Week 2 in Enumclaw

Hello everyone!!!

So I am loving my time here in Enumclaw! There is a good chance I'll be here for at least 3 transfers but I am hoping for more!

My Spanish is very simple and I can't say much but out investigators are nice about it. We were teaching a lesson to a part-member family the other day and the father was really nice to me. He's an inactive member and he told me that their home was my home and I could feel comfortable to practice my Spanish there.

Also one of the Sisters in the English 3rd Ward made me a necklace and matching earrings. It was really nice of her to do!

There was some rough spots this past week but a lot of miracles also happened. My favorite miracle of the week was that SEVEN of our investigators went to church this past Sunday. Not one or a couple but SEVEN!!! Hermana Mitchell and I were just so ecstatic! I'm a new missionary but according to Hermana Mitchell that never happens!

Everyone in the Spanish Group was so happy that we all took a picture together! Oh, and Mom, I keep calling it the Spanish Group because we are technically not a Branch yet. So yeah, they call it a group so that's what I call it.

This past week I also went on my first exchange to Renton. I had the opportunity to teach with Hermana Webb and also Hermana Clark, who is one of the Sister Training Leaders.

I keep learning more about the gospel everyday and I am loving every second of it!

We had some great lessons about the tree of life this past week and I learned some new things I hadn't thought of before!

Also all of the members in the group are so strong!! They are always  so willing to help out and the do a lot to try to help the investigators.

One of the families in the group is the Garcia family. Their son Javier just came home from his mission. He came home a couple months early because he has cancer and he needed to come home for treatment. He gave a talk last Sunday and this past Sunday he bore his testimony. His faith is literally unwavering! It is admirable how much faith he has. I don't know very many people who would refer to cancer as "this little sickness," but that is exactly what he called it. He is so humble and trusts in God so much. He knows everything is going to work out and it's great to see someone be so strong during such a difficult time. So I know they say not to ask people back home to pray but if you could include Javier and his family in your prayers that would be awesome!

Also I read something this past week that I really liked. I don't remember what it was called or who said it but the main thing it said was, "You don't know what you have."

 It was a convert saying that she didn't really think members, who have grown up in the gospel, really knew what they had. In other words. many of us take it for granted.
Please try to think of a way that you can strengthen your testimony and then do whatever that is. Whether it be to pray or to read the scriptures more or to go to church. Do something and really ponder on and use the atonement in your lives.

I love you all and always pray for you! I hope you're being blessed!

Love, Hermana Soliz

On exchanges with Hermana Clark

Loving it in Enumclaw!

Finally in the WA!!

My mission President and Sister Eaton!

Hey guys!!!

Sorry but this email might be on the short side. There is just so much to do. 

Anyways my companion and trainer is Hermana Mitchell and she is great! She is also really good at Spanish so that should be helpful for me. She has only two transfers left until she goes back home and she will most likely be my trainer for both of those transfers which is great! 

We are serving in a town called Enumclaw and it's really pretty here. The town also seems pretty cute from what I've seen. There are three English wards in Enumclaw and and one Spanish Branch. So we're serving in the Spanish Branch but we are the only Spanish missionaries for the whole Zone so we cover all of Maple Valley. 

On Sunday they had me bear my testimony and I did it in Spanish but then I added some stuff at the end in English. The second counselor for the Spanish Group is Brother Blad and he doesn't know Spanish so we're learning together! He's a cute old man and everybody calls him Grandpa. He's really nice and he gave me my "Mission Wings" which is this little gold pin of the Seattle Temple.

The Spanish Branch is really small. On Sunday I counted and in total there was 29 people there. There is so much work to be done though and the group has a lot of potential so I'm excited!!

We have dinner with members on Sundays and Mondays so last night was my first dinner at a members home. It was at the Ramos's house and Brother Ramos is the President of the Spanish Branch. It was so much food and so good! It's a good thing members just feed us twice a week though because I don't want to get fat! Sister Ramos also gave us homemade bread when we left so it's true that people always give the missionaries food. 

Also I wore the navy striped skirt yesterday! I was surprised to see that not only did it fit but it was a little lose. I thought that maybe you had let it out a little. Haha! But since you didn't I guess I did lose some weight. Also I loved the new outfit you and grandma sent me! I already wore it and it's really cute! Thank you! 

The Spanish is still really hard for me but I'm trying. A lot of our investigators keep asking me why I'm Mexican and don't know Spanish. LOL.

I already love the area here and I hope I pick up the Spanish quickly because the members and investigators speak really fast!

I love you and my next email will be longer!

Make sure you read the Book of Mormon every single day!!

It's amazing and we need to be reading it and applying it's teachings!

Love, 

Hermana Soliz :)

My "Greenie" package that was waiting when I arrived.

My apartment

Quiet little town

Our zone covers the most area.

I'M HEADED OUT....

 I leave tonight!!!! Well at 2AM!! Crazy! Last night when I said goodbye to Hermana Bown, Hermana MacLellan, and Hermana Daines I didn't get much sleep. I probably only got three hours of sleep and surprisingly I'm not passed out.

And tonight I'm not going to get any sleep because 1) I leave at 2AM and 2) It's Mexican Night for us to celebrate Mexico's Independance Day and Mexico City will be partying all night!

So five people from my district will be on my same flight and I'll be sitting by Elder Dahl so it'll be tons of fun!

This past Friday everyone who was leaving this week had a day full of back to back meetings and they showed us how we could approach someone in the airport with a pass along card. So I have a few of those...we'll see what happens. We all fly to Dallas and then from there we split off in different directions.

I can't believe it's already time to go. 

This past Sunday we were lucky and had Presidente Pratt and Hermana Pratt in our sacrament meeting. He said some really nice things just for us missionaries that were leaving. 

Elder Dahl also sang a musical number where he sang a combination of 3 different hymns. It was beautiful and I started to tear up.

When I said goodbye to Hermana Bown and my roommates it was sad and I teared up a little bit. I have a feeling that when I say goodbye to all of the guys I'm gonna ball.

I'm a little anxious about the airport but I'm all packed and I think I have enough pesos. Cross your fingers!

Also this week we had a devotional given by Hermano Shawn Cates. He is the one that takes care of all the physical stuff within the CCM. His devotional was amazing! I learned soooo much! Everything he was saying was just great!

One of the many great things he shared was a poem that goes like this:

"Come to the edge."

"No we'll fall."

''Come to the edge.''

''No we'll fall.''

''Come to the edge.''

So we came to the edge and He pushed us,

And we flew.

Many times we just need to have faith and follow the promptings of the Spirit. Many of us have faith and have felt the Spirit before but we do not have strong enough faith to just act. FAITH TAKES ACTION. 

Many of us do not realize our full potential. If only we could have faith in what we could accomplish with God on our side. 

We can't be like Lot's wife who did not have faith and longed for the past. We need to point ourselves toward the future. Having faith leads to amazing things. We just need to step out of the way and let God lead. 

Also one thing I liked that was said in Relief Society was, ''When you are discouraged you are listening to the Devil.'' 

No bad thing comes from God and no good thing comes from Satan. 

When you are discouraged pray for more faith, strength, and peace in your life. But that is not all. You have to act! You cannot just pray for more faith and expect it to magically appear. Pray for faith and then study the scriptures, go to church, do everything you can to work towards that and then that is when you receive blessings and answers to your prayers. 

I am so grateful for this gospel it's surreal. It is my anchor in my life and it means everything to me. I know that the mission will be difficult at times and that maybe sometimes I'll wonder what in the world I am doing. But I know this church is true and I know that this is exactly where Heavenly Father wants me to be at this point of my life. 

I want to share the happiness this gospel gives me with others and help them to receive the blessings of the gospel as well. 

I know that serving a mission will bring me and others many blessings. I know that I am changing on my mission. Even within the short time I've been here in the CCM I have seen changes in me. I know that my mission is a part of my lifelong conversion process.

I want everyone to have the  knowledge that I have and I want to keep growing and learning more! 

I love the temple! As I share the gospel I want to help as many people as possible to get to the temple because that is where we make eternal covenants. That is where we can be sealed as families for eternity. The temples give us an eternal perspective that everyone should be able to see. 

Wow, I can go on and on...but I won't.

I should be able to call you from the Dallas airport but if not I'll call or email you when I'm in Washington. 

I love you all!

Hermana Soliz

P.S.Sorry if my thoughts are a little frazzled lol

My District with our Branch Presidency

Out farewell District picture

Our last casual District Picture

My awesome instructors Hermano Monroy and Hermana Arno

The night my companion and roommates left me.

It's my turn!....Goodbye CCM...

Last week in the CCM!

First of all, OH MY GOODNESS!!! Our little branch is a ward now! Woohooo!!! I totally knew it would happen soon! That's awesome! I'm very happy to hear that!

Tell Brooklynn I said good luck at school and I hope she really enjoys the experience! I'm glad to hear that you are all doing good and I love you!

Today was my last P-Day here in the CCM and we spent the morning at the Mexico City Visiting Center at the temple. The temple is being remodeled so we couldn't do a session but the Visiting Center was still amazing and great! I also got some cases from the store for my Spanish scriptures and a pretty Mexican shirt. Lol

I feel like there is so much I could tell you all! Goodness...where to start?

Well yesterday Hermana Bown and I taught our investigator Jacobo, which is really Elder Dahl. Anyways, in this lesson I really felt like I was teaching Jacobo instead of Elder Dahl which was really cool. Also Hermana Bown and I didn't really have a set lesson for this appointment with Jacobo so we were just going to ask him if he had any questions about The Restoration pamphlet we had him read and see where that led. Well boy was I in for a surprise! 

So we start teaching and everything is going great! And I am speaking the most Spanish (Spanglish) that I ever have in a lesson. We answered his questions and all of a sudden I was prompted to talk about baptism and invite him to be baptized. I was a little hesitant for like a split second if I should really lead the conversation to that or not since it wasn't part of the plan but then I just went for it. Then as I was teaching him about baptism I just started choking up and I had to pause before continuing. Tears were literally streaming down my face! I don't really know how to describe it but it was an amazing feeling! The spirit just hit me so hard! I had all of these feelings of love for my future investigators and I knew that inviting others to be baptized was part of the reason I'm on a mission. Which I knew before of course, but it just hit me in a different way this time. I also had a feeling of reassurance that I can, indeed, do this. Even if my Spanish is really, really bad...I can still do this. So just remember, as long as you have the spirit with you, you can do amazing things! 

Also my companion and I went to meet the new district this past week and they are awesome! We especially wanted to meet the Hermanas since we're the Sister Training Leaders and guess what? One of the Hermanas was Hermana Capps. Which is Kiara's boyfriend, Zach's, sister. Ya. Such a small world. 

We also had some amazing devotionals on Sunday that were just really spiritual! One of the videos we watched was called Only a Stone Cutter and I just love that video! His faith and perseverance is admirable and inspiring! 

Also my roommate was playing this song the other day and it's called Emma from the album Joseph: A Nashville Tribute to the Prophet. Basically it's my new favorite song. It's really beautiful! 

This past Sunday was also Fast Sunday and it was really cool to know that everyone in the CCM was fasting. I also counted how many times "Yo sé" was said in testimony meeting and it was 106 times. 

A district we all really loved left from our Zone this past week so we all miss them. It's sad to think I only have six days left with my zone and especially with my district. I just love them all so much and they are going to be awesome missionaries!

I love you all and keep praying and striving to be more like Christ! Next time you hear from me I'll be in Washington!

Love, 

Hermana Soliz

On the bus, going to the temple!

I'm so excited, at the temple's visitors center

I love the Christus!

Our transportation

The temple is so beautiful!

Our Zone

Hermana Bown and me!

My District - will miss them very much.

Hello Everybody!!

So this past week I had a tiny, little breakdown. Ya I guess you could call it that. Haha! I was just getting really frustrated with myself because I feel like I learn new things about the language, and then the next day I forget. My district was really helpful though and reassured me that I'm doing great and need to just have more confidence in my ability. It really is like I have eight more brothers and a sister here! My teacher was also really helpful and I love her!

My district is amazing and we are continually growing closer together! There is one particular district in our zone that is a little rambunctious and everyone in my district is grateful that we're all not like that. It's great to have people here that you can talk to about anything whether it's silly or spiritual. 

This week a district from our zone left and they gave us a bottle with notes they wrote to us inside of it. Apparently it's something that the old district 5D started (before us). The note said that at the end of our stay here we pass the bottle on to our favorite district and it will just continue to be passed throughout our zone. 

This past Sunday Hermana Pratt gave another beautiful Relief Society lesson on the process of conversion. Remember, "faith without works is dead." 

For one of our devotionals we watched a talk by Elder Richard G. Scott that I've heard before. I loved it and what happened at the end of his talk was something I really needed to hear. So Elder Scott had already finished his talk and sat down but after the closing song and right before the closing prayer was said he got back up and said this,

"Remember, the Lord has called you to succeed, not to fail. Sometimes it may seem terribly hard, but He wants you to grow. He will not abandon you. He inspired your call. He knows who you are. He knows what you need. He knows what He wants you to become, and this mission experience is an opportunity He has given you to discover things about yourself you never knew; capacities you never knew you had, strength beyond what you felt you had, and the capacity to love and serve which will sustain you throughout the rest of your life. Remember, you have been called and He will fit the task to your capabilities. I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

I really love this quote and even though it is aimed towards missionaries you can apply it to everyone in their own lives. Elder Scott had already talked about this in his talk but he felt the need to say it again. It was awesome to see an apostle receive revelation and follow the promptings of the spirit right in front of me. 

In class with President Pratt we also watched a video on the priesthood and I learned some very interesting things! I loved though that in the video Elder L. Tom Perry said that he did not feel worthy of his calling as an apostle. I was shocked! This is an apostle who helps lead and guide the church and he doesn't feel worthy. That was very humbling to me. 

Another video we watched was called The Story of John Tanner. I encourage you all to watch it! John Tanner's amount of faith was incredible and he truly endured to the end! John Taylor couldn't walk because he had some kind of infection in his leg and he wanted to be baptized but knew it would be impossible to do so with his leg. So the very faithful missionaries who were worthy of their priesthood power blessed John that he would be able to walk. It was amazing and John had the faith to be healed! Then that same exact night he insisted on being baptized and walked...I think 3 miles, on a leg he hadn't been able to walk on for years to a lake to be baptized! I was amazed!

The last video we watched was about Christ, His crucifixion, and the atonement. Many thoughts and feelings came to my mind as I watched but one of them was, "How could Judas betray Christ?" How could one of Christ's apostles, who witnessed the miracles Christ performed and who witnessed the blessings Christ gave others do this?! Judas was an apostle! He must have had a testimony! 

That just made me think that even the best can fall. We need to seriously start thinking with an eternal perspective and get our act together. We need to constantly take advantage of the precious gift of the atonement because we all make mistakes. We need to continually strive to cultivate Christ-like attributes and live as He did. We need to be examples to others and share our testimonies. 

I love you all very much! I especially missed Dad this week! 

Love, 

Hermana Soliz :)

Hola mi familia y amigos!

My face when I'm told no English the whole day

Studious and all...

Feeling good this morning

Sunday Selfie

Miss and love you all!

Made a key for my scriptures!! The colors are for marking my scriptures.

The tabs are color coded to chapters of Preach my Gospel.

I write in these all the time!  Love them!

Just Spanish

My amazing volleyball team!

I'm taking the picture.

Our guys (I mean Elders) hang their coats on this rack in our classroom and it's so cute to see them all put their jackets on when we leave.

Mexico has been good to me...14 more days.

District 5 D!! Love them!

Going into week 4.....

Hola mi familia!!!

I hope you are all doing well! I love and miss you all and pray for you all the time!
So first Mom, I can't send a box of stuff home. For some reason we can receive packages but we can't send them. Also thanks for sharing your journal entry with me! That was so beautiful! I would be so lucky to have a dream like that!
Also THANK YOU so much for the package! I loved it and so did my companion! :)
Goodness, I can't believe I'm at the halfway mark of my stay here!!! My companion and I were talking about how the days are so long but then at the end of the day we're like "Where did the time go???"
We also figured out that for the most part we get 7 hours of sleep and have 17 hour days. On a good day we get 8 hours of sleep and have 16 hour days. There is totally no way I would be able to do this with out the help of Heavenly Father! I thank Him each and every day for the help He gives me.
So let me just tell you a little bit about this week. So one of our Elders, Elder Johansen, came up with this insane scenario and asked everyone in our district about it. Okay, so his scenario is that the CCM is being attacked by zombies\robots...Haha! How he came up with that I have no idea. His question for us was that if we only had enough weapons for ourselves and one other person who in the district would we pick to help us defeat the zombies\robots. Now we were told to pick someone that we trusted to have our backs so we could make it out alive. Well Elder Johansen ended up picking me! It came down to Elder Wasden and me and he ended up choosing me! Haha! He told Hermana Bown she probably wouldn't even be able to hold the weapon. LOL! I was flattered that he trusted me and chose me over all of the Elders.
Okay, another surprise that happened this week was that I saw Kathleen Billings, from up at school here! I had thought she wasn't going to get here until my last two weeks but then I was at breakfast and I saw her! It was so great to see a familiar face ! She saw me from across the comedor and yelled out loud "Tara!" Haha! So now several Elders and Hermanas know my first name but oh well! I don't ever really see her because we don't have the same schedule but hopefully I'll be able to get a picture with her before I leave.
One of the districts in our Zone that we always played volleyball with left this week so that was sad but we'll be getting a new group of missionaries this Wednesday. Speaking of volleyball...we were playing with the new district the other day and my team was losing. Now Hermana Bown and I aren't the best players but we do pretty well sometimes and I'm good at serving. Anyways, one Elder on the other team said, "Just send the ball to the Hermanas," basically implying that we suck. Lol. Well right as he said that the ball came my way and I hit the ball and scored a point! Haha! You should have seen their faces. It was awesome. My team gave me hi-fives and all the elders were telling the other team that it wasn't cool to call out the hermanas like that. They were pretty much being big brothers.
One of the talks we watched this past week was Elder Bednar's talk called Becoming a Preach my Gospel Missionary (I also read this one at home). I absolutely loved it! A lot of things he said really touched me and one of them was when he said, "You can do this." He then bore his testimony that he knew that all of us are capable of fulfilling and completing our missions. Sometimes I get the feeling that I am never going to learn this language because it is so difficult for me and that I am inadequate. However, when I heard Elder Bednar say that, right at that moment I pictured myself in white. Missionaries are always told to picture their investigators in white but at that moment I pictured myself in the temple dressed in white. I took it as a sign of faith and hope that I can do this! It also reminded me of a beautiful quote by Gordon B. Hinckley's wife. I don't remember it word for word but the main point of the quote was about how she wanted to arrive at the gates of Heaven. She said she didn't want to show up in a brand new car; she wanted to show up in an old Volkswagen; she didn't want to show up with manicured nails; she wanted to show up with dirt under her nails from helping someone plant a garden, and so on. She wanted Heavenly Father to know that she really worked on earth and that she really lived. Well, I want Heavenly Father to know that I am really giving this my all. That I am putting my whole heart into this. I want Him to know that I am going to do my best to study and prepare for my investigators. I want Him to know that I am dong my best to live as a disciple of Christ and be an example to others.
Gosh, I am just so happy to be here and I feel honored that I get to have this experience!
I still have a long way to go though on learning Spanish. Seriously, it's so confusing for me. Why are there so many verb conjugations?? Haha!!
I love you all and remember to pray ALL the time! Also when you can pray on your knees.

Till next time!

Love,

Hermana Soliz

Yes...we get a doughnut...sometimes.

Our classroom with our names and assignments

1

Finally got antibiotics - now to get better!

My amazing companion playing the piano!

Fun name tag pics

Week 2 down and on to 3...

Hola! ¿Como estas?

 I can't believe that another week has gone by! Seriously it's just crazy! The days are super long but yet it still seems like there's not enough hours left in the day to get everything done. 

So this past week I was sick for a few days which was not good but I'm feeling better. I went to the infermeria to get some medicine for my super bad sore throat and they gave me Tylenol...I was like really...My throat felt like someone had scratched it with sandpaper, stuffed cotton balls down it, and then set it on fire. Tylenol wasn't going to help. But several of the Elders in my district offered me medicine and Elder Dahl gave me some Emergency Vitamin C stuff so that helped. I also said  prayers and I am feeling way better! 

So I think in my last letter I told you that for sacrament meeting we all have to prepare a talk in spanish on the given topic for that week and then the bishopric just randomly picks people to speak. Anyways last Sunday I was a nervous wreck because I wasn't fully prepared and I was worried I was going to be picked. Well I prayed and pleaded with the Lord that He might spare me the embarrassment of getting picked and I promised Him that I would prepare for next week - which was this past Sunday. Well Heavenly Father kept His end of the deal and so did I. 

So this past Sunday in sacrament I saw that the bishop was trying to read my name tag from his seat. I was sure he was going to call on me to speak and what do you know...he did! I'm so glad I prepared! It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be either and several people told me I did a good job. Also that Sunday Herman Bown and I were called to be the new Sister Training Leaders!!! How exciting! Also our District Leader, Elder Dahl, was called to be the new Zone Leader so now Elder Macdonald is our District Leader. I know I said this before but I love my district! I am learning so much from all of them and they are so patient with me and my horrible spanish. Haha! 

On Sunday we have two devotionals and then a spiritual video we watch. Then at the end of the day we gather as a district and discuss them. At one of the devotionals we watched one of Elder Holland's talks on missionary work. I had read the talk before coming here but it was great to be able to actually see him as he was giving it. One of the points I really liked that he made was that when Christ asked his apostles to drop their nets and follow Him, it was forever. So we need to do the same thing. We need to always continue to share the gospel and be examples of Christ. We also watched the video Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration, and it was just amazing. I could watch that over and over again.

This past week some new missionaries arrived so we are no longer the newbies! Yeah! Moving on up in the CCM! 

Oh and this week we found out that our Zone wants all of us to have our additional study time that we have at 7 AM to be in the classrooms. That means Hermana Bown and I have to be dressed and in class by 7 AM!! We did it today but it was no easy task. We don't get to bed until like 11 PM  and then we have to wake up so early to be ready on time. But like they say this is the Lord's time and not mine.

We also have another teacher that teaches us in the afternoon and his name is Hermano Monroy. He pretended to be an investigator and we taught him a lesson the other day and he accepted our invitation to be baptized!

My spanish is still no bueno but I can pray in spanish!!! They are simple prayers but hey, it's a step and they are heartfelt. 

I love and miss you all!

Lots of Love!

Hermana Soliz 

My district! I love them!

My schedule

The grounds at CCM

Mi casita!

Having fun!

Baptism Power!

Laundry time

The wall around the CCM

My companion and other room mates - casita #11

Map pic #1

Map pic #2