Hello everyone!

     We had our baptism and it was an incredible experience! Ican´t believe that I get to be a part of this work and preach the gospel. I feel so blessed for everything I have and I'm grateful to be learning so much here. I´m SO HAPPY they are baptized! They are now on the path to Christ and their eternal salvation. That is generations of people who will now be affected! I´m just so excited! 

       Oh funny story! We were at a family home evening and it was the waiting time after the lesson when you can talk as you wait for your food and I fell asleep on Hermana Calderon´s shoulder...  and then drooled on her.....in front of everyone....   The funny part is I'm not even as embarrassed as I should be!=) It was more like - oh well- that's  embarrassing....=) 

Anyways love you!

Hna Carey


Baptism pictures!

Leah's mosquito netting over her bed

Someone's house

Dear Daddy!

HAPPY FATHER´S DAY!!!! Sorry the holidays are different here so I didn´t know to tell you last week! Yeah, I have never been so hot in my entire life.  It's ridiculously hot!!!!! You just sweat ALL THE TIME! When we get down on our knees to pray before going out we can feel our knees sliding on the tile floor. GROSS! But once the sun goes down it sometimes occasionally cools off. Oh, people say my Spanish is good.  The Elders told me that when I'm mad my Spanish is PERFECT! AHAHAH that's funny.......anyways I'm still here with Hna. Calderon so I´m happy about that! WE HAVE TWO BAPTISMS THIS SATURDAY AND ITS A FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cant even explain how happy I am and how much I love them! They were prepared by the lord to hear the gospel and they have three adorable kids that love us!!! I can see them in a year getting sealed as a family and then having three missionaries! It's so exciting! We also have another person that we think will start to progress really well!  Hna. C and I are both really happy to stay together because we both felt like our work here isn´t done. Yesterday we celebrated Rafael´s 40th birthday and we got him a tie that he can wear for his baptism and to church. Then I gave Mielit one of my black skirts because she doesn't have any for her baptism and she got so happy and excited and said that it's her first skirt and that she will wear it every Sunday! It was the sweetest thing ever! Their kids know us and their 3 yr old had their camera and pointed to me in a picture and said that´s Carey! I just about died it was so cute! Anyways I hope Father´s day was good.  This is my main email so tell Mom sorry but she can cut and paste because it would take too long to write it all again! Love You!

Leah

Mom,
  We taught this family! They are on the road to their eternal salvation!  This is such a big deal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I'm just super excited and Hna. C and I are singing "Be Still My Soul" for the baptism and making cookies! Did you know that that song doesn't exist in the Spanish hymnbook? They only have 209 songs!

      Go read Dad's email and oh my goodness - I love this family so much and I am so grateful to have this experience! The people you meet on your mission really do affect you and change you for the better.  Mom I've never been so happy to give something of mine away.  She lit up so much and I am so happy! When I gave my skirt away I got this feeling of "this is exactly where you are supposed to be!!!!!!!!!!!! "  

   I'm already a different person.  I have been ripped out of every single comfort zone I have and forced to do things I never dreamed of.  And I feel like I'm stronger than I was 4 months ago when I got on that plane.  

     Did you get the photos?  Will you send me chocolate? I really want chocolate and please would you like to send me a recipe for lasagna? And sweet tarts and possibly gummy life savers and the hard ones too...that's it, I promise.  I'm sorry I miss food....  Love you!

Leah

Hello Everyone!

      This week was good! We have our miracle family with a baptismal date that we are teaching right now which is way cool! The ward had an activity and it was Karaoke! SO MUCH FUN!!!!! U.S. wards are so stiff! These people were up and talking and having a good time while the karaoke was going on and there was this one guy who got up with his acoustic guitar and his deep Latino voice and it was amazing! I even got up and sang Let it Go from Frozen! SCARY! But so much fun! Best ward activity I've been to in my entire life! I also got put on the spot in front of people to sing a song just in the middle of the street. Because theses ladies wanted to hear a song and all the missionaries just pointed to me and said "well she can sing..." yeah, so I got to sing a Child's Prayer on the side of the road in front of 5 Latino women and 5 missionaries. So that was pretty much my week. I discovered that club crackers with peanut butter tastes amazing and Frito's goes with everything! 

     I got dehydrated this week so that was cool.... transfers are coming because I'm ending my training so now.  I just want to know what will happen!!!!! I want to know if I'm going or staying!!! But either way I feel like I'm ready for what ever comes. I'm pretty sure I won't freak out again. So that's good because going from the ccm I thought I might and I did. But now I feel like I won't, so I'm excited about that!  

Love you!

Leah

Dear everyone,

     This week was good! We set a baptismal date with our amazing miracle family and it is three days after transfers, so either me or Hna C will miss it unless we get special permission to come back for it! But I got to go on intercambios with members and teach a lesson by myself which was cool....scary really...but I really saw the power of prayer this week. We had an amazing experience that I wrote to Daniel so ask him to forward it to you. I also have been shown again that Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers. We matter to Him and If we are doing what we are supposed to we will be blessed. I also learned that He loves and protects His missionaries. It has been a week of a lot of prayers! Transfers are coming up and I scared!:) I'm almost done with my training and yet I still feel like I don't know so much! I guess now is the time to pretend I know what I'm doing and just keep learning!  Anyways that's pretty much all that happened! Love you!

Hna. Carey

Daniel,

     Okay....cool prayer experience now! We were giving the first lesson and all the sudden right before Hna Calderon is about to give the first vision a car comes and parks outside with music blaring! So I look over and I'm praying for it to stop and I see her pause for a moment and then as soon as she starts the first vision the music shuts off all of a sudden and doesn't come back on until it's over.  Then she asks our investigator, do you know who he saw? And boom, the electricity goes out and it is silent...the streets, the fans, the house all silent...it was for him to feel the spirit and go through that part of the lesson. And after we finished that part of the lesson it came back on. So cool to see the power that prayer has and how powerful the first vision really is! Love you!

Leah Pot

Hi Dad!

      It was a good week! Not much happened though, just praying that our family will get baptized and live the word of wisdom! They are our miracle family and their kids just love us! They invited us over to eat and it was so good! We had chicken, potatoes, yuka and pumpkin in this soup on white rice, super good! Anyways we bought an entire rotisserie chicken on Saturday so that was cool and then a bottle of ranch and double stuffed chocolate oreos that are American brand! We're not allowed to go to the store hungry anymore...so there's that.

       Tell Ollie happy birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All the star wars stuff is way cool!  I've made some really good friends here and that's super cool. I have friends that don't really speak English from all over the world now!  Anyways love you!

Leah

Sorry to be so late on this blog this week.  We moved to Fort Collins this past week and we have been extremely overwhelmed and tired.  Andrea

Hello everyone!

     This week was great! I went on my first exchange with a sister leader in my own area and every single one of our lessons fell through except for one! We contacted like crazy and by the end of the day we had 8 lessons! It was cool to be able to take the lead on the lessons and talk to these people about our purpose as missionaries a little bit! My sister leader said that it was a great intercambio and that that I was confident and very expressive! YAY! Points for Leah! Also on Mother's day we ate SO MUCH FOOD! First we went to a members house and had turkey salad and rice, then we went to drop off Mother´s day cards to our investigators house and it's the family we´re teaching and they were celebrating and insisted that we come in and eat AGAIN. Man it was so worth it!  They fed us BBQ pork ribs! I haven't had food like that in almost 4 months! Okay so ribs, empanadas,quites, rice with gandules, coconut from their tree, coconut water, lots of soda, salad, and two pieces of cake! WE WERE SICK FOR TWO HOURS AFTER THAT! But it was amazing! It felt like being home at a real family gathering and they just welcomed us into their home and we really felt their love and caring for us! There were pictures and everything so we´re a permanent part of that Mother´s day memory! We shared the scripture about the stripling warriors and mothers and the husband´s mother (who we had never even met before) told us that us being there with them was the best Mother's day gift that they could have received! It really was awesome and amazing! Anyways love you!

Love Leah

P.S. there´s an earthquake going on here right now! Cool Right?

Hi Dad!

     Today was good - we had a fun day! Played sports which I'm still trying to put that into my fun category but I'm working on that! This week we had something crazy happen remember the hicks I told you about? Well this lady saw us again and said that they don't have any food and the sister of her husband wants them out of the house and a whole ton of stuff! She told us that we were her only source of help because her family wouldn't help and the US consulate wouldn't help either so she was without means until the 2 of June! Who Hoo? What on earth can a 19 and 21 year old do about that? We thought the exact same thing!!! Well we had to deal with that so that was cool! Love you!

Leah