August 7, 2017

Hey guys!!!! So this past week has been pretty good! We got ALOT of new investigators actually! Which is soo good! So last week after our district meeting, Sister Van and I sat down and looked at the investigators that we have. And we decided to drop quite a few. But it was okay! This led to us being able to find more potentials and more investigators! But the week actually started off kinda discouraging! We would knock houses, but no one would accept our message, or no one would be home. And we never lost hope, and never gave up, but we were like, why is this happening. But we kept pushing onward, and now we have amazing new investigators and because of our faith we are teaching this sweet family. The Selenas family! They are so cute! There is the mom, dad, and 2 sons. A 12 year old and 16 year old! The APs actually called us friday night and were like hey we found this family and we are giving them to you to teach. So back story, the APs are to teach in Spanish, we teach in English. So since this family is English, they couldn't teach them and had to hand them over to us! So we were gonna visit them Saturday night, but they ended up not being home, and then Sunday before church, we went over to visit them! And they are so nice! they were telling us that after the Elders were there and had taught them the Restoration, they said everything changed for the good! They are so excited to learn more! The Elders invited them to read 3 Nephi 11. And the 16 year old boy stayed up until 2 in the morning reading it! He said he didn't understand a lot of it just because reading the Bible and Book of Mormon, with old English is kinda difficult. Like it is similar to learning a new language. So on Sunday we sat down and read it with them! They are so intelligent and were able to understand the message! We are going to go back to night to see them and teach them the Plan of Salvation! Which I am sooo excited for! 

We also met this boy who is maybe 12, and we just had knocked his door, and we asked if we could come back another day to share a message with him and his family. Well we came back, and we met his older brother Hector who was really receptive to the message!! We gave him a Book of Mormon! I think he will read it because he was really excited learning about the restoration! We actually taught him 2 lessons that night because he was so interested! 

We have this investigtor, Valdemar! he is amazing and so sweet! He has soo many good intentions and wants to know more about the church! We introduced him to the Book of Mormon! So he speaks really good English, but when it comes to the scriptures he can only  understand it fully in Spanish, so we got him a spanish el libro de mormon, and he loves it! We read a chapter with him, and he kept saying wow, and no way. He was so interested in it! I am so excited for him to know more! 

So last Monday after emailing, we went and got our new car! Which is like really nice!

On Tuesday evenings we do this thing called ward visits, where members in the ward come with the missionaries to knock doors, in either the Elders area, our area, or in the other Sisters area. This last one we knocked the other sisters area. And yeah there are 3 sets of missionaries in our ward! The Zone Leaders, the Sister Training leaders, and us! But the other Elders in our district the District leaders are in the Hidalgo Spanish ward! 

On Wednesday we met a kid named Max! He was super receptive to our message! Oh also Wednesday morning we did a service project at this food place. So basically H.E.B donates a lot of food that they cannot sell anymore because it almost the best by date, and so they give it to this one place. and workers bag it up to give to people who I think can not afford a lot of food. So we helped with that. But it was kinda gross. We saw 2 cockroaches! Like EW! But ohwell... we weren't eating the food. 

On Thursday we came to the Library to do family history and read conference talks online! That was really good! I read some stories from my ancestors! And it was so cool to see the faith they had in some of their hardest situations. We then went to an investigars house for a Bible study, but while there we try to express what we believe in the church too! 

Nothing much really happened since thursday. We just taught and knocked doors! 

Funny: Last night Sister Van and I made brownies! And we did not eat all of them. And so left them out last night. Then this morning we cleaned. And during lunch, she brought up how she threw away the brownies that we made last night. She said that it was because she was wanting us to try to eat healthier. But we have this thing where we get a new kind of oreos each Monday to try them during the week! And we had just gotten oreos, so I just didn't understand why we got the oreos, but she didn't want to keep the brownies. I almost started crying... Do not ask why. Then she went and got here camera, and started doing a video, apparantly it was just a prank! She just put them in the oven, and she wanted to see what I would do when I found out! I freaked! It was a priceless moment!! hahah! 

So in this mission, to keep working and learning Spanish, we have this thing called capitan! And so we have to do all these different things, to get it done! And reading the BoM (to Enos for now) is one of them! And my goal is to finish capitan by Sept 2! I am so excited for it! But it is alot of work! But my Spanish is not getting bad! I might actually be getting better! I have had to use it a few times actually! 

This morning, we cleaned, went shopping and then wrote letters and worked on Spanish. And we are going to go have a Zone/District P-Day in Hidalgo and also play chair soccer and then teach later this evening!

I am so excited for what this week brings!

I love you all!!

Have a good week!

Love, 

Sister Riley

July 31, 2017

Hey family and friends!!!
So I made it to Texas last Monday! it has been amazing since then! 

We spent the night last Monday at the Sister Training leader trainers... If that makes sense! Hahaha! We met President Torres and had dinner at his house! It was so good and so nice to be in a home and have a nice home cooked meal! The next morning we had breakfast there and then we had trainings. I got my companion assigned! She is Sister Van Drimmelen! She is from Sandy, Utah. She has been here for  like 9 months how! She is so much fun and a wonderful trainer! She has taught me so much already and it is only week 1! 

So then last Tuesday we came to the apartment! found out I am in an English area! It is called Sharyland. it is really close to Hidalgo, which is only a few miles away from the border! it is like 20 miles to the west of mcAllen! Which is pretty exciting! I honestly do not mind it! It will be such a blessing! But tuesday we went out and taught a few people! it was so weird teaching and it sure was not like the CCM! You really need to rely on the Spirit when you teach because you do not go in with a script. You go in to someone's house, having a simple Idea or topic of what you want to teach, but you follow the Spirit and what it is telling you to teach this person, concerning their needs! we do a lot of door knocking here and finding potentials! i got my bike put together by the Zone leaders! Thanks to them I have a wonderful bike put together! 

On Wednesday, we had district mtg. And that was fun meeting the district! I have met so many people here! It is so much fun! And I already have so much love for the people that are here! 

Then on Thursday, We have 1 day a week for 2 hrs to get online at the library in Hidalgo and do family history, facebook (missionary purposes), and read general conference talks! It is really cool! our stls have found so many names to take to the temple! Oh then after this we went to the STls for lunch in which they made this really spicy chicken!!!! Our mouths were on fire! 

last friday we helped President Salmond, who is the 2nd counselor in the stake with this video they were making for seminary! it was basically on how to teach the first 5 days! It was really fun! President torres had a few rules tho that we had to follow! So we were in our P-Day clothes, but we had to wear our name tag at all times. And then when videoing started we could take them off because we were to act like teenagers in high school! Then we had to put them back on if we had to go to the bathroom or during breaks while walking around the church!! 

Then on Saturday we had a miracle happen! So it was a kind of harder day and no one was really accepting our message! And so it was like 8:50 pm and I had this prompting that we needed to stop and talk to this lady who was walking her dog! So we stopped to give her a card. And she said that she had lost her other black lab and that it is a bomb detecting dog, so really intelligent. and they treat it like a human! And so we asked if we could help! Well we ended up driving down this road called los milagros. and we decided to say a prayer asking God to help us find this dog for this sweet lady! Well after the prayer, we were turning the car around, and out of the corner of my eye under a street lamp, I see the dog! And I was like"Sister van! There it is!" This was like 2 mintues after the prayer, mabye not even! And so we got out of the car, and because of our good spirits, the dog came to us! So we walked the dog to this ladies house. And noone was home! Se we sat there waiting, and we said a prayer then like 1 mintue later, she showed up! She said she had a feeling to check home... that was the holy ghost talking to her! Then we told her we found her dog, and she was sooo happy!! She was crying and just thanking us! her son drove up, and he ran up to the dog, and like almost tripped on the step he was so happy! Like the looks on their face were priceless! And the cool thing she said was that we were from God! yes that is true! we had handed her the card of the picture of Jesus Christ and she showed it to her son and was like, these sweet ladies handed me this and I just knew that God had sent them to help us! It was so wonderful! And such a great ending to our day! 

Then yesterday we had church! My first time in the Sharyland ward! it was pretty awesome! A lot of the people in the ward are converts! And they are so sweet! It is awesome to see their strength and see how much they love the gospel! We then later that evening met this guy named Matt, and he really needed to hear that God loves him and that God is using him as an instrument in His hand! And we were able to answer some life questions he has had for a while! it was all thorugh promptings from God!

And now today, we are getting a new car because the other one is old, and we are just gonna relax and get ahead in our spanish study! 

I love you all! 

Love, Sister Riley 

July 13, 2017



Today is week 5! Next week we will have our orange stickers indicating that we are on our final week!! Can you believe that, well neither can I! I have done so much and learned so much in this last week since writing ya´ll last! 

Our district did a district fast on Tuesday to help with learning Español! That was really fun! And we keep trying everyday hablar solo en Español! By the end of the day we are so worn out, but it is helping us so much! 

Last Thursday after I emailed, we went to the temple, and it was so much fun! It is so beautiful!

Then Sunday we had a combined Sacrament mtg! And it was huge there were 400 missionaries at it! 

On Tuesday we received 100 more missionaries here! Which is insane! And guess who is here from home?!?! Another Wyomingite! HAHA! So our district fasted all day on tuesday, ya? and so we were starving and so ready to eat dinner! and en martes. It is siempre PIZZA! pero, cuando we got there, ellos dice no pizza, porque it was not coming! Nosotros muy triste! ;( very sad! Then we were sitting there eating spaghetti, and guess who walks by to go sit down and eat... Elder Rasmussen from Burlington, Wyoming! I saw him and had to take a double glance. Like what, I did not know he was coming to the CCM!! I´ll just say I was so stoked, then right after that they brought out pizza!! So everything was good in the world! Since today is my P-Day i got a picture with him that I will post on here! 

On tuesday our district all sang in the choir!  we sang "I know that my saviour loves me". or en Español "Yo se que me alma el Señor" It was very pretty and it brought the spirit into the devotional! I It made me cry too! And well it was good! I kinda also offered to play a musical number next week for the devotional, and the elders kinda want to sing to it.. HAHA We will see how that goes! 

We continue to play early morning volleball and sometimes even early morning runs! 

It gets cold here! I was not prepared for how cold it gets, because I am going to McAllen and I do not need a heavy jacket... but actually I do! It rains like almost every evening! It rained tuesday night like a ton! And there were big puddles of water and I did not have my water shoes on and almost ruined a pair of my shoes. And it rained last night! The elevation is os high that the lightening is bright and the thunder is loud and rolling! I really do enjoy the storms here and will miss them when I go to the stats! Pero, I could not be happier to be out in the mission field! 

Today is a full P-Day, so we got to play v-ball this morning, take pictures, get hair cuts (all the elders and I) in my district got hair cuts, then we are writing now, and going to go take a nap!

Love, 

Hermana Riley

July 6, 2017


We are on week 5!!! can you beleive that? well neither can I! This week has had so many spiritual and testimony building expereines! (Sorry I cannot spell anymore)!!! 

My spanish is getting so much better, and I can listen to people and understand them better. And I know it is not all my doing to make this happen! I know that the Lord helps us and loves us and He is making my weakness of learning the language become a strength. Ether 12:27! 

we taught TRC last saturday, which may have been the funnest experience ever! Because it was more like a real life lesson and it was so awesome to be able to talk with people and teach people other than our teachers! 

I had my first fast sunday here. It really was not too bad! Like of course I was getting hungry towards lunch, but it was like a normal anyother day hunger! 

On monday we went to the tienda with our teachers and had a buy a candy and we explained how good the candy bar tastes to someone else. and that all lead up to how we need to teach about the Book of Mormon. We can´t just be monotone and bland about how we teach sobre el Libro de Mormón. We have the be enthusiastic and act like it was one of the most delicious things we have tasted! 

July 4th was so much fun! We wore red white and blue, and they comedor was decorated in red white and blue! And we had hamburgers and chips and aw and ice cream and corn on the cobb! It was really good! And we sang the star spangled banner and had so mcuh fun! Then we sang Battle Hymn of the Republic in Spanish for Tuesday night devotional for the choir! Which was also really cool! In the last chorus, we had everyone stand up and sing! and that night we received 170 new missionaries so the place was packed full and everyone sang with such a strong voice! #armyofhelaman! But so now there are 400 some missionaries here and that is like .5% of all the missionaries in the world!! 

Also on Tuesday, I had a breakdown, and felt like I wasn´t good enouhg. My companion is sooo sweet and she helped talk me through it. We had to teach our "investigator" too in a couple fo minutes and I just did not feel ready, but I told them that I needed to focus on someone else that myself! And so I did, and had the most powerful lesson EVER!!! I was prompted to share the hymn I Beleive in Christ! And I bore my testimony about it ! And the spirit was so there! I cried so much during the lesson! And I honestly think that song was not just for him, it was more for me. I know God answers prayers, because before the lesson I prayed for help to be able to teach and focus on José and I was helped!  Also, I BELIEVE IN CHRIST!!! I know He lives! I know He knows what we are feeling and that we need to just rely on Him! Later in the afternoon, I recieved a priesthood blessing, from Elder Swallow and Elder Benjamin. And Elder Swallow said the words that I need to hear. I did not tell him what was going on, but because he is worthy to have the priesthood, he was able to listen the spirit, in which who was telling him what God wanted me to hear and to know and I was having a rough day. And in the blessing, he said that this is where I need to be in the Mexico MTC. And I found out why the next day. So on Thursday, there was a girl only in here 2nd week who was having a breakdown, because she was getting frustrated. And I was able to share my experience with her and her comp. and tell them that god answers prayers and that you should pray to Him. We are taught here to rely on the Lord and it is so true! We need to apply that in our life. Whenever you have a hard time, call upon God for strength and he will give you strength! I know that He will because it has happened in my life! I know that the priesthood has been restored in this church and is the same priesthood that was on the earth at the same time that Christ was on the earth! I know that Joseph Smith is a true prophet who was called by God to restore these things. I am so grateful for priesthood blessings and the opportunity that we are given to be able to receive strength from the Lord through a blessing!

I love you all! and I will talk to ya´ll next week in week 5!!

Love, 

Hermana Riley

June 22, 2017

June 22, 2017


Hey guys!! 

I made it to Mexico CCM last Tuesday!! It does not feel like I have been here only for a week! The plane ride was really long, but there were so many missionaries on the planie! There were atleast 70, if not more! Saying goodbye to my family was maybe the hardest things I have done because in perspective, 18 months is a long time! But I know that with the Lord I can do anything. They really emphasize relying on the Lord here! Which is wonderful because you can´t just call up your parents anytime you want, you really have trust in the Lord and let Him help you along the way! 

Day 1 was the absolute longest days because everything was so new! You go into the classroom, and we have too fabulous teachers, Hermana Gonzales and Hermano Medena! So they just right off the bat started speaking Spanish to us, and like most of us in our district didn´t know what they were saying! It was crazy! BUT now we´re like pros at Spanish... haha jk! We can understand a little about what Latinos are saying, but sometimes we just say "No Se" or "I don´t know" because we cant understand them! BUt we are doing good enough to be able to teach a lesson in Spanish!

So my companion is Hermana Folsom! She is from Washington! She went to BYU for a year! She is so awesome! We get along very welll!! Then in our district we have, Elder Benjamin and his companion Elder Lewis, Elder Garrett, and Elder Swallow, Elder McDonald and Elder Lawerence! 

So there are 8 of us! In the past week we have grown so much together and are becoming really good freinds! 

The food here can be pretty good!! I love the rice here and they make the best homemade tortilla chips!! (: 

So since Day 3 we had to teach an "investegator"! She ended up being our teacher, but she acts like our investigator named Diana! So everyday we have had to teacher everyday for about 30 minutes! It is so much fun! We really get to put what we learn in class to use and actually speak real sentences! From teaching her we learn that we need to love our investegators and make our lessons apply to her! We taught and invited her to baptism on Tuesday and she said YES!! or well it was more like "SI", but same thing! haha! But beginning next week we teach real people! Like real invetigators or less actives!! But I can testify that the gift of tounges is real! Yo testifico que el Espiritu Santo will help you en leccions y will help you teach and say what the investegator needs to hear!

We play volleyball everyday for our gym time! Which is so much fun! We play as a district! I love how we do not get super competitive! 

So last week we met our branch presdiency and they said that each of us needed to come up with a 5 minute talk, just for prepartation for Sunday! Well Friday, Elder Benjamin, who is our district leader said that I would be giving the talk on the Plan of Salvation! And so Hermana Folsom, Elder Garrett, and Elder Swallow, and I worked on a talk for me to say! And I think it went pretty good! I was so nervous for it, but I am so glad that I was able to speak because I think that it helped with my pronunciation of words!! Oh! Also, for our first meeting here with the new missionaries, I played the piano! I played the sacrament hymn on Sunday too, I led the music at a devotional! Hermana Folsom and I also convinced our district to sing in the choir on Tuesday!! So every Tuesday is when newbies come in, and every Tuesday evening we have a devotional and pizza! Like real american food!! :P 

It is so pretty here in Mexico! The tempeture is sooo nice, and there are so many birds! The first week which was just last week, it rained EVERY evening, but so far it hasn´t rained agian! But i really want it too! I love rain!! ​​

Love, Hermana Riley

June 14, 2017


Hermana Melanie Riley arrival at Missionary Training Center, Mexico City, Mexico