Mar 21, 2011 "It Rained and Our Testimonies Grew"

Awesome week! I'm afraid I don't have a ton to talk about this week, but we were super duper busy and happy and having a blast. So good. Also, I'm finally getting some bike muscles so I'm not dragging my raggedy ol' butt all over our area. I love being on bike! It's also wonderful right at about sunset when it's that perfect lighting and the air is nice and warm and all of the flowers are so fragrant...I think every apartment building and house in NoHo has at least 3 rose bushes, some lilies, a mountain of what smells something like honeysuckle, a billion and three birds of paradise, and so many others that I can't even identify. Oh my goodness it's gorgeous.

     It rained buckets all day yesterday and a little bit again this morning. thankfully we got a ride to and from church and dinner yesterday so we didn't have to ride in it, but this morning wasn't all that bad. I think if we had tried to ride our bikes to church yesterday we would have gotten washed away. We had at least 4 of the members and our investigators start asking us about the end of the world and such because of all of the craziness going on all over the world. Oy vey!

Our district of missionaries is way fun and we're continuing to have weekly soccer games early in the morning and we've added in volleyball..hopefully I won't stink so bad at both by the end of my mission. I love seeing the dynamics between all of the missionaries and realizing how inspired those companionships are. For example, Elder Zundel and his companion Elder Banuelos are just about the most opposite individuals you could ever find, but because they have the same goal of sharing Heavenly Father's love with others, they make an amazing teaching team. Banuelos is super funny...he learned English from popular music, so pretty much anything we say he turns into a song that he has heard and accompanies it with some hilariously sarcastic remark while he dances to the music in his head. He's pretty short, particularly compared to Zundel, so the other day Hermana Waite commented, "ya know, Zundel...it's like you've got your own personal dancing Santa that follows you around..."

    Sometimes Banuelos starts singing songs that aren't terribly appropriate, so we'll usually try to counter it with a hymn or a primary song. The other night at dinner, I interrupted his rendition of a Katy Perry song with "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam." Elder Castro misheard me and said " Jesus wants me for a zombie? Why are you talking about Jesus being a zombie? You are so blasphemy!" Best moment of my life! 

The other night we were running from one appointment to another and this lady  (who was a little tipsy) stopped us and asked if we were Mormons.. of course we responded in the affirmative so she said "I really like you guys. Can you come by sometime and teach me?" Pff awesome! Hello every missionary's dream! She followed it up with " But I drink a lot, is that okay?" ".......ummmm....well......we can sure help you stop!" " Oh yeah yeah, I want to stop drinking.  O,k so tomorrow then?" We called her yesterday for our appointment but she was a little too under the weather to meet with us. Hopefully soon :)

   In other, more spiritual news.... We have 3 investigators who have baptismal dates!! Jose is getting baptized this Sunday (I'm so freaking excited!...we had a really excellent Law of Chastity lesson with him...I hadn't ever taught it before, but I think it may be one of my favorites, strange as that may sound...), another woman named Emilia is getting baptized the 3rd, and Carlos (a really sweet, wonderful guy from Ecuador who rents a room from Milagro) is getting baptized the 10th (well...if he can come to church 3 times....he works as a physical therapist and has a patient right at 11 every sunday....so if you could pray for him so that he can get a better schedule or even a better job, that would be marvelous) !! I am just so excited to see all of these amazing people open the door to greater blessings for their lives! Carlos just seems to have such a sound understanding of what the gospel is and why we need it in our lives. He remembers everything we teach him and just....gets it. I told him I like his brain and he really appreciated that. He kept bringing it up throughout the rest of our lesson and even in others.

I think that may be all for now....just remember always how great you are and how much Heavenly Father loves you and how great I think you are!

Love you more than all the blessings that come from living the Word of Wisdom AND the Law of Chastity,

Hermana B

Monday, March 14, 2011

Hermanas Strong, Beauchamp, Busch, Gerhartz at Los Angeles Temple

2/19/2011

Hi my wonderful parents,

Thank you so much for the letter about Israel! It was so glorious to read about all of your incredible experiences, although to tell the truth, I think I must need to practice my Hebrew because I only recognized about 3 words of all of the ones you used, Mama. I'm so so glad to hear that (cousin) Vanessa is doing well! I surely miss her!

Also, you made me super hungry.

Thanks a pantload!

I know you're praying for us, I can feel it, and thank you so so much. I feel so privileged to be your daughter. You are such incredible people. I got to tell Milagro (one of our investigators) your conversion story, Mom. I told her what you said about wanting to just hang out around the tree of life and partake of the benefits without having to actually join and sacrifice something, but she was listening intently to the part about "Look, this is either all true, or it's all a lie. If it's true, it's the most remarkable thing in the world." After that we had a really great lesson about the principles of the Gospel and why they are necessary. 

 

Ok so update on mission life: I already told you about my new companion, but she's turning out to be even better than I could have imagined. She's super motivated, full of energy, very organized, rocks at Spanish (despite whatever she may say about it), and is an incredible teacher. She told me that this is really the first time that she's gotten to share equally in a lesson because with her first companion she didn't speak Spanish yet so all she could really do was bear her testimony about the Book of Mormon at her companion's prompting, and her second companion was a very take-charge Latina who was quite accustomed to teaching and conversing about the gospel by herself. We both feel really good about our companionship and it's totally showing in the work itself.

We've begun knocking doors to try to find more investigators (it's funny to run into the Jehovah's Witnesses....everyone's very nice, it's just super awkward) and that has yeilded some satisfying benefits, our investigators who (I think I told you last time) are starting to progress are progressing faster and really starting to grasp why they need the Gospel of Jesus Christ and why the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has the authority to perform the necessary saving ordinances, and we had 6 people at church yesterday!!! AAAAAHHHH!!!! I'm so excited! We set a baptismal date with one guy named Jose, but the problem is that we suggested that date to him like 3 weeks ago, assuming that he would tell us a little quicker if he felt good about it so we could plan better, but we haven't taught him any of the commandments (law of chastity, tithing, Word of Wisdom, etc) or even officially about prophets, so we'll have to change that date. He's such a great young man, though. He wants to change his life for the better. It's so great.

And Mario! We FINALLY had a lesson 2 (plan of Salvation/ Happiness) with him... we just dropped by one day and he happened to be home. We had prayed in our morning planning session about who we should visit and what we could teach or do for them, and we felt good about going to see him. He LOVED every aspect of the plan that we drew out for him and said that he knows it's true and he feels like this is something that he needs to be doing/ will do with his life. The most amazing part was when we got to share with him that he can be with his mother again. He loves her so much and to know that she is not only happy and busy doing great things on the other side, but that he can one day be sealed to her forever made him so so hopeful.  I know I started out this letter lame, but we're super busy and super happy. I promise. Even though I'm starting to see the discouraging parts, I know this is the most important thing I've done with my life so far.

I love you all immensely!, more than peanut butter and jelly. Believe it.

Love, Hermana Camposbonitos (I've picked up a couple of other nicknames this week--Baby Bobo and Biker Baby....huh.....)

 

 Los Angeles Temple 2/19/2011  Our District

 

Allison in CA, Parents in Israel March 7,2011

Holy travel jeebies batman! Tel Aviv sounds AMAZING and I can't wait to hear about your trip into Old Jerusalem. And I loved that half the letter was from my seester...I sure miss you Lauren! I walked past someone here in the library a little while ago and she smelled like vanilla and coconut and I started to miss you so so much!

   So much has happened I don't even know where to begin.... we got our transfer calls on Saturday morning (well, they kind of begin on Friday because anyone who will have a leadership position gets called then). One of the APs was supposed to go home this week, but I guess he's buddies with one of Elder Holland's relates so Elder Holland called President Martin and told him that Elder Wilhelm needs to extend his mission for another transfer. Who's going to question an apostle?

They readjusted boundaries and put in all new companionships all over the place, so it's been a super exciting couple of days, figuring out where everyone is going, who is going to be Zone leader, district leader, who is going to train, etc. One of the elders in our district, Elder Castro (the one from Ecuador) hasn't had any kind of leadership calling thus far (he's only got about 7 months left) but he got called to be a zone leader. Crazy! Thankfully, he'll still be in our district and the other zone leader, Elder Torres from Colombia will be his companion. They'll be awesome together.

   And my new companion..........Hermana Waite! She was actually born in North Hollywood 5th ward int he bike area (meaning she started her mission here) so she knows the streets and even some of our investigators (we have some major progressing issues....but we're working through them) so it'll be awesome to put our brains together. She's from......can't remember where, Texas. It's somewhere between Dallas and Texarkana, so she knows where New Boston is. She's super cool and seems like a really hard worker. I've picked up some bad habits this transfer so hopefully she'll be able to help me be a more obedient missionary.

   Last week we helped one of our investigators paint his house, which turned out to be super rewarding and he really appreciated our help. Mario is just so sweet and humble. He just needs some free time to dedicate to reading the dang book and get into it. He and two of our other investigators (Milagro and Carlos) all live in the same house. We see Milagro most consistently, but she's had a really tough time progressing. She loves our visits, but hasn't really wanted to take the time to read the Book of Mormon, despite that we emphasize every time we're with her that everything we say depends on whether or not the Book of Mormon is true. I guess she and Carlos had had quite the tiff this week and it took a toll on her. We invited them to come to a baptism that was actually for the adjacent ward, but we thought it would be good for our investigators to see what we mean and have them hear the talks about baptism, the Holy Ghost, etc. We called every one of our investigators and about 5 said they would come, but we weren't very optimistic. As it was fast sunday, President had asked all of us to fast to be able to use study time effectively to become powerful missionaries, that the members would work more actively in giving referrals, and that we can meet our baptismal goals for the year. I didn't even think about the connection until later that night, but miracle of miracles, Milagro and Carlos BOTH came to the baptism! I got to sit next to Milagro and while the family who got baptized were getting dressed, there were a few elders who provided musical numbers, the first one being a song that a former missionary wrote about baptism, and the second one being the spanish version of "We Thank Thee oh God for a Prophet." At the end of the first verse which is all about modern revelation via a living prophet, Milagro leaned over to me and said, "I did my reading in the Book of Mormon, and I love it!" She told me about how God does everything for a purpose, and He made it so that she couldn't drive so that she could have time on the bus to read the book of Mormon and have time for the "Palabra de Dios." She read 2 Nephi 2-6 and just loved every bit of it. before, she had always talked about how she just had a hard time reading it because she was just too accustomed to the Bible. We spent at least 6 or 7 visits explaining what the Book of Mormon is, why it works WITH the Bible, why certain parts of the Bible are contained in the Book of Mormon, why she didn't recognize the names of most of the prophets mentioned, etc. She acknowledged that and she told me how silly she had been to just keep pushing more of Heavenly Father's counsel for us away simply because she loves the bible so much. She also told me how she had patched up her relationship with Carlos because she made a concerted effort to see him as a child of God, and then lo and behold, she found scriptures relating to that very topic in the Book of Mormon!

Oh my gosh I almost cried when she was telling me all this. She kept saying things like "you know, when I read this, I feel Heavenly Father's love. It's from Him." I kept thinking "I KNOW! Isn't it wonderful!!!!" All I could do was just beam down at this tiny woman and hug her. I'm so excited for her! I love when people feel the same Spirit and love of heavenly father that I feel when I read the scriptures!!

 

Oh and! I'm finally gaining an incredible appreciation for the Ensign. It's amazing! This month's, I am quite certain, was made specifically for our investigator, Daniel. Thank you thank you for your prayers. This last time we met with him, it was completely different. He had texted us and asked us for a commitment that would help him be more worthy for baptism ( he was angling more for word of wisdom things, but we assigned him to write down specific questions he has about life, relgion, God, families, etc, and then look in the Book of Mormon for the answer.) Beyond that, he just seems so much happier and he seems to have so much of his confusion cleared so that he can finally move forward and understand the message about the Savior that we're trying to share with him. He's so sweet. I just love him!

I heard yesterday though, a member expressing impatience with him and another investigator because they have been meeting with the missionaries for so long. A vast majority of the members in our ward were absolutely golden investigators who just grabbed the gospel message and ran with it, so they have a hard time understanding those who need a little (or sometimes a lot) more time to grasp concepts. It's true, there are a lot of people who are ready for the restored gospel, but just because someone doesn't get baptized within 3 months should never disqualify them from continuing to meet with missionaries. What matters is if they are progressing. As long as they are making those efforts to grow their faith in the Savior, apply the atonement to their lives, and keep searching the scriptures for their answers, they deserve the time to fully comprehend the covenants they'll make.

Oh gosh, there are just so many things I want to share with you! 

Hermana Strong is leaving tomorrow and I'm so so sad for her to leave. I just love and care for her so much and I'm so blessed to have had her as my trainer. It's pretty heartbreaking, really.

Ok, before I have to go, here are a few little stories.....

I got a horrible migraine yesterday from fasting, and then we ate a member's home where they feed to til you pop, so the nausea from the pain coupled with nausea from eating too much was just horrible. I had Hermana Strong call elder Zundel (our district leader) to come give me a blessing, and by the end of the prayer, I had no headache whatsoever, and whatever residual nausea I had went away within 10 minutes. Yeah Priesthood blessings for healing the sick! 

 

And last one to send you off with a smile, we were talking about wishes and Elder Castro piped up with "Ees like dat one movie with de lion and de doll and de robot..." We spent a good 5 minutes trying to figure out what he could possibly be referring to until his companion said "Wait, are you talking about the Wizard of Oz?" "Yeah yeah! Dat one!"

Oh my gosh I love missionaries so much!

I love you more than all the tabouleh in the world! (ps mama, stop getting hurt! you're too precious!....speaking of precious, I found Ryan and chelsea's christmas card.....such a tender mercy!)

---Hermana Beauchamp