Hermana Medeiros Texas Houston Mission: Week 53--Faith

So this week was kind of crazy. I've definitely been learning how to have faith. This week almost every day all of our appointments cancelled. But it's OK because we also got so much done. We finally figured out the area. We've been working on splitting the area between us and the elders. to have a fine line drawn so we don't go finding in the same areas and stuff. And then we spent all day Saturday calling almost every single number on our ward list to figure out what numbers still work and 94% of them were disconnected. We visited as many people that we could and a lot of them have moved but we've found a couple who still live in the area. We are trying to help this ward be a little more organized so that miracles can really start happening.

We had a really fun FHE on Monday night with a less active family. We taught the plan of salvation. We went to the dollar store and bought clay and so we gave each person a part of the plan of salvation and had them create something that represents it and they all enjoyed it. i ended up being really bold with them and at first i was a little shocked and scared that I offended them, but then i really thought about it and it was something that the spirit had guided me to say. And i might have been bold but i was lovingly bold and they needed to hear what i said to them no matter how hard it was for them to hear. We also had a really cool miracle that happened, we had been tracting and i had prayed that we would find someone and we would be able to teach the restoration. I had a feeling that we should go to the very end of the street and start down there. We ended up talking to this one lady and she was super cool. She invited us to sit down and guess what! We ended up teaching the restoration. She told us that she was so happy that she saw us walking down the street and then she laughed. and said "you guys look so out of place walking around a neighborhood like this!" We had a really good lesson with her. But she went out of town a few days ago and so we haven't been able to get back in touch with her. Hopefully we will find her again.

On wednesday we got to teach the elders recent converts wife who isn't a member and she just came from mexico. We had a really good lesson with her. At first she was closed off but we started off just getting to know her and everything and she opened up by the end. She asked us some of her questions and we were able to help explain some things that she had heard. We taught the restoration and after we shared the first vision she asked "well what happened next??" Mcnabb and I have never had anyone ask us that before. We were so happy. She isn't going to be in the states for very long. She is going back to mexico really soon. But hopefully we will get to see her again. Mcnabb had her 9 months on Wednesday so i made her pancakes that spelled out 9 months and i put happy birthday candles all over them. haha she loved it.

Thursday was my year mark! I can not believe that i have been out on my mission for a year. During weekly planning i made a cake. With one of the cake boxes you sent from amazon there was a smore's cake picture on the back and we decided to do that. So we ran to the gas station that was really close to our house and got a chocolate bar and we made it. It was soooo good. On Thursday the elders had to go down to the office in Houston and they came back with some mail and i got a little bag from that lady who dropped things off at that office. It was so sweet! It took me a minute to connect the dots. But make sure you send her a message and tell her thank you! We got to teach English class on Thursday and that was super fun. We got home and i was super sad because i hadn't done anything for my year mark and so i found a shirt that i never wear and i burned it haha. It was super fun and we video taped it. It went a lot better than my skirt. And then on friday i let go of a balloon at first it wasn't going to work but the wind picked it up and took it away. So i didn't do anything to special but it was pretty fun.

We went to a funeral Saturday for a lady in the English ward. I got to play the piano for them and it was super sad. We didn't know her but the spirit was so strong there.

Sunday i had a really cool little miracle. Mcnabb had asked brother morgan for a blessing and i was thinking about getting one i was praying about it but i didn't know. So i decided that i was going to wait but if they asked me if i wanted one i would get one. Right after she got hers we were about to leave and then they asked me if i wanted a blessing so i got one and it was really good. I love getting blessings :)

'm sorry i haven't answered everything and tell awma i'm sorry too. Sometimes i'm also looking for talks or fhe ideas and i feel bad keeping mcnabb waiting so i just hurry. And sometimes with the questions i see them but then i think of something else to write and i get to be in a hurry and i just keep writing and then i send the email and then later i realize that i never answered it.

Today we are going to Joanns with sister Morgan because she is going to help make one of my dresses just a little longer, the one you sent me for my birthday goes right to the top of my knee so we took out the hemming at the bottom and that should make it go down a little longer. But i have a skirt that i bought that i need to just get a little longer. It's super funny when i first tried on the red skirt you sent i thought it fit really good but then when i really went to wear it was huge! Haha so i pinned it and to hide the pin i put the scarf around like a belt. So i wore the blue shirt you sent and used the scarf as a belt and it was super cute!

Definitely pray that we will be able to find people to teach more than just once! And that we will start having progression with some of the people that we are visiting!! please! That would be great!

I love you all so much!! I hope you have a great week!

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be one of the people who lived in the ancient Americas when Christ came to visit them? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to feel the prints in his hands and his feet? It would be so special. As a companionship we have been reading 3 nephi and today we read chapter 11. It is such a great chapter. and i invite all of you to go and read it when you have time. Find 10 minutes of your day to put down technology and all other distractions and read that chapter. in the beginning of the chapter they couldn't understand what the voice was saying to them, but once they turned their ears towards the noise and looked upwards towards heaven they were able to understand the voice. We need to be doing the same. God is constantly trying to talk to us and we aren't listening. this world has so many distractions. We always say that God's not answering our prayers or that he isn't listening to us. But that is a lie! I refuse to believe that God doesn't listen to us. WE ARE HIS CHILDREN! he loves us more than we can imagine. He is always talking to us but we block him out. We need to turn our ears towards his voice and look up wards towards heaven. God is reaching down to us but it does nothing if we aren't reaching up to him. He isn't going to force himself upon us. He won't make us believe in him, he won't make us read the scriptures, pray or go to church but if we don't do those things we are going to spend our whole life thinking that God isn't answering us. Have you taken time today to listen to God? If you haven't I invite you do take some time now. It is my testimony to you that i know we are all children of God and he is constantly raining down blessings upon us. he is our father and just like our earthly parents he wants the best for us. Take some time and have some one on one time with God today. He is waiting for you. But you need to do your part. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.