Por motivo de la fe de los hombres...

Él ha preparado un medio por el cual otros pueden ser partícipes del Don Celestial... (Éter 12:8)

Dear Family and Friends,

I am very grateful for this week and all that it has taught me! Yes it has been hard, and yes it has been draining in every possible way, but it has also been a week of training and improving to be what God wants me to be. A loving and Christlike servant who will talk and do anything for anyone to help them receive the blessings that the Gospel holds in store for them. And through Faith we can move mountains! 

This is how my week went!

Week of January 30th - February 5th 2017

Monday:

Wow, today was our first P-Day with two extra hours, and it was so amazing! I was able to get Most of my emails out of the road fast and cleaned the apartment, after the which we went and were able to go shopping to get the necessary food for the week coming up! So today was a really good and busy day for us, but before I get into details of the people we were able to teach I wanted to talk about an experience that happened to me, that scared me to death! So when a missionary reaches the time of 3 transfers left, or 4 months, he/she receives a call from the Mission Office to receive correct information on where we plan on flying home to and just getting details of our home wards. Another name that it has is "Trunky Call." So I was in Walmart, when I heard Elder Lakey got his call, and another sister from our district did, and I was in shock and terror! I was next! Yes I received my trunky call and I hate to admit is, but I had to think about what I am going to do with my life after the mission. I do feel like time is not on my side and super nervous, however, I know as I just focus on the time I have left and my purpose, that all will be okay! So today i was asked again to play my cello in church, and luckily the man I am borrowing from has 5 cellos, so he doesn't miss this one to much! And it is so nice! So today we went and had a wonderful lesson with he Zuniga family focused on the importance of husband and wife, and it made me think of my parents and how amazing they have always been for me! Also we had a good visit with another member family, the Dominguez family, who are super awesome, and we taught them that what we do is showing how we feel towards God. As we did so, we could tell they loved the lesson and wanted to read and go to church more to show God what is their true feelings! Then we ended the night with AG and Samira. We taught him about the spirit, and I asked Samira, "now that you know what the spirit feels like, how did you feel when we gave you a blessing?" She said she felt a peace and warm feeling she had only felt one other time. As we taught her we helped her recognize that she was feeling the feelings of the spirit and we connected that feeling to the fact that if she reads and feels that feeling, she will know the book is true and that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon by the power of God. She agreed, and they committed to read the Book of Mormon for 5 minutes every day!

Tuesday:

I feel like ever since we got our new key indicators I have been somewhat confused on how to be successful in my area. Not that the new key indicators are hard to understand, but our lessons are now not recorded and any we don't find non members often when we are with members. If they would let us talk with their friends then that would be different. So today we were able to go and give service with Elder Lakey and Banks at an old Members home named Alejandro Oliva. He was super nice and he can't hear very well... so we were able to clean his yard a lot, and then we sat and visited with him and his wife and daughter in law, and then we headed out! As we got out and about we had a good lesson with Isaac Sanchez, and were happy to see he was feeling tons better, and also we were able to go and look for other people to teach. We only found one lady that didn't speak Spanish, and she only listened to know what we believed, however, she said she didn't want to change. So as we got done there, we went to the church for dinner and for my song practice with Sofia Ayala and Hna. Clark, and it was good, however, the song has no cello part, so it will take all the free time I have to write it! So to end the night we had a good visit with Pablo Martinez and his family. He was just returning from work and he was exhausted, however, as we visited, we read 1 Nefi 1 with him and answered his questions that he had, and then he began to see why it is important to read the Book of Mormon and he began to glimpse over chapter 2! It was a wonderful opportunity, and we hope he will pray now for revelation from God! We heard tonight that Mable is to nervous to get baptized, and so now we want to go by her house and teach her about baptism and a little simpler on what it means and how you do it, so she isn't as nervous and still wants to be baptized.

Wednesday:

A crazy day has just occurred! I think this whole week will be very similar! So today we had our weekly planning instead of tomorrow, because tomorrow we have Zone Conference and the day after that MLC. So today we were able to spend 6 hours cooped up in the house just studying and planning, but it was a very effective time for us! Also we were able to use this time to fast for different reasons and it was amazing to see how the Lord blessed us as we showed him we needed him! We were blessed as we left the apartment, with a lesson with Rolando, an investigator who we rarely get in with, and he let us in and was telling us about his studies about the apostasy and how he was confused. As we shared the insight with him and explained the need of the Book of Mormon and he said, "Now I understand. This is the Book I have been looking for, you both have been helping me find my answers." He is a very vocal man from Bolivia and his accent is the best! He always says Spanglish phrases! After him we had a good lesson with Mario Bencomo and Rey Castillo! I love so much visiting with and seeing the converts I helped as they progress and struggle through the trials of life. I can be there as support and can show them how to rely on God! To end the night we contacted a neighbor of the Ramos Family, who I had been wanting to contact for a few weeks now. He helped us when we cleaned the Ramos' yard and was super nice. As we knocked and talked he expressed that he had studied and had a Book of Mormon, but would love to study more with us! He has taken courses and has a degree in Theology, and we are so excited to go and visit with him even more! He is very much a person we need in our church! As we finished visiting with him our last appointment was listening as Manuel Valdez taught us the lesson and as he talked about his life before moving here and how different it was. I learned who he was and how the Lord and his gospel can change us, and I know the Miracles are true! 

Thursday:

Wow it was good to get done with Zone Conference today! I have been nervous for this day for a few days now, because we were asked to give a training on Revelation through the Book of Mormon. I was super excited about it, but became nervous realizing we had to train on a simple topic for an Hour! Both Elder Graham and I studied and planned out how we were going to train for a few days as we also tried to study and prepare for our MLC that would follow the day after. I felt like my head was going to explode from reading and pondering so much, but as the moment came to stand in front of 40 people, or 3 Zones (including the Assistants and President and sister Whitney) I felt calm. For me that was a miracle. I haven't stood in front of a lot of people for a long time, actually since my leadership days in school and my farewell. I mean, yes I have born my testimony, but haven't had to speak yet in any wards and that made me nervous. But the Lord provided and gave both of us the words to say and the training was taken very well and President Whitney thanked us so much for our training. So today was a bit of a bummer! We had all our lessons cancel on us but one, and were left to just contacting people! I haven't had to do this for a while and it is scary or more uncomfortable again. So we are trying to do it more to be able to feel good about it again. Also as we try to focus more on the Key Indicators change we have decided to find more people to both teach and work towards baptism with!

I think the biggest thing I learned today was how to fully study and seek for understanding. As I did so I gained such a wonderful knowledge!

Friday:

Day #2 of big meetings, and last day of meetings for the week! Wohoo! So today we had another all day meeting called MLC! Where all the mission leaders gather together and receive training and guidance on how to help the missionaries in their stewardship. I received many impressions as I sat at the feet of President Whitney who holds the keys of the missionary work in a giant part of this state! I was amazed by the simple principles taught and the way he expounded and shared his life experiences. He always is so sweet to his wife and that really has been impressed on me on how I want to one day treat my wife! He said, "sister, i have a major problem, when I look at my wife I Sp don't see her name tag first, I see her beautiful face and it is so distracting!" They are so cute! Also I was very spiritually impressed with how Elder Broberg and Flake trained us today on Consecration and following full hearted the leaders that we have. I dream of teaching and studying like Elder Broberg. He is a master teacher and is very qualified for helping our mission become the best. A few things that I feel our mission is going towards is our personal conversion more, and working with the youth more effectively! We want a baptism Monthly and expect miracles as we work!

This evening we had a few lessons cancel again, but that didn't let me down after such a great meeting. So we decided to just go knock some doors, and sadly we were rejected by everyone. But that's okay! So this evening we went on an exchange with a member who has he most brilliant ideas! His name is Hno. Schmidt. He helped us out with the though process of how we talk to Hispanic people and is kind of training us, because we have no Spanish council of how to teach them. So this evening we went by Pablo Martinez and read some with him and he had some more really good questions! I felt very confident tonight in promising blessings but he still wouldn't Pray specific as he prayed to end the lesson, but he will. As we left the house, Hno. Schmidt said, "As it says in the movie theaters, coming soon in a font near you, Baptism!"

I hope so! He is so ready!

Saturday:

Wow this week has been a struggle for me! Not a struggle of wanting to come home or anything like that, but a struggle for energy! I have struggled with having the happiness to share the Gospel when our lessons fall through and no one else wants to listen. However, I can testify of the power of people and the actions they make, but more than that, I realized how much I was thinking forward to the Sacrament Meeting and how it gives me strength. I don't know if I have ever felt that in my life before, but it felt so good! So today we had a family from our ward move our of an apartment to a brand new house, and my companion and I, along with One other Hno. were the only ones to help him move out from the second floor! It was a lot of fun and all together we moved out and back in around 3 hours time. It was a great time to get to know each other, but my body is going to regret it later from the second floor to ground level so much with all the heavy lifting I did! I guess you could say I am pretty strong, but I guess I will know how strong when I wake up tomorrow! So as we finished there we had a lesson planned for Mable Bencomo at the church, the Investigator who has a date for next week and is 10. As times got closer our exchange canceled and we were not going to be able to enter and share our message with them, but a miracle occurred and our last phone call was a huge success for having someone come out with us 5 minutes before the lesson started! Hno. Brown from our ward was a huge life saver! As we taught, we could see her begin to relax even more, and she seemed excited to be baptized, and I was so happy and it boosted my energy! Then as we got out and about, we had more canceled appointments and just decided to keep contacting people and actually had an eventful night from that! We are searching for people to be baptized and receive our message and many people are so hard hearted! However, we know God is preparing these people as we keep working hard to find them! It was a really awesome day!

Sunday:

I am so very grateful for Sunday's in general, but Fast Sundays are even better for me! And to make my fast Sunday experience even better, it was so amazing to see 4 investigators at church! We had Pablo Martinez, Mable Bencomo, Derrick (son in law of members) and an awesome man named Rolando Aragon! We had a wonderful worship service and it was super cool to have so many people there and I just felt in heaven. I really feel so comfortable with my ward here and am so grateful for everything. So today we had a really good evening as we went and had a lesson a wonderful family called the Dominguez family. We had a really good lesson about Social Media and sharing the gospel, and they loved it, and then their daughter tried to kill us with her juices and food that her work makes. They say they are healthy, but they are definitely nasty! One had Jalapeño and other fruits and the others we pickles and lemons. And then some food that was not very good either! However, it was good to share a laugh with them! The rest of the evening we just went contacting and found a lady that doesn't believe in the Bible or really the reality of God. She told us she believed that there was a God, but not as a person. And she believes in Jesus Christ that he was a human, but he doesn't believe everything he did, because the Bible was translated to many times. As we talked with her we just tried to show and connect how we had similar beliefs and it was super cool to see her open up and accept a pamphlet that I never thought she would accept ad she even told us we could pass by and share more with her later, so that was a blessing from God! 

I love all of you so much and am so grateful for your love, support and sacrifice that you give to help not only me, but those whom surround you! Have a wonderful week!