In Need of Encouragement... A Challenging Week.

I am having the most challenging time of my life! and I am learning so much! I can't even begin to describe.

OK here we go

First: the people that we love and want them to comeback to church are never home, and we are riding around town in the heat and can't find them, and when we see them they aren't the warmest people in the world and they don't seem to have the fullness of  joy that they deserve.

Second: some of the people we are teaching, know that the church is true, but they don't want to let go of bad habits and some don't want to marry and most aren't keeping the commitments we invite them to do. We do all these things out of love, for we know this will bring them happiness.

Although, one blessing did come from our efforts of leaving our house early to go wake people up to bring them to church. We have done it for two weeks now and everyone has been asleep and this one family that I have so much love and high hopes for said that they will try to make it. Then we went to church and I didn't see them. At the end of the first hour, I looked back and there they were Mom, Dad and little Daughter! My heart rejoiced, I had a big huge smile on my face and all the members were coming up to introduce themselves, they felt so loved because they were! They had to leave but we did get to show them where her little daughter would be learning about God and how to sing, it was so great. I was holding back the tears of joy as I went to my next class, hopefully from this time forward they give us time to teach them. 

My companion is teaching me a lot (my Trainer) not in a sense that she is teaching me how to be a better missionary, but as in practicing my patience, love, motivation and being more encouraging and help her look at things as a learning experiences. 

We also need to work on our communication, so last night we had a companionship inventory, just to see what we can do for each other to help us teach better and be more effective in every aspect. 

My companion burned her leg on the wooden bench outside in our backyard. Hahaha!

Having Lunch.

I know this will make me a better friend as I get back to the world, I am developing a love and deep care for others that I've never had before now I can understand how God is so loving and patient with us even when we aren't doing the right things and He wants to bless us with an abundance of joy,but we don't give Him that opportunity most times.

This is my wholesome entertainment, watching our house mates dying each others hair. Hahaha!

This is my favorite snack, which is odd because I hated peanut butter before my mission, but now I absolutely love it!

We get to go to the temple every transfer, and this day was the second time this transfer because it was the temple excursion, so fun!  We had a meeting with our mission president inside! And then after the session we had another devotional! I was so happy this day!

I loved that New Mission Presidents Sermon! Wasn't it great?! I  am so excited that we are going to be using the web for spreading this fantastic message to everyone in the world! Honestly, I am kind of nervous as to how, but I know that during the less productive times of the day it will be a great way to share the gospel. 

Santa Cruz, I know that the Lord will bless that area with miracles as we do our part and share our love with our friends and invite them to learn more about our faith. I know that it sounds like a lot of work, but go about doing good just as Jesus did, visit those that have gone away and be their friends, share your testimonies to those that are going through difficult times, young women and young men bring your friends to church, go out with the missionaries and study Preach my Gospel, there you will have opportunities to share your testimony and your love for others will grow, as well as you desire to build up the kingdom of God. 

I know you are all doing this, so keep up the good work!

This Sister is from Hollister and she goes to Santa Cruz a lot, so we decided to be friends after our missions! And she is 19!

Send me letters so I can know how you are all doing, love you! 

If you all send me pictures it will be in my wall of fame, don't be shy I love your faces!

Tell my mom I love her for me! 

Naomi you are always with me in my heart. Love you!

  

Having dinner at an investigators house, she is so sweet, we all love each other! So yummy! Fish and soup!

Here I am ironing my clothes! So much fun! I love this, I've never had to iron before in my life!

Happy Father's Day!

Hi!

my companion is so funny,Sister Garrick, and i hate her at the moment she is doing it, but in the morning i laugh about it! She sleep talks and she is always bearing her testimony and teaching lessons and its super amazing to know her heart is centered on the work of the ministry, but she wakes me up! but it's fine because its way funny!

My brother wrote me today or sometime this week! how amazing he says he wants to let go of his anger and leave all those burdens behind and through that come close to me and my mom. I am so happy i couldn't stop crying as i responded sharing my testimony of my Savior and how when we are filled with his love we have no room for hate and that's why i always forgave him for the things he did to my mom and i. What a blessing and I am glad he has that good desire. 

Happy Fathers day to all those good fathers out there! thank you for being great examples to me, u know who you are , pretty much everyone in the Santa Cruz Ward, hehe. 

We have a new investigator his name is Angel and let me tell you the section in Preach my Gospel on How to Begin Teaching really saves our lives, because through those starting points we can go off on anything in the gospel that helps anyone! whoahoooo! testifying about The Book of Mormon is so fun! who knew! especially because the fountain of words that come out are so smooth and directed by the spirit and almost always answers what they need to hear. this man believes in Christ and loves to read which is exciting because he said he gs going to read the whole things before we meet again and ask us a ton of questions which i am excited about. He asked us why do you focus on the Book of Mormon more than the Bible? and if i read it and know that it is true what will be  the point? i told him that the scriptures were written by prophets, that is how we know the will of God and just as in times of old God calls prophets today, the 

Book of Mormon was written in the Americas and in it it outlines the plan of Salvation , how we can fin joy in this life and it has the ministry of Jesus Christ himself here in the Americas and when we read it and pray and ask God if it is true and if it is true we will also know if Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and that he restored the true church of Christ in which we can have everything that Christs' original church had when he established it, which means we have everything necessary to be able to perform saving ordinances, so we can be saved in His kingdom with our  loved ones. So that's why we focus on the Book of Mormon. 

We are teaching Mirian and David and their son Jordan, they love church, the brotherly kindness the, service, the Plan of happiness, the Visitors Center, the restoration they love everything and gladly keep commitments, although we have to remind them that it is important to keep reading and praying about the Book of Mormon because that it the only way they will know for themselves if it is true. They aren't married and we need to teach them teh Law of chastity and we invited them to be baptizes a while back and he said sure and she says she needs more time, but she already told us about the time she went back to the catholic church and how she hated it and it didnt feel right and how no one knows eachother. So now she is coming to His church now, so i am so lucky to know them and teach them:) i know they will make that right choice somday and its all his will not mine. 

I love riding my bike everywhere in the Heat! it is so hot outside and i am so dark skinned! i  have to drink tons of water and gird up my loins or else it wont be pretty riding around in a skirt all day. We always check with each other if we did before we leave the house! i love my house it is so big and 4 sisters live in it and noo one else and we have to cool basement! 

I love the members down here and i am happy that tehy are so strong. wel got to go bye

New Companion in Mesa Grande!

Hola Amigos! so I just went through my first transfer and I am staying in Mesa Grande.

 

We received a new family to teach and we found a found a new 17 year old boy to teach this week. I guess the previous sisters had Taught, Testified and Invited them ( TTI) before and we always have them as our backup plans as the "family in the corner" since I got a new trainer and I am the only one that know the area the members, less actives, and where our investigators live, I am leading weekly and daily planning and guiding the way, anyway I decided to go visit him one night and he was home and we made an appointment to go see him. We made plans to teach him the Restoration, so we went and he was really nice and I asked if his family was home. He said "yes let me go get my mom she needs to hear this too." we were super excited and then she came out and in a really nice way she told us that she already had a religion and we shouldn't waste our time with them. my companion Sister Gareck said well all we can do is invite thank you for your time and shook her hand and then I looked at her and said wait I still want talk to Juan, then I said nice to meet you ma'am (in Spanish) we'll just talk to your son :) so she left and we stayed to talk to Juan and we asked him what he liked about church, and how Jesus helped him in his family, and then I don't know why but I asked do you believe that Jesus Christ, Heavenly Father and the holy ghost are separate. he said no they are one, I shared a scripture in the bible ( he believes in the bible) about Christ's baptism, which clearly explains they are 3 separate beings. Well actually his two cousins showed up at this moment and I had his cousin read it and spanish he read it and I asked what he learned from that passage, he said "that it has a lot of big words." so I explained it. they took it well and they were both really interested on what we had to say. For some reason I was so excited and the spirit was guiding my words, I explained the Amos 3:7 how God will do nothing without his servants the prophets and how God has called a prophet today! So we can know what we need to do to be happy and return to love with him with our families that we love so much. somewhere in there I did rehearse the first vision.

 

Then I asked what do you think happens after we die? he said we are 6 feet under and that's end of it. (What?!!) Then I was filled with even more excitement and I said that is why Jesus came to earth so we can be forgiven of our sins and he broke the bands of death and  because he Resurrected we are able to also and we have the opportunity to live again!. I also explained the character of Christ and helped him understand how we go to people that have been through similar trials that we are going through, so they can comfort us and when people that haven't gone through it, we don't trust as much because they don't know what we feel, has that ever happened to you? or are you the person people come to for advice? he answered and said yes I know what you mean I am a counselor among my friends. Exactly that's why Jesus can heal us because he's been through everything we all ever have gone through and will ever go through and he knows how to succor his people( I read him another scripture that said that) I explained that because God loves us so much he gave his Son so we can all be saved with out loved ones! Juan smiled very big and told my companion " I love spirit" and I said yes I'm so excited because it's true and I know that you can know of these things for yourself and we invite him to pray and my companion asked if we can leave them with a  prayer and his cousin joined us and took his hat off! how cute!

 

Well I gotta go! I don't have time to send pictures sorry and there is a lot more things I want to say! any way this boy is going to get baptized I can feel  it and also his cousin and he will be a great example to his family and they are all going to join the church and be amazing and he is going on a mission!

A few miracles this week in AZ!

Hello friends and Family :D

 

My companion just got told she was getting transferred to a new area and I am going to get a new companion, I was honestly not looking forward for that because her and I are great together, we learn from each other, rely on each other, strengthen one another, love one another and she is teaching me to be more brave. I don't want her to leave, but I know that I need this extra push so that

I can be a greater leader and take charge of weekly planning, updating area books etc (i don't want to bore you with all the record keeping parts of missionary work) It was definitely inspired tho.

 

Ok miracles this week:

 

1. There was a little boy (4yrs) at a less actives house and when we left he followed us, then I asked him if we could meet his parents, so he gladly took us to his home, except they were eating lunch and didn't want to come out, so in his baby language he said to come back another time :) We thanked him and left, later in the week we went by to see if they were home and they weren't but we met a young man and he told us that he and his mom were looking for a Christian church to go to last Sunday but couldn't find one. his mom came out and she expressed the same thing. Hallelujah! So we introduced ourselves as Sister Missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! And we are here to help others learn about Jesus Christ, we told her that we would love to teach her and her family more about the gospel and she gladly accepted! We were an answer to her prayer!!

 

2. We went into this neighborhood and after meeting three other neighbors teaching them about Jesus and The Book of Mormon and testified that He will bring peace and happiness in their lives as they apply His Teachings. Then we had to refer them to the Elders because they are English speaking people. In the midst of all that we found the people we were meant to teach! His name is Carlos and we testified that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ can stregthen us during our trials, when we out him first! and he said that that is true , for he has witnessed it before, but hes been lazy lately. He has this cute little 4 year old daughter. Then we found out that he is living with the mother of his child but they aren't together and he told us that she is the one that needs God in her life but she is hard hearted, we then met her but she looked uninterested and didn't even crack a smile at us. But one day we went to an appointment we had with Carlos but he wasn't home and she was, with her daughter . We brought a wonderful member with us, we talked about eh priesthood authority that that was the power Jesus Christ had and that his church has been restored, and how She can be with her father again and she will be strengthen and blessed and all those trials she has gone through that still weigh her down, can be swept away through the Atonement. Her demeanor changes through the course of our lesson, she was attentive, heartbroken, open hearted ready to act upon that 1% of hope she had in Christ and give it a try, then to top it all off my companion asked her little daughter to pray and she gave a sweet prayer that her mother was crying!

 

Love you all gotta go there is much more where that came from bye!