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