Last week with Hermana Fallentine!

Ready for transfer news? I am staying in El Paso…and Sister Fallentine is leaving. L She has been here 6 transfers, almost 9 months. We had a great last week together.

Last Tuesday was our best English class so far! Everyone LOVED it! We did a fruit basket game at the end and all of the old ladies were laughing their heads off. Then we finally made it to the 5^th ward sisters to start exchanges. Exchanges went great! Best parts of the exchange were just being with sweet Sister Morco and a lesson we had with Lilia. The other sisters have been teaching these kids, and I was able to talk to their mom. J She only speaks Spanish. She is way interested. I was so happy I could help and realized how grateful I am that I have learned Spanish and can communicate with them.

The Minjares Family

Later we saw a guy named Chris who isn’t a member but lives with a member from Burley, Idaho. We talked about Idaho a bunch and I was able to be pretty bold with him. He tries to be a jokester any time he really starts feeling the Spirit. But Sister Morco said she was able to learn some really important things about him that she didn’t know before. Miracles do happen on exchanges.

Getting our nails done!

 

We did lots of stuff on Wednesday. It started off with a lunch visit with Hermana Harper. We are finally making some progress with her. Every other time we have invited her to church or anything like that, she has flat out said no or that she doesn’t need to go to church. Well, last time she started crying and sobbing saying, “I need to go back to church…starting in April.” We are pretty stoked. Apparently, in the whole 9 months that Sister Fallentine has been here, that hasn’t happened either.         

 

We had our lovely cleaning inspections. The couple that comes to do them are pretty stinking cute. J He always forgets where he puts things. Anyway, then we headed to Magaly. She wasn’t there, BUT her mom was as well as Sofia and Magaly. Sofia definitely had an attitude that she usually doesn’t have. It was really nice to teach her mom, until we started talking about the Book of Mormon. She started FREAKING OUT! I honestly don’t know how I sat there patiently taking it all.

 

Friday was a CRAZY day! It was the day of our Minute To Win It activity and we didn’t get any help from anyone so….you can imagine it was a long day. But it ended up so perfectly! We took Hermana Canales around inviting people to come. We made a TON of phone calls. We said it started at 6:30pm knowing that people wouldn’t start showing up until 7. We were so right. The Gamez’ came at 7pm and then people started trickling in. Sister Fallentine and I, with the help of Alexis and Hermana Diaz, literally did all of the food. It was a lot of stress. We had over 40 people there. We had recent converts, and our investigator family who is getting baptized in May. That made it all worth it. We had the activity in the field by the church. The kids played in the field with tires and balls. We had nachos and hot dogs. The games started at about 7:30pm. We did the Oreo game where you start on your forehead and have to use your face muscles to get it into your mouth. Then we played a game with balloons. That was pretty funny! J People were smacking each other’s balloons. Then we played a puzzle game. All of the moms played that game. Then we played a game with cotton balls and Vaseline. With Vaseline on your nose, you have to grab a cotton ball and put it in another bowl. It was awesome! The kids and adults loved it. Then we did a skittle game with straws.

The semi-final games were taking out Kleenex tissues one by one out of a box. We did the pencil into a cup game. You have to use the eraser to bounce it on the table and get it into the cup. That one is way hard. The final game was two jovenes. They had to stack a golf ball on top of another ball. Usually, in the real show, they do three balls, but that is soooo hard. Ferny Diaz ended up winning. It was definitely a success. We were very happy. We didn’t get any help from the elders, which was really annoying, but we even got a shout out at church about how awesome the activity was…they only said, “las misioneras” instead of thanking both of us…woops! Our feet hurt SO badly at the end of that day though, because we had done so much. It is so funny…we go sooo hard for so long with the idea that we will get a break, but we really don’t get one. We put our feet in the bathtub though, so that was nice. J

 

On Saturday, we went to the Women’s broadcast. It was amazing. I was crying and very emotional. I don’t really know why, but I was imagining my mom at my side. I just saw all of these girls with their moms. I really needed to hear those inspiring words from our leaders.

Church was pretty sad this week. We were all very sad that Sister Fallentine was leaving. L I was probably the saddest. We are such good friends. It won’t be the same without her, but the good news is that she lives in Salt Lake which will be so easy to visit in the future. Luis Catzin made it to church and was a hoot. After Hermano Galindo announced that Sister Fallentine was leaving, little Isaac Ochoa came over and sat by us and said, “Por que te vas?” Such a little cutie. Cristina and Shadha made it to church as well. We visited and said goodbye to a lot of people the rest of the night. All I know is that I know 100% that Sister Fallentine and I were supposed to be companions. There is a time for everything and now it is her time to go, but we really were able to do so much together. LOVE YOU! Can’t wait to tell you all about my next comp!

Ralphie

 



 

Grandma- not Grandpa's wife (there are two Grandma's)

 

Shout out to Rotary Club!

 

Saying goodbye to Rodolfo

The following email is from Elder Christensen to our mission president.

From: "Denis Christensen"
To: "Steven John Miller"  
Subject: History Story

President Miller,
Thank you for the amazing conversion story.  We publish these missionary miracles each week in our ward bulletin.  See the attached story

I'll let you know how our fifth Sunday event played out regarding using Family History to do Missionary Work.

Elder D. Christensen

 

Missionary Miracles

“I hope to see us dissolve the artificial boundary line we so often place between missionary work and temple and genealogical work; because it is the

same great redemptive work!” President Spencer W. Kimball

 

Pres. Miller related this experience from Hermana Nye – El Paso TX - 2014

                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.  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 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 that 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.