Happy Halloween!

Hey sweet family!

 

I hope everyone, the kiddos especially, are so excited for Halloween! Hna. Greenwood and I got little pumpkins from a member that we will carve today! I think I'm more excited about it...I can't wait to see the kid's costumes!

 

This last week was pretty great. We were in the house though for about half a day...want to hear the story? Thought so! So we went through the day wonderfully, had lots of appointments and members that came with us! And then we had a dinner appointment with the Rodriguez family, they are pretty much my favorite. But it was an earlier dinner, like 3...linner? Well Hna. Rodriguez really really likes spicy food. And so does Hna. Greenwood. So Hna. Rodriguez fixed our plates for us and gave them to us, we prayed, and started eating. Within 2 seconds I'm bright red and sweating like crazy and Hna. Rodriguez face goes white and her eyes get so wide and she starts speaking Spanish so quickly I didn't understand one bit, well besides LO SIENTO!!! She gave the Hna. Greenwood's plate with the insanely spicy habenero sauce on it...Within 2 minutes I was throwing up like crazy!! And it didn't stop for whole hour...I was done for...I ate so many tums. Then I slept it off the rest of the day as commanded by the medical coordinator, Sister Martinez. Which is really funny because it was her last day as a service missionary, she laughed a little and she said she wasn't surprised it ended with me. She and I are best friends. :)

 

Well besides me being on fire this week...HERMANO ALEJANDRO GARCIA WAS BAPTIZED!!!!!!!! It was so incredible!! He is the sweetest man in the world. I wish y'all could have seen how happy he was(is)! I'll try and figure out this picture thing...last time it only let me see 3 pictures... But the crazy thing is that he was an hour and a half late...talk about stressful! Lots of the ward came and were very supportive, they are all great! Hna. Greenwood and I were supposed to sing a special musical number but the program had to have some adjustments due to time. I'm definitely not complaining...I'm too out of shape to sing. And then the following Sunday, yesterday, he was confirmed a member of the church and he received the Holy Ghost! What a beautiful weekend. :) OH OH!!!!!! AND!!!!! The girlfriend of a member, Herald Del Aguila, has a date for this next Saturday! Which may be changed for the Sunday so her parents can make it. Her name is Crystal and she is SO GOLDEN!!!! She has been coming to church with Herald for over a month and she loves it. Crystal wanted to learn more from us but first she wanted to come to a lesson to see how it was before it was focused on her. So she and Herald came with us to the Vasquez family and we taught a really great lesson, she even participated!! And afterwards we were scheduled to have a Noche Mormona with the Del Aguilas. So we went over there and taught a first lesson. It started out kind of rough because Hno. Del Aguila is kind of scary...he's a very VERY smart man and makes you feel kind of silly. So I was really afraid to talk. But I said a prayer in my heart and talked anyways and turns out I did just fine! He told me tough afterwards I need to work on my Spanish...it's a work in progress. Well we decided to watch the short Restoration video after the lesson. And Crystal got pretty emotional during that. Hna. Greenwood and I shared a look and after the movie was done we asked her to be baptized on November 2nd. And she is, I think, the most excited person I have ever taught to get baptized!! She already ready the Book of Mormon on her own, knows it's true, and applies it to her life. HELLO!!! She is SO prepared!! She'll be baptized just before Hna. Greenwood leaves for home...but we don't talk aobut her going home...I'm having a heard time dealing with that. We're best friends.

 

Anyways, that is my life this week! I hope everyone had an awesome week! Always look for an opportunity to serve!

 

Much Love,

Hermana Florence

A Loving Family

Dear Family,

 

This week was like a slide. One of those metal ones that's been under the hot sun all day and you go down it practically bare-bummed in a swimsuit. Obviously the week wasn't easy. Sticky, wet, tiring, and just plain overwhelming. I got really caught up in my own emotions and turned very inward instead of turning outward as Christ would. How selfish of me. But I have found that it's really easy for me to reach out and help other when I'm feeling good. But it's even harder when I'm feeling down and out, and the person right next to me is too, to show kindness. Why is that so hard for us to do? Beats me. It really should be that hard. We've been asked to "come unto Christ, and be perfected in Him" (Moroni 10: 32-33). For a long time that scripture has seemed impossible. How are we supposed to be perfect on this earth? For me, I think of it in small steps. We aren't expected to be perfect all at once. We are asked to "deny ourselves of all ungodliness" and exercise the Atonement in our lives. We will make mistakes, we will see trials, but what we are asked to do in these times is simple. Come unto Christ. Take advantage of the wonderful gift of the Atonement. Let Him help you. Sure it's simple, but it's not easy for our selfish and stubborn human minds. Dad told me the other day that the remedy to my problem was simple, forget about myself. How ridiculously easy but so frustratingly difficult! It's one of the things I am meant to learn, and I'd rather learn it here, in this ways, than at home in another. It's not easy, but I know I can do it and I won't be doing it alone. I am so grateful for the love and support I felt yesterday, I felt the fast for me. I can always feel the love everyone has, but sometimes, I let my silly-self forget. I will do better.

 

I love you all so much and I'm so grateful for all of you!

 

Love,

Hermana Erica Florence

What a Beautiful thing!

Hello Sweet Family!

 

Another awesome week! I hope everyone watched and just LOVED conference! It was SO fantiastic! I received, as I'm sure all of you did as well, much inspiracion and revelacion(Why do those words look weird?). A big theme I noticed was member missionary work! I hope everyone felt a confirmation that the work isn't only for set apart missionaries, it's for every member around the world. Everything got me excited to work lots with the missionaries when I get home, especially go out with them to lessons and work with the Spanish misionaries! How fun hey?! I have to learn Spanish first though, funny thing about that. Well, something else that I loved about conference was all the talk about families and protecting their virtue. For me, that was very special. Especially as I thought about y'all eating crepes together and laughing. Being away makes me appreciate so much more of the love we all have for each other and the Lord. We are a truly blessed family. I was really excited to hear about Brad and Holly expecting a new baby to come into the family! I'll definitely need an update about that!! I'm really proud of them and how they're leaning on the Lord to help them, as this is a somewhat scary thing to do, but wonderful at the same time! They are literally changing that child's life by raising them in a loving home. I love our family.

 

Something else I really loved from conferenca was in President Uchtdorf's talk. He said, "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." I'm sure that was all over pintrest and facebook within 3 minutes. It is so true though. When times get tough we need to cling to the faith that we have in Christ, knowing we're not alone and we are being guided in everything we do. We have a responsibility, as believers in Christ, to follow his example in every way. Including sharing our testimonies, helping others, being kind, reading the scriptures, praying to Heavenly Father, and of course, being baptized by someone holding the proper priesthood authority. Plus many other things. Doing all of these things are hardly ever easy and we find ourselves busy with other things in life. But I know as we strive to the standards that we claim to have as Christians, we will be eternally blessed. God is our Loving Heavenly Father. We lived with Him before we came to this earth. We chose to come here to receive a body in order to be tested and gain experience and happiness through families. Families are central to God's plan. He gives us families so we can experience a fullness of joy on the earth. Along with families, God gives us prophets to lead and guide us through a harsh world. It's been a pattern since the world began to have prophets help God's children. But as another trend, the prophets of God are rejected. The greatest prophet the world has known is Jesus Christ. He is our Savior and friend. He came to the earth with a purpose, as we all have. His, was to proclaim His gospel, the doctrine of the Father, to the world. Sadly, even our Savior was rejected and crucified. I know that on the third day, he was resurected. And because of the Atonement he performed, we can be forgiven of sins, be cleansed, live a clean life, and return to live with Him and God again. After Christ and His apostales were gone so left the priesthood and the authority to run His church. And it was a long time of confusion and false doctrine that came from the great apostasy. But in 1820, a boy decided to ask in faith, a question that many people wondered for hundreds of years. What church is true, and if one is true how shall I know? I know that when Joseph asked with real intent, having the faith to act on his answer, he saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. In time, the true Gospel of Christ was restored to the earth, along with all of the authority and ordinances meant for our salvacion. We now have the Book of Mormon, which is another testament of Jesus Christ and His love for God's children. We can know of the truth of all things through sincere prayer and listening to the Holy Ghost. I know that this Gospel is true. I know that it was restored by Christ through the prophet Joseph Smith. We have a true prophet today, President Thomas Monson. Through him and other prophets we can know of the things we need to do in order to gain eternal life with our families. I love this work. I am so grateful I am able to share the message of the restored gospel with the people in Texas, and in a years time with those in Arizona. I love you all and am so grateful we all have this knowledge together. I have an unshakable testimony of all the things I have said, I know it is true, in the nam of Jesus Christ, amen.

 

Thank you for all of the love and support! Being here has changed my life forever, for the better. I will write again next week, and I'll see y'all sooner than we realize.

 

All my love,

Hermana Florence

Craziness!!

Well hello family!

 

I hope everyone had a great week! Mine felt a little weird. It was quick but slow at the same time! Our week, numbers wise, looked pretty pathetic. BUT!!! On Friday we had Fiestas Patrias!!!!!!!! It's a Latin-American celebration for all the different countries! it was SO fun! We spent all week really pushing people to come to the party. We visited every less-active that was in our area, every investigator that we had ever talked to, strangers, and in one desperate situation...a dog. But that's a long and slightly embarrassing story. :) Well, as a result of talking to everyone and their dog (see what I did there?) we had 33 of our people show up the the party!!!!! it was SO incredible! The familia Cruz came and we haven't been in to see them for 2 weeks, all we could do was leave a flier to come and they did, with their less-active active neighbor Karla!!!! Who we have been trying SO hard to come to church! IT WAS SO GREAT!!! All of the other missionaries were jealous...they asked our secret and we told we brought it up in every conversation we had and we made our own fliers. Nailed it!!! :) It was a true miracle and we feel so blessed to have had so many people show up! Heavenly Father is definitely helping us!

 

This week I saw my first LIVE armadillo! That was cool. Nothing else super excited happened. But we did have the Relief Society Broadcast this weekend which was AMAZING!!!!! Everyone should go and watch it on lds.org. I can't even explain how incredible it was! It made me re-evaluate my convenant keeping and if my love for the Savior is relfected in everything I do.

 

I am so grateful for this wonderful opportunity I have to be a missionary, especially in Texas, it's a choice land. :) Thank you all for the love and support! have a wonderful week!

 

Love,

Hermana Florence