So...the billboards that I see the most in L.A. now are Justin Bieber's new CD "Believe" (....dyinggggg!), The Dark Knight Rises and the one that is RIGHT at the the light to turn left to get to the VC...Cars Land at Disneyland that's "NOW OPENED"....really? Of course that is the one I have to see every...single...day until they change it. But hey, better Cars Land then something not appropriate, right!? Right!! :) Thank you for those who wrote me letters this week!: Mommy, Nana (LOVE YOU! I didn't really understand it all that much because well...it was in spanish haha but...I think you said how I was your favorite grandchild or something like that... ;) ), Elder Paul (YOU COME HOME SOON! WHAT IN THE WORLD!) and Elder Brownlow! It was so fun to get those letters today and to read them. Thank you!! OH YEAH! DADDY! HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!! I just realized yesterday (as we were having correlation meeting and all realizing that we forgot about fathers day and all of us had someone we knew whose birthday was this week) that I emailed you about fathers day but not your BIRTHDAY! :( I hope it was great :) Love you dada!! Oh and Richie and Chris...I won't write back til you two write me back ;) Oh and Elder Reid!!! Thanks for sharing that scripture from Alma in your email, I needed to read that! :)
Funny story of the week: Actually, this happened last P-day but whatevs. We went to Target because we needed to get some clothes. Hermana Cole decided to get some of the socks to wear with flats because well lol she needed some. We go to the cash register, we buy our things separately, and then out we are! We finally get home (because traffic in LA is horrible!!) and she looks at the back seat and says, "WAIT!...did you buy my socks?" I looked at her strangely and told her that why would I buy her socks haha but then I still look at my receipt to see if I did and I didn't....and neither did she. Yes. My companion, my trainer, my mom...stole socks from Target! She started to freak out because well, I'm sure there was a security camera and it shows two missionaries walking out of Target with one holding two pairs of socks in her hands haha so we had to figure out what to do. We couldn't go back because there was no time so we called the number on the receipt and told them the situation. Their response? "Ehhh, just bring them by whenever you can and we'll take care of it"...aka it really didn't matter? But no worries, we went back today and returned it so all is good :) Honesty is the way to go!...haha oh man, I'm turning into more of a dork. No bueno.
Well, this week has been pretty chill. Our appointments again kept falling through and not happening but it's been a great way for us to learn patience :) I can't remember if I talked about Zach but he is an investigator that was given to us by another companionship of sisters. He's been struggling a lot because he is a drug addict who is trying to get better and it's hard to teach him and letting him know we care but no giving him any advice or counsel on how to fix his problems. We know that through God and by praying he can receive peace and comfort but with his situation, it's just not working :( We are hoping that he still wants to meet with us because I know that the Gospel can really help change his life! He just needs to trust in God! We were planning on teaching Edvin this week but he couldn't come and was busy the rest of the week...but still came to church on Sunday! We were at our other ward so we couldn't talk with him but this next lesson is going to be crucial because we need to figure out where he is spiritually and how we can get him to commit to baptism. I don't remember if I ever talked about a guy named Jabin but we met him and his friend Parker on the street while we were contacting. He was my first legit street approach and we got their information and a follow-up appointment! The thing is...we have never been able to teach him lol because we've been playing phone tag and he hasn't been responding back to us. Randomly, he called us and said sorry for being flaky and wanted to meet with us. But, the day of our appointment he just kind of bailed and like 20 minutes before started answering our calls and saying he was in another city for the night. We invited him to come to church and he said he would but we had little hopes that he'd show. Well, our ward mission leader (Jason) went and got him and we saw him at church!! We were shocked for sure haha but it was great. He looked a lot different as well, longer hair and a massive beard. I think he too is addicted to drugs so Hermana Cole and I are trying to figure out the best way to teach our two investigators for our YSA wards. Hopefully we'll know what to say with the Spirit and it'll be exactly what they need to hear. We have a lesson with Jabin on Wednesday as well and a member is going to get him and it'll be at that members house. And there will be a girl haha so there will be us, two members, and then Jabin! :) I hope it goes well and he sincerely wants to learn more! Then we had Jeffery who I'm sure I talked about last week. We've been trying to get in contact with him especially since he's been sick and I guess it turns how he just pulled a muscle? So, luckily nothing too extreme! But his parents weren't home when we went to stop by so we kind of taught him outside. This was probably the first lesson Hermana Cole and I have had where we were not on the same page. We had no time to plan because we randomly decided to call to see if we can stop by and then got the okay from his dad (thinking he and his wife would still be there) to show up. We planned on giving him a BOM but not staying for too long because we had other things we needed to get down. Well, we showed up and it's him and his uncle so we had to teach him outside (like I already said). I figured we would just see how he's doing, explain the Book of Mormon and give it to him because well, we were just standing outside his door and it didn't feel like a good setting to actually teach a lesson. So we start to explain the Book of Mormon to him but then before I knew it...she was teaching him the Restoration. At first I thought it was okay because we were asking him what he thought about God and who Jesus Christ was but Jeffery asks really deep and random questions for a 14 year old boy and they were just going WAY off topic and Hermana Cole kept trying to answer them. I didn't talk the entire time because I just felt like this was not the setting to teach a 14 year old boy The Restoration where the door was still open (because it was just him), the TV was loud and the dog was barking. Not to mention just cars driving by and it being not a focused environment. She looked at me at one point and I told him that he was asking really good questions and how when we get to actually teach him, we'll be able to answer those questions but then when I turned back to Hermana Cole...she continued on the Restoration. We walked away from it a little frustrated but after talking about it and explaining how we felt, we realized that we did go about it the wrong way and talked on how we could do a better job at it next time when we are ever in a situation like that again. It was a really good learning experience for the both of us on the importance of just listening to the spirit for what it is you need to really teach those you find. We laugh about it now because there was a lot of funny moments that occurred during that lesson that only missionaries would laugh about :) Oh the joys of teaching!!
Like I've been mentioning before I've been having a hard time on my mission. I never thought I would be the type of person who would struggle a lot on my mission (yes, go ahead and chuckle haha) because I felt like I was a strong enough of a person to just push things aside and move on. But nope, that is not the case anymore. Yesterday was pretty busy for a Sunday morning and since there was only 3 companionship's on shift, I got to take a tour by myself! I took a family whose grandma and the youngest boy are getting baptized on Saturday! I took them to God's plan and then shared my testimony on how I know families can be together forever. I then asked the Grandma what made her interested in the church and she said how she has always been interested but never wanted to commit til now. I shared my conversion story to them and promised her and the son blessings and how this step will change their life forever! As I was closing the tour, the mom of the family asked me, "Sister...how did you know it was true?" I then looked around the room and told her, "This room....what you just watched and learned in here...this is what made me know the church was true." When I learned that families can be together forever I KNEW that this church was true! When I learned the Plan of Salvation and how we lived with God before we came to earth I KNEW the church was true! I cried to this family and expressed my love for the Gospel and it was in that moment that hit me...Hermana Baeza, it's okay that you are struggling, trust in your testimony and everything will all work out. The Lord is always there for us. He never leaves us alone to suffer, He always wants to help. The Lord doesn't expect us to understand His will, but He still expects us to do it. We can't run away from our trials but I know that through them, we can ALWAYS run to God. President Eyring said in this past General Conference, " We never need to feel that we are alone or unloved in the Lord's service because we never are. We can feel the love of God. The Savior has promised angels on our left and our right to bear us up. And He always keeps His word." I know that the Lord loves me and that I just need to trust in Him more. He wants to help but we just need to knock in order for Him to open that door. I love this Gospel! I love what I get to teach and testify to people every single day. I hope everyone has a wonderful week!!
Love,
Hermana Baeza
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