Week 29

This week was so awesome! (Like all of them really) 

One perk this week was that we got to go do service at Ellis Island and like no one was there. which was kinda eerie not gonna lie. So we got to do the audio tour and learn all about the history there and wow, going through that island to get into the Americas was not a fun thing. 

So heres a funny story (you just gotta laugh at this one). so this recent convert we are working with, Tino, came to church to day with his wife and kids (MIRACLE) and his friend Carlos! We were so excited and were hoping to start teaching him!! So after the Sunday school class, Carlos asked me if I was married. I said no and then he told me that he wanted to marry me so that he could get papers and that he would pay me. SWEET. Tino thought it was the funniest thing he had ever heard and keeps saying he needs my fathers phone number so his friend can ask my dad permission for my hand in marriage. CLASSIC. So moral of the story, we wont be teaching him.

Okay so miracles that are happening here are just UN real. We have amazing members. I have learned so much about the type of member missionary I want to be from the example of these members. So this member, Hermana Rosa, called us and was like "hey! I set an appt with my friend Mirna and so I want you to come with me. She doesn't know your coming, and she probably wont be very happy at first, but come!" so we were just like YES!! well turns out that this friend Mirna has a daughter serving a mission in Provo UT Spanish speaking. Mirna was very closed off and bitter toward the church and anything mission related because she felt like it stole her daughter from her. but as her daughter has continued in the mission, her mother has seen how happy this mission has made her and the blessings that have come from it. Hermana Rosa told us right before we went into the cita that Mirna's daughter's patriarchal blessing promises her that when will she is away on her mission, a sister missionary will touch the heart of her mother and before she comes home, her mothers will be a member. Her daughter comes home in June. So I was like oh my word no pressure!! We prayed SO hard and the spirit would be with us. When went in and I don't think Mirna was too thrilled so see us, but I was just like, I have to be myself right now. after a few minutes, we totally hit it off!! and opened up to us so much. Today we have an appt with her and her daughter and we are going to set them on date for baptism this feb :) I love how the Lord is in every detail of this work. 

okay one more funny thing. since its cold, EVERYONE (I'm not kidding, investigadores and members) gives us hot chocolate and fruit cake in every lesson. Those who know me well, know i love my hot chocolate, but this fruit cake is awful. seriously. but sister Philbrick dislikes it even more than I and watching her face every time they bring it out just makes me laugh so hard that i have to like bite my tongue hahaha 

I could not be happier. I learn so much everyday, and the best part is the the Spirit is literally teaching me in every lesson I teach. 

Me in front of Ellis Island with my official federal government badge ;)

Week 28--Happy New Year!

Oscar's baptism!

This was such an awesome week! Everyone kept asking us about what we were planning on doing for New Years Eve and honestly... the mere thought of staying up until midnight made me want to cry. This work is exhausting!! hahaha I slept very well. So this week there were so many miracles. But for now heres a few.

First of all, Oscar got baptized!!! It was so amazing. The spirit was so strong and after he came in from changing his clothes and getting all dry, it was like you could see a glow about him. At the end, oscar's dad, who isn't a member that we are trying to work with, went up to give the closing prayer. In his prayer his father said, and i quote "God, I am so grateful that my son has taken the step to be a part of your only true church here on the earth" WHAT?! I start up had to open my eyes and see if that was real or I was just dreaming. but no it was real. Its amazing how the spirit works in people! We are working on the father and hoping that he will be baptized pronto so they can all start preparing as a family to be sealed in the temple. then on sunday oscar received the Holy Ghost and afterward he was feeling so good that he was asking us, "when can I serve a mission? How many transfers are in a mission?" and all those questions :) Im hoping he will get sent to Texas Houston mission so I can see him in action!

Second miracle, On Saturday we went to go a less actives house and they are Dominicans and super awesome. Its a single mother and her daughter and they are both members but both very less active and have been to church in about 2 years. We went over and and after some quick small talk, I had an inner battle in my head. I don't know why but i got so nervous! I was like.... well i could be really bold right now, or i could play it safe and just be their friend but before I knew it and words just came out and of my mouth and I looked at the mother and simply said, "Hermana Pena, we came here with a purpose. We came and representative of Jesus Christ to ask to you come back." Her face just softened and she got kinda teary eyed and said "Gracias! Gracias!" It was like all she was waiting for was a invitation. Not only did she end up coming to church this sunday but her DAUGHTER (who considers herself a hard core ateo) CAME AS WELL. and it was fast and testimony meeting and the daughter WENT UP AND BORE HER TESTIMONY! I was just like oh my word. this is amazing.

Third miracle. There is this less active man who is a high priest and hasn't been to church in YEARS. We have worked with him and little and his family is pretty active but he and his son are not. and sometimes it seems we are teaching and nothing is getting through to them. so we were SHOCKED that he came to church. and then testimony meeting was coming to a close and he got up and bore the last testimony and it was the most powerful testimony I have heard. He said that he was thinking about what would happen if he were to die. He said he knew it would be horrible because his family would be on the right hand of God and he wouldnt. He that starting on that day, he was coming back and wasnt going to leave. WHAT A MIRACLE. EVERYONE was teary eyed including me. we went over to his house that night and it was like we were talking to a whole different person. 

Fourth miracle. we are in major finding mode. and we have pretty much no progressing investigadores. ALSO we have had no car this whole week and a half so its been a lot of walking. but i think that is no coincidence because we are forced to just knocking doors all day long between citas. so we knocked on this one house and all we said was "hola!" when they invited us in!! The husband went straight to his room but his wife talked to us and she is one of the most prepared people I have every met in my entire life!! She from Colombia and the spirit was so strong that whole lessons, especially as we talked about baptism. She accepted baptism right then and there! So we are working with her. 

Gosh. I just love this work. There is nothing better and seeing people come back/enter into the kingdom of God. Every sacrifice i put into this work, the Lord rewards me like 6 times more. I am forever in debt to Him!

Oscar's family

All of our zone on christmas morning!

Week 27--Christmas!!

This Christmas was so amazing!! Well first of all, it was a little stressful because like 8 families invited us over to celebrate Christmas with them and only half of them specified the 24th. so i just assumed that when people were invited us over for Christmas they were talking about the 25th. but NOPE. for hispanics, the 25th is the day were you just sleep to recover from all the celebrating. so that made things rather stressful and had some last minute appt switches but all was well.

I always thought that Christmas day as a missionary would be kinda of a bummer but let me tell you, we felt like the guests of honor at every house we went to! Everyone was so nice to invite us over and we loved feeling the spirit of Christmas in their homes. The food was all soooooo good, but I kid you not, after our 4th appt, or rather, our 4th feast, I almost resorted to crawling back home, standing up straight was just too much for me. we just laid in bed that night feeling so full and so sick hahaha 

the best part of it all was talking to the family!! It was crazy seeing them in a completely different house and all the siblings looked SO much older!! well especially the boys. A lot happens in 7 months and 40 minutes just doesn't cut it! 

the greatest miracle I think we have seen this week has been happening with the family of a recent convert, John. So he thinks he's like super hoodrat and tough is such a punk, but you just gotta love him. and he joined the church like 5 or 6 months ago. We work with him a lot because he struggles with going to church but he's been going quite frequently. As we have been working with him, his parents have started to really warm up to us. I remember our first visit with john, his mom was pretty against the church and leaned out the window when we ran the doorbell and said John wasn't home, but then John ran down stairs and invited us in. As time went on, we kinda of made it our goal to get her to warm up to us. So we would always give her a big hug when we came over and as time went on she would run to answer the door for us and talk to us until John came out and then she would leave for the lesson. One day she just broke down crying because John and his relationship with his parents is so strained and because he is their only child, she feels as though she is a failure as a mother. I felt that all she needed in that moment was someone to give hug and let her cry. The next time we came over, she was waiting outside for us to come in and gave us her number so that we could start  making citas with her! and THEN to top it all off.... they invited us over for their christmas dinner!! and thats not even the gran finale.... JOHNS DAD, DIEGO, TOOK THE LESSONS IN ECUADOR WHEN HE WAS JOHNS AGE AND HE WANTS TO COME BACK because he misses the feelings he had when he would read the book of mormon and come to church. We talked about how families can be together forever and the spirit was so strong. Its such a blessing to literally see the difference from day to night. To see how the spirit truly can change peoples hearts. when we were heading out, the mom grabbed our hands and thanked us for bringing a spirit of love and peace every time we come into the house. We are now teaching them and are so excited for the progress they are making! 

I just love being on a mission. I love serving my savior, especially in this time of year when we are reminded that He gave his life for us. The least I can do is serve Him with everything I have. 

Love, Hermana Mortensen

Looks like Hermana Mortensen was very good this year!

Week 26

Angel's baptism

Seriously. Serving a mission is the BIGGEST blessing because miracles happen all the time. Last week was tough but like I love how Moroni describes faith. He teaches us that when we have faith, we receive no witness until after if has been tried. Last week, my companion and I took to much fasting and prayer and it seemed as though even though we did those things, nothing was coming of it. At the start of this week, we promised each other and the Lord that we were just gonna keep working hard with a perfect brightness of hope. And then miracles happened left and right!! 

Well first of all.... Angel got baptized!! It was seriously so amazing to see how every thing worked out. Okay so long story short, he took his baptismal interview, passed and then said, just kidding i wanna wait some more. (well not exactly like that but you get the jist) and we were SO heartbroken. so we really felt like we needed to zero in and focus on the atonement of christ with him because he has been harboring feeling of hatred against his ex wife and her family. we got into the lesson and immediately the thought comes to my mind that we need to share the movie with him that talks about the guy whose wife and 3 children died by a drunk driver and how he forgave him. So I asked him to grab his laptop and my companion just looks at me like... uhhhh we did NOT role play this and i was just praying the whole time that it would exist in spanish and THANK HEAVENS it did. So we watched that with him and the spirit was SO strong during the movie and this man talked about how relying on his savior and the atonement, our feelings of pain and hatred can be replaced with peace and love. our spiritual confidence grows when we do not have ill feelings against those around us. The spirit was so strong that i didn't even want to speak and just sit in the spirit for hours! I asked him a simple question of how he can apply this video into his own life. He looked at us with tears in his eyes and said simply "i must forgive." So we committed him to pray DAILY to be able to forgive those who have wronged him. he offered the most tender prayer in front of us. it was truly amazing to see how something that simple really made it click for him. all he was looking for was peace and finally he knew how to find it. as the week went on, his whole disposition changed. he was happier. when we spoke about baptism he was excited! 

So fast forward to the day of the baptism. so the morning of we call him just to double check and make sure he's awake and he wasn't answering. so then we were texting and he wasn't answering and we were like kinda nervous because the night before he told us to call to make sure he was ready. So we were so nervous and slightly stressed and then 5 minutes after the meeting starts Angel walks in casually all smiling because he was like "I wanted to make you nervous! of course i am coming to church!!" not funny. AND theres always gotta be something that goes wrong. well this time, there was no ropa. so like all of us missionaries are looking everywhere for the clothes and we find like 2 XXL jumpsuits. way to big for angel but who cares it all worked out and emergency was diverted hahah 

also we have like 13 less actives that we've been working with come to church and 4 investagadores. my companion and i were just sitting and smiling so big and squeezing each other every time someone walked in! like it's so amazing seeing people come back and partake of the sacrament. 

our mission got together for a christmas conference and it was so awesome!! we have a variety show and so many people got up and sang and played instruments and then there was a few minute to win it things with a slide show. I just love christmas :) I will certainly miss being with my family but at the same time i wouldn't want to be anywhere else. 

HOW COULD I ALMOST FORGET?? and we went to the manhattan temple!! we had zero time to explore times square which was so sad but i LOVE the temple. it had been 7 months since i had been inside a temple and wow that is far too long. the new york temple is amazing because right as soon as you enter, all the sound from outside goes away. its like your in heaven for real. also. glasses were worn because pink eye make a mild come back. i flippin dislike pink eye. but all is well and back to normal.

Entering Manhattan Temple

Outside temple in Manhattan

Mission Christmas Conference

Week 24

Hello!! Wow well first it just want to start by inviting EVERYONE to please go and check out this link.
christmas.mormon.org

seriously, this video, "He is the Gift" is such a wonderful reminder of what the true meaning of Christmas is. We have this beautiful cards with the picture of mary holding baby jesus and we are encouraged to use them in every contact. Its so interesting to see how everyone is just a little bit nicer once they see that the card has a christmas message. The the change in a jolly spirit is quite evident over here in Jersey thats for sure hahah but yeah anyway, we gave this guy a card and he was like, "FINALLY someone talks about the real meaning of christmas. Its' JESUS'S birthday, not everyone else's" hahah I thought that was so funny and so true! I just absolutely love this season and love being able to share these glad tidings of great joy, thats our Savior came, showed us the way, suffered, died and resurrected just so that we can make it make to our heavenly father.

Second of all... SHOUT OUT to my mother who sent me david archulta christmas cd, wow its just makes me so happy! and makes me a little more okay with this freezing weather.

so this week has been really good. I just love my companion. when she speaks, its not something thats easy because spanish is still all so new, but its so clear when she is speaking by the spirit, because she speaks with ease and its so powerful. Here's an example. so we were with Angel. And we were talking about how he needs to ask god if the book of mormon is true and really ask with a real intent so that he could receive and answer. So we all knelt down together, in this dinky freezing staircase and he prayed so sincerely. After he prayed, he stayed there for 5 minutes after with his eyes closed. It took EVERYTHING in me not to get off my knees because i had lost feeling in my feet by that time. So finally he looked up and said, "I feel really calm, but it want a bigger answer" My comp looked up at him and said that she had never truly recieved a "big" answer from heavenly father. but she has just always known the book of mormon was true, thats part of faith! and then she said that everytime she testifies, she feels in her heart that the book really is true. I just testifed of what she said is true and you could tell his whole attitude changed. CAUSE LIKE CMON. lets be real for a second. we were sent here on earth to walk and act by faith. That means doing and obey without always understanding why. or like Alma 32 says, "faith is not a perfect knowledge!" Sometimes we want to wait until we have evidence and then act, but then we aren't even exercising faith! we talked alot about that and then he said that he wanted to prepare himself to be baptized the 14th of december. We were so happy. We were fasting that day that he would have that desire.

Also, we had a christmas fireside last night and its was all the spanish missionaries that put it on and i got to see so many people from my last area. AHHH i just love them. it was the best. also, I was maria in the nativity HOLLAA. well one of them, there was like 3 of us. Can i just say hispanics are so funny. when they say that someone gives birth, they say "ella dio luz" which means she gave light hahaha how awkward am i right? 

If i have learned ANYTHING, its that my Heavenly Father is so aware of me. I am so insignificant, yet he really does care. He also wants me to learn a lot apparently because this work hasn't been something real easy over here in Jersey. But Ive never been happier and there are miracles every day :)

Last district meeting of the transfer! just a few of us... self timer fail. 

Newark ward members came up big for me with the Maria costume hahah :) 

some princeton members!! 

all of zone 5 at the Traditions with the Taggarts. Sister philbrick and i are the only 2 sistahs in the bro zone.

Week 23

Okay so basically this week was such an emotional roller coaster I dont even know where to begin.

well first off, Thanksgiving was so great! It started with some turkey bowl with a few of nearby zones and the taggarts and APs come to play with us! (fun fact... one of the APs went on a date with my cousin Gina hahaha) OH and we had 3 dinner appts. I literally prayed before the second dinner that we would be able to eat more food. Because hipanics do this thing where you dont serve yourself. They take your plate, and give you everything. So you are eat SO much. Seriously, I was still full the day after thanksgiving. But I love how awesome the members are for letting us come over and spend the holidays with them :) 

Okay so ... THERE WAS SNOWFALL. The first day is always exciting. But walking around all day in it is less exciting. After a full day of walking in the snow, my hip was really bothering me. Like it always bothers me but more than usually. The next day it was just worse. When it gets colder outside, theres more pain. So I got really nervous. All these thoughts were coming into my head like, "but this isnt even anything yet, its gonna get so much colder, what if they send me home? what if i need surgery?" Just everything. So I asked my district leader if he could give me a blessing of health. So  he gave me a blessing and I felt so calm. In the blessing, he said over and over how the Lord is perfectly aware of what I am feeling and the pain that I have. All I have to do is learn to rely on the Atonement and everything will be okay and he will send angels on my right and on my left to bear me up. What a great blessing that was. Sometimes we forget how powerful the Atonement really is. That we can call upon the savior to bear us up and he will! I have such a testimony of the reality of the atonement. that our Savior truly did suffer for all of us, even me. All I can do is put everything I have into His work. When I feel like I cant walk another block, I just close my eyes and pray for strength and I can literally feel myself being strengthened. I feel so much better after the blessing! Im walking with ease now! The priesthood is such a wonderful blessing. 

Marisol was all set for baptism. the program was ready to go, the interview had been passed and we were in constant communication with her everyday! we saw here like almost everyday this week and all was ready to go. On friday, she was so excited and when we left, a friend came over who heard she was getting baptized and showed her a lot of antimormon videos to watch which told her many terrible false things about joseph smith and the book of mormon. We went back and I immediately felt sick. Like the spirit just wasnt in her home. the first thing she said was "no me voy a bautizar manana" and I was just like what happened? She told us about the antimormon stuff. before we said anything we offered a prayer to invite the spirit and I felt so much better. but i was heart broken. She just kept going on and on about what this video told her and about how we dont really know the true story of joseph smith. we talked about the restoration and about how Christ is the head of the church. We were asking her questions to try to get to her tell us how the holy ghost had manifested unto her, because she knows the book of mormon is true, she knows the priesthood is real because she has been healed by the blessings of health. She KNOWS THIS THINGS. but she would not even answer questions. she wouldnt say anything. She looked at me like I was silly when I said christ is the head of this church. I then said the I know he is the head of this church because, by power and authority I am his representative I testified that as members of his church, when we see his face one day, we will know him and he will say, "come, enter into the joy of the lord". I felt the spirit so strongly manifesting unto me that what I said was true. she began to cry as well. 

I know the Lord wants me to learn a lot of things out here, but the greatest thing I have learned is how involved he is in our lives. How much he loves us and how badly he just wants us to come unto him. I know that because as his representative, Ive felt the sorrow that comes when people dont do his will. 

So yeah rough week, but spiritually enriching week as well so you cant complain right? I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving and I love you all!

This is on kearny ave. notice that no one is outside because freezing hahah love you!

This is right outside our chapel.

Week 22

Hello all!

This week has been so awesome! a roller coaster per usual. but still great. Well to start off... ALFREDO GOT BAPTIZED!!!! :) Seriously. I cannot even tell you how happy I felt even though I wasnt physically there. I called him on saturday night to tell him how happy I was and before I even said who I was he said, "a la gran hermana california bontia mortensen! Te extrano un monton!" we continued to say that the starts to come out to shine at night and that the sun is sad and doesnt shine and all is dark since i left hahaha it was so great. He was really so excited to be baptized. He made me promise that I will be there when he goes through the temple since I couldnt be at his baptism and so i said okay and then he said okay perfect I will be going through the guatmalan temple... yikes. I gotta start saving up I guess hahaha. I dont have pics of the baptism yet but hermana detrinidad is going to email me some soon.

So, our baptism here in Newark with Marisol got postponed until next sundaybecause your health is still pretty bad. But she still came to church! :) She passed her interview and everything is ready to go for next week :) The members here are so amazing with the investigadores. We have had a baptism here every week since ive been here and seriously the ward comes out and supports so strong for these baptisms. like im not kidding. comida for days. Also here in the ward, the fourth sunday is all about missionary work. so the missionaries are to address the ward. and do a musical number and what not. So being the newbies here in the ward, sister philbrick and I gave a talk. Sister philbrick went up first and oh my word is was so amazing. I sat there just smiling so big. It is amazing to see her progress. She and I are so different but it just works! and I know we got put together so I can learn from her. She got up and start saying that she has always wanted to serve a missionary and know that she is finally here, she is really to give her whole heart to the Lord. I just teared up as soon as she said that! Shes truly so awesome. She gave her talk and then two elders sang and then it was my turn. The counseler to the bishop said that I would need to take what ever time was left over and finish up the meeting. So I got up there, look at the clock and and saw that there was about 17 minutes that I would need to fill. and I had up there was my pmg, and my scriptures and I felt so calm! I got up there, start talked, and it all just flowed out! I talked about the difference between a testimony and conversion. I shared about my own background and my own conversion story. I then talked about Alma the younger and the sons of mosiah and how they were the vilest of sinners. but when they decided to change, and truly had become converted by the power of the angel they saw and through the remission of their sins, there desire was to go out and share the gospel! So if we, as members, really are converted, that means that we too should be trembling at the thought of people we love not having a knowledge of the gospel.

We had a former investigador that we just picked up this week at church and after all three hours (first time at church for the whole time) and seeing his first baptism, he came up to us and asked, what do i have to do to get baptized? The same thing happened with this less active mother we have been working with a lot. during gospel principles, she leaned over and asked me, "what do i have to do to make more covenants in the temple. I want it." THIS is the power of the spirit. it becomes less of us pushing people to do these things or trying to convince them of what they need, and turns into a desire that they truly want for themselves.

okay one more story. so there is this less active family that as REALLY been through it this past year. The husband and two of the three sons were put to jail about a year ago because the oldest son was doing illegal things with his business and the father and other son got put to jail unjustly. When the husband got released because they realized he was without fault, he got super super sick. and now he has to get blood transfusions every other day. He is really dizzy all the time because of his medication and doesnt want to sit in a wheelchair or use a cane because it shows weakness. and he has to eat every 3 hours and they dont have a car so its hard to find a ride to church. those were his reasons for why he hasnt been coming to church. He has kinda of given up and is just waiting to die, since people on the blood donor list have been there for at least like 10 years and they cant find a match for him. his wife on the other hand goes every sunday and is taking the temple prep classes. During the lesson we were having with him, I felt really prompted to promise him that if he stopped excusing himself from the commandments of god and did all he could to prepare himself to go to the temple, Heavenly father would bless him so that the doctors would find a donor for him so that he could live to be sealed to his wife. I felt the spirit so strong. I know everyone in that room did too. He committed to come to church and for the first time in a long time, he came to church. I have such a testimony that the Lord is with me, working right along side me. I know it and its the best feeling ever! I love this gospel and this time i have to be a missionary. asi en serio

member who seriously LOVES dad and remembers him from when he served in peurto rico. she says that everything i do reminds her of him hahaha this was at the thanksgiving party we had. it was crazy! these ecuadorians got all decked out and danced. seriously. sometime i forget im still in the US and i love all the different cultures!

okay so its like little peru over here and the peruvians drink inca kola like its water. the first time i had it i thought it was gross but now i love it. so anywho, it was a walking day and a member gave a this gaint think of inca kola just in case we got hungry hahah classic.