week # 9

Hello my beautiful family!!!!

This week has been another great week in the areas of both K1 and k2!! The work is slowly but surely progressing along and I feel many more great miracles will happen for both wards soon!

Okay well since you asked, our flat is in the middle of the great suburb of k itself haha! 

Wow i can't believe it will be J last week in his transfer mission!! You know, i didn't think it was so bad of a question to ask missionaries how long they have been out so far on their mission but now being the missionary and having a lot of people and i mean a lot of people ask you how long you have been on your mission so far is quite depressing haha. seriously I have lost count on how long i have been out and sometimes i forget that it has been a while now and i just tell them it has been only a couple of weeks haha! I think it is one of my least favourite questions to answer haha! 

But Sister C and i have been working quite a lot with the members this week which really has been great! I am seeing their enthusiasm grow for missionary work and the great goals they have come up with as a family to hasten the work of salvation! I think maybe it would be even a great idea for you papi and jeryn to create some goals of your own too that are centred around missionary work. What we as missionaries have been doing is what is called the family mission plan and basically that is thinking of one main goal that you would like to achieve by the end of the year such as inviting a friend or family to hear the missionary discussions and then have 4 other little goals that will help you achieve that main goal such as having them over for family home evening or inviting them to activities or church. And then they put that on a sheet of paper and stick it up on a wall that is easily seen by everyone to help remind them of what they are working towards. I know that this hasn't been a problem for either you or papi to do your missionary work but i think it will be great for jeryn to start thinking about who of his friends he can share the gospel with and by setting some goals this can really help to see what you can achieve in the long run! So i invite you as a family ever so lovingly, to do that and let me know how you go!

i really do love you all and continue to be happy!!

Lots of love,

Sister Valdes

Hello President H,

My core experience with God this week has to be one of my favourite miracles! Sister C and I planned to go tracting while waiting for the zone leaders to come by to pick up my passport, and out of all the doors we had knocked on at first, no one seemed to be interested in wanting to take the survey. One Chinese lady in particular didn't speak much English and knowing that i had a Chinese restoration pamphlet in the car made me regret that i took it out of my bag in the first place. However as we continued to knock on doors i had the prompting to go back to the car and grab the Chinese pamphlet just in case we happened to meet another Chinese speaking person. And to our great joy we met a nice Chinese lady named B!!! She didn't speak much English at all but she knew enough for us to have a really good conversation with her. I was so glad that i followed the prompting of the spirit and grabbed the pamphlet out of the car because this is what made B want to hear more about the gospel because she could read something she could understand! She was so excited to have met us and we have an appointment with her this Tuesday so i can't wait to continue to follow the promptings i may receive to continue to help B come closer to Christ! For me, this experience has made me so grateful to know that all that i am doing now is what is allowing the spirit to dwell with me and even more grateful that i was obedient even to have followed what the spirit was whispering for me to do! If i hadn't then we wouldn't have found our new investigator B!

My best practice in teaching as Jesus taught would have to be my improvement in having no fear! This is one of the goals i am working towards to help make me become a more effective missionary and i found that this week has been the best period of time so far on my mission that i have worked and taught lessons with as much faith as possible, in myself and in the Lord. It's not to say that i haven't gotten nervous at times, but the fear of opening my mouth and speaking what i feel to say is not such a hard thing for me to do anymore. As i see myself building my faith and getting to know God and the Saviour more as i study my scriptures and praying more sincerely i find myself having more faith in them to help me do this work, for i definitely know i can not do it alone.

At the moment how i feel about my level of consecration is quite good. I know there a few things i can do better that i am working towards to help me become even more consecrated. And currently by doing the 40 day fast so far has helped me refine myself a lot more to be more aligned with my Heavenly father. Thus my intentions for the remainder of my mission is to continue to work hard and not lose hope in the people we are teaching so far and will yet to come. As well as seeing my vision come to pass which is to see at least 1 miracle every day and to touch many people's hearts with the spirit every day, that will lead them to accept the challenge to be baptised! 

Nothing confidential to say.

With much love, 

Sister Valdes xx