Week 25 - Sonoma Valley

Hola hola todos!!! Te quiero mucho!!!

So transfers are happening!!!!!! Annnnnnddddd I'm staying in Sonoma with Hermana Garcia!!!!! I'm super super excited I'm not ready to leave Sonoma or Hermana Garcia yet! Hermana gudmundson is getting transferred which is super very sad but she is going to do amazing things for her new area everyone should have a piece of her!

This week has been a good week!! It's always a crazy week when anticipating transfers! Monday was a good pday we had an investigator who made us pasole and we were able to go bowling with the zone as well. We meet with out recent convert Jeremias and his brother Levi has actually been sitting in on the lessons with him and he accepted a Book of Mormon and promised to read so that is very cool!!

We also had exchanges this week and Hermana Rivera was with Hermana Gudmundson and I in Sonoma! Hermana Rivera is learning English so we spoke a lot of Spanish during the exchange and I was actually very surprised at how much I could talk with her and laugh, it was so fun. It definitely helped me see how far I've come in Spanish but no need to worry there is still a ways to go for sure! :)

Wednesday was glorious because we went to the garden and they were doing a summer camp for kids there and the theme was Harry Potter! It was fantastic all these kids had wands and everything and I walked through 9 3/4 it was great.

We were able to meet with Dosi, Thelma, and Javier and Leo as well. Some of them are reading and praying which is super exciting but I need them ALL too. If they just read and prayed they would know and they all very much have the capability of knowing this gospel is true, they have felt the spirit for sure. We can do as much as we want but if they don't read and pray there isn't much we can do, so prayers that they act on the message!! :)

I started second Nephi in The Book of Mormon! I found that everyone has to find their change of heart for themselves or they will fall away. Laman and Lemuel rely on their dads testimony their whole life and they never gain a change of heart for themselves.  So once their dad dies so does their testimony. That testimony that held them was gone and they rebelled.

I had one of my spiritual moments Thursday night, I had some extra time after my shower and was watching church videos and the video Jesus isResurrected came up and of course I watched it. Peter and John run to the tomb that Mary has already found empty. They loved their savior so much that they ran with their might to go to the protection of Christ’s body because that was what they had left to treasure. And every time without fail when Mary turns around and Christ is there white and perfect the spirit just flows in. The savior also loved them so much that before he had fully ascended to his father he visited them so they would know all was well with him. He didn't let them dwell in the pain of not knowing what happened to his body. It was a quiet moment and I watched it. The spirit filled me. It was one of those times that I felt again that I have no doubt in any way shape or form that Christ is my savior. Not like a brick to the face feeling but a quite small feeling, and I knew he was with me and I could feel him ever so slightly whispering. I'm here and I'm with you. Christ is our savior and may we all try to follow him and love him as much as his apostles did when they ran to aid his body and as Mary did when she sat by his tomb yearning for him.

I’m coming to see how hard missionary work is in the states. Of course this isn't saying other missions aren't hard they of course are!! Everyone has its different challenges and I can't imagine being out of the states this is just something that is a difficulty in the states. Hermana Rivera while waiting for her visa started her mission in Mexico and was telling us about it and man what a difference. I mean first everyone walks around so literally all day long you can contact and find people to teach. And members just constantly give out people to teach and there is always work and lessons

Here... Well everyone drives so we have to knock doors. And not until my mission did I come to realize the importance that members play in missionary work. Full time missionaries ARE NOT the only missionaries. Literally our work cannot go anywhere at all without members. It's hard to remember that outside a mission but man you guys are important.

People don't go to church because they think of walking in by themselves to sit alone.  If they know the members of the ward before they come to church they feel so much more comfortable which allows the spirit to touch their hearts.

It makes me happy mom that you are going to teach the women with the missionaries. I know they LOVE you for that! But yea haha never in my life would I have known this if I hadn't come on a mission. We are all so important and not just those with a plaque have the call to preach the gospel!

This week I've come to understand more of how much God is in the little details of our lives! During lessons and in the moment of things I don't always see the spirit guiding me but when I look back I realize how much help I was given. So many times I think about the lessons we had that day and realize how the reactions I had to things and some of the things that I said were definitely not what I would normally say or do. Heavenly Father cares about every detail and during lessons I've come to see how he helps us to say and to react in just the way each investigator needs, the promise that he will fill our mouths if we open them is so very true!

Fun story. There was a fly straight from Jurassic world in our house and Hermana Garcia got super annoyed with it. It landed on our kitchen light and Hermana Garcia got a towel and tried swiping it and guess what, the entire light shattered and fell. (I think it was really old) Literally like fell and shattered and the Lord blessed Hermana Gudmundson and I as we sat right under it!! It fell everywhere around us but it was super funny we all sat and stared at each other for a while and then laughed it was quite crazy though. Alas we don't have a kitchen light now but all is well, all is well. 

Well hope you all had a fantastic week I love you all and appreciate you all so much!!!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Foster

Painted for hours for service this week.

My favorite new friend