Hurricane Aztec

Oh my goodness gracious, this week has been crazy! ... I feel like I say that every week... but it's so true! Mission life never has a normal week! I swear something is always going on.


So, first off, we had exchanges happen. So Sister Steele is Sister Training Leader (STL) over Sister Jessee and Sister Lewis, some of my favorite people ever, and Sister Jessee is STL over us so they came over to Flora Vista this week and helped work our area for a day. ...If that paragraph made any sense... In short, Sister Jessee and I got to work together again!!! And it was SO much fun! I've missed her and love her SO much! But she also has a curse about her whenever she goes on exchanges and basically none of the appointments happened that we had scheduled. But it was still great!


Then we had a training with Elder Golden from the 70 and it was AMAZING!!!!! Oh my gosh!!! SO much Spirit! SO many amazing insights! I LOVED IT! One of my favorite points that was said was that Faith=Personal righteousness. And it's so true!! I love it so so so much!  


And while we were at the training I heard an awesome story! So, while we were in Shiprock we taught these two sisters - the Keams girls. And we had tried to get them to come to seminary, but they just weren't budging. BUT! The senior missionaries came up to me at the training and told me about how she signed up for Seminary!!! And she's in the class!!!! And apparently she had the spiritual thought or something the other day and told about how the Sister missionaries came to her house and shared a message and she decided after that message to turn her life around and enroll in seminary, and be excited about church again, and it was SO great hearing about a success that happened because we shared a message!!!!! I love it :)


And then the rest of our week has been a TON of service! We had hurricane aztec happen and there were a lot of branches that fell and we had a lot of clean up to do. And I got to cut hair this week!! And they looked amazing :) Seriously, they walked into church and I didn't recognize them but immediately thought their hair looked super cute and then I realized that I had been the one to do it! I love when those moments happen :) And then we also helped some elders move apartments. So we totaled out at 23 hours of service this week. Whew! It was a fun one.


Side note - Heleman 5:12 is perfect for after a storm. Or during a storm. It's been our scripture of the week.


.... Sorry, I'm just about out of time. But I'll try to write more in my letter home! But no promises. It's looking like our day is **packed!!!!**


But I love you all so much!!!! I hope you're doing well!!!!!
Love,
Becca :)

favorite food

When Julia asked Becca what her favorite food was, this is what she wrote back:

"My favorite food out here so far is Fry bread/Navajo Tacos.  It's the best!!  And I figured out the Navajo's secret ingredient, so maybe I can make it for you when I get back!"

Linnea notes:
I'm not certain what the "secret ingredient" is, but this recipe sounds awfully good to me!

Carry on, Carry on, Carry on!

Hey there!

This week has been... a little insane... but we're loving our lives and are still determined to do our missionary work!  The biggest adventure was losing my wallet.  That's been a joyous experience.  You never realize just how important something is until you lose it.  The wallet contained my drivers license (and Sister Steele doesn't have driving privileges so we were a little stuck there), my personal debit card, the mission card that has my mission funds on it, my passport, my (expired, but first ever) cosmetology license, temple recommend, pictures, cosmetology membership cards to various places, cash, medical cards (I might need those sent as well now that I think of it) and.... yeah... there's a lot of things that went missing.

BUT!  The Lord is very very loving and provides miracles.  I remembered that I had renewed my drivers license right before my mission and they had given me a temporary 6-month paper license and I've been able to use that.  And the DMV people were VERY kind in letting me renew things without needing to be there in person.  That was a miracle in itself as well.

Everything else in the wallet has mostly been taken care of.  I'm still able to go out and do missionary work, and that's the most important thing.

We also got to go to our investigators' wedding this past week!  It was awesome!!!!  They did it in the 7th Day Adventist church and here are our detailed minutes of our evening (as requested by our Zone Leaders)

6:30 - Selfie before the wedding

6:31 - Begin drive to Farmington

6:34 - realized we were 5 minutes away (and had intended to be there only 5-10 minutes beforehand)

6:38 - arrived

6:39 - made phone calls to kill time

6:48 - entered building

- felt awkward in red (the wedding colors)

-questioned wardrobe choices

-signed Guest Book

-ran to restroom for quick escape

6:50 - took seats

6:54 - moved seats to see bride better

7:05 - half smiled for hidden photographer

7:18  - still waiting and wondering when they were going to start

7:19 - Start! :D

7:46 - said hello to bride and groom and left.

It was a grand time :) 

But other than that, thing have been normal missionary things.  We have lots of members coming out with us, and lots of lessons to teach :)  It's just the best!  

But I hope everyone is doing well!! I'm about out of time, so I'll write more next week :)

Love ya lots!!!

Love,

Becca :)

PS photo sent in a text from Sarah

They are not having any fun at all!

New Adventures!‏

Well, transfers have happened and I LOVE it out here in Flora Vista/Aztec!!! My companion is amazing, we already have had some funny experiences, and things are moving forward like crazy!  I love it :)

Things about Flora Vista:  It's not pronounced Florida Vista like I thought.  Though it still sounds like it in my opinion.  But there's SO MANY white people!!!!!! It's so extremely weird!!  I loved working with Natives, but this is pretty great as well. We stay super busy.  The people out here love missionary work and it's fantastic!  We have scheduled appointments basically every hour of the day (meaning like... 6-7 appointments?  maybe?)  where in Shiprock we had 3 or so scheduled daily.  If that.  We did a lot of tracting out here.  But the ward members also absolutely LOVE to feed the missionaries.  It's insane a little.  So I've come to the conclusion that I'm basically going to become majorly obese out here. The food is delicious, but I think I've had a salad maybe twice since being here.  I never thought I'd be so happy to see a bunch of lettuce and vegetables.  It might have been a little sad at how happy and excited I got over it.

My new companion's name is Sister Kyleigh Steele!  (I think that's how you spell her first name... I just know it isn't the normal spelling like Kylee.  That would be too easy.)  And she's AWESOME!  She's been out 14 months and is amazing.  We have very similar teaching styles so things are going really really well. I love it :)  She's from Oregon... and... I don't really know what else to tell you.  She's the oldest of 3 kids, played soccer in high school, went to BYU-Idaho for a semester (the same Fall semester I was there)  and is just great.

Funny story of the week:  There was a person that was given a calling on Sunday and when she was sitting down from being sustained by the ward she sat on a little boy's face.  We were sitting on the row behind her and I couldn't stop laughing.  I felt bad, but it was so funny!  Reminded me of when I watched someone sit on some newborn kittens after standing to say the prayer. I think these New Mexico people have a strange habit or something.

But gosh, I don't even know what else to say.  I'm doing well, loving life, loving the mission life and the growth that's going on in myself and those around me, and we're just staying super busy.

I hope you all are doing well!  I love you!

Love,

Becca :)

PS and I lost my wallet.  It's no good.

Flora Vista, NM

Flora Vista, NM

 Lakeshore Reception Center

more photos from Becca

I actually kinda have time today to send pictures!!! :D

Accurate depiction of our companionship. And my life.  I love sticky notes and am super tidy, the others kinda have things going everywhere.  I love our companionship haha.  We make it work.

The Kee Family

our mission president's wife Sister Adams!

Sister Zahne (YW president)

Ludene!!!!!! I LOVE LUDENE! :D

The most healthy lunch in the world.

our "pet" but not an actual pet because that would be against mission rules.

Isn't this dog the cutest?! I secretly named her Maddie.

I'm being adopted!!! :D‏

Hey hey!

Big news! I'm being adopted!  We received transfer news this Saturday and I'm being moved to Flora Vista/Aztec!  Funny story:  I found out just the other day that it's Flora Vista and not Florida Vista.  I've been saying and hearing it wrong my entire mission.  Oops.  But that means that I have a new address!! So send all mail over to P.O. Box 719 Flora Vista, NM 87415!!!

Transfers were super unexpected.  We knew Sister Campbell would be leaving us, but we thought Sister Jessee and I would at least stay and *maybe* split the area with Elders.  But nope!  We're switching the entire area over to Elders and it's been a crazy 2 days as we try to get all the needed paperwork done and clean the house and such.  I'm the one in charge of cleaning the house because I barely know anyone here.  The house is spotless.  I should be named as a professional oven cleaner.  Just put that one on the resume ;)

But our week before transfer news has been awesome! We had a puppy follow us home Friday!  And we by no means named it our pet, since that is against mission rules, but she was definitely adorable beyond belief.  And she stayed at our trailer for most of the day, but we found her a good home by the end of the day!  She's just so dang cute!  I've sent over pictures and you can feel free to agree with me.  It was quite hilarious to watch Sister Jessee have an inner conflict with loving the dog and knowing that she shouldn't because mission rules.  I just laughed at her all day :)

This week really has been a laughing week.  All my notes are things that have made me smile.  So, other funny stories!  - We were teaching the Kee family this week and I watched as 9 year old Jace discovered his bottom lashes.  It was the funniest thing of my life.  He'd close his eyes, use one finger to lift up his top lashes, and then feel his bottom lashes.  Then he turned to his older sister and whispered "Did you know that you have lashes on the bottom of your eye????"  

And we got a wine bottle!!  Haha, Sister Jessee and Sister Campbell were so excited to hold a wine bottle.  We had taught Ludene the word of wisdom, and to help her out we took a few items from her including tea and wine.  And for the record, wine is illegal here on the reservation, so we had something against the word of wisdom and against the law in our trailer for a while... it was a little sketchy.  But while taking pictures with said wine bottle, my companions were laughing at me.  I quote "Look at her!  She's so Disney!"  I guess me posing with a wine bottle looked like something from a Disney movie.  I don't entirely understand, but I'll roll with it :) I like Disney things at least.

Speaking of Disney!  We taught a family, the Jims, and they have a son that looks JUST like DJ from the movie Cars!!!! That's the little car that works at the tire shop and doesn't say anything.  It was hilarious looking at this kid!  I don't think he appreciates the similarities as much as the rest of the world appreciates it.

And also, update on Ludene, she finished the Book of Mormon!!!!! She read in in about 4 weeks and understands it better than anyone I know!  It's definitely my miracle of the week.  She's incredible beyond belief, and I have permission to come back for her baptism!  I'm SO excited!! :D

And finally, I gave a talk this last sunday.  It went super well actually!  I was able to talk for 15-20 minutes on service and give a little farewell to Shiprock.  I'll have to write about details some other time or later today cause I'm about out of time.

But I hope everyone is doing well! Have fun getting ready for school!!!! Ha, I'm kinda really glad I don't have to deal with that right now.  But I'm sure you guys are gonna do some great things!  Keep going strong!  I love you all!!!

Love,

Becca :)

Onward, ever onward!

Hello people in the Real World!!

So, this week has been kinda amazing.  And today is just craziness*, so I'll try to gather my thoughts, but I'm extremely scatter-brained and now forever grateful that I write notes throughout the week on what to write in my weekly email.

First off, we've had some extremely interesting conversations in our companionship this week.  During one of them, we came to the conclusion that I'm Wonder Woman.  I know absolutely nothing about Wonder Woman, but apparently that's my super hero.  They tell me that it's similar to a girl version of Captain America, so I'm alright with this.  

Another conversation had my future children being blessed in a Navajo prayer.  We were trying to do language study and one paper we have is a simple prayer we can say at a member's home.  It says that we're thankful for "Brother Yazzie and Sister Yazzie", bless them, thankful for their kindness, and bless their children.  Sister Campbell was saying the prayer and put in "Sister Cardon and Sister Jessee" and then continued with blessing our children.  So, my future children will be blessed :)

And I think marriage has just been a topic of the week or something, cause one of the best quotes of the week was from Sister Jessee when she said "Wow, I really do need to get married on my mission."  The sentence was trying to be "On my mission, I realized that I really do need to get married (later on in life)" but it didn't come out that way.  It made for a great moment :)

Other great events: Winnifred the mouse is back!!! But she didn't make her appearance in my bed this time around so things were much better.  We just don't know where she is currently and it's a little worrisome.

And this week was a hair week!!!! :D  I got to do 3 hair cuts and a color!  And the color was an ombre and it turned out GORGEOUS!!!! I love doing hair so much :)  Though, I might need to request some more hair supplies in the near future.

Investigator wise, we're down to only one person with a baptismal date now.  Lorita couldn't bring herself to fully live the law of chastity, but I have full faith that she will come around one day! :)  Ludene on the other hand is on fire!!!!! Holy Hannah, I love this lady so much!!! We went through the word of wisdom with her and she said that she was hit by the coffee, tea, tobacco, and alcohol, BUT she is SO willing to stop doing those things so she can move towards her baptism on September 12th!!! She is SO excited!!! And we're so excited for her as well :)

We also said farewell to our senior missionaries :(  The perkins are leaving us and going back to Kanab.  Sad day.

sadly I'm about out of time

But I hope you're all doing well!!!!! I love you all!!!!!!

Love,

Becca :)

*We've had the craziest day EVER!!!! Basically, nothing is going right and we had to drive an hour to Farmington to email today because internet on the Res isn't working for some reason.