February 3 2014

Dear Family,

The week just seemed so packed of events it's hard to remember all of them and decide which ones would be the most interesting to you all!

At stake conference 2 weeks ago, one of the area 70 asked us all to fast yesterday for rain because we were apparently in an official drought about 3 weeks ago, and it rained last night! Not a lot, but if anyone doesn't have a testimony of the power of fasting I don't know what more of an answer they can get than rain! Every fast Sunday I am so impressed and grateful for the testimonies of the members because they have such a big impact on investigators! Giovanna an 11 year old went up to bear her testimony and both Laura and Fernando were so impressed! I loved watching Laura's face as she listened to all the members testimonies. This was the first time coming to the ward because the first week she went to was stake conference. The relief society lesson was all about prepraring and being worthy to go to the temple, and after she told me that the lesson had scared her hahah. Same thing happened with Fernando the week before when people were talking about baptisms for the dead...common theme?

We met Hno. Flores, a less active of about 20 years the other week and we had set up a lesson with them and their family for friday and as we got their everyone was on their way out except for the parents! We were a little sad at first because we wanted to teach the restoration to the hermano and his grandson who loves the church and wants to be baptized, but it turned out super cool because we were able to get to know him a little better(he's pretty quiet). He has started to read the lesson manual for the year, and he is just loving it! As we were talking he talked about how he wants to come back, but he knows he has a lot of things to do to get ready to baptize his grandson because he feels like he has a refrigerator on his shoulders;) The other week he came you could tell he looked so uncomfortable, but he wants to come back so badly. We have an FHE with them tonight! I love their family so much already!

Transfers are tomorrow and I'm staying. My new companion is Sister Shepherd who has been out almost 6 months. She sang a solo at the Christmas devotional and she looks super adorable and sweet! I'm excited to get to know her and work really hard. This area needs a little bit of a face lift and some missionaries just to go crazy here!

Fernando is doing well...he came to church for himself this week. He is always sending us scriptures for us to look up and then we come to lesson with scriptures from the bible to help him believe. I gave him a few scriptures from the Book of Mormon and he send he was still reading them aka seeing how credible they are:) He is definitely helping understand how important it is to use the bible and understand and be able to explain a little bit better the bible and the Book of Mormon because up to this point I have favored the Book of Mormon. He frustrates me a little bit because when we first met him he asked me if he could be saved without the book of mormon. At first I said yes and no...then I thought about it more and I realized that no where in the scriptures does it say that you need the book of mormon to be saved(so I gave him the chapters about the doctrine of christ and Moroni 7 to read), so I correct myself and told him no, and then the next lesson he told me he wanted me to think about how it made me feel to tell him that he could be saved without the book of mormon and tell him the next lesson.(hopefully i'm not saying anything undoctrinal). So, I've thought about that a lot and the reason it frustrates me so much and makes me so sad to say that because the Book of Mormon is the proof that he is looking for, but he wants to go through the Bible first and struggles a lot with Joseph Smith and people saying that they know that this church is true. I just want to yell "the Book of Mormon will solve all of your problems" but I obviously can't do that, so I'm relearning patience and love again:) 

  On the other hand of investigators is Laura! She is doing great:) This week we taught about faith and repentance and as we were leaving she told us that was her favorite lesson:) Spiritual things are super foreign to her at this point so she giggles a lot(sound familiar?:)) but she told us that she has been feeling a lot better since we have been coming!:) It was so cute. The other day it was looking a little stormy and when she was saying the closing prayer, she prayed that it wouldn't rain until we got home!:) Hopefully we can go to the visitor center this week or next! 

This was part of my email to president this week:(not sure if you actually want to read this, but I generally just tell you all the surface stuff)

"I'm about a month away from having been out a year which has made me do a lot of pondering on where I'm at and where I want to be at the end of my mission. As I've thought about I feel like I can be more and do more and in order for me to even get where I want to be and feel content with the work I'm doing I have to do a little changing. I can't just say "ok, tomorrow I'll do better" or "that can't happen again". I have to repent and commit to the Lord that I WILL do better. The word repent is always a humbling word because I don't feel like I have used it as frequently as I should, so I guess I thought I should be accountable to the Lord and to you. I won't fall asleep while stretching in the morning or stay to long in the apartment, and I will try my hardest to everyone that I can. I can't just expect the last 6 months to magically be the best or most successful part of my mission."

So basically, with the whole no pictures thing for a while is because I just want to get lost in the work again and stop thinking about things that I know shouldn't be at the top of my mind, but this little change of mind and heart has been coming along well. From what I have heard my new companion is a super hard worker, so I'm looking forward to that because what your companion talks about makes a HUGE difference especially when I adapt to the people around me:)

Happy Birthday Brooke! I love you so much!

Those were a few things that happened this week:)

Love,

Hermana Ford

pics:

I bet you'll never guess which desk is mine:) A tornado pretty much hits it every morning

Hna Rodriguez! She is going through the temple soon, and wants us to go with her! Love her so much:)