ROLL TIDE

11-21-16

HOLY.  What a week it has been....SO much has happened and so much is happening this week.  Life is not slowing down! First of all HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!  Turkeys and food babies and family.  

*** GOT BAPTIZED!  Solid highlight of the week.  *** is just one of a kind.  In all the pictures she doesn't look too happy but she was all smiles on Saturday!  Every time anyone would ask her how she was feeling she just said  "I'm just jolly!"  hahaha earlier this week she gave us a good scare when she sent us a text that said that the doctor put her on bed rest for 3 weeks. (*** had surgery a few weeks ago)  But when we visited her she said, oh i was just kidding I wanted to scare yall.  OH GOSH ***.   The baptismal service was so good too!!  Everything went so smooth and the spirit was so strong.  Just another one of Gods choice children entering into the covenant of baptism.  It was such a blessing to be apart of it. 

When President James, our branch president, confirmed her a member and she recieved the Holy Ghost he gave such a beautiful blessing

This past week we were invited to our very first meal appointment in Demopolis!! We hardly ever get meal appointments, unless they are with Elder and Sister Jones!  But a less Active family invited us over! They live in a teeny tiny town near Demop with around 2000 people.  They live in an 1830s Antebellum home and give tours year around.  Their special time of the year is Christmas where they decorate 22 different types of Christmas trees and have other amazing Christmas decorations.  The city of Greensboro pays them to have tours.  They gave us a tour and dinner and WOW IT WAS AMAZING.  So many neat things.  They live here in Alabama during the year and they have a summer home in Idaho they live in too.  The ****** are super into family history work and all 16 of Brother ******'s great great grandparents crossed the plains.   They took a massive piano acrossed with them!! Some how the ****** have inherited this piano and I got to play on it.  Even though it was way out of tune it was so prettyyy!!!

Another not so highlight but important and sad part of the week was that the other sisters in our area got in a car accident!!  We both have cars thankfully but they got it a bad accident just this past week.  Luckily we were not riding with them or else someone would have gotten hurt but they are okay and so are we so we have alot to be thankful for!  So most of this week we have been giving them rides around when they arent biking!

Funny story of the week: Sister Danes was teaching about the Book of Mormon to this random guy on the street and she said "Think about your favorite book..."  she was interrupted when the guy started laughing and said "Think about my favorite BUTT???"  hahahaha I was laughing so hard but trying to keep the spirit there.  This is why missions are the best.

I wish I had more time but we went to the Birmingham Zoo with our Zone and that took up alot of time so this will have to do for now!

To finish I want to share my thoughts on something I have been thinking about for a while now and that is the priviledge it is to be a spanish speaking missionary here in the states.  Specifically in the great and beautiful state of Alabama because that is where we all know the celestial missionaries go.  haha but really.  This week I read in D&C 90:11 

" 11 For it shall come to pass in that day, that every man shall hear the fulness of the gospel in his own tongue, and in his own language, through those who are ordained unto this power, by the administration of the Comforter, shed forth upon them for the revelation of Jesus Christ.

This revelation will come to pass!!! EVERY man shall hear the fulness of the gospel in their own language.  That is why we are here.  Not only to proclaim this gospel to those whose first language is english but also to those who speak spanish.  I love being a missionary.  I love being a spanish missionary! This is Christ's gospel.  I love it!

Continue being STEADFAST in Him!!

Steadfast in Christ

ROLL TIDE (Alabama plays Auburn this weekend,  we hear about nothing else...hahaha)

mormon.org (check out the Christmas initiative video ITS SO GOOD)  

con amor,

Hermana Moline

 Danielle y las hermanas

 Sleep over at stl's

 Danielle's baptism!

 Helping Becky Bail cardboard with Sister Chavez, our stl

 Just some logs

 My baby Sister Anderson! now my stl haha she is the best!!

 Sister Benoni 💜

 Sister Danes and I

Some of the sisters at the Bessemer Stake Conference

ANIMOS Y EXITOS

11-14-16

HELLO.  This week was really crazy.  We spent so much time out of our area for various reasons, but it has been a GREAT WEEK!  

On Thursday we had Zone Conference!!  It was so good.  President and Sister Sainsbury gave some amazing trainings and also some challenges for us to do as a mission and as a zone together.  Unfortunately, one of the sister missionaries in our zone is going home after only being out for a few transfers.  Before her mission she had cancer, Hodgkin Lyphoma. She had had it for a few years and had undergone many chemo treatments and it was really scary for her family.  It was a miracle when it completely went away and was predicted to not come back when she came to Alabama but did come back full force after only being here for a few months.  I had the opportunity to be her stl and was able to work with her. And now am in the same district as her.  We really have some amazing missionaries in the ABM but Sister Francis was one of the BEST missionaries I have ever had the privilege of serving with.  You never would have guessed she was brand new.  She works SO hard and LOVES being a missionary.  When she got the news that her cancer had returned and that at the end of this transfer she would be heading home we were all devastated and shocked, but she was the most heart broken.  She bore her testimony at ZC and said "If you every get discouraged or frustrated and you forget why you are here, just remember theres someone in Utah who would die to be in your place in Alabama." There was not a dry eye in the room.  Part of me believes that Sister Francis was just an angel sent from Heaven Father to help all of us missionaries get that extra motivation we need. We will all miss her!

One of my favorite parts of Zone Conference was when we all got trained on the 2016 Christmas Video initiative!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GET EXCITED EVERYONE IT IS SO GOOD.  I cried through the whole thing I don't even know why.   Christmas is such a special time to stretch ourselves and become more Christlike in every sense of the word.  The Video is available for the public on November 25th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOHOOOOOOO I love Christmas.

Also this week we had Stake Conference, and since our Stake is so spread out, we had to drive 2 hours away for it.  Saturday, we went to the adult session and then spent the night with our stls in Hoover, AL and then headed back for the Sunday Session.  It was ALL on MISSIONARY WORK! President Johnson, the Bessemer Stake President served his mission right here in Americas Best Mission and has SUCH a desire for the missionary work in this stake to sky rocket.  It was so good!!  All the missionaries as well as some members sang in the stake choir.  

Saturday night we spent with the STLs who are serving in the Lorna Spanish branch and they had a baptism!  They asked me to play the piano so we went and it was so gooood!!  

Sunday night after all the craziness died down and we were back in good ol Demop City.  We went to go follow up with a Spanish potential.  Not only did we see him but we met his sweet wife and son and literally all the Hispanics in Demopolis were at his house.  His wife was making my favorite comida, mole negro and invited us to eat with them and their 2500 other guests.  They all LOVED us. We talked to so many people and even got a return meal appointment with Omar y Gracia. Everyone there wants to learn English too so we invited them all to our English class on Wednesdays.   THEY WERE SO NICE. I love Mexicanos.

ALSO miracle of the week(there are so many but this one happened last night so its fresh in ma brain):  

We are at Walmart and see a Hispanic family in the same isle as us, Sister Danes and I start talking to them and find out they are friends of some of the members in our branch!  Not only that but that they were a referral from that member a really, really long time ago that we could not contact!!! It was a blessing.  Before we even asked if we could teach them, the mother, asked us if we could come over this weekend. UH YES.  We also found out her husband, is a member!!!! of over 15 years but has been inactive.  he even went to the temple in Vera Cruz, Mexico! The Lord is in every part of this work, it is insane.  SUCH a miracle!

Quick update on our investigators:

*** is getting baptized this Saturday!!!!!!!!!  She is doing so well and continues to amaze us at her reading and progression.  We were able to teach her this week and teach her the Law of Tithing with a member!!  Please pray for her this week as she approaches her baptism that the adversary will not succeed in distracting her.  It can be so difficult for someone the week before their baptism!

*****!  Emmaus ******!  We had a few appointments this week but he has been having alot of excuses for not meeting with us. We have one this week that seems pretty solid so I will update you next week on how that goes!

******!!!  ***** goes to an Episcopal church and has been going there for 2 years.  However she is super open to the Book of Mormon and the restored Gospel.  We have taught her this week and were able to do some service for her at her job! She is so sweet!!

Thank you for your prayers and your support. I love being a missionary in ALABAMA. I don't want to be anywhere but here!  I was just thinking this week, while driving at night from Bessemer and Hoover to Demop that I love what I am doing, who I am right now, my relationship with my Father in Heaven, I love it all. I am just so happy and happy to be in the Lord's service.  LIFE IS GOOD YALL.

Have a fabulous week, keep dancing, laughing, and sharing that beautiful light you have!!

con amor,

HERMANAMOLINE

 **** and her Family! Her kids are deathly shy but the cutest ever!!!

Too blessed to be stressed!

11-7-16

WOW.  This week has been so amazinggg! I hope all of you had a fabulous week!  I cannot believe it is November. 

I don't have a lot of time but I want to share ALL of the miracles and highlights from this week and not leave anything out!!!

MIRACLE #1   We were having one of those eh type of days, I was a little discouraged and our appointment fell through we didn't have anything planned so we decided to go downtown because there are usually a lot of people down there, nope!  There was absolutely NO ONE in sight so we decided to knock a few doors before our appointment we had to be to.  After knocking a few with no luck, Sister Danes, my amazing and inspired companion suggested we pray to know where to go.  After the prayer she pointed to a house and said we should go there, and a lady yelled at us to get off her porch hahahaha we laughed and laughed so we went to the NEXT house,  There we found ****.  ***** works for himself and does handy-work around Demopolis.  He was really interested in what we had to say, accepted a Book of Mormon said that it really was a miracle he met us because he had been praying for an opportunity to get back into church.  WHAT.  We invited him to our scripture study class we do weekly that evening.  AND HE CAME.  He really did! It was the biggest miracle. We now call him Emmaus ****.

 MIRACLE #2 

 Missions are just huge, giant, big, emotional roller coasters that never stops haha  With *** this week, it has been a bit of a roller coaster.  *** is still doing amazing but for a few days we completely lost contact with her.  No answer to her phone and she wasn't at home.  Turns out she was in the ER with a bad toothache that was making her headaches way worse.  Which was really a blessing in disguise because she is currently trying to quit smoking to follow the Word of Wisdom and because of her toothache, when she smokes it makes it more painful!  She came to our RS activity this week and came to church for the 2nd time! AND she brought her boyfriend, *****, and their daughter.  This was HUGE.  After church she received a Priesthood Blessing from the Branch president for her sickness and overcoming smoking.  Later Sunday night, she texted us and said that she and ***** both made the decision together, that they will not buy any more cigarettes.  And *****  loved church so much he wants to come on a regular basis.  HOLLAAAAAAA  This was a big answer to fervent prayers and fasting.  ***  is still on schedule to be baptized on Nov. 19th.  holla back

The other sisters in the branch had a baptism this past week! We helped a lot with it and it was so great!! **** a nd her 4 children were baptized.  President and Sister Sainsbury came as well!  We sang for a musical number and it was just such a special experience.  Watching this cute family make the decision together to follow Christ.  They have so much happiness and joy ahead of them!

I bore my testimony in Fast and testimony meeting yesterday.  I started crying when I was expressing my feelings about my mission.  I love my mission so much. The time that I have had and I have left is so precious to me.  I love the people of Alabama!! I love the people I have met and the things that I have felt and learned.  I know that this is Christ's church.  I have a strong testimony that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. This is the wonderful news of the gospel!! Trust it! Share it! We have the pearl of great price! The message of the plan of salvation!!!!! Why would we not share it with everyone?? I cant believe how many miracles Heavenly Father has allowed me to see. Each day serving this mission is the greatest miracle of all. I LOVE MISSIONS AND Alabamaaaa but most of all I love my Father in Heaven I know Him and I know He knows me.  And each person I come in contact with. iloveitiloveitiloveit.

Have a great week!!

Steadfast in Christ and ROLLLLLLL Tide ROLL

Con amor,

Sister Moline

 *****, her daughter **** , and me. They are members in the branch!  It was ****** birthday!!

 Awful picture but this is **** and us! 

Our investigator, Mrs. ***** ! This woman...we love her.  she acts JUST like Queen Latifa.  

We went to a local community activity and helped some old people decorate halloween cookies! 

Happy Holloween!!! and I love Alabama

October 31, 2016 

Happy Halloween!!!! and I love Alabama

WOW THIS WEEK! So much has happened and I don't even know how to put it into words.

Happy Halloween!!!!  I CANNOT believe October is over...Time is flying and it needs to slow.down.

On Saturday the branch had its annual Halloween/Fall Festival.  We and the other sisters were in charge of decorations and games for the kids and adults.  IT WAS A BLAST.  Total success.  We went kind of above and beyond for it because we were so excited.  We had games for the kids and games for the adults and a trunk or treat at the end and a taco soup/chili lunch.  It was great.  Everyone seemed to have a ball.  And on top of that, we had over 20 investigators that came!! Not all at once but dispersed.  THAT IS A BIG DEAL.  Considering that there were probably about 20 members that came.  A few of our Hispanic investigating families came even though they couldn’t really communicate with everyone.  *** and her daughter and nephews came too!  They had a great time.  Everyone was dressed up and it made us feel good that we could put on something like that for the branch and others.  

Then Sunday was the Primary Program and it was so good! I played the piano for it and it went super good! I didn’t mess up too bad haha.   All the kids were so cute and did so well.  

We had some great lessons with ***  this week! We taught her the Word of Wisdom with some members in the ward who both used to smoke before they joined the church.  *** has smoked for a very long time and has tried to quite.  It went so well and she resolved to quite and wrote out a plan of how she will do it! We are so proud of her!  The next time we saw her, it was an unplanned visit, we just stopped in and she was on the couch highlighting and reading the Book of Mormon!  We also read out of the Book of Mormon with her and during our lesson, her nephew was sitting next to me and started stroking my hair, *** said to him "What are you doing leave the girls hair alone!"  then he says "White people's hair is so soft."  then he covers his mouth and his eyes got so big! he was so embarrassed! hahaha it was so funny because everyone here is black.  Kim got so mad at him and was like "when you say that you just say HER hair is soft or THEY have soft hair.  We all the same okay?!!!" haha it was great I just laughed so hard and said thank you haha

Alot of our other potential investigators have been kinda falling off.  The last 2 weeks we found so many awesome people to teach and then Satan just swoops on in with family deaths, work, and busy lives and other things. So we haven’t been able to meet with alot of them. It is the worst!  But we are not giving up.  We have been working with a Hispanic family that is perfect. *****  y  *******.  They have been here for 9 years and are so cute!! Both grew up Pentecostal but haven’t attended because they have different views about religion now.  We are so excited about them!!

This past week in our District Meeting Sister Danes and I gave a training on Patience.  I think the Lord knew that we both needed this training, especially me.  I learned so much more about how we can be patient with ourselves, with others, and really rely on the Lord and His timing. Patience is the combination of Faith and Hope.  President Hanks said that "Patience is our behavior when we have true faith."   I love that!  We can all work on our patience!!  A few ways we can is 1) by recognizing the moments that we are impatient  and 2) by changing our first initial critical or judgmental, frustrating, or angry feelings or thoughts we initially have in situations. 

Mosiah 5:12 says, "Remember to retain the name written always IN your hearts." Something I am definitely learning out here with my learning and with our teaching of investigators is that the Spirit can bring the message to our hearts, but WE have to be the ones to let it in! Like that sweet picture of Christ knocking on a door without a door handle? He is always knocking BUT we are the ones who have to let him in and KEEP him in. I love the visual and know that when we always remember Him, Christ, in every action, word, and thought, that He will guide us to where we need to go and WHO we need to be!

I am sorry this email seems extra scatterbrained and crazy but I love you all and thank the Lord every day for the awesome support of have from my family!!  

LOVEYALLSOMUCH

Be safe today and watch out for those clowns! Les amo TANTO

BE STEADFAST IN CHRIST

con mucho amor,

Your Alabamian 

ROLLTIDE