7-29-13

Hola Familia!!

 

Oh you know it is just another great week to be a missionary!

 

Now looking back at my week and what i need to tell you it is much more eventful than i remember. It feels like many of the things that happened were so long ago when it was only like 5 days ago.. It is very strange.

 

Cynthia came to church last week and seriously, it changed everything. Her attitude was so different to our message after she came for church. When I ask her about it she said that she had never felt so welcome in a church before, she said she could feel the love of God through the love of other people. It was really cool. Plus her 9 year old son, Alex, was telling us all about what he learned in Primary and about temples and Joseph Smith and it was amazing what he learned from one week in Primary. What we learn in our childhood really shapes who we are. So thanks to everyone who put up with me when i was a little kid and helped mke me who i am today. Anyway, Cynthia was really cool, she has had a pretty rough go at life so the fact that the church made her feel welcome made a huge difference. Then on Friday she came to a baptism with us. It was a really cool baptism. Anaberta is 16 years old and has a very strong testimony which she shared with us at her own baptism. It was so powerful. There were 5 missionaries there and i think her testimony at that moment was more powerful than any of ours could have been. Since Friday, Alex basically begs his mom to get baptized everyday that we are over there. And I know that being in the church building and being able to feel the Spirit that it has, both of the Spirit itself and the people who make others feel welcome there can change lives. 

 

We have since last week, again sent off another one of our companions. Hma. Syphus is now in Argentina preaching the gospel. It was fun to have her and to learn how i could improve, what i was already doing well, and just seeing a different perspective. It also taught me this week, how amazing Hma. Pierce is. The more I learn from her and get to interact with other missionaries, the more i am grateful for everything she has taught me. 

 

We also had zone conference this week! President Ware and Sister Ware are pretty amazing people. President Ware has so much knowledge but he is still very easy going and fun. It was fun to see both sides. They stressed the importance of Church tours (It seems to be a theme). And it was just really good, to have that day of listening and learning! Man i miss just sitting and learning (who would have ever thought i would say that). The same day of zone conference, i used my service gloves from my package for the first time.... helping catch chickens and put them back in their pens. It was definately  a different experience. Chickens are fast!!! And they smell relly bad, but what can you do. It was great to give this service, this lady couldn't believe that we had volunteered ourselves to do this. I would catch them (our try) and deliver them to their correct pen, cause they had like 4 different kinds and you couldn't put them with each other. The really hard ones were the little ones! The lady that we did the service for had kids and her little 3 year old was a chicken catching ninja! seriously he would bend over and just pick 2 of them up, i don't know how he did it. But overall i had fun, it was a good experience, i ended up smelling like chicken and we were late for dinner... And then my companion was a little upset that there was chicken in our salad at dinner.

 

Saturday i had a very interesting experience that i would like to share a little bit about. We went to this house for na appointment and earlier we had challenged him to read the book of Mormon. He had accepted and we were going to see how it had been going. After we had started he began to go off, basically how everything we believed was ignorant and foolish. Seriously we couldn't really get a word in, we tried to bear our testimony and then knowing it wasn't doing anything we finally told him that we had to leave. But it was very interesting, because honestly i have never felt like that before, it was such a dark feeling. And i didn't feel dark because of what he was saying or that he had sparked doubt in me. Cause he actually did the opposite, but the feeling in the room, the complete absence of the Spirit and honestly i could feel something there that was just so dark. The whole tme i felt this i just thought to myslef, "Why would i ever listen to what you are saying? I feel so gross right now and i know how i can feel, i know the happiness that has come to my life because of what i believe." He concreted my testimony in everything i believe. I Know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and he had the help through the power of God, and that all my ancestors sacrifices were to bring me happines and that my Heavenly Father loves me. Luckily after that we had a lesson with Cynthia that was able to help us feel the spirit agin. We turned on some hymns and just let happiness sink in again. It was definately a learnign experience and i know that the gospel has brought me happiness in my life and with that hope of the Gospel i don't need to have doubts.

 

Then this morning i was reading about Faith. I was in ALma 32 and i just love verse 37. Basically all we need is to desire to have faith, and with that desire and some effort we can gain that faith and testimony!

 

I love you all, thanks for your love and support. I hope that this email finds you all doing well and that you remember that the Lord and OUR Heavenly Father loves you all very much. THis i know for a fact. Have a great week!

 

Con Amor,

Hermana Ray

 

 

7-15-13

Hola Familia!

 

Sorrythese emails are coming atdifferent times, we are having some computer issues. The libraries are super busy during the summer.

Since Wednesday i have been doing really well, and i bet you can't guess, but i have been doing... Missionary Work!! Yep, knocking on doors, teaching (or trying to teach if it is in spanish) the word of God. We have had some really great experiences the last few days and somethings that we have decided that we need to try and laugh about.

For instance: yesterday i definately had cow cheek for dinner... Not a huge fan, it was super duper chewy and lots of fat attached. But it was a new experience and wasn't as bad as fish. And we had peanut agua fresca.. It tasted like a big hunk as a drink, it was actually pretty good. It was like horchata but made with peanuts instead of rice. It was one of the Elders in my districts birthday yesterday so we had a fiesta with one of the branch members.

 

Anyways the missionary work is going good, we are working hard t otry to find peopl to teach. Right now we are teaching a few people who are having some really hard trials, luckily we have the perfect solution for how to deal with them. Jesus Christ. Anyway another guy we were teaching at first had a lot of questions and wanted to know about our church and Jesus Christ. He had really good questions and things like that, then he started asking other questions. He said well i have heard this and how do i knowt this happened. Some questions we were able to answer, at the end, we bore testimony. We said look, in the grand scheme of things, what is important. We gave him a Book of Mormon and said, look everythng is based on this Book. And testified that it is true. I know the book of Mornon is the words of God and that through this book we can recieve answers. If we pray and read the Book of Mormon, and pray sincerely we can know that it is true. That is the key! when we know that this book is true, it open up faith in everything in the Gospel. We challenged him that if he really wanted to know, read it, pray sincerely. We can't convince people of anything, we can only invite them to do things that we know will bring pople unto Christ. How do i know? because I have felt it! I have seen lives completely change through making promises with God, and that is  worth everyday and hour that i am out here. To do everything i can to help the people.

 

Spanish is coming long a lot better but this week one of our invetigators asked us to bring someone who speaks more spanish... Shot to the confidence, but i accept it. I know it isn't that good. i laughed. i just wanted to tell her to give me more than 3 months hopefully it will get better.. I didn't. But it is ok. Oh ya!! Happy three months to me last wednesday!!!!!!!!! I forgot to include that. Well i love you all. be good, and remember who you are and the many blessing we have recieved from our Father in Heaven.

 

Con Amor,

Hermana Ray

 

 

P-day Switch

Hola Familia!!

What a crazy week it has been. Sorry i forgot to tell you all that P-Day got switched to wednesday for the week... Oops. But it was for a good reason. We got to go to the temple!! The Columbia River temple is really small. But at the same time i really really liked it. Angel Moroni on the top looks gigantic. But it was so great to get to go to the temple. I love the feeling that i have there, and that ultimately is the experience and feeling i want everyone i teach to be able to experience. It was a reminder of just how important my work out here is, which was great! Starting out the week my companion was still sick. They were talking about sending her home. It was a pretty rough two weeks on our companionship, but if i am learning anything from trials in life it is that we can reflect on them and realize how strong we truely are and how much those trials have blessed our lives.

Pasco is still going good. We are working trying to find people who are interested in the church, but we are also working a lot with our branch list because there are quite a few names that the leaders of the ward don't know. But it is great to see how much we are being blessed with work. Right now we are working with a family who is trying to get back on their feet after losing a loved one. And the more we go over and teach them and encourage them the more they let us in and the closer they get to coming back to church to see how much the people around here actually do love them.

The Lord has definately been blessing us for doing the work we were able to while our compaion has been sick. We are still finding people to teach even when it seems like the day is looking bleak. Then we saw a small little miracle. So my compaion had been really sick for almost 2 weeks at this point and the doctors couldn't figure out what was going on. The doctors were talking about sending her home, but the mission president really didn't want to because she is almost one of the oldest missionaries in the mission and they need trainers. So we prayed, we were doing everything we could for her to get better, nothing was really working. after talking to multiple doctors and tests, symptoms continued to pile with no diagnosis. One doctor decided to try a pro-biotic that you can buy on the sheleves and she started to get better. Just as she had gotten sick really fast, she has finally bounced back really fast to. It has been such and interesting experience. Plus there were blessings, we got to get to know our new mission president pretty well, and truely realize how amazing they are. As my compaions and i were talking about our trials, we talked about how much we all had learned from them throughout our lives. We talked about how much better these trials had made us. They come in a different degree for everyone, but it all comes down to who you turn towards when times get tough. Turning to our Savior Jesus Christ is always the answer! It doesn't matter what you are going through, Jesus Christ and his Atonement are the answer. If we turn towards Christ we will have light in our lives and darkness cannot dwell in light. President Utchdorf talked about this and how it is we need to realize that darkness exist but choose not to dwell there. I love that. 

Speaking of light, last night, we were teaching a lesson to this cute little family and teaching the little girl how to pray. We had just taught them about prophets and Joseph Smith and God, We taught them how to pray, and then she said a prayer before we left. I listened to a little 7 year old pray to her Heavenly Father, who she knew loved her and it was such an awesome experience. We taught them "Soy un Hijo de Dios" or "I am a Child of God" in Spanish and they loved it. Never underestimate the understanding or the faith of a little child. I am thankful for the primary teachers i had that taught me about being a child of God, and having patience with me. Which i can only imagine that Jannae and I were hard to handle as primary children. 

I love the Lord and i Love the opportunity i have had to serve him. Don't shrink in times of trials, let down your pride and take it to you Heavenly Father and turn toward Christ. I know this Church is true and have been greatly blessed by it. I love you all who support me in this time. Never stop looking for the light in the darkness of every situation!! Have a great week! oh and p-day will be back to normal on monday :)

Con Amor,

Hermana Ray

7-1-13

Hola Familia!

Sounds like everyone is doing good, Stay strong and stay happy!

This week has definately been an interesting one. We have had a lot of great experiences and some not so great ones.

The week started off really good, we taught some lessons and are starting to find people who are actually interested in our message. It is nice to know that those people exist. One thing I have found on my mission and am really excited about the change from the braodcast is the churches being open all the time. Here we do church tours with people to try and make them more comfortable coming to church and i have had some of the most amazing experiences there. One of those was this week. One of our investigators was scheduled to come to a church tour. He loved what he was learning about all of our classes and the fact that we had a center where you could search for your ancestors. It had been going great the whole time. When we got into the chapel, he really liked it. He told us that he knew what he was hearing from us was true and he wanted to learn more, but his wife was against it. He is torn because he wants a good relationship with his wife and God. We told him we would help in anyway we could to try to make both of them more comfortable. But as he was telling us this, i knew somehow everything was going to workout, someday he would be able to have what he wanted. I don't know when that is, but Heavenly Father does, and i wouldn't leave it in any hands less capable than His.

Also this week we met a family and helped them move into their house. Lets just say so much good came out of that service. I learned a lot. At first they were a little hesitant, but finally they let them help us. We started helping them unpack and i ended up helping the mom unpack and set up her room... by myself... and she didn't speak English. At first i was pretty scared, i have never thought my Spanish skills were as bad as i did at that moment. But i just started talking, As time went on, i understood her better, she was teaching me words in Spanish as i pointed to things. She asked me questions about the Church. She was so nice. by the end i had told her about church, prophets and my awesome family. The part she seemed to like the most was that no matter where you were in the world the church is the same. It was such a great experience. Plus as you will see in a picture. They had Parrots! big parrots. They were nice enough to let us take some pictures, and then before we left she asked us like 4 or5 times if we were hungry, which meant we weren't leaving without eating. and then she taught us how to make tortillas!! they are sooo good. and i think i might have only burned off 2 of my finger prints trying to flip them over.

All i know is that the more i share the gospel, the more i love it. So many people tell us how awesome it is that we are willing to go and share a message of Jesus Christ and how they are impressed with our courage.

Friday is when our week got interesting. First the Greers left. Second, Hermana Pierce started getting sick and we have spent all weekend trying to figure out what is wrong with her. Luckily we found an awesome member of the ward that our branch is connected to, Sis. Monson and her daughter Sis. Tippets, have been helping us so we can still try to get out and do dome missionary work. Luckily today she seems to be feeling a little better, still haven't figured it out yet whats up. But i have had an opportunity to dig into my scriptures and PMG to try and fill my time. I am so grateful that we have the power of God on the Earth to help bring comfort.

Luckily i get lost a lot less often than before but i still find myself going on "adventures" often. It reminds me of when mom would get lost and tell us that "we weren't lost we were going on an adventure". Mom, i go on lots of "adventures." but your right, life is more fun that way.

The knowledge that we get from he gospel gives me so much hope. To know that there is more than this life, to know of God's love for me and how i can obtain the most blessings possible. I love you all and pray for you everyday! Have a great week!

Con Amor,
Hermana Ray

I think we should make this our slogan and drive a car like this.

As for the awkward pose: 1. the bird was trying to eat me (don't do thumbs up with birds) and 2. the bird was falling off my arm!