Why does motor sound like a cat?

😑😂 Hi everyone! So this week we didn't have much happen because...(drumroll) we were all sick! No joke! About every missionary in our little branch was sick. I was fine thanks to my strong Peruvian immune system.. Haha! Thanks Papi! 😉 needless to say we didn't get much work done because we were home a lot. Poor Hermana Justiniano. I did go on one exchange with Hermana Stevens...craziness!!

On exchange with Hermana Stevens aka my trainer: So Hermana Stevens and I decided to stop by the Church building to figure out who were we going to visit. We planned inside the building and then we came back out to get going. As Hermana Stevens started the car, we heard a strange sound emanating from the engine. Hermana Stevens looked at me and said "why does it sound like there is a cat inside our car?" She turned off the engine and we got out to investigate. We could hear a kitten mewing from somewhere so we searched around the car and find a tiny kitten cowering behind our left front tire. I made a grab for its scruff and it got scared and scurried up the tire and right into our engine!! "Quick! Pop the hood!!" We popped it open just in time to see him run out of sight...in the interior of the car! Yikes! And then for the next hour, we were doing everything from trying to speak cat to driving around the parking lot to get him out (that last one was totally the zone leaders idea... Wasn't happy about that one!). It was ridiculous!

Nothing we did would make him come out and we could still hear him mewing as plain as day! Hermana Stevens was all for going to the auto shop so that they could pull the poor kitten out but I was totally against it because the nearest auto shop was 30 minutes away and we would for sure kill him. So we finally got down on our knees in the church parking lot and pleaded for heavenly help. As soon as the prayer was over, I told Hermana Stevens to take another lap around the parking lot. It just felt right even though I was terrified that I was going to see roadkill in the making.... She took a lap and as soon as she came back around and parked, our little trouble maker climbed down the tire and I immediately grabbed him by the scruff.

We almost cried for relief! I placed him on my lap and we opened a bottle of water for him. That little guy must have been so dehydrated because he just lapped it up like nothing else. We ended up releasing him back into the wild because you could tell he was a street cat through and through, and we were pretty sure his mom was around somewhere. Crazy right?!

So other then getting cats out of cars, I have been doing a lot of studying of the scriptures during Hermana Justiniano's sick days. I appreciate the atonement so much more. It just covers everything! Even bored sisters in their apartments on sick days! There have been many sisters who have been going through some rough times lately and I just find it amazing how the atonement covers everyone's need. No matter what the situation or circumstance. It just fills me with so much peace that there is someone who can make up for everything that I lack and loves me just as much as the next person, and that is my savior Jesucristo.

I stand all amazed more and more each day as I watch him change lives and fill the holes in hearts that people think can never be filled. Even though I haven't done much missionary work outside of my apartment, there is so much I have done inside. I'm gaining a better understanding of the plan and my part in it all. It just makes me never want to be the same. I can't be the same because that would be denying the truths I have come to know. It's just wonderful.
I love you all! ❤️ Hermana Paredes
Over and out

No longer a trainee

I apologize in advance because this is probably going to be the longest email I have written thus far. 

Okay so I have been transferred, which is the missionary term for I moved Areas for those of you who are not familiar with the missionary lingo. I am now not part of the Sacramento zone, I'm part of the Elk Grove Zone.....super wierd! My new companera is Hermana Justiniano and she is from Argentina! I love her already. We actually knew each other before we became companions because we lived in the same apartment and we always had the feeling that we were going to be companions at one point or another. HA! We were right!

So this past week was an interesting one because most of the week we were helping Hermana Torres get ready to go home. It was probably the longest and fastest week I have had on my mission thus far....it was so weird. For some reason I felt like I was living through Hermana Torres. The closer we got to her departure date, the more I felt like I was the one going home!! HAHA! The day arrived were we had to drop her off at the Mission office and we were just so excited for her! She looked gorgeous!! Just the picture of a returned missionary. It was crazy! It didn't seem real at all! We kept laughing and joking all the way to the door of the mission office and then it hit me. This was the last time I would see her as a missionary and as my trainer. Honestly I felt like the time unpacking her bags from the trunk and pulling it into the office went by so fast...and then I had to say goodbye. That was a tough one. I had gotten so close to this amazing women and it just tore my heart to have to say goodbye, but I knew it was her time to leave. I love her with all my heart and I am glad she is safely home and with her family again. She was everything I needed in a trainer and I have defiantly grown from being her companion. She is defiantly the type of missionary I want to be.

 After we dropped of Hermana Torres, we went to an appointment with one of our less actives. Quite honestly we were exhausted and just trying to get through the rest of the day. The main issue with this less active is that we have been trying for weeks to get her and her children to church. They haven't come back to this point. Our plan was to try and get her to do the fundamental things first such as prayer and scripture study so we were going to talk about prayer with her and commit her to pray everyday so we quickly said a prayer and then walked into the women's house. I will admit it! I had very low hopes for this lesson because I felt like we had had the same discussion with her a million times over and we weren't seeing any progress but I knew we had to try again anyways. I half halfheartedly knocked on the door and the door just swung open. She quickly invited us in and immediately had us sit. Then she plopped herself in the coach directly in-front of us.

I was a little surprised because she seamed really eager and I really wasn't sure why. We made small talk and then Hermana Steven's asked her to offer a prayer. She said "of course!" (in spanish) and then started to pray. In the middle of praying she started to cry. Honestly I had no idea what was going on because she seamed fine a minute ago and now she was crying.

She closed her prayer and started to immediately apologize. She said that the reason she was crying was she because she had felt peace. In her own words "I always feel that peace when you missionaries come." And my heart softened. I began to feel that love for her that our heavenly father has for her. She has begun again to open her heart and because she choose to open it again we were able to testify of Heavenly Father's love and the Savior's love for her. Hermana Steven's was inspired to share this fantastic scripture about prayer that just filled the room with the spirit. She bore witness of how prayer could draw us closer to our heavenly father and we could find that peace in our lives when we are close to him. It kind of funny but sometimes I feel like the teacher and other times I feel like the student. In this occasion I felt like the student and I felt the Holy Ghost teaching me as well as teaching this sweet Hermana through Hermana Steven. My testimony was strengthened about prayer. It was such a sweet lesson.

We said good bye to this sweet member and right as we walked out the door, it began to hail! Hail! Our car was parked on the road and not near the appartments at all. So I looked at Hermana Stevens and just said "Well, shall we run?" And that is exactly what we did! We quickly got to our car and slammed the door and at the exact same time, we sighed, which made us look at each other, which made us laugh! We looked like drowned rats!! It was so bad! We probably smell like one too! Worst part..we had another appointment. Our house was a good 16 miles away or so, so there was no changing for us. Hahah! We drove to the Francos home, hopped out out, and ran again. They live in a gated apartment complex and most of the gates are always locked so we had to try three different gates that were around the perimeter before we ran through the gate, where the cars came in, just as it was closing! It was such an adventure!

We quickly maneuvered through the apartments until we found theirs and what a sight we must have been! Haha! Two very soaked missionaries!! They basically pulled us in and wrapped us in towels and had us sit down as Hermana Franco made hot chocolate. She then went into her room and found us some clothes to wear and would not let us leave till we had changed out of our wet clothes. It was ridiculous! I ended up wearing a black skirt with a Planet Fitness t-shirt with a white sweater underneath. Haha! Very cute! We taught them a quick lesson about temples because they are getting prepared to be sealed for all time and all eternity in the Lord's holy house and it was such a sweet lesson! We truly love those two. Hermana Franco is the sweetest. She made sure that we drank all of our hot chocolate before she let us leave and then she made sure we took her umbrella. Absolutely love her!!

The setting sun was just beautiful on our way back. It was lightly raining and we were just cursing down the highway while listening to good music, when all the sudden I felt a rush of gratitude. I was just so grateful to be a missionary! In that moment it just filled my whole body and filled me with warmth and the spirit. I know that I have always said I love being a missionary but I can honestly say, without a doubt, being a missionary is the best thing that has ever happened to me. Being a missionary isn't just a calling. It so much of who I am now. I love getting lost in the work! I love these people I get to teach! I love the people I serve around! Most of all, I love telling people about my savior and the great plan of happiness that we can all partake of. This has been probably the toughest four months of my life. I have been tempted to go home, but now I realize that is no other place I want to be at this time the in the Sacramento Mission.

If there are people who are reading this and are considering going on a mission. My best advice. Do it! There is no better thing you can do then bring others to Christ. If there are people who are reading this that have already served their mission or are past that time, I still say there is no better thing you can do then bring others to Christ. Be the best member missionary you can be and serve with all your heart, might, mind, and strength.

My time is up. I love you all and stay in tune for my adventures cleaning the Elders appartement...yeah not cool! haha! > > Hermana Paredes > Over and Out

Save the date

Wow! I can't believe this is the last week of the transfer! That is crazy! I'm almost done with my third transfer! What is even weirder is that one of my trainers goes home this week. She has got 6 days!!! 6 DAYS!!! You would think she would be losing her head but she is completely calm and focused. I really admire her. So let me remind you, no freaking out Monday when I don't email....it's because it's a transfer week which means p-day is on Tuesday.

So this week we had a miracle! There is this man who once sat in on Edwin's lesson and asked for a Book of Mormon at the end of it....and after that lesson we could never get ahold of him...until now. Last Monday we found him, taught him most of the first restoration, and then invited him to baptism. HE ACCEPTED!!! F will be baptized June 7th!!! (Yes we know that is a Tuesday but that was the first date that Hermana Torres could think of...haha). As cool as the first lesson was with him, the second one was even better. As soon as we were done with he prayer, he began to ask so many questions about baptism. Like, "how will I be prepared for baptism?"....WHAT?!?! No investigator that I have taught thus far has ever asked that one! He has got such the purest desire to change and come unto Christ. He even asked if he had to memorize the whole Book of Mormon. Hahah! The crazy this is that I actually think he would do it! We seriously love him and we are so excited for him to enter into the waters! 

We almost had someone else on date. There is this women who we are teaching which I'm just going to name M and she has been progressing beautifully! Reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and keeping most of her commitments except for coming to church and baptism. We had tried inviting her once before but she rejected it. So during weekly planning, we were praying about which one of our investigators was ready to baptized in May and she came immediately to our minds. We planned out our lesson carefully and we were for sure that she would accept the date. We go to the lesson and start to teach....and it was awful! For some reason the lesson wasn't going as planned and it was terrible. We scrambling from point to point like chickens with our heads cut off. What was even worse was that we had a member with us...yikes! So finally I decided to stop trying to say the things that we planned and start listening. And as I listen the Spirit prompted me to ask her a question. "How will you know these things are true?" Just " how will YOU know?" She got silent for a few moments and then she told us something that she had never told us before. "I'm looking for the right church. There are so many good ones but I'm looking for the right one. And I will know it when I find it." That statement changed the whole lesson. We began to talk about prayer and the spirit. I shared James 1:5 and the promise in the Book of Mormon and then I had the opportunity to bear humble testimony to her that if she is truly looking for that church then she needed to so god. I promised her God would answer. She just listen and I could tell that she could feel the truth of my words. I then said "Once you know the truth of these things, will you be baptized by someone who has the authority of God?" For the longest time she just sat there and nodded and finally she whispered yes. She wouldn't commit to a date but I know she felt the power of that invitation. She softened so much. We love her so much. And I know that the day isn't to far off were she will be baptized. So save the date. 

I know many people say that their mission president is the best but I promise you know has got anything on my mission president. We had interviews this week and can I just say how much I love President Jardine? I freaking love President Jardine!! You just enter into his presence and your just wrapped in his spirit and love! We had a good long talk and I enjoyed every moment of it. He is just seriously the best! 

We contacted a few people this week and for one of them we sang a primary song. They weren't interested at first but then Hermana Torres has the genius idea to ask to leave them with a song. We sang "he sent his son" and their countenances softened. After the song, Hermana Torres just simply asked if there was a time that we could return and share our message with them. They basically through dates at us! We are going to visit them again today so hopefully we can have another person on date. 

Funny story: we got hit on in the space of five minutes...like no joke. We contacted this older man who was just sitting in the garage and he happily listened to our message...and then at the end he said we could come back anytime. Then he pointed at me and said "especially you!" Uhhhhh....no! He was like 80!! Yikes!! Yeah that was our cue to LEAVE!  Then not even five minutes later we are talking to this other man outside mowing his lawn and he try's to invite us inside for Cookies and Coke...the heck?! We got out of there as fast as we could....strange things man.

Thank you all for all the emails! I enjoy every single one of them and it stinks that I don't have time to reply to all of them but keep them coming. They seriously life my day! 

Love 

Hermana Paredes

Over and out

mothers day--family history

I can't believe Mother's day was here and gone! It is crazy! Yes for all of those who were wondering, SKYPING MY FAMILY WAS THE BEST!! I love it that we are given the opportunity to skype our families...I love technology. :) 

Yesterday was insane!! At church, during relief society, the men surprised us by serving all of us ice cream and brownies! I was having an internal struggle with whether or not to accept the treat because I'm sort of on a no sugar thing...but then again I want the members to still feed us but they certainly won't if I didn't take their treat. Soooo I took it. Yep. AND IT WAS SO GOOOOOODDDD!!! sigh (just in heaven). After church we had to run to a few peoples houses to set up appointments for this coming week and then we were going to go Skype at the church. When we got to the church, there was still a lot of people there and we couldn't find an empty room...so we call Sister Lemon, who is just an angel and also the branch presidents wife, to see if we could go to her house and use her wifi to Skype. She told us to head right on over! Sweet lady! So we go over, skype, introduce President Lemon and his wife to our families, and then President Lemon asks us if we had a dinner appointment. Our dinner appointment had barely canceled so we told him we didn't and he simply said "Well, now you do!"  Give it up for President Lemon! (claps, hoots and hollers...hahah) Sister Lemon tells us that they will be having a few more people to eat and we are just like "yeah that is cool". I'm not sure what Sister Lemon's definition of a "few people"....because from what I saw there wasn't enough seats in the house that people were sitting on the lawn in the BACKYARD!!! SLEWS OF PEOPLE!!! AND THEY ALL BROUGHT FOOD!!! Oh my gosh it was so good! Just an all american cook out!! I haven't had that in forever!! UGHHHHH!!! I almost died because it was so good!! Only problem is that they wanted us to try everything....EVERYTHING!!! We had five different kinds of meat, three different types of salads, five different kinds of bread (three of those being homemade...you better believe that I made a B-line for those!), and don't get me started on the desserts....oh gosh! The desserts! I swear there was a family competition going on!!! Everyone wanted us to try THEIR desserts, that THEY made, and they didn't care if we were full or not!! I swear Latinos were bad...nope! These people make them look tame....I LITERALLY HAD THREE DIFFERENT TYPES OF COOKIES ON TOP OF ICE CREAM AND PIE!!! AFTER I HAD EATEN A FULL PLATE OF MEATS, BREADS, AND SALAD! WE LITERALLY DID NOT GET OUT OF THERE TILL TWO HOURS LATER BECAUSE EVERYONE WANTED US TO TRY WHAT THEY BROUGHT!!! ohhhh it was exhausting....I LOVE THE LEMONS!!! hahahah!!! 

Investigators.....tough one. We still haven't gotten anyone to come to church. We just can not understand why!! It is so strange! Even my trainers have said that this has never happened to them. We literally do everything from inviting them to church to showing up on their door Sunday morning to remind them about church! Nothing! ZIP! NADA! We are praying for a miracle at this point...thank goodness we believe in a god of miracles. I did have a miracle experience this past week though! 

There was a lady named Virgina who I met this past week at a relief society activity. She is not a member and just came because her friend invited her too. Well, we got talking and I found out that she was from Peru. So am I!....kind of...half Peruvian! So anyways, I we started talking about Peru and she noticed my name tag and said "hey, I have people who I am related to that have the last name Paredes." I was like "REALLY?!" Totally got excited on her!!....yeah she looked a little scared. hahah! But she started to tell me her relatives names so I quickly stopped her and whipped out my Handy Dandy IPad and got on to the Family Search app. Immediately after I showed her my family tree, she gasped and got really excited! Apparently she recognized some of the names!! WE COULD BE RELATED!!! She then asked me to look up her ancestors so we searched her dad's name and we found a whole family tree!!! Like A WHOLE ONE!!! She then told me that she had been searching for her ancestors names because she is writing a book about her family history. That is when the Spirit hit. I knew that this was no coincidence that I had met her...God's hand was in all of it. She is now super excited about family history and I can tell that the Spirit of Elijah spoke to her. She began to ask questions about the church and I was able to explain some of it to her. I even got to invite her to church!!! 

I just find it amazing how God knows each one of his children personally. He knows their needs and their deepest desires, and I am just grateful that he was able to use me as an instrument in his hands. I love being a missionary!

Hermana Paredes 

Over and Out!  

Slow...slow...slow

Hi family and friends!

So this week was really painfully slow...sadly. We had lots of appointments but most of them fell through. The one appointment we were really looking forward to was with Edwin and Edith. We were going to go to the temple with them but the night before we were suppose to go we got a call the Edwin's cousin had passed away. It seams that the adversary is working so hard to tear him down. He just really wants Edwin but we are not going to let that happen. We are helping in anyway we can but right now we really need the prayers for him so I ask that you all keep him in your prayers. 

Guillermo, our miracle investigator is progressing beautifully. He is like a sponge! Just soaks up all the information we give him! He is so great! I just really hope he starts coming to church soon! That is probably our number one problem...getting investigators to church! It is so hard! There are some of them that really do want to come to church but don't have their own cars so it is just coordinating with the members...then there are other who simply feel like they need to know more before they come to church. We just keep on praying for them. 

This week we did a lot of things with the members such as we had a family home evening with the Cervantes! Oh that was so much fun! We created cookies...basically they turned out to be reeses cookies and they were SO GOOD!!! AHHHHHHH!! I ate about half of the bowl of cookie dough!! It was rough!! Huge stomach ache afterwards! We also played Animals! (if you don't know what that is then email me and I will tell you how to play...it is soooooo much fun!!) The Cervantes are probably one of my most favorite families...probably because they remind me so much of my own! They are so great! I love them! 

I don't have much else to say...so I will let the pictures tell you more of what is happening down here. ;)

Hermana Paredes 

Over and out!   

We get chased by the Middle Schooler Bicycle Gang....

Hi Everyone! 

 So I have a bit of explaining to do....We had transfers this week so that is why I didn't write an email Monday. Our P-day got changed to Tuesday so every six weeks expect an email on Tuesday instead of Monday.

Okay, bicycle gang story! So we were out contacting (meeting people who are walking on the street and sharing the message of the Restored Gosple) and we came up on a group of middle schoolers with some elementary schoolers (ages 4-13) who were sitting on their bikes. We were in a rush to an appointment so we didn't stop to talk to them but one of them shouted at us,because they saw that we were in skirt,and said "Who are you guys?!" I shouted back "We are the missionaries!" "The mission-what?!"  "Missionaries!" So we fly past them and then I hear from behind us the clicking of bicycle chains so I turn around and I see the whole herd following us! Haha! They kept shouting "Hey wait up!" and "Come on! Lets follow them!" Pretty soon more and more began to join the group! I swear we had all the kids in that neighborhood racing after us! I mean like there were literally kids running after us!! IT WAS CRAZY!!! Eventually Hermana Torres stopped and we showed the Easter video. (If you haven't seen it, you HAVE too!) They were all so friendly and asked a lot of questions about Christ and our church. We ended up giving all of them a pass along card and committed them to show their parents this video! They happily agreed to do it! SO cool!! I wish I had gotten a picture with them but we didn't have enough time.

Funny story: So we did a bit of tracting Sunday and we knocked on this one door. Normally when someone answers the door, we tell them that we are missionaries from the church of....(you get the picture) and then we ask them their name by using Senor or Senora. We do this because most of the people we contact are Latino...except for this case. Hermana Torres knocked and this women answered. These are Hermana Torres exact words... "Hi we are missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What is your name ladyyysir?" I'm sure Hermana Stevens and my eyes bulged and my first thoughts were "If there was any chance before..there is no chance now." Thank goodness she was nice and just politely declined. Oh man I thought we were going to get yelled at! Hahah! Ladysir! :D 

Edwin is doing good! He is slowly but surely progressing! We absolutely love him! Sadly he is having a hard time getting to church. There is a lot going on in his life right now but we have high hopes for him. We picked up six new investigators this week! SIX!! WOW!! Most of them were contacts! We met this great old couple who basically told us that they are looking for the true church and they are GOLDEN! To bad we didn't have much time to talk to them this week but I am praying that next week we will set a baptismal date for them! Oh I wish I had enough time to tell you about all of our contacts but sadly I don't so I will just tell you about our miracle contact. 

MIRACLE! We had a miracle lesson! We were over at one of our members home for dinner and then we saw, through the window, one of our investigators talking to a nieghbor. Hermana Magana is the best! She goes and opens the sliding door and invites both of them to come and have dinner with us! They both happily came over because who wouldn't take up the offer of free food! We then got talking to the neighbor and just talked about life which switched over into religion... with a little help from Hermana Magana. (I just love her! Can I tell you how much I love her! Oh she is the best!) We took that as our sign to share our message. We showed him the bible video "To this end was I born" and then we shared with him some scriptures from Mathew 27...and wow! WOW! The spirit was so strong! But then Hermana Torres and Hermana Stevens come in like a wrecking ball and the spirit was undeniably there! As I was listening to them bear their testimonies, I felt a prompting to talk about baptism so as soon as they were done, I began to talk about how one of the gifts that God has given us is baptism and this is how we can follow Christ and thank him for his matchless gift of atoning for us...then the words just popped out of my mouth. I invited him to baptism. He was quiet for a minute so Hermana Torres reinvited him. That is when he said "yes". HE SAID YES!!! It was a miracle! He is still unsure about the date and he still has some concerns but that is okay because that is what we are here for! We insured him that we would help him a hundred percent to be prepared for baptism!! He is getting baptized May 7th!!! A MIRACLE!!!  It just astounds me how the spirit can change someones heart...just like that! 

I love it here! Honestly there is no place I would rather be then serving the Lord in Sacramento California

I love you all! <3

Hermana Paredes

Over and out