8/26/13 I move helium tanks because I love Jesus

Hello family and friends!

I hope everyone is having a great week. It has been crazy warm here. Finally summer time I guess. Hope the start of school has been going well for some and also the mission for others. I have to say, this week has been filled with so much ridiculous and hilarious moments that its hard to put it all in. Just one of those weeks that go in the journal and make me think "oh man someone is going to love reading this one day". One of my favorites is when Hermana H decided it would be christlike for us to go refill the helium tank that our ward uses for the fair we have this week. So, we took forever trying to open the members shed and then we carried this super heavy tank into our car. Can you imagine two girls in skirts lunging a tank into a little car? Well that was us. :) Then we drove it over there and the people looked at us like we were dumb and said "you know that is really dangerous to transport a tank that way. You should have used a truck or something. And how the heck did you two put that in there?" It was funny and a little humiliating. After we got home with a fresh tank we went to a neighbors house to round up help to get it out of the car. When he did he looked at us and said, "Im surprised that this thing didnt break the seat" um.......yep. This is my life and what a great one it is.

So this week we got to go to the temple as a zone. It was so amazing! I love the spirit I feel when I go to the temple. Even walking around has a spiritual feeling to it. I was able to concentrate on the needs of those I teach and really just feel the peace of knowing that the savior and my Heavenly Father loves me. That is why I love to share the gospel. To help others feel that peace as well. Speaking of people we teach, there is this amazing hispanic family, well husband and wife, who we got as referral from someone in our english ward. We talked to Miguel last week and set up an appointment for wednesday in which we got to meet his wife Juana as well. When we came she was not happy to see us. She even said that she wasnt sure she wanted us in the house at all. We were shocked because we hadent said anything yet. So we kept talking to them about things other then the gospel like learning spanish. We then talked to the about the Book of Mormon and by the time we were done juana and Miguel were asking us when we could come back. I loved that, the gospel changes people. They are so much more open now to our message and are both reading the Book of Mormon together. Its so awsome. I love beeing a missionary!

I hope everyone has a great week! I love you all.

Hermana Cruz

8/19/13 I run from puppies because I love Jesus

Hola family and friends!!

It is great to be able to write this week. I feel like so much has happened that it is hard to write it all. Well I gues first off is that we are now in Springfield!!! So exciting. But we kind of feel like the hispanics went into hiding when we cmae because we are having trouble finding them. We moved into the Elders apartment after they left and even though they "cleaned" it, it is still driving me insane how dirty it is. Our fridge looked like a disaster zone. It is slowly but surly getting there. We love it though. There are two bathrooms which is awsome for when we are getting ready in the morning or for when we both run in to use the restroom. Also, our new elders are pretty cool. Elder Stradling and Elder Walsh. Elder Walsh is a new guy and Elder Stradling is new at training, being a district leader, and whitewashing an area. Buena suerte! Glad its not me. Naw, they are doing amazing though.

Funny stories of the week. My lovely companion has lived a little bit of a sheltered life and we were going to go this appointment that the elders set up for us before they left. We started to talk to the man and his daughters boyfriend came out so we talked to him too. He said he was going to an alternative school and Hermana H said "oh why are you going there?". It got really quiet and he just akwardly said, "because I wanted to". I was cracking up forever after that one and had to explain to her afterwards what an alternative highschool was. Its okay though because right after that we went to this house that has like 10 little puppies and after we talked to the girl there we were getting back in the car and they all attacked me. I jumped in the car because even if it doenst draw blood, it hurts to be bit so much.

We met a family this week, Rodney and Roxane who we taught the plan of salvation to. They just loved it. We are really excited about this family. We feel like the Lord has really prepared them to hear the gospel at this time. It is so exciting! I love this idea of trusting in the Lord. That was actually the topic of the devotional that we had last night, putting our trust in the Lord and not on other things. It was a really great lesson. The Lord really does show us that we can trust in him if we ask for that opportunity. He has given the invitation, he has promised to provide. I love that, we see little miracles like that everyday. For example, we go to see this lady up the road from us and there is a stop light that doesnt have a cross walk. You can only go when a car is there and the light is green. We always walk up to that light with no cars going the way we want in sight. We joke around saying, "alright God, we need to cross this street" and its funny because a car always ends up turning the corner so that we can cross. I love these little testiments to God's love for us. I know that he loves all of us and I am thankful for that knowledge.

I hope everyone has a great week. I love you all!

Hermana Cruz

8/12/13 I get soaked because I love Jesus!!

Hello family and friends!

Can't believe that my first transfer in the field is done. Aww!! So good, no great, news. Hermana Hendrickson and I are staying together . Anyways we are staying together and we ARE MOVING TO SPRINGFIELD!!!!!!! This has been a dream of the Spanish missionaries for about 4 transfers now but President McKee always said not right now. When President Andersen came it I think that almost everyone in the district, zone, and community talked to him about it and this transfer we are going. For those who don't know, Springfield is a small town about 25 minutes from where we live now and it is where all of our Spanish work is. the town itself kind of reminds me of downtown Turlock. It is not wealthy at all and there are certain areas we wont go after 6, but it is our town and we love it. We have been torn between spending time and Springfield and white house. But know we will be able to spend our time in Springfield and not feel like we are abandoning White House.

Greg's baptism went so well! The spirit was so strong and he felt it. He has been changed by the gospel so much. we will just continue praying and teaching him so soon he can be worthy of holding the priesthood. I sent my parents a picture of us at the baptism if anyone wants it just let me know. Its awesome because he was so mad at me for making him take a picture. (mom you would be so proud). He said I showed my true colors. Hector is also progressing really well toward baptism. He just got a job so we are pushing his baptism from Saturday to Sunday. He is so excited it is really funny! The other night we had our law of chastity lesson with him and we were so worried. We had never taught this lesson in Spanish. Luckily we had an amazing member with us who was a return missionary and he took right over and was amazing at it. HECTORS GETTING BAPTIZED! Thank you for all the prayers on his behalf. He is really amazing and the gospel will bless him so much.

So no dog stories this week. I know you all were looking forward to those. Its ridiculous how much dogs hate missionaries. I hope my future husband doesn't want a dog cuz it aint happening. However we have been enjoying the rain, its been crazy here. We have had a lot of beautiful thunder storms. Unfortunately sister Cruz has not taken the time to buy herself a rain jacket. (sorry mom). That's okay though because I have now had the experiences of working in pouring rain. haha its been fun. Its been raining so bad that our Zone Leader's apartment flooded. We had a lot of flash flood warnings by our place, but it has been all good. I love it here. I love the work and the people. I know that this is the place that I am suppose to be. I have seen the gospel change people's lives and I am thankful for the calling to help share it. Sorry this is a long one this week, the Lord has just allowed so many miracles that I felt that I had to share.

I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Hermana Cruz

Nashville Music Hall of fame

Sis Hendrickson and Sister Cruz

Sis Cruz Having fun on her PD

 

8/5/13 I eat gross melons because I love Jesus!

Hola familia y amigos!

I hope everyone had a really good week. Mine has been awesome. I have learned so much this week about the miracles and the power of prayer and the Lord. So first, all the fun and of course funny things that happened this week. I got to play volleyball on Monday which was a lot of fun; we dominated!!! Today I have convinced the rest of the Elders in my district to come to White House to play volibol and other games. I am really excited because Hermana H and I will be making homemade cookies which is something I've been wanting to do since I got here. It is going to be a great day!! Also, I got to actually mow a lawn today with the o turn lawn mower that I learned to drive last week. It was awesome and pretty straight for a first timer. I only had problems with turning properly because Elder Webb never taught me how to do that. It was really good though (if I do say so myself). Now on to my favorite topic, the food. I will probably die because of the food here, or at least come off the plain rolling. It is ridiculous! These people served us melons the other night which for those who know me, is a no go. But being a good missionary I ate and of course I was the one that they insisted eat about 3 slices of the melon because I wasn't talking as much as my companion. Then, last night was probably the best experience so far. We had dinner with this really sweet Hispanic woman who was really excited to have us over...I think. She spoke Spanish about a mile a minute so I honestly am not sure what she said at all. She gave us a huge bowel of jello and fruit (yum.....) and a whole peach. I was done after that, but then she proceeded to cook us dinner. Fried fish probably about a foot long each, mac and cheese, and veggies. I think I probably could have feed 3 people with the amount she put on my plate. Yep, I almost threw up and I actually had to tell her that I was really sorry but there was no way I was going to be able to finish it. So that was the fun/funny/probably lame stuff to tell you all, now on to the most amazing part of my week.

First of all Greg is preparing well for his baptism and we are really excited for him. I think he is starting to get really nervous though, but I know he will be okay. The Lord has worked so hard on him and there have been so many prayers given on his behalf that I believe he will be fine. Saturday we had a missionary day with the youth of the White House ward which was absolutely amazing!! Member presence brings miracles!!! I say it all the time because it is so true. So a whole bunch of missionaries where a part of it, but Hrm H and I got to take out 2 laurels from the ward to Springfield. We had a lot of appointments fall through though we did have 2 good lessons with some of our investigators. So we had an hour and decided to take the girls knocking. We split up and I was a nervous reck trying not to show it. I am not the best at knocking because I just have this problem starting a conversation with people. However, Katy (the Laurel) and I were able to teach 2 lessons and got 2 new investigators! It truly was a miracle and just shows the promise that if you open your mouth the Lord will help you with what to say. Its just that action of doing it. Also some of the Sisters that came to help worked in our area of White House with their girls. They were able to find us 2 new investigators from that. I loved it.

Now for the best news of all........HECTORS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!! I know right? We have been praying so hard for him and he has finally agreed. August 17th. we went a different route with him talking about receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and he said he wanted that so he would be baptized. Aww, we are just so humbled by the power that the spirit has had on him. He really is just so ready for baptism and a great example of just how diligent we should all be in studying the gospel. Well as you all can tell we are really excited for him. Great things are happening here in Madison. Saturday we are having 6 baptisms at the ward building. Its crazy!

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Hermana Cruz

7/29/13 I need to stay away from dogs period....because I love Jesus!

Hola familia y amigos!

I hope everyone has been having a great week. It has been absolutely amazing here. No, I have not turned into a country music fan, I don't have to listen to it to much. The story behind my subject line this week... well actually I have two great stories from the life of Hermana Cruz to tell. My life is crazy! Even the Elders from our district have realized that all they have to do is call us when they are having a bad day, and we would tell them something about our day which would make them laugh. So the two main events this week was, one our nice neighbors decided to give us their old couch. Now we already have a couch but we decided to accept it. We then had this grand idea to take our old couch back into our spare bedroom to study in there because sometimes our neighbors our loud. So picture two sisters in our pjs taking a big green ugly couch through a small hallway into a back room.....yep. We realized that it just wasn't going to work and about 5 seconds later we realized that the couch was now stuck in the hallway. We finally got it out, after about 20 minutes but yea that is one idea that will haunt me. Okay next story; I did stay away from biting dogs this week, however I just have a problem with dogs in general. We were reading at a member's home and her big dog came and got on my lap. As I was trying to get it off it licked me, RIGHT ON THE MOUTH!!!!!! I had to wash my face after that. I don't think I want a dog when I get home. they either want to kill me or kiss me and I can't handle this hot and cold emotions. :) Also, rode my bike this week and one day Hermana Hendrickson forgot our GPS and so we were trying to guess where this one Lady lived. Hermana h decided to take us the long way around with a lot of hills. Our motto was "ten pounds lighter!" Not sure how well that worked but it made me feel better.

So I have to tell everyone about my week.Its so crazy because we are not sure what we've done to warrant such miracles this week, but they have been happening. We were really hoping that Hector would have a baptismal date this week and unfortunately that didn't happen. He is just still so worried about knowing enough, but he is progressing really well. However, we have been teaching another guy named Greg for about 3 lessons now. I'm not sure if I've talked about him before but he got kicked out of scientology (which is the scariest "religion" in the world, I'm convinced that it is Satan's church) and is now looking for a different religion. Well we have been meeting with him, its weird though because he has meet with missionaries before but haven't had the best experiences yet something keeps making him come back. Its a little sad because he had no concept that he was a child of God and that he had a purpose. Anyways, he randomly texted us this week and here is how the conversation went.

"Hey can I ask you a question?"

"Yea sure you can ask us anything Greg"

"When can I finally be baptized?"

WHAT!!!!!! Yes we were in shock. I was going to write today how he comically committed himself to come to church yesterday (which he did), but now I get to tell you all that Greg is going to be baptized on August 10th. We are so excited for him, and even if this stems from a need to be excepted somewhere, it is also motivated by a tiny inch of faith which I know the Lord is very happy with. Its so great. The miracles that we have experienced this week. Wow, that was big, but little things as well; random rides from members and great lessons with investigators. I am so grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord and how mindful of us he is right now.

Well that was my week, sorry about the false letter. My bad. I hope everyone has a great week. I love you all!

Hermana Cruz

7/22/13 I got bite by a dog....because I love Jesus

Hello family and friends!

No worrying the dog only nipped me, there was no blood. It was just a tiny mom protecting her puppies which were underneath the porch that we didn't see. But it does make for a good story. This week has been so crazy and Im glad that I have time right now to email. First of all I just want to say that it is amazing how much I am growing to love the mission. I think that just about everyday this week I have been going home feeling the spirit so strongly and just feeling so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve a mission. It has just been so amazing so far. Service this week was on the farm again and I got to ride on a tractor and I was taught how to drive a lawn mower. It was so much fun! Also, once again I will say how beautiful Tennessee is. We have been having some crazy lightening and thunder storms lately. It has rained a lot here.

So, story behind the dog incident. My companion, who is amazing by the way, is also the Sister Training leader of our zone. She had to go to a meeting with another sister all day Tuesday which means I was another companion. Sister Larson was her name and she had no idea about the area and was an English speaking missionary. Well, I don't know much about the area yet and I don't really speak Spanish well so.... yep. My companion and I tentivly made plans for that day because I really didn't want to knock. I think that is the one thing I am the most uncomfortable with. But of course like I said before, I think the Lord just likes to laugh at me because of course all our appointments feel through and so what did we do for about 3 hours? We knocked. :P Of course. Actually though it turned out to be pretty fun and I met some really great potentials. I still am not the most comfortable with door knocking, but its not the most scariest thing I can do now so I guess that is what the Lord had in mind.

I have to tell everyone about three very amazing people in my life right now. the Johnsons are the senior couple in Madison and they are absolutely amazing. They want to do everything they can to help the missionaries in any aspect that they can. I talked to Sister Johnson about what I should do for my bug bites and she went and bought me skin-so-soft from Avon as well as gave me this salve for itching that she bought at an Amish store. And she wouldn't even let me pay her back. They are so sweet and exhibit Christ like love that I really hope to have one day. Also the other person, Hector Regal. He is a Spanish man that we are teaching who lives a few blocks from us. He is so ready for the gospel and loves to read the Book of Mormon. He even said he wants to be baptized!!!!! What!! But, he doesn't want to commit to a date because he is afraid that he doesn't know enough yet and also he is illegal so he cant really get a job and has to rely on his brothers family. Its kind of sad and we don't want to push him too much, but we have already seen the blessings the gospel has made in his life. We took him to church yesterday and during Sunday school he actually answered questions! This really shy man talked about why he loves reading the Book of Mormon. We are praying so hard for him and it has been such a blessing getting to teach him.

Okay last, the reason why this letter is so late is because Hermana Hendrickson and I as well as two of our Elders went to downtown Nashville today!! It was so much fun, though it was really really wet. We got to see really cool trinket stores, ate at a trailer park hamburger joint, and went to the country music hall of fame (which was actually pretty cool because there was a lot of old folk music stuff like bluegrass). Yes mom, I did take pictures... :) It was a lot of fun and I am excited for this week. I can't believe that I have been out 2 months already. Crazy. Well I will talk to you all next week! As the Hispanics say, "gracias a Dios!"

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Cruz

Spiritual Thought!

Something we learn as missionaries is the difference between testimony and conversion. surprisingly as missionaries we don't focus as much on the testimony as we do on the conversion. Our purpose is to help others to "come unto Christ" which is an action. A testimony is a belief a feeling that people have. People can have a testimony that bathing regularly keeps you clean. However, when we are truly converted we will want to bath everyday because it has become who we are. Same with the gospel. so many people have a testimony of the church but until we are truly converted and are applying these principles in our everyday life we are in danger of being led away. Its a good balance to have both.

Hermana Reed, Hermana, Hermana Cruz

God as a sense of humor!

Hola familia!

 

   Yes, that is the title of my email. God has a major sense of humor and let me tell you why. We got a call last Saturday while we were at a baptism. President Andersen called Hma Reed to be a trainer. She has only been out 7 weeks! She was freaking out. We were all freaking out for her. Plus, now shes is leaving our companionship and that makes us really sad. Well then we got a call this morning and found out that she is not training a new missionary, but retraining a disobedient missionary. Yep. We've been praying about a lot of different things lately and this is how the Lord decided to answer. I just feel bad, shes kind of had a hard week. Her bike got stolen on Tuesday and its just been kind of rough. But she will be an amazing trainer and she will grow closer to the lord in this experience.

  So let me tell you more about my week. First of all I have crossed two more things off my list. I saw a possum and have experienced many thunderstorms this week. Cool right?!? (yes my companions think I'm weird) On Tuesday we did service on a farm for a Sister in the Church. I worked a weedwacker Dad!! It was fun. What wasn't fun though was that I was driving a little cart with my companions and saw a snake. Yes I freaked out a little, maybe a lot. Yes it was a little embarrassing but Im over it. Oh, and I might never return home from this mission. For some reason though I hardly ever got dates at home I just seem to be the most popular thing here in Tennessee...to the mosquitos! I have about 20 bites as of this moment. Yep I might just get eaten alive. So if I never come home, put that on my gravestone. (sorry, too soon?)

  Last but not least, we had Zone conference this week. We got a lot of great training and got to meet the Mission President again. I feel like we are really starting to come to a knowledge of our purpose here in White House. Its been so hard juggling two major towns, but they want us to focus in White House but there is just no Spanish work here. We have been praying hard to know what to do. Something I read this week though talked about the importance of making what is important to the Lord important to us. We talked a lot about this and figured that he called us to labor here and so this must be important to him. We just have to figure out what it is. I am so thankful for the blessings we have received from blind compliance to what the Lord asks. I know that we will know in time, but Im greatful for that opportunity to strengthen my faith. Hermana Hendricksen and I have our work cut out for us. We are excited for the work. Keep praying to him. something I read in PMG said that he extended the invitation for us to pray, so he will answer  because he asked.

 Thank you so much for all the emails and pictures for this week. I Love them!!! Have a great week everyone!

 

Hermana Cruz

My mission!

Apartment in the White House!!

My first apartment in White House, Tennessee!  

I'm in Tennessee!! yea. 7/8

Hello everyone!

  Thank you so much for the letters that you sent me this last week. I loved all the messages nand the updates. I will try to answer all of your questions as best as I can. Let me just start of by saying good job on the Missionary work. I am just starting to gain a strong testimony on the power of membership in missionary work. they are so important.

  So I am in the Madison zone in the White House ward. It is so crazy to me because our area spans over 45 minutes each way. there is just not many wards or people for the wards here. We are trying though. We are trying to get a ward set up in Springfield which reminds me of downtown Turlock a bit. Its sketchy but there are so many people here ready to hear the gospel. I am actually in a trio. I know right!?! My trainer is Hermana Hendrickson who has been out for 7 months now and the other is Hermana Reed who has been out for 6 weeks. They are both amazing and I absolutely love being in a trio. For one thing we can go places and talk to people we normally can't. Plus its nice when I am not exactly sure what I am doing. Its a little hard though because I replaced a Sister so everyone always tells me how much they miss her.  This first week has been kind of hard with investigators, got my first door slamed in my face yesterday, but its a learning proccess. We have a baptism on Friday for a crazy old man named Donald and we are all really excited about that! I can't take credit for it though, they committed him before I came. But you can just see the changes that the gospel has been making in his life. His relationship with his wife is shaky because they dont believe in devorce, but they have just so much kinder to each other. It is so great to see the changes in people's lifes.  

  Tennessee is absolutely beautiful! So green expecially in my area. Yes it has been raining pretty hard. The bugs are crazy as well. 10 bites so far and counting! The very first full day in the field the took me to a festival. Apperantely our zone are one of the pilot zones for these festivals where we set up a both and raffel of a picture of Jesus. Thats how we get referals. It was so crazy. I really had to jump in full fledged. I was so nervous! It was really fun though and we have been getting a lot of success. I even had my first real hispanic meal on Saturday (I swear I almost died!!!) they serve up so much and we have to eat it all. It was weird because it was at the senior missionary couples home and 3 sets of elders and we were all there. the elders kept silently cheering me on. It was so good but so terrible at the same time.

  So the fourth of July, I am so excited to hear what you all did. That is so much fun. it was raining really hard here and we had to be in at 7. So we studied until 12, and then we went out to try and contact referrals, but nobody was home. We all got so wet. Then we came home and ate dinner at home because our appointment fell through. It was a nice evening though because we caught FIREFLIES!! Like real ones! And then we got to watch 17 mirecules. It ended up being really fun.

  Last of all my first day of church was great. I guess I never told you guys, but I am a missionary for the english ward and a spanish branch. Its a little difficult when I teach because We switch off from english and spanish and I havn't learn asmuch of the language, but the ward is so great. That also means we are at church for 6 hours each day, and then we have devotionals for an hour each sunday as well. It is so great. This last sunday we had 83 people at our devotional and 20 of them were investigators!! Cool right? Biggest in the whole mission! also on the way home one of our favorite ward members, Brother Kinney, or as we call him Captin Kinney, drove us home. He is like a grandpa to us all. he drove us home in his convertabl: we blasted christian music and we tossed Book of Mormons into people's cars. yep, the life of a Tennessee missionary. Nobody thinks twice about it. Its such a culture shock. I didnt say this before but at the SCHOOL festival we went to, there were at least 20 booths just from diffrent churches. Crazy!!

   I am loving it a lot here. It is trying my faith a lot, everyone believes in Jesus Christ and everyone thinks their church is the true church, but I know that the Lord is with me. That as long as we do all that we can, "he wont let us fail".  I have to hold on to that. It is so great. I love you all so much. good luck with everything going on at home! Im glad Bee's birthday party went well. I was thinking about her so much yesterday and telling everyone that it was her birthday. I love you all!! Have a great week and I will talk to you all next week!

 

Hermana Cruz

Post # 4 6/21/13

Hola familia!

 

 So it is great to write again, I can't believe it is already P-day. Time flies really fast here at the MTC its so crazy! So Im sure you all were wondering how my Birthday went, cuz  yes I am now 20 years old!! ugh, I am old thanks for pointing that out dad! Well first off let me tell you THANK YOU SO MUCH MOM for the surprises in the birthday cake!!! It was soooo cute and I was so excited for the jewlery and the socks, I really needed them, and I was getting tired of my jewlery as it is. :) Also, hermana griffiths family each sent me Dear Elders and a huge package filled with random things like candy and mustache straws; it was so sweet. Elder Page, the elder I told you all about from my district who is also going to my mission, he asked his mom to send me cupcakes even though his birthday is today. he is a really sweet guy and i feel bad for him sometimes, but he's just a little strange. The Hermana's from my district made a sign above my desk and Heidi wrote me a birthday note on the board. (all things I have pictures of but forgot my camera, sorry mom, ill send them next week). Anyways, Im sure you all were wondering what special happenings occured on my birthday well let me tell you how I spent the first day of my 20th year. Hna Griffith and I could not wait to celebrate so I decided I wanted to get up at 2 a.m (I know right Party hard or go home) anyways, I got up and went, no ran to the restroom. Yes my dear family, I was sick. Mom, it was a "your favorite story to tell of dad being sick" kind of senerio, i got a trash can from the girls hall. It went on for a while until I was so shaky and worn out. I woke up Hna Griffith because I was afraid if I got sick again I would pass out. She made me drink water, but really just sat with me so that i could take my mind of of being sick, Well sat with me and straightened her hair  at 3:11 in the morning. Then we had to clean out the trash can so she made me go out with her to the trash across campus. so yes, we went, in sweatshirts; no bras, no really shoes (flipflops), and no glasses at 4 in the morning across campus. Yep we are rule brakers. When we came back found out another hna in our room was sick as well. so that is how I spent my birthday. Our companions made us go to a clinic. Turns out around 30 missionaries were sick that night with the same thing and stomach virus. I didnt throw up any more after that, but i had such bad stomache pains the rest of the day and we werent aloud to leave our rooms. So yep, there it is. It was a special day. Course it was cool because the elders got to give up priesthood blessings that were awsome! but the reason they were so awsome was because they had a really spiritual lesson in class which I MISSED! its all good though I fell over 98% better now which is good.

  Okay, i apologize that was a lot on that topic. How is the summer going for everyone? how is grandma doing? Dad, that is so cool what you sent me about Elder Packers statement because that is actually in preach my gospel. The fact that everyone is talking about that and the broadcast coming up just shows how important missionary work is. They are really pushing the every member is a missionary thing and it is really amazing the influence that members can have on investigators. Speaking of, Gabi, our "fake" investigator agreed to baptism, in fact she is so excited for it! yay! I know it wont always be that way in the field but that cool right? When teaching her I forgot how to say a few words like soap, washing machine, and destruction so I used a lot of handguestures. Hna Griffith thought it was so funny. Dad, there is a new Elder in our zone from Malibu Austrelia, he has a really cool accent. So one week from Monday I leave! I am super scared, and nervous but really excited as well. I get to meet my new Mission president tomorrow I found out. I am really excited, if not a little nervous because he will be it for 17 months. By the way, Im not sure what my new address will be in Tennessee, Mom I think you have that, can you please send it to me? By the way, I got my travel itinerary. There is some confusion with my last name though becuase apartently they put my last name as Cruz, but when it printed out it came out as Zarco. I dont know? Its really weird. they promised to have it all situated though. there are six of us traveling thereon July 1. Also, um as far as the calling situation, aparently you can by calling cards here at the bookstore so if you haven't sent anything then dont, but let me know as soon as possible if you did or didnt. Also, you might not even want me to call. :( I report to the travel office at 3:30 in the morning so Ill probably be in the airport by 5. My plane leaves at 7:08 am. So since californina is an hour behind, it early I understand. But I would love to say hello. Any way. Let me know. I love you all so much! I am glad to hear that everything is going great at home. Thanks for all your letters and support throughout the week, they really make a diffrence! Love you Mom! Love you Dad!

 

Love,

Hermana Cruz

Letter # 3 6/14/13

Hello Family,

 Another week here at the CCM. I cant believe how fast it has been going. It feels like it was just two days ago when I had my last P day, but its been a whole week. So I just want to wish Diego again a really Happy Birthday! Im glad to here that it went well and wasn't too stressful. Dad I am glad to hear that you got home safely, by the way I love the quotes you leave in my letters. It stinks though because none of the other Hermanas in my district watch Doctor Who, so when I am laughing about it they have no idea why. So in 5 days its my birthday!!!! IM GONNA BE 20!!!! So weird. Oh and I leave in 2 weeks to Tennessee. By the way, Im notsure if I already told you guys this but my Mission President got released. Supposedly the new one is going to be on the same flight as me. What? I also heard that they let us call our family before we fly out. I dont know how early in the morning that will be, I dont get my flight plans until next week, but ive been told you guys should send me a phone card, or throw away phone or something so that I can call you guys. Apparently its really expensive if you dont. Im so excited to leave. I just want to be out there helping people already. "send me out coach!" I am learning so much here, gaining an even greater testimony, but Im ready to help real people. By the way, I only have 6 more chapters of Alma! It is so good this time. :)

  Speaking of the CCM, I have had some "interesting" experiances this week. Get ready for this everyone, what to tell first. Maybe I should tell you guys how my clumsiness has encreased tenfold since coming here. I drop things at least 10 times a day, I always come back from workouts hurt because of something Ive done; this last week, in less then 10 minutes I broke a necklace I was borrowing and then scratched my companion and made her bleed. My whole district looked up the word clumsy just so they can call me that in spanish! Its been really bad. My companion is convinced that she has never met anyone more prone to accidents. Yea thats been great. Oh yea, then two days ago we had a sub teacher and he was giving a really spiritual lecture when all of a sudden we heard (sorry mom) the loudest and longest fart ever. My teacher moved at jsut the right moment and he looked so embaressed that I thought for sure it was him, but really someone was drilling on the roof. It did not sound like drilling at all. Not one bit. It was really funny. One of the elders also learned the diffrence between saying "Yo queiro usted" and "Yo amo usted" to his companion. Our teacher started busting up laughing and the other elder freaked out because using "amo" is more for spouses or parents. It was hilarious!!! Last but not least for my interesting week is that we have TRC with real people each week. One of the investigators we taught was hitting on me!! AHHH!!!!! Hermana Griffith didnt realize it till after and just started laughing at me. When we tried to get to know him he asked if we had any boyfriends back at BYU (I should probably tell you he was a BYU student, but from Peru and no dad, not attractive). He kept interrupting and laughing at Hna Griffith when she made a spanish mistake but he asked me all the questions. then I gave him my pamphlet to read out of but after he put his mouth on it. When I went ask for it back he said he wanted to keep it. Well I had wanted to take notes on it so I had my name in the back. When I told him that my name was in the back and that he could just cross it out he said in spanish, "oh is your telephone number in it as well?" I was shocked so I was said, "no... adios" and shut the door. it was so akward but really funny afterwards. And that would be the fun things of my week. Everything else was good, but these are the highlights.

  By the way, that special leadership training meeting broadcast on June 23? Yep, gonna be in that choir. Its huge so you guys probably wont see me, but just know that I am singing in it so that should be fun I cant wait for that. We also had our first devo in the Marriot center because it is getting too croweded at the CCM. Its been so great. Oh and Im sure Ive told you guys, but I get to go to the temple every week. It is such a great experiance. Hna Griffith and i went to do sealings today which was very fun, but we can only be children so we sat around a lot of the time. It is such a spiritual experiance each week to have the opportunity to go.

  Our investigators are doing great. Because one of my teachers were out for a week we had a sub, so we had a diffrent investigator just for this week. He was so hard because he speaks really fast and he told us something really important that both Hna Griffith and I completely missed. I also keep messing up the number 14 when I talk about Joseph Smith's age and told Claudio (the investigator) that Joseph was 40 instead. Yep thats me, Hna Griffith laughed so hard that she had trouble finishing the lessonn. But we committed him to baptism which he accepted. It is amazing how much more comfortable I get teaching now. I still get super nervous right before I go in, but when we start teaching it all goes away and then there is just this desire for them to know the truth as well. It really is just a conframation to me that I am were I am suppose to be at this time. I love this work and I loving being a missionary, I just wish that I could actually go out and teach. Just a few more weeks!! 

 so let me know how everything with Grandma goes. Dad did you have to go to do jury duty? Mom, how is baseball going? Keep the letters coming I love them! 

I love and miss everyone so much!!

-Hermana Cruz 

Letter number 2 6/7/13

Hola familia,

  

   So, even though I've only been here for around two weeks, in the CCM it is counted as almost being done with our 3rd week. Crazy!!! I only have 3 more weeks to go. My spanish is going really well, i mean Im not native yet but its getting there. Thanks for the Dear Elders again. I am glad everyone liked my email. Are you posting at all on the blog dad? I cant believe that you got stuck again on your flight, its like it is bad luck or something. As far as answers to your guy's questions, yes I am working out. Hna Griffith and I either run a mile or we play volleyball. The scedual that we follow is preatty strict and gym time is schedualed out every day except for Sundays. Its been fun though. We do have chores, its called service and we do it on tuesday mornings at 6 in the morning. It depends on what we do, last time we stocked bathrooms but we have also had to sweep and mop floors. Also that elder is doing better, he is starting to get more words, we have all been working in our district to give him praise and encouragement.   

   So on to the notes from my week. (I have a list of things to send you guys for each week). :) First of all we were learning about stressmanagement  in our class, and my teacher had everyone go out and run. It was so hard because first of all Im in a skirt!! Also in flats that wanted to fall off. The elders though decided to run so fast that two of them threw up. It was kind of funny. Also we made it a goal in our district to speak all the time in spanish,. We are working on getting better at conversational spanish. Its been an interesting experiance. We are getting better though. Even Hna Griffith. I dont know if I told you guys before but my first investigator ended up being my teacher, he is really intense but absolutely amazing. He is so spiritual and we have all agreed that we learn a lot from him even if he is super intense like telling us that we will basically feel completely unprepaird to go our if we dont speak spanish all the time now. Its still really great. Oh but anyways, we each have individual coaching with him and one thing I talked about with him was his concern for Hna Griffith. I had seen the problem already but didnt know what to do about it. she is an amaizng spanish speaker but she lacks confidence in lessons. Hno Peterson was afraid that she was becoming too dependent on me being there when she didnt know how to say something so he asked me to pull back in the lessons to have her speak more and to take charge. It has been so great. We had a lesson with Benjamin (one of our new investigators) and it went absolutely amazing. We had a plan but when we walked in he had a few questions and said a few things that completely threw off our lesson. We ended up spending the whole time talking about prayer. We got him to pray with us!

So I feel like devotionals just keep getting better and better. Sunday we had this man, Ted Gilson who is a story teller. For the devo he walked on stage and spent 40 minutes giving a monolouge as Wiliard Richards who was in the room when Prophet Joseph Smith was murdered. he talked about that but he also talked about the growth of the church through his eyes. It was amazing. Then Tuesdays devo,.. well I admit I thought it wouldnt be very good at first, because it was all focused on the New Testament. But the speaker used the NT to show how our church is exactely like the church that Christ set up and I realized how much I would need that were I was going so it got really interesting.

  For personal study I am reading in Alma which I normally either skip or skim over because it is so large and daunting. However the first day in the CCM a peaker used a verse from Alma and talked about how Alma has some of the best examples of missionary work in the Book of Mormon; so I made the decision to read it. Best decision ever! Mateo, read Alma! i have never felt the spirit as strongly as when I read from Alma and look for personal applications. We are going to use the 2000 stripling warriors story to help our investigator Gabi who is a mother. It has just been so good for me. Plus we have been learning how to read the scriptures with the intent of recieving revelation which has helped. In class we read chapter 2 in 1 Nephi for 30 minutes and we only got to read 6 verses because we were stopping to discuss and feel the spirit. It was awsome. If you guys have a chance  read Alma 26:29-30, 36-37. I like those right now because the first one reminds me of what us missionaries are going to face, but its okay because through our Heavenly Father's love we will be okay. The second is such a powerful testimony of the gospel. Its just all so good!!! 

I am having fun and having a spiritual time. Thank you for all you love and support. I hope you guys have a great week. Mom thank you so much for sending the blankets. I dont need it right now, Im more worried about winter time. I love you a lot. Dad, please be safe try not to get stuck going back personally I think you plan it. I love you a lot and miss you guys so much!  

 

-Love, Hermana Cruz

 

 

Gabs First Letter 5/31/13

Hola familia!!!!

 

I hope you all finally got my letter I sent last week. Thank you all so much for the Dear Elders. They are nice because they get to me during the week, but unfortunately I am unable to reply to them until my P-day which is today. I love reading them and getting them though. Thank you all! Just be careful with the kids though because I learned that they start to cost once Im out in the field and so it might just be easier to email me. Please let everyone (Grandma Loyd, Aunt Michele, and Kirstie) that I will be sending them hand written letters right now because in the MTC we only have 60 minutes to write. Plus, I dont have anyones email, not even dad's. It would be really nice if I could get those please! :)

 

Okay, I have a whole list of things I want to tell you guys. It has been an amazing first week and a half! Like I said in my letter my companion, Hermana Griffith is absolutely amazing. We get along so well. It has been a lot of fun. I also love (in a completely missionary sister type of way) all the Elders in our district. They are all so young and really fun! They are constantly making us laugh, like when one of them thought that Listos ment "do you understand" and asked the investigator that close to 30 times. It really means "are you ready". Its kind of a running joke in our district now. There are so many other funny things they have all done. Oh but yea, I had my first investigator last Friday! Crazy right?!? We could only speak in Spanish. Hna Griffith and I were really freaking out because that was only one day of official spanish teaching, we didnt know how to plan a lesson, or really even teach it. It went about as badly as we expected which was probably our fault. We didnt ask him what his name was the whole lesson, we never said a prayer with him, we had him read out of the Book of Mormon but we never told him what he was reading out of, we spent 15 minutes on how God loved him (which he already knew), and then since we didnt say a prayer and forgot how to practice how to end, we just looked at each other then at him and said "Hasta Luego!" Then we got up and left. We were cracking up so hard about how bad it was. It was really funny. This other time Hermana Griffith was saying the prayer and she ment to say please bless Jose's family but instead she said, "please bless Jesus's, i mean Jose's family. We both had to hold it together through the rest of the prayer. Our new saying is tha we hate skirts and we hate this classroom since we are in it so much. We are trying to get out and study in the beautiful sun so its gotten better. :) 

 Its okay though because we taught him about 5 times, the last three times were so much better. The spirit was so strong. I dont know if he felt it as much, but I know we did and we learned a lot from it. the most improtant one was that we really had to rely on the Lord and the spirit to reach this investigator not us. It didnt matter if we couldnt speak the language as long as he could feel the spirit. I am learning how to let the spirit teach through me. We just go in there with a basic plan and say, okay Lord we need you do help us teach this man. It was so much better. I am getting better on my spanish though. I think it surprises both Hna Griffith and I how much we are able to comunicate with people now. Its funny, we got our new investigator yesterday, her name is Gabby and she is from Argentina (she is not real and she is played by my amazing teacher Hna Runyan). Everyone was talking in class about Gabby and it was throwing my off because I kept thinking that they were calling me and I would respond.

On a more spiritual note, Sunday was AWSOME!!! We had sacrament and then after all the Sisters went to watch the spoken word which apparently we do every week. It was a special for memorial day. Then we had relief society with all the sisters of the MTC and our speaker didnt show up so the presidency gave some great emergancy talks. We began with singing as sisters in zion and the spirit was so strong. They changed the lyrics for the MTC just a few weeks ago and it was so beautiful. That night we had a devoltional speaker, Brother Allen. He threw out his whole talk just 5 minutes before he went up when he found out what we were doing after the devotional. He spoke while directly listening to the spirit. It was so amazing! You could tell that he was saying just what needed to be said and sometimes he would just stop and saying something totally diffrent that the spirit prompted him to say. He also encouraged everyone to finish the race which I think many sister needed to here since they started it by coming here. After we normaly watch a "video" which consists of a general conferance talk or Jesus the Christ  or something. This time we watched Sister Monson's funeral. It was so sad but really amazing because we know the truth, that President Monson will see her again. I loved it.

I love it here. It really was the right choice for me to be here. Oh by the way, I heard my Mission President might have been released? Yikes!!! Anyway. I love you all and will email again next week!! Love you guys sooooooooo much!

 Hermana Cruz