A little like 007.

Tender Traumatic Tough & Terrific Times of Pasadena

1. Hna Maughan being confused when a man from the "hood" asked her the question, "How you gonna teach me how to pray?"

2. Our 10 min prayer with an investigator who kept asking God to help us see things as cup half full instead of half empty

3. A Contact with a man named Victor. His family screamed, "Tell them we're catholic." & "Your food's getting cold!" He yelled back, "It's okay, it's a salad!"

4. Elder Conan's Nesquik straw glasses.

5. Elder Mallard opening up a bank account at a small Texas bank just so he could cash a check.

6. Elder Conan's infamous, "Oooooooooohhhh"

7. Thanksgiving when we were at a member's home and one of the young boys yelled to his little brother, "You're not allowed to play because you farted!"

8. Eating two thanksgiving meals in one day

9. Giving Elder Mallard a Jedi-looking bath robe for his birthday

10. Meeting the sisters of our relief society President and dubbing them the Mexican Golden Girls.

11. Veronica's story about how she told someone who was trying to make her feel bad, "Yo siempre he sido importante a Dios." "I've always been important to God."

12. Asking the wrong person to baptize Veronica ooops! But then, it wasn't really the wrong person.

13. Being chased by a drunk men up the Zone Leaders' stairs.

14. Hna Maughan on the brink of being attacked by a dog.

15. The Man who got up in our face and screamed at us saying to remember his face because we'd see him in Hell.

16. The time I fell off my bike and the whole world knew. ( literally still hearing the stories from random passerbys)

17. Hna Perales telling her grandson's wife, "I want you to talke to these girls, because JESUS IS COMING!"

18. Veronica putting on her baptismal jumpsuit and wearing her red high heels and saying, "Hnas I look ridiculous!"

19. The Pasadena Fire department going through the streets yesterday with the fire truck and giving out candy canes to everyone.

20. The Time when Elder Conan was proud of his big sister (me) getting a training call.

21. The ONE time the Zone Leaders called us to tell us we did a great job one week.

22. When Elder Ho Ching called us to tell us the mailman had given him a package for us, when really it was just a package he had made for us filled with candies.

23. Opening our door and finding Elder Ho Ching & Elder Weeks with plates of cookies and cupcakes and rootbeer.

24. When Hna Maughan had to fill the Elder's bike tires with air.

25. All those planned "Heart to Hearts" with Elders Ho Ching and Weeks that never happened.

26. Teaching Roberto in the pouring rain.

27. Our two hour convo with the ZLs on Thanksgiving day

28. Playing board games with our district on Thanksiving day for h o u r s.

29. being in the DIABETES DISTRICT!

30. Elder Mallard's Golden Egg helmet.

31. When Elders Conan & Mallard played a trick on us by making us think we had passed the appt we were dropping them off at.

32. "I appreciate you Hnas." -Elder Conan

33. The time we spoke the a returned missionary named, "Elder Mcallister" on the phone.

34. Norma: "I read y'all" us: "What'd you read?" Norma: "Revelations. I was watching the movie 2012..."

35. Juanita's dogs who were tied together by the collar. One was dragging the other one everywhere.

36. Hna Maughan's Gecko check on the car.

37. Being hit on by everyone at Discount Tires

38. The exchange from you. know. where.

39. Having to ask members for rolls of toilet paper.

40. Mini Ho Ching (Hna Hernandez' grandson) crying and stuttering through his tears saying, "B..b...buh. Bye Guys. S...s..sss. See you later."

41. Win (Our mailman) making personal package deliveries to us.

   I felt a little like a spy yesterday. Last night after we came out of a really great lesson, we got into the car and saw we had 3 voicemails. The first one was from President Crawford. When I heard his voice I screamed a little. "Sister Flores, this is President Crawford, give me a call back when you can..."

   Let me give you a rundown of how transfers work in the Texas Houston East Mission. Friday night, you get a phone call if your area is being closed. Saturday night, you find out if you're being transferred (I'm staying in Pasadena, but Hna Maughan is going home and Hna Canova is leaving to another area). Sunday night, you get leadership calls. Considering I'm an Hermana, and the only leadership call I can get is training. But here's the thing, usually an Hermana trains until she is past her 6th transfer (halfway point) in the mission. So that's why I screamed.

   I'm training! I was definitely NOT NOT NOT expecting that. I called back Pres Crawford and he said, "Sister Flores. I have an assignment for you. I need you to train a new Hermana. Can you do that?" I told President I could & I would. "Sister Flores. You'll need to be at a training meeting in Kingwood at 9:00, can you do that?"

   The whole thing reminded me of the scene in the Incredibles where Mr. Incredible is listening to the self-destructing envelope in his office. The whole conversation lasted about 3 min. & here I am. Really anxious about traning, not nervous, but not confident. Just anxious. I couldn't sleep last night. The phrase, "I'm training" just kept running through my head. So amigos, I will be in Pasadena, TX for at least the next 12 weeks. & you know what, Heavenly Father has got my back, because just in this week we found four solid people to teach. & most of them are English Speaking. :) Tender Mercies from the Lord.

   This week was also Christmas conference, where the whole mission came together and had a Christmas feast, heard merry music, and heard about what we need to work on to make 2013 an even better year for the mission. This week, was one of the best weeks I've had on the mission. It was so so so