Sixty-first Week in the Field

Hola Everyone!

To start out, I just want to say how much I love Ventura!  I definitely miss Santa Paula and all the people there, but I'm excited to be closer to the Felix's and learn so much more from them. 

This week has been one of the most miracle filled weeks that I've been able to have on my mission. The Lord has truly blessed us in so many ways this week, that every night as I try to write in my journal, I honestly don't have time to write everything down. Writing in my journal has turned into a more enjoyable experience now that I always have something more to say. Not that I didn't have amazing things to write down before, but there's just so much more now. Same with my prayers. I find myself on my knees a whole lot more praying for a whole lot more people. Being able to be in this assignment only for a week so far has truly helped me change my perspective on who's really important in this great redemptive work. The needs of the Hermanas in our stewardship have become a whole lot more important to me.

As far as our investigators are doing, everyone is doing so great! We were able to find one of our former investigators again, Juanita. It was such a miracle that she was home and that she let us in. Her mom was originally the reason that the Hermanas had to drop her, but when we stopped by, Juanita told us that she really does want to keep learning and help her kids to feel the spirit more. She had a lot of really good questions about the Plan of Salvation, which we were able to answer, and she committed to read out of the Book of Mormon and pray daily.

Nieves was such a miracle this week! We were driving down the street to visit a potential investigator when we saw him sitting outside by his car. Before we decided to visit the potential, we stopped and talked with him and found out that he's been having a lot of problems with his family. We talked to him about the power of forgiveness and how the Atonement can help him change his life and he absolutely loved it. We invited him to church and to the Noche de Hogar that the branch has and he said that he would try to make it to it not both than at least one of them. It gets even better because he actually came to church yesterday! The branch was so helpful with fellowshipping him and answering his questions. We almost did nothing. It was such a tender mercy of the Lord that he came, but even more so that he said he was going to come again next week and bring his 8 year old niece with him as well. We also gave him a mini church tour while he was there and I think it helped him feel a little bit more comfortable.

Carmelo was another tender mercy. Hermana Brown had this feeling that we should go visit this one former investigator while we were on this one street. They didn't end up being home, but outside their home was a man (Carmelo) that the Hermanas had talked to in the past. We started talking with him about his family and then he told us that they all lived in Mexico, but that they were meeting with missionaries and were planning on getting baptized soon! He said that he really wanted to start learning more so that he could get baptized with them! We almost didn't know what to say! He said that he was going to come to the Noche de Hogar this next week, so that he could meet more people in the branch here. I'm so excited to keep teaching him!

Apparently, it had been a while since the Hermanas had had the chance to meet with the Cortez family. They're a less active couple, but Hermana Cortez is starting to come back to church. We were able to go over the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them this week and they both loved it. Hno. Cortez still has to work on Sundays, but we committed him to talk to his boss. We've been praying that he'll have the confidence to do so. The lesson was really powerful and I know they felt the spirit.

We were able to have a mini lesson with Raquel and Faustino (two investigators) this week as well. They're going through so many trials right now, but they really do have a lot of faith. They're living together and want to get married, but there's a lot of health problems that keep getting in the way. I already love them so much and hope that they'll still be able to keep progressing (which is hard because neither of them can read or write). We're working really hard to get them to come to church and have the faith to pray and receive an answer.

Sacrament Meeting was really good this week especially since we were able to get two investigators there this week. Hermana Brown was telling me that that normally doesn't happen on the first week of the transfer, but we definitely know that Heavenly Father is looking out for us.

This coming week is going to be so crazy with MLC (Mission Leadership Council) and going on an exchange, but I've already seen that Heavenly Father will definitely take care of our area while we're gone. I'm so excited to be able to keep seeing miracles and get to know the Hermanas in the mission. I also absolutely love serving with Hermana Brown too. She's so Christlike and so patient with me while I'm trying to learn so many knew things in this assignment. It definitely helps that we're very similar and already knew each other before, but I love her so much!

Thanks for all the love and support!

Con amor,

Hermana Halliday

P.S.  This is from President Felix regarding communication....

"All mail will come directly to your apartment (letters and packages). Please inform family and friends of your address. Inform them of the transfer dates a week prior. Tell them not to send letters or packages until you notify them. Please instruct your family and friends to use your first and last name on any correspondence. When contacting or sending information to the mission office, please use your full name. In all situations you should be addressed by the title of your calling, Elder or Sister. Any packages sent by UPS or FedEx can be sent to your apartment but cannot be forwarded. Please advise all who may send packages to use US Postal Services if possible. Advise family and friends that your apartment addresses are temporary. Ask them to check with you via email for address changes. Promptly let them know your address change. Mail delivered to the office will be forwarded.

The address to use if you visit a doctor and you do not have family health insurance is:
California Ventura Mission
3301 West Gonzales Road
Oxnard, CA 93036 "

My address currently is 1040 Seamist Place #103 Ventura, CA 93003 :)

Love you all!

 

Sixtieth Week in the Field

Hola Everyone!

First of all, transfer news...I'm leaving Santa Paula :(  BUT I get to go to Ventura (same zone) and work with Hermana Brown in the Branch!  I'm really excited to be able to be companions with her since we worked together in the Branch in Thousand Oaks.  Hermana Wallace is staying here in SP, but is now only going to be doing Spanish work.  They're bringing in English Elders to take over all the English investigators.  

This week has probably been the one week where I've seen the most miracles on my mission! The people are so prepared here in Santa Paula!

The Jones family is doing absolutely amazing! Chris and Justin are still really excited to get baptized next weekend and their family has been really supportive. They're still reading and praying and everything is wonderful. On Friday, Natalie called us in a lot of pain and asked us to find someone that would be able to come over and give her a blessing for the sick and afflicted. She's been having some health problems lately, but it's wonderful that she's reaching out to the ward family to find that support. She's been doing a lot better and really enthusiastic about the baptism this weekend. Chris (dad) is still really supportive as well and is still planning on baptizing the boys! It'll be kind of sad to miss the baptism, but I'm glad I got to be here to see their growth as a family and help them progress in the gospel.

Monique is doing so great too! We were able to have a dinner with her, the Relief Society president, and a family in the ward. For the message, we talked about fasting and the purposes of it. She had some questions about it at church, so the lesson helped. She even committed to fast next month on Fast Sunday. The ward is doing such a great job at including her in everything that we're almost doing nothing. She constantly tells us that the church and the gospel are helping her so much to find more peace and joy in life. She really wants to be able to continue learning and help out as much as possible. She even fed us on Thursday!

Vanessa and Janessa are all of a sudden progressing really well. We haven't been able to teach them in a while, but when we went back this week, they were really receptive. We reviewed the Restoration and at the end, they committed to be baptized on September 13th! They're really excited about it and they're reading the Book of Mormon and praying to receive answers! They were supposed to come to Stake Conference yesterday, but they ended up getting back late from LA, so they were exhausted in the morning. They called us though which is a really good sign. We brought Daisy with us when we went back later this week, so they could start having some member interaction as well. 

Alfonso is doing really well at remembering to read and pray. We were able to have two lessons with him this week and bring members to both of them! This was the first time that members had ever been able to come and meet him, so this was a huge step. He knows what he needs to do to keep progressing and he loves increasing his faith. 

Nancy is a new investigator that we found this week who is so amazing! She lives with Otilia (a member) and we met her when we originally went over to just meet with Otilia. She's about 7 months pregnant and is looking for ways to increase her faith. Otilia is such a good member missionary and has been talking with her about the gospel and sharing her testimony. We watched the Restoration video the second time we went back this week and, after, Nancy agreed to be baptized on September 13th as well! She even prayed at the end, very specifically, to be able to know that the Book of Mormon is true and that the church is true. She also went to church the past two weeks and has loved it! She's just amazing! 

Juan is struggling a little with keeping his commitments. We had a lesson with him this week where we talked about the 10 commandments, but emphasized keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. When we brought it up, he felt really guilty and said that he was going to talk to his boss to get Sundays off. I think it's a good sign of good intent, so we'll see if he actually does it. 

At district meeting, we talked a lot about how even though we were building "sugar cube castles" in relation to our zone goals, the things that we were doing to build the castles were what was really building us. It was a really powerful meeting and it was even more powerful when the zone leaders brought in the final composition of everyone's buildings. It turned out to be the LA Temple. Even though there were holes and imperfections, it was amazing to see all of the successes that we had had in building ourselves.

Thanks for all the love and support!

Con amor, 

Hermana Halliday

Fifty-ninth Week in the Field

Hola Everyone!

This week was so absolutely amazing!

The Jones are still doing really great! We had a Family Home Evening with them on Monday and talked about the Tree of Life. We went through each of the steps of the vision and had them draw it. It was a really neat experience we had with them because Natalie and Chris both got into it as well. On Thursday, we were finally able to have a lesson with them at the Nelson Family home. The boys all clicked really well and the Nelson boys didn't hesitate to invite the Jones boys over for a play date in the future. The lesson went just as well as we had hoped it would. They're still planning on being baptized on the 16th and confirmed on the 17th. We still have a few more things to teach them which shouldn't be too difficult to teach before they're interviewed. The ward council agrees that it's being amazing to see the progress with this family. Even just a few months ago, no one could have imagined them where they are now.

Vanessa is still doing great as well. She's still been attending the Fillmore ward, but she loves it. We found out that part of the reason that they go there is because her boyfriends parents are active members there and come to Santa Paula to pick them up. We talked to the Elders in our district and they said they would talk to the parents to see if they could bring her and Jared and Enoch to the Santa Paula ward. We think this'll help her get more of the fellowship that she needs to continue to progress in the gospel. We ended up teaching her the Plan of Salvation this week, which was perfect timing because the Aparicio's dad died and they had just gotten back from the Rosary service. She felt a lot of peace knowing that they would be able to see him again after this life. She's still so prepared and loves learning about the gospel.

We were finally able to get a hold of Celeste this week! She's been going through a rough time and was kind of distancing herself from everything and everyone. One of our appointments fell through the evening we ended up seeing her and we know that it's probably because we needed to see her. A few minutes after we showed up on her doorstep and had already been talking with her, Sister Castro (the member we were taking with us to the other appointment) showed up! We didn't plan it even though at first Celeste thought we did. Sister Castro pointed out that Heavenly Father was definitely looking out for her and that she needed to let us in to talk with her. She did and we had a very touching conversation. Celeste has been struggling with some things (we don't know what, but she says she's stressed about the pressures of life). Since her husband isn't a member, I think that adds to some of the stress. She's such a sweet spirit and I love being able to help her come closer to Heavenly Father. We tried convincing her to let us come over and do some service for her and in the end she reluctantly agreed, but said she'd call when she needed help. We're going to call or stop by and followup with that this week.

Alfonso is a new investigator that we were able to start teaching this week. A few months ago, the other Hermanas in the ward started teaching him, but then he went to Mexico. He just got back and now he lives in our area. He's so prepared and hasn't forgotten anything from before he left the country. He has a lot of questions and he loves learning. It's even better because his granddaughter wanted to listen in and learn more as well even though she's only 8. Later, her mom and his daughter came out and she didn't seem to interested herself, but she said that we could teach her daughter as long as Alfonso was there. Also, the whole time, Alfonso kept trying to get us to tell him our first names. We wouldn't give them to him even though apparently the sisters before did. With time I think he'll understand that we're servants of the Lord and not just his friends that come and hang out with him. 

Monique is doing absolutely amazing. We had a lesson with her and Sister Cook on Saturday. We taught the first part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and talked a lot about the story of Alma the Younger from the Book of Mormon. She loved how similar her story was to his and she applied it to herself really well. She's been struggling a little with some health problems as a result of her past, but she has the best attitude about it. She knows that God will help her either overcome or deal with the issues according to His will. She came to church again this past Sunday and loved it. She had a lot of really good questions on why we do certain things or why we believe certain things. We're having a dinner with her and the Relief Society president and another family in the ward tonight, so we're really excited about that. Also, she signed up to feed us on Thursday and she's so willing to help out with anything that anyone asks her to do. She truly has been prepared by our Heavenly Father to hear this message of the gospel.

Garrett got ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday in church!! The progress that he's been making is so amazing. I honestly don't know what else to say about him that I haven't already said so many times before. Melissa is doing absolutely amazing too. She loves helping us out and helping Garrett progress. She's still planning on being baptized and we're hoping to finally be able to set her with a date soon. We had to explain to them that this was the last week of the transfer and that one of us might be leaving soon and they got a little bit upset, but they understood that it wasn't permanent or that we'd never see them again. I'm so grateful for the amazing relationship that I've been able to form with them. 

As far as I'm doing, everything's great! I love working hard and serving the Lord with everything I've got!

Thanks for all the love and support!

Con amor,

Hermana Halliday

 

The funniest title for a book!

 

Us and Daisy

 

Us and m favorite people ever!