Californian A-Venturas

Hola Everyone!

Such a great week! With two exchanges, General Conference, Interviews with President, and getting to see "Meet the Mormons" life was so crazy! (By the way, go see "Meet the Mormons." It's so good!)

Our area hasn't had a lot of work done in it, but we were able to use our time effectively while we were there.

Maria is still preparing to be baptized on the 25th of October! We were able to get a less active (Aracelli) to give her a ride to conference yesterday and she really enjoyed it. She also read for the first time (on her own) this week out of the Book of Mormon. We still have a lot to teach her, but she's soaking up everything and is so willing to meet with us whenever.

Daniel is also still doing really good! We were able to teach him about tithing and fasting this week and he committed to do both. He's still struggling with getting time off of work to come to church, but he's trying really hard. He's talked to many people about it and hasn't had any success yet so he agreed to fast with us yesterday for a job opportunity to come up. We didn't get to see him yesterday, but we called him and he said that he was doing really well on the fast and felt good about it. We were also able to help him come up with questions to take to General Conference even though he couldn't go. It was amazing to see how almost all of the talks given applied to his qusetions. We're excited to talk with him about this and read some of the talks with him.

We were also able to meet with Hermana Camacho again. She told us that she doesn't really want to come back to church, but is willing to learn more about how she can get closer to God. We're hoping that by us returning and talking more with her that she'll realize that coming back to church is what will help her the most. We're still trying to figure out if she really is excommunicated or not, but we haven't heard back yet from our ward leaders.

I absolutely love Hermana White! She takes everything step by step and loves every minute of it. I absolutely love that about her. She doesn't get stressed out easily which makes it very easy to work with her and have fun while doing it. She's always so positive and is a great help for me.

This week in my studies I was reading in Helaman 10 and verses 4 and 5 stuck out particularly to me. I read them at such a great time because one of my questions that I took to conference was "How can I know that the Lord is pleased with the work I've done on my mission?". I especially loved the part that talks about working with unweariness and being blessed not just in this life, but in the next as well. These two verses seriously changed my life. It helped me understand that not only do I need to take advantage of every moment now, but that when I'm released the only thing that should change is that I don't have the mantle anymore. It was so powerful.

We weren't able to do any service this week, but offered so much. It pretty fun seeing the surprised looks on peoples faces when they see that we really do want to help them with their lawn, or wash their dishes, or clear the table, or vaccum their carpet. It brings a little more hope into their lives and into mine.

Thanks for all the love and support!

Con amor,

Hermana Halliday

Picture from exchanges this week!

Hola Everyone!

I absolutely love being back in Oxnard 5th! When I left the ward, I didn't think anyone would really remember who I was or anything I did, but it was a pleasant surprise to see that almost everyone remembered me. It's been really great working with the district as well. We've all served around each other before, so we all get along really well and have a lot of unity.

Even though there isn't that much Spanish work here in Camarillo, we're definitely finding the prepared people by sifting the wheat:

Daniel is doing so great! He had a baptismal date for the 18th of October until yesterday when he didn't come to church. Other than that though, he's doing amazing. He's been reading the Book of Mormon before every lesson that we've had with him and he has really good questions about things we teach him. We had a lesson with him at the Palmas home with our ward mission leader. We discussed what it actually means to feel the spirit and to recognize it. He has a lot of courage and desire to do what's right, but he still hasn't been able to get work off to come to church on Sundays.

Maria is so prepared! We were able to have a lesson with her on Thursday and read the Testimony of the Three Witnesses with her because she didn't read that week yet. When we got to the end of it, she started crying and told us that she loved the last part that talks about being cleased through Jesus Christ and having eternal life. We had a super powerful discussion on what it actually means to repent and be baptized. She had a baptismal date of October 25th when I got here, but she hadn't really been progressing at all. While we were in our lesson a bird chirped in her back yard and she took that to be a sign from God telling her that now is the time to act. She's still planning on being baptized and it gets even better because she came to church yesterday! We went over yesterday morning to introduce her to the ride that we lined up, but it turns out we woke her up. We initially thought that she was going to tell us that she decided not to go anymore, but instead she asked us if she could take a few minutes to hurry and get ready. She ended up bringing her daughter to church as well, who ended up loving Primary and wants to be a part of the Primary Program on November 9th. This was such a powerful example to me of Heavenly Father's hand in the work.

Hermana Camacho is a less active that we found this week. It was such a miracle! We were knocking in this one prodominantly English speaking neighborhood asking for Spanish referrals. Her neighbor referred her to us and when we knocked, she immediately told us that she was not interested because she was already a member. We tried to get to know her a little and I'm convinced that because of that, she let us in and we were able to share a breif message with her. She gave us her address and we tried back yesterday, but she couldn't talk with us then so we set up an appointment for later this week. The ward doesn't really know who she is as of now, but we're working with them to find her records.

One thing that I love about Hermana White is that she is so loving! She has such a strong desire to be here and to work hard. It's been faith promoting for me to see her progression as well because I served in the same area as her when she was getting trained and also a different area when she was training for the first time. She's such a great missionary! She's also a very good listener. This week, I've been feeling a lot of things in regards to everything and she's been a great support as I talk it out.

This week I've been studying a lot about what it means to be prepared for whatever lies ahead. It was so perfect because at the General Women's Meeting, they talked a lot about this and how keeping our covenants helps us to do this. In companionship study, we've been talking about how our missions are going to benefit us even more in the long run even though we think we're receiving so many blessings right now.

We haven't been able to do a lot of service this week due to all the lessons and meetings we've had, but we've been able to offer a lot of service. People aren't as accepting here as they have been in past areas I've served in but just the offer is helping them understand our purpose even more.

Thanks for all the love and support!

Con amor,

Hermana Halliday

Also, my new address is:

701 Mobil Ave #120

Camarillo, CA 93010