Wishing You a Slightly Warm, Very Brown Christmas

We may have wrapped the elders car in paper after one zone sports.

I was going to write a long email about all the crazy stuff that happened this week (aka enough to write a small but very interesting telenovela) but I'll just summarize that later. First I want to share one of my favorite scriptures with you. It's in the Book of Mormon, in Alma chapter 7 and says:

"10 And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers, she being a virgin, a precious and chosen vessel, who shall be overshadowed and conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God.

 11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities."

Whenever I've had the chance this week I have shared this scripture. It brought me to tears more than once as I have read it and pondered on the marvelous circumstances that brought Him into this world and took Him out of it.

Our Savior came into this world being heralded by angels yet was placed in a manger. He was the only person to live a perfect life yet was convicted and sentenced to die. He suffered it all for us. He was the Lord of Lord's, King of kings and our brother. He was a babe born in Bethlehem and the Savior of the world. How grateful I am for Him, who has suffered if all for one as imperfect as I.

I love my Savior. I love this work and the reason for this time of year. I love the atonement of Jesus Christ. It has changed my life.

But after talking with my family yesterday apparently I'm "getting too missionary and self righteous"... hey when you got it, you got it.

So highlights of a very intense week:

-SKYPING THE FAMILY YESTERDAY: So good. Of course it might have been better if my dad had talked to me a little more but his "allergies were acting up". What a wuss. Jk. My father is one of my greatest examples and i am so grateful for the love and service he has always shown in my life

- mission Christmas party/ zone conference: LIT. We released balloons with lights attached into the air to represent every baptism we'd had, regular people got confused and our mission made national news. SO LIT. Also our zone won 3rd place in a gingerbread house contest. Again...LIT.

-Exchanges with Sister Marvets: awesome missionary, awesome time, got to work Mesa Lights and help people come closer to our Savior. Awesome.

-TEMPLE TRIP: our mission got together again and we took a picture in front of the temple then got to do a session. I love the temple.

- Menudo: I ate cow intestines and it wasn't that bad. Also my weight in tamales. I love tamales.

- Cars 3: we watched it as a zone and it could possibly be one of my new favorite movies. You have never seen a group of adults get so into a movie before. We were laughing, gasping, cheering and booing throughout the whole thing. 10/10 missionaries in the Bella Vista Zone would recommend watching it.

-Rosy and Kimmy: they were supposed to get baptized this last week but now will be baptized January 6th. Not the date we wanted but we are so happy and excited that they get to make this covenant with God! Keep them in your prayers!!!

-SERGIO CAME TO CHURCH: he is this less active we have started working with. We are teaching the rest of his family but his wife IS SO pregnant so couldn't come to church this week (she came last week though!) BUT HE CAME OF HIS OWN FREE WILL!!! My heart nearly burst from happiness. Also this man has the most fabulous hair.

Well if you've made it this far in the email you'll see it was a pretty fabulous week. One of the hardest and one of the bests. I can't wait to see what the next 7 months hold. I love you all so much and hope you had a wonderful Christmas (Just know that it's been slightly chilly here and I've started to have to wear a jacket because sometimes it drops below 50 degrees #oooohhhhh #burn #enjoythecoldsuckas #arizona4LYFE)

To the Moon and Back!

Your fave

Hermana Showalter

Exchanges

Comps

Sister Caceras (whitest girl you be ever met)

JUAN AT CHURCH

A few of my fave things

Zone pic ft the Lowders

Mission Life = Best Life

ONE WEEK TILL CHRISTMAS AND I CAN HOLLA @ THE FAM IRL (in real life). But for now I'll just HOLLA at ya through email.

Wow though what a week. The work continues to progress here in Queen Creek and there is no place I'd rather be. Our car keeps breaking down, my shoes have turned brown permanently (lol at dirt roads) and my lack of sleep and lack of desire to do my hair keeps growing!

The Lord in His many tender mercies has seen it fit to bless us abundantly in this area. It's a gold mine just waiting to get worked and worked and thankfully that's what Hermana Fuimaono and I are here to do.

Sadly a few of our really awesome investigators went out of town for a few weeks and I was really bummed about it...but then TECH MIRACLES! Our investigator, Ramiro, totally made my day yesterday when he created a group chat on Facebook called " Mis Dos Grandes Amigas" because he missed us so much! He has literally read every pamphlet we have given him and is always asking us for more. We are starting to run out!!! But it was amazing because through messenger he started bearing his testimony on tithing and fasting of all things! I am so excited as he continues to progress towards his baptismal date and am so grateful for the technology that has been put in our mission.

ALSO WE HAD 7 INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH AGAIN. It was amazing. We also had 3 gangstas there so that was cool. It was fun seeing them try to figure out the whole church thing and the members faces when they walked in. Just goes to show you that the church is for everyone.

I love being a missionary. Sometimes it's hard but all of the time it's amazing . I have been so blessed in the areas I have been in, the people I've met and the missionaries I've served around. I know everything happens for a reason. I know that being on a mission is the best thing I could have done for my life. This time I have dedicated to serving God has changed me and I am eternally grateful for having been given the chance to do so. I love my Heavenly Father and I love Gilbert!

To the Moon and Back!

Hermana Showalter

100% Responsible

I'm going to start off this email by telling you about a magical story involving 4 Sister missionaries and World Market (a glorious store). We went in just to browse, peruse if you will, and walked out victorious. They hid 5 golden llamas throughout the store and you could get $20-100 off if you found them. And the thing is they only give you a simple clue. Well we applied our bomb missionary skills of finding the golden one and with a lot of faith and hard work walked out champions. We found 3 of the 5 and bought that store. My heart was pounding so fast. IT WAS EXHILERATING.  This could possibly be the best p-day of my mission.

Anyways I digress. This week was awesome! We had transfers and I am now companions with Hermana Fuimaono! She is hilarious, Samoan and a crazy good dancer. We've been keepin up the streak of inviting everyone to be baptized and have seen miracles rain put of the sky. We also came out the same time so we got to celebrate our 10 month mark together!

Crazy to think we're in the double digits now and how fast the time has gone. I don't remember life not as a missionary and the thought of leaving is too weird so I've decided never to go home (sorry mom you'll understand someday).

We also had MLC (mission leadership conference) this week and focused on a talk called "Be 100% Responsible" by Lynn G. Robbins. It's a BYU devo that I would 10000% recommend reading or watching. But to sum it up for all you flojos out there :

-Satan wants to break up gospel pairs (like justice and mercy, faith and works, agency and accountability)
- he wants us to be victims and not take responsibility
-CHOOSE TO BE A CHAMPION
-excuses do not equal results
-you are in charge of your life

I think it's interesting because the world would have us be victims. It's constantly saying "It's because of the president" or "It's because I was raised that way" or "It's not fair".

What I love is that Lynn G Robbins says "No! You are in charge and you decide what you make of your life." The moment we refuse to take responsibility is the moment we give up our agency and Satan wins. The moment we decide to be 100% responsible is when we become "agents to act and not be acted upon". That is what God desires for us. That is how we become as our Savior. And ya know what? IT'S HARD! But it's also kind of liberating because you don't wait for things to happen to you - you make things happen.

We've set a goal of 50 baptisms this month for the mission and we talked about how every zone, every companionship has to be responsible for it. We have to act as if this goal depends on us. That is when we qualifiy ourselves to see those miracles.

Anyways I just love being a missionary and I love all the opportunities I have here in Arizona. It's hard and awkward and frustrating sometimes but then you just have small moments that just make it so worth it.

My small moments of the week:

-the Hernandez family is reading almost everyday and Hugo ACCEPTED TO PRAY ABOUT BAPTISM
- We had 7 PEOPLE AT CHURCH
- We got to run around with giant flags at our Ward Christmas party and wave them to "feliz navidad" (so lit)
- Daniel has come to church twice, told us he has felt crazy changes in his life since meeting with us and is going to get baptized on the 30th hopefully! (Although sadly we have to pass him off to English missionaries)

Love you all and be 100%!

To the Moon and Back! 

Add caption

As we got all the coupons at world market

Comps!

 This cute couple just got back from serving in my home ward!! They gave me a hug from my mom!

Ward Christmas party

Bye elder romero!

Not my Will, But Thine be Done

Mesa Temple Lights

Something I have learned this transfer is the importance of trusting in the Lord's plan. Fortunately for us this often means that things don't go according to our plan. Sometimes it's hard, sometimes we think it's exactly what we don't need and sometimes we kind of just shake our fist and yell "why" at our loving Heavenly Father (we are kind of rebellious that way). Yet, often as we look back on those moments we see that it is exactly what we needed.

Sister Neahusen and I saw this so many times this transfer. We saw it as many of our investigators didn't come to church but new investigators did. We saw it as we got transfer calls last night and found out (to our great surprise) that she was getting transferred.

I kept having the lines "This is not what I want. This is not what I planned. And I just got to say - I do not understand" (please reference High School Musical if you are unfamiliar with the song) run through my head.

But then I thought about it some more and it hit me....of course it's not what I want or planned! IT'S GOD'S WORK. WE ARE OPERATING UNDER HIS PLAN. How selfish and prideful of me to think that I know better than my Heavenly Father who knows me PERFECTLY.

I thought back to when Christ was suffering for us - in Gethsamane and on the cross. The pain was unbearable. His body bled from every pore as He refused to succumb to the mortal defenses of death or unconsciousness. The cup was so very bitter yet Christ, our Savior, did not hesitate to do the Fathers will. He said, in a moment of indescribable anguish, "O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done". (Matthew 26:42)

What humility is in those words. What love is in that act.

I am so far from my Savior. The more I learn of Him the greater the distance seems to become. But I am so grateful for His obedience to the Father's plan. Without His obedience, humility and love that space would be inconquerable BUT because of the atonement His grace is sufficient and His loving arms able to span that distance.

So after reflecting on that, I was definitely humbled. I have LOVED being companions with Sister Neahusen. She is a fireball missionary and a great example to me. Yet I know that God has greater things in store for us than we could possibly know.

I love this work. I love that it is guided by the hand of the Lord. I love the plan of salvation and the opportunity to share it with the world. I know that as we humble ourselves sufficiently to accept the will of the Lord, we will be shaped into the people He knows we can be. A lot of the time that growth is painful and hard but I know that the atonement was the hardest thing ever wrought and it brought to pass the greatest thing ever known - our salvation.

To the Moon and Back!
Hermana Showalter

JOSE DID BAPTISMS FOR HIS FAM THIS WEEK

Dang one fly looking line of posterity

T(winning)

OUR INVESTIGATOR RAMIRO WENT TO THE MESA LIGHTS WITH US AND LOVED IT...LOOK HOW TENDER HE IS