Truly Converted!

Hola Todos! 

What a wonderful week it's been!  To start off I wanted to tell all of you how much I love you.  Each and every one of you have impacted my life in one way or another and I thank you for that.  

Ana, Pearl, and Precious got baptized on Saturday!  What a wonderful experience that was to witness. They truly are converted to the Lord. Two members from our branch got to baptize them.  Brother Alvarez is a returning less active and Brother Sanchez is a Priest and this was the first time baptizing someone for both of them and they were so excited!  It was a wonderful day.  After their baptism Pearl and Precious both got up and bore there testimonies. It was an amazing experience to get to hear them share with us what they believe to be true and how they got to that point in their lives.  I am glad to be able to be a part of that and witness the changes that I saw them make.  On Sunday they got confirmed and received the gift of the Holy Ghost, and before Sacrament all three of them were talking about who was going to receive the Holy Ghost first because they were so excited!  Pearl also received a calling to be a primary teacher and she is so so excited about that! They are all wonderful and I love them so much.  Jason, one of Pearl's sons, turns 8 years old this week and will be getting baptized on June 11th!  All of us are super excited for him.  He tells everyone of his friends about it and wants them all to come.  He keeps telling us to go see all his friends families and share the Book of Mormon with them because he wants them all to know about it!  So we are teaching a lot of families in that apartment complex.  It's the best!  Every time we go there all the kids outside come running up to us and give us the biggest hugs!  I love being a missionary! 

We have definitely had a busy week and this upcoming week will be even busier!  I get the opportunity to go on exchanges with the Lead Sister Training Leaders in San Antonio and I'm so excited to learn from them!  Also I get to attend my first MLC meeting (Mission Leadership Council) and I'm excited for that too!  It has been wonderful to learn so many new things from being a Sister Training Leader.  I truly feel like my Heavenly Father wanted to teach me things that I didn't know before and I'm definitely still learning.  I will be excited to share more about both of these things next Monday!

I wanted to share an experience we had this week meeting a new investigator. We were walking down the side of the road and both Sister Landon and I were talking about something and we see this man sitting outside on his porch looking around.  We looked at each other and smiled and both started walking towards him.  He looked right at us and immediately his countenance changed.  We greeted him politely and then introduced ourselves.  He was excited to hear about what we had to say.  As we talked to him for a minute to get to know him better we felt impressed to share a video with him about faith.  As we showed this video he began to cry. Tears rolling down his face he said to us, "My relationship with God is not that great right now.  Could you sisters help me gain that back?" He told us a little bit more about his family and how he cares about them so much and wants them to be happy.  This mans name is Luis Cardenas.  We scheduled another appointment to meet with him and his family this week.  I know this work is God's work.  He put us in his path that night so that we could meet him.  God is preparing his children and miracles are happening!

Isabelle is doing so well.  She is reading the Book of Mormon and is understanding it. Yesterday we had the opportunity to talk about the apostasy and why we needed a restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We also talked about Prophets and Apostles and invited her to read a talk from this past General Conference.  We are excited to see her progressing and making changes in her life.  

We have definitely had a wonderful week.  It officially now gets to 100 degrees or higher every day and I'm sweating like a pig all the time, but it's so worth it!  I wanted to share with y'all a couple things before I end my email for this week. 

Elder William Walker of the Seventy shared this experience:

“One day I was waiting outside the First Presidency boardroom. I had been invited there to take part in a meeting to discuss temple matters. I sat quietly outside the room alone. I thought the First Presidency was already meeting and that I would be invited to join them in a few minutes. As I sat there, I could hear someone walking down the hall whistling.

I thought to myself, someone doesn't understand proper protocol. You don't go walking around whistling outside the office of the president of the church. A moment later, the whistler walked around the corner. It was President Monson.

He was happy, and he was positive. He greeted me warmly and said, I guess we'll start the meeting in a couple of minutes. Even with the weight of the whole church on his shoulders, he is an example of happiness. And he always has a positive attitude. We should be that way.”

President Monson wrote:

“So much in life depends on our attitude. The way we choose to see things and respond to others makes all the difference. To do the best we can and then to choose to be happy about our circumstances, whatever they may be, can bring peace and contentment.  We can’t direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails. For maximum happiness, peace, and contentment, may we choose a positive attitude.”

Here are three suggestions that contribute to a positive attitude.

1. Count Your Blessings – If we will periodically reflect on our blessings it will help us have a positive attitude. Remember the words of the hymn:

When upon life's billows you are tempest-tossed,

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings; name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

Gratitude helps us have a positive attitude.

2. Agency determines attitude - When Elder Dale G. Renlund spoke to our mission, he spoke of the importance of a positive attitude. He even admitted that having a positive attitude was a challenge for him.  He taught that attitude is a matter of choice.  Agency allows us to determine what our attitude will be.  He promised great blessings if we will be diligent in our efforts and positive in our attitudes.

3. Be of service to others – Few things will lift our spirits and improve our attitude more than lifting others.

President Monson taught, “To find real happiness, we must seek for it in a focus outside ourselves. No one has learned the meaning of living until he has surrendered his ego to the service of his fellow man. Service to others is akin to duty, the fulfillment of which brings true joy.”

“The Savior taught His disciples, ‘For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.’

I believe the Savior is telling us that unless we lose ourselves in service to others, there is little purpose to our own lives. Those who live only for themselves eventually shrivel up and figuratively lose their lives, while those who lose themselves in service to others grow and flourish—and in effect save their lives.  I hope that we may all chose to have a positive attitude in life.  We will be happier when we do so.  I love y'all!  I hope you have a wonderful week!

Con Amor,

Hermana Mann