Year 1 - Letter 9 - Fairfield, CA

La Vida en Fairfield es muy bien

Hola!

Well..... what a week. Wow! I can't believe how much I have accomplsihed this week. Fairfield is absolutley beautiful and missionary work is even more beautiful. It is absolutley amazing how the Lord truly guides every little thing we do. Well first of all today is kind of crazy because it is only a half p-day because on Thursday we are having a mission conference at a girls camp north of Santa Rosa. We will be staying there for Thursday and Friday night and then coming back on Saturday afternoon. It is going to be so much fun and a great way to get know the other missionaries and become unified to do this great work. Sister Alba is so excited about it and has been texting us little reminders about it today and she is the cutest thing and so organized so I know it will be amazing.

There is so much to report on I don't even know where to begin. Well let's start with my amazing companion. Hermana Clayton she is from Sandy Utah and she actualy knows Hermana Blauer. What a small world. She will hit her 18 month mark in a few weeks and this will be her last transfer. She is an amazing teacher and is really helping me get a hang of things. She is so patient but is willing to push me so that I learn. I am so honored to be her last companion and to learn everything I can from her.

We live with an older couple, The Carlsons, they are so sweet and they have had missionaries living in their upstairs for 5 years. They take such good care of us and they like us to call them Grandma and Grandpa and they really do feel like grandparents. I love living in an actual home and neighborhood it is so comfortable. We wake up every morning and run around their neighborhood. I love it so much because the sun is just rising and it is breathtaking.

It really isn't too cold here. At first I thought I was going to die but it is in the high 70s in the day and the 50s at night so it is perfect. The food is great. We really only cook breakfast and lunch for ourselves and then we have dinner appointments. We cover half of Tolenas Spanish Branch and then the Elders in our district, Elder Campbell (who was in my district in the MTC) and Elder Connors cover the other half of the branch. The members sign up each month to feed all four of us. We have had really good dinners. They are simple but good. Nothing to strange. For luch on my first day we had really good green enchiladas and these candy yams (that looked like poop) for dessert. It was weird it was basically just cut up yams in carmel but it tasted so good.

We have met with about five investgators this week and I honestly love them all so much. I don't talk much but I try to simply testify and I always pray in lessons and just do my best to invite the Spirit.

We had a halloween party with the branch on Saturday and it was so fun everyone is so kind and so welcoming.

I don't have much time to give much detail which kills me because I love detail but I love it here. Heavenly Father is amazing and this work is the best thing that I have ever done.

I am loving every second of this and I am doing great and learning so much!

I love you all so much! Thank you for support!

Love you more than the fresh tortillas we have every meal.

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Andrews

Surprise letter from California!

(We received this from Hillary, yesterday.)

Hola from Fairfield!

Hola!

Well I made it! It is wonderful here! President and Sister Alba and the assistants were at the airport to welcome and they are all so friendly. I truly feel so welcomed. Don't worry about me because President and Sister Alba are the most loving and caring people ever. I have already learned so much from them and they are so willing to help me and to love me.

We were kept busy yesterday with orientations and get to know you activities that were all very fun. Then we had amazing pizza and a devotional at the mission home with all of us new missionaries and the trainers. Then last night we spent the night at a hotel and they had the most comfortable beds. It was so nice.

This morning I got assigned my trainer, Hermana Clayton. She is wonderful! I already love her. We are serving in Fairfield which is South east of Napa. It is so gorgeous here there are so many vineyards and it is just so so green. I have already started immersing myself in spanish by texting for Hermana Clayton but I forgot how easily car sick I get and so it got really bad and Hermana Clayton had to pull over and I threw up on the side of the rode. I felt so bad but oh well it was honestly the prettiest place I have ever thrown up in and I felt better so that was great.

Well I just wanted to let you know I made it safely and that my p-day is on Monday and my address is:

 2114 Madrone Court Fairfield California 94534

I already love this place and the people. In an hour we are having lunch with a member family. Can't Wait!

Love you all so much!

Con Amor,

Hermana Hillary

Year 1 - Letter 8 - MTC

Adios CCM I am peacing out!

Hola! Ahhhhhhh! I can't even believe it! Time is flying by! I can't believe that this is my last P-day in the MTC. I am getting a little nervous just because as weird as it sounds this place has become home to me. I have learned so much and I have just gotten so comfortable with everything and now I am in for a new journey. Honestly I am so so so excited though because I didn't choose to sere a mission to be stuck here forever I chose to serve because I want to share the gospel and I am as ready as I will ever be to do it! Well this week has been amazing and a wonderful last week here.

 

First of all, last week I forgot to mention that I got to be a host which means I helped the new sisters check into the MTC by taking them up to their rooms, getting their books, and walking them to their class. It was a neat opportunity to be the one showing them what to do and helping them feel welcomed. I reassured them that there is no need to fear this is honestly an amazing experience.

 

Also last P-day I was brave and got a free haircut at the MTC. It was a little scary but my hair needed it and I want to look my best. No need to worry they actualy did a decent job I got about 2 inches off and mny side bangs trimmed up. It looks cute and it is really easy to manage.

 

This week has been so spiritually uplifiting after Elder Bednar came we have continued to have a spiritual out pour. For Relief Society we had the opportunity to hear from the General Relief Society President Sister Burton. I could,t believe that she was there. She is amazing! She just glows and talks so sweet and was also really funny. She spoke on how as sisters we have the privilige to be directed under the priesthood. I have really realized that being here surrounded by so many priesthood holders that the priesthood is an amazing gift and a blessing to my life. My Elders have been so wonderful to so willingly fulfill their priesthood duties and are such amazing examples to me. After the meeting I got to meet Sister Burton it was brief but she gave all of us sisters big hugs (because we don't get many hugs here). It was a wonderful experience.

 

The devotional this week was amazing also. The speaker was Elder Bowen of the seventy. He is the one that spoke on children in conference and has the mormon message Reclaim. We were sitting by the side door on the main floor of the gym and all of a sudden Hermana Blauer nudged me and pointed to Elder Bowen who was walking in right behind us. The speakers usually enter throught the front and go right up to the stand but Elder Bowen came in the side and we had the opportunity to meet both he and sister Bowen. Sister Bowen looked and dressed like Aunt Abby and she was so sweet and enjoyed chatting with Hermana Blauer and I. What a need expereience to meet an apostle. Sister Bowen talked about hos success is measured by personal conversion which I have seen is true. I am realizing that the more I learn the better prepared I am teach and the better lessons go. Elder Bowen is an incredible speaker! I could go on for days about this talk. The things that stuck out to me the most is first of all that I must strive to be a missionary that my Mission President can trust. I want President Alba to know that I will do whatever he wants me to do and that I will do it the right way and with right intentions. Another thing is he gave a formula for miracles: obedience plus work = miracles. I have seen this manifest in my experience so far and will strive to continue to apply it. I really could go on and on but I want to encourage all of you to be someone who the Lord and others can trust and to follow this formula for obedience.

 

I am really enjoying my last couple of days here. We are all going crazy. Yesterday we participated in a zone  tradition called Medio Mieroclos (or Middle Part Wednesday) where the Wednesday before a district leaves they all part their hair down the middle after gym in the evening. We all did it! It was a sight to see. Hermana Blauer and I did middle parted pigtails. We looked so "Cute". I will hoefully send pictures soon. We are just living it up!

 

We are also experiencing many lasts of things which is always so hard. We taught our last lesson with Lesbia yesterday and I wanted to cry. It was so sad. We told her that we were being transfered and she was devestated. She was so close to being baptized but we knew that we did the best that we could. We bore our testimonies and then she bore hers. The spirit was so strong and I realized that I loved her so much and that if I could feel that kind of love for her even though it was just my teacher acting it that the love I will feel for investigators in the field will be unreal.

 

I know that I ahve great things ahead of me and I am ready for them. I know it won't be easy because the MTC has been hard and the field is even more demanding but I can handle it because the Lord is on my side. I am nervous because my Spanish isn't great but I know it doesn't matter because it will get better and it takes time.

 

I want you all to know that I know that the church is true and that Heavenly Father loves each of you and watches out for you. Thank you for all of your support. I have been blessed with so many letters this week and I have really needed that. Thank you again. Next time i will be writing from Santa Rosa!

 

Con mucho amor,

 

Hermana Hillary Andrews

Year 1 - Letter 7 - MTC

Misioneros es muy importante a Dios

Hola! Wow! What a HUGE week! So the title means missionaries are very important to God and that is the easiest way yo sum up how I feel about it all. What an amazing opportunity to witness such a historic event. The MTC went crazy everyone was cheering and clapping. I am honored to be a missionary at a time when missionary work is so important to the Lord. I am so excited for the sisters that now have an opportunity to serve. I started to cry when the announcement was made because I love being a missionary and I am so glad that more sisters will have the chance. The leaders here have been saying that by the first of next year the amount of sisters could triple! Which is so crazy they have also been helping us realize that we will probably train many of these younger missionaries. Some sisters are disapointed that they were not able to go when they wre younger but I know with all of my heart that my life has worked out the way the Lord wanted it to. I needed to experience certain events in my life that have helped me be better missionary. I know that these changes are of God but it also helped me know without a doubt that President Thomas S. Monson is a porphet of God. Also I am so so excited for the Tuscon temple. I love the people of Tuscon so much and know that the temple will bless their lives. Everyone here was like where is Tuscon and I was proud to say I was born there. This was the best conference experience that I have ever had because I was much more attentive and I was just ready to learn. All of my questions were answered very quickly and in extreme detail. I was amazed. I could go on and on about my favorite talks because I really loved them all. The talk that stuck out to me the most was President Uchtdorf's. I have been very scared about leaving the MTC with regrets so his talk was exactly what I needed to hear. I loved when he said "Life is not a race it is a journey so enjoy the moment". Sometimes I think that I am supposed to be fluent by the end of these 9 weeks and that I am a failure because I still have a hard time speaking in full sentences but this quote hit me hard because I just need to slow down and do my best and everything will work out. I just absolultley loved conference and I hope you all loved it as much as I did. The main thing I learned from conference is that heavenly Father loves me and knows me and will help me know what I need to know by blessing me with inspiration.

Ok so if conference wasn't enough Elder David A. Bednar spoke at Devotional on Tuesday. We have all been praying that an apostle would come before we left because they come about every 8 weeks and Elder Andersen came the day before we got here. It was an amazing feeling as we saw him walk and realized that we would have the opportunity to hear form an apostle. We all stood up when he entered and the spirit was so strong. I was only 7 rows away from an apostle of God...Incredible! We sing prelude congregational hymns before the meeting starts and so right after he entered we sang I Stand All Amaze. I got so emotional because I am truly amazed with how much I have been blessed and how strongly I feel the Spirit. Sister Bednar is so cute and she spoke about some of the behind the scenes things that she sees at conference. It was really neat. She mainly talked about the love that the brethren express to each other and how they act as brothers would act. Elder Bednar talked about how the announcement about missionaries is a sign that the Lord is hastening his work and it is our responsibility to help him. He talked about his pattern of studying conference. As he studies the conference talks he looks for three things: Doctrine or salvational truths, Invitations or requests to exercise faith, and Promised Blessings. He played many segments of talks from this conference and had us write down what we thought the doctrine, invitations, or blessings were. He told us to not worry about what the speaker is saying worry about what you are feeling. I thought that I would have had pages of notes of insights from his talk but instead I have pages of promptings that I felt during this experience. He told us that after he goes through and finds these three principles then he makes a chart of all of the doctrine, invitations, and promised blessings. He then uses this chart as a study guide or tool for his life. I loved this idea and I am going to try to adapt it to my personal liking. I know that we will be blessed as we apply the teachings of the prophets to our lives.

So I am coordinating sister now which means that I have stewardship over the five sisters in the zone. My responsibility is mainly to love them and make sure that they are doing well. I visit them in their room each night and answer any questions they may have and just ask them how they are doing. I interview the senior companions every Friday to check on their progress as companionship's. I am also a part of branch council so I go to leadership training and branch council meetings on Tuesday and Sunday. I am also kind of like a Zone Leader for sisters so I help with zone unity and offer any other advice when it is wanted. It is a large responsibility but it has been an amazing opportunity to feel the Lord's love for these sisters and to serve them as he would.

Other big news is that both of our investigators are preparing for baptism and we hope that they will both be "baptized" before we leave. It has been an amazing experience to teach them and I never thought we would ever get this far but we did it! Spanish is coming along great I feel like there is no way I will ever feel close to fluent but I know it will come eventually. My favorite word is filla (it is pronounced fya so it kind of sounds like fire) it means fail and we yell it at each other in funny voices all the time. My district has become so close and we truly love each other.

A few more things for the Sunday Fireside we heard from Chad Lewis he played football at BYU and then played in the NFL for nine years ending his career with the Eagles. (Has anyone heard of him the Elders knew him so I am assuming he was somewhat good). He told us amazing stories about his mission and career. I also finally memorized the first vision in Spanish it was hard but an incredible experience. The last experience is that as I was pretending to be my friend Alex I felt the strong prompting that the elder teaching me was going to ask me to be baptized. Sure enough he did and I said yes. He has taught me exactly like I think a missionary would teach Alex and feel like if it was actually her she would have said yes too. What a neat experience.

Well I love you all so much. Thank you so much for all of your support. I only have 10 days left here and will not have dear elder in the field so feel free to write me! The Lord loves you and the church is true.

Con Amor,

Hermana Hillary

Year 1 - Letter 6 - MTC

La buen vida

Hola! Como esta? I titled this e-mail La buen vida or the good life because life is really great. I am honestly just so happy and I have had amazing experiences this week. First of all some stats for you all:

on Monday we are the oldest district and I will be coordinating sister

1 week from tomorrow we get our travel plans

2 and and a half weeks and Santa Rosa here I come

Crazy!!!! I can't believe it at all. Time has flown by so fast but I have seen how much I have grown and I have learned so much here. I will miss all of these great people but I know I will see them again someday.

This week I have found my "Carrie". Her name is Hermana Spittler and she is my "Carrie" because we enjoy walking around the field together at gym and we just talk and talk and talk. It is really fun and it is a great way to wind down at the end of the day.

I am so so so pumped for conference. At mission conference ( a big meeting with everyone at the MTC) the MTC presidents wife gave a great talk about preparing for conference. She told a story about a family who made a list of questions that they wanted to find answers to during conference. The 7 year old son had heard a story on the news about killer bees and was very scared of bees. He hoped that the Prophets would tell him to not fear bees. Throughout conference the family checked items off the list as they were answered and were so glad that there prayers and desires were being heard. It came to the last session of conference and the only thing that hadn't been mentioned were the bees. The 7 year old son was devastated but still had faith. The last speaker was President Gordon B. Hinckley at the beginning of his talk he compared the devotion of the members of the church to a swarm of killer bees. The 7 year old son and the rest of the family was delighted that all of their questions had been mentioned even the killer bees. I know that if you have a question in mind as you listen to the conference that it will be answered. I encourage you to make a list of concerns that you have individually or as a family and I know that every concern will be answered maybe not in the way you think it will be but in some way.

Then on Tuesday for devotional the speaker Elder Ellis said that as we listen to conference we must be careful that we do not think that certain talks do not apply to us because we are better than that. We must consistently ask "Lord is it I". I know that this might be difficult at times but that the Lord will bless us with what we need to hear.

I am excited to see what general conference is like here at the MTC and I will tell you all about it next week. Also we have not watched the relief society broadcast but will watch it on Saturday while the Elders are at Priesthood.

Spanish is coming along great, This week for one of our lessons we translated a quote from True to the Faith in Spanish. It was a great opportunity and helped me realize that I know more than I think.

This week we have been talking a lot about the role the Holy Ghost plays in conversion. I am not the teacher the Holy Ghost is the teacher and I just have to do my best to bring the Holy Ghost into the lesson. We have learned that the only way to know if the investigator is feeling the spirit is to ask questions and pause in order to give the investigate time to think. We applied these principles in our lesson with Diego yesterday. It was so powerful. He has had a hard time wanting to pray to know if he should be baptized. We taught him about faith and how in order to exercise his faith he has to pray. Then Hermana Baluer asked him if he would pray and exercise his faith. He said can I pray right now we of course said yes in my mind I though "Heck Yes" haha. Well he said the most beautiful prayer ever. He prayed for a desire to know for himself and that he would have more faith. The best thing is that it is so hard to understand him but I understood every word. After he prayed his face was red and tears were streaming down his face. The Spirit was strong and I know that the Spirit taught that lesson through me. It was awesome. I can't wait to have more experiences like this.

Another neat experience is that I have had the opportunity to role play as an investigator. My main "character" is Alex Kemper. When I pretend to be her I truly feel as if I am her and I have been taught things that I really wish she could hear. Alex is my dear friend at BYU who was not a member of the church. I think about her often and hope that she is doing well. This week I also pretended to be Alana, my cousin who is not a member. It was random as I thought of who I should be I felt so strongly that I should be her. I also hope that her and her family are doing well and enjoyed having the opportunity to pretend to be her. Thinking like an investigator is hard but it helps my teaching improve.

One last thing is last night we were preparing to go to the temple this morning and I couldn't find my recommend anywhere we tore up the room apart and it was still nowhere to be found. Before we went to bed we prayed together and separately that I would find it in the morning. Sure enough this morning I looked in the most obvious place that it would be and it was there. Amazing. Our prayers are answered and the Lord truly watches out for His servants.

Thank you for all of your support. I love you all so much.

Con amor,

Hermana Hillary