Sister Macey Gates // Week Twenty-Three

This week was a MIRACLE. So we had to drop almost all of our investigators because they werent progressing. That is always the hardest thing to do! So we went tracting haha and just walking down streets. Its super hot here so that wasnt very fun but we were able to get a few people who wanted us to come back! Edgar got an interview with prez and he has to wait 3 months to be baptized cause he is on probation. He was kinda sad, but we helped him to realize that this is such a good time for him to learn and grow to become so prepared for when he can be completely clean and not have temptations. He has such a good attitude now, he is doing really good. He is down to only like 3 cigarettes a day, some days none, and his mom loves us haha she feeds us almost every single day. She told us last night there has been a major difference in Edgar. She said he has been giving her hugs and telling her he loves her and is thankful for her. That is the sweetest thing. Im so grateful to be able to help him out and to help him really know he is a son of God who loves him so much! Someone gave us $20 to go out for dinner, so there is 4 of us sisters right? so we go to this sandwich place and we just knew we were going over and we really dont have that much left on our cards. We go to check out and the guy somehow figured out a plan to make our food cheaper, without us even saying anything and we had exactly enough. I thought that was one of the coolest miracles, even tho its something so little. So we visited the Ramirez fam and we are so funny with them haha me and Santoyo, we kill each other hahhaa but anywho Azucena told me that if she was a boy she would be my boyfriend hahhahha i thought that was super funny coming from her. She is SO weird. So im having quite the time out here, only one proposal this week hahaha freakin mexicans! thats what santoyo says haha One night we helped on of our investigators for 2 hours fix enchiladas for a service they were doing. They have had missionaries coming over  for 10 years, they jsut dont have the desire to do anything. We had a 5.3 earthquake this week, FREAKIN SCARY!!!!!!!!!!! I was sitting in my seat planning one night and i just start shaking and the whole house jsut starts shaking.... Santoyo just laughed at me cause ive never felt an earthquake but were fine:) no big deal. I just almost shook to death. The womens conference was really good! Its really a treat going to those things.  So yesterday i saved a dog. It was drowning. We were going to visit a Less active and i saw a dog in the swimming pool gasping for air. There is this huge fence tho and it was locked... I couldnt just leave the poor thing to suffer and drown! So i hopped this 7 ft fence in my skirt, i advertized my garments well, and pulled the dog out of the water. So basically we are saving dogs not people. Thats really what you do on missions. So we got STANDARD this week!!!!!!!!!!! Can i just say MIRACLES!!!!!!!!!!! We had 5 people at church, 28 lessons, and we got our 4 member presents yesterday to make our 7, dont ask me how. Actually its God thats how. I feel so blessed its amazing. I love seeing miracles and being apart of this great work!! I hope you all have a great week:) Love you:)

 

 From Hermana Gates:) with a silent H:)

Sister Macey Gates // Week Twenty-Two

Missionary work is the BEST!!!! Its so hard, but so worth it. Ive definitely seen so many miracles. This week was a great week:) We were in Riverside half the time getting our car fixed, its about 15 min away from corona so we walked and hung out with Sisters Asiata and Scott, my favorite people!! I love those sister so much. We got to hang out in the mission office too, with sister pierce and Ta'a. Our car is fixed!!! haha but it was fun to take trips everyday to riverside! I went on exchanges this week with Hermana Williams in riverside. It was such a great day with her! She is 6'1''... She is so tall but she is one of the most amazing girls. It was so fun to talk with her, teach with her, and get to know her. The best thing about missionary work i think is learning something new every single lesson. I feel like this mission is to teach me EVERYTHING haha i have so much to work on but im so grateful for this opportunity.  I love the scriptures. I just want to read them all night long even tho my head is going to blow off every single night from spanish, i still have the urge to read them. So Edgar, one of our investigators, has a problem with smoking. He speaks english and spanish so whenever i dont know how to say something in spanish i just say it in english. He knows that spanish is hard for me, so i made him a deal. If I spoke spanish the rest of the day with out saying anything in english, then he would have to stop smoking for the rest of the day. It was the hardest thing for me!!!! haha im sure it was so hard for him to but we both did it!! The things you do for your investigators hahaha Yesterday he was doing so good till after church, he had to smoke. Then we went over and i stole the pack of cigarettes he had on the table. He said " I knew you would do that!!" HAhah its not the first time;) He knows im not afraid to make him give me his cigarettes. Its for a good cause. So yesterday we had to eat TUNA AGAIN!!! but my companion is the best and switched plates with me after she was done:) She is the best!!! The language is coming! Me and Hma Santoyo both have the same problem, we get frustrated with learning spanish and english and its just great cause we just laugh about it. I have been so blessed with such good examples in my life!! Im so grateful for the friends and family that i do have. I love you all so much and thank you for being the greatest examples to me:) Somos un caso;) hahahha

Espero que tenga buen semana:)

Con Carino,

Hermana Gates:)

Sister Macey Gates // Week Twenty-One

This week was good! We almost hit standard again, we just needed on more person at church.  Vicente ALMOST got baptized this week, but then we went and picked him up and he said he had relaciones sexuales with his novia sat. night. like sick Vicente, your 68, and your girlfriend is like 30. We told him we cant just keep teaching him if he doesnt keep the commandments, we just dropped him. We gotta find people who are ready!! But i wore my chongito for him too!! Its when you have a bun on top of your head.  One time i wore it and he askes about it everytime hahah i really do love Vicente and its hard dropping him but its okay! So we went over to the Ramirez house to eat and she fed us 9 tacos... 9 TACOS!! holy fatty patty over hear but i wasnt even mad, just real full, like really full.  We went over there last night and we had tacos again and i already had six and then one of the Elders that was there told Azucena that i wanted 6 more.. they are so mean to me!!!! except i told her right before she made them so i didnt have to eat them. I love that family so much!! So miracle story. We are teaching this guy named Edgar and he has a problem with smoking. We have been trying to help him but he lacks faith. Sat morning we get a text from him saying " Im going to go the day without smoking, BEST TEXT OF MY LIFE!!!! We went and visited him that day and and he said he only had 1. He went from a pack a day to onlyl 1 in one day. That is amazing. We have him on date for April 6. Pray for him!! Also he gave us pop and my Santoyo really hates pop so when no one was looking i poured all of mine in hers hahahhaha i am so funny!!! She was so mad at me haha whoops! funny times... haha We had Multizones this week and it was really good. We learned alot about our realtionship with our investigators and our heavenly father. One of the scriptures I like was" I the lord am bound when ye do what i say, but when ye do what i say ye have no promise" I dont know where that scripture is in the scriptures so i you could help me out haha but i love it. We are promised so many things if we do what God wants us to do. I love misionary work so much!! Its so hard but so rewarding. I hope you all have a great week!!

Love your fav Hermana:)

planning day;) ohhh yahhhhh

La familia Ramirez!!! seriously my favorite fam!!

Sister pierce and sister Ta'a they are the office missionaries. I love them!! Also sister pierces daughter went out with Mitzi in tennessee!!!! She called me when she found out she was so excited!!

hahaha clerks office fun

Sister Macey Gates // Week Twenty

This week was so interesting... but it was good! We met with Jesus cause he called us and really needed to meet with us, we found out he was meeting with us to hang out with us.. I hate that!!!! One day we were on our way to visit a family and i felt prompted to keep driving and turn down this certain street and then just stop at this certain house... It turns out it was a part member less active family. Blessings and miracles!! So Santoyo has been teaching me spanish songs:) And i write down the lyrics for language study as i listen to it. It has helped alot! Shes teaching me the bachata;) haha its the funnest thing! At lunch we make a gourme food and dance and sing to mexican music. I love it!!!! Vicente progressed so much this week and actually had the desire to read and meet with us and then he freaked out when he had his interview and so he is not getting baptized:( we have to drop him. But we gotta find people who are ready!! I had meatloaf this week, DAD;) i thought youd be so jealous, it was SOOO good. One night we met with a less active fam and then we were heading to the car and we saw a girl and her dad talking and the girl was crying, we asked if we could pray with them, they told us their situation first. All the kids in that family are spread out living with different people because they dont have a home, the dad when ever he gets money goes and gets a little food and delivers it to his kids. It made me so sad but after we prayed with them they said they felt alot of peace. I know we were there at the exact moment because they needed that prayer so much. Ive really realized this week that it really doesnt matter how many baptisms you have, its the peoples hearts that you touch. We found a family that we are teaching, we helped the kids who were struggling carrying a table in the rain and then they said they wanted to learn more! We also found a girl named Abbigail, she has been praying to be able to go back to church and learn. We prayed with her and now we are teaching her, but we have to do it in secret because her boyfriend is kinda crazy, but she wants it so bad. Galdina and Rafael our other investigators were like fighting its was ridiculous hahhaha i felt like a psychiatrist, but with gospel stuff haha but we are trying to get them married. Rafael kissed my hand after, because he said he felt bad for fighting in front of us. Man the mexicans here, even Santoyo said mexicans are weird hahha I also got proposed to this week, by vicentes friend. I told him i wasnt interest, hes not my type. SICK. And we got the Standard this week!!!!!!!!! We taught 31 lessons! So funny story. We were eating at a members house and she gave us tuna sandwiches.. Aqueroso. Ya gross. And im like eating it and i whisper to santoyo " is this tuna???" She said yeahhhh but i will finish your sandwich when i get done with mine. The members arent eating with us right? okay so when Magnolia the member turned her back i threw the rest of my sandwich on her plate, she ate it. THEN Magnolia gave me another sandwich........ Oh you have got to be KIDDING ME. I start eating it and Santoyo says to me that she will finish it when shes done with hers, so magnolia saw that Santoyo finished hers so i threw it on her plate and santoyo put ice in her mouth to make it sound like she was chomping on ice not my sandwich, And Im like almost barfing over her literally. So we thank her, share a message then leave, santoyo says to me when we get in the car" I think the grandma saw the whole thing.........." She was sitting on the couch watching us HAHAHHAHAHA HOW EMBARASSING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I sure hope she didnt see us. Man we laughed the whole rest of the night and we were just sick from the tuna. FUN FUN FUN in the mission:) Well eventful week, im not engaged, and im alive. Wooohoooo!! I hope you all have a fabulous eventful week like me:)

Con mucho amor

Hermana Gates:)

Okay Azucena is SO FUNNY!! she was dancing to shakira hahahha

My two girls:) Itza and Naomi! They wanted their hair like mine so i did it for them:)

Mornings with Santoyo haha

Me and Lily

Sister Macey Gates // Week Nineteen

This was a good week!! It was hard thinking about grandpa and all of you but it was good.  I love my new companion SO much!!! We are just buds:) She is teaching me a lot of spanish and she tells stories like me. I feel bad for everyone who had to listen to my stories at home cause its kinda annoying when they go on and on but i love it cause she tells them just like me hahhaha She is hilarious. I love when her english is bad and she thinks she's hilarious and i totally don't get what she's saying. Its the best. We have had more success this week than ever. We taught 32 Lessons!!!! That is crazy and we almost hit standard again. We just needed one more person at church. We found some new investigators so that is a blessing!!! Awe this week was jsut awesome. Vicente is hopefully getting baptized this week. He wouldn't get baptized yesterday cause it was raining. He said it had to be on a sunny day hahah he is crazy. But i just love him. He's so stinky too its the best. Well not many stories but were basically getting fat cause we have like 3 people feeding us everyday, its crazy. But its awesome:) Keep up your attitudes and keep being missionaries at home!! I love you all:)

Love your favorita Hermana Gates:)

P-Day Basketball

Matchy matchy con Hermana Pfeil.

Our cool meals, we are chefs!

La familia Ramirez:) My favorite fam:)