Mon, May 2, 2016 1:34 pm Better Safe than Surrey.

Dearest friends and family,

Oh my goodness, so I don't have a ton of time. I'm super sad about it, but really, this week has been so filled with miracles.

Hermana Wilson and I are learning, again, how to work with each other. We are working so hard and I am so grateful that we are both able to teach in SPANISH together now. We have had amazing visits with Karla, Carolyn, and Rosa recently. We might not be able to speak the language perfectly, we know how to talk with the Spirit and to invite with the Spirit. So no worries there.

Hermana Wilson & Hermana Hoth Sister Williamson, Lucero, Sister Lee (Williamson & Lee are RM's that came back to visit their mission)

This week, I went on exchanges with Sister Lewis. We had so much fun together and we were in the area, knocking doors, where Rita lives. So we thought we would give it a shot and stop by. Before, we haven't been able to visit her because Lenin has been so sick and recovering and everything. But she was SO HAPPY to see us and invited us right in. It was incredible to see them both again. And even though Lenin suffers from memory loss, he remembered me (and Sister Johnson too) and was so excited to see me! I love them so much!

Lenin, Hermana Hoth, Rita

Karla is doing good. She has been sick this week and so she couldn't come to church. So we stopped by after church yesterday to read the Book of Mormon with her. She hasn't been reading it as much as she did before and she tells us that she can feel a huge difference. She says the Spirit is constantly reminding her to read and to pray. She feels so guilty when she doesn't do it. I think it's so important to remember that to have a living testimony we must be living our testimony...every single minute, every single hour, every single day. We have to renew and gain a stronger testimony through daily prayer and scripture study. That is what Karla is learning right now.

We have had many miracles finding people who speak Spanish. Mostly from talking to everyone and asking everyone if they know anyone who speaks Spanish. We should have a lot of new people to teach this coming week! Please pray for us!!

Hermana Hoth & Hermana Lewis on exchanges visiting the Sikhs

We decided that we would start visiting Rosa and Raul again. We gave them some time to think about everything and really think about what their goals are in the church. Rosa has so much real intent and wants to be baptized and everything. Keep praying for them please. We feel so strongly that Rosa and Raul and Emily will be our miracle this transfer because both Sister Wilson and I have worked with them before.

Hermana Hoth, Rosa, baby Emily, Raul

Well, everyone. I love my mission. I love this gospel. I know God is real. I know that we can talk to Him through prayer. Something important that I have learned this week about prayer is that prayer is not there to change God's will, but to align our own wills with His. His plan is perfect and we must be humble to choose to follow Him. I know that if we follow Him, we choose to be happy. Have such a great week! Love you all!

Love,

Hermana Hoth

Missing Hermana Cendreda

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!

Mon, Apr 18, 2016 1:35 pm God loves you.

To my dear family and friends,

My heart is so full of gratitude as I write this. This week has absolutely been such a blessing. God is so good and His love is real. We had so many miracles. Rita was baptized. Grace, Vicky, and Joyce were baptized, Karla and Carolyn are progressing, Sister Cendreda is the most powerful missionary I have ever met, and now it is time for her to start a new mission.

Rita's baptism!!!!! President and Sister Burt came!

At the beginning of this week, we were feeling that Rita wasn't prepared enough for her baptism. It felt like we were dragging her to baptism. So during our companionship study, we knelt down and offered a humble prayer to God. We asked Him what His will was for Rita. I felt so strongly that Heavenly Father was telling me, "Thank you so much for all you and Sister Cendreda have done for Rita. You are literally doing it all for her. Thank you for fulfilling your covenants that you have made with me. But this isn't your covenant that you are going to make with me, this is Rita's covenant. She must act for herself." So Heavenly Father helped us understand that Rita needed to take a bigger step and show God that she was willing to make this covenant with Him. She called us every single day before her baptism to show that she wanted it and that she was ready. She is such a fantastic example to us. God has given her so many responsibilities including taking care of her husband, Lenin, who has recently had 2 heart attacks, and also taking care of her daughter, Elizabeth who has special needs. Rita is one of the elect. God trusts her so much...he trusts her with the lives of others too. We were so worried...we were thinking if she has so many responsibilities..how in the world can she fulfill a baptismal covenant. But what I learned is that Heavenly Father has made this covenant possible for everyone to make. We each have our own capacities to fulfill the callings of God. Rita has been blessed with more responsibilities than most of us. She is so blessed as she makes an even greater leap of faith for God. She has been given so much to do, but she always puts God first. It is amazing to think that she is 80 years old and changing her life so much. It is never too late to change for God and with God. That is 80  years of mistakes completely washed clean...and now she just has to endure to the end. Her baptism was so special. It happened Sunday after church. Many members came and we were shocked when we saw President and Sister Burt walk through the door. They are so good and came to support Rita! Rita was so excited and felt the Spirit so strong. She is a fighter and has literally given it all to God. God will bless her forever. I am so excited that next Sunday she will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Rita and Claudia (Rita's daughter)!

Grace, Vicky, and Joyce were all baptized too!! It was so good to see Grace right before her baptism. Every time I see her, I remind her of when we met at Surrey Central a year ago. She has changed so much. She said to me in her broken english, "I am so grateful. I am so happy." I told her "God is so happy for you." And her reply was "God loves me". It is so true. God loves us. He loves Grace. And He loves you. The gospel's blessings are there for all who will receive it! 

Grace, Vicky, and Joyce were baptized!!!! Love them! 

The Giron family loves us so much. They got a farewell surprise cake for Sister Cendreda 

Speaking of God's love. I want to give a tribute type of a thing to my best friend and amazing companion, Sister Cendreda. She has been working so hard. We ran so fast and so hard these last two transfers of her mission. My dad told me at the beginning of this transfer that my goal should be to work Sister Cendreda to the ground. And so that was my goal. I absolutely know I fulfilled that goal because my body is completely exhausted. I am so tired, but my Spirit has more energy than every before. My Spirit finds so much more joy in the work and sacrificing all for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Sister Cendreda was able to give her last testimony at our zone meeting this week. She is so powerful and she knows God, Jesus,and the Holy Ghost. She said in her testimony, "A few weeks ago, I was wondering if the Restoration was true. Then Heavenly Father told me to look at myself. I am the proof that this church and this gospel is true. I have changed so much." That was so profound. How could we not know the Church of Jesus Christ was restored. Look at us who are living it! We are the proof that it is true and that it is from God. Something I love so much about Sister Cendreda is that to every single person we talked to every single day she said to them before we left "God loves you" I have heard over the past 12 weeks "God loves you" every single day, multiple times a day. What a beautiful thing to be able to say that God truly loves all of His children, but even more to know that God loves all of His children. I love Sister Cendreda so much. She is incredible From her I have learned that I can give God everything! And He will take care of me. 

Hermana Cendreda & Hermana Hoth/ Friends Forever!

     I feel so blessed to be serving my Lord here and sacrifice all for Him. It is incredible to do the work of the Lord in Surrey...and I am so thrilled to be able to stay in Surrey another transfer. It will be different without Sister Cendreda, but I'm so excited to see Sister Wilson again. God is so good. He truly answers prayers! Just turn to Him, just give it all too Him. This morning, during our last comp. study, we just cried as we testified of the gospel to each other. God is so good. We know that this work is His. We know His love is real. Truly, all things are possible to those who believe in God. I know the gospel is real. It has changed so many lives. I am so honored to proclaim the truth every single day. I love the scripture found in Matthew 16:24-26. I am learning how to deny myself or forget myself and follow Jesus Christ. I love Him. I have learned that God is asking me to give it ALL to Him and He will take care of it all. 

Love,

Hermana Hoth

The Cerna family...ward mission leader.

Carolyn and Alex      Karla (below)! We love them all so much!

Mon, Apr 11, 2016 1:45 pm Dancing to the Music of the Gospel.

Dear family and friends,

These last few weeks of Sister Cendreda's mission are really so special and sacred for me. We were both able to bear our testimonies yesterday in Sacrament Meeting. I was so filled with gratitude for everything the Lord has done for me..and especially my companion. It is sad to see her go soon, but what I have learned from her is something I will cherish forever. I have learned that I can give EVERYTHING to God. Literally, everything. And He will take care of me, He will give me so many blessings that I won't know what to do with them. Sister Cendreda felt the truth of the gospel and she trusted in God. Now she is willing to give her all for Him, and He hasn't and won't let her down.

Blue Skies!!

I was able to study the talk Music of the Gospel by Elder Anderson this week from 2 general conferences ago. I studied it for Jacqueline's son, Jeremy because he has been struggling so much. It is so hard for me to see him change...and not in a good way. He was baptized in December and now can't remember anything. He seems to be so filled with darkness, when he could be filled with light. So as I was praying one day, Heavenly Father told me to read this talk. What I realized is that our individual happiness depends on our own ability to feel the Spirit or in other words, hear the music of the gospel. We cannot just go through life doing the steps of the gospel, they must be accompanied by the Spirit. If not, we will quit dancing. So what can we do to get the Spirit? 
1-We must walk the same path that we walked when we first heard the music of the gospel or felt the Spirit. So ask yourselves, "Are we doing the things that helped us hear the music in the first place?" 
2- Try our best to have the Spirit in our homes. It is where we practice. I remember an RM saying once that she never really liked the world because compared to the sweetness of her home, the world was so bitter. "It does little good to scold the darkness. We must displace the darkness by introducing light." If someone in our family makes it hard for us to feel the Spirit, we cannot scold them, we must introduce the light by our examples and our fervent desires to do what is right. 
3-Be Patient and keep practising- the promise of this is "With God's help, the day WILL come when the music of the gospel will fill your home with unspeakable joy." 

So I have very exciting news! Rita has been doing much better, we have been in contact with her every single day and she is so thrilled for her baptism on Saturday. I think at the end of my time in Vancouver, I felt much like Joseph Smith right before God and Jesus Christ appeared to him. I felt like I was in a dark place, like Satan had a great hold on me. And in that moment, I wanted to call upon God to help me, but I didn't know if He would. I didn't have the faith sufficient to do it. But now I see in these last two transfers, here in Surrey, I have gained my faith back and so much stronger too. I know God will answer and I know that just like Joseph's experience of having darkness be cast out by the light, God is shining the light on us now. We are having miracles and one of the greatest of all is Rita. It has been a blessing to teach her again. She is so special and so strong. And we found out this last week that she is 80 years old. Proof to all the people that tell us they are too old to change, that they are wrong. We can always change. So please pray for Rita! 

Oh my goodness! Exciting news! I met David Archuletta.......'s aunt and uncle! Haha, they are missionaries serving her. Haha, so funny! Now Sister Cendreda and I have plans to go to their homecoming..to see David. Haha. But really.

Dad...you're going to love this. The other day we saw a Seattle Seahawks sticker on someone's car and Sis. C got so excited and was like, "Oh my goodness, Seattle Seahawks...that's a soccer team right?" haha. Then a few days after that we saw another sticker on someone's car and she was like, "Okay..I know they're a football team. Go Seattle Seagulls!!!." Haha, I died laughing. 

Our goal these last few weeks has been to testify of the Restoration, especially the first vision. It has been incredible to share it with our members and everyone we meet. Our commitment has been for our members to memorize it. And so my invitation to you is to memorize the first vision. I know that as you do, you will gain a stronger testimony of it and God will give you the opportunity to share it with someone. God will never deny us an opportunity to share the gospel or to strengthen our testimonies. We must have the courage to take all of those opportunities. 

With the Moro fam

I would love to share my testimony with all of you. I know that this is truly Jesus Christ's work. I feel so much like the apostles of old going and teaching, ministering, and proclaiming. I know that Joseph Smith was called by our Heavenly Father to restore the church. Joseph saw God and Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon is the word of God. It has the power to change us. I pray that you will let this knowledge change you. I knew the gospel was true before my mission. I felt the Spirit burn deep in my heart. And for that I am serving a mission. Now, I KNOW the gospel is true. I know it and I boldly live it and teach it. 

Love,

Hermana Hoth

Mon, Apr 4, 2016 1:31 pm General Conference Was So Beautiful!

                                     Dear family and friends,

Okay, so general conference was so beautiful, as always. It has been so neat to testify of our living prophet and invite everyone to come and listen to his words. I know that he is called of God. I know that what he shares with us is the truth. I hope that we all got so much out of conference and that we continually go back and read or listen to these talks.

So my favorite talks were by Elder Stevenson, Elder Renlund, and Elder Holland. Elder Stevenson talked about keys and the priesthood. I loved this talk because the night before we were teaching our investigator, Karla, about how we can follow the prophet. She had so many great questions and asked how we can tell if someone is the prophet. We then taught her about the Restoration and about general conference. So then everything we had taught her, Elder Stevenson said in his talk. And Karla was able to be there to hear it all!! Such a testimony builder for me. She said that general conference was really different, but that it all made sense to her! We really love Karla, and she is progressing so much!

Karla kept the flower and note that Sister Johnson and I gave to her a year ago! 

Cendreda, Karla, Hoth

I loved Elder Renlund's talk because when he first spoke as an apostle last conference, I immediately gained a testimony that he was called of God. He said that the more distant we are from God, the more entitled we feel. The more entitled we feel to receive answers and blessings. But the closer we are to God, the more humble we are and faith filled. We understand that God gives us all in His own way and in His own timing. I pray that all of us may draw closer to God, and really understand His goodness and love. It was so powerful when he said If life were truly fair, we would never be resurrected and we would never be clean from sin. Oh, I am so grateful for Christ, for His sacrifice, and for His mercy. We truly do have so much. We have been given all we need. I pray to be more grateful and recognize everything God has already given me. 

Fun P-day at the temple! Hoth, Cendreda, Hoffman, Lewis, Yonk

Aw yeah!

Then to end, I absolutely loved Elder Holland's talk. It spoke to my soul. For those who know me, know that I am a perfectionist. I love to be diligent and work so hard, but at the same time it's hard, because I often find that I am demanding perfection from myself. And that is completely impossible. He said, "the great thing about the gospel is we get credit for trying, even if we don't succeed." "God doesn't just reward the perfectly faithful, God blesses all those who want to improve." This was a great lesson for all of us. To really understand who our Heavenly Father is. He is loving, He is kind, He is so good to us. We must not expect more of ourselves than God expects from us. Remember to call out to Him. Cry to Him for help, He will listen. I know that's true. There have been so many times in my life...and in my mission, where I have felt like I have lost all hope and all faith. But He is there...He is always there. We just have to raise up our voices in humble prayer, then we will feel Him near.

So this family is Grace's family. A year ago I gave Grace, the mom, a Book of Mormon at Surrey Central. Now her family is being taught and have baptismal dates. On exchange I got see them and teach them!!!

Sister Cendreda and I had the opportunity to give a training to our district this week. It was so inspired. We had prepared all of it about baptism and confirmation. We finished planning it on Wednesday morning and then we had a call from Rita. She was so depressed and wanted to completely give up. We talked to her about the Holy Ghost. "You can either go through all of these trials by yourself, or you can go through them with the Holy Ghost." We read D&C 20:37 with her. And she stayed. Because of this training, she didn't give up. It has been another rough go for her though. She just got out of the hospital with pneumonia. And so we will probably have to move her date back, but we are not giving up hope! Please say a pray for Rita!!

Models

We were walking down the street on Saturday and started talking to this young man. He didn't believe us that we could speak Spanish and asked Sister Cendreda to say something in Spanish. She said, "Te quieres bautizar?" Haha we died laughing. "Do you want to be baptized?" He was just like WHAT! We told him what it means and he was like, "well not right now".

We had a lesson with a family in our ward the other day and we just wanted to help with their daughter. She is young women's age and feels like she is losing her testimony. We taught about the Restoration. It was so powerful and so lead by the Spirit. The young woman said the prayer at the end and thanked God for the sisters because "they are my guides and the light in the darkness." Wow, that was so special for me! Teary eyes. I love being able to change lives with the Spirit.

Okay, so this talk was so perfect. It was exactly for Sister Cendreda. I admire her so much and I'm so grateful for the example she is to me. I have never met someone as brave as her. She literally has given ALL she has to the Lord. So I want to share the part of the talk that was so perfect for her!!

Elder Neil L. Andersen Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

My plea today is for the hundreds of thousands of children, youth, and young adults who do not come from these, for lack of a better term, “picture-perfect” families. …

These young Latter-day Saints enter the Church with great faith. They hope to create the family ideal in their own lives at a future day. In time, they become an important part of our missionary force, our righteous young adults, and those who kneel at an altar to begin their own families.

We will continue to teach the Lord’s pattern for families, but now with millions of members and the diversity we have in the children of the Church, we need to be even more thoughtful and sensitive. …

While a child’s earthly situation may not be ideal, a child’s spiritual DNA is perfect because one’s true identity is as a son or daughter of God.

… Let’s open our arms and our hearts a little wider. These youth need our time and our testimonies. …

… Reach out to the youth who feel alone, left behind, or outside the fence. Let us think about them, welcome them, embrace them, and do everything we can to strengthen their love for the Savior.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!:)

Love Hermana Hoth

Rosa and Emily say thank you thank you for the blanket

 

Dream team!

Tue, Mar 29, 2016 1:26 pm He is Risen.

Happy Easter everyone!

Zone conference!

This week has been very special to me. Very dear and sacred to me. I have had so many opportunities to gain a stronger testimony of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and His powerful Atonement and resurrection. I love that I have been able to share this testimony with all who I have met too. So I hope that as you read this, you think of our Savior. You think of His love and perfect sacrifice that He did just for you.

One of the experiences that I have had with the Atonement is when we heard about the death of a young father in the community. We have so many friends here, members and investigators, that have been so close to this young man. All of them have been so shocked about his sudden and tragic death. He died unexpectedly due to an accident at his work. As one of our members was telling us about his funeral, I just had so many emotions. I am so sensitive when it comes to all these things. For a brief moment, I felt overwhelmingly sad and depressed...for his family, for him, for all those he influenced in life, and for death in general. It was just so sad. But as soon as this thought came to me, another thought more powerful, beautiful and hope inspiring came to me. I thought of my testimony of Jesus Christ and His resurrection. I thought of when my grandma passed away and all of those doubts and feelings seemed to hit me all at once. It was at this time that I came to a knowledge of the goodness of my God and my Savior. I have a testimony that Jesus Christ resurrected. And because of this we will all live again. We will all have new life. I hope that all of you have been able to see the video #Hallelujah that the church has for Easter. We truly can find new life in Jesus Christ. All shall be made alive. This life does have worth, it does have a purpose. We live because we will live forever. We are here now to show our God that we trust in Him and will do the things that He asks of us. I have come to know that the saddest things in life are sins and death. But both of these things disappear as we learn about the forgiveness and resurrection we receive through Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. 

Pupuseria with Hermana Torres :)

We made pupusas with our favorite Hermana Torres

We were able to see Carolyn and Alex on Sunday. We had a beautiful lesson with them. We watched the video Hallelujah with them and they loved it. The Spirit was so powerful. Carolyn loved it because she said that Christ gives her such hope that this life is not the end. Alex loved it because it applies to absolutely everyone. In this video there are people from all over the world, rejoicing in Jesus Christ. They all hold up pictures of their loved ones who have passed away. But they all know that they will see these loved ones again. 

"She got a bubu. It was a critical moment." Hermana Cendreda

We have been able to have 3 lessons with Rita this week...and they were all over the phone. It was interesting to have lessons over the phone but they have worked really well. They have been so filled with the Spirit. She is so prepared this time! Please as you read this email...take a second and say a prayer for Rita. She needs it so much! 

"I love dogs. Haha." Hermana Cendreda

I had such a neat experience this week as we were finding. I absolutely know that God is directing this work. What we need to do as missionaries...and members...is be worthy and willing to have the Spirit. As we were driving to an area to find people to teach...I had the tiniest idea to go somewhere else...a complex that we had been to before. It really was such a small idea, but I figured it was from the Spirit. Something that Sister Cendreda has taught me is that "the first thing that comes to your mind is the Spirit, and the second thing is you personal doubt and fear." So we went...I prayed that God would help us find the person He was sending us to. As we got closer, the Spirit continued to grow and grow. Once we arrived at the place, the Spirit continued to direct us left then right and then told us to park. We parked and received the impression to start knocking doors at the bottom of the street and work our way up. We reach the bottom of the road and there is a lady outside on her porch. She was on the phone so she couldn't really talk to us but, she is Latina! Her name is Julia and she said that we could come back. After this miracle, we just looked at each other and were like WHAT? How in the world did we find her? It was so incredible. 

Well family I want to share my favorite scripture with you about the resurrection. It is a scripture that has always given me so much hope. This is when Mary and other women go back to the tomb where Jesus Christ's body was. The tomb was empty. Angels appeared to them and said,

Why seek ye the living among the dead?

He is not here, but is risen:

We cannot dwell on the dark and dreary, but remember the goodness of God. He send His Son to die for us...that we may not forever be dead. But that we might have life in Christ.

 Love, Hermana Hoth