WE JESUS PEOPLE

Becca & Ryan

Another great week in the YSA ward! First off, there has been a lot of news going around state side missions of combining missions and cutting back on missionaries since US missions have low numbers, and our mission just received news last week that we'll be going from 180 missionaries to 160. So fun stuff!

We're finally starting to teach Ryan again! Him and Becca had really busy schedules the past few weeks so we weren't able to get together for a lesson. Sadly Becca told us that she thinks he wont convert cause his other church feels like home to him, but in one of our lessons with him this week we talked about the Priesthood, and he really liked it! Our mission received training at a Spanish conference a few months ago about "Connecting to Heaven" messages, which is sharing the unique doctrine of our church to help investigators recognize the promised blessings that come from the gospel. He said he still has to ponder on it, but we promised him blessings from being able to hold the priesthood and we will see where things go from there! :)

Daniel came to church on Sunday! Wow this guy is awesome, we had a lesson with him on Thursday, and he was telling us about how he was talking to his mom and girlfriend about meeting with us missionaries. His girlfriend doesn't like him meeting with us haha and is just really confused why he is talking to random strangers even though he considers us his friends. He was like "Well, we Jesus people tend to be very weird" haha and he told us that whenever he talks to family or friends about us, he calls us his "Jesus friends" haha :)

Also, we have another baptism coming up on March 3rd! We have a new member in our ward named Keiki who starting coming a month ago, and her boyfriend Tim has been taking the discussions! But he was taught by the missionaries up in Boerne since that is where Keiki and her family live. We worked things out this week and now Tim is passed on to us since he will be coming to the YSA. He is so excited for his baptism and we're so grateful for this opportunity to work with him! 

Les quiero mucho! 

The District

The District

Top Golf!

Sisters!

Exchanges w/Sister Holt

Zone Conference

I LOVE TO SEE THE TEMPLE!!

Sister Nalder & I at the San Antonio Temple!

Well it's been a quick minute since I last wrote y'all haha :) There were a few ups and downs with the miracles that we saw this week, but we keep pushing forward! The biggest thing that is sad for Sister Nalder & I is that Caitlyn is not responding right now. At the beginning of the week, she sent us a text saying "Sisters! I think baptism is the next step for me." And mentioned that she wanted to meet with the bishop but also wanted her parents blessing. We had set up a few lessons with her for this past weekend and were trying to work with the bishop, but then her friend Madeline came up to us at Institute on Wednesday and said that she was worried about Caitlyn cause her parents have been persuading her to not get baptized. Caitlyn later on cancelled our appointments :( Let me just say that Satan is a punk haha. It definitely has been sad for me to see how Satan can easily have power over people, but we just keep having faith that God will provide and make all things right in the end. 

But another miracle this week that is still positive! On Saturday we didn't have any plans so we had decided to knock a whole building in an apartment complex, but we did not feel good about it at all. We tried knocking a few doors but it just didn't seem right. Any type of work we thought to do didn't seem good, which was so weird cause we are used to always working. We decided to go to the church and take a quick break and see what the Spirit was telling us. After a while Sister Nalder felt impressed that she needed a blessing, so we called the district leader and coordinated to meet with the elders. So we are on our way out of the church building to go meet the elders, and Victoria (recent convert who just moved into our ward) is like "Sisters, I have a funny story to tell y'all!" Long story short, some new Elders from Corpus Christi where she got baptized a year ago just barely saw her record and wanted to get together to do some family history. But they didn't realize that she moved to San Antonio and we don't think Victoria realized that Corpus is not in our mission haha. So they both met at the church, but then realized that they met at the church building in different cities. So then after she told us the whole story she was like "So since I'm here, can you sisters help me with my family history?" Crazy stuff! We have been trying to contact her several times with no success, but at that moment we knew that God was leading us to the church so that we could finally meet Victoria. And to help her with her family history so she can take a name to the temple!

Speaking of temples, wow the temple was AMAZING! Like the best way to describe it is that the Spirit basically came at me 100 mph. It was crazy haha :) Temples are seriously so special. It is Christ's house, He walks those hallways and I know that it is where we can feel closest to Him and our Heavenly Father. 

Love y'all! Have a wonderful week :) 

Zone Sports Day w/ Our Zone & the North Zone

INDIRA'S BAPTISM!

Indira's Baptism

First off, I was wrong about my email last week saying that the Patriots won haha. My dad deceived me and I completely thought that they won, but I guess they didn't so yay!! Haha super embarassing though that I got it wrong :) I guess I'm also making things super confusing with the comp thing. I don't have a new companion yet! Sister Nalder is still here and I love her to death and I'm going to be so so sad when she goes home in 3 weeks. But I have been spending a lot of time with Sister Holt with exchanges when our companions go out with the other sisters, and Sister Holt is awesome :):)

Well I am emailing today cause Sister Nalder & I are going to the TEMPLE! During our mission we can go to the temple 2 times for a personal visit, but we have to change our p-day to do so. But I am so so excited to finally go today and I will send some more pictures on Monday :) 

Contacting has been getting better, since we mostly knock apartment complexes there are a lot of potentials in our area book from past missionaries, but since we knock by campus people move around a lot. So Sister Nalder and I decided to just start fresh with our contacting, and our mission president has really stressed the idea of asking inspired questions to help teach people. We had a really cool contact last Monday night with a guy named Daniel! He is amazing, wow. Super strong faith in Christ and he stood outside and talked with us for 45 minutes, basically telling us his life story! He agreed to let us come back another time and was super friendly with us, he was like "Ok well it was nice to meet ya, I'm gonna give y'all a hug!" And he came closer to me to give me a hug and i'm just like "Uhhhhh sorry no." hahaha so yeah we had to explain why we don't give hugs and all that stuff and he was okay with it, but super funny. 

One of the nights that I was on exchanges with Sister Holt, we taught Caitlyn who is roommates with Madeleine, one of the members in our ward. She was taught 2 other lessons before Christmas break, but we weren't able to keep in contact with Caitlyn cause of the holidays and everything. And it was my first time meeting Caitlyn cause the other times she was taught I was on exchanges in another area. But anyways, Caitlyn is just the cutest and she is so close to baptism! We had an awesome lesson on the Plan of Salvation, and she is just so solid. She has been coming to church with Madeleine and they read the Book of Mormon together every day :) can I just say how much I love the members here?? 

The highlight of the week was definitely Indira's baptism. Wow it was so good! haha the only downside was that it was a 2 hour baptism. Macony who baptized Indira was came really late from work so we had to wait for him, and then after the baptism ordinance we were waiting 15 minutes after Indira came out and everything, just wondering what is taking Macony so long to get ready. Finally one of the members realized that he didn't take his bag of extra clothes with him in the bathroom, so they had to go run the bag to him. ay ay ay hahah fun stuff :) but it was a beautiful baptism! In gospel principles on Sunday Indira talked shared with everyone how she was just recently baptized, and she shared how much joy she felt the day of her baptism and wishes that everyone can feel of that same joy. Not just some people, but EVERYONE! It was so cute :) 

Well I think that's it for this week! I love y'all so so much and I'm so grateful for your love & prayers every day! There is nothing greater than doing the Lord's work! I know that He lives and loves us, and that His gospel brings everlasting happiness. 

Con amor, 

Priorities -- CHICK-FIL-A

Cake & Ice Cream in a Mug!

Rose (bishop's granddaughter) aka Sweetest girl in the world!

"This is the best decision I have ever made!"

Lunch at Raising Cane's after district meeting with some of the zone 

I can't believe it's already Monday again haha :) Lots of cool things happened this week! 

Since my comp and Sister Seymour are STL's, I went on a few exchanges with Sister Holt this week, and she is the sweetest! We were in her area on Tuesdaynight and had dinner with a recent convert family. They have been members for 5 years and guess how they were found? Door contacting! So YES it works! :) They are the cutest family, we had a less active come over to their house right afterwards for a lesson, and earlier in our dinner we were talking to their son Joshua who has asbergers. He kept talking about how he was so excited to go to the stake dance haha. So fast foward to after our lesson with the less active Gene. Brother Kane asked Gene if he could say the closing prayer, and Gene was a little hesitant but we helped him to feel comfortable. After the prayer, Joshua immediately says, "Great prayer, Gene! Good news! I'm going to the dance!" We were all laughing and Gene was just confused cause he missed that part of the conversation haha :) good stuff 

Oh and our mission has smartphones now! Very exciting stuff, Sister Nalder and I are still trying to adjust to it haha but I know that it is going to help the work so much more. 

My second companion Sister Holt

We had a few lessons with Indira this week, and she is set to get baptized this Saturday on the 10th! She had a question about discerning between our own thoughts and the Holy Ghost, and we started to read Moroni 7:15-19 with her, but she liked the chapter so much she just read the rest of it out loud :) we had a very good discussion of how God will help us make important decisions in our lives and how developing charity helps us to become more like God and improve our relationships with other people. She told us how the member family she is living with and us missionaries are like family to her, and then she straight up said that her decision to be baptized is the best decision she has ever made! Like wow the spirit was SO STRONG in that lesson. Ahh I am so so excited for Indira, seeing the gospel change people is so cool :) 

This weekend was stake conference, and we received a new stake presidency! So Elder Cornish and Elder Larkin of the quorum of the 70 came to speak. All of the talks given were so good! President Freckleton (Old stake President) talked about how if we are feeling "overwhelmed" in our callings, we are basically saying it is our work and not the Lord's work. Elder Larkin talked about the unique principles of our church, such as the priesthood and saving ordinances but how the rock of our church is revelation. We are still guided by Heavenly Father today, and Christ is the head of this church. 

Ok and then Elder Cornish gave an amazing talk about repentance and serving others. Here are just some prime quotes :) 

"Repentance is not a punishment, it is a gift and a blessing. Repentance is when we say "help, I have messed up and I need to change" and God says "Christ can help you".
"The rarest way to seek happiness is to try and make yourself happy."

I know without a doubt that repentance is one of the greatest gifts God has given us. None of us are perfect (especially me, I make so many mistakes every day) but how wonderful it is to know that we have a loving Heavenly Father who trusts us and wants to give us even more than second chances. If there is one thing I could tell y'all, it's to repent daily. Please don't hold anything back. Christ wants to help you and Heavenly Father doesn't want you to carry your burdens. Give everything to Christ and TRUST HIM.