January 18, 2016

Hi family!

First, I love you all. I'm so happy today. I mean, I'm chilling in the
car, outside of the library (the library is closed, so we're just
using the wifi, so pictures will come next week), listening to lds.org
music, on p-day, with my awesome comp. The weather is beautiful and I
just LOVE MY MISSION. You know? Sometimes life is just good! Anyway, I
had a boss personal study this morning that I will share at the end of
my email. But first! You wanna know what happened this week? Honestly,
I don't remember tons. But, we had zone conference and Elder Maynes of
the Quorum of the Seventy was here! He is an incredible speaker.  He
shared some mission stories, but I think my favorite part was when he
talked about culture and traditions. Choices become habits, which
become traditions, which become culture. You follow me? We have a
family culture, we have our own personal culture. And those are built
up of traditions. There are celestial traditions and false traditions.
So, what we need to do, is identify the false traditions in our
families, lives, missions, etc. Take them out, analyze them, and get
rid of them and replace them with celestial traditions. I really loved
all of the zone conference. Sister Berry spoke on just keeping moving
forward. President Berry spoke on happiness! Sister Maynes gave us
three things to really focus on:obedience, work ethic, and truly know
the Savior. Anyway, all very good. Oh, I met our WML. His name is
Hermano Silva and he's pretty fuerte, but I like him. He just loves
missionary work! Well, I really can't think of anything too terribly
exciting, mostly because I just want to tell you all about my study
this morning!

Lately, I've been thinking about things I might not really want to do again. Which became things I
NEVER want to do again. I was talking his out with
Sister Moody and she was basically like, look, I think if the Spirit
says to do something, you do it. I love her. So, I was thinking this
morning, like, I don't think anime is inherently bad, but I want to
give up a lot of it. But then, I was thinking, I really don't want to
give up full metal alchemist. I love that show. But, here's the thing.
I need to be willing to give anything and everything that the Lord
asks. "I know in whom I have trusted" (2 Ne. 4:19). And trusting in
God is being willing to sacrifice anything. And, honestly, it's not
really a sacrifice. Because God only asks us to do things that will
ultimately make us happy. Guys, this was a breakthrough this morning.
Why watch something when you could make memories? I'm not saying
watching things is bad. You all know I love film. But also, why watch
crap when you could watch something good? So, unless the Lord tells me
it's okay at some later time, I'm done with anime completely. And He
might? He might give the okay for FMA or something. But if he doesn't,
I'm willing to give all those shows up forever. And I'm SO HAPPY!!!
So,  I'm not going to tell you what you can and cannot do. You
have agency. Right now, mom and dad make some of the decisions. But,
eventually, you'll be on your own, making every choice, pretty much.
You have to make yours. It doesn't have to be mine. But, all of you, I challenge you to
do some soul searching this week. What are you willing to give up?
What are you willing to do to sanctify yourselves? The Lord will only
ask us to do things that will ultimately lead to happiness. I CAN'T
TELL YOU HOW HAPPY I AM!! :D President Hinckley shared a story in a
conference talk back in 1973 that had a quote, "It's true, isn't it?
Then what else matters?" Find a way to more fully sanctify your lives
this week! :)

Please pray for Amparo, she's getting baptized this week. And also for the
Vega family. And that the Angeles family will come to church. I love
you all so much!! Make it an awesome week.

Love,
Hermana Gneiting

January 11, 2016

Hey fam!  So...what happened this week?  Oh!  First of all, COULDN'T BE HAPPIER FOR ZAK!!  CONGRATS DUDE!!!  Also, Zak, thanks for the email.  Don't have time to email, but I will write you a letter.

So, this week.  Amparo had her baptismal interview and she passed and she's amazing.  She's getting baptized on the 21st.  YAY!  Oh, we also teach this adorable family.  The Angeles family.  The parents are less active and the kids are not baptized.  We teach the mom and the kids.  The mom listens and more or less understands, but we teach in English.  Anyway, this week we taught the ten commandments using little hand signals that Hna. Moody learned from a kid in Windy Ridge and we wrote the commandments on poster board that we cut out to look like stone tablets.  That's when I accidentally cut my hand with the knife.  Anyway, I love that family. Oh!  And the nine year old boy is named Jared!  :D  Um, what else happened.  Oh!  Shortly after the crane picture, we start walking away and the crane starts to walk in our general direction veeeeerrry slooooowwwwly.  But Hna. Moody has it in her head that the crane is following us.  She doesn't really like those birds.

I don't really know what else happened.  Oh, something else about Amparo.  She has two birds, four cats, and nine chihuahua puppies and four dogs.  The dogs are outside, but the rest are in her house.  The puppies are cute, but her house smells pretty terrible.  That's SO MANY ANIMALS!!

Gotta go. No time.  LOVE YOU!!!!  Go read Pres. Monson's thought from Jan. 2012 Ensign. It's great.

Love,
Hermana Gneiting

January 4, 2016

Helloooooooooo!!

This week.  Wow.  So, Tuesday, we had transfers.  I am now in Valencia!!  With Sister Moody!  She. Is. BOSS!  Her Spanish is crazy good!  She's super positive (which I need, because I've been kind of grumpy lately).  And she is SUCH a good teacher!  Guys, my comp is fantastic.  I'm really excited to learn from her.  So, Tuesday we also saw this investigator that's getting baptized on the sixteenth.  She's so sweet!  Also, she has no teeth, so it's a little hard to understand her.  But she had teeth on Sunday, so now it's a little easier.

Um, let's see, Wednesday.  Oh!  We had district meeting!  Hermana Webb and Hermana Jones are in my district!  It's kind of crazy, but it's nice to see them again. Sister Jones always makes me smile. :)  Um, what else?  Oh!  We got two new investigators!!  One of them Spanish speaking!  We don't know how solid they are, but it was all through door knocking and contacting, which was good, because that's kind of hard for me to do.

Thursday we biked for about two hours because we got lost. By the end of the day, we were reeeeeeeeeeally saddle sore. Also, we had the biggest dinner and I muscled it all down.  I was quite impressed.  It's so hard to eat everything Hispanics give you.  They serve MASSIVE plates and then...you eat it all.  Even if you're a tiny human being. Oh, we cycled to and from that dinner as well.  Part of the way. Oh, and my comp BIFFED it.  She scraped up her knee pretty bad, but no major harm done.

Friday was weekly planning and we saw Amparo again.  She's the great investigator with no teeth.

Saturday. Oh wow. Well, the morning started off kinda rough and the day ended with us being locked out of our car for about 2 1/2 hours and having to be saved by the vehicle Coordinator, Elder Zechiel.

Sunday was good!  And cold.  I bore my testimony in Sacrament Meeting.  We saw some more amazing people!

I have no more time, but I LOVE YOU ALL!!!  I'll try to send pics.  My companion is amazing and I love her tons!  She's also from Mesa.  Also went to Mountain View.  Bleh.  It's fine, she's great. :)  LOVE YOU!!!

Love,
Hermana Gneiting

December 28, 2015

FAMILY SHMERGS!!!

Wow, today was a day!  Started with some good personal study all about the Savior and Christmas and I read Luke 2. Really good.  HTen, Hermana Shelley and I opened our gifts from each other. I gaver her a Rubik's cube (that's what she wanted), a jounral (with some nice things her family and friends wroter about her inside), and some Ninja Turtle wristbands.  She's never seen Ninja Turtles, but for some reason, she thinks they're cool... She gave me the Leonardo wristband. :)  And she gave me the pens I LOVE and this awesome moleskin journal I'm writing in.  It's Star Wars.  I love it.  Then, we open the door to leave for District Meeting and there are these two bags!  They were from the Halladay's!  They gave my comp and I pringles, oreos, Star Wars fruit snacks, Star Wars pj pants, Star Wars band aids, and gave me a swiss chocolate bar and my comp a big bag of m&ms.  She loves m&ms.  So, anyway, then we go to District Meeting. That was pretty fun.  We worked on Christlike attributes and what, as a companionship, we needed to work on.  Oh! Before district meeting, I got Dani's gift! :) It was peppermint shower gel from Bath and Body Works!  It smells soooooo good.  Anyway, from District Meeting, we go to Hermana Deng's restaurant and we shared "He is the Gift" with her and her daugher and she fed us.  Wow! THe food was way good! Then, we head on over to HErmana Tomincobu's. Oh, and HErmana Deng gave us each a bag of goodies, but we already have a TON of sugar, so we re-gifted them... So, we gave one to Hermana Tominobu, because we knew she was planning on getting us gifts, and we just love her to pieces. And we wrote her a card beforehand, too.She had a super cool miracle for her day!  A cop just pulls up to her at a light, gives her $100 and says, "Merry Christmas!"  There is not a better person he could have given that gift to.  Anyway, she gives us little notebooks and journals, and pens, and thank you cards. OH, and there's a set of cards and my jounral that have a "G" on the front!  For Gneiting! :) She is so sweet!  And we read Luke 2 and sang Christmas carols.  We stopped by the Ordinola's at 5, but found out they were expecting us at 7 with the Dlers, so we had to send quick text to the assistants, asking if it was okay.  They said just this once. :)  So, we had some time, so that's when we decided we would see Bill and Alfredo. Basically, we told them that Bill needs to go on a mission and Alfredo needs to get baptized.  They're all for the other person doing the thing, but neither of them want to budge. But Bill said that he's go on a mission if Alfredo got baptized.  So, you know, we'll see.  They want to know our first names and we said we'd tell them if they came to church.  Side note, THEY DID!  We're just pretty bold and sassy with them.  We let them know what's up.  And it's fun to see them rag on each other.  Like, Bill will defend the church until he's blue in the face.  Anyway, then we go back to the Ordinola's house.  I decide to FaceTime my family and 7:30, so I sit there with Lino, HErmana Shelley and the Elders for about a half hour.  Then, I go upstairs, call on the phone, get FaceTime up and running, and there we were!  Hermana Shelley left and I chatted with my family.  Daddy and Zak were gone when I first called, but they were there within minutes.  I opened and closed with a personal and family prayer, and I'm SO glad I did.  I honestly don't remember much of what we talked about, but it was so nice to see them!  And Devon skyped in at 8 and Dani did, too!  It was super fun to see them all.  I got a little emotional when I first called and when I saw Dev and then it was tough when I had to say goodbye.  [And then, I read the email mom sent me. :) ] That was comforting.  I was okay once I got downstairs again, but I cried for the little bit afterward.  I was praying and crying a bit and I prayed that I could keep it together enough to go downstairs, and be with people again.  I was able to be okay after that.  I talked about what my family said for awhile, though.  Hermana Shelley said every five minutes or so, they could hear me, I was so loud.  Oh, well.  They couldn't make out any words, though.  I had some food, too.  I got a slice of pan de jamon. It's DELICIOUS!  And we had apple pie, too.  And then, the Ordinola's gave us each a gift before we left.  Orlando Nike shirts!  The Elders' are red with a white Nike swoosh.  Hermana Shelley and I got black ones with a highlighter yellow/green Nike swoosh. Ours are cooler.  And they make us look skinnier!  Wooo! Anyway, we came home, did some really quick daily planning, and opened some gifts!  I opened my pj's and tried them on.  They're suuuuuper cozy.  And they came with socks, too!  I love them.  And then, we each (my comp and I) opened 2.  I opened the other two from my fam!  I got a skirt that I LOVE and an awesome Star Wars shirt! I couldn't be happier.  My pj's are super comfy.  I'm writing in my new journal with my new pen. I have peppermint and mint oreos.  And I get to open more gifts tomorrow!  I'm very, very happy.  Yeah, I miss home and yeah, it's not the same, but I'm definitely happy. Oh!  And I got a hyperbole and a half calendar, too!  For 2016! :) Good day.  Love my family.  Glad I'm out on a mission.

Wow, that was long and I really don't have much time.  But Christmas was good!  Thank you for the gifts!!! :)  I love my calendar!  We had Christmas breakfast with the Samayoa's and we had waffles and buttermilk syrup.  They were so good.  Love you all!  

Love,

Hermana Gneiting :D