4/29/2013

Yes, I know who your uncle Bob is.  I'll definitely keep Aunt Jo and the family in my prayers.  I hope you're okay.  I don't really know how close you were to him, but I remember he was a good man. 

 

You can just upload the pictures onto Walmart or something.  Or print them up and put them in my scrapbook.  I don't need them back.  Just send back the SD card.  Okay, so the first picture you sent me in front of the temple... the five of us in the middle there, that's me, Hermana Hopkins with the glasses, Hermana Montgomery with the dark hair and green dress, Hermana Webb, and Hermana Pond in the middle.  Hermana Furtstenau is peaking over from the back.  You should be able to recognize her.  The other girls were in our zone, but a different district.  When they first got there, our district was the oldest in the zone and they were the newest, so we saw them a lot and took lots of pictures together.

 

The second picture is Hermana Gurecki/Ricarda/consuela and I.  That was our last class with her!      

 

3rd picture is of my district, minus Elder Miller.  Left to right: Elder Wride, Graf, Fivas, Ware, Hermana Furstenau, Webb, me, Pond, Montgomery, and Elder Jensen and Hermana Hopkins in the front.       

 

So a few crazy cool things happened this past week..  First of all, THOMAS IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON MAY 25TH!!!  Haha, so we recently started teaching a man named Thomas.  He has only been in the US for about 7 months, but before we started meeting with him, he ran into 2 other sets of missionaries.  He was actually a referral from a companionship of English elders.  So just this past week we taught him the Plan of Salvation.  Afterwards I extended the baptism commitment and he agreed.  The lesson went super amazing and Hermana Franco cried during one of her testimonies.  No big deal, but she said she never cried in a lesson before and she's been out for 14 months!  It was super cool and he said something so amazing.  He told us, "I believed this before I knew it" meaning the things we have been teaching him.  He is so awesome!  He keeps all of his commitments and loves everything and feels the spirit so strong, even when we think we're doing a bad job.  The spirit communicates through us and he doesn't even seem to notice any mistakes we might make with the language or anything.  We meet with him usually on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and he reads what we ask him to overnight.  He doesn't have a car either, so he's super committed!  Over here they have a little thing called "night church" because a lot of Hispanics have to work on Sundays.  There is a lot of controversy about it and I personally don't think it's the most legit, as it allows for excuses to be made, but anyway... Thomas went with us yesterday.  We were scared because the lady who gave the talk said some pretty crazy stuff about the temple, but afterwards, he said he felt so good and loved it all.  He talked to the woman afterwards and told me that he was getting baptized May 25th, which is super rare!  he was telling everyone about his baptism!  We are definitely going to talk to him about the importance of attending CHURCH church, though because he can't really progress at night church and he needs to try and get Sundays off.  So that's what's up with Thomas. 

 

Also, like I said last week, Fremont was cancelled.  We were so bummed and almost had a melt down because it was the shortest P-day in the history of missionary work and we did not want to get up and get back to work so soon.  (I know, terrible)  Anyway, even the few backups we had were cancelled, and so we didn't know where we were going to go and we were still a little gloomy about the whole Fremont thing.  However, a miracle ended up occurring that night.  We got a phone call from Hillary Valadez (the family we've been working with a lot to get to the temple and get Jose baptized) and she was in tears and asked us to come over.  We were just heading out, not really knowing where we were going, so it was perfect timing.  We turned around and we said a prayer in the car on the way there so that we would know what to say and that everyone was safe.  We didn't know what to expect.  We got there and Hillary (15 years old) came right to the door in tears and gave us big hugs.  Luckily no one was hurt, but someone had hacked into her Facebook and posted really vulgar things.  She was very upset and we went upstairs and talked to her and her siblings for a while.  She was devastated and really opened up to us about pretty much everything.  I think her reaction over the Facebook thing was rooted in something more serious.  She even told us that she had called a few other people and we were the only ones there for her.  Her and her sister said they never felt this close to missionaries and even called us angels.  We said some really powerful spiritual thoughts about repentance and I shared with her the quote, "When Satan reminds you of your past, remind him of his future."  They loved it and I know that we were meant to be there that night.  What's even more crazy is that the day before we had made goals to be more specific in our prayers, and so before we went out on Monday, we prayed that we would be led to those who were most in need of us and our message that day.  That was a miracle.

 

We had our sister luncheon the other day and they announced a few changes that would be taking place worldwide as a result of all these sisters coming out.  They are starting a new leadership position for sisters called "Sister Leadership Trainer".  They're going to be working with zone leaders and oversee sister exchanges (which is another change!) but I'm not sure exactly what they do yet as it is just starting with this new transfer, which is tomorrow.  Sister Franco and I are staying together right here, and she is going to be a SLT!  They said they are eventually going to do them by companionship like zone leaders, but I guess not yet.  I'm still "Junior companion" according to my transfer papers.  There are two other SLTs, too, but they're both going to be companions as well, so I guess I can pretend I'm one myself.  Haha.  Yeah, so anyway, since we have way more sisters coming in than we can handle, sisters are going to be going on exchanges as much as elders.  It's so weird to be at the very beginning of all of these monumental changes.

 

We also did a mini mission thing with the Paradise stake's Youth Conference.  The youth actually got to go out on splits with us.  Hermana Franco and I had two girls with us, so we went on splits and each took one.  I got to drive the car!  no accidents!  It was a pretty cool experience.  Especially since I've been feeling pretty inadequate lately.  For two hours I felt like I could actually be a leader and talk to everyone. 

 

Anyway, What is new with you?  I never got a letter.. :(  Aunt Amy sent me a package!  It had a whole bunch of yellow stuff in it and cute little pictures and letters from my little cousins.  It was so awesome!  I'm going to write her and say thank you! Well, I hope everything is well with you.  I love you!       

ps

 I'm really worried about my Spanish!  Tell dad to give me advice on how to learn!  I'm sad I never got a package. :( 

Hermanas Smith and Franco

Hermanas Smith and Furstenau

MTC photos

April 22, 2013

OKAY OKAY OKAY!  I'm sorrrrrrrryyyyyyyyy!!!!!  I felt bad last Monday because I sent nothing out.  I planned on it, but I literally was gone all day.  I didn't even get to do my laundry.  The zone leaders cancelled the Fremont Experience tonight, but the rest of the zone is boycotting because we still want to go.  We'll see what happens.  Today is Sister Hopkinson's birthday!  We made her a candy bar card!  You know, how you use candy bars to form messages?  Yep.  She's totally awesome.

 We actually had a really awesome lesson a few days ago with a man named Thomas.  He was a referral from two of the English Elders.  We met him at the church to teach him because he lives with someone else.  We had contacted a a Hermano from the Ensign ward, and he said he would come, but he never showed up.  We called him and everything.  Luckily, there were plenty of priesthood holders there because mutual was going on, and Sister Hopkinson came just in case, and we brought her into the lesson with us even though she doesn't know Spanish.  We taught the first lesson and luckily, Thomas understands some English, so Sister Hopkinson bore her testimony and it was super powerful.  By the end of the lesson, he came right out and was like, "I haven't been here long, but I feel so good!  Everything you all are saying, I can feel it in my heart!"  He felt the spirit so strong and couldn't wait to meet with us again.  It was such an awesome day.  Definitely a testimony to me that despite our faults, the spirit will testify to the people of the truthfulness of our message.  Sister Hopkinson didn't know what was being said, yet she was in tears.  Her and Brother Hopkinson even gave him a ride home that night.  They are really awesome!  They take such good care of us and really are like our parents out here!  Of course, no one can replace you two, but they're always there for us.  Sister Hopkinson wants to learn Spanish now!  Haha.  I just really felt like an instrument in the Lord's hand that night.  It was super great.

I really don't know yet about mother's day.  I'll talk to my companion and it will work out.  Oh wow, Lindsey's married now!!  That's so weird..  Haha, I'm so happy for her, though!  I just can't believe how time flies.  Lindsey's married, Marina's a mother...wow.   

That thing about Satan is really intense.  So true, too.  I was thinking the other day about how much profanity and what not is in the world... and temptation that poisons our bodies and causes us physical harm.  It makes so much sense that the one thing Satan doesn't have - a body - is what he really targets and seeks to destroy.  Our bodies are a gift from God, and that does NOT make Satan happy! 

Random thought...I read in the scriptures the other day - in Revelations and in Doctrine and Covenants chapter 61 - that in the last days the waters will be cursed and no man will be safe on or in the water.  In the beginning, God blessed the water, but in the last days, he will bless the land and curse the water.  Scary stuff. 

Anyway... one of my favorite anonymous quotes is, "if we could envision the type of person God intended us to be, we would rise up and never be the same again."  So intense.  We are literally His children and have the potential to become like him.  We are heirs to all of the joy and glory that he possesses.  Satan doesn't want us to make it.  Satan wants us to forget who we are, where we came from, and what we can become.  His joy and glory comes from our loss of divine identity.  We shouldn't forget that Satan knows each of us, too.  Satan knows who we are and where we came from, but he is a liar and would rather convince us to believe that we are nothing. 

I love you all very much!  I'm sorry if you feel deprived.  I got nothing done last week, but this week I will!!!  Les Quiero mucho!  (don't know if I spelled that right..)              

Awww, the voice!  It's the little things like that that I miss.  Haha.  Okay, I GOT YOUR EMAIL ABOUT THE CHECKS!  Haha, It's just really hectic, I don't have much time to sit down and write everyone.  I definitely need to write Marina, though.  I hope things get better for her.  It's a big adjustment!  You'll be happy to know that my companion and I got permission to do work out videos and we do "Shred it with Julian Michaels" and we just did Zumba this morning.  One of the members gave us a Zumba DVD.  Haha.  So we've been working out pretty intensely! 

Trust me, the mission leader doesn't want ANY of us handling calendars or trying to set up dinner appointments!  He made that very clear.  It's all good, though.  Him and our district leader do not like each other.  Haaa.  Yes, we've been eating.  Everything's great there.  And yes, Sister Neider is real awesome! 

Oh, yeah!  My companion!  Haha, she's great.  She's from Washington.  Her dad is from Argentina and her mom is American, but served a mission in Argentina.  Hermana Franco didn't know ANY Spanish before her mission, though.  Her parents are divorced so she didn't grow up always around her dad's family.  She's a very happy person, and thankfully, strives for obedience!  We're constantly setting goals to improve.  We're both nervous about street contacts, so we're always working at that.  She goes home in September.  We have a lot of fun! 

Yeah, Victor is our first official progressing investigator.  The other day we actually had our 3rd lesson planned for him, but we called literally almost 30 people and no one could come out with us! (He's a single man and lives alone.)  We didn't want to cancel on him because he was going on a trip for a while and we wanted to give him some good homework before he left.  He is so legit and keeps all of his commitments, always remembers appointments...and so the last thing we wanted was to cancel and give him a bad impression and we REALLY needed to teach him this lesson before his trip!  Crucial! So we were freaking out and we both came home to finish our studies and say loooong prayers.  Then a miracle occured!  Victor called us and told us he could not meet that day because he had a problem in his home, but said Tuesday (tomorrow) should be better.  We were so relieved!  And we felt much better afterwards. 

Also, we've been teaching FHE's to the Valadez family.  They have a 9 year old son who wants to get baptized.  However, his dad has been inactive and has just recently been coming back to church.  Jose, the 9 year old, wants his dad to baptize him, but he needs to priesthood first.  The family really wants to go to the temple and be sealed.  We visited them the other night and had a really cool lesson planned, but it turned into something waaay more intense.  Hermana Franco had mentioned how her parents were divorced and they had wondered why that happens in the church sometimes.  Hermana Franco explained how when one person keeps their covenants and the other doesn't, it creates problems.  Hermano Valadez then expressed how that has never been a problem in their marriage and how they are still strong even though he's not active.  However, Hermana Valadez then told us the opposite.  She is very upset and really wants to go to the temple.  She feels it is hurting their family.  It was really intense and apparently was the first time he had even heard her say this.  She told us she never opened up like that before.

 As missionaries, people just spill their hearts out to us! It's a blessing in a way because they recognize us as representatives of Jesus Christ and I guess they trust us. 

Anyway, He really wants to change and take his family to the temple, but he has problems setting his pride aside.  He says he doesn't know if he has a testimony, but I think he does.  He says he wants it, too.  He works constantly and the only time he has to spend with his family is on Sundays, and so he doesn't always want to go to church.  In the spiritual thought I shared that night, I tried to emphasize how that is the place you should be with your family.  He also doesn't like conference, so that's kind of a problem.  Me and Hna. Franco are determined to help them with their goal to make it to the temple! 

We're going to have the fremont experience again next Monday!  Excited!

PS...
Also, another miracle this week!  We were trying to visit a potential the other day, but they never answered the door.  On the way to the house, a man was walking down the street a ways and waved to us.  So eventually we got back in our car and Hemana Franco felt guilty for not talking to the man, even though he was further down the street.  We passed him sitting on a bench and she really had a feeling we should turn around.  So we did and had to park way out of the way and walk all the way to where he was, hoping he'd still be there.  As we started walking, he was actually walking right towards us.  We talked to him a bit and he was seriously interested.  We felt so good afterwards!  It wasn't in our area, though, so we had to pass him on to other elders.  And guess what?  He was at church THAT SUNDAY!  Before anyone even committed him to go, he was there!  The funny thing is, he told us he spoke Spanish and so we referred him to Spanish Elders, but when they met with him he said he was from the Philippines, but his wife was Latin.  And so he actually went to the Spanish ward AND the English ward on Sunday!  Super legit!  He was definitely prepared and we followed a crazy prompting to go hunt him down!  The Spirit was not about to let us pass him by!  

April 8, 2013

Oh wow!  What a head of hair!  Soooo cute!  I can't believe it!  And her birthday's a day after her mommy's!  How precious!  I hope Marina's doing well.  I know they will be fantastic parents. 

 

 General Conference was awesome!  I watched it mostly in English.  At the stake center they had it set up in both languages, so we went back and forth a few times.  One of our investigators- well, our only investigator- watched it at home and we're excited to visit him again and see what he thought.  He said he liked it over the phone.  I really meant to write you last Monday, but never got the time.  We actually did something really cool last Monday!  It's called the Fremont Experience!  The zone leaders put it together, but we told the members we live with about it and another family we visited, and they all freaked out and told us we CANNOT go to Fremont.  Sister Franco got really worried because everyone was saying it was the closest thing to the strip and North Las Vegas in general is pretty shady.  However, the zone leaders got permission from the president and so we went and it was amazing!  It was next to the strip and was a pretty kickin' place, but we stood in front of this souviner shop and sang hymns and street contacted everyone who passed by.  It was really cool!  We came across this one man and I think he was trying to get the message across that he wasn't interested, but he was very hard to understand because he was drunk and messed up.  Then this black man came over with alcohol in his hand and started yelling at us, "Are you serious?!"  Like 5 times, and we're like, "yes, we're pretty serious."  Then he paused and said, "wait...Jesus did the same thing!  Jesus talked to the strippers and the prostitutes and the sinners, too!"  It was the most hilarious thing.  Him and the other man then started getting into a drunken argument about it.  The black men thought we we awesome all of a sudden and when we offered him a card he screamed, "GIVE IT TO ME!"  

 

Our district had a really awkward meeting with Hermano Potts, our ward mission leader, yesterday.  Some of the elders are frustrated because we're not eating dinners with members everyday.  However, Hermano Potts really is trying hard, I think.  He put together calendars for us and my companion and I have a dinner almost every night.  The problem is, in the Spanish wards, people don't just pop up ready to help out.  Hermano Potts says he has to walk up personally to them and commit them to a time and date.  He spends hours calling members (with a focus on inactives) to set up dinners.  However, many of the elders, especially our district leader, is not happy with the situation and is determined we eat with a member every night.  There was so much tension in the room yesterday as it was basically Hermano Potts and Elder Bradford, our district leader, going at it.  Apparently a family got offended because 8 missionaries showed up at their house and they didn't expect so many and the ward is really pushing for dinners with inactives and only one set of missionaries.  There are 8 of us serving in the Ensign Spanish ward.  It was super awkward and at one point Hermano Potts said something like, "We can't have BS going on."  Haha.

 

Oh, and the couple we live with are just like our parents!  They're so great!  We ate breakfast with them yesterday morning!  Oh, speaking of Hershey's chocolate pies, we had some yesterday in between conference sessions!  Haha.  How did you like conference, by the way?  A lot about marriage and chastity.  Sister Hopkinsons said the issue of marriage equality is bigger now than ever, so maybe that's why.  Jeffrey R. Holland blew my mind, as usual!  He's always great.  They're all great.  Those checks aren't even Bank of America, but I will sign them and send them back to you.  Well, I can't think of too much else that happened this week, except that I hit my 2 month mark the other day.  I have 16 months left.  That's really not long at all.  Try not to change to much!  And go see some great movies!  

 

Love you lots!    

 

P.S. - Sister Neider asked me if I would consider teaching a little martial arts class to the sister missionaries.  We're going to have a sister brunch at the end of the month, and she wants to talk about it more there. 

April 1, 2013

My area is East Las Vegas and we're in the Ensign Spanish ward.  I am approved for driving, but I'm not the designated driver in our companionship.  I did get the oranges while I was at the MTC.  They were good!  I gave a lot of them to Elder Jensen from my district and Elder Sierra, who was in our zone at the MTC.  Elder Jensen's from California and Sierra is from Miami, so they really appreciated good fruit!  Haha!  Some of the Hermanas in my district didn't know oranges could taste so good! 

We have bikes, but haven't taken them out yet.  We plan on taking them out more often, though, because it's a better way to talk to people.  Right now we're just trying to get referrals by visiting members and doing street contacting along the way, so being on our bikes will help us meet more people.  I haven't taught the first lesson yet.  We have scheduled like three so far, but the one decided to hide from us, the other got moved back, and the third one's wife answered the door and laughingly told us to get lost.     

I'm not going to lie to you, I'm having a tough time.  It's been hard for me to just open my mouth and I'm terrified that the language will not come to me.  We are in a new area together and it's difficult working with Latinos because they're not ALWAYS the most reliable people.  We actually had a really awesome talk given by the bishop in our ward at a Spanish conference just a few days ago.  He talked about the differences between the tribe of Ephraim and Manasseh.  He read from the scriptures about the characteristics of Lamanites.  Mostly by nature, they feel the truth first in their hearts, and then it makes since in their minds and once they feel that truth, they are strong in it.  Which is fantastic!  Also, by nature, the tribe of Ephraim have more characteristics of a leader, and those from Manasseh are workers, but need more direction.  They both go hand in hard, one can not function without the other, but each have their own strengths and weaknesses.  Manasseh is attracted to leadership, and so as missionaries we need to understand this relationship and stand up to be that leader.  It was a super interesting talk, and made so much sense!  The "sign up to feed the missionaries" calendar doesn't work well in most Spanish wards.  They're more willing to follow through if we walk up to them personally and give them a time and date.  Once they're given a task personally, though, they will definitely do it and work hard to make it happen.  We learned a lot about their culture and their roots as Lamanites.  It was really interesting to see how it tied back into doctrine.  In the Book of Mormon it talks so much about the traditions of the Lamanites.  Well, Latin culture has SO MANY traditions, some that even keep them from getting baptized or obeying certain commandments.  The bishop emphasized on the Macho Man complex that is prominent in their culture.  Haha!  Then he told all of the elders to help out and be nice to their wives when they start their families!  

Even though I've been having a hard time, I'm recognizing many blessings.  It seems that everyone we visit was either in need or knew someone who needed our help specifically.  The other day we went to visit Hermana Lopez and her family.  I didn't understand everything she was saying, but she was talking about how hard the world was and how Satan has his hand in so many things.  I was only catching bits and pieces, but I felt this strong prompting to ask her what her favorite scripture was and then share mine.  I tried to quiet the prompting at first, just out of my own fears, but I knew it was the Holy Ghost, so I followed.  I shared Helaman 5:12 and bore my testimony, which turned out to be just what she needed to hear.  It was such a wonderful feeling and it was so obvious that it came from the Holy Ghost, because otherwise, how would I know how well that scripture would apply to her concerns when I didn't know what the whole conversation was about?  

I know that the Holy Ghost is with me and wants to help me.  I have to constantly remind myself of this, but I'm so grateful.  I'm just striving now to improve.  I realized just this morning that I've been so intimidated by the title of a missionary and so I've been feeling like I can't teach the lessons and I can't be a leader because I'm not cut out for it and don't have the knowledge.  I'm not understanding, though, that I just have to be myself, have a testimony, and share that testimony in simple, powerful ways.  I have a bad habit of over thinking things and being too harsh on myself.  I need to have faith and trust that my Heavenly Father only asks that I be myself and bear testimony of Him, and he will help me through it.  

I really need dad to tell me how he did it!  And how he felt and all that stuff!  

Oh, my Easter was good.  The family we're staying with, the Hopkinsons, gave us chocolate bunnies!  We brought them to church with us, and the melted in the car, but they were still good!  How was your Easter? 

Just so you know, everyone thinks I'm related to Joseph Smith.  Haha, it's suddenly such a rare name.        

Love you!  

And then...

Oh, I forgot to mention something pretty funny.  So, some of the English speaking elders called us and gave us the number of a lady in their ward who had a lot of Spanish speaking referrals for us.  I called her as we were pulling up to the house of a member we were going to visit.  This lady, Sister Ander, talked to me on the phone for about 45 minutes.  She would just talk and go off on the most random things.  She is a ward missionary and takes her calling very seriously.  She went through the play by play of how she wanted us to get to know the referrals.  She calls herself an "espionage missionary" and it's quite a fitting name.  She never just said, "oh, you can knock on her door and get to know her."  It was more like, "this is what I was thinking we could do... you come over and we'll talk a little bit about each one and then, you can go park around the corner or something, I'll invite her to dinner, she'll come over, and then you come knock on my door and act like you're just coming over for an unexpected visit, and then I'll invite you to join us for dinner and you can start talking to her and get to know her, but don't mention the church yet!" 

She went on and on with in depth plans like that and even told us of some times when her excuses got people mad at her.  Like she was in the hospital or something and one of her friends she's trying to fellowship was upset because she missed a party or something and instead or just explaining she was at the hospital, she made up some totally out there excuse instead.  She also talked about how two elders in their ward bumped heads with her and her husband and the bishop interfered and told the elders to let the Anders deal with it.  Well, apparently Sister Ander never intended to step on their shoes and she explained to me through the phone that the bishop had "butt hurt the missionaries."  She used a lot of funny terms like "knocked out" when she made someone mad and even told us how someone called her an M F-er after telling them to shut up.   

Anyway, we went to Sister Ander's house that night because we didn't have dinner planned.  Sister Franco at the time had bad allergies, which we went to the doctor for, but he said it was nothing serious.  So as we talked to Sister Ander, she goes off on more long stories, and pretty much told us she wants to work with us all day everyday and many times told us, "this is what I want you to do..." which freaked us out a little bit.  I think I can she why she doesn't have a good relationship with the elders in her ward!  She considers herself a full time missionary and isn't about to let anyone tell her otherwise!  Anyway, she saw that Sister Franco was pretty sick, and insisted we go to the doctors immediately and that she had an upper level respiratory infection and needed to go to the emergency room right away.  She also told me to rub Bengay on her back and chest.  Anyway, when we're about to leave her house, she forces Sister Franco to sit down on her stairs and brings out her son's inhaler.  Sister Franco freaks out and Sister Ander insists that she inhales two times.  Sister Franco fought the entire time, but Sister Ander INSISTED!  She said that her son had died and she brought him back to life again with that same inhaler.  It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen!  After we finally left, sister Ander called us multiple times and continues to call us often.  She asked the English elders for our address.  She means well, but she's crazy!  She fed us an ice cold roast and apple sauce.