"Charity Transfer Man!"

Wow! I don't really know where to start but this week has been one of the greatest weeks of my mission. 

   Like I mentioned last week, our mission has started something called "Charity Transfer" where we are focusing on increasing our key indicators with the motivation being charity. This last week we had a special focus on inviting boldly and with charity everyone to be baptized. All of our trainings, studies, etc. have been about how we can do this. The miracles are countless and as for Hermana Lucas and I and our area, we were able to witness the most amazing miracles. Marta, Juan and Jose had plans to be baptized on June 19th and we were working towards that day, but on Thursday we went over and taught them and they told us that the 19th wasn't going to work out because Marta had plans to go to Mexico, so then they suggested we push it up and to get ready for them to be baptized that Sunday. We couldn't believe it!!!!! We taught everything, got the baptism ready and on Sunday they entered the waters of baptism. It was the best thing to be able to see how God had prepared their hearts for the gospel and as we talked about the promised blessings of baptism and showed charity there was no need to wait. Sister Lucas and I were also able to be witnesso a wedding!!!!! With Jennifer and Fernando, the couple we were teaching, we had been making daily contact with them and on we ended up teaching Jennifer the law of chastity. That next day at night, we actually received a call from Jennifer that she wanted to know how her and Fernando could get married!!!! So we figured it out and that next day we went with an hermana in the ward, Hermana Osorio, and went to get their marriage license. They were married on Saturday and Jennifer is preparing to be baptized in the next couple of weeks. I know that Charity has everything to do with the miracles that are occurring in our area. I have felt the Savior's love more abundantly in my life as I've tried to develop that love for everyone we come in contact with. Its amazing what love for the Savior will lead people to do, whether its get married to live God's commandment or to get baptized earlier to follow his way sooner. I know with all my heart that this work is true and the Lord is watching over us at all times and is encouraging us always to follow his way as soon as possible. 

"Charity never faileth"

I love you all so much. Have a charity filled week!!!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Abreu 

Exchanges with Sister Morrison

Jennifer and Fernando's wedding

Pictures of Marta and Juan's baptism

Picture reunited with my mini me 

My 1-year mark deco

One year mark this week!!!

Hello Mommy! I love you so much! I got my box and I LOVED everything!!! My Easter/Valentines one year stuff! Thank you so much!!! 

I got a box from home celebrating my ONE YEAR mark on my mission!

Well it was my first week back in Bell and wow we've been busy!! My companions name is Hermana Lucas and she is the best. We knew each other before and just being comps in our first week has been a blast. Our area covers the other half of the Bell Gardens ward which is Bell, Cudahy, and Maywood! It's so different from my last area, in LA it's so much quieter.. Kind of nice! Getting back to the STL life has been an adventure, we've had some wild experiences and we've been moving nonstop but it's the best. We have a family that we are teaching who we have been focusing our efforts on, Marta, Juan and Jose. We had the wonderful opportunity take them to the Visitors Center on Saturday and had a powerful lesson and committed he whole family to be baptized on June 19th!!!! It was so cool.

At the LA Temple Visitor's Center with our investigators!

Another cool miracle started when I wasn't here, last Sunday a couple came to the ward and they were both from Spain, looking for the church. It turns out the couples names were Jennifer and Fernando and they are here in LA staying for a while and Fernando is a less active, his fiancée, Jennifer is really interested in the gospel so we have been seeing and teaching her like everyday! She's amazing. We had the idea to bring my recent convert, Jennifer Lopez and her husband Matthew to a lesson with Jennifer, because it turns out that both Jennifer's are named Jennifer, are pregnant AND are both around 19 years old. It was so cool seeing Jennifer testify of the truthfulness of these things with our investigator, Jennifer, my heart was SO full!!!! 

ALSO Hermana Lucas' 20th bday was on Sunday so it was really exciting and all the members showed their love by filling us with food and cake. Our investigators, Juan, Marta and Jose surprised her when we showed up for our lesson with food, cake, a present and the Mexican "mañanitas song" it was so funny! We ended the fiesta with a powerful lesson on the Book of Mormon and they are all excited to read it. Sunday was the best!!!!  Seeing all my peeps in the Bell Gardens ward made my heart so full! This ward has a special piece of my heart and seeing their joyous faces happy to see me again and me happy to see them made me so excited! I feel like it really was a teeny piece of how it's gonna be in the Celestial kingdom, seeing all the people that you served with, loved, helped etc. The sisters here in the ward have been working really hard in the ward and there have been several baptisms in the last 6 months!

 

Yea!! I get to see Hna. Castillo (my previous companion) who is still in our old area of Bell Gardens!!!

My new companion Hna. Lucas!  It was her birthday this week!

Another really cool thing has been working closely with President Weidman again! Hermana Lucas and I, had the privilege of being a part of a small counsel with him and the AP's about something miraculous that we're going to be doing this transfer, called "Charity Transfer". This whole transfer we're going to focus on the Christlike attribute of Charity and focus every week on a key indicator and how we can make our areas improve and exceed the goals we have, to really make the focus of the transfer not on the changes that are happening in the misdion(new mission president etc) but on Charity and to make this transfer the best we've ever had! I hit my 1-year mark this coming week and it's kind of unreal. 1 year of being a missionary!!! I'm gonna celebrate it by working hard. There are so many more things I want to write but the time is so short, but know that God is aware of you and loves you and he knows where you need to be and what you need to be doing! I've learned that with all the change during a mission can be hard but in the end, if you love the people and have a desire to serve them, then it's all the same!!!!! Love you all!!!! Xoxoxoxo

Ah so many changes!!

Hello family!!!!

   Ah so many changes! We got our transfer calls and both Sister Hibbard and I are leaving our area :( :( I will be going back to Bell Gardens!!!!!! I will be a Sister Training Leader with my new comp Hermana Lucas! I am so stoked! It will be the same ward but a different area. Sister Hibbard will be going to Hollywood with Sister Risenmay, and Sister Risenmay will finish her training. She is also so excited!!! Our area will actually be handed over to a companionship of visitors center sisters. Its going to be a hard change for our investigators, two in two out but we know that the VC sisters have got it covered! I am going to miss this area a ton <3

    This week has been super good! We are still working with the Cardona fam and Selena, the daughter is doing so good she is super ready to be baptized on June 12th! On Sunday it was the 5th Sunday and so it was missionary work Sunday. Sister Hibbard and I, along with a couple of the Elders in the ward were able to speak in sacrament meeting and it was awesome! Sister Hibbard gave such a great talk TODO EN ESPANOL! I think the ward was really surprised at how amazing her Spanish was and the spirit was felt very powerfully throughout the meeting :) I don't have too much time just because we have got a lot of moving around to do, we've got to completely clean out our apartment, but I will update you all next week about my new area.

I love you all!!!  Have a great week!!!!

Love, 

Hermana Abreu

LA Ama Tu Ciudad!!!

p.s-- a member gave us these Mexican dresses so we decided to wear them out :) 

Korean BBQ!

Erika, a RC took us to eat Korean BBQ 

Sister Hibbard and our mango banana smoothie!

Picture with a part-member family, Ronald and Irina

Pretty picture by the flowers!

Us with Hno. Juan Zaya and Hno. Alfonso Magana, two recent converts in the ward! The one with the suit, Juan Zaya has an amazing story! He actually was in a coma for 5 years and came back from it he has a trache/tube that he breaths out of. He is so converted, he is the coolest!

Happy last week of May!!!

Hi to all!

    June really is coming up, can't really believe it, time speeds up and so does the work! Sister Hibbard and I have had too many awesome/fun experiences this week, we've loved every second! Like I mentioned last week, we have been working a ton with part member families and it was so precious because with one of the PMF we've been visiting lately, the mom Diana has a five-year old son named David, it was so funny because on Saturday we felt like we needed to see her so we called her and she said that David had actually asked her that morning if "the Sisters of God" were gonna come over. He is the cutest!! We're working hard to get her non-member husband to come to a lesson whenever we're there but he hasn't had much interest but we are trying to help her to strengthen her faith and to become active again to be able to be an example for her husband! 

       Breaking news this week, our recent convert Jose Dany has finished the book of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon and for some reason it has been the most difficult thing for him but on Thursday night when we went for our lesson, he had literally purchased a cake that he had written "Mosiah 1-29" to celebrate his accomplishment and then the next day we also shared the Mosiah cake with the other missionaries in our district. Lol I wish everyone had the excitement and joy that he does about the Book of Mormon!!!!!!

     This week we also had a way fun mini exchange with our STL's all about learning Spanish to help Sister Hibbard, the real struggle is that because I have grown up speaking it, sometimes I can't exactly explain why something is the way it is, especially when it comes to grammar. So it was nice to have Sister Moli and Risenmay to help Sis. Hibbard learn and get some good advice. Plus, it was the last time I was going to see Sister Moli, I may or may not have shed some tears GAH ;) 

         We've found a lot of cool new people this week and we have a lot of great things planned for the last week of the transfer. As I have been continuing to look back, being a trainer a couple of times, I have truly been able to see evidence of the Atonement working in my life. Training is hard and can be lonely a lot of times but in the end I feel like I have been able to trust so much more in my Savior. I am SO weak but He is so strong through Him, our investigators and also I have been able to be more converted to the gospel and to be made strong. I know His atoning power is real!!! 

I love you all!!! I hope you are doing well and have a great week!! Enjoy it!! 

Love, 

-Hermana Abreu 

P.S. Today has been good, we decided we were going to take a 2 hr. nap so we did haha, it was actually pretty hard to nap because we had never really slept that long for a nap. #missionaryproblems. And then one of the recent converts who works at a Korean market in Koreatown gave us a couple of giftcards so he helped us choose the best snacks, so we got a bunch of delicious Korean snacks, and then tonight one of the other recent converts, Erika who is around our age is going to take us to eat Korean bbq after emailing! :) Its a Korean-kind of day haha 

1. Mosiah cake

2. Our dinner one night, we had back to back lessons and we were running late so this was our dinner one night. #missionarylife #applejuiceandcrackers

3. Us standing in front of the famous Korean Market!

What an edifying week!

Hope you all had a fantastic week!!!!!! I have been thinking about all of your end-of the year activities, I always remembered the craziness of testing, class parties etc. I hope you are all enjoying it!! Summer is approaching, can you believe it?! It's been surprisingly cloudy most of the week with hot days here and there, I'll take it!!! Trying to hold on to the cool weather before the Cali summer hits :) 

What an edifying week!!! We have had a lot of really special mission-wide "focuses" this week, such as Charity Week, where we have focused on setting bold, loving baptismal dates everyday and we have been re-watching the missionary broadcast in segments, that we had back in January, where general authorities spoke to all the missionaries in the world and we have been setting goals to apply the things that were said to our areas! The results all over have been so cool! Something me and my comp have been doing is focusing more on the Doctrine of Christ, bringing all our teaching back to the pure, simple doctrine, faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end. No matter what we have been teaching, whether its Word of Wisdom or the Plan of Salvation we have been helping our investigators understand that all the things we are inviting them to do is to build their faith in the Savior.

We have had several solid lessons with solid people that have fallen through day after day this week but our faith hasn't dwindled, we just went out day after day and worked hard! We have been working a lot with PMF(part member families), and we will have many new investigators and this week more baptismal dates with these families. Actually on Sunday a PMF, Besi Cordona and Nelson Ramos came to church for the first time in about 10 years. We found them last transfer while contacting and right in that moment, Besi has told us that they still love the gospel but they haven't been able to go to church as a family because Besi has had to work on Sunday for many many years but right when we contacted them they said that after many prayers, she finally has Sundays off!!! The Lord's timing is incredible. They LOVED church on Sunday and they have a daughter who is 10 years old that we are going to start teaching. We also got a referral last transfer of a less-active that we've been working with, of more than 10 years as well and she wants to come back. She hasn't gone to church in the United States but was an active member in Mexico, but also because of her busy life as a stay at home mom and going to school, with three children she hasn't been able to go. We have a family home evening planned with them this evening, with her non-member husband, David. We are so excited to start teaching him!!! We also have had a lot of success with working with recent converts, when I arrived here there was a recent convert who had almost instantly become less active, Jose Manuel, but as we have been focusing on helping him to understand the Doctrine of Christ, the basics and the fundamentals of the gospel, we can't believe the change he has had. He came to church again for the first time since, January! And he is taking those small steps like prayer, scripture study to exercise his faith. We also are so close to getting Jose Dany, another recent convert to go to baptisms for the dead. He is continuing to work on his family history and his desire to get to the temple has grown so much. We are so happy!!!!!!!!! 

Favorite quotes of the week

"El Espiritu Santo es el sabor de la vida"

-Jose Manuel

"Jesuscristo is the real MVP"

-Jose Dany

I invite you all to do as President Uchdorf says in his talk, "It Works Wonderfully, if the gospel isn't working in your life simplify and start where you are. I love you allllllllllll! Have a great week!!!

-Hermana Abreu

Us and our abuelita, Hna. Arias (Ramon's (RC) mom)

Graciela and her pet turtle that we named Gwen (p.s. the mug that Graciela is holding is full of coffee...have to re-teach the Word of Wisdom...) lol

My picture of you all for Skype 

Me and Daniel, the cutest little boy of a less active, Diana we have been teaching.

The beautiful sunset over downtown LA

Happy Mother's Day!

Como les va?

Hola a todos!!!! I am also still super happy from seeing you guys! It made my heart so full and joyful, knowing that you're all well and happy!  :) 

Here we are on Mother's day!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mothers Day! We sure did. This week has been good, don't have much time today to write but this week we were able to go on exchanges. Sister Moli came to our area with me and Sister Hibbard went over to Hollywood with Sister Risenmay. It was so good being with her, it was the boost I needed.

Sister Moli came to our area for exchanges!

Sister Moli goes home in a few weeks which makes me sad but if there is anything I have learned from her (and I have learned many things from her) is how to endure to the end and consecrate every ounce of energy to the work even at the very end of the mission, where the temptation is harder to lose energy or fire. I love her for her example and the miracles we were able to see while she was here in our area. With Sister Moli we had an awesome lesson with Graciela, it was so powerful. We have been praying a lot for Graciela, and helping her to recognize the answer to her prayer to know if the Book of Mormon is true and during the lesson she actually told us a dream that she had had just a couple weeks before we had knocked on her door for the first. It was so cool as she told us about the dream she was able to realize that it might be the answer to her prayer. There have been several tender mercies and miracles this week and its always my favorite to notice and see the Lord's hand in the work.

This work is divine!!!! Sister Hibbard and I are looking forward to see what miracles are in store this week. Have a wondrous week! Love you all!!!

-Hermana Abreu 

"Hi, do you sell CHURROS?

Hola everyone!!!!

Como estan?! All is good over here!!! This week has been great, we have been doing a lot of finding this week and are trying to find some new investigators! Ramon got confirmed this week and it was so great :) :) We have plans to have an FHE with them tonight. 

   Sister Hibbard and I have had some crazy experiences with crazy people on the streets of Los Angeles, definitely un-forgettable experiences. Sister Hibbard continues to study and is learning el espanol mucho! The other day we were both craving some churros and so we were looking everywhere for some churros. We found a taco stand and she went up to the stand, and said "Hi, do you sell churros?" and the latino worker replied "Que?" so she repeated and said "do you have CHURROS?" "Que?" she said again and then I, asked her, understanding that the worker had no idea what we were asking for and I said " tienen CHURRRRRRROS?" with a accent on the R and she said "Ohhhhhh, no, no tenemos churros" hahaha Sister Hibbard and I died laughing because she apparently wasn't saying the word churros in Spanish by adding the rolled r, therefore the worker didn't understand her. I continue to tell her to have patience and it'll come! Hahaha she is doing great. We are teaching Graciela still and today we have plans to teach her the Word of Wisdom so wish us luck! She loves her Cuban coffee :) :) 

      I also had a cool experience this week, as we went to the family history library up by the mission office this week to go help our recent convert, Jose Dany start his family history to have names to take to the temple. As we were there, I learned so much and gained such a stronger testimony of the work that we do with genealogy. It's something I really want to do more with when I get home from my mission. Families are eternal and as we as missionaries help people be baptized,  and help them do family history and complete those saving ordinances we are literally gathering the house of Israel. How cool is it!? I love the mission because it has opened my eyes to things I never really thought much about. 

   We have exchanges this week with our STL's and interviews with President Weidman so it shall be a week filled with great things and miracles. I continue to LOVE the people here, LA 3rd is the best. I cannot wait to talk to you all on Sunday! It shall be great! Happy early Mothers Day to all the wonderful mothers in my family and friends. You truly are amazing. Thank you so much for raising us, we wouldn't be the people we are now without you, and I wouldn't be on a mission without the love and support from my mother. Like Jeffrey R. Holland shared, in the General Conference last October, "...that no love in mortality comes closer to approximating the pure love of Jesus Christ than the selfless love a devoted mother has for her child." I love you all!!!!

-Hermana Abreu 

Us and Graciela 

Us at the VC with Jose Dany, Hna. Chicas and some VC sisters