Longest week of my life.

Hello family!

 

This week was very strange for me. With getting a new companion, taking over the area, and planning a baptisms, it felt a little stressful and crazy. Especially since I wasn't in my area for almost 3 days. But turns out I made it through everything that came my way this last week, thank goodness. I don't think I have prayed so hard for charity and comfort as I have had to this last week.

 

Crystal Ann Marin was baptized this last Saturday and confirmed the following day at church!! Her baptism was the most tender one I have witnessed. She is so incredible, I can't help but feel that she was someone I was meant to teach. I feel so blessed to have been a part of that special time in her life! Her boyfriend, Harold, baptized her which was sweet. He cried, which made me cry. And then I cried the rest of the day every time I thought of Crystal. She really is so special, one day she'll visit me in Arizona and y'all can see how amazing she is! Harold was so much help with the whole baptism process, he made the program and set up all the assignments. All I had to do was get her interview in line, set up chairs, and fill up the font! And somehow all of those were stressful enough, I can't imagine having to do the rest during this week. Heavenly Father was definitely taking care of me!

 

We have been teaching the Vasquez family lately, I think I've talked about them before. But yesterday Rodrigo and Myra came to church!! We've been trying to get them to come for a month, longer really, since conference. They came for conference and yesterday was the primary program so they still haven't been a part of a normal church service. They think we're weird, but everyone just loves them so they like to come!  Today, we're going over to see them and re-extend dates to the family. The mom, Eva, is still good for her date on the 23rd of this month! But she has a hard time wanting to come because she wants her whole family to do it at once. We're trying to help her see that she could be a great example for her kids by being baptized first, so we'll be having that lesson with her today and talk about repentance.

 

We're been focusing a lot on repentance lately. It's been really good for me because I have been able to repent better daily and ask for help. Every time I am able to teach about repentance I am able to bear testimony about it more strongly, because I apply repentance in my life personally. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to get on my knees everyday and ask for forgiveness of my faults and petition for His grace, so I may become better. What a blessing.

 

Well my sweet family I sure love y'all VERY much! Thank you for all of the love and support. I hope everyone has a wonderful week and stays safe! Happy Veterans day!

 

Love,

Hermana Florence

The Cricket

Hello Family!

I had a very interesting week. It was Hermana Greenwood's last week here. I just dropped her off at the mission home. There have been a lot of tears these past couple days, obviously. She has really become like one of my sisters, it felt like saying goodbye to family again. Definitely not easy. I'll be out of my area for a few days but will return to it with a new companion on Wednesday. Yep, I'm taking over my area, pretty scary. But I know I have a lot of support from the ward and the Lord. It'll be tough but that means I will grow. We have the baptism for Crystal Marin coming up this weekend! There is a lot to do to plan a baptism...I feel a little scared without Hna. Greenwood helping me, but the Lord will too. But I am very excited, Crystal is just amazing! I have never had an investigator as prepared as her. I feel like it's a huge blessing for me. President Ashton said that when we find prepared people, we are doing our job. That means the Lord trusts a to teach well and to the needs of the person. I hope that by finding Crystal that means I am an adequate missionary. Sometimes I feel like I'm just not quite there with somethings, maybe with the language or my teaching skills in general, but there is a definite desire to do what is best for these people, so I feel that I have the trust of the Lord. I'm giving my best, and that's all He asks.

I was so happy to see a picture of little Z! She looks like a darling little girl! I wish I could hug her tight! It was cute to see Charley's cute Halloween outfit, it fit her personality very well!

We had a Noche Mormona(kind of like a family home evening, but a more teaching setting) Last night with the Rodriguez and Garcia families. Hno. Garcia was baptized recently so we are going through the new member lessons with him. We taught about Temples and eternal families. I got emotional during the lesson, as I mostly do when we talk about families. It's not entirely because I miss y'all, it's because I have a strong testimony of it. Families are so special, they are literal gifts from God. And I feel so blessed to have such a loving family who lives and loves the teachings of Christ. After we shared our message we had dinner...pizza, pasta, pan dulce, and CRICKETS. Once upon a time I promised myself that I would try everything I was asked to eat(unless it would kill me). So far I have stuck tot he promise. Yep. I ate a cricket. It was dead of course and roasted with chili and lime. The flavor was pretty good...but then I remembered I ate a bug and that's when I had the hard time chewing. I eventually swallowed it with juice! They eat crickets like chips...I think I'll stick to chips. After I did it Hna. Greenwood did it as well. She has a video of it so look for it on Facebook maybe!

Well my sweet family, I love y'all. I am so grateful to be able to serve the Lord in such a great cause, to help families return to live with God. I am grateful for all of your love and support! Les quiero mucho mucho mucho como la cola del chucho! Hna. Santillan always says that to me. :) Have a wonderful and blessed week!

Love,

Hna. Erica Florence

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

Armadillos!!

Hello family!

 

I hope all is well at home and people are happy! A couple of really cool things happened this week. The first being, I saw my first armadillo!! It happened to be roadkill...but it was still cool! Then I saw another one just down the street! That one was dead too...and I saw a third dead. And we sure didn't even think of scraping them off the road to eat...sick. But I think someone has been killing them. Hna Greenwood and I made up a story about a mass murderer that hunts armadillos...our drive to Houston is about 30 minutes so we had time. :) One day I'll tell the story.

 

So I have some news!! We got transfer calls today and..........Hna. Greenwood and I are staying here together!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are both SO excited! This will be her last transfer...which she is really sad about. But we are really excited and grateful that we'll spend it with each other! She and I will be best friends forever! We already have many plans. :)

 

Well this week went pretty well! We got the last bit of Hurricane Jerry that hit Mexico, so that rain was fun to walk in. Mom!!! I used my crocks and my rain jacket!! :) Some of the days were kind of long. Ok they all were. But all of them were full of miracles! Like yesterday, we had 4 investigators come to church!!! So Ule Marrufo, I've talked about his mom Rose, Well he's 21 and is really turning his life around! He was previously into some pretty bad stuff. But has since gotten back into school and working lots. We've been calling him every day and reading from the Book of Mormon with him during his breaks at school. He lives about an hour away from here, but we still get to teach him because he comes down here for the weekends. He started his drive late yesterday though and missed sacrament meeting...but he still came for the last two hours and LOVED it!!!!! In sunday school we talked about eternal marriages and in Preisthood they talked about love in the home. He told us afterwards that he really wants to just find a good girl to marry so they can be as happy as the people he saw at church. HE IS AWESOME!!!! And he even asked a couple of the men he met in priesthood to give him a blessing. WOW WOW WOW!!!!! He has a date for October 5th, conference weekend. But one session of conference equals one church attendance, so he'll be baptized in the middle of the saturday sessions!! He is really excited and super great. It's exciting to watch his heart and desires change. It's amazing what the Gospel and Atonement of Christ can do for people!

 

I have such a testimony of the Gospel of Christ. By living it, we receive the greatest joy we can in this life and the next. I know that by accepting Christ in our lives and letting go of pride, we are able to access the greatest gifts Heavenly Father has instore for us. I love y'all and I'm so grateful for my sweet family and friends. I pray often for everyone. Please be safe and make good choices! Hope I hear from everyone soon!

 

All my love,

Hermana Florence