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. 

Yakima is melting, not me!

Hi everyone! 

This past week was great!  We had a sweet District Council, and we even had it in Spanish, which was fun because I haven't done that before!  We had some sweet practice in Spanish for our lessons with role plays, too. We talked to a ton people this week too, it was great!

We had a missionary training broadcast, which was worldwide, and that was awesome.  I felt the spirit so strong. It was a lot of what we already talk about as missionaries -- living the doctrine of Christ to grow our testimonies, and then to be able to testify even more.  Our two hours of listening to them was a blast!  Later that day we had a set lesson with Chessy and Francisco, her Dad, but we couldn't find a member to come with us, so we asked them if they could meet us at McDonald's.  Francisco called us back and said they could!  So we were still able to have a lesson, haha!  We just had to have it in public, which is always a little awkward the first time around, but it went great!  

Later that night we had a lesson with Jorge, who is our sweet golden referral.  We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and he loved it!  He's reading the Book of Mormon, and really enjoying it!  We hadn't gotten too far with him and the lessons until he called us the day before our last lesson and told us he'd be leaving to move back to San Francisco to start over.  I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but he was married to his partner for about a year, who died last July, and that was around the time he was walking around Pike's Market in Seattle when two sister missionaries kind-of -- sort-of chased him down to talk to him.  He felt a bit weird, but he loved talking with them, so that turned out well!  But he's now officially out in San Fran.  He said he'd request the missionaries to visit him though, he's awesome!  Just looking for a bit of peace in his life!

After having the broadcast, and preparing to have a Zone Conference this week, I've been evaluating myself and my personal goals.  Hermana Aldrich and I have been talking things out, between us and personally our mission goals, and I've come to a conclusion.  I don't always look at the time I have left, but in thinking about how far I've come so far on my mission, this past transfer I have truly changed more than I probably have over all my mission. This past transfer has truly taught me what it takes to be a true disciple of Christ. Patient, long suffering, faithful, knowledgeable, charitable, virtuous, diligent, and especially humble. I am who I am right now on my mission because of the endless experiences I'm having with Hermana Aldrich, and my situations right now. 

One thing that has helped me out this week is the Youth 2016 music.  Wow!  How uplifting!  We've listened to a lot of hymns, I love it.  I am so motivated to become more like Jesus Christ everyday!  I truly now feel like a real missionary!  

I LOVE being a part of the W.Y.M. Couldn't ask for anything else!

Sick again & Chessy's Baptism!

Hi everyone! 

Wow, you wouldn't believe how my week went!  This week we had a lot of wonderful lessons with Chessy again, and she even got her interview!  We've had really sweet, simple lessons with her, and then she had her interview with our new district leader, who is Elder Jimenez. He's great!  Chessy's Dad even told him during their interview that he still wants to get baptized, and after talking about the priesthood authority, how he could give blessings to his wife and Chessy after he receives the Melchizedek Priesthood.  He's completely on board.  He already has a testimony of Joseph Smith and that he was a prophet of God!  On the other hand, Delia his wife, Chessy's Mom, we haven't been able to visit with for quite a while.  But she will come a long soon.  They both gave permission to Chessy to get baptized, and our Branch President went ahead and baptized her and confirmed her!  The spirit was so strong as we watched her from the top of the stairs of the font while He was baptizing her. She said she felt relieved from everything.  We emphasized this week on the sacrament and the Laws & Ordinances lesson from Preach My Gospel this week to finish her up.  It was amazing!  Wow, she's glowing!  All during her baptism, I was becoming sick with something, not really sure what.  Let's just say I thought it was reasonable to eat fast food after Chessy's interview lesson because of celebration... Either way, my body isn't too happy with me.  I was able to push through her baptism and feel the spirit so strongly, and I couldn't believe that it happened!

WITHOUT FAITH, GOOD WORKS ARE DEAD!  

Her confirmation was even more beautiful!  The blessing was perfect for her.  Soon we will be teaching her parents, hopefully, if her mom's work hours allow.  They all know that the church is true, it's just fitting in the time to teach them both together, and having members come with us every time. This week was amazing!

I LOVE being a missionary, I never ever EVER want to come home... no offense to my family... but I just love Washington so much... I still can't believe I'm here.  I always dreamed when I was young of serving a mission in Washington with a lot of rain and preferably Seattle, so I could see my Uncle, but Yakima is even better!  I love being so close with President and Sister Lewis, and seeing them so often. They even came to Chessy's Baptism! 

I love seeing the Gospel change people's hearts, their perspectives, their complete lifestyles... It's incredible how much relief and refuge the Gospel of Jesus Christ provides. I stay on my mission for every perfect reason because he stayed in the Garden for me.  I dive into the Book of Mormon every day for something to share with others, and this is what I'll share with you all today..

3rd Nephi 16: 19-20

19. Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. 

20. The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God. 

11 down... Que?

Hi everyone! 

This past week was pretty interesting...

We had transfer calls, and Hermana Aldrich and I are staying!  Literally no one in the mission is changing... 5 missionaries are leaving to head home, and only 12 are coming in, but we will be having a 3rd district in our zone! We'll be getting a new District leader, and our area will be split!  We will no longer cover the out distanced cities in our area that we haven't been able to visit, but it will be good because there's lots of potential out there!

Chesy did not end up getting baptized, but she will definitely be prepared for next week.

This past week I got some amazing news!  Burt Ramsey back in Toppenish had plans to get baptized this past weekend!  Due to our baptism falling through, and multiple other of our baptisms for our District falling through, we found a member to take us to Burt's baptism, and it was wonderful!  He'll probably be my last English investigator to be baptized, but who knows? Maybe I'll do some english work in the future again. His baptism was amazing, everyone from the ward was there, and still plenty of the people I knew from before.  Ever since he told us about his dreams of seeing multiple people and assuming it was a sign of family history work, I always saw him in white... and I got to see it actually happen!  He looked glowing!  I did not get a picture of him in white, but trust me when I say he looked like an Angel!

On Tuesday we had planned to have a FHE with Chessy and Francisco, but they never showed up.  They called us and told us that Francisco was working and plowing snow around town, so we weren't able to have them.  We were able to help the member who we made the plan with to have her first real FHE, and despite her kids going crazy, she pulled it together and shared her testimony along with her daughters' testimonies. She's literally amazing.

Wednesday we met Carla, who is outstanding!  She has so much potential, and she let us talk to her for 15 minutes while she stopped cooking in her kitchen, and she was so excited to accept a pamphlet. She's awesome!  We are going back to her this week!  We also did A LOT of walking on Wednesday, so my calves are definitely feeling like rock!

Friday we had a big discussion with Chesy about rearranging a new date for her baptism, and we had Hermana H. with us from the branch and her grandson Alex, who's going to be like... the BEST missionary ever!  We are patiently waiting as a branch to see where he will go, and he totally testified of the commandments to Chesy and promised her in the name of the Lord that she would be blessed if she used the atonement to do better everyday. It was perfect!  Then Alex got ordained an Elder this past Sunday.  WOOHOO!

Saturday night we went to Burt's baptism, and that was amazing!  Here are some pictures.  Hope they show up - and of course, a tag picture!  Sunday was also awesome because we had Francisco, Chesy, AND Delia at church, and they stayed the WHOLE time this time... YESS!  I'm so happy we've been seeing little miracles still.

Another crazy thing happened...   I hit my 11 months... Que?  No!  No Quiero!  I can't believe it's been just under a year since I got on a plane just as Sarah, and then arrived in Mexico as Hermana Marble, I absolutely love being here, wearing this tag humbles me, strengthens me, gives me the power.  I never thought I would change this much over the past 11 months.  I have enjoyed every minute so far of becoming more like Christ, and I have a strong testimony of the life of Jesus Christ.  As I put on my tag all I care is about representing him, and doing my best to put my personal worries aside and worry about teaching those who need the gospel and my time more than I need my own time. 

 Love you all, thank you for all the endless prayers and support. I feel it every day!