July 27, 2015
WELL HELLO!

I have survived another week here in the SAUNA!

Pretty sure I was called to serve in Africa rather than Texas. Because I feel like it is just as hot. There is no other way to describe my week other than hot. hot. hot. Plus we checked the weather this week, yeah, whoot 104 degrees plus 100% humidity.

We try and avoid the roads with a lot of cars because it's seriously just so hot. Biking is so hot. haha we just sweat. It's awful when we stop to wait for the red lights because then we just sweat even more. People tell us to not to come visit them because they don't want us leaving our apartment, but we are like.. "well we have to leave anyways" hahahaha people these days!

We have a lot  of friends at taco trucks who give us water bottles all the time. Which is such a blessing! I am so grateful for them! 

 Go taco truck friends :) 

This week was awesome! It went so fast I have no idea what even happened...

Well we found a ton of new investigators! They are all from GUATEMALA! One cool thing about serving stateside Spanish speaking, is that we meet people from everywhere, we can normally guess what country they are from, which is cool! Plus they are all just short so they are so amazed that this tall white girl is speaking Spanish to them and playing trompo!! (TROMPO is a game in Guatemala, its basically a top.. haha  It's a street game, so I play it then the people come up to us and ask where I am from and then we teach them the gospel :)) hahaha

We have some awesome investigators!!  All of them are men.. hahaha my life. It's funny because we can't enter into their apartment unless there is a 3rd girl, so we teach the majority of our lessons outside, sweating, and we can feel the breeze from the apartment. OH, TEXAS IS HOT!!

However, Heavenly Father is definitely blessing us in this heat! We were able to meet some amazing people this week and slowly but surely we are seeing changes in these people its amazing of what the gospel does!

our investigator Ana came back.. then left..  MY HEART CANT HANDLE HER. hahaha 

I love her. I have never been able to understand 100% of Spanish until her!

I love teaching English class! Next week we are having a birthday party for me during class! It's neat because a lot of the students aren't members, but they just love the missionaries so much!! :)

Go missionary work! 

It's bomb.

It's hot.

I am so excited for November. When it is finally  a good chilly temperature. Praying for November!

The mission is great.

I love my new president! whoot.

Oh yeah, we had transfer calls this morning, and I'm not leaving!:)

Staying here with Hermana Whitehead for another 6 weeks.

That means biking in the hottest time of the year.. whoooooo..

(PRAY FOR ME)

LOVE YOU ALL!!

love,

Sweaty Sista Widdison

hahaha these pictures.. enjoy them!

I hate taking off my backpack!

DID I MENTION, TEXAS IS REALLY HOT?

                                                                                                         July 20, 2015

HELLO :)

Let's just start out by saying I hope you enjoy these pictures... hahahahahaha

Hermana Whitehead trying to survive the heat

It really is HOT IN TEXAS

That was Saturday, the HOTTEST day of the summer so far and boy was it awful. It was the longest day on my mission so far. We knocked on so many doors.. and no one was home.. no one. All we wanted was one sit down lesson, and we got ZERO. No one opened the door. So we got to enjoy the 100+ degree weather. I had so much sunblock on and I was just sweating and sweating.

The biggest blessing though was when our friend at the taco truck gave us a bottle of cold water because of course our water was warm. TEXAS IS SOOOOOO HOT.

Saturday was a long and basically awful day, but we met the cutest lady named CLAUDIA who said she wanted to learn more. So I am grateful we were able to see some miracles that day. but boy oh boy is Texas hot!! It's not even the hottest part of summer yet!

but we see miracles when we are out working :)

THE GRACE OF GOD IS REAL

Some awesome moments this week!!

WE FOUND ANA OUR INVESTIGATOR, and now she is gone.. again.. Shes basically Houdini.. so that's cool,(NOT) so pray she comes back! haha... again! When we saw her we just hugged her and told her how worried we were about her and she was shocked we cared so much about her!

We had interviews with PRESIDENT HALL this week. He's amazing. I have nothing else to say about him except he seriously is amazing.  It was sad he told me tell him about home and I just had no idea what to even say. The mission is my home it seems like and I felt so sad I couldn't remember stuff. I was like, I have a mom and a dad and brothers and sisters.. hahah the mission life. President Hall is truly amazing and I am so grateful he is my mission president right now, he just loves us. Sister Hall is amazing too.

It was cool we had an investigator devotional last night and President Hall spoke. (of course it was a Spanish devotional..) and Sister Hall doesn't know Spanish, but she got up there and bore her testimony in Spanish. Holy cow I felt the spirit so strong. To know she is trying so hard to learn this language to talk to these people. It was a testimony builder. I love her. So Awesome!! 

Funny story, we broke our dish washer. So I put soap in it... and I didn't check what kind of soap... then when we went to go check the dishes and there was water and soap all over the floor... so we opened the dishwasher and it smelt like laundry... HAHA WE PUT LAUNDRY SOAP IN THE DISH WASHER... hahaha it didn't even clean our dishes but it gave us a good laugh :)

 We have the privilege to teach English class every Tuesday and Thursday night. It is really fun. I have come to LOVE the students of the class! It's so fun to watch the people progress and learn English! It's so funny because they say their B's like V's  and they get frustrated and say funny stuff in Spanish! I love them! It's just fun how missionary work comes in all sorts of forms :)

Pray Texas gets cold (joke of the day..)

I love you all, Hermana Widdison!!

                                                                                            July 13, 2015

Dehydration Nation

I wish I had a lot to say but I will just make this quick!!

MOMENTS THIS WEEK :)
1.I went on a super cool exchange with Hermana Campos and Sister Guidi!!! It was way cool.. Hermana Campos is from Mexico!! and Sister Guidi is a sister from temple square on her outbound here.  She's originally from New Caledonia.. like where the heck is that? Oh, its an island between Fiji and Australia.. like still, where the heck is that? haha but she was pretty legit. She speaks Tahitian, Italian, Spanish, French, English. kind of impressive right? SO COOL!! she told us all about the mission on temple square.(sounds kind of like prison.. ) hahah

2. ooh I was dehydrated. That was an awful experience! hahaha sorry mom. I swear on my life I am drinking enough water, but we are just sweating like pigs in a butcher shop!!! Wanna know something funny? Okay I will tell you :) every morning deciding my outfit, I think "okay what shirt isn't gonna show my sweat as bad.." hahahaha that's gross.. MY UPPER LIP SWEATS. I am having an atonement lesson in life, instead of bleeding from every pore I am sweating from every pore...(hahahahahaha) but really. Deodorant and sweat towels are life. So we had to stay inside like bats on Friday. That was AWFUL. I drank about two gallons of water though :) Go me! I wanted to get out so bad. There were five other missionaries who were dehydrated!

3. Our investigator Ana ran away. We don't know where she is. So pray for her.

4. We have a cool new investigator OMAR. flirty old Colombian man who tells us "I love you" in English when we call him. Not so sure about him! but he is getting baptized in August.. so that's cool right :)

5. KIKO IS MY FAVORITE MEMBER, and that deserves a big moment for this week. He gets to go through the temple next week :) YAY!!! He has been a member for about a year and a half. His conversion is the best one yet :) he is cool.. He has lost teeth because he was hit with a 2x4.. like what! who is this guy! he has also been to jail, been hit in the head with a baseball bat, been stabbed. He has lived a life! and he's an amazing member missionary! He comes out riding his bike with us :)

well, that's all!

love you all :)

your favorite sweaty missionary here in Houston :)
HERMANA WIDDISON 

or as KIKO would say

hermana WIDDY :)

Amazing member Kiko

Just having a crazy moment

Sometimes the heat just gets to you!

Downtown Houston

                                                                           JULY 6, 2015

 WAIT IT OUT

What a week :)

First off, let me tell you about my new mission president :)

PRESIDENT HALL.

Hes so fun! and so skinny.. and so amazing! and so different!

He is an iron-man runner. Hey, and I love running :) so boom! perfect right?! haha

He is really, really  skinny. I just can't get over it.. haha

Our mission now has a facebook. So y'all can go stalk it!!!

On Wednesday we had a big mission conference, "MEET THE HALLS" where we got to meet him and his family. I LOVE THEM!

It was cool because we got to all go up and shake their hands and introduce ourselves and such.

So this is how it went down.

I went up to President Hall and shook his hand, and I told him my name.. hah

" Hi, I am Hermana Widdison"

"ooh Hermana Widdison, you are a runner"

" yup haha"

"You run the 400 meters right? "

"yes.. haha"

"You love Vans too right?"

"yes...."

"You're from Meridian Idaho right"

"yes... how do you know all this?"

"Oh we just wanted to get to know you, so we facebook stalked you!"

HAHAHAHA PRESIDENT HALL FACEBOOK STALKED ALL THE MISSIONARIES!

He's so cool.

 He knew everything about me it seemed like, a little creepy.. but I thought it was chill. He knew my races, where I was from, where I went to school.. dang. 

So it was really neat to meet him, and to see the already big changes hes making in the mission!

He is what I need it seems like :) YAY!

Something cool happened this week.. (duh cool things happen all the time. but you know what I mean.)

On Friday me and Hermana W. were leaving an apartment complex, when of course it started pouring rain, so we decided to wait it out, because it would pass in like 10 minutes. So we were waiting under this little parking cover, and this guy yells and tell us we should come in.. haha So we were like cool, yeah!

So we go into this apartment, and Ludwin is the boyfriend, and Ana is his girlfriend. Ludwin tells how we need to help Ana change her life.  Ana is an alcoholic and is 37, and has just had the worst eight years of her life. She has died twice, and now has a mechanical heart. yeah hard life.

So we were teaching her, and she just wants to change her life so bad, and she just wants to be able to be with her four kids, and be able to see them.

Her kids met with the missionaries eight years ago, so she remembers the restoration video. like what cool!

Anyways, that was Friday, so we taught them and then they were like hey come back tomorrow we are going to have a barbeque. So we said ok!

On Saturday we go back and they have like a Thanksgiving sized barbeque. It was so neat, because she had so many questions about the Book of Mormon and the restoration, and then she came to church on Sunday. I have never met someone who has wanted to change their life so bad.

You can just see how broken she is when you look into her eyes, but then you see the potential and the love that Heavenly Father has for her. DANG SO COOL. missionary work :)

So that was my week.. plus other fun stuff.. biking.. biking.. sweating.. more biking.. bug bites.. new president.. talking to drunks.. meeting people from turkey! WOW!

Texas is cool!

sike.. Texas is HOT!!!

 ENJOY YOUR WEEK!

talk to you next week :)

Your favorite sister missionary in the world..

duh ( humble I know )

haha

                                          6/29/2015


JUNE 24th  Helping Hands Day

Hello :)

what an amazingly HOT week it has been..

haha from biking, biking, biking to service, service, service!

 WOW :)  but its fun!

big news first off..

My new mission president arrives in Houston today at 1 pm. The keys will be his!! AHHH HOW CRAZY IS THAT. pretty crazy. 

We had a big farewell mission conference for President (Elder) Ashton on Thursday, and boy oh boy was I sad! I know change is good, and that President Hall will be awesome! I am so used to change on my mission now, so I am not even phased. just kidding I was crying like a baby shaking his hand.. hahah he has helped me out alot :)  It will be good!!

This week has been awesome!

On Wednesday we went to city hall. Our mission got recognized for the service we have done since the memorial day flood!!

It was declared that JUNE 24th as HELPING HANDS DAY! what! cool :)  It was a big deal! We had a general authority there.. what! bomb. :) cool. It was neat just to know that the city appreciated what the missionaries have been doing! Our days consist of us going and doing service from about 10am-4pm everyday. It's now its been about a month, so peoples houses are super moldy.. its gross, but I love kicking in walls hahah its fun! and people are so grateful!! We have one house that will take us a while to get it all ripped apart! 

but other than that..

mmmh gator talk!

We have a lot of investigators :)

This area is seriously golden, maybe because it's just apartment complexes stacked on top of each other.

Plus all of the members just like bringing their friends to church!! We got a call yesterday from a member who said her friend wants to be baptized.. so we were like, "cool" but really we were totally freaking out! It's amazing how the members are doing so much missionary work here in this area. :) 

HAHAHAHAH HERMANA WHITEHEAD GOT HIT ON.. sooooo soo funny.. so she is seriously like a cute baby girl, she looks like she is 15. This creepy Arabian man came up and was talking to us, and he kept asking if we could get married, and such. Then after talking we asked if we could leave him with a pray, and if there was anything specific we could pray for.. haha and he says "Pray I find a wife" THEN LOOKS STRAIGHT AT HERMANA WHITEHEAD BAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAH I was busting up, you bet we biked as fast as we could after that prayer.. HAHAH so funny.. yeah funny.. little moments like that make me love being protected by angels as a missionary ahahhaha

I love Houston. Weird to say, we are friends with all the homeless people! We always wave and they love it when we pray with them, they have some crazy stories! but I am safe.. dont worry!
Houston is crazy and it smells so bad. hahah 

Oh, the smells of Houston!

The sunrises and sunsets are so beautiful! 

Oh Texas :)

Happy Birthday to my sister Maegan today!

I know there is more to say.. but I will just send pictures like always! :)

LOVE ME,
HERMANA WIDDISON

Houston City Hall

Downtown Houston

Bikes or Bus, that's how we roll!

City of Houston Housing & Community Development added 25 new photos from June 24 to the album: Mayor Parker Honors Faith-Based Volunteers — with Jan Chappell and 4 others in Houston, Texas.

·

Mayor Annise Parker Mayor issued proclamations at Houston City Council recognizing the relief efforts of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), NECHAMA Jewish Response to Disaster and the Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church. These were the three largest groups of volunteers that were instrumental in assisting the areas most affected by the Memorial Day flooding.
These faith-based groups quickly organized their volunteers and were some of the first volunteers on the scene lending a hand to families that were struggling to recover from the Memorial Day floods. In addition to local volunteers, many of the volunteers were from outside the Houston area.
More volunteer groups are scheduled for recognition in the weeks ahead.

To view the entire presentation online visit http://bit.ly/1Kchukc

 



The proclamations for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), NECHAMA Jewish Response to Disaster and the Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church are ready for the ceremony. — in Houston, Texas.
  
 

                                             6/22/2015

HOLA
 

Well, Guess who is in  A BIKING AREA and  SPEAKING SPANISH ?  :)

yup, that's right, It's me :)

I am serving in an area called HOUSTON 1 WEST :) It's amazing.

I am serving in the city, oh my heavens Houston is so sketchy. haha pray for me! Literally this is the craziest melting pot I have ever been in and I am biking through it every day!

The sidewalks are so sketchy, and the drivers are bad.

BUT IT IS SO MUCH FUN! We get to talk to everyone.

Yes, I am back to Spanish! I am serving in a Spanish ward. It's the biggest ward I have ever been in my whole mission! There were about two hundred people in sacrament yesterday, that's a lot of people. It is crazy, I love it! :) It's crazy how real the gift of tongues is. I truly know the gift of tongues is real and that Heavenly Father is helping me teach his children in their language! It's crazy cool :) 
AHHH MISSIONARY WORK 

Some moments this week..

I said goodbye to the YSA branch :( 

As you may have seen tropical storm Bill came through Houston. It was so dumb.. hahaha we were trapped inside all day and I just wanted to leave.

Since I have been transferred to Houston we are doing flood clean up! it is soooo crazy, we are ripping out floors and walls. It's been three weeks, maybe four by now, and people seriously have mold in their houses. It looks like snow!  It's neat being able to help people. :)

Our area has some awesome investigators too!

 This ward is amazing and so is the area!

Oh yeah I have a new companion, her name is Hermana Whitehead. She has been out for four months. She is so nice, like way too nice. but its cute! Shes so young and has a ton of faith, haha like a lot, and she is a crier! So it's good for me because I am a bit of a tough nut. So this is a learning experience :)

 On Wednesday the mayor is presenting the mission with something for helping with all the flood victims. It's going to be on the news!

So mom, you wanna see my face? check it out :)

I am sure I will have more next week!

Our days are kind of crazy, we do service everyday til around four, then we are on our bikes for the night proselyting!

I love my new area.

I am grateful for bug spray.

I am grateful for the gift of tongues.

I am grateful for pepto.

hehe

LOVE YOU ALL,
HERMANA WIDDISON

doing service

Doing more service

 This is me and Hermana Wagstaff today at the sketchy laundry mat

Saying goodbye to the YSA