Hasta Manana!

Dear Friends and Family,

Thanks for everything! This is the last email! I'll be hugging my family before this time tomorrow!

I just want to tell everyone about Oscar!!

I love Oscar. Lately I have liked the hard investigators best. Oscar talks very fast in Spanish and loves asking hard questions, but last week on Tuesday, we came for a lesson with a half hour's notice, and everything had changed from night to day! He came to church yesterday and he knows how much needs to change. Just look at the pictures.

Maybe I'll write more when I get home. 

Love you all! Have a great life! Here's my new contact info:

2083395210

carmensleight@gmail.com

Con Amor,

Hermana Sleight

 Departing temple trip!

Funeral for Hermana Sleight 

Oscar's scripture study 

Pionera de la familia

Dear friends and family,

I love you! Thanks so much for your love and support! I would like to start off this email with one from the end of my cousin Michael's mission that I really enjoyed. He served in Colorado Denver South. I think he's very funny.

"Elder Lowe climbs over the th body of the latest bible basher. The fights between them have become exceedingly easy in the past few months, but Elder Lowe knows that his time is short. He turns to his companion, who was rebuking some "hail satan" children and bears a powerful testimony of Jesus Christ, leaving them in a thoughtless stupor. Together Elder Lowe and his companion turned again towards the mountain top. Though the climb had already taken a grueling two months, the elders knew that it was still a two weeks journey to the top."

"They enter a clearing to find friends cooking meat and olathe sweet corn and are invited to eat with them. After being feed the elders are given 4lbs of cake for supplies as they began to climb once more. Just outside the camp they found one who had strayed from the path. The elders helped the man back towards the path of the disciple. The Elders then continued up the mountain. Elder Lowe entered a fit of coughing, his health deteriorating fast as his life draws to a close, he knows this will be the last climb up the mountain before he returns to the human realm. But for him, hope is not lost. He knows that soon another from his homeland will come and continue the fight he has fought himself for many weary days."

"As the elders finish chronicling the events that have occurred, a dark shadow passes over them followed by a mighty roar. The elders sigh, say a prayer and then ready their weapons to prepare for another fight with the accursed dragon." -Lowe The Magnificent Adventures of the Great Elder Lowe in the Mythical Land of the Colorado Denver South Mission Ch. 103 The End in Sight

Okay, back to Hermana Sleight:

I had my interview with President Henrie today and he reminded me that the goal for every missionary is that each of us is converted. God's plan (thankfully) includes full time missionaries, and our purpose is to teach repentance and baptize converts. However, as that depends on others' agency in large measure, if we focus on it, we will get sad. As we focus on blessing others and guiding them to baptism and salvation, we find happiness and are converted.

Laura was baptized this week. I consider her my first adult convert. I am so happy for her. She understands that baptism is a lifetime commitment and she is EXCITED about it. I have never seen anything like it. I love this work! Mom's asking for details on the baptism. I played "He Sent His Son" and Hermana Henao sang. It was beautiful.

Love you! Have a great week!

Love,

Carmen

Free limones from Filimon

Dear Friends and Family,

Thanks for your help and support! You're all invited to my homecoming on the 18th of March. 

I have always wondered how to tell my investigators that their family member will have a chance to accept true baptism in the spirit world without having to teach 3 different missionary lessons on the first visit, but I have found the answer, and it's in the Book of Mormon, Mosiah 3:11-12 (ish, I wish I could find where I wrote down the reference). It is perfect for explaining that our deceased ancestors will get a chance because they didn't in this life, but that our time is now, and if we don't act, the consequences will be much greater!! I invite you to study it and ponder how to share that truth with a friend.

Stories!

We knocked a door with a lemon tree outside laden with fruit. We were just leaving when the man came outside through another door. We talked for a second about the tree, and he offered us some lemons! He brought us a bag and let us pick them, telling us over and over again that even if he's not home, we can always come and pick some lemons. Free limones!! Yay! Then we asked him is name, and it's Filimon! (remember everyone that in Spanish, the "i" is pronounced "ee") We've been laughing about that one for days! Now we refer to him as "Free-limon".

Hermana Williams is going to remember me as Hermana Sleight and her big ideas. After Laura's interview, we tried to talk with her about going to her house and seeing that she had a bed in a separate room from her ex-husband and she told us it needed to be a morning when no one was home. Welp, it was thursday morning, and we were all together, but Laura had to take the bus home and I knew from experience that if you leave an investigator that close to baptism alone for 10 seconds, they drop off the face of the earth, so I suggested that we all take the bus to her house :] That's how we left the church building locked up with lights on and our stuff inside including lunch and couldn't get back in till 3. I'm so embarrassed. 

Thanks for all your your help! I love you all!

Hermana Madsen is from New Mexico but her grandparents owned a craft store in IF called Madsen's. Carmen has not been her companion but has gone on lots of exchanges with her.

Hermana Williams is also from New Mexico and is going home soon! Carmen was put in a new area with a new comp for the last 3 weeks of her mission. 

Jason Lasagna

Dear Friends and Family,

Thanks for all of your prayers and support! It is very reassuring to know that there are people there waiting for me when I get home. Sometimes everything before the mission feels like a dream. People call it the mission veil. 

Please everyone remember the importance of regular accounting to God. People have told me a million times on my mission to account to God each night for what I've done but I've had no idea how to do that. Now I'm at the end looking back and wondering if I've done all I can. I am finding the reassurance that I yearn for, but it's made me think about how I don't want to have this feeling at the end of my life regarding final judgement. Repent on a regular basis. Find out your standing with God. Do what you need to know that you're good.

Stories!

On Saturday we OYMed to Jason Lasagna. He had a super cute puppy that kept him from chatting. But he ran inside and got his Book of Mormon. He had read only 1 page, the page where Alma 18 starts. He has been to church all over southern California. Every time we see him he makes us laugh. I am looking forward to his baptism. Yesterday during our lesson, he suddenly turned around and started cooing at a raven that was still at the very top of the light pole!!! 

Crazy fun life:) Love you all!

Photos of her apartment

Hermanas Stickel, Sleight and Ruelas living it up at Denny's!

Ironico (plus Homecoming info)

Carmen's Homecoming information

Date: March 18th

Time: 9 am - 12 pm 

Lunch will be served after church at our house

Place: 2040 Brentwood Drive, Idaho Falls, ID 83402

* If you need a place to stay, contact Robbie 208.589.2022 

Dear Friends and Fmaily,

I love you so much! Thanks for all of your love and support!

I have left myself 0 time to type, as usual, and I hope that I can put something here worth reading. 

I really want to become a good gospel teacher. Like, phenomenal. I think that my mission has been a  good start, but something that I am looking forward to studying more in depth very soon is the pattern of teaching of the Master Teacher, Jesus Christ. He was bold, kind, and clever. He asked questions and perceived needs. He never passed up an opportunity to teach, and He taught in a way that all who hoped He was the Son of God could understand what they needed to progress. May each of us model our lives and teaching after His perfect example. 

Stories!!

Mario continues to refuse to be baptized, but he loves church, and he is reading the Book of Mormon! He missed his appointment Saturday night because his family wasn't ready on time, but the next morning when they wanted to skip church, HE wouldn't let THEM! Go Mario!!

We met Maria and Raul and then accidentally met Mirna looking for them (I lost the address). But Raul called us every day for 3 days to tell us he was coming to church, and lo and behold on Sunday, there they were!! He said something to the effect of, "Look at what we've been missing out on." Love it! 

Jason is a 17 year old who we knocked on his door last week and he literally asked where we were going after this life and when we answered with the Book of Mormon, he said he had a whole new world of questions open up to him! Yay!!

Love you all, have a great week!!

Carmen and her companions eating pupusas

The background of the sign has a serious message of Christ's love while the Post-it note collection is from the family. This note happens to be a poem from a dog, "roses are gray, violets are gray, everything is gray, give me a treat." and Carmen recited it to a dog she saw later while knocking doors which caused her companion to think she was depressed. That's just our family sense of humor! 

Carmen's wild hair on a grand adventure and an avocado chair for relaxing. 

Fechas!!

Dear Friends and Family,

I love you! Thank you for your love and support. You are wonderful people:) 

There were so many miracles this week! What a testimony builder of faith. For my future missionary readers(if there are any), never EVER stop expecting miracles. Always believe in God's ability to change hearts and believe that He is preparing people to be baptized in your areas, present and future. It makes a big difference. It is not a hoax! I promise it's not. I thought it was, but it's not. Applying this to real life for my 

Destiny was a referral from the Elders when they came to knock in our area for a little ratito. She had rescheduled for a whole week later, but we went, and she was so awesome! She is looking for the religion for her. She is looking for God. When she finds what she's looking for, she's willing to do whatever it takes, including be baptized! 

We accidentally knocked on Mirna's door looking for Maria. (nice one, Hna Sleight, but on her street and the 2 next to it, everything looks exactly the same!) She is also willing to be baptized, and she loved to read and she prays every day! When we asked her to put church on her baptism calendar, she drew a cute little church house and herself going to church on next Sunday:)

I had this feeling that we should knock on a door again because we had met our investigator there, but he told us he didn't live there, and we haven't been able to make contact, but then instead of him, we found Jason! Jason is 17 and he wants to know about what happens after this life. We read from Alma 40:11 with him and then shared the restoration. He is willing to be baptized and he told us that he's got a ton of more questions now that he knows the truth!

I love you all!

Elder Rivera, Hermana Talbert, and me. We were all trained in the same branch and Hna Talbert went home last week, so we took one last pic.

THe new trio! Ready for bed:)

Porto's! Hna Stickel, Sister Burns, Sister Keller, Me, Hna Ruelas​

 

6 weeks

Dear Friends and Family,

Thanks for your love and support! I love you all!

I'm going to start with a story. I met this man in my area named Jose. He reminds me of my Uncle Evan AKA super cool. He joined the church 15 years ago with his family, but since then has had a lot of doubts form in his mind, and now he's quite far from being an active member of the church. When we stopped by to visit, he expressed a ton of doubts. I was able to remember about 7, and I deep studied them. The hardest one was, "Why do politics exist with some bishops?" That's my rough around the edges translation from Spanish to English. Basically, he didn't like that his former bishop would let him into the office to talk whenever he needed to, but his new bishop tried to teach him how to make an appointment with the executive secretary, and he felt less important. I couldn't find much on it in the scriptures, but the Spirit led me to President Eyring's talk from the priesthood session of the most recent general conference. This was special because I had never read or heard it before, but I felt the Spirit guiding me to it. It was perfect! It taught me as well. We shouldn't expect our leaders to be perfect because they're mortals, but we should trust that they have a right to revelation from God, and if they mess up, we don't need to spread that around. We can take it up with them and God. I recommend the talk. 

Stories!

We had some missionaries come to visit our area and knock doors for a couple of hours. We found 4 new investigators that day! One of them was a family. It was the very last door we knocked on. 

The day before, I lost the keys to our bikes. All 3 keys to all 3 locks. Nice one, Hermana Sleight! To keep it brief, we had to leave KO early to get our back up keys and get the bikes before the key thief came back in the cover of night to steal our bikes! The last door we knocked before we left had a super cool new investigator behind it! He's 1/2 Armenian, 1/2 Salvadoranean! And he's interested because he's seen a Mormon Youtuber! 

Mario is really cool. I sent a picture of him about 2 weeks ago. He doesn't want to be baptized, but he can see that we're helping his family follow Christ. He keeps all of his commitments except he misses church 2/3 of the time, but I'm really happy for him. 

What was something unexpected that happened with you? WE didn't expect to find anyone Spanish from the BOM experiment BUT THEN somebody had the bright idea to go to the soccer fields on a Saturday morning. #foundem

I love you so much! Have a great week everyone!

7 weeks left

Dear Friends and Family,

I love you! Thanks for your support. I need it now more than ever.

Faith a principle of power and action. Faith without works is dead, but one of our (the missionaries of the great CASFM) favorite scenes in the New Testament is one where Christ says, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible." It is possible to do all the right, obedient things without believing, and when we do, miracles slow to a halt. A believing heart together with faithful works are required. 

Stories!

CASFM is working together with the Book of Mormon experiment. Google it! It's so cool! It's all about how the Book of Mormon speaks for itself. Basically we go "incognito" dressed like normal people without nametags and invite people to read a page of sacred religious text. We actually are very interested in measuring the feeling that they get from reading a random page of the Book of Mormon without knowing prior what book it is from. It has been interesting you could say. Still most people don't want to give us the time of day. Then there are people who do the experiment but aren't interested, and those who love it until they hear what book it is. 

One woman I met last week talked to me for about 20 minutes before I could get her to do the experiment. She told me that Jesus had told her that that day she would meet a woman who would talk to her about sacred things. She knew it was me, but did she want a copy of the Book of Mormon? Haha, no. Good try though. 

Another thought it was all wonderful and "recognized" the story from the Bible (This is especially popular regarding Nephi and the boat vs Noah and the arc, any time Adam and Eve are mentioned, etc.), and was all on board to let us publish her page but when I said Book of Mormon, she said, "I can do this much, but I can't sign.", and sped away. 

But then I met a Spanish YSA from Canoga Park named Raul who offered to buy me a taco(should have said yes. I'll never get to try those tacos! They're just outside my area and don't open until P day ends). He loved it and asked for the missionaries to bring him a copy. That's what we come for. That's what makes it all worth it. 

Between Saturday and Sunday Knock Outs we got kicked out of 4 apartment complexes including one young man who filmed kicking us out. I'm sure he will present it as evidence before the judge if we ever come back. But suertamente, Carlos is interested in the Book of Mormon, so we'll be invited back soon:) 

I love you guys, I miss you a lot. Have a great week!

Me faltan 2 meces! Quien cuenta?

Dear Friends and Family,

Thanks for all of your love and support. It is sustaining me as I miss my home and family more each day. 

What a special day this is! Today we have had the opportunity to sustain our new and beloved prophet and President of the Church, President Russel M. Nelson! I thought it was very representative of the Lord that in the press conference following, they stood up against pressure to change, and held true to the commandments of the Lord. God has spoken, and his servants cannot change His law. However, we all have a responsibility to love. Any person who is falling away needs love. May we hasten to care, to listen, and to sympathize before we counsel.

Stories!

About 4 weeks ago, I left the English Book of Mormon we were supposed to be delivering in my bike basket, so we walked all the way back to our bikes to get it. We OYMed to Fernando, and he's due to be baptized this Saturday in the English ward! He needs your prayers. This is a very delicate time for every convert! If all goes well, pictures will be coming next week.

THe same Elders that are teaching Fernando introduced us to Jose! He's cvooll.. More next week..

.

Love you!

Mario Martinez the older came to church Sunday! This is his daughter, Eliza, with him, me and Hna Maw.

The missionaries in the Buena Vista ward! We took the picture on the wheelchair ramp so we'd all the the same height.E Wride, Hna Maw, E Stoltz, E Rivera, E Nelson, Me, E Gibbons, E Leishman

I bundled up for the rainy day with.... bike shorts, tights, socks, shoes, shirt, undershirt, sweater, sweater, coat, raincoat, scarf, gloves, hat!

Triste, y Emocionante!

Dear Friends and Family,

Thanks for your love and support! It is very encouraging to know there are people who remember me while I'm a missionary.

I was very sad to hear about the passing away of President Monson. I hope to keep his example of selfless service in my mind forever. What a great life he has led! 

I reviewed a talk that kicks all missionaries' behinds called "A Consecrated Missionary" by Tad R. Callister. Then I read the talk by Elder Holland on becoming Perfect  - Eventually from last conference. It was a very complimentary way to decide to rededicate to the work, but not beat myself up about my mistakes. I've definitely made mistakes, but that's not out of the ordinary for anyone.

Stories!!

I usually don't write about the hard drops, but they happen. This week we had a lesson with Mario where he tried to tell us that he feels that all religions lead to God and that the Book of Mormon and the Bible are like Jumanji - AKA the Book of Mormon is like the Bible. It's been really hard to see him slip away after so many strong spiritual experiences, but this isn't what he wants anymore, and we've had to say goodbye. 

Last Tuesday, we received a referral for Gabriela from Mayra Hernandez Sanchez, a missionary in Riverside. I was surprised when it finally clicked in my head. Hermana Hernandez was my MTC companion! What a wild ride this has been. We taught Gabriela for the first time on Thursday, and she liked it so much that she called Hermana Hernandez's mom and asked for us to come and teach her husband! Well, we'll be doing just that:) It's time for this family to become eternal. 

I love being a missionary!

 Socks and a new outfit for Christmas!

And a sweater from Nana that matches the new outfit! 

Feliz Ano Nuevo!

Dear Friends and Family,

After 15 days of not writing, I almost forgot to write this little baby up!


Ah! There's no time! 

It's been a great few weeks! Some sad drops, some happy times! Mario finally started reading the Book of Mormon, so his baptism has never seemed so real! 

Don't forget to set goals for this year, month, week, or day. Whatever you can handle and believe you can achieve:) God helps us with the rest. 

Love you!

Love,

Hermana Sleight 

P.S. from Mom, she sent a lot of pictures without any explanations so I tried to choose the best and you can deduce what's going on!

Feliz Navidad!

Dear friends and family,

Merry Christmas! Thanks for the love and support and prayers this Christmas season.

Things have been all over the place but I want to share my testimony with you of the temple. A key reason that I know that the priesthood power of God is restored to the Earth is that the temple is the happiest place on earth. We all feel closer to God as we go to the grounds, but our vision should be set on an eternal family, which requires our worthiness to enter. I am so thankful that I got to visit this week. I hope you get to see the photos!

Mario hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon and he doesn't want to quit smoking, so his baptism date dropped. We were feeling kind of crummy about it, but then he came to a baptism and felt the Spirit. He finally asked us for a Book of Mormon in English. He came to the visitor's center and felt the Spirit again. He's committed now to a new baptismal date, and I'm very sure that he'll make it. 

We found a family and they seem really cool! I'll tell you more next week because our first real lesson is tonight. If you are willing to pray for them, they are familia Marquez.

I've been having a lot of fun with #LightTheWorld! We used coupons and a left over gift card from a member to buy dinner for the homeless people that are always on this one street in our area. THen we went and there was no one, so we just left it on top of their stuff. Hope they got it :]

Love you! Have a great week and a Merry Christmas! Talk to you on New Years probably!

Hermana Maw and Carmen

Outside Universal Studios with Sister Parker and Sister Pearse (and Maw)! Carmen says these guys are BFFs!

Temple Trip :)

Humo-peace and harmony, until the fires attacked

Dear Friends and Family,

Thanks for the prayers of safety! We've been living in a cloud of smoke!

I've been loving the Isaiah chapters! I have a piece of advice for everyone: If you want to understand Isaiah, study it in a different language. You will be much more able to skip over the fluffy words because they probably only exist in English. 

Light the World has been making me so happy! I love being a missionary! If you skipped any of the days, try them now! The gospel is true every day of the year.

We were told we could stay inside on Tuesday because of the smoke, but we needed new investigators, so we went out anyway. We parked our bikes, knocked a few doors, and decided to try to find somewhere indoors to knock. We walked halfway home and nothing, so we abandoned our bikes and walked all the way home, and found rides to our evening appointments. #bikelife

Then our faith was rewarded! We found 11 new investigators this week! One of them is a really cool gold mine family that wants to talk about baptism at the church on Saturday! She excitedly left the room to bring us the English Book of Mormon someone had given her and tell us how she wished she could read it. We provided a spanish copy and she was very delighted!

Mario came to church. The other Mario dropped. Interesting fact! They are both Mario Martinez. That was hilarious!

Some of you saw me at Operation Gratitude. It is a really cool charity that sends packages to military servicemen, veterans, and military families. I have gone a few times, and I really support it! The founder said that she was inspired when she heard someone say it didn't matter whether he made it home or not. He hadn't gotten any packages, and no one cared about him. She said that she thought to herself, I know who cares! Americans care! And she started the charity. They just packages their 2 millionth box!

Thanks again for everything! I love you all! #LightTheWorld

Love,

Hermana Sleight

Deep in thought or sleep, same same. 

Smoky faces from the fires! 

#IlluminaElMundo

Dear Friends and Family,

Thanks for your support! How has #LightTheWorld gone for you?? It's working miracles here in NoHo!

So the last section of Chapter 10 of Preach My Gospel has a list of converting experiences and I have always thought that it was the secret to success. You'd think I'd have studied it more closely by now. But just this week, I highlighted everything in the section that the investigator needs to do and the missionary needs to do, and (to my shock and surprise) the investigator needs to attend Church, Pray, and Read the scriptures (CPR) and thus gain a spiritual conviciton of the gospel. Nice one, Hermana Sleight.

Story time quick!

Mario the YSA who wants to be in the family ward asked us if 15 minutes a day is sufficient to read the Book of Mormon. He's so cool!!!

Mario Martinez's eyes lit up when I told him that in order to be baptized, he just needed to promise to always remember Him, keep His commandments, and represent Jesus Christ to the rest of the world. He started to say how he does that!

I love being a missionary! Martin is okay. 

Love,

Carmen

 Happy Hermanas! (Hma. Maw, current companion)

An opportunity to give service! 

Nana sent a gingerbread man kit which they made and hung on the fridge. When he fell down, Hma. Maw turned his smile upside down and left him on the floor. Carmen got a kick out of that. 

Gold Mines

Dear Friends and Family,

Thanks for your help and support! I need a lot of it!

Did you like #LightTheWorld??? It's back again! Just think of how great it's going to be to spread the light twice as far! Everyone who saw it last year is already on board, so share! Share! Share! We have to get the word out! You know me and math, You might think that twice the number of people will see it this year, but if we all share the video in every way possible, it'll be exponential!! (I can feel you all rolling your eyes). But seriously, this is such a door opener for the restored gospel. Besides that, it's a great opportunity to let your own life be lit up by the example of our Savior. Please, please! Light the world! In 25 ways, over 25 days.

Story time!

Yesterday, we were expecting Martin to come to church, but he didn't show. He had worked 30 hours over the last 2 days and he couldn't get up for church. We were also expecting Lexi and her siblings. No show. But count your many blessings! The Elders OYM'ed to someone that lives in our area, and he came to church for the second week in a row, even though we haven't been able to make contact with him! His name is Mario, but he's different from the Mario in the next story.

We had an appointment set with this Gold Mine and a church tour for right after. Hermana Penalosa was going to pick us up from Mario's house to a church tour with Martin. Well, when we got to the house, Mario wasn't there, but his member wife was. We started sharing a message with her and then he came! And listened! And we invited him to the church tour, and he came! Martin didn't, but Mario did! He told us about how he had had a bad experience once upon a time when a member told him he couldn't go to gospel doctrine because he wasn't baptized. He hasn't been back to the church in years. He wouldn't commit to come on Sunday. Then when we took him home, he said, "Maybe I'll come on Sunday." Then he came! His heart had been softened by the Spirit. 

On Saturday we tried to get into a goldmine's complex, but couldn't. We even tried carding the door, but there was a witness in his driveway across the street and we didn't want to look suspicious. So we talked to him! That's how we met Edwin. He's super awesome. That's all I want to say about him.

We played this fun game all week where you make a turkey with your hands(one hand is the feathers, one is the body) and you could 5 things you're thankful for and then the turkey gobbles. You say "Gobble! Gobble! Gobble!" and wiggle your fingers. It's only fun in larger groups because everyone gobbles differently and we all just laugh. 

Love you all so much! Have a great week! #LIGHTTHE WORLD!!!

Otra familia!

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks for everything!

Guess what's just around the corner! The Christmas initiative!! Yay!! Remember how great last year's Christmas initiative was?  I encourage you to reflect a bit in the coming days on how #LightTheWorld was a blessing in your life and the lives of those around you. Then, on the 24th, check out mormon.org to spread the Christmas message for 2017! I know that the Holidays are a busy time and a time for giving a lot of everything to others. I hope that each of you is able to take a few moments and be still each day. Give a few minutes to God by reading and praying. 

What's new!

We decided to knock a few more doors after KO because we had gotten a late start and everything had fallen through. They let us in!! (that was a trainwreck because a member was around the corner to drop off dinner). We got an appointment for the next day with a member present and they asked lots of questions as we shared about the Book of Mormon. We're having another lesson with them tomorrow! Their names are Lucia and Santos.

Also we've been trying to contact gold mines, and even though we don't have any investigators, the members came to the activity (that's one family) and church (that's another), so I see investigators right around the corner! 

Love you! Thanks for all that you do! Enjoy your holiday!

All the hermanas were allowed to attend a baptism in Valencia and sing as a "girl band" (as much as can be for church). It was a fun time together. Pretty sure Carmen's comp, Hermana Maw is in the middle next to her. 

Sin mapa

Dear friends and family,

Thanks for the love and support! I'm thankful that you remember me:) 

I was pondering this morning losing ourselves in the work (back story: We got to the brand new area on Tuesday. They pulled a phone out of storage. No contacts, nothing. We put everything we needed on it. I lost it yesterday. :/ Record fast time for losing my phone. 5 days. Nice one, Hermana Sleight.) I was walking along with 3 other sisters, thinking about how between the 4 of us, we have one phone, and how my phone number has changed 6 times on the mission and my family hasn't had any of them. I really am not myself here. In a perfect world, I would be 100% a representative of Jesus Christ, and Carmen would just disappear for 18 months. Thanks for not forgetting me.

Stories! 

Hermana Maw is from Rexburg and I like her a lot. We opened this new area, but it has a lot of investigators already in it, which is awesome. We started with no map, no phone charger, no binder to put our new area book in, no proselyting materials, etc. Plus, you know me, I had lost my planner at transfer meeting. But we drew our own map! Our leaders helped us get by on materials, including a new planner for me, we got the phone number for the bishop, and boom! We're working. We love it here!

I finally got started on that goal I mentioned 2 general conferences ago, memorizing the Living Christ in Spanish. I am fascinated by it! His name is so much more frequently on my mind and lips. I encourage you all to do the same in the language of your choice.

God has not yet taken away the great sense of direction He has blessed me with, even though he has taken away my ability to remember names and faces. With a hand drawn map, I've figured out the area pretty quick. Twice now, we have gotten onto our bikes, and I have told Hna Maw where the name of the next person we were going to visit, and then refused to tell her anything else. She gets kind of frustrated, but she kind of likes the challenge I think:) Both times we had to backtrack a bit, but we got there just fine. Last night on the same bike ride where I lost the phone, she got to the edge of our area, looked up at the sign, and said, "Wait, this is OXNARD??" She looked at me all mad. "You let me ride across our area?" I couldn't keep it together. It was so funny! Maybe I'm mean. We worked it out.

Love you! Have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Sleight

PS Sorry no pictures I was counting on a nicer computer with an SD card reader.