Adventures in Mesa: We Asked Her To Pray To Know If Heavently Father's Plan Of Salvation Is True

Hi family and Friends! (Email of 3-31-14)

Another week has gone by! Can you believe it? Time just is the weirdest thing. Well, this week was good! A bit slow, but good. It was hard to find people home for some reason, so we weren't able to teach as much as I would have liked. Hermana Brons has been having really back headaches and things lately that seemed to be getting worse at the beginning of the week so that was pretty hard for her to work through. So we decided we’d better take her to the doctor. Turns out she has TMJ problems too! So she got a blessing, they are making her a nightgaurd, and have her jacked up on ibuprofen. It seems to be helping a lot.

The first couple days of the week were pretty rough for her, but it was so good to see her just push forward with faith. That was a good example to me. The members here bless us so much. We are so spoiled. Sister Brons doesn't have any insurance because they don't have insurance in NZ and was really worried about the medical costs. However, the doctor was a member and didn't charge anything. Also, we were completely out of money for the past 2 weeks, and last night some English members sent us home with a bag of food, a member gave us $10 for groceries, and now a different member owns a carwash and they wash our car for free. I feel so blessed. The members here are so strong. I love when we have dinner with the English members, it helps me see how I want to be as a wife and mother. They are all so kind and loving.

Last night our dinner appt had to cancel, so the dinner coordinator for the English ward told us to come over and we helped make dinner and baked cookies with her kids. She has a friend that speaks Spanish so we went and dropped the cookies off at her house and we are going to invite her to the Pastorela. I mean Easter pageant haha. Unfortunately her friend wasn't home, but we are going to have to go back that means!

Paula is doing well still. She went to church at Valencia this week which was a bummer because this was the last Sunday before her baptism with general conference next week. I just am not quite sure she understands the whole ward boundaries thing. But she is progressing well and her daughter is all excited to be baptized again, so that was a huge blessing!

We were able to teach Amanda again on Friday, and that was a great experience. I always just leave feeling the spirit so strongly when we teach her. We taught the plan of salvation, and it all made such good sense to her. It was like the spirit was bringing these eternal truths back to her remembrance. We asked her to pray to know if the plan of salvation was true, and she said she didn't need to because she already knew it was. Everything she says just brings so many scriptures to my mind to share because the spirit has already taught her so many truths because she has been searching. As of right now though, she is only interested in us coming over once a week and isn't interested in attending church. But hopefully we can work on that :) I just have such a special feeling about that family.

We had transfer meeting on Wednesday so we are officially covering the whole ward! It's nice to have some more area. The trailer park is really fun. It's a great place to go contacting. Lots of less active members and potential contacts live there. Actually an investigator family is moving from Valencia into the trailer park Mesa Grande so on Saturday we went and helped them clean out their new trailer for a few hours. I love doing service projects, haha, to be able to do something hands on. It was really fun to help! Haha they are painting the inside bright green. The family seems really interested too, so after they move in we will start teaching them. Yay! I feel like we have so many people to help, but nobody that wants to progress. It can be a bit hard, but nothing I can't handle with God! :) It's hard to distinguish if it's me not doing enough or if it's just how things go sometimes, or if it's just people’s use of agency. Probably a bit of all 3. There's always more that we can do, right? I just got to keep going with faith and hope.

This morning I was reading D&C 12-15 and it was just such a good reminder of the importance of this work. "And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father. Amen." (D&C 15:6) God has given me stewardship over this area, and I don't want to miss a single soul. I just want to share the love and blessings that Heavenly Father has given me so badly.

The General Women's meeting was so great on Saturday. I am SO excited for conference. Seriously I have been looking forward to it forever! April is going to be a great month. There are so many fun things that we have coming ahead, and I am really excited! (But of course we all knew April was the best month already - got to start my birthday countdown haha).

I feel like as I learn to work with other people, I am learning so much about myself. I am learning to see myself how other people do and to know things that I never realized before. It is a really interesting experience haha. I am learning how to communicate better and just so many important skills. I just really want to take this time to tackle some weaknesses that I have and become a better person, because what better time than on your mission, right? So that's the goal. Hermana Brons and I are really focusing on two goals that we have: speaking more Spanish with each other, and teaching in better unity.

Haha this email was kind of a bit all over the place. Sorry about that. Just want you to know that I am doing well and I am happy! The mission is challenging every single day, but I am grateful for that because I am learning so much. I miss you all more than you know and I love you all SO much! Have a great week and a happy April!

Con amor,

Hermana Haynes

P-day at batting cages. My first time ever! I wasn't the best, but it was fun! And I had frozen yogurt for the first time in 10 months. It was heaven!