Day 101

yesterday i hit 100 days in the mission! Crazy.

Heres a long and pointless but semi funny story for ya. If you dont wanna read it, i understand, skip to the "Marcos continues to be amazing!" paragraph 

Thursday was an interesting day. In the afternoon we rode our bikes to a little cafe down the street to do some of our studies, and after we were gonna swing by the apartment again to grab sweaters in case it got colder. Well as we're riding back i realize my bike pedal is broken and like almost falling off. And we didnt really have anything on hand to fix it. So we lean the bikes against a tree downstairs and run up to find some packing tape to try, come back down and fix the pedal by wrapping a loooot of tape around it. Well we're feeling pretty accomplished, and we havent lost that much time, we're ready to rock and roll. 

Bagley grabs her bike, and the tire is COMPLETELY FLAT! Like there was nooo air in that badboy. It had been completely full not 2 minutes before and we searched the whole bike for a hole or puncture, and nada. So we try pumping it up and its lost air within a minute but theres no air coming out of anywhere! We call a bunch of missionaries trying to figure it out and were stuck at home for probably like 2 hours trying to fix this dumb bike! We call the hermanas with a car and ask if they can at least give us a ride to our member dinner and then figured we might as well start walking and maybe we'll meet people on the way (we didnt). Our district leader said there was a member in his ward that fixes bikes for a living and we were stoked, so the other hermanas drop us off and go back to take the bike. 

Well after the hour dinner we were stranded for another hour cause they were still fixing the bike! Finally everythings worked out and they fix it (he patched the inner tube and a couple other things), grab us, finish the night, and as we're taking it inside, its completely flat again, our district leader fixed it the second time, cause hes gotten a flat 3 times in 1 transfer(shout out elder tate), and now everything is great! But thursday wasnt a super productive day. [Update] its flat AGAIN

Anyways

Marcos continues to be amazing! You'd never guess hes only been baptized for 3 weeks! He got the aaronic priesthood on sunday and he was so smiley and happy after, i thought my heart was gonna burst with pride! We had a visit with him and went over the story of the restoration again and i felt the spirit so strong! And ive heard/taught this story tons of times! But the spirit is just so rad and shines in marcos! He had a lot of good comments that had me thinking deep too. 

The other day we had a lesson with some new friends and had him come as fellowship, and i was telling our new friends how i had only been serving for 3 months and they asked how long id been learning spanish and i said 3 months and then Marcos chimed in and said "its true, you shouldve heard her when she first got here. she was really bad and couldnt say like anything! And now look at her! She still cant really say anything but shes still here so" gee thanks marcos 

Bryan's baptism is Saturday! 

Saturday we had a big multi stake activity with all the spanish branches in Newbury, Moorpark, Simi, and Thousand oaks! It was so fun and we ate so much food and got to see some other missionary friends. The thousand oaks building is HUGE! they call it the TO temple. Its two stories and has 2 chapels and 2 gyms! 

Tuesday we had interviews with our mission president and he told me a lot of things that were just what i needed to hear. Hes such a cool guy and so wise (i feel like he actually probably knows the answer to anything)

Well then we had some tensions arise in our apartment (women amiright) and so we ended up having to walk 7 miles to our lessons that didnt end up going through and 3 miles back to the church. Missionary life i guess

Best part of the emailz - spiritual thoughts

- In Judges its a never ending cycle of the Israelites sinning and worshipping false gods, crying to the lord about their problems and repenting, and then being mega wicked again (well that happens pretty much in every chapter of the scriptures but its like every other verse in Judges!) 

the Israelites returned to their previous sins as they continued to linger among unrighteous influences. 

Because they were still surrounded by those bad influences they fell right back in to old habits they tried so hard to break. If i make a goal to not eat sugar but i walk past the bowl of candy on my counter every day, im probably not gonna achieve my goal! 

Spencer W Kimball said "in abandoning sin one cannot merely wish for better conditions. He must make them.… He must be certain not only that he has abandoned the sin but that he has changed the situations surrounding the sin. He should avoid the places and conditions and circumstances where the sin occurred, for these could most readily breed it again."

By still being around the temptation or something that could lead you to sin youre cracking the door that lets Satan slip in. And he ALWAYS slips in even if its just a crack. Make the decision to close the door and lock it.

in our district council discussion my companion talked about how sometimes its like sports. If the ball is on the line its still in. Even though its almost out, its still in. But when its out its out. You cant have your toe on the line of being a disciple. You cant be mostly following christ but still have a toe on the line

- In D&C 98:13 says "And whoso layeth down his life in my cause, for my name’s sake, shall find it again, even life eternal." In spanish it says "diere su vida" which means who GIVES his life. Not just laying it down, but willingly choosing to give it. 

Anyways if you made it this far youre a real one. I miss you, I love you, and I hope you have the most fantastic week of your lives

Peace,

Hermana Buhrley 

Pictures

Marcoooooos

Simi sunsets

Thrift store score

Bagley and I stuck 

Día de acción de gracias 

Hna Bagley fixing the tire and me not helping the situation at all and just taking pictures