Florida!

Hola a todos! This week has been super awesome:)

Large Plates

An account of the travels of Hermana Daugs. Her amazing companion and district. Her Spanish progress. Ambitious goals and the faith needed to accomplish them. 

There's a lot to tell for this week, so I'll try to keep it short haha. 

First of all, I made it to Florida!! It was a long day of travel but it went fairly smoothly. I met like a dozen other missionaries at the gate who were all headed to Orlando too:)

I sat next to an Elder and an RM on the plane and we had a good conversation. The Elder is assigned to serve as a Haitian Creole missionary! That would be tough haha.

When we landed, Sister Ashcraft picked us up. She's seriously so sweet, I love her already. 

We had a quick little welcome/devotional/dinner that night at the church. The Ashcraft's sat next to me at dinner and they are genuinely super awesome people. And apparently they already knew a bit about me thanks to a dear friend who called them before I got there to tell them about me haha. And because I was one of the only new missionaries who had any connection with them who's name they knew off the top of their head, President called on me for the closing prayer haha. So I guess you could say I'm making a name for myself already.

The next day we met our companions and got assigned our areas! My companion is Hermana Morris and SHE IS THE SWEETEST. We also have a ton in common. We liked the same music before the mission, had the same hobbies, and are both the same kind of weird haha. I'm super blessed to have her:)

We ran all the errands we needed to for the day and then went to visit the relief society president for her birthday! It was my first experience in a Spanglish household and it was awesome. They all speak English and Spanish, so they switch back and forth mid-sentence and I love it. It's the way my brain thinks, haha.

The next couple days were kind of a blur, but it was mostly just canceled lessons and Facebook finding haha. We had a couple good talks with people we met in public and invited people to hear more of our message. The trick is just getting them to respond to us haha.

One night while we were doing our studies, Elders Boatman and Jensen, our ZLs called us to set some goals and stuff. They asked me to pray at the end "so I could practice." I prayed & after they said amen they just went crazy. One of them shouted "Wait, so is your mom Latina then??" (Cause I had already explained that my dad's heritage is German, because I've had to have a 5 minute conversation with every new person I meet about how to pronounce Daugs and where it came from and why it's so weird). It was super funny and gave me the confidence boost I needed to go out and start talking to people. From what I understand from the Latinos we've talked with, it sounds like my accent is pretty much spot on, I just say the wrong things sometimes. So I sound Latina. I just sound like a mildly illiterate Latina haha.

We've had a lot of appointments fall through this week, but we've made the most of the time that we have when that happens! One time we went to a hispanic supermarket to find some new friends and it was super successful! We met one Haitian lady who was super sweet, and we referred her over to the haitian Elders. We met another lady who had such a strong testimony and said she'd seen angels! When we tried to contact her later in the week she didn't respond, but we're gonna keep trying a little longer. But my favorite person that we found was this super sweet mom and her 2 twin daughters. Hermana Morris and I have a really good feeling about her and we're hoping to get to know them better and share some lessons with them! We have an appointment with them this week. If you guys wouldn't mind praying for this family to feel the truthfulness of our message that would be great!! I really have high hopes for them and I'm praying they accept our message and that it will bless their lives.

We've also done service at the Bishop's storehouse twice (that's why my pday got changed to Tuesday this week haha) and it's tons of fun! I love my district and that's one of the times we really get to know them. All of them are just so awesome and I seriously feel so welcome here. They're like family. This week our DL Elder Moss finally got cleared to go to his original assignment in Brazil and I genuinely might cry when he leaves. He's been an amazing example and such a good friend. He leaves next week. crazy stuff. 

Also!!!! We got to go to the temple!! The ward was having an activity for the youth and recent converts to go to the baptistry and do baptisms for the dead. It was so incredible to meet the ward in such a spiritual environment (although it was the loudest it's ever been in the temple for me cause they're all Latinos and love to socialize haha). And to see my companion and the Elders so happy to see their converts progressing! It got me so excited. I can't wait to really get to know these people and be able to see and celebrate their growth with them.

Also Hermana Moss and I each got to do one confirmation, and Elder Boatman and Jensen were the ones who confirmed us. Super cool.

One of the highlights of my week was when a little girl who's mom we are teaching said the prayer and she wished Heavenly Father a Merry Christmas. That just melted my heart.

Church was good and the members were SO AWESOME. They're super friendly and I felt right at home there. I love the culture here and the people. 

In ward correlation with this week, we set some super ambitious goals with our mission president Hermano Martinez. As a ward we want 10 new baptisms before Christmas! That means if us hermanas can get 5, and Elders Jensen and Boatman get 5, we'll have 10 new members in the ward before Christmas! It's going to take a lot of work, and even more faith, but I really think we can do it. Fasting and prayers for us and those 10 people would be greatly appreciated. 

Small Plates

The Miracle in the Stairwell.

The miracle I want to share this week is about a man we met in the stairwell. We had a lesson with someone we have taught many times before, and the lesson went incredibly fast. We covered all the points we were planning on, and we didn't feel the Spirit prompting us to continue on with other things. She didn't have any questions for us. It was a little awkward at the end and we didn't exactly know what to do. We closed with a prayer, thanked her for her time, and left. 

Upon leaving her apartment, we turned right, to head back to our car. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man sitting on the stairs on the opposite end of the hall. Hermana Morris and I turned, without hesitation, and without communication, at the same time. We walked over to him and introduced ourselves. It took less than 30 seconds before he was in tears. 

He'd been praying for a sign. For any sort of love. Or recognition. Even just a "God bless you" from someone. And he had received nothing. He's been through some really, really tough stuff throughout his life. I won't go into details but to hear him share those things with us broke my heart. He was just sitting there, thinking. 

He believes in God. And he believes that everything happens for a reason. He thanked us for being a Godsend, because he knew that's what we were. 

There are miracles everywhere. It's much easier to see this as a missionary because we're actively searching and praying for miracles. But wow. God is our loving Heavenly Father. He has a plan for each of us, individually. Everything happens for a reason. I've always believed this but my testimony of it has grown infinitely stronger even in the first week of my mission. 

Your Heavenly Father loves you and He is so aware of your needs and your prayers. He's blessing us always, with the lives we are to live and the lessons we are to learn. Trust in His plan. It is the Good Plan and the only plan. And we will find more joy in His plan than we will anywhere else. 

I love you all and I hope you are well! I'd love to hear from you! My pdays are mondays, it just got changed this week so we could do service yesterday:)