One week left in the Mexico MTC

The one photo that was in focus was skiwampus.  

This is so crazy!!! I can´t believe how fast time has flown! By this time next week I will be in California!! ¡Orale! 

Funny moment: So my companion and I were teaching a "Investigator" about the ten commandments. The lesson had gone smoothly and we had gotten him to commit to keeping the ten commandments. My companion and I then asked him if he had any problems with any of my commandment and he responded that he didn´t but then he jokingly asked us if we had any problems especailly with though shalt not kill. Laughing I said no and then he turned to my companion and asked her the same question.... And with the biggest smile on her face she gave an enthusiastic "Si!" There were a few seconds of silence then I and the investigator busted into laughter. She turned so red and said "Si! wait no!....¡que?" Oh my poor companion! Everything ended well and our "Investigator" kindly helped her out but oh was it funny!

Sad moment: One of the members of our district and my good friend caught some sort of bacteria during his stay here and couldn´t hold down food. He ended up loosing 15 lbs! There was a decision made that he would need to go home so he left this past Thursday...I have now seen two people go home. Coming out on a mission is not easy but going home from one I think is even harder. I am amazed how he handled it with grace and put his trust in the Lord. We do miss having him in our group but we know that he is getting the care he need and that the lord is proud of him!  I have said this before but I didn´t want to come out on my mission early but I now know that there is a grander purpose behind it all. The people I have meet here have influenced me and made me so much better. I honestly feel like my district in the CCM was carefully put together by God. All of their testimonies have strengthened me and my belief in the church and gosple! I am so incredibly blessed! I defiantly have no reason to complain...ever again.

Spiritual moment: Can I be so bold as to say the Book of Mormon is the word of God? It is the word of God! So we had TRC this past week and it was AMAZING!! We taught this man, Moroni, who is already a member of the church on how to get revelation from the Book of Mormon.  We asked him how his reading was going and he told us that it wasn´t going so great. He was having a hard time getting the will power to actually study his scriptures. So I shared with him the story about the women at the well in John chapter 4. 

10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest thegift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

 11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?

 12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?

 13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:

 14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up intoeverlasting life.

Then my companion and I bore witness that Jesus Christ is the living water and the Book of Mormon contains his words and the fullness of his doctrine and anyone that read this book, their soul will never hunger and it will be filled. It was so powerful. By the end of the lesson, this man was clinging on the Book of Mormon like it was his life source. In a way...it is. I´m going to share with you what I have been doing to study the Book of Mormon. 

1. I think of a question

2.I pray and ask God the question with a heart full of faith (James 1:5)

3. I write my question in my notebook

4. As I read I write down feelings and impressions

5. I close with a pray and thank god!

I can witness to you that god does answer honest and pure questions! He wants to speak with us. He is our Heavenly Father. Like I always tell the investigators, when we want to talk to God we pray, when we want god to speak to us, we read the scriptures! The Book of Mormon is the word of God and I challenge you to study them and for those of you who haven´t read it...Read it!! 

I love you all,

Hermana Paredes 

Over and Out

P.S. Elder Oaks is coming today to speak!! and guess who got chosen to sing in the select choir....yours truly!! ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! So next email I will send you guys some notes from that! There will not be a email next week because I will be flying!! 

 Hermana Sofia Paredes' district 8B!!!!!

Week 4 Homesick

Avengers!!!

OH this week was the worst week and the best week all at the same time!! I LOVED IT!!!

So reason why it was the worst week...homesickness set in. Yep lovely homesickness. I was really doing just fine the first two weeks that I was here but then around the middle of my third week, I started to feel pangs of homesickness. I really do miss having my mom around to talk to 24/7. I really do miss my dad´s council. I miss my sibling who never failed to make me laugh...oh and my guitar!! UGHHH!! I miss my guitar!!! It was aweful!! On Tuesday night I completely broke down. Just locked myself in the bathroom and had a cry fest...not pretty people! It didn´t last long though! I have the best district Hermanas in the world!! Turns out that they had been missing home just as much as I had so as a Sisterhood we decided to lighten our week and did Spirit Week. 

So you now how school´s have spirit weeks right before homecoming?? And each day is a theme?? And you are suppose to dress up for the theme of the day?? Yeah so we might have done that. ;) Here is the order; Monday(dressed in Red), Tuesday (Burgandy), Wednesday (Disney princesses), Thurday(AVENGERS...my favorite day!), Friday (Winnie the Pooh), and last but not least Saturday (Inside Out)...I will let you all figure out who was who for those days. :) Oh we had so much fun matching outfits and trading clothes back and forth! It lifted our spirits so much! Our district leader told the MTC president about what we were doing in his report and apperently he loved it!! Our MTC President is so awesome!! I will send pictures!! 

As great as all of this was, my heart still hurt. I talked to one of the councilors in our Branch and he suggested a blessing from my district leader. I at first was not to keen about this idea but I eventually gave in. Let me tell you, I am so glad I did! The blessing was exactly what I needed. The blessing was almost identical to my setting apart and my father´s blessing. It brought so much comfort to hear those exact same words over again, reminding me of the promises made to me before I left on my mission. There is a scripture in 

1 Nephi 10:18-19. 

18 For he is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and the way is prepared for all men from the foundation of the world, if it so be that they repent and come unto him.

 19 For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and themysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round.

Even though I am very far from home, in a different country, god still gives the same promises. I am not forgotten here. I am not alone. I know that my family is praying for me and I know others are too. I hear the voice of god hear more clearly then I ever had in my life! Oh it is such a joy to be on  the lord´s errand! I love you all and I will write soon! 

Hermana Paredes,

Over and Out

P.S. My companions name is Hermana Troseth. Apperently I forgot to say that in my past few emails. Also Hermana Stocking (the blonde) and Hermana Torrez (the burnette) are the new training sisters and my district leader and his companion are the new Zone leaders...just proves we have the best district. ;) (not really, we are just the only district in our zone currently..haha) 

Same Spirit day as the first photo----Avengers

In-side-Out day!

Disney Princesses ?, Bell, Cinderella, Pocahontas?

Winnie the Pooh Day, looks like Piglet, Pooh, Eeyore, and Tigger

Week 3 The Holy Spirit

I am new to the whole blogging scene and am learning a lot--please be patient as I mess with this blog and learn.  I am aware that the fonts are all over the place and that odd color font shows up in odd places.  It is a work in progress. ;-)  (Sofia's mom, Diane Paredes)

Please send emails to the following address while Sofia is in the MTC:
letter@mtcmexicocarepackage.com and put the subject as Hermana Paredes District #8B

When she receives letters at the above address, she is able to print them and therefore can read them any time. 

Hola everyone!!
So I totally promised you district pictures....and I forgot. I will send them this time for sure!!

So this week we started a new thing called TRC....for the life of me I can´t remember what it stands for. Basically in TRC we teach people from the "outside world"! They can be real investigators, inactive members, or active members. My companeria and I taught this lovely lady named Jessica. At first we were all just talking and laughing and getting to know each other, then I asked the question of what she wanted to get from our lesson. She than began to tell us that she was going to be filing a divorce soon and she had been praying really hard for any kind of comfort. She then opened up her bible and told us that god had put this scripture into her mind for an answer. It´s in Mark 2:21 (I´ll let you guys look it up and read it...) 

I looked it up, and here it is:  

Mark 2:21 No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse.

and it was probably the most confusing scripture I have ever read.

After we read this scripture with her, she told us she wanted to know what God wanted to tell her through this scripture...my mind went blank....I could literally not thing of a single thing that the lord wanted to tell her through this scripture! I began to panic. We literally sat there for about five minutes in absolute silence as I read this scripture over and over again. I tried to open my mouth to speak but no words came. I wanted to just say "We cannot get revelation for you" and move on to our lesson but I could bring myself to say it because I could see the pain behind her eyes.

Just at the point I was about to despair that we would never find the answer for her, my sweet companion touched my knee and began to speak. She told this women that if we try to heal our broken hearts on our own it will never work, but through Jesus Christ atonement all broken things can become whole. The spirit witnessed that this was 101% true. All the sudden my tongue was loosened and I was able to add my witness of our savior and how he knows our sufferings. The holy ghost carried our message to her heart. I know this to be true because on the response sheet she committed that she was going to go to church this coming Sunday. According to our teachers this lady had not been to church in a very long time, to the point were she was considered inactive and the missionaries have been trying to get her to go for a very long time. It was a miracle! 

I learned something very important through that experience. I realized that I had been so focused on speaking perfect Spanish that I forgot to rely on the spirit. My companion on the other hand hardly knows any Spanish but she knows how to rely on the spirit. I believe that the spirit was trying to speak to me but I was so wrapped up in my own thought I forgot to listen so the spirit spoke to the person that would listen. She got the inspiration and I didn´t. 

The holy ghost does not shout...it gently whispers and if you don´t have ears to hear, you will miss it. I actually did a talk this past Sunday about the spirit and it taught me a lot. I used one of my favorite scripture Psalms 46: 10 "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”  Be still and listen. Quiet your doubts and fears and then the Holy Ghost will speak to you. 

I love you all, 

Hermana Paredes 

Over and Out

Week #2 Hola from the CCM

Week #2

Hola from the CCM!!                                  1/26/2016  Mexico

Hermana Paredes with her fellow sisters
I´m going to keep the is email very short and sweet so here it goes!

Classes are going well and I am so grateful for the years of Spanish I had...so very grateful! haha!

My district is fantastic! They are the most fun and spiritual group I have ever been with! We are always finding ways to help each other out with the language such as we make up games. Yesterday we played Caliente papa....not sure if  that´s how you spell it but oh well.  Basically we have english words on note cards and who ever the papa lands on they have to say the word is Spanish! If you say the wrong Spanish word you are out!  It got a bit crazy! hahah! My companion is the sweetest thing! She is from Franklin, Tennessee and her mission is Fresno, California! We have seriously bonded over these two weeks! I just love her!!  We are the only ones currently in the CCM going to Cali!! So weird... hopefully we get more Cali people this coming Wednesday! I´m loving teaching our Investigators! Its amazing how even though we don´t know this language really well we can still teach by the Holy Ghost (the holy ghost is how we know if things are true, it usually comes as a warm fuzzy feeling!) I´m so excited for our two new investigators!! Nancy and Ivan! Such sweet spirits! (They are already members but they volunteered to be taught so that we could practice)

Spiritual moment: This week I got to meet the most courageous and Christ-like women I have ever meet in my life. (I will not put her name in this email out of respect and privacy)  She is an Hermana in our zone and early this week she was admitted into the hospital. She had already been to the hospital before because she kept on having fainting spells so I believe this was either her second or third time in the hospital. I was asked to be her companion for one of the days this week... I don´t remember exactly what day. I met her and she was glowing! I didn´t know that morning that this young women was going to change the way I looked at this. We were on our way back from doing a couple of test in the hospital when the male nurse who was pushing the Hermana´s wheelchair started to question us about our beliefs. I told him that we believe in Dois el Eternal Padre, and in his son Jesucristo, and el Espirito Santo. 

He then started to question us how we know god existed and we tried to answer in our broken spanish. It soon became apparent to me that this man did not want to learn, he only wanted to argue so I thanked him for his opinion and bore my testimony thinking that was the end of that but right before he left, he said "you do not know Dois really exists." and walked out of the room! I was so stunned! 

All of the sudden La Hermana started to cry. I thought she was crying because of the huge possibility of her being sent home but the words that came out of her mouth will forever be engraved in my brain. "I feel so sorry for that man, he does know that his heavenly father loves him." This is this girl´s second time in the hospital, in a new country, facing the possibility of going home and she chooses to cry for this man! She had so many other things she could of cried over but she showed compassion to someone that had just told her that she didn´t know God existed! That is when her countenance changed. Though she was lying in a hospital bed as sick as she could be...she glowed and she was (for lack of a better word) beautiful! I was so blessed to feel the sweet spirit she brought to that hospital! She is home now but I know that god still has a work and a wonder for her to perform in Yakima, Washington. She is on the errand of angels!

There are miracles happening her in the CCM. Hearts and lives are being changed for the better and I am so grateful I get to be part of this work

Love you all,

Hermana Paredes

over and out

I love the view of the houses in the background.  Sofia with her Sistahs!

Week #1

1/19/2016

Oh my gosh! It has almost been a week already! Wow! Time goes fast when you are in the service of The Lord! Okay quick summary of the flight here. Boarded first plane : arrived in Huston Texas. I literally had to run to catch my second flight! Its was on the other side of the freaking airport!! (am I still aloud to say freaking?) Boarded second plane to realize that there were only Elders on my flight....well this is going to be awkward. Listened to my music the whole time and then we arrived I headed strait over to the Elders because Missionaries should never travel alone. At first they really kept their distance but when they realized that I was the only one who could speak Spanish all of the sudden the wanted to be buddy buddies. hahah! The would always say we are with her whenever one of the Latinos tried to speak to them! So funny! 

Okay funny moment of the week:  It was our second day in the CCM and we were still all trying to get our bearings. All the sisters in my zone were at breakfast in the Comador trying all this new wierd but tasty food. One of the Hermanas, Hermana Nelson, grabbed this weird pudding concoction and she realized it was pretty bland. So la Hermana, being the creative problem solver she is, she decided to put some cream in it to sweeten it. The thing you need to know about us greengas is that we can´t read spanish...at least not yet so the poor Hermana accidentally put sour cream instead of regular cream but she was cool about it and told us "Nothing a little sugar can´t fix!" So she went back to the buffet and poured in what she thought was sugar. It was SALT! haha! It was so funny to watch the chiefs look of horror as Hermana Nelson ruined his masterpiece. He actually chased her down as she was heading back to the table!! haha! He took the pudding from her and replaced it with a new one and that was the end of that. Oh it made our stressed filled day! 

My birthday was amazing! My companion, roommates and zone made sure I didn´t have a moment of saddness! They spread the word around the CCM that it was my birthday so all day I had random strangers come up to me and say "Oh so you are Hermana Paredes, Feliz cumple anos!" It was so sweet! And later that day we got back from a devotional and our district wanted to study outside but our district leader (Elder Atkins) wouldn´t let us! Was a bit upset about that but we were obident and we returned to our assigned classroom. Not even five minutes into Studying we hear a knock on the door and my whole zone piles into the room. Everyone was really confused...except to for Elder Atkins. He told me to stand up. I was so wierded out! I thought I was in trouble for sure!! (let me say one thing so that you understand...I´m pretty slow on connecting things! haha!) So if you haven´t figured it out already...I wasn´t in trouble, they just came to sing happy birthday to me! Sweetest thing ever! (and I found out later that Elder Atkins had to talked to all of them the night before and told them to spread the word that it was my birthday AND had arranged for them to come and sing to me. BEST DISTRICT LEADER EVER!!!) By they way! thank you all for the birthday wishes! That very much brightened my day!! 

Okay on to the Spiritual Stuff!! Whoop Whoop!!! Our zone got to group teach an investigator and WOW....the spirit was so thick you could cut it with knife! It was incredible! I have had so many experiences that were like that this week. This gospel is incredible! Everyone here has a countenance about them...I have yet to meet someone who doesn´t! Sunday was the best! In relief society we talk about consecrating ourselves to the Lord. I wish I had brought my book with me! I took tons of notes!! Anyways, consecrating. Giving everything, a 110% of your effort to him! It totally reaffirmed to me why I am here. I´m so grateful to be here. I´m going to share some of the things I learned in the devotional I attended by Elder Bednard. A saint reaches out, while the natural man reaches in. Christ was always reaching out! Stretching forth his hand to everyone. Even in his darkest moment, the atonement, he reached at to his disciples who fell asleep while he was in the garden suffering, Instead of reprimanding them he let them sleep. When the guards came to take him away and Peter slew off the ear of that one guard, Christ didn´t let that guard suffer...he healed his ear. He would have been so justified to just not care but he did! He know this was the same person who was coming to take him away to be crucified but still he cared! Our savior is amazing! So selfless! I´m going to take on the challenge that Elder Bednard set forth. Get a book of Mormon. Write a question in the front of the book and then highlight everything that you read in the book of Mormon that answers that question! My question is going to be "How can I better serve my fellow man?" I challenge you guys to do the same! 

If any of you want to send me a letter, send it here. letter@mtcmexicocarepackage.com and put the subject as Hermana Paredes  District #8B

If you would like to send a snail-mail letter send it to: (The address is like a letter by itself)

Sister Sofia Paredes

California Sacramento Mission

Mexico Missionary Training Center

Carretera Tenayuca-Chalmita #828

Colonia Zona Escolar, Gustavo A.Madero

07230 Mexico City, Distrito Federal  Mexico

I love you all!

Hermana Paredes 

p.s. I´ll send pictures of my district next time

Hermana Paredes and ?companion?

Lovely Hermanas in the Mexico MTC

???? It was prep-day...notice the clothes.
That is all I know


.

Safe and Sound

We received this letter from Sister Paredes Wednesday evening.

Hey, I'm still alive and breathing! The flight was good! No problems here!!! Sorry, I didn't call earlier! I had to run from the Huston flight to the Mexico flight! It was craziness!! The MTC is huge!! and I have a district already and two Elders that I met on the plane are in my same district!!! YEAH!! Friends already! So I totally was the only sister on my flight so I have been companionless....hopefully I meet her soon. My P days are on Tuesday so expect to get my next email then! I love you guys! Don't let my siblings take over my room to soon! 

Love, 

Hermana Paredes

P.S. that is so cool to say!!!