“The Standard of Truth has been erected. No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. Persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame. But the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and dependent till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, until the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the Great Jehovah will say, THE WORK IS DONE

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

8/30/2011


Familia! No tengo mucho tiempo! But we get an early pday this week due to some sceduling changes. But how izz Mesa?! And Shay's wedding was this past weekend right? How was that? Tawn I heard you went SKY DIVING!!!! IS IT NOT THE BEST!!! ugh, so jeal. I want to  hear about it! And baby lukesy and how he is doinggg!!! I am still struggling comprehending that that Sara is really pregnant? I want to hear every fing! I miss you all ALOT. But of course love it here. We had some pretty cool miracles these past couple of days. So first off, Alonzo was going to get baptized this past Sunday, but then there was like a hurricane so they cancelled church and we were all stuck in our apartments for part of the day without electricity. PLus he had his test. But he crazy thing is when we first invited him to be baptized hace algunas weeks he was too preoccupied with his citizenship test  that was coming up (yesterday)- so we promised we would help him practice and felt prompted to PROMISE him that if he put God first that he would pass his test. We very shortly later regretted that promise as we went over the book of 100 questions only to hear him respond "four july seven seven eight" - to every question. don't get me wrong, it's the most adorable thing ever. But he was in a coma for 2 months recently and just can't retain anything at all. It makes it hard to teach him cause although he agreed to be baptized we're not sure if he 100% gets it all. Anyway, but we passed by his house yesterday really nervous to see how he did. Hegot... 100%... on his test...like... what? HOW? I don't know... but God is good, That is no less than a miracle. So he said he feels really tranquilo about his baptism this Sunday and it;s all set up!!! Another amazing experience. We passed by this part member family the other day. The mom is technically a member but extrememly innactive and hardly associates with the churches, but the older daughters are all very active and have been praying for their  bro Steven, 22, to accept the gospel his WHOLE life. So we have been meeting with him and his sisters this past week who are just so excited that they drive from other states just to be in on the lessons. And they always cry and say "you have no idea how long we have been waiting for this"- I guess they have tried and tried and finally he is ready! He accepted a baptismal date for the 25th. We are so excited for him and he is just about the sweetest most tender guy you'll ever meet! It just gives me hope for certain people that you very patiently wait for and think they'll never accept it, because one day THEY WILL! Eliana, the Chilean fromthe earthquake story, also accepted a baptismal date! She is SO GREAT and extremely funny. While we were relating the first vision to her we had to hold back from laughing. After every word she had some sort of dramatic gesture. "Vi una columna de luz, mas brillante que el sol" - "NO! NO MAS BRILLANTE QUE EL SOL. NO ME DIGA!! WOW!!!" "directatemente arriba de mi cabeza" "SU CABEZA!!! NO! QUE INCREIBLE!!!!" - it's good she is ready though! I'm excited for you to one day meet her. Luis is struggling, but also progressing. He will get baptized, but I just don't know when. I have never met such a confused worried man in my life! But he has some pretty miraculous experiences and just needs to act on it. He had the tree of life dream like to a T and then recently had another dream about una "Senda angosta" which were his EXACT words and the EXACT words used in the scriptures. He said he needed to enter a door, but was too afraid to open it. Baptism? The church is so true! And he knows it! Ugh.. just pray for him. Beny and Shirley are on date for this Saturday as well. Pray for them! Well family I love you so! Please tell me all about your vidas!


Monday, August 29, 2011

8/25/2011

Okay so we had the COOLEST miracles this week I don't even know where to start!! AHHHH. Okay so like 5 weeks ago we got a referral from a Jehova's witness. Which is a miracle in itself if you know any JW. And she was just like "I am saved hunny, but here's my friends number"- so we call her. No answer and we forget. So inspired though cause we were met to see this lady when and where we did at the exact moment we did. So we went to this international market and saw the Jehova's Witness AGAIN and she was like "what the heck, why did you only call her twice, call her again" - so we did and she was so excited so we set an appt and went to see her Tuesday. So she is like this viejita who lives in an assisted living center with a bunch of other elderly chileans. Which was random because mostly everyone is from Cental America. And then I felt weird and thought (no one will believe me, but whatever) "I bet there is going to be an earthquake" - so we go inside this lady;s apartment and then there was like... an earthquake. A real one! This poor woman was in the earthquake hace 2 years in Chile and seriously was about to  have a heart attack. She was crying and screaming "TERREMOTO!" and banging on the walls (although it was massively destructive even the Chileans said it was quite big, 6.0 according to the mission pres, so she had reason)- and so we grab these old ladies during the earthquake and walk them very slowly (their old and immobile) down 5 flights of stairs. Obviously by the time we were about one down it stopped. It was like a movie! I am not going to lie I was scared cause we were high up. But anyway the miracle is we go down stairs with all these terrified Chilean (and GHANAIN!!) anzianos. And we gathered them and prayed with them and calmed them all down and read them scriptures and found some of the most golden people I have met on my mission. We got sooo many return appointments and I just knew we had to be there at the very moment we were there, not 5 weeks ago, but at that moment. Cause A. that woman would have DIED she was like hypervhenalating (sp?) and we had to meet all those people because we can't knock at this center and wouldn't have met them any other way. I just wish you could have seen it it was so great! The weather really helped us out this week. We had twosuper intense storm and were able to teach the other stranded people and keep Shirley and Beni a little longer to teach them. We started to leave and Angel Moroni got struck by lightning and then there was like this hurricane looking storm outside. But we would have been driving in it (because the hurricane looking storm started a couple min after the lightning) if it weren't struck as we were walking out. And yeah the AP's called and said to be prepared for a hurricane Saturday, but I doubt it will get to us or be too intense. Anyway updates on the bdates: Alonzo has his citizenship test this week so will be getting baotized next Sunday, Shirley seems ready and excited to be baptized next Sunday, but her mom it seems like might take a little more time. Luis is REALLY struggling... that is a completely nother (?) story, Lorena very hard to get a hold of pray for her, We got two more this past week with La familia Vargas (but there's is muy complicado) and Henrey!! He accepted a bdate after our first lesson in the Vc on his birthday. So cute. Anyway sorry these stories are really all over the place I just am out of time and have to send it right right now. Love you all so :)

8/18 again

Hola familia!!! Sooo my prayers were answered an I am staying in Garret Park!!! I am so excited because this is area is actually really challenging so we worked sooooo hard this past transfer and dealt wh a lot of discouragement, but it paid off cause we currently have 6 really sold baptismal dates which is really rare for this area so I did NOT want to leave my pepes cause I love them so so much. AND I got the best comp ever! Her name is Hermana Marcy and we were in the MTC at the same time so just really have a lot of the same goals and mindsets. I had noooo idea missionary work was so controled by differing opinions and it can really impede the work. But she is super hard working so I am excited. And she actually likes to run with me in the morning to the temple in the forest and then she made me chocolate chip pancakes this morning!? I feel like on errand of angels when she has that super awesomecomp. The only thing is we are both young (mission young) and now the pressure is on that I have to know everything. I have to be able to understand every word of the lessons. I have to know every person in the ward and their schedules and how to navigate the entire area (cause I stayed and she came to me)- and I mess up... it's not just that I do poorly on a test,but someone's SALVATION is at stake! It's a huge burden just cause I am still learning. BUT I am excited and up for the challenge. So I have no time, but I will share a couple of quick miracles...

So this might be really weird, but since I have noticed that specific prayers are actually like.. answered.. I pray for really specific things. And its can't be like "bless Luis will get baptized" cause even God can't take away a person's agency. So I pray for experiences that I know they will use to agency to choose to be baptized. So I have been praying for our investigators to have dreams, because latinos always act on their dreams. So this past week one of our SOLID bdates shirley was impossible to get a hold of. We called like 3 times a day and stopped by their house and we knew they were avoiding us which was devastating cause they were sooo golden. Then Sunday we all freaked out when her mom answered the phone... but only to reject us very coldly and hang up. We wanted to cry. And then we get a message like 5 min before church that said "come get me for church I'lbe waiting outside"- then she told us that she had had a dream that her friend came to her and said "you need to go to church" and she remembered that after she hung up on us. So her and her daughter came to all of church nd then we gave them a tour at the visitor's center and they both very willingly accepted bdates for the 4th and we went to a baptism with them and the whole time were saying, "Oh I want these treats at my baptisms, oh I want her  play the violin at my baptism"- it seriously was soo miraculous! And then Luis had pretty much the same exact dream as the tree of life. We showed him and related it to baptism and since he is freaking out about falling after his baptism (next week!) we were able to comfort him in showing him how the people were able to stay on track by holding to the rod, or the word of God. Since then he has been reading like 5 chapters a day in the scriptures even though he is super busy. It's just super miraculous to see how A. God cares for each of His children, B. answers specific prayers and... I actually have to go... LOVE YOU ALL SO  MUCH KEEP HAVING REALLY AWESOME LIVES!!!!

8/18/2011

oh my familia... there is SO MANY exciting things going on back at home I can't take it all in. You are supposed to sit around until I get home and have all these exciting things happen when I get home!!! No I am the most happy for all of you and will write each of individual letters of joy cause I need to hear details of all this craziness Matt coming home and Andrew and all that fun stuff too. Let me know how dat goes!

SO this week was much better than last until the last two days. Ivon got baptized Sunday!!! it was soooo bonito he had such a light in his face! Then I got a phone call at the VC of a woman from Mozambique that I have been working with on the phone and is just INCREDIBLE. She is a genius nurse but can't get a job and is like dying of poverty. Her husband literally slipped on a banana peel at work and died and she was stuck in an elevator for three days this past weekend. I was concerned that all the adversity would weaken her faith, but NO. She called me to let me know she is getting baptized Sunday and she is SO HAPPY! It was so great :) We found a huge houseful of latinos that we are working with and they are SO GREAT. Straight from Bolivia and this BEAUTIFUL 15 year old girl Shirley accepted a baptismal date for the 21st of August and they are simply GOLDEN! We had a lot of miracles with people calling us and asking if they could come have a lesson at the VC which is very rare for them to come to you. Mainly these jovenes that everyone was like "stop talking to the jovenes they aren't worth your time!" Well, along those lines. But one accepted a bdate and these young boys were calling us cause they wanted to learn more! And then Luis told us their facebook status said, "Just went to church for the first time in mfe" - haha dey loved it. Then the past two days were kinda horrible and I wanted to cry to find out Luis has an issue that we have to work out before he can be baptized. I have been so depressed about it cause he was FOR SURE getting baptized Sunday. We were filling out his baptismal record when he told us. So that was hard. But I know like Pres Monson encourages us to face discouragement with cheerfulness and triumph with humility. He is just so great and I have grown to love him so it's hard to see. And we just have had A LOT of people bail on our appointments the last couple days. It's really frustrating.It's just hard when you are willing to miss your meals and work SO HARD and to face so much rejection.
But asi es la vida de la mision! I know better than to complain. We see so many miracles as well so I feel blessed :)

Well I am out of time. I love you all so much and maybe I am a bad missionary and think about you all the time. Someone even had to tell me I wasn't focused enough cause I dream about you guys. Sorry I just kinda like you.. k BYE

8/4/11

SORRY- I know this one is out of order- looks like I missed a few:

8/4/11 
 Hola familia!!!

HI HI HI!!! WoW so many crazy thigns going back on home, but it makes me so happy you guys are being so blessed and have such happy exciting lives! A little jealous..just saying...

I will respond to each of your questions and exciting stories in your letter home today because I have ALOT to say about several things in your email and especially about SOME PICTURES I got of a little FRIEND in the mail!!! ::))))))

Also I can not believe that about Leesa! What a miracle that she is okay. I will pray and fast for her, please send her my love.


I have like 10 min. This week was great, very trying but great. This area is a lot harder. It's nicer so there are less latinos and the ones we do find are a little more hard hearted. BUT we still saw miracles. Yesterday LUIS finally accepted baptismal date for the 7th! And he is serious he didn't want to accept a date until he knew all the commandments and made sure he could keep them and stay strong. Still pray for him though. And we seriously are teaching the cutest old man ever named Alonzo. It's interesting to see how God really prepares these people in different ways. Alonzo was in an accident and in a coma for like 2 months and just recently woke up from it. His near death experience really prepared him and our first real lesson with him he accepted a baptismal date for the 7th!! He seems soo legit too. We called him like 10 min before church Sunday and he was like "YEAH I will come how do I get there!?" He dropped everything right then and came in his regular clothes and just soaked it all in. You know someone is legit if they come to church because people, even if they accept baptismal dates, have a really hard time coming to church for some reason! It can be so frustrating! So Britt, YOUR FRAN IS LEGITIMIA. K get this.. we went to visit Brenda (who it seems her family wil not let her get baptized on the 31st :( ) and there was a man named Carlos working there and he became our investigator. But when I called him he texted and said he would be out of town for 2 weeks. I jokingly said to my comps "OH perfect, 2 weeks of church there (required to baptized) will you get baptized the day you get back?" They told me actually to send it and I thought it was ridiculous, but I invited  him to be baptized via text message. I was so stressed about it. He called and left the SWEETEST message ever and was just like "I had to call you and thank you personally for that message. I would really like to talk to you about that" We are both trying to get a hold of each other since then and haven't been able to. Ijust think  it is so interesting where missionary work is going technologically. We get THE MOST PREPARED people vchat and incoming calls. You would  just cry talking to these people. I had a girl call yesterday who just reads the Book of Mormon for fun and didn't understand the three Kingdoms of Glory. Of course I explained and invited her to meet with the missionaries and she was so excited and was like "OF COURSE!"- I had someone call and ask if tI could make sure the missionaries get to his house THAT VERY NIGHT cause he believes everything. And I talked to another guy who called a year ago caus he watched a DVD and believed everything and no one ever came so he called again cause he wants to be aptized. It's seriously the coolest experience ever. We have some new investigators via chat as well from all over the world that are SO READY!!! I wish I could just tell you all about every single person I have been able to talk to... My eyes have been so opened to how many people really are ready. I am kind of ashamed at my past self for not talking with certain people.

Dayna and beep and ector- I loveth you! Beep I wrote you!! Did you not get it?! I write again k luv u luv u- Dayna n ector i wrote youask mom about it (wink emoticon)

Love you all hope all is well!!!

 
Another one from 8/4
oh my familia... there is SO MANY exciting things going on back at home I can't take it all in. You are supposed to sit around until I get home and have all these exciting things happen when I get home!!! No I am the most happy for all of you and will write each of individual letters of joy cause I need to hear details of all this craziness Matt coming home and Andrew and all that fun stuff too. Let me know how dat goes!

SO this week was much better than last until the last two days. Ivon got baptized Sunday!!! it was soooo bonito he had such a light in his face! Then I got a phone call at the VC of a woman from Mozambique that I have been working with on the phone and is just INCREDIBLE. She is a genius nurse but can't get a job and is like dying of poverty. Her husband literally slipped on a banana peel at work and died and she was stuck in an elevator for three days this past weekend. I was concerned that all the adversity would weaken her faith, but NO. She called me to let me know she is getting baptized Sunday and she is SO HAPPY! It was so great :) We found a huge houseful of latinos that we are working with and they are SO GREAT. Straight from Bolivia and this BEAUTIFUL 15 year old girl Shirley accepted a baptismal date for the 21st of August and they are simply GOLDEN! We had a lot of miracles with people calling us and asking if they could come have a lesson at the VC which is very rare for them to come to you. Mainly these jovenes that everyone was like "stop talking to the jovenes they aren't worth your time!" Well, along those lines. But one accepted a bdate and these young boys were calling us cause they wanted to learn more! And then Luis told us their facebook status said, "Just went to church for the first time in mfe" - haha dey loved it. Then the past two days were kinda horrible and I wanted to cry to find out Luis has an issue that we have to work out before he can be baptized. I have been so depressed about it cause he was FOR SURE getting baptized Sunday. We were filling out his baptismal record when he told us. So that was hard. But I know like Pres Monson encourages us to face discouragement with cheerfulness and triumph with humility. He is just so great and I have grown to love him so it's hard to see. And we just have had A LOT of people bail on our appointments the last couple days. It's really frustrating.It's just hard when you are willing to miss your meals and work SO HARD and to face so much rejection.
But asi es la vida de la mision! I know better than to complain. We see so many miracles as well so I feel blessed :)

Well I am out of time. I love you all so much and maybe I am a bad missionary and think about you all the time. Someone even had to tell me I wasn't focused enough cause I dream about you guys. Sorry I just kinda like you.. k BYE

Thursday, August 11, 2011

8/11/2011



Querida Familia,

Halloooo! I am sure your lives are all as exciting as usual, but since I didn't hear from anyone, but Britt I don't have much to say on

This week was good! Luis and Alonzo accepted new b dates for the 28th de Agosto and they are actually progressing and coming to church and reading which is REALLY GOOD. I have had this phone investiagtor in Germany that I totally forgot existed and yesterday I was like, "Hm.. I should see how Jac is doing"- and I called him. come to find out he has been going to church and reading very faithfully! Which was great news. and several of our chat investigators were completely self motivated and have been going to church. I am just amazed by those who are self motivated. Usually we have to beg them to come to church which is kind of ironic since we are begging them to accept their own salvation? Alonzo is the cutest man you will ever meet in your life! He is like an old version of Hector who just got out of a coma and isn't completely all there. We are helping him study for his residence test so he doesn't get kicked out of America. Which is poor failing memory worries me, but it's really adorable when he says "consteetushun". i am so happy cause I have been praying to find families to teach my whole mission, but we very rarely find whole families who are wiing to listen. Maybe just one, or most moms are single moms and the men are just single men who live with their 1st 2nd 3rd 4th and 5th cousins and aunts and great aunts and their dogs. And I still hadn't taught a whole family! But we found three complete families to teach this week and they are SO GREAT :) Well one is particularly great- pray for Victoria and Jorge. Thanks :) Oh and oh my goodness this woman Lorena pray for her. AH SHE"S GREAT!!! She was sooo not interested immediately when we came she siad "I am Catholic, all my family are pastors don't bother, but you can clean my kitchen"- so we did and someone else in her ouse accepted a return appt so we came back he suddenlly he wasn't interested and she came down when we recited the first vision and she was crying quite a bit and in tears her exact words were, "WOW, me senti que eso es verdadero" - and she immediately started talking about how she wanted to make covenants in the temple?! If we weren't inhibited by the other guy bashing we would have invited her to be baptized. Tomorrow. K well, I somehow already ran out of time. But I hope all is well in Babylon... (wait... that might condemn me)- Love you all sooooo please writme and let me know wuzzz up!! Too many exciting things going on at home. Ps I have transfers this week and they stress me out cause I really want to stay in GP. But ok. it's ok. Love you!

Did any of yall see Matt since he been home? How was dat? Okay love you again!