New companion, finished training, and now a trainer!

For this post I am first just going to share her group letter from this past week because it was hard to just choose a few things from it to share. So..here it is.

Feb 23, 2015

"This week was transfer week, and I got a new companion! Her name is Hermana Mensinger and I am finish-training her, she is awesome!  HAHA so ok, Saturday was HILARIOUS. It was snowing ALL day, and we weren't allowed to drive so we were just trudging through snow up to our knees like ALL DAY. Everything was shut down, and there was NO one on the roads, it was like a giant ghost town. But, we walked all over the place anyways and were able to talk to a few people here and there. Man so funny, and THEN church got cancelled the next day because of it, so that was weird. We had to text our investigators and a whole bunch of members and let them know, and it was kind of sad because we ended up having a lesson with one of our investigators, Luis, that night, and he was like, "it's only one day a week, ONE day a week that we give up to our Lord and to cancel church is ridiculous! Sometimes you have to work to get to church, it's not always that easy, we should be showing our dedication. If the Lord set apart that day to be the Sabbath day and for us to hold meetings then it should be that way!" Ha. We were totally in agreeance because in Utah seriously nothing shuts down for snow. They seriously close down school and everyone's jobs at the drop of a hat here. It is so funny!

But anyways, this week has been super good, still getting settled in with a new companion and new teaching styles, but it will be an awesome transfer! I know it!

John 7:17 ((What is God's will for YOU?)) James 1:5

I have already seen such a great change in my mission, and it has been so great to be able to serve my Heavenly Father as His Son's representative, even Jesus Christ, whom is the Savior of the world. I can feel more of a closeness to him each day as I strive to do his will, and not my own. A quote I like that I heard a few days ago is "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him YOUR plans." 

I will never be able to go back and try to make a big decision without consulting my Heavenly Father first. God knows all, and He can help us through anything through the Spirit in enabling to decipher between what is right and what is wrong (Moroni 10:5).

I love this gospel and I love being a missionary! I love all of you, but most importantly, GOD loves you, and He sent you to this earth for a reason and with an eternal purpose, so go and find it! :)

Con mucho amor, Hermana Riddle :)"

In the emails that Mariah shared with us this week she said in all honesty that things have been a little stressful with being the trainer and having the routine of things change because of the bad weather they have been having. Her companion was previously in a trio being trained by the sister training leaders who were the only native hermanas in the mission and have been out much longer. In fact, they are getting ready to go home soon. So, Mariah feels like she has big shoes to fill while she is finishing up her companions training. And, knowing Mariah, being the perfectionist that she is- she is probably stressed out about making things just right. Of course having a new companion is a bit of an adjustment in itself, but from the sounds of it they are plugging along just fine. 

She mentioned in her letter that the English speaking sisters that live across the street from her have been staying with her for the past few days because their heat isn't working and they have some other issues in their apartment that needed to be fixed. They had to get approval from the President for them to stay there. So, I guess she still hasn't stopped asking for sleepovers even though she is on her mission..haha:)

She gave a talk a couple of weeks ago in church and I asked her how it went and what she spoke about. I would have given anything to be there and hear her speak. In her email back to me this is what she said she about her talk..."So my talk.. It was in Spanish, I talked about El libro de mormón y la importancia delo en mi vida y nuestra vida. Hablé sobre las dos naciones y como los dos testimonios trabajan juntos. Dí mi testimonio del libro de mormón también y cómo lo ha crecido durante tanto mi vida como en mi misión. Yo hablé un poco de la razón por la que estoy en una misión en la primera parte. Yo pude sentir el espíritu tan fuerte que fue difícil para mi de hablar, pero está bien, los miembros me dijeron que mi español está mejorando muy rápido. Espero que sí!" 

So..if you don't speak Spanish I guess you won't know what she gave her talk about.  Haha..no, I'm kidding. In a nutshell she said that she talked about the Book of Mormon and its importance in her life and our lives. She talked about the two nations and (I am assuming she meant) how the Bible and Book of Mormon work together. She gave her testimony of the Book of Mormon and how it has grown throughout her life and on her mission. In the first part of her talk she talked about the reason that she is on a mission. She said that she could feel the spirit so strong that it was hard for her to speak. And then of course if you know Mariah..she uses the phrase "But, it's all good". Apparently she uses that phrase in Spanish too:) She said that the members told her that her Spanish is improving quickly and that she hoped that was true.  I am sure she is doing just fine! I could understand what she was talking about so.."its all good".  It'll be interesting though to see how her Spanish improves throughout her mission.

One of the coolest things that I think happened this week was that she got permission to sign on to our Icloud. Since she has an Ipad, and often takes pictures with it we thought that it would be easier for her to just share them on the cloud. So, its been fun to see pics from DC pop up on Jared's Iphone or our Ipad. Technology is absolutely amazing!  I am so grateful for it because it still allows me to feel close to her even though she is far away.

Mariah has been using Facebook just a little on her mission so far but will be using it more in the future, Something that I found interesting is that they cannot be Facebook friends with other missionaries on the mission except for their current companion, sister training leaders, District Leader, Zone Leader, and AP's. Not sure why that is but her and her previous companion had to un-friend each other when they got transferred. 

I am assuming that this pic below was one of the last pics she took with her district before she got transferred. This is one that showed up on our Ipad this past week.  Glad to know that she can still be silly because anyone who knows Mariah absolutely loves her and her silliness.