Adventures in Mesa: She Has Been Searching For The Truth And For Spiritual Progression

Hi family and Family! (Email of 3-24-14)

Ok so I know some of you are dying to hear about transfer news so we will start off with that. This is seriously the fastest transfer of my life. I can’t even believe it's ending. Sooooo.... Hermana Brons and I are staying together! And we are staying in Arboleda! Yay! Super excited about that.

They did end up closing the north area, so the other sisters are leaving and we are going to be covering the entire ward by ourselves. I have never had a ward to myself before, so it is going to be a different experience, but it’s going to be good. As of right now, they don't really have any investigators in the north part except for 2 daughters of 2 different recent converts, and they haven't really been progressing. There is this awesome trailer park called Mesa Grande that is just like little Mexico. They had been trying to find people outside of there without much luck though. Most all the members are up north. We are really excited about it, and hope we can live up to the trust that Heavenly Father is showing in us.

We have a goal to meet all of the members in the ward by the end of the week. Last night we spent 3 hours trying to meet all of the members at Mesa Grande, but most weren't home. We did meet one less active member, Hna y Hno Costa, and spent a long time with them. They are members of about 3 years and are being hit from every single side with trial after trial. Hna Vargas just feels overwhelmed and pretty hopeless. She still believes fully in the church but is feeling embarrassed/to depressed to go back. I fell in love with her already though and I am really excited to start helping this couple. I want to get more involved with the reactivation efforts in this ward. It is such a rewarding thing to invest in.

Paula is still doing very well. We taught her tithing this week, and it went well. She is really really tight on money, and really wants to pay her tithing but isn't sure she will be able to. We are going to go over it again with the RS pres this week. She is still really excited about the 12th and is telling everyone!

I
think I said last week how we got a referral from a former investigator, Amanda.
Well, we had 2 lessons with Aanda this week, and they went so well. She has 5
kids and a husband, and we just fell in love with their family immediately.
They just are so great. I feel like lately God is just giving me a strong
instant love for the people and I just desire so badly for them to have the
gospel. Amanda has been searching for the truth and for spiritual progression
for a long time. She really fulfills the scripture of being kept from the truth
because she knows not where to find it. She has a lot of questions, and
actually fulfilled the commitment we left her of reading the intro! We haven't
been able to teach her husband or kids yet, but we have talked with them and
they are really so great. Ahhhh I just love them. The only thing is that they
are really busy and only want to meet on Fridays, but we are just going to stop
by more often anyways. I just want to see this family go to the temple so
badly. On Friday she said a closing prayer for us and said help us to find
answer to our questions so that we may be able to bring an entire family to
your side. I decided that the best way to celebrate my birthday is going to be
by having a baptism, so we are praying for this family to be baptized on the
26th. It's going to take a lot of work and miracles, but it can happen if
that's Gods timing! 

We have still been trying to find more people to teach, and we see miracles every day. I wish I could describe all the people we get to talk to and all the little miracles that God puts on our path. I did tell one guy I would write home about him though, so here it goes. We were contacting former investigators/members that are nowhere to be found and people in Valencing Crossing and we come across two guys drinking in the back of their truck and started talking to them. (Don't worry. Not a big deal there's lot of them in Mesa.) It was just a weird/funny situation. They both seemed to be like less active members that denied that they were members. One of them was like pretending to be nice but at the same time trying to get us to fight with him about like anti Mormon topics. The other one was telling him to be nice to us and also about nuns. That's all.

Yesterday we had a big miracle! We were sitting in gospel principles (the first hour) when all of a sudden Juan y Katharina walked in! My heart stopped! They finally came!!! Juan has said he would come to church every single week, but never did. Saturday we went to his house and had a real DTR with him - asked him to be straight out with us if he was interested in learning, if he wanted us to keep coming to really keep his commitments if he says he will, and how we need to start having actual lessons with him. It went surprisingly well. He told us that he really did want to learn and was going to start putting more effort into it. (I don't know if I ever told you but he is Katharina’s son). At sacrament meeting he was sitting next to his mom and we saw him crying. And then after sacrament I asked when we could come visit them again, and Juan was like; tomorrow - mom you don't work tomorrow! But she does work (she works ALL the time like 13hr days. She could really progress so well if she didn't have to work so much). But he said that's ok that we should still come and teach him. He was really excited and persistent about it. It was such a miracle to see. He just has a lot of bad influences in his life, but I think he has that desire to change.

Well, that was pretty much my week this week. I am hoping covering the whole ward goes well and that we are able to combine the areas nicely and evenly. I am really going to miss my roomies though. But it will be nice to have an apartment to ourselves.

I love you all so much. I miss you tons. To close, I just want to say something I learned as I have been studying about the atonement. The more we come closer to Christ, the more He helps us to see the weaknesses we have and areas in which we need to improve because the only way we can progress in life is facing those weaknesses head on and tackling them. The spirit is here to help us in the repentance process and to comfort us. We are here to emulate our Savior. What greater way is there to appreciate him than to emulate him? I feel like my mission is a year and a half to repent - to try each day to be better and better. "How merciful when our yesterdays no longer hold our tomorrows hostage." We really can change, every single one of us. We can be whoever we decide to be. And let's all decide to be great, shall we? :)

Con amor,

Hermana Haynes

President Jenkins made us is awesome little booklet full of talks and articles about he atonement that we are reading for a month before Easter! You can read along with us if you want!(Here is the link to the first article. I will add other links later The Atonement: Our Greatest Hope )