Monday, April 25, 2016

Mon, Apr 25, 2016 4:37 pm Let Him Be Your Savior

Dearest family and friends,

I really love my mission. I really love the gospel. I love God and am in awe at His endless blessings. This week...I said goodbye to my sweet Hermana Cendreda, said hello to my sweet Hermana Wilson, helped Rita prepare to receive the Holy Ghost, and worked so hard as I watched the hand of God works miracles in my life.

Yesterday, Rita received the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was beautiful to be able to prepare her this week for one of God's greatest gifts to us. She is just so grateful for everything we have done for her. I feel like we haven't even done that much. Wait till she fully comprehends just how much Jesus Christ, her Savior, has done for her. I love that we have been able to understand that a little more as we have worked with Rita. Exactly what it means to let Jesus Christ be their Savior. God is the one who softened Rita's heart and prepared her to be a disciple of His Son, Jesus Christ. We were just here to help. Rita was called up to the front of the Sacrament room and then los hermanos surrounded her and put their hands on her head for the blessing. I peaked my eyes open, and I just saw complete peace on her face. I knew at that moment that she was RECEIVING the gift of the Holy Ghost. She received a companion that will be with her forever. She found us after the meeting and was just so grateful. She gave me a huge hug and just thanked me for everything. She calls us her angels. She is such an inspiration to me. I love her so much. Keep praying for Rita please!

I said goodbye to Sister Cendreda on Tuesday morning. I was completely fine and so joyful for her to start this next part of her life. But then when I went back in our apartment and found her note and Plan of Salvation cut outs for me...I cried and cried. She is so special to me and has taught me so much about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Someone who can give their absolute all to God. She emailed me today and told me about how she is STILL a missionary and how she will ALWAYS be a missionary. Such a good example to me.

Polanco, Hoth, Cendreda

Lewis, Polanco, Hoth


Hoth, Cobb, Cendreda, Lewis, Yonk, Hoffman, Polanco
And now for one of my favorite parts of the week..........Sister Wilson is my companion again!!!!! We met up on Tuesday and have been running ever since. I know that there must be many beautiful things in store for us this transfer. God is working so hard with us and supporting us as we do His will. I really love her. It is incredible that we have been apart for almost exactly 1 year. We have lived completely different missions, but now we are together again. It will be so exciting to see what God has in store for us. We have already seen so many miracles...including asking a latino family if we could practice spanish with them in the mall...they said yes! And so we hopefully will be teaching them soon. We also met a Spanish man as we were running to get free burritos. We got his number and were the last ones to get free burritos. We will see Rosa and Raul this week. We feel so strongly that they will be our miracles this transfer! And then yesterday, we met Lucero, who is from Peru but staying with her family that are members in BC for a while. We really hit it off! Hopefully we can teach her too! So many miracles. So much to do! WE love it all! 

Well I want to share my testimony with you. I know that God lives. He answers our prayers and pours down blessings on us for our righteousness. God loves His missionaries. God loves His children. God loves you. I know Jesus Christ is working right along side me. He carries me when I can't go any more. He is there. I know that the only way to find peace in this life is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Learn it. Live it. And remember "In the end, the gospel isn't about how much you know, but how much you've changed."                                    Love,
Hermana Hoth

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HERMANA CENDREDA'S LAST EMAIL & FIRST EMAIL FROM HOME
So I just want to share this insight with you as I was learning and pondering about Enduring to The End the other day.
Enduring to the End.
Our life is a continual process of everything, it is an eternal principle. When you live the gospel and you know who God is and who you are, you will see that nothing in the gospel is "one and done." Once you have Faith, you keep growing it. Once you repent and feel the cleansing power of the Atonement, you realize and should remember that we have to keep changing. Once you are baptized, you just can't assume all is good and you can go on now, you have to keep on being true to that promise and renew it every week. Once you receive the Holy Ghost, you have to keep choosing every day for the rest of your life to receive it. Once you gain a testimony, you have to keep making it stronger. Once you are the Lord's missionary, you ALWAYS will be, if that is what you want.Father has eternal blessing for us and that is why we have to endure to the end, to fulfil the plan He has for us. And it's all done through CONSISTENCY.
Well, this is my last week in the mission field. It's weird to even think that because I know there's not an end to this. I may resign Sister Cendreda soon, but I know I will always be my Father's Missionary.
So yesterday was my last Sunday and it was a proof to me that miracles still do exist. No effort is wasted. Our friend, Rita, was baptized! Oh my goodness, she looked like an angel! She is almost 80 now, and she probably is the most humble person I have ever met. To humble herself before God and let Him wash away those 80 years of experience to welcome Him in her life and to become Jesus Christ's disciple.
Well, this is my last email as a missionary and I just want to leave you all with my testimony that I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of the latter day saints is the Savior's restored church here on earth. I know that in 1820, Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. I know that he did indeed saw a pillar of light exactly over his head. And that light deescended gradually until it fell upon him, and when it did, he saw two personnages standing above him in the air. I know that Heavenly Father spake unto him and called him by name, and said, pointing to the Savior, "This is my Beloved Son. Hear Him." And I know that thanks to that event, we now know all the things we know and it is for everyone. The church of Jesus Christ was restored exactly as He established it before. I may not have been there then, but I am thankful for prayer because through it, I was able to receive my answer from God that it did happen. And I have seen miracles in my life happen, I have changed for the good as I lived the restored gospel and that is also why I know it's true.
I know God loves us and all that we have now is given so we can go back to Him. He won't give up on us and His hand will forever be extended towards us. Never too late or too early He is there. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!

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LETTER FROM HERMANA CENDREDA!!
Ok so Im so mad right now because I just wrote you a cool message and it totally just disappeared!!! So lame!! :(

but anyways, to start it off, how was Rita's confirmation!? Como estan tu y la hna wilson? killing it poor seguro ;) How was natalia's lesson???

Well, as for me, everything is fine. Home is good. I'm still a missionary! Haha. I still try my best to wake up at 6:20! Hahaha.

Well, I just miss you so much! Lol I admitted it you're probably so gflattered right now. Hahaha. But yeah, I'm doing fine although I just miss being with someone always and laughing with someone always too. Haha. Man, I love being a Mormon!

Yeah so I'm giving my mom tons of hugs right now lol she's so weirded out but she likes it. hahaha. We're doing good so far. She just feels that I'm so different though. With the whole actually listening to her, asking her how her day was, me going for a run in the morning (lol she was so weirded out by that), praying over food, specially saying hi to people we come across with! Hahahaha but yeah, I'm just living the gospel, and it feels great to have the Spirit!

Anyways, let me tell you about the most awesome plane ride home! So I sat beside a Jewish man, named Jacob! Turns out he's the graphic designer for lions gate and  all that. But yeah, so we talked and he has a ton of knowledge of the things of the world. He didn't really give me a chance to talk about the church and all that because he just started telling me about the history of other churches and all the knowledge he knows. he even asked me if i knew some stuff about history happenings and I'm like noo.... i don't really know... and he tells me "well, if you want to preach the gospel, I think you should  know these things." and so he just went off on and on and you already know me.... haha. I just let him talk! but in the middle of his talking, our plane started flying up and I didn't want to fly off without a prayer so I said, "Sorry, would it be okay if I just pray first? I just want to pray because I'm scared. I'll pray first and then we can continue chatting." So I did. And then Father told me to tell Him that He loves him. So I did! I told him, "So I was praying, and God told me He loves you so much!!" And he smiled from ear to ear and was just so happy! It was the cutest thing. And before we landed, I felt that I needed to testify to Him of Jesus Christ. I was a bit intimidated because he's a jew and he knows so much things. But I still did it. I know that the Spirit was telling me to do it, so I prayed SO HARD that Father will give me courage and then i did it. And I told him, "Mr. Jacob, would it be ok if I bear my testimony to you?" and he said yes and I said, 
"Well first, I want to thank you for all the things you taught me today, I just felt really humbled by it and I really love learning new things... but then it made me realize that i didn't know much, but that's ok because I know that I am called to be a missionary by My Heavenly Father not because of the amount of knowledge I have, but because of my will that I wanted to align with His. And like I was telling you before, I have been praying a lot for you today, just thanking God that I met you and I can feel He really does love you and that's how I know that He really sent Jesus Christ, and that He loves you too and that's why He gave His life for you so you can be happy!" 

Oh my goodness, you have no clue how nervous I was to do that but I know God has given me the power and authority to do that and in spite of all his knowledge, he couldn't say anything, just smiled. I know my testimony is very simple, but I know it's strong and I know that the Spirit touched his heart that day!