Merry Christmas to everyone and Happy New Year!  I love this time of year when we celebrate our Savior's birth. I love the music and the Church has some great videos that you might enjoy.

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-10-067-the-nativity?category=bible-videos-the-life-of-jesus-christ&lang=eng

https://www.mormon.org/christmas?cid=HP_SU_11-29-2015_dMIS_fSPC_xLIDyL1-A_

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly7c9scxB9I&list=PLq9T3v5R_q8s3PKfpND5SOh3lUZolLDMf&index=5&cid=HP_FR_12-18-2015_dMIS_fYT_xLIDyI-1_


I want to share a little miracle. Recently, I was at the Member and Missionary Fireside, I was able to watch the ASL Elders interpreting. I couldn't help but smile at the fact that I still understood a lot of it. I studied ASL for 4 semesters in college, but chose to go through the paramedic program (that was paid for) instead of going through the interpreter program. When one of the Spanish speakers (not from my area) was bearing her testimony, I had to remind myself that I was called to the Spanish language and I needed to focus on that. I love both cultures so much! As I was leading the music at Zone Conference, I got to see the Elders interpret again. It got me thinking about ASL and trying to remember words. Once again, I reminded myself that I need to focus on Spanish (don't worry, I was only thinking about ASL during breaks and down time, I am fully committed to Spanish in all of my studies). ASL just kept popping into my head. I prayed several times for help. Then yesterday happened. We went to visit one of our former investigators, but she wasn't home. We met three young men from Africa in the parking lot and shared a brief message with them. As we were talking about their religious beliefs, I noticed that one of them wasn't speaking or participating in the conversation at all. I asked him where he was from, and one of the other young men replied "oh, he's deaf". I knew why my ASL had been "brought to my remembrance" so many times this week. I was able to briefly chat with this young man, then we were on our way. Yesterday, several times, we were unable to find the person we had planned to find, but every time there was someone else in the area that we were able to teach. I was so grateful that I was able to share a tiny bit of God's love with that young man. Like I said before...not of our experiences in life are "coincidences". We need to involve Heavenly Father in our plans so he can place us where we need to be to find the people he has placed there to learn. Yesterday just solidified even more that we have a loving Heavenly Father that is control of all. We just need to let go of the "control" we think we have and let Him work through us.

Sometimes the work is interesting. One person we approached to someone to teach, he announced "I don't want to talk to you because I'm not a Mormon and you're too friendly".  How do you respond to that? While I have been in Washington I've met people who speak Russian, Italian, Chinese, Farsi, ASL (American Sign Language) and of course Spanish. It's never boring.

From November 2, 2015-Happy Halloween

L to R: Hermana Brooks dressed as Hermana Hargis, Branch President Mayorga and his wife, Hermana Hargis dressed as Hermana Brooks

This week definitely had it's ups and downs! This weekend was full of miracles. At our branch Halloween party on Friday night, there were almost as many non-members as there were members. We had a part member (where the member is inactive) family come to the event and several less actives. There were so many people to meet and visit with we barely had enough time!

 

Halloween was the first day in the field so far that I was really frustrated and it was a struggle to stay positive. We had a normal morning of personal study, companion study, training, language study and lunch, and we left at the normal time of 1pm. We had to stay in after 5 pm because of the trick or treaters. So, we only had a couple hours to be out. We did manage to get Kit-Kats and Smarties (two of our favorite candies) from people when we were knocking who just thought trick or treaters were starting early.  We only talked to two people that day and both were members. In praying for help and studying/thinking about it I came to realize that those two people were important and we made a huge impact in their day. Hermana Brooks and I try to keep from getting frustrated when our numbers don't reflect just how hard we worked that day. We remind ourselves that numbers aren't everything and keep our eye on the positive. There are miracles in every day.

Narciso has been one of our miracles. We had just finished finding on one street and were leaving the complex when we ran into Narciso in the parking lot. He moved to the area a month ago and told us "no one has invited me to church yet". Don't you worry, we did! He invited us back to teach him and gave us his address. We went back a couple days later, but that wasn't his address. Again, as we were leaving the complex, Narciso came around the corner in his car, stopped, and told us he wanted us to teach him. We had to go to coordination meeting, but asked if we could come back after with a member of the ward. We were able to bring the Elder's Quorum president with us and had a great lesson on the Restoration.  I even shared the Joseph Smith story and First Vision in Spanish. He felt the spirit and wants to study it out in his mind and learn more. He came to the Halloween party!

At our Spanish Member and Missionary Fireside (only have them in Spanish once a year) almost all of the active members of our ward came to support the people sharing their testimonies: Evaline and Cristhian Chavez, who got baptized along with their son in July; and Victor who married an RM, but recently got to go through the temple for the first time. I had said hi to all the branch members beforehand, and saw a family that had a little less pigment that others there...it was the Bishops!!!! It was so good to see a familiar face! You could feel the spirit so strong at the fireside, it was a great way to end the week.

Diedre Bishop and daughter, transplants from Kansas.  It was great to see a familiar face!

 

I love the work and even in the discouraging times, I know that I am here at this time for a reason.

 

Till next time,

Hermana Hargis

From October 26, 2015

Spanish Speaking Missionaries at Conferencia Hispana

Our big event of the week was the "Conferencia Hispana" on Saturday.It was a state wide even held in our stake center. Hispanics and Latinos from all over the state came, had temple sessions, there was a fireside, and dinner, followed by a talent show where various wards performed dances and other talents from different countries. It was a BLAST!!!!! Although, I'm getting a little confused at what Mexican food really is...Friday night at Volleyball, the branch brought pizza, donuts, macaroni and cheese, and pretzels. Then the dinner at the cultural even was fried chicken and potato salad...

I have been asked to give a talk on November 15. I think it's kind of funny because I will be the "youth speaker". I've had a cold this week which has made tracting fun. It's not the most spritual message when you sneeze and hack up a lung mid sentence, but Hermana Brooks has been awesome at finishing my thought when it happens. I'm feeling a ton better, and I was blessed with the energy to still do everything we had planned, even though I was sick. God definitely blesses His missionaries.

 Spiritual thought to get you through the week: "A loving Heavenly Father has plotted our course and provided an unfailing guide-even obedience. A knowledge of truth and the answers to our greatest questions come to us as we are obedient to the commandments of God"-President Monson. God has a plan for each and every one of us. In order to stay on that path, all we have to do is obey His commandments.

Os amo!

Hermana Hargis

From October 19, 2015

Friday we had exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders. I was paired with Sister Sim who is from South Korea and speaks NO spanish. The first 6 doors we knocked answered!!!! And 4 of them spoke Spanish, so I got to practice my door approaches and 2 of them want to hear more.

Our very first door was a hispanic man that answered. He said he had just gotten home from work and was eating dinner and really hungry. He kept trying to leave, but Sister Sim was persistant to the point that he was starting to get angry. We wished him a nice meal and moved on.

 

Several doors later, we met this lady named Evonne in the stairwell on her way back from doing laundry. We taught her about the restoration and she wants us to come back and teach her and her family. I asked for her apartment number and it was the one with the hungry man!!!!! That will be fun!

 

Our mission does something pretty cool here. Every month, they have a Missionary and Member Fireside. People that have been recently baptized share there testimony, there are a few special musical numbers and the mission president and stake president that's hosting it that month give a few comments. It was REALLY cool!!!!! One of Hermana Brooks previous investigators bore testimony. He was one that told them the government was putting fluoride in the water to docilize our minds. One man found the church by an online dating site where a woman listed "devout Mormon" under her profile. He asked her what it took to date a Mormon. They got married a few months ago and her son baptized him the day he got home from his mission. Maybe President Schofield will let us all spend time on dating sites to find new investigators? I know we will find someone that is ready, it's just taking a LOT of effort to find them. We can feel that it's close, we just have to rely on the Lord to guide us. 

 

Interesting person of the week...Wesley. We found him while street contacting on our way home. We asked if we could share a message and he said only if he could teach us about aliens. So we agreed. He taught us that aliens are just trying to protect us from ourselves. They are really nice. All information regarding aliens was supposed to be made known this year, but the big minds of USA and Russia "with the red buttons" are keeping it quiet. I love being a missionary!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally in Washington

Update from Caitlin:

I've been assigned to the Crossroads Spanish Branch, which is in Bellevue, WA.  My trainer is Hermana Brooks and I LOVE her!

Our apartment is interesting.  Missionaries haven't lived in this apartment before us.  We walked in and the smell was overwhelming, and familiar.  Being a former paramedic I have been exposed to all kinds of smells, and I swear there was a dead body in this apartment before we moved in!  A can of Fabreeze later it began to smell better.  In order to open the oven door all the way you have to remove the door knob from the cabinet.  Interesting times :)

My first time knocking on doors was also extremely eventful. To sum up the experience, these next three people were consecutive doors that I knocked. Apparently I have a talent for choosing "special" doors. The first one was a teenaged asian boy that told us that he had prophesied of a dragon descending in a ball of fire and a few other things. We did not make a follow-up appointment with him. The next door was officially my first whiff of marijuana in this lovely state. The man that answered was extremely happy, but not quite there. We couldn't stop laughing after that...maybe we inhaled a little too much. THEN, the third door...the guy answered but just peeked his head out the door and was extremely out of breath and said he was "in the middle of something"...pretty sure he was naked behind that door. We left extremely quickly. We did NOT try to give him a pamphlet. Hermana Brooks knocked the next several doors.

Okay, now a little about our branch. After meeting with the mission leader and the branch president, we realized we have our work cut out for us. About half of the ward is either inactive or less active. Hermana Brooks and I were getting a little frustrated about not being able to find any new investigators, but we had the thought "if the branch can't keep any of their established members, why would God send us any new ones?" so we are working really hard on bringing those people back to church. Funny story...when we met with the branch president the first time, he gave us this candy from Columbia (where he's from). It was rolled in coconut so I was super excited! It was amazing...until the coconut went away and you were left with this toffee like substance that kind of tasted like a mix of chocolate, coffee and soap. I still don't know how I feel about them, but we have to eat one each time we see him. Maybe they will grow on me and I'll like them by the time I'm transferred.

 

I LOVE the members here. The member work is my favorite thing. Finding new people is a little frustrating, but I know it will be worth it. We are in the same ward as our district leaders, so we are splitting the work a little bit. Several times this week, members said how excited they were to have sister missionaries back in the ward.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





From the week of September 17th:

Caitlin's Mom again.  She is half way through her training in Mexico City.  She is now on independent study which let's her progress more quickly than some of the other missionaries who are struggling with the language. She has also been called to be "Zone Mom" which includes monitoring study time when there isn't a teacher.  Once or twice an hour she makes the rounds of the 4 classrooms and ensures they are actually studying.  She reports she has an effective "Mom look".  Good to know I've taught her something!  Funny quote from one of the district leaders "You have one and a half times the life experience of us, you should go scold them." Elder McLane.

On 9/11 her district held a prayer meeting for military/fire/police/EMS.  They all wore red, white and blue.  For Caitlin and one other who had been in the Air Force this was a very emotional time.  Following 9/11 the Mexico City Temple was rededicated and they had the big cultural celebration. Caitlin really enjoyed the experience:

"It was so cool to watch the Latino's excitement during the broadcast.  It was all about the history of the first missionaries and members in Mexico City and the history behind getting a temple.  The Latino's were beaming with pride during the music and dance....the dancing and dresses were beautiful.  No matter what your nationality or culture, we can ALL celebrate our belief in Christ.  We ALL understand and need the miracles that only He can bring into our lives."

Following the temple dedication was Mexican Independence Day.  The missionaries celebrated with Mexican Dulce (candy) and one of the teachers made them Mexican flags to attach to their nametags.  They had a devotional that night and afterwards were told to go straight to their houses and not to leave.  In prior years there had been celebrations which included shooting guns straight up into the air and they had found bullets in the roofs. Definitely not what a Mom wants to hear! They were also able to spend an afternoon at the Visitor's Center learning about the culture and the Church.

Her emails are full of the excitement she feels in preparing to do the work she feels called to do.  In closing something she shared to think about:

 "Am I closer to the Savior today than I was yesterday? Will I be better tomorrow?

Studying

Celebrating Mexican Independence Day

Mexico City Temple

Angle Moroni holding golden plates

At the Visitor's Center

Friends from the Cultural Celebration and food time buddies.

From the Week of September 10^th.

I'm wearing a brown and green argyle sweater with a pink and white polka dot rain coat, and I didn't even care. 

This is Caitlin's mom and this is how she summed up her second week in the missionary training center in Mexico City. She is beginning to discover the difference between being 19 and a more mature 29.  She is learning patience, (she's not sure any of them have ever had to sit still more than 2 hours at a time) but she loves them all. She has also discovered that her years as a paramedic has prepared her for the chaos of a cafeteria full of teenagers.  One of the missionaries choked on a pancake and another performed the Heimlich, it was utter chaos and drama. They asked her how she could be so calm?   I can hear Caitlin thinking, "If he can still talk, he's still breathing". On another note she reported she learned how to say "Me caí la cama en la mañana” which means "I fell out of my bed this morning.  Need I say anything more?

For a service project they helped make rice pudding and cookies in the kitchen.  Caitlin got to talk with the employees and understood almost everything they said.  She said the language is coming back fast and she is very grateful. She is helping one of the worker’s with English.

In closing Caitlin says: “The work is coming slowly but surely. Frustrations happen, but we can learn from them.  The power of prayer and my knowledge of the Atonement is what gets me through each day.” She is loving the opportunity to learn and prepare to teach the gospel. 

Finally, she shared a couple of pictures (they have really big moths in Mexico City).