They´re GRRREEEEAAAAT!!! [Letter 39]

Hey Loved Ones,

It´s Hermana Petru again from the other side of the pond. Life is going good. We are working hard. People are changing, me being one of the first. The summer is just about over here. It is cooling off which is making the work more enjoyable. This last week we had the great privledge of hearing Elder Kent F. Richards speak. Oh my goodness. I learned so much about myself, my mission, and how I can help my investigators better. It was trully a spiritual feast. We also saw miracles with investigators, their progress, and their commitment to follow Christ. Definatley one of my favorite weeks of my mission. I would like to shard something that Elder Richards shared with us. We were speaking of our purpose as missionaries. And he told a story that came from one of the Twelve Apostles. "A man had a beautiful pearl. It was the most magnificant pearl ever seen. And he wanted to share this pearl with everyone he loved. But he want to present it in just that right way to magnify its beauty. so he carved a box. He took his time putting all this love for this pearl into his work. well the time finally came that the box was finished. He called all his friends, and relatives. But as people passed by the pearl he noticed that people paid more attention to the box. This made him sad." This story can be compared to us as missionaries. The pearl that we offer are convenants. Baptism is the first convenant that we enter into with our Father in Heaven. This is the most important thing we teach. This is our goal. Our focus. But sometimes we spend to much attention on the box. the box could be anything really that distracts us from our purpose. It is the same with members. Baptism is the door but there are many more opportunities after baptism. There are many more convenants that our Father and Heaven has offered us. And if we have partaken of these blessings we have the opportunity to keep our covenants and renew them. So what are you doing to obtain these blessing from the Lord? Are you progressing toward a goal? I know that as you do you will find a new light, purpose, and happiness in your life. Men are that they might have joy. This is the joy that we are here to find. I love you. And I pray that you will find this joy.

Also I would like to share with you Alma 37:33-37 and 40-46. Really read them. 33-37 is amazing advice for this life. It is a way to live in happiness and progress continually.
40-46 is also great. It is true that there is easiness in following Christ. I really like the cross reference in 46d Alma 25:16. It helps us skip the box and find the pearl.

I love you all.

Love,
Hermana Petru

Hello! [Letter 38]

Hello there family and friends,

This week has been GREAT! We are working really hard. It is amazing this work. Everyday my faith grows in the Lord because of the miracles I am blessed to see. One of these amazing miracles goes like this. We found this girl in the street contacting. She had an amazing light about her. As we asked for her number and address she didn´t have either. All we could do was give her a Book of Mormon and our number and pray she calls. Well about a week later guess who we found in the street? Yep this girl. She walked up to us and said that she now had a number and that we could call. About a week later as we were walking from one cita to another with haste. She stopped us and asked when we could call. We didn´t have a day right then to meet but we promised to call her that day or the next. We had a wonderful lesson the next day. She´s not sure about God but she wants to know. She has an amazing spirit and she knows that we have a certain light that she wants. It was a great lesson. After the lesson we were asking about her family. They are from Equador. As she was telling us that she has a sister that she lives with here in Spain she asked "wanna meet her?" So we went up to her piso right then.  She didn´t have time right then to talk but she said we could come back.Her sister is very friendly and actually was taught by the missionaries about 10 years ago. In between her moving and the transfer of the missionaries she lost contact with them. But she wants to know more and wants to meet with us. WOW! Doesn´t God just know where all of us are. He really does love us. He cares about us.

Elder Kent Richards is coming this week and I´m excited to meet him. We as a mission have been working hard on being exactly obedient to prepare for his words. I have the opportunity to give a talk in Sacrament meeting this next week and I am excited for the ability to listen to Elder Richards before. I´m sure he will have some good information for my talk this Sunday. Hermana Torres and I are doing great. She is helping a ton with my Spanish and Confidence in Lessons. I am trying to help her with her  English. She understands quite a bit and its fun speaking with her in English. Her accent is great sometimes. We both die laughing at my accented Spanish and her English. Life is good and but the Work is even better.I love you all. Stay safe and trust in the Lord. He will help. Always.

With love,
Hermana Petru

Boo! [Letter 37]

Sup family?

This week has been great. We are working hard and we have been having great lessons with less active members and investigators here in Almería. The ability to watch as people change and turn to their Savior is truly a blessing and testimony builder of the power of the Atonement. There are days that I feel like Ammon or Aaron from the Book of Mormon as they watched their brethen the Lamanites awake  and shout praises to God because of a remission of sins. What joy we have when we see one of our brothers or sisters come unto Christ. It is a privledge and a blessing to be able to watch. One of our investigators right now is a great example of this. His life has been full of partying. Drugs, alcohol, tabacco. As we have started teaching him he of course has been having struggles. However this weekend we have seen a great change in him. he struggled daily even hourly to for go his former habits. As we talked with him about the strength of the Lord and how we can find strengthen in Him through reading the scriptures and praying we watched him change. We watched his faith grow. And he made it through the weekend! At chruch on Sunday he was so happy and was very attentive in sacrament meeting. I thank my Father in Heaven for this opportunity to help my brothers and sisters. What joy we have as we share the gospel with others.

Has anyone every wondered if they could miss their native tongue? Let me tell you it truly is possible. Hermana Torres and I are doing great. She is teaching me a lot of Spanish everyday. And in our apartment she is making great strives to learn English.  When we are in lessons I still sometimes get lost. Working on my vocab of worldly things. Its getting better. Learning Spanish has truly been a humbling experience. I don´t think I have spent so much time on my knees begging for something like I have for Spanish. And I know its only through the grace of the Lord that I know any Spanish. I can definately tell when I get a little cocky about Spanish because in the next lesson I can´t form a simple sentence. It is only when I keep a prayer in my heart and rely on the Lord and the Spirit that I am able to say anything. It is interesting how well the Lord knows us. How perfect each of our lives are to fit us. Each mission, each lif is personalized to help us progress, to the become more like our Savior.

I am thankful for this opportunity to learn and grow. It is like in Mosiah 2:41 ¨ And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven.¨ The Lord has blessed me with this wonderful oppotunity to learn Spanish which is a temporal knowledge but through this process I am being refined, and humbled spiritually. Oh the Love of our Father in Heaven! I know this chruch is true. I know we have a prophet today and Joseph Smith restored the Church of Jesus Christ back to the earth. I know the Book of Mormon is true and it contains eternal truths essential to our eternal salvation and exaltation. I know that it is only through our Savior jesus Christ that we can recieve these gifts from God and if we abide by the precepts found in the Book of Mormon we will be prepared to meet our Savior and continue serving in His kingdom. I love you all and I pray you are well in body as well as in spirit.


With love,
Hermana Petru

Hello! [Letter 36]

[From Dayna's Mom]
Hi Family,

I am sending you 2 e-mails from Dayna today.  The first one is my e-mail  but I thought you might enjoy hearing more about her birthday and her companion.


[Dayna]

MOMMY!!

For my birthday we made the yummy cake you sent. Hermana Torres loves american cake. It was fun to share it with her. We are getting along really well. The other night we seriously laughed until our abs hurt. It was the first time I´ve laughed in months. It felt so good. She is kind of a goof ball but is so much fun. We work hard but I don´t feel judged every minute of the day. Its nice just to relax and breathe a bit. She cooks the best Spanish food. Oh madre mia. and this week I am going to make her a real American hamburger. Well as close as I can. She has never had one before. Also she does a lot for my Spanish. She teaches me. Corrects me and even some days laughs at me. But it is what I need. I get so discouraged but she just keep pluggin along teaching. In the streets we only speak Spanish but in the piso  I speak English with her and she responds in Spanish. Also when we read the mission handbook, She reads in English and I read in Spanish. Both correcting pronunciation of the other. She says that she is impressed with my accent it isn´t as bad as other missionaries. That was nice of her. Anyway, I´m doing good. Working hard. At least trying to. Hope and Pray everyday that all is well at home. I´m sure the Lord is taking care of you.

LOVE YOU!! TE AMO!

Hermana Petru

Below is the e-mail for the family.


Well its been another wonderful week here in Almería. I apologize upfront if me sentences do not make sense or if my wording is funny. I have almost come to the point where I think in Spanish. It is a lot of fun. Well amazing things always happen during the week. Its the work of the Lord and the Bible Dictionary says that a miricle is the result of the presence of the Lord among men so claro there are miracles. Well with Hermana Torres we are pretty sure that she is going to be leaving Almería this next transfer because this is transfer 4 for her here. So by this time next week we have a goal to have me directing our movements through the city and knowing people and places. Now this is a lot harder then you think. We have a ward of about 160. That is a lot of people to know. Faces I´m good at. Names not so much. And then we have investigators and less actives. So this is kind of a lofty goal. Well we´re working on it. But its been alot of fun to learn a new area. Things that worked in Nerja don´t work here. I continue to grow.

This week we had a cita set up with a man that we met through contacting antiguos. We were pretty sure that he was going to fijar us but we went. And behold we found him in his house with his brother and a friend. One thing as I start. These men are from Ghana. Sooo... they don´t speak very good spanish. They understand and speak a little bit but not a lot. So they asked if we could teach in English. Hermana Torres looks at me and is like Yes. Well okay this means I have to teach. Because she understands English but doesn´t speak a lot. As we started to teach it was amazing. I realized that I really know more then I think. And almost everything I taught was translated from Spanish. The only difference was confidence. After the lesson we have 3 new investigators and they were asking for us to come back. The Lord truly is amazing. This little cita made me realize that I really can do this. I can teach. The Lord has called me to do so and He will not leave me hanging out to dry.

Well Later that day we had another cita. We decided that what were going to do is tell two stories from the Book of Mormon just as regular stories and then talk about why we have the Book of Mormon and share our testimonies. When Hermana Torres told me this my eyes about come out of my head. I can barely read the book of mormon in spanish and have been understand me let alone tell a story with out looking at the vocab in the book. She just smiled and was like I know you can. Just try. Well as I began I stubbled and was corrected by her and the family we were teaching but they understood the story and some even recognized it as coming from the Book of Mormon. I know at times that we think we can´t. But I know that if we trust in the Lord and just give it a try. He WILL bless you with His help. If our acts are righteous he will always be at our side helping us pull and carry the cross we have been called to bare. I LOVE YOU ALL. and I gotta go.


Love,
 Hermana Petru