febrero 21

Mucho gusto en escharles esta semana. Estoy alegre que todo este bien alla en Texas y Utah. Todo esta bien aca en Liberty tambien, gracias a Dios.

Pues....

This week was actually somewhat humbling in the # of lessons dept. We sadly were not able to teach 20 lessons. However that does not dampen our hopes or plans for this coming week. :) The Lord still blessed us last week with 2 new investigators, M and G. They're both amazing and very ready. :) We had a really good teaching day yesterday, though. We went to the IVC with J and the O's (his fellowshipping family) and it was really good. He relates much better when we teach with personal stories and examples than conceptually...which you're probably saying, "Well duh! Most people do better with that!" But J IS very conceptual and theoretical so we've had to learn to actually go a little against his grain in order to reach him better. It has been interesting. He's still not there yet, but he's made unbelievable progress. And he came to church on Sunday again. :) So did V. Our Spanish investigators are doing well. :) I am going to miss them so much. We got V one of those children's Book of Mormons and she was breezing through it the whole lesson and I'm sure afterward. Yay! I am praying that a Spanish speaker replaces me to help Sis. R. learn the language and to take care of these 5 Spanish investigators. Ju, D's nephew, also opened up big time to us last week. Something clicked with him and the Restoration. (!!!)

This past week I read an article in the Aug 2009 Ensign by Elder Kikuchi of the 70 about "Opening the Heavens" with basically having a daily devotional with the Lord. I strongly recommend reading or rereading it. We were able to share it with some LAs and it was powerful. It's definitely something I will take with me after the mission.

Unfortunately, G wasn't able to go to the temple. His daughter A got pink eye! (and that LA that we taught had it too, yick) so he of course stayed home and took care of her. But he HAS A RECOMMEND and plans on going next month and definitely going through the open house--probably bringing people with him. He's bringing his friend to the Jail this Sunday and wants us to take him through. :) He's already a missionary! Love that man. I am so thankful for technology and how it makes keeping in contact with these people easier. I think of Elder Groberg and other missionaries who go to 3rd world countries that won't be able to keep in touch with the people they knew and/or taught.

Thursday will be my last training at the Jail. It'll be good, though. We have some neat things planned around Elder Holland's talk about Lessons from Liberty Jail and testimonies of departing missionaries and musical #s and such. On Sunday we had another awesome President's devotional where recent converts share their testimonies. They're always so good! And all the missionaries at the Jail made me play If You Could Hie to Kolob by Marshall McDonald for it. Phew! I hate being nervous. But it's always good to perform and keep up your skill.

Some honest-to-goodness miracles happened last week on Thursday. Man. Like HUGE. But they're not the type you send home in an email. Just basically I feel privileged just to learn of their happening. Suffice it to say, this temple and this area...... are significant. Miracles, big miracles, are happening around here in preparation for that and the Savior's Second Coming. Things that happened literally have made certain scriptures come alive to me. It's very hard to explain so I think I'll just stop.

Well, I can't remember anything else that I was going to say so I will end this by saying that I hope this week is an amazing one for all of you and that I love you. Thank you for praying for our investigators. We all need your prayers. And they truly do work. Thank Heaven for a Father in Heaven who hears us and CARES.

Tengan cuidado, mis amores, y yo anticipara` escucharles el proximo lunes. :)

Cha-si-si (my comp and I love to mix English and Spanish)

febrero 13, 2012

So good to hear from you. :)

I absolutely love it. Every week.

The work is going well here. :) Hermana R and I are loving working together, we love our investigators so much, and we love missionary work and the people with whom we work (other missionaries and the members). It was a pretty productive week this week, but next week will be even better. We have a goal to teach 20 lessons next week. To normal misisonaries that probably sounds pretty average or even low, but when you have less than half the proselyting time of other missionaries, 20 sounds pretty dang good. :)

Exciting news...

G is going to the temple this Saturday to do baptisms for the dead!!! And he's also getting his patriarchal blessing soon. I love him so much. And I am so excited for his future. In answer to you question, Mom, I am sure that his roommate has seen differences in him. He himself affirms that he is much more calm and doesn't react to stressful situations the way he used to. His sister said she has noticed changes in him too. We recently referred basically his whole family to the missionaries in their respective areas. I hope something comes of it. That would be so neat for him to be joined in this gospel by his family.

Also, E came to church again! We were able to teach her this past week and answer her questions. She is an honest seeker, we can tell. She wasn't feeling well the day of out appt but she got out of bed and had us come anyway. And then she was up late Saturday and was on call for her volunteer job on Sunday but wanted to come to church and did. She ended up getting called out early (sad) but it ended up being ok that she did cuz the last talk probably would have freaked her out a little lol. We love her so much. She wants to know more about the temple. :) It's naturally something that everyone is talking about right now so she hears it a lot. We're excited for our upcoming appts.

Other than that, our other investigators are doing well and progressing. Our focus this week is setting baptismal dates with everyone. We have quite a few progressing investigators but none with a date. We're also going to find new ones!! I love that in missionary work (and hopefully LIFE) we're always doing, evaluating and improving. This week we're going to study and focus on inviting for baptism and teaching according to those needs. I definitely want to retain this skill after the mission. Evaluating and improving... that's essentially repentance (change), aka use of the Atonement, which is exactly why the Savior did what He did--so that we would have this opportunity.

We are also going through a lot of conference talks trying to broaden our knowledge and library in order to be able to assign investigators reading assignments that are especially catered to them. Of course, nothing replaces the power of the Book of Mormon, but many times conference talks are very needed. Thank Heaven we have modern apostles and prophets.

So you had snow there eh? And "snow" in Austin too... well, guess what? I get to join the club too. We got 4-5 inches last night. :) :)

It is sad that I will miss most of the temple excitement. The open house is April 7-21 and the dedication is May 6. I AM going to try to make it back for the dedication. I've had a couple invitations from ward members to stay with them if I'm able to come back for that. Super nice of them.

Have a very Happy Valentine's Day for me and I will hear from you next week!

Con mucho amor

febrero 6

How nice to get an email from each of you!!

I'm glad to know you're all doing well.

So recap of this week...

Yes, we did see E and M again! And J, and D and V and G. :)

E is doing well! We taught her this week after doing service for her (Thursday) and found out she has so much pain inside and no consolation or closure with regard to her husband's and son's deaths. She has a lot of questions and is surprised at the peace that she feels around us. We took her on a church tour Saturday and she came to church yesterday! She had a good experience and I'm sure was surprised at the friendliness of the members, especially considering the coldness she's used to feeling at church. What made it even better was watching a corny seminary video (made in the 90s) in Sunday School. It was awesome. You just have to laugh at them, but I love this particular one because it explains agency really well. Yesterday was also my last Fast Sunday on my mission... So I got up and bore my testimony.

M! We saw her again too and she loves us! Kind of a big step that she loves Mormons other than her brother now. We're doing some service for her today (and we'll sneak in teaching her doctrine as we do so) and we're warming her up to the temple open house idea. Her son is a preacher at another church so she has a strong tie to that one, but she has no doctrinal answers, which I feel like you have to feel a void when that's the case. And J, her brother, is ecstatic that we're in there now and is so hopeful for her to one day join. She's going be a long haul, though, we think.

D and V ... oh I just love them. And Sister R is trying to learn Spanish as quick as she can so that she can take over teaching them in Spanish.

G is doing AWESOME. And yes he still lives with the roommate.

The E's sadly are not doing well. We haven't been able to actually teach them for a long time and they're always "dealing with sick kids" now. :( Breaks my heart.)

I love Sister R so much. She is going to be an amazing missionary. She makes me look good as a trainer, but really it's not anything I do lol. She's adjusting well and loving being a missionary. She isn't homesick or boyfriendsick, but loves talking about both those subjects haha. She's written a list of people for me to go see after I come home and one of them is her brother (going to byu)....

Thank you so much for your love and support.

enero 30

This week was a very good one. We worked hard (always try to) and were able to see and teach quite a few people.
Some new people we met and/or saw were
E - helped her move in, lost her husband and son, finding it hard to maintain her faith. Was the daughter of a JW preacher. Single mother of a 16yrold son. Looking forward to our return appt with them.
P - Also a single mother of a teenage son. She softened a lot to us (the Spirit is so crucial!) and we hope to keep teaching her.
M - sister of a somewhat-recent convert. She used to be pretty hostile toward the Church and its members but, thanks to the Spirit, she was softened as we met and talked with her and her brother. She wants us to come back!
S, V y D - Yes, they are still investigating. It's just looking like a slow progression because of their work situation combined with transportation. The economy over here is really struggling and people have to bend over backwards for their jobs--especially Hispanics. But they keep their commitments and we love them to death and are seeing them again tonight with a Spanish-speaking member.
E's - ...... have stopped progressing. It's heart-breaking. The dad jumped off the bandwagon and everyone in the family follows his lead in basically everything so it has been so sad to see the miracles stop because the faith has basically ceased. He doesn't want to give up his habits (this church demands quite a bit more than the ones he's joined in the past), whether those habits be smoking or spending money irrationally or whatever. :(
B - also not progressing
St and Sa - beginning to progress again :)
J - came to church yesterday! and then came to the Jail and we had a very interesting lesson with him. He just really needs to open his heart and mind to the Book of Mormon.
G - Looked sharp as ever yesterday in church! Blessed the Sacrament again and got it spot on the first time. :) And he keeps astounding people in Gospel Principles. He's picking up this gospel and running with it. I think the Lord increases the learning capacity of His RCs..... They pick up so much so quickly.

it's cool that you've gotten to work with such diverse patients lately. The people you described at work remind me of....guess what? --Missionary work!! lol. You meet crazily-diverse people all the time and your perspective on life IS changed constantly and your eyes opened.