Life Is Like A Mountain

Vasquez family has a sweet tree house - 

so we climbed in it!

Hey everyone!

First I just want to send my love to the Florence clan. I was so sad to hear about Henry. He was such an amazing man! I remember when Kenz and I were little and we spent a weekend at their house in Lehi. They were So loving and welcoming. Both Henry and Aurora just adopted me as another one of their own grand kids! I was so grateful for their Christ like love. I hope everything goes well with the funeral today. I love you Florences! Your strength amazes me!

Also I am so sorry to hear about Chandler Webb! When mom was filling me in about him she said something that really hit me. "Our God is a God of miracles!" Through Him anything is possible and I am so grateful for that. Chandler will be in my prayers! Please send my love to their family as well! Stay strong and have faith! Our faith can work miracles!

This week was full of ups and downs. Some things were challenging but over all it was pretty good. We again saw so many miracles. We were lead to specific people and had some amazing lessons! One thing that I have really seen the miracles in lately is less active work. I have such a testimony of working with the people in our church who just need a little help! That is what the church is for! We are here to boost each other up! To help each other out on this crazy journey in life! One less active family we were working with is the Sanchez family. Their daughter attends another church and they randomly stopped coming to our church and started going with their daughter to this other church! We were worried about stopping by because we didn't want to offend the daughter or the Sanchez family. But one day we really felt like we should visit them. So we stopped by and shared a simple message. We asked them what their testimonies were of the Book of Mormon and a few other things and as they bore testimony they taught themselves! Some times people just need to be reminded that they have a testimony. Then we also invited Hno. Sanchez to come with us to a lesson with Alejandro and he was able to bear testimony there as well. The next week the Sanchez family was at church!!! :) AND they haven't missed a Sunday since! AND Hna. Sanchez signed up to feed us...which she never does! We had a great dinner and lesson with them....best Mexican food I have had thus far on my mission! It was such a blessing to see how their family realized that they are happier when they live the gospel!

There is also this lady named Daleen Spancer who we taught back when we were Spanish and English. She is a single woman in our ward who has been less active for years! We worked with her sooo much when we were English but she still never came to church. She said her health wasn't good enough to come at all, then the next week she would say okay I can come for sacrament meeting only, but she would never follow through. Weeellll, a couple weeks ago we see her at church! She said that Terry Renkin (a woman from our ward) had been so sweet to her lately and went and picked her up for church. Daleen ended up staying all three hours and also hasn't missed a Sunday since!...little plug for member missionary work! :) It works! Do it!! :) haha

Then there is the Chicos! Probably my favorite family ever!! Hno Chico is less active because he has to work on Sundays but Hna Chico and their daughter Giselle are active. Anyway they are recent converts and want to prepare for the temple. They have been struggling with the law of tithing. They didn't understand why the Lord needs their money if they are struggling financially. So we briefly explained the blessings and promises that come from paying tithing. And explained that they can not go to the temple unless they live this commandment that the Lord has given us. So we decided we would go back and teach a full lesson on the blessings of fasting and tithing. We invited Bro. Baker (our ward mission leader) to come with us and help us teach. So Bro. Baker shared some really awesome things with tithing...THEN...Hno. Chico shares with us that he paid his tithing! We were like....WHAT? You paid it? and he said Yes I did!...then went on to tell us that since he paid his tithing he has had so many job offers and job opportunities that he doesn't even know what to do with all of them! It was so cool to see how the Lord literally provides a way for us to keep ALL his commandments! No matter our circumstances. That is the way we show him we love him..simply doing what he has asked. And if we do that...it always works out!

So ya, working with less actives is amazing! I remember before my mission I read on a sister missionaries blog about a less active she was working with and she said something that has really stayed with me! She said...What is finding if we are not keeping? That question has been on my mind my whole mission. There is so much work to be done with people who are already members of the church! If you can't think of a person to line up the missionaries with then look around you. There are people that need our help, love, and friendship! I have this analogy where life is like a mountain right...and we are standing at the base of this mountain. Christ is the sun. And our goal is to get back to him right. So we climb this mountain...and lets say this is Mount Everest, so it's a pretty hard climb! And once we get to the top of the mountain we are still millions and billions of miles away from the sun right? Well the atonement takes us the rest of the way! This mountain seemed so difficult to climb and way too many miles to the top, but it is nothing compared to how many miles there are from the top of the mountain to the sun! And with the Savior we can make it all the way to the sun!...But here is the best part. We are not alone in the climb! First of all we can feel the rays of the sun. That warmth is with us the whole way. Christ doesn't just sit a the top of the mountain and wait for us, he climbs with us and helps us along. AND (this is the part that applies to less active work and everything) We are ALL on this mountain. We have people who may be higher that us and people who may be lower than us on this climb but we are all in it together! (High school musical pun not intended) And each of us can reach both of our hands out! We can reach one up the mountain to receive help and we can reach our other hand down the mountain to pull others up! I don't know if that made any sense because I just realized I don't know how to put my thoughts into words and this whole email is just a jumbled mess. But If you did understand any of that then good! Be a friend. Reach for someone who is lower that you in the climb...."I...I gotta keep tryin....gotta keep my head held high....blah blah blah....it's the CLIMB!!!!"...Sorry had to throw that Miley Cyrus in there because it just went way too well with the analogy! :)

Anyway have an amazing week! I didn't get Davis' email this week so I hope he is doing okay!

Love you all more than you will ever know!

Love, Hermana England

PS. sorry this email is flippin long! Elder Haywood just looked over at my screen and said...holy cow are you writing a novel!....my bad! 

Great memories with Hermana Martinez

Dinner with Bertina and her daughter Marya