Hard times come again no more

Hi Family and Friends,

 Wow....what a week. Seriously, this week has been a roller coaster for me and Hermana Nokes but it is very interesting the peace we feel through it all.

 So lets start with the craziness of Thanksgiving.

 This thanksgiving I didn't have your normal rolls, turkey, ham, and mash potatoes....Latinos do it differently...very differently. This thanksgiving I had (drumroll please!)....Cow head. Literally! No joke! I had meat of a cow head!!! and they wrapped it all up in a sandwich. Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a really weak stomach...really really weak so as soon as I found out that it was Cow head, I headed to the bathroom and hit my knees. Basically my pleading went like this...."Lord please let me be able to shove this down my throat without barfing all over their table!!" ...I am a witness to you that the Lord answers prayers... hahah!

 Also, Daniel got baptized! My cute 11 year old investigator from North Sac! I was able to go to the baptism and see him enter into the covenant with his heavenly father. Though I think the best part was his testimony. He was super shy about doing it so I told him I would go up with him and his little hand grabbed mine and we walked to the front. He bore the simplest but purest testimony. One of a child who had complete faith in his Heavenly Father...yep. I totally cried.

 Okay last thing before I run out of time. After our monday dinner...we got a call from one of our less active member, whom we were teaching lessons to her kids because they are recent converts, and she was telling us that she needed to come to the hospital immediately. Turns out that her second oldest daughter was crossing the road when a car came by and hit her She ended up being rushed to the hospital and on the way, she died in the ambulance. So this women called us begging us to come to the hospital to be with her. She really needed support and we were the only ones close enough to the hospital at the time so we went. When we got there we were asked to come and say a prayer over her body. I have never seen a dead person before so quite honestly I was terrified. I wasn't sure if I would be able to hold in all my emotions in front of this family so we quickly said a prayer and then we were led to the room. Interestingly enough it wasn't as scary as what I originally thought it would be...it was actually kind of peaceful. She was just lying there with her eyes closed as if she was sleeping. Honestly if I didn't know better I would of thought she was really just sleeping but then again there was an emptiness about her. It was the strangest experience but at the same time the most beautiful.

 I am seriously so grateful for the knowledge of the plan of salvations and the fact that we can have our families forever. What comfort it is to know that death is not the end but the beginning of exhalation! Just another step to our eternal progression. We went by their house last night and through her tears, this sister asked us "Will I ever have my daughter again?" I felt the power of the spirit as we quietly testified to her that she would indeed have her daughter again.

 I am truly truly grateful for the gospel. It gives me so much hope. I have hope.

 I love you all,

Hermana Paredes

Happy Halloween!

Hey family and friends,

 This week has been pretty great! I had to give a talked in sacrament meeting this past Sunday and I didn't throw up on the podium...I count that as a success. It actually turned out to be a really good talk considering it was thrown all together the night before because I didn't have time during the week...okay I did have time but I did not feel I was getting any spiritual revelation until the night before. Funny how being under pressure brings a lot of spiritual revelation.

 It was also a very successful Sunday because a lot of our less actives came to church and one of them brought a friend who is not a member. She ended up liking church a lot and now we are teaching her kids. Yeah for awesome members! 😆

 Daniel, the eleven old boy we are teaching, is doing amazing! He is just progressing and learning so much! Yesterday we went over to his house to teach him and guess who was there...the none member friend with her children! We ended up teaching all of them the ten commandments and the hand signs that go with them. Though they may or may not think that the second commandment is that we don't worship cows...oops. Haha! They are great kids! Daniel is especially amazing! When we went over the sixth commandment, Daniel bore a little testimony about how we are all god's children and that is why we should not kill. He then turn to his friends and said "you are my brother and you are my sister." He then turns to us, "they are my sisters too!" Oh I just wanted to grab him and hug him! Though I think my favorite quote of his is "the three most important people are God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. They are not the same people but they are all on the same team!" Man I have really underestimated this kid! He just understands everything and he just sees the big picture. And now he is super excited to share it with his friends! I love him!

 Lorenzo, my recent convert is also doing really well. We had a lesson about the word of wisdom with him and he basically taught us...yeah we are just waiting for him to get translated....He is amazing! He is starting his second time reading the Book of Mormon and he is already on chapter eight of first Nephi. Also last week, he blessed the sacrament! For the first time!! Sure he had to repeat the prayer like four times but he did so good and he said that he really liked doing it. He is just growing so much in the gospel but he is not prideful at all. I could probably say that he is the most humble person I've ever met in my life. Just so gentle, takes correction, looks for the good in people, always is ready to serve, just an example of what a disciple of Christ should be. Every time I go teach him, I learn something new. He thinks he is learning from us but I think it is actually flipped. We are learning from him. I so can not wait till he can enter into the temple.

 We also got a new ward mission leader. What a blessing! He is so great! First day as ward mission leader, he pulled us aside into a room and sat us down and then discussed our needs and how he could help us. I about wept! Haha! But seriously it was so nice that he wants to be directly involved in our work. He also makes sure that we have dinners for the week and he is helping us plan Daniel's baptism for November. We are extremely grateful to have him!

 I haven't done this in a long time but I am going to share with you some spiritual insight that I got this week. I was reading in the Book of Mormon in Alma 60 and I came to verse seven and something there just really struck me. It says "Can you think to sit upon your thrones in a state of thoughtless stupor, while your enemies are spreading the work of death around you? Yea, while they are murdering thousands of your brethren." It was very very interesting because in the very second that I felt the spirit touch my heart. It was very different for me because usually the spirit touches my heart with scriptures that are praising me or are a little bit gentler but this one really hit me and I couldn't help but think why? This chapter is about war and what this chapter is referring to is a war that is going on in the Book of Mormon, so why was this hitting me so hard. I did a little more research and then I found my answer. Just like those people in the Book of Mormon, we are in a war. Maybe not a physical war but definitely in a spiritual one. Everywhere Satan is trying to murder thousands of my brothers and sisters. Our brothers and sisters. I don't think we realize it. I think we sometimes think "well I'll take a break of doing home teaching or visiting teaching or sharing my belief with those I know because I have been doing a lot lately." Well you know what, Satan has also been doing a lot lately as well but the difference between him and us is that he is diligent in his purpose. He is one hundred percent focused. So every moment we stop or we don't do our visits or we don't share what we know with someone who is searching, we are basically sitting in our "thrones in a state of thoughtless stupor" while Satan and his forces are murdering thousands of our brothers and sisters.

 I don't want to be accountable for that. I have began to ask myself "am I as diligent about my purpose as Satan is about his?" If i can't answer yes then I am not doing enough.

 Let us not stand by and wait for miracles to happen or angels to come and rescue our brothers and sisters! Because it won't come! You know why? Because we are the angels, we are the miracle waiting to happen! Why would god send others when he has already sent us. Let us be proactive instead of reactive!

 A good talk to read that get my point across is Elder Hollands talk from General Conference October 2012.

 I love you all! Have a good week!

Hermana Paredes

 P.s. I also included a video for your amusement....you're welcome! 😉

October Adventures!

Hey friends and family!

 I'm sorry that this email is coming in a little late. Our zone went to a corn maze today! Probably one of the funniest activities I've done in a while (more fun?)! Though it wasn't the whole zone, it was still super fun. I'll send some pictures along and maybe a video.

 This week was actually "quite great" in the words of Elder Stewart (He is from England). We got five new investigators and one person on date! We are so excited! November looks like it is going to be a great month.

 Our first new investigator is Andres. Funny story about finding him. We had him in our area book and so we stuck him in the plans...I'm so glad we did. When he opened the door, I had a little freak out session because there was a Peruvian flag right behind his head. It literally went like this, "Hi we are miss..ARE YOU FROM PERU?!" It was really cool because we got into a really good conversation about Peru and the Andes and the culture and how much we missed it. He was super cool and he agreed to have us back over this coming Saturday. I am super stoked to teach him.

 Our second new investigator is Jessie. She recently just had a new baby and is just the sweetest thing ever. Apparently she has had missionaries over before and she liked what they were teaching her but one day they just stopped coming. She told us she never understood why but she is happy that we are coming back again. We have an appointment with her this night and we are going to be teaching her the Plan of Salvation. Very very excited.

 Okay last thing! We went over last night to go teach Daniel "the gospel of Jesus Christ". At first the lesson just seamed to be dragging and I was beginning to worry that Daniel wasn't getting anything out of this lesson. We came to the point of baptism and we showed him the video about Jesus Christ's baptism...still nothing. Now I was pretty desperate for him to feel something! I was about to explain to him again why it was so important to be baptized when the spirit quietly whispered "just ask him if he really wants this." So I took a deep breath and very gently asked him if this is what he really wanted, to be baptized. Daniel is a thinker and he says exactly how he feels so he just sat there and thought and thought. I could see the gears turning in his brain and then something just clicked. He looked me straight in the eyes and said "yes". I then asked him why and he gave such a sweet sincere answer "I want to live with God and Jesus my big brother in the celestial kingdom. I want to be in the celestial kingdom." He brought the spirit in with that answer and then we were able to invite him to baptism on November 19th. I also asked him how he felt when he said yes. I loved loved LOVED his answer. He said he got a tingly feeling..."right here" as he pointed to his chest. He gets it! He really gets it! I had been feeling like we were just pushing him to baptism but this lesson revealed that he himself really wanted this. It is beautiful! This is just an eleven year old boy but he just has such a deep understanding of the gospel. I think I sometimes forget that when I was his age, I began to experience the gospel and feel it in my life too. Sometime I underestimate this kids but I am always astounded when I hear their testimonies.

 It is just a reminder to me that the gospel is for everyone. Young or old. The gospel is simply beautiful. So simple yet so complex. Simple enough for children to understand but complex enough to that we will never stop learning about it. Look at the wisdom of our God.

I will always always be grateful for is gospel.

 Hermana Paredes