Week 62

Hola!!

Well this week was an interesting one!! We had Concilio on Tuesday, and it was wonderful! I was able to see all my companions that are still in the mission! We also got to see the new Christmas video! (I hope you have all seen it... If not watch it. It is wonderful! mormon.org) We also talked a lot about gratitude. And well with this week being Thanksgiving, I tried to be better about counting my blessings. What did you do for Thanksgiving?? We had a superb zone meeting! 

Well yesterday we had the primary program! It was was great! Children really are more receptive to the Spirit.

Here are some quotes from this week that have really helped me (They are all from Richard G. Scott):

- "A good sense of humor helps revelation; loud laughter does not. A sense of humor is an escape valve for the pressures of life."

-"When we are acting as instruments in behalf of others, we are more easily inspired than when we think of only ourselves. In the process of helping others, the Lord can piggyback directions for our own benefit." 

-"Communication with our Father in Heaven is not a trivial matter. It is a sacred privilege. It is based upon eternal, unchanging principles. We receive help from our Father in Heaven  in response to our faith, obedience, and the proper use of agency."

***This isn't from Elder Scott, but it is also great! "I have wept in the night for shortness of sight that to somebody's need made me blind; But I never have yet felt a tinge of regret for being a little too kind."

Well this week starts LIGHT THE WORLD!! I hope some of these quotes can help inspire you to serve and participate in all of the good that will be done. If you go to mormon.org, it has things for you to do every single day.

Ponderizing: Ether 12:12

Love you all!

Hermana Garrett

La Boda (Wedding) of Wendy and Bryan

Group picture! The 2 on the end are the ones who baptized Wendy and Bryan

THE SUPER HAPPY COUPLE!

The happy family

The signing of the witnesses... and yes, even my companion and I signed! :)

Cutting the cake

With the gifts

Wendy and Bryan right before the ceremony

Preparations for the Wedding

The invitations

Making the center pieces

We put scriptures with the center pieces

Everyone wrote little notes for Wendy and Bryan

Here is the set up 

The sister that made the cake! It was so delicious!!

Making food with a sister in the ward

Sushi, Dr. Pepper, and Cake

Week 61

HOLA!! 

SOOO this week was one of the craziest, funniest, most rewarding, and enjoyable weeks in my whole mission!! Here are just some reasons why:

-So to start, I got a new companion and she is so awesome! Her name is Hermana Luciano, she is from Mexico, and she was the one who took my spot in Estanzuela and so she was able to update me on everyone over there! 

-It was also the weekend of Wendy and Bryan's wedding! And you know what?! It went so well! The pictures of the evidence are above.

So that was basically the highlight of my week! 

Ponderizing: Mormon 9:21 I love this because it is a promise that we all want. As we ask for things, and have faith, we can recieve all that we need. I sure saw that a lot this week. We needed so much help getting everything together in so little time. It was sure a blessing and miracle how it all worked out!

Love you all!

-Hermana Garrett

Bye, Hermana Kioa! and Sister Training Leaders

Panda and Trio

Week 60

HOLAAAA!!!

Well this week was super crazy! Basically my companion finished her mission, so we were running all around! She had her final interview and we went out to eat with the mission President's wife. That was pretty great! :) Then on Wednesday a family invited us to eat PANDA EXPRESS!!! It was so wonderful! Then on Thursday I went with Hermana Kioa to the airport... at 4am. That was pretty sad to see her go. And since then we have been in a trio. We have actually had some pretty neat moments this week, here are a few:

-On Wednesday with Hermana Kioa we were walking, and she stopped me and was like let's go help that Hermana (who was moving a huge mattress). So we went over and helped her and ended up being able to help her move all of her things and organize them in her house. And afterwards she was super receptive! We ended up having a lesson with her, and we are going to go back and visit her this week.

-So on Thursday I was able to work with some of the members of the ward (because I didn't have a companion) And well it went super well! And when I was with Alejandra, my new best friend in the ward :) She is 19 and is getting her papers ready to go on a mission. So, in the evening she had a prompting to go visit a less active, so we went and it was such a great lesson, and the less active was like well I want to start going to church again!! So we are going to work with her this week! We will see if she goes to church! Her name is Cristina.

-Then last night we were in Acatan (the area of the other Hermanas) and we were knocking doors and knocked on the door of a man named Erick. He was nice but was like sorry my wife is asleep and so you can't come in... So we were like, okay, we will come back another day... well we kept walking and we were around the corner when a little girl stops us and asks if we were the ones who knocked on the blue house, we said yes, and she said that her dad (Erick) had woken up his wife, and that he wanted us to come back and visit them. So we went, and ended up having a wonderful lesson!! Too bad they aren't in my area! :) 

Well this week in our reunión de distrito we talked about the blessing of having prophets and apostles. I really am so very grateful for Thomas S. Monson. I know that he is a prophet of God. And we were talking about how important it is that other people understand that in our church we really do believe that God still communicates with His children on the Earth through prophets. I hadn't ever thought what it would be like to think that God had just left us here... or that He didn't think we were important or worthy enough to have a prophet... That would be so sad. But I know that God loves us. That is why we have a porphet.

Ponderizing: 3 Nephi 27:13 I love this verse. Here it is in English and Spanish :)

13 Behold I have given unto you my gospel, and this is the gospel which I have given unto you—that I came into the world to do the will of my Father, because my Father sent me.

13 He aquí, os he dado mi evangelio, y este es el evangelio que os he dado: que vine al mundo a cumplir la voluntad de mi Padre, porque mi Padre me envió.

Love you all!!! Next week I will send pictures of my new comp! 

-Hermana Garrett

Day of the Dead

Week 59

Hola!!

So this week went well! It flew by that is for sure!! Here are some highlights:

-So we went with Wendy and Bryan, and well they are back together now, and have a wedding date for 19 of November!! Please pray that everything goes smoothly with them!! They want to get married and baptized the same day! 

-We had divisions with some other Hermanas in the capital, and they went super well! And while we were in divisions we found Katherine. She is 19 years old. She is awesome! She and her husband have 2 daughters, and they live in a tiny tiny room. They don't even have a bed or chairs. But they are so happy. Her husband sells peanuts on the street. He probably makes about 15Q a day... Which is about $1.75... But they are sure great. They are originally from a little pueblo (town) up north. They have their own dialect. And they feel more comfortable praying in their language... It is pretty neat. 

-So a few weeks back we found Luis and Oralia. They were sure nice to us since the first time we met them. Well after the first lesson, we went back and back and back and they were never there, and sometimes they would answer the phone, but most of the time no. Well this week when we went, we found out why... Because Oralia had her baby!! We were like ohhhh yeah it all makes sense now! :) But the mother in law told us that Oralia had to rest (be in the house, can't clean, basically can't do anything) for 40 days! I was like, I think that is a little extreme... But they are doing well. They are reading in the Book of Mormon, and the daughter Ashley is super pilas (awesome)!

-So Tuesday was crazy!! We had concilio (counsel) in the morning, and then we rushed back home because we had an activity as a zone where we were outside the cemetery singing and contacting people, because it is was Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead)! It went super well!!! And after we went and cleaned in the cemetery! But man! THERE WERE A TON OF PEOPLE! Everyone goes and puts flowers, food, drinks, etc. on the graves of their family members. And well it was super awesome. We were able to talk to so many people, and well, I was singing the whole time, so I was happy! :) And well a lot of our investigators saw us that day, and since have been much more willing to let us in and visit with us!  

-On Sunday we had a goal to find a family of 4, and well we were walking past a street, and remembered that we had talked to a lady once that said she lived in this street, so we decided to give it a try. We knocked on the door... and waited... then we knocked again... and waited... and then Angela answered the door, walked us up to her apartment, and what do you know?! A family of 4! And they were sooooo great! And at the end of the lesson the dad said the prayer, and Angela told us that she had told her sons about us and they were waiting for us to stop by their house! She said that God clearly wanted us to pass by that day for them, and that is wasn't by chance.

Pondering: 3 Nephi 15:9

Love you all!!

-Hermana Garrett