iPad's...it's gonna be big!

August 26, 2013


Dear family,

2 bucks for anyone who gets that reference. Guess what?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

First read this scripture. D&C 88:73 "For behold, I the Lord will
hasten my work in its time."

Well, that time is now! The California Santa Rosa Mission is now the
first mission in the WORLD to all receive iPads! They are calling them
our 8873's! We now have a digital area book, digital planner, and all
of our scriptures and videos in one little iPad mini! No more huge,
heavy bags! Also, with these devices, we have the ability to have
Skype lessons and Facebook lessons with people around the world!
Welcome to my new mission, THE WORLD!

During the day, when no one is home here, we can teach people across
the world who are on the internet at night! People in our mission have
already taught people in China and Japan! China is open!! And we don't
even need a visa to get in! The June 23rd meeting changed the world!

So in our mission, we are kind of like the guinea pigs right now to
work out the bugs in all of the apps and everything and see what's
most effective. Salt Lake is watching us super close. There is a great
responsibility that comes with this huge privelage, but I know we can
be successful as we remain obedient!

The Lord is hastening His work and I am so excited to be a part of it!
Getting started will be a little rough, but I know every step we are
taking is preparing the work to be even more effective in the future!

I am so blessed to be here in California in this time!

Well that's the crazy news of the week! I have so much to say, I don't
know what to say! Once I compose my thoughts more I will write more
about it next week!

Anyways, I love you all so much! And so does our Heavenly Father! He
loves you so much that He put you on the earth in this exciting time!
Now we have the chance to choose and to be instruments to help others
remember His love for them too! I know He will bless you as you
continue to do what you are doing! I am so grateful to have come from
such a righteous, obedient family! And if we continue, there will be
no empty chairs! :)

Love you!
Hermana Lawrence

Mission Rocks

Dear everyone,

 

Go. On. A. Mission.

 

Love, Sister Lawrence

 

Another great week in the life of Hermana Lawrence! Napa is still beautiful and amazing and the people are as prepared as ever! It just stinks that I'm human and can't be a perfect missionary! Ha.  But the Lord knows I'm trying and we are receiving blessings for that! We didn't see a whole lot of success this week, but I know the miracles are coming! They come every day in small ways, but BIG ones are coming soon!!!!

 

Answers to your questions: I'm sleeping sooooo good. No problems there! I'm eating better! I didn't buy any Twinkies these last two weeks and I've been eating salads this week for lunch! Weird huh? We have dinner with members every night.. so a llllllooooootttt of tortillas.  As for teaching, we have been averaging as a companionship about 10 teaching appointments a week, except this last week we had 4.. But this week will be better because we set some new goals and are going to press forward with more faith than ever! In our apartment is Me, Sister Vance, Sister Lemmon, and Sister Hooton (from Mesa yay!) And yes we have many grapes :) It has actually been super hot here! You think it would start to cool down in August, but it keeps getting hotter! And it's supposed to get hotter in September! Gross. But it's good because now we have AC in our apartment! I didn't get to see Sister Palmer again, but my last companion is her new one! So in mission terms, my mom is now her dad :) ha! I am learning the area ok.. my gps still tells us where to go, so if you asked me I wouldn't know where anything is. ha. But I do memorize addresses, so that's helpful! My companion is still amazing and humbles me every day with her awesome example. We are doing great! :)

 

Some funnies of the week: I don't know if I've told you about the marching band yet, but we live across the street from a high school and there is this marching band that practices every day untill10:30pm.. trust me, they need it. They aren't that great but we can hear some progress! We're planning to make t-shirts and be their groupies.. We feel like they need some fans. ha. This isn't super funny, kinda sad actually, but you might laugh at me.. Something is wrong with our washer and all of our clothes were sopping wet today! So we wrung them out a ton and now we have clothes draped on every window and chair in the house. Welcome to Argentina. Oh wait.. haha. Also, I got bit by a dog this week! Not bad, don't worry, I don't have rabies and I didn't even bleed! But I may have almost peed my pants! We were visiting a member who hasn't been to church in a while, and we forgot that she was known for her viscious chiuahua.. We were outside talking with her husband when it escaped somehow through the garage and ran right towards me! I was the farthest from it too, so I don't even know how it had time to pick me as a target! But it jumped on me and bit my leg and then the husband came and kicked it and it went back inside. ha. It was sad. And my companion still imitates the scream that I let out. haha.

 

That is so crazy we have so many missionaries leaving every week! How many do we have out in our Stake right now? Yay for missionaries!

 

This week was a little bit discouraging number-wise, but numbers don't matter and we helped a lot of people this week! Take that Satan! We had some investigators tell us they don't want us to come back and some that we haven't been able to get a hold of in a while.. but this week we are planning to clean up our area book a little and really focusing on finding the ones who are prepared! I know the Lord will place them in our paths and place us in their paths and that we will see success this week!

 

My mission really is the best thing I've ever chosen to do in my whole life! I know the Lord needs me here and every day I am reminded why! Every day I get to meet more of His sons and daughters that He loves so much! Every day my love for them and for Him grows and I feel myself and my testimony growing. The Book of Mormon is becoming my best friend and I feel weird going anywhere without one in my hands! It's true. It's all true. And I have the opportunity to tell the world about it! Satan tries really hard to stop us and to get us down, but with the Lord on our side we can never fail! If we go with faith in Him, we will have His strength and his power to not get discouraged and to testify of the truth! We are as the army of Helaman and there is nothing we can't do with faith. This is the Lord's kingdom on the earth restored through a prophet, Joseph Smith, and it will not fall! I testify that this work is true. And that the Lord is preparing the hearts of everyone to hear it! 

 

Yesterday, in Relief Society, all of the sisters shared their conversion stories, because they were all converted by missionaries! It was interesting because in every single one of their stories, they had all had interactions with the missionaries before they even started taking the discussions, but told them they were busy or weren't interested! Even though not everyone responds well to our message, we are planting seeds! You are planting seeds! At school, at work, at church, and at the store! Invite people to come unto Christ by being like Jesus Christ "in all times, and in all things, and in all places." I promise the Lord will bless you as you become a missionary now. 

 

The Lord loves you and can't wait to bless you! Thank you so much for all the prayers and support!

Love love love, 

Hermana McKenna Lawrence 

Alma 54:14  

And the miracles continue!!!

August 12, 2013

Dear everyone,

Wow! What another great week! The Lord just continues to bless us and we
are having so much fun as we continue to work hard and love people!

Victor was confirmed this week and is now officially a member of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! Yay! We are so happy for
him and I know the Lord is too! Thank you for all of your prayers!

Alexis is doing good, except we never see her! Please pray that we
will be able to have lessons with her this week!

Finding has been going great as well! This week we found two families
that we can potentially teach! The Lord is preparing the people and
putting them in our paths every day!

Something we pray for every day is to have more faith. We can't find
these people on our own, and sometimes it's hard to have faith that
the people are actually prepared. The other day we talked to a man who
didn't seem to want to talk to us at all. So we told him quickly that
we have a message that will bless his family and gave him a pamphlet
that talks about the Plan of Salvation. We asked him if there was a
time we could come back and he said yeah Friday at 4:30. And we were
like ok, he's really not going to be there, happens all the time. We
showed up Friday at 4:30 and he was outside waiting for us! He told us
his wife wasn't home, but he really wants us to meet her and his
daughter so come back later. We stopped by later and they were there
but kind of busy.. so we met them all and they told us that they
really want to become closer to Jesus Christ and get to know the
church. Wow! So we are going back next week to teach them! That was
such a blessing! I know the Lord blesses us when we work hard! And
when that hard work turns into blessings, you get faith and strength
to work even harder! I love my calling!

I'm so glad that things are going so well! I'm sorry I don't have a
lot of time to write personal emails back.. but I'm printing yours out
so I can write back!

Les amooooooooo muchisisisisimo!
Hermana Lawrence

Transfer Week

August 5, 2013

Dear family,

Hellooooo! How is everything? Everything here is great! Transfer info came on Friday and Sister Vance and I found out that we are both staying in Napa! Yay! I am so excited and I know that this is where the Lord needs me to be!

This week was great! Not a super lot of success, but we are planting seeds and finding new people everyday! I have seen the Lord's hand in my life and the lives of others every day on the mission and it just gets better and better. I know I am changing for the better and becoming a better instrument in the Lord's army! Missionary work is so cool! 

Victor was supposed to be confirmed this week in church but he ended up showing up suuuuper late because of a family emergency in Oakland or something like that (I can't understand perfectly in Spanish yet.. but he said everything is okay now) But he will have to wait till next week to be confirmed. Please keep him in your prayers so that everything will go well this week!

Thank you so so so so much for your package this week! I loved it! As soon as I opened it, everything that my companion has learned about me was confirmed. Junk food and a Duck Dynasty t-shirt. That was the perfect package! ha! And the music and talks are awesome!!!!! I love them! and we listen to them every day! Especially the Christmas CD :) I love you!!!!!!

I am praying for all of you and I hope that everything is well down there!

Love you!!!!!!

Hermana Lawrence

Sorry it's super short this week. I kinda forgot what happened this week it was too fast.. but so many miracles!

Alma 5:48 :)