July 26, 2010

Hello everyone,

Hello from your favorite Hermana in Tennessee (that is me if you were thinking of someone else....sad day). Well it has been a good week and many great things have happened.

Remember I told you about Delma. She is English but we met her and she told us that she wanted Sisters and not Elders to teach her because she just felt more comfortable well we teamed up with the Elders and teamed taught her. She is amazing and was baptized on Saturday; she was then confirmed on Sunday, she is so happy and excited to be a member. It was a very special day for her and the ward is just helping her along every step of the way, so it is great.

Saturday night at around 10:00 we get a call from our ward mission leader and he says Sisters remember that the 4th Sunday is the Sunday to talk on missionary work. You are speaking right... (What I don't think I agreed to that), but yep. So Sunday we both got to speak in Sacrament meeting on missionary work. Good thing I am getting better at these kinds of things. So sacrament is over and we are going to our Gospel Principles class and the teacher comes up and says I have to leave can you teach the class for me. What are you kidding me... Ok, we said so we decided to ditch the lesson on Honor and teach to the needs of our investigators we taught a 3rd. So yesterday was a day full of unexpected teaching! I don't know really how we did but it is over and we lived.

Oh the best part is....We were teaching our class and it was just us and one new convert and then one investigator because the rest were in primary or had to leave for some reason, anyway we were in there and we were talking about repentance and baptisms and all that great stuff and I ask our investigator "what is one of your goals?" she says "To be baptized with my children." WOW that is a very good goal I thought Hna Ray and I looked at each other Smiled and went on with the lesson. Our member then asked to bare her testimony and it was just what our investigator needed. Amazing! The meeting was so good. After the class it was just us and our investigator so we extended a date for her to be baptized. She says she wants to but we need to help her work through some things. So right now what we have to do is get her divorced. (That is a lot harder then getting someone married so we have a lot of work to do but she wants it so bad she just needs some help and support). Anyway we have a great teaching pool and we are trying all we can to work work work.

Sorry that this is short I am happy that you are all doing well. Hope you have a great great week and that you know I love you so very much. Thanks for Your love and support I wouldn't be able to do it with out you.

Love

July 19, 2010

Hello Everyone,

You are all just so amazing I just hope you all know that and never forget it. I am doing well and Hna Ray and I are doing well too. We are working well together and trying hard to keep things rolling here in Madison. We had some amazing miracles happen this week and some adventures as well.

First Flora and Aislin (not Ashley-I found that out this week) were scheduled to get baptized this week. So we made all the plans she was getting baptized on Saturday at 8pm. On Grandmas and Uncle Harolds Birthday. (I sang to you both when I woke up by the way) Well all was good but then we found out that she had to work on Sunday and that she would not be able to come and get confirmed. Well we couldn't have that so we asked her if she believed in Miracles and if she had the faith. She said she did. So we kept going with it and she was asking her boss for work off and we were all praying for the best. Well it came to Saturday and she still didn't know. She went to work but didn't have a phone to call us so we didn't know if she had Sunday off. Well we were going through with the baptism anyway. They showed up at 7:45 I asked her if she had it off and she said. YES my boss gave me Sunday off. HECK YES!!!! Miracles happen and this was a big one. She and her daughter were both baptized and then on Sunday they were confirmed as members of the true church. Love it!!!! The lord is blessing us so very very much. They had tons of there family at the baptism...7 non members to be exact. Jesus and Magdalena (her brother and sister in-law that were baptized in June) were so happy for here and they are all just progressing in the Gospel. I love to see the change in there eyes. the other 3 sisters that were at the baptism we are teaching as well it is only a matter of time before we can help them make this step as well.

Another miracle yesterday at church we had the 2 confirmations and we also had 5 at church. We had a family (mother and 3 kids) who just showed up and said we had a friend tell us about this Church so we wanted to come. Wow so we set up an apt with her and will soon be teaching her and her family. The Lord is amazing.

Hna Hegerhorst stupidity and miracle number 3......well it was Thursday and we had just finished our day of work. We came home at 9:00pm parked the car and did our miles like we do every night. Then we got out locked the car (but I have to push the button in the door because our little clicker thing does not work) and started to the house. I had the cell phone in my hands but then I said to Hna Ray "oh no....Hna I don't have the keys...." so I looked in my bag but no so then we went back to the car and there they were still in the car and not in my hands (I always take the keys out and put them in my had....but not this night). Great I thought I just started laughing because the keys also had our house key on it so there was no way to get into our apt (we couldn't even break in) and no way to get into the car. So we were stuck outside and we were just laughing. Well we had a cell phone so I called our President and explained our situation he said, after we both laughed about the situation, Call a member and see if they can help you but get someone there with you because I don't want you outside by your self especially in your neighborhood. Then if not call a tow company and then let me know what happens. Ok I said. Well it just so happened that a member just moved into our apt complex so we went to his house to ask for help. And as we knocked on his door there was one of the members of our Branch Presidency doing his Home Teaching so we had 3 members there to help us (Miracle!!!!!). We got some hangers went to the car and started to see what we could do. During that time other people noticed what was going on and tried to help. But it didn't work. By this time it was 9:40. I called 2 tow companies but it was either a 1 hour wait a 2 hour wait and $65 or $75 so we didn't go that rout. I called President back told him so we tried a few other things but nothing worked finally somebody told us that our maintenance man lived somewhere in the complex and we knew the letter but not the number so Hna Ray and I went knocking doors at 10:20 at night to find a key to get into our apt. We eventually found him after an amazing 3 doors. He got the spare key and unlocked our apt. We left the keys in the car then in the morning our President was passing through so he brought the spare key that they have and unlocked it for us and gave us the keys. So now we have the keys and we are all laughing about it. We got into the apt that night at 10:25 and went right to bed. But we were safe and nothing happened and we all laughed about it. GREAT times and memories.

Ok well this is long enough but know that i love you all so much. Thanks so much for all your prayers and support. We right now are just working on filling our teaching pool. we have a lot of finding to do this week. So wish us luck.

Love ya!


PICTURES:

1. Flora and Aislin
2. Some of Flora ans Aislin's family that was there.
3. Flora and Aidlin and all of there family that was there.
4. Us, Flora, Aislin, and Hno Santillan (he baptized them)
5. Big fish here in Madison on top of a store. (Just some of the many things Madison has to share with you- hahaha)
6. The pink elephant here in Madison outside a car dealership (I don't know why they have it but we are in Tennessee)

July 12, 2010

Hello Everyone,

OK well I guess you all want to know where I am going and who I am with and all the exciting news about transfers. Well ok here it is.......I am staying here in Madison Tennessee :) however I am loosing my companion :( she is going back to where she was born in Nashville. Where we both started out together and she will be serving with Hna Taft my old companion. I am getting a new companion Hermana Ray (Hermana Bounds old companion). She has been out about 11 months. Madison was actually her first area so she is coming home and probably knows way more about this area then I do. But it should be good and work out well. I don't want to lose Hermana Bounds but I know that the Lord knows what He is doing, we really have become close these last two transfers but we will be friends forever, so I am not worried. There are more things I need to learn, so forward we go....

Well we had some great miracles this week. Flora (our baptism date) said that she had work and would not be able to come to church so we told her to do all she could so that she could get it off and that the lord would do the rest. Hna Bounds and I prayed so much and did all we could so that we could be worthy of a miracle. Well we had one! Flora called us the Saturday night and told us that she got work off and that her and her daughter would be coming to church on Sunday, YEAH!!!!!! We were so very excited and then on Sunday they came!!!!! She is getting Baptized with her daughter Ashley on the 17th of July (Your birthday Grandma) at 8:00 in the night. We still need your prayers because Ashley who is 9 is deathly scared of water and at her uncles baptism (Jesus's) she was like no way am I doing that I could drown. So we need your prayers to help try to convince her that she is not going to drown but that she will be ok and HAPPY. But they are doing well.

Also at church we had another one of Jesus's sisters there, Rosario. She is also amazing it was her first time at church and she and her kids seemed to love it. She has been studying with the Jehovah Witnesses for a long time so some of the things we have been teaching her she says well I am confused because they are teaching me this and you are saying this. However we told her to pray about what she should do and if she should come to church, the next day we called her and she said she was coming. :) We have seen the light just come into her eyes and she is progressing so much and she loved church. Her daughter Karla who is 5 was scared to go to Primary (she was crying and just didn't want to go) so I told her I would go with her, so I spent the day in primary learning all the primary songs in Spanish. It was fun and she ended up loving it. It was fun to be in Primary for a change and to sing all those familiar songs just in a different language :) LOVE IT!!!

Well that is all that has really happened this week. We have some great miracles taking place and we are trying to fill our teaching pool because it is getting low. I know that my Heavenly Father is helping me and I am learning everyday to lean on him just a little more all the time. We can't do anything without Him. He really is our best friend and I have grown to have great love and testimony of Prayer. I love to talk to my Heavenly Father and together we can do it anytime we want. It really is amazing.

I hope you all have a great week. I want you to know that I love you all so very very much and that I hope you are all doing well. I think of you all and miss you. This work is amazing and I am so happy for the people that I have met. They have changed my life for the better. It is amazing how much people can change you in just a short time. The Lord is amazing and knows just what we need. Have a great week but don't have to much fun without me.....

Les Quiero Mucho!!!!

Love

July 6, 2010

Hey,

Ok so this wont be super long because I don't have a ton of time but I wanted to let you know that I am doing well and that mission life is GREAT!!!!!

My 4th was good it was just a normal working day because it was Sunday and then at night we just worked as usual. Found a few drunks that really were not interested but we taught them something. I don't know if they remembered it the next morning but we did our part. Well this last week we had some great success/miracles.

Flora and Ashley are great and they both are getting baptized on the 17th of July. Flora is the sister to Jesus who just got baptized with his wife and Ashley is her 9 year old daughter. They are both great. We just have to pray that Flora will not have to work this Sunday so she can come to church this next week so that she can get baptized on the 17th. So everyone keep that in your prayers. Flora is amazing and already has a strong testimony of the church. She even bore her testimony in Relief Society this last Sunday. She is going to be a great member of the True Church.

We are also helping the English Elders here with a lady named Delma. We met her outside some apt buildings and went back and taught her and set a date with her but we have to turn her over to them because she is English but she says I really just want girls to teach me so Hna Bounds and I are helping them teach her. We got her to church on Sunday (and we went with her- so it was a full day of church) She is great and is getting baptized on the 24th of July.

The miracles are happening everyday and I can really feel the love of my Heavenly Father. I am growing and progressing, everyday with his help.

Transfers are this next week on the 13th. I will find out if I am leaving on Saturday. Hna Bounds and I don't want to be spilt up but we know that what ever happens is what the lord wants. So we will go with his plan and not ours.

I am sorry that this is not very long but I don't have much time. This is what happens when you don't get to e-mail and then you have to try and fit it in on a working day and it sometimes just doesn’t work. I love you all tons. Thanks so much for your love and support.

Love

PICTURES:

1. Margie's- this is close to my apt and it has Margie’s name :)
2. Bowling with the English elders in my area
3. My awesome comp Hermana Bounds
4. The food and the chef (Elder Arroyo) we had steak tacos....it was so good.
5. My district (they live about 1 hour and 15 mins from us in Bowling Green KY) so we never get to have p-day with them but we had a lunch after district meeting and Elder Arroyo cooked for us. (he want to be a chef) (right to left-Elder Montgomery, Gardner (visa waiter for a Argentina) Arroyo, me and Hna Bounds.

June 28, 2010

Family,

Hello everyone I hope you are all doing well and that you know that I think of you all the TIME!!!! Really all the time. Well this week has been a good one we have worked hard and had some great success.

Hermana Bounds and I have been on exchanges for three days so I was with Hna Brodhead (my other daughter) for three days but now we are back together and having fun again. Well this week we had 2 baptisms....

Jesus and Magdalena Galindo were baptized on Saturday at 8:00 at night it was so good and the spirit was so strong. Then on Sunday they were confirmed and are now members of the True church. YEAH!!!! It was so good, Jesus's sister came to the baptism, we have been teaching her a bit and she loves it. She felt the spirit so it is only just a matter of time before she will enter the waters as well. Jesus and Magdalena are so great since we have met them and started teaching them, they have given us the names of their friends to go and teach. They are just so happy. That was the highlight of our week and it was a good one at that.

We did have another cool experience...We tracked into this lady named Elisa and we gave her a Book of Mormon then set up a time to come back well we went back the next day and taught her a first. It was going great and the spirit was strong. She told us that she was catholic (nothing new to that) and that she and her kids had all been baptized. We started to explain about the authority and how we needed to be baptized by the authority and without that authority then it was not correct. After we were done explaining she looked at us and said "So you are telling me that my church does not have the authority and is not authorized by got to baptize." Well... we told her in a nice manner yep that is exactly what we are telling you but you don't have to believe us just ask your Heavenly Father. We the ended the discussion with a prayer, she said it and in her prayer asked her above question, during the prayer she started to cry. It was amazing and so very cool to be there and witness the spirit working and giving her an answer. We set up a time to come back again and have tried but she is not home and won’t answer the phone. So that is a bummer but we are still trying, things will work out. We will find her because she knows that what we know is true. Super cool experience, I love the Spirit and I love experiences like these, they are huge testimony Builders!

As of right now we don't have any baptism dates and we are needing to find new investigators because we don't have very many in our teaching pool so this week is going to be an intense finding and setting dates and watching the miracles unfold right before our eyes. The Lord blesses us so much and we are so very grateful. I really am very blessed and am learning so very very much.

I am so very happy that everyone is doing well and that the camps and reunions are going well. I am sad to miss them all but I know I am where I need to be and doing the things I need to be doing. So I will just have to wait until next summer and have all that fun with you.

I also want to take this time and say I am sorry I have been a horrible missionary at writing snail mail. I am so very sorry but my p-days don’t last very long and it seems like by the time I am done e-mailing and shopping my p-day is over. I am sorry I am repenting and I hope to get one out to you soon. I know you like mail just as much as I do so I am going to work on that and get better at it.

Anyway enjoy the pics love you all

Love



PICTURES:

1. Baptism: Just us and the Galindo family

2. Baptism: Family, us missionaries, and the person who performed the baptism.

3. Us with Yenileth on her birthday she just turned 7. She is Jesus and Magdalena's little girl they also have another one who is 15 but she has not interest and doesn’t really even like to talk to us as of right now but things will soon change we hope.

4. Me being weird

June 21, 2010

Family,

I hope you all had a great week it sounds like you had tons of fun and did a lot. I as well stayed pretty busy and had some pretty good success. Ok not pretty good but GREAT success. This week was a roller coaster. It was up and down and up and down, but it came out on an up so that is good.

Monday night we went and set a baptism date with a Joshua Barba, a 9 year old little boy of a less active family, we set it for Thursday because he was leaving for vacations. So we had a baptism this week on Thursday!!! It was so good and he is now a member of the True Church and he is so happy.

We also had some down moments during the week, Paulina decided that she does not want to get baptized which is ok we can give her some time but then she just informed us that she is going to go to a different church because she does not feel ready. We told her that she didn't have to get baptized but that she should still come to church. She said no I just don't want to anymore. She is just really scared and satan knows she is a good one so he is working extra hard on her. That was really hard for us. We had to let her go but we are still going to work with her and try to get her back on board. Right now I think she might just need a little break to help her realize what it is she is really missing.

Jesus and Magdalena Galindo are doing well, they have their baptism date for the 26th of June so this coming Saturday. We had a wonderful miracle with them yesterday and it was really amazing. Stake Conference yesterday so church started at 10:00, we called the Galindo's and asked them if they were still coming. Magdalena said, "Oh Jesus is really sick and I don't think that we are going to be able to come his back really hurts and I don't want to leave him." Dang it! We testified but then let them and then hung up. We called a member and asked them to call and invite them and see what she could do. We got a call back from the member saying...They are not coming...Ok Hna. Bounds and I were thinking... they have to come to church or they can't get baptized - we can get someone and go give Jesus a blessing. But we thought and we prayed about our options and just did not know what to do so we ended up just going to church. We were there at 9:30 and since it was stake conference our mission Pres was speaking so we went and said hello. He asked "Do you have any investigators coming?" Well pres we said and told him what our investigators said. He then said "How much faith does he have... go get the elders and give him a blessing." I said we thought of that and you just saying it again is our answer. So off we went we grabbed our Spanish Elders who were there because of stake conference and were on our way to give a blessing. We got there explained why we were there and gave Jesus a blessing. It was a beautiful blessing. After we asked him how he felt, he said I do not have the pain anymore. Sweet we thought then said. "Great go get your shoes you are coming to church with us." So they changed and came to church. The talks in church were just what they needed. It was amazing and they loved it.

Heavenly Father is amazing we showed our faith and so did Jesus and now they can still get baptized on Saturday. I am excited and am so grateful for my Heavenly Father and the things he does for me. He really has his hand in our lives always. We still need to pray for them a lot because Satan is working hard and it is going to be a tuff week but heavenly Father will help us I know.
Well that is about all we are still working with a few other people and trying to get them ready for baptism but it is all in the Lords time and not in ours. So we will have to be patient. I am learning so much and trying to improve every day. This work is amazing and it never gets old. I get tired and hot but that is ok it is worth it.I hope you know that I love you all so much hope you have a great week and remember that someone in Madison Tennessee is thinking of you. Have a great Week!!!

Love



PICTURES:

1) Hna Bounds and I front of a horse that is outside some Chinese restaurant that some members took us too.

2) In front of the temple, this is my district as of right now

3 & 4) Joshua Barba's Baptism

June 14, 2010

Family,

Well as you know we had the chance to hear from an apostle of the Lord this weekend. Elder Ballard came to our mission to do some things with the Stake and some training with the leaders but because President Hutchings (mission Pres) was one of Elder Ballard’s missionaries when he was a mission pres he made a few phone calls and we got a meeting set up to meet with Elder Ballard just as missionaries. Well us and the Knoxville missionaries (Staci Place was there and I got to see her and it was amazing, It was so fun to see a friend and to both be missionaries). It was so amazing and I learned so much. The spirit was so strong and it was amazing to get a one on one training from an apostle of the Lord. He told us to start working more with the members because the members were the key. They would make all the difference in the investigators life. Also he told us to talk to more people every day and to make it a goal to talk to 10 more people then we usually do every day. So I am opening my mouth and talking to all. It is going to be amazing. Also after that conference on Sunday he met with the Madison stake and guess what I just so happen to be in the Madison Stake. So we got to hear from him again on Sunday and all of our investigators did to. We had 6 investigators at church and they loved it. It really was amazing and Elder Ballard pretty much taught a first lesson for us. I LOVED IT!!!!!! It really was a spiritual weekend and I learned a lot from it.

Paulina and her family ended up not getting baptized this weekend she had some doubt and said she was just not ready so we are still working with her. She will get baptized just have to keep going.

Yesterday Hna Bounds and I were challenged by our district leader to set a baptismal date. He said sisters we really need some dates set so pray about who can be baptized and present the plan to Heavenly Father and get to work. So we did. We prayed had two families in mind presented our plan to the Lord. Called some members to come with us to that we could follow the counsel of Elder Ballard and we went to work.

We went to the first investigator Enrique. We extended a date and he said no I need more time so after a little more time we had to go but told him to pray about it. We went to our next apt with another family and we started talking about the conference with Elder Ballard and they said they loved it we talked about baptism and we extended a date for the 26th of June. The husband was like YES and wife oh I DONT KNOW. Then here comes the member crushing all doubts that she was having letting her know that she could do it and that she needed to do it. So what did we do we set 2 dates for the 26th of this month. We were so very grateful for the help of the Lord and for the help of the wonderful member who came with us. The members really do make the difference they can relate better to the investigators and it is true Every Member A Missionary.

We as a zone are still struggling a lot and we have a lot of work to do in these next 16 days. I am not sure what is going to happen but keep us in your prayers. I know that the lord is helping us and that he has a plan for us. I just don't know what that is yet.

Know that I love you tons and tons and that I am so very happy to be a missionary. I will not be able to write a letter today because we don't have p-day today because on Wednesday we get to go to the TEMPLE so that will be our p-day we just have time to write e-mail and shop for food then it is a working day in the hot weather. This morning at like 9 it was 97 that’s what I call hot and humid. Not a big fan of it. Ok well I don't have a tone more to tell you just that I love you a lot and I am very happy to have you all as my family. Have a great week and work hard. I will do the same and be thinking of you. Love you!

Love

PICTURES:
1) Me and my comp Hna Bounds (love her)

2) Me on a dino (after doing service)

3) Juan, Esmeralda, Vanessa & Angel, Baptism. They are doing so well and are so cute! LOVE THEM!!!

4) Madison sign and my bike

5) Staci Place (sister Place and I)

6) My ZONE!!!!!