Hey everyone!!
This week was one of the greatest weeks on my mission so far!! It was
SOO good!!! I can't believe that I've been here for a transfer
already, time is going by really super fast and I'm not sure how I
feel about it haha.
Anyways though, this week we had over twice as many lessons as last
week!! It was so great!
On Tuesday we went to visit Vero, Josue's wife and have a
lesson with her. She's one of the sweetest girls ever! She'd been
having some doubts about Joseph Smith so I had the idea to watch the
full length Joseph Smith movie with her and we went over the
restoration with her. It was a fantastic lesson, and I think it was
good to review everything with her because it had been awhile since
she had been taught that. It was cute cause she got all excited about
the movie and made popcorn and got us drinks and set up a table and
everything (including hot sauce! I think I'm meant to be Hispanic
cause hot sauce on popcorn is the bomb.com and I've been doing that
since I was little!). Anyways, unfortunately we had to watch it in
English but she still understood it. The spirit during the movie and
during the rest of the time we talked to her was so strong and I was
reminded again of how beautiful early church history really is and the
amazing sacrifices so many people made because of their firm faith in
Jesus Christ and in the restoration. After the movie, I was super
emotional for some reason and though I contribute in every lesson we
have, this time was different cause this time I bore my testimony of
The restoration and of Joseph smith as a prophet in Spanish and I
couldn't get through it without getting choked up. It was crazy haha.
Vero is a special person and I can tell she's close to being able to
truly accept this in her life which makes me so happy.
On Wednesday we had a trainers meeting up in Provo (it's like an hour
drive) and it was pretty good! President talked to us and our trainers
about how things were going and what not. He's such an amazing man but
sadly in July we'll be getting a new mission president (or I might be
in the Orem mission, I guess we'll see!) anyways though, after the
meeting we grabbed something to eat at this super yummy burger-ish
place in provo called tommy's burgers. While we were getting our food
a woman asked us about where we were from everything and then she
asked for our parents' numbers so she could call our parents and tell
them how great we're doing. It was really sweet of her, but kinda
random. After we got our food the cook told us that missionaries don't
have to pay there (my first freebie on my mission! Provo is a lot
different from Eagle Mountain haha).
The best part about Wednesday though was when we got back home, and
had a lesson with our recent convert Alma. We wanted to talk to her
about temples because we want her to go to the temple soon. She was a
little nervous in the past about baptisms for the dead, but the more
she learns the more comfortable she is. So in this lesson we decided
to show her a video with different families talking about how the
temple blesses their lives and it was a very powerful video. After the
video ended we talked to her about how we can be with our families
forever through this gospel and through temples. Her husband is less
active and she has two children, Alizé and Junior, and she loves her
family a lot. As we were talking, I looked up at her and saw that
tears were running down her face. She explained to us that she lost a
baby a few years ago and for a very long time had guilt about it
because she told Heavenly Father that she didn't want another baby so
she felt like it was her fault. We explained to her that it wasn't her
fault, that some souls just simply need to get a body and then
heaven,y father wants them back with him. We told her she will be able
to raise that baby and that the baby will be with her family forever.
She seemed like she was hearing the comfort she had been needing to
hear for years. It was so powerful. I remember we got back in the car
and as I drove up to our driveway back home both me and Hermana
Gonzalez just looked at each other and teared up and started crying
because we both felt how important that lesson was to Alma. I had a
renewed sense of gratefulness for the knowledge I have that my family
who I love so much will be together forever, and how absolutely
perfect heavenly fathers plan is. He loves us SO much.
That evening, our dinner appointment cancelled but our landlords
somehow figured it out that we didn't have dinner so they fed us
lasagna haha which was super sweet.
We also taught Mariana and her two kids, Hailey and Christopher. We've
been doing a lot for her to help her remember to read her scriptures.
We made them brownies and dropped them off at her house, and on
Saturday we wrote in chalk "don't forget to read!!" It was such a
blast hahaha
On Sunday my companion and I were asked to share our experiences of
why we went on a mission in sacrament meeting. I wrote mine out, and
it was really scary but I made it through haha then I had to teach
music in the primary again (I think it's like my second calling now
haha jkjk) but it was still fun.
So some food adventures this week......
I ate some delicious enchiladas at the Dushane house. The Dushanes are
a family in our Ward. Sister Dushane is from Mexico City and her
husband is totally white and they have two little boys (one of them
had a ski accident the other weekend which is why we had to teach
sharing time the other Sunday) but anyways her husband is so funny he
is fluent in Spanish obviously and he's the young men's president and
they're just such a cute family!
I also had some sort of Argentinian pie thing at the Villegas house
which seemed a little sketchy cause like boiled eggs and green olives
in it BUT I powered through and ate it and it was pretty good!
We also had chiles rellenos at Mariana's house which was....well it
was a struggle cause it was really slimey but I ate more than half of
it! Hahaha
Oh I also had some fantastic chicken and rice and horchata at sister
Serna's house! MMMMM so yummy.
Oh something else cool-I was able to message Anaid (Josue's 17 year
old daughter) on facebook and see how she's doing. She's meeting with
the elders in California which is AWESOME!! I got so excited talking
to her, I miss her so much haha
Anyways this week was just really fantastic and I love everything
about being a missionary!!
I love this gospel and I love you all.
Love,
Hermana Segle :)
Monday, March 23, 2015
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Week 5 in Eagle Mountain!!
Hola everyone!!!
So this week has been pretty good, this email might be a little short
cause not too much happened this week but that's okay :)
On Wednesday my companion and I had the opportunity to finally go to
the temple! We went to Mount Timpanogos temple (that's the one closest
to our area) we went with our landlord and Alma's mother in law. The
drive was kind of funny cause our landlord doesn't speak any spanish
and Alma's mother in law doesn't speak much English but the whole
drive they found ways to communicate with each other and laugh
together which made me and my companion smile. It was soooo cute. It
reminded me of how even though we all may speak different languages we
can still bond in different ways and I think that's kind of what the
gospel does to us. Like for example even though when I speak Spanish
in lessons or when I give spiritual thoughts after dinners at members'
homes and I don't know every word or I don't know exactly how to say
it in Spanish, and though it may be incomprehensible the Spirit really
helps out a lot and they understand me! It might sound stupid but I
just think that is so cool! I wouldn't be able to be learning the
language this quickly if it wasn't for the help I'm receiving from my
Heavenly Father and from the Holy Ghost. It's so real in my life now
as a missionary.
On Thursday we went over to the Torres house for dinner. Sister Torres
is the YW president in our branch and she served a mission in Columbia
and she is such a wonderful member missionary. She's how I wish every
member of our church was like. She helps out in the work so much and
she has a solid testimony of this gospel. Anyways though she fed us
soup and "arepas" which is I guess some sort of South American dish.
It was suuuuper good but after we left both me and my companion got
really sick so we had to go home and spend the rest of the evening
laying in bed feeling super gross and sick. Luckily the next day we
woke up feeling a lot better.
On Friday morning we had zone training meeting! Yaaayyy it took all
morning and it was just kind of awkward cause our zone isn't that
tight. But it was alright I guess. Our Zone Leaders are kind of
interesting, one of them is from Sweden and the other is from England
so they have cool accents and that's basically all I know about them.
We do have a zone activity coming up soon so hopefully that will be
fun and we'll start actually getting to know each other. It's just
weird cause I feel like some Elders are scared of Sisters, it's like
we're another species or something. But oh well!
On Saturday we had the cool opportunity to teach a Skype lesson! It
was a woman Hermana Gonzalez helped teach back in Texas who joined the
church and was just called to be a temple worker! She had an amazing
story and she was soooo sweet to me even though I've never even met
her before! My companion always says that those people who are recent
converts must have been the strongest people in the Preexistence and
that they came down here knowing they would have to search out the
gospel and find it for themselves. I believe that so much because the
people we're teaching are all so amazing and they're very strong
people. After the lesson we went over to the Baez family's house for
dinner. They're from the Dominican Republic and they talk reeeaaallly
fast haha but we just had pizza cause they were having a party later
that day and it was STILL a struggle for me because they gave me the
kind with all the veggies and stuff on it BUT I ate a whole entire
piece which I was pretty dang proud of myself for hahahaha I've been
surprisingly courageous with food out here on the mission. I've tried
everything everyone gives me and try my hardest to finish everything.
Anyways, Sunday was also great! We had 7 investigators at church!!
Woooohoo!!!! We had branch counsel that morning and we also taught
music in primary again which was a blast. After church we went home
for lunch and while we were eating we saw that we had a missed call
from president which is NOT good news usually especially cause
transfers aren't for a few weeks. We tried calling him back but he
didn't answer and we still don't know what it was about but we're
starting to think it was an accidental call (hopefully) but the rest
of the day we both were super anxious and worried. But we still ended
up teaching 2 lessons! We taught a lesson to Vero, and also Alma. We
had dinner with the Perez family (the branch presidents family) and it
was super good! It was called sopes then we had cake! Haha lots of
good food here in utah :) I also shared the spiritual thought (we take
turns every other night)
Anyways I hope everyone has a fantastic week! I love you all so much!!
¡Abrazos y Besitos!
Hermana Segle
So this week has been pretty good, this email might be a little short
cause not too much happened this week but that's okay :)
On Wednesday my companion and I had the opportunity to finally go to
the temple! We went to Mount Timpanogos temple (that's the one closest
to our area) we went with our landlord and Alma's mother in law. The
drive was kind of funny cause our landlord doesn't speak any spanish
and Alma's mother in law doesn't speak much English but the whole
drive they found ways to communicate with each other and laugh
together which made me and my companion smile. It was soooo cute. It
reminded me of how even though we all may speak different languages we
can still bond in different ways and I think that's kind of what the
gospel does to us. Like for example even though when I speak Spanish
in lessons or when I give spiritual thoughts after dinners at members'
homes and I don't know every word or I don't know exactly how to say
it in Spanish, and though it may be incomprehensible the Spirit really
helps out a lot and they understand me! It might sound stupid but I
just think that is so cool! I wouldn't be able to be learning the
language this quickly if it wasn't for the help I'm receiving from my
Heavenly Father and from the Holy Ghost. It's so real in my life now
as a missionary.
On Thursday we went over to the Torres house for dinner. Sister Torres
is the YW president in our branch and she served a mission in Columbia
and she is such a wonderful member missionary. She's how I wish every
member of our church was like. She helps out in the work so much and
she has a solid testimony of this gospel. Anyways though she fed us
soup and "arepas" which is I guess some sort of South American dish.
It was suuuuper good but after we left both me and my companion got
really sick so we had to go home and spend the rest of the evening
laying in bed feeling super gross and sick. Luckily the next day we
woke up feeling a lot better.
On Friday morning we had zone training meeting! Yaaayyy it took all
morning and it was just kind of awkward cause our zone isn't that
tight. But it was alright I guess. Our Zone Leaders are kind of
interesting, one of them is from Sweden and the other is from England
so they have cool accents and that's basically all I know about them.
We do have a zone activity coming up soon so hopefully that will be
fun and we'll start actually getting to know each other. It's just
weird cause I feel like some Elders are scared of Sisters, it's like
we're another species or something. But oh well!
On Saturday we had the cool opportunity to teach a Skype lesson! It
was a woman Hermana Gonzalez helped teach back in Texas who joined the
church and was just called to be a temple worker! She had an amazing
story and she was soooo sweet to me even though I've never even met
her before! My companion always says that those people who are recent
converts must have been the strongest people in the Preexistence and
that they came down here knowing they would have to search out the
gospel and find it for themselves. I believe that so much because the
people we're teaching are all so amazing and they're very strong
people. After the lesson we went over to the Baez family's house for
dinner. They're from the Dominican Republic and they talk reeeaaallly
fast haha but we just had pizza cause they were having a party later
that day and it was STILL a struggle for me because they gave me the
kind with all the veggies and stuff on it BUT I ate a whole entire
piece which I was pretty dang proud of myself for hahahaha I've been
surprisingly courageous with food out here on the mission. I've tried
everything everyone gives me and try my hardest to finish everything.
Anyways, Sunday was also great! We had 7 investigators at church!!
Woooohoo!!!! We had branch counsel that morning and we also taught
music in primary again which was a blast. After church we went home
for lunch and while we were eating we saw that we had a missed call
from president which is NOT good news usually especially cause
transfers aren't for a few weeks. We tried calling him back but he
didn't answer and we still don't know what it was about but we're
starting to think it was an accidental call (hopefully) but the rest
of the day we both were super anxious and worried. But we still ended
up teaching 2 lessons! We taught a lesson to Vero, and also Alma. We
had dinner with the Perez family (the branch presidents family) and it
was super good! It was called sopes then we had cake! Haha lots of
good food here in utah :) I also shared the spiritual thought (we take
turns every other night)
Anyways I hope everyone has a fantastic week! I love you all so much!!
¡Abrazos y Besitos!
Hermana Segle
I turned 2 months today!!!
Hola mis maravillosos amigos y familia!!! :)
Sorry there was no group email last week, I typed up this long email
but it didn't save :( but that's okay!
So today officially marks 2 months that I've been out here! Time flies
SOOOO fast!! So crazy! Christmas was fantastic, we got snow, tamales
and nice packages :) plus skyping our families was fantastic!
This week has been wonderful!!! For New Years we went over to the
Otero/Sumano family's house and we ate dinner and played games there.
I LOVE being at their house. I feel so at home and there's so much
love in that home. So a little bit of background info on their family.
Brother Otero is our Branch Mission Leader and he's hilarious. He's a
utah highway patrolman and he's just so sarcastic. But he's also
pumped about missionary work and helps us out a lot. His wife is
Tania, who's in the primary presidency. She's wonderful and so loving.
They have 3 kids, who are super awesome. Brother Otero wants me to
start teaching them en español so I can practice and learn Spanish
which will be awesome. Tania has two brothers whose families also live
with them. One of her brothers is Josue, who was just baptized last
week and married the week before. He's an amazing and spiritual man.
His wife is Vero, who isn't a member yet (but I have a feeling she'll
join soon ;)) Josue has an older daughter named Anaid who isn't a
member but we taught her a few times. Unfortunately she moved back to
California so we are getting her in touch with the missionaries over
there :) Josue and Vero together have a little girl named Bryanna who
is SO cute and she's always making me laugh. They're a spectacular
family and I can't wait to see what's in store for their little
family. Tania's other brother is Erick, who isn't a member. His
girlfriend/wife/fiancée is Mariana and they both have two older kids,
Christopher and Hailee who are incredibly intelligent. Erick isn't
interested in the gospel but we're teaching his wife and kids. They're
also a great family.
So basically we spend lots of time at the Otero's place because
there's lots of work to be done there:)
We've also spent a lot of time with our recent convert Alma. She's
wonderful. I love her so much. She's so sweet and for Christmas she
gave us both slippers. She loves having us over. Her husband is a less
active, and they have two sweet kids. We've had a few family home
evenings with them, which has been super fun :) on New Year's Day we
went to her house and she fed us the MOST delicious meat I had ever
tasted in my life. It reminded me so much of Mexico, and I think I
gained 12 pounds just looking at it hahaha anyways we also taught her
a small lesson and played Loteria (Mexican bingo!) with her and her
kids. It was a blast.
On Saturday night my comp and I found out we needed to teach sharing
time for primary and I had already been asked by Sis Otero to do music
time, so we spent all Sunday with the primary kids which I was really
nervous about buuut it turned out to be so much fun! I love learning
the spanish Primary songs with them :) That night we went over to the
Otero's to teach Josue. It was a fantastic lesson and by the end Vero
was tearing up. I even contributed a little bit to the lesson in
Spanish which I was real proud about! Hahaha but seriously every time
we teach Josue I'm reminded of why I'm a missionary. It was a very
very spiritual evening.
I just also wanted to share how much I love this gospel and how much I
love my Savior. I know it's after Christmas, but if any of you haven't
seen the video "He is the Gift" I beg you to go watch it, and if
you've seen it I want you to watch it again. It doesn't matter that
it's not Christmas anymore, we can ALWAYS share this wonderful gift
all year long. It's a gift that lasts forever. The gift of the
Atonement has blessed my life more than anything. It's blessed me in
some of the hardest moments in my life and I know my Savior is real
because he has pulled me through every hardship I've ever been through
and I know he helps each and every one of you. He LOVES you. And that
love is never going to go anywhere no matter what you may do or where
you may go, he will always love you. The Spanish language is really
beautiful because in Spanish, the video is called "El Es La Dádiva"
normally, the word gift in Spanish is Regalo, but they used "Dádiva"
which changes the meaning slightly in a wonderful way. Dádiva means a
gift given voluntarily which is EXACTLY what Jesus Christ is. He is
the best gift. I love him with every fiber of my being and I'm
grateful for him every single day. Please remember that.
I love you all and hope you have a absolutely wonderful week!!!
Hermana Segle :)
Sorry there was no group email last week, I typed up this long email
but it didn't save :( but that's okay!
So today officially marks 2 months that I've been out here! Time flies
SOOOO fast!! So crazy! Christmas was fantastic, we got snow, tamales
and nice packages :) plus skyping our families was fantastic!
This week has been wonderful!!! For New Years we went over to the
Otero/Sumano family's house and we ate dinner and played games there.
I LOVE being at their house. I feel so at home and there's so much
love in that home. So a little bit of background info on their family.
Brother Otero is our Branch Mission Leader and he's hilarious. He's a
utah highway patrolman and he's just so sarcastic. But he's also
pumped about missionary work and helps us out a lot. His wife is
Tania, who's in the primary presidency. She's wonderful and so loving.
They have 3 kids, who are super awesome. Brother Otero wants me to
start teaching them en español so I can practice and learn Spanish
which will be awesome. Tania has two brothers whose families also live
with them. One of her brothers is Josue, who was just baptized last
week and married the week before. He's an amazing and spiritual man.
His wife is Vero, who isn't a member yet (but I have a feeling she'll
join soon ;)) Josue has an older daughter named Anaid who isn't a
member but we taught her a few times. Unfortunately she moved back to
California so we are getting her in touch with the missionaries over
there :) Josue and Vero together have a little girl named Bryanna who
is SO cute and she's always making me laugh. They're a spectacular
family and I can't wait to see what's in store for their little
family. Tania's other brother is Erick, who isn't a member. His
girlfriend/wife/fiancée is Mariana and they both have two older kids,
Christopher and Hailee who are incredibly intelligent. Erick isn't
interested in the gospel but we're teaching his wife and kids. They're
also a great family.
So basically we spend lots of time at the Otero's place because
there's lots of work to be done there:)
We've also spent a lot of time with our recent convert Alma. She's
wonderful. I love her so much. She's so sweet and for Christmas she
gave us both slippers. She loves having us over. Her husband is a less
active, and they have two sweet kids. We've had a few family home
evenings with them, which has been super fun :) on New Year's Day we
went to her house and she fed us the MOST delicious meat I had ever
tasted in my life. It reminded me so much of Mexico, and I think I
gained 12 pounds just looking at it hahaha anyways we also taught her
a small lesson and played Loteria (Mexican bingo!) with her and her
kids. It was a blast.
On Saturday night my comp and I found out we needed to teach sharing
time for primary and I had already been asked by Sis Otero to do music
time, so we spent all Sunday with the primary kids which I was really
nervous about buuut it turned out to be so much fun! I love learning
the spanish Primary songs with them :) That night we went over to the
Otero's to teach Josue. It was a fantastic lesson and by the end Vero
was tearing up. I even contributed a little bit to the lesson in
Spanish which I was real proud about! Hahaha but seriously every time
we teach Josue I'm reminded of why I'm a missionary. It was a very
very spiritual evening.
I just also wanted to share how much I love this gospel and how much I
love my Savior. I know it's after Christmas, but if any of you haven't
seen the video "He is the Gift" I beg you to go watch it, and if
you've seen it I want you to watch it again. It doesn't matter that
it's not Christmas anymore, we can ALWAYS share this wonderful gift
all year long. It's a gift that lasts forever. The gift of the
Atonement has blessed my life more than anything. It's blessed me in
some of the hardest moments in my life and I know my Savior is real
because he has pulled me through every hardship I've ever been through
and I know he helps each and every one of you. He LOVES you. And that
love is never going to go anywhere no matter what you may do or where
you may go, he will always love you. The Spanish language is really
beautiful because in Spanish, the video is called "El Es La Dádiva"
normally, the word gift in Spanish is Regalo, but they used "Dádiva"
which changes the meaning slightly in a wonderful way. Dádiva means a
gift given voluntarily which is EXACTLY what Jesus Christ is. He is
the best gift. I love him with every fiber of my being and I'm
grateful for him every single day. Please remember that.
I love you all and hope you have a absolutely wonderful week!!!
Hermana Segle :)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Hola from Eagle Mountain, Utah!!!
SO!!!!!!!
Wow. I can't even believe I'm actually in the field now!! I am in a Spanish branch in Eagle Mountain, Utah. It's about 45 minutes from Provo, and it's like in the middle of nowhere but it's BEAUTIFUL. The mountains are unbelievable and there's so much empty land. It's wonderful.
First things first before I forget though...If you need to send me anything, SEND IT TO THE MISSION HOME.
The address is 85 North 600 East Provo, Utah 84606. They forward all the mail to my address. :)
Anyways. So, my companion is Hermana Gonzalez. She is AHHHMAZING. She's a native Spanish speaker and she's been helping me out so much. I've been understanding a lot of what people have been saying (although sometimes I'm just completely lost) but I've been struggling with actually speaking in lessons. Hopefully I'll do better about that this week. This weekend has actually been kind of crazy because we had Zone Conference on Thursday (we watched It's A Wonderful Life and they gave us T-shirts and a specialized temple recommend holder specifically for our mission, painted by Simon Dewey-soooo cool!!) Anyways, so that was super fun and we got a great meal and everything. Then, on Saturday night there was a WEDDING for one of our investigators! We helped them set up, and they are just an amazing family. The wedding was so fun and I got to meet some new people! Also, hispanic weddings are super cool and they have lots of sweet traditions! The husband who got married is also getting baptized this coming Saturday, which I might have to play the piano for, but we'll see. I'm so excited! On Sunday we had church, and it was the Christmas program which was super sweet cause all the primary kids sang. I also had to get up to the pulpit and introduce myself which was absolutely terrifying but somehow I made it and it didn't turn out to be as bad as I thought it would be. Then, last night we had dinner with a family from the Dominican Republic and it was super fun and the food was really delicious!!
This week is CHRISTMAS which I am really excited about because I get to skype with mi familia!! We will be going over to our mission leader's house and celebrating with them so it will be a really awesome day.
I haven't gotten my ipad yet but hopefully I will soon! I will also be a facebook missionary and that should be starting this coming week.
I'm happy to be hearing from all of you!! I love you all so so so much, and every day I'm reminded of how much I love being an Hermana.
Love,
Hermana Segle :)
Feliz Navidad!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)