Happy Leche Day!

hahahahah, get it? Anyone? 

You're right, I'm not that funny. Yesterday I had to describe to my good Guatemalan friend Joselyn about MLK Jr Day and it was a little hard to describe in Spanish... But he was a good dude who helped a lot of people!

Anyways, this week has been awesome and wicked cold. And then warm, and then cold again! Sorry for writing a day late, but the internet in the chapel was down the same day that all the libraries were all closed for a holiday. haha. Good times. But adventure is out there! Sunday night our member drove us in a snowstorm to go teach Maria in preparation for her baptism this Saturday. It was awesome and a tad bit sketchy! (The drive, not the lesson...) But hey, all's well that ends well :) And it definitely did. Maria is all set and good to go. Please keep her in you prayers! 

MARRIAGE is in the air my friends! and no, this isn't a trunky announcement... Maria got married on Tuesday and Alfredo got married on Saturday! Three cheers for investigators repenting and keeping the law of chastity! Both ceremonies were beautiful and simple and both couples will be working towards temple sealings in the future. I love that. #eternallife 

It was a busy and beautiful week full of happiness, new investigators, lessons, and food. I love life and where I am at right now. It's crazy to think that in 10 days this will all change, but come what may and love it! I know the gospel is true and that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. I am grateful for the guidance of the living prophets and apostles. I know that as we follow their counsel we will be led through the craziness and uncertainty of mortality. 

Favorite quote of the week: 

"God didn’t design us to be sad. He created us to have joy!" -President Uchtdorf

I love you all and I will talk to you next week! 

Con amor,

Hermana Frei

Oh Remember, Remember

Hello friends!

Wow, this week has been full of so many tender mercies. The work has been booming! We were kept super busy finding new investigators, teaching lessons, working with our ward leadership, and inviting people to be baptized! And, after a lot of work, we finally set a date with our good friend Maria! She is scheduled to be baptized my last Saturday on the mission. I am so excited and happy for the decision that she is going to make and she is so prepared. We also have another family that is suuuuuuper close to commit to baptism. I hope that I will be able to be present to witness it. God has put so many prepared people in our path and it has been a wild ride. 

So with the recent demise of our good friend Remy, I thought my life would be pretty rodent free. But! The other night we were visiting with a less-active woman in our ward and we were reading the Book of Mormon together. All of the sudden she and Sister Hafen start FREAKING OUT and I'm just sitting there not sure what is going on... The lady jumps up off of her bed and runs to slam the door of the bathroom... I'm still just all: "wut?" Sister Hafen's all: "there's a rat! IT'S HUGE!!" hahaha. The upstairs neighbor comes down with a baseball bat to beat the thing to death in the bathroom, but when she opens the door the rat is gone... Duh duh duh! Yeah. I don't even know. It just straight up disappeared. Rats. Mice. Sneaky little dudes, my friends. Haahha. But yeah, it was awesome! I love me an exciting appointment.  

What is life?

But yeah, so that was my week. I'm grateful for the beautiful memories that I am making everyday. I am grateful that I have a journal where I can store all of these precious experiences. I have learned that I have a goldfish brain. Turns out that everything didn't develop as planned in the womb... Yikes. But really though, I forget EVERYTHING. I have made really good friends with my daily planner and journal. Here's to preserving memories! I love you all and I hope that you can reflect on the tender mercies that happened in your life this past week. The Book of Mormon in true and God has a plan for you! 

Con amor, 

Hermana Frei 

Missionary by Day, Mouse Hunter by Night

Well, friends, 

thanks for staying tuned! We had all sorts of miracles this week including finding our gas card (it was hiding in my Predicad Mi Evangelio... what even?), getting our new investigators to church on Sunday, and last, but definitely not least, we slayed the mouse that has been trolling our kitchen! Joy was exclaimed, and it was good stuff. Please see pictures attached. 

I know the church is true and I love being a missionary! All sorts of precious mems are to be had every single day! I am so grateful for all of your support and love. 2016 is going to be a great year! My goals include reading the entire Libro de Mormon, having at least one more baptism on my mission, and finding someone for the missionaries at home to teach. I'm pretty stoked. #letsgoooo I hope that y'all have set some goals as well to make the most of this new year, and if you haven't it's cool because it's only the 4th. 

Have a wonderful and blessed week!

Con amor,

Hermana Frei

Ho ho ho

Hey friends!

It's been a really cool week! We had Christmas Conference with my fellow homie missionaries, we partied hard on Christmas, we got to talk to our families, and we found 6 new investigators this week! THE LORD AND HIS INFINITE MERCY! Good grief, Charlie Brown. Man, life is just so good. And then Sister Hafen is just a rock star and she is coming out of her little greenie shell and inviting everyone and their mom to be baptized! (Literally she invited a 15 year old girl and her mom to be baptized... this isn't a joke)

But no really, it was WICKED sweet. On Monday we picked up a woman named Lucy and the member we brought with us happened to know her! Hahaha. I love that. It's a small little Hispanic world after all. Tuesday and Wednesday night we went caroling with the relief society sisters and it was so much fun! I love singing Christmas carols off-tune and in Spanish! No, this is real. Thursday we had the Christmas Conference and we got to go to Belmont, Mass for that. I received many a package there and I just want to give a shout out to all my homies who sent me stuff. Y'all are great! I think we have enough chocolate to feed Liberia. And maybe our mouse that lives in our apartment and eats all of our peanut butter... Don't worry, we have hid all the Reese's peanut butter cups in the freezer. Sorry, Remy. 

Friday I got to talk with some of you lovely people and it was a blast. I am so excited for the new baby children that get to be born into the best family on earth! And the best part is that I will get to hold them! After we did the G+ hangout we had a Guatemalan brunch with Bishop Flores and his family and they gave us presents. I was just all awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Like what even? Afterwards we went and spread all sorts of peace on earth and good will towards men in chocolate form! We visited investigators, recent converts, and less actives and brought a little bit of the joy of Christmas with us. The English sisters came with us because apparently white people don't like to be disturbed on their holiday... So to all you white people out there: be nice to the missionaries, ok? But yeah, it was a super feliz navidad.

Saturday was a little bit crazy because we had no set appointments, but we managed to make it a really great day and we picked up 2 more investigators. The mother and daughter that Sister Hafen invited to be baptized. FYI they didn't set a date, but they didn't say no. Sunday we had a great time at church and we picked up 3 more investigators! 3 dudes that came to our ward Christmas party! So yeah, it was all sorts of success building upon success. 

I don't really know why all this is happening right now, but I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to be a missionary at this time. There are so many of God's children out there that are looking for Him. So many people are hurting and are looking for more peace and are looking to feel God's presence in their lives. Something I realized this past week is that I have been so incredibly blessed all my life to know that I am a daughter of God and that I have had experiences that undeniably testify that God knows me personally. The gospel is true and gives us peace and leads us through this crazy, adventurous life. 

I love you all and I hope that your christmas was merry and bright!

Con amor,

Hermana Frei

Greenie Christmas

Hey guys! 

So I have a greenie and it hasn't snowed yet, so it'll be a green Christmas after all! New England isn't coming in clutch for the whole white factor... but hey, it's cool. 

So, how is everything going? It's going smashingly! My new companion is AWESOME! Her name is Hermana Hafen from St George, UT! Our district was pretty proud last transfer to have nobody from Utah, but alas. Here we are again :) Actually, fun fact, Hermana Barney and Hermana Hafen attended high school together and were on the same track team! It's a small world after all... Like what are the odds? Both times I train they come from the same place! Looks like I'm gonna have to take some road trips down to Saint Geezy. But anyways, more about Hna Hafen, her spanish is reeeally good and she got a TON of packages for Christmas! HAhaha, like no joke, when I picked her up from the mission home there were 10 packages waiting for her. So she is well taken care of this Christmas! We are working hard together and trying, for the life of us, to find some new investigators. Because, sweet mercy, all of our investigators are suuuuuuuuuuuper flojo. But it's cool! We just need to faith harder, and I need to train Hna Hafen to be a spanish missionary before I take flight. She's already a great missionary, just a little emphasis on the spanish part :)

Other than that, we have had a blast! We are almost our of miles and we still have 10 days left in the month so we have been walking and getting rides from members a lot. We just have the best members ever! We announced yesterday in church that we would be walking and we needed their help and everyone offered to help us! So AWESOME! Also, I love walking because I feel more at one with the area and the people. Also, I am a lot more grateful for our car. We only walk during daylight hours, so at night we really enjoy our nice warm car. 

We had a cool experience on Friday! We had 2 appointments in a row cancel on us and we didn't have time to do the training program or language study that morning so we went to the local library to fit those things in. Hna Hafen prayed that we would be able to find somebody while we were there. So we got into the library and we sat down at a study table and we started reading out of PMG about finding people to teach. After about 20 minutes a guy comes up to us and says, "Are you guys the Mormons?" And I was all, "You betcha!" 

and I kid you not, the man was crazy.

Midway through the conversation with him I just remember thinking, "Hna Hafen, you did this to us! You prayed him here... hahaha" So we were able to slide out of that sticky situation after we gave him a Book of Mormon and Bible, and we began exiting the library. Since we had just read about finding through our own efforts I struck up a conversation with the library security guard. And she was awesome! I believe that she was the one we prayed for. Sadly she lived out of our area, but we sent her info to the sisters serving over there. But man, it was so cool to see our simple prayer be answered. 

This morning I just finished the Book of Mormon again and I was able to write my testimony in the back. I love that book and I know that it is true! It testifies hard core of our Savior Jesus Christ and I know that He is the reason for the season. He is God's gift to us. What are we going to give to Him this Christmas season and new year? 

I love you all and I hope you have a blessed and wonderful Christmas! I am so happy that I get to spend this time of year testifying of Christ and sharing the gift of His life with everyone who will listen to me. There is no place that I would rather be. 

FELIZ NAVIDAD!

Con amor,

Hermana Frei

What child IS this?

Well, my friends. Here we go again! 

This week was AWESOME! Life is crazy, you know? Sometimes you think you've got it all figured out, and then nope. So we started off pretty normal, and we had a really nice exchange with the Scituate (pronounced sitch-oo-it... you go, New England) Sisters and it was a grand ol' time! Sister Asay and I stayed in Providence and it was just like old times! Sister Asay was my STL in Worcester and we went on exchanges there too, haha. You'd think by now she would have learned Spanish... But yeah, she goes home this next week so we had a nice chat about ending your mission. Gross. But she's handling death fairly well.

Also, Friday we had zone meeting and all that rosy good stuff! In all humility it was a great meeting! Also, midway through we received a rather peculiar text message from the mission. "Sister Frei you have received a leadership call. Please check your email." Wut? I'm already a leader...

OH

THAT kind of leader... 

I checked my email, and what do you know? I'm training again! My last little baby transfer will be spent training a little baby missionary. I AM SO EXCITED! Literally I wasn't even expecting that. I just thought that I would live out my days quietly being an STL in Providence, but God has bigger and better things in store. Literally, I am so stoked! I LOVE training, and I LOVE everything right now. So, yeah. #training #withchild #whatchildISthis??

Also, more exciting news! I learned how to play the organ! Well, kind of. It was more like a baptism by fire. So the mission puts on a missionary musical fireside every year, and yesterday and today are the performances. I wasn't planning on being in it, but then we got a text late Saturday night by our good friends asking if I could play the organ. Lol. Well, organs don't scare me, and I sat through many an organ lesson with Stephanie back in the day, so I said I would give it a whirl. MAN those things are POWERFUL. I just followed the example of our good friend Brother Loynd and blew out the rafters with Oh Come All ye Faithful. 

It was AWESOME.

New favorite instrument? I mean, maybe. I'm just a rookie, but it was fun! Look at me, Mom! I'm just developing my talents and stuff!

Also, yesterday's sacrament meeting was AWESOME. I wasn't really paying a whole lot of attention to the discursos but I learned a lot. Come, take a walk with me to the scriptures. So I was reading before church in the Book of Mormon in 3 Nephi 18 about the sacrament, and during the ordinance of the sacrament at church I flipped open to that chapter again. I LOVE verse 7! Just eating a piece of bread doesn't qualify you for the spirit, but remembering Him throughout the week is what will qualify you. Eating the bread is witnessing to God that you have remembered Him, and that you will continually remember Him. I love that! so it made me think: 

How can I remember Him more everyday? 

I invite you all to ponder that question as well. If you need any ideas, D Todd Christofferson gave a beautiful article in this month's Ensign called "Be at Peace". During this Christmas season I hope that you can all focus more on our Savior Jesus Christ and be at peace. I feel so loved and happy and emocionada for what is to come during this Christmas season and the rest of my mission. God is good! He knows us perfectly, and He knows exactly what each and every one of us needs. I'm excited to get out of my comfort zone again and train a fiery new missionary! Power to the people!

Con amor,

Hermana Frei 

Time flies no man can its flight is too irregular

Sweet Mercy! Happy Tuesday! 

So yesterday we had a big ol' zone conference with Allen F Packer of the seventy, so p-day is today! Hooray! My friends, my heart is just filled with so much joy and love. Did y'all get a chance to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional? I did, and it was SOOOO BEAUTIFUL. Truly, this is the most wonderful time of the year. I love it so much. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. He is the reason for the season. 

I love Christmas lights and evergreen boughs and big ol' bows.

Anyways, these past few days have been crazy, and the next week and a half is gonna go by in a blur. Ugh. But such is life! Sunday night we had MLC with Elder Packer and his wife. They literally touched down to Boston, the Millers went and picked them up, and they came to MLC to counsel and teach us. It was SO AWESOME! Then we got to watch the aforementioned devotional with all of our homies! The Spirit just back-handed me in the face. Then Monday morning we got up bright and early to go to Zone Conference, and wow. And then afterwards, talk about spiritual exhaustion!

King Lamoni, I feel ya, man.

But it's amazing how much 8 hours of sleep can do for a person, because I feel so energized right now! The missionary schedule is so inspired. #early2bedearly2rise I don't really know what to say, except that this week is going to be crazy because meetings. planning. MORE planning. Eternal salvation. You know, the works :) 

HAhahaha, I apologize for the vagueness of this email. I wish I could just tell you about everything I have learned and experienced, and what is whizzing through my mind right now, but it's going at light speed, so yikes. But just know that I am happy, loved, energized, excited, overwhelmed, and amazed. I know that God loves me. I know that I am a successful missionary. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a pattern for our lives to lead us safely home. I know that the Spirit is the real teacher. I love life. I love my mission. I am excited for Christmas. I love my family, at home and here in the MBM. 

ADVENTURE IS OUT THERE!

Con amor,

Hermana Frei