Welcome to Manvel!! (week 53)

Well folks... I have been now assigned to serve in Manvel West!!! I am soooo happy and excited to be here!!! Lots of awesome people that I know have served here. Like Hermana Green and Hermana Berg ( from Heber who went home a while ago) but its so cool to be serving here. I went from always serving in small bike areas my entire mission to now serving in a HUGE area in a car!! Its insanneeeeee how big this area is!!! This area was huge before, and the just made it bigger! We took like half of the Elders area. And all their investigators and members... oops. Well just about everything here is different from my other areas. There are some really really nice neighborhoods and then some trailer parks (which are my favorite! other than the stray dogs.... not my fav), we have TONS of members, and TONS of work to do! I am so excited to get to work. Well we have already gotten to work, but I am really excited to serve here for the next 4 months and terminar mi mision aqui! With being transferred, I have just learned a lot about the Plan of Salvation. Sounds funny but i really have. I have just recieved so many confirmations that the Lord has a specific plan for each and every one of us. He loves each of us SO much and He just wants us to be happy. Sometimes we have to struggle, but the times of struggle are the ones that help us to learn and to grow. My last area was a struggle and I had a really hard time. But coming here, I am able to see the progression and how far I have come in the past 14 months of my mission. Heavenly Father has given me experiences that have changed me for the better and into the person that He wants me to be. And I am so grateful for all the hard times that have helped me be the person I am today. I have a lot more growing to do, but I've come a long way :)

So Tuesday was the "say your last goodbyes" day. It was hard but throughout the day I just felt peace because I knew I had done everything that I was supposed to in Galveston. Saying goodbye to the Arredondos and Eloisa and Jessica was the HARDEST though! I told Maria Arredondo that I was leaving and she was so sad. Then at the end she told me how grateful she was for us and all we had done for her and we both cried. It was just so sad! I have faith that one day she will join the church and go to the temple with her husband! And I will be there!!! Then she gave me some sunglasses. yessss. haha so great :) Then later that night I had to say goodbye to more family. Everyone there was family. Eloisa made us Mole (her mole is my FAVORITE. sooo good) and we finally got Hector, her son, to listen to the lesson!! SO AWESOME. And then we had to say goodbye. Jessica was crying crying crying and it made me so sad to leave! But they are going to be so awesome. And I will see them again soon! I just love them so much. But they will be taken care of :) 

Wednesday was transfers day! We drove up to the mission office and i was SO nervous. I had NO idea where i was going!! I had some hopes but I really had no idea. I was just praying that I wasnt going to go english. So we are there in transfer meeting and there pops up my picture! Serving in Manvel West with Hermana Duncan! WHOOO HOOO! At first I was really nervous and still so scared. But then I got really excited and ever since then I have been so happy. We have already seen so many miracles these past couple days. 

Thursday we had an appointment with a recent converts mom, Blanca and then did weekly planning! Then that night we had a lesson with a member named Mario who lives with his wife and dad who are both not members. Jose is the dads name and he told us how he used to go to church all the time and even feed the missionaries in Colombia. He was basically an active member there. But then here, he has only come twice. He told us he doesnt want to be baptized because he doesnt want to commit. He even knows he is losing blessings!!! So please pray for him!!! But we were super excited to get in with him. And we brought a member with us who bore such strong testimony and then we asked her to bear her testimony about missionary work in sacrament yesterday and she did! :) 

Friday we had a lesson with the mom and little sister of a member in the Pearland ward and it was a great lesson! I instantly just loved them so much!! They are really praying to know that these things are true. And then we invited them to the relief society activity that night and they came!! And they LOVED it!! I feel really good about them and we are really excited for them :) The Relief Society activity was so fun though. I got to meet a lot of the members and we had a Spa Night! We did facial masks and had yummy snacks. I love this ward.

Saturday we had a really cool experience! We contacted an investigator, Eunice, and she told us we couldnt come in because she was tired and not feeling good because of some hard things that have happened lately and we just bore testimony of the Atonement and how much God loves her and wants her to be happy and will help her and then she let us in! It was really cool to see the spirit work through us to her!! And it softened her heart!! And she is going to think about coming back to church :) yay!! I love this work!!!

Then yesterday we had church and an investigator Yvette came!! She is sooooo cool! I love her! She listens to Mo-Tab at work!! haha so awesome!!! And she loved it. Her son Evan loved it too! He was so happy :) We are so excited for her and are planning on extending a date tomorrow! Then we found some super cool investigators that seem like they are so interested and are coming to church next sunday!

I am just so grateful and excited to be here serving the Lord and doing His work! This is truly His work and we are just His instruments. His hands. And I am sooo happy to be here helping Him. Nothing has ever brought me so much happiness and pure joy. Thank you for all your love and support and I hope yall have a great week!!!

Con amor, 

Hermana Dorian :)

Miracle Baptism and Getting Transferred (week 52)

Wow. When i look back on this past week, it just makes me sooo happy. We decided to just work as hard as we could, especially with it being the last week of the transfer. I made some personal goals to be more exactly obedient and work hard. And because of that, we were able to see a lot of miracles! I forgot my planner today though.. so  hopefully I can remember everything that happened. My planner is my BRAIN.

Only the big huge things are standing out in my mind right now! So on Wednesday we had lots of things planned! We were biking along and passed by a lady sitting on her porch. I waved at her and kept biking. Then I got that sick feeling that I should have talked to her and that we should go back. So we did! Her name is Vicki and we talked/ taught her for 30 minutes there on her porch. She said that she was raised Catholic but was going to a Methodist church. But she said that there were things about the Catholic church that she didnt like.. no one says that!!! haha it was great. So we taught her a really short Restoration and she was like, "Well.. all of that just makes sense!" YEAH IT DOES. Ah! I love it when people understand. So we talked a little bit more with her. The English sisters are now teaching her and she came to church yesterday :) My testimony grows everyday of the importance of listening to the Spirit. Listening to EVERY SINGLE prompting of the spirit that we receive.

Friday, I drove Sister Workinger up to her meeting in Sugarland and got to go on an exchange with Hermana Agyin, and Hermana Mishler! It was pretty fun. They are great hermanas! I love all the Hermanas serving here in this mission and I am glad I have gotten to know so many of them. But then that night we called Hermana Villarreal and asked her how their day had been so far and she said that Eloisa had texted our phone and asked if they could meet with us to see if Jessica really was ready for baptism (she had had her interview the night before). So i was of course freaking out!! i was like noooo this cant happen!! So we decided to heart attack their front porch. So much fun. We cut out tons of hearts and wrote messages on them and taped them to their stairs on the porch. Then we texted Eloisa to come out, and we hid. Then she came out and just waited there so we were like okay lets go talk to her!! She was so happy! Jessica was with her dad so she hadnt seen it yet but she knew she was going to love it. We got a text later that night saying that Jessica CRIED when she saw it!!! AHHHH she is the cutest thing in the entire world!! :)

Now to Saturday. Saturday morning it started raining. Not very hard. But then when we got out on our bikes, it started POURING!!!!! Eloisa asked us if we needed a ride and we had her meet us halfway to the appointment. But it was too far and we were COMPLETELY SOAKED. It felt like I was biking through a lake. I couldnt see because my eyes were filling up with water and the streets were like rivers. I actually thought it was super duper fun... :) But then we had a lesson with Eloisa and Jessica and talked about their concerns and she was sooo ready for baptism! That night, she was baptized!! It was a really tender experience. Eloisa cried and they were all so happy. And the branch really stepped up and helped us out with the food so much! So grateful for all of them!!! It was amazing to see how the gospel has changed their lives :)

Sunday.. Jessica was confirmed!! And... THE ARREDONDO's CAME AGAIN!!!!! Ah that was such a miracle. And they LOVED church!!! I hope that they continue to come and that Maria can get baptized soon. But... my time has come. My time to leave Galveston Island. We got transfer calls this morning and I am being transferred!! It's very bitter sweet! The people here are amazing and I love them alot. But I am excited to see what else is in store for me in my mission! I am so sad to leave Hermana Villarreal.. she is AWESOME! But I know she will do a great job taking over the area. We will see on Wednesday where I go! :)

Well I know this church is true. And that through convents is the only way we can return to live with our Father in Heaven again. I know He loves us and answers all our prayers. He is mindful of us and knows us perfectly. :) This is the greatest message ever!!!

Have a great week!

Love, Hermana Dorian

Vision of the South (week 51)

What a great week. Actually it was a super duper crazy exhausting week. But I just want to start off with a quote that my awesome mom sent to me!

"'Make no small plans, they have no magic to stir men's souls.' This is the Vision i have for the South. I believe that one day the South will baptize more people into the church than all other English-speaking missions in the world together. There are a great hosts of marvelous Baptists, member of the Church of Christ, Methodists, and Catholics, who are honorable people and have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and love him. As they see their church veering off to the right or to the left of those basic teachings, they will begin to search for truth, and as pivotal teachers come into the church and have influence we will see the time when we will baptize hundreds, and thousands, tens-of-thousands, in your day you will see a million members of the church in the South. There will be Temples plural in the South States. what a great call you have to serve with these marvelous people. The missionaries love the South. WE are making great strides and expect to continue."

- Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone and President Spencer W. Kimball

This just makes me so happy to be serving a mission! This is seriously the coolest thing in the world. And serving in the south, I can see what they are talking about. There are so many people that have so much faith and love for Jesus Christ. And as we teach them more about the Restoration and the need for one, they will be able to recognize that we are the only church that has ALL the truth. Not just some of it. We have some friends we are teaching that are starting to recognize that their churches arent true. They have some truth, not just all of it. And I am sooo grateful to be here spreading this wonderful message of the gospel with others!!

So this week was actually super duper awesome!! Lots of miracles happened. It wasnt the easiest week, but the church is true and miracles are happening. To start off, Tuesday we did a service project where we went to a baptist church and helped the Galveston Food Bank with a Food Fair. I got to sit at a table with Books of Mormon and pamphlets to give to people. Which I LOVED. I just got to tell people about the Book of Mormon and then ask if we could come by and visit them! Lots of awesome prepared people were there! And we got to serve! :)

On Wednesday we had district meeting but that morning we got a text from Eloisa saying that more things had happened and she needed our help! So we rushed over there on our way to the church!! We just sat and listened and cried with her and I just felt soooo bad for her. The more we try and do what the Lord wants us to do, the more Satan  attacks our families and our lives. Which is what is happening to this family. And it just breaks my heart. But they are such great examples. They have soooo much faith!!  And they know what they need to do and arent letting satan get in the way! YOU GO ELOISA! :)

Skip to Saturday, we went up to Hitchcock with the Familia Rivera to do some service for them! It was our district and the english elders that all went! They just bought some land and there was a super old house that had been knocked down by a storm a really long time ago. So we helped them take that apart and then put all the wood into piles and burned it! haha the fires were seriously so big and you couldnt go anywhere near it or else you would melt. For reals. It like scared me! But then we got home and had a lesson with Eloisa and Jessica. If i could go to their house everyday I would. I love them so much and they are seriously family. So we had an awesome lesson with them and Jessica's friend Te'a. Then we saw the Arredondo's then went to.... LEONORS BAPTISM in HOUSTON 9!!! Remember Leonor?? She finally started listening to missionaries again when I got there to that area and I got to see her whole progression. Then she moved to Houston 2 then I got transferred. Well a few months later she was ready and she got baptized on Saturday and I got permission to go!! I was soooooo happy!! I got there and I was shaking because I was just so happy for her!!! They are family as well. It was amazing to see them. Ah i love when the gospel changes lives :)

Then skip to our crazy day yesterday! Since it was Memorial day, we had to change our Pday. So yesterday was District Meeting and then after that, we went to the english sisters new apartment by the church to grab some stuff and we were headed out and.... the car wouldnt start. Whaaa? So our day consisted of sitting and waiting for the elders to mess with it and then for the tow truck to take it. And we still havent heard back. So crazy! Anyways eventually we got out to teach and we got our bikes from Eloisa's house. We talked to them for a little bit and then they brought up baptism. I asked Jessica how she was feeling and she said she would think about getting baptized on Saturday. We are biking away and we get a text from Eloisa saying that JESSICA SAID YES TO BAPTISM ON SATURDAY!! THIS SATURDAY!!! ahhhhhh!! we are seriously soooooo excited for them!! they are an amazing family and we are so excited for Jessica :) Miracles happen!

Well that's all I have for today!! Thank yall for all your love and support!! Have a great week :)

Con amor, Hermana Dorian

I Pet A Pitbull (week 50)

 I HATE pitbulls. Sooooo much. They are ugly and they hurt little children on bikes. But on Monday we went to go to our appointment and the lady's daughter was outside with their dogs. One of them was a pitbull. I asked her if it was nice and she said he was VERY FRIENDLY. Sooo... i had to pet it just to say that I had. It was a very nice one. And that was a big accomplishment for me!!

Okay now onto my AWESOME week!! We had soo many really spiritual lessons and moments and I learned a TON this week. We were also running around crazy allllll week!

Tuesday, we did studies and then had to go get the car fixed. The brakes were making some weird noises and it ended up being like metal on metal. NOT GOOD. sooo we ended up being there 3 HOURS. We were dying. it took SO LONG. We talked to/shared the gospel with every person that came in, waited for their car, then left. It was great. And then a member brought us some donuts. blessings!! But then that night we went out with the Orellanas and none of our appointments were home. I was so frustrated. But then i just felt like we needed to teach the Orellanas. So we sat in their car by the other sisters apartment (waiting for them to get home) and taught them about Family History and temple work. The spirit was so incredibly strong. Hermana recieved revelation that she needs to make a sacrifice and go to Guatemala to get information for family members that are waiting for her to take their names to the temple. It was AWESOME. I was just so grateful to be a missionary. And so grateful for the temple and the wonderful privilege that we have to do the work for those who are deceased and didnt have the opportunity to hear about the gospel here on the earth. That there is still hope for them and they can still be saved. Our Father in Heaven loves us SO MUCH. Its incredible. :)

Wednesday was a little rough at first and we couldnt find anyone to teach!!! But then we ended up finding 2 news, Fabiola and Nancy that are AWESOME. I am really excited to start teaching them more!! Then we had a lesson with Eloisa and Jessica. They are doing AWESOME. They came to church yesterday and absolutely loved it. Eloisa is even sick. Its just been the most amazing experience to watch Eloisa become reactivated and Jessica told us she would be baptized next saturday!! She later told us she wants to learn more but we are sooo excited for them. They are amazing. We love them so much. But then we taught english class and Nelson came!! We got to teach him about family history and temple work and it was something so new to him but he is excited to start and get going! sooooo cool. Hopefully this helps him grow his faith enough so that he can be baptized soon!!

Skip to Friday! Thursday night we drove up to Sugarland and stayed with the Sanders because on Friday we had the amazing opportunity to go to the temple with President and Sister Ashton, President and Sister Crane, and some other sisters from the mission!! IT WAS AMAZING. After the endowment session we went to a training room where we were instructed by the temple president and president ashton. I learned SO MUCH! Some things i still need to study out more but it was an amazing opportunity. I am so thankful for temples and I know that they are truly the House of the Lord. And i love going!! I have made a goal to go very often when i get home!! So then when we got home, we went and taught some more new investigators, a daughter and her mom and they are GREAT. So cute!! And are very interested!! YAY!

Well that is basically it! its been a great week and we are being greatly blessed. I love this work and I KNOW this church is true!!! :) Hope yall have an amazing week!!

Thank you for all your love and support!!! :)

Con amor, hermana dorian!

OPEN Your Mouth (week 49)

First of all, it was SO AWESOME talking to the family yesterday!!! I love Mothers day!!! :) It really was so good though. I have been blessed with the most amazing family in the entire world. I mean I am pretty biased... but its the truth!!! I was really impressed by Eden's spanish! Second of all, Heavenly Father hears and answers ALL of our prayers!! We were super rushed a few hours ago and I was driving and speeding in a school zone... and got pulled over. Just my luck. So I pulled over and we were all just praying that I wouldnt get a ticket. And Heavenly Father heard our prayers and he just gave me a warning! HALLELUJAH!!!! BLESSINGS!! I love the power of prayer.

Okay so onto the week. We had a really good week!!! Well... there were the ups and downs. It was really hard and a really good week at the same time. In response to the title of this email, I have gained such a strong testimony of "Opening Your Mouth" and talking to EVERYONE. We saw a lot of miracles from it. Everyone might now accept to hear more about our message, but either way, miracles and blessings come. And I know that is true. :)

So to start off the week, Tuesday we were able to see a lot of investigators. And we finally got a member to come out with us in the evening! It was a good and bad day. Maria Arredondo told us that she doesnt want to be baptized. :( I was crying. It just broke my heart and was the hardest thing ever for me to hear someone that a few days before was so excited and ready to be baptized and that I loved and cared for so much, tell me that she didnt want to make that decision in her life that I knew would bring her so much happiness, joy, and comfort that she needed in her life! Especially right now!! Literally i was heartbroken. So we just told her that we love her and that we would give her the time she needed to be prepared and ready. So please keep her in your prayers!

Wednesday we had an AWESOME Zone Conference!! We talked a lot about the Atonement, Family History, and the future. They talked a lot about how so much persecution is coming for the members of the church. And we need to be ready and create the habits of reading the scriptures everyday, praying everyday, going to church, and all those things that are going to help us to overcome the adversary and his temptations. So it just made me think a lot. And I loved talking about family history!! We have been talking about it with everyone now and its been awesome. Going to the temple and doing family history eliminates the influence of satan in our lives. How cool is that?! Definitely going to do more of that in the future! :) But at Zone Conference I made a promise with myself and with the Lord that I was going to start sharing the gospel with EVERYONE! And making that effort to stop and open my mouth! Later that night, we stopped and talked to a man that was interested in the church and we taught him right there as he was watering the trees in his front yard! And it felt so good! I was so much happier because I had the spirit with me. Because i was doing what the Lord wanted me to do!

Okay so fast forward to Friday, we go see an investigator named Sylvia. We had taught her like 5 minute lessons I think twice before. So she really knew nothing. But this time we sat down and she just unloaded on us. It went from her telling us she was really catholic to how she is so scared of the world and all the bad that there is, to how she wants more in her life to come closer to God. She said, "I go to the Catholic church every sunday but just for an hour! I need more than that!" I was like WHAT?!?!?!!? So I told her that we go to church for 3 hours, we apply what we learn at church, and we are a big family there! SHE WAS STOKED!!! For reals. I have never seen anyone so excited about 3 hour church. Pretty sure I have never been so excited for 3 hour church. It was insane! She was sooo happy too. This gospel just brings pure happiness. :)

Now to Saturday. Probably the greatest day of my entire mission. We had an appointment in the morning with that less active Eloisa that called us last week! I was supppperrr excited for this lesson. So we get there and they were waiting for us and they were so happy that we were there! Eloisa then tells us how happy her 10 year old daughter Jessica was when we left last week. So we had prepared a Plan of Salvation lesson for them. We just felt like that was what they needed to hear especially at this time in their lives. It ended up being the most powerful and spiritual lesson I have ever taught on my mission. The spirit was so strong! I cant even explain the feelings I felt in that 40 minute time period that we were there. At the end when we were talking about the Celestial Kingdom, I asked them what makes them the most happy. And then I asked them to imagine that feeling forever! And thats what it will be like in the Celestial Kingdom. She was crying, I was crying, it was just so awesome! It really hit them and they just understood. Eloisa then told us that Jessica wants to be baptized and I could just see evidence of how this gospel just brings true happiness and joy. Nothing that the world can provide. Its amazing. Well then the lesson had to end and we left. I was sooo happy. Then we get a call from Eloisa and she asked if we could come over in an hour and eat lunch with them. YEAH!! Jessica loved having us over and asked if we could come over for lunch. She was also suppperrr excited that we left 2 Books of Mormon for them!! :) ahhhhh my heart melted. They are AWESOME. Then they came to the church activity that night AND came to church yesterday!!!! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. I love the joy that this gospel brings into peoples lives and getting to be a part of it. I know this church is true. And miracles happen around us everyday.

Well, I hope everyone had an amazing mothers day!! And that everyone has a great week this week!!! :) Keep the faith!

Con amor,

Hermana Dorian

Prayer is MAGICAL (week 48)

I think ever since I hit my year mark, every week has been so eventful and FAST. What in the world?! Can it just stop?! I wish. But anyways, this week was full of MIRACLES. Like I am still in shock at all of the miracles that we saw. And we did not do a single thing about any of them. We were just doing our job and being instruments in the Lords hands and He did all the rest. We didnt have an baptisms, but our investigators are really coming closer to Christ in all sorts of ways and it just makes me so happy. To see these people that I love so much come closer to Christ. :) So here is how the week went!

Monday and Tuesday I went on an exchange with Sister Workinger in her area! So I was in english for a day! It was suppperrrrr weird teaching in English. Something I havent done in a really long time. I taught in english in Houston but here, ALL our investigators are purely spanish. Which is awesome. I like it that way. But it was cool being in english too. I enjoyed it a lot. We saw lots of awesome miracles and had some really good lessons! OH! And our lesson monday night with a less active.... she brought out a box of LITTLE BABY KITTENS!!!!!! SOOOOO cute! We died. And took lots of pictures with them. They were so stinking cute. 

Okay skip to Wednesday. We didnt teach very much, but the lessons we had were THE BEST. We first tried a former investigator that we have been trying to see FOREVER. And she let us in! We talked about eternal families and shared the Family Proclamation with her. It was great. Then we were biking around and talked to lots of people that actually came up and talked to us! The first one... cant remember his name. But he was super nice! He was like, "Oh... I didnt know the had girl ones now. Yall arent wearing white shirts and ties". Nope... but we talked to him and he said that he had talked to missionaries before but then got sick of them or something. He said we couldnt come back but that he would take a Family Proclamation to read. :) Then another guy whistled at us to come over so we went over there and he wouldnt let us talk to him either but he asked us if we wanted water. DUH! :) It was great!! Then we were biking by a house that a former investigator lived at and I just felt really strongly that we needed to stop and see if he was home. We had tried before but was never home. But we followed the spirit and HE WAS HOME. It has been a year since he has been taught so we taught him the Restoration and at the end he was like, "Okay so how can I know if these things are true?" WHAT?! No one ever asks that. So we explained that through reading the Book of Mormon and praying that he will recieve that answer! Too bad he is going to El Salvador until the 26th of May. LAME. But i have faith that he will get baptized when he gets back. He is solid! Okay so then that night, we were leaving the apartment from dinner and I all of a sudden remembered that we needed to call Nelson to see if he was coming to the english class. We called and he said YES. So then i was like oh crap!! we need to find a ride!!! We texted some people in the english ward and then set off to our appointment. We werent having any luck. Then I felt like we should text the branch presidents wife and then that we needed to pray. So we did and literally 2 seconds after the prayer, she texted us and said YES! Oh my gosh i was just soooo happy!!! And then we had the most amazing lesson with Nelson!!! It just clicked in his head that he needs to get baptized so that he can recieve the gift of the Holy Ghost. And that if he just keeps coming to church but doesnt get baptized, he wont go anywhere. EXACTLY!!! We have been waiting forever for this to click in his head. He told us he will be baptized soon. And so we invited him to pray about Joseph Smith to know that he was a prophet. It was just sooooo great! Such a miracle!!

Skip to Friday. In the morning, we got a call from a number that wasnt in our phone. I answered and it was a less active that we had gotten as a media referral that we had gone to visit but she said that she was going to a Catholic church and didnt want us to come over. So we gave her the family proclamation and our names and phone number if she ever needed anything. Fast forward one month, she calls us Friday morning. She was just crying!! It was sooo sad. Her husband had just left her and she wanted us to come over with the elders to give her a blessing! They were taking it really hard. So we went over before Zone Meeting to say a prayer with her and then on Saturday we went with the elders to give them blessings. I was just so grateful that she was prompted by the Spirit to call us. And the blessings were beautiful and exactly what they needed. I just felt so much love for her. I felt the love that God has for ALL of His children. It was really cool :) On Friday as well, we went to see the Arredondos. My favorites. I love them so much. Hermano wasnt there so we were able to have a heart to heart with Maria. We talked to her about baptism and she just unloaded on us and told us all that is happening with her family right now. Like everything is going wrong. And so she was a mess. She cried, we cried. All together!! It was so sad. But we promised her blessings from God that if she makes this decision to be baptized right now, that she will be blessed. Her family will be blessed and they will one day be an eternal family. She has sooo much faith and she showed that faith by ACCEPTING A BAPTISMAL DATE!!!! She has not accepted a date the entire time she has been taught which has been almost a year. It was AMAZING. The spirit was so strong and then she prayed and just cried that she would know what to do. She is awesome!! The Lord has truly been preparing her. Then we went over the baptismal interview questions with her and she is so ready and prepared!! It just makes me soooo happy :) 

We had sooo many other miracles happen as well. My testimony of prayer, faith, and following all the promptings of the spirit that we receive has grown so much. I know that if we are doing everything that we can, the Lord does all the rest and He blesses us. This church is so true. I love my job, and I love what I am doing!! I hope yall have a great week!! Thank you for all your love and support :)

Con amor, 

Hermana Dorian

"Houston, We Have a Problem!!" (week 47)

Oh my heavens this week was SO eventful! Like its insane. I think I am still recovering from it. Just so many crazy things happened. But first I have a story to tell. Yall will enjoy it.

 

So, yesterday morning I get out of the shower and I was just getting ready. I am standing there and I realized I was standing in a puddle of water. I looked down and I was like... umm.. that's super weird! So then I looked to see where it was coming from and I couldn't figure it out. So I was like, "Hermana! Can you come figure out where this water is coming from?!". She comes in and we realized that it was streaming down the wall. Great. So then it starts dripping slowly out of the electrical vent in the ceiling. We called Elder Nilsen who is the housing coordinator and he told us to go talk to the people upstairs and figure out what was going on! Right as we get off the phone the water starts coming out like a faucet out of the vent!!! So we ran upstairs as fast as we could to talk to the people that live above us. We go up and there was a kid sitting on the couch with his shirt off and they were bringing mattresses into the front room. This was our conversation:

Me: "Hey do you guys have a leak??"

Kid: (nods his head)

Me: "Are you trying to fix it?"

Kid: (shakes his head to say no)

WHAT?! I was so frustrated. Then the guy like comes over with his cigarette, looks at me, then walks back into the back room. I was like okay I am so over this. So we walk downstairs to call maintenance and the lady that lives upstairs was down there and was freaking out!! Because she said she had knocked on that door and was really worried about whoever lived up in the apartment right above them because that is where the water was coming from!! They were having the same problem as us, just worse. The firemen said though that the line in the toilet had gotten old and broken. There was like 2 inches of water in that apartment! We felt a little dumb for freaking out but it was good because they were able to stop the problem fast. So the maintenance guy came and vacummed up all the 1 inch of water that was in our bathroom and soaking the carpet by the bathroom. Then we packed up our stuff to stay with the other sisters for the night. It was crazy. Its a miracle we got to church on time AND a miracle that it didn't happen in the middle of the night. I said to Hermana Villarreal, "WELCOME TO THE MISSION. Crazy stuff like this happens all the time!". haha such an adventure.

 

This week we also had Stake Conference. They wanted all the missionaries to sing Called to Serve with the youth! It was really cute. But the theme of Stake Conference on Saturday night was Hastening the Work. They talked mainly about the new way to do missionary work. GET COMFORTABLE. Get comfortable with who you are, persecutions, success, failures, happiness... just get comfortable. We are different. Its just how it is. The LDS send missionaries out at ages 18 and 19 for 2 years (a year and a half), we don't drink coffee or tea, we go to church on Sunday for 3 hours, we believe in things that people think are crazy. And that's just how it is. We must be comfortable with who we are. We must truly converted to the Lord, and live as someone who is truly converted. That is the greatest way that we can do missionary work. People notice who we are. If we are living the gospel and all of the commandments, then people will notice. By our example, we can do missionary work. People always wonder why we are so happy. Its the GOSPEL. Seriously. This is such a great knowledge that we have and we would be selfish not to share it with others. It hit me hard that I am being selfish if I don't talk to everyone and tell them how much this gospel could bless their lives. We should be missionaries now and for the rest of our lives. Persecution will come, but so will the spirit. Even when I get rejected, I still feel good. Its really hard, but I still feel good! I know that I am doing everything I can to share the gospel. So we have to know that it wont always work out perfectly, but that we are doing everything that the Lord has asked us to do. Major brownie points in heaven :) My favorite thing they said was, "Our position is solid. The Church is true." BAM. There you go. Another thing that really hit me was what President Ashton said. P.S. He is like a genius. He said, "Missionaries are great finders and they will continue to find. But the people who will get baptized are the one who you (members) refer to us." I know that that is true. Ive seen it on my mission. Which is why member missionary is so important. I am excited to use what I have learned here on my mission to be a member missionary. I think I might go a little crazy but its fine. :) OH! Okay so also in Stake Conference they had everyone stand up if they were a 1st generation member, and if they were a 2nd generation member. That was me! I was in that moment just so incredibly grateful for members that were a good example to you dad and introduced you to the gospel, and then for missionaries who taught you! Things would be a lot different if that had never happened. I know this church is true and we have such a great work to do here! And there is so much of it so we need to work as hard as we can :)

 

Okay lets see what else happened this week.... our investigators are doing great!! We saw the Arredondos every single day and they are THE BEST!! They are seriously like grandparents to us. They fed us every single time we went over there and said, "we know that they don't give you guys a lot of money for your food so you are all welcome to come here and eat whenever you want!" SCORE!!! haha that was the greatest thing I had ever heard! We talked to Maria about baptism and taught her and her granddaughter about it with a diagram that I made and they totally understood! There are some things keeping her back though. Rejection of family, her husband not agreeing with some of the commandments, and that she has already been baptized before. She is progressing a lot though and is doing really really well! We love them so much. We also had a really awesome lesson with Eva. Well, awesome and really frustrating. I wont talk about the frustrating part though. All I know is that for about 5 minutes the spirit was SO strong. Her boyfriend had a question about who was the father of God? And before I didn't really know how to answer that question, but after studying and time in the temple, I knew what to say to him. God got His body the same way we got ours. And I told him about how there are other worlds too and he was like "Thank you. You are the only person from any religion that has been able to tell me that." I felt the spirit so strong and I think he is more open to listening to us now! it was just such an awesome experience to have on my mission. I learned a lot from that too. And I know that if we follow the spirit, that the Lord will tell us what we need to say.

 

Everyone else is doing so good! It finally warming up here in Galveston. I forgot what its like here in Texas.... soooo humid. Biking around with my hair stuck to my neck. no bueno. But I LOVE IT! I love everything about my mission. I am learning so much everyday! Hope you all have a great week!!! Love you all and thank you for your prayers and encouragement!

 

Con amor,

Hermana Dorian

#Because of Him (week 46)

Well... I hope everyone had an AMAZING Easter!! We definitely did! We saw some AMAZING Easter miracles and it was ALL because of Him. This week was kind of all over the place but it was really good! For the most part!! So here is how it went!!

 

Monday:

Crazyyyyyy day. Like every single Monday. I think Mondays are busier than normal proselyting days. We got everything done though and then we left the church and the weather was INSANE. we couldn't even walk! The wind was blowing so hard! Welcome to the island... so we got word from the Zone leaders and if we were on bikes we weren't allowed to go outside because there was going to be lighting. So.. we stayed with the English sisters that night and just went through the area book and made phone calls and set up appointments throughout the week! Then we slept over because we had district meeting the next day anyways so it made the most sense.

 

Tuesday:

We had district meeting. It was Elder Birks' last district meeting!! Its so sad seeing missionaries go home! Makes it seem too real for me. ANYWAYS so then we went back to the sisters apartment and had lunch and dyed Easter Eggs! So fun!! Then we finished studies and got to go visit a ton of awesome people!

 

Wednesday:

So lots of appointments fell through... so we tried to look for people to serve. No one. BUT we did find 2 less actives that we have been trying to contact for a while and I have never even met them in the last 3 months I have been in this area!! It was AWESOME!!! One of them was named Dalby and she has a brother that is a member and lives in Salt Lake! She gave us a tour of her house and showed us a million pictures of her family! It was super duper fun. Then we tried OYMing lots of people and we OYM'd a missionary from another Christian church and she had just gotten done studying. awk... she was really nice though! Then we went to English class with some members and Did exchanges that night with the enligh sisters!

 

Thursday:

Started WAY too early. I had to wake up at 4:15 to get ready to take Sister Vea who went home today to Sugarland for the temple trip. I was literally falling asleep on the way there. Good thing the Lord was protecting us! But then I took Sister Jewett down to Galveston with me for the day on an exchange. She is an English sister so it was a little interesting since she doesn't know Spanish but she is so nice and so sweet!!! I love her! I was so proud of her too because we got fed tamales and 3 FULL tacos and she ate it all. OH YEAH. But we got to teach a lot of fun people and even had the weirdest lesson that started out with us teaching an investigator and ended up with us leaving saying a prayer with just a less active. Missions are crazy!

 

Friday:

We exchanged back that afternoon after studies! Then we did weekly planning and had a dinner appointment with my favorite family! The Canos! Then that night is when everything went downhill. I felt fine until I was getting ready for bed then I just felt SO sick!! So I went straight to bed. Yeah didn't sleep at ALL that night. I was laying in bed awake with my stomach grumbling the entire night.

 

Saturday:

Woke up and I was like yeah cant do it today. I was SO sick. I caught some lame stomach virus. I ALWAYS catch the lame stomach viruses and I am still suffereing from it today. But I was so sick. We were miraculously able to go to 2 of our set appointments though which was AMAZING. One with Alvina who we haven't seen in 3 weeks! And one with the Arrendondos. I knew we needed to go to that so they would come to church for Easter! But the rest of the day I slept! not fun.

 

Sunday:

FULL OF MIRACLES. So I woke up and I was feeling well enough to go to church. So we get there and We had rides lined up for all our investigators to come to church. But we called the Arredondos and their daughter answered the phone and said they had left and wouldn't be back till late that night. I was so sad. Then we were just making phone calls and talking to one of the Elders and he was like, "go wait outside for your investigators." I was like hey.. good idea! So right as we walk outside and wait for 2 seconds, guess who gets out of a blue suburban. THE ARREDONDOS!!! Maria, Hermano, AND Victoria!! Oh my gosh it was the happiest moment of my entire life. We have worked SO hard the last 3 months to get them to come to church and they FINALLY did it! Then our investigator Nelson brought our investigator Cesar and the Canos brought Alvina! It was AMAZING. Then we were sitting in Principios del Evangelio class and the door opens and Luis walks in! He is a less active we have been working with too! We really want him to start coming back to church and then go on a mission! How cool would that be!!! :) So it was just like the most amazing day at church and we were all so happy. I just felt so much pure joy and I knew it was because we put ALL our trust and faith in the Lord. Especially because there was nothing we could do about anything the day before. I am SO grateful for those miracles. Its amazing. Then a member made me really yummy soup because my stomach wasn't feeling well! so nice :)

 

Well that's all for this week! I LOVE MY JOB. this is the time to do the Lords work and I don't want to be anywhere else! Hope you all have a wonderful week!! :)

 

Con amor,

Hermana Dorian

"I'm Going To See You On T.V. One Day!" (week 45)

Well hello again all you wonderful people!! I hope yall have had a great um... 4 or 5 days since I emailed last?! Yeah well its been a great 4 or 5 days for us too!! A lot has been going on. Everyday is just crazy busy! And I love it so much. This week, I feel like I received so much personal revelation. From going to the temple and studying and pondering about like everything. Its been amazing. I really love that about my mission. That I have learned how to receive and recognize personal revelation when it comes. And through that skill that I have learned, I have been able to learn sooooo much. I encourage everyone to read Jesus the Christ. Its AMAZING. I try to read it every night before I go to bed and every morning. I am learning so much about my Savior. I also learned a really hard lesson this week about how the people here are so REAL. They are truly Heavenly Fathers children and He loves them so much. We are not hear to force them to do anything, but to love them and invite them to come closer to their Savior and Father in Heaven. They are not a baptismal statistic or a number. 

I realized that there are 3 things I want my investigators to know when I leave my mission or if i leave this area before that time comes. I want them to know:

1. That their Father in Heaven loves them.

2. That I love them.

3. And that this church is true. 

And so everything I do from here on out will be to help them know and understand those three things. I am so grateful to have learned this lesson so I can be a better instrument in the hands of the Lord.

So this week we met a lot of awesome people!! We have been struggling to find new investigators so we focused on that this week. And we definitely found some new investigators!! And these people are AWESOME and I love them already! They may not be like completely ready for baptism right now but I can just tell that they one day will know that these things are true. I just feel so much love for them.

Here's the story to back up the title of this email:

So we were just biking a long and I think trying to get to an investigators house to try her for the 7th time this week. When I am riding my bike, I just kinda look around and say hi to everyone that I see. I looked over and saw this one guy cleaning his golf clubs. INSTANTLY I was like "ah!!! we have to go back and talk to him!!" because we had just kept riding. So we turned around and went to talk to him. I was like "hey!! hows it goin?? I play golf too!!". It was soooo awesome. He was a black guy and his name is Matthew or "skinny". Literally the nicest man I have ever met. He is really baptist and even invited us to his bible study that they have at his church. I was like, "hey we have bible study too!". Definitely invited him to that. Anyways but it was so awesome to just find someone that I could relate to. He asked me if I played in school and I said yes. Hence why he told me he was going to see me on T.V. someday! hahaha probably not but thats okay! I told him I would come back and challenge him to a match. The really cool thing though was that he was telling us what he is studying in the bible and as he was talking, I was thinking about how much he loves the bible and is learning from it and how much more he could learn if he studied the Book of Mormon too! So I got really really excited and started telling him all about the Book of Mormon and how much it could bless his life and so we are going to go back and give him one! :) It made me so happy! Then he told us to leave because he didnt want us riding our bikes in the dark. So nice! But that was just a really cool experience for me. Plus i miss golf so much....

We also had some other really awesome experiences this week. All of our friends (investigators) are doing really great and they are all soooo close!! So please pray for them!! They are so ready though. I am really excited for them and I love them all so much. I am just so happy. So happy to be here. I encourage ALL of you to start studying PMG like we were told to in conference :) Its a great book!! haha

Well i hope yall have an amazing week!!! Keep the faith, work hard, and rely completely and totally on The Lord who knows and loves each of your personally. love you all SO much!

Con amor,
Hermana Dorian

1 Year!? What!? NOT Going Home....:) (week 44)

Hello Everyone!!! sorry i am emailing so late! We changed our P-Day to today so that we could go to the TEMPLE! Ahh it was so awesome and exactly what I needed. We went with another district in the zone and it was so much fun. I am so grateful to have a temple so close. It is such a blessing. You know what else is a blessing?? Being a missionary, and.. GENERAL CONFERENCE. Holy cow that was such an amazing conference!! The spirit was so strong. And after... it was like the day after Christmas. So sad. But I am excited to use all the counsel I recieved and apply it to my life! yay! :)

 

Okay so again i dont have much time. But this week again was full of so many miracles. It was so crazy busy though!! We did so much and there was never any down time!! But i like it that way!! Makes me happy knowing we are doing so much to help move the work of the Lord along :) So here are some highlights from the week:

 

• Zone Conference. SO AWESOME. Our zone recieved that assignment to baptize 2 people a week. So in Zone conference we talked a lot about what we need to do to baptize and I left from that conference with SO MUCH more faith than before!! It was really so great. I have a great zone! That faith carried through the whole week because through that faith we saw so many miracles!
• Role plays. I LOVE role playing. At the beginning of my mission I HATED role playing with a passion. But, recently i have really found the blessings that come from role playing. Especially role playing for revelation. We just do it in english and ask questions that we wouldnt really ask in person. Which then helps us to know more what their needs are through the spirit. We did that for a few of our investigators this week and the revelation we recieved was spot on. Especially with Nelson. We role played and found out some needs and then we read through his teaching record and his needs were exactly the ones that we recieved. SO COOL. Then we had a good lesson with him! And with Ana!! We found out that she just needed to have the desires to change. So we then had a lesson with her about faith and desires and... SHE IS NOW PROGRESSING! She hasnt been able to come to church because of work but we promised her blessings from keeping ALL of Gods commandments and she wanted us to teach them all to her right there so that she would know what she needed to do. She is SO awesome and i truly love her so much!! I really hope that she can get baptized soon!
• Heavenly's funeral. So Jessica's baby Heavenly who was 4 months old passed away a few weeks ago and her funeral was this week. I love that girl so much and it was hard seeing her suffer so much at her funeral. She was sitting over the casket at the burial just sobbing. We were all crying with her. It made me so grateful for the gospel in my life, and knowing without a doubt that families can be together forever and that I can be with any of my family members again if somethere were to happen. And its given us a great opportunity to share with her how she will be with Heavenly again if she keeps all the commandments and gets baptized and makes that covenant with God!!! :) She is progressing slowly. Keep her in your prayers!!
• FINDING. okayyy so this week we just found lots of people that we havent been able to get in contact with FOREVER. like Eddy(who now has a baptismal date!), Armondo, Cesar (actually he is a new), and a less active!! It was just so cool. And we have just been seeing miracle after miracle and it kind of blows my mind. And we will feel like we need to go somewhere but for a different reason than what the Lord wanted. We were able to find people by trying other people. Does that make sense? Haha probably not but it was super duper awesome! I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK. And i LOVE this gospel!!!
• GENERAL CONFERENCE. My favorite talk was I think Elder Holland. It was just so awesome! And I think it meant a lot to me because I am a missionary and I get rejected like every single day and its like real hard. But its cool right? I just have to love them and be kind. Hermana Villarreal the other day almost did the funniest thing. So we were riding our bikes by a group of guys and one says, "hey beautiful!" and of course we just ignored them and kept riding. But we stopped and she goes, "It took all of my willpower to not say 'hey ugly..'" HAHAHAHAH she is so funny. Trying to tame her down a bit ;) she is really so great! we are having a great time. But I just loved Elder Hollands counsel. And I am going to try and love those that even reject us. I just get so sad because they dont know what they are missing!!! Everyone wants happiness right?....

 

Well... thats all I got. I  hope yall had a great week! I cant believe time has gone by so fast!!! I hit my 1 year mark tomorrow!!! eeeekkkkkk... hate it. Not going home. Well.. I never want to go home!! This is just too much fun!! Hope everyone has a great week. I love you all and thank you so much for all your love and support!! :) stay jolly!

Con amor,

Hermana Dorian

Bike Problems, Crazy Talks and Drunk People. What A Week. (week 43)

Okay I am going to try and get all of what happened into this email but i am not sure how well its going to go because this week was so busy and so crazy! I have learned so much though and just learned to rely on the Lord and trust in Him. I LOVE my companion, I LOVE my mission, I LOVE this gospel. Ah this is the greatest time to be on a mission!!!

Okay so I wont waste any time!! 

Monday: We got back from playing volleyball at the church and got all ready to go to our appointments and as I was rolling my bike out, i was like "hmm... it feels weird!". Yeah I looked down and I had a flat tire. Just out of no where!! I was like ahhhhh. yeah flat tire in a bike area. Real fun. Soooo... we drove our bikes to the other sisters apartment to use their bike pump, then went to our appointment. We get out and I was doing the same thing with my bike. Just rolling it along and it had that same feeling as before. Yep. FLAT. great. So I tried to ride on it and I was like yeah right this is so not happening. So  we had 30  minutes to get home so I walked my bike back to our car. I have never walked so fast in my entire life. But we made it home on time!! miracles!!!

Tuesday: We took my bike to the elders so they could fix the tire. Dad... i know you are probably ashamed of me for not fixing it myself. But when you are in a bike area, you dont want it done wrong! I guess I just lacked faith in myself. I will try myself next time ;) but anyways so yeah they fixed it for us! Then we just went about our day. Jessica is our investigator now. I cant remember if I have said anything about her.. but she is AWESOME. really intense but so awesome. I really love her so much. So we went and saw her and she just told us all about her life. But.. we committed her to baptism and she said YES!!!!! we wanted her to get baptized this past weekend but it didnt happen. we had so much faith that it could happen though and worked so hard with her the entire week. But its all in the Lords timing! But then later, we were looking for an address that didnt exist so I stopped and asked a super cute old lady if she knew where it was. She said no but we were able to serve her and help her get her car into her garage so she could close it. She was jewish and said she didnt have interest but it felt good to serve her and she said that we were good representatives of our church. So that was good :) Then we had a Noche de Hogar at Hermana Orellanas house. I was so frustrated though because our investigator, Alvina, didnt come again. But the Rabagos brought really good snacks for afterward. :)

Wednesday: Interviews with President Ashton!! It was awesome. But I went in with it written on my interview paper that my stress level was pretty high and President was like "really? why is it so high" and was like calm down! you are doing fine! gah. He always puts everything into perspective. But it was a good interview. Then we went back to Galveston and had dinner with the Canos and then went to see Jessica, and english class!!! Super fun!! Nelson was there!! I was so happy about that because we are slowly building a relationship with him so that he can trust us because my goal here is to get him baptized. I mean if it is the Lords will of course :)

Thursday: I realized, that I dont like it when people tell us they dont like our church. Thursday night was hard because we went to see some investigators and the lady said she didnt really like our church. I just sat there and I was like "but you dont even know.....". I wanted to cry. She just said it so nicely but I was just so hurt. Because I know this church is true and it can bless her life. But its okay. Just gotta keep moving forward!!!

Friday: I had to take Sister Workinger up to Sugarland for her MLC meeting so I went on an exchange to Alief which is english speaking. But it was just for the day. Thank goodness. Haha I really love being a spanish missionary. But it was fun because I got to be with Sister Williams and Hermana Fisi'iahi!! Such a party. We had a lot of fun. Especially because I am directionally challenged when I drive. Everyone thinks its so funny. But on the way back to Galveston, we stopped at McDonalds to get soda, of course. Its an hour and a half drive! But we got ice cream cones too and when we got to the window to get our stuff, Sister Susu in the back was like "Can you ask him for another cone?" So i said, "Hey can we get another cone?" thinking he was just going to get us a plain cone without ice cream. NOPE! He comes back with a cone and ice cream!! So i was like "oh no we just wanted this cone!! we dont have money to pay for that one!" and he goes "no its fine! just have it!". LIterally I could have asked him for 5 more and he would have given them to us for free!! what??! when does that happen? NEVER. We were dying!!!

Saturday: we biked around like crazy trying to get people to the womens conference with us!!! Jessica came!!! it was awesome!!! But as we were talking to Jessica, we ended up having a really intense crazy talk with her... so we called the elders after because we werent sure what to do. Then as we were stopped on the road trying to call them, this kid comes up to us and was like, "misioneras?" and i go, "yeah!! we are missionaries!!!" and he said that he was a member and his mom too!!! so we went over to meet his mom!! It was like such a surprise!! we also got to meet his really drunk brother that hates the church and his other brother that is indifferent to it. It was cool though!! Kinda a tender mercy after I was a little traumatized from our lesson with jessica. But everything was fine and she came to the conference. which was AMAZING!! I was so uplifted and the spirit was so strong! I am so grateful to be a part of this church.

Sunday: Well... Jessica didnt come to church. But NELSON DID. Okay surprise surprise. He actually comes every week. But we are getting somewhere with him!! He asked us questions about the Sacrament and we were able to teach him a little but for the first time!! yay!!! So basically... i never want to eat mole every again. its not the animal by the way. Its a sauce that hispanics eat with chicken. Anyways we had it at the ward lunch yesterday AND at Alvinas house because it was her birthday. I was so sick. But Rosi came out with us last night and get this. We were waiting for her to meet us at an appointment and she comes up in a truck with this guy! I was like so confused. Then she tells us that she was riding really fast and he offered to give us a ride. Turns out he knows the branch president and wants to meet with us AND lives in our area!!! MIRACLES!!!!

Okay well thats all but i am SO grateful to be a missionary!! Our zone recieved a challenge from President to baptize 2 people a week. Its going to take SO much faith but we have it!!! Keep being awesome everyone. I love you all so much!! Have a great week.

Love, hermana dorian

Rude People, Tan Lines and Blessings From the Lord! (week 42)

Well i just dont even know where to start with this email... because this week was up there with the craziest and hardest week of my entire mission. This week really pushed me and basically every day I just wanted to go home and sleep and not talk to anyone!! But.. I loved every second of it. I dont know if I would want to relive it... but I loved it!!! I truly learned a lot and gained a stronger testimony of how the Lord is ALWAYS there with us. And i gained a really strong testimony of obedience and even when things get really hard, if we just keep working hard and doing the very best that we can, the Lord will make up for the rest. He really will. I can testify of that!! I just love this gospel so much and I know that it is true and that we have a loving Heavenly Father who knows us perfectly and is so mindful of us every second of the day. :) So alright I guess yall are wondering why this week was hard and great at the same time. So i guess i will tell you. 

I decided not to do a play by play of everyday because that is kinda boring so here are just the main things that happened and how all the peeps are doing here in Galveston!

-Eva: she is doing SO GOOD!! She is progressing soooo well! I cant even believe it. She is so prepared and ready. We taught her the 10 commandments and watched Finding Faith in Christ with her. The day we watched Finding Faith in Christ with her was the hardest day of the week and everyone had just yelled at us and told us they didnt want anything to do with us. So that was a tender mercy and a miracle. Eva cried and said she felt the spirit. She didnt know it was the spirit though so we had to explain to her what it feels like! Which was good. But we asked her about baptism.. well actually about her getting married and she said that her boyfriend wants to get married (which is a big step up!!!) and that it should take about 4-6 months. But I have faith that she can be baptized sooner than that. She is really prepared. I just love her so much and the spirit in that lesson with her was just so strong and I was like "Okay. Its worth it. All the hard times is worth it to have a lesson like that!". We are still working on getting her to church so please pray that she will!!

-Claudia: she is super depressed and sad like all the time!! But we are trying to do everything that we can to help. We went over on Tuesday night to get her a blessing with the Branch President and his first counselor and it was a really beautiful blessing. She said she felt better too. but I think this will just take time! She just needs to put all her faith into action!! I think she is learning something really valuable right now too!

-On Wednesday.. we decided we needed to be talking to more people on the streets. Literally EVERYONE yelled at us or was rude. We tried knocking on a potentials door and his neighbor came out and we tried to talk to her but she said she didnt have time for us. I was seriously riding my bike all day that day... bawling. Just bawling. It was sad. But then later in the week.. we just still tried to talk to people. Because we have to talk to everyone so we did. Even though it was hard! Well not everyone... but we tried! And we actually met some really nice people that have been taught by missionaries before. One night we rode by a family that was out on a walk and the mom smiled at us so big and was soooo nice. I was like uhh.. that NEVER happens! So I turned around to Hermana Villarreal and I was like, "hey we should talk to them!! should we?" and turns out she had had that same thought!! MIRACLE. so we went and talked to them and they were so nice and gave us their address. I was just so happy and grateful. It didnt matter that we hadnt taught that much that day. All that mattered was that we were meeting people with interest and helping them come closer to Christ. 

-On Saturday and Sunday... SISTER MCGRATH CAME BACK. but... only for 2 days. We found out on monday that she was going to finish her mission in Sunnyside and that we were never going to be a trio. So i was stressed because I didnt know the area that well. So she came back on Saturday to  help me find some potentials and people that she knew of in the area since she was there for so long!! When she got there i was just so relieved and so happy. She is so great. And I love her to death. It was so fun being with her for 2 days. And we got to see so many people and we had so much fun! And saw tons of miracles. She has taught me so much about missionary work. All my comps have! So grateful!!

-My new favorite food/snacks are fruits and vegetables with chile. Pinnaple, apples, cucumbers... yeah i am turning more and more mexican everyday!! and i am not ashamed!! Its soooo good!! the food we get here is soooo dang good. :) 

-Susy and Simon!! ahhhh we went and saw them yesterday and earlier this week Susy said she wasnt really interested in getting baptized but yesterday she said that she would let sister mcgrath know when she got baptized and she said "yeah maybe hermana dorian will let you know!" AHHH!!! that made me sooooo excited because that means she has been thinking about it and it could be soon!!! SO AWESOME.

Okay well the work is going great here!! Pray for our investigators and that they can repent and be baptized!! And pray that we can find more people that are prepared :) They are SO out there! I know it!! And I hope you all have a wonderful week. I LOVE this mission!! And I love the gospel. it is so true! Have a great week!!! 

Con amor,

Hermana Dorian

The Awkward Moment When You Meow At A Cat And It Pounces On You... (week 41)

CRAZY WEEK. But first off. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FAVORITE LITTLE SIBLINGS IN THE WORLD. Eden, Seth, and Hannah... I HOPE YOU HAVE THE BEST BIRTHDAYS EVER. Wish I could be there! But i will be thinking of you guys alllllll week. :) Yall are the best. 

Okay sooo..my baby is......... HERMANA VILLARREAL. She is awesome!! We are really similar. We like all the same things. Especially cats. None of my companions have liked cats as much as me except for her! She is from Washington state, grew up in a spanish ward, and has siblings all the same ages as my little siblings. Meant to be! We were supposed to be in a trio with Hermana McGrath until the 28th because she extended but she got emergency transferred to Houston sooo.... yeah its just been us these past weeks. Kinda been nuts because I still dont know the area that well  because its my second transfer there but I know the Lord has really been blessing us and has been helping me a ton. I know that He answers prayers though. I was praying I would train someone that I would get along with and that would be willing to work hard. She is really so great. I am excited to see her grow and learn these next few months. 

So here is what happened this week. Lets just say I am supppppperrrrr tired and i hate the wind. in a bike area. its rough! but its all the Lords work and I LOVE it sooo much!! Alright on to the week. On monday night, Hermana Mcgrath had to go to the departing missionaries dinner and I went on an exchange to with Hermana Green and Beltran. It was really fun. Ate some really spicy food. Then they didnt get back until like 10 so we had to stay in Kemah for the night. Crazyy. But then on Tuesday we had such a great day! We got to see some less actives that we havent seen in forever and we invited them to church!! they didnt come though... gah. thats the hardest thing for me. Anyways.. we also had the GREATEST lesson with a newish family that night!! We watched the Restoration video with them and the dad, Javier, felt the spirit soooooo strong!!! When it ended, we asked him what he thought and he explained the whole thing back to us. it was amazing. Like i was so happy. We extended baptismal dates to them but they didnt except. They said they would be baptized though! cutest family! I love them so much. And we walked the cutest girl to the bus stop earlier that day after we taught her and her dad. I just love helping people. Makes me so happy! Oh! I forgot. Also that day we taught a less active that lives in houston but was visiting her sister. She had TONS of doubts and kept asking us so many questions. But when we were done with the lesson she thanked us for taking away some of her doubts. I just felt good because I knew I was doing my job. 

Wednesday was TRANSFERS. I was soooo nervous!! But Prayers were answered. Im excited to work with Hermana Villarreal and watch her grow. Thursday we had weekly planning and i told her about EVERYONE in the area. Well.. the people that i know. Ha. But then we had some great lessons. My favorite dinner appointments are the ones with the Familia Cano. Their son leo is my FAVORITE. so we were sitting there eating and he goes, "When i grow up i am going to build a temple in galveston. because there is so much space." HAHA there is NO space in Galveston! hahahaha that was the funniest part. He is the cutest kid though. And so in tune with the spirit. He always talks about the temple everytime we ware there. So awesome. 

Friday was awesome too! We met the CUTEST old man every. He is 95 years old and still kickin. He wants to work!! But he was a referral from a member who came to visit her friend with us. Her friend ended up not being home so we ate the food she brought for us there on the friends patio furniture. love it. then she was like okay lets go visit lots of people that i know! we were like SWEET. so her ex-husband takes care of this old me. You have to literally yell to talk to him. Luckily the member we were with has a very loud voice so she talked. But he was so grateful that we were there to share a message with him! I was like, "Hermana! we have to baptize him! he doesnt have much time left!!!" hahaha but really. he is so great!! we love him. 

Saturday was hard. It was raining all day and NO ONE was home!!! so frustrating. We had a couple good lessons though. And we were so grateful that it wasnt freezing!! it was still kinda warm! But we just biked around galveston all day and we didnt have a dinner appointment until 7:30. we were dying!! haha but finally it was time to have dinner with our investigator Alvina who ACCEPTED A BAPTISMAL DATE!!!! she is AWESOME!!! and soooooo prepared. I love her to death. She has a date for the 12th of April! pray for her! she will be the greatest member. She made us posole blanco which i LOVED. i just love food. they were making fun of me how i am going to be really fat when i go home. good thing i am in a bike area!! 

Sunday... was hard. no one came to church expect for Nelson. But he comes every week!! We tried soooooo hard to get people there!!! The hardest thing for me is when people say, "yes we will be there!" and then they dont show up!!! ughhhh. agency. i just dont like it at all. But it turned out to be a great day because we finally got to see the Loredo family who we havent seen in a really long time!!! And claudia! She is having a really hard time right now so please keep her in your prayers!!! she needs them!! 

Well...thats all i got for this week!!! it was really really awesome and I am so grateful for all that is happening and that i get to be doing this great work!! i love it so much!! thank you for all your love and support!! have a great week!!!

con amor,

Hermana Dorian

p.s. i guess i better tell you why i titled this email the way i did. yesterday we went to go pick up food from the branch pressidents house and they had the cutest cat!! but it wouldnt let me pet it!! sooo...i meowed at it. hahahaha and it POUNCED AT ME!!! scared me to death!!! hahaha i still love cats. 

Miracles To End The Transfer! (week 40)

Another crazy week has gone by!! And another crazy transfer has gone by as well. I can not believe how fast these past 6 weeks have gone by. And seriously this week was insane and it was a miracle in itself that we got any prosylyting time!! Thats how nut was. But i just want to start my email out with a scripture. I love scripture gems and I definitely found a lot of them this week which was great. So here is one of them. As a missionary, obviously I pay attention to the examples of the awesome missionaries in the scriptures. I definitely have a few favorites. But one of them is Alma. And in Alma 29:9-10 he says, "I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but i glory in that which the Lord has commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.....And behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy; then do I remember what the Lord has done for me, yea, even that he hath heard my prayer; yea then I do remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me." AH Alma was such a great example!! And I just love that scripture. Its just how i feel. I love to see these people repent and change their lives. And he is so right. When I see these people change and repent it reminds me of how merciful the Lord is and how much Heavenly Father loves His children. Every single one of them. I love being a missionary and getting to feel the joy that Alma felt.

Okay so now for the crazy week! So on Monday we got a text from the Zone leaders saying that we needed to stay off of the island until Wednesday. So that was another 2 1/2 days of not being in our area! It was so stressful and we had to go back and figure out what was going on with our investigators because we hadnt seen them in forever. It was a good couple days though. I was absolutely exhausted but it was really fun. I think I am still adjusting from the exhaustion. But the rest of the week was great too!! 

Wednesday we had Zone Conference with President Ashton and once again it was AMAZING. It was an Atonement Training. I love when Pres. Ashton does Atonement training's because he understands the Atonement so well and teaches it to us in a way I have never heard before. And it made me think about the Atonement in a way I never had before. My mind was blown!! Still is. I learned so much though and i was so spiritually fed. Then after that we headed back to the Island! Right when we got back we did some personal study then headed out to visit our abandoned investigators!! But get this. So we were biking home that night and the phone was on silent. We got into the apartment and I walked into the bathroom, pulled out the phone and saw a call and voicemail from President Ashton. I was like what? why did he call us? Then i listened to the voicemail and this is all it said, "Hi hermanas this is president ashton. we would like you to train next transfer. give me a call back." and i think he said something else too but i was too busy freaking out to listen. WHAT?! TRAINING?! SOOOOOO crazy!!! i was so surprised and i couldnt believe it!! i yelled and Hermana McGrath got freaked out!! Haha she goes home on the 28th of March so we will be cotraining for 2 weeks. Then we had the training meeting on Thursday. Freaked me out more but i am really excited. I am grateful that the Lord has given me this trust to train a new missionary from the MTC. I am grateful for this chance I have to learn and grow even more and become a better person and missionary. I wont know who she is until Wednesday but i am so excited and anxious to meet her!!!! :)

So then the rest of the week it was really hard to focus and i was like falling asleep on my bike everytime we had to ride!! But I made it through and we saw so many miracles this week! we had lots of really awesome lessons. AND WE HAD 4 INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH. we did EVEYRTHING that we could to get them there. We literally woke up early and rode our bikes around galveston to wake people up and get them to church. The people whos doors we knocked on didnt come... BUT others did. So when we do everything that we can then the Lord blesses us. So Alvina and her son Daniel were there and Claudia came! We had no idea Claudia was going to come but a member texted us and asked us to find her a ride 10 minutes before church and so I texted Claudia and asked if she was coming and she said yes and that she needed a ride!! i was STRESSING!! But we have some amazing members that came through and picked her up. it was awesome and they all loved church!! I was so happy. 

Ah okay I am all out of time but i love you all so much and i am so grateful for all your support and prayers! keep them coming!! the people here in Galveston are so close and so ready!!! pray that they will be able to act on their faith and repent!! :) I love this work so much and I know that this church is true. Even when its hard... its so true!! 

Con amor, 

Hermana Dorian

 QUICK FUNNY STORY. So we were biking home for dinner one night and this dog ran up to us. We petted it and said hi. Then left. But it FOLLOWED AND CHASED us from 15th street to 2nd street where we live. I was soooooo mad and I was like "i am so done!! i hate dogs!!" and people were like "is that your dog?" I said no and asked them to take him from us but he kept following us!! I guess he really wanted to hear about the gospel. I wish other people were like that and so ready and willing ;) no they are so out there and we are going to find them! have a great week!!

Our Lives Are So Weird! (week 39)

F-A-C-T. Missionaries lives are so weird. Mine has been extremely weird this week. Well.. more like stressful. I have felt like a chicken running around with my head cut off and a puppy that gets put where i need to and left there. hahaha okay those are weird analagies but for reals. This week was good though! We got kicked off the island again for Mardi Gras and so that gave us about 2 full days of work in my area. which is really stressful. Our investigators have been so neglected but we have been really trying to keep in contact with them through phone calls. So here is a little bit about the week!

Monday we had some really great lessons. We were able to see some great people. We saw Eva, Claudia, and a supperrrr cute family that we have been trying to see forever. And we finally found them!! Eva is doing good and so is Claudia! She is so much happier and the spirit is always so strong in all of our lessons with her. She is such a doll and i really love her. And the new family we found was so adorable!!! When Hermana McGrath prayed, the dad and son repeated everything she said. haha it was a little weird... but they are so open and willing to learn!! i am really excited to work with them!!

Tuesday I went on exchanges with the english sister, sister vea because her comps and mine went to a meeting in Sugarland. So we stayed and worked both areas. I was so stressed but it turned out to be an awesome day. We did a lot of service. And found out i suck at painting. like we painted empty apartments and lets just say that there is paint ALL over the floors. oops! ;) But we taught a lot as well and got TONS of Mardi Gras beads. without having to go! yes! i really just wanted cool necklaces... ;) im a child at heart. 

Wednesday was a full day of work and it was great! We got to see a lot of people that we needed to before we left the island. And we were able to see them all in a short amount of time! miracles!!! 

Thursday we had Zone meeting!! Hermana McGrath and I had to give a training about getting investigators to church and it went really well. It was fun too :) Then we had a REALLY good lesson with our investigator Johnathan about repentance. Part way through the lesson he was like "so what are the requirements for baptism?" i was like AHHHH well how about we read D&C 20:37. He is AWESOME. He has some things he needs to work out but I have so much faith he will be baptized soon!! And then we had an awesome dinner appointment with my favorite family. Then it was off the island! Lets just say... it was only by the spirit that we made it to where we needed to go because we were SOOO lost. I am also really bad at directions. So many weaknesses. hahahaha but its okay we were all safe and made it home on time!! 

The rest of the weekend we were in Kemah with Hermans Beltran and Gudiel. They are both natives and like only speak spanish to each other so it was really fun to practice my spanish!! It was crazy with so many things to do and i have been just dead tired every night but i have learned a lot from those sisters about this work and loving the people. I am grateful i got to be with them for a while. 

I am just so grateful for this work. This is truly the Lords work and this is the only true church. I know this church is true and through it we can find happiness and peace and joy. I love you all so much and hope you have a wonderful week!!! 

Love, 

Hermana Dorian :)