My New City - Sister Justyce Oliphant

Written by Sister Justyce Oliphant, serving in the Mexico Tuxtla Gutierrez Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Spanish.

Hola mi familia!

I am so sorry I didn't get to write last week. As you know, I was transferred to Tuxtla Gutierrez. I am now serving in the Barrio Jardines Ward. My compañera es Hermana Rodriguez. She is from Chihuahua (very north, on the boarder of Texas. She actually was born in Texas!) She is sooo tiny! About a foot shorter than me!! I absolutely love working with her. She is 21 years old and so great. And a plus, she speaks English! Oh how I had missed speaking English! It has helped me with my Spanish because she can explain things better about Spanish and the language!

We got here Tuesday morning and didn't have a house. Our ward used to only have two missionaries, and now has two Elders and two Hermanas. SO, we lived with the Sister Training Leaders and took a bus to our area each day. We got lost so many times. We wouldn't get off at the right stop, or we would take the wrong combie, and we didn't have a cell phone so we would have to walk to find a pay phone and call the Elders or the Sisters or our Bishop to help us find where to go. I always hated getting lost at night. We got lost two times in the downtown area of Tuxtla, and I won't lie, it was really scary. It was dark, and there were borrachos (drunks) everywhere, and we literally could not feel the Spirit there. We took a taxi to our house both times, which was really expensive but at least we were safe.

Another time we got lost and asked a police lady where to go. She was nice and helped us out. Another time, we were trying to find the stake center for Stake Conference and got lost and finally just got off the combie to call someone for help. Ond one of our investigators drove by and drove us to the stake center, but we were REALLY far away from our area. Who knows why we kept getting lost!

Our new house!

But we finally have a house now and moved in on Saturday. We painted the house with Elder Cavasos from Monterrey and Elder Caldwell from Arizona (they are our Zone Leaders and also serving in our ward!). They help us so much! Then on Friday we bought all our stuff at Walmart with the Elders from the mission offices.  It is so good to finally have a house!

So the reason I didn't write last week was because we got lost and used all of our time for Preparation Day to find our way back home. I was really sad I didn't get to write you! I am glad you received my letters though! I sent them forever ago. haha!

Painting the inside of our house

Our area is sooooo small -- at least compared to my last area in San Cristobal! But I love it. Yeah it is sometimes hard to keep busy because we don't have a ton of investigators, but we are working on finding. And we work with the mission leader in our ward. He is a really good help. And our obispo! Our ward is small but its really strong.

I have learned so much about obedience these last two weeks. When we aren't exactly obedient we have problems, and when we obey everything, we are successful! I am so thankful to be here on this mission. Yeah , it is sooo hot everyday! And I literally sweat so much. I  am always sticky and I love showering in cold water. Oh and about the showers, I am so used to showering with a bucket and a bowl, haha, but in our new house we have a working shower! Yay!

I am about out of time and I just got the pictures to work so I will send a few. I love you all!!
Have a wonderful week!!

Hermana Oliphant

Transfer Week (March 3, 2014)

Letter from the HEAT (March 17, 2014)

The Tree of Life :)

African Safari in Mexico - Elder Brian Burgess

Written by Elder Brian Burgess, serving in the Mexico Puebla North Mission, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Spanish.

(Note to reader: Click on photos to enlarge them. Click on highlighted words to see additional information.)

Hey Everybody!

Crazy FAST week! A lot of things happened! I will key you all in on my sweet P-Day (Preparation Day) yesterday.

It was the zone activity, and we decided to go to the Puebla South Mission for an African safari! It was soo much fun! We left at 8 in the morning and got back at 6 at night. The power was out in San Luis Teolocholco (the town I live in), so all the internet places were closed. Crazy thing is that our cell phone lost ALL signal and our house didn't have water. So it was a mess. We thought maybe the world was ending. We had such a fun day at the African Safari (company is called "Africam Safari" if you want to look it up). So when we came back to our house, everything was dead!


Great day at the African safari. We all got on a bus and it drove through this safari place. The crazy thing is, there are no fences between the bus and the animals. So if the tigers, lions, or rhinos wanted to kill us, it would have been easy, haha!

My Week in Tlaxcala, Mexico (February 24, 2014)

Sacrifice Brings the Blessings of Heaven (March 10, 2014)





Pray, He is There! - Elder Dallin Remund

Written by Elder Dallin Remund, serving in the Virginia Chesapeake Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Spanish.

Hey!

I wish you a happy, happy March 4th from Yorktown, VA! The library that we email in every week is really nice. Yorktown is beautiful. Lots and lots of trees, yet it's a pretty well spread out city.

The weather this weekend was amazing. It felt like a nice summer evening for two straight days. Following Mother Nature's tradition, we got hit by a freezing ice/snow storm that shut the whole state down. All the libraries, schools, and other state buildings were closed. So we were stuck in our apartment for our whole preparation day.  Three other elders stayed the night in our apartment and we watched Ephraim's Rescue in a little fort on our bunk bed. We're still little boys at heart.

This week was a bit slower, but it was still really enjoyable. Even when we missionaries spend days knocking on doors without luck and appointments fall through, or we just can't find more people, Heavenly Father always gives us a little tender mercy. A lot of it comes with an increasing love and understanding for the Savior. I've been reading Jesus the Christ and it talks a lot about the affliction that Christ suffered while sharing the gospel with the prideful Jews. There is so much about Christ and His life that I didn't know before I came out on the mission. What a blessing it is for all of us to spend our whole lives getting to know Him while we live His gospel.

Elder Bradshaw and I got invited to our progressing investigator's surprise baby shower. We didn't know what to bring them for a gift, so we went to Walmart and decided on a little lion hooded towel. As we were in the checkout stand, the cashier was trying to read our Spanish name tags. He asked us what they were and we started getting into a really awesome discussion about the church. He was really interested about living prophets and how we can know that they are chosen by God. We had to leave because we were in line, but we're going to track him down while he's at work and hopefully the English missionaries can start teaching him. Moments like those on the mission are super exciting. The Spirit just burns in you for the next hour.

Right after that checkout experience at Walmart, we went to M's (our progressing investigator) baby shower. We found a ton of Hispanics there that haven't heard anything about the church. We ate some really good El Salvadorian food. Pupusas (bean or cheese filled tortillas with pickled cabbage),  empanadas (fried banana turnovers with a liquidy sugar filling), and some fresco (chopped up mango, apples, pineapple, and bananas in an orange drink). Thought I'd fill you in on my food adventures, too, because I get fed by Hispanics from all over the American continent. That's one of the perks of serving a Spanish speaking mission in the States. It's also difficult when you're listening to all their different accents.

I love y'all so much. The mission is going really well. I hit nine months out on the mission this weekend. It is flying by so fast! Keep sending out emails and updates from home. I know it's hard to send out those letters but they make a missionary's day when you send them out. The church is true! Stay fuerte!

Con mi amor,

Elder Remund

We Are All Enlisted (February 24, 2014)

This is the Good Life! (March 10, 2014)

I Feel Spoiled - Elder Jake Avery

Written by Elder Jacob Avery, serving in the Peru Lima West Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Spanish.

(Note to reader: Some names are omitted for privacy. Clicking highlighted words will link to additional information.)

This is my email from last week that you didn't receive:

We are doing very good in the Rosales. We had stake conference and had someone from the Seventy came to speak to us. Two investigators came to conference, and lots of less active members. It was a HUGE pay off for two missionaries who have felt like we're speaking Quechua when we tell these people that they should go to church. Even better, the R** family came to church. Some of them are members of our church and some are not, but we've been teaching them for about a month and now they're going to church more regularly. Yesterday we happened to meet one of their brothers who is inactive, and his family. That's like five people from one family there.

My mission president and his wife came to speak in our stake conference, and Sister Archibald said something very interesting. She said, ''Satan doesn't have a family and will never have a family. He's trying to destroy the family so that everyone becomes miserable like him.'' She talked about the importance of family prayer, family scripture study, and family home evening. She encouraged the people, ''Even if your children are already teenagers, start tomorrow.'' It reminded me of President Packer's talk when he said that children who are exposed to the scriptures when they're young are much less likely to go down a wrong path, and those who do go down a wrong path will have the spiritual strength to some back.

My mission president also said in priesthood session that fathers are the patriarchs of their homes. The fathers need to teach their children from the scriptures, send them on missions, and keep them on track. It's not the responsibility of the bishop or the young men's leaders. This is the duty of a father.

I feel spoiled to have such a great family because when I look into the crowd in my ward here, I see one or two families with a mom, dad, and children. That's out of 120+ members who attend church in our building. I'm so thankful that you dragged me out of bed for 18 years to go to church, temple, and seminary. I see some parents who are push overs and their families are wrecks :(

The Elder from the Seventy told a story about when his daughter was 12 years old, and she was crying because he wouldn't let her do something that the other teenagers were doing. He explained as she cried on his shoulder, ''You're crying now so we both don't have to cry later.'' I just wanted to thank you again for being a good leader and not making me have to take myself to church, the temple, home teaching, etc. because there are young men here who have no example of a priesthood holder or patriarch in their house.

I got to play guitar with Renzo!

This is my letter for today:

Hi Mom,

We had a baptism this week and I got to baptize her!! Her name is S**. She's 24 years old and her mom is already a member the our church. Her mom was fasting last month that her family would listen to the ''hermanos'' and now one of her kids is baptized. The Lord answers prayers.

Missionary Mommas seems exciting, but I like our blog better. Well, maybe I should make it a little more interesting :P Sorry, I don't have pictures from the baptism, but I'd love to get some later this week.

I've really noticed that only people who really understand all that the Lord has done for us are the ones who are willing to serve Him. Lots of people say, ''I believe in God. Why do I need to do anything else?" Obviously they don't understand what God expects from His children, or what Jesus Christ did to make God's goal possible. Sometimes I rush through lunch, rush to an appointment, or rush around in the morning to get out the door. I have come to a deep understanding of what God expects from me as His representative, and I find myself annoying my awesome companion because I rush us around everywhere.

Mom, tell my brothers and sisters that I miss them now more than ever, and I'm sorry for torturing a few of them. I feel like a flipping oldie. When I get back, you'll be 40. HA! You and Dad are welcome to come to Peru when I'm finished here, if you want to blow your mind in this world I've lived in. There's actually a returned missionary who came by the other day from Reno. He wants to live in Peru.

*************
Dear Dad,

This is where we study :)

This week I had very many similar experiences to what you described. We lost several work, planning, and study hours for training meetings and interviews with the mission president this week. On top of all of that, we had a baptism, did service by helping a family with their wedding, and had oodles of appointments we missed. I think on Thursday I was about ready to give up, but I persevered. Yes, I was stressed, but every day we could check of another big event. I got to baptize S** on Friday, then we did the wedding on Saturday, and J** was ordained an Elder on Sunday. What a week!

The baptism was tricky. It was scheduled for 6 o'clock, with all the district in the church building at Miramar. We had interviews with the President in the stake center. My interview was at 1 o'clock, but when we got there 10 minutes early, there were three missionaries before me. We had to pick up S** in our area at 4 o'clock, and the Elders that were behind me in line had to go to Miramar to turn off the water in the baptismal font. We ended up doing splits, and I went directly to Miramar while Elder Calderon went to pick up S**. The best part was that President decided to come to our baptism, so we had that extra bit of pressure to not mess anything up, haha. Long story short: We ran a few times, almost threw our cell phones against a brick wall because they weren't working, and thanked the heavens when the night was over :)

S** brought two of her sisters to her baptism, so we did a tour of the church. It was cool. We basically went from painting to painting and explained who is Moroni, over here Jesus visited the people in America, and here is Christ being baptized. It was neat. Hopefully we can get a few more of her siblings to learn more about the gospel.

In my interview with President Archibald, it seemed like he was indicating that I'm not leaving my area yet. I've been here for seven months, so that surprised me a little. He did say that a few problems came up, so he's not sending sister missionaries to our ward yet :(

Anyway, I had a great and busy week. Right now the nights feel like naps and the days feel way too short. Some of the most important things I've learned so far in my mission: Study the scriptures every day, don't go inactive, don't marry a non-member, magnify all callings, and this church is true. I'll see you on Mother's Day!

Oh and Dad, I'm surviving very well on the mission money. I spend 50 soles on food every week, and this month I had 30 soles left over. Woot! That means more ice cream :) I love you.

King of the Mountain (February 24, 2014)

New Area - Yungay, Peru (March 17, 2014)

Power of Prayer - Sister Hannah Avery

Written by Sister Hannah Avery, serving in the Chile Vina del Mar Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Spanish.

(Note to reader: Some names are omitted for privacy. Clicking on highlighted words will link to additional information.)

Hello family and friends!

We had an AMAZING week this week!!! We have three investigators with baptisms scheduled for the 16th of March, nine new investigators, and we taught 34 lessons this week! That’s almost 7 lessons a day! WOOHOO! We rocked it this week! It's testimony to me that when we are exactly obedient and really serve with all of our heart, might, mind and strength, the Lord will bless us and bring miracles about! :)

In addition to this super awesome week of teaching and finding, I learned a really great lesson that I wanted to share with you guys. We are teaching our neighbors across the street, A* and N*. They are both 21 years old, and are not married, but live together and have a one year old baby named F*, who is seriously the CUTEST baby I have ever seen in my life! I will take a picture for you guys to see one of these days, haha! Anyways, A* (the boyfriend) has been without work for about three months now, and they are really struggling to get by day to day. We have taught them a lot about marriage and the importance of keeping every commandment that the Lord has given us. Big and small! They still aren’t getting married, but little by little, we are seeing their faith growing, and their relationship building too. Hopefully one day they will be in the temple with their baby <3

Anyways, the story continues… A* and N* are now selling their car for only about $3000 USD, which will get them by for another three months or so. They are also listing other things to sell, but it's really a sad thing to see. We had a lesson with them this week, and had the prompting to teach them about praying with faith. A* told us that he had faith before, but with the financial situation they have found themselves in, they are losing the faith. He told us that his work was supposed to call three weeks ago with news, but heard nothing. Well, we taught them this lesson about the power of prayer, and when accompanied by real intent and faith, miracles happen. I felt one of the strongest promptings in my life from the Spirit to ask A* specifically to pray with us on our knees, not just sitting, and really pour out his thoughts and feelings to the Lord, telling the Lord that he would do the Lord's will, but to help him not to lose the faith. Well, I followed the prompting, and without hesitation, we were on our knees, and A* poured out his heart to our Savior in tears, hardly able to speak. N* was in tears, I was in tears, Hermana Puertas was in tears…. Everyone was in tears. It was one of the most spiritual experiences I have ever had on my mission. I felt the Spirit SO strongly in that prayer. The next day, he told us that he called his work, and that he has a job! My testimony of prayer has increased immensely from that experience, and I know that theirs have too!

So, the lesson that I learned this week is the power of prayer, and that we always need to do things according to the Lord's will. A quote that I love from Dieter F. Uchtdorf says, “Lift up your soul in prayer and explain to your Heavenly Father what you are feeling. Acknowledge your shortcomings. Pour out your heart and express your gratitude. Let him know of the trials that you are facing. Plead with Him in Christ's name for strength and support. Ask that your ears may be opened, that you may hear His voice. Ask that your eyes may be opened, that you may see His light.”

I know without a doubt that if we do this in our daily prayers, miracles will happen, and the Lord will help us through every trial, the good and the bad. Have a fabulous week guys! I love you all SOO much! Talk to you in a week! ¡Ciao!

Xoxoxo,

Hermana Avery

Puppies (February 24, 2014)

Short Update this Week (March 10, 2014)

Sometimes We Get Side Tracked - Elder Kolby Madsen

Written by Elder Kolby Madsen, serving in the Denmark Copenhagen Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Danish.

(Note to reader: Some names are omitted for privacy. Clicking on highlighted words will link to additional information.)

This week was way good. On Monday we celebrated the birthday of our branch president's wife. It was way good cake. I am going to learn how to make it because it was just awesome. While at their house, this little Asian girl shows up and starts talking to us. We asked her name and she told us it was H**. I was completely amazed because we had been searching for her forever! She was an old investigator and we could never find her. Little did we know, she's really good friends with the Amdi´s. Crazy stuff! She was not very interested in meeting again, but it’s all good. One day :) Because it takes 20 minutes by car to get to their house, afterward we went home and went to bed. It was a good night.

Tuesday brought some service for J** again, haha! And then an appointment with T**. After that, we prepared for a party we are throwing for the branch.

Wednesday came around, and that's district meeting. A 2 hour train ride to Fredericia is always fun. When we got home we got ready for football with Coach. Again, the team and all the coaches really like us. With the way the bus schedule works, we had to leave an hour early and park our bikes at Coach's house. On our way back out the door, our neighbor noticed we were in gym clothes and asked what we were up to. After we explained, he asked if he could give us a lift to Coach's to pick up our bikes. That was awesome! He's a nice guy and actually invited us over for dinner on Wednesday this week. It’s funny we get more dinner appointments from investigators and people we meet than the members of our congregation. But that's serving in a branch.

Sometimes when me and Elder Wilsher are fixing bikes, we
get a little side tracked and this happens with our rubber gloves.

The car ride to Coach's was only 15 minutes, and five minutes to the indoor arena for football. We were not in clothes to proselyte, plus it was raining and dark outside. So we started to play a game on our way to the arena. We would stop and talk to people if we saw them on the way, but we were going to ride our bikes on the lowest gear possible. While riding Elder Wilsher said something that I had never heard in Utah before, but it might be a saying there as well. He was talking about wanting to get a better lock for his bike so it doesn’t get knicked. I asked why, if they knick it it's just a little bump. He explained that in England knicking it means it gets stolen. I had to laugh.

Well, we got to football. I brought my brace this time and they had me run some routes against the defense. It felt way good to play again. I only cut on my right foot, so no problems with the knee. But it was great. I have gotten almost all of my speed back and I can still catch, thankfully. Me and the quarter back were on fire. I didn’t drop a pass, and overall it helped the team because they got some good defensive looks. I really enjoyed it. Then we went home, had dinner, did some daily planning, and went to bed.

Thursday J** asked if we could come clean up the mess from digging. We did that and ended up cleaning his house as well because he is getting his house appraised. We only stayed for a little bit because we had some other things to do that day.

Later that day, we knocked some doors in Birk Centerpark, which is where the local university is located. It was awesome because the first set of apartments we knocked were almost all foreigners. We have an appointment with a girl from Madrid tonight, actually. I told her that Pili was from Spain, the Barcelona area, and her eyes lit up. So she wants to talk about Spain and the gospel...win/win for me.

We met with some really cool people and we are excited to go back and finish knocking the area a little bit. We actually gave away two Book of Mormons, and we are going back to give out two more in other languages. We even gave a book to a Danish girl as well.

Saturday Coach decided to take us out to dinner, so we went to this place called Bones. It's American style ribs. It was way good and way expensive, but he said we had to go. It was a great night. We enjoyed being with him and talked about funny family stories from all of our childhoods. We just had a good time talking about things that matter most to us.

Well, I find out Wednesday if I'll be transferred on Monday, so we will see. I hope I get to stay...I really do. I have some way sad news. Elder Fr** had to go home and have hip surgery. He was disappointed to have to leave, but it has to be done. It doesn't sound like he'll be able to return, but nobody knows for certain. Keep him in your prayers.

I love you all. Have a good one!

Med Kærlig Hilsen,

Ældste Madsen

Work Hard, Play Hard (February 24, 2014)

Transferred to Randers (March 10, 2014)

Puppies - Sister Hannah Avery

Written by Sister Hannah Avery, serving in the Chile Vina del Mar Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Spanish.

(Note to reader; Some names are omitted for privacy. Clicking on highlighted words will link to additional information. Clicking on photos will enlarge them.)

¡Hola!

Wow, what a crazy fast week! Seriously, we are coming to the end of the transfer again! Wow! I can't believe it… and the hard part this time is that I think that I am leaving Ovalle this transfer. This girl has been cookin´ here for a long time! The good thing is, that it is always an adventure in the mission, and there are people in other areas waiting to hear the gospel!

We found an investigator who is GOLD!! She is amazing… Literally. The PERFECT investigator! Her name is M**, and she is about 45 years old. We found her as we were knocking on doors last week and have taught her three times already! She is reading the scriptures, praying, and even came to church on Sunday! She only has to come to church two more times, and she can be baptized! We keep talking to her about her baptism, and she is getting more and more excited. She investigated the church about three years ago, but stopped going when she felt that she didn't have any friends in the church. When she came this Sunday, EVERYONE talked to her and she felt soooo comfortable! She told us that she feels like the people in the branch are like a family, and she just barely met them this week! Wow, it never ceases to amaze me how the Lord truly prepares people's hearts at the proper time to receive the gospel!

It is starting to get colder in the mornings and nights here. It has been cloudy all day today. We had another district activity today in the Valle del Encanto again! It wasn't new for me, since I have been once before at the very beginning of the mission, but it's a fun hike, and we had “asada” afterwards! (basically, the best BBQ of pretty much every meat you can every think of!) hahaha! Chileans surely know how to eat! Hermana Puertas and I didn't have hardly anything, but the Elders ate like eight chicken legs each, beef, and at least four chorizos (sausages) a piece! They reminded me of three boys at home... Hahahha! The boys would love the food here!! I am trying to learn how to make lots of different things, but it's hard to do sometimes. They prepare food for hours here, but it is amazing :)

Well, you guys are awesome! Thank you for all  you do for me, and for all of your thoughts and prayers! They never go unnoticed! You are all in my every thought and prayer! Have a great week, and I will talk to you next week!! Les quiero mucho! ¡Ciao!

Con mucho amor, Hermana Avery



P.S. Sofia's and Catalina's dog Perla had six black puppies this week! haha! They just barely found out she was pregnant like two weeks ago! Whoops! LOL! They are sooo cute! Just the size of my hand!


Strength of the Lord (February 17, 2014)

The Power of Prayer (March 3, 2014)

King of the Mountain - Elder Jake Avery

Written by Elder Jacob Avery, serving in the Peru Lima West Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Spanish.

As far as things I need, Long Johns is a negative. I'd like Pilot G-2 pens though. And another pair of athletic shorts would be great because I only stole one pair from Jared before I left :)

Well, I don't have much to talk about either... I put most of the details of my week in an email to Dad. When I get home, you won't be able to shut me up though, I guarantee it. Tell Jared, Brigham, Braden, and Josh to be good. Thanks for everything! Love you and will see you on Mother's Day!

Poco a Poco (February 17, 2014)

I Feel Spoiled (March 3, 2014)