There is a first time for everything.....right?

Hi family and friends! So there is just so much I want to to put in this email but probably just won't have the time to do it so I'm going try write a bit of everything by a day to day play.

 Monday: rough! Super rough! We had our p-day and then headed out to work....I swear we were working in the desert or something because
A) it was super super hot...like as in the back of my knees were sweating (didn't even know that was possible!)
 B) no one was outside to contact or at home! It was like everyone had disappeared. Went to hibernate or something. So we didn't get a lot of lessons in and we think that we are going to have to drop one of our investigators. :(

 Tuesday: Service day! This day was super cool because we got to find a less active member who had not to been to church in over 40 years! Fourty! Dang! We just had the opportunity to listen to her speak and testify of her fathers love for her. It was very touching! We are pretty sure she felt the spirit because she started to cry.
I love talking about Heavenly Father's love for his children.

On our back from her house there was a huge hold up near a bus stop. Cars kept in on changing into the left lane and we were so confused about what was going on. Then we see this little old black man in a wheel chair going as fast as he can against opposing traffic. He was about a block and a half away to the bus stop and we realized he was trying to make the bus!

Many people were just walk or driving passed him without a second look as he struggled. And this is why I love Hermana Woodbury. She turned to me and said " we should help him." I replied " well let's park this car then!" We parked it and then ran out to push him the last bit of his journey.

It was super awesome! I'm so grateful that we got that opportunity to serve.

Wednesday: We went to go see one of our new investigators, V, and honestly I wasn't to sure about him because the last time we spoke to him....he was a bit....well...flirty! Like asking us if we could have boyfriends and such... 😑 yeah no. But we went back anyways, and man! I am so glad we did! V is the best! We had an amazing first lesson with him and LET me tell you....the spirit defiantly guided that one. If it weren't for the spirit and inspired questions, we would have never found out that he didn't know much about his savior.

We showed him the bible video "For God so loved the world" and in the middle of watching it, he started to tear up. At the end we asked him what he had felt. He told us that he had felt something warm and strange when he was watching the video, like he felt guilty for putting Christ through so much pain. Wow! Just the perfect opportunity to testify of the spirit!

We have super high hopes for him! Just very humble and now is defiantly more interested in our lessons more then us. Thank goodness!!

 Thursday: Hermana Woodbury hit her nine month mark so we went to celebrate by eating at Chilies and we stuuuuuffffed ourselves! So full! And then we went to a member's house whose parents are currently staying with her. They are not members but the love the missionaries and we were hoping to get them interested in learning.

Something that we forgot though is that they also love to FEED the missionaries....a lot! So we go there and they had made empanadas for us. Both of us are thinking "crap...". We tried to ask to just bring them home for later but they looked so sad.

You see the thing about Latinos is that they love to see you eat their food! It seriously brings them joy! So since we love our members so much and we want to see them happy, we agreed to eat one empanada. And that one empanada did me in....I seriously was about to throw up and I think I might have been turning a little bit green because our sweet member quickly ran and grabbed me a bucket and had me hunch over it because apparently someone was using he bathroom at the time.

Something I forgot to mention is that before we walked into this members house, I had told Hermana Woodbury "Hermana Woodbury, I feel a miracle about to happen!"

So as I'm here hunched over this bucket, she says to me "do you still feel that miracle coming up?" Oh my sweet sassy companion!

Long story short, I ended up in the bathroom puking my guts up...hey there is defiantly a first to everything...right?

 Friday: basically just weekly planning and trying to find someone to teach. Not much success... :( 

Saturday: WE HAD TWO AMAZING LESSONS! First one was with this guy named Jose! He is so great. We had talked to him the previous Saturday and found out that he actually had a Book of Mormon and had been wanting to know a little bit more about it so we set up a return appointment and WOOOOOOWWW! He basically led the lesson! He just was picking everything up and understood everything! His questions were on point! Gosh! Everything was on point.

He told us that he had never done this before. Investigated a church because he has never felt comfortable with any one of them but he told us "I feel a connection to this church...it is like I was searching but never really realized that I was actually searching!" Wow! He even committed to baptism!.....wow! Like seriously, he is beyond prepared! I'm so excited to teach him! We actually have a lesson with him today! Ahhhhhh!

 Lesson two was with Lorenzo! We taught about the Sabbath day because we have been trying for about three weeks to get him to church but after this lesson he finally committed. He even asked us to meet him so that we could guide him to church Sunday morning! Wow! That is amazing progress! We were so excited!

 Sunday: we showed up at Lorenzo's work and he was dressed in his Sunday best! He hopped into his car and started to follow us to the church. Hermana Woodbury and I kept looking back to make sure we didn't lose him....BECAUSE WE WERE NOT GOING TO LOSE HIM! We made it all the way to the church and stayed with him through all three hours! He loved it! He has plans to come back next Sunday.

 Also we ate two different cakes at two different peoples houses because it was Elder Ackley's birthday...it was good....I have no regrets...😏 So that was basically my week! We are being incredibly blessed in this area!......
I LOVE BEING ON A MISSION!

 Hermana Paredes

Over and out

For Sacramento and the north!

Hermana Leon, Hermana Woodbury, Hermana Paredes

Wow.......woooooowww.......WOOOOOOOOOOOWWWW I have never had a week like this before! 

We have seen so many miracles this week that it would be impossible to list all of them from this week! But I will try.

1. We got 9 new investigators this week....nine!! 😳 that never happened! Our district leader when he called us for follow up calls, he taught that we had accidentally reported our numbers wrong but when he found out that they were actually correct, he was like " WHAT IN THE WORLD DID YOU DO TO BRING FORTH SO MANY BLESSINGS?!" Spanish work + Sacrifice = super prepared people! And I testify to this truth! Haha!

2. We put one of our investigators on date and we have two more that said that they would be baptized! Amazingly prepared people! I don't know how else to describe it other than they were literally put in our path. I am honestly so humbled right now.

3. Our investigators have referrals for us. THAT IS SUCH SUCH SUUUUCH A BLESSING! Just to have investigators is a blessings but investigators who know more people we can teach.....wow....wow. Honestly it seams like the windows of heaven have been opened up. I'm not really sure how or why or what but I have never had this many people to teach...not in my whole six months on the mission. Especially extremely prepared people.

One of our investigators was seriously just place right in front of us. She was the last of the last of our backups. All of our appointments had fallen through that day so we had to keep adding people to see. As we were looking through our former investigators in our area book, there was one name that stood out the most out of everyones so we decided "why not" and went to go visit her.

We said a prayer in the car upon our arrival at her house, and as soon as we say amen this lady is walking towards the front door of the house. It sort of startled us because we had no idea were she came from. She had literally pulled up as we had been saying the prayer asking God to give us someone to teach. We hurried out of the car and introduced ourselves to her, which she in turn immediately invited us in.....that does not happen.

We ended up having s fantastic lesson with her. She had so many great questions, especially how we can tell if we are following a false prophet or not. But what really touched my heart is when she said "I just really am searching for the truth and I don't want to be led astray by false religions."

That made my heart swell so much! She is truly prepared and just so humble. She has a true desire to follow God and do the right thing. That is how you know someone is prepared to accept the gospel.
As we went through the restoration, she kept on saying things like " yeah, that makes sense."

Ahhhhhhhh! I just love teaching this gospel! Oh my gosh it just gives me goosebumps on my goosebumps to think that I get to help this women start her journey to eternal life. I absolutely LOVE it! We invited her to baptism and she said she would! Still need to set a specific date but I believe that it won't be a problem. :) I already love her so much.

This week I hit my six month mark. It is so weird....I swear I haven't been out six months. I swear I barely started! I just keep on learning more and more each day about how to be a better missionary and just a better all around person. The mission is seriously one of the best things that have ever happened to me. There have been so many tough points but that is what makes the beautiful points.

I find it incredible that God calls the weak and simple to do his work. It is just humbling to me how he trust his children enough to bring so many of his other children to salvation.
It's just...wow. I can't even put words to it.
I love you all!
I hope y'all have a great week!

Hermana Paredes

 Over and out.

We be balling....

Hey family and friends, So first off I would like to apologize for the any panic I may have caused with my last email title...maybe choosing "shotgunned" as my title wasn't the wisest choice... also the fact that I forgot to explain what it meant in my last email. haha! Okay, here is what it means. When two missionaries become companions and get put into an area that they have never been in before. No, I did not literally get shot.... I only got shotted into a new area which I don't know anything about. Two totally different things! Okay now that I got that out of the way, I'll tell you a little bit about my week.

HERMANA WOODBURY AND I ARE FINDING MACHINES!! We are totally rocking this area! Since we have been here, we have found about nine people who want to be taught! Sure some of them we had to refer to the English Elders but hey! We are all part of the same team, moving towards the same goal. So the best part about our new area is that we can bike in it!! Which means lots of contacting! I have totally become rusty on my contacting skills. Probably because in my last area all we had to contact was the cows....Wilton...Haha!

But seriously, my first contact here was a train wreck! Not a pretty sight. It was so horribly ugly that it could be describe as really similar to one of those scenes in the movies where you are actually embarrassed for the character and you just pray that the agony will end! The guy who I contacted and I basically just stared at a each other in silence while I tried to recall my social skills.....suuuuuppppper rustly! Thank goodness it is not that bad anymore! haha! Hermana Woodbury is just amazing! Her teaching skills, contacting, spanish....all of it!! She is just a amazing missionary! She honestly makes me look good.... B) haha! I love love love having her as a companion. I can always feel the spirit so strong when I teach with her and we always seem to be on the same wave length. (Also she is the best exercise and diet buddy. She told me that she wanted to try this smoothie diet thing and we have been keeping each other in check. haha! It actually is kind of fun! )

 Something I have learned this week...WELL...every week, I feel like I learn something new about the atonement and Jesus Christ. Probably my favorite part about being out on a mission is how I get to see the atonement affect people's lives little by little. How their countenances start to change and they seem to fill more with light. It is a beautiful thing to witness. I especially see it in one of our investigators, L. Everytime he meets with us, he tells us how much he loves reading the book of mormon. He always says "that book brings me so much peace." Maybe I haven't noticed it so much because I have been a member all my life but it is so true.

Reading the book of mormon and learning more of Christ just brings so much light and peace. And once you feel that light and that peace and joy....you just have got to go share it! It is undeniable! That is why I love being on a mission, because I get to share that light every single day! It just gives me thrills when I began to see it enlighten my investigators.

 I'll share with you one of my favorite scripture from this week. It's found in Doctrine and Covenants 50: 24. That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth morelight; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.

My perfect day is always when I have the opportunity to bear my testimony to those I meet. I love you all and keep sharing that light that you all contain,
Hermana Paredes
over and out

Shot gunned 🔫

Wow....wow....wow (I swear all of my emails start with wow now. Haha!) I am getting whipped from one place to another....It is craziness!!! I am now in North Sac. We got the calls yesterday and my companion is now Hermana Woodbury! And just wow! So before I left my area, we had an amazing miracle. We were looking for a potential and instead came across their son. Started talking to him and he started to bible bash us a bit...I was like "uhh....nope! Not interested! Wasting our time." He even gave us a bible and told us to read.... -_- But Hermana Justiniano had faith. We kept talking to him and then he invited us to come back. He invited us to come back for the very next day! I was like great...but Hermana Justiniano was like GREAT!!! So we left him with a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet that that explained the whole restoration and the commitment to read them. Came back the very next day, and he had read both. It was like a completely different person! He was so reverent and asked so many good questions about the church...like he was sincerely interested. He kept agreeing with everything we were saying and kept saying things like "that totally makes sense! It all makes sense!" At the end we simply invited him to baptism and he in his words " of course I will be baptized!" Wooooooooooowwww I have never been so wrong about someone in my life. He is golden. He is going to be such a blessing to our elders. I hope I get to go back to see him baptized. Guess we will just have to see! So I have been transferred to North Sac.....soooooooo so different from Elk Grove! Apparently I am serving in one of the most ghetto areas in our mission! Yeah....I AM SO PUMPED! This will be my 3rd area in fourth transferred! Did not expect to serve in so many areas already. It is crazzzzzzyyyyy! Hopefully I will have more adventures to share next week! Especially with my new companion! She is so cute! I already love her!
Love you all,
Hermana Paredes
Over and out
P.S. One of the sisters that live in our apartment is training and her trainee is from Peru! Viva Peru para Siempre!!!

What???? Love the stars and stripes.  Happy 4th.

Arioso!! From the Rogers, AR
stake...from home!

Hermana Woodbury and I!