TRANSFERS...

Here on the mission we are moved around every 6 weeks or so to work with new companions and in new areas. I joke around saying the tension is worse than Christmas! We do not decide where we are going, The Lord does. At Christmas you know something new is coming and usually you can see the box it is wrapped up in. You can pick it up and shake it and sometimes guess what will be in store for you. Transfers is not that way. At all.... There is no telling what is in store for you. It gets pretty crazy.

What usually happens is the Mission President along with two missionaries, his assistants, look at the mission as a whole. They see how many missionaries are out, how many are coming into the mission, where the churches are, the populations of the towns, all sorts of logistical things. After looking over the mission as a whole they pray to know where all the missionaries need to be. They pray to know what to do! Decisions are made and prayer continues to play a huge role in the making of transfers. 

Once that is done calls are made and the missionaries find out where they will be. Usually we have the call on Saturday night and Wednesday morning we are packed and moving areas. 

This transfer Sister Avanesjan and I were preparing ourselves to be split up. Staying together for 3 transfers is not very common, especially for sisters who only serve missions for a total of 12 transfers. 

The Super Awesome Sisters :)

To our surprise and joy we are staying together another transfer!!! :) we are so blessed. "This is miracle" as my companion would say. We get along so well. The spirit is with us as we testify to the truth of what one another has said.

Not only do we have strong spiritual experiences, but we have a LOT of fun!!! She even lets me sing songs to her as we sleep! At times we laugh so hard the wonderful family we live with comes into our room just to make sure everything is okay :) Then the little girl asks Sister Avanesjan to read a book to her that happens to be in a foreign language... Sadly Russian is one that she can not read in!

This new transfer will bring a lot of changes! We are happy to stay together, but it is bitter sweet due to the fact that we are losing one of our wards we have been serving in for the last 3 months. We will miss all of the people we have come to love in the Valley View ward, but we know that the Lord needs us to serve someplace else. 

Let the miracles continue!

With Faith comes Miracles

I have been serving a mission for about 10 months and I am still amazed with each miracle that we are able to see!

Being a Visitors' Center sister is such a blessing because I have the opportunity to work with people from all around the world! We call, facebook, skype, and even facetime people to invite them to come closer to Jesus Christ and his restored Gospel.

Just this month alone we have seen four friends of ours become members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! These people all exercised faith in acting upon what the believed to be true by repenting and being baptized and confirmed a member of this church. 

Our Father in Heaven really loves us! He continues to work miracles! I love how it is all according to OUR faith! Not anybody around us, but our own faith.

"He manifesteth himself unto all those who believe in him, by the power of the Holy Ghost; yea, unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, working mighty miracles, signs, and wonders, among the children of men according to their faith." (2 Nephi 26:13)

 

After we enter the waters of baptism we are not finished! It is important to set our eyes on something more, something that can bring us eternal joy and happiness. That something is the Temple! I am blessed to see this beautiful building each day of the mission. It does nothing but increase me understanding of the wonderful Plan of Happiness our Father in Heaven has put forth for us to learn about here on earth. I know as our sights are set upon entering this house of the Lord we are truly "enduring to the end". By doing so we can each be blessed with eternal life! 

Remember, It all starts with faith!

Love it!

 I LOVE this! God works on our prayers each and every day. Even if we do not feel answers, he is always there for us. This quote was shared with me by a friend of mine and it really struck me! So many people do not know the existence of God and that may be simply because they have not asked!

In The Book of Mormon there is a man who really wants to know if God is really there. His actually is talking to a missionary whose name is Aaron. Aaron tells this man that inorder for him to know God he has to ask if he is there. That is exactly what this man does. He prays!

 He says, "O God, Aaron hath told me that there is a God; and if there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day..." (Alma 22:18). 

Well to make this amazing story short it turns out that he comes to know God exists. Not only does he know that, but he knows that he is loved by a loving Heavenly Father, he knows that he can have eternal happiness by following him and learning of Jesus Christ. He knows so much! All because of a simple little prayer. 

I KNOW from the bottom of my heart that our prayers are answered each and every day! I look back on my life and see countless times that answers came to me and I didn't even know it! People were put into my life, events took place, hearts were changed. All things done because I asked and God truly worked on my prayers! If he answers mine he can answer yours! What a beautiful thing to know we are never EVER alone!

Reading this I realized I used a TON of !!s. I do that because I am so excited about this message. Try it out. Pray. See what happens! Let me know how it goes :) Love you all!

The Will of God

The B sisters :)

This week simply flew by! The last few days I have felt so blessed to have this gospel in my life. I went on an exchange with some wonderful sisters! Sister Brown and Sister Beaudette are fantastic missionaries! We had a lot of fun and worked hard! This work is not just missionary work, but missionary fun :) 

I have been studying a lot recently about the Will of God and being ready and able to act upon what we know He wants us to do. It is hard many times to submit ourselves to do the will of the Lord, but as we do so we can truly find joy in this life. 

Christ himself submitted to the will of our Father although I am sure at times it was difficult to do so. "I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." (John 5:30). This is just one example of many instances that Christ turns his will over to the Father. We should delight in doing the Fathers will (Psalms 40:8)! We should have a desire to allow it to transform us (Romans 12:2)! We should understand that without him we are nothing (Alma 26:2), yet with him we have the potential to be everything! 

I personally know it is a difficult thing. I have tried a lot recently to be able to think of only doing that which the Father would have me do, it is hard. Yet it is worth it! Following the example of Jesus Christ and turning to our Heavenly Father in all things allows us to enter the kingdom of our Father!!! (Matthew 7:21). What a blessing that will be :)

Always a beautiful view

"Behold now, I do not say that these things shall be, of myself, because it is not of myself that I know these things; but behold, I know that these things are true because the Lord God has made them known unto me, therefore I testify that they shall be." -Helaman 7:29

Temple Time!

At the House of the Lord

Today was such an amazing day! We had the chance to go to the Temple. Inside of the temple members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are able to learn more about the wonderful plan that our Heavenly Father has put forth for us to be a part! I always learn so much when I am at the temple. After the temple I am always so happy because I feel the spirit so strong. I am just so happy :)

It was actually raining as we went to the temple today! Such a wonderful feeling!

With my Beautiful companion :)

TEMPLE

"Literally the house of the Lord." 

-The Guide to the Scriptures

Some of the Elders in the zone.

I ran into my cousin Travis :)

 I have been blessed to always have a temple close to me. In Oregon the Portland temple was only a 10 minute drive. Now I see the Mesa Temple Each day! Some people, however, live miles and miles away from temples. Yet they give so much to be able to make it there because they truly know it is the house of the Lord.

Temples are a Beacon --This is a fantastic short little clip about how important temples are!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Love the Temple :)

Beginning August just right.

Love this place

 Well last night was very exciting for Sister Avanesjan and I. It was our first time attending a baptism in the Spanish language! This wonderful friend of ours, Fernanda, who we talk with on the phones at the Visitors' Center was baptized. It was an amazing experience and the spirit was so strong! 

"And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and be baptized in my name, and become as a little child, or ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God" -3 Nephi 11:38

Fernanda was baptized yesterday!

I absolutely loved getting to work with Fernanda. We really connected right off from the start. It was a learning experience for me to really become friends with somebody I was helping come closer to Christ. Many times the people I have taught are much different than I am, but Fernanda and I had a lot of similarities. We taught her along side with her local Elders, who happened to be my Zone Leaders Elder Neely and Elder Furr! It is amazing when missionary companionships can work in unity to help somebody learn of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

With the Elders who taught Fernanda

It was an incredible night! My favorite part, just as in all the other baptisms I have been to, is seeing the happiness in her eyes as she came out of the water. Right away you could see the change that came over her. What a wonderful day :)

August begins.

August.... Another month. I love it!


I realized the other day that the Mesa Arizona Temple is so beautiful! I want to share this beauty so I decided that every once and a while I will go outside and take a random picture of a different view of the temple. I am NO professional photographer, actually I am only taking this with an IPhone so nothing fancy... I just wanted to share how important these buildings are for everybody

Mesa Temple 

A few days ago I had the chance to do another exchange with these wonderful sisters! It was such a blast! They taught me so much about loving your companion and serving all those around us. Here we are painting the basement for a family in my ward!

"When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."
-Mosiah 2:17

Speaking of service here is a picture of all the Missionary Leadership here in the Mesa Arizona Mission! We all serve on what we call the MLC (Missionary Leadership Council). We come together once a month with our Mission President and other missionaries to discuss what we can do to further the work here on the mission and to help all the missionaries come closer to Christ.

The topic that impacted me most today was about the importance of prayer!

 We are here to invite people to come to Christ and really the only way they can do that is by turning to our Heavenly Father and asking for direction. Our Heavenly Father is not one who wants all the attention, rather he will always, with out fail, direct our attention to Jesus Christ. Prayer is truly how I found out that I was loved by a loving Heavenly Father and it is through prayer that I came to know about the blessing of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He loves us. I love him.

I am so blessed to have this knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is a gospel of Joy and Happiness. I know it changes lives, I know this because it has changed my own life! I would invite all out there to let go of our own desires and turn to our Father in Heaven. Ask him what he wants us to do! With that we will find blessings and miracles so numerous we can not even count them!

Missionary Leadership Council - 2013 August