Success is starting to be seen

Tracked into a member who gave us some sweet leathermans (pocket knives) haha

Well what an amazing week it was here!!! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and hope you will all have a safe and excellent new year!! well here was my week:

Monday we bought some gifts to do a secret santa drop off for these two families we are teaching :) we had a huge miracle happen tonight... there is a family in the branch that have been taking their nieces to church for a while.. we got a call on Monday to start teaching them, they want to be baptized... WHAT!!! so we went over that night and taught the two girls. They want to be baptized for sure!! we also taught S tonight, another one who is on date for baptism.. we taught about the Sabbath day and Hermana M taught her something cool.. that yes sunday is our day of rest, but when we go out and buy things we are making other people work and they don't get to rest... that made so much sense to S and she committed to keep it! we got a sad call tonight, since we are in a trio President needs Hermana M to be transferred somewhere else... sad day :/

Tuesday, Christmas Eve! we had a district meeting today then ate at Super Taco!!! delicious place we eat at every week! we had another lesson with the two little girls :) and we committed them to be baptized!! we asked them to choose a date, and to decide the girls played rock-paper-scissors.. hahaha that has never happened before!!! they chose January 11th.... so yes, WE ARE HAVING A BPATISM ON JANUARY 11th!!! it will be amazing :) this night we were at a little music program, we had a friend on his way but he got into a car crash.. he doesn't speak English so we had to go help him translate for the cop and people.. it was super funny when the cop came.. he pulled up in his car, forgot to put it in park, and started getting out.. then the car started rolling and he started shouting bad words and jumped back in the car to stop it.. HAHAHA my companion and I looked at each other shocked and had to laugh!!! it was a funny night. we ate dinner with our branch president and his family :)

Christmas Eve with Hermana M  ~  Christmas PJ'S

wendesday, Christmas day!!!! I got to Skype home for an hour!! and ash was skyping home at the same time!! so I got to see my missionary sister through Skype :D then my brother skyped home later. it was a great start to the day! hahaa my family is still the same, not a surprise my dad was cooking bacon while i was skyping home... haha well we ate dinner with a hilarious family from the branch :) tons of yummy food!! then we went over to visit a family that we are teaching! they are so amazing!! she made us dinner and we played a game :0 it was a fun and food filled day! it was such an amazing Christmas!

Playing games and eating with this amazing family

thrusday we taught the two girls again :) the for sure age getting baptized!! they talked to their parents and they said it is okay! woohoo!!! I love teaching young kids... the 8 year old said "yeah we need to follow Christ and be baptized so that we can live with him. because if we don't then we have to live with santa... I mean satan! darn, I always confuse them." hahahaha it was soo cute :) so Hermana M is now companions with my old companion Hermana V... my two babies that I trained are now serving together! its pretty cool :)

A & G family made us gingerbread men...& they were good! W/comp Hermana R

Friday, hit my 10 month mark! what the heck!! we talked to some more people today, obviously haha.

Saturday ... just a long day. we had appointments set but they all fell through! but we kept our day busy and talked to people... I have to say its pretty nice with only 2 of us living in an apartment, because now for the first time ever in my life, I get my own bathroom! ahh its nice :)

sunday was awesome!!!! the family we have been teaching for a while, that we were with on Christmas, came to church again :) woohoo!!!!! success is starting to be seen :) I am so happy!! good or bad I love my mission!

ahhh just what an amazing week!!!!!!!!! never give up on people, teach and talk to everyone!!! miracles come out of nowhere, we are working so hard and now we are having a baptism from someone we didn't even find ourselves. many blessings :)

The cold is here, but we are working harder!

What an AMAZING week it has been! Freezing and snowy, but I love it! So much as happened this week so I will talk about it day by day:

My Companion Hermana R and I

Monday last week we taught an awesome new investigator in McDonalds... yep, we taught her in McDonalds. haha check that off my mission bucket list! it was a pretty awesome lesson. This amazing and prepared family were being taught by elders in Portland, and then we got the referral to visit and teach her since she moved here to Vancouver. Those elders still text here every day to read and pray. and she actually does that!!

 

Tuesday I was on exchanges with an English sister. We did a lot of tracting in the cold, and of course, the last door we knocked on let us in right away! WHAT!! that's rare! well once we got in she started asking us questions about the three degrees in heaven... soo we started teaching about the plan of salvation :) we come to find out that this family is being taught by missionaries in The Dalles when she goes to work down there! her daughter and her have been reading in the Book of Mormon!! this woman is so prepared! now when i say prepared I men she has gone through so much in her life to be where she is now!

 

Wednesday we had our Mission Christmas party! we started our day bright and early at 5:30! we went to the Portland Temple(gorgeous!!) all the 200 missionaries from our Mission went to the temple that day. I haven't been to the temple since July, so I didn't want to leave!!! but eventually we had to go. we all got together as a mission at one of the church buildings, we had dinner and watched a slide show of pictures. then we had President Taylor speak to all of us, he is so funny!!!  we took a mission picture then we had a hilarious talent show! some of the missionaries shared their talents! it was hilarious, the Spanish elders sang and did a rap.

Temple Trip to Portland Oregon.  I love the Temple!

Hermana V I trained :) ~  Some of the Hermanas!

Thursday was rough... no one was answering their door! but that's okay because in the night we had an awesome lesson with 2 of our investigators and a couple from the branch came with us to teach them! we talked about baptism and about how to know if these things are true, he said yes when he receives his answer he will get baptized. it was funny though because he is an active catholic and he said "well, I will first have to divorce myself from the catholic church before I join your church." haha it was interesting...

Need to get back to exercising!

Friday we woke up to SNOW! ahh it was beautiful snow :) the bummer part was we couldn't drive our car half of the day! my fingers and toes were frozen haha it wasn't fun. 

but friday we had 2 awesome lessons this day! one with our new investigator who wants to be baptized and another with a family that is related to someone the elders are baptizing this weekend, crazy family connections here in Vancouver!!! we had some interesting OYMs Friday... a lot of shirtless people out... it was freezing! and a lot of people that were "busy" but still had time to answer the door... my favorite thing someone said was "sorry I don't want to let the cold air in, bye.." and she shut the door, I thought to myself.. hmmmm well this message is pretty dang important for us to be choosing to be out here in the cold!!!! I also had a crazy guy get in my face... he was cussing and talking bad about Jesus Christ.. I tried to share things with him but he just kept say "what? I cant hear you.. what? you're crazy, what are you talking about.. man im too tough for you, you need to get me a preacher man." I thought, well technically I am a preacher... a disciple of Christ!! but hey, that's okay, I just ignored what he said and left.

 

Saturday it was freezing, again. well we invited someone to be baptized and she said yes!! for January 11th! hopefully I am here for that! if not that's okay, she is prepared too. we just have to help get all these people to church!!

 

Sunday was just a normal day at church.

 

soo yep it was a great week :) a freezing one!! I've never worn so many clothes before hahahahaha. I cant wait to go to the beach next year in the summer! for now I enjoy teaching and talking to people. I am excited to Skype home in 2 weeks, woohoo!  have  a great week <3 Merry Christmas!

I have been worrying a lot about my family this week... now that it is the holidays I think of them even more!! I worry and pray for them every day. in my study one morning I read this and applied it to me :)

"...continue to preach from that hour, and if [you] will do this in all lowliness of heart, in meekness and humility, and long-suffering, I the Lord, give unto [you] a promise that I will provide for [your] families;" Doctrine and Covenants 118: 3

WA Vancouver is beautiful! 

I'm not going to give up

Good morning, good Monday, good p-day!

Happy fall to everyone, it is so gorgeous here in Vancouver, freezing and leaves everywhere! Well i love you all so much, thank you (again) for all the support! i really do appreciate it :)

Las Hermanas

I never thought a part of my life would be consisted of worrying about the futures of SO MANY people. Every time i talk to someone I hesitate because i want them to have what i have and to know that its true, but i don't know how to express that in a couple seconds!!! It's so hard when you see someone progressing and feel it, but then some how Satan gets ahold of them and confuses them..... It was a tough week. a lot of out investigators told us they have no interest in changing or listening to us. For many days i continued to wonder "why am i out here? nothing is happening?" I worry about everything! I want so bad for people to know this gospel. This is the hardest work i have ever done. it is such a spiritual work that no one can describe, they must experience.

This week our most progressing investigator, B, told us she felt in her heart that she needs to go back to her old church.. she feels its right and that its where she belongs.. my heart about broke, and i almost started to cry... she said she didn't know how to tell us, but that she just wanted to be honest... I felt as if we did something wrong or as if we didn't try hard enough. It felt like someone broke up with me haha. We love her so much and she was so prepared, and she knows it too! its so hard to leave something when you felt nothing go wrong... we did everything we could, we taught with clarity, she had the most amazing friend/fellow shipper, and she came to church with her kids, everything... we tried, so hard... finding her and having her come to church was my "ah-ha" moment of why i am a missionary... and now that we are not teaching her any more its my "what the heck?" moment of why i am a missionary. we accepted what she had told us, because she truly prayed for an answer, and that is what she said she received and we cant deny it! it tore my heart... but we expressed our love for her, and she did the same to us. we peacefully left a strong spirit in her home by singing a song. :) It was a hard good-bye for teaching her, but we still want to visit her before either one of us gets transferred... We know that in the future will be the right opportunity for her, ojala!

Later that day and the next day a few more people dropped us.. i keep thinking 'how the heck is Christ supposed to come when no one is accepting the gospel?" this truly is the best time to serve a mission but one of the hardest times.

the next couple days we had no success, we had no lessons.. but we got outside and we tried, but i guess we didn't try hard enough. Heavenly Father makes sure we still have faith, because i thought everything was going so great and awesome! but now is the trial of faith, to get back up and keep pushing along, keep knocking those doors, searching day and night for those people, or that one person who is waiting!

Vancouver Sky

so yes, after a long rough week it is a sunny and new week! I am not a perfect missionary, nor will i ever be. i am trying my best to work towards strengthening my testimony of the savior and of his gospel... its tough as a missionary .. its hard because there is not enough time in the day to study and remember things, there is no time to take a day off and reflect, you just keep working and moving along.  sorry this is a long and depressing email, but I'm working on trying a little harder to be a little better each day.

Doctrine and Covenants 20: 37 ...having a determination to serve him to the end...

on the bright side, my companion is so awesome and has learned a little Russian from one of our Russian friends, and she was able to use it while talking to a Russian lady. ahah it was so cool!

I love you all so much, everyone asks how long Ive been out.. yup 8 months... they say "almost to half way!' and then i freak out, where has the time gone?! I had one baptism i had in Hood River.  right when i feel success for the lords work, everything turns into dust. i know its Heavenly father testing my faith, i have patience, i cant wait... i question things to easy. gahh its my weakness!

I love this work and i am not going to give up!! yes i will struggle, every missionary will.. but there is such a determination in me to finish this mission, to try my best to change someones life, whether i see it or not i know one day i will see a miracle that i was apart of.  i love this gospel and i know it is true!

we did have little miracles this week, sister T(an amazing member missionary) found a family at the store!! They are interested in us visiting them, so hopefully that happens this week!

 Doctrine and covenants 90:11

so here is a letter of joy my mission president emailed to all the missionaries! THIS is my focus this week and the rest of my mission. truly words given to him from the Spirit, he knew i(and many other missionaries) needed to hear this:

"Sometimes even the very best get distracted. In the mission field, the most common distraction is discouragement. We all get discouraged at times because this is hard work and success is more important than any other work we will ever do, so discouragement is always going to be part of the calling. It may be impossible to avoid discouragement, but it is essential that we do not give in to it. Trying to avoid discouragement in the mission field is sort of like trying to avoid the rain in Washington. We know it will happen so the key is in dealing with it. To be sure, it is one of Satan's best tools.

One of the best ways to deal with discouragement is to keep things in perspective. Elder Maxwell said this: "This life's temporal lens distorts. The things of the moment are grossly magnified, and the things of eternity are blurred or diminished. Even something as small as a man's thumb, when held very near the eye, can blind him to the very large sun. Yet the sun is still there. Blindness is brought upon the man by himself. When we draw other things too close, placing them first, we obscure our vision of heaven."

In this great work of salvation, we cannot know what the Lord will do in the next few seconds of our life. We can only do what He has asked us to do and do it with faith in Him whose work this is. Take for example the work of a stonecutter. I take this quote from Jacob Riis: "When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two,and I know it was not that blow that did it but all those that had gone before."

So it is with us, we can never know which person will be the one that will accept our message even though we have talked with a hundred people all ready, it may well be that hundred and first one that will be golden. Let's keep our mission in perspective and that will allow us to deal with temporary bouts with discouragement. As we do, we will see the hand of the Lord in all we do.

May the Lord bless the great Washington Vancouver Mission
President and Sister Taylor

Have a great week, i love you all! A la obra!  ~  Alma 29: 8-10

She is HERE! "She's opening up a brand new area"

Sister Jeager she is beautiful.  She is in our district ----.  After she saw the pictures of our mission at the mission home that was the desire of her heart and that is where she is.  It is the best place ever.  The ward is great.  I don’t know if your daughter told you . . . but 

she is opening up a brand new area for Spanish Sisters..  This is a really BIG deal!  

And, her companion (Sister A.) is probably THE best in the whole mission. (email from a sweet sister who takes pics).  


Kelsey's arrival ~ they had rain, wind and when they left the sun came out!  She is serving in a new area.

(Kelsey & her frist companion in the field Hermana A.   ~  "Wheres the sisters")

(Packing the car up ~ Yes, it took 5 Elders to put 1 box in the Sisters car!!!)

(Praying ~ AND ~ Eating)

President and Sister Greer

Dear Missionary Family,

We are delighted to inform you that your missionary has arrived safely to the Washington Kennewick Mission.  We already love them and are excited to serve with them.  We have enjoyed becoming acquainted with them and are confident that they will become an effective instrument in the hands of the Lord in sharing the gospel with the people of Washington and Oregon.

We have assigned them a companion who is an experienced, devoted, and motivated missionary.  All of our missionaries understand that one of the greatest privileges available in the mission is to train a new missionary.  This first companion will be a special person in your missionary’s life and will help give them a great start here.

We ................

Thank you for the sacrifices you are making at home to have your missionary in the field.  We have seen the Lord bless the families of missionaries who are serving in untold ways.  We know that His blessings will be upon you as well.

With love,

President Leonard D. Greer                                        Sister Julie Greer

Washington Kennewick Mission                                 Washington Kennewick Mission