Coming up soon: Satan's armpit 👹 👿

Sister Alex Solomon:

Well, let's just say I'm glad I'm alive and able to type this right now because yesterday was one of the worst days of my mission life...remember that time that I got super sick right before I got on the bus from West Yellowstone to Provo with Connie? Yeah, it was like that. ALL DAY. Luckily today I am feeling a lot better, just tired and super achy. Sister Gonzales got sick earlier this week too while we

were at a dinner appointment so I think I got it from her. I was teaching an investigator and testifying of the Book of Mormon and she got up from the table (we were outside) and ran over to the bushes and started puking her guts out. It was crazy! Anyway, I'm glad it's over.

Our work has been slowing down a little lately. One of our new investigators (who for sure wanted to be baptized) just moved away...we don't know where because they won't answer our texts or calls. We haven't found any new investigators this week but to be fair, we have been inside a lot because of sickness. It's starting to

get hotter and I'm definitely not very excited for that. Here's a photo a Canadian friend sent me of how he feels about the US and Canada and I think it works for me as well!

As you can see, I am currently residing in Satan's armpit. Somehow, I need to  find a way to be more positive about summer here.  I am pretty excited though because the lady who passes around our meal calendar was gone this weekend so our calendar is really free at dinner time. I'm hoping that it'll be a week or two before she notices! 

Things are going well with Sis Gonzales and she has officially started the My Plan thing since its her last transfer...weird. Our new roommate is Sister Carroll and she's really nice....she's just super quiet and awkward like, not in a very good way...so we are working on that. But I think everything will turn out okay. 

Alex's companion, Sister Gonzales, sketched this cartoon of them.
I think it's so cute!

Since I'm a sister training leader, we have STL "companions" in other areas. My last one was Sister Dudley, one of my favorite missionaries ever! Well, she went back home to England last week  but that's okay because my new STL companion is Sister Bauer!!! I'm so excited! That means we get to work closely together and travel to all of our meetings together. It also means that I get to go on an exchange in my old area with Sister Moss! Haha, it'll be great and I'm looking forward to it!

Anyway, I hope things are going well for all of you. While I was sick I watched "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" again and it really hit me how much this gospel and church has affected my whole life. I keep getting friend requests from people I went to high school with and seeing their pictures of them drinking or getting tattoos or whatever and it just makes me so glad that I am here. It's all because of Joseph Smith. I love him and feel a strong connection to him because I know he wasn't perfect. He made a lot of mistakes, but in the end, he did what was needed and I'm so grateful for it. Watch it if you get the chance!

LOVES

Transfers Again

Hello! Thanks for the emails yesterday! Since its transfers this week, we have p day on Tuesday annnnnnnnnd Sister Gonzales and I are officially staying together! Woo-hoo! I'm pretty excited about that. We are gonna party it up. Transfer news though: Sister Gunderson is getting extremely lucky and is getting transferred to Cottonwood which is up north near Sedona. I'm so jealous! Just in time for summer too! Anyway, we are getting a new sister in our apartment who is extremely awkward and quiet (like, not in a good way) so we will see how that goes.

As for the work, we found 5 new investigators this week! 2 of them already know that they want to be baptized and I'm so stinking excited, it's ridiculous! Things are happening in our area and I'm just so stoked all the time. We are teaching up a storm lately!

Anyway, this is gonna be short because that's pretty much all that has happened. It has been good and I feel like my prayers are being answered. I'm excited for the future and hoping that I don't get trunky since its now Sis Gonzales' last transfer. Man, I'm just sending everybody home. #TheReaper  I'm just gonna try answering your individual emails now.....love you all and have a good week!

10 months...and some miracles, I guess

Well well well, I hit my 10 month mark yesterday. That's weird. Also, Sister Gonzales is officially at 17 months now. Crazy things!

It has been a pretty normal week as far as everything we are doing but it has also been kind of crazy. I have been working hard to be a good Sister Training Leader but somehow, because of scheduling, we had 3 exchanges to go on with other sisters so Sister Gonzales was barely here! Yikes! We are going on 2 more this week so wish us luck!

Because we only have one Ward, there are only so many names on our Ward list that we can go visit. This week we officially ran out of people who we hadn't seen before. That's kind of scary because now we don't always know who to go find but we can just keep working with our less actives. We also ran out of names on our potential investigator list so now when we go finding, we are just tracting. We just go door to door for HOURS and it's actually kind of awesome sometimes. We haven't seen anything good come from tracting BUT our hard work and sweat is definitely paying off! I have never found a new investigator from tracting but ever since we started doing it and just going out ALL day, people have been falling into our laps! It's amazing!

We are still teaching Pete but it's hard to get in contact with him since he doesn't have a phone so not a lot of progress has been made. We found a part member family and the 13 and 8 year old daughters want to get baptized together so we are teaching them and they already have a date picked out for their baptism! While we were out tracting on Saturday, we stopped by our Relief Society President's house for a break, hooked up to wifi, and received a referral! We followed up on it immediately and were led to a part member family who just moved here from Chicago THAT DAY. The parents really want to get sealed so he is going to get baptized this Summer! Also, after church yesterday, we received a call from our Elders in Anthem saying that some random couple showed up at their church. He is a member and she isn't but she wants to be. They asked the Elders if they could send people to teach them and then the Elders found out the couple lives in our area! ISN'T THIS MIRACULOUS?! I seriously can't believe it.

I just want you to know that this has happened every time for me on my mission. Our area has absolutely nothing going on and no investigators and then we work really really hard and are as obedient as we can be and people just start showing up one week. It just shows that God is listening to our prayers and has people prepared for us; he just wants us to know that we have to work hard to earn it.

Anyway, things are awesome with the work here and our Ward mission leader finally admitted that we are "the hardest working missionaries this Ward has seen in years". YES. I know that I have not found these people and all the credit goes to the man upstairs but I'm glad that Bro Gould finally admitted that to our faces. It's good, so just pray now that it won't get too hot for us...I'm already dying and my watch tan line is pretty stellar.

It was good to talk to you guys on Monday but also weird. Like, it feels like it was a dream that didn't actually happen. But I'm glad I got to see you all.

Have a good week! ❤️

Pics from Doc

Face timing with Alex and Andre at the same time on Mother's Day. 

It was great!

Sent by a ward member who feeds them every week.

It was good...except for the part where my soul got crushed

Sister Alex Solomon:

Well well well, where do I even begin? This week has gone by so ridiculously fast, it has been a blur the whole time. Seriously, SO much has happened and I kind of don't want to think about any of it. Buckle up because this is gonna be a long one.

So, to start out, we had personal interviews with President Griffin which was awesome. He sat down with me and talked about my letter that I wrote him about our Ward mission leader. He said, "normally, I take bits and pieces of missionary emails and send them to the bishop but yours was so well written that I sent him the whole thing. It was great because you explained the issue like a grown up and it wasn't bitchy. See how you solved your own problem? I sent him the email because he can go over it multiple times..never underestimate the power of written words. Well done." That certainly made me feel pretty good (President is a true Montana rancher and he usually throws a couple of swear words in. This is why he says he'll never be a general authority) He showed me some of his back and forth emailing with our bishop and he told the bishop that he knew there was an issue because "Sister Solomon hasn't complained to me in over 9 months." YEAH. Take THAT, Brother Gould!  But yeah, so our bishop has taken control and now we meet with him and the WML at the same time and our meetings have been WAY more productive lately.

On Thursday, we were so stoked and we showed up early at our meeting so we could take pictures with and meet Elder Lynn G. Robbins and Elder Holland. When we got there, they told us that Elder Holland's plane had malfunctioned and been delayed for just a little bit so we were just going to do the picture later with him. Anyway, fast forward and we are in our meeting receiving instruction from our mission president and his wife and our area seventy and his wife and they came up and told us all that the plane had been delayed just a little bit longer. Finally, Lynn G. Robbins got up to teach us and he was amazing! He was trying to stall so that Elder Holland could come in and surprise us so he ended up teaching us for over 3 consecutive hours! It was so awesome! In the end though, Elder Holland's plane finally landed in Phoenix and he was on his way to the church building we were at for a singles fireside he was doing but they said he wouldn't be able to make it in time for the missionaries and that we all had to go back to our areas. I was so unbelievably disappointed that I thought I was going to cry a little bit. We came home and got In-N-Out to make ourselves feel a little better. Things don't seem as bad when you have animal style fries in front of you.

Well, Nanette got to see him so she sent me all her notes from it and she said that she left an index card on the podium for him that said the missionaries loved him and she even put my name on it. Gosh, I love her.

Later that night, I also felt better because we met this random drunk guy stumbling around in the street and he had tons of questions. It was hilarious and I'm sure he won't remember any of it but it was a good conversation. He told us that we should leave our missions and go see the coral reefs before they all get bleached. I told him I would so he gave me the most awkward drunk man hug ever and it was a pretty good end to the day.

For the work in our Ward, we have had so many lessons cancel (what's new?) BUT we found a new investigator!! We went to go visit this inactive member one day and she actually called us beforehand and said, "so, I'm at my neighbor's house and he seems a little lost and like he could use the gospel. You should come teach him." So we did, and she helped us and it was great all around. ACTIVE MEMBERS SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO THAT. His name is Pete and he wants to come to church whenever he can. He might be gone a lot though because he is trying to get a job with Roehl trucking here in Phoenix. He is single and wants to see the country! But yeah, he's pretty cool so we are going to try to get him out to church this week.

Overall, it has been good. I have been so focused on working all the time that I feel like I don't have much time for anything else, even thinking about home and missing people. I just have too much to do and it's nice that I'm finally at that point. I'm trying to not get too overwhelmed with my Sister training leader responsibilities and everything else so I hope it all turns out well.

I love and miss you all and I can't wait for Mother's Day this Sunday!!

LOVES ❤️

Elder Holland at the Glendale North stake center (my old area!). 

I heard he was "pounding on the podium", in true Elder Holland fashion.