Baptismal dates and Conference!

Good Morning family!!

Well wasn't this weekend just AMAZING!! The opportunity to listen to our prophet and the apostles. I learned a lot of great things and received some revelation :) I have a full testimony of coming to conference with a question - because ALL of my questions were answered! It was amazing!!

This past week started out pretty good, but then ended not so high...I'll explain why in my email.

(These were pictures that didn't come through last week -- from the poppy fields!)

Monday- After pday adventures, which was sitting at goodwill for 2 hours, we headed to a lesson with a potential named Doris. She is from Colombia, and has talked to the missionaries in the past, so we felt impressed to go visit her, and Monday was the day we could finally get an appt. We got to know her for a bit, like family, job, religious background and then we only go to share part of the restoration, but she seems interested in learning more! So we are excited to return and teach her more. We then headed to another appt with potentials named Maria and Eduardo. We got to sit down and teach them and they were so intently listening, it was amazing! We also invited them to be baptized, and they said they would!! But they didn't want to set a date because of certain reasons. But it was a very cool lesson. We then ran by Pedro's quickly and shared a message with him in the New Testament about the joy of knowing Christ has resurrected. 

Tuesday- In the morning we did service for a member, the one that is moving, we washed windows! We then did some contacting for the remainder of the day. We then did a visit to a less active family with the relief society president and it was very good! Getting the auxiliary leaders involved in visits is such a good outcome. We then had a lesson with Carlos, and Presidente Rojas came with us and we talked about the Atonement of Christ and what that can do for him. Sadly we found out that he is on parole and won't be finished until Aug 2016, so we had to drop his date, but we are still planning on meeting with him and helping him learn more and more about the gospel. We then had a lesson with Sheila and her family about holding on to the iron rod.

Wednesday- We drove up to Tehachapi for our leadership meeting, and it was kind of sad because it was probably my last time going up there and driving through the windmills. So I made sure to take everything in! We had a really good meeting. We talked about how the mission needs to be in unity and as we work in unity toward one goal, we can really see miracles. So as a mission leadership we prayed and set goals for our mission - our goals are 75 baptisms in the month of June and finding 750 new investigators in April. We are excited to have these goals and work toward them! We got back and headed to our lesson with Leo, but come to find out he is in the hospital with pneumonia and is needing surgery on his shoulder...so hopefully he gets better soon so we can keep teaching him!  So we did a bit on contacting and then headed to our lesson with Aida, and we talked more about baptism and the gift of the holy ghost and then we SET HER WITH A BAPTISMAL DATE!! She accepted it like a champ! Her date is May 9th :) We were on cloud 9 when we left that lesson! Hna Soto wasn't feeling very good, so we headed in early so she could rest and get better.

(I love these 2 ladies :))

Thursday- We did our lovely planning! And later that night we had a great lesson with Susie. It has been a while since we have been able to meet with her, but we got in and had a lesson and it was wonderful! We finished the restoration and talked about the Book of Mormon and she told us that she sincerely wants to learn and know if this book is true!! It was so awesome to hear that because we know that when someone sincerely reads, ponders and prays about the Book of Mormon they are going to feel the truthfulness of it :) We then passed by the Gutierrez house to talk with Hna Gutierrez and we shared with them the Because HE Lives video - and oh my goodness, it is so powerful!! I hope you all had the opportunity to watch it! If not, just look up on youtube "Because He Lives". It is about a 3 minute video celebrating the gift of the resurrected Christ. 

Friday- We had ZTM and we talked about setting goals and when we have that combined with faith as a mission to accomplish this goal. Hna Soto and I did a role play on having more of a conversation with people on the street instead of just telling them who we are and why we are here. It means more when we want to get to know someone and then share what we know is true, that will bless their family. We had the rest of our appts cancel that night, but we had a good surprise lesson with the Alvarez family and shared with them about the gift of Christ's resurrection. We then had a lesson with the Valdez family and taught teaching and testifying in member present lessons. 

Saturday- CONFERENCE was AMAZING!! Some of my favorite talks were by Linda K. Burton about family, marriage, and relationships with all those around us. And Elder Clayton about focusing on the light of Christ. In between sessions we ate lunch with Karen Gilmore and her family. The other talks I liked from Saturday was Elder Bednar's about hushing our fears and Elder Runland's about not giving up and relying on the Atonement. That night we had our appts cancelled, so we tried to contact some former and potential investigators and then we had our coordination meeting with Hno Gutierrez. 

(Elder Willyerd - the blond one- got moved down to Palmdale :/ we are sad to lose him!)

Sunday- CONFERENCE round 2! It was also AMAZING! One of my favorite talks was Elder Nielson about the prodigal son, and being patient for those who have strayed from the church. In between sessions we ate lunch and then stopped by a few less actives to tell them about conference. The other talk that I enjoyed was by President Uchtdorf about the grace of God. Overall Conference was AMAZING and I learned so much. That night we had our appts cancel as well, but we contacted a referral and talked to her. It was really cool. The contact started out with her telling us that she has her own church and isn't really interested in learning more, so we were persistent and kept sharing more and more about the Book or Mormon and the restoration of the gospel, so by the end of the contact, she asked us to come back in a few weeks and that she was going to read in the Book of Mormon. That night we had a lesson with the Rojas family about sharing the gospel through media. 

Well family, I love hearing from you all and THANK YOU, THANK YOU family and Mamo and Oohoo for the Easter packages!

Well I love you all! And here come spring :)

Talk to you next week!

Love, Hermana Aase