I have never been happier.

Best District en el Mundo 

Okay first off I have been thinking about Spencer and if he got his mission call all week!  

AND HE DID.

CIUDAD JUAREZ MEXICO.

I AM SO EXCITED. 

Dad I know you are probs terrified but let me tell you I have some homies here in Houston that are from Ciudad Juarez and they are some of the greatest people I have ever met. So humble and so kind. You have nothing to worry about. God protects his missionaries and Spencer will be perfect for those amazing people. 

Spencer I can't stop smiling.....Spanish buddies....:)

Spencer-Also I was reading PMG the other day and it says,

"More happiness awaits you then you have ever experienced as you labor among his children." I promise you that is true. I have never been happier. Of course there are hard days but I promise you, if you let it your mission will make you happier than you have ever been.

Also sad news! Hermana Shannon is leaving me! :( We kind of expected it because she has been here FOREVER but it's still sad and I am going to miss her a ton. I will get my new companion tomorrow!

So last Monday we watched the movie Saratov Approach with President and Sister Crawford. Such a great and inspiring movie! Although I would not recommend watching it if you have a kid on a mission....

It was a pretty normal week as far as normal is concerned out here. We set a date with Maria Mejilla for May 31st! Her husband is really excited because he has been a member for almost 10 years and always talks about how the Church is the best thing ever (even though he hasn't been for like 4 years but we are working on that).

Martin has been on this "what does the word telestial mean?" kick this past week..... We have explained it like a million times but it just bugs him that there isn't an exact definition for the word telestial and he asks us about it like every 5 seconds so if you guys have a definition for the word telestial that would be great haha. But other than that he's doing great. 

We had a SWEET lesson with him on Saturday though. So at 7:00 on Saturday we had a lesson with Alex and then at 8:00 a lesson with Martin.  So we told Alex we had to go because we had another lesson to get to and then we were like, "Do you want to come?" and he was like "Sure!" So he came with us to Martin's lesson and it was AWESOME. I have never brought an investigator to another investigator's lesson so it was kinda funny but also a really cool experience. Alex bore powerful testimony about faith. It was a cool experience for me because I know what Alex is going through and how bad he wants to be baptized and I know how much faith he has. I know he helped Martin because that's what he is lacking right now, faith. My new favorite thing is now bringing investigators to other investigators' lessons haha :)

I love you all so much! so so much!

Love,

Hermana San Juan

Guiterrez Family 

Chi Ha and his Garden

God Loves You

President ?

Heyyy Yalllllllllz!

 Let me just walk you through my week!

Monday: Took a 3 hour nap and it was awesome. We had a good lesson with Martin. We had a whole great lesson planned on the plan of salvation but when we asked him about his prayers he said he was doing a "mixture" of memorized prayers and the way we taught him how to pray. So we decided to change our plans and go over prayer again and how it's like having a conversation with God. Also it's Hilarious because he calls everyone "Oiga!" and we have no idea why haha.

Tuesday: We went over to a recent converts house because he told us that she was going through a hard time in her life so he wanted us to go visit her. So of course we were like of course we will go over! So we go over there and like 12 people are sitting at this huge table waiting for us to come. Apparently they thought we were like master psychologists that were going to come over and fix all of their problems. So we sit down and they just started venting EVERYTHING to us. You guys for some reason as a missionary, people tell you everything. They tell you all their secrets, sins, family problems, health problems, etc..... I have never heard so many problems in my life.

Do my fellow missionary friends feel the same way??

But anyway the girl that we came over for is 16 years old and she is very depressed. I felt so bad for her. We started talking to her about prayer and asked her if she has ever prayed before and she said that she hadn't. So we taught her how to pray. It was so NEAT. The gospel heals! We committed her to pray every night and she even smiled at us before we left. We can never underestimate the power of prayer.

Wednesday: This was a SAD day y'all. We ended up dropping Michael. But the good news is that it ended on a really really good note and I really truly believe that he will accept the gospel one day. It's just not his time right now. I hope that we planted a seed in his heart. I'm going to miss him.

Katelyn and Michael

Also I don't know if I told you but every Wednesday we eat with an old couple from the English ward named the Stantons. Well we went over there and it was a sad because brother Stanton had to be put in a nursing home so it felt a little bit empty over there. But Sister Stanton is hilarious and such a happy person even through the hard times so it was good! 

Also a man yelled at us in Russian today (I think) so that was cool.

Thursday: We found a new investigator named Melissa during Hour of Power and we are going back to see her tonight!

Friday: We had a really good district meeting today about how to use the Book of Mormon better in our teaching! Elder Williams always does such a good job leading those. Then we went to visit Brother Stanton in the nursing home! He gave us each a big hug and a kiss on the forehead it was so good to see him! He was telling us about how we were in Utah and he was pointing to the mountains that you could see from his room? It was good to be in Utah for a little bit! haha. We went to the library and showed Alex the "Because of Him" video! It's SO GOOD. President Crawford told us to show it to all of our investigators so I have seen it about 30 times now and it gets better every time!

Saturday: I GOT THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS TODAY FROM MY MOST FAVORITE PEOPLE EVER. Thanks for the flowers, family.  They really made my day.  They are so pretty and make our apartment smell so good! Also, Alex took us out to lunch to some Tex-Mex restaurant because he didn't have work today.

Sunday: Hermana Shannon, Mario, and I talked in church today! I was really nervous because in the past when I have given talks it had been in front of like 20 people because I was in branches but this time it was like 150 people and I was nervous haha. Mario was nervous too because he has been a member of the Church for like a month...  It was so cute.  He called us a couple of times during the week and asked us questions about how to write a talk. Like, "Can I write it down so I know what to say?" Just the type of thing you don't really think about when you have grown up in the Church. But it all turned out to be really good. A Hermana in the ward even came up to me after and asked me if she could make a copy of my talk so she could share it with her non-member family. hahah So I guess it went alright? Also we set a baptism date with Alex!!! May 31st! He said he should be moving out by then so he won't be living with his girlfriend anymore. But he has to make a lot of hard decisions so it won't be easy but we know God will help him. You all have to meet him, he said he wants to move to Utah one day so I'm sure you will :) Also Martin made us dinner! He is so awesome. He made us some nice rice and chicken. And also taught us the phrase that is the title of my e-mail. He is hilarious guys.

SO SORRY that this e-mail is SO long. I pretty sure it's one of the longest ones I have written haah. But anyway I love you guys so much and I am SO happy to be a missionary!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SPENCER!!! I LOVE YOU.

Love.

Hermana San Juan

Thelma, Perl, Katelyn

Should We Drop Michael?

 We learned how to tie ties this week.

Hello!

President interviews were this week! President Crawford is such a wise man. I sure am going to miss them when they leave in July.

So we had a little bit of a sad lesson with Michael this week. You guys I don't even know how to explain him. I wish you could just meet him to know what it's like to teach him. haha. He is so willing to do everything we ask him to do but he just doesn't have the faith, like I was talking about last week. So we sat down with him and had a little bit of a drop lesson with him (where you basically tell them you can't keep coming over anymore because they aren't progressing). Hermana Shannon and I did not want to do it let me tell you but we knew it's what needed to be done. So after the lesson he told us that he wants us to come back one more time, kind of like a last shot. So we went back on Saturday and we shared the message of the restoration and watched the short Joseph Smith movie with him. We planned it out very very well. We made sure that we kept it simple, shared scriptures, and bore testimony. It was a huge testimony builder for me. I don't know if he felt what I could feel but what I do know is that the Holy Ghost confirmed to me again that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that we have the fullness of the gospel on the earth today. Well I think he must have felt something because he told us he wants to know if this is true and he wants us to come back again. So we are going back on Wednesday with President Crawford so pray for us :)

You guys Martin is so legit. We set a date with him for May 10th. He has been reading the Book of Mormon like a mad man and always has a million questions when we go over there about EVERYTHING. For example some of his questions this past week: "Why did it not mention anything about Nephi not having a light when he went to go get the plates with Zoram?" "Did Nephi and his brothers get married before or after they left for Jerusalem?" haha But he's so great.

Also Alex is doing really well! Yesterday we went and watched the full Joseph Smith movie at a members house with him. He loved it. He told us that he wants to get baptized and that he loves the gospel. He is also reading the Book of Mormon like a mad man.

I love you guys so much I hope you have a great week and Easter! I get to give a talk next Sunday in sacrament along with Mario our recent convert, we are excited :)

Love,
Hermana San Juan   

Fiesta

Terrrrrrific week people. Mostly because conference was this weekend and I'm still floating on the spiritual high. What talk did you love the most?

I always love President Eyrings talks. I loved how he said "It is not one great choice but many small choices." The small choices lead us to the big choices no? So inspiring.

So good old Michael came to the Sunday morning session of conference with us. After this session the ward had a lunch type thing before the other session. Michael stayed and we talked for a good while. I asked him how he liked it and he said that he LOVED the prophet's talk. But then we got to talking more and he went all scientific on us and my brain started to hurt so I was like "Michael do you believe in God yes or no?" And he said "No," He said no!! That was a punch to the heart let me tell yah. So we kept talking and by the end I felt like I had just got hit by a car haha. He wants to know if the Church is true and he's praying, reading, and coming to church but he is missing one important thing. Faith. You guys faith is SO important. We can be doing everything that we need to be doing..but if we don't have faith none of it matters. Faith will carry you. Hang on to the faith that you have! We love Michael and we do have the faith that he will come around.

So Mario, our recent convert, gets the priesthood next week!! We are so excited and happy for him! The next step is going to the temple and doing baptism for the dead with him! We are planning on doing that in the next couple of weeks!

Also we got a sweet new investigator on Saturday named Eddie. He's from Guatemala and he's legit! He was a referral from a member. He came to Conference yesterday and he loved it. We have a cita with him on Tuesday, we feel good about him!

Wanna hear a cool story?? So we were in a lesson with Martin yesterday, right, and he was telling us about what happened a week before we met him. He has had a lot of health problems so he was sitting in the doctors office and he felt really nervous. He didn't really know how to pray because he has never really done it before so he said he kind of just said something out loud to God (he basically had it right?) He told God that if he has a greater purpose on the earth to help him understand it and to be able to live a little bit longer to find it. A week later we saw him outside cleaning out his car and went up and talked to him. That was about 2 months ago and he just told us! My heart was filled with gratitude for God because I know he answers prayers and he knows us! He knows Martin and loves him. I am so grateful that we followed the spiritual promptings to go and talk to him.

I love you all so much!! And I hope you have a great week! The Church is TRUE!

Love,
Hermana San Juan

Da pics:
We went to a fiesta this weekend for one of our less actives. It was something else that's for sure. They had a Catholic preacher there who sprinkled holy water on all of us so that was fun. And also a really sweet mariachi band!