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