Tenth Week in the Field

Hola Everyone!

This week has been crazy awesome! It was filled with so many miracles!

On Thursday, we finally caught up with Joaquina, one of our spanish investigators.  We haven't seen her in two weeks because she was never home when we stopped by.  Finally, we caught her and were able to teach her the plan of salvation.  She had just lost a son and her mother passed away too.  She loved the idea that she could live with them again.  We invited her to be baptized and she said she would pray about it and let us know next week!  We think that she sincerely wants a better life and to be able to see them again.  That same day, Hermana Smith and I were trying to find a potential investigator who lived down the street from one of the less actives in the ward.  We looked over and we saw Amanda (LA) sitting on her front lawn looking a little worried.  We decided to go over and see what was going on.  In turns out that she was locked out of her house and both of the people with her spare keys were a few hours away.  We were able to teach her according to some of her concerns that she had and why she left the church.  The Lord has such a sense of humor.  We'd been trying to get in touch with her for a few weeks.  It was just what she needed and just what we needed to keep our day full of miracles. 

On Friday, we decided to go visit Shan-Shan, another investigator with a baptismal date.  She had been in China for a month and all we knew was that her and her husband were going to get back in town at the end of August.  When we stopped by her house for the first time, they were there!  We found out that they had just pulled in the driveway two hours earlier!  The Lord obviously wanted us to get working with them again really fast.  They're the sweetest people ever and they gave us some Chinese treats/snacks!  They were really good!  Later that same day, we went to visit another less active/recent convert, Nancy.  It's been really hard trying to get a hold of her because she's working two jobs, but when we were finally able to sit down and have a good conversation with her we found out that she really does want to come to church more often than she has been and bring her non-member husband and son.  During our mini lesson with her, her neighbor knocked on the door.  Her neighbor only speaks spanish and apparently Nancy didn't know that we could speak spanish too.  (Spanish is her native language, but she prefers to speak in english.)  She invited her neighbor in and we finished the lesson in spanish!  At the end of the lesson, Nancy told her friend not only how we pray, but made her say the closing prayer!  It was really neat!  Maria, the neighbor, said she wanted to read the Book of Mormon and wanted a copy of "Lord, I Believe" in spanish too!  Our visit with a recent convert turned into a lesson with an RC then to a spanish lesson with a potential then to lesson with a member present and then into a new investigator!  We've been trying so hard to find new investigators to teach and Heavenly Father is starting to answer our prayers and bless us. 

The Moorpark 2nd Ward sisters had two baptisms on Saturday! Matt and Eddy.  They technically live in our ward boundaries, but they've been going to the 2nd ward services so it counted as their baptisms.  It doesn't really matter though because we're all on the same team and bringing people unto Christ is what counts!!  I'm so excited for them!

We were on familysearch.org earlier this week and I found a line that goes back all the way to 238 AD!  Granted, I don't know how accurate it was, but still it's pretty cool!  Hermana Smith found a line that went all the way back to Joseph of Arimathaea! Crazy!

Sorry this email is a little shorter, I was having internet problems earlier!  Thanks for all the love and support!

Con amor,

Hermana Halliday

 The mansion across the street from a member's home.

The coolest looking Dr. Seuss lawn in the history of the world

Ninth Week in the Field

Hola Everyone!

This week has been full of miracles and so many other wonderful things.  I've learned so much and absolutely love training.  As a companionship we've been able to accomplish so much this week. 

We had an amazing lesson with on of our investigators, Michael, who is currently working towards being baptized on the 31st, but we may have to move it to the 7th.  It was the lesson on the law of chastity, but we focused mainly on why God gives us commandments, we're children of God, and more specifically he's a son of God.  The spirit was really strong.  We shared 2 Nephi 1:15 with him. It's about how God will eternally wrap his arms around us and let us know he loves us.  It was even better because we were able to get a member there too (Josh, a 15-year-old boy in the ward). 

A few days ago, we were able to stop by a less active/part member family and talk with them.  Chad, the dad, is less active, but his wife, Amie, isn't.  They're the sweetest people, but in the past they've told the missionaries that they don't want them coming by anymore.  Every time we go, though, they let us in no problem and are really excited to see us and to talk with us.  He told us that he's reading the Book of Mormon for the first time on his own right now and really enjoys it.  He wants to come back to church, but his wife doesn't want to.  He hopes that she'll see how he's becoming a better person and she'll want to change too.  Their children are both autistic and are as sweet as can be, but sometimes, they're a lot to handle so the church would be great for them as well!  We love part member families because there is so much potential and the spirit is always so strong. 

Yesterday, a young woman in the ward, Laura, called us and volunteered to come out with us teaching/knocking because she's starting to get ready to serve a mission herself.  We're super excited because it's hard to find members to go with us to lessons.  If any of you have the chance to go out with the missionaries, DO IT!! They'll appreciate it like no other!!

There is the sweetest little old lady in our ward.  Her name is Myan and she's 102 years old!! We get to visit her occasionly and share a scripture with her.  Yesterday, we shared 3 Nephi 18:19-21 (Kirstyn's fav) and talked about the importance of having faith while praying.  She went on and on about how it really is important and we should put God first in our lives.  She has such a precious soul and even gave us kisses before we left!

We had dinner with our new Bishop and his wife last night.  They are some of the sweetest people I've ever met.  When we were telling them about our apartment and how it's brand new so there isn't a lot of furniture, they gave us two lamps, four tv trays (to use as little tables), a bunch of delicious food, and then this morning, we found out that they went and just bought us bed frames because our mattresses are on the floor.  They're so giving and we feel kind of undeserving.  On top of that, they gave us a ton of referrals and less active members to go visit.  I love how we've earned there trust, which is a good thing because without it, we wouldn't be able to accomplish anything. 

On Saturday, we had correlation with our Ward Mission Leader.  Usually we dread it because he tries to change everything we're doing and tells us what we're doing wrong, but this time it was totally different.  We were able to feel the spirit really strong and be really productive.  We finally clicked with him because of all our prayers.   He mentioned this too at the end of the meeting.  He asked us if it felt different and then actually thanked us for working hard and doing whatever we were doing.  Then, at church yesterday, he was super cheerful and actually went out of his way to talk to us.  We're finally able to communicate with him and trust him!!!

Yesterday, as we were driving to go see a potential investigator, we had to pass this huge accident site on one of the main freeways.  There was a truck totally flipped over and another one totally crushed.  There was the paramedic and the fire department and about a million police officers talking with witnesses.  We saw them put a man on a stretcher, but it looked like he was going to be fine.  We don't know what happened, but it looked like everyone was going to be okay.  We said a prayer as we were passing just thanking Heavenly Father that we weren't there when it happened and asking Him to help those that were in an accident.  It's amazing to me that missionaries hardly ever get into accidents or any other problems with cars.  I know that Heavenly Father is looking out for us. 

I met so many cool people this week as well.  It turns out that the mother-in-law of the nephew of John Voigt (sp?) is in our ward! crazy, right?  But then in church we found out that the cousin of the new Adam and Eve in the temple movie in also in our ward.  California is definitely different. 

I still absolutely love training, but I found out this week that I need to work on my patience.  Not with other people, but  myself.  I find that I get down on myself really easily because I'm trying to hard to be perfect!  That's definitely one thing that I'm trying really hard to work on this week!

Thanks for all the love and support from everyone!

Con amor,

Hermana Halliday

PS: Shout out to Tatum, whose going to Nashville, TN on her mission!! You'll do great girl!!  Enjoy Country Music USA for me! :)

 Plan of Salvation in Japanese - Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Hobbs!

 Yum!

 

Pretty Flowers!