June 1, 2015

Hola Familia!!

This week was an emotional roller coaster, starting from the news I got last Monday from you, mom, about my friend Afton Wallace. After reading that email on Monday, I tried not to think about it too much for the rest of the day. But during my personal study on Tuesday, I just couldnt help it. I couldnt think of anything else, but Afton and her family. I started crying, and then my mind was directed to Alma 40 where it talks about the state of the soul after death. This gave me great comfort, especially knowing that Afton was righteous to the end and that she was always positive about what happened to her.  I wasted no time and recorded all of my thoughts into my study journal, as I was doing this, I stopped because I felt Afton put her hand on my shoulder and whisper to me and tell me that she could feel no pain and that she really was home. It was probably one of the most beautiful experiences I have had thus far on my mission. We are so blessed to have the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. I just hope her family is doing okay and is coping with her death. Please pray for them!!

Last Monday was transfer day! We met with all the missionaries leaving and all the ones coming in! Lots of elders and not enough sisters!!! I think there are about 20 elders and 7 sisters total in the Ontario zone now.

On Wednesday, we tried to visit this investigator, named Josefina, whose daughter is a recent convert. Since we do not have a GPS, and do not know how to get to a town called Vale, we went to her daughter and asked her to draw a map. I might as well asked a stranger where it was because she didn't include street names! We did our best nave-guessing where it was for the next 3 HOURS! We tired everything: we tried calling and texting but we were out of cell range.  We followed the map's tiny pictures of trees and curvy lines, and houses that were labeled 'melon' colored, we practically explored every part of Vale, but could not for the life of us find where she lived! We eventually stopped and explored this little cave we found on the way, it was awesome! Maybe we will take our zone there sometime to spelunk.

We had a zone meeting this Friday with our new zone. It went really well. I took lots of notes. Our ZL's also gave a great training on goal making and focusing on obeying mission rules. During the training, I assessed myself on what I could be doing better, and as far as getting up by 6:30 that will probably be my biggest goal. I am proud to report that I have gotten up every day this week on time! Hooray (small victories are big things while youre on a mission, which makes miracles really special when they happen) The ZL's also reiterated the importance of the area book and making sure we are filling it out as best as we can, because every paper represents a person and if we dont fill it out- then we dont understand the Atonement.  One of them likened it unto the Book of Life. When we get to heaven and sitting before the judgement seat of God and if he asks me to see my area book, I wouldnt want to be embarrassed to let him see it- I want to be proud of the work I did as a missionary!! When the ZL finished comparing it to the Book of Life, one other elder spoke up and said 'I sure hope the angels up there are taking better notes than me!' Haha! T'was funny(:

Sunday night is normally when we call our district leader and tell him our numbers for the week. After we reported our numbers, Elder Homer (DL) asked for the phone to be passed to me. He then told me that he and his comp visited the sister of the Kimberly's mom and she told them that she was touched by what I told her when we were both at Kimberly's house this past week. She also said that she believes that I was sent from above to deliver her a message, and now she is taking the lessons and partially committed to baptism!!! This made me feel like I am fulfilling my purpose as a missionary by saying whatever the spirit directs me to say. This was definitely better than getting up on time this week!! I have always felt that I needed to go on a mission to teach specific people about the Gospel.

Spanish is coming along. On Sunday, I gave my first Sacrament talk about modern day revelation. I also translated it into English (since I wrote it in Spanish) because there were a couple people in the audience who didn't speak spanish. No big deal, but I still felt like a boss afterwards!

I didn't eat any weird stuff this week, so maybe next week someone will feed us something unusual to our palates and I will let you know how that goes.

Have a blessed week y'all! I love you!  Remember to pray for the Wallace family!

Hermana Moss