new job description

Guess who's the NEW Sister Training Leader??? (Sister Training Leaders are the female equivalent of Zone Leaders.)

We are all enlisted

Hello Hello!!

How has everything been?? I love all of you so much!

This week has been an unusual one.  We spent a LOT of our time in Flora Vista and it was fantastic, but I feel slightly guilty about not spending an equal amount of time in Aztec 1st ward.  This whole juggling two wards can be difficult.  Especially when everyone in Aztec 1st cancels on you.  Such is the life of a missionary.

We saw a LOT of less actives this week!  We had a member go out with us for half a day while we tried to meet people.  Members bring absolute miracles when it comes to missionary work!! So, advice from Sister Cardon, members - go out with the missionaries!  It seriously is the greatest thing ever :)  We love the members so much!!!

Miracle of the week: Our investigator Mike Phillips made it to church!!! Mike is an interesting character.  He knows the church is true and has been taught by a lot of missionaries, but the one thing holding him back from being baptized is the fact that he has a major smoking addiction.  But he's on a medication to help him quit smoking and we have him on date for the end of November!! YAY!!!! ... Hopefully we don't need to move his date.

Speaking of people on date, we have a baptism coming up!!!!!!!! :D And I'm SOOOO excited!!!! This person's name is Jason Hook and he's been taught by missionaries for forever and a day.  Sister Jessee taught him when she served in Flora Vista a year ago and he had already been taught for a while at that point.  But he's finally made the commitment and made the final step of quitting chewing tobacco and was going to be baptized on Halloween this week!! However, he's superstitious and so we moved it to next week.  I'm SO excited for him!!!!! I love seeing people change their life for the better!  It's incredible to watch :)  And he's going to be an absolutely fantastic member!  He's already doing missionary work with his friends as he sees that church is the sure way to change your life for the best.  I just love him so much. 

Accomplishment of the week: I got my hair into a ponytail!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!! :D Sister Nielsen was nice enough to take a picture of it.

And we found the cutest halloween decorations ever... They're Disney!! I need them in my life.

But yes, that's about it.

I love you all and can't wait to hear from you again!!

Love

Becca :)

PS Sporting their ponytails on Sunday night...

They're ecstatic!  (They get a little weird after working and being gone for 15 hours.)

excerpts from Sean's letter

Emma's translation:
"Dear Sean,
I miss you so much...."

What Becca really said:
[I'm happy.] The Lord's work includes spreading a message of joy and I'm so grateful I get to be the voice of the message.  And I'm blessed with the people that are in my life.  They all are truly amazing and supportive.  And I'm blessed to know so many people!  I've got people in Utah, Florida, and now New Mexico.  Life is so good.

[Sean sent Becca a picture of Captain America at Comicon.]  Her response:
Thank-you so much for the picture of you with Chris Evans!!  It is still the greatest thing ever. :)  I was as happy as a little kid in a candy store when I saw it.  Wait...no, I was much happier than that.

long hair

Sarah sent me a text with the following picture and message:

Their hair has really grown out in New Mexico.

I'm going on a cruise!‏

Guess what happened!  Sister Nielsen and I got a call this past week saying that we won a Bahama cruise for two!  So... We'll be leaving New Mexico for a little while (probably all of winter) and will return after some days in the sun.  

Just kidding.  But we did get a call saying we won a cruise.  The only set back is that we're busy doing the Lord's work.  That will just have to happen in a few months.

Quote of the week from Sister Nielsen talking about a lotion: "This stuff smells really good!  Wanna hear?"  ...yes, my companion is super smart.  At least she has the excuse that she's blonde ;)

We got to give a lot of service this week!  Two days were at the Senior Community Center and they were the cutest old people ever.  Second day we went we walked in on them doing dancing exercise stuff.  I decided that that will be me when I'm super old.  My arms will barely move, but I'll be dancing :)  And we got to paint!  It was so great!  The only service I didn't enjoy so much was when we had to move a bunch of trash.  I was gagging basically the whole time... it was awful.  But we were able to move some of the trash, so it was good!  Just don't ask me what the weird liquid that came out of the bags was.  Cause I don't even want to know.

I also got to work with Sister Scoffield and Sister Steele this week!  It was so fun going on exchanges with them!

And I got to sing in the ward choir yesterday!  Sister Nielsen and I were roped into it, but it worked out.  Even with only having one week of practice.  It was a simple thing of I am I child of God.

I got my drivers license by the way!  Thank you SO much for sending it!!!! Now I don't need to worry about something expiring on me.

Well, I love you all and hope you're doing well!!!!! I can't wait to hear from you again!

Love,

Becca :)

from the pen of Becca Lyn...

You may have noticed Becca didn't have time to send out a group email on Monday, but she did write a letter home and I am including excerpts from that for all of you to keep up to date with her adventures. - Linnea

Hey there!  I'm so sorry my weekly email was basically nonexistent today! (Oct 12, 2015)  Time just flew by a lot faster than I expected!

This week has been amazing though.  Sis. Nielsen and I did the mini-MTC thing which was wonderful!  I had two companions for the day and we did a lot of work together.  We did personal study, companionship study, 3 short lessons of the Restoration, we went to a member's home and had dinner there and shared the same message with them, and had trainings and a fireside.  Whew!  It was a long day, but a good one.  I loved being with future missionaries.  They have such an incredible Spirit about them.  And you could definitely tell who consistently prays, reads scriptures, and follows the example of Christ and who kinda does it once a week on Sunday.  The consistent once were confident and had a very bright light in their eyes.  I loved seeing it in others!  And I know all of you can have that light in your eye as you do what Heavenly Father has asked you to do.

It hit me towards the end of the day that almost all the future missionaries I worked with were Paul's age.  Man, that's crazy!  But all of the kids will quickly get to that age.  Don't procrastinate your learning and preparing!  Start NOW to prepare for a mission.  The challenge we gave the future missionaries here was 10 minutes in the scriptures and Preach my gospel every day.  I know that will prepare anyone who wants to go on a mission.

The rest of the week was fairly normal.  We had zone conference and got to see tons of missionaries there.

I've been feeling kinda sick the past 2 weeks ...That hasn't been fun.  I was going to nap today, but letter writing is taking much longer than expected.

I had my 4 month mark Saturday!  That's just crazy.  I still feel brand new.  There's just SO much to learn!!  And at this rate I feel like my mission will finish before I truly get the hang of it.  But it's still so wonderful.

...Has it been getting cold in Ogden?  I know here in New Mexico the fuzzy socks you sent me are my best friends.  Feel free to send more!

Okay, I saw Brenton's email of questions and answers, and I think that would be pretty cool to do.  So, anyone have any questions?

Alright, I love you all!! I'm gonna try to feel better by taking a nap now.

Love you!!!

Love, 

Becca

PS My hair is getting long!!!!

gotta run!

Sorry, this week has been insane and email time has slipped away!  (I'm trying to write, but people keep sending me things! Ha, I had 20 letters to read today... and only and hour of computer time.) But here's a picture from some of our adventures this week!

I love you all!!!!!

Love,

Becca :)

These are the Sisters I worked with in the Mini MTC thing on Saturday!  Sister Christensen and Sister Jaquez.  Greatest Sisters ever!!!  I'll say more next week :)

PS Some of those emails she was responding to included a photo I sent her of Paul getting his eagle scout.  She said, "Greatest picture ever.  Tell Paul that I love him and that I'm so proud of him! :D"

Her words of encouragement:  These [family] letters are seriously my favorite things to get!  Though, I've noticed the lack of pictures. Have you been enjoying the pictures we send from Sister Alford? [Yep!  You'll find them posted on the blog...]

4 months

Texting conversation:
"We are celebrating Sister Cardon's four months into her mission.  Doesn't take much for us to have a party."
"Looks like she is reliving her childhood. Pass the cake and ice cream.  My spell checker calls her sister cartoon."
"You do not realize how true that statement is.  They are teaching a young man who is the music teacher at my school and at every lesson he brings donuts or cake or pastry and juice to drink.  We have to be careful to not have lessons too many days a week or we'd all be rolling around."
"And not just with laughter!"
"Right.  I think we could've called her sister cartoon.  She's a hoot."

Put on your dancing shoes

My favorite quote from conference is probably the one by Uchtdorf that said "Put on your dancing shoes and skip along the path of life, singing along the way."  I love cheerfully going through life!  It's easy to become a pessimist, but the more rewarding thing to do is count the blessings Heavenly Father gives us every day and then go from there.  Because He gives us SO much!!! Even on the hardest of days, there are still little miracles.  And noticing those things definitely helps me have hope for a better tomorrow and rest of forever.

Well, this week was amazing!  I LOVED watching conference!  There were so many incredible messages shared!  I loved the talks about how amazing women are and how they are a strength to others and they have a great influence to those around them.  Ah, it was just so good!  And there was such a focus on families and sabbath day observance.  I definitely got the message that we need to be a light to the world and that we are examples to the world.  We have to be so mindful of everything we do!  And make sure that it's pleasing to the Lord.  Because people truly do look at us and notice how we differ from others.  It's so good!!!  :)  Because we can totally help others change for the better as we do our best to live the Lord's standards.

And a little miracle came from Conference!  Our investigator Robert came!!!! :D  He came to Sunday morning and it was just wonderful!  I really hope he continues to progress.  I was glad he managed to come to the session that President Monson spoke. But oh my word, I'm so worried for President Monson.  He's not looking so well.  But you know, it just went to show that he is dedicated to this work and to the Lord.  He will testify of Christ until his very last breath like every other apostle and prophet we have/had.  These men we have as our leaders are incredible!!!

And it was awesome to see Kim B. Clark speak!  He was the BYU-Idaho president when I went there so I felt pretty cool when I saw him at the pulpit and knew that I had powdered his face before.  And saw him every week of my semesters there.  It was also pretty cool seeing Elder Oaks and Sister Linda K Burton because I had powdered their faces (and Elder Oaks' head) before too... Coolest BYU-Idaho job ever!  

I was able to make cinnamon rolls Sunday morning to keep up that Cardon tradition for the sunday morning session of conference :)  They were delicious!  Though, I wish I had had our family recipe... oh well, next time.

The area here is doing amazing.  Things are truly moving forward and I'm so excited to see what the Lord has in store for everything.  Guess what!  Sister Nielsen and I get to go do a training for a mini MTC thing they're having in Farminton this Saturday!!!! SO EXCITED!!!!!! I'll tell you how it went next week :)  We're just blessed with this opportunity :)

I love you all!!!! Make sure you let your light shine this week!!!

Love,

Becca :)

Companions are just the greatest!  They open your eyes to new outfits :)  Sister Nielsen helped me out with wardrobe stuff on Conference weekend.  I might not look the greatest in the picture, but I promise it was super cute.

We sent in our miles for the month and couldn't help but have a little fun with the letter :)

cinnamon roll Sunday

Notes from the field: We love Sister Cardon's tradition of cinnamon rolls on conference Sunday.  What a wonderful thing her mother taught her.  Eat your heart out without you there.

Taking the cinnamon rolls to the stake house for conference.

Sisters are desperate for a letter from home.

Sad sisters.  (I think they may be a little home sick.  It seems to happen about this time.)  They are working so very hard and are absolutely obedient.  I love being around them and listening to their lessons - exceptionally spiritual.