Fear God, Not Men!!

Hola Familia!

Como estan? I am doing awesome! This last week was a long week! Since P-day was on Monday, this week was like 8 days long. I am so tired, I plan on taking a nap when I get to our house. 

Thanks for keeping me updated on everything! Everyone sounds like they are doing great. 

FELIZ CUMPLEANOS, Jessica!!!!!!!!!! I am sending you a birthday card so be looking for that in the mail.

That is so cool about the Family History, mom! I want to do that too when I get home.

I have heard about that book (Visions of Glory), Dad. I heard that it was really good, so I will read that when I get home too. 

Let me know about the Stake conference and how that goes! I am excited to hear about that. Everyone sounds like they are growing up! I just know that I won't recognize anyone when I come home.

BIRTHDAY:

Could you send me some type of Spanish workbook? I need a workbook that has some spanish tests in it, to help me learn vocab and stuff. I am almost done reading the entire Book of Mormon in Spanish! I have 2 more weeks to be a teenager!!!! :)

We are going to the temple on Halloween, we were able to squeeze some info out of our Senior couple and they told us that we will go to the temple during the night time on halloween. From past experience, people get really CREEPY and you meet a lot of weird people and plus, families are busy and no one lets you in. I am excited to go to the temple, if you can find a name for me, that would be awesome.

We still bike in the snow! I am trying to enjoy the warm weather a long as I can. I am really scared for the winter time, I HATE being cold, and my hands and feet don't do well in that. Thanks for the BOOTS!

I will buy a blow dryer next week! Thanks!

THIS WEEK:

We had an amazing Conference with Elder Clarke this last week! He would interact with us and would make us think about our own lives and how we can apply our own experiences with the people who we are teaching. I learned so much and there are SO many things that I want to improve on.....sometimes it is overwhelming but I will take it one step at a time :)

On thursday, I fell off my bike for the first time!! YAY! I hit Sister Peralta's back wheel and I fell over and scratched my knee really bad and I have some big bruises on the other leg. The bad part is that my knee can NEVER heal because I am always bending it when I ride my bike. But it is getting better now. It has a scab but I think I took off most of the skin. That was an adventure though, a first time for everything!

 

On Saturday, Teresa was baptized!!! Her baptism was so powerful. I sang "Yo siento el amor del Salvador" or "I feel my Savior's love" and when she was baptized, she was so happy! Then she was confirmed on Sunday and received the Holy Ghost. It is amazing to see the physical change that happens to people when they receive the Holy Ghost. They look different! They almost glow! It is so cool :)

Sunday was probably the craziest day for me, Sundays are NOT a day of rest for missionaries. First, I was fasting because we REALLY needed someone to come to church, who I will talk about later. Then we had Ward council and that went well. Then we went to pick up investigators for church, which is always stressful. Then we had class and then we have round 2 of picking up investigators because Sacrament is the last meeting. Teresa was confirmed but at the same time, I am freaking out because our other investigators are showing up. After church, I am trying to talk to members to get them to come out with us and talking with our investigators and with our Ward mission leader and I lost my jacket so THAT time was super crazy. Then, we didn't even eat lunch, we headed over to our investigator's house and we fought so hard to get them to come to church. We were able to take them to an English ward so they are still on date for baptism. Then we are dinner with our ward mission leader and his wife and then they went out with us for the rest of the night. 

Now for the cool and scary story. From this experience, I KNOW that God is aware of what is going on and that He has a perfect plan and that we should do what He wants us to do when He gives us the opportunity!

We are teaching a nonmarried couple named Miriam and Danny. Danny is Teresa's son, the one who just got baptized. They aren't married and ever since we were teaching Teresa, Miriam has been really interested in the church and she wants to be baptized as well. But since they aren't married, she can't get baptized. There is an older missionary named Elder Daylie, or Elder Guapo for the latinos, because his only purpose is to help people get married. He works a lot with the latino population. 

We scheduled an appointment with Miriam, making sure that they would both be home. This was Sunday night. At 7:00, when we had the appointment, we went by and Miriam told us that Danny was hiding in the room and didn't want to talk. Our ward mission leader encouraged us not to push him or he will push farther and farther from marriage. We didn't know what to do because Elder Guapo was waiting outside and we REALLY needed this lesson to happen. We went outside and talked with Guapo and he understood, he said this happens all the time. Just as he was leaving, we headed back to the apartment and we heard Danny's voice! He had come out of the room! So we called Guapo to come back and all three of us went up to the apartment. We were standing outside the door, we were so scared because we had NO idea what was going to happen and if Danny was going to be mad or run back into the room, and also because our WML advised us not to do it, BUT we remembered that as missionaries, we only fear God, and no one else. So we knocked, and we came in and we found out that a friend of Danny had passed by, who was a member, and so Danny left the room and was talking with him at the table. The friend left when we came in and  we were able to sit Miriam and Danny down and have the lesson. He didn't want to be there at first, but throughout the lesson, we found some of his concerns and he now seems more open. He didn't say "yes" to marriage but at least we have our foot in the door. Elder Guapo is AWESOME. He teaches so boldly but with so much love, it isn't offensive at all. It turned out to be a very powerful lesson. I learned that God has a plan and will arrange everything so that certain things can happen. God wants them to get married and if we would have feared what others would think and NOT called Elder Guapo back, that lesson wouldn't have happened and we wouldn't be helping Miriam get closer to being baptized. We have to show God that we will do everything that he wants us to do. He won't help us if we don't put our trust in Him.

So that experience was  a testimony builder for me. I was scared to death but I did it anyway and I am so grateful that I did it and didn't back down. 

This week will be awesome, we have a mission conference on Thursday, I think we are watching Meet the Mormons :) I am not sure though.

I think that is it for today, thanks for everything that you do for me! 

Keep helping in missionary work! Always be looking for people that the Elders can teach. Pray as a family that you can find someone who is ready for the Gospel. How cool would that be to be a part of ANOTHER baptism. Just like Bri Horne. 

I love you all! But I am not ready to come home yet :) I had a dream last night that I had to come home early from my mission and it was sad! I didn't want to leave! BUt remember that I love you all and pray for you every day :)

SLY!
Hermana Warren