A Puppy at the Park

My Friends at the ALF House

No Mucho Tiempo

guys! hi! i have so much to say but no mucho tiempo so here goes. i got permish and checked out a few college websites. most have application deadlines for after i get home EXCEPT the u of u. that is april 1. so will someone please take the time to register me, i know it costs $45 and i will reimburse whoever pays that. this way i still have the option of going to the U if thats what is right.. (although it is quite costly. i need a scholarship!) but as long as i still have the possibility of going there, i will worry about school stuff LATER cause i've got other stuff to worry about now like lives to save!!!!!! wait does anyone have any other ideas for my acne, it is really grossing me out and i dont know what to do! julian's bapt lesson was good, he understood it and they are gone this week (it is spring break here all week) but when he gets back we are going to try setting him with a date. the little sister aleah, she thinks my name is "sister phone" and calls me that. seriously. haha. we had a super neat day on wednesday when we got 3 new investigators, ida maggie and rhshanda. ida was in the hosptial last week and her room buddy was a member from miami 4th. so the missionaies in that ward and the member taught ida alot! ida knows what it feels like when the spirit is present and wants that all the time. she missed church cause of pain but hopefully next week! maggie is actually engaged to a member, she's never met him. he's in the military and serving in pakastan. they met online and are getting married when he comes back in may. he is a High Priest and a really good man, because he's taught her so much and truely believes it. She was realllly excited for us to come over and it was neat for her to share her testimony of what she already knows. but she also mentioned she's not doing this for him, so that's a good sign! rhshonda was a media she wanted us to bring a finding faith in christ dvd and when we showed up she's like.. i already read that part in the BOM you asked me to and she shows me this phamplet that has mine and sister olson's name on it.. but i've never met the girl so i think sister olson taught her with an exchange. but she is 16 and has the light of Christ so bright.. and wants to know the truth. so excited to teach her! the only invest we had at church was a boy who went to Snapper Creek, his name is Juan he's 22 and he loooves to talk. we met this lady named erica who has 5 kids (and is prego) we gave her a Proclaimation and when we followed up she had lots of questions about the Plan of Sal.. it was neat to teach her that but she wasnt so interested in us coming back to teach but the kids loved us and want us to come dye easter eggs this week. we had a really successful fun relief society activity on thurs and some less actives we've worked with came and that was really good! i have been in this ward for a long time and i'm kind of starting to feel like a celeb... sometimes i dont like that very much.. its been really humid lately and people are saying there is a tornado warning here right now but since it's the end of the month we have to ride bikes cause we're out of miles! a guy that works at the bike store frankie he just turned 50 but he's single and loves us.. he always does work on our bikes for free.. after this we're meeting him and he's getting us lunch hahah some people just dont know what they are getting themselves into when they want to hang out with us! oh man we also met this guy bernard he is like 28 and has a FULL SET of GOLD TEETH... his grill is pure gold.. every tooth! i dont know if you can believe it til you see it! but he's super cool and at his complex i saw things i'd need seen before, like people in small circles throwing dice and money then 4 cop cars coming in a doing pat downs on people.. haha dont freak out! cause i didnt! this is my area and the Lord is protecting me! on sat i did a good trick to sister crane.. it was her b-day sunday so i set up an exchange for me and her. but her and her exchange went and taught the Gospel while me and Addys went to the store and got her b-day stuff hahah it was really hard to do surprises when i have to be with her 24/7! i found out about what i'm getting bit by. a bug called "no-see-ums" that is seriously what they're called. but i got spray with lots of deet in it and i'm okay now! last night at the ALF house the owners told us we cant ever come by anymore and i felt like i was stabbed.. it hurts so bad when people say that.. but one day they'll understand! i just have to remmeber the example of Christ when He was on the cross and said "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do"... same sad situation here. anyway, all my girls are gone this week cause its girls camp. they do it over spring break cause its too hot in the summer. will you continue to join with me in praying for julian, michelle, ida, maggie, isabell, rhshonda, alfredo, juan, bernard, marcial, and david bauer? thank you and i love you and i miss you and have a good week and a good confernce and a happy easter!!!!!!
con amor, hermana call

St. Patrick's Day with Sisters Hale and Crane

Wishing Sister Denson a Happy Birthday!

Talking to Alex

2nd Attemp - I figured it out!

1st Attemp at Making Arreapas

Our Fist Day as Companions

Hola

hola mi familia como estan.. estoy muy bien gracias.. here goes some fun info and stories from the week!!...
i had this dream last week and i knew we needed to see this family but i'd never met them cause they go to a diff ward even though they live in our ward bounderies (a few famililes do that) so we were biking to this families house and turns out they werent home BUT we met some other super duper cool people and families that i believe is why the Lord told us to go there. He always works in mysterious ways and sometimes I wish they were just normal! but it keeps life fun. it is raining right now and we are almost out of miles so we had to ride bikes here in the rain.. talk about a fun pday..ok so we met this girl the other day and the first thing out of her mouth was "tell me what you blelive!" so we told her a little and she is very religious and invited us to a "HOP" (House of Peace) but i didnt know what that was... she described it and it sounded good.. so i told her we'd go. well later i tell the elders and they say NO! you cant go! it's like a family home evening but on steriods and gone wrong.. so i learned from that do not go to a HOP if anyone invites you. then we were riding bikes one day and i met this boy alex, he's young like 16 or 17 and was running so i just started riding my bike next to him on the sidewalk and we just went for like 1.5 miles talking haha it was awesome and i taught him a lesson on baptism and he wants to be baptized BUT now he's only texting us and wont give us his address or meet up with him so not sure where it'll go but he's super cool. then we were goign to this lady estella's house (the one that told me i was expecting) and the house # she gave us was really a school so we turned around and riding back down the street we saw her and even though she said she wasn't interested.. it was neat that we saw her anyway! we are giving away sooo many pass along cards every day its ridiculous but at least we have gotten a few media requests for Book of Mormons (that is my #1 fave PAC to give away. it usually the only one i carry) . the homestead ward is famous this month! we are in the friend magazine for april! check us out! but the pic is kind of old.. but seriously. we're famous. i learned to make a deliciuos food called arrepeas this week, it was kind of hard for me at first but then i got better when i realized i was doing it wrong. they are from venezula. i am getting a tan line on my face from my helmet.. and the other day someone asked me if i was wearing foundation.. hahahah.. we have a lesson tonight with a really cool kid named marquis and when we met him he told us he'd never been baptized and he said the words "i'm ready" - i hope he is one of my choice associates i knew before this life.. he's 19 and really cool! i loved my package of making my own luck and especially the tape.. a big big thank you to everyone... and especailly i cant believe how much and how well owen talks, like i still dont even picture him talking! Elder Gibbons of the Seventy came to our mission this past week and it was great to learn from him and be with him and his wife. They are good friends of the Wickmans. I also realized something i've known all along but never thought much about it, but what a loving couple President and Sister Hale are and how -one day- i want me and my husband to be just like them........ but thats not gonna happen for awhile. after the incredible conference it was sad cause we had to give drop talks to 2 of our investigators, carlos and also brenda and grayland. they just weren't progressing! and brenda was our only bap date, so now we have 0! BUT yesterday for invitation sunday we had 16 non members at church so hopefully we'll get to start teaching the people members brought! it was the craziest sunday maybe .. well every sunday is so crazy .. but there were sooo many people. everyone is starting to get these pets called sugar gliders they are so stinkin cute and i kind of want one.. this man told us that because we are baptized that means are baptist and we are not christan he was so nuts.. i tried a new food called conch fritters and this conch salad it was shell fish and so interesting but not too bad.. do they even have that in utah? i'd never heard of it. i went up this bus stop full of people the other day and just started talking really loudly telling them allll about the Book of Mormon. i know we are supposed to flood the earth with it... well the best i'm doing is flooding homstead north but i felt like a king benjamin and it felt gooood and i guess i am not braver than i ever was before! and love it! the last person i have time to tell you is alfredo.. we met him he was walking down US 1 ( i would compare it to wasatch blvd but lots busier) and we were biking. he needed like $3.80 to buy a can to put gas in, and he was dresssed nice except that purple heart necklace on the rainbow string) but he wasnt a bum.. so we gave him a 5 and he offered us a lot of his material things but we said no we just want you address and # and so we went to his house yesterday there was lots of cars there... turns out it was a family reunion party but he was so surprised we went he started crying and saying all this weird stuff... i'm not sure what to think of him just yet but we have a return appt for wed.. hope you are all happy and well and now it stopped raining so we're going to ride our bikes home love youuuu bye
sister hermana call

Meryl with the Zayas family

Angela

Hellooo

hellooo how is everything ? that was so funny and weird to see the pic of mom and mana keller.. so weird to think thats gonna be me in 4 month (agh. that makes me want to throw up) um she requested me on facebook and so did sister brady can someone please update that? thanks. i sent a pic with the zayas family and that little girl aleah is so cute she calls me sister phone.. hah but not on accident she really thinks thats my name! haha!! julian is really excited for church and asked that we teach a special lesson on baptism on tues night. i am very excited because i know how much julian loves church. but michelle knows julian doesnt quite understand baptism and although she hasnt said it, you can just tell she just doesnt want him to get baptized yet. please pray mightily with us that she will understand our lesson tomorrow and have a softened heart! i finished this little tape mom and dad with my thoughts on your upcoming vacay, we're going to the PO after this so watch for it soon. it was kind of a shock to have sister crane be my new companion. she is a very cute girl and i know i have a lot to learn from her! i really am happy! President Hale announced we can only listen to MoTab music from now on.. so its a good thing i like my comp and we always talk so we dont have to have music on very much. on thurs we were meeting an exchange and we parked under a tree and i got out of the car and this bird swoops out of the tree really fast and almost hit me in the head but it didnt. but then a second later something falls and hits me on the chest and bounces down my shirt and falls on the ground. it was a dead bird carcass (sorry i dont know how to spell that) and was all bloody and it got blood down my shirt and i was trying not to make a scene in the parking lot but it was discusting like i had dead bird blood on my shirt and skirt..we took a pic but i am saving it to show you. we went to the lesson and this lady sandy we are teaching stopped in the middle of the lesson and said "okay everybody look at sister call. she's always smiling.. i've never seen anyone so happy.. she even smiles when she sings...." etc and i just thought you should know that because i truely am happy now as I am doing the Lord's work! i bought some jeans at ross.. it was the first pair of jeans i got in like 14 months.. and they cost $10.. well they aren't true religions but i sure am proud i am learning to buy cheaper things. i am surving ok with no treats, its hard but i know it's good for me. on sat we were teaching those 3 little girls the vega girls, and i was explaining to the 9 yr old what happens when she is baptized and i think i used the word dipped somehow... but later she came up and told me "i really want to get dipped" it was so cute but the problem is that the grandparents and parents are inactive and so its hard for the girls to get to church. we need the parents to reactivate otherwise it will be hard to get the girls to church every sunday. any ideas??? i have loved seeing the progress of the men that live in the ALF (assisted living facility) that we visit every Saturday. remember me talking about them end of dec/jan? we go every sat and it is my #1 fave time of the week usually. i always look forward to it. the guys all still have addictions like smoking and drinking but its neat to see them progressing in their prayers and their relationship with Heavenly Father. yesterday this lady was visiting our ward.. she's from loveland CO so i talked to her after and she knows like the prices and crookstons and everyone.. she goes to the other ward but she knows them all. her and her husband are down here living for a few months in an RV but they'll go back soon. it was fun to talk to her. what i didnt like about church yesterday is that nobody came! no investigators! we worked so hard but we got an F... and i hate that. then we thought this family invited us over for dinner so we went but turns out they meant next sunday and that was awkward when we just sat there waiting to eat and nothing happened so they gave us corndogs. sister brady's neighbor and cute friend Pilar came over when we were there last night and we committed her to come to church this sunday. for invitation sunday we are expecting 2.000 poeple at church for the mission which means 500 per stake .. the members are doing great inviting people and i'm so proud of them all! i hope it turns out to be successful! please pray that we will have many at church that day, also pray for nicole and alexandra Vega, Sandy and her kids roberto and natalie, michelle and julian zayas, and for grayland and brenda joyner. thanks, that would mean so much to me! I love you each so much. Hope everything is going well! Have a good week. and Happy St Patricks day.
xoxoxoxo
Hermana Call

I'm Staying

hey everyone will you change the email address you have for me to this account? we had to set up new accounts so this is the main one i'll check, but i'll still check my other gmail sometimes. how was everyone's week? mine was pretty good, my big news right now is transfers and that i will be staying here another 6 weeks and getting a new companion tomorrow morning at transfer meeting :) i already knew this change because was coming for about 5 days now, President told me on the phone last week but he told me not to tell anyone so it's been my secret that kept a smile on my face the past few days.. well this past week was a little crazy we had lots going on and we have lots of people we are teaching. we are working with a few part member families, and i really think that is a big thing the Lord wants me to focus on while I am here. in my area (homestead north aka HoN) about 70% of the active families are part memebr and the wives are the members and the husbands arent. it is so sad and the men are so hard headed! one family we started working with is the Vega's, the parents are less active and they have 3 little girls, 2 of which are baptismal age.alexandra and nicole (and vanessa is too little) but we have been teaching the girls and they want to get baptized so bad! we told them we were coming back sunday and vanessa turns to her mom and says..is tomorrow sunday? ha cute. the 3 girls remind me of us call girls.. and the liddell girls.. but i absolutely love being with them. we have gotten lots of good member help this week. a new key indicator number we are reporting each week now is the # of refferals we get from members. one of my favorite families in this area is the smith's. they have 4 girls and 1 boy, ages 8 and younger. we were there yesterday and they had just got 6 day old baby chickens and i held one and it pooped in my hands of course just like cuddles used to do! and a few days ago at this lady Sandy who we are teaching, she let us hold her baby.. roosters? or chickens? i cant remember what they are but i think they were illegal. sandy is awesome she's in her late 40 and has 4 kids, she lives in a trailer park in the middle of the everglades and i'm sure glad we get a member to drive us there cause otherwise it'd be a 15 mile bike ride one day from our house. she is praying about her bap date of april 3. we have a set baptismal date with brenda for march 28 and her husband grayland is praying about it also. but grayland is hard to teach, cause he LLOOVVES to talk, and if we ask him a question to check for comprehension he'll change the subject 20 times while talking and somehow we have to get it back from him and relate whatever he said to the gospel. we are still working with carlos, he's trying to quit smoking but not putting too much effort into it, i'm not sure if i mentioned last week but he's still dating guys and girls.. oh we were at kmart this week and i was talking to this lady and then she actually put her hands on my tummy and asked me if i was expecting hahahahah i guess thats when i realized i really need to loose some weight hahaha. but two nights this week we had 3 dinners oh man! another fam we are working with is the zyus fam, the dad was less active but is coming back and we are teaching his wife michelle and his 10 yr old julian and his 4 yr old aleah. i got julian a book of mormon stories reader, you know like the comic strips and he is LOVING it and reading it so fast! we hope to set him with a baptismal date tonight. pray for us! well the other day i was talking with pres hale and he promised me that this upcoming transfer i will be "the happiest misisonary in the mission" so i am so excited for that and to prove him right. i have loved lately a few times we've had invest tell us there is something different about us, and that really makes me feel good ya know. we were teaching this man leon a few days ago and he fell asleep in the lesson. haha. dad..... we met this recent convert finally that we are always trying to get ahold of, she hasnt been to church since her baptism cause she thinks we worship joseph smith. but we straightened things out mostly and she gave us these (fake) dolce and gabbana purses and chanel perfume. she is from jamacia and said something i remembered our waiter on the cruise taught us about everything eyrie.. remember>? i was laughing. she was also really good friends with bob marley and has pics with him and stuff! ha. ok so sat night we went to jordan's and his godbrother was there (who is also named jordan so i refer to him as lil j) and so we had a lesson with them both and it was incredible to me to see big j tell lil j about all the things he has learned from us and to hear his testimony! well we told lil j (who is 14) about church sunday and he was soo excited to go so we told him to go to homstead but turns out he went to snapper creek haha a 14 yr old in the YSA branch.. but he L-O-V-E-D it and was asking people how long it takes until he can get baptized. big j was confirmed there sunday and so i'm glad lil j got to see it. the only problem is that lil j lives ONE block out of our area, in the homestead south area. SOO LAME!!!!! the coolest things i learned this week was on this chart that casey lawrence sent me.. please tell him thank you and that i loved it! have him make you a copy too! the last person i'll tell you about is this media named Lolita. we tried to see her saturday but the lady answered the door and said lolita was gone and to come back sunday but to make sure we called first.. we went back sunday night and called but no answer.. so we went and the same lady answered.. she was crying but talked to us anywya. she told us she'd lied to us the previous night and that she was lolita. she is going through a lot a lot of hard stuff.. and she told us everything in detail, it was at least a pg-13 but probably R stuff coming out of her mouth and i wanted to throw up, i got really hot and had to undo my sweater and stop listening for awhile.. i'll spare you the details..but anyways this lady needs help and i am glad we were able to help her. she used to have elders teach her a long time ago and it brought back happy memories for her. i think if i ever meet past missionaries that served here, i will hug them even if they are strangers. and if i ever meet missionaries that served in any of my latin countries, i'll hug them too. i love that although we serve millions of miles apart, we are all in this together (to any high school muscial fans, i still sing that song when i hear those words haahah) but really i love that! and this week we had a member referral for singapore! and when i meet people from ohio or kentucky i always always tell them about my little brother who lives there too doing the same thing i'm doing teaching the same thing i am teaching because Christ's Church is the exact same everywhere.. we are so blessed to be apart of it! I hope all is well back in cold utah, i'm getting a pretty good watch tan and i'll be sure to send pics next week! i love you guys so oss ososososo much,. have a a good week
te amo
hermana call

Jordan's Baptism

At Dinner with Julio

Riding in the Rain

The Lizard

Meryl and Kenya

The Homestead Zone

Meryl & the Brady's

Hey Guys!

hey guys, how's everyone? are you freezing? whats the weather like in utah right now? its been so nice and warm here but i hear it is pretty cold everywhere else! it was kind of chilly in the mornings and one morning it was low 80s, this girl was standing outside holding a tax sign you know and she was wearing snow pants and long johns hahaah thats how cold people get here when its below 80! kenya's baby is ok, she had a c-section and he was breathing too fast so they took him to another hosptial right after and she hasn't gotten to hold him yet :( his name is myken, i saw pics of him he is cute! we had such good member help this week especially with meals, and sister brady had her neighbor over and she made me lasange.. man i love her for that. i love their family sooo much. ok that lizard i sent the pic of. get this. it was above my desk so i was put a tupperware up the ceiling and i was trying to slide a plate under so i could put it back outside. but i accidentally cut its tail off and the tail fell in the clear tupperware and was still alive for probably 5 minutes and i just had to stand there holding it while it flopped around EW it was so gross i want to throw up just thinking about it. but well i failed and the tail-less gecko thing squirmed out and escaped and is probably sitting under my bed right now. president told me during my PPI this week that i'm staying, and that i have my roots here. the samways (this brazilian family who makes us the best brazil food everr) also had jordan in their house one night and well, i just want to say if there are ever investigators, its the #1 best thing to have them in peoples houses! so open up your home to them if you know any.. please :) BUT dont make everyone gather in a circle and hold hands saying a prayer together. that is like everyone's thing lately we saw we want to kneel praying and people tell us they want to hold hands in a circle. its so weird! we didnt go to the store last P day so i've been out of milk, but thats ok cause get this. we have been getting DA's like craazy and have so many leftovers in our fridge. so i've been eating things like tortallini, chimichanga, garlic breads, rice and stew and more at 8am haha how does that sound to you? i've decided if i ever buy a bike i need an 18 inch and also one with more gears..but anyways it would be better if i had some hills or something. we met this guy carlos who is 23, we met him saturday and sat night he called and said he'd called his boss to tell him he cant work sundays anymore. then he came to church yesterday at the singles branch and stayed for jordan/s baptism. he sent a text last night that he wants to quit smoking and be baptized! welll i am not starting this til wed or thurs (whever we have our next appotmnt with him) but i am going to give up my treats 100% if he'll give up smoking 100%. so please dont send me or tempt me, i'm goign to stuff my face with candy the next few days, and give the rest of my stash away. i cant ever eat one little piece, otherwise it'll be like saying he could just have 1 cig. anyways, i'll let you know if we make it a deal or not. on sat we met that guy julio. he'd asked us if he could take us to a peru place for dinner. we said ok, and showed up and he was waiting and hops in our backseat and puts on his seatbelt before i could figure out what was going on! so i had to try to tell him no! he got out and said he had no car, only his bike. we had our bikes on the back of our car so we all rode to this restruant.. well on the way a HUGE rainstorm came and we all 3 got SOAKED and there was not one dry spot on my body. wah. then right after dinner we had to ride all wet and cold to an appointment then back to our car. it was nooot fun. ok jordans baptism was so good except it was a crazy day cause we had to be in homstead for our meetings and sacrament then go to kendall, then the ward mission leader texted saying he got called into work, then during the opening song the assistant ward mission leader comes and asks me to give a talk cause they accidentally asked the 2 speakers to both speak on the holy ghost instead of one for the holy ghost and one for baptism. but one of the boys just made it up on the spot and it was good. there were lots of RM in the branch, esp sisters and they kept giving me advice for the end of my mission and for when i get home and that really kind of freaked me out... but anyways president said to me in my PPI that he'd heard some fam was coming to pick me up and he said since i'm the only one going home that transfer that we can do some fun stuff... whatever that means? but ok this elder who served here in homestead elder stekling, he lives in bountiful but this girl in my ward here in homestad is dating him now and his fam came and picked him up.. so i had her ask him if he liked it and he said YES that he loved it and reccommended it so that makes me really glad you are going to be coming.. wait a second. who is even coming ? okay i've gotta go but looove you all so very much!! xooxoxxo
hermana call