Sister Macey Gates // Week Seventy

This week was a ride! Tuesday night this we went on exchanges and when we got home this guy tried to break into our appt. He first knocked, and rang the door bell, but we didn't know who it was so we didn't answer it. And then he tried fiddling with the door knob trying to get in(we have 2 deadbolts so he didn't make it in haha) . And when that happened we were on the phone with our district leader so that made us feel better. The next morning we go to get in our car and its dead. We had left the lights on. So we got some jumper cables from on of our neighbors and flagged this guy down to help us and it ended up being an awesome missionary opportunity:) And our car is working! And then the guy that knocked the night before came walking around the corning and was like i tried warning you your lights were on. He is actually one of our neighbors and he always is super nice to us when we walk by. We think he might have been distracted while talking on the phone while trying to get us. BUT we are safe!! My first exchange this week was with Hermana Rutherford, she is so sweet and we had so much fun. And I got proposed to, but politely declined:) And then on Thursday we had multizones. It was super fun. Me and Hermana Juarez sat my all the Polynesians, and one of them is from St. George, did i mention that? Well my and Hermana Juarez had to do a training on talking to everyone and it went really good! And then i had to give my out going testimony. I went way better than i thought it would and I didn't cry:) It was super weird.  And Friday I went on exchanges with Sister Roberts and she only speaks english so i translated for her in the lessons. She is also super cute too, I had a blast with her too! This week was hard, super busy but full of miracles. Hermano Jaime hasn't had any beer for a week! We will see if he falls but please pray for him! Arnold dropped us. It was hard, but i have never gotten a better confirmation on dropping someone. We did all that we could with him. We did tho pick up a few way awesome investigators, one yesterday named Jaime Lopez. His brother n law is a member in mexico and they said they want to follow his example. The lord blesses us every single day. Its the most amazing thing. And I also finish the Book of Mormon is spanish which made me really happy:) I know that book is true, its the most amazing book in the world. Read it every day ok!! I love you all, I hope you all have an amazing week:)

Hermana Gates:)

Sister Macey Gates // Week Sixty-Nine // "HAPPY PRESIDENTS DAY!!!!"

This week was crazy busy. So Arnold told us he didn't wanna get baptized for a long time. He knows everything is true but he need to "feel it in his heart." We haven't been able to get ahold of him so we will probably have to drop him. It is so hard to drop people but we have been so blessed this week finding families! Ya know how we got to zumba on mondays with a lady in our ward? Well we picked up one of those ladies (Veronica) as one of our investigators:) She is awesome! And she wants to get baptized, she has such a sweet desire to come unto Christ.  Wednesday I went on exchanges to a place called Menifee with Sister Palmer. It was an english exchange so it was super weird haha it gave me the biggest headache trying to pray and teach in english. I had to think so hard haha. It was a really interesting first exchange. I was up with her till 2 o'clock in the morning but we got all concerns and worries resolved:) She has a hard family life tho but she is an amazing missionary and is working hard! The next day i was SO tired tho haha but we had lots of work to do! On friday i went on another exchange to Jurupa with Hermana Carlson! My old area. It was SO GREAT:) Friday morning we had this big breakfast at one of the members' house and they gave us cute valentines presents, and there was totally carne asada;) It was awesome! And then that night there was a ward party. It was SO fun to see everyone that i love there, not all remembered me cause i was only there for one transfer but the ones that did it was great:) I totally wanna learn how to dance like a mexican, they were all totally dancing and i wanted to do it so bad but we cant. Valentines day was good, we taught this 92 year old lady, whats up with me teaching 92 year olds? haha they are just the cutest things ya ever did see. Her name is Maria and she totally recited a prayer for us. She is way receptive, and super alive. And we had meatloaf for dinner, yep it was good:) La familia Jaime is doing good! We are still working with the dad, he doesn't wanna give up drinking. So we all made a goal to give up something for a week. 

Hermano Jaime- Beer

Hermana Jaime- has to clean the house every day

Rigo Berto- No Coke

Me- no popcorn:(

Hermana Juarez- no chocolate

So fare we are doing really good! Its harder than ya think haha but we have faith we can do it! Yesterday Andrea got baptized:) It was the sweetest baptism. That girl was so excited to be baptized:) At every baptism I've gone to the spirit has been so strong. There is no denying it. Every time there is a baptism, my testimony grows so much more on how real this church really is. Its the greatest joy seeing people entering into the waters of baptism. After the baptism we had a little fiesta at Andreas house and ate posole-super good! Me and Hermana Juarez are working super hard! We are finding so much joy in this work. We had cross fit this morning and it totally kicked our butts( we are all so out of shape) And played soccer after:) Its been a good week:) The main thing i learned this week is that this is the Lords work, not mine. We so badly need his help and don't ever forget that he is right there.

I love you all so much!!!!!!!

HAPPY PRESIDENTS DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hermana Gates:)

Valentines day and exchanges with Sister Palmer:)

Andreas baptism:)

We are all from st. George:)

Valentines day and exchanges with Sister Palmer:)

Sister Macey Gates // Week Sixty-Eight

This week was all of the above haha it was super great! We have been so so busy! To start off the week, monday night we were picking up a team up and when she shut the door it wouldn't close. The latch broke. So we seat belted it in haha thats the best thing we could come up with. When we took it in the next day to the shop they were very impressed with what we came up with haha So we pretty much drove around for a couple days with the door slightly swinging open when we turn corners haha BUT we got it fixed! And after we picked up the car, we drove home and the drivers side window is broken hahaha of course that would happen! Its been a great experience with our car haha This week me and hermana Juarez made guacamole, SO GOOD!! We also had MLC-Mission Leadership Council, it was awesome. We were doing accountability, talking about our gators and setting baptismal goals and new investigator goals and the AP's asked us what we wanted our goals to be and without us even saying anything they made our goals for us haha so our goal for the month is 3 baptisms and 5 new gators every week... the same as their goal. We were the only companionship they did that too so it helped us to see the faith that they had in our companionship. This week we ended up finding 8 new gators! Wednesday i gained a testimony on never giving up. The whole morning we got calls from people canceling their appointments, and all of them were canceled. We were so sad but we decided to just get out and work. At the end of the night we realized that we had reached our goals. It was AWESOME. NEVER GIVE UP. We also had the chance this week to teach the bible class and also young women's, i loved it! And we are starting exchanges this week!! The other day we went out walking to find new gators. As we were walking I saw a lady named Terry in her yard pulling weeds and i had been praying for more opportunities to give service and so it was an answer to my prayers. She let us pull weeds with her for a little and it was a good chance to get to know her. She told us about her girls, they are avoiding her. It was so sad to hear that but we were able to help her realized that her example will pay off, that if she keeps trying her girls will see that. We testified to her that she is a daughter of God that he loves her more than she can imagine. She told us she knew we were sent to her for a reason cause she needed to hear that. If an opportunity comes to serve.. take it! And at the end she agreed to let the english missionaries come teach her. As for our gators, Dario, the one that gave us the shrimp, we pretty much dropped him. We tried teaching him and all he wanted was to prove and tell us we were wrong. He told us that he wanted to know what our religion was about but that wasn't his intent.  He would not even open the BOM. But we were blessed and found lots of new gators this week! We are working with 2 girls named Lindsey(17) and Abbey(14)  Valenzuela and they came to church and loved it! We invited them to be baptized but their grandparents have hard hearts and are really set on the catholic religion but they know this is true so please pray for them! And we have been working on a dad of a part member family.  The other Hermana's told us they tried so hard to put him on date and he wouldn't accept. Well saturday night i couldn't leave that house without putting him on date. He was super hesitant at first but you just have to be very persistent. And guess what... WE PUT HIM ON DATE!!!!!!!!!! He is on date for the 22nd. So PLEASE pray for him too. His name is Rigo Jaime! I absolutely LOVE this gospel. I KNOW this church is true! Have a great week everybody!! LOVE YOU!!!

Hermanita Gates:)

Hermana Juarez was teaching me how to walk in high heels hahaha i suck. 

Dad should i buy these??

Our door hahah and our guac!!

Sister Macey Gates // Week Sixty-Seven

Pues Pues Pues... que tenemos aqui!! Another great week! Wowzers I love my comp. We have the greatest time together, we're pretty funny too. We saw miracles, huge ones every single day!! First of all we have this like perfect investigator, his name is Arnold. He believes that everything we teach is true, and that its from God. Every time we ask him if he has questions he just testifies of what we say is true haha he is GOLDEN!! The other day while we were helping to clean the church we were setting up chairs, me and Hermana Juarez, and Obispo walks in and told us how grateful he was that we were staying in that ward. Then he pretty much gave us a baptism. Its for this little girl named Andrea. Her mom got baptized almost a year ago, but the bishop asked us to work with her. Ive really gained a testimony that if you have a good relationship with the members, they give ya referrals! So this week we were going to our STL meeting and our brakes were just ya know having a squeakin time so we took it to the shop and apparently our brake pads had like 2 millimeters left haha we almost died pretty much but we didn't. We only went like a day without our car but its fine. So we are teaching another Lesbian, she is in love with a girl that got baptized about a year ago in our ward, its super interesting but you just have to remember how much God loves them, and how badly he wants them, all of us to return to him. The other day we got a referral from a member, and she didn't know the address just gave us what to look for. We were actually on our way to visit Arnold but a guy was walking on the side walk to we stopped and talked to him.  He told us that most of his family were members of the church but he isn't. Then later he told us his name and he turned out to be the referral we were looking for!! It was the greatest miracle!:) We are also teaching this guy named Dario, and he has SO MANY QUESTIONS.  The other day he told us he wanted to make us some food. When we showed up to our apt. he told us he made us Caldo de Pezcado, like this fish soup. And when he gave me my bowl i looked down and there were these tentacle antler things sticking out of the soup and im just like great.... what in the world is in my soup...(without freakin' out right?) And i picked it up with my fork and there were EYE BALLS LOOKING RIGHT AT ME! It was a freakin' shrimp still with its arms and legs and eyes and head freakin' nastiest thing i have ever seen. Im just like there is no way, absolutely NO WAY i can eat this. Also there was more finish with the skin still on. Luckily we told him before what time we had to go and so when he gave us the soup it was time. THE LORD BLESSED US MAS QUE PUEDO IMAGINAR! That right there was the truest miracle i think i've ever had. Its been such a great week. I love this work so much and i just pray time slows down. I also learned a lot about the preparedness of people. I know that God is the one that prepares us and not us. Some people don't have the capacity right now to understand God. Like when we don't always understand deep doctrine. We must always be patient with those who don't yet understand. I know Gods plan is perfect. I know my Savior lives. I hope we can all pray for more opportunities to serve and teach those who are prepared. I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!!

Love Hermanita Gates:)

The elders at our apartments, they are the best

Sister Training Leaders:)

SANTOYO!!!

SICKKKKKKKK that was our dinner....

This picy is so awkward hahha it fell so i had to pick it up...