"and the Floods came up"

I'M HOLDING A GOAT!!

It was my birthday week and as expected there was much craziness, many miracles and a strong desire to one day, in the far off future, take a nap.

Looking back on my years now of wisdom it's hard to put into words just what exactly happened this week.

To start off - DALIA GOT BAPTIZED!! WAHOO! There were some stressful moments before as we had to cover a lot the day before but it all worked out and she was so happy! She was at girls camp the beginning of the week and made a ton of friends with the other young woman there and on Sunday - after she had gotten the gift of the Holy Ghost - she got up and bore her testimony with the other girls! I WAS SO PROUD I WAS JUST SITTING THERE ON THE STAND GRINNING LIKE AN IDIOT (I had to give a talk again lol). Also her older sister and her daughter came to church and they loved it! Frida (the sister) told us that she was coming back and would love to talk to us!!!! #MIRACLES She has the coolest purple hair so needless to say I am pumped to start teaching her

we also got to go to a baptism down south for a guy named Alex. Many months ago sis shaffer and I talked to Alex at his door and he wasnt that interested. A few months ago sis shaffer talked to him again and he decided to give it a shot. He is literally so awesome. But unfortunately that is not where Alexs baptism story ends... We got there about 40 mins before his baptism was supposed to start and waited for the other sisters to show up. When they get there the four of us walk in to find water LITERALLY GUSHING OUT FROM THE DOOR. The sisters had left the building for a little bit to get ready AND THE FONT OVERFLOWED LOL. Trust me when I say that you have never seen 3 people leap into action faster. and I say 3 because Sis Hanson was just frozen in shock. Just wait till you see the pics.#DEAD More or less it was all squared away by the time of the baptism but I will never forget the one time that Sister Neahusan and Sister Hanson tried to pull a Noah on us. Thank goodness for those rainbows, am I right?? (love you sisters)

I also had exchanges with Sister Hanson this week and it was super fun! Pretty funny we never got to be companions again after the MTC. I just love her though, she is a great listener and truly loves the people so much.

We had interviews this week as well and if that wasn't the saddest thing ever I don't know what is. It was our last one before our departing interview. We didn't talk about anything in specific but PW (President Wheeler) did say something that I loved. He was talking about Nephi and how his brothers treated him because he was a consecrated missionary. President looked at me and said " People are going to want you to be 'normal' or 'Mallory' but thats not who you are anymore. You've consecrated yourself just like Nephi did and Nephi was that awkward RM. Be that awkward RM. Don't adjust to what the world wants you to be" So everyone please fully expect me to be weird when I get home. I have no shame anymore.

Other than that we found some solid new people to teach and one is a 16 year old boy named Cesar who is pretty awesome. The spirit was so strong when we were teaching him and he reminds me so much of Ross (love you buddy!) I am excited to keep this area pumping with Sister Shaffer!

Other things happened this week but those are the main ones! I love being a missionary and cant believe how little time is left. Our ward has started to find out and they might be more excited than we are about it haha.

i love being a missionary! I love this gospel!

To the Moon and Back

Hermana Showalter

Sister Garner took us to Outback!!

The elders and us at dinner. eating in separate rooms cuz someone just dropped off dinner

Us and Alex!

Guess who is 21?

These are real life shoes that someone wore to their wedding and they are literally a foot tall!

Us and Dalia

MLC from like 2 weeks ago lol

Cleaning up the flood!

To Those Who Still Love Me (jk)

I don't even know who reads this at this point but props to you if you do.

To those who do read this IT WAS A PRETTY AWESOME WEEK!

Why you may ask? Well let me give you the run down.....

1)DALIA IS GETTING BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY (at least it is planned for that day and lots of people have committed to come but keep her in your prayers this is about to be a crazy week for us) It has been hit or miss seeing her this week as she was getting ready for girls camp (which she is at the next 3 days) so when she came to the new member fireside yesterday we basically tackled her into a back room and taught the shortest lesson on the law of chastity of my life (lololol) we still have a few things left to go over before her interview but we are praying that all goes well!

2)ANA P GOT BAPTIZED

There is this family in the ward we LOVE. We have FHE with them every week and Hermana Plagge is basically my hero (the woman is amazing) and her youngest daughter got baptized this Saturday! I got to give the talk on baptism and it went super! except for the fact I got confused and thought I was giving a talk on the Holy Ghost so had to come up with my talk on the fly... there were a few panicked moments but thankfully I'm a missionary and talk about baptism a lot so there were miracles folks.

3) ZONE CONFERENCE

Oh man this was an emotional trainwreck...MY LAST ZONE CONFERENCE! I was just sitting there in denial and surrounded by all these young missionary peeps and contemplating how life has got me to this point. I have no idea. I was about to cry when I got up to bear my testimony but the moment I did I felt such peace. I know this is the true church and that it was restored by a prophet of God to the earth today! I have 0 reasons to be sad because I can share this with people all the time! ITS A GOSPEL OF JOY AND SO EVEN THOUGH I'M SAD AND OLD I'M GOING TO BE HAPPY. that is all.

4) JESUS

I love her so much! We did a family home evening with her, her husband and her daughter and it was awesome! The spirit was so strong and we just got to talk about the plan of salvation and it really touched Israel (her husband). They committed to come to church and Israel was all like "but i just don't feel comfortable in a white shirt and suit and stuff" and we were like "Israel we don't care if you come in shorts we just care that you come" AND HE CAME IN A WHITE SHIRT. Jesus was so happy to have her family all there with her and was just beaming the whole time.

5)SISTER SHAFFER

I am so blessed with an awesome companion. We are about to hit our 7 month mark together (lol) and by the end of our time together will have spent approx. 5,400 hours together ( i was curious one day). Pretty epic. But honestly she is such a great missionary and pushes me everyday to be better and work harder. We drive each other nuts and love each other to death. I'm grateful everyday that God put us back back together!

I have less than a month left! AHHHHHHH! I am freaking out but Sis Shaffer and I are running so hard (I may actually die before I make it to the plane) and I love doing what I'm doing. Being a missionary is the best. I love when you feel that overwhelming love for the people you are teaching or when it just finally clicks for them and the light just shines from their faces or when God just puts you in someones path that needs it. Everyday I find something that makes me love it even more and everyday I learn new things that I want to work on and apply. There just isn't enough time!

TO THE MOON AND BACK!

Hermana Showalter

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Holding Goats is fun!

Pres and Sister Wheeler

Sister Garner came to visit!

Otra Otra Otra VEZ

In a crazy twist of weird small Spanish fate Sister Shaffer and I are comps again! I don't know how it happened exactly but we will be entering in our last transfer together for a grand total of 5 transfers (or roughly 7 and a half months) and we are ready to see miracles!

Sister Shaffer is an amazing missionary and I am so excited to work with her again. She really brings a new meaning to the word "bold" and is always such a good example to me. So buckle down folks because this last month is about to get crazy!!

To start off our investigator Dalia is solidly on date to be baptized the 21st of July! She is so cute and in one of our lessons last week we followed up on her Book of Mormon reading. Well she ripped that thing out and flipped it open and there was a sticky note on each page that she had read with questions about different things. She is literally so prepared. The cool part too is that her mom is a REALLY inactive member - she didn't even remember being baptized! But we found her records and she is coming back to stay! We have been teaching them both from the beginning and it is so cool to see how readily they embrace the gospel. We taught the Word of Wisdom and her mom (also named Dalia btw) was like well "I do this one thing but not ever again!". Her mom is also really excited to get involved and receive a calling in the church. I love our Dalias!

Viviana is doing good as well! She is also on date for the 21st but we might have to reevaluate since we still have to teach a lot! We saw her right before Sister Neahusan left and she was telling us all about how she will just go on Mormon.org or lds.org and watch the videos and talks. She was like "well I don't understand everything they are saying but I like it". Pretty cool stuff.

Also the most terrifying thing happened to us last week. So President Wheeler called me on Monday and I thought he was going to ask me to step down my last transfer which would have been kind of nice BUT NO. HE ASKED SISTER SHAFFER AND I TO TRAIN AT MLC. It is a meeting in front of all the leadership in the mission and I can't remember sisters ever training at it. I thought I was going to throw up in all honesty. Luckily we managed to pull off one of the best trainings I think we've ever given and revelation was received and we did not die #BLESSINGS4DAYZ

Also the 4th of July happened and the guy who lives in the house behind us saw us pull in and was like "THIS ONES FOR YOU SISTERS!" shot off this giant firework and then goes "THAT WAS TOTALLY ILLEGAL AHAHAHA"....so if anyone was wondering how my 4th of July was  that pretty much sums it up. Also we had to stay inside with our zone for a couple of hours and we just played some games and sports. Pretty fun although nothing will ever be as epic as the last fourth of July #RIPOGBVZ

We have just seen a lot of miracles as we have been working with our members. The members have become so much more involved in the work up here and it is awesome! We have been working a ton with the YW president and she is so amped to do missionary work and help with our investigators. She even invited us to girls camp which we tragically had to turn down... I have such a testimony of this work!

I love love love being a missionary! It is the best thing I have ever done with my life. I am so blessed to have been called to this mission and to have met all these wonderful people! There are so many things I still have left to do before I get home and so many people I still have left to meet! I know that our Savior lives and that He went through the atonement so that we can find peace and happiness in this life and in the life to come. He is our Savior, Brother, Mediator and Friend. He is the Light and Hope of this world. We can all have a personal relationship with Him!

To the Moon and Back!

Hermana Showalter

"Our message, which is centered in Jesus Christ..."

Temple with Ana

I don't even know where to start! It has truly been a week of miracles (I think I say this every week but it still IT IS SO TRUE)

So recap of this week:

- PICKED UP THE SOLIDEST INVESTIGATOR DALIA - she is so so cute! She is 15 and the niece of a member here. Her and her mom have been coming to church and they love it! Turns out her mom is a long ago member of the church and was sad when she found out she doesn't need to be baptized again but we explained the sacrament and its all good. Dalia's grandpa is going to be in town soon and she wants him to baptize her! This means we have to teach her everything super fast because we don't know when he is going to be here only that it will be within the next few weeks!! AHHH! Also the YW pres, Hna Alarcon has been fire at coming to the lessons with us and they truly are some of the most powerful lessons I have had on my mission. Dalia is going to girls camp too which is going to be bomb!

- ANA (our recent convert) went to the temple and did baptisms for the first time!!! Jesus her husband went with her and it was so tender! A member of the temple presidency was like "oh is this your friend" and we were all like lol and Jesus was like "I am her husband" we all died. it was funny I swear.

-One of my old investigators in the south, Raquel, got baptized when she was in Mexico! She came back and told Sis Shaffer "surprise!! I got baptized!!" LIKE A MIRACLE PEOPLE A TRUE TRUE MIRACLE! I love that little woman so much!

- we had a funeral for two of the elders in our zone that are going home today. (FYI not a real funeral, it just means they are going home.) We went all out and it was epic. It was like a 45 min long funeral and they were good sports and just laid on the tables the whole time haha as we got up and shared last thoughts about the deceased. They were great elders though and we will miss them!

-Javier and Viviana accepted baptismal dates! they are for later in august but I'm pretty sure Viviana will be ready before then so we are going to reevaluate with her later!

It has truly been an amazing week! I am excited to finish my mission up here in Gilbert and run to the end! I only have a transfer left folks!! The miracles are truly being prepared here and I know the Lord has blessed me so much!

Something I have reflected a lot on this week is the important of focusing on the Savior. I have noticed a huge difference in the lessons we teach as we keep the focus on the BOM and Jesus Christ. It brings a whole new level to the lessons and a different spirit for sure. I am grateful for my Savior. When we center ourselves in him the blessings come in abundance.

I love you all!

To the moon and back!
Hermana Showalter

Family Home Afternoon and we teamed up to crush this weird balancing game.

the funeral of elder gleave and may! (FYI not a real funeral)