The reason I wanted to serve a mission

Dear family and friends.

Lorenzo's baptism
Hermana Niemann, Hermana Sofia, Hermana Woodbury,  Hermano Lorenzo

I have so much to tell you all but I probably won't have enough to time to say it all so I am typing as fast as my little fingers will allow me. (Curse my little hands and slow typing skills!)

First of all, Lorenzo got baptized this week....MY FIRST INVESTIGATOR GOT BAPTIZED THIS WEEK!! I am beyond over joyed to be able to make that announcement. Though still the begin of this week was super stressful because we had to basically set up everything. Talks, piano player, who would baptize him....the whole shabang! (And probably spelled that wrong...oops) but it turned out amazing. I have been to many baptismal services before but I Have never felt the spirit so intense as this one. Not even in my own baptism! Literally as soon as he came out of that water, time seemed to stand still. He just stood there in the water with his chin trembling and there was just a different glow about him. He has always had a glow about him but this one was brighter...more brilliant. When I looked into his face, I just knew that he knew it. That he could feel it so deep in his heart. I about leaped out of my chair and to the baptismal fount to hug him. I wanted to tell him I felt it too! I haven't had that much joy in my heart before.

I have had many joyful experiences in my life but nothing like this....I'm probably going to start crying writing this but it is so hard to explain what I felt. My heart was pounding so hard, and I felt like I could run miles, shout for joy, I don't know! Something! I had to do something! I imagine my joy will even be greater when I get to sit with him in the celestial kingdom some day.

I think also it is more special to me because I was with him from beginning to end of this process...all the way until he stepped into those waters. I seriously cannot even began to explain what it felt like. I wish I had the words....but I seriously don't. But I think the sweetest moment was when he bore his testimony. That just really reaffirmed to me that all the sacrifices I have made to come out and serve were all work it. My joy was filled.

Can I just brag about Lorenzo for a second? Lorenzo is the best! He is the absolute best! This past Sunday, the Sunday he got confirmed, we asked him if he would come to visit a potential with us. Just because he is super cool, he said yes. This potential's name is Juan and he has a daughter. Apparently they have been to church before but in a different ward in Rancho Cordova. He was going with a friend for a while and from what he told us is that he saw something different about his friend and now he wants the same happiness for himself. So he agreed to have missionaries come and teach him.

We got his contact information and ended up calling. We set up a time to meet him Sunday and now that is were we are at in this story. So Lorenzo came with us....and he was AMAZING! We were just talking to Juan, trying to get to know him and he was telling us somethings that had happened to him in his past. Lorenzo just starts talking out of nowhere and starts bearing his testimony about how he knows that our message could help him with whatever he was dealing with....Our recent convert was doing missionary work! How cool is that?! Wow but anyways we ended up adding him as a new investigator and Lorenzo even invited him to church next Sunday...without us even asking him to do it! As we were walking away from that appointment, Lorenzo kept on telling us how great that felt and if we were going to visit him again to call him because he wants to help Juan accept the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Can you really ask for a better recent convert?

This past Saturday, we had a multicultural event at the church. There were all types of food and dances from everywhere. Everything from the islands to Asia to Mexico! Super cool! What was even cooler is that one of the recent converts in our ward, Henyuri, did a Venezuelan dance! I will send the video along! But it was so awesome to be part of that.

Okay last thing....our mission is getting Facebook. That is the weirdest thing for me to say! It really is but its kind of cool at the same time...it is just proof to me that the lord's work is hastening more then we think. There are only 14 missions that have Facebook now and we are now one of the 14. Man that kind of tells you the level of trust the lord has in his missionaries. I will tell you more about that as I get information.

This week has been amazing...honestly there is no other place I'd rather be then right here in Sacramento California serving the lord.

I love you all and pray for you always!

Love Hermana Paredes
Over and out.

Stalkers and all sorts of other fun...

So this week was....interesting.

                             Hermana Woodbury has a stalker.
He is from her last area and he found out where she has been moved to so this past Sunday he decided to show up to our ward....and he would not leave her alone! I seriously had to push myself in-between them because he kept on trying to get into her space!!

Yikes!

It was a struggle all through out church. So we called President that night and he basically told her that as soon as this week is up, she is out. That was heartbreaking because we really wanted to serve another transfer together but the more we thought it out we realized that maybe this was going to happen anyways.

Personally, I think she is going to be called to be a Sister Training Leader. 😉 She would be perfect for that! I really really hope soooo!!

Jose came to church! And so did Lorenzo! My two favorite investigators! (Really my only two investigators as of right now....) They both really liked it and this week we will be scheduling their interviews for their baptisms on the 20th!! Wow! I can't believe that this is actually happening!

I have been so excited this whole week because it is coming up so fast. Only problem is that we just found out that Lorenzo actually lives outside of our mission....so we may not be the missionaries to get him baptized, but honestly it doesn't really matter to me. As long as he is baptized.

President is currently working with the President of the mission where he resides in to see if he can just be our baptism. The only reason we never realized that he lived outside of our mission is because we always teach him at his work. It is kind of a sad, but still joyful because after we told him that we may not be teaching him anymore, he said "oh...does that mean I can't get baptized?" He STILL WANTS TO BE BAPTIZED!!! Wow!

That is just a witness to me that it doesn't matter if I teach him or if some other missionaries teach him, the spirit is still the same and he is still converted to this gospel and not to us. Man...if all my investigators could be like that.

 I'm not really sure what else I should say. It has been a weird but yet peaceful week...that is just something I love. Even though these times are crazy and super difficult, I still feel at complete peace. I guess it because I know what ever happens, it's all in the lord's hands.

 I love it out here and I love you all,

Hermana Paredes

Hermana Paredes, Lorenzo, Hermana Woodbury

Just remember....Jesus is awesome!

Hi family and friends,

 This week has been such a roller coaster....meaning it has had it ups and downs but honestly I am enjoying every single second!

 I have a few amazing experiences to write about and a few hard things. I'll start with the bitter first though that you all can enjoy the sweet.

 Bitter: we have had to drop almost all of our investigators. We went from having about 20 investigators to about five...and we are most likely going to have to drop two more. As a missionary that is really rough. Your whole life revolves around these people and it just pains you when they don't want to hear the wonderful news you bring or just would simply rather talk about other things .....it is really rough but sometimes it just have to be done. Our hearts honestly broke every time we hit the drop button on our area books but we are hopeful. There are so many prepared people in this area and by letting people go for a time just gives us more time to find those people. Honestly, I think it is a opportunity to exercise our faith and show the lord we are not just going to sit down and cry. I seriously can't wait to write next next weeks email because I know it is going to be full of miracles.

Sweet: Jose came to a temple tour and it was AMAZING! We brought this sweet old couple in our ward with us and they talked to him the whole time and answered all his questions. He was seriously really taken back by their kindness towards him and he loved every single moment of touring the temple. He kept saying things like "I feel nearer to god here." And "I just feel so much peace, it makes me not want to leave." There is a saying, you think you touch the temple but really the temple touches you. That is exactly what happened. Especially the fact that he had the opportunity to go inside and sit in the waiting room. I love it that you can just sit in the waiting room and there is a peace and a love that comes over you that you can't deny! Gosh I love temples! He is now working harder then ever to come to the temple someday through the gate way of baptism.

(Also when we invited him to be baptized August the 20th, he was like " I was seriously about to ask if I could get baptized that day because that is two days after my birthday!"........what?!)

Lorenzo

Lorenzo came to church again and this time he actually talked to the members! (Last time we couldn't get him to even say hello to them...he is a bit shy) He just keeps on telling us how much the church has changed his life already and how excited he is to be baptized. You can totally tell he means it because this past Sunday he got lost while driving to church but kept driving around until he found the building (with a little help from us). He was lost for 45 minutes but he still came! That is dedication! I know if that was me, I probably would have turned around and gone home but he stuck with it because he knew this is where he was suppose to be.

Also on the way back from church, there is always this guy on the corner who carries a Jesus sign and yells things into a microphone. So when we came to the stoplight, we rolled down our windows just to hear what he would say. He turns on his microphone and then boldly declares "Just remember...JESUS IS AWESOME!" At the time, it really made us laugh but now that I think about it. It has so much truth! He is so awesome! There is seriously no one who is awesomer! (Probably not a word but whatever) He that taketh up on him the sins of the world definitely deserves to be described as awesome. And I stand in awe of him...everyday I stand a little more in awe of him. I begin to love him even more and more as I preach about him and help other people truly see how amazing he is.

I know he lives. I know he loves us. I know he suffered and died for us. I know he would do it all over again if that meant to secure our eternal salvation. He is just wonderful to me.

I love you all and pray for you.
Hermana Paredes

Jose, Hermana Woodbury, Hermana Paredes

Las Hermosas Hermanas

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.

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!