What I Learned This Week :) #12

Hello family!

So, I won't find out about transfers until Friday, and then we leave to where ever we're supposed to go on Tuesday. But there is a girl from my MTC district that said that this morning she found out that she got her visa and she leaves TODAY! crazy!!!

Everything is going so great!! I love it here!! This week has been awesome! The best thing about it was service tracting! It was fun! We picked up some kids toys and found a potential family to teach!! The mom, Beatriz, was sooo nice and we are calling today to set up an appointment to go see her and her family this week!!! Woohoo!!!! The hardest thing about this week is the trio... trios are hard? Were you ever in a trio? My companions both talk a lot, and you know me.. I don't. So sometimes it's hard to get words in and I won't say anything in a whole lesson or contact. Sometimes it makes me feel like they don't trust what would come out of my mouth so they don't let me talk.. But I'm learning to be pushy and speak up when I have a prompting. The Lord will give me words and time when I need em :) I'm speaking a lot more now and learning to speak up and Spanish is easy peasy. And I love my companions! They are amazing! But all three of us are VERY different people.. and sometimes that's hard.. especially towards the end of a transfer when every little thing starts to bug you.. but I love em and I'm learning how to live with things and repent and move on! Because mostly it's my fault for being annoyed. ha. Mission life..


Food is okay.. I eat everything they give me, even if I don't like it.. last night we had something called Seviche.. which is like raw fish cooked in lime and it's gross.. we have also had Mole which is like chocolate and spicy chicken... and Posole which is like cow spine and tongue and brain or something.. I usually don't ask what I'm eating.. and I usually don't chew a lot of stuff I just swallow.. hahaha. But you would be proud of me, I'm trying a lot of new foods and I actually like a lot of it..

Mexicans just eat A LOT!!! I'm getting super fat... I've gained 12 pounds since I've been here.. in like a month!! I leave every dinner feeling so full.. and I have huge food babies! Two nights in a row I ate so much that two different investigator's daughters asked me if I was pregnant!!! hahaha! I'm getting so fat... they feed me too much... I try to eat smaller lunches but I get soooo starving during the day becuase I'm still full at breakfast! hahaha.

It's not cold, it's actually super hot.. and humid.. which is gross. But it's ok. I love the mission! :)

The work is going good! None of our investigators came to church this week.. :( Jesus M was doing amazing this last week! BUt then he couldn't come to church because "his knee was hurting". Dumb agency. We still have 5 investigators with baptismal dates, but only one of them is progressing.. Our less actives are always doing amazing though! One of our less actives, Joseph, went to a lesson with us to teach Jesus and it was amazing! Joseph taught him all about the Book of Mormon and how important it is to read it every day! ha! He's amazing! This week we are really going to focus on finding new people. Sometimes we get so busy with lessons it's hard to remember that we always need to be finding. The prepared ones are out there.. we just gotta find em! I'm so excited for the meeting on Sunday!!!!! Our mission president told us that one of the Apostles said it would be the "meeting of the century!" and that it would change how missionaries and members look at missionary work! I know it will be amazing and I can't wait to see what's in store for the work of the Lord! It's hastening! And the Latter Day Saints are coming!

Well, I still love being a missionary! I love it more and more every day and I don't think that will ever stop! I know the Lord loves me and He wants me to succeed in this work! He wants me to succeed because He wants His children to have more blessings! I cannot lose in this work, becuase He is on my side! The Lord will not let my imperfect teaching get in the way of blessing His children. The work is going forward!

I don't have a lot of time to write.. but I just want to tell you all that the Lord loves you! Our Savior has felt every single feeling we have felt, even the tiny uncomforts we feel that we don't think matter. He is aware of us and will help us in every step of the way. All we have to do is trust. I have felt His love so strong as I have seen others come unto Him and see miracles in their lives. Miracles happen. And they will continue to happen. I love this work!

Well, I miss you so much! And I love you!

Praying for you!

Love, love, love,
Hermana Lawrence :)

Yay For The Temple!! #11

Dear Family,

This week has been great! Mission life is weird.. you have some really weird days when you don't feel so excited and energized, but you wake up in the morning and try again! And every day gets better and better! This week was one of those weeks that got better and better every day, and this week we are going to take off like a rocket! Weekly Planning is probably my favorite part of the week because we can talk about all of our frustrations and then laugh at how silly we are being and then set goals about how to not make the same mistakes next week. It's the best.

Our investigators are doing awesome! Sunday was a miracle because we had an investigator come to church! (that doesn't happen very often). Jesus finally came to church for the first time since I've been here! And he loved it! He is always really nervous to come to church because he's very shy and he doesn't like to talk to new people but everyone at church was so nice to him and he seemed to enjoy it! We're going to talk with him more about it tonight when we teach him, but Elder Payne in our ward said that in Elder's Quorum when he learned that he can live with his family forever, Jesus was smiling from ear to ear! We know what we need to teach him next! ha! Jesus is amazing and he has been really good about living the word of wisdom! He's getting really close to his baptism, so if you could please, he needs all the prayers he can get! Thank you!! Also, please pray for Antonia. She has a lot of health problems because she had a stroke a while ago. Her husband doesn't take very good care of her and she only gets visited by the doctor once a week.. and she can never come to church because she never feels good. We've been praying a lot for her. She really wants to be baptized!

We have another investigator who is so cute! Roxana is 12 years old and she LOVES reading the Book of Mormon! We invited her to pray about it and when we came back she had read 3 chapters, wrote what each verse meant, and prayed about EACH VERSE! Ha! She is so sweet! She said she knows the Book of Mormon is the word of God and she wants to be baptized! She just needs to ask her mom. :) Please pray for her too! You guys are the best!

This last week we went to the temple and it was amazing! The Oakland temple is sooo pretty!!!! It was so awesome to be there in the temple that mom and dad were sealed in! After the session I visited the Sealing Room and sat in there for a little bit. It's beautiful!!!! I loved it :) The temple is amazing! It really fills you up with energy and encouragement when you need it! It was a great day!

Being on a mission is amazing! I love it! A lot of new changes are coming and we are all really excited around here! We got two weeks left of this transfer and everyone is already making predictions of which areas we'll go next or who we'll be companions with! ha. Our prediction is that I'll be in Napa for another transfer with Sister Wise, and Sister Chavez will leave us.

Well, I love you all and I hope all is well! I pray for you all the time!

2 Nephi 3:20-21

Love, love, love
Hermana Lawrence

Mighty Prayer #10

So this week might be kinda short sorry.. It's a half P-day today because we are going to the temple on Thursday! The Oakland temple! Where our family began!! Yay!

How is everything going?

Everything here is great! It's beautiful and wonderful and every day gets better and better! Everyone should go on a mission! It's the best thing in the whole wide world!

This week we met a ton of new people! None of our investigators are really progressing.. which kind of gets us down at times, but there are miracles every day that lift us higher and help us to keep going! This week we met some amazing people! But sadly they spoke english so we had to refer them to the Elders. ha. Yesterday on our way into dinner, we got out of the car and there was a man on his bike and he suddenly just stopped. He said "I can't go any further, the Lord told me to stop here. You girls have the light of Jesus in you." Wow! We talked to him for about 5 minutes about the Book of Mormon and how he can feel that feeling he felt all the time, especially when he reads the Book of Mormon. He took the book and tried to pay us, but we had to keep telling him it was free. haha! He was so excited to read it and learn more. He told us, "There are other girls out there that have just gone wild, and you girls have not gone wild! You girls are girls not gone wild!" haha! Then he told us that we are going to have some beautiful weddings and he better be invited! haha! The church is true!
And he felt the Spirit! Please pray for him so he can find the truth and feel that happy all the time! His name is Warren :)

Yesterday was fast Sunday and every fast Sunday, as a mission, we have something called Mighty Prayer, and the whole mission breaks their fast and prays from 4 to 5 pm before dinner! It was the coolest thing ever! I had never done that before and was nervous that I would fall asleep or get distracted or run out of things to say, but it was honestly one of the coolest experiences of my mission! I received so many answers and received so much power that I know I'm going to need
for this month! It was so cool!

Also, on fast Sunday, the Perez family has all the missionaries over and has Scones night! We eat like 10 scones and then weigh ourselves to see how much weight we've gained on our mission! hah! After that, we have a testimony meeting. It was so great!

The Santa Rosa mission is so great! I can't even imagine going to Argentina without learning the things I have been learning here first!

I love you all!
Love,
Hermana Lawrence