Temple Pday and Itsy Bitsy Miracles!

A member fed us dinner at the church while they participated in a lesson with the elders at the same time.. Best Chicken Noodle soup for all the rain and our colds. 

Hello everyone! 

What a WEEK! Let me get down to business!

Monday sadly we dropped Paula, and then we went off to visit a member in the nurse and rehab center. Sister Arnold was married and raised her family in Wenatchee (I got to ask her all about where she lived and I got to connect with her a bit).  Afterwards we were on our way to go knocking, we had stopped in the car behind a truck that was about to turn left, when the car behind us hit us... Oh snap! I was about to stress out until I pulled over and I got out and looked at the car and there wasn't a single scratch...  The person had just bumped us, and they were even members from the Sunnyside ward, down the highway 30 minutes.

 Mis hermanos y hermanas, Les amo!

Tuesday we went to the temple! Holy cow, I missed this beautiful place... Sitting in the Celestial room again brought so much comfort and peace. I was surprised that it came in a way that wasn't very strong or significant. I just felt, p e a c e . . . and that's all I needed, and I'm so glad Heavenly Father knew that!  Later that day we found Marissa, who we had a lesson with the next day about the restoration. While teaching her she expressed her feelings about how close she has come to Heavenly Father through prayer. She was a drug addict since she was a YOUNG teenager.  After years of guilt and shame, she searched diligently for help, and she has been clean for 6 years!  She has a solid testimony of prayer and Heavenly Father's divine help.

Wednesday we had that lesson with her, and we also stopped by a potential Hermana Taua and I met before transfers. Guillermina has the great responsibility of taking care of her grand kids after working in the harvest all morning. She has told us she wants to be baptized, but she wants to come to church before she makes the decision of when.  Well, perfect Guillermina, because you have to go to church to progress, and in order to be baptized, you have to progress... It just all fit in! Then later that day we helped the Young Women make cookies for the great big Harvest Dinner for the following Friday. 

Thursday was full of fallen-through appointments, no service to be done at the food bank, and not too much happened...  We did get some good knocking in and visited by some other potentials and members, and shared some short messages of encouragement and of strength. 

Friday we finished planning and went to the Ward Harvest Dinner, and it was a great turn out!  Burt came, Joann came, Joann even brought a friend who we were introduced to, and we even had a short lesson with him before the dinner about what we do as missionaries. He knows the Bible in and out!  He wants to read Daniel this upcoming week, and wants the missionaries to read it with him... Haha, of course!  Why not?  We passed him to the elders at the dinner since he lives in their area, and they hit it off pretty well!  They have an appointment with him on Saturday, and he lives over 30 miles away, almost to the edge of the elder's area... Haha, good thing that they have a member taking them!  A whole bunch of our less actives even showed up!  It was so awesome!

Yakima Valley Spanish Zone

Saturday we went to Yakima for a Zone Training Meeting about inspired questions and discerning the needs of our investigators and less actives. We later went to another baptism of the Elders' investigator Masae, who's originally from Samoa.  With permission, Sister Taua came down to Toppenish with a member to the baptism, and it all ended up going well!  We were planning on seeing Molly, but she made different plans with her Dad, but she's been doing so well anyway! Then, we had a lesson with Burt that night, which went so well!  We reviewed the Restoration and the Gospel and invited him to be baptized!  He said yes!  I was personally prompted to ask him for November 21st, when we had planned to ask him for November 28th. It turned our that Burt was very close to his Dad growing up, who sounds like may have passed away some time ago, and his birthday was November 22nd, which will be Burt's confirmation date!  We've truly been able to work well with him and help him see the plan that Heavenly Father has for him. He agreed to November 21st! 

Sunday, Burt, Joann, and Joann's friend were all at church! Then later that day we had a lesson with Molly, and invited her to highlight Christ's name in yellow or underline it every time she reads it in her scriptures. She's growing so much! We've made plans to have her confirmation the same day as her baptism, and her Dad (Brother Ibarra) is going to baptize her. She's become so wonderful!

I guess I might as well mention that I'm hitting my halfway mark this Tuesday.... *Runs and hides under bed crying*   NO! It's flown by sooooooo incredibly fast!  I can't face it right now... Nope, can't do it... And Hermana Parry hits her 2 months tomorrow... its an unbelievable week for both of us. It's so weird....  I can say I have truly enjoyed the journey of these 9 past, crazy, happy, sad, disappointing months. It's help me grow so much even when I have become frustrated and wanted to give up, I've always had Christ to lean on, and my Heavenly Father to talk to.  It's brought so much comfort to me with in this past roller-coaster time. There's no where to look but up from here. If I didn't change many hearts within this past year, I know mine was changed for the better. I have come to know my Savior better than I ever have since I have been sent to this earth. I can't wait to see what's in store for my next 9 months.   I am in no way, shape, or form a perfect missionary, but I have become perfected in Christ, and I am still becoming perfect in Christ. I love my mission.  I wouldn't trade it for anything else in the world.  It's time to live up and take advantage of every moment I have, because I've got these few months left, and I can't let any moment pass by without coming closer to Christ with my companion or with my investigators. I continue to love my sweet trainee, she is a hard worker, and I don't doubt she will train after I leave, whenever that is, but that's not my point. :)

Have a wonderful week everyone! Love you all!

Elder johnson and I saw eachother at The temple! He's the only spanish elder Hermana Harston and I came in together with from the CCM, he even gave me a few blessings before we left the CCM. He's doing well and has now become a Zone Leader already! He says Hi to my email list, including Elder Asher Chia, Hermana Hooker and Hermana James!

Received a cute little gift from a member while we were out knocking doors, knocked into her and she gave a little prayer box for both of us!

General Conference Weekend!

Hi everyone! 

All is well here in Toppenish, still a bit rocky with finding and teaching but fortunately we have had one grand, sweet miracle today while teaching Ana Maria. Remember that we found her on exchanges when I was with Hermana Johnson? Well, we finally were able to get back in touch with her twice this past week. Our first lesson we didn't have too much time because we were running late trying to get to her after an appointment with a less active went over time. When we got to her, she had 15 minutes. Now let's be real... We can teach the Restoration in 15 minutes easy, but she LOVES talking with us in general, so we were able to teach about half of the Restoration to her until she had to leave to pick up her grand daughter from school. Mind you, this was our very first real lesson with her, where created a perfect bond despite our short lesson with distractions. We asked her if she'd like to say the prayer, and she immediately stood up and said yes!  She asked us to stand with her while she prayed!  Holy cow, it was amazing to see her pray. She prayed mostly for us to find people to teach and help baptize... Her prayer started to make me tear up.. we had built a foundation so quickly with her that it was all a blur, but she said the prayer, she asked questions, and she even read some verses from the bible to us. 

Our second lesson came around, and we taught the WHOLE Restoration this time, without too much distraction. We got to talking about Joseph Smith, and how he was confused and lost about what church to join. She gave input that it was just like how she had read about Daniel in the bible, that he asked the same thing. I have not read that part of the bible, (It's probably old testament, right?) and she was amazed when we talked about how he was given the authority to establish the church on the earth, and about how he translated the Book of Mormon. Immediately, I grabbed our extra Spanish Book of Mormon that we planned on giving her. We knew she'd like to remember that we gave her this book. She was ASTONISHED when we gave the book to her, and told her it was hers to keep. She started crying and thanking us, and she talked a lot about how this is something she wants to share with her kids. But here's unfortunate news... She is moving, and we won't be able to continue teaching her. But she WILL be able to find the missionaries in her area when she moves. We think she may live close to the border of CA and Mexico, it is most likely in the California San Diego Mission. We exchanged names and info before we ended our lesson. Hermana Taua and I want to keep in touch with her while she moves. She moves this Saturday. We are hoping to teach her two more times before she leaves. I will definitely be getting a picture with her to show you all this wonderful Hispanic Aunt of mine. We've come so close since we met her, and now we are letting her into Heavenly Father's care as she moves on with her life in California. She will forever be in my heart as I continue my mission. 

Rose Marie, has unfortunately lost her date to be baptized.  She's not fully committing to coming to church, and reading in the Book of Mormon. She has the Children's Book of Mormon as well. We continue to work with her and see what we can do to help her progress. We also lost contact with Jimmy. Hopefully soon we will find him home some time!

Conference was this weekend! Wow, what about the changes though!? I am excited to hear from our three new Apostles in the Conferences to come. We are so fortunate to live in this great time with our technology advantage with our Gospel Tools and having everything in our pockets. (Not quite us missionaries... yet!) I wish to extend an invitation to those of you who read their scriptures online and on your phone, to take a break next time you read.... to read from a real book. I LOVE having my physical Book of Mormon and scriptures. It makes reading more interesting, more personal, and so much more real than just on a screen.

We still see some little miracles every day, looking for the potential Hispanics... and Caucasians.... :) I LOVE being a missionary, I wouldn't trade these 18 months for anything! 

The atonement is real, I love being a missionary, and I pray for you guys each day. You've all made this journey a bit easier with your kind and uplifting emails. I love you all, I pray that you guys will find opportunities to share the gospel with someone every chance you get. There are so many people who need it! 

Tenga una semana buena, Les Extrano!

Tender Mercies, New transfer!

Hi Everyone!

Wow, This past week seriously flew by! Does anyone else feel that way?

So, it's a new transfer, and these new changes have happened with our area, but something even more exciting happened... We didn't know this until the day before transfers, but we are now doing English work for the English ward!  Our area is now split, so we will do English and Spanish in Toppenish, and then Spanish work in all other parts of our area.  Wednesday we met with the elders and gave them the records for their area, and then we had 4 set appointments, which NEVER happens anymore for our area.  We've been so busy with appointments this week, and at the end of the night on Thursday we had plans to stop by someone we had a doorstep lesson with a few weeks ago, when out of the blue, this guy comes out at 8:30 at night to water his porch plants... weird, right? Well, we started speaking Spanish to him, and he spoke very fluently, but then switched to English. Well it turns out he's Hispanic but he has lived in the states for his entire life and understands more English now as a result of that.  He introduced himself as Jaime, (Hi-may) in Spanish, and then said, "Well, people call me Jamie, but you can call me Jimmy..." Uh, awkward again, but really funny for all three of us.  We jumped right into the Restoration while we talked about the Book of Mormon and about how we receive help and guidance from our Modern Day Prophets.  He LOVED the idea of the Restoration and Prophets, and it all started making sense.  We were able to talk with him about what he's been struggling with this past week, and for about a year of his life. He's started having health problems and has been quite lonely, as he only lives with his dogs and puppies. He really enjoyed talking to us.  Then we said a prayer with him before we left, and I said the prayer.  This prayer was one of the best moments I've had feeling the Spirit with someone new who we taught on our first time meeting them. I have never felt so much love for someone I never knew before.  As I closed the prayer (in which I asked Heavenly Father to help Jimmy have the comforting spirit of the Holy Ghost as he goes through a major surgery soon) we both looked up and we saw some tears in his eyes.  He quickly rubbed his eyes and said, "Sorry, I never really get emotional, but thank you so much for that prayer."  We never visited Eva that night, but I know we were sent there for a specific reason, and it was for Jimmy.

Sabino at his baptism in my prior location.

On the other hand, Eva who we had plans to see, has also been struggling.  We basically taught her the Restoration about two weeks ago and we've been trying to get in to see her since then. We stopped by last week and she expressed her feelings of loneliness while her husband is becoming sick with a brain tumor. She feels remorse and pain that her husband is suffering and not herself. She would rather have the pain than see her husband go through it. Well we roughly talked again about how we will all be a great big family when we return with our Heavenly Father after this life. She took great comfort when we told her we would see Heavenly Father again after our lives on earth. We also prayed with her for comfort and protection upon their family and her husband as he continues with his sickness. 

We met Berta while knocking doors this week, who has three kids and one grandson. Her grandson and her daughter were in a car accident, in which her son-in-law caused her daughter and himself to pass away in the accident.  Her grandson, who was only two at the time, and had his car seat turned towards the back of the car, which had completely saved him. Miguel, the grandson, is now left with a mental disability, but loves smiling and meeting new people. They want to put God more in their life, and Miguel loves being around us. We were invited in the door after teaching them on the doorstep about our loving Heavenly Father, and as soon as we walked in we both felt the Spirit so strong. Again, we've never felt such outpouring of love for these wonderful people we had never met. They showed us pictures of Miguel's father and mother, and his uncle who saved his life in the accident once he arrived to take in Miguel. We said a prayer with them and she graciously thanked us for coming and praying with her. 

We've had a lot of great little miracles in working out our schedules and traveling to and from city to city.  We've felt extremely thankful we are both staying together this transfer, we've sadly passed our investigators to the elders covering our area now due to bordering areas, but we are all on the Lord's Team. Are YOU on the Lord's team? 

I couldn't be more thankful for this Gospel and for the little, small miracles we've been blessed with this past week. I am extremely thankful to be a part of this wonderful church and to be a missionary. As a missionary, you see miracles every day and when we see and experience miracles, you can't get enough of them.  I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father to be serving in this area and we are so grateful to serve together. 

Paz afuera (our version of Peace out)

Have a wonderful week everyone!

A field after the hop harvest.