The universal language is the Spirit 6-23-2015

Mi amor,

So much has happened this week. It was a week of soooo many miracles. I am just loving Spanish work. The Padres game was a success. It's so sunny in San Diego. I really need to invest in some sunscreen but we went to the store today and I've never actually bought it before and it is expensive!! We'll get paid next week so I'll buy some then. The things you take for granted when you're at home. 

OK, here are some of the miracles: On Thursday, we went to visit another part-member family in our ward, the San****. They have a daughter who's 15 and super sweet. We met her once but didn't really get to sit down and talk to her because their whole family was there. When we went over on Thursday, it was just the daughter and so we went into their backyard and had a lesson just sitting on the grass. 

  It went completely opposite of what we had planned but she really opened up to us and we talked about the Spirit and how to find peace and how we can know truth for ourselves. I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

  We asked her how she felt at the end of the lesson and she said, "Well, you both just made my day! I just feel good." I almost cried because she actually made our day. Literally, all of our plans had fallen through and we felt like we didn't have anyone to teach, so she was just our little light of the day.

Friday, it was Elder Cardiff"s (our zone leader's) Bday and so we had cake at district meeting. Hermana Martindale supplied the party hats. 

Saturday was the craziest/funniest day of my entire mission. I don't exactly know how to put it into words ... we went on exchanges with our STL's (Sister Training Leaders) and so I went with Hermana Hatch. We spent half the day at the San Diego Temple and met some incredible people. We gave away 3 Book of Mormons! Kind of cool how people not of our faith are just drawn there. 

  After the temple, we went out to her area. ....I had my second time being kissed as a missionary.  ...So then we went to this dinner the ward was having and it was good.    ...then we went to our lesson with C**. To not go into too much detail, he was definitely using some sort of illegal substance prior to our coming over, but it was a lesson I will never forget. We had a member with us so it was fine. We felt completely safe but there really are no words to describe our lesson with him...

Saturday was crazy but Sunday was our day of seriously miracle after miracle. 

  We had been teaching Ob** for my first two weeks here but we ended up dropping him because he didn't really have the desire to do anything. But he randomly came to church Sunday and the fireside we had Sunday night!! He set a baptismal date and he wants to learn again. After church, we stopped by this potential investigator's house and her son answered the door. His name is A**. We ended up teaching him part of the first lesson and set up a return appointment. The cool thing is he works for the Marriott hotel in La Jolla (right next to the temple). He's heard of the Book of Mormon because the owner of the Marriott hotel is Mormon and so there's BOM's in every room. 

   Then we visited E** who we also just street contacted and she is amazing. I am just so grateful for the Spirit. I wasn't exactly sure what she was saying during the lesson but I felt like I should share a scripture with her and Hermana Martindale said it actually worked perfectly with what they were talking about and it helped us introduce the Book of Mormon to her. 

  Seriously, it is so true that the universal language really is the Spirit. I'm so grateful for God's help in understanding our investigators. There is no possible way I could do it without Him.

My little breakthrough this week is that it's OK to not speak spanish very well. I just need to try and it's kind of amazing what happens when you talk with faith. I love the Gospel. I love being a missionary.

Love you so much!

Hermana Helton

Pray about the Book of Mormon 6-16-2015

This week has been so great. We had zone conference yesterday and it was exactly what we needed. It was all about the Book of Mormon and how it's the most important tool in missionary work. 

  We talked about different struggles that our investigators have and found references in the Book of Mormon to help comfort/answer their questions and concerns. 

  It was really eye-opening to see how the Book of Mormon really can answer any question, concern, doubt and relieve any amount of stress and replace it with peace.

  We have had so many miracles this past week! We really have had no time in our area because we've been at the Battalion and at the San Diego Temple so much, but the 2 days we had time in our area, it was amazing! On Sunday (Sunday is like the worst day to find people to talk to because everyone goes to TJ -Tijuana) ) and so we've never had very much luck, but this Sunday we found a new investigator and a family to teach! We have been praying so much that we will be able to find new people. 

  Life's really great. The weather is SO nice here. I'm loving this humid climate. We ate dinner at this members house, Hermana Guzman, and she made this like rice, potato, carrot, chicken tortilla bowl with some kind of broth in it. I will admit I was a little skeptical by the looks of it, but the flavor was AMAZING. I think I could eat Mexican food for the rest of my life. 

Here is my scripture of the week: 

"Hearken unto the words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words, believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ, ye will believe these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good." -2 Nephi 33:10

  If you haven't prayed and asked God if the Book of Mormon is true within the last 2 months, do it this week. I promise Heavenly Father will give you another confirming witness that this is truly His church and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. 

  I love my Savior and I love His gospel. 

Have the best week! We get to go to a Padres game today. :)

Love,

I got my new San Diego missionary badge - I'm official

Hermana Helton

Hermana Martindale and Hermana Helton

At the Padres baseball game

The sting of death is swallowed up 6-9-2015

Sister Vasi and me just being twins

So much has happened this week! Last Tuesday, we got a referral from the sisters in my district for this lady named Mirna. So we stopped by and talked with her. It was so amazing because she was seriously not interested at all but we told her we would just take like 10 minutes and share our message and if she was interested, great. If not, no worries. 30 minutes later we were still there. 

  She ended up sharing with us that her son had passed away and it had been so hard on her. She asked us to pray for her family. We went back and visited her again on Saturday and we felt like we should share Mosiah 16:8-9 where it talks about how the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ. 

8 But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.
 9 He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death.

  We had barely sat down and she just started talking about her son and how hard it had been not having him here with her. I am just so grateful for the Spirit and that God knows exactly what every individual needs, even if I don't.

 

While tracting I found my very own street!!!

  We also found this woman named Jacqueline! Hermana Martindale and I were just driving in our area and we saw this lady on the side of the street who was pushing a stroller and had a little boy walking next to her. We've been praying that we will find families and so Hermana Martindale just whips the car around the corner to the next street, we park, say a prayer and casually walk up to her like we'd been walking up that street the whole time. haha. It was a miracle. We talked to her for just like 5 minutes and told her a little bit about eternal families and she gave us her number and address. 

  On Thursday, we got Cali burritos with Junior. I take back everything that I said. La Paisa is the place to buy Caliburrs. This whole paragraph will just be about food, I guess. Obispo's (bishop) wife makes the best enchiladas I have ever had. We had dinner with them on Sunday. They only speak Spanish so he kept talking to me and I had no idea what was going on. I just told him that these where the best enchiladas I had ever had so they gave me 2 plates and I guess he said (I definitely did not understand him say this) that if they are the best enchiladas, I need to eat 3 plates. Hopefully, they'll give me another chance. We're eating with them next week again, so I'll try to not eat the whole day and make Obispo proud. 

Cali Burritos ... OK, I take everything back. They are wonderful!

   Last miracle! Yesterday, we were contacting formers and we found a girl named Celeste that the missionaries had taught a year ago. So we went over and started talking with her and she just kept saying, "I don't know why the missionaries stopped coming, I've missed having them here." She committed to be baptized and Hermana Martindale and I almost cried. I love being a missionary. 

  I'm so grateful I'm here in San Diego. Even though this week has been so up and down, I know that this is where I need to be. I'm so grateful for eternal families and Jesus Christ who makes our burdens light. 

   I know that it is true that  "There is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ. He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death."

  Love you all so much and I'm so grateful that no matter what, we're together forever. I promise I'll be there with you on Monday. 

Love,

Hermana Helton

This pic is in the Battalion with Sister Baker who

 is like 4'10 and weighs 90 lbs. so I look like a giant.

We broke into our district leaders apartment. 
It had to be done. They had our key. 
Not sure if that's allowed butttt 
desperate times call for desperate measures.

Sister Vasi and I have big hips.

Sister Martindale calls people and I take pics.

Hermanas Helton & Martindale 6-2-2015

Hermana Helton & Hermana Martindale

Hola mi familia,

 SO many crazy things have happened in the last 10 days since I've emailed you. 

  First of all, I am now officially Hermana Helton.       Mi companera es Hermana Martindale. She is from Utah and she is amazing. 

  I have been just a tad bit stressed these past couple days since I literally do not speak any Spanish and we are serving in a Spanish ward and almost all our investigators speak Spanish.

  But, I'm in love with San Diego and the people here. 

The Mormon Battalion is so great. All the sisters here are so sweet and help me tons with my Spanish. We have a script that we memorize so it's been a little bit of an adjustment from Temple Square. 

  Because the Mormon Battalion is a historic site, we are required to talk about all the history. We also kind of have to do a little bit of acting which was really weird to me at first ... when you come to the Battalion you will understand. haha. 

  But I finally memorized the script and took my first solo tour on Saturday! 

Just a little rundown on what my schedule is like now: 

  I have Pday on Tuesdays. We are at the Battalion everyday for 6 hours and then the rest of our time, we are in our area! 

  I learned how to pray in Spanish which is exciting. 

  On Sunday, I was trying my best to talk to members and so I went up to one of the men at the end of church who had given a talk and I said, "Gracias por su testimonio." Unfortunately I said it far too confidently, so he thought I spoke Spanish and then he started talking super fast. I was totally lost, so I just got dead silent and was like, "Pardon, estoy apprendiendo espanol" and then I grabbed Hermana Martindale and she was our little mediato- translator. haha. 

  But, being in a ward is the best and it's motivating me so much to try to learn Spanish as quickly as possible so they can know I love them. Plus, it would be nice to be able to understand sacrament meeting and Sunday school.

We are teaching some amazing people right now. The people in our area are so humble. It's different trying to find people to teach here. I'm really glad we don't knock on doors. It's also so different having Elders in a mission. 

  Oh! We get to spend 6 hours a week at the San Diego Temple and talk to visitors about what we do inside the temple and show them pictures. 

  We met these really cool French people on Sunday and they took a Book of Mormon! It's kind of different not being able to invite them to keep in touch with us (we don't teach over the phone here) but it was still so sweet to be so close to the temple again. 

 I ate my first Cali Burrito ... not as good as they make them sound. On Thursday our ward mission leader said he will buy us the best Cali Burrito in San Diego, so maybe next week I'll have a different opinion. 

  I actually love my pioneer dress. It's super comfy and it's nice not having to pick out clothes everyday. It's super warm here right now and the farmers tan is coming in nice!

Love you all! Have the best week.

Hermana Helton

Sister Vasi and me in our Pioneer dresses

The incredible San Diego Temple