Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Little by little

This past week was a little slow, all the appointments we had fell through...no one wants to open their door and be at home. So it is a little frustrating because I want to share the gospel with them but if they wont let me inside they can’t hear what we have to say. So patience being tested this week - CHECK. 
Other than that, nothing too excited went on this week, so my email will be shorter than normal.
Monday- We did all our pday activities and seriously, people think that Monday is our day to relax and all, but...in reality, it is our busiest day haha. But we had dinner with a nice family and then visited the Solano family and read scriptures with them and talked for a little bit. They are so sweet and they know that my Spanish is bad, but that I am learning and trying.
Tuesday- We had clean checks that morning and then made some cookies as a thank you for the Barahona's that took us to the temple last Friday, and then we contacted former investigators - which none were home or the person we were looking for doesn’t live there anymore. And we stopped by a less active and taught her a little message and then went down to the community office to see if they have any service for us to do. And by the time we were done with all of that we headed over to the Barahona's for dinner and then went over to the Solano's to finish the chapter we were reading with them on Monday night. The Solano's are loving the Book of Mormon. They enjoy the stories and the lessons that can be learned in each chapter. I admire them and want to read the Book of Mormon like them. 
Wednesday- Neither of us slept very well and didn’t feel good in the morning, so we slept in a little bit later and started studies late. We then had a lesson planned with Omar - one of our new investigators, but he wasn't home. So then after that stopped by a few more potentials but none of them were home either. After that we planned for our day and ate lunch and had language study and then went to dinner. 

Thursday- Our day was a little messed up…haha. We were told that we had zone conference with President and Sister Wilson. So we get there and we are wait about 15 min and then the zone leaders come in and they are like…“yeah, so zone conference is next Thursday…” haha. We all laughed for a solid 5 minutes. We then ate lunch with all the other sisters in the zone (which are only 4 others) and then we headed home to plan! Woo Hoo! We then had dinner at the Pimentel's and Hermana Pimentel made tortas- which are Hispanic sandwiches with beans and meat and lettuce and tomato, they were REALLY good. Before we got to dinner I told Hermana Musig that I WANT Hispanic food because since coming into this new area we haven't had one meal that is Hispanic…believe it or not. So when we got there and saw those, I was ecstatic!
Friday- We did our studies and then headed to district meeting, which was not planned until that morning, BUT it was still really good! We talked about the importance of having the investigators pray on that first lesson and how we can’t let them give up because that is what Satan wants and we cant let him win! We then had lunch at Applebee's (thanks to a gift card I still had) and we got some action of the world cup…not too interesting, but still cool to see a TV. haha. Life as a missionary. And then we had another lesson with Omar - the new investigator- and we just taught him a quick lesson on the porch, BUT it was a lesson and we had a member there with us! So good day! Good day! Our dinner appointment was cancelled so we ate something with the other Hermanas and then headed to the Solano's to read some more in the Book of Mormon, and then we headed over to a less active mom and daughter's house and read with them. The spirit was really strong in that lesson and there were some concerns that they brought up and we said what the spirit was prompting us to say. So that was a really cool experience. 
Saturday- We had our correlation meeting with our branch mission leader and I somewhat spoke Spanish! haha…little by little it is coming. We had lunch and figured out a lesson for the Solano's - we were going to show them a Mormon Message - Hermana Musig has the DVDs - and then we knocked around a couple apartment complexes that have former and potential investigators in it, not having too much luck, but still trying! And still smiling! We then had dinner with the Solano's and we went over early to help make the pupusas! They are hard to make, but it was cool watching Hermana Solano make them. Pupusas are Salvadorian so those who come from El Salvador know how to make them really well! We then ate dinner and stuffed our faces because it was Hispanic food and shared a quick message and then stopped by a potential but they weren't home so we went back to the Solano's and read more in the Book of Mormon. 
Sunday- Church was really good and guess what!?! I understood ALL of gospel principles woo hooo!!! I was like HOLY MOLY I know what they are saying :) but then I didn't understand a ton in relief society, but hey like I said before little by little. It is coming! We then did a little planning for the next couple days and then headed over for dinner at the Branch Presidents house. They were really nice to feed us on Fathers Day. No one had signed up, so we were out of a dinner (which isn't horrible, we are girls and can fend for ourselves haha). We then came home and got ready for tomorrow and headed to bed! 
I am learning so much, all from how to be a missionary, listening to the spirit more, Spanish, confidence and trust in the Lord, loving all those I come in contact with and many, many more things. I love, love, love it! It is hard, very hard work, but it is so worth it and time flies. I will be hitting 5 months this week…CRAZY! 
Thank you all for prayers and the support :) 
I hope your summer is wonderful already and you are enjoying the nice warm weather!
I will talk to you all next week!
Prayer list- Solano's, Laura and Railey, Omar, Cesar, and Rutilo.
LOVE YOU!
Love, Hermana Aase

Monday, June 9, 2014

New Investigators, the Temple, and Elder Russell M. Nelson

Good Morning Family!

I have been thinking a lot about you all this past week. In a good way of course! Just thinking about all the exciting things that have been happening over in your neck of the woods. CONGRATULATIONS to Shelb! I am SOOOOO proud of her and accomplishing this amazing thing in her life. She looked so cute in her cap and gown…I cant believe she is that old now! I hope all goes well with the grad party! It can be a lot of work, but it is always worth it.

So this past week as you can tell from the subject line was full of finding new investigators, going to the temple, and meeting with Elder Nelson of the 12 apostles. 
Monday- was a normal p-day, emailed and went grocery shopping and did laundry, which we have to pay for. I took advantage of the washer and dryer in our house in North Edwards. After that we wrote letters and ate lunch and then headed to the play field with our whole zone. We had dinner with a family in the English ward and they showed us a really cool video they made for a Women's conference in our stake. It is called "What is Joy." It captures women in the stake and in the branch I am serving in and it is so cool. Also, it shows the missionaries that taught the Solano's and the girl with the curly hair is one of the sisters in the Branch here with us. I suggest that you watch it :) It looks just like a Mormon message but it is not. Then that night we met with some recent converts- (the Solano Family) and got to know them and see how they are doing. They got baptized in March and the beginning of April.


Tuesday- we had our day full of contacting former investigators and referrals and potential investigators and we found one guy named Cesar and we have an appointment with him this coming week and another lady named Maria. We met a few other people, but they weren't interested, which is always a bummer. My Spanish is coming along and I am able to understand more and more each day, and I am hoping to speak soon! It is a long process! 


(Hermana Musig and I)
Wednesday- we also had our day full of contacting and finding more investigators and we found 2 more investigators and have appointments with them this week too! So things are picking up. When we got into the area they only had 2 investigators they were working with, which we tried to contact and they weren’t home. But that is alright! Finding new investigators is part of what we do! By the end of Tues. and Wed. Hermana. Musig and I were EXHAUSTED! But that means we did good. That is one way I measure how much we are working.
Thursday- was busy planning all day! I know I have said this before, but planning is such an important role in missionary work, and by how much planning we do on the mission, I am sure I’ll be a pro. We then had dinner with a less active family in the English ward -- we eat one week with the Palmdale English ward, and then the other week with our branch. I want to share a little bit about the message with shared with them. We asked them how they would feel if Noah didn’t gather them or tell them the floods were coming and they happened to just get left behind? Now I don’t think anyone of us would feel very happy about that would we? Well as we read in D&C 88:81 we are to "teach and warn the people, and then warn our neighbors". We as members of the church sometimes feel "well it is the missionaries job to do that, they got the tag" but in reality it is the members that bring in and fellowship our friends. They are the ones who befriend those who don’t know about the church. Even though you aren’t wearing a tag you can still do missionary work just as the missionaries can. What a blessing it is to be a missionary just where you are at home! We gave the family some pass along mormon.org cards and invited them to pray about someone they could give it to and then follow that answer. I want to invite all of you to do the same and see what happens. The Lord will help you out; you have my promise on that! And then I would love to hear your stories! So email my family or email me directly at maren.aase@myldsmail.net.
Friday- was such a wonderful day! We had zone training meeting in the morning and learned about getting to know someone and really gaining that trust before we teach a lesson, and then how powerful inviting someone to be baptized in the first lesson can be. Hermana Musig and I then raced to meet the family that was taking us to the temple- Sister Barahona and her son Jared. It took about an hour to get to the temple, but the instant I saw it my eyes were filled with tears. I was so happy to see the temple. You go from seeing it everyday, to not seeing it at all for 5 months and it makes you appreciate what you have. The LA temple is huge, and so pretty! We went in and ate something quick in the cafeteria and then headed for the endowment session. I felt so much peace and happiness when I was in there. I have come to the conclusion that the Temple revives you, or at least in this moment it did for me. It just reminded me of why I am here on the earth and what my purpose as a missionary is. I want everyone to feel this sense of longing peace, which only comes through the gospel of Jesus Christ. I then talked to a lady who was serving at Hill Camora where Deb and Lary Heyn are serving and I asked her if she knew them and she was like "YES! They are the greatest!" So that was a small world! We then took some pictures and I got a postcard like picture of the LA temple and then we headed home. For the rest of the night I just felt so happy!




Saturday- we headed to a baptism for Hermana Usher and Hermana Hernandez, and it was so special. The spirit was there so strongly and I thought to myself, if I feel so happy and excited for someone I don’t know who is getting baptized, just think how I would feel when someone I have come to know and love gets baptized. We then headed out to Lancaster and got lunch and then headed to the stake center where we were having the mission conference and having our meeting with the 70, and Elder Nelson. It was good to see all my friends that I have made and I saw Hermana Dodge and she told me some wonderful things!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1st Tommy and Becca are set for baptism this Wed :) Tommy has not smoked since May 31st!!! AHHH I just want to cry. I am so happy for them. And then Jennifer is getting baptized a little later, but she is still gun-hoe on getting baptized. And then they have two more investigators who have baptismal dates. It was really nice hearing about my old area. We then began our meeting and we all got to shake Elder Nelson's hand, and the members of the 70 that came! Such a cool experience. Some things that I learned from all the speakers were that we even if we are wearing a tag or not represent Jesus Christ. We all take His name upon our hearts and be examples to those around us. And how important it is to just open our mouths and share what we know to be true. The Lord will bless us when we do this! After the meeting we got some gelato, which was really good! And then headed home for language study.
Sunday- Church was really good! I understood a little bit more than last week, and my head didn’t feel as close to bursting either...haha. So that is a good sign! We then had dinner and then headed over to visit the Solano's again and then came back and finished planning and had a very good long companion inventory.
I am ready for another week. Crazy that it is week 3 already! Half way through the transfer! 
I love you all and I miss you tons!
Have a wonderful week of SUMMER! 
prayer list- Tommy and Becca, Jennifer, Solano Family, Cesar, Omar and Rutilo. 
Love, Hermana Aase

Planning, spanish, planning, spanish, and more planning!

Hello family!!
Well this past week was busy but very good! 
I am in a full Spanish area, which is really exciting, but really freaky too since I don’t know very much, but it will come. I have faith that it will and that the Lord will help me when I need it.
So this week!
Monday- I finished up packing and we emailed and then headed to the church in Lancaster to say goodbye to all my friends in that zone and then we headed to dinner.  After that we went over to the Winterton’s to take pictures and say goodbye and I got a blessing from Brother Winterton. It was really hard to say goodbye, but I told them that they can email me and that I would most definitely be coming back to visit sometime in the near future…so family, we are taking a road trip to CA so I can show you all my areas- deal? Deal! We then came home and I cleaned a little and got all ready for the morning.
Tuesday- We left early to head to Bakersfield and Kayla Martz took us down there and we unloaded all our stuff and then had our transfer meeting. And this one wasn’t as surprising since the ENTIRE mission knew who we were going with and where we were going…haha. Never let that happen again. Hermana Musig and I jam packed the car and headed home to Palmdale. We talked to entire way home and got to know each other. Hermana Musig is from Sandy Utah, has been out 16 months and is the oldest of 3 girls. We eventually found our appointment. And unloaded everything and started to unpack and then headed to dinner. Guess what I had for my first Spanish dinner in a Spanish area...pizza! haha. Thought it would be something Spanish, but the pizza was really good! So that is okay with me. After dinner we ran to Wally World and got some food so we could survive and then came home and finished unpacking. 
Wednesday/Thursday- Was busy with planning and more planning. We drove around our area and got to see where we will be working and we got our area book (a huge book that has the area's life in it) all organized and we started planning for this next week. Planning takes a lot of time, but it is so essential to missionary work. If you don’t have a plan, then you are just wasting time figuring out what you should do. So yeah! We then had our dinner appointments, and got to know some more people who are in our branch. 
Friday- We had our district meeting, which was all in Spanish. I guess I should get used to being in an all-Spanish area…haha. But I understood most of what was going on! So that is a plus. After district meeting we ate lunch with the other two Hermana’s and then got back to planning a little more. We then headed to our dinner appointment and Hermana Musig and I had the dinner message and we prepared it in English, but then Hermana Musig decided that we should do it in Spanish and that I should lead it...yeah lets just say I wasn’t fully prepared for that haha, and it didn’t go so well. I mean it went well, but I couldn’t express what I wanted to say. But the Diaz family was really nice about it and told me that it will come and that I just got to keep trying. I am learning that Latino people are so nice when it comes to trying to speak their language. They are happy to just hear you try. After dinner we got Wendy's frosties, which tasted delicious! And then headed home.
Saturday- We had our correlation meeting with our new branch mission leader and that went well…of course that was all in Spanish too. We didn’t have a dinner appointment, so we went to a Spanish restaurant and we got Horchata (it is a drink that is made up of what we put in our rice pudding... milk, rice flour, and cinnamon), which was actually really tasty! We had language study and read out loud from the El Libro de Mormon, and that is becoming a lot easier and I am able to understand what is going on in the scriptures. 
Sunday- We had church in the afternoon, and all I can tell you is that my head hurt afterwards…haha, which I was previously warned about. But church was good. Good to meet all the members in the branch and put names to faces. Something that I found really amazing is that even though I didn’t understand anything that was going on, I still felt the spirit. I was studying in PMG and came upon something that really stuck out to me. It was talking about how we all pray for the gift of tongues and the gift of interpretation, and those come. But one language that all of us speak is the language of the spirit. I never really thought about it that way, but we all can feel the spirit- no matter what language you speak or don’t speak. It was eye opening. And the thought came to my mind that even though I may not be able to say everything that I want to, the spirit can still touch and testify of the things I am teaching to our investigators. AHH I love ah ha moments on my mission :)
Well family, all is well! I love my area and my companion. It is new, very new, but it will be great!
I love you all and I am so thankful to be out here serving the Lord.
Have a wonderful week! School is out in a few days! HERE COMES SUMMER!
LOVE YOU!
Hermana Aase