Week 18

okay so turns out that im getting TRANSFERRED!! Leaving this area is going to be so sad espicially because its my first! I had I feeling I was leaving so I may or may not have teared up saying good bye to the ward members and investigadores. Seriously its amazing how easy it is to love these people. 

On thursday, we went about our day as normal and we went home, did nightly planning, prayed to close and then we opened our eyes and we had a missed call from president taggart.... when the mission president calls you your heart just kinda drops a little bit. So then after fighting about who was gonna call him back (hna detrinidad won because she pulled the foreigner card and how she cant speak english when she gets nervous) I called him back and he extended the call for me to be a TRAINER! and so I accepted and my comp was all like, "I TOLD YOU I TOLD YOU" and then he asked if he could speak with my comp and I asked her to be a trainer too hahahaha after we hung up we just started at each other for a long time. and then we started crying a little bit feeling really sad that we weren't going to be companions for another transfer. 

The next day we had a training meeting at the mission home and wow the feelings of inadequacy were so real. President said that the trainer he had in his mission is the reason why he stayed on his mission and the reason he is the mission President he is today. I thought about it and the influence a trainer has on the trainee is HUGE! I learned SO MUCH from Sister Boudesocque and in my mind I still ask myself, "what would sister boudesocque do?" It is pretty nerve wracking thinking about how I will train in an area I don't even know and possibly with someone who knows less spanish than me but every time I start thinking about those things, the spirit quickly reminds me that its time to start living what ive been teaching and confiar en el senor con TODO mi corazon. It's amazing how much I already love my little hija and i cannot wait to meet hertomorrow!! 

Okay so this week was so awesome!! Finished off the last week of this transfer strong. So my least favorite thing in the whole world in missionary work is to knock doors. And one day one of our appts juked us and we didn't have enough miles to go and drive away to try someone else. So we just got down to work knocking on doors in this apartment complex. We were knocking for a while without much success and finally someone answered! She was Mexican and had darling cute little kids. We told her who we were and she said, "When can you come back!! I need your message in my life!" so that was really exciting. We have met with her two times since then this week and she is someone who is just so prepared. She told us that a few years before, when she wasn't married and didn't have children, a friend gave her a book of mormon and she hadn't ever even opened it and now she said that after she read the intro, she couldn't put it down! we talked about how we have the book of mormon and when we talked about jose smith she said she had the chills and knew that it was the spirit testifying to her that it was true. Its people that this that make knocking doors worth it!

Also one of our investagadores salvador came to church! He is so funny and I just love him. Also mexican. when we invited him to be baptized his eyes got all watery and he started laughing and said that it was like god himself extended the invitation. anways, he came to church and he wore his best suit and had is bible and book of mormon in hand! There is no happier feeling than seeing your investagadores at church. 

I just have such a testimony that we cannot do anything without the spirit. those are two people who have felt the spirit so strong during lessons that they are acting and desiring to learn. If i don't teach by the spirit, I cant do anything! I cant train, I cant speak spanish well, and cant find people to teach. I am grateful to be a part of this work. Pray for me and my hija!! 

Week 17

oh my word. so i am already freezing cold. this morning was 45 degrees and i couldn't believe it because i was certain it was like 15 degrees. It seriously is so humid that you can feel the coldness in your bones. And everyone keeps saying this weather is NICE. sorry everyone but this colder than december in california! So this week was really good! We really saw miracle after miracle. Ive been in this area for almost 4 months now and we finally found this less active lady that we have never seen before! she was outside cleaning her car and i just love my companion because before we even say anything hermana detrinidad goes up and gives her the biggest hug and they are just talking about this mexican singer that shes listening too and im just like um.... should we ask what her name is first? because at first i had no idea who she was! after talking for a little bit outside she invited us to come in. We had a really great lesson with her and she totally opened up to us and started crying. That is something that I love about my companion. it doesn't matter who it is, she just loves them. its funny because im not a very like touchy walk up to strangers and hug them person but i am certainly becoming one hahahah that happened with two other less actives that we have been trying to get a hold of this week as well!! (we have a TON of less active). I remember before the mission thinking that I would feel accomplished by the number of people i baptize. but the fact is that right here in this area, that it not what is needed. This area that i am serving in use to be a ward but for the past seven years has been brought down to a branch. We are really trying to zero in our efforts on our less actives and inviting them to come back and we are definitely seeing a difference. 

Okay so Alfredo update. We had a good lesson with him and our ward mission leader hermano pinto was with us and alfredo ended up telling us that in order to come to church on sundays, he has to get sundays off and find someone to cover him. and so he still hasn't found someone but he is sure there are many people that would be willing. he then said that he wouldn't be able to come to church next sunday but the following sunday he can and thats his baptism. so yeah we will see what happens. he honestly could have been baptized over a month ago but esta bien also during that lesson Ricardo (his son who served a mission and would always come out with us as a team up during the summer) came home during the lesson from like maryland or something and told us that he wasn't going to church anymore because he was working. I couldn't believe it! Thats the biggest trial for me as a missionary. Just about everything is out of my control. And people like alfredo are very passive. and I am the opposite of that. Imagine how our heavenly father feels!! He has power to do anything he wants to. and yet he lets us make our own silly decisions and learn for ourselves what is right. the only thing i can control is whether or not i follow the spirit. I truly do feel like I am learning to recognize it more and more everyday. Hermano Pinto told us after the lesson that it was a blessing for him to see the spirit working through us and he felting stronger during that lesson than ever before. I think that was exactly what i needed to hear because honestly after that lesson i just wanted to cry a little thinking about how we were probably going to have to move alfredo's date again and how i didn't know what else to do and how ricardo, who was suppose to baptize alfredo isn't even going to church! But when hermano pinto said that, I felt so calm. Like I am doing everything i can do. And that's all I need to worry about. Because as long as I do everything I can do, the Lord does the rest. So this is probably all over the place but yeah. Thats all I can think of for this week! Love you all! 

background story on the pic. okay so we were in trenton this morning with a less active and this big eyes are on this old empty building so we were like oh thats cool lets take a pic... then we went to cvs and to flu shots right by and this guy was like, "oh hey those are the girls that were taking pictures with the eyes of trenton" yup. we're awesome. so embarrassing. 

Week 16

Oh my goodness hello hello! I'm trying to think of anything noteworthy to share hahaha oh my goodness well first of all I'm all mind blown right now after looking at pictures of sister boudesocque with my family!! That was so fun to see! So so cool. Okay so this week was super busy. just doing a lot of missionary work. its funny because literally everyone will ask, "so what have you been up to?" the worst question hahaha oh you know just going about the lord's work. and honestly depending on the hour that could be anything. but anywho, on saturday we had an exchange and for the FOURTH TIME IN A ROW, i stayed in the area with an English comp. I want to shake my district leader because i was just like oh my word AGAIN? give me a break! (classic prideful Mallory) I even asked him, Elder Pacheco! Are you sure you want me to stay in the area again? he told me he would pray again and let me know. that night he called me and was like, yup i think you need to stay still... sorry! so i was like alrighty then. so Friday was really tough. Probably one of the hardest days on the mission. I don't know why but it was just really hard, i was feeling down on Spanish, and sometimes when you have a Latin comp, you can feel pretty invisible because if I'm not like 110% energetic mode, i feel like i lose the interest of other Hispanics sometimes. So yeah anyway, Friday was not fun. So we exchanged that night and i planned for the next day and went to bed and that was that! so we went about our day and I'm not kidding you... miracle after miracle happened. we did a service that morning and then I felt like we should go try this old investigador family that we have and what do you know... THEY WERE ACTUALLY HOME! we went over at like 10:30and they had us come in and fed us rice and beans and chicken for breakfast... yum... felt kinda sick the rest of the day hahah and we had a really nice lesson with them! and later on that day I felt like we should go by a less actives home and HER HUSBAND WAS THERE WHICH IS SO HUGE HE IS NEVER HOME. and so we sat down with him and we just invited him to come back and on my word the spirit was so strong you could have cut it with a knife. and the wife started crying say that the spirit brought us here and just crying and crying. After we left, my sister training leader said, "i have NO idea what just happened, but the spirit was SO STRONG. tell me everything" and that was such a testimony builder to me, like the spirit it a presence. we don't have to understand or know what is going on exactly, but when its there, you can really truly feel it. Then after we met with Alfredo and he had gotten in a car accident earlier that day! It wasn't his fault thought some lady just side swiped him. it really shook him up and gave him a super reality check about how like we don't have time to procrastinate the day of our repentance. We recommitted him to a baptismal date for the 27th because he couldn't come to stake conference. but yeah so i am super hoping that everything works out for him! I brought a picture of a temple to the lesson and we talked a lot about eternal families and how that is only possible by the covenants we make in the temple and he was getting really excited about baptism and all that and he was was just like, "will you come when i go to the temple??" I was just like YES ALFREDO BUT GET BAPTIZED FIRST! I just love that little Guatemalan guy. anyways. we are in super finding mode because we have dropped almost all of our investigadors. Sister Detrinidad is too pretty and funny. we have more creepers than investagadores. but yeah that's it for today! Love you all!

americanizing the niceraguaenca 

one of my favorite members hermana acevedo and the daughter of a less active that always lets us in hahaha 

Week 15

So how great was this weekend?? Seriously General Conference this week felt like Christmas! It was so remarkable to see the conference center all full and to see the prophet speaking to us. It was also so bizarre to think that I was there just a year ago! It was during conference last year that I made the decision to serve a mission! What I even loved more about this conference is that some speakers spake in their native languages! How genius! We watched the Saturday afternoon session in English (because we didn't have any investagadores with us for that session) but then an Area 70 went up and spoke in Spanish and so we ran over to the Spanish room and watched him give his talk in Spanish. You should have seen the faces of some of our Spanish members. They were smiling so big. It just goes to show how the kingdom of God is a worldwide kingdom. It is a fulfilment of the prophecy that the gospel will be preached to every nation, kindred, tongue and people. We had two investagadores with us for the Sunday session (Alfredo came with his wife hna cajas and our other investagador Ernesto). The spirit was so strong! When it was the prophet's turn to speak I leaned over to ernesto and i speak "escuche bien! el es el profeta de Dios!" I felt the spirit so strong within me when i said that. I know its true! Ernesto accepted a baptismal date for November 2nd :) I was wishing we had an investagador with us for the Sunday afternoon session because Elder Bednars talk WAS AMAZING. it was such a good reminder even for me as a missionary and i am sure that it was a good reminder for members everywhere as to why sharing the gospel is so important. I got the chills when he told the story about his sons and how when his son got his scratch all fixed up, and he IMMEDIATELY went out to his friends and gave them band aids and lotion so that they could feel the relief that he felt. THAT is why we need to open our mouths and share the good news! not to check it off and say we did it, and not out of obligation, but because we recognize that peace and relief that the gospel brings and then we share it out of sincere love for our family and friends. 

SO EVERY MEMBER OF THE CHURCH READING THIS NOW: make it a priority to fast and pray this week to know who is around you is prepared to learn and receive the message of the restoration of the fullness of the gospel. As a representative of Jesus Christ, I KNOW that someone will come to mind. There are people everywhere all around us that have been prepared and are looking for something that they are missing and they don't know what it is. It is simple... it is the gospel! I wish i had done this before my mission so badly! 

This week was kinda slow other than that... we had over 25 hours of meetings this week! We had leadership training and oh my goodness it was so amazing i didn't want it to end! learning the fundamentals was just so nice and refreshing. I might be the only missionary in the world that loves role plays... am i weird? probably. But its such a wonderful time to really think and not be afraid of saying something wrong because its practice! and then you have other missionaries right there and they say... oh maybe try this... and then you get to redo and the spirit is so strong! 

ONE MORE THING! we saw the movie Meet the Mormons! so good. everyone go see it in a theatre near you. also definitely cried when the missionary left his family and the airport.... too close to home i just did that almost 5 months ago hahaha 

actually i lied one more thing. So after the training we had planned to go try a less active. I've been in this area for 4 months now and we have only been able to talk to her once and it was when we was bringing groceries in so not for every long. I was thinking to myself, "why in the world are we trying her right now, theres traffic and everything, shes never home, we should just call here" and then the impression came to us, "well why don't we just do what we told the Lord we would do last night when we planned" well flip. so we went and she wasn't there and we were walking back to the car and LO AND BEHOLD MARGARITA IS WALKING UP THE SIDEWALK TO HER HOME! she said today was super rare because she never gets off work this early. she felt impressed that it was no coincidence and so we taught her right there in the side walk. Told her that the Lord wants her to come back and partake of the blessings of his atonement. and so we set an appt with her for tonight. I learned something very important. When we plan by the spirit, and then EXECUTE our plans, we are showing the lord that he can trust us, we are leading out by faith. its might not seem reasonable or maybe just seem like a waste of time, but when we do it anyway the lord will recognize our faith and will bless us.

Love you all! I couldn't be happier :)

Week 14

HEY EVERYONE. this week is such a blur as always hahaha I love my comp. she is seriously so funny. she speaks SO FAST but I'm always able to catch when she says, "como, en serio" which is "like seriously" so she just makes me laugh. She always jokes that I will be speaking like a Nicaraguan after our time together. I hope so! People are even saying that they are seeing a difference in my accent. I just tell them I'll take any accent except a gringa accent. Not much to report this week just that I am happy and loving being a missionary! Something that really hit me was something that happened in one of our appts with our investigator alfredo. Okay so as a missionary, sometimes it seems like you aren't always seeing the fruits of your labors. We were teaching alfredo about sacrifice and the spirit was strong and talking about how he needs to make changes and pray in order to be able to come to church on Sundays. I was feeling kind of discouraged because I felt like a broken record ya know? and I wasn't seeing any results. And I was just feeling like maybe it was my fault as a missionary that nothing was happening. At the end of the lesson, Alfredo prayed beautifully and Hermana Detrinidad commented on how he gives such beautiful prayers. He put his hand on my shoulder and said, "I had no idea how to pray before this missionary came to me and taught me. Shes an angel!" It clearly was not just me. I remember the first time sister boudesocque and I taught him and he wouldn't say the prayer after the first lesson. And I remember again that he would be so nervous to pray that we would use a paper to help him pray. And now he is praying so well and praying daily! He is also reading the book of Mormon everyday! He tells us at the beginning of every lesson where is his in the book of Mormon and the new things he learns. He is in Alma in like chapter 40 i think and talking about how he didn't realize everyone would resurrect (wow i just spelled that so wrong. spelling has gone down the drain). But when he put his hand on my shoulder and said that, the spirit confirmed to me that my labor in the Lord's vineyard was producing fruits. Sometimes, its just hard to see. I was reading in True to the Faith (FAMILIES EVERYWHERE MUST READ THAT BOOK. Seriously so inspired and great Family Home Evening material) where is says the conversion is not a miraculous event, but a quiet process. That is so true. I have seen that in my life as well. I have never had a life changing event or earth shattering doubts about the gospel. I've simply always known that it was true. But as I see people making changes no matter how big or small, I am reminded why i know these things, this message which we share, is true. 

Also, Women's conference was so good! I loved President Uchtdorf's talk the most. Something he said hit me like a ton of bricks. As a missionary, sometimes its easy to lost in the "okay if you want this blessing... you have to do this. And you cant have this blessing... if you don't do this" but he changed that WHOLE outlook for me. When he said "Heavenly Father is constantly raining blessings upon us, but it is our fear, doubt and sin that, like an umbrella, block those blessings from reaching us," That's when it all made sense to me! I have SO many blessings that frankly, I didn't do anything to deserve. But my willingness, or rather, my ability to recognize them has varied depending on the level of my faith. Now I see how truly blessed I have been my whole life. I just love this gospel and I love my Father in Heaven. My relationship with him how grown so much as i can feel the love he has for his children. 

Week 13

Okay you guys. So heres the sitch. I got a new companion. And you guys aren't even going to believe who it is. Okay so I was telling sister b that if I could people anyone to be my comp, I would pick Sister Detrinidad. She and I came into the mission field together and we just hit it off and were always joking about how we are totally going to be comps one day. So then we go to transfer conf and shes there with her comp! and we are like oh my gosh shes getting transfered out watch her get transfered to Princeton! And then everyone was like no way you two just got out of training. but I still secretly felt like we were going to be comps and then we are sitting in transfer conference any my stomach is just like hurting the whole time because the suspense is unreal. And then President Taggart said "10.7 Princeton will be... Sister Detrinidad" and then the rest is just a blur and I jumped up and the whole entire room was just like "what?!" because we both just got out of training! After the conference, President came up to us and was like, "its time for you two to just kill it up there okay? If you two can't, no one can" So we were just like okay its go time. Seriously I cannot even believe we are comps. We are having so much fun and working so hard! And I am learning SO MUCH from her. Her knowledge of the scriptures is unreal. She has such creative ways of teaching. We had an appt right after the conference with an investagador with a baptismal date and we were talking about the authority and why its important and he just wasnt understanding and then sister detrinidad pulls out here bible and uses the map in the back and example how jesus traveled very far, all the way to the river jordan to be baptized by juan the baptist even the the sea of galilee was closer. This shows the Jesus himself knew how important it was to be baptized by someone who holds the proper authority of god and not just by anyone in anyplace. I just sat listening mindblown the whole time. hahah so yeah shes awesome. She was born in Guatamala and lived there for like 12 years and then lived in Niceragua. We joked because the language barriers is so real sometimes. So we speak a lot of spanish and i am learning so much more conversational spanish. 

Also another fun fact. Last monday, sister b and I walked home from grocery shopping and I guess the people who live above us had a major flood because water was coming in through our ceiling. I have the WORST LUCK with housing arrangements. So now we have a giant whole in our ceiling and some carpet has been removed. So thats fun! 

Okay so we are teaching a family right now and we found this guy Omar, he's from Mexico, a while back and he texted us saying he wanted to meet with us. We had a really awesome lesson with him about our purpose and the plan of salvation. he invited us to come over to meet his wife and his kids. Okay PLOT TWIST: his wife is Korean. and oh my word their babies are so cute I cannot even handle it. So basically what i'm trying to say is that Koreans and Mexicans should date. anyways, they where telling us that they have been looking for a church for their family to raise their kids with good standards and the spirit was so strong in the lesson! Oh and the wife speaks spanish because her husband is more comfortable with spanish so yeah. Right now we have about 4 investagadores with baptismal dates! We are working hard and let me tell you, leading out an area is a little be exhausting hahah but its getting easier and easier the longer we are together. 

Okay and now for this weeks big miracle. So on Thursdays, we cannot drive our cars. So we had a member pick us up and help us out and then we had an appt at 7:30 and she had to go back home, so we decided that she could just drop us off and we could take the bus home. So we met this guy outside the Plainsboro library and we were talking to him and oh my word he was.. well we can just say interesting. And wouldn't stop talking and every time I would open the book of mormon to share something with him, he would be like "no i just wanna hear about your life story, don't use the book like a cheat sheet, just be real" like a super hippy Guatamalan. And sister detrinidad and I would like try not to laugh at times. anyways. During the lesson with him, i watched with my own eyes, the bus leave the bus stop and I was just like well there goes the bus! So we told me we had to leave and he kept offering us a ride home and in my mind I was like "wow it would be so nice if we could just let him drive us home" but we told him no like 10 times and started walking back. So our apartment in like 2.5 miles from the library and theres no side walk. its just kind of a highway and then corn fields on both sides and no street lights. So it was kinda freaky. And Sister D was like, how far away is the apartment, and I was just like.... ummm far. AND we had to make it back home before 9 and it was already like 8:20. So we stopped walking for a sec and I said a prayer that we would make it back home on time so that we could be obedient and be safe. So we are walking home and I felt really peaceful. Like not really scared at all. And then up in the distance we see two guys in white shirts and ties running towards us and oh my word I have never been so happy to see missionaries before. They were at a members home and he was dropping them off and they just happened to bring their daughter with them. If they hadn't brought their daughter, we wouldn't have been able to get in the car! And she spotted us in the dark and was like "are those two girls in skirts missionaries?" So they pulled over way up ahead and we didn't even see them and the missionaries ran out to us. The whole drive home i just kept thinking to myself oh when Jesus Christ is teaching the people in the Americas or in Doctrine in Convenants when he is counciing the missionaries that they should take no thought in what they should eat or drink because God already knows that we are in need of these things and the Lord will always provide for them. Things like this happen everyday, and I am so blessed to be an eyewitness to the miracle that happen to those who are in the service of the Lord. 

Sister Detrinidad and me at transfer Conf!!

sweet hole in the ceiling.

Week 12

SO MANY THINGS. I feel like my whole week just leaves my mind as soon as I sit in front of the computer. So this week caused a lot of reflection for me. I was just mentally preparing for a new companion (tomorrow is the day!) and also with my companion ending her mission in just two days, I have been thinking about the missionary I want to be right now so that I can leave feeling like I gave my everything to the Lord. I have learned so much about the power of prayer! Something that I have really learned and loved from my companion are how sincere her prayers are. As a companionship we pray together like maybe 45 times a day. Before lessons, after lessons, during lessons, to open study, close study, praying over food (even in public places... yes still getting use to that one hahah). something that I have learned is that she takes long pauses and really really thinks about what she is going to say to her Heavenly Father. Something that I have learned is that Heavenly Father already knows what we need! Better than WE do! It is up to us to really try and listen to the spirit to be able to know what things we must ask him. EVIDENCE OF THIS:  okay so I was praying and felt like I need to pray that we would have energy to cumplir (the word is escaping me right now) the will of God for that day. I felt like we were kinda trudging along and getting really tired way fast! So as I have been praying for this, we have really seen the blessing that have come! This week I felt like I had SO much energy. Just going and talking to everyone, and i felt really happy too! and then we would come home at the end of the day and be like.... woah no way did we actually teach 6 lessons today! and woah... 3 of those were member presents! and suddenly we were seeing how much we were able to get done without even being that exhausted!! Wow. Heavenly Father just loves us so much! I don't think I can think of anything specific right now. Just that I love my comp! So blessed to be trained by one of the best missionaries in the NJMM mission. The trainer really does have such an impact on the rest of the mission for the trainee. We have shared SO many spiritual experiences together and it will be so sad to say goodbye to her tomorrow! But I really am so excited and anxious for a new companion and to lead out the area! So we will see how that all goes. One of the less active members in the branch was saying goodbye to sister B yesterday and she first saw us she couldn't believe that we were missionaries because we were just jovenitas flacitas but that when we taught, she felt a giant mature spirit coming from us and how she has learned so much from us. That really was something we needed to hear! We teach and teach and sometimes its easy to feel like nothing is happening, like inactive members wont consistently come to church again, or baptisms aren't coming. And thats when it gets easy to feel like YOU must be doing something wrong. But when she said that, I really felt this peace and calm that we are doing our part the best that we can. We are trying our hardest to teach with the power of the Spirit and our purpose is to invite!! Something funny our ZL Elder Owens said at zone meeting was that "Agency kicks our trash sometimes" hahaha SO TRUE. But there are tender mercies everyday.

We are still teaching that cute lil Colombian girl Monica! We taught her this morning and talked about the Plan of Salvation and set her for a date to be baptized! the spirit was so strong! 

So I can relate to my brother right now! Anders is playing soccer with all these latinos and that is me!! we started playing soccer with this group of Latinos that come together at a park by our apartment to find more investagadores. They are all hispanics and people from Haiti. So we go over there to play, the ONLY girls... and I am the ONLY white person in the whole group. So they are all like calling us hermanas and I played back up in defense (felt like coming home :) hahah) and its so funny cause our stradegy is just to like get our bodies in the way cause they don't wanna hurt us and every time we touch the ball or do anything they get all excited for us! hahah such a surprise cause i definitely thought I was going to die. they play so rough with each other! last week some guy broke his nose so thats good. and its working! we found two new potentials! hahah so many experiences. I still cannot even believe I have already been out for 4 months! I love this time of my life right now.