Second 9 - Letter 70 - Santa Rosa, CA

Project: Lift the Burden

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great Christmas! Christmas was so great! It was wonderful to be able to serve others and enjoy the time with members. I am so thankful that I have had two Christmas' on my mission because they are seriously so AWESOME!

It all started off on Monday when we did a family home evening with a family who was recently baptized (La Familia Suarez). We taught them how to hold a family home evening and we also acted the nativity. It was so much fun! They got so into it!

Then on Tuesday or La Noche Buena as us Mexicans call it we acted out the nativity again with another wonderful family (La Familia Vasquez). It was awesome because they did not really have plans of anything to do that night so we were able to really brighten up their night and their Christmas. It was wonderful. Then on our way home we stopped by our investigator Maria's house. We found her home a lone and she was so sad. She has been going through a very hard time so it was awesome that we were able to talk to spend time with her. We talked to her about the Book of Mormon because that is truly the best gift we could give her. I had been having a hard time thinking about what I could give Jesus Christ for Christmas and I realized that I have been doing it all year. The gospel is truly the best gift we can and I have been doing my best to share it with everyone.

Then on Christmas I got to talk to my family which is the best gift ever! Then we went to The Alba's and had a wonderful lunch and then we went and played chimes at an old folks home. I am not sure how good our chime choir was but it was really fun and I just love being with President and Sister Alba. After that we had dinner with our branch president and his family and another family from the stake. We stayed at their house for a good part of the day playing ultimate Frisbee (or in my case just watching) and doing a puzzle. In the evening we went caroling with a big group of missionaries and it was really fun.

The rest of the week we have just been trying to get our act back together and get back to work. We were able to have a coordination meeting with our branch mission leader, Hermano Galvan, and that has not happened in a long time so that was awesome. He is so willing to help us we just need to do a better job at letting him help us. We were also able to teach Edelmira one of our less actives. I love her and she is getting over the reasons why she was offended so it is great to see her change. We also taught Marta and we were actually able to bring the spirit into her house. We taught her about the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy and she said she was going to come to church but then she didn't! :( We also taught Victor and Zairah this week! They are progressing slowly! They are just such a cute young family and they really need the gospel.

I am excited to get back to work and to really help these amazing people! Yesterday for the fifth Sunday President Johnson our branch president talked about coming unto Christ and he had us write down three things that we will try to do this year to come unto Christ. I love this idea! Also while he was talking we realized that as missionaries we can do better at helping him help the branch. So this week our theme is Project: Lift the Burden. We want to lift the burdens off of his shoulders so we are really focusing on reactivation this week. It is going to be awesome! Happy new year! Thank you for all that you all do for me!

Love,

Hermana Hillary :)

Second 9 - Letter 69 - Santa Rosa, CA

What Shall I Give?

Merry Christmas! I hope that you are all enjoying this Christmas season! This week has been incredible! We have done so many wonderful things to celebrate Christmas this week.

It started off on Monday night  with a wonderful dinner with the Moesing family and for the dinner message I had the brilliant idea that we should carol to some of their neighbors. It was so fun and their neighbors loved it!

We have been slacking on contacting so we decided to contact in one of the big parks in our area. It was a beautiful day and so there were so many people out. It was a lot of fun and we met a lot of wonderful people.

Tuesday night we taught La Familia Maldonado one of our less active families. We taught them about tithing. We bought chocolate coins and told the little kids that they worked for us and then we paid them and taught them that now they had to pay their tithing. Then after they paid their tithing we showed them that they still had 9 left. We told them that they also had to pay a fast offering so they gave us 3 more coins. We also showed them that they could donate to help build temples or to help the missionaries. They gave us a few more coins but then they realized that they only had a few left and they got sad so we dumped the rest of the candy out into their hands. We explained that is what happens when we pay tithing we receive more blessings than we can even imagine. It was a wonderful lesson and it really helped the kids and even the parents understand tithing.

Then on Wednesday our zone helped set up for the Mission Christmas party for 277 people. It was so fun! President Alba told us that as we were setting up we should think all of the missionaries that we have served with and do our best to make an enjoyable time for them. So it  was nest to be serving the rest of the mission. Then after we finished setting up Hermana Bryant and I were going to go to Chiptole to get some lunch and then come back to do a few last minute things. I thought we might as well ask a few of the sisters, and President and Sister Alba if we could get them anything. They all gave us their orders and then Sister Alba was going to give us money to pay for her and President's but then she decide that she would just pay for all of us so we ended up getting orders for over 15 people. It was fun! Sister Alba then rode in our car to Chiptole to get the orders! We had so much fun talking to her one on one! What a need little experience. President and Sister Alba are so generous!

Then we had the Mission Party on Thursday. It was incredible! We had a beautiful musical program and a little devotional and then the party. We did a white elephant gift exchange and sang Christmas carols. A few zones including ours did skits. It was so fun! For our skit one of the elders in our zone dressed up as Santa and then a few of us went and asked him for things. I was first and I told him that all I wanted for Christmas was a Mexican accent. He gave me a sombrero and told me that as long as I wore that I would have a perfect accent. Then he told me to try it out. I walked to the front of the stage and an elder who is from Mexico was at the other side of the stage and he said something in Spanish and I mouthed it and then I said "Oh what a miracle". It was so funny and everyone loved it! It was so fun to be with everyone and to see some of my dearest friends!

Then that night we taught a wonderful lesson to a young couple, Victor and Zairah, and we picked them up as new investigators. They are awesome and they are really prepared!

Then on Saturday we had the branch party! It was fun too and Marta came with her grandkids.

Last night we had dinner with President Henderson and all of the missionaries in Santa Rosa and we had our transfer devotional. The Henderson's bought all of the Elders ties and the Sisters necklaces. They are so sweet. It is so wonderful to have so many people that love me and support me.

This week I have been thinking about what I am going to give to Jesus Christ this year. I encourage all of you to think of what you will give! This is such a wonderful way to keep the Christmas  spirit alive!

I love you all and I hope that you have a wonderful Christmas!

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!

Love,

Hermana Hillary

Second 9 - Letter 68 - Santa Rosa, CA

Cupcake Phase

Hello one and all!

 I hope you are all doing so well! This week has been amazing! I am now serving here in Santa Rosa with the incredible Hermana Bryant! We are seriously twins and get a long so well. We probably get a long too well because we seriously have way too much fun! Hermana Bryant keeps saying that we are in the "Cupcake Phase" which I guess is another way of saying that we are like newlyweds. We are just so in love! Despite being in love we have set really good goals for this transfer that are going to push us to be better missionaries and to find the elect that have been prepared for us. I am really just so happy!

So our investigators are all doing really well!

This week before Hermana Whiteley left we were able to teach a great lesson to Bonnie. She has been reading the Book of Mormon and she knows that she needs to be baptized she just needs to come to church and get married (so that is a lot but it will all come together). Also in the lesson we were reading the book of Mormon with her in 1 Nephi 5 where it talks about genealogy and so I felt inspired to ask her if she had ever done family history before and she said no but she really wanted to. We then had a great conversation about her ancestors and how we have programs that we can use to research more information about our ancestors. It was really neat because we have just started this family history pilot program. It is not anything big and fancy it is just simply trying to use family history in contacts and with investigators. Family Search is so awesome! It is really neat how you can look up records of your ancestors so easily and you can also see photos of your ancestors. I have been doing a lot of family history in my spare time (which does not really exist). It is so fun and I hope we can help Bonnie do hers soon too.

We also taught Marta this week. It was a little crazy because her grandkids were there but we talked about enduring to the end and the importance of being baptized. She really wants to be baptized and she likes the changes that are occurring in her life. It is amazing because so many changes are happening in her life and they are all preparing her for baptism and she does not even realize it. Every time I teach her I just know that she is one of the reasons why I am here. She is the sweetest lady and she just wants to do what is right.

Also this week I taught at Zone Meeting! I love it so much! I taught about finding and how we must have the Spirit with us as we find. I taught about the importance of asking inspired questions and really getting to know the people that we talk to.

Also yesterday we had the best dinner ever! President Johnson (our branch president) made us steak! He made us steak because about 3 years ago he promised the missionaries that when the branch reached an attendance of over 100 for two weeks he would make them a steak dinner so we were lucky and got to have steak. It is also neat how branch is growing!

One more thing... it is also neat to see how much I am growing. Yesterday at church a few sisters came to the branch that did not speak Spanish so I translated the two hours of classes for them from Spanish to English and it was fun. I did it flawlessly and it was just amazing. I have grown so much and I am going to keep growing. I hope you all have a great week. Enjoy this Christmas season!

Love you!

Hermana Hillary

Second 9 - Letter 67 - Santa Rosa, CA

A Charlie Brown Christmas!

Dearest family and friends. How are you all doing? This week has been CRAZY! First of all, I am will be staying in Santa Rosa for another 6 weeks BUT I will be getting a new companion. It was such a surprise but it will be good! Hermana Whiteley will be going to San Rafael and she is going to love it!  I will be serving with Hermana Bryant who has been out for about 6 months and she is from Gilbert, Arizona. So it will be fun to serve with another Arizonan especially in the winter here. It is a little bit nippy here. We have woken up to lots of frost on our car for the last couple of days and it gets down to the 20s at night. I am excited to be staying in Santa Rosa for another 6 weeks and to be able to be here for Christmas. It is going to be a Charlie Brown Christmas because did you know that the author of the Charlie Brown cartoons, Charles Schulz, was born and raised in Santa Rosa. The Charles Schulz museum is here in town so we went last Monday and it is incredible. It was really so much fun!

We have had some very neat experiences this week. We do not have that large of a teaching pool but the people that we are teaching are really progressing. Marta is doing amazing! We found out that her daughter moved out and so the grandkids are not over that much anymore which makes it easier to teach her. We brought a recent convert, Lillia Mendoza, with us and she shared such a powerful testimony and they were instant friends which was awesome. Then we were able to teach her again on Thursday and she was just so much more open and it was an awesome lesson. Then yesterday morning we called her to emind her about church and she said that her grandskids were with her but she wanted to bring them and she came. However, she did not stay fro sacrament meeting because the kids were going out of control she was able to at least go to the classes and feel of the spirit in the church. She is so ready even though she does not realize it! What a miracle!

Then as a mission we are trying to focus on praying for our investigators by name in every prayer. One day this week as we were praying for Maria our newest investigator I just kept feeling like we needed to see her so we went by and when she answered the door she was in tears and she said that she was doing really bad. We found out that her son got arrested and she was obviously very distraught. It was amazing that we were there at the right time to comfort her. We were able to pray with her and to read in the book of Mormon with her. The spirit was so strong and she was filled with peace. We were able to see her a second time and to help her to find that peace once again.

Also I am serving as a Sister Training Leader again and so we had an 8 hour training meeting on Saturday. It was a little long but it was AWESOME!

We were given so much wonderful council! We learned that we are a mission with a culture of high expectations and as leaders we must set the example of these high expectations. We also got trained on the family history pilot program which is going to be so cool. It is not anything super new it is just putting more emphasis on using family history as a contacting tool. I am excited to learn more! While I was at the training Hermana Whiteley was able to teach Bonnie and she is also progressing very quickly and really wants to get baptized she just needs to come to church and get married.

This week has been amazing! I am excited for this new transfer and for this Christmas season. This last ransfer has been hard but I have seen how the Lord is polishing me to be ready to go home. He is helping me learn thae things I need to learn so that I can feel like I have done my best. I am so excited to be serving as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ t the time of His birth. I would invite all of you to enjoy the real Chirstmas Spirit. Here is a little reminder of what that is. https://www.lds.org/youth/video/the-christmas-spirit?lang=eng

Also I have been loving my Christmas Advent Calendar so thank you for all of you who sent in letters for that. This week one of them really touched me. It included the lyrics of the song Breath of Heaven.

"Breath of Heaven, hold me together be forever near me, Breath of Heaven Breath of Heaven, lighten my darkness pour over me Your holiness You are holy Breath of Heaven".

The person that wrote this letter told me how one particular Christmas our family helped her family have the Christmas that they did not think that they would have. I remember that Christmas vividly because it is was one of the first times that I served some one else at Christmas time. The gift of giving is powerful. This Christmas help someone else feel like heaven is holding them together! It will change your Christmas.

I love you all so MUCH! Have a great Christmas season!

Hermana Hillary

Second 9 - Letter 66 - Santa Rosa, CA

"Hermana Andrews is a MACHINE!"

Hello to one and all! Happy December! I cannot believe that it is the Christmas season! Time is flying by way too quickly! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! My Thanksgiving was awesome! We had two wonderful dinners and many opportunities to serve others! It was so much fun!

First of all, the week of Thanksgiving started out with a wonderful district meeting on gratitude and service. I shared how thankful I am for parents who helped me focus on all of my many blessings and told of how we always wrote a list of 100 things we are thankful for before we could write our Christmas list. Everyone loved the idea and many shared it with others later on in the week. Then we had time for everyone to bare their testimony. One elder, Elder Perez, went around and said something about everyone in the room. When he got to me he said, "I am thankful for Hermana Andrews. She is a machine." So that has been the running joke this week! I am a machine. I love it! I love that others notice that I mean business and that I work hard and get the job done. Then after our district meeting we helped sort out all of the Bishops Storehouse orders. It was wonderful to help out with this. It is great to see how the church will help those in need.

Tuesday night I went to bed thinking about what we could make to give to our members. When I woke up I had the idea to make turkey's out of paper bags. On Wednesday and Thursday we made over 20 of them. They turned out so cute and everyone loved them. All of the Elders make fun of me and say that I am such a school teacher but hey I am just using my talents to help me do this work.

On the morning of thanksgiving we went to help our mission nurse, Sister Stewart set up for the Nativity Festival this weekend. It was fun to help her and to be with all of the missionaries in Santa Rosa. Then we went home and made more Turkey's and got ready for the day. At 1 we had an amazing dinner/lunch at President and Sister Alba's. They invited all of the missionaries in Santa Rosa over which is about 40 people. It was all incredible. I wish I had taken pictures but it was just so crazy. The center pieces were so beautiful and the food was so good. We had stuffed mushrooms and a queso dip for appetizers  and then a traditional thanksgiving dinner. For dessert there were many different types of pies but my favorite was the chocolate cream pie that President Alba made. It was so good! Sister Alba kept saying that she was so glad that she got to spoil us! She is so sweet. After dinner we just enjoyed visiting and some of the Elders and Sisters sang for us! It felt like being home! It was so nice. Then we were off to dinner number 2. It was at The Snyder's home they are friends of our branch President. Dinner was wonderful there as well. There were about 14 missionaries there and then Brother and Sister Snyder and their daughter and President and Sister Johnson and their son. It was a lot of fun. After dinner we played scripture taboo (Sisters against Elders) and sang Christmas songs. It was so fun and also felt like home. We then went and visited a few members and passed out paper turkey's. I really could not have asked for a better thanksgiving day. It was wonderful!

The other big thing that happened this week is that Elder Perez and Elder Francom (2 of the Spanish Elders) had a baptism. Juana Suarez and her 2 kids Karla who is 12 and Juan Antonio who is 10 were baptized. The father of the family has had all of the lessons but did not feel ready. It was amazing to see the spirit working on him. I really think that he will be baptized very soon. Hermana Whiteley and I had the privilege of doing the missionary moment after the baptism. We taught the Restoration and focused on the Book of Mormon and the spirit was so strong. I can't believe that I forgot to mention that the Hernandez family that we have been teaching for a while came to the baptism. They have been to several baptisms before but I think that they really felt the spirit and enjoyed it.

This week was wonderful. It was so good to feel so loved. We did not teach any lessons and we have had a few hard times but all is well. I know that everything happens for a reason! My faith is being tried but I am a machine so I will this battle! Also this week is transfers and I am not sure what will happen. Whatever happens is God's will.

Have an amazing week! Thank you for your prayers! I feel them!

Love you more than the beautiful fog here,

Hermana Hillary

Second 9 - Letter 65 - Santa Rosa, CA

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hola familia y amigos! Feliz dia del pavo! Well this week has been interesting. I feel like not that much has been happening. I will start out with that we went to the temple and it was wonderful. I am so thankful that we have the opportunity to go and worship in the house of the Lord. I learned so much and I just feel rejuvenated.

Another wonderful thing that happened this week is that I went on exchanges to Healdsberg again (this time we did not walk the dogs). I was with Sister Henry who has been out for about a year. We had great conversations about how much the mission has changed since we both got here and that can be a little overwhelming. It was so nice to talk to someone who was able to understand some of the things that have been on my mind and I think that it really helped her as well. Also a funny thing that happened on that exchange is that I was lying on the floor and Sister Henry was like oh my gosh there is a slug and I did not believe her for a second and then I looked behind me and there was a huge slug. It was harmless so we decided to let it crawl around for a while and we had a photo shoot.

Other things that happened this week..... We saw Marta and she really wants this. She really wants to be baptized and she wants to have the time to read and to really pray it is just difficult with everything that is going on with her family. When we are teaching her I feel such a deep love for her and I know that she is going to be baptized.

We also saw one of our less actives Juan Carlos this week. He has a hard time going to church because he has to work but we had a powerful lesson with him about the importance of church and the importance of partaking of the sacrament.

We have a new investigator this week her name is Maria. She is such a miracle! We first met her daughter who is 14 and we have her a pamphlet. Then we went by to see her and to hopefully meet the rest of her family. When we went by the pamphlet was hanging on a clip outside of the door we either thought it could be really bad or really good. Thankfully it was really good! They put it out there because they live on a busy street and they sometimes do not feel that safe so they thought that Jesus Christ could protect them. So we finally taught the mom, Maria yesterday. She is really searching for the truth and the only thing that is stopping her is that she cannot read but that is not a problem for us!

Oh and just for those of you who know that I love to be in control and keep people in line last night we had a meeting with the zone leadership and the elders were kind of out of control and so I just kept keeping them in line! I really enjoy having the opportunity to serve around all of these wonderful elders.

This week really was great and this next week will be even better. We are having Thanksgiving dinner with our branch president and his family and some other families from the stake. We will also be doing a lot of service which will be fun!

Enjoy thanksgiving and don't forget to count your many blessings!

Love,

Hermana Andrews

My thanksgiving gift to all of you!

Pictures!

1. Hermana Whiteley and I at the temple

2. The slug :)

It is about time I sent Halloween pictures since we are now celebrating thanksgiving!

3. Trunk or treat!

4. Minnie Mouse and Batman

Add caption

                                         

Second 9 - Letter 64 - Santa Rosa, CA

Walk the Dog

Bueno! So this week has been good! I conquered one of my greatest fears! So for those of you who know me really well you know that I do not care for dogs and I used to be very terrified of them. Well, this week I was on exchanges with Sister Buckner in Healdsberg (which is about 30 mins north of Santa Rosa) and every morning they walk with one of their investigators Jennifer and they help her walk her dogs. I found this out and I got super nervous to the point that I had a hard time sleeping. I woke up that morning and I decided that I was just going to do it. All I had to do was hold the leash and walk and I would be ok. I did it and I did it with confidence! I walked Cleo a black lab and I survived. It was actually a little bit fun! This really helped me realize that we just need to conquer our fears. We just need to do it! If we live in fear we are going to miss out on a lot of great things in life.

This week we have seen a lot of little miracles and I know that it is because we are having more faith and better attitudes. We set two baptismal dates this week! The first is with Marta she is a former investigator that we started teaching again this week. When we taught her before she was always really busy taking care of her grandkids who are little devils and so it was hard to teach her but this week we were able to teach her twice without her grandkids there so it was awesome. She really wants to get baptized but wants to make sure she is ready so we set a date for the 21st of December. We also found the perfect member to come with us her name is Lilia and she is a recent convert so we are excited for that. The other date is with Bonnie she is 20 years old and her boyfriend is a member and we have been teaching her for a while. Her and her boyfriend Ezequiel have a daughter together and I think that they are realizing that the gospel will help them have the marriage and family that they want to have. She wants to get baptized they just need to get married so we also set a date for the 21st with her as well.

We also had an amazing zone car wash this week. For some reason I got designated as the advertiser with one of the other sisters, Sister Carter. WE had so much fun standing on one of the main street corners holding signs and yelling. We even got smart and would push the cross walk button so that the light would turn red and we would have prime audience to advertise to. It was so fun! The things that you do as a missionary are crazy but so fun!

We have been contacting at least 10 people each day this week and we have met so many wonderful people. It is amazing how many people are willing to talk to us and to open up to us! I used to not enjoy contacting but now that I have just started doing it I really like it because I am having the opportunity to meet so many amazing people.

This week we also had interviews with President Alba. I love him so much. He always knows the right questions to ask me to open up about things that are bothering me. I know that he is truly called of God and that he is here to help me.

This weekend was a busy weekend for the branch. WE had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner party. It was so fun to mingle with the members and to get to know them better and then yesterday we had a farewell for Ana Navarro who is going to serve her mission in Mexico. It is so fun to see missionaries getting ready to leave on their missions and I just get so excited for them because this is the greatest work ever.

Well, this week really has been great and this week is going to be even better. WE are going to the temple on Thursday so nothing tops that!

I hope that you all have a great week and that you conquer your fears! Just walk the dog! I know that you can do it! God will give us strength to do hard things.

Thank you for your prayers they give me the strength to do hard things!

Love you so much!

Hermana Hillary

Second 9 - Letter 63 - Santa Rosa, CA

Stand in Holy Places

Well, hello! I hope you are having a great day! This week has been great! We have seen so many amazing miracles! Things have not really gone the way we hoped but nonetheless there have been miracles. This week I have kind of struggled remaining positive and having faith but during a hard time I found a video that I love (https://www.lds.org/youth/video/stand-2013-theme-song?lang=eng). This video was the theme song for this years mutual theme, Stand in Holy Places. I don't want to give away the video but as I watched it tears streamed down my face because I realized that I have prepared myself to stand in holy places. It was just a moment where I realized how far I have come and what a privilege it is to be able to stay that I Stand in Holy Places. I have also been thinking about how we are the creators of holy places. We can create our own holy places. This week my desk has been my holy place as I have tried to study the things that the Lord wouldst have me know. I have received such wonderful guidance. So, I have realized that as long as I make sure that I Stand in Holy Places and have a good attitude miracles will happen. So, what are your holy places? How can you better stand in holy places?

That thought has just been on my mind for a while but now moving on.... This weekend we had Stake Conference. It was amazing! I have been so blessed to attend many Stake conferences on my mission! The Saturday night session was all about missionary work. A ward mission leader in one of the wards spoke about how he relates sharing the gospel to sharing his families famous jam. He told of how his family loves sharing their jam with everyone that we know. I thought of what our family is known for or what we share. I thought of how I want everyone to try Mom's lemon meltaway cookies because they are truly life changing  (if you have not tried hopefully you have the chance someday soon). Sharing the gospel is really just as simple as sharing our favorite family treat. The gospel is just as precious and delicious as lemon meltaways or jam but why is it harder to share? We must share the gospel more so it is not as hard and so it becomes just as easy as sharing cookies or jam.  President and Sister Alba also spoke! Sister Alba shared what they learned at the mission presidents seminar that attended with Elder Ballard. She mentioned four things that members can do to help missionaries. 1) Be a member present at lessons, go out with the missionaries 2) Open up your homes to the missionaries, let them teach you 3) Pray for missionary experiences but also pray for the missionaries investigators 4) Open your mouth. I love these 4 things because they are the things that we missionaries need the most. They are not too hard but they require a little bit of work because this work was not meant to be easy. then the theme of the Sunday Conference was Peace. I enjoyed hearing more about how we can receive the peace that the gospel brings! I have needed more peace in my life this week and so it was a great reminder that it is my choice. I can choose to be a peacemaker!

Also this week some of the miracles that we saw is that we:

-saw our miracle family (The Hernandez) and we were able to teach them a little bit more about the Book of Mormon, they went to Las Vegas this weekend but hopefully we will see them again soon

- contacted over 25 people one day

- found a new investigator from our contacting her name is Juana and she is really searching for the truth

- found a less active member that is really wanting to come back to church

There were so many so those are just a few! One last story! So Friday night we went to an appointment and they were not home it was a little after 8 and super dark we were going to go back home and finish our weekly planning but we decided that we needed to talk to someone so we found a house nearby that had a lot of lights on and we knocked. Someone came to the window but would not answer the door we just kind of waited there for a while but no one came so we walked away and I just yelled Buenas Noches kind of out of spite:). Then we were almost to our car and we heard some people talking. It was the couple from the house we knocked. We went and talked to them and realized that the wife was deaf. The husband was so sweet and he let us in and we were able to bless their home. They have a daughter who has down syndrome and the wife has a lot of health problems so it was a sweet experience to be able to serve them. This experience was a great reminder that you just never know the story behind the door or who is in need of your help.

I hope you all have a great week! Stand in Holy Places, Share "the jam", and Look for miracles!

Thank you for all of your support and prayers. I have felt it this week!

Love you!

Hermana Hillary

Second 9 - Letter 62 - Santa Rosa, CA

For God So Loves all of His Children that He Sent Me!

Hello hello! Well transfers have come and gone and I am now serving with the wonderful Hermana Whiteley! She is from Middleton, Idaho which is near Boise, she is 19 years old and she has been on her mission for 5 months. This is her second area and she is a very hard working missionary.

Well this week has been interesting! To welcome Hermana Whiteley to Santa Rosa I got the flu! I started out having a bad cold and then on Friday I got the flu! In the words of the mission nurse Sister Stewart "Sister you have the flu so stay away from people and tell your companion to watch herself. She is next". Hahaha! So that is exactly what we did! All day Saturday we stayed away from people and I slept practically all day! I am feeling better and Hermana Whiteley has a little cold and we are hoping she does not get the flu. So that was a fun way to start this transfer but nonetheless we have been seeing miracles.

Before transfers I had a neat opportunity on facebook. A little while ago I was going through my friend requests and I saw that I had one from a lady named Tina and we had a mutual friend. The mutual friend was Alba, one of the less active members that I worked with in Fairfield (my first area). Tina happens to be Alba's younger sister and she is really interested in learning about the church. I have taught her twice on facebook and this week she started asking me questions about things that we believe in and what we do at our church so I asked her if she would like to go to church. She told me that she lives right next to the church in Concord, California (which is kind of by Oakland) and she went once and she liked it a lot better than the catholic church. I then testified that the reason why she liked it a lot better is because our church is the only true church on the earth. I promised her that she would feel the Spirit at church. It was a powerful lesson and it still blows my mind that it was all done through facebook chat. I do not know if she went to church because we have not had much online time with being sick and all but I hope she did but if not I will just invite her to go next week!

So before I got sick I was able to participate in Zone Meeting! We have two brand new zone leaders, Elder Perez and Elder Waite (new to he area and first time zone leaders) so it has been really fun trying to learn together and figure out what we are supposed to do as leaders to help our zone. We are really trying to help build more unity in our zone so we came up with the idea to do Secret Sisters or Secret Missionaries. Each companion chose another companionships names and then we are supposed to serve that companionship for a week. It has been a lot of fun and I can already feel more love in the Santa Rosa air! I also had the privilege of teaching in Zone Meeting! I taught about our purpose as missionaries and I shared the bible video For God so loved the world to help us remember that we must serve and teach as Christ did. As I was studying I realized that For God so loved the world that He sent His Only Begotten Son but also For God so loves all of His children that He sends missionaries out to share the gospel. This hit me so hard and helped me remember that I am here serving as a missionary to share God's love with all His children and to bring them back to Him! Then today when I was thinking about sharing this with all of you I thought God loves all of His children so he has sent each and everyone of us to help teach the rest of His children about the gospel this is not just about us missionaries. Every member of this church has a missionary purpose. Each and everyone of you have been sent to your specific location to share the gospel and to be a great example. I hope that we do not take this responsibility lightly. It is a privilege to share the gospel and to help others. Sometimes it is hard (most of the time it is hard) but the Savior's life was hard as well and we are following His example! We must remember that He knows how we feel and He will help us to do this!

Yesterday at church I had one of those hard moments. I was still not feeling very well and I just felt discouraged because we had not done anything to get anyone at church and then one of the members came up to me and said "My son-in-law came to church. Will you go say hi to him". I said Yes, of course and then asked what his son-in-laws name was. The hermano looked at me funny and then told me his son-in-laws name was Luis. I then had a duh moment. Luis is one of the less active members we have been working with and so then I got so excited that he came to church! I went over and said Hi to him and asked him if he now had Sundays off and he said yes. Later on when he bore his testimony he said that it had been over a year since he had gone to church and that over the last month he had started to change. He explained that it all started when he got invited to the weekly sports night. The hermano in charge of the sports night started encouraging him to pray about getting Sunday's off to come to church. He started praying and realizing that being with his family was more important than his work. Last Wednesday he quit his job and within a few days he found a new job with better hours. He has realized that God wanted him to be at church so he provided a way. What a miracle and it all started with a member! See members hold such an important role in this work! I love this miracle because it was all done in simple acts of service and faith. I know that if we look for simple ways to serve others the way  that Chirst did we will be blessed with these opportunities and they will produce life changing miracles in the end.

My challenge to all of you this week is to watch this bible video.

http://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/for-god-so-loved-the-world?lang=eng

 For God So Loved the World and then to pray for ways that you can follow his example this week by sharing the gospel with others. The simpler the better!

I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that He loves and He wants us to follow His example!

Love you all so much!

Hermana Hillary

Second 9 - Letter 61 - Santa Rosa, CA

First World Problem: I had to study paper scriptures.

Bueno! Como esta? I hope you all had a wonderful week! My week started out with some technical difficulties on my ipad so I had to use paper scriptures and I acted as if it was the end of the world. We sure are spoiled to have our 88:73's. Mine is up and running so all is good.

I forgot to mention that this upcoming week is transferred. The news is that I will be staying here in Santa Rosa and I will be serving as the Sister Trainer Leader and Hermana Whitney will be going to Napa. Hermana Whitely is my new companion so it will be a little confusing going from Whitney to Whitely. I don't really know anything about Hermana Whitely except for that she has been out for a little less than 6 months but I am excited to serve her and to love her!

Since I am going to be an STL I had the opportunity to attend the Missionary Leadership Council. We were spiritually fed! We talked a lot about finding and Sister Alba's new motto is The California Santa Rosa Mission is Fearless in Finding. I have realized that fear is seriously what keeps me from contacting everyone and so we talked about ways that we can combat this fear. One of the Elders said that we must just believe in the 20 contacts and have it as our constant goal. I have realized that nothing happens unless we believe and I have not truly been believing that I can achieve the 20 every single day.

Also one of the assistants Elder Eaton talked about the importance of the Sacrament and that we truly must take that time to remember our Savior Jesus Christ. He shared that when the bread is being passed he takes his thumb and his index finger and he rubs his palm thinking of when the Savior was nailed to the cross and then when the water is being passed he does the same thing to his wrists and he thinks of when Christ hung from the cross. I did this yesterday and it changed the way that I think during the sacrament. It really helped me focus on the Savior and to make sure that I am thankful for His suffering and the opportunity that I have to repent. I encourage you to make sure that you are thinking about the Savior during the sacrament and that you find something special that you can do to chanel your thoughts in this direction.

This week it was a little hard to find people at home to teach but we were able to meet with Aliy a few times. She does not have much time but we are making sure that we at least read a little but with her and that we encourage her to continue to read and pray. Daniel and his family were not able to meet with us for very long either but we were able to share a scripture with them and they were all very touched by it.

The main thing that I have learned this week is that mumbers don't matter, the success stories don't matter what matters the most is that we at least do something! Every day I make sure that I can go to bed saying that I worked hard. This can be the same way for member missionary work! Just try it out! Do something! Work hard!

If you need ideas of what you can do to share the gospel message me on facebook (Hermana Hillary Andrews)!

This week are you going to sit and stew or go and do?

Love you all!

Second 9 - Letter 60 - Santa Rosa, CA

David Archuleta and Service Heals the Cracks of the Heart.

Wow! It has been a crazy week! We have been experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows this week but all in all it really has been great!

The biggest highlight of the week was that we went and served at an old folks for two hours. Brother Moesing (Teresa Williams brother) owns an old folks home and we have been looking for good opportunities to serve and so we decided to go and serve there. It is an old house that has been turned to a nice old folks home. There are about 10 residents and they are all so sweet. We had fun getting to know them, paining their nails, and singing with them. They all really enjoyed having company and it was a pleasure to serve them and to brighten their days. Their is nothing better than service!

Also second most exciting thing of the week is that Hermana Whitney bought the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas CD that features David Archuleta so we have been enjoying listening to his beautiful voice sing to us every day!  

  

It has been a little hard to see Aliy this week but we were able to have great lessons and we have seen the Lord's hand guiding her down the path to baptism. However, yesterday she did not come to church so she will not be getting baptized this week. It is such a blow but we are hoping to see her today and talk to her about all of it and come up with a new plan. She knows it is true she is just getting busy with work and she is getting scared. Miguel texted us this week and told us that he would prefer to go to his Christian church so we tried to convince him otherwise but he would not listen. It is hard not to let these blows take you down but this week I have tried to do my best to have them help build me up.

We have seen miracles this week! We found an awesome family! They are seriously the cutest thing! Daniel and Isabel and their three kids Stephanie (14), Wendy (7) and Brian (2) have met with missionaries off and on for about 5 years but have had a hard time getting to church. We knocked on their door and they let us right in and we had a great conversation with them. We then came back a few days later to have a lesson with them and all of them were just sitting their waiting for us. That never happens so that was sweet! we are going to go back and have a family home evening with them this week and hopefully we can help them get to church. Such a tender mercy.

Also yesterday was the primary program. It was the sweetest thing ever! It was all about being children of God. I thought of how blessed we all are to know that we are children of God and how it is a blessing to share that knowledge with others. If you have bot seen the video Earthly Father, Heavenly Father watch it and share it with someone!

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-01-002-earthly-father-heavenly-father

Everyone needs to know these precious truths!

Have a great week!

Love you all!

Hermana Hillary

Second 9 - Letter 59 - Santa Rosa, CA

I'll Be There For You

Hello from the lovely city of Santa Rosa where it is getting cold! I hope you have all had a great week! My week has been awesome! We have seen sooooooo many miracles this week! We have been obeying the council that we have been given and so we have seen so many blessings! It has also been hard. I have had some mid mission crisis moments but I have been realizing that sometimes you have to have those, "what am I doing here?" or "have I even helped anyone moments?" to appreciate the good moments.

This week started out with an amazing fhe with one of our less active families, la familia maldonando. I love doing fhe's with people because it makes me feel at home. We taught them about prophets and then played hot potato. If you ever need a simple game to keep young kids occupied play hot potato it works like a charm every single time.

Then we had Zone Conference and I love Zone Conference! They are just like family reunions and it so fun! We learned a lot about how the Time Is Now and we must use all the tools that we have been given to find the elect and help the members get on board. One of the funnest parts is that Sister Alba shared a surfing video with us it was just a bunch of people surfing with a Beach Boys song in the background and then the lights came on and the District Leaders and Sister Trainer Leaders started passing out leis and Sister Alba had us all dancing. She talked about getting out of our comfort zones or "the shady turf" and getting out on "sunny surf". It was a great metaphor and helped me realize that I have to get rid of the fear and just get out and surf. For the last year I have been surfing but I have not been putting all that I have into catching every single wave. One of the assistants taught us that we are all doctors at the California Santa Rosa Hospital and that we have been having a hard time finding patients and then when we find them we have great tools that could save them but we do not use them properly. This was a great eye opening experience for me that I need to kick into gear and use all of the tools that I have been given and try to perfect them.

This week we had our first English class student his name is Alejandro. He is from Mexico and his wife speaks fluent English and so he really wants to perfect his English. It is so fun to teach him!

Online work has been great this week. We received some wonderful training to focus on using the chat tool to see who is online and with that training I have started teaching a less active member who lives in Argentina. She is very receptive and appreciative of the help that I am offering her. So that has been awesome!

We have also been trying really hard to get our 20 contacts this week and so we have tried to think of ways to make that happen so that lead us to walking over 4 miles and we only found like 5 people! Not fun but you do what you gotta do!

Ok so I have saved the best news for last! Yesterday we had TWO investigators at church. Miguel and Aliy both came! WE have had many powerful lessons with both of them this week and have gotten members involved and everything cam together and they came to church! Quick side note President Alba has made a new regulation that an investigator must have had at least one member present lesson before they can be interviewed for baptism. I think this is awesome because investigators need members to help them through their conversion process.

We think Miguel liked church the member that brought him left really quickly after church so we did not get to talk to him but he looked happy. We know that Aliy loved it because we had an awesome lesson with her afterwards. She just said that it was such an eye opening experience and that it made her want to continue to change. The relief society lesson was on missionary work and so she had a lot of questions about what we do as missionaries. We were able to explain it to her. She was really worried about us leaving her but we told her that we will always be a part of her life. We all got emotional and it was a very sweet experience. During Sunday School she had leaned over and asked me "Are you always going to be here with me". For some reason the first thing that came into my head was the theme song for the tv show friends. So hence the title I'll always be there for you. I told her that we will always be there for her in one way or another and that most importantly Christ will always be there for her. It was just one of the moments where I knew that I am here for a reason! We are so excited for baptism in two weeks and so is she! I love being a missionary!

This week was wonderful and I know it is because I am supposed to be here and that I am doing all that I can! I have also loved studying conference! Have the best week and remember I will always  be there for each and every one of you as well!

Love,

Hermana Hillary :)

Second 9 - Letter 58 - Santa Rosa, CA

Spiritually Full

What a weekend! I love conference so much! I feel so spiritually full. Hermana Whitney and I woke up to go and run and we joked that we had a conference hang over because we felt so drained. I was reminded by several people, by the spirit and by my own thoughts that this was my last general conference in the mission field. It caused me to pay very close attention and to shed a few tears. I loved all of the talks but I was especially touched by President Ucthdorfs who talked about how we are imperfect and that it is more important to focus on the perfect doctrine than on the imperfect people. I thought of how sometimes I try to be the perfect missionary but in reality that does not exist and it is more important that I teach the perfect doctrine and let the Spirit convert these sweet people. I also loved President Monsons talk and his sweet tribute to his wife. I appreciated President Eyrings talk about making decisions and I received inspiration that because of my sacrifice as a missionary I will be blessed with the ability to make the correct decisions about my future. I could go on and on about how much I loved conference but the best thing is that we can already begin to study it and to apply it to our lives.

This week was also a great week as far as the whole missionary work thing goes as well. A couple of weeks ago when I first got here we went to visit an investigator and she was not home but we met her daughter Aliy. She was interested in learning more about what we do so we set up a time to meet with her but she kept canceling. We just kept texting her about church and when we could see her. We saw her on Tuesday and she basically told us that she decided that she needed to stop avoiding us because we could help. We had a great lesson and invited her to be baptized. We invited her to go and check out Mormon.org. Then we came over the next day and taught another great lesson and found out that when she went to Mormon.org she decided to download some of the apps to her phone including the book of Mormon. It was so neat. Then we invited her to be prepared to be baptized on the 26 of October. She is so excited and she is really trying to change her life. It is going to be hard but she is willing to do it. She is such a miracle in our lives and we are a miracle in hers. It is just amazing how perfect the timing is because right now she is not working because she is receiving training for her job so she has a lot of time. Also it is cool because we thought we were going over there to teach her mom but it was just to put us in the right path to meet Aliy. God works in mysterious ways.

Another cool thing that happened this week is that we decided to ask President Alba to come with us to a lesson. It was super scary but he is always so willing so we thought we would just do it. We did it and it was amazing! He came to our lesson with Miguel who is from El Slavador and he wants to know for himself but he has been having a hard time. We ended up teaching him about the importance of reading, praying and going to church. We all testified powerfuly and then invited him to come to conference and to the ice cream social at Presidnet Alba's house after priesthood. He went to Priesthood and loved it and also came to the social and loved it too and said there was just a special feeling in that house. He really wants to change and now he is doing it for himself. He also came to the Sunday morning session but did not even tell us but I am so gald he heard President Monsons talk. It is amazing to see people changing their lives.

I am loving every second of this journey. Sometimes it is hard and at the beginning of the week I asked myself why I am doing this but then I remember all of the amazing people that I get to meet and the Spirit that I feel and help them feel and it is worth it. During conference it hit me that I am truly called by a prophet of God and I must teach everyone that we have a prophet and of his teachings.

Share your testimony of our living prophet with someone today! You will receive blessings! I love you all!

Love,

Hermana Hillary

Second 9 - Letter 57 - Santa Rosa, CA

I Stand All Amazed

Wow! This week has been so awesome! I hope you have all had a great week as well. I don't even know where to start. To start off I am famous! Not really but kind of maybe as close as I will ever be. A couple of weeks ago I commented on the facebook page LDS missionaries asking people who they know that I can teach online and this week the administrator of the page posted my profile picture and my comment on the actual page. The post got 2,340 likes and I have received about 7 referrals so far. A bishop in Argentina commented and really wants me to post messages on their ward facebook page to encourage them to participate in online work. That has been a lot of fun because I get to do it in Spanish! Online work is moving a long! I did not teach any online lessons this week but things are progressing which is so fun!

This week we were able to meet Elder Aidikaitis of the seventy! He was so so funny and amazing. Every time a general authority comes we fill out a survey and then they use our answers to help them know what to teach us. Elder Aidikaitis really focused on helping us know how to find because on average every companionship only finds1.3 people per week. Finding is definitely a weak point for me so I appreciated the guidance that he gave us. He told us that in order to be successful we must open our mouth and just talk to people. He said that we should each be contacting 10 people each day which makes 20 people per companionship. This is a lot and a little overwhelming but I know that it is possible and it will bring so many blessings. He also taught us how we can find through our investigators by helping them come up with a list of people who they would like to invite to their baptism and then going and inviting those people to the baptism and teaching them a long the way. This idea was something that I never thought of doing but it is genius. It was just neat to see how Elder Aidikaitis is truly called of God because everything he taught was inspired and exactly what we needed. Elder Bassett the area authority also came he was a mission president in Mesa a couple of years ago. He taught us about recognizing the Spirit and I loved the way that he put it. He said that because we are set apart to do this work we are going to receive a lot of righteous hunches that are jus our own thoughts but the key is we must act on them because it shows our determination to follow the guidance of the Spirit. Sometimes I get discouraged because I cannot distinguish my thoughts or the promptings of the Spirit but it made me feel good to know that it is ok to just act no matter what! So that was all pretty neat!

This week has been an awesome week with Carolina our sweetest investigator. She came to the relief society activity and loved it. We were able to give her a church tour. The Spirit was so strong especially when we were in the chapel. As we were in the chapel we talked about the importance of church and we sang I Stand All Amazed. As we sang this hymn and as I looked at this beautiful daughter of God that I have the privilege of teaching I truly stood their amazed that I am able to have the privilege to serve as a missionary and to teach people about all that their Savior has done for them so that they can stand amazed as well. It was just one of those wow I love being a missionary moments and those are always fun to have. Then the next day we taught Carolina about fasting and invited her to fast with us about how she is going to get work off to come to church. Fasting yesterday was so powerful and we did not get a solid solution but we know that everything is going to work out! We are going to teach her tonight so we will see what happens but she is so ready to be baptized she is already in 2 Nephi and she told us that she believes that Joseph Smith is a prophet.

Lately the 8 o'clock hour has been very hard to fill but as we have continued to work hard till the very last second we have seen miracles and sometimes the miracle is that we are obedient and don't feel guilty and that is alright! One miracle is we accidently knocked into a member who really needed to talk to us and so that was great! This member Edelmira came to church on Sunday and we have another appointment with her this week. She wants to prepare to go to the temple and has many family members that we are hoping to teach. Blessings come from obedience.

We were able to watch the relief society broadcast and we were able to sit next to Sister Alba it felt almost as good as it would be to sit next to my sweet mother. The broadcast was all about covenants which was awesome! My favorite quote is from Sister Burton, " We go to the temple to make covenants and we go home to keep them". I love that and I know that it is so true. We must work everyday to keep our covenants.

The last thing is that I have seen so cool little tender mercies this week that show me Heavenly Father is watching out for me. The high councilor in our branch is the brother of my young women's president growing (shout out to you Teresa) and we had dinner at their home last night and it felt like being home. It was so fun and I know Brother Moesing will watch out for me. Also we had a missionary devotional at the Stake Presidents house last night it was amazing and I found out that the Stake President President Henderson was one of the missionaries that served in the Minneapolis Minnesoata mission when Papa and Grandma served as mission president (Shout out to you papa love you).

It is such a small world because we are all children of Heavenly Father. What tender mercies have you seen in the last week? Look for them they are all around you!

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers!

Love,

Hermana Hillary

Second 9 - Letter 56 - Santa Rosa, CA

Santa Rosa: Good things come from change

Buenos Dias a todos!

I am in Santa Rosa!! Yay! This week has really been incredible! I am realizing how much I have grown as a missionary and as a person. I used to really dislike change and as a missionary change has been hard on me at times but this transfer I have realized that this change is so good. I loved Saint Helena but Santa Rosa is a breath of fresh air. I know that I am supposed to be here. So many amazing things have happened!

First of all, before I left Saint Helena we had an amazing English Class and Spanish Class. It was an amazing experience to help these sweet people learn another language. It was also super hard to find people at home to say goodbye to them and I kind of got super down about it but then I was like, "Hermana Andrews STOP it! You don't need to say goodbye to them in order to feel like you have truly helped them. You know that you have helped them because you have felt the Spirit pour into their hearts as you have testified". This was exactly what I needed to feel ok about leaving these people behind.

It was so hard to say goodbye to my dear Hermana Zimmerman. I love her so much and we learned so much from each other. However, the second I got to the transfer meeting and met Hermana Whitney things clicked and I was really ready for this new change. Hermana Whitney is 21 she is from the Logan, Utah area. She graduated from Utah State with a degree in Dairy Sciences so she lives cows. She has been out for about 4 months and she is amazing. She has such a passion for the work and she tries so hard to speak Spanish. It has really been fun to kind of let her take charge and just guide her in the right direction.

At the transfer meeting we learned about how much change has been going on in our mission. We now have over 250 missionaries and almost half of them have only been out for less than 6 months a total of 70 percent have been out for less than a year. I am old but oh well I still work hard.

Serving in Santa Rosa definitely has its perks. There are 40 missionaries serving in this city! So we always see other missionaries. There are 9 missionaries serving in the Spanish branch so that is also fun! Also we see President and Sister Alba like all the time!  This Friday was Sister Alba's birthday so President invited all 40 of us over to the mission home to surprise her and have cake! It was so fun! I love President and Sister Alba so much!

On to the biggest miracle EVER! I had my first Skype lesson on Thursday with my cousin Devon who is not a member! It was unbelievable! When we Skype of course we do it with our companions so it was fun to introduce Hermana Whitney to him! We talked about his life and our life as a missionary. Then all of a sudden we just started talking about his religious background and he explained that he has not gone to church for a very long time. We explained more about the church and what it means to us and how it can help him. He said " I have been waiting for something like this and I know I will come back to church". It was so amazing! I know that he has been so prepared and that is why I am in the first mission to get the ipads. We set up another appointment with him for this Tuesday and we hope to teach him about prayer and the book of Mormon. It was just such an incredible experience to teach some that I love so much! We also taught one of Hermana Whitney's really good friends yesterday so it was neat to share that experience with her and to see what a blessing it is to be able to teach the world.

Even though teaching the world is sweet we have so many wonderful investigators. I have not met all of them but Carolina is our Golden Investigator. She has only been taught for about 3 weeks and she has a baptismal date for this month and has read up to 1 Nephi 8. She loves the Book of Mormon and knows that it is true. She works on Sunday mornings but she is trying so so hard to get Sundays off. She is so ready for this step in her life. I am excited to teach her tonight because she is a sponge and just soaks everything up!

The branch here is incredible! They are so close to being the first Spanish Ward in the mission and Satan knows it so he is attacking them but I already love all of the members and I am so ready to help them. The branch president is a gringo but he has a deep love for these people and for the missionaries. This branch is a legend in the mission and so I am glad to be here.

I am so excited to continue meeting the wonderful people of Santa Rosa and see many miracles!

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers and please think of who you know that I could teach on facebook and let me know! Change is good so embrace because I am jumping right into it!

Love you all,

Hermana Hillary

Mission Letter - Sept. 15, 2013

Just thought you might enjoy reading Sister Alba's e-mail that I mentioned! Love you and enjoy!

Missionary Letter Sept.15, 2013

Unbelievably…It’s Transfer Week!

If you don’t know it already, you have just experienced the transfer of a lifetime… and this is just the beginning!  We, the California Santa Rosa Mission have been greatly blessed.  We, the CASRM have been given a great trust…  Like no other mission in the world.  It happened on our watch.  Make no mistake; it is no coincidence that you are serving here at this time.  The Lord has chosen you to be here.  You have a great purpose to fulfill.  With your obedience leading the way to victory…we will all rise and shine and fulfill our greatest potential as missionaries.

I hope that each one of you has written the experience of the 8873 coming to our mission down in your journals.  If not, it’s time that you did.

Elders and Sisters we have only begun to see the miracles of the 8873 being in our hands.  We have only seen the tip of the iceberg …where beneath lies wonders, amazement and miracles we have never before seen.  Are you with me??  Do you get it?  What an exciting time!  What joy!  We are learning all together step by step.  We may need to alter our course again and again until our course is set firm and true. So I ask you again be prepared for change…Remember, our mission ‘embraces change’.  We must all be flexible and adapt easily and promptly. After all…We really are the ‘Greatest mission in the world’!  You make it so.

Thank you. We love you, we are proud of you, now it is time to turn our thoughts forward.  New companions, new areas, new wards or branches, new leadership, new challenges, new disappointments and new victories are yet to come.  New strength, new wisdom, new knowledge and new friends for all of eternity to be gained. Wow…what more can we ask for?

Determine dear Elders and Sister to make this coming transfer the very best of your mission so far.  Determine to become a better you, a more humble you, a more obedient you, a more loving you, a happier you. Determine to be a harder working you, a more forgiving you, a more understanding you.  Be your best self…and joy will come to you like no other time before.

Embrace the joy that surrounds you.  Yes, we work hard and feel pressure but we must also laugh together and count our blessings and give thanks to God our Eternal Father. Have fun every day. Because if we are…  The Greatest Mission… and if we are… The Most Obedient mission…it follows that we are also…

The Happiest Mission… a mission full of joy. Recognize it, embrace it, let it fill you countenance with radiance. It will make you glow.

On Friday President and I attended the funeral of Elder Ward who was serving in Idaho but lives here in Vacaville. He and his companion were driving… his companion at the wheel when for an instant his companion got distracted and ran a stop sign. A truck plowed into Elder Ward’s door and he died a couple of hours later. It was a very sad, yet tender day for us as we witnessed his mom and dad stand next to their son’s casket. Tears came as we thought of our own sons who did come home… and of all of you who are in our care here. As I shook each missionaries hand in attendance that day, I was so grateful that each one was alive and healthy. I love you all so much.  Be careful out there and know that you are in our prayers each and every day and night.  We pray to return each one of you to your mothers and fathers. Help us make it happen and be careful in all you do. Especially when you drive.

Love to you…to the universe and beyond, Sister Alba

And since I am posting the letter, I love you more than Sister Alba loves you – always twice as much.

Be great and become the men and women that God wants you to be.  Let go of yourselves and let Christ mold you into His servants.  I promise that what he returns to us – a better, more refined and purified person we will be amazed at what He will do for us and to us because He needs us at this time of hastening in the work of salvation.

Arise and be men and women of God! Arise and be Great!

Love,

President Alba

Second 9 - Letter 55 - St Helena, CA

The end of the transfer of a lifetime

Good morning! Well first things first the big news is that I am getting transferred to Santa Rosa. Hermana Zimmerman and I knew that we were not going to be staying together for another transfer and I really felt like I was leaving but it is still a little shocking. I will be serving in the Spanish branch there which makes me happy because I have missed serving in a Spanish branch. My companion will be Hermana Whitney she has been out for two transfers and I will be senior companion. I am excited! I still do not feel like it is real but I feel peace and know that it is the will of God.

I have been thinking about how amazing this transfer has been. It has been hard but also so amazing at the same time. This work is incredible and is changing at a rapid speed. Sister Alba wrote an amazing mission letter today and basically summed up all my thoughts. She said:

"If you don’t know it already, you have just experienced the transfer of a lifetime… and this is just the beginning!  We, the California Santa Rosa Mission have been greatly blessed.  We, the CASRM have been given a great trust…  Like no other mission in the world.  It happened on our watch.  Make no mistake; it is no coincidence that you are serving here at this time.  The Lord has chosen you to be here.  You have a great purpose to fulfill."

It truly has been so incredible and I never doubt that I am exactly where I am supposed to be. I know that I have been here in Saint Helena for specific reasons and that I am leaving and going to Santa Rosa I am needed there.

It kind of breaks my heart to leave because I have seen this area grow so much. Hermana Zimmerman and I have built up this area and I still feel like there is so much to do but I know that it will continue to get done because the work carries on. I forgot to mention that Hermana Merkley (who I served with in Fairfield) is coming here to take my place. I am so happy about that because I love her so much and know that she will get a long with Hermana Zimmerman and everything will be great.

This week has been great! We had a great lesson with Eva on Monday. The Garcias came again. We taught her more about The Gospel of Jesus Christ. We invited her to be baptized and she said she knows that she wants to be baptized she just feels like she needs more time. Sister Garcia  told her conversion story which is that she has met with missionaries for over 13 years and she loved learning but never wanted to act. A few months ago she finally decided that she needed to stop being so stubborn and so she decided to finally pray and ask Heavenly Father if this was His church. She told Eva that the second she prayed she knew that this was the only true church and that she needed to be baptized. Eva was impressed with this experience and said that she would pray to know for herself if this is the true church. We are going to teach her today so hopefully we will progress towards setting a baptismal date with her. Gilberto has not been home for our last 2 lessons so we really hope that we will be able to see him tonight too!

This week we also taught one of our newer investigators Consuelo. She is a mother of two teenage boys and is really busy but loves the peace that we bring into her home. We introduced the Book of Mormon to her and she loved it. She was so mesmerized by the story it was great. I am almost done with reading the Book of Mormon all the way through in Spanish. It has been such an amazing experience I have learned so much as I have studied the Book of Mormon in depth trying to apply the story to my life and trying to understand in a different language. The Book of Mormon is just so powerful and life changing. 

Online work is coming a long! I had an amazing idea this week. I was looking up people that I could message for referrals and then I got the impression that I should look up some of my return missionary friends (especially those that spoke Spanish) and ask them for online referrals. I have not had anyone respond but I sent out about 6 referral messages so I hope that I will get some referrals out of it soon. So for all of you readers, please think of who you know that I could teach online or who you know that might have someone I could teach online. We really need more people to teach online so please message me on facebook with anyone who comes to your mind. DO NOT FRIEND ME only message me by facebook name is Hermana Hillary Andrews. I would really appreciate your help!

This week was really great! as far as work wise it was similar to the week before but we had better attitudes and greater desires to do this work so I feel like it was 100 times better! 

This new week will bring wonderful changes and experiences and then the week after that  Elder Marcos A. Aidukaitis of the Seventy will be coming and we have all been asked to prepare a 3 minute talk on diligence and many will be asked to present their remarks. 

Diligence is one of my favorite Christlike attributes to study. One scripture I came across that I love is D&C 6:20: "Behold, thou Hermana Andrews, and I have spoken unto thee because of thy desires; therefore treasure up these words in thy heart. Be faithful and diligent in keeping the commandments of God, and I will encircle thee in the arms of my love."

As I diligently serve I feel the arms of God wrapped around and I feel an out pouring of His love. Be diligent in all that you do! Thank you for your prayers and support!

I look forward to receiving messages with referrals! 

Love you all!

Hermana Hillary

Second 9 - Letter 54 - St Helena, CA

Look to the light and live! Life's a roller coaster!

Hola! Well, I think the second I sent this e-mail I jinxed this last week. For some reason especially on missions when you have good weeks the next week is not the best! I feel like this week  I have let the fact that this week was not as good as last week weigh down on me and I have had a bad attitude about it. Oh well, that is life. We have had a lot of struggles hit us head on this week but we are continually looking to the light and just trying to live. This week I do not have a whole lot to say for some reason! I guess I will highlight some of the good things that happened.

We had an awesome lesson with Gilberto and Eva and the Garcias recent converts in the branch came with us and it was incredible! They are all a perfect match and it was exactly what fellowshipping should be.

We had an amazing English class and one of our new students was meeting with the missionaries before she left Columbia and really wants to learn more. So it will be exciting to see what happens with her.

We went to the temple! It was amazing! My mind was blown! I felt the Spirit so strongly and enjoyed the opportunity that I had to pour my heart to the Lord while in His sacred house. I kept receiving the overwhelming prompting that I am where I need to be. I have always known that but it was good to have that confirmation.

We are just continuing to do all that we can to be the best we can and to share this message with every one! Online work is new and so it is taking time to get used but their are so many amazing ways to use it.

Sorry to be a Debbie Downer but I am just a little overwhelmed today but I would not have had this last week any other way because I learned a lot. It also helped me appreciate the success we have had and helped me think of what we did differently the week before and what we can do better. Life is a roll coaster and missions are the big scary roller coasters. There are huge ups and downs and turns. I have fastened my seat belt and got my barf bag ready for the ride.

Buckle up and be safe on your roller coaster.

Thank you for everything!

Love you all!

Hermana Hillary 

Second 9 - Letter 53 - St. Helena, CA

The Ability to Wait

Hello and Happy Labor Day! 

I hope you are all having a fantastic day and that you had a great week. This week was hands down the best week I have ever had! I have been serving in Saint Helena and the surrounding areas for 10 weeks and we have seen success but we have not been able to teach a very large number of lessons and we have not found new investigators for a while. However, this week everything changed. The ground started shaking and this area caught fire! 

It all stared on Monday night. P-day ends at 6 and we had appointments at 6,7 and 8. Usually we are not even to 3 lessons on Thursday so we were so excited! We had dinner at our Branch Presidents house and two less active members were there so we taught them a lesson together after dinner. We showed the Mormon Message called Continue in Patience with the marshmallow experiment. They loved it and were really touched by it.

Then we were off to our next appointment and she was not home. We were discouraged but decided to go contacting but then after contacting one person we decided that we needed to go try a potential investigator named Consuelo who we had met a couple weeks ago. We stopped by her house and she was home and let us in. We had a wonderful lesson with her about how the gospel blesses families and the importance of the Book of Mormon and prayer. She still feels tied to her catholic beliefs but she has a desire to learn more about our church. 

Then we were off to our next appointment with Gilberto and Eva. Oh my gosh they are the best! When we got their Eva was not home but Gilberto was and we explained to him that we can't come in unless there is another woman present. He loved that we had this rule which is unusual because Hispanic men have a hard time understanding this. Eva came home and we taught them about the plan of salvation. They had a few fears about the judgement day but we explained that because of the atonement we do not need to worry about getting in trouble at the judgement bar. Other than that they just absolutely loved the plan of salvation. When we talked about the celestial kingdom and how baptism is one of the requirements to live in this kingdom it just seemed so natural to invite them to be baptized and so of course we did. The spirit was so strong and they said that baptism is something they are thinking about but that they do not feel ready. We testified that we are here to help prepare them and that we know that baptism is what God wants them to do. Then Gilberto said' "Well if I am preparing to be baptized then I need to come to church on Sunday". We were so excited! Then we ended our lesson and were about to leave when they pulled out homemade doughnuts and 7-up. One thing you need to know about the Hispanic culture is that when they give you food it is a sign that they really love you! So we happily excepted the treats. We left that lesson jumping for joy because we had just taught 3 lessons in a row and two of our investigators are so so so close to a baptismal date. We had waited so long for a day like this and it finally came!

Side note: Gilberto did not come to church but saying that you will go is the first step. Hopefully he will come this Sunday!

This week we also learned a lot more about our devices. The area book and planner application is really neat. We basically never use our paper planners. It is all a little difficult because we do not have wi-fi in our apartment to sync the information or to use the internet so we are at the church a lot but that is ok. This week I have been able to contact many friends from high school and we have tried 2 times to have a skype lesson with one of my cousins. Nothing huge is coming from our online work but we know that we will see miracles soon.We had a great meeting with the Elders who have been called to supervise all of the online work and they taught us what we can do to find local online investigators. Right now everyone we contact are friends from home so this week we are going to expound our online investigators. Some of the ideas they suggested is going to contact around high schools when they get out and trying to get facebook contacts. The other idea is to find local restaurants, libraries and other stores facebook pages and make comments or post videos to those pages. It is all new and a little scary but we are going to try these ideas as well as really try to get our members on board with the technology as well. 

We had English class this week and all of our regular students were there and one lady came in saying she couldn't come to that class but she would come to the next one. It is so just so fun to help these wonderful people and every week we have little chances to share the gospel. This week we are also starting to teach our members Spanish at the same time so that will be fun!

We had so many great lessons this week. We picked up another new investigator named Delma but then 2 days later we stopped teaching her because we realized that all she really wanted to do was argue. In one year of doing this I have not had too many experiences of arguing with people but this lady cut me off mid sentence and said that she did not think President Monson was called of God or that he was a worthy man. I was so mad but instead of yelling at her I testified so powerfully and then Hermana Zimmerman testified even more powerfully and we told her that if she did not want to act on the things we were teaching it would be a waste of our time. She politely told us not to come back and then we left. It was one of the harder things but coolest things I have ever done!

We also taught our investigator Carina that we had not seen in like 3 weeks and we had a very good lesson with her. It was a fantastic week! We taught a total of 8 lessons and we have never taught more than 5! So it was great and most importantly we helped so many people come closer to Christ. It was has been such a rewarding feeling knowing that we have done all that we could.

Also this week we had interviews with President and President did my entire interview in Spanish! Usually it starts out Spanish and then he switches but he never switched. I am really growing up as a missionary and it is scary. I want to do this forever and I can! This week I have realized that through my mission Heavenly Father is really testing my ability to wait or aka my patience. There are certain things that I really want to see happen or things that I want to know but Heavenly Father is having me wait! I know that He is trying to teach that as I am patient and continue to have faith and obey everything will workout! I think that he is trying to teach me that this journey and these things I am waiting for are going to carry through for the rest of my life. I will always be a missionary! You are all missionaries! Don't wait any longer to receive the blessings that will come form sharing the gospel. They are so great. I would like to invite you all to go to the Hastening the Work of Salvation page on lds.org and watch the video Missionary Mindset. It is so good and hopefully it will help you get into the missionary mindset. Also if you know of anyone who I can teach online. Let me know! You can message me referrals only on facebook. We can't be friends but my facebook is Hermana Hillary Andrews.

Go out and share the gospel!

Love you!

Hermana Hillary