"Maybe next time..."

Hermana Monroe

First we'll start with the bad news... Carol dropped us. Which sad to say it's not a surprise because she's done it several times the past few years, but she told us she doesn't see herself joining the church. She said she'll still come to church every so often and come to Sister Young's bible class haha :) and we're still going to keep in touch with her. But yeah it's still sad, cause she was making a lot of progress this time. 

On Tuesday we had interviews with President, and it was different this time cause President & Sister Polley joined us for our district councils. And no joke, whenever interviews roll around I am always chosen to give a training ;) but it turned out good, and it's always so fun to see President and his wife! We also got to go to MLC this Friday, and the biggest theme was talking about how we can make dinner appointments & working with members finding opportunities. MLC is always held at the UTSA building (which was in my last area) and I got to see Brianne there! She was one of the members in my last area, it was so much fun to see her :) 

Sister Green

I went on exchanges with Sister Green in her area in Fredericksburg, and it is so pretty! They cover a branch and their area is the cutest german town ever. And I just love exchanges cause I get to know more sisters and see more areas of the mission :)

So on Thursday we had a lesson with Michelle, and one of the first things we asked her at the beginning of the lesson is what she feels Heavenly Father wants for her in her life in the future and after this life. She sat there for a moment and got emotional, then talked about having an eternal family. It was so amazing to see the things that Elmer has been teaching her about the church, and to see how her heart has opened up the past few months. It was a perfect start to the lesson cause it was the central message of the Plan of Salvation lesson that we taught. Throughout the lesson we kept promising her those blessings of how she can make it to the Celestial Kingdom, and her & Elmer came to church on Sunday! Dang the members who know them were so excited to see them, and they loved church :) the next step is getting Elmer's records moved into the ward! 

Ok so also when Sister Monroe was on exchanges in our area she stopped by the Castaneda family (active but the wife hasn't come for health reasons), but it was a bad time to come by, so they told us to come back on Friday. We came back Friday evening and they were so excited to see us. We talked with the father for a while and found out he hasn't been sealed to his wife, so we invited him to start making a plan of how he can get back to the temple. We were getting ready to leave and Sister Monroe puts out her hand for a handshake. Brother Castaneda rubs his hand on his nose and says "My nose is running." She was like "Oh okay...maybe next time!" It was so hard for us not to laugh in front of the family, they are just the cutest :) 

In my studies this past week I have been reading about the events leading up to Christ's appearance in the Americas. This morning I came across these verses in 3 Nephi 9 of when the people can only hear Christ's voice:

13 O all ye that are spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?

14 Yea, verily I say unto you, if ye will come unto me ye shall have eternal life. Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me.

I LOVE these verses! It is so simple, all we have to do in order to have eternal life is to follow the example of our Savior. And the way we do that is by humbling ourselves and repenting of our sins -- giving our mistakes, burdens, and shortcomings to Christ and allowing Him to support us during our mortal journey. His arm is extended towards us, but we have to choose to come unto Him in order to partake of His blessings. 

Con amor