Last weeks email and this week.  

 Hey Mom!

       So... Hna Calderon went home today! Last night the other two sisters that live in our house came with us to the mission home and we had an amazing last dinner before she left.  Then she had her interview and President let us watch movies almost all night! Frozen and Monsters University! SO FUN! We had one big giant sleep over the last night! But this morning was hard and today has been hard. Five months! wow! And now she goes and sees her family tonight! I can't even believe it! I cried SO much today! Especially with it in the middle of the transfer things are super difficult now and I'm kind of working the area by myself somewhat... Well I guess God let me keep her long enough for a reason!=) But she called from New York just a minute ago! She hates all the English! Ha ha!  Ask dad about my companion situation going on. It will be interesting! Hna Calderon and I have had so much fun and now this truly is heartbreaking! I have never had to say goodbye to so many people in my life! So many HARD goodbyes! But I will see that girl in one year! She goes to BYUI so, I will see her in a year=) This will be pretty hard but this is what Heavenly Father wants me to go through right now so I will be fine.  I love her so much! Anyways that was the big thing that happened, the rest has just been teaching, saying goodbye and whatnot.  But I will make Hna Calderon proud! Love you mom!

Leah

Companion situation....I have sister leaders in my house. They are temporarily splitting them up and giving me one and giving the other a mini missionary (kid who lives in the area who hasn't gone to the ccm and is pretty much just your shadow while they look for a real companion)

Hello everyone!

     Well this has been the slowest week of my entire life but good too! Our investigator finally came to church which was a miracle! I got to sing in the ward conference choir, and I was in the sketchiest guagua ride of my entire life! Man... those guaguas to Los cocos! Then a man got in with a giant bag full of chicken feet leaking blood and other liquids! Yay!

      I had a fun time leading my area.   It was really cool to be able to be 100% happy.  Trying to do everything that Hna Calderon had taught me and see my people progress a little bit! I have spoken so much Spanish this week!  I'm in a house full of only Latinos now so that's funny! Man, speaking Spanish at six thirty in the morning is rough! But its better now!

       Hna Reveron and I had a special lesson with one of our menos activos because just the week before she had given birth and her baby had died. It was amazing to be there and tell her that her baby is safe and happy and that he was waiting for her. We also had another amazing lesson where Hna Guzman and I shared the purification of the silver story and it really hit our menos activo really hard. Look up that story because it is amazing! We felt the spirit really strongly and felt like we gave him what he needed at the right moment!

      I made pancakes today covered in nutella and sweetened condensed milk! That was amazing! YUM!=) Anyways it was super hard to say goodbye but good to see that I have progressed since I first got here and that I didn't freak out! YAY, go me! I love you! 

     I did a funny service this week I forgot to tell you! We found a spider the size of my face and then a rat and then a lot of cockroaches and the elders tried to play baseball with the rat as the ball! GROSS!!!!! Then we painted a school for little kids with lead paint! YAY! go DR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yep that was funny!  Anyways those are the highlights of the week!

Love you! 
Hna Carey

Hi everyone!

     Okay, so this week was good!  It is transfer week! I´m still with Hna Calderon until she goes home in threes weeks in the middle of the transfer! She's going home just a little early to start school right away! I´m nervous for the change but I guess the time has come! Funny story! I had to eat the insides of a goat this week! GROSS! Well she only made me try it.....we had to tell her we were just too darn full from all of her other wonderful food that we didn't have any room for more! DON´T EVER EAT MONDONGO! ITS BAD! dumb goats..... ugh=) Just another journal entry!=) 

     Also we had an incredible lesson this week. It was all completely guided by the spirit! We started off with prayer, shared a scripture about faith and ended with me giving a baptismal invitation completely unplanned and it all just worked out! She even said yes that she would be willing to get baptized if she received and answer! It really was super special! We felt the spirit so strong and she did too.  She told us that we are different  and that we transmit this peace into her home. She says that she can tell that we are happy and she is just wonderful!

      Transfer came and a lot of people changed and I had to say goodbye to a really good friend that has helped me since day one. That is hard. The mission is all about change, and learning to change and learning not to resist it but to do the will of the father so that He can shape you into the person that He wants you to be. That is something that I really am learning. I hope that I can embrace all the changes that are coming and face them head on! I'm so grateful to be learning here! I´m learning everyday how much I need my Heavenly Father and how many weaknesses I have. I know without a doubt that we have weaknesses for a reason and that we cannot do this by ourselves! I know that this is God´s church on the Earth and that it is true. I know that my Savior loves me and that he has giving an amazing gift of the atonement that we have to take advantage of.  I know I´m doing God´s work and that I have people waiting for me that I told I would find. I'm grateful that I can have this opportunity to grow and be shaped and be put through the refining fire. I love you all!

Hna. Carey

Dear everyone!

     This week was good! We were invited to our mission house with our sister leaders to a family home evening! We took familia Guzman and they loved it! We talked all about eternal marriage and the plan of salvation! Afterwards they were hugging and it was the cutest thing ever! I got my package! YAY! Thank you for that! Everything there was fabulous! Everyone made fun of me though because they called me a pharmacy. But I sure proved them wrong when Hna Calderon got a giant stress knot in her neck and started walking crooked and I gave her some Ben-gay and she felt better! HA! Anyways that's all that happened this week pretty much! Love you guys!

Hna Carey

Dear mom,

     So this week sure was interesting.....Hna. Calderon had parasites so we had to go to a Dominican Clinic (which is better that a hospital) and eesh....never want to go there ever again! That was not a fun experience. And two and a half days just in one room! NOT FUN. 

     Yes I did get my hair trimmed! But they sure are not used to cutting blond hair! I´m going to let it grow my whole mission and then see how it looks with trims of course though! You know how you can see every cut? Well you can just see that in the front part so I have to pin up my ¨bangs¨ My scalp is doing better! Tea tree shampoo is amazing! I love it so much and it smells like home! Mom I really just want to tell you that I love you so much and appreciate everything that you do and have done for me! You have been an amazing example to me of who I want to become! I love you!

     Things I've learned......I´ve learned to be more confident with myself and how I walk(not trying to hide anymore as much) and that yep sometimes things suck, but we can always learn to adapt to that. I've learned to make food for myself with out a microwave and even a fridge for a while.  I have learned SO much patience and love! Also learning to open up about problems and fixing them instead of letting them eat at me.  Oh yeah and to have fun and laugh every chance you can or else time will go slower!  All good things to learn

Dear Dad,

      I got to meet someone super amazing today. Just one of those people who has an incredible spirit to them and makes you want to be a better person. He was one of Hna Calderon´s first baptisms and his name is Robinson and he is Haitian and is amazing! His story is amazing and he is just a testament to how the gospel blesses people. He told us how he prays for food because he´s hungry and how Heavenly Father provides for him. You know we are so blessed. I  have never in my life had to pray for food because there was literally nothing and he has to do that regularly. He sometimes goes days without eating. And yet he still has an incredible testimony that is stronger than people who have been members for years. He is one strong person! He was amazing and I barely know him and I already love him.  I feel like my life has been blessed by meeting him today.=) Anyways I love you a lot dad!



They bought fabric and had a lady make them matching skirts for $10.00 each.

The Bishops son posed with them because his yellow tie matched their skirts