Marzo 30

How is everybody doing?? How's everyone holding up with spring on its way and Conference around the corner? YAYA!

What a week! What a week!
This week was so good! Sis. D and I learned SO much together! I have been learning SO much about faith--what it really is and how to consciously have it. We had a great district meeting on Friday (given actually by our zone leader, Elder T) and we were very motivated after that and we set new goals, high goals, and then went out and had a good week. I shoved myself out of my comfort zone and just went for it. We contacted EVERYONE. Have you ever chased someone down on the sidewalk to tell them about the most important thing in your life? It's pretty exhilarating. :) I chased quite a few people. And when we were stopped at a stoplight I gave the woman on the corner a pass-along card. And when we were in the QT gas station I gave a 40 second rundown of the Restoration.... in Spanish... No idea how. Hahaha that one makes me laugh. I approach this lady and she gets this slightly apprehensive look on her face when I start talking in English and have an English pamphlet and indicates that she only speaks a little English and then I go, "Oh! Esta bien!" and switch it for a Spanish one and flip into Spanish ahahaha. She was probably like, "Who IS this girl?...." but she was really nice and said she'd read it. Yay.

And so the other day we were trying to contact a referral ... and were unsuccessful... again... and there was this guy out painting his rocks (?) across the street so I'm like, "hey... let's go talk to him..." So we went over and talked to him and gave him a pamphlet and got his and his wife's name and said we'd come back. So on Monday we went back and I'll be honest, I wasn't full of faith when we knocked on the door and the wife opened it. The time we'd contacted them, R had seemed minimally interested and his wife had been nice, but not said much. So I was surprised when she invited us in. We sat down and talked and I realized that I needed to change my state of mind from normal to faith-full and with vision so I told myself, "I can see her in white...." and I did. And so when I thought that I started worrying more about what I was going to say to her because it now mattered more.... and had to stop myself again and remember the promise of Elder Holland in Preach My Gospel about listening and not premeditating on what you're going to say, how it'll be given me in the moment I need it. I made the decision to listen to her fully and let the Spirit teach instead of me--He's supposed to be the teacher anyway and after all is the most affective one. In a nutshell I conscientiously "got out of the way" (as Elder Bednar calls it). And...... it worked. I can honestly say that the Spirit led that discussion. Sis D and I worked in unity, we said what needed to be said clearly and concisely and simply. We told her about the Book of Mormon, its background, and she replied, "Well that sounds amazing!" and we're thinking, "Yeah! It is! That's the correct response to this book!" We asked if she'd read it and she said absolutely, and if she could have one for her husband too, that they'd start reading it that night, together. We asked if we could come back and when and she's like, "Yeah! You can come back today if you'd like..." Wha'??! The only person who says that to us is H.... because he loves us... and already knows it's true.... hahaha. We were on shift that evening so we set up a time to come back on Wednesday, today. So we're meeting her (hopefully them) today at 5! Miracles happen when you follow the Spirit, when you do what the Lord would have you do, and when you get out of the way. :)

H is amazing as ever and well on his way toward baptism on April 10th. We are excited to watch some of conference with him. :) He described how he felt when he prayed to know if this was all true and his description was awesome. Perfect. He says, "Me senti .... mucha paz. Mucha paz. Mucha felicidad....."

SP... so hard to get a hold of because of her crazy job! But we taught her again and 'twas wonderful. She's amazing. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she told us that meant a lot to her. And she's doing great reading the Book of Mormon. She flies a lot so she reads on the plane...

S.... S is always on fire.... she's on like 4 Nephi now.... and if she comes to conference and church the next week and keeps her other commitments, she will also be baptized on Apr. 10.

D and L... not totally sure. The first lesson was awesome. The second they were distracted by D's daughter.... and we just feel like it went over their heads because they were trying to fit the circle of the Gospel into the square of their protestant background. So obviously the Spirit wasn't there as strongly as it could've been. Hopefully we can meet with them again soon.

And A! A was sitting on the stairs when we tried to contact another referral... again, unsuccessfully. I went up to him and we started talking and I gave him a pamphlet, invited him to read it and said we'd be back and where did he live. He said he would and then pointed to his apartment. So we went back the other day and haha so we were standing outside the door before we knocked to practice our Spanish a bit and the people inside apparently heard us and opened the door hahaha we felt silly. We awkwardly asked if there was another man living there (we didn't yet know his name because we couldn't understand it when he told us) and thankfully somehow they understood and he came out and recognized us. We talked to him and he said he read the whole pamphlet, loved it, and wants to come to church. Yaya. So we're teaching him today at 3.

This morning we had the farewell breakfast. At the end of every transfer they have a breakfast at the VC for those who are going home. it was awesome. We sang farewell songs and took 40,894 pictures and.......
So that brings us to the next bit of news:
transfers are tomorrow.
Sister D is leaving for Concordia, MO..... and Sister B is coming here to be with me in Riverview!!!! So excited. I am sad to see Sis. D go, though. (She has a great companion though! Sis. R is AMAZING. I served with her one day back in Feb.) We learned so much together, Sis. D and I, and grew to love each other. When it was tough this transfer, I knew I had 2 choices. I could either go forward or backward. I could get annoyed and be stubborn and worry about myself.... or I could back down, learn from whatever the situation had to offer, learn from my companion and her knowledge, and become a better missionary and more like the Savior. And I'm happy to say that I am a better missionary now. And I am excited to keep on learning how to work better, teach better, BE better. The key is definitely humility, the Spirit, and love.

So there's a quotation from Elder Pearson that I love and want to share:
"The problem with some missionaries is that they do the same thing they've always done and expect different results. That's the definition of insanity! No wonder some missionaries think they're going crazy!" He talked about how when Pres. Hinkley made the goal to build all those temples, that they had to go into the temple dept. and just blow up the whole system because the way they were doing things then just wasn't enough to operate at the kind of magnitude of his goals. So they had to blow up the system and make a new one that could handle his kind of operation. And so basically don't be afraid to blow up your system in order to accommodate bigger goals, more investigators, more baptisms, more lives changed. It's really quite amazing how much of this work depends on the missionary and his/her attitude and faith. FAITH IS EVERYTHING. (reference Moroni 10:7 :) ) It is something completely different than I ever really knew before. It's something I always wanted to be able to pin down more and I think that desire has driven me to do what it takes to have faith and to receive faith--after all, it's a gift from God. And it truly, truly, truly..... moves mountains. I say that with all seriousness. The mountains that it moves in peoples lives are huge. But when you have the power of faith, aka the Power of God behind it, nothing is impossible. Absolutely nothing. Remember that the next time you pray. Prayer is the key to faith. I definitely receive more inspiration while on my knees than perhaps any other place. Too many times before in my life I'd pick up the prayer phone, order my 'groceries', say thanks, and hang up. But it is literally renewing when you actually be quiet for half the time you're praying and let Him talk back to you. I've learned that when I pray in faith, He answers. This life and time is way to crucial to not slow down and listen.


Ummm.... I AM SO EXCITED FOR CONFERENCE. And I'm so excited to have our investigators hear our general authorities!

But I certainly hope you are all enjoying spring. It's still freezing here. IT was 85 one day and then plummetted again lol.