Pics from Sept 2014

Ryan and Danelia Baptism

Breann’s daughters

Breann the wedding planner

Hermana Palencia, Breann, Elder Mann and Elder Gonzalez

H.Willardson and H. Palencia

Wedding of Ryan and Danelia

Sept 29th! 2014

Hey guys!!!!!

I hope your week is going great :) mine sure was awesome!!! ok be patient with this email we are at a different cyber today and this keyboard actually works.. It is weirding me out that I don't have to push down the keys with all the force of my fingers. Strange. 

Ok so first of we are going to start you with the funny story of the week, Yesterday we were sitting at lunch and Hermana Behan called me, this was the conversation.

"willy what are you doing?"

"eating lunch why?"

"oh good stop eating we need you here in our house in 20 minutes, your companion will need to bring stuff to sleep in."

"Wait.. why?"

"ok see you soon."

well ok.. hahaha basically I have just learned how do say "yes dear" and do what I am told. It is one of my best traits now a days. So we run home pack my companions stuff and go to Behans house when I get there this is how the conversation goes. 

"hey why am I here?"

"oh we are going to sing in a devotional in 10 minutes we need to pick a song and pratice it."

well ok.. so we pick a hymn and send our companions out to work as we run over to the church.

Turns out this devotional we were singing at was for young single adults and President was giving them advice about getting married... talk about feeling out of place... anyway so we get up there and we sang a primary song but when we get there behan says

"so does anyone here play the piano?"

and this kid stands up awkwardly and starts walking to the piano when 
I realized.. we don't know the words to this song and we are the only ones with a primary hymn book. So I told Behan that and she was like oh crap...

"that is great that you can play the piano... hahaha you may sit down now...." hahahahahaha it was hilarious. The poor guy was so embarrassed.

Another funny story is that there is a parrot here in this cyber that keeps saying HELLO HELLO?!?!?!?! HAHAHAHAHAHa and its laugh is like an evil witch haha now it is yelling CHELITA CHELITA (white girl white girl) and now it started meowing... what the... hahahaha anyway so I am typing and laughing at the same time-

Ok time for the miracle... SO last week I told you all that Ryan and Danelia were going to get married and baptised so this week we were focused on getting them ready. I put to test my creativity to get everything decorated and ready with balloons flowers the whole shabang... So they show up saturday and everything is great..then  the lawyer asks them for their papers----- whivh they had left in the house... SO I go RUNNING full speed with my companion to their house and we bust into their room and start looking for these papers... luckily we found them pretty fast. So we go booking it back to the church just DRENCHED in sweat... seriously it was disgusting. BUT the good news is that they were married and then Baptized :) There little boy when he saw the baptismal font said... "look mom a pool!!!!! I want to go in!!!!" hahaha but There was such a strong spirit there that testified to me that they are going to help the church here and go on to make lasting covenants in the temple- That is what I am here for. I couldn't care less about the numbers I am not here for that, I am here to help people make lasting covenants so that they can be with their families forever. I am so eternally grateful for the oportunity that my Padre Celestial has given me to be here as a missionary. All of the miracles he has allowed me to take part in. I love this Gospel, I love being a missionary!!!! I love you all!!

Love Hermana Willardson

Sept 23, 4 more months and she is on a plane home!!!!!

Hey guys, wasnt it just like yesterday that I was writing you all? I feel like yes it was... Anyway its all good time is flying like usual, thats a lie, it goes by faster every single day. 

So lets get to the good stuff :) 

Tuesday I got to go pick up my daughter from the mission house. For those of you in California that are asking me about Elder Utah Mann he is doing just great. He did the haukka in front of everyone his first day and people think he is the coolest guy ever haha. He has been assigned to Villa Flor which is here in Managua, its not in my zone but it is close. 

But more importantly, my daughter is adorable. Her name is Hermana Palencia and she is from El Salvador, she reminds me a lot of my old companion Hermana Cruz. She has so so so much faith and so much excitement for the work. Seriously this is why I love training. Her faith and energy give this old worn out missionary a boost :) It is funny to me to see her come with her new clothes all cute still and I wake up in the morning to see what skirt hasn't gone see through with all the time haha. Life of the old missionary :)  

So you should all probably remember when I talked about Ryan and Danelia. The family that is adorable and when they read the Book of Mormon they said that they felt something familiar about it? Ok so I have been in so many stinkin meetings that we hadn't passed by in awhile and I was just praying that they were still reading and awesome as usual. Tuesday night we went there and I told Hermana Palencia that we needed to invite them to be married so that they can get baptized (usually this is where we can tell if the investigators are chosen or not haha) so we had the most spiritual lesson that I have had in a long time. Testifying of the blessings of keeping this commandment, I know that the Spirit came and testified that our words were true. We talked about how they can have an eternal family when they get seal in the temple in 1 year (because that is the real goal) and after we invited them to get married and baptized the 27th. They looked at each other for awhile and my heart was pounding... i told them we were going to plug our ears and they could talk about it..... but i didnt plug my ears very well and I heard this sweet conversation between the two of them

"well its true it is a commandment...." Ryan

"It is you are right... I want to have you forever not just for this life" Danelia

"what do you think love? should we do it?" Ryan

"I have this burning in my heart that is saying yes...." Danelia

"ok lets do it :)" Ryan

I haven't cried often during lessons... but in this moment I did. Knowing that they felt and understood the Spirit was so rewarding. And knowing that my daughter (hna palencia) had this strong of a spiritual experience so early in her mission made me just break down in gratefulness. I am so extremely grateful. 

SO RING THE BELLS WE GONNA HAVE A WEDDING!!!!! With all of the weddings that I have planned...  I think i Know what my new carrer choice is. I am going to be a wedding planner. HAhah. 10 days to plan a wedding.. that should be a movie. And then the baptism :) pray for them. They are amazing.

Funny stories of the week. We were walking down the street one day and a little girl comes running after me saying (in English)

Hey white girl hey white girl!!!! Do you speak English?? 

Me :ummm kinda... haha

Little girl: good because my mom needs to talk to you.

Me: ok where is she?

So we go and find this lady sitting on the stairs and she starts telling me that she moved her with her husband because he got deported but now that they are here he has fallen into drugs and all kinds of bad stuff... so I took the oportunity to testify... but my testimony was like this.

Me: look hermana I know that some times things are dificil but you just gotta put your confianza in El Señor and He will help you out of it. 

Elizabet:umm I didn't understand much of what you said but I am going to keep praying and I am going to go to your church on Sunday. Maybe we should practice English...

How embarrassing. hahahaha.

Last funny story and then I gotta bounce. There is a little girl named Ericka, she is the daughter of some converts and she is the most adorable little girl ever she has 2 1/2 years. This week I got a call from a number I didn't know and I hear a little voice say

"Hermana Willy tengo hambre"

I imideately recognized the voice as hers but I didnt' know from what number she was calling me from so I asked for her mom and she just started laughing and kept saying tengo hambre tengo hambre so right before I hang up i hear her mom... ERICKA WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?! Hahahahahaha she had found her moms phone and called me to tell me that she was hungry because she knows that I always bring her snacks. Hilarious :)

Anyway I hope you all know that I am happy and working hard!! I love the mission, I love the church, I love to know that I am going to be with you all forever :)

Love Hermana Willy Willy! 

ps.. trunky thought for you all, in exactly 4 months from today I will be on a plane coming home.

Sept. 15th

Hey there family!!!! 

SO this week was another great one, but that is obvious... I am a missionary. All the weeks are good. As usual there isn't a ton of time so I am just going to hit the highlights of the week

Fabiola, she is the daughter of some of our recent converts, last sunday she told us that she wanted to be baptized. She goes to church every week but it was hard because during the week days she lives with her dad and on the weekend with her mom. That is why we hadn't been teaching her. But so Sunday we spent a good hour with her teaching her the first three lessons as well as some of the other lessons. Then she came to her moms house on Friday, we taught some more and then on Saturday she was baptized :) She is seriously adorable. I really enjoy the baptisms of teenagers because I know that I could be baptizing a future missionary. She has such a strong testimony that I know that if she has the oportunity she will serve. Seriously she is adorable. 

Lets see, this week as well are Transfers.... and I AM PREGNANT!!!!! Thats right, tomorrow I will be picking up my new companion. Her name is hermana palenco (pal lank o!) Pretty sweet name right? hahaha I am seriously so excited, I love training with all my heart! 

I am sorry but this is all I have time to write... I am going to send a better letter next week. 

Know that I am good, I am happy, and I am still the jump in the puddles when it rains kinda girl 

:)

I love you.

The church is true, the book is blue

Hna Willy willy. 

Pics from Sept. 8,2014

Laundry done!

Ice bucket challenge

P-day fun!

Sept. 8 2014. Thor in Nicaragua!

Sept. 8, 2014

Hey Fam!!!! How are you all doing this week?!?! I am doing just great, although I honestly feel like it was maybe 4 hours ago that I was writing you all last. Time is FLYING!!! I think this week might have been one of the fastest weeks that I have had so far. 

We had the privelege of having Elder Alonzo (70) Here in the mission with us this week. Honestly it was awesome to have a general authority, you can just feel the power. No joke. Someday I am going to be friends with a general authority and just have him sit there and talk to me about the Gospel. This email is going to be a little short because they changed the rules on us and now we have less time to write but I am going to fit in as much as I can! 

Basically all of this week I was in meetings, learning how to teach in the Lords way. Seriously if I could teach even a little bit like the Lord I know that all people would want to flock to the baptismal font. So that is what my studies have been focused on. To teach how the Lord taught. It has been quite interesting if I might say so myself. 

This week I was able to see how much the Lord blesses me as a leader, he knows that somedays I am not in my area, but he protects my investigators every time. Seriously He loves me. 

We have an incredible family that we are teaching right now, Brian and Danelia. This week we taught them about the Book of Mormon and then when we went back to see if they had read this is how the conversation went. 

"hey hermana how are you!!!"

"I am so great!"

"oh awesome! So did you guys get a chance to read what we left in the Book of Mormon?"

"YES!! And as I was reading it we felt something different... like if we had heard this story before... we felt something familiar.." 

In that moment the Spirit was SO STRONG... and the only thing I could think was "well I bet thats because they are probably related to the Laminites." And so thats what I said. I testified that Christ came to the Americas, and I know it is true. I know that He loves all of us. Seriously the spirit was so strong. Then they told us that they had cravings to read the whole book but they didn't know if they could read more than what we had left them :). So they are reading!!! Then in the closing prayer Danelia said "God, thank you for sending me the Hermanas.. I know what they are teaching is true. I am grateful for the prophets that were here in the Americas, that helped my ancestors follow thee."

Powerful.

They are preparing to be baptized for the 27th of this month. Pray for them!

Funny stories of the week,

I was out teaching this week and we saw a group of old people. So I thought, Hey lets go talk to them!! hahaha so we started preaching to them and I decided to ask one guy what year he was born to which he responded "I was born a baby!!" hahaha... ummm... thats interesting because I was born an adult.. haha. I think he must have gotten confused at my question.

So some of you might have heard about the falling star that fell really close to where I live this week... scared the living daylights out of me.. Hahah there I was sleeping peacefully when all of a sudden BOOOOOMMMMMM... and everything started shaking!! I woke up and my hands were gripped tightly on my bed. I had no idea what had happened so I was like "hey compa did you hear that?"...... Zzzzzz nothing... hahaha. So I got out of bed and walked to the door. All of the car alarms were going off and dogs were going crazy. I had no idea what had happened. I thought that maybe an airplane had crashed... but then a ton of dust started falling and I was like... what in the world is going on here. Then I realized I was tired and went back to bed haha. But the next day the whole world was talking about it. My theory is that Thor has come to Nicaragua. I am going to find him and teach him the gospel. 

Anyway short but sweet, I love you all. See you next week!!!

Hermana willy willy.

Emergency Transfers! What? Sept. 1

Sept 1
Well Family,

This week has been quite the week, it has definitely been tiring but very rewarding!! As you all know this area definitely hasn't been the easiest one... is it impossible? NO! But it does require a lot more work than some of my other areas. But I am ok with that :) It keeps me on my toes. 

This week started off great, we have been working a lot with the members, getting them pumped up to share the Gospel. We had a little training session with some of the wards most awesome members to train them in how to share the mission lessons so that they would feel more comfortable joining us. Then this week we set out looking for new people to teach. Through references we were able to find about 15 new people and 5 new families!!! It was SWEET!!!!

The plan was this, and I am going to tell you because I am proud of this inspiration that I got haha.

We have a DVD that has a mormon message that I really like, it is called "because of Him" (you can probably find it on YouTube). Anyway with this movie we went and visited the members and less actives and showed them this movie and invited all of them to think in someone that they could introduce us to. Then we set specific appointments for when we would come back so that they could introduce us to their reference and then have a lesson with them. It was incredible how some of the members responded. They were SO excited!!! And we were super excited too because I know that references are SO much more effective than knocking doors. Anyway so during the week we had more lessons with members than we did without! That is a sweet thing!! Haha especially because a lot of the members that we took out are converts of less than a year.. They are still super new in the church but have such a strong desire to share the gospel. Incredible. So then thursday came around and at about 5:00pm we recieved a phone call from the zone leaders....

"Hermana Willardson...?"

"Ya thats me"

"Can you put me on speaker phone?"

"well... ya...." (my heart pounding because I know that is never a good sign...)

"Hermanas, you have emergency changes, Hermana Colado is going to Chinandega to be senior companion, Hermana Willardson will stay here in you area as a TL and will be recieving Hermana Gamboa as her new companion. Have all of your stuff ready and be in the chapel at 8:00 tomorrow morning."

Crap.

So my sweet little daughter grew up really fast and now she is senior companion in Chinandega. And I have a new companion. Hermana Gamboa, she is from Mexico, and she is pretty awesome!

Alright, so now onto Sunday... game day....

We knew that we had to get Dinora and her family to church so that they could be confirmed... When we showed up Ashley was still in bed. (small confession... don't mess with me on Sunday morning.. I don't take no for an answer) So I was like Ashley what the heck are you doing we need to go. And like every teenage girl she was like "I don't want to shower just let me sleep!!!" Well... I wasn't going to take that for an answer so I walked right into her bedroom and picked her up off of her bed... yes ladies and gentleman... I did that.. and I carried her into the bathroom and put her down and said "Shower right now we are leaving in 20 minutes.." hahahaha you can all imagine the look on my new companions face :) but luckily she just laughed really hard and we left to go get some other investigators. And like normal a lot of them still had some stupid excuse.. so I was like... well at least we are going to have some comfirmaciones today. So we went back to go get Dinora and family... and Diana can't find her shoes... Good heavens...we start tearing apart the house and nothing... so.. I gave her mine hahaha. And I walked to church barefoot... was it a dumb idea... yes, because now i have burns on my feet.. BUT hey all of them were confirmed members of the church :) ALSO I thought we weren't going to have any investigators at church but when we got there two members came up to us SUPER excited and said " We brought a family to church with us!!" In that moment, I cried. I am so grateful for the things that I am learning in this area, it hasn't been easy but that is why I am grateful. It streches me to my limits, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. And just when I feel like I have done more than I thought I could do the Lord shows His hand. Always. So we will be working with this family and we will continue working with the members. They are so vital in this work. 

I am so grateful for every single one of the trials, every single one of the bad days, because I know that they mean that I am going to have a really awesome day soon!! :) I feel my Saviors love and I cannot deny it.

I love you all!

Hermana Willardson

August 25th When it rains it pours

Well family :) here we are again.. I feel like we are always here, me sitting in a cyber sweating and trying to remember the week haha. Don't worry next week it is going to be igual. Anyway also I just got back from the Dentist and I think when they numbed my jaw they also nummed half of my brain. I am praying that this email comes out ok. 

Alright peeps, so you might have noticed that the subject of this email is "when it rains it pours..." This is the title for 2 reasons. 

First because of this story, this week I was in divisiones with some hermanas that have been having a little bit of a problem in their area. So this area is a little difficult but I know that if we have a good attitude everything is better. So we were street contacting, preaching to everyone that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored (best thing I´ve ever heard) and no one was wanting to listen to us. So there I was trying to make jokes in Spanish to help the hermana I was with not get disanimated when all of a sudden out of nowhere it starts DOWNPOURING. Seriously it came out of nowhere... so there we were, after being rejected all day, standing in the pouring rain with no where to go. In this moment I decided that we could either sit down and cry, or learn to dance in the rain. So I smacked that smile on my face and went out and started jumping in the puddles.. As you can all imagine the little latina I was with was like "goodness this gringa is a weirdo." but then I told her to come join me and slowly but surely she did. Well little did I know.. there was a family watching us as we laughed and enjoyed the rain. When I saw that we were being watching I said to the hermana "hey lets go talk to them" As we got there they were still laughing at us. So (please try to picture this next part) as I extend my hand to introduce us I am dripping all over the place. But with a big smile on my face I say " HI WE ARE THE MORMONS!!" hahahhahaha they started laughing and we started talking. They told us that they were really impressed at our reaction with the rain and asked us why we were so happy. So we testified that it is because we know God sent us to Earth to be happy. He is happy when we are happy. We then testified that we know that families are forever. They were really interesed and we put an appointment with them for the next day when we would be dry. Haha unfortunately I don't get to see the progress of this family but I do know that they came to church on Sunday and they loved it. 

Second story.. Ok so we all know that I have been struggling a little in this area. But in my scripture study I learned something really important from Nephi. We all know the story about when he broke his bow right? Well if not it is like this... Nephi is an awesome hunter so he always hunts for his family, but one day he breaks his bow and all of his family is like "dude Nephi now we are going to die from hunger because you were dumb and broke your bow." (this is how I see the story anyway.) This is what it really says... 

"18 And it came to pass that as I, Nephi, went forth to slay food, behold, I did break my bow, which was made of fine steel; and after I did break my bow, behold, my brethren were angry with me because of the loss of my bow, for we did obtain no food. "

 So what does Nephi do? Does he just sit there and say... shoot dang guys you are right.. we aren't going to eat.. why isn't the Lord blessing us? NO! He gets up and goes to make a new bow. Not only that but he arms himself with other tools as well and then to make it even more epic hes like "ok God where do I go to get food?" I always like to picutre this part as Nephi with his bow and arrow and slingshot and rocks just standing there all epicly saying. "ok where do I go?" Sweet. 

" 23 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did make out of wood a bow, and out of a straight stick, an arrow; wherefore, I did arm myself with a bow and an arrow, with a sling and with stones. And I said unto my father: Whither shall I go to obtain food?"

So this week I decided. No I am not just going to sit here thinking that I am being punished, I am going to remake my bow and go get some "food". It is amazing what a little change of attitude can do.

So after working hard all week... the blessings poured down just like the rain. Was it a perfect week? No. But it sure was a great one. Sunday after church Dinora, Ashleyn, Alison, and Diana were baptized. It is incredible to me how the Lord prepares the people just in time for us to get there and help them recieve the saving ordenanzas (cant remember how to spell that in english.. so its in spanish.)

It was such a sweet spirit as we prepared the 4 white skirts and 4 white shirts.  We also invited all of their little friends and hermana Behan got to come to the baptism... even though there was a little bit of stress, it was incredible. How lucky am I to be part of this work? EXTREMELY!!!! So Here I am counting every blessing and shaking off the upsets. The trials come, but I am a missionary, and a daughter of God, these trials aren't going to phase me :). I know that for my diligence and true hard work, and obedience the blessings will continue to fall. Will they come in my time? No. And thats ok :) I needed to learn to be patient anyway. 

I know this is short, but it is powerful so I feel good about it. 

Thank you to my daddy Curt who sent me an amazing talk this last week to help me change my attitude. Hes the best isnt he?

I love you all and I will be back writing before you know it!

Have a great week!

Hermana Willy willy.