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Showing posts with label Spirit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spirit. Show all posts

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Mexico Week 55 -- Stop and Ask Questions

My dear sweet family!! 

I love you all too much! But really, I am so incredibly grateful for the family that I have and I hope that you’re all doing well. 

It rained the whole week! Nonstop starting Tuesday afternoon! I have never seen rain like this! Some days I left prepared ... the day in green was the day I thought, Nah!  It’s not going to rain, and then I got soaked! Ha! Ha! Not to mention, we had a sacrament meeting attendance of thirty people. 


On Tuesday I had exchanges with Hermana Peña. She has 5 months in the mission and is from El Salvador! She is a doll! We had a good time and leaving our meeting with the bishop, it starts pouring rain. We had umbrellas, but the feet were just soaked as we crossed rivers and nobody was opening up! We visited one of her investigators that was supposed to get baptized last week. As we get to her house, the power goes out. We were giving a lesson with cellphone flashlights and watching our breath because it was so cold! It was definitely an experience I will never forget! 


Today was our deep cleaning day again and so we were home all day and celebrating finishing with pizza!


The beautiful young lady with me is Hermana Lucy. She has been a member for 6 years and she’s about 80 years old. She loves to go with us to our lessons and she is an absolute doll. 


Fun fact!  It’s Friday and we’re walking to an appointment. The phone rings. Hola Elder como está? It was the Zone Leaders.  Hermana Rawe you’ve been chosen to sing on Uruapan Idol.  Wait, what??!!  No that was  a joke, but really, you are going to sing in our Zone Conference with President.  Again, what??!!  Yes Hermana!  With how many people? Three others.  Ummm, that means you can actually hear me sing!  Okay Elder, gracias. This is the part where I ask you guys to start praying for me!  Singing for converts in baptisms is way cool … Singing in front of other missionaries, not so much! 

We visited a member’s house this week.  She’s less active.  Her daughter is a recent convert, and her two sons are also less active. They’re 19 and 20 years old and involved with drugs and well they don’t go to church anymore. I asked my companion if she had ever taught them and she said no.  Being my stubborn, sometimes fearless self, we strike up a conversation and end up sharing a message with one of the boys (the other one wasn’t home).  As we sing and pray and start talking, he gets super nervous. Then he starts talking a lot about how he knows that God has a plan for him, He knows God lives.  I think I´m nervous because I haven’t talked about this with anybody for a long time. It makes me feel things I haven’t felt in a long time. I miss church. I know I need to live the word of wisdom and the law of chastity. We felt the Spirit so much and it was incredible.  He’s a future missionary and future Melchizedek priesthood holder. 

We also visited Hermano Mike some more this week. He’s accepted a baptismal date and it really excited.  He’s reading the Book of Mormon and wants to repent. He says he just feels it’s the truth. He says he feels like he’s found what he’s been looking for. He says he’s the happiest he’s been in a long time and he just wants more. He’s so special!! 

On Friday we had such a cool experience. Well as you saw, I left the house unprepared and at about 7:30 all of our plans fall through, and we decides to look for new people to teach. It is raining so hard and then it starts hailing. We are literally soaking wet and we went to about 11 houses. It’s now 8:40 and we go to another house. The young lady answers and tells us that the person we’re looking for doesn´t live there. We introduce ourselves and ask if we can share a lesson with her. She invites us in and we start getting to know her. I felt like I should ask her if she had a question that she had always wanted to know the answer to.  I felt so weird asking that and she was thinking for a long time. Finally she says, well actually, I have a lot.  For example, is there really life after death? We saw her so interested and we are pumped to work with her this week! 

We found another new investigator this week named Rosy. She has Lupus but she has so much faith that God will heal her. She is pretty involved in the Catholic Church but she decided to listen to us. She has a desire to know the truth and she is so sweet.

This week we just worked hard. I feel a new inspiration or actually I don’t know what to call it but I felt it. I felt urgency as we worked. I felt like I didn’t want to lose even a little bit of time. I have been focusing so much on the questions I ask.  I think it’s a worldwide weak point for the church. I think sometimes we just teach and teach ... as missionaries, as Sunday School teachers, in our homes, in Young Women’s, everywhere.  We are so accustomed to teach and teach and we don’t ask thought provoking, Spirit receiving questions.  It was a lesson I learned this week that my whole life I want to listen, to really listen to what people are telling me, and teach based on their answers. It’s a secret wish of mine to teach the youth after my mission!  Ha! Ha! 


I’m just happy this week. I’m getting settled in to my new area and it’s feeling more and more like home. I love people. I just love them! I hope y’all are doing great and living happy! Until next week! 

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Sunday, March 1, 2015

Mexico Week 52 -- Listening to the Spirit

Buenas Tardes darling family!

How are you all?  I hope you’re doing well and smiling and all that jazz!  First things first ... the pictures! 

The food is a chile reyeno.  It is a chile stuff with cheese basically and I just love them! One of my favorite things here! 


Our electric stove finally arrived!  Now we eat more than cereal!  Ha! Ha!  Hermana Gonzalez and I ate an unnatural number of quesadillas this week! 

Hermana Irma has been making so many piñatas and they are just getting better and better! 

  


      

  
I have decided to better live the Word of Wisdom and that includes less coke.  Now just every once in a while, there is a mini one! 


This is Hermana Pamela.  Probably one of the toughest people I know. She’s had some pretty rough times these past few months, but she is so sweet and tries to serve the best she can at church. We love her!! 



Sunday night was a party!  Our Zone Leaders call and ask if three sisters can stay with us one night. We tell them no problem. We arrive at the bus station and there are seven sisters and four of them have no idea where they’re going. We are calling all the leaders, nobody knows anything, and well, we slept all nine of us in our house last night! The good news is that I got to chat with Hermana Valdez for a while! I love her too much! She is training right now and goes home in seven weeks! Crazy right?!  Ahh, she told me to tell you all that she loves you so much!  Thanks for her package … and she is just a little bit sad that you forgot to send her the promised iPod! LOL! 


I also got to see the MTC Crew!  They also slept in our house and we went to the city to sign Visa documents today.  It was fun to catch up and see where everybody is at!  We all just sat and thought … WOW!  Time is flying. 



I also got to see Hermana Buttars today!  We had a special conference early this morning to watch Meet the Mormons.  It was SO good!  I may have had a little moment at the end when the missionary is leaving and the whole family is crying, and then the little sister starts sobbing, but it was just a feel good movie.  You all should really invite people to see it!  I realized just how blessed I am to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  We know the truth.  We’re happy.  We know how to find strength and comfort in our trials.  We enjoy this life. We have felt the pure love of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, now we just need to share it!  Long story short, I loved the movie and it reminded me of so many blessings. 


This week we also had another special training with President Camarillo. It was so good!  I felt excited to work and like the batteries had been recharged.  We talked about how much the Lord is preparing people to receive us.  We worked with some members and practiced how we can practice with them to help them share the gospel.  I felt a hope to be able to increase and strengthen my faith.  Our President is so powerful and I know that he’s a servant of the Lord. 

Leaving our training, we go visit Hermana Elsa and Hermano Jose to put into play what we learned.  We asked them to think about someone that they loved a lot, someone they worried about, someone that isn’t a member of the church.  They both thought of a few names and we practiced with them how they could share their testimony and invite their friends and family members to learn more.  At the end, we knelt in prayer and Hermana Elsa prayed for every single one of those people.  She prayed for us that we could find people to teach and that all of us could have missionary experiences.  It was the best and wow, what an experience!  Visiting them another day, Hermana Elsa starts to talk about how one day on the bus she started thinking some of her friends who go to church and show their devotion few times a year.  She thought about the true gospel of Jesus Christ and how it requires a constant effort.  She says, “these people just don’t understand what Christ did for us.”  Leaving their house Hermana Gonzalez and I were in shock!  She has changed so much and wow, it just warms my heart seeing her like that!  In Gospel Principles we talked about faith and Hermano Jose raises his hand and says, Bishop, I just want to invite those that are here today to pray and fast to week, to really ask to see if they believe this is the truth, to ask our Heavenly Father for a confirmation.  It was so awesome!! 

We visited Hermana Judith this week and ahhh, what an experience.  She has been having a pretty rough time and Satan is really going after her. About a week and a half ago we felt impressed to give her a Word of Wisdom pamphlet so that she could read it before we taught her.  About a week and a half later, we felt like it was time to teach her.  We went and visited her in the store they’re working in and we start teaching about the Word of Wisdom.  She tells us that the first time she read the pamphlet she was kind of skimming when she was at work and she said, “NO COFFEE??!!”  The Hermanas lost me with that one, this game’s over!  She said in order to read better with more attention, she hides the pamphlet in her shirt and goes to the bathroom at work.  She started looking up all the scriptures and started to understand.  She said her coworkers started teasing her for wanting to be Mormon and one of them says, “How are you going to be a Mormon if you LOVE coffee?!”  She says, in this life we have to make sacrifices in order to follow Christ.  She’s so brave and just shares what she knows and feels with people.  She wants to be baptized with her son!  She tells us, “I just feel so privileged that you found me and that I know the truth.”  She is so special and her prayers are the best. She knows Joseph Smith was a prophet and in her prayer she says, ¨I know I’m on the right path.¨ We love her!! 

We also visited Hermana Irma this week.  It was an incredible experience. She had a lot of questions about the Atonement.  At first, they were cooking and we in the kitchen sharing a lesson, but as we testified and as the Spirit came stronger and stronger, everyone stopped what they were doing and it was silent, the looks on their faces said everything.  We just testified of Christ and what we need to do in order to receive all of the blessings of the Atonement.  It was a total wow moment!  We felt the Spirit so strong. 

We have some newer investigators that live with Hermano Victor.  They are Suleina and Miguel.  This week we taught them about the law of chastity and the importance of families.  They are praying and went to church and want to form their family right.  They loved church and we have a lot of hope in them!  They have a beautiful 2-year old daughter and she has blue eyes and is too cute! 

This week we also kept working with the Moreno family. We are looking for a family that can help them and just keep them in your prayers okay?  They need so much help.  On Fridays, we have our service project and this week we decided to work with their two kids that are really struggling in school.  Well, actually, they don’t go a lot and can’t really write or read.  Only one of them knows the alphabet.  We went all kindergarten teacher on them!  These kids just need a lot of help and they’ve stolen my heart! 

Just one more thing!  This week, I realized something really important.  At the end of our weekly planning, Hermana Gonzalez and I had our companionship inventory.  We worked some things out that had been bothering us and I realized how many times in my life mom and dad, you’ve tried to have companionship inventory with me … I guess that is what happens when both of your parents served a mission! LOL! 

I was kind of too prideful to accept it.  When we talked about priorities, or taking care of Cody, or whatever, I just got defensive and didn’t listen and didn’t want anybody else telling me how I could be better or improve.  I was too prideful and wanted to realize myself in where I was falling short and fix it myself.  I realized that in the mission, my companions and I have listened to each other, we accept suggestions, we try to be better and we work together.  I am so incredibly grateful for my mission and all that I am learning.  I truly feel like I’m getting better and better and preparing myself to form my own family.  Life is great!  Humility is key! 


I love you all to the moon and back and I’m here for whatever you might need!


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Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Mexico Week 11 -- Teach and Listen by the Spirit

My dear sweet family!  First things first, Happy Anniversary to my dearest parents!!!!  I am so grateful for your example to me and I hope to have a husband and kids and be as cute as you guys some day! Happy 22 years together! 

Well this week just flew by!  Can you believe that I only have one week left of training?  Kind of crazy right!  It is also most likely my last week with Hermana Valdez.  That is going to be a really sad day - I even taught her to smile with your tongue!  Janille would NOT be happy!  The elders in our ward keep saying, “Hermana Valdez, ready to leave?” and “Hermana Rawe, ready to train?”  Ahhh, we’ll find out this week! 

So today we went to the Tianguis, basically it is like a huge market and I bought so much fruit!  Life is just great!  We have 3 other missionaries with us for the day so it has been a party! 



  
Mom, big big big thank you for the talk from Elder Uchtdorf!  I absolutely LOVED it.  It really touched my heart. I realized that I truly represent Christ every day. When I put my nametag on, I have to think and act like Him, not just act, but think too. It’s all about Him and His work. Even when I get annoyed or frustrated, it’s my job to swallow it and show love to everyone. It’s my job to minister.  He talked about Peter and how much he changed after the Resurrection.  I don’t want to have fear.  I want to boldly testify. I want to have an unshakeable faith that the Lord is always with me.  I want to KNOW that I can face any difficulty with Him by my side.  Thanks so much mom! 

I also have a new goal!  I’m going to memorize scriptures in Spanish! Hermana Valdez and I memorized Mosiah 4:2-3 this week!  We were practicing in the streets, and we were the only ones that had it memorized for the zone meeting. She recited it in English and I recited it in Spanish! Woo! Hoo! 

I would say that the biggest thing for me this week is that I am feeling the Spirit testify through me.  Part of my patriarchal blessing says ¨One of the greatest rewards of missionary work is to teach someone who is listening by the Spirit and will respond appropriately to the teachings and accept the gospel.¨  This sentence just hit me this week.  Maria Dolores is going to be baptized on Friday and she’s so ready!  When we’re teaching her, it is just all over her face and we really want to plan something special for her.

Paty Reynaga also just melts my heart (the kids I sent you pictures of are hers). Also, the other little girl is Maria Dolores´ great-granddaughter.  Last night we taught her about keeping the Sabbath day holy.  Sometimes she has to work on Sundays, but since we’ve invited to church, she’s come every week with the whole family.  She seriously has the strongest desire to obey.  Her face just broke my heart as we taught.  We explained to her that we give the Lord 100% and the rest works out.  She was talking about getting everything ready on Saturdays and staying for all the classes and arriving on time for the sacrament.  At the end of the lesson we extended the commitment to keep the Sabbath day holy.  She asked how could she really promise you this if I might have to work?  We just reminded her that the Lord loved her and knew her heart.  He would take care of the rest if she put her faith in Him.  She is so special.  She’s already reading the Book of Mormon with all of her kids.  They each have their own copy. 





Last quick story, so we met this girl in the street named María Margarita. She has a son who’s 3 and we had a first lesson with her.  It was harder to find her during the week. Then, we started our fast on Saturday afternoon.  Pause for a minute -- The Reynaga family invited us to breakfast, around 11am.  We’re thinking, sweet, we can eat and then have lunch again, and then we’ll be good to fast.  Well, they were a little late and so we literally ate two huge meals back to back.  We were dying and about to throw up!  Totally backfired on us missionaries thinking we’re smart!  Ha! Ha!  Now back to my story!  

Immediately after we started fasting, we run into María Margarita in the street!  She invited us to her apartment, we had a lesson, she accepted a baptismal date, and came to church with us and brought her 3 year old son!  Guess who didn’t want to stay in nursery?  He just needed a little Heidi and Dawni to show him how cool Nursery can be!  They kept bringing him to her, but it touched my heart that she stayed the whole time.  She’s 18 years old, living with someone and has a 3 year-old son.  She is the sweetest thing and I just want her to know how much worth she has.   I love that the Lord lets me see people the way he does. 

Love you all to the moon and back!

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