25 May 2011 North Hollywood: Adventures with the Spirit of God

Oh my goodness, mom. You are too precious. I love when your neurotransmitters poop out on you! (Editor's Note: my last letter was just a list of news items spilling out badly spelled from my brain - I usually blame the neurotransmitter issue.) Thank you thank you for Mattie's letter! (Sister Mattie Smith and her sister Sister Hannah Smith are lifelong friends of Allison's who are serving missions in eastern France and Milan Italy, respectively - the mamas trade letters around so the girls can share experiences sometimes.  Mattie is almost finished with her mission, and Hannah has just begun hers. Their parents are currently living in China.)  Even though I'm plenty far away from that last transfer, it's still an intimidating and scary thought. I love the way she handles things with such tenacity and such grace. She's so great! How's my Hannah? That would be crazy cool if Hannah got to teach Mattie's contact.

Hooray for Ryan and Chelsea! (Allison's brother Ryan just got a new job) Hooray for Jared and the potential Mrs.! Can I see some pictures? I'm glad Josh and Lauren are with the Fuersts again. They're such great people! 

 

Daddy I'm so proud of you and your missionary work! Past and present. :)

 

Hermana Waite went to a few leadership trainings this week so I got to go on exchanges and visit other parts of the valley. We visited a recent convert who lives with a kind-of relative from Shela, Guatemala. I told him that my dad had served in the Quetzaltenango (Shela=Xela=Xelaju - the Mayan nickname) mission round about 1979 and he wanted me to ask you if you recognize the name Raul Godines. He says that Raul got baptized around then and I think he said that he's a patriarch now. It was funny to talk to this man because he bore a super powerful testimony to us about Joseph Smith being a prophet, how this is Jesus Christ's church, etc., although he started kind of prophesying to my companion about her future calling as a Young Women's leader. We asked what his current calling in the ward was, and he said,  "Oh I'm inactive. I haven't gone to church for a long long time." We thought "Well goodness gracious, sir! Why the heck not??" I guess he has a major issue with tithing because he feels that we as the Lord's church should have all things in common. One of my companions (I was in a trio that day) said "Hang on, what you're talking about is in the scriptures. The early saints tried to live this law, but they couldn't yet live it, so we were given the law of tithing to help us kind of work up to it. Have you heard of the Law of Consecration?" He said he hadn't, but he got super excited and we invited him to read the Book of Mormon again so that he can learn more about the things he already knows to be true. He loved that.

 

So that was fun. Earlier that day we had visited with a less active member and she invited her roommate to come listen as well. We sang "I am a Child of God" and then asked the roommate, Luz, how she felt. She said she felt calm and really happy. Just really good. So we talked about the Holy Ghost and how it testifies to our hearts and minds about the truth that Heavenly Father wants us to know: namely that He loves us and wants us to be happy. She shared with us that she had lived here for about 14 years to provide for her kids in El Salvador, but one of her sons is terribly sick so she's going to go back soon. We had a good lesson, but afterward when we were giving goodbye hugs, Luz began to cry and said that she had never felt quite that way before. We talked a little bit more about Heavenly Father and introduced the Plan of Salvation. She was so so sweet and I really hope that the Hermanas in that area keep me updated on how she's doing.

DANIEL IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!! He really didn't like our ward (I'm really not sure why) so he started going to the next ward over, met the missionaries, had some amazing conversations with them, even came to play soccer with the missionaries, and now he has a baptismal date! And he's so excited!! Miracle of miracles. I think some people just need elders, just like some people just need the sisters' teaching manner.  AND Manuel came to a baptism yesterday! He pretty much never leaves his house and is very sweetly stubborn, but he CAME! and he didn't have a terrible time! AND!!!!! Erick came all by himself to church (we somehow forgot to remind him and his usual ride was sick) and he learned a TON in Gospel Principles and Priesthood.
The elders in our ward are amazing with Erick and they get along super well. I guess before the baptism Erick had been talking to one of the elders about how he'd like to serve a mission and such. I was sitting next to him during the baptism and when the little girl got baptized, he got super excited and told me how he got the chills and felt something electric inside him. He also said that he felt like he was the one getting baptized. I know I say this every time, but I LOVE THE HOLY GHOST!!!! I told him that that's exactly what I feel when the Spirit's really strong and he told all of the missionaries and some of the members about his experience after the baptism. SO cool. 

 

Beatriz is doing amazingly well, too. Something that we hear very very often is that people are afraid to get baptized and make that commitment because they don't want to mess up afterward and disappoint heavenly Father. We usually share with them that one of the major blessings that comes from being baptized is that afterward we receive a best friend in the form of the Holy Ghost to teach, guide, protect, and console us. It doesn't make sense that He would just leave us by our lonesome to fend for ourselves after we've made a commitment like that to Him. We're going to prepare a few really dynamite lessons about the Atonement to help address those concerns further. 

 

Have I mentioned that I love being a missonary?

 

Hermana Waite and I sang for a couple of baptisms this week and it was WAY fun.

These last 2 transfers have taught me a lot because I really had to have confidence in myself and my abilities. It was a little rough at first because I felt so weak in comparison to Hermana Waite, who is basically Superwoman of missonary work and many other things too. She's incredibly capable and is such a hard worker. It's really inspiring and I've started to set goals and actually work towards them. One of those little things that I could never do because of my fear was sing in front of people. I know I've done it a couple times, usually with other people, but it was kind of a painful experience just because I was so scared and wouldn't allow myself to do well. Anyway, Hermana Waite and I were practicing the song for the first baptism and she said "I think you should do the first part, I'll do the second part, and then we'll do the last bit together." We both gave it our all and I think we did super well. I'm so grateful for her encouragement! Sorry I keep gushing about her, but she won't let me do it to her face. She'll read this eventually and realize how much I appreciate her.  Mwa ha ha.

 

Anyway, we're trying to come up with piano accompaniment for my cousin Micah's version of "You can make the pathway bright" and we're hoping to do that soon. If you could send along some of Micah's music, it doesn't have to be that specific song because I don't think he has another recording of it apart from my MP3 player, but I just love his voice.

I gotta run but I love you all more than all the questions in Alma 5

Hermana B

 

PS I just barely got the Hermana Manzana thing. That's cute. ( I addressed her last letter to Hermana Manzana, another Beauchamp word play example:  we call Allison "Appleton" or "Apple" sometimes because  a dear little child used to call her "Appleton".  Manzano means apple-tree, manzana means the fruit itself  (apple) and there are lots of agricultural references in the scriptures, especially about the subject of grafting in the Book of Mormon.)