2 months

Hola!

 I cant believe it has already been 2 months! this week we had a lot of lessons with memebers which was great! Our investigators here are seriously the best and i just love the people here, They are a lot different then people back home. Every single person is willing to talk to us and everyone here is religious so they all want to know more. in the 2 months ive been on my mission only one person has said they didnt want to know more. It is so crazy because i feel like back home so many people just dont even care to listen to the missionaries. And here the people just are the best! We had division things again but this time with Hermana Cruz and Hermana Smith! When we were with them it was my job to get hermana Smith to talk in Spanish because i guess she never does. she just mumbles things in english all day and her and her comp. dont talk. This was hard for me but i just tried to help her translate stuff and somehow we made it work! when i was teaching with her companion we taught a less active member and to be completely honest the past couple weeks i have been doubting my testimony and wondering why i left everything to come to a new country and not understand a word people were saying but then i was bearing my testimony of the book of mormon and that is when i knew why i was here. It is because i know it is true and i know this gospel is the best thing in my life. i just have such a strong testimony of prayers being answered because this week so many of mine were answered. We taught a lesson in the church this week and it was amazing! we were teaching a coworker of one of the members and she is so accepting of everything. She believes in the book of mormon, and Joseph smith, and is so excited to learn more. teaching in the church is great!  another cool experience we were looking for the house of a reference from the elders and a guy asked who we were looking for and we told him and he said he didnt know where the guy lived, and then Hermana Fragoso asked if we could give him a little card thing and talk to him for a minute and he said, yes, and then told us that he speaks better english than he does Spanish so i finally got to introduce us in english! It was so weird because i like forgot how to say the stuff in English but it was so amazing! it was so nice for me to see that i do know what i am talking about and now they are new investigators! They are a christian family who half of them speak english. They have a lot of respect for people willing to share their beliefs and said they would love to hear more. it was funny talking in english haha. I really like never do and i feel like in 16 motnhs, i wont know how to at all. but i am super happy about this family. Another cool thing, there is a family in our ward here, the lopez lopez family, and every sunday they have lunch after church with like the bishop, his family, and two other families in the ward and it was their day to feed the missionaries so we all had lunch together and they remind me of our family. the little kids all run around and play in the water and the parents all just talk and what not and there is one couple, nelva and Emanuel and they have a two year old named Amelio, and they remind me so much of Ash and mack. Nelva even kinda looks like Ash! It is crazy, but they kept having me say like spanish tounge twisters and then they would have Elder krambule say them and the best part was i could say most of them better than him and he only has 3 weeks left in the mish! So i was happy about that. haha but  It rained a lot this week, and i have a little bit of a cold, which is weird because its an endless summer here, haha but i am very thankful for cold medicine! Me and my companion are becoming such good friends because we are starting to be able to talk more. i get to teach in our district class this week. And on thursday i will be with Hermana Rodriguez and Hermana Santana again! it should be a really good week! i have a favor to ask you all, please if at all possible help the missionaries that are in our word. Memebers play such a big part in conversions, and in helping less active members come back to church. It really is amazing how much of a difference having a memeber at a lesson makes so if you guys can, please help the missionaries. Or even just visit less active members in our ward! i love you guys so much and miss you like crazy! I hope you have a great fourth of July and i hope you have a good week!! (:

Lots of Rain!!

Hola!!

What a week it has been! This week has flown by! I cant believe it is already monday again! But anyway, it has been a great week! The language is hard, really hard, I feel like i know nothing but people here are really nice and always say my spanish is improving. haha. On Tuesday I had to go with two other hermanas because hermana Fragoso is the sister trainer leader and had a meeting in a different little town. I was with Hermana Santana and Hermana Rodriguez. Hermana santana is from the Dominican Republic but knows sooo much english and Hermana Rodriguez is from Vegas. It was nice to be able to talk in english with them and get more help with spanish. Their area is super hot, even hotter than mine, and alll day we were just hoping it would rain. well we got what we wanted! It was a downpour!! I will send pictures! we had to walk in it to the church and it was probably the funnest thing ever! It felt so good! When it rains here it either sprinkles for like 5 minutes or is a downpour for like 2 hours haha. On wednesday and thursday lessons were good and we had a lesson with a family that the parents are inactive but they have 9 kids and one agreed to take the lessons. His name is Silvino and he is 18. He knows some english, yay, and is a pretty good investigator. he asked us to write our testimonies in a book of mormon for him so we did, and are super excited to give it to him. His parents were awesome in the lesson because they explained so much about the gospel they have really strong testimonies so i hope we can get them back to church. On friday we had divisions or something, It is when the trainers get training. So me and Hermana Afu, who got here the same day as me but from the provo MTC, had to teach together!! Luckily we had a member, Nelva, with us and it was a good lesson. Yesterday at church 7 of our investigators were there! And, me and my comp. Elder Alvarez and Elder Krambule had to sing in sacrament. I literally about died haha. I do not sing so I was so scared. Luckily Hermana Fragoso and Elder Krambule have amazing voices and it all worked out. We had a lesson with the Olvera Family and they are the best! They are the ones that the daughters have their baptism date but the parents need to get married. They are my favorite they are so awesome! They are way good to us and always so welcoming! They have such strong testimonies and i am so happy for them! (: 

It sounds like you guys had a crazy week!! I cant believe it snowed so much at camp the pictures look like it was still a blast though! I am kinda sad i missed it! I am super jealous you guys saw Arya!! But I will just go visit her in 16 months! haha I hope you guys have another great week! Thank you for the love and support!! I love you guys so much! 

love always,

Hermana Searle

First Week In The Field

Hey everyone!!

Oh my goodness!! What a week it has been!! I just have to say one thing before i tell you guys the craziness, I have never been happier in my life, and i promis you all i am not lying when i say that, so mom.. please dont be worried!

Monday night we got to Santiago around 9 and our district leaders picked us up. One of them is from Idaho so he speaks english, yay!! But this is his last transfer so thats kinda a bummer. but as we were driving we were driving up huge hills and i was just looking out the window and everyone was talking in spanish and i had NO IDEA what was going on. So we get almost to our house and Elder Krambuel says.. "Hermana you are going to remeber this night for the rest of your life so take it all in!!" pretty simple thing to say but i took it to heart and decided that is exactly what i would do! So we get into our casa and its actually pretty big. there is two beds in the front room, two desks off to the side. A kitchen, two bathrooms and an extra room. So I thought it was pretty nice! And then as we were exploring we found about 10 coachroaches!! hahaha i have never killed things so fast in my life while laughing that hard. I seriously could not stop laughing Hermana Fragoso and I looked like crazy people swinging brooms everywhere haha. It was really funny and now we are coachroach free! After that we got to sleep! yay! Oh and it is super super hot here and the water here is all one temperature, which is cold, so i was super stoked to be able  to take a cold shower! On tuesday we started the real work! But we had no water in our house which in most cases would be a really big problem but in this case it was a huge blessing because we had to ask our neighbors for buckets so we could fill them up with the water outside and use those to shower well now our neighbors are investigators!! They are such great people and even though I cant understand them i love teaching them! They are the navarra navarra family and 5 of them are taking lessons! They seem to understand the gospel pretty well and are really progressing. On tuesday we met Perla while walking down the street, she is married and has a little boy and is pregnant right now. She has the cutest baby bump ever haha but she is also a new investigator and understands the gospel so so well. When people say the Lord prepares others to recieve the message of the gospel they arent kidding. we actually found 19 new investigators this week and they are all really wanting to learn more! On July 12th will be the first baptism for us in this area. There is a family that the missionaries were teaching before we got here and they have two daughters who are 12 and 11 and they are ready for baptism. We had their date as July 19th and asked them to pray about it and when we taught them again they said that the 19th is too far away and they want it sooner so they want the 12th! They are super excited, amnd they are glad that Elder Hernandez, who taught them before, will still be in the area and will be able to baptize them! Their parents also want to be baptized but they have to get married first. They have been together for like ever but never got married. They said they have a date set for a wedding but it is a surprise as to when so hopefully it is soon! The people here really are the greatest people! The members feed us everyday and the food is so good!! I will learn how to make it all so i can make it for you guys! Everyone here is a Yankees fan (: So i fit right in, except im the only one person here and dont speak spanish, or know anything about this place haha but really i love it. The language is getting better but its still a struggle. I kinda just follow Hermana Fragoso everywhere and just smile and nod my head during lessons haha. But it is awesome. I know that there is no better place i could be right now! i am so glad to hear everyone at home is doing well and I am glad its been a good week for you guys! Thanks for keeping me updated and sorry this email is so random! I love you guys sooo much!!

Love,

Hermana Searle

On her way to Santiago with Hermana Fragoso

Hola familia!!
So this week was the last week in the CCM and boy was it rough!! We
had a lot of really good things happen though! We finally got our baby
district and they are great! On saturday we had our last classes with
our awesome teachers and we took some really funny pictures I will have to send
you guys! But on sunday we had a testimony meeting with our baby
district and its like a tradition for our zone to do a testimony
meeting for the new group the week before we leave and it was so good!
My district had the strongest testimonies!! But when one of our elders
bore his he gave our baby district the advice to just not talk to
anyone and then he said "when you talk to people you get to know them
and then you fall in love and thats what happened here. And it suck
to leave that." And of course we all cried but it really made me
realize how blessed i was to be in the CCM with my district!! The lord
blesses us in the best ways! Sunday night after we said our final
goodbyes to those who arent in the same mission as us we went home and
packed. And didnt sleep at all. Haha our flight to Guadalajara was
super short. And at the airport we saw everyone again so had to say
bye all over. But once we arrived in gudalajara our mission president
picked us up! We went to the mission home and had some training and
interviews and then met our companions! My companion is Hermana
Fragoso! She is super cute and has been here for 10 months! She knows
some english so that is good! And right now we are on a bus driving to
our area which is in Santiago! It is a 4  hour drive so i love that
there are ipad like things here for us to email! My pday will be
Mondays! I hope all is well at home! I love you guys so much!
Love,
Hermana searle

2 new pics :)

these are the only 2 pics we got this week :)

 

Part of her district:)

 

 

 

 

From left to right:  Elder Stephens, E;der Alder, Elder Billman and Elder Adams

 

 

Longest email yet :)

I was happy to get a little bit longer email from Ky this week.  Enjoy:)

Hola Familia!!

So this week is my last week in the CCM!! Crazy, huh?? I can not believe it is already this time! the last six weeks have been so crazy, so hard, so fun, and so emotional! This week there wasn't anything super crazy that happened! On Thursday something kinda cool happened. All of our investigators here have been asking us why they need to be baptized again if they were already baptized as babies into the catholic church. And in the email i got from Elder Tia on Thursday he was talking about just that! He had an investigator that was wondering the same thing and it was just really cool to me. because while I'm out here in mexico, and Stone is in Bolivia, and all my friends, and cousin, that are in other missions as well will have times when our emails to each other are an answer to someones prayers. Its really cool that me, and some of the people i love so much are all a part of the most amazing work together. On Friday we had our normal classes and nothing too exciting happened. On Saturday nothing really happened either. haha but Sunday was such a good day!! We had relief society and we talked about being a strong link in the heritage of our families, and as missionaries! It was a really good lesson!! Sacrament was also really good because it was testimony meeting and i actually understood most of the testimonies which was really nice because last fast Sunday i had only been here 4 days and didn't know any Spanish haha. Sunday night we had to say goodbye to our father district which was really sad actually. They are all such great people and i really hope we will stay friends forever. we all decided that we want to meet for the first general conference that we are all home! So that will be fun! Monday was also a pretty good day. It was my last Monday in the CCM which is just crazy! But it was good! We had a really good lesson with Angel about faith and repentance. It went really well. It is weird because he is our teacher in real life so its kinda hard to teach him but it was still good! on Tuesday we taught Carlos in the morning and then had TRC in the afternoon. TRC was really really good!! we taught three people! the first lesson was with a guy named Oriel. I dont know if that's how you spell it but thats okay! Hermano Hernandez told us that he isnt a member so he might have some tough questions. So we went in and were teaching him about the importance of church attendance. I was explaining the sacrament to him and he asked why it is now water and not wine. So I don't even remember what i said but somehow in broken Spanish i explained it to him. and it really was so cool. and during the entire lesson i could just tell that there was no way he wasn't a member. so i asked Hermano Hernandez about it and its a really cool story! In December Oriel got baptized because his girlfriend had introduced him to the church and 2 months ago Hermano hernandez was able to give him the priesthood!! I think it is such a cool story! And i love that he is willing to pretend to be an investigator for us because he really knows what it is like! Then our other two lessons were also pretty good, they were also about church attendance. But our third lesson was with Oriels girlfriend! I cant wait to teach real investigators and to be able to really bring people unto Christ!! It is such an amazing thing! Tuesday night we had a devotional here by Elder Johnson and he is in the 4th quarm of the 70! It was really good! HE talked a lot about how we need to have faith. And as strong of faith as possible so that we can express that to our investigators! The devotionals here are one thing i am really going to miss! Yesterday we all started writing in each others journals/notebooks so I am having people write in the little pink book Sam and Nessa had got for me. And it is so cool to have more peoples testimonies or just words of encouragement in my book! I have to tell you a funny thing that Elder Fuimaono wrote! haha he was talking about how he knows we will stay friends because of Elder Tia and then he said "Even though you are older than me i think of you as my little sister. And i have always wanted a white little sister!!" hahaha it was so funny! My district is the best and they really are going to be my friends for the rest of my life! We also got our baby district yesterday and tonight we get to have a little welcome meeting with them and I am super excited for that! It is fun to be able to help them get used to mission life! This week really was a good last week in the CCM and I cant wait to get out to the field!! I love you guys so much! Thank you for all your love and support! I hope everyone has a good week! 

Love always,

Hermana Searle