Yikes....Cow?!

hola!!

So I definately ate stomach, nerves and bone marrow from a cow last night at Amanda's house. That was a first! Hermana McGuire and I were looking at the soup like, whats in this? Amanda explained that the soup is very expensive when bought at restaurants...I ate it with a smile. I know what its like to be a true Spanish speaking missionary!

We had Zone Conference this week! It was really nice receiving training from President and Sister Talbot, the Assistants and the Zone Leaders...I was picked to give the talk on Diligence...D: dedicated, I: intense, L: love, I: Involved/Interested, G: gratitude, E: energetic, N: not distracted, C: consistent, E: effective...We need to be dedicated to the calling that we have received to be missionaries of Jesus Christ..Sacrifice lunch hours, personal time or whatever we need to in order to be intense!...Love our investigators so that they can feel God's love through us...Be involved in their life and interested in who they are...Show gratitude every day in our prayers, thanking Heavaenly Father for His help in the work, because we couldnt do this work without the guidance of the Holy Ghost, Have enerygy and excitement everday with a smile on our faces because we are part of a great work, remove all distractions from the work so that we can focus on what we are doing and our purpose as missionaries, consistently work hard everyday and be effective with planning and time! It was a fun talk to give and ofcourse I started crying while talking about my experience as an investigator with my missionaries. I could truly feel with love of God through them becayse of the Spirit they brought with them while teaching me. I also know I have been prepared my while life to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I testified to my fellow missionaries that there are people here in Iowa who have been prepared. :) We also sang a musical number, Hermana McGuire, the Zone leaders and me. It was the primary hymn, "Love is Spoken here." I really like that hymn! I want to have a home full of love and I want to have a family of unity.

We did service this week again at Floyd House. I love old people! I go on walks in the hallway with Don (he is blind). He is a fast walker and always has interesting things to say. This week we talked about how the world needs more love and needs to accept Jesus Christ. He brought that up and talked about how we are both believers of Jesus Christ..it was a good bonding experience. We played Wii bowling again with our "gals," Betty and Ruth. They get a kick out of that.

Omar received the Aaronic priesthood yesterday at church. He was really excited. We had a lesson afterwards about his responsibilties as a priesthood holder and how he can help bless others. Omar is progressing nicely and has taken his baptismal commitment seriously. We had some really cool experiences this week while tracting. We knocked on Yolanda's door, she is from Atlanta and lives here with her kids. She has had rough times lately and had prayed to God for help and we showed up. She started crying because she was so thankful to for the answer to her prayer. That was so neat! She loved our message and is going to read the Book of Mormon. We gave her name to the Elders and they are going togo back and teach her. I know that Heavenly Father is leading and guiding us everyday. We were able to teach some powerful lessons this week and we had over a 100 contacts! We are working hard on finding new people to teach and contacting as many as possible. We are responsable for so many souls here in Sioux City and South Sioux. We feel that Latinos are the majority so we have lots to get done! As far as progressing investigators go, Emerita, Mario, Delmar, Angel and J.J are all doing well and reading the scriptures. We are having a tough time getting them to go to church...we can do our best to express the importance of it but its up to them to make the decision! We pray they will come.

Things are going well...we are riding our bikes next week! Thatll be fun. Pray for sunshine! haha

Love you all,

Hermana Murphy