November 2, 2015

Week 6???  what....

WELL ill be darned…  Another one bites the dust...

Maurie put it so nicely. " I seriously just love all the incredibly phenomenal people that you get to meet and interact with as a missionary. I will forever treasure these little interactions! Save them in your heart and mind. No other time will Iget to get real with people like that so quickly. 

It is like once you put on that name tag you have the greatest excuse and reason to talk to EVERYBODY. I love that. It doesn't matter who, or what they look like that little black tag makes you invincible in social situations. You literally can approach ANYONE."

Something in the Alabama Birmingham Mission that is said alot is "Love the TOAST." Toast is an acronym. Thrive On Awkard Situations.  And you might ask what the extra T is for but it’s just to make things more awkward.  I LOVE IT.  IT is the most perfect acronym to describe missionary work.  

Needless to say we have had alot of Toast this week.  We met alot of cool people and just straight up awkward people.  One hispanic man we are teaching is ********.  He lives alone and seems interested in the  gospel.  Until Thursday night.  We were on Exchanges with the STLs.  Sister Ontiveros calls Sister Taylor and I and tells us she doesn’t understand what ******* is saying and that we need to call him and figure out what’s going on.  We called him and asked how his reading of the Book of Mormon is going and he is just super giggly and keeps asking "Tienen novios?"  or Do ya’ll have boyfriends?  Which is never a good sign.  I explained that we arent allowed to date on missions and what are purpose really is.  Then he kept interrupting me and says "Esparame esparame! te gusta muchiiiisiiimmas."which means "wait for me wait for me! i like you guys soooooooo much." hahahaha Sister Taylor and I just start crackin upppp.  Basically i was just like okay Samuel we think youre drunk so we will have the Elders talk to you later. There was a long pause and he says in english. " i love you" UGH.  NO ***********. hahahahah

Hispanic men here are as thirsty as HECK. It’s seriously insane.  We met this guy ****** at Walmart and he seemed super legit.  He was really interested in our English class and so we called him yesterday night and basically he just complained to us about how lonely he is and how much he needs a woman and asked if he could talk to the blonde girl and asked if I had a boyfriend. NOOOOOO ******.  I explained to him that as missionaries we can’t do that and he just wouldn’t be quite about how sad he is.  ughhhh This is like the 183746th time this has happened to us. So many single Mexican men come here to work and all they want is a woman and tequila.  SO ANNOYING THE GOSPEL IS SO MUCH BETTERRRRR.  All we want is to share this message and these men are just cray....haha

But also Happy Halloween!! Friday night we went store contacting at Walmart and EVERYONE was dressed up.  So fun! An English ward in our building had a Trunk or Treat and invited the Branch.  We invited tons of our investigators and potentials and no one showed up :( But some people we talked to like 3 weeks ago showed up for English class. We have English class every Wednesday and Friday night and we usually only have about 2 or 3 people come.  But these people came! We gave them chili and introduced them to some members.  Such a great surprise!  Another kid Jesus, who is like 16 years old, showed up with his girlfriend and is super interested in the gospel.  ELECT! 

On actual Halloween night, Saturday, we had to be in our apartments at 7pm.  But a member in another ward invited all the missionaries over for games and hot chocolate.  Since we have been completely out of miles this week we have been biking EVERYWHERE. Our STLs said they would give us a ride to the missionary party but they live like 6 miles away.  It was pouring rain that night too, but Sister O and I just yolo'd it and biked in the rain, and we got so SOAKED. My skirt was ringing water and it was awesome.  At one intersection we had about 2 and a half miles left and thought about giving up and going home.  But we kept on going! I just shouted out, “I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. I LOVE THE RAIN.” Needless to say I will never forget this Halloween in Huntsville. 

On a more spiritual note.  Church yesterday was soo great.  The spirit was so strong.  Nothing in particular, but fast and testimony meeting is amazing.  We have some incredible members.  I really do hope I stay here in Huntsville!!!!!!!!  Our district is all hoping we all stay here.  

Our Investigator Joel is doing amazing though. He is probably our most progressing investigator.  He keeps reading and loves learning.  We really wanted him to attend church yesterday but he gave some excuses that he doesn’t have nice clothes.  We tried explaining that anything he wore would be fine! But he promised he would come next week when he can buy some new clothes! 

This gospel is so amazing.  True happiness is truly living your testimony everyday.  As missionaries we live such consecrated lives which makes it so easy feel the spirit and be happy.  And people notice it!  They notice something different. Not just because we are in skirts on bikes in the rain although I am sure that has something to do with it.  But it’s the fact that we are happy doing it.  And it’s only because we know this message can change people’s lives and we can’t help but love everyone we talk to because everyone deserves this knowledge...and most people aren’t ready. But we try anyway and plant that seed.  

I love being a missionary.  It is hard, no doubt.  It is the most different thing and weirdest thing I have ever done but its so greattttt!!! I already love it. 

My ponderizing verse for this week is in Alma 36:24 

"Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of which i did taste; that they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost." 

That is what I want to do.  How can you read the Book of Mormon and say that it is not the word of God?  Every page testifies of His glory and His Son Jesus Christ.  I love it!!! This happiness is for all men.

Ya’ll take care now. I love you all.  Stay fresh and keep on keepin’ on!!!!!

Hermana Mole    (Mole is a Hispanic food here:)

Lydia came down from BYU for a weekend I saw her at Stake Conference!! So fun!

Sunday was Herman Johnsons Cumpleanos!  We had dinner at Presidente Lopez's house!

October 26, 2015

Mi familia bonita! La pasada semana fue muy rapidooooooooo

OH MY LANTA.  How have I been here for almost 6 weeks?? This week has flown by.  Transfers are on the 11th of November and I hope I stay here in the branch!  It has been so great and i would love to continue to work here.  

Since being out here I have learned something so valuable from President Hanks! NOTHING beats HARD WORK and ARROWS OUT. NOTHING.  Arrows out  is an expression that is pretty well known in the ABM.  P. Hanks says it alot.  meaning as young people, our arrows are usually in.  he uses the analogy of a stick figure with arrows all around him, all pointing inward.  Self-centeredness, me, me, me.  But as missionaries there comes a point in our mission where we must turn those arrows OUT.  To find real happiness we must seek for it in a focus outside ourselves. And that is something i have been trying to work on.  

Last Wednesday an appointment we had with someone fell through so we went to go follow up with some people we found last week! One of those people was xxxxxxxxx  He’s an old black man who is a retired pastor!  Because he was a pastor he was pretty set in his ways.  But he was so sweet to us and funny.  I could tell he was an extremely wise man.  I immediately fell in love with him.  His humility and soft spoken heart really set the tone for the spirit!  And He definitely saw something in us.  Multiple times he said that he saw God in us and genuinely respected us and what we were doing.  I kept telling him he needs to teach me his wisdom! haha I shared with him Galatians 5:22,25 a verse I was sure he was familiar with. About the spirit.  We explained how we can know truth if we pray to God, something he knows very well.  We invited him to pray and ask God to help him recognize truth, especially in what we say.  

He was so cute and nice. We had an amazing discussion about religion. We laughed and also got emotional. Sometime during the discussion he looked at me very intently and said with a big ol smile on his face "This sister here, you are something else."  hahha I loved talking to him. After we said a prayer he went in for a hug! I explained that it was a rule as missionaries we cant.  He then said "Its okay I think God gave us permission."  He then gave me a big ol bear hug and kissed me on the cheek!!!  hahaha man he was so funny I love him!!!  

We also had Interviews with President this week!! On Thursday.  Every month our mission has an activity.  Interviews with P. Hanks, Temple trip, and Zone Conference. They just rotate each month.  This month was Interviews! Just 10 minute interviews but it was so good!! He is such a great man.  We just talked.  He asked how S. Ontiveros is, the work is, what I’ve learned and What I think I can improve on.  It was so nice! He is a wonderful man..

  

And also, can I say it enough that I LOVE HISPANICS?? I wish so badly sometimes that I was Hispanic!! Sister Johnson says I am in my heart hahaha.  I really have so much love for those people.  Their food, their culture, their language!!  They are wonderful people!! A motto that I was told this week was "As Spanish missionaries in AL we look for the brown in the sea of black and white!" soooo true....

Okay time for PEOPLE.  xxxxx  xxxxxxx  Quick backround.  We found xxxxxx on the street. He looks homeless and kinda smells homeless too but he is not.  We said a prayer with him when we first met with him and truly his eyes and whole countenance was just beaming.  Since then we have been teaching him.  He is a very interesting guy.  He was struck by lightening in the head, stabbed, fell down a flight of stairs, and has been to prison twice.  He’s had a pretty rough life and isn’t quite ALL there in the head but truly does have a desire to change.  Oh and he’s been smoking since he was 25 and he’s 53 now.  But little by little, over time, things have changed with him.  Not necessarily physically but he listens alot more.  He has such a desire to learn and especially to be baptized.  Since he is English we have to pass him off soon.  He came to church this past week too!! it was Stake Conference and it was just wonderful.  He went to both sessions, Saturday and Sunday. And   Oh my...Elder Fred A. Parker of the 70 came and presided! And man is he a character!! I LOVE HIM.  He’s a big black guy that is basically like a Southern Baptist meets a Mormon Bishop! I felt like we were at a Baptist church when he spoke! So powerful and so full of the Spirit!  haha it was awesome.  

      President and Sister Hanks were there too!! They are so sweet.  Both met xxxxx too! One older lady spoke, She was a true southerner.  SO FUNNY. The thickest southern accent I have ever heard! She was hilarious!!!!! I was laughing SO HARD.  Every once and a while President and Sister Hanks would look at me and just start cracking up.  It was so funny. One of my favorite things she said was "Promptins from the Spirit- Now don’t just go and throw those away!!"  

      Sister Hanks was asked to bear her testimony during the meeting and totally shouted me out! She basically said that among all the faces she cant help but notice Sister Moline, one of the newest missionaries and recognize that THESE ARE HER PEOPLE! She belongs here in the South and has been prepared to come here!! It was super special haha.  And I can totally say I agree 100% with her.  THESE ARE MY PEOPLE SOUTHERNERS AND HISPANICS. I belong here and I know I am here for a reason.  This call was for me personally and I wouldnt have it any other way. 

     Sunday session was just as good!! So many wonderful and amazing things said.  The spirit was so strong.  P. Hanks spoke a bit too! It was so great.  He talked about how we need to "Just jump in the Gospel with both feet. And be ALL IN the church." there is safety here.  He was so straight up. I loved it. Elder Parker said that one of the reasons we come to church is to MAGNIFY the name of Christ.  He had the families of all the missionaries serving from the Huntsville Stake stand up and gave his gratitude.  He then had all the missionaries serving IN the Huntsville Stake stand up.  HE expressed his gratitude. And promised for the wards that they would stand by and support us.  They pray for us as well as our families back at home. I was so proud to be able to stand up. I love being a missionary! Especially here. President and Sister Hanks were crying.  It was so powerful!

I am sorry this is like a freakin novel but I truly do love this Gospel!! And I love being a missionary.

My verse for Ponderizing this week is John 20:29, 31 " Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.  But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of god; and that believing ye might have life through His name."  

Let us continue to believe! I choose to believe because I find happiness therein.

Que tenga un buena semana!

Con mucho amor,

Hma Moline

QUINCEANERA!!!

So this morning I wrote really early because our whole zone was going to the Redstone Arsenal! We are back now and we just got on to email pictures to our families from it! The Redstone Arsenal is a United States Army post located here in Huntsville. They do alot of stuff for NASA. Near it is the Space and Rocket Center which is a small museum park thing that talks all about space and Nasa we got to go as a zone today. Its just down the street from us! It was very interesting and fun to get together with the zone! They had all sorts of activities and space things that were really cool.

Space and Rocket Center for P-day!

JUST A SPOONFUL OF THE GOSPEL HELPS THE MEDICINE GO DOWN!

October 19, 2013

Week 3 in La Rama De Huntsville!! Hola todos los personas!!

WOW this week just flew right on by it feels like!!! Holy cow! Huntsville is amazing! This place truly is white and SO READY to harvest. So many people are here and ready to hear this amazing truth. So many crazy things have happened this week too haha so just hold on to your seats yall and get ready for the ride of yo life! First off Alabama is wonderful as always!!

One thing that I have noticed about the beautiful people of the great state of Alabama is that they LOVE TO TALK. I have met soo many people that you just ask them how there day was and then 30 minutes later you havent said a word and they just tell you so many stories! I just smile and nod and look intrigued while Hermana Ontiveros like slowly walks away. hahaha I dont know if its the tag or if people just like to talk. But I have never met so many people that just talk your ear off and wont let you even squeeze your name in there! And I thought our family liked to talk.

Another thing about Alabama is that it is a hilly state. There is one hill in particular that I call the hill of death. And it is straight up death. My legs have never burned so bad in my whole life!

Remember in my Letter home I told ya'll about Alescea and Franklin? They are some solid people we came across that are so elect. We had another lesson with Alescea this week about the Plan of Salvation. Since she will be in a different ward we got ahold of the sisters there to come, unfortunatley it was a bad day for them so instead we got a name from them, a member that we invited to come with us. It was awesome. The spirit was so strong and she just got it. Before we left, she said THE most sincere prayer I have ever heard. She prayed for her fiance Franklin to come to where she is now spiritually and have the desire she has to change and come closer to God but in his own time. It was beautiful. They both really want to come to church but Alescea had to work this Sunday but every Sunday after that she was able to get off!! A definite blessing from living in the South! Everyone understands why going to church is important.

We also have been teaching Diego Martinez and his roommate Joel! They are both from Mexico and are really awesome guys! We had an incredible first lesson with they want to learn more! So exciting!! It was so hard starting from a teaching pool of 0 but we are doing our very best and working so hard. The Lord truly is blessing us!!

This week we also decided to tract in a trailer park that is a few blocks down from us!! And man, I'll tell you there are some interesting people in this world!! One in particular, A man answered the door and he was a huge big hefty guy and we found out he was an ex cop. We asked him if he's ever run into missionaries before and he said, "Well you know those Latter-day Saints, I've seen them before, but I really do have a problem with them. They believe in plates of gold and tryin' to convince everyone around that they are the right ones but they just sad because the Bible is the only way to heaven. So i just try and keep to myself most of the time." hahaha little did he know... It's probably because our tags are in Spanish that he didn't know we were Mormons. But I just straight up said that we were Latter-day Saints and he got all nervous. haha But I just said how we believe the Bible to be the word of God just as he does and that there is another testament of Jesus Christ. Just more people testifying of those beautiful things in the Bible, that Christ is our Savior and we can be cleansed from sin through him. Needless to say he didn't want a BoM, but it was so funny!!!!

We try and find Hispanics all the time. And I have become really good at being able to tell whether an English family or a hispanic family lives at a house/aprtment!! haha There are certain things to look for, like mops. Hispanics clean alot and always leave their mops outside by their front door to dry. Christmas lights, they leave their lights on year round. And sometimes you see cute little worn out shoes by the front door that belong to the mothers!!

Our Branch is amazing!!!! Can I just shout it from the rooftops?!?! We have some incredible members. So wonderful, so loving, so welcoming. One of the Members, Hermana Consuelo's daughter, Jennifer had her Quinceañera Saturday night! So we helped them alot on Friday night and Saturday morning blowing balloons and getting things ready! It was such a party. Those Hispanics love to party. It started at 6:30 but hispanic time on top of Mormon time, it didnt really start until 7:30. And from then on it was a hoot. Our members were dancing and having such a great time! it was so much fun!!! We even invited some investigators to come with the permission from Hermana Consuelo. I just love the Hispanic culture!!! Being around it so much just makes me love them so much more!

Also yesterday a less active member, Estela Lopez came to church!!! I met her awhile back while on blitz with the STLs and just fell in love with her!! She is a short Guatemalan woman with the most well behaved kids. Since she is from Guatemala she talks very slowly and clearly so I can understand her very well!! Ever since I ran into her a few weeks ago Sister Ontiveros and I have been trying to find her and visit her. and Then she just shows up to church yesterday. She got so excited when she saw me and just has a wonderful spirit about her. We are going to visit her this week when she isn't working and continue to work with her so she can continue to grow in the gospel and become a active member!! So excited for her!

Well family!!!!!!! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. I feel your prayers. I feel your love! This past week we had District Meeting and an Elder shared a scripture he came across Helaman 10:4-5. So during personal study i read that whole chapter. It is so wonderful..I want my Heavenly Father to talk to me just like he did to Nephi! I want to go above and beyond. I want to work my hardest so that I can help these wonderful hispanic people!! I love them so much and I don't even know them. And I know that is a blessing from God as missionaries, to just be able to love people. I definitely feel that. The gospel is so trueeee!!!!!

Hermana MOLINEEEEEE