Letter and pictures from Kaeley May 27th 2013

Treats for the birthday girl

Sister Fialho and Haws - May 2013

 

Hey ya'll!                                                                                May 27^th 2013

I hope this week finds everyone well! It has been a very busy and fast paced week but it has been great! We had 2 exchanges this week with some of our sisters and they both went great! But my companion and I didn't realize how tiring exchanges can be. You are normally always tired but exchanges just wipe you out but it is the best kind of tired to be! We love being able to train the sisters and help them in any way we can. We normally call their District leader to see what they want us to work on with them and we also work with the things that the Mission President wants us to make sure they are doing correct and then we ask them 3 things they really want to work on and improve on and so you have a lot to keep in mind and you are supposed to set an example and talk to everyone and follow the spirit! I think it just takes a lot of brain power to concentrate on all that! But I truly love serving the sisters and being able to serve in this calling!

 We had kind of a slow week when it came to the work itself. We had a couple investigators that didn't want to take the lessons anymore and a couple of them that we had to drop because we never can reach them and that was hard to see some of the rejecting the truth. But we know that when 1 leaves, the Lord will place someone else in our path! We are ready to see some miracles this week and excited to see what will happen. We have really been struggling getting investigators to church. We have a lot of people say that they will come but then they don't and it’s just disappointing!  But you just keep moving forward and know that we have to do all we can to help them make the right choice and then they have their agency. It can be hard sometimes and honestly, my companion and I were a little disappointed but we just know that the Lord will help us to overcome this obstacle. It can be trying but that is when you grow.

I feel that my testimony of the Restored Gospel has grown so much over this last week and especially my appreciation for the Gift of the Holy Ghost. There was a couple of times in a couple of situations that I couldn't feel it and then when I could,  It was so amazing and I am so grateful for the comfort and guidance that it brings into my life. We have another busy week this week with 2 more exchanges to do and a lot of work to get done in our own area. And we are excited to be here!  My companion goes back to temple square in 2 weeks and that will be hard to see her leave.  It has been a great 2 transfers and I just love her to death. I love you all and am so grateful for the support and love from each of you ! Thank you! Sister Haws

HEY!!!                                                                                                                              May 20^th 2013

Well, Another week has flown by. Time just goes faster and faster the longer you are out on a mission! And I have been out for 9 months. It was my half way mark and that was really strange to know I am half way done. eewww. That's all I have to say!

This week has had amazing miracles and one very sad moment for my companion and I, we did our first exchange this week with some of the sisters we are in charge of and it was actually my trainee sister Cottrell and her new trainee! So that was really fun to see and be with her again and meet the missionary she is training. They are in a new area and on bike and my Companion went to their area were on bikes too, and Sister fialho doesn't like to exercise and needless to say....she was really sore the next few days :) made me laugh and she just keeps saying just you wait! But we saw a lot of miracles in our area. We found 2 new investigators and found some referrals for the Spanish Elders and just had a great time learning from each other and talking to people about the Gospel. We are pretty sure we meet some drug dealers they actually were super nice and talked to us for a bit. We could be wrong about that, but that is the conclusion we came to. We probably meet more of them than we think but I am okay with not knowing and just teaching.

We also had some wonderful lessons with some of our investigators. We had a baptism on Friday which went very well and he was confirmed on Sunday and he was just glowing after! I love seeing people after they have been given the gift of the Holy Ghost and the difference it makes in them. We also gained a new investigator from the baptism. She is from a family of recent converts and she has been to 3 baptisms in the last 4 months and she is ready! We are so excited to be able to teach her and help her family become a forever family! They are all amazing and have such strong testimonies of the Gospel!

On Friday, we had the chance to talk to a less-active member and it went really really well and she seemed excited to come back to church but we got a call Sunday afternoon and she said she no longer wanted visits from the Church and we had upset her by some of the things we said. It was devastating. We both just were so sad the rest of the day because we know that she felt the Spirit and she knows the Church is true. We have no idea what it was that we said to upset her. Just hard to see them deny the church and the Holy Ghost especially after they have felt the spirit so strong. Just heartbreaking. We haven't had that happen ever so it was hard to overcome but we pray that hearts will be softened and some day when they are truly ready they will come back! That's all we can do.

Other than that sad phone call, the week has been great! We have 2 more exchanges this week which we are stoked for and so happy to work with the sisters! They are so amazing and just love the Lord.

I was reading 3 Nephi 17 and if you haven't read that in a while, I highly recommend it! So amazing! I love that the Lord stops from leaving and takes the time to heal people and just heal them all at once but one by one. I took from the chapter, just how much the Lord really loves us and how willing he is to help us and heal us if we only just ask him to stay with us and show him we want him to stay. That we invite him to come into our hearts and invite him to stay by reading scriptures, and praying and attending our meetings, and give service and fill our time with things of God. I love the scriptures! They bring so much peace and comfort and are a way to revelation! Sorry if that doesn't make sense. I hope it does!

I love you all sooo much and am sooo grateful for the love and support from family and friends!!! Love you and miss you Sister Haws

Great Letter from Kaeley May 13th 2013

Just a note from the "Mom"..... we got to Skype with her yesterday for Mothers Day, it was so wonderful to see her cute face and see the happiness and joy in her eyes !!  She is doing so good and is so happy in her service and loving the people in California that she is meeting and teaching. It is so great to see and hear her growth in her letters and see the blessings that are hers as she learns so much and immerses herself in selfless service for our Heavenly Father.  She has hit her half way mark this week WOW, hard to believe she has been out 9 months already. It has gone fast for her and all of us that miss her.  She told us that if she stays this next transfer in Lancaster, which will happen the first part of June and she thinks she probably will, that she will actually be in the new Bakersfield Mission that has been created as one of the new missions and will take effect July 1st.  So she will have started in the San Fernando Mission and end in the new Bakersfield Mission !  Kaeley and us thank all of you for staying part of her life through reading her letters and praying for her and for your love and support for her, we appreciate it very much !!!!!!!  


 May 13th 2013
 

Hello from me in another super sunny, hot week in good old California!

This last week was warm and it's only getting warmer! Triple digits are in the future and soon! It would be helpful to be a camel sometimes in the desert! :) Anyway, this last week was amazing! So many miracles and fun chances to serve the Lord even more fully!

This last week, my comp. and I just got called to be some of the new sister training leaders which is a new position that has been created with the number of sister missionaries coming out. We will be going on 24 hour exchanges and helping them with whatever they need help with and making sure their needs are met. I am so excited and so grateful for the trust the Lord is showing me to serve in this calling! It will be lots of fun to work more closely with the sisters and get to know them and learn from them! We had a training meeting for it on Thursday that was wonderful and helped us to understand exactly what we are doing!

We have a Baptism this Friday which we are super excited about. It was an investigator in another area but that had moved into our area and now we get to be apart of it and it is great! He is so ready and will be an amazing member of the church. He is already planning on serving a mission as well! So cool!

And,  on Saturday... we found a FAMILY to teach!!!! We are so excited. They are a part-member family and they are so open and willing to learn and we are excited because we know they will go to the temple after they get baptized!!! It was an excited week!

There is just this urgency I feel to the work at this time when the Lord is flooding the earth with missionaries! This is the final "inning" and we must stand strong!

  

I was reading a talk by Elder Holland and in it he said " In this church, what we know will always trump what we do not know. and remember, in this world, everyone is to walk by faith." I have been thinking a lot about that and how true that statement is and I would like to share some of my thoughts on that. For some reason, I feel very strongly about sharing this today and I know that it is true!

Something that has stood out to me since I first got on my mission was the fact that we are children of God. and with every passing week, my understanding and love has increased for the children of God and for the Lord and especially for myself.

I go back to what Elder Holland said..."In this church, what we know will always trump what we do not know."  One of those things we do know, is that we are children of God and with that comes specific responsibility and blessings.

That knowledge that we are children of a loving Heavenly Father can carry us further than anything this world has to offer. It can lead through difficult times, it can help us to understand why we go through certain things and we start to see what the Lord is trying to make of us. And a lot of the times, that knowledge of why and how are we going to make it doesn't come right away. But the knowledge that we are Heavenly Father's sons and daughters does and that gives us the understanding we need to finish our race of life.

I was reading in the Pearl of great Price and,  what a pearl it is!  In Moses 1. It is speaking of the experience Moses had first hand with the Lord and this is something that one of my MTC teachers pointed out to me but I am finally started to comprehend how Heavenly Father addresses Moses. In versus 4: "And, behold, thou art my son." and later in verses 6, 7,, "Moses, My Son."  Can you feel the Love that Heavenly Father has for Moses?   Later, after this amazing experience with the Lord, Satan comes, saying "Son of man, worship me."  Can you sense the coldness in his claim, son of man? Moses later replies with a "Who art thou? For Behold, I am a Son of God."

Do we know who we are to the Lord? When hard times and diversity come our way, do we respond with a "I am a son/daughter of God?"

There is power is those simple words. "I am a daughter/son of God." When we start to view ourselves as such, things change. Forgiveness comes a little easier because we are able to forgive ourselves but also forgive other sons and daughters of God.

Heartache, discouragement, and sorrow are put into perspective as we claim the title that is ours, I am a child of God.  

 

Disappointment and anger can be turned into love and peace.

Trials and temptations can be overcome through realizing our potential as the sons and daughters of God and we don't have to let those things make us think otherwise.

We start to see the big picture and things will change.

When we see through Heavenly Father's eyes as well as the Savior's eyes, we are able to see what we are becoming and we are able to live up to that potential. Without them, we are nothing, With them, we are everything!

It is amazing that the Lord, though we make mistakes, will always call us, " My son," or "my daughter." It doesn't matter what we have done or the mistakes we will make, that will never change and his love will never end or decrease for us. President Uchdorf said" Though we are incomplete, God loves us completely. Though we are imperfect, He loves us perfectly. Though we may feel lost and without a compass, God's love encompasses us completely."

Moses wasn't perfec,t but he KNEW who he was and he was able to fulfill all the Lord has in store for him to do. We aren't perfect either. We must be patient with our selves as we overcome trials and difficulties and hardships. We must be patient with others are they are trying to do the same.  We must always remember who we are. That knowledge will Always trump anything this world has to offer. There is nothing in this world that is worth giving up our divine birthright nor that can stop us from reaching our potential! I know that this is true with all of my heart and soul!

If you don't know who you are to the Lord, Ask him. Ask him who you are to him and I PROMISE you will receive a confirmation that you are indeed a Child of God. He has great things in store for you as you hold on to that knowledge and you will be able to claim this title in the face of adversity with all your heart and soul, "For, Behold, I am a child of God," and nothing, nothing that comes your way will ever tear you down or keep you from going back to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I leave you my testimony that these things are true and that Heavenly Father is aware of each one of us and loves us more than we can ever imagine. We are his children and always will be. That will never change. Ever. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Kaeley letter and pictures May 6th 2013



The Birthday Girl

 


Flowers she got for her Birthday

 

 

 

Sister Haws and Sister Fialho

 

 

Where's the sun in California?!? :) May 6^th 2013

Well, just a warning....we are getting rain here....so you might get snow! :) hehe but maybe not. This week was pretty good. We had lots of cool events. On Wednesday, we had been invited to go to the first ever mission Leadership council which is what has been created to replace the Zone leader training because they created the new sister training position to help with the amount of sisters coming in. It was really neat to be a part of and to hear what is going on. They haven't called Sisters to that position yet but just invited a few of them to come and be a part of it for the first time. It was really cool and it gave me a greater respect for the zone leaders and all they do for us because they have a big responsibility. It was neat to see the how Heavenly Father works through the spirit to help us to understand what to improve on and how to do it.

      Our investigator with a baptismal date has seemed to just disappear. As far as we know he got a job somewhere in LA but he won't return phone calls and we can't find him. It has been a big disappointment because he was so ready but maybe not willing to act upon the things he knows. We are praying he will come back to at least talk to him and if not that at least get an address so we can send the missionaries to him there. He loves the Gospel and just loves learning about God. It is sad. But all in the Lord's hands.

Another one of our investigators that comes to church every Sunday told us she didn't want to investigate the church anymore. Her husband just went through the temple and she has been investigating the church for about 6 years. That was heartbreaking because we both felt she was going to get baptized this month. And her husband is having a hard time with it because he wants to be a forever family. Just hard to see that they are so close to the truth and can't see it but that is the Lord's timing and patience is always required. :) which can be difficult at times.

We found 3 new investigators, all seem pretty promising. We have an appointment with one of them tonight and she is amazing. She is Baptist and didn't want to listen to us at first but then asked what is the difference and we told her and she then listened more and invited us back. That was really neat to see the spirit touch her heart.

During our mission leadership council we learned how to do our Weekly Planning better. We weekly plan for the coming 10 days but we didn't actually plan out each day! Well now we do and it was an amazing experience!!! Normally weekly Planning takes 2-3 hours to complete. It took us 7 hours to get through but the outcomes have been just amazing. We always seem to be in the right place at the right time and we are starting to see the miracles from it. It was a very spiritual experience for both of us. The spirit was stronger than its ever been and it was amazing being directed by the spirit on when to visit certain people and why we would visit them. just amazing! Has changed the rest of my mission for the better!    

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! It was a good day. Strange to be 23 and doesn't feel like it but it was good. Good day to be a missionary!   

Something I am really trying to learn is humility. And I feel like the Lord is really trying to teach me and I am realizing how much I don't rely on him and how much I need to. It is definately one of those things that you get what you ask for! :) but it is great. It is difficult at times but that is when you grow the most so it’s a good thing!

Transfers are this Tuesday but my companion and I are staying. We kind of figured but it's nice to know for sure. My companion will go back to Temple Square in 5 weeks and that is crazy! Can't believe we have been companions for 6 weeks already!

I love you all!  I hope this week is wonderful for all of you !

Sister Haws