I Hate Dieting

Hey Everyone! This week was so amazing! 

First of all, our man RICHARD got BAPTIZED!!!! And we got to GO in PERSON! I never thought that I would be able to do that serving at Temple Square and I am so grateful that we were able to be part of his journey. It was so cute too because he just grabbed his heart after he came out of the water and when we talked to him after, he said that he had never felt so happy. I love the change we have seen in him. At first, it just seemed like he wanted to get baptized because of his girlfriend but you can really tell that this is something that he wants and that he knows is important for him alone, feelings for his girlfriend aside. 

We are also teaching this really sweet Spanish man named Rodrigo! On Sunday he came to church with us (in English) and even though he didn't understand a single word, he was smiling so big! Plus, we went to music and the spoken word with him after church and he said he wants to make going a tradition because he loved it so much! So cute! 

Also, I don't know if any of you know but my companion is on a diet... so that means I am on a diet so I can help her achieve her goals and it is the worst. I didn't realize how much I love ice cream until I stopped eating it. But Sister Costilla and I made a competition out of it, which motivates me a little bit more. Whoever stays off of sugar the longest wins and if you lose, you have to buy the other one dinner. Sister Costilla has no idea what she just got herself into because I am not going to lose. Pray for me and my ice cream withdrawals though lol. 

Today is my 6-month mark! It is so crazy how time has just flown by while I've been out here on the mission. I love being a missionary and I love serving on Temple Square. I love seeing people change their lives and I love seeing the joy that people have when they learn more about their Savior. 

Sister Moran 

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This week was good! First of all, we had the baptism of Richard and I was so excited I could barely sit still. He is so prepared and his testimony at the end was the sweetest thing I have ever heard like wow you little cute thing aw. And when he came up out of the water he just turned around and faced everybody and he just grabbed his heart. Afterwards, we went up and talked to him and he said that he just felt so happy when he came up and he was just so happy. The whole program I could not stop smiling. I thought that maybe I would cry or something but really I was just overjoyed the entire time that we were there. Plus we made a stunning cake and it was a hit, that is just a side note though. He got the holy ghost on Sunday which means he is a fully fledged member of the church! The sisters serving in his ward said that he would get the Aaronic priesthood next Sunday and then he could do baptisms after that and they would probs do them in the salt lake temple and then we could go! That would be so amazing! 

We are teachig another guy we met on square, his name is Rodrigo (I told you about him last week I think). He finally met with the locals ad he is on date for the 13 of July! He changed his work schedule starting next week to be able to go to church but he wouldn't be able to make it to his spanish ward this week so he came to our Sacrament meeting! Even though he barely speaks english, he was so cute just smiling during the songs and listening to the talks. We went to music and the spoken word after with him and he said that he wanted to make it a tradition! He asked if we could go next week and we said no that we could only go once every six weeks but he was so cute. We are so excited for him. We told him about baptisms for the dead and he is so excited to go and do baptisms for his family members! We are hoping to have another lesson with him on square where we teach him the plan of salvation and then go to the family history library with him and help him set up an account and start him looking for his ancestor's names:) 

The diet is going well, in case you were wondering. Idk if we've lost any weight because we didn't start off by weighing ourselves. We did have a funny situation this morning though. Sister Costilla was putting on this dress but last time she tried it on it barely zipped and it is spaghetti straps so it needs a shirt under it and last time she tried it on she didn't wear a shirt under. Anyways, she was putting it on this morning and asked for my help to zip it so of course, I helped but it wasn't moving, I told her that but she was like oh it's just stuck on something... it wasn't though and I felt really sad because she is so self-conscious about her weight already even though she is tiny so I just kept going. Eventually, we got the zipper up but then because it just really didn't fit, the zipper didn't stay together, it broke apart and then we couldn't get the pully part down again. I have no idea if this is making sense but oh well. So we tried and tried and nothing was working and eventually, I untied the spaghetti straps so she could bring the zipper to the front of her body and see it but it still wouldn't come down. She even got oil to try and grease it up but nothing was working. I said okay let's say a prayer and she was like sister I already did but I said we should try again, so, we kneeled down on the ground and I said a prayer asking for help with the zipper and then after trying again and nothing happening, we took a new approach and it worked! The could just barely slide out of the dress and it is most definitely ruined now but hey our prayer was answered! Sister Costilla afterwards was like "wow I was so determined for the dress to come off one way that I wouldn't let myself think of another way but you listened to the spirit and even though the dress is ruined, it is off which is what we needed". I just kept thinking about how much God is aware of us. Like He was aware of little old Sister Costilla and how this was not fun for her (the weight so she doesn't fit the dress and the dress being stuck and us having to leave) and He helped us. A zipper not working doesn't seem like something that God should care about but He does and I just felt so amazed after that that He would answer our prayer and help us with our little problem in our time of need. 

This week we had exchanges with our district leaders. We have two now. Sister Barcellos (from last transfer) and Sister Thant from Myanmar who goes home at the end of this transfer. I was with Sister Thant and I just couldn't find anything in common with her. It was so awkward. And maybe I could be trying harder but she is about to go home and leave and I probs won't see her again so I just did what I usually do and I was nice but I didn't try too hard. I really need to stop doing that. So, I've decided that regardless of how much time people have on the mission, I am going to try harder to build connections with them because that is what Jesus would do. Wish me luck because I have 19 years of bad habits to break lol. 

This morning, we went to Kneaders with my MTC district and their current companions and it was so so fun. Like for reals, it was a party. I love those sisters so much. I also love Kneaders french toast but that is a side note. Everyone else from our class that came in with us are going to get pizza tonight but literally, no one invited us (my MTC district) and when someone asked if I was going I was just like, what? Because no one had told me. So I'm not going to go! I don't know any of them too well anyways so it's fine. Maybe this is just me not achieving my goal of talking more and being more friendly but oh well. It's fine. Besides, I had my yummy breakfast with my really good friends and it was just so nice to get to talk and hang out. I hope we do that more in the future. 

I can't really think of anything else to share with you, I said most of it when we were on the phone. I will be praying that you can get a flight to America! More than just wanting to see you, it would be fun for everyone I think. Man, I always get homesick at the end of my emails to you guys. It must be because I love you! And I miss you! And I hope you have a great week! 

Love 

Em 

Vegan Ice Cream

Hey Everyone! 

This past week we had transfers so it meant that life was crazy crazy crazy on the square. Nobody had a working phone and nobody was anywhere there were supposed to be and half of the people were missing and nobody knew where their companion was. It is a miracle the square doesn't catch on fire every six weeks for transfers. 

We were supposed to have Richard's baptism this past Sunday but then he wanted to move it back a month because he didn't feel prepared (boo) but then he changed his mind and we were back on for Sunday (yayyyy)!! But he said that on Saturday so there actually wasn't enough time to plan a baptism so it will be next week. We are 92% sure at this point that it will happen this Sunday. It better happen because Sister Costilla and I are going to back a sick cake for him, maybe that will motivate him to go through with it. But for reals, he is so prepared and it has been such a blessing to see his life change as he has come closer to Jesus Christ. 

Today for pday, Sister Costilla and I decided that we wanted to go on a walk and find some ice cream! The walking part went great but the ice cream part was a struggle because apparently, Salt Lake City has no ice cream. We walked for like 30 minutes and got to this low-key sketchy hipster part of town so I asked these three dudes with pretty long hair where we could get some ice cream. We went to the place they suggested about 5 minutes away and we discovered to our horror that it was vegan. But hey might as well try it so we had vegan ice cream and it wasn't that bad! Don't get me wrong, I still like regular ice cream better but it was fun to try. 

Have an amazing week and miss you all! 

Sister Moran 

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Mom and Dad,

Okay, so this week was crazy with transfers. Somehow we managed to get moved into our apartment. It is the smallest apartment in the mission by the way and we got the smaller of the two bedrooms in the apartment so we are kinda cramped in there. I realize that I have too much stuff but I don't know what to do with it because I will use it once I run out of other stuff. So I have like most of it in suitcases and then I am just dealing with not having much out and about. It makes it easy to keep clean. My desk area tends to get a little crazy so having a lot of stuff in the suitcases makes it cleaner. Plus, our room is so tiny that if I were to leave stuff out we wouldn't have room to walk so that motivates me to be cleaner. Sister Costilla at this point is messier than me and we are both pretty clean, that is how tiny this room is! But I like our new roommates. It is Sister Freitas (Brazil) and Sister Leavitt (Nevada). They are really nice and even though I sometimes can't cook because the whole stove is taken up by everyone else in the tiniest kitchen ever, it is okay! 

As you know, Richard didn't get baptized this Sunday like he was supposed to but whatever, he is going to get baptized next Sunday, or at least he is supposed to. Sister Costilla and I bought a cake mix and frosting today and we will be making him a cake! Apparently after his baptism is supposed to be a party.... but the only reason they wouldn't let him get dunked yesterday was because he hadn't been fellowshipped, but now the ward is going to be having a party. I don't know it just seems fake to me and dumb. Whatever, what matters is that he will make this important promise with God and we can still go to it, it will just be a week later. 

We're kinda back to square one with the Spanish sometimes. We had a tour today with this guy that we are legit teaching that we met on square and it was okay at the beginning with translation and everything but then as the tour progressed, Spanish got less translated and then I wasn't talking as much or contributing and then when we went and shared the First Vision and everything I didn't talk for about 10 minutes and Sister Costilla had a conversation with our investigator and learned all these things and had this deep spiritual conversation and I just stood there trying to understand what was going on and praying for the gift of tongues that wasn't coming. Good times. I talked to her about it after and she immediately got defensive and was like "you need to do that with German too and translate more" and I was like "Sister Costilla you speak German and can understand what they are saying for the most part" (she studied it for eight years). Anyways, I then told her that God put us together for a reason and that means that these German people that we talk to need her just as much as they need me and the same goes for Spanish. She has German peoples lives to touch and I have Spanish peoples lives to touch. She said she never thought about it that way but agreed and we both said that we would do better. This has been a common theme with our companionship so hopefully it actually does get better because it gets me salty and gets her salty and defensive if I tell her how I feel and then we are both on edge and that is never fun. Anyways, we will do better and hopefully next time I will be able to share my testimony, know what the person that we are teaching  (I understand on Spanish tours if I can't talk as much but this is someone that we are actually teaching, his name is Rodrigo by the way) is saying and what is going on. I don't just want to share the history, I want to invite people closer to Christ even with a Spanish companion and to spanish people. I Don't know if any of that made sense but these are our people, German and Spanish and so we both need to be better about translating or one of us is always going to feel bad. 

With transfers this week life has been crazy. We have been pretty busy and that has been good. We gave the best tour of our time together this past week and it was awesome! We weren't even supposed to take it but nobody was there so we just stepped in and there were 40 people there and it was cool to talk to them all. One lady was lowkey anti and it felt like she was a scribe or a Pharisee in the Bible and tried to confound us but everything she said we agreed with and she just seemed confused. I think that she thinks we don't worship the same Jesus Christ but that is a joke because we do so whatever. Everyone else was nice though and at the end these two couples were like "oh you two were so great" and then she said to sister Costilla "your English is so good!" and that just made her day because she still sometimes gets down on herself so I'm glad that someone other than me made her feel good about her language. 

We were covering the Assembly Hall for somebody this week for like 10 minutes before they came and these two older couples came in and we were telling them about the building and then they were asking why we're here so we explained missionaries and then the one was like "how would you convert me". And I had honestly had bad vibes from him the whole time because he had this smile and like was looking at us like "oh these poor girls don't know what they are talking about" so I said well we wouldn't convert you, the Holy Spirit would. Then we explained the Book of Mormon and how if he read it and prayed about it then he would be able to know that it was true. He and his wife didn't take a copy but the friends did and I told them to let the missionaries in the next time that they stopped on the doorstep. They had mentioned earlier that they never did but I was like at least let them in and have a convo, poor guys get rejected so much. They said they would so hopefully some missionaries knock soon and they remember what they said they would do and then some lives get changed... and preferably they knock on the door of the people who accepted the Book of Mormon. 

This transfer is only 5 weeks long and it seems like really crazy short to me even though it is literally like one week shorter. I don't know if Sister Costilla and I will be together another transfer or not. I think it would be fine but at the same time, that would be a long time to be with someone, even if you are really good friends and get along with them. Maybe next I'll get a Mandarin-speaking companion and will just take like five tours a day. That would be really cool. 

All of my friends moved out of the apartment building that I live in and moved to the other one which bums me out. Now I need to make new friends but I don't want to because I like my other friends. Good news is that sister Broadbent is just right down the hall so we can visit her whenever and it is chill. 

I think that is all that I have for you. I love being a missionary though! In Sacrament meeting, the departing sisters always speak and this Sunday this one sister from Scotland was immediately in tears because she doesn't want to leave and then I started crying because this time next year I will be her and I will be crying not wanting to leave. 18 months really is not that long when you think about it and I have already been out a third of it. It seems like I'll never go home but I know when the time comes it will have come too fast. Any ideas of how I could be more focused on the mission life??

Love you both so much and it was nice to talk to you twice this week! I miss you! Have a fantastic beautiful and fun summer week:) 

Love 

Em 

#compunity

Emily's emails this week felt so HAPPY! We love that she's finding such joy in her missionary service. 

Hey everyone! It has been a while but these past two weeks have been too crazy to email. 

Last week, we had our mission activity and we went to Morgan and played games and learned about the Book of Mormon how to teach with it and we ate and we danced (I was easily the most uncoordinated so I made the people around me look REAL good, you're welcome) and we just had a good time. It was a nice way to just unwind and relax and have fun. 

After the activity, we got back to WORK and we have been teaching like crazy. I'm so happy to start seeing some fruits of our labors, especially with my man Richard. We met him the south visitors center and we have been able to teach him on square sometimes by ourselves and sometimes with his elders and he is getting baptized THIS SUNDAY!!! he is so ready and I'm so excited for him to take this step and get closer to God by making promises with him:) 

Speaking of steps, there was this one day this past week where I had been tripping over myself and my feet like all day and Sister Costilla thought it was the funniest thing ever... and then she started to trip over everything too. We are so unified we even are clumsy on the same day. 

I love Sister Costilla and I'm so happy that we will be together next transfer to finish up her training! 

My pday next transfer will be on Monday and I'd love to hear from you! Love you all! 

Sister Moran 

P.S. We might have gotten to the Square early and taken some pictures with the exhibits...  just maybe

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Okay, this week was crazy! 

First of all, we had the mission activity last week which was so fun! We went to Morgan which is where President lives and we heard from one of the guys who put together the Joseph Smith Papers and we did cultural dances and we went to this park and played soccer and volleyball and ate and went on a horse ride and it was so fun! It was so fun to just get out in the sun and just run and play and cheer and have fun... and also wearing regular pants was really nice Haha. Plus we got to go to President and Sister Fisher's house after and we jumped on the trampoline and we ran around there and it was a fun way to end the day. 

This week we had our final two lessons with Richard and he is all squared away to get baptized this Sunday! I never thought I would be able to go to a baptism in person and I just feel so lucky and so blessed to have been able to teach him on the Square and actually go to his baptism. SO COOL! Plus, we went over the interview questions with him and his answers were so so good. Sometimes I think that he just wants to get baptized for his girlfriend but you can tell that he really understands and wants to come closer to God and I am just so excited for him! 

This week we had a scare thinking that we would get split because of the whole both of us moving and I was not excited about that. I felt like a failure and I even cried to Sister Broadbent about it but thank goodness we are still going to be together. This next transfer is only 5 weeks so it's going to fly by. Also, the whole losing 5 pounds thing is not for me but it's for Sister Costilla. Somehow by some miracle, I haven't gained weight. Sister Costilla, on the other hand, has gained 15 pounds. She says at least 4 times a day that she is fat and I hate to hear that because she isn't and I weigh more than her so that must mean that I'm massive lol. Anyways, so even though she doesn't need to lose weight we are gonna diet. It will be good for me to be healthier and it will be good for me too because maybe she'll stop saying that she is fat because sometimes I get feeling down about that. I'm grateful that I haven't had a problem with weight yet... I think Heavenly Father knows that acne is enough for me and if I had more I'd die lol. Especially here on Temple Square where everyone is a GODDESS and it is so easy to compare. Oh well. 

We have been teaching like crazy this week! I love to teach at the temple model because it is so easy to teach the Restoration and invite and everything. It's cool that we have these resources and people want to know more and they ask questions. What is rough is when you start to invite them and you felt the spirit hard and then they just say, well we want to get some food. That literally happened to me with these three friends and the two were feeling it big time and then the one was like "well I'm hungry you guys want to go eat" in response to my read the Book of Mormon and pray invitation. Good times. Plus, like I said on the phone, I explained the temple model in German which was SCARY but I know for sure that Heavenly Father was helping me with that one because there is no way I did it by myself. 

Currently, we are in the midst of moving and I realize that I have so much stuff that I don't need.  I'm glad that I have most of it but some of it is not necessary so this has been a good opportunity to get rid of stuff. But, I would love a pair of basketball shorts for the hot summer months. If there is room in the care package for a pair it would be appreciated. 

We went on a hike for pday and it was really fun! It is called the living room because when you get to the top, all of the rocks are in the shape of couches. It was fun to get out again and hike.... even if my lungs were about to give out. Wow, the altitude is bad. Like I thought I was gonna die. Sister Costilla was worse, she forgot water but no worries I shared with her. That is what we call comp unity. Speaking of, we are both synced up on our periods and one day I tripped like three times and she was laughing but then she tripped too like twice so basically we are comp unity to the max. 

We got to go to the temple this week for our service project and clean. IT WAS SO SO COOL!!!! They took us up to the assembly room on the top floor and they asked if someone would say the opening prayer and you KNOW I did because that was a once in a lifetime opportunity. It was so cool because I had seen it so many times on the screen but to be there in real life was like beyond what I imagined. So cool. My group ended up cleaning the initiatory rooms and we got to go to the bridal room and it was SO PRETTY. Like wow, its sooo cool how they make you feel pretty and special for your day. I think it's safe to say that we all felt kinda trinkt (I have no idea what she means here??) after that. We saw the groom's room too... it's literally some wooden lockers and a single mirror. The bride room though is like gold and flowers and mirrors and fancy so ha. Take that guys. But I was actually kind of sad because it's their special day too so I hope that when they renovate the temple, they make a more special room for the grooms. But anyways that was such a fun service project.

It is FINALLY gotten to the point where it is warm and I think it's going to stay that way for a while. These past few weeks would go back and forth between warm and not so I'm glad that we are hopefully finally at a point where it is warm. And no worries, I wear sunscreen! 

Next week my pday will be on Monday. For some reason even though I'm in the same zone and district they are just gonna change our pday so next Monday be ready for my call! 

Love you and miss you both so much! Let me know what goes on for visiting! I would love to see you so much. Also, dad, if you can, you can come to visit on a Saturday and then come back on Sunday and we can go to church and music and the spoken word together. So see if you can make it happen...you too mom but I think dad might have more logistics to work out with it Haha. Love you both and have a great week with lots of fun things and stuff!!!! 

Love 

Em 

Miracles

Emily said she didn't have time to write a group email this week because of a mission activity but she definitely plans to send one next week!

I'm glad that the contention eased up in the house, haha and I am so jealous of all of the fun you guys are having. But, we have our mission activity today so that should be fun so take that family. 

This week was good! We still have seven people on date but still a bunch of them are ghosting us. We are going to try and call them from my phone number instead of Sister Costilla's and maybe then they will answer us haha. We shall see. A crazy huge miracle that happened this week is that this German guy came into the South Visitor's Center yesterday (I usually don't wear the German flag but it matched my outfit yesterday) saw my flag and asked if I spoke German. I replied with yeah a little bit. He then proceeded to tell me that he wanted to get baptized and he asked me if I could call the Elders and send them to his hotel so he could get baptized. Dude, I was about ready to take him out to the reflecting pool and dunk him myself (just kidding but you can see how excited I was). After a call to a senior Elder, I discovered that he needed to talk to his local Bishop in Germany. I told him that and he said no problem and that he would do that. We talked some more, I translated some of his English copy of Preach my Gospel for him, and then we set a return appointment for Wednesday. He is going to come to the North Visitor's Center at 11 and we will talk more! I am so stoked. Also, he only has 60 dollars left and wanted to know where he could get cheap food and I was like oh City Creek and I also told him I would bring him some food on Wednesday because that 60 dollars needs to last until Friday. I am hoping that maybe we can get him baptized here before he leaves and then confirmed on Sunday in Germany. Kind of a long shot but we will see. Kind of a crazy experience but definitely a miracle and I knew there was a reason I wore the dress Monday and not Sunday like I originally planned. 

Also, I told Dad this but I will give you a condensed version. This week we went on exchanges with Sister Barcellos (District Leader) and Sister Clark. When I was with Sister Clark I could tell she was having a really hard time with Sister Barcellos and she is just waiting for transfers and praying that they get split up. She kept trying to gossip so I kept changing the subject because I can't do that! Not here! 

On my exchange with Sister Barcellos, all things were going well until the end when we "evaluated" but really she just destroyed me. Like so bad. For a straight 30-45 minutes, she just completely demolished me and everything I do. She said that I was too obedient and moving too fast and working too hard and I am going to get tired and I will get to the end of my mission and realize I wasted my time and then I would regret everything. I was like WHAT?! When she said that I was wasting my mission that is when I lost it. I took the other stuff like a real man but then I started crying like a baby because my District Leader thinks that I am wasting my mission. I talked to dad about it and he said to keep being obedient and keep working hard and the things I need to improve on are between me and the Lord, especially when my District Leader implies that I need to slow down or whatever. She also told me not to be such a perfectionist and to not be so hard on myself and then two minutes later she told me to be more humble. I was confused. She then said that I was loving and then two minutes later said that I needed to be more loving with those around me. 

Basically after that, I was just confused and didn't know what I was exactly doing wrong and how to fix it because she just gave me like 12 things to work on but I wasn't exactly sure what they were and she gave me no suggestions on how to fix it. Needless to say, ya girl was struggling. So, I prayed and cried and prayed some more but I just felt all anxious and not good enough and like everything I had been doing these past five months was wrong and that I had actually wasted my time being here (I didn't feel that way until after this talk btw). But then the next day, Sister Costilla and I decided that we would still be obedient but we would do it because we love God and Jesus Christ and not for the blessings. It is going to be good. Maybe the next transfer will be better and she won't have so much for me to fix...I don't know. 

Our people are progressing mostly well. We are teaching this old black lady from Louisiana and she is the funniest person I have ever met. Every time we call her I just die because WOW she has had quite a life. But in all seriousness, she can't read, so, she listens to the Book of Mormon and she says that she just loves it so so much. She says that she has more energy, is happier, and more positive, and she even lost her feelings for her ex-husband and is now crushing on this guy named Cowboy! Like that is legit his name. I love seeing how the Book of Mormon is changing her life. She went to church on Sunday and the Elders sent us a picture of all three of them and it was just the cutest thing ever:) 

I don't think there is anything else. We only have one week left in the transfer and usually trainers stay with their trainees for two transfers so hopefully that is the case this time around because I love Sister Costilla! sometimes it is hard with teaching in Spanish and everything but in general we have found a balance and I would love to keep teaching in Spanish, even though it is hard, because it is teaching me a lot. 

LOVE AND MISS YOU BOTH SO MUCH AND HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!! I'll call you for real next week mom. 

Love, 

Em