Goodbye Lunch with Ahma and Joy

Joy and Ahma have been so supportive and sweet to Kallie and reaching out to her during her mission. Since today is her last P-Day they got special permission to take Kal and her comp out to lunch. They ended up at Applebees. 

Nos Vemos Pronto (Week 78)

 Hello Everyone! Happy Monday  I hope you all had a wonderful Easter  I hope you all had the best weekend EVER and that you got to watch general conference, and listen to the prophets voice. I had a great week, lets get into it:

 We had a lot of really good lessons this week with Fransisco (he's been taught for 10 years), Helena (she's been taught for about a week), Diego (he got baptized a couple months ago), and Javier (we just met him this week)!

 We had a blast inviting everyone to come to General Conference

 Our friend Helena gave us a lot of bracelets and rings. She LOVES giving us things  and she gets so excited when she sees us wear them

 We ended up being exactly where God needes us to be on Sunday night and we taught a lot of people about the Book of Mormon in the laundromat. It was pretty incredible to see God guiding us to where he needs us. 

 General conference!!! 2 of our recents converts came and 3 people we are teaching! One of them saw our card on her door and just showed up at the church! I have never ever had that happen before in my mission. It was such a miracle and she's going to come to our family home evening tonight!

As a lot of you know, this was my last week as a missionary  If you couldn't tell from the emojis, I have a lot of mixed emotions...

I am SO excited to go home and see you all and have free time. But at the same time, I have absolutly loved being a missionary. I have felt the spirit so strong during this time and I have grown so much. It's going to be hard to leave all of that behind. I wouldn't have traded even my hardest day as a missionary - and there's been some pretty hard days  

One thing that's come up a lot in my studies this week, is that the light always comes. Especially in my studies of the Holy Week. Good Friday was one of the darkest days in history. Even the sun refused to shine and darkness covered the earth. I can't even imagine how it would've felt to be there. But three days later, the light came back. Jesus Christ rose from the dead and fulfilled the prophecies in the scriptures. 

And that applies to our lives today. No matter how dark the night gets, the light ALWAYS comes in the morning  You just have to hold on. And that's one of the most important things that I've learned. There's been times where I've wanted to go home - but thanks to my family, good companions, and God I stayed. And because of that I've seen so many miracles and I am so grateful for all the people I've met 

I love you all 

See you soon 

 Hna. Erickson

Buckle Up Buttercup (Week 77)

 Gooood morning  This week was full of ups  and downs , trial and error, and just plain trials  Let's just say, a lot was learned....

First, let's talk about the happy things 

 We went to noche de hogar (family home evening) last Monday and I taught everyone how to play signs and it was a hit! It was also hilarious, because some people caught on really quick and others...never really caught on lol. But everyone loved it and we're playing it again today for noche de hogar 

 We had a lesson with our friend Helena and she is soooo sweet. We gave her a Book of Mormon when we met her and when we went back she had already started reading  So we taught her about the Plan of Salvation and the Restoration this week and she loved it  She was going to come to church, but unfortunately she has some health challenges that prevented her

 We finally got in contact with one of our friends! Some other missionaries sent us his information and we haven't been able to get it contact for a while

 The Tongan ward had a "missionary for a day" (it was actually 2 days) activity and we got to help out! On Thursday 2 girls came with us and we knocked some doors  and talked to people in the park  And then on Wednesday 3 girls came with us and we had a lesson with Helena and knocked some more doors  It was a lot of fun! 

 Saturday we helped out with the primary Easter activity and we shared the spiritual thought! The kids were so cute and loved talking about Jesus with us  And then they gave us pizza  it was a 10/10 experience 

And here are the not so happy things 

 On Tuesday, we were riding home on our little bicycles  and all of a sudden, I look behind me and hna. Jones was really far away... it turns out her inner tube popped. But not only did it pop, it completely wrapped itself around the wheel 

So...the bike didn't roll anymore after that... 

Thankfully we were close to home  and so I carried the bike all the way back to the apartment and we fixed the tire the next day, Wednesday 

 On Wednesday, we were riding the bikes after we had fixed the tire, and for some reason, it was really really hard to ride hna. Jones bike. It turns out the front brakes were basically always engaged...

Unfortunately we were VERY far from the apartment (our roommates dropped us off) and so we uhh disconnected the front brakes and rode the bike to the nearest park where we called the bike elders and they came and adjusted the brakes for us

 AND THEN after we had fixed all these problems with hna. Jones bike, we picked up dinner and went to a park. As we were leaving the park I look down and my front tire is as flat as can be. We start calling some missionaries with trucks to see if they can pick up our bikes, and the zls answered and offered to come patch the tire for us! A miracle ️ They patched the tire and the bike was good for the rest of the day! 

 Thursday morning rolls around. We go outside to get the bikes out of our little storage closet and  my front tire is as flat as can be AGAIN. We decided that that was a problem for Friday and thankfully we didn't need the bikes that day because of the youth missionary day and our incredible roommates.

 Friday morning comes...we buy a new inner tube for my tire...we got out to our bike closet...and there's not  but  flat tires. YAY So, we start fixing them and we find out that the valve on the inner tube we bought is too big to go through the metal part of the wheel. So we inspected the old tube to see if the patch was the problem and we found another hole. So we patched that hole and put the old inner tube back on- and so far it's held 

 And now it's Friday afternoon. And we're about to leave the apartment when we remember that we still need to reconnect hna. Jones back brakes (we had to disconnect them to take off the tire) After a while, we realized that we're just not going to be able to do that. So we called our Knights in white shirts and ties (the zls) and they come and save the day again (reconnect the brakes) 

 Saturday - we had a different vein of problems! Yay! A change! Here's the story from hna. Jones perspective:

"We had to say goodbye to our bikes Saturday nignt because I got into a crash...I was riding down a hill and made a last minute turn. I almost hit a pole but I swerved like a pro  and.... ran face first into an electrical box! And my head HURT but I was too stubborn to admit I was in pain until our nurse (Sister Bott ) said my forehead looked bad. So we had to drag our butts to urgent care BUT don't worry!!! I passed the concussion tests!! I'm okay but the doctor doesn't want me to bike for a week just in case I secretly do have a concussion..." 

Thankfully, she's okay. We just have to take it easy. 

So...yeah... it was a longggg week. But I did learn a lot (mainly about how to fix bikes and patch tires - I'm thinking of skipping college and opening a bike repair shop) 

This week is Holy Week! And that means that it was the last week of the life of Jesus Christ before He died on the cross. It's a really good opportunity for us to learn more about Christ. About what He did and why he did it. I want to invited you to do a little Easter study with me this week! It won't take a lot of time, just 5 minutes a day. And it will help you feel closer to your Savior! Here's the link for the study plan I'm following:

Holy Week Study Experience

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/easter-plan?lang=eng

Email me with any insights/cool things you learn! Love you all  

 Hna. Erickson