Well, this week has been another busy one, as always :) We are always busy and doing all that we can to work hard to bring others to a knowledge of their savior and His atonement :)
Well this week I hit my 9 month mark as my mother was so excited to remind me:) It was pretty uneventful day. I was on exchanges. Thats about it. :) However, I dont think that I have mentioned. My MTC companion, Sister Edgley, and I have met up again! She is serving in another ward here in Fontana and we are roommates :)
So, this is what missionaries look like after 9 months in the field ;)
Definitely exhausting! And yes, I asked her if I could send this picture home.
In other news, there is this wonderful family that we have been working with that I would love to tell all of you about, but if you are my mother or full of pregnancy hormones you may want to take caution before you keep reading.This is highly emotional, and I know the sensitivity level of the people that I write. You have been warned.
These are the daughters of a woman that we have been working with. Her name is Venus. She is 22 and she just got baptized in August. She has had a rough road in life, but her testimony of the Gospel and of the Savior are inspiring. She has lived out of her car, bounced around living with friends and acquaintances, she just got laid off of work, and she is going to school for social work in an effort to make a better life for her children. She gives everything that she has to raising those girls and never asks for help. She doesnt want people to think that she was baptized in order to be on church welfare, and therefore is extremely reluctant to ask for help there. She just found out that the daycare that her youngest daughter goes to wants to adopt their family for Christmas and give them a tree stocked with presents and a Dinner to accompany it, and she is trying to refuse it. She has come so far in life and although she struggles, she does all that she can to protect and take care of her kids that she is raising on her own. She knows things are hard for them, but she also knows that there are people around her that need it much more than she does.
The girls are Erika (5) and Elizabeth (3). They are full of spunk and sass, and we LOVE them so much!! They love to read in the scriptures with us and are always asking their mom when the sisters are coming over :) They love Frozen and tangled, and going to daycare and school :)
Now is when the tears start-- Elizabeth has cystic fibrosis and epilepsy. She is not expected to live past Christmas. This is why the daycare is adopting them and they are asking that they celebrate Christmas early so that Elizabeth can enjoy it. We have been watching these girls the last month and a half or so and have watched as the color has gone out of Elizabeth and as she grown more and more tired. To see a little girl with so much life and energy decay in a matter of months is truly heartbreaking.
I am so incredibly grateful for a knowledge of the plan of salvation. To know that this little girl has too great a spirit to stay here on this earth. That she is more needed in the spirit world. I am grateful that I know what happens after this life and although there are tragedies all around us they dont have to define us as people. They can help us grow and be stronger. We are privileged to have heartbreaks and struggles in life. It shows that our Father in Heaven loves us, trusts us, and knows that if we choose that we can have the power and strength that we need from our Savior Jesus Christ to make it through and become the people that he wants us to be. Satan cannot stop a burning testimony unless we let him.
My mom. If you know my mom and havent hugged her yet today,
please try your best to do so. These are the sticky dots that I use to
mark my scriptures. A couple of weeks ago I had none. I was out and
it was pretty upsetting. I can now say that I have the best mom ever
and that I am in possession of over 2,880 dots :)
You are the best, mom!
I am also incredibly grateful for my companion. She is so great and I know that I am so lucky to be able to spend
my time with such a wonderful person :)
And I am grateful for cute scarves. 65 degrees is rough after 8 months of summer..
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I am also grateful that we are so blessed with wonderful weather here in California. We helped a woman in our ward
decorate for Christmas this week and we were able to do it in Tshirts. Also, we took an ice cream break because it
got too warm. Its a tender mercy when the Ice Cream Truck drives by ;)
Well, I love you all and I hope that you have a wonderful week and that you recognize all of the things that you are
truly blessed to have. Even if it is just a knowledge and a testimony that God loves you and he has a plan for you
and your family.
Look for the opportunity to serve someone else this week and make your Thanksgiving a time to not only state your
gratitude, but to show it to the people around you and even more importantly to your God.
I love you all! Happy Thanksgiving!
Sister Hope
Also grateful for warm PJs and Comp Unity. The door of our apartment doesnt seal all the way so when it
drops to 55 at night we are practically icicles :)
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