Spanglish Stake Conference

The rain has stopped but some puddles just stick around forever!

After all the rain from last week, big scary critters started popping up out of everywhere!

Yes that is a scorpion. And yes the other missionaries decided to keep it as a pet. 

This week was stake conference - woohoo! A stake is a group of congregations in the church, that all come together. You can imagine that the kingdom of God is like a giant tent, and all throughout the world there are these "stakes" that are a part of it, strengthening it. So our stake conference was pretty interesting because half of the people in the area speak English and half speak Spanish. The conference was primarily in English, and the Spanish members wore headsets. However, some talks were in Spanish with English translators, the prayers were in either language, and the hymns were sung in both languages at once. Only in El Paso!

Saturday was a very special day - Sister Silva's birthday!! 

We are so proud of our friend Maria. She has quit smoking! Here is a picture of her with her Declaration of Independence!

And yet another gorgeous Texas sky!

Have a lovely week!

Monsoon Season!

It's "monsoon season" here in El Paso, which means a lot of wind and lightning, and a few inches of rain. Even though the rain isn't much by Oregon standards, homes, roofs, and gutters really aren't equipped to accommodate it. We've seen roofs caving in, road closures, and general craziness. This is the road to our 12 o'clock appointment! Not even kidding you!

There are a surprising number of churches out here in Horizon, practically on every corner. As we drive around, we've noticed some familiar artwork up on a few community churches. Here are a few churches we've seen adorned with LDS artwork. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?

This week, my little sister got her mission call! She will be serving in the Taiwan Taichung Mission. I'm so happy for her and I can't wait to hear about the incredible things she does in Taiwan! For anyone preparing to serve a full time mission, or for anyone wanting to be more of a missionary in their day-to-day life, I have two words of wisdom for you. 

1. Learn to love the Lord more. How do you do that? It's simple: read his words, counsel with him in prayer, do what he would do.

2. Learn to recognize everyone you meet as a precious son or daughter of God. When we see others as God sees them, we will naturally do everything in our power to help them.

When we drove up to district meeting this week, we couldn't help but stop and take a picture of the missionary fleet.

Believe it or not, we saw this t-shirt for sale in the gas station! It is so true! Serving God is not work; it is an adventure.

And what kind of week would it be without another gorgeous picture of the Texas sky?

Have a wonderful week

Sister Biancardi

Legos, Snakes and Sweet Farewells

Have you seen these Lego tables they always have in doctors' waiting rooms? They are, in fact, for building temples! The temple is my absolute favorite place because you can feel the presence of God there. We work with a lot of people who have to make sacrifices in order to get to the temple, but I know that God blesses us for making the effort and coming to His house. Most of them aren't quite so technicolor as this one. 

See the resemblance?

On the drive back down from Albuquerque this week, we saw a warning sign I've never seen before. I like to think they just put these signs up for the tourists, but something tells me that's not the case.

This week was transfers, which means we had to say goodbye to the lovely Sister Adams (she's the second from the left). She's been serving close by for the last 3 months and now she's been transferred up to Albuquerque. She's a wonderful missionary who works hard and serves with all her heart. We're sad to see her leave but, like missionaries 2000 years ago, we went our separate ways "trusting in the Lord that they should meet again at the close of their harvest; for they supposed that great was the work which they had undertaken."

Have a wonderful week!

Una Semana Llena y Feliz!

It's been a crazy week! And I have lots of pictures to show you!

This week, Raul got baptized. This is the first big step for him and his family. His family has set a goal to go to the temple as soon as possible, one year after his baptism, to be sealed as a family. When they're family is sealed, it means that, as they remain faithful, they can stay together as a family "for time and all eternity." Who wouldn't want those kind of blessings, right?

Doesn't Raul have a great smile? Too bad I had to stealthily take this picture because he doesn't smile for pictures. Glad I got one!

And here he is with Jesse. Look familiar? Jesse was just baptized about a month ago and received the Aaronic Priesthood just afterward. Jesse had the honor of baptizing Raul.

This is the Salas family. Aren't they adorable? Their 8 and 10 year old kids, Ruby and Rudy, were baptized this weekend and both agreed to share their testimonies in the baptismal service. Their faith is an example to me. I'm so happy that we've have the chance to visit with them and help them prepare for baptism.

And this is Rosa and her daughter Jacqueline. Aren't they lovely? They were baptized on Thursday. They are such a sweet family with a lot of faith.

This week, we went on exchanges with "las misioneras de Ysleta," Hermana Pipkin and Hermana Adams. We all got to have a sleepover at our apartment which meant a huge study party the next morning.

Also, we promise we didn't plan this! Sister Pipkin and I had a polka dot theme going that day. :)

The good news is that Sister Silva and I made it through transfers which means we have at least another 6 weeks out here in Horizon. We also will be serving in a trio with a new missionary named Elder Smurf. He helps us out ringing doorbells, planning, and evening filling the baptismal font.

We have the most incredible district! We're so sad to be losing Hermana Adams, Elder Rosales and Elder Mammales on Tuesday. (They're all getting transferred.) But we know that they're going where the Lord needs them.

Child Snatchers or Missionaries?

This week has been a busy and exciting one, as we've been helping a lot of families prepare to be baptized and follow Christ. We are working with the cutest family, where two of the kids are preparing to be baptized. They're only 8 and 10 years old, but they're already talking about serving missions. We watched a Mormon Message and it showed a clip where a missionary and he opened the Book of Mormon then held it upside down. They asked why he did that and we explained that he was probably about to hand it to someone to have them read from it. We do that a lot. A few minutes later, Ruby started "practicing" opening up her Book of Mormon and turning it around for someone else to read. Then she flipped through the pictures at the front and started explaining each one to her brother. She's a natural!

Funny story! First off, I am so mad that I was gone on exchanges so I missed the hulabaloo, but it's a good story anyway, even though I wasn't here. Sister Silva and Sister Mendenhall were driving along with a ward member in the back seat when a cop started following them. He followed them for a couple miles until they were out of the neighborhood and in the middle of nowhere and then he pulled them over. Asked what they were doing, if they were selling books, and to see I.D.. Sister Silva explained who we are and what we do. He called in reinforcements until there were three cop cars, and a detective and her personal body guard. They asked her to get out of the car and the detective starts asking what we're doing, how many of us there are.... She tells them there are 76,000 of us and states our purpose, "We are here to invite others to come unto Christ..." She shows them her certificate from President Monson (we all have one) that authorizes her to teach the gospel. The woman asks about the "boys on the bikes" and it looks like they've been keeping tabs on all the missionaries in the area. As Sister Silva continued to testify and share our purpose and explain what we do, the detective started realizing that she made a big mistake, and that she looked kind of silly, questioning missionaries. So they let her go. After the fact, we figured out what was going on. Apparently there's a woman in the area who's been going door to door "selling children's books." She asks about people's families and their children. She is actually a human trafficker and has been using the information she gets to kidnap children. The cops have been tracking the missionaries, thinking that we're child traffickers! It's a little bit scary but mostly hilarious. I'm so sad that I missed out on all the excitement on exchanges!

This week we led a leadership training on stress management. Believe it or not, missionary work is actually very stressful. The greatest thing about teaching is that you get to learn, and as we prepared what we were going to teach I learn so much. I learned that life will always have its turmoil and storms, but our focus is what will make or break us. When Peter walked on water, there were storms all around him, but as long as he kept his eyes focused on the Savior, he was able to continue to do the "impossible." But there came a moment when he took his eyes off the Savior to watch the crashing waves and the lightening and the rain. Once his focus changed, he began to sink. He had to refocus on the Savior, by crying out for His help, in order to get keep from drowning. When Peter focused again on the Savior, He "immediately" reached out and took his hand. With that renewed faith, Peter walked, arm in arm with the Savior, back to the boat. And so it is with us. When we keep our minds and heart focused on the calm and peace and support of our Savior, we can do the impossible and accomplish anything the Lord asks us to do.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Remember to keep smiling!

Sister Biancardi

Wedding Day!

Here's the lovely Mission Trails district, plus a couple of visiting missionaries. We had an epic district meeting where we played a variation of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" with missionary questions, complete with theme music!

This picture is quintessential Horizon: pile of dirt, stray dog, gorgeous sky.

Is it the Second Coming of Christ? No, it's just the Texas sun. I swear, anyone who hasn't seen the sky out in Texas is missing out.

Sister Silva has discovered her calling in life: florist! Anais and Raul got married on Saturday and we got to bring the bouquet! As you can see, we had to assemble it on the back of the truck on the way to the wedding.

The service was beautiful. The part that's extra exciting about this wedding, is that it isn't the end for Anais and Raul. They already have a goal to go to the temple one year from now to be sealed as a family. This means that instead of the marriage being pronounced "until death do us part," they will be married, by the priesthood power of God, "for time and all eternity." 

Who wouldn't want to be with their family forever?

I LOVE Horizon!

Time is a little short today because we're going shopping this afternoon.

People here are ALWAYS going back and forth to Juarez. Most everyone who lives in El Paso has a passport. plus it's not hard to get a visa so you can cross back and forth. There are lots of different kinds of visas - one's where you can stay in the US for three days at a time, ones where you can stay longer. The classic reason why people can't go to church is, "Oh we had to go to Juarez." And there's always a line at the gate. You can drive right over from El Paso to Juarez, but to get back, you have to wait through the line (for security). It can take 45 minutes to 2 hours.

I figured out how the word, "y'all" came to be. Since we're on the border, people around here are familiar with Spanish. And in Spanish, there's a word for "you" that's singular (usted or tu) and there's another word for "you" that's plural (ustedes). After speaking Spanish, I find myself missing the "ustedes" equivalent in English. Y'all is the closest thing.

Oh man! I want to stay in Horizon forever! It is a wonderful place!

Love y'all!