Monday, June 24, 2013
Transferred to The Promised Land aka Pasco
Hola from Pasco Washington!!!
Welp I am here in what is called "The Promised Land" of the mission. Unfortunatley we are in the very white parts of the city because we are sisters (Although I would like to believe I could totally handle a gangbangin neighborhood). Just to give you an idea, I live in an apartment that has a gym and a tanning bed..yes i have utilized both already. Our apartment is a 3 bedroom apartment because we live with 2 of the English sisters. Hermana Ray is a cute gal from Mesa, AZ. Its weird adjusting to these Trio companionships especially because I have served with Hermana Pierce already but its going good I think. I jumped into Hma. Pierce's arms when I saw her. Love the girl. We are planning on living in Provo together after the mish. Hma Pierce and Ray opened this area only 4 weeks ago, so just like Yakima, we are kinda starting from square one but Its all good. We are having a good time and my spanish is doing so much better. So here I am in Pasco. I learned so much in Yakima and I really did love it there so much. I am going to miss Jonesy so much. I already do. It was sad saying bye to people too. Its crazy how close I get to know these people in such a short amount of time.
Before I got here to Pasco, we were knocking on some doors in Yakima and we asked this one white man if he had any spanish speaking neighbors that we could teach. Usually, they are always down to point out the neighbors..not this guy. He went off for about 5 minutes about how much he hated these mexicans and got into all of the political details. I was sick to my stomach. It was right then when I realized my love for these people. They are some of the most hard-working, humble, loveable people who just want a better life for their families. Sure, there is more to it than that..BUT my point being..I am so grateful to get to teach these people.
Hermana Pierce and Jones are now "Sister Training Leaders" AKA: Girl Zone Leaders. So that just proves how I really did get the best trainers on the block. Anyway, they had a meeting in Kennewick and so me and Hma. Ray just stayed behind. The phone wrang like 10 times and I had to try to figure out what these people were trying to say in spanish. EPIC FAIL. It was pretty hilarious though.
Temptation of the week: NBA FINALS. Walked into a house and they had a giant screen of the game. Game 7. 4th Quarter. 5 Minutes. ABORT MADISON MCBRIDE ABORT!!! Luckily, Hermana Pierce caught on and we peaced out pretty quickly. But dangggg...Missin the NBA. Glad the Heat won. Anything that will tick Kobe off is good news to me.
Funny Moment of the week: Now that I am out of Yakima we actually eat with the Branch. Mexican food for days. Lets just say my stomach was not ready for that. The 2nd day we went to this ladys house and had this shrimp (legs still attatched)/oyster/mussel/octupus soup with tortillas, white rice, and insanely hot salsa...yaaa. Pierce is like an anti-fish eater so it was very interesting. Then, to show our thanks we ask for more. Its been a rough go for my tummy. But I think Im handling it all pretty well (psych). I did miss some good mexican food though..now just trying to figure out the 2 huge servings. Please pray for my stomach to find more room for all of it haha.
Spiritual Moment: We went to try a less active but nobody lived there so we did a tryback to this lady. Ray and Pierce told me about this girl and how she lived with this very abusive guy. They have avoided him everytime they are over there because he is very loud and rude. Well at the door, She said that she didn't have time because she was sleeping. As we were walking away the man started getting loud and was saying "NO PLEASE COME IN...I WANNA HEAR WHAT YOU GUYS NEED TO SAY. COME ON. I HAVE 20 MINUTES". We were scared but we knew the lord would be with us. We went in and talked to him what we do as missionaries. He told us that he has felt very lost and doesn't know how to feel God. We had the coolest conversation with him. It was amazing to see his accountance change within minutes. He told us how much he desired to have a relationship with God. At the end of the 20 minutes we taught him how to pray and he brought his wife in and prayed. It was so amazing to see the work of the Lord and how much he can soften the hardest heart. I have never wanted hope for someone so much. Missionary work is amazing.
Te Amo Mucho Familia!!!
Que tenga buena semana.
XOXO!!
-Hermana McBride
Monday, June 10, 2013
Companionship Unity
Jesse the Preacher Man and Taladega Nights
Hello everyone! Happy Summer!
First of all...HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Cassidy, Hermana Jones (same day as cassidys..so yes i will celebrate for you while your at girls camp but Im not sure which is better girls camp or a mission..), Aimee Myers my bff, and Happy Fathers day daddykins!!!! Love you and think about you all the time guys! Enjoy your special day.
So summer has struck the Yakima Valley. It is really getting so beautiful here. All of the produce is getting ripe and its gorgeous. But with that, we have been having a hard time getting the hispanics to schedule appointments because of cherry season. EVERYONE and their dog is out working in the field. And because we don't have a lot of teaching appointments we are tracting A LOT. The average number of people we talk to a week has been around 75. The mission standard of excellence goal (which we haven't reached until now) is 84 people. This week our number was 112. Unreeaaaal. So ya its nice and toasty and Im getting some pretty attractive tan lines but we are having so much fun.
BREAKING NEWS: WE BROKE THE YAKIMA HERMANA CURSE!!!! We had investigators at church!!!! YAYYYY!!!! Nohemi and Natalia loved it and I was just so happy haha. Natalia and Nohemi are planning on getting baptized within the next week or so. We are sooo excited. I absolutley love them.
This week I reflected on my mission call. I remember being like welp...sure if thats where I am supposed to go? This week I recognized how my mission is better than any other (for me at least). Every missionary says their mission is the best but I think my points are pretty undebatable:
-Warm Showers
-We have a car (even though we aren't always using it haha)
-Regular food (for the most part)
-No culture shock
-Target
-I get to learn the 2nd most common language in america the way it is actually spoken here
-useful language
-I get to speak english when i can't express myself otherwise and they understand
-Mail is easy to send and recieve
-Pretty good weather
-I get to teach really humble people
GOD BLESS (the spanish missionaries) in AMERICA!!!!
Love my mission.
We said goodbye to my mission presidents this week. It was sad but Im excited to see how this transfer goes. We find out on Saturday. I am really hoping I stay on this side of the mission and im like 75% chance that I am but we will see..
Spiritual Thought: Hermana Jones shared a really cool thought at dinner this week. She talked about how after Jesus died the apostles (mainly peter) were under so much pressure. They didn't understand how they were going to carry on this work and how they were going to have miracles like Jesus performed. But Jesus told them to teach to every nation, kindred, and tongue. So they took a leap of faith and went. She compared this to me and the other young missionaries who dodin't really think about this whole mission thing before. But we heard the announcement at conference and we did what peter did and went forth to serve with faith. I wasn't the girl to think about a mission before but I absolutley love it here and I am seeing miracles every single day.
Funny thought: Alright I saved the best part for last. Buckle down and try to imagine this story in your head. We tracted into this house and this lady let us in to give us some water. We thought she was mexican but she wasn't after all. As we talked with her, she told us about her whole entire life story of drugs/living on the streets/alcohol etc. Then she decided to turn her life around through God. She moved to Yakima and met her husband at a church. Long story short they are super non-denomonational christians and her husband is planning on starting his own church in Moxee to be a minister. So naturally we taught the restoration right?..We obviously had disagreements but she listened and we had a very cool conversation. This lady is super nice and easy going. At the end before we left her husband walked in the door. Jessie..from yakima but has a very (fake) strong preacher from the south accent. Both such nice people. So we asked them if we could say a prayer at the end of the lesson and jessie says "OF COURSE we LOVE to pray". Jessie Sits down. Him and her both put their hands out to hold our hands. Not what I was expecting. At this point, all I can think of is the fact that Hermana Jones is holding hands with a guy. Then Jones starts to say the prayer. I was still holding it together. They yelled out a few AMEN's here and there. Still holding it together. Finally at the end, Jessie, in his preacher accent, yells "AMEN, OH AND MY DEAR GOD BLESS THESE DAUGHTERS OH PLEASE...(needless to say, he went off for a good 2 minutes". At this point I am doing everything in my power not to laugh because I felt like I was in the prayer scene of Taladega Nights. After that we walked out and I said..."if only my parents could see me in moments like that..hahaha" We laughed and laughed. Good times. Jessie the preachermannnn.
Love you all so much have a good week!!!!!
Smile Always.
XOXO!
-Hermana McBride
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Cows. Cows. Cows.
Moving Mountains
Hola mi bonita familia!
1st of all...WELCOME HERMANA MADELINE TAYLOR TO WASHINGTON STATE(visa waiter)!!!!! I was hoping for Kennewick but ya know...what can you do??
Miracles are happenin here in the good ol' yaktown. Sister and Brother Mitchell are out of town for a couple weeks for a funeral and so me and Jonesyy are in the house all alone. Feels like my parents are out of town or something haha. The most exciting thing going down is the party with the new cows that are now living in our backyard. Every morning after I do laps around the house I go talk to them. Yeah I know..Former Nordstrom employee hanging out with the cows. Ya its fine. Me and one cow in particular have a special bond though. His name is Squisher La Vaca (Squisher the Cow in spanish). We are good buds. He is still warming up though.
I'm not gonna lie...my spanish is getting pretty legit. Not perfect or even close by any means. But I know the man upstairs is blessing me a lot lately. Being in a 3-some wasn't the best for my speaking ability becuase I didn't talk as much. But I learned so much by listening. So now the applying is happening and it is legit. Lovin the espanol.
An update on Natalia and Nohemi: I am still so obsessed with them. Maybe even more after this week. Nohemi got a Scholarship to UofW for 30,000 dollars. She is a freaking gee. And she knows 3 language BTW. #futuremissionary. But natalia is still moving to SLC in the fall. Anyway..we had a lesson with them about the plan of salvation and they loved it. On Saturday we had another appointment with them. It was the kind of day where we had appts but NOBODY kept them. So we were kinda discouraged. Finally at 8, we went to Natalias to teach Law of Chastity and Word of Wisdom. We were super nervous to teach her these because 1. we didn't know if she was married to the guy that was in her house. and 2. we didn't know if she had a coffee addiction because she wakes up at 5 in the morning everyday to run a daycare. This woman is the definition of golden. She is married to that guy but they are seperating when she moves to Utah. And she quit coffee 2 months ago (around the same time we met her). It was such a testimony to me that there are people who are really READY. That lesson made up for the hard day we had. GOOD out weighs the BAD everytime.
Another amazing experience we had was when we had an appointment with this lady named laura. She is a funny gal. Really stressed but so sweet. Like pure as they come. As we were teaching we realized she didn't really have a religous background at all. So it all just soaked in but we couldn't tell how interested she was. At the end we asked her to say the prayer. She said she didn't know how so we had to teach her. She was so nervous but finaly she started and half way throught just busted into tears. She said, "Heavenly father, Im sorry. I am new to this. Im not sure what to say. I am grateful for these missionaries. And for this day. Please give me the strength I need..etc." We got up and just hugged her. She said she has never felt that way before. The spirit was so unbelievably strong. Her heavenly father had never heard her pray and we got to wittnes that experience. Moments like that are why I am a missionary. This beautiful woman got to talk to her Heavenly Father for the first time and we got to watch. There is nowhere else I wouldve rather been on a Friday night than in Lora's living room listening to her sweet innocent prayer.
We had a training in Kennewick this week. Picture this..Me and Jones in a truck with 4 other elders for 3 hours. Sitting in between them in seats the size for a toddler. So awkyyy. It was way funny though. Love awkward moments.
Funny Moment: We had a branch activity and Hermana Jones was talking to this old man in our branch named Hermano Varela. Sweetest guy on the planet. He is trying really hard to learn English so we help him with it all the time. Anyway, as they were sitting there. Out of nowhere, Hermano Varela turns to Hermana Jones and says (imagine in broken english).."If you are going to marry a Mexican man, You have to know how to make Corn Tortillas." HAHAHAHA. Good to know Hermano Varela but what do you know about Polynesians? haha jk jk. ;)
Spiritual Moment: Me and Jones both found this quote in our personal study this week. It is from a general conference talk from last year. In Matthew 17:20 is the scripture about having the faith the size of a mustard seed and how it can move mountains. I have always thought that was just silly...moving mountains with faith? ya right. Then I read this quote by Bishop Richard C. Edgley.." I have never wittnessed the removal of an actual mountain. But because of faith, I have seen a mountain of doubt and despair removed and replaced with hope and optomism. Because of faith, I have personally wittnessed a mountain of sin replaced with repentance and forgiveness. And because of faith, I have personally wittnessed a mountain of pain replaced with peace, hope, and gratitute. Yes I have seen mountains moved." As a missionary, I have seen these mountains move over and over. I think everyday we have a mountain we have to climb or help someone else move their mountain. We do this by faith. Mind blown huh?
Love you all so much!!!!! XOXOXOXO!!!
Have a good week. SMILE ALWAYS.
-Hermana Mcbride
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Rain and fog....'bout time!
Taco Bell and Pedicures
Holaaa from the WKM.
Alright well..on monday we went straight to get Taco Bell and Pedicures. Lets just say I really know how to use my P-day wisely. Its been raining a lot here in Yaktown but at the same time people are getting darker from the sun. This is a huge problem because we can't tell who is just really tan or mexican...#SpanishMissionaryProblems
Mommy Pierce left us on Wednesday and yes I cried for a minute. She taught me so much and our companionship felt empty for a few days. But me and Jonesyyy are having a grand ol' time.
On Monday we taught Natalia and her daughter and I invited them to be baptized..AND THEY SAID YES!!! We are hoping for the 15th of June but we will see what happens. They both have wanted change in their lives and at the end Nohemi (18year old daughter) said the prayer and was crying the whole time. It was so cool. The spirit was amazing. We talk about Salt Lake all the time.
We got the Joseph Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat CD and I seriously felt like it was christmas. We have listened to the whole CD like 10 times. hahaha.
We have been also teaching this family (chavez) who are so freakin legit. They are so solid. They just understand everything we teach them and they get it. The Catholic forefather thing is whats holding them back I think. We had a lesson on wednesday and we walked out like skipping. Just so stoked. And we got in the car and Josh Groban was singing "When troubles come...and my heart blah blah blah..." I say.."JOSH WE AINT GOT NO TROUBLES SO HUSH!!!" Hahaha good times. I love the feeling after teaching a way cool family. We are teaching some other really solid people.
Spiritual Moment: In the effort to save miles on Saturday we got a ride to Union Gap and walked from 1-9pm. We ate at Miners (famous hamburger shop) and then got frozen yogurt for dinner. The day was beautiful but my body was dying by the end of the day haha. That night I was thinking about how many cool experiences I have as a missionary. I am here becuase God needs me in his work. But its ironic because I need him to do it. There are so many things in life God wants us to do but we need him to do it. Just a thought.
Funny Moment: When we were at a members house for dinner I was getting food and I said "welp go big or go home" and dished up my plate. Hermana Jones responded "Or just go home big". Hahahaha. Missionary Life right there.
Love you all so much. <3
Smile always.
XOXO!
-Hermana McBride
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