Tour de Palm Springs

To my dearest Family and Friends:

This week has been a good one. Great place, great branch, great people, great time to be a missionary. Thank you for all your prayers and support. I love getting your emails and pictures!!!!

Highlights:

P-day with our zone.

* We helped out with the Tour de Palm Springs Bike Ride this weekend. It was really fun because we got to talk to a whole bunch of random people. We were stationed at the 70/100 miles pit stop. Those people were crazy!!!! There was one guy that came up and asked us to sing for him so that he could get pumped up :) we had a lot of really funny experiences.

* Today we went to Indio to play soccer/tennis/basketball with other sisters of our zone. It was really fun.

* It is so beautiful here. It's about 70 degrees and it is so sunny. It feels like the best summer ever, and it's January!!!!!!

* We picked up 2 new investigators this week Rosa and Nell. Nell is the neighbor of another new family we started teaching a couple of weeks ago. She is so cute and is a single mom. She shared with us her strong testimony of Jesus Christ and she loves the video Because of Him. She readily invited us back another time. Rosa had met missionaries way back in 2006, but had lost contact with them. Sister Erickson contacted her on exchanges once and she sounded really awesome. She basically cried and talked the whole time about how she needs the gospel. She basically is a golden investigator. She is evidence that everybody we come in contact with, member or missionary has potential to accept the gospel.

* We had 2 really great lessons with members. This week we had a lesson with Ben where we did a church tour with our Ward Mission Leader. Ben has already been to the church building for a baptism and for a Christmas concert and said he loves it so much he doesn't want to leave. At the end of the lesson he committed to changes his work schedule so he and his son can come to church every Sunday.  AWESOME!

The Cardoso's were so perfect and bore their testimonies....and the best part is now when Ben comes to church he will have an automatic friend! Ben asked us, what requirements do you have to have for baptism? And when can someone get baptized? So awesome!!!!!!!!!!!

* We also had a lesson with Sara and a new Hermana in the branch, Hermana Padilla. We have previously brought a couple members closer to Sara's age, but for some reason they didn't click very well.  Until.....we brought this new Hermana. They clicked so well, the lesson ended with us all scheduling a time to go hiking together next Monday. It was so awesome to see Heavenly Father working with us to help Sara feel more comfortable at church.

I love you all!!!!!!!! 
 

Tender Mercy with 3-year-old Bobby.

January 18, 2016

Family and friends:

Thank you all for your love and support. I hope you know how needed and strong you are. Thank you thank you for all you do!!! 

Tender Mercies: 

*One of our investigators, Sara, has a boy named Bobby. He is 3 and super cute but quite the screamer. Last week in the middle of our lesson he came up and put Mac and cheese right in our hands....a whole clump full.  Sara got really mad at him and so he proceeded to scream for the next 20 minutes while we read the Book of Mormon with her. When it came time to pray, I was about at the end of my rope. I remembered a song I have in my iPad. I played it while he was screaming. He was too loud at first, but when he stopped to breathe, he heard the words of 'I Am A Child Of God'. He got so quiet and just listened. He looked down and was instantly calm. Earlier when we started the lesson with a prayer I had specifically asked that Bobby would be able to feel the spirit and be quiet. As we watched him be quiet and reverent for the longest time in the history of Bobby, Sister Erickson and I looked at each other with amazement. I thought about his young little spirit and I wondered if maybe deep down inside he recognized the song. What a special moment. 

* I had a really great training this week with President Van Cott. We talked all about planning. There are 2 reasons why we plan as missionaries 1) it helps us find those who are prepared to receive the gospel and 2) it helps us coordinate our efforts with the other side so we can work together with those missionaries. Even more importantly than that, however, is that God is a master planner. If we are meant to become like him, we must be able to plan like he does. In Genesis, one whole chapter is planning what he will do to create the world and then he does it.  Let's be better at coordinating our missionary work with the one who plans the best of all. Let's promise to always open our mouth so that God can trust us enough to put the prepared people in our way. Ben, our investigator....is one of the best examples of opening your mouth. How did we find Ben? We didn't. A member (from another part of California) was visiting....just visiting. She went out to eat at a restaurant where he worked. She struck up a conversation with him, got his address and phone number and gave us the information. Ben will get baptized within the next few months. OPEN YOUR MOUTHS AND THEY WILL BE FILLED!!!!! 

I love you all so very much!!! Have a great week!!! 

Hermana Wright

 

Transfers...and lots of rain !

January 11, 2016
Family and Friends: 

We had transfers and Sister Erickson and I are still together and we are staying in the San Jacinto Branch. Woot Woot! So by the end of this transfer I will have been here for about 7/7.5 months....woohoo! I really do love it here. 

Updates:

*I am sick with a cold again....but I will make it through. 

* I am still a Sister Training Leader but I am over the Sisters in the new ward (Hermanas Jimenez and Frost) and the Palm Springs sisters (Sisters Hall and White). 

*We FINALLY changed our voicemail that was 10 months old! Woohoo....and it only took 5 tries!!

It's been super rainy....
The other day I had no choice but to step
into a small 'river' just to get into the car.
It covered my ankle

Little Miracle:

We had a cool experience this morning when we were walking into the grocery store we had only brought one English Book of Mormon with us. A subtle thought came in my head that I needed to walk back to the car and grab one in Spanish. Later while we were getting ready to leave the store, we struck up a conversation with man who told us how he wants to change so he can be a better example for his kids. He said that if we had a bible of some sort he would read it. We got the chance to explain the Book of Mormon and testify of its power. It was such a testimony to me of how God loves each of his children so much, and that he guides us by subtle promptings so we can influence people's lives forever. 

 

Working with Members: 

This week we got a call from Hermano Rosas, telling us that he thinks his friends should take the lessons again (I have taught her before her name is Lucia). He said that we would probably need to do some convincing :), we agreed to 'randomly' stop by to see Hermano and find her there 'on accident'. When we went over, she was so surprised to see us. We shared a short message and she told us that she had been thinking about coming back to church and meeting with us the whole day! She told us she has decided to be baptized, but still needs to change her job so she can come to church. We fasted with her yesterday so she will be able to find something. It was really cool!!!!

Yesterday was a great day to work with members. We had a lesson with a Recent Convert and the Reyes family, then a lesson with an Inactive family (actually the family of former investigators: Jair and Jamilli. Then we had a lesson with Ben with Crystal. ALL of the lessons were awesome, and in 2 of the cases we had to leave our members in the houses because they wanted to talk, but we had an appointment. It was so awesome!!!!!

Coolest Lesson: 

Yesterday we had a lesson with Hermano Puente, a recent convert that is switching his records to our branch. We brought the Reyes family and they were AWESOME! We talked about his baptism and he shared with us his conversion story. He also shared some really hard things he is going through right now. It was so cool to see that our members INSTANTLY connected with him as they shared similar experiences and how they overcame them. The spirit was so strong. 

I love you all so very much!!!!! Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hermana Wright

Our Zone - Missionaries in the Palm Desert Stake.

¡FELÍZ AÑO NUEVO!

¡FELÍZ AÑO NUEVO!

Hermano Cardoso taught us to make tamales.

Dearest Family and friends! I hope you are all having a great start of the year with all of your new goals!!!!! This week can probably be best summarized with some short experiences, I love you all!!!!! 

* This week President Van Cott challenged us to read the Book of Mormon in about a day. So when we had to come in early New Years Eve night we all just read....as fast as we could. We went to sleep at 10:30 and then woke up and read the whole next day. It was really cool. In 16 hours & 15 minutes, I read the WHOLE Book of Mormon. It was actually a really cool experience. I would definitely recommend it!

*Went to MLC and found out we will be having a missionary broadcast on the 20th. We did mini trainings, so everybody prepared to train for 10 minutes, exciting. 

Our District

*Because of the branch split and the fact that we lost many of our leaders, we taught Relief Society....woohoo. It was actually a really good lesson. We taught from the Daughters in my Kingdom, about the pioneer women and how they were so converted at the core. We had the sisters read the stories of the women and wrote characteristics on the board as we read. At the end we drew on the board the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Faith, Repentance, Baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Endure to the End). We told them that the reason these powerful women never fell away and endured so much was because they LIVED the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was really powerful as we watched them understand it. When people understand these 5 simple principles, there is no way they will get offended and leave, there is no way that the bishop will get released and people will stop going, and there is no way that people would say no to traveling thousands of miles in treacherous weather. The leaders of the church can make decisions, but if we are ROOTED in the doctrine/Gospel of Jesus Christ, then we don't have to worry. So if you are having a hard time holding on to what you say you believe in, go back to Faith......it's that simple. We WILL NOT know everything, because like Alma teaches us, it isn't faith if we know (Alma 32). 

*Sister Erickson had a baptism to go to yesterday so she went with a member and I stayed with Carina (a returned missionary). It was pretty fun!!! 

Funny Experiences: 

 *A few nights back we stopped to talk to this man on the street and he was pretty cool. We had a good conversation and left him with our number so he could call if he needed anything. Sister Erickson said, "Have a good night" and me not thinking said "you too". The man was very confused to say the least. So we just walked away quickly.....

* While talking to this 20 year old guy (it was a little uncomfortable) we had a good conversation about God, and then all of a sudden he asked us "what race are you", and then he was like "oh sorry I mean what religion are you" we laughed pretty hard at that one. 

Love you all,  Hermana Wright