Week #65 - My Longest Investigator.........

I have had such an incredible week! I have a LOT of time in the mission.... (sometimes it’s hard to forget because EVERYONE is telling me every two seconds....) BUT this week was SO good. We worked so hard with the members! I don’t know if I have ever worked so hard with the members in my entire mission. 

I want to share a story of one of my favorite and longest investigators of my life/mission. My sweet Maria Elena. Ah, how I love her. I met my sweet Maria Elena my FIRST week here in CDE... (just to help you imagine how long she has been my investigator.... that was 7 months ago!) but anyways, her son Alex is waiting to go to his mission, so he is helping us a lot. On Thursday we went to teach her, but she wasn’t home! We were a little sad, but we had the time to talk to Alex. 

Alex talked to us about what his mom needs. I told him that he was our key to helping her get baptized; he agreed. We told him that we needed his help. He promised to start reading the scriptures and praying with her daily! I was so happy! 

On Saturday night, we did our usual calls to invite all of our investigators to church. Instead of calling Maria Elena, we called Alex. He said that he would take her to church! 

On Sunday, we were looking and looking for her in Principles of the Gospel and we couldn’t see her! We were a little sad! So, we texted Alex and he said that she was there! .... and we totally didn’t look hard enough because she was right in front of our faces! (how embarrassing right?) 

Later that night, we went to her house to talk to her. We felt impressed to talk about baptism. (This was NOT the first time with her...) the first thing she said is that she still wanted to learn more. we told her that us as missionaries still do not know everything but that it is a lifelong process! We asked her again. She said yes. 

We are happy to work with the members here in CDE

XOXO

Hermana Hannah

Week #64 - La Carpeta de Area

two of my favorite comps.... hna moreno and hna baez.... i love them!

Every week we have a district meeting. Last week I was assigned to give a lesson on the carpeta de area (area book). The area books are REALLY important. It records all of the progress of the investigators and less active families. As I was giving this talk, I spoke of the importance of keeping it clean and organized (one of my favorite topics:-) ) and updating the information every day! 

As I was speaking I decided to talk about looking for references from the area book! We spoke of a few experiences about finding people from the area book. That night Hna Martinez and I decided to work from that book to find new people to teach. That lead us to the Lopez family. The Lopez family was a family I worked with when i first started here... (which was a long time ago...) and they are a less active family. 

We felt prompted to go to their house. When we went, we found out that the family has one son that is not baptized but one who wants to be! As we talked with him and his family, we set goals about going to church and being baptized. He is going to be baptized in 3 weeks! 

We are so excited to be working with this family and to be finding new people to teach. It really was a testimony builder about the area book! 

Another note... on Thursday I received my TRUNKY PAPERS! :( which means I am coming home soon. I cannot believe it. I totally cried all day on Thursday when I got them. 

TRUNKY PAPERS.... (AKA means i am coming home soon..... eeeep) 

XOXO

Hermana Hannah

 

My zone 

pics of me and my zone and me making pancakes.
(yes, you can put it on my blog... hahahaha) 

we made lunch 

Week #63 - MILARGOS

Today was such a happy day! We just went to a place in Paraguay (one of the world’s largest dams) and it is called Itaipu! We were able to cross into Brazil a little so it was super fun! 

This week was a good week. We worked hard in our area and we were able to meet a bunch of new people. Okay, I am going to give you all a flashback... My first week with Hermana Martinez we met a part member family! We were walking through an unknown part of our area and we came across a sweet 13 year old girl named Prianca. She talked with us and was super friendly. She said, “I think you need to talk to my mom.” So, we followed her to her house. 

Her mother greeted us and said, “HOLA ELDERES!” and we just laughed and told her that we were HERMANAS. Moments after, she told us that she had been baptized about 12 years before. We then go into her house to talk with her and her children. She explains that they stopped going to church because they were always so busy working, not because something bad happened. 

As we talk with them, we were filled with so much love! We just love that family!! About one week after... we find Prianca in her house and her little sister Milargos came.( Milagros means miracle in Spanish... just to let you know.)

As we were teaching about the BOM, they both had desires to read more and to learn more about it. They were both so excited! Milargos said that she was going to take her BOM to school to read with her friends. Looking back on that day, we realized that we found that family from the spirit. We just found them as we were contacting and meeting new people. We were so happy and we did realize that is was one milagro in our mission and in our time together!

Week #62 - CONFERENCE!!!

I always say this but I am pretty sure conference is like Christmas here on the mission. I was really blessed to have my SECOND conference here in CDE. Everyone was like, “Hermana Murphy.... how much time do you have here???” YEP. I am basically a member. (But guess what?? I LOVE IT!) 

My favorite talk was the one about the love of a mother. it made me really nervous to be a mom.... but it just made me miss my own mom so much more. But I thought it was so sweet and so true. Then I thought about the talk by Elder Nelson (I am oh so sure all the sister missionaries in the world are talking about this talk....) which I loved. It really made me think of the value of us sisters here in the mission and in the church! Often he said, “We need women who.....” and it is so true! We have so much to give. 

I really thought about the importance of keeping the commandments and being a good disciple of Christ this week. This conference has really made me think about how I can become better and change my life! I know that we have a prophet today that guides us and directs us. I believe in Him and his words.