4th of July Week

7-7-14
Hey Family!!! Happy 4th of July!!! I hope you all passed it well :) 

This week for me has been a good one! This week for me has been one of the best ones that I have had, a lot of memorable things have happened. SO if you all remember last Monday I was telling you all how close we were to hit our goal of 102 families. Well Monday night at 8:00pm my district baptized the 102 family!!!! WE HIT OUR GOAL!!!!! WAHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Seriously best thing ever. The Lord seriously worked miracles in the mission and I am so grateful that I was able to be a participant and not just a bystander. We as a companionship were able to baptize 2 families, they were families to complete but they are still families added to the branch. I have been so so so blessed in the mission. Many days I stand all amazed at the blessings and miracles that I recieve even though I am far from perfect. It just makes me realize more and more that this isn't my work, it is the Lords work and He uses us as His instruments for the things He needs to get done. We are just incredibly blessed to be a part of it. How lucky am I to be a missionary in the time that the Lord is hastening His work? Gosh, I AM SO BLESSED!!!!! Ok haha sorry that is probably enough bragging. I am working on being more humble :) Hahaha. Ok so this week I am going to change things up a little bit and instead of giving you a day by day play I am going to tell you about the special investigators we are working with right now. 

Yadira y Lester: This family is one of my favorite families. The only problem that we have had is getting Lester to church. The Nicaraguan men are a little hard. He knows that the church is true, he knows that he needs to change a couple things of his life, but sunday mornings are just hard for him. It makes me laugh sometimes that the Lord gives me investigators that are so similar to me hahaha. Don't worry I now know all the reasons for not sleeping in on Sunday. 

Yasmina y Elizabeth: These are the sisters of Yadira, they are SO AWESOME. They will be getting baptized this weekend because they don't have any problems haha. They don't have husbands but they both have one kid. That happens a lot here. haha. But everytime we leave them something in the Book of Mormon to read not only do they read it but they memorize it as well. Seriously the Lord prepares the people and all we have to do is find them. Love the work.

Maribelle y Byron: these are cousins of Yadira and they also want to get married and baptized when Yadira and Lester do. The only problem is that they haven't been to church yet either for a couple of emergencies that have happened. But pray for them they will do it I just know it. 

This week I had the usual interview with President, he shared a couple of scriptures with me to get me even more excited to work!!! I know that the time is flying and I need to give it all I have so that I won't have any regrets. Pray for me, because even though my heart and mind want to work my body has been getting tired lately haha. 

Today we went on a hike, which I don't know why we do that we walk all week. But we were going to go look for this place that has monkeys... well we got lost... and ended up walking in the jungle from 9:00 until 2:00. And in mountains. there were also times that the path was SUPER slippery and I slid down part of the mountain haha. You all know how I am. It is difficult for me to walk without falling. But its ok my pants were just all covered in mud NO BIGGIE... oh yes and this week we had the meeting with all the leaders and I GOT TO SEE Hna ALAN!!!!! It was super awesome to be able to see her again. I have missed her a lot. I love her so so so so so much. Hahaha. But seriously. She is like my latin sister. I love her. 

Anyway I have you all in my prayers and I hope that you have me in yours. Pray that the mission will keep seeing success. I love you all very much!!!

Love Hermana Willardson. 

Hey all you Powell Poopers

June 30,2014
Hey there all you crazy Lake Powell poopers. I will have you know that I haven't thought about Lake Powell at all this week.. hahaha just kidding.. Even if you didn't tell me that you were there I already knew :) But I am actually not all that sad that I am not there because things in the mission are going great!!! Remember how I told you guys that at the beginning at the month that as a mission we had a goal of Baptizing 102 families this month?? Well as of right now we have 99 baptized and the possibility of baptizing 4 more today... PRAY REALLY HARD WHEN YOU GET THIS EMAIL!!! The Miracle of June is still very possible!!! We just have today to do it. I totally know that it is possible. We have been working hard to hit our goal, not only here but helping the other sisters as well. I am super excited!! Oh man I can't even focus on this letter there are so many things going on in my mind right now. I got some interesting news today and now my thoughts are just all over the place.. Things are changing back home big time. Haha. Gosh guys why do you gotta be changin?? 

Anyway I will fill you in on what happened this week!! There are so many miracles to fill you all in on. I am stoked. Ok so last week we met a family that the Mom is a member but her husband and son aren't so on Tuesday we went to go teach them and the father and son told us they wanted to be baptized this week... what the... well ok!!! Seriously the Lord knew we were looking for another family to baptize and he put them right in our path. So Sunday after church we had their baptism :) It was a really spiritual experience. I loved it. 

This week I had a lot of moments where I just had to stop what I was doing and thank the Lord for His help in this work. Seriously He has given us some investigators that are INCREDIBLE: Remember how I told you last week that we are teaching Yadira and Lester? Well we had a lesson about the Word of Wisdom which is usually a pretty hard thing for the people to understand. Especially because the majority of them have drinken... drunken.... uhhh... whatever the proper word for that is...  coffee since infancy. But we brought a member with us and the Spirit was SO strong and they understood SO well. They told us that they don't even like coffee and they don't have a problem with any of the other things. Seriously a miracle. We are also teaching the 2 sisters of Yadira, they are named Yasmina (and her husband Enrique) and Elizabeth. They are INCREDIBLE as well. We gave them a Book of Mormon this week for them to read and everytime that we go there to ask if they read the homework we left them they will repeat us WORD FOR WORD what it said. Seriously... I have such a strong testimony that the Lord prepares the peoples hearts just in time for us to arrive. I stand all amazed. 

Another miracle, so this week we were super poor... I am not even kiddin... we had 20 cordobas to split between the two of us and no food... I was like oh man how are we going to survive.. haha because we had to wait 6 days until we could get food and as you all know my personal card hadn't been working. So we decided to pray and then go try to buy some food using my card... I had to put a lot of Faith into that prayer because the debit card that I have is really damaged... So we went to Super Estrella to buy some food.. and when we got to the ummm well that place where you pay I gave them my card and he tried it and it wouldn't work and wouldn't work... I was so bummed because we literally had NOTHING in the house.. not even water.. SO I sent up a fervent prayer to my Father in Heaven and I asked the man to try it one more time. AND IT WORKED!!!! Hahaha.. The Lord always provides. 

Now I have two really funny stories to finish you all off with. So this week I was in divisions with Hermana Quin and the only problem with my area is that if we need to go to the bathroom we have to return back to the city in a bus that takes about 30 minutes... or we could pee in a hole in the back of a converts house... and well she didn't want to do that.. So she was like hey I have to go to the bathroom and I was like well... I don't know where we can go. Then we started walking and ran into the river that is on the edge of our area and across the river is a big grove of trees.. the only problem was that we had to try to cross the river and with all the rain it has been pretty full lately. But she had to go so we started out to cross the river. Luckily I have become a Nicaraguan and I hopped across those rocks like a pro.. But the poor Hermana Quin wasn't quite as lucky and slipped on one of the rocks and got all wet hahahaha it was really funny because the water from the sewage runs into that water... so then she smelled the whole rest of the day as if she had peed her pants. 

This week it has rained a lot.. but not just normal rain we are talking about Nicaraguan rain... This is how it happens. One second you are walking all normal and sunny and then in literally in 15 seconds you will be drenched from head to toe from the rain. It doesn't even matter if you have an umbrella or not. You will be soaking haha. It is really exciting because the streets turn to rivers and then I get to practice my swimming. 

We were at the house of Arlen and her kids and we were going to do the last oracion and Ismael wanted to do it. So he closed his eyes and crossed his arms and this was his prayer "Heavenly Father thank you for sending us the hermanas, so that we can go to church, thank you for the hermana willy willy and the other one whose name I don't remember. Help us to brush our teeth so we can go to church, and brush our hair so we can go to church, and shine our shoes so we can go to church, and eat our rice and beans so we can go to church. Amen" Hahaha it was probably the best prayer I have ever heard. He is only 5 years old and he prayes better than I do. :) I sure do love that family. 

Anyway PLEASE BE SAFE THIS WEEK!!!! I love you all very much. But don't worry before you all know it I will be there bugging you again. 

I love you

Love Hermana Willardson 

Just another week in Paradise

June 23,2014
Hey there family!!! I hope you are all doing well! This week was another great one here in the service of my Lord!!! Actually this week I spent a whole bunch of time in a bus.. that was pretty awful haha but I made the best of it and took some naps. I mean... read Preach my Gospel... haha just kidding. I was exhausted so yes I took advantage of the time and rested a minute or two. I felt like it was justified. 

SO lets start off with Monday, monday we decided to play waterballoon volleyball!!! It was super sweet until someone got angry and then it just turned into a huge waterballoon fight. HAha that was actually still pretty fun though because it was a hot day and we were all sweating. Then at night it rained and seriously it felt like it was snowing because it was SO COLD!!! I had to go to the house to grab a jacket. Yes, it really was cold. 

Tuesday we got to work early and worked hard all day we found a couple new families. One of these new families is named Yadira and Lester. They have a cute little girl named Catarine. I had the feeling to talk to them as we were walking to our next appointment and they were on their way to their house. They were really interested and told us to please come back. We were like well OF COURSE we will come back haha!!! They are super cute!! 

Wednesday we had to go to managua for a leaders meeting. It was with all of the new leaders so I knew some transfers early. :) but it was only us with a couple of the other zones so I didn't know who all of the new leaders would be. It was really great because they trained the new District Leaders how to do things and they trained the Zone Leaders how to be more effective as well. Then they talked to us to help us on how we can do intercambios better. It was a really great beneficial day. I enjoyed it quite a bit!!! I am started to like the meetings because you can learn SO MUCH from president. He is seriously one of the smartest men I know and I am unbelievably (that is spelled wrong I know) grateful to be so close to him!!! He has such a strong spirit and just knows how to do things that will really help the mission. Right now we are changing a lot of things that we are doing to try to better the mission as a whole. How to retain the people we have baptized and how to teach more effectively. Seriously it is a huge blessing for the mission and I know it is going to help a ton!!!! 

Thursday we did intercambios with Hermana Cahan and Hermana Janzen, I was with Hermana Cahan. I was super excited to work with her because I swear she is Annies twin. She is SO HILARIOUS and she has been one of my best friends ever since I got to matagalpa. We spent the whole day laughing. We went back with Lester and Yadira and taught them lesson 1. (the jose smith lesson) Seriously the spirit was so so strong and they were SO receptive to the message that we have. We invited them to be baptized for the 5th of July and they said YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WAHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOO Fill be baptizmal font ladies and gents. I am so happy for them 

Friday we had to go back to managua to drop my companion off and then I came back with hermana RAymond to do more intercambios. I always love working with her because she just knows how to do the work and I always learn from her!!! We found 3 new families and invited everyone that we talked to to be baptised :) Some of them said yes and some said no. But at least now they understand why we are here as missionaries. It was a very spiritual high day :) I loved it.

Saturday I had to go back to managua to drop off hermana Raymond and bring home my compaion. We celebrated her birthday a little bit.. but I am OUT OF MONEY completely from all of my travels to managua... so I couldn't buy her much... I made a pretty sweet card though. Then we brought our golden family to the baptizm of the elders and the spirit was so so strong they are totally going to get baptized :) I am stoked. ALSO my daughter is going to be a TL!!!! WAHOOOO we found out the transfers and I am still with my companion :) killin it here in Matagalpa!!!

Sunday we had 3 families in Church :) it was the miracle we have been praying and working for. Somehting  that I have learned is that I need to work like everything depends on me but pray like everything depends on God. I have such a strong testimony that God answers prayers. Before the mission I knew that He listened but here in the mission I ahve really had to rely on Him. I am grateful because it has strengthened my testimony so so much! And my relationship with my Heavenly Father. I am grateful for you all and for the support you always give me. 

As for my friends that have now completely forgotten about me... a little letter from yall would be appreciated. 

But as for my family you guys rock!!! Thanks for EVERYTHING!!! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!