Hi family!!!! I love you so much! Mom, thank you so much for the shirts! I've gotten compliments on both of them. (And they WON'T SHOW SWEAT!!! Even when we're biking. I wish I had these last summer. Sister Harris, part of our quartet, lived in the Spanish BYU housing and cousin Ali was one of her roommates. Small world. Tell James not to worry. Worrying makes it harder to remember things for the test. As long as you do your absolute best all semester then study your best for the test then pray for help to remember what you've learned, you'll come away with the satisfaction of knowing you have earned your grade whatever it may be. You're smart, James. You'll do fine. Did Clark and Michael get my birthday cards? I hope they liked them.
Hi everyone! Hope you had a good week. This week we've had CRAZY weather. One day was cold, rainy, windy and cloudy. The next was warm and sunny. The next day was cold, rainy, windy and cloudy. We've gotten more rain than in a long time I've heard. This area does need rain. It's good and bad. Good because we need rain. Bad because while it's raining, the field workers don't have work. That's good because we then find them home but also bad because they need all the work and income they can get.
We have a new baptismal date! We had our first church tour in months with the husband of one of the sisters in the ward. He was very sincere and the Spirit was strong. He wasn't scared off by the invitation to be baptized at all. He just honestly wanted to know how to prepare. His wife told us later how much he loved the tour and how he really does want to learn so he can know what he is doing, getting baptized. I'm so excited! We have two other investigators who have told us they are going to get baptized within the next few weeks. They just don't want to set a specific date, but they are ready and WILL be baptized very soon.
Thank you so much Mom for teaching me how to cook. I've been able to use my skills here. I offered to teach a sister how to make pizza and invite her nonmember sister to learn as well. (her husband's the one with the baptismal date) The sister didn't come but we taught her how to make it anyway. She told us yesterday that she's made it again by herself since then. It makes me so happy to teach someone something that they will use. I've also got good memories making pizza with my family and I love giving someone else the ability to have those kind of memories. (It works that way sharing the gospel too :-) ) The relief society found out I know how to make pizza and now I'm going to teach the whole relief society how to make pizza at an activity on April 6th. Should be fun. :-)
Four sister missionaries in one apartment is a party to say the least. The Bishop asked us to visit as many members as possible and get them excited for General Conference next weekend. So what we're doing is Sister Harris and Sister Rivera are focusing on visiting all the members in the ward and teaching about prophets and inviting them to come to general conference and bring their friends. Along the way they are finding new investigators and part-member families to teach along with less-actives who need visits or addresses that are no longer correct and need to be changed. Sister Alvarez and I are focusing on investigators, both the ones we have and finding more. It's working out so far. With the one-bathroom situation, they shower in the night and us in the morning. Most of the bathroom stuff like toothbrushes, face wash and makeup are in the kitchen so we don't take up the bathroom doing that when someone else really needs to use it. They gave us a car to share so we're doing well working with that plus members teaming up with whoever doesn't have the car. We're still riding bikes and walking frequently. We don't want to use the car unless we have to.
I read an article in the ensign with an analogy I really liked:
"Individual members are like bricks. None of us 'bricks, however, is perfectly sound. Under close scrutiny each is flawed-a gouge here, a bump there. When we are placed side by side with other bricks there is seldom a perfect fit. Inevitably there are gaps or wobbles where others' imperfections come in contact with our own. Without the 'mortar' of love, tolerance, patience and forgiveness our efforts to build the kingdom would come to naught." --Lee Ann Fairbanks. She's talking about church members but I think that concept can be applied to any person you come in contact with or work closely with. We all have imperfections and need to realize we need the principles of the gospel which we all have in common to be sturdy and strong.
I also read a list of 7 life rules that when kept will keep your faith strong:
1. read personal scriptures daily
2. read scriptures as a family at least 5 days per week
3. have personal prayer every morning and night.
4. AH I forgot to write down number four. sorry
5. attend church every Sunday as a family
6. hold family home evening every week
7. attend the temple every month.
At the end of every transfer they hold a special fireside for all the missionaries who are going home. They can invite all the members and investigators and converts they want so they can say goodbye to them. Since Sister Alvarado is leaving halfway through this transfer, this was going to be her farewell too. She wrote and invited a lot of people and we planned to go to Fresno on Tuesday where she would do all the final-day activities for the departing missionaries and I would work in a trio with Sister Boyce and Sister Rojas. We met up at night to come back to Madera. It ended up that Sister Alvarez missed the farewell. She started throwing up an hour before it was supposed to start! I showed up at the end to pick her up and met all the people there to see her who were asking where she was. One member from Hanford had brought us each a custom-made crocheted blanket. Sister Alvarez was able to see some of the people who stuck around until she got there from resting at the mission home. Then the next day she fell on her bike and scraped up her knees pretty bad. Then the next day we had the amazing church tour and set the baptismal date. After much trial and tribulation come the blessings. There were a lot of little things going wrong with her week for a few days. I kept telling her that Satan knows how awesome she is and knows how little time she has left so he's going to fight as hard as he can to get her to stop working so hard. But we've just been working harder and we've had a lot of good things happen since then. I've felt the spirit very strongly in most of the lessons this week.
I think that was everything I wanted to say. I hope everyone has an awesome week!
Hermana Evans
Hi everyone! Hope you had a good week. This week we've had CRAZY weather. One day was cold, rainy, windy and cloudy. The next was warm and sunny. The next day was cold, rainy, windy and cloudy. We've gotten more rain than in a long time I've heard. This area does need rain. It's good and bad. Good because we need rain. Bad because while it's raining, the field workers don't have work. That's good because we then find them home but also bad because they need all the work and income they can get.
We have a new baptismal date! We had our first church tour in months with the husband of one of the sisters in the ward. He was very sincere and the Spirit was strong. He wasn't scared off by the invitation to be baptized at all. He just honestly wanted to know how to prepare. His wife told us later how much he loved the tour and how he really does want to learn so he can know what he is doing, getting baptized. I'm so excited! We have two other investigators who have told us they are going to get baptized within the next few weeks. They just don't want to set a specific date, but they are ready and WILL be baptized very soon.
Thank you so much Mom for teaching me how to cook. I've been able to use my skills here. I offered to teach a sister how to make pizza and invite her nonmember sister to learn as well. (her husband's the one with the baptismal date) The sister didn't come but we taught her how to make it anyway. She told us yesterday that she's made it again by herself since then. It makes me so happy to teach someone something that they will use. I've also got good memories making pizza with my family and I love giving someone else the ability to have those kind of memories. (It works that way sharing the gospel too :-) ) The relief society found out I know how to make pizza and now I'm going to teach the whole relief society how to make pizza at an activity on April 6th. Should be fun. :-)
Four sister missionaries in one apartment is a party to say the least. The Bishop asked us to visit as many members as possible and get them excited for General Conference next weekend. So what we're doing is Sister Harris and Sister Rivera are focusing on visiting all the members in the ward and teaching about prophets and inviting them to come to general conference and bring their friends. Along the way they are finding new investigators and part-member families to teach along with less-actives who need visits or addresses that are no longer correct and need to be changed. Sister Alvarez and I are focusing on investigators, both the ones we have and finding more. It's working out so far. With the one-bathroom situation, they shower in the night and us in the morning. Most of the bathroom stuff like toothbrushes, face wash and makeup are in the kitchen so we don't take up the bathroom doing that when someone else really needs to use it. They gave us a car to share so we're doing well working with that plus members teaming up with whoever doesn't have the car. We're still riding bikes and walking frequently. We don't want to use the car unless we have to.
I read an article in the ensign with an analogy I really liked:
"Individual members are like bricks. None of us 'bricks, however, is perfectly sound. Under close scrutiny each is flawed-a gouge here, a bump there. When we are placed side by side with other bricks there is seldom a perfect fit. Inevitably there are gaps or wobbles where others' imperfections come in contact with our own. Without the 'mortar' of love, tolerance, patience and forgiveness our efforts to build the kingdom would come to naught." --Lee Ann Fairbanks. She's talking about church members but I think that concept can be applied to any person you come in contact with or work closely with. We all have imperfections and need to realize we need the principles of the gospel which we all have in common to be sturdy and strong.
I also read a list of 7 life rules that when kept will keep your faith strong:
1. read personal scriptures daily
2. read scriptures as a family at least 5 days per week
3. have personal prayer every morning and night.
4. AH I forgot to write down number four. sorry
5. attend church every Sunday as a family
6. hold family home evening every week
7. attend the temple every month.
At the end of every transfer they hold a special fireside for all the missionaries who are going home. They can invite all the members and investigators and converts they want so they can say goodbye to them. Since Sister Alvarado is leaving halfway through this transfer, this was going to be her farewell too. She wrote and invited a lot of people and we planned to go to Fresno on Tuesday where she would do all the final-day activities for the departing missionaries and I would work in a trio with Sister Boyce and Sister Rojas. We met up at night to come back to Madera. It ended up that Sister Alvarez missed the farewell. She started throwing up an hour before it was supposed to start! I showed up at the end to pick her up and met all the people there to see her who were asking where she was. One member from Hanford had brought us each a custom-made crocheted blanket. Sister Alvarez was able to see some of the people who stuck around until she got there from resting at the mission home. Then the next day she fell on her bike and scraped up her knees pretty bad. Then the next day we had the amazing church tour and set the baptismal date. After much trial and tribulation come the blessings. There were a lot of little things going wrong with her week for a few days. I kept telling her that Satan knows how awesome she is and knows how little time she has left so he's going to fight as hard as he can to get her to stop working so hard. But we've just been working harder and we've had a lot of good things happen since then. I've felt the spirit very strongly in most of the lessons this week.
I think that was everything I wanted to say. I hope everyone has an awesome week!
Hermana Evans
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