Haha I was struggling to come up with a creative title this week haha so this is what I got! Hermana Harris is super obessed with Batman (yup Kix. . .she might actually be more obessed than you haha) and everyone knows I love my Superman! We've only gotten in one disagreement about it, so it´s all good! We have a good time though!
This week has been a great one! Seriously, Hermana Harris is such a missionary boss, we find SO many new people to teach every week it´s just nuts. . .now we just have to find them again afterward :/ haha but the people we do see are doing fantastic!! Really, that´s basically just Rocio and Mariela. They had a big struggle with smaking that´s been a long battle but they beat the junk out of that and QUIT!! They are so amazing. It´s still a big struggle and temptation but since the whole house is trying to get on the same boat about quitting I think that has made things easier for them. Rocio is getting baptized this Saturday and I am just so happy and excited for her. She has so much faith that this is just true and it´ll make her happy. Her and Mariela are already FANTASTIC missionaries! One of their neighbors came over while we were there and they were telling him about our beliefs with the Word of Wisdom and invited him to Rocio´s baptism! I think we might go over there to talk to him one day so that would be awesome :) I dunno why but everytime I get to here I forget EVERYTHING I WANTED TO SAY and I didn´t write it down this week so I´m in a bit of trouble haha and I´ve been distracted because poor Hermana Harris and her e-mail isn´t working so we've been swtiching computers trying to get it to work but it´s still not working, poor thing :( I´ve learned So much from her. I´ve realized all of us are children of God and we are both Sister Missionaries serving in Argentina. . .but we are very different and we even see the gospel differently sometimes, but that´s ok because we each walk our own path through life with Heavenly Father and Chirst, as long as we are walking it with them and keeping the commandments and doing our best to live a good life, that´s what's important :) It´s been cool to be reminded of that over and over. It's been building on my patience as well, which I need haha but I love her to death and more importantly I love this gosple and I can´t imagine my life without it. I´m grateful that I get to spen so much time and energy now focusing all I have on Him and learning how to live my life as He would have me live it. We walk by faith and if we have a perfect brightness of hope and love everyone we meet as we go along and love God and His Son with all me have in this journey of life we will be happy :) I LOVE YOU ALL!!! Until next week, have fun and love living life :) xoxoxoxo Larissa
Haha that's probably not gramatically correct but
whatever :) Yup that's right! We had another baptism this week. I absolutely
LOVE Mariela. She is incredible. I only got to see the end result of her
finding the gosple but her light shines so bright and she is so loving and SO
gosple smart. She has ALL the books already and has read a ton of them haha Her
baptism was absolutely beautiful :) Two of her kids were able to make it, Rocio
and Juan. They are both great and it was so good that they were able to come
see their mom take this step.
Rocio is learning and reading but doesn´t talk much yet.
We LOVE going over to teach them, and we told Rocio that we could only keep
coming as much as we do if we could teach her. I think she's thinking about it
:) But the spirit was just so strong at Marielas baptism, Hermana Vincent gave
an amazing talk on the Holy Ghost and really, you could just see in Mariela´f
countenance how important it was to her :) That is by far the most rewarding
part of being out here. Helping people find purpose in there life and find a
path that will bring them real and lasting happiness :) We are working on
finding more people who are ready, cuz this path isn´t the easiest! But we are
just going to keep working hard and surely the people who are ready will be
placed in our path :) Hermana Vincent had a bit of a crazy week this week. .
.she's doing great but if you all could send prayers both of our way that would
be so awesome :) It´s tough being two greengos out here haha but with the help
of our Savior we manage! We had a fun week in general though! We had some good
laughs and let off some steam being goofs in our apartment (don´t worry,
there's videos as proof ;) but I just love her. She is so strong and I´ve
learned so much from her already. I know Heavenly Father knew this would be
hard for us, but as we both are willing to turn to him for help, He's there for
us.
This might be silly, but to anyone who is or was a
missionary you probably understand how sad this is, but I lost my planner this
week. I think in a collectivo (bus) so there's really a VERY
slim chance I´ll ever find it. That thing is like a mini journal for me. . .somehow I think I misplaced my first one too. . .so
yeah, I cried but it's sort of ok now haha (You all know me, I cry about
everything (haha)
So! Here's my fun facts about Argentina for the week :)
- This week there was a BIG protest about something to do
with fish and fish workers (that's all me and Hna. Vincent were abe to get out
of it haha) happened and ever since then they have been cutting the power off
every so often. . .the first time is happened I was like "It wasn´t me
this time I swear!!!" haha but yeah, they cut it off yesterday morning so
we didn´t have power most of church, luckily we have a small branch so we could
still hear for the most part :) but that has been weird!
- Instead of the peep holes in the door that you can look
through from the inside and the people outside can´t see, they just cut a hole
out of there door and put a little circle over it that twists, so when we
knock, this little hole opens up with an eye looking back at us and normally we
just stand there and talk to the eye cuz they don´t wanna open the door haha
it´s great :)
-Did I talk about Malta last week? Cuz if I did whatever I´m
talkign about it again cuz I´m absolutely in LOVE! It makes me think of Grandma
Nancy and Grandpa Larry cuz it smells like toffee (like coffee but sweeter) but
it's like a hot chocolate mix!! You make it with milk and add a little sugar
and dip in some crackers (yeah, wierd but SO good) and it's like a little piece of heaven haha LOVE
IT!
Welp, that's me for the week! I have been realizing just
how flippin cool the Book of Mormon is this week. Yeah, so of it´s teachings
are super repetetive. . .BUT THAT'S BECAUSE WE ARE A FORGETFUL PEOPLE!!!
haha They only repeat themselves to help us REMEMBER
because that's what it´s all about. When we remeber to say our prayers, we do,
and we are blessed. We we remember to read our scriptures, we do, and we are
blessed. When we keep the commanments cuz we remembered them when we read our
scriptures, we do, and we are blessed! Isn´t that cool?!
Just, always remember Him, and he can bless our life like
He wants to, but it takes action on our part :) I´m grateful I have this time
to develop habits that can bless me and those I know for the rest of my life!!
It's so great :)
I love you all and hope you have a FANTASTIC week! ¡¡¡¡AMO Y
EXTRAÑO MUCHO!!!!
Whoop Whoop! We had our first Baptism in Argentina
yesterday! It was SO fantastic. I can´t remember how much I´ve told you all about
Priscila but she is 10 and the daughter of a less active. She is so fantastic
and was so stinking excited for her baptism. I got to give the prayer
at the end and afterward her mom told me somthing along the lines of
"Your prayer was so sweet. Your spanish sounds like that of a litte child."
Haha uh. . .not sure if that´s a compliment or what but I´ll take it! It was
really great though! It was so great that her mom and grandma came! I
hope that they keep coming!
We will also be preparing for Marielas baptism
this week! She quit smoking on Saturday and has been going strong so that
has been so neat to see. She is such a great example of Faith. She just knows
Christ is going to help her overcome this addiction and she believes
with all her heart she will do it with his help :)
I don´t have a ton of time cuz we only have an hour now so
this is gonna be short haha I´m loving the work here! We had divisions this
week and two native Argentina Hermanas came and worked our area with us
for a few days this week and we found 15 new investigators with them!!! It
was absolutely nuts haha we'll see how they deal with having to learn from
two gringos who can´t speak too well, luckily the spirit is the true
teacher and if they wanna listen to that they will just feel the truth :)
Here's some of my random facts about Argentina!! (HOpe you
like that I do this haha)
- So, instead of Wal-Mart for regular everday stuff, here
they have Kiosko´s which I think are absolutely genious. They are just
out of home businesses where the owner buys all the stuff they want to
sell from big retailors. They have everything from candy to clothes from
soap to toilet paper, really just all kinda of stuff. You can pay bills
there and refill phone and bus cards. The best thing about them is they are
literally on EVERY STREET! and most of the time there are multiple on one
street. It´s so cool and I really think they need to get these going in
the US haha
- Every panel of sidewalk is different. Haha in front of
every building the sidewalk changes is texture, hieght, rock or concrete, all
of that! I´ll have to take pictures and show but it is just the wierdest
thing when you are used to one straight plain concrete sidewalk haha
(sidenote: I night not be able to send any pictures home :/ The ones Hermana
Vincent sent the other day got earased and it messed up her memory card. I
think the computers here could wipe off all my pictures and I don´t
want that happening :/ but we´ll see!)
Well, that´s all I have time for. I keep learning this over
and over again while I´m in the mission that really the best way to find
true happiness and joy in this life is by serving others. I feel like I´ve
always known this, but I see that truely when we are focused inward it´s
so easy to get upset, be angry, find fault with others, all of that stuff.
But when we focus on others and see the light that they have and share
out light through helping them and loving them, we find more happiness
and joy and that light within us is increased. It´s so cool. D&C50:23-24 (thanks Uncle Brock!) I love this scripture, so look it up :) haha but
really, that´s what this life is all about. Sharing the light :) Enjoy
everyone you meet and find some way to serve them.
Ok, I LOVE YOU ALL!!
Have an absolutely fantastic week! Come closer to Christ through
service ok? That´s what I´m gonna be trying to do :)
Haha Hey everyone, how have you been doing this week?!
This week felt like one of the longest of my life. . .but it kinda ended up
flying by. The full immersion in Spanish is starting to take a bit of a toll on
me. I´m trying to just enjoy it and understand all that I can, but it gets
exhausting when everytime I get asked a question and I attempt to answer I say
this wrong thing cuz I misunderstood or whatever haha but people are super
patient with me and are doing all they can to help me learn! I just need to be
patient with myself and know it´s gonna take a lot longer than 2 weeks here to
become fluent.
On the learning a new language note, me and Hermana
Vincent are going to start teaching English classes :) I´m really excited and
our ward members and other people we´ve told are excited about it too. We´re
hoping that through the classes we´ll be able to find some people who are ready
to hear about Christ too. I¨m excited to see how it goes!
We´re gonna hammer out the details this week and
hopefully start it up next week, so if you have any good ifdeas for teaching
English send them our way :) In my e-mail last week I neglected to mention
ANYTHING about the people we are teaching! I´m such a bad missionary haha ugh,
but, I´ll fill you in this week :) First of all there is Mariela. She is just
amazing! Hermana Vincent and her other companion found her knocking doors and
she actually thought they were from a different religious group so when they
came around she went inside and closed the door, but they decided to knock
anyway and told her that they were Mormom and she got super excited and invited
them in and pretty much since that day has wanted to get baptised :) She is a
super quick learner, she says it´s because everything we teach her just makes
sense.
Whenever we´re teaching she just says ¨Claro¨ over and
over haha which is like "Of course" in spanish. (Side note: I just
figured out I´ve been using the ¨ instead of the " quote marks since these
are Spanish key boards everything is all moved around haha) She is working
toward a baptism date toward the end of the month, but everyone here in
Argentina smokes, so she is working on quiting right now. She really wants to
and she has gone from 20/day to alomst 1 in just 2 weeks, it´s absolutely
incredible :) We did a fast with her this past week and she said that helped
strengthen her a lot, so that was really neat! We also have been sorta teaching
her kids and they are 19, 24, and 26. The gospel makes sense to them and I
think with small steps they might accept it too. They all smoke though so
that´s a bit of a large problem haha but if they believe it´s what will make
them and God happy, then they will do it, so we´ll just cross that bridge when
we get there :) We also have been teaching Priscila who just turned 10 on
Sunday :) she is getting baptized this coming Sunday! Her mom is a member but
hasn´t been to church in quite awhile, but she wants her daughter to have the
chance to grow up in and be a part of the church, and Priscila absolutely loves
it :) She is really smart and loves reading her "El LIbro De Mormon"
para niños :) We have a few other people we are teaching but no one that we see
often, so I´ll let that be it for now!
Here´s some more random facts about Argentina!:
-We knock doors here, but we also clap :) At houses with
big fences around them, or ones with mean looking dogs at the door haha, we
clap!
It´s way cool and fun haha
- There is this stuff that is absolutely AMAZING!! It´s
called Dulce de Leche which literally translates into Sweet Milk :) It´s a lot
like carmel, but it´s got more of a peanut butter texture. It´s in rolls,
churros, in between cookies, on fruit, you name it! But seriously, it is some
of the best stuff I´ve ever tasted :) We also have this incredible bakery in
our area and we treat ourselves to the sweets in there every once in awhile and
pretty much EVERYTHING has dulce de leche in it haha
- The bread here in general is just amazing. None of that
spongey stuff like we´ve got in the states haha but it´s cool cuz the bread
here, the outside is super tough, so for lunch or at meals they just put out a
BIG loaf of bread (like the skinnyish kind they always pretend to use as swords
in cartoons :)) and you just break off pieces of it as you want more bread! Its
a bit of a mess, but super handy really :)
Haha ok, now for the funny moment of
the week. . .how many of you have seen Leap Year? Haha I know my mom has ,) and
if you haven´t seen it this is still funny but if you have seen that it makes
this just that much funnier haha it was just to crazy haha ok, so I brought
this converter because the voltage here is way different from the states. It´s been working absolutely GREAT and I´ve been able to
listen to music and charge my camera and I even blow dried my hair once. So
yesterday, I decided I wanted to curl my hair! I know right, haha so I plugged
in my handy dandy converter and turned on my curling iron. All is well at this
point and I beging curling my hair haha (mind you, Hermana Vincent is in the
shower.) So, I´m going along, I hear Hermana come out and go change, still. all
is well. I dunno how much longer after that happened, I´d been curling my hair
for probably 10 minutes cuz I only had about half done, when all the sudden
there´s this HUGE pop and everything went dark. PITCH DARK! Haha yep, my dilly
surling iron tripped the breaker, and I´m pretty sure my converter is fried
haha but Hermana Vinvent was mid changed in the other room and she
goes¨"Oh my gosh. It´s dark. I´m scared." and some other really funny
stuff which I think I´ll just keep to myself haha but we found the phone to get
us some light and I was freaking out that I blew the power in the whole
building, maybe even block like in Leap Year haha but we went outside and found
the breaker box and tripped our apartment back and all was well once again :)
haha except I´m a little worried I won´t be able to charge my camera for the
rest of my mission, but I brought some extra fuses for my converter so weçll
see if I can change it out and get it working again :) The problem was I needed
it fuctioning on the high setting and I had it on the low seting :/ so it´s
totally my fault haha but it´s so funny now it was almost worth it.
Alright, I´ve gotta get going! I love you all so much!
Keep praying for me and ask that I´ll recaive some help with learning this
language quickly! I now it´ll come in the Lords time, but prayers never hurt
anyone! I keep realizing more and more everyday how blessed I am to have a
knowledge that brings me so much happiness, peace and purpose in life. I am
grateful for this oppertunity I have to share that with others and just as if
not more importantly really understand that for myself. I love my Savior Jesus
Christ so very much and I know I´ve taken Him for granted for far too long and
I´m working to do all I can to make up for that time and give Him all of me now
<3
Have a great week everyone OK?! I love you all so very much :)
Yup! It's true! I'm flying out to Argentina TODAY!!
Buenos Aires from the air!
I'm
pretty darn nervous about it too haha but I'm mostly excited :) It's going to be
a crazy adventure, and it's where the Lord needs me now. I'm happy about that!
Haha sorry, my brain is kinda scrambled haha I can't think straight. . .but
here's what I wrote to Prez:
Hello President,
It's pretty crazy that this is the last letter I'll be writing you to already!
It came SO much sooner than I was expecting, especially after being able to
talk with you at interviews and get such amazing words of wisdom from you. I'm
so grateful from all that I've learned from you in such a short period of time
and I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to serve here! In the past 6 weeks
I feel like SO much has happened. When we started out here, we were "white
washing" which was a new experience for all of us. We tried to do a lot of
contacting old potentials and teaching, we also did a lot of work with the
members to try and get to know them better. Toward the beginning of this
transfer though, I felt like we as a companionship weren't working as hard as
we could have been and I'm so grateful that we were able to have Sister
(Hermana) Ackley come. She is just such a hard worker, and she straightened up
some paper work things that weren't like that should have been. . .and we just
ALWAYS come home exhausted and that is the BEST feeling as a mish haha I've
learned a ton being here in Florida, and found a lot of things I can be better
about and work on. I'm going to do my best to let my light shine to the people
of Argentina and use the skills and lessons I've learned here to make that
happen :) Thanks for all you do and I love you and Sister Berry so much!!
Love,
Hermana Conger :)
He asked us to account about what we had done during the
transfer, and I could probably do a much better job answering that, but I'm
just kind of a mess in the head right now haha
This past week has been a roller
coaster too. Satan knew that my Visa was coming I think cuz I was just in a
funk I've NEVER been before. I was super down on my self and stressing about
stuff that I hadn't been stressing over which made it hard for me to be myself
and be smiley and all of that. No good. But, I have the most fantastic
companions and I got a priesthood blessing and I got to have an interview with
President and all of that helped out a ton!
Hermana Conger, Sister Blake, & Hermana Monson
But nothing helped as much as when
President called me Friday night and said I got my visa! Haha I felt like a
HUGE weight lifted off and it was WEIRD cuz I was expecting to be scared out of
my mind haha but I've just been SO much more at peace now and I can't wait to go
learn some ESPANOL!!! :D Haha ok I gotta go! I look forward to sharing all the
details with you next week! have an awesome week and day ok?!
Hermana Conger, Hermana Monson, and Sister Ackley
I love you soo
very much! The gospel is the only way we can be happy in this life, and I am so
grateful that I get to learn that everyday and have my testimony of that
strengthened everyday as well!! I love my Savior and I'm gonna let ALL of
Argentina know that :)
Thank you so much for your e-mail. It was exactly what I needed to hear. I'm so
grateful that I get to serve with you while I am here in Orlando! I'm looking
forward to interviews this week! It'll be good to hear from you on more of a
one-on-one basis.
I have had a GREAT week this week! We obviously got Sister
Ackley on Monday and she is just SUCH a huge blessing. She works so hard and
really wants to serve the Lord with all she's got, which is an example I
needed! We have been working really hard and it has been such a joy talking to
everyone we see to get those 12 contacts per day! We are already starting to
see the blessings and fruits of that and it's going to be really neat moving
forward. Our companionship gets along so well I'm a little nervous for
transfers because I want us to stay where we are! I'm not even sure I ever want
to leave for Argentina :) I'll be and go wherever the Lord needs me though!
I
heard a really neat talk from an RM on Sunday and he talked a lot about
Patience and I was grateful for that because that's really what I need to work on
out here. I need to be patient with our investigators and really try to teach
them according to the Lord's time table and not mine. I need to be patient with
my companions, the way they do things, feel the spirit, all of that stuff. I
need to be patient with myself and not expect myself to be a perfect
missionary. I know that I can give 100% of what is possible for me to give, but
I need to be patient and know that even that isn't enough sometimes :) Christ
will have everything work out in the end if I'm willing to just offer up myself
to him through being exactly obedient (as possible as an imperfect human like
me can be) and living His gospel through constant change and growth through
repentance.
It's a beautiful thing to realize that's really all He asks of us.
As I share the gospel, I'm happy to bring others to that knowledge so they can
be happy too :)
Ok so my brain feels a little fried right now. . .not totally sure why haha but I'm gonna do my best to inform you all on my week!
So, Sister Blake was Emergency transferred out of our area today. . .I'm not completely sure why. . .I have a few hypothesis but yeah we had to get her all packed up last night so she could head out this morning! We had a new sister come here to train and her name is Sister Ackley and she is so smiley and just one of the happiest sisters!! I'm really super excited to get to know her! We actually both got here the same transfer, so she's been in the field the same amount of time as me! Aaannddd. . .since I was in the MTC for about a month longer I'm the "oldest" in our companionship! haha It's pretty crazy. . .we're young but I feel like we are going to be a power house and just keep the area growing!
Don't know exactly when they got flooded, because she never talked about it - but clearly they had quite a rain at some point!!
As for investigators, we are doing better, we have one cool guy named D who has been to church 2 times now! The first time we just knocked on his door to talk to another guy that lived there who was a potential investigator. . .and as we were walking away he asked us for the address of the church so he could come! We hadn't even taught him at the point. . .but yeah he likes church, except he thinks we need a choir because no one can sing good haha so he can be a character. Other than him, it's kinda off and on with some of the other people we are teaching. 2 of them are 16 so they are obviously keeping themselves busy this summer :) Then we found an old lady this past week named D! She is from Cuba and she is adorable haha we taught her completely in Spanish so that was fun! I feel like I'm getting better. . .so yeah it's great!
Here are my thoughts on what Pres Berry asked of us this week: Ok, this week you asked me to share what it means to me to be a disciple of Christ. I've been thinking about that this week quite a bit. I've had a couple things happen that have made me feel just really down on myself and just kinda shifted the mentality I've had since I got to the field, BUT as I've thought about what it means to be a disciple of Christ, I've got an even better perspective now! So don't worry :) Really, I think that the biggest thing about being a disciple of Christ is our attitude and mentality. As we humble ourselves and are willing to submit our will to Heavenly Father's try our best to live the gospel of Jesus Christ and show love for all man just as Christ would, I think we are doing our part, but we can do even more! Knowing that I am a child of God and that I can be happy and repent because of my Savior Jesus Christ is awesome, but then I have to SHARE that knowledge with my brothers and sisters so they can feel that love of Christ as well. . .I really feel like that's what life is about. Christ and His gospel is all about love and service to others. I know that it will be a long road for me to get to where Christ was. . .it's gonna take practicing it everyday, regardless of how people treat me back. I know there are going to be hard times because Christ wants me to use the Atonement in order to feel His love :) That's why we have to call others to Repentance, so that they can feel Christ's love for them. It's incredible. I'm just gonna keep trying every day for the rest of my life to do that so that in the end Christ can say to me "Well done my good and faithful servant."
There is this new song I heard on Sister Blake's iPod and we listened to it over and OVER cuz it's incredible! It's called "Savior, Redeemer of my Soul" by Vocal Point. Look it up!! I've been thinking a lot about the words to that song. . .and I'll have to talk about it more next week cuz I've gotta get going! Sorry I've been slacking these past couple weeks. . .I need to repent and do better SO I WILL!! haha
Hahah I
have no idea what that's supposed to mean but the name just cracks me up so I
had to just show how it says Kiss mee :)
So yeah!
I'm in Kissimmee :) It's sooo great I love it. It's been kinda hard because we
did what you call "White Washing" the area which means all three of
us are brand new to the area. We spent most of this week going around
contacting a huge list of potential investigators the other Hermana's left us.
Neither one of them were trained very well so the paper work wasn't really kept
up like it shoulda been and we're pretty lost about where everyone is at as far
as people they have as progressing investigators and their potentials seem
pretty uninterested. . .but it's still been great!
I have
used Spanish EVERY SINGLE DAY I've been here! Haha it was pretty intimidating
first, knocking on a door, saying "Hello! How are you today?" and
getting a "No habla ingles. . ." and just as their shutting the door
going "O esta bien! Hablamos poquito espanol!" haha and they get
interested that we even tried and it's actually been really neat! They all seem
to enjoy that we are at least trying. I hadpretty neat experience with a lady and it was actually the first door we
had knocked on where she didn't understand ANY english and I just started saying
the words that entered my mind without hesitating about wether or not I was
conjugating right or using the exactly right verb or whatever. . .and I ended
up sharing the promise in the last two paragraphs in the introduction of the
Book of Mormon. She was soo sweet and said it was beautiful and that she wanted
to read it So I told her to read and pray to ask if it was the word of God and
she said she would, then I asked if we could come back and she said she was
only visiting but she would try to meet with other missionaries when she got
back. IT was awesome! And she said my spanish was beautiful which is ust nuts
haha I know that was most definitely the gift of tongues and it was incredible
:)
Oh maybe
I should talk about my new companions!! So Sister Blake has been out 6 months
(she came out the same time as Sister Mevs) and I absolutely ADORE her! She is
so great and such an incredible missionary. I've already grown to love her so
much and learned so much from her! She doesn't speak a lick of Spanish haha but
it's OK! Me and my other comp, Hermana Monson (I KNOW RIGHT! I'M SERVING WITH A
DISTANT RELATIVE OF THE PROPHET!! haha) are doing our best to teach her :) So,
Hermana Monson is straight outta the MTC which is neat cuz she still conjugates
everything correctly and all that kinda stuff that I need some serious work on
haha she is SO loving and a total people person! She has just been working on
realizing that it's good to just be herself and even though the Restoration
sounds a little crazy, it doesn't matter cuz it's true and it has changed our
lives and means everything in the world to us :) <3 So yeah. All three of us
are very alike and I'm so glad to have the opportunity to learn from these
Sisters! (They are both 21 so I'm a baby haha but it's great)
I don't
have a lot to report on as far as investigators go. . .we are having a baptism
on Saturday for a families daughter who is 9 and they haven't consistently gone
to church in a really long time. . .we're gonna work on that a lot! There are a
ton of members here who just don't come to church. . .ok!!
So that
World Wide Leadership Training last night!! If you haven't watched it yet. .
.GO WATCH IT NOW!!! It is absolutely incredible.
I know that if I wasn't
already serving a "mission" and this wasn't my calling to preach the
gospel that woulda been "Exactly the pep talk we all needed" -quote
from Sister Hall, because it's soooo important that we do member missionary
work! I have seen already how essential members are in helping investigators gain
a true testimony. SO all of you members, do ALL you can to help the
missionaries :)
I know
that my life has already been forever changed because of the perspective I have
on missionary work and our obligation to share the gospel. I know that up to
this point in my life I have taken my baptismal covenant seriously, but I was
passive about it. I thought that as long as I wasn't doing the wrong thing,
that meant I was standing as a witness of God. But I've realized that being a
witness of God means that I will be proactive about making sure that others
know that this is the way that they can be truly happy and find peace and joy
not only in this life but in the life to come. Whether it's by just being a
good friend, helping someone in need, or sharing your testimony with someone
you see could benefit from the knowledge you have, share your testimony!!! I
know that not only will you bless the lives of so many people, but you will
also strengthen your testimony and become more happy in the process!! :)
Alright,
well that's it for the week :) I love you all SOOO much and am so grateful to
every single one of you. Keep being you and shine your light to all those
around you. Act on every prompting you receive from the spirit, no matter how
silly it seems haha I do it all the time and I've never felt the spirit so
strong in my entire life. The Savior Lives. He loves each one of us more than
we can comprehend. He wants us to return to live with him again. I love HIm and
am going to do all I can to help prepare the earth for His second coming :)
LOVE YOU
ALL!! Have an amazing week :) <3 xoxoxox –
Well. . .apparently I've just got some unexpected work I've
gotta get done down here in good ole Florida!! :) All of my fellow visa waiter
Hermana's received their visa on Saturday and are flying out today!
Pray for
them and their safety would ya! I'm so excited for them and it'll be a good day
when I get down there, but I'm not going to lie I'm kinda relieved today is NOT
that day haha I thought I was going to throw up when President said "Keep
a stiff upper lip on this one Sister Conger. . .all of the Visa's came. *insert
bugged out eyes, loss of breath, heart stopping, all that haha*. . .except
yours." *HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF!!!* haha it was great. The only sad thing is
I'm leaving this wonderful area in Viera because President thinks my Visa will
be here in about a week. According to when I saw the Consulate in the MTC it
didn't quite sound that way, but I'm just going to stay on my tip toes and be
as engaged in the work here as I ever have been.
I will be moving to an area
just outside Orlando called Kissimee where there are apparently a lot more
Spanish speakers! So that'll be fun to get back into the groove of espanol. Not
only that, but I will be helping train a new Spanish Sister who has been called
to Orlando! There was only 1 when I got here but there are 3 coming this
transfer so only 2 can be with the Hermana that has been here, so I know that's
part of the reason Heavenly Father is holding up my visa :) (Also I think he
knows I left a large majority of winter gear at home and am not near prepared enough
temporally) haha but I am so excited.
The hardest thing is leaving everyone
I've grown so attached to here. I felt like people were finally really getting
to know me and some of our investigators who have been having a hard time
progressing are finally getting there and M is getting baptized soon and
all of that I'm gonna have to miss and leave, but I have a feeling of peace
that I have done the best I could to complete my part of the work that needed
to be done here <3 The Lord expects a lot from me in this work, but I feel
like the small imperfect offering I was able to give was what it needed to be.
I have learned SO much about myself and especially about my relationship with
my Heavenly Father, my Savior Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost that I never
ever could have learned any other way. I have made some incredible eternal
friendships here too. I have to come back someday that is for sure :)
So as for people, M, like I said is doing so
awesome! He is still on track for his Baptism and even though he's going
through some really hard stuff he sees the Savior strengthening him and
blessing him as he turns to him. I'm gonna miss that kid! It has been the
coolest thing to see him recognize truths and try his best to live the way God
wants him to live. He has taught me a lot and I am thankful for the opportunity
I've had to help him develop a true and lasting relationship with Christ :)
C is back! We hadn't seen him in what seemed like a
really long time, but we finally got back ahold of him and he is actually
starting to really read the Book of Mormon and loves it! It's so neat to see
him get excited about the stories and try to draw comparisons to his own life.
Also, we set a solid baptism date with him! He love repentance and that Christ
has allowed the ability for him to change and be a better person and he wants
to be able to start over. It's pretty neat!
I have SO many more people I could talk about, I love them
all so much! I'm sure I'll remember them for the rest of my life because they
have all had such an effect on me. Greatest of all though has been my
companions. Sister Mevs and I are not alike at all! Other than, we love our
Savior and this gospel very very much, and we love other people a lot too. We
have had our differences, but I learned a lot of lessons from her and I'm so
grateful that she was willing to try and help me learn what I needed too, I
just hope I did the same for her! Sister Payne has been one of the dearest,
closest friends I've ever had, which is pretty nuts when I've only know her for
6 weeks haha but she has really taught me the meaning of hard work and being
tireless in our work as missionaries, and having fun at the same time!! I love
her so much and will miss her until I see her again :)
Alright, I gotta head out for now! I love you all and can't
wait to update you on my new companions and new area next week! Have a
wonderful week!
Remember that we can have access to the 3 most loving and
powerful beings at any moment. We pray and can talk with and recieve blessings
from Heavenly Father. We repent and we let Christ into our lives so that we can
become more like Him, and as we obey the commandments and do all we can to live
the gospel, we allow the Holy Ghost to be with us and comfort and bless us :)
Be
happy! Live, Laugh and Love with all that you have :)
Hello Everyone :)
I love you all sooo much! I hope everything is going good
and you've had a great week :) It's been a pretty good week here in Florida!
It's getting hotter and hotter every single day haha which is taking a lot of
getting used to being on the verge of sweating constantly even when I'm inside
haha but it's alright.
The work has been going great! M is getting
baptized on Saturday and I am SOO excited for him! He has just been so prepared
for this and I'm so glad I got to be a part of helping him discover his purpose
in life. Since he started meeting with us he has grown so much, and pretty much
everyday he texts us and tells us something that God did to answer his prayers
:) He got a job that he loves out of no where, he's been doing a 2 week CNA
program which is super intense and he's been able to pass everything he's
needed to, and much more, but it really has made ME more grateful for all the
blessings that I have in my life :)
Mr. C, who I might have mentioned lost
his mom... commited to live the Word of Wisdom and
has been doing well with it! He's kinda hard to gauge... but since he's stopped drinking I've seen his
countenance change 360 degrees!! It's INCREDIBLE!! I think he really is
prepared to change his life and hopefully as he keeps trying to read and pray
he'll start to gain a real testimony of this stuff :)
Ok, cool story, we were
tracting last Sunday and came across a dad and his daughter playing darts and
as we asked if we could share a message he brought out his WHOLE family to
listen to what we had to say. We prayed with them and gave them a BoM, but
yesterday we had a return appointment and they had us over for dinner and the
whole shabang! The mom, made this incredible grilled chicken with squash
and mashed potatoes, hands down one of the best meals I've had so far (all of
it is SOOO good!) but the best part was we taught the Restoration, and we
really had the feeling that we needed to put emphasis on how the gospel blesses
families and we talked about how families could be together forever and they
thought that was incredible! They had honestly never even thought of it. . .so
they wanted a whole lesson on the temples and sealing and all of that haha they
were like "next time we can sit in the hot tub and drink slushies and you
can tell us al about it" haha it was funny. they are such an awesome
family and I really am excited to see what this gospel can do for their life :)
Let's see. . .I could talk about everyone haha but I just don't have time. We
had a lot of unexpected stuff come up last week. Poor Sister Mevs got sick one
day so Sister Payne and I spent the day watching "Together Forever"
from like the 80's and eating skittles haha it was so fun and I really adore
Sister Payne. We're gonna be friends for a LONG time :) I also had a new
missionary meeting in Orlando on Friday where I gotta see Hermana Harrison and
all that stuff! It was a good time :) Uhhh. . .other stuff I wanted to tell you
about was just funny haha Like the fact that Sister Payne is in love with
Scotty McCreery :) and really they would be so adorable together haha and
M thinks I'm the really life Hermione Granger which pretty much made my
entire life :D
How are you all?? I'm doing pretty good. Florida is moving
swiftly into summer mode so the hummidity and heat is turning up FAST! Makes me
wish I could just be in the ocean all day every day, and it sounds like that's
what most Floridian's do haha
I keep making this list of things that I want to
write home about and then we get ready to leave to come here and I forget to
grab it!! So, I'll do my best to remember this time because I feel like my
letter last week was a little lame haha
Obviously, my life now is ALL about investigators/less
actives so all my stories pretty much have to do with them :) Oh and meals with
the members are the bomb too! We ate with the Tatton family this week, they are
super cute, but it was crazy cuz Sister Tatton was talking about she was from
Burbank and how they were extra's in movies and tv shows are their service
projects for shows that normally had to pay people to come be extra's haha but
anyway, she remembered Mackey and Lisa! It was cool to feel how small the world
is! I haven't talked to Mackey in ages. . .I don't even know if he knows I'm in
Florida haha I have so many people to write and such little time to do it!
This picture has nothing to do with Florida... it's at the MTC with Elder Thompson, but it's adorable and she sent it with this e-mail, so... yeah. :)
So one of the greatest things about this week was we had 2
of our investigators at church!
Yo quiero todos! Haha I would type more in espanol (and i'm sure in the furture that may be how I write better, at least I'm hoping so!) But as for right now I'll just write in English haha How are you all?! OH MY GOODNESS!! I got like 7 letters on Monday and it was SO great! Thank you Malia, Anna N., Sister Neilsen, Kix, Beth. . .oh Mom and Aaron ahaha and anyone else that sent me a letter! Or who sent a prayer my way, because I've definitely been feeling all of them, so thank you SOOO much! Also, thank you for the package mom! I bet my roomates that there would be another bag of wheat preztles in there haha and there wasn't! I loved the pay days though! Honestly, there isn't a whole lot of time for "Snacking" in the CCM, so yeah the treats you sent me were perfecto :)
First off. . .I love you all sooooo much! Thank you for your
prayers and for the Dear Elders and for everything you do for me :) Aaron won
and got me my first package of the MTC :) That was AWESOME! I got it last p-day
and he got my lots of my favorite things as well as some really helpful stuff
for my mish! :D He got me this absolutely ADORABLE lime green watch that has an
owl on it and it says "Believe in Yourself" :) It's the stinkin
cutest thing and it makes me day brighter when i look at it instead of the
boring black thing I got haha He also spoiled me with my favorite candy
and PB Oreos (those were perfect for coping with the break down I had this week
haha) then Mom I got your package a few days after that and it was magnificent
as well :) Packages are kinda the best thing ever haha I was definitely in need
of the snacks, I like having the healthy options you sent me!
