I Feel Overwhelming, Overflowing Happiness! - January 20, 2015

Fam Fam:

It has been the MOST AMAZING WEEK OF MY MISSION!!!!! I cant wait to get started and to tell you all about it... I AM ON CLOUD 9 RIGHT NOW!!!!

But, first off, I would like to address the fact that I was in Baltimore on Martin Luther King Jr Day. I spent the day on Martin Luther King Blvd, dropped the Elders off at an appointment with a less active man named Luther, and drove down King Ave. Say what!?

Monday...

Great day... Don't got time to tell ya’ll bout it. Lo siento!

Tuesday...

We had a great reunion de districto but it was super sad because it was Elder Ayons last one. Hermana Orton and I bought him a shirt that said USA so that he wont forget us when he is back in Mexico. It was a double 2XL and he probably needed an extra small, but it was the thought that counts :)

Later that night we were heading to an appointment and passed the house of another investigator. As we passed by, I had the strongest feeling that we needed to visit her and not our intended appointment. I kinda shrugged it off and we kept driving. The farther away we got, the sicker I began to feel. I was actually getting physically sick! I finally told my companion and we turned the car around. She was home and the lesson was amazing! We asked her to be baptized and she accepted. She has to work on sundays and said that she wants to talk to her boss and try to get them off because, as she put it “God needs to be first in her life!”

Wednesday...

BEST DAY OF MY MISSION!!!!

We had transfer meeting and everyone was invited to come. The reason why is because President Richards wanted to introduce everyone to the new mission pres and wife that will be coming in. You wont believe this.... I peer-tutored the new mission presidents daughter at Timpview!!! Camille! I am so happy and excited!!! It was super hard seeing Elder Ayon bear his testimony. I started to have a little panic attack that in 11 months, that will be me. But, today I realized I should not focus on my mission ending... but to find joy in the journey and not focus on the horrible reality that this is going to end :( I have 11 more months and I am going to live it up and give it all I got!

We got a little mini missionary with us! I knew her from when I was in Hagerstown! She must be a little good luck charm because the miracles just started flowing as soon as she was with us.

Here is a H U G E one!!!

We are sitting at a stoplight when I hear Hermana Orton let out a gasp and say “There’s H!” She is a former investigator that the Hermana before me and Hermana Orton had not been able to find for months. Well... for the past 6 weeks we have been scheduling “Finding’ H’ Time everyday day. WE FOUND HER!!! I unlocked the door, yelled "GO HERMANA! GO! I will park the car and find you. GO!" Hermana Orton jumped out, dodged her way through the traffic and I drove off, trying to maintain eye contact... not gonna lie, I lost it for a bit, parked the car, and ran after her! Hilda had been at therapy (she had a stroke a while back) and got super anxious and just had to leave even though her cab was on the way. We offered to walk her back to her house. She told us that she hasn't smoked in months, that she has been praying that we will find her and that she wants to be baptized! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!?

We also had another miracle with an investigator named “M”! Her family is so adorable and prepared beyond prepared! We were talking about prophet and she said "They just have this power, it is like permission from God". She was teaching herself the doctrine! I have never had a more amazing and powerful lesson in my entire life! Everything clicked, they soaked it all up! The husband had to leave before we got to Joseph Smith but we are going back today and finishing it all up! THIS FAMILY IS AMAZING!!!! Our mini missionary saw some SERIOUS miracles with us this day!!

Thurday:

We took the buses and it was a LONG day!!! Like always, the buses provided us with some entertainment and of course, we got lost. There was this man who was so wasted and offered alcohol to this little girl on the bus. All of the sudden the little girls mother turned bright red and yelled "Sir! Did you just offered my 4 year old daughter alcohol!?" Then the dude fell on me while getting off of the bus.

Friday:

Friday was basically Wednesday all over again! We had some FANTASTIC lessons with H and with M! I wish you all were by my side or that you could feel the overflowing, overwhelming happiness that I have right now!!!! I AM SO HAPPY!!!!!

Saturday:

This day was crazy as well!!!! We went over and painted our branch presidents house! I learned some new techniques and ate some really good food :)

Sunday:

Church got canceled! haha! I had never heard of that happening, but it happens here in Baltimore! There was freezing rain and people were falling, buses were sliding. They didn't want anybody getting hurt so they canceled church! We weren't allowed to leave the building and drive our cars, so we had to stay there for a few hours until the weather got better and we got the clear that we could drive!

This email was super duper rushed,... but I hope that you all got a little gist of just how amazing my week was! My studies were top notch and changed me! This week I could feel the love of my Savior in every moment of every day! I know that He lives! I know that He loves me! I know that He is guiding my every step and helping me to help His children here in Baltimore!

Oh, I forgot to tell you! I got to play ping pong yesterday, for Pday! I haven't lost my skill that's for sure! I played against elder burrup and he won 2 games, and I won 1. But the important thing is that he has never lost before on his mission and that was the first time! He said that he has missed playing like that and actually having some competition! So, tell Gpa that I am coming for him!!!

Love you all! Have a great week :)

Me!

PS: Fried Chicken Shops, lots and lots of Fried Chicken in Baltimore :) Y U M!!!

Un Bautismo Hermoso! - January 12, 2015

HOLA!!!!

ROSIBEL GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow.... It was so amazing!!!!!!!!! She got really nervous right before it started because she is scared of going under water and because they had announced it in sacrament meeting! There was a lot of people at church yesterday and they all just went straight from the chapel to the relief society room to be at the baptism. She was nervous :) But... she did it and the spirit was SOOOOOOOOOO strong!!!! I couldn’t even really “see” her be baptized because of how many people were there! I was able to kinda lay across some chairs and see the reflection in the mirror! haha! She is amazing and bore the most beautiful testimony at the end of the service! I had been a nervous wreck the whole day! I have not been to a baptism on my mission yet, let alone planned one! Our ward missionary leader didn't get any of our calls that week and neither did the branch president - so we were so scared. Although it was not the most eloquent of baptisms.. it was still beautiful! There was a lot of families there and a lot of kids!!! One even ran in during the middle of one of the talks, starts crying and then started to spit up blood! You know that you are joining the true church when in the midst of all that, the spirit can still be felt that strong! haha. Rosibel sent us a text this morning telling us that she is super happy. I asked her to tell me why and she said "Because now we can hang out more and share the word of God". This text could not have made my day anymore that it did!!!!!!!!! It has been quite the miracle!!!!!!!!!!!

Now the rest of the week: very BUSY and very LONG and very TIRING! I am drained ....................! I was not on my top game this week. It snowed and has been absolutely f r e e z i n g. The day that it snowed we got a text telling us that the cars were ‘grounded’ and we were not allowed to use them. So... we hoped on the buses and headed toward the city. We had and appointment with Rosibel and got lost in Baltimore trying to find which bus would take us there. THEN, the closest bus stop to her house was about a mile and a half away. I fell down pretty hard when I slipped on some ice :( Turns out, they had ‘ungrounded ‘the cars at around 2 that day but we never received the text message... haha :( Other car problems: Hermana Orton and I forgot to turn in our DVR which just tells how many miles we have used and what not. So... please pray that our car doesn't get taken away for a little bit!!! I feel like it shouldn't since we never got the text telling us we could use them again - jaja!!

We had a really cool experience with a former investigator. I had never met her before and we could never get an appointment with her because of her job. During our weekly planning I just got the strongest feeling that we needed to contact her. We sent her a text to which she immediately responded and said we could come over the next day. WHAT!? We went over and taught the restoration. I could NOT speak Spanish that night... it was bad! She had a lot of questions and I had a hard time answering them in Spanish. But, by the end of the lesson... thanks to the spirit taking over...  she understood everything, said she would pray about Joseph Smith, wants to come to church and that she will be baptized when we learns some more. She is G O L D E N. But, like I told you I was super off my game this week! I left our phone at her house! We saw her on Friday, the next day was Saturday and Rosi was getting baptized on Sunday! I couldn't have picked a worse time to lose it! But, our new investigator is just so awesome, she contacted the elders and we were able to get our phone back Saturday night at 5 (after the elders had changed our wallpaper, contact names and set an alarm for 2 in the morning)!!

I met a lady in our branch this week, I had never met her before. She is blind and recently fell down her stairs. She had a huge old neck brace on and just broke my heart! She is SO CUTE! When her daughter told her that the missionaries had stopped by she just grabbed out to reach my hand and started crying! She is just one of the adorable little women that says things like "Gracias a Dios" at the end of every sentence and could talk for hours and hours and hours!

Elder Ayon is going home this week! I am so sad! He is such a good missionary and who knows if I will every see him again! He lives is Mexico. We had a little surprise going away party for him at a members house in Baltimore! It was a lot of fun! I am not good at goodbyes!

Yesterday.... We got a text from the Bonilla family and they invited us over for dinner! They asked what we liked to eat and I had told them pasteles from El Salvador and tres leches. When we got there, Abraham had bought us pasteles! They were SO good! Then, he went to the fridge and whips out this giant, beautiful, extravagant cake! I asked whose birthday it was and he told me that they had gotten it for me!!! WHAT!? How are people SO KIND!? It just blows my mind!!!! I hope that I can become like the people I am meeting out here on my mission! Then, Abraham gave Hermana Orton his old jersey of her favorite soccer team! So so so so so giving!!

So... although the week started off VERY shaky and struggled big time... it had the most BEAUTIFUL ending :)

LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!!!!!!

So Much To Talk About, So Little Time - January 5th, 2015

Hola from the Greatest City in America :)

Monday:

We went to the Towson Town Center mall and I got a new jacket!!! It is long and I love it so much! My bum has been very warm and toasty... Thank you mom!!! I also bought some sweet Kevin Durant socks :) Speaking of basketball... could I get some updates???

Tuesday:

We had a solid day of street contacting! We talked to about 25 people and only 2 of them spoke English! We had some really good conversations and got a few referencias for the Elders :)

NEW YEARS EVE:

This was probably the most interesting day I have had on my mission. New Years Eve in Baltimore! My companion and I had a little freak out when we were in the city and realized we were only about 3 hours away from where the ball was gonna drop! That was pretty fun!

We didn’t have any miles left so we took the buses all day! I am proud to inform you that we NEVER got lost!!! We took all of the right buses... we did it all on our own, sin la ayuda de nadie!!! WOOT WOOT! I'm guessing Baltimore decided to start celebrating at 9 o clock in the morning, because the people were a wee bit crazy that day! We got invited to quite a few parties, several men came up to us and starting grunting and groaning and mumbling nonsense. I got asked if I was from Costa Rica and New Zealand. What?!? 

We ate some cow stomach soup... and it actually wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t until I smelled it and looked at the little hairy growth things coming off the meat that it made me sick. We had to be home by 8, and I actually fell asleep at 9. I have been so exhausted it is kinda funny. It hurts to even keep my head up.

Primero de Enero:

We had a fun day celebrating the new year! We went to the Bonilla's with the Zone Leaders, played card games and ate. Then we headed to the church and met up with the other missionaries to play more games and some futbol. The Elders in our district had a gift for me wrapped up with a bow and everything. IT was a giant box of handwarmers! hahaha! They are always making fun of me for how cold I am and rolling down the window in our car, hence... some handwarmers! Wait...and my new jacket. I. Am. Set!

Afterwards, all us missionaries headed to Naye's house in downtown Baltimore to eat some tacos! They were dang good! I ate 5, which I thought was a lot! But, everyone there made fun of me for eating so little! I guess 12 tacos was the minimum.

Friday:

We had a lesson with our new investigator and it was a very humbling experience. We went over the alphabet and how to write and how to say each letter. Then we wrote out her name and the names of her kids and had her practice. It was quite the experience seeing a mom of two kids writing the names of her kids for the first time. I don’t think I will ever forget that. Mom, if you have any ideas on how we could teach her, we would love to hear them! We are learning Spanish ourselves so it is kinda hard to teach her how to read and write in a language we don’t know well ourselves. 

Saturday:

M I L A G R O 

There is this girl named B who is in our area book. I have seen her name several times and it has always jumped out to me, but, I ignored it because we had so many people to visit and I didn’t know the area yet. Well, on Saturday we decided we were finally going to go and visit her!!!!! IT WAS AMAZING!!!! Turns out she hasn’t been coming to church because she didn’t know where it was! Her sister in law told us that she has always wanted to come to our church and she is going to start taking the lessons as well! There are so many more details in this story... but I am going to have to skip them so I have time to tell you guys some DANG AMAZING NEWS!!!!

Yesterday, I was praying and fasting for R. I am not sure if you remember, but she is the girl that comes to church every week, does everything she has to do, but just had a fear of being baptized. She had a date back in November but backed out. We had that really amazing experience driving to Frederick with her. Well, I was fasting that she would feel ready and excited for baptism. She has been in New York for 2 weeks and got home on Saturday night. She was a church on Sunday, and during testimony meeting I saw her stand up and start walking to the front. She bore her testimony and said that her goal for new years is to be baptized. I sat there in complete awe and shock... trying to make sure that I heard and understood everything correctly. After the meeting I ran over to talk to her and she said that she has chosen a date. SHE IS GETTING BAPTIZED THIS SUNDAY... THE 11TH! We went over last night for 2 hours and taught and talked and planned. We are stressing out a little trying to make sure we can get it all planned and worked out! Hopefully we can and it doesn’t need to be postponed. 

I have the BIGGEST testimony of prayer and of fasting. I KNOW that God is listening. I KNOW that he heard my prayers and her prayers. I cant even express to you guys the gratitude and everything that I am feeling right now. It is so amazing to be a missionary. WOW! I want to call you all up and explain everything... this is only the tip of the iceberg! So many miracles are happening, so many people are changing, it is hard to type it all out! 

Ok... That is a very rushed and condensed version of my crazy great week!!!!~ I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!  

Lennon :)