Week 4... Halloween ooooooOOOOooooo‏

Hola Familia!

Como estan? Quiero hablar con ustedes todo del tiemplo pero no puedo. Entonces! Write me:)

There are some great scripture jokes I found: In 1 corinthians 6:19 he says "what?" Like I imagine him saying it like "seriously? you didn't know this" oh man.. too funny.
Also in Alma 26:25 is a great joke because it is after Ammon has cut off all the arms of the lamanites by the water and then they are about to go to war and this is what he says.. Oh man I will find more. People in the scriptures are so sassy and sarcastic.. It is just the greatest.

Seriously this week was so great!

Monday we went to the store and got some chocolate oreos and made some chocolate milk and soaked the oreos in the milk... Yeah it was the highlight of my day. BUT the real highlight was we got one of our recent convert families interested in family history work. And I talked to a man who lives in a blue house. The whole house is blue. It isn't even a real house he lives in a trailer park.. EVERYTHING WAS BLUE. It was so funny, but I just told him wow I love your blue house... I have decided that I love the creativity of it.. that way I am not lying.

Tuesday was super cool! So we went to this potential investigator's house and he wasn't home, but his friend Octavio was and he was just super happy and pulled up some chairs for us and asked us to teach him something. We didn't really know what was happening or what to talk about but we just said "Can we start with a prayer?" and he asked us how to pray and said he had looked up YouTube videos on how to pray and we just looked at eachother and was like.. yeah, we can teach you how to pray. So we ended up teaching him a great lesson on prayer and then we invited him to be baptized and he said yes.. so yeah.. Tuesday was pretty cool.

Wednesday was interesting too.. we were doing service at the library and a man pointed to us and said, "you are who I want to talk to wait right there!" and we were just like.. okay. So he came up to us and asked what religion we were and we told him and he said, "now I am an atheist, but I study religion. Do you have a pamphlet or something that has your beliefs on it that I could have?" We were like.. um YES. So we gave him our information and he kept talking to us and giving us some advice about life.. Oh Craig. His name was Craig. Oh Craig he was so funny and talked to us about what we wanted to do with our lives and about music and about how to pick a husband.. Oh man. He was a cool guy. But I hadn't ever met an atheist who studies religion... I have a feeling he isn't an atheist... he just thinks he is.
Also, that night (my companion likes to do jinxes..) I got jinxed. Now.. I can be stubborn at times, so she didn't realize what she had done. But she can be stubborn too, so let me tell you how this played out: "You're going to have to talk during the lesson" "...*head shake*..." (and it came to pass that Hermana Eardley got her companion to compromise) So I was free to talk only during lessons and planning (if I spoke I would have to make her breakfast (I was going to anyways, but I didn't want to lose the game.)) Anyways so the night went on, never did I speak unless aloud to according to the rules we had set. But we were walking home and to my absolute horror we saw a slugbug car. I started running and she started chasing me but I had to use the bathroom so bad and so I just fell to the ground and was like "just take it, don't give up, she will stop eventually" and she did.. that was painful. but we got into the house and I went into the bathroom and she followed me and then started tickling me.. She just said "whose going to win? Your mouth or your bladder" BUT we tripped over the rug and she fell into the shower and broke the shower! I took a second to look but she was distracted so I took off and ran to the other bathroom. I ended up winning the game and making her breakfast and now our shower door is broken.. so it was a pretty great game of jinx if you ask me.. never again.

Thursday was so much fun! We got to volunteer at the Braille Institute! I absolutely love it there I wish there was one in St. George. That night we went on exchanges and I was left in charge of my area with an English speaking sister.. It was great. On Friday we got to exchange back and I just love my companion. Also I am in love with this CD! The band is BYU Vocal Point and the Album is Lead Thou Me On. I just absolutely love it. It is on my list of things to get when I come home because I just want to listen to it all the time.

Saturday was the highlight of the week. Are you ready? WE HAD A STAKE FIESTA!! It was so much fun oh my goodness everyone It was Authentic Mexican Fiesta material. Wow it was so great we got to talk to so many people and found some potential investigators and had real Mexican food and the was an actual Mariachi Band there and I got to wear a sombrero.. I tell you it was so so prime. Like legit. I can't even describe to you how great it was. I will send pictures and I took a video but I don't know if I can send it we will see.

Sunday was good. We talked to people and I met a very old nice little lady. She was cute.

Anyways, that was my week. Numbers have been small, but they don't really mean anything. We have done some great missionary work this week and I loved every part of it. Tonight we get to watch the Testaments with the Jimenez family.. I am so excited. Me encanta ese pelicula!
I love you all so much and I am sad I missed the deer hunt, but I am out here and this is the best place for me by far. I am learning so much everyday and it isn't easy, but already I know without a doubt that I wouldn't trade this for anything. You all mean the world to me and you are all in my prayers! Thank you so much for your letters and emails! They make my week so much better!
I have learned that there is no such thing as praying too often. Even if it is just to say hi. I love my Heavenly Father so much and I love that I can talk to him whenever.. It makes it easier to not be able to talk to y'all whenever. I love you all so much!

Love, Hermana Eardley
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One Month

What? Yeah. I have been in the field for a month. It is getting real.
This last week was awesome! On Tuesday we got icecream which, let's be honest, is a big deal. I also got to meet our branch president and he is so super cool. We stopped by the church on Tuesday as well and one of the boys came with flowers for one of the girls because she hadn't been feeling well.. it was so so embarrassing but so funny (and sweet, let's not forget how nice that was).

On Wednesday we got Ana on date for baptism! It was great she is the cutest 13 year old, but her dad is Catholic and we found out yesterday he won't give his consent so.. we can't baptize her. Ugh people frustrate me.

Thursday there were so many things that happened. We had Elder Evans come and talk to us. It was so good and I got so much out of it, but he talked for literally 6 hours. I am not joking. We had an hour of lunch, but we were there from 8AM to 3PM. Craziness. Then, after that whole day of spritual upliftness, we had splits. I will be honest, I don't like splits, but my companion is the Sister Training Leader so I have to go on splits once every single week. anyways my new companion for the next 24 hours ended up being a clone of Jessica Fowler. What? No joke. Same personality, same looks, it was pure insanity. and while we were walking we saw a swarm of cats. It was creapy. Like there were at least 15 cats just sitting on a patch of dirt by the road... yeah I know. Me and my (original)(actual) companion also fasted that day for Ana which was good. Also, that night after I lesson I made the mistake of complementing a lady's collection cabinet and she just started giving me these random glass things that I have no idea what to do with. She gave me one and it was so big and she wouldn't let me give it back so I tried to ask if I could trade for a smaller one and so I picked out a smaller one and she was like oh no keep them both. This was all in spanish. I could not get my point across. So I was just like wow I am digging myself a huge hole. So we got out of there before she could give me anything else so now a have this candle in a teacup and a big fat statuette of this asian dude in a basket.. I have no idea what I am going to do with them. I need to learn better spanish. Or if anything I should have remember how to say no thank you. No, gracias. Seriously, how hard would that have been?

On Friday, remember how I said we were fasting for one of our investigators? Yeah so on friday we decided to break our fast by going to chipotle. My companion ran into a lady that was in front of us in line and we started talking to her and she showed us pictures of her family and everything, then ordered her food and left. We ordered our food and went to pay and the lady was like to woman in front of you wanted to use her change to pay for your food. She seriously paid for more than half. Like 10 dollars. It was just the nicest thing. Also, I got to sleep in my own bed that night.. yeah it was a good day.

Saturday was cool. We went to a members BBQ and they had invited some non-member friends. I started talking to one lady named Petra about her family and then I mentioned that we have a family history center in our church and that she could use it to look up her family tree and stuff. She got so excited and we actually scheduled an appointment with her tonight. I am so excited.

One last thing, Sunday, we ran into a lady from Iran and she speaks Arabic and she wrote my name in Arabic for me in my planner.. yeah, that was super cool..

Well, that is all I can think of, but I just want to assure you that I am having so much fun and that I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Honestly the people here are amazing and I get to share the gospel everyday, all day. I am having some wonderful experiences and my testimony grows stronger all the time. I feel like I am better missionary everyday and less and less of a burden to my companion. I love it here and I know I was sent to California for a reason. There is so much love here and I am so glad to be a part of it.
I hope that everyone is doing good! I pray for each one of you specifically and I promise it takes me a good 10 minutes to finally get to go to bed. I love you all and I miss you terribly.

Love, Hermana Eardley

Hola Familia!
Okay, so I am finally starting to get the hang of things. I no longer feel like such a burden to my companion because I sort of know what I am doing. I am also trying really hard to learn Spanish. We have gotten pretty creative. My companion has me translate songs that we listen to in the car. It helps a lot with grammar, but I am starting to dislike music. It is so hard. and frustrating. but also good. It really does help. My companion is really great. She corrects me when I say something wrong and she lets me struggle, but during lessons she will help out when I don't know how to say something. Our investigators love to hear me speak. Probably because I say things like a child would say them. They always ask me to say the prayer too. Oh well, it is good practice and at least they focus on my words.
Before I forget there is a drink called a "horchata". It is so so so good. Wow if you can find it you should try it. Also, the movie "Meet the Mormons" came out last Friday and Saturday. I don't know if it was in Utah or not, but I would assume so and I hope y'all got a chance to see it. It was so good! Wow the spirit was so strong. We told all of our investigators about it.
We have this investigator named Fulhencio. He is the happiest person I have ever met. And he is so ready for the Gospel, but his wife is strict Catholic and he doesn't want to create any problems in their relationship. It is so frustrating. I just want him to be baptized so bad. We have another investigator named Ricardo who had a baptismal date, but he fell off the wagon on the Word of Wisdom so we have to recommit him, but really it is about helping him realize how much we care about him.
Also, this last week we were on splits and I really had to use the restroom, so we stopped at a DelTaco place and on our way in a man who was obviously on his work break said hello and we said hello and then he said "you look really happy" and we just looked at eachother and was like, we will come talk to you in a minute. Ha so that is what we did and he is Christian, but not practicing. I ended up teaching half of the Restoration right there on the street.. it was pretty cool.
Yesterday we went bowling during P-Day.. yeah it was pretty great. I will send pictures. I know what you will think, but I promise, those were our actual scores. We really are that bad at bowling.
I am having a blast out here and we are working hard. There is so much to do here and it really takes a lot of endurance for sure. I hope y'all are doing great and that everything is going good back at home!
I love you all so much!
Love, Hermana Eardley

Dear family!
This week was so fun. Okay so missionary work is a lot different than I expected it to be, but in a good way. We get to teach a lot of lessons and talk to a lot of people, but we work a lot with the members. My days are pretty great I have more time to get ready and studies are focused on actual people and it really is a lot of fun.
My companions name is Hermana Magnusson, she is super fun and really nice. We have a lot of fun together and we haven't had any problems as a companionship. She is my trainer so obviously she will help me and correct me in things but I don't mind because I need to learn how to do things. She really is nice though I love her to death. We live in a nice little apartment with 2 other sisters and both of them are super fun as well. Because we have to do training we don't actually leave the apartment till 1:00 pm. But that includes meals, studies, and training and getting ready. Then we go out and get to work with teaching appointments and talking to EVERYONE. It is a lot of fun. Really, it comes down to planning. We plan every minute of our day and then make a backup plan for every minute of our day. It really makes all of the difference.
My companion is one of the Sister Training Leaders so my 2nd day in the field she had a meeting and I had to go on splits... so I got to spend a day in English land which was wonderful and I got to teach an 8yr old named Ana who is getting baptized next week. She is adorable. I have taught a wide variety of people all ages, each one special and unique.
I don't actually think I am learning more Spanish. Everyone here is fluent so they seriously talk English all of the time except during lessons... it is ridiculous. I was so excited to be forced to learn.. but no. They talk just like me except for when it really matters. It is whatever. I just have started trying to think in Spanish so hopefully that helps me learn a little too.
I had my first encounter with opposition yesterday. We knocked on a door of a potential investigator and this man answered and he was so interested in what we had to say, until he learned that we had a Book of Mormon than he started talking about how it was the devils work and written by man and things got a little heated, but we bore our testimony and told him the only way to know for himself was to read it and ask God. He took our challenge so we will see how it goes. I have learned as a missionary we have that power to do and say things in the name of Jesus Christ. So we make promises all the time like you will know, God will tell you, you will feel peace.. just a ton of promises. Then when we get home we kneel down and pray to God that he will honor our words. That really motivates everything you do--being worthy to ask for God's help-- because without it we couldn't be doing this on our own.
I know God is with us in this work. I can see it how the spirit will touch so many different people.
I miss ya'll so much! How is everyone doing? Are my grandfathers staying out of the hospital? You need to tell them to start getting younger rather than older.. How is everyone else doing? I got to talk to Sue and the boys before I headed out. Grandma didn't answer her phone... that was disappointing. I hope everyone else is doing good!
I sent a ton of pictures and put captions on them so I hope you get them all. Sorry there were so many but I told you the computers at the MTC were really bad at loading pictures so I just couldn't send them.. but now you should be getting regular pictures sent which is great because then you won't forget what I look like...
I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week. I promise I am doing good out here and I love it more and more everyday! Tell everyone that I love them and that I hope to hear from them soon!
With all my love,
Hermana Eardley

Your Missionary has arrived in Redlands, CA

Your missionary arrived safely yesterday at Ontario Airport. The missionaries were greeted by President & Sister Van Cott. After all the luggage was collected the missionaries were taken to the Mission Home where lunch was served; that was followed by individual interviews with President Van Cott and training on Mission policies and procedures during the afternoon. Today they meet their new companions and receive additional training. In the afternoon they will be off to their new assigned areas. They are all well and enthusiastic about serving in this wonderful part of the Lord’s vineyard. A short note from your missionary is attached to this email. Enjoy!