Second 9 - Letter 39 - Novato, CA

It only hurts when I cry!!

Hola! Happy memorial day! First really big news is that the big missionary meeting on June 23rd  has officially been announced on LDS.org. It is going to be so sweet!!!!!! Missionary work is going to be revolutionized and we will all get to be a part of it! Woo!

This week has been hard but it has also been so amazing. I am feeling so stressed and I am just getting a little contentious and cranky and I don't like that. I am human so I am just trying to 

 We had interviews with President Alba this week and I expected to just tell him everything that was bothering me but instead he just made me laugh and told me how great I am doing and that he is so proud of me. I even told him that I love training and that I would continue to do it because it is such a humbling and wonderful learning experience. I really did mean it though it is hard but it is making me such a better missionary and I would love to continue to have the privilege to help new missionaries become the missionaries that they hope to become! My interview with President taught me that it only seems hard when I allow it to seem hard. I am not sure if this is making sense but when I choose to complain and think that it is super hard then it is. 

For some reason I keep thinking about the song in Beach Blanket Bingo ( a really old movie) that is something about how it only hurts when you cry. It is seriously so weird the worldly songs that get in   my head sometimes but this song is so true everything only hurts when you cry or when you think about it so I am just not going to think about it! So from now on this work is not hard! 

So this week was a little rough just because we are having a hard time working together and everything but then a huge miracle happened! We found an awesome new investigator named Alex! He is 15 and just wants to learn all about the gospel it is so so exciting! I am so excited to teach him tonight about the plan of salvation! It is amazing how he has truly been prepared for us to come and teach him.

We really are teaching amazing people that are so elect we just need Satan to back off so we are praying so hard and trying to be so obedient so miracles can happen! 

Sorry this is a little scattered I am just really enjoying talking with all of the Elders and goofing off so it is hard to concentrate but you are all amazing! 

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

Love,

Hermana Hillary

Year 1 - Letter 38 - Novato, CA

The More the Merrier!

Hola familia y amigos! 

What up in the valley of the sun? Well life here in Novato is CRAZY! My new baby has arrived her name is Hermana Lybbert and she is from Washington and she will be here with us for a transfer and then she will be serving in Argentina. She is determined to speak Spanish and she has such a fire for the work. I am so excited that she is serving with us. It is a little bit different to have three people together all of the time doing the work but truly the more people the merrier. It is hard to have to be the example all of the time but it is a privilege! 

Really nothing that amazing happened this week. Well actually one thing did! We set a baptismal date with Ilse and it was the most amazing thing ever. The spirit was so strong and it just is the best feeling in the world to know that I am fulfilling my purpose. Other than that we have just been getting used to our new companionship! It has its ups and downs for sure but I know that everything will work out!

This week I have truly fell in love with the Book of Mormon for like the 100th time! I just can't believe that it never gets old! I love how the teachings in the Book of Mormon can always apply to your life! Today and like every day this week I have been super frustrated and so I just open up the Book of Mormon and say Heavenly Father help me! Then I start reading and in seconds the Spirit is like BAM this is what you need and this and this and this. There are so many hidden gems in the scriptures. I could share them with you but it would be a list a mile long and they probably would not make sense because they apply to me so go out and find the ones that apply to your life.

A scripture that I love that President Alba shared in the training meeting when everyone was asking him a thousand questions is 1 Nephi 4:6. It basically says that even though Nephi did not know why he needed to do certain things he went by the Spirit and continued to obey. President encouraged us all to do that. So even though I do not even know how to double train and I am just doing this all on a whim it is an inspirational whim because I am always pleading for the help of my father in heaven. 

So basically, I love the book of mormon and prayer is real! Life is crazy but good!

Sorry I just don't have a lot to say right now and my "babies" are crying because they want to go play in the gym!

Well thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers!

The church is true the book is blue!

Love,

Hermana Hillary:)

Year 1 - Letter 37 - Novato, CA

That's Just What I Do

Hola! Well, obviously it has been a great week because it ended with calling home. It was so wonderful to talk to everyone and to see all of your beautiful faces and to see all of the instagram  pictures. 

I know I said that I would be writing on Tuesday but things have been crazy here with transfers and so everything has gotten mixed up!

So basically in addition to the 18 new missionaries that our mission was planning on getting we are getting 9 missionaries who are waiting for their visas and the MTC was not sure if the visa waiters were going to be able to make it here on Tuesday so today is a normal P-day and transfers will be on Wednesday this week! 

The news for transfers is that I will be staying here in Novato with Hermana Zurita but I will also be training one of the visa waiters as well as continuing to train Hermana Zurita! I am excited! It is going to be interesting to see how a trio works but the best thing is that we can go in and teach a single man because there is three of us! Hahaha! Oh the things that missionaries get excited by! Well... a little bit of change is always good so I am ready for this new adventure! 

Yesterday after Hermana Zurita and I talked to our families Hermana Zurita told me that she enjoyed listening to me as I talked to my family and noticed that I talk to my family the same way that I talk to her, to other missionaries, to our investigators, to our members, and to anyone else.  

She thought that was neat that I am just myself with everyone and I love that I have continued to just me myself! I often feel like I have lost a little bit of my true self but I guess it is still there! 

This week has been great! We have seen SO SO SO many miracles as we have tried to be faithful and obedient. In one day this week we contacted 10 people, taught 5 lessons, invited one person to be baptized and found 2 new investigators! It was an amazing day and we had prayed so hard for it! 

Our two new investigators are really elite. They are so awesome and we are excited to continue to teaching them! 

This week we talked a lot about how we cannot have success if we have fear because we need to have faith to have success!! Our district leader invited us to write down our fears and then do it. It is such an amazing experience! So I would invite you to do it! Just throw the fear out the window!!!!

We also had an AWESOME mother's day party this week in our branch! And boy do my Spanish friends know how to party!!!!!!

Things are going great and they are just going to be better. The more companions the better! 

I love you all so much! 

Enjoy the hot weather!

Love you!

Hermana Hillary

Year 1 - Letter 36 - Novato, CA

H.A.R.D.

Buenas tardes! So I promised a better letter this week and so get ready it is going to be awesome!

So first all of this week has been H.A.R.D and it is really easy to get discouraged but I have also realized that H.A.R.D. can also mean that Heaven's Angels Reign Down and I have really seen how true this is. This week more than ever I have felt Grandma, Grandpa Clyde and I am sure many many others watchong down and helping me know where we should go and what we should do!

This week really has not been that bad but we have just had many trials of our faith but it has really helped us grow. It has just been one of those weeks where the success did not come easily and we had to work even harder to achieve success but when the success came it came in great abundance.

On Tuesday we had an amazing Zone Meeting! We found out that sooner than later all Spanish speaking missionaries will be going to the MTC in Mexico City! I am a little jealous because that would be so sweet to learn Spanish in Mexico but I have made it without it so all is well. We also found out that on June 23rd missionary work is being revolutionized! President Monson will be having a fireside with all of the missionaries worldwide and he will be announcing some changes to missionary work! So it will neat to see what will happen!

We had an aweosme lesson with a less active single mom and her family. We talked about the importance of missionary work and how even though they are young they can be missionaries now! these little kids are so awesome and were really pumped to share the gospel. We have had really neat experiences helping members realize that they have a responsibilty to share the gospel! We really need the members help and so we are trying to help them realize that they can join the ranks with us for this battle.

Also......  for the big miralce of this week we had the impression that we really needed to go to visit one of our investigators Ilse and so we went to visit her but as we pulled into her area we saw that her car was not in her parking spot so we were a little discouraged but we decided to stay in our car for a few minutes and then we decided that we should pray and just go and see if by some chance she was home. Then as we were opening our eyes from the prayer we saw that her car was pulling into her parking spot and that her and her kids were walking into their house. It had been a hard day so I began to cry because I was just so happy. We gave her a few minutes to get inside and to get settled and then we went and we had a great lesson with her about Heavenly Father's plan for her and we had the chance to meet her husband who we had never met before. It was amazing! She is progressing so quickly! It is those miracles that just making everything so worth it! I know that Heavenly Father will bless us when we have done all that we can! This week I am glad that I can say I did all that I could and even though it was hard we saw the blessings that came from all of the hard work!

Then yesterday we really wanted to complete the 10-3-1 and we had 2-1 so we went to an appartment complex and we planned to find 10 contacts or more importantly 10 people who we could bring closer to Christ. It took up to almost the last door but we did we contacted 11 people and then later that night we had a lesson. So we did 11-3-1! Ya! Baby! We were so happy and it felt so good!

So basically moral of this letter is that Heavenly Father will push you to the last second but it is always worth it we must do 10 mins morethan we can and then he will bless us!

Also transfers are next week... who knows what will happen to me!

Love you all! Keep up the great work!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Hillary