I've Grown A Foot Or Two!

1. What has been your biggest challenge this week?

Okay so my biggest challenge this week was staying positive. We struggled this week and have been struggling to find people to teach. We would pray about everything. Where we could go knock, who we should see, what members to visit and it seemed like we kept hitting a brick wall. It was hard to stay positive but our efforts paid off! I will talk about that in a sec.

2. What has been your biggest concern?

My biggest concern this week was myself. All this week I was thinking, am I the one that's withholding us from blessings? Am I not being obedient enough? Am I doing something wrong? So this week I have been praying for things that I need to change and improve on so I can help us qualify for the blessings :)

Eating with Maria, a less active

3. What has been your biggest success?

Here is where our efforts paid off. We had two really cool experiences:

1. This week we went on a full day exchange with the STLS and I got to be comps with Sister Calvo!! I was super happy to be comps again with her. So much fun. We were on our way to see a less active, but she wasn't home. As we were leaving her apartment complex, we saw this older lady sweeping outside and we asked her if we could give her a card and she said yes. Then we asked if we could share a prayer with her and she was like "no my husband is sick." We told her we could pray for him,so she let us in. They are a cute older Cuban couple. She is 70 something and her name is Segunda, which means second in Spanish. Her husband is 93 and his name is Armando. We learned that they just had a son pass away not too long ago and that Armando had seen him in a dream. So we shared a prayer with them and taught a little how families can be together forever. They were excited to learn more. It’s a little difficult to teach because Armando can’t hear well or understand much but we are excited to continue to teach them!

2. Our second miracle happened yesterday. It was after church and we were looking for a place to knock doors. While we were praying, Sister Torralba got the impression that we needed to go to a Spanish grocery store called Sedano’s and contact there. Its pure Latin and we felt like we would have lots of success there, because we haven’t been having that much luck knocking. So we went to Sedano’s and acted like we were shopping and gave a card to whoever the spirit promoted us to talk to. We ended up getting two new investigators, Edwin and Trigenal. They are super cool and elect and want to know more about our church. We have a return appointment with them this week! We are excited to teach them. Also, we were talking to one of the workers and found out that he is a member and just moved here from Columbia and has been wondering where our church was. So we got to help them! Super cool and one of our biggest successes :)

Cutest future missionary ever!

4. Who has been your favorite person this week? Why?

My favorite person this week is Sister Orton. Sister Orton is a mother of a missionary who served here and went home a little while after I got here. Her mom writes a lot of the missionaries here in the mission weekly. I didn't know her daughter very well, but she writes to me every week. A little letter from her and then she includes a bunch of conference talks. Talks from devotionals and stuff like that. This week the talks she sent were inspired. It’s just what I needed. The talks were: Only 10 dollars by Emma C Miller, and the other is A Time For Faith, Not Fear by Elder Larry W Gibbons. I really want you to read these talks because they are so good!! Here are some things that i really liked from these talks! From the Only 10 Dollars talk:

Once in my car, I began sobbing. Not because I regretted giving up the 10 dollars. Not because I felt like a do-gooder, though I did feel good about helping. But I was moved because this thought hit me: “How many times in my life have I come up short? How many times have I taken my case to the Lord in spite of feeling inadequate or unworthy to receive His blessings?” Heavenly Father doesn’t say, “Again? This isn’t the first time this has happened; you’ve come down this road before. This is so frustrating.” The Father doesn’t call the Savior in and ask Him to explain to us why we can’t have what we so desperately need at that moment. He doesn’t tell us we should have planned a little better. The Savior paid the price for us, and we are saved by His grace, “after all we can do” (2 Nephi 25:23). The man at the grocery store probably gave all he had and needed someone to come to his aid. He needed mercy. Justice meant the items would have to be paid for, but mercy meant that someone else could step in and pay the debt.

Quotes from the Time for Faith, Not Fear talk:

"Life is a test"

"Difficult days are a necessary part of like and give us an opportunity to build our faith and learn to rely on a power far greater than our own"

"President Packer said, faith to be faith must center around something that is not known. Faith to be faith must walk to the edge of the light and then a few steps into the darkness."

"It is hard to build faith in the noonday sun. When the night is dark and the clouds are thick we have the opportunity to put our hand in the Lord’s hand and rely on him to help us"

"Look up not down"

I have found that usually when we face our most difficult test, the Lord is there ahead of us to prepare the way through them"

"The rapids are really the best part"

"This is the lord’s work, let him do some of it"

"Let the lord do some of the heavy lifting"

Those are just some highlights from these articles. Please read the talk! Its super good!! :)

Server made me a turtle. Ahhh

5. What has been your most significant tender mercy?

Finding investigators

Drivin'

6. What are you looking forward to this week?

Teaching people

7. Do you have a goal set for this coming week?

Goals I have set this week is to really trust in the Lord, be exactly obedient, positive and love my mission!

8. Which scripture has had the biggest impact on you this week?

The scripture that has helped me the most this week is D and C 84:88

Thanks for the Valentine's package!

The weather this week has been super cold!! I have been having to wear layers and layers but it’s finally starting to warm up. This week we have zone conference in Naples! A 3 hour drive!! But I am excited and can’t wait to tell you all about it!! Thanks so much for the valentine’s package!! So amazing, I loved it!! Thanks for all the letters!! Those notes were the best and made me laugh hahah :) I love you all soo much!! Thanks for all you do!!!