White Salmon, here we go!

Hi everyone! 

Wow, this past week was a roller coaster. FOR SURE!

Hermana Aldrich and I sadly said goodbye to the members, Presidente Moreno and his cute little family, and the Ochoa Parades family. It was a hard separation, but we will go back to their baptism soon.  They are prepared, VERY prepared, they just need a little help with some things right now. 

Wednesday morning, Transfer day comes around, I jumped out of the shower with wet hair and decided to keep packing my second suitcase.  I was no where NEAR ready to leave that morning.  Then we got a call from our Assistants to the President, and they asked me If I knew I had to be at the transfer sight right then and there at 8:00... WHAT?  My zone leaders forgot to tell me about this when I was leaving, or SOMETHING.  Either way, I was in no way shape or form ready to leave.  Frantically, I packed the rest of my things within 15 minutes, along with the other sister's help packing my stuff and taking my things out to the van, which the AP's drove to our apartment (5 minutes away from the transfer site) and picked me up. I was not ready to leave Yakima... Ha, I was about in tears saying goodbye to Hermana Aldrich and the other sisters, but I know my area will be in good hands. 

The drive to The Dalles is so beautiful, like, SOOOOO beautiful!  My area borders the state of Oregon, and of course we have the Columbia River splitting the two states. We cover a LARGE, spread out ward. We only have about 30% attendance because everyone else is less active. We also are covering English and Spanish work, and this will be my second time doing both! It's really exciting!

As soon as we got home, I unpacked a bit, we ate lunch, and then we had an appointment with our investigator, Trevor.  He's a senior in high school, and he was a referral from a member, who is super good friends with him. He is really progressing, and he loves coming to mutual!  Unfortunately, we heard a couple days later, that after Mutual, Trevor was in a car accident on his way home.  He is doing well, but his truck is totaled.  We have a date set with him, but we may set it back a week or so, so that we can have enough time with him to teach him everything.  He's doing well though, we should be seeing him this week with our bishop and one of his counselors to give him a blessing.

I can't remember everything off the top of my head I wanted to share, but here's some sweet pictures from our hike this morning. This hike is right on the border of our mission, it's so beautiful!  We also went to a local fish hatchery where they have tons and TONS of fish! First P-day in White Salmon, totally successful!

Anyone want some.. WHITE SALMON?

Hi everyone! This week has been busy and a good one!

Transfers are on Wednesday, and we did not expect what is going to happen! Hermana Aldrich and I are going to be doubled out (we are both leaving the area) and two other Spanish sisters will be doubled into our area. Hermana Aldrich will be serving in the other Spanish branch in Yakima, which is the Moxee Branch. I will be transferred to the partially new area of our mission, the Dalles Oregon specifically White Salmon/Stevenson, and I'll be serving with a sister who came into the field with Hermana Aldrich. I've heard a lot of good things about this area, and it's sparking some flames of work. I had thought about how I could possibly serve there one day on my mission, and apparently it's time for me to head down there!  

We are pretty sad to leave behind the Ochoa Paredes family, but we know the new other sisters will take care of them.  As for their baptism, It did not happen. Things came up in the baptism interview with Delia that will need to be addressed to someone else.. They have good desires, just need to work on the some things together before any kind of baptism planning. We are sad to see them make some choices, and it's a bit heartbreaking. But I know one of the new sisters coming to our area, and I know she will take good care of them. Both Hermana Aldrich and I will be returning for their baptism, when it happens. 

We got a sweet referral this past week for the brother-in-law of a member, who was baptized in another area in the mission which I can't spell to save my life, but they are amazing.  Both her boyfriend and his brother are excited to come to church, and they've come to church multiple times before, just not to our branch.  We have set a date with them for March 19th!  They made sure that we said we could come back so we could see them both get baptized, and they are a super sweet family!

Overall, I've been thinking a lot lately about the things I've been learning since being in the heart area of my mission, and I know I've talked about it a lot lately in my emails, I'm sorry if that's a bit boring... Haha!  But I've truly learned a lot, time has flown by that I've been here in Yakima, that literally I haven't written in my journal since I got here... So, I will be doing a lot of journal writing before I get there, so it's gonna be a busy, tiring week! Haha, I am really excited to start fresh... nothing bad happened in my experience in Yakima, I'm just looking forward to starting in a new area.  I'm going to miss the branch and our investigators so much, but it's time for a new start! 

Buena Suerte con todo, y les quiero muchisimo!

Yakima's warming up, so is my time...

Hi Everyone!

I don't have too much to share today, so forgive me for my short email...

This past week has been busy, and also long. 

This past week, I've grown to love the scriptures more.

This past week, I've learned to lean on my Savior more.

This past week, I've TRULY learned to love despite differences.

This past week, I've learned to be patient.

Missionary work, is not easy.. but it's worth it. 

Learning to live with differences is a task, but if you learn to love, you don't reside on those things.

Missionary work has taught me these things..

Joseph Smith was truly a young boy, and desired EVERYTHING out of his own heart and will and of Heavenly Fathers. We should be doing so as well, as often as possible. Relying on Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father just as much as Joseph Smith did ever since his first vision.

Trusting in the Lord takes our own faith and action. Our future is as bright as our faith!

Loving everyone is the BEST way to show them how Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father love them. If you learn to serve out of love, and of desires to make other happy, you have exactly what you need to be a representative of Jesus Christ.

I have learned much more, but unfortunately I am out of time....

I have yet to learn so much more and I've been out for a year as of this week! 

I love being a missionary!

Miracles, and pure divinity!

Hi everyone!

This past week went super fast, and was super great!

This past Sunday, Francisco and Deliah were at church again, as they have been for the past month, which we are super proud of them for.  But finding the time to teach them together has been hard, and we haven't had much success in that category for quite a while!  We have been given a new second counselor in the Branch, Hermano Esteves, who's a convert of only a year!  He and his wife are AMAZING!  We asked him if they could join us to teach Francisco and Deliah, and without a pause or a thought he said yes!  We sent them the address, and started to go about the rest of our day.  When we arrived, the Esteves weren't there yet.  So we went in anyway, and they showed up not too longer later. 

We were reading in Mosiah 18 about how so many people were baptized, and what was required of them, including gathering together for church every week. We read verse 10, which says...

"...What have you against being baptized?..." 

We've tried to set a date for quite a while with them, and it just hasn't gotten anywhere.  Finally, for this lesson, we included Chessy as much as possible, asking her how she felt about baptism, etc.  She expressed how she has been hopeful that her parents would get baptized, and we were able to testify after, that Heavenly Father wants this for them, and for them to live as a family for time and eternity...  After that, the spirit just hit us all... Hermana Esteves, Hermana A. and I, and Chessy were all in tears, and waiting for Francisco and Deliah to say something, they made some small comments, like "Si Dios quiere!" (If God wants) and we finally pushed out our guts, and invited them to be baptized the 20th of February. They said YES!

I have also seen the blessing of understanding the Book of Mormon even more every day I read it. I just finished it for the second time! I am so excited to start again, I've found so much strength from reading the scriptures, and from consecrating my time in the Lord's Field.

THIS IS OUR WORK,

BUT IT'S HIS FIELD WE ARE HARVESTING.

I have truly learned a lesson lately about letting Heavenly Father take control of the things I cannot control, and of completely and utterly trusting in him, because after the past few weeks I've truly learned to lean on Heavenly Father for EVERYTHING.

Lean on him for every trial you are given, 

every burden you are carrying,

every roadblock you face,

turn to him for all things, for He knows best!

Moroni 7:33

And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me."

Make the choice TODAY to lean on Heavenly Father in your daily encounters and you will feel more of his love at the end of the day when you kneel in prayer to give him your account of the day, you will feel more of His guidance, do not ever doubt it. 

Love you all, have a good week!

Sorry I can't send pictures today, mission office computers aren't working too well today.