Super Happy!

Our teenage investigator is adorable!  She told us she really admired us and this year in school, they have to do a project about who they look up to, and she said she wanted to do the project on us. It made us super happy :)

Prayers Are Heard!

We set a baptismal date with a young teenager.  We met her a few weeks ago when the mini missionaries were here.  The minis and I were trying to contact a former investigator when she called to us from across the street.  She actually wanted to talk to us!  We got her address and she told us to come back.  The same week, my companion was with the other minis and contacted her grandma.  Her grandma told her that her daughter ("our" teenager's mom) would be very interested.  We made it back the next week and began teaching the teenager and her sister.  We taught them about prayer. 

On Saturday, we got a text from the teenager asking us to come over, saying it was urgent.  When we arrived, she said she had prayed and got an answer that God really did hear her prayers.  We set a baptismal date with her and invited her to church.  She came last Sunday and told us she already had permission from her parents to be baptized.  We're hopefully going to be able to teach her whole family.

Great Week!

We have had a really great week!  It started off really rough with pretty much every single one of our investigators either dropping us or us dropping them.  But we kept the faith up and this weekend, we set a baptismal date, got two people we've been working with to church :) :) :), and got back in contact with an amazing part-member, inactive family that wants to start going to church! :D

Transfer time...I'm Not Moving

For the first time since I've been in this area, everything is staying exactly the same this transfer time around!  I am really happy for that :)  I love my companion and the area.  We are really starting to see it bloom.  The only news to report is one of my old companions is going home tomorrow.  We had a long chat last night reminiscing the transfer we had together.  She's excited to go back home and see her family.  Other than that, there is really no other news to report this time around.  Maybe in six more weeks.

President and Sister Trayner's Homecoming!

My parents and brother attended President and Sister Trayner's "homecoming" in Utah this morning. Afterwards, they went to the Trayner's home to visit.

Was I Baptized Like Jesus?

We visited the family I told you about last week (the one where we told stories to the kids).  We taught them about baptism.  We read in Matthew 3 the account of Jesus being baptized.  The son, after hearing the story, asked his mom if he was baptized like Jesus was.  She said yes.  Then he asked, "with water?"  This provided an excellent opportunity for us to teach what it means to be baptized by immersion and why Christ was baptized in that manner.  They didn't accept a baptismal date, but we're going to teach them more.  We're super excited!

Ready?...or Not?

We set a baptismal date with a woman.  She seemed super prepared.  She had just found out that she hadn't been baptized. After teaching her a little about the importance of baptism, she readily agreed to a date.  We invited her to church and she happily accepted.  Needless to say, we were super excited.  Our excitement, however, was short lived.  The next day she texted us and told us that after researching more on mormon.org, she decided our church was too different.  From that experience, however, we learned that there is a time for everyone to want to hear the gospel.  We don't always know when that time will be, but if someone doesn't immediately accept, it's not always because we did anything wrong, but it could just be they are not ready yet.

Mission Ups and Downs = Learning

This week had its share of ups and downs, but we made it through another week, and have learned a lot in the process.

"...We Have Some Bibles!"

We met a family with two little kids.  After introducing ourselves and talking a little with the parents, we began to tell the kids Book of Mormon stories.  We told the story about Samuel the Lamanite and when Christ came to the Americas.  The kids we so engrossed in the stories it was adorable.  When it was time to leave, the kids were sad because they wanted to hear more.  We wanted to leave them with a Book of Mormon, but we didn't have any more copies in Spanish.  Then son then said, "Oh wait, we have some Bibles!"  He went to the back of the truck and pulled out two copies of the Book of Mormon.  Apparently, they had been taught by the missionaries before, so we left them with some stories to read and will be going back sometime later this week

Leadership Conference

This week, we had a three-day leadership conference.  It was very good and I learned soooooo much!  They talked to us about the importance of using scriptures and personal experiences as we teach.  I learned that I need to rely more on the Spirit and teach more to the needs of our investigators.

"We Are Daughters of Our Heavenly Father..."

One of our investigators came to church!!! :) At long last, we got our first investigator at church since I have been in this area.  It was a young teenage girl who we have been working with.  She's wanted to go for quite some time but hasn't been able to due to family events.  She went, and enjoyed it a lot!  On top of that, my companion and I got to go to Young Womens!  It was a good day yesterday to say the least.

"CPR" and the Gospel Make Us Happy!

The purpose of the gospel is to make us happy.  Going to church, reading the scriptures daily, and having personal and family prayer are not just motions the culture of our Church tells us we should do, but they are necessary to our happiness.

I have learned these things are important, and I'm trying to teach them to others.

Spiritual "CPR" Continued...

I never knew the importance of CPR until I had to teach it, and it was hard at first for me to teach others this because I myself was guilty of not fully acting, too.  However, I now can see why it is so important we are daily keeping all of the commandments - especially the little ones - like CPR.  When we do not keep the commandments, we cannot be truly happy.

"CPR" in a Spiritual Sense

We are seeing a lot of success in our area.  We have found great people to teach, and the people we have found have been touched by the Spirit the gospel brings.  As missionaries we leave commitments with everyone.  These commitments are supposed to lead people closer to Christ and help them repent of their sins.  Almost every single one of our commitments has to do with getting them to Church, Praying individually and as a family, and Reading the scriptures (we call it CPR because it sustains spiritual life).  We leave these commitments because we know it will help them progress spiritually.  When they do these three simple things, they feel closer to God and true conversion occurs.

Stressful, But Fun!

This week was honestly the most stressful, but fun week EVER!!!!  

On top of the mini-missions, we popped three bike tires in three days, the end of the month came around and we went over the allotted monthly miles on our car, and I got a cold.  But despite all the problems, we made it through!!!!  With people who have baptismal dates!!!! :) 

New Excitement!

It was definitely great to have the minis with us.  They were so fun and I learned so much from them!  They were so excited about doing missionary work, and it gave my companion and I a new excitement about what we get to do every day.  They also gave us fantastic pointers on how to work with members...;)

Mini-Missions

We had mini-missions this week which is when a stake sends out youth to work for a week with the full-time missionaries.  We got four minis!

My companion and I were on splits the entire week.  My companion, being a greenie, definitely had quite the experience as she had to become both senior companion and trainer with her little ones with only two weeks in-field experience.  I had to try to train - not only my companion, but four other missionaries - on how to be a missionary.

Desire to Learn More!

We met a man with the elders in our district and were able to set a baptismal date with him.  He's fun.  He speaks Spanish with an accent that is hard for me to understand sometimes.  He has a great desire to learn more which is something we as missionaries love to see!

Member Missionaries

We found this wonderful family this week.  We brought over a convert of two years to help us teach.  She has a fiery testimony.  It was an excellent teaching opportunity!  We have another teaching appointment with them tomorrow night.  We're going to bring over another member to be friends with them! 

Happy!

I can honestly say I am very happy!  I love the area where I'm serving, I love my companion, my district, the wards I'm in --- just about everything!

Mini Missionaries...

This week we are getting mini missionaries.  This means the entire week my companion and I will be on splits.  My companion is nervous because she has only been out barely two weeks and will be taking completely over half of our area.  I know she will do great though!