I held a baby ALLIGATOR!

I feel like my whole mission experience here in Texas has consisted of animals. And the amazing people too. But sooooo many animals encounters I've had!! Good thing I love animals. This morning we went to a state park called Brazos Bend State Park and it was sooooo fun! We went with the stake president's wife and daughter and we had so much fun. We walked around and saw about 5 alligators. And as we were walking back to the car, we heard a growl but we couldnt see anything. It still freaked us out though!! Because we knew it was an alligator. So we turned right back around and walked the other way. Soooo fun :) Then we got to go and hold a baby baby alligator. They are so cute. 

Well this week was really really awesome. Wasnt the Womens Conference SO good?? Well to those of you that watched it. I just felt sooo much love from my Heavenly Father and that He really is our Father. And how important the temple is. How lucky are we to have the priesthood restored here on the earth today that makes it possible for us to perform saving ordinances in the temple?! I am so grateful for the temple and the opportunity that we have to make covenants and live with our families forever and our Heavenly Father one day for eternity. Such a great blessing and gift given to us. 

So Ines and Sofia are doing great!! They werent able to go to church yesterday but they will eventually! Sofia LOVES having us come over and teach her. She reads all her assignments in the Book of Mormon and is on time for all our appointments! She is the cutest. We have a lot of fun with her. This week we got to teach them twice. The second time was with Hermana Torres who will be her primary teacher. That lesson was so powerful too because Hermana Torres had the same problem when she was investigating the church with having to work on Sundays. So that helped Ines have the desires to do the same. They both want to be baptized so bad and understand that they need to so we are just working with them to have the faith to progress. We love them so much! Pray that they will be able to go to church and be baptized! :)

This week we started teaching the nephew of an active family in our ward. He is from Pasadena but is living with the members right now. IDEAL SITUATION. It is perfect. They come to church every sunday and they have gospel discussions with him all the time. This week we taught the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation and it was so key that those members were there. They basically taught the whole thing. Israel, the nephew, is reading and thinking about baptism. Hopefully he will make the decision to repent and come unto Christ soon! 

This week we saw a miracle. Well, lots of miracles but just listen to this HUGE miracle. So we have the Familia Espitia. They are an awesome familia. Just suppperrrr less active. I have been trying to work so hard with them the entire time i have been here. She stopped answering us for a while but thursday we found them outside and she was cooking so she couldnt run inside. It was so sad because she was like " i dont like the mormon church. and i dont like the catholic church! I am just confused right now." So i was just like no. There has to be something behind this. So we testified about how this is the true church. Then she invited us to eat. We had already had a dinner appointment and we were so full..... but we said yes! So we got to sit down and eat with them and talk with her and her husband. It was amazing to see the Spirit change and guide the conversation to the temple and then we taught them about the temple and being sealed as a family. They told us they would come to church. They didnt come but our bishop is going to invite them to his house for conference this weekend. they will come!! It was just so cool! 

We also did service for a family in our ward. This family is awesome. But their situation is just so hard and so sad. But i love them so much. We sat down with Hermana and she just vented to us about how sad she is and just started crying. I was sitting there crying just praying for the Lord to help me know what to say. Hermana cant see well and cant walk well either and her family is struggling. So we went there planning on just sweeping and mopping. Instead we turned their kitchen around. We cleaned, scrubbed, organized, swept, mopped, did everything. It was crazy. But not once did I complain because this family needed us that day. It may have taken 5 hours and i may have been really dirty  but i didnt care. My love for this family was a lot more than my worry of germs :) It felt so good to just serve and help them!!

Well, that was our week!! :) I hope yall have a fabulous week this week!! Keep the faith and share the gospel with EVERYONE. 

Con amor, 

Hermana Dorian

Busy Busy Busy!

Hello everyone!! I hope yall had a FABULOUS week! Because we definitely did :) it was such a better week than last week thats for sure. We rested up all day on Monday so we would be able to go out and work. And let me tell you, it felt SO good to get out and work and help the people in our area come unto Christ. Nothing makes me happier than that! :) This week, we saw sooooo many miracles and I learned something. God loves us SO much. Each and every one of us. More than we can even imagine. And if we just talk to Him and counsel with him on everything, than He will answer our prayers and He will talk back to us. EVERY TIME. I love this gospel. Okay here is how the week went this week!

So to start off, we went to go visit the guy that rear ended us the week before just to see how he was doing and if there was anything we could do for them. We also wanted to give them a Plan of Salvation pamphlet because he was already going through such a hard time. We talked with them for a little bit and they are seriously the sweetest family ever. The poor guy had buried his grandfather the day before and just wasnt paying attention. He still felt so bad but we told him that it was fine and that there was nothing to be sorry about! They are so awesome. We are going to give them to the English elders. We really feel like they will be baptized one day. We dont know when, but one day they will! :) Everything happens for a reason! Then later that night we were able to visit Mario and Jose! They are doing AWESOME. Mario has come to church every sunday for the past 4 or 5 weeks and his dad has come with him a couple times. We talked to them about building our foundation on Christ and then gave Jose his own Book of Mormon. He was super excited and said "es lo mas lindo!" then kissed the book. hahaha he is SO funny! And they both came to stake conference yesterday! So awesome!

Tuesday was a miracle day! Seriously. It was just miracle after miracle. We were still not feeling 100% but we were determined to work and the Lord helped us ALOT. We started out by seeing a less active that I havent seen my entire time in this area. She works a lot and has a 2 year old and is always super busy! But we were able to set something up with her and got to see her. She is married to a non member so its hard for her to go to church but she really wants to start going! Later that day after we ate with our favorite family, the Lunas, we wanted to go see Karla, our investigator. But we were a little early and werent sure if she would be home yet. So we stopped by the house of a 13 yr old that we had given a Book of Mormon to (her dad is wayyyyyyyy less active) and she was home and we taught her the Restoration on the porch! It was an AWESOME lesson and she had such great questions. Like how will God answer my prayers? And stuff like that. We are so excited for her and we are going to try to start teaching the whole family! Then after that we went to see Karla. She was home!! And she came out to talk to us. Here is the HUGE miracle that we have been praying and praying and praying for!! So we were talking to her about school and band and everything and then all of a sudden she starts talking about baptism and that she wants to get baptized! This is the best part. She talked to both her parents about it and they BOTH want her to be baptized too and were asking her about it and they gave her permission!!! We were sooooo worried that she wouldnt get permission but God answered our prayers!! She is soooo ready. She wants to come to church more but we are shooting for the 5th of October! PRAY FOR HER! Karla is the best. I love her so much. She texted us yesterday because she couldnt figure out her homework so we booked it to her house and helped her and she was able to talk to us and told us she talks to us more than anyone. We are all such good friends and its just so awesome. So please pray for her! :)

Wednesday was the best. So we have this less active named Jesus Garza. He is 82 years old and speaks spanish and english. Basically the cutest old man ever. We can barely hear him when he talks and so we are always paying real close attention and most of the time we just nod and act like we know what is going on. He is the sweetest man. He used to be super active but then I think either his wife died or they got divorced so he told the branch president tons of years ago that he was going to leave the church for a time. i think he will be like Thomas B Marsh who was an apostle to Joseph Smith and left the church for a time and then went back so strong! He always wants to take us out to dinner. But he cant so he says, "let me go see what i can find!" so he searches his pantry and fridge and this time he gave us a package of frozen raw chicken to cook at home, canned vegetables, a gallon of juice, cookies,  and plums. SO AWESOME. haha Then later that day we got to teach an investigator that is living with a member family! Its the ideal situation. He gets more and more interested every week! 

Thursday, we, well my companion, taught a member how to make banana bread and it was SO GOOD. Then we went to see Yuri! She is sooo cute. We got there and she was so happy to see us and her little boys were too. I just adore them so much. She was telling us how its hard because her husband doesnt really want her to listen to us but she told him, "well maybe one day you will want to be mormon too!" She is so cool!!! She already has a testimony of this gospel and she just has to realize it. We taught her about the temple and baptisms for the dead and I have never seen anyone so interested in it and so accepting of that. She thought it was so cool and was excited to hear about it because it was so new to her. :) Then we gave her a My Family book to fill out and she said she would. I love her so much! She is getting baptized soon too! 

Skip to Saturday! Since I was in Houston 9 more so long they let me go on an exchange back to the area for a day!!! I WAS SO HAPPY!!! Seriously being there for the day brought back SO many memories! The area is a lot different but the people are all the same! All people that I love soooo much and each one has a very special place in my heart :) We got to see everyone. I will attach some pictures. Everyone was so surprised to see me though! They were like what are you doing here?!?1 I told them why and they were shocked at how fast the time has gone! I was too!! its insane!!! But everyone is doing so good and it was just nice to see everyone before I leave! 

​I LOVE THESE PEOPLE. 

Well, thats all i have for this week!!! Hope yall have a great week!! Have faith. I also want to invite you all to have a 30 minute prayer this week. Long prayers are the best. Just talk with your Heavenly Father. He wants to hear from each one of you! Love you all!! 

Con amor, Hermana Dorian

God loves us, and He has a PERFECT plan for all of us.

This week, I have learned a lot. We learn a lot from our trials. I learned this week that 
1. God loves all of His children so much and He is watching out for us

2. He has a perfect plan for all His children.

I didnt really want to write about this but if i dont, then i wont have anything to write about in my email this week. So the week started out normal. We had our Pday and we played games with our zone and that night we got to go out and see some recent converts. Tuesday, we had an appointment with Argelia but during studies she texted us and cancelled the appointment and so we rescheduled for Wednesday at the same time. So we went to see first Hermana Jurado who is in the Relief Society presidency and she is all ready to start working on reactivation with the sisters in the ward. So we helped her by writing out lists of the active sisters and of the less active sisters. It was really cool! Then we saw Eunice and talked to her about getting divorced and she asked us to get the information for her and she would go do it. YES! Then we later ate with the Luna family and saw Ines. Ines is my FAV. She is soooo cute. We had somewhere else to be but she was talking and telling us about all the problems she is going through again. And so we just sat there and listened while she cried. It broke my heart. BUt she was so happy that we were there. And she wants to be baptized so bad but she isnt sure if she is going to move or not :( We hope she doesnt but she is still deciding! But she LOVED the Restoration movie and loved Joseph Smith's story. She just understood it so well and said that what we were teaching was like we were bringing it back to her memory. :)

So Wednesday we started off the day with District Meeting. Then we went to see Argelia with Tori Scott, a member in the English ward. We drove with her in her Astro Van. This is when are entire week turned around! We were turning from the highway to the street to go to Argelias and as we are braking to turn, all of a sudden we got hit. We were rearended by a guy in a truck going 60-70 mph. But I tell you all this just to show you the MIRACLES that we saw from this accident. It was probably one of the most scariest moments of my life. Once the car stopped we made sure we were all okay. We couldnt find our phones so we couldnt call anyone. But then a couple people came out of the only shop that was on that road and they called 911 for us. But this is the coolest part. All of a sudden this lady walks to the car. She happened to be a certified EMT that was just driving by at that moment. She stopped and checked to see that we were okay and waited with us until the ambulance came. She was a life saver. I was sooooo grateful for her. Then so many people just showed up and helped us. As i was sitting there in the car, I just felt sooo much love for everyone around us. I felt so much love for the man that hit us too. He was a mess. He was just bawling because he felt sooo bad that it had happened. But we reassured him that everything was fine and that he shouldnt worry. We later learned that his grandpa had just died and they just had had the funeral a few days before. So we are going back to his house tonight to teach him the plan of salvation :) There is a reason for everything. 

It was actually pretty awesome though because it was the only time my entire mission that people have flocked to us :) haha and you better believe we shared the gospel with every single person that came and asked us if we were okay! It was AWESOME. But the rest of the week we have been taking it easy and resting and wanting to work sooo bad but we just cant :( So just pray that we will get well so we can get back to work!!! 

I just know and have such a stronger testimony of miracles. And that God is in every fabric of our lives. He loves us so much. The miracles we saw this week were countless. I am also so grateful for priesthood authority that has been restored here on the earth today and we have the ability and opportunity to receive priesthood blessings. We got blessings from our bishop and it was such a powerful experience. I love this gospel so much and I am so grateful to teach people about it everyday! 

Hope yall have a great week!! Love you all so much! :)

Con amor,

Hermana Dorian

I HATE MOSQUITOS.

So on my mission, okay actually just this past week, I have developed a new phobia. A phobia of mosquitos. I remember this happening last summer but i forgot how HORRIBLE they get!! There's always a week where they are just insanely bad. Yall should just see me wacking those things out of my face. Hermana Taylor thinks its hilarious. Okay so just imagine this. 

You are in the nice safe car. Then you get out of the car and walk up to someones doorstep to go teach them about the gospel. You stand there for about 2 seconds and then all of a sudden every single mosquito in the world swarms to your legs, arms, face, and neck.

Yeah.. thats us every day :) haha its really actually so funny and we just stand there on peoples porches just swatting away and doing everything we can to not get eaten alive! Then when we go back to get in the car, all of them get IN the car and so then we are laughing our heads off killing all of them. We had about 10 on the windows and the floor this morning when we went to go clean it. Then when we get home they follow us too and we are praying to begin daily planning and then we hear each other swatting our legs and then we just start laughing because it is so funny. Lets just say i have laughed SO much this week! But really... i hate mosquitos and i have developed a fear.... 

Okay so onto our amazing week!! So to start off the week, on Monday Heavenly Father answered my prayers! I have been praying for a media referral because i have such a testimony of them and they are always such prepared people. But we got one!!!! I was sooooooooo excited!! It was for a lady named Ines and that she wanted to go to church and was having problems. I will talk about our dear Ines in a little bit. Stay tuned!!...

Wednesday we saw lots of miracles! We had interviews with President Ashton to start off the day. He is the BEST! He just helps me see the big picture on things that I freak out about. Then after that we went to go see Xavier with a member. The member was a girl so we could go inside and teach him. We read 1 Nephi 3 with him and talked about the importance of keeping the commandments even when we dont understand why we have them. Then at the end we were talking and Hermana Taylor asked him if he knew when he was going to be able to get his I.D. He says, "oh.. i already got it! I got it on Monday.". WHAT?!?!?! We hadnt taught him for a week and a half and in that time he had gotten one step closer to getting married and then baptized. We were SO excited! He still wants to be baptized. I will talk more about him in a minute too. But after that we met with a member from the english ward who taught us how to do Family History. It was awesome :) 

Later Wednesday was when we saw Ines. We went to the street and couldnt find her house so we decided to call her. She answered and we told her who we were and she was like "ohh!! hi!!!" and then told us her address! I was like... man. she sounds so awesome! So we knock and she invites us right in! As we are walking in her husband is already getting us water. She felt really bad because they dont have air conditioning but we were like ITS FINE! No se preocupe :) So we were sitting there talking to her and I was like....is she a member? So i asked her if she had ever met with missionaries before and she said no! So we explained to her what we do as missionaries and she told us about how she has been having problems with her family and that she hasnt always been the best person and right now she wants to change. She is SO READY. She is looking in the right place. She told us that sisters talked to her at H.E.B. where she works and we are so grateful that they did. We taught her the beginning of the Restoration becasue that is all that she would let us get in. She loves to talk :) And we just sit and listen to her. We talked to her about coming to church and gave her a Book of Mormon. She said she usually works on Sundays but we invited her to go talk to her boss and see if she could get it off. We went back last night to see her and guess what. SHE WENT AND DID WHAT WE SUGGESTED! She went and asked her boss and they gave her next Sunday OFF!!! She has soooooo much faith its insane. And she is acting on that faith. This morning Hermana Taylor and I were talking about how we can get people to act and I was like "well lets just take Ines around with us!". We love her so much. She is struggling right now and we just bear testimony of how much this can bless her life and she wants that. She also is making sure we go teach her nuera. (daughter in law). ah i just love her and we are so excited for her!

Friday, started out so weird. NO ONE was home and I didnt know what to do. I just prayed sooooo hard that we would be able to teach someone about the gospel. We decided to call Yuri and see if we could stop by and see her. She said we could!! But we still had some time. So we decided to see a potential named Irma. We are standing there on her porch getting eaten alive by those mosquitos and then she answers the door and is like, "pasenle pasenle!!!" And so we ran inside her house. Hey..... i guess the mosquitos were good for something. EVERYONE has been letting us in. Okay anyways so she lets us in and we got to give her a Book of Mormon. She is SUPER open to learning! But while we were teaching her, mosquitos were swarming us and going up our skirts and everything. not fun. Later that night, we went out with Hermana Hironymous and we got to see a less active that we havent been able to see much. We got in and they talked about stuff and then we shared Alma 32:26-27 with her. After Hermana Taylor finishes bearing testimony and teaching, Hermana Hironymous stands up to leave and like says goodbye and leaves so fast! We were like uh... uh... prayer? okay. nope. bye! it was soooooo funny! oops. 

Sunday was just all over the place. It started raining 15 minutes before church started so LOTS of people didnt come to church!! Satan is working hard! It rains everyyyyy sunday and no one here wants to drive in the rain. So lame!!! But we still saw miracles. Okay but the first hard thing was that Xavier told us he was going to be at church. He called us 20 minutes after we saw him and told us he couldnt go and that he didnt want to do this "mormon thing" anymore because he had to work next sunday. He wants it to be a constant thing.. okay great. So we promised him blessings if he came to church. Then he told us he felt forced. GAHHHH its been an emotional roller coaster with him and all we are doing is trying to help. Satan is working sooooo hard with him because he is so prepared! PRAY for him please!! But... Mario and Jose came!!!! And they stayed for 2 hours instead of 1. MIRACLE.

Okay I am out of time but i lvoe you all and hope yall have the greatest week ever!!! :) 

Sharing the gospel=Happiness. 

Con amor, Hermana Dorian

Family History ROCKS!

I am sooo pumped about family history right now. I have been since Sunday. So on Sunday me and hermana taylor had to speak in church because the other speaker backed out. We spoke on Elijah's promise to turn the hearts of the children to their fathers. We are LIVING in the midst of this promise!! How cool is that?! He has already come and restored the keys that we need to do temple work for our ancestors to the profeta Joseph Smith and the Lord has provided us with the ways to do this work. I KNOW this is what the Lord wants ALL of us to be doing right now. After Sacrament, our ward set apart the 2 hours of classes to do family history work. We had tons of laptops and iPads all over the gym and people working on family history. It was SO COOL! I helped our recent convert, Francisco, enter in names of his family members. A lot of the members lack dates but we are working on helping them search. It was so cool to see Francisco so excited when we entered in a name! Then, last night we went to go visit some members and we followed up with them on their family history. They said it went really well but they needed some more help on figuring out Hermano's mom's info. So we logged onto FamilySearch and we started entering more information and after a couple minutes she was READY to be taken to the temple :) They were SO HAPPY and sooooo excited to see that and that we were able to help them do it and print it and everything. They are going to Mexico this month and are going to do the work over there :) SO EXCITING. We also were invited to go to the stake priesthood leadership meeting sunday night and they were all PUMPED about Family History work. This stake has a goal to do 10,000 names by the end of next year. So cool. The spirit was so strong in that meeting. We are going to do everything we can to help these members to get going on their family history work. This is the time. If it wasnt, then we wouldnt have set apart 2 hours on Sunday to do Family History. EVERYONE GET ON FAMILY SEARCH AND START DOING FAMILY HISTORY WORK. Its the coolest thing ever and I promise it will make you so happy and you will feel the spirit of Elijah and you will eliminate the influence of Satan in your life. :)

 

Alright sorry guys..im just so excited about that. Okay so onto this past week. It was gooooood! Really good. Kinda all over the place. The first week of every transfer is always crazy and all over the place. But its cool. We saw some awesome miracles. Tuesday after we went to the temple, we went to see the Aquino family. They were eating dinner. PUPUSAS. She asked us if we wanted to eat some pupusas. DUH. They were the best pupusas i have ever had. so much cheese. One day i will go on a diet and loose all this weight ive gained in this area.... For some reason the last couple weeks, people have been like fighting to feed us. We get fed EVERY SINGLE DAY. No complaints. I looooooovvvvveeeeee the food here. Its just so not healthy! Oh well. So then that night we went to go see an investigator named Tania that we havent seen forever. She wasnt there but her cousin was. I had talked to him before but he wasnt ever there. He told us he read the pamphlet we gave him and had tonssss of doubts and questions! Sooo we gave him a book of mormon and marked some chapters to answer his questions. sadly they were actually moving that night :( but we got his number so we are going to send the missionaries over there! He is golden.

 

This week we tried to do some OYMing. So we went to areas where there were some potentials and just tried to talk with everyone. We went to this one trailer park and the first guy we talked to was pretty much a hippi. He didnt listen to a word we said and kept saying how, "we never really die! you ahve to be ALIVE! we are like a waterfall!" etc. So we just like turned to each other and we were like alright we gotta go. We tried to give him a book of mormon but he said that if we had it, it was like he had it. mhhmm... not really. Close.. but not really. hahaha it was just so funny!

 

Skip to friday. We had NO miles left on the car. Seriously. So we planned to go on bikes. But lucky us we got a girl from the english ward who is going on her mission in december to come out with us for a little bit earlier in the day. The part of the day when it was POURING rain. yessssss. So we first went and saw someone named Mariel. We hadnt seen her for a while because she always cancelled our appointments but then we saw her again and she is still so solid and golden! She wants to be baptized but cant because she isnt married. Ive always wanted a marriage and then baptism on my mission and I am praying that this will be it!! She loves the Book of Mormon. And she was going to go to church on sunday but it decided to rain. And no one likes to drive in the rain. soooooo... she didnt come. But next week!!! Then later that day we got to see the daughter of a member who is super/kinda sorta less active. Her name is Mareli and she is married to a non member. We are trying to teach her husband and she is all for it too. She wants him to get baptized so bad. We talked to her about family history and then the subject changed to what she wants in life and her goals. She has the goal to come back to church and get married in the temple. SUCH A GOOD GOAL. And I know if she does her part then the Lord will help her to acheive that goal. So awesome. We are so excited to work with that family more! She told us to come more often! YES! I LOVE when people tell us to come more often!!! :)

 

Sunday was another miracle. Little one, but a miracle. I had to play piano in sacrament meeting and it went kinda okay. haha no that wasnt the miracle. That was the nightmare. They like to throw songs at me that I dont know but I am called to serve and so i had to do it!!! I played only the right hand but it went alright. The members are very patient with me :) Anyways so I was sitting up on the stand waiting while the bishop was saying announcements and then Mario (less active) and his dad (investigator) walked in!!!! His dad, Jose, hasnt come to church the entire time that I have been here! So that was such a miracle. Also, the nephew of a member came and we have been trying to teach him forevs. So miracles are happening every day!!!

 

Yesterday we saw another sweet miracle. It was an interesting situation too. So we had an extra hour so we went to go try a less active that we had never met before but was on the ward list. So we go over there and we are about to knock on the door and a guy looks around the corner of the store right next to the store and tells us to wait for a minute. So we wait there and like 5 minutes later he comes back. As he was walking towards us, Hermana Taylor and I both were like HOW do we know this guy?? WHY does he look so familiar?? Then as he comes to shake our hands it clicked!!! It was a friend of Rosalinda (recent convert) that was there when we went to go see Rosalinda one time! He didnt say anything about being a member!!! He is going to a catholic church now. But we were able to teach him part of the Restoration. When we were talking about prophets he told us that he reads the bible every day and then just started bawling. It was hard to see. He loves God so much and just wants to be with his family but he is divorced and all his kids are far away from him. It just hurt my heart to see him hurting. We bore testimony that if he wanted to really feel Gods love for him and receive comfort and peace and happiness in his life, that he would come to church with us this sunday. He said he would try. I just felt at that moment a little piece of how Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ feel about us. They love us so much and they are so sad when we are hurting and they just want us to be happy. And as missionaries, we can help people be HAPPY. The BEST calling in the world!!

 

Well, I know this church is true. And this is the Lords work. Thank yall for your love and support and prayers!! Love yall and hope yall have a FANTASTIC week!! :)

Con mucho amor,

hermana Dorian

This is the LORDS work, NOT ours.

I learned a LOT this week. This week we worked as hard as we could. We didnt have ANY free time and I prayed more than i ever have in my entire life. I feel like I was CONSTANTLY praying. We felt at the beginning of the month that we could baptize 5 people last week. So we worked as hard as we could and focused on those that were qualified. But... the week ended and we didnt have any baptisms. Sunday evening I just sat in the car so confused. If Heavenly Father told us we could baptize 5 people, why didnt we? Because it wasnt the Lords will. I learned that lesson that I have had to learn every month. It doesnt matter what we want to happen. Because it wont happen if it isnt the Lords will. It would have been great to baptize 5 people, but the Lord didnt want that. We did everything that we could do and its all up to the Lord. We saw lots of miracles though! we know who to focus on this transfer and we created a stronger relationship with the people that we thought were going to be baptized. Now we have an even stronger desire to work hard and do exactly what the Lord wants us to do this transfer.

So Sunday night, we got home and I said the first prayer for our daily planning. In the middle of the prayer, I just broke down. I started BAWLING. It had never hit me so hard that my mission is coming to a close. I never ever thought that this would come. This had been my life for the past 17 months and I love being a missionary more than anything. It scares me to have to be a normal person. But me and Hermana Taylor talked about it and we are just going to work harder than we ever had this transfer and make it the best 6 weeks we have had. SO STOKED. I love this work so much :)

So this week we worked a TON with Erica and Xavier. The hardest thing is when people know that this church is true, but they just choose not to accept it because its too hard. With these 2 wonderful people, they just cant see beyond how hard the commandments are to keep. Erica has struggles with the Word of Wisdom and Xavier has to get married. It is so sad because people these days want easy religion. They want a church where they dont have to do anything. Xavier said, "maybe i just need time to look for another religion. I didnt know i was going to have to do so much." . When I heard that my heart just broke in a million pieces. If only they knew. And we could tell them so many things but they are really never going to know if they dont have those desires to change. Its sad. So please pray for these people! We arent giving up and we know they will be prepared! and we are going to keep working hard with them!

One day this week, we decided to go on bikes. Its SO hot here, just so you know. So we live on one side of the freeway and the people we had appointments with were on the other side. In texas they are doing construction like ALL the time (just like Utah) and so it was either go on the road with tons of construction or bike along the freeway for like 5 minutes. We decided the freeway would be safer. Until we got on it and people were FLYING by!! haha I wont ever do that again. Promise. but it was an adventure. We get to our first appointment just drenched with sweat. it was disgusting. Then we get to our dinner appointment with Bishop and his family and my entire back was wet. I was like man... we are so gross. Then later that night we had to bike back from seeing all our recent converts and Dora gave us burritos!! the most delicious burritos EVER. It didnt even make it home. I ate it while riding my bike home. ha what an adventure. 

The work really is moving along great here! We have been finding lots of new investigators that are really prepared! We got to see Yuri again this week and she is AWESOME. We watched the Restoration video and she loved it. Everyone lately has been so open to Joseph Smith and they immediately believe that he was a prophet of God. This has never happened so much on my mission. The Lord is preparing these people! Then we saw a former investigator who is the daughter of a less active. She has a date for the 20th of september! She came to church on Sunday and really wants to be baptized. But she needs her moms permission and we are praying her mom will let her and her brother be baptized! Then last night we FINALLY got in to teach the mom of a recent convert in the english ward! She has a lot of family members that are members of our church. And she only as a 2nd grade education so we are going to have to teach her slowly but she is so excited for us to teach her more and she committed to be baptized when she learns more and knows its true for herself! Shes the sweetest lady ever. :) 

Well, that is how our week went! Hope yall have a great week!! Love you all!

Con amor,

Hermana Dorian!

This week I fought with a goat... and I WON!

I just want to start out my email by saying how grateful I am that we have the restored truth on the earth today, restored by a living prophet. My testimony has grown soooo much this week and I know without a doubt that this is the true church here on the earth today. The only true church. I know that it is the same church that Christ established when he was here on the earth. NOTHING is changed. Its the same teachings and this is what Christ set up. And I know that it is through the power and authority that we have that we can return to live with God and WITH our families FOREVER if we follow His teachings and follow the commandments. I love the knowledge that we have of that and that we know how we can be saved and live with our Father in Heaven one day.

 

So we had a really good week this week. A REALLY BUSY week, but a really good one! This week we really focused on Francisco who got baptized this Saturday!!! It was an AWESOME baptism and there was a great turn out!! Its been 2 years that he has been taught and the main thing was that he wasnt married. But now he is and we were able to commit him to the 16th and he was ready! We went over everyday this week to just reteach everything and make sure he was ready. He is an awesome guy and just wants to serve and help others all the time. It was so amazing to see him be baptized. The spirit was so strong. Then yesterday at church he was confirmed and then received the priesthood right after all the meetings!! YAY!!! So now hopefully in the near future he can baptize his kids! :) That will be a beautiful day.

 

So at the beginning of the baptism, right as Hermana Camacho was giving the first discurso on baptism, Xavier texted us and told us that he was on his way to the baptism with his wife! We were so excited!! Then we realized that he might not make it to actually see the baptism because he was a little ways away. So we both just started praying SO hard that they would get there in time so he could see what a baptism was like!! As we were walking to the baptismal font in the cultural hall, he still hadnt showed up. Then i looked at our phone and he was calling! I answered and we walked around the corner and there they were! YES! God answers prayers!!! They got there JUST in time!!! As they sat down, Heidi (his girlfriend), said that the baby was kicking (she's pregnant and thats a sign that they need to get baptized) and she kept being like, "thats so cool!". Then they got to see Francisco get baptized and then stayed after and got to meet bishop and the ward mission leader! It was just so awesome.

......Okay so now rewind. This week we went over to see Xavier on Wednesday. We sat outside with him and started by asking him what he thought of church. He told us that he LOVED it and that he just felt soo much peace there and didnt want to leave to go to work. Then he asks, "so when is the next baptism??" we said, "well we are having a baptism this saturday if you want to come watch!" and he goes, "and can i get baptized too???" AHHHHHHH. Sadly he has only come to church once sooo we had to tell him no. But we extended the 24th to him!!! He WILL be baptized this weekend. We have to work through some stuff with him but we know that he will be baptized!!! That day we taught him the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity and he was super ready to keep those commandments! The only thing is he has to get married. He was like, "I will get married today if i have to!" he is SO AWESOME. He is super ready to keep all the commandments and serve and we taught him about tithing and he wants to start paying it before he gets baptized!! If that isnt prepared then i dont know what is!! So he will be getting baptized this weekend and married and we are really excited for them :) Hermana Taylor and I cant stop smiling when we teach him because the spirit is so strong and he is one of Gods very special sons. God loves him so much!

 

This week we were able to see Maria and Valerie again. Maria's son, Paul, who is a member was there again and he was better in that lesson but it was still hard. We felt like we needed to teach them the Atonement. They are like seriously the sweetest people ever! they feel guilty when someone says something mean to them and they get angry!! They like feel like they need to repent. Man i love them so much!!! I was like man if thats the case then i have a lifetime of repenting to do!!! But we taught the Atonement and the spirit was so super strong and it was awesome. At the end we invited them to be baptized. AGAIN. Maria said she didnt know and Valerie said she has been praying and hasnt received an aswer yet. So we asked her what she was expecting to receive and how she feels when she reads the Book of Mormon and prays. She said she feels something different and feels a lot better. We helped her realize that that was an answer and then she said that she knows she needs to be baptized and that she wants to. So we committed her to pray about a date and so we are waiting on her answer!! Pray that she will receive one!! Then Paul told us that we needed to start teaching his dad because if we help his dad to know that these things are true, then they will all be able to be baptized. I have a goal to help that family be baptized before I leave. So we are going to have so much faith and work sooo hard to make it happen! We know it can!! So please pray for them!!

 

Yesterday, in the morning we went to church with Elizabeth. She is moving to Dallas for a few months tomorrow and so we wanted to go with her and support her before she left! She goes to a Catholic church. It was really really different. It was cool to see what it was like. But then afterwards, we gave her a gift. We gave her a box that had some cookies, and a Book of Mormon is english and spanish. She has never been open to the Book of Mormon so we thought it would be the perfect time to give her one. We wrote a note and told her how much the Book of Mormon means to us and how much she means to us and that is why we gave it to her! We hope she reads it and comes to know that it is true!! we love her sooo much!!! But then we invited her to come to church with us and her husband who is a member and she was like, "uhhh i dont think Mario will be home in time...". So we said goodbye and drove to the church. Church is just starting and I looked back and in walks... MARIO AND ELIZABETH!!!! SHE CAME!!!! We were SO happy that she decided to come!!! :) We know it meant sooo much to Mario to have her there with him. They are so cute. She will be baptized one day and they will be going to the temple! So exciting! :)

 

Sooo.. the title of my email. This week we ate with a member and they have a white goat named Snow White. I fought it. Grabbed on its horns and everything. It was pretty exciting and i won. Pictures coming soon! hahaha! So many adventures everyday. I also walked by a snake this week and jumped in the air about 5 feet and screamed really loud outside a members home!! HAHAHAH!

 

Well... eso es todo que tengo para este semana!!! Hope yall have a great week!!! Thank you for all the love and support!!! :)

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Dorian!!

Another warning, CAMEL? fattest cat ever.

I will explain the title of my email later. But man... i am just SO happy to be a missionary. It's the greatest calling in the WORLD. Okay i am sure mom you would disagree and say being a mother is the best calling in the world.. but for now, this is the best calling ;) haha we had a really great week this week and we just continue to see miracles every single day!! I also learned a lot this week. So i wont waste any time tell yall about it!!

So on Tuesday, Slatenka made us lunch. SHE IS THE CUTEST. Literally I like wanted to cry after we talked to her on the phone Tuesday morning because she is just the sweetest lady ever and I just love her SO much. My heart is so full of love for her. Okay anyways so they made us a yummy lunch and then ALL of Dora's grandkids came out and she sat them all down on the couch to listen to us. So we taught the Restoration with cups and all the kids loved it and they knew all the answers. Kids are so smart these days! 

So later that day, we went to go contact a less active that I had never met before named Jesus Garza. COOLEST OLD MAN I KNOW. Okay so we knock and he opens the door and says, "oh.. are yall the mormons?..... yeah. me too." hahaha it was awesome. then he proceeds to ask me if i wanted "watermelo". Of course!! So he brings out a watermelon and chops it in half and basically gives us each 1/4th of it. a piece bigger than my face. Then as we were leaving, he brings us out a bag of fruit and a gallon of juice. SO AWESOME. 

Later that night, I felt like we needed to go see a less active/PMF. So we went and her A/C was broken and her and her poor kids were just dyin in there. She didnt want to go to her moms house though. Anyways, so we asked if we could share a message with her and she said no because she was stressed so we just left her with a prayer. The next day, we were eating dinner with her mom and she told us that Mareli had told her that after we left, her babysitter had called to tell her she had cancelled her appointment the next day and could watch her kids, which took the stress away from Mareli. So her mom was telling her she needed to pray and she was able to tell her mom that example! so cool!!! prayer is sooo powerful!

On Wednesday we had Zone Conference which was just awesome. Most of it was spent doing role plays and we were able to recieve a lot of revelation. I LOVED it. I learned that we all have a different spiritual language and we have to learn it in order to recieve revelation and recognize answers to our questions and prayers. So we have been applying that to our investigators and helping them realize answers to their prayers!

Starting with Maria and Valerie. We saw Maria on Friday which was really good! We taught her about prayer and recognizing answers. We asked her if she had prayed to know if the Book of Mormon is true and she said one time. So after a little questionaire, we helped her to realize that she already knows the Book of Mormon is true! She asked, "what about when i get goosebumps??" THATS THE SPIRIT TELLING YOU THIS IS TRUE!!!! So cool. 

Then that night we had a dinner appointment with Mario and Elizabeth. Elizabeth is going to Dallas for work and so thats why they had us over :( I am so sad. I LOVE Elizabeth!! But this should be good because now Mario can start coming back to church! 

Saturday night we saw a pretty cool miracle! We set up an appointment with the Familia Luna who are active members. We showed up and Dora and all her family were there with Domingo who has been to church and a baptism before! It was a surprise Noche de Hogar! and the MEMBERS set it up. The members are really doing so much better with missionary work and we are so grateful! So we taught the Restoration with cups again and then had chili dogs :) 

Sunday morning, we went and saw Xavier. He let us in and we were with a member which was perfect. We taught him the 10 commandments and the Sabbath day and invited him to church again. He told us he had to work at 3 and church starts at 2. But good thing we had the member because she was able to go pick him up for church and then after the sacrament she took him back home!! As she was taking him back home, he said that there was a different spirit there. He told her there have been problems at home and that it felt good to be there. p.s. he says the BEST prayers and just wants to be part of something and feel loved and like he matters to someone. Well, he is looking in the RIGHT PLACE. He also said that he didnt want to leave and that he is coming next Sunday. PRAY that he will be baptized on the 24th!! 

This week we have also been working a lot with Francisco to get him ready for baptism this week!! He even called bishop and asked him to baptize him :) So awesome!! We have gone over everday to get him ready. But PLEASE PLEASE pray for his kids Francisco Jr and Monica!! They want to be baptized so bad but their mom wont let them!! They live with their mom and not with Francisco and she is against them being baptized. Please pray they can be baptized this weekend with their dad!! 

Okay now to explain my title. Sooo... first. On Saturday night, we were trying to get home on time and we had 4 minutes and we were literally 2 seconds from the gate to our apartment complex and i got pulled over. I mayyyyyy have been going too fast. But we had to be home on time! So I said a quick prayer and explained to the cop our mission rules :) So he was super super nice and because the Lord is so  merciful, the cop just gave me a warning. Hallelujah!! Then we tried to give him a Mormon.org card and he said, "you know what? i actually already have one of those from the other ones back there that go to that church!" HAHAHA he must have gotten them busted too :) 

On Saturday, we were driving in the more country part of our area. Hermana Taylor goes, "hermana! look!" I looked and sure enough there was a camel just chillin in a field. HAHA camel?!?! that is not something you see everyday! I love Manvel.

One night after teaching Francisco, I looked at this one porch and there was a HUGE cat. I thought it was sitting on another cat. But NOPE. It got up and walked up to me and it was SO FAT AND FURRY. I will send pictures soon. I may or may not have done a photoshoot with that cat. :) 

Well, thats my week for ya! I hope everything is doing great and loving life! We all have so much to be grateful for! :) This week we are going to get Francisco ready for baptism and his kids too and get all our recent converts to the TEMPLE to do baptisms! :) Hope yall have a great week!!!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Dorian

This Gospel changes lives. Our faith can change lives too!

Hello again! I hope everyone is doing great!! This week... started off hard. But through hours and hours of prayer the Lord helped me and gave me the strength and faith that I needed. And He really blessed us with an AMAZING week!! We just decided that we were going to work as hard as we could to baptize ALL of Manvel. We are getting there ;) 

So we seriously see so many miracles in this area every single day. And this week it was like miracle after miracle after miracle all day long every day. The Lord is truly hastening His work here in Manvel! We were able to see less actives that we havent seen in a long time and investigators hearts were softened and opened and changed. Slowly, but its happening. As we focused on prayer and just really asking the Lord to guide us to His children He had prepared, we could see Him guiding us to just the right place at just the right time. Like one day we decided to go try a less active/returning family and they werent home. Luckily we had our bikes on the back and we decided to just go bike around. We went to try some formers and potentials and then as we were coming back to the car I had a feeling to go down a certain road. We did and the first person we passed, he yelled out, "Hey! are yall the Mormons?!" YEP. We turned right around and went to talk to him! He was visiting his inactive sister and actually lives in Houston but is willing to meet with missionaries! So cool!! Then we got to give out a Book of Mormon to another kid sitting outside! My testimony really has grown so much these past 16 months. It is so important to live worthy of the spirit and then follow those promptings of the spirit or else you wont get any more! The spirit can literally tell us what to do. Its AMAZING.

This week we had Zone Meeting and it was SO AWESOME. I have the best zone. Its really a zone full of missionaries with lots of faith and the desire to do what the Lord wants. My favorite part was when the Zone Leaders talked about prayer. One thing they said was:

Prayer = Form of worship

The way you live your life = form of worship

We should be constantly living in an attitude of prayer but the way we live our lives and always have a prayer in our hearts. Then after that discussion, we prayed as a Zone. It was the most powerful prayer. The spirit was SO strong! Sister Sellers led the prayer and everything she said was by the spirit. She prayed for all the investigators individually for every area and then prayed for all the missionaries individually and said things that she didnt even know were going on. I just felt the spirit hit me like a wall and I know that the Lord is mindful of each and every one of US, and each and every one of our INVESTIGATORS. He KNOWS. And He has prepared so many people in our area and we just have to find them!

After Zone Conference, we played soccer with the ward and TONS of less actives showed up! We had sooooo many people there playing! There was also a family there that werent members and we invited them to play with us and they did! We got their number and we will be calling them to invite them this friday :) Also, after Zone Meeting we decided to exercise our faith and go see Angelica. She stopped answering texts and stuff and we thought something we said kinda freaked her out. But we went and she let us in and we were able to establish our purpose and she read the intro and we think she is just going to her church for her husband! Miracles! We know she can be baptized soon and that she will know this church is true as she reads more of the Book of Mormon and comes to church!

Saturday, was a miracle day! We got to see Maria and Valerie and we really feel like they will be ready for baptism really soon! We are working so hard with them :) Then later that day we went to try Gabriel and his family who we OYM'd last week and then we taught Gabriel earlier this week. We went to our appointment and Gabriel wasnt there but his wife Andrea was! SHE IS AWESOME! The minute she opened the door I just felt so much love for her. And her boys? Oh my gosh. Cutest/smartest boys ever. She has TONS of questions. But she is so ready. So prepared! She is questioning her own church and all the answers we gave her she agreed with and we testified that all the answers to her questions she could find in the Book of Mormon. She is so open and we are so excited to teach that family! :) And then we went to see Ana, Francisco and Francisco's kids and they accepted baptismal dates! Well Ana is a member and her husband isnt. They just recently got married and now he can be baptized! They will be baptized on the 16th!! :) 

Sunday... KHIARA GOT BAPTIZED!!!! Khiara is the cutest 9 year old. She is so sweet. Kenia and Ashley who got baptized 3 weeks ago are her older sisters :) She wanted to get baptized with them but her mom told her to wait! But she showed up to church late yesterday (we were FREAKING out that she wasnt going to come) but she did and during the 3rd hour we taught her almost everything (because we hadnt been able to teach her all week!) and then she had her interview after church! After church she like came up and gave us the biggest hugs and she was so happy. It was the cutest thing ever. So she goes to get baptized, and Elder Tew had filled up the font too high!!! So she walks in and is basically SWIMMING in the font and is like basically already baptized because she already was covered with water except for her head. I was DYING laughing!!! BUt everything went so well. OH! And Slatenka spoke about the Holy Ghost! She has come so far. She is so very special to me. She spoke about how she doesnt know much about the church, but that she has faith and she knows she will keep learning. She started crying and just expressed how grateful she was that her mom kept telling her to come to church and for the examples of her family. That family is so special and we are taking them to the temple in a few weeks! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! And seeing the gospel change people :)

Well I am so sorry this email is kinda all over the place. SO much that happened! But I love you all so much. Thank you for all the love and support! Que tengan una buena semana!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Dorian

Prayer brings Faith, Faith brings Peace

"Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called‍ of him to declare his word among his people,that they might have everlasting life." 3 Nephi 5:13

 

I read this scripture this week and it hit me so hard. That is my purpose. And I will fulfill that purpose to the best of my ability! I am so grateful to be on a mission and for all that I have learned. One essential eternal truth that I have learned is the Atonement is REAL. Throughout my mission, I have just come to know for myself that the Atonement is so real. Its become more real to me that it ever has or ever could here on my mission. I know without a doubt that Christ has felt every single thing that we EVER have felt and ever will feel. He makes up for everything. Its through the Atonement that everything unfair in our lives, is made fair. How amazing is that? It gives me so much peace and comfort to know that. And to know that because of the Atonement, if we choose not to and we choose to have faith, we don't have to suffer as much as Christ did. He takes away the suffering. I know that from experience. We have such a loving Heavenly Father and we are all His special children who He loves so much! Trust in Him! :)

 

This week, we saw a lot of miracles. It was a very emotional week and I was a little all over the place. But it was a good week, now that I look back at it. I really am so grateful for all the trials that I go through in life. They make me so much stronger and I learn so much. I learned a lot from my trials this week. During the week we had a mini zone meeting and our zone leader challenged us to pray for 30 minutes every day and make the time for it. Man, I can testify that doing that really builds faith. If I hadn't done that, I wouldn't have the faith I have today. Its amazing. To just have a 30 minute conversation with your Heavenly Father. Truly such a cool experience! I challenge all of you to do that this week!! EACH DAY. You will see miracles and just feel a difference. Seriously my relationship with my Heavenly Father has grown immensly. 

So despite the hard times, we saw a lot of miracles this week! On Tuesday, we decided to go out on bikes for a little while and just explore a part of the area I had never explored. So we were biking on this road and I had no idea where we were but we went by this house and i felt like we should knock but we didnt. We rode by it again and I was like okay yeah we need to knock on that door. We knocked and this lady answered and was like, "Ohhh hola!!" and was super nice and let us right in! I was like alright this is sweet! So we went in and met Guadalupe and Hortencia. Hortencia is Guadalupes mother in law and Hortencia has tons of kids that are baptized in Mexico and a granddaughter that is on a mission! SO COOL. So they knew who we were! Hortencia has a problem with modern prophets but we are going to go back this week and help her understand :) So excited! A less active (her son) lives there so we are so happy we found that family! Blessings for biking. Then later that night we went and saw Elizabeth and she is awesome! We have really good discussions with her. We talked about faith and she was really happy because she said that was exactly what she needed. I love her :) She is slowly becoming more open to the gospel! 

Wednesday, we had a training all day with President Ashton for the newer missionaries and their companions! We had a training on the Atonement and I learned soooo many new things which was so cool! One thing i learned was that some times bad things dont happen when they should because it isnt pertinent to our salvation. Christ's grace and mercy covers that and takes those away so we dont have to suffer them. I love the Atonement. But that was really what I needed that day. 

Every friday night, we play futbol with the ward and the ward mission leader, Hermano Correa invites EVERYONE. So we went and I wasnt sure if we were going to have any investigators there but we got there and THERE WERE TONS. Francisco (recent convert) and ALL his family who arent members were there! Such a miracle! And then a reallllyyy inactive member went with his son! We are teaching his wife, Yvette and she doesnt want to get baptized until he can baptize her but its a miracle he is now participating in activities! :)

Saturday morning we went to go see Erica Hernandez. We hadnt seen her in a while but we finally got to go visit her. That morning during my personal study I felt so strongly that we needed to teach her the Atonement. So we did and the spirit was so so strong. She was smiling and answering questions and just was a lot more responsive that she usually is and she seemed a lot happier! Then we extended the 24th of August to her and she VERY SOFTLY accepted it!!! MIRACLE!! She neverrrr has accepted baptismal dates!! She also expressed her concern. That she doesnt understand the purpose if she might miss coming to church sometimes. She wants to know she will keep that promise. So now we know how to teach her! We are sooo excited :) We know she will be baptized! And then that night we went to a Mexican wedding of one of our investigators and active members. yesssss. i love hispanics and their weddings. 

Well, thats all i have for you! I love you all and I hope yall have an amazing week. Remember, the Atonement covers EVERYTHING. :) 

Con amor,

Hermana Dorian