Hi family! Happy Valentine's day! I hope all of you know how much I love each of you. I wouldn't be the person I am today without the influence of each of you in my life. Everyone plants seeds in the lives of the people they know which grow and intertwine to form their character. Then when you go on a mission, you face the weed-hacker which defines your character into the person which Heavenly Father wants you to be. Woah that's a cool analogy. I think that's the poet in me. :-)
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!! James is going to California on his mission too!!!!! :-) I'm so excited!!!!!!!!
Happy Valentine's Day everybody! The sun is shining, the tank is clean, and there were 5 letters in the mailbox this morning! :-) I'm now back in Madera with Sister Alvarez. My Spanish is better so this time I actually understand a lot of people. Something I've noticed before when I'm with a native Spanish-speaking companion is the people talk mostly to them and I end up feeling left out. This time I try and speak as much as possible initially when I meet them so they know that I understand what's going on. It seems to have worked because people are talking to both me and my companion pretty much equally. I still don't understand everything but I am getting better, especially that people are giving me a chance by talking to me. It's really nice. We don't have a car which is actually a wonderful blessing. Every day a sister in the ward volunteers to come with us and drive us around at night when we can't be out walking. So the members are very involved with the missionary work here. In the day when we don't have a team-up we walk and bike more which helps us make more street contacts. There are a lot of people here that are outside so we can meet a lot of them in between appointments. Riding the bike more is also great exercise. It helps that Sister Alvarez is a very hard worker. A working missionary is a happy missionary, at least in my case.
I really feel like an instrument in Heavenly Father's hands. I think I've mentioned it before that I've noticed it especially when I'm asked to play piano. It's not all me playing the piano. I feel my fingers guided at times. It's kind of the same with Spanish speaking. I KNOW it's not all me. I am only a tool in Heavenly Father's plan to bring about His purpose. I love being a missionary where we have this spirit of revelation and can recognize truths like this. I pray that I can continue recognizing after my mission.
We've been focusing for the past few days teaching about Agency using Alma 42:27: "Therefore O, my son whosoever will come may come and partake of the waters of life freely and whosoever will not come, the same is not compelled to come but in the last day it shall be restored unto him according to his deeds." I love that scripture and I love the principle of agency or free will. Heavenly Father is not going to force us to do anything. If we want the blessings it is completely up to us. They're there if we want them. Whoever wants to come, may come. And if you don't, well you'll receive a reward in the end according to how you did. It's perfectly fair and perfectly merciful. With the Atonement of Jesus Christ we all have the opportunity to choose the good and return to our Father in Heaven.
The weather's been really warm the past few days. Today it's a little colder and rained a little bit but now there's sun. It's a great time of year. The only thing is around here is as soon as people start getting over the colds they've had all winter, the allergy season starts. It's really bad here because Madera is absolutely SURROUNDED by fields. I'm so glad I don't have allergies.
We've got a lot of investigators. There are a lot of people who are really prepared to hear the gospel. There are also a lot of inactive members I'm excited to work with. Pretty much everyone is related. We told our team up last night who we were going to visit and she said "Oh, that's my sister!" That kind of thing is very common to hear.
Again, hope everyone has a wonderful holiday! Tell those you love that you love them, don't just assume they know. This includes Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Have you told them you love them today? What are you going to do to show that?
Hermana Evans
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