Monday, February 29, 2016

Mon, Feb 29, 2016 1:58 pm Working with the Lord.


Hello everyone!

We had such a neat miracle this week! Remember Karla with 5 kids?? She was one of our investigators when I was here before. I have been calling her and calling her trying to get a hold of her. We even dropped by her house multiple times...and nothing. Well we went on exchanges this week, and I felt like I needed to call her again. FINALLY she answered...she told us how she had been in El Salvador and Honduras and how her phone wasn't working. She told us that she had hoped that we would just come by or call her. She had been waiting for us!!!! So we set up a time to meet her and started planning for what we would teach. The missionaries that first taught her didn't really set expectations for the lessons...so that was our focus! Of course we are here to be friends, but more importantly we are here to share the gospel and prepare them to make covenants with God. So after we set expectations, we taught her the Plan of Salvation. It was a powerful lesson and she was so focused the whole time...mostly because she didn't have her 5 kids at home screaming and running around!:) At the end, we said the closing prayer, and after we said amen Sister Cendreda asks, "Karla, would you like to be baptized?" She said that baptism is definitely in her plans! So we will keep working with her!:)

EXCITING NEWS!!! Rosa had her baby!!! Emily is here! She is seriously the cutest little baby I have ever seen. She was born on Friday the 26th. We were able to visit them on Saturday in the hospital. Raul and Rosa are the cutest parents ever. They are all smiles. The Spirit was so strong in that hospital room...so much peace. It was so special to see them and thank Heavenly Father with them for His kindness and His perfect plan!

Rosa's baby EMILY is here!!







We worked so hard this week and we have seen such a miracle come from it. One day after a lesson with an investigator, we started driving away. We saw a lady and her son that looked latino so I parked the car and Hermana Cendreda jumped out. It turns out Sister Cendreda had met this family before in the mall. They told us that we could come back to visit them  and we did this week! The dad is Robinson, the mom is Angela, and they have two sons...Rodolfo who is married and is a member and Rouder. They told us about their son and how he was baptized in our church like 10 years ago. Robinson basically bore his testimony to us how he saw such a difference in his son. He said "my son was so happy when he was with your church." Well his son now is less active and Robinson just begged us to go visit him and his family. He also told us that when the missionaries were teaching their family that he himself wasn't ready to accept anything because he was so into his catholic religion but that he is more open now. So apart from teaching this awesome family. We went to go see his son! His son has a wife, Alma, and 2 sons. They were so friendly and want us to come back right away to teach them. This was such an incredible miracle for us! 

Rita was finally able to come to sacrament meeting, but she could only stay for the first hour. She is just so depressed all the time and when ever we ask her how she is she just says, "bad". It's so sad, but for this reason, I just want her to accept the gospel! I really feel like the thing she needs is a choice to have faith and to be grateful for what she does have. Of course I don't understand exactly what she is going through. But I know God does...and so she needs to turn to Him!!! 

So this week, I had the most amazing studies in the morning. I was reading in Alma 7 and I got to those famous verses that all the missionaries use to talk about Christ's Atonement. 

11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him
the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

 12 And he will take upon him deaththat he may loose the bands of death 
which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his 
bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know 
according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.
13 Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth 
according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that 
he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me.
After I read this, I realized that these powerful scriptures that we all use is actually Alma the younger's testimony!! He shared these things because he absolutely knows they are true. My question was...How does someone gain a testimony of Jesus Christ like that? And then I remembered his experience with the Atonement Alma 36 (my favorite chapter). He has this strong testimony because he used the Atonment of Jesus Christ. He had felt it for himself. He knew that Jesus Christ did that so He would know how to "succor" or help His people. Alma truly felt that even though he had made so many mistakes, that his sins had been "blotted out" or erased! I love this and it is my prayer that one day each of us can know, like Alma, that Jesus is the Christ. To receive this testimony, Alma had to go through a lot of pain and sorrow when he realized all of the sins that he committed. We will go through pain and sorrow in this life, but our purpose here is to learn how to always do God's will...so we need to repent. So our purpose in life is to repent! 
I hope that all of you can learn from the scriptures and apply them in your lives. It isn't that hard to share the gospel...especially when it is who you are!:):) I pray that we allow the gospel to become us!
Love, Hermana Hoth
OH! And Sister Cendreda and I get to stay together for her last transfer! YAYA!
Fun time with the Sisters on Pday with Cendreda, Ricks, Hubert, Travers, Hoffman





Cool garage. 



Hermana Hernandez and Jacky
And look mom...I shared my package with Jacky's kids!














Brother & Sister Snarr went home this month.  Love them!
Dear Elders and Sisters,
We are concluding our full-time missionary service this week and heading home to Utah. What an amazing experience it has been to serve in British Columbia, particularly in the Sidney Ward
. We feel so fortunate to have served along side the best of the best! Each of you have impacted our lives for good and we want you to know that. The meetings, discussions, study time, meals, activities, service projects, the laughter and a few tears. We are blessed that we were able to share it with all of you.

We are going home to a busy schedule of visits with children and grandchildren, work, and a remodeling project. All of you, on the other hand, will have a number of important decisions that will not only determine your near future, but your long range future. Don't let that worry you. You are or have faithfully been on the Lord's errand, and He will help direct you on the important paths ahead. We are excited to hear how things unfold. For those of you living or visiting Utah, we would love to hear from you and hopefully make it to some of your missionary homecomings (yes, we know they don't call them that anymore). Then in October 2017, we look forward to President's first mission reunion and it will be wonderful to cross paths again.

Again, we express our love and confidence in each of you. We know this work is true. The Lord lives and His gospel is the sure way of finding happiness in this life and in the life to come.
Be good; be true.
Love,
Elder and Sister Snarr









Monday, February 22, 2016

Mon, Feb 22, 2016 1:32 pm Learning to Trust God

Dear family and friends,

I am so grateful for my mission. I love God and I love this amazing work. I can't believe that I have been on my mission for a whole year. It seems so unreal. But God has blessed all of us so much this year, don't you think? He has truly guided us through the storms to the promised blessings. Isn't He so good?

One of the greatest lessons I have learned on my mission is to trust God. To trust His plan and find the joy in the journey. It has been amazing to me as I have allowed God to lead me through my mission and through life that He always tells me that He wants me to be happy. God's plan is not only the best thing for us, but it is the plan that will bring us the most happiness. I know that this is the gospel of happiness. I learned this week that those times in my life that I'm not truly happy are the times that I am not truly living the gospel. I'm not truly having faith in Christ, repenting or changing, staying faithful to my covenants, and instead of enduring and enjoying to the end, I'm just going through the motions. To find the true joy of the gospel we must give God our whole hearts and follow Him. I have learned what it means to have faith. Someone with faith trusts the Atonement of Jesus Christ to take care of the past and trusts God's plan to take care of the future. 

So we haven't heard much from Rita and Lenin...I know that he is recovering slowly but surely. Rita is still a bit shaken up by all of it.

We have had some great lessons with Rosa and Raul this week. It has been so fun to watch them prepare for the little Emily to come. Sister Cendreda and I have been praying that when Emily comes they will realize the need and their desire to live the gospel and have an eternal family. Who wouldn't want that? 

We didn't have any lessons with Colombia this week, but we finally got a hold of her yesterday and she said that she has been sick all week! So this week we should be able to see her!!:):)

So yesterday, Obsipo (Bishop) Riquelme was released. It was so sad for me because he has been the Bishop for so long, the whole time I have been here. It was amazing to me to watch him change from when I was here first to now. He is happier and more energetic about sharing the gospel. I learned so much from his selfless service. As he was being released, I realized that all of the callings we receive within the church are really just opportunities for us to serve. Opportunities for us to be the Lord's hands. (Moiah 18:8-10) I have loved my calling as a missionary. Sister Cendreda and I were talking about this the other day. We realized that some of the members forget the missionaries that have passed through their wards..even though they are just one person, just one name. But us as missionaries, we remember their names, their faces, their families, their stories. Why? Because we have truly learned to love them. We pray for them and think about them constantly. This is what a disciple of Jesus Christ does. This is true charity.

We have been working so hard with our recent converts Jacqueline and Jerermy. We realized that our lessons weren't reaching her and weren't sticking with her. So this week, we took a step back and made a gameplan. We had a lesson with her on Thursday and brought a member with us that had just moved from Mexico. Her name is Jessica and she is seriously such a good missionary. She has a goal every year to finish the Book of Mormon..how perfect! We had her testify of the Book of Mormon. We taught Jacky the Restoration again and her face just lit up. She remembered the joy of her conversion and realized that she had a testimony of the things we taught her! It was was such a powerful experience, and I realize now the importance of remembering our conversion and testimonies. We must be seeking the Spirit every single day! 

Yesterday, I remembered a girl that Sister Johnson, Sister Cobb, and I had met like 10 months ago. Her name is Kayla and she is like 20 years old. When we met her, she was so friendly and so open. It was really neat because she told us that she has 2 friends that are serving missions right now! They must have been great missionaries before their missions because she really respects them and the church. We were able to see her and visit with her yesterday! Right now she is busy with midterms, but soon we will be able to see her again!!

I pray that all of you are doing so well and seeing so many things to be grateful for. I know Heavenly Father loves each and every one of you! 

Love,                                                                                                                              Hermana Hoth


Rosa is almost going to have the little Emily!



With Hermana Ciastillo

Sticky noted from the sisters on my 1 year. 




More papusas to celebrate my 1 year mark with Melida Hernandez
We love rice pudding. And my hair looks so blonde. I'm sad about that.

Maria Christina....haha...she's totally not interested in learning anymore but she was really nice!


Heh Heh

Did you get this yet?


Sister Hemenway...last week in exchanges

Rangel family







Yes to Kenia's baptism. We got to sing at Kenia's baptism. She is is so sweet!

Yes to knocking doors.



Yes to lovely members.

Yes to curls


No to this.


But Yes to Pupusas!

with Jacky