Zone Conference and Some Grooming...

Zone conference went great last week! We had to wake up so stinking early though because we had to be in Las Cruces at 7am for car inspections. Our car definitely needed an oil change. Then we practiced our musical number. We did the same "Mas Cerca Dios de Ti" that we did before. The biggest news at conference was the change in our dinner rule. We can only eat with active members two nights a week. The rest of the meals need to be with investigators and less actives. I am super stoked about this, because we had already started doing it and were seeing tons of blessings from it!

We were pretty tired on our way home and I was feeling kind of sad because no one was texting us back.  I was worried that when we went by with Cristina that she wouldn’t even be there. WE WERE WRONG! She totally was. Shadha was so excited. She wanted to come to church this Sunday, and she did! J  So did her mom (for the third hour). The lesson we taught was one of the best Sister Fallentine and I had taught together. We used the cups to teach the restoration of Christ’s church and we were just so unified. The sweetest thing was Shadha. The first lesson we had with them went great. She told us during this lesson that last lesson she felt like she wanted to cry when we left. She said she felt weird but good…you have to understand how sweet and special this little girl is. She is 11, very petite and little, wears cute Ray-Ban glasses and is just the cutest. Her mom Cristina, before we met Shadha, said she was worried about her daughter because she cared so much about what she wore and who her friends were. She was happy that we wanted to come and teach them! They are both dolls. The lesson went well and Cristina LOVED the idea of “laying on of hands” to pass on the Holy Ghost and priesthood. She especially loves this because she does massages. J Usually we don’t necessarily mention that, but I felt like I needed to, and she loved that.

 

We went to see adorable Cuca this week. We watched “Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration” with them. Cuca and Hermana Judd loved it. I was crying so hard as I was telling Cuca my testimony. I just love her so much, and I just know that this is her trial (her husband not accepting this decision to be baptized). I just don’t want her ever to forget the feelings and experiences she has had. It is way too easy to forget them…believe me, I know. She is quitting her job, so we might see her one more time and that’s it.

 

We got to stay with adorable Sister Dennis again in Albuquerque! Love her. Sister Miller called late the night before and asked us to do a training in the sister training leader break out session. We said we would even though it was very late notice. It ended up being fine. We had beautiful meetings all morning. Accountability took forever though! I made some stupid/funny comment about how there should be a key indicator for how many times sisters call us crying, etc. Got a pretty good laugh. It was obviously a joke. I just wish we had some more hard core evidence that our sisters are doing better and improving. We don’t have graphs and charts like the zone leaders do with their accountability. To be honest, we found quite a few mistakes when we were reviewing our zone leader’s forms with the key indicators and stuff. I don’t know why they don’t have sisters do it too. Maybe it will change in the future, but for now, we will just have lots of mistakes . On the way home, we had a blast sleeping and grooming the other sisters’ eyebrows!

 

 We had dinner with the Bonillas and Mary. Good thing we were on exchanges, because we had a few different dishes of fish. Sister Fallentine would have died. Mary said something very sweet about how the members are going to cry when we leave because they love us so much. She said that another member told her that all missionaries are nice, but that we were special. That really made me feel good. I really have the goal of making a lasting impact in each of the areas I serve in. Sister Bonilla was also being so funny. She cooked huge potatoes! Sister Smith (from Idaho) and I could NOT finish them. She kept teasing us and using quotations with her fingers, “They say they are from Idaho” or “Dicen que son de Idaho” haha!

One of my favorite quotes came to my mind this week, “When obedience ceases to become an irritant, and becomes our quest, in that very moment, God endows us with power.”  How cool is that. I am really focusing on that this week. Sometimes being obedient is hard, but that is when he endows us with power.

We were able to be a part of ward council for the first time since Sister Fallentine and I have been here (8 months).  Apparently the bishop doesn’t quite trust the missionaries…well,  it went fantastic! We can tell that the bishop really does trust us and it is making me so happy. J We got some things taken care of and that is about it!

We had a lot of success in contacting last night. We met this guy named Santiago from Cuba as we left. He is super sweet and his eye lashes were SOOO long. Then we saw him again outside walking his dog. He told us which apartment he lived in, so hopefully we can go back. The rest of the night was a lot of success. We were looking for a lady named Cruz who they had taught previously but we went to the wrong door.  That was ok though, because we met a lady named Lupe! She was awesome. She had tons of questions and her facial expressions were priceless. When we told her that Christ had come to the Americas she was dumbfounded…and also doubtful, but then we answered her questions and her interest grew. Then we talked about having a prophet she said, “What’s his name? I didn’t know there was another prophet.  How old is he?” Haha, it was really great!

Then to top off the night we went looking for Susanna. We realized that they were probably in Mexico still. We decided to talk to some people. This old man was with his granddaughter. He didn’t speak any English OR Spanish. He was from China. They just got here 10 days ago. The granddaughter, Lily was translating for us. He was being so stinking sweet. Then we met the daughter, Mingna. She wants to come to church. Sadly that will be with the elders, but that’s ok. We were able to pull up Mormon.org in Chinese and a few other things. He said to his daughter in Chinese, about how happy he was that we met and that he wants us all to be friends. I am very happy. We will have to get cousin Austin or Uncle Russ to skype with him or something! J That would be awesome.

Well, it looks like the wedding weekend was amazing! I loved seeing all the pics. Ash looked absolutely stunning…and you did too Kurt! J I am so glad to have you as a brother in law. How did I luck out with two of the most amazing brother in laws, who love to play ball! I love you all. J

OH Yeah! Almost forgot. President Miller texted us asking us to send him Mary Thompson’s family history story. He said that Tad R. Callister wants it (one of the seventy!). Kinda cool...this is what I typed up today:

We met Mary Thompson the first time she came to church. A friend from work had invited her and she willingly accepted the invitation. Mary said she kept waiting for something strange to happen that first time at church, because every other time she had gone to a church she felt uncomfortable or didn’t really feel the Spirit. She was amazed to find that there was nothing she didn’t like about the church that first Sunday and since then has never missed. The joke with us was that she was Mormon and didn’t even know it! Growing up she was taught to love God and keep his commandments, but had never really felt like she had found the right church. So you can imagine it wasn’t very hard for her to prepare for baptism once she found the restored church of Jesus Christ. In less than two months she was ready to make the covenant. About 2 weeks before her baptism, we had a lesson at her home with a member named Jesus, who was a convert of about six years. She had met many members from the church at this point including Jesus, and they had grown to be great friends, despite the fact that you would probably never put them together at first glance. After the lesson Jesus decided to show Mary his family tree on the computer to start the conversion of Family History. With that said, you have to understand that a week prior Jesus had expressed to us some sadness about how he was missing information to continue doing his family history. This was especially difficult, because he is the only member in his family. Jesus showed us his tree not thinking too much of it when all of the sudden Mary said “Wait, I know that person…and him…and her!” Despite the incredibly low odds, the people related to Jesus were also related to Mary! Mary ran and grabbed all of the pictures of her ancestors that she had and also called her brother. She was able to obtain all of the missing information that Jesus needed to move forward with his family history, and they were now both able to have a family member who was of their same faith. We felt very honored to be witnesses of this miracle and it truly comes to show that missionary work and family history really do work hand in hand. Let this stand a testimony that Heavenly Father will bless us as we strive to help others come unto Jesus Christ here on this earth as well as helping those have already passed away. We know this to be true with all of our hearts because we have seen it first hand and share this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.