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

Merry Christmas

Hey fam!
Merry Christmas! I'm stoked! Can I call around 2pm your time? I'll call at around 8 your time to confirm.
We had zone conference and a temple trip this week and it was SO great....although we didn't get much teaching accomplished...and we somehow ended up arriving LATE to EVERYTHING this week...it was super annoying... but I'm excited to work my bum off this week. Also, we ate SO much this week. I've figured out that you eat more in Spanish, but the food is less healthy in English work....but they"re so sweet and generous!! we're so grateful for our members.
We went with our investigator, Linda to her church yesterday morning...it was way fun to experience a black Baptist church...we read the story of Abraham being commanded to sacrifice Isaac and one thing that the teacher said I really enjoyed: "It says' God won't tempt you above what you can stand...' oh yes He will, but He WON'T test you above what you can stand with Him"
It was a fun experience... Linda later came with us to a baptism and seemed to enjoy it, although we were worried because it seemed like our having gone with her to her church made her more intrigued with her church again....but she just barely called and talked about how the Lord keeps putting us together and it must be for a reason, so she told me that she's done with her old church and she's going to come to our church....um ok major blessing. She's so sweet!
Also, I think I wrote about a recent convert for another ward and how her mom was completely overwhelmed and impressed with the Spirit at her daughter's baptism...well, the mom and dad got baptized yesterday...He was baptized at 8am, got confirmed in church, received the priesthood after church, and baptized his wife in the afternoon. It was such a beautiful baptism and they were both so so excited....AND their two granddaughters and a friend are getting baptized on New Years Eve. Miracles!!
We met a really great guy at the frozen yogurt shop who is ex Air Force, has studied all forms of Christianity extensively, and is very open about religion. We have an appointment with him this week and we're praying that it goes well!
I think that's all.....I'll talk to you in 6 days!
Merry Christmas!
Love you more than all the miracles this week!
Hermana Beauchamp

Birthday

Hey Fam,
Thank you for the birthday package! it did get to me on Saturday. It made me so happy! Hermana Prince arranged it so that I was blindfolded and taken to a member in Rancho Vista branch's house for lunch. It was way fun! That was the day before, then we went to lunch at an Indian Restaurant with a member named Sister Makanui. She's a way cool older lady from Hawaii. We found 2 new investigators (miracle of miracles) and then ate corn dogs and cake for dinner. We finished the day with fire breathing. We ran out of matches though, so it didn't last too long. A few weeks ago we got a media referral that said that this man was interested in joining our church....of course we were stoked, but it turned out to be a prank. We decided to knock the rest of the street to see if anyone else in that area has been prepared. We tried one night, failed miserably, so we tried again on my birthday. It seemed liked things were going to go about the same way, but at the door that Sister Jensen and I had independently resolved would be the last, we met this sweet young single mother named Belsie who let us in right away, was very open about her beliefs and interest, and expressed a desire to come with us to church. She didn't end up coming yesterday, but we're praying hard for her. Tender mercies from God!
There's a mission newsletter that comes out every month, usually listing birthdays. Bummer: mine was left off, so aside from my sweet companions, nobody really knew. Somehow our Zone Leaders found out they had missed it and they started yelling about what terrible zone leaders they were and sang a very loud "Happy Birthday" to me right before a baptism. They're awfully nice :)
We really have an AWESOME zone. I really think I'll be moved back to Spanish after Christmas, but our zone is super hard working, very creative, very dedicated, and way fun to boot. We had a "snowball fight" last monday.....we filled socks and knee highs with flour and played capture the flag, dodgeball, etc. Awesome.
We have zone conference AND a temple trip this week and I'm so stoked!
I might have mentioned this last week, but one of our investigators just came out as gay, so we've been doing a lot of reading and research to know how best to teach the gospel so that he can fully understand the importance of it and know how to live it. We love him so much and we've been praying that he'll stay close to the Spirit. Anyway, during all that research this week, I kept getting caught up in the New Testament. Man, I love it! There is so much wonderful stuff in there. Dad, I love when you send me little spiritual thoughts about your scriptures study. I sure love your brain.
I think I also mentioned Linda....we met her at Wal-mart and then she magically showed up to our ward Christmas party. We went and visited her on Saturday and she kept saying "You girls are a Godsend, and I'm not just trying to flatter you. I was just so tired...so drained...in every way. But I'm feeling the fruits of the Spirit right now....love, peace, joy, hope....you girls have the Holy Spirit with you." Yes Linda. We do. She's so perceptive and she has such a deep love for the Savior. She's been attending a black baptist church but she really doesn't enjoy it because there are too many cliques and church politics. She says "If we were really the body of Christ, we wouldn't be back biting and gossiping like that." She feels that God led her there for a purpose, though and she feels that she should stay there to help the other members of the congregation. She's so great! But technically not our investigator. She lives in another ward's boundaries so we're trying to figure out how to make a smooth transition. I know that if she comes to church, she'll feel that ward family love. Poor thing is just so lonely....
But she is such a blessing for us.
Anyhoo, I think that's about all the news around here....
I love you more than all the Baptist churches in Lancaster
Hermana B

Windy California Dec 5, 2001

Dearest loving fambly,
Hooray for Tomi! I'm so glad she's a part of our lives. She's such an angel.
It HAS been super windy around here. It's getting pretty chilly, too. Certainly not -7, but there was ice on the ground yesterday. I've rescinded my "I hate tights" stance. When you can't wear pants, they're pretty miraculous.
It was a little slower this week. I was feeling pretty sick on Wednesday, so we didn't get to go out and teach as much as we would like, but we already have 19 scheduled appointments this week. That's a lot. Especially for English. I'm stoked.
I think I forgot to tell you about the Creche Festival...apparently Lancaster and Palmdale put on a really great multi-faith Public Affairs Christmas activity every year and it keeps growing. They have a huge display of probably 500 nativities from all around the world placed all over the cultural hall and then they opened up the chapel to have musical performances from all kinds of different choirs, groups, singers, pianists, etc. It was really beautiful and it's helped establish friendships with different churches around Lancaster.

Also, we met a lady at Walmart last week named Linda. We ended up talking with her for an hour while we waited for a prescription to be filled, and we got her number so that we could visit with her sometime. We've been trying to contact her all week with no success, but at our ward's Christmas party, one of our members came and told us to come sit with her because she had brought a nonmember friend. We did so, and it was Linda! She kept saying how amazing it was and how she was so sure it was not just a coincidence that God kept throwing us together. She's great :)
One of our other investigators who has wanted to be baptized FOREVER but has never wanted/been able to quit smoking. BUT HE IS!! He's down to 4 cigarettes a day and realizes that he just can't afford to waste money on killing himself slowly anymore. So please please pray for Chris that he'll stay strong and that even if things take a turn for the better economically, he'll still remember his need to rely on the Lord.
ASL  (American Sign Language) is coming along, quicker than I imagined. We still really haven't used it much, but we're practicing with our Relief Society president. She's a super cool lady. She had been sitting in the temple and felt the impression to learn ASL. She signed up for a class at the local college the next day and a week later was called to be a stake interpreter, despite the fact that all she knew was the letters A-G and mom and dad. But she's super involved with the deaf community in California and she's quite the fireball.
Love you more than all the tipped-over semis in Utah!
Hermana B

Dang Gina, that's a whole lotta news! I love it :) I'm so glad the reception went so well! I sure love each of our family members and all the others you mentioned.Also, I love that you entitled it "FAT DOG". Nobody here believes that it helps. Poor saps.
Our area's doing pretty well. I think I wrote last week that we're working a TON with members to strengthen the ward and organize the ward roster, but we're finding quite a few new investigators. Apparently missionary work has been super slow lately so finding 3 new investigators per week is awesome. Also we've been surpassing our goals for having members with us at lessons and meeting all our other goals for the number of lessons we teach to members, etc. IT'S SO COOL! Our ward is really great and the members are so so generous. We're working on helping them be more missionary minded, so if you have any ideas of what we can do for them, please let me know!
Sister Jensen is from Gilbert, Arizona and is a Special Education major at ASU. She's a good, hard worker, and very practical when it comes to setting goals. She's so sweet about helping me relearn English :)

We taught Gospel Principles yesterday and talked about Christlike attributes. We had planned to talk about a few of the less commonly mentioned/examined ones, but we ended up talking about virtue for most of the hour. We talked about how virtue deals directly with purity and power. When we focus on keeping the commandments and living well, we allow the Holy ghost to penetrate our lives more fully, which not only purifies our spirits, but empowers us to be greater representatives of the Savior. That's why it's so important to have "virtue garnish our thoughts unceasingly." The idea that spiritual healing promotes physical healing has been rolling around in my mind a little bit...which is interesting, considering what you wrote about trauma observed being recorded as trauma experienced personally....

We found a new investigator at a frozen yogurt shop: David who's 20 years old. He's recently gotten his heart broken, so he's looking for help to feel hopeful again. We have another named Jeff who's about the same age and we'll be teaching him more aobut Joseph Smith this week. He seemed like a pretty spiritual person, so we're hopeful.
Also Raj, an investigator from India who is married to one of our members (both are AMAZING people...i would love to be more like them) they are both going to visit the LA temple today. Raj has been to the SLC temple and he LOVED it. Please pray for all of them that they'll be touched by the Spirit and feel motivated to come closer to Heavenly Father.

As far as Christmas and birthday, to be honest, the vast majority of things I would like are things I have at home. I have a bunch of CDs that I would LOVE to have here.... like Josh Groban, Coldplay(it fits the mission standards, so far as I can tell), The Rocket Summer, Nickel Creek etc. I might not actually have the Rocket Summer CD, but if it's not there, that's one that I'd love to have. Also, the Little Women soundtrack would be lovely :). Aside from that, fun earrings would be cool...I have a bunch at home that I left. Also, a page-a-day calendar. A good one, like DIY crafty stuff or something. Also, some cool paper to write letters. Aside from that, whatever you think I'd like I'm sure will be AMAZING. you tend to have great taste :). Oh! also: footie socks. but the ones that just cover the toes, not the ones that come halfway up the foot.
I talked to Sister Martin about my unusual tiredness and she says that generally when they check these things out, it's just mission exhaustion and I haven't been sleeping as well as I need to be. Incidentally, I did get a new mattress the same day I talked to her. I can't tell yet if it's helped. I've been having super vivid dreams un/fortunately I remember all of them. Last night's involved elders tracting with pink bras over their suits. Anyway, we're going to ask the mission doc what he thinks this week.
Love you more than all the holes in my socks,
Hermana B