Baptism

awwww I love hearing about all the beautiful, happy, peaceful, fun moments at home. I love our family and our wonderful friends. I love how generous my parents are with their time and means. I love that my sister is doing well. I love stories about poop. I love life!!

 

Jeovany got baptized yesterday!! Hooray!!! It was SOOOO beautiful and wonderful! He's been facing a lot of challenges this week: critical family and friends, an injury at work, wracked nerves, etc., but he's sought solace and reassurance in prayer and reading the scriptures, so those challenges just brought him closer to Heavenly Father. He was so so happy when we took pictures for his baptism. The man baptizing him was a little wary about pushing him far enough under the water to actually make it a baptism by immersion, so it took 3 times, but hey, 3rd time's the charm, eh? Our ward just loves him and they're well on their way to adopting him. It was actually a double baptism, so we helped the young lady who got baptized before him in and out of the font, and it is just so wonderful to be able to be there for those first few moments with someone when they've been baptized. I really don't remember much about when I was baptized, but I remember that right after I went to the temple, there was just a beautiful feeling of being clean, whole. I love to see that feeling on others' faces, and then to know that I got to help be a part of that is so rewarding/gratifying/humbling/encouraging. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!

Just so's ya know :)

 

I was talking to Hna Prince last night about different emotional phases of the mission as far as motivation, trunkiness, discouragement, feeling on top of the world, etc. It's fascinating to me how we can understand the principle of "forget yourself and go to work" so well intellectually but making the leap to actually applying it seems like such an impossible feat. And really, I think it is, without the Lord's help. Just within this week, I feel so different and I don't know how or when it happened. I have more motivation, I don't want to go back home at night because I just want to keep teaching, I'm more patient, I can't stop smiling!! I love finding those moments in the processes of life where you can't explain exactly how something changes....but by divine providence, it just does and suddenly, you're in a new phase of life. It's just so wonderful.

 

Have a wonderful week, my beautiful family!

Love you more than my thinking dress!

Really getting it

Oh my goodness gracious, I love you both so stinkin much! I just love hearing about your lives and how generous and fun and intelligent and cool you are!
 

Thank you SOOO much for getting something for Hna Marquez. She's been a little bummed this week because she's fairly certain that she won't get anything for her birthday, so I think this will be a nice surprise for her. I just love her so much and I know you both will, too. Right now we're living in an apartment with another companionship, Hermana Quick and Hermana Prince. It's so fun to be so close to my baby again! She's such a dynamite missionary, I love her. Apparently, Elder Perry is going to be coming to our mission at the beginning of March...I'm so stoked! I LOVE conferences. They give me such a good boost in energy and motivation. And to have a meeting with an Apostle of God? It's going to be amazing!!!!!!

 

This was a SUPER good week. We were in a trio for a couple of days with Hermana White, the sweetest, funniest person ever. She reminds me a lot of Kristina, in both personality and in appearance. We had some super powerful, super amazing lessons and we visited with a woman that Hna Waite and I had found last March. Josefina is actually the sister of a former investigator family and we never had time to visit with her before (well, more like she never had time to visit with us) but she's not working now. She's super great. She's very much in need of a strong relationship with Heavenly Father, so we talked a lot about the importance of being able to feel the Spirit in our daily lives. She was very receptive and seemed to grasp the concepts we shared very well.

We also met with our friends Jeovani a number of times this weekend. He's AMAZING!  I liked how Hannah put it in her letter....he's so elect! It's just amazing to see how Heavenly Father has prepared him to be able to accept the gospel. We read all about the gospel of Jesus Christ in 3 Nephi 27 on Saturday. It starts off talking about how Christ's church has to bear his name and it has to be founded on His doctrine. He stopped us right there and said, "That's what I want. I want to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ and not worry about what other people think or say because I'll be able to feel God's approval and support."

Yeah, he's pretty awesome. He's incredibly open with us, and he asks so many wonderful questions. He says he always feels bad for bothering us with so many questions, but it's not a bother at all! Every time he asks something new, I think of the phrase in the scriptures that says that we should "hunger and thirst after righteousness." We see that in his eyes and he's so excited to be baptized on March 4.

 

Speaking of which, Happy Birthday, Lijahsaurus! I sure love you, my sweet boy! Also to Olivia! she's such a beautiful young lady now :)

We're also teaching a man named Rigo who  was baptized when he was 9 but then never went back again because his mom left the church. He is also totally dynamite and has made huge steps in his life to be able to get to this point where he's ready to come closer to God. It's really interesting to see the difference between our investigators who can feel the influence of the Holy Ghost and Rigo who actually has that companionship of the Holy Ghost. He comprehends the gospel so well and so quickly and he automatically knows how to apply the principles to his life, which is something we usually need to walk people through.

Man, I just love being a missionary.

 

I've always loved it, but I've always been rather eager to be back home. Now though, I feel like I'm completely relishing the experience and I'd love to be here (maybe not forever, but ) a long, long time. I thought I understood my calling before, but I feel like I'm just now comprehending how special and sacred it is. I'm so grateful to be a missionary!

 

I love you more than quarters!

Love, Hermana Manzana

Threesome

Buenos dias! I'm not being transferred, nor is Hermana Marquez (thank goodness!) BUT Hermana Prince is coming to be our roommate!! I'm so excited to see her again. I was totally spoiled last week because I got to see her twice, but now I think she'll bring a super cool dynamic to our missionary apartment.

It's been a fairly tranquila week...Jeovani came to church again (he's so great! Thank you for all your prayers on his--and all of our other investigators'--behalf), We're making progress with a couple named Marvin and Mayra (incidentally ALSO from Guatemala). He's actually a less active member, and she's a very sharp, very classy woman. We finally found out more about the barriers they face to her being able to be baptized. Apparently she is divorced, but he is not yet and they are facing some financial situations that are putting a damper on that for now. They seemed super determined to progress spiritually when we taught them this week, but then they didn't come to church yesterday....bummer.

We had a lesson with an investigator named Tommy....well, actually, we have a lesson with him every Thursday, but he was a co-pastor in El Salvador and hasn't really had a verbal, preaching outlet since he got here, so we have a hard time actually getting any teaching done. We went for a different tactic this week and tried to ask a lot of yes or no questions (which is typically pretty counterproductive in missionary work). BUT we made progress...sort of. we've been struggling a bit because he wants to be a part of our church, but won't read the Book of Mormon or pray....on top of that, we just didn't feel right about allowing him to be baptized just based on that. We went through the baptismal interview questions and he answered well to all of them, saying that he feels that Joseph Smith was a prophet and such, but it just didn't feel right. so this week, we finally figured out that he doesn't believe in our idea of priesthood ordination...he had a dream once where God took him up to heaven in a machine, sprinkled water on a crowd of people, told Tommy "Baptize your people" and then sent him back down to earth. for the next few weeks, lots of people started showing up at his door, wanting to be healed or cleansed, etc. He would touch their foreheads and they would fall over backwards. He takes that to mean that God gave him authority to preach and baptize. Once we finally understood that, our confusion made a whole lot more sense. If he doesn't believe in Priesthood ordination by the laying on of hands from one who hold the authority, he can't believe that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only true and authorized church on earth. In which case, anybody could be a prophet and proclaim that they know the will of God, which gets us nowhere. Guh. We're just having a hard time knowing how to teach him. We've certainly taught these principles very clearly, but he won't actually listen. He wants to preach to us and heal us. He actually tried to give Hna Marquez and Hna Busch a blessing once. Maybe I'm being too critical. But then again, I know how it feels to be around a worthy Priesthood holder, I know how it feels to receive a blessing through that authorized Priesthood, and I know how I feel when truth is being spoken. And I don't feel those things when Tommy preaches. Not that he preaches bad things, but the Spirit tells me that the Priesthood authority is not there.

I'm so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost. I'm learning to appreciate it in a way I never have before. It's such a blessing to have an internal compass to help me know which way is up spiritually, morally.....everything.

 

Dad, you also asked about meals. Most of our dinners are with members...Our ward is SUPER generous and they LOVE feeding us. Sometimes it gets a little out of hand, but we get fed, they get blessed for their service, so we all win.

 

Hooray for at least 6 more weeks on bike! I'll probably finish my mission here, so more like Hooray for 24 more weeks on bike!

 

I love you more than all the false doctrine in the world!

Hermana Beauchamp

Live what you preach

 

I'm so glad you had such a good time with your cousin! and I can't wait to see all those new pictures you have of family. well, I mean I CAN, but ya know....I've gained such a greater appreciation for genealogy on my mission and I'm excited for when I'll be able to dedicate even a little bit of time to it. For now, the Spirit of Elijah has to take a back burner and the spirit of conversion is my best friend.

 

Speaking of which, I just read our mission President's weekly email and he said we had 16 baptisms in the mission yesterday! Super cool! Hermana Marquez and I got to go to three of them :) One of the investigators I helped teach in Palmdale got baptized yesterday so we got permission to go up there with a member. When I taught Manolo, it started off super great ( I think I actually wrote about him and his response to prayer...) but then got really weird because the moment his parents were within earshot, he denied everything and got all crazy on us, saying there wasn't a God. We visited him a couple times after that, but without much success. Hermana Prince and her companion have been working with him a lot and he decided that he would like to be baptized!! It was SO wonderful to see my Rancho Vista branch. I love them so so dearly. I even got to see Guadalupe and her boys! Also, a less active member named Hermano Munoz who is the cutest old man I've ever met was so glad to see me that he gave me a big hug. Whoops! Ah well.

Also, our member who took us is a recent convert named Guadalupe Umana who is a gorgeous, wonderful, faithful lady from El Salvador who we just adore, Well, she and one of the super attractive, super wonderful, super awesome members from Rancho Vista were making eyes at one another, so we've decided to help them get to know each other better.....all three of us were over the moon excited all the way home. I think missionaries make fairly good matchmakers.....although maybe we overdo it because we're so romance-starved and matchmaking is our only outlet.

 

We made it back home just in time for another double baptism at our church building and it was wonderful!

 

Missionaries are in charge of the lessons and talks and things on the fifth Sunday, so Hermana Marquez and one of the zone leaders gave talks (which were AWESOME) and then President Martin, and two of the other elders taught in the 3rd hour about the characteristics of the Church of Jesus Christ, focusing on having unity, charity, and faith. We have a TON of new converts in our ward and they are super amazing, but there have been some MAJOR problems with the not-so-new members and gossip lately. It's getting a lot better, but I think their lesson helped put the importance of being a good representative of the church in all you do back into perspective. One of the things we hear the most as missionaries is how people want to go to church but they see so much backbiting and unkindness and general unChristlike behavior that they think "why on earth would I want to join a church where the members don't even live what they preach?" We always remind them that the Church of Jesus Christ is perfect, even though the people aren't, and to always look at the doctrine to see if that is what is true. But then again, I totally see their point. We as members HAVE to walk the talk (or however that phrase goes in English). Then the changes the doctrine of Christ makes in our lives will attract others to the gospel as well. That is how it's supposed to work. Everything is to be centered on the Savior.

 

Our investigators are doing pretty dang well, and I'm so so grateful! Jeovani set a baptismal date goal for March 4. I really think he'll be ready WAY before that. He's so awesome and it's so cool to see how Heavenly Father has prepared him! Also, we've been visiting this family off and on for the last little while, and the kids are SUPER interested, but the mom is pretty flaky and it never seemed to us that she was very interested. BUT we finally got to meet her husband the other day (he works in a bakery so he's not usually there during typical hours) and we watched the Restoration movie with the whole family and ended with a kneeling prayer with all of them. The kids want to come to church so badly and 2 of them have already had some really cool experiences when they prayed to know if the plan of Salvation was the plan of God. Please pray for them! Your prayers are helping so so much and we feel your love and support every day!

 

Transfers are this next week, so we'll find out Saturday what happens. There's a rumor that I'm training again, which I was terrified of at first but I'm getting more comfortable with the idea. I would hate to leave Hermana Marquez, but she's just so amazing and cool that I would feel kind of selfish to keep her to myself for another transfer. One of the greenies that is coming out is a girl from Colorado who learned her Spanish in Ecuador.... we'll see what kinds of surprises Heavenly Father has up his omnipotent sleeves....Is that sacriligious? Hope not.

Love you more than matchmaking,

Hermana Manzana

Hola

Monday is STILL my Pday.... we just had a long series of monday holidays so the libraries weren't open... sorry!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! Did you get the text from my friend Karla? We were on our way to a conference and I had been beating myself up all day for forgetting to send a card last monday, but Karla sweetly volunteered to communicate my happy birthday wishes. It sounds like you both had a good time...oh dear how I love you! and I think it's oh-so-precious how you both write love notes about each other to me. I love it, para que sepan.

Spanglish is coming back full force. I've determined to have awkward English for at least my first week back home. I'm stoked! :) But that's still forever away, and in a great many ways, I'm so so glad.

Hermana Marquez and I are doing really well. It's been kind of rainy this week which puts a bit of a damper on missionary work for bikes, but we still go to the appointments we have set, try to find more people to teach, and look for service opportunities, and people are usually pretty impressed by our dedication. Being a missionary is the greatest!

We haven't been able to meet with Martin again, and as it just so happens, he moved out of our area this week, BUT he arranged with his new boss to have sundays off to be able to go to church, he STILL lives in our ward boundaries (I'm pretty sure anyway), his uncle wants to start visiting with us, and they want to come to church this next sunday. YESSSSSSSSSS. Please please pray that he doesn't lose animo and that he'll maintain that desire to know more and come closer to God.

I heard a funny story this week....you know how I wrote a while back about the Lancaster Baptist Church bus that picks up local kids to take them to church functions? A member of our ward and her grandson got invited to a pizza party at the church bus church one day and she figured "Hey, it couldn't hurt...." Apparently, once they all arrived, they separated the parents and the kids for about 20 minutes for some "special party" but when the kids came back, they all looked a bit damp.... the grandma asked her grandson " why are you all wet?" he said "I'm not sure, but I think they baptized me."

Bahaha! oh man. I guess that's one way to do it. Tramposos.

 

The missionaries in our ward are giving the 3rd hour lesson next week at church and our Mission President will be there, too. Please pray for us! We need all the brain juice we can get!

 

Also, we had an appointment with a couple of cousins from Guatemala named Jeovani and Jose. They were super interested in the Plan of Salvation, especially the idea of having lived with God before this life to prepare to come to Earth.... Jose commented "So we were kind of like in a spiritual incubator?" I suppose so. I guess in effect that's what our homes are, too. We are nurtured and helped and guided in a safe environment until we are ready and able to move out into the wide world for our BIG growth experience.

 

I think that's all for now on the mission front. 

Love you more than all the "si Dos quiere"s and "Primero Dios"s we hear every day!

Hermana Manzana

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