BAPTISM THURSDAY

Hola amigos!!

Hermana Coleman is visiting her mission with her mom and they were in Fredericksburg on Sunday. I will actually be playing basketball with her and president Manriquez today haha!

On Thursday we had Robinson's baptisms and it was AWESOME. there were so many people there supporting him and we had an interpreter for sign language there for his daughter. They told us that after the baptism that the daughter said there was a different feeling in their home. Robinson shared his testimony and pretty much explained the story of the whole Book of Mormon this week because He finished it so that was awesome. He seemed so calm and happy.  Then on Sunday he received the holy ghost and that was awesome. He also received the Aaronic priesthood and it was so AWESOME. He Is so excited to bless the sacrament next week. Even better, Zulma's mom is in town for  so Salvador and she was baptized a while ago but has left the church and is a Jehovah's witness but we invited her to church and she came and said she felt the Spirit and is going to come again.

We had our branch Christmas party and we had so many non members and less active there. It was a miracle!!

A couple of weeks ago we met a woman named Claudia Diaspz and talked with her for a couple of minutes but for some reason we felt SUPER good about her. So We texted her a couple of days ago and asked if we could meet with her and she texted and asked us what time church was. Well, she came and she then proceeded to tell us that she is a member and was baptized in Honduras when she was 8. So that was super sweet! And she is going to start meeting with the hermanas!

Also, last night we were teaching Jaime and Irene about the plan of salvation and they loved it. They had really solid questions and understood what we were saying. We invited them to be baptized on January 12th and they accepted the date! So that's exciting and the have plans to come to church.

As for me, I will be leaving Fredericksburg and continuing ad a sister training leader. Hermana Barton is also leaving Fredericksburg. We are so sad to leave! But excited for what is coming next. 

I have been reading a lot about the Brother of Jared and really have received a testimony that Jesus Christ is so aware of our needs as individuals and he knows what we can handle. I am so grateful for all the knowledge the book of Mormon provides and I know that the book of Mormon is a manifestation of Gods love for us. 

I love you all!

I'm Ready

Hola amigos!

I am doing great! We had sacrament meeting but the rest of church was cancelled. 

This week on exchanges we went to a English member's house and they gave us a cinnamon roll and it almost made me cry haha because it was homemade and Christmas and I was just so happy haha.

This week has been awesome. On Tuesday we went on exchanges and I was able to teach a guy from Africa and it was really cool. Then we went and taught this part member family about the love of God because the 15 year old daughter doesn't really have a belief in God and it was super powerful and really cool. then we went and shared Light the World with some a member family and this 11 year old girl told us about how she tried to give a girl at school a Book of Mormon. It was awesome. She was sad because the person didn't accept but she is determined to try again.

On Wednesday, we went back and taught Jaime and Rene (a cute couple we found last week). They had been reading the Book of Mormon and had prayed to know if it is true. They said they hadn't gotten an answer yet. We read 1 Nefi 1 and it was really awesome and they wanted to come to church but they had a funeral in North Carolina and couldn't come but we will be meeting with them again tonight!

Thursday was awesome. WE had a lesson with Robinson and Zulma and we had planned this super intense lesson about "leaving your nets" and we were going to be super bold and tell him he needs to stop drinking and take the step of faith and be baptized.  We sing and pray and we were about to start and he said before you start I want to say something and then looks at us and in English says "I'm ready quiero bautizarme (I want to be baptized)". He told us that he had been reading in the Book of Mormon at work and just started crying and he couldn't stop and he went home and told Zulma. He also said that when President Nelson extended the challenge to give something to the Lord, he knew he could do that. So after a ton of scheduling conflicts, he will be getting baptized on Thursday at 6. We will even have a sign language interpreter for his daughter. (the only person in the area that speaks both Spanish and sign language happens to be a member in Stafford!)

Also on Saturday we went to the baptism of Gisella in Henrico!!  Hermana Barton and I both taught her and it was so fun to be apart of. The Spirit was so so strong. Her husband is also not a member and I taught him as well. So when we got there I told Angel I wanted to talk with him and figure out why he won't take this step to an eternal family. So we sat down and he said that there were some things he didn't understand and didn't agree with and that he didn't have faith. Which he always claims. But I explained that faith is a principle of action and he is doing all the actions and if he is doing all the actions, then he is showing that he has faith. A light when on in his head when we were talking about that. We also talked about the kingdoms of glory and he said we should all be working towards the celestial kingdom. So we talked about the requirements to get there and we talked about the temple and he said Gisella wants to be sealed but he knows they can't unless he is baptized. So he said he would pray about what we talked about and make a decision on baptism.  It was a super spiritual experience!

Then on Sunday the snow came. We came to church and they cancelled the last two hours and it was super snowy and we couldn't drive. So we got a snow shovel form our closet and started walking to a neighborhood. We got a second shovel from a  member and got to work. We went to Roxany's house (our recent convert whose dad won't let us come over anymore) and shoveled her driveway. Her mom was so grateful and invited us in for hot chocolate. That was a huge step because we haven't had contact for a really long time with them. WE had hot chocolate and had  weird conversation with her dad but it was a miracle. WE also had a video lesson with Robinson and he was super concerned on what the brother of Jared's name is hahahah. he eventually googled it to figure out how we know his name haha!

mom I sent your email to our secretary so you will probably be getting emails about travel stuff because that is coming soonish. Transfers are not this week but next Tuesday so if you were going to send anything.. either do it this week or wait until Tuesday and you can get my address from the mission office after the transfer meeting.

It has been a great week! I love you all and Merry Christmas!!

Family History and New People to Teach

 Hola amigos!

I can't believe its December. You guys have snow while its like 60 degrees here haha!

My companion and the branch president and i just played basketball for like 3 hours... he is from mexico but his like 6 foot 2 or something and his mom is a professional basketball player in mexico.. he plays a lot like Brandt. haha it was a lot of fun.

This week on an exchange I went with a sister to visit a lady named Judy. The sisters were teaching her but then she told them she didn't want to continue and they showed her family history and she had a lot of interest in that. So we go over to help her set up an account and get started. I mostly just sat there because I don't know much about family search but once were we done helping her she asked "Why does your church think it is so important to do this?" I explained baptisms for the dead and how we need to do family history to be able to give the people that have passed away the opportunity to accept the gospel. I shared some experiences I have had while doing baptisms for the dead and it was awesome. Then she figured out that I was almost done with my mission in Virginia and she asked what has been the most important thing to me  here and I shared with her that it has a been helping people coming closer to Jesus Christ, including myself. The spirit was so strong and we were all trembling because of it.

We also had some great lessons with Robinson and  Zulma. On Wednesday we went and we talked about what impedes him from being baptized and how he just needs to make the choice. I don't remember much of what was said during that lesson, just that the spirit was incredibly strong. Then on Sunday, our branch president was talking about some things that I said and I don't even remember saying them which I always feel like is a cool thing because I don't really think it was me talking. Robinson is progressing and wants to be baptized but he is still super worried about tithing.

On Sunday we fasted as a mission to help us reach our goal of 280 convert baptisms by the end of the year. (we currently have 230). Hermana Barton and I saw some miracles from this fast. WE were able to teach the restoration twice on Sunday night to people that really have interest. We asked a man, Rene and his wife Jaime, what they would do to live with God again and they said they would listen to everything we have to say and read and pray. Which was awesome so we are going back on Wednesday!

We did get to watch the devotional and it was incredible. I loved the talks and the Hallelujah Chorus at the end was epic! Robinson and Zulma watched it as well!  I loved that the prophet talked about desires and what our true desires are. I also loved Elder Stevenson's talk about our spiritual heart health. I know  that as we focus on Jesus Christ, our spiritual heart health will get better and better!

I love you all! Have a great week!

Dia de accion de gracias

Hola amigos!!

What else did we do on Thanksgiving? We did weekly planning, We tried to plan some zone meetings that we have coming up. We attempted to find some people to teach but people were not that thrilled to talk to us. We did have a miracle and come in contact with an investigator/part member family that we have a really hard time contacting. We knocked on the door and they let us in and we invited them to church and tried to set up an appointment with us. They offered some juice and we said yes and then he brings out this dark red drink in a tall beer glass... the first thing he said was "its not alcohol"... haha! I am pretty sure it was just some sparking cider grape flavor haha.

This week we were able to have some really solid lessons with Robinson and Zulma. On Monday we were reading in Alma 32 and asked them what they needed to do to strengthen their faith and Zulma went off about how they had went to go buy shirts the other day (on a Sunday) but they were shirts for church and she felt like that was a great act of faith and she feels like they are good.. haha sounds like we need to review keeping the Sabbath day holy again.. but we asked Robinson what he needs to do and he said he needs to get baptized but he still won't commit to a date. On Thanksgiving we read part of the talk "He will place you on his shoulders and carry you home" by President Uchtdorf. It such a good talk and I think it really helped them see that it doesn't matter where you were before, but with Christ's atonement we can become whatever He wants us to be. They shared with us some of their not so good experiences with the Jehovah's witness church and how they were shunned and they tried to go back just a couple of months ago trying to find peace but they said they ended up feeling worse than they did before but how they felt like they have found that peace here in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

We went on exchanges one day and it was COLD but we were working hard and we were able to talk to have "meaningful contact" (leaving them with something, testifying of something and inviting them to do something)  with 14 people. so that was awesome. 

I have been a little sick the past couple of days... I am feeling better but remember when I had pneumonia in 2nd grade? it kind of felt like that.. my throat hurt, i was super weak and couldn't do like anything and had a lot of pressure in my chest and a pounding headache.. I rested the past two days and am feeling better today.

I just want to share a quote from President Uchtdorf "It matters not how completely ruined our lives may seem. It matters not how scarlet our sins, how deep our bitterness, how lonely, abandoned, or broken our hearts may be. Even those who are without hope, who live in despair, who have betrayed trust, surrendered their integrity, or turned away from God can be rebuilt. Save those rare sons of perdition, there is no life so shattered that it cannot be restored.

The joyous news of the gospel is this: because of the eternal plan of happiness provided by our loving Heavenly Father and through the infinite sacrifice of Jesus the Christ, we can not only be redeemed from our fallen state and restored to purity, but we can also transcend mortal imagination and become heirs of eternal life and partakers of God’s indescribable glory"

I know this is true and through the atonement of Jesus Christ we can become better than how we started. In fact, that is the purpose.. to become better!

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Family History to Find?

Hola amigos!

We have plans for Thanksgiving but with a family that doesn't speak any English so I'm pretty sure It won't be super Thanksgivingy haha but it's all good. It won't make me miss home too much because it will just be so different hahaha. Yes we teach young women's every week. It's super fun but hard because young women don t talk hahaha

We are still teaching Robinson. Something cool that happened is that we went over one day for dinner and Robinson told us he had come home early from work and was working on family history and wanted help with that. We had literally come prepared with a lesson on temples and family history. Then the next day we had a zone conference where we talked about family history for like 2 or 3 hours. So that was awesome. Other than that the work has been pretty rough this week.  We have talked to a lot of people lately but no one is really interested. We are trying to be creative with our finding efforts so we are hoping that will be helpful.

Like I mentioned earlier we had a zone conference about family history and it was awesome. On my mission I have been called to repentance multiple times to become actively involved in family history. We were shown ways to use it to find people to teach so after zone conference we go and put it to work. People are pretty interested. On exchanges I talked to this lady about family history and she told us to come by in a couple of days. So we were pretty excited. We text her to confirm the appointment and she said she was busy so we tried to reschedule for Sunday and she then just said "I have something on Sunday but how about you come over on Saturday and have dinner with us?"  We are stoked. No one ever does that haha but we get there on Saturday and knock the door and nobody was there. We called and texted and She never answered. We totally got stood up HAHAHAH. We were pretty bitter but now we just laugh.

I am grateful to have Thanksgiving this week where we can really focus on the blessings God has given us. I have seen so many in my life and feel like I receive more and more every day. I know that God is aware of us in every circumstance and that we all have things to be grateful for.

I love you all and hope you have a great Thanksgiving! I'm grateful for ya! 🦃

 

Hermana Barton and Hermana Anderson Round 2

Hola amigos!!

This week for me has been an adventure! We started the week with teaching Robinson and Zulma with our branch president and his 6 year old daughter. We had the little girl ask him when he was going to be baptized and he said "very soon" it was precious. He has finally opened up about some doubts that he has concerning the law of tithing. He just wants to make sure that he will be able to live the laws that God commands. Then they came to English class to say goodbye to Hermana Bray and we read in the plan of salvation pamphlet in English. It was precious. On Thursday we went over so they could meet my new companion and had a lesson and we went on Saturday and tried to invite him to prepare to be baptized but he wont commit. It makes me super sad but I know one day he will be baptized :)

My new companion is Hermana Barton! We were companions back in June when I was in Staunton. It was so much fun then and it is just as much fun now. We play basketball at every chance we get haha and we just work really well together.

On Sunday Robinson and Zulma came to church and our Sunday school lesson was perfect for them. Also this is the 2nd time Hermana Barton has served in Fredericksburg so all the members recognized her and it is fun because we don't have to take time to explain who all the members are. WE are still doing a lot of finding but we are working with some part member families.

I love this work. Is it pretty hard? yes. Robinson asked this week about why I came on my mission and I told him it is because I felt the happiness that came from the gospel and wanted to share it with others. I still stand by that. This gospel brings more happiness than anything else and its because we have access to the full light of Christ. I love this gospel!!

Dia de los muertos :)

Hola familia!

This week has been great! We had some great lessons with Zulma and Robinson!! So on Monday we got there and he talked about some fears of failing after his baptism and we explained that we all fail but that is why we have the atonement of Jesus Christ and we are able to repent. Then on Tuesday we went and we decided to bring a member who has only been a member for a year. His name is Luis and he doesn't have a ton of knowledge about the gospel but he has a lot of faith. We had planned a lesson on the priesthood and we were so excited but we started our lesson with the questions Robinson always has. The question was this "do you believe in miracles?" so we said yes... and then he asked "well Jesus  did miracles like healing the blind and stuff.. does the power to do that still exist?"  and oh my goodness we were so excited because that is literally what we wanted to talk about. Then we had a super powerful lesson on that! Then on Friday they came to the dia de los muertos/family history part that the branch had on Friday and that was super awesome. THEY LOVED IT. We went over on Saturday and had lunch and then had  a lesson and they said they couldn't stop talking about it. Robinson wants to do his family history and he told us that "he found his church" He wants to be baptized it is just a matter of when. He felt like he didn't know much about the church but then we wrote out everything we had taught him and how he has been taught everything. then they came to church on Sunday and stayed for all three hours and loved it! Zulma might even give a lesson in relief society next week. We are so excited.

We have transfers this week and I will be staying in Fredericksburg another transfer and Hermana Bray will be leaving. So I will continue being an STL and get to spend thanksgiving here.

We went on exchanges with the Massaponax sisters and we had dinner with their ward mission leaders wife and had quite the interesting discussion on the law of chastity! hahaha!

Well I know that the priesthood has been restored and that miracles are possible because of that! I love you all!!