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

February 28, 2011 North Hollywood, CA

(Speaking of wordplay - a favorite hobby of the Beauchamp clan:)

This week we were actually talking to an investigator about "stupors of thought" for when we're headed in the wrong direction, and I had your voice pop into my head saying "stupid of thought!" with a little chuckle. It was a precious moment. I love you, mama.

 

Speaking of investigators. This week we actually had training every day but one, so at least half our day was spent discussing how to be better missionaries. I kind of felt like I was back in the MTC....talking about missionary work all day but never actually doing it. The main topic of most of our training was how to involve members in missionary work.  Presidente used velocity x mass=momentum in which velocity represents how hard we work, how obedient we are, etc.( i.e. our own efforts). Mass represents how many missionaries there are and momentum is how many progressing investigators we have that are having quality conversions (meaning that they don't get baptized and then just drop off the face of the earth--or get baptized but never confirmed, which incidentally has happened twice in the last year in our ward.....lame.)

So they figure that we're working pretty dang hard and we can't really request too many more missionaries, so according to our stats, we're working at full capacity and the missionary work can't get a whole lot better than this. 

 

False.

 

You know how you always say "work smart, not hard"? In something as important as this, why not work hard AND smart? We can multiply our mass by a bajillion times if we involve members in our lessons and they talked about how many more quality conversions there can be if investigators have a friend (or more than one, even better) to relate the gospel to daily life. Yes, we as missionaries can share personal experiences, but since this is our full-time job, it often doesn't seem to carry as much weight as when a member is there teaching and testifying. Also, it seems like a lot of our lessons get stuck because of the language barrier. We speak just fine, but either the little tiny mistakes are super distracting or the fact that we're whities is sometimes just too much to take in, combined with our message which is soul-shaking, ground-breakingly amazing.

 

So this week we put in just a little extra effort to call members of the ward to come with us to our teaching appointments. We told them what we were going to teach, asked them to share a few specific experiences from their lives and their testimonies about certain principles, but more than anything to  listen to the Spirit, since our lessons rarely go according to plan, and then let them go for it. The members in our ward are absolutely incredible. I'd say about 80% are converts of 5 years or less and so they still have the "this is something new and exciting and it's changed my life, please oh please let me share it with you"  fire and it's so cool!! We have quite a few investigators who were starting to get into the perpetual investigator slump of either knowing quite a bit but just being afraid to act on their knowledge or were just having the hardest time understanding principles. Like Erick. We brought a recently re-activated member with us to one of our lessons, and it turned out that they had so much in common and they got along amazingly well (we actually had this member as a last resort because he's a bit older than Erick, but Heavenly Father is just so dang smart. I love His micromanaging skills.)  Another man named Beto just doesn't seem to understand quite a bit of what we say, but we brought the Relief Society president's husband with us. We didn't have time to even tell him what we were going to teach or what commitment we wanted him to extend to Beto, but he was paying such careful attention to what Beto's needs are that he pretty much took care of the lesson for us. I love members of the church!! So please please please ask to go out with the missionaries. And start begging them to have lessons at our house. It's SUCH a blessing to everyone involved.

 

Here's how you can help us:

please pray for Martha. She's just the sweetest woman and we started teaching her a while ago, but she works nights and never has a set schedule. It's taking a toll on her relationship with her family and she wants to make more time to meet with us, so we've talked with her about asking for a more fixed schedule or maybe even a better job.

 

Also, maybe a couple prayers for Daniel would be appreciated. Sometimes I just don't know about him. He KNOWS it's true and he wants to build that relationship with the Savior and he knows he needs to get baptized, but it feels like he's holding out for attention's sake. You know how there are some people who want to be kind of martyrs in that they feel like their beliefs are so strange? My reaction:  Get over yourself, man. Just do what God wants you to do. I got so frustrated with him last night on the phone because he kept insisting that he's not worthy to be baptized. I went over Mosiah 18 with him at least four times. I kept asking "Are you willing to do these things?" "Yes." "Then you're worthy" Just enter that gate, man!! Jeez louise!

Anyway, he's great, really. Just frustrating.

 

Things are awesome. I gotta run, but I love you bunches, family and friends.

Love you more than all the oranges in NoHo

 

Hermana Beauchamp  (also known as Al)

NEW ADDRESS!

Please note Hermana Beauchamp's new mailing address on the right side of the blog.  All missionaries are hungry for mail.  You needn't be a scholar, a genius, or even a Mormon to write to her.  She is still a human being and wants news of your lives.  Thanks, Editorial Staff

Feb 22, 2011 North Hollywood

Oh hey you really attractive and intelligent individuals!

 

Thank you bunches for all the updates on family and world events. I haven't heard a word about any revolts around here....I guess that's what happens when you don't watch the news, listen to the radio, or even really have time to discuss happenings around the water cooler. That's crazy cool about the excerpt from the Mishna (ha! look that one up!), though. It's kinda funny, this little bit on my mission has gotten me so excited to read and study all ancient religions and know at least half as much as you and dad do about the early Christian church. I love your brains. They are beautiful.

 

Oh also, HAPPY 30th ANNIVERSARY Mom and Dad!!!!  I love you. I'm so proud of what you have both chosen to do with your lives and the love and dedication you have put into your marriage and the family you have made together. I'm sure happy in it and I like to think you've raised us to be pretty well-adjusted folks. Aside from the weird traditions involving used socks (to scare away the imaginary Bad Things), stomping grapes for wine, twisting words for greater confusing enjoyment, etc. I like it.

 

Have you gotten my new address letter yet? We moved back to the apartment in our area because Sister Gerhartz's greenie came a few weeks early. We were all feeling the strain of not having enough time or resources to cover both areas and it was taking a toll on us emotionally. Hermana Strong talked to President about it and 2 days later, the APs (Assistants to the President) called Hermana G to say "Congratulations! You're training! and she'll be here tomorrow. Come pick her up from the office tomorrow at 4." It was the answer to so many prayers, even those that hadn't been realized yet. You know how I wrote last week about Heavenly Father taking care of things for me before they become major problems? I was having a really hard time staying self-motivated and working hard, my companions were feeling discouraged as well, and I almost stopped trying just because I figured they could handle things on their own. Wrong. But Hermana Busch's arrival gave Hermanas Strong and Gerhartz the time, resources, and opportunities to attend to their respective areas with greater dedication and it's offered me the chance to have the confidence in my own abilities and the things I've learned thus far on my mission to forge ahead and be and do better than before. This is the second missionary that President has brought out early from the MTC (which as I understand it, is a pretty privileged request), so his conversation with Hermana Strong went something like this:

 

Hermana Strong: Why didn't you send the hermana from the other trio down to be with Hermana Gerhartz?

President: Hermana Strong, where did the Doctrine and Covenants come from?

HS: .....Joseph Smith....

P: Why?

HS: He prayed....?

P: Yes but why did he pray about those specific things?

HS: ....Because people asked him questions....

P: Yes. You had a question, I asked the Lord what to do about it. I looked at the transfer board, didn't see any good inter-mission transfer solutions, so I looked at the list of incoming missionaries and thought " Hermana Busch is going to be Hermana Gerhartz's companion next transfer and she's going to learn Spanish out here anyway. That feels right."

 

Boy, but I do love modern revelation.

It's been such a cool thing to follow the Spirit more closely and begin to better differentiate between my own thoughts and the promptings of the Holy Ghost. I think I told you this before, but I started being able to better identify the thoughts, impressions, and feelings that came from the Spirit starting in October after I had gone through the temple, and that had always been a huge worry of mine: how to differentiate between my own thoughts and obsessive worries that I had missed something important and the whisperings from the Divine. In the MTC, we watched a devotional from Elder Bednar and in it he said "Quit worrying about it. If you are being a good boy or a good girl, keeping the commandments, and doing your best to follow Christ's example, you can feel confident that His thoughts will become your thoughts and His desires will become your desires. Do what you already know to be right and then go live life."

Or something to that effect. That was absolutely wonderful for me to hear and it has alleviated so much anxiety. Hermana Strong, I think I said last week, is incredible at following impressions and I'm trying every day to be obedient and then let go and just be an instrument in the Lord's hands.

Anyway, if you could pray for us this week that we can catch up on all of our goals for our investigators and lessons, it would be most appreciated. I guess one of the main things is to be punctual in our appointments. If they go over, we suddenly don't have time for anything else in the day. Also for health because we just don't have time to be sick. 

 

One last little bit of fun info for this week: our area has gotten buckets full of rain this week...it rained pretty much all day for two days and there were puddles in the road that I'm sure were at least 7 inches deep. Yay monsoon season! 

 

Oh also, I heard that one of my friends who was in the MTC with me was proposed to a few days before she left for the mission field. She said yes and then shook his hand. Baha!!. That's excellent. So I hear they are getting married in April. Hooray!!! Anyway, if anyone (from 55th ward who may be reading this) can send me her address so I can congratulate her, it would be most appreciated.

 

Also, I'm not receiving any letters via DearElder ( not sure why) but just so you know that it's not a super reliable mode of communication anymore. And if you email me, please be sure to send me your street address so I can write you back, since I can only write to family with my official email account. I love you all and I want to hear from you!

I hope you're doing beautifully! 

 

Love you more than all the chihuahuas in North Hollywood

Hermana Beauchamp

February 9-16, 2011

Happy Late Valentines Day!

I have some super cool valentines to send you, but I lost them and found them hiding among my envelopes, so I'll send those along pretty soon. I'm so so so so so so so happy to hear about the plans for Lauren's new clinic. (Allison's sister Lauren has suffered from terrible chronic head pain for eleven years, and she is now getting some great therapy to rewire the brain and be able to live a more normal life.  Allison has been a great support to Lauren and her family through these terribly difficult years.) I know I've mentioned this a few times before, but it's such a blessing to not have to worry quite so much about things at home. It was interesting because in the MTC there were 3 or 4 times when I was told specifically not to worry about home because everything would be fine. I wasn't worried about them at the time, but Heavenly Father knows me and knows that I need those kinds of preemptive consejos (advice,counsel.)

Man. English. You betray me again. I love Spanglish. For example, in my exit interview with one of the counselors in the branch presidency, he brought up Section 31 in the Doctrine and Covenants where the Lord is talking to early Church Pioneer Thomas B. Marsh about his calling to be a missionary and what blessings his family will receive, particularly in verse 5 where it says: (sorry I don't have my English scriptures with me..mom, can you translate this?) "Por tanto, mete tu hoz con toda tu alma, y tus pecados te son perdonados, y tus espaldas seran cargadas de gavillas, porque el obrero es digno de su salario. Por consiguiente, tu familia vivira"("Therefore, thrust in your sickle with all your soul, and your sins are forgiven you, and you shall be laden with sheaves upon your back, for the laborer is worthy of his hire.  Wherefore, your family shall live.") The counselor, Brother Hollister said "you know, Hermana, the Lord doesn't just mean that his family will live physically. He means they will be blessed with eternal life, that they'll be blessed with faith and hope in the Gospel of Christ." The interesting thing was, I had read that section the night before. I wanted to read something other than the next chapter in the Book of Mormon, so I opened up to the Doctrine and Covenants, found a really short section, and just read one verse (which happened to be verse 5). I was super tired, but thought "Huh. That's an interesting promise. What's this section about?" I just read the rest of it, liked it, but didn't think much else of it until the next day. In addition, there were a few talks the next few days that assured the missionaries that our families would be blessed for our full time service.......I'm understanding more and more that Heavenly Father has so much in store for us, we just have to ask for it, work to get it. I like the Bible Dictionary in the prayer section where it says "prayer is a form of work. There are many blessings God is already willing to grant, but are dependent upon our asking for them." And then that's where the Holy Ghost comes in to give us direction to know what to ask for in our prayers. Gosh. Heavenly Father's so amazingly smart!

That seems to be happening a lot lately. I'll have a worry in the back of my mind that I don't want to really think about or  I just don't have time to really examine it, but I have all these little messages from Heavenly Father that help me resolve the worry and the doubt before it even becomes a problem (or at least before it becomes a big problem). I love it.

Yesterday we had a Sisters' Training where all the sister missionaries in the mission got to come, President and Sister Martin talked to us, the mission doctor (frankly, I think a mom would have had a bit better advice. He mostly just talked about what a miracle IBuprofen is), and then we got to hear from the sisters who are going home after this transfer (6 week period) one of which is my own dear Hermana Strong. I guess I really haven't told you anything about my companions... sorry! 

Hermana Strong is from Utah and she worked as a first grade teacher for a year before her mission. She's really laid back and super cool, knows the ins and outs of the administrative aspects of missionary work and has so many object lessons up her sleeve, it's amazing. She loves loves music and we listen to it all the time. She's very encouraging and listens to the Spirit like no one I've ever encountered before.

Hermana Gerhartz is from New Jersey and reminds me a lot of my cousin Kristina, actually. She has a very direct, loving way of sharing the Gospel and is fantastic at finding small, simple ways to help our investigators have at least one positive daily encounter with the missionaries. She also plays guitar super-well, but I haven't yet had the privilege of hearing her play, since we have no guitar in our apartment. But she plays air guitar all the time. Legit air guitar. Awesome. 

We get along really really well, and I'm SO grateful. Everyone seems to have horror stories about trios (most companionships are two sisters or two elders, but it may vary), but I've been so blessed to have 2 great ones. We're covering two areas and that makes it harder to get to all of our appointments and give equal time to everyone who needs it. I'm starting to look forward to having just one area to keep track of.

Anyway, sorry I don't have as many fun stories as last week.... but oh! we had a 4-Zone activity the other day (several companionships form a district, several districts form a zone..etc) and Hermana Gerhartz taught me how to play tennis. Where has this sport been all my life? Me gusta mucho. Also, I got to talking to one of the APs (Assistants to the President - elders who are called out of the field to help the President with troubleshooting, administrative work, transfer logistics, and so forth) who is from the Dominican Republic but his family just moved to the Canary Islands. I mentioned that my favorite hobby is traveling, we made some cursory plans to play in the DR and maybe the Canary Islands sometime in the future. YESSSSSSSSS. Also, I told him he should visit Colorado because it's wonderful.

Anyway, gotta run, love you! be good!

Hermana B.