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