April 27, 2015                                                                                                                                                 

 CRAW FISH COOK-OUT

Cant you tell by my pictures :)

I will explain all of those for you :)

sorry they aren't in order...

so let me tell you about me wonderful week :)

On Monday night we had an awesome FHE with the Bischoff family, (the bishops family) whom I LOVE!  We played newspaper hockey! It was so much fun.  We were all sore the next day!  You use newspaper and duck tape.. its crazy!!

Tuesday..

We had such sore bodies hahahahah 

Oh my goodness so the picture of me running against the little boys! that's Taylor and Logan Nielson. Every time I see them they try and prove their strength or something, like arm wrestling or racing.. but somehow I always win :)  So we were able to eat dinner with them and have a good ol race! I totally cheated.. haha 

 Oh my goodness, so my new favorite person is AUREA!! she is a less active we are working with her and she is amazing! She is twenty and hasn't been to church for 4 years. She comes out teaching with us all the time :) AMAZING!  So she was like, "hey I have someone we could teach".  HER BROTHER!! LUIS.. what! missionary work within your own family :) AMAZING! and LUIS is amazing! he is 17, and brilliant. like building his own computers brilliant.. cool!! but we teach him, and he has all these amazing deep doctrine questions, and hes always like this stuff is so familiar, and hes reading the BOOK OF MORMON!  He wants to get.. BAPTIZED MAY 17th :) so keep him in your prayers. Oh yeah, we went mission clothing shopping for Aurea too!  I FELT LIKE A PROUD MOTHER :) seriously it was so cool!!!

Wednesday.. 

LUIS CAME TO MUTUAL! and loved it! It was scouts and he loved it! Then we worked with Aurea doing family history, because all she wants to do is go to the TEMPLE :) Heavenly Father is just pouring miracles out on us! 

Thursday..

what happened Thursday??

JUST ANOTHER HOT AND HUMID DAY IN TEXAS! LIKE Seriously. Texas is so hot and humid. Iwill never live here. Its so humid and its not even summer yet. its like 10000 percent humidity!

Friday..

BAHAHA FRIDAY! So we are biking everyday, and we were biking past an old investigators house, and of course hes sitting outside, and he starts yelling and waving us down , so we go over and talk to him.. 2 hours later.. hahaha we were on our bikes again! It was funny because we had a feeling we were gonna see him..  FUNNY but hey he came to church, so boo ya!

Saturday!

Wow everyday in the mission is Saturday! 

 We were getting ready for the day, and THIS HUGE TEXAS LIGHTENING THUNDER STORM ROLLS THROUGH.. me and Hermana V. sat and watch the lightening and the rain for 20 minutes. freaking out, and watching everything flood.  Then an hour later it was sunny and a beautiful day. (bi polar much texas? yes. ) 
Anyways, we went over to visit the Lozano family on Saturday, and their daughter Yaire was having her 8th grade formal that night, and she was like "do you guys do hair? my mom doesn't do a good job..." BAHAHAHA so I was like heck yeah, and so I did her hair and make up for her 8th grade formal! so cute :) it was so much fun! I even burnt my thumb with the curling iron! whooh ill always remember it ;) hehe

SUNDAY!

Oh man, this is where the good stuff happens! So the awesome Cook family invited us over for their big craw fish party! 60 lbs of craw fish.. OH MAN!! crazy! It was seriously so cool!! I dont even know how to describe it! You put them in big  boilers of hot water and spices, then add corn, potatoes, shrimp, zucchini, squash, sausage, chicken.. LIKE SO MANY GOOD THINGS!!! and  the craw fish are alive, so yeah.. basically murdered so many crafish yesterday hahaha but I can say this.. I probably will never eat craw fish ever again. Its kind of like a one time deal because I got real sick.. haha still feeling it!! but it was so much fun :)  One Elder ate 101 CRAW FISH! Hes probably so sick today.. It was so much fun! I felt like a real southern hick hahahah and oh man, I EVEN SLURPED THE BRAINS!!! haha me and Sisters Cook did it together! It was her first time doing it, and we got it on video.. (Sorry the video is too big to send .. bummer)  but they video is seriously the funniest thing, we are both  gagging! haha yeah never again! but hey I have officially eaten the good ol southern mud bugs :)

ANYWAYS,

Enjoy the thousands of pictures :)

transfers are next week.. drum roll.... I will find out next week and let you all know :)

Hey missionaries love mail ;)

my mission home address is 

602 Eldridge rd. 

Sugar land, TX 77478 

I LOVE YOU ALL :)

love me,

Hermana "Craw-fish Eatin" Widdison :)

                                        

                                         Craw fish cook out with the Cook Family

So STUFFED

My new friend

Waiting for the train to pass

Second flat tire. Another comp who knows how to fix it.

Newspaper hockey.  Such a great time.

Getting ready for a dance

Fixing hair does fall under the category of missionary work!

TEXAS RAIN

Racing the Nielson boys again. (and cheating) hahaha

April 20, 2015

It's Raining Men

Just kidding it's not raining men. I just wanted a creative subject, haha

This week all it did was rain.. LIKE RAIN! tornado warnings,  flash flood warnings, What a week of craziness!! 

some moments from this week..

On Tuesday, I made cookies for a lady named Felipa who we were visiting because it was her birthday. So we were biking to her house and there was this older man sitting in a park. He waved us over so we went over to him. He asked us for a bible and just told us how he was homeless and said he was hungry. I told him we didn't have food but I had COOKIES!!!!!  He started crying.. and then we started crying.. it was seriously amazing. Just how Gods plan is so divine. like hey, make cookies, bike past this way, oh yeah give him some cookies. I just was in awe. SUCH A COOL EXPERIENCE! 

then what else...

Oh yeah, this is kind of funny. A member took us out to eat at Chilis on Friday night. There was this huge storm, lightening, rain, thunder,floods, tornado warning. Me and Hermana V. are freaking out when we are eating with these members, and everyone in Chilis is perfectly normal. Then the power goes out! twice! and no one freaks out. I guess its really common for these huge storms to happen here in Texas. However, I was freakin out. All of the roads were flooded as we drove home. CRAZY!

oh my goodness.. something so funny! So we found a new investigator named Esteban, well, we went to go teach him about the restoration of the church (oh yeah this is all in Spanish)  We were teaching him, and he stops us and says, I don't believe in your church I am my own church. He kept calling himself "santo esteban" and we tried to explain to him that he wasn't.. but yeah, I was busting up. We havent seen him since.. but it was a funny moment this week :)

something crazy.. On April 17th it was my one year mark for having my mission call. That was a cool day for me to think about how I felt a year ago and how amazing it is to be a missionary :) I am so grateful to be here! even though its so hard. I love it!

ooh what else.. oh nothing besides biking in thunder storms, and getting poured on. Some days I go through 3 outfits because we get so soaking wet from biking in the rain! but hey, that's Texas :)

well,

love you all :)

enjoy the pictures!

biking!
look at that cool rain jacket! so grateful for it!

I learned my lesson the day before when I didn't bring one.. haha 

 

   Boom, selfie with a chick! haha a RC has a pet chick, and he just chills..

 

True MAVERICK forever!

April 13, 2015
 

DEAD

What an amazing week it was! This is gonna be a quick email! 

I went on a very fun exchange with Hermana Wagstaff.

She has been out in the mission for 3 weeks, so young, haha and she is serving in the MANVEl area! That was my first area in the mission. :) We had a fun weekend!!!

We got offered guns and knives, and almost got hit biking on the highway. (Sorry Mom)  We saw a dead armadillo, so of course we had to take a selfie! 

We taught lots of people. Hermana Wagstaff was kind of in culture shock down here in Bay City.

I love biking! Biking is amazing! 

gator talk!! 

LEO is doing awesome! She came to church, and loved it! She is signed up for girls camp this summer! how cool! :) 

I learned two new things this week..

1. You can really scare the hiccups away hahahaha Hermana V. had the hiccups during personal study one morning, so I just yelled  and then the hiccups were gone. sooo funny, we laughed for a long time :)

2. The Grace of God is real and it is amazing. Its been something I have been studying lately!
neat topic :) STUDY IT!
 I love you all!I can't believe it's april!

Enjoy the dead armadillo pictures!
haha I love Texas even though it is soooo HUMID! Its like a sauna.. or hot towel over your face .. or both.

KAYLEE'S MOM HERE. Against my better judgement I'm adding her armadillo pictures. She said,"Hey mom, its Texas!!! 

LOVE,
HERMANA WIDDISON

April 8, 2015

CHICKENPOX


WHAT??  EMAIL ON WEDNESDAY?!

Don't freak out! We had to change our p day  because we went to the TEMPLE! See picture below to see how cute I am in front of it :)

SO MUCH HAPPENED!!! 

I want to tell you about this lady named Ingrid. She is a character!  Ingrid lives in this senior apartment complex  and we go over and visit her. She is 81.. and is crazy. This week we went to a baptist bible study with her. It was actually pretty cool though..  it was all older people! I was definitely the youngest there :) I love older people. They are funny, they just sit there and talk about medicine and how sick they are and they just laugh and are glad to be alive. Ingrid calls us her "mormes" and has such a strong testimony but she is good with her baptists, but she knows our church is true.. haha one day! She always hugs and kisses us. I  have never been kissed by so many older ladies than on my mission!

Another fun things that has been happening-- So as missionaries we are allowed a certain amount of miles each month for our car but our mission president cut everyone miles and therefore,  WE ARE BIKING!! We bike every single day.. and biking in my area is king of sketchy. We have no sidewalks.. so you bet I am praying every single pedal I am going to stay alive. (don't worry mom) I love biking because we get to talk to everyone! Everyone is always outside because its the south and everyone sits on their porch and drinks their sweet tea.  I love love love biking because I feel like I am in a parade too.  I love waving to people and just saying hi! its awesome, but... THE BUGS HERE ARE AWFUL!!! I look like I have chickenpox on my legs. We are biking and just  slapping ourselves silly because the mosquitos are attacking us.  Texas is so hot and humid, and the sun is so strong. Everyday we count how many bug bites we get and its only April. It isn't even bad yet. Oh goodness PRAY FOR ME. I spent some big bucks at Walmart buying bug spray and sun block the other day.  Another think I finally realized is that I am in the STINKING BIBLE BELT! In my little town of Bay City, population of 18k people there is over 130 churches... crazy right? So everyone has a very strong opinion of church. So being in the bible belt is interesting.

Easter! 

and 

conference!!

What an amazing weekend to have conference! When we were able to really think of Christ! I learned so much. It was so good to be able to hear the words of the living prophet and apostles! We sure are lucky to be able to have the opportunity to listen every 6 months!  GOD LOVES US :)

Dios Nos Ama ;) 

We were also very well taken care of on Easter Sunday. We were fed like 5 times. I was waddling like a duck! 

AS NEWS FOR GATORS!! 

LEO!!! so Leo is a little girl who just turned 13! Her birthday was march 31st. Last Monday night we made her a chocolate cake and had a birthday party for her! Her neighbor, Hermana Lozano gave her a book of Mormon for her birthday too!  Leo has been coming to church with the Lozano family for about a month now, and even too mutual! So we said  "Hey, we should teach Leo".  So we went over on Monday and asked for permission, and her mom was like sure.. which was surprising because her house was decked out in statues of the virgin Mary hahaha #catholic but then yesterday we went and taught Leo for the 2nd time and felt super prompted to invite her to be baptized. We extended her a date, APRIL 26th.. and she was so excited!! We even had two of the Lozano girls there with us to help teach Leo, and they both bore testimony of how they felt when they were baptized! IT WAS AN AMAZING LESSON!!!   Keep Leo in your prayers as she prepares for her baptism at the end of this month! She is so excited :) 

I LOVE THE MISSION! 

I am so grateful I get to see miracles every single week, every day! 

I am glad I have angels helping me as I ride my bike :)

I am grateful for bug spray! 

I am grateful for the members of Bay City who love us and invite us over for dying Easter eggs :)

I LOVE THIS LIFE :) even though the mission doesn't feel like real life. I cant believe how fast time does fly by. I love it!

I love my family and I love this gospel!!

whooh!!

much love from me,

your favorite Hermana :)

March 30, 2105

HIS EYES

WHAT AN AMAZING WEEK :)

I have seen so many miracles this week I don't even know where to start!!!

First, this was a week full of service!! haha

We .. as in I offered to mow someones lawn this week which ended up being a jungle. It took us about 3 days to finish! haha it was about a 7 hour project... man Texas folk just let their lawns grow out like CRAZY!!! I got a sunburn from that, I am looking like a lobster right now.

An amazing miracle happened on Wednesday night.. so since we helped the members mow their lawn, they offered to take us out to eat. They took us to K2 (the only steak house in lil Bay City.) So of course we go and while I was at the salad bar, this man came up to me and was trying to read my tag. I said its in Spanish and I'm a missionary.. anyways this guy.. CHARLES... well he's like I have been looking for missionaries here in Bay City. I'm from Ohio and I had the sisters teaching me over there and they told me to find the missionaries here. LIKE WHAT!! CRAZY! So he is here in bay city for about 2 months. (oh one thing about Bay City, It is where a lot of huge power plant things are. So people are constantly moving in and out when the big projects come here and such..) So we talked and I said we will have to exchange information later! I went to go sit down with the members then I  asked if we could invite this guy to sit with us.. hahah (missionaries have no such thing of stranger danger, sorry mom haha) So we invited Charles to come sit down and eat with us, and he did.. haha and oh my heck! he is  the coolest man in the world!  It was an amazing dinner! he was just so cool. such a miracle.. Then Charles was like boom ill pay the check. LIKE WHAT! Charles, he is cool and a miracle. He'll be baptized and become a bishop someday. #FAITH 

Then on Thursday I finally experienced Texas rain. It is like a shower.. ITS SOO COOL! and the lightening and thunder.. so cool.

We helped Hermana Lozano set up for her garage sale. I am always so surprised by how much stuff people have. We helped her for 6 hours... LONG DAY haha but she had  cool stuff. I wanted to buy this samurai sword but my comp wouldn't let me. #bummer 

THEN ON SATURDAY

I got to go back to KEMAH!! for a baptism :)

For a man name Javier Rocha! I taught him the whole time I was in Kemah, and he was just struggling so much with the word of wisdom. So when I found out he was getting baptized I flipped out. LIKE WHAT, how in the world did he quit all his word of wisdom problems.. amazing! I have no idea how.

but we got to go to Kemah. It is two hours away! Hermana Lozano took us. #angel   So we went and the second I saw Javier, the first thing I noticed was his eyes. He had this glow and his eyes were just beaming.  Seriously Heavenly Father is amazing. The atonement is real.. it was so emotional to see the change that Javier went through too take this big step in his life! I was just in shock, it was seriously amazing!

That's all folks :)

Enjoy your Easter week :)

Enjoy conference :)

I LOVE YOU

ALLLLLLLL so much 

:)

Remember me in your prayers.. I need em ;)

love 

Hermana Widdison :) 

 

 March 23, 2015

 PAPUSAS

Hello family :) 

 

Weeks in the mission tend to go by in a blink of an eye. Its kind of scary and sad! 

Transfers happened... but hey good news, I am staying in Bay City! So me and Hermana Villarreal are still together preaching the gospel for another transfer :) 

 

We made Papusas twice this week. Which of course  made me sick.. (funny how I get called to be a Spanish speaking missionary but all Hispanic food makes me sick..)  Papusas are El Salvadorian food! They are super easy to make! I will make them for you when I get home! They are fun to make and we had Hermana Sharp show us how to make them. We made them on Tuesday night with Hermana Sharp and Hermana Lozano. Then again on Saturday we were invited over to make more of them with Hermana Sharp and the Gonzales family.  It was a week of Papusas!!

As for gators... my goodness it was one of those weeks... not much to talk about with gators... :( but hey the work must go on!! We had to "Drop" a gator. What this means is since he basically isn't reading or praying or doing anything to progress, we had to drop him and cant  teach him anymore. We had a drop lesson, which means we tell him we cant teach him because he isn't making any progress. He has been taught for years and years and every time he is dropped he takes it really hard. He took it really hard this time as well. However, he calls us every single day ... asking us random questions.. like about Idaho, and the weather. haha funny old guy! 

anyways..

seriously not much has happened..

Its rabbit breeding season here.. random fact for you all!

The members down here are amazing! we are so loved! So make sure you love your missionaries :)

love,

Hermana Widdison

Making Papusas

She ate FOUR

He ate FIVE

Still making Papusas

I finally got a Chocolate muffin from Costco. I've been craving one for months!

Look Mom, I made special popcorn!

   March 16, 2015  (yes, I know I'm behind)

                             

                        Sorry folks no long email this week.. so you get some pictures..

Sargent Texas

Thanks Mom! Getting ready for Easter.

The Primary kids earned enough money reading scriptures to buy us a gift card!

                   

#BunsForLife