Life is like a Jar of Jalapenos....

Ok, the quote of the week comes from Sister Abbott: "Life is like a jar of jalapenos...what you do today might burn your butt tomorrow!!" yeah...I about fell off of the bed laughing! Ok, SO many things have happened this week! I don't even know where to begin so sorry if this is really scattered.

     So, on Friday morning at 10 we got a call from Silvia's daughter Janett saying that her husband had to work on Saturday so we had to move the baptism to 6:00-which was the same time as Victor's baptism. The hardest thing you may have to do as a missionary is choose a baptism of two people that you love so much. I'm not a mother, but I would imagine that it would be like choosing a favorite child (I won't tell anyone it's me). Anywho, we called everyone to tell them that it was moved. I finally resolved to go to Victor's baptism. Then, some Elders told us that the ward was going to have a Valentine's Party that night at 6 so there would be loud music. We called Janett to tell her and she was like, "Oh, let me call my esposo!" So she called him and then called us back and told us that because of all of the rain he doesn't have to work so we can move it back to 4. We decided to move it to 4:30 because another ward was having a baptism at 3. So...I got to go to both :) It was a very tender day for me to see two people that I have come to love so much enter into a covenant with their Heavenly Father!

     Ok, it has been raining cats and dogs here. This is what happens when the Mormons fast: God delivers :) Haha! it has been raining for 5ish days straight and the people here are loving it! We have been enjoying life. I feel bad for the poor biking Elders though.

     I finally got a name sign from the ASL sisters. Hermana Abbott said that she was confused at how much soul I had in my little body until she realized that my name is Monique...my name sign is then signing "black soul" with an "F". Yeah...I was laughing so hard!

     We have been working with a lot of less-actives lately because there are a lot here. Not as much as in Sac, but bastante. We have been having some powerful experiences here with them. I wish I had time to share them all with you! This week has been just so busy. Sorry i'm so scatterbrained!

     CONGRATULATIONS TO TYSON AND JENNIE!!!! I am so happy for you! Send me lots and lots of pictures! :)

     The mission is seriously the best. I don't even know what I would be doing without it! It has pushed me to do things that I didn't even thing it was possible to do.

Well, sorry this is so short and scattered, but I love you all so so much! Happy Valentine's Day!

Love, Hermana Freestone

1. silvia's baptism

2. victor's baptism

3. RAIN!!!

Hola From Stockton!!

  Ok, I don't even know what to say about my life as a missionary except that I love it! Stockton is where it is at. Yes, I am in the hood, but let's be honest...I've wanted to serve here for ages. The Lord answers prayers! So, I am here with Hermana Dando and I absolutely LOVE her! We're getting along pretty swell! Also, I am with the ASL sisters, Sis Repman and Sis Abbott. We are quite the crew...to put it lightly. I seriously love them all to death :) 

     So, Victor's baptism was postponed a week because the person that was going to baptize him wasn't available...go figure. So he will be baptized this Saturday. Also, the sisters here have been teaching the mother of a member that came here to visit. Apparently, the daughter (Hna Gonzalez) told the Hermanas that her mother was coming to visit and she wanted her to be baptized. They started to teach her and she accapeted baptism almost immediately. She was going to get baptized last week but she was really sick. We have been teaching her and she is going to be solid! I believe her husband was going to be baptized in Mexico as well. This gospel blesses families for sure. Isn't it great!?

     We have been doing a lot of finding this week. Tracting is interesting here. I got a door literally slammed in my face. We were talking to the daughter and all of a sudden the mom came to the door, told us that they were not interested, and KA-BOOM!!!! I think my heart jumped a beat or two...the area we work in is really patchy in terms of Hispanics. One street can be a gold mine and the next is like these super richy-rich people that live in gated communities. But, we're really trying to talk to as many people as we can. 

     There really isn't a lot to report this week. You should just all know that I am loving my life and am SO excited to be in Stockton! I love you and hope you all have an amazing week! MWAH!

Love, Hermana Freestone

1. me and hna dando in our South Stockton hats!

2. hna dando, reppy, abbott, and yo

3. i went to the capitol!

I'm going to Stockton!!

Drum roll please......I'M GOING TO STOCKTON!!!! Can I get a woot woot? I am so excited! I've wanted to serve there since before I even came to Sacramento :) I am going to be with Hermana Dando. I am going junior comp again but, at this point, it's really only to designate a driver. She has been out a transfer (6 weeks) longer than I have. We are also going to live with the ASL sisters. I think their names are Sister Rhettman and Sister Abbott. I've met them both and they are both super nice. Maybe I can brush up on my two years of high school ASL that I completely forgot :)

    VICTOR IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!! This Saturday at 6. I am so excited! He talks to us all of the time when we go over to his house now. I'm a little concerned about how he will be when Hermana Cosby comes here with Hermana Gigger, but I think that he will be ok. He came to church on Sunday and he said that he really liked Primary. And Hermana Romero (a lady in the Primary) said that ha really looked like he was enjoying himself :) Victor is such a great kid! He really just wants to do what is right and help out his mom.

     The last couple of days have been really good. Hermana Crane told Hermana Gigger that man-up Mondays (mondays during transfer week) bring double blessings...I agree. We went and taught a lady yesterday and we got to the door and some kids of a member answered the door. It turns out that Marisol (the lady we taught) is the sister-in-law of one of our members. We taught her and her kids at the table and gave them a Book of Mormon. She seemed really excited about it! I hope that good things happen with them. That is the bad part about leaving...you don't really know what happens to the people you leave behind.

     We also taught a lady that we had taught on her doorstep a couple of weeks ago. We gave her the Book of Mormon and left her 3Ne 11 to read. We came back and taught her and two of her daughters the Restoration and they really liked it too. AND...she read in 3Ne 11! So great! We asked her to be baptized and she said that, if she reads a little bit more and she comes to know it's true, then yes! SO great! Good things are happening here in South Sac/Elk Grove. I may not get to be a part of what comes, but I worked my hardest here for 6 months! And now, on to good things in Stockton!

     We did some service at a less-actives lady's house as a zone. I have loved my life because I've been able to work outside and do some hard manual labor. I miss that...my companion thinks I'm crazy...maybe just a little :)

    Well, I love you all family! I hope all is well in little Morgan. I don't miss the snow, so enjoy it. I love my Spanish people here. I am going to have to find a branch somewhere that I can attend when I go home :)

Love, Hermana Freestone

1. me and Hermana Vasquez (RS President)

2. Hermana Romero and her daughter (she's Hna Vasquez's daughter)

3. (most of the zone) service. And COOL zone shirts!

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