A Little Week Full of Stress-ita

Hello familita!

One of my favorite things about Spanish is that people make everything small using "ita" or "ito." My companion told something that we would be outside, or 'afuera,' but she said 'afuerita.' Little outside? I don't question. An older person is viejo, but in Spanish it's viejito. Well, this week was really stressful, to say the least, but I'll just make it somewhat stressita. :) It makes things sound so much cuter. I love being called hermanita. So that's my random thought for the week. Just add -ita.

Well we moved again this week. Surprise, surprise. I've now lived in 3 different apartments and have been in Stockton for only 2 months to the day. I'm done moving! I refuse to do it again. We had to clean the old apartment and the new apartment. From now on I just want to be a missionary--not a mover, not a house cleaner, not a sick girl. Yeah, I never get sick so that's really weird... You're not going to want to hear this, but it's so good I have to share. Because we're familiar with moving, we decided this time we're going to do it right and use boxes. Well, as missionaries we have little time and resources with which to do things, but we were going to get those boxes. We went to McDonald's and asked for some boxes and they told us that they had just taken them out of the restaurant an hour earlier but that we were more than welcome to get them out of the dumpster. So... you guessed it. Hermana Brinkerhoff scrounged up a few boxes in the dumpster, skirt and all. Don't worry--we took pictures and I'll send them this week!

On Thursday we had Zone Training with President and Sister Lewis. Afterward President Lewis went out with some elders and rode a bike for an hour and a half, and Sister Carlos and I had the privilege of having Sister Lewis come tracting and contacting with us. It was Sister Lewis's first time tracting (and in Spanish, no less), but she did great! We met all sorts of people and some very classic Stocktonites. I felt so bad because Sister Lewis was wearing a cardigan (blazing hot that day) and heels (and we did lots of walking--but not too much). We were able to share our testimonies about the Restoration of the Gospel, eternal families, gifts and talents, and the priesthood. By the way, Sister Lewis's birthday is the same day as Dain and Malinda's--happy birthday, you two!!

One of the companionships in our ward had a baptism this past Friday (4 baptisms, actually--one family). I ended up playing prelude for about an hour since the baptism started late and entertained the little girls for most of it--lots of paper and pens is all you need to keep them preoccupied! President and Sister Lewis were able to come to the baptism and there were other investigators there, so it was a wonderful opportunity to share what baptism is all about. Of course there was a wonderful spirit there, and I'm looking forward to my first baptism--it will come!

We went to the General Relief Society broadcast on Saturday. We watched it in Spanish since we had an investigator there, so... I wish I could say that understood everything! I understood the talks for the most part, and President Uchtdorf's talk was absolutely wonderful, like always. I will admit that I'll be rereading those talks when they come out in print so that I can learn about being more charitable and take in President Uchtdorf's talk more fully. Oh boy, we're going to watch all of conference in Spanish--wee. I'm going to pray extra hard this week to have the gifts of tongues because I really need to hear the words from the prophet and apostles. How lucky we are to be guided by these men on the earth. Heavenly Father truly does care about us--I know that they receive revelation about what we need for the next six months.

On Saturday night we were teaching a lesson at about 8:45 pm. The phone kept ringing during the lesson--missed calls from our district leader, bishop, and another companionship in the ward. I found out at 9:30 pm that I was going to speak in sacrament meeting the next day--at 9:00 am. Oh the joys of being a missionary! But seriously, every day is a beautiful adventure. I think my reaction was, "I'm speaking in church? Tomorrow? In SPANISH?" Yes, yes, yes. The bishop chose me and two elders to speak about the plan of salvation, which I've been thinking about a lot the past few weeks, so of course I was happy to speak about how we can live as families for eternity. The bishop had actually just told the mission president at the baptism on Friday that I was pretty safe in not giving a talk because I play the piano in every meeting on Sundays. Well, I guess he had a change of heart after he said that, so I played my four hymns during sacrament and spoke. :) It went well, except for the fact that I said, "Decimos estas cosas en el nombre de Jesucristo," which is "WE say these things..." Yeah, who is the other person saying these things? I don't know. After I ended, I realized I said that instead of "I say these things..." I looked at Sister Carlos and hesitated--should I correct myself? "Digo! I mean digo! Not decimos!" Well I just left it as 'decimos' and walked back to my seat, embarrassed. Yikes, too funny.

I love you all. Hope you're doing well. Things are great here. 

Love,

kates

Losing Sleep

Hi wonderful people,

I'm not really losing sleep at night. We just went to sleep at 11:30 on Friday night and I'm still trying to catch up from that. I do just fine when we follow the 10:30-6:30 schedule but when that gets off, woo--it's no bueno. Oh, I probably shouldn't mention this, but I will since it's so funny. The night before--Thursday--we were making a cake for Jose because it was his birthday on Friday. We put it in the oven and ended up falling asleep because it needed to cook for 45 minutes. An HOUR and 45 minutes later... Sister Carlos said, "Mama. I mean, Hermana! The cake!" And I said, "Is it burned?!?!" You know how I look when I wake up. And she was like "I don't know! I just woke up!" So we scrambled to the kitchen in the groggiest state possible and took the cake out of the oven. Don't worry--we just cut the burned edges off, made chocolate frosting (I frosted it--thank you, cake-decorating class), and delivered it to him. Haha yikes. Hope it tasted good...

Friday night we had a temple tour for all the Spanish missionaries/investigators in the Sacramento Mission. We got there early to help set up all the food, the art exhibit (an LDS painter from Argentina displayed his gospel artwork that came from various museums, etc.), the decorations, practice a special musical number, receive our assignments for the night, etc. The event was well attended. Sadly Stockton is really far from Sacramento (about 1.5 hours) so none of our investigators were able to make it, but we got to see and meet a lot of the members and investigators from all the other Spanish areas. All of the Spanish missionaries sang The Spirit of God and it was so powerful--I could feel the spirit so strongly as I sang those words in Spanish. "How blessed the day when the lamb and the lion shall lie down together without any ire." I think that's my favorite part of the song.

Sister Fernandez (one of the coordinating sisters) came again on Wednesday to train/evaluate/help us. I always learn so much from her and am trying to do everything that she does so well--she's about 6 months ahead of me on her mission but is such an inspiration to me in how she organizes and plans everything for the week/studies/teaches people. I have been blessed to be surrounded by so many great leaders/missionaries in the mission. In all the craziness, the real focus is on people--helping them receive the message of the restored gospel, and I try hard every day not to forget that.

We added four new investigators this week, so now we have seven investigators. A former investigator came to church on Sunday and Jose came for the fourth time! A family is getting baptized this Friday (the elders' investigators), and one of them had questions in Relief Society about some words in the Gospel Principles manual. She asked if we had a book in English, and I was thinking, "I'm right there with you, sister." :) Anyway, I still tried to translate what I could and explained what I did understand and expounded on it. It talked about Lehi and his family leaving Jerusalem before it was destroyed in 586 B.C. I explained why/how we have the Book of Mormon and how it relates to the Bible--where the history fits in and everything. She was so thankful that I explained that to her because things start clicking and making more sense. Sunday night we had a fireside and a counselor in the Mission Presidency spoke. The investigator thanked me again for helping her during Relief Society and said that she'd actually been praying the past few nights to know for certain that the Book of Mormon was true and that the Church is true. She said that I answered that prayer. I've heard people say things like, "Oh you're an answer to prayer" or "You came at the right time," but never an answer to a specific prayer. Something I said along the way confirmed her testimony, and I'm so grateful that she has truly been converted and is getting baptized this weekend. It will change their lives forever.

Today we had a sisters' luncheon for all the sisters in the mission. We weren't going to go because we didn't have a ride, but bless her, one of the members who makes dinner for us every Sunday took us. About 3 hours round trip. We had a fabulous lunch, plenty of dessert, took pictures, shared scriptures that have really helped us lately, and made those cute flowers you can wear on your blouse or in your hair.

I don't have much time. Everything's going well! Love you all. Hope you're as excited for Conference as I am! Like Jose said, I wish everyone knew that we have a living prophet on the earth today who guides us and tells us the things we need to know. We can be prepared not only spiritually but also physically. What a blessing.

Love,

kates

Eyes are windows to the soul

Mi familia bonita,

This week was just wonderful. We met with our investigator Jose on Tuesday night and had a really good lesson with him about the restoration of the gospel. We met with him for the first time about two weeks prior to that and still hadn't taught about the restoration of the church of Jesus Christ and the purpose of the Book of Mormon. Needless to say, he was a little confused, but he had come to church two times anyway! He's a dream come true--really. The elder who found him told us to invite him to the baptism because he had that much faith in Jose.

Jose has this personality that just fills the whole room. Our lessons are always Spanglish to the max and he is so eager to learn more, understand, and follow Heavenly Father's plan. We started telling him about the Book of Mormon, how it's another testament of Jesus Christ. He found out on his second Sunday that we use the Bible even though we used it to teach the lesson the night before, he must have been confused--oops. We explained about how prophets in Jerusalem wrote the word of God in the Bible and how prophets in the ancient Americas also received revelation from God and wrote them on plates as scripture--which we now know is the Book of Mormon. When we told Jose that we have a living prophet today, he said, "Does everyone know about this?!?! Why don't people know about this?" We told him that's why we're here spreading the message. :) He was so dumbfounded--his eyes were huge and wanted to hear more of the story. We explained to him that the prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, is not just the prophet for our church but that he's the prophet for the whole world. Jose just couldn't get over the fact that people don't know about him. I felt the Spirit so strongly as I taught him about the restoration; how Christ established His church and that when he was rejected and his apostles were killed, truth was taken from the earth. God took away the gift of revelation and prophets from the earth for a time because people were so wicked and would not listen and sought to kill them because they spoke hard things. After this spiritual darkness remained for a time, we know that a 14-year-old boy, Joseph Smith, was called to be a prophet of God, to restore Christ's church to the earth again as it had been when he established it--complete with priesthood authority, or the power to act in God's name, saving ordinances, apostles, etc. This lesson really taught me the importance of teaching people, not just lessons. I understood when Jose needed further explanation, how to explain it more understandably, and what he needed to hear. Thank goodness I could teach him in English (don't tell anyone I cheated). During the lesson Jose said, "Your eyes--they're like windows of light." I kept talking and he stopped me. "I've seen those eyes before." By this point he was shaking his head and putting his head in his hands because he couldn't believe the things he was hearing and the "light," or the Holy Ghost that he was seeing and feeling. He called me an angel and asked me if I was an angel. "Is she an angel?" he asked my companion. "You're an angel, aren't you?" I had to confess that I was just human, just a girl. "I really feel an energy here, especially from you," as he pointed to me.

I'm not telling you this so you think I'm an angel or think that I'm so proud of myself for what I know, because I'm not. I'm telling you this because this was a very powerful experience of the Holy Ghost testifying that the things we were teaching are true. Jose experienced that--the Spirit was absolutely there. He felt it really powerfully and understood that Joseph Smith was going through exactly what he's going through--in not knowing which of all the churches are true. "So he was confused just like I'm confused!" I know that people misunderstand Joseph Smith's purpose. We met a man last night while tracting/finding people who was adamant that Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon. He said this and that and all we could do was invite him to learn more and pray about our message. God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. We all know about the prophets in the Bible--why would we not have prophets today?

We were able to teach Jose again on Friday and Saturday night and his wife was there both times (she's usually working). His wife made us food on Saturday,after we'd just eaten Panda Express, but Sister Carlos reminded me that Hispanic women don't make food for you unless they like you. So don't worry--we ate the quesadillas, salsa, pizza, Mexican candy, and soda. Jose and Maribel have a lot of potential and we are so blessed to be teaching them. Oh yeah, and Jose came to Primary yesterday because his daughter was crying and didn't want to go. So the theme for this month is missionary work and how the Primary kids can prepare to be missionaries. Of course I played the piano in Primary and Jose was just singing away with the kids. The Primary Presidency gave them missionary "name tags" and it was so funny seeing Jose and Jasmine wearing them. Jose was ready to "knock some doors!" Sister Carlos and I had drawn things that the children could do to prepare now (like read their scriptures, go to church, read Preach My Gospel during family home evening, make their beds, serve friends and family, things like that). We were in charge of sharing time and the kids really had all the answers--they're so prepared!

We taught a woman named Graciela on Thursday night--we met her at the beginning of August and hadn't been able to contact her since then. She was very receptive to our message and said at the end of it that she had forgotten all of her problems while we were there. She said that my Spanish was clear and she could understand all of it--bless her!! The language is still shaky but I'm so grateful every day that I get to learn Spanish but I'm also get to teach and testify in English. So many of our investigators can't feel that peace and happiness in their lives, which is what Heavenly Father wants us to experience. They're depressed, and I know it's because they don't yet have the knowledge of the plan of salvation and the understanding of the atonement. I'm so grateful that we know Heavenly Father's plan--that we're here to learn and grow and to overcome life's challenges so that we can progress and live worthily to return to God's presence. I know that eternal life is the greatest of all the gifts of God and that we can't fully comprehend the fulness of joy that we'll experience as eternal families, but I know I want to find out.

We met a woman last night while tracting who is absolutely miserable. She was interested in hearing the message we were going to share and knew that it's what she needed to hear right then. Her life is horrible right now and she has anxiety and no hope. I knew I needed to give her a hug, and she broke down in my arms. She said she needed that--she needs to feel love. During the lesson she gave Sister Carlos and me about 20 hugs each. At the end of the lesson she said the prayer and said, "I feel good... No, I feel really good. then she paused... Now I'm just trippin'." :) Like Graciela, she forgot her pains, she wasn't anxious. She felt the Holy Ghost comfort her--I know the Holy Ghost touches hearts and can truly change people.

Oh yeah. And the subject of this email? It had a little to do with Jose's comment, but also three other people commented on my eyes this week. It was unbelievable! Guess other people like my almond-shaped eyes, Dad. :)

Love you all,

kates

Thanks but no thanks

Hello pretty people,

This past week flew by--I don't know how we made it to Sunday so fast. P-day is Tuesday this week because it's transfer day--sorry I forgot to mention that. Sister Carlos and I are staying in the Stockton North Zone and we're still living with the English sisters. There's actually another sister moving into our apartment (joining the English sisters), so we're going to have a full house, just like you guys. :) Sister Carlos and I were planning on going to the temple today, but we called 13 people and couldn't find a ride. Hopefully we'll get to go next transfer--you can go every other transfer, and there's a mission temple day in December. We're having a temple tour on September 16 for all the Spanish-speakers in the Sacramento Mission, so we'll bring our investigators to learn more about the temple, which is really where everyone's focus should be. There's going to be baptisms in the church building next to the temple that night, a temple tour, food, a dance??? Love Hispanics. That should be a good experience--we're looking forward to it!

Our new investigator, Jose, came to church again on Sunday. Last week his daughter cried and cried before she got in the car because she wanted to watch her Sunday morning cartoons. We sang hymns and Primary songs until their ride came to pick them up. This week she was in better spirits but she started bawling before Primary. Eventually she'll have dry eyes by the end of church--that's our goal. Jose is an alcoholic and smokes (he says his wife "smokes like a choo-choo train," which will make it hard for him to stop), so we're trying our best to teach the Word of Wisdom along with all the other lessons so that he gains a testimony of the Book of Mormon and the gospel. He has a desire to quit but needs to have that firm testimony to make it happen. Jose is great, though. He's always so positive and energetic and understands that we need to put God first in our lives, and He'll take care of the rest. I love the scripture in 3 Nephi 13, last two verses. Along with that is "consider the lilies of the field; how they grow. Consider the birds in the sky; how they fly. He clothes the lilies of the fields; he feeds the birds in the sky. And he will heal those who trust him, and guide them with his eye." If God can take care of the flowers and animals in the earth, he can take care of us if we seek first the kingdom of God.

We meet the most interesting people every day. Sometimes I see someone and the natural person inside of me doesn't want to approach them, but the missionary-minded person in me gets my feet moving. I talk to absolutely everyone. We've been promised that the Lord has prepared people in our area to receive the gospel and I'm determined to find them, even if they're wrapped in a different-looking package. We approached a man at the park who was covered in tattoos and just looked straight thug. He told us he'd been in prison and that he knew he was a sinner. Aren't we all? We taught him about the gospel of Jesus Christ and about having hope and faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement--that we can repent of everything we've done and feel clean and free from all sin and guilt. We ended with a prayer, and when we asked him what he was thankful for, he said for the chance to meet us in the park; to see people just walking and laughing; and for his family. People look so hard on the outside, and even though their lives have been influenced one way or another, I know there's good in everyone. Everyone has that soft side. Sometimes you just have to dig deeper than others.

The other interesting people include people like Justino. The "knight" we met in the park. One of the best things about serving a mission is talking to the most classic people and hearing their stories--about where they come from and what they believe and what they're looking for in life. The other great thing is having the opportunity to bear testimony of Jesus Christ and his restored gospel to anyone and everyone--to complete strangers. I wish the people who slam the doors in our faces and tell us that we should be more careful with what we believe and teach would soften their hearts and allow the Holy Ghost to touch them within. A lot of people tell us that what we're doing is really good and that they're happy we're sharing a message about Jesus Christ with their neighbors but that they've been saved and don't need it. That seems like a good thing to say . . . but I just want them to understand our unique message--the truth. But all we can do it teach, testify, and invite them to act on our message by praying to know for themselves that what we teach is true.

Oh yeah, on Sunday night we were going door to door to find people to teach in the Spanish elders' area. We knocked on a door where we knew a party was going on--might as well still knock. The owner of the house invited us in. It turns out there were about 100 Philippinos in the house celebrating (or honoring?) the death of their father, uncle, relative who died about 10 years ago. There was food galore, including a pig--don't worry, I got a pic. They invited us to eat, so we took a few plates for the elders in our zone. They wanted us to take dessert and offered us this and that. "Look everyone--there are missionaries here!" We didn't know what to do so we just laughed and waved. The first person we saw when we walked into the house was a Catholic priest--he gave us a very puzzled look and I'm sure our faces mirrored his. We didn't really get to a share a message with anyone but we got a return! Classic.

That's about all the time I have today. Love you all! Hope life is treating you well. Don't feel too crammed in that house, Jo and Dain. We have a family here--6 adults and 3 kids living in one two-bedroom apartment. Try that on for size.

Love,

kates