¡Feliz Navidad y Año Nuevo!

These past two weeks have been crazy beyond belief. I just have no time to do anything because of everything else going on. I have never felt so exhausted!! It has been weird being an STL. I'm still on the fence about it. But I guess it is what Heavenly Father wants. I love my new companion, Sister Loveless (she is a Washingtonian too!) and our new ward, Pelican Creek, is awesome. I just wish I could be a normal missionary again at points....but this calling is pushing me to become better.

We had a baptism on Saturday! She is so awesome! The sisters from Pelican Creek did a great job of teaching her. We just came in at the end, for the last few lessons. But it was still really cool seeing another person be baptized. Her husband is a member, but hasn't been going to church for a long time. Hopefully her example will change that so that they can become an eternal family.

As in other news, we lost our other ward, Northstar YSA (Young single adult). When they redid the stake boundaries, that ward got moved into another stake. That stake just so happens to be in the other mission.

So, everything we do there doesn't count for our mission, but for the west. President wants us to give everyone over, which is upsetting.  There is so much work to be done in that ward! Our ward mission leader doesn't agree, so he is requesting a meeting. We will see how it goes!

Christmas was really good, just so different from what I am used to. I did have a wonderful time though, and loved every single gift I received. (Thank you so much to everyone!!!!). We spent the day with members, so it was very relaxing. Having a Christmas away from family made me realize what the true gift is. I am so grateful to know I have a Savior who loves me and knows what I am going through. I definitely would not have been able to go through my trials without Him. I am honored to be one of His representatives right now. :)

That's been the past two weeks! It is crazy to me that we are starting a new year already. This one has been awesome, filled with amazing memories. I am excited for what the next one brings!

Transfers...... and a new calling

It's that time again! The stress of transfers has come all over again.

This one has been a little different for me. Friday night I received a call from our mission president. He has asked me to be a Sister Trainer Leader.  I was shocked to say the least. I am super nervous and feel very humbled by the calling. I haven't gotten much sleep this weekend, and I probably won't for the next week or so as I try to adjust.

My new calling brings some new responsibilities. There are about 12 of us in the mission, one for each zone. We go to trainings given by President, and then relay them to our zone. We also are in charge of any exchanges or splits for the sisters. We work with stake leaders and organize any conferences for our zone. I don't feel ready for the calling, but I guess Heavenly Father feels like I am.

 

I will be serving in a new area! I got in-zoned transferred, so I will still be in North Las Vegas :) But, I will now be covering two wards.  My new wards are Pelican Creek, and Northstar which is a young single adult (YSA) ward. So I get to cover the whole stake again!! Whoop whoop :) Family wards are just way smaller than what I am used to. And even though my mom won't like it, my area covers the ghetto again ;)  I am really going to miss Harmony Hills!  I will be covering my old stake though so I will get to see how things go.

We were able to do a ton of service this week. First one was at ThreeSquare, which provides meals for children in Southern Nevada. It was awesome! We were able to package 9000 dinners for kids. The other one was helping a woman in our ward who lives by herself. We helped her wrap all of her grandkids presents. It was super fun and she was so appreciative. The other project was helping a family wrap all of their cookies for families. They even g ave us a plate. :) All of the service projects just made it feel like Christmas. I loved it so much!

I am very nervous for the new calling, but I know that the Lord qualifies those He calls. I will need His support more than ever, but I know He will give me what I need. Thank you for all of the prayers and support. I will need it more than ever :) Les amo!!

Love,

Hermana Erickson

No baptism....but another???

This week has been pretty eventful! We were blessed with lots of lessons and even some new investigators. I've decided to start praying to find and work in this area the way that Heavenly Father would have us do it. I feel like it has helped us a lot this week, and we have some new ideas of what to do for this following week.

Everything was ready for Jadon's baptism--the program, he was, the ward, etc. On Tuesday we got a text from his grandparents saying that they felt that he wasn't ready. iI guess his attitude and actions haven't been the best this past week. But, he is 11 and he is living in a very different environment than what he grew up in. The baptism is planned for this Saturday, but we aren't sure if it will go through or not. He will definitely get baptized soon, because he is so ready.

It was hard having that cancelled on us...I seem to have a string of bad luck with that! But we know that Heavenly Father has a plan for him and us!

The other baptism.....Erika committed to baptism!!!!!!!!! After seven long weeks of working with her, she finally decided that she is ready to take the next step. She knows for herself now that the church and the Book of Mormon are true. I am so happy for her! She has definitely been my hardest investigator to teach, just because she had so many questions and doubts. But, it made us work even harder to help her. A lot of the things that she deals with are things that I deal with, so helping her has helped me as well. She wants to be baptized before Christmas. I still can't believe it!

We had the opportunity to do some service this week. We street contacted this guy, and we tried giving him our card, and he said he would take it, but never use it. We then offered to do any yard work or service he had, and he actually took us up on our offer! No one ever does.... I think it may be the skirts that throw them off. ;) It was fun being able to serve, and he was very impressed by what we do.

He even bought us in and out as payment! Actions go a lot longer than words!

Some fun things: We had a non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner on Veteran's day. It was all made so that diabetics could eat it.

"The Spirit of the Lord told me to put celery in my smoothie"--We heard an older lady say that to her friend.

Even though we didn't have a baptism, I know Heavenly Father is watching out for us. We have a lot of work to do in this area, and I am grateful that we are starting to see the fruits of our labors :) I hope you all have a wonderful week! Stay warm (it's freezing in

Vegas!) :)

Love, Hermana Erickson