Lessons I've Learned

Hey! Happy.....Monday? haha I feel like for the past 4 months I've been saying something that had to do with the holidays. However, they are now over, so I guess I don't have to say that anymore, that is until Valentines day rolls around. 

Anyway this week has been good. I feel like this week has been pretty routine and we had a lot of random things that we did that interfered with just normal proselyting. This week was ward conference so this week we did some "rescue visits" with the auxiliary leaders and their stake counterparts. That was good to be involved in. We went with the Primary President to visit some people which turned out to be a very inspired visit on her part. So that was cool to be a part of. We visited a very active family that has callings in the primary. The Primary President said she thought sometimes we pay too much attention to the inactives and forget about the active people and strengthening them. So we went on Tuesday and the message we were sharing with people was about hope. So we shared the message and we found out that the family we were visiting had found out they were pregnant! So they were really excited and it was a lovely visit. Well the next day, the family found out that she had a miscarriage. They were having a really hard time because they had also recently just had another sad death in the family during the holiday season. So they have been struggling. But it turned out to be very inspired to visit her and share that message of hope as they are now holding on to that message that was shared, even though when we came the night before, she was wondering why we had visited her and that she didn't really need that much hope in her life at the time. So it was very cool to see that and to see how in tune we need to be with the spirit at all times so that we an act on promptings such as those and be an instrument in the Lord's hands. 

This week we also did some good service. We went as a zone to a food bank and assembled bags of foods for families. It was really fun. We were in an assembly line and we all had to keep up the pace and it was GO time the whole time. It was really fun. This is the second time they have done this in this zone and both times we have finished an hour early. haha last time the workers were telling them that they needed to slow down because they were going too fast. So I guess we just work really hard and fast and they don't usually expect that. So that was really fun. Then we also went to the senior center again. The old people really enjoy it when we come. There was an old lady doing a food demonstration and she loved to use us as her little puppets. haha they are seriously so funny. But also it makes me realize.....I never want to get old... haha. :) Seriously though. It is fun to get to visit with them. However an old lady was very cranky with me because there was a broadcast of Obama on and a lot of us were talking and not watching. So apparently Obama was just a few miles down the road at a high school in our area. Not sure why. So she was very angry that I was not watching "OUR PRESIDENT." haha. She gave me a good chewing out because I was the only person who was nice enough to acknowledge her. 

This week we also went on exchanges. That was a different experience for me because this was the first time I have been on an exchange where one of us was not a sister training leader. Both of us were just normal missionaries so we didn't have to evaluate really or anything. I mean, of course we still learn from each other and such,but neither of us really had to "give advice" or find out if there are any problems and such. It was fun though. I went to the Spanish area and had to crack out my bike for the first time in 6 months. Luckily, it was a beautiful/perfect day that day. The weather has been all over the place lately. The past few days have been rainy. Anyway we got to teach a family that they recently put on date. The mom wasn't there but the boys and the dad were. The kids understand English and the dad understands Spanish. We were reading from the Book of Mormon so we read verse by verse, first in Spanish and then in English. It was really nice for me because prior to that I mostly just sat there because I couldn't understand anything. So I was able to explain what was going on to the boys. They were 9 and 7. They were really smart though and remembered a lot of what the sisters taught them last time and caught on pretty well. They even had questions and comments that all connected well. They seem to be a very prepared family so that is very exciting for them! 

We also had an interesting experience that day. We visited a less active lady. She is married and has two kids and her husband. She is the only member. So there is an 11 year old boy and a 9 year old girl. The boy, is extremely smart. Very, very, very book smart. He knows probably way more than I do. He was rattling things off about other religions and science and stuff. It was crazy. Anyway we were introducing the Book of Mormon and reading from the introduction (luckily this was all in English) and came to the part where it says that reading the Book of Mormon will bring us closer to God. I asked him how it would make him feel to have a better relationship with God. Well that turned out to be an inspired question because he confessed that he is atheist. What!? An 11 year old atheist! I was able to address his concern and explain and promise to him that he can know there is a God and that He loves him. His mom gave us more of his concern and told us that he felt there was no God because of some of the hard things he has gone through in his life. We invited him to read the Book of Mormon and he said he wasn't sure he would because he didn't have that "sincere heart or real intent" that we need to have. So we committed him to read at least the testimonies of the witnesses and the prophet Joseph Smith. He agreed. Well the next day the mom texted the sisters and said after we left her son tried to go to sleep but couldn't. He went to his mom and said they all needed to read the part we assigned together. They did so and he still couldn't sleep. He later told his mom, "I don't know what it is about the Book of Mormon, but I've GOT to read it." He just really felt like he needed to read it! How amazing. It was really cool. It was a really good experience for me too because I was talking and addressing his concern, I felt the spirit working through me. Lately I've had a bit of a harder time feeling guided and directed because my companion knows the people and what they need better than I do, so usually it is easy to just follow her lead. But while I was there, I could feel the spirit as I testified and found out that there was a concern that we needed to know in order to help him. And now he is reading the Book of Mormon! 

This week we also had a relief society activity and compared to my last ward, so many people came! It was all about emergency preparedness as well as food storage. I was able to learn a few things. But the best part was that we had two less actives come! So this week a lady and her husband
came into church one night and asked what time church started. They had been inactive for a long time and wanted to come back to church! We invited her to the activity and she came :) We also invited another less active. This lady lives with her boyfriend and they have a one year old daughter. Anyway, she came also and had a good time as well. 

This weekend we were also able to go to the visitors center with a couple to watch "Meet the Mormons". The guy said it really touched him and he seems very prepared, so we hope to start teaching him soon! 

This weekend we also had a baptism!:) This girl's family was baptized about a month ago and now she was able to follow their examples. It went really well. She is very happy. So many people came too. It was great. And while we waited for her to change, we opened it up for testimonies after our presentation and there was never a silent moment. It is so different from the other wards I have served in. I'm beginning to love it and to love the people. 

So my thought for this week is to really be in tune with the spirit and be worthy of the spirit to guide you at all times. The spirit is so important when it comes to serving in the church and also in raising a family and being a disciple of Christ. I had my first ward council meeting in this ward and the stake was there also. Like I said, this ward is different from any ward I have ever served in. They are each so on top of things and each auxiliary had a detailed report of at least one family they were working with. In my past experience, not every auxiliary does that or has something to report. But in this ward, every single auxiliary had something to report and it all related back to missionary work. It was amazing and the spirit was definitely strong. The Bishop is so involved and has a very strong testimony of missionary work and that it is what makes the difference. He really cares about the people and because each of those auxiliary leaders is in tune with the spirit, they each had been able to act on promptings to help those families they were working with. It was amazing. I also have such a testimony now of the importance of home teaching and visiting teaching. It is so crucial and essential in lifting everyone in the ward up. The leaders can't do everything and it is our job as disciples of Christ to care for one another and uplift each other. Home teaching and visiting teaching isn't something we should do once a month and be done, it is something that we need to take seriously. We need to be a true friend to those we visit and be there for them always. We can bless their lives and do things for them all month that are simple and easy for us, but means a lot to the recipient. (phone calls, texts, facebook message, plates of cookies, etc). As I've seen people who just need help and someone to reach out to them, those little things make a difference. They even make a difference in the lives of active people who we think might not need it. But they do. Anyway, I invite all of you to pray for a "missionary" or spiritual experience this week. Be an instrument and tool in God's hands for him to help one of his children. It could be at school, within your own family, or ward, or the grocery store. Try to recognize those promptings and then act on them. As you do this, you will get more because God will know he can trust you to do his will and take care of his children. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

2015

Happy New Year! I can't believe it is already 2015. It is so cool for me to think that I solely dedicated the year 2014 to missionary work. That's crazy! 

Anyway we celebrated the new year by...sleeping. Man we were tired and of course we had to be in bed by 10:30 so that's always fun. Although I was woken up several times by all the fireworks and parties going on at midnight. That was lovely. 

This week we taught a Samoan family everyday. They are recent converts and we have been teaching the daughter. She is 16 and didn't take the lessons with the rest of the family. However, she listened much of the time from her room and thought about it and decided she wanted to take the lessons as well. She is cute. So we put her on date for this coming Saturday a couple weeks ago so we have been teaching them everyday to get everything in that we need to. She is really excited to be baptized. We took her and her cousin to the temple visitors center this weekend to watch the Joseph Smith Movie. They LOVED it. They took pictures of anything and everything. We also did a family walk through that they really enjoyed. It was good to take just her and let her feel the spirit of everything on her own because her mom is really protective so its good to be able to let her experience things on her own and for herself. She really wanted to be able to go inside the temple, but knew she couldn't at that time. So we need to get her involved in family history to go to the temple and do the baptisms for the dead after she is baptized. So we are excited for that this weekend! 

Also we took this other guy to the temple lights this week too. He enjoyed that and also took pictures of EVERYTHING. People are so cute. They get so excited about all of it. So that is really good :) We started teaching him when I first got here and he has been reading the Book of Mormon. He's pretty far already too. It's awesome to see people take these things into their lives and do the work for themselves to find out if it is true. He is really into UFO's and lights in the sky and such so he is interesting to talk to. He sees a lot of biblical evidence too he says, so its interesting. He also came to church this week for the first time so that was good. I think he felt a little awkward, but who wouldn't their first time at church! That is why we have to be super on top of things and make sure we are very welcoming to visitors :) 

There are so many families here who are so poor. The circumstances are even worse than my previous area because NO ONE has money. In my other area we had a few nice housing developments in our ward, but the rest of the ward was really run down. However, people could help each other because they had money to spare and help others. Here, NO ONE has money and most of them need help. So it's really heartbreaking and sad to see people who are almost homeless and have nothing. We visited a lady this week who is sick and just got out of jail for shoplifting to try to get things for her kids. They literally have nothing. So we went shopping and bought them some food and left it on their doorstep. We figured anything would help. However, fail on our part....we got caught! We hid around the corner to make sure they opened the door, but they walked down the stairs and found us!!! Who does that!? You are supposed to just take the bags. But we didn't even hear the door open and all the sudden they found us and it was a little awkward. haha oh well. It is the thought that counts I guess. We tried. Hopefully it helps them though. 

We also talked to a really nice homeless man outside Walmart when we went to buy that food and we didn't have any money to give him so we bought him a sandwich to give him when we came out. Fail again...he was gone when we came out! We were sad we didn't get to give it to him. 

I swear I am bad luck because the church building got vandalized here the other day. Someone got in somehow and broke into the fire extinguishers and sprayed them all over the overflow of the gym as well as some classrooms. They also go into the library and just threw a bunch of stuff everywhere. The geniuses also photocopied their hand. Aren't they smart. So that was a bummer deal. 3 out of the 4 zones I have been in have all been vandalized and broken into. It's so stupid. Why would anyone want to mess with God's house! It's like they want to be damned or something. Sometimes people aren't very smart. 

We visit a lot of recent converts that I am trying to get to know as well. So we visited this lady. She is super sweet and just hit her year mark of being a member. She is struggling right now a lot, but she has a super strong testimony. She came to church this week and bore her testimony and it was really good. She even brought her 16 year old cousin! Her cousin was with her this week when we visited and she felt the spirit so she brought her to church. She felt the spirit there too so we hope to start teaching her soon :) 

Speaking of fast and testimony meeting, it was amazing! I have never seen anything like it in my whole life. When they opened it up for testimonies, people flooded the stand. Most of the center choir seats were filled with people waiting to bear their testimonies. If you didn't get up in the beginning and go sit on the stand, you didn't get to have a turn to bear your testimony. Sacrament went a half hour longer than it is supposed to. It was crazy! I was just baffled. So this ward may be poor, but they are also very poor in spirit and just very full of love for their Savior. It was a really cool thing to witness. So that is my thought for this week. We should all be as anxious as the people here to share our testimonies and our love for the Savior. Next time there is a silent moment in testimony meeting, don't keep putting it off, but get up right away and share what you know to be true. It doesn't have to be long or fancy, it just needs to be heartfelt :) So I invite all of you to bear your testimony this next fast Sunday and after that, go into each fast Sunday with the determination to bear your testimony if there is a dead moment and if the spirit prompts you to do so. You will strengthen others testimonies, and it will strengthen your testimony as well :) I hope you all have a great week! Happy 2015!

Another Year Come and Gone....

Well this week has gone by with not much work! We had our Christmas Conference this week and then Christmas, so I haven't really been able to adjust to my new area yet. However, I have met quite a few people and they are very kind and sweet. So I'm exited to continue to get to know people. 

So Christmas was good but it didn't really feel as much like Christmas compared to last year for some reason. However it was good and I especially enjoyed talking to family! I can't believe the next time I see you will be in person. Weird. I also had to give a talk in church this week. They called me at 8 the night before...so it was about building the kingdom of God. I have plenty of talks written for that, but usually people don't like to hear about missionary work and this ward seems pretty spunky...so I related missionary work, to the parable of the skunk! haha. It went well and everyone wanted to talk to me about skunks after that. 

I don't have much time today, so I just wanted to share a little something with you for the new year! So I am the type of person that loves to just start fresh and start at good times. Like if I haven't worked out all week then I'm like, eh...i'll start Monday. Or if I eat crappy one day, then I say, hmmm I'll start tomorrow since I already did bad today! haha well I read the talk "Remember Lot's Wife" by Elder Holland and we have also been showing the New Year's Mormon Message a lot and it has really caused me to think more about how I need to use every minute I can to be better. I don't have to wait a day, a week, or a year to set goals. Yes, I've always known that, but it gave me more motivation. If I do bad one minute, I can be better the next minute. The whole point of the Atonement is to help us continually be better every second, not just every year. So as you make goals for yourself, understand that you are probably going to mess up, but that's ok! You can move forward with faith and know that as you do your best, you can make every minute better than the last. You can know that God is behind you and that he is on your side. That didn't come out exactly how I wanted it to, so I just encourage you all to read that talk! It is so great. I hope you all have a great year!

Be sure to check this out!!! https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2010-12-21-new-years-look-not-behind-thee?lang=eng

Christmas

So I have been transferred. My new area is...interesting to say the least. Definitely very humble circumstances and the people are all so different and crazy! But it should be fun. I do miss my previous area, however i guess i have missed all my other areas too. 

Things have been weird with so much stuff going on for Christmas, so not a lot of normal missionary work going on. But after the holidays hopefully i can get all situated and settled in. It is the ghetto so it's going to be lovely :) So it is a HUGE ward (like 1200 people) but only about 250 come. We are very busy and there is a lot of work. So that's good :) we also have a set of elders in our ward that we work with. They are also interesting. However I'm so excited to be back with my first companion! She goes home this next transfer so i'll get another new companion then as well. I did get to go back to my previous area on Saturday for a baptism baptism. That was really fun. I really love this lady. She is so awesome. Her daughter is also an awesome girl and is going to get baptized the same
time her brother does. One of the boys is super interested so hopefully he will be allowed to be baptized. 

We have a car in this area so we don't bike usually because there is so much work that there isn't enough time to bike. It's very inefficient for this area I guess. But sometimes we do bike. We just have the family ward, however since the singles ward is so far away for our ward people; we have a little extension class thing and random activities for the ysa aged people. 

This has been a good change, although this has definitely been the hardest part of my mission so far. I'm not sure what it is, but i'm just really emotional and stressed and exhausted lately. It's really wearing me out. I think maybe God is humbling me or trying to stretch me or something you know. (Cause we can all use some more humility). i just feel really behind all the time. So i'm hoping to get on top of things soon and get back to normal. I don't know what my deal is. I'm trying not to stress out about it, but when you only have one day of the week to wash the car, clean the house, shop, email, figure things out for you life, and help with the zone activities, it gets stressful to get my life figured out for when i come home in just one hour each week. (I don't know how other people do it). Anyway, have a great week!

I'll go where you want me to go....

Well, I am leaving Casa Grande. I am really sad about it. I was really excited to hopefully spend Christmas here and I love my companion to death so I was hoping for one more. Plus, I say this every time, but I hate packing. Anyway it will be interesting to see where I go. Maybe I'll go back to a biking area so I can lose some weight. Although I never lost weight when I was in a biking area before either. Guess we will find out on Thursday!

So this week has been alright. We've had quite a few things fall through so that was a bummer deal. But we also had a super awesome day where we found quite a few potential investigators! That was a testimony to me that God always knows what he is doing. Our newly wed convert had to cancel her appointment with us, so we had nothing to do that day. I had a terrible headache the night before, which caused me to feel sick. So I had left Sister R to plan by herself. So we had a lot of random people put in besides the ones we had put in during weekly planning. So we had put a bunch of people in the boonies in to visit since that is where our appointment lived. We decided to go out there anyway even though she cancelled so we could see a bunch of the other people! Well, we ended up being in places that I have never been before and we had a lot of success! We found this neighborhood way out there that we had never been to before. However, the people we were looking for weren't home so we called another guy that was supposed to live out that way too, and he was actually on his way to the Mesa Temple to see the lights! So that was cool :) He told us to call him at the beginning of next year to see him. Then we drove to another part of the boonies to find some part member families and share the "He is the Gift" video with them. We knocked on one of the doors thinking it was this one family...well it was actually a different lady. Apparently the family we were looking for lived across the street. However, this family turned out to be a part member family too! We shared the video with this lady and she said she has studied with Baptists, Jehovah Witness, and Catholics and had been searching for the truth but didn't feel like her husband knew all the answers. So we asked her if she would like to take the lessons so she would know for herself what we believed. She said yes and that she would prefer to come into town to do the lessons! So we get to have our lessons at a church building :) So that was exciting in and of itself but then she went on to tell us that she had been in a car wreck earlier that week and it had made her start thinking about what is really important in life, "and then you showed up." She then said that the only reason we were even able to catch her at that time was because of the car wreck. Her car had been totaled. So she normally would never have been home at that time. Miracles! I love being able to see God guide us. But usually we don't get to hear of those things and we think we are just running through the motions or making it up :) But God knows what he is doing! So that was awesome. After that we only had a few more minutes before we started to head back, but we wanted to try one more. So Sister R just picked a "random" house and we knocked. There was a guy who recently moved down here and he didn't really want to listen, but I softened him up ;) haha but it turns out that he is YSA age! So that was so awesome because it is terribly hard to find new YSA investigators here! He was super nice and seemed interested by the end so it was just a really awesome day :) We also had a few other random lessons that people said we can start coming by regularly in the New Year. One of them was a cute lady that had a full table of food set for us when we got there. She had tea (herbal) and tons of snacks and she wanted to hear about what we believe in while we ate. She is a historian and we ended up giving her a Book of Mormon. It was really good! She was so nice!

We had another good lesson this week too! He is awesome. We talked about the Book of Mormon with him as well and were able to go over some of the questions he had and address some of his concerns. He seems really solid though. He talked about how he might have to redo his work schedule and how it will really be stinky hours and such but he might be able to do that so he can come to church. :) If he takes all of the things we ask him to do, into his life and really ponders it, I know that he will be baptized someday :)

Also, our mother investigator bought us a Christmas tree! She loves Christmas and was so sad when she heard we didn't have a Christmas tree. She said she was trying to figure out how to make it a surprise, but couldn't, so she just told us and we went to pick it out at a Christmas tree lot together. She had ornaments and lights for us too. It's so cute! I felt so bad because it was a real tree! Expensive! But she was so excited :) I love her so much. I have grown really close to her. I'm really sad that I am leaving because she is getting baptized this weekend. Hopefully I can come back for it though. Who knows.

This week we also sang in the YSA. They put together a Christmas program and we were one of the lucky ducks who got asked to sing. So Sister R and I sang "Angels We Have Heard On High." I always get so nervous. I'm tired of singing haha. Which is funny because we were told that if any of us wanted to do a musical number for the Christmas conference that we needed to get it together and tell Sister T. I suggested we do something as a zone. So the zone leaders jokingly delegated that responsibility to me. Well jokes on them because I did it. We asked ladies in our ward for music and one of the ladies actually had a piece that her mom put together! It is "What Child Is This (lullaby)." So it has a girl part that is different from the regular song, then the boys sing the regular song, and then we sing our separate parts at the same time. Then there is chorus that we all sing together. It is super cool, so i am really excited! We are just going to sing as our zone now so that will be kind of awkward at the conference when I walk up and I'm not in the zone anymore but oh well :) So we are going to practice it today. The whole zone agreed to do it so we will see how it sounds today! It will be our first out of two practices sooooo wish us luck ;) haha I'm excited though. Hopefully it works out. It's really cool because no one will have heard this version before :)

Anyway I'm out of time for the day, but I just wanted to share a little thought. I have been reading the Book of Mormon and today I read about Alma and Amulek preaching in the city of Amonihah. This is the time when Zeezrom tries to discount what they say and make them cross their own words and in the end Alma and Amulek are thrown in prison. However, because of their faith they are able to break the bonds and the prison ends up falling and killing all those who had opposed them. Then after that, they travel to Sidom and those people who had listened to their words in Amonihah had fled there and so they were willing to listen to Alma and Amulek. Well Zeezrom was also there and he had become super sick because he felt so guilty about all that he had done. Long story short, he ends up calling for Alma and Amulek to come heal him. They didn't even hesitate, but immediately went to him! Although he had done some wicked things and had caused Alma and Amulek much grief and persecution, they instantly forgave him. Then through Zeezrom's faith, he was healed and immediately baptized after. It then says that he preached the gospel. I think there are so many things we can learn from that story! Faith, Repentance, Forgiveness. That just really stood out to me this morning as I was reading that when we have faith, it doesn't matter what happens in our lives, that we can get through it because God knows best. So even though I am sad, I am ready and willing to go wherever God has me go. If I trust in him, then it will all work out :) Anyway love you all! Thanks for all your support and help that you give me.

P.S. I'm so behind on letters right now, so if you have written me, I will write back I promise, but it might be around Christmas. I have to pack and have a lot to do today! So sorry!

Lead me, Guide me.....

This week has been pretty good. Last P day was really fun because we were able to go to the Stake President's house and play games. They have a huge house and a volleyball net in their yard ,as well as basketball and tennis courts. So we played a fun new card game that Sister Walton taught us called Cover Your Assets. You should look into it, it's really fun. Then we played some fun volleyball! It's always fun to get together as a zone and get to know each other and take a little time to relax and just have fun. There are always so many things that you have to do on P day and never enough time, so it's nice to take that break and work out some stress.

We got to teach one of the member's grandson tonight for FHE. He is living with them for the school year and is not baptized. He is 10 and is not currently interested, but they are reading scriptures with him and having FHE and he comes to church, so we are teaching him little lessons so that he can learn more. It went really well last week and he had some good questions. We also got to help decorate their Christmas tree so that was fun :)

We finally saw  one of our investigator's again and still, it is amazing to see the progress that has been made on her. She didn't get to read the Book of Mormon on her trip and she is leaving on another trip this week so we told her to bring her Book of Mormon and she said she would this time and she would put it in her purse right then. It is amazing that she was smiling and lighthearted about it because in the beginning, it definitely wouldn't have been that way. She loved the Christmas video (He Is The Gift) though and really opened up about things after that. That Christmas video is so awesome and is such an easy way to do missionary work so make sure you are using it!

Our single adult investigator was doing really well this week too. We backed up and started over so that he can take things slower and not get so overwhelmed. So we taught the Restoration over a couple different days. I also told him I read the Book of Mormon in 12 days before my mission so he wanted to read it in 11.5. haha he has been reading a lot and he has grown so much in the past week just from reading! It has been super cool to see him grow and he said he knows the part that he has read is true. So he was doing awesome and we also taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he said he needs to start preparing for baptism. Then he came to church on Sunday and he was fine in Sunday school, but apparently he left church after priesthood and told one of the members that he was never coming back. What? So we called him and he said he just can't be something he is not and can't be surrounded by such good people. He said we have other people who are worth saving. It broke our hearts and he asked us not to come anymore but promised he would keep praying and finish the Book of Mormon. Of course we aren't going to not go by, he needs a little boost and needs to know that God loves him and that we all are trying to become better. It's not about fitting into the church and changing WHO you are, but it's about changing to become WHO God wants YOU to be. He wants you to be the best YOU that you can and that is what matters. So we are hoping some members of the branch will stop by tomorrow and we will stop by the next day. We wanted to give him a little space from us and have members stop by and show he is cared about. 

We had exchanges this week and Hermana D came with me to our area. It was fun because it was her first exchange ever! We had quite a few lessons that day too so it was a good day for exchanges. We even contacted a former and shared the Christmas video with her and set up a return appointment. We caught up with another investigator as well. It is really hard to teach her because she basically knows the doctrine. It now just comes down to her acting in faith and taking the steps she needs to, to grow in her testimony, such as coming to church. So it's hard to know how to help her because she is the type of person that if you are too bold with, she will probably turn away. As well as her husband. So we are trying to be careful and really seek for inspiration and revelation to know how to help her.

We got a new investigator in the YSA! Yay!!!! He came to institute (we met him at a dinner last week in our family ward. He is the father's oldest son and has only known his dad for a few years). He showed up and the lesson was on the first vision. Boo ya! But they didn't actually tell the story, it was more like what can we learn from the story and apply it to our lives. So we set up an appointment to teach him the "story". The lesson went really good and you can tell he is a thinker. However he has had bad experiences with churches in the past so he isn't ready to jump into it, but the members with us were super bold and told him he can just take this as information or his life can be changed by it and it can resolve the concerns he has. So he seems promising :) He even said a prayer without just trying to push him at all. It was awesome! So we also taught at ton of recent converts this week as usual. That is something we really need help with from the ward because it is so hard for us to keep track of all of them and all of our investigators on our own. So we are hoping to making progress there soon. We don't want to be a burden on the bishop, but the ward has really got to step it up to help these people who are making HUGE changes in their lives. However, I am super grateful for all they do for us. I know they have their own lives and families they need to worry about as well, so I am very grateful for all the help they offer us.

My thought this week is from one of the testimonies I heard on Sunday in the YSA. I have been fasting and praying a lot to know what I should do after my mission and yesterday one of the men said "If it makes you want to be a better person, then that's where you need to be." So it doesn't matter whether it is applied to dating, schooling, your job, or whatever it is, that is where you should be. I really liked that and it really made me think about where I should be in order to keep learning and growing the MOST. So keep that in mind as you are making decisions in your life. God has a plan for us, but he wants us to put forth the effort and make our own decisions too. Which is extremely stressful I'll tell ya! But I know that as we put our faith in him and do our best to serve Him, that everything will fall into place. I hope you all have a wonderful week! Try to Share the Gift with someone! :)

Thanksgiving round 2!

So, it is the holidays again...good gracious the month of November just

flew by! Before we know it, it is going to be Christmas! Anyway I hope you

all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. This week was pretty good! We didn't get

to talk to many new people this week, however, we had a ton of recent

convert and less active lessons.

We did a referral from headquarters! A sixteen year old boy sent it

in with a request for a Bible. So we got to meet them. They have their own

church that they go to and they had a hard time fully understanding the

importance of the message we had to share. It was a Mexican family and the

kids like English but the Mom didn't speak English as well. I'm not sure

how much of it she understood. However, she knew that we had "a" temple in

Utah and she has seen that before. We taught a mini-restoration lesson and

left a few Book of Mormons. One of the daughters was probably 11 or 12 and

she was just soaking everything in that we said. She asked how she could go

on a mission and such and we told her she had to be a member of the church

she said, "oh, that's gonna be hard." haha so they don't understand everything 

exactly and said they had to go to their own church on Sunday. So we have 

another appointment set up with them and we will be on exchanges

that day, so it will work out because then the Spanish sisters can get a

feel of how the mom feels about all of it.

We taught one of converts again this week. She had kind of fallen off the face of the

planet for a while but she is now meeting with us regularly and has been

coming to church! She looks great and is even bringing another family to

church with her. She really seems to be turning things around and changing.

She loves church and understands the importance of keeping the

commandments. It has been awesome to see the change in her. She has gone

through a pretty rough time lately and has gotten a divorce. I think that

hard time actually helped her come closer to God though and helped her

recommit.

We also have been having our newly weds teach us the lessons. It has been

going really well. The wife is awesome and does all the extra studies in the

back of the pamphlets and she understands things really well! They are SO

excited about getting sealed in the temple too. They keep asking where they

can buy white clothes and we keep telling them that when it gets close that

people will help them shop for the things they need and that they will take

temple classes to help them be prepared. They are awesome :) We are trying

to get everything lined up for our recent converts to go to the temple to

do baptisms for the dead. It's been a little hard with the change in the

bishopric and stuff to get everyone on the same page so hopefully we will

get that figured out soon!

We had an AWESOME lesson with another investigator this week! So this guys

house is really chaotic and hard to have a lesson in so we finally got

things set up to have a lesson at the church with him. We got another

recent convert to come too so we would have a third female and we had another

guy in the ward go pick him up. Well a few hours prior he said he couldn't

come anymore. I was pretty upset because he has been so flaky lately and we

went to a lot of work to make this lesson at the church work out. So I got a

little frustrated and was really bold and stern with him about him needing

to come (he hasn't been to church in at least 3 months.) Well long story short,

it turns out he was just joking with us! So he came and we taught the gospel of

Jesus Christ and used the footsteps. However, at the beginning we had him stand

at one end and had the picture of Christ at the other and I decided to get him

back for messing with us. So I told him he had to sing "I Am a Child of

God" while skipping to the picture. He kept saying he was shy and he

couldn't do it but I insisted. He said he couldn't skip and he would just

jog and he said he also didn't know the song. So we sang him the first line

and he kept saying he was too shy to do it. At this point I was about to

tell him I was joking and he didn't really have to do it, when all the

sudden he started doing this weird skip/jog/prance thingy singing, "I am a

child of god...I am a child of god." I died I was laughing SO hard. You

should have seen it, this big Mexican who works security, covered in

tattoos and such...and singing while running toward a picture of

Christ. I wish I would have gotten it on camera. Luckily he takes things

well and was a good sport about it. Anyway, after our funny experience we

had a really good lesson and he did not want to leave the church. He said

he felt so good and was so happy to be there. He could feel the spirit so

strong and he basically taught himself and said he knew he needed to come

to church and he wasn't keeping the commandments. Even though he isn't

doing bad things he isn't coming to church so he knows that he could do

better. So it went SO well! However....he didn't come to church on

Sunday...we called him and called him to wake him up (he tells us to) and

he texted us and said he was awake and then when the ride went to get him,

the mom said he was asleep...then we called and called and he wouldn't

answer. AHHH! So frustrating.

Our Thanksgiving was really good too! We had a low key dinner at our ward

mission leader's home. It was fun! We also stopped at a non members house. It was

the home of a lady that wants to feed us so we stopped in there and ate there

as well. This was all like 20 minutes apart too so needless to say, I was

STUFFED! We also had time to just relax as well. We also decorated our

little foam Christmas tree so that was fun! :) We then had an activity with

all the missionaries. We took popcorn and the ZL's took hot chocolate. We

played games like signs and then broke up into little groups and played

board games. It was really fun and nice to just relax and hang out has a

zone family.

We had another lesson this week that went really well!This lady wants to

take things really slow however. She knows a lot already so it is

a little different teaching her. Also her husband was there for the lesson

and he seemed to be a lot more open than in the past and was actually

making comments and such. It was really good! We also had a member there

and they actually live really close to each other. Also the member is a

convert so it was really good for this lady to be able to ask her a lot of

questions about how she changed and how it has helped her family and such.

It was awesome :)

Also our mother/daughter investigators came to church! It was so good! The mom

is on fire and is ready to make that commitment and be baptized, but her daughter

is thinking about it again. She isn't sure. She says that she feels that she just

hasn't gotten that huge affirmation yet. Her mom thinks it has something to

do with some of her friends. So we are trying to help her through her

concerns. It really helped for her to be able to come to church and she is

going to go to mutual this week too so that will be super good! I'm really

excited for them. We are going to go see the Christmas lights with them too

next week. :) It will be fun! Then the week after that, it is transfers....

I kind of hope I get to stay here one more transfer. Then after that, I

will only have 2 transfers left...so I will most likely only have one more

area. That is seriously so crazy. I don't like it. But I really love my companion

and it would be a bummer to get transferred right before Christmas. Plus I really

want to be here for this mom's baptism. I love her and her family so much! :)

So I'm running out of time so I'm going to give my quick thought. I'm sure

you have all heard of the "He is the Gift" initiative so if you haven't...then

I'll attach the link. It is seriously the best thing ever! I love it so

much. The church is putting so much work and money into this so we need to

embrace it and help share it with others! I love that it is all about how

God loves us SO much that he sent his son as the real gift of Christmas. We

need to discover the gift of Christ and the peace that it brings to us.

Once we discover it, then we need to embrace it and make it be a part of

who we are. After that, we should WANT to share it with everyone we can! We

are all sons and daughters of God and he wants us to help others along the

path once we are on it. This is such an easy way to do missionary work so

embrace this and help #SharetheGift! If you don't know much about it, then

talk with the missionaries! They will know :) I love you all and I hope we

all remember the true meaning of the holiday season and help spread the

true joy that comes from knowing that Christ is the real Gift of Christmas.

:) I feel so lucky to be able to be a missionary for 2 Christmas seasons!

What a blessing!