The District

Hello Everyone!

We've had a great week here on Temple Square!!

1. We've been going on a lot of exchanges this week - there are 4 missionaries (not including us) in our district, and we wanted to make sure we knew all of them, so we spent most of the week on exchanges! It was really fun getting to know all the different Sisters in our district better and understanding more of what they need and how they feel about missionary work. I definitely learned something different from each of the Sisters I was with and have a new appreciation for the value of exchanges. Something I've learned here is being better at verbally expressing the strengths of others, and being able to give constructive help for someones weaknesses. I'm certainly not perfect, but I'm a lot better now than I was before I left home haha. Truthfully though, the Sisters in our district have so many strengths, and they're all so different!! It's so fun!!

2. My first Pioneer Day!! I've never been in Utah for Pioneer Day before, and it was so fun! What a party! Temple Square was pretty empty, but the Days of '47 Parade came right down South Temple, and that's where we were! So we got see glimpses of it, and it was so cool! Some of us were laughing because of how 'Mormon' it was - floats with Book of Mormon heroes on them, a man holding the Title of Liberty dressed as Captain Moroni, and a big 'CTR' float. So cool! Definitely a contrast from the last big parade I went to which I think was back home for Mardi Gras haha. We got to go on a fun half day trip up to the This is the Place park. It's a park designed to look like an old pioneer settlement that may have existed 20 years after the arrival of the early pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley. We had a lot of fun! 

3. The work progresses and we have found SO MANY new investigators online this week! Most of them are Spanish speaking, but we even found a lady living in the US who I was really struggling with because she couldn't understand me very well, and my companion looks over at her last name and says "that name comes from my tribe!" and she hopped on the line and starts speaking her tribal language and this ladies voice just lighted up and now we'll be teaching her too! How cool is that!? We're excited for the new week and for all the teaching appointments that we have tomorrow with a lot of our new people. James is doing super well, and he's now on date for September 1st! We're super excited, and really just love him so much. We were talking to him today with the local missionaries there, and they asked him a bit about how he came to know about the church and he just started talking about how he came online and how "the Sisters just threw me a lifeline and I grabbed it, I just wanted to know so bad and didn't know I'd ever be able to learn" it was so sweet, and really touched my heart.

Well, we love you all so much and we're excited for another great week here! We hope you're all doing well! I know our Savior loves us and is mindful of us in all of our different circumstances. 

--Sister Black

Filled With the Spirit

Hello everyone!

1. This week I really gained a testimony of God's plan for His children. I've always known about and believed in the Plan of Salvation that promises us that we will see those we love after this life and that death is not the end, but this week I was really able to feel the power of that simple teaching. I am so grateful for a loving God and for a plan that allows us to be with the people we love forever, even if we are no longer with them here on earth. 

2. This week, I also gained a stronger testimony of the Book of Mormon answering questions of the soul. I've read the Book of Mormon quite a few times through, but every time I read it I seem to find something meant just for me. I was reading in Alma 40 this week, and verse 12 really touched my heart and gave me peace. I sometimes think that's so funny, because I always learn things that I "already know" but maybe don't appreciate or fully understand. I'm grateful for the scriptures and for the guidance they give me in my life. I know that the words in them were given to prophets by our loving Father in Heaven, and that He has a plan for His children.

3. Sister Felix is amazing! She's so much fun, and such a joy to be around. We were laughing this week because our last preparation day was transfer day, and we didn't go to the store.. we were kind of on the "starvation vacation" as my family sometimes calls it for the rest of the week haha. We had a lot of noodles, a lot of granola bars, and a lot of goldfish. But luckily: P-Day comes, and we bought probably too much food today lol. But even though we were kind of hungry this week, we made some goals and started to form some holy habits and righteous routines that we can tell already are making a difference. I feel that we have an added measure of the Spirit with us, and I wouldn't change it for anything in the world - not even a burrito! This was something I didn't realize before my mission, but also something I "knew". Just as our bodies can be hungry, so too can our spirits be hungry. Our bodies are a little louder than our spirits though, and it's obvious when we need to eat. But I have felt this week as we've been a little hungry, that our spirits were still full. Having a full spirit comes from doing things like reading the scriptures, obeying God's commandments, praying, being kind to others, and remembering Jesus Christ. I found this week that when it really comes down to it, I'd rather have a full spirit than a full body. 

Life goes on and we're doing great! It's pretty warm out here, but we much prefer it to the cold! We hope you all have a great week! We love you!

--Sister Black

Family & Felix

Hello friends and family!

It's not been too long since I last wrote you, so there isn't a lot to say - but there are a few things things that happened the last few days!

1. My family came! On Temple Square we're super lucky because our family is allowed one authorized visit while we're on our missions. And mine came! It was so much fun seeing them and getting to be around my siblings and my parents. We watched a video together that we play here in Visitors Centers called "God's Plan for Families". If you have a VC close by, I would go and see it. I love seeing how we can all apply the Family Proclamation to our lives and our families. It's such a spiritually strengthening video, and almost everyone we take through gets emotional - but especially Latinos and my parents ;) I really have a strong testimony that our families are meant to last forever, and that as we center our lives on the teachings of Jesus Christ, we will have more peace in family life.

2. My new companion's name is Sister Felix!! She's from Nigeria, and she's so much fun! I'm super excited to get to be with her, she just got back from her outbound mission to the New York New York North mission, and she loved it. She has such a love for people and has a lot of energy. I'm really excited!!

I think that's about it for this week - I love you all, and I know that Jesus Christ lives and loves each of you. I know that as we change our will to better match His, that we will find more peace in this life. I know that as we try our best to be as He is and repent each day that we can have greater joy in our families and in our lives. 

Love you!

--Sister Black

I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus

Hello everyone!!

Well, today marks my official 7 months left mark - so that's crazy. I don't really feel like I should be at that point yet, but here it is. 

1. Ann got baptized on Saturday!! It was seriously the sweetest thing I've ever seen, and possibly the baptism I've been the most touched at so far on my mission. Ann is the sweetest thing, and I really love her a lot. I know I've said this over and over again in my emails about her, but she really is a different person now than she was when we first met her. 

2. We met the coolest people on Square this week, an older member who just had a lot of life to share about - and some amazing spiritual experiences, and a big Spanish family that was just so open to talking about the gospel and the changes they've seen in their lives because of Jesus Christ. We met some antis this week, but there will always be antis. I think the hardest part of talking with antis for me, is walking away and loving them. But, I guess I'm still learning haha.

I've been pondering on how I've changed and what I've learned since my mission began up until right now - more or less 11 months in, and with more mission behind me than in front of me. Before I even got my mission call, I had this idea in my mind of the perfect missionary I wanted to be. Perfectly obedient in every waking moment, never tired, never lazy, always would know what to say, never distracted, never unsure, had the entire standard works memorized, and somehow totally immune to everything Satan has in his arsenal. 15 months after receiving my mission call and 11 months in, my perception of a "perfect missionary" has changed quite a bit. I realize now that missionaries, like everyone else, are still totally human. Prone to being tired, and feeling lazy, and being tempted, and discouraged, and unsure, and everything in between. But I find hope in that Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior of us all, has gone through and experienced the same challenges and trials that we have. But that He overcame them! I'm sure there were times in His mortal ministry that He was tired, and was tempted, and was discouraged. Jesus, however, has overcome those struggles and temptations and hardships that we experience every day, and our entire purpose here on missions is to invite others to come unto Christ, and be perfected in Him as the Book of Mormon says. -  And that includes ourselves. One of my favorite primary songs I think sums up my mission experience so far, and what I now believe a perfect missionary should be like. It's called "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus". To quote a living Apostle, "except for Jesus, there have been no flawless performances on this earthly journey we're pursuing" but I know that because of Jesus Christ, we can steadily get a little more perfect every day, and be more perfect in the small things, and that while here we can become more perfect in trying our absolute best to be like Jesus.

Well, the transfer will happen on Wednesday, and the mission won't know the transfer board until Monday, even though my companion and I of course already have it. I'm super excited for the upcoming transfer - my Pday will next be on Wednesday, and then I'll be having Wednesday PDay. As for my new companion, I'm REALLY excited, and I'll officially only be one continent away from having a companion from all inhabited continents (So, not Antarctica haha) 

I love you all! Have a great week! And Happy 4th of July on the 6th :)