It looks and sounds like Florida was a lot of fun, I'm glad
you were able to go! I'm sorry you had to go back to the rainy weather
in Oregon right after-- haha.
This week has
been super busy. We decided we wanted to make the most out of the
Christmas Initiative, the videos that the church has been coming out
with. We made a
plan to go Christmas Caroling with member families, bring treats, and
sing hymns to their friends or even family that aren't members. Then we
have the members share their testimonies of the Savior Jesus Christ and
the real reason we celebrate the Christmas season. It is great! We
haven't gotten to do it with a TON of families yet because of the
craziness of this week, but we have a lot of plans for this upcoming
week to carry it on! :)
Monday was our first
day trying it out and it went wonderfully! :) We had a family home
evening with Blanca and Salvador, Irene and Perla-- it was such an
incredible experience to be with them as their family planned, prepared
for, and carried out their family home evening. Irene is the sweetest!!
She is working on her Faith in God right now, and so she had picked out a
few activities she wanted to do with the family. This girl is
incredible-- we keep hearing stories that Blanca and Hermana Maldonado
tell about how Irene will say like, "But dad, we can't go there because
its Sunday" and "By the time I go on my mission,…" and just always be
talking about her mission, and things her family has changed because of
the church. She is SO great. I love her!
Anyways so we had
such a sweet Family Home Evening with them, and then we asked if we
could say a prayer with them to find out who it was that we could go
caroling to, that needed a message about Jesus Christ. After the prayer,
Blanca chimed in and said, "Well we have this one neighbor down the
street, she has asked me questions about the church before, and I think
she could use this message". So off we went with the Maldonados and
Banuelos to go sing and share goodies with their neighbors. Irene was SO
excited. She asked if she could write our number on the cards and hand
them out to the people we met. We were able to sing and share this
Christmas message with 3 different families. And the lady that Blanca
had suggested was so willing for us to come back! As we walked away from
that house, Irene asked if she could come with us when we went back so
she could feel what its like to be a missionary.
That
was a huge highlight! That night, we talked to one of our investigators
on the phone from Lake Charles-- he has been reading a TON in the Book
of Mormon and Bible and always has lots of questions. He asked what he
needed to do to be baptized! So we talked to him for quite a while,
answering questions, addressing concerns, etc, and he told us he was
coming to church on Sunday!
I have to skip a
couple days in all the details because there are so many BIG things to
talk about! Tuesday was really good though! We met with Julio, then
later with Armando and Josue who are all talking about baptism but are
having a hard time making the commitment. So we were with President
Garcia who is awesome at getting to the point with them and helping them
know why all these things are important, as well as showing them love
from the branch. He is the greatest!
Wednesday
was an AMAZING day!!!! We had a mission Christmas conference! Hermana
Conrad and I sang "Away in a Manger" which was SO fun! :) A little
nerve-wracking given the whole mission was all there haha but its all
good! For mission conference, they had a bunch of people who were
converts to the church but are now leaders stand up and share their
conversion stories, and guess who one of them was? OBISPO MORALES!! :D
He is incredible, and his story as well! He is definitely one of my
biggest role models in life, I am so grateful that I was able to meet
him and spend the first 6 months of my mission working with him. :) It
was an incredibly spiritual meeting and the whole time I felt so
strongly this feeling-- I don't know how to explain it. But I have been
praying for a while to feel like I had pleased the Lord with my mission.
And the whole mission conference I felt God's love SO strongly, I felt
like my heart was burning with love for the mission, for the people I
have met, miracles I have been able to witness, lives that have touched
mine, etc. We watched the mission slideshow, and I just felt so much
JOY.
I. LOVE. THE. MISSION.
After mission
conference, I was able to see Marcos and
Paco!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even explain the happiness
that COMPLETELY filled my entire being.
Marcos has spent a few
months away from the church- he had been working on Sundays, not
attending church, and as he wasn't attending church and feeling the
Spirit, he started to fall back into old habits. But through the loving
visit of a member, he came back!!! He talked about how he expected to
walk back into church and have people look at him differently, have
people be disappointed in him, but he said that Obispo Morales greeted
him with a HUGE hug, told him how happy he was that he had come back,
and even took a framed temple picture and gave it to him so he could
always remember his goal to go to the temple and serve a mission. Now
Marcos is stronger than ever and working towards being able to serve a
mission in about a year-- he is sharing the gospel with his friends and
spending a lot of time with the missionaries. It made my heart
inexplicably happy. As we were there talking, we reminisced about the
day we had met him, and both of us started crying-- everything about
Marcos is SUCH a miracle and I am so so so grateful that he is a part of
my life.
Seeing Paco also made me SO happy!! He had also
been struggling, and mentioned that he had been feeling really sad
lately. I asked if he had been coming to church and he said that he
hadn't for a month or so, but that Obispo went over and talked with him
about his life, what he was going through, how he could help-- it was an
outpouring of love that Paco really needed! Elder Wilder is now serving
in their ward!!! So I told Paco to talk to him and go out with them,
and he said that he would! He was ward missionary, and also loved to go
do visits with the missionaries, and I know that will help him so much!
Paco is just the sweetest guy-- He is amazing!! His family and him have
been some of the most loving people I have ever known. :)
I
feel like I am coming to understand what JOY is. It isn't found in SELF.
I have felt the most joy when I am able to focus completely on the
needs of other people and rejoicing with them when they embrace the
gospel and find peace in living it!!
Thursday
we went back to Lumberton (where the Maldonados and Banuelos live) and
took Irene (and Perla haha) out with us to teach!!! Irene is the
SWEETEST!!!!! She wanted so badly to give away her book of mormon, and
was so excited to show the Christmas video to the people we contacted.
:) She talked about how her family just got baptized and how they want
to be examples to everyone else now. The people we met all know the
Maldonados and talk about how amazing of a family they are, and how they
look up to them. We know its because of the light of the gospel that
shines from that family! :) It was such a sweet moment to have Irene
with us sharing her testimony that is growing so fast of the church and
the Book of Mormon. I love that girl! :)
Friday's
highlight-- we went to eat Pupusas in Port Arthur with Pedro :) haha
thats alliteration if I've ever heard it! :) He came all the way out
from Lake Charles because he wasn't going to be able to go to church,
but he wanted to talk with us. He had brought up some of his concerns in
a phone lesson earlier in the week, but seemed like they were pretty
well resolved when we talked with him on Friday! He is SO GREAT so there
was this worker guy from Guatemala that came over to us and asked if we
were the Elders from the Mormon church, and Pedro jumped right in and
explained who we are, what we do, what we teach, etc. And the guy says,
"yeah I know! I was talking to the Elders and going to church for a year
in Guatemala! But then I came here and couldn't find a church". So we
talked with him, told him where the church is and everything, and then
Pedro said, Well hey if you want to go sometime let me know! I will come
with you! Whats your number? We will talk about the church! …it was so
great. :) Pedro is already fellowshipping people. ;)
Also
funny story. our branch President had asked when we could come do
service for him…. his service that he needed was moving a trampoline
from his neighbor down the street's house to his house. I wish I had a
picture of this, but my companion and I, and some Brother from the 1st
ward picked up a giant trampoline and CARRIED IT through the
neighborhood, then lifted it over President Garcia's fence to put it in
his backyard. Hahaha it was SO funny.
SATURDAY WAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL DAY EVER.
Yessika and David Gutierrez from West Lake Houston were sealed in the temple for time and all eternity!!!!!!! Yessika
and David helped me through so much at the beginning of my mission,
were some of my biggest support systems, really feel like my family
here.
David
and Yessika have been through a lot together, but now they are stronger
than ever and they love each other so much and have worked so hard to
get to this point in the gospel.
The kids
are MY FAVORITES EVER. I can't put into words how much I love this
family and how much they mean to me. We were outside the temple when
they drove up, and they rolled down the window and called out to me,
they were nervous but so excited.
In the
sealing room, they came in and the spirit filled the room so strong. My
heart burned with so much love and gratefulness. They were sealed
together and the way they looked at each other across the altar was the
most beautiful thing. They were sealed for time and all eternity, a
blessing that can't be found anywhere else besides the temples of the
Lord.
When their boys walked in,
everything inside me melted. I don't think there was a dry eye in the
room. Their three boys were all dressed in white and came in and sat
down next to their parents. As they were sealed together, the Spirit
filled the room even more as they all knelt around the altar. Yessika
has been a member about 7 years, David only 1, and one of their boys is
old enough to be baptized. They have been waiting for the opportunity to
be sealed for a long time. You could see the joy and love that was
radiating from Yessika.
You could feel
the unity of the ward as everyone's eyes welled up with tears in that
room. The love that we all felt for that family was so strong.
When
they all stood up to look into the mirrors, Yessika and David were both
crying. You could tell how grateful they were for the opportunity to be
a forever family. It was so beautiful.
I
am grateful for this gospel. So so grateful! I am so happy to know that
through the power and authority of God on earth, I can be part of a
forever family. I can make covenants with my Heavenly Father and I can
receive all His promised blessings. I am so grateful I was able to be
here today, to experience this and feel so strongly the Spirit. I am so
grateful for the Gutierrez family and for their love, support, strength,
faith, hard work, obedience, spirit, dedication, generosity, etc etc
the list goes on. I know God lives and He loves us. He has provided us
everything we need to be able to return to him again and be part of His
family, sealed to our own families, forever.
Sundayyyyyyy I
promise I am almost done-- haha. Eric from Lake Charles came to church
again and he brought 2 of his friends!!!!! :) It was SO great. He was so
so happy and you could just tell he was soaking everything in. He is
incredible. Sad news though-- this week he is moving out of our mission,
which was heart wrenching. He texted us after church and just told us
how grateful he was and how sad he was that he was leaving. But before
he left, we looked up where he could find a church by where he lives. I
have no doubt that he will continue to learn and grow and progress and
change his life. I'll miss him though!
SO SO SO many other incredible miraculous things happened this week!
-
We finally met this man from our branch named Teo-- He had been hurt
and offended by some things that had happened in his life, and felt like
no one in the church reached out to him when he fell away. So as we met
with him, we just listened. I can't say really anything else we did,
but being there with him, my companion and I both noticed a complete
change. He talked about at the end how he was SO excited and ready to
just go do the Lords work and it didn't matter to him what anyone else
had said or done, he just wanted to do things right and not fall again.
That was a miraculous lesson. I wish I could write more about it!
-
We got back in contact with Noe! He has been going through a lot of
really hard things and had turned to alcohol as consolation but sought
us out to talk with him! (Which was a huge change from the past few
months where he wouldn't answer ANYTHING we sent him or any phone call
we made to him).
And more but I have to go now! I just love you all so much! Cant wait to talk to you on Christmas!
I
am so grateful for this Christmas season and for this incredible
opportunity I have to be a full-time missionary and represent my Savior.
I know He lives and loves each of us. I don't even want to think of
what our world would be without Him. I feel like on my mission I have
seen small glimpses of what lives are like without a knowledge of the
gospel and Jesus Christ, and it fills me with such a desire to share
that knowledge with others. I KNOW that the gospel of Jesus Christ
changes lives. I know that having a testimony of Christ's atonement and
the strength and cleansing we can receive through Him absolutely changes
people and fills them with HOPE and JOY and FAITH. God loves us!!!! He
really truly does! And we are here to be His hands to help others feel
that :) I love you all! Have a happy Christmas week and always remember
the true reason for the Season!
Love, Hermana Shaelyn Rogers
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