17 January 2012 North Hollywood, California

Buenos dias!

Todo bien por aca.... my bike scrapes are all gone now, I have a new (well, new to me) bike, we're working super hard, having a great time, our investigators are great, and I love being a missionary.

The End.

 

No but really, life is super great. Hard days, great days, moments so filled with the Spirit I think I'll just melt into a little puddle of joy, moments that are discouraging....you know, mission life!

 

Last week when we planned, we both felt like we were going to have a really great week. Lo and behold: we did! We were out knocking some doors last week and there was a teenage boy playing around with a soccer ball in the street. As we were walking up to him, I asked him something vague about soccer in English, to which he relplied "No speak English" My VERY huera  (huera=anglo girl) self told him in Spanish "That's ok, me neither!"

 

This boy's name is Martin. He just barely arrived a few months ago from Honduras. He spent a few months on the border between Mexico and the US and learned to love the Bible in that time. He loves God so so much and has such a solid understanding of how He operates. We taught him about prophets and the Restoration on Thursday and he LOVED it. We asked him if he would be baptized if he prayed and received an answer from God that these things were true and that this church has the priesthood authority to baptize in the name of Christ today, and before we even finished the question, he said "Yes. Yes of course." So we invited him to pray that night, but the Holy Ghost was so strong and I felt like we should pray with him then and there (which I really don't like doing because it's just super awkward for the most part). He gave a sweet, sincere prayer, asking for our safety and thanking God for sending us to him, but he didn't mention anything about our message and he didn't ask God to help him know if the things we taught him were true. He closed the prayer, but didn't move, so we stayed kneeling in his kitchen for another 4 or 5 minutes. He started praying again, inaudibly at first, but then he said, almost whispering "I want to know if this church has the Spirit in it and if I should be baptized again." We knelt in silence for another few minutes before he finally looked at us. We asked how he felt. "Good." "Do you feel that that is an answer from Heavenly Father?" "Yes. I think this church has the Spirit in it."

 

Oh my goodness, it was such a wonderful, peaceful, exciting moment. We could feel Heavenly Father's love for Martin and it is such a privilege to be a part of his coming closer to God. Please please pray for him to continue reading and praying and feeling that this is giving him a greater understanding of God's plan for him. He's such a good kid and we're so excited for him!

 

We also started teaching a 31 year-old woman named Estela who is very downtrodden by mistakes and poor choices she has made. She has led a very rough life, but it has been wonderful, even in just these 2 visits we've had with her, to teach her about Jesus Christ and help her see how living His teachings will take away that awful burden of guilt that she feels.

 

I love being a missionary, I love God, I love the Savior, I love my mission president, I love my companion, and I love you more than my new bike.

Hermana Manzana

9 January 2012

Dear Fam,

Dad, words do not express my joy and pride of being your daughter. 

I'm sorry to hear that you won't be RS teacher and Sunday School Pres anymore, but you two must be some dynamite marriage and family teachers. I sure look up to you! But then again, I'm fairly sure you DID brainwash me at some point, so I'm totally biased.

I actually hadn't heard anything about the arson fires in NoHo, but once I mentioned it to Hna Marquez, she said "you know, there have been a TON of fire trucks out running around lately." Turns out that the arsonist got to a building right near our district leader's apartment. Poor kid's already got a lot to worry about.....

I've got some sad news....do you remember me telling you about Linda? She's this amazing black woman we met in Wal-Mart but kept running into in different places. We went with her to church and she was SUPER receptive to the spirit....I got a call from Sister Jensen this week and she told me that Linda died. We're not sure yet exactly what happened, but it kind of looks like a suicide. The owner of the senior apartment complex said that Linda struggled a bit with depression, so it wasn't entirely a surprise. I'm so grateful I had the opporutnity to meet her! I'm sure she's just loving learning more about the gospel on the other side... but please pray for her family!

Thank you for your bike prayers! I think our automotive angels are doing double duty for me these days....you know how we always say that any car accident that we have happens in the best possible situation? Well.....I wiped out on my bike this week, but a former investigator (Juanito--a really nice guy who actually got baptized but never confirmed...he still always helps out the sisters with whatever bike maladies that occur)  happened to be driving by so he ran over to help (he told us that he watched me biff it and he said "Ay no! My beauty!"), Hna Marquez happened to have just the right size band-aids, the tire shop we were in front of happened to be owned by friends of Juanito so I could use their bathroom to wash up, and the bike (which is this super nice road bike I'm borrowing from a member) HAPPENED to be perfectly fine. Juanito even filled the tires and tuned up the brakes for me. I scraped my elbow and my hand pretty good, but everything else was totally fine. We thanked him for all of his help, to which he replied "Is OK, my beauty. you pray more, OK?" Baha. I love it here!

      Right after that, we had this AMAZING lesson with an old investigator, Manuel....I don't know if you remember me writing about him...Hna Waite and I found him forever ago. He was super negative, always contradicting himself, insisted that he didn't want help, and was just the most bitter, angry person I've ever met. We kept in contact a little while I was in the desert, so we came to visit and see if he's interested in visiting with us again (so that we can teach him). He's almost an entirely different person. He's way happier, more positive, more humble, and it's incredible to see all of that bitterness leave him. We had an awesome lesson about how to get to know Heavenly Father and the Savior better by using the same principles that you use to establish and better a relationship with friends or family (get to know them: talk to them=prayer, learn about them= read the scriptures; listen to them=be receptive to the Holy Ghost; work with them= Heavenly Father's work and glory is to help us grow...when we work with him to accomplish this, we get to know Him on a very profound level. ) It was so good!

    we were feeling a little down on Friday and a bit discouraged because a ton of investigators dropped us, but we had a feeling that things were going to turn around fairly soon. Lo and behold, another former investigator called us and asked us to come over right away because his friend wants to learn more about our church and is willing to be baptized, if he feels it's right. Whoa. So we went over and met this 20-something young man named Bray and his friend/roommate/I'mnotsurewhat Christina. Bray had actually met the sisters a few months ago and asked all about our lifestyle as missionaries. He said he was very impressed with how dedicated we are and how much we give up to live close to the Holy Spirit. So Heavenly Father just basically dropped this amazing investigator in our laps. And we are so grateful!

     In other news, two awesome new investigators named Giovanni and Jose (cousins from Guatemala) came to church yesterday!  They LOVED it, although we somehow forgot to tell them that church is 3 hours. whoops. but Thankfully there are a TON of Guatemaltecos in our ward and everyone was super welcoming. They were both very eager to read and answer questions during our gospel principles class as well as in the priesthood class. I think this will help our ward get a much-needed motivation-boost to do missionary work and help us out. By the end of church, they had a bunch of new friends and each had copies of "Teaching of the Prophet George Albert Smith."

Also, my first convert, Jose Reyes came to church and it was so good to see him! He lives in another city on the other side of the valley, but his brother still lives in our ward, so he came to visit yesterday. It was just the coolest thing to watch him pass the sacrament and to hear him give the opening prayer in sunday school. It's the most amazing feeling to know that I had just a little part in helping him come to know the Savior better so that He can help Jose become the most amazing, wonderful person the Lord knows he can be. I love it!!

    Javier's baptism was WONDERFUL! He has SUCH a strong testimony, especially of the Book of Mormon and he loves the feeling of wholeness and divine love that has come into his life since he has started coming to church. A bunch of the sister missionaries sang a gorgeous arrangement of "I stand all amazed" and I got to give the talk on the Holy Ghost. I took the main theme from Elder Bednar's talk from Fall 2010 conference " Receive the Holy Ghost" It was awesome! I love being able to be guided by the spirit. Speaking of which, halfway through the talk on baptism, I felt like something wasn't quite right ( I found out later that Hna Marquez had the same feeling) so I started mentally going through all of the elements that needed to be there to have the baptism go smoothly and I remembered a story my friend told me about the font being empty when they went to baptize their investigator. I motioned for Hermana Busch to go check the font.....it turns out that it was only half full! Thankfully it was full by the time we were ready for the actual baptism. The Spirit was so strong and it was so wonderful to be able to see how special of a moment it was for Javier.

Anyway, my pday is still Monday, it's just been a weird couple weeks.

gotta run,

Love you more than all the bike-related miracles in the missionary world!

Hermana B

Nappy Hew Year! January 3, 2012

Hey Amada Familia!

I can't even begin to express my joy at being back in Spanish (working and teaching in Spanish.) I LOVE NOHO!! (NOHO = North Hollywood) The people, the food, the language, the bike (well....kind of....if it would work I'd love it more)...it's just so great. It was way weird at first to be back without my old district and all the missionaries I associate with this area, but I absolutely adore Hermana Marquez. She was trained by Hermana Waite and Hermana Busch (who was in my district when I was here before) and she's just an incredible missionary. She joined the church about 3 years ago in a Young Single Adult branch  in a Tongan stake near San Francisco. She's a super powerful teacher and I've already learned a lot from her. It was really sad to leave Lancaster (definitely not the place, but the people) but I'm just so glad to be back. It's been fun to have so many members and former investigators do a double-take when we go visit.

They found a spare bike that I had actually ridden at the very beginning of my mission, but it was a lot more well-loved this time around. The gears were kind of loose, so we were told that anytime the chain could slip or break and cause me major problems. Thankfully, Heavenly Father make the bike unrideable before that happened: my tire popped  on the way home from church. My companion was way far ahead but eventually figured out I wasn't behind her anymore. No falls, no nothing, but I happened to stop right next to a nice homeless man who I'm sure would have helped had I wiped out. So anyway, they're looking into buying a new bike for the area, while I borrow a member's super sweet sporty boy bike. Yesssss.

It's been really neat so far to see and feel how much I've grown since I was last here. That has been a really great tender mercy for me and it makes me excited to keep working hard to keep growing.

I love teaching about Christ. It's just the most amazing thing. I love helping people realize how much they are loved. Dad, do you remember when you told me about peoples' near-death experiences instigating a dramatic lifestyle change, largely because of how loved and cherished they felt by someone they encountered? I've shared that a couple of times with people and I've thought a lot about the power of love and charity. I also started reading the new Relief Society manual of the teachings of George Albert Smith. I only perused a couple chapters, but I really liked that his whole....mantra I guess you could say, was all about how kindness opens doors, inspires patience and gratitude, and softens even the hardest of hearts. It's such a positive, loving attitude and I'm excited to put that to work.

We have a baptism this weekend! He's a sweet, soft-spoken man from Mexico named Javier whom they found back in September. He loves the Book of Mormon and has the most wonderful gift of knowing how to apply the principles he reads to his life. We have a lot of other really great investigators that we're very excited to help along. Hermana Marquez and Hermana Busch focused a LOT on contacting new people as potential investigators,and we're going to try hard to keep that pattern going.

 

Thank you for the picture of Ryan and Chelsea and their beautiful family!!  They are all so sweet and I love to think about that day at the temple (when Jared got married - Allison was allowed to be there.) It was so wonderful! It is still such a source of inspiration and motivation for me. I just love our family so much and I'm so grateful to be a part of it.

 

Also, I LOVE Guatemalans. They're so stinkin' cool! Just so's ya know. 

 

Ummmm....I think that's about all from the Missionary front.....

My address is back to being 6835 Laurel Canyon Blvd #408 North Hollywood, CA 91605

Oh and I haven't heard anything about arson...nor have I seen anything....we live in a very little bubble. (The news reported that an arsonist was lighting automobiles on fire at apartment complexes right in North Hollywood; Mom's notations are in italics.)

I love you more than Spanish!

Hermana Manzana