MISSIONARY. Anyway we had more people show up to that then church...so like that's pretty neat haha

°Cactus wall-We had a Photoshoot because I needed a new picture for Facebook to flex on everyone that I'm in Zapata so of courseeeee we went to the cactus wall.

I LOVE THAT WALL SO MUCH. 🌵🌻

°Grandma and Bujo- We visited this cute little sister who the missionaries call grandma. She talked our ears off for forever. We just nodded and put a couple of wows and okays in their every once in a while. It was great. She was so happy to see us because she thought the sisters were gone. But we replaced them. And Bujo is her grandson that was baptized almost a year ago. He's pretty cool and around our age. But he just played call of duty most of the time haha he died a lot it was lowkey hilarious 

Anyway my week was pretty dang good.
I also spoke in church...I forgot until the morning of so that was fun.

But I do have a testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ. He's my best friend. I feel like he's kind of like our dog beating stick...always there if we need it.
I also know that we aren't perfect and THAT IS COMPLETELY NORMAL. We all have things we struggle with. That's kind of what being human is for. But because our father in Heaven loves the crap out of us he's never going to leave us stranded. I know that for a fact. But if you are having a hard time or literally need anything
I AM HERE FOR YOU. Let me know...Please. :)
I love you guys like a lot a lot.
And I hope you can see God's hand in your life a little bit everyday. Because he's always there.

Stay 2 legit 2 quit and help a sista out and pray for rain for the fires 🔥
Con todo mi amor,
Hermana Darling


Pictures
Us and Sister Neatherlin
Dancin in the rain
Compa y yo on the sign
CACTUS PHOTO SHOOT LOOKIN CUTE
OUR DISTRICT!!!!! Us and the four elders

Z A P A T A 🤙Welcome to the Big Z!

Holy cow!! What a super crazy week.
This one is like really long for some reason. Sorry there was a lot to share.
Monday was crazy, we did so many things. Kind of like a last hurrah before I went to Zapata. We went tie digging with Elder Borup and Elder Johanson our homiez. I found a lot of pretty cool ties, we went to top golf and hung our with Elder Kibaribari, Bunderson, Ward, Roblyer, Carrasco and a bunch of other people. I said good bye to all the sisters that were there too.
Then we went to Pharr Chapel. We went and got food then basically just hung out with our district for the rest of the night. Elder Kibaribari, Bunderson, Ward, and Roblyer also hung out with us. It was awesome!! Jill's baptism also happened that same night. For a minute I felt like I was going crazy and stressing over everything. But when she got baptized the spirit was so strong there. It made me take a second to pause. It was such a special thing to witness. She was so happy too! Then we cleaned everything up and went into the attic. Every missionary that has served in the Pharr ward get's to sign the attic. There's soo many names on the wall. It's like a huge maze to get back to the spot. But my name is on the building and that made me feel pretty good. We said goodbye to all our homiez. 😭 Which was super sad! But it's okay. I know I'll eventually see them again.


Tuesdays was transfers. I got to see so many of my friends from other areas!!!! What a phat blessing. I got my new compa Hermana Miller. She's a reassigned missionary and she served in Argentina before. She's from Utah. She was actually in my zone before so I already knew her. That always helps.
We loaded our stuff up got the keys, address, everything then said goodbye to more people. 😢😭
Then we made our way to Zapata. It's in the middle of no where hahahha. It's 2 hours away from McAllen and an hour away from the closest Walmart in Laredo. What fun! We got situated ate some food then actually drove all the way to Laredo. We spent the night over there so we can have a zone meeting the next day and go shopping too.


Wednesday we had a meeting, went shopping and drove back to Zapata. We got even more situated in our new apartment. THIS PLACE IS HUGE AND SO NICE. It was the senior couples old apartment so you know it's super nice.
We got to walk around and get to know our area a little more. Ended up being given a broken pool table stick to beat the dogs with so that was amazing. We use it everytime we walk the streets now. 😂Blessings from God.


Thursday was pretty amazing! Elder Borup and Elder Johansen came up from McAllen to put license plates on our brand new car. My friends!!!!! They were in my old district. PHARR CHAPEL TONIGHT.
That made my day so much better. They got food and we hung out with them for a bit at the little baby chapel. Which by the way was a funeral home at one point. So we showed them the room they used to prep the bodies. It sounds creepy. But the place is super cute!!! After I said goodbye to them for like the third time in a row we went to a service project. We helped this guy from our branch get his little museum place lookin all nice for a family history video. Ahhh Zapata is great.
We ate a members house that night too! And my dad had his birthday. Woohooo!!!
Happy birthday papi!


Friday was dope!! We had some planning and studies then we were on the streets. We also went to the church and printed of parts of the big map we're making. Then we had a little meet n greet lesson thing with Adolfo and Rocio. Adolfo is soo prepared. He has a baptismal date for the 19th. And we get to help them get married. Woohoo more weddings to decorate for. But they were super sweet and we felt welcomed in by them. He'll honestly be the branch president or something like that. Haha


Saturday was wet! It dumped a lot. We tried visiting some members but we couldn't find the house or call them because we were like 20 feet from Mexico so I didn't have a signal. But we took some awesome pics at the famous spots in Zapata! We also get to like knock doors??? So we went contacting in a nieghborhood that had some potentials. We didn't find a ton of people...but we sure did found a lot of puppies. I'm now the puppy mamas. They loved me and I loved them. I asked my comp if we could take one home but she said no 😢. I told her she better keep me in line these next few months. Hahaha


Sunday morning it dumped some more rain on us. What a blessing!! We had Adolfo and Rocio come to church. And Alan went to our zoom church. It ws so amazing. We walked the streets looking for some members that drove away as we pulled up. So we walked down the road and this little kid rides up on his bike and asks if we talk about God? Hahahaha he was super cute...like maybe 8. Then he talked and we walked by him and he brought us to his friends. And more puppies. I ended up playing football with them on the street. It was so fun!! I miss throwing a football around. But then we ended our night by having a really good lesson with Alan. He has some fire questions and genuinely wants to find the truth. He's really nice!!!
I hope your week was great and full of small miracles because those are everywhere. I love you all and miss you mucho.


Stay 2 legit 2 quit my friends.
Con todo mi amor,
Hermana Darling



Pictures!!!!
*Our like literal family as a district with our Pharr Chapel Tonight shirts we designed
*Jill and her baptism!!!
*My new compa Hermana Miller
*My FAVORITE WALL in Zapata the famous cactus wall
*Welcome to Zapata sign
*found a helicopter
*me and my babies
*a turantula we sliterally saw running across the street a lil creepy but hilarious
*the big Z sign that is in our church

*our broken pool table stick for the crazy doggos here