November 16, 2010

Hi family! Doin' great, having a blast, love you TONS!!!!!

Hi everyone! Sorry this is going to be short.  We were busy today so not much time on the computer.

I have some amazing news.  This week are transfers and once again I get to stay in Atwater with the same companion!!!! I'm so excited.  I get to spend Christmas and Thanksgiving here and we should have a temple trip too. We're overdue for one.  We had zone conferences last week so President was busy and we didn't know about transfers until Monday morning.  We were feeling like we would both go or both stay.  I'm SO glad we got to stay.  One of our recent converts called and asked if we were staying and when we said yes she was really excited. 

So I don't know how many of you remember but I usually make a weird noise when someone tickles me or when I'm surprised at something.  The first time I did that here, the member who was with us laughed but my companion didn't.  Apparently I was saying a bad word in Guatemala!  I thought that was kind of funny.  I've been trying to change it to something else. Luckily I haven't had anyone tickle me for awhile.

I tried Persimmons for the first time.  A sister here has a tree of them.  They look like a cross between a pumpkin and a tomato growing on a tree.  They're pretty good.

Nancy and Jose still are working on paperwork to get married. We are PRAYING we get to be here for that.  It might take a bit.

We had Elder Sybrowski of the quorum of the 70 come for zone conference.  We sang "Called to Serve" as the opening song but only got through the first verse before he got up and stopped us and asked "Is THAT the best you can do?"  Then he turned to the pianist and said "Do you understand what I mean when I say 'hit it'?"  His whole talk with us was basically: You have more in you!  You're good but you can do better than that.  "You might say that's impossible but I'll turn right back at you and say that's what miracles do."   Many missionaries thought it was harsh but I loved it. 

Heavenly Father helps us out with a lot.  He knows what we can do.  Many times we are not aware of our own capability.

  Gotta go!  Have a wonderful week!

           Hermana Evans

November 9, 2010

Hi family!  Great to hear from you again. I love hearing about how everyone's doing.  I brag about my "big brothers" all the time.  I'm so happy that I have a good family.  I appreciate it more and more every day.

I came down with a cold on Saturday.  It's slowly going through the process.  First sore throat then stuffy head, then runny nose/cough.  One of those things that's just annoying because it's not really bad enough to complain too much but just enough so you don’t have 100% energy.  That's very frustrating as a missionary. 

Sorry if I'm not writing very much or if I forget some things.  My head's still a little stuffy.  I'm having trouble thinking clearly. I love you all a lot!  Take care of yourselves!

Hi everybody!  It's getting colder and more holiday decorations are appearing in the drug stores.  The leaves on a lot of the trees are turning really pretty colors. We had the daylight savings time change again.  It was nice to be able to sleep in an hour but we also were out an hour later.  As missionaries we have a very regular schedule and we were feeling the effects of it last night. The work goes onward too. Our ward has had 4 baptisms in the last 2 weeks.  First Sandy, then last weekend we had 2 and the elders had 1.  Benjamin (9) and Freddy (11) were baptized on Friday and confirmed on Sunday.  Benjamin is the one with hearing problems.  Helping him review for the baptismal interview was fun.  I was giving him multiple choice and he was doing really well.  He's pretty smart.  I asked him if he was excited to be baptized and he  started bouncing up and down with a huge smile saying "I want! I want!" and nodding his head.  We are still waiting for some paperwork issues to be worked out so their parents can be married and baptized too. 

Alma 42:27 is a really good scripture.  Anyone who wants to accept the gospel and receive the blessings of exaltation can.  But we still have our agency.  Heavenly Father is not going to force anyone to make the right choices.

We have zone conference this week.  There is going to be a general authority there.  I forget the name they said who was going to come but it's a member of the seventy.  It's going to be good.  I'm excited.

It was fast and testimony meeting on Sunday.  A lot of children got up and bore their testimonies again.  I love to hear a child testify of Jesus Christ simply but clearly.  It's very powerful.  You don't need a complex testimony to share it.

I hope everyone's doing well.  Everyone eat vitamin C!  Tis the season of the common cold and other ailments.  Take care of yourself so you can enjoy the holidays!   Have a wonderful week!

                             Hermana Evans

November 2, 2010

Hi family!  how is everyone? Great to hear from you again.

Oh yeah, HAPPY BIRTHDAY YESTERDAY MOM!!!! I got it right, right? Your card is in the mail.

Clark, amidst the splendor of social life in high school, remember, you're going off to college/mission someday and family won't even be an option.  How do you want them to remember you? Just keep that in mind. I'm so glad you're having such a good time and being really involved. 

Hello everyone!  It's getting colder.  It feels great outside.  Bad thing about winter though, it's dark in the morning when we get up so we can't go outside to go running.  Guess it's running-in-place-softly-so-the-downstairs-neighbors-don't-complain time. 

 Well, we experienced a miracle last week.  We have one investigator who has been wanting to be baptized for awhile.  She has heard the lessons about 3 times between her children getting baptized and new member lessons.  She has just had a live-in boyfriend who she needed to either marry or just stop living with before she could get baptized. She didn't really have the courage to put her foot down and decide anything.  We visited her on Wednesday and asked how things were.  She told us she had just barely made him leave. She was baptized on Saturday and received the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday.  Hers were the two girls that were baptized about a month ago.  One of them gave a talk on baptism and the other led the music.  Her 13 year old son who was baptized 2 months ago said a prayer.  The Spirit was strong and it was a very special experience.

We didn't really do anything for Halloween.  We couldn't walk, bike or drive a mission vehicle after 6. Missionaries don't really need costumes.  We all technically have a secret identity. 

We have a Spanish-speaking family of 4 we are helping prepare for baptism.  We had a lesson with them last week and when we first arrived at their house, we caught the 11-year old son engrossed in the Book of Mormon.  He gave the most sincere prayer at the end of the lesson.  It almost made me cry. 

Always be willing to drop what you're doing for someone you love, especially for family.

Keep pressing forward with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ!  Remember the work of the Lord cannot and will not be frustrated!  No matter what happens, just keep the faith and keep going! 

                    Hermana Evans

October 26, 2010

Hi family!!!!!! I love you so much!   I got a letter from an older man we were teaching in Hanford.  He said "You and Sister Denton will always have a bright shiny place in my heart."  That's the way I feel about all of you too!  :-)

Hi everyone!  So things are different than I thought they would be this week.  We did not end up having the wedding or baptism last week but we know it will be soon.  The Lord is truly guiding this work.  He has reasons for putting things off.  We were wondering why it was taking so long for the identification papers to get here but now we see some more things we need to help that family with.  Another good thing is that they have another son who is 9 who wants to be baptized too.  So when they do get baptized it will be 4 of their family instead of 3.  It's interesting teaching him.  He is mostly deaf.  He can read lips and he can read and write.  He has the best smile and we can tell he's excited when we come.  We teach him with a mixture of pictures, illustrations, writing back and forth.

Sunday was one of those days when everything seemed to be going not the way we planned.  On top of that it was raining like the sad part in a movie.  That kind of made it funny for me.  I don't know, for me sometimes when everything's going wrong it gives me an extra motivation to work harder and be more positive.  I know Satan's trying to make me miserable but I'm a diehard optimistic and I won't let him win. We know the work of the Lord cannot be frustrated so what are we all worried about? Like I said before, even if it's raining outside, but you have sunshine in your heart you end up with a rainbow.  It is also good to remember that we can mourn with those that mourn too. It's ok to be sad and to mourn sometimes and especially to feel for those that suffer but just keep the hope that things do and will get better.

We had a cool service experience.  We visited a member who is in the process of moving.  She was taking a bunch of stuff to storage and we offered to help her.  She has a TON of stuff.  We know a Spanish sister in the ward who just got her own apartment and has practically nothing inside.  As of furniture she had a total of 2 chairs, a TV, two end tables and one small table.  We asked this sister who was moving if she had any furniture she would be able to give this sister.  We were thinking even if she had an extra chair or something but she asked right away if the other sister wanted a couch.  We helped her move it to the apartment of the Spanish sister.  She was so grateful. I love unplanned service opportunities that go well like that.  We have visited members in really nice neighborhoods with houses that look like hotels and I imagine that's what most people visualize heaven as.  But as we sat with that sister who was overjoyed to just have a couch to sit on I could feel closer to heaven than walking past any of those huge houses. 

I thought of a possible origin of the word "mosquito." All my Spanish friends can correct me if I'm wrong. 

      animal= animal

      animalito= small animal

      perro= dog

      perrito= small dog

    so maybe...

    mosca= fly

    mosquito= small fly?  because that's what a mosquito looks like?   I don't know, I just thought that was neat.

 Thank you again for all your prayers and support.  I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Or, as the librarian here says, have a raspberry/pineapple/strawberry/peachy/sweet potato pie/pumpkin day!  :-)

                   Hermana Evans

October 19, 2010

Hi family!   The Elders are also at the library and I just told them about how big Michael is and they don't believe me. And WOW everything that everyone's doing!  I have the most talented/involved/amazing family EVER! Happy Birthday to Brian this week!  We biked about 25 miles one day last week.  We didn't realize how far it was to these houses.  They're out in the rural area between this town and the next that we both cover. I got chased by a big black dog during the ride.  I think he just wanted to bark because he didn't bite me or anything.

I love you more than I can say!  Thank you for everything!

Hi everyone!!! This is going to be a crazy week.  If all goes well we should be having a wedding for some of our investigators and then their baptism on Sunday (family of 3).  We are waiting for some identification papers to come in the mail so they can get the marriage license and we are praying and planning with faith that everything will go well. 

We found a family of 5 to teach the other day.  It was great.  They all sat down and listened without any parents or spouses pulling teeth.

Sometimes it's frustrating.  You have people that you teach that you grow to love.  You see them as children of Heavenly Father and you can feel how much he cares about them. You study, ponder and pray on how to help them.  Then sometimes they choose they don't want to listen.  We had a lesson like that last night.  I felt like crying.  This man has had a lot of hard things in his life.  He isn't happy.  But he is also THE most stubborn person I have ever met.  His favorite pastime is arguing.  He told us that last night and then to illustrate took the first thing he saw- the moon- and started arguing about it.  He won't read the scriptures or pray. It's hard when you want to help someone but they won't let you.

I've been trying to focus my personal study more on Jesus Christ.  I love John 1:12 where it says Christ gave us "power to become the sons of God."  Power being the right or authority.  We forfeit that authority because of our imperfections.  If we are teachable and "receive" Christ in our lives then we can obtain that right again.  Only through Christ is this possible because He is the one who paid for our sins.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week! 

Keep Smiling!

          Hermana Evans