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.