Week 15-Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Hermana Underly

We got Cool Hats!

Hi everyone! I hope y'all had a Merry Christmas and I hope y'all have a happy new year! 

This week was crazy.

So basically I found out some amazing young women from my home ward are going to serve missions. Lets just say tears were involved just a bit. I cannot believe it. I am so proud of the young women in my ward back home in Texas. I am so grateful for the leaders who are such wonderful and amazing examples. 

My comp and I spent Christmas Eve with a family in the ward. We got to Skype…which was AWESOME. I got to talk with my family and it was so great to hear from them. I love my crazy family so much. That hour went by way too fast. 

We got to play santa too! My comp and I got to deliver presents to families! It was so rewarding seeing their faces light up when we brought them their gifts. 

I cannot believe that it has already been almost 4 months since being out here on the mission. I am truly blessed to have such amazing people surrounding me: my family, my comp, my home ward, my ward here in Tahoe, my investigators, people we pass on the streets, everywhere. 

Christmas day was super great. We went to Reno. There was a party for most of the missionaries in the mission there. My comp Hermana Tapia and I dominated at foosball. I got to talk with my CCM companera, Hermana Pearson. I absolutely adore my president and his wife. They are some of the best people I know. That night we went over to our ward mission leaders house for a british Christmas dinner. Thats right, British. He made goose and ham and brussel sprouts and stuffing and christmas pudding and everything. It was awesome.

 

Oh yeah so i turned 20 this week. I am old. It was just like a normal day. As we were teaching seminary for these boys in the ward, they start to sing me happy birthday and bring out this MASSIVE chocolate birthday cake… with 20 candles on it. I am so blessed to be in this ward. 

I was thinking a lot about how we have the fullness of the gospel (of course I am thinking about that) I was also thinking about how since we have the fullness of the gospel wouldn't it make sense to live the gospel to its fullest? I mean we have all the parts of the gospel restored to the earth. We should live every part of the gospel to its fullest. I hope that as we are all making goals for the upcoming year that we may live every part of this gospel to its fullest. We have the restored gospel on the earth today, the same church that Jesus Christ himself established when He was on the earth. 

I hope you have a great week. 

I am beyond blessed. I love you all so much 

Hermana Underly 

My Awesome Birthday Cake!

Christmas Day with all the missionaries

Christmas Elves shoveling:)

Christmas Eve with the Biggs Family:)

Christmas with the Sisters:)

Week 14: Feliz Navidad from Hermana Underly

I hope everyone has a great Christmas! This is my absolute favorite time of year. I have felt so much love from you all during my mission. I truly have the greatest home ward ever. Thank you so much! I love you all so dearly!  I am so happy to be out here on a mission. This is the greatest thing ever. I love this work. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I have learned so much about myself and about this gospel and how this is the gospel of happiness and so much more. I could really go on and on. I can't believe that time is just flying. 

This week was really difficult for us here in North Lake Tahoe , but we are keeping our heads up and moving forward in this work. Throughout the week we always try to remember the miracles that occur.  

My comp is amazing. I have really learned so much from her. She will be leaving in 3 weeks to go home into the real world. She has truly been an amazing trainer. I am sincerely grateful for her and her patience and wisdom. She is 23 and from Chile. I really look up to her. I honestly do not know what I am going to do without her. I have really come to love so many people here.

I have gotten to meet and interact with amazing children of God here in Lake Tahoe. It is kinda crazy here because there are a lot of different kinds of people here: super super crazy wealthy people, poor, tourists, locals, and people just passing through, jumpers, and yeah its fun. I look around and I just think, wow we are all Gods children, I want everyone to know about this message of happiness!

We had zone training this week and it was incredible. We discussed the atonement of Jesus Christ and what that means to us. It took a huge amount of courage for Christ to perform this great and selfless act. I cannot fathom that love that He has for us. It is absolutely astounding.  

We are teaching this family of 5 and they really have enjoyed coming to church and to feel the spirit there. The mom, Ofelia, wants to feel this way all the time and we tell her it is possible. We started to read the BOM with their family. They love the stories. The 14 year old boy has read the BOM by himself and even highlighted parts that he has liked (when nephi has to go kill laban--of course he would like that part haha). It makes me so overjoyed to see Heavenly Father's children progress in this gospel even if it just a little bit. 

We are teaching a guy named Juan. He is 25 and super cool and interested in the church.

We are also teaching a woman, Ana, and her daughter, Heidi. They are from El Salvador. They both are very interested in learning more about the gospel. I am so excited for them and their progression. 

We are teaching a guy, Jose. He is pretty stubborn and never keeps his promises and never wants to pray with us around. This time he prayed for us! its the small miracles that keep us going! 

We are also teaching Rocio and her daughters Brenda and Diana. They have been investigators for a while. The dad has never joined in on a lesson. This time he did! Maybe his heart is being softened! 

This week I would really love it if you all would please keep Francisco Chavez in your prayers. He is a man that we are teaching. It has been a roller coaster with him but he is a man of faith and has progressed so much in this gospel. 

Those are just some of the people that we are teaching. Please keep them in your prayers. 

Well I love this gospel. I love this time. I love you all. I am so grateful for this time to serve. This is the least I could do to repay what my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have done for me. 

Until next week,

Merry Christmas :) 

Hermana Underly 

Sooo..lots of cookie making pictures this week:)

Week 13-Winter Wonderland...and Sharing the Gospel

Amazing Blanket from Sister Michelle Robinson! 

I love it so much!!!

Hi everyone! I hope yall have had a grand week!

THANK YOU MICHELLE ROBINSON for the amazing blanket. I opened it up and I just laid on the blanket and started reading everyone's notes. wow I have the greatest ward family ever and greatest family. I am eternally grateful for all my leaders and the wonderful people who influenced me in my life.

This week was wonderful!! It is snowing so much here! This Texan cannot handle this haha.  Transfers was this week. I didn't get transferred. haha Anyways, it has been a great week full of teaching this wonderful and beautiful message of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Imagine the best tasting chocolate (for me it is a bueno bar) and you eat it. It is so delicious that you just want others to taste this and share this joy with you.  I was reading in 1 Nephi 8 a lot this week about the tree of life. Lehi partook of the fruit that was most desirable above all other fruit which in this case is the gospel, and after he ate it, he wanted to share it with the people he loved the most which was his family. He wanted his family to taste of this fruit and partake of the joy that he experienced. We can relate to Lehi and this situation.

It is the same thing. When we see a really good movie or try this amazing food we immediately want to tell it to someone about it!! We, as members, have partaken of this fruit, the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have seen how it has blessed our lives. We have seen how much joy comes from this gospel. Now after what we can do is share that fruit with the people we love: family, friends, and everyone! I love this! We are a missionary church. We know that this gospel blessed lives. The gospel is for everyone! It is incredible. I also have learned this week that it doesn't take a perfect person to share the gospel, just a willing and prepared person. I love that. I am not perfect at teaching or anything really. But when we are willing to submit to The Lord and prepare, He will help us touch the hearts of His children. 

Also I learned a very significant lesson this week: The only time I would be looking down at someone is to help lift them up.  Wow that struck me.  I would love for you all to think about that and how you can lift someone up. 

I love Christmas. And that is an understatement. This will be a different year for me to celebrate Christmas. I am just so grateful that I get to have a Christmas.

I love this work. I love this gospel. I love you all. Share the Gift.

con amor

Hermana Underly

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

I'm so cold!:)

No, Seriously, we are really cold:)

Week 12...He is the Gift

hope everyone had a great week!

So I have some shoutouts to make this week because I forget that things are still going on in the world haha.

So,

JULIANA. I am the worst friend ever. I still want to wish you a happy 20th!!!! I miss you and love you!

MOM thanks for the bueno bars I am obsessed. also thanks for the cute sister mish stuff!!!

SABRIE. congrats!!! cant wait for you to get hitched dec 20th! thanks for the announcement!

LACEE. good luck with the baby Davis!!! thanks for the gifts and thanks for the drawings sarah and anna!

alright so this week was super!

We got to play soccer with our zone! it was super fun.

We taught a lot this week. It is amazing how I can see our investigators changing because of this gospel. Ah it is so cool! We have been focusing a lot on the video He is The Gift. (which all of you should go watch after you read this email and share it with your amigos) No matter how many times I watch this 2 minute video I can feel the Spirit rush into the room. It is incredible really. Man I just love this gospel.  It makes me so happy to see other people happy.

It snowed a lot this week. Like a lot. It is freezing. well to this Texan it is. But that didn't stop us from teaching. In fact we even taught most of our lessons outside.  When we teach we just forget about the cold and focus on the person that we are teaching. 

Also this week  we had our ward Christmas party! It was a Mexican Posada. We had some investigators show up and we had a blast. We had such great food that the latinos in the ward prepared. We had piñatas for the kids which was hilarious to watch. We all had such a great time.

This week has been so spiritual and I have learned so much in these past 6 weeks. Sunday was amazing. We had our testimony meeting and I was thinking ok its the last month of the year, I am going to bear my testimony. So yeah. Also, we had a wonderful class with the latina sisters that we have to live what we teach. We need to be the light and the example for others. The women in the class are all so strong and have such strong testimonies which is a testimony for me.  I truly can testify that this is the only true church on the earth today. I know that Christ stands at the head of this church. He is the Gift that was sent by our Father in Heaven. He is the greatest gift of all. We can discover the gift when we read the scriptures. We can embrace the gift when we pray and live what we believe. And most of all we can share the gift: the Gift of Christ. May we all try to share this gift with our friends and family this season no matter what religion. I have a testimony of this gospel. It is true. Simple as that.

Have a splendid week.

Hermana Underly :)

Holding a rooster, No Big Deal...

Hermana Underly's Week 11: Thanksgiving and He is the Gift

Thanksgiving and He is the Gift

I hope everyone had a splendid thanksgiving full of food, family, and gratitude. I had a great week! I am living the dream. This week we had a district meeting on how we can teach for better understanding. We need to study the scriptures out for ourselves then we can teach clearly simply so simply that a child could understand this gospel.  

We also talked about He is the Gift. It is this huge movement that the church is doing during this Christmas season about Christ. It is in like 20 different languages and 8 different countries and the church even bought the youtube banner for the next month and even some times square billboards. yeah its kind of a big deal. So that was super exciting to learn about. 

Also for thanksgiving we got to go play soccer with our zone which was fun because we are so secluded out here we don't get to see them too often. We had dinner with a member family which was super great! and then we went to a less active Hispanic family's home for dinner. Very different kinds of food choices but all so delicious. I felt like I gained at least 40 lbs that day... 

It was a great day to reflect and to ponder the things that I am truly and eternally grateful for which is family and my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and their love for each and everyone of us. Also this week was fantastic because I played the piano in our Spanish group sacrament...as many of you are well aware of my musical talent I played the simple hymns haha and as I was playing the prelude an Hermano comes up to me and tells me that I am also going to speak in the Spanish group sacrament....oh great. I have nothing prepared. So what did I do during the passing of the sacrament? I turned to the scriptures in Spanish and prepared something right then and there. That was fun. I gave my talk in Spanish on the atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance. I don't even know what I said or read in the scriptures but I think it went well. So that was really great. 

Those were basically the highlights of my week. oh yeah and i held a rooster that was literally crazy so that was fun. We are teaching a pretty good amount here in north lake Tahoe. The work is hard but completely worth it. It started to snow a lot here and rain a lot. It is really pretty because we live up in the mountains and so the clouds are right above us and above the lake.

 

Hope everyone has a blessed week and prays for a missionary opportunity. This church is a missionary church and everyone can be a missionary with or without a nametag. Be the example and live what you believe.

I love this gospel

I love you all

con amor

Hermana Underly

alexandra.underly@myldsmail.net

Hermana Underly's Adventures: Hiking and Tracting and Teaching in Lake Tahoe!

HI Family and Friends: 

how is everyone doing this week??

This week was super fantastic!

Highlights of the week:

I went on a hike last p day with a member family and our elders! It was perfect weather and it was so fun! you could see all of lake Tahoe! we then went to dinner on the lake in this cabin type restaurant. It was so delicious.

This week I went on exchanges! I went to Reno and I got to be with my companion from the Mexico MTC and wow that was so great! I miss her so much. I was also with another Hermana who is the Sister Training Leader. We taught a lot of people and 2 accepted baptism like what? oh man it was so great! I loved seeing my mtc comp.

Also this week our ward had a relief society thanksgiving dinner. It was so delicious...of course. the Hispanic ladies in the ward came too and I got to talk to a lot of them and get to know more people. I loved it.

This week was great as well because we had zone conference!! We discussed how we can be anxiously engaged and to stand a little taller and to be a little better and to be fearless. we also discussed on to not fear man and to be bold and to love when we teach. I learned that we are the message. We are the example. We are spiritual guides for people. We talked about how we can be motivated to have a deeper level of consecration.  It was a great zone conference. I am so grateful for our mission president and his sweet wife. I am pretty sure that I have the best mission president ever. haha

Questions from Home:

1) Do you have a CD player at your home/car? we have some CDs that we listen to over and over haha. we have it in our car.

2)What are your plans for Thanksgiving?  we have 2 dinner plans and the rest of it we are going to hopefully tract.

3) How is your Spanish coming?  Speaking? Understanding? ummm the Spanish is coming along I guess. I try to speak it more and more but sometimes I just forget.

4) Hardest thing this week? hardest thing about this week is that we aren't finding a whole lot of people to teach and people who we are teaching aren't progressing. so that's hard to watch so we need to work harder.

5) Funniest thing this week? funniest things this week: we went to a recent convert family's house and I was sitting on this small cooler and then this little girl came up to me a tackled me and I fell over and we all started 

to laugh.

6) How's it being the driver?  You doing OK with that there? I like to drive :) I am doing alright. It hasn't really snowed a whole lot which is nice and not nice because then there are people out of work here.

Also this week I had the chance to give a talk. Elder Escobar and I spoke in sacrament yesterday and it was awesome. I spoke on expressing gratitude and the atonement of Jesus Christ.  We can learn so much from the scriptures about giving thanks to God and to our Savior Jesus Christ and for their love and sacrifice.

I guess I want to share my testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel. This isn't just a religion, this isn't just a church. It is Christ's church. It has been restored to the earth once again. We have the power and authority just like Christ did when He was on the earth.  I know that this gospel is true with all my hear. I know that this gospel brings happiness like none other. I know that we must endure to the end and be faithful in order to receive those predicated blessings.  This is the greatest work---to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Joseph Smith declared it. A Prophet of God. Let us press on. Let us give thanks to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and their infinite love.

In the name Jesus Christ of Amen.

I love you all! 

email:  alexandra.underly@ldsmail.net

mailing address:  812 Jennifer St. 

                          Incline Village, NV 89451

HIKING in Lake Tahoe!  How Awesome is this!!!!

I got to go on Exchanges with my Mexico MTC Companion, Hermana Pearson!!!!!! I was SO excited!!!!! 

and with Sister Braithwaite!

YAY!  Back together again-me and Hermana Pearson!!

Adventures with Hermana Underly: I LOVE being a missionary-Week 9

I love hiking and I love being a missionary!!! 

I love this picture...it's so Lexie:) 

Hi family! hope everyone had a great week!

 

I wanted to start off and say how much a member makes a difference. It is hard working with the members here since we are so spread out on these mounatins haha but the members make such a significant difference when the missionaries are teaching the investigators!

This week was super great! Full of a lot of spiritual moments and many mini miracles. Something that has been more of a struggle this week is finding. It gets dark at like 5 here so we cant go out and look for people so we always have to be talking with people throughout the day and to keep our spiritual eyes open for those elite.  I learned this week about what actually qualifies us for the work and i learned that it is love. Love is what qulaifies us for the work. Christ loved all and served all. It is so amazing when you look through Christ's eyes you can see that every single person here on the earth is a child of God. 

This past saturday we had a youth from one of the stakes in Carson City come out to North Lake Tahoe and spend the day with us...It was called a mini mission. Her name was Rebecca and she is 17 and is considering going on a mission. So bascially the day with us would make it or break it haha.

That day was one of our most successful days actually! We talked with so many children of God and we all bore testimony every chance we got. It was way cool. We taught a lot of lessons and met a lot of people during the day.

Also this past sunday we had a new family that we are teaching come to church! My comp and I were on the stand. she was translating. All of a sudden I see that family walk in! I couldnt stop smiling. They sat in the back next to the elders. I was so happy. Just the mom came and her 3 boys: one is 11, 5, and 2. They are most adorable. They went to primary and she came with us to the spanish class. Then we had relief society and all the spanish women bore their testimony. We talked about the love that we should have to all of Gods children. It was great because she even spoke up a few times. She and her boys really liked it alot. One cool part was I was sitting next to the 11 year old. I talked with him about the sacrament and how boys who are 12 can pass the sacrament and he goes, "So I could do that next year?" my eyes lit up and I replied yes you could! Ah it was great. Its amazing how these 12 year old boys pass out the sacrament and how sacred the sacrament is.

So that was basically the highlight of my week

 

I love love love this gospel! it changes lives. It helps us to strive to be better each day. I know my worth and I want to live up to it. We are all sons and daughters of God. This gospel truly blesses families. 

I love all of you all who have supported me, who still support me in this effort. Today marks my month mark and I am the happiest I have ever been.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE getting letters:)

 

my address for snail mail (which I love):

812 Jennifer St. 

Incline Village, NV 89451

myemail: alexandra.underly@ldsmail.net

Any way you want, I love hearing from you:) 

I was feeling "artsy" with this beautiful view of Crystal Bay

My companion and I and our "mini-missionary"

We visit this lady who has this adorable puppy...I want this PUPPY!!!!!!

Because I am a "greenie" (a new missionary", my ward mission leader, who is a professional chef, 

made me a green meal!! hahaha:)

 

Hermana Underly-Week 8-Bears and Deer and Discovered Family Members, Oh My!

 DALLAS TO RENO:) 

Lexie LOVES Sunsets

Dearest familia

 

This week was a very trying week. 

But first last p day we went to the thrift store to shop which was super fun and taught a new family that we absolutely adore.  They are very receptive to the message of the gospel.

This week we went to Reno for a Zone training.  We discussed that God is still a God of miracles.  When we work we should expect miracles to happen and have faith and pray and obey and then we shall have miracles.  It was a great training that really motivated my companera and I to find and teach a lot more people.

So this week was filled with a lot of animals.... While we were driving one day there was this dog that looked like a wolf in the middle of the road and wouldnt move!! then one day we were driving and a REINDEER runs out in front of our car! it pranced right accross the road!! it was crazy! and then yesterday we were going to do a church tour with this darling family when we saw a bear come out from the side of the church building! we took a couple pics of it and then went inside to do our church tour.  It was amazing and the mom said that she felt peace. Her son even said that he wanted to stay at the church building forever! It was super cute!

This week i learned that The Lord wants to stretch me so that I can grow into the person that He wants me to become.  I really struggled this week but I also could count my blessings at the end of each day and be super grateful for this opportunity to serve. I love this work so much and I could not think of doing anything else. I am so blessed to have this gospel in my life that brings numerous blessings and peace. I know that with The Lord I can do all things.

So here are the questions mom

What is your ward like? Big? Active?  Our ward is the North Lake Tahoe Ward. The bishop of this ward is absolutely fantastic. Everybody loves him.  Our ward is a touristy ward which means that there are a lot of people in the summer time but when winter comes the numbers of that ward dwindle. It is a very small ward. We have 4 missionaries serving in our ward alone. 2 hermanas and 2 elders. One elder is from mexico and the other is from Guatemala and my comp is from Chile so that means that I am the only one who doesnt know how to speak spanish..... But its okay I am learning..slowly but surely. There is a spanish group that we have in our ward. Ususally the missionaries are the translators during sacrament and the other classes.  The elders teach the youth and my comp and I go into the class for the spanish speakers and investigators.  I dont understand like anything. It is a great ward. I already have so much love for them.

2) Did you pick up your bike? Will you be using a bike?  I picked up my bike and i wont be using the bike for a while atleast thats my knowledge. We are kind of secluded in the mountains and the church building is a good 20 min or so away. So be greatful that you have a church building so close back at home!

3) What is your Rogers family like? How old? Who lives at home? The Rogers family is super nice. They are kind of on the older side. All their kids are married so it is just them at home in their super neat cabin!

4) How do you spend your days...referrals? Tracting? Teaching? we spend our days studying and preparing for the day. We usually have appointments to go to.  We go to their houses and most times they are not there so we just keep going and try to find more and more people to visit and teach. 

5) How often do you get fed by the members? This past week we were fed every night with the members! We are so blessed to have such a great ward. They love the missionaries and they love their youth!

6) Did you like the gloves I sent? (They're Under Armour, and should be warm) It shows that the Enchanted perfume was delivered. Hope you got all that

So i got the package and wanted to thank you for that package!!!! first off wow those are super nice gloves. and 2 thank you for the enchanted perfume but I just meant the cheap perfume from bath and body works in the bottom cupboard in the bathroom in my cupboard that i already have.... but I will just consider that perfume as an early bday present!!!

 

ALSO MOM I FOUND A FAMILY MEMBER ON THE UNDERLY SIDE AT THE POST OFFICE LAST WEEK!

HIS NAME IS CRAIG UNDERLY

He works at the post office and a guy saw my name tag and said that another underly worked here and he came out and said immediately oh yep we are family. it was crazy!!

Lexie did say she would LOVE real live letters in the snail mail, too, hint, hint:) 

812 Jennifer

Incline Village, NV 89451

and her email is: 

alexandra.underly@myldsmail.net

 King's Beach-I'm guessing it's a lake, haha:)

1st Week in the Field with Hermana Underly:)

 View from her deck:)  HaHa, must be nice:)

It snowed on November 1st

hola everyone

it has been a great first week in the field here in Nevada... and California

I am in the North Lake Tahoe area and it is absolutely beautiful

I serve in Kings beach California and Incline village Nevada

so that is pretty cool

I absolutely adore my mission president and his super sweet wife. She loves to take pictures and is basically my mother out here. I mean their names are Dave and Cheryl so that's pretty neat.  

Things are going pretty well here in the area

My comp is from Chile and she is living in florida so yeah shes a native and I just love her. we get along super well and she leaves in just two months. we are teaching a pretty good amount of people. It has been quite the humbling experience so far. I know that the mission is the best thing that has happened to me thus far in my life and will be the best thing for me for the rest of my life.

I love this work. MY own testimony grows every time I teach it even if I do butcher the Spanish ahah all our lessons are in Spanish....

so I think the best part of my week was finding 3 new investigators by accident AND seeing one of my own investigators bear her testimony in sacrament meeting on sunday on the book of Mormon and the scriptures...like what that's my investigator up there at the pulpit bearing her testimony of this church. I could not fathom it.

I still cannot even fathom the fact that I am a missionary still. my testimony has grown so much since being here and I am so honored to serve a mission and wear Jesus Christ on my heart. Even if you don't have a nametag that says it you can still wear Jesus Christ on your heart by living the gospel and being that example throughout your daily life. yo tengo un testimonio del evangelio y el evangelio de jesucristo es la verdad.

Con mucho amor

Hermana Underly

Arriving new group of missionaries with President and Sister Hermansen

With President and Sister Hermansen in Reno

Sister Pieta-Trainer/1st Companion