Tuesday, February 10, 2015

"Sal solcito calientame poquito"

Good Morning family! Can I just say that today didn't come fast enough! But that I am excited for this next week to be better! Heads up, this letter is very short! Not much happened.

Monday- pday was crazy busy, but we got pampered and got our nails done to get Hna Lau all fancy before she left to head home. We then had a night full of passing by people and saying goodbye and taking pictures and then we were up late packing and cleaning. 

(My posterity!! Me- mother, Hna Robles- daughter, Hna Aguilar- granddaughter)

Tuesday- We headed off to transfer meeting and Hna Lau left to head for the airport and I pretty much sat and cried through the whole meeting...did I try and hold it back...not really. Haha. I just didn't have the energy to. We got back to Lancaster and went over plans and then headed to our lessons with Claudia and Enrique. We taught them the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and set them with baptismal dates of March 28. They are prepared, but it will take a little time to get them to church and all that jazz. After that we went grocery shopping and unpacked. 

Wednesday- We had our Mission Leadership Meeting and Elder Garns from the Seventy came and talked to us about working with members. It was good! And there were a ton of new faces, so it was cool! We got back and headed to a lesson with Chris and talked about fasting and the blessing of that. It was a super good lesson! And then we met some of the members so Hna Soto could meet them.

(Someone is ready for valentines day!)

Thursday- We contacted in the day because all our appointments fell through, and then we planned for most of the day. After dinner we stopped by the Gutierrez family so Han Soto could meet them as well, and then we planned for ZTM.

Friday- ZTM, and it was good! Hna Soto is a natural at presenting! We talked about gaining the trust of the members. Later that afternoon we had a lesson with the Morelos family and talked about the Plan of Salvation. They are seriously progressing so much! It is so exciting to see! We then ate dinner and had a lesson with the Valdez family and then finished planning.

(Hna Soto and I :))

Saturday- was FULL of knocking doors and no one talking to us. So yeah. But I learned a song from Han Soto that comes from the Inca's (from Peru). It goes like this, "Sal solcito calientame un poquite por hoy y manana, por toda la semana..." The Inca's would sing this when the sun was hiding and it was supposed to make the sun come out. We tried this and it worked!! :) haha. That night we had a short lesson with Melanie and then had correlation and talked with Presidente Rojas for a bit. 

Sunday- Church was good! Maria Morelos came to church! And she told us that the next week she was going to come and stay all 3 hours! After church we had a lesson with Maria Reynosa about the Plan of Salvation. After dinner we found Miguel at home!! So we read with him in the Book of Mormon! He is still doing good, he is just super busy with work so it is hard for him to come home. We did a bit of contacting and then visited Hna Harding from the ward and showed her how to share Mormon messages on her FB. 

So about my companion. She has been out about 7 months. She was born and raised until 10 in Peru and then her family moved to Florida. She is 24, graduated from college with a bachelors in psychology. She has helped me a ton so far with my Spanish. She is an amazing missionary and I am excited to work with her here in Joshua! 

Thank you for all the love and support! Can't believe it is February...and then it'll be March. The weather is getting warmer and that makes me happy! :)

Also, will you all pray for Chad Newey. He is my best friend and had a bad accident last week and is in the hospital with head injury. 

I love you all!

Love, Hermana Aase

#I'mtheonlyonewhospeaksspanish...!

Well family, can you believe another transfer has come and gone? It just feels like it was the beginning of December...nope...it is February now! This past week was crazy busy, but an amazing way to end the transfer.

Monday- For our p-day activity we went down to Palmdale and went to the swap meet! It wasn't as cool as I was expecting, but I still found a California sweatshirt! That night, our FHE with the Juarez family cancelled because they were all sick, so we passed by a less active, and then ran by Hna Gutierrez house to explain more in detail about the activity we were planning. And then right before going we passed by Sheila's house and got a referral from her. Her friend is moving into the same apt complex and she wants us to help her move/teach her!

(Two of the cutest girls!)

Tuesday- We did service in the morning, thank heavens we did not get bible bashed this time! After that we had a short lesson with a lady in the ward and we read and talked about the Articles of Faith. Each time I read those I realize how easy and basic our beliefs are, and how easy it is to share it with our friends. We then ran to the Gutierrez home again, but this time we taught Hna Gutierrez how to bake a delicious, but easy cake. Well, we then continued to run around like crazy, and we contacted a bit before dinner, and then after dinner we had a super good lesson with Claudia, which we brought Hna Gutierrez with us and she shared with Claudia all her experiences and how the gospel has helped her and has changed her family. Claudia just sat there in amazement...the spirit was there really strong. We then passed by a member to prep her for a lesson the next day.

Wednesday- We had the chiropractor in the morning and then treated ourselves to Jamba Juice because we weren't going home for lunch. We had a lesson with Pedro where we finished talking about the Plan of Salvation. Pedro is so awesome!! Every time we teach him I just get so happy inside. We then ran to Rosaura's and had a lesson with her, we read in Enos about prayer and invited her to pray about baptism and whether it was something she needs to do. After that we contacted a bit before our lesson with Rosemary. We read the talk "Let your Faith Show" by Elder Nelson, and she really enjoyed that. We then ran to our next lesson with Aida and FREAK she is so awesome. She read the introduction and the testimonies of the Prophet...no one does that! But she has such a strong desire to learn. After that we had dinner and then stopped by a member to prep her for a lesson.

Thursday- Not a lot happened...thank heavens. After Tuesday and Wednesday Hna Lau and I were both dead. haha We (well I) planned while Hna Lau packed. Something that we discovered was it takes half the time to plan when you are by yourself then when you are planning with your companion haha. We then ate dinner with Hna Arnold and she fed us the MOST AMAZING verde enchilada...we both ate 5...well I almost ate 5. I couldn't finish...haha. They were so good, but I was so full after that! We then headed to have a lesson with Claudia and Enrique, but they had unexpected company arrive, so we rescheduled it, and then stopped and visited a couple less actives.

(My companion for the day, while our companions were at the departing temple trip (Sis. Winnie))

Friday- We were up early, and got Hna Lau off to the departing temple trip. So for the day I was with Sis Winnie, which her companion was also at the temple. We had district meeting and then did some contacting and found a ton of cool Spanish potentials #thatmomentwhenyouaretheonlyonewhocanspeakspanishinthecompanionship. It was a good experience! We then headed to the west side of Lancaster where Sis.Winnie's area was and visited a few less actives over there. Hna Lau got back and we headed to dinner and then had a great lesson with Maria Morelos about the 10 commandments. 

(minute to win it with the branch! Left: this activity was called "chocolate unicorn" Right: this game was called "nose dive")

Saturday- We ate lunch with the Alvarez, and she made bombing awesome empandas! We were full, let's just say that! After that we contacted a bit and found a really cool potential that wants us to come back and teach her. After that we had a lesson with Chris about obedience and tithing. Something that my companion brought up that I have never noticed is that one of the blessings of paying tithing is that we will have more power to overcome temptation. It is amazing to know what blessings we can receive when we keep the commandments. We then ran and ate dinner with the Miranda Family and then ran to the church to get things all set up for the branch activity! We had a fantastic turn out! Lots of the members came and less actives and brought friends! We had a blast and we laughed A TON!

(All the missionaries in the Joshua Branch (Hna Aase, Hna Lau, E. Howell, E. Carter, E. Willyerd, and E. Hullinger))

Sunday- Church was amazing. It was a good testimony meeting, and guess what I got up and bore my testimony IN SPANISH!! And I think everyone understood me! (hopefully). ALSO!!! PEDRO BLESSED THE SACRAMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hna Lau and I were about in tears, we were so excited for him :) The rest of the night we ran by a bunch of members so Han Lau could say bye. Pedro threw her a party, and we ate super yummy sopes! 

Well family, I will be here again in Joshua. My new companion is from Peru (well she lives in Florida now), and her name is Hna Soto :) I am excited to work with her and learn more Spanish!

I love you all and I hope that all is well with you :)

Love you!

Hermana Aase

1 Year out and loving every mintue

Good morning my wonderful family and friends!

This past week was a SUPER DUPER good week for a whole bunch of reasons :) So you wanna know why!? Well here we go --

(Hna Lau and I waiting for an investigator to get home)

Monday- We had our normal p-day festivities, sports and emailing and shopping! We then had dinner with the Quinteros family and then had an FHE (well we taught how to do an FHE) with Maria Roman and that was good! She wanted to do them with her family, which her daughter and husband aren't members, so it is a great missionary moment! We then had a wonderful lesson with Pedro! We taught him the Plan of Salvation and seriously, I am so happy when we teach Pedro - He is my PRIDE AND JOY!! I kinda know how it feels to have a child that does good things :) haha. 

Tuesday- Was a bit of a slower day, but it was still good. We did service at the Homeless shelter making bags of groceries. Oh and guess what happened...this lady started to bible bash with us...! Hna Lau and I just looked at each other and were like, "this is not the place or time we wanted to have a bible bash / we aren't going to bash back, that's not what we do," so we tried to answer her questions and then went back to bagging donuts. The rest of that day was full of contacting and no one opening their doors...But then we had dinner with the Rojas family and got to talk about missionary work!

Wednesday- The day started out a lot better! We talked with Nury and got things set up for the branch activity this upcoming Saturday (1/31). We then had a lesson with Rosauara and we brought Hna Arnold with us and they were a perfect match! We talked about faith and baptism and how she can receive the peace she wants through baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost. We then had a lesson with Aida and we had Hna Paty there with us. She was a perfect fit! We taught the restoration and Aida understood all of it and told us that she really wants to learn and read the Book of Mormon. AH! It was such a good lesson. We then ran to dinner with a less active and she fed us yummy pupusas! And then we headed over to the church for the Relief Society activity, sadly it was zumba, so we couldn't dance along, but we watched and talked to the members there! After that, we had a lesson with Patricia (a less active) and made scarves and talked about how she can share the gospel. 

(Hna Usher and I celebrating our 1 year mark!)

Thursday- MY 1 YEAR MARK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness! I can't believe that I hit my one year mark. That whole day I couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that I have been out a year. Every day after this one I would have been a missionary already! okay okay, enough with my year mark rant! The day was one of the best days ever! We had a lesson with a less active, Esmeralda (Rosemary's mom) and that was great. We read the talk "Yes, Lord I Will Follow Thee" and she enjoyed that! We then ate lunch with another less active Ana Gutierrez, and guess what she fed us...breakfast burritos...with tons of eggs...I just about died haha! But Heavenly Father blessed me that I couldn't taste the eggs...thank heavens! haha. I lasted a year on my mission without eating eggs. I say that is pretty good! We then met our sisters (Hna Usher and Meacham) at gelato and then we had a chiropractor appt. After that we ran to a lesson with Rosemary and we read in the Book of Mormon with her and she told us that she has been praying about a baptismal date and she told us sometime in February! :) We then had dinner with the Morelos family and celebrated Thalia's birthday! They are becoming a lot more comfortable with us!!! After that we had a lesson with Claudia (the new investigator that we found last week) and we talked to her about our purpose as missionaries and she told us that she just wants to learn because she knows that this will help her and her family. After that we ran to Pedro's house and we had a lesson with him and read about the priesthood in D&C 84.


Friday- In the morning we had desayuno (brunch) with Hna Arnold. She fed us tamales, lemon cake, and champurrado (hot chocolate). It was filling for sure! We then headed to district meeting. After that we passed by Miguel's house and guess what -- HE WAS HOME!!! FINALLY!!! We read with him in the Book of Mormon and saw how interested he still is (which he is!) He has just been super busy with work. We had a lesson with Rosaura...that was an alright lesson. Not the direction we wanted it to go, but we got to watch the Restoration DVD and she thought it was good. Hopefully she will pray about our message. She told us she didn't want to be baptized right now, but maybe in the future. Then we planned, since we had no time on Thursday to plan! That night we had a lesson with the Valdez family and talked about family responsibilities. 

Saturday- We had a lesson with Chris in the morning and read Alma 18-19 about the story of King Lamoni and his conversion to the gospel and how we can change our lives around no matter what happened in the past. We then went contacting and started talking to this guy named Juan...he went on for an hour without letting us talk...haha. It was...fun. We then did some more planning and had correlation. 

(Joshua District (Hna Lau, Hna Aase, Elder Johnson, Elder Meacham (on the floor), Elder Warby, Elder Hullinger, Elder Willyerd, and Elder Holt))

Sunday- CHURCH CHURCH CHURCH!! Church was wonderful today! We prayed this morning for Maria Morelos and her family to come to church and at the last minute MARIA walked in! And she stayed for two hours and she liked it a lot! :) we are super happy! We then ate dinner with the Rasch family and then had a lesson with the Alvarez family and that was fun! And then we stopped by the Rodriguez family and shared a quick message about missionary work. 

Well family and friends, I sure do love and miss you all! I hope that you are staying warm! Thank you for all the love and support over the past year. I have loved every minute and am so excited to see what my mission brings for the last 6 months. 

I have a testimony of this gospel, it is true and it has brought me so much comfort and joy. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I have come to know that my Savior lives and loves me dearly. I love teaching people and helping them come to know that they have a Heavenly Father that loves them. 

Have a great week!

Love, Hermana Aase

Digging Holes and Miracles

Good morning family! Can you believe it is Monday already? They come up fast! 

Well this past week was such a better week then the last few weeks. So I am happy.

Monday- we spent most of the day at Target, and then emailing and writing letters. That night we had a lesson with the Juarez family and we talked about following the prophet, and we read the talk by President Monson called, "Ponder the path of Thy feet". And then we talked about how we can really walk the path that Christ walked. After that we ran over to the Alvarez family and had a lesson with them and taught the Plan of Salvation, which was good! I just love old people.

(All the Hermanas' on exchanges)

Tuesday- we had a lesson with a lady in the ward named Maria Roman, and we read them "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" and she really liked that! We then headed to do some service and made some bags of groceries for the homeless, which was a blast! We then went tracting before dinner and found 2 awesome potentials! One is a senior in high school and the other is a family that just moved here about a year ago and is wanting to go to a church as a family. It was a happy day! Then that night we had a lesson with Sheila and her family and we started the Book Of Mormon at the beginning with them.

(Hna Meacham and I)

Wednesday- We had exchanges and those were great! We had Hna Usher and Hna Meacham down here with us! Seriously, this exchange was the best and most successful (missionary wise, and personal wise) one I've been on. I was with Hna Meacham, and we had a full, full day of work. We had a great lesson with  Rosemary and we talked about how she knows enough to be baptized and we invited her again to pray about a date to be baptized. We then ran over to  Rosaura's, and that lesson was good, but hard. She kept going back and forth about whether God existed or not - she has been through a lot, so we have been trying to teach and share with her that trials are a blessing, but that didn't get through to her very well. We then did some contacting. Hna Meacham is really good at contacting and talking with everyone, I am just amazed at her. We then did our relief society activity and taught everyone how to make pumpkin chocolate ship cookies (they were all HUGE fans). We then headed over to a less active's and talked with her for a bit and that was an adventure! haha.

Thursday- not a lot happened. We contacted some referrals in the morning and then we switched back so we could do some planning! We then headed out and did some contacting, but didn't get to talk to very many people...and before this point I have never had someone just open the door, look at us, and then shut it - but today was the day that this happened. Hard not to be sad or put down, but I just had to remember that this is a great work and there are people out there ready to hear and listen and accept the message about Jesus Christ. That night we came back and finished planning.

(Me on Carefree street)

Friday- we stopped by Nury Juarez and talked to her for a bit and got the Branch activity planned out! We are stoked for this activity...you'll find out what we are doing in a couple weeks! We then ran to District meeting and it was really good! I had the training for that day where I taught about finding. I focused my training on talking with everyone and teaching little brief snip-its of truth with everyone we come in contact with. It went really well! We then had a lesson with Maria Morelos and we read with them in the Book or Mormon and then watched the restoration DVD with them. Every time I watch this video I get the chills and receive that witness that Joseph Smith is a true prophet. We then ran over to the less active's house we stopped by earlier, and talked with her for a bit and shared a scripture in Ether 12 about trials and our faith. We then did some service at the Miranda's and then ran to our lesson with the Valdez family and studied the service chapter out of gospel principles. 

Saturday- We drove out to an elementary school in the middle of nowhere and did service for 6 hours- digging holes for fruit trees, and gluing PVC pipes together with super hot blue glue! It was a fun and wonderful feeling to do service. My body sure hurts...but it was a good feeling to help out! That afternoon we contacted on a street called Carefree. We didn't talk to very many people, but that's okay! That night we did all our studies since we didn't have time to do it in the morning. 

Sunday- We had Rosaura and Maura come to church, and that was a miracle all in itself! We then contacted after studies and found 2 new investigators (Enrique and Claudia) and we talked to them about what our purpose is as missionaries and they wanted to learn more about Christ. Something that they said that really hit me was that they don't shut the door to anyone, because that is like shutting the door to Christ, and I was like YES!! So everyone out there that shuts the door to us, it shutting the door on the greatest message we share - Christ. We then went to a referral from Sheila and her name is Susan and we ended up teaching her to! It was great :) she is really prepared and wants to get closer to God. And then we had a lesson with the Juarez family!

Well family, I can't believe that I hit my 1 year mark this week...! It is crazy how fast time flies. I love it so much. The work of Lord is true and it is a blessing to all! I have a testimony of Christ, that he lives and that He loves us so much! I can feel his love and presence in my life and I don't want that to go away. 

Have a wonderful week and try to stay warm! :)

Love, Hermana Aase