La Vie D'Ivee

Quote of the week:

Hello all,

 

This past week was great! We were able to really start working with our new investigators! First off, Mario, Nancy, and Carol (our family) they are amazing! At family home evening we went over how families can be together forever and it was super cute, and their family was so touched at how much importance we put on families. Nancy and Carol came to Church on Sunday, and we have another meeting with them tonight. We're hoping we can get the husband to Church, he seems the most interested, but also a little bit reserved at the same time.

 

We taught Shahid 3 times this past week, and we actually ended up dropping him. We found out that he's one of those people that gets baptized "just in case". He's been baptized 5 times because he isn't really sure what religion is true and he wants to make sure he's good after he dies. We talked with him about faith, and shared alma 32: 21 "faith‍ is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope‍ for things which are not‍ seen, which are true". And we discussed how faith requires action, but being baptized a bunch of times to make sure you're in the clear does not actually demonstrtate faith. Sister B even pulled out the baptismal interview questions and showed him that even though we extend baptism to everyone we meet, they have to be converted before they actually go through with it. Then we politely told him that unless he is willing to make that change, we can't continue to teach him. He understood, and told us he just wasn't ready right now.

 

We taught Eric the restoration! It went really well. We are focusing on getting him to gain his own testimony, and so we have made a goal to let our investigators talk and testify 70% of the time, and we do the talking the other 30%. We've witnessed that as they do this, their faith builds, and their testimony grows. Eric is still genuinely seeking. He currently goes to an Evangelical Church but he says he doesn't believe it's true, he just likes playing the drums in the band there. 

 

We taught a new investigator names Esmir who is awesome! He has so many questions, and said he believes the plan of salvation to be perfect. Only problem is he is 21 and doesn't speak any Spanish so we have to pass him off to the Young Single Adult elders. Sad, but still happy.

 

We had trainer's meeting which was really great! It is so weird to no longer be the little greenie that is going through my own training. President and his sons all shared some really great mission stories to basically motivate us and let us know that sometimes we have to work really hard for 2 years (or 18 months) in order to have 1 really amazing miracle, but it will always be Worth it! One of the sons served in Mozambique and told us how impossible it is to get documentation to do anything over there. No one has birth certificates and the couples need a birth certificate to be married, and they need to be married to be baptized, and they need to be baptized to get sealed in the temple. So pretty complicated process! Well one day, they had a stake activity where they found a way to get everyone's documents. And you know how they did it? They rented the government for $40! Haha if only all of our missions were that way.

 

One thing I super loved that was shared at the meeting was "we unite families for eternity". What a beautiful message we have the privelege of sharing with the world. I am so grateful for my wonderful family, I know I would not be here if it weren't for them!

 

Love,

 

Hermana G

 

Scripture of the week:

 

4 Nephi 1:8 I love this because it talks about rebuilding Zarahemla! That's why I'm here

 

Quote of the week:

 

"I'm not good at social things and even I know that's not how you ask a girl out"

1st Temple trip for Hermana B

Add captiSister J and I were reunited (":

Hermana B's first poutine!

La Banquise, a.k.a. THE poutinerie

Hola! 

Wow wow wow. This week was so amazing, I don't even know where to begin! Remember how last week was all terrible? Well this week made up for it, and then some. 

First off, we have 5 new investigators. That is right, you are reading this correctly, 5! And 3 of them are from the same family, we are finally teaching a family! I couldn't be happier about the current situation. They are from El Salvador and have been here for a while actually. They were brought to Church by a less active family that has made the decision to reactivate themselves. Everything really just fell into place with them from day 1. We were really bummed because we didn't have the opportunity to snag the mom after Church and set up an appointment. However, we had an appointment with the less active family and we showed up and they were all there! We talked for over an hour about the gospel and the husband said he wants to continue to teach them, and that they will start coming to our Church. He also said he wants us to be good role models for his 8 year old daughter. We have family home evening with them tonight, and I am so excited! 

The other 2 were found during my exchange with Hermana Guzman this past week. Their names are Shahid and Eric. Shahid's father is actually a member in Florida, and Shahid remembers going to primary. Although, he was never baptized. He knows every religious text front to back and is a Genius. He believes that if any religion is right, it's either the mormons or the Jehova's Witnesses. Wish us luck with that one! Eric is Shahid's best friend and just has a super genuine interest in Learning more about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Eric called us on Saturday to find out when Church was, and they both showed up the next day! 

Bishop sent me a text Thursday night at 11 and asked me to give a talk on Sunday about patriarchal blessings. Thankfully for me, I have been studying my blessing like crazy this past week. The talk went well despite the lack of time I had to actually write it. And, as a result, I was able to see how truly inspired patriarchal blessings are. Each blessing is individually tailored with guidance and blessings. For any of you that have your blessing, I invite you to read it, to ponder it, to love it, and to follow it. 

We had zone conference this past week which was just spiritual rejuvenation. Every training we had was so inspired, and really helped confirmed my testimony that missionary work is divine. One thing we really focused on was helping our investigators to understand and apply the atonement in their lives. I love the atonement with my whole heart. I know that as soon as they understand it, and apply it, they will have the desire to make a change in their lives. And isn't this what the gospel is all about? Changing ourselves, and becoming better every day, in every way, until we are the people our Heavenly Father knows we can become?

I love you all! 

-Hermana Garcia

Scripture of the week:

2 Nephi 4:20-21

Quote of the week:

"I love christians, I might even marry a mormon one day, who knows! She probably wouldn't want to marry me 

though..."

3. One day I was starving and we were pretty far from home so I made hermana go to the store with me to buy a granola bar. As we were walking in a woman from our ward stopped us and asked us to go over to her house for dinner. So later that night we showed up and her non-member uncle was there from Guatemala. We were able to teach a super powerful lesson on the nature of God, and everyone bore their testimony, even him! Then on Sunday she thanked us and said she knew we had been placed in her path for a reason.

That's pretty much all I have to share with you this week! I plan to just keep my head up and keep working hard. I know that I'm in the business of miracles and that there are people that Heavenly Father has prepared. Hermana B and I will go find them!

Love,

Hermana Garcia

Scripture of the week:

3 Nephi 13:21

Quote of the week:

"Si quieren vender, van a entender"

"If they want to sell to you, they'll understand you"

With Hermana Guzman

I can not believe that 1/3 of my mission is already gone... time really does fly when you are having fun! That just means that I only have 1 year left to really give it my all. 

This week was pretty eventful, Zarahemla is definitely not Lemoyne. One day my companion and I went to go visit a less active who was at the hospital. Well, when they said hospital I figured that he had a broken leg or something. NOPE. We go to the address and we end up at a mental hospital! We find the building he's in and can't find a single person to talk to! So we see all these people that aren't all there kind of wandering around...and we manage to find an elevator. We get in the elevator and go up to the 4th floor to find someone to talk to and we see no one! Just warning signs saying 'Do not let any of the patients out' so we decide that it's pretty sketchy and we need to leave. As we attempt to leave we get stuck in the elevator! We were probably stuck in there for about 2 minutes as I was freaking out and praying that it would work. Eventually the doors opened and we sprinted back to the car. 

Our friend from last week stood us up! Lame. However, we found some more people that we could teach. As we were contacting, we met a woman who was super busy and rushing to go make dinner. We gave her our info but then kicked ourselves for not getting her info first. Then, a man walks up and we start talking to him. He has mormon family members and asked us to come share a message with his family! And the best part? His wife is the woman that we had talked to right before.

We were able to teach a couple lessons randomly at a park this week. We play "spot the hispanic" as much as we can. This past week it worked pretty successfully and we had 2 different people that let us teach them the restoration and pray with them! It was so great. We even got return appointments, we can not wait!

One thing that we found out is that we actually have 180 less active members. 180! That is basically enough to have a whole new ward. So sister B and I are planning to go become their new best friends and convince them how amazing church is!

I wish I could write more, but I don't have time. Just know that the mission is amazing, I am happy, and I love and miss you all!

Love,

Hermana Garcia

Scripture of the week:

D&C 121:7

Quote of the week:

"I heard mormon missionaries are part of the CIA and you're just here to get everyone's personal information"