Week 57: June 27, 2017: Our branch has been really focused on missionary work lately, which is the best!

This week was really busy and really good! Shift at the visitor center kinda limits the time that we have in our area but it just helps us to be super productive with the time that we do have. I do love being here at the visitor center though and I have been able to talk to so many incredible people from all over. We have shift every single day (including pdays) so I finished off last pday at the visitor center and then had it wednesday morning too. After shift we went straight to district meeting and that was really good! We talked about faith and working with the members.

We have been meeting with our branch mission leader, the elders, and the branch president a ton so that we can get the work moving along. Sister Farnsworth and I have been thinking and praying so much about what we can do to help the members in the ward and how we can bring more people into the fold. We have been feeling a little inadequate with the language but we study and talk in spanish like literally all the time. I know that the gift of tongues is real, seriously it has helped me so much. But it was really cool to see how fasting this past week helped us to understand the needs of the branch so much clearer and I feel like we have a pretty good idea of how we want to tackle all the work that we need to do. I couldn't do any of this without the spirit. 

Our branch has been really focused on missionary work lately, which is the best! They are planning a missionary activity for August (it got pushed back like a month..) which I think will be really good to help the members have a little more direction with the missionary work and I know that we'll be able to see tons of success from it. 

On to some investigators, we were finally able to meet with G and R this week! They are the siblings of a recent convert that was baptized the sunday before we came into the branch so super new and we have been trying to work with her 2 siblings. They came to church on sunday, which was great!! G is going to the temple for the first time tonight with the youth and her siblings are going to walk around outside the temple with a couple other members! Its also her birthday today and she just kept saying that she wouldn't want to be anywhere else on her birthday, so sweet! 

As far as less actives go, we have been visiting and talking to tons but none of them have really acted on our message yet...but that's okay, we'll keep working! 

We did weekly planning yesterday and with studies and shift that basically filled our entire day, but it was good and we now have tons of good things planned for this upcoming week. 

Today for pday we went and toured the Community of Christ temple across the street and that was good. They have a cool little museum there and then we took a tour of their prayer room and sanctuary and art work and stuff, it was all good! I'll send my pictures from this week in a separate email.

I hope that you are all doing well! I love hearing about all of your adventures and I'm happy that you're all having fun together in Houston. I love you all tons :) Give the babies a big hug and kiss for me!
Erin

Week 56: June 20, 2017: Ive been transferred back to Independence MO Visitor Center again!

Well lots of things have happened since I sent a decent email haha! I have been transferred back to Independence MO and am serving in the Visitor Center again! I was a little surprised to find out that I was being transferred because most people stay in Kaw River (the area I was in) for at least 3 or 4 transfers and I had only been there for 2 but I got kicked out and now my companion and I have the huge blessing of being able to open up a spanish branch in the Independence Stake. The branch is called Santa Fe and I'll give you a little update about it and me.

-It is only about 5 months old because it was just created in February.
-For the past 5 months, only elders have been serving here so Hermana Farnsworth and I are the first sisters to be serving here!
-it is completely spanish so I will finally have TONS of time to speak it!
-a lot of the members are from the Riverview branch (the first area that I served in on my mission) so I already know and love lots of the members
-we didn't have an areabook or a list of members for the first 3 days that I was here. We had gotten a little bit of info from the Elders but they whitewashed the area and are both brand new to it too so we literally started with nothing haha.
-The branch president of Riverview when I was there is now the branch president for santa fe so I get to continue working with him!
-we got our area all organized though and are ready to WORK


Because we haven't been here long and we are opening up the area, we have had to start from scratch. We have spent most of our time since being here meeting with members from the auxiliaries to introduce ourselves, get to know them, share a message, and ask for referrals and it has been super good. We met with the RS president this week who is SO good and so dedicated to fulfilling her calling. She has been a huge help and had such a neat life too.


Oh and my comp is Hermana Farnsworth!! She is super sweet and such a hard worker! She has been out for about 9 months and is from Utah. She literally is so good at following the spirit and talking to everyone. She is so good at realizing gods will and acting on it. I have already learned so much from her. We have been talking in spanish ALL THE TIME with each other so that we can actually learn because we are both white girls trying to learn haha but I have already learned SO MUCH. And it hasn't been bad at all because the gift of tongues is so real. It takes a lot of studying and hard work to qualify for it and my brain hurts like all the time from thinking in spanish but I know that itll all work out!


We have a lesson tomorrow with the brother of a recent convert! We have been trying to work a lot through the members because we dont have much to go off of in our area and the members are super involved in missionary work. It is a little funny when we drive or walk down the street and literally stop to talk to anyone and everyone that looks like they may speak spanish haha but it has really helped me to get out of my comfort zone.


I still think that I forgot to say some stuff but I love you all lots! Thanks for supporting me and loving me! I really appreciate all of it and its super sweet. Mom, tell Chelsea I say thank you for the box that she sent and also tell Tamara thanks for her generosity! Keep sending me pictures and updating me on your lives! Its good to hear from you all


Have a good week and love you all lots! 

Week 55: June 12, 2017: Jorge got baptized this week and it was so sweet!

Hi Family,

I dont have much time to email today so this is going to be pretty

brief but I hope that youre all doing well! Things are going really

well!

Most of this week was finding because like all of our investigators

have either gotten baptized (which is great!) or we had to drop them.

Our teaching pool is real low at the moment. But we were able to find

a really cool investigator this week that has 2 kids and is excited to

learn more! She loved the Book of Mormon and said that she was excited

to start reading it.

Jorge got baptized this week and it was so sweet! He was so happy to

be baptized (even though it doesn't look like it in the pictures).

Ill send pictures now and better emails next week! 

SORRY LOVE YOU

Week 54: June 5, 2017: This week was a little more on the normal side of missionary work...

Hey Family!

This week was a little more on the normal side of missionary work

cause not too many crazy miracles happened but it was still a great

week! It started off with FHE with the Natividads and Cervantes and

that went super well. We did a little activity with them and talked

about the role of the Holy Ghost. They are super sweet and we are

going to do another one with them tonight! Tuesday we tried a TON of

potentials and less actives but almost NONE of them opened the door.

It was a little eventful though because we found a little kids wallet

on the side of the road and knocked all the doors on that street to

try and find out who it belonged to. We got to meet lots of super

sweet people but none of them were interested in the gospel...

Tuesday we did service for Hermana Balza and that is always fun. Her

husband is in the bishopric in the ward I'm serving in and we see her

a lot because if we ever dont have a dinner, she feeds us. And she

feeds us a TON. But all good food, I just feel like I've eaten my

weight by the time we leave haha. She actually fell asleep on the

couch before we even left so we just left a little note on a napkin on

the counter and snuck out haha

We had a lesson with the Muñoz family on Thursday night and talked all

about family history! They are looking for their own family names so

that we can go to the temple with them on June 24th! Ruster has

already been but because the parents haven't, we get to go with them

to the temple! I'm so excited and it is so sweet to see how excited

they got about family history. After church on Sunday they were the

first ones over to the bishops office and pulled him aside to get

their temple recommends and talk about family history.

We had zone conference on Friday and that was really good. It was

President Vests last zone conference and probably the last time I will

see him before he goes home and we get a new mission president on July

1st.

Tiara is still doing well! She is having a hard time making it to

church because her boss keeps scheduling her to work on Sundays even

thought she keeps telling Tiara that she wont. We told Tiara to just

do her best to make it to church because thats just how life is and

not to quit her job until she has another one lined up...but she said

she is probably going to quit anyways...so we'll see how that goes.

Everything is going well! We should have Jorge's baptism this weekend

but he has his interview on Wednesday so we will find out for sure

after that. I have no worries about his not passing but you never

know. His dad came to church again this week so he is starting to

progress as well.

It sounds like you all had a great week this week! I'm glad that dad

and Jason were safe and had fun in Cozumel and I'm sure you're having

fun floating the river today! I love and miss you all lots :) thanks

for sending me pictures and supporting me and sending me things. I

haven't been able to think of anything else to put in the box to send

me but I'll let you know if I think of anything.

LOVE YA

These are all the sisters in the Lenexa and Olathe Stakes