Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Humbled and Grateful


 Mi querida familia!!

This week just FLEW by! We were SO blessed. I am truly so humbled and grateful for the many miracles and blessings we received this week. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY :)

ANA GOT BAPTIZED on Saturday!! It was a beautiful crazy day. Ana told us that she really wanted sandwiches at her baptism. Sandwiches, really? For some reason Latinos LOVE sandwiches. So what did Hermana Sharp and I do? We made so many sandwiches Saturday afternoon! We had a fun time and just laughed about it. Saturday evening at the baptism was such an amazing experience and the spirit was so strong. Best day on mission so far!. She was so excited and ready. She was just gleaming and had a smile from ear to ear. She was touched by the spirit and was very emotional during the baptism. She kept saying how wonderful she was and how happy she is. She understands and is truly converted. I feel so blessed to have been able to be involved in her conversion process.  We kept asking her to invite her family but she was nervous and said maybe. Saturday morning we were with her doing some service and she said, "Gurls (she has the cutest accent when she uses English) can I bring my family to the baptism tonight?" OF COURSE!!! We were so excited. Her two young daughters (13 and 9 years old) and her sister attended. It was so great to see them all there and you could tell they were touched by the spirit. Now we will work on getting them baptized too! :) haha. What a joyous day it was to watch one of Heavenly Father's choice daughters enter into the waters of baptism.Guess what!? For the month of June as a mission we had 93 baptisms! The Lord is truly blessing our efforts out in the greatest mission ever (California Sacramento). What a fun surprise to see the Dallin, Lex and Karissa at the baptism. Everyone was in love with Karissa and her Spanish (just returned from Argentina Mission). It was fun to say goodbye to Dallin (leaving for Blegium/Netherlands July 24th). He will be a great missionary.  Lex and I had no words, favorite cousin, lots of giggles.  I am glad they got permission to come and surprise me, it made it that more special. I have the best cousins in the world and for a moment with me in Sacramento!!!!!!!! Thank you President Lewis.

 

Transfers... I have been called to TRAIN again! yahooooo :) I am really excited and looking forward to learning and growing from my new companion.. Training is such a blessing. I will be picking up my new companion from the mission office tomorrow! We will be living at Sister Schow's house again and staying in our area. It's a good thing I love East Sac and can't ever imagine leaving!!

We had a specialized sisters training meeting with all the sisters in the mission this week. It was so great! President taught us as well as the 5 Sister Training Leaders. We talked a lot about how the Lord requires our ALL. That means our HEART, MIGHT, MIND and STRENGTH. We also talked about dress, conduct and companionship unity. That was a very strong and spiritual breakout session. We all could really feel the Lord's love and someone shared 1 Nefi 11:22 which is such a great scripture. 

One thing that I have really pondered and tried to apply this week is a quote from Preach My Gospel (page 11). It can apply to anything, not just missionary work, but is SO powerful to missionaries. "Your calling gives you authority, keeping your covenants gives you power". How true is that? We were able to go to the temple this morning and is was so powerful. The 4 of us sisters were going with a YSA sister. Some how none of our alarms went off this morning (super early, the missionaries alarms) and we woke up at 6 and we were freaking out. She waited outside for us and we were able to leave to go the temple a 6:30 and arrive at 7. We missed the session but had the wonderful opportunity to do sealings as daughters. It was wonderful and I realized how blessed I am to be sealed to our family. After we witnessed a lady sealed to her deceased parents then a live sealing of another sister sealed to her parents. The spirit was so strong in the room and made me so much more grateful for temple work. The sealer said that we were "Saviors on Mount Zion" today. Such a tender mercy from the Lord that we were able to be apart and witness those sealings today.




Thank you so much for the package! I have the greatest family in the world. Sister Sharp loved her Timp tennis shirt. She said she is going to wear it every day! haha. The pics you sent were the perfect ones and I loved all the special notes. Thank you so so much.

Isidro got back from Mexico on Monday so Thursday we went over to taught him and Socorro. It was so great. The spirit was so strong and we invited them to be baptized. He said yes after he learns more and she was super quiet. Finally she said, "I don't want to be baptized because then I can only talk to my family on the phone 2 times a year! I LOVE my family and that would be too hard". hahaha. She was so confused. We told her as missionaries we can only talk to our families twice a year over the phone and she thought all members of the church had to do that to show their faith haha. It was so funny and we were all laughing. So Sunday Isidro came to church! He LOVED it and said he wants to keep coming back. Learning little by little.

There are a lot of great things happening in this area. I am sad to see Hermana Sharp go (she is going to South Sac with Hermana White and Hermana Cardullo) but It will be so fun to train and get this new missionary LOVING her life in East Sac. I love and miss you all. Have a great week!

Con Amor,
Hermana Thomas


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