9-29-14

Hola Familia!

I am glad you all aren't expecting too much out of me this week. It has been an interesting week to say the least, but the work continues to move forward. I can't believe it is already that time. AHHH! I could sit here and write something super inspirational about what i have learned being a missionary, but i can't even put it into words. I love it. Everything. The hard times the good times and everything in between.

I know God is our Loving Heavenly Father, and if nothing else i want everyone i talk to to understand that simple truth.

I know that Christ is our Savior and that everything that he did was for us. Individually and that through His Atonement everything is possible and that we can witness that cleansing power through repentance.

I know that we have Christ's church on the Earth today in the same way it was formed originally. I have no doubt. The Gospel just makes sense :)

Through the Restoration we have that Power to act in God's name and know that we are being led by Jesus Christ himself.

We have been fortunate enough to receive both modern revelation and ancient records that help us understand Christ's mission and life and our purpose here on the Earth.

AHHH!! I just love the Gospel it makes so much sense!! I love being a missionary. My life has been changed for the better and for forever.

Just to share a short experience:

Yesterday i had to tell Hugo that i wasn't going to be there for his baptism. It was sad because i have been teaching him since the begining and he loves it! he gets it. But as i told him, i thought he was going to cry, which would make me cry. ugh. But then he said the closing prayer and he prayed for ME. He prayed that all would go well for me and such. i felt so much peace in that moment. Besides the fact that i was about to ball like a baby. The Gospel changes lives. And for that i will forever be grateful!

See you all next week!

Hermana Ray

ps. i tried to send a picture of my hike today, but the card reader won't work... Sorry! just know it was Beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lake mountains waterfall, the works!

9-22-14

Hola Familia!

Life here as a missionary is great. I got the opportunity to speak in church yesterday and that was fun. i wasn't sure how long i was going to have to speak for and i think that is one thing the mission can help you out with. You can make it however long or short as you need to. Plus Abigail got confirmed a member of the Church and i was so excited. There is nothing that sets the tone for a sacrament meeting like a confirmation. I also want to give a shout out to our amazing members. Of our 5 investigators at church this week, 4 were brought by members, and only one of them had to call us and ask for one. 2 of them were invited and brought by our members. it was amazing. They are super awesome and the work is progressing. When members get involved, the investigators feel like family in the ward.

Other great moments..

Thursday: we had a training with President where he really changed up the way that we organize ourselves as missionaries. But through that i realized that i have been humbled many times, and sometimes when we have humbling experiences we aren't always quick to accept the advice. But this time i was open to accepting the change, which to anyone who knows me isn't my favorite thing in the worlds. But change makes us better if we are changing in righteousness. The real adventure of that training was that we had to take the bus down. We got on the bus at 7 and when we got down to Wenatchee we were supposed to catch another bus... And we did.... going in the wrong direction. By the time i realized we were going the wrong way there wasn't a whole lot i could do about it. luckily some other sisters picked us up so we were only 5 minutes late instead of 30 something... The adventure never ends.

Also thursday night we went and helped 13 year old Selene study for a test of the United States. We talked about the power of prayer to help bring things to our remembrance. she liked the sound of that :) But as we studied, we didn't have a map, so looking off of a smart phone i drew the worst map of the united states ever. But hey you do what you can with what you have got! We went back on Saturday and she said prayer is so awesome and that she remembered all of them!!

Saturday: We had a lesson with Abigail Sr. She is so amazing and has such a good heart. As we sat down in their little house, her husband sat in for the lesson for the first time like ever since i have been here. As he talked to me, he told me about his life and some of his struggles and said that he didn't know how to change. so of course i shared the thought based on that we can always change and Jesus Christ will accept us. Then he told me he was coming to church Sunday but he didn't want anyone to tell him that he was a bad person. He didn't come but he is definitely opening up to the message of the Gospel. It was really cool, because other conversations i have had with him in the past were not the most pleasant.

Overall a great week. love you all! thanks for your love and support and have a great week!!

Hermana Ray

9-15-14

Hola Familia

I know that last week had a really cool miracle story and i think that is the theme of my life right now. Seriously so amazing! And i got to sit and witness these miracle in action.

Well, we decided that we were going to again take our schedule to Heavenly Father and ask if he would send us someone to talk to. So we did that and as we went to the park, we talked to one or two people but no one was interested, the a van showed up and was unloading chairs for a wedding. SO we helped with that and as we were doing that we noticed someone show up at the park and go off on their own. So as we talked to him, he was very open to the message and we realized that we probably would never see him again, but God kept his appointment with us and hopefully Aaron will be open to the missionaries next time he runs into them.

But that is only the half of it really. We had the coolest and craziest experience and got to witness a miracle. The story starts out like 2 weeks ago when we were talking to Abigail about Faith and miracles. We had decided to fast together so that hearts would soften and she could be baptized. It to this point had been a three year process and now just waiting til those hearts were softened. So with her and her mom we decided to fast on fast sunday (along with leaders of the ward) that hearts would be softened so that Heavenly Father could bring miracles... Then they didn't come to church. Not going to lie, little frustrated. It wasn't their fault, but life happens. Now i will give a review of the week.

Wednesday: Had a lesson with Abigail and another member of the church and talked about the simple things like prayer and scripture study. She said she had been having a bad day and that she was hoping we would come over.

Thursday: We were in Chelan so we decided to go teach Irasema a new member lesson (Abigail's daughter who got baptized a while ago) and were going to teach her about the gospel of Jesus Christ and focus on her baptismal covenant. So as we started Abigail wrote out a permission slip said she would be right back, came in 15 minutes later with a signed permission to get baptized and asked us if she could get baptized on Sunday..... to which we answered... OF COURSE!!!! Needless to say that night we planned a baptism.

Friday: Went and set everything up with her for the baptism and it was amazing. She was super excited and said, well, i don't really care what happens at the service because i get to get baptized.

Saturday: Baptism interview. Went so well, i got to hear her whole process of getting to know the missionaries.

Sunday: BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was super amazing! She was so excited and we had another investigator there who loved it and the baptism went better than i could have possibly tried to make it happen. And then after the actual baptism she bore her testimony and it was so amazing! I seriously can't even express!!!!!! So blessed. I just had to thank her for letting us be a part of it.

I absolutely love her!! GOd is a God of miralces. I know that Christ is my Savior and that this is His work. I want to end with a sentence from the bible dictionary under miracles:

"miracles... are simply works, or the natural results of the Messiah's presence among men."

Hermana ray

9-8-14

Hola Familia!

What a fun crazy week it has been! Sounds like you are all getting lots of water down in the valley which is a good thing with all the dryness there is. Being in a farm town i hear all about how there isn't enough water to farm in most places this year.. I fear that i will never be able to adjust backto the city...

But really this week was really cool. We had a lot of great lessons and are talking with so many cool people.

The main thing of the week was when Hermana Jaccard told me that we should try something a little bit different. After talking or praying we decided to make an appointment with the Lord. So that is what we did. We told him that we would be at Manson Bay Park at 2:30pm and to please put someone in our path to talk to. Well we got there and there was only a lifeguard lady, an old man, and a young spanish guy sitting off by himself reading a book. So as we went and started talking to him, we learned that he had a friend drop him off from the other side of chelan (probably like a 30 min drive) just to be around the Lake and was reading a book on how he could better himself. We taught him about another book that could help him change his life, The Book of Mormon, and he really liked it and accepted to take the lessons with the Elders. We were awe struck and couldn't believe it, like did that just happen? But it had. We ran into the Elders later that day and told them our miracle story and gave them his information... Well later that night we get a call from the Elders saying that they had just met him randomly when trying by an investigators house! Eutimio was meant to meet the missionaries that day!! It was super amazing!

The Lord has his hand in our lives and we should be grateful every day for that fact. Sorry this is a short one, but I love you all and hope you have a great day!!

Hermana Ray

Hna Jaccard and I and the View from Manson Bay park on an overcast day

9-1-14

Hola Familia!

Another good week has gone by. And i feel like time is just a rolling... Henni I can't believe you had your homecoming already! That picture of you an Emma is adorable. But it was super fast this week because we had transfers, I got my new companion, and we spent quite some time in new missionary meetings.

Let's start off with the new companion, shall we? Her name is Hermana Jaccard. She is from Pleasant Grove, Utah. Her parents both served missions in Sweden and her mom is actually Swedish. So ya.. if we run into anyone in this town that speaks Swedish, we will be in luck because she is fluent. She is 19 and has 2 little brothers. She took Spanish in the past so she understands it quite a bit and i think she will pick it up super fast.

The week started out busy with getting ready for transfers, then on transfer day we don't spend a whole day in our area. because we are far away from the transfer site, so i get buddied up with some of the Sisters down in Wenatchee. Then on Friday we had a meeting down in my old pueblito of Quincy, so we spent lots of time in the car and in meetings. But it was good. the adjusting time of a new transfer.. ready or not here it comes

Early in the week we had a super amazing lesson with an investigator that has a new baby girl and we got the opportunity to talk about baptism and why we didn't baptize people as babies. it was really cool. She really like that because she herself was baptized as a baby into a church that she has told us she doesn't want to be a part of. It helped her t understand that it was a belief that she already had that we had in common. Plus the member of the church that came with us bore super strong testimony about families and how the gospel can bless them.

I think the crowning spiritual experience was on saturday/sunday. The Nelsons are a couple from our ward (we lived with them for like my first few weeks here) were speaking in church on Sunday before leaving on their mission to Romania. They also we the ones who had been teaching daily dose, the churches learning english program. They had formed a really good relationship with the people that they were teaching, so as we were thinking about who we needed to invite to church, her name popped into my head. And as we called and invited her, we told her that the Nelsons were speaking in church (the motivation). As soon as she heard that she was like. ioh, claro que si mijas, manana nos vemos! like oh of course i will see you tomorrow. As we hung up the phone i was kinda of dumb founded. we have been trying to get Dulce to the church for months. it was one of her biggest stumbling blocks. Sunday came and we came outside to meet her and she showed up at exactly the time she told us she would. It was amazing! That was one of the best sacrament meetings that i have been to on my mission. The talks were for her, the love in that room was amazing. Ahh, it seriously was so good. She felt the spirit for sure and she stayed the second hour. when she went to leave she had really liked it and i asked her if she was still nervous about coming to church and she was like no, i really like it! :) It was awesome. That made it worth it. It made it a great day!

I love my Savior and have never ceased to be impressed at what he will do for us. As we act in faith and follow spiritual promptings, he will provide a way for us. Hope you all have a great week and learn something new about your relationship with your Savior because i know that i do!

Hermana Ray

My first apple right off of the tree for the year.

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.