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