February 3, 2014

Heyyyy ya'll!

Sorry this one is going to be a short one! 

But I thought I'd uptade you all really fast on transfers!

So this transfer is a crazy one!!! I am being transfered to Ontario, Canada! and they are switching me to Hmong speaking! It's a chinese dialect. And on top of that they are training me how to drive a dog sled because that is the only way they get around up there! 

Just kidding (: I'm staying in Bloomington another transfer with Hermana Pelaez!
 I'm happy with that, I love my ward (:

The weather has been up and down but today it is warming up! and it's staying lighter longer! woohoo! I'll take what I can get! I can't wait for summer!  haha

 I hope you all have a great week! And I'll update you all more next week! I hope all is well where you are at! 

With Love, Hermana Ficklin

Okay Just kidding, I've got a whole other hour to write! I do that every time!

So I'll update you on some great things this week!

So yes, transfers. I get to stay in Bloomington for 6 more weeks! Time goes by so quick on a mission! But so slow at the same time. It's weird.

Haha okay so I want to tell you about me and Hermana Pelaez. First off, I want you to know that she is awesome! I've come to see why Heavenly Father put us together in a companionship. It is because we have what the other one doesn't. Haha We've had quite a few talks about how we want what the other one has, that the qualities that Hermana Pelaez has, I want to learn how to have those qualities more in my life, and visa versa, she wants to understand the qualities that I have so that she can have those in her life. I've come to realize that she is my "other half" haha in a missionary companion sense. It's been such an interesting 6 weeks of finding out how exactly opposite we are in most things and how we have both agreed to helping the other one find out how to be more like the other! And I think by the end of this next transfer we are going to pull a "freaky friday" or a "parent trap" and I'm going to come home as Hermana Pelaez and shes going to come home as Hermana Ficklin (: or maybe we will just find a happy medium. 

This transfer has taught me a lot about myself. It's shown me my weaknesses for sure, but then, it's come to show me my strengths! Which is awesome! I'm totally down for that! I've seen what a difference I really do make in others lives. 

And I've learned the lesson of patient perserverance. That's a quality that Jesus Christ definately had. I've seen a new meaning to "Enduring to the end"

No matter what we go through, if we put our trust in our Heavenly Father, we can get through anything. Literally anything.

Okay, sometimes investigators are tough nuts to crack. And lately we've had a lot of tough nuts! Sometimes they really want to change their lives and they accept to keep the commandments we ask them to keep, and then the next visit they are not listening to a thing we say. and you are just like what happened!? and then in our spanish thoughts we have the answer...el diablo... haha but patient perserverance and prayer and faith play a big part in helping others along the way to happiness. I know that this gospel truly is what makes us the happiest and it is worth being patient with these brothers and sisters of ours that we know that slowly but surely they will come to see that the gospel really does make a difference in their lives.

One investigator that is one of these "tough nuts" has agreed to be a "member for 30 days" she's agreed to live life as if she were already a member, which entails going to church every sunday, keeping all of the commandments, (for her that's not drinking coffee), reading the book of mormon every day, and praying everyday. I'm really excited to see what happens by the end of this month. We hope by the end she will see the difference it makes in her life and she will have a desire to keep it that way. We are going to ask her to get baptized at the end! wish us luck! Haha I was joking with Hermana Pelaez, saying that we should just commit her to be a"member for forever" and see how that pans out. 

Oh! okay cool story real quick! So we had dinner with the Nareda family yesterday and they are an awesome member family! Hermana Naredas Fiance went on his mission to Brazil and he is learning spanish but he teaches us some Portuguese whenever we go over and it's funny to talk back and forth. While we ate my favorite things, Mole and spanish rice and sopes...mmm sopes are the best. I'll make them for you all when I get home (: while we ate I asked him to share some of his mission experiences  with us and he told us something so cool!

He told us that one day when they were in a missionary meeting the Mission President told them that if you don't face their challenges head on, you will never conquer them.

and he said that while out on his mission he had always wanted to preach on the bus, and he said that he never had the courage to do it until he heard his president tell him this. Well that day when they were on the bus, he turned to his companion and said, Elder, if Parley P. Pratt were on this bus, what would he do? and the other Elder said that he would preach. So he said, I'm going to get up and preach. and he got up and he started to teach this bus full of people about the Book of Mormon and they saw amazing success! he said that ever since then, every time he got on the buses he preached, and he said that they would pass out cards and whoever wanted to learn more would write their name on the cards and at the end they would collect stacks of these cards of people who wanted to learn more about the gospel! And he said that it was an amazing experience and that he knew that he had to just have the faith to act and to face his challenges head on and that the Lord would provide the rest.

He told it a lot better than I told it, but I want to be like that! I want to be able to face my challenges head on! To take courage and doubt not, fear not! And I know that I'm going to see miracles. I know that we can all see miracles if we have to courage to face our fears with full speed ahead and have faith that the Lord will get us through it! 

I'm already seeing the truth of it here on my mission! 

Well, I'm happy to stay in this area another transfer, you end up getting really attached to everyone you teach and you come to love them so much. You see that they really are your brothers and sisters and you want nothing but the best for them! 

YOU GUYS... THIS GOSPEL IS TRUE!

I love learning about it everyday. All of these small details that I never realized before about the gospel, about how much our Heavenly Father really knows us more than we know ourselves. And that through them we can get through anything, we can do anything, we can be who we know that we are. And that in and of itself is a miracle.

Well I love you all! Until next week! 

Love Hermana Ficklin

Hermana Pelaez slipped and fell in the snow haha