🎃🎶THIS IS HALLOWEEN🎶🎃

Hey hey! So it was a pretty good week and I can't believe the transfer is almost over. Hopefully Sister Christley and I will stay together next week!

For Halloween we carved pumpkins! Our Ward members that we did it with had a crazy kid who wouldn't settle down unless they turned on the Nightmare Before Christmas so that was on in the background the whole time. Honestly, I couldn't complain... 

Thursday hit me like a brick wall. I finally had a day where all of the frustrations and set backs of the past 15 months caught up to me and they kind of came out everywhere. Luckily, it was our weekly planning day so we didn't have to go anywhere for a while. I let myself get frustrated and down and compared myself to other missionaries. I couldn't understand how other missionaries could be finding people to teach when I had been giving my all and not finding anybody. I have always struggled with finding on my mission and was kind of at the last straw. I called Sis Bauer and she helped me SO much (no surprise there). I was kind of giving up that day but she told me that maybe Heavenly Father was pushing me to see if I would give up. I picked myself up off of my floor and got ready to go out. Basically, I was a whole big hot mess but that night we found a new investigator who wants us to come back next week and teach his family. I thought that was pretty cool. 

Sister Christley put some pizza rolls in the microwave for 13 minutes....yes, she thought it said 13 minutes for the microwave....well they came out completely black and she burned and cracked the plate. I went and checked the bag and it said 2 minutes. We then proceeded to laugh on the floor for like 20 minutes.

Hmmmmm, I think that's about it. It was great and I'm excited for today! We are going to play board games and go to a bonfire. Have a great week and pray I don't fall in!

LOVES ️

🔥🔥🔥

Sister Alex Solomon:

Good things this week!

There was a Polynesian choir that came down from Utah to perform for our stake and they were amazing! They are the Divine Heritage choir. Anyway, on Saturday they held a big luau at the stake center where they did tons of dancing and stuff. They had food there.....kahlua pork, rice, grilled chicken, pineapple, and macaroni salad. Mmmmmmmmm good! The host is from New Zealand and he was dang hilarious. He also did this stellar fire dance that I'm going to try to put in this email. The next day, they sang in 4 sacrament meetings and held a missionary fireside where they sang songs and bore their testimonies. We also got to have dinner with them that night. They were staying at the stake president's house (36 choir members) and he signed up to feed us so we went and chowed down on some ribs, links, rice, and potato salad that had all been cooking ALL DAY. Basically, it was the best weekend and I wish I was Polynesian now. I asked them if I could join the choir and if I would stand out and they were like, "You could TOTALLY pass as Samoan." Haha, it was awesome and I love them all!

I went on exchanges with my girl BAUER POWER and it was amazing. Even if we didn't have a whole lot going on that day.... she always inspires me to push myself and be better than I am. I got to see her and Sister Moss at zone conference on Friday and it was pretty amazing! We also got to go paint some houses on Saturday morning as a tri-stake missionary service project. It was great and I got to show off my minimal painting skills. I was cutting in the trim and everyone was like, "How are you doing that? Where did you learn that?" I thought it was just a common sense thing but I told them, "Well, my dad owned a painting business for a little while." Then they all thought I was a pro and kept asking me for help. Pft, yeah I'm not even good at it! Dad would've been a little disappointed actually! 

Anyway, Sister Christley and I are doing well and are having some crazy awesome times together.  I'm loving life and now just trying to find some solid investigators. #prayforus 

What do Joaquin Phoenix, Hillary Clinton, and salsa all have in common?

Sister Alex Solomon:

What do Joaquin Phoenix, Hillary Clinton, and salsa all have in common?...they were all part of my week! Here goes....I'm just jumping in because there's a lot.

We found a new investigator!! We were walking down the street and she was sitting on the hood of her car with her laptop so I made my companion go talk to her. We asked her how her day was going and she said, "Not too good....my boyfrien ask me to marry him and then he block me on Facebook..." We were like, "Oh no! How long were you together?" (This was Monday) and she goes, "Since Friday." so that led us into this whole conversation where we tried to teach and she kept bringing it back to her "boyfrien". Turns out, she is the CRAZIEST and we love her so stinking much. I asked what her name was and she yelled, "CHICA GARCIA"! Then, while we were teaching, she goes, "hold on a second," and runs inside her house. We wait a minute and she comes back out and proudly poses, with hands on her hips, with a bearded dragon on her shoulder while shouting, "THIS IS JOAQUIN!" So I said, "Oh cool! Like Joaquin Phoenix?" And she yells, "NO. Like Joaquin GARCIA." Anyway, she's insane and we go over there every couple of days. She likes to be taught but we finally figured out that Chica is slightly mentally handicapped so there's not a lot of retention going on. That's okay, though, because she's the best and we will still visit her!

Joaquin is my new best friend

The Salsa Incident: So last night, our dinner gave us a Mason jar full of homemade salsa. All the vegetables were grown in her own garden and it looked delicious! Well we stopped by a member's house nearby to pump up my bike tire. As I'm knocking on the door (and discovering they aren't home), I see Sis Christley bump into her bike and knock it over while the Mason jar goes flying. So that's how the Contreras family ended up with a driveway that looked like someone had puked all over it. She freaked out and didn't know what to do and so she starts SCOOPING UP THE SALSA AND BROKEN GLASS WITH HER HANDS AND RUNNING ACROSS THE STREET TO DUMP IT IN THE ROCKS. She goes back and forth a couple times as I'm watching incredulously and then comes back and goes, "IM BLEEDING" and proceeds to show me her hands now drenched in a mix of salsa and blood. I left a VERY interesting note on the door detailing everything that happened and then we went to the next closest member's house. Imagine their surprise when they open their door at 7:30 to the sister missionaries standing there yelling about flat tires, salsa, and bloody hands as Sis Christley is just waving her hands around to show them. Anyway, it's all good now but I have a giant hole in my tire. 

Other interesting things:

I went to the Ward trunk-or-treat and ran into Hillary Clinton! Who knew she was going to be there?! I had to get a picture because I knew no one was going to believe me.

What are you doing out here, Hillary? 

I had an exchange with Sister Moss, my trainee who is all growed up, and it was great! She's hilarious and I need her in my life more.

Overall, I love my companion, I love my area, and I LOVE crazy people and situations. It was a good one! 

LOVES ️

Meeting up for exchanges with Sister Moss and Sister Bauer

Good ol' Arizona in the Fall!

¡Hola, soy una misionera!

Sister Alex Solomon:

Well I'd say it was a pretty good week. I'm getting to know more of the members and am enjoying biking it up! Sister Christley and I have a blast and her new name is Sister Craze-ley. She gets randomly excited about things and does this crazy happy dance and it just makes me crack up every time! I love her and I think this is going to be a great transfer! 

I went on an exchange with Hermana Dueñas! She's amazing and I had the BEST time in a Spanish area! I was SO stinking full all day, though. We started out the day with a relief society activity and they fed us stupendous tostadas that were ridiculously spicy. They were so good though! 

The BEST tostadas and bread cookies

While we were out tracting, this random lady told us to come in for water and then she made us eat a bunch of pizza, tried to make us eat some KFC, and tried to give us iced tea. I was so shocked! I've never had a random person we tracted into let us in and try to make us eat everything they have! It was amazing! For dinner, we had homemade enchiladas with rice and it was SO good. We ate with the elders and a Ward member. Fortunately for me, they were really nice and spoke in English most of the time since I was the only one who couldn't speak Spanish.  I learned that I actually understand quite a bit though! I was able to contribute a little bit to our lessons that day but I mostly did a lot of smiling and nodding.  Also, I held a little kitten while Hermana Dueñas was teaching in Spanish and it fell asleep under my arm and life was perfect. 

Literally the face of pure joy

I have been really focused this week and I love it! We have around 60-ish missionaries that have been out less than 4 months so President Griffin has been talking to us older missionaries about how we need to build a curriculum to teach them everything we have learned before we leave. I've really been focused on passing on documents, trainings, and notes to my companion this week and just taking her out and showing her how to do everything I can think of. It really makes me see just how much I have learned this past year and I am constantly amazed at the things that I can do comfortably and naturally that I used to never think I could do. I see now just how much this mission is preparing me for my future and I would never change my decision to be here. 

Interesting things: A man was driving by us while we were biking and he yelled at us to pull in to Dairy Queen so we did. I thought he was a Ward member because he was talking like he knew us but afterward, Sister Christley said she had never seen him before. We looked for him in our stake records too and he wasn't there...so a random man bought us ice cream and made us take $20. 

Someone gave us a huge black trash bag full of loaves of bread. Seriously. They think we are STARVING. They literally gave us loaves upon loaves of bread. Why?! We physically cannot eat all that bread! 

When I came to the Ward, there were 9 investigators total....this week, 6 of them moved. Yep, 6. They aren't even all in one family! #missionaryprobs 

THE BREAD

SPANISH LAND

Sister Alex Solomon:

My first week in Spanish Land has happened and it has been so great! Unfortunately I have had a pretty bad cold the whole time though so I've just been coughing and dying everywhere. But that's okay!

About the area: I'm over one ward and on full bike which is awesome! BUT, our Ward is maybe like 6 square miles and if you looked at it on a map, you could see that's it's pretty much just a 5 mile long vertical strip so sometimes we bike from the top to the bottom in like 20 minutes and it busts my butt! Anyway, the missionary that I replaced in this area is Sister Young, my good ol' MTC companion...and she was here for 11 months....so basically, I get to hear about Sister Young A LOT from ALL of the Ward members. It's all good though; and I'm trying to do my best at thinking of this as MY area and making it my own. I've already gone through a bunch of the old stuff in the apartment and have pretty much cleaned everything from top to bottom so I can have a fresh start and I think my roommates think I'm crazy.

ANYWAY, I love my companion! Sister Christley is from Roanoke, Virginia and has only been out for 3 months. We really do have similar personalities and everything seems to be going fine. She told me she has laughed more this week than she has the whole first 3 months of her mission so I'm taking that as a good sign.

Biking in the POURING rain

Weird/Interesting things:  One of our first dinner appointments was a little old couple who proceeded to tell us about every rape/murder/shooting/crime that has happened in our area over the last 2 years. It's not THAT bad of an area but man, they had a pretty good list. They told us the last rape was just a couple weeks ago. Thank you, ward members..... We watched General Conference at the stake center and it was quite a different experience than what I'm used to! We walked in the chapel and walked right back out because the big screen was reserved for Spanish conference....yep, they were showing it in English in the relief society room off of someone's computer so that's how we watched it. In between sessions they had a HUGE lunch for everyone in the gym. I was so full of awesome authentic Mexican food. #fatandhappy Honestly, I don't even know what it was that I was eating but it was all great!

Conference was amazing, as usual, and I was pretty happy because some of our investigators here have been having doubts and questions about Joseph Smith. I'm hoping they were all addressed. My favorite talk was given by J. Devn Cornish and was basically a recap of Elder Holland's talk last conference.

Let's see, overall, I'm doing pretty well. This area is WAY different from my last and I'm really having to adjust. I miss my last wards like a TON #northvalley4life because I felt like I just fit in with the people there. So far, I've only met a few families but I'm not really feeling the click yet. PRAY FOR ME  I'm hoping I can love these people just as much.

LOVES

P.S. I don't have wifi in my apartment anymore and we have to travel back and forth to it so I won't be as good at emailing anymore....that's why this is so long...