Ups and Downs

This is Flor, my BFF. She likes to knock doors with us. She is 7! Cutest little missionary around.

Meet Wilmer and Jordy, the little boys who had dreams and know the church is true!

These are my primes (cousins). I have trained them to call me prima in hopes that they grow up thinking we really are primas. It was prima estrellitas birthday party!

email 4.28.14

This week was all kinds of everything.  The very best of the best, and also super challenging.  I have really been feeling sick this week with my stomach, and I even had to stay in a take a couple naps which kills me more than anything.  But we had some huge milagros all at the same time!

On Tuesday we had a hard day.  It was just hard!  I don't want to sound like a whiner, but it was just one of those days.  We had our lesson with Cristian and Ruben and it just didn't go too well, and anywho I was just feeling sick and tired.  Our last appointment was with Korina and Said (recent converts 14 and 9) and their family to have a family home evening.  We have been teaching Elba, their mom the whole time I have been here and I love her so much.  We were a little late to the lesson and when we walked in she was making tortillas.  I was like Hermana, why are you making dinner so late?  and She was like Hermana, because you have never had Balleadas (dont know how to spell it but it means bullets in spanish and it is traditional from Honduras) and you said how you wanted to try them.  I started crying right there in the kitchen and she hugged me and it was a real live mom hug and she told me that she was my mom and to sit down and eat, just like any good mom would.  She was the answer to my prayers, just the little act of love that I needed.  And It was perfect, and God is real. 

On Wednesday we attempted to get Cristian and Ruben to go to a baptism, but they wanted to jugar, so that was sad.  All our plans fell though, so we knocked doors for 2 hours, with no success.  BUT then on the way back to the car i was singing and a very nice man with dreads yelled at us and told us that he was having a bad day and we seemed like we could share something with him that would make him happy, so we did, and he was happy, and we were happy.  His name is RJ, he is going to get baptized.  

On Saturday was our second chance to get Cristian and Ruben to see a baptism, so we called every one in the ward to find someone to give them a ride, prepped them, set their alarms with them, the whole 9 yards.  And would you even guess it, they came to the baptism, and they loved it, they felt the spirit, and so did we.  It was awesome.  It was a miracle.  

Yesterday at church we had two new potential investigators randomly show up, that both live in our area, God literally just handed them to us.  

This week I have been studying Elder Bednar's talks to prep for when he comes this weekend.  I have been working on faith and prayer.  So simple, but so powerful, and exactly what I needed this week.  He knows what we need.  He loves us.  I love to be a missionary!  I love you all very much!!!  Have the best week. Be happy!  

love, Hermana Riley Jane

La Pascua

The Easter cookies.

Treats at the trailers!

Lunch with Elba.

Kathy with her egg that says: "I love the Hermanas". She is just perfect!

email 4.21.14

Mi familia! 

This week was awesome.  We prepared all week/taught all week about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it was so good.  We showed the "Because of Him" video to everyone that we possibly could.  I think I have it memorized, and it is perfect.  I hope you have all watched it, and watch it everyday.  I love the end where it talks about us being able to have new beginnings and blank pages.  I love my Savior, and I know that I am only happy because of him.  So I am happy, and I never want to stop being a missionary, or stop having so much of my day be focused on Christ.  I love how I feel.  And I truly want others to feel that too!

We have some of the most awesome members ever.  It was spring break here and on Tuesday Kathy (12 yrs old)  wanted to come out with us all day, so we picked her up at 10:45am and brought her back at 9:00pm.  She was so excited, to do everything.  We had some appointments, some less actives, ran into a bunch of Elders at Chicken Fiesta, knocked some doors, talked to some locos, picked up some supplies from the office, made some Easter Treats, and even prayed a million times.  She love love loved it!  She was just so happy, and we were so happy to have her with us.  

We also had a lesson with Cristian this week, and he is feeling a lot better.  He committed to being baptized on May 10th with Ruben, his bff, and is getting excited again.  We are working with them, guiding them, and they are really starting to get it.  So so so happy about them.  

I went on and exchange with Hermana Stapley and it was exactly what I needed.  Hermana Stapley is one of those people that just exudes happiness.  She is just light and lovely and happy and such a good missionary.  People are glued to her, they listen so intently, and they believe her when she says she loves them, and they want to do what she askes them to.  She is a real angelita.  

Our two cute little boys who we are teaching Wilmer (11) and Jordy (9) received their answer about the Book of Mormon being true and Joseph Smith being a Prophet, and this being the true church.  They were so excited to tell us that they had received their answer.  Wilmer had a dream, where Heavenly Father told him that everything was true, and he was just so happy.  I want to be Hispanic, they always receive revelation through dreams, so I am working on it.  They are awesome, we have to work more with their family, but they just get it.  So that was fun.  

Also we had a brake though with Elba, the mom of our Recent convert Korina (14)  She has been taught for forever, and since I ahve been here i haven't felt like she has really warmed up to us.  We have been teaching her consistently, but finally this week she opened up and made us homemade tortillas and everything.  Miracles are real.  I love her so much.  

Also we made Easter Treat!  And they turned out so cute.  We also dyed eggs with Kathy and Jeffrey, and caught a glance of the Best Two Years.  So all in all it has been a great week.  

Funny for the week:  When we were out with Kathy we were looking for the house of a potential and I went the wrong way, so I went to do a u-turn in a neighborhood and overestimated my turning radius, so I asked hermana Heibert to get out of the car to back me up (because every time you reverse in a mission car your compy comp has to get out and stand behind you to make sure you don't ram into anyone or anything) and right as she was opening the door a car came flying around the corner, so me and mana Heibert start screaming "EMERGENCY BACK UP!!!!" Kathy is dying laughing and we are all screaming, but don't worry everything turned out just fine and Kathy learned a lesson about appropriate exceptions!  

I love love love you all very much, read Alma 36:37, its one of my new favorites as of this morning. 

xoxo Hermana Riley Jane 

Favorite People

Meet Reuben, he is our cool 16-year-old investigator, and he wears acid wash jeans and plays soccer. Love him the most.

Meet Hermana Gonzalez- she is serious about her oil. I can assure you it is not extra virgin olive oil.

email 4.14.14

We are still alive and working here in Midlothian!

First things first, Cristian did not get baptized this weekend.  On Monday night after he had his interview and everything he decided that he just does not feel it yet, so we are still working with him, keep him in your prayers, he is just so great.  

Secondly, we have kind of had a crazy week.  Sweet Hermana Hiebert has been going through some more trials, and I have had a hard time with my stomach, but the most important thing is that we have been able to pull together for each other and keep on keeping on.  And the best news is that we both slept through the night last night, the whole thing, and then went on a run this morning, so you know its going to be a good day!  

We have been teaching the Plan of Salvation like crazy this week.  At least twice, if not three times a day!  I have learned so much, and have been so grateful for this plan of happiness that really can touch everyone's lives.  This week the Final Judgement started making more sense to me.  And I am actually kinda excited for that day.  But I put the pieces together, Christ will be there, standing by our sides.  He will be like our lawyer, and god will be the judge.  The coolest part is that Christ knows everything that we have felt, and he knows how hard we have worked to be better and to change, and so he will be there to plead for us. But if we haven't relied on him, if we haven't done all we can, then he won't know, he won't be able to plead for us.  It is just comforting for me to know that all this work will be worth it.  I was reading a talk this morning by Henry B. Eyring, about waiting on the Lord.  When I was finished I decided that the only thing to do, always, it just to go to work.  Keep his commandment, build his kingdom, have faith, and work, and he will bless us with Eternal Life.  Sweet.  

This week we were involved in a very interesting chain of events/miracles.  Last Sunday night all of our backups fell through and so we passed by a part really less active part really active family.  By a miracle the less active husband was hanging on the couch, so we quick asked if we could practice teaching the restoration to him and his none member tio.  It was a great lesson, and we found out a lot of new insights on why he hasn't been at church and all of that jazz, a break through if you will.  The none member tio wasn't super interested, but he was nice and listened.  A couple of days later Oralia called us and said that the tio has passed away in a car accident, where his brother had been driving and the brother lived.  She wanted the phone number of the Elders so they could go give Saul, the brother a blessing.  Turns out Saul is the father in law of one of our members, Ruth, and his son, Carlos is also not a member.  So we called Saul, set up an appointment, and visited him last night.  It was the biggest miracle, Saul and Carlos are both being prepared to accept the gospel.  We shared about the Atonement and how Christ conquered both death and sin, and the spirit was so strong.  Saul said he felt relieved when we were there and he wants us to come back.  It was the perfect ending the the week of being able to teach the Plan of Salvation non stop.  

Also I forgot to tell you!  David A. Bednar is coming to speak to our mission on May 3rd!  We found out a couple of weeks ago that somone was coming, but they told us this weekend that it is him.  We are all so excited, and preparing like it is conference again!  

The church put out this video for the Easter season, and as missionaries we have been asked to share it with everyone.  It really is so beautiful, here is the link http://easter.mormon.org/, there are also some things to read.  So read it, and share it with everyone.  It makes me cry every time!  

I hope you all have a great week as you prepare for Easter this Sunday.  I know that my Savior lives.  I know that he loves me very much, and I know that through his help I can live forever in happiness.  And that is all i really want.  I love love love you all.  

xoxo Hermana Riley Jane

Birthdays, niños, and conference!

Spring is springing at the little blue house!

Feliz cumpleanos manas!

email 4.7.14

This has been quite the week, I have so much to tell you about, but I don't want to bore you all to death!  I am sorry if I have done that with my emails, I just realized they are kinda long...oops.  But there is just so much good stuff happening always.  Also so many milagros!

This week Hermana Stapley and Hermana Chambers had their birthday on the same day, and they are companions, and we all got invited to a surprise lunch for them with the Ramos family, who are just the biggest hoot.  In honor of their birthday, and the fact that we are missionaries, Jorge, the one and only bought us all, yes all, new shoes.  I forgot to take a picture, but I will send one next week!  Priceless!  They are real gems.  It was also Sister Silva's birthday, so naturally we made her a pink camoflage cake.  We also made an appearance at Jeffrey's birthday (five year old son of a recent convert) and played soccer outside, because it was 80 degrees outside!  Whooohooo!  I was grateful because I love birthdays and I love celebrating, and I especially love suprises!  

So I had a revelation this week, real mission-changing, eye opener.  So We started teaching two more families with little kids recently, the Reyes (three girls ages 8, 11, 14) and the Delgados (two boys 9 and 11).  In my mission I have always joked that I just teach children, and can't seem to connect with adults.  Which is not entirely true, but all my recent converts have been under the age of 11, and Cristian will bring it up to 13 this weekend!  Which by the way as a sidenote, Cristian is getting baptized, and we couldn't be happier.  He came to conference yesterday and agreed to have his interview between sessions, and it all went swimmingly.  We are just so happy for him. We still have to work out some timing details, and plan the whole thing, so this week is going to be nuts, but so good!  Any who, as I was saying, I am just always teaching the ninos, and I had the idea in my mind, that that wasn't a super productive thing to do for some reason.  But then I had a revelation, that it is the perfect thing to do, the ninos need it too, sometimes even more.  Christ spent so much time with them, loving them, teaching them, blessing them.  And me too!  I remember that almost all my best friends at home are ninos, my soul sisters Eliza and Rebecca mainly, and they are going to grow up one day.  They all will, and they will all have a firm foundation if I can but just help them understand simple truths.  I am so happy, I am so grateful that my Heavenly Father has blessed me with so many sweet little spirits to work with and influence.  I love my ninos so much.  So Cristian will bring it up to 13 years old, and then May 10th his best friend Ruben will bring it up to 16 years old!  So I am getting into youth now too!  

Conference changed my life.  Also the fact that Cristian and Ruben both came and listened and took notes made it that much better!  But mostly my life has been changed.  There are too many things that influenced me to talk about all of them.  But one I especially loved was by Dieter F. Uchtdorf about gratitude.  I love how he talked about making gratitude a way of life, and not letting anything be dependent on it.  Our circumstances should never affect our gratitude.  Sometimes we even express gratitude for blessings we haven't received yet, and that is the hardest kind!  But it is so good, it is so sweet.  Hermana Rosen and I had a couple of hard weeks, work wise.  We were just striking out and getting dropped and no one was really progressing.  It was hard, but then we realized how silly we were being and tried to focus on everything we did have, all the people we were teaching, and tried to put our efforts totally on them.  And you know what happened, we were blessed.  We saw things differently, we grew, we loved everyone more.  I loved Richard G. Scotts talk about love.  How if we can help God's children have confidence in our love it will in turn help them have confidence in the love that their Father in Heaven has for them.  I started making lists of how I could love specific investigators more, how I could really show them the Saviors love.  Before conference I had a list of about 8 questions, and I have never before received such direct answers to all of my questions.  I am so grateful for our prophet, for his love for us, and for his comforting words and guidance.  

Also there is an article about being happy in the Ensign this month, and it changed my life, everyone read it, and then look up all the scriptures in the Topical guide under happiness/happy, and you will just have to be happy!  https://www.lds.org/ensign/2014/04/young-adults/lasting-happiness?lang=eng

Funny for the week:  We had FHE with the mendez family on Monday night and we made them play charades with gospel words of coarse.  It was Pinky's turn and he grabbed a butterfly stuffed animal and held it up and gently brought it down on his head.  Immediatly Hermana Mendez screams "ESPIRITU SANTO!!!"(holy ghost), and we all die laughing, it was descending like a dove.  

I am grateful for prayer this week, for being close to the spirit.  Don't forget to say your prayers, be kinds, and to love each other!  

con amor, Hermana Myer