Monday, August 8, 2016

Week 31 - Sonoma Valley


Hola mis amigos!! Espera que todos es esta bien y marvillosas!

Goodbye Hermana Garcia
So transfers are happening this week. I am a trainer now, so I'll get a brand new missionary and I'm getting transferred to Woodland (right next to Sacramento)! I'm nervous but I'm also excited, the Lord knows what he is doing so we will see how things go! I'm sad to be leaving Hermana Garcia though she will also be training so we're in it together! It has been super sad to say goodbye to people here I've come to love them quite a bit. We will see how Woodland is compared to Sonoma! :)

This week on Tuesday we had exchanges and Hermana Rivera came to Sonoma with me! It was so so fun. She is learning English and she has only been learning for three months and it's SO good! But we talked in Spanish the whole day and although my Spanish isn't perfect I really really love speaking the language. Hermana Rivera and I had an awesome day and I learned so so much from her. She's very diligent and very good at recognizing the spirit. We taught Javier and he said a prayer with us. Now this is a huge step we have been trying to get him to pray since we started meeting and he finally did today! It was so awesome and the spirit was there, don't worry though he still had some very random questions for us.
Herman Rivera

Hermana Lewis




















Wednesday night was a fun filled night! An Elder and Hermana in our zone served in Sonoma a year ago and our both finishing their missions this transfer. So people from Sonoma invited them over. So 8 missionaries had dinner at Hermana Peñas house and then 6 of us visited with Jeremias and Aida who took us out for ice cream. To say the least I was way to full to function but it was a super fun night, mucho español y divertido, tengo mucho amor por los miembros aqui y tambien esta zona!

This week I want to bear my testimony again about the power of the Priesthood. I was able to receive a blessing this week and during the lesson we had after the blessing I was very much able to see, with the help of the spirit, the blessing of strength and comfort that was given in the blessing working in me. It was such an amazing feeling and it was very cool to see the difference the blessing had made. I'm so so beyond grateful that this priesthood power has been restored to the earth what a privilege it is to be able to work with it in the mission field!

Well I hope your week was super amazing!! I love you all!! Have another great week.

Con muchisimo amor

Hermana Foster








Jeremias & Aida

Jose & Leo

Ashley

Sorensons




Monday, August 1, 2016

Week 30 - Sonoma Valley

Hola todos,

This week was really good!! We had quite a few lessons this week. To start it off we meet with Javier and Leo, we actually meet with them in McDonald's because they said it was more "fresh" than outside in there. We had some good conversations. Unfortunately, now that the date is coming close Javier is more reluctant about it, which was surprising and sad. So we think that he won't be getting baptized this week but I know that him and Leo will be at some point, the lord has prepared them for this time, especially Leo. Leo said that he has seen the change in him since we started meeting and that he knows it is true. He also said he wanted to be baptized but just wanted a little more time because he doesn't want to be baptized and then go back to his old ways. It was very very happy to hear. They are both pretty awesome.

We also meet with some in actives. Claudia and Eduardo we meet with them once and they told us to come back the next day and they actually feed us lunch. It was really fun we actually had been looking for Eduardo for a while and could never find him. Then we went to this house and found him!! Claudia is his mom and I guess he is there a lot. So blessings!! We hope to keep meeting with them and teaching them and hopefully find what can help them to be active again! We also meet with our investigators Gonzalo and Estebana! It's cool to see the spirit working in them Gonzalo is more open right now than his wife but we think they both very much have felt the spirit at some point. They schedule return appointments every week and they said they believe everything that we have talked about so far!! So exciting I go exciting things!!

This week on Monday we watched the Emma Smith movie!! It is a really good movie and Emma is such an amazing woman! She went through so much in her life and for me is such a great role model. I think it stuck out to me during the movie that Emma never actually saw the plates when Joseph was translating. She truly had faith, without seeing she believed and knew that her husband was called of God and that he was translating the scriptures. Her faith and testimony came to her gradually, she never saw Christ and Heavenly Father, or an angel, or the golden plates as her husband and others did but she prayed and felt and believed and helped this gospel to come forth in a way that nobody else could have. I strive very much to be more like her. :)

Well I hope you all had a wonderful wonderful week!! Thank you for everything that you do if there is anything I can ever do for you let me know!!! Love you guys!

Con amor

Hermana Foster

Bambi, love love love Bambi

Shari

Sunday School Class

Monday, July 25, 2016

Week 29 - Sonoma Valley

¡Hola hola!

What a week. Tuesday was a really good day. It was filled with many lessons. I realized more about how the spirit testifies of things that are true to us. The spirit also led my companion and I to the exact video that our investigator Leo needed. We had a lesson with Javier and Leo and it was so awesome. Lessons with them are always crazy, we always start talking about one thing and they start asking questions about other things so there are always many topic discussed. Anyway we watched the Mormon message "the hope of gods light" if you haven't seen it I encourage you all to watch it, it is super powerful! But we watched that and we were really able to talk about how important faith. At the end of the lesson Javier committed to be baptized on August 2 and Leo said that he would think about it this week. We tried to get Javier to say a closing prayer because he never prayers for us. There was a blessing in disguise when we couldn't get him to, Leo ended up saying the closing prayer. It was a very powerful prayer, the spirit was very much there. He thanked Heavenly Father for bringing him the missionaries and asked for his help in forgiving himself. We all felt the spirit and he happiness that Hermana Garcia and I felt after the lesson was so amazing. It was so so happy to see our investigators feeling the spirit!

This week our district also did a fast for all our investigators and we were encouraged to check on our Mormon.org accounts!! We did visit Thelma Saturday night to try and see if
Thelma
she wanted to come to church. The spirit was very much with us and led us to the things that we should say. We talked about how we want her to come to church but that Christ does even more. It was a good lesson and we got her thinking, we think she really wants to come to church but she has some inner conflict about it. Basically Satan is working really hard on her, so we pray pray pray that she will find her way! The lords time is perfect so it will all work out!! She wasn't able to come to church but called us Sunday morning and talked to us about why she couldn't. We visited her that night and she had been very upset that some things at home kept her from coming. She was thankful that we came and asked for a new baptismal date so we set one for her on August 2nd as well! We love her so much, prayers this week their she will come to church! We also started reading the bible as a companionship. We figured so many of our investigators know it so well so we really should get more acquainted with it, but reading about Christ is the best!! I absolutely love it, he really does give us the perfect example in everything.

There are times as a missionary that you feel down and you feel you aren't accomplishing much. Someone made a comment about praying for revelation about how to pick back up if you are feeling down and I had been praying for that during some of my prayers. While I was saying my nightly prayer I started to pray for this again and for other things I ask for help with and just stopped. All I thought was this isn't about me and so I prayed for every investigator and potential and less active that I could remember and felt that the way to not be down is to care more about them. Focus on them and love them. I then think I had an impression and a Mormon message came to my mind it's called "The Hope of Gods Light" you should go watch it it's incredibly good. I found it after I laid down and started watching it.

I thought oh maybe I'm supposed to remember this for a lesson or something and I about turned it off but something kept me watching even though I had already seen it. I watched and it got near the end and I just got the feeling that I am here to help people I am the person that some people somewhere need and I am here doing that. It wasn't anything big in fact I didn't notice it until after I thought
about it all, but it was just a small little answer and blessing Heavenly Father gave me today so I thought I'd share. :)

During my studies this week I read a lot about Christ! I can't fully comprehend the love he has for us but it hit me this week that he must have so so much love for us. He suffered for every single one of us and he didn't ever judge. He has eternal hope that we will come to him. Before his suffering in Gethsemane and on the cross he didn't look at individuals and gauge whether he thought they would change or not he just felt immense love for each of us and suffered everything that we ever will. I think that is just amazing. I also read about how if we come unto him he will forever be our advocate and protector, this is so powerful, we have the creator of the world on our side so we really have no need to fear the things of man as long as we are keeping the commandments!! I testify that He is our Savior and that he died for us, but that He lives today! How powerful is that?? :) This week I challenge you all to study a little bit about Christ and his characteristics and teachings!! Take something that he taught and try to work on it!! This is something I try to do everyday. I just love this gospel!

I love you all so much and hope you know how grateful I am for you and your prayers!

Have another amazing week!

Les quiero,

Hermana Foster

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