Redoing and Reviewing

I officially report to the Provo MTC on Wednesday, March 20, 2013 at 1:30 p.m.!!!!!!!!

I hope you all like how I've redone everything!  It's still a work in progress, but it will get completely hermana-ified in a few days.

I just wanted to share really quickly a couple thoughts that have been in my mind lately.

First: the Lord knows what we are doing to prepare and He's out there waiting to bless us.  It's amazing for me to see the blessings that have been poured into my lap as I've been trying to do as He asks.

Second: there is a lot to be said for treating people with patience and with charity.  It is so easy to judge people and to let feelings of disappointment, frustration, anger, or blame overcome our ability to act as Christ did and love those who have made mistakes or strayed from the path.  I have definitely gained a testimony of this over the last few weeks.  In our stake Relief Society Conference on Saturday, I attended a class on charity and my eyes filled with tears as I realized how my treating others with love and forgiveness instead of other negative reactions has absolutely flooded blessings into my life.  The Atonement has the ability to cleanse even the vilest of sinners: who are we to treat people with disdain or unkindness because they have made a mistake?

Third: I am getting more terrified and yet more excited by the day.  The gospel message we have to share has a potency unlike anything else on the earth: it can change hearts, minds, lives, and eternities.  I know that my experience on my mission will be more difficult and yet more rewarding than anything else I have done, and I know that I will cry and laugh, I will suffer, I will learn, and I WILL LOVE EVERY MINUTE.

Fourth: I cannot be grateful enough for the way my Heavenly Father really is in charge of my life and the lives of all His children.  If I know anything in this world, I know that He is real and that He loves us.

A BAPTISM!

What's the most amazing thing about being able to serve a mini-mission?

Watching one of the people you taught BE BAPTIZED!

Today, 13 year-old Celestine was baptized and I got to go! 

Celestine's mother, Paula, was baptized at the beginning of December, and the missionaries have been working with Celestine since before then.  Paula has a wonderful testimony and her example played an immense part in Celestine's conversion. 

I had the incredible opportunity to be able to speak at Celestine's baptism, and I realized something about how the Lord has long been preparing me to serve a mission and to teach his gospel.  

I am the oldest of four kids and I've always spent a lot of my time babysitting or working with kids.  This summer I worked part-time at a day care, and I am currently a nanny for a family in my ward.  I taught primary over the summer as well.  I have noticed that I have a special talent for being able to teach children and youth about the gospel in a way that they understand and that touches their hearts.  

Today, when I was speaking to Celestine before he was baptized, he looked up at grinned at me in a way that nearly flooded my heart with the Spirit.  I could tell that he felt the Lord's love for him and he knew that what he was doing was important and incredible, and that it would change his life in all of the best ways.  I could tell that he was happy with the decision he had made to be baptized, and he knew that his Heavenly Father was thrilled that he had taken this important step.

There is much to be said for Jesus Christ's admonition that we "become as a little child."  The children I have had the opportunity to teach and to see grow in the gospel have showed abiding, unwavering faith in their Heavenly Father.  They see Him as someone who loves them and cares about them.  They do not doubt His reality or His influence in their lives.  They have an immense love for their Savior Jesus Christ.  They are willing and eager to be baptized and to do everything in their power to follow His example.  

I want to thank Celestine, though he will never read this, for his faith and the things he has taught me.  I want to thank the Lord for blessing me with the ability to teach and understand His children and to help them draw nearer to Him.  

I cannot wait to find more of my Heavenly Father's children, both young and old, in Spain, and to watch them show the same courage and obedience that Celestine showed today.

(I'm on the far right, then Sister Susu and Sister Moreno, Paula, Celestine and Bishop Grant, Sister Avery and Sister Workinger, and another sister in the ward whose name evades me.)

The best of luck to all of you preparing for missions!  The Lord loves you and He loves His children.

un evangelio de los milagros

We live in a world of miracles.  And more specifically, we live under the blessings of a gospel of miracles.
I want to share with you all one such miracle, and, in a nutshell, why I have the courage to leave everything I've ever known and cross the ocean to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the people of Spain.


Last night I went out with Sister Moreno (my mini-mission companion) and Sister Susu (her new trainee) to visit the people we had taught during my mini-mission.  I've mentioned a little about Gona and Sirvan, but let me explain the whole situation.

Gona and Sirvan, a young Muslim couple, moved to the Houston area around mid-October from Iran, on an educational visa to get PhD's.  They happened to move into the same apartment complex as the sister missionaries, on the same day, and they met while collecting their mail.  The sisters asked if they could visit later, and they came with the mission president to get permission to teach the gospel to Gona and Sirvan.

When they started teaching, Gona and Sirvan knew very little about Jesus Christ, and the sisters had to start from scratch to teach them the restoration and the plan of salvation.  They found a copy of the Book of Mormon in Persian, since both Gona and Sirvan are just learning English.  As always in the first meeting, they challenged them to baptism, but they declined since if they were baptized they wouldn't be able to return to Iran without being killed.  Nonetheless, they were very interested in learning more about the gospel.

When I taught them on my mini-mission, I saw right away that there was something special about them.  Sirvan started the first lesson with a deep and thorough question that clearly showed he had been thinking and studying the principles of the gospel.  In the second lesson both Gona and Sirvan thanked us for answering their questions.  Gona told us that when they had such questions for their Islam leaders, they would avoid the questions or just simply not answer them.  They both expressed that they loved the answers we gave because they made sense.  Then Sirvan said that the plan of salvation was something that he especially loved because it felt so right to him to know that we lived with God before coming to earth and that He had made a plan for us to come back to Him.  They were eager to pray and continue to study the Book or Mormon.  They come to church almost every week and have met a lot of couples their age and made a lot of friends.  We introduced them to another Irani family in the stake, and they became instant friends.  They've been watching a lot of the Mormon messages videos on youtube, especially the ones for kids or youth, because the language is simpler and they can understand it better.

Last night I was thrilled to be able to teach them again for the first time since finishing my mini-mission. Our lesson was on recognizing the Holy Ghost, and I felt its presence strongly in the room from the very beginning.  We shared some scriptures on how the Spirit speaks to us, its roles in teaching, testifying, protecting, and guiding.  Sister Moreno asked them how they had known they should come to the United States from Iran, and what they described was the Spirit touching their hearts and guiding them here. Then Sister Susu asked if they feel a similar feeling when they watch the church messages online, and they nodded, then Gona told us that as she reads the Book of Mormon, it fills her with peace and makes her want to change certain things in her life.

(Sister Moreno and I exchanged a contained-scream expression across the room.) We read with them again Moroni's promise and I started talking about how it invites the Spirit when you want to make changes in response to what you're learning.  My heart was screaming "TALK ABOUT BAPTISM!"  As soon as I finished my previous thought, Sister Moreno asked them for the second time if they would commit to be baptized on February 23.  Instead of the flat-out refusal from before, Sirvan said "That's a little soon.  I want to study more and prepare more."  Gona expressed her concern about the risk they would be taking and we each bore our testimony that this is a gospel of miracles.  I shared an experience my uncle had getting into a prestigious law school just days before semester started, in spite of having only decent grades, because he had received guidance from the Lord that he needed to go there and had trusted that God would provide the way.  We promised them that if they continued to study and came to know for themselves that the gospel was true and that they should be baptized, the Lord would bless them and protect them against the dangers they would face.

When we closed the lesson, we could still feel the incredible power of the Spirit, and we knew that they could also feel the truth of our words.

As soon as we got in the car, the sisters and I, amid tears, offered a fervent prayer of thanks. All of us had felt strongly about extending a baptismal date, and we were still in awe of the testimony they had both borne of the Lord's direction in their lives and the blessing the Book of Mormon has been in their lives.  Even though they didn't accept the date, I know they could feel what we felt and that was what mattered.


I don't know that I have ever felt so happy in my life as I did last night in that lesson.  THE GOSPEL IS TRUE!  The Lord is preparing people to hear it, and He will not abandon those who trust in Him.  The Book of Mormon is here to bring peace to our lives, to change our hearts, and to bless us abundantly.

and that is why I need to serve a mission.  To offer those blessings, that peace, that hope to as many people as I can touch.  It doesn't matter to me how hard it is, because I know this is a gospel of miracles, and the people who are prepared will come to know the truth as long as I am diligently striving to find and teach them.

Sirvan said yesterday that being baptized was not a choice of the mind, but a choice of the heart.  I think that is what the gospel is, in the simplest terms.  It's something you know deep within you, something that fills you with all the good things that can be found in this world, and something that touches you powerfully enough to last forever.

I am a witness of Jesus Christ, of His mercy, His reality, and His gospel; and His gospel is indeed a gospel of miracles.

Dear Jane Austen,

You are an amazing woman.  You have a marvelous wit and originality to your writing that no one else can quite reproduce.  I can read your books time and time again and each time notice some clever turn of phrase that never had manifest itself to me before.

Today, my dear friend, marks the 200th anniversary of the publishing of what is arguably your best-known novel, namely Pride and Prejudice.  Of all your works, I must confess that it is also my favorite.  There is something timeless about the story of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy that enables me to read it and view multiple adaptations, watching the same story unfold again and again without wearying of it in the slightest.

To me, few things hold more delight than Lizzy Bennet

falling in love with Fitzwilliam Darcy

So, many thanks to you, Jane.  For this  

and for all it inspired.  The world will ever laud the efforts of your pen.

I will ever be

you dearest friend

Lara

DIA TRES

Wednesday was the first day we actually went the whole day on a missionary schedule!  We got up at 6:30, exercised, and then studied. For four hours straight.

When I first realized our study schedule was supposed to go for four hours, my first thought was that there was no way I could study the scriptures for that long.  I mean, I love the scriptures, and I love Preach my Gospel, but four hours?

It didn't last long enough.  I loved every second, and I didn't want it to end.  I have never in my life sat down and studied for someone else, for how best to serve someone, and discussed the gospel and felt the guidance of the Spirit like I did that day. And the one hour of personal study is nowhere near sufficient for me to read and study all the things I want to read and study.

Then we had companion study/training, and then language study, which consisted of me butchering a lesson from Predicad mi Evangelio and attempting to read El Libro de Mormon in a proper Spanish accent. Even though Sister Moreno said I did very well, I'm not nearly as good enough as I wish I were (or as I should be after 5 years of Spanish.)

Then we sped through lunch and hit the road.  Our first plan was to visit some of the part-member families in our ward, which was met with meager enthusiasm and minimal success.  In spite of our rabid planning the day before, we didn't get a single lesson from any of them.

After that, we ran to the grocery store so I could stop mooching off my companion's food and actually get my own. (Honestly though, we shared food for the most part, which made things a lot less complicated.)

We went straight from there to help an older sister in our ward take apart and package her artificial Christmas tree.  It was FREEZING that day, so she gave us some herbal tea. Yum!

Then we went to dinner with another sister in the ward who has done an incredible amount of family history work.  She had a giant folder of names she had submitted to the temple.  It was amazing to talk to her and to hear her love and appreciation for being involved in such a divine work.

We then went to visit a recent convert named Christina and her also recent convert son Jonathan.  Christina was baptized almost a year ago, and she is extremely excited to be able to attend the temple.  She was a great example to me of missionary work.  She tells everyone she meets that she's LDS and says it with a wonderful pride and confidence, fully aware of the blessing the gospel is in her life.  I want to be more like that, and not shrink away from bearing my testimony because I don't understand everything perfectly.  She knows less than I do about the gospel but she shares what she does know with everyone she meets.  I love that.

We left Christina and went to visit Gona and Sirvan.  They are a young, recently married Muslim couple from Iran.  The sisters have been teaching them for almost 3 months now, and it's amazing how much they've learned and grown.  Sirvan had asked a question before about agency, and we explained to him how although God wants us to do what's right, we have the choice to do whatever we want while we're here on the earth. They had a few more questions about that, so we gave them the assignment to read from their Book of Mormon (in Persian!) 2 Nephi 2.

We returned home that night encouraged by the progress of Christina and Gona and Sirvan, but discouraged by our miniscule number of lessons.  We planned for a better day on Thursday, but I had learned by then that things rarely go as you plan. :)

DIA DOS

Tuesday was our P-day the first week, because we got to go to the temple! We rode with a few other sisters and met up with several elders there.

I just want to say that I LOVE the temple. I had already been humbled so much in my first day and it was a blessing to linger in the Lord's house and to feel His immense love for me. There is nowhere on earth like the temple. I could have stayed forever.

Then we went to a bookstore called This Is the Place. It's almost exactly like Deseret Book, and before this P-day trip, I hadn't even known it existed. So much for me thinking "I can only get that in Utah!" It's all here too!

Then we all went to the tunnels. I hadn't heard of these either, but I learned pretty quickly. In downtown Houston are a maze of underground tunnels with stores, restaurants, etc.  We ate lunch down there and Sister Moreno and I wound up exploring with Sister Wamsley and Sister Vea.  We didn't find much, but we did end up on the moon!

(Not exactly the most flattering picture I've ever had taken. Just ignore me.) Sister Wamsley is on the far left and Sister Moreno is in the middle. It was Sister Wamsley's last P-day ever--she went home on January 21st!

After our adventuring we went to the library for emailing (hahaha) and then to the Galleria for a few miutes. Mostly we just looked in the Texas souvenir shops. Elder and Sister Spencer, a senior couple who was with us, bought a Texas-shaped waffle iron. 

Sister Moreno and I then proceeded to get stuck in traffic, making us rather late to our dinner appointment at the Mennears'.  The Mennears live across the street from Daniel and are actually the ones who introduced him to the missionaries and played a huge part in his conversion.  They have a little girl named Sierra who is adorable and latched on to me right away. :)

Then we went to teach an investigator named Chaz with a couple from the ward. We taught the Plan of Salvation and even though I had no idea what I was doing for most of it, the Spirit was there so strongly and he clearly felt good about what we were teaching. He works on Sundays so we suggested that he pray for the opportunity to get off work and come to church to learn more about the gospel, and when he offered the closing prayer, he did just that!

After that we went home and fell into bed, since we'd gotten up extra early to make it to the temple on time. 

DIA UNO

I have way too much to say about this than can fit in one blog post. So I'll break it into chunks for you. 
Here's the email I wrote after the first day (sent to only myself, of course.)


Journal time has proved thus far to be rather limited. Who knew. 

I've had a wonderful first day and 3 hours as a mini-missionary.  I am still enormously grateful for the opportunity and in awe of the precise set of circumstances that led to it.

Sister Moreno Cordero is WONDERFUL WONDERFUL WONDERFUL. She has had incredible success, especially considering her calling was to speak Spanish and she has spent the last 5 months in an English-speaking area. She spoke little to no English when she first got here, and now she is teaching investigators and recent converts clearly and effectively in English. 

We had a pretty good day yesterday: we taught 2 lessons and visited 3 people in total.  We didn't have all the opportunities we wanted to have, but we did have a few unexpected ones pop up.

Here's what I've learned so far:

Don't give up on people. We visited last night a recent convert named Daniel who was baptized November 30th. The first few times Sister Moreno and her companion Sister Avery met with him, he was totally drunk (and had been drinking heavily for years.) Then they visited him again and saw on his wall a goal to stop drinking, with the last date he had had a drink being several days prior. They asked him about it and he told them he really wanted to stop drinking because he hated being drunk and wanted to be a better and more free person. So they continued to teach him and by the time they taught him the Word of Wisdom, he had completely quit drinking for several weeks with no intention or desire to start again. I was amazed as we visited with him by his incredibly strong testimony and the depth to which he had studied and understood the gospel. No one would have thought from first meeting him that he would turn out to be such a solid convert, but he is!

Always hope for and expect the best.  A lot of our plans yesterday went awry, but we still hoped that every person we wanted to visit would be there and be willing to accept our message. 

ALWAYS have a backup plan, and a backup for the backup. Even though a lot of the people we wanted to visit couldn't meet with us, we never sat around doing nothing. We sought out people to teach and found them one way or another. 

Teach children! The other lesson we taught was to a recent convert named Paula and her almost 13 year-old son Celestine. It was empowering for me to see how much Paula's example had impacted her son and how great his desire is to learn and know the gospel, to come closer to his Heavenly Father, and to be baptized. We also tried to visit a less active family named the Vermilyeas, and Sister Moreno explained their story to me: she and Sister Avery had been teaching them, trying to get them to come back to church, and they started to come.  They taught the lessons to their family and 9 year-old Billy wanted to be baptized. Seeing Billy's faith inspired his parents, and they continued to progress until Billy's father was able to baptize him. Since then, they've waned in their church activity, but we talked to Billy last night and he expressed a faith-filled desire to study the scriptures with his family. Sister Moreno told me that when they first started teaching Billy and he said he wanted to be baptized, the Primary President hadn't wanted him to be. She said she didn't want just another inactive kid who wouldn't come. One of the elders in that meeting had then said that they shouldn't deny a child the chance to be baptized and to receive the gift of the Spirit just because his parents didn't have the same faith he had. It's already been clear how much Billy's example has blessed and impacted his family, and if he continues to share that desire with his parents, they could be able to go and be sealed in the temple. 

Use the power of prayer. Missionaries pray A LOT, and it's definitely for a reason. I felt more in tune with the Spirit throughout the day than I usually do, probably as a combination of the virtue of what I was doing and also how often we prayed and called for Heavenly Father's guidance and help in our efforts.

A lot of funny things happen to missionaries. Our GPS is of questionable reliability and got us rather lost when we tried to walk from the church to the home of a less active sister. Two pass-along cards later, we finally headed back to our car to keep from going in yet another circle. Not to mention it was COLD outside.

OKAY WOW that was only from yesterday. I'm never going to be able to send comprehensible weekly emails from the field. 

Stay tuned for more info (and pictures! Because for once in my life I actually took pictures!)