What/Who Is Better Than "Prince"?

Hey y'all!

Living in this college town has been very interesting. Practically every person you meet, likes to run. And not only that, but when they do go out to run on the hills cough waves of Georgia, it's like Marine training. All streets are pretty much straight death because just when you've finished one hill... there's another leg exercise up ahead in t-minus 20 seconds. But, the bright side, is because of this intense training EVERYONE IS FIT AS HECK. Never in my life, have I lived in a town where I see cross fit models every time I drive to the freakin institute. And ya know I'm going to see this as a blessing, it's inspired me to push myself a little more during exercise time. I mean you don't even have to go to Prince on YouTube to look for something motivational. Just move here. I promise, it works.

 On the other hand though, we did experience a special MIRACLE. 

Last Monday, lol not gonna lie was really tough for me. A lot of the work in the branch right now is reactivation. In order to bring someone new into the branch, we need some strong members. However, because there's a high number of people who aren't coming to church, our focus also needs to be on them. Trying to find a balance between those two, was proving to be difficult.

A couple weeks ago, however, my comp and I posted on FB, advertising for English class. We had around 180 comments, and ended up sending 50+ references. Out of those referrals, we found one person we could teach. When we first hopped on the call, I was expecting to have to break the ice. Sometimes it reminds me of when I was 16, going out on a first date. The first two minutes you go through all the basic questions: how many people are in your fam? What do you like to do? Now. If the answer to these questions is only one word. Simply put you're screwed. :)) But! If the person opens up to you, then well that's a different story. Janet chose option B.

She was amazing! We never ran out of things to talk about. She's from Mexico and just recently moved here two years ago with her family. She couldn't believe that the classes were free, and started to explain that back in Mexico she also knew of some service missionaries. When we asked her what church they were belonged to, she begun to say the church of jesus christ.. My comp and I looked at each other and were sooo stoked. We quickly explained that we too, were missionaries. Janet was pretty surprised, but still had something else to tell us. Two months ago, she had been in contact with Elders, but lost contact. When she saw our FB post, though, she got in contact again. Janet said that it was nothing but God's timing, and we were in her path for a reason. 

Since the 17th, we've taught her many times, and yesterday we were able to teach her a small part of the restoration. She was very interested, and accepted to learn more! :))

Another family that has proven to be amazing, is the Ledezmas. Nancy, was baptized one week before covid hit and hasn't had the opportunity to further her testimony. Her husband has also been inactive, but recently has chosen to get back to work. And their three kids, are all very cute! 

Last Wednesday, we came over to have a family home evening and it was soooo much fun. We talked about how the blessings of God were like rain, and sometimes we carry umbrellas when we don't need them. To demonstrate this, I got out my umbrella, and on each section I placed a sticky note with a blessing. The blessing of exercise, a compliment etc. Before someone took their turn, we spinned the umbrella ( kind of like spinning the bottle but ahh not really). For that hour or so that we played, I laughed so hard. It was so special to see that during a hard time, there are still ways to find peace. 

Guys. This email is long. But I just wanted to remind you guys that the only way of finding this peace, is accepting God's will. You can't change what's been determined before you were born. You might as well be stepping on legos, hoping that one day it doesn't hurt. But as soon as you ASK heavenly father for help, specifically to know YOUR plan. He will guide you.

Ok love you guys, I'll try to email next week. Also feel free to shoot me an email 

Love,

Hermana Pulver 

Who Is Georgia Related To?

Hey y'all!

Georgia is like Utah's sister. One minute it's a wonderful blue sky, and within the next 30 seconds it's like a full on monsoon or something. And man, I love it. Georgia is also like Nevada's second cousin, because it's Hot.As.Heck. our air conditioning is pretty much burnt out and so I spend 3, 10 minute breaks next to the cold air of the freezer. If you have any tips of surviving heat, please feel free to shoot me an email :))

Also. Good news. Our mission president has given us permission to visit others if they give us the "ok". This is huge. Right now we are in a branch, and so many have gone inactive. We have about 10 members that go regularly, but man I am so excited to see who we can reach out to. 

On Wednesday, we were able to visit Teresa Calderon. She is a mother of 9 kids and two sets of twins. Haha let's just say she has my respect. She was baptized a year ago, but then fell away and now has the desires to come back with her kids! Alexis, and Emily are the twins we are teaching, and they are soo cute. Its definitely different teaching young kids, and haha well you definitely have to be a thousand percent more creative but I loved every second. 

Ohh one more thing. On Saturday, we were able to visit a recent convert for service, and it was so humbling. Their house had burnt down 4 weeks ago, leaving behind only a black frame. When we got to there, 50 trash bags were just lined up on her back porch. Most of these bags were filled up with melted or burnt things. Luckily, the elders passed by and were able to help us. We weren't able to finish all of it, but I'm just hoping that next week we can go back and do some more service. :))

Well I hope you all have an amazing week. Thank you for all your support.

Love,

Hermana Pulver 

Are There Coincidences In Life? - This Email Is Worth The Read :))

Hey!

Welcome to my 100567th weekly email :)) this week felt like an eternity with a lot of ups as well as a lot of downs. 

When I said goodbye to hna Pitzak, Rogers, and Brooks I really was scared out of my freakin mind. I mean It's not that often that you go decide to live with 3 strangers within a 24 hour notice. Haha. But don't worry, Tuesday was a special day. It was my first REGULAR transfer to a new area IN the mission. I used to think I had transfer PTSD? But if you really think about it haha well it would make sense. My first transfer was to Peru then well instead of receiving transfer calls from the mish president we received them from the prophet telling us to go home :)) well of course the next transfer would be special and I was reassigned to a different mission. Now I made my first transfer to another area without leaving the country or mission. Guys. We're making progress.

Anyways Athens is gorgeous. It is more in the country part of Georgia, and I love it. It rains like it's no tomorrow, and it's nice and humid. :)) my companion is hermana Marriot! She's from Florida, and will finish her mission in October. From the last week, I learned that if she had to eat one thing for the rest of her life it would be bread. I didn't agree with her. But, maybe other people do? Ehhh let me know. Haha

So this week. Well it was definitely an adventure. I have been having a hard time adjusting to all the mission work changes and haha well frankly, just feeling overwhelmed. However, looking back I can now see that there were A TON of small moments where God was leading me.

Coming to Georgia was no coincidence. The morning I received my call, I was looking at my email and I found a letter from my Grandpa. He told me how cool it would be to serve in Georgia. And at the moment, I'm like yeah that's cool but what are the odds. Then that night I was called there. For those of you who don't know, both my grandpa and uncle served here. Well the story gets even crazier, as soon as I found out I was going to Georgia, I looked up the different places I could go. One of the first places that came up on google images was Oconne, Athens. On Wednesday we had to pass by the institute and we saw a clock tower. It was the same clock tower that I saw on google images.

A week before I left on the plane, my aunt called me. In this phone call she told me of a friend she had in Georgia that was ready to receive the missionaries. Well it turns out that she lives in MY area. On Saturday, we were able to call her and she told us that she would love to meet sometime soon.

I know that my Heavenly Father knows me. This mission, my mission, has been so hard, but has allowed me to see God's fingerprints in my life. I know that this is the restored church of Christ. And that Jesus Christ is my savior. :))

Thank you for all your emails,

Have an amazing week!

Love,

Hermana Pulver 

HELLLOOOO ATHENS

Happy August!

This last week was pretty busy. We had zone conference in person, but unfortunately because of the rise in Covid cases all of us were required to wear masks the entire time. Haha. Just another reminder that I am highly unqualified to be a doctor. :)) 

There was also transfer calls yesterday! I will be headed to Oconee, Athens. I'm pretty excited! The crazy thing is that before I got the call, I guessed the place. Guys. Let's just take a moment and appreciate my luck. First. I am directionally challenged and second, well I am very new to Georgia. So the slight chance of me guessing right was as close to 0.00001 % as you could get. Don't be fooled though. I still have bad luck haha.

I'll be leaving tomorrow, which is crazy because I still haven't touched my suitcases. And being completely honest, I probably won't until tonight. Haha if anyone has motivational speeches about packing - feel free to send them my way. 

Stone mountain will definitely hard to leave. The first 6 weeks here, I thought I was going to be receiving a plane ticket back to UT. However, I stayed. And I'm so glad I did. Even though adjusting to Georgia has not been the easiest. I have learned how to work closely with my Savior. When President Marsh was here, he introduced this principle of yellow pad prayer. The first day I arrived, I was given a yellow pad and a blue pen. And frankly, I was very confused. What did a piece of paper have to do with prayer? Two weeks into my first transfer, he encouraged us to use it in a way to present our ideas to the "creator of the Universe." The idea was to use our agency. Well guys, I didn't really do this until my second transfer. I wrote a letter to Heavenly Father every morning. Expressing everything. And I can't even begin to express how much it helped. Heavenly Father is aware of each one of us. When we are HONEST with him - he will then be able to help us carry our challenges.

I hope you guys all have a great week! Thanks for all the emails- it really makes my day :))

Love,

Hermana Pulver