Enduring Trials Well

   I am writing this while the majority of you are skiing which makes me slightly jealous...but then I remember that I am serving a mission for the Lord and my life gets TONS better! :) Besides, I'll go boarding next year and forever-just like my grandparents :) but I only get this opportunity to serve the Lord to my fullest capacity!

     This week was really great! You remember Victor? The son of the lady who is recently returning to church? Well, we went over to his house last Monday night to start teaching him and before we could say anything he asked us when he could be baptized! He said he wanted to do it sooner than later. So, he has a date for February 1st. HOLLA! It's not set in stone yet, but it's looking like we are going to have ourselves a baptism in Rama 7. He is 11 and really hasn't heard much about the gospel before so we have to make sure that we teach to his understanding, but make sure that we cover all of the important material. We also have to do it within 15-20 minutes because his attention span is about as long as my left leg (which we all know is pretty short...) He's SUPER shy! When we first met him I was worried he was going to run into the back room and hide, but now he comes out and says hi to us every time we come over. He reads from the Book of Mormon with his mom every night and he prays with her too. When he said his first prayer out loud it was so precious. It is so amazing to hear people pray for the first time because you know that everything that they say is sincere and straight from the heart :)

    Another fun story, you remember that lady that I was terrified that I offended out of the church a couple of weeks ago? Well, she came to church yesterday and stayed for all 3 hours! She has also been coming to activities. I am SO relieved and also very excited for her! She looked so happy and I looked at her while I was leading the music in Sociedad de Socorro and we were singing Asombro me da aka I Stand All Amazed and she was tearing up. I could tell that she was feeling the spirit and she knew she was where the Lord wanted her to be. The best part: her daughter is getting married in May. I'm not saying it's a sure thing, but I'm hoping that she will keep feeling that spirit pulling her back to church and be able to go inside to see her daughter sealed for time and all eternity! Isn't this gospel fantastic!?

     So, I had an experience this weekend that I thought was pretty neat. We as a district went to help out a man in our ward. He had just bought and old, broken-down house that he wants to fix up and sell. We went over to help him clear up the yard so that he can get that clean and then start gutting the house. Well, I was moving some boards with one of the elders and there were a lot of holes out back. I stepped in one and rolled my ankle something pretty nasty. I heard the "pop" and everything. It hurt, but I got back up and just walked it off. Later that night, though, I was not loving my life. I was all but hopping to get around places and walking up and down stairs was worse than scaling the Tetons! After a good night's rest I was able to walk on it just fine so todo esta bien. I was thinking while I was in sacrament meeting how I could apply that to a gospel principle. This is what I came up with: sometimes, bad things happen and we draw the short straw. I was doing nothing wrong. For heaven's sake, I'm on a MISSION! And I was doing service to boot! However, I stepped in a hole and really hurt myself. Sometimes, even when we are doing everything right, bad things happen. Life is not always fair. And, we may not understand why we have to go through this. One thing I learned from the experience was how to appreciate another missionary here in Sacramento. I also had to learn a little humility because my companion had to wait for me everywhere we went (it's usually the other way around). And now, I'm fine. Sometimes we have to go through things for no other reason than to test our faith in God. However, if we endure our trials well, he has promised us a reward far greater than our comprehension!

     I thank you for the love and support from each one of you. I can feel your love and prayers every day. I know that the Lord is blessing me and you in ways that none of us can even see yet! I love this gospel so much and I am so blessed to be able to share it with people here!

Love always, Hermana Freestone

1. Service

2. my bvonita tobillo!

3. for greater effect...

No Unhallowed Hand Can Stop The Work From Progressing

This week we had a lot of people just miraculously pop out of nowhere-which is good because we've dropped most of our investigators. Most of our good ones came from members...but in the English wards. Whoda thought? One was a sheer miracle. We were planning the night before and I really wanted to go and track a certain street. We went there the next day and knocked on a door. No one answered, but there was this little boy that rode up on his bike and was like, "Are you LDS?" We said yes and he said that he was too and that he lived just down the street. He took us to his house and we met his mom. We talked for a little bit and asked if she knew if he neighbors that spoke Spanish. She said she did but didn't really know her. Then came the surprise: she said, "But if you let me change I will go and knock on the door with you and we can try to set up an appointment?" How great is that?! Here is this lady, who doesn't know her neighbor (it's like that in Cali...not everyone knows all of their neighbors and their life story) and doesn't really speak her language, but is willing to go over and talk with her anyway. I totally want to be that cool when I'm home. We went over and Amanda (the member) knocked on the door and told the lady that she had a little boy around the same age as her son and wanted to know if they wanted to play. And then she was all, "Oh! And here are my friends from the church and they speak Spanish." We got a return for tomorrow. YEAH!!! 

     Oscar and Elizabeth, the referrals from the other English members, are so great! We had an appointment scheduled with them for Saturday, but all of their kids got sick, so it didn't work. But, "no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing" so we will keep it going!

     I just want to testify of the power of members helping us out! We have this less-active who hasn't been to church for almost 20 years and it is time to come back. We decided to bring Hna Vasquez, the RS president with us. Well, all of this lady's family was there with us and we had discussed sharing Moroni 6:4-6 with her. And I've shared it with her before, but it didn't really take effect. It came time to share the scripture and I just had this sheer wave of terror come over me. It wasn't a "don't share this" kind of terror, it was more of an "oh no I know I am going to offend her if I share this" terror. I hesitated and racked my brain for any other good scripture to share. Never in my entire life have I ever forgotten everything. I couldn't remember a single scripture reference or anything of that nature. So I shared it. I trembled through every word. I looked up at the end...if looks could kill this lady would have murdered me 1000 times over. Then, the RS president saved me! Long story short: this lady came to an activity on Wednesday and is coming to church next week :) Bold with love...is the scariest thing to do!

    Well, I love you all so much. The mission is pushing me to my limits. I sang a solo in the activity on Wednesday...I would compare the terror to state soccer. But, I made it :) I AM THE MASTER AND COMMANDER! I learn new things from my companion every day and there is always something new to gain from reading the scriptures. Family, keep being classy! 

Love always, Hermana Freestone

Baby Pics HAPPY NINE MONTHS!

I Absolutely LOVE What I'm Doing!

   Who's got two thumbs and is glad the holidays are over? THIS GIRL! This last week has been quite slow. Every appointment except for one cancelled on us and none of our potentials were home so I finally broke down and went tracting for the first time in 5 months. Yeah, my stalking skills were a little rusty, but I'm back at the top of my game. One day I will be as good as Hermana Marroquin and be able to smell Hispanic houses :) JA! But we actually found a couple of good potentials and got a few returns-which a miracle in and of itself when you are tracting. And last night we received a referral from an English member who has some Hispanic neighbors that he has been working with for a while. I guess he has invited them to the Halloween activity and the Christmas activity in his ward and he gave them a Libro de Mormon and todo eso...he had finally been gracious enough to decide that the missionaries should be involved :) We have an appointment tomorrow with them. 

     Wendy and Ashley came to church yesterday which was great because we haven't seen them in a long time! Unfortunately, they have moved out of our boundaries. I have no problem handing them off to the Elk Grove Hermanas, I'm just not sure if Wendy and Ashley will be willing to go to another branch. We are also going to see them tomorrow. Just pray for us!

     Really, that is about the only exciting thing to report. However, after the car accident I think I will just count my many blessings :) We have been working a lot with the branch to try and get the members really excited for missionary work in 2014. Lots of good things are in the making.

     So, I was reading in an old Ensign the other day and I read this article by Elder Uchtdorf called Always In The Middle. I found it very fitting as I will hit my nine month mark this Friday. You should read it (just click on the link). It has a lot of good things for missionaries as well as for every day life.

    I just want to let you know that I absolutely LOVE what I am doing! I wouldn't trade it for the world. I know I am missing a few things at home, but it is nothing in comparison to how Heavenly Father will bless me and you all. I love this gospel and am so grateful to have it in my life. I have a firm testimony that my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ know me and love me more than you or I could ever imagine! I have felt that love time and time again on my mission. It is through the Atonement that we can be truly happy in life. Though life is hard-for some worse than others-I know that our pain will be nothing compared to the joy that we can receive through our faithfulness. I love you all and am so happy that my family is an eternal one! Thank you for your prayers. I can feel your love. :)

     Keep staying classy and remember that the Church is true and the book is blue :)

Love SIEMPRE, 

            Hermana Freestone

    

P.S. Colossians 2:5 <3

we helped at a wedding, i got play with fire... i guess you could say i was "Catching Fire"

Feliz Navidad Y Ano Nuevo

FAMILIA!

     FELIZ NAVIDAD Y FELIZ ANO NUEVO!!! It was so amazing to talk to you last week. That is why I never wrote an e-mail. So, Christmas Eve we tried to go out an do some contacting for the 4 hours of proselyting that we had, but I found out that Hispanics celebrate Christmas on the 24th and it all went downhill from there. We decided to just go caroling to the less-actives. Much better use of our time. We ate dinner with the Beus's and then we went to a lady named Marisela's house to sing for her Nino Jesus. It was very different. They had a huge Nativity set up and while we sand they had this little Nino Jesus that they put in a little white cloth and rocked him back and forth. Then, before we left, we had to kiss him on the head before they placed him in the nativity. It was something different than usual, but I will never forget it. The spirit was so strong!

     Chirstmas was amazing! Hna Gigger and I managed to actually wait until Christmas to open all of our packages. Our apartment was a mess! I would like to thank everyone for the insane amount of candy you sent! I think I am set for the rest of my mission :) Really though, I felt so blessed. A mission is a hard place to be during the holidays, but you all made it very special. We went to the Lesley's for breakfast...and so did hallf of the neighborhood. It was a blast! Then, the moment I'd been waiting for! SKYPE! I love technology. God bless America :) We stayed at Sister Lesley's until 5 and then we got cleaned up and went to President Martinez's house for dinner. It was a very special experience. We sand songs, ate dinner, and read the Bible about the birth of Jesus Christ. It was something I will never forget.

     Last night we just hung out as a zone. President didn't want us out with all of the party people so we had our own party. I annihilated Elder Sierra in Foosball (his pride is still just a little hurt). I only mention this because he'd been going on all day about his skills and then he was telling everyone to "bring it on." Pride cometh before the fall :) We watched 17 Miracles after that I, of course, bawled like a baby. A mission really makes you emotional! I did NOT stay up until 12. Sleep is way too precious here! I can't believe it's 2014!

     We've added a couple of new people to teach in the last couple of weeks. However, no one really wants us to come over during the holidays so the work has been really slow. I'm excited for everything to be over so we can get back to work. Carlos went out of town, but he gets back tomorrow. Jose is back from San Francisco and we had an appointment with him, but he wasn't there. I was super bummed! Everyone else has pretty much just left for the holidays. I went tracting for the first time in 5 months last week. It was actually nice to get out of the car!

     Oh yeah! I forgot to mention that we got in an accident. My second day driving, Hna Gigger and I got rear-ended. The car is totalled. We are fine. Aside from some sore necks and backs for a couple of days there was really no damage to us. The Lord truly is watching out for His missionaries! :)

     Good things are happening in the branch. We have been meeting with ward leaders more frequently to help us get things going in terms of member work here. I am really excited because we need all of the help that we can get.

     Well, I love you all SO SO SO SO much! You are all in my prayers every night. The church is true and the book is blue! MWAH! Until next week!

Love, Hermana Freestone