10/26/2014

Dear Everyone, 

We had a great week. We worked really hard and we were so blessed. The area is starting to really catch some fire and the work is improving in all aspects. We are finding a lot of new investigators and we have been surprised as several have readily accepted the invitation to be baptized. 

We had a baptism on Saturday and Cipriano is really happy. His two sons and wife will hopefully follow him and be baptized as well. I know Heavenly Father has a plan for that family. Cipriano received the gift of the Holy Ghost and the priesthood as well yesterday. He wants to be the one to baptize his family. 

I wish I had time to tell of all of the wonderful stories. The mission is going so fast. I am trying to make the most of each day. 

Thanks for the continual support and prayers. 

Love you all, 

Sister Santa

10/19/2014

Dear Everyone, 

Hello, I hope everyone had a good week! We had a great week and we saw so many miracles. We worked really hard and we saw the blessings for our efforts.We were able to extend an invitation to our investigator to be baptized and he accepted. June will be baptized on Nov 29. Through him, a former investigator, we also found his brother and his brother's wife. We are now teaching them as well. The Lord works in mysterious ways, and I testify that He always works (Alma 16:16-17).

All of our lessons this past week were really quality! Being a missionary and working with the members and doing the work of the Lord is the best job ever.

I was studying in Chapter 13 of Preach my Gospel this morning. All about working with our local leaders to further the work. I hear great news about the Oak Hills Ward and I am so pleased! I know the work has progressed incredibly since I have left. I am over joyed to hear all about the new ward missionaries and the efforts of the ward. 

Keep loving and praying specifically for the sister missionaries and those they are teaching and I know that Oak Hills will be even more blessed with success and growth. 

I love you all and the time goes so fast. I have 5 months to go. :)

With love,

Sister Santa

10/12/2014

Dear Everyone, 

Thank you for the emails and thank you for your continuous support and prayers. I love getting mail every once in a while as well. It's a nice surprise and it always reminds me that I have people cheering me on back in Oregon. I can't always find the time to write, but I'm working on it. Thank you again!

We had a lot of service opportunities again this week. It feels so good to serve. We helped a family sack raw rice on the side of the road for about 20 minutes. We were just walking and I felt impressed to stop as my companion kept walking. So we offered help and I was really surprised when they didn't turn it down. They were really grateful because they had been working for hours. After we found out they had been taught by Elders in the past. This experience really, really taught me again that the Lord is aware of the minor details of our lives, and He makes us instruments to plant seeds in the hearts of His children until the time that they will accept the restored Gospel. 

I know that our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live and love us. Every family needs the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be truly happy and to have an eternal family in the presence of God. I know we all have power to share this message, just like the talk of Elder Bednar from General Conference. 

General Conference was really great. All of my questions were answered and I really received a lot of revelation. Isn't it great to know these truths? 

I hope that you will all continue to be examples in word and deed and share these truths with your friends and neighbors and don't be afraid to invite them to learn more! 

We visited one sister this week that has been rejected and cast out by her friends because she invites them to meet the missionaries and be taught. We shared with her a verse from the New Testament about being rejected for Christ's sake and the blessings we have in heaven. I can't remember the verse right now and I can't find it now on lds.org, but I know everything has an eternal blessing for our efforts and courage. 

Love you all, 

Sister Santa

10/05/2014

Dear Everyone, 

This was a really hard week. But we had some amazing miracles to help. I liked Helamen 15:7-8 this past week. We must continue being diligent in crying repentance and proclaiming the truth, because if we don't, we take the fault on our own heads. 

Even though we did our goal for service, and we had a wonderful opportunity on Tuesday night. We went to a return appointment with some new investigators. Even though we texted and they knew we were coming, when we arrived they tried to reschedule our appointment. We were sad and we asked why, and they said because they had some friends coming for dinner and they hadn't finished cooking yet. Yes! Sister Lee and I looked at each other because this is easy service. We helped the mom cook and fry fish while her husband and sons watched tv. We had great time to talk with her, and our fellowshippers spent time talking to the dad and kids. 

After we helped her, she invited us for dinner, but we declined and then she asked us to share a message before we left. We taught the Restoration and the Spirit was really strong and then at the end of the lesson, after much persuasion, we got the father to pray and ask if what we taught was true. He prayed and smiled and said that he felt good. 

On Thursday we went back to them and they told us they didn't want us to come anymore because their church is the same. We were so surprised and said because it's a whole family, and families are really hard to find. We also prayed and planned to extend an invitation for them to be baptized as a family. We were so sad, and I was sad because after serving them I really felt love for them and especially for sister. We bore our sincere testimonies at the door, and then walked away sad. 

This same thing happened several times this past week. Our investigators broke up with us, and so we are trying to find right now. One day as we were studying, it was a huge blessing. The day before in one of the houses I saw a simple chart, like a child made it in school. It was a family tree with pictures up until her grandparents. I couldn't stop thinking about that, because I've never seen anything like that before. The next morning in my study, I was drawn to study about Family History to find people interested in our message. I received really clear revelation that this is how we will find people to teach, serve, and gain their trust. They will learn for themselves that our Church is different. We are excited to invite people to search their ancestors. We planned yesterday with the Bishopric to have a ward activity open house about family history. Pray that we will be able to do these things!

This was our week. We are doing our best, and service really is the pure love of Christ. 

Love you all and have a great week, 

Sister Santa