these are my babies!!! three of which I trained. |
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
hello picture time!!!!
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.
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!!!
this is them reading The Book of Mormon stories arent they super cute!?? love them to death
|
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Good Morning
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
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
sorry i havent written in two weeks
sorry i havent written in two weeks but i expirienced a miracle with my brother writting me, thats been fun.
so lets see whats new. this week we found 7 new investigators! one family of three, a pair of brothers, a young mom, and the husband of an investigator. yesterday we were packed with lessons all day it was a miracle.
so we are still teaching the martinez girls and they are not going to be ready for the 9th so we pushed their date back to the 23rd, we asked them why and it is because they dont understand the book of mormon, even thou we read with htem everythime we go see them, it is not hte same because they need a guide at home teaching them how to lkive the gospel, os we had a little heart ot heart with the mother, about the importance of daily scripture study and family prayer, and bearing tesrimony to them of the truths of the gospel. she agreed. the girls are so smart and ready we did a re run fo rthe interview for batism and they believe everything they even talked about the importance of everthing like having a prophet and living hte commandments. We need to send y'all a picture of them, they are so cute! Their mom told them to pay more attention to the lessons and not be so giggly because the gospel is serioius stuff and they shouldnt be laughing so much when we teach them. then the girls told us that it is our fault because we make them laugh too much and so we jokingly started acting serious, then they sat up straight and leaned in towards us, and were stroking their chins as if they were thinking and had straight faces on trying not to laugh, and we tried to teach them more seriously but it didn't work the whole situation was too funny.
so the women we are teaching who stays at home with her kids is reallly cool she is our age, and she grew up cathholic but she doesnt know anything about Christ or even how to pray. so its kinda cool because then as sh does those simple things like pray and read she will feel a big differenec in her life and her mind will be filled with understanding and she will feel the need to come unto Christ more fully. we taugh her the restoration and committed her to pray about it and she said she would, she gave a beautiful closing prayer and she thanked us for teaching her and resolved some of her concerns and for showing her how to pray , because now she will do it more often. she is very sincere.
next family was a family that i tti'd on the street once and went to try to teach htem a few times but were never home, so one night we had no planns and we had former investigators on our back up planns, so we decided to go visit, it was around 8:20 pm and we knocked and no one was home, but as we were about to leave they showed up back from their walk, so they invited us in, at first, not gonna lie it was sort of aquward, but then we just asked them questions and then the mom started telling us the issues she is having with her concieted son, who thinks he doesn't have to lift a finger because he is too handsome, and he is only 11!! haha anyway more towards the end of our How to begin TEaching we started talking about church and all the fun things that the kids will learn. He and his little 6 year old sister were super excited and begged their parents if they can go to church and they were totally fine with it, it was such a cool lesson because we got to ask them about what they want to learn about and we learned about their doubts and why they dont go ot a church, so now we know what to study for them for our next lesson. our plan is to have the kids go, they will love it and this will then persuade their parents to come to church, it's brilliant!
if i sound like a TEXAN its not my fault it was sister Vargas :)
we are also teaching an amazing women who was a refferral from a member and thanks to her rightoeous example she wanted to learn more about the book of mormon, we had a fantastic lesson at the members house and wow. the member taught her the ministry of christ the resroaraiton of the prieshood the book of mormon, the church's history, the first vision emma smith a whole bunch of stuff and even re comitted her to pray about the lessons to see if they are true, so she said she will this was all after the lesson about the gospel, but becaue she made the comment about "it doesnt matter what churhc you go to as long as you have faith and live it its ok" my companion ans i were just so impressed and were glad she did in a beautiful confident was. it was amazing!! so we are hoping that she can feel better and recover from her lupus so she can come to church
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Baby Girl Funeral
Monday, July 7, 2014
Happy 4th of July Weekend!!
HElLo Everyone!!! how was everyones fourth of july weekend? cool story we got to stay out and watch fireworks till 10:30 and talk to people as we watched them! it was the best!! that day we also had a zone BBQ at the apartment complex we all live at. here are some pictures: and don't make fun of how much heavier I've gotten
hey sorry I didn't have time to write ya'll but here is what I wrote to our Mission President
the good thing is that it was only 100 degress outside |
this makes me angry, which means I wont be able to use an
I-pad as a missionary. it would've been
so much easier. everything else makes me happy tho :)
SALT LAKE CITY — Though the record number of LDS missionaries
serving around the world will peak in the fall and then recede somewhat,
convert baptisms are increasing and more missionaries soon will be using
digital devices to help with their work.
A pilot program has shown that use of iPad Minis by missionaries
improved their work and study, and the devices will be used in all missions in
North America, Japan and western Europe beginning this fall, the executive
director of the LDS Missionary Department said Wednesday in a wide-ranging,
videotaped interview released by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints.
Elder David F. Evans, also a member of the faith's First Quorum of
the Seventy, said the devices will be used by about 32,000 Mormon missionaries
in 162 of the church's 405 missions.
The church will ask missionaries in those areas to pay for their
iPads, which will be their property during and after their missions, at a cost
of $400 apiece.
Evans said the church, as of Wednesday, had 85,593 missionaries
serving, up from the previously publicized record of 85,039 in April.
He said the missionary department anticipates the number to rise
to 88,000 this fall before starting to decrease.
LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson precipitated the dramatic
two-year surge in missionary numbers when in October 2012 he lowered the age
requirement from 19 to 18 years old for male missionaries and from 21 to 19 for
women
Elder Evans, who called the surge "one of the greatest
faith-inspiring things I've ever seen," said the church expects the number
of missionaries will eventually settle somewhere in the high 70,000s, well
above the 58,000 serving at the time of President Monson's announcement.
"We don't believe we're ever going back to the 50,000s,"
Elder Evans said.
About 64 percent of the church's full-time missionaries are young
adult men, 28 percent are women and 8 percent are senior missionaries.
"We believe the young people of this church will continue to
say yes to missionary service, and they'll continue to choose to become young
disciples of Christ," Elder Evans said. "For them it's an absolute
free-will offering to the Lord and to their fellow man."
He also spoke about convert baptisms and missionary safety.
"Every month, if you compare month over month, the baptisms
are up," Elder Evans said. "Right now for this year, there's about an
overall 15 percent increase in the number of convert baptisms this year
compared to a comparable period last year."
Elder Evans said missionaries now are being asked to have a
"safety moment" at the beginning of each day, an effort to increase
their sensitivity to safety issues after several injuries and deaths among
missionaries made news, particularly last year.
Those incidents remain few compared to the general U.S. population
of 18- to 21-year-olds.
"It is by far the safest place for any young single adult to
be that I'm aware of," Elder Evans said. "I've read statistics that
suggest being on a mission may be as many as 20 times safer than being generally
out in the population."
A pilot program put iPad Minis in the hands of about 6,500
missionaries in 30 missions in the United States and Japan, as well as with
sister missionaries in most LDS visitors centers. Elder Evans described four
lessons learned by church leaders.
First, missionaries were very comfortable and capable using the
devices. Second, the devices increased the reading and studying done by the
missionaries. Third, they were effective planning tools. Fourth, they helped
missionaries communicate better with local church leaders, mission leaders and
investigators.
Monday, June 30, 2014
first week of the new Transfer
then we got feed a feast for break fast conchas( Mexican sweet bread) and pizza and tortas aka big Mexican grilled sandwhiches,,, so yum!
|