18 months of my life in a semi Spanish world. The Utah Odgen Mission!! CONTINUED...

Here is a picture of my second companion in the mission field (Hermana Jessica Casteneda) and I. I don't have as many pictures taken with her. We didn't have a car for the first 3 weeks of our transfer. This made things a little difficult because she had pneumonia. Once we got a car we got to work. We served together for 1 transfer in Washington Terrace.

Hermana Casteneda is from Mexico but had lived in Utah for 4 years before her mission. She was very patient in teaching me Spanish.

My third companion was Hermana Lundstrom, from Ohio. We were called to serve in the great ward of Jefferson 2nd.

A little back ground of Hermana Lundstrom and I. She had been on her mission for about 15 months when we were put together but she had been serving in the English program before she was switched over to Spanish. When she had been made my companion we had both been learning and teaching in Spanish for only 5 months (including the MTC for me). We knew from the start that this transfer was going to be an adventure!

Hermana Lundstrom and I had a blast together and we were blessed to see a lot of success. It was all MIRACLES! Everyday at the end of the day we'd come home happy, exhausted, and have a full schedule. We were such a good balance for each other and learned to work well together. She was a little bit more reserved so it helped provide the opportunity for me to learn to speak more. I may have spoke more but the thing was that she understood more because she grew up with her parents speaking Spanish. We were quite the team. I love serving with Hermana Lundstrom. Honestly talk about easy companionship! We got along seriously ALL the time. We never had any arguments, disagreements, or conflicts that I can remember. We had open communication and we knew we could trust each other with anything. We will always be friends and I know that she will always be there for me if I ever needed to talk to someone.

It was while serving with Hermana Lundstrom that I found myself in the mission. I learned that love breaks down all barriers, including language barriers. Literally I can't even count the number of times that we went to teach people and they didn't care how we said what we were there to teach because they just wanted to know what we had to say because they knew we cared. They knew we had something special because we loved them SO MUCH! Till this day I've NEVER heard Hermana Lundstrom say anything bad about anyone. She sees the good in others and loves them. I thrived off of her goodness.

Oh yes and in the picture above is Gorge and Christopher Revilla. I love these guys so much! They became like family to us. They were baptized and less then a year later they were both killed in a car wreck, this was also within less then a week after I got off my mission. It was quite the experience. They were baptized on Mothers Day. I will remember this day for the rest of my life!!

Of course I had to include a of picture of Maria Camacho. She is like one of the Hermanas! She has helped us out so many times! She was one of the biggest reasons why I was able to learn the lesson that love breaks down all barriers. Maria inspires me because of who she is and what she does. I told her I  want to one day write a book with her in it. I'll still keep you posted of when that happens but I still want to do it! She is INCREDIBLE! I don't get to see her as much as I would like but I still am so thankful for the wonderful influence of her in my mission!!! I LOVE YOU MARI!

My fourth companion Hermana Judd, from Texas! The start of something CRAZY!! O my goodness Hermana Judd took my mission to a whole new level of awesomeness. She came into my mission at the perfect time. We had fun, worked hard, and our success continued to blossom!

Hermana Judd is one of my hero's from my mission! I will forever be thankful for her, what I learned while with her, how much she care for me when I was sick, and our friendship! Hermana Judd blessed my life forever!! I LOVE YOU!

This picture is the first dinner that we had together. It was in the Reyes family home and their cousins are the Martinez family. They were in the Washington Terrace Branch when I served there. They dropped in to surprise me. We had so much fun!

(Hermanas Gott, Hale, Tanner, and Judd)

They dropped in for a visit one time and caught us off guard with some water guns. They were getting us good until they trapped us in a room, which we then got revenge with the bathroom spray and perfume. Good times! We got each other pretty good.

This girl would not have gotten baptized if it wasn't for Hermana Judd. Long story short this girl wanted to get baptized for about 5 years but was afraid for tons of different reasons. Hermana Judd was incredible with her.

The Epic Trio!!! There are so many crazy stories from this trio. Hermana Munguia, also from Texas, (top left of picture my 5th companion) joined Hermana Judd and me. It was honestly one of the hardest transfer of my mission. I was sick, in a trio, and a hundred billion other things going on. In the end it was worth it. We all survived and life goes on.

We were blessed to have 5 baptisms within 6 days. This is just one picture with Familia Ramirez. It was so worth it!! This was while we were still in Jefferson 2nd. We have many other pictures of recent converts and investigators but I can't post them all. I'm just trying to give you all a little glimpse.

Hermana Gott (my 6th companion), from Texas, and I

We served together in Washington Terrace (my second time back in this area). I am so thankful that I served with her because I learned a lot from her. She is a great teacher and she changed the way I taught for the rest of my mission. We did very well together.

BAPTISMO!!!!

This was a baptism in Washington Terrace of a man named Juan. This was totally the results of the work of Hermanas Gott and Tanner. I got there in time to reap the benefits but I can't take the credit. I just helped organize the baptism. They taught him so well and he is truly a convert! They are great missionaries!

Hermana Gott and I weren't together that long, only 1 transfer (6 weeks). I was then transfer to the land of milk and honey NORTH SALT LAKE!

Hermana Mitchell (7th companion), from Las Vegas, and I were together for 2 weeks. She ended up going home for health reasons. I love her so much. While we were together we were white washing and we weren't able to work that much because she was in so much pain. Although there was a lot going on and yet we couldn't really work I wouldn't have traded that 2 weeks. We got along so well and the things that I learned from her were things that I needed to learn and it helped me to heal from the many harsh life experiences in ways that I could only dream of. Thank you Hermana Mitchell! You are truly a 2 week miracle in my mission that will be another friend for life!

The next picture below is of Hermana (Haley) Dalton (8th companion), from Utah, with a girl we were able to have a baptism with. I was also with Hermana Dalton for 2 weeks. I was trying to help train her but she was also sick the whole time until she received her visa to Barcelona, Spain. We got a long so great which was a huge blessing. We really enjoyed our time together.

After Hermana Dalton left I was placed in a trio with two amazing English speaking sister missionaries. These two were my only two English companions my whole mission.

Sisters Hill, Hancock, and Hale (We called ourselves Triple H).

(9th & 10th companions) They are both from Texas. 

They'd work there area and I'd work mine everyday for 2 weeks and we would do it by doing splits every single day so I could teach in Spanish and they would do there thing in English. I actually saw a ton of success this way.

After 1 transfer in North Salt Lake transfers came and to my surprise I was transferred to the last place in the mission I ever though I'd be sent. To the great BRIGHAM CITY!!!!!! I never thought I'd live there because I have so much family there. My Grandma, Grandpa Hale, Bob and Beth's Family (Aunt and Uncle), and Ann and Kevin (Also Aunt and Uncle) lived in my same stake. It was so great to have family so close and for those of you who want to know I don't feel like it was distracting at all. It helped me keep that little bit of fire for missionary work that I needed at the end of my mission. It helped me remember the blessings from the gospel that my family has and it placed a deep desire in my heart to share those blessings to other families. Plus if dinner ever fell through we always had a place to go.

Hermana Hernandez was my 11th companion, from Mexico but her family is living in Las Vegas. We were together 1 transfer. We enjoyed our time together and were both sad when she got moved.

Something I loved about Hermana Hernandez is that she loves the snow more then anyone I've ever met before. Every time it snowed it was the best day of her life and a happy celebration.

Hermana Galaviz was my 12th companion, also from Mexico but her family is living in Utah right now. She was a great last companion to have. She could make me laugh and we worked so good together. 

I ended my mission in Brigham City. I was there for about 4 1/2 months.