Baptism

Buenas tardes!!!!!

Come le va? This week has been a wonderfull week of ups, downs, and farther downs. :) 

To start off, we still can't find that mouse... it is starting to worry us because it ate the bait out of our traps and moved the traps but didn't get caught! How does it even manage that one?

Monday was a pretty interesting day. We had an appointment with a referral and were really excited about it. The lady reads the Bible every day with her two daughters and is searching for the right church. However.... when we brought up Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon... she kind of got mean. She mentioned how it never said anything about another Book in the Bible and all of these things. I was trying to bear my testimony and she turned and started to attack my testimony. Man. I was so mad! I have never experienced someone attacking something that I hold so dear. I managed to keep my patience and we just left. Just know that you shouldn't attack someone's testimony.... they won't be too pleased.

The best part about this week.... we had a baptism! The Pineda family got baptized! I can't even tell you how happy that made me. We worked so hard to make it a really perfect day and it all went so well. Lupe had told us that she wanted the baptism to be really small and to just have her family there. (So almost a secret baptism.) So, naturally, the entire ward shows up! I have never seen a baptism so full. They loved it though and you could feel the love that the ward has for this family so strongly! Everything was going well until we realized that even though we had the Hot water as hot as it will go... the water was still freezing!!! We felt so bad! We tried to get it to warm up but there was nothing we could do. Other than that, everything went perfectly well!  Hermana Tapia and her new companion were there! It was the first time I have seen her since we got new companions and the last time I will see her before she leaves. It was sad but it was really fun to see her. Her companion Hermana Lutu is in the air force and is such a cute and fun girl. We had a lot of fun.

Last night as we got back from a REALLY long day we were looking forward to starting to plan and then just relaxing after we finished... the only problem was that apparently our lock broke and we couldn't get in to our apartment!!! What is this? We were trying to figure out what to do and there wasn't a thing. We tried to get in through the window, call the office, nothing. We were officially homeless. It was weird to just have a couple things but not anything else. Fortunately we have English Sisters who live fairly close who took us in for the night. Slumber-party!!! We were so grateful and today we were able to get back into our apartment. (They are fixing our door for us.) Also, this weak I gained a very strong testimony of Guardian Angles. I know that the Lord has more planned for me in this life and the miracles I saw this week made me want to work even harder to be the person that God knows I can be!

I hope you are all enjoying life and that you can feel the love that God has for each one of us! If you can I would like you all to go back and read the testimony of Joseph Smith because it really is so powerful! I went and read that this morning and my testimony of what I am teaching is even stronger.

Thank you so much for all of your support and prayers! I am praying for you as well!

Love,

Hermana Morey

I Needed To Be Both There And Here

Hola buenas Tardes!!!!

Come le ha ido su semana? The weather here is wonderful today! It is about 75 degrees and breezy. The only problem is that the smog is so thick that we can't really see anything. Other than that... wonderful!!!

This week has been such a great week. To start off I had exchanges on Tuesday night and I got to spend time with Hermana Smith. She just barely got into the mission and is a visa-waiter waiting to go to Panama. It was really fun to talk with her because it gave me time to think more about Bolivia and the good things I got to do and see there. So, for some reason whenever you do exchanges everything goes badly. All of your appointments cancel, people aren't home, you meet strange people, you know, the usual. I felt bad because we ended up walking a ton! We talk to people and just tried to make things work. She was a really good sport about it which helped a lot. While we were walking a car pulled over and a man asked us if we wanted a ride. We were politely refusing and he started to dig through his wallet. I was thinking, oh this man wants to promote his business and didn't think anything else. However, he pulled out his temple recommend and said, don't worry, I am one of you guys! It was so funny! We told him that we were almost to our next appointment but thanked him for the offer. As I look back on that it really amazed/inspired me. I realized that he was so proud of the fact that he had a temple recommend and that he could say that he was worthy to go into the temple. Do we all feel that way about our temple recommends? I have been determined now to always have it with me and to remember what it means instead of just storing it until I need it.

On Friday we had Elder Evans of the General 70 come and talk to us. It was an AMAZING mission conference! He started out talking about how we are in this exact mission because this is where God wanted us. HERE. We are here to learn from President Van Cott. From the people. It really struck me that the Lord must need me here and I needed to learn things in Bolivia as well. It isn't that I couldn't handle being in the 3rd world country, it is that I was needed both here and there. He also talked about how we need to talk WITH people and not just TO people. There is a big difference. It was such a wonderful day and I came out wanting to be a much better missionary. It made me want to work as hard as I can while I still have time here!

For the conference we needed to wake up at 5:30. That was a little hard. We hurried and got all pretty and ready to go and RIGHT as we were about to leave I saw... the mouse. Let me explain. We hear a mouse in our apartment earlier this week but haven't seen anything or heard anything else. On Thursday we say that something had been chewing on Hermana Zamora's cake. (Someone gave her a Peruvian cake and it was in a big thick package.) We realized that the mouse must be in the apartment... yay. The worst part about seeing the mouse was that I saw him run into OUR ROOM!!!!! That was not good. We set up mouse traps later but haven't seen/heard anything since then. Oh what to do....

Other than that I am doing well! The Pineda family is getting baptized on Friday!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy! They are going to be such great members and I am happy for the changes they are making in their lives. I will send pictures next week!

Thank you all for your prayers and everything you do for me! I really appreciate it! Welcome home Sariah. You look happy and I hope you are enjoying everything at home.

Love,

Hermana Morey (officially the only one this time.)

Thank You, All My Teachers

Hello family and friends!

How are you all doing on this lovely October afternoon? It sounds like you are all really really busy but are loving what you are doing!!

This week has been so crazy busy that I am just exhausted! Our ward activity last Monday went SO well! We had over 50 people show up and they all loved it. Good thing the Elders helped us so much. I feel like people will be more excited to go to future activities which was our goal.

On Wednesday it was Hna Zamora's birthday and I knew that she thought that it was going to be a small forgotten birthday. However, I surprised her with a Peruvian dinner with a Peruvian member in our ward! That means we had two dinners that night but she loved it. We also got two cakes and it was a really great day! I am glad that I was able to help her have a fun missionary birthday. We still worked hard but we made it fun as well. (I will send pictures of me putting her face in the cake.)

It has been really busy getting the Pineda family ready for their baptism next week. We are at their house almost every day! We also have 4 other investigators on date and are working so hard to get them all ready to be baptized. Who would have thought that missionary work would be so stressful! Fortunately we have the Lord on our side because I know that I couldn't do this alone.

This Friday we have Elder Evans coming for a mission conference! We have to be at our stake center by 7:15 which means we will need to get up an hour early. That will be... fun. :) No, I am really excited for this conference and am so grateful that I get to be here for this!

We had the Stake Presidency come to our Ward Council this past Sunday and I learned so much. One of them talked about how the only real training and preparation that we get for our missions came from our Sunday School teachers, Seminary teachers, and parents. We don't go to a formal school, we don't study all day... but because of everything that these teachers have done for us we can come out here and bring others unto Christ. I really want to thank all of my teachers for helping me gain a testimony so that I can be here as a missionary today. The gospel is amazing!!!

I am sorry but that is all for this week! I love you all so much! Sariah, WELCOME HOME!!!! Welcome back to the states. :) I wish I could be there to welcome you but I will just have to see you next November. Be safe. Do good things and never forget the work you did out there in Nicaragua!

I love you all!!

Love,

Hermana Morey (Now the only Hermana Morey)

Driving a Truck

Hola mis hermanos!

Como estas? How are you guys doing? Wasn't conference the past couple of days just amazing?! I absolutely loved it. I can't believe how quickly the time flew by. I was able to watch conference in English at our stake center with all of the other missionaries and some members. I can't even decide which talk was my favorite because they were all so good! It was cool because there were some that I felt like were perfect for some of the people we are teaching. I am excited about that. I think that the questions that I went in to conference with were all answered about 6 times in the first session alone. It was amazing! I am sad that conference isn't for another six months but I am so grateful that I was able to watch it. What did you guys think?

So, at first I was really nervous to lead my area. However, I have grown so much in the past week! I realized that I know a lot of Spanish! Not only that... but I know my way around. The Lord really has been blessing me. My new companions name is Hermana Zamora. She was born in Peru but is from Fresno California. She is super happy and has some great ideas. We have been working hard with Lupe and her family and also with all of our other investigators. We had more lessons this week than we have in past weeks which was a great feeling. 

Okay, this is going to sound a little worldly... but we had to take in our car to get it fixed... and they gave us a truck!!!!! We got to drive a truck for a couple days until we got a different corrola. (the Zone Leaders needed the truck to help people move and we got an older corrola.) Needless to say... we felt really cool. 

Tuesday was Hermana Tapia's last day in the area so we spent time saying goodbye to investigators and members. We had a lesson with the Pineda family (Lupe, Israel, Yayis, and Santos.) and they all just seemed super distracted! Finally we had Israel say the closing prayer and in it he said "and please bless president Van Cott that he will let Hermana Tapia come back for our Baptism on the 25th of October. Yes, I do mean the baptism of my WHOLE FAMILY!!!!" Oh my goodness. Hermana Tapia cried. We were SO HAPPY!!!! Now we are working very hard to help them finish their lessons so that they can be ready that day. Please pray for them! They are such solid investigators though. Last night we had a lesson with the whole family and Israel was helping teach Santos. I remembered the first day I met him and he said that churches were just businesses that wanted money. now he has such a strong testimony. The gospel is amazing!

Tonight we are doing a Family Home Evening activity as a ward and the missionaries are in charge. Hermana Tapia had a great idea but unfortunately... she left. That kind of put me in charge. The Elders are really good at helping though. We are doing a tree of life activity and just are going to blindfold everyone and have them go into a room and follow a rope. THe rope is going to lead to a tree outside. While traveling on the rope there are going to be people trying to lead them away from the rope. If they let go an "angel" will tell them to repent and hold back on to the rod. At the end the tree will be all lit up and we will have the Bishop talk about what it means. (we aren't explaining before, just telling them to keep walking and don't let go.) I know I didn't explain it very well... but it is going to be really cool!!!

In between sessions of conference yesterday we had an appointment with a reference. It was a member present reference. We weren't too sure about it, but it was amazing!!!! This family was so ready to hear the gospel and really want us to come back. I should never doubt again! 

I am sorry this email was all over the place... know that I love you all so very much an am praying for you. Gracias por ser un bueno ejemplo para mi. You are all so very wonderful. Thanks for all of your prayers and support!

Love always,

Hermana Morey