Pictures!!

Dearest Family and Friends :)

I hope you have all had a great week! This week has probably been my best week so far in Santa Rosa. We had an investigator come to church yesterday! We also had a family and two other menos activos come to church. We were also super close this week to our goal of having 20 lessons with members... sadly we only made it to 17 but still we were happy since usually we have around 11 or 12.
Another one of our menos activos has started reading the Book of Mormon! We challenged her to read, and when we went back yesterday she was in 1 Nefi chapter 4. I was so happy! We read a chapter with her, and then at the end I asked her son if he would give the closing prayer. He was not too interested so I said it is okay! I will help you. I will say something and you just repeat it. So he gave his prayer, and then afterward he came up to me and gave me a big hug and said "Hermana thank you so much for teaching me how to pray!" My heart basically melted.

This week we had a lesson with Ilda, who is probably around 50 and has strong faith and belief in her religion, but she likes us to teach her because she likes to hear the word of God. We also teach her daughter Vanesah who is 16 and is super adorable. Ilda came in and we started talking and she started talking about her sister who had died. All of the sudden I got this feeling that I needed to talk about work for the dead. I was super freaked out though because I was pretty sure there was no way I could explain it well in Spanish, and I thought my companion would not be super happy if I started talking about a principal we do not teach until after baptism. But then I started listening to my companera, and realized that she was explaining about work for the dead. I was so shocked and surprised and happy. We both felt the Spirit super strongly that her sister was waiting for her to accept the gospel so that she could do her work.
After this experience I realized that these people we are teaching, it is not just us who are hoping that they accept it, but also all of their family in the Spirit World. There are a lot of people on the other side who are also hoping and praying that we will share the gospel with their family. The only way they can be saved and receive exaltation is if their work is done here, on this Earth. I also thought about how sad I will be if one day I make it to the Celestial kingdom and my family and friends are not there. Then it clicked to me why it is so important to turn the hearts of the children to the fathers and the hearts of the fathers to the children! Because if we do not, then we won´t have all of our family and friends with us... and that alone is curse enough for me.

This week I also was reading in D&C 88 and verse 50 hit me super hard. It says  

50 Then shall ye know that ye have ^aseen me, that I am, and that I am the true ^blight that is in you, and that you are in me; otherwise ye could not abound.

I thought this scripture was so awesome! Before in the section it talks about the Celestial Kingdom and Christ's light, and how his light is everywhere in everything. I absolutely loved this scripture though because when we see Christ, we will recognize him, and realize that our entire lives we have seen him. He is in the sunrise, he is in the breeze, he is literally everywhere- because everything has his light in it. In this life we are to walk by faith, but we have the light of Christ in us and everywhere around us to bless us. This life is a probationary time, a time to prepare to meet God, and a time where we are so far away from our true home. Yet we still have Christ with us, if we will only look for him, because he is truly everywhere.

For sad news three different of our families either moved last week or are moving this week, including Ilda and Vanesah and our investigator who came to church yesterday. So we are are definately searching for new families to teach. 

Well there is so much to tell but so little time. I love you all! I also hope you all got to watch the Christmas devotional last night. It was so beautiful. All my dear friends in Utah the people here crave to visit Salt Lake and see the lights and the conference center. Take the opportunity to go and enjoy it for them!

Love you all so much. Hugs and kisses :) 

This is me two weeks ago when it was really cold and rainy.

This picture is mi and mi companera in one of our areas 

This picture is Ilda and Vanesah their last day here in Santa Rosa :( 

This picture is me behind our house. Behind me is our pila for our water. This is where we get water to wash our dishes and clothes.