March 24, 2014

okie-dokes, dont have much time but so im just going to copy a bit of what i wrote to my mission president, (we have to email him every week) and another bit of information is that transfers is this next week, so next week i will email either on tues or wed. okay, here is a little bit of what I wrote to President Pace, 

"DONT TRANSFER ME PLEASE!!! I WANT TO STAY *pouty face* jaja. I love las arenas, its very difficult yes, but so was lleida, both areas have been brand new for hermanas so this hard dirty work is all im used to.. ha. but oh how i love it. I love going home at the end of the day and just feeling exhausted physically and mentally. I also love my compañera and i love this branch and if I need to be transferred and if its what the Lord wants then thats okay , I will go and do :) I love reading the war chapters, okay i dont love love it but i like them alot more now, because this time around what really stood out to me was how they "prepared". there was so much preperation going on before during and still after the wars, even during times of peace they were still preparing. I really learned that we always have to be prepared, prepared to teach, find, and talk. that is why before leaving piso we study the scriptures, we arm up spiritually, place our chapa on and we are ready to go. Preparing is what we are doing here in life, preparing to meet God, preperation is a big thing God wants us to learn, so i think . So what im saying i guess is that i am prepared for wherever the Lord wants me to go or to be. I really love it here but I felt the same about lleida too so i know i will love my next area just as much. I know the lord will place me exactly where i need to be. So im excited to find out! 

Miracle of the week happened yesterday!! basically, we had about an hour left with nothing left to do so we were going to contact BUT the little voice of the spirit prompted us to look up a MA (less active) we found on the street almost a month ago but havent been able to get in contact with , smaller miracle is that we our old planners with us which had her address in it because we were calling old numbers earlier that day, we walked over to her street, rang the timbre, asked for rosana and buzzz the door opened.. we walked in and there she was with her pareja (a very nice, funny spaniard) and we talked and have a follow up visit this next week. She needs us. He had lots of questions. We are super excited to work with them. The spirit is so real, there is no way to deny it. Every good prompting comes from God. I know it because I live it everyday! "

I love my mission president he really is like a dad to all of us, he is the sweetes man alive, he is super inspired and always knows exactly what to say, He is a spiritual giant who i look up to. He loves his wife and family and has a passion for this gospel. Our relationship is very father-daughter like, He understands humor, and understand everyone of us individually, He just understands. I am grateful to be a part of this mission. Its one of the greatest blessings in my life! 

March 17, 2014

HAPPY ST. PATRICKS DAY!!

The best thing this past week was that we had a conference with Elder Kearon, he is the first counselor in the quorum of Europes Area seventy. He is form England and is a convert to the church. Oh boy does this man have a powerful spirit! He  talked about a lot of things (the conference went from 10 am-3 pm). I love missionary conferences because they just fill you up with the spirit and get you ready to just go out and give it all away, then you go back to conferences and it just repeats itself haha. but really this one was a super good conference, however the best part was after it was over, President Pace (my mission president) came over to me and told me that i was 3rd in line and that i was going to interview w/elder kearon in 30 minutes... interviews?? I kept calm and was said okay and then flipped out a little inside.. interviews for what? So i found out that out of the 3 zones that were there listening to conference, president pace chose only 4 to go interview with elder kearon. The interview was about 15 minutes long and we just chatted.. he asked me about myself and my family and we just talked, but it was the most spiritual "chat" i have ever had. Elder kearon listened intently his questions were inspired which lead me to just open up about everything and oh did he care, he cared so much for me in that moment, you could see it in his eyes. He offered the closing prayer and lets just say that during that prayer you could hear my tears hit the floor as I listened with my head bowed. He prayed for specific people in my life that I never mentioned. He gave details about me and my loved ones, but with details I never gave him. During the interview he listened to me and then he listened to the spirit. I have never felt so much love crammed into 15 minutes. I felt my heavenly fathers love, my saviors love, my dads love and elder kearons love. I am so beyond grateful for this experience, so grateful for the worthy priesthood holders in our church who guide and direct us. I am so grateful for all of YOU worthy priesthood holders who I have in my life. 

The rest of the week was pretty good. We just go and do what we do... but better haha. The conference really inspired me to never settle, to always be striving to do better than yesterday, to really recieve that confirmation of who I am and to live up to the potential God knows I have. Hermana Gillette and I , this past thursday made a list of eachothers stregnths and then after we looked at our own stregnths we chose a weakness that we wanted to turn into a stregnth. we voiced it and then helped eachother create a plan on how to change.... this was probably the best companionship inventory I have ever had! :) I have loved having that paper on my desk during personal study and being able to look at it and reflect at the end of that hour and figure out how what i learned can be applied to help me overcome the weakness/thing i want to improve and then write down small goals to do that day to help me achieve it and become it. This past week I have been working on being more persistant in my personal goals... ummm good one to start off on right? haha. But its working, its been helping me. 

Okay , miracle time. . SO basically short version is that we told the lord where we were going to be, the exact pass bys on a specific street.. did we find the people? of course not! but we did happen to have the opportunity to find 1) two news -both with families 2) one lady who was going through a really hard time b/c her husband has cancer and kissed the book of mormon as we told her it was hers to keep and 4) as if that wasnt enough the lord put a menos activo in our path who we had no idea existed. oh and all of this happened on two blocks, we hardly had to move. we just talked to the next person closest to us after talking to one person, they were basically coming to us. THE LORD BLESSES US WHEN WE OPEN OUR MOUTHS AND TALK. we really were having a hard day, all fires, going from place to place, both of us were physically drained that day. but i know the lord blessed us because we kept going. we did our best all day (even though it wasnt THE best , it was the best we could at the moment) and at the end of the day the lord blessed us. i know he did and i know he continues to. we could never do this work without him. 

I have never felt so tired. I have never felt so much love. 

I have never been so happy :) 

Love you all. Love you all. Love. You. All. 

-Hermana Hair

March 10, 2014

Okie dokes, so this week ... hmmm we feel like it was better than last week but still not where we want it to be. We are going to just keep going, being obedient and trusting in the lord that after we do our all he will bless us with his miracles. Its amazing to see how this work really is HIS work, none of us missionaries could make any difference if it wasnt for His helping hand and miracles. 

no comment ... time please stop.

We have a couple people, Maria Louisa and Igor, who are not members but come to church because they have family that are members in our branch. (Maria louisa has her daughter leny who is a member and Igors wife is a member ) They have never wanted to meet with the missionaries but the lord has been softening their hearts and we are hopefully meeting with them this next week. they are both great people who because of church have been able to feel the lords love and spirit and I know that the desire to know more and feel more has been growing inside of them. 

This past week has been WARM!! the past 3 days have felt like summer here , its crazy how quick the change was but with weather up here people are always saying, enjoy it while you can, because it changes from one day to the other. Another thing they do here in spain (at least in the north) is they have carnivals at the end of february and beginning of march. They call it carnivals but what they should really call it is Halloween!! haha all a carnival is here is that families and groups of friends dress up in costumes and walk around. like we have seen a family of superheros, bakers and thugs. or groups of friends as cheetahs, babies, or disney characters. and... im pretty sure thats all they do, they dress up and go walk around outside, have a parade and call it good.. they crazy thing is i think the adults are more into it than the kids! its been a funny week and very interesting. 

I love you all ! 

hugs and kisses, 

Hermana Hair

Okay so this is the baby from Lleida!!! the second counselors baby , who they named after me! I saw her the day she was born and then got transfered the next day so it was so fun to receive this picture from a member in lleida! She is so big now!

 Here is baby melanie, (she is half dominican and half bolivian)

LLEIDA UPDATE

OOOHHHHHH I completely forgot to tell you all that about a month ago a little girl, named melanie from lleida got baptized!!! i was working with her family and they were so hard to always get a hold of and would fire on us all the time. but i remember i had the strongest feeling to keep trying with them. we met them my first transfer, i never forgot about them and they were always our stop by back up plan if our other plans didnt work. i made hna williams promise she would keep trying and tada!!!! now almost 8 months later! we are seeing miracles with their family! melanie is now baptized! this makes me so incredibly happy and i just wanted to share that good news with you all! 

take care, lots of love,

hermana hair

March 3, 2014

Hello!! 

well... this week was was really rainy and windy! which equeals two drenched missionaries, only one functioning umbrella and very frizzy hair. Its always a bit harder in this kind of weather because everyone who is not a missionary decides its smarter to stay indoors:) so we try doorknocking.... but its carnival week so everyone is out of town. so what do we do? we drop everything and go to the carnival as well! kidding!! we keep on trudging along because we know that if we work and do our part that the lord will do his and that miracles will come. we found a spaniard family who is willing to listen! we have a visit with them this week. we found an old investigator who was basically a member (just didnt want to get baptized) who for some reason stopped going all together. She recieved us with the warmest hug and kiss and told us all about how she loves mormons - she used to be a nun for a very long time. the miracles dont stop there.

Yesterday around 9 pm, it was pouring rain and there was absolutely no one on the street . we see this man in the distance and without saying anything we know he is the lucky one we are going to stop and talk to. We stop him and he is like oh mormons! i know you i found a little card with a book on it that had some information on the back on the ground the other day. Do you have that book? I would really like one but i dont know how much it costs. We were happy to respond that it was FREE! and that we just happened to have one on us and that he was more than welcome to have it. We went on to give him our information from the tarjeta and he took that too. He said this really interests him but he refused to give us his number or informacion . porque? idk... but we are praying for him because i know that anyone who reads the book of mormon can not deny that its truthfullness.

It really has been a pretty slow, wet week but no matter how long i have been on the mission i am still amazed at how many miracles the lord provides for us when we are doing our part. And I know that goes for everyone and anyone. The lord promises to bless us when we are obedient to his gospel. He promises blessings and all we need to do is trust in him and work. keep trudging forward trusting that once we do our part, he will do his. and his part is what makes all the difference. 

Love you all so much! too much to even explain with words. keep dry and warm and on the lords path! love you! 

Hermana Hair

p.s. im going to try placing pictures on a dropbox. our mission president said we can use this. so much better and faster for everyone to see my pictures. the first file on there is from last preperation day when we went to a faro... a lighthouse. up in Gorliz. it was BEAUTIFUL! our missions name is el faro (the lighthouse) so it was perfect. 

I just uploaded all the pictures we took that day so lots might be repeats or random ones... like one of the elders trying to reinact the first vision.. ha.