Happy Week Of Miracles

OH MY GOSH BUBBA I CAN'T BELIEVE IT IS FINALLY TIME! We've been talking about this moment forever and it's finally here! Holy beans! I can't wait! I get a proud tear every time that I talk about it! I tell everyone I can that my little brother is going to be a missionary at the same time as me. Boo-yah!

     So, how was my week? Fantastic! It was a happy week of miracles :) We'll start with the 4th. I was slightly bummed that I missed out on the usual tradition of Plain City and the parade with all of the fam bam. However, it sounds like you all put your own little twist on things. We started the day out by doing some service for a lady and her husband that we met at the open house last week. Her grandparents had a house and the people who lived there let the back yard go to waste so  it was pretty trashed. We were there for a few hours :) We did our weekly planning and attempted to teach a few people. Not even the Hispanic people want to be bothered on the 4th of July...we went to the church and it was a mandatory activity for north and south Stockton combined. We played soccer for a long time and I have some beautiful battle scars :) We were also able to watch 17 Miracles which was great! I, of course, cried like a baby. I'm just like that. We came home and went out to the dock with the ASL sisters and lit off some sparklers and threw some pop-its. We also enjoyed some rather tasty gummy bears-shout out to the Dave and Janet Freestone family :) We watched some super great fireworks and sang some fantastic hymns on the dock and just enjoyed our freedoms :) It was pretty fun :)

     Yesterday was fast Sunday and it was so great! And you know that must mean something because you know how I get when I don't have food...o_O  So, we both fasted to help our investigators and we saw some great miracles! Ricardo and Rosa came to church again. Mia stayed in Primary by herself and that in and of itself. Then, on our way back to their house we asked Rosa if she would prepare herself to be baptized on the 24th of July and she said yes! She really wants to get baptized and her parents asked if she could do it without them. We told her that it is preferred that the whole family gets baptized at the same time, but she can do it. I would feel fine because she has family support and her mom is really trying to be able to get a job that doesn't require her to work on Sunday. And the Gonzalez family is willing to drive them. Also, we went to Ricardo and J.P.'s. Let me just start by saying that the Zavala Family is so cool! They have testimonies like you would not even imagine! So we decided to invite them both to be baptized. We talked about why we do it and how it can give us a clean slate. They both said yes! We invited them to set a goal to be baptized on the the 26th. Ricardo said yes and J.P. said he wants some more time to think about it. But he will pray about the 26th anyway. We are going to teach them the Plan of Salvation next time. I think it will really help. Yesterday was a such a tender mercy from the Lord. 

     We also met a lady named Cristina and that was a crazy miracle! We were going to teach her the Plan of Salvation and nothing was really flowing. We tried a few things and it didn't work. Hermana Cardullo whipped out the Plan of Salvation pamphlet and Cristina was like, "I've seen that before!" Right after my husband died 3 years ago I was cleaning out a drawer full of his old things and I found that pamphlet along with a bunch of other like it. Turns out her husband had been meeting with the missionaries behind her back right before he died. He had also ditched his church to attend ours. She was like, "Maybe he liked yours better and now he sent you here to tell me to check it out?" It was so cool!

     Well, I love you all family and I look forward to next week when I get to read about Bubba's MTC experience. :) Transfers are next week so I won't get on till Tuesday. If you don't think that the mail will make it then just sent it to the mission office. Love you all! I'm getting old because I got my flight plans this last week.... crazy!

MWAH!

Love, Hermana Freestone 

1, 2 and 3 4th of july

4 me and my bestie!
 5 -what the missionaries do on P-day

6. me and sister lewis

7. mia, cardullo, rosa, yo

8. me and my bestie!

101 Random Things

1. Italians like past

2. My feet really smell

3. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY

4. some people are very confused about the doctrine of baptisms for the dead. it doesn't make you a member...you still get to choose...

5. I have gained mad respect for parents...I entertained a 4-year old during 3 hours of church...

6. I spent sunday trying to avoid all parts of a Barbie being shoved in my mouth

7. We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
8. We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and no tfor Adam’s transgression.
9. We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
10. We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance;third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth,Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.
11. We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.
12. We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers,evangelists, and so forth.
13. We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions,healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth.
14. We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.
15. We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
16. We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisaical glory.
17. We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according tothe dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.
18. We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.
19. We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous,and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things,we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

20. Families are forever

21. Kenya Lopez is trying to get work off early next week to come to church

22. We had an open house at the church and an adroable couple showed up and she's super interested...yay English sisters

23. Tyson Lindley knows Sister Abbott's trainee Sister Story 

24. Alejandro and Susana are getting their patriarchal blessings on July 9th

25. I saw Alejandro and Susana on Wednesday and it was, seriously, better than Christmas

26. The Zavala family has a nephew living with them (Ricardo) that we are going to teach

27. Member referrals are the BEST! You should all give them

28. President and Sister Lewis said goodbye to us this week. I bawled like a baby

29. President and Sister Jardine will get here soon...pray for them

30. People don't like to keep apopintments

31. We fasted this week and saw MIRACLES!

32. El Mundial is SO amazing!

33. Erik's sister-in-law had her baby...ADORABLE!

34. "Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ."

35. Frozen Yogurt is really tasty

36. People do weird things in public pools

37. I honestly can't tell the difference between fireworks and gunshots...I'll just pretend they're fireworks?

38. We like to creep on people out of our back window

39. Hermana Hanson only has like 2 1/2 weeks left...GAH!

40. I decided that I never want to leave Stockton

41. People look really stupid when they say, "My wife is asleep," and we can hear her washing dishes in the kitchen

42. I had a black lady tell me, "Yo skin is so dry! If you were black we call you ashy." (didn't laugh)

43. Joe Martinez's cancer is back. Please pray for him and his wife

44. Some people really can talk for 2.5 hours straight

45. Why are the Elders playing poker?

46. Spanish is really messing up my English

47. Erik told me that he thought I had forgot about him...SLAP in the face! 

48. We're going to keep working with Erik really close

49. Erik's sister Andrea told me that I have an almost perfect native accent. YUSS!!!

50. Hermana Cardullo is so adorable and I love her tons!

51. Sister Story tried to jump over our deck to scare us and about killed herself on the chair we left out there :)

52. My missionary tan on my feet is FANTASTIC!

53. I sent my bag home and went...sick...

54. Time goes by so fast...don't waste it

55. Our new stake president is in his 30's, has 8 kids, and a full head of silver hair :)

56. Saw the PK's between Greece and Costa Rica...brought back to some memories

57. I am so proud of my siblings it's not even funny

58. I'm so excited that Ty and Jen will have Macie sealed to them :)

59. How many missionaries are there in Morgan right now?

60. Spanish people make the best food. Period.

61. Whatever you do, do NOT eat the habañero onion...your insides will hate you and make you cry

62. "I'm baking like a toasted cheeser! It's SO hot here!" 

63. The high for today should be 106

64. Thanks for all of the pictures. I LOVE them!

65. How was the RAGNAR?

66. Shoutout to Caprice-who is now engaged :)

67. Hermana Lupe Maltman has a rock-solid testimony of the church. It's beautiful!

68. Sister Abbott and Hermana Cardullo sing like angles

69. The pool behind our house looks really tantalizing

70. The dogs above us are really loud :)

71. Rosa Lopez LOVED sacrament meeting

72. I can't wait for Alejandro and Susana to go through the temple!

73. Dad, when are we going to Mexico?

74. If you hold the Priesthood, never put anything above serving a mission. You'll regret it

75. Obedience is the first law of heaven

76.I don't understand how I used to be able to wake up at 5:00 to go to work...6:30am is the worst part of my day...

77. I'm really loving the fact that I keep a good journal

78. I apologize to anyone who has written and I haven't gotten back...

79. The movie Noah...Hollywood would do that...

80. GO TO SEMINARY!

81. Priesthood...fantastic!

82. I hate it when people use their kids as an excuse not to go to church

83. Make a Mormon.org profile

84. Follow the prophet

85. Technology is a great way to share your testimony

86. Bro, I'm so happy for you I am going to jump for joy! Literally!

87. Smallz, why are you such a babe? 

88. Momma, you are the best. Thank you so much for all you do! 

89. The shirts you sent me are perfect

90. Daddy, te quiero con todo mi corazon. Tú eres mí ejemplo

91. Spanish is the celestial language. You need to learn it

92. I love my family so much!

93. Two missionaries at the same time? BOOYA!

94. My comp and I have conversations in our sleep :)

95. So excited to do a session in Ogden with the fam!

96. Did I mention that I'm just going to live in Sacramento 

97. Jesus Christ is my Savior and Lord and He loves me so much!

98. If nothing else, I hope you all know that I have a testimony of the gospel :)

99. Almost there!

100. Keep the faith

101. If you are wondering why I did this: My release date is October 9th. You can do the math :)

I Can Do Hard Things

This week has been interesting. In case you all were wondering, missionary is also another code word for therapist, so that's what we did this week. We had like 5 people just unload their life stories on us it was rough. I learned things about people that I did not want to know, and also things that made me feel a lot more grateful for the life that I do have. Count your many blessings, that's all I'm sayin...

     So, we received a referral from the Elders this week for a Roberto Lopez. We went to visit him and his little family. His wife Kenya, and two daughters Rosa and Mia. Rosa is 13 and she doesn't speak much English because she only came over from Mexico about a year ago. We taught Roberto and Kenya the Restoration and they loved it! Neither one of them grew up with a solid religious background so they are learning like little kids...I LOVE IT! We invited them to be baptized and they said that they want to learn more first, but it is something that they want to do. Then they said that they wanted their whole family to do it. We mentioned that we have our church services on Sunday and they turned to each other and said that they need to ask for work off so that they can come. How precious are they? We didn't even have to ask! Then, we came over Thursday and taught them the Plan of Salvation using the little drawings. We had some fun with them because they want Rosa to learn too! We had a mini Noche de Hogar :) Then, because they have to work on Sundays, we invited them to come to the Saturday night session of stake conference. THEY CAME! We haven't had a chance to talk to them since then because they had to leave early, but we are going over tonight and will extend them a baptismal date. I AM SO EXCITED! They are the cutest little family and the Spirit just radiates with them. We are working on getting some friends over there for Rosa because she is shy and she wants to go to Mutual.

     We have a member in our area se llama Hermana Elizabeth. She hasn't been active because her esposo won't let her come to church. Well, he had to work late so she was able to come to Stake Conference with us on Sunday and that was the first time that she had been to church in about 15 years. CRAZY! She was so excited that I thought I saw her shed a tear when she walked through the doors.

     Stake conference was great! They re-did our presidency. We had 2 members of the Seventy here: Elder Sitati and Elder Bassett. The cool thing: the missionaries had to do translation. Elder Ruiz is a native and he did most of it, but her wanted a break in the middle. He asked me to go up and I was like, "Ya hurt your what? Are you nuts?" Then , Elder LaDuke turned around and starts chanting Elder Villalva's famous line, "Do it and your cool. Do it and Your cool." Dang it. I can't say no to that. I translated one talk and it wasn't awful. I actually thought I did pretty good-all things considered. It made me realize though, I can do hard things :)

     What else? Well, not missionary-related, the the World Cup is in full swing and all of our members/investigators are loving their lives. It breaks my heart to have to tell them to shut the games off. However, we have some pretty dedicated members who are more than happy to keep us updates. Hermana Cardullo is happy that Italia won :) Cheer loud for the red, white, and blue today!

     Well, my time is up. I love you all! I am doing pretty well. Me and Cardullo and getting along super well. I really love her! She's funny! Never a dull moment. We're working hard. Keep up the good work! MWAH!

Love, Hermana Freestone

1. Father's Day with Brother Potter

2. Goodbye Sister Repman...RIP

"Following Up"

   I was thinking the other day, "I'm too young to feel..." (all you George Strait fans can finish that one). Thankfully, the people here say I look 18-20. I would like to thank my parents for my good genes, my grandparents for reminding me to wear sunscreen, and anyone else I may have forgotten about.

     This week has been nuts! On Wednesday morning we dropped off Hermana Dando in Galt. Yup...definitely could have watered the grass with my tears. But, asi es la vida misional. I love her SOOOOOO much! Sister Potter came up to me in church yesterday and asked how I was. I went to say, "Great!" Because it's true. But then I had to choke back some tears when she hugged me. Transfers....some days you love them, and some days you hate them. But hey, "A Donde Me Mandes, Ire Senor..." Hopefully we can see each other before she flies home in August.

     We picked up Hermana Cardullo and came back down. She is from Provo, UT. Her dad is Italian. If I could pick one word to describe here it would be: Fabulous. She loves everyone and always says the funniest things. She is very in tune with the Spirit and you can feel it every time she opens her mouth in a lesson. I've never seen any other missionary do that. She started her mission here in Stockton so the people here have been really excited to have her back. It's been really fun. We hit the pavement running-which is good because I like to wallow in self-pity sometimes and she didn't let me do that. We've been teaching like crazy. Hermana Cardullo is really good at talking with everyone and we have seen many blessings from that. We have added some cool new investigators and we have some super solid lessons set up for tonight! I love her and I know that I am going to learn a lot from her :)

     Hermana Cardullo and I have decided to really try to push working more effectively with the members to strengthen the ward here. We were counting up our less-active families and there is something like 24. To quote myself, "We have a buffet of less-actives to chose from." I never realized how important members are until my mission. I have officially made a resolve to be a better member when I get home. I WILL do my visiting teaching...no matter how many excuses I can come up with not to.

     We have had a really great week overall. I think one thing that I have noticed is that promising blessings to people when you invite them to keep commitments. And the great thing is that it doesn't just apply to investigators. It applies to us too. God has promised us so many blessings that we can't even count them. We just have to do our part. So this is me being a missionary. I am following up with all who may be reading this letter. Last conference Elder Ballard followed up/challenged us to do 3 things:

1. Use the full name of the church when stating which religion you belong to

2. Extend the invitation to hear the missionary discussions to 1 person quarterly (4 times per year/every 3 months for those who are a little mathematically challenged)

3. Every member-regardless of current activity level in the church-to obtain a copy of Preach My Gospel

     How are you all doing on that? Good? Bad? Ugly? I encourage you all to do these things that a representative of Jesus Christ has asked you to do. If you do these things you have been promised that many blessings! Here is the link to the full talk by Elder Ballard "Following Up". Seriously though. The work is hastening. We have been hearing that for ages now. With the new age change and the technology available to missionaries that work is expanding faster than ever. There is no greater time than now to heed the call of President McKay "Every member a missionary." As Elder Christofferson put it, you don't have to have a black badge on your chest to be a full-time missionary. And, as my daddy's good buddy Mark Schweppe says, "Do it. Do it right. Do it right NOW!"

     I love you all so much and hope that you have a fantastic week! MWAH!

Love always, Hermana Freestone

   

Quote of the week comes from Hermana Cardullo's trainee, Hermana Moffett: "Do your best until you know better. Then, do better."

1. me and my comadre

2. me and cardullo at sushi :)

3. the lake-thingy

4. the dynamic duo of awesomeness

5. our thug hats on 8-mile road :) Long live Eminem :)

What Would Missionary Work Be Like If IT Were Always Easy?

This week was rough, but what would missionary work be like if it were always easy? We would never grow from our challenges. I'm really trying hard to be grateful for the growing opportunities that the Lord gives me...but I am definitely human and it can be hard.

On the up-side, Antonia came to church and told everyone that she wants to be baptized! She has come to church twice so she can pretty much pick any date that she wants. We are really excited, but a little wary because we're not sure if she is all of the way there sometimes. She is 76...or 73...she wasn't exactly sure about that the other day :)

We met a lady named Isabelle this week and she had been taught by missionaries hace muchos anos. We did a short, powerful Restoration lesson with her and she was very interested in the fact that we have a profeta hoy en dia. We scheduled a return. A ver que pasa...

We also met a lady named Maria. She is super nice and was super willing to read the Book of Mormon! We had a return set up ans Sister Potter came with us. Unfortunately, Maria was asleep and she had taken a sleeping pill so we couldn't wake her up. I know when I took Melatonin a couple of weeks ago I was down for the count! Pobrecita.

Surprisingly, it was Sister Potter's birthday this week. It was actually on Friday night. Brother Potter is in the young men's and it was the Father-Son outing. Although their son is not here, he was going to take some of the young men up who's parents weren't members or weren't active. He was going to miss the night of his wife's birthday. At first, I was like, "Bro, you're ditching your wife on the night of her birthday and leaving her alone in the house? Ain't NO way!" But then, the more I thought of it, I realized how awesome Sister Potter is because she wasn't upset at all-or at least she didn't show it. I was amazed at how much she supported him in his calling and how she was helping him to magnify his calling with the young men. SUPER impressed! I hope that I can be like that one day.

Love always, Hermana Freestone

CPR Saves Lives

 This week had been really great! We had our zone conference on Tuesday and it was really good. Usually I come out of them feeling super chastised and drained. However, we came out of this one ready to work and get down to business-which is exactly what we did. We went to teach Alondra again and we really focused on short, powerful lessons in zone conference so we just went for it. We taught her a super solid restoration and she was loving it! We invited her to be baptized and she said that she wants to, but she wants her husband to do it with her and he is still in Mexico because he doesn't  have papers. They haven't been together for almost 7 months :( I thought that was adorable and we offered to send missionaries to his house in Mexico. She said she would talk with him first. We were super excited! We went over to teach her again yesterday because she missed our appointment. We decided to go for the Plan of Salvation because she has two little kids. She liked it but she liked the ideas that we could be together forever a lot. We gave her a picture of the temple and then bore testimony about eternal families and you could tell that she was feeling the Spirit and she had this "familiar" look in her eye. She proceeded to tell us that she really liked the plan and that it is different than her beliefs (yes...we knew that). She mentioned something about being reincarnated 106 times and then going to a final resting place...a little interesting so we will see how it goes. I'm not sure she fully understands the Book of Mormon so we're working on that as well.

     We also had exchanges this week and Hermana Cardullo came down to spend the day with me while Hermana Dando spent the day in Lodi with the one and only Hermana Hanson. We both had a really great time and learned some new things that we have been trying to put into practice lately. I have a hard time talking to everyone so Hermana Cardullo really helped me with that. We talked to SO many people! I'm usually snobby because I teach in Spanish-therefore I only want to talk to Hispanic people, but I learned that even the white people can help you out and they need God too :) We were tracting in an apartment complex that is loaded with Hispanics and we ran into a lady that Hermana Cardullo taught a year ago when she served in Stockton named Margarita. She is married and has 2 boys: Juan and Imar. They are from El Salvador. Juan is a senior and he doesn't speak hardly any English. Imar is a sophomore and he can understand it, but isn't so hot at speaking (I feel ya...). They are the most adorable family ever! We have an appointment with them tonight and I am really excited about that!

     We visited Antonia and she is doing well. She is older and is a little crazy. We were over there on Saturday and we were going to drop her and then we just started talking about baptism and church and she said that when she came to church that she felt a very special feeling and she knows that we have something different. She said that she wanted to be baptized! um...OKAY! She was going to come to church on Sunday but, as luck would have it, she twisted her ankle after we left and couldn't even stand up. She's a little gordita so there was no way she could have made it. We went over this morning and she is still really excited about us teaching her. A ver...

     We received a referral from some elders in Lodi for a woman that was already a member named Lupe. We went to visit her and it turns out that she and her husband (gringo) just moved back from Arkansas and she was the Relief Society President there. Funny, because they moved here in December and we've never met her...whatevs...no judgement. She is the best thing ever! We went over to eat with her and her husband and her daughter who lives in Lodi and is inactive. They are the CUTEST! I love her so much! She is still deciding if she wants to go to the Spanish ward or the English ward because she really wants her husband to join the church but he doesn't understand a drop of Spanish. But, bless his heart, he still comes with her once in a while.

     Erik has been a little pain this week, but we still love him a ton! We have really been pushing church attendance, prayer, and reading the scriptures with him (CPR saves lives). He couldn't come to church yesterday because it was his brother's girldfriend's baby shower and he had to go to the park and "save their spot." Yeah...lame. We were begging his mom to let him come but she said no. Yeah...we were not happy campers about that. Mother does not, in fact, always know best.

Love always, Hermana Freestone

1. mother's day with my misison mom and Hermana

2. north stockton zone REPRESENT

3. Elder Villalva's first s'more

Feliz Dia de la Madre

This won't be long because I talked to you all yesterday and that was EPIC! I love you all so much! Just think...next time we talk it will be in SLC international...crazy! But we don't think of that right now. I just want to re-iterate how proud I am of my siblings! For those that actually read these e-mails my brother is graduating next week and is going through the Manti temple on the 31st! Mollie is the studette of Morgan High and I'm super pumped to watch her rock the soccer field in October :)

Missions are the best! Some people might think that serving a mission is a waste of 2 years or 18 months. That's not true-and I'm sorry that you feel that way. I can guarantee that there is no happier time in my life than this moment-and I've done some pretty cool things. I wouldn't trade this for any career opportunity, sports, or anything else. I can't even describe how excited I am to serve with my little brother. No greater honor :)

Hope all of my mothers had a great Mother's Day. It was great to talk to my unica MAMA yesterday :) Also, happy 24 years married mom and dad! I love you so much!

Well, hope you all have a great week!

Love, Hermana Freestone