Hi family! I was actually really sad when I didn't get the e-mail last week, but I figured it was just a mistake. I know my family always loves me. I know some missionaries have to be genuinely worried when they don't hear from their family. I'm very blessed. It was great to hear from you this week. I did get the package and your letters. Did you notice that you always send me a toothbrush? I think that's kind of funny. I'm going to have very clean teeth. It will balance out all the chocolate you sent me too. ;-) Member meals are not the reason you gain weight on your mission. Its care packages. :-) Blessings of being a missionary, that's what my new companion says about gaining weight. She's great. Thanks for the pictures too! Lila I love your hair, Clark and Lila, you're still as silly as ever! I love the ones of you too mom and dad! And you say I'm the one glowing! Tell Malorie she looks gorgeous in her wedding picture! I'm sorry I missed it but I can tell she's very happy.
So, I'm now in Atwater. It's about an hour north ofFresno
A great thing about my companion is that she doesn't know how to stress. That's really good for me. Sometimes it seems like I’m a pro at stressing. I worry about too many things. Worrying too much takes away from the Spirit. My companion in Fresno helped me with that too. I don't remember if I've said this before but one week when I was having a hard time, she put a sticky note in my bathroom with 2 Tim 1:7 on it which talks about how the Lord does not give us feelings of fear but of power and a sound mind. I love that scripture.
Anyway, my companion now is really good at just teaching and being happy and really caring about the people we are with. She laughs at things that I might think to stress over at first. We've committed 2 people to be baptized since Wednesday. I really hope they follow through. One of those is a 70 or so year old lady named Josephine who loves to talk. She's had a hard family life but she's got really strong faith in God.
On Thursdays here they do a fellowshipping activity at the church. They get together and play soccer. We invite members and investigators and we get to go to help build friendships with the investigators. Sister Tea said they do splits every week. One of us goes to soccer and one goes to do the work. Splits, if you don't know, are when you each go with a member as a temporary companion to get more done when you have two appointments at the same time. I didn't do any splits inFresno
A member invited us over for lunch this week and they made homemade tacitos. (Is that how you spell it?) But yeah, they were really good and looked easy. You just put whatever you want inside the tortilla, roll it up and fry it. I also learned how to make diabetic homemade applesauce. Just boil apples with cinnamon and Splenda. That was good too.
We're also teaching this man who's a retired Baptist pastor. He knows the Bible way better than we do and doesn't want to accept the Book of Mormon. But we actually got him to accept a copy when we visited him last. We gave him a challenge: Pray with a question, open the book randomly and read one verse. I personally have had personal revelation when I’ve needed it doing that so I know it works. The challenge worked to get this man to accept a Book of Mormon and promise to read at least one verse. We're praying that if he just is willing to open it and read something in it, he will feel its power and feel a desire to keep reading and to know it's true. We think he's had it in his mind that Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon and we worship him. He knows the only way to salvation is through the Savior. We bore our testimonies and tried to help him see that we believe the same thing.
We visited a lady this week named sister Cizar. She's got health problems and we stopped to see how she's doing. She's really into family history and told us of her experiences. I could feel the power of her testimony as she told about miracles she's seen as she's done work for her family. She was glowing when she talked about taking those names to the temple. Family history is something I've always needed to get into more. To everyone out there, check up on me after I get home and make sure I get into that. I know that's an important work for everyone! The challenge this week for everyone is to do some family history work. At least make a start. Ok? Ok. Oh, and if anyone wants to try that pray and open up and read challenge and gets a cool experience, it would be awesome to hear back about it.
I know God is there for us when there is no one else to turn to. He is our loving Heavenly Father and we can always talk to Him when we think we don't have anyone to talk to. He helps us see our problems in perspective or at least feel the comfort we need to deal with our trials. It's a big comfort sometimes to simply know that everything will be ok. There will be a lot you don't know but if you know that, you're doing well.
Thanks again, everyone for your prayers and support! Stay healthy! It seems like everyone around here at least is getting sick.
Till next week!
Hermana Evans
So, I'm now in Atwater. It's about an hour north of
A great thing about my companion is that she doesn't know how to stress. That's really good for me. Sometimes it seems like I’m a pro at stressing. I worry about too many things. Worrying too much takes away from the Spirit. My companion in Fresno helped me with that too. I don't remember if I've said this before but one week when I was having a hard time, she put a sticky note in my bathroom with 2 Tim 1:7 on it which talks about how the Lord does not give us feelings of fear but of power and a sound mind. I love that scripture.
Anyway, my companion now is really good at just teaching and being happy and really caring about the people we are with. She laughs at things that I might think to stress over at first. We've committed 2 people to be baptized since Wednesday. I really hope they follow through. One of those is a 70 or so year old lady named Josephine who loves to talk. She's had a hard family life but she's got really strong faith in God.
On Thursdays here they do a fellowshipping activity at the church. They get together and play soccer. We invite members and investigators and we get to go to help build friendships with the investigators. Sister Tea said they do splits every week. One of us goes to soccer and one goes to do the work. Splits, if you don't know, are when you each go with a member as a temporary companion to get more done when you have two appointments at the same time. I didn't do any splits in
A member invited us over for lunch this week and they made homemade tacitos. (Is that how you spell it?) But yeah, they were really good and looked easy. You just put whatever you want inside the tortilla, roll it up and fry it. I also learned how to make diabetic homemade applesauce. Just boil apples with cinnamon and Splenda. That was good too.
We're also teaching this man who's a retired Baptist pastor. He knows the Bible way better than we do and doesn't want to accept the Book of Mormon. But we actually got him to accept a copy when we visited him last. We gave him a challenge: Pray with a question, open the book randomly and read one verse. I personally have had personal revelation when I’ve needed it doing that so I know it works. The challenge worked to get this man to accept a Book of Mormon and promise to read at least one verse. We're praying that if he just is willing to open it and read something in it, he will feel its power and feel a desire to keep reading and to know it's true. We think he's had it in his mind that Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon and we worship him. He knows the only way to salvation is through the Savior. We bore our testimonies and tried to help him see that we believe the same thing.
We visited a lady this week named sister Cizar. She's got health problems and we stopped to see how she's doing. She's really into family history and told us of her experiences. I could feel the power of her testimony as she told about miracles she's seen as she's done work for her family. She was glowing when she talked about taking those names to the temple. Family history is something I've always needed to get into more. To everyone out there, check up on me after I get home and make sure I get into that. I know that's an important work for everyone! The challenge this week for everyone is to do some family history work. At least make a start. Ok? Ok. Oh, and if anyone wants to try that pray and open up and read challenge and gets a cool experience, it would be awesome to hear back about it.
I know God is there for us when there is no one else to turn to. He is our loving Heavenly Father and we can always talk to Him when we think we don't have anyone to talk to. He helps us see our problems in perspective or at least feel the comfort we need to deal with our trials. It's a big comfort sometimes to simply know that everything will be ok. There will be a lot you don't know but if you know that, you're doing well.
Thanks again, everyone for your prayers and support! Stay healthy! It seems like everyone around here at least is getting sick.
Till next week!
Hermana Evans
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