Life in the Mission

So much good happening here!

  We are finishing teaching Emily the lessons this week and then she will be getting baptized on Saturday! I'm so excited for her! 

  Kathy (Sam's mom) has been taking the lessons, but she wants to take it much slower, which is understandable. 

  

Sister Hatch, one of my trainers, went home on medical release on Friday, I was sad to see her go but she wants to go home get better and come back out. What's funny is, me and her were supposed to come out at the same time last year, back in September, but then I went home, and then I ended up being her companion! 

 

   We have just been super busy trying to find more people to teach, and visiting a lot of less actives. 

  

   It's been weird adjusting to it just being two of us now, but we get along very well, and Sister Worrall is amazing! She will hit her 18 month mark this week and be going home August 11th. Which I'm kinda nervous because that means I will be leading out the area! Unless they whitewash it (They transfer me and put two missionary's who have never been in this area) Which I hope they don't do, I really want to stay here for at least one more transfer! But when I met with President, he was talking about moving me back to a Spanish area.

Anyways other then that not much going on.

I miss everyone like crazy!!

Spiritual thought of the week is Mosiah 7:33

"But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage."

 We can be in bondage to many things; fear, people, work, food, anxiety, ect. 

I used to be in bondage of fear and anxiety to the point that it controlled my life! I couldn't do anything! I was constantly letting it take over and freaking out! I didn't want that but yet I let it! I tried taking medicine to help, and nothing. I tired becoming so busy I wouldn't notice it. However that made it worse. It came to the point where I was being hospitalized because of this. And that night I just remember being so alone and turning to God and praying. Never before have I felt so much peace and love and comfort. I turned back to the Gospel and put my trust in Him. I didn't know where life would take me, I just knew that I had been saved out of this cage I had been trapped in for so long! 

So whatever your in bondage to, just know that Heavenly Father loves you, and if you will turn to Him and put all your trust in Him, he will save you from the "cage" that your trapped in.

   

I love you all like crazy!

Hermana Bell.

Sam's Baptism

What a crazy week, it went by so fast I can't even remember the details! 

So we finished teaching Sam the lessons and he got his baptism interview on Thursday. And we started teaching his mom the lessons. 

Sam was super excited for Saturday he kept trying not to smile the whole time! Oh goodness he is so amazing and so prepared.

The baptism was amazing, me and sister Worrall threw together a musical number 20 minutes before and it went well. The printer broke in the middle of printing the programs and so we only had 12 programs. Sam was super surprised and happy because there was so many people who showed up to support him.

  Then on Sunday we started going to ward correlations at 7am and ward hopping until 2pm and then we ran over and grabbed lunch and then ran over and saw some people and then that night we had a Fireside for investigators, and some recent converts spoke. They were amazing and I love the spirit they bring. Me and three other sisters performed a musical number. I've played the piano so much since being here its insane! But I love it! 

Anyway I'm sorry its super short today! But we are crazy busy. 

I love you all and you are all amazing! 

Tres semanas y un baptizado!

It's been crazy! 

Sam our investigator we started teaching on July 1st is getting baptized this Saturday! He is the most prepared person in the whole world! His teaching schedule is crazy, we are teaching him a lesson every single day this week, and one right before his baptism on Saturday. He is so excited though. He will be the first member in his family, and he told us last night that his mom and sisters will be coming to the baptism! We were hoping they would, not only for support but also to see the Church and to meet us. 

  We started teaching a 14 year old girl, Emily, this last week. She has been going to church with a friend for a while and she finally expressed her interests in taking the lessons. 

  We had interviews with our new Mission President on Tuesday morning. And it was so awesome to get to know him and his wife, who is probably the cutest person in the whole world. We are having a district activity today and we wanted to make waffles but no of us had a recipe for waffles and of course we don't have internet access here so I texted our mission presidents wife and she had us come over and gave us a amazing recipe for waffles (She's a pintrest addict like me haha) 

  It's so awesome living just 3 miles from the mission home, so that we have the chance to get to know her! 

  

Spiritual thought: 1 Corinthians 10:13 "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."

I love this scripture so much! It's true, we will have trials in our life, sometimes we will have so many trials in our life we will feel like we can't handle them, like we are trapped in this darkness that seems so inescapable that we lose all hope and direction. However God knows you better than we know yourself sometimes. He gives us trials, no one enjoys them, but He also provides a way to climb that wall, to wade the river of darkness. So no matter what happens in your life, the good and the bad, keep a smile on your face. Stay positive and be a better person because of your trials. 

As one of my mentors used to say "Bitter or better" 

The choice is yours, you are the writer of your story, you can be whoever you want. It all starts with a thought. Those thoughts turn to action, which will decide who you are. 

I love you all so much and look forward to your emails all week! 

Hermana Bell.   

The photo is me and my district after our interviews. From left to right in the back is: President and sister Hancock from Arizona, Elder Anderson from Lenexa KS, Elder Torina from Jijian islands, Elder Edgerly from Alabama, Elder Yates from Canada, and then the Mission President's assistants, Elder Haws, and Elder Funchie from Brazil. And in the front is Me, Sister Worrall from Tulsa Oklahoma, and Sister Hatch from Arizona.

Birthday Fun July 8th!

Let me tell you about my birthday.... When it rains it pours!

We had a zone training that morning so we show up.... fashionably late... And sit down. And our Zone leader announced that there was very exciting news to announce.... "It's Hermana Bell's birthday" 

  I have no idea how they found out but they did. And they sang me a very off key birthday song. The Sister Training Leaders took me to chilies for a birthday lunch and then we went to a lesson. 

So I get back to the apartment and open the door and.... Our whole apartment was decorated. It looked like a wedding hahaha! And they baked me a cake and everything! Hahaha I love my zone they are so awesome and they made my whole day so special. 

So later that night we were planning and it was around 10pm and we heard a knock and went down and answered it (and I really wish I had this on video, it was glorious! Bahaha) It was my zone leaders, and they sang happy birthday to me and then threw some stuff at me, and then danced this really crazy dance in the parking lot... It was amazing! I was laughing so hard that I cried! 

Dos semanas en Pocatello norte primera!

It's been super crazy this week because.... WE GOT A NEW MISSION PRESIDENT!! 

We met them on Wednesday and I love them! They are amazing! And I'm super excited to have just one mission presidente my whole mission!

Anyways,

Monday: We had a half p-day because of the 4th of July, so we emailed real quick and did our shopping. And then we just went and saw some people. By the way door to door knocking doesn't work here, I haven't gone tracting once hahaha! We walk a lot but we depend on referrals mostly. Here in Idaho everyone knows who you are and thinks they know everything they need to know about the church, so tracting doesn't work here, we really depend on members. 

Tuesday: We got a new investigator. He is 18, no one in his family is a member and his dad is very Anti-LDS, but he has a couple of friends who are. And one of them got his mission call a couple of months ago to Japan. So Sam asked him about the church and was very interested. So his friend told him to pray about it, thinking that he probably wouldn't do it. But he was wrong, Sam got a hold of us and and told us that he had prayed and heard a voice saying he needed to learn the lessons. So we taught him the first lesson, which I feel like we aren't really doing anything. He is so prepared! So we invited him to a baptism that was the next day.

Wednesday: We met the new mission presidente and his amazing wife. They are from Arizona and I love them so much! I'm excited to get to know them! 

Sam came to the baptism (Which was awesome, and Elder Anderson from Lenexa KS, performed the baptism) Oh yay hahaha to all of my friends from the Lenexa Stake I finally met Elder Anderson, he is actually in my district. By the Way our district is pure awesome ;-)

Anyway after the baptism we took Sam on a church tour and invited him to be baptized.... 

And he said yes!! So July 18th he will be getting baptized, he is so amazing and has such a strong testimony of the gospel already, we have literally done nothing! But its also going to be crazy because we have to teach him all of the lessons and get his interview and baptism planned in less then 2 weeks! 

Thursday: We went and saw a lot of people and visited a lot of inactive members. Everyone here is so amazing! I love them! 

Friday: Much like Thursday. 

Saturday: All day p-day! We slept in until 8:30, which was amazing and much needed. And then Our zone drove up to the mountains and started hiking up, we only made it like 2 miles before we decided to head back down. On the way back down I was talking to the other Spanish missionary s and this snake came slithering, very fast (I literally thought it was running bahahaha!) towards me and just stopped. I won't lie me and one of the hermana's were screaming hahaha! Scared me half to death, anyway I think it was more scared of us then we were of it. But no one was hurt and no one fell off the mountain so all is well! 

Me and my companions went and got lunch with the Sister Training Leaders and then we drove over to one of the stake centers with our zone (I say one of them because there are 11 stakes in just Pocatello!) And dragged all of the couches and tvs and took them to the gym and got a bunch of snacks and watched Big Hero 6, Despicable me 2. and Night in the museum 3. (Yes these were approved before hand :D) 

We then watched fireworks and had a amazing 4th with our whole zone!

Sunday: We were able to meet Sam and discuss what days would be good to teach lessons (Which is at least one lesson every other day!) And he is actually super excited!

So anyways I still have a couple of personal emails to send so 

Adios for now!