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

Queires un Pow Pow?

ZONE CONFERENCE-WE HAD IT IN PERSON. It was super long like literally 6 hours long. But it was full of some awesome stuff. Lots of revelation for us and our areas. Got to see our whole zone in person for the first time in 3 transfers hahah
Exchanges!!!-I actually stayed in Pharr this time and had Sister Moore with me. We partied and worked pretty hard. She's a greenie. And she asked me the most random questions of my life. But I loved it!
Yanette-- This is the most sweetest women ever. We were able to talk to her family about the plan of Salvation and she really liked it. But what was hilarious was that she had a like 2 or 3 year old son running around you know...being a kid and she took of her chancla and asked if he wanted a pow pow. I was laughing so hard.
Quieres un pow pow?? With her chancla in hand. 😂😂😂 I love the valley!
Elder Rascon-- We had a tri zone conference with the area 70 and it was awesome. I got to see some familiar faces and the spirit was sooo strong.
Jose- He came to church this week and loved it. We ended up stopping by his house the same night to read the book of Mormon with him.
Jill-Jill moved her BD to today Monday the 31st. She such an amazing example to me and she is such a blessing from God. I'm bien grateful I'll be able to witness that.
Transfers-We got transfer calls and I'm leaving 😢 BUT I'M GOING TO A PLACE CALLED ZAPATA.
I have heard some AMAZING things about this area. They don't have a font so they baptize in a lake!! That's amazing!

Pharr has been such a blessing. I'm grateful for everything I have learned from the people here. It's been a blast and our district has been so fun. I'm going to miss them all so much. I LOVE HERMANA MORGAN I'M GOING TO MISS HER SO MUCH. We've become best friends and when the mission is over I'm going to visit her in Hawaii 💐✌️👇
But I officially am starting my second to last transfer and I'm pumped for the miracles that God has prepared for me. Wooohoooo!!!!

I hope your week was amazing. I definitely loved it! I love you guys. Hope this next week is freaking fantastic.
STAY 2 LEGIT 2 QUIT

Con todo mi amor,
Hermana Darling


Pictures
Sister Moore and I
Hna Morgan and I with our hats
Us with a Corvette
Zone conference

We got a bunch of snax and the box was very comfortable!!! 

Henrietta!!

Honestly this week was amazing. We saw a butt load of little miracles and had a really awesome week.
Here's a recap!
300 goals-- Elder Johanson showed us a really cool video about writing down our goals and things we want to a complish during our lives. He kind of challenged us to write down 300 things. I'm at around 150!! It's been pretty fun.
Backyard pool clean up--After our district council we all went to this awesome house and helped this guy clear up his backyard. He had a huge pool and pond that was just covered in weeds and bushes and a bunch of junk so we were able to pulldd out SO MUCH and it looks so good. I'm definitely grateful that my parents taught me how to fix up a yard. Haha
Photoshoot--We had a meeting in Weslaco and after that Elder Kibaribari and Elder Bunderson wanted to take some pictures to use for our Facebook pages. We'll my comp can't act to save her life so we were laughing too much hahaha it was pretty funny.
Yanette and her family--Yanette is a referral we got and we've been talking to her and she's awesome. She let us go to her house and we taught her and some of her kids. We totally invited them to church and her and her four kids came!!! They heard us speak at church and they loved it and told us that they want us to come by every Wednesday! Yay!!!!!
Exchanges on Exchanges-- Okay I was in three different places this week. I went on an exchange with Hna. Medley in Edinburg and it was awesome. I totally ate cereal for like breakfast lunch and dinner because they had so much of it hahahah
But we were grinding and helping a little girl they're teaching prepare for baptism! But the morning we went to switch back and we were doing service and this lady let her chickens free so she kept yelling at one that was pecking her hand..."Henrietta!" It was great I was petting them and pulling weeds at the same time. Valley cosas.
So then I switched back to Hna.Morgan for only like an hour then went to Weslaco with Hna.Wakefield. We were grinding so hard it felt awesome. We helped the city fill up sandbags for the "hurricane" that might or might not happen. But we talked to the city worker and got his wife's info to teach them!! Woohooo.
We also followed the tradition of going out to eat when I'm in Weslaco. So we got burgers again and Elder Roblyer swiped on Ice Cream for us. YUM!
Painting project--We had another service project after our exchange and we helped this lady paint the inside of this little house. Her name is Pheobe. Her little daughter was soooo cute!!!! She had a gold chain and bracelet on and she isn't even 2 yet 😂😂
Church-- So Yanette and her three kids came to church and also a random former showed up too. Then we had "church" through FaceTime with Sammy and Javier. We asked Sammy to be baptized and he said yes! He said he wants to but obviously wants to feel prepared! We're so excited for him!!!!

We also spoke in church...that was a little nerve-racking but the elders said they couldn't tell if we were nervo0us or not. So that's a blessing. 

My week was great I definitely saw the hand of God in it multiple times. I love being a missionary for that reason. I love when God puts us in the right place at the right time. That's how miracles are seen.
I love you guys so much!
STAY 2 LEGIT 2 QUIT
Con todo mi amor,
Hermana Darling

Pictures!!
Us and Javier at the flea market
Us and the elders at the restaurant...with ice cream!
Hna Medley
The pharrio outside of the church
Hna.Wakefield!!!
Sandbag hurricane prep
Our first member dinner in like 5 months! I almost cried it was amazing
My compa and I "studying" for a picture

Painting-this reminded me of my house so much haha #paintingwalllsfordayz

Phase 1!!

This week FLEW by! Here are some of the things that happened. 

Bike Path Contacting-Okay so we're allowed to go out and talk to people now. We were walking on this bike/walking path and we saw a horse! This guy's was walking his horse on the bike path so of course we stopped and talked with. We got his info and are now teaching him. His name is Aldo and his horse has a fancy Spanish name that I don't remember. But it was a phat milagro. 

Exchange- I went to Weslaco and had an awesome exchange. We set a BD with a former, met a lady on the street, and went out to eat with some elders in her district. IT WAS SUPER FUN. 

Hna. Morgan's Cumpleaños-I got her in the head with some cascarones!!! We woke up and drove to some fields and ran on a road between two cotton fields. And we saw the sun rising. It was pretty cool. She had a pretty great day. We had a district picnic on the lawn of the catholic basilica hahaha we had some cake and food it was great we took pictures with a mural behind us. We didn't if it was allowed but we just did it for fun. 

Phase 1 guys! - On Sunday were told by our mission president that we are now in Phase 1!!!!! We can now go inside and eat food with the members! Blessings on blessings on blessings.

Water Bottle give Away-We passed out water bottles to runners on the bike path and it was pretty dope! 

God lives and he loves you!
I love you guys and I hope you have the best week ever!!
STAY 2 LEGIT 2 QUIT
Con todo mi amor,
Hermana Darling


Pictures

Sister Powell and I 

All four of us hermanas and Mary jaja

This guy out "working" chillin in the shade with his sign hahaha valley cosas

Aldo and his horse hahah
Dinner in Weslaco

I love service projects 🌧️🤩

Holy week of service
We had so many service projects this week because of the aftermath of the hurricane. There have been a ton of trailers ruined because of the rain that's seeped into their insulation and sheet rock then onto their floor. So we've been busy tearing out insulation, sheet rock, carpet, old refrigerators.

This week went by really fast because we've had services. Project after service project. One day we had three in a row. It was awesome!

Something else that happened this week was. A big meeting with President Ocampo and all the leaders of the mission. Luckily the church has a couch so we just chill on the couch while the meeting is going on. We've been told that this hurricane season might be a big one so we went over tons of emergency prep.

We had to drive to every single apartment of the sisters in our zone and check their three day emergency buckets haha. It was actually pretty fun. We listened to some awesome talks about missionary work and really putting forth the effort to serve. They were pretty great. Definitely felt the spirit and also the desire to be better and become a better disciple of Jesus Christ.

Church was opened...but no one showed up. Literally we had 9 members and 4 missionaries. None of our people showed up. We were a little bummed. But we were able to have some devotionals with some pretty cool people. One was named Alexis. He's pretty funny. At one point he just started singing the EFY songs to us hahaha we were laughing sooo hard and then started singing with him. It was great.

I have a testimony of Jesus Christ. I know with out a doubt that he died for me. His sacrifice was necessary in order for us to return to live with God again. I have been thinking a lot about my knowledge of the gospel. I am so blessed and grateful that I have gained a testimony of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. He set up a perfect church on the earth and guess what...it's still on the earth! It was restored through a Prophet of God. It definitely wasn't an easy task. But it was worth it. I am so grateful for all the saints that helped cross the plains to live in a place where they could utilize their religious freedom. What a time to be alive guys. People are so confused about where God is during this national pandemic and natural disasters. He is there. He is mindful of all of us. He loves every single one of you. No one has gone out of reach of their Father in Heaven.
I love you guys. I hope you know that.
I also hope you feel the love of God.


STAY 2 LEGIT 2 QUIT
Con todo mi amor,
Hermana Darling


Pictures!!
Us and our friend Alexis
Us chillin during a come follow me with President and Sister Ocampo
My yummy "water" but really lemonade in a dope margarita glass
Cute lil frog I found while walking
Us being cute
Brown recluse we found in the church
Our matching blisters from #service

This is the backyard of a little old lady we fixed her yard. The little shack is full for pigeons.