Voy a quedarme en Renton!!

Alright everyone, this email is going to be a little different so get ready!
There was just so many things that happened and we don't have a lot of time to email today so my companions and I decided to each write about parts of the week so we could email faster. So you will be getting their accounts of some things that happened this past week.

First, let me say that this past transfer has been absolutely amazing with Hermana Peacock and Hermana Webb! We're going to be friends forever! Also with transfers, Hermana Peaciock will be going to Kent, Hermana Webb will go to Auburn, and I will stay here in Renton. Also my new companion is going to be Hermana Sasagi. I don't know her very well yet but I'm sure we will have fun!

So on Thursday the Ayala family had their baptismal interviews at the church. Elder Russell interviewed them all and everything went great! While waiting for everyone to be done with their interviews one of the English elders, Elder Kelly, played the piano. It was super great because he's a really good piano player!
Then it was finally Saturday!! The day of the Ayala's baptism! We had to get to the church building early to get everything set up and to fill up the font. We met the Elders at the church building at 4:00 and we had dinner at the church. They ate their panda express at one table and we ate our food at another. Total segregation. It was funny!
While we ate Hermana, Peacock, Webb, and I started to fill up the baptismal font.
After eating we practiced the song Cuando Me Bautice with the elders. Elder Russell was super nervous about playing the piano in front of everyone so he wanted all the practice he could get.
After awhile we checked on the font to realize that it was full which was great but it was also FREEZING cold! We had accidentally been filling it up with cold water instead of the warm.
So then we tried to drain the font, which involved Heramana Peacock actually getting in the water and well...it was just taking way too long to drain. We weren't going to have enough time to drain it and fill it back up in time for the baptism.
So our solution was to get trash cans and dump the water out. It actually worked and it didn't take to long. We got small trash cans and set up an assembly line. Hermana Peacock and Elder Russell were filling the trashcans with water and then Hermana Webb and I were passing them to Elder Spilsbury who dumped the water down the sinks in the men's bathroom. A little later Hermana Webb saw that there was a shower in the men's dressing room that we could dump the water down. That was so much easier!
So ya, then we filled the font back up with WARM water this time and the day was saved!
After that we set up chairs, got the programs ready and took pictures with the Ayala family.
The baptism was so unbelievably great! The spirit was really strong and I just felt so warm and happy inside! It was also great because not only were a bunch of people there to support them but so was President Eaton. That hardly ever happens! There was probably about 50 people there at the baptism that night.
After the baptism Audon, Maria, and Bryan all said something. While bearing his testimony Audon invited all of the investigators in the room to be baptized. It was awesome!
Then on Sunday the whole family was confirmed and they received the Holy Ghost. Maria and Audon bore their testimonies again since it was testimony meeting and it was really special.
Later on in the week we visited Maria by herself and she has a special gift or something for reading people because she read all of our personalities. She described us all and the crazy thing was that she was right! Especially about Hermana Webb! Maria described her perfectly!

Hermana Webb-
"Soooo as all of you may know, my birthday was on Tuesday! :) The big 20! No longer a teen, woo! Haha. My day started off by Hermana Peacock jumping on my bed and singing me all of the happy birthday songs that she knows. That was lovely. :) Then we had to go to District Meeting. We got a text before from the Elders asking me what my favorite flavor of cake was. So I had a little hint. But we walked into the room where we were having district meeting and there were pink streamers everywhere, balloons, and a "happy birthday" banner! I was so surprised! It was so nice of them! :) Then the other companionship of Elders in our District brought me a present. It was in the box of some protein bars and they had all signed a mormon.org card because they forgot to buy one. I opened it and they got me some sweet pens! I never thought I would ever be so happy to get pens before! Haha. It was all just so nice of them! And then the Elders in our Branch got me a little red velvet cake! After that, we went to go get frozen yogurt from Menchies. So yummmmy. :) Then our Mission President and his wife called and sang me happy birthday! It was so funny. They're great! We had a lesson with Norma after that and she had bought Hostess cupcakes for us! Then we had a lesson at Erika Perez'. We had no idea that she was planning on feeding us, but when we showed up she had huge quesadillas waiting for us. We weren't hungry at all. It was terrible, but at the same time, so delicious. Haha. We didn't want to eat too much because we had a dinner appointment with the Ayala's right afterwards.But we had no other choice! It was okay in the end. Lol. When went to the Ayala's and we ate fried chicken and rice and yummy stuff. Then we brought out the cake that we had made that morning and they sang me "las mañanitas" a spanish birthday song. It was so cute! And Maria put cake on all over my face. Haha. Couldn't break their tradition. Then! Sister Merrill, branch president's wife, called us and told me that she had something for me too! She ended up dropping by our house and she gave us....Seahawk Jerseys!!! We couldn't believe it! :) I had been wanting one for forever! It was seriously such a good birthday. And the best birthday present of all, the Ayala's getting baptized!!! :)" 

Hermana Peacock-
"This week was one of the craziest weeks on my mission. First of all, The branch president's family decided that they were so happy with us this week (because we worked really hard these last two transfers) and they bought us and the elders seahawks jersys!! How crazy is that? not even knockoffs either. The real ones. Man, Renton has been so much fun. I really am going to miss this place. I have really come to love it.

The Ayalas are so great. So we got the Ayalas all ready to be baptized. They went on their trip and we were so proud of them. They stayed away from coffee and everything and they didn't even find a coffee substitute until a day before their baptism. They are so strong. So we had baptismal interviews with them. That was super awesome. We played the piano and sang songs to them as we were waiting and it was awesome. I really just felt like I needed to go over and talk to Maria, so I did. I felt like I needed to pull out my book of mormon and start reading with her. I was showing her some cool stuff and how I marked 1 nephi 11 (we went over yesterday and showed me how she marked hers the same) I don't know why she loves me so much but she is so awesome. Well so I was reading with her and she went on to tell me of all the times she had really felt the spirit. How the first time she came to church, she finally found the peace that she was looking for her whole life. She knows it's true. While this was going on, her kids were drawing pictures of the temple on the whiteboard with their family inside. Man, it was so special. That is the destination. To go to the temple and then to the Celestial Kingdom. She was telling Daisy (her daughter), 'hey daisy, I am going to get married again soon' They are so excited to go to the temple.

She told me all about how now that she was going to be getting baptized that her mom came over and was super angry. Fought with her and now won't talk to her. She cried really hard telling me that her mom probably wasn't even going to come to her baptism. I just put my arm around her and I cried too. It was so sad.... but she told me that no matter what, she was going to stay strong. She was going to be a good example. She knows that satan was just trying to put obstacles in her way to make it so she would not want to be baptized anymore. She stuck with it though. I am so proud of her.  It was a super awesome night. Everyone got their interviews. They were super excited. Maria told me that Audon can't swim so he was super scared and I don't know how many times Daisy asked us if the water would be warm.. but they got soooo excited and wanted to see the baptismal font that all the kids ran inside and they were so happy. They were getting used to the font and we took a picture because it was just so adorable. One of the most special moments ever. We all just watched and were like awwhhh...
So then comes the baptism. We got there three hours early because for some reason we felt like we needed to be earlier than normal. So we start filling up the font. We could not figure out which one was hot and which one was cold so we chose one and thought it was right because it was warmer than the other. after a half hour, we went back to find the font like halfway full of Cold water!!! we were like crap! what do we do now? So i had to step into the font and unplug it and the water was freezing! and I was in a skirt! then it started to drain but not really... we waited a half an hour and it wasn't doing anything. another 15 minutes and it still was hardly draining. So at this point, we are like oh no.... The elders had  set up the chairs at the church and were practicing the piano so we were like... umm... we don't know what to do.. we told them they would have warm water. So we gathered all of the trash cans that we could find in the church and had to scoop out the water bucket by bucket out of the font. hahah probably the funniest thing ever to watch. Then we didn't even have time to empty the whole thing. So we started the hot water. man, I am going to remember that forever.... "

Well I love you guys so much!

Hermana Soliz

At our training meeting with the Mission President and Sister Eaton

With one of our investigators

Surprise! Happy Birthday Hermana Webb!

Best thing this transfer!  This lovely family got baptized!

Days before baptism...excited kids!

Sweet children we get to teach!

Thank you Renton members!! Got us some Seahawks Jerseys!

Hola! Everyone!

I always have the hardest time figuring out what I should write to you all. There is just so many great things that happen ALL the time! It's impossible to write about them all.

I guess I'll start by saying that the Ayala family is getting baptized this Saturday!! I am so happy for them and they are really excited! They all love the church and Audon and Maria are in love with the Book of Mormon.

This past week our investigator, Miriam, fasted to receive an answer to her prayers. We also fasted with her. Anyways, we haven't been able to talk to her yet to see how it went but we're hoping she was able to feel the spirit during her fast and receive comfort!

We actually tried to see Miriam to see how her fast went but she wasn't home. However, we were able to teach her sister and niece who were home and that was a miracle! We also had a member with us, Hermana Hernandez, and she really seemed to click with them.

Miriam and her family also came to the Valentine's Day party we just had! She seemed very happy and so did her daughter, Pizza. There was good food and they played one of those couple games to see how well you know your partner. It was really funny to see what the spouses said about each other!

Another investigator that went to the Valentine's Day party was Erica. She is the one from Chile and she's been learning about the church from both us and the Elders. We found out Sunday that she has a desire to be baptized but she still has a couple doubts. She'll be going back to Chile in the beginning of March and she doesn't want to get baptized here and then go home and start drinking and smoking again. She also has a lot of family and friends back home who are Catholic so that worries her. I really hope that she decides to get baptized because I know she's felt the spirit.

We had branch conference this past Sunday and one of the talks was perfect for her! President Merrill gave a really good talk and one of the things he brought up was how we need to doubt our doubts before we doubt our faith. It was so great! Hermana Peacock, Hermana Webb, and I also sang the song "His Hand"  in Spanish.

After church on Sunday the Elders and us had to race down to Federal Way for the mission devotional. We always get there right before they start because we have church from 2:30 to 5:30. The devotional was awesome and I was able to talk to the Ramos' from Enumclaw.

Transfers will be next week and we found out the Hermana Peacock is going to go back to Kent and she will be training a new missionary.  My guess is that I will stay here in Renton with Hermana Webb, but we'll see what happens.

I love you all so much and my only advice for this week is to pray with ALL your heart and really apply the atonement in your lives!

Until next week!

Hermana Soliz

Eating lunch with Sister Merrill at a vegetarian Vietnamese place...yummy!

At the laundromat

With our investigator, Erica

Noche de hogar

Noche de hogar,

Valentine's Day Activity with Sister Merrill

Valentine's Day

Bun day!

Back seat driver!

Night view

Sketches of things I love

Renton - Week 28!

This past week went by SUPER fast! At least it did for me.

We had a noche de hogar with two member families, the Ceballo's and the Tori's, and our investigators, the Ayala family. It went really well and the Ayala's are doing great! We did find out that they had both drank coffee but we cleared everything up and they're still on date for baptism on February 28th.
Apparently they were a little confused because they thought that they could drink coffee as long as it wasn't an addiction for them. So yeah, that was just our bad because I guess we didn't explain it clearly enough. But as soon as they knew they couldn't ever drink it Maria went into the kitchen, grabbed the coffee, and handed it to me to take it away. They are such an awesome family! Also the members who introduced them to the church gave them a picture of the Salt Lake Temple which they have in their living room. Audon was showing it to us and he told us that one day he's going to go there and go inside. It melted my heart! They all want to got to the temple to be sealed!
They are all also super excited for family history work! We taught them that yesterday and helped them set up accounts and get started. It really touched Audon because just a few days ago his father, Emilio Ayala, passed away. Audon is so excited to one day go to the temple and do the work for his father! He also said that he feels sorry for his brothers and sisters because he feels like they are more sad about their father passing away because they don't have the knowledge of the gospel in their lives. How amazing is that! They are so prepared! He then gave us his siblings information so we can send in a referral to have missionaries visit his family in Honduras. I just love this family so much!!
We also had an amazing zone conference this past Friday and it was amazing! I got so much out of it and I believe  it;s because I prepared and went with questions in mind and I expected to receive answers. Seriously, I wish I could've recorded that meeting because it was so spiritually edifying! I learned so much! The topic was the spirit and President Eaton talked about Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk entitled, The Divine Companionship. He also gave us an assignment to read Elder David A. Bednar's talk, Pray Always. Both talks were so great!
I love having the opportunity to learn and grow! I hope I don't ever find myself taking this time for granted.

1 Nephi 16:18-23
This is something President Eaton brought up in Zone Conference that a young man in one of his institute classes shared with him.
So in these verses Nephi breaks his steel bow and needs to make a new one so he makes a new bow and arrow out of wood. Did you catch that? He makes a new bow AND arrow. He only broke his bow though so why make a new arrow? The young man who shared this with President Eaton knew about archery and said that Nephi had to make a new bow and arrow because a steel arrow would not have worked with a wooden bow.
This made me think of how sometimes things outside of our control happen and God wants us to do the work to fix whatever it is. It also made me think of how we need to prepare properly first and then we will receive God's help. Nephi did his part by making the right tools and God blessed him that he was able to find food.
This made me think..."Am I making my bow and arrow out of wood or am I just doing part of it and expecting God to work His magic and do the rest?"
I had never thought of this and thought it was a pretty good insight I learned.

Hasta la proxima semana, Con mucho amor!

Hermana Soliz

Week # 27

So on Saturday Hermana Webb wasn't feeling good enough to go out so we took her to stay at a member's home for the day. Sadly, she's still sick. She stayed with an older couple that goes to one of the English wards and they were really nice! So when Hermana Webb stayed there Hermana Peacock and I went out to our set appointments.

One of the appointments we had set was at 8:00 with the Hernandez family. They are the members that introduced our investigators, the Ayalas, to the church! Which is awesome because the Ayala's are GOLDEN! Their baptismal date is set for February 28th!!! :)

Anyways, we wanted to help the Hernandez family continue with their missionary work and try out some of the tips we just received from training. BUT, when we got to their house at 8:00 nobody answered the door! No one was home. :(

We heard the neighbors talking and we decided to go over and talk to them on the porch. We ended up talking to Ricky and Jermaine who are father and son. Jermaine especially had a lot of questions and he already knew some stuff about our church. We ended up giving them the information for other missionaries and the address of the church. We also gave Jermaine a Book of Mormon. They also said we could come back and teach them any time. Hopefully missionaries can teach them real soon!

I can't tell you enough how much I am learning and growing on my mission. One thing I've learned recently is that members working with missionaries is the key! Please, don't be afraid to try to share the gospel with others. It really is part of our purpose to share the gospel with others!

Moses 1:39- "For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."
I also want to share the scripture 2 Nephi 5:27 in the Book of Mormon,

"O then, if I have seen so great things, if the Lord in his condescension unto the children of men hath visited men in so much mercy, why should my heart weep and my soul linger in the valley of sorrow, and my flesh waste away, and my strength slacken, because of mine afflictions?

And why should I yield to sin, because of my flesh? Yea, why should I give way to temptations, that the evil one have place in my heart to destroy my peace and afflict my soul? Why am I angry because of mine enemy?

Awake, my soul! No longer droop in sin. Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul.

Do not anger again because of mine enemies. Do not slacken my strength because of mine afflictions.

Rejoice, O my heart, and cry unto the Lord, and say: O Lord, I will praise thee forever; yea, my soul will rejoice in thee, my God, and the rock of my salvation."

When I read this scripture I thought of a lot of things but one of them was that we shouldn't just give up when we go through hard things. We need to always try to follow God and never give up hope. This scripture also made me think that we have the power to choose.

The scripture says, "Oh my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul." The enemy is Satan and he will try to get into our hearts but we can choose to not let him in. And if he does get in,  we can choose to allow him to stay there or not. I think this scripture says a lot about our personal responsibility for our own actions and persevering to the end.

I just love scripture study! There's so much to learn. Oh and I was asked to give my testimony in church this past Sunday. That was fun :)

Les Quiero Mucho!

Hermana Soliz

We're infected!! JK, Hope me and Hna Peacock don't get sick too!

This family is awesome!

This has been a different kind of week...

So this past week Hermana Webb was really sick and she was throwing up several times per day. Here in the mission, if you throw up you're not supposed to go out. So we stayed in for a total of five days. That's right 5 days! That's crazy! But now she is feeling better! She's still drained but she hasn't thrown up!
Hermana Peacock and I were able to go to a couple lessons while Sister Allen watched Hermana Webb but for most of the time we were in the house too. We got to talk a lot and work on the area book!

The two lessons Hermana Peacock and I went to were both with the Ayalas and they were amazing lessons! They all want to get baptized soon and their daughter prayed that we would be able to go over more often so they can learn faster and be baptized sooner. It's so sweet! Also Adan who I was teaching in Enumclaw is committed to be baptized the end of February.

Everyone here was pretty depressed about the Sea Hawks losing the big game. Some of the members in our branch actually came to church with green hair. Yeah, they're hard core fans.
But it's okay. They have the gospel so they'll live.

I've been studying my patriarchal blessing and I encourage all of you that have one to do the same. It has brought me so much insight and you can always learn something new from that special blessing that is in every way personally for you. If we listen to and learn from our personal blessings they will, "chart our course and give us safe passage to our heavenly home."- Thomas S. Monson

I also love this quote! "In His plan there are no true endings, only everlasting beginnings."- Dieter F. Uchtdorf. This quote is so true! It is never to late to start again. The key to happiness is to lean on Christ and to never lose hope.

I also want to share the scripture Alma 37:27,

"Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day."

Isn't that a wonderful promise that we are all entitled to?! And we receive the blessing just from praying morning and night! I'm working on improving my prayers and I encourage you all to do the same. I know you will grow closer to God and more fully feel His love for you as you do.

Love,

Hermana Soliz

New member from Kent ward!

Hna Peacock, Hna Webb, and Hna Soliz

Back to work!

First Week in Renton....Check!

Renton has been great so far! There is a lot of missionary work to do (just like in every area) and I'm excited about it!
We are teaching the Ayala family right now and they are seriously a golden family! They are so ready for the gospel! They don't like being called investigators because they want to be members! The dad is reading a lot of the Book of Mormon and he's also read half of the manual for the gospel principles class. At one of our lessons his wife Maria said she hadn't read the Book of Mormon yet and HE called her to repentance and said she needed to read!! Seriously?! Investigators just don't do that. Unless they've been prepared by the Lord and are ready! But seriously they were committed, and I mean truly committed to baptism after the first lesson! Last night we had a noche de hogar with them at the branch president's house and it was amazing! Maria said her mom is going to start going to church with them too!! I am so excited for their family! Right now their baptism date is March 7th.

Today we went to the temple and it was so amazing!!! The temple is gorgeous and it felt so great to go again! The spirit was so strong! And it was so cool to go with other missionaries!

Hermana Peacock and Hermana Webb and I are getting along great! We have fun together! Oh and  we had a Spanish fireside this past Sunday and I was able to see Juan, Rosa, and Bryan from Enumclaw! :) I also spoke at that fireside about how God is literally our loving Father. It was great!

We also had the chance to have President Eaton come to our house this past week and he role played the first lesson with us and gave us feedback! That was awesome! I mean how often do you get to do that one on one with your mission president, right?!

I love you all! If you don't remember anything I say, remember this. Read the Book of Mormon every single day of your life! Preferably at least for 30 minutes but do what you can. Every day!

All my love!  Hermana Soliz

Beautiful, peaceful day at the temple

My new companions! Hna Webb and Hna Peacock!

Seattle Temple

Love our trio!

I'm getting TRANSFERRED!

So, sadly my time in Enumclaw has come to an end. I'm getting transferred out of Maple Valley and Hermana Killingsworth is going to stay here and train a brand new missionary!

Most people I talked to guessed that I was going to be transferred to Auburn but I'm actually getting transferred to Renton. There I will be serving with Hermana Peacock and Hermana Webb so I'll be in a trio :) I'm sad because I love the people here in my area so much!!! But I'm also excited to go serve in Renton and love the people there too!

My last day here in Enumclaw was a great one and we were able to teach a new investigator! His name is Angel and he was super receptive to our message! It was a miracle!

Here's a couple quotes I would like to share.

"To all such of every generation, I call out, 'Remember Lot's wife.' Faith is for the future. Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there. Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us...Keep your eyes on your dreams, however distant and far away. Live to see the miracles of repentance and forgiveness, of trust and divine love that will transform your life today, tomorrow, and forever."
-Jeffrey R. Holland

"Consecration is the only surrender which is also a victory."
-Neil A. Maxwell

Faith and consecration go hand in hand. When we are acting on and building our faith we are doing things that are helping us be consecrated.

I also want to share a couple scriptures I read this morning in 2 Nephi.

"Behold, they will crucify him; and after he is laid in a sepulchre for the space of three days he shall rise from the dead, with healing in his wings; and all those who shall believe on his name shall be saved in the kingdom of God. Wherefore, my soul delighteth to prophesy concerning him, for I have seen his day, and my heart doth magnify his holy name."- 2 Nephi 25:13

I love this scripture because it talks about the resurrection of Christ and many times I think we forget that He really was resurrected! He suffered and died for us but I also know that He loosed the bands on death by being resurrected and I know that He lives. I also love this scripture because it talks about delighting in prophesying about Christ and magnifying His name in our hearts. As I read this I thought more about how I can make sure I'm magnifying Christ in my heart. I think it goes right along with the life-long process of converting ourselves to set aside the ways of the natural man and becoming the kind of people that God wants us to be. I encourage you all to think of a way that you could better magnify Christ in your heart and then I challenge you to do it!

"And now behold, I say unto you that the right way is to believe in Christ, and deny him not; and Christ is the Holy One of Israel; wherefore ye must bow down before him, and worship him with all your might, mind, and strength, and your whole soul; and if ye do this ye shall in nowise be cast out."- 2 Nephi 25:29

When I read this scripture I thought about the phrase, "the right way is to believe in Christ and deny him not." I thought of things that I could improve on to help me, in essence, stop "denying Christ." I thought of how I could do better with following the promptings I get from the Holy Ghost and also of how I could do better at evaluating myself by accounting to the Lord and then working on improving those things.

I love you all very much! Keep loving God and growing closer to Him! He is the only way to true happiness!

Hermana Soliz

With Bro and Sis Ramos and Bro Castro

With investigators, Leonor and Alice

Baby Shower for Betty, Front right,,,,and guests.

Me and Sister Corbit

With investigator Aura

Driving through Enumclaw, beautiful rainbow...

The end of the rainbow!