Hola amigos!!!
I ALMOST CRIED OPENING UP THE PACKAGE SAYING I AM GOING TO BE AN AUNT. WOW. I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!
This week has gone by so fast!! We taught the investigator twice that came to church with the less active last week! He seems pretty interested and says he will read the book of mormon to know if it is true :)
We also are working with a couple of less actives and getting them to come back! We found a new investigator, Sandra, this week. She wants to practice her fatih but says its super hard with her kids. But she seems really interested and we have an appointment with her tonight! I am excited.
We also went on exchanges with the sister training leaders this week. We had a weird day! We encountered someone walking their cat...leash and all... We did a ton of finding and didn't find too many people that were interested. We ate dinner with a family from Taylorsville so that was fun. I also gave away a Spanish Book of Mormon by myself so that was fun haha!
We had a lesson with one of our investigators that is super hard to contact and he says he would like to be baptized!! So that was awesome!! This week is going to be a busy week! We have an all mission conference tomorrow where everyone in the mission comes to one place! So That will be super fun!! I hope you all had a great week and have a Merry Christmas!!
Monday, December 18, 2017
Monday, December 11, 2017
Transfer #3
Hola friends!
This week I got a new companion. Her name is Hermana Whetten. She is from Allen, Texas but was born in Mexico. She was fluent in Spanish before she came out on her mission so I will be able to learn a lot from her! I am excited. She has been out for a little over 6 months.
We got snow here. More than I was expecting! Probably like 2 inches but it did stick for a couple of days. It was interesting to drive in the snow in Virginia without street lights. Don't worry, we are alive. We were supposed to have a Christmas party on Friday but it got canceled because our branch does not like to drive in the snow so we had to go the next morning and take down all the decorations they had put up! Then we had a branch dinner at our branch presidents house. It was a little crowded but it worked and we had 3 investigators there!
We went around to find some less actives to invite to the party and we knocked on the door and asked for the less active and they said he had passed away on Monday. So that was super sad and one of the most awkward door knocking experiences I have ever had.
We are going to restart teaching some of our investigators, Angel and Gisella. We had stopped teaching them for a while but they say they want to know if this is the true church or not so we are going to go through all the lessons with them! I am super excited!!
On Sunday we had a less active bring a friend to church! So that was exciting and we got a return appointment for this week. We have been doing a lot of finding because we don't have a ton of investigators right now... So hopefully we will find more people to teach this week.
What are we doing to light the world? Well one of our members who is our neighbor was sick this week so we made her a little care package thing and brought her dinner from the party :)
We don't see many nativities in Virginia but a lot of house put a ton of Christmas lights up... an unnecessary amount. Apparently there is a thing called the tacky lights tour and that originated in Richmond.
I hope you are having a great Christmas season. We have encountered a few people who don't celebrate Christmas because "we don't know the exact day of Christ's birth". But we should celebrate it not because He was born but because He live and He atoned for our sins. I love you all so very much!!
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| Hermana Whetten and I |
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| Hermana Whetten and I with our little tree |
Monday, December 4, 2017
End of Training!
Hola amigos!!
Things are so great. I love this area so much. We have the best members!
So we got a call saturday and Hermana Coleman will be leaving this week and I will get a new companion on Wednesday! We are super sad but she has been here for 6 months so we new it was coming. I am so excited to stay in Henrico! I love it here so much... I would stay here my whole mission if I could.
Anyways.. this week was awesome! Last Sunday we had talked to this guy on Facebook who was super interested in the Book of Mormon so we told him we could give him one and he was super excited. So we met him in his high school parking lot and gave him a Book of Mormon! Then we did the same thing but on saturday with another guy! It is so awesome!
On Tuesday we had a lesson with Javier and a member, Hermano Escoto. He is so cool. Javier has a lot of questions, some that we can't answer in Spanish and some that we just don't know the answer in English or Spanish. So we got Hermano Escoto to come with us. It was the best decision we have ever made because he just answered all the questions without a problem. It was so so awesome. Then after the lesson we told him how cool he was and all he said was "why?" He is so humble it is so so cool. Members of the church are so powerful and so so important to missionary work. I had no idea before my mission but wow, now I understand.
We were at Chick-Fil-a last Monday and we saw our investigators eating with a friend so we went and talked to them. Well their friend, Fabiola, invited us over for lunch so we could talk about God with her. So we get there and she is not too interested in our church and was not at all open about the Book of Mormon so we decided to show her the light the world video and she then said "we don't believe in Christmas". It was super awkward. We didn't even know what to say. But it was good and she still likes us and wants to have us over again.
I hope you are all watching the light the world videos and participating!! Service is so awesome and is such a great way to share the love of God with everyone!! I love you all so much!!
Things are so great. I love this area so much. We have the best members!
So we got a call saturday and Hermana Coleman will be leaving this week and I will get a new companion on Wednesday! We are super sad but she has been here for 6 months so we new it was coming. I am so excited to stay in Henrico! I love it here so much... I would stay here my whole mission if I could.
Anyways.. this week was awesome! Last Sunday we had talked to this guy on Facebook who was super interested in the Book of Mormon so we told him we could give him one and he was super excited. So we met him in his high school parking lot and gave him a Book of Mormon! Then we did the same thing but on saturday with another guy! It is so awesome!
On Tuesday we had a lesson with Javier and a member, Hermano Escoto. He is so cool. Javier has a lot of questions, some that we can't answer in Spanish and some that we just don't know the answer in English or Spanish. So we got Hermano Escoto to come with us. It was the best decision we have ever made because he just answered all the questions without a problem. It was so so awesome. Then after the lesson we told him how cool he was and all he said was "why?" He is so humble it is so so cool. Members of the church are so powerful and so so important to missionary work. I had no idea before my mission but wow, now I understand.
We were at Chick-Fil-a last Monday and we saw our investigators eating with a friend so we went and talked to them. Well their friend, Fabiola, invited us over for lunch so we could talk about God with her. So we get there and she is not too interested in our church and was not at all open about the Book of Mormon so we decided to show her the light the world video and she then said "we don't believe in Christmas". It was super awkward. We didn't even know what to say. But it was good and she still likes us and wants to have us over again.
I hope you are all watching the light the world videos and participating!! Service is so awesome and is such a great way to share the love of God with everyone!! I love you all so much!!
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Monday, November 27, 2017
Thanksgiving + Una Fiesta
Hola amigos!
We got to go on a road trip this week to deliver a Book of Mormon... we got to drive an hour! It was super fun and super pretty. I love Virginia!
This week was a lot of planning, Thanksgiving, more planning then the fiesta! We had 2 meals in thanksgiving. The first one was with a family that has lived here for a while so it was a super traditional and super yummy. Then we had weekly planning and during weekly planning we made cookies for the fiesta. So many cookies and brownies. then we had dinner at another members house! Instead of a turkey we had a chicken and some super yummy Hispanic food. Then we went to the church and cleaned up the church so we could actually have a party there!
Then the next day was devoted to the party! We had district meeting and immediately started setting up. We had decorations and a photo shoot... We had a bunch of less actives come so that was really great. Sadly not many of our members came which provided a lack of food so we had to run and get pizza but it wasn't bad! Our recent converts (Christopher and Gerardo...they got baptized a couple of weeks ago)run parties for a living and they ran the show for us. The best part of the party was that a family came that we had no idea who they were. They said they heard about the party from a friend that heard about it on Facebook! So that is awesome... They want to come to the ward Christmas party and seemed really interested in the church. So we didn't have a ton of people there but the party was a success because we found that family. It was so awesome.
I will send more pictures of the part when we get them from Christopher and Gerardo. We aren't sure if we will be doing more parties like that but we will be doing more social events because its definitely a way to get people to come!
Our next transfer is next wednesday! Hermana Coleman will most likely be transferred!
I love Hermana Coleman so much because she is such a humble trainer. And we are always laughing together. Always. We always find the positive in the situation and we always have fun!
This week I was humbled. Not in a tough time or anything I just felt Heavenly Father telling me that I need to rely on him because I can't go through life without Him. I know that God is mindful of us and that he loves us so much.
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Monday, November 20, 2017
Happy Turkey Day!!
Hola famila!!
This week was super mellow. We did not find many people to teach and none of the investigators we are teaching came to church. It was a little sad but its okay. We have been planning a huge party for the day after thanksgiving. We are hoping to fine people through this event. We were told by the guy over all the spanish areas of our mission, President Zobrist that if we want to find hispanic people we need to do less knocking and more partying because that is how we will find the hispanics. So that is what we are trying to do. It should be super awesome and I am pretty excited. Our branch has really helped us figure everything out for it. It should be really great! So more news on that next week!
We have also been using a lot of facebook to try and find people. We changed our approach and just started talking to people instead of introducing ourselves as missionaries. Its is a lot more effective and several people said they would come to church. We are still working to actually get them there but there are some promising people!
We went on exchanges again with the sister training leaders and we knocked and found this guy, Arlwin. (he is american so we will not be teaching him) But at first he was trying to not listen to what we have to say but we gave him a book of Mormon and told him about it and he was super interested and said he may take a day off of work and come to church so that is super cool! :)
We brought some teenage members out with us one night and we came upon someone who only speak Portuguese and we had one Portuguese Book of Mormon in our car and we were able to give it to her! I could not understand her very well but the member is actually trying to learn Portuguese and she was able to explain it and give it to her it was super cool!
We were able to watch the Face to Face last night for the Young Single adults and it was amazing. I love Elder Oaks and Elder Ballard. They are both so blunt in their answers to the questions they were asked it is awesome. You should definitely watch it if you have time. And they are super funny!
On Thursday, we are going to a members house to eat... but other than that we don't have much planned. We may go around to some less actives and to people who don't have family here and invite them to the party the next day!
I use my Spanish every day. Some days more than others but I do use it every day. It is slowly improving. I feel comfortable explaining the Book of Mormon in Spanish and basic stuff like that. It is nice to use Facebook and practice my Spanish that way because I get to think about what to say and then ask Hermana Coleman if I am saying it correctly but that has made my Spanish really improve.
Currently our progressing investigators are mexican, from ecuador, and the dominican republic but its super diverse here. There are a lot of people from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba, and some Peru.
I love teaching the Restoration. It is so powerful and I love teaching about the Book of Mormon. That book is so incredible. I love teaching about Joseph Smith and a lot of the time people accept that he is a prophet because the Spirit testifies to them. It is just so cool. We have yet to teach the Law of Chasity but we are going to have to soon and I am super nervous. So that would probably be my least favorite haha!
I am so thankful for our branch. We have some amazing families that work so hard to keep the branch running. I am so thankful for the Book of Mormon and the guidance it provides in my life. I am thankful for the opportunity to learn spanish. It can be super hard and frustrating at times but it is super cool to learn another language. I am so thankful for the support system I have. My family is so incredible and I have so awesome friends who are supporting me. I can really feel the love. I am thankful for modern day revelation. Its so awesome that God trusts us enough to have his gospel on the earth again. I am thankful for the opportunity to be the Lord's instrument and servant. I am thankful I am able to dedicate 24 hours a day to His work. I know I will not have this opportunity ever again and I am doing my best to be the best I can be.
I love you all and hope you have a great Thanksgiving!
This week was super mellow. We did not find many people to teach and none of the investigators we are teaching came to church. It was a little sad but its okay. We have been planning a huge party for the day after thanksgiving. We are hoping to fine people through this event. We were told by the guy over all the spanish areas of our mission, President Zobrist that if we want to find hispanic people we need to do less knocking and more partying because that is how we will find the hispanics. So that is what we are trying to do. It should be super awesome and I am pretty excited. Our branch has really helped us figure everything out for it. It should be really great! So more news on that next week!
We have also been using a lot of facebook to try and find people. We changed our approach and just started talking to people instead of introducing ourselves as missionaries. Its is a lot more effective and several people said they would come to church. We are still working to actually get them there but there are some promising people!
We went on exchanges again with the sister training leaders and we knocked and found this guy, Arlwin. (he is american so we will not be teaching him) But at first he was trying to not listen to what we have to say but we gave him a book of Mormon and told him about it and he was super interested and said he may take a day off of work and come to church so that is super cool! :)
We brought some teenage members out with us one night and we came upon someone who only speak Portuguese and we had one Portuguese Book of Mormon in our car and we were able to give it to her! I could not understand her very well but the member is actually trying to learn Portuguese and she was able to explain it and give it to her it was super cool!
We were able to watch the Face to Face last night for the Young Single adults and it was amazing. I love Elder Oaks and Elder Ballard. They are both so blunt in their answers to the questions they were asked it is awesome. You should definitely watch it if you have time. And they are super funny!
On Thursday, we are going to a members house to eat... but other than that we don't have much planned. We may go around to some less actives and to people who don't have family here and invite them to the party the next day!
I use my Spanish every day. Some days more than others but I do use it every day. It is slowly improving. I feel comfortable explaining the Book of Mormon in Spanish and basic stuff like that. It is nice to use Facebook and practice my Spanish that way because I get to think about what to say and then ask Hermana Coleman if I am saying it correctly but that has made my Spanish really improve.
Currently our progressing investigators are mexican, from ecuador, and the dominican republic but its super diverse here. There are a lot of people from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba, and some Peru.
I love teaching the Restoration. It is so powerful and I love teaching about the Book of Mormon. That book is so incredible. I love teaching about Joseph Smith and a lot of the time people accept that he is a prophet because the Spirit testifies to them. It is just so cool. We have yet to teach the Law of Chasity but we are going to have to soon and I am super nervous. So that would probably be my least favorite haha!
I am so thankful for our branch. We have some amazing families that work so hard to keep the branch running. I am so thankful for the Book of Mormon and the guidance it provides in my life. I am thankful for the opportunity to learn spanish. It can be super hard and frustrating at times but it is super cool to learn another language. I am so thankful for the support system I have. My family is so incredible and I have so awesome friends who are supporting me. I can really feel the love. I am thankful for modern day revelation. Its so awesome that God trusts us enough to have his gospel on the earth again. I am thankful for the opportunity to be the Lord's instrument and servant. I am thankful I am able to dedicate 24 hours a day to His work. I know I will not have this opportunity ever again and I am doing my best to be the best I can be.
I love you all and hope you have a great Thanksgiving!
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| For advertising purposes one of the elders dressed up as Santa for our district meeting |
Monday, November 13, 2017
Help! I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up
Hola friends!
Wow this week has been a blur. It got super cold here. We had a day where every single one of our appointments fell through and it was rainy and it was super sad. And that's all.
We had exchanges this week and I was with Sister Ruffner and were were going to go talk to a potential investigator and we rounded the corner and we hear "Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!" Yes. Just like the life alert commercial. Well an older lady, Helen, had fallen and been outside for 10 minutes. It was so freezing and all she was wearing was a turtle neck and some sweats. So we helped her inside and she had hit her head. Anyways the sisters went back the next day and she had broken her wrist. But she has security cameras and is telling and showing everyone that the Mormon missionaries saved her life! So that's super awesome!
Yesterday we had an appointment with a man and we went to knock on his door and a different guy answered, Jorge. We started talking and he was like oh yeah, I know your church! A guy I work with is always reading the Book of Mormon and inviting people to go to church! We were like, "oh who is it?" and he said Javier. JAVIER IS ONE OF OUR INVESTIGATORS. He is so cool and just invites people to church and stuff its so awesome. But wait it gets better. We gave Jorge a Book of Mormon and then he asked if he could have a second one to give to a friend! So it was so awesome!
Today we went to the Holocaust Museum and that was super cool but extremely depressing. I am so thankful for the religious freedom we have. I love you all and I hope you have a great week!!
Wow this week has been a blur. It got super cold here. We had a day where every single one of our appointments fell through and it was rainy and it was super sad. And that's all.
We had exchanges this week and I was with Sister Ruffner and were were going to go talk to a potential investigator and we rounded the corner and we hear "Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!" Yes. Just like the life alert commercial. Well an older lady, Helen, had fallen and been outside for 10 minutes. It was so freezing and all she was wearing was a turtle neck and some sweats. So we helped her inside and she had hit her head. Anyways the sisters went back the next day and she had broken her wrist. But she has security cameras and is telling and showing everyone that the Mormon missionaries saved her life! So that's super awesome!
Yesterday we had an appointment with a man and we went to knock on his door and a different guy answered, Jorge. We started talking and he was like oh yeah, I know your church! A guy I work with is always reading the Book of Mormon and inviting people to go to church! We were like, "oh who is it?" and he said Javier. JAVIER IS ONE OF OUR INVESTIGATORS. He is so cool and just invites people to church and stuff its so awesome. But wait it gets better. We gave Jorge a Book of Mormon and then he asked if he could have a second one to give to a friend! So it was so awesome!
Today we went to the Holocaust Museum and that was super cool but extremely depressing. I am so thankful for the religious freedom we have. I love you all and I hope you have a great week!!
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Monday, November 6, 2017
First Baptism!!
Hola friends!
The weather is weird. We have only had like one cold day. The trees are starting to get super pretty. I will try to get some good pictures this week! Halloween was weird. We did not have a single trick or treat-er and we cleaned for 4 hours. It was kind of insane.
This week we taught a new investigator, Dayana. She is so cool. She is super receptive to the gospel and when we told her that we have a living prophet on the earth today she said "wow, I didn't know that, but that is super cool." She loved the first vision and really felt like that was so cool. It was awesome and we have an appointment to teach her on tuesday. I am so excited.
Remember the 19 year old girl from last week?? Who is super cool? Well she is getting baptized on the 19th.... but into a different church. She basically told us not to come back. It was one of the most discouraging things. We really felt like she was prepared and it just was super rough. But that was the same day as our baptism so that was super awesome!
Christopher and Gerardo have been taught by a million missionaries for over a year. So everyone knew they would be baptized but they didn't know which missionaries would make it happen. There baptism was so awesome and the Spirit was so strong. Everything was perfect except the fact that the font water heater was broken so they got baptized in freezing water. They bore there testimonies afterwards and it was so cool. When they first came in contact with missionaries, they wanted nothing to do with them and now they love the gospel so much. It is so cool how much people can change because of this gospel.
We are also meeting with a recent convert, Joaquin. He is so cool. He is 15 and hasn't been to church for a while but he came on sunday and participated in sunday school and everything! It was so awesome.
Remember Angel from a couple of weeks ago? Well we were at his house last night and right when we were leaving he stopped us and said "I don't want to be baptized, but if I did, what classes would I have to take?" Then we told him it was just the lessons taught by us, and he said "well we should start doing that.." So that was super awesome!! It will be a while before that happens because he has some marriage stuff that needs to happen but i think it will happen one day!
Anyways, that is another week in Virginia. It was a good one! Stay tuned for more!
I love you all so much!!
The weather is weird. We have only had like one cold day. The trees are starting to get super pretty. I will try to get some good pictures this week! Halloween was weird. We did not have a single trick or treat-er and we cleaned for 4 hours. It was kind of insane.
This week we taught a new investigator, Dayana. She is so cool. She is super receptive to the gospel and when we told her that we have a living prophet on the earth today she said "wow, I didn't know that, but that is super cool." She loved the first vision and really felt like that was so cool. It was awesome and we have an appointment to teach her on tuesday. I am so excited.
Remember the 19 year old girl from last week?? Who is super cool? Well she is getting baptized on the 19th.... but into a different church. She basically told us not to come back. It was one of the most discouraging things. We really felt like she was prepared and it just was super rough. But that was the same day as our baptism so that was super awesome!
Christopher and Gerardo have been taught by a million missionaries for over a year. So everyone knew they would be baptized but they didn't know which missionaries would make it happen. There baptism was so awesome and the Spirit was so strong. Everything was perfect except the fact that the font water heater was broken so they got baptized in freezing water. They bore there testimonies afterwards and it was so cool. When they first came in contact with missionaries, they wanted nothing to do with them and now they love the gospel so much. It is so cool how much people can change because of this gospel.
We are also meeting with a recent convert, Joaquin. He is so cool. He is 15 and hasn't been to church for a while but he came on sunday and participated in sunday school and everything! It was so awesome.
Remember Angel from a couple of weeks ago? Well we were at his house last night and right when we were leaving he stopped us and said "I don't want to be baptized, but if I did, what classes would I have to take?" Then we told him it was just the lessons taught by us, and he said "well we should start doing that.." So that was super awesome!! It will be a while before that happens because he has some marriage stuff that needs to happen but i think it will happen one day!
Anyways, that is another week in Virginia. It was a good one! Stay tuned for more!
I love you all so much!!
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Monday, October 30, 2017
Week With Lots of Walking
Hola friends!
I am glad you guys think of me. I think of you all a ton.
I am glad you watched the video. I shared it hoping you would watch it and see me! I definitely do not believe the bible is all we need. The Book of Mormon provides such a clarification of our life here. If you go back and read Elder Nelson's talk from conference, it has the lists he made since reading the Book of Mormon last conference and it is super cool!
This transfer was a 7 week transfer so transfers are this Wednesday. They do transfer calls on Saturday to tell everyone who is leaving but if they don't call you then your companionship is not impacted. We were waiting for a call because Hermana Coleman has already been in this area fro 3 transfers but we never got one so we are staying together!
I am enjoying my time as a missionary. I love our branch. They are so awesome. We have dinner fed to us like 3-6 times a week. It really just varies. But I will never go hungry when being fed by members. They give us so much food. Its insane. We also get fed lunch every Tuesday at this place called La Cabana. He is a less active that likes to feed missionaries and we get street tacos. Its awesome.
This week we realized that we were running out of miles we could drive. So we had to plan out our days with ways that we could just walk and find people. So there were several days where we just walked like all day. It was kind of nice to get out and walk. :)
Because we were walking so much, we ran into a less active that lives in our area and we are going to go teach him this week. It was super weird. He saw us and he was like "hola!" so we decided to talk to him and his was like "aren't you guys mormons?" and we said yes and he then he told us he was a member and it was super funny because that never ever happens here.
Then we found this really awesome girl. She is 19 and was super open to listening to us. When she lived in Venezuela she went to a bunch of different churches because she doesn't know which one is right and so the message of the restoration was super cool for her because she knows exactly how Joseph Smith felt when he was looking for a church to join. I said the first vision to her and instead of asking "did that really happen?" She took the pamphlet from my hand and said "wow that is awesome, I want to go to your church!" she asked for the pamphlet and the book of Mormon and wants to learn more.
On Friday we had our trunk or treat and it was super fun! someone that we teach english to actually came and it was super awesome. People here go all out for halloween.
We have found so many people to teach this week that we have appointments every night already! except tuesday because we are not allowed to leave our house after 6 pm because Halloween here is sketchy. Fun fact about virginia: there are no street lights so when the sun goes down it is super dark and slightly sketchy and slightly scary to drive but its all good!
I am memorizing the Living Christ. As a mission we are doing a 100 days of strengthening conversion. Because we are going to the temple as a mission in like 93 days!! I am so excited!! :)
I love you all!! I hope you have a great week!
I am glad you guys think of me. I think of you all a ton.
I am glad you watched the video. I shared it hoping you would watch it and see me! I definitely do not believe the bible is all we need. The Book of Mormon provides such a clarification of our life here. If you go back and read Elder Nelson's talk from conference, it has the lists he made since reading the Book of Mormon last conference and it is super cool!
This transfer was a 7 week transfer so transfers are this Wednesday. They do transfer calls on Saturday to tell everyone who is leaving but if they don't call you then your companionship is not impacted. We were waiting for a call because Hermana Coleman has already been in this area fro 3 transfers but we never got one so we are staying together!
I am enjoying my time as a missionary. I love our branch. They are so awesome. We have dinner fed to us like 3-6 times a week. It really just varies. But I will never go hungry when being fed by members. They give us so much food. Its insane. We also get fed lunch every Tuesday at this place called La Cabana. He is a less active that likes to feed missionaries and we get street tacos. Its awesome.
This week we realized that we were running out of miles we could drive. So we had to plan out our days with ways that we could just walk and find people. So there were several days where we just walked like all day. It was kind of nice to get out and walk. :)
Because we were walking so much, we ran into a less active that lives in our area and we are going to go teach him this week. It was super weird. He saw us and he was like "hola!" so we decided to talk to him and his was like "aren't you guys mormons?" and we said yes and he then he told us he was a member and it was super funny because that never ever happens here.
Then we found this really awesome girl. She is 19 and was super open to listening to us. When she lived in Venezuela she went to a bunch of different churches because she doesn't know which one is right and so the message of the restoration was super cool for her because she knows exactly how Joseph Smith felt when he was looking for a church to join. I said the first vision to her and instead of asking "did that really happen?" She took the pamphlet from my hand and said "wow that is awesome, I want to go to your church!" she asked for the pamphlet and the book of Mormon and wants to learn more.
On Friday we had our trunk or treat and it was super fun! someone that we teach english to actually came and it was super awesome. People here go all out for halloween.
We have found so many people to teach this week that we have appointments every night already! except tuesday because we are not allowed to leave our house after 6 pm because Halloween here is sketchy. Fun fact about virginia: there are no street lights so when the sun goes down it is super dark and slightly sketchy and slightly scary to drive but its all good!
I am memorizing the Living Christ. As a mission we are doing a 100 days of strengthening conversion. Because we are going to the temple as a mission in like 93 days!! I am so excited!! :)
I love you all!! I hope you have a great week!
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Monday, October 23, 2017
6 Weeks in Virginia
Hello amigos! :)
This week went by so fast. I am not sure why because not a ton happened! We had a lesson with two of our investigators....they live together. Angel and Gisella. Angel loves the missionaries. Apparently some missionaries got him out of some pretty hard times but he never has had a desire to learn of the gospel. But his wife loves the gospel so much. We were reading a chapter in the Book of Mormon with them and he never reads with the missionaries but for some reason he decided to read with us. Then we talked about repentance and forgiveness and that really hit him hard. He has some forgiveness issues but he is starting to show some real progress. Then we asked him to pray (he has never prayed with the missionaries before) and he prayed. It was one of the most sincere prayers I have ever heard. It was incredible. The Spirit was so strong. It was amazing.
Two of our investigators are getting baptized next Friday!! I am so excited! They are so cool and have been investigating the church for so long. They have wanted to be baptized for a very long time and it now the right time. Something cool about a couple of our investigators is that they will try and share the gospel with other people. If anyone ever asks them about religion they start to talk about our church. It is so cool that they want to share what they are learning and feeling.
So we have a list of all the members of our branch. We divided them up to the the three sets of missionaries that serve in the Spanish branch and we are going to go and see all the less actives. We have only come in contact with one but it was a cool experience and we are going to start teaching her daughter. (Well, the Elders are going to because it is actually in their area. But cool all the same.
Technology is so awesome. This is one way that we are using technology in our mission. We have some recent converts that got baptized last year that have stopped coming to church. We tried to contact them but never could. Then we got a call from a member who had a previous missionary call them. This missionary was the one that baptized these two teenagers. She said that she really felt like they needed to be visited. We got permission to message this return missionary over Facebook and asked her to contact them for us. She did and we were able to have a lesson with them and she Skyped in. It was awesome. The recent converts were not really comfortable with us because they didn't' know us but now we have a good relationship with them and they want to meet with us more! It is so cool to have this tool available for this purpose. I am so thankful to have the use of technology on my mission.
I love you all!
This week went by so fast. I am not sure why because not a ton happened! We had a lesson with two of our investigators....they live together. Angel and Gisella. Angel loves the missionaries. Apparently some missionaries got him out of some pretty hard times but he never has had a desire to learn of the gospel. But his wife loves the gospel so much. We were reading a chapter in the Book of Mormon with them and he never reads with the missionaries but for some reason he decided to read with us. Then we talked about repentance and forgiveness and that really hit him hard. He has some forgiveness issues but he is starting to show some real progress. Then we asked him to pray (he has never prayed with the missionaries before) and he prayed. It was one of the most sincere prayers I have ever heard. It was incredible. The Spirit was so strong. It was amazing.
Two of our investigators are getting baptized next Friday!! I am so excited! They are so cool and have been investigating the church for so long. They have wanted to be baptized for a very long time and it now the right time. Something cool about a couple of our investigators is that they will try and share the gospel with other people. If anyone ever asks them about religion they start to talk about our church. It is so cool that they want to share what they are learning and feeling.
So we have a list of all the members of our branch. We divided them up to the the three sets of missionaries that serve in the Spanish branch and we are going to go and see all the less actives. We have only come in contact with one but it was a cool experience and we are going to start teaching her daughter. (Well, the Elders are going to because it is actually in their area. But cool all the same.
Technology is so awesome. This is one way that we are using technology in our mission. We have some recent converts that got baptized last year that have stopped coming to church. We tried to contact them but never could. Then we got a call from a member who had a previous missionary call them. This missionary was the one that baptized these two teenagers. She said that she really felt like they needed to be visited. We got permission to message this return missionary over Facebook and asked her to contact them for us. She did and we were able to have a lesson with them and she Skyped in. It was awesome. The recent converts were not really comfortable with us because they didn't' know us but now we have a good relationship with them and they want to meet with us more! It is so cool to have this tool available for this purpose. I am so thankful to have the use of technology on my mission.
I love you all!
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| just messing around taking pics |
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| Weird pinky pic with the sister training leaders |
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| Look, mom, I use the stuff you send me |
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| Wild life in Virginia |
Monday, October 16, 2017
Another Week In Virginia
This week has gone by so fast. We found some new people to teach which is super awesome because the whole mission is struggling with that right now. We found this lady, her name is Lorena and she is so awesome. She immediately invited us into her house and told us how much she loves the bible. We were talking about why we are here and all that stuff so we shared some scriptures with her from the Book of Mormon which she accepted as the word of God so that was awesome! She is super family oriented and so we are excited to keep meeting withe her. :)
We had a lesson with a lady named Nancy. I can't remember if I told y'all about her or not. But she is Christian, doesn't drink, or smoke and is super open to the Book of Mormon. Anyways, we had a lesson with her and she hadn't started the Book of Mormon yet but she had read the entire restoration pamphlet. So we read the introduction with her and the testimony of the witnesses and she was so interested ans said she wanted to keep reading that afternoon!
We went on exchanges with the sister training leaders this week and it was so much fun! I love them. We went tracting and I had to speak in spanish to some people without Hermana Coleman which is terrfying. But I did it and they understood me! But we didn't find anyone. Combined, both companionships knocked on around 55-60 doors and we did not find any hispanic people to teach. But its okay because the next day we found two more people!! We found a guy, Carlos who opened up to us and cried a little bit about how he is missing God and is looking for a way back to him. So that was a really cool experience!
We drive a chevy cruz but I don't drive because I am not the designated driver..
We leave our house around 1 or 1:30 and we have to be back by 9 if we don't have a lesson but if we are in a lesson or meeting by 9:30.
We got a new branch coordinator and he is so awesome. I am so excited to work with him. He has so many goals and we are going to really work with less actives because we have so many. I did not realize how mission oriented wards and branches are suppose to be. that is the goal of this church and I guess I just thought of myself so much at home that I didn't realize how much missionary work we are supposed to be doing all the time. :)
| We went to the capital today for zone pday:):) it was super awesome!! |
Monday, October 9, 2017
7 Investigators at Church But We Were No Where to be Found...
Hola friends!
Mom, I got your letter and your package. Thank you so much for everything. I appreciate the breakfast drinks. the food. the popcorn. Everything. I love the jacket. Thanks for the stamps. I love your letters and how cute they are. Thank you so much. I am going to write more letters.
I am so sorry about all the deaths. That is terrible but I am glad you got to reconnect with your friend. I have met her once. She is the one with Mr. Bodily in her ward. :) I am so thankful for the knowledge we have about the plan of salvation. I love the pictures of Beckett. He is the cutest baby in the entire world. I love him. And his picture he drew me was is so precious.
This email may be kind of long so if you don't read it all, I understand. Except you mom, but I know you will read it all :) 7 of our investigators came to church.... but we weren't there... I'll explain more later... (skip to Sunday if you only want to ready about that)
On Wednesday we had interviews with President Smith. He is such a cool dude. I cried to him about missing home and we talked about how much of a blessing it is that I miss home. Because that means that I have a family and a bunch of friends that love and care about me. So that is how I am trying to think right now and it is really working. He says the only way I am going to get over the home sickness is to love the people and get to work. And he is 100% right. We also talked about how I had a lack of faith of finding people. Sometimes it is really hard for me to think that there really are people who want to hear our message, but people really are being prepared. I promise... and now comes the classic missionary story....
So President Smith told both Hermana Coleman and I that we needed more faith in finding. So we decided that we were going to go find someone that day. So we prayed about where we should go and we were led to a neighborhood. Which is super not normal because Hispanics are normally in townhouses, apartments or trailer parks. So we knocked on a few houses, talked to a super creepy old guy and decided we were in the wrong circle so we walked to a different part of the neighborhood and found a lady outside her house. We started talking to her but she wasn't interested but we asked her where Hispanics are in this neighborhood and she pointed us back in the direction of our car. We went over there and talked to this guy whose wife is a less active and he said some Hispanics live across the street. Right where our car was parked. So we knocked and talked to this guy, Nelson. He is super cool and didn't seem interested at first but eventually promised us that he would read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and pray about it. It was super cool and I know we found him because we decided to have faith and just trust in God and his timing.
On Friday we had this meeting called "Return and Report". I assume you saw the pictures on Facebook... All the missionaries that came in at the same time as me and their trainers all gathered in downtown Richmond. This area is not a sister area and I am really thankful I won't ever have to serve there. It is a super cool place but definitely pretty sketchy. But we all go down there and try to street contact for like 2 hours. We went out with different companions and I went out with Hermana Davis and it was super cool. We gave out 3 Book of Mormons and a few restoration pamphlets. A super drunk guy stopped us and told us he wants to become a preacher but he is an alcoholic and he asked us if we think it would be okay if he still preached the good word while being an alcoholic. Somehow we changed the subject and gave him a restoration pamphlet and left but I just thought it was super cool that he trusted us enough to ask for our opinion. He recognized us as servants of God and that is a promise that we are promised in preach my gospel and I really saw it. It was really cool.
On Saturday we had some lessons that were super cool. We went and had a lesson with our investigators Humberto and Andrea who have been investigating since like July or August. its hard to communicate with them because they don't have a phone or a car.... but we finally taught them and we taught them for an hour and a half.... About like everything. The Spirit was so strong so we invited them to be baptized and they are hesitant but we think they are going to accept a baptismal date soon. I explained to them why we are here on missions and we are here because we know this is true. We know the Book of Mormon is true and we know we will one day live with our families for eternity in true happiness and that we want this for them. (yes I did that in Spanish....) After this we had a lesson with another investigator, Javier. He has come to church 15 times. But won't accept a baptismal date. He says he wants his kids to grow up in this church. He wants to bless his little girl but he won't get baptized. Its really frustrating but we are trying to be patient and figure out what it is that he needs so he understands how important baptism is.
STOP HERE IF YOU WANT TO READ ABOUT SUNDAY. Alright here is where it gets good. Sunday. We were studying when we got a call from our investigator Brenda. She told us that her sister had been in an accident and she needed us to translate at the hospital because she doesn't know anyone else that speaks English well enough to translate. So we got permission to go out of our area to downtown Richmond to the VCU hospital. We were expecting that she needed stitches or something and we get there and she had gotten out of a 10 hour surgery. She had broken several bones and had some bleeding in her brain. At this point she could not communicate with us because she had some tubes in her mouth and can't move very well. So we are talking with our investigator, Brenda, who doesn't know what happened because her sister can't tell her. so we had to call the police officer who told us it was a single vehicle accident and the car rolled several times off the road. She had to be flown in a helicopter to the hospital. It was super intense. We translated this phone call for Brenda. (I just had the Spanish dictionary open and looked up words for Hermana Coleman) We had to call the towing company, the fire department and file an insurance claim and then translate all of this back to Brenda. and by we, I mean Hermana Coleman because my Spanish is not good enough yet. I can understand a lot but I can't think fast enough about what the said and then what to say back and how to say it correctly... So this is all happening during church and we get a text from the Elders that said we had 7 investigators at church. So that is super awesome but we felt bad that we couldn't be there with them. We eventually made it back and talked with our investigators and attended an English ward's sacrament so we could take the sacrament and it was much needed. We were so tired. That was probably the most emotionally extinguishing thing I have done on my mission. So we decided that we can't keep doing this so we found a member who is willing to translate for Brenda. Hermana Ainsa. She is awesome. We went to her house to explain what was happening and she made sure everything was okay with Brenda and stuff but then she looked at us and asked if we were okay. We were okay but so tired. We are just some 19 year old girls that don't speak Spanish fluently and don't know anything about insurance. She just acted like our mom for a second and made sure we were okay with everything. I am so so thankful for her.
How I met Coach Gillette's sister. We were waiting for the English ward to start and she came up and was trying to see Hermana Coleman's tag and she asked me if she was Hermana Anderson. Probably because she is taller and looks like she plays basketball HAHAHA! But I told her she was looking for me and we talked for a little bit about Virginia and Coach Gillette. it was super cool! I also found Gwen Brockbank's sister in law... I don't know which boy she is married to. If I see her again I will ask :)
Facebook: at first it was communicating with our investigators and our members but I found a Hispanic Richmond Virginia group. So I changed my privacy settings so not just anyone can look at my friends. (trying to protect yall) and started messaging people "Hi! I am a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We have a message about Jesus Christ and we believe we can live with our families forever, even after this life. Do you want to learn more? and I have sent this message to around 60 people and only 2 have responded lol! but I am trying.
Our mission has also been chosen for a new pilot program. Only 5 missions in the world have been chosen for this so its pretty cool. If people google "questions of the soul" (where are we going, where do we come from, what is our purpose) mormon.org will show up and they can request to have someone come teach them. We haven't had any referrals from this yet but apparently in one day there were 30 referrals in the mission. So that is super cool and I am so excited for it!!
My Spanish is coming. I understand a lot and can teach some things. I can share my testimony. I share my testimony in all of our lessons and I can promise blessings. All the members are surprised that I can pray so well for only being out for less than a month. So there is that.
I love you all and thank you all for all you do!
Mom, I got your letter and your package. Thank you so much for everything. I appreciate the breakfast drinks. the food. the popcorn. Everything. I love the jacket. Thanks for the stamps. I love your letters and how cute they are. Thank you so much. I am going to write more letters.
I am so sorry about all the deaths. That is terrible but I am glad you got to reconnect with your friend. I have met her once. She is the one with Mr. Bodily in her ward. :) I am so thankful for the knowledge we have about the plan of salvation. I love the pictures of Beckett. He is the cutest baby in the entire world. I love him. And his picture he drew me was is so precious.
This email may be kind of long so if you don't read it all, I understand. Except you mom, but I know you will read it all :) 7 of our investigators came to church.... but we weren't there... I'll explain more later... (skip to Sunday if you only want to ready about that)
On Wednesday we had interviews with President Smith. He is such a cool dude. I cried to him about missing home and we talked about how much of a blessing it is that I miss home. Because that means that I have a family and a bunch of friends that love and care about me. So that is how I am trying to think right now and it is really working. He says the only way I am going to get over the home sickness is to love the people and get to work. And he is 100% right. We also talked about how I had a lack of faith of finding people. Sometimes it is really hard for me to think that there really are people who want to hear our message, but people really are being prepared. I promise... and now comes the classic missionary story....
So President Smith told both Hermana Coleman and I that we needed more faith in finding. So we decided that we were going to go find someone that day. So we prayed about where we should go and we were led to a neighborhood. Which is super not normal because Hispanics are normally in townhouses, apartments or trailer parks. So we knocked on a few houses, talked to a super creepy old guy and decided we were in the wrong circle so we walked to a different part of the neighborhood and found a lady outside her house. We started talking to her but she wasn't interested but we asked her where Hispanics are in this neighborhood and she pointed us back in the direction of our car. We went over there and talked to this guy whose wife is a less active and he said some Hispanics live across the street. Right where our car was parked. So we knocked and talked to this guy, Nelson. He is super cool and didn't seem interested at first but eventually promised us that he would read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and pray about it. It was super cool and I know we found him because we decided to have faith and just trust in God and his timing.
On Friday we had this meeting called "Return and Report". I assume you saw the pictures on Facebook... All the missionaries that came in at the same time as me and their trainers all gathered in downtown Richmond. This area is not a sister area and I am really thankful I won't ever have to serve there. It is a super cool place but definitely pretty sketchy. But we all go down there and try to street contact for like 2 hours. We went out with different companions and I went out with Hermana Davis and it was super cool. We gave out 3 Book of Mormons and a few restoration pamphlets. A super drunk guy stopped us and told us he wants to become a preacher but he is an alcoholic and he asked us if we think it would be okay if he still preached the good word while being an alcoholic. Somehow we changed the subject and gave him a restoration pamphlet and left but I just thought it was super cool that he trusted us enough to ask for our opinion. He recognized us as servants of God and that is a promise that we are promised in preach my gospel and I really saw it. It was really cool.
On Saturday we had some lessons that were super cool. We went and had a lesson with our investigators Humberto and Andrea who have been investigating since like July or August. its hard to communicate with them because they don't have a phone or a car.... but we finally taught them and we taught them for an hour and a half.... About like everything. The Spirit was so strong so we invited them to be baptized and they are hesitant but we think they are going to accept a baptismal date soon. I explained to them why we are here on missions and we are here because we know this is true. We know the Book of Mormon is true and we know we will one day live with our families for eternity in true happiness and that we want this for them. (yes I did that in Spanish....) After this we had a lesson with another investigator, Javier. He has come to church 15 times. But won't accept a baptismal date. He says he wants his kids to grow up in this church. He wants to bless his little girl but he won't get baptized. Its really frustrating but we are trying to be patient and figure out what it is that he needs so he understands how important baptism is.
STOP HERE IF YOU WANT TO READ ABOUT SUNDAY. Alright here is where it gets good. Sunday. We were studying when we got a call from our investigator Brenda. She told us that her sister had been in an accident and she needed us to translate at the hospital because she doesn't know anyone else that speaks English well enough to translate. So we got permission to go out of our area to downtown Richmond to the VCU hospital. We were expecting that she needed stitches or something and we get there and she had gotten out of a 10 hour surgery. She had broken several bones and had some bleeding in her brain. At this point she could not communicate with us because she had some tubes in her mouth and can't move very well. So we are talking with our investigator, Brenda, who doesn't know what happened because her sister can't tell her. so we had to call the police officer who told us it was a single vehicle accident and the car rolled several times off the road. She had to be flown in a helicopter to the hospital. It was super intense. We translated this phone call for Brenda. (I just had the Spanish dictionary open and looked up words for Hermana Coleman) We had to call the towing company, the fire department and file an insurance claim and then translate all of this back to Brenda. and by we, I mean Hermana Coleman because my Spanish is not good enough yet. I can understand a lot but I can't think fast enough about what the said and then what to say back and how to say it correctly... So this is all happening during church and we get a text from the Elders that said we had 7 investigators at church. So that is super awesome but we felt bad that we couldn't be there with them. We eventually made it back and talked with our investigators and attended an English ward's sacrament so we could take the sacrament and it was much needed. We were so tired. That was probably the most emotionally extinguishing thing I have done on my mission. So we decided that we can't keep doing this so we found a member who is willing to translate for Brenda. Hermana Ainsa. She is awesome. We went to her house to explain what was happening and she made sure everything was okay with Brenda and stuff but then she looked at us and asked if we were okay. We were okay but so tired. We are just some 19 year old girls that don't speak Spanish fluently and don't know anything about insurance. She just acted like our mom for a second and made sure we were okay with everything. I am so so thankful for her.
How I met Coach Gillette's sister. We were waiting for the English ward to start and she came up and was trying to see Hermana Coleman's tag and she asked me if she was Hermana Anderson. Probably because she is taller and looks like she plays basketball HAHAHA! But I told her she was looking for me and we talked for a little bit about Virginia and Coach Gillette. it was super cool! I also found Gwen Brockbank's sister in law... I don't know which boy she is married to. If I see her again I will ask :)
Facebook: at first it was communicating with our investigators and our members but I found a Hispanic Richmond Virginia group. So I changed my privacy settings so not just anyone can look at my friends. (trying to protect yall) and started messaging people "Hi! I am a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We have a message about Jesus Christ and we believe we can live with our families forever, even after this life. Do you want to learn more? and I have sent this message to around 60 people and only 2 have responded lol! but I am trying.
Our mission has also been chosen for a new pilot program. Only 5 missions in the world have been chosen for this so its pretty cool. If people google "questions of the soul" (where are we going, where do we come from, what is our purpose) mormon.org will show up and they can request to have someone come teach them. We haven't had any referrals from this yet but apparently in one day there were 30 referrals in the mission. So that is super cool and I am so excited for it!!
My Spanish is coming. I understand a lot and can teach some things. I can share my testimony. I share my testimony in all of our lessons and I can promise blessings. All the members are surprised that I can pray so well for only being out for less than a month. So there is that.
I love you all and thank you all for all you do!
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| Us documenting the hospital parking lot. |
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| Ice cream and juice night :) |
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| my awkward missionary pic with Elder Bird at Return and Report |
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| pretty sky in Virginia :) |
Monday, October 2, 2017
2 Months.... Say What??
Hola amigos!
Mom, I got your snail mail and it made my day! I loved it so much. I have re read it a couple of times already. I also got grandma Larrabee's letter and wrote her back today! I am so thankful you guys took the time to write me. I know you were inspired to do so. I did a lot better this week with the homesickness. I still felt it a lot. Especially this morning for some reason but I do think I am settling into missionary life more and more. I know it will take some more time but it is happening.
We have had branch council once and branch coordination once since I have been here. They are super helpful meetings and I can't wait to have more. Right now we do not have a ward mission leader so that is tough but once we get one, we will meet with them every week. We just got new Presidents in Young Womens and Young Mens and primary. They are all younger people who are so ready to help the missionaries out with the work. And we are coming up with a program to have each member suggest names through Facebook that we can teach or share a message with. Missionaries are so involved in the branch here because the branch is so small. Members are so willing to come out with us though and be involved in missionary work. We have three sets of Spanish missionaries all in our branch.
This week was kind of tough when it comes to rejections and stuff. We got rejected a ton. We have some recent converts that are ignoring us and we had to drop an investigator that Hermana Coleman has been teaching for 12 weeks. That was really hard on her. But it was what we needed to do.
On Friday, we went on exchanges with the sister training leaders. I went with Sister Perry for the day and we went and had lunch with lady for lunch. Her name is Peggy and she is like 71, single and at one point in time had 8 cats. She is so awesome. Sister Perry asked her about her conversion story and she told us about it and she talked about how the missionaries came and knocked on her door and told her about the first vision and right then she knew it was true. She knew it but was not sure if she wanted to be baptized because she wasn't sure if she wanted to change her lifestyle. Around 10 months later she chose to be baptized and has been a faithful member of the church for 35 years. It was so cool for me to hear this because I had been lacking in faith about finding people to teach. Then later that night we went to visit a recent convert, his name is Lloyd and he is one of the coolest people I have ever met. He was baptized less than a year ago and has an incredible testimony of Jospeh Smith. He was sharing his testimony about how he knows Joseph Smith is a prophet could not have done all of this without the help of God. It was so cool to hear his testimony. He is working to go through the temple soon and I am so happy for him. Hearing their conversion stories gave me some extra motivation to go knock on some doors and tell people about the gospel.
Then we had conference. We watched the morning sessions on both days in spanish so I can't wait until they come out on gospel library so I can actually understand what was said! I got some things and I know the Spirit helped me understand what I needed to hear in those two sessions. It is so sad about Elder Hales but I know he is going to do some serious work on the other side. The other two sessions were so awesome. I loved Elder Andersen's and Elder Nelson's talks. They were incredible. Also, Elder Callister's talk about Joseph Smith was the ultimate talk that I want every person who denies Joseph Smith as a prophet to read. 6 of our investigators said they were going to come to the church to watch conference with us and only one came. One. So that was super discouraging but we are going to talk to them this week and ask them what is up. One of them watched a couple of the sessions at home though so that is awesome!! :)
Since I was feeling motivated to knock on doors, we went on sunday to this apartment complex and knocked on like 6 doors before dinner and every single one of them said "not interested". Just like that. Some opened the door and didn't even let us speak. One didn't even open the door, just yelled through and then locked the door. so that was kind of sad but I know we will find someone who is ready.
I want you all to know that I know this is the true church. I know God is aware of us and wants us to return to him. He has given us the Book of Mormon to do so. I know Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon. I know that Joseph Smith was called by God to restore the true gospel to this earth. He was persecuted until death because he knew the truth. This gospel is amazing and we are so blessed to have it on the earth today.
Mom, I got your snail mail and it made my day! I loved it so much. I have re read it a couple of times already. I also got grandma Larrabee's letter and wrote her back today! I am so thankful you guys took the time to write me. I know you were inspired to do so. I did a lot better this week with the homesickness. I still felt it a lot. Especially this morning for some reason but I do think I am settling into missionary life more and more. I know it will take some more time but it is happening.
We have had branch council once and branch coordination once since I have been here. They are super helpful meetings and I can't wait to have more. Right now we do not have a ward mission leader so that is tough but once we get one, we will meet with them every week. We just got new Presidents in Young Womens and Young Mens and primary. They are all younger people who are so ready to help the missionaries out with the work. And we are coming up with a program to have each member suggest names through Facebook that we can teach or share a message with. Missionaries are so involved in the branch here because the branch is so small. Members are so willing to come out with us though and be involved in missionary work. We have three sets of Spanish missionaries all in our branch.
This week was kind of tough when it comes to rejections and stuff. We got rejected a ton. We have some recent converts that are ignoring us and we had to drop an investigator that Hermana Coleman has been teaching for 12 weeks. That was really hard on her. But it was what we needed to do.
On Friday, we went on exchanges with the sister training leaders. I went with Sister Perry for the day and we went and had lunch with lady for lunch. Her name is Peggy and she is like 71, single and at one point in time had 8 cats. She is so awesome. Sister Perry asked her about her conversion story and she told us about it and she talked about how the missionaries came and knocked on her door and told her about the first vision and right then she knew it was true. She knew it but was not sure if she wanted to be baptized because she wasn't sure if she wanted to change her lifestyle. Around 10 months later she chose to be baptized and has been a faithful member of the church for 35 years. It was so cool for me to hear this because I had been lacking in faith about finding people to teach. Then later that night we went to visit a recent convert, his name is Lloyd and he is one of the coolest people I have ever met. He was baptized less than a year ago and has an incredible testimony of Jospeh Smith. He was sharing his testimony about how he knows Joseph Smith is a prophet could not have done all of this without the help of God. It was so cool to hear his testimony. He is working to go through the temple soon and I am so happy for him. Hearing their conversion stories gave me some extra motivation to go knock on some doors and tell people about the gospel.
Then we had conference. We watched the morning sessions on both days in spanish so I can't wait until they come out on gospel library so I can actually understand what was said! I got some things and I know the Spirit helped me understand what I needed to hear in those two sessions. It is so sad about Elder Hales but I know he is going to do some serious work on the other side. The other two sessions were so awesome. I loved Elder Andersen's and Elder Nelson's talks. They were incredible. Also, Elder Callister's talk about Joseph Smith was the ultimate talk that I want every person who denies Joseph Smith as a prophet to read. 6 of our investigators said they were going to come to the church to watch conference with us and only one came. One. So that was super discouraging but we are going to talk to them this week and ask them what is up. One of them watched a couple of the sessions at home though so that is awesome!! :)
Since I was feeling motivated to knock on doors, we went on sunday to this apartment complex and knocked on like 6 doors before dinner and every single one of them said "not interested". Just like that. Some opened the door and didn't even let us speak. One didn't even open the door, just yelled through and then locked the door. so that was kind of sad but I know we will find someone who is ready.
I want you all to know that I know this is the true church. I know God is aware of us and wants us to return to him. He has given us the Book of Mormon to do so. I know Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon. I know that Joseph Smith was called by God to restore the true gospel to this earth. He was persecuted until death because he knew the truth. This gospel is amazing and we are so blessed to have it on the earth today.
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| our awkward pics with the sister training leaders :) |
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| Twins! |
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| Us with the sister training leaders at the Amancer eating papayas! |
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| Zone pday where I got to play real basketball and we played oompa.... Ultimate Frisbee basketball with a football. Its super intense |
Monday, September 25, 2017
2nd Week in Virginia!!
Hola amigos!
This week we had zone conference where Facebook was introduced! We are 1 of 86 missions in the church using Facebook. It is going to be very interesting trying to find people using Facebook. As of right now our mission president wants us to spend 2 hours a day on Facebook, using it to teach and find people. We are definitely learning as we go along.
The weather here is really nice right now. It hasn't rained since I've been here. Its humid but not too bad.
So this week was full of watching Facebook videos and learning how to use Facebook for missionary purposes. Mom, I am not gonna lie, it's super hard to not look up what you guys are doing or posting. This first transfer I can read emails through the week so I would love to hear what you have to say. I try not to look all the time but I do look if I am really missing you all. Just know that I really love you guys and miss you.
Right now we don't tract a lot because we have a lot of investigators to teach but right now none of them are really progressing so we are going to really start to find new people to teach. We have 11 or 12 investigators and only one came to church. So that was super lame. But we taught him after church and had a really powerful lesson with some members and I was so excited to invite him to be baptized because I was so sure he would say yes...so I invited him and he said he couldn't say yes. He says he isn't sure if he can really commit. He said he is really going to pray constantly and with his whole heart to see if this is true and what he should really do. So that is exciting!
On Saturday our stake had a day of service where they had a station to give blood, index, tie quilts, put humanitarian kits together, make cards, and some other stuff! It was super cool. Not a ton of Hispanic people came but it was fun to see so many people wanting to serve.
Saturday was also women's conference. It was awesome. We watched it English because none of our members or investigators came to the church. A little weird to watch it at 8:00 at night but super cool. I loved the first talk so much too. Watching the women's conference as a missionary was a little different because I didn't realize how much the talks apply to me as a missionary and my life before I was a missionary. Ya Know?? I also loved President Uchtdorf's talk. I can't wait to go back and read them.
This week we had zone conference where Facebook was introduced! We are 1 of 86 missions in the church using Facebook. It is going to be very interesting trying to find people using Facebook. As of right now our mission president wants us to spend 2 hours a day on Facebook, using it to teach and find people. We are definitely learning as we go along.
The weather here is really nice right now. It hasn't rained since I've been here. Its humid but not too bad.
So this week was full of watching Facebook videos and learning how to use Facebook for missionary purposes. Mom, I am not gonna lie, it's super hard to not look up what you guys are doing or posting. This first transfer I can read emails through the week so I would love to hear what you have to say. I try not to look all the time but I do look if I am really missing you all. Just know that I really love you guys and miss you.
Right now we don't tract a lot because we have a lot of investigators to teach but right now none of them are really progressing so we are going to really start to find new people to teach. We have 11 or 12 investigators and only one came to church. So that was super lame. But we taught him after church and had a really powerful lesson with some members and I was so excited to invite him to be baptized because I was so sure he would say yes...so I invited him and he said he couldn't say yes. He says he isn't sure if he can really commit. He said he is really going to pray constantly and with his whole heart to see if this is true and what he should really do. So that is exciting!
On Saturday our stake had a day of service where they had a station to give blood, index, tie quilts, put humanitarian kits together, make cards, and some other stuff! It was super cool. Not a ton of Hispanic people came but it was fun to see so many people wanting to serve.
Saturday was also women's conference. It was awesome. We watched it English because none of our members or investigators came to the church. A little weird to watch it at 8:00 at night but super cool. I loved the first talk so much too. Watching the women's conference as a missionary was a little different because I didn't realize how much the talks apply to me as a missionary and my life before I was a missionary. Ya Know?? I also loved President Uchtdorf's talk. I can't wait to go back and read them.
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| There are so many trees here. So many. You'll be driving on the freeway and not even realize you are in the middle of the city because there are so many trees. |
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| We got Chick-Fil-A this week |
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| Here are two of our investigators at a party for one of their birthdays! |
Monday, September 18, 2017
First Week in Virginia!!!
Hola Family and Friends!!!
My new address::
2322 Long Boat Court
Henrico Virginia 23294
So I made it to Virginia.... it was a little rough because we flew from SLC to Atlanta and landing was definitely a little sketchy. If any of you know me and my history of motion sickness you know how that ended... HAHA!! It was a sad time but its super funny now so just laugh about it!
When we got here President Smith picked us up and took us back to the mission home and we pretty much just went to bed because it was so late! Tuesday we had some training and learned how everything works in Virginia... There were 6 other missionaries that came from the Mexico MTC that are super awesome so Elder Bird (the Spanish speaking elder from Provo MTC) and I really bonded with them and got to know them!
On Wednesday we went to a church and met our trainers! My new companion is Hermana Coleman. She is from Riverton, Utah and has been on her mission for 7 months! She is seriously so awesome and I am so thankful for her. She speaks really solid Spanish and never has communication problems with anyone! Its awesome :) She likes to run and play basketball so we have gone running a couple of times and have done some other work outs. She likes to work hard and I love her a ton. It's just her and I living in our apartment! After I met Hermana Coleman, we were on our way to the transfer meeting and I saw Allison and it was awesome. I was super excited and I cried a little because I was so excited. WE both definitely ran in the church but it was super exciting!!
Answers to some of your questions:::
My area is great! I have no idea what we really cover because Virginia is super confusing and there is not a straight street here at all!! Lots of diversity. I hardly see any white people! Its awesome. Also fun fact about Richmond: Downtown Richmond has more murders per capita than Chicago... but don't worry, its not a sister area!
We make lunch for ourselves but all the dinners are from members! We get fed so much food. I promise you I will not starve here. Anytime we go anywhere people try to feed us. One day I seriously thought I was going to throw up because I had eaten so much. So I promise there will not be any problems there! :)
Its super pretty here! There are so many trees, its insane. When you drive on the freeway all you see is trees. No buildings or houses or anything. Just trees. And they are huge trees.
I can feel the love from family for me. I can feel your prayers. I wouldn't be able to do this alone. There is no way. I don't know why its super hard at times because we aren't doing anything crazy but for some reason its pretty rough, but it's all good.
It's suggested that we don't read emails through the week... so there is that... I don't really have time to read a ton anyway...
On Wednesday we started going to people's houses and talking to investigators and stuff and I can understand a lot more Spanish than I expected. I know I am going to learn Spanish because there are a ton of Spanish speakers here!! Anyways, I can understand a ton of what is said.. most of the time. Some people from certain countries talk super fast and I have a hard time understanding but generally I can understand! However,, if I am not completely focused on what they are saying then I don't understand! Speaking is a little rough but I know I'll get there eventually. I know it will not come as fast as I want it to but I know it will come if I keep working.
We have a lot of investigators but sadly no one is really progressing. So we are trying to figure out ways to help their testimonies grow! Cool thing that happened though: We went to go teach a new investigator, Elkin. I had never met him but Hermana Coleman had taught him once before and said he is super cool and wants to learn a lot so we went to go teach him and his wife, (well we hope they are married, no one really is around here) came and sat down with us and had a ton of questions and was super interested! Then her son came and he's probably 22 and he started asking us a million questions and telling us how our church doesn't make sense and that Judaism makes way more sense and all this stuff. I really wanted to argue with him because he was speaking English - so I totally could have - but Hermana Coleman handled it like a boss and just told him that if he wanted to know he needed to read the Book of Mormon and all this stuff. I am learning so much from her and how to be a great missionary. Anyways it was cool because Marta asked her son to leave because she wanted to keep reading in the Book of Mormon and he was not allowing us to do that!! So she wants to learn more and keep hearing from us, we have another lesson with them this week and I'm so excited!!
On Saturday we had a fiesta of the nations at the church with all the members and it was so much fun!! Super loud Hispanic music and a ton of Hispanic food which is so good! I love the food here so much!! Church was pretty great! I could understand most of what was said. A talk was given in English by the high councilman... that's not normal though haha!! Some of the members speak English so if someone really wanted to get to know me they would speak in English and Spanish so I could fully understand what they were saying!
P-days are different here.. there is so much more to do! We have to clean our apartment and our car. We don't email for too long but its all good! I like it :)
Keep praying for me!
My new address::
2322 Long Boat Court
Henrico Virginia 23294
So I made it to Virginia.... it was a little rough because we flew from SLC to Atlanta and landing was definitely a little sketchy. If any of you know me and my history of motion sickness you know how that ended... HAHA!! It was a sad time but its super funny now so just laugh about it!
When we got here President Smith picked us up and took us back to the mission home and we pretty much just went to bed because it was so late! Tuesday we had some training and learned how everything works in Virginia... There were 6 other missionaries that came from the Mexico MTC that are super awesome so Elder Bird (the Spanish speaking elder from Provo MTC) and I really bonded with them and got to know them!
On Wednesday we went to a church and met our trainers! My new companion is Hermana Coleman. She is from Riverton, Utah and has been on her mission for 7 months! She is seriously so awesome and I am so thankful for her. She speaks really solid Spanish and never has communication problems with anyone! Its awesome :) She likes to run and play basketball so we have gone running a couple of times and have done some other work outs. She likes to work hard and I love her a ton. It's just her and I living in our apartment! After I met Hermana Coleman, we were on our way to the transfer meeting and I saw Allison and it was awesome. I was super excited and I cried a little because I was so excited. WE both definitely ran in the church but it was super exciting!!
Answers to some of your questions:::
My area is great! I have no idea what we really cover because Virginia is super confusing and there is not a straight street here at all!! Lots of diversity. I hardly see any white people! Its awesome. Also fun fact about Richmond: Downtown Richmond has more murders per capita than Chicago... but don't worry, its not a sister area!
We make lunch for ourselves but all the dinners are from members! We get fed so much food. I promise you I will not starve here. Anytime we go anywhere people try to feed us. One day I seriously thought I was going to throw up because I had eaten so much. So I promise there will not be any problems there! :)
Its super pretty here! There are so many trees, its insane. When you drive on the freeway all you see is trees. No buildings or houses or anything. Just trees. And they are huge trees.
I can feel the love from family for me. I can feel your prayers. I wouldn't be able to do this alone. There is no way. I don't know why its super hard at times because we aren't doing anything crazy but for some reason its pretty rough, but it's all good.
It's suggested that we don't read emails through the week... so there is that... I don't really have time to read a ton anyway...
On Wednesday we started going to people's houses and talking to investigators and stuff and I can understand a lot more Spanish than I expected. I know I am going to learn Spanish because there are a ton of Spanish speakers here!! Anyways, I can understand a ton of what is said.. most of the time. Some people from certain countries talk super fast and I have a hard time understanding but generally I can understand! However,, if I am not completely focused on what they are saying then I don't understand! Speaking is a little rough but I know I'll get there eventually. I know it will not come as fast as I want it to but I know it will come if I keep working.
We have a lot of investigators but sadly no one is really progressing. So we are trying to figure out ways to help their testimonies grow! Cool thing that happened though: We went to go teach a new investigator, Elkin. I had never met him but Hermana Coleman had taught him once before and said he is super cool and wants to learn a lot so we went to go teach him and his wife, (well we hope they are married, no one really is around here) came and sat down with us and had a ton of questions and was super interested! Then her son came and he's probably 22 and he started asking us a million questions and telling us how our church doesn't make sense and that Judaism makes way more sense and all this stuff. I really wanted to argue with him because he was speaking English - so I totally could have - but Hermana Coleman handled it like a boss and just told him that if he wanted to know he needed to read the Book of Mormon and all this stuff. I am learning so much from her and how to be a great missionary. Anyways it was cool because Marta asked her son to leave because she wanted to keep reading in the Book of Mormon and he was not allowing us to do that!! So she wants to learn more and keep hearing from us, we have another lesson with them this week and I'm so excited!!
On Saturday we had a fiesta of the nations at the church with all the members and it was so much fun!! Super loud Hispanic music and a ton of Hispanic food which is so good! I love the food here so much!! Church was pretty great! I could understand most of what was said. A talk was given in English by the high councilman... that's not normal though haha!! Some of the members speak English so if someone really wanted to get to know me they would speak in English and Spanish so I could fully understand what they were saying!
P-days are different here.. there is so much more to do! We have to clean our apartment and our car. We don't email for too long but its all good! I like it :)
Keep praying for me!
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| Allison and I |
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| My comp and I |
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| My first time having papayas |
Saturday, September 9, 2017
Last Week in the MTC
Hola amigos!
This week flew by!! On Tuesday we had a devotional with Elder Oaks which was absolutely incredible. He talked about a million things! He talked about how important the resurrection is and how important it is that we are teaching of the resurrection. Also he quoted from preach my gospel like the entire time, it really emphasized how important that book is. He talked about things we will need to change in order to become a missionary, like changing our habits. He emphasized being a FULL time missionary and how that is our choice. It takes a change of mindset to do that though. then our branch president talked to us after and told us it is our decision whether we be an alright missionary, a good missionary, or an excellent missionary. And we can decide right now what we will be.
We taught one of our teachers and he treated it like a door approach and that was really different. He didn't want to let us in and that was super rough but we got through. My gospel Spanish is pretty good and my conversational is just alright so it was hard to talk to him about other things!! So pray for me for when I go to the field!!
Yesterday was my final "real" day in the MTC and that was super weird! I have enjoyed the MTC and have learned so so much. I am not ready to stop going to class and having to learn Spanish with my teachers!! But I am so so excited to go to Virginia on Monday!! I love you all!!
This week flew by!! On Tuesday we had a devotional with Elder Oaks which was absolutely incredible. He talked about a million things! He talked about how important the resurrection is and how important it is that we are teaching of the resurrection. Also he quoted from preach my gospel like the entire time, it really emphasized how important that book is. He talked about things we will need to change in order to become a missionary, like changing our habits. He emphasized being a FULL time missionary and how that is our choice. It takes a change of mindset to do that though. then our branch president talked to us after and told us it is our decision whether we be an alright missionary, a good missionary, or an excellent missionary. And we can decide right now what we will be.
We taught one of our teachers and he treated it like a door approach and that was really different. He didn't want to let us in and that was super rough but we got through. My gospel Spanish is pretty good and my conversational is just alright so it was hard to talk to him about other things!! So pray for me for when I go to the field!!
Yesterday was my final "real" day in the MTC and that was super weird! I have enjoyed the MTC and have learned so so much. I am not ready to stop going to class and having to learn Spanish with my teachers!! But I am so so excited to go to Virginia on Monday!! I love you all!!
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| Hermana Hathaway and I the morning she left for Argentina |
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| My district with one of our teachers |
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