Our zone/district

Our District still can't take a normal picture... but here we are!  This is who we've been hanging out with the past 6 weeks.

Transfers

Guess where I've been transferred to!!!???!!! 

... Flora Vista/Aztec 1st.   Yep!  I'm gonna be spending an entire 7 months in this area at this rate, but I love it with all my heart so I'm okay with that.  If anyone doesn't know, my (at this point it feels like it'll be permanent) address is P.O. Box 719 Flora Vista NM 87415.  I'll still be with Sister Ledford and we'll be finishing up her training.  It should be great! :D  This next transfer hold a lot of excitement with roughly 4-5 baptisms lined up.  We're stoked!

This week, well, as you could see in the pictures I sent, I'm in a brace now.  And I dislike typing at this point.  It's no bueno.  But how did I injure my wrist you might ask??  ... I got up from off the floor.  Yes, I managed to injure myself from the short trip from floor to standing.  There was a loud pop and then pain. But it's all good cause one of our bishops is a doctor! :D  So I obtained a brace from him and now all is well.

Miracle of the week: Flora Vista has a new investigator!! And she's on date to be baptized February 20th!!!! :D We are so so so excited for her!  Her name is Melissa and she's half Native and half hispanic.  She calls herself a Navajo Taco ;)  I love her so much!  She has such an amazing energy and she just loves life and this gospel! Her friend/coworker that lives in Kirtland introduced her to the gospel and she just can't get enough of it.  This experience has definitely reassured me that the best missionary work comes from the members.  Melissa came to church yesterday and just was so excited!  And when we asked her to be baptized in our first meeting with her she said she was so excited she wanted to scream.  And we are now called "mama".  It makes me laugh :)  She calls everyone Mama, and it suits her so well.

I went on the last exchange of the transfer last week!  And the process will be starting all over again this coming week... joy.  Poor Sister Ledford is basically never in the area when we're going through exchanges.  And I have a feeling we'll be assigned 3 companionships this transfer rather than just 2 because there are 5 more areas that have opened to Sisters. Whew!  We're gonna be staying busy!  Which is the best kind of missionary life! :)

Man... those are the best experiences of the week really.  I can't think of much else that happened.  We're still just working with Shane and the other people we have on date.  Shane's being baptized this Friday!!! We are so so so excited!!! :D  Sister Ledford is giving a talk on the Holy Ghost and I'm conducting the music.  We just can't even wait!  We're gonna be making a scrapbook for him of the day - should be good! :)

And yeah... that's life in New Mexico.  It's cold, snowy, and miracle filled.  We're just loving life here.

Family, I got my letter of shame.  And I laughed a lot.  We FINALLY are having a normal P-day today, so you can definitely expect letters :)

I love you all with all my heart!! And I hope you're doing well!!!

Love,

Becca :)

cut-outs

Cerina Tanner sent these pictures she took of Becca and her companion Sister Prichard when they came to visit her tonight.  "You have an amazing daughter.  She is truly a blessing.  I I have a grandson on a mission in Jamaica right now.  I would give anything to get some pictures of him like this.  Hope you enjoy."

We won!!! :D‏

We took 3rd place in the vehicle inspection competition!!! And only missed 2 points... so it was close.

trio for a week

We were in a trio for a week!  Long story.  But I got to do her hair and it was so much fun doing long hair again!! One day... I will have long hair.

I can show you the world...

Once a pirate, always a pirate.  And forever recruiting for Captain Jack Sparrow's crew! :)

We also had an air mattress in our room that reminded us of a flying carpet... reenactment of A Whole New World immediately followed :)

Better picture of our flying carpet :)

Miracle of Miracles!!!!!

Holy Hannah, our week has been the greatest thing EVER!!!!!!!!! SO MANY MIRACLES!!!!

Let's start with the greatest miracle ever -  We have someone getting baptized in 2 WEEKS!!! His name is Shane Kirkland and he's the greatest thing since sliced bread.  He came to church last week with the Black family, they gave him a Book Of Mormon, he read the first 11 chapters, and instantly knew that it was true and couldn't get baptized soon enough!! Honestly, he might have gotten baptized this week if it hadn't been for the fact that he had Word of Wisdom problems before.  He went from smoking a pack a day (about 20 cigarettes) to nothing in 2 weeks!!! And without us even saying anything, cause the first day we met him was the first day he had gone without a cigarette the whole day.  The day before he had had half of one.  I was just amazed.  And he's an incredibly fast learner!  We went through 4 lessons with him Sunday afternoon in just over an hour.  He's so great!!!  And what's better, he's the theater teacher at the high school and has been teaching there the past two years.  And he's only 21.  If I weren't on a mission, I'd want his life.  He's so cool.  But let's be real, anyone involved in theater is pretty great ;)  And he passed his baptism interview!!! YAY!!!!! I never thought I'd be the person to say that as a missionary I met and baptized someone in 2 weeks, but now it's happening!  Heavenly Father has truly been working with Shane for a while to get him to this point.  And it's so amazing.  It's funny, some missionaries hear about this and say things like "wow, you're so good!" or "wow, you must be an incredible teacher"  but I have to say that everything goes to Heavenly Father here.  We did absolutely nothing, it was ALL the Spirit.  Missionaries never convert anyone, it's always the Spirit.  I'm just so thankful I get to help Shane learn and grow and love the gospel!!

That's the biggest news of the week.... We've been on cloud nine ever since it happened.  First lesson with him on Wednesday we set his baptism for January 29th at 5:30 pm.  We weren't even planning on having our first lesson with him til Sunday.  So it was so cool.  And now we're going to exceed our monthly goal for baptisms in the month of January!  We were going for 0, and now it's 1!!! Can you tell that we're excited???? :D

We were in a trio the majority of last week.  Some things went down in Aztec 2nd ward and it resulted in us having an additional Sister for a time!  Sister Kimberling is fantastic and we really enjoyed our time with her.  Plus, she had some fantastic CD's that we got to listen to.  Gentri is a new favorite.  As well as Vocal Point's Lead Thou Me On.  And the Piano Guy's Christmas CD.  If anyone feels so inclined to send a few CD's this way I wouldn't complain in the least... ;)

We also went on 2 exchanges which was fun.  This time around I was with Farmington YSA Sisters and they are just wonderful :)

We also had Zone Conference!  And Sister Ledford and  I instructed a role-play on companionship study.  It went well, especially with the fact that we had little to no time to prepare with all the exchanges we've been on.  Poor Sister Ledford is hardly ever in our area anymore.  Hopefully it won't be too bad this next transfer!! :D  We should be staying together in Flora Vista/Aztec 1st, but we'll find out Saturday night for a definite answer.

And guess what!  We won 3rd place in vehicle inspections!!! :D  That was pretty great!  It wasn't first place, but we'll get that next time.  I'm just a tad too competitive here... and we've learned that when you're competitive you're prideful... so I'll be working on that.

Our miles this month are pretty shot.  Thank heavens we're given more miles than we actually need since I'm a Sister Training Leader!  Cause there was a day this week where we drove more than 100 miles.  Which is really bad as we try to do around 30 every day.  However, we were needed at the Colorado border, Bloomfield, and Farmington that day.  So we went about 20 miles in 3 different directions.  It was crazy.

But sadly, we can't have a perfect week.  We had a huge heartbreak yesterday when Blake told us that his mother wouldn't give him permission to be baptized.  He's on date for February 13th.  And he was so so so sad :( We're still praying for him and that his mother's heart will be softened.  Cause Blake really has made some fantastic changes in his life since he's found the gospel.  Hopefully he doesn't get too discouraged here and will keep going forward with learning and growing.  We love him so much.  He's almost 17, so maybe it'll just have to wait til he's 18 for him to be baptized.  Thankfully he did have one bright spot yesterday!  The ward bought him a Quad with his name engraved on it.  He was just overjoyed and couldn't let go of them.  At least there was one up.

Well, that's roughly it for our week.  I hope everyone is doing well!!! I love you all with all my heart!!!

Love,

Becca :)

select posts from the New Mexico Farmington Mission Families facebook page

Thank-you Sister Cherie Adams (mission president's wife) for taking most of these pics at zone conferences.

hard working missionaries - 13 Jan 2016

There's Becca!  Front row, fourth from the left. (13 Jan 2016) - zone conference in Bloomfield

Sister Missionaries in Bloomfield (13 Jan 2016)

1 Dec 2015 (Becca is second from the right)

The Aztec sisters: Sister Nielsen, who has only been out a month, and Sister Cardon (1 Nov 2015)

Monticello temple trip - 28 Sept 2015

Sister Steele and Cardon - Aztec, New Mexico - 19 Sept, 2015

8 Aug 2015
see also mine spill and EPA pollutes Colorado river and Waste Water reaches New Mexico

16 July 2015 zone conference with missionaries serving in Farmington, Kirtland, & Bloomingfield

Just arrived in the mission field - 23 June 2015

 Arrivals - 23 June 2015

departures

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

I've seen SOOOOO much snow this past week!!! And so little of my actual companion!  It's been insane.  I went up to Blanding Monday- Wednesday and Holy Hannah... there was a LOT of snow!  We would shovel a driveway and then by the time we finished the driveway, the part we had first shoveled already had a layer of snow on it!  So, it felt pointless, but at least we got the worst of it done for a day.  I don't know what it looked like the next day.  Supposedly Flora Vista is supposed to be getting a bunch of snow this week too.  Should be fun! 

So, I discovered some #utahmissionaryprobs.  One is that there are SO many members around that tracting turns into you having a whole bunch of active member lessons instead of new investigators.  And you don't even have to ask them if they're a member, cause you see a tiny piece of garment or something that is the tell all.  My mind was just blown a bit.  We knocked on a door, thinking it could be a potential investigator, and then this old lady answers the door and you could see a little bit of her garment so instead of telling someone the gospel we asked if she needed any service.  It was just weird having all these houses around me and then being told that every one of them had a member living there.  Utah is crazy.

There was a little kid that just made my day though!  Haha, he was at the dinner appointment and I was definitely giving him too much attention and he was just eating it up.  I felt like I was working at Disney again.  He asked me how old I was and I said that I felt like a was 5 inside.  Then he asked for my real age, and I said 20.  Then he said "Nooooo...!! You're *real* age!" ... I wasn't sure if that was a compliment or an insult.  I think he might have thought I was a lot older.  Later on in the night he asked if I was a bishop.  Haha, that wasn't a comment I was expecting.  His dad said he was close, but I was a missionary.

So, this week I spent 5 out of 7 days with Sister Navarro instead of my actual companion Sister Ledford.  And Sister Navarro is just amazing!  She's Samoan and super cool!  Some highlight experiences - first morning in Blanding we were doing exercises and Sister Nielsen was jogging around the house.  Sister Navarro took it upon herself to run behind Sister Nielsen and chase her with her hands waving above her head.  It was hilarious!  Especially when Sister Nielsen switched directions and it wasn't what Sister Navarro was expecting.  I think I got an ab workout that morning just from laughing at the two of them.

Other highlight of being with Sister Navarro, we got to do service for Sister Hall who is my absolute favorite lady in the entire world!  She's this older lady (probably mid 70's or so) and she's just the biggest sweetheart ever!  Her husband died earlier this year and she's taken it really really hard.  They had a band together back in the day - Reedy and the Hallmarks and they also had a country club.  Reedy, her husband, played the piano like none other.  So, Sister Navarro and I went over to Sister Hall's home and played the piano, ukulele and sang.  Sister Hall just adored it!  And it meant so much to her.  She hadn't opened her husband's piano since he had died, so it was all dusty and needing love.  It was seriously one of the coolest experiences I've had on the mission.  I love music and this gospel so much!!!

Other miracles of the week: Our investigator Tom is on date for February 20th!  He's the guy that wants to be sealed to his wife by April 1st- their anniversary.

And we had 7 investigators at Sacrament meeting!!! Usually it's a struggle to get 3 there, and we had 7!!!! :D  SO HAPPY!

Funny story - We have a member that comes out with us pretty often named Tylor.  I love her with all my heart.  She's leaving for her mission in a little over a week and her punishment until she finishes packing is that she can't go out with the missionaries.  She can still hang out with her friends, but the bigger punishment was stopping her from going out with missionaries.  It definitely made me laugh.

Aaaannnddd... yeah, that's about it!  I love you all with all my heart!!! 

Love,

Becca :)

winter in the mission field

Shoveling is useless... the walkway was shoveled not even 5 minutes before

Couldn't pass up the opportunity to make a snowman!  Or more like a snow-missionary! Navajo nametag and everything :) #rezmissionarylife 

We almost made snow angels and put our nametags on that, but then we realized we were in skirts and that would be far too cold

I was in Utah for a mere 48 hours or so and THIS happened!  Guess I had to get my utah winter somehow.

Do notice, my hair is in a braid.  Still super excited about that!:D

Note from Sarah: She is wearing her Christmas present. Beautiful.  To which Linnea replied, "I loved that scarf when I saw it in the window of the store.  Stole it off the mannequin ... last one."

Sarah:  It is not only beautiful but warm.  She's been wearing it thru the snowy weather.  

This is how we warm up by the "fire" in New Mexico :) It even makes crackling noises.  With subtitles!! ;) The fire goes for an hour, and within the hour it builds to full force and then dies out by minute 59.  Haha, it's just the greatest.

Enjoying a moment in front of the fireplace...

Also, Captain America, our car mascot, loves the snow as well.

Things are rolling along!

Hello Family and Friends!

This week has been pretty dang exciting!!! We have 6 new investigators!!!! :D  Sister Ledford is the coolest human being ever.  What I love about new missionaries is their incredible faith in finding.  And it's definitely shown this week.  I've been doing my best to roll with it, and I'm so thankful I have.  

First miracle of the week: We had a media referral named Tom Smith.  And we contacted him that night, but weren't able to have a lesson with him then.  Then Sunday night comes around and Sister Ledford gets the thought to go visit him.  So we do, we get to know them, and without us even bringing up baptism he asks us how he can get to the temple to be sealed to his wife for eternity!!! Holy Hannah!! We were SOOOOOOO excited!!!! :D The only thing he has to overcome is coffee drinking, but he says it won't be a problem.  So we're gonna be teaching them, activating his wife (who is more than willing to come back to church) and help them get to the temple!  I'm so excited!!!!

Our other investigators are simply fantastic as well.  There's another part member family - Josh and Sarah - who just had twins SUPER pre-mature.  The babies were only 26 weeks along.  So the babies are in the hospital and we're starting to teach Sarah who isn't a member.  The ward has been embracing the new couple and helping them out so much.  And small world - Josh is the son of someone we teach in the other ward!  Crazy sauce!!!  The two families don't have the strongest relationship since Josh has pretty much disowned his parents for one reason or another, but the parents started crying when we told them that we had started teaching Josh and Sarah.  They were so happy and said it was an answer to their prayers.  I love being a missionary!!!!

I also went to my first normal Missionary Leadership Council (MLC)!  That was pretty exciting!  We came up with the phrase "In the New Mexico Farmington Mission we represent Jesus Christ as we find, teach repentance, and baptize converts" which is now our culture phrase in the mission.  I'm looking forward to the day when every missionary has this has the single intent in their missionary work.  As all the missionaries here have that focus we're going to be accomplishing miracles! :D  Unified missionaries are much better than not.

New Years was awesome.  We had a super early curfew time of 5:30, but our members still took care of us.  We were going a little crazy from doing weekly planning for a long time at the end of the night, then the Roundy's who are members in Flora Vista dropped by with a plate of delicious goodies!  Originally, we were supposed to have spent some of our evening with them, but with the early curfew it didn't work out.  Also, I've discovered how much I love little smokies.  They just remind me of all the Cardon gatherings and how we almost always have them for appetizers.  So it made the New Year celebrations feel a little like home.

And one other awesome experience from the week - we had a lesson with another part member family Jessica and Josh.  Jessica stopped going to church while she was in college and Josh is a strong baptist, almost to the anti-mormon point.  We had a really great discussion with them, but it was close to a heated discussion at times.  But I was so thankful for the Spirit that was there!  We went about it with an attitude of understanding and love and Sister Ledford gave a powerhouse testimony that completely softened Josh's heart and opened his eyes some.  And he invited us to come back!  It was so incredible!!  The members that were with us were so great as well!  They kept to themselves for the most part, but then brought up an awesome point about a scripture and it broke down another wall.   Man, it was just so good!

Aaaannndddd, yeah, those are probably the highlight experience of the week.  I'm starting to get to the point of the mission where I'm getting tired kinda easily.  I don't enjoy it.  I'm trying my best to stay super upbeat and positive, but it can be quite the task at times.  But it's weeks like this that boost me up enough to keep going and keep happy.  I just love life so much!!

So, fun story, I'm gonna be in Blanding Utah again!  I'm leaving today with Sister Navarro, another Sister Training Leader, and her companion and Sister Ledford will be staying in Flora Vista/Aztec.  I'll be seeing Sister Nielsen!  I'm pretty excited to see how she's doing :)  And then I'll be back with Sister Ledford Wednesday night.  It's gonna be a long time away from my area, which is weird, but it should be good!  

I hope you're all doing so well!!!

Love you bunches!!!

Love,

Becca :)