The Field is White

Hello everyone!!

This week was so fantastic - definitely one of the best weeks I've had on my mission. 

1. Michael went back to the temple, and we got to go! Michael is a member that I contacted at MAP Desk in my second transfer, and he has been inactive for years and didn't care much to come back to church. But he walked into the Visitors Center one day because he felt like he should, and I met him there! I thought he was a nonmember, and taught him the Restoration and then he left. But I really felt the Spirit and always wondered what had happened to him. He comes back some time later, and told me that he was actually a member but that he had been inactive. Talking to me had made him realize that he was missing the gospel in his life and wanted to come back. So he started working towards getting his temple recommend back, and now he has it and went back to the temple, and we got to go with him! It was a really special experience for me.

2. Carlos got baptized! That was so awesome, Carlos is from El Salvador and we've been in contact with him since December when he and a mutual friend from BYU that I know came and saw the lights! So that was really cool to see him get baptized - he is one of the most prepared people I've ever met and he's so sweet. He's really humble, and was just looking for a fresh start and a new beginning in his life and a relationship with God. He's really one of the kindest people I know, and it was fun to get to go to his baptism since he lives here in the Salt Lake area now. My friend even got to baptize him! So it was just a really great thing that we got to be a part of. Also he brought us pupusas :D 

3. Family tour! My Grandparents came to visit me on Saturday, and it was really fun to get to see them and take them on a tour and spend some time with them. The gospel is all about families and how the family is eternal, and I am so grateful for the sweet knowledge that I have that my family can be eternal too. 

4. Our investigators are all really progressing, and it's really fun to see them make changes in their lives and come closer to Christ based off what they feel while we are teaching them. The missionary department came and did a training with us this morning, one of five, that is all about online teaching and about how it's the missionary departments new focus in the millennial age of missionary work. There's a lot of exciting new changes coming that will really improve and hasten the work, and it's really fun to be right in the middle of it. We test all of their things - the other day we were teaching someone, and Ben (one of our friends in the missionary department) came up to us and said Sisters, just keep teaching like normal someone wants to observe you. So we were like okay, and we just kept doing our thing and we turned around after and it was Bonnie L. Oscarson... Young Women's General President. So it's fiiiiine. Hahaha. It's exciting though! We love it :) 

This week was so full of great experiences, wonderful contacts, amazing people, and of course the crazies. But someone said to me the other day that the bad experiences on your mission will outnumber the good, but the good experiences will outweigh the good. And that's really true - I have met so many crazy people, antis, trolls, I've struggled and I've cried - but even though I remember those things happening, I remember with so much more clarity the Spirit that I feel, the things I have learned, the prepared people I have met, and the miracles I have seen. A mission is really a special experience, and I'm so glad that I'm here.

--

Sister Black

Love At Home

Hello everyone!

This week was good!

1. We are mostly just really looking forward to next week when our investigator gets baptized this Saturday, and our inactive member that we've been working with for a while goes back to the temple on Friday! So that will be exciting and I'll have more to report on this time next week haha.

2. Our investigator getting baptized, his name is Alberto, and he's awesome. He's so prepared. He came to Temple Square again yesterday so we could talk to him and he told us about some of the trials he's been going through, and man his life has been hard especially as of late. He's sacrificed a lot to be able to join the church and find peace, but he's so solid. He's from El Salvador, but since he lives here in Utah we'll be able to go to his baptism! He is also going to bring us pupusas or however you spell that food haha. We're excited :) 

3. The rest of our investigators are doing really well! A couple have recently dropped off the map and stopped replying which is sad, but others are still progressing really nicely. Patrick is doing fantastic, and he and his family should be getting baptized in March. We sent them a distribution copy of the Book of Mormon for kids, and they read it every night as a family. It's so cute and his kids are great. I love that about the gospel, that one of the most precious teachings and doctrines that we have is on the sanctity of the family and how the family can be and should be eternal. I see how much hope it brings to these people how have parents, or a wife that has died - knowing that this life isn't the end and that if they live worthy they can be receive that blessing from heaven. It's a really amazing thing. 

4. This guy walked up to me and asked me in all seriousness after looking at the temple model what we feed the cows in the basement of the temple that has kept them alive since 1893. I said lots of protein. Ahahaha just kidding. I mean, I did say that - but then I explained. They aren't alive for anyone that's wondering :) 

I hope everyone has a fantastic week! I find great power in the Book of Mormon, if you're having a hard time or need a lift up - I invite you to just open the Book and read. Even if the answers you need aren't in black and white there on the page, it opens the windows of heaven to receiving guidance from the Holy Ghost as to what we should do. I love it.

--Sister Black

Good to be a Missionary

Hello everyone!

Another quality week on Temple Square!

1. This week we taught a lot of lessons to our investigators. It's really fun to teach so many different people with so many different backgrounds from so many different places, and still see how the gospel is able to bless all of their lives and fill a different need for every person. That's something I really love is how universal the teachings of Jesus Christ really are, and how He really is the Savior of every person and knows all of us by name and individually. It's a really cool thing!

2. The temple reopened! We're really excited, it's been closed for a long time for cleaning so we're really excited to get to go back. We're so spoiled in our mission to get to go to the temple every transfer, I'm really excited to get to go back this week.

3. The work progresses! Albeit a little slower now that it's colder outside and there aren't so many visitors. But it's still cool to see how those that are here really have been led by our Heavenly Father.One of my favorite things to do are to lead investigator lessons. So with Temple Square, missionaries serving in the surrounding areas can bring their investigators here - but they have to have Sisters from Temple Square with them since it's our area. So it's really fun to get to be a part of a whole bunch of different investigator lessons with different missionaries in the area that bring their investigators here. Many of them will commit their investigators to baptism during the tour, and it's fun to be there and get to feel of the Spirit that's there. I love it!

4. The flowers are all starting to poke out of the ground - I'm really excited for all of them to bloom and for spring to be here. The winter has been pretty mild so they say, but I'm ready for the sunshine again! I'm ready for there to be more people here too! 

That's about it for this week - not a whole lot that's new or exciting, but it's good to be a missionary. I love the work and it's such a great blessing to be here for this short period of my life. 

I know Jesus Christ is our Savior, and I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that the Book of Mormon is true.

As for everything else... faith works :) 

I love you all! Have a great week!!

Happy February!

Hello Everyone! 

This week was so fast, and honestly I don't remember most of it. But it was good! So here's what I remember.

1. Still training! We have an hour and a half of companionship study, and we are learning out of a book called the 12 Weeks for New Missionaries and Trainers. I love it! We do a lot of studying and a lot of role playing, but we have a lot of fun with it and it's really cool to see both of us progress. I'm learning a lot more of the history this time around than I did when I was in training, so it's nice to have it as a refresher course too. We've been practicing our bridging, which is what we do to connect the random questions people ask us with the message of the Restoration, while still having a good balance of doctrine and history. It's really fun! It's a little of a challenge sometimes, but we are really enjoying our time to study together and then to go contact people on square.

2. West Gate! This is my new assignment, and it's very similar to Guest Services just a little more visible. We're in charge of making sure that if guests come to square and want a tour, we coordinate finding them Sisters to take them on a tour and making sure that every assignment is covered. We're the coordinators of Temple Square for the time that we're in there. It's really fun, we get to talk to a lot of guests too because they come to our desk and ask us questions and we are able to answer them and share the message of the restoration as well as history from our assignment. It's a lot of fun, and we are really enjoying it.

3. One of my favorite assignments to have is the Tabernacle. We get to share the history of the Tabernacle and then share the Restoration - it's awesome. Another favorite thing to do in there though is the acoustic demonstration! I love it, I practiced it with my companion a few times and then told her the next people to walk in she would do the demonstration for. So I think I offered the demonstration to like 8 or 9 different groups of people, and they all wanted to see it. My companion did an awesome job going up there every time and doing the demonstration, she's a lot more confident in it now and I was so proud in the back listening. She's doing a fantastic job.

4. I slowly learning more Kiribati. I still can't really say anything at all, but I can say hello and goodbye and thank you and goodnight. It was fun the other day at an assignment because we taught these three guys about temples, and realized that we were all from different nations. We had a Russian, Korean, and a man from China all listening to us teach about temples. Then a man from Guatemala joined us and I got to teach him in Spanish. It's amazing to see how many people come here from all over the world, I love getting to meet all of these people from these amazing places and learn of their stories and their lives and get to know them and share with them how the gospel has blessed my life and how it can bless theirs too.

I hope you all have an amazing week, tiabo! (Kiribati for goodbye)