Monday, September 28, 2015

Is it Monday Again?

So this week went by in a flash . What is happening?

So I don't have a lot of time so I'm gonna get down to the point here.

Highlights


* EXCHANGES! Totally forgot to take pictures with my BFF STL Hermana Dowdle. We had so much fun!! We did visited some awesome members and contacted some very awesome people and went to woman's conference. I am so grateful for my mission leaders and all I learn from them.

Hermana Curapil and Juan

* NEW MISSIONARY TRAINING MEETING. MAN I LOVE THIS MEETINGS! There are so inspired for the new missionaries and learned so much. After the meeting Hermana Juan and I got to open up about some things and we have been working so great together. We always have, but now it's EVEN BETTER!

We went to the famous "Portillos Hot Dogs"

* DISTRICT LUNCH .  Chicagoans go nuts over this place. It was fun to be able to get to know the other missionaries more and really talk about life and what makes want to be better!

Monday, September 21, 2015

I've Got Raindrops Falling On My Head

Hhheeeellllooooooo

I hope everyone has had a great week! 

So the weekly highlights are......

1. KNOCKING 

2. WALKING 

3. KNOCKING 

4. KNOCKING IN THE RAIN AND BEING SOAKED FROM HEAD TO TOE
Nothing was more sweet then seeing my trainee being okay with Tracting in the pouring rain for a few hours.
She may think I'm crazy sometimes, but she puts up with me :) 
We only had one umbrella, and I hated it cause I felt like we had to slow down trying to be under the umbrella, so I just didn't care and got a little wet so my trainee could use the umbrella and wouldn't hate me too much about being out in the pouring rain. Could we have done something else equally productive? Yea.e But would it had grown our faith and diligence and give us an awesome story about the time we were wet and people kept saying no? Most likely not! 
I'm just living in the now. Something I was told by a reckless elder in the beginning of my mission was "do something that scares you and makes you uncomfortable everyday" 
Obviously I'm gonna use discernment on that quote . But how on earth am I gonna have awesome stories if I don't make awesome things happen?
"If I want something to remember tomorrow, I have to do something to remember TODAY"


We literally taught none of investigators this week. AND THATS OKAY! I loved that the Lord needed us to do something else!
One thing I have been realizing I do , is that I been trusting in the Lord. 
You have no idea how hard that was and still is for me. How much anxiety and mental break downs I have had because I simply couldn't say "lord you got this" 
OH MAN THE SWEET PROGRESSION! 
THE JOY
THE PEACE 
THE COMFORT 
( Can't think of any other words that can make this more dramatic) 
So yeah, that's a good accomplishment. 

That's really all I have to say to yall. 

So the church is so  true that it makes my heart want to explode all the time! 
If you don't feel that way about the gospel, then you need to email me and I'll set you straight...with love. 

Here's a picture of me wearing my wonderful apron!!! That the amazing YW has made for me!!!!! And it was perfect because a member taught us how to make HOMEMADE NOODLES! And are them in HOMEMADE CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP. AND IT WAS DELICIOUS!
All it took to make the noodles was flour, eggs and salt

Love you all have a great week! 

Monday, September 14, 2015

Doubt Not. Fear Not. He Is In Charge

So many things happened this week!!! 

We have been seeing the hand of the lord in our lives and in the people we are working with!! 
So I'm gonna start off by saying that we have these 2 new investigators, Antonio and his wife and THEY ARE SUPER PREPARED for baptism. They didn't hesitate at all when we invited them to baptism, and didn't hesitate at all to accept a date! 

One problema, they work a ton on Sunday's. We explained to them for them to progress they must attend church and nothing is sweeter to a Spanish missionary when your cute hard working Hispanic investigator had the most concerned look on his face and said "okay I will talk to my jefe."

So the main reason why all the awesome people I have met and have been on date haven't been baptized yet is because they don't come to church!! And because they don't even try to get off work (dang you good work ethic genes) 

And the church is 45 minutes away from Antonio and his wife, (our area is massive) and they are super willing to come!!! We called them the other day to follow up and see how their prayers have been and seeing if they have read the Book of Mormon. Antonio says, "I talked my boss, no answer yet,  but I told him about you guys and he wants you to teach him too!" 
BENDICIONES!!! (Bendiciones means blessings in Spanish)

ALSO we were knocking doors when a former investigator moved houses and we just happened to knock on her new apartment door.  We asked if we could show her a video and she said yes and then we asked if we could come back to teach her something.  She said yes and then we went and had the lesson and have a return appointment, BUT she never told us that she has met missionaries before....

I saw her just ONCE before and we got a text from her saying she wasn't interested (Hermana Dyer said she thinks it was her roommate who influenced her) 
So after we taught her the restoration, I was like "mm k I have seen her before and her name is Rosario..... She's been taught before!" And we pulled up her record and it's the same lady! BENDICIONES! 

We just know that she's probably more prepared now to receive the gospel! 
We also found ANOTHER former, and he's willing to try again too, he just has a problem with keeping commitments, so we will see his faith! :) 

And THEN 

We were doing some PNI finding (Editors Note: working on finding out what this means), and I felt prompted to go to a certain door.  Someone names Kathy lived there and I haven't met her before. So we go and knock and she answers and her eyes were filled with tears and says "Hi Hermanas." We just say hi and ask how has she met missionaries before. She said her family are members! Then she busted out crying, and said that right before we knocked her door she felt like she needed to talk to someone. Her dad just passed away,  and she is aware of the plan of salvation because of her family and she loves the church.  She reads the Book of Mormon, and has a testimony of it, and she said she feels a hole in her life because she knows she needs this gospel (she needs baptism obvious). BUT her husband won't let her cause he has a hard heart. 

Sooooooo what we will do is talk to her family and we are gonna do some hardcore fasting and praying to soften her husbands heart. Something that breaks my heart is seeing how close people are to being baptized (like all my investigators I've had) or seeing how ready BUT then a family member steps in. I know the Lord knows, and that all things are possible through him. I have been letting the Lord know that I trust Him in my prayers lately. I have always trusted Him,  but I don't think I ever told Him. 

He has been showing me so many miracles lately and even though sometimes people don't progress , I know that the Lord is showing me that's He there and that this is His work and that HE IS IN CHARGE. OF EVERYTHING.
So I'm learning not to fret or get frustrated easily or get discouraged cause I know the Lord knows. 

Love you all. Fear not. Doubt not. He's in charge. 

Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend. (Mosiah 4:9)

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55: 8-9)

Zone Conference




Six hour zone conference. Where we got chastised, humbled and strengthened! Lol @ the weird awesome elders in my zone and awe @ the cutest Hermanas and sisters ever! 

Monday, September 7, 2015

GREENIE FIRE

So I am probably the luckiest trainer ever cause I got the coolest trainee ever!! 

Hermana Juan- she was born in Mexico but came from Utah #latinapower
She thinks I'm crazy 
She laughs at how out of shape I am when we go up and down the stairs of apartment. 
She has an awesome testimony. 
She's super obedient! 
A great teacher! 
SHE COOKS! So instead of eating cereal all the time she has been making me eat real food! So sweet! 
She's super sincere. 
And honestly doesn't even need a trainer, she could fly solo if she wanted to cause she's so awesome and I'm obsessed with her! 
THIS GIRL IS ON FIRE, THIS GIRL HAS SOME GREENIE FIRE (just picture Alicia Keys singing that last line for me pls)
So this week was awesome! I really got show Hermana Juan some real missionary work by.....,KNOCKING AND KNOCKING AND KNOCKING ! Whoop! Whoop! I LOVE KNOCKING (there's no sarcasm in that I promise) 
I think she kind of understood why missionary work can be hard sometimes. 
She was so cute she just kept repeating "why doesn't anyone want to listen" 
BUT at the end of our week, we kept the faith , the diligence and the obedience, and got new investigators #2blessed2bestressed
So that's pretty awesome and we are so pumped for that!

So that was our week! 
We also had an awesome lesson with Alejandro and Patricia and we got to put them on date! 
Alejandro and Patricia are finally understanding everything. They keep reading from the Book of Mormon and they has some questions about the priesthood and we had an awesome member there and she just killed it with the best answers ever!! And you could see it in their eyes, everything is clicking and their understanding! They say that they can't stop reading from the Book of Mormon because they are just so curious, and they really want to know that it's true! 
So awesome! As their testimony of the Book of Mormon grows, mine does too!!! This mission is seriously more to help myself by helping others, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the best thing that could ever happen to me, to you, to us .
Love you all. 

So here's a pic of my cute companion. 



Hermana Juan


LOOK AT HOW CUTE SHE IS ! 


Add caption
Also at transfer I got to see my favorite hermanas and MELANY!!!!!


FHE
  
We also had an awesome noche de hogar (fhe) with an investigator fermin and our less active Milagros over at obispos house!! And my favorite awkward elders in our district. 

#missionarieswillbeawkwardforever