Time Flies When Things in the House Go Good :)

Well, for this week, yes I did the week of consecration. Some days I felt like I consecrated a ton, others not enough. But during this week, it was a reminder of what the true meaning of charity and service is. Putting others before yourself, putting the will of the Lord before yours. We also did a secret sister thing and served one of the sisters that we lived with for the week. It was a big eye opener that helped me to see and recognize what other people do to consecrate themselves and their lives. And like you said mom, it helped me to realize that I need to thank others more for what they do, to be more grateful. 

As for this week, it just flew by too fast! Saohny didn't get baptized this week. I'll explain why. On Monday, we had a family home evening with a family in the ward, and when we mentioned Saohny's baptism, they asked why her brother wasn't going to baptize her (he just reactivated with me and Hermana Maltos and so was a Deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood even though he is 17 years old). So we talked with bishop about it and arranged it so that he could get the priesthood to baptize his sister. THe only thing with that was that he had to be sustained in church by the members in order for it to be valid. So, the baptize is postponed until this week Friday, which actually works out better because the mom has more time to try and get off of work. So her baptism is actually this week! As for Mireya, she's still doing good. She is now working on not drinking coffee for 3 days (she choose the 3 days) and she's doing really great! She loved the lesson that we had on the law of chastity and was totally in agreeance with everything we said. We also had a very spiritual lesson with a family, the Guzman family (the one where the sons came to church by themselves) and they accepted a baptism invitation! We were stoked! And they have really high family values, so we're hoping to just guide them to the truth in order to continue having these values. And the Jimenez family is doing good too. They've kinda been a little sick so we haven't been able to teach too much. But they are so awesome and I hope I'm here to see them baptized. 

These past few weeks have been jam packed with fun, smiles, laughs, hard work, and many miracles. If I could write every single miracle that happened, I'd be here for hours, days, trying to tell you everything! But I think a lot has been thanks to the sisters that I live with and also to my wonderful companion (still gotta send pics of us ... next week! we took "family pictures/Christmas pictures" together and there were a few cute ones that I like a lot, btws). But really, I testify that if the house is strong, the work is stronger and so is the spirit. I feel like we are unified, the six of us here and because of that, we have seen many spiritual moments that have passed this week. It truly is a blessing to be living here with these 5 girls. I encourage and invite you all to see what you can do to improve the unity in your homes this week. Because I can assure you that if you all are more united, everything just falls into place and so many miracles happen. 

Well, that's about all for now. Love you all and thanks for your love and prayers! Have a great week!

Love, aloha, y amor,

Hermana Ho

Happy Days :D

Hola!! Thanks for your emails and for the words of encouragment and advice! i loved all of it! 

As for what's going on over there,  I testify to that too, that if we put our faith in the Lord, and do what we can, it will all work out :) These weeks I've been setting better goals (well, working on setting better goals and completing them) to be able to improve in certain things. This week, I've chosen to live the law of consecration. Idk if you guys have heard of the talk "the Fourth Missionary" but that goal is based off of this talk. I've really learned the importance of goal setting, goal keeping, and goal completing these past couple weeks, and have set goals that I hope will help me become a better missionary. This week I planned to live the law of consecration, to not count the cost it takes to do something. For example, when we teach someone, all that person sees is the lesson that is being presented. What they don't see is the hours of experience and studying put into those 30 minutes, the prayers, the practices, the nerves, the energy to walk to their house, the things done to be worthy to have the spirit. And it's the same with all of us. But when we are in the work of the Lord, or even doing something that we know is right, we shouldn't look at how much it cost us to get the result, but rather we should look at the blessings that followed. It's a goal that I have to work on, and to learn. So, with these goals that we set, and with our faith in the Lord, and with doing our part, I know that everything will be okay mom. :D Thanks for all that you do! You and dad truly are a gift from the heavens.

So, quick update on the mission life before I leave: Mireya is doing okay. She's trying and I think that's what counts the most. Saohny is going to get baptized this Saturday! I'm so excited for her! She's been waiting fo rthis moment for a long time and I'm glad that it's finally come :) We are going to be taking a family to the temple this week too, the familia Jimenez and I'm excited for them to see the temple up close and be able to have a different spirit in the lesson. As for living with five other sisters ... there's never a dull moment :D hahaha I love them all so much! Next week, one will be leaving because her visa is ready and she will continue serving her mission in Mexico. And we will get another missionary that will join our group. But it truly is a blessing to live with these girls, even if only for a small moment. And my comp is awesome!! Hahaha we've had so much fun together and I feel like she's my other half ... idk where she's been this whole time lol! But, that's about it for me. There's been tons of smiles and tons of laughs, thanks to these 5 sisters and it's gonna be hard to leave them. But, gotta make the most of it now! 

Thanks for all your love and support, your prayers and your words of advice. I love you all and take care!!

Love, aloha, y amor,

Hermana Ho

Let’s go crazy crazy crazy ‘til we see the sun!

Wow! Sounds like and looks like everything is going good! Thanks for the emails and also for the updates :D And I'm glad that the missionaries are getting to know the ward members! that's key from what I found out here. Just a little from the missionary's perspective, as missionary's we're here to strengthen the families in our ward too and to serve them in whatever way that we can. So what did you guys learn from the two missionaries from their little visit? and if you ever need them to serve you guys in any way, call them! To build the wall that we have, I'm sure they'd be more than happy to do it (it's a struggle to find people willing to let us serve them, even if it's just the dishes they don't let us!! lol). 

But hey! Yeah, everything is going good! Man, this was a long week, but a fast one. It's one of those times in the mission where I just think "wow, this sucks" because I just know this time is going to fly now. It's gonna be a crazy transfer!! Thus, the title of this email. And plus, it's stinkin hot and I'm dying. But that's besides the point. so, update on life... we have 6 sisters in one house! crazy huh? One sister is new in the mission field, one is waiting for her visa to go to Mexico to serve her mission. Another one has the same amount of time as me in the mission. And the other is training the newbie. And then there's me and my comp :D Hermana Anderson is amazing!! She's from Utah and for this time, she is my companion. She reminds me of mom: just creative, full of ideas, always happy, always positive, and just gets along with everyone!! I was stoked to get her as my companion and I'm looking forward to these transfers with her (I hope I have my last transfer with her too!!). We had to adjust and organize and rearrange the house to fit 6 comfortably, so we were living in clutter for a while, but all is well now and we have divided the area to be able to accommodate 6 sisters :D It's super fun!! 

As for the missionary work, because we divided the areas differently than before, some things have changed. But I just feel pumped up for these next months and so excited to help people change. idk what it is really ... something is different, but I like it! Cifrida got confrimed this past Sunday and we are going to work with her to go to the temple!! She's so great and is working with one of our other investigator's to get her to church too! As for Mireya, we're working slowly but surely with her. She's set aside 2 days now to not drink coffee and she's been following it!! We're just having problems teaching her about how God, Jesus, And the Holy Ghost are 3 separate beings ... any suggestions? The Fam. Jimenez is also doing good. Idk if I told you guys about them, but they are a couple, who has a son in the mission in Mexico. They know that the church is true and they want to be baptized, but they don't want to be pressured into it ... and he says that he wants to dedicate all the time to the church, but that includes going to church ... but he coaches baseball. So we are working on helping them realize the necessity to go to church and are going to have a little "temple tour" with them one day. We'll see if it helps. We also visited the Family Guzman, a family of four. They are doing okay ... we have small problems in the family that we need to work out... but I think they have a lot of potential. We'll see how it goes. 

One thing that I've learned this week is to just talk to the people you know. Sometimes in church or in classes or in our homes, we pass up opportunities or take advantage of the opportunities we have to talk to other people. because we think they'll always be there or we know enough about them. But there's always something new to learn about them, and Hermana Anderson has been a great example to help me realize this. Even though I have 3 months in the ward, I still haven't talked to some people for certain reasons. Or living in the same house, I could do better with talking to the sisters I live with. So, this week I invite you not only to talk to someone new, but also to someone that you see every day, whether it's someone you live with, someone in church, someone in school, talk to them and show your love for them. And I can promise you that you'll learn something new :)

Well, love you all and take care! Love every moment, live it up, and don't be afraid to take the lead :D 

Love, aloha, y amor,

Hermana Ho

P.S. Mom and family, thanks for the package! I loved it and us sisters have been enjoying the chocolates and candies maybe a little too much ... :DThanks so much!!

Conference Time!

Hey thanks for the emails and the updates on what's going on! Wow! So conference was really good! I loved it so much! It was the highlight of the week :) And I really liked the testimonies of the 3 new apostles. I'm pretty sure we've seen them talk in conference before, right? But yeah, President Monson was so good and I'm so grateful he was able to stand before us to speak today. One of the elders commented that one time, he was supposed to go and have an important meeting with President Obama, but instead, he sent his 2 counselors to meet with him. President Obama them were wondering why President Monson didn't go, and he said that he was saving up his energy to speak in conference. I heard that from an elder, idk if it's true. and I think it was for last conference. But it was so good! Some of the talks that I liked were the ones about the roles and influences that women have on others (elder Hales?), the one about mothers (elder Holland), and Elder Bednar's talk. And also the Japanese guy. Those were the ones that stuck out to me most. 

Anyway, this week we have been focusing on trying to get people to conference. We've invited everyone that we've come in contact with, in every lesson we invited people, we even passed by everyone's house that we knew of to walk with them to the chapel or to set it up on their computers. And guess how many people came?! Zero! It was kinda disappointing ... After all, people had told us they'd come at this time or at this time (even more so because it wasn't so early in the morning!) ... and no one came. It wasn't so disappointing as much as sad. It was just sad. But on Sunday night, we went to visit a family that we are teaching. they are the Familia Jimenez and have been investigators for a long time and their oldest son is on a mission. And when we shared about the conference with them, the husband got up, looked for his computer, sat down, and looked up the session. Then, one of his other sons walks in (he's never been in a lesson with us) and I invited him to join us. And he did! willingly! No excuses or anything! And he was recalling memories of the church or experiences they had, for example, the hymnbook that they had in the house that he put stickers on or the elders and sisters that visited them. He even set up the general conference on their sound system so they could listen to it. We hadn't really planned what to teach them (all our appointments fell and this family came to our head), so when the husband and wife were excited to watch the conference and hear the prophet speak, we were down! And it was really good. We weren't able to watch everything with them, but we got them started and then left. So, goes to show that every effort to invite people to watch conference isn't wasted. The Lord has a funny way of seeing if we endure to the end. When, after all we can do and after all we've done, we'll still push forward because in the end, it's all worth it. And this family made our efforts worth it.

As for Mireya, we tried to help her set up conference on her computer, but didn't work out. But she's doing great! Saohny is also preparing to be baptized and is doing good too. The work is pushing forward. And , just so you guys know, transfers are here! I'm staying in my area, and my sister, Hermana Maltos is leaving. I know, it's sad ... but the Lord has other plans for us ... It might be a crazy transfer. I'm going to stay as a sister training Leader and my new companion will be Hermana Anderson, who was trained by Hermana maltos! She's super sweet and I'm stoked to be with her! She will be a new sister training leader with me, and, instead of 4 sisters only in our house, we will have 6!! Yes, it's gonna be crazy, but it's gonna be fun hahaha I'm excited to see what the Lord has in store this transfer. 

thank you all for your love and support! I hope that you were all able to learn something new, and are able to apply it into your life. If not, I invite you all to look up a talk from conference, one that interests you and to follow the voice of the lord through his general authorities. I know that when we listen and follow their voices, the Lord not only blesses us, but strengthens us and those around us. Love you all and have a great week!

Love, aloha, y amor,

Hermana Ho

Cifrida's baptism! This is us and her, and her family...

 and us four missionaries (we were in the stake choir and sang at this special event. We also we asked to sing an extra song that we didkn't know we were going to sing ... they just announced it ... mom, you know how that is hahahaha).

Me and my comp

Us eating in a chinese restaurant

And our zone

Our last zone meeting. Us and our house. Hermana Jensen (the american) leaves to go home tomorrow. She finishes her mission. And Hermana Maltos leaves to go to the country side of our mission!!