porque? pues. somos buenas ondas.. - 3/14/2011

....Which means, at least I heard.. "Because we're so cool." I've ALWAYS WANTED to know how to say that.. it's not in our dictionaries. haha I'm totally kidding. But hey family! Another week has gone by, and this one has been LOCA. buutt luckily! I remembered to write down what I wanted to talk about, because there was honestly so much. It's so funny having to plan what to e-mail someone hah :p

 But anyway! It starts with Monday, where I gained a HUGE testimony of the Holy Ghost, and how much Heavenly Father not only watches over His missionaries, but His children in general. It was Monday night, and we had about a half hour until we had to be inside. It was already dark, and we decided to look up a former investigator in this trailer park. And so we're knocking on the door of the former, and all of a sudden we hear these Americans about 2 trailers up from us, outside, just SCREAMING at each other. Full-blown screaming and cussing each other out. I believeee it was a mom to her young son. As in, 7 years old or so. And someone was threatening to hit him, so when the former didn't answer us, we decided to just keep going down and knocking the houses out there so we didn't cross that families' path. So we go to the next trailer and knock on it, and the yelling all of a sudden stops. We hear hitting. And then Hna. Holland heard someone throwing up. What in the world! So we decided to go down to the next house after that, because we REALLY didn't wanna cross their path then. But we came up to the last house. And we started walking up to it, but I didn't have a good feeling about it. And so we were kind of hesitant, but took another step, and the porch light flickered on right then and our blood just went c

omPLETELY. cold. We w

ere NOT. supposed to knock that trailer. So we just left. And walked right by the family who was calmer by then. And we realized right then that though we do not know what was going on in that trailer at the end, Heavenly Father wanted us out. Whether or not it was even THAT trailer. Heavenly Father knew what was coming, and all we had to do was trust what the Holy Ghost was telling us. No matter WHAT. He will tell us what to do, and will make it very clear to us the road to take if we are not on the right one. ..haha. I know that now. :) But don't worry a

bout us, honestly ! I didn't tell you that to freak you out or anything. Just to let ya'll know. The Holy Ghost will never tell us to do anything that isn't the best for us. We are being protected as long as we are doing what is right ;)

  There's a woman we met the other day, Lupe. Who hesitantly let us into her home, and we started talking to her, and shared the 1st lesson with her. It was a really good lesson, and her heart was litera

lly changing before our eyes. And before we left,we asked her if she would say the closing prayer. And she

says the prayer and starts crying. And then afterwards, she says "amen", and we're all sitting there on our knees, in the middle of her floor. And she is just sitting there and starts crying. So hard, and I had no idea what to do. Seeing the vulnerability in her eyes when we were talking to her showed me just how much pain is in the world. How much pain there is that we aren't even aware of. And knowing that we have what can make ANY soul happy makes me realize just how much we have. No matter how much we may be lacking materially, no matter how unclean the house may be one day, how inadequate we may feel when it

comes to doing ANYthing we are to do that day. No matter WHAT thing of the world that can bring us down, we have the Gospel. We have the one thing that surpasses every single thing of this world. It's min

dblowing right! We just need to use it. Hermana Holland and I were talking about it the other day, about how as a missionary, we are just cut off from everything of the world, all at once. So our 'natural man' just starts clinging onto what it has left. Food, the music we have, clothes, or ANYthing we can get a hold of, because it's what our bodies have been used to for the past 21 years of our lives. But if anything, that's what's the most hard about a mission. It's not hard physically to sit in people's homes and teach them all day. But everything emotional just tries to take over you, since we aren't letting the things of the world take over us. And for it to be so emotionally hard day by day by day makes it seem hard in every way. But no matter what kind of hole we may dig ourselves into, our Savior is right next to us, trying to dig us out while we try and pick ourselves back up. I may never truly know how to fully use the Atonement. If I did, I think I'd be one without problems, since we are supposed to GIVE them all to our Savior. But that's wh

at this crazy ride in our lives is all about, is just trying, and trying, and trying. In that garden of Gethsemane, the

Savior could have, but He didn't quit on us. How could we EVER. quit on him?

  We went yesterday morning to some of our investigators' homes to bring them cinnamon rolls as a 'good morning we have an edible way to invite you to church!' way. haha. Welll. Noone answered their door. But this man walks up to us, and asks us if we're Mormon. His name is Myron, and he starts telling us about how he served a mission out here and got married in the temple and everything, but made one mistake, and now he's divorced and walks wherever he goes, and basically has no family. The decisions we make in this life are SO IMPORTANT. Since being on a mission and learning about how many different ways my life can go, it shows me exactly how much I want to do to just strive and strive to have the life that Heavenly Father set up for me all along. So I'm learning that in life, there are 2 things that are most important to be. Be smart. And be happy. .. I'm only 21, so there's probably more. But that's what I have for now hah

a.

  We got 9 new investigators this week!! It was like miracle week here.. which is way cool, cuz we're way tired. haha. So please pray for them! Also!! A family from my last area, the Yoshida family, came up here and were at church yesterday! Hna. Yoshida's brother is the Branch President here. I could not describe in words how much it made my day seeing them. That lit up my life for Sunday haha. It was like seeing a piece of home. .. Mo Val you're still it.. but um. El Paso too hah :p

But anyway! I love ya'll so so much. I hope this e-mail was less scattered than last week's. I have like. 52 e-mails or so left OH MY GOSH that's going to get so boring for ya'll haha. But just know that I

'm trying to keep it interesting.. not that it really matters. You don't have to read this if you don't want to. I wouldn't even know :P

But! I truly thank you for the support. For every single prayer that I KNOW our Heavenly Father hears. He hears every single one. I pray for you all often, and I try to make you proud :)

Hasta Lunes....el cumpleanos de mi hermana CARA :o!-don't you think I forgot ;)..

La Hermana Batchkoff

Welll. The ALB from the Apple Store!! - 3/7/2011

So thatr's apparently where we go to e-mail haha ! I will never understand this place. But maybe that's a good thing, because I wasn't really sent on a mission to understand where I'm at ! .cuz um. I would fail haha.

 So this week has been RIDICULOUS ! We drove up on Tuesday to Albuequerque..that took me a long time to spell. . .. So we found our apartment anddd got to cleaning ! But it is SO COOL there. There's a gym for us to use in the mornings, and we have a washer and dryer here too.. it's um. In our bedroom haha, but it's cool we handle it ! It is WAY different from El Paso. Like I'm not even kidding, night and day different. We have to search out the people who speak Spanish out here, which I never had to really do before. And we're in a Branch, so there aren't nearly as many people at church on Sunday. But we share the church with the English wards. And I don't think I have ever seen so many English-speaking people in the past 6 months it was SO WEIRD. ! But cool at the same time. There is so much city here, and no dream of speaking Spanish in the store or anything really. Since the cashier doesn't. But it's something to get used to. I don't even know where to start with explaining this past week.

  To be completely honest, I felt safer in El Paso haha. There are some things I've seen back home, but yesterday we were in the car about to get out and contact a referral at these apartments. And this man was walking by, I'm guessing a druggie ? And he was picking at his mouth, and it looked like he was trying to pull out his tooth or something. It's so sad. So sad, seeing the conditions of people and their lives that you ponly see in the movies. It's so real! This world needs so much help, at times it's so hard even trying to figure out where in the world to start. But since Hna. Holland and I were both completely new to the area, we started this place out by talking to the Relief Society president and our Branch President. And now we have some families we know! There is this amazing family, the Gallardo family. A recent convert, our new best friend Monica, just moved in with the Gallardo's, and we have been there the past couple of days. And by doing that! We got a referral for their neighbor, who is noww a new investigator ! But the Gallardo's are SO COOL. I've been sick with a head cold this past week, and so I've been blowing my nose like crazy. So Hna. Gallardo drags me to her kitchen like a child to try this Mexican medicine called "Brocholin" ? It's like this thick minty honey-type stuff. Like the texture of honey. So I try it, and Hna. Gallardo sends Monica to go get us $20 to buy some! They would NOT take it back, and it was so sweet. It was probably the 2nd time we had visited them, and to see how giving they were, and how LOVING they were, made me realize exactly how important it is to just love everyone. No matter who they are. No matter what kind of relationship we may or may not have with them. How would we treat the Savior ?

  So we have been working from the ground up, trying to figure out what in the WORLD to do with this area first. But Hermana Holland is so organized, and her last area was similar to this one. So she knows better than me what to do. And as a result! In the 6 days we have been here, we have 4 new investigators!! We're so excited. That has never happened to ME before, and all of them are so incredible. Connie in particular, treats us like we are her WORLD. She didn't come to church yesterday, and we were in the neighborhood last night, so we decided to stop by, even though we saw in the window that she was watching a movie. ..haha that sounded creepy but we weren't peeking I PROMISE. But we knocked anyway, and she let us right in, turning the movie off and giving us juice and telling us how happy she was that we were there and everything! It was incredible. It is not easy to find the ones the Lord has prepared for us to teach and help, but when we DO find them, they are able to change our lives more than we could ever imagine being able to change theirs. I have such a testimony of that. It's kind of weird in a way, teaching them when I feel they have so much more that I could learn from. It's incredible.

  But anyway. I'm sorry my thoughts are so scattered. It's probably because of the people that are surrounding me in this store. We had to practically beeline through the mall today because it felt SO WEIRD seeing all the stores. But anyway. If I am going to leave this on any spiritual note, I'll leave with something that Elder Keller said the other day in District Meeting.. he was saying, "We need to make it so that our thoughts are not ours anymore. We need to work at being the best we can be so that our thoughts become Heavenly Father's thought, and our words His words." I didn't do exactly what he said justice, but it was so powerful. How much do we rely on ourselves from day to day? How much do we try and justify the things that we do, which really keep us from becoming closer to our Heavenly Father, and more like our Savior? So that is my thought for ya'll today :)

Testimony time ! Haha, Cono cada fibre de mi cuerpo, yo se. Que esta iglesia es verdadera. Yo se. Que no hay nada mas importante que el Evangelio de JesuCristo. Las voces del mundo son muy fuerte, pero cuando tenemos nuestra enfoca a Dios, nada mala va a pasar a nosotros. Nada. No hay no mas felicidad como la felicidad que venga del Evangelio. No digo estas cosas a juzgar, sino a ayudarles a venir mas cerca a nuestro Salvador. Les oro para ustedes, les pienso a cerca de ustedes. Le doy este testimonio con ustedes, humildemente, en el nombre de JesuCristo, amen.

p.s. Sorry if there aren't any pictures with this e-mail.. I'm not sure how to upload them on here! We are going to a buddhist temple today for P-day though, so there SHOULD be some good ones next week... if I can figure this computer out by then haha. p.s.s. This computer is $1500. This is the most ballin I've ever felt okay bye! haha :P

Con mi testimoni y mi amor ..

La Hermana B

p.s.s.s. SHOUTZZ! To the Deyo's, who sent me a package with BOMB. Hawaiian food ! Ya'll are the greatest.. I can't explain it and! It's AMAZING. BIEN RICA la comida ;)

p.s.s.s.s. To my home, El Paso. I love ya'll. And Hermana Holland noticed that when I say 'back home', it's when I refer to El Paso instead of California haha. I'm coming back. It;s my home how can I not :)