"Let's have a knitting and scrapbooking party and afterwards we'll go to the senior center and eat prunes"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

LOVE YOU!

 

riding bikes all day

walking in maze like neighborhoods

running from appointments just to get there on time

riding bikes in the rain

tucson is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hot

weirdest contacts I've ever had in my life

awkward has been redefined

It's laughing so hard with your companion that you have to consciously take a breather

talking in foreign accents

running into a guy who had a trained pig living in his apartment. he would spin or sit if you gave him cheerios

mormon.org notes on our car

visiting seminary and remembering how much fun it was

giving the first vision and having it seem new ever single time you share it

being so completely frustrated by one of your investigators that you don't even know what to do with them anymore then they tell you "I just wanted to tell you thank you. For absolutely everything. For giving me faith and hope. For seeing me change, immensely. Thank you for helping me want to change. I am so fortunate. And so lucky. I am SO EXCITED to get baptized"

or

when people actually start living the word of wisdom. finally.

or

when someone tells you they are getting baptized the day after their birthday and they say "It's going to be my first birthday where I'm completely clean!"

 

those moments are pretty worth it.

 

love you!

-hermana aguas

 

skydiving by immersion

Just so you remember, I'm still completely me out here: here is a phone conversation that happened on friday with the zone leaders. *dedicated to elissa butler*

"Hey, do you have any appointments tomorrow night after six?"-waters

"Uhm, not anything we can't change. What's up?" e. serrato

"Well, we wanted to go skydiving tomorrow, and you're invited"-waters

"sweet! let's go"- e. serrato

"oh, and maybe before we can have a baptism interview for Victor?"- waters

"dang. can't we do it after? I don't wanna wait"-e. serrato

"what if we die? then all the spanish speakers will be gone, and no one can do the interview for him"-waters

"well. Let's skydive over a lake. I'll do the interview on the plane ride. President will fly so he can give the go ahead and be the presiding witness. Elder adams will jump out with victor and do the prayer really quick and when they land in the lake it will be by immersion"-e. serrato

 

I'm sold.

 

anyways, We had zone conference this week. Sister Hallet and I sang with the zone leaders there, then President gave this amazing talk about the Atonement. I forgot the notes I took,but maybe I'll write them next time. It was definitely a good boost to get you going again.

 

Victor has been doing good. We hit a few speed bumps the other day. But nothing we can't fix. He and I had a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG conversation saturday night trying to see how he's coming along to get him ready for baptism. He's a little nervous, and I'm just trying to make sure his whole heart is in this. I'de rather give him more time and keep him strong than just dunk him and loose him after a little bit. But last night, after I was really frustrated over the whole situation he texted this to us as we were praying:

 "I asked God to take away my pride and He said that's not something He can do unless I give it up to Him. I asked God to give me happiness and He said that all the happiness and blessings depend on me. I also asked God to take away my pain and he said my pain, suffering and worries are to make me mature and to become closer to Him. I asked if He loved me, and he said Yes, but all I have to do is open my eyes and thank him in order to find a greater love"

 

that brought some peace to my soul.

 

Also, on tuesday, pretty sure we knocked about 250 doors. We found a ton of crazies. One guy just got surgery because he tore an artery on a table during a fight, another woman answered the door and when we said we taught a message all about Jesus Christ she got all mad and said, "YOU DON'T PREACH ABOUT JESUS YOU TEACH ABOUT JOSEPH SMITH" and slammed the door. that was fun. Then we knocked into this hispanic man who said"i HATE the bible. it's stupid. It's all up to God" So I started going into the whole approach of gospel of Jesus Christ, we base off of His teachings and not by mans...etc. and he's like "NO! I do not believe in Jesus Christ. He is a business strategy." big blow. We talked for almost an hour and he kept saying, "you are young! I have a suggestion for you. Stop listening to your masters and your parents and choose for yourselves what you believe. Find God". He said that about 38 times. over and over again. We then told him we didn't need to wait to be older to choose for ourselves, because God has already given us agency and we have chosen that this is where the whole truth is. He got a little frustrated and repeated his entire spiel again. I was a bit entertained. He did invite us to come back though. we'll see what happens with that soul.

 

after that we were just praying to find someone. We were knocking for hours and absolutely nothing. The very last door we knocked a woman answered the door and I said "Hi, I'm hermana Waters." and she said "hi! I'm hermana Rosie!" She quickly told us to come in and as we were sitting down she said, "we've been praying all day for God to send us someone...we need comfort and words from God. could you help us?"  We shared a few scriptures and she said, "you're it. You were who we were praying for"

 

what makes it even cooler, is that her friend who was randomly there, was actually someone we've been looking for for a few weeks! coincedence? definitely not.

 

and just because I LOVE good news. Remember my investigator Amanda from my last area. If you need a reminder she was the one we had "marriage counseling, and marriage counseling 2.0" with....welll SHE GOT BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY..... I screamed when I found out. I saw elder sharp yesterday at a spanish fireside and when he told him we basically ran around the chapel dancing. it was glorious. oh so glorious.

 

miracles exist. she's the perfect example of that.

 

well..i'm outta time. but I love you all and good luck with school and everything.

thanks for the package mum! and dad....i hope you're ready to party hard!!!!

 

love you!

-hermana kaitlyn aguas

 

"did you know parmesean cheese is made from eggplant?" - elder adams

"Heavenly Father, If we believe in you, you can make all the hurt go away and make us feel better. But if we're bad, you'll probably tell Santa Clause not to give us presents. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."- Sayudi

 

Hola Familia-

 

This week (I feel like I always start that way. oh well) we had a sisters training, where all the sisters in the mission got together and went up to mount lemmon to hear from President and Sister Killpack. I didn't even know they did things like that. My mission is the coolest. So we all headed up in 3 big vans, I was driving one of them and I had all these flashbacks of yw where everyone was just squealing and giggling. It cracked me up. We had a blast up there, and I (at least) recieved tons of personal revelation which was a big comfort...it was all "do we put our faith in other people's agency to choose to listen to our message, or do we put our faith and trust in our Savior's atonement?"

 

It was better phrased, but you understand the idea of it.

 

We've also been teaching this guy named Freddie. He is 30 years old and only keeps to himself. His dad passed away awhile ago, and ever since then he's kind of just become introverted and doesn't open up to anyone. He locks himself in his room all day, and doesn't even talk to his family. Only his dog. We found him while trying to contact a former, and his brother was outside speaking spanish on the phone. The brother told us to try freddie but we probably had no chance getting in. We saw him that first time, and we said a prayer with him, and he said we could come back. We've been going over a few times, and slowly he's been coming out of his room. he's even come outside to talk about the book of mormon! His mom came to church yesterday, and I think they are slowly seeing how the gospel gives hope..even with the smallest things.

 

Victor is doing awesome. Satan has been working really hard on him, and tons of things are coming up. (I hate that devil) but he's realizing just how strong he is and how much he wants this. He said, "I always feel good around you two. Why can't I just take you everywhere?"

 

Dulce completely opened up to us the other day, and so we're really focusing on her relationship with Heavenly Father. She's been raised with tons of difference religeons, and so now being a mom of young kids she's confused as to how she should raise them, but she's super open and I have a ton of faith in that family. Also Sayudi is probably the funniest little girl I've ever met. I was leading music in church yesterday and she, from all the way in the back was making these big gestures to lead with me. At the end she ran up to me and said "did you see me?! I was copying you!"

 

This week should be awesome, we have zone conference this week, where they're having me play the violin again and then we are having a mission president fireside with all the spanish branches in tucson (so I'll see people from my last area!)

 

OH! I almost forgot. So this guy Billie called us the other day. He had been in contact with the missionaries about 5 months ago, found our number and was interested in meeting up. He's currently living in a men's shelter, so we had to meet up at a park. We met up, and he walks up to us, covered in beads and medallions, rings and bracelets, and a cane. He's like 30 years old. He sat down and he told us how he's been trying to learn all about different religions and lifestyles, and so he's been living in a shelter to see it from their perspective. We talked all about the restoration and then read from part of the introduction in the book of mormon. I asked him "how does it feel to know that God's kingdom is once again established on the earth?" and he's  just stared at the book and said, "daaaaaaaaaaaaang. that's deep. I wanna dive into this right now". He said he wanted to come to church with his new "missionary friends" and be baptized in september. unfortunately he speaks english, so we have to pass him off to other missionaries...but it was an awesome lesson. as we were walking back to the car sister hallett was just giddy. she's like "awesome. AWESOME. that was so cool. HE WANTS TO GET BAPTIZED". I loved it.

 

anyways, outta time. but I love you. LOVED the pics kels sent me of grady. especially in the hammock. good luck with school everyone!

con mucho amor

hermana kait aguas

"does that mean God was pregnant with Jesus?"

I'm not sure how appropriate that is, but it was probably the funniest thing I could have heard that lesson. We were teaching a bunch of little kids about how we can pray and how Jesus is God's Son. This little boy pipes in and says, "does that mean God was pregnant with Jesus?"

 

pretty sure this entire email is just going to be quotes from this week:

 

"I have a 32 pound cat"- woman we contacted in a place that felt like the Truman show

 

"My mommy told me that when it's raining, it's God wetting his pants"-Ayudi (6)

"what???????"-sister waters and sister hallett

"NO! SHE MEANS WATERING THE PLANTS"-dulce

 

"Dear Heavenly Father. Thank you for my family. And my friends. And my shoes. And my legs. And my stomach. And my face. And my eyes. And my nose. And my mouth. And my teeth to eat. And my neck. And my hair. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. And THANK YOU FOR CHRISTMAS!"-Marius (7)

 

"Heavenly Father. Thanks for God. Thanks for ice cream. and food. and all the yummy food. And please bless my mom to be the best cooker in the world. Amen"-Noemy (8)

 

"Can I help you?"-Ayudi

"ya, say the closing prayer" -sis waters

"amen!"-ayudi

 

"you forgot to say thank you for Christmas"-Marius

 

"Heavenly Father. Thank you for my family. And for our house, and refrigerator. Thank you for my friends. And the sisters who keep my sisters and teach us about God. And thank you for otter pops and cupcakes. Thank you for my mommy who loves me so much. Help me stay close to her. please protect us and let us love each other. Thank you for loving us God. in the name of Jesus Christ, amen" -Ayudi (6)

 

 

Don't have much time, but here's a real fast synopsis.

The first lesson with had with Victor after the transfer he was acting all weird. He said he lost a lot of motivation. major bummer. We told him we still wanted to meet and that he needed to keep praying. So after a little missionary pow wow we started texting him scriptures each day about prayer. The other day he was completely different. I've never seen him smile so much and he's like "i'm so happy! I have reason! thank you so much for giving me everything!" He told me about how he has been praying, and just asking and asking not sure what to do. one day he walked in his house and he saw his book of mormon of the table. He opened it up, and saw an answer. Then he felt like he needed to keep reading. And he found another answer. Pretty soon all he wanted to do was keep going. He prayed about baptism and got the answer that he WANTS to be baptized september 1st. He still needs to sort a few things out, but now he has reason. he has faith and hope and he has the DESIRE for all of this. I told him the longer he waits (since he was supposed to be baptized in about a week) the more satan has time to creep in. He said, "i know. I know there will be temptations. but now I have faith, when before I had none. It doesn't matter what gets in my path, It wont stop me. I have reason now."

shoot son. get him in the water. I was so happy!

 

Also, remember the whole drama throwdown last week with eddie? well, we've had some awesome lessons with him and his mom, and the other day his dad came and talked to us for the first time! the next night he appologized for how he acted on sunday and said he gives us permission to take eddie to church. so guess who came to church yesterday?! ahh it was awesome. (he definitely needs to learn reverance though)

 

and his little neighbor noemy, we are teaching the whole family now. And honestly, it is the greatest feeling in the world teaching an entire family who actually wants this. Noemy leaned over to me yesterday and said "when can I be habitized?"

after she kept saying it I'm like "OH BAPTIZED!!" then little ayudi got up and bore her testimony...

 

little 6 year olds bearing their testimony in spanish is the greatest thing ever.

 

outta time. but I love you. bear lake looks like bliss....

 

love you,

love, hermana aguas