Allison to be a Trainer, August 22, 2011

I'm having a baby!!!!
I'm finally on par with the rest of the non-missionary world...
But really. I'm training a greenie! I'm going to be her mission mom! Actually, she's a friend of Hermana Strong's. Her name is Hermana Prince, she's from Utah, she's a dance major, does triathlons, and Hermana Strong just adores her...This is sounding promising. Hermana Erickson's very sad to go, and I'm going to miss her so so much but I'm excited to work with Hermana Prince! She and all the other new missionaries are arriving Wednesday afternoon, so I'll be with an English sister, Sister Starr till then.

Dang. I'm stoked. Scared out of my mind but so excited!
 Gosh, what else happened this week? Thoughts of training, picking up my baby, figuring out how to get Hermana Erickson  going are occupying most of my brain cells currently...
Oh yeah! We had a musical fireside for the Spanish units in the Stake last night. We had a bunch of choirs made up of primaries, youth, young single adults, and the missionaries as well as individuals perform songs about the Savior and His life. We had a fairly good turnout and Sister Erickson and I sang solos at the beginning of one of the missionary choir songs. Eek! It went well though.

We had quite a few people at church who hadn't come in a while...like Ricardo.. Maybe I haven't told you much about him....He's PHENOMENAL. Seriously. if he became bishop right away, it wouldn't surprise me in the least. Back in April he was going to be baptized and he was so so excited, but he isn't actually married to his wife because there were complications with a previous divorce. It's so frustrating because one little typo on a form is keeping him from making promises with God.  Stupid red tape. He hasn't been able to come to church for quite a while because he's working a TON and when he's not working, he's taking care of his wife Leslie whose health is pretty poor at this point. We brought our branch president and the executive secretary over to give them both blessings, and we had an awesome discussion afterward about the Holy Ghost and the purposes thereof. They're SO amazing. Leslie is pretty stubborn, and insists that our beliefs don't really mesh (even though they totally do.) I think that during our discussion, she finally started realizing that our beliefs don't go against hers at all, and that the doctrine that we teach actually expand the truths that she already understands and holds dear. Yes ma'am that's the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

  Rivers and Eduardo got confirmed yesterday and it was so sweet to see these usually bouncy, distracted, "oh-look-a-chicken" type boys sit so reverently, arms folded, eyes closed, completely focused on what was being said when they received the gift of the Holy Ghost. Eduardo even drew a picture of Jesus with children in my planner for me. We taught his grandmother Guadalupe again this week and she's SO wonderful. She wants to be baptized as well, but she feels that she has a lot of bitterness in her heart that she needs to work through before she would feel comfortable doing so. We promised her that if she prayed and read from the scriptures every day and came to church consistently for two weeks, her heart would heal and the Savior would take away that weight she has carried for so long. i love being a missionary!

Also, we took Alexis Cueva to the singles ward and it was SO GREAT! She made a ton of friends, she's going to go to Institute on Wednesday, and she's even going to visit the temple on thursday! I love friendly members.

I've gotta run, but here are some pictures, too. One is yours truly expecting my mission baby (the blanket was a little lumpy) and the other is of my district here in Palmdale.

Love you more than all the great singles' ward members in Antelope Valley!
Hermana B

Happiness in Palmdale, August 15, 2011

Hey Fam,
I'm sorry I haven't updated on the packages I've received. I got the skirt, I've been wearing it a ton. I got the obedience lesson and I LOVE IT. I remember reading it with you a few years back but I understand a lot more about the gospel in general now so it's awesome. The CD hasn't gotten here yet, but I'm sure I'll love it :)
Thanks mama!

I'm so glad for Josh  Ogle and Adam Shapiro and Jennifer Prusse! Dang! They really are dropping like flies. Hoowee! Baha. I'm glad to hear about Cambria G. I hope she recovers from reverse culture shock soon!

Please smother my niece and nephew with love and kisses for me! They're so stinkin beautiful.

As far as struggles, just general mission ups and downs. Like I said last week, obedience is making a HUGE difference in my perspective. It's a little pathetic how many times I have to be hit over the head with the "DUH! Just do what God says and your life will be easier!" stick. I'm just grateful that Heavenly Father hasn't struck me down for my persistent stupidity. :)  I am noticing that I'm learning some major life lessons that I really need. Go figure, eh? I'm constantly learning new things about my personality, my capacity, my habits, etc. Rough stone rolling, right?

Rivers (the son of Amanda and the grandson of Carmen) as well as Eduardo (the grandson of the lady who flagged down the missionaries on the side of the road) got baptized yesterday and it was so great! Of course they're old enough to understand that baptism's important and a major blessing, but boys will be boys so they were super squirmy during the baptism. Rivers doesn't speak any Spanish but neither his nor Eduardo's grandmother speaks English, so it was a very Spanglish baptism. Rivers' uncle who is deaf also got to come and we arranged for an ASL interpreter from one of the English wards to come. I sat next to her and translated the Spanish bits to English, which she then signed. She did so great and the Spirit was really really strong. Carmen, Ric, Alexis, Amanda, and all of the rest of their family were really touched that we cared enough to arrange that. I'm so grateful!!

We had a branch picnic on Saturday, complete with water balloons and slip-n-slides, and one of our investigator families came! They haven't been able to come to church and this is the first activity we've had in a while. The parents seemed to have a good time talking with the members (we have a really cool, really funny Cuban couple who told tons of neat stories and kept the parents entertained) and the kids had a blast running around and playing with the other kids in the branch. I hope this experience gets them more intrigued and excited to come to church.

Also, we had been teaching a little girl some Bible stories (per her mother's request...the mom told us that if whatever message we had included her changing her religion, she wasn't interested) but after the second visit with the little girl, we asked the mom if we could come to specifically teach HER. She agreed and we arrived at her apartment, hoping to meet with her and her husband. She said he wouldn't be home for another hour, but he showed up not 30 seconds later and sat in on the last part of the restoration lesson, and was quite attentive during the part about Joseph Smith. Claudia (the mom) said, "Wow. I'm trying to imagine how he must have felt. That's so amazing that he had that experience!"  So we're meeting with her and her husband again this week to see how things go.

Please, please, please pray for Virginia that she'll receive an answer to her prayer (she loves the church and wants to be baptized, but after her son recovered from a bad accident, she promised the Holy Spirit that she would stay in the church her son was attending. She doesn't want to go back on that promise, but her homework this week is to pray to be released from that promise since she knows the church is true), that Nick and Cheryl will have a good experience with their scripture reading this week (they need to get married, but are afraid to because they have established bad habits in their relationship regarding bickering and teasing.... "The study of the doctrine of Christ will change behavior faster than a study of behavior will change behavior"....They are to read 5 verses together every day so they can have the Spirit in their home and maintain a better perspective and respect for each other), that Gus will come to the conclusion that baptism is something he can do to enable God to bless him, and that Ricardo's divorce will go through so he can get married then baptized. I'm not trying to keep you in the dark, I promise. Sharing each of our investigators' stories is really tough and very sensitive, and I'm nervous to share immediate successes because we also have so many disappointments. Like Sister Erickson told me, it's sometimes easier to share the stories once the end is known. But thank you so so much for praying for our investigators! Your prayers are helping me immensely and I feel your love and strength support me all the time :)
Love you more than missionaries love basketball!
Hermana B

Obedience and the Spirit, 8 August 2011

It's been an interesting and cool week and I've learned so so much already. I had had a few weeks where I felt really down and frustrated and helpless. I tried hard not to acknowledge it but how I was feeling was manifesting in missionary work, too. I'm not sure what exactly changed but Wednesday I just threw myself into obeying with exactness (specifically for keeping a more regimented missionary schedule)....maybe more to have something to occupy my mind than anything else, but Wednesday was the best day ever. Not only did we see quite a few big and little miracles, but I just felt happy. So there you have it. Obedience= happiness. Amen, the  Church is true!

 

We had had lunch with a member and were trying to decide whether we should visit a man on one side of town or a woman on the other. We decided to stop by the woman's house first and it JUST SO HAPPENED that her daughter drove up at the same time. She invited us in and we talked for quite a while, even getting to teach her about the Restoration. She felt really really good about all the things we taught and she said, "You know, it's funny how God puts people in your life at just the right time. I was supposed to meet you today." She's AWESOME!! We met with Joel again and it went pretty well. We got to know him a bit better and read the introduction to the Book of Mormon. I really hope he reads this week! I'm learning that one of my favorite things is to have the people we teach really get into reading the scriptures. They really are so cool and SUCH a blessing from Heavenly Father!

 

We hadn't seen Carmen's husband Ric at church for quite a few weeks and we really wanted to see where he's at with reading, praying, gaining a testimony and such. We went over to their house after church yesterday and he was fairly resistant to talking with us but thankfully, Carmen helped us drag him into the other room and we talked for a good 2.5 hours about his concerns, experiences, etc. He's very strong willed and we read the first part of Enos with him about how Enos "wrestled in mighty prayer" with God.He had been reading the war chapters of the book of mormon and was getting frustrated by the lack of spirituality. Pues yeah! You have to read more than just the war chapters or the isaiah chapters, ayou HAVE to pray to get heavenly father's help to understand why the prophets wrote about specific things. We talked a LOT about Heavenly Father's perspective in regards to the scriptures, family, marriage, the role of women in the church, and a ton more super deep doctrinal things. They are a really remarkable family and I feel so so blessed to know them.

 

We also got Nick back!! Nick had dropped us but we had a really great conversation last night and we're going to continue teaching him.

 

Also on Wednesday: We visited two teenage brothers with the plan of dropping them, but we ended up inviting them to be baptized instead, to which they said yes! Whoa. Divine intervention is the BEEEEEEEST!!

Oh PS I ate my first helote this week a la Nacho Libre. Dericious.

 

I got the family newsletter and it brought me SO MUCH JOY!!!! I just keep staring at the pictures, feeling our family's love for one another and basking in the residual glow of family camp. I think my comp thinks I'm crazy. Meh. Totally worth it. THANK you for the pictures. Give Sabrina a HUGE hug from me! I love her little guts!

 

We're putting on a zone talent/variety show this afternoon and I'm gargling primary songs. Pray for me!

 

I love you and pray for each of you every stinkin day!

Hermana Manzana

This Week in History July 25, 2011

Hey fam
Thanks for filling me in on life at home :) I'm so proud of you guys for being such good missionaries and helping the members of our ward, too. Sorry your trips aren't quite as entertaining as you had hoped but I trust that you'll make the very most of it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAUREN!!! I've had your birthday presents ready for a while but I still need to send it along. I promise to send it very very soon! I love you bunches and I think the world of you :)

We just got back from a way sweet hike around a place called the Devil's Punchbowl. IT's been horridly hot here and I think it was above 100 when we were out there. There were a few weeks where if it got down to 100 it felt nice and cool but it's been a bit better lately.
I got to go to a leadership conference this week and I got to see Hermana Waite, Elder Castro, Elder Torres, Elder Banuelos, and a bunch of other people from my last district and it was GLORIOUS! They gave us a lot of really great advice and help to be better leaders and I'm excited to put it into practice. I forgot to prepare myself for the "be better" kick in the pants that always accompanies conferences and trainings, though. But no big. We've been setting more and more baptismal dates with people and we have quite a few who are progressing well.
We helped Carmen and Amanda organize a couple things in their garage and they ended up giving us a ton of food and makeup and stuff. They're so generous! They are the best couponers that I've ever met so they have a good food storage and stockpile of other goodies. They told us that they feel very blessed that they are able to share with others, so I didn't feel quite so bad taking away bags and bags of treasures.
I love Sister Erickson! I'm supremely grateful that she's my companion!
hope you're all doing well and I'll send some pictures and Lauren's Bday gifts later on this week.
Love you more than all the joshua trees in the desert!
Hermana B

Undead in Palmdale July 18, 2011

Hi Fambly:

I loved the pictures of Audrey and Elijah! I have the most beautiful niece and nephew in the world! I loved Ryan's description of the head tourniquet....Gosh I love our family's brains.

This was a way cool week. As missionaries, we try really hard to have a lot of church members present at our lessons, but because of work, schedules, faulty phones and such, 5 member present lessons a week is pretty dang good. So.....10 member present lessons. I'm not entirely sure how that happened. But I'm so grateful!! Hermana Strong told me that knocking doors, even if nothing specifically comes from the knocking itself, and sometimes even if we don't get around to it, if we at least PLAN to knock, the Lord will bless us in other areas. And HE DID!! Actually, we had a really wonderful experience tracting the other day. We started talking to a woman named Rita who was doing her very best to put us off and communicate that she was Catholic and not interested. We asked if she would share with us her views about God. She scoffed and said "What for?" We talked to her about being members of God's family and how every uplifting moment in which we can share our beliefs is a blessing. Her face completely changed in that moment. She was still trying a little bit to get rid of us, but by then, she was too intrigued and even invited us in to talk for a long long time. We answered a lot of questions, attempting to follow a general lesson 1 (restoration) outline, but ended up teaching principles about the Plan of Salvation, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, even some of the commandments and genealogy. It was so cool! As we were leaving, she said "I'm glad you came. You came at the right time. I feel better."

I love being a missionary!
Speaking of genealogy, our Branch President told me yesterday that he had come across a story about a mormon pioneer from Australia with the last name of Beauchamp who served a mission in Denmark. I told him I didn't think I was related, seeing as my Australian ancestors weren't Beauchamps and were Irish criminals, but I told him I'd ask if we were connected. So this is me asking :)
.
I've been studying a lot about the Spirit of Elijah this week in personal study and I'd really like to be more involved in Family History work. Mama, could you send me that folder with Alva Keller's story?
Also, I had a really cool experience studying 3 Nephi the other day. I had been having a hard time figuring out a good way to explain the necessity of proper priesthood authority in oridnances like baptism. A lot of people ask: "If it's done sincerely, shouldn't one baptism be just as good as another?" I was reading about Christ's parable of the wise man and the foolish man and their respective houses built on sand and stone, and I thought of when one of my MTC teachers said "Really the only uniquely different thing our church has that other churches don't is the Holy Ghost" I'm still working through that one, but I thought about how it's true, one house with 4 walls and a roof IS just as good as another. They can both be claimed as property, both be decorated, be called home, etc but during times of trial, if it doesn't have a sure foundation, no amount of walls is going to matter. It's the same with our baptisms. They may be done very sincerely and blessings will ALWAYS come from showing faith in God, but if our baptism isn't "sealed" with the gift of the Holy Ghost, the blessings that come from having been baptized will be void.
I hope I explained that well enough. It was a good learning moment for me :)
PS Dad I'm SO stoked about that CD DVD set John Butler is coming out with. Please tell me you're getting one! That daddy/daughter date with you will always be my very favorite date ever! Plus the music rocked my ugly missionary shoes right off.

I get to go to a Leadership conference this week and I'm really excited! I always love conferences and trainings, plus I'll get to see Elder Torres, Elder Castro, Elder Banuelos, and Hermana Waite! I love them all so much!

We were talking to a young man the other day and the topic of Jehovah's Witnesses came up. He had quite a bit to say, and seemed mortified that JWs don't celebrate holidays. "Yeah man, they don't celebrate nothin! Not birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, not even Leap Year!"
Of all holidays. They should at LEAST celebrate Leap Year.

Also we had dinner the other night with our recent convert Amanda and her family. Her 3 year old boy Brody was telling me some kind of story, but I was mostly just zoning out and nodding. He caught my attention with the end of the story with wiggling his little fingers at me and saying "Undead! Undeeeeeeaad!"

I love my life.
I love my family!
Thank you for writing me, dear family!
I'll probably be ordering  contacts later this week, just FYI.
Love you more than all the blessings Heavenly Father is getting ready to pour out on our family!
Hermana B

The Lord's Tender Mercies July 11, 2011

Audrey is so beautiful!!! (Audrey is our new niece - Lyzi is Allison's friend from Educador Exchange who just had Oliver.) Oh my goodness!!!! What a beautiful blessing she is! and I can't wait to see more pictures of her, Ryan, Chelsea, Elijah, and Lyzi and Ollie, too! Babies everywhere is right. Dang.

I love babies. I miss them. Good thing those babies will be just the right age to play with by the time I get home :)

Lots of fun things to tell this week: First off: transfers. No change for me and Sister Erickson! I'm really really glad to have more time with her. She's a phenomenal missionary and we're learning a ton from one another (or at least...I'm learning a ton.)
Also, I totally forgot to tell you but we went to a Gospel Choir Jubilee a few weeks ago....It was AMAZING!! We were the only white people there and it was the BEST. There was so much happiness in the room and everyone was so so nice to us, even with our nametags on :)

I got a root canal this week. You know how when we have car accidents they happen in the best way possible? That's how it was with my tooth, too. The dentist filled it in and he says I probably won't need a crown on it till way later, if at all. Cool. But he did this electro-pulse test on my tooth to see if the nerve was still alive and kickin' or had given up the ghost. Before he (He's a member of the church, PS and is very familiar with missionaries) did it  he said to his assistant, I think we'll do an EPT, just to be sure" and then he turned to me and said "Early Pregnancy Test. We just want to make sure your baby's doing well." Haha, doc.

We had a lot of really wonderful experiences with our investigators this week. Amanda (a recent convert that we've been working very closely with) bore her testimony about how her life has changed since she's been baptized. She talked a lot about how she was hesitant because she thought adding church and church activities would make her busy mom life even more hectic but she knew it was the right thing. She said ever since, things have been easier. Her relationships with her family have gotten even better, she feels like a better mom, a better wife, she fits everything and more into each day than she did before and she's just happier all around. She's so great!
We also had an experience with an investigator named Manolo. We're teaching Manolo and his step-dad Gus, the mom's a member and we always have lessons with all 3 of them and Manolo usually stays pretty quiet, listening to his mom's advice and gauging Gus's reaction. The other night, however, Gus and Amy forgot about our appointment so we got to chat just with Manolo for a long time. He and I talked a lot about recognizing absolute truth, and if there was such a thing. We talked about the difference between individual opinions, even reasonable, virtuous ones, and God's truth and knowing how to recognize it. He said it's probably just something you can feel....what's true and what's not. He said he's talked to a lot of people who talk about how you "just know" because you get this feeling you can't really describe that just.....exists in your heart. I asked if he had ever felt something like that before. He said he hadn't but he added that he would like to. I challenged him to ask God about His Truth, and advised him that he could use the Book of Mormon for his item to pray about, because we're better able to recognize specific answers when our prayers are specific. I actually dont' remember all what I said because they really weren't my own words, (insipration!!!!) but he accepted. We came back a few nights later to meet with the whole family and before his mom and step-dad came downstairs, we asked how his prayer had gone. He said "Good. It was really good." He seemed unwilling to share more, but later on in the lesson, we were discussing that feeling of complete surety again. We asked Gus if he had ever felt it before, and he said yes. We turned to Manolo and asked him if he had had that feeling before and he answered "Yes" very quietly. AAAAHHHHHH!!! He felt it! How amazing is that!?!?!?! I love being a representative of the Savior and helping people to feel God's love.
On 4th of July, we went out to breakfast with Ricardo Rodriguez, and on-again, off-again investigator who has an absolutely phenomenal testimony of the church and the Book of Mormon but can't get baptized yet because his divorce from his first wife is stuck in court so he can't officially marry his current "wife" Leslie. It's completely heartbreaking that his progress is being hindered by outside sources and I just want to help him in anyway possible. Leslie also has a lot of health problems and it's beginning to take a toll on Ricardo. He didnt' say much about it aside from ' our relationship is getting better, even though her health is getting worse, and I know it's because of other people's prayers for us" but the look on his face completely tore me up because I know how he feels, at least to some degree. My heart goes out to him and I hope there's some way my experiences will help him out, too.
Anyway, he love the "Waiting on the Road to Damascus" talk by President Uchtdorf from last conference, so I printed off the "Of Things that Matter Most" talk from last October and he called later to say how much he loved it and how it was written specifically for him. I love inspiration :)

Also on 4th of july, we played slip-n-slide kickball as a zone and it was AMAZING! The first two bases were kiddie pools, then 3rd base and home were slip-n-slides. We had a ton of fun, but all of our feet were pretty torn up from the dead grass and they got pretty burned on top.Ouch. Socks are in order next time.

Also, I got invited to a leadership conference next week and I 'm way stoked to go. I love conferences and trainings because I get to learn how to be better. It's the BEEEEESST!.
I love you more than all the cute babies in our family and extended family!
Love, Hermana Manzana

Happy July 4th, 2011!

Hey mom, I saw on my blog that you put in GIANT letters that Jared is planning on proposing to his girlfriend...isn't there supposed to be an element of surprise? Maybe not. I trust you.


I had the craziest dream last night. You and dad had moved to a nearby city called Lancaster and you were planning this huge birthday party for yourself, but you were suffering from some kind of midlife crisis in which you developed an affinity for all things anti-government and you even got a tramp stamp with a Colombian anarchist group's symbol and the word "ANARCHY" really big just above it. Kind of weird. Dad was okay with it, too. I think I had had a dream a few nights before in which you found out that as a nurse, you were also licensed to be a tattoo artist (maybe having something to do with tattooing people's colons...) so this huge group of polynesians came over for your party and were lining up for you to give them pink hibiscus tattoos. Also, Celeste was there and she got "familysearch.org" tattooed across her arm. Of all things.

Anyway, it's been a good week, albeit a little slow. We visited a lot of less active members and recent converts and had a great time talking with and teaching them. One of our investigators, Nick, is the only nonmember in his family so we get to have his kids teach him gospel principles, which he seems to really like. His wife Cheryl asked for your phone number so she can call you this week. They're a really great family and they're trying so so hard to do what's right. They've all had some pretty rough experiences in life and it's been such a blessing to see how happy they are whenever they trust in the Lord's promises. They're extremely loving and generous and we love to go over and teach them!

We had zone conference this week and it was SO good. We talked a lot about habits and how to be the most effective missionaries possible.
We also talked a lot about the Spirit: "Darkness is merely the absence of light. The Spirit is light, therefore when we have the Spirit in us, it pushes out all darkness."
So we compared that to the repentance process and how sanctification works.

Sorry there's not a bunch to tell this week, but you're wonderful, I love you!

Love you more than all the degrees above 100 it's been this week in Palmdale

Love,
Hermana Manzana