Farr Along The Road I Traveled: July 2013

Hello family!!!

I have so much so say, and it seems like so little time to write everything down!
I broke a record in the TLM last Monday night. In the Artesia Branch, any missionary who goes to the Martinez famly's house gets to eat a habenero pepper, and usually it's just the elders, but someone had the record set at 6 peppers! So, naturally, loving the spice of life that I love, I wanted to break that record. And I ate 7. Let's just say it was worse than the Kobe Sushi Hellfire Sushi Challenge I failed a couple years ago... but, victory has never ever been so blazing hot!!!
And speaking of blazing hot... 95 degrees FEELS AMAZING... well compared to 110, it's weird how I'm used to this heat, I though adjusting to the freezing Provo winter this past year would make me die here, but I'm not. Have I said that before? I don't even remember... maybe it's the heat getting to me haha. Since work is still going kind of slow (since we're still really new to the area, we've been knocking on so many doors, and have the tan lines to show it! (I don't think I've ever been so dark). Three of the last four days, a very excited future missionary from Carlsbad (Mikayla) has joined us to help us knock, and we've gone on "splits", where we've broken up into two and two companionships. We are literally 1/2 way through Dexter, and we've been teaching quite a few lessons on the Restoration, but like I said before, it's been difficult to get return appointments.
But there are so many miracles we see every day. Truly, rejection is still hard, no matter how used to int you are, and there are just so many small miracles that uplift us, it's hard to even explain them all. Most recently it's been Mikayla joining us for splits, so we can try to do more actual teaching, and also we got a call last night from a return missionary, Heather (not me), who sereved in Montana, and she wants to help us out as much as she can. We were planning for how we could do more teaching, becasue we've just been trying to find people, and then boom, call from her, and we got two referrals this morning from a person who used to attend the Artesia Branch.
We do have one investigator though! Maria! We were able to teach her twice this week, and are meeting with her again later this week after we go and do exchanges (splits with other missionaries) in Portallis and Clovis on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Her potential-husband/boyfirend of 7 years is a less-active member who hasn't been to church in a very long time, but has a blazing, golden testimony of the Restoration, even though he isn't well versed in any of the scriptures Bible or Book of Mormon, you can feel the Spirit so strong when he talks about his confidence in Heavenly Father, that He would call another prophet to restore the church that Jesus Christ established when he was on the earth. Teaching them has been great, and re-teaching Nathan some of the things he was never able to learn before (because he stopped going to church, and didn't really read his scriptures), has been such a testimony builder for us too. Like it says in D&C 50:22 --> "Wherefore, he that preacheth and he that receiveth, understand one another, and both are edified and rejoice together." The best teachers are those that are also edified from their students, and honestly, as missionaries, we DON"T know it all, the real teacher that testifies of all truth is the Holy Spirit, and that's how we are all edified.
Something that makes our jobs as missionaries a lot easier is having the members find for us, and then invite us over to teach with them. I ddin't realize that that isn't how it always happens here, and it's so hard for missionaries to get people to church because we move in and out, and around so much, we can't be the only social connection they have there, and the only people that help to encourage them to build their relationship with Heavenly Father. We are working with the members in our Branch to rekindle their missionary spirit, and ask them to be bold and share this message with their friends, and let us have a lesson with them, and it's working alright, but I feel like for many people it could be uncomfortable talking about religion with people. Down here though, there are churches EVERYWHERE, and people believe in God, they know him better than I do... which I mean doesn't seem like much, but even though it's only been 6 years that I've known Him, I feel that I've had about a hundred years of change inside of me. Lots of them are willing to talk about religion with you, as long as they can share their testimony also, and it's so much easier to hear "Hey, can I try and help add to your faith?" from a freind rather than a random 17-year-old looking bunch of girls on your doorstep (yeah, someone actually thought I was 15 the other day). We are all just trying to add to eachother anyway, and I think that everyone has a story, has a journey they've gone through, in which they've seen God's hand work miracles in their lives. Share it!
I'm short on time... like all missionaries I guess, but I just want to end with my love for you. I haven't always been able to express my love and appreciation for my family as I should have as I've grown, but I know that from my genetics, to my weird food habits (like cottage cheese and slasa), that I wouldn't be Sister Heather Ann Lagrosa without all of you. It's fun to introduce myself, with my two companions from UT, with giganctic families, and tell people that I have more parents than siblings, that I'm kind of homeless, and spent the last month before I came here visinting my awesome extended family all over the country.
And I'm so grateful for my adoptive families too, from the friendships forged during my time at BYU, to the amazing people in my life who have taken me as an extra daughter, I've been blessed with love and encouragement that I can't even begin to describe.
Just want to make a shout out to:
Jen, my soul sister and awesome best friend.
Eric, who uplifts me no matter how much space is between us.
The Sallstroms who adopted me when I moved to UT.
The Sumsion family who has adopted me as another missionary.
and
The Hamm Family for being bold, and sharing the truth with me, a debt I don't know I'll ever be able to understand.
Love Always,

I'm learning so much here about how we all need to stop for a second, look around, and see just how much God loves us. He places people into our lives for a day to a season, to a lifetime, and one more way we can feel His love is through them.

Sister Lagrosa

A picture of me trying to look like my mouth wasn't hotter than the middle of the sun.

The Trio in some awesome chairs at our 4th of July Branch party.

What our we walk on no-drive day

AN AWESOMELY GIANT BUG... they are literally EVERYWHERE!

Hello Family and Friends!! So I've been learning a lot of cool things on the mission... like if you get hay bales wet, they can totally combust, because when they start to decompose they get hot, and in 110+ weather, boom! flames happen! Crazy right? Anyway, this last week has been pretty crazy, it rained SO much last night, and it cooled of to a nice 82 degrees today! Mom, I can now understand why it's so hard for you to handle 60. :P An update on the crazy house we moved into... well, it leaks... a lot, and the celing in our kitchen kinda ended up on the floor too (when it rains here everything floods becasue I don't think the ground knows what to do with all the water lol), but we are moving out tonight/tomorrow morning into a house that used to be a Methodist Parsonage! :P Opening up a new area is hard work! It's so cool to get to know the members of the branch we have here, there are quite a few less active members that we have been able to visit, and invite to come back to church. As for new investigators to teach, we've had a couple lessons, but people are really busy, so it's hard to get return appointments here. Our days start with us waking up at 6:30 and exercising for 30 minutes after our morning prayers. Then we get ready and eat breakfast, and have personal scripture study time from 8-9. From 9-10 we prepare for our day's lessons by doing companionship scriptures study (with all three of us) and we role play how some of the lessons will go, and then we go over some of our training packet from 10-11. At 11 sharp we are out the door and talking to everyone we can about the gospel. We have a quick lunch sometime in the next couple hours there, and try to have dinner before 6 (if we don't have a dinner appointment scheduled). Then we try to have a lesson sometime in the evening before we return home at 9 to plan for the next day, get ready for bed, and get to sleep at 10:30. The schedule seems pretty reasonable, but there seriously just NEVER seems to be enough time in the day to get everything done, even when appointments (and their back-ups) fall through all the time! We've had 2 great lessons the past week, and I realized that I am so much better at listening than teaching when it comes to the gospel! Sister Hoover (the other baby missionary in our trio), who is secretly shy like I am, did SO well teaching the restoration to a really amazing Catholic woman, Felipa, and I was just amazed by how strong her faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ is, and wanted to hear more about her life. I was able to bear my testimony to her that the message we are sharing with her will increase her faith, and the joy that she has in her life, and that even though she already knows so much, and sees Heavenly Father's hand in her life, that accepting the fullness of His gospel will bless her and her family even more. After the lesson, I turned to Sister Johnson and asked her how I could possibly learn to teach some of these people who know Him so much better than I do, about the restored gospel, and her answer surprised me. She said, "Sister Lagrosa, we are in the bible belt, people here, they know their bible, they know their Heavenly Father, and they are good Christians. But we aren't here to teach what they already have, we are here to teach about what they don't have, and that's the fullness of His gospel." After thinking about that for awhile I realized that I think I learned about the restored gospel backwards... I never knew Heavenly Father, but I got to learn from the Missionaries, and the Hamm's and the Brambleton Ward, about what the restored truth is. Then when I knew that, and I finally decided to ask God if it was true, once I knew Him, then it all just made sense... and I've always questioned things, like I've mentioned before I ask myself questions every day. If I'm living what I truly want. I have to cut this e-mail short, but enjoy the pictures! We made cookies in our car because it's been so hot!

Love, Sister Lagrosa!