Saturday, February 22, 2014

Feb 17-Good-bye El Puerto

 
Yea Seahawks!!!

Cadiz
 
Wow scary news. I got a call from President on Friday and he goes "Well, Hermana Folsom, you are going to be leaving Puerto. And you are going to Dos Hermanas to be a Sister Training Leader. Welcome to the Missionary Leadership Council." I AM FREAKING OUT!! I feel like I´m still a kid in the mission fumbling around figuring my way out and now I have to go be a leader over 1/4 of the hermanas in our mission. So hold off sending any letters or anything until next week when I know my new address. I´m actually really nervous about this whole SHE thing (that's the abbreviation we use here for sister training leader). Please pray for me.
But that news aside, we had some cool stuff happen this week! We decided to go knock the doors of this one building by our piso and we go to the very top floor and the very first door we knock, this man answers and goes, "come in!"Yay for trios cause we could! We started teaching him basic stuff and he was like, YES I LOVE THIS! And then we invited him to be baptized and HE SAID YES. Then, since there is ALWAYS a catch, he goes, "I can´t commit to coming to church every week cause I only have 6 days off a month from being in the prison." We were teaching a prisoner! But he really seemed repentant and wanting the gospel in his life. Now the hermanas here will have to work  with him to prepare him for baptism when he gets out of prison.
And also thank you for the superbowl shirt! haha pictures to follow shortly...
RANDOM THINGS
Sundays the whole country basically shuts down actually. No temptation about breaking the sabbath day cause there is no way you actually could!
So we were at the church at this relief society activity with some investigators when the elders come into the room and ask for the hermanas. We come out and they go "there is a chinese man here asking for you at english class" hahah what?? its' this chinese man that works at the chino by our piso that we always go to. The elders had us private tutor him during englsih class since he´s more advanced than the others! We sat chatting in English with this guy for an hour. We somehow got talking about music and I told him I play the piano and the trumpet and he looked at me with a little bit of awe and goes "you have many talents."
Love you all! Have stellar weeks! Sending on my address next week! Dos Hermanas here I come!

Hermana Folsom
 

Sister Missionaries-Things I wish I had taken on my mission

So this has been the compilation of the work of several hermanas.
Things I Wish I Had Brought to the Mission:
-LOTS of music: make playlists on your ipod so you can more easily enjoy it. Seriously, put some time and effort into your music cause this is what you´ll be listening to for 18 months!
(some suggestions for playlists: fast for workout (like the good efy music), instrumental, your favorite, and also a christmas playlist with your favorite celebrity christmas appropriate songs)
-LOADS of thank you cards and other little cards for notes and messages
-lots of pictures from home printed out. It's weird, but you actually forget what people look like. and bring pictures of your friends with their names written on the back.
-stock up on pens, highlighters and invest in some good scripture marking tools
-LOTS of cute stickers: little kids love them and they are cute to put on letters
-a good, lightweight water bottle
-a comfy blanket that you love from home
-leather purses are nice because they look nicer and last longer
-a pen drive with a lot of space to put things on it (you may even want to put on mormon messages and movies in english and your mission language)
-- for spanish speakers, this blog is really cool: biblioteca.sud.blogspot.com
-a hymnal in your mission language with the cheat sheet of the english hymns to the numbers in your mission language
-buy nice inserts and then bring them with you to try on shoes to make sure that they fit with the inserts still
-a good, cute journal for people to write in when you leave areas and put pictures in. Every mission I´m pretty sure does this. WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME?
-if you are leaving your own country, stock up on your favorite face care products. You already feel ugly enough as a missionary, so why add acne to it as well?
-at LEAST 10 pairs of garments. you´ll thank me for this on weeks when the wash doesn´t quite get done on time.
also a tip: Go through the temple early and then go back every week until you leave. You feel way more prepared and adjusting to everything is easier.
Missions are great, but hard, so come prepared!
 

Friday, February 21, 2014

February 10

Sorry, this week will probably be not as long as usual, we only have an hour today cause we are in CADIZ for pday and have to catch a train back to Puerto. But all is well, we have had such a great pday! Okay preface, this week has been one of the best weeks of my mission. It. Was. Incredible. WE are really seeing the fruits of 8 months of hard work by hermanas in this area since it was opened. Its so great! We have seen so many miracles!

Miracle 1: Cesar. Cesar is the novio of one of our investigators, Viviana, who is in Bolivia for a month. Cesar is from Columbia and is in the Spanish equivalent of the Marines (lose 2 marines, gain another!) and is really looking to change his life. I have never had an investigator understand repentance SO well before, nor had an investigator that really desired it this much before either. He is completely changing his life and when we invited him to baptism, we read the part in 3 nephi 11 that talks about baptism with him and he looks at us and says "I really need this. Like, right now." He has a baptismal date for March 22nd. But he is so ready for this gospel. Teaching him is such an amazing experience! I am really enjoying watching him change and grow as he applies the gospel in his life. Stay tuned for him!

Miracle 2: Juana and her girls. So in San Fernando, the hermanas there have been teaching this woman, Tamara, and one time when they went over, her mother and sisters were over too and were really interested. Turns out they live in Puerto! So Juana is the mother and she has three daughters and they are all SUPÈR interested in the gospel. One day we just passed by to meet them without any notice and they were so excited to let us in. Lorena´s boyfriend answered the door and was like "Juana! Its the girls you were telling us about!" and ever since then they ahve been so excited to have us over and have been really sincerely listening to us. Lorena really wants to be baptized and we are workign on setting a date this week! Meeting them is such a miracle and so fun teaching them as well!
 
RANDOM THINGS
The wind yesterday snapped my umbrella right after church and then it was a downpour all evening so I was DRENCHED and looked like a wet dog. I´m goign to buy a new one today but it was just the worst time for it to break on the sabbath!
 
Unitl this morning on the train when one of the hermanas told me that the olympics are happening right now, I didn´t realize it was the olympics. Aka they are NOT big here. 
 
There are 2 things I value the most in missionaries and two things that are necessary for me to get along with another missionaries: obedience and diligence. I don´t care about anything else as long as there are those two things.
I have two scriptures for you this week. I´d picked one out earlier in the week and then came across the other and i really liked it and then i read both together and they go really well together! D&C 6:36 and Mark 5:36. I love that both have the theme to be not afraid, to fear not and to believe. Fear is the opposite of faith and faith works miracles! I love it.

I love you all so much! I was just thinking the other day how blessed I am to have a family that writes me so diligently. I don´t know many other missionaries who receive emails from every family member almost every week. Thank you all for loving and supporting me. Your emails mean the world to me! I love you!!

Hermana FOlsom

February 3rd--Go Seahawks!!!

Hermanas from my zone

Rubic's cube sculpture

Heyo loved ones!

So this weekend we had stake conference, which was actually a broadcast for all of Spain, Portugal and Cape Verde. It was pretty cool and a really busy weekend. We sang on Saturday for the adult session and it was bomb! The zone sounded so good and it was fun directing:) We had stake conference in our building for this side of the zone and so it was cool for some of our investigators to come.

Actually speaking of that, we met these two guys, Cesar and Jair. We met them through Cesar´s girlfriend, Viviana, who is an investigator and told us to pass by her boyfriend. They went and visited them on Friday while I was on exchanges in Jerez and said they had a lot of questions. Then, Jair came with us to the conference on Sunday. An odd first church meeting, but its made him curious and want to come back! And he got to meet Gilberto, a recently returned missionary in our ward about his same age and they sat by each other in the conference and Gilberto explained everything super clearly. IT WAS GREAT!

Then, so we had to go early to the conference on Saturday to practice, so we had to be in Cádiz at 4 and it didn´t start until 7, but the priesthood session was at 5. So during that awkward time, all of us hermanas went and did splits and divided and conquered the city. It was fun being with all of us and then we got ice cream together. Our hermanas in this zone are so sweet and it was fun working together for an afternoon:)

This week went by so amazingly fast and I cannot believe its already time for Monday again. We are actually in Jerez right now cause this place has BOMB shopping.
 
RANDOM THINGS
So funny story about our stake conference, since we were in cadiz on saturday, we had to take a train back to puerto and at night they only run at certain times. There was one that left at 910 and the next one didn´t leave until 1010. We basically ran from the capilla to the train station and guess what time we entered the train station at? 910. We walked in right as the train left. URGH. So we were super frustrated and getting ready to sit for an hour when I remembered our ward mission leader had gone to conference. So we called him up and he arranged for us to go home with another member of our ward (thank heavens for trios so we can ride with men!). the member we went home with served his mission in kansas like 25 years ago and he speaks fluent english so he gave us a spanish pronunciation lesson. It was great! Made up for missing our train:)
 
We have a senior sister in our mission who is assigned to health, so when we do orientation she does a health one, same with when you leave the mtc.

 I have grown so much in these past almost 8 months. The biggest growing experience for me has been this area. I am really learning to rely on the Lord and to put everything in His hands. I was actually just talking about this on Friday with H.Brown on intercambios. She told me she can see how much I´ve grown up from this experience. Its also motivated me more to LOVE my mission. I really do love everything about this, even the schedule! I have never been happier before in my life and even though I do want to come home to see you guys, I also want to stay here forever. It's odd.

 We actually have an hour and a half for lunch everyday, what happens is i get lazy and make sandwiches or salads and then nap or write in my journal.

My scripture for you this week is Matthew 12:50. I love that Christ said that when we do His will and the will of His Father, that we become His brothers and sistesr. And he even said sisters!

CONGRATS SEAHAWKS! I love you all and hope ya´ll have a great week!
much love,


hermana folsom:)