LAST WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My last week in the mission field was a week of miracles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I loved it so much!!!!

Monica. So we were out walking on Tuesday. I felt inspired to go down a street, we contacted 2 very not interested people. Then out of nowhere this girl came up to us and said,"Sisters! I have been looking for y'all! My family was taught in North Las Vegas, and we moved here, and don't know where the church is." It was such a cool miracle! We got a return appointment, and she was super excited!!!!

Jaime and family. We street contacted a guy on Thursday before correlation. He didn't seem super interested. So anyway, later that night we got a call. It was Jaime, he said,"Sisters. My family and I have been praying for a church. When you stopped me in the street I didn't even realize that you were an answer to my prayer. Please come by my home on Saturday, and we would like the information to come to church." Then guess what!!!!!!!!!! They showed up to church on Sunday! They really liked it! It was so amazing!

Juan. We were in a sketchy part of our area. The guy was outside and smoking. He started crying and told us that he wanted to stop smoking. I testified that Christ could help him overcome his addiction, I taught him about the word of wisdom. At the end of the lesson he leaned in and kissed me on the cheek...(I put hand-sanitizer on my cheek afterwards..... hahaha)

Enrique. We came out of a lesson at 8:50pm. As we were walking to our car, something caught my eye. I turned around a little bit, and then I saw a guy waving at us. I started talking to him (more like yelling back and forth) and walking toward him. He invited us right in!!!! It was such a cool miracle. We set an appointment for the next day!

Church was amazing this week!!!!! We sang a special musical number, and it was awesome! Plus when I gave my testimony the 1st councilor (Gonzalez bestie) cried. I loved my time in Montebello!!!!!!!! It is such an amazing ward. I have felt so much love here, and I have seen so many miracles.

Villalobos quote of the week: "Hermano what position do you play in soccer?" "Water boy...."

We were served alcohol at dinner this week.......That was fun..... #wordofwisdomfail

We had a super busy week!!!!!!!!!! It was crazy! Also my bestie Espinosa is literally sitting right behind me right now! I love her!

I can't believe my mission has come to an end. It has been the hardest and best 18 months of my life thus far. I am so grateful for all the amazing people who have come into my life! I have learned to become more like Christ these past few months, and how to go with the flow. :) I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ!!!

Quiero compartir mi testimonio de que Nuestro Padre Celestial nos ama! El nos conoce, y que el tiene un plan por nosotros! Estoy agradecida por Jesucristo! El es mi Salvador y Redentor! No quiero escirbir mas, pero, voy a compartirlo cuando regreso a casa! Les quiero muchisimo!!!!!!!!!!

<3 Hermana Cordova

The elders bought me a pinata!!!!!!!!!! I love them!

Ending the Mission with a BANG!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cannot even believe it! I only have one more full week of being a missionary!!!! I am mentally and spiritually not prepared. We have been so busy this past week that I haven't had time to do anything other than work!!!! It has been awesome! For the first time in forever, we found 7 new investigators!!!!! It was the most boss thing ever!!! We found some really elect people, and they were so willing to listen to our message!

Hugo told us about his wild past, and how one of his friends mom had an ice cream truck. Hugo and his friend played Pink Floyd, and some hard rock band, while selling ice cream. I just about died laughing, because Stark and I had just talked about what music we would play if we drove an ice cream truck. My answer was hipster music, and then all the hipsters would be lured out of their hipster lairs...Hahaha.

One of our new investigators is a waitress that I met last transfer at the Pupusa Loca!!! It was so cool, because I totally recognized her!!

I watched HGTV at the Doctors office on Wednesday......I have to be very careful to not get sucked into the Property Brothers show when I get home.....

"The Bishop is the prophet".-False doctrine Oscar "Just like the brother said, the bishop has the priesthood just like the prophet. He receives revelation for the ward, and the prophet receives revelation for the world." Oh man.....Members...

"Lucifer era bien guapo"-Random lady in a street contact. I was just like.....uhhhh. what.

I called David Archuleta, David Enchillada......I was sleep deprived.

We almost got to teach Lazaro the candy man! He has a candy shop in his garage. The hot Cheetos were very tempting, but I stayed strong, and didn't buy any.

Cindy Machado got her mission call! I totally crossed the line to go see her open it!!!! She is going to Portugal!!! I am so excited for her! She is going to rock mission life! Her mom made Atole, and Quesadilla Salvadorean! My two favorite foods!!! I was so happy to be able to spend that special moment with a family that I have gotten so close to!

"So you're a coconut. You look brown, but you are actually white on the inside"-Jaime (Less active). This was the first time I've been called a coconut.

Stark got chased by a vicious rat dog. I thought she was going to die. Hahahaha.

We saw a lot of miracles this week! We worked hard, stayed focused, and Heavenly Father let us find people to teach! It has been a blast! Crazy busy, but amazing!!!!

Today our district got to go to Nellis Air Force Base! It was so cool! We got tons of pictures, I'll put them in the email!!!! I love my mission, I have met so many amazing people! Tomorrow I get to go through the temple with my alta vista bestie Jessica! I can't wait! This is the perfect way to end my mission! Who know what will happen this week! I believe in miracles, and I believe in the power of God to change lives! I cannot wait!

Also check out the christmas.mormon.org website, it is adorable!!!

I love y'all see ya soon!!!!

<3 Hermana Cordova

Te Damos Gracias!!!!! #diadegracias #givethanks

Oh man! It is late today! We had to go to Henderson to get my ipad fixed. Shocker, right before going home it decides to randomly die on me! We got to walk around a cute mall called Times Square. We had a blast, window shopping for days!! We finally got my ipad fixed, and then we went to the post office. Huge mistake. I have learned to never go to the post office so close to Christmas..... Longest wait of my life. Hahaha. After buying groceries, and replacing my broken watch all is well in the world again! Busy busy day!!

HUGO GOT BAPTIZED!! It was amazing!!!! He said,"This is the most exciting thing that I have done in 50 years!!!!!" He was so excited and happy, a bit nervous, but he was so ready to start his new life!!! It has been amazing to work with him these past 3 weeks! He was so prepared by our Heavenly Father! His family is also preparing to to be baptized as well, they just didn't feel ready at this moment! :)

We had a great Thanksgiving. Crazy to think that it was my second and my last!!!! We had a delicious dinner with our landlords, we got to meet the whole family, plus we got pumpkin pie!!!!! Then at 8pm we got a call from the Villalobos. They invited us to come over for "Mexican thanksgiving". When we showed up to the house I saw two bikes. I was like,"Sister.....Those look like elders bikes". Sure enough, we walked in and two English elders were sitting there eating. They had stopped to street contact Hugo, and he invited them to eat! Man! I love that guy! He is amazing!!!!

Villalobos Quotes:
"I am just a little mexican with a big testimony"-Hugo
"Please help me to love reading the book of Mormon, even though I hate reading"-Erick
"That was not a smart level joke, that was a bad mexi joke".-Hugo
"Is that a turkey.......My bad. I meant to say Superman". Me to Jonathon (he is 5...)
"Read with your heart mijo"-Hugo "Naw man, I have to read with my eyes"-Chewie
"Wait. He got baptized in the Michael Jordan?"-Chewie
"He didn't say Jesus' name, he has to get baptized again."-Jesus "Story of my life"-Hugo (he had to get baptized twice, because he didn't tell Bro. Gonzalez his whole name)

Our landlords gave us a whole pumpkin pie, and a Christmas tree for our apartment!!!!!!!!! They love us! :)

We made 4 dozen cupcakes for the baptism on Saturday!!!! I was in charge of frosting them!!!! It was a blast! I got really good at it! Hahahaa. Everything went well, except for the baptismal clothes scare. Oh man. I was freaking out! We had about 35 people at the baptism!!! A lot of people from El Rancho came! Man, I love and miss those people!!! It was an amazing spirit filled baptismal service. Chewie (another investigator) had tears streaming down his face after Stark and I sang a special musical number!! We also got asked to sing in sacrament meeting my last week! :)

It was a long week because of Thanksgiving, it felt like an extended-extended weekend. It was a hard week to be a missionary. The closer to the holiday season the crabbier people get. It is so weird!!!!! We did meet a couple cool people this week though!

At church an old lady stopped me in the hall and said,"Please tell me you are not a missionary." I was like, "Hermana. I am serving here in the ward...." "You are beautiful!!!!!!!!! I really want you to marry my grandson. He is super cute, and he just got back from his mission in Brazil! He speaks Spanish, English, and Portuguese." I made awkward eye contact with him.....I quickly walked away from the awkwardness......

Ellie is going to be serving in Houston Texas East mission!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe it! She texted me when she opened it! "Welp, I guess she'll never have to worry about member present lessons."-President Snow. Omg. Hahaha. True story.

It was a great week! I am trying not to think about what will happen in 2 weeks. It is scary to think that I will no longer get to be a full time representative of Jesus Christ. I can't imagine going back to real life. It is so hard to think about leaving the Nevada Las Vegas Mission, a place I love so much, and people that I have grown so close to! I am grateful for this amazing opportunity to be serving!!!! I will cross the whole "going home" bridge when I get there. For now I am just staying focused, and working hard! :)

Also! I would love to invite y'all to check out this website. A Savior is Born!! It is a super cute reminder of the true reason for Christmas! I love y'all!!! See ya in 2!!!!!!!!!!!!

<3 Hermana Cordova

Such A Good Start!!!! Montebello Life!!!!!!!

This week we were proselyting in an apartment complex. We saw the english elders and talked to them for a little bit. They cracked a super funny joke that I want to share with y'all. "See all these doors sisters? We are teaching all of them......Just the doors though because the people behind them haven't opened yet!" Hahahaha.

I gave a thirty minute training at district council about personal study! I made cute handouts, and it was pretty boss. I woke up at 5:30 two days before the traning with a bunch of ideas running through my head!!!! It was such a fun and different training to give.

We went to the police station in North Las Vegas to file a missing wallet report for Stark. It took forever, and in the end there was nothing they could do for her. Fun stuff. I did get to watch the news for a bit, scary stuff....

I thought I got a rash from the gloves we used at service this week! It was just Doritos dust from the ones I had a lunch....Hahaha. Awkward.

We taught the law of chastity twice in one night. It was hilarious both times. "Dang, bro how many wives do you want"-Erick to Leo. Then we had a 16 year old recent convert teach it to us. He was mumbling, and I made him repeat it by saying,"No puedo escucharle bien. Repitirlo otra vez por favor." I love working with teenagers.

A guy we street contacted shared his wheel chip things with us! He was super nice!!! We have also been using the restoration in every street contact! We have gotten into 3 houses this week, as soon as we met them to share the message! It was such a blessing! So we now have a very nice teaching pool!!!

My ward mission leader, Gustavo, served with Kristy Beckett! The Mormon world is so small. Gustavo is the best! He chooses to go to lesson with us over the elders!!!! Which is super cool, because when I first got here he wouldn't even talk to us. Being bold, and persistent has gotten us in good with him!!!

We like to walk every morning by the temple, it is so beautiful. As we were walking back down the hill one morning I had the uncontrollable urge to do the macarena. Stark did it with me! It was so fun! Then later that night we were invited to the youth thanksgiving party, and the song started. I totally danced the macarena with the young women......I rocked it.

We were at dinner one day and the sister placed two cups of thick brown liquid next to both of us. She said something about gravy for the mashed potatoes. I dumped it on my potatoes, and then she came back with gravy. I got really worried as to what I poured on my potatoes. I tasted it......I had chocolate mole tasting mashed potatoes......Hahaha. Oops.

This week I had a really humbling experience at dinner. There is a single sister in the ward who signed up to feed us and the elders. We were talking with her, and found out that she is going through a really hard time with her health, and monetarily. I literally went to the car and cried. I was so humbled by the love she has for the missionaries, that she would take what little she has to give us a nice meal. I was so amazed at the sacrifices that she was willing to make for us. Seriously, I cannot even express the love and admiration I have for her, and her example to me.

The Villalobos are a family we are teaching right now. Hugo came to a baptism this week, and is sure that he wants to be baptized!!!!!! They told us that they have an extra room, because they hate to see us leave. They told us that we bring such a strong and special spirit into their home. I really feel like I was sent to Montebello to teach this family. They are so amazing, and I was able to connect with them after the first lesson!!!!! They are my besties. And the champorado that Sandra makes is divine! :) It's a good life!!!!

So last week I was asked to translate for the stake primary presidency. I translated from Spanish to English for them. I just sat behind them and translated as the ward primary program went along. Then Saturday night we got a call from one of the stake high council men. He was calling for me. One of the members of the bishopric recommended me to translate for Stake Conference. They were really hard pressed for women translators. One had moved out of the stake, another was out of town, and one of the other ones just had surgery. I told them that it is hard for me to translate from English to Spanish, because English is my first language, and it comes more naturally. I started fasting Saturday night, I prayed that they could find someone else. No such luck. I was led to the translation room, I listened as 3 different brothers translated, I prayed the whole time. Finally it was my turn. As I listened to the speaker I was amazing. My mouth was open and I was translating right in time with the speaker. There were no notes, nothing to go off of. Just listening and translating. It was amazing!!!! Bro Valez was super impressed because it was my first time translating for a whole congregation! I ended up translating 2 talks, and the closing prayer. They called me the "soprano". haha. I know that Heavenly Father was helping me, I could not have done that translation without Him!!!

Favorite street contact of the week:
They wouldn't stop talking about football. I told them "hey. I know you love football. I do too, but I am here to talk about something that I love. It is even better than football." I bore my testimony and the spirit was so strong. But then they rejected us and told us that they were not interested. It is amazing to see how the following the spirit has made me a lot more bold with people. I would have never had the nerve to do that when I first came out to the mission.

It was a great week! Tons of miracles!!!! I love Montebello! It has made me grow and stretch, and has taught me to get outside my comfort zone!!! I love this place! Plus the central stake has the best missionary minded stake president I have ever met! I love being a missionary! I love the Lord!!!! It such a privilege and honor to be out here representing Him!!!! Also, today is national Bible appreciation day!!!! I love the Bible, I know it is the word of God! I have learned so much about my Savior as I have read it!

I hope y'all have an amazing Thanksgiving!!!!! We all have so much to be grateful for! This gospel is one of them!!!!! I love y'all!!!!!!!

<3 Hermana Cordova

Loving Life in Montebello!!!!

So this week was BOMB!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am seriously in love with Montebello!!!! It has been a blast!!! We walk a ton, like more than I did with Espinosa, which I didn't know was possible. We talk to 30 people pretty much everyday, and we are teaching a golden family. Also I have made member besties with people that haven't liked the sisters the past few transfers! :)

Last pday I loaded all my stuff into the car, and we took it over to my new home. All the Spanish sisters in the mission were congregated in "the closet". So it was Espinosa/I-Ensign, Gregson/Schatt-Los Feliz, and Allen/Stark Montebello. Yup....There are only 3 spanish sisters areas.... Also, "the closet" is my new home, it is an itty bitty studio apartment. It has grown on me, it's a lot different than the Ensign castle I used to live in. Hahaha. #partyinthecloset

We were walking on my first full day in the area, we stopped to talk to a lady. Her name was Titi. She was also smoking marijuna, and was very forward about it. As we shared with her our purpose as missionaries, to bring people closer to Christ. She got super excited and gave me her phone, and told me to add her to instagram. So I added her on the official Instagram of the church, and a couple other ones that looked uplifting. She went on her way, and told us,"Y'all stay positive ya hear?" We said that we would, and walked away. That was my first Instagram contact....

Dog miracles:
We almost got attacked my a street gang of chihuahuas. Somehow they got totally distracted. Then a few minutes later we were knocking on a door, and we noticed a pit bull. It spotted us and started running towards us. I had a prayer in my heart, I started talking to it, and held out my hand. It's face totally changed and it licked my hand, and rolled onto it's belly. It was such a miracle!!!!!!!

I got called the b word in a street contact this week.....We talk to a lot of nice people, and a lot of really rude ones....

So we were walking down a busy street and we contacted about 15 people, I noticed that a lot of people were staring at us as they drove past in their cars. We continued walking and talking to people, then suddenly someone parked, and started walking towards us. Not going to lie....I was a little worried. Then the lady said,"Sisters!!!!!! I saw you contacting, and I just wanted to ask if I could have a Book of Mormon." Our car was parked pretty far way, so she drove us back to the car, and we got an English Book of Mormon for her, she is a recent RM that served in Nebraska. She wanted to give her friend the Book of Mormon, and her missionaries kept forgetting to give her one!!! It was a miracle, because if she had not noticed us talking to people, she would not have gotten the book for her friend, and we would have had to walk the long way back to the car! Haha.

I found two quarters this week!!!! #rich

We street contacted two old break dancers. They told us that break dancing is back in, and invited us to go to a show....Tempting. Defiantly tempting. hahaha.

We saw a lot a miracles this week. We were able to play nurse to a little boy who fell off his skateboard in the middle of the street, and scratched his leg. We were in the right place at the right time. We talked to a lot of people who were interested in the gospel....To bad they don't speak Spanish, we sent them to the English missionaries, and I'm excited to see what happens!

I've had my work cut out for me. The apartment was nasty, so I cleaned that for a couple days. And then I started working on organizing the area book and traveling area book. It has been fun. It is definitely keeping me focused. President told me that I'm a good organizer, and that is what this area needed. So I am working hard, staying focused, and I'm really happy. My companion is great, and she has been so supportive about my OCD cleaning, and reorganizing, so that is awesome! :)

Also! My friend Jessica Gomez got her mission call to the Kennewick Washington mission!!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy for her! And my friend Janice leaves to the MTC this week!!! I am so happy for them, and for their decision to serve our Savior Jesus Christ! :) It is the best decision in the world!

I love y'all! Choose the right!!!! Remember who you are! Jesus loves you!!!

<3 Hermana Cordova

Miracles and Blessings: Cesar Got Baptized

Transfers!!!! Guess who is not dying in East?! Yup, I am getting transfer trashed to Montebello in Central Las Vegas for my last transfer!!! I am so excited!!!!

As hard as my time has been in Ensign, I can honestly say I love this place. The members are amazing, I am so close to a lot of them. I now have two amazing recent converts here!!! Omar and Cesar! And so many more of my brothers and sisters that I love and have taught. I have learned that I am strong enough to do hard things, my testimony has been strengthened ten fold! I am grateful for my 4.5 months here. I wouldn't change my experience for anything. I've had a lot of trying moments, but I made it through, and that is what I am most grateful for! :)

We felt prompted to go and check on one my favorite families on Tuesday. When we knocked on the door, they looked depressed and sad. We were able to try to comfort and help them. This experience reminded me of one of my favorite scriptures in Mosiah 18:8-9, "And it came to pass that he said unto them:Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another's burdens, that they may be light; Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life". It has been a beautiful experience to comfort them everyday this week, and help them through this hard time. It's amazing how the Lord sends us to people right when they need us!!!!! We even used the street money we found this week to buy her a cheesecake, because it is her favorite dessert! :) Score!!!!

The other day while driving to an appointment I felt like someone was watching me. We had been waiting at a light for forever, and I looked over and made awkward eye contact with a guy in the car next to us. He started singing to me. I laughed, and thankfully the light changed and we drove away. Vegas man....

So on Friday I prayed for a recent convert who has been struggling to find a job. I prayed that she would be able to be given the opportunity to work. The next day when we stopped by she was super excited. She said as soon as we left she checked her phone, and she had received 2 job offers!!! Blessings! :)

"I brake for helotes"...My new bumper sticker. Too bad I've never seen a helote man in texas! :*(

We have gotten hot coco pretty much every day this week! Yay! :)

Cesar got baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was one of the most amazing days of my life! He was so ready and excited! Y'all! I know that the church is true. I have seen this man completely change his life. There is a light in his eyes that was not there before. It has been amazing to see him come unto Christ and leave behind his bad past! I wrote his story yesterday, we did it like an interview. So if y'all would like you can read it!!!! :)

I love y'all so much! I can't believe I'm going to see you in 5 short weeks!!!! It is going to be an amazing transfer! I have so much hope and faith that we will see tons of miracles!!!!!!! It's a good life!!!!!!

<3 Hermana Cordova

Cesar's Conversion Story!!!!

Cesar's story

My journey begins when I went to my dads baptism. The day that I went to my dads baptism, I saw a great change in my dad. Evidence that the Latter Day Saints in the ward Montebello, had made in my dad. I wanted to get closer to the church, and I wanted to listen to the elders who taught my dad. They were great people, who shined with the gospel light, almost Angelical. I started classes with them, and they taught me four times. One of my best friends took the lessons with me. However, the negative circumstances, like my best friends started pulling me away from the light. I found out later, something I didn't realize at the time, was that were all followers of Satan. #devilworshippers

They were able to pull me away for quite a while. I separated from my dad for about four months, because I got sucked into the lifestyle. Addictions. 

I realized that the best council,not the best things happened when I was with my dad, and we were praying together. My dad decided to move house, which resulted in us coming to the ensign ward. For the first time, the first moment I came on Sunday. After thousands of times of my father asking me to go with him, and I did t want to go. I felt a feeling of necessity to be united with my brothers. I felt like I needed to be a part of a family. I was feeling sad, and alone, like I was missing something. So when my dad said, "We need to talk to the missionaries." But first we talked to the bishop. He told us that we needed to talk to the sisters, Cordova and Espinosa. 

When I met them, the elder walker introduced us. And I started taking classes again. Two sister missionaries, simple, and charitable (joyful spirited). They always had a big smile on their faces. They started to give me my first class. When they visited I felt confirmation of what I felt before. In the middle of the lessons I started to notice the huge impact my friends were having on me. People that we supposed to be my true friends. I started to realize. That they did not want me to get baptized. As I started telling them that my baptismal date, it was if I was cussing them out. They reacted so negatively to the idea. I started to fully give myself to the feelings that the word of God gave me. I started to listen more to what I would call the spirit. It would tell me to stop smoking. And I felt my mother was there too, telling me to stop. To never forget how she died, which was because of her life long addiction to smoking.

I will never forget the night obispo's, Potts, and renteria, and my beautiful sisters brought me my cinnamon candies and treats so I could use them against the desire to smoke. And it helped to a certain extent but my baptism was right around the corner. I promised my mom that I would stop smoking before I got baptized, but unfortunately, the date came and I was not ready. I realized that if I got baptized then I would let my mom down, my dad down, myself, Jesus Christ, and my two amazing sisters. They were all in my mind all the time. I felt disappointed that I had not stopped smoking. I thought, if I am going to do this, I'm going to do it right. If I have to explain it to the bishop, or to my sisters. I didn't want them to think I was turning my back on the churns. I just wanted to be as clean and honest as I could be. That a another way that the enemy told me to forget the church. In the past I would have been a coward, and moved on and turned my back on everything.

I just had a feeling though, that the ensign ward is my family. And no matter what I felt, even if I felt embarrassed or ashamed. I needed to go the next Sunday to church, to take the sacrament, because I knew that was what was goi g to make me stronger. It was going to help me get close to what I have always wanted, to be baptized. And to get closer to all my bothers and sisters. And I did it!!!!!!! :) yay!!!!!!!!

The Heavens Opened Up And Rained Blessings....And Rain :)

This was amazing week!!!!

Drop Miracles

So we dropped all of our investigators a couple weeks ago because no one was keeping commitments, and progressing at all. It was a very very hard few weeks. Last Sunday, however, things started to change.

First off, Cesar came to church. It was like a movie. I was greeting people, and then I just hear Espinosa gasp and whisper,"Cesar is here." I turned around, and sure enough he was standing a couple feet away from me. I prayed and asked Heavenly Father to help me play it cool. Then he asked if we could meet with him this week, we set up an appointment for Monday night. We met with him, and he told us how the crap hit the fan after he didn't show up to his baptism. He literally lost everything. He told us how he realized that the Lord was blessing him so much, and how he had given up those blessings. So he apologized and said that he quit smoking a couple days after, but he was still feeling empty. That's why he ended up coming to church, because he remembered that we taught him that CPR (church, prayer, and reading) are essential to spiritual strength. He had been reading the Book of Mormon with his dad, and praying every night. He was so humble, and he bore his testimony to us. So he is getting baptized this weekend, we've taught almost all the lessons again, and we've been finding some awesome fellowship for him! It has been an amazing journey for him! I am so excited! This time I really feel a difference, he is putting the lessons first, and making sure that he invested in the classes at church, and he is showing that this is what he wants. He is walking, not being pushed into the waters of baptism! And THAT makes all the difference.

Then on Tuesday we got a text from Rosa. I love Rosa, she is such a sweet lady. She told us that she missed us, and that she had been reading the Book of Mormon. She asked us when she could get baptized. She says not having us come to her house, made her realize that we bring a strong spirit, and feeling of love into her home. It was really cool! Also Debbie, a little girl we were teaching called and said,"Sisters. We need you to come back." My testimony of dropping has been strengthened, it's amazing how the Lord softens people's hearts,especially when we stop visiting them for a while!!! 

President and I met on Tuesday, and he bought our lunch! I love him so much. Then we went to Wendy's for district lunch on Wednesday. A west mission member bought it for us! He became our new bestie, because the elders were really late. Dumb elders.....

Ensign ward had its first Ward Rescue this week!! It was amazing. We went on splits with members from the relief society presidency. The first person we visited was a recently reactivated member, and her non-member mom (who I taught for a few weeks) who just so happened to be home for 1 day, before leaving again! That was definitely a miracle!!! Then we visited a less active family. They let us right in, we sang "Soy un Hijo de Dios". The little girls were so excited, and when we were leaving the 8 year old said,"Sister Cordova. Thank you so much for coming. You made my night so much better!!" <3

Exchange Miracles

So as most people know, I loath exchanges. I love staying in my area, with my companion, and do my own thing. I have to say though, this exchange might have been my favorite of all time. I went to the English STL area, we had to move it to Friday because of my meeting with President, so that was a little unusual.

We didn't have dinner that night, and we were running a little ahead of plans. The STL decided to go street contacting with the extra time that we had. She wanted to go to a little area, but it didn't feel right to me, so I recommended another street. While there we talked to a guy who wasn't interested, but that gave us just enough time to street contact Yolanda. She was carrying very heavy looking Walmart bags. So I asked if she needed help, she said no, but I could tell she was tired and the bags were to heavy for her. So I grabbed one, and we started walking with her. We explained our purpose, and she let us right into her house. I have never felt the spirit so strong in a lesson before. I testified of God's love for her, and how she can find strength through him. We both cried, and at the end she told us that she had been feeling alone, and hopeless. We brought a little light and hope into her life, just when she really needed it.

The STL's literally had no food in their house. So I told her,"We are going to my place." I used the extra house key, and she was shocked to see our fridge was full of food. I was like,"We are Spanish missionaries.....We need to eat." So we ate tamales a member had given us, and brownies that we won by having a clean house! By the way, Sister Espinosa and I won the "Dad Clean Award" for having the cleanest condo in the mission!!!! (our inspector is very obsessive compulsively clean. So that's why it's such an honor) Holla at your girl!!!! We are so proud!! "Being cleanly helps you feel the spirit more." #truth

Then that night our appointment fell through. The member recommended that we stop by a less active in the same complex. As we were talking to her, I realized that I know her. We figured it out. Almost exactly a year ago, her daughter ran up to us in the apartment complex parking lot. She gave us a huge hug, and yelled,"Missionaries". We street contacted her, and found out that she was going to Alaska to get baptized by her best friend, but that Elders Nish and Bunch taught her all the lessons. Now she is married to a return missionary, she is fully active in the church, she does baptisms at the temple every week (since her baptism :)), and she is pregnant!!! :) I seriously cried! Man, I was a cry baby this week. The spirit was so strong as I testified to her of Heavenly Fathers plan for us. It was too much a miracle to be called a mere coincidence. I know that I was on exchange that day for a reason, and that sister Cornia felt inspired to stop in on her. Amanda is amazing, it was such a blessing to see how much her life has changed, and the great blessings in her life since joining the church of Jesus Christ!!!

I also met grandma Jackie's doppelganger! I took a picture with her! She was awesome! :)

We preformed a miracle at service on Friday! I transformed the kitchen, it is so organized, clean and nice now, and Espinosa worked on the living room. Miracle workers yo.

We looked nice on Saturday for the mission Halloween Party, which we only do because they don't want us out on the street. We were out proselyting, and a guy stopped us. He wasn't interested, but he asked us to look for someone. "If you find a God loving woman. Willing to marry a guy who's been to hell and back, a man who would die for her, send her my way. I would choose one of you...But you'd have to cook Mexican food." We didn't find anybody, obviously, because we are not a missionary dating service....We also walked the long way back to the car.... 

I got charged by a stray pit bull this week. I started talking to it sweetly, and then I just petted him and walked away. Yay! Ministering angels man....

Church Halloween party miracle. A member we love gave us a referral to see her friend. Her friend was at the part as well! We introduced ourselves, and we set a return appointment. The crazy thing is, we had gotten that family as a referral from one of their neighbors earlier in the week! They haveto be golden! :)

Cici's miracle. No it was not just the amazing stuffed crust pizza that they had, although I'm in love with it. A guy approached us and said,"My family is looking for a church. Where do you go." We gave him the information, and he said they would be going on Sunday!!! I'm excited to see what happens!!!!!!! :) 

Then the last miracle of the week. It rained on Wednesday. We also happened to be out walking both times it happened. We got totally drenched twice....BUT we didn't get sick at all, I had a fever the night of, but it went away quickly!!!

It was a good week, lots of walking, lots of talking to people, and we saw tons of miracles. Obviously. This is the longest email of my life....

I love y'all! Never forget how amazing God's love for us is!!!!!!! He will never leave you helpless and alone. Angels are watching from above, and earthly angels are here to help you! Remember who you are, and who you represent! Have an amazing week!!!

<3 Hermana Cordova

Biking, Miracles, Blessings, and

We saw many many blessings this week.

So on Tuesday we had walked for miles and miles. I was exhausted,frustrated, and it was super hot. All of our appointments had fallen through, and we had knocked on a million doors. I was just at the point of giving up, when I looked down. I saw a $20 bill looking up at me from the street. It was dirty because it looked like it had been in a puddle when it rained last week. It was a once in a lifetime thing. Espinosa found a $5 bill right next to it. The crazy thing is, that we had walked that same street twice already!!! Heavenly Father sure knows how to get me motivated again! ;) hahaha. I stopped, and prayed to thank Him. Then went back to work with a smile on my face, and some pep in my step.

We rode our bikes all day on Wednesday. I filled my tires in the morning at the house. We ended up going back to the apartment to meet up with a member for a few minutes. I got the prompting,"Fill your bike tires." I was like,"Why? I already did it this morning. They are fine." So ignored the prompting. As we were riding up to dinner, Espinosa started riding faster than me. Which never happens. I'm always in the front and ride faster. I thought to myself,"Man. This is so hard. I can't possibly so tired that I can't ride a bike. It feels like I'm riding uphill on a flat tire." I got off my bike, and I saw that I was indeed riding uphill on a flat. So then we ended up walking the rest of the way to dinner. We walked our area all night, and then got a ride home with the STL's. It took a lot to call for help. I am a very prideful person, and I hate asking for help. But I remembered that President told me that I need to let people fulfill their callings, and serve me. So I sucked up my pride and called. Later that night, while walking for days, I found out that Espinosa ignored a prompting to bring her bike pump.....Hahaha. We are still learning how to listen and follow through on promptings from the Lord, obviously.

We street contacted a guy this week. He started yelling at us, and got really close to my face to scream. I really thought he was going to spit in my face. Thankfully he didn't, something happened, his face changed, and he just walked away. Miracles.

So on Thursday I woke up and I could barely hear anything. Then we had an all day meeting we had to go to. It was a blessing in disguise. If i didn't want to listen to someone, I would just lean on the ear I could kind of hear from, and pretend to listen. Hahah. I did get a little worried, so I talked to the mission president's wife, and got permission to go to the doctor. I went immediately after the meeting, and it literally took 2 hours, but I can hear now. Plus, it wasn't a double ear infection like I thought it was. After getting my hearing back, I had super hearing for 2 days...I guess I've been having problems for a while and just never noticed it. I literally heard everything. I could hear the cars on the street at night, and we live in the middle of the apartment complex....And I was able to share a little bit about the gospel with the nurse, and we became besties. She's awesome. Shout out to Gene from the Philippines.

We got followed on Friday night. We parked the car, and went walking so we could street contact the people in the area. We were pretty far away from the car, and I started to feel a little uneasy. As we continued walking to the people that we planned, the feeling got stronger. I told sister Espinosa and we turned around to walk back. We passed a lot of completely drunk people, and a lot of high people, and I was freaking out because the feeling of uneasiness kept getting stronger. Then when we were about 5 minutes from out car, and group of people passed us. One of the guys yelled out,"Hey girl. You single?" I shook my head, and continued walking. "Girl don't mess with me." He yelled. Then he started walking really fast after us, someone from his group pulled him back. I swear it was like an angel or something. We also passed a huge group of French tourist. It was super cool. They were nice, and they did not harass us. I am absolutely positive that the Spirit warned us to get out of that area. I'm so grateful for Heavenly Father's protection. Seriously.

Saturday we got saved by a mustang. We literally walked 4 miles, to get to a part of our area. When we finally got there, we knocked on a door, and no one answered. It was almost time to start our long trek back, but I felt like we needed to try a family that I contacted with sister Leete 3 transfers ago. So we knocked, and the teenage girl answered. She let us right in. She asked us a bunch of questions about Mormonism. We explained everything to her, and invited her to learn more. She was so excited!!!! So we are going to visit her and her friend (and hopefully her family) on Tuesday! It was such a miracle!!!!! After that awesome experience, we started the long walk back to the car. I prayed in my heart that Heavenly Father would send someone to pick us up, because I knew we would never make it to the next plans on time just walking. 5 minutes later a lady in an awesome silver mustang convertible pulled up next to us,"Sisters!! I want to give you a ride. You two are NOT wearing walking shoes." She told us she was a member, and we hopped right in. She saved us 30 minutes of walking, and we were able to contact a few more people before dinner!!

Also I got to see my Rancho besties, and the Rameriez from Alta Vista! <3 I love my mission, and all the amazing people that I've met! <3 <3 <3

So I just to let y'all know, I'm not giving up. I am happy. I know that the Lord loves me. I'm grateful for answered prayers. I know that prayer really does work! Sometimes it feels like He takes too long to answer them, but I know that He always will answer! This week was hard, but we had a lot of fun. We talked to a lot of people, we worked hard, and we were diligent. I'm so grateful for all the many miracles we saw this week!!! They were so awesome!

I love you all so so much! Have a great week!!!!!!!!

Tight Like Unto A Dish!!! :)

This week was MUCH better! I love you all! Thank you so much for your love and concern!!!! You are amazing amazing people! I am seriously so blessed to have y'all in my life!

So this week I learned a new way to describe the Spirit World, in the plan of salvation lesson!!! We were practicing our lessons with a member, and the daughter got really excited. "Omg. It's like Harry Potter! When they accept the gospel the people in prison can become wizards and go through the wall, to Hogwarts (paradise)." It was an eye opening moment for me.

So we walked a lot. We biked a ton. We knocked on a million doors. We talked to 170 people. Only ten of those people were interested, and they were all for the English missionaries. Struggle of my life. #spanishmissionaryinamerica #spanishmissionaryprobs

On Tuesday we knocked on the door of a potential investigator. A little boy answered the door and in Spanish said,"This is a catholic house." Espinosa,"That's nice. Can we talk to your parents." "They are praying." So we just walked away. That small child had been trained quite well...... #missionaryavoidencetactics

Then we got money for dinner on Tuesday. We decided to try a pizza place that was close, because we are cutting it close for miles this month. As we got out of the car, a little hispanic man on a motor scooter came up to us. In Spanish he said,"Movies, movies. I have movies. Only $5." I was like bro, we don't have any money, so then he left. Spanish lesson for the day,"No tengo dinero." Which is, "I don't have money", aka, theme song of my life! ;)

The theme of our companionship "Never Late to Dinner". We were at a meeting 45 minutes away, and somehow we made it to dinner with a minute to spare! Miracles!!!!!

So we were at dinner two days in a row, and the dumb elders showed up. We are not allowed to eat dinner with the elders, because of inappropriate relationships between elders and sisters in the past. It's no problem for me because the elders are DUMB and I don't really like them. Anyway. So I was looking through the Gymboree baby Christmas ad, and saw a super cute baby. I blurted out,"Awww....I want to marry a black guy so I can have a cute baby like this one, with curly hair." Then I made really really awkward eye contact with the black elder from the Dominican.......Then the second day, a member had a non-member friend over for dinner with us. She just so happens to be Dominican as well. She asked me if I had ever been, I of course said, no. She turns to the Elder and says. "Elder. You need to take her after your mission." All the missionaries just laughed super awkwardly.......I wanted to die.

I am making plans for Espinosa's wedding. I came up with the budget for both of our weddings. "Tight...Like unto a dish". #scripturequote

I met someone who is on the dancing ministry for her church!!! I want to dance for Jesus!!!!!!!!!!!! Ya know....If I didn't dance like a white girl.....

So that was my week. We still don't have any investigators, and we are working super super hard. It's kind of disheartening sometimes, but I take comfort in the fact that I am doing the best that I can. I know that our Heavenly Father knows exactly where the elect are, and He could lead me right to them. He trusts me enough to go to those neighborhoods were everyone is mean, and not interested. He trust me that I'm going to talk to the people that are scary looking, and try to be the best representative of Christ that I can be. He trusts me to work hard, even when I am exhusted, and don't think I can go on. I am grateful that He trusts me enough, to go through hard trials. It sucks yes, and teaching people would be nice, but I am happy. I am trusted, and I am HIS daughter, and He knows I'm giving my all. What more can I ask for?

I love y'all!!!!! Have a great week!!!!!!! Remember to choose the right! And to trust our Heavenly Father!!!!!!!!

<3 Hermana Cordova

The Universe Hates Me....Jilted at the Baptismal Font.....

So this was probably one of the worst weeks of my life. Literally.

So I'll start with some good stuff that happened earlier in the week, and then write about when the crap hit the fan.

So last Monday I woke up feeling really sad, for no reason. I tried to pretend to be happy, so I was smiling a lot when we went shopping. You know, "fake it till you make it". I said "good morning" to a lot of people in the 99 cent store. As I was taking the cart back, a guy stopped me and said,"I just feel like I need to tell you this, you are really pretty. Thanks for smiling." Then he walked away. I was super grateful for the compliment, seriously sometimes a nice word is all you need to completely change a persons day!!

Then Tuesday. I ate the dollar hummus I found on sale at smiths. I brushed my teeth before we left the house. Unfortunately, the smell kept getting stronger and stronger. I finally begged sister Espinosa to take me home to shower. I think she was secretly relieved, I seriously was a walking garlic bulb.......

Wednesday I had to use the bathroom sooooo bad. We were a mile away from our car, and far away from any of the people we planned to see. So we contacted this HUGE Hispanic family. The patriarch of the family was drunk, but I caught a glimpse of a old Hispanic lady inside. I asked to use their bathroom. It was super nice, and then I looked over and saw a Huggies wipe container covered in profanity..... People are so weird. #thugbaby

Thursday nothing really happened, I met a lady from Argentina who's name was Stephanie Cordova, before she got married! It was crazy! It was the day after my sister, Stefanee Cordova left on her mission!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Crazy!!!

Friday we walked 2.5 miles and I made Sister Espinosa role play with me. We rolled played dating scenarios, so she can be ready when she goes home. It worked out great, because there was literally nobody outside..... I have trained her well, she is ready for the dating world! hahah.

Sunday. We were walking out of our recent convert, Omar's house. We saw a giant spot light. Then we got pulled over by a police officer. Apparently we were walking too fast. Jk. They were doing a manhunt in the neighborhood we were in....... #eastside

So on Wednesday, we went to see Nacho, to plan his baptism. He was so excited. We felt prompted to ask about his living situation. Turns out his wife moved back in....So we canceled the baptism right there. I almost cried. It was heartbreaking. He was so close. I did get a little upset because he got mad at Espinosa (she was the bearer of bad news). I don't understand what is so hard to understand about the law of chastity...... Anyway. So that was the first heartbreak of the week. We are dropping him this week, because he didn't come to church again, he hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon, and he doesn't really understand the importance of our visits. I love him, so it's going to be hard, but I know it has to be done. Missionaries will find him again one day, and he will be willing and ready to LIVE the gospel in action , and not just in word.

We taught Cesar every single day this week. We followed up with the word of wisdom, and he said he didn't even have the desire to smoke! He had his interview, we planned the baptism, his family from the west mission said they would drive across town for the baptism!!! We were so excited! He was incredibly excited every single time we met with him. He was so ready to change his life, and start a new one through Christ. We showed up to the church on Saturday, a lot of our members came early! :) It was so awesome, and then we waited. I called him, and he said he was showering, but he would be on his way. The time past soooo slow. I called 30 minutes after, and said,"Cesar, your baptism is in 10 minutes, and you only live 5 minutes away, where are you?" He didn't answer. Then at 6:15, 15 minutes after the baptism we called again. His dad answered, "I'm so sorry sisters. He is not coming. He left to go on a walk. I don't think he is ready." And that was it. My little heart that had already been broken, was literally smashed into a million tiny pieces. My favorite people, the Machado's were there, they comforted us. I only cried a tiny bit (I'll explain why later). The ward members were super nice to us about it and very supportive. But our Bishop literally harassed us on Sunday 3 times, demanding to know why Cesar hadn't gotten baptized. (he didn't show up to the baptism either....) I almost had a mental breakdown the 3rd time. It was too much....He is a polo (don't translate that word....it's Samoan.....Tui taught it to me).

Then Friday night I got really really really really bad food poison. I threw up every hour starting at 6pm, until 6am. Every. single. hour. At a couple different points in the night I got on my knees and begged Heavenly Father to take the atrocious pain in my stomach away. I slept almost the whole day on Saturday. I was borderline dead. The mission doctor called me 8 hours after I texted him. He told me to take medicine, I told him I did and ended up throwing it up a few minutes later. He told me I was being a baby and to try harder to keep it in. He is heartless.

So I didn't eat for 38 hours, and I barely had any liquid left in my body, because I was sick from both ends, and then I got stood up at the baptismal font....I literally had no tears to cry (thanks food poisoning). I guess the food poisoning was a blessing in disguise.

So that was my week.........There is no moral to the story. Just that. I am on the verge of a mental breakdown. I am done. Plus I can still barely eat. Everything still makes me sick.What-freakin'-ever Satan.....

<3 Hermana Cordova

Guess What!!?? Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ Love YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

So Nacho and his "wife" broke up. We began our lesson, and he told us what happened. It was super sad, but it was a long time coming. He has been cracking jokes about how he has to find a nice "Mormon woman to marry", those jokes were of course made all throughout conference. Oh Nacho.... I really liked something he said after conference though. He said,"I just feel so much love and joy. I want my family to feel it. I wish I could convince them to just come, and feel the spirit here. I know that this is the true church. I am sad that I am having to travel this journey on my own right now, but I hope that one day they will see how happy I am, and follow me." 

This week was a week of apologies. I had to apologize for being a brat to the elders. It's hard to be nice to them, because they act like dumb little boys sometimes. However, I know they are representatives of Jesus Christ, just like me, and I need to treat them as such. 

We taught Cesar the word of wisdom on Monday, so then he spent the week trying to quit smoking. We invited the elders quorum president to the lesson on Wednesday. He was super late, so we ended up just teaching another lesson. Finally he shows up, and he brought the obispo, and another brother! It was perfect! They were able to give him a priesthood blessing, to give him strength to quit smoking. The other brother is a gringo, who served his mission in Kentucky, the tobacco capitol of the world. He gave him a bunch of tips, like using cinnamon, because apparently if you eat cinnamon products and then smoke, it makes a nasty taste in your mouth. The next day we came to the lesson armed with cinnamon gum, cinnamon candies, and other cinnamon stuff. Hahaha. 

"I'm addicted to chocolate and tacos". -E.Q. President. Then he invited us to go and eat taco's with his family! He called us at 8:30, and we met a taco truck! My life was changed forever. I might be a taco addict now!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They were the best street taco's of my life!!! "Look. Have you ever seen a sad person eating taco's. No!!! Taco's make people happy!" Hahaha. 

I met a guy named Bacon this week. That was cool. 

General Conference was amazing! I received so much personal revelation! I have been a little worried about what I am going to do with my life after my mission. A lot of those questions and concerns that I had, have been put to rest, which is a blessing!  

I am grateful for this amazing work! I am so happy that 2 of my beloved brothers will be entering into the waters of baptism this Saturday! I love Cesar and Nacho so much. I have learned a lot about the grace of Christ the last couple months. Because of Christ we can literally change who we were, and because better people. We can overcome addictions, and temptations. The grace of Christ covers all the children of men, we are all God's children. I am grateful of the love that our Eternal Father has for us, it is a great blessing to serve Him, to represent Him, and to help people change their lives through Him!

Have a great week y'all!!! Les quiero! I am praying always for you!!!! <3 <3 <3

<3 Hermana Cordova

This Week was Amazing!!!!!!!!! Street Elotes, Transfer News, and Miracles

I'm going to be a grim reaper!!!!!! That's right y'all the Lord has heard our prayers, and team Espinosa-Cordova are staying together for another 6 weeks! I'm literally so happy!!!!!! It's going to be a great transfer!

Miracle of the week:
So we started teaching the most amazing investigator ever last week. His name is Cesar. We were talking to him and his dad after the lesson, and found out that Fransisco (his dad) got baptized a year ago in another Spanish ward. We called an elder that served there a year ago. He was kind of rude to us at first. We told him that Fransisco wanted to get in contact with him, and his whole attitude changed. Turns out that he was told that Fransisco had died after an attack in his home. He was amazing that Cesar is turning his life around, because of where he was at a year ago! It was a such a miracle. The elder was so happy to get back in contact with a long lost friend! :)

So.....Nacho was supposed to get baptized this week. That didn't happen. He passed 3 interviews, and we were filling out his baptismal form...Only to find out that he is common law married, not legally married. It caused quite the commotion with the members that were there, and of course we were shocked. We literally asked him multiple times if he was legally married.... So we are working with him, and hopefully at some point in the next 6 weeks we will help plan a wedding! :)

"Are y'all those missionary folk? You sure are pretty." I was looking super rachet that day....No make up, and I was wearing an old lady looking dress.

 Another day when we were walking a really attractive fire fighter waved at us from the firetruck! :)

Yesterday my ears were raped in Gospel Principles. The lesson was about talents. So the teacher invited a sister to come to the class. The sister got up and said,"I have been blessed with the gift on tongues. I can speak 7 languages fluently. So I will demonstrate my skills in a song." Then the most horrible screeching noise came out of her mouth. I thought maybe she was warming up or something, and then I heard the words "avvvveeeee marrrrriiiiiiiia". Nope. She was not warming up. It took a lot of prayer and self control to keep my laughter from exploding. I literally doubled over and prayed that Heavenly Father would help help me stifle my laughter. Elder Walker sent a text during the "musical number", all he said was,"Um...Yikes". Yikes is right. All the investigators just looked super confused. The nice thing is the lady was "sick" so literally the only thing we heard was the first line. Praise the Lord. He is real.

Then in the same Gospel Principles class the Bishop came in with a guy from the Stake, and rebuked all the people who have been baptized for more than a year. He told them to get out of the class and go to Gospel Doctrine class. Omg. Only in East, and only in Spanish....

Yesterday we were fasting, and we went to visit a less active family that we've been teaching. I heard the faint sound of the elote guy's bike horn. It has been my mission dream to eat a elote from a biking elote man! I said no, because I was fasting, obviously. But the member bought it anyway. I couldn't refuse it, it was already made, so I ate it. It was heaven in my mouth. It was amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well! That was my week!!!! :) I also am almost done reading the Book of Mormon again!!! I love it so much! Plus I've been working on listening to the spirit more, and trying to teach for specific needs. We've seen a lot of miracles from doing that. :) I'm excited to work in East for another transfer!!!

I love you all so much!!!!!!!!! Choose the right! Remember who you are! And never forget how much the Lord loves you! :)

<3 Hermana Cordova

Special Email: Espinosa "We're a dying race"

This was quite the trying week, I think my mind has been made up, I'm
too exhausted to continue, I need to go home and sleep. My plans are
to hibernate the whole winter. Well as much of it as I can, and... I
may or may not be planning to wear sweats to church for a while....
It's still up in the air

Well moving on to other subjects, this week we saw a lot of
disappointment, Nora dropped us, she came to church last week and
we're not sure she liked it (she's Pentecostal, and she's more used to
the crazy) and later on Sunday some people from her church showed up
and told her she was allowing satan to confuse her, oh and also that
Moroni was a demon... So she dropped us, and it was quite sad for me
and my comp, because we had grown to love her and she's so prepared!
Well maybe other missionaries will find her😔 also the other family we
had been teaching for a while, has pretty much dropped us, we're not
sure why yet😕

On good news though, the weather has finally died down a bit, we are
down to the 90s! Not gonna lie, I'm happy about that. I was so DONE
with the heat, I'm so tan, I'll probably have skin cancer and I'll get
wrinkles when I'm like 30! I'm secretly praying Heavenly Father will
make me lighter again😋

Well this week we've continued to work really hard, but we weren't
getting far, it was  kind of frustrating, we found over 100 ways to
get rejected, and I don't recommend them! But God is still a God of
Miracles and when we work hard he blesses us in unexpected ways,
Sunday one of the members brought his non member son to church and we
set up an appointment with them for later that day. We taught him
about the restoration and it was probably one of the best lessons I've
had in my mission, he accepted to be baptized on October 10, and is
very excited for it, he's really prepared.✨✨✨ It's amazing to see that
as long as we are working hard we will see blessings, but not
necessarily from our work.

also president kind of hinted to my companion that we might be double
transferred out, or that she would at least be leaving the area, and
seeing that he is closing down every Spanish sister's area one by one,
we have stated to beg him to keep us here and together, because if he
double transfer me out again, I'll just pack to go home... So if y'all
could pray 🙏 with us and for us to be kept in this area together
that'd be greatly appreciate it by me and my companion😄

Poop story time: this is probably the funniest thing that happened
this week, and what's even better is that I have permission to recount
the story! For Thursday dinner the hermana bough us pupusas, but I
guess they didn't set well with my companion's stomach, because she
got diarrhea immediately after eating the first pupusa, she even used
the hermana's bathroom twice while we were there! And I should also
add that she lives REALLY out of our area, so on our way back my comp
tells me she really needs to use the bathroom, so we stopped in the
only place that we could, a Walgreens, and their bathrooms were out of
order, so my companion still had to go really bad and so we booked it
home, I was going about 60 and 50 mph the whole way, the speed limit
was 45 and 35...  So when we finally reached our apt. I dropped my
companion off as close to the apt as I could and she RAN! (I gave her
permission to leave my sight and hearing due to the emergency of the
situation) and so while she ran up the stairs to our apt, I went and
parked like a normal human would and then I followed her example and
ran up the stairs like the devil was chasing after me or something, as
I came in the door I hear my companion say, "I didn't make it" I
wasn't quite sure if she was laughing or crying, but she continued to
say "I didn't make it" she had made it to the top of the stairs and
had unlocked the door when it happened, she handled it like a champ
though, she was laughing about it, I had to call the elders and asked
them to take over our English class for us because we wouldn't be able
to make it, they didn't answer the phone the first 5 times I called
them though.... And I called the STLs about 4 times without any luck,
yup got a lot of help from our leaders in our moment of greatest
need... They're useless, that's why I'm not even friends with them

My story: my funny moment of the week was getting hit on by a creepy
old guy again! We went to visit a less active member and his nonmember
brother in law was there, he was flirting with me and just overall
being very creepy so I got us out of there as fast as I could, man I
hated my life, it always happens to me somehow! I told sister Cordova
that it's the light of Christ they are really attracted to, because I
was wearing no makeup, my hair looked like a rat's nest, there was no
way he was truly hitting on me, it's all the light of Jesus!!!!

Lozano Wedding, Week of Discernment, and other Crazy Stories!!!

This week was a "week of discernment". So Nora came to church on Sunday, and for the first time in my whole mission, an investigator hated church. She is Pentecostal, so she is used to very loud and energetic church meetings....And a lot shorter. Hahah. So anyway. After church, people from her husbands church came over and told her that she was following the devil, oh and that Moroni was a demon. So she dropped us. I was so sad, I had come to love her a lot in a very short time. Then a family I've been teaching forever dropped us out of nowhere.

Funny Stories
On Monday all our appointments fell through, so we were walking to all of the people we planned as back ups. I pulled a leaf from a tree while walking and the whole branch came with it and slapped me in the face. Then a couple minutes later we knocked on a door. We were talking to the guy when suddenly I felt something rubbing against my leg. I looked down, a nasty dirty cat was rubbing itself all over me, I was super surprised and screamed out of shock. So yeah....That was a bit awkward.

Tuesday was exchange day, it also rained, and I ruined the exchange. So we had appointments early in the morning that we had to go to. No one was home. We ended up walking and knocking doors. We walked to an apartment complex, and half way there it started to rain, we decided to keep going. When we got to the first door I saw a quarter under the window. So I went to grab it. I ended up hitting my head really bad on the window and gave myself a mini concussion, and split my head open. The mission doctor told me to "take it easy, but DO NOT go to sleep." So of course we used that as a reason not to go on exchange! Who knew?! All you have to do to get out of exchange is crack your head open! I want to focus on the awesome part of the story though...I am 25 cents richer! :) ("Sister, I will not take a nap today, but only out of respect."-Espinosa)"

Wednesday a random guy kissed my hand, and told me he was starting his own church. Then he invited me to join. uh.....

Then Thursday..... So one of the members remembered how much I love pupusas, so she bought some from a place on her way home from work. I got sick after the first one. I used her bathroom twice before dinner was over. So this sister lives halfway to Narnia, like 20 minutes away from our area. On our way back to our area, I got the runs real bad. So we stopped at Walgreens. I ran inside, only to find out that the bathrooms were out of order. I almost cried. We ran back to the car. Espinosa sped the whole way home, she was going 55-65 in a 40 mph zone. We finally made it to our house. Which is up-freakin a million-stairs. I bolted up the stairs, I unlocked the first lock, and was about to unlock the second....When I lost the battle. I totally pooped my pants. I was hysterically laughing when Espinosa finally came running up the stairs after parking the car. I was in my bathroom and I was like,"Sister. I didn't make it." over and over. She couldn't tell if I was laughing or crying. I decided not to make it a big deal, cause you know, "crappy" things happen to good people....hahaha. Anyway....

Quote of the week:
"Look. I don't go to church to say hi to people and pretend to be friends. I go to church because I know the church is true."-Hermano Rivera. He is the best ever! I love this. I feel like sometimes we forget the real reason we go to church. I loved this reminder! A lot of people I know have gotten offended by other members, and have stopped going to church. Which is so sad to me! So people! Remember WHY you go to church, and don't let things others do distract you from that purpose!

I got to go to the Lozano's sealing!!!!!!!! It was amazing!!! I love them so much!!

Nacho is doing well! Three hermano's came over to give him a blessing this week!

Then on Sunday we were introduced to Cesar. He has been coming to church for about a month now. We set an appointment to come that night to visit him. We taught the best first lesson of my whole entire mission! At one point Cindy felt inspired to share about baptisms for the dead. He found out (his dad told him) that his mom's work had been done. When he said the closing prayer he said,"I am so happy to hear that my mom is part of this church. I can't wait to join her". October 10th people! I can't wait! Cesar is amazing!!!

So that was my week! Pretty crazy huh?! I love you guys!!!!! HE LIVES. I invite y'all to check this video out! It's modern day apostles of Jesus Christ bearing their witness that He Lives, He is the Savior and Redeemer of the world. "What a great privilege it is to be rejected in Christ's name."-Elder Norton(a missionary in my mission). I am grateful for the opportunity that I have to serve my Savior, to help people come to Him. It truly is a great and amazing privilege.

Until next week! Love you byee!

<3 Hermana Cordova

Miracles in the ghetto #eastside #blessings #preachin'theword

So this week we got challenged by our Zone Leaders to do a street contacting challenge. It was to help us mix up our street contacts. #NOT a #robotmissionary Espinosa and I were haters, but then we got super into it. And we finished the challenge by Saturday. Plus we got to talk to 107 people on the street this week! It was awesome! So many people! :) It actually turned out to be pretty fun, and effective. We had to use out of the ordinary things to help people accept the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We have a new investigator. She is awesome. Her children were baptized when they will little, but she was never interested. Her heart has definitely been prepared. Unfortunately, he husband and brother are very hardhearted. They fight with us all the time, and they are very familiar with the Bible. So they use it against us all the time. It's a good thing Espinosa and I have been reading the Bible the last few transfers, so we are pretty good as answering all their questions with the bible. Not going to lie....It's exhausting. Teaching people who do not have open hearts is the hardest thing ever....

We went to a part of the area that I've never been to before. We decided to inspired knock on some doors. The first one we walked up to we decided to use the name "Pedro". We knocked on the door, introduced ourselves, and asked for Pedro. The lady was like "I'm so glad Pedro gave you the wrong address. I used to meet with missionaries. Then I moved, and I haven't seen missionaries in 2 years.. I would really like to learn, I have a need to find a religion." We met with her the next day, and she told us that she felt something different when we came to her door, and accepted the invitation to be baptized! It was so amazing. Her daughter couldn't drive her to church on Sunday, we stopped by to check on her. And she told us how mad she was that she couldn't go, she had so much remorse! GOLDEN INVESTIGATOR!!!! #rosa

"Sister I only run for two things. Dogs and dinner."-Me. We were walking a street, and we stopped by a LA members house. She let us in, and then by the time we got out it was 15 minutes past dinner, and our car was a block away. So we ran....To sister missionaries running in dresses....It was quite the sight.

I street contacted a Hindu family! They gave us Hindu donuts, called Pakora, a vegetarian donuts, and banana raisin donuts. They were so nice! Then they wanted us to party with them until midnight. If I wasn't a missionary....I totally would have! Man! I love parties!

So I went on exchanges this week. It wasn't too horrible. The STL and I have had a beef for the last two transfers.....So it was a little awkward at first. But then I decided to love her.....Even though I don't particularly like her. It worked.

Saturday we had triple dinner. We called the family that we thought we had dinner with, because we already had a lesson planned with them that day. Then as we were studying Saturday morning we got a call from another "Hermana Martinez". She told us that she was going to feed us lunch. We already had dinner plans with my friend Ellie and her mom (she came back in town for the weekend). So we had lunch and a lesson, then second lunch, and then dinner.....We wanted to die. Plus the elders made us cookies and gave them to us at corrlation. So full.....It was nice because it was Fast Sunday. #blessings "Panza llena, corazon contento" (full belly, happy heart).

We had a really cool family history lesson with a recent convert family. I have never seen anyone so excited about doing their family history. Especially not a fourteen year old boy! He was so excited. His parents started calling family in Mexico and El Salvador, for dates and full names of their family, so they could fill out their tree. By the way: if anyone is interested. The new family tree app is really good! The website is https://familysearch.org/ you don't have to be a member to use it! :)

I ate cow tongue this week! I didn't know until after dinner, it was pretty delicious though.

Sister Espinosa and I are seeing so many miracles together. I keep telling president to let me kill her next transfer. hahah. She seriously is such a hard worker, even when we are too full to move, we are still walking around and talking to people. #sharingthegospel

I am super busy, super tired, super happy!!!!

I love you all! Thank you for your love and your support!!!! Keep praying, reading the scriptures, and being awesome! I know that our Heavenly Father loves you. Families can be together forever. This life is not the end! This is the great message that we share as missionaries, and it's amazing!

<3 Hermana Cordova

*District lunch at Checkers. #heartburn #fordays
*My companion is a hula hooping pro

Saved by The Mafia Guest Post by my Bestie Espinosa

man we had such an interesting week I'm not really even sure where to start, so Monday our Zone leader gave our whole zone a street contact challenge, we had a list of things we had to do or say in street contacts, so this whole week our street contacts revolved around that challenge, it was kind of daring at times, we invited someone to be baptized in a street, we also invited someone who was smoking and we had to invite that person to listen to a message that could help them quit, so yeah we had some very awkward moments this week, but we handled them like champs☺
so during our adventures we found ourselves in a part of our area that neither of us had ever been to and that we had no potentials in, so we decided to walk around and we spotted a Hispanic looking house that we decided to knock in, we asked if Pedro lived there, the lady was really confused because Pedro didn't live there, but we introduced ourselves as missionaries, she told us she had talked to missionaries years ago, but she had moved and that she hadn't seen any missionaries since then, well we invited her to learn more and set up an appointment for the next day, as we were walking away she told us that she was glad that Pedro gave us the wrong address, because that way she got to meet us, when we came back the next day she told us how when we came knocking at her door she had a strong feeling of peace and that this is what she needed in her life, it was the best moment of my mission!

later in the week , we were walking around and I notice a sad looking guy sitting on a rock and I remembered a training about talking to everyone because we don't always know what they are thinking and what they need, so we went up to talk to him, he told us his whole life story and how his girlfriend had kicked him out, we didn't really know how we could help him, so we called the English elders in the area and see if they could, as we were calling them a lady came and started telling us that he was probably lying to us and that we shouldn't fall for his story and then they started to argue and swear at each other and to stare each other down it got kind of heated, the lady walked away with some threats and after talking to the guy we walked away first and soon got caught up with the lady, when we saw her she was talking to 2 big guys that looked like they were from the mafia aka. scary looking, and then she tells us that she saved us from that guy, so we told her thanks and just walked away

This week we had exchanges, i can't say I was impressed with my new Sister Training leader, it might have to do with the fact that she DIDN'T TALK TO ME the whole exchange!!! it was very interesting, i like my area better, and it's practically the same area, we did have a really cool lesson though, it was with a Hispanic family (that's probably why it was cool) the guy thought i had been catholic before and he asked me what made me change religions, then i told him i was raised Mormon, and he was kind of disappointed because i wouldn't be able to understand him, but them i told him just like he had been raised catholic i was raised Mormon, the only difference was that i actually practiced my religion, that got him thinking i talked to him for some time, and got him to commit to going to church, after the lesson the STL was so impressed, apparently they can never get him to commit to anything, I don't think this English Sisters really know how to deal with Hispanics #thestruggle

Hope everyone had and amazing week and enjoy your labor day
LOVE y'all

Great Week!! :)

Last pday we saw Omar at the bus stop. I gave him a bag of chips!! It was a funny encounter! I love that kid. He is such a hard worker. And he found a job that he doesn't have to work on Sunday! Such a blessing, and miracle! Whoo hoo!

"Takis and I have a love-hate relationship....I love them. They hate me." "The Takis be hatin' me..." Hermana Espinosa and I great bonding time over Takis. hahaha.

I ate a stingray on my mission!!!!! Espinosa made me a stingray pancake, with blueberry eyes, and the cutest tail ever!!!! I obviously have the best companion ever!! Apparently it's an old Mexican secret recipe or something.

7 levels of the inferno. Have you ever eaten a super spicy pepper, and then touched your eye? Um yeah....I went blind while driving on a main road. And had to emergency pull over. I was crying. Literally. Espinosa had to drive to our appointment, while I sat in the passenger seat dying. I finally regained my sight before the lesson.....I don't recommend the experience y'all.

Then the next day Espinosa's eye started itching. It was driving her crazy. I used my persuasion skills to convince her not to take her eye out. "Sister  if you want to marry a two eyed, blue eyed husband, you have to just deal with it." Good news!!! Her eye is all better!

This week was freaking hot. We decided that we are not going to Hades.....We are already living here. So....hot....all...the...time. We walked everywhere this week! Heavenly Father definetly blessed us for our for our dedication and sacrifice. hahaha. We talked to 108 people on the streets!!!!! It was awesome!!! We are rocking ensign!!!!!!!!!!!!

We knocked on a door an a naked Cuban guy opened the door. Ijole....

I saw a police officer on bike puling someone over. It was awesome.

A member is going to teach me how to make papusas on Sunday! Freak yeah!!!

"American by birth. Southern by the grace of God."-Favorite quote of the week #truestory

The Lord softens hearts! Yesterday...We street contacted a family. The wife was not interested, and we were about to walk away, when a guy pops in out of nowhere. He pretty much forces us to eat a taco. Then two....Espinosa taught the 1st lesson in like a minute, and we gave him a Book of Mormon. We told him what we do as missionaries. His heart was definitely was softened when we left. Hot dogs, beef, and chicharron  do NOT go together. I threw up.....And wanted to die..... So did Espinosa. Struggle of life!!!!

So that's what happened this week!!!!!

I love y'all!!!! Have a great week!!! <3 <3

<3 Hermana Cordova
*My outfit was on point today! #haters #didthisforyou #hahahaha
*Street money!!! :)

It Was Love At First Sight..... Hahaha!

First off! I freaking love my companion!!! Hermana Espinosa and I have been having fun and working hard since day one together! We are both studying the New Testament, and are currently in Romans. We are reading the Book of Mormon all the way through and marking all the times it talks about Jesus Christ. And we both have the goal of memorizing The Living Christ. So pretty much we are bestest friends ever. I love her! We are constantly laughing, and we have seen so many miracles together! It's been great, because we totally push each other to be better and work harder.

So now that I'm done gushing about my companion. I'm going to write about this week!!!

One of my elder besties went home on Wednesday. His birthday was on Wednesday, so we had a mini birthday party! We brought pizza and cookies! It was awesome!!! Shoutout to Haddon!!! 

A member took us out for pizza. The logo for the pizza shop is "Friends don't let friends buy $5 pizza". A couple days later a member gave us money for dinner, and we bought a $5 pizza so we could use the rest for groceries this week. #brokemissionarylife

A little girl spit red juice all of my face on Monday. I smelled like jamaica and spit for the rest of the night. It got in my glasses, all down my clothes, and made my eyelashes stick together. I'm learning patience.....obviously.

PURE TESTIMONY MOMENT

So Hermana Espinosa is like the most boss street contact-er I have ever met. We talk to a lot of people everyday! So this guy was being super rude to us. And started saying false things about the church. We bore pure and simple testimony about our Heavenly Father, and how the church of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth, and then about the plan that our Heavenly Father has for us. His heart was softened, to the point that he took our card, and we left him with a commitment to read 1 Corinthians 15, to find out more about the Plan of Salvation! It was so cool!

Then I contacted two people chilling on a porch. "We are here to help people get a closer relationship with Jesus Christ". "I'm getting close to him right now". Then I realized that they were high..... Oh Las Vegas. "Wow, I really like your pigeons. Do you send messages with them?"(espinosa) "Naw man. I raise them to do flips." Then he took one out and it flew to the top of the roof, and just looked at us....It was so awkward. #THEHAMPTONS

Sister Espinosa and I will be hot chocolate drinking buddies in Hades.....We are too snarky and sarcastic awesome to go to heaven. hahaha.

We have made water drinking a competition. I'm winning. I don't liek hot chocolate warm water, so I drink the water as soon as we get it. I might start carrying hot chocolate packs for her. Hahaha. 

One of the elders also serving in Ensign is from the Dominican Republic. I told her that people from the D.R. hate it when you say that Haiti is better. So when he was introducing himself in District council she yelled,"Yeah. But Haiti is better". He was pissed, I died laughing. Then later that day she told an elder, "Oh yeah. I heard the Matchu Pichu was moved to Canada to help with tourism..." He believed her. Hahaha. #favoritecomp

AWESOME PRAYER MOMENT

So before we got out of the car, I sincerly asked Heavenly Father to help us find someone who would be interested. We got out of the car and street contacted this lady that was outside with her kids. We shared with her about how our families can be together forever, and she was super interested. And then she told us to come back, but she was like "I would like to be taught in Spanish". Pretty much my heart did a happy dance. It was so cool! Prayer works, and Heavenly Father prepares His children! :)

I got to go back to North Las Vegas this week. Ana, a lady that I taught forever ago, got baptized. "I cried every time you visited me. I knew what you were saying was true, I just didn't feel ready to do it. Thank you for not giving up on me!" It was awesome!!!!!

So yeah. Espinosa is the best. I love her. It's going to be a fun and awesome transfer!!!!! Also she is kicking my butt into shape! I've been running everyday! :) 

Have a great week y'all! I love you! Choose the right! Remember who you are! Heavenly Father loves you!!!! Mormon Message of the week: A mother's hope.

<3 Hermana Cordova

*Ana is awesome!

*We got free food from a gas station scratch off! SCORE!

Miracles.....Close Brush with Death....And Fish Tacos

This week I almost died. The first time, my companion left the gas stove on for 3 hours. We came home and got super dizzy and almost passed out. The housing coordinators told us to get out of the apartment.... The DL told us we couldn't stay with our mini missionary, so we had to drive to another Zone to stay with the other sisters. Then I slept on the floor.....They have scorpions in their apartment...... Let's just say I almost died of exhaustion the next day.

We got ipads.........

The elders from the english ward called us. They could not get in contact with any of the other missionaries in the area. They were stranded at the dealership and need a ride home. So we picked them up. They had eaten fish toacos with a member. We rode with the windows down the whole way home. Fish tacos taste great but they sure do not smell great...... hahaha.

We had a flash flood and a dust storm this week. #2ndcoming

"Please help that we will stop having awkward moments."-Erickson Then we had 5 awkward moments in a row, while knocking on doors. "Sister, your prayer didn't work!!!!"-me

Oh!!!!!! My family got endowed this week! :) Lozano's!!! I'm so happy and proud of them!!!!!! They are amazing!!! It's been such a journey for them!!! I also got to spend time with Mama Pecjak! Love her!!!!!! <3

It was a good week! :) Quote of the week "There is no such thing as a part-time disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ". #truth

I love y'all! I pray for you and I'm grateful for your love!!!!!!! <3

<3 Hermana Cordova
*Mi familia!!!!
*Julia is going strong! She came to the temple to support them! She got her Patriarchal blessing on Sunday! So proud of her! :)