in love with liiiiifeeeeeee

8-29-16

This week was out of control!  So much has happened but I cannot even remember everything! I will do my best though!!

First of all, Happy Birthday to the bestest Mother in the world!!! And I forgot to wish yall a happy Anniversary last week!!!<333

This week, we went on exchanges with the sisters in Bessemer, I stayed in Tuscaloosa with Sister Ward, who has been out for just a few weeks!  I love going on exchanges with new missionaries because you always get a fresh new perspective on missionary work.  We had a lesson with a lady named D**** who was a Book of Mormon referral from mormon.org!  Which basically means she ordered a free Book of Mormon online and since she is in our area we got to deliver it!(this never happens btw)  When we first met with her we taught her about the Restoration of the Church and invited her to read and pray for herself. 

Since our last visit she read and prayed and feels that she should continue learning.  She wants to be baptized and is currently praying about a baptismal date! However her work schedule is keeping her from attending church :(  But she is amazing and we are so excited about her!

We also were able to see T**** this week!!  He has been out of town the past few weeks but was able to make it to church yesterday.  Our lesson we had with him was to see where he was at.  We haven’t been meeting with him too much lately simply because he is not progressing towards baptism.  Last week He kinda went off on us and a member saying that we don’t understand what he has going on in his life and that his life is so busy!  Whether he knows it or not, Satan is working extra hard on him and his life, making it so he has no time to sit down, and pray whether he should be baptized or not.  We still have been showing him love and the ward even invited him to go to Louisiana this past weekend to help with all the flooding and whatnot which is right up his alley! But again, he has just been too busy :(  

He even wore the Christian shirt we gave him to our appointment! haha so cute. I love that man!!!

On top of everything else we have seriously been finding, finding, finding.  I know without a doubt in my mind that there are people in Tuscaloosa who are prepared and ready to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ right now.  I know the Lord has been preparing them and that he will help them find us or help us find them.  

Yesterday C***** came to church!!!!  I mentioned C*****  a while back.  She is a completely inactive member that has not been to church since she converted in the 80s!!! It was such a miracle she came to church! She just stayed for Sacrament meeting but we did a happy dance anyways because, baby steps right??!!!  

I'll tell ya right now peeps, Tuscalossa, Alabama comes alive during the fall.  School has officially started at the University and college kids are EVERYWHERE.  Alabama's first football game is this Saturday.  Its an away game but I feel like I know everything about it already because you can't really talk to anyone without them bringing up Alabama football hahaha ROLL TIDE.  

Update on my thumb:  All is well!!  healing is a process and it is happening very nicely.  I wont send any more nasty pics haha.  Currently it just looks like a blood blister but should be completely healed in the next few weeks. HOORAY!

Emmaus Experience:  

I got a call this week from my very own favorite Alabamian, P***!  The cutest recent convert anyone ever did know.  Everyone remember P***?  She called to catch up and tell me that she is meeting with the Bishop soon about getting her temple recommend to do baptisms for the dead!  Also, with her new calling as a Family History consultant she has been doing alot of her own family history work and found out that some of the temple work has been done for some of her extended family on her Father's side! Not only that but she has Pioneer anscestors!! 7 of them!!!  Isn't that insane??  And what is even crazier is that it is through her Father's side.  She never knew her Father and that is the entire reason we even met her and taught her the gospel!  She wanted to get into genealogy to find her Dad and more about his family.  And NOW look and what she has found!  She started crying on the phone with me about how happy she was.  I told her I know that her Father is so incredibly happy right now!!  The Lord knows us and is so keenly aware of our individual lives.  I am constantly amazed!!!!

This truly is the Lord's work.  I LOVE being a missionary for my Savior Jesus Christ.  Wearing His name on my chest everyday is a blessing and an honor.  I pray that I will continue to be worthy of being His hands here in Alabama.  

The Gospel is simple.  The Church is true.  God exists.  He loves us.  And He has provided a way for us to be happy and eventually live with Him again through His Beloved Son, even Jesus Christ. 

I love you all.  Be safe, have a great week! 

SureloveyaMolinesROCKmissionariesRule

Con mucho amor,

Hermana picante Molina

p.s.  Here are some names of people that we came acrossed this week: Quelanesha, Manekia, NeErika, Katheria, Shutorra, Donaad.  Gotta love southern names!!!:):):):)

  Baptist Tent Revival from a few weeks ago!

 Cynthia and her granddaughter at Church!

  Ted and Sister Ward and me!

The Zone! 

 Nasty pic of my finger....that whole dark red flab is completely off my finger

 Painting for the Hernandez's

  cute puppy we found while tracting! 

 Maricelle, Hector, y familia

 me, Sister Merrill, and Sister Benioni

Mission nurses are a blessing!

One year!! 

spicy food and an injured thumb

 August 21, 2016

MI VIDA, MI FAMILIA, MI AMOR

HELLOOOO!  Its been a wonderful week in the South!  I feel as though this week went by so fast, I know I say that every week but its true!  Making blissful Memories, kickin' some booty on the bike, sweatin' something fierce, and smellin' so good. 

We have been doing alot of part-member family work and less active work this week along with 1 exchange and 2 blits with some of our favorite sister missionaries!

I went to the teeniest tiniest town in our mission,  Demopolis.  It has a small branch of about 30 members.  Since I was with Sister Dustin, we taught a hispanic family they only see every once in awhile.  They are solid investigators but live super far away, M****  y ****.  They have 2 kids and it was awesome!  They fed us dinner and it was SPICY yall.  As most of you know I am not a spicy food type of person.  BUT throughout my time as a Spanish missionary I have gotten WAY better. I now enjoy spicy food.  Just not the, sospicyyoucanteventastethefood spicy.  And that’s what this was.  I ate it all I am proud to say, but I was definitely crying through every bite.  The sacrifices you make as a missionary

At the end of the day S. Dustin and I got gas for their car in the middle of nowhere before heading home, about 30 yards away was a HUGE tent with tons of people.  It was SO LOUD.  People were hoopin’ and hollerin’ and going crazy.  We went over there to see what the party was about and it was a Tent Revival,  a Baptist tent revival.  I have heard alot about these because I guess they're super popular here.  We just enjoyed it and were swaying and listening.  We were the only white people but afterwards we got to talk to the preacher lady and we got a cool Jesus Fish keychain.  It was SO GREAT.  Definitely a  night to remember!!  

Later in the week we had a blitz with the Lorna Sisters in Hoover!  We helped paint a house for a  family in the Spanish branch.  Afterward we all showered before going to dinner to celebrate Sister Benioni and my year mark.   While I was in the shower my hair like flipped and hit a razor (there is a point to this story haha stay with me)  and so I picked up the razor, but it was like this super heavy duty razor, steal and I was messing with it and it cut my thumb open, like alot!  It was pretty bad.  and was bleeding ALOT, sooooo much and it wouldn’t stop!! It was about a 2 centimeters wide and took alot of skin off.  But it wasn’t too deep.  Anyways it was a huge mess and we were late to dinner because the mission nurse lives real close so she came over and told me I might need stitches and stuff and I said NO WAY.  Because It didn’t’ hurt that bad and all I really wanted to do was bandage it up and go to dinner cause we were all starving!!!! Long story short another ER nurse came over and had some good materials and bandaged it up real nice haha so that was a fun adventure!!   

This week we also had an amazing lesson.  One of my favorite moments on my mission I think!!!  We have been teaching a lady named F****** for a few weeks now.  F***** is amazing.  She has had a really, really rough life and needs to find some healing.  She is genuinely seeking for truth.  And sincerely wants true peace and joy.  We have been trying to get her to come to church but to no avail.  We taught her  with Sister **** this week, Sister ***** is a convert of 4 years and is definitely one of my favorite members in the ward here.  She is black and lives in the ghetto and is AWESOME.  She comes out with us all the time and just testifies so hard.  F****** and Sister ****** connected right away.   It was perfect.  The spirit was so strong, during the lesson Francis just looked at Mary and said "Well how did you know?"  Referring to the truthfulness of the gospel.  Her answer was powerful. She testified of attending church and feeling the spirit.   I honestly don’t’ even remember what else was said, but it almost brought tears to my eyes.  

Lately I have been trying to focus on the importance of the sacrament.  What an amazing privilege is it to be able to be renewed,  healed, and sanctified by the sacrament!  A missionary challenged us to print off a copy of The Living Christ and take it with us to church and read it during the sacrament and ponder on our Savior Jesus Christ.  I am going to take the challenge and extend it to you all this week too!!

I love my Savior Jesus Christ, I am grateful for the scriptures that we can ponder His life and learn from Him. 

Sorry this email is kinda all over the place,

LOVE YOUALL BE SAFE AND KIND.

Steadfast in Christ

Sista Southern squished Moline

  Just a few of the sisters in our Zone! Including Sister Angie Morell's niece, in the zone! love her so much!!!

 mi companera!

 Sister Merrill and I on a hike with our district this morning, beautiful lake!! I LOVE ALABAMA

Sister Merrill got creative with my nametag.

Ted's Birthday was this week, we bought him a Christian shirt because that is all he wears and he got teary eyed when we gave it to him! We also bought him chick fil a and he was so happy!!

HOLA MI FAMILIA

 8-8-16

WOW I love being a missionary.  This was just one of those weeks where I am full of gratitude and humility at this calling of being a representative of our Lord and Savior.  WHAT AN AMAZING OPPORTUNITY?

HIGHLIGHTS:

-We had an amazing lesson with a cute little Hispanic man named Antonio.  We met him at the mall and he has met with missionaries before but they all spoke English, he was so excited to meet up because he knew that I spoke Spanish!  We had a member come with us that also speaks Spanish and had an amazing lesson.  He told us he has had many doubts recently about the Catholic church and asked us many, many questions.  The spirit was SO strong.  He had a hard time reading the first vision because he could feel the spirit so strong and was getting emotional.  We testified and told him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and if he feels the same spirit he does now, he will know.  Bummer is that he works ALL THE TIME.  No surprise there.  Before we even brought church up he told us he really wants to come but it will be extremely hard because of work :(

However, I am so grateful for this experience.  It was simple but it was so powerful and resonated with me for a long time.  Lately I have been trying to pay special close attention to the spirit and acknowledge to myself that it was the spirit. And be sensitive to it.  Not just in lessons when it is very apparent,  but in my studies and in church and in very aspect of my life right now. 

-We had MLC this week! It was a blessing being trained by President Sainsbury.  He really is an inspired man and I love him.  Here we are, leaders of the Alabama Birmingham mission, just a portion of the Lord's vinyard, praying, discussing, and planning for the mission and this miraculous work.  Building each other and building the kingdom of God together.  Becoming steadfast and immovable disciples.  There is so much power in that.  There truly is nothing more powerful that a room of missionaries for the Lord.  It was awesome!!

-We went on exchanges with some of the Lorna Sisters in our Zone and it was lovely!!

-Yesterday, after visiting a couple of potentials we stopped by a recent convert that got baptized right before I got to Tuscaloosa, after he got baptized he went out of town for a family illness and was gone for FOREVER and never answered his phone.   We've been stopping by twice a week here and there to see if he was come back AND HE WAS.  It was  a miracle.  He is still as solid as he was when he got baptized but his phone is broken and has neglected to get a new one.   We had a great lesson as we read the Book of Mormon.  It was so good to see him.  He is getting deployed here soon with the army.  Such a miracle we were able to see him!  Hooray for Bruce!

-Sad story-  An Elder that I served with who finished his mission over a week ago, passed away this weekend in an automobile accident. His Father and sister also passed away in the same accident. President Sainsbury let the whole mission know today, President Hanks had lunch with him and a few of his past companions just 2 days ago. His name is Elder Brandt and he was a great missionary.  However, the Plan of Salvation is true and our Father in Heaven is aware and in control as He is with everything. Please keep his family in your prayers.

I love being a representative of Christ!!  It is the best feeling when you truly embrace it and do everything you can to live up to that calling. Although its not easy it truly rocks.   President Monson said it the last general conference "If we are not on the road that leads to Christ, it doesnt matter what road we are on."  Find out where you want to go in the end and get on that road.  I am so grateful to be apart of the church of light and truth, the church that Jesus Christ himself directs through these living prophets.

Things are going really well here in the Alabama hood

Have a great week yall!  Look for the tender mercies of the Lord in your life.

Con mucho amor,

Cuidese

Sista LOVING HER LIFE Moline