ARIZONA No Doubt About It..... #sohot #dryheat #death #stilllovin'havasu

This week has been crazy busy!!!!!!!!!!!!! Carol and Jessie got interviewed and baptized, we drove to Las Vegas for a mission wide conference, and we became ward superstars overnight.

One Monday we went over the 10 commandments and chastity again, and Jessie got confused about the 3 rules of chastity. Carol was like, "Jessie it means no sucking face". We are all immature and freaked out. hahaa. Then Jessie's friend, who is her neighbor and fellowshipper was like,"I don't think my mom keeps the sabbath day holy. She always tells us 'just keep cleaning'. I thought we were supposed to rest".

Our washer broke....Fun adventure.... I just ended up wearing all the clothes I usually don't wear. hahaha. 

Like I've said before. Everything here is uphill, including the driveways. So we hiked up the hill to see a potential investigator. When we got to the top we were both out of breath. We took a second and then knocked on the door. We knocked twice when this cute little old lady opened the door. She was so sweet and nice, and we found out that she is 97 years old with pink hair! We talked to her for a good 5 minutes or so. We finished talking to her, and I noticed that Sister Tui was acting a little strange. As soon as we got to the top of the driveway she almost passed out from laughing so hard. I am so glad I kept eye contact pretty much the whole time, the woman had opened the door completely pants-less. #scarred4life 

We got a red car. His name is Craig. Elders are always naming the cars.... Hahaha. Elders. Apparently the white car's name was Erica.....

I street contacted a JW at the gas station!!!!!!!!!!!! It was the pinnacle moment of my mission! :) jk. But it WAS pretty awesome!!

I love the Crossman Peak ward with all my heart! I'm so grateful that I get to serve here for another 6 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!! Havasu for the summer!!!!!!!!!! #voyamorir

So at the mission conference I learned a lot about obedience, and goals. "When your goals are inside out, you will walk through walls to get them done". "The day missionaries care about the people more than they care about themselves is when they will be happy. Your key indicators will go up, because you genuinely love the people". Changed my mission!!!!!!!! I have been being more obedient, and striving to forget myself and focus more on the people!!!! I've already seen a difference!

Carol's testimony at her baptism brought the room to tears. The spirit was so strong. It was so powerful!!!! Everything went super smooth, and the confirmation was powerful! The Holy Ghost is such an awesome gift that our Father in Heaven has given us!!!!

I love this gospel! I know it's true! I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. I know that through Joseph Smith, our Heavenly Father restored His church! We are so blessed to have the Book of Mormon on the earth today! It truly is another testament of Jesus Christ! I have read it and applied the challenge in Moroni 10:3-5! I know without a doubt that it's true scripture, sent to us to help us! :) Read it, love it, pray about it!

I love y'all! Have a great Memorial Day!!!!

Oh. So we are performing our song at like 3 ward member parties, and for investigators!! Hahaha. #famous ;) I can't attach the video! Sorry! My mom has it though! :)

<3 Hermana Cordova

*At the baptism!! <3 I love them!

*4 Generation Photo!!! My mom is going home!!!!!!!!

*Yup. I hold rats on my shoulder. #nobigdeal #drdolittle #animalwhisperer

Computer Butt, Awesome Conversion Stories, and Hot Cheetos!!!!!!!!!! #Havasu

So on Monday, we had a lesson and dinner with Carol and Jessie. They are doing amazing, and are so ready to get baptized on Saturday! I love them like crazy!!!! Also Jessie knows about our obsession with hot Cheetos, so she makes "care packages" of hot Cheetos for us". Hahaha. They made us steak and crab legs, ohmygosh! It was so good!!!

I drove all the way down to Parker for district council! Sister Tui, and the STL's all fell asleep. So to keep myself from falling asleep I had a jam sess.....To christian rock.....by myself..... It was a party, obviously!!!

Sister Tui had to use the restroom so bad. We really far from any active members, and we were running late for an appointment. She freaked out, and went through the whole ward directory in like 2 seconds. "Meadows!!! We have someone who lives on Meadows!!! Turn around sister, I have to go so bad!!!!!!" I'm a jerk, because I kept saying things that made her laugh. The good news is that we made it to our appointment, and they were kind enough to let her use the bathroom! Hahaha.

"I have a computer in my butt". "A what??!" "I have a computer in my butt". Then she took my hand and forced me to touch the computer. (yes, I touched someone's butt...) She told me that it charges and everything! She also has a bionic arm!!! Science man!!!! She's my bestie now. Pretty much, I have to move to Havasu. All my best friends live here. I'll be the youngest snowbird there is! I'll live there and work during the winter, because it's nice, and then leave during the scorching hot summer.

We went to contact a former investigator. There was an awful stink, the moment we walked up the giant hill of her driveway. It was the most intense hoarder house I've ever seen in real life. It was slightly scary. I whispered to sister tui,"I am NOT volunteering to clean this house". She busted up laughing, no one answered the door....

So we went on ANOTHER exchange. It was okay. I was able to meet a lot of awesome people in the other ward. I taught the kids at dinner the hokey pokey, it was a ton of fun!! Hahaha. #bestmissionaryaward #pride #jk

"Sister, you only have 38 cents left this month. You can't just pull money out of your butt". "Don't you have faith in your companion?" Ohmygosh. I love sister tui.

I got second hand high at one of their investigators house. It was not pot. I almost passed out when I walked outside. The member stood over me, to protect me from the sun. It was horrible, then I had a headache for the rest of the night.

The sisters knocked on a door, and they only heard,"Hello. Hello." "Do you need help?!" they yelled at the door. But the person kept saying, "Hello, hello." Sister Smith tried to break the door open, then Sister Tui realized that it was a PARROT. Awk turtle! Hahaha.

We visited my very favorite family, The Raders. We sing for them every Sunday, and teach her the relief society message. This week they told us their conversion story. He said that his family investigated the church for years. He wouldn't give them permission to be baptized, because of a bad experience in the past. He used to go running in the woods every Sunday to keep fit for his military duties, while his family went to church. One day as he was running a soft voice whispered to him,"Let them get baptized". He stopped running, and was like,"What?" He started running again, and a few feet later, the voice came to him again, "Let them get baptized". He said he could not deny it the second time, and he ran back home, out of breath and freaked out. He was pale and quiet when he said to his family,"You can get baptized". The kids heard and were so excited, because they had been praying so hard for so long that this would happen! His poor wife was so confused, because she didn't hear what he had said. They got baptized 10 years apart, but eventually the spirit touched his heart, and they are now sealed as a family!!!

So this week I learned about love and service. When we are truly like Christ, we forget ourselves, and serve. Watch this 10 minute video Lift. I cried like a baby, it is so beautiful! I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve. "Savior may I learn to love thee, walk the path that thou hast shown. Learn to help and lift another, finding strength beyond my own. Lord I would follow thee". This is my current favorite hymn!!!! I know that our Savior loves us!!! I invite y'all to find someone to serve and help this week!!!

Love y'all!!!!
<3 Hermana Cordova

20 Years old, David Archuleta, London Bridge, Loving Havasu!!!

So this week I turned 20, I skyped my family, and Uce Tui and I busted butt!!!

I went on splits twice this week!!!!! I had never been on splits before! It was amazing, and we saw so many miracles!!! We got to cover more of our area, and our members are freaking boss! I got to teach my first lesson completely in Spanish, in 5 weeks! Let's just say I need to start practicing my speaking a lot more. I can write and read pretty well, but if I don't speak it everyday, I notice a difference. Good thing a few of our members are fluent! :) Yay!

My companion is amazing! I love her! We work really well together. Every time we visit members they ask "How long are you two going to be together". We always tell them "6 weeks or however long Heavenly Father wants us together". Then they always say, "Dang. We're going to have to pray really hard that you stay together for a long time". We are a really good team! :) I love working with her! We both love getting to work, and giving it our all every day! She's the best!

We were walking, it was hot, and everything in this town is uphill. As we were walking up a hill, I noticed a group of people. My first instinct was to walk past, and continue looking for the house. But I sucked it up, and went over to talk to them! Turns out it is a part member family! And she really want's to come back to church!!! It was such a powerful experience!!!! We offered to say a prayer with her and her family, and they were so happy! They also gave us cold ice water! :) #happymissionaries

Our water filter exploded in the garage. I woke up, and went to the garage to get my clothes out of the dryer, and I stepped in a river. I was like, "what the heck". I turned and saw that the water filter had done severe water damage to the wall, and was making a river in the garage. It was a huge mess, and this happened only a few days after our house was haunted. (now that's a story for another day)...

We taught Carol and Jessie the 10 commandments and Chastity. Neither one of us have had the opportunity to teach Chastity in english in a long time. It was so awkward. We ended up just having them read the pamphlet out loud. #awkturtle. Also it was so cute! On Sunday they came up to Brother Hauke, and said,"We have a question for you. Will you please baptize us on the 23rd of May?" They are so excited! <3 <3 Oh my goodness, I love them so much!

I met David Archuleta's biggest fan. She's 87....She has 2 copies of all his CD's, one for the house and one for her car. She has his book, a movie about him, and all his videos bookmarked on youtube. It was the craziest thing ever! I loved her, mostly because she sang David Archuleta songs to me. #closestthingtorealmusic #tendermercy

So yeah. That was my week. Nothing too exciting. We had a very productive mother's day! We went on splits, and together visited 7 people in an hour!!! So awesome! 

I love my mission so much!! Tui and I are going to be doing a 40 day fast challenge, combined with the purification challenge! We are striving to be more obedient so we can see more blessings and miracles in our area and for the rest of our mission ! :) 

Choose the right, remember who you are, and never forget that your Heavenly Father loves you so much! Les quiero mucho!

<3 Hermana Cordova

*This morning at the London Bridge. Such a tourist trap.... hahaha.

*Even though it was boring, we found fun things to do....

*My district!! My District Leader Elder Ly bought me a Spiderman shirt for my birthday, another elder gave me a cool jesus picture, his companion brought us cookies, and the STL's gave us peanut m&m's!!! I had a great birthday! :)

My family, and my Havasu Family! <3 Campbells, Duncan's, and Hauke's!!!!!! I love them so much!!!

20 years old, Golden Investigators, SO HOT, Loving Arizona!!!

This has been an amazing week!!! We visited our elect investigators Jessie and Carol every single day this week!!!!!! We had FHE, and they are almost done with all the lessons. They also have been reading the BOM, and doing family history work (we taught it with the 2nd lesson), and came to church again! They are the most elect people I've ever taught. I love them so much! Then at church someone asked "are y'all going to get baptized" Carol proudly said," We will be getting baptized on the 23rd of May!" I'm so excited for them to make this awesome step to follow Christ, in order to have a better and happier life! :) We had 5 investigators come to church, and they all loved it! :) Such a blessing!!!!

So we have been walking a lot. Our area doesn't have any potential investigators. So we're pretty much starting from scratch. I was wearing a pair of my homely missionary shoes, and they started to blister the back of my ankle. We were far from our car, so I continued walking. Finally the pain was too much, and I took them off. That was a mistake. It was 103 degrees outside, and I totally burning my feet on the asphalt. It was so painful for a few days, but I'm toughening up! :) Also, we have a new investigator named Hal, he believes in aliens.....

As we were driving home I slowed down and looked at a "coyote". Everyone we talk to, warns us of coyotes, so I was super interested to get an up close look at one. I put my brights on (there are no street lights here), and we followed it down the street. "Bro, I can't believe this is coyote. It's so small..... Is this really a coyote?" "Yeah, man look at it's face. It's totally a coyote". Then it ran up into a driveway (more like a hill), and the owner of the DOG waved at us. It was extremely awkward....

I found mini mexico!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a hard task, but I did it!!!!!!! Ever since I've been in an english ward, I've been cracking down on my language study. I'm already seeing improvements. It's so awesome! #giftoftongues I'm finally learning proper Spanish grammar. hahaha.  

We met and taught an inactive member. We all got along so well, and learned so much from each other. Then she came to church the next day! It is so awesome! She's now our best friend, I can't wait for her to feel comfortable enough to come to lessons with us. 

I've been drinking so much water. Which makes for some fun bathroom experiences. Including having to go so bad, I accidentally ran into the boys bathroom.... Sister Tui was laughing so hard, that she was rolling on the floor outside the bathroom.

"And please help us always remember that it's going to get even hotter." I started laughing. "Heavenly Father, Sister Cordova is laughing during my prayer". Then I laughed even harder and fell off my swivel chair. hahaha.

Our ward mission leader is amazing. The last set of sisters that were in the area totally hurt the ward.... It's so sad. It took us this long to build their trust, but it's so cool! A bunch of members talked about how much they love us in their testimonies, and they are getting excited about missionary work again!!!!!!!!! 

The Lord knows and loves us! I love Lake Havasu city, the Crossman Peak ward, and the people I serve here. I know without a doubt that Sister Tui and I are here to help and strengthen these people together. I love Sister Tuimaualuga! I even learned how to say and spell her name correctly. ;)

So tomorrow I will officially no longer be a teenager. So weird....

Anyway! I watched the Mormon Message The Will Of God this week. It changed my life. I love it so much, because it's so true. We all have moments when we question the master gardener, but He knows so much more than we do. He has eternal perspective. I invite y'all to watch this, and reflect on moments where you've been like the little currant bush. I know that I was embarrassed when I thought about it, but I'm so grateful that the Lord has lead me, guided me, and loved me through those times. I love this Gospel, I love my Father in Heaven! I'm so grateful to be a missionary! I learn and grow every single day! 

I love y'all! Hope you all have a great week! <3 <3 Talk to you on Sunday!

<3 Hermana Cordova

*The end of April came waaaay too fast. :( I tried to draw pacman....I failed.

*I made dis!!!! Well actually, I bought the shirt, and got an elder to spray paint it for me! Lake Havasu/Kingman Zone for life!

*Went to a wedding reception for dinner on Saturday. SMORES!!! #favorite

My bestie sister Rader. We sing for her every Sunday. I like her because even when we're awful, she still tells us we sound beautiful! :)

*sister tui and I got yellow letters on the same day! :)

*<3 <3 <3

<3 Hermana Cordova