She's Still Not Married - Really

I love reading Eric's emails and think it is so cool that we get to share this experience together. I can't wait until we are both out in the field at the same time! It is crazy that he leaves the MTC so soon. The rest of the mission will only get better. :) 

This has been such a busy week. My companion is sure teaching me how to work hard, shes the best! Transfers are next Monday and I have a feeling that I might be leaving this area, especially because I have been here my whole mission. I am still the youngest Spanish speaking sister in our mission but we have two new ones that are finally coming next week.

This week we had many great lessons. We are teaching xxxx, and she talked her mom into listening to us too. Both of them are great! Her mom changed her work schedule so that she can come to church on Sundays. We hadn't even asked her to do that yet and she did it on her own. They both want to be baptized and were talking about it once we left and xxxx's little brother who is 9 heard them. He asked his mom if he can be baptized too. He is planning on coming to the lessons from now on so that they can all prepare together. I love seeing the people we are working with progress and change and seeing how happy it makes them. I think one of my favorite parts of the mission is being able to see the change when people accept the gospel into their lives. 

We had another great lesson with one of our single adults. Her sister who is 20 sat in the lesson with us and it went really well. They didn't see the importance of baptism again since they have already been baptized into the xxxx church. She has received an answer and knows that the Book of Mormon is true though. We have explained the restoration and the authority many times, but this time basically told them straight out that the xxxx church doesn't have the authority to baptize. We asked them to pray to know if they should be baptized again into this church. We have never been so bold, but I think they finally understood and agreed to pray about it. They both want to come to church on Sunday, and said that what they have learned from us makes more since than the xxxx church. I just hope they really do pray about and come to church because I know that they will feel different here. 

A couple of nights ago we were talking to people as we were on our way back to the car. We started talking to three guys standing outside and taught them a quick lesson. After, one of the guys looked at me and he was talking really fast. I thought he asked, "Are you married?" But he really said, "Do you believe in marriage?" I said "no". Lets just say it was really awkward and I am thankful for a companion who fixed what I said! Haha! 

Eric I'm glad you liked the package. I'm so proud of you!

Anyway, time to go play soccer with my zone! Woo! Have a great week! Love you all so much! :)

The Power of the Spirit

I loved reading Eric's email. He is going to be an amazing missionary!

That is cool that Brother Snyder is one of his teachers. Brother Snyder would come in our class a lot and help us out. He is an amazing teacher. Eric is lucky to have him! I can't believe that my little brother is on his mission. I am so excited for everything that he will experience! I know that I say this a lot, but the mission is life changing and there is no where I would rather be. I am glad that Eric seems to be loving it as much as I am. :) 

This week was another great one. We had one of the most amazing lessons that I've had yet on my mission. We talked about the Plan of Salvation with a family and the daughter (18 years old) had really good questions. After the lesson we asked them how they felt, and the mom didn't say much but then the daughter started sharing her testimony. She talked about how she knew that the Book of Mormon was true and was so grateful that we were sharing this with her. She told us that she had the feeling and that she knew it was the spirit because she felt really warm and peaceful. She said she knew that it was an answer to her prayers. Before we left we invited them to church and the mom said she didn't know if they could come but then the daughter said, "no mom, I have a feeling that we need to go."

Her prayer at the end of the lesson was also very powerful. The spirit was really strong in the room and the daughter recognized it. The mom and dad didn't want to take her on Sunday and so we found a ride for her and she came to church! We haven't had the chance to talk with her much about it after but we have an appointment with her tomorrow.  

We had another investigator come to church who is also 18. We are teaching her and her mom, but her mom never comes to church because she works Sundays. She stayed after to watch a baptism and she told me that she thought it was neat. She says that she likes coming to this church because it's different then any other church shes been to. She says that she feels different here. It so cool to watch people change as they accept the gospel in their lives. 

This week we had zone conference and this coming week we have another sisters meeting. I'm looking forward to it. :) Also, our recent convert just had her baby!!! It's her 4th boy. We are going to go visit her tonight and see the little baby! :)

OK, I made it up. Curtis is definitely tanner than me. I can't get tan! Ha ha. I don't burn either it's weird.  Last week we found out that the bike ride was 14 miles. It was such a good work out. The Elders rode their bikes back so they went twice as long as we did. We got spoiled and had members drive us home. :) 

Love you all so much! :)

El Dia de Hispanidad

Today has been crazy so I don't have a lot of time. We left at 8 this morning and went on a bike ride with our zone. We rode to Newport beach! It took a long time and was a good work out. It was a ton of fun, but I am going to be really sore tomorrow! 

We stopped for lunch and I met a lady whose daughter is in Italy on her mission. That is so awesome that Dallin got called there! He is going to do great. I can wait to hear where Michael goes! I can't believe that Eric is leaving so soon. I know he is going to do so awesome! 

This week there was a huge stake activity called el Dia de Hispanidad. They do it every year and a ton of people come. They had food, activities, and dancing. It was really cool to see the Mexican culture! I love the people here. We brought investigators and the members brought friends. We set up a missionary booth and just went around talking to people all day. It was really weird not having our usual missionary day. 

Tomorrow is zone conference. We are going to have a big service activity in the morning painting fences and then going to a church building for the conference. I always look forward to the zone conferences. As for our investigators, they are doing well. We are passing some of them to the singles ward Elders soon and this week we are really going to focus on finding more people to teach. Our mission leader has some really good plans to help us out, and get the ward more involved. 

Our area is like 3 times the size of the Elders, and they have been planning on splitting it up and bringing two more missionaries in our area. That would help us out a lot so that we would be spending less time driving across our area to appointments. 

I don't have much time left, but I am so grateful to be out here serving a mission. It is a life changing experience and I really love every minute of it. I am learning so much from the people and from my companion. There are hard days when no one wants to talk to us, or days when I have a hard time with the language, but I have really never been happier and wouldn't change this experience for anything. 

I know that the Church of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I know that we have a living prophet today to guide us. I have seen so many blessings in my life and in the lives of those who accept the Gospel and am so grateful to share it with others. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that through him we can be forgiven of the mistakes we have made in this life. I love the gospel, and I love being a missionary! Thanks for all of the support from everyone. I love you all! :)

!El Poder de Su Mensaje!

There were a lot of changes this week. We have a new Ward Mission Leader. He seems really excited about the work and has a good plan to help the members be more involved in finding people for the missionaries to teach. He said that it is the members responsibility to find people, and the missionaries job to teach. When the members are finding people there is so much more success. I have seen that a lot so far in my mission. People are a lot more willing to listen when they have a friend who is a member. 

Our area has been picking up a lot, but we had a singles group in our ward for a while and just this last Sunday we found out that they are not doing it anymore. The five top progressing investigators right now are between the age of 18 and 25 which means that we might need to send them all to the singles ward missionaries. We will see what happens though. I guess it doesn't matter which missionaries are teaching them as long as they get to hear the Gospel from someone. We would definitely miss teaching them though. I haven't been able to work with very many young single adults so these last few weeks have been fun. 

This week we had dinner with all of the Elders in our district at a member in the wards house. One of the Elders in our distract was giving the message and he was having a really hard time with the Spanish and saying what he wanted to. He was super nervous. Right when he finished talking, the room started shaking (There was an earthquake) Everyone was silent so then I said, wow, el poder de su mensaje! (the power of his message!) Everyone started laughing because the timing of the earthquake was so perfect. 

This week we went on exchanges. Sister Barlow came with me to our area for the day. We taught a few lessons together early in the day but that night we were street contacting and knocking doors. We started talking to these two guys sitting outside, then shared the message of the restoration with them. Before we left I asked if we could leave them with a prayer.

They asked how long it would take and my companion thought that they asked how long we are missionaries for. She told them that we do it for a year and a half. Then the guys eyes got all big and they thought we wanted to pray for a year and a half so then they said no. It was so funny. Then I told them that it would just be a couple of minutes. They all started laughing. It was so funny! I love trying to learn Spanish. We make mistakes all of the time but definitely learn from them. It is still hard for me to speak but I still have half of my mission to work on it. :) 

This week we found a girl about 18 years old who invited us in her house. She loved the message and invited us to come back the next day. We went the next day and she invited us back again the day after. When we came the third day her mom and dad were there. Her mom was really open to the message but her dad was very Catholic and didn't want to listen to us. He sat in on the lesson with his Bible in his hand trying to convince us that there is no more scripture then the Bible. When we were talking he would listen which was good, but really only was there to prove us wrong. Then we invited them to pray at the end of the lesson and in the dads prayer he asked to bless my companion and I that everyone in the world would listen to our message. We were so confused. Haha. 

Anyway, I am so grateful to be a missionary. I am so excited for Eric to leave on his mission soon. Just remember that when it gets hard, it will always be so worth it!! :)