It's been a great week, as usual. :) We moved! Wahooo. :D I'll have to send pictures next week, cause it's not working today, but the apartment is perfect. It's our humble little abode, but we love it and things are much better and MUCH more peaceful and without EXCESS water. :) What a blessing that is. :) We got to practice our patience and carpentry skills as we put our new desks that the office missionaries dropped off to us. With a screwdriver and all. :) BUT we did it, and the important part is that we have desks. :) And not to mention a house.... :)
Liset is doing great! She is progressing very well, and went to church yesterday and loved it! The ward was GREAT and helped her feel very welcome. We talked to her about her pareja, Santos, to see if we could get to know him and teach them both, but she said she has been trying to get him to listen to us, so that we can go to their house and whatnot, but he said no, cause all we'd do is talk about "girl stuff" and that if we came he would leave.... So we're wracking our brains to see what we can do at to least talk to the guy... :( We're praying for them.
We taught Liset about the Plan of Salvation this week, and it was an incredible lesson. At first, she wasn't really reading what we left her in the Book of Mormon or the pamphlets, so we decided to leave her a couple pages of the Plan of Salvation pamphlet to read there at work (she works in a little librería, so she has plenty of time to read and such) and came back the next day. We asked her if she had read, and she said that she read not only the three pages, but the whole thing twice, just to make sure she didn't miss anything. :D And she loved it. We asked her what she remembered, and she taught us the whole Plan of Salvation, including that she wanted to go to the Celestial Kingdom. :) We talked a little about how to get there, and about following the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and about baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost. I was reading the Liahona this week, and a little phrase from Sister Carol McConkie stood out to me about this topic. She said, "When we were baptized, we stepped out of the world and into the Kingdom of God." That's what baptism allows us to do. BUT we have to continue on the straight and narrow path to lead us there, or else we're not headed in the right direction... So, we are very excited for Liset. We have to talk to hear about all her papers and visa and such, because she can't get baptized if she's not married, and she can't get married (1), if she doesn't want to....and (2) if she doesn't have all her visa stuff under control in order to get a marriage date with the good ol' registro civil. Sadly to say....I don't think I'll be here for her baptism...but miracles do happen AND if not, it's all on the Lord's time table. :)
I promised to tell you all a little more about Virginia this week too, and honestly, I wish I had more to tell, but I will tell what I know and what's up with her. :) So about a month and a half ago, her friend from a different ward got baptized, and her friend invited her to the baptism. And she and her kids went, and wanted to know more, so the Assistants called the Elders in our ward because she lives in their sector, and they went to teach her and her kids. Well, she's recently separated and so the Elders can't teach her....so they passed her off to us, and things have been a little crazy with the whole "passing" process, BUT we do have a cita with her this Wednesday morning, and she said maybe in the afternoon, as well. Hahaha - that's never happened before... But she wants to know a lot more about the church, and she and her two older kids have all expressed their desires to be baptized. SO we are excited to actually get to know them and help them progress. Their progress will/has been VERY quick, because they showed up at church solitos and the ward took them right in (can I just say I love my ward here in Angamos? :D) and her 14 year-old is going to mutual and everything. So they will have no problem in that aspect. More to come... :D
A little miracle that happened this week that was super incredible. :) This is another testimony of the Lord putting us in the right place at the right time AND the incredible-ness of member/missionary work. :) So we were working in the morning, and all that we had planned had fallen through. We had gone through all that we had planned an hour before we were supposed to go back to the pension to study.... So we started talking to a lady on the street selling fruit, and as we were talking to her, a man walked by in a hurry, but what we didn't realize is that he walked past, and then turned back around and was standing behind us waiting for us to finish talking with the lady... So then I felt a tap on my back when Hna Arenas was giving her a pass a long card, and it was that man. He went on to say that he was from Origenes (the ward right next to us) and that he's the dad of our ward mission leader, Hno Becerra. (There's a picture of him & his wife with us after Ermelinda's baptism, and also with the Elders at their house in skydrive....) Anyway, he said that he was going to drop a school paper off for his son at a lady's house, and that he would love for us to go with him to meet her, because she's passing through a hard time. So we thought, "OF COURSE we will go with you!" :D We walked around the corner and the lady was waiting for him outside her house, and we started talking, he introduced us, had to go to work, and she said she would love to share with us. So we shall see how things go with Susanna this week. :)
I know that this church is true, and that this is the work of the Lord. I read this today in Mormon 3, and would like to share it. :)
20 And these things doth the Spirit manifest unto me; therefore I write unto you all. And for this cause I write unto you, that ye may know that ye must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, yea, every soul who belongs to the whole human family of Adam; and ye must stand to be judged of your works, whether they be good or evil;
21 And also that ye may believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, which ye shall have among you...
I hope that we can all believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ, which we have among us. :) I love you all lots! Have a fantastic week!
Love,
Hermana Tuft
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Hey Padres Míos!!
I love you both so very much, just so you know. :D Thank you for all your support and love. :) Quick question.... Hermana Arenas got a letter from a lady that I don't know that said that she is friends with you, Mom, and that her husband served with Dad on his mission....and I was confused.... :) She thinks I have something to do with that, cause I did talk to President to make sure he knew that she doesn't have that family support....and President talked to her mom's stake president and yadadahhh... Long story short, her mom lives in Iquique. This past week President went to go see them, and she was just SO happy. So now she thinks that I have to do with this lady writing her as well. But I do not. :P
I'm glad that Justina Quezada's talk went well; I loved hearing that story. Thank you Dad! Hahaha We have written our whole missions, but never really shared stories....it was more of just a "Hey I'm great, hope you're doing great too, love ya chaoito!" So that's fun to hear that story. I remember seeing a picture of her at their wedding, and we're going to go back for their sealing hopefully. I mean, I hope to be able to go with her.... :P Jajaja :) Speaking of speaking.... BLAH I was looking forward to having two weeks to work all that out and write my talk tranquilamente.... Pero bueno. :) By chance do you know what the topic will be...? I will have a very long plane ride to put a few thoughts together hopefully.... :) That would be great to have by next week if possible!
I loved hearing about the short little Monroe trip. Does that mean that the house is sold and that we'll never being going back down there then....? :( I hope we could go back, even if just in passing. :) I have lots of fantastic memories from down there. :) Especially with that big ol' pine tree.... I remember once when we had a cousin pine cone war that I'm pretty sure ended with a few tears, but we had fun, that's for sure. :D I also had to laugh about Grandma saying that Grandpa and Peter were probably laughing there at you guys. I bet they were. :) Grandpa now knows the whole story..... Wouldn't that be nice if he shared with us? :) After all that going to New Mexico, I bet he just loves that we're still left in mystery.... :P
And thank you for those thoughts from Elder Richard G. Scott. I am excited to go through those questions and do a little self check. :) I'll share my thoughts next week. Thank you! This morning, I got to reading my Father's Blessing again from right before leaving for the mission, and I wanted to share a part that caught me by surprise, that I hadn't really paid a ton of attention to before. It said, "I give you a reminder, Kristen, that the time will pass quickly, much more so than you expect. So, be diligent, make the most of each day, plan properly, and then listen and watch as our Heavenly Father's plan unfolds." I promise to have that in mind! Time has passed by ever so quickly, but oh what a miracle it is. These next two weeks will fly, but I will use that time diligently, and plan properly, and listen and be an instrument in the Lord's hands. Promise. :)
Spencer! I have LOVED ward council, just for the record! Thanks Mom for saying that. :) It's not always been easy. In fact, it's almost always been a little bit of loving "pestering" from me to the dear Bishop, but it always results IF it's with love, and with the Spirit. Hope it works out for you there in Honduras. :D
And also, Mom, the whole Ebola thing is all over here. Every one tells me that the USA is FULL of it, and that I had better be careful. Plop.... I'll try....? :) I also am glad that YES, I am not going to be living in "The House." :) Cause I like being with people, but I love having some quiet time and space, and my OWN keys and rights to my own house.... So I think that was for the best. :) Sounds like that apartment will be great. I don't know how far away I would have to park if I don't have a parking place, but $100 is a lot, especially for just a semester..... So I can walk, and snow will be all over, so it probably won't be a huge deal, but if it's covered, I would probably do it. If not.....I think just do whatever your motherly instincts tell you.... I trust you. :D We'll have to see all those plans and such as it comes. Don't want to think too much into it right now, cause not much can happen right now anyway.... :P Hna Arenas was freaking out that I'll be living with five other people that I don't know and it's just normal to do that! :P I hope that they're actually normal too! :D
I hope Lindsay's doing better! That poor girl, I honestly think she's been sick at least half of my mission..... :( But as always she's in my prayers. :) PLEASE tell her that I read her email, but I don't have much time this week to respond. NEXT week I will, promise. :) I also promise to hold up and share that Light this week. It's hard not to share, honestly. :)
Lots of love to you both. Have fantastic weeks! TTYL. :P
#Seeyoushortlyyyy, :P
Kristen
(Kristen & Spencer both acknowledged their Mom's "#loveyougobs" as I ended my email this week. HA HA!)
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