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.

the family we had thanksgiving with (the first meal)

We gave our recent convert and investigator pizza :)

Us having mate (Hispanic hot chocolate)with Hermana Pina

This house that is all out for Christmas!

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!

Family home evening ad our investigator,  Javier standing awkwardly far away

We made something for the members that live by us and it made her cry

Our members that came out with us 

For advertising purposes one of the elders dressed up as Santa for our district meeting

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!!

We went to a pretty lake last week

our investigator Javier, we have no idea what he is wearing

Sister Ruffner, Hermana Coleman and I

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!!

All missionaries that were able to come to the baptism

Joaquin, me, Eva, and Hermana Coleman at the baptism

Just a pic of Hermana Coleman and I