Best Miracle in the Whole World

this week has been amazing we were granted permission from our mission President to go out of the boundaries of the mission and teach part member families that the Spanish branch still covered. The family Dominguez has been the new family we've been working with, they are newly weds and the wife is a returned missionary, who served two missions, and her husband is not a member. He has been coming to church consistently for about two months and has not been ready to accept the gospel until he had a dream about us teaching him, so I'm thinking that was a sign, he also  has been pondering a whole lot about how religion brings the family unit more happiness, love, unity and a good values to live by. Which he wants, and plus he has such a great wife that is always teaching the gospel and is so great and kind.  We went over on a Tuesday and we saw him, he immediately started to talk about all the things that he likes about the Church, how he feels a sense of tranquility and happiness when he goes (only for an hour, for he works as a mechanic.) he even committed himself to start keeping the Sabbath day holy and not work anymore on Sundays and just dedicate it to the most important things , which are his family and God. He recognizes the blessings he will receive from keeping certain commandments, even following a prophet.

 After we did " How to Begin Teaching" we got started with teaching him The Restoration. He made it easier for the spirit to dwell because we just felt so much as if he were a family member, because he had so many questions and agreed that man cannot comprehend all the things that God can, so he accepted that we need prophets(even  before we even taught him about prophets!) then scriptures just came pouring on us in order to explain why prophets are the means whereby God reveals truth to earth  that are pertaining to His kingdom and what we must do, feel and be in order to make it back with Him. he loves learning and  although he has never really read the bible or learned about religion, he is so interested. some things he cant wrap his head around, but that is where his faith is required , he will receive a witness after the trial of his faith. His wife didn't want to join is on the lesson because she said that she talks too much and that she wants him to do it for himself.

It has never been so easy on my mission to get people to read and keep their commitments so easily, he just does all his homework which is awesome! My excellent companion extended the baptismal invite, and he agreed, he will be preparing for the 7 of June.

President Sweeney granted us permission to teach via Skype and guess who we got to teach!!!??

My Mom :D it was by far on the top most spiritual lessons I've taught thus far on my mission.  my companion and I were super nervous at first as we prepared for the lesson, but when we went over to a members, Hermana Zazueta's house so she could join in on the lesson it was fine. We were calm. I was so excited and happy. WE started with a prayer and I thanked her for giving us some of her time. We used what we call the angel method of teaching, using pamphlets and having her tell us what she sees in the pictures. WE taught in so much unity and with so much power and LOVE that I felt the spirit so strong and I loved being able to share the part where gospel blesses families and how they can be eternal. WE talked on the importance of prophets and how they let us know God's will and my companion asked her if you had 7 children will you love them all the same or would you like the first more than the last? she said of coarse I will love them all the same.

exactamente that is how He Is and that's why God always calls prophets to guide us and protect us from harms that try to ruin our families in these days and helps us understand and apply t he scriptures, for they Teach what Our loving heavenly father wants us to know. She started to show understanding and realizing how truly important they are. From what she has expressed before, about joseph smith and how she doubts anyone can see God. After we shared his story I told her that this is something that we have to sincerely ask God about and put away our doubts and contradicting ideas and just ask with a sincere heart, to humble yourself before god(she asked me what the word humble meant earlier on in the lesson and I explained it to her as acknowledging that you cant do anything without gods help, he know more than we do and that thanks to him we have everything) so I told her  to humble herself before God and He will give an answer to your honest heart. The spirit of the Lord was tangible it filled that house with so much love, love and peace was very present in that room and her and I started crying, we had such a beautiful moment together, when all of a sudden all 6n elders knocked on the door to come in to join the service project we were going to help her with after the lesson, they walked in and started talking I tried to tell them to shush but it didn't really work, I was trying really hard to focus on what my mom started expressing to me. As she cried she was telling me how she needs to "humble herself before her maker and ask him if this is true. I don't know what I am feeling, I don't know if it is because I am so happy to see you and that you are my daughter and are teaching me this and it makes it more special. I couldn't understand the other sister missionaries but you and your companion know a lot and have done a really good job in motivating me and inspiring me to want to act on your message, no one has ever been able to, and how you said, I need sincerely ask God."

 You have no idea brothers and sisters the joy I felt when hearing my mom say this to us! It helped me rekindle the joy, dear appreciation and love I have for this knowledge that I hold and to testify as to how it blesses my life made me so much stronger.

(well I wish I can give yall more detail but that is all I have time for, love you)

Baptisms of Two Wonderful People

these men were men i taught in my last area. One is named Roberto, he is 14 years old, but he is mature and is such a good kid, he actually helped fellowship an 14 year old investigator we were teaching, and he loved to serve and go to church, but he felt that he hasn't gotten an answer untill now. He went to a fireside with the new sister missionaries and he heard a choir of elders sing a song that touched his heart, he started balling and felt the spirit tell him that he needed to be beptized, so he did and his father baptized him. I know that the Lord can do miracles, even by small and simple means. He is going to be a great missionary.
 

The other brother is named Noel, we taught him twice and took him and his family to the Gilbert Temple Open house. He was so ready for the gospel as much as his family then, he even reminded his wife to pray with him everynight, but due to tons of work we never got to teach him consistantly. but we kept teaching his family and his wife Rossana and his daughters were baptized while we were there. This is the crazy part. Rossana prayed that her husband will be able to come to church with her, becaue she loved how the churhc was very family oriented and she wanted the love of her life to be by her side and to learn the gospel in Elders quorum and come together and go tosacrament meeting together, it was so sweet hearing her express her desires and she prayed so much so that that can happen, and he answered her prayer. He had somthing go wrong with his stomach, i cant really remember what is was, but he couldnt walk or eat  much and has to get surgery, therefore he couldnt go to work ans rossana was by his side f\during these times of affliction for him, it was sad for her to seehim suffer so much, but at the same time she was so greatful that he was now able to come to church. During her time of despair while she was at the hospital waiting, she decided to say a prayer, and this women has so much faith in her father in heaven,it is truly amazing. As she prayed, all of a sudden a peace came over her, she was able to feel tranquility and a hope that she knew everything was going to be ok, she was so greatful that her father in heaven gave her that peace she needed, after that she was normal again and was able to be at ease. I admire her faith I am glad Heavenly Father doesn't take away our problems, but gives us the strength and peace to overcome them. WE are so blessed to be able to call down the powers of heaven to help us during diffficult times. Now this family is almost complete now we are just waitng on Victor, the son to accept the gospel too. I am so excited to come back with one of my companions and to witness their Temple Sealing!!!!

 

me and my companion enjoying some treats from the "Elotero" or "Corn Man" it was yummy

So back to the updated with my area, i am staying in Paradise Valley and finishing up hermana Baros' training, she is so good, she came pretrained.  We have been working on more inpsired planning these past two weeks, we decided that we are going to serve and teach the members more, although they are active in church, sometimes we see that we need to strengthen them more in the gospel. We have been doing a lot more service for them and teaching them the basics, to rekindle the joy they felt at their conversion, so hopefully they have a desire to come out to teach lessons with us and also give us referrals to go teach their friends and family. It's fun being in a spanish branch! We have a lot more motivating of members that has to be done first before we can have a chance to have us help them with their missionary work.

this is erenesto & he is so much happier & also is
reactivated in hte churhc, he even bought churhc clothes!

 Well Ive never met so many nice people, and ive also never met so many freaks. Funny tti story, well that stands for Teach Testify Invite :) that is what we do when we talk to people on the streets. we met a man named MAteo and he was super f\drunk and he kept saying that he had god in his heart, and he was also pretending he was flying, it was wierd, then we met up with him when he was sober, we chased after him when we saw him walk by as we were talking to a lady who was waterinmg her plants. HOpe he wants to change his life around. WE have another investigator that we met at a trailor park, he is actually the coolest person ive meet on hte streets, he just asked us what we were up to  and we told him we were preaching the word of God and we started making conversation and said he will love to learn from us but first we need to establish trust between us, so he asked us get to know you questions, so i got to share my conversion story with him and how much the gospel has blessed my life, he is super friendly so we are super excited for him. Please pray that we will have consistant people, we meet many but some arent ready yet. WE know they are out here we just need to find them!!!! :D

here i am going to send some pictures weve been wanting to send a loomg time ago from the zoo, 5 de mayo, mothers day and so on.

love you all!

Success starts with the Companionship

Hola amigos!

I asked my companion during companion study a question. how do i know God loves me? do i always feel his love, therefore i have nothing else to compare it to? sometimes i just want a really hard trial so that i can rely on God more deeply and pray and trust him more fervently, so that when i teach and testify that GOd loves us and comforts us and answers our prayers, i can say it with more meaning and power, i want to be able to tell them they can get through it with His help, becaue i did or went through it most recently.  My companion feels the love of God more because she has made a complete 180 in her life and she can feel that difference, and i feel normal or averagely loved sometimes. I am happy don't get me wrong. i Guess heavenly father is is giving me a break, because i have gone through so much in my past already. And when i did have a tough life and found the gospel i felt more loved and more converted becaue i felt that great difference, that love and support from God. Then my lovely companion made me see something that i haven't rally thought of before. We remembered how we didn't super get along at first or just didnt understand or communicate as much, and  how much we tried looking for people to teach, but no one was progressing and we didn't feel like we werent gettting very far in the vineyard. Well as soon as we had companionship inventory and made up and decided to improve our companionship, the blessings started coming, becaue now heavenly father was able to trust us with his children. Success in every phase of missionary work starts with hte companionship. We have 4 new progressing investigators this week and have had many great lessons with them. 

the first Jorge: he is a man that we almost missed, but we felt that we hsould walk back and talk to him and shout "hola como esta!?" becaue he was up sitting on his balcony.he was really nice and he even came down and  we had a nice conversation with him and we told him that he was loved by his father in heaven and that he has  a plan for his happiness and  that our message can bring him more joy in his life. He agreed to have us teach him more. Later that week we had a lesson with him outside in sidewalk under the street light at like 8 at night. We taugh him the restoration, he had a real sincere desire to know and really htinkkng about everything we said, he agreed to pray about it and will be baptized when he knows it is true.

Pepe and his family: We had a lesson with them and they were a referral from members and they came to church becaue their friends invited them, after that we strated teaching them. We felt so special because the member set up  the lesson and invited her recent convert friend and the family was waitning for us, we all got there around the same minute and introduced ourselves to one another, Pepe came out and welcomed us in, the crazy part was how many people showed up, it was the sister who referred the family, her r.c friend and her husband and her daughter and her daughters friend, then us, so a total of 7 people went in there to deliver the goods and we were in  charge of teaching, they were in chrage of testifying and i felt sort of  a lot of pressure to be perfect , they mustv'e felt  some presssure to understand everything or to knot sound dumb by asking a question i don't know but it went well. The lord answred our prayers and calmed me down and gave me confidence. The during the part when we were going ot explain the first vision, my companion and i sang "Joseph Smiths First Prayer" it was glorious and we loved it. He is the type of man that overanalyses things, which is good, but he feels like he needs to have a perfect knowledge of things , our next visit will defenatly have to be about faith and how all we need ot do is have a willlingness ot serve the lord. They are so great and they came to church again.

Azucena: We met her through trackting, the old fashion way of finding. That is considered the hunting part of missionary work, it is slower and you only get one at a time, but it is so worth it, then fishing is working with the members because it is more effecient and fruitful. Being a hunter or a fisher are both very awesome ways to do missionary work.  We knowcked at her door and she is just a super sweet lady that is filled with faith and loves the scriptures and consideres them such a gift from a loving caring father in heavcenthat left her with instructions for  a successful life. We did how to begin teaching with her and introduced her to The Book of Mormon and was so excited to have it for free. We are so excited to teach her. We had a lot of people promise us that they will come to church this week 7 but only 1 came grrrrrr, people and their agency! i hate it.

well i love you all take good care, and Happy Mothers day, thank you all the ones who have been like  a mother to me in my life :) have fun.