All is well, all is well!

<------------------- Here is my mailing address I love letters!!

Hola Familia y mis amigos

This week was really good, haha I had some interesting experiences. But first, I am gonna answer some of your questions :)

Yes, I wear helmets, it is a rule. Biking is going great, I love it, I feel like I am doing real missionary work when I am on a bike . It is super fun :)

Hermana Merrill loved your letter, mom. Thank you :)

I got everyone's letters on Thursday! Thank you for all of those letters, I loved them. They made the surgery recovery a lot better.

SOOOOOOOOOOOO..................I will talk about the biggest event this week: MY WISDOM TEETH!

So I went into the surgery at 11:15 and I was waking up at 12:15. Hermana asked "Que es su proposito como una misionera?" Hahaha I said the whole thing in SPANISH! I didn't think that I remembered it in spanish, we say it in English in the mission. So that was pretty funny. I went home and slept all day and then went to a older couple's house while Hermana went out and taught at night. Our ward is so sweet, I love everyone so much. The next day, I slept in (that was weird) and then pretty much slept the entire day. I watched some district videos and then went back to bed. Saturday, we finally went out and man, can I just say that I love missionary work! Being in for 2 days was hard and it reminded me of the life I had before my mission, chilling in the house, taking naps, not really having anything to do. Missionary work is SO MUCH FUN!!!!

So now I am almost fully healed. My gums are still sore and chewing hurts sometimes. I have pain pills but they make me tired and a little bit dizzy. We need to ride our bikes so I am pretty much off of those pills. The bleeding wasn't bad at all so don't worry. I am doing great now.

On Sunday, a boy in our ward got his mission call and it was so fun to watch him open it. Literally the ENTIRE WARD gets together and they had food and watched him open it. He is going to San Antonio Texas! Spanish speaking :) It reminded me of when I got my call and how scary and nerve-racking it was to open that envelope. Your whole life changes based on the letter in that envelope. It was a great reminder of how exciting missionary work is.

So I saw that Alyssa got her call!!! I am so happy for her, she is going to be an amazing missionary. I am so proud to part of this amazing generation of youth who are decided to put their lives aside for 2 years or a 1 and 1/2 to serve the Lord. It helps me to push on when times are hard or I am tired. Elder Hunt told me Kolby got his call? Where is he going?

So this week is going to be AWESOME!!!! Yesterday, I had a very strong desire to focus on the goals we made for this week and for that day. There is a power in making goals, especially in missionary work. We had a goal of handing out 6 BOMS and we handed out 5! That is really hard to do, because a lot of the people here are 1)Already LDS, 2)Aren't LDS but don't want to join because they were offended or are not interested, 3)REALLY Catholic and don't want a different religion or their family is Catholic. You just have to be bold and creative in how you give out the BoM, and you can do it. We went tracting in a new apartment complex yesterday and it was so fun and tiring, it is like digging for gold :) GOLDEN INVESTIGATORS!!! And when we focus on goals, we have something to work for, a purpose to everything we do. Goals are awesome and this week, we are really focusing on our goals and trying to reach them. 

This week, I am working on patience and learning about it. Patience is really hard, especially with yourself. Being a new missionary, it is SO HARD! But I am adjusting and I am trying really hard to have our companionship be a 50/50 companionship. I am doing my best to contribute as much as I can, and it is hard sometimes because of the language but I just need to be PATIENT! Pray for me as I learn this attribute haha :)

This Thursday we are going to the Jordan River Temple and I am so excited! I love the temple and I seriously can't wait. It is crazy how sometimes we take for the granted the wonderful opportunity to go to the House of the Lord.  This Saturday, we are baptizing the Roman family. I love them so much and I am so happy. We had someone on date for April 12 but he didn't go to church so he fell off :( I was super sad but that's ok. All is well :)

Well family, thanks for everything you do for me :) I miss you all and love your letters. I am glad life is going well, I am excited for the wedding :) Have a great week and I will email next week :) with pictures :)

SLY!

Hermana Warren

"If you don't like your lot in life, build a service station on it!"

<-----------------------  Here is my mailing address.  I love letters!!!

Hola Familia! y mis amigos,

How is it going? I am great here in SLC....I'm really in Murray but I like saying Salt Lake City :)

So this last week, we have just been teaching and finding, teaching and finding. We didn't have any baptisms this week. We had our stake conference this weekend and we can't do baptisms when we have conferences.

I am so glad everyone had a great time at Time-out For Women/Girls.....that is really fun, I want to go when I get home :) Wow Lydia, a weekend with Dad all by yourself would be super fun too! I hope the bike riding, basketball, Old country buffet and working in the garden was fun.

I LOVE MY BIKE!!! I love biking, I wish I did it before my mission. 

Sorry I scared you all with President Moffat calling you haha.......I didn't know that he was gonna call you guys. But anyway, I am getting my wisdom teeth out on Thursday at 10:40....Hermana Merrill is gonna record me when I wake up and see if I say anything funny, maybe we can send the video haha. I am sure it will go well, I will get a blessing from my District Leader, Elder Torres. He is awesome!

Thanks for the mail! I got Mom's letter and Dad's! So.. I got Jess's wedding invite on Thursday......man, that was hard. I opened it and saw it and just started crying. We finished planning at night and then I started getting ready for bed. I saw the invite again and started crying again, and I was so angry that I was gonna miss my own sister's WEDDING!! I just really want to be there. Sister Porter, one of the sisters that lives across the hall came over and I told her about the situation and she saw all my pictures of you guys and friends that I had put on the wall above my bed. She told me that she really struggled with homesickness and she had pictures everywhere when she first came out. Then she realized that it wasn't really helping her focus. She told me that when we put away the pictures of our family, we show God that we are putting Him first and we trust Him to help us with our homesickness. After she left, I took all the pictures off the wall and taped them in a journal I bought. I was crying the whole time, I felt like I was forgetting about my family but I know that by doing that I will focus better and my family will be blessed for my service. Me and Hermana Merrill talked for a while after that, she was telling me how she NEVER wants to go home and how you experience the most amazing joy on your mission. She is such a great missionary :)

The only pictures on my wall are of Jesus Christ. I have noticed a BIG difference in my week since this experience, Heavenly Father is helping me a lot. I think about you guys all the time though, thank you for the love and prayers.

So answering Dad's questions.......We get fed by members almost every night for dinner. I usually eat a turkey sandwich every day but this last week, I made macaroni and cheese....YUM! This week will be different since I am getting my wisdom teeth out, LIQUIDS and ICE CREAM! :D haha

Thanks for sending emails about other missionaries, I love it :) You can keep doing that. 

Mom...FELIZ CUMPLEANOS!! I sent you a letter today and I bought you a cupcake! But I ate it....sorry :)

Mitch...Stay strong! The Lord has a plan! Be patient and go to the temple a lot :) I am praying for you :)

WE have some new investigators, Iloy and Maria, Rafael, Oscar,and Vanessa. Iloy is on date for april 12! The others are still not on date but pray that we can get them on date!

So the subject of my email is AWESOME! We had stake conference and I learned a lot about how important the members are in missionary work......HELP THE MISSIONARIES!!!! They need the help of members in everything. Teach with them, drive them places, feed them, give the referrals!!!! Do all you can to share the Gospel with your friends and neighbors! We are all missionaries and need to share the Gospel. ok, I will get off my soapbox now :)

I learned so much about charity this week, I was studying it and how the Savior showed charity. If we are having a hard time in life or feel angry or sad, SERVE! (hence the title of this email) It is through service that we experience the pure love of Christ. Serve everyone, just like the Savior would do :)

Random note: People have interesting pets here. We saw a lady with a parrot and he was TALKING!! so cool! and then we met a man with a 3/4- wolf huskie! AWESOME!!!

So in my next package, I need socks to wear with flats, the nude color is fine:) and if you could send my pink binder for PMG that I made, I think I want to use it here...unless someone else is using it, then you can leave it home :)

Biking is good, food is good, my health is good, life is good! The ward is awesome and I LOVE being a missionary! It is so much fun. Our district is fun and our zone is great.

I met the family member of the Hunsakers, he is in my zone. Elder Gardner. 

I love you all so much! Have a great week and keep getting ready for the wedding! Sammie can wear my dress and I can send the grey cardigan for it. I bought a mint-colored skirt to wear on April 12 so I can match everyone in spirit :)
 LOVE YOU!!! Sorry I don't write more in espanol. I get lazy haha :) LOVE you and miss you all :)

SLY!

Hermana Warren

Miracles do happen!!

<---------------  This is my mailing address.  I love letters!!

Hola Familia y mis Amigos!!

Como estan? Can I just say that I love everyone here in SLC? I feel like I am not far away from you all because I see members of my ward here that remind me so much of my family. Yesterday, I saw a little latino girl and she looked JUST like Lydia. It caught me completely by surprise and I couldn't help but smile whenever I looked at her. I love my family so much!

Ok, so I wrote a letter today and I will put it the mail so you should get it by Thursday or Friday. I answered a lot of your questions about the mission and my companion in it:) Thank you for the package!!!! I loved it! Thank you Stevenson family for bringing to me, you guys are awesome!  The sugar cookies were absolutely amazing and the blanket was definitely needed.....Thanks Grandma I sent a letter to you also. Thank you for all the letters, I love reading them and I am gonna tape all my letters in a journal (That is what I bought at Walmart by the way, and then I had to take 20 dollars out as well for laundry, we have to go to a laundry-mat :P) I love everyone's letters :) Thank you!

So I found out that I can print off emails so if you could send Hermana Childs' blog posts in an email, then I can print them off and read them later!

So this week, we have seen many miracles happen! It was awesome, well, first of all, Jacquleine and Ernesto were baptized!!!! YAY!!! We took them to Temple Square last Tuesday before their baptism and they committed to prepare to go through the temple in one year. I hope they do that! That way I can go through with them because I will still be here.

Second, we found a family from Colombia that Hermana Merrill has been trying to find for a month. The member who referred them didn't know their address and so one day, we were biking somewhere and as missionaries, we have a goal of talking to at least 10 people everyday on the street. As we were talking to the 10th person, Hermana looked at the house we were standing in front of and saw a family walk into the house.....and guess who is was? The Colombian Family!!! She was so excited and we were amazed at how the Lord guides us without us even realizing it! We found out also that the member had put the family's name on the temple prayer role that day and that we would be able to find the family. AMAZING!!!!

Another miracle happened this week....but for a family in our ward. Were teaching a less active family and the wife told us that she needed some extra help her with her business. We told her we would keep an eye out for anyone who was looking for a job. Later that day, we were trying to contact some new investigators and they weren't home. We decided to stop and talk to a member family and ask them why they didn't go to church that day. We talked to them and shared a message with them and I could tell that something was wrong, we asked how everything was and we found out that the husband had just lost his job and he was really worried. They are a young couple and have two young children. We instantly thought of the lady from earlier that day and we called her up and had him talk to her. He got off the phone with tears in his eyes, saying that everyone was great. I was SO happy to be involved in that miracle. God knows his children, and he uses us as instruments to meet the needs of those we come in contact with :) I love being a missionary!

I am so glad that everyone is doing great! Jess? Is everything getting together for the wedding? ONE MONTH!!!! When we went to temple square, I looked at the temple and had a bitter-sweet feeling. I knew that you were gonna get married in this temple and I am so excited for you, but I also knew that all of my family would be standing where I was standing and I wouldn't get to be here with you all. Pray for me for that weekend..........even though I will be busy, it will still be really hard. We are trying to put some people on date for baptism for April 12.

I am doing good. My feet are fine and I am always fed :) My cold is gone and I feel really good. It is still hard to wake up in the morning, but I am sure I will get used to it sometime soon hahah

So it snowed this morning......WEIRD! Would you be able to send me some piano music? I think I can still play Frozen so copy the music and send it to me if you could! Thanks! Also, I would love some ideas for lunches......I need to eat some different stuff. I feel like I eat the same food every day :)

I love this work and I can feel my testimony growing and the language is coming better and better. I am not as scared to talk to people anymore and I pray every day to be bold and powerful. I want to be like the missionaries in the BoM!

I love you all! Keep having FHE and reading the scriptures! When I wake up, I always think that my family is up with me, reading with me :) We went to a FHE last night with our investigators, there were 42 people in a tiny trailor. It was great!

I love you and miss you! Write to me if you can, letters are the best!

SLY!

Hermana Warren

The gospel is blessing families! I love it!

<------------This is my mailing address

Hola Familia y mis amigos!!!!

Wow, so this week has been pretty interesting! It felt kind of long but not as long as my first week.......those first few days were a killer. But being in the mission field is awesome, most of the time.

Ok.....the highlight of the week.............my FIRST BAPTISM!!!! This was with Laura and Pedro. Their story is amazing. They have been waiting to join the Church for a while, but he needed to get his divorce from his wife in Mexico finalized so he could marry Laura so they could get baptized, does that make sense? They have been working on the divorce since 2012 and it finally went through in February. It has been a LONG process. 

On Saturday, they were married at 3 and then baptized at 4. It was such an amazing experience. Their family looks so happy and I am so excited to see how the Gospel will bless all the families we teach.

They had a party after the baptism and man! Latinos know how to throw a fiesta......it was crazy and super fun.

This month we are baptizing 3 families so far......I LOVE THIS GOSPEL! El Evangelio bendice a las familias! 

 So this last week, we have been getting lots of rain. Biking and rain DON'T go well together. Our faldas (skirts) were soaking wet and the seat of the bike I was borrowing was SOAKED so that didn't help. But a member of the ward let us come into her house and use her dryer while we ate dinner. The people here are so sweet and I love them so much.

 We do a lot of tracting here.....and it is really fun because people just FREAK out at you because a million missionaries have already been there and they don't want to hear the message.  It is sad when people say that but rejection happens and when it does, that means that you are one door closer to the person who is waiting for the Gospel. I try to keep that perspective.

 My Spanish is slowly getting better........it is amazing to see the progress I have made over the last couple of months. This Saturday will be my 2 month mark!!! Crazy!!

 I went on Exchanges this week and it was super fun. I went with Sister Zufelt and she was the sister who stayed with me the first night I was in the field so I already know her. She is super sweet.

 So on Sunday, I woke up with a cold and it hasn't really gone away but I am taking medicine for it, so don't worry Mom :) Sunday was a hard day because I wasn't feeling to good, plus fasting, and then I started to feel homesick. During Language study after church, I couldn't hold it in anymore. I started to cry in front of Hermana Merrill and she asked me why I was crying. I told her all of my feelings.....and the thing I am most frustrated with is the EMOTIONAL ROLLARCOASTER! Seriously, on a mission, your emotions go wacko and one minute you love being a missionary and then the next minute, you want to go home. It drives me nuts and I hate it. Hopefully it goes away because it is emotionally exhausting. Anyway, after that, I felt a lot better, it feels good to talk to someone about my feelings. I always talk to Heavenly Father about them but it is nice to talk to someone else as well….I love Hermana Merrill.

I got a letter from Grandma and two from Dad.....I don't know if you sent more but I haven't gotten those yet. You can send them straight to my apartment. I sent a small package to you guys today and they said it will get to you guys on Friday. I just sent some stuff from Mexico for everyone :) I will be sending more letters as soon as I can.

 Letters are absolutely AMAZING!!! I didn't realize how special letters are until I was actually in the mission field.....I love them so much :)  Dad, when I read your letters, I started crying :) You are such an amazing dad and you always say the right things to help me. I will send you a letter as soon as I can, answering your questions that you wrote to me.

Today was a crazy day. The first couple of P-days are crazy busy because you have to do everything and buy everything that you don't have. Today, the bike problem was kind of stressful but thank you Dad for taking care of the bike for me. I really needed a new bike and I will take good care of it :) Then, we went to Deseret Industries and that place is amazing! I bought 10 skirts for $42!!!! BOOYA! I am ok on skirts now but I would never say no to a pink skirt or yellow skirt… hehe

In your prayers, thank Heavenly Father for Sister Egan, she is an older missionary here with her husband and she is a blessing and drove us around all day today. She is amazing.

Tonight we are going to Temple Square! We are taking Ernesto and Jaqueline, who are getting baptized on Saturday. I am so EXCITED!!! I love the Temple. BTW, our mission gets to go to the temple this month! That is gonna be awesome :)

SO the missionary work is going great in our area, we just need to find more people to teach so we have baptisms in April. I know that if I am obedient and do my best, Heavenly Father will guide us to those who are ready to receive the Gospel. I always invite people to be baptized........that is our purpose as missionaries.

Thank you for all you do, family :) I love you Mom, Dad, Jenna, Sammie, Ronnie, Shonna, Lydia, Jess, and Grandma and Pongo!!! I see your pictures every day in my room :) I am so blessed to have you as my family. I love you all!! Have a good week :)

SLY!!!

Hermana Warren.