Week 44--Heeeeellllllooooo!

So another week has flown by! Seriously I am so happy all the time because spring here is soooo beautiful. now I know why they call New Jersey the Garden State. There are trees that are pink, red, yellow, white basically every color and everything is so green. I dont think I was ever depressed during the winter.... but definitely have a hightened level of spring in my step (no pun intended)

ANYWHO. this week was super inspiring. we had zone conference and we also had a mission leader training. I feel like at these meetings I am drinking out of a fire hydrant. like sometimes, i even have to bring like tylenol because my brain just goes like 100 miles a second. something that i learned at zone conference that i loved is that a CES teacher who teaches institute at Princeton University taught us about how we can help our investigadores progress. He said "the most crucial events of your investigadores conversion, happen when you're not there" we taught us about how to teach better and according to the needs of our investigadores. He said, they may not be prepared, but we can teach in a way that will prepare them for the restauration. This example he used helped me. He said "you can take the horse to the water, but you cant make him drink... but you can salt the oats" and BOOM that made so much sense to me. when we meet people, sometimes i just wanna go straight into the restauration, which isn't necessarily made, but we really have to take a sec, ask them questions and really discern what it is they need to hear and help them feel understood because we teach. Its been amazing for me to see how real the gift of discernment is. 

After zone conference, we were feeling so pumped up that we decided to go out to a place in our area and apply what we learned. so this town is called sterling. and i kid you not, we had zero names in this place. nada. we were going blind. we werent even sure if there were hispanics there. but we went out on main street and started knocking. the 3rd door we get to, a woman answers and we start talking to here and she said, "pasen!" so we go inside and we see that she is making pupusas and she tells us shes from el salvador... well there are like NO el salvadorians in jersey and sister dubon nearly fainted because shes el salvadorian and so there was an immediate bond. we got to talking to her and we learned a lot about her and related just about all of her answers to a gospel principle. she insistied that we eat pupusas with them ( SOOO yummy) and then she said she wanted us back that tuesday. what a milagro! seriously. I think the greatest thrill ever in my life is finding people. It so exciting. awesome things are happening in this area. 

Then at leadership training, I had to give a training on the NJ approach. This approach is what our mission does to approach people in contacts. Its hugely successful. we basically go up to people and instead of saying "we are reprentatives of jesus christ" we go and say "hey, so youre probably super busy right now, its probably kinda strange talking to two strangers here in the street/at your doorstep, and you probably already have a belief in Jesus Christ, but that's exactly why we are here!" we are training to overcome objections before they happen. there's more too but its super cool to see how receptive people are to it. I mean come on, people can read right through people when they are being awkward or fake, and we just have to be real! so i gave that training.... solo.... for 2 hours. it was set up as a work-shop and so by the 4th round, i was pretty tired. sister dubon asked me how it all went and it was weird, looking back, every training i gave was different. I think the greatest thing i am constantly trying to learn is how the spirit communicates with me, and as i have strived to follow that my whole mission, i almost dont even recognize following the spirit, it just becomes a first instinct. 

something really cool that happened this week was that we went on an exchange and i stayed and was with an english sister. We set an appt with a referencia of a recent convert. it was cool because when we were walking up to him, he was already outside waiting for us. We had a lot of questions prepared to ask us. I felt that everytime he asked a question, i just needed to first ask him what he thought, and then testify. I followed that pattern throughout the lesson. I felt like every time i testified, the spirit just got stronger and stronger. i pull out the book of mormon to give to him and he said, "i am only accpeting this because i felt something when you said that you know its true, so it must be, and i want to know for myself. I know that you are an instrument in God's hands because your spirit must be clean. my spirit is not clean so i could not impact someone that way you impacted me." i testified again that that is exactly why we are here, so that he can become clean because God needs him to build his kingdom. 

SERIOUSLY moments like this happen all the time! this is why the mission is so happy! 

well love you all, my hair is brown, my skin is white, and ive never felt bettah

no pics this week (we are gonna take pics of the pretty spring scenery) 

Hermana Mortensen

Week 43--Hey Mom, I can cook like a Latina!

So many miracles occur on the mission. one great miracle that occurred this week is that I can cook like a Latina. well. this might be an exaggeration but hey, baby steps. I can make tortillas like i was born and raised in honduras :) 

This week was basically getting slapped in the face with humility. sister dubon and I were praying for some major guidance to figure out how to pump some life into our area, especially since president is really cracking down on the leaders in the missions having exemplary areas. one of the most simple yet true statements in preach my gospel is when it says "nothing happens in missionary work until you find people to teach" oh true that is. but let me tell you, the gift of the holy ghost is truly such an amazing blessing. sometimes we were are driving in the car, i thought will pop into my mind like, "hey wait. we should go to this street." or "hey lets knock that door" sometime we sees results and we are able to talk with someone, or find a hispanic (miracle in a rich white area) but Ive decided that it doesn't really matter what comes of following those impressions. the most important thing is showing the Lord that we are willing to follow whatever prompting he throws at us simply so that he knows he can trust us. at the end of the day, thats all I could ever want, for Him to know that He can trust me. that definitely comes from my dad having raising me drilling into my head that if there isn't trust, theres nada. 

B____ and J_____ are progressing really well. B______ told us about her boyfriend and how is coming up so that they can get married and she will move to florida when he gets here so they can start their family. We were so excited for them! and then we asked her when he was coming and she said "in 4 days!" our hearts sunk. we were just like WHY? we find someone amazingly prepared and she's going to leave! her mom was in tears because she doesn't want her daughter to leave her care since she is pregnant and her husband wont be able to take care of her because he will be working all day everyday. so we told her to really pray about it and keep reading the book of mormon and we promised her that she will know if she should stay or leave. so then we went back like the next day and she was like "so I've been thinking, and I really don't have a clear answer from God yet, but i think i am going to stay her with my mom until the baby is born." sister dubon and i were just so happy and then B______stomach visibilly moved and her baby basically jumped! she looked at us and she said " i think God just sent me his answer" we then taught about the law of chastity and they were just so happy and accepted it right away. I adore those two. I feel as though I have know them for years. 

I feel like sometimes my heart can just burst because of how much I love my mission, the gospel, my savior, spanish, the hispanic culture, everything. during church on sunday, the opening hymn was llamados a servir (called to serve) and tears filled my eyes at the beginning of the song, and it took me straight back to the CCM in mexico, which about 400 missionaries and singing that song, and feeling the spirit so strong in the room, and i really felt like i was 1) clueless because i didn't even know spanish, 2)poweful, like i was really part of an army. And sitting with a little branch almost a year later, singing that song brought all those feelings back to me . I wouldn't trade this time for anything in the whole world. 

Love you all!! 

Hermana Mortensen

making tortilla con la familia garcia

celebrating hna dubons 21st bday with an ihop breakfast and investigador family!

sister dubon and i taking comp unity to a whole new level with knuckle hlj rings.

Week 42--happy happy happy

So good news... and not surprising. sister dubon and I are staying together for the next transfer!! We are both so happy. She's the best. So many miracles have been happening lately! but for the sake of time, I will share with you the biggest one :)

So sister dubon and I have been contacting as many people as we can get our hands on. English and Spanish. we figured that if we talk with EVERYONE, the Lord will trust us enough to lead us to the latinos y los preparados. So last Tuesday, we were in Boonton. and we knocked on this house. and this lady came down and let us in (miracle) she was from Honduras and as we were talking to her getting to know her, her daughter came out! She is 18 and 6 months pregnant. she come here from Honduras just one month ago. we started talking and it was pretty obvious to us that the mother, J_____, was one of those people who lets whoever in her house and just loves the word of God. Those people are nice to find and stuff, but usually they don't progress because they listen, and then thats the end of it. After we cleared up that we weren't Jehovah's Witnesses, we started teaching the Restoration. The spirit was really strong. They were both really listening and participating. I felt like I wasn't teaching strangers, but like i was teaching 2 really good friends that i had know for years! They eagerly set a second appt. 

So fast forward to last Saturday. We go visit them with the Relief Society President. B______, the pregnant daughter, let us in. J_____ walks in and its obvious that she didn't look good at all. We follow up on the reading that we left them in the Book of Mormon and we had planned to move onto the next lesson but sister dubon and I both felt like we should really just focus on the Book of Mormon. So we talked and testified about how this book brings us such peace in our lives. J_____ totally just broke down and said, "from the moment I saw you two on Tuesday knocking at my door, something burned inside my soul. What I feel when you two teach is something I have never felt anywhere before. You are angels sent from God. B______ doesn't want me to say anything, but I feel like you are answers to prayers and that you can help. We have no food left. nothing. and B_____ needs to eat." Thank heavens the Relief Society president was there because she was able to get them the help they needed. The spirit was so strong and such an evidence to me of how God is so aware of us. They both committed to baptism on the 10th of May and they also committed to church on Sunday... and they came!!

So Sunday couldn't have been a more perfect day. The classes were sooo spot on for B_____ y J____. During like the second hour, during Relief Society, J___ got a really bad migrane from all the stress of the finances and everything, but she just looked at me and said, "I will not let satan win, I know I have to be here, I have found my place!" B_____ just kept looking at me during the church saying "gracias amiga, muchisimas gracias" I LOVE MY AMIGAS. 

So yeah, they are doing amazing. after church we came to their house to visit them and they said, " any activity, any meeting, any ANYTHING, we want to be there. There are no words to describe how grateful we are" and now they are reading scriptures and praying like they have been doing it for years. This is one of those miracles that you hear about and wonder if it will ever happen to you. I am just so grateful knowing that through fasting and praying for people like that, the Lord truly does hear us and answer. What an amazing blessing :)

Love you all!!

Hermana Mortensen

Week 41-General Conference and Refiners Fire

Well.... I cannot even BEGIN to express how much I loved conference. I'm not kidding, I was trying to take notes so fast that my hand would cramp up. How blessed are we to have living prophets and apostles here on the earth? More than once, the thought came to my mind, "yup, that right there was just for you"

I would have to say my favorites where oh course, Elder Holland. Tears came. That was so so soooo powerful. I can look back and see times in my life where the Lord truly was clinging on to me. Knowing that we have a Savior truly gives life a purpose!! Another one of my favorites was Elder Wilford W. Anderson. He came to our mission and I got to talk to him for a good little bit in spanish :) His talk was SO amazing. He basically put to rest that there is no such thing as "faking it till you make it" we truly must hear the music or rather, feel and see the joy the gospel brings us, in order to dance the steps naturally. AND Elder Michael T. Ringwood when he talked about Shiblon. HOW AWESOME? the wordly recognition comes and goes so fast. All that really matters is what the Lord thinks of us. Lemme tell ya. Those are just a few that are coming to mind now, I could go on and on. WAIT. one of my very very favorites was by Elder Dale G. Runlund, "Twas I, but tis not I" One of my favorite moments however happened between sessions on sunday. a recent convert was skyping his wife and son over in Honduras and he waved for me to come over and see his son on skype and then I saw two sister missionaries in the background! I said, "ahhh! amigas misioneras!" they came over and we talked to them for a little and wow I cant even tell you how full my heart was seeing them. They were two latina missionaries who are so very different from sister dubon and i, yet we are doing the exact same thing as them. what a blessing to be on the same winning team as them. 

So this week could be considered a little bit like the Refiners Fire. But I am so grateful for what it has taught me. So tuesday morning, during district meeting, P____ texts us saying that she can never see us again and dropped us pretty hard. Then sister Dubon looked at me and realized... oh my word, we really don't have any investigadores right now. We started having a cow a little bit. We felt really strongly that we just needed to "go vertical" (thats what president taggart says for basically pleading with the Lord). We went in earnest prayer and tried to think about what we needed to do because our area was really suffering, and we are suppose to have the example area!! I felt really confident that if we worked really hard that day, we would get at least 2 new investigadores. Then, we went on exchanges, I stayed in the area and sister dubon left. So sister larsen and I went out and executed all of our plans and let me tell you, I have not had that many doors slammed ever before! It was just one after another. Sister Larsen said it felt like a normal day for the english missionaries hahah anyways, I kept a smiling face the whole time because I was on the exchange and had to be "exemplary" and to top things off... IT STARTED SNOWING. so yeah, we were soaking wet. We got home and knelt down to pray and I couldn't help but be kind of frustrated with heavenly father, I was just like "cmon! I really felt that we were going to have success today but nothing happened! 0 lessons. absolutamente nada." we wrapped up nightly planning and then the phone rang. It was a number that wasnt saved. I said "hola habla la hermana mortensen" and then a very familiar voice said to me in spanish "have you already forgotten about me my beautiful missionary??" IT WAS MARTA FROM KEARNY! I hadn't been able to call her since I left so she got my number for the missionaries in kearny. She updated me on her progress and that she is reading the book of mormon and really progressing. She said that "I felt like I needed to tell you to keep being a disciple of Christ. There are people over there in morristown that specifically need you! thanks to you and your personality, I started learning and now I am so grateful" I almost just broke down crying!! what a blessing, that someone I taught was able to be an answer to my prayer. 

As a mission we have been focused a lot on Helaman 3:35 and it talks about the humble and obedient people in the church were being persecuted and it talks about how they reacted to the persecution. It says that they did fast and pray oft, and they did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in their faith of christ, and that they were purified and sanctified. So i decided to put it to the test. on Friday I fasted that we would be able to find at least 2 new investigadores. so we went out and I was feeling pretty confident. We went to a part of the area to a city called Boonton. I'm pretty sure the phrase "out in the boonies" originated from this place. Its so weird. you just feel like your in limbo, or some random run down latin american country. we were looking and contacting all day long and only saw white people! we had taught 3 white people and still zero investigadores. we were walking back to our car and I was just like "no way are we leaving here without finding someone, I felt so good about this place! as we were walking back I see out of the corner of my eye this hispanic guy who was going off to work. I lept up onto his porch which probably scared the living daylights out of him and we got to talking. he is from honduras and he grew up with a mormon family there. He said he remembers playing futbol at the church with his friends and he was so excited to see us because it was like a throw back to his home! He was leaving off to work and said that we could come back on Sunday. We went back and taught him, his wife and their two daughters ages 14 and 8. lemme tell ya, i have never ever see a family as prepared as they are. they even have Sundays off! We ended the week having 8 new investigadores. The Lord lets us hit rock bottom so that it will take honest seekers to their knees in prayer, pleading for His help. and he always delivers. 

Love you all! Happy late Easter :)

Hermana Mortensen

Week 40

Hello hello everyone!!

Well another emotional roller coaster has come and gone with an emergency transfer, investigador passing baptismal interview, and the mother sending away her 32 year old daughter to prevent her baptism the day off. Just a day in the life. Always gotta be buckled up.

Soooo, basically P_______ is nothing short of a miracle. I haven't written much about her. When we got doubled in, the first Sunday we were at church she basically walked in! A recent convert was talking to her at a train station and casually invited her to church and she came! We knew off the bat that something was a little off with her. We weren't sure what. She's Colombian and 32 years old. We kept meeting with her and she wasn't understanding things super fast, so we were just teaching little by little and frequent visits. The spirit was always remarkably strong in these appts. As time went on, she started to retain more and more and really astounded us with her answers. She became more and more herself, cracking jokes and all that. That's when we knew she was accountable. She was so excited for her baptism and kept saying she feels so much peace and calm when she is with us and when she prays and when she thinks about baptism. She's obesesed with mormon.org and if we are one minute late to an appt she calls us and demands to know where we are :) I grew to love her more than just about anyone else I've come in contact with in my mission. She is someone quite special. She was all ready for her baptismal interview. That morning of the interview we reviewed the questions and she did wonderfully! She showed us pictures on her Facebook of her back in Colombia a few years ago and we hardly recognized her. She was sooo guapa and looked normal. We left so confused wondering what made such a change. 

When she was in her interview, Elder Lopez was talking to her and she asked him why he wears glasses. He explained the problem with his vision and then asked her why she wears glasses. She said that she contracted this rare diasease between the connection of her eyes and her brain which is why she blicks so hard and twitches sometimes. Basically it can shut off her brain at any moment. Sister Dubon and I were shocked. I felt the spirit so strongly knowing that this daughter of God is very special to Him because He wants her back real bad. She says that she used to be normal but the medication has basically made her mentally retarded. She knows it and she tries to fight it. I couldn't even imagine what she could possibly be going through, but I began to realize that this intensified degree of love I felt from her truly came from the Savior.

She was sooooo excited. Then satan always has to get in the way somehow. Sunday was already for her baptism. We called her and she wasn't answering, so then we kept calling her. Then her phone was turned off. We immediately knew that this was not good. We drove over to her appt and her step- dad answered saying that her mother took her away and they would be coming back in the tarde. P___ called later that night. she asked us to come over. as soon as i entered the house, I just wanted to run out the other way. She did not look good, she was twitching more than normal and she wasn't happy. Its was like mentally, she had taken 6 steps back. Her mother is an alcoholic and abusive and her step dad is a drug addict and was a rough environment. P____ wants to be baptized next Sunday and is so anxious to feel the spirit. so yeah. That's basically that so we are praying real hard that all goes well. Keep her in your prayers!!

We had a luau sister party today that the sister training leaders put on with Sister Taggart! It was such a hit!

Love you all!!

Hermana Mortensen

P____!! We love her :)

Emily Taggart and I having phone at photo booth

I am so lame!

My main girl

Me and all of my companions! except Sister Boudescoque... or should I say Hawkins?

Week 39

So we welcomed spring in with a nice snowfall... *eyetwitch* but hey its okay, the snow is almost all melted now. It was just a funny joke probably.

All is well here in Morristown! This week was SUCH a roller coaster. So basically there is a lot of work to be done here in this area. Its been really rough to get the members involved in the obra misional. We call and we call and we call for them to come out with us and they literally just ignore our calls or hang up on us. The only member that went out with us was our ward mission leader and branch president. So we basically threw down in our Branch council meeting and we were just like, “Okay. We have someone being baptized this next week (her name is Paula and she is awesome) and hardly anyone in the branch knows her. We have tried getting people to come out with us but there is only so much we can do. We aren't here to just baptize people who go inactive". (that is a huge trend here) We shared some ideas with the branch council on some ways that we can get members more involved. They were super open to the ideas and we are expecting to see major improvement. But yeah. It was rough. Hopefully the attitude of "this is the missonary's work" will go away and it will all become a team effort. I am so grateful the Lord trusts be enough to send me here and apply everything I learned in the Newark Ward to help strengthen this branch.

So we had ONE OF THE MOST SPIRITUAL LESSONS probably in my whole mission this week. We were teaching this investigador _____. I love her to death. we work out with her every morning and seriously she's so hilarious. She's from Bolivia, her husband as well. he is a doctor and her son is 7 and is obsessed with the church. He already has articles of faith memorized and is counting down the days to his baptism. So we went over to teach her and President Crane (the branch president) was there. We went over to talk about the Plan of Salvation because she was asking a lot of questions about WHY we do all the things we do. She always said that she's just not a church going type of person. Sister Dubon and l laughed saying that if we just went to church because we were born with this desire to go to church, we wouldn't be going either hahah so what better way to explain the why than the plan of salvation?

So we start off by saying, "Okay ______, today we want to explain to you the "why" behind everything we do, why we go to church, and why we invite you and your family to be baptized." she smiled and said, "Justo, today I was thinking about why you girls are doing all of this" she was all ears. The spirit was so strong the whole time. We were teaching the with folleto and she was all ears. we got to the end and talked about eternal life. We explained that eternal life is when we are in the presence of god with our families. I simply looked up at her and said, “_______. This is why!! I go to church and serve a mission and do all this things, because I cannot live without the promise of being with my family forever. I miss them a lot, but I'm not sad, because I have this promise." The spirit was so tangible in there. She started asking questions about temples and how she could get sealed to her family. it was so powerful because sister Dubon had been sealed to her family like one month before she left for her mission so she showed her a picture. Then ______ was saying how when she found out the two new missionaries were coming, she had decided that she was going to tell us that she wasn't interested anymore, and then she said that when she met us, she knew that we were specifically sent for her. She is progressing a ton now and the whole family came to church last Sunday :)

I know I say this every time but I couldn't be happier! Serving a mission is the absolute best. Love you all!

Hermana Mortensen

Week 38--Too busy for pictures.

This past week has been ANYTHING but tranquilo. Its been probably the craziest week of my mission, but I have a feeling that this will be the new normal pretty soon here. We had exchanges from Tues-wed, mission zone confon thurs, exchange Friday to Saturday and no rest in between! but that's how we like it... maybe I will unpack one of these days, that would be cool.

So sister dubon and I gave a training at zone meeting on the Basics of the Gospel. The spirit was so strong. At one point I literally had to say, "okay everyone, do you feel that?? the spirit is here!" Sometimes, we get so caught up on if someone isn't keeping the word of wisdom or going to church that we only scratch the surface by teaching about the commandments. The surest way to change behavior is by teaching the basics of the gospel. We really focused alot on applying the atonement and how we can do so in our everyday lives as missionaries of the Lord. Sister Dubon and I learned so much as we prepared for this training. We started by writing on the board a quote by one of the general authorities that says, "the greatest spiritual giants come from the those who were the greatest sinners or those who passed through the greatest trials" We talked a lot about why this is true. The connect here is obviously the Atonement. Its only the Savior that can take away the pains of sin or can give us power from heaven to overcome the fiery darts of the adversary. We both agree that we were so lucky to be given that topic of the training because we learned the most :)

So real quick on the exchanges. The first exchange was with a brand new missionary, Sister W and she came with me in my area. I was 100% relying on the Lord for this one because this area was so new to me and I wanted this girl to see major miracles on her first exchange. and oh boy did we. We were finding Hispanics left and right walking in the calles and set many appts that day. We were driving away and I saw this guy walking into his house and the spirit whispered clearly to me that we needed to turn around and talk to him. so we did, walked up and knocked on his door, has an awesome first lesson, and he accepted baptism! She's an English missionary so was kinda lost the whole time but we left and she said, "I have no idea what went down, but the spirit was SO there!" Later on in the exchange I asked her why she came out on her mission. She mentioned that her best friend/cousin unexpectedly took her own life when she was a senior in high school and it really had a big impact on her. She said it was so hard to cope with, but found such comfort in the plan of salvation, and wants others to feel that comfort as well. I felt prompted to ask a little bit more about her cousin. She showed me a purple wristband that she wears the says her cousins name and I was like wow that looks so familiar. she was talking about her more when I realized that my boyfriend in college wore that same wristband. I grabbed Sister W and was like OH MY WORD. this is not a coincidence. I told her that I dated someone who was very good friends with her cousin and took the lost of S (her cousin's name) very hard and how I visited her grave on the one-year mark of her death. Sister W teared up said that it was such an answered prayer that we made this connection because she really felt as if she needed someone to talk to about all of it. It was such a miracle to see how the Lord knows us so well and works in such mysterious ways.

I love you all! quote of the week from sister dubon and I: "we look so beat, but we are happier than we've ever been"