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.