Dreamy canadians, eh?

  

HEYOOOOOOOO!!! the mission is still awesome sauce. we're still rocking here in fed yeezy. and i am a very happy camper.

 

small plates:

-OKAY. my first night here, i met this dude in the parking lot of an apartment complex literally right next door to the church. some random dude named Emmanuel called us one night and i safely assumed that it was the same dude. so we set up an appt with him to meet again because he wanted to talk and learn more about God so we told him we could meet him at the church right next to his apartments. he kept asking for the address which confused us because we already told him it was right next to his apartments, but we sent it to him anyways. we showed up at the church that day and he called us and kept asking where we were, and when he finally found us, IT WAS A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PERSON THAN WHO WE THOUGHT IT WAS. we got talking with him and introduced ourselves and found out that this dude lives a 15 min drive away at the top of our area and he walked down to meet us at exactly 11 am. i was blown away (aaand i also felt horrible that i made him walk all the way to the church) we taught him all about the book of mormon which he had never heard of, and when we gave him a copy he was determined to start reading right away. it was one of the coolest experiences and definitely was a little miracle. he set up another appointment for next week at  the church buildling and is ready to make the trek once again so we can continue teaching him about the book of mormon!! super super cool guy

-taught a lesson with the zone leaders and it was waaay cool. their friend is high functioning autistic and is super super uncomfortable with men, so they have to have the sisters come to every lesson, but honestly it was so good. we had some really deep convos about the plan of salvation and the spirit was super strong and she actually started to understand a ton which was a miracle. it's also cool to see how the elders teach because it is competely different from how we teach but they definitely are able to bring such a powerful spirit into their lessons. we love our elders so much 

 

large plates:

-literally we have all the folks hooking us up with food since we were lowkey starving here in the hotel and had people bring us FEASTS. it was just divine. we had 2 sets of elders bring us giant platters of meat and potatoes and other homemade goods and then a member gave us a whole bag full of snacks and food so we were very well fed this week. so much for trying to eat healthy this transfer hahah

-jumped the sisters' rental car 3 times in 24 hours because it is just the worst. i felt like such a man being the only one who knew how to jump a car (are you proud of me dad?) we eventually gave up and now the rental car is chillin in the parking lot of the hotel. they may come tow it, they may not, who knows at this point. 

-got buffalo wild wings on thursday and boy was it delightful

-it's honestly so different having a latina companion because now anytime we meet someone new, i will literally be speaking to them in spanish and they will turn and answer only to my companion and won't even look at me hahaha. a few people even asked if i spoke spanish (awkward) the best is when they ask her where she's from expecting to hear something exciting and she just says utah. LOL

-met some guy at our car wash named Cousin who rolled up in a lifted suburban and blasted us with a wave of weed when he opened the window. he completely toasted me for not knowing the name of a rapper and my whole zone sat by and laughed :,( but being the christlike person i am, i looked past that and we took a picture anyways for the mems. i also got laughed at by my entire zone for telling some korean lady that church was free because i thought she was asking how much it costed when she was really asking if the church was open hahaha. in my defense, i was the only one out of the whole zone who was attempting to talk to her, and we even have korean elders

 

i hit my 14 month mark this week and me dí cuenta that i have like no time left at all... like how is it that i have already completed 3/4 of my mission?? 

i have learned an innumerable amount since being a missionary and i feel so blessed to have met so many wonderful people and have so many wonderful experiences here in Seattle WA. getting to share my testimony and literally being set apart as a full time missionary is the best thing in the entire world and i am so grateful that i am able to be here. i am so very grateful that i got to come back and finish the rest of my mission and grow even more as a disciple of jesus christ. i am grateful that i have been able to learn more about the atonement, my savior, the plan of happiness, and how we can have true joy; the kind that lasts for eternity. 

 

i love you all sooooooo much and i hope that the first week of school goes well!!! abrazos por todos!!!!

 

con mucho amor,

hermana hess

 

fotos:

crabby boi, beautiful companion, cousin and the hermanas, Sunday snuggles, zone, angel members that bought us cafe Rio AND icecream, havent taken a pic by this sign yet haha, FEAST, the old guy in this pic is 90 and is still going strong, millionth time eating out this week, car jump #2 in the rain, favorite elders cooked for us, final car jump, my life with glasses here 

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“I can’t believe i forgot which province shawn mendes is from!!!”

 

HOLAAAAAAAA!! it's been such a fun week!!! also THANK YOU FOR ALL THE BIRTHDAY WISHES! i am so very very blessed to have you all in my life :,) 

 

small plates:

-we were out drawing on the sidewalk with chalk and some guy kept walking by and looking at what we were drawing so we started chatting with him and 

found out that he's actually really interested in having us come over and teach him more about God. he keeps calling us to see when we can come teach him soooo that's pretty awesome

-taught another lesson with the eldren and it was so so good... we talked to their friend lashawnta about prophets and priesthood and shared a lot of things that really invited the spirit, and when we invited her to be baptized, i knew she was feeling the spirit because she teared up a little bit. she is going to pray about it, but she is so prepared and so ready. it's been a ton of fun to be able to teach with our elders and help lashawnta feel more of god's love for her

-a member that i got really close to in my last area who is extremely inactive (anytime you bring up religion he'll leave the room) told me that he is taking the lessons from the hermanas because my testimony really touched his heart when i was serving in Kent... definitely cried after that one. such a sweet miracle

 

large plates:

-found out that our branch president was the lead guitarist in a band in his 20's and he played some ACDC for us. it was fantastic

-my zone spoiled me for my birthday... both sets of sisters brought me lots of candy and came and decorated our hotel door and the back of our car and all of the elders sang to me at district council. i love all my missionary bffs. 

-our car died again... hard times with the RAV4

-accidentally drove through downtown again. this time we went past the Seahawks stadium hahaha

-entertained the elders with bubble wands for the whole 2 hours that we were at drive through prayers while they practiced all of their karate moves. i often forget that they are literally teenage boys

-knocked this woman's door and instead of us telling her about what we were doing, she dragged us in to try and sell us stick on nail polish and mary kay stuff. I now have bright pink glitter nails 

-2 elders who go home in 3 weeks decided to run a marathon this morning just cause. so we woke up early to go support because we are too nice 

 

pensamiento espiritual:

I've been studying a lot about the atonement as of late because you can never study it enough, and I came across this quote this week that I looooved 

 

“If there are some of you who have been tricked into the conviction that you have gone too far, … that you have had the poison of sin which makes it impossible ever again to be what you could have been—then hear me.

“I bear testimony that you cannot sink farther than the light and sweeping intelligence of Jesus Christ can reach. I bear testimony that as long as there is one spark of the will to repent and to reach, he is there. He did not just descend to your condition; he descended below it, ‘that he might be in all and through all things, the light of truth.’ [Doctrine and Covenants 88:6.]”

 

Jesus Christ descended below all things in order to lift us back up again. you are never too far from His reach. He loves you. I'm so grateful for the atonement in my life and for all of the beautiful blessings that I recieve from it. I'm far from perfect, but through the atonement, I know that I am able to continually work towards being more like Christ every day and I am so grateful for that. 

 

this gospel is AWESOME and I'm so glad that I get to be a part of it in my own small little way here in Seattle :) LOVE U ALL SOOOOOO MUCH!!!!

 

con mucho amor, 

hermana hessie 

 

fotos: 

Da gals

All da gals

beautiful Washington

The sky at 5 am this morning

The sky again

weekly meme