Christmas Day

Hermana Maughan

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 

Transferology

We had our first snow day this week. Not snow day in the literal sense, but in the sense that Hna. Maughan was really sick this week and so we stayed inside Tuesday. I don't feel guilty about saying that it was super great to have a down day, not super great circumstances but still. I got to organizing our area book, I made a ward positions list, zone directory, and updated teaching records. I also may or may not have made my planners for the next two transfers, and worked with Hna. Canova to plan the skit we're in charge of for the ward Christmas Party this Friday. So while we were inside, we were still productive! & Maritza (she's the ward member who fellowshipped Veronica) brought us dinner: breaded chicken, colselaw, rice, and potato salad. We LOVE her.

There are only two weeks left in this transfer. In two weeks time, there is only one certain thing Hna. Maughan is going home, the up in the air part is who will be staying in Pasadena to take over the area, Hna. Canova, Me, or the both of us. We were speculating one car ride this week and wrote on a paper our "transferology" predictions. We wrote down the names of all the Hna Areas in the mission, along with the names of all the Hnas serving and made our predictions about who's getting transferred where. It was so great. I'll send a picture next week. Hna. Canova thinks she's staying, Hna. Maughan thinks I'm staying and training, Hna. Flores, well I'm not quite sure, but for the sake of transferology, I put I was staying.

As silly and as MASH-like (anyone remember that game from their elem school days?) as it was. Trasferology really helped me put things into perspective. 1. My trainer is leaving, 2. I possibly have only two weeks left in the area. I started compiling a list of mission dreams, ex. I really really really want to serve in Louisiana, but there currently isn't an Hna area out there. I also reflected on what can I do to leave my area better than I found it. Well, for one thing, our companionship brought a new member to the area! I want to clean out the area book as much as I can, and ultimately I want to leave behind for this ward a well-thought-out well-put-together ward mission plan. So in district meeting we brainstormed intitiatives and activities that the ward can do to better help the missionary work progress. Remember my letter about legacies, well in a cheeseball way I was thinking, what do I want our companionship's legacy to be. WMP=not words per minute. Ward Mission Plan.

I love my area, even with all of it's challenges. So many of the missionaries (mostly all) serving in this area have said that this has been thee toughest area in their mission. If that's the case, it all goes uphill from here! I love this area dearly though, I've fallen in love with the ward members and their quirks, and with all Pasadena has to offer, even stinky vince bayou. I love you all!

P.s. A little bird emailed me & told me that congrats are due for T.Betti on her mission call to the Texas McAllen Mission.

The South welcomes you! :) I'm so happy and proud of that girl!

Con todo mi amor,

La Hnita Flores

Choose to be :]

One day this week as I was running in the morning, I woke up feeling guilty. I kept replaying things and thought, I could have done that better, I haven't been doing enough of this, I have way too many things that I need to be working on. & then out of the blue this thought came to my mind: "Today, I'm going to choose to be happy." My run changed completely, and that simple decision in the morning really influenced how the rest of my day went.

   Sure, my area has no active members of the church, sure our teaching pool is slim to nothing, sure nobody wants to keep commitments, but I'm still going to be happy. I went to work. I organized (color coded & alphabetized) our area book and cleaned up some of the old teaching records, read a good amount of pages in Preach My Gospel and the difference was drastic.

   This week I've been thinking about happiness, about the qualities of happy people. As I was studying happiness in the scriptures the other day, I came across this scripture in Mosiah 2:41

   "And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed an happy state of thos ethat keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in a ll things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the the end they are received into heaven, that therreby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it."

   Choosing to be happy goes hand in hand with choosing to live the commandments. It's as simple as that. When we don't follow the commandments, the choice apperas less black and white. We start setting up excuses and painting a lot more greys into the picture. I want people to describe me by saying, "That girl has sunshine flowing through her veins," and I know the only way that's going to happen, is if I keep living the commandments.

   Instant gratification plays a lot into our daily decisions. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, it's kind of like a nice banquet buffet. The food looks so delicious at the beginning, but as you begin to stuff yourself silly, you come to regret how much you've eaten.

   On Thanksgiving Hermana Maughan said, "We're a peculiar people. We're 21-23 year olds who talk about scriptures, think of ways we can help others, and play board games to have a good time." Isn't it strage how that's considered, weird and peculiar when that should really be the norm.

   My level of happiness hit an all time high this weekend. Why, because Victoria who shall now be known as Veronica (her real name), was baptized. It was the greatest feeling in the world. It was a feeling of supreme happiness for another person. We have been with Veronica since day one. I pointed out to Hermana Canova that Veronica (we sometimes also call her V.Gar) was baptized exactly two months after we had met her.

   The baptismal program was so spiritual. All the women that had accompanied us on lessons participated in the program, Elder Conan and I sang the musical number (Te Hallare Mi Amigo, I'll Go & Find You My Friend), and while Veronica changed we watched clips from Joy to The World. I wish you all could have been there to feel the love that was present in the room. The happiness I felt warmed my heart, and if I don't have the opportunity to see another person baptized, I'll be fine, because they joy I felt yesterday was incredible.

Con Todo mi Amor,
La Hermanita Flores

La Hermanita Flores