"An Attitude of Grattitude​!" - November 25, 2013

Howdy Howdy Family and Friends!

 

First things first: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! (it's early, yes, buuuuut I hope it's a good one tomorrow, and everyone else that reads this, totally feel free to blow up her phone and/or facebook with birthday wishes! :D)

 

Also this you should watch this video:

http://www.lds.org/prophets-and-apostles/unto-all-the-world/monson-gratitude

 

It's excerpts from a great talk that President Monson gave on Gratitude, and it's totally perfect for not only the season, but just helping us all come closer to Christ and our Heavenly Father by recognizing our blessings. :)

 

Wow, it was a crazy week here in Monahans and the TLM!

1- It's been getting cold here at night which reminds me a lot of walking home from class when I was at BYU!

2- The weather has been so CRAZY! It was really warm when the Sisters from Midland came to do exchanges with us (I got a little tan, becasue I was out knocking and walking alot!) -- it was over 80 degrees on Wednesday, and then by Friday night it was down to 30!

3- Almost the entire mission was grounded yesterday because of the weather! It was weird being inside all day, and not being able to make it to church (because the roads were REALLY icey), but it's good to know that everyone is safe, and that we were able to get out today! :D

     - also I was able to hone my baking skills again since we had time and I made some yummy bread! :D

4- Also, I got an awesome birthday package in the mail just in time for the cold weather! I bundled up with a really classy sweater from my mom and dad, and enjoyed some peanut butter from my aunt :) (I think I've now consumed more peanut butter on my mission than I have through my whole life previous to being set apart! :P) It was really awesome, and I laughed when I saw the hot cheetos becasue Sister Rose said "Hey you can lose 30 lbs with the hot cheeto diet!" (from the lady we met last week! :P)

 

Some new fun facts about Texas:
1- DRIVE THROUGH CONVENIENCE STORES! There's one down the street from our apartments that advertises "Beer, bread, milk and cigarettes!" ... it's a good thought :P

2- People are still surprised to see missionaries not on bikes! Last monday night we were walking into the dollar store, and I stopped to give a woman a card, and she was like:

"wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! .... something is wrong here!"

I thought to myself... uh oh...

"Where's your bike!?!"

and then we both lauged, and hopefully we'll see eachother again sometime, she had to go really quick :)

 

But yeah, awesome things are happening! :D

 

We saw so many miracles this week! Since we were on exchanges we were able to do 3x the work for a day (becasue we had some extra missionaries) and we knocked on these apartments that we found accidentally about 3 weeks ago, and we all said simultaneously: "We should knock here!" It was definately inspired because we found some AMAZING people there, and we were able to set up some appointments with 3 families! :D

 

Also, we found miracles with some former investigators this week. We went back to some people that had talked with missionaries here before, and usually they aren't super jazzed to see us again, but we got 4 return appointments with families/couples, so it was really great! :D

 

Grattitude was definately the theme of the week! I'm grateful for the simplicity to be found in the gospel, and how, when we choose to be obedient to God's commandments, we show our grattitude and understanding that His way is going to bring us most happiness, even if we don't immediately see it. :) God is so good, and I know that we need to take every opportunity we have to look for His hand in our lives, especailly when it is so evident around this time of year! :D

 

I am so grateful to be in the Lord's service, and I am so grateful for my family, and their understanding even though I am far away from them right now. I love the Lord, and I know He is blessing each and every one of us, no matter how dark or bright our lives seem, we always need to go to Him, and give Him thanks and praise!

Alma 34:38!

 

All my love,

Sister Heather Ann Lagrosa

 

Pictures:

1- Pumpkin Waffels!

2- Pumpkin Bread! (no yeast=FAST baking!)

3- Homemade whole wheat bread! :D

 

 

 

 

Howdy, Howdy! - November 18, 2013

Hello Family and Friends!

 

I love you all so much, and we had such an exciting week here in the big city of Monahans! ... well, we had some time in Midland (which I STILL love!), because we had a Zone Conference there with all the missionaries in the Midland and Odessa Zones here, and it was WONDERFUL!

 

Some funny stories really quick though!

1- I actually enjoyed steak this week! It's not usually my favorite, but something about how they cook it here in Texas is pretty delicious. :)

2- We knocked on a woman's door this week, and she was eating a bag of hot fries, and she told us that her diet helped her lose 30 pounds! We asked her what her secret was, and she shook her bag and said "Cheetos! I just eat two of these a day, and boom, I'm 30 pounds lighter!" It was pretty great, and she wants us to come back and talk to her more about the gospel, so we're excited!

3- WalMart! Okay, so, I haven't been to WalMart in over a month... and we were allowed to go on our way back from Zone Conference, and OH MY GOODNESS! I never thought I'd feel like I was in a crowd at the store, but shoot dang, I can tell I'm in a small town again, because it was so weird!

4- Dishwasher. So I don't remember the last time I used a dishwasher, because I didn't have one in college, and I've never used one so far on my mission, and I started the dishwasher for the first time in like 4 or 5 years today! ... I think I'm gonna have to stick to hand washing... :P

 

 So now for the good stuff!

 

The main focus of the conference for us was teaching simply, and with clarity. President Augustin testified again and again how the basics are the most important. And the restored truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ are simple, we can teach them simply and they can be understood without getting a doctorate in theology. :P

 

It actually went along really well with some things that have stood out to me in personal study this week as I was reading in Preach My Gospel, and the scriptures.

I found a quote:

"True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior. The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior."

  

I laughed a little to myself when I read this and thought of my future professional aspirations, but I'm not gonna lie, everything that I've read in a study about positive thinking, the best way to learn, etc. has gospel truths in it!

 

Like thinking positively! I realized this past week, that in the scriptures, whenever a prophet is talking about how great the trials and afflictions are (either their own personal ones, familial ones, or just of their people as a whole), when they say "however" or "nevertheless" and acknowledge the Lord's hand in helping them through their afflictions, things always seem to get better!

 

And that is simply because Heavenly Father loves us so much! He wants to hear from us in prayer, and He wants to give us guidance, not only to make correct choices, but the BEST choices. And He will always answer when we ask, He will always help us grow from our trials, and He will never ever leave us. As we search for His hand, we will find it, and I know that He is filled with joy when we are able to take some time to express our love and appreciation for Him in our lives.

 

It's great being a missionary! And I love the simple precious truths of the gospel!

 

2Nephi 4:26-35 is just one amazing example of how turning to the Lord can bring peace to a troubled soul. :)

 

I love you all!

 

<3 Sister Lagrosa

 

pictures!

4- Chalked the wall at the Million Barrel Museum. :D

"Life is good, even if you wake up in the morning and it slaps you across the face 100 times!" - November 11, 2013

This post title quote is brought to you by Sister Martinez. :)

 

Howdy family and friends!

 

So, this week has been super wonderful! :D No one was sick, we were able to get out and teach a lot of peole and we saw so many miracles!

 

Building off of the humility I talked about last week, and just my constantly increasing testimony of Heavenly Father's perfect timing that has been both a slap and the face and subtle through my whole life, and here as a missionary, it's been amazing to find Heavenly Father's hand in His children's lives this week.

 

We have quite a few solid investigators right now who are amazing, and patiently waiting for some things to pass before they can be baptized, but we are also finding new people to teach. The people here are so friendl (like really friendly), but it's always hard to keep those return apppointments, becasue work schedules are crazy, and... well, let's be honest, things you can see (life and the world) gets in the way of working on the things you can't see all the time (God and faith). But, we've seen miracles this week with all of our investigators, and it's exciting to see them progressing and continuing to build their relationship with their Heavnely Father and come to know the meaning of Christ's Atonment that much deeper in their lives for themselves.

 

Rosindo (a.k.a. Rosey), is an awesome man we met on Tuesday while we were biking around (since we are in a small town, and far away from everything else, we are trying to not use the car as much as we can), and we went and talked with his mom and he came home early from work. We set up a time to come back and talk with them more about the gospel, and see what they had understood from missionaries that had taught them before (a few years ago).

So when we went back to his house we learned a lot about the short 35 years he's lived thus far, and how he's been prepared through these years to hear the peace and the comfort that come from the message we have to share. I was humbled, as I have been many times, by the strength that he showed as he explained some of the trials and experiences that have brought him to the point where he is at in his life now. We were planning on teaching him the message of the Restoration of Christ's church (which is usually what we share first), but instead we taught the Plan of Salvation, or the Plan of Happiness-- Heavenly Father's plan for us to return to live with Him again. He's lost many loved ones over the years, and as we and the member that was with us shared scriptures, experiences, and testimony, the Spirit was so strong in the room, and that stillness and peace that only comes from Heaven was there with us.

 

I am so grateful to know that the Holy Ghost testifies of all truth. I know that all of the 80,000 missionaries would be wasting their time teaching if the Spirit wasn't there to testify of the truthfulness of our message. I was so happy when we were able to explain to Rosey that our purpose was not to convince him of anything, but to invite him to ask God for his own personal witness of the truth of our message, that immediately he said: "I will." and smiled through some tears. It was humbling for me to feel just a portion of Heavenly Father's love for Rosey, because when he said that he would I knew, and I was able to testify to Rosey, that I knew that Heavenly Father would answer his prayers, if he only asked with sincerity to act on the answer he recieved.

 

I think I've said this a couple times before, but it almost seems unfair to me that we get to learn so much as missionaires from the people that we are teaching... It's probably because the Spirit is the real teacher, but still, I count it as a blessing every day.

 

Unfortunately Rosey wasn't able to make it to church becasue of his work schedule, but we had a new investigator, Leon, come to church yesterday! He stayed all three hours, and he actually found out that he is related to Sister Martinez (who was also able to make it to church for the first time in awhile this past Sunday, and taught Relief Society, where I got that awesome quote from). Leon's little brother actually was given a copy of the Book of Mormon from another 11-year old boy in the ward, and that's how we met him. He's about 20, but he's wanting to listen, and is interested in getting to know God better. We're excited to be teaching him, and almost everyone in our congregation went and introduced themselves to him! It was truly amazing, he only wanted to stay for the first hour, but he ended up enjoying all three. :)

 

I wish I could tell you all everything, but time's running out!

I do want to share a scripture from Proverbs I read this week that really sunk into my heart:

Proverbs 4:18 "But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day."

 

One of our other investigators Esai described his life right now as "clearing branches on the path of Esai."

 

This scripture remineded me of him saying, that, and how we are all kindof on this dark path right now as we are far away from our Heavenly home. I thought about how, time and time again peole have described the hope and peace that come from the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ not only as the light at the end of the tunnel, but the flashlight we carry with us while we are walking. And I realized something about the trials we face, or the branches we have to clear or the mountains we are compelled to climb.

 

We really need that shining light in our lives so we can see. We're all walking the path back to Heavenly Father whether we are aware of it or not, and we all have branches, rocks, and mountains in our journey. Having that light in our lives from the Spirit, from growing our faith helps us to overcome those obstacles with more confidence and strenght, we can look forward and plan, we can look back and remember better what we learned, and we can have joy and hope through whatever ails us in the present.

 

I know with all of my heart that Heavenly Father wants to help us with our trials, if we but ask Him to. With enough faith that He will listen and provide us with what we need to clear those braches. I know one way he has provided is through the examples of other, of which I am eternally grateful, and there are countless examples in my life.

 

I love you all so much! But know that God loves you more. :D

 

~Sister Lagrosa

 

p.s.

more fun facts about the mission:

1- Sister Rose thinks I look like a carebear! And my new nickname from her is L-G

2- I LOVE being able to see the stars so bright again! And the H2S gas from the oil fields reminds me of the pungent-ness of Dexter a little bit :P

3- It gets dark now around 6:30 (because of the time change), so it makes evenings a little more interesting when our plans fall through/people cancel. We have to carry around flashlights to help us see! :P

4- My comps are trying to bring the hashtag (#) thing back... so I have to do this:

#lovebeingamissionary!

 

pictures!

1- sometimes we eat cake and play dominos!

2- Me in between my SUPER TALL companions

3- an AWESOME sign we see every day :P

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Happiest Halloween! - November 4, 2013

Howdy Family and Friends!

 

So this week was exceptionally eventful, and uneventful at the same time haha.

We had some amazing experiences this week both in Monahans and mission wide!

 

I think the highlight of the week is that we were able to attend the temple on Halloween! It was so incredible, and was a great reminder to me about why I'm out here on a mission. The Spirit there, was beyond description, and the simple hope that comes from the gospel was reaffirmed to me once again. It is so great to know that the temple truly is the Lord's house here on earth, and the peace that we feel in there as we learn and grow closer to our Heavenly Father is something that cannot be duplicated by any earthly means.

 

This week, Sister Rose and I were a little sick, so sadly we weren't able to get out and work as much as we had wanted to, but, we were able to take some extra time for studies as we took turns sleeping. Something that really has stood out to me - from being sick, some letters I recieved, studies, visiting the people we were able to, and going to the temple this week- is humility.

 

I think I've mentioned a few times how amazed I am by the people that we meet out here as missionaries. As I'm taking this short time to serve the Lord, I've realized that I'm being stretched and growing more I think than I am aiding others to grow sometimes. On Sunday a woman went up to bear her testimony about how she has always found comfort in the Lord, and she said that "we are all only here for a short time and then we get to go home." She was talking about this short time we have here on earth, and the joy we will be able to feel as we return home to our Heavenly Father, but it made me think about how short of a time missionary service is.

 

These song lyrics were brought to my rememberance: "I'm old enough to know that time doesn' t move slow enough, but I'm yound enough to know that I can't ever be too old enough to trust you."

 

This week has really just reminded me of how much trust we need to have in Heavenly Father. In His plan, His timing, and the Atonement of His Son.

 

In the Book of Ether in the Book of Mormon, Chapter 3, The Brother of Jared (the spiritual leader of these people at the time) is praying to God for guidance and direction in the next steps that he is to take to help out his family. In verse 5 he states:

 

"...we know that thou art able to show forth great power, which looks small unto the understnding of men."

 

I stopped and thought about that for a solid 5 minutes when I came to that scripture. I thought about how I, Sister Lagrosa, could overlook the great power God shows in my life. I thought about how often I say "There's a miracle!" or "My God is a great God!" and I thought about how sometimes I do overlook the small details that Heavenly Father so clearly takes care of for me every day.

 

I thought about a talk given in general conference, where one of the apostles of the Lord promised that, as we are obedient to God's commandments we can be able to look through spiritual eyes, and have a better understanding of the Lord's hand in our lives.

 

As we have meet with some of our investigators this week, I've been amazed at their great faith, and hope in the Lord. The humble steps they have taken in their lives to get to where they are now, and their confidence in the steps they will be taking in the future as they are preparing to make those importnat covenants with their loving Heavenly Father.

 

I think we can all use a little more humility, and I know that He knows just what trials we need to be humbled in our lives. I'm grateful for the support of family and friends as I'm out here in the TLM! I know that I have grown in strides because of the seemingly small examples that I've had in my life, and I am grateful, that as I grow, even a little, in the understanding of my Father in Heaven, that I can see the greatness in those seemingly small instnaces.

 

I love you!

~Sister Lagrosa

 

p.s. I'll have to send pictures next week!