10/27/14-Happy Halloween from Henryetta!

I can hardly believe it is almost November...what in the world?? They weren't kidding when they said once you hit your nine month mark everything just speeds up!!! SO! Once again we have had an amazing week!! Can I just say that I am so grateful for Heavenly Father blessing me and Sister Fleck with so much success? Seriously, he is amazing and I am so SO grateful to be a part of his work :) Ok so cool stories from this week! Sister Fleck and I were walking down the street on our way to our next appointment when we saw this guy working on his truck and he looked a lot like Kevin, ma. We stopped and were talking to him and pretty soon we're handing him tools and helping him add in another air horn to his truck haha! We start talking about the church and he's had a HARD life. Well, we give him a book of Mormon and set up another time to meet with him and now we're teaching him and his two daughters!! CRAZY! PLUS! We went to a little town we cover called Weleetka and we visited with a guy that the elders had taught a long time ago and he basically told us he wants to get baptized and he came to church last week! WHAT! AND We were running late to church yesterday and we rushed down the hall when I saw a kid sitting on the couches in jeans and I went up and talked to him and apparently he just was stopping in to see how we run church, he'd never been before so we introduced ourselves and brought him into sacrament! Talk about dropping him in our laps!!!! AND AND!!! We had one of our investigators, Lori come to church for the very first time this week and she came praying to know if she should be baptized...she said she really enjoyed church and that she'd let us know Wednesday if she wants to be baptized or not!!! We had 7 investigators at church on Sunday. I'm telling you, it's amazing to be in Henryetta right now. That's not to mention the fact that the Vendels came down to visit me for my BIRTHDAY!!! Brother Vendel brought me cake and we all went out to dinner with the Hardgraves. MAN! I just =think about if I hadn't come on a mission and I shudder because I would've missed out on all of these amazing experiences and mostly all of these amazing people. ALSO! For Halloween, we have to be in by 6 unless we're with members. SO! Sister Fleck and I will be hanging out with our recent convert Steven making knives...hahahaha yes. I don't know how that is much safer than tracting around questionable houses haha but it's gonna be a blast!! :) And! I have discovered the cutest puppies on the planet! They are called akitas!!! OH MA GOSH...THEY ARE THE MOST FLUFFIEST ADORABLE YOU CAN'T HELP BUT LAUGH UNCONTROLLABLY WHEN YOU'RE AROUND THEM CAUSE THEY'RE SO STINKIN ADORABLE PUPPIES ON THE PLANET!!!! Look them up. Your just start smiling and crying over their adorable fluffiness. :) Ok I think that's it except that I now hate my hair. Seriously, I'm never cutting it again. I'm done with the whole afro look...hahah curse you humidity!! :) OH! And we're taking Steven to the temple next week!!!! AND!! Sister Fleck and I got to paint pumpkins at a relief society party on Saturday and it made my life. I've missed being crafty and painting. I'll try to attach pictures! :) I love you all!! Oh! And ma, can you send me my Mariah Carey Christmas cd and the Christmas book (24 days thing) you can just make a copy of it cause I know it's yours tehe but that can wait till almost December I just had to get that out before I forgot! :) Also, thank you sooooooooooo much for my cute new coats!!!!! You guys are the BEST!!

Love you forever,

Sister Moreno

 

PS I'm singing at zone conference……..the same zone conference that Elder Packer is going to be at!!! AND! My companion, sister fleck is getting interviewed by him for some reason!! Eek! She's freaking out haha I love her. :) And here's the great part....the music they gave me to practice (we're doing a quartet of Reverently quietly) was missing 3 pages....ya so! Here's where my site reading comes in handy! Pray for me!!

 

10/14/14

Holy miracles! Ok I am gonna make this one shorter than last week cause that was exhausting haha but I have SOOOO much to say yet again! I'm hopping in!

#1. We had transfers on Thursday and Sister Gregson is now in Berryville! Lucky dog :) And Sister Fleck is my new companion. She's been out just one transfer less than me. It's cool to have a companion that's pretty experienced and basically on the same page as me. This is the first time since sister Breaux that I haven't had a new bee! :) She loves Harry Potter and has a ton of clothes and shoes.so as you can see we will be just fine :)

#2. I will be reaching my 10 month mark this Friday! WHAT? I think they were right about once you hit your half way mark everything is downhill...at least in regards of time thus far.

#3. Meet the Mormons was SOOOOOOO good! If you have not seen it GO SEE IT! We want as many people as possible to see it and like it on facebook and request it in your area on meetthemormons.com It's an AWESOME missionary tool! We've been having our members here take their nonmember friends and it's going REALLY great! Take people to see it!

#4. OK these next few bullet points are the greatest things ever EVER!!!!!! First of all....BILL CRAIG. Yes, BILL CRAIG. Notice the last name as I hop into this miracle. Ok so! For the past 6 months the sisters here have been trying to meet with this man, Bill Craig. He's the husband of a less active lady and he's always busy. He has cancer and he's really been struggling so they've only met with him once. WELL! I saw his name and suggested to Sister Gregson that we try to go see him and just stop in. Well we show up to his house and his wife (whom they've never met) opened the door and welcomed us right in. She told us that she'd just gotten off the phone with her son who lives in Idaho. I was like "Oh! Where in Idaho" And she's like "It's a little town near Twin Falls. It's called JEROME......." ........:o WHAT. YES. I think you can see where this is going. I freaked out all over the place and apparently her son works at the fire station and then Bill comes into the room and I tell him where I'm from and he literally stares at me with his mouth wide open and starts to tear up "I was raised in Jerome" He said and that is the beginning of it all. The last time I saw him (this past week) He told me "Ya know my friends and family back in Jerome have been trying to get me to join the church my whole life. (His best friend is Arlen Crouch by the way...ya haha CRAZY! ) And I have been putting it off for years but now that God is sending missionaries from my home town, I think it might be a sign." "A sign of what?" I asked tehe "That I should get my act together! You know. You can tell me that you are here on your mission for this and that but there is no doubt in my mind why you're on your mission...it's for me."......:O Can you believe that????? I am BLOWN away. There is NO other way than through divine intervention that this has happened! I can't even put into words how I feel but boy oh boy let me tell you, that was a powerful realization that I'm not just here by chance. There are souls out there who need ME. WOW. Let that soak in a bit. We ALL have people like that in our lives. SO ya.

#5. Ok last but most certainly not least! The wedding/baptism for the Weavers was awesome! It was SOOOOOOOO good to see everyone and catch up and be with the Vendels! I love them soooooooooooooo much! They really are my other parents. :) But not only was the wedding and baptism awesome and getting to see the old ward (which remembered me haha I was scared they wouldn't but they all were so surprised and happy to see me...yay!) BUT! THE BEST PART OF ALL.....THE ABSOLUTE BEST PART OF ALLLLLLL.....WASSSSSSSS When I got inside the chapel and sat down I noticed a few faces and then I spotted a couple of ver dear people. Mom do you remember Melanie and Elizabeth??? The mom and daughter that sister breaux and I found and taught and invited to be baptized but then they moved???????......WELL! THEY MOVED BACK AND JUST GOT BAPTIZED LAST WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I literally just stared in shock and turned to the Vendels and they told me and I just broke out in tears! I couldn't help it I cried and they came over and gave me hugs and I cried and told them I was so shocked and happy and mad! I was so mad no one told me!!!!!!! BUT! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT????? Not to mention there was 2 other people that I had taught BESIDES them and BESIDES the weavers that had also gotten baptized! I had in total 5 PEOPLE THAT I TAUGHT GET BAPTIZED!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was/am BLOWN away. Blown away. How can life get any better than that? My whole mission I feel like I've done a lot A LOT of prep work and I've never really seen any lasting results come from it...until now. :) WOW. God is great. I love Melanie and Elizabeth and lane and June and Brother and sister weaver with my WHOLE soul and now I get to rejoice in the fact that they're progressing on the path to eternal life and I was blessed enough to be a part of that. Amazing. The only thing that would've made it better would be if Sister Breaux could've been there. :)

Ok well I'm gonna try and attach some pictures but I just want to say thank you to all those who send me emails and letters. You have no idea how much those mean to me! :) I am so blessed to be here and I can't wait to share more stories next week. I love you all!

Love you forever,

Sister Moreno                            

 

Pics of the greatest weekend ever!!

Melanie and Elizabeth

the Weavers

The Vendels aka my other parents

Lane Hobbs is the kid I helped teach both.

 

 

June is the older lady in the blue.

 

 

 

10/6/14

Ok folks buckle up! I have way too much to tell you in such a short amount of time but I’m going to try anyway. Now these are not in order of importance haha it's ALL important! :) OK SO First of all transfers...I am staying in Henryetta and Sister Gregson is leaving!!! :( I'm going to miss her so much! Seriously, she is so stinking hilarious and she was the breath of fresh air I needed. I am going to miss her crazy hippie ways and her random tangents about food and the troubles of society haha. BUT! You'll never guess where she's going........BERRYVILLE!!!!!!!!!!!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT??!!!!! My mind is BLOWN! :D I have been telling her this whole transfer about it and how I LOVE it and how Arkansas sunsets are better than Oklahoma sunsets haha and I kept telling her that I hoped she'd get to serve there eventually and BAM! She's headed there next! Wow! Haha I love how Heavenly Father works :) We basically trained and pumped each other up for each other’s areas and stayed together long enough to become best friends and now we must go on our merry ways haha. Gosh I wish I could keep her around but if there is anyone that I'd find acceptable enough to turn Berryville over to, it's her :) I love it! Also, Mom she's from Seattle so when we're done with our trip to Harry potter world we're gonna swing by Seattle because you know I love it and you love it too so now Cass just needs to love it haha! :) Anyway on to the next! Elder Allred, one of the Elders that I served with while I was in Charleston (he was in Greenwood and we shared the Greenwood ward) will be coming into my district this transfer!!!! I am SO excited!!! He's like a long lost brother and I've missed that kid! Not to mention he's hilarious :) SO excited! That just made my life when I heard that because sometimes it's a little awkward being in a district with all elders besides your companion but he'll clear that up right quick! Speaking of only sisters...we're losing our 3rd companionship of sisters from our zone thanks to transfers so there's only me and my companion (whom I don't know..The zone leaders forgot her name haha) and one other set of sisters in a zone of about 30 other elders...yay. Talk about minority haha. Now speaking of Greenwood.....holy cow do I have news for you guys. SO! I got a call from Sister Vendel yesterday night and as per usual I LOVE talking to her and I miss her sooooooo much. BUT! She had some news for me. When I was serving in Charleston there were some people we were teaching with the Elders, you may remember them the Eaton's/ weavers??? I wrote about them! Anyway! Before I left Charleston they had planned on getting married in March and they told me they'd come and get me so I could be there well...things happened and the wedding was pushed back. WELL! THE WEDDING AND BAPTISM ARE ON FOR THIS SATURDAY!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! AND! Sister Vendel has taken matters into her own hand haha and already talked to sister Hardgrave her bff that lives here and they'll be meeting half way and dropping me off to spend the night in Charleston to see the wedding and baptism!!!!!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT????!!!! I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED I CAN'T EVEN STAND IT!!! I've missed Charleston sooooo much and then I get to go back and see my first people I taught get baptized ahhhhh! CRAZY! Man! I have been praying that Heavenly Father would send me things to make me happy and holy cow did he ever :) I just can't even believe it. And that's not even it! Sister Gregson and I had THE biggest miracle ever happen the other day. The other day we were sitting in the car and we were talking to our Sister Training leader and we were talking to her about how we were frustrated because we felt like we were surrounded by the prepared but that we couldn't seem to find them. We told her we weren't having any luck finding any new investigators and she told us to stop and pray and ask Heavenly Father to help us find someone new to teach. Well, as she's saying this a man walks up and sits on a bench in front of our car and we turn to each other and tell her "ok we thing we may have found someone". So we quickly said a prayer that Heavenly Father would help us find someone new to teach and if it was to be this man that things would go well. Then we get out of the car and HE starts talking to us! He asked what church we were from and who we were going to go teach. "Me? " he asked. And all we said was "Yep!" "Ok" he said. "You've got 10 minutes before I have to go back to work". So, we proceeded to tell him about the Book of Mormon and about how we have a living prophet on the earth today and how he was actually going to be speaking to the whole world and that we'd love for him to come and see what the prophet had to say. He asked us what time church started and said "Here's my name and number. I'll be there Sunday. And thanks for the book, I love reading. And they would you mind leaving me with a prayer before you leave". We just laugh and stare at each other like "Ummm ya hahah that would be ok" And we left! Isn't that amazing??? Seconds after, actually not even after. WHILE we were talking and hoping to find someone new and prepared to teach, Heavenly Father literally drops a man right in our path. WOW. That moment right there has changed me forever. Sometimes I forget that God WANTS us to find the prepared. He WANTS us to find success and he WANTS us to ask him for help. I have learned to trust in him and the promise he gives over 100 times in the scriptures "ask and ye shall receive". So, when life gets dark and dreary and you feel like you're never going to find anyone to teach, don't forget to pray. :) He is near and he hears our prayers. Holy miracle :) Now to wrap things up. General Conference. Oh. My. Goodness. Spiritual feast.  WOW! I am so blessed to be able to watch conference 3 times while I'm out here and I have to say I've never gotten more out of conference than I did this past weekend. It really hit me that we seriously are so unbelievably blessed to have a modern day prophet. Like RIGHT NOW. I have taken advantage of this fact my whole life and it took me until now, being stranded in little town in Oklahoma miles away from home and basically all civilization haha to realize this! We literally NEVER have to feel lost or confused about ANY topic of life or whatever! God speaks to us ALL the time through President Monson and the other authorities of the church. I have never felt more comforted and blessed to know that God speaks to us then now. There are so many times when I feel lost or confused and unsure of God's expectations of me, but now I know I just have to listen to the words of the prophets. I just have to follow their counsel and I'm golden! And as far as knowing how God feels towards me, the prophet talks about that too!  What a comfort it was to hear multiple people speak of God's love for his children. That as long as we're trying our best to do our best and keep the commandments, he is proud of us. There is NOTHING that can stop God from loving us. It's a fact. God WILL ALWAYS love us. I am so grateful for the gospel and for the resource of a modern day prophet. I invite everyone to read and watch and follow the counsel given by the prophets and apostles. The talks are all online at lds.org. Take advantage of it! You will experience a peace and a comfort that can't be found anywhere else. PHEW! I think that's all. :) Man! Can I just say I love this gospel! :)  I have never done anything more difficult or scary in my life than serving a mission BUT! I have never found more peace or happiness either. I know this is God's work that I'm blessed to be a part of and I hope I remember EVERYDAY, the love and the concern he has for each of his children so that I may share with them the message of his heart. That Christ lives and that through him we may return to our Father in Heaven to live in happiness forever if we just "come unto him".

Love you forever,

Sister Andrea Moreno