Week #65 - Almost Thanksgiving

Hola Familia,

 

Can I tell you first off how excited I am for thanksgiving??? I am hoping beyond hope for tamales! Just so you know how culturally diverse I am now ;)

 

Let's see what happened this week???

Ummm. I found what I think I would only be able to find in the South... a plush toy... but get this it was of Jesus! It was huge and they had it in the passenger seat of their car! I want to know where they got it so bad! Make me want one and make a sign that says, "Jesus take the wheel!" teehee gotta love the South! There is absolutely nowhere like it!

 

I also learned that some Spanish words are so close and yet not quite there to qualify as cognates.... Baptism/ Bautismo is one of those... We had one of our investigators ask us not to come by for a little while because she was getting ready to bautizize her child... yeah, we are going to have to work on that one with her... but in the meantime it is just really fun to say bautizize. Focusing on the positive right?

 

Some things are awkward to purchase...some things are even more awkward to purchase as a missionary.... we went to the store looking for the equivalent of icyhot but the mission nurse told us bengay... How do you ask for that, "Umm, yes, excuse me... have you bengay??? No, I mean have you bengay here?".... so we just resorted to looking on all the isles by ourselves before asking anyone, luckily we found it! whew that was a close one ;) LOL 

 

Sooo... now that we have gotten through all of the funnies of this past week (and there have been some really good ones... on to the more spiritually uplifting part... The area seems to be in kind of a stand still. It feels like everyone knows the importance of finding it out the truthfulness of our message for themselves but no one wants to make the actual effort to come to the truth. So I have decided to focus even more on the Book of Mormon and to help my investigators to actually study the Book of Mormon looking for the answers to their questions that they thought were unanswerable. I know that the Book of Mormon really truly answers any question of the soul that we might have. I have seen that over and over again as we have been able to answer people's concerns through the Book of Mormon, Thank you Nefi and Alma!

I have been learning from my studies of the Old testament and the Book of Mormon about keeping your eye-single to the glory of God and not getting distracted by the little things. Every time I read about the Israelites I think why couldn't they stay righteous for just 5 minutes, why of all things were they worshiping cows?!? And then I started thinking the same thing about myself... why can't I keep virtuous undistracted thoughts all day long? Why of all things to I let myself be absorbed by thinking what I am going to have for dinner? And then I realized that an idol is really anything that distracts us from our purpose of living the gospel. Therefore pick out the things that distract you and start weeding them out. That is my goal for this week.

 

I love the gospel, I know that it is true and that it changes lives!

Love,

Hermana Ives 

Week #64 - This week... cold

Hola Familia!

What an awesome week. I survived my first bike week in 3 months... it was a little bit of a shocker especially since we got the week where the weather decided to drop down dramatically. But other than that and a super sore bum, everything worked out. And I am happy to announce that Hermana Smith and I debunked the running of South Spanish Sisters accidents during bike week. No one got hit by a car or broke both of their arms or got bed bugs! Hallelujah!

I finished reading the Book of Mormon looking especially for grace. It was so amazing, There is something marked on practically every page. What I've learned... do EVERYTHING right and you get ALL the blessings =D Super awesome formula right?!?

I am getting over my fear of talking to people on the telephone! Hermana Smith and I have taken it upon ourselves to call all of the contacts in our phone to try and set up an appointment and resume teaching them... you always are guaranteed an interesting experience talking with people you have never met before...

Ummmm... there was a lot of bundling up this week. Gotta say that I love wearing double tights, leggings, shorts, knee high socks, and a long skirt... you can't really move... but at least you are giving your mind the illusion of warmth.

One of the members in the branch has realized my love of scarves and brought me an my companion a scarf last Sunday! Super cute.

I have decided that I absolutely love the name Iveth. So don't be surprised if somewhere down the road I name a little girl that! lol (But that is WAAAAAAAYYYY down the road.)

Thank you so much for all the letters and e-mails! They are always the BEST!

November tis the season to be grateful! And I am so grateful for the gospel. It truly changes peoples' lives. The members', the investigators', the missionaries', every ones' lives are changed for the better as the gospel is embraced and lived to the fullest!

I hope you all have a wonderful week. And that it is filled with awesome missionary experiences. Also I invite you to make a special outreach to the Spanish missionaries in your area. They love member present lessons, rides, and food just as much as the English ones. LOL, it's true though!

Love,

Hermana Ives/Iveth

Week #63 - Awesome Week

          This week has been pretty good. Last week with the car and we got lots accomplished!  Hermana Smith and I have been having quite a few good laughs, remembering past jokes and coming up with new ones... our latest and greatest joke is what we call the 'awkward porch award'. Pretty interesting how people react to the missionaries knocking on their doors sometimes. One of our investigators is holding the awkward porch award 3/4 awkward porch approaches! lol, the best time was when we were standing on their porch knocking... their friends pulled up came up on the porch with us knocked the door, the door opened just enough for them to squeeze through and quickly close the door behind them... SO FUNNY! 

 

          We were able to help the Riviera family reactivate this Sunday! So exciting finding lost sheep and helping to motivate them to come! They are such an awesome family. The branch can really utilize them so I hope we can get them callings really soon. 

 

          We had exchanges again this week. They are always so interesting when an English sister comes to a Spanish area (with no knowledge of Spanish)... all the questions, "What'd they say?" "Did you invite them to be baptized?" "Tell her that her baby girl is so beautiful!" etc... not terrible but weird catching someone up while still standing on their porch in the middle of trying to explain church services and setting up a return appointment. Always an adventure ;)

 

          Playing the piano is such a blessing. But I have found in the church if you say that you play piano they expect you to be able to play anything at any time. Just a shout out of great thanks to my piano teacher, Mary Simpson! Thank you SOOOOO much! I was asked last second to play for a baptism of Carl Lewis. Then in the middle of the service there was an impromptu musical number and I was asked to accompany without practicing before! So crazy, I'm sure the Spirit helped calm my nerves but it was so awesome! I love accompanying so much more than straight up solos. 

 

          So for the most part of my mission my morning workouts have been less than stellar... but with Hermana Smith we made a workout activity. We have a jar of various exercises such as sit ups, burpees, tricep dips, jumping jacks, planks, etc... and then another jar that contains the number that we have to do ranging from 5 to 60...super awesome stuff. I can actually do a push up now :D I know right?!? Huge accomplishment! But now for the real point I was trying to get to. During weekly planning last week while trying to set goals we got to the new investigator goal and we started to get a little sidetracked with the story of Nephi and his brothers drawing lots to see who would go and get the plates from Laban. When we decided we should draw ''lots'' to see how many new investigators we should try and get this week. Got up drew out a number, 10! (that was the only truly acceptable number in the jar because 5 wasn't enough, and 15 would be a big stretch since we've been averaging about 7, and 45 would have been ridiculous) And we felt super good about it so we went with it. Last night we were lacking 2 investigators to be able to reach our goal. So with the hour we had left at 8:00pm we went spiritual harvesting and Heavenly Father lead us to a beautiful little family and our goal of 10 new investigators was achieved! I know that God has a plan for us and that as we exercise our faith and work hard to the very end we can accomplish everything that he has for us to do! Keep going, keep the faith, stay strong, and always remember who you are. 

 

          It is super funny how people butcher my name sometimes... we had an interesting experience with this one lady. She told us of all the times that she had told Mormons that their beliefs were wrong. And then she proceeded to find out our first names so that she could pray over us. Ives is not such an obvious last name as Smith so I got away with just saying my last name. So in her prayer she said, "please bless Silvia and Isis to know thee better." She was praying for my companion and then all of the sudden a terrorist group... that escalated quickly ;) My companion could hardly keep it together. It was pretty funny. 

 

          I've been reading in Alma in my book of Mormon study this month. So awesome! So many things that relate back to Preach My Gospel (mostly because it is all mission stories...) but still it is cool to see how the awesome missionaries like Ammon, Aaron, Amulek, and Alma used the scriptures, taught the basic principles of the gospel, used How to Begin Teaching points, and commitments to help the people progress. Something that I have realized is the importance using a scripture, checking comprehension, and then testifying. Works every time.

 

          Ummm...how is it already November??? Where did all of 2014 go? Cherish the time, use it well, and be anxiously engaged in a good cause. This is the equation for having no regrets!

 

          I hope you all have a wonderful week! Love you all lots!   

 

Love,

 

Hermana Ives

Week #62 - It's November? Whaaaaaat???

Hola Familia!

Soooooo, it's November... may I please ask when that happened? Craziness, this year is almost gone! Sometimes I really wish I understood time better, I get that it is a wibbly wobbly timey wimey ball of stuff instead of a linear line... but yeah, I still don't quite grasp all of the intricacies. Like how looooooong the individual days are but then how quickly the weeks and apparently years fly by.

The mission goal for November is to baptize and confirm 100, reactivate 100, read the entire Book of Mormon by the end to November, and to cut P-days in half (so no there are only 4 hours to do laundry and shopping, and e-mail...) So if you don't get a letter from me in a little while, it isn't because I am a complete jerk now. It is simply because there isn't enough time to get everything done. But it is all for the Lord so it is all completely worth it.

Halloween came and went without much fanfare. Halloween is widely disputed between all the various religions as to whether it should be celebrated or not. So at least in Arkansas (in the trailers) there weren't many decorations at all.

None of my pairs of shoes made it through this week. They have all bit the dust so I joyfully get to purchase some new ones today. Wish me luck in finding practical cut shoes that will last for 4 more months.

We were able to set a baptismal date with Gabriela y Martin Flores for the 29th of November. They are a cool family. Martin most definitely has felt the Spirit and I think that he really believes that Joseph Smith did see God. Now he just needs to pray and recognize that spiritual confirmation for himself.  They have a little girl (10 years old) that suffers with epilepsy, her name is Ivet (and that is how Hispanics pronounce Ives) So they always just call me Ivet. I LOVE it. So awesome. I can't wait to teach them the plan of salvation and being sealed together as an eternal family!

We Finally got someone to come to CHURCH!  Oh my GOODNESS so stinking exciting to have someone there! Their son is actually a member and the dad wants to get baptized but the mom isn't sure about the whole "Church scene" so getting them married and on the same page will be interesting but I am so excited to teach this family.

We have been having success going through the branch list and trying to find less active members. There are so many people who have a testimony, they just don't quite know how to make the effort to come back.

Ummm... yeah, so that has been my week. pretty awesome stuff.

Love,

Hermana Ives