Letter #68 01/25/16

The craziest week of our little lives.......
Monday night we had the weekly 'Noche de Hogar' with the
Pe-Al family. It's always a good time. We talked about the
temple, Hermano Mo brought pizza, we played Marco Polo. Haha, one
thing that was particularly beautiful- we were doing kind of a
question and answer session about the temple when someone asked about
how it is kept clean. I shared my experiences of having the
opportunity to clean the temple and Hermano Al asked, "Is there
any way to get involved with cleaning the church? I mean, it's our
church building and I just want to help. Tell me a day and I'll be
there." I don't know if it sounds as sweet on email as it was, but
these people! They are just so humble, so full of incredible desires
to do good. I want to be like them.

Tuesday. Im sort of starting this day by day thing because it's just
easier and that way I can actually remember specific things instead of
trying to cram 4,000 miracles into an email on Monday. Pero, Bueno. We
saw lots of beautiful things today. Highlights would be.. N AND
E. Okay, so I don't know if I've talked much about these two but
N's a member and E isn't and so ever since my first day here
in Chesterfield we've taught them off and on, nothing too substantial-
BUT then this past week they just waltz into church in the freezing
cold and  snowiness and it was the biggest surprise of EVER and now
they are just like- different. With this new desire to progress and
everything. They fed us fried chicken and spaghetti with crema y queso
#rockandroll and I feel that we're here to stay! We also had a word of
wisdom lesson with Jo and Jo and Es and it was so cute.
Jo el Papa was just like, okay. I'm done drinking coffee- just like
that. And it was incredible to see his monster faith and this new
light I'm His eyes. His countenance now matches that of his son and it
was just so clear to me in that moment that finding the truth, making
it an active part of our life, changes us! He continues to push
forward and he's just so prepared. He's planning on being baptized
this Friday the 29 of January, so pray for him!

Wednesday was the day of all miracles!! In three short words..
EL'S GETTING BAPTIZEDDD!  The day at long long last has
arrived. It's crazy, because she's wanted to baptized basically ever
since I arrived here three months ago, but it just like didn't happen
for one reason or another. But, the Lord's timing is perfect. On
Sunday after church we filled out the papers online for her marriage
certificate, tried on the miracle wedding dress, her novio L even
came and it was beautiful! They were talking about maybe going to the
court to get the license on the 27th, three days before the wedding
and we were like eek that's really cutting it close to her January
29th date, but if that's the only day you can get off then, bueno. We
know it'll work out! So that's where we were when we went to have a
short lesson with her on Tuesday. She was like- "I totally forgot but
L got tomorrow off work for a doctors appointment, so we can just
go get the license after!" Uh, okay! When God wants you married and
baptized, He gets you married and baptized. The only problem was that
tomorrow, Wednesday, was the all mission conference broadcasted via
satellite to every single mission in the world.. Right at the time
they were to be able to go to court. We were trying to find a member
to translate for them, to help them be able to go themselves when
President Wilson came over. We chatted about it for a minute and he
said, "Just between us three, I think going to court's a lot more
important than watching live.." And that was exactly what our hearts
had been waiting to hear. So they called us when they were ready and
we up and left the broadcast and I felt so blessed to be able to truly
represent the Savior in that moment. After a few failed attempts at
finding the courthouse, we finally made it, they received their
license and I guess the rest will be history! We even had a lesson
with L a few nights later and it ruled! It's been incredible to
see how the spirit has softened his heart in preparation for their
spiritual journey together. We have no doubt that this really is just
the beginning. God is so so so good.
Also, a little bit of a twist to the story.. We got a call last night
from E and she's really concerned because she wants her mom to
be at her wedding, but she just thought about the possibility of her
coming like two days ago.. Not enough in advance to get work off to
come up. So now she wants to push back her wedding and baptism date..
The next available date is the end of February, which is in a really
long time. And she's already waited so long. We're seeing what can be
done, but just pray that everything can work out! Heavenly Father has
pulled so many beautiful strings to help her be able to make this
important covenant and it's been so beautiful to see his hand. We
still have lots of faith.

We also had a neat neat lesson with this beautiful member named
Hermana G. We just got her part of the area, so it was our first
time visiting her cute home. We were greeted by her little daughter
who, when we asked what she learned at school, gave us the most
hilarious Spanish rendition of the story of Martin Luther King's "I
had a dream" speech and we knew from that moment it was going to be a
good time. But only when the little girl started bearing us her
testimony did we realize just how spiritual it was going to be.
Hermana G was baptized just a few years ago, but is married to an
inactive life long member that doesn't really support her in going to
church. She told us just how hard it is to get the little kids ready
for church, that they're trouble makers, but that she wants so badly
to be active. She reminded me so much of my mom. We just testified of
the blessings of the temple and of Heavenly Father's understanding of
her and her needs. There was the sweetest moment where the spirit
prompted me to tell a little bit of my story, and it just hit me
really hard as I shared it- that the reason I could go to the temple,
the reason I am here on a mission is because of my sweet mother who
didn't give up. That even though it was hard, she took me to church
each week and taught me the gospel through the way that she lived. And
that is exactly what she can do for her girls. Tears abounded and
there was just such a tender spiritual connection. Lots of the things
that happen on the mission are basically indescribable, but yes. I am
grateful.

If y'all haven't been following the news as we most definitely
haven't, I'm sure you haven't heard of the monster snow storm that
took the state of Virginia by.. storm.. This weekend but, if you have,
the rumors are true. This Friday our life very quickly turned into a
SNOWY DREAM LAND and let me just tell you- so many adventures. Most
from the comfort of our own kitchen table, but, yes! Haha. It all
started out with a trip to the mission home! Y'all know the mission
home, aka the colonial house card in the game of LIFE but a real life
thing, aka Heaven on Earth. President and Sister Wilson invited us and
another companionship of sisters over to discuss some of the upcoming
meetings to be held and it was such a treat. We all grabbed our forks
and ate from a community bowl of fruit and then were visited at the
window bird feeder by cardinals. CARDINALS against the backdrop of
snow just beginning to fall and also chickadees and it was just one of
those moments when you just sit back and you're like wow life is so
beautiful and happy and Gods creations! Then as we drove home it got
CRAZY. And it didn't stop til yesterday. We had lots of adventures,
snow well above our knees, it was hard though because we live 15
minutes out of our proselyting area (driving on the freeway) so it was
impossible to get to our area to work. We put our thinking caps on and
came up with a beautiful idea.. Telephone lessons! And then, I thought
back to my group call days in elementary school and we figured out how
to do conference calls on our little dinosaur of a phone! That being
said, we invited members and we all got to learn and feel of the
spirit from the comfort of our own homes! Hahah. It was a really big
miracle to have been able to meet with all of our investigators even
with the snow and to help prepare them for their baptisms! Life is
really good here in Chesterfield. We evaded a transfer call, Hermana
Draper and I are serving another transfer together and I will die
here! Blessings for days. I'm so grateful to be a missionary. We have
a Heavenly Father who cares about us individually and knows us so
perfectly. We have a Savior who has paid the price for each of our
sins. My testimony of the atonement has definitely grown. I am so
grateful to be able to learn of Him and to testify of His love every
day.

Letter #67 01/18/16

This week started out with exchanges with the cute swiftcreek sisters.
It was an absolute treat. I went to swiftcreek with Sister Bray, the
worlds most interesting human aka she's from England and uses words
like "banter" and "biscuit tin" and basically within two seconds
you're speaking like a Brit and it's a real good time. We saw some
wonderful miracles and I was rudely awaken to the fact that I can no
longer teach the gospel in English..  I spent so much of my mission
life as an English human that I was ambidextrous, but now, being
immersed in and saturated with Spanish and passing time with Hispanics
nearly all the time I was awkward as can be. It was a neat thing, and
one of the first times I've felt like a true Hermana.  Hah.
On the exchange we had a lesson with one of the recent converts named
J. He is a really really great kid with so much potential. He got
baptized but his family is really against the church and so it's been
really hard for him. We were just talking with him about the struggles
that he's been going through and just how much he wants to be good,
when this really hard looking guy walks by in the park. He was walking
his pitbull, listening to music blaring from this radio he was
carrying around. I felt like we should talk to him, but I also kind of
had one of those moments where you semi judge someone in your mind
because of their appearance and think that they probably won't be
interested in the message.

As he walked back to the other way I just waved and said hey! He saw
us and came over. Turns out he and J are friends so he sat down
to talk. He told us that he moved here recently to Virginia to
straighten out his life and that he wants to build a better future. We
talked about heavenly father's plan and how there really are no
coincidences. It was super windy but my heart was warm. Have you seen
the picture of Jesus Christ sitting on a bench with a teenage boy
dressed all in black? I felt like I was there. In the picture sitting
with two really incredible sons of God that just don't know how much
he loves them. It's those moments that make missions worth it.

Okay, remember how J Gramajo el papa didn't come to church last
Sunday because he had to work last
minute? So we had a lesson with him during the week. We left
him to read 3 nefi 11 and he read it! He drew little stars in the
margins close to the verses he liked. Haha! It was so sweet. And when
we brought up his baptism to tell him that we needed to push it back a
week he interrupted us and said, "yes! I AM getting baptized on the
30th!" So we didn't argue. He came
to church on Sunday, even though it was really snowy and many members
didn't make it. It was a miracle in disguise though because the bishop
had more time on his hands and talked to him, found out about his
baptismal date, and later told us that the plan was that he would be
baptized on the 30th of January, receive the priesthood shortly after,
and baptize his daughter in law and son the 20 th of February after
they get married. Wow! And speaking of weddings, this super less
active lady randomly gave the other sisters in our ward two wedding
dresses the other day.. And they were like, well you can try them out,
because they knew we are planning like twelve weddings. And one dress
fit Es PERFECTLY and the other, El. WHAT IN THE WORLD?
It's so beautiful how Heavenly Father's plan is so much grander than
we think. Heavenly Father wanted The Pe-Al family back in
church so He worked through their sweet kids. Heavenly Father wants
Jo and Es and El and Le married, so he works
through this random less active lady to get the marriage ball rolling.
IM SO GRATEFUL to be working side by side with my Heavenly Father!

THIS WEEK was crazy. There's so many other miracles that took place.
Maybe I'll write them in a letter and mom can copy and paste them.
HEAVENLY FATHER blesses us. He loves us. He's here.

Letter #66 01/11/16

Pina Colada party with the one and only....Hermana Draper!  We have fun! :)

Nightly planning on exchanges.  Hermana Linares is easily the most beautiful human.
She loves cats and is the worlds greatest example of just a Hispanic human who loves to
share everything and would give you all of things off of her back.

Okay I'm sure you remember cute Es and Jo, although I don't
think I've talked about them in a little bit.. Welp, they're still
trekking along towards their February 13th baptism/marriage date (can
you say so far away? Like, in normal human time that's 'just next
month' right? But in mission time that is the equivalent of like 3
light years away.. Haha.) Anywho, we haven't been able to see them as
much lately because of work and craziness, but we finally got to have
a lesson with them.. As well as with Jo's dad, Jo. It was
AWESOME. So beautiful. Jo el papa, as we so lovingly call him, has
just seen the hugest change in his son and has wanted for a while to
know what all the fuss was about.. And, welp, the stars have aligned.
Taught the restoration, extended an on date invitation for the 30th of
January, and he accepted. You should have seen Jo and Es's
eyes... They basically popped right out of their heads. He had to work
yesterday so he couldn't come to church. That being said, don't know
if he'll make the 30th BUT it was just the happiest of all miracles
and goes without saying that our examples matter! When we allow the
atonement of Jesucristo to shape us and change us, people take notice.

I feel like all I have to give is little baby updates, but our friends
here in Chesterfield just keep on keeping on. Hermano A, Hermana
P and their niños are just precious. Basically they're just trying
to get married and even though they have loads of faith there's just
tons of obstacles that keep popping up. They went to court on
Hermano's day off with full faith that they were going to tell them
that everything was cool and they could get married tomorrow but..
Basically, they said that they couldn't do anything for them. They
didn't call us afterward, so we figured no news was probably bad news.
When we went over to see what had happened, they were a little bit
bummed, but the glimmer of faith still shone in their eyes. They just
have such a desire to renew their baptismal covenants and to be sealed
as a family. And because of that, I know that Heavenly Father will
answer their prayers. We watched the Mormon message, 'Good Things To
Come' with them and I was reminded of these sweet words from an
apostle of The Lord, speaking for Our Savior when he says:

Don't you quit.
You keep walking.
You keep trying.
There is help and happiness ahead.
Some blessings come soon,
Some come late,
And some don't come until heaven.
But for those who embrace
the gospel of Jesus Christ

They come.

And I feel like that's what Heavenly Father's been trying to tell me.
These past few weeks have been a really interesting turn of events.
Your close to returning or returned missionary friends tell you about
these really hard times they have when Satan just beats up on them so
hard right at the very end and you give them advice and think, "wow,
I'm so grateful for that warning so that it won't happen to me" and
then.. It does. And you're wondering why he waited this long to come
at you until you realize that you're heading towards the end of THE
MOST SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE up to this point in your life and like
Moses, after speaking face to face with God was approached by the
adversary himself, that the adversary wants nothing more than to make
the last year and a half count for nothing. I know that Satan is a
real being set on destroying us. I know that, as Elder Klebingnat
says, we're given times to prove ourselves and to prove our faith in
our Savior, in His atonement and in our Heavenly Father's love. I know
that, while the adversary shouts in our ears, our Savior's voice is
much more subtle. He whispers peace. I have learned that we are never
never never alone and that Heavenly Father really does answer our
simple prayers. Before going into lessons, I've started praying
specifically that I can receive answers.. That I can feel peace..
That we can have a spiritual experience and- we have had some of the
most tender experiences with our brothers and sisters here. I dunno, I
guess what I'm saying is that life is just full of ups and downs but
we have this beautiful precious constant in our Savior Jesus Christ
and His promises. He leads and guides us and His work is so good. I am
grateful to this little black name tag, and to my Savior. Put the two
together and I am given the sweetest opportunities to bring light to
the lives of complete strangers.

Love you all! Remember that you're not alone. And I'll close my
missionary soap box for now.  LOVES.

Letter #65 01/04/16

Mission Leadership Council

"I am so grateful to be in the club of my prophet, Joseph Smith" - Hmo Rocha's first official sacrament meeting testimoy.

Okay, let me just tell you of one night this week. It was surely one
for the books, and quite possibly the most eventful night of my entire
mission. Okay, so a sweet recent convert who just recently moved into
our ward from New Jersey called telling us that he had invited two of
his non member friends to meet with us and asked if we could all meet
at this restaurant called Lindo Amanecer (last time we had a lesson
there they decided it would be the perfect night to test out the sound
system and lights for their big New Year's Eve fiesta, so.. It's
always a good time) pero, bueno. We agreed, of course, but not thirty
minutes before he called to tell us that the friends bailed. We were
SUPER hungry, we decided to just go anyways, so the three of us met up
at the restaurant and began to order and chat. Then, at the check out
desk I see this guy getting his food to go and I just really felt like
we should talk to him. So as he's gearing up to go I was just like,
"Hey, guy over there!" .. And motioned for him to come over to our
table. He came over like it was no big thing and we started talking.
Not two seconds later my companion invites him to eat with us.. And he
was like, yeah! Of course. And I'm thinking this would never ever
happen in English work but, Hispanics are neat. Hahah. So this random
guy just starts eating with us and we teach him a lesson, turns out
he's way prepared, and he and the member that was with us had randomly
met each other before and became best friends over our dinner and he's
gonna come to church.. So, hahah. It was literally the most random
thing but such a miracle!

Follow up on the miracle guy..  He came to chuuuuuurch! And he offered
to give the closing prayer in Gospel Principles class, also coming to
a Noche de Hogat tonight, so..Yeah. Blessings.

The P-Á family.. I can't even begin to tell you the miracles
that we have seen with them. It's crazy! Every time we are with them
the spirit just touches every soul so sweetly. We felt like we should
go visit them, so we surprised them the afternoon of New Year's Eve.
We get into the house and- they're all just together, way cute,
watching 17 Miracles with subtitles. They review the whole movie for
us, telling us about all the miracles.. And then begin to tell us
about the miracles that they've recently seen. A few days before, they
didn't have food to eat. Hermana P had no clue what to feed her
kids, not to mention that she has diabetes, so food/sugar checking and
all that is really important for her. As she searched the cupboards,
the spirit reminded her of some rice and told her to make it for the
kids. She made it, but knew it wasn't going to be enough to keep her
sugars in check. Then she saw the coffee maker... Sweet little Hermana
P heard a voice telling that she'd be okay if she were to drink
the coffee, but then she was reminded of the word of wisdom and
another voice that said, "obedience brings blessings". THEN Hermano
brought home some Chinese food for dinner, only enough for one meal..
They put the left overs in the fridge, and the next morning it was as
if it had doubled! They had enough for breakfasts for the whole
family. It's beautiful because they are in LOVE with the stories of
the early church days but I think it is only because they are so
alike. Their faith is unmatched. It really does work these beautiful
wonders in their lives. We were introducing ourselves in gospel
principles and Hermano was like, "I'm Hermano A, I'm from
Guatemala, and I really just like being in this church". Me too,
Hermano, me too. ❤️

Anyways, this week was just chalk full of the most beautiful happy
miracles and experiences! I know that the atonement is real. I know
that God is our loving Heavenly Father and he blessed us when we show
our desire to follow him. I know living our lives in His way is worth
it. I love being a missionary!!

Cute sister Megan who served her mission in Mexico, serves with us
when she comes back home for the holidays.