Hey Ya'll!!! So much happened this week and I can't wait to tell you everything!!!!

1. TRANSFERS: I GOT TRANSFERED!!! So this week we had transfers and me and Hermana Rodriguez BOTH left! They put Elders in Webster City! Ehh we were not happy but they put really good elders there so I can't complain too much. Anywho, so I am in......wait for it......DES MOINES...again! It is so great to be back and see all the members I love and ahhhh its awesome! My new companion is Hermana Barnes. She is from Harriman and has been out for 3 months. So she's a newbie. She is a perfectionist and a clean freak. She is the most innocent little thing I have ever met! Her Spanish is fantastic!!! She is hilarious! I'm not quite sure exactly how to describe her but she is amazing and I love her and I am excited to serve with her!!

2.RANDY: RANDY GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!! The only sad thing was he got baptized the day after we left. We taught him every single lesson and have been with him from the beginning and organized the baptism and got everything ready and it was perfect. Then we both left and we handed the Elders a baptism on a silver platter. I will admit it was very hard. But the joy of seeing him progress and be so much happier makes it ok that I wasn't there for the actual ordinance. He will always be mine and Rodriguez' golden child. Sooooo happy for him!

3.FOURTEEN: Guys, I have been on my mission for 14 months today! What in the world??? How is this possible? I just got here yesterday!!! I feel soooo old!!!! There are only 3 Hermanas that are older than me in the mission!! Ahhhhhhh I only have 3 transfers left!!!! NOOOOOO hellllpppp SOS!!!!! Quick send chocolate assistance!!!!!!

4.RESTORATION: So the Spanish Elders here in Des Moines had a baptism on Saturday and as missionaries we teach the Restoration at baptisms while the people are getting dressed after the actual baptism. So they asked us to do it and we taught the Resto in Spanish and it was awesome!!!! So fun!!! Lemme tell you the gift of tongues is reallllll!!!!!! It was great and then there was delicious Spanish food afterwards:)

5.SPANISH: Ya'll so I am in a completely Spanish area now. Up until now I can count the number of times I have had a spainsh lesson on my hands buuuuuuttttt lemme reemphasize that the gift of tongues is sooooo realllll!!!!!! I have been able to communicate better that ever and understand better than ever! Its is amazing how much I have actually learned these last 14 months. Its so nice to actually speak Spanish on a Spanish speaking mission! Everyone is the branch commented on how much better my Spanish is! Apparently I was really bad cause they all remembered....hahaha!!!

Well that's it for this week! I am so happy to be back in Des Moines. Its fantastic and I love it and I love Spanish and I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!!!!! Until next week....xoxo Hermana Rice

Happy Monday Ya'll! This week was a fantastic one and i can't wait to tell you all about it! Here we go!

1.RANDY: Our dear sweet Randy is getting baptized this Saturday!!! Oh my lanta we are so excited for him! He is amazing! We had two lessons with him this week in a members home. Sis. Sayer is amazing and testified and answered his questions and oh my lanta is so ready! His friend who is a bishop in Kansas and who introduced Randy to the church years ago is coming for to perform the baptism! Its so great to see the change in people and to see how much happier he is compared to when we first met him. The gospel truly changes lives and brings a light into people!! Its so awesome getting a front row seat to that!

2. JENIFER AND KYLE: Ok so we found these two new investigators this week and they are fantastic! They are a young couple living together (not married) and Jenifer has 3 little girls. Twin 4 year olds and a almost 3 year old. She is 24 and looking for a church to raise her family in. She has a TON of questions. We taught bits of all the lessons because she kept asking questions. She said she loved everything we taught and oh my lanta she is the cutest little mom ever! She is super bubbly and sweet! We are super excited to work with them!

3. MIGRAINE: I was in bed with another migraine this week and so I called the mission nurse and talked to her about it and she thinks i am not getting enough sleep. So she has sentenced me to bed by 10 and i get to sleep in til 7. And i am not allowed to take any naps and i have to keep excedrin with me at all times. So far its worked and i haven't had more than a mild headache. Hopefully it stays this way! 

4. MAKEUP FAST: So Hermana Rodrigues wanted to teach me a lesson and so she bribed me to go on a makeup fast for 3 days and it was torture! hahah not really but i didn't like it one bit. However now i have a new dress and can wear make up again woot woot! 

5.TRANSFERS: This week is transfers and i might leave or i might stay. we don't know. So stay tuned for next week cause i may be in a new area......

That is all my good lookin peeps. As always I LOVE AND MISS ALL OF YOU!!!!! xoxoxoxoxo Hermana Rice

Hey ya'll! This week was weird. I don't really know what to write about...hmmm what even happened this week?

1. RANDY: Ok so the major thing that has been going on is Randy. He is doing great!! We had a fantastic lesson in a members home with him about the law of chastity and the word of wisdom and miracle! He doesn't have issues with any of it! So refreshing! It unbelievable how many people have been living together for decades but arent married and lemme tell you everyone and their dog smokes here. Its just a thing. I don't know why. But Randy is amazing and is so prepared and loves learning and oh my goodness i could go on for hours! Stay tuned next week for more Randy updates. 

2.SKELETONS: So we may or my not have two baby deer skulls on our car dashboard and antlers hanging from the rear view mirror....iowa is getting to us. This is how we roll.

3. CREEPY SUSAN: The other night we went to go visit an inactive member and it was soo creepy. FIrst of all her house was pitch black except for 2 small lamps. She showed us this creepy ghost video and told us all about her supernatural powers and how she has spirits follow her and how she just wants to communicate with them and it felt super satanic. Then something started making noise and she smiled creepily and said Do you hear that? and i told her that it was her cat but she would not accept that answer and she kept repeating it and ahhh it was creepy. Needless to say we ran outta there and slept with ALL the lights on and squished our beds together. Such a demonic feeling in that house. We will not be going back. 

4.IOWA: I don't know what else to put...but just in case you don't know what iowa looks like...Its gorgeous!!! And it'll be even prettier with corn.

5.LIFE IS GOOD: I am a missionary in Iowa with a fabulous companion having a fantastic time learning and growing and eating delicious food and teaching people about Jesus. What more could i ask for. Everything is good:)

Oh my lanta i feel like i have sooo much to tell you all and so little time to say it! So i am going to be fast but here is my Top 5 from this week!

1.ZONE CONFERENCE: This week we had zone conference in Des Moines and it was awesome! It was sooo good! We had a lot of great trainings that got us motivated and excited for missionary work all over again. My favorite part was we had a special part where it was just the sisters and SIs. Jensen and she talked to us and answered our questions about being a wife and mother. It was so good, and like always, a tearfest. haha it was a fantastic day!!

2.GENERAL CONFERENCE: Oh my lanta can we just address how amazing General Conference was?! It was sooooo good!! 4 new temples! All the talks! The music! Ahhh my heart melts! Also can i just express my love for Elder Holland?! Only he could be so funny and so real and show a picture of a TRex at conference! He is amazing!! We watched Conference at the church with a bunch of other members and it was sooo good. In between Sunday sessions we had a ward potluck which was super delicious and fun to talk to everyone. Conference weekend is just amazing!

3. RANDY: Speaking of Conference, our investigator Randy went to ALL 5 sessions of Confernce!! It was awesome! He is doing so well! He is working on being baptized on April 23 so i will keep you updated on that:) We are super excited for Randy and he is very eager to dive right in and learn as much as he can! Randy is a former investigator that just showed up to church and has been very willing and ready to accept the gospel. He is great!

4. HAIR: Family and freinds, i have finally accepted that i absolutely HATE HATE HATE long hair! I look gross with it and i always have it up and its just to annoying to even think about. I went a whole year without cuttting my hair, which is a record for me buuut i hated every second of it and i finally am embracing the short hair life forever!!!  I LOVE IT!!!!!! #feelinsassy

5.NO MILES: So the beginning of this month we ran out of miles. So we couldn't drive so we walked everywhere and it was fantastic! We talked to so many people cause the weather was decent and people were outside. We walked down main street and went into random stores and talked to people and knocked on a bunch of houses and man, it was great. There are definitely perks to running out of miles.

Yell ya'll i did it. That was my week! It was awesome an i hop all ya'll have an awesome week and i can't wait to hear from all of ya'll next week. LOVE AND MISS YOU!!!!!!! xoxo RIce

Lookin on fleak for Zone Conference

NAAAAAAAAAAAAAASWENNNNNNAHHHHHHH!!!!!! Aren't Iowa sunsets gorgeous?!?!

What is up my peep! This week was a good one and i can't wait to tell you all about it! So here we go!

1.PAM: So we do service for this kind of random older lady who has a lot of mental and physical stuff going on so we help her clean her house and just talk and good stuff like that. Its like a treasure hunt! She has lived the most colorful and interesting life and she has a lot of keepsakes and oh my lanta we find super cool stuff all the time! She is such a cool lady and has a lot of similar beliefs as us but she calls herself pagan just because she has been kicked out of a ton of churches for some of her beliefs. We are hoping to introduce her to the gospel and all that good stuff that would really help her in her life so we'll see!

2. EXHANGES: We had exchanges on friday and it was awesome! I got to go with sister hansen and we taught the cutest 9 year old the restoration and she was like Oh my gosh, this makes so much sense! We were like I know right!? It was awesome! i love kids so much! Adults are lame, i just wanna be with kids all day! After that we went to contact less actives and we met a family that got super offended (which by the way is the stupidest thing i have ever heard) and so they hadn't been to church is 7 years! So we are helping them to come back. 

3. WOMENS CONFERENCE: Oh my lanta can we just talk about womens conference for a sec?! It was soooo fabulous!!! Oh my lanta i just wanted to be baptist for a second and shout hallelujah! and amen! the whole time! Seriously ya'll! Get out there and help people!! Stop being selfish and start thinking of others! woot woot i love it!! And to make is even more fabulous the ward has a potluck dinner before and it was a baked potato bar and boy was it yummy!!! It was just a good night!

4. EASTER: This easter was a good one! We sang in church with the ward choir and had some lovely talks and of course the primary sang and it was beautiful and we taught the gospel principles class is spanish and that was bueno and church was just fabulous! Then we went tracting and a lady kicked us off her porch and yelled "Its f***ing Easter!!" Clearly she doesn't know the true meaning of Easter. haha and Then we had dinner with the Dillon family and had ham and cheesy potatos and rolls and jello fluff and all that good stuff and it was fabulous! We ate so much! It was a good easter!!

5. BONUS PICTURE: This is baby Nate and he is the cutest baby in Iowa and my favorite!!!

Anywhoozles!!! I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!!!!! Have a fantastic week and i can't wait to hear from ya'll next week!!! Peace and blessings! Hermana Rice

Tracting in the most freezing wind that numbed our poor little faces and hands! 

If you asked me to describe my companion,,,,i'd show you this.

Guys, I'm gonna be honest, i don't wanna do a group email today. So instead i am going to send a couple pics. Enjoy and LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!!!!

Weekly Planning Sessions require treats.

Weird easter chocolate at the dollar store.

1.RED: This first one is kinda silly but we were in the Dollar Store the other day trying to contact a potential investigator that we knew worked there but we couldn't be creepy so we decided to buy something so that it would be more nonchalant. So we were walking about trying to find something to buy and we passed the hair color isle and Hermana Smith says Hey can i dye your hair red tonight and i said Sure. So we split the cost of hair dye and got to set up an appointment with the potential and know my hair is dark red! It looks fabulous if i do say so myself:) haha

2. PIZZA RANCH: For Hermana Smith and my last dinner together we decided to go to Pizza Ranch for a treat. Pizza Ranch is an Iowan chain restaurant that has a pizza, salad, and southern food buffet. Its fabulous and definitely not heart healthy. Its the only place i know that you can have pizza and mashed potatoes on the same plate! But it works. Anywho, they have this thing called Cactus Bread and its a dessert pizza with cinnamon, strudel, and icing on it. The best thing of the night was that my lovely super duper health nut companion ate 7 SLICES!!!! It was incredible! This is the girl that gets fermented mushroom juice and dried ginger for a "treat"! It was a great night!

3. NEW LOVE: I have two new favorite foods in case ya'll wanted to know. First off let me say that i haven't had pasta or cheese in a couple months. If you know me well that is a big deal. So to cope with my lack of carbfest i have found new things to obsess over. Thai noodle soup and bengal spice tea. Thai noodle soup is rice noodle in both with a bunch of spices and stuff and i add chicked and veggies to my hearts content and bengal spice tea is an herbal tea that tastes like Christmas!! Sooo good!!!!

4.FUNERAL: So this week we went to a funeral. It was for the 6 year old boy of a former investigator. He was hit by as motorcyle and died on impact. They are hispanic and  Catholic so the funeral was held in a catholic church and totally in spanish. So we walk into the church and its an open casket and it was so sad but he looked really good. Then we all went into the chapel and had the service. It was very...different and very inpersonal. They just said a bunch of prayers and sang and read from the bible and chanted and had communion, nothing was really about little Jason. It was interesting. I didn't cry until i saw his mom, then i lost it. I have never seen anyone in that much distress and hopelessness and in so much pain, i just wanted to give her a huge hug and tell her that her son is with God and she will see him again. Boy, that was an emotional morning. 

5.TRANSFERS: Ok ya'll here is what you have been waiting for...my new companion!!! My new companion is......wait for it.........Hermana Rodriguez again!!!! Its so fun! Its great cause we don't have to do the whole awkward first couple days getting to know them, we already know basically everything about eachother!! Its awesome, this is going to be a fantastic tranfer! We have already had a little to much fun together but don't worry we are working super hard and great things are coming this transfer!! Stay tuned for awesomeness!

Well, that was my week! I hope everyone has a fantastic week and i can't wait to hear from ya'll next week! LOVE AND MISS YOU TONS!!!! xoxo Hermana Rice