Family History Night!

We're going to have a family history night.  I'm super excited for this!  We have a some ward members teaching a class and we're inviting less active and nonmembers.  We're hoping it will be a success.  Family History is such a great tool in missionary work!

Good-bye and Hello!

This week, President and Sister Trayner are going home and we will get President and Sister Maluenda.  We have a zone conference with the Trayners this week - then they'll be off!  I don't know if much will change for us missionaries in our day to day activities, but it's an exciting time.

President and Sister Trayner

 

 

President and Sister Maluenda

Time is Flying!

Wow!  Time is flying by sooo fast.  I can hardly believe it, but at the end of this week, I will have reached by five month mark on a mission!  That is crazy!  These past few weeks have been so eventful and, as I look at my planner, I realize that there are only three more weeks left of the transfer!  Time just does not stop!

Missionary Broadcast!

We had the missionary broadcast  last night....I hope you all watched it!  It was fantastic!  It made me so excited to be here.  I know that if members and missionaries can learn to work together, miracles will happen!  We're now trying to figure out how to apply what was taught to our area.  I encourage all you to do the same.  President Trayner has asked us to work more with members this month!  We have some excellent members who are eager to get involved with missionary work making our job so much easier!

Pictures!

My parents have been requesting that I send a few pictures home, so here they are!

 This was one of the daily views I had while serving in my first area.

The Sanchez Method of being happy!

Sunburned?  I NEVER sunburn!  Thankfully, it did not peel but turned into a nice tan!

Have Faith in Missionary Work!

As we continue to meet with members, we are hoping to build their faith in missionary work. We want them to be willing to come and teach their friends with us. We want them to reach out to others. We have seen already the willingness of the members here to help out. 

 

Who are the full-time missionaries in your area?  Have a great week!

Love and Serve Others

When it comes down to it, the best way to spread the gospel is to love and serve others. This week, y'all should read in Preach My Gospel, Ch. 9, the sections entitled: "The Importance of Members" and "Go About Doing Good" (pp. 160-162, 168-169). Our mission president had us read this every day this week.

"Have I Done Any Good in the World Today?"

It is important to note that missionary work does not just extend to preaching the gospel to nonmembers. It is as simple as doing visiting teaching/home teaching every month, magnifying your calling, and helping to uplift everyone around you including BOTH active and less-active members.

Don't Tract This Month...

This month, President Trayner has asked us to not tract. He wants our focus to be primarily on working with members. This has been both a blessing and a challenge. He told us that member missionary work is far more effective, but it takes a lot more mental effort. Make that effort easy on your missionaries and think about any small way you can help them.

Francisco? No,...Jessica!

Here's me with the red car who the Bluff Elders named Jessica. (We named it Francisco, but unfortunately, the Elders won the naming game)

Missionary Broadcast!

This week was great and absolutely flew by! Before I forget: There is a broadcast this Sunday about missionary work. GO! It will be great! It's about how you as members can participate.

Family History/Missionary Work - Set Some Goals!

Last Sunday, we had a lesson about family history. My companion and I both agree that we should use family history a lot in our teaching. It's a good missionary tool. One of the things that was said was that we need to start doing the work now. We always say we're going to do it in the future or "when we have time," but as we all know, tomorrow never comes. We cannot wait for a pleasant moment...Sometimes we just have to get it done. The same is true with missionary work. We can be participating in it now. We can be preparing to participate in it now. Every small effort counts. So the invitation to all at home is to make three summer goals for yourself to participate in family history/missionary work this summer. The goals can be small (like getting in the habit of daily prayer and scripture study) or large (like converting a family). Think and pray about what you are able/willing to do. Make the goals realistic and set a specific date to complete them.

What is Your Name?

I'm using Spanish a lot more here, and people are having a hard time saying my name. They always ask what the origin of Bettinson is. Do you have any idea where it came from? I know it's from somewhere in Europe, but I couldn't give specifics!

A Different Approach!

Another thing that makes this area different is it's an old area. It's been worked by missionaries a lot. Where we were laying the groundwork in my previous area, this area has been through several missionaries so we will have to take a completely different approach. It will be an adjustment, but we're up for the challenge!

Three Wards, Three Goal Commitment

My new area is completely different from my previous one.  We are in charge of three wards here: one English, one Spanish, and one Young Single Adult.  This means we are at church aaaaaalllll day! As in my last area, the members are great! They are so willing and ready to participate in missionary work. We have been visiting with them and leaving commitments for them to come up with three goals for the summer to help them do missionary work. We tell them the goals could be as small or as large as they want. The responses we've gotten from them have been great! Yesterday, one family made a goal to convert a part-member family. We couldn't have asked for better!

New Area = New Companion

This past week was my first week in my new area. It was a crazy week! Getting to know a new area is hard! My companion is great! She is very missionary minded. We entered the MTC at the same time, but I got to Texas a few weeks earlier than she did, so we are both still very green. I am her second companion, or as we missionaries call it, her breaker --- now that she is done being trained, I get to come in and break all the bad habits she developed with her mama. Needless to say, my job is easy! She is originally from Arizona, but she's been living in Utah the last few years.

Transfer Time...

Okay, now the big news for this week...as I have already mentioned, it is transfer time!  I'm leaving this area to go further South.  We found out late last week that I am getting transferred.  I will be leaving within the coming week.  I'm really excited! It's weird to think about a mission away from this area, because up to this point, I have spent my whole time here.  But, I am ready for the adventure.  I hear it's a completely different culture.  There are a lot more missionaries there and I'll actually be using Spanish.

 Well, I'll tell you for sure what it's like next week.  

 

Wish me luck,

Sister (soon to be Hermana) Bettinson

Helping People

My favorite part of this week was visiting with a certain family.  We have met regularly with them almost the entire time I have been in this area.  When we met with them last weekend the lady of the house was stressed and had called us asking us to come.  We went over and listened to her, then shared a scripture with her about how the Holy Ghost comforts us.  It was a very sweet experience and I know she felt the Spirit very strongly.  She came to church and stayed all three hours.  It is so wonderful to be able to help people.

Mega Referrals!

This past week, we were also able to meet so many of our goals!  We have a goal of four referrals each week and we ask anyone and everyone for them, but we haven't had any success in the last few weeks.  But yesterday, we received 17 referrals from a member in the ward.  We had dinner with her last night and while we were talking to her, the referrals just kept flowing.  I think just with that contact we have enough referrals to make up for the weeks this transfer when we fell short of our goal.

Still Working...Harder Than Ever!

Hey everyone!

This week has been amazing!  It was the last week of the transfers and we gave it our all.  Our district leader told us that even though we might not be staying in an area, we should not give up on it until we have actually left.  This is the attitude I've been carrying with me all week just in case it is my last week in this area.  We have tried our best not to waste even five minutes of our time and we have worked very hard this week.  We saw some amazing miracles.  We set a baptismal date with an older gentleman.  He is progressing well. 

Daily Scripture Study

We had a lesson last Sunday about the importance of daily scripture study. The sister who taught Relief Society said that if we read the Book of Mormon every day, everything else in our lives will fall into place. I have seen this in the short time I've been out in my mission. I have begun reading the Book of Mormon regularly (I know, I've always been bad with scripture study!). It's helped me maintain a clear perspective of the purpose of missionary work which has helped me maintain vision and faith every day.

The Book of Mormon

This month, as a mission, we have been studying the importance of the Book of Mormon in conversion. In my own limited experience in the mission field, I can tell you that the Book of Mormon has been the most effective tool in bringing investigators to baptism. With one of our recent baptismal candidates, we got him reading the Book of Mormon within the first week. This coupled with excellent MEMBER missionary work led to him being baptized. One of our investigators who we are working with now has begun reading it, and we can see how his heart has been softened just in the short time we've been meeting with him. He told us that he has heard a lot of negative comments about the Book of Mormon in his life. But now that he's started reading it, he can see that much of the rumors regarding it were, in his words, "only speculation." When investigators gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon, everything else falls into place.