Kiss. . .im. . .mmee :)

Hahah I have no idea what that's supposed to mean but the name just cracks me up so I had to just show how it says Kiss mee :)

So yeah! I'm in Kissimmee :) It's sooo great I love it. It's been kinda hard because we did what you call "White Washing" the area which means all three of us are brand new to the area. We spent most of this week going around contacting a huge list of potential investigators the other Hermana's left us. Neither one of them were trained very well so the paper work wasn't really kept up like it shoulda been and we're pretty lost about where everyone is at as far as people they have as progressing investigators and their potentials seem pretty uninterested. . .but it's still been great!

       

I have used Spanish EVERY SINGLE DAY I've been here! Haha it was pretty intimidating first, knocking on a door, saying "Hello! How are you today?" and getting a "No habla ingles. . ." and just as their shutting the door going "O esta bien! Hablamos poquito espanol!" haha and they get interested that we even tried and it's actually been really neat! They all seem to enjoy that we are at least trying. I had  pretty neat experience with a lady and it was actually the first door we had knocked on where she didn't understand ANY english and I just started saying the words that entered my mind without hesitating about wether or not I was conjugating right or using the exactly right verb or whatever. . .and I ended up sharing the promise in the last two paragraphs in the introduction of the Book of Mormon. She was soo sweet and said it was beautiful and that she wanted to read it So I told her to read and pray to ask if it was the word of God and she said she would, then I asked if we could come back and she said she was only visiting but she would try to meet with other missionaries when she got back. IT was awesome! And she said my spanish was beautiful which is ust nuts haha I know that was most definitely the gift of tongues and it was incredible :)

Oh maybe I should talk about my new companions!! So Sister Blake has been out 6 months (she came out the same time as Sister Mevs) and I absolutely ADORE her! She is so great and such an incredible missionary. I've already grown to love her so much and learned so much from her! She doesn't speak a lick of Spanish haha but it's OK! Me and my other comp, Hermana Monson (I KNOW RIGHT! I'M SERVING WITH A DISTANT RELATIVE OF THE PROPHET!! haha) are doing our best to teach her :) So, Hermana Monson is straight outta the MTC which is neat cuz she still conjugates everything correctly and all that kinda stuff that I need some serious work on haha she is SO loving and a total people person! She has just been working on realizing that it's good to just be herself and even though the Restoration sounds a little crazy, it doesn't matter cuz it's true and it has changed our lives and means everything in the world to us :) <3 So yeah. All three of us are very alike and I'm so glad to have the opportunity to learn from these Sisters! (They are both 21 so I'm a baby haha but it's great)

I don't have a lot to report on as far as investigators go. . .we are having a baptism on Saturday for a families daughter who is 9 and they haven't consistently gone to church in a really long time. . .we're gonna work on that a lot! There are a ton of members here who just don't come to church. . .ok!!

So that World Wide Leadership Training last night!! If you haven't watched it yet. . .GO WATCH IT NOW!!! It is absolutely incredible.

I know that if I wasn't already serving a "mission" and this wasn't my calling to preach the gospel that woulda been "Exactly the pep talk we all needed" -quote from Sister Hall, because it's soooo important that we do member missionary work! I have seen already how essential members are in helping investigators gain a true testimony. SO all of you members, do ALL you can to help the missionaries :)

I know that my life has already been forever changed because of the perspective I have on missionary work and our obligation to share the gospel. I know that up to this point in my life I have taken my baptismal covenant seriously, but I was passive about it. I thought that as long as I wasn't doing the wrong thing, that meant I was standing as a witness of God. But I've realized that being a witness of God means that I will be proactive about making sure that others know that this is the way that they can be truly happy and find peace and joy not only in this life but in the life to come. Whether it's by just being a good friend, helping someone in need, or sharing your testimony with someone you see could benefit from the knowledge you have, share your testimony!!! I know that not only will you bless the lives of so many people, but you will also strengthen your testimony and become more happy in the process!! :)

Alright, well that's it for the week :) I love you all SOOO much and am so grateful to every single one of you. Keep being you and shine your light to all those around you. Act on every prompting you receive from the spirit, no matter how silly it seems haha I do it all the time and I've never felt the spirit so strong in my entire life. The Savior Lives. He loves each one of us more than we can comprehend. He wants us to return to live with him again. I love HIm and am going to do all I can to help prepare the earth for His second coming :)

LOVE YOU ALL!! Have an amazing week :) <3 xoxoxox –

Hermana Conger. . . Larissa :)

I'm coming Argentina!! ...but not today.

Well. . .apparently I've just got some unexpected work I've gotta get done down here in good ole Florida!! :) All of my fellow visa waiter Hermana's received their visa on Saturday and are flying out today!

Pray for them and their safety would ya! I'm so excited for them and it'll be a good day when I get down there, but I'm not going to lie I'm kinda relieved today is NOT that day haha I thought I was going to throw up when President said "Keep a stiff upper lip on this one Sister Conger. . .all of the Visa's came. *insert bugged out eyes, loss of breath, heart stopping, all that haha*. . .except yours." *HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF!!!* haha it was great. The only sad thing is I'm leaving this wonderful area in Viera because President thinks my Visa will be here in about a week. According to when I saw the Consulate in the MTC it didn't quite sound that way, but I'm just going to stay on my tip toes and be as engaged in the work here as I ever have been.

I will be moving to an area just outside Orlando called Kissimee where there are apparently a lot more Spanish speakers! So that'll be fun to get back into the groove of espanol. Not only that, but I will be helping train a new Spanish Sister who has been called to Orlando! There was only 1 when I got here but there are 3 coming this transfer so only 2 can be with the Hermana that has been here, so I know that's part of the reason Heavenly Father is holding up my visa :) (Also I think he knows I left a large majority of winter gear at home and am not near prepared enough temporally) haha but I am so excited.

The hardest thing is leaving everyone I've grown so attached to here. I felt like people were finally really getting to know me and some of our investigators who have been having a hard time progressing are finally getting there and M is getting baptized soon and all of that I'm gonna have to miss and leave, but I have a feeling of peace that I have done the best I could to complete my part of the work that needed to be done here <3 The Lord expects a lot from me in this work, but I feel like the small imperfect offering I was able to give was what it needed to be. I have learned SO much about myself and especially about my relationship with my Heavenly Father, my Savior Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost that I never ever could have learned any other way. I have made some incredible eternal friendships here too. I have to come back someday that is for sure :)

So as for people, M, like I said is doing so awesome! He is still on track for his Baptism and even though he's going through some really hard stuff he sees the Savior strengthening him and blessing him as he turns to him. I'm gonna miss that kid! It has been the coolest thing to see him recognize truths and try his best to live the way God wants him to live. He has taught me a lot and I am thankful for the opportunity I've had to help him develop a true and lasting relationship with Christ :) 

C is back! We hadn't seen him in what seemed like a really long time, but we finally got back ahold of him and he is actually starting to really read the Book of Mormon and loves it! It's so neat to see him get excited about the stories and try to draw comparisons to his own life. Also, we set a solid baptism date with him! He love repentance and that Christ has allowed the ability for him to change and be a better person and he wants to be able to start over. It's pretty neat!

I have SO many more people I could talk about, I love them all so much! I'm sure I'll remember them for the rest of my life because they have all had such an effect on me. Greatest of all though has been my companions. Sister Mevs and I are not alike at all! Other than, we love our Savior and this gospel very very much, and we love other people a lot too. We have had our differences, but I learned a lot of lessons from her and I'm so grateful that she was willing to try and help me learn what I needed too, I just hope I did the same for her! Sister Payne has been one of the dearest, closest friends I've ever had, which is pretty nuts when I've only know her for 6 weeks haha but she has really taught me the meaning of hard work and being tireless in our work as missionaries, and having fun at the same time!! I love her so much and will miss her until I see her again :)

Alright, I gotta head out for now! I love you all and can't wait to update you on my new companions and new area next week! Have a wonderful week!

 

Remember that we can have access to the 3 most loving and powerful beings at any moment. We pray and can talk with and recieve blessings from Heavenly Father. We repent and we let Christ into our lives so that we can become more like Him, and as we obey the commandments and do all we can to live the gospel, we allow the Holy Ghost to be with us and comfort and bless us :)

Be happy! Live, Laugh and Love with all that you have :)

LOVE YOU ALL!!! xoxoxoxo

Finally - a Trip to the Beach!! :)

I'm a beach babe now!!

Haha just jokes everyone!! :)

I DID get to go to the beach this morning though and it was sooo awesome! We had to get up at 4:30 so we could get to the beach around 5:30 then we could watch the sunrise and play around until people started showing up then we had to leave but it was still such an awesome time! Then we played beach volleyball afterward and that was great too :) and we went to Denny's haha it has just been a really great p-day!

The District in the FOM (Florida Orlando Mission)

Sister Payne & Riss

Sister Payne, Sister Mevs, & Riss

As for the rest of my week. . .it was good. A bit slower than usual, I think that's because of summer and everyone is just getting busy so it's harder to have set appointments. M is doing great! He just started a job and is finishing up his nursing stuff! Apparently he got a job offer today at his first day of clinicals! Pretty darn sweet :) He is being strong and battling out his stuff too! He is so super dedicated and just awesome in general!

We also saw the Rivera family again this week and I just LOVE them! They had us over for dinner and then bought us pipping hot Krispy Kream(sp haha) Donuts the next morning for National Doughnut Day so that was pretty neat :) They loved the Plan of Salvation and a lot of the doctorines in general so that's pretty cool. They love how it can strengthen their family too. It's just great to see their love of Christ and how what we are teaching makes so much sense to them :) They went to the Bahamas for the week so I'm pretty jealous of that haha

We spent quite a bit of time with a member Victor this week. He's super into gardening so we helped him make some beds 

and then he got some fresh oysters he wanted us to try! I gotta tell you, I thought I liked them but they are pretty dang gross straight out of the shell with no pickling or anything haha

He also gave us some papaya which I had never tried before oh and some crazy chinese fruit haha it's pretty cool stuff.

Sorry, that's about it! I need to be more exciting, but I think I'm gonna take the little time I've got left and send some pictures! One more week and we are getting transfers next week! They are opening up 9 new areas here I think is what President said! It's gonna be crazy but I'm way excited. I hope I stay put haha I think Sister Mevs is gonna be heading out and opening up an area! But who knows. . .Sister Payne is super awesome so she might leave too. . .we'll just have to see! I'm still loving every minute and feel SO blessed to be a missionary.

I love this work so much and I'm already SO much better a person for being out here. Thank you all for the prayers and for loving me and getting me to this point! I miss you all like crazy but I know this is gonna fly and it's so worth bringing others so much happiness :)

Have an awesome week everyone! I LOVE YOU ALL!!! :) <3

Howdy! Howdy! :)

Hello Everyone!!

Well, it's been another crazy good week here in the FOM! It is getting CRAZY hot though haha my Colorado sweat glands are not used to this stuff haha I was pouring rivers out of my today and I swore everywhere I stand a puddle is just going to form under me from how much I sweat haha but it is just so gorgeous and wonderful here it doesn't end up mattering to much that I always feel disgusting haha 

oh my heck I only have 20 minutes left. I don't dig this whole one hour time constraint but I'm trying to deal haha 

Ok for my week. . .

We ended up not being able to do the baptism this week. Poor guy... I ended up crying in front of him which I felt so dumb about. . .I just want the kid to be happy... he's reset his date for the end of the month so we'll see what happens! Mr. C is another one we've been working with a lot... hope it's all gonna be worked out for him by next week sometime. AND... we have a new investigator!  She's going to college here at the community college and apparently we convinced her to do it because we told her that since she is a daughter of God she has all the potentail in the world to do whatever she wants :) But we went back to teach her the Restoration on. . .Friday I think it was? But anyway it was SUCH a good lesson! Sister Payne told her the first vision (I really need to memorize that in english now haha) but she was like whoa I got the goose bumps and loved hearing all about how the gospel blesses families :) oh she's like 20. Anyway, then we asked her what it would mean to her if this really was Christ's gospel and she answered that it would mean a lot but she wasn't sure how to put it into words, so then she asked each of us how we felt about it, so we bore our testimonies about how it's blessed our lives and after she was like "I know that everything you said is true and I know this could make me happy!" I extended my FIRST baptismal invitation and she accepted! We're going to see her tonight so I'm SUPER excited about that :) 

We haven't seen the hot tub family again yet. . .hopefully we'll have dinner with them tomorrow! Oh, so I can't remember if I told you about Sister Schaffer but her family are the one who had us over on Mother's Day and ever since then she has just been my mom away from my mom <3 She drives us places when we need it and she opens missionary doors for us ALL OVER THE PLACE and it is just awesome! We took one of the guys from the Vet home over to her house for dinner (... he's telling us all he's deploying for Siria, but the man is like 70 and has no teeth haha sooo he's sweet but... haha) but it was just so great. Her family was great to him and helped him feel loved and I know his testimony of a loving Heavenly Father grew because of their kindness.

Ok I gotta go time's up. I love you all so much! I'm doing fantastic and loving the work! Thank you so much for all the love and support and prayers. 

I'm sorry I can't thank everyone individually, I will someday!! 

I am so grateful to all the support given to missionaries. This really is the rolling forth of the Kingdom before our Savior is going to return :) believe that and spread the gospel in all you do ok?! 

EVERYONE needs to hear this message and know that Christ lives and they have a loving Father in Heaven!! 

I love you all so much! Have a fantastic week :) HUGS!!