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