I'm a mom... mamacita? Dog mom? No, I'm a mom!!!! 👩‍🍼

 HOLA everyone! Wow this week has flown by - actually the last 7 weeks have flown by and now its the end of the transfer already!   shoutout Hna Keime for the email title.... because IM TRAINING!!!! Thats right, I get a baby!! Im SO excited to meet and learn from a new hermana! I get to meet her tomorrow! If you have training advice, send it my way pretty please! I'll need all the advice I can get! 

Also this week was such a good one! 

Highlights:

️ dinner with Hermana Barrazza, the wisest abuela I've ever met - she's so sweet and calls us her princesas/reinas/hermosas and shared such a precious testimony of the blessings in her life

️ México Independence Day Fiesta! We had so many friends come and meet members and the food was SO good. viva México!

️ we had a great lesson with Aneth and Belize where we painted Books of Mormon and chatted about their thoughts on baptism, their parents opinions, their questions about church, and their lives! They are so sweet - please pray for their testimonies to grow and their parents' hearts to be softened! 

️ we had a super awesome sacrament meeting where Hna Woodbury talked about truth and Elder Jones played a beautiful musical number on the piano - an Aneth and Belize came! The spirit was so strong, I love a rejuvenating sacrament meeting. 

Bug of the week... cicada. What an experience we had last night. There's a guy in our ward who is an entomologist, meaning he studies bugs. Therefore, he somehow knows how to cook bugs. So he fried us up some cicadas for dinner last night. Taste - 6.5/10. Texture - 2.5/10; would not eat again but I'm grateful for the experience. If you want the recipe I'll ask him for you! also, there is a video of us eating them on my google photos if you're curious: https://photos.app.goo.gl/1vpWDchCEHN3CsEk6 

Spanish word of the week courtesy of Hermana Black: Facebookiendo

If you don't know this word, don't worry! It's not technically real! We LOVE Spanglish down here by the border. The next time you don't know how to describe a particular action, feeling, or object in Spanish, try saying it in an accent or with Spanish grammar rules!! It works about 110% of the time. and -ando/-iendo are the same as -ing in English. 

This has been your Spanish word of the week with Hermana Black! I'll be here for the next six weeks thank you and good night! 

Isn't she great?? My mom, everyone! 

Spiritual Thought

We had a general authority, Elder Larreal, come to our mission at the beginning of this week! He was so funny and joyful and enthusiastic about missionary work! I learned so much about sharing the gospel joyfully and with urgency. One thing I especially loved was his emphasis on looking outward and upward rather than inward. Life is full of challenges - anything important in this life will be hard to get. But when we focus less on our shortcomings or trials and start relying on God and serving others, joy will come. Everyone should read the General Conference talk he shared a few years ago! He is awesome. 

I Feel My Savior’s Love - https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2026/04/43larreal?lang=eng

Aaaah next week will be so full of updates! I'll be here for at least the next 6 weeks, so if you feel so inclined as to send a letter or package, here is my address: 

797 W Mesa Verde Dr. #9, Nogales AZ 85621

You matter! Your efforts are seen! Help someone else see that this week. Lots of love,

Hermana Morales

I Love to See The Temple

Even when it's too bright to open our eyes! 

Gird up your loins! Fresh courage take! Our God will never us forsake!

We don't always spend time in the Pioneer Cemetary behind the temple, but it's always a good time when we do! 

We are always on the lookout for Aicky's posterity!

We love to visit Zesto's too! We are all thoroughly conditioned by this point. 

Time at the temple in Nebraska is always time well spent! 

Back to School

 Ooh we're back in the schools! Summer never feels long enough, but the pull of school always gets us eventually! 

Adam and Emma had to take each other's back to school pictures this year because Jason was out of town and I was zipping Noah over to Stilwell! Adam is a junior! All of the sudden he's on the downhill slope of high school, locking in, receiving college recruitement mail on the daily, and just as busy as ever. He sure is a good high schooler! This picture in the music hallway confirms. 

Emma is a freshman!!! EEP! She is ready to take on the world at Valley Southwoods, and has already stacked her academic, extracurricular and social calendars! 

Noah was sporting a sling on the first week of school, and if that didn't give him enough unwanted attention, getting cast as Prince Eric for the fall musical The Little Mermaid definitely did the trick! He has entered Stilwell with a bang and ready to uphold the Morales name!

And I went back to school too!

 I *hated* the week before school, when I had to be in the office and missed out on some of the last mornings with my babes, but I LOVED watching Adam sing the National Anthem at the district back to school meeting- the chance to connect with my kids during their school days is the entire reason that I have this job in the first place!

Jordan Creek, let's go!!! 

I bought myself a cute little desk fan and I use it every single day. 

I love flowers in the office! 

Our colorful media center.

On my first day of school, I got to say an extra close hi to the cows while I was waiting to grab Emma! 

Me and my new office partner Cora on the first day of school. I can't believe how much has already changed since I first accepted this job (new principal, new principal secretary, new responsibilities), but I'm rolling with it! 

The Chick-fil-a dinner tradition lives on! 

And so did the walk at the arboretum, this time with just me and Noah since the high schoolers had marching band practice. 

Jason and I joined in a back to school Christian prayer group- it was sweet and a bit different from how we pray in church, but not all that different from how we worship in the temple! IYKYK.

We used apples for our back to school banner this year! I guess that means we're ready for fall. 

All of us except Laney. She is never interested in the times when she has to be alone at home. I try to take her out as much as I can, which always ends up making more work for me and more anxiety for her. 

But we both love the afternoon snooze!

Back to school fit check!

Some days fancy, some days comfy! 

It's going to be a great year!