Bell Gardens for another transfer!!!

Hello once again!!!

Looks like you all had a very eventful week with back to school and weddings ;) Congrats to Carlos and Irene!!!! :D I was there in spirit ;)

It looked like it was a blast! And the children's looked sooo cute heading back to school! Good Luck!!!!! They are all getting so big! My Ryke is going to big boy school! SO CUTE!

Our week was also pretty eventful due to transfend all.....I am staying!!! WOOOO going on transfer #6 in the Bell Gardens ward and transfer #3 in this side of the area! I am excited! Unfortunately Sister Vincent is on her last transfer and she got moved to another ward...Santa Fe Springs but we're in the same zone! Nothing can separate us :)  I am gonna miss her though. My new companion is Sister Smith!!!! She is actually a visitors center missionary going "full field" this transfer! She is from Sandy, Utah.....as well lolol and is so awesome! and so sweet! Haha we have seen some really amazing MILAGROS this week...it all starts with Sister Vincent and I. After Miguel (our RC who moved to Mexico) left Sis.Vincent felt prompted to go see a family that they had taught in the beginning of her mission the last time she was in the area that lived right on the other side where Miguel lived. So we went and they were super happy to see us! The parents are named Norma and Francisco Palma and they have a couple kids, a few who are older and have kids of their own. But they all live in this apartment, anyways I taught them with Sister Vincent and then we had transfers and Sister Smith came. So this week we came and visited them and we taught them the restoration. They were so prepared to hear it!! Sis Vincent mentioned that before, when they taught them last they weren't ready to commit and they wouldn't keep their commitments! But we invited them to be baptized on Sept. 25th and they said themselves that before they weren't ready to go to church and to search the truth but now they are. So we invited them to church and Sunday morning we went to wake them up at 8:30am. And normally, not gonna lie...more often than not people are still in their PJ's eating breakfast but we get there and they are all beautifully dressed and they were like "we were waiting for you!" and their whole family came to church and LOVED it!!! It was the coolest :) I have a really strong testimony of "dropping" investigators or "handing people over to the Lord" when they aren't commiting. Because I know that a lot of times, the Lord prepares them in the future. We are so excited to teach their family! We also were able to contact a referral this week, Veronica and her whole family are members except for her and they have been less active for many years but they are so ready to start coming back to church!

   ALSO this week we had a STL meeting for all the new STL's and there are many more companionships now! Pres and Sis. Haynie want to have the ZL's and the STL's work more together to unify the mission. So on Friday, we did something a little different and we had a meeting and lunch at the mission home with smoothies and the whole shabang. Very different but really enjoyable!

         On Sunday we were able to also take our investigator Juan and a couple members to a fireside that our assistant to the president was having, Elder Kawamitsu. He is actually in the new Meet the Mormons movie, so you guys should check it out! But his family are a pretty famous japanese music group and so Elder Kawamitsu sang and bore his testimony of the message of the Restoration. Juan, our investigator was very touched by the spirit felt through the music and he was able to receive revelation there. We are still working on getting him to be baptized but the fireside really helped him to hear Elder A's conversion story and relate it his own. We are excited for this coming week, we have MLC and we have found some new cool people we are going to be working with. 

Don't forget the love God has for you!!! I have really been able to feel his love individually for his children with transfers and these cool miracles and one scripture I want to share with you guys is in 1 Peter 3:15, "but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts; and be ready always to give and answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you" 

 Sister Haynie has been shared it with us several times and I love it because being surrounded by so many sad/hurt/depressed people, they need to understand that there is hope in knowing that God loves them and that Christ is their Savior. I invite you to reach out to someone in need right now and let them know that! I love you guys! Have a wonderful week!!!!!!

Con mucho amor, 

Hermana Abreu

Me and my new comp Sister Smith and the sunset 

Me and Danid a RC :) 

Us saying goodbye to Jennifer ( she and Aaron went to London ) :(

Last time Sister Vincent ate "te amo" pizza together (famous pizza place in Bell) 

Baby Aaron!

Last week of da transfer!!!

Hola familia!

How are you all doing?!?! I know that Giselle had plans to go to thetemple today and I forgot to let you know that we're doing missionary contacting on Monday so our preparation day is actually today :( that's okay! Any whoooo I hope Giselle enjoyed it! This week has been good! Sister Vincent and I had a whole week of proselyting in our area, without too many meetings or exchanges so it
was nice to work all week! We were able to teach a lot of our recentconverts that we hadn't seen in a while and go to parts of our area that we hadn't been too in a while! The highlight of the week was definitely when we were able to go do temple service because the temple is closed down until the end of the month for cleaning, so our zone was assigned to go all together and clean inside. I love the temple!!! Especially when there is no one and it's superrr quiet! We were able to clean inside some of the most beautiful rooms in the temple and the Hermano temple worker that showed us what to do, gave us some fun facts and details about new additions and things they were doing in the different rooms before it was to open at the end of the month. It's so incredible to think that it's the place where we can be the closest to our Heavenly Father than anywhere else in the world. I was telling my companion that being in the Los Angeles temple the second biggest temple in the world, compared to our cute small Raleigh temple back at home is  a huge difference but todos son casas del Señor :)
Welp that's about it for this week! Not too much to update on, we have transfer calls tomorrow and we shall see!!!!!! :) I'll go where He wants me to go!!!!!

I love you family!!!!!! Have an awesome week!!!!!

-Hermana Abreu

Pictures on Miguel's last Sunday

more pics of Miguel leaving 

Hollywood and Chickfila the preparation day last week

HUGEEEE cockroach we found in our bathroom that we killed

Plaza Olvera on Preparation day

Us and Karen, a recent convert

Sister Vincent and I's sticky note war--she won

the HP ZONE 

Changes for the better!!

Happy Happy Monday!!

I love you family!! How is everyone?! This week has been so good! Lots of busy events but nothing out of the ordinary of our normal thing as misioneras in the CLAM. 

On Tuesday we had MLC with President and Sister Haynie, it was good! Something I really enjoyed was when we counseled all together as an MLC about our baptism goal for the month of August. We counseled with the zone leaders as zones (which is a very new thing in our mission) to make plans on what we can to help each of our zones to achieve our zone goals and mission goals for baptism. At one point we were all deciding on how many baptisms we were to have for August until we decided to say a prayer to decide, so all the MLC knelt in prayer and asked Heavenly Father what we would be able to achieve. As we ended the prayer, President Haynie asked every MLC member one by one what they thought and at first we were all in agreement until an Elder said he felt we could achieve more and as President Haynie went around the room we all felt that 36 was the goal...it was really powerful to be united as leaders of the mission to set a goal for how many people could be baptized, and if we work hard I know the Lord is going to bless us for it!!!!

     On Wednesday we had interviews with President and Sister Haynie! Talking with them and continuing to get to know them was good, although there are tons of changes, I truly feel the love that they have for us and the desire that they have to make this mission even better. 

     On Thursday, we had AN AMAZING lesson with our investigator Juan who we have had trouble meeting with but finally we were able to have a super powerful lesson on the gospel of Jesus Christ and invite him to be baptized. We asked him about the last time we had invited him to be baptized when he said he didn't feel ready and asked him how he felt now..and he said he was pretty close. We invited him to set a date to work towards on August 28th and he said yes!!! It was so cool to see the Spirit working on him!!!! WOOOOO I love the spirit ;) 

    We also had exchanges this week with Sisters Castillo and Fehrenbach and due to the fact that my license has expired and Sister Fehrenbach doesn't drive we rode our bikes around our area, man its been a while!! Hahaha but it was fun :) We may or may not have biked our bums off to make it home in time.... unforgettable exchange I will say. 

       Sunday we were able to also go to the visitors center with Jennifer (used-to-be-pregnant Jennifer) and her baby Aaron and the tour was centered on families and the temple and it was sooo powerful!!!! Jennifer really felt the spirit. We're really sad that she isn't getting baptized here in Cali because she is going to be moving back to London/Spain where her husband is and he is going to baptize her there but we already have plans to go to her sealing! :) 

 

Miguel our RC is working on getting the priesthood and going to the temple and we're really excited for him!!! 

LOVE YOU GUYS!!! I have a really strong testimony that God answers prayers, sometimes the answers we get are not the answers we are looking for or expect but I trust in His timing for us and His perfect plan. I know its true. I know God loves us so much. I love Him so much and have truly come to understand on my mission how important it is to counsel with him in all our doings, I know he will always direct us for good. Have a great week!!! I love you so much.

Con mucho amor, 

Hermana Abreu 

On exchanges with Hermana Fehrenbach!

Visitor's Center with Jennifer and baby Aaron!

Happy August!

Hi Mom!

HAPPY AUGUST!!!!

What a week!!!!! Filled with hot days but ah-mazing miracles!!! 

 

Miguel was confirmed an official member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints yesterday!! He even wore the tie that we bought him the whole time at church (even though he hated it) :)

We ate dinner at his house that evening and he told us about how he used to be a much more lively and happy person before the incident in Mexico and afterwards he had lost his funny, vibrant personality but he told us that as he has learned about the gospel and as we've been coming by he is slowly regaining it and he is laughing way more than he used to!!! We laugh a ton whenever we teach him but I know in the end its because we're all just so happy because of the gospel we can't help but laugh and smile!!!!!

Besides that, we have had fun fun exchanges with Sister Heller and Davies and Sister Wadsworth and Hibbard!!! I just love working with these sisters and learning new things from them! We have the best sistas in the CLAM I truly believe! :) :) 

Things are good, we're continuing to find and find and we've seen some cool miracles as we've been finding with faith! The other day we felt inspired to go see a former investigator that Sister Vincent had taught in the past and Sister Vincent said that they had stopped teaching her because she wasn't coming to church but hadn't officially handed her back yet! We went by and she was like "welcome back, what happened?!" and we were able to have an awesome lesson with her and we're excited to see how she will progress. There are many other awesome investigators we're finding as well that we have appts. with this week. This coming week we have MLC, interviews and ZTM so I'm sure its just gonna fly by!!!

That's about it for this week butttttt

I love you family!!! I will continue to update you as the transfer goes on!!! Have a fantabulous week!!!!! 

Love, 

Hermana Abreu

 

 Elotes!!! Yummy!

 

Miguel with his tie!

On Exchanges!

More Exchanges and ICE CREAM!!!