Joyful Boldness

 Exchanges with Crazy Sister Pipkin. Oh this Sister is just tearing it up!

 This was my bed this week. Ok, not every night but it was a bit of a crazy week.

 I don't think Sister Cederquist would enjoy having a picture of her up here right now so I'll just show you where we spent most of our time this week. Poor Sister Cederquist and stupid burst appendix. All is

well though and she's on the mend. She's sure a trooper!

 You know you're in El Paso when...for dessert...chocolate tacos.

 So I stole the idea from up North but mentioned how awesome it would

be to hand out balloons with mormon.org cards attached to them to

people and so we decided to actually do it as a district this week

after district meeting. Super fun!

 Here's the new district for this transfer! Mission Trails!

 Sister B and I have made this the new motto in our 'home.' We LOVE

telling everybody about this. We told the whole Zone :) ..Seriously

though, it's SO easy to find people when you're happy and bold and

confident about what your sharing with them. They listen and want to

know more. We have found so many new investigators every single week

because of the power of this motto. I'm telling you catch phrases

really help!

 This is why they call it 'Horizon City.'

 Also...'Little Mexico' has the funniest things on the side of the road

sometimes.

Jesse's Baptism and tiempo con la familia!

 I love my calling and am grateful the

Lord trusts me with this responsibility over His precious daughters.
So you ready for it!?? You sure? Ok...so...

This week...Jesse got baptized! and confirmed! 
and got the priesthood!

It was so so so wonderful for me to see and witness his special day. His face was just glowing. 

He loves sharing his testimony with everyone. After Jesse's baptism we

went to a barbeque for the stake and I completely forgot that my

family might be there. It is there stake after all.
I was just so caught up with our busy schedule

and Jesse and preparations for the baptism and everything.
We pulled up and I walked up to one of the tables and there was a group of people all sitting

together in chairs there and all of a sudden I heard, "EMILY!" I knew

that it had to be my wonderful grandmother...no one else calls me

"Emily" here. :) It was sure fun/weird to visit with them all and introduce

them to Jesse. I'm more than blessed to have my family here.
 I was able to visit Heidi, Sophie and Uncle Bobby on one of

my exchanges. It turns out the 11th ward sisters set up the

appointment just because they knew I was coming. Complete

surprise...and yes it did feel a little weird but it was such a

rewarding and sweet experience. Heavenly Father is sending me some very

beautiful blessings right now. 

Have a wonderful week.

 Yes...do you recognize this little cutie!? My cousin...Miss Sophie. I'm one of the luckiest missionaries. :)

 Finally this week we had a BREAK from the heat! Gotta love Monsoon season.

 You all need to know this. I LOVE Sister Pipkin. This Sister is so

happy...SO HAPPY I tell you. All the time. So happy to have her and

her wonderful companion Sister Adams in our district.

 Transfers once again :( but.................we are almost all staying!

Good thing too because our district is awesome.

So, all is well. Sorry to Elder Flint (who goes home tomorrow) but

he's kinda cut out of the picture. Bad angle on my camera's part.

Here's to a new 6 weeks!

 And Jesse. I don't even know where to start with Jesse. He is AMAZING!

He came with us to an appointment even before he was baptized

and bore his testimony of the Book of Mormon with such power that

there was no doubt in my mind that Jesse is a very special spirit. It's a beautiful moment when someone testifies of something that you taught them only a few weeks ago. Thank you to my Heavenly

Father for sending us Jesus Garcia to find and teach...and to learn from!

 Sister Biancardi and I with Jesse and Obispo Garcia who baptized and

confirmed him.

 Grandma :D

Stake BBQ right after the baptism...look who I found! Aunt Heidi, Cousin Victor, and Grandma & Grandpa:)...trust me, I completely recognize how I'm blessed here. (Jesse became part of the family today :)

Family History Work

This week has been

a wonderful week. We taught 16 member-present lessons, found 15 new

investigators and had a great follow-up exchange with the 8th ward

sisters! All credit goes to the Spirit for helping us every single second. I love this work with all

my heart. I'm so grateful to be out here. I'm starting

to get to the point of not wanting to home. :) That's a very good sign.

This week we have been focusing on

Jesse and he has become a true friend. We are all children of God...but Jesse is one

of my favorites. Without asking him, he deleted all his friends on

facebook who like to drink and party or even swear. He also has his

cousins and aunts and uncles working on getting him information about

his family members so that he can enter it in on family search. I sat

down with him at the church last Tuesday and created his account and

got him started. I told him about the prophecy of Elijah and he was so

excited to help his ancestors on the other side. Who knew that taking

that family history class back my first semester of college would pay off, right?

Such a blessing from the Lord. Jesse is incredible and has made so many

friends in our ward. Gracias a nuestro barrio de mission trails para dar amistad a nuestro investigadores! We are working very hard here and my body has

finally gotten used to the heat and it now feels second-nature to me

sometimes. Blessing. Por fin! 

Had exchanges with 8th ward sisters...Sister Moulding is hilarious. :)

That's all I have to say.

We are meeting metas here people! Yay!

So new way to make fudge. Have grandma send you a bag of junior mints

while out here in Horizon. Never stood a chance. But what awesome

minty fudge!

This is how we wash clothes every week...just thought I'd let you all know.

It was just barely past 11 am and look at the temp here! Record breaking. Nice

and cool. There's a first time for everything right?

Feeling Blessed

 Ok...don't judge. I promise I'm still consecrated. Doing service at the Garibay's house! Hauling hay...best day of my life. Texas has so much of my Idahoness in it sometimes.

 Las Charros!

 Hauling Hay...and painting too. Promise it was service! (And no we

couldn't ride the horses, no matter how much I wanted too)

 Exchanges with Sister Clemens! She is in 11th ward here in El Paso.

 Exchanges with Sister Karl who's from Rexburg! She's serving in 4th ward.

 Jorge Adame was baptized last weekend with all his family there. It

was so wonderful to see him be baptized and confirmed and to hear his

sweet testimony. :)

 Jorge with his Grandpa Juan Adame who was able to baptize and confirm him. :)

 These sisters are the BEST! We love the Ysleta Sisters, Sister Pipkin

and Sister Adams. They are so sweet and such consecrated, wonderful,

hard-working missionaries. Last P-Day...we needed a break, so we along

with the rest of the district decided to go to...wait for it...

THE ZOO!!!

 Look at my darling companion :)

 My second favorite animal I've decided. First...of course come horses.

 We are totally allowed to have fun.

 But...not as much fun as the Elders apparently.

 At Meet the New President Meeting. Gotta love Sister Klaus's tan line.

Working hard out here in the hot sun!

 Road trip! With Sister Rios and Sister Bills up to Albuquerque and

back for MLC with our wonderful new President. Happy 4th!

 Once again...MLC. Best sight ever.

 At Obispo Yoshida's house for Sunday Dinner. His son Julio showed me

his piggy bank that he's filling up for his mission. He is SO excited

and so ready (notice the tag) to serve. Love it!

HI MOM!