Hola Todos!
What a great week it has been! Transfer news came today! Drum role......I will be going back up to Austin! I will be double covering Austin and Zilker Park! My new companion will be Hermana Rueda! I will still be the Sister Training Leader there. I will be so close to my old area (Lake Travis) that I'm so excited! Aww man I'm going to miss these people dearly! My companion, Sister Landon, is staying here and is going to train a new missionary! It's my last transfer of my mission and I'm super excited to finish out strong! I love these people of Texas and never want to leave my mission!
OK now I will tell y'all about my week! First we had an awesome lesson with Jason, Pearl, and Precious. We are now going through recent convert lessons with them. We talked about missionary work and Jason expressed to us that he wants to go on a mission when he grows up! He made a tag for himself too (so cute)! They are doing very well! Pearl is loving her new calling and enjoys learning more. She's been watching all the church videos that she can and loves them. They love doing family night on Monday's together and she has expressed to us how much their relationships are growing closer because of it. I will never forget them!
I finally fulfilled my dream of getting to play soccer at the border. On Monday we got together as a zone and had a Zone P-day in Eagle Pass. It was so much fun! I've never been so hot in my life and so out of shape but it was definitely worth playing down there!
I had the wonderful opportunity to bring Hermana Newman into my area with me for exchanges. What a wonderful sister she is! She is such a good listener, patient with others, charitable, diligent, understands her purpose, and is fully consecrated to the Lord and his work! We got to teach together, which brought so many memories back from when we were companions at the beginning of our missions! We arrived at one of our lessons, Isabelle's, house. As we were welcomed into her home all of the kids came running up to us to give us hugs, and then said, "we all have staff infections!" Both Sister Newman and I looked at each other and we're like "oh no!" We hoped and prayed that we would be OK and not get sick. The lesson with them went really well. We taught the 10 commandments and showed little hand signs that they could do to help remember them. Then we had them all draw them out on paper and say them with us. It was awesome! After the lesson we invited them to all put their pictures and drawings of the 10 Commandments where they could see them each day and remember to live them! It was a wonderful exchange and I'm glad I got to experience that with Sister Newman.
I had a back to back exchange this week so I also had another awesome opportunity to get to have Sister Ferrell come to Carrizo Springs and serve with me. She is a wonderful sister full of love for the Gospel and those around her. She is a hard worker and willing to learn. She talked to everyone that she could while we were together. It was great! We had the opportunity to teach Brianna together and it went really well. We taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ and emphasized that repentance is joyful and is for everyone. Brianna really opened up more than she has before and understands that repentance is possible. We invited her to pray and to ask Heavenly Father if there is something she could change in her life. She looks forward to reading in the Book of Mormon each day with Ana and discussing together what they learn. I enjoyed our exchange as well.
We had many opportunities his week in which we found some new investigators. We have a saying now "eat when you find, find when you eat". Because while eating at a members house they were having a cook out. While at this cook out, the AC guy shows up and the Sister of the household said "sisters I want you to meet someone. His name is Jason and when he comes over to fix our AC he always asks us questions, and so I'd like y'all to meet him." We gladly followed her into the other room where we met him. We had a brief conversation about the church, got his information and he said we could come by to his house and meet his family soon. Oh the joys of sharing the Gospel!
Kris Poff is doing so well. She is literally one of the sweetest people I've ever met and I will miss her dearly. She is like family to me now (everyone here is) and it's going to be hard to say goodbye. She made it back from Utah ok and is eager to continue progressing in the Gospel. I'm so excited for the Sisters here to hopefully start teaching her husband soon. I just have such a love for the both of them.
I had an experience this week that I wanted to share with y'all. We went and visited a less active family (the Florez'). They are always busy and haven't been willing to act. When we went by they were outside doing some yard cleanup. We offered to help them. After helping finish cleaning up they invited us inside. They told us about their busy lives and how they don't ever really have time to do anything else. My companion and I felt prompted to share the first vision with them and talked about Joseph Smith. We bore testimony of the love that God has for each of his children. Sister Florez said, "I want a testimony like that again, I want to be truly happy again." She went on to say, "It's so easy not to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ because there are so many things in the way stopping me from doing the more important things." We left them with an invitation to act and they actually accepted it this time. Later I pondered what just happened in that lesson. I thought to myself how important it is to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to not take the easy way out. The Lord said: “Wherefore, lift up thy heart and rejoice, and cleave unto the covenants which thou hast made.” I believe he is saying to each of us, be happy. The gospel is a thing of joy. It provides us with a reason for gladness. Never forget who you are. You are in very deed a child of God. He is your Eternal Father. He loves you. He wants His sons and daughters to be happy. Sin never was happiness. Transgression never was happiness. Disobedience never was happiness. The way of happiness is found in the plan of our Father in Heaven and in obedience to the commandments of His Beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Regardless of your way of doing things in the past, I offer you a challenge … to square your lives with the teachings of the gospel, to look upon this Church with love and respect and appreciation as the mother of your faith, to live your lives as an example of what the gospel of Jesus Christ will do in bringing happiness to an individual.
Repentance is one of the first principles of the gospel. Forgiveness is a mark of divinity. This is a work of saving and assisting people with their problems. This is the purpose of the gospel. Sometimes our lives get so busy with work, kids, school, extra curricular activities, callings etc, and with all of this we are prone to complain, frequently at home, often in public. Turn your thinking around. The gospel is good news. Man is that he might have joy [see 2 Nephi 2:25]. Be happy! Let that happiness shine through your faces and speak through your testimonies. You can expect problems. There may be occasional tragedies. But shining through all of this is the plea of the Lord: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28–30.)
I hope y'all have a wonderful week! Love ya, be safe!
Con Amor,
Hermana Mann
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