Okay I have spent my time wisely and I actually have a descent amount of time to write to you all haha!!!
So very first of all I want to say my very big THANKYOU'S!!!!!!!
1. Thank you so much Mummy and Papi for sending me the suitcase
with the rest of my things! I really appreciate it and it came all
intact!
2. Thank you Sister P. for your gift! You really didn't have
to give me anything but I am truly grateful! I hope you and you're
family are doing great!
3. Very big Thank you to the Bishop and the whole B. Clan! I received your package and I got to say that I did get a few jealous
stares from some missionaries when it was given to me haha! I've only
been out for a couple of weeks and already I received a nice package
where others have been here a lot longer and not even their parents have
sent them anything some told me! So I am truly grateful! It really made my
day as well reading all your letters! They were and will continue to be
an upliftment to me! Oh and my companion Sister C. and I will definitely enjoy eating all the munchies!
4. Another big thank you to Sister J. for your gift as well! I
really appreciate it and I too loved the scripture you shared with me, I
think it is now one of my favourites too!
5. And a enormous thankyou to all those who have sent emails to me!
To Brother R., D., Aunty P and T, Aunty S.,
Sister K., Sister B. and of course to my Papi! Thankyou! Your words
are what keeps me going and you have given me some great advice as well
so thankyou!
Haha well it made me laugh so loud to hear that D. is staying
in my room and wearing my clothes hahaha!!!! I hope your enjoying it
D.! I really don't mind at all, it actually makes me really happy
that i'm still of some use over there in Melbourne when i'm not even
there!
And about C's call!! Wooohooo I am so happy for him!!!! That's
truly amazing! Sister C. says that she hears it to be a beautiful
mission! (her cousin in America got called to the Denver Colorado Mission!)
I'm too so glad to hear that J. is doing great! and having heaps of his own miracles!
Alrighty, so on to how things are doing over here! I do not know if
you have heard already but Sister C. and I are in two wards covering
both K. 1 and K. 2 ward areas. And what shocked me the
most when i found that out on the very first day arriving here is that
we had been chosen to open the area up for Sister missionaries!! hearing
from the members it has been around 7-8 years since they had sister
missionaries in the ward. And all are so excited to have us! But this
means we have a lot of work to do! And so far it has been great! Lately
we have been trying to visit all the member on both wards and taking
your advice Papi we have been getting around to meet all the auxiliaries
from both wards as well. We have had a tone of small miracles every day
but also a couple of down falls. One of this downfalls is quite funny
now when we both look back on though and I would like to share it haha!
So it was on a day that we planned to go trackting using the new survey
approach that was brought out in that book you bought me mum "the highly
effective missionary" for Christmas! The mission has been using it for
quite some time now and it has brought many a lot of success! This day
we were only had one door open to us but the Man who opened was so
lovely and by using the survey we found out so much about him and his
life so far! We talked with him for a while and near the end of our
conversation we found out that he actually has his own copy of the book
of Mormon which he says that he has been casually reading and is now up
to Alma! Now when I heard that I was speechless haha! No person reads
the book of Mormon casually and reads up to Alma unless they really like
it and are feeling of the spirit when they read it! So immediately we
asked him if we could come around again and teach him more about the
book of Mormon and to have time to answer of the questions he had about
it. Sadly he said no because of his wife who was anti-church so I now
pray that one day it will be the right time for him to hear the
missionary discussions!
After trackting we then had an appointment with a member family in
K 2 ward that lived close by so as Sister C. was driving out
the car to get to their place we realized something sounded funny with
it and it wasn't running as smooth as it normally does! I quickly got
out of the car and I see that we popped one of our tyres noooo!!!! Haha
knowing that I have had so many people teach me how to change a tyre
through school and church during mutual was like, "yes I can do this, I
can change the tyre! Sister Valdes to the rescue!". However as I was
really thinking about it i did not remember one bit of how to change a
tyre haha! I couldn't even find the jack hammer in the car haha! That
meant calling the elders! And to our surprise they arrived super fast to
our rescue!! Both elders from K 1 and 2 (K1 & K2) happened
to be all together when we called so all of them arrived! The question
that was asked was how many elders does it take to change a tyre? You
would think 1 or 2 but it really took all 4 of them to do it haha!!!
Sister C. took pictures of them so I'm going try to get them off her
so I can send them to you! But really the elders that we are working along
side with are so nice! To me they really feel like my actual brothers,
maybe because they remind me so much of Elder V. and J. haha!!
Oh and i have big news for you all too!!! It was so great to have
been able to watch the Women general conference the other day. I felt of
the spirit so much and I really thought of you a lot too Mum! Just like
President Eyring asked all the daughters to do at the conference I do to
you too! I am smiling a big smile of love all the way from here,
expressing how grateful I am to have a beautiful mother like you! I know
that I have taken you for granted so many times but I really want to
say Thankyou for everything and that I LOVE YOU!!! I am really excited
to see the next women's conference that would be coming up with you when I get back home!
The real big news for you though haha! Is that you may see a
picture of me in the ensign!!!! AAAhhh how cool is that?!! A brother
from our ward is a photographer and a lot of the times the Ensign asks
him to take pictures of big events in the church that occur here in
Australia and this time it was taking pictures at the women's conference
broadcast! He took a lot of pictures of us sister missionaries so I'm
betting there may be one in the upcoming ensign magazines so look out
for it!
Also i wanted to ask if you could please continue to send M's
emails to me? I would still like to read them and actually having read
all his emails from #1 on the plane has helped me a lot now on the
field! There is some great hidden advice within them!
Hey and J.!! Where are you???? I want to hear from you!!! How is school going anything funny or cool happened recently?
I also want to reassure you that i am living in a beautiful area!!!
K. and the suburbs around it is so pretty! It feels like I'm
living on cloud 9 haha because where I am serving in at the moment is
quite a rich area and all the houses are mansions and the trees and
bushes that surround them is magical! Currently we are living in a granny flat behind a member house! They are most loveliest couple ever! They
are brother and sister S. and we love them so much. Sister S.
especially keeps on calling us her daughters and actually goes out
shopping for us and has bought us so much fruit to eat and has made us a
lot of our dinners! So I'm really getting spoiled here! Food is really
coming out of my ears too! We are having dinners appointments nearly every
night from the members in the wards! But you have to know that I'm sticking
to my goal to not get fat! Every morning I have been hard core
exercising such as going for runs and using the exercise equipment the
S's gave us too! So J., when I get home you'll see that I will
still weigh the same haha!
Con mucho amor,
Sister Valdes
P.S would you also be able to send me the Spanish dictionary and a Spanish hymn book by any chance please? We actually have a lot of Spanish speaking families in the ward and I want to improve on my Spanish so that I can talk with them a lot more. If you can't, there is
no stress.
Oh and I am going to try to send you my photos on the SD card in the mail today!
I love you!
Letter to the mission president:
Hello President H.!
My core experience with God this week would have to be the day that
Sister C. and I visited a lady named J. who was a referral from
the church office. As we got to know her we definitely felt the spirit
so strongly in her home and we actually felt as if the Savior's
presence was with us! It will be a feeling I will never forget!
My best practice for the week in teaching as Jesus taught was with E., a progressing investigator who you may remember. We taught her
the principles of faith and repentance and I felt the spirit teaching
through me as I taught her more about faith and how, this principle is
really what will built our trust and love for Jesus Christ in our
everyday lives.
The greatest difficulty I had this week would most probably be from
the disappointment of a lot of members not being in their homes when we
have gone to visit. All this week we've tried hard to meet with the
members in K. 1 and 2 wards so that we may get to know them
better and progress is going really slow to meet them all and to put their
names to their faces. However how we overcame this trial a little bit
was calling up the members and making appointments with them so as when
we do knock on their door, they will be home yay! And that has been the
case for a couple of member families.
So far though this week has been great, we have had a tone a little
miracles here and there and I feel that Heavenly Father is with us
every step of the way!
Hope you are well!
Love,
Sister Valdes
PS. from me...guess what?...no photos again!!!
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