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