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

Hello,

     OK, so this week I got called fat twice! Yay for blunt people! I presented the Book of Mormon by myself for the first time and it went good! Hna. C. said that she was super proud of me and that my Spanish was super good! We taught 28 lessons and they were amazing and we really saw the hand of the Lord in our lives this week.  We are finally seeing a lot of progress in our investigators and menos activos and we are so happy! Also we had a goal of 25 lessons as a zone so we worked really hard to complete it! We were both wanting pizza so bad and we talked about how that night we were going to go buy pizza and guess what? In our 25th lesson after we accomplished our goal, they had just ordered pizza right before we got to their house! Heavenly Father gave us pizza for accomplishing our goal!!!! We just looked at each other and laughed! 

     Oh yeah I was in a lesson with a family and they told me that I looked taller and fatter than normal.  I didn't understand at first, so just to make sure I understood they told me in English! Yeah... we also had a ward member tell us to stop eating.....so that was great.....

      We went to the touchdown Jesus monument today! Way fun! I'll send more pictures! Also we walked all the way up to the platform and it was really windy and my dress flew up to my hips.....in from of my zone leader...that's probably just about the most embarrassing thing EVER. Yeah garments and all for my whole zone. We also met some people from Cartersville, GA and that was funny! This lady is pregnant and smoking living in the DR with her soon to be Dominican husband who she can't really communicate with because she doesn't speak a whole lot of Spanish.  She has a  pierced daughter who is getting married and can't talk to her fiance because he's in a Dominican prison! Yeah, so they were really nice and cool...we made some new friends! Anyways running out of time, love you!

Leah

Talking to Leah on Mother's Day was wonderful!  She looked great and she bore her testimony in Spanish and it sounded amazing to us.

Hi mom! 

      I´m so happy that I got to talk to you! Aunt Allisen said you were impressed that I talked to boys? Jeez Mom I did interact with people before my mission at work! Ha ha. But yeah, we both know not that much! OK.

     Things I forgot to tell you! I want a recipe for cinnamon rolls, Aunt jessica´s Pb cheesecake and dinners that are cheap and easy! Yay thanks! I learned how to make Frito's and Dominican spaghetti this week! Whoo hoo! I can also finally light our stove with a match and the gas! Big step!  Oh yes, in the package I want my castor oil, some of my t shirts, and nice smelling bar soap...like the peppermint kind from B&B, perfumes I left and lotions. I'm not talking alot but a little variety.

      As of this week, everything that has happened I pretty much told you about on Sunday!  I am going on splits three times this week which is terrifying! Once tonight but that's not a big deal because its only me and a member staying at the chapel for a meeting while Hna. C. teaches. Then tomorrow with a member I get to go and teach people! I'm so scared! I´m probably going to go teach the menos activos which is where I'll do the least amount of damage...=) Hope it goes good because the day after that I'm going on intercambios with my sister leaders...which will be interesting...because I'm staying in my area and will have to get us from point A to point B. AHAHAHAHa.....I still can barely navigate our area. But the part we´ll be in should be okay, but I'm nervous because all of our appointments for that day are with contacts so I sure hope they´re actually there or else I don't know what I´ll do. Oh well I'll just pray alot and prepare for the worst but do my best!

      I love you SO much and you look so good!!!!!!!!!!!! I do too by the way! HA HA another cut and paste email for you!

Love,

 Leah

Dad,

     I loved talking to you! It was so nice to hear your voices! I'm really grateful that you guys are doing good! Its weird to think that you guys have just kept going in your lives while I'm here though! Of coarse I knew that but still it seems weird! It was so nice to have just a real conversation with you guys! I love you so much! You are such a wonderful example to me and I think about all your mission stories while I'm here having crazy stories of my own! I even tell them to the other Americans and we all laugh and laugh and laugh! Ha ha though I think my mission is winning on the gross factor! Love you! 

Leah

Pics of Hna. Calderon´s Birthday! We made cake and got ice cream!

Hello Everyone!

     We have a family that is prepared for the gospel! They came to church and we were in charge of the baby and their SUPER energetic 2 yr old! Finally we took them out and let the two year old run outside to tire her out and then found a classroom and I just picked her up started rocking her and singing to her until she fell asleep. I held that girl for about an hr and a half! Yeah, finally after she was out I sat down and everyone was super impressed that I put her to sleep. Ha ha... kids I can handle! 

     So everyone here makes fun of me because I have a high pitched voice....also that I´m short...it´s kind of funny. I´M DONE WITH MY FIRST TRANSFER!!!!!!! That´s super exciting!!!!! Not much else happened this week. I´ve had some killer blisters because there were some big rainstorms and in wet shoes that's fun=) I am still having ear trouble and you can't just buy a box of decongestants here at the store like you can in the US so that's kind of hard. Also I'm getting sick... no fun but other than that its been an amazing week, my trainers trainer who lived in our house with us ended her mission today so that was way sad! Love you!

Leah

Mom,

     Mom I freaking love you so much! I also love peanut butter  and mint oreos and sweet tarts, and GOLDFISH!!!! And they aren't the wheat kind!!!! Yay go Mom! The half tank tops are amazing! Loved all the food!  

     This week was good.  I impressed the elders in my district by putting a crazy 2 yr old to sleep, go Leah! So I hope you liked all the pictures! I sent you practically every one I had! OH MY GOODNESS BEFORE I FORGET ! I get to talk to you guys on skype on Sunday! I will be on skype at 5 pm my time! DON´T YOU DARE FORGET ME!!!!!! Super excited to talk to you all though! Love you!

Leah

Dear Mom,

      Okay I'm so sorry about last week! Hna Calderon got some super bad news from her family so it cut things a little short, but she's doing really good now! This week has been so full! MOM I HAD TO CLEAN RAW CHICKEN NECKS. Like that were from chickens killed that morning.  Just the necks too, all floating in a tub/bucket outside.  So there were oogies in the water floating and I had to pull feathers out of the necks and then pull the throat out of those stupid chickens. I hate chickens so much...and Chihuahua's. Ha ha packaged chicken? Try chicken that is still bleeding!!!! Ugh... now THAT is a memory.

      I also got to go to the temple! Which is a big deal in the field! Hermana C. has been out for a year and this is her first time to go in the field! 

     Guess who I saw in the CCM? KATIE HOLT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She freaked out when she saw me and cried and I've never been hugged so tight in my life! It was so cool! We couldn't talk for long but just to see someone that I know was really amazing!  (Katie is one of Leah's oldest friends from Pittsburg CA.  They have known each other from birth and are two months apart.  Katie will be serving in the Puerto Rico San Juan Mission)  Then I saw a girl that was in the CCM with me but left after my first two weeks! So cool to see her and her trainer is Katelyn Olsen, as in the Olsen's from the Castlewood Canyon ward! SMALL WORLD!!! That  was the best day ever! 

      Hna C and I waded through a brutal rainstorm this week, like through rivers in the streets! We were soaked! And eww... the water was dirty!!!! Ha ha so I have a knack for dying my clothes in this country! Don't worry, only my yellow Colorado shirt is now orange. I don't even know how it happened. Then my down east yellow shirt is a different shade of yellow every time. I just keep changing the skirt I wear it with depending on what color it turns out each time! 

     

     We went to a waterfall yesterday and it took all day.  It was really pretty.  Anyway, my time is pretty much up! 

 I GOT ALL THE PACKAGES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH! 

Love you!

Leah

Dad,

      Guess who learned how to send pictures from an Internet center! This girl! And I sent a lot too, so that should make up for missing yesterday and also the shorter time the week before!  A couple weeks ago we had our grumpy old man investigator tell us that we couldn't come back and teach him anymore. It was really heartbreaking because I know he felt the spirit! Man...agency...after we left I just cried. It was pretty hard. But we do have a family who is completely ready for the gospel and it was way cool to see how Heavenly Father set this up for us! 

Love you!

 Leah

Leah and Katie