I love finding families to teach

Hola Familia!

The Spanish Sisters of the mission

So this week has been a lot better. We are working with a lot more people and that keeps us busy. Our white board is filled with names and plans on how we are going to help these people overcome their concerns that they have. 

Thank you so much for your emails. I can't believe that school has already started! Guess what? When everyone gets out of school, it will be one month until I am home! WHAT?.... So try not to make the time go by too fast, ok? work hard in school and take advantage of EVERY opportunity to challenge yourself. I remember that when I took all those AP classes, it was super hard, and I was also working....but that time was so fulfilling. Now that I am constantly moving or doing something, my time is even MORE fulfilling. The time also goes by a lot faster as well. 

Jenna: are you still alive? I haven't heard from you and what you are doing! EMAIL ME!!!

Samantha: Junior year, huh? LIVE IT UP!!! You will be graduating from high school before you know it.

Veronica: How is it being a freshman? What classes are you taking? Say Hi to Mr. Smith for me, ok? I still can't believe you are in high school now, please stop growing, ok?

Shonna: YAY!!! VOLLEYBALL!! You can do it, good luck with try-outs. Just do your best and always work your hardest. Who are the coaches? I play volleyball with the branch every friday night when we have our investigator there and it is so much fun! I play in my flats and skirt but somehow I am able to still hit the ball and tip it and they are actually really good. I love it so much and it reminds me of how much I love and miss playing volleyball.

Lydia: Thank you so much for your pictures! I LOVED THEM!! You are such a great artist. There is a girl who is just like you in the branch and she is 9 and in 4th grade too! She has glasses and reminds me so much of you :)

Dad: I think every member tells us about the missionaries who died. It makes me so sad. Obedience truly keeps us safe. the rules and commandments don't bind us, but they really keep us free. I loved the quote you sent me from Megan's letter. That is so true. We gave a family night on the importance of reading our scriptures, praying, and going to church. Doing these three things will build our testimony, and therefore, our desires to be active in the church will be because we know that this church is true and that this is what God wants us to do. We have been reading in the Book of Mormon in Alma and Alma always talks about the people who harden their hearts after having all the truth. and how do these people get to this point? They stopped praying to God continually for protection against temptation. It has been pretty interesting. MY love for and my testimony of the Book of Mormon has grown so much. It is true, it is the evidence of the truthfulness of the Gospel. Also, thank you for your letter. Sorry that I suck at writing letters. Maybe someday I will write a letter to you in Spanish :)

Mom: Wow, stop making me cry! I am so determined to go to the sealings of the Roman and Perez family  before I go home. That is my goal and it made me so happy to read of this beautiful experience with Aunt Stephanie and her family. I love and miss the temple so much. Sometimes I feel homesick for the temple, it is the weirdest feeling. Can you please go to the temple for me this week? and I am looking forward to your letter and I will try to write to you today :) I had no idea you were in Utah at the airport. You were so close! But you are always close, mom. I think about you all the time and how much I love you :)

We are teaching a woman named Maria. She currently isn't on date but her and her husband are getting married this Saturday at 4 in our chapel. They are really excited, they have been waiting for 26 years to do this. They have 6 kids!!! We taught her last night and she told us that she knows that our church is true and that everything that we teach is true, the only problem is that her dad is SUPER catholic and she is the oldest and he has a lot of trust in her. She said that if she changed religions, she would break his heart and she doesn't want to do that. So, she is kind of the pioneer in the family. And to resolve her concern, we read Alma 20 with her and it was so powerful. We all felt the Spirit and it was amazing to me how much that story applied to her situation. Moroni probably had NO idea that this story would help people overcome their family concerns! That just shows how powerful the scriptures are when we follow and teach by the spirit and when we also PLAN for our investigators and their concerns. She didn't accept a date but she is definitely more open and said she will pray and ask God if she should be baptized on September 27. It was an amazing experience. She is a great lady and she has so much potential.

Alonso is preparing for baptism for the 13th of September. Lets just say he is interesting and I will talk to you more about him after my mission :)

Guess what happened on Sunday? All 3 people who were supposed to give talks all bailed that morning so guess who got to give the talks? THE MISSIONARIES!! They told us an hour before Sacrament meeting, our Sacrament is last ( which is really weird by the way) and so we had to get our talks together while trying to pick up investigators. I talked about how if we understand WHO the Savior is, we will become closer to him because we will know why he is so important. I got up there, nothing written and only a few scriptures in my mind and I gave a 10 minute talk in Spanish with nothing written down. Talk about the gift of tongues!! That is so real! I wasn't nervous, I could say everything that I wanted to in Spanish and I was right on time and it went so smoothly. I was praying like CRAZY before but God wants us to OPEN our mouths first before he puts the words in. Sometimes we wait for the words to be in our minds before we open but it doesn't work like that. We have to open and show our faith that the words will come. 

So my Spanish is improving! I can communicate and I can understand almost everything. I remember when I couldn't understand a thing and I would cry and cry because I wanted to help resolve our investigator's concerns but I had no idea what they were saying. Now I can understand and help my investigators and I just feel so grateful for Heavenly Father's help and I know that if we have patience, everything will work out.

Scripture Power!!

​I was humbled this week by my Sister Training Leader. I realized that I haven't been fighting as hard for my investigators as I should have. Sometimes we need to be humbled and it sucks to go through it but if we really let the humility work in us, we can come out a better person. It all depends on your attitude though.

So Saturday was a special day. It was the year mark since I opened my mission call! Can you believe it? It has been a year since that day!

I love you all so much! I had a dream with all of you in it and I don't know what I was doing but I was looking through some glass and on the other side of the glass, Jenna, Mom and Lydia were there. They were waving at me and Mom was crying and waving and then I walked into another room and the whole family was there setting up for something. I realized that I miss my family but that I should enjoy this time that I have to help other families! Just know that I think about you all and pray for you:) ENJOY getting up at 6:30 for scriptures... hehehehe....mission PREP!

I love letters so write me. I will do my best to write back. We can only write letters on P-days so it might take a while but I will always write back. Have a great week!! 

Se que el evangelio de Jesucristo bendice a las familias! Esto es mi principio favorito :)

SLY!
Hermana Warren​

​These pictures are from our Brighton conference, all the Spanish sisters​

Help the Missionaries!!

Hola Familia!

Mission Conference

So this week has been a blur! I can't really think about the individual days, all I can really remember is that each day has been HOT, and I mean that I am getting tanner in these last two weeks than I have over the last summer. 

The Spanish culture is "growing" on us!!

My companionship has been going great! WE have so much fun together and talk about a lot of things....a lot of girl stuff :) It is really fun, I missed that in my last companionship. The only bad part is that we are struggling to find people to teach. And that kind of puts a damper on the fun BUT we still do our best to talk to everyone and contact referrals and invite as many people as we can to be baptized. Apparently, I am in the area that breaks missionaries, because the area is huge and the spanish population is small and kind of dangerous. Also, our branch isn't as excited about missionary work like Murray was. We rarely have rides and it has been hard to get help. Our "member present" lesson number has been really low compared to Murray. I am now realizing that I was spoiled in Murray. I really hope that I can get transferred back there again someday. 

So if you have the opportunity, go out and teach with the Elders, I am sure they will love it and you will also have the blessing of remembering your own missions. Helping for just an hour makes the biggest difference. I had the impression to say that.

So on Wednesday, we went to Brighton Canyon and we were there until about 3. We learned a lot and it was a lot of fun. Our mission president is so powerful and I love listening to him speak and sometimes, yell, because we are not doing this or struggling with that. Him and his wife are amazing and I will take you all to meet him after my mission.

We are working on this family that is a family of like 7! But 3 of the older siblings have already been baptized and we are just trying to get the parents married so they can be baptized with their two other children who haven't been baptized yet. We are trying to work with them still. We are also teaching Miriam and Danny, they aren't married either and we had an appointment with them on Sunday with the older missionary who helps people get married and they weren't there! We were writing a note for them and we saw them drive by their apartment and apparently they saw us too and drove all the way to the back of the apartment complex and sat in the back,waiting for us to leave. We followed them to the back and sneakily watched them to see what they were doing and we saw them sitting back there for a while. Then after a little bit, they got up and walked back to towards their apartment, looking around for us as they did it. Of course, we are super sneaky and they didn't see us but they kept walking and actually went to Danny's mom'm apartment. Sister Zufelt knew where it was and so after waiting  minutes, we started "tracting" around the mom's house and then knocked on her door. No one answered. We haven't been able to find them since :(

I bought a new helmet today, the one I was borrowing for the last 6 months gives me headache every time I wear it.

Exactly 6 months ago, I came into the mission field here in Salt Lake
  I was thinking about the first day here and how much I have learned and how much I have changed. I feel like such a different person. I love how the gospel is all about change, that is something that David Archuleta said when he bore his testimony to his grandpa. I really liked that :)

Anyway, I got Mom's, Shonna's, and G and G Warren's letters. Thanks you so much!!!

That is pretty much it! I love you all so much! When does Jenna go to Hawaii?

Have a great week!

SLY!
Hermana Warren

Bold, Biking & Burnt!

Hola Familia!                                      Here is my new mailing address  --------->

 I feel like my email titles are like the titles from a "Cake Boss" episodes haha :)

Thanks for telling me about the Silverwood trip.....I actually forgot that you all went on there until Sunday morning. I was getting ready and realized "Oh, everyone went to Silverwood on Friday!" I guess that is good that I forgot because that means that I am staying busy. Thanks for wearing the Superman Shirts for me, I love the picture!   I can just imagine everyone smiling at all of you wearing those super hero shirts. That reminds me when me and all my friends wore BYU shirts to Silverwood and all the members of the church would always say hi or give us High 5's or something. I hope everyone went on AFTERSHOCK! I absolutely LOVE that ride.

 SO I filled up my journal! I am starting a new one :) I don't know if I should keep it or send it home?

Saying Goodbye to the members in Murray

Ok, so this week has seriously been the craziest week of my mission. With my first transfer and everything, it was super stressful trying to pack and then trying to say goodbye to all of my recent converts and investigators. I was crying by the end of the night...I just love Murray so much. I missed my investigator's baptism on Wednesday :(I will never forget that ward. BUT I was super excited to go to a new area and meet new people and have to completely rely on the Lord because you have NO idea where to go or who to visit, so that was a nice change for me. 

My companion is Sister Zufelt and this is her last transfer.  HAHHA Dad, good one....me a trainer? I don't know what will happen but I do know that I will have to know this area in 6 weeks and this are is HUGE! I am now in the Union Fort 10th branch so the area is just as big as Murray but the branch is TINY! About half of the branch area is in the mountains and only the rich people live up there....so we pretty much stay in about 3 stakes pretty close to State Street.

My own closet

We live with a member and she has a GORGEOUS house compared to the Legacy Apartments where we were. Half of the living room has a pool table in it and a ping pong attachment, you will have to send some paddles and a ball for us to play :) Just that room alone is about the size of the Legacy apartment. I have my own closet and we have a living room with a TV so we can watch church movies during lunch. I love where I am living! And the area right around my house is super nice too, so we go outside in the morning and run around and enjoy being in the cool weather ( I am trying to enjoy it before winter comes back!)

Aren't you jealous Dad?

The only bummer part about this area is that the members of the branch don't really help us that much, so we are biking ALL day. I have been SO tired this week, I feel like I am starting my mission all over again! I am getting really tan and I actually got burnt on my neck and nose yesterday! That was surprising! I guess I was pretty pampered in Murray with the ward members, I am really grateful for rides from members now. But because we are biking, we meet a lot of people on the streets....and let me just tell you, I have more crazy experiences this week than I had in those 6 months in Murray. The people in Midvale are crazy! There are 2 experiences that I want to talk about.

 So I have been the boldest missionary that I have ever been this last week. The first experience was with an older man who we stopped and asked if he knew anyone who spoke Spanish. Then he started bashing the Church and Joseph Smith, saying that he "did his research" and we thought that he was going to stop but he just kept going and going, and soon I couldn't take it anymore! I asked him if he believed that everything on the internet was true and he said no but then tried to make excuses that the things that he read were true and that we are on the wrong path and that we need to do our research and know for ourselves. Then he started bashing about things that we do in the temple and at that point, I drew the line and cut him off and told him straight up that he is wrong and then Sister Zufelt told him that he doesn't know Jesus Christ. Then I bore my testimony that I know that these things are true and God told me personally that they are true. Then I invited him to be baptized and he was shocked! Then we told him that we needed to go and then we biked away. This was the first time that I have been this bold and my heart was pounding when we left. The words from the Book of Mormon came into my head, when Alma talked about only having his testimony to fight with and that is so true. I haven't read the things on the internet and I don't know the scriptures perfectly or anything like that but I realized that I really do know that these things are true. I sometimes doubt if I have a testimony of these things but God always blesses us with an opportunity to share that testimony with someone. Sometimes we need to talk to someone who attacks everything that we believe to be true...then we REALLY understand how deep our testimony is. I am really grateful for that experience.

 The next experience happened 2 days ago. We have a lot of shady apartment complexes in our area. We set up an appointment with a man a few days before and we went by for the appointment and of course, he wasn't interested BUT his friends came out and talked to us. They are younger guys....ok, they were gangsters. They were smoking, and drinking beer and cussing like they were in high school, one of them was 21 and 17 and I just knew that these two guys were just lost. If you could take everything bad about this world and squish it into one apartment, THAT was the apartment. Their lives were filled with parties, drinking, girls, and crime. They even admitted things that they had done, both of them had been in jail, sold drugs, things like that. But they were asking us some of life's deepest questions, like, "If there is a God, why do bad things happen in this world?", or they would say "I feel so lost. I don't know what to do." or "I want to change my life but I don't know how." or "What is the purpose of this life?" We stood there and talked to them for 50 minutes, answering their questions. We walked away just shocked at how powerful Satan can be and how these people are so stuck into this hole, they feel like death is the only way out. I felt so grateful to have grown up in this church and have the gospel in my life. I felt so grateful to be able to meet these guys, even though they were drinking and smoking and cussing, I felt like the Spirit was right there with me, telling me what to say. I honestly can't remember what we talked about but I know that the Spirit will tell us what to say. I have grown so much this last week in my testimony and in being bold...there is no time to sugar coat things!

 So yeah, those are the cool things from this week. Just biking, being bold, and having fun with Sister Zufelt. She reminds me so much of Samantha Solorzano, it makes me so happy. We talk about a lot of things and laugh at all the things that happen to us here in Midvale.

 WE got money from a lot of random people this week so we went to Savers and bought some new clothes! YAY!

 Send me letters! I miss you all and love you all so much. Enjoy the rest of Summer! Once schools starts, I will be back at the end of the school year! AAAHHH! I am trying to enjoy each day and live it up! LOVE YOU!!!!

SLY
Hermana Warren

Transfer to Midvale

Hola Familia!

So...I am being transferred to MIDVALE! AAAHHHHHH! I am so excited and nervous and sad and happy...I feel like I am on the Missionary Roller Coaster again. I leave tomorrow morning at 10. Last night was pretty sad, we went out with Sister Egan and before we went into our apartment, I was crying pretty hard. Sister Egan has been an angel in my life. She helped me through Jess's wedding, my depression transfer, she helps us and feeds us and supports us in EVERYTHING. I will miss her so much! She gave us really pretty bracelets with a bead that is the Tree of Life, because we are bringing people to the tree. I will wear that bracelet forever.

So my new companion will be Sister Zuphelt, she is from Arizona and she was the first missionary I met here in the field. She was at the airport with the Wisharts. This is her last transfer in the mission so I will be "killing" her! So I will only have 6 weeks to know this area that I am going to. I am really excited though, to go into an area that I don't know and only have my faith and the Spirit to help me find the people that Heavenly Father wants me to.

Sorry, I don't have a lot of time today so this email will be really short. I am really grateful for Sister Gonzalez, she has taught me a lot and I have learned a lot about obedience, prayer, and humility from her.

So this week has been hard BUT we had a miracle!!!!! A member called us on Thursday and told us that her friend wants to be baptized. We talked to the friend and she told us that she is leaving in a week and wants to be baptized before she leaves. We talked to our mission president,and received permission to teach her and baptize her in a week. She is being interviewed tonight.....but the sad part is this....she is getting baptized tomorrow and I will already be transferred! I will miss the baptism :( But at least she is getting baptized, which is the happy thing.

With me transferring,  I am just super grateful for all of the people that I have met in this area. I have been here for almost 6 months! I just love the ward but Sister Gonzalez will take care of it for me. I will miss all the families that we have brought into the Gospel...but I will get their emails and addresses so I can write them and stay in contact, so they can tell me when they are going through the temple :)

  Sorry, this is pretty much it for this week, we have to be out of the mission office by 2 because all the missionaries going home will be here and so we have to leave, and I still have to pack all my stuff!

I can't believe Steph and Ben are getting sealed! That makes me so happy:) This is what makes EVERYTHING worth it.

Essential oils are cool, Hermana Childs uses them and I used them in the CCM. They are awesome!

The girls can wear the clothes, just tell them that they need to send me a new dress :) hehe

I will have the address for you next week, I don't know it right now.

Zone Work-out

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! Keep me in your prayers.

SLY!

Hermana Warren

The Best of Both Worlds!!

Hola Everyone!

So, the main thing that everyone probably wants to know is how I reacted to seeing Jess on Thursday.....well, I was actually FINE! I was kind of prepared for it because on Wednesday, while we were waiting in Chic-Fil-A for the rest of our district, I saw Caleb Andrus, Brooke Andrus's brother. It was SO weird! I saw him and said his name, then he looked over and saw me and was like, "What? I didn't know that you were on a mission!" We talked for a little bit but I think that helped prepare me for Friday because when I saw Caleb, with him being the first person I have seen on my mission that I know, it really hit me that I am a missionary! It was so weird but really cool at the same time. Then on Friday, when I saw Jess and Jordan, it wasn't as weird as it could have been....I had kind of been prepared a little bit. I did hug her like 3 times though :) I was really happy to see her but now, it just feels like a dream to me so don't worry, I wasn't completely homesick after. I was able to enjoy it and then keep working :) But it was kind of like having these 2 worlds collide: my home world and my missionary world. I didn't ever expect them to collide or come together. It was  a really cool and weird and interesting experience. It really made me realize that I am a missionary, I am not homesick anymore, and I will see my family when I am done, so I think that is really did more good than bad for me. Sister Gonzalez did kind of freak out, she doesn't really react well under those situations. She felt bad when we were going to our apartment though, she didn't want to make Jess and Jordan feel bad.  BUT thank you so much for visiting me. It was a great surprise!

Man, it sounds like it was absolutely CRAZY at home! Don't you just love it? :P I love our family so much, even though it can be hectic with so many kids and noise...but I would rather have a giant family than no family. 

So some things that happened this week:

My District - Lots of Fun!!

We are still searching for spanish speakers. Sometimes, we just want to yell in a giant megaphone "If you speak spanish, please come out our your homes right now!" It would make the finding part a lot easier, but of course, we can't do that so now we have to just ask people and talk to people and knock on doors, which is really tiring, especially when it is 100 degrees outside. This part of missionary work really makes me appreciate TEACHING so much more. I really love teaching, I think I always have, even before my mission.

When we went to an appointment this week, we were getting our of the car and someone drove past us in a really nice white car a yelled "Hi Sisters!" I looked over and guess who it was?

DAVID ARCHULETA!!!!!!! 

Oh yeah!!! And me, being the girl that I am and forgetting briefly that I am a missionary, I yelled "HI DAVID!!!" without thinking. I felt kid of stupid after but whatever. BUT THEN, I saw that he turned around, drove passed us again, and then turned around again and stopped right in front of the house and asked us if the people that we were visiting were home. I told him that we weren't sure and then I asked him if his Grandpa was back and he said that he was. Then he tried to say something else but a car pulled up behind him so he had to keep driving, but he said something about how he knows our investigators and then he just waved goodbye and kept driving. I actually had a conversation with DAVID ARCHULETA!!! BOO YA!

So that was pretty exciting....now back to missionary work :) Yeah, we had interviews on Thursday and President asked me to be Senior companion for one week....and he straight up told me that he was doing that to train me to be a leader in the mission. SO there is a lot of pressure right there but I will be fine. Sister Gonzalez keeps telling me that I am going to be a Sister Training Leader one day....we will see. That is a hard job so I am not sure if I want to do that, but I realized that I work a lot better when I have a responsibility or assignment.

So that is pretty much what has been happening this week: it has been hot but raining these last few days. 

You all should come up with a name for my bike! I was thinking about that the other day and that my bike deserves a name. So send a name in a letter and let me know! I got a letter from SAMMIE! I loved it and have one in the mail for her.

that is pretty much it, I hope that you all have a great week! I love you all so much. 

SLY!

Hermana Warren