Flautas and Forklifts

Our cooking adventures are escalating here in El Paso - this week we invented breakfast flautas! That's right! Scrambled eggs, turkey, and cheese, rolled into a flauta!

Our next great challenge will be the dessert flautas! We're thinking of opening a restaurant one day and calling it, "The Magic Flauta." (If that's not funny to you, you either need to brush up on your Spanish or on your classical music history.)

Great news! Sister Hendricks and I get to work together for one more transfer!

Being a missionary can be an adventure! The other day, our missionary-ing took us on to a construction site. You know, the kind that has a big sign, "hard hat zone." What brought us there, you might ask. Delicious tacos and aguas frescas! A friend from the church has a friend who sells delicious food and he happened to be parked there for the lunch hour, so we braved heavy machinery and confused looks from workers to go get some amazing street tacos!

And some food for thought! With some of the people we teach, I've been pondering the family a lot this week. Want to know how to have a happy, unified family? The answer is absurdly simple - build your foundation on the doctrine and example of Jesus Christ. Love. Patience. Respect. Selflessness. It's oh so simple, and boy is it hard!

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=1630305341001

Hope you all have a lovely week!

"Oro"

We have the privilege to be teaching the cutest family on the planet - the Vargas family. The other day, we started the lesson by saying, “We’re gonna play a game. We each list off types of metal and whoever can’t think of one has to pray.” And we go around the circle until someone says “oro” which means “gold” but it also means “I pray.” Hermano Vargas is the one who fell for it. He said “oro” and we said “Oh, you want to pray? Okay!” His wife thought it was hilarious!!

(Did that joke make sense? It’s funnier in Spanish…)

So the next day we get to our lesson and 8 year old Chris says that we’re playing a game and whoever can’t think of a type of flower in 10 seconds says the prayer. His mom, pretended to be thinking and thinking then at the last second said a flower and goes, “Oh Denise has to pray! She didn’t say a flower!” (Denise is two years old). So we all kneel down to pray except Denise. She lies on her stomach with her hands folded underneath her face. Then she prays in two-year old babble for about 3 minutes. The only intelligible words I got out of it were "juguetes "(toys) and "hermanas" (sister missionaries). That family is so stinkin' cute!!!!

Life in El Paso continues to be awesome! I'd give you more details, but we're going to go party for my birthday! Have a wonderful week!!!

Lots of Leather!

Did you know that motorcycle clubs can do a lot of good in the world? Well if you didn't, meet the Centauros! They organized a steak dinner fundraiser to support a local shelter for battered women. We know a couple members of the club so we got to go and set up the tables that morning, before the dinner with this group of motorcyclists. Lots of fun!

And here's us with the Centauros'.... what would you call that.... logo? banner? title of liberty?

This week we had to say goodbye to a friend of ours, Sadie. She's been staying with her grandpa here in El Paso to go to school here, but now she'll be heading back to Mexico for the summer. She's the cutest and she's such an example to me - how she puts her trust in our Heavenly Father, through the good times and the hard times.  She's going to do great things!

I continue to be amazed by the miracles we see and the example of faith that are all around me! I'm loving my time here in the Northeast with Sister Hendricks!

Hope you all have a great week!

Also this video seemed to fit :) Check it out!

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=3609934299001&cid=HPMO060914220

Missionary Life is a Party!

The great thing about El Paso (besides weather that melts a frozen water bottle in under an hour) is the huge variety of churches! We love driving around and seeing those creative signs out front. Here are a few that made us smile this week:

Every three months we have a big missionary party known as a Zone Conference. This is the best kind of party there is - we get together and learn to be better missionaries, hear from our Mission President, receive revelation, sing hymns, eat delicious food, and take a Zone picture!

[Zone picture to be posted next week]

One of my favorite quotes from this Conference was from Sister Miller. She spoke about our journey in this life and how we have the opportunity to have a positive impact on those around us. I think that her counsel applies to all of us, whatever our circumstances. She said, "What are you leaving behind? Are you making the path better for those who will follow behind?"

Have a lovely week everyone!!!