8-25-14

Hola Familia!

Ok, life never ceases to move too fast. Haha but the good news is, I get to end my mission in Manson!!! We got transfer calls on Saturday, and naturally my new companion was freaking out knowing that the possibility of us staying together was slim. But it is going to be the fastest six weeks of my life. You want to know why?? Huh Huh? Because I am training a new missionary again! Well, sort of, i mean i only have 6 more weeks, so it will be like half training her. But I am excited for the new challenge. I would Love to tell you who it is, but i have no idea. I will meet her on Wednesday Night. Always the element of surprise with new missionaries.. Stay tuned

The apple harvest will be starting any week now... And i am so excited i can't even stand it... I had my first apple the other day. we were "taste-testing" for Bro. England to see if it was time to pick yet :) APPLES!!!!!!!!! So excited.

It has been a pretty crazy week. We found a super cool new investigator. Hugo is super humble, and so ready to hear the message of the gospel. He just recently moved here from California and is trying to make it here. We were looking for someone else we were teaching and he was outside. After we knocked on the door, and she didn't answer, we almost didn't go back and talk to him, and i am so glad we did. Right there we taught him the first lesson and about why having a prophet was important and how the Gospel of Jesus Christ could help his family. We left him with a pamphlet that talked more about the Restoration. When we came back a few days later, he had read all of it!!! Usually we are pulling arm and leg to get people to read them. He loved what he read about and we didn't have lots of time on this visit so we left him with a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and told him that is what we would talk about next time. He was reading it as we pulled out of the trailer park. Within 2 days he had finished the whole things and we had a great lesson! He is sooo open to the gospel and to the Spirit. It was amazing. He accepted baptism!! Not sure when yet, but he is making great progress! He then gave us his families address in Mexico so that we could send the missionaries to them! This will be the 4th address we have gotten in the last week to send to Mexico. I hope the missionaries there are ready for it!

We have been working super hard this week on getting people to the church so that they can feel the Spirit inside. So after some sporadic calling around and crazy planning we had 2 super amazing church tours! The first was with a mother and her 3 little boys. And her favorite part of meeting with the missionaries is that she says she feels a peace and then we leave that peace with her, at least for a little while. So when we were standing in the chapel we asked her how she felt and she was talking about how she felt peaceful and i was just like BINGO! That is why we need the Holy Ghost in our lives. The other one was super amazing as well, another family we were teaching, and this one was cool because we had Irasema and Abigail come with us. It was so powerful. Abigail bore her testimony about why she comes to church and how she came to know it was true and how she was so grateful that the members supported her. It was one of the most powerful testimonies i have ever heard on a church tour and it came from someone who hasn't even entered into the waters of baptism yet.

One thing that we are really working on here is reactivation and helping the group become super unified so they can support one another. And it has been amazing that as Hermana Alcocer and I have focused on this, the numbers in church have been jumping up and we have definitely seen them start to feed off of each other and doing their visiting teaching and asking how the other sisters are doing and if we have seen them lately when we go to visit. It takes time but vala la pena. This group will be a branch yet if I have anything to do with it.

I love missionary work! The Lord really is showing us the way and giving us people to teach. That doesn't mean it is going to be easy and we are foolish to think it would be. We are helping these people/families fight against the World and come unto Christ, but it will be worth it. every person we bring one step closer to Christ has been blessed by the fruits of our labors.

Lately in my studies, many times the subject of knowledge has been crossing my mind. This morning I read a talk by Elder Holland that said that we always need repentance and that is the Beauty or the Mercy of Christ. He also said that we need to beware of bondage and give the example of the bondage of ignorance. That really intrigued me. He talked about learning and how it is ok to make mistakes as long as we are willing to do the work of going back and fixing the problem and not letting ourselves fall into the trap saying, well i what i don't know won't kill me. But to seek knowledge. And i feel like my mission has given me that desire to gain spiritual knowledge. So don't be affraid of making the mistakes that are natural to make when we are learning to do something new. The mercy and the Atonement of Christ have got your back. Have a great week. Love ya'll!

Hermana Ray While waiting to get picked up at the bus stop in Wenatchee, I found the perfect shade... My companion found the perfect picture.

8-18-14

Hola Familia!!

Life has been great. We had some crazy weather this week, but by the time the storms were over, we FINALLY have clear skies. Like no smoke or anything. the weather got really nice with super blue skies. It has been quite delightful. But the storms this last week brought like 14 inches of rain in a few hours which has been pretty crazy, they aren't used to that much rain here. Because of that we had a slight flood in our basement, but nothing a mop and a bucket couldn't fix.

This week has been really cool. I have been focusing on writing down spiritual impressions that i have and reflecting on them. It has been really cool to see just how much the spirit influences me all the time. As harvest approaches we are focusing on trying to build up our teaching pool in hopes of being able to retain them during "la pisca".

Honestly the week started out in kind of a whirlwind. I have really been trying to understnad my investigators and know how to help them without going to far out of the lessons. Knowing when to go off and answer and when to try and pull them back into the main message. And as i have been more aware of searching for spiritual promptings, i have found them.

-My week took a hit when one of my favorite investigators told us that she was confused and wanted to learn, but made a promise to her sister that she wouldn't talk to anyone until she got home from Africa. I honestly still don't know if i have digested it all the way. She was one of those people that i had to pray and ask heavenly Father for help to love her despite her circumstances. And that is what i learned to do. And i to this day will never forget her and continue to love her with hopes that another set of missionaries will find her. Yet at the same time Heavenly Father comforted me to know that he would be taking care of her. I wasn't angry, a little sad, but i felt like everything would work out how it was supposed to be. To me THIS is the hardest part of missionary work, letting go of those oyu have come to love.

-Later that night, we were going to teach a lady who stopped meeting wtih missionaries because of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. She had agreed to let us come back after we had answered some of her questions at the door. As we got ready to go in, I didn't want her to just hear about the Book of Mormon. I wanted her to experience it! The only problem in my plan is that she doesn't know how to read. I got the impression to read 3 Nephi 11 to her. I was thinking, ok, that works. I was worried that she would get distracted (like i do lots of times when listening to someone else reading) But she sat there totally soaking it in. The Spirit was so strong!! By the end we asked her if she thought the Book of Mormon was truly a book from God and she said yes! It was amazing. That is why we follow impressions. Because he knows better than us!!

-We took a few members out with us this week, where it looked as if all the lessons weren't going to work out, but we kept working and kept praying... And they all worked out in the way God intended them. It didn't matter what the situation was, we were working hard, and we were finding people to teach. Yet it is rarely through tracting. We tract, but it is a hard area to tract. it is either spaced out houses or town with is about half vacation homes. As we do all in our power, God helps everything else work out.

We had a Spanish church activity on Friday night. We only had 1 investigator there (we were hoping for like 10-15) But almost all of the members of our Spanish group were there or a member of their family. It was awesome! we had carne asada and an open gym. It was funny to watch all the little kids playing 3 or 4 different games. I think i at one time was playing volleyball and kickball at the same time. Since I have been here, the community and attitude of the members has been changing for the better. They talk and interact, it has been really cool to see the difference.

Overall, the mission experience is still AWESOME! I love it. Although some days you can't believe how tired you are. You blink and realize, Oh my gosh! i only have one transfer left! It seems so unreal. We had Zone conference last week, and it flew by! It was my last one so they have all the departing missionaries share their testimonies. It felt so unreal. As i sat and watched all the missionaries i am close to bear their testimony, and finding myself up there, i thought back on all the experiences i have had, and it has been amazing to see what i have grown to become. As i got up to bear my testimony and shook President Ware's hand he just looked at me and said, "No Hermana Ray, You can't stay forever." I had to laugh. I think I have asked him that every time i have seen him my entire mission. Later after the closing hymn, he says, "Hermana Ray, as we sang the closing hymn it thought of you." he then pulls out the hymn book and opens up to The Spirit of God, then points to the line, "The Lord is Extending, the saints understanding" then turns to me and says, "see Hermana Ray, the Lord is the one extending and that is why i can't" He thought he was Sooo funny. But we got a good laugh and i can only imagine what he will say when that time actually gets close! Zone conference other than that was super good. Sister Ware taught about Happy and Hard go together, we can do hard things and choose to be happy while doing them. I absolutely love the Spirit of learning from President and Sister Ware.

The Church is True, Jospeh Smith was a Prophet and through him Christ brought back His church. Christ still leads the church today through Thomas S. Monson. The Book of Mormon changed my life, and I love you all!! Have a great week, and stay tuned for transfer update next week.

Hermana Ray

What happens when you get 14 inches of rain in a few hours and you don't have sidewalks.

8-11-14

Hola Familia!

So guess what my day started out with? Home made rolls. I made a small batch for Len and Lesa. But the weirdest thing happened. While the first batch was in the oven, Hna. Alcocer and I went to vaccum out the car and when we walked back inside the house it smelt like home... It freaked me out a little bit but it was kind of nice. WEIRD!

But the week has been really good. Sorry this will be pretty short. It is still rather smokey outside. today you can't really see the mountains very good in any direction. the fire isn't super close, but it is smokey.

Our investigators are all doing good. We have a few more weeks before picking starts for apples and everyone gets busy again. But As we taught this week we really wanted people to understand how important the Book of Mormon was. It seemed like every lesson we taught was some how brought back to the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. For many people we had knocked on their door for the first time ever and they told us that they had talked with the missionaries before and that they didn't get the Book of Mormon. They felt as if it was the only thing we ever talked about. As we talked and listened with love to help them understand rather than going on the defense about the Book of Mormon these peoples questions were answered that helped them and they set up other appointments with us. President Ware is big on that. We always need to be praying with faith and listening with love. Then we need to be open honest and direct in the spirit of helping. That is what this work is about. Helping others come unto Christ..

Mom i finished that "Come unto Christ" Challenge and it really helped me. As i studied the verses and tried to apply the teachings, i have realized just how awesome this opportunity that i have is. It has taught me that God is close to us and ever watching out for us. Making things happen for a reason.

Yesterday we were reading Alma 32 with Alondra, a 13 year old investigator, and after as we were talking she just talked about how Mormon people are just so nice. They start talking to you and treat you as if you have been one of their friends forever. The impressions these people get at the beginning make all the difference!!

This week i got a good lesson in obedience. Talking to different people, we hear stories about missionaries in different parts of the world (probably here too) being disobedient. It is so important for me to know that i am doing the right things because it is what i want to do not trying to bend the rules just to make sure i don't get in trouble. The commandments/mission rules are given to us to bless us. And as we live them it is so true that we are free. I have no doubt in that! And i am grateful that President Ware stressed the importance of obedience. He says this a lot and i love it:

Jesus Christ is the Reason, Obedience is the Price, Acting in Faith is the Power, Love is the Motive, and The Spirit is the Key.

I absolutely love everything about being a missionary, from studies in the morning, to knocking doors all night until the 1 person lets you in at 8:55 to racing to get home on time. Jesus Christ is my Savior as well as all of yours! The Book of Mormon helps us to learn of him and changes lives. I know this Gospel is true and i love helping other people come unto Christ. Have a great week!

Hermana Ray

Hna. Alcocer's first Ray roll

Letter to Jannae titled Fuzzy Navel. It was an inside joke about Bahamas Bucks

I saw this sign when we were driving and decided that i needed to turn the car around and take a picture. so we parked and after going through all this work just get a picture with this sign. i was like this is rediculous, maybe we should just go. but it was funny. on the way to the sign to take the picture we ran into an investigator who we haven't talked to in weeks because she moved and is only 16 and doesn't have a phone, plus she just moved into the methodist ministers house. and she was so happy to see us and set up an appontment.

crazy how even in the mission field you got my back!

8-4-14

Hola Familia

Wow another whirl wind of a week. not quite like last week, but hey everyday is different. I honestly don't know why we ever plan anything anymore because nothing seems to go as planned!

To start off, before coming to email, we got to go shoot baskets at the high school on the gun and i was in Heaven! It felt so good to be on the court and getting a real bball workout. I might have to talk them into letting me go do it again! Also.. I am out of shape and my shot could use some work, but you win some and you lose some. I am one happy missionary. plus now i have been thinking about it and can relate part of my week to a cheesy sport analogy. enjoy!

Really i have no reason not to be. We went to Brewster and Pateros a couple days this week to help out. a couple days we were sorting donations and one day we went out and cleaned a house. Hard work no matter what we were doing. But it makes you very grateful for what you do have and makes you think about what is important. If you had less than 20 mins to evacuate, what would you take? Do we understand what is really important? Do we understand how blessed we are? I have come to realize how blessed i am the longer i think about it.

This week Irasema was confirmed in church and it was awesome! They showed up to church a little earlier than usual and we had a good turn out. that is 2 weeks in a row that we have had really good attendance. As she was confirmed by Bro. Hinkley, the Spirit filled the room and set the tone for the rest of the meeting. It was amazing. During testimony meeting Abigail got up and bore her testimony and it was really powerful. Just through out the meeting there was a peaceful feeling there. There is just this feeling that Manson/Chelan is on the edge. On the edge of breaking that thresh hold and bringing miracles. I can sense it. Quick flash back to help this make more sense. I was in Royal for 6 months. Shortly after i left, the area exploded. It was starting to just before i left. We had more people than room in the Spanish Sacrament. A short time after i left they had to change the chairs so they could fit more people. It was amazing. And it is easy to think, ugh of course right after i left. But i haven't really. I got to see some of the members from Royal last week and it was so good to see them. The relief Society president was excited to tell me how good the work was going there and that lots of the families are active. What better thing can you ask for? The members building up, strengthening each other, and just getting it. I feel that we have that potential here. I love the Members here they are all absolutely wonderful and support each other. the last 2 weeks were really important because in the past it was hard because they would all come on different weeks and feel as if they were alone, so they slowly stopped coming. But when they all come they feel supported and comfortable. It is amazing what can happen if we know we are loved.

Other missionary work was good this week to. Busy teaching, loving, supporting, and helping. I have felt that i am part of the community here. Our families that we are teaching are doing really well, this week many of them have made different leaps or strides and they truely are in the process of conversion. Over and over people have been telling us as we invite them to be baptized that they don't want to commit to something that they are just going to give up on with time. And we say PERFECT! because that isn't what we want either! But they truly want to be changed by Jesus Christ.

I have read a lot about that lately, because i finally finished reading Believing Christ. (not long, but always something else to study) It relates back to that topic. If we understand Christ and his mission than we won't want to make the commitment short term, but we will want to be in it for the long haul. We understand that we do our part to show our love and gratitude for Christ giving us Mercy. It is amazing what we can learn when we are constantly reminded of what is important. Mom, I also started doing those "Come unto Christ" Challenges. We appreciate them :) They are helping me realize how my mission has changed my outlook on so many things. I love getting to learn about Jesus Christ, because it gives me a desire to follow him. I actually went through the bible the other day and read every story i could find when Jesus Christ says some form of "Come Follow Me" And i know that as we do so, we build our ability to be like Christ, we practice our attributes. Like both mom and Dad mentioned in emails this week. Whatever we are doing, we have to be practiced. If we are a missionary it takes time, If we are David fighting Goliath it took practice, and if we are followers of Christ, it is going to take a lot of practice. How many times are we told that we will miss 100% of the shots we don't take. Likewise we will miss 100% of the opportunities to be Christ-like if we aren't looking. Today i had a good chat with someone who isn't a member of the church about being good people and that no matter who we are, whether rich, poor, popular, shy,etc. we control if we are going to do the right thing. So i want to invite all of you to take that shot, look for that opportunity. As we find those opportunities we are allowing God to mold us into who he wants us to be.

Hermana Ray

Don't we look fabulous? This is after being outside about 5ish hours. consider me humbled.

7-28-14

Hola Familia! 

This week was a whirlwind and so fast. i can't believe it. Lots of growth took place this week as I have learned to put things in the Lord's hands.

The week started off with me in Wenatchee for a day on exchanges. It was kinda weird... There was so many people and buildings. Anyway you will never believe who we ate with.... Bro. Michuads uncle that lives in East Wenatchee. I walked in the asked me where i was from, followed by "Do you know any Michauds?" (first indicator that they knew you all really well was because they pronounced your name right) SO i said that i did and that i knew Trevor and Kenley was my brother-in-law. Not to mention i had know them for quite a while. It was fun to sit and chat and weird when you can connect things to home. Other than that being in Wenatchee was fun, talked to a lot of new people.

Meanwhile being in Wenatchee, my companion and Hna. Rockhill extended a baptism date to one of our other investigators, and he accepted. So we will be preparing for another baptism in the near future :) 

Life is going so good here. We are really being blessed with people to teach and work to do.

This week we really focused on getting Irasema ready for her baptism and we had some cool experiences. Her grandparents from Mexico are here and so that is why the baptism was planned for this weekend. we were cruising this week and all was smooth sailing.

Saturday we spent almost all day up in Pateros doing fire relief projects. It was a stake activity and it was a good experience. We brought Alondra and Serafin (13 and 15) with us to do it. Their family is investigating the church and their mom really wants them to be good people. So we had them come and it was really cool. they had a great time and overall we went through and cleaned up 2 houses. combing through the ashes for things that might have survived the fires. and taking all the metal out. It was a very humbling experience. Saturaday was great! ... until about 10:20 pm. We got a call from our ward mission leader telling us that we were only going to have sacrament meeting and that after whoever could was going to go to Pateros to volunteer. The problem with this. We had a baptism at 1:30 (after the 3 hour block) and all ward leadership was basically going to be gone. So the ward mission leader asked us to get a hold of Abigail (Irasema's mom) to see if we could change it to 11:30. It was too late to call that night and i didn't know what to do. I felt totally helpless. Everything we had been working for for the past couple weeks was about this baptism. We were working with the family as well as getting a bunch of less active families excited to be there. Fear creeped in. How on earth we were supposed to change this important event in like 24 hour notice (when most of that 24 hours they would be asleep). I was upset and helpless, i seriously couldn't believe that we had worked so hard for things to fall through or be changed and not work out right. I cried. No lies here. I was so tired of every good plan i have had on my misison falling through last second. I prayed and i talked to Heavenly Father and i told him exactly that. I told him that i couldn't do it anymore and that I didn't know what to do. I told him i don't know how we can work so hard and still have these things happening. After that i went in and tried to sleep (good one right?) i turned on our cd and the song came on called Better than I. Talking all about how God knows better than us

 "You know better than I, 

you know the way. 

I've let go the need to know why, 

for you know better than I"

I must have finally fallen asleep. We finally got a hold of Abigail the next morning and she was a little confused but seemed ok with the time change. We then had to send out messages to inform all of the Less actives and investigators of the time change. And off to church it was. Needless to say i was a little bit of a ball of stress yesterday morning. Irasema showed up with her family and one of the less active families a few minutes into the meeting. As soon as i saw them, all the stress left. i finally got some peace that Heavenly Father really did know better than I did. All ended up being absolutely amazing! the talks were short, but so sincere and perfect for the moment. When she went down into that water i realized why it was all worth it. Why we had worked so hard. To help this little girl who just wanted to be baptized and to be a missionary one day. It was such a great feeling. Many people were at the baptism and many people felt the Spirit and it was just AWESOME! Couldn't have gone any better. it was the definition of a miracle. God knew what was happening and He was going to make it work how he needed. Looking back i can see reasons for the change of time besides going to help in Pateros, but it just goes to show that we only see a piece of the puzzle, but God puts those pieces together to make a bigger picture.

I learned that Heavenly Father listens to our prayers. I have always known that but this weekend he was aware of me. I will keep pushing on, even when the craziness comes. There will be much more service to come in the towns that got partially burned, but hey lets say if i have learned anything it is how to roll with the punches. Even if it feels like i am rolling head over heals down a mountain. I am glad to be part of this work. I feel blessed to have this opportunity and have got lots more work to do here. With all the talk of fire, Manson is Spiritually on fire right now, in the best way possible. Thanks for keeping the people in your prayers and keep looking for ways to help others. Have a great week!

Hermana Ray

From left to right: Abigail (JR), yo, Carmen, Irasema, Hna. Alcocer, Abigail (SR)

 

Cleaning up in Pateros. Super humbling experience.

Our car in clean up crew. Left to right: Yo, Serafin, Hna. Alcocer, Alondra, Sis. Aleasha England