I love to see the TEMPLE:)

Sister Nalder, Sister Dittman & Mae!

We got to go to the temple this week!!! I can't even describe how excited I was to go and how amazing it was, it was so hard to leave! Mae was able to take some of her family names, and wow the spirit was so strong. Mae just kept commenting how the spirit was so strong from the moment she opened the temple doors. I just love the temple SO SO MUCH! 

San Antonio Temple with Mae! And Sister Baughman :) 

Also an update on Indira! Sorry it's been a crazy few weeks trying to plan things out with her baptism. Her baptism date was postponed (and we're still trying to figure out the official date) but she is doing so great and she will be baptized soon! 

This week our zone helped put together refugee packages! One of the sisters in one of the wards has gathered a whole bunch of donations from different people, so we just put them together. And Hermana Nalder & I actually were able to go drop off one of the packages with a member to a Spanish speaking refugee! Such a humbling experience, wow. 

I finished the Book of Mormon this week! Wow, these past few months having a lot of time to study in the scriptures, I have learned so much, and I have grown to love the Book of Mormon so much more. I know that it is the word of God, that as we make time to read it everyday we will find so much more happiness and be able to receive guidance & answers to questions in our lives. 

 At lunch with Indira & Maconi (& Marco) 

San Antonio Temple

MAE GOT BAPTIZED!

Mae's Baptism

Wow, what a crazy and exciting weekend! Well first off, we just got transfer calls this morning and BOTH Sister Nalder and I are staying!! And it's Sister Nalder's last transfer! So we are pretty excited and also really relieved that we are staying together cause we have a lot of things going on these next few weeks in our area. 

On Tuesday, we had an ice day haha! All the cars were iced over and it was frigid outside, so the schools and businesses were closed. The new first presidency message was that day so one of the members picked us up and we watched it at her house and did some phone contacting for a few hours. But wow the new First Presidency! Just from watching and listening to their words you can see they are called of God. 

So we met with Mike this week! He was baptized 18 months ago, but became inactive shortly after. But super cool experience, he reached out to one of the members in our bishopric and said he wanted to meet with the missionaries again. We got to catch up with him and he said that his life was better with the gospel, and we eventually talked about the priesthood since he never got the chance to be ordained. We had a male member with us at the lesson, and he bore a powerful testimony about the blessings of the priesthood. Overall it was an awesome lesson and we are excited to see how things go with Mike! 

Also, Mae was baptized this weekend!! It was the most amazing baptism, even her parents came! Which is huge because her parents were opposed to her conversion for the longest time and is why it took her so long to get baptized. And her testimony was so beautiful! "I'm grateful for new beginnings." :):):) such an amazing baptism day and I am so happy for her! 

I love y'all so so much and I am grateful for your prayers and support! Don't forget that God loves you! 

Exchanges with Sister Seymour

Scraping Ice Off Our Car!

With Elder Burnett who taught Mae in Austin

"HOW DO MISSIONARIES BECOME HUMAN AGAIN?"

Hello y'all! Another great week in the TSAM! 

We had a lot of ministering visits this week, which was great! It's so cool to see how these visits with members are having a big impact on our work and helping our investigators & less actives progress. We also had dinner with Bishop and his family one night, and his granddaughter Rose is hilarious :) she's only 3, but she's a talker! She kept turning to her mom in front of us and asking how we become missionaries, so we all told her a little bit about it. And then after that she said "How do they become human again?" Seriously the cutest haha!

We had the awesome opportunity to watch President Monson's funeral with some members. Such an amazing service! We've been able to talk with a lot of members and less actives this past week about him and just share our favorite memories of him. I think President Monson was known for giving powerful statements, and one of my favorites that he has shared is from the priesthood session a few years ago in Conference. 

"Dare to be a Mormon. Dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm. Dare to make it known." 

There will all be times when we have to stand up for our beliefs, even if we feel like we are absolutely alone. But how wonderful it is to know that we have a loving Savior on our side who will lift us and strengthen us as we stand up for the truth. I know that as we stand up for what is right, we will be protected and blessed in all that we do! 

Love y'all! 

SHE SAID YES!

Feeding Stella

We had Zone Conference this week, which was so good! I've only been to 2, but I always feel peaceful and motivated when I come out of them. We talked a lot about being virtuous in our thoughts, always keeping our minds focused on the work and being diligent in everything we do. So yeah, good stuff! Doing the Lord's work is so awesome :) 

So President Monson passed away, that is so crazy. I remember we were in the church Wednesday morning before our lesson with Tiffany when it popped up in an email from our mission President. I guess the feeling we all had was relieved, in a way. It was just so sad to not see him at conference this past year and to hear how his health was declining. But now he is with his sweet wife and resting from his labors. What an amazing man he was, he was Prophet all while I was growing up, so I am super super grateful for the example he was to everyone and his faithful service to the Lord. 

2 awesome miracles this week in Helotes area! We were doing some contacting in the afternoon one day, and we stopped by Fred's house. He's met with missionaries a few times but there wasn't much progress. So we asked him if he wanted a Book of Mormon and he said no. We talked to him a little bit more and talked about the Book of Mormon, and before we left we asked him again if he wanted a Book of Mormon, and he said yes! That night we also met with Lindsey, who is the cutest lady ever! She has a 2 year old and her husband is a less active, so we got talking to them for a while and was telling Lindsey about the exercise class some ladies in the ward do since she has been trying so hard to come to church activities, and Lindsey all of a sudden was like "Okay. So how do I go about being a member? Do I need to take lessons or get baptized or go to church?" We were like whaaaat?? We could tell her husband didn't like that question haha :) 

And GUESS WHAT? Indira said yes to baptism! I am seriously so so SO excited for her! We have only taught her for a month, but I have seen so much change in her within this month. She said that in our lesson last time, she felt the Spirit so strongly and that one of her friends reassured her that the decision to be baptized is her own, not anyone else's. She was just beaming in our lesson, it was such an amazing experience to see in that moment how the gospel can change someone's life. This work truly is so amazing and this gospel brings so much happiness! 

I love y'all! 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Well happy new year everyone! 

Since missionaries have a curfew, we didn't really get to celebrate like everyone else :) but it was exciting to wake up to a new year! Except for the fact that it's 26 degrees outside today. Super cold, but the roads are empty cause no one wants to travel outside, so I guess that's good! :)

Since some of our investigators and potentials are still gone for the holidays, we decided to try contacting some less actives this week. And we were able to meet with a few! Texans are seriously so nice, I was a little worried to contact less actives, thinking that they wouldn't want to see us missionaries. But they let us right in and we had a lot of good visits with them :) 

Carlton's lesson was awesome this week! The night before his lesson, he texted us and said "can I ask a question?" So we were like yes go for it! And he responded "I heard that you can have more than one wife, is that true?" Haha so we told him no but that we would explain more in our lesson. So that was pretty interesting :) But the lesson was so good, we taught about the Plan of Salvation and he had a lot of great questions throughout the lesson. He kept telling us that he was so excited to go tell all of his friends about what he learned! Seriously so cool, I love teaching about our Heavenly Father's Plan of Happiness! 

We were SO CLOSE to setting Indira on a baptism date this week! We felt impressed to teach her about the Atonement this week based off of a personal experience she shared with us last time. The Spirit was so strong in our lesson and we could just see the light in her eyes as we were teaching her. We extended to her the baptismal invitation, and one of the biggest rules in missionary work is that you DO NOT talk until the investigator answers that important question. It is the most crucial time where the investigator is listening to the Spirit, and especially for Indira we know that making the decision is hard because of all of the temptations back home in Colombia. Sadly though, one of our members spoke up right before she was going to answer. We were like NO!!! So yeah, we were pretty bummed out after that lesson, but we know that this is the Lord's work. We feel that Indira is totally ready to join this gospel, and we know that all things will work out in His timing. 

The Zone on our way to SeaWorld!