Tuesday, October 7, 2014

hello picture time!!!!


these are my babies!!! three of which I trained.
 so we have 9 missionaries in our little branch and this is us.
these are my three daughters, Mormon missionaries refer to the missionaries they have trained as their children. 

BAPTISMS!!
these are our girls that we have taught and they are amazing !!! Jenny y Yezahira. At first they didn't know that The Book of Mormon was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, but through diligent scripture study and prayer they were able to find out for themselves that it was all true. If they didn't know that they wouldn't have made this promise to God that they will keep his commandments for the rest of their lives, they wanted to get baptized until they were positive, so they did. they took it very seriously , and I see a very promising future for them, I cant wait until they serve the Lord as missionaries and bring others to this happiness.





Monday, September 29, 2014

Hello My Friends

My week has been a rollercoaster, haha.

I am so happy to be back in my old area, I feel so loved. All the members have been amazing and have made me feel like family.

I am enjoying teaching these wonderful investigating families they are all sincere and humble and are thankful that we give our time to come and teach them to help them understand the gospel and help them teach their kids good moral values.

here are some of the families we are teaching

Francisco and Maria- they are a cute old couple that have the most adorable grandchildren. we met them by knocking doors, they invited us in and had a good how to begin teaching lesson with them. they invited  us over for that  Sunday.all their children were there so we were teaching a big group of people, they actually have been to the Easter pageant so they had a good impression of the church already. We got to know them and had some laughs, that is really important for me to do so we can break the ice and for it not to be awkward.We taught he restoration and they do believe that Joseph had that vision we invited them t pray about it.

itzel and jose and their two kids- this family Is so cute and attentive. they have come to multiple church activities and they always have a good time. The mom has not wanted to come to church yet because her son has autism and is scared he will be to disruptive. We took the young men's President and he talked all about boys scouts and the boys seem really excited, there is something wrong with the normal one , but we just need to figure it out, he looks depressed. he told us things about his friends and hwo they lied to him, so we read in the pamphlet of For the strength of the youth.

Rebecca- this women looks like sister Barton, its crazy,  except she is from Mexico, ill send you pictures next time. She is so sweet and has four adorable children. She actually came to the General Women's Meeting this Saturday and she said that it was really inspirational and loved it, we invited her to it when we were reading from The Book of Mormon, while we were studying on the importance of Prophets, we invited her to listen to a living prophet this Saturday and she was so intrigued by it and couldn't believe it as she asked so there is a live prophet today? just like before? it was the best. then the next day she came to church with all her kids, I was sitting next to all of them as their mother was in the back calming her baby and they were so well behaved and during the closing prayer the 6 year old boy closed his eyes bowed his head and folded his arms throughout the whole prayer. it was awesome! then after they asked where their classes were. unfortunately the power was out because of the monsoon the day before and the tree that fell cut the power line. by the way have I told you that we have 9 missionaries in out branch, most members are less active.  We are all working hard to get them all back

Olivia and her daughter - she is a sweet sweet lady who is so smiley and her twelve year old daughter has been reading the book, she doesn't get it that much so we are going over there to read it with her.

bulmaro- he always comes to church and he has a baptismal date, he even quit his job to come to church.

I have trials at the moment but I love them because it teaches me to trust more in God and pray with more intent.

well I hope everyone has a great week!

Thursday, September 18, 2014

transfer news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



you'll never guess where i am at!!! Camelback 1st, i came back to the area i was at before, and i love it here!!! super excited to be here. i know i am ment to be here its wonderful i have a lot of recent converts to come help out and love. 











i loved being with sister 

vargas she was amazing.
well here are some 

pictures of some of the 

members who will miss me 

and some other random 

pictures.

my beautiful companion 

backing me out, on a rainy 

day.

this day was polkadot day 

:)








Monday, September 8, 2014

Monsoon Season

hello everyone, beautiful rainy day today in Arizona.

 

We have a miracle! we taught irma this week about the word of wisdom. and it was really good we shared this scripture

mosiah 4:9 Believe in God; believe that he is, and thathe created‍ all things, both in heaven and in earth;believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both inheaven and in earth; believe that man doth notcomprehend‍ all the things which the Lord cancomprehend.  We explained that although we dont know why we shouldnt ingest certain things that are harmful to the body,we should do it out of faith, trusting in God that it is for our benefit.

towards the conclusion of our lesson, she told us if drinking coffee was going to hold her back from getting baptized then she won't get baptized. We committed her to pray for strength so she can resist it and make a promise with God that if she keeps it her son will stop smoking. Her daugther was present and she told us of an expirience she had by making a promise with God, she told us that her baby boy had a lot of health problems and so she promised God that if she stopped drinking coffee, if He can heal him, she knew if she made a tiny sacrifice like that that He will keep  His promise as long as she keeps hers. As soon as she stopped he hasnt had any health problems, and one day she said "oh what will one little cup do" and she drank it and during that time he got sick again and she decided to quit it for good , because she knew that God don't play. it was perfect.

then we came back on saturday and we read the Book of Mormon with her, after reading we followed up with her on her word of wisdom committment and she miraculously told us that she has "not had the craving ever since we have been talking about it, instead i rather drink my herbal tea, although my family makes it and offers me some i just look at it and have no desire to have some. I think it is really intresting how that has happened and i stopped all of a sudden since i haven't been able to stop drinking it since i was a wee lad" ofcoarse all this was in spanish heehee.

we expressed our love for her and how much we wanted what is best for her and that we have been praying for her. She was touched and knew that it was thanks to the prayers offered in faith.

This strengthend our testimony about prayer and that Heavenly Father provides the way for his children to keep His commandments.

 
Sincerely,

Hermana Salas
 

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Good Monday to you!!!

guess what i did today!! BIKRAM YOGA! oh how i missed it! it was so challenging, and now i feel like passing out cause it excerted a lot of my strength . It was great! 



 
we had  a wonderful week, we had five investigators at church which were the ones we took to the Visitors Center last week and the Familia Diaz, we were so happy because it took a lot of investigation as to why that brother who is searching for truth, and can't find it in his own church and yet he still goes, as an obligation to  his wife as he says that he does it ofr his wife, although she doesnt even like to go and gave him clear permission that he can search for the religoin he likes and not to worry about taking his kids to their church and just go find the one that makes him happy, she did this in front of us. So we have a hard time understanding this man. His wife is super nice to us she even feeds us dinner and getrs so happy when we are there but she also says that we should pertend she is not there and she sitts in on hte llessons but she makes it clear that she wants us to teach her husband. He is a man with many questions and wierd doubts. We have scripture packed lessons for him when we go and we have been able to resolve some of his doubts, thankfully. ONe such doubt he had was the importance of baptism and how it is not necessary for us because Christ came to cleanse us from sin. So we shared i think it is John3:5 about how we cannot enter into his kingdm exceot we are baptized abnd of coarse the comission of the resureccted Lord, to his apostles which states clearly that they must go forth and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. It really was  a miracle to get them to church. and the members that have invited them before were shocked to see them there. also the members that have came out to teach them were glad they were there. We belive that perhaps we wont get to harvest these fruits but we knowthat we are nourishing them.
 
then we have been teaching the martinez girls and we helped them make invites for their baptism with cute pictutres from old ensigns and that made them even more excited for the day of their baptism, they have theri interview scheduled for this wednesday. not to mention this is a great way to find people to teach.  We are soups happy that their GRandma decided to join them and take the lessons and get baptized as well. they all came to church too. She cant read so we committed her to listen to the scriputres onlds.org its awesome!! We have seen a huge tur around in this family, because now the mother is supportive and bringing them to church and she also is home when schedule appointments. We are teacing them how to have a family home evening tonight and we are super excited. WEll we had taught the grandma the restoration and when we went over there again ot follow up if she had prayed about it. she said that she forgot and that she likes this church a lot more than any other church but doesnt have a firm testimony that is the only true restored churhc of Jesus Chirst here on the earth. so we  had to teach her again to refresh her memory, but this time we had her tell us what she understood and explain it in her own words after each point. it required a lot more focuse on her part. hehe  we are evil.
 
 we have this 13 yr old we are teaching and she is so prepared and is so mature! she prayed to know if the chruch is true and she said she felt good as she prayed so we asked her to describe her feelings and she sai that she felt her heart kindof burn and it wasnt heart burn it was a  really good feeling she said. we were both taken back and we said to her that she had a lot of faith and thats why God was able to respond so clearly. exceptfoher parents wont let her come to church. WE are going to have a little talk with her mothere and find out what we can do.
 We have been working hard, we love eachother , and we are seeing the miracles that come from being the best we can be.!!

love you lots!! take care y'all

 this is them reading The Book of Mormon stories arent they super cute!?? love them to death

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Good Morning

this is the Dad he has a lot of random questions
 is very difficult to teach  but we love them and are going
 to teach them with more scriptures from the bible to help him
 understand the need for a restoration of the Church of Christ
we had a huge miracle this week so we has an appointment fall through with a young women, we went over to visit but she fell asleep and so we asked her family to wake her up and she wouldnt so we left. As we were about to leave we saw her older brother pull in so i told my companion that we should go talk to him, so we walked up to him and said hi. I asked him if he had some time, he said yes but im starving, so i said its ok we will just talk to you while you eat, he said ok. so he warmed up his dinner and we were just asking him get to know you questions. so he is a 22 year old boy who hasnt gone to church in years and does things he shouldnt be doing. i admite that is was aqward talking to him at first, but then i asked him the sould searching question: "do you see yourself serving a mission?" he said honestly no i never even thought of it, i would be a good missionary becasue of some things that i struggle with, and so i asked him what is it that keeps you from going? he said he had anger issues and he also asked that if he can go even if he had a family and we said no.he said he wanted a kid and that he wants to settle down. My companion asked him if hes recieved his patriarcal blessing? he said no and we explained to him what it is , he seemed really intrested in getting one especially the part that it tells you about the potential that you have and the gifts heavenly will give you if you work for it. my companion explained that hers inspired her to go on a mission. he asked if he had to be active in the church for that and we said yes. Then we started talking about the mission and how much we have learned and how much it will bless us in our future families, and all the while i was picturing his future with his kids and wife having a picninc near the temple and they were super happy and he had already served a mission and he married a wonerfull women and then he asked what are you thinking about and i told about about your future. he said that we seemed more excited than he was. then he told us that that same exact day he was thinking that he was going to go visit his ex and ask her to live with him and have a baby with her. but that he thought it was crasy that just we crossed paths at that moment and now we are talking about  his future, he recognized that God had a hand in his life at that moment. We think he really started taking the mission seriously becasue he started asing lots of wuestionsand he was getting nervous/excited.  we left feeling so spiritually edified we were so happy and our testimonies about Heavenly father and his love for us grew inormously, we know that the spirit guided that lesson conversation and that we can always be an answer to someones prayer even if they dont have tons of faith God is simpy jsut always there.
well love you and don't forget to say your prayers!!

we took an investigating family to the Visitors center!! they loved it! 


Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Pictures of our investigators Beatriz and the Martinez girls

hello everyone !! hope you like the pictures of the cute children we are teaching, they are so much fun.
 
The maritnez girls are tought cookies, they are still uncertain if they want to pay their tithing and since they werent reading the Book of mormon with their mom, except for with us their testimony hasnt grown as fast. Thankfully the church has come up with the Book of Mormon Stories, which is genius, it totally counts! so they have stared to read that. we are excited. MIRACLE!! so after we had dinner with them we had a nice conversation with the grandma who loves the church and she asked her daughter who is hte mother of our investigators when the girls are going to be baptized, because she wants to join them and be baptized too!!  we continued the conversation and asked her what she liked best about the church and she said everything and we talked with her daugther and she just sat there thinking. Well we asked her what she was thinking about and she said "about that day that i get baptized." it was so amazing!
but then we were over there the next day to do serive on saturday morning and she asked everyone if anyone wanted coffe and she expressed her addiction to coffee, and all the sister who are Mormon and tried to justify theri use of coffee and asked us things like why is it bad? one of them had a little attitude, and that it is proven to reduce the risk of cancer, and that coke is worse and why can we drink that?, i didn't know what to say because we both felt attacked and that no matter what we said they would not have listened. next time we talk about that and we are in an enviorment where the spirit can testify then i would ask them if they belive the church is true and if Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God, and if he was then when he recieved that revelation, it came from God and it is for our wellness. God is all knowing, he comprehends all things that we cannot and if we follow the council we will be blessed.
 
we have a new investigator named Alejandra. she reminds me of me when i was investigating the church. She is thirteen and is really mature for her age, she has even read some chapteres in the Book of Mormon when previous missionaries taught her, which is a big deal for someone to have the inrest and want to learn for themselves if the book is true, She really wants to come to church but her mom made up an excuse for her not to come. we will be persistant and loving. I know that if she keeps her eye on the temple and an eternal family she will never give up on her journey.
 

 
well i love you all have a happy week.