One tired Hermana!

The Landlady

Happy Fathers Day

6-16-14

Hey Family!!!! I hope you are all doing well :) 

First and foremost I know you probably think that I forgot dad but I didn't.. HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!!!! I actually sent you a special letter today so don't you think that I forgot :) 

This email is going to be a little short again because I don't have tons of time. 

Lets see, this week was another good one full of work, my poor companion and I are pretty exhausted but it is so worth it. We have spent quite a bit of time outside of our area but I know that the Lord protects our area even if we aren't there. This week I sent my companion to Esteli and I was here with hermana Taufoou, she was in the MTC with me and it was fun to be able to work with someone that has the same amount of time that I do. It made me feel strange to talk to someone that has the same time as I do.. made me feel kinda old in the mission. Hahah. We had an activity in the Branch and after we played charades, one of the things that I had to act out was ninja turtles... luckily I have had practice in being a ninja turtle so it was pretty easy for me. But the members thought that it was so funny haha- 

On thursday I went to Esteli to bring my companion back and we missed the bus so we had to wait a whole hour until the next one came. We started contacting in the terminal and I found a white guy that didn't speak any spanish.. so I started talking to him... in the middle of the conversation he said... hey I don't really understand anything you are saying.. I don't speak spanish. I was like I AM SPEAKING ENGLISH!!!! But then I realized that in the middle of the conversation I had switched to Spanish... whoops sorry guy. 

Friday my companion and i both went to La Dalia to help the hermanas out that are there so we spent 2 hours in the bus to go there and we worked for about 3 hours and then we spent 2 hours coming back home. But I know that we helped out the hermanas because on Sunday they brought a family to church for the first time in 3 months. That made me really happy. Even if it takes up some of my time I love going to other areas to help. I love the mission because everyday I feel like I am doing something worth my time. It is fantastic.

Right now we have some pretty awesome families that we are teaching. One that is named Vilma and Holman and their son Gabriel this family has stolen my heart. They are so so so awesome!! They are looking for a church and have studied a lot of different churches but never liked them. So they came to church with us and they really really liked it. :) We are praying that they will be baptized here pretty soon. We had an awesome lesson with them and a member family. These lessons are my favorites, when we can bring another family with us to talk to them about how the gospel has blessed their lives. The members can bring such a strong spirit and then the family feels like they have friends in the church. It is awesome. If any of you get the chance to leave with the missionaries, DO IT!!!! The members are seriously essential in the missionary work, because the work is not just of the missionaries. It is the work of everyone in the ward, I know sometimes we forget that as members we also play a huge role in the work of the Lord but this is my challenge for you all. I challenge you to think of a family, or a person, a friend, or even an enemy that isn't a member, pray for their hearts to be softened and invite them to church. Do not be afraid to share the Gospel!!! It is the message that is changing the world!!!! I am so grateful to be part of the work in the time that the Lord is hastening it. 

Thank you for all of your love and support!!!!

Love Hermana Willardson

6-9-2014

Hey there family!!! How are you all doin? I am sure you are all loving that it is finally summer there :) Be sure to wear your sunscreen and be careful when you are swimming! I don't wanna hear about any accidents while I am gone ok??? Haha.

This week was another good one with a lot of work. As I mentioned in my last letter as a mission we have set a really high goal for this month. What that means is that every companionship needs to baptize at least one family. That means that as TLs my companion and I are always on the run trying to help out the other sisters plus trying to baptize more in our area too. It is exhausting, but I love it SO SO SO much. A lot of nights this week we have gotten home, send our numbers to the District leader and then just pass out on the couch still in our missionary clothes. We are blessed to have a couch to pass out on. I love the feeling of being a missionary and knowing that everyday I am doing something worth while. 

On Tuesday I headed out to a little town called La Dalia to help out the hermanas there. I kid you not it is literally the jungle. We had to take a bus for 2 hours outside of Matagalpa and then another rickity bus for about 20 minutes to get to this little town. When I got there I just stood in awe of the beauty of Nicaragua. Everything is so GREEN haha. So we got there and got to work. It is the start of the rainy season so when it rains... it rains... and we usually get soaking wet. It doesn't even really matter if we have an umbrella because you get soaked either way. But we were walking down part of the mountain and it was pouring rain. And well.. the streets are just dirt road and my shoes gave out from under me and I slid down the hill in the mud hahaha. My skirt was covered in mud... I would have taken a picture but it is a little dangerous there so I didn't bring my camera. But the hermana I was with was so worried for me and I just laughed and laughed and laughed. I have a feeling that with the rain this is going to happen a lot. It is an adventure on this side of town :). The branch in La Dalia usually has an assitance of about 10 people. Incuding the missionaries there. It is an area a little difficult but we found 3 new families for the sisters to teach there!!! It was a good day. 

Wednesday I got back to my area and we got to work. Right now we are teaching 10 families and we have a goal of 15 families teaching but it is HARD haha. Sometimes there are people that are so positive when we first talk to them and then we go a second time and the Jehovas Witness have gone and talked bad about the church. The people here have some of the funniest rumors about the church... makes me laugh sometimes. 

Thursday I headed out to Ciudad Dario. It is another area super cool. Gosh my English sucks.. haha. Anyway while I was there, we went to go look for some new people for them to teach and we found this old couple that looked really friendly so we went up and talked to them. Turns out that they are Jehovas Witness tambien... so when we got there they were like oh come sit down we want to talk with you ... so I was thinking oh sweet they are positive... then when I saw that the old man went to go get his Bible I knew that they didn't really want to listen. The hermana I was with is new so she didn't really know that when the people want to fight it is better to just walk away so she whipped out her Bible too... Then it was just awful... there are few things that make me mad these days but Bible bashes get me heated really fast.. haha. It is a problem.. so they started going off and I was like this is a waste of time. So I stood up in the middle of the converstation and I was like well when you want to LEARN give us a call. And I started walking away.. the little hermana following behind haha

Friday we had a conference with President. Seriously that man knows how to call the Spirit. I always LOVE meetings with him because he leaves everyone with the desire to go out and work better. We heard the testimonies of the people that are going home and it was weird for me... Elder Whited was my Zone Leader in Leon and now he is the Zone Leader in Esteli so whenever the hermanas in Esteli need help he calls us up. Basically he has been my friend for awhile and he is going home this month. It is always sad to see your friends go and in this transfer and the next transfer we are losing A TON of missionaries. More than 50% of the leaders too. It makes me sad to see my friends go. But that is just how it goes. 

This Saturday we had the baptism of Byron.. I don't think I mentioned him in my last email but we have been working on activating this family and they finally went to church last week!!! WOOHOOO while we were there the little boy came up to us and told us that he wanted to be baptized :) So we taught him everyday and on Saturday his dad baptized him. It was really special to see the joy that the gospel brings to families. I am so grateful that I grew up in a house that always had the gospel. Even though we fight, cry, and sometimes yell, I know that my family is the best thing I have. All of my favorite memories are from my family and I have been truely blessed to have you all. Thank you for all of your love and support these passed 21 years. I love you all so so much!!!

Be good and say your prayers :) 

Pray for the miracle of June!!

June 2, 2014

Family of Mizline

Mizlines baptism

New dress made by a member there

Great tan lines

Cleaning the baptismal font

Congratulations Mizline

June 2, 2014

Hello Family!

This week was another good one, working, falling, getting back up again, and working even harder. This Tuesday we had our monthly leaders meeting and we set a goal for the mission to baptize 102 families this month. It is going to take a lot of hard work and dedication but mostly it is going to take faith. I have learned a lot about faith since I ahve been on the mission, even though it is a small word it is really powerful. I think sometimes we forget about the power of faith. But we set this goal on Tuesday and I knew I needed to give all I have and more. So we started with a clean slate and we are giving it our all. 

This week we saw another miracle. A little while ago I told you all about a girl named Mizline, she has been coming to church with us since my first week here but never wanted to get baptized. This week we worked a lot with the Young Women in the branch and on Thursday she called us up and said "hermanas, I want to be baptized!!" So we were like well that is awesome, when? "Tomorrow" she said. So Friday morning we filled the baptizmal font and had a baptism. I love baptisms for the spirit that is there. With every different convert there is a different spirit and with Mizline I knew instantly that she is going to be not only a big help to the branch but to her family as well. She lives with her mom that was inactive for a long time. As well as her aunt and uncle and her grandparents. Now all of them are active because of her. I know that the Lord will use us as His intruments even if we aren't perfect. 

Sorry this is a little out of order, but Monday after writing we went to go have family night with some converts. When we were about to leave their daughter Johanna showed up with Sindy and her little brother. We found out that Sindy had walked with Ismael (5 years old) all the way to the church from their house (about 4 miles) for an activity. And then they were going to walk all the way back because they didn't have money for the bus. Luckily some members found out and gave her the 4 cordobas for the bus. It was pouring rain and they were soaking wet. It made me realize how lucky we are back in the States, to have the things that we do and yet we are still so ungrateful. This family of Arlen, Sindy, Hector, and Oscar have taught me so much. They live in a house made of sticks and plastic and yet they find some way to be at every church activity, every Sunday, and they are happier than 95% of the Americans I know. Even though they usually don't even have enough money to eat dinner. I have learned so so much from them. I know that God sent them to me not so that I could teach them but so they could teach me. Sometimes I wish that you could all come here to Nicaragua with me so that you could see what true joy really is. The people here have it figured out. 

This week I am pretty sure that we also met Batman. He is this white guy (first off it is strange to see white people here) that lives in the poor part of our area all alone. But he looks JUST LIKE BATMAN I am not even kidding you. He doesn't speak spanish hardly at all but one night he found us and was warning us that we shouldn't be in part of our area at night because it is dangerous. So we said thank you and then he started asking me what I was doing here. So we introduced ourselves and talked about the church for awhile. Then he went on the random speach about how he was in jail and the people there beat him and he almost died. He pretty much explained the whole story of Batman. And now I am convinced that it is him. So that marks that dream off of the list.

Anyway that is about all I have for you all this week. I hope you know I love you and pray for you often.

Love Hermana Willardson

10 months in the mission!

Breann Celebrated 10 months and her companion celebrated 9 months.

What better way to celebrate than with a family baptism.

She loves these kids!

May 26 2014

Man family, this week has probably been one of my favorites in the mission. It had its moments of stress as usual but probably some of the happiest moments I have felt as well. So I am going to start you off with some funny stories that happened this week and then I am going to talk about the miracle of May. 

So I was in divisions with Hermana Ewing (another white girl) this week and we were walking down the street to go to an appointment when we heard the truck that has all the fumigation coming. The problem was that we didn't know what dirrection it was coming from. So we walked to the corner and out of nowhere comes the truck right at us spraying this horrible gas, so we took one look at eachother and just started bookin it the other direction. It was like a movie moment haha and you know what the bums in the truck did... they started driving FASTER!!!!! Luckily we are missionarys and we are super fit so we outran them haha but once we got to a safe spot we just started laughing pretty hard. Ok... so that story probably wan't that funny for all of you but it was funny for me... guess you had to be there. This next one is a good one though.

So I was riding in the bus this week and this old man came on and sat in the seat next to me. After about 30 seconds I started hearing this chirping noise so I was like hmmm that must be someones weird ringtone on their phone or something. But the noise kept going and I realized it was coming from the old man sitting next to me so I was like what the.... old chirping man.... right as I looked over at him he pulls out a baby chick from his pocket!!!!!! I was like what in the world?!?!?! Ya a real live baby chick. He then tells his little chick to be quiet or he wont give him dinner and then puts the baby chick back in his pocket! Poor little chick... so I just sat there looking at him all astonished and then he looked over at me and winked!!! I bust up laughing. 
Another funny bus story, we were heading over to one part of our area and on the buses they sometimes play really old music in english. I was sitting there thinking about where we were going and what we were going to teach and things like that when out of nowhere this little boy stands right next to me (the bus is moving by the way) and starts singing to me. The song is the one that says "I WANNA KNOW WHAT LOVE IS, I WANT YOU TO SHOW ME!!!!" He just stood there singing me the whole song and at the end of it pulled out a little flower from his pocket and asked me to be his girlfriend. I asked him how old he was....7 years old ladies and gentlemen. He was adorable but I told him I was a missionary and that it just wouldn't work out between us... I felt bad... haha so I bought him a chocolate. 

Alright well now that hopefully you all got a little giggle from my stories I am going to tell you the best part of the week. SO remember last week when I talked about the family we met that we were planning on baptizing this weekend?? The single mom with 6 kids?? Well, they got baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO. It went like this, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we taught them everything. First we taught the W.O.W so that they would stop drinking coffee (because all 6 kids and the mom drank coffee, they even gave it to the 9 month old baby) So they all agreed to stop drinking it and we bought them some stuff that they could use to replace it. Then Thursday night we were getting everything ready so that on Friday they could get interviewed by our District leader. As we were leaving Sindy (the one that talked to us first, she is 12) told us that she didn't want to get baptized anymore. We were shocked because she was the one that found us and said "hey when can I be baptized" but something that I have learned in the mission is that there is always oposition before the miracles. SO we left her some homework in the Book of Mormon to read. That night we started a fast so that Arlen (mom), Sindy(12), Oscar (10) and Hector (9) would all be baptized this weekend. We took the elders to interview them on Friday and Sindy told us that she still didn't want to be baptized but she agreed to be interviewed anyway. We put a lot of faith in the Lord that He would answer our prayers and our fast. Saturday morning we went to go pick up the family to get baptized. When we got there Sindy went to go "buy corn" and didn't come back for about 45 minutes, I was praying the whole time that she would feel in her heart the desire to come back. Right as we were walking out the door to go baptize the other 3 she showed up. She told us that she didn't want to get baptized so I said "ok but at least come support your family." so she agreed and we left. When we got there I said to her "Sindy what is it that you are afraid of?" She then told me she was scared of drowning..... hahahahahahahahahahahaha I explained to her that I am a lifeguard and I would never let that happen. But she was still insistant that she wanted to wait. So my companion and I said a little prayer. When we gave the white clothes to her mom and brothers she came up to me and said. "ok give me my clothes I want to be baptized!" Family, I have a STRONG testimony in the power of fasting and prayer. When these things are done WITH FAITH, there is no stronger power. Before in the mission I had fasted, but this time I did it with a different attitude and with lot of faith, knowing that if I did my part the Lord would do His. The baptism of this family was a little piece of Heaven here in Matagalpa. Watching Arlen start to put her life in order, Sindy overcoming the obstacles, Oscar and Hector having such great faith. I love this family more than I can describe and I feel unbelievable grateful with my Heavenly Father for allowing me to be the one to teach them and know them. I love the mission more than anything, I love that I am able to be here learning the things that I never would have been able to learn at home. I am grateful for this Gospel in my life and for who it has turned me into. Thank you for your prayers, thank you for your support. I love you all!!!!

Hermana Willardson