Mountains and Miracles

Feliz Navidad mis queridos!!   Christmas was a pretty emotional day but I loved seeing my family and having the chance to share my testimony with them. SOooo much happened this week. First it was the week of crazy occurences. Monday we taught a golden family, Tuesday my trainee had a serious allergic reaction to hidden peanuts and we had to cancel our appointments the rest of the night, Wednesday was our first big snow and it was exciting to see Hermana Coleman get really excited, Thursday was a last minute trip to Temple Square, Friday was I don't even know, Saturday our bathroom flooded and we spent all morning getting help and cleaning it up, then later that day turned into a finding day of miracles, and then I'll talk more about Sunday and Monday. There's just too much to say like always so I'll try to pick a few choice experiences.    As we walked through an apartment complex I had a missionary reward moment as we ran into a girl we had contacted before. Last t...

Feliz Navidad y Paz en la Tierra!   WOW what a week. Classic missionary ups and downs. I love training!!! Let me introduce the wonderful Hermana Coleman, my greenie! She is from Laie, Hawaii, and she also came from the Mexico Mtc, like I did. The moment we met each other we had a feeling we would be companions, it was pretty cool. I was so excited and I was sure I would like the leadership opportunity and be influenced by that greenie fire again. My expectations were high and yes it's been cool, but of course I found that it is also hard. I'm new myself and though I know my area, it's been a challenge to have the whole responsibility on my shoulders. I told her off the bat that we'll be learning together and I'm pretty sure God wants me to learn from her more than she needs to learn from me haha. I'm learning to teach Hermana Coleman and I have been super proud of her, she has a powerful testimony about afflictions becoming blessings. Our first night I had...

Holaaaa Familia!!   This was quite a week! Blink of an eye yet so much happens, like always. First things first, transfers are tomorrow aaaaahhh!! We got the call  on Sunday  morning that Sister Dorsey will be leaving and I will be staying in our area. Sad but we've learned a lot from each other and seen miracles and God has more in store for us in the future! Less than an hour ago President Hillier called and extended the call to me to be a TRAINER!! I just finished my training and now I'm getting a greenie!! I'm actually so excited, greenie's are the best and I'm looking forward to getting a boost to my missionary spirit.    My mission is so funny, around transfer time, when the missionaries change areas and companions, people spread the word about who is going where and they call it "transfer doctrine".    I have since given up on trying to explain everything that happens in missionary life. This week I would say our focus was on [E], our inve...

Hola!!   It's only been a couple days but so much still happens. I also just realized how scatterbrained my last email was and I'm sorry this one probably will be too. I didn't even explain my last email title! Ok so quick experience, when the English elders sent us over to find this lady named Amber, all we knew about her was that she owned a jeep. One day we decided to try and find her in the apartment building behind the jeep. And no joke, the first door we knock on, Oh sisters! I've been meaning to call you! MILAGROS. So my last email title, "too much" along with just a lot happening lately, is inspired by her. She has a super cute relationship with her son, and instead of embarrassing each other by calling out "love you!" when they say bye, they just say "too much!" Sooo cute.    Anyway, we had [S]'s baptism this Saturday! Finally! It was so beautiful, quite stressful though since her family was late, but it was so wonderful to...

Mis queridos,  Sorry the email is late coming this week all, we went to the temple today so our P-day changed. First, since it was thanksgiving I am ssoooo thankful for all of you!!!! And now since its December a note about Christmas: the best present would be a nice letter(like a real one) telling me a bit about your life but most importantly your testimony, or a thought about Christ. #Lighttheworld this Christmas! Oh also I'm on Facebook now!! As a missionary our efforts are focused on our area still but feel free to like and share my posts. Ok now I'm going to try to remember what happened the past almost two weeks.  The first week I was feeling pretty good and we got a referral from the English Elders to teach this lady who wanted sisters. She is super awesome and so prepared! She dated a guy who was Mormon and so when we asked her what she had heard about the Book of Mormon she said, oh im already in Mosiah. We were like whaaat? Shes the best she desires so much to...

Mis queridos,   I don't even know what happened this week, it went by pretty fast! The family I was talking about last week is doing all right, [S]'s baptismal date changed to December 2nd . But we have a baptism this Saturday! [Se], who I mentioned last week, is doing great and he finally told his wife this weekend about his baptism (he told us he wanted to keep it a secret from her so it could really be his decision) She cried, it was so cute! Finally I will get to be there for the first baptism of my mission it's been quite a journey to get here. Although, honestly, I feel like I've been learning I don't actually do that much to help people progress to baptism and confirmation. I mean, of course a missionary has an important role, but it's God that has prepared certain people to receive the gospel and the Holy Ghost that carries the message into their hearts. We just have the pleasure of working with them.    I also learned a lot this week about discernin...

The hermanas with some of their investigators at Temple Square Mis queridos,   Before I start, I really do believe there is a reason for everything. I had an amazing interview with my mission president this week and in order to combat discouragement he invited me to think "What is God trying to teach me?" rather than "Why is this happening?" This means there are even reasons for bad things that happen. Here's the context for this: our much anticipated day of joy for [S]'s baptism on Saturday didn't happen. When Hermana Dorsey and I went over to their house a couple hours before the baptism we found them all in tears in the middle of a family emergency. They asked us to just go and my heart broke as we called a bunch of people in the ward to tell them we were postponing it. Please keep her family in your prayers this week. Let's just say that I have now seen first hand the power of the adversary working against the children of God making the co...

Querida familia y mis amados amigos, (y ahora bien, amados hermanos mios, esta es la senda...ok I'll stop quoting scriptures now)    Hola!! This was a weird week actually. On Halloween we heard we weren't supposed to go proselyting, but then some people said it was ok during the early afternoon, but some said no. So Hermana Dorsey and I started to leave our apartment to visit a couple people but then we both had a super weird feeling so we chose to stay inside. We had great studies though! I learned from Elder Bednar that I need to get out of the way a little more and let the Spirit work in lessons. I felt the Spirit teach me as I was thinking about this that I also don't have to reach some level of good missionary in order for the Lord to use me. God can work with imperfection, as I've seen. What I must do is be humble enough to let the Spirit work throgh me and I will live up to my calling as a representative of Jesus Christ.   That Halloween night we finally got ...

Happy Halloween everyone! One of my favorite things in this world is to walk through a bunch of colorful leaves on the ground. It's entertaining somehow. Love this time of year!    My it has been a SUPER long week but first things first, transfers! Hermana Dorsey and I are both staying in our area, as is pretty much all of the Spanish zone. Good thing, because we have some work to finish here still! Though it was long, that means a lot happened. It  was also a week I felt like we started to see miracles. Our investigators are starting to progress!    Our ward had a very successful Halloween party  on Friday , lots of investigators and members friends and less actives came! We got some new contacts out of it :) They were each miracles to us! All of our investigators on date for baptism and confirmation came to church, and so many things were said during church that I knew were meant for individual needs of our investigators. I was so happy! For example, ...

My dear dear dear familia y amigos,   I just love you! I have had quite the roller coaster week but I have found that I find a lot of joy in expressing love to others, so I hope all of you can feel a little more loved after reading an email of mine. As always, there's so much to say but no time, so just a disclaimer my emails really only give a small glimpse of how I'm doing. But I'll do my best.    So first, after I ended my emailing last Monday, all the sisters in the valley in our mission went with our mission president and his wife up the canyon to Brighton to see the beautiful fall colors. So fun and so beautiful! It is so wonderful to talk to other, more experienced missionaries and be strengthened by them. Example of how our missionaries are from diverse places as well, I met a sister from Kenya who gave up being on her national soccer team to come on a mission, a sister from Ukraine who learned English for her mission, and a loveable sister from Tonga. Pic...

Mi querida familia y amados amigos,   First, I want to say a very special happy birthday to my Dad. October 16 is special to me now, and today it's 45 years since the day you were born, wow! Last year at this time I took a trip to the Provo temple with my college friends to think of you, and today I am a missionary, trying to honor you. I love you, Dad!   What to say about this week. This week was a week of revelation for me. I approached my studies with questions, and especially talking them through with my companion was really inspiration filled. For example, we came out of studies learning that we need to tap more into the power of the Spirit than trying to come up with answers to every doubt. Sometimes I feel like I need to have a scripture as an answer for everything, but from some of our lessons this week we saw clearly that the logic of doctrine isn't enough to change someone's mind. I learned from PMG that only the Holy Ghost can change hearts. I want to foc...