THE BERG #4

how's it goin?! another great week in the berg!

*interviews with president hall...LOVE THIS MAN!!! straight up best friend. legit. he is super easy to talk to and super knowledgeable of the gospel! answered all my questions and let me pray in spanish!! he served in chile and has kept up with his spanish so it's super fun chatting with him in that language i miss speaking all the time!!! i recieved BIG TIME confirmation that he in EXACTLY who i need as a mission president at this time!!! i think he will make sure i enJOY the rest of my mission and push myself like crazy to finish strong!!!! 100% sustain this man!!

*got a call from a member from dallas about his sister-in-law needing help moving because of a recent divorce....he notified us that she is not a member but would LOVE the help.....so we said of course!!! this lady is an absolute ANGEL!!

whoops! sent too soon!!! 

but anyway, she is literally like a disney princess and helping her has been an absolute BLAST!! we really feel a lot of potential from her...especially since she is basically a member already...wish us luck!!

*sunday morning we were running around like crazy before church with a member..knocking doors and trying to get people to church..and NO ONE was answering. we had gone the night before and made sure everyone was expecting us in the morning, got rides and everything all lined up..but door after door remained closed as we increased the callouses on our knuckles....ill admit i was a little bummed when we got to church and were sitting in class "empty handed"..i just prayed that Heavenly Father would make our efforts sufficient and apply grace where we fell short...shortly after praying a sweet member in our ward walked up to us with a HUGE smile on her face! she explained that her neighbors had come up to them the night before and asked about the church and they invited them to come! sure enough when sacrament came around a family of five walked on in!!!! AMAZING!! and if that wasnt enough....after the service ended i get a tap on my shoulder "sista hull?! is that you??" STACY WALKED TO CHURCH AND WAS THERE FOR ALL OF SACRAMENT MEETING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was such a tender mercy!!!! the lord hears and answers our prayers...and that's a PROMISE!!

more stuff happened..but pictures speak louder than words ya? LOVE YALL!

HERMANA HULL

ps thanks for all the birthday wishes!!! and the year mark congrats!! cannot believe how fast time flies...

my current zone is ginormous...so not what im used to...but i love them all!! its fun having spanish, english, AND chinese missionaries all in one!!

our cute member lydia went out teaching with us and then let us love her horses!!!! IT WAS THE BEST!!! dakota and montana STOLE my heart <3

same zone AGAIN as elder alexander! third times the charm? haha 

ove teaching these little boys!!! they are THE CUTEST!!!!!!!!!!!!! make me think of the lost boys in peter pan....<3

met obispo ramos's mom!!!! hna regalada es hermosa :) la quiero ya!!

THE BERG #3

HEY YALL! just another BUSY week in TEXAS!!!

fo real. these weeks are JAMPACKED with exciting stuff....sooo much to say, sooo little time so here are some highlights!!

*MET PRESIDENT HALL AND FAMILY!!! holy heavens i LOVE them!!! we are cut from the same cloth which is cool...high energy, lots of enthusiasm and have that "lets get out there and DO IT" mentality. we will get along just fine ;) when i met Sister Hall she was like "You're Emily, right?!" and i just about fainted...no lie it took me a sec to register and then struggle out the response "uhh..yeah..thats me!" turns out President Hall and his wife turned into excellent facebook stalkers before coming here to try and get to know us hahaha i love them!!

*went to church with blake!! the first hour was like a concert..everyone on their feet clapping and singing as loud as all get out!!! the drums and guitar were on point, but the Spirit was a mile away hahaha...when the pastor started it was super crazy because he would say like two words and the whole audience would yell out "PRAISE JESUS!" or "HALLELUUUUUJAH" or "THAT RIGHT! COME ON PASTOR!!" no joke!! people also got like super pumped and would start jumping up and down and "speaking in tongues" and stuff.....when we first walked in blake turned to me and said it would be an experience i would never forget...and let me tell you..the man's not a liar!!! it was interesting to see the similarities...they really are soooo close! they use the King James version of the Bible and everything....but i know the Book of Mormon is the word of God and cant be complete without it! i just pray that hearts will be softened and that blake and others will recognize truth when we teach them!!

*fourth of july!! only time i will ever say i was pretty bummed that we have a missionary curfew...we tried waiting out for some fireworks with some members but....by the time it got dark enough we had to head home! our drive home was a party and a half though!! things getting blown up all over the place!!! we did get some quality bbq and had our fair share of red/white/and blue though!! #MURICA!!!!

welll time to shoot yall some pics! hope you have a great week and enjoy yalls religious freedom!!!! IT'S THE BEST!

PAZ Y BENDICIONES 

hermana hull 

lunch with the ladies after meeting president hall!! a cute little man walked up to us and said.."are you four together? i will be paying for your meal." turns out he is a member from the galveston area!! THE SWEETEST!

exchanges in sienna plantation with this little cutie!! i love sister boehme<3

fourth of july with sister cooley out in needville to kick off the day!! black cherry pie and all!! 

RED WHITE AND SCHUUUUU!!!! i love my little comp!!! she is a crack up!!! 

THE BERG #2

the new district!

HAPPY WEEK OF RED WHITE AND BLUE!!!!!!!!!! im really pumped to see how texas celebrates this holiday. i mean they say everything is bigger in texas right?...i know i shouldnt get my hopes up but...too late!!

anyway..this week was JAM-PACKED with good stuff!!! ill try and hit as many of the highlights as possible ;)

*i went on exchanges to a spanish area <3 and we biked <3 but we got SEVERELY sunburned!!! like i couldve fried an egg on my arm probably....but i didnt even notice it was happening because i was just soooo pumped to be back on a bike!!! and we even got authentic mexican food!! so basically it was worth the skin cancer. sorry mom. ill use sunscreen next time probably!! 

*got a mini-missionary!! the neighboring stake did this awesome thing where they invited the youth to serve a mini mission! aka thurs-sunday night! so we roadtripped it up there to get our little sister kent for the weekend!! it was cool because she was set apart as a full-time missionary and everything..what?! we decided to take advantage of the third player and go on splits (sister schu with esmeralda and me with the mini) to cover more ground in the area!! sister kent (the mini) and i decided to go try some formers at this one complex...we prayed beforehand to have a miracle and find people to teach...we got three new people within the hour!! prayer works!! we were talking to this one lady (turns out she has been to our  church before and has a book of mormon..what?! awesome.) when all of a sudden this teenaged  boy comes walking over and goes "DANG PRETTY LADY HOW YOU DOIN?!?!?! WHATCHU DOIN ROUNG HERR?" haha to which i responded something along the lines of "im a missionary from the church of...and we would love to teach you more about Jesus!" he said of course we could stop by whenever and asked for our number etc etc etc....the next day...

*we knock on Dion's door and he is like "shoot! i didnt think yall was really gunna come you know what im sayin? but alright we cool..come on in beautiful! thats just fine!" haha so we did. and we started teaching him....next thing we know he's all "wait a minute bae im finna call my boy ova her cuz he cool people. you know what im sayin?" so he ended up calling two other guys over....turns out they are extremely active in their church and came to bible bash.....but like we dont do that..so we just kinda took it. then testified, prayed, and invited them to church. AND ONE OF THEM SHOWED UP WITH A DIFFERENT FRIEND!! it was awesome! he said he felt good :) we will see what happens...Dion called us this morning saying him and the guy that came to church want to take us out this saturday night so we'll have to evaluate "real intent" pretty soon if you know what i mean ;) 

*we also had our farewell conference with president and sister ashton :( i CANNOT believe they are leaving!!!!! they just dumped pure knowledge and wisdom on us for like three or more hours. they gave some pretty solid advice!! not just for the mission..but for life in general!! they are an AMAZING couple and will be missed BIG TIME!! ive learned SOOO MUCH from them and am just honored to have served with them :) 

*this sunday i was asked to give a talk in the spanish branch...when i asked what my topic was they just told me to pray about it and share what i think the branch needs....uh...funny thing about that is i dont even know a single member of the branch...BUT what was cool about that is...i did pray about it..and somethings did come to mind..and i gave the talk and afterward multiple people, including a brother from the stake who was there, thanked me for my talk and said it was EXACTLY what the branch needed!!! and again i say: PRAYER WORKS!!

well i promised a ton more happened this week but my poor brain cant keep up with all the new stuff that happens on the daily!! this work is awesome! 

i hope yall have the happiest 4th!!

LOVE YALL MUCHO! 

hermana hull

my and sister schu<3 

on exchanges...tried to feed the cows :/

exchanges with sister christensen!!!

SOOOOOO FRIED!

matchy matchy at farewell conference!

sister vanoverbeek! 

bye president ashton

teaching the mini-missionary the ways...

sister kent! the mini <3

and this is josh whittingham! served in the sacramento california mission what?! knows the porters!! 

THE BERG

hey ya'll! how's it going? 

not gonna lie saying goodbye to H1 was probably the hardest thing ive ever done....but they made sure to help me go out with a BANG!!!!! i got my face smashed BIG TIME!!! and then it turned into a full-fledged frosting fight!!!! i love those people. h1 has robbed my heart and will have it FOREVER! 

so tranfers.........

ROSENBERG ENGLISH SPEAKING. what the plot twist?!?!?!?! apparently they arent sending the mission enough english speaking sisters...so i guess i speak that language to...so here i am in rosenberg!! the area is HUGE and super diverse!! we live in like a complexy area..like mostly apartment complexes....but we teach in houses, mansions, AND we cover like 9 or so city/towns.....WHAT?!?! we drove on like dirt roads to get to my first dinner appointment with COWS AND STUFF!!!!! i feel like im finally getting a taste of T E X A S ya feel? like people really do wear cowboy hats and boots and really do say "im fixin to go down the corner store.." and stuff like that...WHERE AM I?! but i honestly love it. there is a TON of work to do and its just me and my comp in a ward the size of AFRICA...LETS GOOOOO! speaking of my comp...her name is sister schumacher (shoe-mocker) and she is from Scappoose, Oregon!! most diverse companionship!! neither of us are from Utah!! #westcoastbestcoast she is HILARIOUS and i love her already! she is very patient with my awkward transitioning from english to spanish....like prayers that go like "and please bless that their searts will be hoftened...." shoot. i got this. english is my first language, right? PRAYERS ARE MORE THAN WELCOMED! 

im coming up to a blank because i feel like there is sooo much new i dont know what to fill yall in on!! ill answer moms questions...

WHAT is your new address?

1134 radio lane #216

I'm dying with anticipation wondering about where you are serving now?!!(City, suburbs, country, coast?) What's it like? well...we are a little bit of everything! other than coast...city/suburbs/country/trailer parks/ranches/etc

 do you like your new comp, ward, district, etc..?? love my comp, ward is HUGE but i like everyone ive met so far...and i will meet my district tomorrow!! 

 Do you live in an apartment building?

 Just with your companion? yes and yes but the hermanas live in the same complex! we never see them at the complex..but we see them at the church sometimes!

 Do you ride a bike or drive a car?! we have a car...but im about to turn this place into more of a biking area....i dont know how to do missionary work in a car!! but i mean we will have to roadtrip the halfhour to some of our villages and hick-vills and then bike around!! 

 anyway...i think thats all i got for this week!! change is good! hard...but good!

have the best week yall!

paz y bendiciones

hermana...ugh well i guess sister...hull ;)

saddest thing is getting super close with this guy (jose acosta) right before i leave!!! had always said hi and what not but never really got to know him until the day before i left :( he is the man!

not goodbyes...just see yall laters!!

wilson was a CHAMP and gave us both blessings of comfort before the big transfer!!

big ole ELEVEN MONTHS under my belt!!!! what?! better late than never to get transfered...

saying bye to my baby was probably the hardest...

new area

new comp

and jewish temple with grandma grant!! this lady is straight C L A S S

and this is sister montalvo...basically she is the BEST!!! 

ps- i still get to take an hour to study spanish everyday so that is supperrr happy!!