Hey everyone! Hope you all had a fantastic week! I sure did! Here's my Top 5 adventures from this week!

1.THANKSGIVING: Thanksgiving was fabulous! We had district meeting in the morning and then went to our branch presidents house for dinner. They are a super amazing family! They refer to us as their daughters and ahh they remind me a lot of my family in AZ. Its was great! We had a good all American dinner with turkey and potatoes and pie, the works. I ate like 10 homemade rolls (as usual) Then later that night we went to a members house and she feed us rice and potaotes ( I think) and chicken with some sort of meat and vegetable mixture on top. It was pretty good but I had no room for all that food! They really don't let us go hungry here!

2. 9 MONTHS: Guys I have been out her for 9 months! My mission is halfway over! *tear* Man, time goes by crazy fast! But since it was my halfway point we went to Red Robin for lunch to celebrate! It was delicious!!! It was a really good day! We worked hard and taught a lot of people and got a new investigator. This has been a fantastic 9 months and I am so excited for the next 9 months! Its gonna be great!!

3. ICE RAIN: Have ya'll ever heard of ice rain? Basically Ice is my very least favorite thing about winter. And ice rain is where it rains and then freezes on the ground. Then everything is literally covered in ice. The road, sidewalk, grass, car, houses, everything. We had the pleasure of having ice rain the other day and the back car doors wouldn't even open. I had to climb over the front seat to get in the car. While we were out tracting we walked as slow as possible to avoid slipping on the ice. Ice rain is sketchy. No me gusta.

4. IOWA: Des Moines is a very beautiful city and oh my lanta very diverse. There are five main groups of people that live here: White people, Africans, Hispanics, Burmese, and Muslims. I don't know what it is but Des Moines is basically a melting pot of these five cultures. And being a missionary, we have learned to identify just be the look of a house or the smell of an apartment complex if we are going to find a lot of Hispanics in that area. Its been soo fun meeting all these people from these different places and learning about them! Who knew that would happen in Iowa?!

5. INVESTIGATOR UPDATE: Everyone is doing pretty great right now. Were just teaching and finding and repeating. We have about 15 investigators right now and we are just teaching and helping and having fun doing it! I love missionary work!!!!!! Its de best!

Anywho, that's all I got this week. Hope everyone has a fantabulous week and as always LOVE AND MISS YOU TONS!!!! xoxoxo

Hermana Rice

Thanksgiving with the Jespersen's!!!

RED ROBIN! ( you just said yum didn't you)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING YA'LL!!!! This year I am especially grateful for.......YOU!!! This applies to all my family and friends that I love and miss sooo much!!! I can't wait to tell you about all the great things that happened this week! Enjoy:)

1.SNOW: It snowed. I am not sure how I feel about this. I don't mind the winter but I can't stand the ice and wind. Oh well, it just makes me so much more thankful that we have a car! We are super blessed!! The first night it snowed we were out and about and oh my lanta the road was super slippery and it was so stormy we could barely see but the work must go on so we just bundled up and said a prayer of safety and went about our normal night! That's just like life, blizzards come but you just keep going!

2.EXCHANGES: We had exchanges with the STLs the other day and it was super fun! They are a trio too so I went with two of them and their companion went with my companions. I got to teach in English and it was weird but super fun! We taught a lot of people and had lunch at Taco Bell and had a fantastic time! Exchanges are hard cause you spend a day with these new people and fall in love with them and then you never see them again! So sad! But basically it was a fantastic day!!!

3.STAKE CONFERENCE: So I just had stake conference in my last area but we just had it in this area so I scored and had two stake conferences this month! This one was super cool, we had it in a high school auditorium because the stake building is too small. It was weird but cool at the same time. The best part was we got to translate the conference! It was awesome!  I just did a prayer cause its the easiest part and my amazing fluent companion did the talks. Translating is super hard but super fun! It was a great Sunday!

4.INVESTIGATOR UPDATE: Everyone is doing great! We've just been teaching and teaching and meeting lots of new people and all that normal missionary stuff! Life is great!

5. FOOD: Guys, the struggle is real! My stomach does NOT like Hispanic food. I get sick every single night! Tums are my salvation the moment. It so hard cause Hispanic people get very offended if you don't eat their food and I have for sure choked down some nasty stuff! Hispanic food is not my friend but every once in a while we eat something super amazing and then it makes it all better! I have this slight obsession with salsa verde at the moment! But yeah I am in a love hate relationship with the food here!

Alrighty well that's all for this week! Everyone stay safe, happy, and know that God loves you! And of course, I LOVE AND MISS YOU TONS!!!!!! xoxoxoxoxox Hermana Rice

My companion translating Stake Conf. like a boss!! ( I didn't get a pic of me translating since I did the prayer)

Hey everyone! This week was jam-packed with adventures and I can't wait to share them with ya'll! I might even go crazy and do more than my usual Top 5....we'll see how this goes:)

1. SICK: So last Monday we had dinner with a member who is known for feeding us expired food ( it was really yummy though) but that morning and all the next day I was throwing up and had a super upset stomach all day. It was horrible! My stomachs never hurt so bad in my life! So we stayed inside and I pretty much slept all day. Then the next day my throat burned from all the throw up and I lost my voice and I am just getting it back and I have this nasty cough that won't go away! Man, its been a rough week, health wise. But life goes on!

2. SANTA AND JW'S: So this Morning has been eventful. Two lady Jehovah's Witnesses stopped my and talked to us and we listened to them and they shared a scripture from Isaiah and then we shared a scripture from Matthew and then we gave them a hug and said goodbye. They were two older ladies and were super sweet! Then we walked around the mall and this lady stopped us and said they were here from Utah and wanted to know where the chapel is. So we told her and asked her what she was doing in des moines and get this...her husband is the mall Santa! So we met Santa and took a picture with him. It was a good morning!

3.AREPAS: So the other morning we went to our investigator Berys' home and made Arepas for her and her kids. Arepas are a Venezuelan food that is mayo, eggs and ham and onions and tomatoes and anything you  want stuffed into this thick tortilla thing. They loved it! Then we taught them the Word of Wisdom and it went pretty well. They're having a hard time giving up coffee but they're willing to try. They are the cutest family! Ahh ! They are from the Dominican Republic and the only thing is I cannot understand her Spanish! Oh man, her accent is so different! Its super hard!

4.ZTM: This week we had Zone Training Meeting and it was awesome! We have the biggest Zone in the mission so there was a lot of us! It was super good oh man, it got us all re-pumped and excited to go out there in the bitter cold and talk to everyone we pass by and just be super diligent and obedient and ahh its awesome!!!!

5. TORNADO: So there was a tornado heading for Des Moines and so we had to stay inside for a couple hours and oh my lanta Hermana Rodriguez and the other Sisters in our area were freaking out and thinking we were gonna die and made us go hide in the basement.....there was no tornado anywhere near us. Complete waste of three hours. But hey it was a super cool storm!

6.CHURCH: Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles!!! (name that movie) we had 5 investigators at church yesterday!!!! We also have 8 with a baptism date! The three that didn't come to church had a family thing but they came last week so its all fantastic!!! Ahh they are all amazing and I just love all of them! Most of them are kids and are just the cutest things!! The Branch is super supportive and welcomed them are were awesome! Ahhhhh Missionary Work is the bessssssttttttttt!!!!!!

So this week ya'll got a Top 6. Your welcome. haha But yeah have a fantastic week everyone and until next time....LOVE AND MISS YOU TONS!!!!! xoxoxoxoxo Hermana Rice

SANTA!!!!!!!!! Fun Fact: Santa is LDS:P

ZONE TRAINING MEETING!

Hey ya'll! This week was AMAZING and I can't wait to tell you all about it! So here is my Top 5:)

 

1.DES MOINES: Guyyyysssss I am in Des Moines!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am soooo stoked!!! Its a real city! Its has malls and lots of restaurants and more that just Wal-Mart and McDonalds! It amazing! I haven't seen a corn field since I got here! I am definitely NOT a small town girl, I love my big city! But yeah and the best part about this area is that we only teach Spanish and we go to a Spanish Branch for church, like its complete Spanish immersion!!! I am so excited! Talk about baptism by fire! Oh my lanta this week has been hard but somehow I am able to mostly understand and speak but oh man it has been a struggle but I am learning soooo much!! My Spanish is gonna be basically fantastic by the time I leave here:)

2.TRIO LIFE: So I didn't just get one new companion, I got 2!!! Its so great! Its squishy for sure but sooo fun! So my first companion is Hermana Lundell. This is her last transfer then she goes home to Lehi. She is blonde and tall and super crazy fun! She does the funniest voices! Ahh man, I just love her! My second companion is Hermana Rodriguez. She just got don't training and she is from Venezuela and so she is fluent in Spanish and is such a huge help for my Spanish!! But oh my lanta she is the funniest thing and she is Latina so she is basically gorgeous! The three of us get along really well and have a blast together! This is gonna be an epic transfer!!!

 

3.FROG LEG: I tried frog leg. Its was nasty and chewy and tasted like crap. That is all.

4. INVESTIGATORES: We have investigators here!!!! Ahh its amazing! The only thing is Hispanics are way too nice. They don't say no! Its super annoying. We set up appointments and they don't show up. We just stop by and they are so friendly and let us teach them. But yeah its good. We are teaching two families right now and our main one is Elizabeth and her 2 boys. She is a single mom with four boys from 12-8months. She also has a daughter that was kidnapped and sold in Mexico and they have been looking for her for a long long time and oh man its so sad! I can't imagine! Yesterday we made breakfast and helped her boys get ready for church it was so fun! She has the sweetest boys!! Oh my lanta!!

LOVE AND MISS YOU!!!! xoxoxoxox Hermana Rice

Hola Ya'll! This week has been fantastic as always and i can't wait to tell you all about it! So here ya go, my Top 5 of this week:)

1. TRANSFERS: I am leaving Washington:( I am getting transfered tomorrow. On to a new place with new adventures. Transfers are so bitter sweet because i love Hermana Clark and all the members here but at the same time i am so ready to be in another area. I can't wait to find out where i am going:) Its gonna be great!! Stay tuned next week to find out about my new area/companion:D

2. HIGHLIGHTS: Let me start off by saying Sorry Mom! So the other night Hermana Clark was like hey, Hermana you should let me put highlights in your hair! And me being the easy going one said Sure, do whatever you want. Not the best choice. So we go to Walmart and get some blonde hair dye ( i think it was Revlon brand) and some foils and Hermana Clark attempts to put some highlights in my hair. This ended up good and bad. Good because she didn't fry my hair off and they turned into a pretty carmel blonde color. The bad is when i wear my hair up i have racing stripes that start out an inch from my scalp. Basically, not the best highlights but not the worst either. When i wear my hair down i LOVE it but up is kind of iffy. Oh well, Its just hair and i love doing different things! 

3.SCARY: So funny story. One late night we were parked in front of a less-actives house in the sketchy part of town getting ready to go in. All the sudden the back door opens and someone starts to get in. We screamed at the top of our lungs ( i didn't know i could scream like that) I seriously thought something awful was about to happen. Well after we screamed we realized that it was a teenage girl who looked at us and said Oh, Sorry and walked away. After we calmed down we looked behind us to see the girl and a car IDENTICAL to ours comes and picks her up! The poor girl just thought we were her parents coming to get her and we thought we were gonna die! After we got our hearts to stop racing we just sat in the car and laughed for a solid 5 minutes! Never a dull moment! 

4.HALLOWEEN PARTY: The Branch had a Halloween party and it was so fun!! All the kids dressed up and we bought little kitty ears to wear. There was all sorts of games and a bonfire to roast hot dogs and smores and afterwards there was a trunk or treat. It was super fun! Hermana Clark and I did the donut on a string game! I got it all on video but we can't email videos so ya'll will have to wait to see it. Lots of people came and we had a super fun night!!! Halloween is the best!!!

5.STAKE CONFERENCE: This weekend we had stake conference and it was awesome. We had our favorite member Sis. Brenneman drive us up to Iowa City and Pres. and Sis. Jensen spoke and we got to see a bunch of missionaries and it was awesome. After the adult session on saturday, Sis. B took us out to lunch at this place called Midtown. Its kind of like a Jim's. It was sooooo good!! I had breakfast and then we got turtle cheesecake! Delicious! Our waiter was this 18 year old boy that was just the nicest thing! He stood by our table the whole time and the four of us had a really good conversation about the church and life and lots of things. Basically it was a super fantastic day!!!

Well, thats all for this week! Have and fantastic week and as always LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!!! until next time... xoxoxo Hermana Rice

Buenos Dias Everyone! This week was fantastic!! I can't wait to tell you all about it. So here it goes, My Top 5 from this week:) 

1. FARMER TALK: So this week i learned how to talk like an Iowan Farmer. Like this: " Yeah, well the corn harvest is almost done but were waiting on a bit more moisture for the soy beans because we don't want them to turn to powder in the combine. That puts a dock on the harvest and its better to wait a little longer that usual and get the most out of your harvest that to risk ruining your crop in the combine." #Iowan

2. TACOS DE WHAT??: Guys i tried a new food. Tacos de Lengua. For all you white people that is cow tongue. It was shredded but it stuck together and it had lots of little taste bud bumps and things on it. It was very dark brown. It was nasty!!! Nope. Never again. I prefer the other parts of the cow. I wont be eating that again any time soon. 

3. INVESTIGATOR UPDATE: We still have no investigators to teach and we are spending all of our time knocking on doors and talking to everyone we can. Lemme tell you i will never again be nervous about talking to random people ever again. Its so fun knocking all the time because you meet so many different people and get to know them and its just a super cool experience. 

4. PRIMARY PROGRAM: Yesterday was the Primary Program and it was so cute! I love hearing the little kids sing. We have a really small Primary but they sure are loud! Its the cutest thing! They sang one song called Gethsemane and its not an official primary song but its all about the love of Christ and how he atoned for us because of that love. Its the most beautiful song and i just get chills every time i hear it. Basically, the Primary Program is the best!

5. NAUVOO: So the Castillo family took us to Nauvoo on Saturday and we walked around and rode in a carriage and did all that fun stuff and it was freezing cold but super cool. Then we went and did a session at the temple and guess what? it was a Spanish session. Thats right, we did a temple session completely in spanish! I understood everything and was super happy about that! Super neat experience! Then we watched the   Halloween parade there and ate Walking Tacos and it was super duper delicious and basically the bestest day ever!!

Thats my week:) As always I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!!!!! Until next time...xoxoxoxoxo Hermana Rice

Carriage ride with the Castillos!! 

Hola Everyone! This week has been uneventful so i am not going to do a Top 5. Sorry to disappoint but sometimes life is uneventful. So basically we have no investigators right now so we literally knocked the entire city of Washington. Literally. Good thing we cover a bunch of small surrounding towns or we would have nothing to do. So as missionaries we have this Key Indicator (goal) called OYM which stands for Open Your Mouth and we get and "OYM" when we introduce ourselves as missionaries and invite them to do something. Well this week we got 106 OYMS. Thats a lot. With Hermana Moses we were getting an average of 20 a week. So yes, a lot of knocking and a lot of walking. Oh the bright side, i am getting a lot of exercise. Oh and let me just say that i absolutely LOVE Mennonites! They are the sweetest people ever! Most people are rude and not open at all but they are just so sweet and love to talk! Love knocking into Mennonites. 

Hmm lets see, oh one lady that we knocked into gave us two loaves of this cinnamon nut bread that was soooooo delicious!!! Oh my lanta! 

Oh guys you would be so proud of me, I ate leftover pizza and i now do the dishes regularly without dry heaving! I know, so not me. haha

Interesting animal sighting of the week goes to...Rat Squirrel! So I am pretty sure that we saw a rat/squirrel creature! Seriously, it had a squirrel body and a rat head and it was black! No joke. Some sort of crime against nature has been committed in the rodent family. 

But yeah thats all I got this week, Hope everyone is doing good and as always LOVE AND MISS YOU TONS!!!!! 

xoxoxoxoxo, Hermana Rice

Nothing like Ice Cream after a long day of walking!

PROOF OF RAT-SQUIRREL!!!!!

Hey ya'll this week was great and i can't wait to tell you about it. So here ya go...my Top 5 from this week:)

1. CONFERENCE: Oh my lanta wasn't General Conference amazing! All about getting back to the basics and bettering ourselves. I loved it! And fun fact. Elder Renlund is coming here to Iowa! I am so excited to hear him and his wife speak. He sounds like a really neat guy. Ahh i just love Conference!!

2.ZTM: This week we had Zone Training Meeting and it was super great! It totally got us re pumped up to be the best missionaries that we can be! I just love meetings like that! Its so good to take some time every once in a while and evaluate life. Identify what you are doing well, what you could be doing better, and what direction you want your life to go and then make those necessary changes one step at a time and life just gets better. Then after the meeting we went to Pizza Hut and man do they have good wings!

3. KNOCKING: So we have absolutely no investigators and we have spent every day this week knocking and trying to find people to teach. We have met a whole ton of people and  most of them were pretty interesting...We met one guy who said he read the Book of Mormon and he said it scared him as much as the New Testament. Haha I think the Old Testament is the scariest but hey, whatever floats his boat! 

4. PUMPKINS: This week at our service at the Y we got to help the kids carve pumpkins! It was super fun but a bunch of 5th graders with knives is also frightening! Most of them didn't know what they were doing but they're pumpkins all turned out super adorable! I love kids! K, family I miss playing with kids/babies soooo much so your guys' job is to make sure that there is a baby at the airport when i get home that i can hold and squish and love ok? 

5. MOSES: So Hermana Moses is in a tri with the STL's and they have a big meeting with the other leaders each month that she cannot go to so this week she came and spend the day with me and Hermana Clark! It was so fun to be with Moses again and oh my lanta she kept us laughing all day! She even bought us lunch and ice cream! It was kind of a party day but don't worry we still worked hard and did all those missionary things we do!

Well thats all for now. Stay tuned for pictures!! As always, LOVE AND MISS YOU TONS!!!! xoxoxoxo, Hermana Rice

Taking notes at Conference ( Apparently Hna. Clark thought it was a big deal)

Zone Training Meeting! This is called the "hard pose". You have no idea how hard is was for me to not smile!

This week has been amazing!!! So much to tell about so here ya go, my Top 5 Adventures of this week! :)

1.TRANSFERS: This week was transfers and i stayed in Washington and Hermana Moses got transfered:( there were definitely tears buuuuuuuuttttttt my new companion is the one and only, amazing, blonde......HERMANA CLARK! Thats right folks me and my companion from the CCM are reunited and taking on Washington by storm!! Its only been a few days but we are having a blast catching up and being companions again. This is going to be a fantabulous transfer!!

2. WOMANS CONFERENCE: This weekend our Branch had a potluck dinner and then watched the General Woman's Conference together. It was so fun. Good food. Good company. and a Great Conference! Ahh so many awesome talks and Pres. Uchtdorf's story was so good! Conference is truly inspired! So many great things to learn every time! Oh and our investigator Melissa came and thought it was a little long (haha) but she enjoyed it. Basically it was a fantastic night and i can't wait for the rest of Conference next week! 

3.MOON: Can i just tell ya'll something about Iowa skies?! They are the most gorgeous skies i have ever seen in my entire life!! Don't get me wrong, the Utah mountains are absolutely breathtaking! BUT something about the wide open sky makes everything look bigger and brighter and closer. I can't explain it but the Blood Moon last night was huge and orange and amazing! We stood on the roof of our apartment building and watched it. All i could say was WOW! Man, God sure knows what he is doing! And then another woman came out and we asked her if she had seen the moon and she came over and watched it with us. We talked a lot about life and God and stuff and she said it was no coincidence that we met and we have a lot to talk about. She is super sweet and great to talk to! Its great how God puts people into your path at exactly the right time and in the right place. 

4.ELDER WEBB: So i finally got to see Elder Webb at transfers and guess what? He got put in my Zone! So yep, I will see him at Zone Conferences and stuff like that. Lemme tell you it is weird seeing someone from home on your mission. I can't explain it but its kind of like Hey i know you and you know me but we are totally different people now but were still friends right? Kind of thing. Its really cool though. We took a pic together on his camera but not on mine. So Parents, bug his mom for that pic. 

5. INVESTIGATOR UPDATE: So we had to drop Melissa. So sad but she got back together with her awful boyfriend and still doesn't see the importance of living the law of chastity and won't come to church. Unfortunately she is one of those people that gets converted to the missionaries and not to the Gospel. We also dropped two other investigators so now we are down to only one. So we are going to be doing a lot of finding this week so we can have more people to teach!! Its gonna be great! I just love teaching and meeting new people and helping everyone! Its the best!!!

So yep, that is my week and i can't wait to tell ya'll about next week! As always, LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!!!!! Stay tuned for pictures:) 

Until next time...xoxo Hermana Rice

REUNITED!!!!! woot woot

This week has been fantastic! I can't wait to tell you all about it. So I'll get right into my Top 5:)

1.BIRTHDAY: You all know it was my birthday on Saturday and i turned 20! I can't believe it! I may have had a small emotional breakdown in which i wrapped up in a blanket on the floor in fetal position drinking a red slushie and saying i don't wanna be an adult over and over again. But then i was ok. We had a party at a members and ate a lot of junk food and had a really great day! If you friend Gabby Castillo on Facebook she posted a video of me decorating my cake. So check it out! I'll also send pics.

2. MELISSA: Miracles happen everybody! So if you remember, the only thing keeping Melissa from baptism is that she is living with her boyfriend. Well, we got a call Sunday morning from her saying that she found out that he has a wife in Guatemala and several girlfriends and kids all over the place! So they broke up and he moved out! We also found out he was majorly abusive so basically we are overjoyed that he is out of her life! Now she can be happy! woot woot! Oh and now we are teaching her best friend! Life is good:)

....Guys, I can't think of anything else that happened this week. Plus i have an almost-migraine so looking at the screen hurts. So i guess i will just send pics. Sowry. 

LOVE AND MISS YOU GUYS SOOO MUCH!!!! 

xoxoxoxoxo, Hermana Rice

My favorite Lunch! Wearing my new dress!

CAKE!

GIANT FLUFFY CAT!!!! MOM, I NEED ONE!!!!!!

AHHHHHHH SO FAT!!!!!!

Cutting the cake:)

Gabby got me goood!

Oh man, what even happened this week? Apparently the longer you are out the more the days just blur together. Ok i am going to try to come up with five interesting things to tell ya'll...This may be rough.

1. TWUBLE: So awkward moment when you get a call from the Mission President at 10:15 at night. Then he tells you that people in the Branch have been complaining to him that we are too young and energetic....that happened to us. Pres. was all like i don't know why this is a thing but you guys are awesome and just try to be on your guard around members. So know we have to be those boring missionaries. Yuppie. Who complains about missionaries being too energetic? Thats just silly.

2. SATAN BUG: Another late night story. I was lying in bed and i saw a black spot that isn't usually there. So I ask Hna. Moses what it is and she doesn't know so we turn on the light and its this HUGE mutant centipide thing! Seriously it was huge and scary and i would have prefered it was a spider! So we sprayed it with pesticide and squished it with a broom but it was still alive! So we put it on a plate and squirted hand sanitizer on it and lit it on fire! It was very satisfactory.

3.MELISSA: Melissa is an investigator that we have been working with for a long time. She hasn't been progressing so we went over to drop her the other night. Well, that didn't happen. We get there and have a lesson and we start talking about trials and she tell us how she is so stressed about life and is having all these problems and she can't sleep and she broke down in tears and it was awful. Well i had the thought to get her a blessing so we told her about them and asked if she wanted one. She said yes so i called the Branch President and he came over with another member and they gave her a blessing. It was super powerful. After the men left she asked us when she could be baptized! We told her to pray about a date. The next day she called us and said she had the best sleep of her life and she felt so much better and she wishes she could have a blessing every week! haha so needless to say we are still working with her and the blessing was just the push she needed to start progressing!

4.FLEAS: So we were at a beloved members home for dinner and she told us that her new kitten had fleas. We examined the kitten and he was covered in them! So nasty!!! Hermana Moses offered for us to give him a flea bath and to get all the fleas off. So we did. We scrubbed the little guy with flea shampoo and picked off every single flea and then scrubbed him again. It worked like a charm! It was quite an adventure! We now offer ammeture pet grooming with every Book of Mormon given:P

5.SUICIDE PREVENTION: The other night we got a call from a beloved member saying she was at the square and she was going to kill herself. Well we live across the street from the square so we ran over there and had a nice long talk with her. We went through ethos, pathos, and logos and used those to reason why she shouldn't kill herself. It worked and by the end of our hour and a half with her she was laughing. So we drove her home and made her promise to text us what she had for breakfast in the morning. She had a cinnamon taster strudel in case you were wondering. It was a pretty intense night.

So yep that was my week. Not a lot of exciting missionary stuff but definitly not a boring week. As far as missionary work we are just doing a lot of knocking. This area is not receptive to missionaries but hey, were just gonna keep on trying:) Anywhoozles, I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!!!! Until next time...xoxoxoxoxoxo Hermana Rice

Hola Everybody! This week has been a pretty great week and i can't wait to tell you all about it! So heres my Top 5:)

1.YMCA: No, i am not referring to the Village People. I am talking about the establishment here in Washington. We started doing service there and it is awesome. A less active in our branch runs an after school program for elementary age kids where they do fun activities or just hang out. We basically get to play with a bunch of kids for two hours every week while trying to reactivate a member. It might be my favorite part of the week. So fun! Kids are the greatest!!! 

2.LA's: This week we have been focusing a lot on visiting all the Less Actives in our branch and let me tell you, there are A LOT. We took a Branch Directory and every name that we don't know we have gone to visit. It has been pretty interesting. Some people are really welcoming and others were not happy that we dared to go visit them. It has been great! People are so funny about church! They need to stop getting offended and realize that people are idiots and say/do stupid things but the Gospel is perfect and that is what matters. Ugh! 

3.CHEESEBURGERS: Every once in a while we have late night Cheeseburgers. It is fun. Sometimes its just a really hard day and we say to ourselves, "Its always a good time for a cheeseburger!" Yep. We do that. 

4.KNOCKING: Its still a hard knocking life for us. We have no one to teach! Where are all the investigators? They are hiding, but we will find them!!

5.FLU SHOTS: I saved the best for last. So i found out that in the month of September it is mandatory for all missionaries to get a flu shot. Great, right? Well Hna. Moses was set on getting them done as soon as possible, aka last P-Day. Well, I said only if they have the nose spray. So we called all the places in town that you can get a flu shot at and asked if they have the nose spray...none of them did. So Hermana Moses said i would have to suck it up and get a needle. You can imagine how i am reacting right now. Its not pretty. Well, she drags me to the local pharmacy and tell the lady we need flu shots. She has us fill out a paper and then takes us in the back room where there are two needles and one of those red boxes full of used needles.*Intensify the shaking and sweating* Hna . Moses gets her shot first and then its my turn. Well as usual i am jumping up and down in corner trying not to cry. Luckily the nurse was very patient. Heres the miracle: After only about two minutes of my usual fear induced panic, i took a deep breath, hugged Hermana Moses as tight as i could and buried my face in her shoulder and got my flu shot. So let me paraphrase: i got my flu shot without crying and only spending a total of five minutes in the Doc. office. Thats the fastest i have ever gotten a shot in my entire life!!!! This is a big deal. Family, i hope you are proud of me cause it was truly a miracle! 

Alrighty that is all i got for this week! As always I LOVE AND MISS YOU TONS!!! Until next time...xoxoxo Hermana Rice

This is how our relationship works...

​Moses got in my makeup! She clearly had fun.

Buenos Dias Everyone! Its a beautiful afternoon here in Warshington! So this week in honor of me hitting my 6 month mark i decided to share five things that i have learned on my mission thus far...Enjoy!

1. LOVE: Probably the most important thing that i have learned on my mission is love. Loving everyone no matter what. President Jensens favorite phrase is "Love them to pieces!" and he tries to imprint that into our hearts and minds. When i first got to Iowa the first family i met was a very unhygienic, hoarding bunch. I would cringe when they hugged me and not want to go visit them. By the end of my time in Mt. Pleasant when we hugged goodbye, i didn't want to let go. I have learned that no matter what we look like, we are all children of God and i can see them how God sees them and i just love them and want to help them in whatever way i can. I just love everyone I meet instantly and i don't even try! One of the first things that come out of my mouth when we meet someone new is "I love them!". Christ said that the second greatest commandment is Love thy neighbor and i promise that when we do that, everything else in life is happier!

2.PATIENCE: I have never been a patient person but just like it says in Ether12:27 God can turn our weaknesses into strengths, if we let him. I didn't want to let him for the longest time but I kept finding myself in situations that required so much patience and finally i decided alright, i guess i am gonna develop patience. And man, what a blessing it has been! Patience is required for...everything! Patience is a necessity for happiness. Its soo true!

3. COMFORT ZONE:The concept of a comfort zone cannot exist in the life of a successful missionary. We learn to EMBRACE THE AWKWARD in everything. As missionaries we give up a lot of things and one of them is definitely the comfort zone. Its just doesn't exist anymore. End of story. Missionaries don't have comfort zones and lemme tell you it is awesome! Its feels so free and unrestricted. I love it!

4. I CAN DO HARD THINGS: Alright Momma this one is for you. I finally get it. All those years of grabbing my face and telling me over and over again "You can do hard things!" finally sunk in. Being out here is one of the hardest things i have ever done but it is also for sure the most rewarding things i have ever done! I have conquered so many things and accomplished so many things in these last 6 months that there is no doubt in my mind that i can handle whatever comes my way! So there you go, sorry it took so long for me to realize but better late than never, right?

5. WORDLY STUFF: Along with all the important life lessons, i have also picked up some fun but not big or spiritual things here in Iowa. Such as beat-boxing, ping pong, the names of the main ponies in My Little Pony, the alphabet in sign language, not to drive on B roads, Spanish is evil and awesome all at the same time, how to eat nasty things without vomitting, money is very easy to spend, Goodwill is the greatest thing ever, if you make friends with peoples animals they are more likely to be nice to you, and homemade popcorn is better than microwave popcorn.

Well, thats all for now, I LOVE YOU ALL AND MISS YOU TONS!!!! until next time...xoxoxo 

Hermana Rice

I haven't sent pics in a while so here ya go! Heres us in matching t-shirts on the Swinging Bridge:D

Hello everyone! This week has been lovely and i can't wait to tell you all about it! So here's the Top 5:)

1. MUD FUN: Ok so there are these things in Iowa called Level B roads. Basically they are dirt roads. And when it rains they become mud roads. Lemme tell you that only people with monster trucks or idiots venture on level B roads and only the dumbest of the dumb attempt it after rain. So one day we were driving to a dinner appt. outside of town and we thought it would be cool to take a shortcut down a level B road. Well it had POURED all day and the road was pure mud. Pure mud is slippery. Like ice. Luckily we were in between a corn field and a soy bean field so there was nothing to crash into. But like idiots we were sliding around and got completely stuck in the mud. So we took our shoes off and ventured into the mud. We had two ice scrapers in the car and used them to hack at the mud on the tires. After about half an hour we were free. We promptly turned around and went the normal way. The good part was we were not late to dinner and it was a super fun evening. Seriously there is never a dull moment with Rice and Moses!

2. SERVICE: So they're is a member in our Branch that lives with her sister and another friend and her nephew and the friends daughter. Crowded house. So they are also hoarders. But they have been trying to get the house organized and clean. (without actually throwing anything away) Well being the service oriented girls that we are we go over once a week and help clean for 2 hours. Lemme tell you it is the funnest two hours of the week! We clean and laugh and play with all the random stuff! Its a good time! This week Hna. Moses covered me in blankets while she cleaned and after a few moments asked if i was hot. Duh! Then she loudly announced " Guys, My Rice is overcooked!" haha we are ususally pretty hyper when were over there. At one point Alyssa told us " You girls need medication!" The moral of the story is: cleaning can be fun!

3. STUDIES: WE HAD STUDIES ON THE ROOF!!! 'nuff said. 

4. FINDING: Its a hard knocking life for us! Its a hard knocking life for us! Instead of lessons we get yelled at! Instead of investigators we get bashers! Its a hard knocking life! 

5. LANCE: So the other night we went to a Less actives house to check up on him and suprise! he had moved! But his landlord was there fixing up the place and we was so cool! We sat on his porch for like 2 hours answering tons of questions about the church. It was a really good conversation and he asked a lot of really good questions and we got to hear his life story and it was really cool. Hopefully he becomes an investigator!

So thats all for this week, oh and btw i wont be sending pics this week cause i forgot my camera! Sorry! But hey I LOVE AND MISS YOU GUYS!!!! Until next week...xoxoxoxo Hermana Rice

I have no clue what to write about this week. Nothing happened that is new or exciting. Ok i guess i will tell you about all the nothingness....Enjoy?....

This week me and Hermana Moses have been doing a lot of knocking. We have 2 investigators currently and we need teach more people so we have knocked everywhere! We have run out of streets to knock so what do we do? We knock them again! Oh my lanta let me tell you about yards in Iowa. They are soooo overdecorated! Its like a Home and Gardens magazine just threw up all over Iowa! The more lawn decorations the better! And don't even get me started on the excessive use of wind chimes! You only need one! But hey, there is no such thing as a boring lawn here! 

Oooh now I'll talk about the cats! "Everyone and their cat" is not an expression here. It is truth. Hermana Moses says that everyone is Iowa is either Catholic or Cat-holics! So true! And i have made it my mission to be-friend every cat that we meet! So far it has been a success, the only cat that still wont be friends with me is our investigator Sue's cat Nigel. He is pure evil but we shall be snuggle buddies before long. My favorite cat that i have met, in case you were wondering, is Angel. I super sweet Main Coon. Which basically means huge, fluffy, and cuddly! So many cats!!! Iowa is the home of the Crazy Cat Lady and i love it! 

Oh and wanna hear about the most awkward moment ever?! I'll tell you. So sometimes we go out of our apartment the back way which leads to a sketchy stairway into an alley. So there is usually no one there. One morning i was feeling particularly princess-y and decided to sing as i burst through the door and down the stairs. I chose to sing Good Morning Baltimore but substituting Washington. Well i burst out the door and sang at the top of my lungs GOOD MORNING.......and i hear a Good Morning! back. There was i man in the alley. He was very amused and i was happy to entertain him that morning. It was very awkward but as missionaries we are told to Embrace the Awkward! So i do!

Ok now for my newest segment in my emails: GUESS WHAT MOSES DID THIS WEEK? Because She does so many crazy things that it deserves to be mentioned. Lets start with Zombie Pens. She took a pen that was dead and customized her own ink using highlighter and pen ink and made a color never before seen before! She calls it zombie blood. She also did companionship inventory as Elder Sidious (Star Wars), and she made popcorn with Pam. Because Hna. Moses is a popcorn snob and wont let me buy microwave popcorn cause she has three different kinds of amish popcorn that she makes. Anyway i wanted popcorn the other night and we were out of oil. Well any normal person would just melt butter and use that but that is way to simple for Hna. Moses. Instead she uses Pam the cooking spray and makes popcorn. It was still delicious so success!

We have come up with the Iowa Circle of Life. Here it is. When we die, we become the corn, and the squirrels eat the corn, and we eat the squirrels. So you see, we are all connected in the great circle of Iowa. Speaking of Iowa, have you ever wondered what the view is like driving down the road? Lemme tell you, it goes a little like this: Corn Corn Corn Corn Corn Soy beans Soy beans Soy beans tractor Corn Corn Corn tractor Corn Corn Corn Soy beans Corn Squirrel! Corn Corn Soy beans Tractor Corn Corn Squirrel Corn corn bush Corn Soy beans Tree Corn Squirrel Corn corn corn Tractor Corn. With little towns somewhere in the mix. IOWA 

Ok I think i have rambled on long enough so were gonna call this good. I hope you got some kind of amusement out of this and if not, you need to lighten up. Anywho, LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!!!!!! Until next time...xoxoxo Sister Rice

THIS WEEK WAS BORING! So i am just going to send some pics. Enjoy!

1. There are 2 kinds of people in this world, those who eat cucumbers and those who carve the life of Jesus into them. Hermana Moses is the latter. This cucumber features the Life of Christ including Birth, Calling apostles, Sermon on the Mt., Crucifixion, and Resurrection. #talent

2.Hermana Moses taped my shoes to the ceiling. 

3. My District. Aren't we adorable?!

Oh my lanta this has been the best week of my mission so far!! So much to say and so little time to say it! I hope i can get it all down.Here are my Top 5, Enjoy:)

1. INVESTIGATOR UPDATE: So our main investigator is Melissa. She is in her 40's and has to cats that we love to play with when we go over. We are not sure if she is all there but she absolutely loves learning and just soaks up everything we say. We showed her a movie called the Lamb of God and she loved it so much that she wanted to keep it and watch it over and over again! So we got her a copy to keep. Her baptism date is Aug. 22 although that might not happen cause she is living with her boyfriend and won't stop living with him until they are either married or broken up. So hopefully one of those things happens. We just love Melissa, she is the sweetest thing!

2. NAUVOO: We finally got to go to Pageant and it was amazing!! First of all because i got to meet Hermana Moses' family! Her Grandpa and Aunt and 2 cousins play in the Pipe Band and so obviously we went and said hi to them. It was really emotional and even i teared up a bit. The coolest part was that her Grandpa brought an extra set of bagpipes and Hermana Moses got to play with the band! Oh i forgot to mention she has played bagpipes at Pageant for 6 years! So she was reunited with her family for a night and man it was amazing to watch! She was just glowing! I have never seen her so happy! She calls Nauvoo home and the bagpipe band her family. I talked with her family for a bit and they are all awesome! Super crazy like our family! It was a really special night.

3. NAUVOO cont.: The Bagpipe band was only half of the amazing night that was Pageant. The second half was that BOTH of us got to translate!!! It was soooooo awesome!! I don't even know how to describe it. Just an amazing experience! The only thing was we didn't get to actually see much of the pageant because we had to keep up with what everyone was saying but what we did see was super cool! We DEFINITELY have to go when i get back cause wow! It was an amazing , super duper fantastic night!!

4.and 5. CALLED TO SERVE: So here in Iowa and apparently in other states besides Utah they have this thing for the youth where they get called on mini missions and get set apart and everything and get to spend a weekend with full time missionaries. So we got two new companions this weekend and they came with us and we taught lessons and went knocking and had meals with members and just had an authentic missionary experience! It was so fun! My new companion was Sister Clemons. We had a lot in common. She took french in HS and loves Paris and Taco Bell and is a total fashionista like me. It was really fun! So we didn't have a car so we had to walk everywhere in the blazing humidity which was awful but we kept ourselves entertained and then we got totally lost and had no clue where we were and had to call a member to come rescue us! It was so funny! Other than that we did pretty good! It was sooooo fun!!!!! Such a great weekend and we learned a lot from each other and its crazy how much you can get to know and love someone in just a few days! Definitely an unforgettable experience!

So yes this week was fantastic! I can't even accurately describe the awesomeness!! But basically it was the best week of my mission so far!!! Anywho that is all! Please stay tuned for pictures!!!! LOVE AND MISS YOU GUYS TONS!!! Until next time...xoxoxo Hermana Rice

​Hermana Moses and Sister Gray! And Sister Clemons and Me!!!

​Hermana Moses playing with some of her family! 

PS i can't get the one of me and Hna Moses together at pageant to load so i will send it next week:)

This week was super boring and nothing really happened so this week i am just going to send some pics. Enjoy!

Hermana Moses really likes ice cream...and sometimes one cone is not enough.

Companionship selfie!

Hello everyone! This week has been fantastic as always! Here are my Top 5:D

1. CLAYS BAPTISM: Our investigator Clay got baptized! It was so cool. He is an older gentleman with an amish beard. He is a jokester and a total goofball. I only got to teach him a few lesons but it was so awesome to have any part in a baptism. Clay is awesome and everyone in the branch just loves him! Baptisms are awesome, what else can i say? 

2. CORN: I understand why people live here now. I had my first Iowa sweet corn and my life will never be the same. It was amazing! I could have eaten ten cobbs, but i didn't. But yeah, Iowa Sweet Corn is manna from heaven.

3. ZONE CONFERENCE: We had Zone Conference in Nauvoo so i got to see my old district which was fantastic! We had lots of good trainings and we even had a group from the pageant come and perform a little bit. It was awesome!! Zone Conference is the best! 

4. MOSES MAKEOVER: I proclaim Moses Makeover a success! We cut her hair into a pixie cut and dyed it red. Then for Zone Conference i put makeup on her and made her shave her legs. She looked Gorgeous! and she felt pretty. She got a million compliments and i also got a million compliments. Sister Jensen even came up to me and said thanks for helping her. It was a total win win situation and super fun if i might add. The only problem is i never got a picture of her all done up cause i got a migraine on the way home and had to sleep it off the rest of the day. But there is a pic of us on the mission fb page. 

5.TRACTING: We have still been tracting our brains out! We have one investigator. One. That is not good. We keep tracting and tracting but Washington does not like us at all. We had one guy chase us off his porch while he yelled some unrepeatable things. It was hilarious! But yeah thats been pretty much all weve been doing all day every day. Maybe i'll get a nice tan...that would be nice. haha 

BONUS: Ok first of all this story comes with a language advisory so dont let kids see this. Fair warning. So we went and had dinner at a members house last night and they had the cutest and most friendly german shepard i have ever seen! i could go on and on about this dog but the funny thing was her name. Her name was CrazyB*%^$. Yep. But they have a son and when he was little they didn't want him saying that word so they changed it to CoogButch. So thats her name when theres kids around but when theres not...it has the other unfortunate name. 

Alrighty i am out of time so i will send some pics and that will be it. Sorry this week wasn't as long or interesting. But as always I LOVE AND MISS YOU TONS!!!!! 

until next time...xoxoxo Hermana Rice

Before: just your basic bob with bangs. I told her she has way too much a fun personality to have such average hair.

After: Oh my lanta what a difference! Her eyes pop and that red! it totes matches her amazingly vibrant personality! Most importantly...she loves it!