Sister Macey Gates // Week Fourteen // "I've been out for three months... HOLY SMOKIES!"

HOLA MI AMORES!!! So i have been feeling so much better from monday.  It took a few days to get over but its all good:) IM ALIVE! This week was really good.  In district meeting we talked about "What do you have the faith to do?" I loved this so much because we are put in so many situations and it all comes down to our faith. Do we have the faith to reach out to people, to talk to people, to share the gospel and stand up for what you believe in, to do good in school, it goes for everything. What do we have the faith to do? I challenge you all to think about that and what you have the faith to do. I want to apologize for having hard feelings for my companion. I realize alot of what she has done hasnt been right, but ive been thinking alot about forgiveness.  I realized this week that there was no reason to be mad or frustrated with her because Jesus has already felt that and has already paid the price for it.  It comes down to what we can change and that is to forgive.  There are only a few things that matter in life and if we hold grudges with people or just never forgive someone, we get no where in life.  We can change that:) I think the two most important things in life are love and charity.  Charity is the pure love of christ.  Without charity(love) we are nothing.  So whenever you get frustrated or mad at someone, let it go because you cant change it. All you can do to help the situation is forgive just like Jesus. He is the biggest example because he was spitten on, yelled at, all the above, and yet he stilled loved those people and forgave them. I love my Savior and we can get through anything through him.  So Jesus didnt get baptized this sunday... its sad. He was sick and he is just really scared to.  We decided to just let him go, we will stay in contact with him and he still wants to come to church and when he chooses to be baptized we will be there for him:)  But there was a baptism last night in our ward and they asked me and Hma Nelson to give the first lesson in five minutes... in front of everyone... In spanish... it was so good tho! Hma nelson challenged me to memorize James 1:5 before in spanish right before we went in and state it in the lesson and i did it! I got alot of compliments for my spanish after and that made me feel really good. I got to play soccer this week kinda!! It was so fun. I played with my favorite family the Ramirez they are recent converts.  I was definitely in a skirt and boots but that didnt stop me haha i loved it!  I left my first harvest blessing in spanish this week and it was so cool. We ask people if we can pray with them and then ask if they would like to take the lessons.  Hma nelson usually does it cause i know like 5 things to bless them with, but i asked if i could do it and it was so awesome.  The spirit was so strong and is said words i didnt even know haha the gift of tongues is real.  So we visit this guatemalen fam and the ladys name is isidra.  Everytime we say something she just says "Es cierto" (its true) Its the funniest thing. I dont think she can really understand spanish that well.  Every question like "Que tan importante a sido Dios en su vida?" "es cierto"  "Leera este noche?" "Es cierto" hahahha it kills me!! We just walk around saying es cierto all the time cause thats all she says. " Puede hacer la oracion?" "Es cierto" ahahha okay im done.  We totally had albertos this week. We found one and i was like we have to go there!!! And we ordered in spanish;) ohh yeahh.  So Hma Nelson had to get a TB shot so we went to the clinic and we waited for like 1 1/2 hours.  Of course we talked with everyone tho haha we found 3 new people to teach!  One of them spoke english and spanish, but when that happens we just speak spanish to them cause it makes them feel comfortable.  She thought it was the coolest thing that we could speak to her in spanish. She wants us to come and teach her family too so that is awesome! Thats what you get when you talk with everyone:) Its so amazing!! Everyone around us were like coming closer to hear our messages, it was cool.  There are alot of people out there that need the gospel.  I love missionary work so much!!!!!!!!!!!! Its the greatest hardest most frustrating most amazing thing ever.  Gosh yall are missin out.

Entoces, Me amo mi familia y mi amigos mucho!! Que tengan buena semana!:)

Con amor, Hermana Gates:)

This is Puna! she is a recent convert and is going on her mission on wed! She came out with us for the day cause she gets to go to the Mexico MTC so i told her all about it! I think i'm more excited than her haha she had no idea what was happening in the lesson but thats okay:) I feel her pain cause i've been there!

and your smiling one you wanted mom haha

Sister Macey Gates // Week Thirteen

This week was definitely interesting haha so basically we put Jesus back on date for the 26th! but he is still just having the hardest time with his family and knowing if he should be baptized or not so we dont know what to do anymore.  But we are still trying! We took him to the adult session of stake conference with us and it was on Hasten the Work haha he actually really liked it! We sang the Armies of helaman/ as sisters in zion song and he said he thought that it was so amazing.  He said he felt the spirit really strong. I told him i would play it on the piano for his baptism and he thought that was pretty cool and really wants that.  He just needs to choose to be baptized!!!!! We have picked up a few investigators, and also dropped a few. We dropped leslie cause she told us church wasnt for her, but we picked up a few too! These two high school girls Joscelin and Prilla. They just wanna know everything haha its awesome.  We actually went and talked to some people in the park and it was all the homeless people and they let us pray with them.  some of them thank us for doing that and that they felt something and to come again, but its kinda sketchy haha The language is coming!! I can understand like 70% of it and on of our investigators Estella shes old haha but she told me that she could understand me so that was so fun to hear! Weve also been working on less actives and thats been interesting.  Sunday night we visited some and i got the worst headache from trying to understand everything haha i asked one simple question, why he got baptized and he went on for 45 min making up excuses and then finally at the end said he wanted to change.  Then Monday! Man monday was not the funnest.  I woke up so sick haha i really do think i have nodes again hahahha i layed in bed till like 11 oclock and then got up to have a shower and do my laundry, and then i just had to lay down again cause i was in so much pain.  We had to go to the store so we went at like 5 and nothing sounded good at all.  but i just got a few things.  We had to teach jesus last night and that was hard. I almost threw up but i never did!! YEAH! We came home and i was so weak i just went to bed.  I had like 20 blankets and i was still freezing cold. I said a prayer to help me just sleep through the night once and i did! I got a blessing after district meeting and it was really comforting.  It just really sucks haha but thats okay! I am a survivor of nodes:) again:) haha well thats basically my week not too much has happened but i do feel my saviors love for me.  Especially fasting saturday with Jesus. Fasting is an awesome thing:) Have such a good week and sorry i didnt email yesterday the library was closed..... But i did get the package mom hahahha it was the best thing ever!! I started crying i was so excited:)

I love you all:)

Hermana Gates:)

Haha we went to think place last monday called pho dat haha it was a vietnamese restaurant

Ramon one of the recent converts and he doesn't even know what baptism means haha we got some work to do!

This is when i was capturing this black spider that was staring right at me.......SICK!!!

Does this not look like Abby Ence? 

This looks like a giant pine cone haha

haha missionary probs

New Years haha with Sister Graff and Ni Ihau.

Sister Macey Gates // Week Twelve

This week has been so much better!!! I have been so blessed and comforted.  By the way i want a christmas card!! i hope i made it on it this year! This week has been way sad too. We had to drop Jesus because his family said they would kick him out of the house and they said he had to do this catholic communion or something for 2 years before he did anything.  It was the hardest thing because he wants to get baptized so bad.  But after we dropped him, he has called and texted us every day to ask us questions about what he read and tell us how he is doing. He even talked to his manager at work to try and get sundays off so he can go to church.  Sister Goudy our homeshare, she told us to call this guy Bro Cornejo because he was in the same situation.  We met last night with him with Jesus and he basically just talked the whole time. It was absolutely amazing and half of it was in english and half in spanish haha but he told personal stories and him and his daughter were crying and the spirit was so strong. We met with him for 1 1/2 hours last night and we had to leave at 9:30 so bro Cornejo just finished talking to him.  It was so awesome!!!!!!! We just hope he will choose to be baptized soon! So i got some letters that were sent to the Mexico MTC this week hahah it only took 6 weeks to get here.  It was fun tho! Alot of people wanna bible bash with us and Hermana Nelson loves to but i just have to pull her away cause it gets us no where haha we have definitely  had some interesting things going on this week.  We went to go visit this guatemalan fam and this drunk guy was at their door just standing around and he totally go right up in our faces and thought we were partners and asked if he could kiss us... FREAKIN SICK!!!!!!! we were so protected thats all i have to say. We just hurried and walked off. Im so thankful for companions.  Then this guy was selling icecream off the streets and he was mormon! And the guy that we were talking to bought us ice cream. It was so good haha and then i ate my companions cause she was driving and i really wanted it haha.  I totally made this turkey bacon avocado and it was sooooooooo good!!!!! Be jealous;) oh man it was delicious! I didnt run out of food this week! I finally just let it out to my comp last night and it totally changed things. Its already been 10 times better today.  I know its going to get better! Im just grateful to have my savior in my life and that i can trust him.  He is always there.  I love and miss you all so much!!!!!! Know that i am doing so much better and the spanish is coming:) Its fun haha Have a good week!!:)

Hermana Gates:)

Hermana Ruiz is leaving:( 

 Popsicles we got from this random guy.

Sister Macey Gates // Week Eleven

This this week has been the most interesting week haha but thats okay! when i got out of emailing last time we saw Brother Dave again the guy i was sitting by last time and was hitting on me and this time he asked if i would marry him when i got done off of my mission and he kept calling me his angel and beautiful and it was the most discusting thing. Im scared for life. but seriously.  And monday night i started my period!!!!! oh yeah baby it was a blast.  It actually made me really really sick and the elders had to give me a blessing cause it was so bad but im a survivor.  New years we totally partied it up baby!!! haha jk we went to some of the english sisters home share and they ordered pizza and i provided the popcarn:) and we watched 17 miracles. I love those girls so much!!!!!! They are sister Graff and Ni'ihau! We got an in n out card for christmas from someone in the ward so we got to go there. holy glorious hamburgurs halelujah man it was good!!!!!!! Also we were eating at this couples house and they put lemons and hot sauce on our potato chips and im just like what the heck gross!! oh my goodness it was so goodd!!!!!!!! try it! So i lost my tag the other day out visiting people and it made me so sad cause we always do tag checks just so we know we have them on haha and i loose mine.  Today my comp was hanging my dressup and it literally fell from the sky hahahha we dont know where it fell from but it was a miracle.  Now i have a tag:)  It has been a really hard week with my companion.  She is not nice to me at all haha she definitely lets me know of all my imperfections. all of them.  Which is basically everything.  I mean i know im imperfect but i didnt realize how imperfect i was but thats okay im working on trying to be better.  She just yells at me and calls me out on everything especially in lessons.  Its rather embarassing. She is really intimidating to alot of people and never smiles when shes teaching.  Every one is scared of her haha its sad.  She still yells at athiests and straight up went up to this guy and was like your bad for smoking.... its quite the time:) Im really scared to do anything cause i just get in trouble. but fasting yesterday helped so much and humbled me so much.  I felt my saviors love so much and i needed it.  I also got in trouble for fasting 3 meals instead of 2. but thats okay im used to it haha The other day she ate all the rest of the food i had haha she came up to me and was like oh i ate your food i hope you dont mind. I was like is there any left and she was like no. but i might have a few packs of oatmeal that you can have... so ive been living off of oatmeal:) and i have to skip meals or eat snacks haha but thats okay. I hope it will get better especially when i ask her to help me with something she gets mad at me.  Its just stupid little things that i need to get over but its getting to the point where i just cant take it so im praying all the time.  Jesus is getting baptized this week!!!!!!!!!He is so ready and im so excited!!!!! His parents are against tithing and want him to pay them instead of the church but he was like if thats what it takes to get the blessings and be happy.  He told us he would have the blessings any day over money.  He cant wait to be baptized and its good to  know he is doing it for the right reasons and it doesnt seem like there is anything keeping him away from the church:):) gosh im so excited!!I miss all of you so much i really do and i hope you guys have such a good week!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are always in my prayers!! and HOLY COW ITS A GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I WAS SCREAMING ON THURSDAY I WAS SO EXCITED THEN I REALIZED I HAVE TO WAIT TO HEAR TODAY BUT IM GONNA BE AN AUNTY:) YAYYYYYYYYYY!!!!

I love you guys:)

Hermana Gates:)

Sister Macey Gates // Week Ten

This week has been super interesting haha but it ended up being so good! JESUS IS GETTING BAPTIZED NEXT SUNDAY!!!!! YAYYYY!!!! Finally.  Hes has alot of struggle with his parents, but he finally decided to talk to them and it went okay and now he is getting baptized! And then he said he wants to come out with us when we teach other people so he can help us and that is amazing having your investigator tell you he wants to help you.  Christmas was amazing:) The best part was talking to MY FAVORITE FAMILY:) I did not wanna say bye and i coulda talked forever and i started crying when i had to go haha i stayed in the room a little more so no one saw that i was but i miss you guys SO MUCH!!!!! Awe it was the best day.  And thank you for the packages and letters!! Oh gosh it was the best thing ever!!! I bauled when i opened all of them haha me and my companion both.  We are so grateful for our family and friends.  The christmas eve party with the whole mission was SO much fun haha the talent show was the funniest thing with everyone and their skits.  It was fun to meet so many new people and half of them were like sister gates whats up?? and im just like heyyyy i dont know who you are but sup haha alot of people know me cause Elder Cook told them i was coming so that was fun.  I saw Micah Mangum and Eva Beagley who we went to school with so i got to talk with them! And of course Elder Cook!  We definitely met some interesting people this week! This lady we talked to said she died and came back to life and now she is a guardian angel and that Christ is just a regular man that taught people.  She was quite the lady/ guardian angel but you just gotta love them people hahahha and we also met this guy who didnt think we needed religion and i was just talking to him for a while and he said he wanted his daughter to find herself and then i asked him if he has found himself haha that was definitely personal but it was okay and he said no. Then we invited him to church and he said no but he said he always feels like he wastes his time talking to people about religion and he said he didnt feel like he wasted his time so he must have learned something!! This cute little old guy was selling corn on the street so we bought some and it was so good! it had dee spices and i just told him to GET THE CARN OUTTA MA FACE! haha jk (Nacho) and we met this guy before we taught Jesus and he said his name was J-on cause he liked how it sounded better than Jon hahhaha he was quite the guy and didnt stop talking about everything you could possibly imagine so i taught jesus while my companion talked with him haha but seriously there are quite the peeps out there.  Its been a really hard week with my companion.  She hasnt been nice to me at all haha she yells at me all the time for every thing i do and im not exagerating. Ive just had to keep my mouth shut and she scared me so bad i couldnt even look at her the other day haha then last night we started talking and i asked he why she has to analyze everything i did and get mad at me but i definitely said it in a nice way and she said she didnt realize she was doing it and said she was really sorry cause it affected our week so much.  She yelled at an athiest yesterday for no reason hahah and then after she was like i think i intimidated him! why didnt you back me up? and i was like you intimidated me!! haha she felt so bad haha but everything is good and she caught herself doing it this morning too but at least she recognized it:)  She is so amazing and i need her to work with me cause i am still learning, but she needs to chill out sometimes haha but she that was fun to deal with haha but she definitely tests my patience but  i just keep trying to serve her and help her out the best i can and not say anything to her cause Christ wouldnt do that.  This week has been an amazing learning experience and im grateful for my savior and how i can turn to him when i cant handle things anymore.  He is definitely there when i need it! I miss you all so much and im so grateful for all of you!!!! You have no idea.  Always remember to turn to christ when ever you need help because he is ALWAYS there with his hands stretched out. We just have to grab them.  I hope you all have a wonderful week and just know that i cooked bacon and i was SO GOOD BE JEALOUS. nbd. Have a great week:)

Hermana Gates:)

My bacon i cooked yesterday haha i thought you would appreciate it!

We bought sister goudys dog an outfit haha and she gave us these matching pjs for Chirstmas!

Me and Hermana Pfiel haha I love this girl!!!

I saw Micah Mangum I went to school with her!

The boys i came to california from the MTC with haha we kinds stick together!

All the girls that have stayed at the goudys house this year!