Say "R"... Not "ah"

I FORGOT TO POST THIS NOVEMBER 19TH!!

I LOVE ASIANS. I can't say it enough. I love them so much. Especially this lil cambodian i have been serving with. I think she's an angel. She has so much pure love and charity. I have learned so much from her. She leaves on Wednesday morning for temple square :( I get another companion later that day. Her name is sis. loa and she is from China. I'm excited but sad. I really love sis. soum. I think that we will be friends forever. She has faced so many trials in her life, but she never loses faith or hope. Such a good example to me. 

So this week was great. Not amazing as far as "numbers" and lessons taught go, but we had so many miracles.

Wayne: he is doing great. Still going strong with smoking haha. Not so good. But we had an awesome lesson with such a strong spirit at our ward mission leader's house. Then he came to church on yesterday (which was stake conference) and a member of the 70 spoke. He was crying and said that he felt the spirit. Then later, he came with us to the mission president's home for a fireside. He said he wasn't going to come but we went and found a ride and S. Soum called him and told him to be ready in 5 minutes because we were going to pick him up. haha. loved it. He got up at the fireside and shared his experiences with " Sister Mi'afe and Sister Krum" hahah! HE DOES not know how to say "sis. soum." Anyways. there were other samoans there that recently joined the church so they all talked in their island tongue and he felt the spirit. in his testimony he said " I know this church is true" my heart. On the way home he said he was shaking so bad and he had never talked in front of a lot of ppl before. haha. we Love him!!

Nakeesha and Tiana: A mother and daughter. Their brother just died. They are ghetto fabulous thangs and I love them with my whole heart. They let us right in and just cried and cried. They said that they wanted to be with their brother after his life but didn't know how to change. I wanted them to just give me their burdens because I understand the atonement. I just wanted to take it from them. But that's the purpose of life, to endure our trials and come closer to christ. Right after the lesson , they were supposed to come with us to the church and they called an hour later and said they couldn't make it. UGh. the adversary really does not want any of us to be happy!! and he will work so hard against anything that can make us happier.

Grace and Michael: A Filipino woman who thinks she is Polynesian and her son who is ten. So cute. So real. So down to earth. She works with members at walmart and knows a lot about the church. She is awesome! We have only had one lesson so far and wont see her until after thanksgiving, but she is legitimate and i love her!

I love all of these people. So so much.They all have different stories and trials but they are all trying to reach the same goal: to be happier and closer to God. Perfect! That's why we are here! Ha! I have such a testimony of fellowship. We CANNOT do this work without members. Please, connect yourself to the missionaries and their investigators. Follow-up with those investigators everyday. Daily contact from the missionaries isn't enough. These people want to feel love from "normal people". haha. But seriously, all we do is find, teach, and invite the spirit. The members help them get to the water and stay active. SO importante!

I know that our Heavenly Father loves each of us. He is happy when we are happy, feels sorrow when we are sad, pain when we make wrong choices... etc. We are His work and His glory! open your mouth and share your testimony as many times as you can this week.

I love you all and miss you so much! I can't believe how fast time goes. It's almost CHRISTMAS! It's raining like crazy here and people are starting to put up trees :) I love love love it. Wish I was with you all! Happy THANKSGIVING THIS WEEK! CHEEEE!

Kisses and Hugs, Sister Mara.

Spread the Cheer

Whoa Buddy! This week was so long! I feel like SO MUCH happened this week.

I will start with tracting- so we were driving to go tracting and this guys was walking on the side of the road, so i flipped a u-turn and we jumped out and talked to him. He wasn't interested so we got back in the car and just followed the road straight. We hadn't ever been there before so we were just trying to find our way out. Then we pull up and there is this big gaited apt complex that we NEVER knew about!

ANYWAYS. Highlight of the week was our investigator Kiki. We have been trying to help her change for awhile now, but she hasn't done anything. We finally decided that it was time to stop visiting her because she wouldn't progress. An hour after that, she calls us and invites us over. She started in on telling us how hard life was and we just laid it out straight and said that she has to cut everything she is doing. We told her to give us her alcohol. First she fought about it then she agreed- then she poured it all down her sink! haha! She didn't have money for an xmas tree, so we surprised kiki and went and bought a real tree with her :) SO exciting haha. The next day, she said she couldn't do it anymore and she was going to drink and she wasn't home. We felt like we should go by anyways and when we did she was there and she hadn't drank yet! So we went and goy martinelli's sparkling cider with her haha. She thought she got a buzz from it. Whater'. Then her mom texted/called her for the first time in 2 months! We told her that God was blessing her for keeping the commandments! She is so happy.

I honestly love seeing people change their lives. LIbby, another inv. came to church with us yesterday and then to dinner at a members home with us later! I love love love being a part of this work! I love spirit of this christmas season :) It makes me so happy and I love surprising people! haha! it's the best!

Ok , I love you guys so much! Trust God, Eat tons, pray a lot, and Love. I honestly feel like i'm living the movie Eat. PRay . Love. Just look to god and live! I love you!

Love, Sister Mara

A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!

 So this week, we had a Christmas miracle!! Guess what?! yes. you guessed it: we came home from proselyting at 9pm and we were stopped in our tracks; on our front porch, leaning against a door, was the BEST, 6 foot, fullest real life christmas tree!!! Someone got us a tree!!! hahaha! it was the best! You should have seen us trying to get it into our apartment lol. It's rad though. We got some decorations and lights from members in the ward and decorated it. It's the best. our apartment smells like xmas!!!! yay! And sister clement had a choco cat so we put that on top as our angel, and put one of my beanies on his head. He looks like bob marley. It is our Bob marley tree. How perfect.

Also, have you ever thought about how walmart gets their goldfish? I will tell you. from China. china freezes them and sends them to america, walmart thaws them out and wal-la! They are still alive. so, if you freeze a goldfish, it will thaw out and continue to live. the end.

Ok ok, on a more spiritual note- this week was the best. I realized so many things about myself and all of our brother's and sisters.
#1. when we lose ourselves, that's when we will truly find ourselves.
#2. Alma 31: 37-38- if we " take no thought for themselves, what they should eat, or what they should drink, or what they should put on" then God will bless us ten fold. God is in control and he wants all of us to just trust him and hold on.
#3. be humble and have charity- God can help us when we are meek and lowly of heart.

I love the examples in the scriptures our these characteristics. i love the people that we come across everyday. we met a boy last night who was wearing 6 cross necklaces and I asked him how he gained his faith in god. He corrected me and told me he was agnostic but that he was wearing the crosses for each one of his friends that had died. He said that he was a bad kid and was trying to stay off the streets. He is only 19! my heart went out to this dear boy. we told him that God loves him so much and asked him to pray to know if god was there. we are meeting with him again later this week.

i love life. life is a wonderful thing :) Be happy eryone. Smell christmas trees. smile. love yourself and everyone else. Tis' the Christmas Season!! Thank you for your prayers and support :)

Love, sister me.

Happy Everything

Hi Family!

We met this woman from Hungary this week whose family had all passed away. As we were leaving, she said in case you are gone and die before I see you, Happy Everything. I loved that, but it hurt my heart at the same time. She is so alone and has experienced so much sadness.

This week was good. We went to Seattle for an app. today, then afterwards we went to the space needle! It was good for both of our Mental Health haha. Seriously, though.

Sister Clement is great. I know I am going to learn A LOT from this companionship. haha. She has been a big help to me this week, just by talking alot and keeping me distracted. We laugh a lot too, which I am grateful for.

So not a whole lot happened this week, but here is something I really liked while I was having personal study:

In Alma 17, the sons of Mosiah and Alma are reunited and the chapter gives a little background on what they experienced

5: Now these are the circumstances which attended them in their journeyings, for they had many afflictions; they did suffer much both in body and in mind, such as hunger, thirst, and fatigue, and also much labor in the spirit.

So these are common feelings amongst most missionaries. But then it goes on to say

10: and it came to pass that the Lord did visit them with his spirit, and said unto them be comforted, and they were comforted.

So Cool! I love the scriptures and I love our Savior. He will never leave us comfortless. we can often be that comfort for someone else who is struggling! Go find that person this week :)

Happy Everything,

Love, Me.

INFLUENZA!

Holy smokes! Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I hate food.

If I see food ever again, i'm going to die. lol. So transfers today! I'm still in Federal Way, Sister Luo was so cute but she is gone now. I have an American companion now. Sister Clement. I'm scared haha, i don't know how to live with someone who isn't a foreigner. Seriously, I got so so used to living and being with foreigners that this whole American thing is a new concept to me. I'm excited/nervous at the same time.

I'm way excited for Sumner to have a Filippino companion! He will love it! I kind of knew I would have an american comp, because I kept getting little signs and notes that said I would. BUT i really love this sister! I don't know her that well but I think we will see so many miracles together and learn a lot from each other! 

So Thanksgiving was grand! I loved the letters from mom and dad about the kansas city trip. It sounded so great to be with the Stiles. We had dinner with a cute little family and then went and visited some elderly folk in the nursing homes. It just breaks my heart that they had to be alone on such a family-centered holiday. So we were visiting with this lady and this old man rolls up in his wheel chair in front of another old lady and yells " BOOM!" and then puts his fists up to fight her. The old woman was so tiny and jumped SO high. I was laughing so hard though, I couldn't help it.

So I got the flu way bad friday night and my companion was dead to the world haha. the whole time i was just asking for forgiveness for not having more sympathy for Sumner when he was sick, haha. I can't eat anything just drink sprite or gatorade. I got a blessing last night because I couldn't take it anymore and the elder blessed me that it was only temporary and to help me appreciate my good health and work as hard as i can when i'm better. I missed mom so much when I was sick. like, so much!

Good Reminder and I'm so humbled!

We met with grace again this week. She said that she wants to be happy- she cries herself to sleep at night- but on the outside she is so happy. She said she let us into her home because she knew we could make her happy and that we could help her. And it hit me right then, oh my gosh, I AM the messenger to bring happiness to these people! Haha. Scary, but true and I'm so happy to be apart of this work!

I miss S. Soum so much. But this transfer will be wonderful. I was laughing so hard about how blunt luli is. It's not just her... it's everyone that isn't american. I had a korean sister take my picture with sis. luo on thanksgiving and she looked at it and said
" you look so much prettier in real life. your pictures are terrible" ahaha, It made me laugh so hard.

Oh and I'm coming home in may... not april. President told me this week. S. Soum had an interview at his house so we got to hang out at president's house for a little bit. It was really fun. I just love being around family!

I miss you all. I can't wait to talk to you on Christmas!! so soon! LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU!

Love, Sister Mara.