Lorena y Cari

read this: https://www.lds.org/ensign/1999/09/the-quest-for-excellence?lang=eng

we had to do a presentation for some young women in an english ward and we found this talk! shout out to President Hinkley! 

"The distance between mediocrity and excellence can be ever so small."

investigators! we had our last Mission Leadership Council with President and Sister Lewis because we will be getting a new President on July 1st - mind blown, whole mission getting flipped upside down wahhhh. haha it was really fun! Hna Pitcher and I got creative and made them a clock and had everyone sign it because President always says "now is the time." 

ALSO - Hna Pitcher had the bright idea to invite President and Sister Lewis to come to a lesson with us.. nbd.. I love and support my companion.. it's fine... we had an appointment with Cari on Friday, it. was. amazing. President ended up being the only one able to come! Pressure is on.. hna skidmore sweating more than ususal in the 102 degree weather watch out!

she is working on praying out loud and recognizing answers to prayers, and getting married, and stopping smoking.. we read 1 Nephi 15:11

Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?—Ifye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing thatye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments,surely these things shall be made known unto you.

"Cari, as representatives of Jesus Christ, we pray about you and we think about you and we want to help you to be able to keep all of the commandments and clear the lines of communication between you and your Heavenly Father even more, so that you can recognize the answer to your prayers."

Word of Wisdom: no coffee, no tea, no tabacco, no alcohol, no illegal drugs. With every what, there's a why. 

Why the word of wisdom? because God is all about freedom and Satan is all about addictions and dependency. If we follow the commandments, we have the Lord's promise that we will be healthy, clear head, clear mind. Complete self control, not dependent on anything. That's what it's about. God is all about freedom. Sometimes it seems the other way around. But the commandments protect us from all of the consequences that come from additcions, bad choices blah blah that stuff :) 

We talked about how sometimes we don't stop doing things... like we want to stop.. but we don't stop until we have a reason to stop. 

This is Cari's reason. She wants to know if the Church is true, if the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored by a prophet, if the Book of Mormon is the Word of God. She wants a better life for her family. and just like the scripture says, "these things shall be made known unto you." 

She accepted to prepare to be baptized on the 21st of June :)

We also added a new investigator Lore! I'm running out of time but we met her in a parking lot, then she brought her whole family to the baptism on Saturday adn came to church on Sunday, she's the cutest, shortest mexican I've ever seen but she's amzing!!! 

Fun fact.

there's creepy ice cream men everywhere!!!

I've been playing Venid A MI in Relief Society because that's the only one I can play haha

I asked an investigator if she had any questions.. normally I specify about God.. and this time I didn't.. and the question was "is my menstral cycle normal?" I almost died... never a boring moment, people. never. 

Les quiero con todo mi corazon,

Hermana Skidmore

Transfers and Spainards

alooo

we went to the temple today so this is gonna be speedy! 

We added a Spainard this week! His name is Ferran and he's straight from Barcelona. They speak spanish with a lisp there. so I'm like uhh... flash back to training when i didn't understand anything haha. He's so great! He's the neighbor of the Salinas family that got sealed last week! Ferran came to church and really liked it! He looks like a normal white guy dad-type.. trippy! I have giant eyes whenever he's talking to me because he looks like he should speak english! haha. He's learning english so he really respects that we learned spanish. 

Cari and her family were not able to come to church this week because Cari had a bad reaction to some medicine. The elders went with us yesterday to give her a blessing and it was so powerful. The priesthood that they hold, the same authority that Jesus used to heal the sick is on the Earth today. and worthy men use it to bless the lives of others. They placed their hands on her head and it was like WOOSH, the Spirit filled the room. a feeling of the love that our Heavenly Father has for Cari. gosh I love being a missionary. 

One of our old investigators, Janet, young teenager that we had dropped because we thought she wasn't interested, called us last night! She wants to come to church! miracle! She said the prayer when we left her last night and she called me "Hna S'more" haha 

fun facts:

car washes are a big thing because it doesn't rain very much here! 

one of the older hermanas in our ward, Hermana Ochoa, watches LUCHAS FOR FUN! haha did I already tell you this? she like to watch people like Nacho Libre beat eachother up. and her sons and daughters send her grandchildren to her house to watched luchas as punishment. 

the speakers in our car broke.. and they won't be getting fixed.. so we go old school and we have a battery powered CD player in the front on the floor - DJ hermana Skidmore whatuppp!

Yeah so transfers! We're staying! I am so unbelievably elated about it. Gosh I love being a missionary. It's funny this week I've really been thinking about improvement.. how we know what we should do but sometimes we still mess up and I'm like "whyyyy hermana skidmore!? have you learned nothing!?" I'm so grateful for a patient Heavenly Father that sees our potential when we just don't. I've realized that if we think we've "arrived" if we think we've got it under control.. we're wrong.. haha it is a process of constant improvement. It takes a lot of humility and determination. and reconition of how much we depend on our Savior as our example and our Redeemer. that He was willing to go through all that he went through for each and every one of us. 

Les quiero a la luna de regreso (don't know if that actually translates ;)

Hermana Skidmore