So Many Choices!

So True!

Agency. Have you ever thought about that word before? It is an interesting one really. One that is important. Extremely important. But why?


Agency is another common word for the ability to choose. This is something that all of us use on a daily basis. Frequently we use it minutely and sometimes even every second. If we think about this, it really is something amazing. The power to choose and to decide is absolutely incredible.

I am so grateful that I have this ability in my life. We literally have agency over everything. We can choose to be happy or to be sad; frustrated and stressed out or at peace happy. This is something that is part of the daily adventure of life right? We can choose what we are going to wear, what to eat, who to talk to, where to go, what goals to reach, to do homework or not :), and the list can really go on for forever. I am sure that I missed a few good ones in there so please, do excuse my ignorance of...maybe Cheetos or Doritos...oh wait there it is! Anyway, as you can see these choices sometimes are so easy! Then there are decsions which may seem much harder. For example: What career should I choose? Who should I associate myself with? Should I pursue and try to develop a relationship with God? Where should I work? And should I really have that last piece of cake?...okay well the last one maybe not so serious :) Or it could be! But I think that we all get the picture here. Right? I mean we are all faced with decisions. Oh those dreaded or delightful decisions! Sometimes they are pounded upon us. I will be the first to say that making decisions is hard! Let me tell you it really is. It is something that I struggle with! Decisions are so important and they need to be made carefully and that can be overwhelming! I know how it feels to have to make a lot of decisions. It is something that we are faced with daily as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We have to decide a lot of things all of the time. That has been a huge learning experience for me!

Something that I have realized though is that all of this decision making is a gift. It is a gift directly from our Heavenly Father. He loves us. He loves us so much that he has given us all, every single one of us, the ability to choose. We all can see the good and the bad that is happening today in the world. Many things are clearly set before us. We can see between the gracious and glorious good works of God and the temptations, doubt, and despair that come from our common enemy the adversary. We all have this right and wrong set before us. It literally is right in front of us at almost all times. We live in an age where we can use our agency and access good and bad instantly at the click of a mouse or the touch of a finger on a screen. A lot of the time in these days we have to be careful. Why do I say that? Simply because things are changing and progressing at a rapid rate. And that means that Satan is too. This age is really his "A game". As many of us can see he is hitting hard everywhere. Books, movies, advertisements, TV shows, and also families. Many things that were once called evil are now called good. Also the good in the world is seemingly almost looked upon as bad and "not fun".

So what does this have to do with agency you might ask? Well it has everything to do with it. Trust me. Our Heavenly Father has given us this gift because it is at the core of our existence. The biggest choice that we have of all is if we will follow in the footsteps of our Savior Jesus Christ. That is most likely the most important decision that we can make in our entire lives. That is the reason why our Heavenly Father has given us this gift. He so desperately desires for us to follow His Perfect and Sinless son. Why? Because Christ is the only way! :) As we love and follow Him we are Happy! Trust me it's true! He is our greatest example. He is our Redeemer. As we CHOOSE to follow Him we will be blessed. That is why AGENCY is important. Our Heavenly Father loves us so much that He has given us that ability to choose whether or not to follow His son. Why? Because it is just like trying to force a child to eat vegetables! Haha it really is! :) You could force the child to eat them but they wouldn't be very happy about it afterward. So most likely the first the first reaction is no, but as they see the good that comes from it, they are willing to try and then experience the true benefit that comes from "eating healthy". Or in this case being spiritually healthy. As we choose to follow Christ we will be happy. FACT! Trust me! :)

Well that was my little two cents on agency I guess. I had just felt so prompted to write about it. As I did I felt and I learned myself about how much our Father in Heaven really does love us to give us this wonderful gift. As for me I am doing pretty good! There was quite the snow storm here on this Tuesday! It was quite the adventure! We had transfer meeting and I got to meet my new companion! Elder Hooper! He is a great guy and he is from the one and only...Utah! I have realized that all of my companions have been from there! Pretty funny right! Also I found out that Elder Hooper doesn't speak Spanish. But yet I do. This is going to be interesting...As missionaries we are called to preach the Gospel in different languages and mine is Spanish and Elder Hooper is English. So we are going to have to figure something out to do with the Spanish people that we are teaching! It will be an adventure! Anyway we got to do some sweet service yesterday of shoveling snow! It was so much fun! My hands were about to fall off because for some reason my gloves aren't very good at keeping my hands warm. I had a blast though!! We did it in the morning and we had the wonderful opportunity to help out a lot of people in the community! I loved it! We met a guy who had worked in the TV business for 35 years and another who was from Bulgaria and spoke FIVE languages! Super cool! There was snow everywhere! It was great! Cold, but a lot of fun! And I also had the opportunity to eat some Balut! It was quite the day yesterday!

Being a missionary is tough! It involves a lot of decisions and using your agency :) It is amazing! This is a great work! Helping others receive the knowledge that they are sons and daughters of a Father in Heaven who loves them more than we can imagine is incredible! As we strive to become better daily we really will! And just like the quote says, when we have consistent and simple good habits we will receive so many blessings! This I know is true! Life is great and so beautiful! We are all on a tough journey but if wasn't tough we wouldn't learn right? Just remember that! Thanks for being great, and remember choose wisely out there! :)

Happy New Year!

Hi! I know that it has been a while! But the good news is that I am alive! Well I hope that is good news to all of you :) I hope that everyone had an awesome Christmas and a sweet new years celebration! Can you believe it?? It really is 2014! Wow!

It really is so great to be a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! I can't believe what I would do without these experiences that I am having! I am so grateful for every single one of them! :) No matter what may have happened I know that from everything that happens out here it is meant for me to benefit from it. I know that this is so true for all of us in life really. There are things that we go through and we wonder: Why ME? What did I do wrong to have this happen? What did I do to deserve this? Why God, did you do this to me?? I know that all of us have felt this way in one form or another. It is true. It happens to everyone. It is our natural reaction when bad things happen or when things just don't work out. We just always think why??

And the answer I have realized is that a lot of the time it is for our benefit. Then we think "Well how in the world is what I am going through for my benefit??" Don't worry!! If you are thinking that, you are not alone. I know that I have thought that so many times in my life. Especially a a missionary. Missionary work is hard! It really is. I can't lie about that one :) But hey who said it was supposed to be easy right?  Being on a mission you learn so many things! So many things that sometimes you don't even realize that you learned it already. Let me promise you missionaries aren't perfect! We try our best but we think the same things that many other people do! Things like "Why did this happen??" and the many other why questions can easily creep into our minds. But as we take a step back and think "Hey it wasn't easy for the Savior himself, so why should it be easy for me?" That really does help. What helps more is realizing that we can pray for the extra strength that we need to get through the rough times in life. As we sincerely ask help will come. That is why Christ did what He did! :) It is such great news! We can ask for help and it will come because someone has been there before! Christ has. HE has done it all so He can help us when we need it most. I know that is true. SO! When you catch yourself thinking "WHY???" Let this piece of knowledge come to you....God loves you and He wants you to learn from what you are going through :) I love this quote from Richard G. Scott too, he said: “Just when all seems to be going right, challenges often come in multiple doses applied simultaneously. When those trials are not consequences of your disobedience, they are evidence that the Lord feels you are prepared to grow more. He therefore gives you experiences that stimulate growth, understanding and compassion, which polish you for your everlasting benefit. To get you from where you are to where He wants you to be requires a lot of stretching, and that generally entails discomfort and pain.”


Just to let you all know how life is in New York! It is a beautiful day outside here!  This past week was so great! We got to visit a family who is just so awesome! They have two sons who are just hilarious! The husband who isn't a member is such a great guy! He has been visited by the missionaries for a couple of years and he is so cool! He loves tennis! Heck yeah! It was so cool to be able to talk to him about that! Let me jus say that we get along super well!! :)  We had an awesome dinner with them and then talked about how God loves us. So simple and yet so true. The spirit was so strong in that lesson as we shared how knowing that God loves us can bless. That knowledge is amazing! :) It was such a fun time visiting with them!

We also got the opportunity to visit four less active brothers in our ward and that was so great to be able to visit with them. They are all so different and so funny in their own way! Javier, Juri, John and Jeffrey! The 4 J's! We are trying our best to help them all come back to church! I love them all so much and they are great guys! John is a huge football fan so he keeps us updated on everything that is going on in college and the NFL which is funny! He loves talking about football! Jeffrey is a cat lover and a huge hockey fan! He is super funny and basically never leaves his house except for recently! Because we got him to come play hockey at the church. Now that is sweet! Slowly we are gonna get him to come to Sunday Services again. Juri is an older guy with a lot of health problems. He really is a living miracle and he teaches us more than we teach him! He is a book worm and basically has the stories in the scriptures memorized! Then there is Javier! We just started meeting with him recently! He is a nice guy and he has also even written a book! Pretty interesting! He says he wants to be coming back to church soon which is great! All of these guys are awesome!

That is what is going on here in Little Neck! :) I love you all so much and hey remember when you feel that something isn't right, think of this scripture...  To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: Ecclesiates 3:1. It is true! God has everything figured out! So just be patient and love the ride! :) I love you all!

Service!! Smiling while Shoveling Snow :)

So I bet you all are wondering....what is up with this title?? So I must tell then right? Well this past week was pretty interesting! Let me tell you! It was great though!! Man I had so much fun!

So this past week we had the wonderful opportunity to be able to go and carol to some people in the ward here and also to investigators! It was so much fun! We, as in the sister missionaries :), made cookies to bring to the people that we went and caroled to and that was just awesome! They got the cookie recipe from The Friend! Can I just say that is using the church materials for good? Because I think that it is! I can say that we were pretty good at caroling without a lot of practice! :) I was super happy with that! It was a lot of fun though!! We did that for a pretty good portion of the night and it was great! The people who we caroled to loved it! So that was pretty sweet! :) Then the next day on Saturday we were supposed to have our ward Christmas party! Oh yeah! It is definitely safe to say that we were all really excited! But so as the day went on we heard about snow that was going to come in and we really didn't think much of it. Then we had a lesson with a guy named Juri Hein with our Elders Quorum president Brother Wilkes and that was really sweet! Juri is an awesome older man with a great testimony! He teaches us a lot! He is such a fun guy to visit! Our time with him was well spent! Then we got out side and boom! There was snow everywhere! And we got news that the ward Christmas party had been cancelled. That was pretty sad. Oh my goodness I was so sad! I was looking forward to this awesome gathering and then it was cancelled because of the weather! Which makes perfect sense, because we don't want someone getting hurt or losing a life over coming to a Christmas party. So then we had a lunch after church the next day instead.

But!!! What happened the rest of the night was so awesome! We went out to a street called Belle Blvd. and we did some more caroling and giving out cookies and talking to people! Oh my goodness it was sweet! Better yet we brought snow shovels with us so we started to shovel the sidewalks along the road which was good because we don't want anyone slipping on the snow right? So we started to do that! Let me tell you I loved it! Every second of it! I was shoveling outside of a super cuts store on the road just clearing it off and a lady came up to me and asked "Why are you doing that? Why are you shoveling right here?" So I responded saying well because we love to help out! And we gotta keep this place running somehow! :) She was so happy that I was doing that and she said "We need to get you a free hair cut!" Boom! I was so pumped! She went inside and a couple minutes later nonetheless she came out and gave me a coupon for one. I was so surprised! I had no idea that something like that would ever happen! I am super happy about that because that means next time I go back I get to talk about why we were doing that and share a little with her about the main message we carry! How God lives and loves us and how Jesus our Savior and how His church has been restored on the Earth today once more! :) So I am a little excited for that! :) After that wonderful experience we went to other peoples houses and shoveled their driveways and sidewalks! It was so awesome! I was having so much fun! :) I just love doing service! We did some members and investigators driveways and then we would go and do their neighbors and a lot of people on the same road! :) So that way people had an idea of who these mysterious people were shoveling their driveways and sidewalks and walkways up to their houses, every time that we finished an area I shoveled a HUGE smiley face in the road by the houses! It was awesome! I mean now these people know that the people who did this were happy while doing it! I called ourselves the Smiling Snow Shovelers! :) :) So we did that for like 4 hours straight! And man! I could have done it all night long! It was so much fun! I specifically remember one house that we did all of us Elders, that is 6 of us!, lined up on the driveway and shoveled the whole thing at once and I looked up and a man in the house was looking down at us just kinda smiling and probably wondering why we were doing that. THAT in and of itself, really that is the best part about Christmas and this season. When we do things without being recognized but we get to see the reaction of the person who we helped or gave something too. It provides us with that warm and good feeling inside that we did something good. That feeling is contagious! That feeling is the Spirit of goodness, which is the spirit of Christ! I love that!

I know that as we serve others, especially in this season we will be blessed with the happiness that comes with helping others. It is one that cannot be described! Only experienced! So please! I invite all of you are are reading.....GO AND DO SOMETHING GOOD FOR SOMEONE ELSE! YOU WON'T REGRET IT! I promise! :) I hope that you can be up to the challenge! I am! I will try my best to do something better and to help and serve someone too! Spread the joy along. Please do. Others need it! No matter what it is you do...do it great! :) And with love. That is the most important thing about this time of year. Christmas and the Gospel of Jesus Christ are centered on love and selflessness, not being selfish greedy and self centered. Because we truly do find our inner selves when we love and serve those around us. No matter who they are. I love you all so much! My advice...LOVE, SERVE, and SMILE! You won't regret it! I promise! Life is amazingly beautiful when we do these things! Remember the reason for the season! :)

Let Us Remember...

Wow the holiday season is continuing right? It is so good to see! I love this time of year because it gives us that wonderful chance to reflect back on what has happened and we can see how grateful we are for the things that have happened and for the things that we have accomplished. It is just awesome and I love it so much!

This past week has been so wonderful and I am just so happy to be a missionary! Man is it a privilege! It really is. When I think about it I realize how blessed I am to be able to be doing what I am doing right now! it is just so wonderful! It isn't all of the time that I get to take two years and dedicate them to the Lord! So I am so grateful for this opportunity that I have to be here!

So last week we got to visit and meet with Mike and Sandy at Sandy's house and that was a lot of fun! We had a great lesson with them and enjoyed it a lot! Mike is just such an amazing guy! He really is! He is an awesome New Yorker and he is just loving learning about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and applying it in his life. It really is so amazing to see his progress and to see how the spirit works with everyone in their own individual conversion. Mike really is doing so well and Elder Schreiner and I are so happy to be able to know such a great man! He is such a great friend to us and we are in contact with him all of the time. He is just such a good hearted guy with a desire to keep on the path that he is on which is so great to see. I love having the opportunity to share this wonderful message of hope with others! :)

We also got to teach out free English class last week which was a lot of fun! Our regular friends came! Roger and Franklin! Franklin is from Costa Rica! Oh yeah! He is the first person from Costa Rica that I have ever met! So that is pretty sweet! And Roger is from Peru! Which is also sweet! These guys are just so awesome and they are so dedicated to learning English it is great! Roger has only been in the United States for around 4 months and man you guys should hear him speak! It is so cool! And Franklin! Man he is so cool! He knows a pretty good amount of English too and he is doing just fantastic also! What is sweet is that we gave Roger a Book of Mormon about 2 weeks ago and he is already in Mosiah! It is incredible! He works all the time and he says he just reads when he has free time! And I am thinking....uhhhh...how do you even have free time? Because he is so busy! And what is so cool is that he is using that time to read the Book of Mormon! Oh yeah! So awesome! And Franklin said to us when we started talking about the Book of Mormon all excited "Why don't I have one????!!?" It was so awesome! So we went and got him on eand gave it to him to read! We asked him if he was familiar with the bible and he said that he had a bunch of Bibles that he had been given previously but he hadn't ever wanted to read them. But this time he said he was really excited to read from the Book of Mormon and read from it! That was so cool to see that excitement in his face and that light in his eyes! That is what the word of God does! It makes us excited about life! :) 

On Friday we had the wonderful opportunity to help a family move a treadmill out of their house! That was great! The daughter called us and asked us to help and we were way excited to do that! We went there and the parents couldn't do it because they were in their late 60's and we had to lift it down some stairs and stuff, but the best part was that we got to stay after and have dinner with them and get to know them! It was awesome! The daughter was a recent convert and her parents and boyfriend weren't members of the church and it was just so great to be able to sit down and have a "family meal" I loved it! The dad had a HAM radio set and we got to use it and talk on it! Man I was loving that! :) It reminded me of Grandpa Densley! :) It was so much fun to meet them and we hope that we can see them soon again.

Saturday we had a great chance to visit some less active brothers form the ward! That was a lot of fun! They are great guys! One is originally from Germany and has some crazy stories about WWII and that is sweet and the other one is born and raised here in New York and we always have a great time seeing him. Our Elders Quorum president came with us and it was great! :)

Sunday was such a wonderful day at church! Mike came! It always is so great to have him at church! Later that day we had the privilege to go to our mission presidents home to have a lesson with Mike and sandy and President and Sister Calderwood! Wow! It was amazing and so powerful! I am so grateful for them! President and Sister Calderwood are the best! They are amazing teachers and so dedicated to helping us missionaries here in the New York South mission! Then right after that we had the blessing to go to a member family's house to catch the end of the Christmas devotional! That was awesome! We love the Motzing family so much! Brother Motzing and Sister Motzing are just so great! They are so loving and so nice to us missionaries! And oh my goodness their son Liam! Man I love that guy so much! He is a 6 year old just full of energy! Kids just make me laugh so much and I just love being around them! :)

Monday we got to visit with the Hartrick family! They are so awesome and we love being able to visit at their house. Brother Hartrick isn't a member and they have two sons! They are such an awesome family and so fun to be around! The boys are just hilarious and they remind of the old times of our fun family dinners! :)

Oh my goodness yesterday was transfer meeting tuesday! Holy cow was it inspiring! President and Sister Calderwood are the best! They just teach us missionaries so well! Elder Schreiner and I are staying together! Woo! :) And Elder Hernandez came to my zone where I am now! Oh my goodness I am so happy about that! Also we have a new sister in the district which is way cool! We got some trio greatness going on! 9 missionaries in Little Neck! All I gotta say is we are ready! :) Also Sister Ellsworth left! Oh my goodness I couldn't believe that! I served around her for 2 transfers in Dyker Heights! She is an awesome sister missionary and I am sad to see her go! She taught me and so many others a lot and she left a great legacy of service!

It is a new transfer once more and I am so grateful for this wonderful holiday season that we have to be a part of right now! Let us all remember the true reason for the Season! I know that a baby born in Bethlehem grew up to become the Savior of the World. I love him and I am so grateful for him. Being a messenger of Christ isn't always easy, but it is so worth it! :) This is the place to be! I love it! :) Love you all! Thanks for reading! :)

He Will Guide Us!

Well hello there! It is me! Oh my goodness! It is officially December once more! :) I really can't believe it! I am so happy for this time of year though. It really is so important! And it helps us to put things back into perspective! :) I love it! I really think that this time of year is so beneficial to us and to others if we really try our best to help others who need it most.

 I was thinking of how sometimes we get to those points in our lives where we feel like we really don't know what to do and where to go and sometimes even how to act. I have found that a lot in my life! And especially here on a mission for my church. There are so many things that we are supposed to do and love! Being a missionary has really blessed me and my life so much. I have seen the Lord bless me so much and strengthen me in my many times of need. He really does know us all perfectly! I really have found that I am happiest when I am doing my best to not think about myself and to only think about others. I know that as we do that in life we really will find ourselves and our true character. I have noticed and see as we are up and about doing our best to serve those around us we find the answers that we have been looking for the whole time right in front of our very faces!!! :) I have realized that it isn't that we are ignorant in the first place, it is that we needed to go to a loving Heavenly Father and ask for help. And when we do this he seems to open our minds, hearts, and our eyes to see and feel the things that we need to help us! :) It really is so simple but so true.

He truly will guide us! All we have to do is entrust everything in Him and Him only. Because as we do this we are showing our faith that we know that what he has in mind for us will help us so much more than our own plans.This really is so true. Sometimes it is so hard for us to accept especially if we are struggling with our belief in God. But something that I have learned that is said by an apostle is to lead with your belief and not your unbelief! That is so important! Because when we lead with our belief we feel more confident in ourselves and in God! But it we lead with our unbelief it is "like trying to stuff a turkey through it's beak!" I love that analogy! It is so true though! When we may be struggling through anything we need to hold onto the faith that we already have and trust that God is in control at all times. He really is. All we have to do is trust him! And when we do he blesses us so much more than we can imagine. Yes sometimes it takes time, sometimes it takes a lot more time than we want for the help we need to come, but as we do our part we will always be blessed! :) When we recognize that God is in the details of our lives, when we try to develop a relationship with him, is when we will see that he has always been there and always will be, and that one reason why is because he loves us. He wants us to become like him! :) I know that as we try to serve others and help those around us we will find the answers to our prayers. Like Thomas S. Monson says..."There are lives to brighten, There are hearts to touch. There are souls to save." Let us be the ones to brighten others up touch their hearts and save their souls. We will be so blessed as we do this. It only begins with a simple sharing of what we believe! :)


I know that God is in the details of our lives. He loves us and he always will!!

Grateful & Giving; The Way We Should Live Daily

Can I say where did the month of November go?? Holy moly! It flew by! I can hardly believe that it is almost December! I feel like it was just yesterday when I arrived here in Little Neck and that was at the end of October. The days sometimes seem to go by so slow and at others so fast. Then all of a sudden it is another new month. This is something that I always remember my Dad telling me as I grew up, was that time starts to fly as you grow up and it really is so true. I feel like I was looking at the Calendar a while ago and thinking man it is five months til December that is forever away. And then boom! It is here facing me and all of us! And I think that I can safely say that for all of us we are so grateful for this time of year and that it has come around once again! I am so happy that it is this time of year!! :)

There are so many wonderful and beautiful memories that I have of these wonderful times. Especially of how they go right along with my faith. I am so grateful that God allows us to have these experiences during this holiday season. I love how we go from Thanksgiving to Christmas in about a months period and it is such a wonderful thing to see. I love it!! We go from realizing how blessed we are and we can see how we have much to be grateful for, even in the midst of trials and troubles in life, to giving to others. That is one thing that I love so much about this time of year. It is so precious and we really should treasure it. Please do. It is one time of the year where we all can feel the love of God and the goodness of others around us so prevalently. We go from Grateful November to Giving December. I love that so much. We have so much to be grateful for and then we receive the wonderful opportunity in the coming Christmas season to give of what we have to others, whoever they may be. This really is such a wonderful way to live. Yes, we do it in this time of year, but wouldn't it be so wonderful if we could live like this all of our lives no matter when and where we are. I love taking the opportunity to take a step back and look at how blessed I am when I am in a period of when I am down or discouraged. Because this, I feel, is how God wants us to look at things! Instead of looking at what we don't have or what we haven't accomplished we can look at what we DO have and what we have ALREADY accomplished. Yes, we still need to look forward, but sometimes as we take a step back and see how blessed we are we become so happy in seeing how much God has blessed us. And that is what I love about how this time transitions into the Christmas season! Oh yeah! As we lose ourselves in the true goodness of this time of the year, we find that by giving we truly receive. I know that sounds so cliche, and it is! But it is so true! I can testify as a missionary and as a representative of Jesus Christ as we give and lose ourselves in the service of others, we are truly happy. I know that this is true with all of my heart and soul. I have felt the power of giving so much in my life, whether it being giving someone their favorite candy as a surprise when they are having a bad day, teaching someone about the plan of salvation and helping them understand they are a true child of God with divine potential, or wrapping up something to give someone for Christmas! :) All these things bring joy into our lives! Because when we give to others we are doing as Christ would. You know that good feeling you get when you give something to someone and they are happy? That is the light of Christ! That is what He wants us all to do! :)

This past week has been an interesting one that is for sure but a great one nonetheless! Tuesday was another sweet day! We were on exchanges again and this time I was with the champion Elder Park! Man I love that Elder so much! He is from Korea! And he is the Elder that is speaking Korean on the video that I put up on Facebook about our mission! He is so cool! He speaks like perfect English and has mostly learned it here in the United States. We had a great day together and I learned a lot from him. Man he is a great teacher of the Gospel let me tell you. When he speaks and when he teaches I just sit there and am amazed at the ability he has to explain things so clearly and simply as a missionary. I feel like I am being taught! I love it! We went to visit an awesome member in the ward and his name is John Borsic. We also took the Living Legend Robert Michael Goldfine with us. He is seriously the legend of all the Little Neck Ward. Every missionary that comes here knows him and loves him! Ask Justin Casper about him! He could tell you lots I am sure! But we took Robert with us and it was such a wonderful visit. John hadn't been to church in a while and Robert definitely took care of inviting him back! :) He is the best fellow-shipper and such a loving man. Our lesson was great and we talked about how Christ, for us, has overcome the world. He has done all things that we can't. He is always there for us and one way that we can feel His love and His presence is by going to church and partaking of the Sacrament. Or as others know it, The Lord's Supper, or Communion. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints we have the privilege to partake of this ordinance weekly and it is something that I feel so blessed to have in my life. As we know Jesus instituted or in other words started the ordinance of the Sacrament when he was with His disciples. We can find it in the New Testament when He does it! :) I love that so much! We do this so that way we may remember Christ in our lives and also for us to renew covenants or promises that we have made with God. This is something so simple and beautiful that we get to participate in on a weekly basis and I am so grateful for it! I know that when we go to church we feel the Spirit there. He comforts, counsels, consoles, and strengthens us. I am so happy to bring joy into others lives through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It simply beautiful and beautifully simple.

I know that as we give to others we receive such a great amount of happiness in our lives! It is so true! I am so grateful for this time of year! As we are grateful and find ways to give I know that we will feel the presence of God more closely in our lives. We will recognize His loving hands in all things. We will come to trust and love Him so much more. I know God lives and that Jesus is the Christ! Este Evangelio es Verdadero! :) I love all of you so much! Thanks for reading! :) And check out the links below! I promise they won't disappoint! You will LOVE THEM!!!

The Work Goes On!

Hey everyone!

I hope that you all are having a wonderful and blessed day! I am so happy to be able to update you all on what is happening in the most wonderful mission in the world!

This past week has just been beautiful as always! I am so grateful to be able to be here in New York. Man it is one awesome place let me tell you! Fall is in the full swing of things and I am so grateful to be able to see the leaves on the trees changing to their beautiful colors and then fall to the ground. It really never gets old to me! I love being able to see the turn of the seasons. It really is just a witness to me that God is just in control of everything. As I continue to get older day by day I am starting to recognize the little things in life that really just bear witness of our wonderful creator. Our Heavenly Father, who loves us so much. That is why the seasons change, the wind blows, and the sky is blue and why there are the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets. He, controls it all and we have the amazing privilege day by day to witness it.

I have seen so many blessings in my life so recently and I am so grateful for each and every one of them. I am so grateful for a loving family who supports me in every step that I take here on my mission. They are my rock. Especially my mom and my dad! I can't even begin to express how grateful I am for them. They really are the most incredible parents in the world. I love how when I am teaching and I find myself quoting things that they have told me so many times. I would not be the missionary or the person that I am without them and their righteous examples to me. Especially of trusting in my Savior Jesus Christ. The testimony that I have of Him is real. And I cannot deny it in any way, shape or form. I know that He truly does live and I know that He truly does love each and every one of us. His love is real. His forgiveness is real. The amazing part is that all we have to do to receive it is try our best to follow Him and His example for us. We have to repent. That word sometimes can take on a negative connotation in our day I feel like and many people turn away from this word and action because we don't want to have that word placed upon us. But something that I love is how in the bible dictionary it says "The Greek word of which this is the translation denotes a change of mind, a fresh view about God, about oneself, and about the world." I love this so much. Repentance really in all ways means turning towards the light. And I know that is true. The joy that comes through true repentance is something that is so beautiful and so real. It is incredible. Even repenting of the littlest thing can bring us such great peace and hope.

I just thought that I would share that with you all! :) I just wanted to update you on a super awesome day which was yesterday! We had a huge combined zone conference with zones 7,8,9 & 10! Oh my goodness was it wonderful! I was reunited with Elder Goates and Elder Woolley! Oh man that was so cool! I hadn't seen Elder Woolley in forever and that was great! He is an awesome Elder! And it seems as though I and Elder Goates are never far away from each other which is pretty funny! :) Anyway the day yesterday was so filled with the spirit! We talked a lot about the how and WHY of missionary work and how the work is going on. Why we are here doing what we are doing. And ultimately it is to help everyone return to  our Heavenly Father. That is why we are here!

In our mission we talk a lot about vision goals and plans and how important those are in our lives, and also how this is the patter of our Heavenly Father. It is so cool to learn about! I love it! It is so cool to see how our Heavenly Father's vision for his children is for us to receive eternal life and live with him forever! He has said it so much and clearly in the scriptures. And one of His plans is something we know and cherish! Which is the Plan of Salvation! We are a part of this plan of happiness! And our duty is to share it with our beloved brothers and sisters! We learned about yesterday how important it is to show the people we are talking to that we love them and that we want them to be our friend. This is so important! A we truly show others around us that we love them they will want to know and experience what we have. It is so simple to share and something so great to be cherished.

After our wonderful meeting yesterday we headed to our church building and had an awesome activity called our Ward Culture Night. It was incredible! Saying that The Little Neck Ward has culture is a severe understatement! :) It was so awesome! The food there was plentiful and amazing! The people were warm and loving as always and the experience was incredible! It is amazing how places such as Israel, China, Korea, Mexico, Peru, Italy, The Congo, America, Canada, Brazil, The Philippines and many others came together under one roof to celebrate each others culture. It was awesome! It was a wonderful turnout and so much fun! It is days like these where I can sit back and see how incredibly blessed I am to be here!

I am grateful for these experiences! I am grateful for the good and the bad days! And the crazy things that happen where you forget the phone in the car one night and you are on exchanges. Then the next day when you leave to go out and grab it in the morning you realize right as the door shuts that your companion didn't grab the only keys to the apartment. Then you panic. Then you think how in the world are we going to be able to get back inside??? And then you try to find a way onto the lower roof...then once you do you hope that you pick the right fire escape to climb up. Then once you jump and climb up the fire escape, looking ridiculous,to your room and try to open the window, you realize it is the wrong window when you are taking of the screen to try and get inside when an old man yells at you "What are you doing??!!??" Then you try to explain how you thought that this was your room and that you aren't trying to break into his apartment. Then you take off your OWN SCREEN on YOUR OWN WINDOW and then your exchange companion has to climb up the fire escape too and loses his slippers on the way up. Then you finally make it inside and think "Wow!"  Then you go and apologize to your neighbor for scaring the heck out of him and go to retrieve your companions slippers on the lower roof and finally get the phone out of the car. Then you get back inside and your neighbor comes and knocks on your door later and apologizes to you for yelling at you. Then you tell him about how we are missionaries and what we do and how we help people with family history and how we would love to talk with him more. Then you are friends with your neighbor who you have never seen or talked to before. Then you think, did those keys get left by accident? Maybe so. But did something happen out of it that was beneficial? Somehow, incredibly and miraculously...yes. I am grateful for that! Someday I will look back and laugh on that wonderful crisis this might have happened to me. Might have. Okay it did! Haha! But it was so awesome! We are now such good friends with our neighbor Ed! He is way cool!

I am grateful for the crazy days! And the ones with these experiences. I am happy to be a missionary. One who forgets keys and climbs up the apartment fire escape looking like a thief to get back in. One who isn't perfect. One who loves this work. One who knows that the Gospel equals peace. I'm happy to be a 2 year New Yorker. I love being a missionary. NINE MONTHS has past to where? I have really no idea how it is gone. I know that this time is wonderful and that it should be loved. I love it. I really do. I love being here! Our lives are a race! We need to look for the finish line and find joy in the journey as we do so. God will lift us up in our times of need. His light is real.