Who woulda thought I'd become a horse whisperer on my mission!? I think I've taught more horses than real investigators on my mission so far. LOLJK. But, I spent another day at a ranch this week!! This time we were grooming all the horses and walking them around the corral. It was actually really fun! I think the horses could tell that I was terrified of them on the inside so they got a little rowdy at times. My horse started head-butting my companion's horse while we were trying to brush them!! I saw my life pass before my eyes. But then I took charge and showed that horse who was boss! It's a lot of work to groom horses...I see why they have volunteers come and do it! Moral of the story...I can whisper to the horses now. Parker has parts of town that are pure country with acres of land and horses and ranches and farms. It's super fun to drive around and see all the fields and red barns. So cute.
Speaking of barns and farms, last p-day we went and played soccer at a barn! Some of the elders in our zone live on a farm and they have in indoor horse arena. Since it was like blizzarding outside, we had to find somewhere indoor to play soccer. Naturally we turn to the barn. It was actually super fun! With my soccer skills, I ended up kicking more sand than soccer balls.
There is a lady in our ward who we are working with to get her family to the temple. Their family is so awesome, we love going over there. She is super intense and into kickboxing and all that jazz so one night we went over and she taught us some sick moves! She has some punching bags and stuff in her basement so we got real. It is such a work out! We were sore the rest of the week. Now I am all motivated to join a kickboxing class when I get home. It was so fun! Now we practice some of our moves in the mornings.
So we have been praying and searching for people to teach because we've hit a dry spot. One day this week we were leaving our house to go visit some less-actives and we saw the high school kids being dropped off at the bus stop. Then we saw some lady on the side walk chewing out some of the kids! She had pulled over her car and got out to yell at these boys. We were trying to listen but all we heard was her telling them how they should know better. Anyway a few minutes later we were still walking and we saw they boys that were in trouble earlier! My companion asked what they did to make that lady so mad...he reminded us that he is an immature teenage boy so he stopped in the middle of the cross walk, took off his shirt, and started to do push ups. The lady did not like that. We got talking with him and turns out he is super interested in the gospel!!! We gave him a Book of Mormon and he committed to reading every night for a week and praying about it. He has texted us a few times with questions about our church and our beliefs. Then we invited him to a baptism on Saturday and he came! He had so many questions throughout the baptism and we were able to teach him a lot about our church. He was going to come to church yesterday, but his service ran late so he couldn't make it. But we are bringing him to FHE tonight with another family in the ward!!! He is so interested and he has a genuine concern for being religious and doing good. I'm excited to see what will happen with him!
We were also able to teach another youth who was a referral from a recent convert in our ward. We've been trying to meet with her for few weeks, but she works and I guess she's always grounded...but we finally were able to have lunch with her and teach her the 1st discussion. We were so excited to finally have people to teach who are interested in our gospel! It's so exciting. Our prayers really are answered, every single one of them! Our Heavenly Father loves us a lot. I know that for sure!
Me any my companion spoke at the relief society dinner this week. That was fun....we had exchanges that day and things were crazy all week so we ended up preparing our talks an hour before the dinner! oops! And it turned out my companion wrote her talk on the wrong topic...that was hilarious. Things went smoothly and it was a great dinner. I love the ladies in our ward! They make me feel so loved and at home.
So before my mission, I literally had the same conversation 10 times a day. And Allie can attest to this. People would ask "Where are you going on your mission?" I'd say "Colorado Springs!" Then without a doubt, they'd say "Oh! I have a cousin/aunt/grandma/young men's leader/roommate etc. who is from there! Look out for my friend!" Literally everyone knew someone in Colorado. I thought I had escaped this repeating conversation when I came on my mission but it's worse out here! Now its...."Where are you from Sister Hoer?" I tell them Las Vegas...then they always say "Oh! do you know so and so?? I went to college with them...or they are my cousin!" It's hilarious. But it goes to show that it's a small world in the church! I have known a small handful of their friends. Most recently I ate lunch a good ole Julie Bay's house who grew up with Brent Bergquist!!! She knew all the Bergquists and the Burns and the Swainstons. It was fun to hear stories she had about them. I get some interesting questions about living in Las Vegas too. It keeps things exciting!
Well, we had a great week and things are fantastic! The weather is still bipolar but that's okay. I'd rather have 70 one day and 30 the next than 30 everyday! I love you all and I appreciate all the love and support.
Stay sweet, Sister Hoer
PS~ Mom, tell Bro. Bergquist his friend Julie Bay says hello! So crazy, huh?
Week 8 3/24/14
#springbreak2014 !! LOL All of Colorado is on spring break right now and me and my companion were feeling gipped...so we made our own spring break! But don't worry...we still worked really hard.
It started on p-day with a great BBQ at the park with a bunch of the other missionaries. That was a blast!!! The weather was sunny and warm and we played volleyball and grilled on the barbie. Some elder brought Elk heart which I was pressured into eating. I almost barfed. It was not good. But it was a good experience. Then it snowed the next day...so we had to get creative. We had the other sister over in the evening and we made some delicious pina coladas. The lady we lived with got out her fancy glasses and gave us cherries to put on top. We got fannncccy. It was so fun! Then of course it was sunny and warm again (literally bipolar weather) so we rode our bikes everywhere and pulled out our sunglasses to pretend we were in california on Spring Break. We even wore our flowery skirts and colorful shirts to feel like it was vacation. Good times. We told a lady in our ward about our pretend spring break, so when we went to her house for dinner on Friday, she had it all tropical and spring braked out! It was the BEST! She also had pina coladas for us with little umbrellas in our drinks and she made coconut chicken. She even got out hawaiian dish ware and put on some tropical tunes. Oh
I'm a horse whisperer!
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a.k.a My mom & dad (trainers)
My district
Spring Brake 2014 non-alcoholic Pina Coladas
3/17/14
We pranked the Elders!
So in real news, I made it through my first transfer! I can't believe it's already over. But we won't get transfered because I'm still in the 12 week training program..so we are safe for 6 more weeks! Then who knows what will happen. I had a really great district! We are only losing one member of our district which happens to be one of my favorite sisters..but I'm excited to get a new sister in our district! We took some pictures of our district and I also got a "family picture" with my mom and dad aka my trainer and my district leader. They're great.
We had a really good week! We were able to teach this adorable lady who has 4 kids. She just recently had twin girls so she has her hands full! We help her as much as we can...but we aren't allowed to hold babies. That drives me crazy! There are so many adorable babies here and I just wanna hold them all! The first thing I am doing when I get home is holding a baby...hopefully it will be my own niece or nephew ;) But seriously. So we help her out with her kitchen or entertaining her kids while she does other stuff. This past week we had lunch with her and then her kids wanted to go to the park. So we helped her load them all up and walk down to the park. It was perfect because we were able to sit and watch the kids and talk...and also teach her the first lesson! She is so great. We were sitting there chatting and she goes..."I want you to teach me. Teach me what you teach everyone else! I wanna know" I almost died. She is so sensitive to the spirit and she really agreed with everything we taught her! And better yet, she has a million mormon friends. They have all been so good to her and invited her to many events. We were talking about general conference and she told us she has them all recorded from last session on her TV! She's practically mormon already. She told us she heard a snippet at a friends house and she felt like the talk was specifically for her. So she recorded them all! We are hoping we will be able to watch this upcoming session with her! She's so great.
We've also been trying to teach our teenage boy but we aren't too sure that he understands what we are all about...he texted us the other day and said he could "hangout" with us on Friday...LOL. So we are gonna have his friend, a boy in our ward, coordinate with him so he doesn't get the wrong idea. He has been reading the book of mormon though! Hopefully we can help him understand it and learn more about our church. He was genuinely interested the past couple times we talked to him. And his friendship with the boy in our ward is a huge plus.
The help from the ward members is SO important. We have been talking a lot about how to establish a foundation for the people we teach and I am realizing the members play a HUGE role in that. With the support and love from their member friends, they will always have that person to turn to. It helps us out a lot too because then we have members to also invite them to do things and to learn more. Missionary work here would be nearly impossible without the members. We work with our ward a lot to find people to teach and to encourage those that we are teaching. Our ward is pretty amazing.
So things are going great here in Parker! I am absolutely loving it. If it were up to me, I would serve my whole mission in this area! I feel so at home in this ward. Me and my companion always leave our dinner appointments feeling so good because we get so much love from the members. So yeah, things are absolutely wonderful! And the Lord is blessing us so much in our work. I mentioned that missionary work would be nearly impossible without the members...but it is literally impossible without the Lord! I have been studying a lot recently about how I can give my will to the Lord so He can then sanctify and purify my heart as mentioned in Helaman 4. If I can be sanctified through the Lord, then I will be able to be a better instrument in His hands. I was joking around one day about how I can't be a monkey wrench in the Lord's hands...we wanna be the power drill that He uses to do His work! Being a missionary is so great. And being a member missionary is just as great! I love you all and hope everything is well.
xoxoxo Sister Hoer
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