Be converted :D

Well, as for this past week, it's been crazy! We had so much going on that I can't remember everything! But training has definitely been such a great blessing! Me and my companion are seeing many miracles every day and even though she's tiny (or I'm just big lol), she's a big spiritual giant! I wish that I would be able to see the rest of her mission, but I know that she's going to continue to be an amazing missionary :D being here in Nuevo Amanacer (our area) with her, we've been able to work a lot with the members and to get to know a lot of people. I can only hope that I'm preparing her good for the rest of her mission ...

On Friday, we had a mission tour and Elder Cornish of the seventy was here to visit us. He spoke to us about baptizing everyone and helping them come unto christ. What really caught my attention was when he said "we don't want more baptizms; we want more conversions!" He focused a lot on the importance of baptizing everyone, but at the same time having them be converted to the gospel. It was a very spiritual day that day, to say the least. And my invitation to all of you would be to not just be members of the church of Christ, but to be converted members, doing always what the Lord wants us to do. 

Love you all so much! Thank you for all of the love and support that you have given me! Have a good week!

Love, aloha, y amor, 

Hermana Ho

Because I'm Happy!! :D

Yups, you know that song!!  This past week was my first week training and it has been wonderful! My companion is Hermana Monjarás from el Salvador. She´s so cute! I´ll send some pics! But she is amazing. She´s kinda like me ... and people have said that we look alike ... I think it´s those Filipino features, ya know? hahaha but wow, I´ve been able to learn so much from her and I can only hope that I give her the best start to her mission that she deserves... but yes, we are also whitewashing here in an area that´s called Nuevo Amanecer. It´s a branch that is almost a ward and the missionaries before us established really strong member and missionary relationships, so when me and my comp came, there was a ton of support! And there's like a missionary work fever here! A ton of people want to have us over or to leave with us! It´s like heaven for a missionary! And this week, me and my comp have seen a ton of miracles. For example, in the other three times that I´ve whitewashed, I have never found so many families as I have had here in this area, nor have we had so much success in week 1 as we did this week! It´s truly been amazing. Idk what we´re doing, but the Lord has truly blessed us, and hopefully through our efforts, has blessed those we´ve talked to and visited. Seriously, idk how these things happened, but they´ve happened! We´ve gotten to know a lot of the members (and it hasn´t even been a week yet), we´ve got family home evenings to go to, we´ve got a ton of new investigators, and we´ve even got some references, new appointments, and i just know that things are going to keep moving forward. I know that the hard things are just around the corner, but I also know that me and my comp are going to be seeing many miracles. I´m stoked to be here! And finally, when I feel like I finally know enough to be an effective missionary, imma gonna leave. But that means I get to push push push and run those last 100m of the race, even though it´s the hardest, it´s what I´ve worked for.

I think what I want to invite you all to do is look for the miracles in this week. It´s turkey week, and thanksgiving week, and we all have a ton to be thankful for. So during this week, amongst the eating and the celebrating, I invite you all to take some time to recognize, during each day, the miracles that the Lord has blessed you with. Then, truly be thankful :D 

Love you all and take care! Thanks for everything you´ve all done for me!! Enjoy the food and family!! :D Happy Thanksgiving!!

Love, aloha, y amor,

Hermana Ho

Me and my daughter, Hermana Monjarás.

me and hermana Nazaire with our daughters (yes, her first time training too)

us with president and Hermana Corbitt

us ;D I love her so much!

It's a girl!! :D

Guys, before I write anything else... just want to let you know... I'm TRAINING!!! I'm stoked! For those who don't know what that means, it means my companion for this upcoming transfer (aka. begininng tomorrow) is a newbie!! Greenie!! I'm so excited and so nervous, and I only have one transfer to make sure that I give her all I got!! We will also be whitewashing, which will be fun and which I like doing :D aka. we'll be starting fresh in a new area that I don't know anything about! It's called Nueva Almanecer. Okay, now that that's out ...

As for the investigators, everyone is doing okay. it was a really wierd week because all of the investigators that we had, their appointments fell through and they weren't home or didn't answer the phone. But, I do want to share some cool spiritual experiences that happened, even though all those things fell through. So we had a leaders meeting in which President Corbitt talked about faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and how we have faith in the blessings that have been promised to us as missionaries and, using this faith and knowledge of the blessings, how we can help our investigators see themselves as though they had already been saved. It's like in Jarom 1:11, where the prophet Jarom is speaking as though Christ had already come, when in that time, it was about 400 years or so before his birth. So, applying this to the mission (I hope you follow), President Corbitt explained the great faith that Jarom had, that we missionaries need to have, to see our investigators as if they had already been saved, as if they had already gone to the temple. It was such a spiritual meeting and the spirit was testifying to us the reality of these things. 

So that night, after the meeting, me and my companion when contacting, knocking on doors. And we applied what we had learned into talking to these people, seeing them as if they had already been baptized... and one of them has a baptism date! It truly is amazing how the Lord works through us missionaries, as though He literally is speaking through us, or right there with us. And it's an experience that I want to repeat over and over again :) Since I'm leaving this area, Gascue, to go to another area, I've looked back and have been able to see the many changes that have been made here, and I'm so grateful to have been a part of this marvelous work and wonder. I hope that I'm still able to help my investigators that are here, even though I'm going. And I realize just how many good friends and family that I've made here in these past 5-6 months. 

Well, that's about it for this week. Thank you all for all that you do for me and for your love, prayers and support. Wish you all the best for these upcoming days!! Love ya!

Love, aloha y amor,

Hermana Ho

El fin esta cerca y hay poco tiempo

So , theres a song in spanish that talks about the how the end is drawing near and there's not enough time... yeah i think that describes my week.  Wow, okay, idk where to even start... seriously, the days just fly and idk where they go anymore! well, we finally got in contact with the jimenez family and they are doing good. It's still kinda slow with their progression, but they need a small push to keep on going. We're trying to work on that. But they are still amazing :D I love them so much and they want to take me to see Brother Jimenez's baseball team play before I go home!! haha they are sweet. everyone else is doing okay... it's kinda been a little slow with the spiritual progression with our investigators, and a lot of that is due to the fact that they aren't home when we pass by. But it's okay :) 

This week has basically been filled with a lot of contacting. Just knocking on doors and trying to find people to teach. We've been blessed with a lot of rain here this week too ... and lots of wet socks!! hahaha but its truly been a blessing. It tests your faith to see if you'll step out there to find people. And I can truly testify that we have been blessed for these efforts! We were able to find a lady, Rosario, who said that she had had missionaries teach her before. We talked with her a little and it seems like she was really open to listening again. The spirit directed us to ask if she would be baptized on Dec 19th and she said yes! So that was a miracle in and of itself! We just had to walk in the rain for a little bit and put our faith in the Lord and we were blessed to find this wonderful woman! We really don't know who is prepared until we put our faith and actions into the work!

Other things that have happened is that we are strengthening our relationships with the ward and are working on getting to know them even more. We've been trying to have FHEs with the families and have been inviting a greater variety of people to leave with us and we have seen the fruits of our labors! it doesn't come immediately, but it's amazing how much the Lord has blessed our missionary efforts when the members and missionaries work together. 

So with that being said, I want to invite you all to leave with the missionaries this week or to invite them into the house. I know that we are all busy and have a lot of things to do, but the missionaries understand. All they want is a little of our time to help out our wards. :D And I know that we will be blessed to when we help them, maybe in ways that we can't see. 

Thank you all for all you do and for your love and support! Love you all!!

Love, aloha, y amor, 

Hermana Ho

Me and the sisters I lived with. we decided to do a family photo shoot and the pics turned out pretty nice :D

Sahony's baptism! It also happened to be combined with one of my old investigators' baptism, Shyna. the two girls got along great :D and yes, I made leis for them :D theres also Sahony and her brother that baptized her.

some things never change ... 

We decorated cupcakes (thanks to a cupcake package we got :D) for Halloween ... than I might've started a mini war ... woops! 

And Me and sister Allen "celebrated" our 16 month day. 

Sunrise here :D

yups, I'm still stealing food :D 

Service project! The way we clean in the dr ... just throw water on the walls and mop it up after and then we're all good :D

Opportunities in Opposition

Aw man i´m sorry to hear about that dad.... that's kinda junk... but wow, what a spiritual experience that you all had! I'm glad you guys looked for the opportunities in the opposition. It's something that our mission is doing too, because we are seeing much opposition. So we've been trying to look for opportunities, and it looks like you guys are doing it too! And in the long run, yeah it all works out :D I'm so grateful for you guys and for the positive attitudes you have in the opposition! 

Hahahaha anyway, this week has been great and super fun. It has definitely been a spiritually strengthening week. We haven't had too much success with the numbers part, buuut the things that matter most are the things that we sometimes can't part numbers too. For example, I pretty much met willie wonka this week! We had the impression to go and visit a member who lives with her sister and her sister's husband and well, he's willie wonka! We went there and the member wasn't home, but we introduced ourselves to the couple (nonmembers) and then we found out that he's from CHile and what does he do for his job? Make new chocolate flavors. It was revelation that we received to be there at that moment to meet Willie wonka! we even got to try some of his chocolate!! haha jk jk, but he had to leave after a while, so we shared a little with the sister and that was the perfect moment. She was worried because her sister is going on a mission to the U.S., just dropping everything and going, so she (as a nonmember) didn't understand. So we explained our purpose and let her know that everything would be okay. It was revelation that we received to be there at that moment to help her. 

Also, I had the blessing of doing an exchange with a sister that I live with, Hermana Ferman. She was super sweet and she really truly taught me a lot. She is a new sister in the mission (she's only been out for 4 weeks), but she's been learning fast. It truly has been a blessing to live with her and to see her love for the missionary work be demonstrated through the way that she teaches the people here. 

Well, other updates: Sahony got baptized!! Yay! She's been waiting for a long time and she was super nervous but she was baptized! Also, we combined baptisms with our district leader (who’s working in my old area, in Via Francisca) and Shyna (don't know if you remember her), another young woman, got baptized with Sahony! It was cute because the two were both super nervous, but their baptisms were great and I think the program went really well. Sahony's older brother, Samiel, was also super nervous to baptize her. She had to be baptized a couple times because he didn't say the prayer right, but both of them came out smiling and shining. It was amazing and a beautiful experience, especially because the families were there! I'll send pics next week, that's a promise, because I forgot my hookup. 

Mireya is also doing good. I haven't seen her in a while because of the exchange we did this week, but she's getting there, little by little. We asked  a member if she would be willing to take care of the aunt of Mireya one Sunday so that Mireya could go to church. So we'll see how it goes. As for the two families, the Jimenez and Guzman families, we've tried visiting them a couple times but they haven't been home ... it's been weird. but we're working on it. We're trying to look for more investigators, and it's been kinda hard. But what we did this past week was have a "semana santa" or a "holy week." in other words, all of us sisters in the house have tried our best to be more spiritual in the house, more obedient, more on time, etc. Just better missionaries, with hopes that the Lord will bless our efforts in finding people. It's not easy to find people in this area, but we have high hopes. And we were rewarded with a very spiritual fast and testimony meeting yesterday. the spirit was so strong and there were a few people crying. Cifrida, during sacrament meeting, turned to me at one point, and said "hey, you and me, let's go!" I was already thinking of sharing my testimony, so when she said that I said "sure!" and she shared her testimony for the first time. She said she has never felt so much peace for a long time and was so grateful for the gospel. It was beautiful! And yes, I might've been a little teary eyed. hahaha

But, it's been a good week! And it's been hard, but good to look for the opportunities in the opposition. I invite all you to look for these opportunities too. When something goes wrong or doesn't work out, look for the opportunity that God has given you to do something different or new, to learn or to serve. And I testify that if you do this for at least a week, you'll see just how blessed you are everyday. I love you all and thank you for everything you all do! Have a great week!

Love, aloha, y amor,

Hermana Ho

Just a few pics of me and the sisters I live with :)  Enjoy!

 Me and my comp, Hermana Anderson!