Hola mi familia y amigos :) 

That might be wrong.. who knows.  There are so many hispanic people here so we get to practice our limited spanish a lot, it is always interesting but we have found the spanish elders a couple new investigators from it! Ok so this was the coolest week ever.  We saw sooo many miracles!  So I am just going to tell you some stories.

On Monday, we were walking down a street and we saw a man who was baptized about a year ago and has gone less active riding his bike across the street, when he saw us he immediately came over to talk.  He told us he has been going through a super tough time and just barely had broken his sobriety for the last 8 months and drunken (no clue what the right word is here) 2 beers. WE talked to him a little bit and testified of the atonement.  We asked if we could say a prayer for him and afterwards when we looked up he was sitting there bawling like a little baby as he said "Sisters, I know Heavenly Father knows and loves me because he placed you in my path when I needed it most."  Might I add that hes a big tough guy with a lot of tattoos, so this was probably one of the most tender moments on my mission.

We have been going through our ward list lately and we knocked on this door the other day.. This shirtless man with tattoos all over answered and I saw "God" on one of his tattoos and so we started talking about that... little did I know, after talking for a second and focusing that tattoo said "God hates us all".  This man was a member but with many experiences has turned away from the church and God completely.  We talked a bit and noticed that his little son was sitting in the front room and so I asked if he believed in God.  He called him out and we talked for a little bit to him (we could just feel the dads heart softening), he told us he believed in God and why.  After a little bit longer the wife came up and we asked her, she said that she was not allowed to bring up religion in her home growing up so she didnt really know.  Her and her son took a pamphlet and said they would read it together to see what they think.  They agreed to have us back over and even invited us over for dinner this Sunday!  As we were getting ready to go, the husband asked if he could have a pamphlet!!!  He said that we shouldnt expect anything out of it but that he would take a look and think about it. SSooooosososo cool.  It is amazing how the spirit can soften hearts.  I love them. 

We do a scripture study every week and this last week we talked about faith.  An investigator made a comment that really stood out to me so I wanted to share- she talked about a man who has riden across a single string across the grand canyon on a motorcycle.  She said that he asked a man if he believed he could do it again after witnessing it once, the man agreed without hesitation.  The guy then said, "well, how bout you hop on the back then".  She related this to faith and how we can say we believe in God and in his power, but that means nothing if were not willing to act and take those leaps of faith.  My explanation may have not made sense.. but it was cool!  I want to be better at taking leaps of faith.  

The other morning I was eating oatmeal with grandpa and grandma walked in to join us, grandpa had made her a bowl and she asked him is he had put sugar in it already and he said "no, I thought you were already sweet enough" hahaha sly dog. 

I hope that all is going well with all of you.  You are wonderful and I hope that you have a great week!

Love,

Sister Paul xoxo

Hello. :)

First off- there are fires out the wazoo here.  Some mornings we cant even see the mountains because there is smoke everywhere and then yesterday there were 2 here in Carson!  There were airplanes dropping this red stuff on them and there gone now but the mountains are black.. its nutso.

Cool story-  we shared this movie about John Tanner with 2 of our investigators.  I didn't know who John Tanner was before my mission but he is awesome and gave up everything to serve the Lord.  One of my favorite quotes from the movie that basically sums it all up is by Neal A Maxwell- "Consecration is the only surrender which is also a victory."  I love it.   So we shared this with 2 different investigators and then asked them what are some sacrifices they can make to show their love for the Lord.  One of them- Stana said I think I need to stop drinking coffee and make it a priority to go to at least one hour of church.  The other- Billy, said that he needs to start putting th gospel first and be baptized.  You wont be able to tell through these words on the screen but both of those things are like a huuuggee deal for them!  It was way cool.  They committed themselves to do exactly what they need to do :)

One our investigators who is preparing to be baptized in a couple weeks told us that she already has plans to bring all of her grandchildren to church and she wants all her family and friends to experience the blessings and changes that she has seen. :') i love her.

My companion is so tiny she will eat one oreo for lunch.. ONE. that is all, no sides.  I don't understand.  I love her so much, though.  We had a luau for our relief society activity and she danced! She is waaayy good and it was a lot of fun!

Elder Todd Larkin and Kevin W Pearson from the seventy came and trained us at MLC.. oh my goodness.  It changed my life, to say the least.  They talked about giving our all and always striving to align our will with the Saviors.  Its crazy how easy it is to get distracted by the world and to have desires that mean nothing in the eternal perspective, but I am very grateful for the gospel to help us stay on track.  Give up everything that you think you want for what Heavenly Father wants for you, my friends, because it will always be better.  I hope you have a wonderful week!  Let me know if theres anything I can do for you :)

Love,

Sister Paul

These are my two "daughters" in the mission- the 2 sisters I trained- Sister Landgrave and Sister Latu :)

Hello family!

     OK- so first of all,  I want to tell you about the people we live with.  They are cute and old and tell us to call them grandma and grandpa.  So the other night I was having some extra strong sugar cravings and I remembered we had ice cream so I went to the fridge to get some and Im walking back to our room with a bowl of it and grandpa goes, "ya know, that will make you fat!" hahah i laughed and agreed and went back to our room.  So then like 10 minutes later I go back to the kitchen to clean the bowl and Grandpa is eating ice cream!!! What a stinker.  I think that if we were both born in the same period we would have been best friends in high school.

     Anyways- let me tell you 2 experiences and reasons why the spirit is so cool.  We planned to teach one of our investigators, Teena, about tithing and fast offering.  So the first thing she says when we go to teach her is that she decided that every time she used the Lords name in vain she was going to put a dollar in a jar, and then when she finally got out of the habit she would find a way to give it to the church aka fast offering!!  The next day we had planned to teach an investigator Ashley about the word of wisdom and when we got there she said that that morning she woke up and decided that she needed to stop smoking and so she was wearing a nicotine patch and everything when we were teaching her and she had no idea about the word of wisdom beforehand!! It was the coolest thing.

     We started talking to this girl on the street and she had the cutest little girl.  The little girls name was Kylie but it was short for a longer Samoan name and then her boyfriend was a Samoan guy named Paul.. weird or what?

     I was so so sad one day this week.  A lady had stopped the elders and said that she needed to meet with missionaries because all of her friends were members, she had 25 students who gave her a Book of Mormon as a graduation present, she recently had lost 2 sons and she knew Heavenly Father was leading her to the mormon church.  So, we go to teach her and she is SO awesome. holy cow.  She had so many questions and the spirit was so strong and she was just eating everything that we shared all up.  Before we left she asked what we wanted her to read and she was so excited to read out of the Book of Mormon.  So we're basically on a spiritual high the rest of the night and then around 9 o clock we get a text from her saying that she was grateful for us but didnt want to meet again because she did some research and she had enough.  It was heartbreaking.  We prayed and prayed and tried to figure out what to do and how to reply and we have had no success since.  So i was super bummed and I usually read the Book of Mormon before I go to sleep but I was just laying on the floor staring at the ceiling feeling sad and then I realized ok what am i doing how is this going to help the situation so I opened up the Book of Mormon and it opened up to Mosiah 14 where it talks all about Christ and all that he went through with the atonement.  As I was reading it I was thinking about how Heavenly Father must have felt seeing his son go through that, and then I thought of how he must feel seeing thousands of his sons and daughters around the world get rejected and heartbroken while sharing his gospel, and THEN I thought of the fact that it is our Heavenly Fathers other sons and daughters who are the ones doing the rejecting and how hard that would be to watch that happen and to know that there was a better path for them of peace and happiness.  At that moment,  I was very grateful for the knowledge of our Savior and the wonderful opportunity it is to get a little taste of what He went through as He shared the gospel.  Being a missionary has been the best thing I have ever done in my life.  I am so grateful to be here and I LOVE this gospel.  Have a wonderful week and let me know if theres anything I can do for you :)

Love,

Sister Paul

Hello!
     Life is good here in Carson City. :)  Cute old people keep giving me their clothes that they don't want and it is the best thing in the world.  I love these people here and already feel at home so that is a huge blessing!
     We are teaching this lady named Teena and she is the coolest ever.  So she has been coming to church off and on with her friend who is a recent convert and just 2 weeks ago she decided that she wanted to meet with us.  The first lesson she told us that 2 days before she realized she needed to get baptized and she has been running ever since!  During our lessons and at church she takes notes and she has had no problem with anything we have taught.  We were a little nervous to teacher her about Word of Wisdom because she smokes and drinks coffee, but she was totally on board and is willing to do everything she can to quit.  Yesterday she got a powerful priesthood blessing for strength and it was wonderful :)
     I have been thinking a lot about how as missionaries we are called to invite people to repent, basically- and how often I get nervous or am hesitant to do so.  The natural man in me who hates contention is always thinking oh what if they get angry or what if they dont want to do it and then i was thinking.. man, I need to pull it together because when people aren't living the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ, they are forfeiting happiness and blessings that they could have!  So i was sitting this morning in personal study thinking about this and I said a little prayer for help and motivation to be better at calling people to repentance and then I opened my scriptures and this is what I opened to:

 18 Yea, and it bringeth to pass the condition of repentance,that whosoever repenteth the same is not hewn down andcast into the fire; but whosoever repenteth not is hewndown and cast into the fire; and there cometh upon themagain a spiritual death, yea, a second death, for they arecut off again as to things pertaining to righteousness.

...yikes. So basically, I have a lot to work on.  Haha but it really is a privelege to be able to invite people to learn how they can live more in harmony with Christ and how they can experience the wonderful blessings the gospel brings :)  I really have no idea whats happening in the world, but I feel like lately we have been hearing more and more about how crazy the world is getting.  Now, more than ever we have to stay true to what we know and to be bold in our testimonies and standards and never apologetic.  Anyways- there is my rant.  I invite all of you to repent :) haha!  Im so grateful for the atonement and the knowledge that because of our Savior we can repent, always, no matter what.  I love my Savior Jesus Christ and I love this work!  Have a wonderful week :)

Love,
Sister Paul

Happy 4th of July and happy birthday to Nixon!!!

     We are hiking to the C on a mountain today and then having a ward bbq and watching fireworks so that is super fun.  :)  I absolutely love it here.  It  has not taken long for Carson City to feel like home and now I never want to leave!  We have met the coolest people who are so prepared by the Lord and is has been the best experience.

Heres some of the cool people:

Latisia is a young, single mom who actually had experiences with the church when she was in jail- members of the church would come sing hymns with them and she has always remembered the spirit that was there.  She has such righteous desires and wants to changer her life- she is working towards baptism this month!

Lindsey is a sweet lady who got baptized 8 years ago and hasnt been active since- she has gone through a whole lot and turned away from God for a longggg time.  She is now regaining her faith and prayed for the first time yesterday and felt so much love from the Savior!  She has came to church the last 2 weeks, her countenance has completely changed and she is wanting to work towards the temple.  So sweet!

Ashley is around the same age as me and has also gone through a whooolleee lot- she has had 2 miscarriages and has a little boy who she hasnt seen in a long time.  She also turned away from God when she had a miscarriage because she didnt understand why that would happen.  She just found out she was pregnant 2 weeks ago and sees this as God giving her another opportunity to be a mom, so she is diving all in to the gospel.  We taught her the Plan of Salvation yesterday and she loved it!  It has been so cool to teach her because she is the same age as me and we are able to relate a lot!

Billy... oh man, hes the coolest.  Hes this old black guy who drives a '73 orange car (not sure what its called but it looks cool and looks like some kind of convertable? who knows)  Anyways, he is SO converted.  He recently got a restraining order against his girlfriend because there have been a lot of struggles there and he wants to follow Jesus Christ.

Needless to say, the gospel is amazing and Jesus Christ changes lives.  It is so cool to the hope He brings to individuals, especially those who have gone through a lot and have suffered with a lot of temptation and pain.  He brings hope to all no matter where they have been!  I know you probably dont care too much about these people, but I love them soooo much and they are all I think about right now!  I loveeee being a missionary and I love this gospel  :)  The Book of Mormon is true and it has the power to heal the wounded soul.  Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Paul

P.S.  We got two referrals for the spanish elders the other day....... IN SPANISH.  spanish online is coming in handy ;)

1. MLC with some of my fav elders who are going home :(

Right to left: Elder Palmer (current zone leader), Elder Nieves (ely zone leader and AP), elder cox (Reno Zone leader)

2.  My companions super cute!

3.  Sister Beh and the APs

So many things to say and so little time so I am going to write this in numbers"

1.  Leaving Sierra Highlands was the hardest on the planet and I cried my eyes out and felt like I was leaving my whole heart there and I kinda was but i am now okay and in a great place

2.  My companion is Sister Latu from TONGA! :)  She is the coolest... her english rocks and she is always so happy and positive.  We are having so much fun

3.  Getting double transferred has been nuts but it has been way fun to get to know everyone here and we have been finding a ton of people!  We were able to find 5 new investigators this week and have 20 referrals!

4.  Brushing up on my spanish (lol) because we share a ward with some spanish elders and they have gotten us a tonnnn of referrals and so I have been attempting talking to people in spanish on the street and it is loads of fun

5.  The people we live with (grandma and grandpa) have a dog named Bear and they have been out of town so we have been watching it and ohhh boy.. I dont really know how to do dogs and it follows me everywhere and gets in my bed because i think we dont give it enough love but I am bad at that so yes I am learning and this is preparing me for the future dog that is now at my home :-)

6.  We are teaching 2 teen moms- one is from AZ and it is so cool because they have such strong desires to turn their lives around and focus more on Christ.  One of them came to church yesterday and she loved it sooo much. 

7.  One of the other investigators we found is an Iraq veteran who suffers with PTSD and needs peace in his life.  He came to church and loved it!  He said it is the most comfortable church he has ever been in and he felt at home, which is so cool because he never has really had a home.  

8.  For my birthday I got to run the exercises for morning program! woo hoo! :)

9.  We are once again the only sisters in our whole zone.

10.  I love being a missionary!!

Love, 

Sister Paul

1. clearly a bad angle hahah but this is my cute new companion sister latu :)