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