NOVEMBER 13, 2017

DAN MIGHT BE GETTING MARRIED, BUT SCOTT’S GETTING BAPTIZED!!!

HOLA HOLA COMO LE VAN?

What another crazy busy week here in the tierra prometida! 

First of all, CONGRATS TO MY BROTHER WHO IS TOTALLY GETTING HITCHED THIS WEEKEND. I am sending my love all the way from the sunniest of all the states! Have such an awesome time! 

We started off the week with our very first ward Book of Mormon class! it was so awesome. Everyone loved it and we feel like it’s going to help this ward grow and maintain everyone a lot more. I even learned a lot. It was super great for Scott and our recent converts to come and understand a lot more. (also, a sister in our ward from the Philippines got scared that I was going to leave so she made me some super yummy ponset and brought them to us during the class and it was incredible and it took me back to living at the Hickory place house across from the Ignacio's).

We saw a really awesome miracle this week. We were out knocking and absolutely no one was interested. We kept saying "someone has got to be cool here" because we felt so inspired to knock there. Sure enough, after a knocking a few buildings a man named Dimitry opens up. He starts to tell us about how on Sunday he found out that his father-in-law is a member of the Mormon church and that his nephew is going on a mission soon. He explained to us that all his life he has been trying out all these different churches and within the past few years he just decided that none of them were true. He continued to say how on Monday he went and prayed to Heavenly Father just like he normally does and he got the overwhelming sense that God wanted him to go back to a church and then the very next day we showed up. It was incredible. He came to church for the first time in years this past Sunday and really loved it. Yet again I am amazed at the way the lord uses us to perform his work. 

We also saw an incredible change in Scott this past week. Everything is just "clicking" for him right now and it’s amazing to see the way that his entire person is changing. The change has really come for him as he has been able to apply the gospel principles that we have been teaching him. He finally gets it. He is so excited about his baptism this upcoming Saturday! He calls us all the time just to talk about it. We are so excited for him! 

We also had MLC this past week and we talked all about goal setting. I have realized that goal setting isn't just a principle essential for a successful mission but rather for a successful life. Realistic goals, big or small help us to grow and really "take the reins" of our life. It was super awesome. 

On a different note, this past week there were a few days were it just dumped rain (not really anymore than normal). On one particular night we were on our way home from the top of our area driving a long a really busy road. We crossed an intersection and out of nowhere we see all these cars getting over really really fast. All of a sudden we see this giant puddle (maybe a small lake in California) on the side of the road. We tried to get over but there was a semi truck on the side of us and so we seriously had no choice but to run straight into it going 40mph. So we did. The car just wouldn’t move haha. We were just sitting there screaming, the car was trying its hardest to swim itself to safety, letting out the most worrisome car groans. Finally, we pull to the side of the road and it turns out something ripped of the bottom of the car and something weird happened to the tires, but we made it home with a piece of the car just dragging down. We took it in the next day and all the guy could say was "oh, wow." when he looked under the car. but all is well! We are back in business.

The stake also had a missionary boot-camp for the youth this past weekend. We got to take a few of them out with us knocking doors and boy was it quite the experience... I’m not sure if it was the most uplifting experience due to the fact that some Hatian man started bashing us and screaming horrible things about Joseph Smith while one of them was testifying of the truthfulness of the gospel. Not to mention that a few minutes later two men pulled up in a car and started following Sister Dimond and I around asking us to preach to them about God and making horrific comments about our "temple" aka body... So needless to say that God was trying to teach either us or them something about a mission. 

I had an incredible study this past week in the Bible. I spent the whole week in Mathew 23-28 where it outlines the saviors last few days on earth and his crucifixion. I have never felt the spirit so strong while in personal study before. I was brought to tears as I learned about what had happened and really dug deep and studied it all.  It been my biggest goal of my mission to just "know" my Savior more and this past week I made leaps and bounds. One of my favorite quotes I found this past week is from President Howard W. Hunter, it says "It is important to remember that Jesus was capable of sinning, that he could've succumbed, that the plan of life and salvation could've been lost, but that he remained true. He was perfect and sinless not because he had to be but rather because he clearly and determinedly wanted to be." 

May we all just spend more time thinking about the Savior, using his atoning power in our lives, and relying upon his strength. I know we each have Jesus Christ as our own personal Savior. He knows us and loves us and because of him we can repent and become better. 

I LOVE YOU ALL and pray for you every day. 

PLEASE DANCE A LITTLE EXTRA HARD THIS WEEKEND AT DANS WEDDING FOR ME. I will be partying it up at Scotts baptism and the ward thanksgiving party!! WOOOO!!!!  

1. All you can eat sushi buffet 

2.Zone Activity on the intracoast 

3. We told one of our member we are trying to eat healthy and he went out and bought us a whole bunch of food so we could try out his new diet.... Its working! 

NOVEMBER 07, 2017

BOYNTON BEACH CAN’T GET RID OF ME, AND I'M NOT COMPLAINING!!

GOOD NEWS: 

We got transfer calls last night and Sister Dimond legit tackled me to the floor because WE ARE STAYING TOGETHER. I was seriously bouncing off the walls. I just love this place so much and seriously never want to leave. These members are just like family and I am so excited to spend some of the holidays with them and all my recent converts in this area! AHH!!! So much is going on and I am just so happy! 

Other than that, this week was awesome but nothing too crazy happened just the usual "hood-rat" stuff? <- not sure if that appropriate to say???? but that’s really the only way I can explain this area and the people we talk to all day. 

We met a less active a few weeks ago while we were knocking, and his neighbor yelled at us so he invited us over for dinner on Monday. It was quite the experience. The first thing he does when we got there was make us sit there while him and his girlfriend smoked a cigarette and finished off a beer. We are pretty sure he was trying to send us a strong message. After we hear that message loud and clear we had an awesome dinner with him and his girlfriend and he is just so funny. He made it clear that he probably wasn't going to be coming back to church anytime soon, but we are always welcome back to his house... so that was interesting! 

On Halloween we had to come in early so Sister Dimond and I reorganized our entire room and the other sister roasted some pumpkins seeds so all and all it was an extremely productive night. We also took Sister Isham and Davis out to Texas Roadhouse.

We also had some amazing member meals. A recent convert in our ward is from India and she cooked us authentic Indian food that her mom makes, and it was incredible. The next day we went to another one of our members house who is from Ghana and she cooked us food from her country and it was off the hook. SO YUM. (either I’m just really hungry right now or everything cool that happened this week revolved around food..)

We had a hilarious lesson this week. We were just out contacting, and we ran into this big African American man who was out for a walk to get his daily exercise. Sister Dimond and I just started walking with him and talking to him about the church and we ended up walking a straight up mile or two and teaching him the restoration of the gospel the entire time. He was super interested and said he’s coming to church so that’s always good! 

​We had an amazing lesson with one of my favorite families ever. The Alvarado's . I’m sure I’ve probably written about them before just because I love them SO much. The husband is a super less active and a self proclaimed "jack mormon". He later explained that that means that he believes in everything about the church but just doesn't live it. But he really is just the coolest guy and has such potential but there are just certain things he has to overcome. His wife is not a member of the church but just the most amazing woman. She will be the most incredible primary president. We have been working with them off and on since I got to this area but on Sunday we took Bro. Lopez out with us to come and talk to them with us and IT WAS AMAZING. The husband and him just got along perfectly and he just loves us as missionaries and so we were able to kinda "throw down" (I can’t think of another word for it) so lovingly that it really just hit him deep. We are now working with them more consistently and they are just so awesome!!! 

That was kinda a common theme this week. Sister Dimond also felt inspired to go and visit this less active woman in our area. We got there, and she just started giving us all these reason why she won’t come to church (coffee/rules/etc). We legit threw down. AND SHE LOVED IT AND INVITED US BACK..... We got back to the car and just looked at each other like what in the world..... 

But anyways, I have completely run out of time! I just love you all so much! Please don’t worry about me here, LIFE IS AWESOME. I will continue praying for you and just don’t forget I love you!!!! HAVE A GREAT WEEK! 

OCTOBER 30, 2017

HACE FRIO!!

My goodness, I am seriously freezing. There was a serious cold front that came in (mean like 60-80's) all week. I even had to break out my sweater and we ate soup at Panera! It’s been crazy. 

What a GREAT week. This week was different than any other. I just felt the spirit so much stronger this week. It was a noticeable thing. It funny how sometimes that's just how God works in our lives, sometimes he’s just right there sitting next to you and you can feel and it know it and other times he is still right there but you just can’t notice it as much. 

Right now, we are teaching a woman named Evonnie. She is seriously the cutest. She requested a free bible and we went to go deliver it to her. We sat down and talked to her a lot about the Bible and what it means to her and how it can help us in our life. She really opened up to us about so much that is going on right now. We had such an amazing lesson after that. The most amazing thing to me was the love that I had for this woman. It wasn’t like anything I've ever felt before. The spirit was so strong in the lesson and we all just left each other speechless. She actually told us that she had met with missionaries a while ago but it didn’t feel the same back them. She recognized that God has been preparing her for this time right now to get closer to him and learn more about this church. She is just such a cool woman. 

This past Sunday I was reminded of Gods individual love and care that he has for each one of us. We got a member referral from someone up in the Palm Beach ward of a guy named John Lee. We called him as soon as we got the referral and spoke to him on the phone, just getting to know him and introducing the church to him. We invited him to church and he gladly accepted. He came to church this past Sunday. The miracle here is that at the service every single thing from the talks that were said, the prayers that were offered, our other investigators that were there and the comments they made, and the songs that were sung were perfectly tailored to him. He kept saying "this is my mom’s favorite song" "this reminds me of my mom". His mom had just passed away a few years ago and he hasn't been to church since. He recognized that his mother ways talking to him. It was such an amazing reminder to me that God is well aware and loves every single one of our investigators and takes time to make it special for them. 

ROBERT GOT BAPTIZED!!!! It was seriously the most stress-free baptism that I have ever had. this whole time we've been teaching  him has been amazing. He is just so solid. His baptism was awesome. There was some crazy tropical storm and so for a little bit it was looking like our members weren't going to make it but there wasn't an empty seat in the room. It was so awesome. Robert is such an amazing kid and has taught me so much about resilience and faith.

We also had a boss ward Halloween party but also ward parties are the highlight of my year as a missionary. It was super fun and all of my recent converts came and it was just so great. We had a chili cook off and a trunk or treat and everyone got really into it. Sister Dimond and I dressed up as a Floridian Tourist, everyone thought it was pretty funny! 

That’s all I have time for today! I just hope you all know how much I love and pray for you every day! XOXO!!! 

PS if you want to send a sister missionary some of your left over 100 grand bars from trick or treating, I wouldn't complain!

OCTOBER 23, 2017

DON'T BLINK!!

This week went by insanely fast I don't think I even had time to chew my food. It was a total blast. Sister Dimond and I were so oddly full of energy this week (especially compared to last week) so whoever has been praying for us to have more energy-- we can feel it and THANK YOU. 

We have been trying new things in our missionary work and just mixing things up and we have seen so many awesome miracles because of it. Life is just so great. I went on a few exchanges with the sisters in my sisterhood and they are all just such awesome missionaries. It’s so great to be able to learn from all these amazing sisters. 

ROBERT IS GETTING BAPTIZED this weekend!!!! He is so solid. It’s been so awesome teaching him. This upcoming week is going to be crazy with the baptism and zone conference and exchanges and we already have all of our days filled up so we are just going to try to chill today and gear up! but I am really not complaining because busy is wonderful as a missionary. 

I saw a really cool miracle this week while on my full day exchange with Sister Davis. It was an absolutely crazy day with lots of traffic and lots of driving and rushed appointments but the end of the night we were left with "nothing to do"/ no real appointments. I felt impressed to visit someone who has been taught before that I really knew nothing about but just had their address. We typed it into the GPS and as we got closer it got harder to figure out which side of the busy road we needed to turn into to get to this person. I felt like we needed to turn right and found a gated neighborhood. We parked outside of it and walked in. We found the house number and there also a man sitting outside in a lawn chair in the pitch black. We started talking to him and turns out that it was actually the wrong side of the road. I knew we were there for a reason though, so we began talking to him about who we were and why we were there and the gospel. Turns out that he has been searching for a church for a while and told us "yeah, I’ve been wanting to get baptized and I really feel ready and if I get baptized that means that my entire family needs to too." soooo that was cool!   Crazy miracles happen when you just follow the spirit and take a few "wrong" turns or two every once and a while.

​I don’t have a whole lot from this week. We are still teaching Scott and he is super cool and we are teaching basically his entire house which is always a party! He is going to get baptized on November 18th and so we are just taking out time with him and making sure he understands everything. ​

Life is just really good! My scripture this week comes from Helaman 3:35, one of my favorites lately. It says "Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God." 

I’ve been studying a lot about the concept of continual discipleship. How can we endure that we are standing as a witness of God ALL THE TIME. I’ve learned a lot.

I hope you all have a great week! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. and pray for you every day! 

PICTURES:

The Old Key Lime house 

aka my favorite restaurant EVER. Its right on the water and the BEST. Must try!  We went here last P-day.

OCTOBER 16, 2017

IM NOT TIRED AT ALL….

Psyche!!... There seriously must be a gas leak or I must have mono or something because this week was exhausting. It’s like I'm a greenie again or something. I have hit a solid wall. but the work marches on!! So so do I! 

BUT ANYWAYS, HELLOOOOO!!!

Other than being extremely tired, this week was super awesome. We are working with a whole lot of super cool people right now and so our days have been so great. I think the Lord is just pushing us to our limits to see if we can handle it and its been fantastic. 

We had a super fun zone activity this past P-day at the beach for a few of the missionary’s birthday's. I just want to say again just how inspired it was that I am here in Florida. This place is always so pretty and sunny and happy and tropical and GREAT. It’s hard to ever be sad here. EVERYONE NEEDS TO VISIT. Although, on a similar note, we went to visit a less active this past week and her only excuse for not coming to church is that "it’s too hot".... yup, it’s just "too hot". Sister Dimond and I both walked out of that house completely confused but hey, I guess it is pretty hot. 

Right now, we are teaching this really cool 18 yr. old guy Robert and his girlfriend Taylor. He actually has been living in a member’s house for the last 4 years and has been going to seminary every morning and mutual every Tuesday night and honestly just knows everything already, but he wasn’t able to get baptized until he turned 18. He turned 18 a few months ago but just didn't feel like it was his time or that he had any desire yet until he finally felt in his heart that it was all true a few weeks ago. We have been teaching him everything and he is just the most solid kid. He has been through things that no 18-year-old should ever have to experience in their lives, but he has truly been strengthened for it. He is planning on getting baptized on the 28th, we are so excited for him! 

Lots of other hilarious stuff happened this week and I promise I’ll write it all down in my journal and talk about it later! 

I just want to end with a quote that my Dad actually sent me this past week from general conference that I really love a lot. It’s by Sister Oscarson and it says

"I have tremendous love for and faith in those of you who are in your teen and young adult years. I have seen and felt of your desires to serve and make a difference in the world. I believe that most members consider service to be at the heart of their covenants and discipleship. But I also think that sometimes it’s easy to miss some of the greatest opportunities to serve others because we are distracted or because we are looking for ambitious ways to change the world and we don’t see that some of the most significant needs we can meet are within our own families, among our friends, in our wards, and in our communities. We are touched when we see the suffering and great needs of those halfway around the world, but we may fail to see there is a person who needs our friendship sitting right next to us in class."

May we all try a little harder to open our eyes to serve those that are closest to us. For some reason it’s harder to do that I guess. It’s such a weird phenomenon. We love to fly half way across the world to serve complete strangers, but we don't find that same satisfaction in serving those that live under our same roof.  LET’S BE BETTER.

I love you all and pray for you every single day. Have a great week!