Monday, July 16, 2012
July 16, 2012
July 16, 2012
Hello my family!!!
My week was good! Noo got baptized on Saturday. I can't say
I have
ever been more happy than when I see someone we've been teaching the
gospel of Jesus Christ, and someone we love so much enter the waters
of baptism. It's a feeling you can't really describe.
Noo is so funny! I can't wait till y'all can meet her! When she got
confirmed on Sunday she turned to us before she went up to the front
and asked if we could come up with her. haha She is so sweet.
Oh!!! Guess who cut my hair last week? We heard this lady in the ward
cuts hair so we called her and went over... never meeting her before,
and I walked in and saw a picture of the Roberts kids on her wall. She
is Natalie Roberts sister! Small world huh? She looks exactly like her
too.
This week has been very rainy. The streets have flooded in lots of
places, and it's supposed to keep raining this week too. But I'm not
complaining, because it's a nice break from the heat. I am going to
have to invest in a boat! ;)
So the 3 sets of missionaries that are in our ward have set up a month
long fast for our ward to help them have missionaries opportunities.
Each family fasts on one day, and we have seen miracles happen! 2
Weeks ago a lady came into church and throughout all of the meetings
she was just crying the whole time. I had a really strong feeling that
I needed to go talk to her even though I didn't know who she was. (The
ward here changes soo much you never know who is a member, visitor,
investigator, etc.) So after relief society I went up and asked her
what her name was. She told me, Lori, and then explained to me that
she had been in-active for 23 years! She hadn't been to church since
before she got married because her husband is Jewish and he was very
anti. But the past year has changed a lot because her husband got very
sick. Well we set up an appointment to go visit her and see what we
could do for her. When we got over to her house her husband, Jeff, was
sitting in the rocker recliner in the living room and he sat in and
contributed in the lesson the whole time. He was very open with us!
Which really surprised me because the bishop and ward council told us
he was anti. The spirit was probably the strongest I've ever felt in a
lesson. Sister Rozas and I were both in tears, they were in tears, and
the lesson we had prepared was set aside because the spirit led us in
a direction we knew they needed. Jeff just got his leg amputated, and
he is getting a kidney transplant soon. With all of these medical
issues it has made him think about life and death. He told us he wants
to be with his wife forever. He told us the church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day saints has made an impression on him while he's been sick
because of all they have done. He listed off things like blessings,
meals, yard work, and just visits (which is really what the members of
the church do!) He told us his church never has done anything like
that before. He told us he will do whatever it takes to be with his
wife forever. We extended a baptismal date, and he quickly accepted!
He is going to be baptized on the 26th of Aug if his health is good.
We left that lesson soooo grateful for the spirit! Those are the best
lessons when everything is set aside and you know the spirit guides
you.
The only thing we are trying to figure out is how he will be baptized
because he has a catheter and can't go under water.... so I think
someone will need to stand in proxy for him, but we'll figure that
out! We are just so excited. We called to bishop after our visit and
he was so shocked, and so excited too. It's good knowing we have the
trust of our bishop.
Another miracle from our ward fast is everyone wanting us to teach
their friends, and family. We have had several people wanting us to
come to dinner with them so they can have an investigator over with
us! It's awesome having everyone be involved in missionary work!
This past week Sister Rozas and I got fed a lot of different kinds of
foods. We had Filipino (sp?), Nigerian, Salvadorian, Mexican, and
Texan. There are tons of people in our ward from different places in
the world it's fun!
Well, I don't have much time left but I love you all sooo much! I pray
for you daily! Thanks for all your love and support.
I love you!!!
Erianne
ever been more happy than when I see someone we've been teaching the
gospel of Jesus Christ, and someone we love so much enter the waters
of baptism. It's a feeling you can't really describe.
Noo is so funny! I can't wait till y'all can meet her! When she got
confirmed on Sunday she turned to us before she went up to the front
and asked if we could come up with her. haha She is so sweet.
Oh!!! Guess who cut my hair last week? We heard this lady in the ward
cuts hair so we called her and went over... never meeting her before,
and I walked in and saw a picture of the Roberts kids on her wall. She
is Natalie Roberts sister! Small world huh? She looks exactly like her
too.
This week has been very rainy. The streets have flooded in lots of
places, and it's supposed to keep raining this week too. But I'm not
complaining, because it's a nice break from the heat. I am going to
have to invest in a boat! ;)
So the 3 sets of missionaries that are in our ward have set up a month
long fast for our ward to help them have missionaries opportunities.
Each family fasts on one day, and we have seen miracles happen! 2
Weeks ago a lady came into church and throughout all of the meetings
she was just crying the whole time. I had a really strong feeling that
I needed to go talk to her even though I didn't know who she was. (The
ward here changes soo much you never know who is a member, visitor,
investigator, etc.) So after relief society I went up and asked her
what her name was. She told me, Lori, and then explained to me that
she had been in-active for 23 years! She hadn't been to church since
before she got married because her husband is Jewish and he was very
anti. But the past year has changed a lot because her husband got very
sick. Well we set up an appointment to go visit her and see what we
could do for her. When we got over to her house her husband, Jeff, was
sitting in the rocker recliner in the living room and he sat in and
contributed in the lesson the whole time. He was very open with us!
Which really surprised me because the bishop and ward council told us
he was anti. The spirit was probably the strongest I've ever felt in a
lesson. Sister Rozas and I were both in tears, they were in tears, and
the lesson we had prepared was set aside because the spirit led us in
a direction we knew they needed. Jeff just got his leg amputated, and
he is getting a kidney transplant soon. With all of these medical
issues it has made him think about life and death. He told us he wants
to be with his wife forever. He told us the church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day saints has made an impression on him while he's been sick
because of all they have done. He listed off things like blessings,
meals, yard work, and just visits (which is really what the members of
the church do!) He told us his church never has done anything like
that before. He told us he will do whatever it takes to be with his
wife forever. We extended a baptismal date, and he quickly accepted!
He is going to be baptized on the 26th of Aug if his health is good.
We left that lesson soooo grateful for the spirit! Those are the best
lessons when everything is set aside and you know the spirit guides
you.
The only thing we are trying to figure out is how he will be baptized
because he has a catheter and can't go under water.... so I think
someone will need to stand in proxy for him, but we'll figure that
out! We are just so excited. We called to bishop after our visit and
he was so shocked, and so excited too. It's good knowing we have the
trust of our bishop.
Another miracle from our ward fast is everyone wanting us to teach
their friends, and family. We have had several people wanting us to
come to dinner with them so they can have an investigator over with
us! It's awesome having everyone be involved in missionary work!
This past week Sister Rozas and I got fed a lot of different kinds of
foods. We had Filipino (sp?), Nigerian, Salvadorian, Mexican, and
Texan. There are tons of people in our ward from different places in
the world it's fun!
Well, I don't have much time left but I love you all sooo much! I pray
for you daily! Thanks for all your love and support.
I love you!!!
Erianne
Monday, July 9, 2012
July 9, 2012
Today
is my one year left mark! Crazy thinking that in one year today
I'll be with y'all! :) But I can't think about that yet cause there is
still work to be done here.
I'm glad y'all made it to Griff's talk! I was thinking about him lots
yesterday and even though I don't like speaking in church I'm glad I
got to talk the same day as him. AND Mike! How did Mike do? What did
he speak on?
I spoke on member missionary work and I said something I shouldn't
have when I first got up, but at least everyone laughed about it! haha
So I was telling the experience I had with that HUGE guy on the
airplane flying here to Texas and how he asked me why the members of
the church never share what they know they just pass him off to the
missionaries. Well I said, "So I had been praying to sit next to
someone to share the gospel with and this HUGE guy with a big
mustache comes to sit next to me.... I could tell he was a
Texan....." Haha whoops! Luckily lots of the people in the ward are
not true Texans. :/
But we got lots of compliments and I felt like it went well. The only
thing was while my companion was speaking the bishop leaned over to me
and said, can you cut your talk down to 5 minutes? I had prepared
about a 10 minute talk, and this is the ONLY time in my life I've ever
felt like 5 minutes speaking in front of people wasn't enough time to
get across what I needed to. But it's alright, it helped me to not
read my notes, I was able to just talk. One quote I want to share with
y'all from my talk is from President Eyring, "In the world to come
everyone you met in this life will know what you know now,. They will
know the only way to live forever with our families and in the
presence of our Heavenly Father is to choose to enter into the gate by
baptism. They will know that they only way families can be together
forever is to accept and keep sacred covenants offered in the temples
of God on this earth. They will know that you knew and they will
remember whether you offered them what someone had once offered you. I
don't know what the crowds in Heaven will be like but I suppose that
we will meet our friends and family members who didn't know about the
gospel. They will look into our eyes and say, "you knew, why didn't
you tell me?".
Let our Love of the Savior and of the Gospel be our motives in sharing
what we know is true. Don't let fear or doubt stand in the way of
someone we love’s salvation! Elder Ballard said, "We don't have to hold
a formal discussion to share the gospel. Our families can be our
lesson and the spirit that emanates from our home can be our message."
I have a strong testimony of member missionary work! This past week we
found a new investigator named Marlin because of a member in our ward.
Brother Romero came up to us on Sunday and told us he brought one of
his Co-workers who is less active to church. He whispered to us, "and
her son isn't baptized yet..." then he winked and walked away. haha So
we went to talk to Karen (Brother Romero's co-worker) she only speaks
Spanish so sister rozas spoke... while I listened. We set up a time to
go visit. Marlin is a 14 year old boy and he speaks English better
than Spanish so we get to teach him! As we taught him the Restoration
yesterday his whole countenance changed. We could see him getting
excited about it, and as we extended the baptismal invitation we
couldn't even finish the whole question before he said, "YES!" haha.
He told us he loved church, he loves the example his grandma (who is a
member) is to their family, and he wants the gospel in his life. He is
getting baptized in 3 weeks! :) We are so excited for him.
This past week I've seen the miracles of the Lord providing as we ask
in faith. On Saturday night we were so close to reaching our daily
goal of having 2 investigator lessons and 10 contacts.... we only
needed one more investigator lesson. 3 of our appointments fell
through so we had no one on our schedule to see. Sister Rozas and I
said a prayer at 8:30 pm and we got out of the car and started
walking. We saw this lady sitting out on her porch and so we went to
talk with her. We were able to teach her on the spot and set up
another time to go meet with her again. She is very open and we know
the Lord answered our pray, and hers too as she's searching for the
truth.
Another quick story is from last night. We had 2 girls, Claudia (21)
and Elizabeth (18) out with us. Both are thinking of serving a
mission. So before we went to get them Sister Rozas and I prayed we
could have a good experience for them. Well when we got to our
appointment he wasn't there (surprise surprise! ;)) So we saw this man
sitting out in front of his house down the street. We went and taught
him and both girls were able to bare their testimony! Heavenly Father
answers our prayers! :) It was a sweet experience!
Pray for Noo this week as she prepares for baptism on Saturday! :) We
can't wait!!!!
I love you all sooo much! The Lord is aware of everything we go
through, and HIS timing is perfect. I've learned that this week.
Erianne :)
I'll be with y'all! :) But I can't think about that yet cause there is
still work to be done here.
I'm glad y'all made it to Griff's talk! I was thinking about him lots
yesterday and even though I don't like speaking in church I'm glad I
got to talk the same day as him. AND Mike! How did Mike do? What did
he speak on?
I spoke on member missionary work and I said something I shouldn't
have when I first got up, but at least everyone laughed about it! haha
So I was telling the experience I had with that HUGE guy on the
airplane flying here to Texas and how he asked me why the members of
the church never share what they know they just pass him off to the
missionaries. Well I said, "So I had been praying to sit next to
someone to share the gospel with and this HUGE guy with a big
mustache comes to sit next to me.... I could tell he was a
Texan....." Haha whoops! Luckily lots of the people in the ward are
not true Texans. :/
But we got lots of compliments and I felt like it went well. The only
thing was while my companion was speaking the bishop leaned over to me
and said, can you cut your talk down to 5 minutes? I had prepared
about a 10 minute talk, and this is the ONLY time in my life I've ever
felt like 5 minutes speaking in front of people wasn't enough time to
get across what I needed to. But it's alright, it helped me to not
read my notes, I was able to just talk. One quote I want to share with
y'all from my talk is from President Eyring, "In the world to come
everyone you met in this life will know what you know now,. They will
know the only way to live forever with our families and in the
presence of our Heavenly Father is to choose to enter into the gate by
baptism. They will know that they only way families can be together
forever is to accept and keep sacred covenants offered in the temples
of God on this earth. They will know that you knew and they will
remember whether you offered them what someone had once offered you. I
don't know what the crowds in Heaven will be like but I suppose that
we will meet our friends and family members who didn't know about the
gospel. They will look into our eyes and say, "you knew, why didn't
you tell me?".
Let our Love of the Savior and of the Gospel be our motives in sharing
what we know is true. Don't let fear or doubt stand in the way of
someone we love’s salvation! Elder Ballard said, "We don't have to hold
a formal discussion to share the gospel. Our families can be our
lesson and the spirit that emanates from our home can be our message."
I have a strong testimony of member missionary work! This past week we
found a new investigator named Marlin because of a member in our ward.
Brother Romero came up to us on Sunday and told us he brought one of
his Co-workers who is less active to church. He whispered to us, "and
her son isn't baptized yet..." then he winked and walked away. haha So
we went to talk to Karen (Brother Romero's co-worker) she only speaks
Spanish so sister rozas spoke... while I listened. We set up a time to
go visit. Marlin is a 14 year old boy and he speaks English better
than Spanish so we get to teach him! As we taught him the Restoration
yesterday his whole countenance changed. We could see him getting
excited about it, and as we extended the baptismal invitation we
couldn't even finish the whole question before he said, "YES!" haha.
He told us he loved church, he loves the example his grandma (who is a
member) is to their family, and he wants the gospel in his life. He is
getting baptized in 3 weeks! :) We are so excited for him.
This past week I've seen the miracles of the Lord providing as we ask
in faith. On Saturday night we were so close to reaching our daily
goal of having 2 investigator lessons and 10 contacts.... we only
needed one more investigator lesson. 3 of our appointments fell
through so we had no one on our schedule to see. Sister Rozas and I
said a prayer at 8:30 pm and we got out of the car and started
walking. We saw this lady sitting out on her porch and so we went to
talk with her. We were able to teach her on the spot and set up
another time to go meet with her again. She is very open and we know
the Lord answered our pray, and hers too as she's searching for the
truth.
Another quick story is from last night. We had 2 girls, Claudia (21)
and Elizabeth (18) out with us. Both are thinking of serving a
mission. So before we went to get them Sister Rozas and I prayed we
could have a good experience for them. Well when we got to our
appointment he wasn't there (surprise surprise! ;)) So we saw this man
sitting out in front of his house down the street. We went and taught
him and both girls were able to bare their testimony! Heavenly Father
answers our prayers! :) It was a sweet experience!
Pray for Noo this week as she prepares for baptism on Saturday! :) We
can't wait!!!!
I love you all sooo much! The Lord is aware of everything we go
through, and HIS timing is perfect. I've learned that this week.
Erianne :)
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Happy 4th of July!!
July 2, 2012
Hello Family!
I'm soooo glad y'all are all safe
with all of the scary fire stuff going on. I have heard a lot about the
fires from members down here and it scares me every time I hear about it. I'm
glad the girls were safe up at camp too. I know the Lord is watching out for us
all! Thanks for all the updates on everyone mom. That is really sad about
Sister Frehner. Give her family a hug from me! How is everything else going at
home?! I am sooo excited to have another Nephew! He is going to be about 6
months by time I get home... Crazy!
Also, Sister Draegers homecoming is
coming up this Sunday so I hope you can make it to that so you can meet her!
She became one of my best friends! :) Tell her I love her and miss her. Lots of
the investigators we are teaching here tell me how big of an impact she made on
their lives. I hope I can become the missionary she was here.
If you go to Griff's homecoming tell
him I said hello and I miss him so much! I would have you give him a hug, but
that may be awkward so just tell him I'll give it to him later... :) haha
Allison, I got a letter from the
youth in the Stake this past week and man alive you are Miss popular! Everyone
that wrote me was like... You probably don't know me but I'm friends with you
sister Allison! Haha and the funny thing is that they were all boys. Tanner I
think and Jacob Fisher... and someone else... Tell them all thank you! I
don't have their return address.
Well as for me... I have a new
companion!!! Her name is Sister Rozas! She is a temple square sister from
Chili. She will only be my companion till the 18th and then she goes back up to
SLC to temple square. Which means I'll have another companion coming soon. Lots
of changes! Sister Rozas has only been learning English for the past 11 months,
but it is really good! Everyone always is so surprised when she says how short
she has known English. She was serving in a Spanish area before here and she
told President she didn't want to serve English because she didn't feel ready,
but she is doing so good! And she is teaching me lots of Spanish! :) I’m going
to be sad when I have to send her home too...
This past week was really good!
Jonatan got baptized on Saturday and he was soooo happy! Sister Rozas and I got
to speak at his baptism which was really cool because he had lots of family
there that weren't members and they all wanted to come to church the next day
after the baptism was over. :) Jonatan is setting the example for his family!
Oh! And lots of his family speaks Spanish so I was able to bare my testimony of
the restoration in English and then sister Rozas bore hers in Spanish. :) The
spirit was really strong!
We have to give another talk in
church next Sunday on the 8th... Bishop caught us as we were leaving the
baptism and asked us. I am really nervous because he is letting us choose our
topic, but I think I'm going to speak on Member missionary work. I'll let y'all
know how it turns out. Sister Rozas and I are going to use this opportunity to
try to get each of our investigators to church... haha :)
We have an amazing investigator
named Noo. I think I've mentioned her before but we moved her baptism date up
to next Saturday the 14th! She is progressing so well. Last week in church the
records guy was asking all the new members in the ward to fill out the new
member paperwork and Noo turns to us and asks where she can get that. haha I
love her! I told her she will fill that out after she gets baptized. :) She
came with us and the senior sister missionaries last night to a 4th of July
sing a long and it was really good for her to get to talk with people from the
ward and feel more welcome. I will send pictures home of that! Also mom and dad
you should be grateful for her cause she is like our little mommy while we are
out here. She is SO worried about us being out at nights so she got us these
whistles to use if we are in danger and she taught us all these self defense
moves. She is also really concerned we aren't getting fed so she makes sure to
feed us every week. We are going over tonight and she is going to make us some
of her Thai food. :)
Another one of our investigators who
"has our backs" as he would say is S____. He is an ex-gang member and
was involved in lots of crazy stuff, but he said being in prison changed his
life. He read through the bible 3 times as he was in prison and he said he told
God that if he would allow him and his wife to get a house after he got out he
would allow his messengers in and take care of them. So he told us that we are
always welcome because he has a home because of God. He and his wife had us
over for dinner last night and S____ said, "I want my daughter to grow up
to be like you sista's" haha His daughters name is Avery! Cool huh? But he
is really open to learn. His ex wife and 3 kids are all members and so he knows
a lot about the church. As we were teaching the restoration he said, "Are
you sure there is another book of scripture?" We pulled out Ezekial 37 and
read through a chapter of the Book of Mormon and as he read about Christ
appearing to the Nephites he told us he knows it's another testament of Christ!
We can't wait to see how his life changes as he gains his own testimony. He
also called us the other night and told us that we need to slowly get his wife
to sit in. He said she is closed off right now, but as we do "bibly study"
(in his words) she will feel the spirit and will be drawn in. I hope they both
get baptized cause they are so ready for the gospel in their lives!
I love getting to see peoples’ lives
change as they open their minds and their hearts to what God is trying to tell
them! I get to see it daily, and I love it! Sometimes it's hard when we see God
trying to open peoples’ hearts and they aren't listening, but we are searching
for the Elect and the elect will hear our message.
I love you all sooo much! I pray for
you daily and I hope everything is going well.
Erianne :)
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