November 25, 2013

This week was good....  We had elder Carlson from the Seventy come down for a mission tour.  It was a meeting from 8am to 5.  Super good, though.  Learned some mind blowing stuff about the premortal life, eternal law and the standard of law for different degrees of glory, and what it means to be truly consecrated and give your life fully over to The Lord.  I'll share some more details later, because we honestly don't have much time to email today.  Oh!  And towards the end of the meeting president asked 2 missionaries to share a 2 minute talk about what we're doing to be more consecrated.  Guess who happened to be one of those missionaries to speak in front of half the mission and elder Carlson?  Yep, me.  

Then on Saturday we had the baptism for Luisa and Elba.  I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost.  I actually did a pretty killer job, too!  You will get pictures soon!

On Sunday no one we expected to come came to church.  However, Marcos and his son, Marcos Jr showed up randomly at church!  It was a pleasant surprise! He went with us that night to a fireside, too.  Se llama "porque creo". They usually have 2 every transfer, one in Ingles (why I believe) and 1 in Spanish.  Recent converts share their testimonies and there's always pretty musical numbers.  It was a good experience.  Our ward mission leader, Hermano Salmeron, helped him out with a ride.  He helped us out a lot yesterday.  

The weather here is perfect!  I can't say I'll be looking forward to tomorrow, though, because transfers are tomorrow and I'm TRAINING!  Yay... Sister Webb is going to an english area and her new comp is sister Fox.  She is NOT happy about it.  Especially going english.  I'm extremely nervous about training a brand new sister who doesn't speak spanish (yes, all the new sisters are white..) but I kind of have to keep it all in and rely on a lot of prayer because Sister Webb is kind of cursing God and the president right now...refusing to accept that her call is by revelation, soo...I'm trying to avoid that.  Ha.  I can't get her to keep a good perspective about it, though.  She's choosing to be angry about it. So I'm not letting myself freak out.  I trust that Heavenly Father qualifies those He calls. Even though I'm nervous about my new assignment, I trust Heavenly father knows what He's doing.

I'm not getting Christmas presents? :(  (of course she is)

By the way, I heard Catching Fire was good??     

Hermana Smith and Tomas

November 18, 2013

We have two baptisms on the 23rd, this Saturday.  The moms of Benita and Zaida are getting baptized.  The other 3 people who had set baptism dates - Lourdes, Mike and Rosie - aren't going to make their dates and didn't make their dates, but sister Webb and I are confident they'll still get baptized.  We havrn't been able to see Mike and Lourdes because they had all their family come down and told us not to come by until December, but that they are still reading and will come to church.  They didn't show up at church, so we stopped by and talked to Mike in the doorway.  He can notice a difference sense we haven't been there, so that's good.  They're still very interested, though, just stubborn right now.  We'll see them soon.  Rosie is super solid, she just needs more time to come to church.  She came to church once, loved it and also came to the halloween activity.  We went to night church with her last night and guess who I saw?  TOMAS!  He just got a new calling, but wasn't allowed to tell me yet, but I guessed it on accident.  I asked him how hno potts was doing (ward mission leader) and he told me he's now the elders Q president, and so when I asked who the new ward mission leader is, his face got super red.  Yep.  that's all I'm saying.  Haha.  He said he'd tell me for sure though in a letter.  It was really cool to see him, he even blessed the sacrament.  He's baptizing someone on Saturday, too.  OH!  And he's already done baptisms for the dead TWICE, showed me his temple recommend and everything.  And he's going to get the Melkezidic (sp?) priesthood very soon (even though I thought you had to wait a year..?)  He's so solid.  He told me his patriarchal blessing suggests he will have many callings in his lifetime, including bishopric... he's so solid and I love him so much.  He insisted on taking a picture, which I would send to you, but I look suuuuuper white.  Haha.  Bad lighting.  He said to another one of the hermanos that was there, "this is my missionary!"  And the hermano was like, "oh, she baptized you?"  And he was like, "yep, her and sister Franco, mis angeles!"  

I'M SO PROUD OF HIM!  He's talking next week and I can't be there, but it's okay.  I'll live.  

Yes, we are teaching lots of people, one named Jorge just got out of prison and is an alcoholic, but really wants to change and is a good guy.  He said for sure he'd be at church this past sunday, though, and when our member went by to give him and our other investigator, Isidro, a ride, they were apparently either having a fiesta or partied too hard last night...yep, we need to work with them a little bit, but lots of potential.  We had one of our new investigators, Stefania, come to church yesterday.  She's a sweet little woman from Guatemala.  Everything is doing well with the work.  We had interviews with president recently and he trusts us, everyone is apparently super impressed with what we're doing here in Desert Bloom, even though really it's all the Lord's doing.  I also mentioned the Hno Retis situation to president and he told us to have Retis call him and he will give him the info to contact the Tampa Stake president, because it's all through the stake.  We'll see.  I'm pretty sure he's for sure moving no matter what, though, because he's not one to ignore a prompting.  

So you never answered my question about the night in Zarahemla.  From the Book of Mormon?  And could you send me stamps?  

This week was a really good one.  For some reason I was feeling very self critical and depressed in the middle of the week and I could not get out of it.  Friday morning I just prayed like crazy to have the strength to get Satan out of my head, read my scriptures EXTRA hard, and that day was AMAZING and the whole weekend, too.  It didn't come for free, though.  The first thing I did was make my companion's bed.  I know, it sounds stupid, but just showing Heavenly Father that I WANTED to serve others, in even small ways, started to make me feel better.  I know He answered my prayers.  This weekend turned out to be one of the busiest ones in a while, too.  I have a testimony that when we work hard and lose ourselves, we're the happiest.  

I love you all very much!  Words can not express!  I'll see you soon (via Skype!)  

Trunk or Treat LV style

That's marcos, who she mentioned in the email.

November 4, 2013

Ay...I can't believe I only have 9 months left.  I still feel like there's so much for me to learn.  However, I look back at the first half of my mission and see how much I've already learned and grown and I guess I still have a lot I can accomplish.  I really appreciate this email.  It almost brought me to tears!  That second to last line was something I needed to hear: "I thank God that he sent a very special spirit{you} to bless our family and I am happy to share you con la gente de las vegas."  Even though I thank Heavenly Father every day for sending 4 very special spirits to bless and strengthen MY life, I appreciate those words.  Every once in a while I struggle with feeling inadequate and wonder if I'm ever doing enough - or if I'm just stuck.  However, knowing that even the little details like writing a letter that gets posted up on a blog site every week can brighten someone's day, brings me a lot of joy. Your letters every week boost me up and encourage and inspire me to keep going.  I'm immensely proud of you!  Remember, you have been ENTRUSTED with these fiery trials.  You're experiencing the refiner's fire!  Heavenly Father can not make us perfect without first sending us to earth and allowing us to fight against Satan hands on!  With that in mind, I'm mind boggled at how loving Heavenly Father is, that he would send Jesus Christ as a lifeline for us.  Christ didn't have to complete the atonement, but He knew what was at stake.  He was willing to go through what He did so that all of us - His brothers and sisters - could all return and live with Him and the Father as a big happy family again.  Whatever you've done wrong in your life, He's been there.  Not only has He been where you're at and where you've been, but He's sunken below even that!  I love the gospel. :)  

This week went by pretty fast.  We had the trunk or treat, Halloween activity where we watched the movie, "Ephraim's rescue" and tomorrow we're going to see Gladys Knight!  

Yesterday we encountered a pretty big miracle.  We street contacted a guy in an apartment complex who was smoking outside his house, named Jose.  Jose's from Mexico, but lived most of his life here in the United States.  He let us in right away (we had a member with us) and as it turns out, he is good friends with another investigator we have named Marcos.  Marcos came to the Trunk or treat, but hasn't come to church yet because he lives with his son, doesn't have his own phone, car and his work is completely on call.  He's extremely interested though and he opened up a lot and cried during our first visit when we asked him, "If Jesus Christ were sitting here with you right now what would you ask Him?"  It was one of the highlights of my mission.  Anyway, so Jose just happens to be super close with Marcos and is also interested.  He even told us he'd love to come to church and give Marcos a ride so they can go together.  He said Marcos had told him about us.  It was so awesome.  To me, that was Heavenly Father not only placing us in the path of a prepared person, but providing help for Marcos as well.  Heavenly Father loves His children a lot.  

Tomorrow we will be going to see Gladys Knight with a couple investigators at 8:30.  We got permission from President Neider to stay out late.  Haha.  The investigators are Jaime and Loui.  They have been taught by missionaries for years, so many people would refer to them as "eternigators" Anywhoo, Jaime doesn't really seem interested, but his wife, Loui, still has a desire to know, but is a little confused now because...well, in all seriousness, she's been taught so many times, kept commitments, received answers, but hasn't made the next step.  I remember on my first visit with her I basically explained that to her. That the reason she feels confused is because she has received an answer before from the Holy Ghost, but because she didn't act on that answer, the spirit has left her and she has allowed Satan to enter the stage and replace that light of revelation with confusion.  It was kind of fuerte, but what she needed to hear.  It's true.  That's why we act in faith, are baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost...so we don't have to feel that confusion anymore.  We are promised the companionship of the Holy Ghost.  Unfortunately, people don't understand the difference until they've already acted on faith and received the gift.  Anyway, we are giving her another chance to start over and we've prayed and feel like the Gladys Knight thing might have an intense impact on them.  These performances are famous for doing that.  We have some other people going on different days, but we can only go to one performance.  

I forgot to ask you, but could you send me some more stamps?  And yes, you can send me money to buy Christmas presents. :)  

I love you all so very much!  Keep fighting the good fight of faith!