Ahorita no puedo...mejor otro dia

Hermana Shannon, Alex, Hermana San Juan, Hermana McCormick 

Hermana Katelyn, friend, Gloria, Hermana McCormick 

Buenos Dias!

So this week was stressful yall but SO GOOD.  

Gloria and Alex were baptized. Oh man it was seriously one of the happiest days of my life. Everything turned out perfect and they were both so happy.  

Also we met his guy named Beto the other day and he is so humble and prepared. He came to church on Sunday and told us after, "I prayed about the Book of Mormon and I believe it's true." God is really blessing us in this area! We set a baptismal date with him for June 14. He is so excited.

Sorry this is really short I don't have a lot of time today! I love you all so much. The church is true!

Also I hit my year mark the other day...whhhhatttt? 

We play tennis with the Elders every morning at 6:00.

Elders, Katelyn, Hermana McCormick 

People have the weirdest objects in their front yards.

Too Much Tennis!

Hey hey it's me again!

So I hope yall are prepared to hear a really weird story. So last
Monday we played tennis basically all day with the Elders in our district.
It was a BLAST but by the time 6:00 came around and we had our first
appointment we were exhausted! (It seemed like a good idea at the time). So
we go try the person and they aren't there and we are walking back to the
car and Hna McCormick tells me that her head hurts and she feels kinda
weird so I asked if she wanted to go back to the apartment but she said she
was okay to keep going. So we went to our next appointment which was with
Alex and on the way there she is acting SO WEIRD. You guys she couldn't put
a sentence together and she couldn't remember any Spanish at all. So we are
at our cita with Alex and she is trying to speak to him in Spanish but it
came out as weird Spanish/pure English. At first it was really funny and we
were all laughing because she was trying to tell him that her dog had
puppies and she kept saying "my perro had poopies!!" haha but then she
almost passed out and couldn't remember where we were or what we were doing
or how to speak any language so I started to freak out a little. So I told
her I was going to take her home but we had a lesson at 8:00 with one of our
investigators and she was insistent that we went to that lesson.  So we
went, and to be short, it was probably the worst lesson of my life...our
investigators mom told us to never come back again and hna McCormick was in
the bathroom throwing up and yeah...haha.  It was something else that's for
sure! Hna McCormick didn't remember any of it the next day so I told her
everything that happened and we laughed about it basically all day haha.

President Crawford told me one time that the secret to life is turning a
negative into a positive!

Anyway, in better news! Alex and Gloria are getting baptized this
Saturday!! I could not be more excited! It's so interesting to me to compare
the two because getting Alex to this point has been such a long journey and
getting Gloria to this point has been so easy! I just know that God loves
his children and he will guide them to the truth in the best way for them.
This week is going to be a little stressful trying to teach Gloria
everything she needs to know before baptism and getting Alex moved out but
I couldn't be more grateful and happy. You guys the Church is true!

I love you all so much! And Hayden I'm so glad you are okay.  That is truly a
miracle story.  You are a champion!

Con Amor,
Hermana San Juan

Elder Mamea trying to pump up our flat tire with a bicycle pump.

Three Miracles

Hey yalllll (I promise I will never say that when I get home)

Three miracles this week:

#1 The most important one. I found $11 on the ground.

#2 We were walking out of an apartment complex and this lady came up to us and asked if we were Mormons and then told us that her sister is a member of our Church and that she has been wanting to talk to missionaries forever but she could just never find any! Then she asked if we could come back the next day! uh yeah! 

Katelyn, Gloria, Hermana McCormick

#3  I can't believe I haven't told you guys about Gloria yet!!! We have been teaching her for about 2 weeks now and she has a baptismal date for May 31st. It's basically the coolest story ever how we started teaching her. So she is a friend of Hermana Badillo (a member in the ward). And they met about a year ago but hadn't really talked since then. So one day Hermana Badillo was on her knees praying to God for an opportunity to share the gospel with someone. Then not too long after she hears a knock on her door. It's Gloria! Gloria came over because she had been feeling a little empty inside and knew that Hna Badillo went to a church and was really happy there so she decided to go over to her house and ask if she could go to church with her. Hna Badillo of course said yes and called us right after and invited us to go over to her house and teach Gloria! We invited her to be baptized and she accepted. She is SO prepared. This experience has strengthened my testimony even more that miracles do happen and that God loves all his children.

 

There was a big rainstorm the other day and the streets were flooded. 

I love you all so much! Thank you for all your support and love! I love getting letters, packages, and e-mails from you all they really make my day.

Thanks for the muffin mix Dad. They were delicious!

Pho

HEY,

So I don't really have much to say because I just talked to yall yesterday!! Yeah remember that? It kinda feels like a dream. But it was so great taking to my fav people :) I have the best family ever. Pretty sad to hear that I don't have a Spanish accent yet I will keep working on that..:)

Anyway we went to Arturo's apartment with Alex yesterday so that he could check it out and its official...Alex is moving in with Arturo! He is moving in at the end of May and then getting baptized a couple of days later. We are so happy for him and we know God is happy with the decisions he is making even though they are not easy ones. You guys, Alex didn't even know what a Mormon was a couple months ago and now he is moving in with one and getting baptized. The gospel changes lives.

So on Thursday our 82 year old neighbor Chi ha came over and brought us this soup that is apparently really famous in Vietnam called pho. It had a bunch of raw meat in it and looked and smelled pretty weird but it tasted delicious! The pictures attached will explain it all. I hope you enjoy hahahaha.

Also Hermana McCormick tried speaking to a Vietnamese man in Spanish the other day and I was dying laughing.

I love you all so much!!!!

Love,

Hermana San Juan

Hermana McCormick--New Companion

 Sweet yeah?

          Sup?

So I'm sure y'all are wondering who my new comp is right?? Her name is Hermana McCormick and she is from Willard, Utah! She is super cool and I am so excited to serve with her. I saw her at transfer meeting and I totally called that I was going to be put with her. She has been out about 8 months. She is such a positive, happy person. This transfer is going to be awesome. 

I do miss my girl Hermana Shannon though. She just got moved to the area right next to Broadway though so we are still going to see each other all the time and we are in the same zone so basically we are going to be FINE.

Also good news/bad news. So I really have no idea if I told yall this but Alex has a baptism date for May 30 (his b-day) and he is currently living with his girlfriend right now so he is planning of moving out on May 27 so that he can be baptized on the 30th. I have so much respect for him. He is having to go through a lot to be baptized but he knows how important it is and he is willing to do hard things. Anyway, he is going to be moving out of our area/ward :(  But the good news is that he is moving into Hermana Shannon's new ward! Kinda crazy huh? It's neat how things work out.

I have been telling everyone about Spencer's mission call! We had a dinner on Wednesday night with la familia Madrigal and Hermana Madrigal talked to me almost the whole time we were there about how much she loves it over there and how Chihuahua is super pretty. She said she has family in Juarez and that they love it. She is really excited about your mission call Spencer haha! She told me that everyone there has blonde hair and blue eyes so you are going to fit right in :)

We are teaching Mario's (our recent convert) wife and her son right now. They are planning on getting baptized on the 17th. They are excited to get sealed in the temple in a year!

So while we were in a lesson with Alex the other day he turns to me and asks "What motivates you everyday, what makes you wake up in the mornings?" So that question really got me thinking. And I decided that my love for God motivates me. And my love for the people. I know that I could sleep in everyday if I wanted and be lazy, but my love for God carries me forward. Sometimes your investigators teach you more than you teach them.  

 Good old Martin. This is the lesson that we had with Martin and Alex. haha I love them. 

We had a miracle this week! Me met this 16 year old kid named Joseph while we were trying to find a less active. We invited him to be baptized on June 7th and he said yes! He is one of those people that just gets it and is sincerely looking for the truth.

I am in LOVE with being a missionary. And I can't wait to talk to you on Sunday! :) I love you guys a lot!

Con Amor,
Hermana San Juan 

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!

Miracles Do Happen

Guess who came to church yesterday! Remember la familia Campo that I talked about in my letter last week? Yup they came. Y'all would not believe the transformation Hermana Shannon and I have seen in this family this past week. We went over there about four different times this past week. Hermana Campo had to work every day so just her husband was home with their two kids every time we went over. He lost a lot of work because of his drinking. Every time we went over they were so happy to see us and we would make sure to encourage Hermano Campo not to drink. He is going strong. He did admit to us that he had been drinking one day but that he was cutting down. We told him that sometimes when we are trying to change and become better we will fall but the getting back up is the most important part. We saw a HUGE change in him by the end of the week. Sunday at church (yesterday) was the first time that we saw his wife since the blow up last week. After Sacrament meeting I gave her a hug and she just started to cry and hugged me again. She just kept saying, "Thank you, thank you, thank you for taking care of my family." I felt such a warm feeling in my heart and such a love for her and her sweet family. We had a lesson with them after church and invited them to be baptized and they said YES. It has been such a beautiful experience seeing their progression.

Michael also came to church yesterday! Oh Michael.....his is a tough cookie let me tell ya. He makes my brain hurt. He just has so many questions, and views, and concerns, and doubts, and blah blah. Plus he expects his answer to come "Joseph Smith style" as he would say. haha But he is so willing to do what he needs to do to find his answer because he really does have such a strong desire to know. We just keep trying to bring it all back to his testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. We invited him to be baptized on the 26th of April and promised him that if he continues to do all that he can to know that he will feel ready to be baptized by this day. He accepted!

The General Womens Conference on Saturday night was so good! I hope all of you got the chance to watch that and if you didn't go watch it! It was truly inspiring. The messages brought hope and I know that it made me want to be a better missionary, friend, daughter, companion, and sister.

I AM SO EXCITED FOR GENERAL CONFERENCE THIS WEEKEND. Mostly because if you want someone to get baptized you have them listen to the prophet. So I am really excited to invite all our investigators and less actives that we are working with to come watch General Conference and feel the spirit. It's going to be a powerful weekend. At district meeting on Friday Elder Williams stressed the importance of General Conference. He talked to us about how sometimes we can get too relaxed about hearing the prophet and his apostles speaking because we see their faces all the time. He committed us to prepare well for this conference. I want to leave you all with the same commitment. Moses is coming down from the mountain. We have a living prophet on the earth today!!  Do you understand how amazing that is? Don't take this for granted. Heavenly Father loves you and knows you and he will give you the answers, the comfort, the healing, the guidance that you need to move forward, through his prophets this weekend.

I love you all so much and I am so happy to be a missionary. I can't even believe how fast the time is going by. You are all in my prayers and thank you for all of yours. LOVE YOU.

Love,

Hermana San Juanita

Como están...?

Okay so I just figured out that you can change the font and the color on this computer and I got really excited so I would like to apologize in advance.

 

So this week has been an adventure thats for sure. First of all Hermana Shannon got a really great present for her birthday this year.....lice! So that has been really fun. We have no idea how she got it! On Wednesday I spent about 5 hours brushing her hair with that weird comb they give you and getting it all out. I WOULDN'T WISH THIS UPON MY WORST ENEMY. Hermana Shannon is glad that she has a companion that loves her haha. And also it's a miracle that I haven't gotten it yet either so we are counting our blessings! The mission teaches you a lot of things you never thought you would learn let me tell you haha. But really all is well and her lice is basically all gone. We called Sister Crawford on Wednesday to ask her what we should do and at one point she told us, "This will be funny in a couple of days Hermanas I promise!" We were like, Yeah right that will be the day! But we laughed about it for like an hour this morning so the scars are healing! haha

 

So yesterday one of our citas fell through and Hermana Shannon got the feeling that we needed to go over to one of our investigators houses named the Campos. They are a family that we have been teaching since I got here and the dad has a really big drinking problem but hasn't been able/willing to give it up so we stopped going over there as often. Well we went over yesterday and they let us in and the dad was DRUNK drunk drunk. The Hermana told us that it had been one of the worst weeks ever and that the police were on their way over to kind of slap him back into reality. Plus there were a million other problems that his drinking had caused like money, his kids, his job.... It was a mess to say the least. Well we decided that we better leave before anything happened but on our way out the police showed up and everything kind of exploded. So we decided to take their 2 little kids (one is about 6, a boy, and the other 12, a girl) outside and distract them so they didn't have to see all that was going on. These poor kids are terrified of their dad. So we passed a soccer ball around with them for about half an hour while they figured things out in the house. I had a silent prayer in my heart the whole time. They finally came back out, the policeman left, and the Hermana thanked us for coming over and taking care of her kids then left in her car with them and told us that they were going to go get away for a little while. So Hermana Shannon and I were walking back to the car when Hermano Campo shouts out "Hermanas!" from his front door. We had such a strong feeling that we needed to go to him. We went over and he fell to the floor crying. I had never seen anyone so sad and it broke my heart. We lifted him up and cried with him. We told him that our message can save him and his family but that he HAS to stop drinking. And then we said will you do it? And he said, "Yes, I will do it."  It was a powerful, powerful experience. I felt the love that Jesus had for him in that moment. He was at rock bottom, yet I could feel that love so strongly. That experience taught me many things. We should never judge, never give up on people, always listen to the spirit, and love others as Christ would.

 

It also made me realize how greatful I am for my family and that I was raised in a loving home with parents who have a love for the Savior and a strong desire to follow him. My heart is full of gratitude for that. We sometimes forget how much we really have.

 

I Love you all so much and I am so happy to be a missionary! This is the best decision I have ever made.

 

Love,

Hermana San Juan

 

#1 Celebrating Hermana Shannons B-day!

#2 Stake Conference

#3 Pobresita la Hermana Shannon

Mario Got Baptized!

Wazzz up

I am so excited to e-mail today I have lots of exciting things to tell yall!

So first off Hermana Shannon and I are staying together here in South Houston! We are SO excited.

Second off Mario got baptized!! So kind of an interesting story here. Everything was going great this week, they got the marriage license last Monday and we had everything set up for them to get married on Thursday and have his interview to be baptized right after and then have his baptism on Saturday. So we go to the church at 7:00 on Thursday and Obispo Resendez is there and he takes Mario and Patti into his office to have a mini interview before they get married. They come out of the office about 20 minutes later and all have really straight, serious faces. Hermana Shannon and I just looked at each other like, "What happened, what didn't we teach him, what did they say?!?!" Then we asked them how it went and no one said anything!! So we were like "Obispo...que paso......!" He was like "Hermanas I have good news and bad news...." Then he said "Bad news...they aren't going to get married today...good news...they are getting married Saturday right before the baptism!!!" Then they all broke out in smiles...those tricksters. They had us SO worried. They thought they were pretty funny. They decided that they wanted to get married Saturday because then they could invite family and everyone in the ward could be there instead of just getting married in the bishop's office with just them and the bishop and us haha. So we were really happy for them but I'm not going to lie, it made things a little bit more hectic for us because now we had a wedding and a baptism to plan for the same day! But God is a God of miracles and everything went perfectly Saturday and I had never seen Mario so happy. President and Sister Crawford even came for the baptism and wedding so that was TERRIFFFFICCC as President Crawford would say.

Also, I don't know if I told you this but I am officially the designated piano player for the ward which is HILARIOUS because I can't play the piano. But I guess I am the only person in the ward with any kind of piano ability so I am the lucky winner! haha I wish you guys could hear what it sounds like with me butchering every hymn and the tone deaf Hispanics singing. It is something else, let me tell ya. hahaha Hermana Shannon and the other elders in our ward basically laugh their heads off every week. It's priceless. Shout out to Emily for teaching me piano. I wish I would have practiced more haha :)

Hermana Shannon's Birthday is tomorrow!!! You guys should all send her a happy birthday e-mail :) makell.shannon@myldsmail.net  

I love you all so much! I know that this Church is true and that Jesus Christ is our Savior. I know that he knows how we feel and that if we trust in him and his atonement we can be healed.

P.S. Watch the Mormon Message called Leave The Party! You wont regret it!

Con mucho mucho mucho mucho amor,

Hermana San Juan  

Our district with our Bucky shirts! (it's a really famous gas station here in Texas, don't ask me why.)

PHOTO GALLERY:  

Brother Stanton and Katelyn - Sunday dinner her every week.

Guinea Pigs on the porch - why not!

Houston, TX

Hermana Shannon and Chi Ha

Biker Chix

Michael and Mario

Hermanas Shannon and San Juan Bowling with the Zone

JAYNE GOT HER MISSION CALL, WASHINGTON KENNEWICK SPANISH SPEAKING.

#STATESIDESPANISH represent! She is going to be the best missionary.

YOU GUYS this gospel is so cool. The thing that I love most about it is that it makes perfect, complete sense (unlike this sentence). So we have this investigator named Michael. Let me just tell you about this kid. He is 18 years old and is probably the smartest person I have ever met. We found him knocking and he likes learning about other religions so he let us come back. We have been teaching him for about 5 weeks now and at first he just let us come back because he thought it was interesting but now he lets us come back because he has a deep love and understanding of the gospel. I don't know if I have ever seen such an obvious change in a person just in 5 short weeks. When we first met Michael he told us that he didn't even know if there was a God and now when we go over he tells us about his kneeling, heartfelt prayers that he does each night. He is a very deep thinker though and at times this can be a little frustrating for Hermana Shannon and me because he wants evidence or proof. This had caused me to dig deeper into the scriptures and look at the gospel in a way that I haven't seen it before. It has strengthened my testimony about the truthfulness and simplicity of the gospel. He came to church for the first time yesterday and loved it. He was participating in all the classes and was telling everyone about all the things we have taught him. It was really funny, and also a really proud moment for Hermana Shannon and me haha. PresidentCrawford is coming with us on Tuesday to our cita with him. President Crawford is like the second smartest person I know so that should befun.....haha.

Also we have a baptism this Saturday! Mario is getting baptized! Actually this whole thing has been SO stressful because he still has to get married before Saturday....He told us that he was going to get married like 2 weeks ago and then something came up and then he and Patty couldn't get work off at the same time and this and that....SO much stresssssss. But actually we just got a text from him about 20 min ago telling us that they got the marriage license and now all they have to do is have the bishop marry them! Hermana Shannon and I were jumping for joy in the library. God is great. Also Mario finished the Book of Mormon on Friday. No big deal he just finished the whole thing in a little over a month. He is so prepared and we are so happy for him.

We will find out about transfers this weekend! Hermana Shannon and I have no idea whats going to happen. We are hoping we can stay together for another one though!

I love this gospel and I love all of you!

Love, 

Hermana San Juan

Half Through!

Hola!

So I don't know if you guys noticed but I am officially half way done with my mission. Hermana Shannon and I are freaking out a little bit but we are fine.....kind of. We are really happy that we got to spend it together though. It's great being with someone who is on the exact same page as you.

This week was a pretty normal one. We are just working hard and really trying to find new investigators, we have been struggling with this a little bit for a couple of weeks but we did find more this week than we did last week so we are pretty excited about that!

One thing that we are really happy about though is that we have 4 really solid progressing investigators with dates! So we have been working with them a lot this week and helping them progress towards baptism. One of them being Alex who came to church again! And also good news Mario is planning on getting married this week and is still good for the 15th of March so we are really looking forward to that. He didn't know if he would be able to get a day off of work to do it this week but we invited him to fast about it yesterday and he just told us that he got a day off and it is happening! We are really happy for him.

We also found two lost sheep this week! We found them knocking. One of them actually went on a mission and hasn't been to church in about 15 years. And the other one got baptized in Utah a couple of years ago and didn't know where the church was here so he's really grateful that we found him. His wife isn't a member but is interested to know more about the church so we will see how that goes!

So this morning I was reading in 2 Nephi 4 and the spirit hit me with something so strong. I compared my situation of losing Mom to Nephi's situation of losing his father in this chapter. I am amazed by his faith and trust in the Lord even after just losing someone so special to him. I can relate to his words when he says, "My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep." Then in verse 30 he states, "Rejoice, o my heart, and cry unto the Lord and say: O Lord, I will praise thee forever; yea, my soul will rejoice in thee, my God, and the rock of my salvation."

I am far from perfect but after Mom's death this is how I felt. I remember being so grateful to God for all my blessings and for all the miracles along the way. I know he has been my support and he has never left me or my family alone. I miss my Mom but I know that God has a plan and it is perfect. He just wants us to return home to him.

I love the scriptures so much. Especially the Book of Mormon. I have found so much peace and comfort in it and I know it's the word of God. And I know you can find peace and comfort in it as well.

Love you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Hermana San Juan

Some Pics of us helping our investigators paint!

Moreee:

#1 This old asian man named Chi Ha that walks the route that we run every morning donates money to the missionary fund every month and buys us groceries every once and a while. He is the best! He's not a member either. He just knows everything about the church because missionaries have been talking to him every morning for about a year now. And he basically has the whole Book of Mormon memorized. We love him.

#2 Hermana Valdez is my FAVORITE. She sends us the funniest texts (I don't even know if you will get this/think it's funny but hna shannon and I were dying).  [I think she forgot most of us don't speak Spanish.]

Hugo was Baptized!

Hermana Salcido, Herman San Juan, Hugo and Gloria

Hi there,

Okay Okay! I know I say this every week but this was really like the best week ever!! Mostly because Hugo was baptized and it was such a beautiful service. Hermana Salcido, Ochsenbein, and I sang "Mas cerca Dios de ti". It took all I had in me to not cry. Especially because I kept looking at Gloria and she was bawling haha. I have missed Baytown ALOT. It was so nice to be back for a couple hours :) Hugo looked so adorable in his white suit and he was glowing the whole time. But the best part was at the end of the baptism they told us that they are planning on getting sealed in the temple on June 25th of next year and they want us to come back for it! This is what it's about people.

ALSO, I HAVE MISSED HERMANA SALCIDO AND IT WAS SO GOOD TO SEE HER.

Also, I have a huge miracle story to tell you! Well it was huge for Hermana Shannon and me, at least, haha.

Hermana Shannon, ?, Katelyn

This is called the miracle of Alex:

So for the past three weeks Hermana Shannon and I have been doing EVERYTHING we could to get Alex to come to church. Church tour, member presents, inviting him, having members invite him, inviting him to activities, calling him, texting him, etc. But none of it has been working and he still hadn't come to church! But we were really looking forward to him coming to church this Sunday (yesterday) because we had seen him Saturday and he told us yes that he could come. Well we texted him Sunday morning before church and asked him if he was still planning on coming and he texted back and said that he couldn't come. We were SO sad. We didn't know what we were going to do from there, probably have to make some hard decisions becuase we had tried everything for weeks. Well we were sitting in the car about to go into church and I said a silent prayer to myself. I prayed and told God, "We have done all that we can do and I know Alex told us he can't come but you are a God of miracles and I believe." So we entered the church and sat down. Mario and Lesly sat by us as usual and then a little bit later Juan Pablo (an investigator we taught Saturday) showed up! Miracle!  And it turns out that he works with the bishop and his son! So we were talking with them after sacrament meeting and I'm just looking around and I see ALEX just standing in the back looking for us! You guys this is real life. He came! So I asked him if he wanted to go to class and he said, "Yeah I just wanted to wait here for the woman who invited us to church this morning, but I don't know where she went and I can't remember what she looks like." I had no idea who he was talking about...could it have been an angel? All I know is that it was a miracle and that he came and loved it and that God is REAL and he answers prayer and that he KNOWS us. Also he was able to come to the baptism and feel of the strong spirit that was there. He told us that he believes it's true and he can feel something very different. He is going to be so ready by the 15th of March.

Sorry that was so long I just felt like I had to tell you about one of the many miracles we saw this week!

I love you all so much and I love this gospel so much. I have been thinking a lot about mom this week. It's almost been a year since she has passed away, it still feels like it was yesterday to me. She was such a strong person. When I need strengh I think about her. I know she's here on the mission watching out for me and helping me....who knows maybe she was the angel that helped Alex..:)

LOVE Y'ALL!

Love,

Hermana San Juan

P.S.A BIG SHOUT OUT TO MY MAIN MAN, KARI ST JOHN. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARCH 1 YOU DA BEST. HAPPY 30TH :) 

Happy Happy Happy

This week was INCREDIBLE. So on Friday we had a zone conference and Elder Aidukaitis from the 70 came and talked to us. It was such an eye opener. He was very forward and very straight to the point but very kind and filled with the spirit. I have never met anyone like him before. I wish I could describe to you the things he said in a way that you could feel how I felt. It was definitely an experience that I will never forget. He talked a lot about how we can improve as a mission and how we should never, never set any of our goals as 0. He really motivated me to work harder and set my vision higher. You guys, it was incredible.

We are teaching this man named Mario right now. It's actually a cool story. Hermana Shannon and Seely (yes they were companions) were knocking this apartment complex because they had a little bit of time before they had to be at their next appointment and found Mario. He let them in and his girlfriend was there and they stared teaching them. At the end of the lesson they invited them to be baptized and his girlfriend was like, "I'm already a member of your church!" So apparently she was baptized about 7 years ago in Mexico and hasn't been to church since then. Now we are teaching Mario and he is so PREPARED. He has a baptism date for the 15th of March. The only tiny thing is is that he and Patty aren't technically married.....yeah....but they said that they are planning on getting married the first week in March so that he can be baptized!

We are also teaching this guy named Alex. We found him knocking. He had talked to missionaries before but a long time ago. He accepts everything we teach him and is super awesome. He just won't come to church! I think he has a couple of fears about it but we are working on it. He is great. He has a baptism date for the 15th as well and is looking forward to it.

We get to go to the temple on Wednesday! So excited!

I hope y'all know how much I love you. I have such a strong testimony of this gospel. My testimony and love for the Book of Mormon has also grown so much since I have been out on my mission. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God and it blesses me every day. That book has become a part of me. I feel the spirit every time I read it. Jesus Christ is our Savior. He knows how each of us feel when we are passing through difficult times. And when we are going through difficult times the best thing we can do is to rely on him. Let him carry us. Serve other people. We are children of God and he loves us. I know we can all find the strength we need to overcome challenges through this gospel.    

Alma 38:5 :)

Con Amor,

Hermana San Juan

P.S. Go watch the bible videos that are on Mormon Channel! They will change your life!!

Here is my new address:

10925 Beamer Rd. #440

Houston, TX 77089