Week 12

Hello from Phoenix!

First, shoutout to Grandma - happy birthday! I love you tons and I hope you have a great week.

Well, I have officially made it through my first transfer in the mission. I am no longer the youngest missionary in my area, and I am half way through my training! We got a few new missionaries in our area and they all seem really nice and hard working. Saying goodbye to friends every transfer is going to be so hard for me. The weeks go by so quickly; I cannot believe it is October this week. I hear that holidays on the mission are the best, although you get fed a ton so I am not really looking forward to that. We had two days this week where we had two dinner appointments to go to. I was so full afterwards I didn't know what to do with myself. We also get fed lunch a lot so we have big meals all day.

By far we get fed Costco pizza the most 

District lunch at Panda Express

This week started amazingly, we got to go to a sealing for a couple in the branch that had been less active for a long time. It was one of the coolest experiences to be in the temple with all of the missionaries who had helped them get to where they are now, and with all of their friends who have seen their progression in the gospel. It was one of my favorite things I have gotten to do so far. It was all in Spanish but I understood most of it, which was a miracle in itself. The peace inside the temple is so strong and such a comfort to me. 

My Spanish isn't great but I am working on it. I am going to start having lessons with the branch president's wife once a week. She is just the cutest lady and I am so excited, and also a little nervous. Most of the families we teach in the branch also speak English, so it has been a little hard to get to use my Spanish on a regular basis. We have one progressing investigator who only speaks Spanish who we teach once or twice a week. I get so nervous when I have to speak Spanish that I psych myself out of it a little. But I am trying and I understand more, which is a big help. Thank goodness my companion speaks Spanish fluently and can help me out when I don't know how to say a word. It can get frustrating but everyone we talk to is very understanding and loving. 

Saying goodbye to people at the transfer meeting

Sister conference

So it’s official - I now have a bike! We will be biking into our Spanish area every day now to save miles on our car. We still have our car though, so we won’t have to bike everywhere (hallelujah). I am borrowing a bike from the mission office. It is an adorable blue beach cruiser, which totally will not fit in where we are biking. I rode it for the first time today just in the parking lot of our apartment complex. I can't even remember the last time I rode a bike. It went pretty well, but because it was for our workout time we were in gym clothes. It will be a different story trying to get on it in a skirt. We’ll see how that goes tomorrow. I will be sure to send pictures of our sweaty adventures next week, especially if I crash. Be nice to the biking missionaries in your area - it's hard! Hopefully the weather cools down ASAP because we are probably going to die if it stays in the 100s much longer.

We’ve had to wake up early for service this week, so I have been a little more tired than normal. But we keep on pushing and working hard. 

Waiting for our ride at a ridiculous time of the morning

Awkward story of the week: we teach one of our investigators in English but their first language is Spanish. So we had what we thought was a great idea - to write our testimonies in a Spanish Book of Mormon and give it to him. When we went to drop it off he asked if he could have an English one because he doesn't read Spanish...we just laughed it off but we were a little sad. The scriptures in Spanish just tend to be a little simpler and more to the point so we were excited to have him start reading them.

Sad story of the week: after spending all day in our transfer meeting we finally got home to go to our only lesson of the day, which we were so excited for, and then they dropped us. They said they were just too overwhelmed with everything going on and they didn't want to get the lessons anymore. We were SO SAD. You love the people you teach so quickly that it is so hard to have someone tell you they don't want to see you anymore. But we move on and continue to work. We left them with a quick lesson; we felt the spirit and I hope they did too. Maybe someday they will be ready to hear about the church again. 

I love teaching people about the church, sorry if this email doesn't make much sense - I feel like I am writing a mile a minute and I still have short emails to send out. 

I love you all, I love the gospel and my Savior, and I love being a missionary.

Have a wonderful, safe week!

Hermana Doxey