Monday, December 13, 2010
Arriving Home December 21st
Jami will be arriving back home on December 21st. She will be speqaking in sacrament meeting on the 26th at 1:00 pm. We are all excited to have her back home. She won't have a lot of time to get settled down because we will be leaving for California on the 26th after church and a family get together. We will return home on January 2nd and Jami starts back at school on the 4th.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
3/8/10
Hey this is way short but I wanted to say hello! Things are going good. Mario now has a baptismal date of April 10, we're so excited for him! Cute Mario is still a grumpy old man but he's gone through a compete transformation it's crazy. He always give us gifts now it's so funny. After we start nearing the lesson he gets up mumbling (in spanish) still kind of sounding grumpy I'm going to go get a gift for you muchachas. He's given us little samples of perfume, scarfs/hankies, chocolate, lotion, and the newest gift was some foundation (all these things he had around the house from his wife). Haha the foundation was sooo dark. We're going to put it on and take pics. He gave Hermana Guzman "bronze" which is as dark as chocolate and me "beige" which is a light shade of brown ha. So last night Hermanita put hers on and she looked African American and I'm going to put mine on today so we can take pics and I can look like a true Mexicana, woo hoo! Mario is so cute. Also, we had to move Graciela's date to late April because her husband health is horrible and he has been in and out of the hospital with an infected kidney, soooo sad! So we're praying for them and hope all will be well. We're teaching a lot of amazing people and it's way exciting. So this week we have a mission goal of contacting 20,000 people in our whole mission which means 34 people every day per componionship which isn't the easiest but I'm excited. Today we've contacted 1 person ha, we better get busy hehe. I love the gospel so much and love seeing the change it makes in the live of others. Amazing! Thank you for all your love and prayers!
Love,
Hermana Alvey =-)
Love,
Hermana Alvey =-)
3/1/10
Happy new month! Hope everything is well for you! The weather here has been nice. We're still getting a lot of rain which I love. Everything is so green right now and the blossums are blooming, I really like it here. Spanish is going... ha. I still can't understand about 40% of what people say but I am learning a little more every day. we switch from spanish and english a lot because there's a lot of people from mexico here. so naturally we speak spanish a lot and of course there's still a lot of people who speak english because we are in America and all ha; so sometimes that's a challenge for me because I have to consentrate a lot with speaking and understanding spanish, so switching back and forth throws me off but it's helped me to be able to translate better so that good. The other day we knocked on a door and a white man answered. He spoke to me in spanish so I responded back in spanish but then the lady there spoke in english and so I switched to english thinking obviously the man knows english too so I'll just speak english. Then when he spoke he had no accent what so ever and I was thinking to myself why did he start speaking in spanish but I didn't care so I didn't think too much about it. After Hermana Guzman was like why did you respond to him in spanish, and I was like he spoke in spanish didn't he? Apparently I was hearing things because he spoke in english and I somehow thought he spoke spanish ha. We laughed about it. So I don't know if that's good or bad but I've done that a few times where I automatically respond to an english person in spanish ha. Anyway so that's how the spanish is going, I can't speak english or spanish now! ;-) Hermanita Guzman helps me a lot and she's getting me to eat spicy food, I heard if you eat mexican you speak mexican, I sure hope so!
So Mario, who I talked about last weeks, is doing awesome. You so can see the Lord's hand in his life. He's so happy now, at least when he's with us ;-), but really he's so much more happy now and tells us that he's being blessed for what he's doing. Aaaw! He came to a baptism this last Saturday and loved it. Us missionaries and some members were talking to him. (We hadn't comitted him to a specific date to be baptized but were going to as soon as we had our next appointment with him) So Maria, who was baptized with her daughter that night, asked Mario when he was going to be baptized. He grinned and said I don't know and looked at us, and so I comitted him right there for the 3 of Abril. He grinned and was like "ok" in his broken english and smiled. Befor the night was over I asked him if he was going to go to church the next day and he kind of got frustrated with me which he hasn't done in a while. He told me that he just doen't know if he can because he doen't want to stay with his daughter to support her. He said if God wants me to go then I will, in other words God would have to intervene. I prayed and prayed that he would come. Yesterday Mario ended up coming! He said that God wanted him to come, his daughter was ok with him being there. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see him happy and to see this complete transformation that he has gone through, it's amazing. He told me he's excited for his baptism and I can't wait either. Heavenly Father works miracles with those who are willing, is amazing =-) We're teaching quite a few others and hope that they will come around as they are a little at a time. Missions are awesome, very challenging but amazing. So things are going good. I love you all and have a happy St Pati's month, I don't know which day it is, I'm going to get pinched ha. Love you all!
Love,
Hermana Alvey =)
So Mario, who I talked about last weeks, is doing awesome. You so can see the Lord's hand in his life. He's so happy now, at least when he's with us ;-), but really he's so much more happy now and tells us that he's being blessed for what he's doing. Aaaw! He came to a baptism this last Saturday and loved it. Us missionaries and some members were talking to him. (We hadn't comitted him to a specific date to be baptized but were going to as soon as we had our next appointment with him) So Maria, who was baptized with her daughter that night, asked Mario when he was going to be baptized. He grinned and said I don't know and looked at us, and so I comitted him right there for the 3 of Abril. He grinned and was like "ok" in his broken english and smiled. Befor the night was over I asked him if he was going to go to church the next day and he kind of got frustrated with me which he hasn't done in a while. He told me that he just doen't know if he can because he doen't want to stay with his daughter to support her. He said if God wants me to go then I will, in other words God would have to intervene. I prayed and prayed that he would come. Yesterday Mario ended up coming! He said that God wanted him to come, his daughter was ok with him being there. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see him happy and to see this complete transformation that he has gone through, it's amazing. He told me he's excited for his baptism and I can't wait either. Heavenly Father works miracles with those who are willing, is amazing =-) We're teaching quite a few others and hope that they will come around as they are a little at a time. Missions are awesome, very challenging but amazing. So things are going good. I love you all and have a happy St Pati's month, I don't know which day it is, I'm going to get pinched ha. Love you all!
Love,
Hermana Alvey =)
2/22/10
Bueno! How is everyone doing? We had an awesome weekend. So Elder Richard G. Scott of the 12 apostles, came to speak at a spanish fireside. We invited everyone we could possibly think of and so 4 of those we are teaching came, Mario Landeros, Veronica Oregel, and the Villasenors. They all really liked it. We haven't been able to talk to Veronica a whole lot to see what she thought of it but Mario was changed from it. I can't remember if i had talked a whole lot about Mario but we've been teaching him since the beginning of January. From the very beginning Mario was pretty bitter and grumpy. He has been through a lot of hard times and just has a hard time having faith. He was confrontational with the doctrines of the gospel which we taught but at the same time a small part of him seemed to be pleading for help but was often covered up by bitterness and sometimes anger. We asked the Elders if they would give him a blessing and his house. After this happened he seemed to change. He was just a little more open and less confrontational, although he was still very critical and a lot of what we said did not sink in and he still switched the subject to other things other than what we were teaching. Mario still decided not to go to church because he didn't want to leave his daughter who is struggling. He rarely read the Book of Mormon because he did not understand the importance although we tried to explain and bare our testimonies. So, he ended up going to the fireside and after Elder Scott spoke there was something different about Mario. It hit him. He, I think for the first time, really felt the power of the Holy Ghost. He told us that Elder Scott is a saint from the heavens. Elder Scott stayed until every single person who wanted to shake his hand and say hello had the opportunity. When we asked Mario if he wanted to shake the hand of Elder Scott he smiled with this childish shy half grin. So Mario shook his hand. After he told us that he could see a literal light above Elder Scott. I asked Mario what he told him. Elder Scott told him that he needed to read the Book of Mormon to know the truth and after Mario told us this he asked me, Porque no me lo ensenaron? Why didn't you teach me that? I looked at him like what?? haha I think I understood for a moment how mothers feel when they tell their children what they need to do over and over but it doesn't sink in until someone else does (huh mom? ha). So I asked him if he was going to read it and pray and he gave me that grin again and said well yeah. I told him that the power of authority that he can from from Elder Scott is from God in His church. I told him that this is the true church and you need to be baptized in His church. I said so when are you going to be baptized? He liked down and them grinned and said when you want. That night was amazing for all of us. I told Mario that he could get a picture with Elder Scott, so we got back in line and Elder Scott saw Mario again and said oh mi amigo. I took the picture of him and saved it on his phone, he beamed when he looked at the picture. It was so cute. So yesterday Mario, who would never go to church with us, showed up out of the blue yesterday and told us that he had read from the introduction of the Book of Mormon up to Alma 7. All during church he held his Book of Mormon and stroked it. It was a miracle. His countenance changed. When Elder Scott spoke to us there was such a love about him and power. In the beginning he had a discussion with everyone that was there, almost 1,000 people. He joked around with them but at the end, the last 15 minutes he told us that he was not going to talk to us as Richard G. Scott but as an apostle of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. When he said that the whole mood of everyone changed. I count tell you how strong the spirit was. He truly is an apostle of Jesus Christ and you can feel the closeness that he has with Him. Mario, who can sometimes be a grumpy and bitter old man, recognized that power that Elder Scott has and it changed him and many others I'm sure. I know that we have a living Prophet today and apostles who speak to God. I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ's church and has been restored on the earth today to build up the kingdom of God. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Love,
Hermana Alvey
Love,
Hermana Alvey
2/17/10
Hey!!! Hope everyone had a great Valentines!!! Ours was good, we went to church and taught a lesson with Melanie. She has had a crazy life and has come to the point that she wants to change! So things are going well, there are always up and downs but it's good. We're teaching Veronica Oregel and hopefully soon her two older children who are 9 and 13. They went to church last Sunday and I think it went well. She asked a lot of questions and participated in class. Yesterday we were hoping to teach her but we couldn't get a hold of her, so hopefully we will teach her soon. As far as those we are teaching, (Maria and Jose Luis Villasenor, Mayra y Serafin, Olga and Albert, Mario Landeros, and a few others that seem to come and go =-) they're awesome and we love them. We pray that they will continue to progress =-)
The weather has been so nice. Usually it's about 50 to 60ish degrees but the last few days it's almost gotten up to 70 degrees. I'm excited for summer! There's been a lot of fog lately, and from what I hear more to come, but it burns off by the afternoon. Since a got here in Watsonville, about 2 1/2 months ago, it has rained at least once a week and we've had some pretty big storms which I've loved but lately it hasn't rained and we probably won't get much of any rain until next winter, bummer I love the rain but it's been really pretty the last few days so it's all good. Oh, we moved into a new apartment! The last one started falling apart the last 2 weeks haha and then they told us they found a new place for us. Perfect timing right?! ha and now the poor Elders are moving into our old apartment which is falling apart, poor Elders ha. So it was kind of funny, we woke up and the carpet in the hall was sopping wet, we looked in the bathroom and the bathroom was leaking from the ceiling! The paint on the wall was feeling up with pockets of water ha it looked really weird. So they ended up coming to fix it. I guess a pipe broke and so they cut a huge hole in the ceiling and are still working on fixing it. Hopefully they finish before the Elders move in ha. So that happened and some other stuff, those poor Elders. We, on the other hand, moved into a really really nice condo! Who new that on my mission we'd live in such a nice place ha. It's only a few years old and we get our own washer and dryer, well at least some time if they can get some donated, I sure hope! Also right now we don't have a full sized fridge, just a little miniture one ha. It looks funny having it in the place of where there's supposed to be a big fridge. Anyway things are going good. We're contacting muchisimo and hopefully soon we will be lead to more of those who are ready to accept the gospel! I love you guys and hope all is well!!!!!!!!!!
Love,
Hermana Alvey =-)
The weather has been so nice. Usually it's about 50 to 60ish degrees but the last few days it's almost gotten up to 70 degrees. I'm excited for summer! There's been a lot of fog lately, and from what I hear more to come, but it burns off by the afternoon. Since a got here in Watsonville, about 2 1/2 months ago, it has rained at least once a week and we've had some pretty big storms which I've loved but lately it hasn't rained and we probably won't get much of any rain until next winter, bummer I love the rain but it's been really pretty the last few days so it's all good. Oh, we moved into a new apartment! The last one started falling apart the last 2 weeks haha and then they told us they found a new place for us. Perfect timing right?! ha and now the poor Elders are moving into our old apartment which is falling apart, poor Elders ha. So it was kind of funny, we woke up and the carpet in the hall was sopping wet, we looked in the bathroom and the bathroom was leaking from the ceiling! The paint on the wall was feeling up with pockets of water ha it looked really weird. So they ended up coming to fix it. I guess a pipe broke and so they cut a huge hole in the ceiling and are still working on fixing it. Hopefully they finish before the Elders move in ha. So that happened and some other stuff, those poor Elders. We, on the other hand, moved into a really really nice condo! Who new that on my mission we'd live in such a nice place ha. It's only a few years old and we get our own washer and dryer, well at least some time if they can get some donated, I sure hope! Also right now we don't have a full sized fridge, just a little miniture one ha. It looks funny having it in the place of where there's supposed to be a big fridge. Anyway things are going good. We're contacting muchisimo and hopefully soon we will be lead to more of those who are ready to accept the gospel! I love you guys and hope all is well!!!!!!!!!!
Love,
Hermana Alvey =-)
2/8/10
Happy early Valentine's Day everyone!!! So I wrote about half my email but there was a man here at the library that was having trouble with his email and so I went to help him since the lady who works here was busy and after I helped him and came back to my computer the computer logged me off because I had been gone too long ha =-/ Anyway I'll paraphrase what I said =-) So things are going good, I feel like a parent with wayward (don't know how to spell that heheh) children. I want soooo badly for everyone to listen to this message and know how happy they can be but most people won't accept it or have the desire to do what it takes. I've been able to cope with that better though, thanks mom and dad and everyone =-) but it's still hard to see people reject what you so know is true. It's so hard when those we teach reject the message because you really really grow to love them and you know what is best. It's hard enough when those we teach, our brothers and sisters reject it, I can't imagine having children and them rejecting this plan God has for us. All I know is Heavenly Father is so aware of each and every one of us and wants so badly to comfort all of His children. For those of you going through hard times, know that Heavenly Father loves you sooooo much and His son Jesus Christ knows and is there for you. All though not easy now, all will be made up. I know it.
I'm pretty positive that Heavenly Father wanted me in this area to learn... a lot. I'm learning so much here, it's unbelievable to me. I continue everyday to learn how to develop love for God's children and how to develop more faith in my Savior Jesus Christ even if it requires miracles that seem so far out of reach. I truly am so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve a mission and learn what it means to feel just a little portion of Christ's perfect love. I'm happy to be struggling and learning so much, 'who woulda thunk??' Someone just the other day said to me, it amazes me that God puts His church in the hands of 19 and 20 year olds. At first I absolutely took that as an insult but then I started thinking, man it's a miracle haha. I have no idea what I am doing! but Heavenly Father is so amazing to use me as His tool dispite what I don't know or what I do wrong. I think we can all feel the same but Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ do need us and we need Them, how awesome is that!? Anyway, I'm just in awe sometimes at what we can do despite our weaknesses, it's pretty amazing. So things are going good though, just moving along slowly but moving along. Oh guess what?! Elder Scott is coming here to speak in 2 weeks for a only spanish fireside! I am sooooooo excited! It's not all that often that we and those we are teaching get to hear from an apostol of God. Very exciting =-) Anywho I love you all, thank you so much for your support and everything. Have a happy Valentines! We're going to play glow in the dark scatter ball today, woo hoo! And for Valentines we will knocking on doors, happy Valentines to them!!! Talk to you next week.
Love,
Hermana Alvey =-)
I'm pretty positive that Heavenly Father wanted me in this area to learn... a lot. I'm learning so much here, it's unbelievable to me. I continue everyday to learn how to develop love for God's children and how to develop more faith in my Savior Jesus Christ even if it requires miracles that seem so far out of reach. I truly am so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve a mission and learn what it means to feel just a little portion of Christ's perfect love. I'm happy to be struggling and learning so much, 'who woulda thunk??' Someone just the other day said to me, it amazes me that God puts His church in the hands of 19 and 20 year olds. At first I absolutely took that as an insult but then I started thinking, man it's a miracle haha. I have no idea what I am doing! but Heavenly Father is so amazing to use me as His tool dispite what I don't know or what I do wrong. I think we can all feel the same but Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ do need us and we need Them, how awesome is that!? Anyway, I'm just in awe sometimes at what we can do despite our weaknesses, it's pretty amazing. So things are going good though, just moving along slowly but moving along. Oh guess what?! Elder Scott is coming here to speak in 2 weeks for a only spanish fireside! I am sooooooo excited! It's not all that often that we and those we are teaching get to hear from an apostol of God. Very exciting =-) Anywho I love you all, thank you so much for your support and everything. Have a happy Valentines! We're going to play glow in the dark scatter ball today, woo hoo! And for Valentines we will knocking on doors, happy Valentines to them!!! Talk to you next week.
Love,
Hermana Alvey =-)
2/1/10
Hello! It's already February, I can't beleive it! I've been out for almost 8 months, time flies by. I kind of lose track of what I've already written about.... lets see. We're still teaching la familia Villasenor but Jose still hasn't called a lawyer to start the divorce. We are trying to work help them receive testimonies. I love them but sometimes I'm totally at loss of what to do but I honestly think they're progressing, just bien despasio, slowly. We taught them yesterday and Maria said kind of under her breath that if he doesn't call she'll call and tell them everything they need to know in order to start the divorce. She said I want to be baptized before I die because I want to be baptized for my parents. How sad! So yeah they'll get baptized it just may be later than sooner.
Ya know Jeanette Fernandez who we gave a baptismal date too and she was so excited to learn and to prepare to be baptized? I talked a little about her last week. Well we can't get a hold of her. She hasn't answered our calls and we haven't been able to find her at home this last week. I hope she's just been busy and she's not hiding from us. If she doesn't want to learn now, she will later and at least we planted a seed for her in the future.
We're teaching another couple who live in Santa Cruz, Graciela y Manuel. Manuel is a member of the church, who for a while was not active but now is, and Graciela is his fiance who is investigating the gospel. They go to an english ward there in Santa Cruz which is great but they don't understand about 70% of what is being said because they speak spanish. We tried to get them to go to the spanish branch in Watsonville but Manuel explained to us that even though he can't understand a lot they want to learn english and he likes the people in that ward, they're very nice and welcoming. I figure if he likes it better there then it's fine but I wonder if it's going to keep them from progessing as much as they could because of the understanding, I don't know they'll probably be fine there but need to learn more english =-) So we comitted Graciela to be baptized the 13 of March which is almost exactly a month after they will be getting married so they were pretty excited about that.
We found two new people to teach, Eva and Veronica. It was a coincedance that we met both of them. Heavenly Father absolutely lead us to them. Eva talked to lds missionaries 50 years ago. She shared with us her story of how she came to know Christ and after was wishing us luck and saying bye to us but I was not about to leave without leaving un Libro de Mormon and so I bore my testimony and gave it to her and that's when she realized we were LDS missionaries and she was all of the sudden so happy to have us in her house. She told us how she had read the whole Book of Mormon and loved it but couldn't find the one those missionaries gave her. We gave her the one we had and set up a day to come back and she was so happy about it, how cool! With Veronica she has been sooooo confused with all the churches and wanted to know which one was true but didn't know how to know, so she just gave up all together with searching. Even though she had heard nother about the gospel she was so thirsty to know more. We have an appointment with her tonight. I don't know of the outcome for them but I'm gratefull we were lead to them and able to plant a seed if anything. It seems we're doing a lot of that here which is hard sometimes not to become discouraged because you see no results which can seem to you like youre not doing much good but I know we meet these people for a reason and we may not ever know why but Heavenly Father knows =-)
I love the mission and I could go on and on about all those we are teaching but I won't ha. Thanks mom for your repremanding... I always need it =-) And I totally think your right, actually I know your right that the Lord is trying to teach me so I take it and I hope I grow from it, thanks again mommykins! Well I love you all hasta luego!
Love,
Hermana Alvey
Ya know Jeanette Fernandez who we gave a baptismal date too and she was so excited to learn and to prepare to be baptized? I talked a little about her last week. Well we can't get a hold of her. She hasn't answered our calls and we haven't been able to find her at home this last week. I hope she's just been busy and she's not hiding from us. If she doesn't want to learn now, she will later and at least we planted a seed for her in the future.
We're teaching another couple who live in Santa Cruz, Graciela y Manuel. Manuel is a member of the church, who for a while was not active but now is, and Graciela is his fiance who is investigating the gospel. They go to an english ward there in Santa Cruz which is great but they don't understand about 70% of what is being said because they speak spanish. We tried to get them to go to the spanish branch in Watsonville but Manuel explained to us that even though he can't understand a lot they want to learn english and he likes the people in that ward, they're very nice and welcoming. I figure if he likes it better there then it's fine but I wonder if it's going to keep them from progessing as much as they could because of the understanding, I don't know they'll probably be fine there but need to learn more english =-) So we comitted Graciela to be baptized the 13 of March which is almost exactly a month after they will be getting married so they were pretty excited about that.
We found two new people to teach, Eva and Veronica. It was a coincedance that we met both of them. Heavenly Father absolutely lead us to them. Eva talked to lds missionaries 50 years ago. She shared with us her story of how she came to know Christ and after was wishing us luck and saying bye to us but I was not about to leave without leaving un Libro de Mormon and so I bore my testimony and gave it to her and that's when she realized we were LDS missionaries and she was all of the sudden so happy to have us in her house. She told us how she had read the whole Book of Mormon and loved it but couldn't find the one those missionaries gave her. We gave her the one we had and set up a day to come back and she was so happy about it, how cool! With Veronica she has been sooooo confused with all the churches and wanted to know which one was true but didn't know how to know, so she just gave up all together with searching. Even though she had heard nother about the gospel she was so thirsty to know more. We have an appointment with her tonight. I don't know of the outcome for them but I'm gratefull we were lead to them and able to plant a seed if anything. It seems we're doing a lot of that here which is hard sometimes not to become discouraged because you see no results which can seem to you like youre not doing much good but I know we meet these people for a reason and we may not ever know why but Heavenly Father knows =-)
I love the mission and I could go on and on about all those we are teaching but I won't ha. Thanks mom for your repremanding... I always need it =-) And I totally think your right, actually I know your right that the Lord is trying to teach me so I take it and I hope I grow from it, thanks again mommykins! Well I love you all hasta luego!
Love,
Hermana Alvey
1/25/10
Hellooooo =-) Hopefully my email doesn't get errased this time lol. So things are going good, not easy but good. I'm not even sure who I've told about and who I haven't... We're teaching Maria Martinez and Jose Luis Villasenor, the parents of Jeremy Villasenor who was baptized a few weeks ago. They have a looooot of drama going on with their relationship (that I won't talk about) and the past month Jose Luis hasn't even been going to church because he's been working. There's a member of the church who is a lawyer and so I called him to see if he could help Jose Luis get divorced from his wife who lives in Mexico so Maria and him can get married and then they can be baptized, which is a veeeeery common situation. Hermano Pogue, the lawyer, said he could help. So I told this to Jose and gave him the number and he told us he would call but he didn't. He gives us excuses, not lies but excuses of why he can't or didn't call. The real issue is like an iceberg. He's just giving us excuses or the tip of the iceberg but there's the whole iceberg under the water or the real problem/situation underneath the surface that he's not telling us. So we honestly don't know what to do only to pray that we know how to help Maria and especially him really receive a testimony of the gospel so they will change and have the desire to be baptized for the right reasons. It's just sad because they have two young kids who have already been baptized and I know that if their parents aren't baptized and active then they will also fall away. I've never seen young kids be baptized when their parents haven't been and I just hope that Maria and Jose can really really receive a testimony of the gospel for their kids also.
We are teaching a few others. I said before that each of them were being prepared in their individual ways and I thought they would progress in the gospel but in the last couple weeks a lot has happened and I don't know if they will anymore. One of them who we were teaching, la familia Gomez, totally dropped us because Salvador, the husband, is a strong catholic and doesn't want to change. That was suuuuch a bummer because they're going through a tough time with the health of their little girl and if only they knew that no matter what may happen they can have the comfort of knowing that through the gospel of Jesus Christ they could return with Heavenly Father again with their family forever but they told us they don't want to learn anymore so we have to respect that. I just wish everyone understood what the gospel can do for them and their families.
I have more that I wanted to say, as usual I have a lot to say =-), but I keep running out of time. Next week I'll try to make sure I get the email typed before the time runs out (the computers here are timed). Anyway I'll just say that last night we had a lesson with Jeanette Fernandez who is now starting to investigate the church but we committed her to be baptized the 3 of April and she accepted it and is so excited to learn and everything. It all went so well I'm nervous to get excited. I'll definitely talk more about her next week, I just hope it's still happy news!
Anywho, I love you guys and hope all is well. I'm doing so so so good. I feel incredibly blessed to be here serving a mission for the Lord, incredibly blessed. It definitely isn't easy but it seems that in difficult times we draw closer to God and our Savior Jesus Christ and learn the most. I know that this is the true gospel and I hope all will take the opportunity to know for yourselves if you don't know. It's not easy to follow the gospel but so worth it. Who says salvation is easy. I love you guys again. Hast luego!
Love,
Hermana Alvey =-)
We are teaching a few others. I said before that each of them were being prepared in their individual ways and I thought they would progress in the gospel but in the last couple weeks a lot has happened and I don't know if they will anymore. One of them who we were teaching, la familia Gomez, totally dropped us because Salvador, the husband, is a strong catholic and doesn't want to change. That was suuuuch a bummer because they're going through a tough time with the health of their little girl and if only they knew that no matter what may happen they can have the comfort of knowing that through the gospel of Jesus Christ they could return with Heavenly Father again with their family forever but they told us they don't want to learn anymore so we have to respect that. I just wish everyone understood what the gospel can do for them and their families.
I have more that I wanted to say, as usual I have a lot to say =-), but I keep running out of time. Next week I'll try to make sure I get the email typed before the time runs out (the computers here are timed). Anyway I'll just say that last night we had a lesson with Jeanette Fernandez who is now starting to investigate the church but we committed her to be baptized the 3 of April and she accepted it and is so excited to learn and everything. It all went so well I'm nervous to get excited. I'll definitely talk more about her next week, I just hope it's still happy news!
Anywho, I love you guys and hope all is well. I'm doing so so so good. I feel incredibly blessed to be here serving a mission for the Lord, incredibly blessed. It definitely isn't easy but it seems that in difficult times we draw closer to God and our Savior Jesus Christ and learn the most. I know that this is the true gospel and I hope all will take the opportunity to know for yourselves if you don't know. It's not easy to follow the gospel but so worth it. Who says salvation is easy. I love you guys again. Hast luego!
Love,
Hermana Alvey =-)
1/11/10
Bueno mi familia y mis amigos!
Well the last two weeks have been going pretty good. I kind of have a brain block and I'm trying to think of everything that has been going on.... let's see, not this last week but the week before that things seemed so hopefully. We had a lot potential people to teach and it just was awesome, and I felt really good about everything. On the mission I feel pretty bi-polar ha but just after that week all those that seemed like they would progress in the gospel pretty much decided they didn't want to learn. Man I was so excited about everything and within days I faced dived into the ground. Ok, so I'm exaggerating a little but quite a few of those who we thought for sure would progress in the gospel no longer wanted to. In fact one of the men told me he felt like he was being pressured and to stop pressuring him. I absolutely took that personal and felt horrible. Some others just no longer want to learn and aren't around for their appointments and then their was a couple women we were teaching because the Elders told us to in the beginning even though they live in their area, because it was hard to get another priesthood holder to come with them to the appointments (a mission rule is that there has has to be 3 people, including you, of the same sex if you are teaching someone that is of the opposite sex) Then last week they told us that they were going to go ahead and teach them. That was a pretty big bummer to me, I mean as long as they're being taught it's ok but at first I wasn't kind of upset with them for doing that. Anyway so that's what happened, we lost a bit of the people we would be teaching. I was way bummed but bounced back and things are still looking up. I wasn't thinking man what am I doing wrong? I don't know how to be a good missionary and was thinking it was me fault that we weren't having a whole lot of success. So I prayed and prayed and I know that we're doing our best and so Heavenly Father will see us through, it's just not meant to be easy, woo hoo! ;-) Although still a little discouraging there's a lot of awesome things going on right now. So now that I've babbled on forever, I know I'm good at it ha, I'll tell you what eventful things have happened.
On January 2 Jeremy Villasenor was baptized. He has 8 years and we are teaching his parents. His brother Jr. who has 12 years, was baptized less than a year ago. Maria and Jose Luis, the parents of them, want to be baptized but Jose needs to get divorced first with his wife who lives in Mexico. There's a loooot of drama in their situation and so we're trying to help them and get Jose to talk to a lawyer in order to get the divorce. We commited them to be baptized March 13. Maria is so excited to be baptized but Jose wasn't so confident that all he be able to be divorced by then. I guess we shall see, we're trying to work with him a lot. He loves the church and says he believes it to be true but it needs to be a deeper testimony and he needs to really seek forgiveness for some things that he has or might have done in the past. Time will tell with them but we trying, thank goodness the Lord is on our side. So the baptizm of Jeremy went well and Jose Jr. gave a talk which was sooo awesome. He was way nervous and almost didn't give it but he did an awesome job. We also went to San Jose because 2 of my investigators Hermana Lowry and I were teaching were baptized Dec. 26. That was so awesome to attend and see them baptized, amazing.
I'm running out of time but we're teaching a few others that are really amazing but we're having a hard time getting them to church =-/ We're now teaching an adorable family, the family Gomez; Silvia; Beder; and Felecia. There's a few others that we might be teaching and they seem interested so hopefully they will progress =-) Next week I'll talk more about them because they each have their own story and we're starting to see lots of miracles and how the Lord is preparing each of them in different ways to accept the gospel. Hermana Guzman and I are helping a few members in the ward do what they need to in order to prepare to enter the temple. We're trying to find out who else has not gone through. We've been surprised how many have not and we're soooo excited to help them prepare, I hope their prepared for lots of blessings!Oh and also about how I got pulled over by a cop, yikes! Anyhoo, I love you guys! Please pray for us and those who the Lord is preparing. Hasta next week!
Love,
Hermana Alvey =-)
Well the last two weeks have been going pretty good. I kind of have a brain block and I'm trying to think of everything that has been going on.... let's see, not this last week but the week before that things seemed so hopefully. We had a lot potential people to teach and it just was awesome, and I felt really good about everything. On the mission I feel pretty bi-polar ha but just after that week all those that seemed like they would progress in the gospel pretty much decided they didn't want to learn. Man I was so excited about everything and within days I faced dived into the ground. Ok, so I'm exaggerating a little but quite a few of those who we thought for sure would progress in the gospel no longer wanted to. In fact one of the men told me he felt like he was being pressured and to stop pressuring him. I absolutely took that personal and felt horrible. Some others just no longer want to learn and aren't around for their appointments and then their was a couple women we were teaching because the Elders told us to in the beginning even though they live in their area, because it was hard to get another priesthood holder to come with them to the appointments (a mission rule is that there has has to be 3 people, including you, of the same sex if you are teaching someone that is of the opposite sex) Then last week they told us that they were going to go ahead and teach them. That was a pretty big bummer to me, I mean as long as they're being taught it's ok but at first I wasn't kind of upset with them for doing that. Anyway so that's what happened, we lost a bit of the people we would be teaching. I was way bummed but bounced back and things are still looking up. I wasn't thinking man what am I doing wrong? I don't know how to be a good missionary and was thinking it was me fault that we weren't having a whole lot of success. So I prayed and prayed and I know that we're doing our best and so Heavenly Father will see us through, it's just not meant to be easy, woo hoo! ;-) Although still a little discouraging there's a lot of awesome things going on right now. So now that I've babbled on forever, I know I'm good at it ha, I'll tell you what eventful things have happened.
On January 2 Jeremy Villasenor was baptized. He has 8 years and we are teaching his parents. His brother Jr. who has 12 years, was baptized less than a year ago. Maria and Jose Luis, the parents of them, want to be baptized but Jose needs to get divorced first with his wife who lives in Mexico. There's a loooot of drama in their situation and so we're trying to help them and get Jose to talk to a lawyer in order to get the divorce. We commited them to be baptized March 13. Maria is so excited to be baptized but Jose wasn't so confident that all he be able to be divorced by then. I guess we shall see, we're trying to work with him a lot. He loves the church and says he believes it to be true but it needs to be a deeper testimony and he needs to really seek forgiveness for some things that he has or might have done in the past. Time will tell with them but we trying, thank goodness the Lord is on our side. So the baptizm of Jeremy went well and Jose Jr. gave a talk which was sooo awesome. He was way nervous and almost didn't give it but he did an awesome job. We also went to San Jose because 2 of my investigators Hermana Lowry and I were teaching were baptized Dec. 26. That was so awesome to attend and see them baptized, amazing.
I'm running out of time but we're teaching a few others that are really amazing but we're having a hard time getting them to church =-/ We're now teaching an adorable family, the family Gomez; Silvia; Beder; and Felecia. There's a few others that we might be teaching and they seem interested so hopefully they will progress =-) Next week I'll talk more about them because they each have their own story and we're starting to see lots of miracles and how the Lord is preparing each of them in different ways to accept the gospel. Hermana Guzman and I are helping a few members in the ward do what they need to in order to prepare to enter the temple. We're trying to find out who else has not gone through. We've been surprised how many have not and we're soooo excited to help them prepare, I hope their prepared for lots of blessings!Oh and also about how I got pulled over by a cop, yikes! Anyhoo, I love you guys! Please pray for us and those who the Lord is preparing. Hasta next week!
Love,
Hermana Alvey =-)
1/4/10
HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!!!!!! I don't have really time to write today, but things are moving along. The last week has really been looking up and we're starting to teach a lot of amaaaaazing people. I'm so excited! I had been feeling a bit discouraged before. So yeah things are going great. We're way blessed and I'll tell you all about our investigators, baptism, getting pulled over by the police and ya know what ever else happens this coming week! Take care until next week and I hope you all make some good new year's resolutions. Woo 2010, make it happen!
Love,
Hermana Alvey =-)
Love,
Hermana Alvey =-)
12/28/09
I hope everyone had a good Christmas! Ours was good. For Christmas Eve and Christmas day we didn't have anyone to eat with but last second people invited us. We are loved after all ha. We were calling people to plan the bauptism we have coming up and one of those people was Sister Welch who is going to be playing the piano for us. She asked if we had anywhere to eat for Christmas Eve and Christmas day we told her one of the members would be ordering us pizza and so we'd be eating it in our apartment for that day, wlhich was Christmas Eve and Christmas day we had someone to eat with. She felt bad and asked us to please come to her house that afternoon and eat with them. We gladly said yes. So we ate with the Welchs. It was a lot of fun. She made turkey, home roles, pie and other things. Soooo good! We were getting ready to leave when we saw someone pulling up to their driveway which they thought was weird becasue they weren't expecting anyone. It ended up being Santa! Also known as our Bishop who dressed up like santa. We were soo excited! We took pics and everything and they even had stockings for us which were full of goodies, it was awesome. For Christmas we ate pancakes for breakfast after studying and we got to call our families which was sooooo fun and nice, I love you guys! We ate with the Padilla family. They had been eating for the last two days straight so they didn't eat with us but talked to us as we ate ha. She just kept putting food on the table to it was an amazingly delicious combo. She made us pancakes, salad, rice, tomales, mexican hot chocolate, champurado, eggnog, soda, atole, pies, salsas, and I can't remember what else. It was so fun though and the food was good. Hermana y Hermano Padilla do foster care so they have three foster girls who are living with them, Brenda (15 yrs), Sammy (12), and Deisha (11) (not sure how to spell her name). They've all had hard lives and it's awesome that they have such a wonderful foster home. We've been able to get to know them a bit more which has been cool. Brenda is a member but Sammy and Deisha aren't. They all go to church though and we're hoping that we'll be able to start teaching them. Deisha's mom has been going to church the last couple Sundays which is awesome. She wants to change her life around. I think we'll be able to start teaching her and her daughter soon, which will be so awesome. So right now we teaching la familia VillaSenor but Jose Luis VillaSenor is still married and needs to get a divorce in Mexico so they can get married, which costs a lot. but even though it costs a lot we think it's possible but he's not trying as hard as he could. We going to have a sit down with them and make a plan to help them. Jeremy VillaSenor, their son who has 8 years, is getting baptized this Saturday which will be good. The others that we were, kind of teaching, are canceling their appointments a lot or they just never around and so we might be dropping them which never is fun... We have other's who are potentail investigators but with Christmas it's been hard to get a hold of people so I'm hoping it'll change within the next few weeks. Yeah not a whoooole lot is going on but things are going good here. Enjoy the snow for those in Utah!!! The weather has been pretty rough here it's been between 55 to 70 degrees the past few weeks I've been here... I know rough huh?? ha =-) Anyway I'll talk to you all later, take care!!!
Love,
Hermana Alvey
Love,
Hermana Alvey
12/21/09
We've now been here in Watsonville for 2 weeks and things are going good. My companions name is Hermana Guzman. She is from San Antonio, Texas and is awesome. She helps me a lot with spanish and has just been awesome with everything. When we arrived to our apartment, which was were the Elders used to live, they not only cleaned it but decorated it with paper snow ALL OVER, a big Merry Christmas sign, a little Christmas tree, and HUGE stockings. The stockings are so big, you can pretty much fit in then ha. I'll have to take some pics, with my new camera (thanks mom and dad!) =-) So on our drive to Watsonville the first day we were together we discovered we have the same Birthday! How awesome is that! So yes we both turned 22 on the same day. Our birthday was good. We didn't know very many people, and still don't, but one of the members that we met bought us cake that said Feliz Cumpleanos Hermana Guzman y Hermana Alvey! It was so cute. That was actually a the 15th, so two days before our birthday. On our birthday we went to zone conference which was way awesome. They fed us a huge lunch and decorated the gym waaaay Christmasy. It was fun. After we ate there was some really good musical numbers from some of the missionaries. Also the assistants presented President and Sister Jackson a framed picture of Jesus Christ and on the sides of the picture there was the name of every single convert in the mission since President Jackson has been president. It was so cool and president cried like a baby lol. I love our misson president so much. And it was so fun to see the other missionarie who were in the area I was last in, like Hermana Lowry and Hermana Kelson. It was so nice. After lunch we had talks and what not and it just all was perfect. So the last couple weeks have been pretty crazy. Watsonville is about 85% spanish speaking so President Jackson took the eglish Elders out and put in spanish Elders and Sisters (us). They split the area and so half is ours and the other half is the Elders. Our area is huge. It goes from Watconville up to north Santa Cruz. We pretty much had to start new with investigators because the Elders gave us some investigators but they're not exactly progressing so we might or might not drop a lot of them and start new. It's been pretty hard to start all over like that but things are good. We're doing A LOT of contacting and having really found anyone but with time/patience, faith and diligence; I know things with look up. The ward we go to is english and spanish which is really different to get used to but it'll be good. I've been a little bummed about stuff but all is good and will only get better. Hermana Guzman is so awesome also. Her idea was that I only speak english one hour a day and so kind of reluctantly I said ok and with just two days of doing it my head hurts lol but It'll definitley help with learning spanish. So that's pretty much what is going on. I'll write more details next week but I have to go. I love you all and have a very very very Merry CHRISTmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love,
Hermana Alvey
Love,
Hermana Alvey
12/7/2009
It's already December! This is my favorite part of the year!!! You wouldn't believe it but it was raining all last night and there was even snow on the hills or mountains. Crazy huh?? So it's been pretty cold here. Probably in the 40s or so, burrrr!
Well, this was an awesome week. As of now our investigators are doing really well! Our Mission President, Presidente Jackson, challenged us to invite our investigators to give a gift to the Savior and be baptized in the month of December so as of now Josie and her mother Josefina still have a baptismal date for Dec. 26 and Hermana Lowry and I think that we should commit both Jose and Silvia to be baptized this month instead of January. We still have a lot to teach them but I think it will be good and we can get the lessons taught. They're all doing really really well. I love them all so much. Although Silvia has been so much more quiet and a little dissoriented ever since we talked about the law of chastity. I think she really wants to change and is feeling bad. I'm not sure how we can help her but I've been thinking to myself that if we commit her to baptism, this is what will help her because if she will commit to change and pray for more help she will receive a remission of her sins. I want her to feel that burden lifted off her shoulders and the wonderful feeling of being a member of Christ's church and following him. She is going to receive sooo many blessings and especially feel more happy. We've been planning on commiting her to baptism for a while and should have commited her already but everytime we planned to something happened where it just didn't seem right anymore. I need to have more courage and just do it. That's something I'm trying to work on, instead of just relying on Hermana Lowry.
So yeah they are all doing pretty well. So exciting, Mayra Bravo was baptized on this last Saturday, Dec. 5, and was confirmed a member of the church yesterday! Everything went sooo smoothly I thought it was fake or something bad was going to happen. She is doing great though and is so strong. A lot of it has to do with her suegra being a member and helping out so much. She almost was going to be baptized in cold water too poor thing. The Elders told us that there was no hot water and so Hermana Lowry and I were going to boil hot water to make it warmer but we ended up not having enough time to do that but luckily Hermana Lowry figured out that there was hot water after all, the switch for hot water hadn't been turned ha. Never listen to the Elders ;-) Anyway all we could find for Mayra to wear was a wrinkly suit. I felt so bad because she looked soo pretty and then had to put that on! You could tell she didn't feel to pretty and was a little embarrassed but she was baptized. Other than the wrinkely suit, oooops, it was wonderful. The spirit was strong and a lot of people went to the baptism, it was awesome awesome!
On Saturday, the same Saturday Mayra was baptized, we went to the temple. Mayra couldn't go, which we really wanted her to go, but Eva Lugo and her girls, Jessica, Lupita, and Venessa; Josie and Josefina went. Moises Campos, one of our less active members came also which was great. Laura Ramirez and her son Chris, who is Josie's boyfriend, came also. It was such a good thing for all of them. Chris is very inactive and doesn't want really anything to do with the church but he went to the temple and attended church because Josie wants him to. I think he'll start coming around with her example. At the temple we watched the "Families together forever" exhibit, watched a short film about the birth of Christ, the Joseph Smith movie, and walked around the temple grounds. They all absolutely loved it and even Lupita, who has 13 years, was talking about what temple she wants to be married in. I can't wait until they start going to church in January. There's just so much to say about each of our investigators and all those we are teaching but I'll just say that things are going well and I'm very grateful.
So on Wed. we got a call from President Jackson. We expected him to call because we pretty much were positive that Hermana Lowry would be training one of the new hermanas that would be coming in. So sure enough he called but none of us were expecting him to say what he did. He was talking to Hermana Lowry and told her that he would like to invite her and me to the training meeting. I could hear him on the phone and so my mouth just dropped open in shock when I heard that. Then he said now let me talk to Hermana Alvey before she drops dead to the ground, which I pretty much had ha. She gave me the phone and he told me that there would be another Hermana coming in that he wanted we to train and Hermana Vawdrey and Cowley would receive their chance to train in January, which is when I was planning on training. Oh my goodness I was so nervous, I'm going to me a mommy! So he called back later that day and asked to speak to both of us because he needed our oppinion. He told us that one of us would be staying in Las Colinas and the other would be going down to Watsonville to pretty much open up the area. We both didn't know what to say just wanted him to make the decision himself but he wanted our oppinions. Hermana Lowry gave me the phone and said here you tell him what you think and then left. I didn't know what to say but I told President that I felt like our members investigators were more comfortable or attached to Hermana Lowry, which is what I think. After I was done Hermana Lowry got on the phone and President told her what I said and wanted to know if it was true. She was like uuuh, well, I don't know. Maybe because I speak more spanish and then President said thank you that's all I need to know. So after that we pretty much figured that I would be leaving and she would be staying but didn't know for sure so it was driving us crazy! On Friday when we went to the training meeting we asked him and he said yes that I would be going to Watsonville and she would be staying. So guess what! I'm leaving and going to Watsonville, yikes! But don't worry President isn't sticking me in a place that I don't know and make me train an Hermana who doesn't speak spanich, she already speaks spanish thank goodness! Hermana Kelson told President that she wanted to train her because she speaks spanish already and he told us that he thought about it but he wasn't going to make me open an area and train an Hermana who doesn't speak spanish, thank goodness!!! So yeah that's what's going on. She'll be coming tomorrow and it should be fun. She'll probably be expecting a trainer who already speaks spanish very well and knows the people and area but nope she get me who doen't know either haha. I was a little nervous about all of this but I prayed about it and I feel like this is the best and it won't be all that easy but all will be well. I guess we'll see how it goes tomorrow! Oh one thing I'm kind of bummed about though is that in this area President had 2 sets of Elders there, spanish and english. What he is doing now is pulling out the English and just putting spanish missionaries there and we will be teaching both english and spanish. He told us that 85% of the people there were spanish speaking so it was pointless to have english missionaries there. I didn't exactly like the idea of teaching english and spanish but it will be ok, I know I'm going to learn spanish and this is where Heavenly Father wants me to be. So we shall see how it all goes. I'm glad that mi nueva can help me out with spanish though =-) So yesterday at church Bishop announced that me and Elder Garcia would be leaving and so we bore our testimonies in Sacrament meeting. It was so sad! I had to keep fighting back tears. I love the people here in Las Colinas so much! I'm really hoping that President will send me back here in Las Colinas the last part of my mission, I guess we shall see. And we're allowed to come back for baptisms, so I get to come back to Las Colinas to see our baptisms. That makes me so happy because I would be soooo sad to miss those. So that is what's going on right now. I'm sure I'll have lots to say next week! Wish me luck lol. And I have no more to say... I'm the queen at writing novels ha. I hope my emails aren't way boring for you guys hehe!
I love you guys mucho muchisimo!!!
Love,
Hermana Alvey
Well, this was an awesome week. As of now our investigators are doing really well! Our Mission President, Presidente Jackson, challenged us to invite our investigators to give a gift to the Savior and be baptized in the month of December so as of now Josie and her mother Josefina still have a baptismal date for Dec. 26 and Hermana Lowry and I think that we should commit both Jose and Silvia to be baptized this month instead of January. We still have a lot to teach them but I think it will be good and we can get the lessons taught. They're all doing really really well. I love them all so much. Although Silvia has been so much more quiet and a little dissoriented ever since we talked about the law of chastity. I think she really wants to change and is feeling bad. I'm not sure how we can help her but I've been thinking to myself that if we commit her to baptism, this is what will help her because if she will commit to change and pray for more help she will receive a remission of her sins. I want her to feel that burden lifted off her shoulders and the wonderful feeling of being a member of Christ's church and following him. She is going to receive sooo many blessings and especially feel more happy. We've been planning on commiting her to baptism for a while and should have commited her already but everytime we planned to something happened where it just didn't seem right anymore. I need to have more courage and just do it. That's something I'm trying to work on, instead of just relying on Hermana Lowry.
So yeah they are all doing pretty well. So exciting, Mayra Bravo was baptized on this last Saturday, Dec. 5, and was confirmed a member of the church yesterday! Everything went sooo smoothly I thought it was fake or something bad was going to happen. She is doing great though and is so strong. A lot of it has to do with her suegra being a member and helping out so much. She almost was going to be baptized in cold water too poor thing. The Elders told us that there was no hot water and so Hermana Lowry and I were going to boil hot water to make it warmer but we ended up not having enough time to do that but luckily Hermana Lowry figured out that there was hot water after all, the switch for hot water hadn't been turned ha. Never listen to the Elders ;-) Anyway all we could find for Mayra to wear was a wrinkly suit. I felt so bad because she looked soo pretty and then had to put that on! You could tell she didn't feel to pretty and was a little embarrassed but she was baptized. Other than the wrinkely suit, oooops, it was wonderful. The spirit was strong and a lot of people went to the baptism, it was awesome awesome!
On Saturday, the same Saturday Mayra was baptized, we went to the temple. Mayra couldn't go, which we really wanted her to go, but Eva Lugo and her girls, Jessica, Lupita, and Venessa; Josie and Josefina went. Moises Campos, one of our less active members came also which was great. Laura Ramirez and her son Chris, who is Josie's boyfriend, came also. It was such a good thing for all of them. Chris is very inactive and doesn't want really anything to do with the church but he went to the temple and attended church because Josie wants him to. I think he'll start coming around with her example. At the temple we watched the "Families together forever" exhibit, watched a short film about the birth of Christ, the Joseph Smith movie, and walked around the temple grounds. They all absolutely loved it and even Lupita, who has 13 years, was talking about what temple she wants to be married in. I can't wait until they start going to church in January. There's just so much to say about each of our investigators and all those we are teaching but I'll just say that things are going well and I'm very grateful.
So on Wed. we got a call from President Jackson. We expected him to call because we pretty much were positive that Hermana Lowry would be training one of the new hermanas that would be coming in. So sure enough he called but none of us were expecting him to say what he did. He was talking to Hermana Lowry and told her that he would like to invite her and me to the training meeting. I could hear him on the phone and so my mouth just dropped open in shock when I heard that. Then he said now let me talk to Hermana Alvey before she drops dead to the ground, which I pretty much had ha. She gave me the phone and he told me that there would be another Hermana coming in that he wanted we to train and Hermana Vawdrey and Cowley would receive their chance to train in January, which is when I was planning on training. Oh my goodness I was so nervous, I'm going to me a mommy! So he called back later that day and asked to speak to both of us because he needed our oppinion. He told us that one of us would be staying in Las Colinas and the other would be going down to Watsonville to pretty much open up the area. We both didn't know what to say just wanted him to make the decision himself but he wanted our oppinions. Hermana Lowry gave me the phone and said here you tell him what you think and then left. I didn't know what to say but I told President that I felt like our members investigators were more comfortable or attached to Hermana Lowry, which is what I think. After I was done Hermana Lowry got on the phone and President told her what I said and wanted to know if it was true. She was like uuuh, well, I don't know. Maybe because I speak more spanish and then President said thank you that's all I need to know. So after that we pretty much figured that I would be leaving and she would be staying but didn't know for sure so it was driving us crazy! On Friday when we went to the training meeting we asked him and he said yes that I would be going to Watsonville and she would be staying. So guess what! I'm leaving and going to Watsonville, yikes! But don't worry President isn't sticking me in a place that I don't know and make me train an Hermana who doesn't speak spanich, she already speaks spanish thank goodness! Hermana Kelson told President that she wanted to train her because she speaks spanish already and he told us that he thought about it but he wasn't going to make me open an area and train an Hermana who doesn't speak spanish, thank goodness!!! So yeah that's what's going on. She'll be coming tomorrow and it should be fun. She'll probably be expecting a trainer who already speaks spanish very well and knows the people and area but nope she get me who doen't know either haha. I was a little nervous about all of this but I prayed about it and I feel like this is the best and it won't be all that easy but all will be well. I guess we'll see how it goes tomorrow! Oh one thing I'm kind of bummed about though is that in this area President had 2 sets of Elders there, spanish and english. What he is doing now is pulling out the English and just putting spanish missionaries there and we will be teaching both english and spanish. He told us that 85% of the people there were spanish speaking so it was pointless to have english missionaries there. I didn't exactly like the idea of teaching english and spanish but it will be ok, I know I'm going to learn spanish and this is where Heavenly Father wants me to be. So we shall see how it all goes. I'm glad that mi nueva can help me out with spanish though =-) So yesterday at church Bishop announced that me and Elder Garcia would be leaving and so we bore our testimonies in Sacrament meeting. It was so sad! I had to keep fighting back tears. I love the people here in Las Colinas so much! I'm really hoping that President will send me back here in Las Colinas the last part of my mission, I guess we shall see. And we're allowed to come back for baptisms, so I get to come back to Las Colinas to see our baptisms. That makes me so happy because I would be soooo sad to miss those. So that is what's going on right now. I'm sure I'll have lots to say next week! Wish me luck lol. And I have no more to say... I'm the queen at writing novels ha. I hope my emails aren't way boring for you guys hehe!
I love you guys mucho muchisimo!!!
Love,
Hermana Alvey
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