June 25th, 2012

Familia Linda,

This week was awesome!  First off, Melissa got baptized yesterday!!! It was an incredible baptism.  Her mom who is less active gave a talk on baptism and bore her testimony saying how proud she was of the decision Melissa made to be baptized and she knows she's on the right path and she thanked us for teaching her and was so grateful for us. SO POWERFUL.  Melissa was in tears...It was such a spiritual moment and right after Hermana Pare' sang/played the piano for her as a special musical number.  Annie Cardenas (her 9 year old church friend) gave a talk on baptism....she was so cute!  She did awesome.  Then the big moment....she entered the waters of baptism!  She was so nervous and she picked Elder Woods (an elder serving in our ward) because he looks like a vampire (she's 9 remember.. haha).  She glowed the whole time and the whole week I prayed that the Spirit would confirm to her that she made the right decision and I KNOW she definitely felt that. We had bearing of testimonies after and her NON-MEMBER dad went up and gave his!  Can this seriously get any better?!?  IT was such a powerful experience that I was physically exhausted after...feeling the spirit super powerfully can do that to you ya know!  Then after the baptism my two ex companions called me telling me that they're in Denver...they've been serving over the mountains for the past couple of months so I was able to see them again.  Then to make it better...they slept over so it was a huge sleepover.  I loved it! Transfers is tomorrow and they're going home so that's why they're here.  And yup...I'm still staying here in the Denver 1st ward....transfer #6.  Ok well I love you guys. Have a great week!

June 18th, 2012

FAMILY!

This week is my year anniversary of going through the temple!  And Guess what I got to do?  Go to the temple!!  Like I said last week, a less active Hna. Limones is receiving her endowments.  We were able to go this past Saturday and it was so spiritual.  It was very different from going with all the missionaries like we usually do.....maybe because it wasn't 6 O'clock in the morning and I wasn't dead tired.  We went at 2:30pm and as we were waiting for the session to start and alot of members in our ward went.  As I was sitting listening to hymns being played, I couldn't help but feel the immense influence of the spirit warm my heart.  I see all the members every sunday but it was VERY different to see them at the temple dressed in white.  They all looked so heavenly and pure.  I saw them as they really are....children of God.  They're potential...everything.  I absolutely loved every moment of it...I was so grateful I was able to go to the temple with the ward on my year mark of getting endowed.  The temple really is the house of the Lord.  Go there often.  Take advantage of having one so close by.  The temple is the ultimate goal and the only place on earth we can recieve a fulness of God's blessings.  Always strive to be temple worthy....it's worth it. 

  This coming Sunday is Melissa's baptism!!  It's the last day of the transfer, what a blessing, right?  She is sooo ready and excited.  She went to church with the Cardenas family (fellowshippers) and during sacrament meeting we received a text from Melissa's mom saying "we're behind you"  and my first thought was "wait were not driving..." (ok I'm an idiot sometimes) and then I came to my senses and looked behind us and there they were!  Melissa's parents sitting in the back row!!  I KNOW it was through Melissa's example of keeping the Sabbath Day holy that her parent's finally came to church.  Example is power.  Power is fueled by faith.  Faith is an action.  It's so easy....a 9 year old can understand that!  The Gospel is simple, life is hard.  It's cool because this Sunday Hermana Thomas and Spencer (my ex companions) are going to go to the baptism....they go home two days after.  Crazy.  That makes it 3 of my compa's that are home.  Que sad.  I'll miss them.  So it's the last week of the transfer aka wonder week!  We gots some good goals and I know we're gonna reach them..I'm excited. 

  On Friday we had a lesson with Cori, a recent convert and she was telling us about how her daughter Dana loves praying.  She's 2 years old and it's so cute to hear little kids speak Spanish...I have no idea why....also I'm kind of jealous of them because they speak better Spanish than I do...dang.  Cori was telling us that Dana was praying one night and was blessing all these people...including my trainer Hna. Thomas (she served here for almost a year so Dana basically knew her her whole life)  and she also said "hna luis"....Cori was realling confused and asked "your uncle luis?" and Dana said "no mama...hermana luis!!" then Cori realized that she was praying for me! Hermana Ruiz but she can't pronounce her R's very well so it comes out luis.  So cute, right? See if a two year old can pray, you can too.  Well that's all I have for this week.  I didn't write down any quotes...I sucked but I'll do better this week.  I love you all. I pray for you every night....I mean it.

June 11, 2012

Hey!

  So we had crazy weather this week....it's been super ridiculously hot (for me atleast) and on Wednesday, it was a beautiful day then it hit like 5PM and some super dark clouds started rolling in...then it started sprinkling...not a big deal.  Then it got progressively worse....as we were sleeping (I leave the window open because it gets so blasted hot in our room...even if its snowing outside, I always leave it open cause I sleep right next it.) It was hailing the size of ....ok I don't know what size but they sounded pretty bad.  And lightning galore.  Super windy too that everything on the ledge where the window is ended up all over our room.  As a missionary, you're always dead tired at night so I remember kind of waking up every now and then because it was SO loud outside...and mind you, I'm a super light sleeper so I'm surprised that I only woke up a few times...and not even legitimately cause I fell back asleep super fast.  But I do remember hearing alot of sirens....and In my half awake conscious I was wondering why so many people were dying that night.....then the next day I found out those sirens were tornado warnings...WHAT?!  How was I suppose to know what those sounded like?? I'm from San Diego...I'm a spoiled weather brat.  I could of totally died....atleast it would of been in my sleep.  So I guess thats kinda cool.  So yeah...Colorado has tornadoes apparently.  Good to know....not like dying from a natural disaster was my childhood fear ...uhh.      

    Anyways So we got a text from President Maynes saying he wanted to come to a lesson with us with his wife.  Wait....that's never happened before...so I asked him if he wanted us to find someone in English to teach and he says "no...Spanish is fine".  Let me just tell you.....President Maynes can't speak a lick of Spanish to save his life!  So I thought...well this is going to be interesting....and it takes the pressure off because we can be talking about Satan the whole time and he wouldn't have even noticed (for the record...we did not talk about satan).  So on Friday evening, he came with us to Belia and Lupe...They both got baptized in November so they are recent converts.  Belia is the mom and Lupe is her oldest daughter.  Belia LOVES coming with us to lessons so we see her pretty much every day. I love her so much, she has a rockin testimony and is SO obedient.  So we had her with us two days before the appointment with President Maynes and we were telling her that she can practice her English with him (she is a faithful english class attendee that we have each Tuesday).  So we decided to teach her a very important sentence...."These are the best missionaries in the world."  Yep.  And we even wrote it down for her so she could practice for the big day!  Well missionaries always have a billion things running through their head or to do so when we were sitting with President and Sister Maynes in the living room of Belia and Lupe's, she busts out her broken english and says "tes r da besht mishunaries in da wurd"....we just started laughing our heads off because Sister Pare and I totally forgot that we told her to say that.  She is awesome.  The lesson ended up being amazing.  We taught the first half of the Plan of Salvation....we bore our testimonies. They cried. President Maynes looked confused. but told us we were really good together and he likes our unity.  He's told us several times since then...we think he has some plans up his sleeve for this transfer because he keeps asking us random questions to each of the sisters.

  Can you believe transfers are in two weeks?? Crazy, right?  Time flies.  June is a big month for me.  The 16th will be a year since I recieved my call....I remember how I felt the days before, wondering where the Lord was going to send me and who my mission president/ companions would be and now I'm living my dream.  The 21st is when I went through the temple and the 28th is my 9 month/half way mark of my mission. Can't believe it.  

  So Hermana Limones use to be less active but we worked alot with her and she is a powerhouse!  She goes through the temple this Saturday to recieve her endowments!!  AND she gets her patriarchal blessing the next day...she told us by Monday, she'll be dead from a spiritual overload.  I don't blame her haha.  So she invited us to go to her endowments and President said we could!  I look up to Hermana Limones, alot.  Her husband is super less active...and doesn't take her to church so she drives illegally (hey you gotta do what you gotta do..don't judge) with her 3 year old daughter Esther whom I ADORE.  I may or may not being cheating on my own nieces and nephews with her because seriously I love her so much.  And she hasn't missed a day of church since the beginning of the year.  Even when she was super sick.  She is SO excited for this weekend...like a kid going to Disneyland...no joke.  Ok well I hope you all have a great week....I love you all a ton. Keep writing me....because for reals...I get one letter a week....from Hermana Coughlen....my ex companion...haha (love you colon).  Que Dios les bendiga.

June 4th, 2012

Hola!

Well this week we saw a lot of miracles! First off, we almost got in a car accident....we were at a stop sign...its really awkwardly placed though but our car and this other white suburban truck stopped at the same time.  I put my signal to turn right and this car had their signal to turn left (they were coming from my left side) well as they
turn, I decide to turn right since they were going the other direction (I hope this makes any sense but I'm telling you, the stop signs are awkwardly placed) then all of a sudden, I see a big white thing (the car) go right in front of us because they decided to go OUR way even though they put their signal for the OTHER way and I slam on my breaks and swerved (don't know how to spell that) while I feel the white suburbans side just scrape along our car.  My first thought "NOOO THIS IS GOD'S CAR!!" then I thought "aw man, they're gonna take my driving privileges away...I like driving."  So as me and Hermana Pare are in shock, the white car just DRIVES AWAY!! So I pull over praying that the damage wouldn't be bad because we have to pay it out of our own pocket (oh yeah that was another thought that came in my mind). Hermana Pare gets out to look at the front/left side car to see the damage.  I'm still in the car, examining her face to see signs of distress but she just had a concentrated look on her face.  WHAT DOES THAT MEAN!?!?! So I'm too impatient for her to tell me so I get outside the car and look.   And we see a nada....NOTHING...Not a dent, a scratch...seriously NOTHING.  I FELT the white suburban hit us....and yet there was nothing to show for it.  How did that happen?? It's cause we're rollin in God's car.  It may look like a mediocre toyota...but it has magical powers. Boom. Miracle. 


Second miracle. Melissa Ortiz came to church!  She's a 9 year old (almost 10..cause you know thats important to state that when you're that age)  and her mom is less active, her father isn't a member so she's "investigating" the church.  She loves reading the scriptures and praying.  If all of our investigators were like her, we'd be baptizing all of Denver.  Her date to be baptized is June 24th but she needs to go to church.  That's her biggest down fall because her parents always work and she's a shy girl so imagine going to a church where you don't know anyone without your family?? But last week we brought over the Cardenas family.  The husband is the Elders Quorum president and the mom is the 1st counsler in the Young Woman's program.  They have 2 daughters...one 13 and the other 9. Perfect for Melissa, right?  They are an AWESOME family.  I also think of all families were like the Cardenas that we'd be ready for the Second Coming of Christ. Just saying.  Anyways so Hermana Cardenas said she was willing to pick up Melissa Sunday morning and Melissa finally said yes!  So Melissa's "Fellowshipper" (fellowshipper means a member of the church is willing to be the investigators friend and help them to feel comfortable at church, etc.) is Annie and she's 9 years old too. So yesterday morning the Cardenas picked Melissa up and we went to church.  Annie sat next to her and since it was fast and testimony
meeting, Annie decided to bear her testimony for the first time in sacrament meeting. Then after the meeting, Annie takes Melissa by the hand and takes her to primary.  This is ALL without the help of her parents.  SHE IS AWESOME.  Also if all fellowshippers were like Annie, we'd have stronger members of the church.  That's one of my favorite things about the mission, I love seeing the examples of people.  It really has changed my priorities and I have a greater desire to be more righteous just like them.  So Melissa is just progressing more
and more to baptism!  It's the last sunday of the transfer so that should be fun. I also wanted to share something I learned in personal study.

Actually yesterday I went to a baptism and President Maynes went with his wife.  So I sat in between them to translate...I ended up just translating to Sister Maynes because President Maynes was sitting farther away from me.  But I noticed that he took our lil sheets of blank paper and he would just write away.  He can't understand Spanish for the life of him and he couldn't hear me translate then I realized that he was receiving revelation and he was writing it down.  SO COOL. Ok I'm a nerd and eat that kind of stuff up.  But I mean come on, I always wondered what goes on in the head of a prophet or general authority (or mission president) and I was seeing it in action.  Then today in personal study, I was reading when Abinadi was getting burned for prophesing and Alma (one of the priest in the trial) fled because King Noah wanted him killed since he stook up for Abinadi.  Then I
read Mosiah 17:4 which says: "And he being concealed for many days did write all the words which Abinadi had spoken."  So Alma wrote down his spiritual impressions!  It was cool to see my own mission president doing the same thing as it says in the scriptures.  I know he's an inspired man.  Ok so heres some quotes:

"Church is like showering....I dread going in the shower...all the time...but then when I actually get in...it feels sooo nice and i LOVE it and don't want to get out...it takes alot for me to go to church but then I go and wonder why I don't go more often.." - Hermana Loera (super less active with a smoking problem)

This was yesterday at sacrament meeting during testimonies: "I leave you my testimony...wait..no I don't leave it...because I need it to keep me going"  - Hermana Rivera...the 90 year old lady that quotes the bible like noones business.

Well I love you all. Siga fiel. Choose the right. Don't feed the missionaries too much. Peace.