2/24/14 at 4:09 PM
Dear Ma,
Oh goodness I am just wiped out right now. It has been an exhausting week! We had 3 exchanges! THREE.....That's a ton and a half haha. Sister Shumway was with us on one of those..ya that's not intimidating at all haha just kidding she's alright. She was there to watch Sister Breaux so there wasn't as much pressure on me hehe poor thing. BUT! That's sooooo cool about Lisa! Fun times! And congratulations! :) Thank you for including a picture of what the Silver Beaver looks like! It's cute! :)And OH MY GOODNESS MELISSA LEAVES WEDNESDAY?????? AWESOME!!! TELL HER I LOVE HER AND THAT I'LL WRITE HER!! AHHHH SO EXCITING! :D And yay! You talked to Sister Vendel today? Haha cool beans! They really are so great to live with. They really take care of me and Sister Breaux. Sister Vendel calls in my prescriptions and Brother Vendel picks them up! They are FANTASTIC and I don't know how I got so lucky to live with them especially for two transfers!! I'm sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo thankful that I am though. I thank Heavenly Father every day. So, anyway thank you also for the letter and the pictures! I really loved them...except I am slightly confused about the one with Santa and Mrs. Clause???? Hahahaha I had no idea we had connections like that! :) And thank you for taking care of my pictures and putting them on a CD!! I love you! Also, the Valentine's day balloons were AWESOME! We took a video of us "inflating them" haha they were awesome! :) Ok I'm rambling. SO getting down to business! This week has been AMAZING. Amazing in that I feel like a completely different person. I feel like I've grown leaps and bounds! We have decided that we have to go about teaching the people in Charleston differently than those in our other towns(Lavaca, and Booneville). Ya see Charleston is a REALLY small town and everyone knows everyone and everyone's church and the only members in the town are the Vendel's, the Vendel's daughter, and the vet. :) Haha and we just really haven't found too many receptive people there but! When we were on exchanges with Sister Shumway she noticed the same thing and told us that we are Ammons! We have to serve those whom we hope to teach so that they begin to trust us. SO! We're gonna start volunteering at the Animal shelter, the nursing home, and we're gonna go meet the mayor at some point to talk about community service projects! I'm excited to start this because we were starting to feel a little stuck in Charleston. SO! YAY for a game plan. :) Our other towns are really doing well though! Brother Henry(the one we took to the temple) is doing GREAT! He's always so happy and excited now! Ever since we went to the temple he's a lot more open and chatty haha it's great! He had a really amazing experience there. When he went in to do confirmations he recognized the names. He was confirmed for TWO OF HIS HIGH SCHOOL BEST FRIENDS WHO WERE KILLED IN A CAR ACCIDENT........can you believe that?! It was incredible! He was so shocked but touched and I couldn't explain why or how that happened other than that Heavenly Father meant for him to be the one to do their confirmations and that it was most definitely not an accident. WOW. That was awesome. Also, We were tracting in Greenwood which is technically the elders area but we have church there and we didn't have enough miles to go to our area and be back for mutual haha so we tracted around there and OH MY GOODNESS. We had an AMAZING day Wednesday. We ended up meeting about 5 really great people 2 of which we had a lesson with and then I spotted a house that I thought we should go to and Sister Breaux spotted another one she thought we should go to. SO we headed towards mine and then we were gonna go hit hers. Well, she turns and is like we should go to mine first so I was like ok! And we headed over there and I'm soooo glad we did! We ended up running into a lady who just got home from work and she came up to us to talk to us. It turns out she knows some members from our ward and LOVES them. Their sons went to college together and she admired the fact that whenever her son was with their son they never had to worry about them getting drunk or doing other stupid stuff that the other guys would do. And we honestly just talked with her about Arkansas and about how she's a school councilor and we talked for about 20 minutes! She was so nice! Then! She starts asking US questions about the church. Specifically if we worshiped Joseph Smith and about the Book of MOrmon replacing the Bible. AWESOME! We were able to explain that we do NOT worship Joseph Smith, we worship Heavenly Father and Jesus CHrist and Joseph Smith played a central part in restoring CHRIST'S church on the Earth. And then we told her about the Book of Mormon and how it proves the Bible to be the word of GOd and that it most definitely doesn't replace it, it supports it and the fact that Christ is our Savior. She was really shocked to hear that cause she'd always been told otherwise so yay for truth! :) We then gave her a Book of Mormon and she told us that she's trying to get through the Bible in 90 days...brave soul haha and that she'd include studying the Book of Mormon after she read from the Bible everyday! AWESOME! Then after we met her we walked down to the house I wanted to see...well the car was pulling out of the drive way and we were awkwardly standing there but we waited for him to drive up to us and wow.....that's when we met Ronnie. :) I'm telling you. We were MEANT to be there at that time. He rolled down his window and we started talking to him. He told us that he was headed to go pick up his daughter and somehow he got to talking about how he's just been divorced for a couple of months and how he promised God that he would be a good father if he was able to stay near his daughter and other family and how he's been feeling like God is preparing him for something. YA. Crazy haha we're just slightly blown away and then we start talking about the things we believe in and we give him an Article of Faith card and we testified that Heavenly Father sent us to him for a reason and he said: "I know he did, because I don't usually do this. When my daughter calls I drop everything and go get her but something told me to stop and talk to you girls" :) We have a return appointment with him TONIGHT! Eek! Hopefully it goes well!!! We've been praying like crazy for him. Oh! And after he left we went next door to his brothers house and he was just as great! He was super friendly and he gave us $20 to go eat lunch! Haha we told him we couldn't take it and tried to stick it back in his house but he told us to take it right now or he'd call whoever's in charge and complain :) Haha he was AWESOME! So nice! They're both around their mid to late 50s. Haha gotta love stubborn southern Grandpas :) Really though, they're great :) And then! Ronnie drives back up to us after we've met with his brother and introduces us to his daughter! He came back just so she could meet us! The spirit really touched his heart and he started crying when we talked about God knowing him so it should be really good! Then! Later that night we went to dinner with Brother Goldsmith and the Elders and we saw one of the ladies we met but didn't have a lesson with and she said hi to us! She introduced us to her family and she told us she was sorrhy that she didn't let us in but that she's a wedding coordinator and she was meeting with a bride! AHHH!! That was so cool! She gave us her card and we told her to give us a call if she needed help setting up weddings. We're l;ike "Seriously though, give us a call we love weddings!" Haha yay for wedding coordinators wanting the gospel! And then! Oh man here's the icing on top of our Fabulous Wednesday cake! :) We went to the gas station cause I had to go to the bathroom and we have a potential investigator that works there and so we stopped. Well, it just so happens that one of our investigators, Jeremy, whom we've tried to set a baptismal date with 3 TIMES was walking in and the reason he won't get baptized is because he doesn't want to quit chewing tobacco. WELL! What do you think he was going into that gas station for? That's right! So we rush in and we're like this is not a coincidence! We see him talk to him, watch him like a hawk all the way to the cash register and he grabs a bag of Jolly Ranchers! ;) Aww ya haha. That's was perfect! Then I go to the bathroom and come out and Sister Breaux is talking to this construction worker guy who turns out to be the nephew of our potential who's husband and son happen to be standing outside smoking with a couple of their friends! WHAT?! hahaha it was awesome! We end up having a lesson with him inside then we go outside and join the smoking circle haha they're all pretty nice but a couple of them leave and we have a lesson with them, and then at the end we have this big ol prayer outside the gas station next to the ash tray garbage can thingy! It was so funny yet cool haha they're now meeting with the Elders! :) Life is good. Ya so Wednesday was a VERY good day! Ya know there's some days out here that are pretty darn hard because of different things and sometimes I really start to feeling like caca because Sister Breaux is so awesome and everyone loves her and she's super good at the scriptures and she's Sister Training Leader and I'm not very good at the scriptures at all and I don't have all the answers and a lot of people love me too, but a lot of people don't know me like they know her so it's kind frustrating sometimes and it feels like I'm kind of invisible every once in a while but then I remember Christ and how he was humble and he didn't stand out in a way that anyone would desire and yet he did great and marvelous things and he had the love of God to constantly surround him because he was doing what his Father asked him to. That's like me only super imperfect and selfish and not Christ haha but the same in that I'm just trying my best and trying to do what God has asked me to. It's not about being liked best or about being super well versed in the scriptures. It's about being willing and obedient. It's about giving it all you've got to bring others closer to Christ. And I've learned that there's nothing We can say and no deep insight that we've had about life that will help anyone more than the gospel of Jesus Christ will. That's why it's SO important to make sure we're teaching our classes and those we meet true doctrines, because CHRIST and his doctrine will bless people and will open the doors to eternal life with their families. Ya :) So it's ok not to be the best or the favorite or the one who stands out because God looks at our heart and our actions. His view of us is what really matters. Ok, I gotta start wrapping it up, but Sister Breaux and I will be singing this week at our Sister's only training meeting! The Elders asked President Shumway is they could have an Elders meeting and he said: "No way. I told you I love the sisters more than you." Hahaha it was awesome! Sucks for them but he really does love the Sisters so much! :) It's really sweet and it makes me feel good. We'll be singing at that on Wednesday and then we'll also be singing at Rusty Palmer's Homecoming. The Palmers live in our ward and they feed us almost every week! They're awesome and I love them so much. They don't have ANY video games in their house and their other son just won 4th place in state wrestling...as a Freshman! He was starting for the Varsity team! Ya they're so sweet too! I've seriously never met such awesome kids so become his friend! :) K that's all on that matter, I don't know that that's missionary appropriate haha. But ya we're singing at Rusty's homecoming we're singing "Well done, thou good and faithful servant" Oh my heavens. Look that song up mom, it will make you sob. It makes me cry and I don't know how we're going to get through it casue we're living the things he's finishing. Weird. But it's such a good song and it'll be great! Lastly, last Monday we got to go hang out with Brother Goldsmith and the Greenwood and Poteau Elders at some Viking ruins! It was so nice! We got to hike a bit and just enjoy being in jeans haha and the weather was awesome! Plus! Me and Sister Breaux got to hold his neighbors bunnies who run around the yard like dogs! SO CUTE! And then we got to go feed his cows and ride in the back of his truck! Haha it was seriously the best preparation day I've had yet. IT was nice to just enjoy being relaxed. IT felt like being at home so that was soooooo cool. And today we were with all of them again and Brother Goldsmith got another blessing for his hearing because it's been better but he still couldn't hear very well. Goodness, that man is amazing! He is soooooo smart and wise and he gives all the glory to CHrist and we just love being around him! He's about 60 ish. But he's so sweet to us he tells us he wishes we were his daughters but then he wouldn't want to take us from our families haha. And today after his blessing I asked him for a blessing because I've been feeling kind sick for the past few weeks and I can't shake it.Well, it was quite possibly the most perfect blessing I could've received right now. Not only did it tell me I'd be healed and have the strength and health I need to get the Lord's work done, but it also said that I'd be involved in miracles, that Heavenly Father will send angels to surround me and my companion as we go about his work to protect us, that my family would be strengthened and uplifted by my service out here and that Heavenly Father loves me and has put me in the Greenwood area now for a purpose. :) It was amazing. Especially, the part about you guys. I know that Heavenly Father watches out for me and all of you and I pray that the things I get to be apart of out here will bless you and bring you strength. I hope and pray that you guys are well and that you're ever mindful of the workings of the spirit. Listen to and pray for promptings of missionary work! You guys are great and you know so many who are ready to hear Heavely Father's gospel. Don't be afraid. REPLACE FEAR WITH FAITH!! I have to do that EVERY DAY. It's slightly ridiculous and I'm working on it haha but sometimes it's scary to share the gospel but with Christ all things are possible and Elder Ballard's last general conference talk explains it all. I love you all sooooo much!!! And thank yous to Deli, Kenya, and Cass for the letters!!! I'll call off the Arkansas mafia that I sent out to hunt you guys down ;) Love you. Be strong! And feel free to send me letters cause I LOVE THEM SO MUCH! :)
Love you forever,
Sister Moreno
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