Week 15: I Know That My Redeemer Lives

Hello family and friends!!

Another week has come and gone here in California... and yes it is still cold and I guess it only gets colder from here!  This is going to be a long winter haha :)

Well this week has had its ups and downs for sure. I will just start with one story.  So my companion always has to go to the bathroom because she is constantly drinking water and one night she really had to go to the bathroom and we ended up going into a barber shop to use the bathroom. I started talking to them in my very broken spanish (but i could understand more than before.. positive thinking!)  but we started talking about what missionaries do and about how they leave their homes for 18 months to 2 years.  They didn't sound very interested because they were all really catholic and we asked if we could come to their house and teach them more but they all turned us down.  We ended up singing "I know that my Redeemer lives," and the spirit was so strong.  Once we finished singing they said that they had felt very calm and peace in that moment.  We testified to them that that was the Spirit telling them that our message was true.  They started having so many questions and invited us back to the barber shop and teach them more because they wanted to feel of that spirit again.  We were so excited after that lesson and we knew that my companion had to go to the bathroom for a reason ;)

I don't know if I have told you about Maria Cendejas at all but she is one of our investigators with a baptismal date and she is so awesome.  She is 24 and is married and has 2 kids.  She knows without a doubt that this church is true but the hard thing is her husband doesn't know very much Spanish.  He decided to come to church this Sunday and he loved it! The only probably was that he didn't understand anything that they were saying... the Spirit sure does testify even when you don't understand.  The sad thing is that they have decided to change to English speaking missionaries but we are so excited for them to be baptized together and go to the temple!!! :)

This week I have been reading a book called Believing Christ.  I would highly recommend it to all of you as well.  It talks about Christ and His atoning sacrifice for us all.  We know that we all make mistakes and will keep making mistakes but as we believe Christ we can be clean of everything that we have done and start completely over!  I know this to be true.  I know that Jesus Christ lives and loves us all so much.  So much that sometimes I can't even comprehend it.  I know that He suffered for us so that we can become clean and return to live with our Heavenly Father again.  I know that through Christ we can receive strength to do all that we need to do and more.  We must trust in Him and all that He has done for us!

Sorry for the short email this week but hopefully I have more stories to tell next week!  I love you all so much!

Love,

Hermana Kali McMinn

Fight all of your battles on your knees and you will win every time.

~Charles Stanley

Week 14: Tender Mercies of the Lord

Hello family and friends!!

How is everything going at home?  How is the weather?  I am sooo cold here.  I don't know what i was thinking when i thought that california was always warm.  At night it gets to about 65 degrees and I am absolutely freezing.  I guess not bringing a coat was not the smartest thing that I have done.  Good thing my companion was prepared and has 2 haha :)

Tender mercies of the Lord are real and they do not occur randomlyor merely by coincidence.
David A. Bednar

This week has been filled with so many miracles and tender mercies from the Lord. I know that as I am obedient and follow the promptings of the holy ghost that the Lord is guiding us to those who are ready for the gospel.  We have one investigator whose name is Maria Cendejas.  We actually found her in the area book.  She had been taught by missionaries a few years ago and was not quite ready but now she is so ready!  She knows that this is the church that she wants her sons to grow up in and to learn more about Christ.  She is so awesome but the best part is we are meeting with her husband this time around and the missionaries last time couldn't even talk to him.  He was so against the church then but now he has so many questions and it is so awesome and the spirit is always so strong! Maria has a baptismal date and we are working with Brian, her husband, to have one as well. 

Another miracle or tender mercy that come from meeting with maria is her mom Luz.  We went over to Maria's house for a visit and her mom was there so we invited her to be a part of the lesson and she accepted right away. It kind of caught us off guard because it rarely happens like that.  She is a non-practicing catholic which is very big here.  She has amazing faith in Christ and His love for her.  We had a lesson on the gospel of Jesus Christ; faith, repentence, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end. Luz loved talking about baptism and receiving forgiveness of all that we have done.  We showed her a video of when Jesus Christ was baptized and she thought that is was so beautiful.  we invited her to be baptized in that lesson and she accepted!! :)  We are so excited for her.  The hardest thing for her is going to be her husband.  He does not like when we come at all and he does not like when Luz leaves the house.  We have really been praying hard for her and her husband to have an open heart and for her to be able to come to church this next week!  

One more tender mercy from this last week was our lesson with Ramon. I met him last transfer and we had a really good beginning lesson with him and ended up giving him a book of mormon to read.  We set up a return appointment but when we went he ended up being in mexico and he also lives in an area that we don't spend a lot of time in.  We ended up going to that area last night and i had the prompting to go and see ramon.  we went to his house and he told us that he had been waiting for us to come and see him!  He had read a little bit of the Book of Mormon and had some questions that we answered for him and then we taught him the restoration.  He absolutely loved it!  He understood everything so well and he knows that what we share is true.  He told us that every time that we come by he gets the goosebumps when we talk and he just wants to learn more :)  We invited him to be baptized but he wants to know for sure that this is true before he does that and he doesn't understand the importance of being baptized if he hasn't done bad things like drink, smoke, or kill anyone so we are working on that with him.  Another cool thing with him is that we are teaching him english as well!  So we spend 30 minutes teaching english and 30 minutes teaching the gospel.  It is so fun to see him learn and improve :)

There is a huge focus in our mission about focusing on the tender mercies of the Lord and all of the blessings that He has given us.  Throughout our day we stop and think about all of the things that God and Christ have done for us and it is such a blessing to do this.  Even though we get rejected so many times when we talk about our tender mercies it is so hard to be frustrated with our day.  We see the Lord's hand in the work so much more when we focus on the tender mercies.  It also has helped me to be more grateful for all of the little things that the Lord has done for me.  So this week i invite you all to take some time throughout your day and stop to think about the tender mercies that you have seen throughout your day.  I know that as you do this you will feel the love of Christ more in your life and you will be so grateful for everything that he has done for you!

When we put our problems in God's hands, He puts peace in our hearts. (John 14:27)
In the most difficult circumstances of life, there is often only one source of peace...
The Prince of Peace.

I hope you all have a great week and thank you so much for all the letters, emails and support!

Love,

Hermana Kali McMinn

Week 13: Heavenly Father is mindful of us

Hello Everyone!

Happy Halloween from Hermanas McMinn and Ortiz!

So I have a new companion this week!  Her name is Hermana ortiz.  She is from El Paso Texas and has been out 14 months.  She already knew Spanish before the mission so it has been fun learning a ton more from her.  She is absolutely amazing.  She is exactly the kind of person that I want to be when I am getting to the end of my mission.  She just has so much faith and knows exactly what to say to people and follows the Spirit so well.  I am so excited to keep learning from her.

As we lose ourselves in the service of others we discover our own lives and our own happiness.

~President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

So this week we have really been working on finding more solid people to teach.  At this point we don't have many that are completely set on getting baptized like Ignacio and Georgina were.  We are working on really following the Spirit and having a lot of meaningful conversations with others.  This week we have also had a lot of rejection. A lot more than usual and more than Sister Ortiz was used to.  After about the 5th rejection one night. We decided to talk about the tender mercies that we had seen that day and after we talked about them I said that the next person we were going to talk to was going to say yes! and I was just hoping and having faith that it would happen.  Then a few seconds later we heard someone yell Joseph Smith? and we were so confused. At first I was a little nervous because I wasn't really ready for someone to fight with us about Joseph Smith again!  But we went over to talk to him and turns out that he was a former investigator who had been lost during transfers a few months ago!  We ended up teaching the Restoration right then on the street and he knew that it was true. He had this huge smile on his face when we told him about the first vision.  He wanted to read the Book of Mormon and he told us that he wanted to be baptized!  It was such a cool experience.  I realized that when we work hard even after a lot of rejection the Lord is still putting people in our path who are ready for the Gospel.  There are so many people here  in Los Angeles who are ready for the gospel and I am so excited to find them and help them to come follow Christ more. 

 It really helped to build my testimony especially of faith.  Heavenly Father is always mindful of us.  He knows exactly how we are feeling and what we need at that moment.  As long as we have the faith to ask and to know He will answer.  Another thing that I have learned this week is that faith leads to action.  We can't just say that we have faith in Jesus Christ.  We must show that faith as well.  This is done by trying to come closer to Him through scripture study, prayer, repentence, going to church, serving others, etc.  

It is so much fun here in Gardena California.  I love serving a mission and serving others.  Oh and another cool thing... we received a referral the other day and his name is Angel Moroni!! His grandma named him and she is member so I have the feeling there is a lot of potential there haha :)  We are meeting with him this week so I will let you know!

Have a great week :)

Love,

Hermana McMinn

Week 12: We pulled it off with a HITCH!

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. 

~Matthew 5:16

Don't shine so that others can see you, shine so that through you, others can see Him.

Hola Familia!

Well guess what!? I finished my first transfer as a missionary here in the CLAM :)  Crazy how fast this transfer went and I heard that it only goes faster from here!  But we had transfer calls last night and I found out that I will be staying in Hermosa Liahona (where I am at now) but my companion is leaving! :(  I am super bummed about that one but I heard that my new companion is so awesome so I will let you know more about that one this next week!!

Kali and Hermana Vincent

We had such an awesome week this week!!  Ignacio and Georgina got married on Monday and it was the cutest, most awkward wedding I have ever been to! haha :)  They were so excited to get married and it was just a really small wedding of the bishop, my comp Sister Vincent and me but it was amazing.  The spirit that was felt in that meeting was so strong.  I knew that Heavenly Father was so proud of the steps that Ignacio and Georgina were making and how blessed they are going to be.  The family is such a huge blessing and is such a huge part of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I have realized the importance more and more.  I am so grateful for all of my family and the support that you all give me. 

Throughout the week we had some really great lessons and found some really awesome potentials that I will hopefully be talking more about in the future :)  But this week we had some fun experiences with animals...  I was walking one night and ran straight into a spider and it was HUGE! Screamed a little bit but felt better once I stepped on it :)  Another night we went home and there was an opossum sitting in our parking spot!! I had no clue that possums were in California.. I thought I had stepped into Tennessee for a minute :)  And we are constantly having moments where I am scared that a dog is going to bite my leg off but it is totally fine haha :)

The best day ever was Sunday though!  Ignacio and Georgina were finally baptized.  I just love that family so much and their two little twins, Michelle and Dylan.  It was such a spiritual service and after the baptism we asked Georgina how she felt and she just had the biggest smile on her face and said she was so happy.  I love the opportunity that I get to share this gospel with others and to bring them joy!  I am so glad that I get to stay in Hermosa Liahona for at least one more transfer so that I can be with this family a little bit longer!

Baptism day for Georgina and Ignacio!

Well have an awesome week and thank you for all of the prayers!!

Hoorah for Israel :)

Love,

Hermana McMinn

Week 11: Faith in the Lord

Be peaceful. Believe in God and in yourself. You are doing better than you think!

~Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Zone Conference

Another great week here in Gardena/Lawndale California! Much has happened and nothing as planned but that is what I have learned happens as missionaries! Make plans but know that they are going to change!

Well, Ignacio and Georgina had their baptismal interviews this last Wednesday, and at first they didn’t show up..we waited for an hour and they didn't come!  WE were so worried, but they are so solid and so I knew that it had to be for a good reason.  So we went to their house and Georgina looked really sad and Ignacio was sleeping.  She was like "hermana...look...I went through and did our bills and all of our finances...and we don't have enough money free at the end of the month to pay our full tithing." Then she proceeded and showed me and explained all of her calculations and bills and was like "look hermana...this is all we have free at the end of the month and its not the full tithing..so you see we couldn't come to the interview because we can't be baptized and promise God that we are going to pay tithing and then not pay the full amount...that would be mocking God....and if I put this money in an envelope each month and give to the bishop and tell him that it is my tithing, he may not know that it is not the full ten percent, but God would know!"

They are so faithful, and they really want to follow God and his commandments, and they will be such faithful members!

And so then, we had a lesson about Faith and we promised them blessings and discussed that if we put our faith in the lord and keep the lord's commandments, then we will always receive the blessings and the Lord will watch out for us.  We also promised them that if they paid their tithing first that they would always have enough for their needs. Then we told them that the elders were going to be at the church again at 7, and that they could give them an interview since they missed their earlier appointment, and then I asked her how she felt and Georgina was like "bien hermana. seguimos en pie. tengo fe" which basically translates (good sister.  we are still on. I have faith)  It was SO POWERFUL AND THE SPIRIT WAS SO STRONG!!!!! And then they went and passed their baptismal interviews! They are such amazing examples to me.  After that lesson, I was like, man...I NEED TO HAVE MORE FAITH!!!! Faith is like a muscle.  we constantly have to be exercising it so that it can be stronger or else we will lose the muscle!

AND THEN...they were supposed to get married on Friday.  So Ignacio left work early on Friday and they went to the courthouse, and they were able to get everything done, and were in the system, but when it came to actually getting the license in paper form...they were too late. :( and the man at the counter was like "oh you barely missed it by a few minutes" so the bishop tried to pull some strings, and THE MAN AT THE COUNTER WOULD NOT BUDGE! (meanwhile we and about 15 other people are waiting at the church to see their wedding) and then the man at the counter was like...."you can go to the norwalk courthouse.." so they hurried and drove to the norwalk courthouse, and right when they got there, everyone was walking out because it had just closed. (darn you satan!)

They are getting married right after I finish emailing today and we are sooo excited for that too! And the plan is that they are going to get baptized this next Sunday! They are so ready and can already see the blessings of this gospel in their life.

If we earnestly appeal to God, he takes us as we are and makes us more than we ever imagined.

~Sister Neill F. Marriott

Sorry for the short email but these computers are not the best. I had a better email written and then it deleted it all so there is that! haha :)I will work on writing a better email next week I promise!

I hope you all have a great week and don't forget to pray :)

Love, Hermana McMinn

Week 10: Roller Coaster of Emotions

I am a child of God, therefore what?

Because you are HIS child you not only need Him, but He needs you!

~ Sister Rosemary Wixom

Another great week in Gardena, California that has very bi polar weather but it is fine! Last Sunday I was freezing and needed a cardigan (it was only 72 degrees.  I am already turning into a baby.. winters in Pocatello are not looking great!) and then towards the end of the week it was 100 degrees every single day.  I am constantly sweating and I have some pretty sweet tan lines so that is tons of fun!!  And this week I got to see the ocean!  I was a few miles away but still seeing the ocean calmed be down a ton after a crazy day!

So.. I don't know if I have said this before or not but missions are an emotional rollercoaster.  And this  week has been a really crazy ride.  The week started really low but then ended up with a really huge high!!  So to begin.. the beginning of this week Spanish was really frustrating me.  I can't talk as well as I would like to and I was losing my patience.  We also found out that Georgina, one of our amazing investigators, has a coffee problem so she can't be baptized at the end of this week.  The stress here is real.  We figured everything out with marriage for them but they are struggling with wanting to be married.  We tried so hard explain to them the importance but they just weren't understanding.  

We decided to give them a few days and challenged her to not drink coffee then we would come back and visit them and have a little talk.  We prayed a TON for them and just went about talking to other amazing people and having some awesome conversations.  We had the feeling that we needed to talk to them about repentence and forgiveness and it was an amazing lesson.  Turns out that they had some things that they needed to take care of and needed to forgive each other of and so we left it at that again and gave them some space.  Then the bishop went and talked to them. They asked when they could go and get their marriage license and go get married!!!! We are having a wedding this week people!! I am soo excited for them! They are soo ready to be baptized and to make changes in their lives.  They love this gospel so much.  We really are not doing anything to motivate them. They are making changes all on their own.  They have such a strong testimony. We are here finding the elect and God is preparing His people!!  And even better... Georgina has not drank coffee for 5 days! She is doing so awesome!  There baptism is still going to be pushed until next week but we feel that is the best thing for them anyway!  

I love this gospel so much and I love the opportunity I have to share it with others.  One of my favorite scriptures that I found is in Alma 26 verses 29-30. 

 29 And we have entered into their houses and taught them, and we have taught them in their streets; yea, and we have taught them upon their hills; and we have also entered into their temples and their synagogues and taught them; and we have been cast out, and mocked, and spit upon, and smote upon our cheeks; and we have been stoned, and taken and bound with strong cords, and cast into prison; and through the power and wisdom of God we have been delivered again.

30 And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some.

This week we had a ton of doors slammed in our faces but then we have moments like this with Ignacio and Georgina that makes a mission so worth it!

I love you all so much and loved getting letters this week! I hope you all have a great week!

Love, Hermana McMinn

And I think she misses her family:

Taryn is such a nut.  The more I am away from her the more I want to be around her. hahahah

If you have a minute and would like to send her a note I am sure that it would brighten her day! We are so proud of her. 

Week 9: Come Listen to the Prophet's Voice

Hey family and friends!!

What an awesome opportunity we had to listen to the voice of the prophet of God and His apostles this weekend!!  We are so lucky to get to hear to words of Christ.  This General Conference was sooo good!!  I loved President Monson's talk about being an example.  That really is the best way that we can all be missionaries is by doing what is right at all times not just because people are watching but because it is what we should be doing.  But the thing is... people will see you doing what is right and they will see a  special light about you and want to know what is different.  We have the light of Christ in us when we are doing what we are supposed to!  I can't wait to read the talks again in the Ensign.  All of the talks were amazing and the 3 new apostles are going to be so awesome!  I could feel the Spirit so strong when they were called and while they were talking.  It is so cool to know that they are called of God!

As we make Christ the center of our lives, our fears will be replaced by the courage of our convictions.

~President Thomas S. Monson

So Ignacio and Georgina are getting married!! We just need to pick a date and it is a done deal.  I am so excited for them because once that happens the next step will be baptism.  They are so awesome and are so willing to do exactly what they need to do to follow Christ more.  They are such awesome examples!  They are basically my family here.

I don't have much time today but I just am so glad that I get to be here serving a mission and being an instrument for my Savior.  I love talking to people everyday and brightening their day... even when they aren't very nice to us! haha :)  I love it here in Cali!!

Have an awesome week and don't forget to pray and read your scriptures! haha :)

Love,

Hermana McMinn