English/Spanish.....No one knows.....

I know that I still have a good amount of time left to serve as a full-time missionary here in Washington but lately I have been worrying about going home.
I had a dream the other night....
I had gotten home and I was happy to see my family but after I was released and was home I cried like a baby.  When I woke up I was so relieved that it was a dream and I was still on my mission!

Ugh...when the day finally comes I'm going to be a wreck! Haha!

Oh, crazy side note!

So we had the mission devotional this past Sunday and I sang in the choir. That was fun! :) Before it Sister Walker had told me that a member named Jose promised a long time ago that he would go to it. She had totally forgotten about it until she saw him at the devotional and she wanted to go say hi so I went with her to talk to him.

When I saw him, I started to laugh and said,

"This is the guy?! This is Jose?!"

Jose was also laughing because he already knew me. Haha! He's the same guy that Hermana Sasagi and I were visiting when I crashed our car into the wall! How crazy is that! It just made me embarrassed about it all over again. Haha!

I also had the chance to talk to President and Sister Eaton at the devotional.

Earlier that day at stake conference they had told me that President was leaning towards having me go back to Spanish this transfer but that he still wasn't sure and needed to pray about it.

The options are that I go back to Spanish speaking or I stay here in Auburn with Sister Walker and we will be an official "zebra".

 A zebra is when an English speaking missionary is with a Spanish speaking missionary. If we do become an official zebra we will work with both the English ward and the Spanish branch.

So at the devotional I told President and Sister Eaton that I would do whatever God wanted me to do and that I knew that whichever answer President got would be through revelation.

Then I said that since I was called by God through the Prophet Thomas S. Monson to teach in Spanish that maybe he could extend my call another transfer so I could make up the time I served English speaking.

I don't think I really convinced him but I was just throwing it out there. :) It was worth a shot! :)

This week has been amazing! I went on an exchange with Sister Webb and then I also went out with the Hermanas to teach in Spanish! :)

Sister Walker was sick so we had to stay in one day but she's feeling tons better!

Well, now on to more spiritual things! The miracle we had this past week was so awesome!

We had just finished going over our progress record with our bishop and were getting in the car to go back to our apartment.

That's when I saw a man across the street and he was vacuuming his car. I really wanted to talk to him so I grabbed a mormon.org card and went over to talk to him.

I kind of scared him because he couldn't hear me when he was vacuuming but then I asked him about his Dallas Cowboy cap and told him I was a fan and soon we were talking about religion. His name is Elgin and he's a very religious man and he loves the Bible.

He accepted the mormon.org card and said he would look into it. He also said it would be okay if we came back to teach him and that he would listen. It also turns out that he's already good friends with Bishop Smith so that's instant fellowship!

It was so awesome!

Also, I found this quote by Elder Bruce R. McConkie and I absolutely love it!
It says,

"I am a child of God. My authority is above that of the kings of the earth. By revelation I have been selected as a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my Master and he has chosen me to represent him. To stand in his place, to say and do what he himself would say and do if he personally were ministering to the very people to whom he has sent me. My voice is his voice, and my acts are his acts, my words are his words and my doctrine is his doctrine. My commission is to do what he wants done. To say what he wants said. To be a living modern witness in word and deed of the divinity of his great and marvelous latter-day work."
- Elder Bruce R. McConkie

That is just so powerful and I love it! I know that this is the duty that we all have! I hope you all are embracing your call to be a witness of Jesus Christ!

The picture is of all the sister missionaries serving in the Auburn Zone.

Love you all!

Hermana Soliz

Sisters in the Auburn District!

Week 46 in Auburn...

Happy Father's Day!!!

I hope all of you dads (especially mine) had a wonderful day with your families! 

So much has happened this past week!! It was awesome and full of lessons, meeting new people, getting to know the members and lots of service!!

One of the funny things that happened was that Sister Walker and I forgot that we had a dinner appointment so we ended up having two dinners one day. 

So what happened was that we had decided to go to a Mongolian grill for dinner to celebrate missionary work (just because) but then only an hour later we realized that The Sisco's wanted to feed us dinner that night. And they are investigators so we didn't want to cancel on them. After dinner with them I was so full that I didn't eat at all the next day. So bad!

The Sisco's are a young couple who have talked to the missionaries once before so they are investigators. They are super strong in their Catholic beliefs but they are so nice and respectful of our beliefs. Seriously, they are the nicest people! You could definitely feel the spirit in their home and after we had dinner with them we just couldn't stop talking about it. 

The only thing they have been taught by missionaries in the past was the apostasy....

That's not a bad thing because everybody needs to know about the apostasy but they are really faithful members of the Catholic church so Sister Walker and I decided that it would be great to teach them the plan of salvation. It's just that literally, the breaking point between Mormons and Catholics is the apostasy. 

So instead of starting with something like that which would be hard for them to accept at this time we are going to teach them about how families can be together forever! 

We also set up a family booth at the park this week with the Hermanas! It wasn't as successful as we would have hoped but it was alright! We were able to talk to some people about familysearch.org and Hermana Baird was able to draw a couple portraits of people. She is really good! I think we'll try doing it again in the future! 

I will also be going out with the Hermanas this Wednesday evening so I can teach in Spanish!!!! I'm so excited!! I need the practice! It's so hard to remember words and sentence structure when you aren't speaking the language all day. It will be a lot of fun!

Also, I went to choir today! It was fun and we will be singing at the devotional we will have this Sunday. 

Also Elder and Sister Nowlin will be leaving soon. :( They've finished their mission so they're going back home. They are so sweet and I love them both. Elder Nowlin was over the vehicles so he was the one who laughed at me when I told him about how I crashed into the wall. Sister Nowlin was the nurse so she also got to hear from me when I was sick. I'll miss them a lot! 

Hopefully when I'm married I'll be able to serve a mission with my husband! 

Speaking of husbands this past Sunday we learned a lot about the role of the father, priesthood, and marriage. I am so unbelievably thankful for the power of the priesthood and for temples! What a great blessing it is that we can be sealed to our families by the power of God forever!! I know that as we live the gospel and make and keep covenants

 that  we will receive every blessing that our Heavenly Father has for us! 

Love you all and have a great week! 

Hermana Soliz

Auburn Zone

Hermana's

Working at the park!

 

Week 45!!

Straws-voi-tea-yeh!!

That's how you sound out hello in Russian. I have no idea how you spell it but I can say it. It's so much fun to say. Straws-voi-tea-yeh!

I also know how to say hello in a few other languages but I have no idea how to spell those either.

Also my new favorite words in Spanish right now are ardilla- squirrel and steeple- aguja de torre.

It is so difficult to not speak Spanish all of the time but I am teaching Sister Walker some things! She is doing great!

 

Anyways, this week has been super great! We had a zone meeting, a special language training, and the Spanish devotional. 

One thing that I've learned a lot about this past week is that we need to discipline ourselves in order to grow. It is our personal responsibility to work hard so we can improve. When we do this we can become better leaders and set the example for others. 

So my challenge to all of you for this week is to discipline yourselves and be determined to be a leader! And the best way you can be a leader is to be a disciple of Jesus Christ! :) 

Heavenly Father is our literal father of our spirits and Jesus Christ is our brother. They both love us so much and will help us become leaders and reach our potential. 

Love you all and let us work hard to be leaders!

Hermana Soliz

I love my companion, Sister Walker!

 

What a Week!

This past week was both difficult and great! It was a little difficult because the majority of our set lessons were all cancelled :( But at the same time a lot of good things happened!

We are teaching this woman named Jodi and she has three boys. One of her boys is fifteen years old and his name is Colby. Colby has some kind of disability and he has a wheelchair that he can maneuver himself. He is really funny but at the same time he really understands our message of the restoration and it makes sense to him. He reminded me so much of Christopher and it just made me miss him! It also made me really happy to know that in the future Christopher will have a perfected body and I will be able to talk to him. :)

We also found a new investigator this week! We were looking for people to teach in this really nice neighborhood and we met Grace, who was outside with her daughter. We had a really good conversation and Grace told us that she is Christian but that for some reason she has never been baptized. We took the opportunity to ask if we could share more with her about the authority needed to baptize and she said yes. She then gathered up her kids inside and we taught the restoration! It was a miracle! :) I'm excited to keep teaching her!

We also had that really good training on family history and how we can share information about that with people who aren't ready to hear the gospel yet. I came out of that meeting with an even greater respect and appreciation for my past ancestors! I encourage you all to learn more about your families and to preserve the precious stories and memories of your ancestors for the future generations!

Oh my goodness, I almost forgot! I taught a lesson in Spanish all by myself! Literally, I taught the whole thing! We were talking to our friend, Nick, who works at Pep boys and he told us where some Hispanics lived. So we went over and found Omar! He seemed really interested and had good questions! Hopefully he continues to learn more!

This crazy, fun week was ended with a wonderful Sunday! We fasted, heard wonderful testimonies, and had dinner with some members! I was also able to go to the sacrament hour with the Spanish branch as well so that was nice!

The last and most crazy thing that happened this week was during our fast and testimony meeting. We had just listened to three really good testimonies and then all of a sudden a women walks in from the side door and goes directly to the pulpit. She hadn't even said anything yet and the spirit was already gone. When she introduced herself Sister Walker started to be a little anxious because she had heard that this woman had basically been looking into anti information  and had left the church.

In the beginning she wasn't saying anything too crazy. She talked about the plan of salvation and how she was happy that her son had just been married in the temple. Sadly, as she went on though, you could tell that she was not there to share her testimony. She started talking about Islam and what is happening in other countries and talking about the Bible and a whole bunch of other stuff.

I was thinking, "Ugh...is someone going to politely ask her to sit down??"

Then she goes on to say that we have all been deceived and all of this other stuff.

As soon as she said that Bishop Smith stood up and asked her to leave but she wouldn't stop. Bishop Smith literally had to escort her out of the building to get her to leave.
It was crazy! Never had I ever seen something like that happen in a sacrament meeting.

I felt so sad for this poor woman who was obviously so confused and lost.

What happened after this though was a very special experience that I hope I never forget.
So many members went up to share their testimonies of the gospel. They bore their testimonies of the teachings of Jesus Christ, The Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, prayer and much more. The Spirit was instantly brought back into the meeting! It was so great!

My heart aches for that woman but I am so grateful to know that we all have the right to pray to our Heavenly Father and receive personal revelation. It is very important that we keep our focus on Christ and that we continue to grow and REAFFIRM our testimonies. We can do this by taking the sacrament seriously and by studying the sacrifices that both Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have made in our behalf. The sacrament is an important ordinance that we have to REMEMBER Jesus Christ. I know that as we take the sacrament seriously we will not lose our way.

I know that the Bible AND the Book of Mormon are the word of God. When the Bible was originally written it was perfect but after the death of Christ some precious truths that we desperately needed to know were changed and lost. The Book of Mormon is filled with those precious truths that were lost. The Bible and the Book of Mormon BOTH testify of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I know that God truly does have all wisdom and HE can see the bigger picture. I know that without Him we are nothing. I know that God always reveals more revelation to His prophets and that He will continue to do so. It is because God loves us that He has a prophet on the earth to help guide us just like He did in the past. I promise you that if you read the Book of Mormon and ask with a sincere heart if it is true, you will come to learn about the path that leads to our salvation.

I leave these things with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Love,

Hermana Soliz :)

Sister Walker and I have decided that getting Italian cream sodas is our favorite thing! They are soo good!

The Adjusting Phase...

I never thought that I would ever feel out of my comfort zone when speaking in English. It is so weird to talk English all day instead of Spanish! I still get to talk to Hispanics when we see them but still it is not the same! I keep saying Spanish words when I'm speaking in English and then since I'm not using my Spanish as often I'm forgetting how to say some really easy stuff. I think my brain is just a little confused as to what is going on. Haha! So yeah adjusting is going well!

I'm lucky though because I still get to see all of the Spanish members at church and I've even seen a couple just around town. I hope that after this transfer that I go back to the branch instead of going to a different area!

BUT being with Sister Walker is great! I love her! We talk all of the time and we laugh a lot so that's good! I can see us becoming really good friends! :) She also has an obsession with Texas so I told her she'll have to visit me. :) We've only been together a week but I already love her so much! 

Tomorrow we are going to have a special training on Family History. It is going to be so great! I'm so excited! 

Also June 10th there is a special training for all missionaries who are teaching in a different language so I will get to go to that!

I love being a missionary and serving the Lord! As a missionary, you talk to a lot of people and a lot of times they aren't so nice. 

Recently, we talked to a man and after our conversation we were leaving and he said something along the lines of, 

"You ladies did really good at answering my questions but I bet I really stumped you two." 

We politely said no and left.

I would like to say again that no, I am not stumped on something or doubting anything. I know what I know and I cannot deny it. I know that when we exercise our faith in God we can and will gain more knowledge about who He is and of the teachings of Jesus Christ.; 

I love my Heavenly Father and I am so grateful that serving a mission was a part of the beautiful plan that He has for me. 

I am learning that life really is a continuing learning process. We all go through phases where we are progressing and then at other times we feel like we have digressed. BUT the miracle of it all is that as long as we are trying we will never be back at the very bottom where we started in the first place! 

 

So with that said, keep your heads up and keep looking forward everyone!

Love you all! Abrazos! 

Hermana Soliz