7.14.2014

Dear Family,

I feel like the mission just keeps getting more and more difficult emotionally.It's interesting how getting more emotionally attached hasn't made things harder, just more satisfying. Oh the lessons you learn on a mission:)

 Thankfully, I have learned how to cry without it draining me and shocking me by the fact that I was finally able to cry, but I know it's because I LOVE THESE PEOPLE SO MUCH!!!! I wish I could give so much more to these people! 

People trust so much in missionaries. Sometimes it's a little scary. This morning while were getting ready a member from  Tiajuana knocked on our door and said she had been looking for the door, and heard from people in the neighborhood that we lived there and she was waiting in the street all day yesterday to be able to talk to us!

Last night we stopped by an investigators house, and it's always a miracle when we get in because the apartment complex is gated and they don't have a phone. Well, the mom was really desperate to talk to someone and she was telling us that her son was just telling her to wait because he knew "the Sisters" would come.  I know Heavenly Father truly directs us in every moment. We are guided to who we need to talk to. I have seen God answer so many prayers through us. Anyways, she just spilled a bunch of stuff(most we shouldn't be aware of) and I just bawled! I think that was one of the first times I have really cried in front of any of the members/non-members, but I knew it was ok because I just love that family so much and my heart was just so pained for what she is facing in her life right now. Sisters, we grew up in such a sheltered, safe, loving home. We don't really realize how obedient and faithful our parents are!

This week the zone leaders challenged us to set a baptismal date by the end of the week, and we set one right before sending in the weekly key indicators! I know that was such a huge answer to my prayers and diligence because we just kept pushing forward even after super long days we continued to pray to be able to set a baptismal date with someone. His name is Nicholas and we met him while we were trying to contact a potential. We walked past his apartment and through the window he just looked so I smiled and waved then we kept on walking to go knock on the door of the potential. We talked to a few people then as we were leaving the complex I smiled and waved again. Before we got too far away I just turned around and went to knock on his door. We had talked about the Book of Mormon and committed to read the introduction(which he actually did!).

.Another miracle of the week! I less active of 4 years who has very clearly said that when she is ready to come back she will decided that she is ready to come back and wants to change! The Elder's Quorum president called us and asked us to go visit her and she told us her goals to return and wants her 2 oldest boys to be baptized and she came to church this week! All the members did such an awesome job of saying hi and talking to her. If she didn't feel loved I don't know more they can do:)

Transfers are next week, so pray that I stay! haha just kidding I know that where ever I spend my last transfer it will be where I am needed:) 

I love you all and I hope you enjoy the lake and give all the cousins big hugs for me!:) I would send a little Cali sun your way, but I know by now Spokane is finally getting some sunshine:)

Love,

Hermana Ford

7.7.2014

Dear Family,

Well, this week was full of a little bit of everything. Well more of the half where people cancel and keep inviting us back but then keep hiding when we come. Honesty is such an important value:) haha 

On Thursday morning we decided to call a less active that I haven't even seen in a few months, and she actually picked up the phone(that never happens) and invited us to come over in 30 minute. Well, we show up and one of her friends was there. So we thought, sweet an opportunity to share the gospel and possibly get a new investigator! Well, she was super catholic, and we had just planned to share Alma 32 with the less active and commit her to come to church(which she did woohoo!). By the end of the conversation the friend told us we should pray about our religion and find out how the church was started because there are so many churches now a days that are started by people who don't know what they're doing. I just had to laugh inside and listen patiently:)

I have never become so aware of the adversary as I have in this area lately. Jose was suppose to get the priesthood yesterday, but his boss called him into work and didn't even give him an option which is a little frustrating because he got saturdays and sundays off before he was baptized. Oh well, there's always this week. Yesterday was a little hard because literally everyone cancelled, so we set something up so we could see Jose. I know we are suppose to be the one's teaching him and supporting him, but I feel like it's the other way around. He finished the Book of Mormon Saturday so he read it in a month and a half! It was so funny because he told us how many books are in the book of mormon, how many chapters there are, and was telling us the story of the brother of jared because Obispo had mentioned it the other week in sacrament meeting. He is going to bless the church so much! Sometimes with certain commandments members like to justify them like the Sabbath Day and that God knows our hearts, but Jose knows he is clearly not keeping that commandment, and it brings so much peace to my heart because he knows it's bad to justify any disobedience. That sad thing is he is moving in September, but I know he'll be taken care of wherever he ends up. I wish you could all meet him, and just experience the absolute joy when I sit and listen to him talk about the experiences he has with the Book of Mormon and the the church.

The alvarenga family are doing good, and making good progress for getting their birth certificates. The mom should know by the 16th when in will come in, so we are praying for everything to work out. 

This week was really hard for finding new investigators and in having progress with our current investigators. I'm learning a lot about the Atonement and really using it to not be so overwhelmed and discouraged by my weaknesses and all the little things I like to pick at. I don't know if you have read the talk by Elder Gong in the June ensign called Becoming Perfect in Christ, but it is super good! Grace is the divine help that gives us power in every aspect of our lives, but only as far as we let ourselves rely on the Lord. So basically our happiness and progress boils down to the fact of our Faith in the Lord and our ability to just give everything to him. (Moroni 10:32). It's a work in progress, but probably one of the more valuable things I am learning on my mission.

For the 4th of July we had to be back in our apartments by 6 so we just did our weekly planning. I think I got a better firework show than anything in Spokane! Pretty much everyone does fireworks, so from any window in our apartment we could see some fireworks. Last year our windows only showed an alley so it was a pretty fun. We got some carne asada and pasole which is pretty typical of any holiday or celebration. 

This week we had one of the most spirit filled ZTM that I have ever been at. The mission is completely changing and it is creating so much more powerful missionaries! I am completely in awe sometimes of the work that we actually do. Elder Ballard invited us to study the principles found in the lessons we teach and then ask ourselves why each principle is important to ourselves. We did that with baptism and then practiced inviting our companion to be baptized and it was so powerful! It brought tears to my eyes as I really thought about what baptism means to me! Challenge! Take a minute or two this week and think, really think about what baptism means to you. 

Happy 4th of July!!! 6.30.2014

Dear Family,

Let's just start with the mission has changed so much in the past year! We have all grown such much in our faith and in our dedication as missionaries, and it has been so crazy to hear about all the miracles that have been going on in the mission. Every month there is a baptismal goal for the mission and at some point this year we started to pray for this goal in every single pray. This month we prayed for 60, and the Lord blessed the mission with 67! So cool right! 

This week I was told my schedule for leaving, what day I would be going to the temple, my departing fireside and all that stuff. That was a little scary....

Then the thought of doubt of whether I did what I was suppose to do came in. Whether I have learned what I was suppose to learn and teach the people I was suppose to teach. A sister in the zone reminded me something so important. Our expectations cannot be higher than the Lord's. He knows our potential, but we can only reach it with him, and if we do our best and work hard. At the end of the night when I pray I can have the assurance that I am doing what I am suppose to be doing and becoming who I am suppose to be becoming...sometimes you just need a little reminder that you can't be someone else and I can't judge my success against another missionaries success. We are all striving to become instrument's in his hands, but all things are in his time and He uses us in different ways:)

Ready for an awesome miracles!

So there is a part member family that we are working with and they have been super tight on money and this week the dad was running around like crazy on the last day to pay rent. He went to the pay phone to check to see if his money had come in yet, and it did! Blessing#1: The amount was exactly 1 dollar more than what he owed for rent. Blessing#2: the amount he received was more than he usually receives. Blessings and happiness ONLY come from exact obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ and he blesses us as we strive to live worthily to strengthen our faith, especially after trying times of striving to keep strong!:)

It a lot of the wards here for 5th sunday the missionaries talk(does that happen everywhere else and I have just been oblivious!?) and after the meeting(Sister Weller and Sister Yanez spoke) we went up to a less active that comes off and on because of work told us she has 3 different families from work that said they would have an FHE with the missionaries so they could learn more about the church! Woohoo! Well, most of the them live outside of the ward so we won't teach them past the initial meeting, but it's still cool that she has been sharing the gospel and has been such a good example to the people at her work for the past year of working there! We went by later to learn more about her friends and this is what one of her friends story is. She's been having this dream for the past 5 years of a house(looks exactly like the LA's new house that they just moved into 3 months ago) and this beautiful building with a spiral staircase where there are lots of languages spoken, but she has no clue what any of it means. Ok, let me just tell you that in the LA temple there's a gorgeous spiral staircase that you walk up, so obviously she was dreaming about the temple! haha:) To us she sounds super prepared, so we are just praying that her spirit and heart will recognize the spirit and the church as an answer to her prayers!

We have been consistently been having 20 gospel conversations everyday and we have truly been seeing the miracles! Saturday night we stopped and talked to some people that were out on their lawn and they immediately invited us in and we spent the next hour teaching the restoration and answering any questions they had! Ok, this woman has 10 children! Crazy right!!!! Hopefully, our return appointment goes well!

hmmm what else? So at the beginning of the transfer I realized we were going to go WAY over our allotted miles, and I have never done that so normal reaction I started getting really worried and we began biking everywhere! By the end of today we will have used the exact amount of miles allotted which is such a huge miracle! I can go to sleep with peace in my heart haha:)

I'm doing well, and loving life like always!:) 

I hope you are all doing well and I love you lots!

Love,

Hermana Ford