4-26-10

Dear Family,

This week has been great. Its felt a little slower at times but then once I got to yesterday I thought, "Where did the week go!" The week went by really fast. I saw so many miracles. At times they seem small but I have to recognize that they are miracles and this is the work of the Lord so I will continue to see miracles. Have I told you lately how much I love being a missionary. I feel so humbled to have this opportunity. I can't believe I almost missed out on it. What a blessing in my life. I am learning more than I ever thought I would and having experiences that are just unbelievable.

I have so many experiences I want to share but I don't even know where to really start. First off...Heavenly Father TRULY hears our prayers, our pleads, our cries for help. Spanish has been quite the beast for me. It still is but I have to say I am seeing miracles and oh are they miracles. :) lol Anything with Spanish and me and it turning out OK or good is a miracle :) On Thursday I think it was we went over to a Recent Converts home whom we've been teaching. I think I've told you about her before. Her name is M*. She is awesome. She is from the Dominican Republic. She is living with her daughter's family. Anyway. We stopped by Thurs night to see how she was doing and to try to get to know her daughter more who is not a member but just an awesome peron. Hermana Gonzalez wasn't feeling to well, head ache, tummy ache all that jazz. Anyway. I found myself not afraid to try and speak with M*. One of my greatest problems is feeling comfortable with those I am speaking with. I LOVE M* to death and just started talking with her the best I could. She knows I struggle a lot with Spanish but she doesn't care. Anyway, before we left I talked to her about going to the Temple. She's excited to go and we talked about making covenants with God. It was really neat. I wasn't planning to teach a lesson to her but it happened and it was all in Spanish!!! Ps-People from DR speak super fast Spanish and its, to me anyway, is one of the hardest accents to understand but I was able to understand at least enough. The whole time I just kept praying that I would be able to understand her and that she would feel the spirit. :) Now, I'll have to say, I recognize that my Spanish is still...ehh...horrable but it just made me so happy to see that there is hope. That experience makes me want to study just a little more than before, try a little harder, and keep plugging along.

Yesterday was a great day as well. Not all days are really good but I truly believe you have to find what is good in the day and hold onto it. Yesterday I felt so much love for the people I am serving, that Heavenly Father has allowed me to serve and blessed me with the opportunity. I was and overcome for the love I have for these people, the members, our investigators, my companion, other missionaries. Its incredible. I have been wanting and pleading to have such love for these people. I can honestly say that when I leave this place, NY, Flushing...my mission I will be living a piece of my heart here. Its taken a lot of work though and the language barrier has been...still is a challenge but I can not even comprehend how much love our Father in Heaven has for us. I want to tell you about some of these people. (Please remember to change names and stuff for the blog. Thanks :))

Family S*-They are awesome. Every Sunday we go over to there house and eat dinner. She is one of the best cooks in NY. They are from El Salvador. FYI-Hispanic people feel love when you eat their food. Ahh! So...I've been trying as hard as I can to show and help these people feel my love for them. To say the least. I've been eating A LOT of food. I'm starting to really feel it. lol even with walking 5-10 miles a day. Once you've eaten the food they've given you you have to go back for more just to show a little extra love...it fun but fattening :) Anyway. I've felt their love so much and wow, I love them too. Its hard to even discibe it but it incredible especially with only being able to say a few things to them and not understand everything they are saying to you. lol. None the less-I will always remember Family S*. They don't have a lot but they are always giving, they always have the missionaries over and invite people who live alone or don't have family over. Just to make a connection, they are the family that I started crying at couple weeks ago because of my Spanish. :)

Ok-Who else-There are so many people! I love them all. The small portion of love I feel for these people doesn't even cover how much love I know our Father has for them or for you.

We've met some really neat people this week as well. We've done a lot of knocking because with Hna Crandell we only knocked two buildings out of about 954,284,000 :) There was one night were...we just were not having a great night. I turned to Hna Gonzalez and just said, "At least were out trying to talk with people and doing our best right." She said, "I