NEWS
(INVESTIGATOR'S NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO MAINTAIN ANONYMITY)
(INVESTIGATOR'S NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO MAINTAIN ANONYMITY)
MARCH 20, 2013
Hola mi familia!!! SORRY I forgot to tell you that we had Temple P.Day so our p.day would be Wednesday not Monday...... But Good news is I will be emailing you again on Monday which is not very far away! So ati and papi and mckay should all be home by now? I believe so! give my Ati a big Kiss for me! “Hola abuelita te quiero mucho!” Yay Kristi you get your braces OFF!!! Send me pictures:) Papi and Mckay your adventures look like so much fun! I loved all the pictures!
So this week has been obviously Long, but really great! Sister Stevens was sick so I spent all day Monday reading... Literally I read for almost 8 hours I believe... I finished 3 books! Anyway I never thought I could read Scriptures and church materials for that long, but I feel like I never can get enough of it!
This week we started teaching our new investigator Carlos! he is in our YSA ward:) I realized I am much more comfortable teaching in Spanish, who would have thought? But it was incredible to see how sincere he was in receiving an answer to his questions and his prayers. We are hopefully meeting with him this week again! So far he has a baptismal date for April 20th!
I never thought I could come to leave people twice my age so much! We had an amazing lesson with Efrain and Fernanda:) We taught the Plan of Salvation and by the end of our lessons we all were crying as we all bore our testimonies. Both these women are going through such hard things in their lives and have been through so much, but they continue forward and have faith and are finding happiness through Jesus Christ. I am so GRATEFUL for this gospel and the peace and comfort it brings!
So this last Saturday we had over 600 people in the visitor’s center and that was only in the 9am-3pm shift! it was crazy- tour after tour! Apparently during Christmas time there are more than 1000 people a night....! We had this crazy awesome guy come in with his girlfriend! He came in because he saw that our street had a lot of numbers and saw the man on top of the building with the trumpet telling him to come (angel Moroni) and the first thing out of his mouth as we are talking about the temple was that he wants to be baptized! and then he said he wasn’t sure if he was a prophet or the next son of God.... but he loves Heavenly Father and wants to learn more about him and his girlfriend was really interested too. We gave them both a Book of Mormon and they were really excited to read it! we also got their numbers to hopefully send them the missionaries. It was a crazy and awesome experience though!
So why this email is called Asian Tuesday is because we had Two Asian miracles! First we had these two men that were from China meet us at the Visitors Center who were actually a referral from another set of sisters. They told us about how they were locked out of their door when the two other sisters passed by and gave them a card and got their information. As they tried the again after it was unlocked... coincidence? I think not! The older man wanted to know how his younger friend could become a Christian... Apparently in China he said they take a test and then they are Christian? I am not sure how it works because there was a language barrier ( they both didn’t speak very good English and my chines’ is a little rusty...) They were really interested in learning more and being more involved in service! We referred them to the Chinese Elders who we thought could better help them! the other Asian miracle we had was while we were trackting! We were in a sort of sketchy place... probably not really sketchy, but it was dark... And we had knocked on a door with a rather creepy man.... and I asked myself why would God have us knock on that door when we came down the stairs and turned the corner to almost run into this Asian couple. We stopped them and began talking with the man. He began telling us how he actually has been looking for God and wants to know him better. I could feel the spirit so strong on that little street corner. I knew God needed us there right at that moment so that we could teach this man and his wife. We were able to give them a book of Mormon and get their contact information. While we won’t be able to teach any of this people because they wouldn’t be in either of our wards I thought it was incredible to be apart of their journey of coming closer to Christ!
Today we went to the Temple!!! It has been far too long since I was last in the Temple. I am so grateful to be able to have one in my mission. The LA temple IS BEAUTIFUL!! the art work and detail in each room is incredible. I feel like with my increasing understanding of the Gospel and Gods plan for us I understood more the significance of the Temple and the immense blessing we receive there.
One of my favorite things this week was Sacrament meeting in the YSA ward. The ward was having a blitz( where sacrament meeting ends early and all the members go to less active members home and invite them to activities and to church- it was a really great to see how excited everyone was about missionary work!) But in church there was this incredible talk about the role us members can play. He talked about how he had grown up in Missouri where he was the only member in his college there. So he decided to join a fraternity. He talked about how he suddenly became the face for the church there. When people would hear of Mormons it would be his face that he saw. He recognized the large role he could play. He shared experiences of how he would leave parties early to plan his lesson (he taught Sunday School in church). As he left he said; drunk girls would ask him why he was leaving and he would tell them and invite them to church. He said by the end of those four years he was there- before and after his mission he saw more than 50 of those people come to church and saw 2 of them baptized. He talked about the great influence we can play in other lives by simply living what we believe. He said to look at life as a "fraternity House of Opportunities." We never know what a difference we can make in someone’s life just by being ourselves and standing for what we know to be true. I know I have not been perfect and being comfortable in sharing my testimony with everyone before my mission, but I know I certainly want to be better at it. The Gospel literally means Good news... IT is the greatest thing we can have in our lives! I know that as we strive to live the principles Christ taught us we can find greater happiness! and I know as we live it- people notice it -and if we act and are Bold who knows maybe it can change their lives too.
The mission is great here in LA! I Love you all!
Hola mi familia!!! SORRY I forgot to tell you that we had Temple P.Day so our p.day would be Wednesday not Monday...... But Good news is I will be emailing you again on Monday which is not very far away! So ati and papi and mckay should all be home by now? I believe so! give my Ati a big Kiss for me! “Hola abuelita te quiero mucho!” Yay Kristi you get your braces OFF!!! Send me pictures:) Papi and Mckay your adventures look like so much fun! I loved all the pictures!
So this week has been obviously Long, but really great! Sister Stevens was sick so I spent all day Monday reading... Literally I read for almost 8 hours I believe... I finished 3 books! Anyway I never thought I could read Scriptures and church materials for that long, but I feel like I never can get enough of it!
This week we started teaching our new investigator Carlos! he is in our YSA ward:) I realized I am much more comfortable teaching in Spanish, who would have thought? But it was incredible to see how sincere he was in receiving an answer to his questions and his prayers. We are hopefully meeting with him this week again! So far he has a baptismal date for April 20th!
I never thought I could come to leave people twice my age so much! We had an amazing lesson with Efrain and Fernanda:) We taught the Plan of Salvation and by the end of our lessons we all were crying as we all bore our testimonies. Both these women are going through such hard things in their lives and have been through so much, but they continue forward and have faith and are finding happiness through Jesus Christ. I am so GRATEFUL for this gospel and the peace and comfort it brings!
So this last Saturday we had over 600 people in the visitor’s center and that was only in the 9am-3pm shift! it was crazy- tour after tour! Apparently during Christmas time there are more than 1000 people a night....! We had this crazy awesome guy come in with his girlfriend! He came in because he saw that our street had a lot of numbers and saw the man on top of the building with the trumpet telling him to come (angel Moroni) and the first thing out of his mouth as we are talking about the temple was that he wants to be baptized! and then he said he wasn’t sure if he was a prophet or the next son of God.... but he loves Heavenly Father and wants to learn more about him and his girlfriend was really interested too. We gave them both a Book of Mormon and they were really excited to read it! we also got their numbers to hopefully send them the missionaries. It was a crazy and awesome experience though!
So why this email is called Asian Tuesday is because we had Two Asian miracles! First we had these two men that were from China meet us at the Visitors Center who were actually a referral from another set of sisters. They told us about how they were locked out of their door when the two other sisters passed by and gave them a card and got their information. As they tried the again after it was unlocked... coincidence? I think not! The older man wanted to know how his younger friend could become a Christian... Apparently in China he said they take a test and then they are Christian? I am not sure how it works because there was a language barrier ( they both didn’t speak very good English and my chines’ is a little rusty...) They were really interested in learning more and being more involved in service! We referred them to the Chinese Elders who we thought could better help them! the other Asian miracle we had was while we were trackting! We were in a sort of sketchy place... probably not really sketchy, but it was dark... And we had knocked on a door with a rather creepy man.... and I asked myself why would God have us knock on that door when we came down the stairs and turned the corner to almost run into this Asian couple. We stopped them and began talking with the man. He began telling us how he actually has been looking for God and wants to know him better. I could feel the spirit so strong on that little street corner. I knew God needed us there right at that moment so that we could teach this man and his wife. We were able to give them a book of Mormon and get their contact information. While we won’t be able to teach any of this people because they wouldn’t be in either of our wards I thought it was incredible to be apart of their journey of coming closer to Christ!
Today we went to the Temple!!! It has been far too long since I was last in the Temple. I am so grateful to be able to have one in my mission. The LA temple IS BEAUTIFUL!! the art work and detail in each room is incredible. I feel like with my increasing understanding of the Gospel and Gods plan for us I understood more the significance of the Temple and the immense blessing we receive there.
One of my favorite things this week was Sacrament meeting in the YSA ward. The ward was having a blitz( where sacrament meeting ends early and all the members go to less active members home and invite them to activities and to church- it was a really great to see how excited everyone was about missionary work!) But in church there was this incredible talk about the role us members can play. He talked about how he had grown up in Missouri where he was the only member in his college there. So he decided to join a fraternity. He talked about how he suddenly became the face for the church there. When people would hear of Mormons it would be his face that he saw. He recognized the large role he could play. He shared experiences of how he would leave parties early to plan his lesson (he taught Sunday School in church). As he left he said; drunk girls would ask him why he was leaving and he would tell them and invite them to church. He said by the end of those four years he was there- before and after his mission he saw more than 50 of those people come to church and saw 2 of them baptized. He talked about the great influence we can play in other lives by simply living what we believe. He said to look at life as a "fraternity House of Opportunities." We never know what a difference we can make in someone’s life just by being ourselves and standing for what we know to be true. I know I have not been perfect and being comfortable in sharing my testimony with everyone before my mission, but I know I certainly want to be better at it. The Gospel literally means Good news... IT is the greatest thing we can have in our lives! I know that as we strive to live the principles Christ taught us we can find greater happiness! and I know as we live it- people notice it -and if we act and are Bold who knows maybe it can change their lives too.
The mission is great here in LA! I Love you all!