Hola familia!
Guess what? I stayed! I am really happy about it, but I was super shocked. The maximum you can stay in one area is five transfers, and so this will be the big number five. I officially know this area better than the back of my hand, and everywhere I go I see a familiar face. I am excited to be able to just keep working hard without having to deal with any crazy transitions. Plus we have met some really incredible people that we are working with and are just getting out of a really hard trial of not seeing very much success or interest. That really is the hardest thing about the work- having that faith to keep finding the people that Heavenly Father has prepared. I'm still with Hermana Garcia. We are super good friends, which is good. We've been through a lot of crazy things together. mostly good things, but we've had our fair share of ups and downs. I love that we understand each other really well now, and we feel like we literally are sisters.
Its funny because we both were convinced that we were leaving because the Visitor's Center is opening this transfer, so we were decided to go out with a bang and we set up this really awesome activity for the branch this past Tuesday for a big family home evening, where we did "the iron rod" and had a rope go in a maze throughout the church and the people had to go through it blindfolded with other people trying to get them to let go. At the end we had everything set up really nice and pretty on the stage with the "tree of life" and a place to sit and write down how they felt and how they could apply it to their lives. It turned out really well and everyone loved it. Our ward mission leader announced at the end that we were probably leaving because the Visitor's Center was going to open, and so everyone was saying goodbye as we got the call that told us we were both staying. We were worried for a little bit that it meant they were going to change our call and we would miss out on the Visitor's Center and become full field sisters, but then we found out that they are just going to have us commute for all of the training and the opening, and then we will eventually come up to be Visitors Center sisters. I'm glad that I get to spend more time really working with the people and seeing them progress and having these kinds of experiences, even if it does mean being out in the heat.
This transfer our zone is starting a new goal to have the faith to baptize every week. It has been really challenging building that kind of faith. It has made me realize that so many times we read the scriptures and we think of them as if they're fairy tales or myths, and that those kind of miracles- like baptizing thousands- don't really happen today. I'm trying to build that kind of faith and keep exersizing it. I think no matter what experiences you had before or the miracles you have seen, you have to continue to work every single day to have that faith.
I'm e-mailing on a Wednesday because we had our temple P-day today. It felt so good to go to the temple and have that spiritual rejuvenation. We also went to see the Griffith Observatory up in Beverly Hills, which was really neat.
I'm running out of time, so I'll write again Monday. Take care!
Love,
Sister Dansie
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Cudahy: Translado 4: Semana 6 / July 19, 2010
Hola Familia!
This past week was possibly my last here in Maywood. We still won't know about transfers until tomorrow night, and we are dying to know. The Visitor's Center is officially going to open on August 7th. We saw it on a big billboard they put up in front of the temple on Santa Monica that just says "Curious?" in really big lime green lettering, and then underneath "New Visitor's center opening August 7th. So it is officially in print. Apparently it doesn't look very close to being completed though, so we'll see what happens. We got some of the inside scoop on it this last Saturday when we went up to eat dinner with the Mission President. We were one of the runners up for "Clean Apartment Award" this transfer, so we got to go to a special dinner with President Baker and his wife. It was really nice to get to know them better. The mission home is being torn down and rebuilt, so they live in a really nice little condo right behind the temple.
Now that it has gotten hot we have started hoping, dreaming, and praying for the Visitor's Center to open as we are out on the street tracting in over 100 degree weather. I don't know how missionaries in places like Arizona do it. Apparently even the Marines get to stay inside when it gets that hot, from what I read in James letter. I guess that missionaries are just tougher. Just kidding. :D I wanted to go somewhere warm though, so here I am. I would rather deal with the heat for awhile than be trudging through the snow any day.
The work has been going really well. I feel like we are involved in about four different "novellas" (spanish soap operas) right now. It is crazy how many things we get to see and here about people's lives, and how from the moment they walk in they trust and confide in us. I love being a missionary and feeling the love of these people from the first moment we step in the door. Apparently I'm in for a big shock though, says Hermana Garcia who was just transferred here from serving in Westwood, which is about 80% Jewish. We've met a lot of really amazing people that are excited about learning more and preparing to be baptized. Whoever the missionaries are that get to be here after must be really prepared and ready to help and teach these amazing people. I've realized that Heavenly Father gives us the work that we're prepared to handle, so the more prepared we are the more amazing opportunities and experiences we can have.
I hope you are all doing well and having a fun summer. :)
- Hermana Dansie
This past week was possibly my last here in Maywood. We still won't know about transfers until tomorrow night, and we are dying to know. The Visitor's Center is officially going to open on August 7th. We saw it on a big billboard they put up in front of the temple on Santa Monica that just says "Curious?" in really big lime green lettering, and then underneath "New Visitor's center opening August 7th. So it is officially in print. Apparently it doesn't look very close to being completed though, so we'll see what happens. We got some of the inside scoop on it this last Saturday when we went up to eat dinner with the Mission President. We were one of the runners up for "Clean Apartment Award" this transfer, so we got to go to a special dinner with President Baker and his wife. It was really nice to get to know them better. The mission home is being torn down and rebuilt, so they live in a really nice little condo right behind the temple.
Now that it has gotten hot we have started hoping, dreaming, and praying for the Visitor's Center to open as we are out on the street tracting in over 100 degree weather. I don't know how missionaries in places like Arizona do it. Apparently even the Marines get to stay inside when it gets that hot, from what I read in James letter. I guess that missionaries are just tougher. Just kidding. :D I wanted to go somewhere warm though, so here I am. I would rather deal with the heat for awhile than be trudging through the snow any day.
The work has been going really well. I feel like we are involved in about four different "novellas" (spanish soap operas) right now. It is crazy how many things we get to see and here about people's lives, and how from the moment they walk in they trust and confide in us. I love being a missionary and feeling the love of these people from the first moment we step in the door. Apparently I'm in for a big shock though, says Hermana Garcia who was just transferred here from serving in Westwood, which is about 80% Jewish. We've met a lot of really amazing people that are excited about learning more and preparing to be baptized. Whoever the missionaries are that get to be here after must be really prepared and ready to help and teach these amazing people. I've realized that Heavenly Father gives us the work that we're prepared to handle, so the more prepared we are the more amazing opportunities and experiences we can have.
I hope you are all doing well and having a fun summer. :)
- Hermana Dansie
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Cudahy: Translado 4: Semana 4 / July 6, 2010
Hola Familia!
Things have really been looking up this week. Mostly because I realized that its natural to have highs and lows in the mission and it doesn't mean that I'm a failure as a missionary, that's just life. We fall down but we have to get up and keep going. I think what was frustrated me the most was the feeling of being stuck in a rut and doing things just because I'm supposed to do them, without the purpose and the passion behind it, but things have turned around and I'm feeling pumped again to be a missionary. It is especially hard in those dry spells where we're not having success and trying so hard to find people to teach, and feeling like failures, but I know that sometimes God gives us those challenges and experiences to help us learn patience and to help us grow stronger, and also to appreciate all of the blessings that he gives us.
We had a couple of really incredible experiences this past week that opened my eyes and changed my perspective again about my mission and about life in general. We had a lesson with a family where the grandma is going through chemotherapy treatments for cancer, but miraculously says that she feels no pain and is doing really great. She had a full mammectomy, but she says that she knows the Lord has blessed her to not have pain and to deal with her struggle. She has incredible faith. He has her and her family, and part of it has to do with her grandson. She takes care of her adorable little grandson that is about eight years old but was born both deaf and blind. His dad helps take care of him but has to work. It was incredible to see the love that this father has for his son as he patiently sat and held him, and the sweet little grandma as well. The spirit was so strong in their home. I can't imagine the selfless sacrifice and service it takes to care for children that are handicapped, but I know that those parents are blessed by being able to feel the love and presence of Heavenly Father extremely close. It made me think a lot about all of the hundreds and thousands of things in my life that i take for granted, and how a lot of ways we are like blind and deaf children that can't see or hear our Heavenly Father, we just have to feel his presence and trust him enough to let him guide us.
We also met a woman named Darinka who is the mother of a three year old girl and a new born baby boy. We helped her carry her things in to her apartment one day and she let us come back and teach her. She told us that she was having some problems with her husband, and so she really liked what we had been telling her about families and wanted to prepare to be baptized. The lesson was kind of scattered as her terror of a three year old girl kept trying to beat up her baby brother, and this very tired, patient mom kept telling her to stop. The next time we came back so had the look of just being completely empty and devastated, past the stage of crying and almost to the point os hopelessness as she told us how her husband had come to grab all of his stuff and left her with saying "good luck trying to pay the rent" which was due that afternoon. It was so heartbreaking seeing her and her situation. She had no way to pay the rent, no way to buy food for her children, and no place to go. We didn't know what to do, so we sang her a hymn and told her to pray and that we would try to find a way to help her out. I have never seen anything so heartbreaking. We talked to the branch president and he was able to help her out with the rent and she was so grateful. I can't imagine a father and husband walking out on his family like that. I know that Heavenly Father was watching over her and heard her faithful prayers and that we were meant to cross her path and be there for her to help.
I think that i needed that experience to realize that really it is that way with everyone we meet- even though they might not have such drastic temporal needs, their spirits are suffering and aching to find the gospel and have that peace and assurance in their hearts that comes from following Jesus Christ. Some people try to fill that with other things, and become numb and hardened and unreceptive to the gospel, but to those that are open and faithful, God goes before and prepares them to recognize the gospel. It is just our job to invite them to accept it, and invite them to come unto Christ.
I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, that he was the son of God, and that he suffered and died for us and was resurrected. My testimony of him has been strengthened so much as I've had to defend it from all sorts of theories and explanations of men that deny his existence and divinity. I love how Joseph F. Smith says it in his testimony of Jesus Christ:
“The Holy Spirit of God has spoken to me—not through the ear, not through the eye, but to my spirit, to my living and eternal part,—and has revealed unto me that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. I testify to you that I know that my Redeemer lives. Furthermore, I know that I shall see Him on this earth, and that I shall see Him as He is. … The Lord has revealed this to me. He has filled my whole spirit with this testimony, until there is no room for doubt.”
I encourage you all to pray and continue to renew your testimony of Jesus Christ. I don't know why it is that we can't just learn and feel something once and be good, but for some reasons as humans we have to keep learning and remembering over and over again how important Jesus Christ is in our lives. That's why we have to take the sacrament every week- to always remember him. He helps us overcome our forgetful and ungrateful human nature and continue to prove ourselves, to pick ourselves back up and to keep repenting and changing.
I love you all so much! Cuidense mucho!
Hermana Dansie
Things have really been looking up this week. Mostly because I realized that its natural to have highs and lows in the mission and it doesn't mean that I'm a failure as a missionary, that's just life. We fall down but we have to get up and keep going. I think what was frustrated me the most was the feeling of being stuck in a rut and doing things just because I'm supposed to do them, without the purpose and the passion behind it, but things have turned around and I'm feeling pumped again to be a missionary. It is especially hard in those dry spells where we're not having success and trying so hard to find people to teach, and feeling like failures, but I know that sometimes God gives us those challenges and experiences to help us learn patience and to help us grow stronger, and also to appreciate all of the blessings that he gives us.
We had a couple of really incredible experiences this past week that opened my eyes and changed my perspective again about my mission and about life in general. We had a lesson with a family where the grandma is going through chemotherapy treatments for cancer, but miraculously says that she feels no pain and is doing really great. She had a full mammectomy, but she says that she knows the Lord has blessed her to not have pain and to deal with her struggle. She has incredible faith. He has her and her family, and part of it has to do with her grandson. She takes care of her adorable little grandson that is about eight years old but was born both deaf and blind. His dad helps take care of him but has to work. It was incredible to see the love that this father has for his son as he patiently sat and held him, and the sweet little grandma as well. The spirit was so strong in their home. I can't imagine the selfless sacrifice and service it takes to care for children that are handicapped, but I know that those parents are blessed by being able to feel the love and presence of Heavenly Father extremely close. It made me think a lot about all of the hundreds and thousands of things in my life that i take for granted, and how a lot of ways we are like blind and deaf children that can't see or hear our Heavenly Father, we just have to feel his presence and trust him enough to let him guide us.
We also met a woman named Darinka who is the mother of a three year old girl and a new born baby boy. We helped her carry her things in to her apartment one day and she let us come back and teach her. She told us that she was having some problems with her husband, and so she really liked what we had been telling her about families and wanted to prepare to be baptized. The lesson was kind of scattered as her terror of a three year old girl kept trying to beat up her baby brother, and this very tired, patient mom kept telling her to stop. The next time we came back so had the look of just being completely empty and devastated, past the stage of crying and almost to the point os hopelessness as she told us how her husband had come to grab all of his stuff and left her with saying "good luck trying to pay the rent" which was due that afternoon. It was so heartbreaking seeing her and her situation. She had no way to pay the rent, no way to buy food for her children, and no place to go. We didn't know what to do, so we sang her a hymn and told her to pray and that we would try to find a way to help her out. I have never seen anything so heartbreaking. We talked to the branch president and he was able to help her out with the rent and she was so grateful. I can't imagine a father and husband walking out on his family like that. I know that Heavenly Father was watching over her and heard her faithful prayers and that we were meant to cross her path and be there for her to help.
I think that i needed that experience to realize that really it is that way with everyone we meet- even though they might not have such drastic temporal needs, their spirits are suffering and aching to find the gospel and have that peace and assurance in their hearts that comes from following Jesus Christ. Some people try to fill that with other things, and become numb and hardened and unreceptive to the gospel, but to those that are open and faithful, God goes before and prepares them to recognize the gospel. It is just our job to invite them to accept it, and invite them to come unto Christ.
I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, that he was the son of God, and that he suffered and died for us and was resurrected. My testimony of him has been strengthened so much as I've had to defend it from all sorts of theories and explanations of men that deny his existence and divinity. I love how Joseph F. Smith says it in his testimony of Jesus Christ:
“The Holy Spirit of God has spoken to me—not through the ear, not through the eye, but to my spirit, to my living and eternal part,—and has revealed unto me that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. I testify to you that I know that my Redeemer lives. Furthermore, I know that I shall see Him on this earth, and that I shall see Him as He is. … The Lord has revealed this to me. He has filled my whole spirit with this testimony, until there is no room for doubt.”
I encourage you all to pray and continue to renew your testimony of Jesus Christ. I don't know why it is that we can't just learn and feel something once and be good, but for some reasons as humans we have to keep learning and remembering over and over again how important Jesus Christ is in our lives. That's why we have to take the sacrament every week- to always remember him. He helps us overcome our forgetful and ungrateful human nature and continue to prove ourselves, to pick ourselves back up and to keep repenting and changing.
I love you all so much! Cuidense mucho!
Hermana Dansie
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