Week #61 - Transfers

Hola Familia!

Como estan? This week has been a good one. The first bit was sad as there were a lot of saying good byes and all. Hermana Stevens has served in this area for 7 1/2 months and made a big difference in a lot of people's lives. 

The funniest good-bye was with Cynthia Flores (she is the elder's investigator but she has come to church a lot and we have been working to help fellowship her.) She told me that I was going to cry the most at seeing Hermana Steven leave (she's prolly right) and then we took pictures. Can I say that there is nothing quite so awkward as missionary pictures. The first two were completely normal because the first one was Hermana Stevens with Cynthia and Agupito - Cynthia's boyfriend. Next one completely fine because it is Hermana Stevens and I on either side of Cynthia. The third one however was Hermana Stevens and I on either side of Agupito with Cynthia telling us to get closer... yeah, I did this weird twisting thing to look like I was closer but not really and Hermana Stevens just refused to move... So yeah, they look super funny.

We drove up to transfers... 

We got to the meeting RIGHT on time...

And transfers were announced... 

Hermana Stevens is now serving in Russelville (they just had a baptism this last Saturday - Lord's blessing for all the hard work she has done in this area) ...

And I am now serving with (I bet you can't guess... do I always repeat companions?) HERMANA SMITH!!!! Boo-yeah! I am pretty stoked! This is actually her last transfer, so in missionary vocab/slang/i-don't-know-whatcha-call-it, I am 'killing her off'. Pretty crazy stuff! I am so happy that I get to serve with her again! This is going to be AWESOME!

There was a trunk-or-teat activity this last Saturday. We actually had an investigator show up... but we didn't find him until he was leaving :(  But it was still exciting that he was there. And we have an appointment with him this coming Miercoles so we are pretty excited about that. 

I've learned this week that we should never close ourselves off from opportunities. We went to this one neighborhood that I considered "spiritual harvested out" but with Hermana Smith's new eyes we found a new family to teach and a referral that we had never knocked before. Super awesome!

I loved your quote "Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss enthusiasm." -Winston Churchill. It reminds me of a section in Preach My Gospel in Chapter 9, called No Effort Wasted. There are things that we do everyday of our lives that we may consider failures because they might not have rendered immediate results. But like a story that Elder Zwick shared with us when he was here, "There was a time when the Brazilian government was being rather stringent about how many visas they would give to churches. It so happened that the law was that each church group would only be allowed 60 visas a month. This was clearly not sufficient as there were 15 missions in Brazil. So Elder Zwick and a local leader were given the task to prepare a presentation to give to the President of Brazil and to ask for more than 60 visas per month. The time came that they were to meet with the President they arrived for their meeting. But there was an emergency that the President needed to take care of so they were given the option to either wait for the President, to reschedule for tomorrow, or they could meet with the secretary of state instead. They chose to talk with the Secretary of State. Before they said anything the Secretary of State came in and said,'oh you are from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints? My family used to be taught by the missionaries when I was younger. Those missionaries were awesome, they were punctual, polite and we learned a lot from them even though we didn't get baptized. So what can I help you with?' Elder Zwick hadn't presented anything and they didn't even really know how many visas they should ask for but it came to him to ask for 200 visas a month. The secretary of state arranged it so that the Church received 60 visas per week." What is so amazing about this story is that the efforts of those missionaries even though their efforts did not result in a baptism at that time resulted in thousands of baptisms years later because of their diligence and hard work.

Moral of the story. NEVER give up. You know what you are supposed to be doing. So do it. And even though we will never know the full extend of influence we have had in this life we will be able to know that in the next life and I am sure that we will all be astounded. We will be astounded that some of the experiences we considered failures were absolutely crucial years down the road. 

Well... That was about it as far as super awesome insights... 

A little funny, My companion walked into a spider's trap... there was a tootsie roll on the ground so she went to pick it up and when she stood up she stood up into a gigantic spider's web... we were picking off bits and pieces of web off of her for a while... It was pretty funny. That diabolical spider hoping to catch some innocent little kid and it got a missionary instead. 

Well, I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Love you bunches more than oats!

Hermana Ives

Week #60 - Another Week, Another Transfer

Hola familia!

 

I love the feeling of breaking open a new missionary planner. What is the most exciting about this one is that I have decided that I will ONLY write in Spanish in it. So wish me luck! lol I have already decorated the pages for Halloween and Thanksgiving in beautiful orange and green colors. The only sad thing about this planner is that I know that Hermana Stevens won't be here for all of it. She is being transferred this Wednesday. But I know that she has a lot of other people elsewhere to bless and that it would be selfish to tell her she can't leave.

 

This is probably the last walk week of my mission (as now we will be back to biking...) A miracle of this last walk week was that I finally have a real hole in the bottom of my right shoe (you can actually SEE through it! I can't tell you how proud I am of these shoes! :D It is terrific!) Now my goal is to make a visible hole in the left shoe too! (I know, I know, I'm such a nut!)

 

We did Spanish exchanges this past Tuesday. I went up to the North sisters' area... It was crazy... no one was home. We went to Good year to get the oil changed and the tires rotated, no big deal but the TV was playing and it was on the news... So I am innocently reading my Libro de Mormon when I started hearing things like, "highly contagious," "you touch it you die..." "eats your internal organs"... it was some story about Ebola (sp?).... okay, I understand that as a missionary you just really don't get news but I have found that Spanish missionaries are even MORE out of the loop than English speaking missionaries... Crazy stuff! (This is the first time I've ever heard about this disease! What the?!?)

 

Hermana Stevens, Sister Lopez and Hermana Ives

We took the bus once this week... the bus is such a joke here (it comes maybe once an hour...maybe, and it is usually super early or super late...) It was super crazy, we got a ride out to Stanton and then missed our bus going back to our apartment so we had to call the Otter Creek sisters to come rescue us!

 

Something I learned this week from the people we talked to and the experiences that we had is that, Heavenly Father knows what's up, trust Him and know that blessings will come even though they may not come in the way that you expect. Heavenly Father lets us go through trials and difficulties so that He can bless us. He may bless us with counsel when we need it, an added measure of patience or endurance. No matter what He blesses us and wants us to succeed. It is okay to recognize that something is hard and that you may not like it. But instead of asking, "why? Why me?" look for the compensatory blessings (I promise they are always there we just have to look and recognize.)

 

Well. Time is up. I gotta go. But always remember that no matter what Heavenly Father loves you!

 

Love,

Hermana Ives

 

 

Week #59 - The Gift of Tongues

Hola! 

What a week!! (I feel like that is how I open all of my e-mails but it is only because each week is a different adventure with its own ups and downs) But really this week has been pretty good all things considered (like NPR ;)  - that was for you dad ;)

We had exchanges this week. This has been my first exchange with an English Sister Training Leader in a completely Spanish area... So I was pretty nervous to be the only Spanish speaker. But let me testify right here and now that the Lord qualifies those that He calls. He more than makes up the difference when we humble ourselves before him and trust that we will turn our weaknesses into strengths! I can honestly say that I have never been so mentally exhausted as I was at the end of this exchange being the only Spanish speaker teaching all day in Spanish, but it was probably the most Spirit-filled day of my mission so far. I absolutely LOVED it. I usually don't go off on how awesome the Spanish language is but it is completely AMAZING :) yup, yup the Spirit will fill our mouths all we have to do is stop worrying and stressing and just open our mouths. Heavenly Father is just SOOOOOO cool. I can't even express it!

Can I just say that homemade Mexican tamales are about the best thing on the planet earth??? (i just wish it wasn't a 5 hour process...) 

On the 9th was the mark of a full year IN-FIELD! It is pretty cool that I am with the same companion that I was with when I first came to the field! We are just trying to tear it up in Spanish! 

Yesterday we got Bible bashed in Spanish by a drunk guy... it was interesting to say the least... lol, you just gotta laugh when that happens because you can never feel the spirit, they get upset that you don't get frazzled... Anywho after about an hour and half because he wouldn't let us leave I just stood up and said thanks for his time gave him an Articles of Faith card and left. I am hoping he can read the card when he is sober...

We are starting to do more work in the Benton and Bryant areas... a little far to travel but also very untouched by Spanish missionaries :D pretty much a treasure cove full of potential! We are very excited to go back next week (when we have a car) and keep working down there. 

This week is walk week. I am excited to see the miracles and to meet new people (maybe members ;) who will see us walking, have pity and drop us off on the other side of town! It is going to be a blast. It is also nice that the weather is really starting to cool down. Not that I don't love being hot and sticky... but I am super excited to not be hot and sticky ;)

I found some banana pudding ice cream... don't knock it till you've tried it because it is DELICIOUS! So is blue bell red velvet cake ice cream. Yup, I am an ice cream addict pretty crazy stuff.

 

Oh, another awesome miracle this week. We had the mission president's wife, Sister Wakolo, come teaching with us this past week. To our investigator Sarah. Sarah is super Catholic, not very interested in changing, but you can just feel that she has so many family members on the other side that are just waiting for her to get baptized so that their work can be done. The only thing that captivates her attention is when we talk about families or food. So naturally after talking about family history we jumped to word of wisdom! lol, it was a pretty crazy jump but we were able to have a pretty awesome lesson. She absolutely loves her coffee, and was a little confused about how no where in the Bible does it say not to drink coffee, but after a while she admitted that she was a diabetic and that her doctors had told her 10+ years ago that she needed to quit drinking coffee. So we invited her to pray about it and if Heavenly Father wanted her to quit. Her response was, "If Heavenly Father says stop, I'll quit, but if He doesn't say so, I'm just gonna keep pouring." Who could argue with that. Sister Wakolo was able to share with Sarah how difficult it had been for her to stop drinking coffee as well. I think that really helped Sarah. 

Can I also say how awesome the members are here? They are willing to go Spiritual harvesting (knocking doors) with us! Super crazy, I know before my mission I would not have been up to that. Just so willing and so ready to share the gospel! What a miracle and blessing. 

Ummmm... yeah, that is pretty much my week....

I hope all is well!

Keep going strong and loving life. (also a note, don't decorate your house too scary for Halloween... it is hard enough to work up the courage to go knock a door without having to work up the courage to walk past the scary decorations....) Actually, maybe I'm just a wuss. But the closer it gets to Halloween, the less excited I get... 

Have a crazy successful week!

love,

Hermana Ives

Week #58 - Wonderful Autumn Week

Hey family!

Sorry that my last e-mail was so short... Hopefully this one will be better!

This last Monday I had the greatest P-day ever! We were invited over to a dinner with Rhoda Green (the nice lady who had given us a ride two weeks previous!) We had a lovely dinner - super fancy, i felt very out of place (me being used to eating with chopsticks in the apartment and then with tortillas when we eat with members) A little difficult to try and remember how to use a fork correctly ;) 

We have had a couple of storms this week... really not all that bad but they make for a rough night when the little weather alert station thing goes off beeping wildly to let you know that it is raining outside... it when off 4 times last night!!!!!! Super difficult to fall asleep after it goes off, finally do drift off and then it is off to beeping again... (personally I want to just turn it off but Hermana Stevens freaks out a lot when I even joke about it... but then again it doesn't wake her up nearly as often..)

We have had the opportunity to go teaching with a returned missionary from Mexico. She is so amazing and it was such a blessing to be able to see someone (native to the language, who understands PMG, and teaching) I learned so much, and have realized a higher way of teaching! We always do role-plays with other Spanish missionaries at district meetings and zone meetings but a very high percentage of us do not speak Spanish fluently and it is difficult just getting over the language barrier let alone the simplicity and teaching for understanding barrier. 

We are teaching such wonderful people, who are truly starting to understand the importance of our message and yet have no desire to actually act. It is a little disheartening how each of our investigators were invited, followed up on, they committed, and never showed then up to general conference. They had 4 golden opportunities! And they missed all 4. So ridiculous! But we are still working on it. Eventually they will all come to church and when they do, there will be no going back. :) hopefully... 

I absolutely loved general conference. It was so beautiful. It was really sad to think that it was my last one as a missionary. I get a little freaked out when I think that I can count the months I have left on ONLY one hand :(  But back to conference. I loved the talks that were in the native languages of the speakers, what a beautiful addition to general conference. I loved Jorg Kingblat's (sp?) talk. It gave me a lot to think about and to improve upon. 

The weather is turning a bit cooler which is nice but I'm not used to it. I'm going to have to start pulling out even more of my sweaters! Boo-yeah, I'm not one bit disappointed about that :)

Well, that pretty much sums up my week. I love y'all. I know that the gospel is true. It changes lives (every day we change, it is up to us to change our lives for the better)

I love y'all,

Hermana Ives