Happy Memorial Day!

May 26, 2015

Not a ton of time to write or read.....but I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!! Can't find my camera cord....so I can't attach pictures right now.  Thank you so so so so so much for the package!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   It was very much needed!

Also, Thank you so much for your prayers.....I NEED THEM!!!!!!

We are going on exchanges this weekend....Friday to be exact. It will be great. Transfers are coming up. We don't know who is staying or going. I have heard they are really good!!! Woohoo!!!! 

As for this week...welp it was pretty okay. We went on splits with a couple ladies in our ward. It was good, and made me feel a lot more confident in my ability to love and teach people. I went with Hermana Flores and Sister Jimenez went with Angeles. We went to visit Less Actives and they visited some investigators. 

English Classes  are going okay. I am teaching the Advanced and Intermediate classes. We've already learned about Pronouns and Helping verbs....and tonight we shall continue. We are starting to have better turn outs each time....at first we would only have  a couple people come.....and no potential Investigators. BUT..... We have a couple people that have started coming that might be interested. Jennifer-- she is from Spain....and WAY WAY WAY sweet!!!!!! She said I can practice Spanish with her ANYTIME!!! YEAH!!! 

Ruth, Valeria, and her other daughter--they came to the very first English class and they are SO awesome!!!! Ruth doesn't know a ton of English...so it's a little hard to teach her with all of the advanced people. We don't have enough Intermediates however to be able to split.....oh well. 

We had a really cool meeting with President Van Cott this week for all of the Hermanas in the mission. It was so cool to feel the spirit and talk about problems we are encountering in our areas. It was also super awesome to get to see old friends!!!! Good ol' MTC days.  

This week brings good things!!!!  Exchanges, interview with President, and .........IPADS!!!!!!!!!! Tomorrow I get an IPAD, which will be an awesome tool for missionary work! I am excited to learn all the ways we can speed up the work! A general authority will come tomorrow and train us on how to use them. I believe we might become a Facebook mission.....  We will be checking our emails everyday in order to answer people's questions and such..... 

Thank you everyone for your prayers and your support!!! I love you guys!!! Have a great week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hermana Wright

Time Flies

Welp folks.... we are already in the middle of May... Here in Rialto 4 it has been surprisingly stormy-ish all week. We went to the doctor for Hermana Jimenez and then spent the next day inside so she can fully recover.

The week picked up on Friday-ish when we 'unknowingly' taught an Investigator with a MEMBER PRESENT. Because the elders combined their area into one, we got some of the members in their area. We went to visit the Rugamas, one of those new families and had a lesson with their friend that we thought was a Less Active member. We found out later that she is actually an INVESTIGATOR!!!!   IT was awesome!

Also, Lupis' other daughter is our new investigator!!!! I am excited for them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am hoping that once one of the people in their family is onboard with coming to church, they all will! We had a lesson with them about the Book of Mormon, and she asked us what we believe about Bi-sexual people....whew....hard questions are fun!!!!! 

Funny Moment: This morning I was so tired I literally ran into a pole in our parking lot....yup true story....I have a bruise on my wrist to prove it. And maybe tomorrow one on my face!

Spiritual Moment: I LOVE bearing my testimony of the Book of Mormon. In the lesson with Lupis and her daughter we did the best to answer their questions....but in the end it comes down to the Book of Mormon....so I bore my testimony of how I knew the Book of Mormon to be true, and paired my testimony with Alma's in Alma 5:45-47.  It was great!

Study Moment: I had some really good Studies this week. My VERY favorite was when I studied The Spirit of Elijah....a topic I was pretty unfamiliar with. Basically, the spirit of Elijah is a promise of the fulfillment of the last days in which people will feel closer to their families. The interesting part to me was that it means both family members dead and LIVING! I also learned from D&C 128 :15.... We MUST share the gospel with our family members, living and dead, or we cannot receive eternal life! Woah! 

Also, one of the only reasons we even have the priesthood on the Earth is to perform these sacred ordinances like Baptism! 

I also found in 128:18 it talks about "welding" ourselves to our family members....(thought you would like that for your family history children's books, Mom.) 

Well, I love  you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you are having a great week! Thank you for your prayers!!!! And thank you for your emails!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also: special shout out to those with Birthdays this last week! Candace, Lauren, Gabe, and Grandpa Bagley!!!!!! I love you guys and I hope you had a great day! Go Gabe!!!!! He got ordained to the priesthood this last week, and I am SO SO SO proud of him! 

Happy Mother's Day...

May 11, 2015
 
It was a beautiful (and rainy) week in Rialto and . . . it was Mother's Day!!!! Woohoo!

 

Favorite Lesson Moment:

Remember Christian, Raymond, Luca, Angel, and Poochie? We had one of my favorite lessons of all time with Christian. We were outside talking to him and we asked if we could have a lesson with him. We sat on the curb and talked about Jesus Christ (he is REALLY Catholic.....). We were talking about how Jesus Christ can help us whenever we need him. I asked him if he had ever felt really alone in his life. He said, yeah.  I shared with him a story of when I first moved to Utah. About how that first day of school was the hardest....walking down the halls and not seeing ANY familiar faces. I was so scared and sad....I kept thinking I don't have ANY friends. But, I remembered that I had Jesus Christ.....he is Always my friend. HE, more than anyone else, knows exactly what it feels like to be lonely. He had friends that REJECTED him....He knew exactly how I felt.....and He was with me. Christian told us that his family was going to move next year....and he was a little sad about it. It was a really cool lesson. He was pondering really hard.......it was AWESOME! 

 



Calling home on Mother's Day.

 

Mothers Day Moment:

Well, I have just about the COOLEST mother in the world....and in my personal study this week I found a really good talk on parenthood.

 "The responsibility to watch over God's children is a heavy one. Whenever I feel inadequate as a parent, I remind myself of something Elder Neal A Maxwell said . . ."The same God that placed that star in a precise orbit millennia before it appeared over Bethlehem in celebration of the birth of the Babe has given at least equal attention to the placement of each of us in precise human orbits so that we may, if we will, illuminate the landscape of our individual lives, so that our light may not only lead others but warm them as well."

 This statement uplifts me when I am discouraged. It gives my wife and me courage in our abilities as parents, knowing that our children have been placed within our 'orbit' for a reason and that Heavenly Father trusts us."

So....for all you mothers out there that feel inadequate, and feel like your kids deserve a better mom. GOD has placed you where you are for a reason. If he can arrange the planets to all receive the light they need...he can arrange us in a way that we will learn what we need to!!!!!    Keep up the good work!!!!!

 

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

Hermana Wright

Washing Joseph Uribe's Dog

Hermana Jimenez

Just had to take this picture...



Weddings and things...

May 4, 2015

Well, here I am another week! Today is actually my 3 month birthday! YEAH!!!! This week was full of.....actually I am not going to lie.....not much. We only had 5 lessons. To be fair though, I was sick with a cold for a lot of the week and we don't have ANY progressing investigators. So we are REALLY working on finding!! Really Really! We also are still working on our English class....however....only 1 nonmember came (Ruth and her 2 daughters...she is Jewish....which is interesting), and 3 members came...but it was totally worth it for this one family! 

One super exciting thing this week was going to an Indian wedding. If you remember, we do service for the Singh family (helping them with homework and such). Their niece got married this weekend, and they invited us to come. We went and it was CRAZY interesting......yup....and by that I mean we walked out and were like "What just happened?" In the picture the girl standing farthest to the right is Isha (we help her). Everyone there was speaking Hindi (or something) and we felt SO out of place. Laxmi, the mom, would introduce us and then tell people we were the tutors....and they would go "OH, welcome". So, we are spreading the gospel.....well Laxmi is. She is so grateful for us! She really feels inadequate as a mother, and we are doing our best to help out. 

 

We got roommates this week Sister Hamblin (from before) and Sister Olson (who will be going home with me! That is so crazy!). So we are really doing well with speaking in Spanish, because now we can have conversations.  It is cool to be able to communicate with someone in another language.....and I am not even doing that badly! ooooh...also I used Subjunctive unknowingly for the first time (I've used it before.....but this time I said it because it sounded right!!!!). For those of you who don't know what subjunctive is......it's one of the 5 billion verb tenses in Spanish.......yikes!

Well I hope you all had a great week! Remember that I love you, but more importantly God loves you! 

I was reading this week in Mosiah (my very favorite book) and I came across a scripture that really hit me hard.....do I remember where it is at the moment....nope! But, next week! 

This week's scripture moment, however...... is found in Luke 24:27,32

This is the story of the Road to Emmaus, and I had never thought of it like this. In Preach My Gospel there is a section called Recognizing the Spirit, and there is a question that asks "What Scriptures should I Share"...... This scripture was on the list and I picked it at random....and it blew my mind. So in the story, 2 of Jesus' disciples are walking and run into another man. Unbeknownst to them, it is Jesus..... he talks and walks with them " expound[ing] unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself [or Christ]". Later when the disciples eyes are opened, and they recognize the Savior they say "Did not our hearts burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures." 

SO.....what scriptures should we share......scriptures about HIM. The thing that has stuck out to me  this week is the profound knowledge we have of the Pre existence (as a church). We KNOW that everyone here on the Earth CHOSE to be here! So, anything we say with the spirit will be "carried to their hearts" by the spirit. And because they have heard the gospel before (in the pre-existence) it WILL sound familiar to them. "[their] hearts will burn within [them]". Their spirits KNOW Jesus Christ...so when we testify of him, the spirit will touch their hearts!!!! 

I love you all!!!! I hope you are having a great week....and I hope this next one is even better!!!!!! Happy Mother's day to all of those Moms out there....especially my mom, who I will argue is the best one out there! LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hermana Wright