4 months?!

Hello everyone! I hope that you've had a spectacular week!

This week was a little crazy but it was awesome!

Y'all should be extremely proud. On Monday for dinner I ate (well not all, but a lot) of a stuffed pepper. It's called chili relleno. I thought that I was going to die. Then on Thursday we filled in for the Spanish hermanas and went to their Spanish dinner. It was pretty fun! As an initiation type thing for new missionaries, they always make them eat this special pepper. It's about the size of my pinky nail and it's this hard, shriveled up red pepper. They told us to eat it and move it around our mouth. I was fine at first and then it got progressively hotter and hotter. With every breath it got hotter. Sister Johnson was crying. They couldn't believe how well I was handling it because I just acted all nonchalant and wasn't even crying. Some of them didn't even believe that I had eaten it because everyone cries when they eat it. #victory

On Thursday I went on an exchange that I will probably never again get the opportunity to do. Hermana Gatten was sick and the hermanas had a lesson that they were going to have to cancel. So we came up with this plan. Sister Johnson would stay with Hermana Gatten and I would go with Hermana Christensen to the lesson. So we watched Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration in Spanish. I've legit never prayed so hard for the Spirit in my life. I was praying so hard that I would know of how to help in this lesson. So after we watched part of the video we talked about it. Hermana Christensen was talking and then she stopped and looked at me. For those of you that don't know, that's missionary code for "I did my job, your turn!" So I bore my testimony in my broken Spanish to her about everything that Hermana was just talking about. Then Hermana talked some more and did it again. It was definitely an experience trying to depend on the Spirit so much so that I would be able to convey what I was thinking in Spanish!

Then we went on a more normal exchange on Friday. I went with Sister Gali who is awesome! She's from Western Samoa so Reno's a little different for her. We had some... interesting... experiences. 

So we were sitting at Taco Bell eating our lunch when this lady walked over and asked us what congregation we served in. I said Mt Rose and Lakeside and then she saw our name tags and realized that we weren't Jehovah Witnesses. She told us that she thought we were JW at first and then she told us that she's a preacher or whatever their leader is. She started asking us what we teach. Mwahahaha don't ask a missionary what they teach if you don't want a mini lesson in the middle of Taco Bell. So I told her that we teach about how Christ can bring us peace and happiness through all of the hard times that we go through in life. I then showed her a Restoration pamphlet and talked a little bit about that. She wasn't super interested but we had a good little chat about what we believe.

Then we went and saw this person that the sisters had met last week. He was a tad drunk. Like drunk enough that even I noticed (that's pretty drunk). He was going on and on with all this stuff, making weird faces, and he didn't break eye contact with me the entire time. So I'm struggle-busing trying not to laugh (because it's hard). Then he told Sister Gali not to change her eyebrows and that he liked her eyebrows. It turns out that apparently I look angry at him the way that my eyebrows are. It was probably my look of deep concentration as I struggled so hard to keep a straight face. So I guess that was his way of telling me that he wants me to change my eyebrows. Sorry guys, not changing.

That night we went to Lakeside's Chili Cookoff/Trunk or Treat. For those of you that missed last week, I just went to ours the week before. This time was great because I got candy and I ate a lot of snacks. Y'all would be proud because I recognized this guy's outfit. He was dressed up as the neighbor from Home Improvement. He was wearing a hat and was holding a little fence made of popsicle sticks in front of his face whenever he talked to anyone. #success

I just wanna say that blessings really do come after the trial of your faith. I was quite discouraged after about the 5th night in a row of pasta but then the miracle came...Pizza Hut! God answers prayers!

Heavenly Father really does protect His missionaries too. The other day we were walking through this heavily wooded area when suddenly out of nowhere acorns were falling from the sky! It was quite terrifying but neither one of us was hit by a single acorn. #blessings

The Church is true. The gospel is THE way to true happiness!

I hope you all have an excellent week! I'm going to call Rebecca Gootee out in front of everyone for not emailing me. So get on that.

Love and miss you all!

Sister Ashley Gootee :)

Hola :)

Hello :) This week was pretty great! It went by super fast and I can't believe it's already been a whole week since I emailed last.

I'll start off with some quotes from this week:

We were out contacting and we both felt like we should go knock on this door. The lady came to the door and the conversation was something like this:

Sister Johnson: Hi, we're missionaries and we were wondering if there was anyone that you knew that might need some service.
Lady: Oh I knew it was Wednesday. No thank you. **walks away**

We spent the rest of the day confused and trying to figure out what the heck is so special about Wednesday. The only thing that we can think of is that she thought we were Jehovah Witnesses and that maybe they only come around once a week. We considered going back on Friday and trying again just to confuse her 

Later that day, we were in a lesson. The person we were teaching had gone in the other room for a minute and Sister Johnson saw a Mr. Potato Head hat sitting there next to us.

Sister Johnson: Every time I see this, I think of baptism.....Did I really just say that?
Me: It's a sign.
Sister Johnson: I meant Toy Story...

To make a longish story short, we committed her to baptism. #fiesta

We had a super fun Chili Cook-off/Trunk or Treat activity on Friday! There were close to 200 people that came to it. I love how much this ward gets involved in the ward activities and how friendly everyone is! We even got to hand out candy from the trunk of our car and we ended up running out of candy (partly because there were a ton more kids than we were expecting but mainly because we're poor missionaries but I digress). I'm so glad that we got to go and that I've been able to meet more people in the ward! 

On Sunday we got to go to the Air Force National Guard base. We held a sacrament meeting with them and it was super cool! There were only 4 people from the base that came but we had a great service! And it was awesome because the member of the stake presidency came forgot to bring bread. So we improvised and took the sacrament with donuts. I'm not complaining! :)

A lot of people speak Spanish here, so that's kinda a struggle because a) we have to give them to the Spanish hermanas to teach and 2) literally every time I speak in Spanish to people I forget how to say the name of the church. I can carry a conversation with them and get their basic info but apparently remembering the church's name is too much to ask. Anyway, we've been teaching A LOT lately. Like I've never had numbers this high before on my mission. In the last two weeks we have taught over 50 lessons. It's definitely a lot different being in Reno than in Spring Creek. If we would've taught 50 lessons in Spring Creek, we would've taught half the town (ok, not quite, but it'd be a lot). It's amazing how many people we have to teach here. It's also been great to get to work with the different members of the ward and see who they know. It definitely helps the missionaries out when you know people that they're trying to contact :) don't forget to help the missionaries however you can!

Love and miss you all!

Sister Ashley Gootee :)

P.S. New things sobre mi:

I hardly ever straighten my hair anymore...weird...
I drink more Coke than Mountain Dew now (be proud, you know you are :) )

I ate broccoli and cheese soup (twice) this week (again, be proud)

By the time 9:30 rolls around, I am so ready for bed!

I drank a whole half liter of chocolate milk this week...sad to call that a great improvement

I'm almost finished with Alma!!! #fiesta

#fiesta

Hello everyone! This week has been amazing! I'm going to split everything up by days cuz I'm OCD like that...

Monday

So it's pretty awesome because a lot of people in Reno speak Spanish. So we were out contacting less active members and we came to this apartment and asked if this one lady lived there. The lady told us she didn't speak English so I just started up a conversation in Spanish with her. She could definitely tell I was a gringo but whatever. I got her information and everything and asked her if Spanish missionaries could come by and see her and she said yes. So yay referrals for them!

Tuesday

First off, we had bacon cheeseburgers for dinner. It was delicious but sadly I didn't eat all of it. While that's enough of a miracle for one day, other cool stuff did happen. We were just walking through as missionaries do and this guy walked by us and we asked how he was. He said he was sad and we asked if we could pray with him. He asked us to come with him to his apartment, and then we had a lesson with him. He told us that he was pretty sure God sent us to him and that he thinks he's ready to learn more about what we believe. He knew enough English to have a conversation but we gave him to the Spanish sisters. So yay more referrals for them!

I also figured out that I like teaching math teachers. We got to the end of the lesson with this lady and I asked her to say the closing prayer. She said she's not good at praying. I said that if there was one thing I learned in math class it was that if you wanted to get good at math you do math. The words were barely out of my mouth before she started saying a prayer.

Wednesday

We went to the temple! It was amazing! The temple in Reno has a beautiful view. It's up in the mountains and it's so pretty! I loved being able to go in and feel so much peace and love :)

Later on that day we had some problems. This lady ended up having to give us a ride home from our dinner appointment. The problem was that she gave us so many leftovers and extra food that we couldn't possibly carry them home. So I guess that's a good problem to have :) Reno's really trying to make me fat...I mean, she gave us a ton of cheesecake. I'm gonna get sooo fat.

The good thing is that we started doing morning program as a zone on Wednesday. We have 12-14 of us that come every morning and play sports for about half an hour or so. It's super fun!

Thursday

We taught some awesome investigators on Thursday! But this letter is getting lengthy so I'll spare you on details.

Friday

We met a drunk guy on Friday! I need to get better at recognizing when people are drunk cuz I may or may not have had no idea...we had a pretty good lesson with him but I don't think he remembers it at this point.

We also taught English twice on Friday! #fiesta. We taught this lady from the Philippines and then this hispanic guy that's trying to learn English. The second time was more fun because I got to practice some Spanish at the same time :)

Saturday

WE ATE APPLEBEE'S!! Sorry, anyone that knows me knows I love Applebee's. A member took us out and it was quite tasty :)

Sunday

We had fast Sunday! Guess who accidentally ate a bagel Sunday morning :( Anyway, I got to meet my ward for the first time and well umm my ward is pretty much all elderly people. Anyway, we were nearing the end of fast and testimony meeting and Bishop got up and said that he forgot to announce that there was a new sister in the ward and that he'd like me to come up and introduce myself and bear my testimony. So for those of you wondering, that's the first time I've ever born my testimony in sacrament meeting before.

My ward is pretty awesome! I love Reno so much and Sister Johnson is amazing! Missions are so much fun and I'm enjoying it more and more each day! Also, thank you Sarah Egendoerfer for the package that I got! :) I realized last week that it was Rachel Weiss and Sarah that had sent that to me, so thanks a ton girls :) Have a fantastic week everybody!

Love and miss y'all! :)

Sister Ashley Gootee :) 

On to Reno

Hello! This week was a lot different than the last few weeks were! I should probably just go in chronological order so this all makes a little more sense!

Monday night and Tuesday was a little weird. I had all of my stuff packed up by Tuesday night and had to go and say goodbye to a bunch of people. So that was kinda sad. Monday night I got to have dinner with an awesome family though, so I'll try to attach a picture of that :)

Transfer day was a little interesting. Usually we have a transfer meeting at noon and it's pretty much a testimony meeting. So we went to Arby's (which was delicious, of course) before the meeting and as we were driving to the church we got a text that the meeting wouldn't be until 1:30. Turns out that the transfer van got a flat tire somewhere on the long trek from Reno to Elko. So we rearranged some things and Sister Hingano's lunch with a member got moved to before the meeting. So I ended up having lunch again, which was kinda depressing because she bought us Costa Vida and I wasn't nearly hungry enough for how good it is.

Then the transfer van came and we ended up not having a meeting and just starting the drive. It was strange because I was the only sister there...it was just the 2 drivers, me, and an elder. So I was unofficial companions with an elder which was a little strange. I did get a pretty solid nap in for a couple hours on the way to Winnemucca though!

Anyway, apparently it rains every time I go to a new area. So it was raining quite a bit when we got to the mission office in Sparks. Then I got to meet Sister Johnson! She's so awesome! She's a great missionary and it's been fun trying to figure out the whole missionary thing as we're both still pretty new.

Thursday morning we got to do service at a food bank! Despite the fact that we were outside in the cold rain, it was such a great experience. It was humbling to see so many people come through and be able to help them out in such a small yet impactful way. And it was pretty awesome because a lot of them spoke Spanish, so I got to practice my Spanish :)

Thursday night I got to meet a family that we've been teaching. As we were talking, their son, Eric (who is around my age), asked me where I was from. I said Indianapolis area and he asked me if I was a Colts fan. Then he got so excited! Apparently he's a huge Colts fan! I got to make him jealous by telling him that I've met Reggie Wayne.

So clearly I'm pretty tired. Here's how a message I left on someone's voicemail went: "Hi this is the sister missionaries! We were just wondering if there was a time that we could come by and get to know you guys! We hope you guys are doing great and that we'll be able to see you soon! In the name of Jesus Christ....................................**did I really just say that?**............*whispers* Sister Johnson, how do I change it?............................**hangs up." So clearly I'm still working on the whole communication thing. Who knows, maybe they'll actually call us back, even if it is to laugh at me :)

Anyway, Reno's pretty great. I was going to tell you about the incredible sketchiness of the area and the high crime rate where I live, but that would be a bit of a lie. The members here are great! And no worries, people are feeding us. My taste buds will hopefully adapt soon :) I'm not in downtown Reno so there are a lot of people but minus the downtown sketchiness. I do have to admit it was a bit of a culture shock moving from a tiny town to a bigger city but I love it! I'd probably compare this area to a little busier, a little less sketchy Terre Haute (?) without the absolutely disgusting smell. It's good to know that Five Guys is still in existence and that there is more than just Subway and Dominos here! They have good pizza places and tons of different restaurants! So those of you asking about gift cards, pretty much anything but Chick fil-a is here! :) Which is kinda depressing, but I'll survive.
Conference was so great! There were so many amazing talks! I don't have the talks with me but my favorites at the time were Elders James B. Martino, Larry R. Lawrence, Von G. Keetch, Kim B. Clark, and David A. Bednar. There were other good ones but those are the ones that stuck out to me as I looked over my notes :)
Unfortunately our P-day is getting cut a little short today :( but for a good reason...WE GET TO GO TO THE TEMPLE :) I was pretty sure I wasn't going to get to go to the temple a single time on my mission but I get to go on Wednesday! I'm so excited!!! :)

ALSO! Thank you so much Rachel Weiss and Halle Mackey! You two are the best :) I got a package from my little buddies this week and it made my day :)

Have a great week! Love and miss you all!

Sister Ashley Gootee :)