Hermana Derecha, Izquierda, y en Media

Hello dearest family and friends!

Turns out....SURPRISE!!!! Its transfer week....we counted the weeks wrong the whole transfer..... So tomorrow will be our last day together as a trio, which I have been loving by the way. We mostly just feel the spirit and have a good time everyday...it’s awesome! I have a cool story I want to share with you all this week:

Spiritual Moment: Nate would be interested to hear that his mission president, President and Sister Gay, came to visit our mission. They spoke to us for the majority of the day on Friday it was great. I asked them if they knew an Elder Wright....and Sister Gay was like "OH Nate!!" and I said yeah. I vaguely remember meeting the Gays once when we were at a volleyball game or something, and she remembered too! IT was pretty cool. 

They spoke a lot about getting to know our investigators well. He did a role play demonstrating that we need to be focusing on their deep concerns. Every person has their personal 'question of the soul'.

I thought a lot about Rose and what her 'question' is. (Background on Rose- not sure if I have already told you this, she has been investigating the church for 7-ish years. At the beginning of this transfer she lost her baby, and she almost died because of internal bleeding. She was taken to the emergency room by some of our members who also gave her a priesthood blessing. It was an amazing miracle where they said things that the doctor didn't even know yet. She slowly got better, but they still weren’t able to save the baby. Going into that experience we thought for sure she would agree to be baptized, and so consequently that is all we really talked about along with the Holy Ghost and recognizing our answers. As I was thinking about her deep questions I realized that we had neglected this poor woman's feelings about her child. Did that child ever get baptized? NO! By Rose's belief, her baby wasn't baptized and she won't ever see it again. 

It was such a touching moment as we read Moroni 8 with her, I told her that her baby was waiting in heaven for her, and that one day she could have an eternal family. She started to cry. It was one of the most special moments on my mission. I had one of those moments where I really understood how important it is to listen to the Holy Ghost. Heavenly Father knows everyone so personally, and we can only know how to help when we listen to him. She said that she would really like to come to a baptism to see what it’s like. Perfect...because there is one on Saturday!!!!!

Pure Awesomeness Moment: We went to Thousand Palms to walk and contact referrals and former investigators this past week. We had seen some of them before, but we didn’t remember which ones until we would get to their houses. We got to this one house and realized that we had been there before, but the man had been sleeping. So we knocked and his son went and got him from outside. He sat down with us outside and basically said, why are you here. And then he went on to say that he had just been thinking about how he needed Jesus in his life. He said things were kind of rough in his life and he didn’t really know how to fix it. He called us angels and felt like it was a miracle that we had come. It was pretty cool!!!

That’s it for this week folks! I have some good pictures of our trio-ness and our District, who is sadly parting ways. Oh well! We finally accomplished the summer in the desert!!!!!!!! Woohoo! That doesn't meant that it is any cooler though.....hopefully the temperature will start dropping a little. 

Our District

Love you all!!!!!!!! Have a great Week!!!!!!!

H Wright

Desert Sunset

Sister Rodriguez' Baptism

Well a lot of exciting things happened this week. First, Sister Teichert has joined the club! We are covering both areas until the end of the transfer; that means anyone in our area both Spanish and English speaking comes to us. 

I just wanted to share some really cool experiences that we have had this week that make me so grateful to be a missionary. 

S. Burdette, Hrm. Wright, B Rodriquez, Hrms. Clarke y Teichert 

1) This last Saturday (the 22nd) was the Baptism of B Rodriguez. And it was the most powerful spiritual experience I have had yet in my mission. The spirit started off so strong. We were so worried there wouldn't be a great turn out from the branch. I had been playing prelude music for about a half an hour until it started, so the last I had seen was only 5 people. When I looked up the whole primary room was full. WOW! Then we commenced....there is no other way to describe the spirit that was present, other than it was tangible.....so so powerful. First Hermana Duarte spoke on baptism and bore strong testimony of the gospel. She told her conversion story and it was hard not to cry. Then the cutest old man, Hermano Vigil, talked about the Holy Ghost (POWERHOUSE!!!!). Then K (B's sister) got up to sing Soy un Hijo de Dios. She sang the first line and started crying and all I heard from the piano bench was the congregation start singing with her. I glanced up and saw B and the whole family just crying....SO POWERFUL!!!! And then....after 18 years of waiting B was baptized. It was such a special, sweet, tender moment for her mother especially (who is already a member), her grandparents, and her siblings. IT was awesome!

B Rodriguez with her parents.

2) We taught Jose this week....he is still as awesome as ever. He has still been struggling with his WOW problems and has been drunk EVERY day of the week. Yesterday we went to go visit him and didn't plan to teach him if he was drunk. When he opened the door he kind of groaned, and he told us he had drunk too much, but reluctantly invited us in. We stuck with the plan and told him we would come back another day....but he insisted and grabbed a chair from inside and brought it out onto the patio. He sat down and started pouring out his heart about how much he wanted to change his life and become a new person. He kept calling himself trash and felt like he couldn't do it. He couldn't change because he loves his ways too much. It was such an awesome opportunity to bear witness of the Atonement. I know personally that the Atonement not only is for forgiveness but it LITERALLY changes us from who we are and we become 'new creatures'. I shared the 'go and sin no more' story from the Bible and we helped him understand that change is possible! Such a great man! 

 

Hermana's with N Rodriguez

Funny Moment: We had been talking a lot with the Rodriguez family about praying for their dad to feel the spirit at B's baptism so that it would 'soften' his heart and let all the kids get baptized. One day we were talking to N (the little brother) and he said that they were still praying their dad's heart would be 'weakened'....we laughed SOO hard!!!

That's it folks! I love you all!!!!

Con much carino
H Wright

Threesome, Piano & Speaking in Church

Buenas Dias....

Hello dearest family and friends! I have prepared TERRIBLY to write this letter, so hopefully it is the perfect amount of funny, spiritual, and....awesome. 

* We have a new companion, Sister Teichert. She is awesome. She is still in training but her trainer went home (not early....she was just finished). We knew this was going to happen but we didn't really know for sure if she would be staying with us in a trio.....and we still don't know. But we are just working hard, covering both an English ward and Spanish branch. 

*Quote from Sister Clarke:  "Of the 50 people we talked to this week, only six or seven of them were drunk." Also we only got hit on a couple times. 

However....we got a text on Saturday from an investigator that said (in Spanish) "Clarke I love you beautiful".  We didn't know exactly what to do....so we mostly ignored it, hoping it was a text from one of his friends to tease him or something (since mostly every time we go over there we get whistled at). We went to go see the SUPER awesome investigator that lives at his house (no relation...I don't think), hoping that the creepy guy wouldn't be there. SURPRISE...he was, and I am pretty sure we helped him conclude that his text was not ok. I was pretty cold.

*But now on to more spiritual matters, we spoke in church yesterday (I also think I forgot to tell you that I am the ward pianist.....before I came they were using their phones next to the microphone). Also sometimes they call me to play the piano at baptisms 30 minutes away because nobody plays the piano here. But anyway..... Church. We all decided to choose our topics like the General Authorities do it....all by personal revelation. So when we all got there we pretty much talked about Faith, Repentance and Enduring to the End---the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I spoke about Personal Conversion and shared the talk by Dieter F. Uchtdort "Lord, Is it I?". I just was thinking about all week...how the purpose is to become more like Jesus Christ...then we MUST act like him every day to practice. The point of this life is to leave it changed.....not the same person. It's the same thing with a  mission. If you try to leave your mission unchanged or you think you know the right way to preach the gospel....you've missed the point.

President Van Cott emailed us this really cool quote by Russell M Nelson :" So in the broader context, we all are in the process of repentance as a lifetime curriculum. This type

Of repentance is conversion, and we are all in the process of conversion. It’s never finished. We’re never converted fully until we are exactly like the Lord. So be content with your need to repent, for your need to be converted. It’s a continuing process, one which never ends." I’m very grateful for that process of change that allows us to become more like the Savior. Now I understand what He meant when He said, “What manner of men ought Ye to be? . . . Even as I am.” That is repentance. That is full conversion. That is the will of the Lord for each of us.”

So DONT MISS THE POINT....if you aren't constantly evaluating yourself, constantly changing, and constantly repenting....then keep in mind the fact that " The savior always chooses his disciples while they are at work....Satan chooses his while they are idle." (Bytheway) 

I am not just talking about repenting of your sins..... Become more like Christ (that pretty much means stop being human.....) there is ALWAYS something we need to improve on! Don't be idle....choose to change on your own!

I have also been studying a lot about the history of the Book of Mormon....especially how it connects with the Bible. It's pretty awesome! I recommend you all do it. It was new-found knowledge for me. The Book of Mormon time period starts right around the beginning of Jeremiah. It has been really interesting talking with members and investigators about the history of the Book of Mormon because almost none of them have any clue what it is they have in their hands. Study it!!!!!!! 

I love you all so much! I hope you have a great week! Thanks for all the support!!!!!

Love

Hermana Wright

Great people in Thousand Palms

Well familia....This week as no surprise....we 'worked our tags off' (Just a figure of speech....don't worry, we still have our tags on!!) We found a lot of really awesome people, that I would love to tell you about. We cover Cathedral City and Thousand Palms here in the desert. Not much had been done in a while in Thousand Palms, so we decide to start working in that area a lot more. That is where we have found some cool people.

Hermana's Wright y Clarke

As far as weather.....it's hot. Yup. Several times this week it hit well over 100. We happened to plan to walk in Thousand Palms from noon to 3 on the day that hit 120 degrees.  Enough said.  We met some pretty cool people that thought we were crazy...

Things that have happened this week:

 1) We found this really awesome older man while going through the area book. We have been entering teaching records onto our iPads....a long and dreary process.....but he sounded like such an awesome guy! We got a chance to meet him and get a return appointment. Lots of potential there!

2) We decided to stray from our plans a little one night. We parked the car and decided to walk to the house of a former investigator. (The streets out here are all in Spanish....and usually have calle written on them instead of street) I always feel bad when we change plans because I know that as missionaries we work very closely with the other side.....so as we were walking, I said out loud, as per usual... 'Heavenly Father, sorry we had to change plans, but we are on the corner of Wishing Well and 33rd, send the prepared people here.' After we walked to the formers house...no answer....we were walking back and a car stopped and they were some lotion sellers we had met a few days earlier. After talking a bit they had to go.  Then another younger guy stopped us in the road and asked us what we do ( PERFECT!) then while we were talking to him, some other random guy started talking to me......it was crazy cool. When they both finally left, we looked up and saw the street signs....the corner of Wishing Well and 33rd!!!! Crazy cool!

3) Another cool addition to that story... we haven't been doing as well with teaching a principle of the gospel when we meet somebody on the street. We are starting up an English class and sometimes it's easier to just invite them to that.....so after missing a couple opportunities to talk about the gospel, I told Hermana Clarke, "the next person we talk to, we have to teach them the restoration....even if it's just really simple.'' And that is when we met people on the corner....and we talked about the restoration!!!!

4) We have one of our investigators on date for August 22. She is so awesome, her mom is a member. The other kids never got baptized. They are so so so awesome!



5) This weekend is Hermana Fong's baptism and I get to go back for it!!! YEAH!!

Lesson learned this week: don't stop and talk to people in cars at 8:30 at night...even if they say hi to you first. Because they will probably invite you out to eat to 'get to know your personalities more'. To which you reply that we are missionaries, and he might say
'yeah, I know'....... He might even call you on Saturday night at 9 and invite you over.............yikes!!!!!

We are doing this Book of Mormon project where we ask people their favorite scripture and they write it on a piece of paper and we take a picture. In the end we are going to decorate the Ward Bulletin with their pictures and then maybe do a Book Of Mormon FHE or something.

 

Hermana Vazquez is the cutest lady EVER!!!!!!!!!

Things have been going really well! Thanks for all your support! Love you guys!! Hope I made you chuckle, and feel the spirit too!
 

Hermana Wright



First Week in the San Jacinto Branch

San Jacinto

Well family and friends....it is my first week here in the San Jacinto branch (yes, it is significantly smaller than Rialto). There is a lot of potential here for reactivation since only about 20ish people come on average. I am actually way excited! Sister Clarke is AMAZING!!!! She technically is my 'sister' in the mission since we were both trained by Sister Jimenez. She is literally the greatest!!!! She has been in this area 2 transfers and is really excited to help this area progress even more! YEAH!!!!!




My new companion...Hermana Clarke

Interesting things that happened this week:

1) I learned that its nice weather if it gets under 120 degrees

2) Every tree in the desert is home to some kind of bug that makes the most ANNOYING buzzing noise. When you are driving it sounds like people are doing yard work....but no one would do their yard work when you can literally shrivel and die outside. 

3) DON'T talk to drunk men with their shirts off....even if they look like the member you are going to go see. They may ask you for your number and hand you their phone.

4) This branch has 2 members of the bishopric who American....but speak Spanish from their missions. 

5) The people here are great!!!! Still getting used to everything!

 

6) If you go to Cardenas (the grocery store) you can find MANY people who would like to learn English! We are starting up another English class here, and so we decided to go hand out fliers at Cardenas...turned out to be very successful and stressful. Even in English its hard to start up random conversations. Usually it starts with, "are you making some salsa?"

7) Met a man feeding the pigeons outside of Cardenas (first one I've met that didn't know who was playing in the Gold Cup!!!!!!) he asked me where in Mexico I was from. WHAT??? Hermano Cardozo (our Ward Missionary leader) said that I could pass for some one from Los Altos--in Jalisco. Yeah!!!!! I would prefer to think of it as my accent that makes people think I'm native....but I guess it's my eyelashes. 

Things are going really great here!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you all for your love and support!!!!!      H Wright

 

I know that I am in a new area, but I have lots of pictures from Rialto 4th!!!!!



Daisy

Our roomates - Hmas Ipson, Wright, Olsen, Shin

Toriz Familia (Ward Mission Leader)



Jenny and Kids

Pereira's

Uribe's  (Ruby, Claudia, Sol)

Justus & Kim

Medina's

Last Week in Rialto 4th

Well it's the end of another transfer!
...And I would say a pretty good one. It has been a roller coaster kind of week. First....big news on transfers. I am going to San Jacinto to be companions with Hermana Clarke. I replaced Hermana Clarke here in Rialto 4th after her first transfer of being trained. She is so awesome and I am ready to get to work. 

July Temple Trip ... H. Ipson & H. Wright

As we have really gotten to work in this area, I have realized that these great people here have my heart! It has really been tough coming to grips with the fact that I am moving. Hopefully in the coming week you will be able to finally put names with the faces of these great people. I really think so highly of these people!!!!! I am so grateful to have had the chance to meet them, work along side them, and help them come closer to Jesus Christ. 

This week we finally got a baptismal date for Hermana Fong...arguably one of the coolest people. We did everything we could to plan out the week to get her to come to church.....and she did!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so so so so awesome! They walked in and I was SO shocked! I think we planned so much on how to get there....that we didn't know how to handle it when she did come. She brought her husband and we had Hermana Larios walk them to their first class. But, I wanted someone to sit with them, so we brought in the Felix family....who "by chance" have a mutual friend back in Mexico or something.

Walking from an investigators home.

I have to make a confession that I wasn't really listening during Sacrament Meeting because I was too busy planning who would sit by them in their classes. As soon as the Felix's walked in I KNEW they were the ones. They are coming with us to a lesson tonight at the Fongs!!!!!! They stayed and chatted together a little after church! LOVE THESE PEOPLE! Hermano Fong may have tried to hug me....but he is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cool! He literally gets along with everyone at church! And every time he would answer a question in gospel Principles he would look over at us at the end! It was so cute! And watching them try to sing out of Hymn books for the first time was even cuter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!

 

As we are talking about awesome people though...something MUST be said about Daisy! She is literally the most down to earth, sincere person I have ever met!!! She is a miracle mom and still does a great job of trying to meet with us!!!! If everything goes as planned I will get to come back to this great place for lots of baptisms!!!!!!! 

Also....Peter (or Pedro) the grandson of Josephina (Investigator) was visiting his grandma this week. When he opened the door, I believe I Iiterally said, "I have never met you before....what's your name." Maybe not the best first line....but hey....just being me. He is a young teenager and was actually REALLY interested in learning. We came over another day and taught the Restoration to him...and JJ again. We watched the 1st vision and JJ said (in a hushed tone) 'AMAZING'....SO ADORABLE!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we explained authority really thoroughly and he told us that he had been baptized 3 different times but NOW he understands why it's so important to have authority. He said 'yes' to being baptized.....but he lives in Ontario. So we will refer him over to the other mission. 

 

Celebrating with a frozen hot chocolate...delicious!

Well folks! My next letter (sadly and excitingly) will be in the desert....don't worry....for all of you keeping up on "the shades of my skin" moments.....I will take a before and after picture. Sister Shin (roommate and Sister Training Leader), said she got brown by the end of the first week. WOOOHOOO!!!!!!!!!! But don't worry I will put sunscreen on as well! 




I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have a great week!!!!!

H Wright

Yes...that is a lemon. And I am laughing because Sister Ipson was being attacked by a small, green, shiny, flying beetle.

5 New Investigators

Well hello there family!

Things have been going great here in Rialto. This week was a little faster than last  week, but a little slower than normal. We picked up 5 new investigators, but were unable to have any lessons with existing investigators. We do a great job at planning and confirming lessons....but it seems like its becoming a habit for them to cancel on us. Oh well! 

 

We had a lesson with a new investigator named Daisy. She is the COOLEST person ever! I am so excited to work with her. She seems like she sincerely wants to know what to do with her life. She has such great potential!!!!!

 

We also got to have a lesson with the AWESOME familia Arcos! Love them too! We challenged them to start reading the Book of Mormon as a family! I love talking about the Book of Mormon. There are so many great promises that prophets and apostles have given us! I also love the idea that not only is Authority one thing that sets us apart from all other churches....the Holy Ghost is something else. No matter what we as missionaries can say, the Holy Ghost is the ultimate teacher, and will testify that the this church is the only true church. What i have studied about the Holy Ghost has truly changed my vision of what a testimony is. We have been taught that the Holy Ghost provides us with such a firm confirmation of truth that we CANNOT be separated from the knowledge that we gain from him. I think it is interesting however that when we refer to "knowing" something we ALWAYS indirectly or directly relate it with "feeling".....so I love the idea that our testimonies come (little by little first off....) but also they also follow the same pattern of faith it takes to gain a testimony. We may not know exactly why we know....but we just know!!!!! Sorry if that was confusing.....

I love this gospel! Missionary Work isn't easy...but it is simple....live the Gospel of Jesus Christ (that covers everything.....loving others, being an example, etc.) 

Have a great week everyone!!!!!!!!!!

H Wright