dos mil diecisiete!!!!!

1-3-17

FAM BAM! 

Wow What a week.  Can you believe its already 2017????  I never thought this year would come.  2016 literally flew by.  I cant even remember what happened!! All wonderful fantastic Alabamian things.

I don't know why but this week was so funny!!  Everything about it was laughable.  In the sense that sometimes I would say to myself "Wow this is SUCH a mission experience/situation, I could either cry because its so sad or laugh because its so funny"  Not sure if that makes sense hahaha For example New Years Eve was raining ALL DAY. Thundering and Lightening and raining but who says rain has to put a damper on things???   We made the best of it and sang as we tracted all day because all our appointments cancelled.  But we actually had a great day.  One of our investigators, R***, an old black lady, dropped us :(  she handed us her Book of Mormon we gave her and said 

"I don’t want to study no more wich yall!"   When we asked why she told us about when we invited her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, she said "  But I don’t believe in Ask God I believe in MY God!!"  hahaha oh R***.....

Our Spanish investigator, O**** is doing AWESOME!  He is so solid.  Although he told us he would be at church and never showed :(  He is still reading the Book of Mormon daily and praying.  He accepted baptism for the 21st of January! He always has the best questions and when we invited him to attend the closest Spanish branch (1 1/2 hours away) he got SO excited and really wanted to go, he said in his broken English "thees es a vury sooprise to me!"   So we might do some digging and get O**** involved in the Spanish branch.  WOOHOO.

For New Years Eve.  The senior couple, Elder and Sister Jones invited us for dinner! Sine we had to be in early the other sisters came over to our apartment and we put together a 500 piece puzzle.  IT WAS SO FUN.  I love puzzles haha am I my Grandmother Warr's Granddaughter???  

Also our mission president encourages us to attend other churches on sundays specifically evening services to fellowship with other religions so we did on Sunday night.  We went to an evening service with Revival Worship Center.  It was so cool! And weird.  Its interesting to watch others worship in different ways.  They had, what seemed to be equivalent to a testimony meeting and asked if one of the visitors would share their testimony and the guy looked RIGHT at me for a while (we were the only visitors)  I smiled and stood up and shared my testimony.  It was really cool!!! I just said I was grateful to be there with fellow Christians to worship and bore my testimony of our Savior.  It was short and sweet.  Pretty sure I was beat red when I sat back down hahaha  

I have a strong and burning testimony of this gospel.  I know and believe that when we reach out to the Lord and endeavor to keep His commandments, we are rewarded beyond our greatest expectations, not necessarily with worldly goods but with peace, comfort, spiritual safety, and the reassuring knowledge of God's love  and concern.  

I find that peace and reassurance in the Book of Mormon.  My personal new years resolution is to be faithful in reading the Book of Mormon every day.  I WILL DO IT TOO.

Because for every step we are willing to take toward our Savior, I KNOW He will gladly meet us more than half-way and we will rejoice in His promise to us, " Be faithful and diligent in keeping the commandments of God, and I will encircle thee in the arms of my love"  -D&C 6:20

I LOVE YOU ALL! have a great week

hermana Molin-eh

Steadfast in Christ

P.S EVERYONE ATTENTION.  watch the Alabama National Championship game next Monday for me!!  National champs 2017!!!!!!! ROLL TIDE

kids LOVE our hair

Our Christmas mess!

MERRYCHRISTMASANDHAPPYNEWYEAR

12-26-16

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

It was seriously so good to see yall!!! The whole Moline clan in 5 different states but together through the beauties of technology.  I can't believe how time is passes so quickly.  It felt like nothing has changed.  Didn't skip a beat. I LOVE OUR FAMILY. 

So because since we just talked I’m going to make this short and sweet. 

This week was awesome. Here are the Highlights:

- We sang Christmas Carols at the Nursing home here in town and it was SO CUTE.  And kind of depressing :( I asked one of the patients there where she got her blanket, she held my hand so tight and told me it belonged to her husband who died many years and how it still hurts so bad still and started crying. So sad!!  I am  grateful for the blessings of the temple and that we can do other peoples temple work for them so they can be sealed with their families for eternity. 

Another lady there had a mother and brother who were LDS!  She said she took the missionary discussions once but stopped because she found out the missionaries went to the MTC to "learn"  the Gift of Tongues and it just wasn’t right and that they cant learn to speak in tongues! hahha she was so funny and adorable.  

- We met a man who told us that the Book of Mormon isnt true because we showed him the picture of Christ visiting the Americas and He said " No, no, no Jesus ain’t like you all."  (referring to the fact that he was white in the picture). hahha 

-THEN As most of you know we went caroling to some old LAs and met an older man who told us that he is a secret agent and swore us to secrecy, that he has many wives, that he brought over Sister Jones(senior couple missionary) who is "Chinese" over to America himself,  WHAT. HAHHA 

#THEPEOPLEYOUMEETINALABAMA 

I loooooove my mission so much and seeing even the small Emmaus Experiences reminds me of the constant help we see from our Heavenly Father in this, His work. What a wonderful opportunity I have to be able to serve and help my brothers and sisters here. 

So thanks fam for all the support and love and for just being there!!

I have a testimony of this work.  I know Christ lives.  He is our Savior and Brother and the Prince of Peace.  Through Him and His Atonement, the ultimate gift, we can be forgiven, and All things can be made right.  

I love the Light up the World campaign the church is doing for this past Christmas season BUT IT DOES NOT STOP THERE! Spreading the light of Christ, serving, and loving should not ever stop! I want to invite each of ya’ll this upcoming new year to pray EVERYDAY for an opportunity to serve. Put your heart and soul into it and it will change your life. I am a walking testimony of that truth! 

I LOVE ALABAMA AND YOU ALL

ALL MY LOVE,

Hermana Moline

SteadfastinChrist

sureloveyamolinesrockmissionariesrule

 SO MANY PEOPLE AT THE SPANISH CHRISTMAS PARTY

 Sister Benioni, me and Sister Anderson. I LOVE THESE MISSIONARIES!

 My favorite Recent Convert Family in the Lorna Branch!!

 one of the talents that some missionaries did at the talent show!

 TRUE

 what we do when people don't answer the door

ELIZ NAVIDAD, PROSPERO ANO, Y FELICIDAD

12-19-16

Its officially COLDDDDDDDDD in Alabama.  Cold and rainy and very wet. The craziest part was that one day out of the freezing coldness it was 73 degrees.  

CHRISTMAS is in 6 days!!! I cannot believe it.  This month has literally FLOWN by. 6 more days and I get to skype ma fam!!!!! I AM SO EXCITED!!!  

and ROOOLLLL TIIIIIIDE!!

YES. Alabama won the SEC championships. I think we'll have about 24387 baptisms because of it. hahah You have no idea how much these people love football. Everyone. and I mean everyone. Watches it. But, luckily for us..they won. Next up is the national championships. so roll tiiiide! 

This week had The Christmas Zone Conference and Party!   It started with a mini devotional about truth seeking given by President Sainsbury, next we had the Talent Show!  Todas las hermanas  sang Feliz Navidad and it was so cute!. There were so many great talents shared and it was lots of fun. Next we got to watch a movie (Zootopia)! And I couldn't tell if that was the greatest movie ever, or I have just been out so long that all movies are great haha. It was so cuuute!!  So fun! But what really topped the whole day off was getting to hear President and Sister Sainsbury read the Nativity Story and getting to sing the beautiful Christmas Hymns. There was such a special spirit about it all. I love Christmas time!

Then we had exchanges with the STLs in Lorna and I went with Sister Anderson, my daughter:)  It was SO FUN.  Just like old times.  We taught a few of their Spanish investigators and just laughed the entire day.  We had an emmaus experience and found a hispanic lady in a store whose daughter was just baptized in Utah a few weeks ago! This woman and her family all grew up in Utah around many mormons though she is a die hard catholic.  She invited us over to her home to make homemade tortillas!!!  We ended the exchange with going to their Spanish Branch Christmas party!! It was so fun to see alot of the members there that I have been able to get to know!  And I know I have said this a million times but Hispanics know how to have a party.  There was music so loud you couldnt hear your neighbor and a giant bounce house for the kids and so much food it could have feed the entire city of Hoover, AL....not only that but both the Altadena Spanish branch and Lorna Spanish branch came so there were SO MANY people it was wonderful.  

Yesterday we had church and it was kind of a bummer day that turned into an AWESOME DAY!  Remember how missions are emotional rollercoasters?  Well yesterday was its own emotional rollercoaster....haha all our appointments fell through and it was FREEZING outside and raining and dreary all day.  But we said a prayer, asking Heavenly Father to help us to meet who we were supposed to meet and have a successful and effective day.  We were able to have lessons with everyone we were planning to follow up with including our awesome Spanish investigator, O****.  He is SO ELECT. He has never once missed an appointment and always meets us at the church. He has read up to 1Nephi 9 but has a hard time understanding.  So we read with him and had a great lesson about prophets.  We LOVE O****, he is so funny and so prepared.  He has not been able to come to church yet because of work but really wants to.  So we are working on that.  But the miracle is that even though church is all in English he still wants to come and worship.  WE LOVE O****!!  

Thought I would include some funnies/Alabama classics! ENJOY

"When I was knee-high to a grasshopper....." (talking about when you were young)

"I didn't fall off a turnip truck yesterday!"  (I wasn't born yesterday) 

Everyone calls their Grandma, "Mimi", "Gigi", or "Nana"  

*Sister Danes at an ENGLISH speaking door approach* 

"I know this is the Plenitud of the gospel...."

(Plenitud is spanish for "fulness" hahahahaha #spanglishprobs)  

Instead of "giving someone a ride" you "carry them" in your car.

Instead of having your picture "taken" you have your picture "made"

Knocked into a Jehovah's Witness*

Us: Can we share a brief message with you, Sir?"

Him: ohhh you know, we just have some diffagreements...

*Danes whispers...does he mean DISagreements..? lol*

"I'm drunk, so maybe next time."  Me:"Ok, well we will be here on Tuesday, so if you can prepare yourself and not be drunk next time, that will be great. Bye." hahah 

Just a sneak peak of what we hear and experience on the daily.  I love the south with my whole heart.

Merry Christmas everyone! Have a wonderful week and be safe.

Steadfast in Christ

Sureloveyamolinesrockmissionariesrule!!!!

con amor,

Sister Mulan (what one of our investigators calls me) 

 Corn bread, fried pork, and turnip greens a real southern dish!!!

  Helped decorate a less active family's christmas tree!

 Sister Bedoni and me

 Some of our favorite members that live in Greensboro!

TEMPLE

 Flowers from one of our single Mexican investigators...haha maybe we gave off the wrong impression???

Weird random christmas tree reindeer thing

Sister Danes and I on a rainy day! all smiles :)

13 days till CHRISTMAS

12-12-16

WOW WOW WOW. I thought for a few days last week that I was living in Antarctica, but now I feel more like I am living in Arizona. Thats Alabama weather for you!!!! We were scared at the beginning of the week because   our heater seems to be broken but now its warm. Tender mercies! This week has been a blast!   We got so much done and were able to talk to SO MANY PEOPLE. We heart working hard <3

This last Tuesday we went to the Temple!! It was amazing. I have been looking forward to it all month.  It was my last time going to the Birmingham Temple which was bitter sweet.  I didn't realize that until I was in the celestial room and Sister Sainsbury asked me.  It made me really sad but so grateful for opportunity I have had to go to the temple so often on my mission.  I have been able to feel the peace and joy every time I have gone and it has been such a blessing. 

Remember that part member family I was telling yall about last week? They moved from Georgia and were so happy to see us when we met them.  There is an 18 year old, ******  and 15 year old *****  who are members but the rest of their family are not members.  We invited them to a laser tag youth activity the branch was having and their whole family came!! 7 kids....it like quadrupled the amount of kids there and they had a blast.  We met with them with some members and one of the younger girls, *****  who is 9 years old, was supposed to get baptized in Georgia with the other two girls but they moved to Alabama! She told us that she wants to be baptized and her mom is all for it!  We invited her and her mom to think about two baptismal dates!! We are super excited for them!!!

We had a really solid week this week and invited SO many people to church.  Less actives, investigators, people off the street.  We have been praying to get our investigators to the church building for either a church tour or to church to just feel the spirit that is there.

One of our really solid people we have been meeting with is O****!  He is hispanic and from Mexico City!  He is awesome.  He is really smart and interested in the Gospel.  He met us at the church Saturday night for a lesson and church tour and the spirit was so strong!  He basically went around to all the pictures in the building and told us what they were without us explaining it to him haha it was great.  He accepted baptism but wants to continue praying and learning more about the church before he gets baptized!  

Unfortunatley all those people that we invited this week to church did not come :( but hey thats agency!  We are here to INVITE others to come unto Christ and partake of this amazing gift of the Gospel.  

Sister Danes and I discovered that here in the South the phrase "they'll talk your ear off" is taken to a whole other level. They love taking life easy and talking slow. Most of the time they don't have teeth so it makes it a little harder to understand.  I LOVE THE SOUTH.

This week I found John 15:7 "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." 

How can we abide in the Savior this Christmas season? I hope you all have been on the Light The World because it is so neat!!!  

Thanks yall for everything and guess what...13 DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS HOLLA WOOOHOOOOO!!!  Seriously so excited to skype with yall!! Have a great week and be safe!

Steadfast in Christ and ROLL TIDE ROLL(dont know if you heard but Alabama is going to crush everyone and be 2017 national champs AGAIN) so roll tide

and LIGHT THE WORLD John 8:12

Your southern Alabamian,

Sister Moline