pictures

.once again, i almost forgot the pictures for like hte 3rd week in a row. 

here they are!!

one from our temple trip a couple weeks ago (me and my companion sister ward)
one with my trio in rimgrove at Juan Martinez's baptism last week...best day of my life!
one with me and the 2 juans in rimgrove...the one that got baptized my second week there and the one that just got baptized
one from mormon helping hands!!

love you

Hola Familia

hola,

how are y'all doing? this week has been good. It feels like last monday was forever ago, but it's been great.

On Saturday we did Mormon Helping Hands with the ward. We went to a park close by to the church and cleaned it. It was alot of fun. I'm always impressed by how many cigarrette butts you can find on the ground outside. I wish I had a penny for every one I picked up. It was a good time though. The members were so funny.

We had a lesson with one of our investigators this week and we were trying to get a member to come with us. We were calling everyone we could think of and had nothing. So, we went to the lesson to teach just us. Well, we stopped by to visit a less active that lives right next door before because we got there a little early. She ended up coming with us to the lesson and it was awesome!! This woman is amazing. We've visited her a few times these past 2 weeks and she is so interesting. She's been a member her whole life but has gone inactive because of work (and some other issues), but it was amazing to watch her in our lesson. We taught about the book of mormon and what it means to recieve an answer that it's true. She would bear testimony and would say exactly what Maria (our investigator) needed to hear. It was amazing. You could tell they both were really taking into consideration what they were feeling. It really helped Maria because she says she accepts the Book of Mormon and believes it's true, but mostly just because it's a book about God. She hasn't really prayed and ever really gotten an answer.  She's not really committed either so we were hoping that talking about that would help her commit a little more. It was so powerful.

Latinos are so funny, they react 2 different ways to questions we ask them. Either they will just accept everything you say and say "oh si todo esta bien, todo habla de Dios" and then when you try to ask them something to go a little deeper, they'll just say "no se" OR you'll ask them one quesiton and the flood gates will open and you can't get them to stop talking. It's really funny to watch the 2 extremes, actually, it's kind of frustrating, but in a good way because it forces me to think more about how to ask better questions and teach better. Somewhere there has got to be a happy middle right?
I am so glad to be in Spanish work though. So grateful. Latinos are so fun to work with. I have never been told off by a Latino. They may have commitment issues but they will never chew you out for being a missionary. If you have Christ on your name tag then they'll always be nice to you. We've had a couple experiences talking to white people (is there a non racist way to differentiate that?) where they tell us that we're cults or that we're being deceived or they just straight up yell at us. I guess it's good because then you know right off the bat that they're not interested. It's funny how different Spanish work is than English work.

On Wednesday, we had a good day. Literally at every house we went to, they wanted to feed us and so we ate a TON of food! By our last appointment, I was sooo sick. All of the food was really good though. At this one member's house, she made a fruit salad kind of (Latino fruit salads are kind of different), bit it's really good, you eat it with chili and lemon. That was our first house and I ate alot there not knowing what was to come. At another house, we had this Nicaraguan drink that's really interesting. At first I thought it was coffee, so I was a little nervous. Turns out though that it's this kind of drink made from burning maiz and then adding sugar and water. Very interesting and good at the same time.

It's been a good week. Hope you're all doing well...Staying "Boston Strong"... :) 

Love you lots, thanks for everything.

miss and love you,

Hermana Laree LaPierre

Hello April 22, 2013

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Hello fam,

How is Boston? I'm glad to hear everyone is doing well...hopefully still the case. I still can't believe that happened. So sad. They (and you) are in my prayers.

This week was great. We were in Arcadia on Wednesday for a sisters meeting, it was really good. They want us to step it up, so we're going to. Our mission for the sisters is pretty crazy, pretty much every spanish sister is training right now, and if they aren't they will be in a couple weeks. They've started to open areas and move people around outside of transfer cycles because sisters are coming in outside of the normal cycle. Out of the 7 months I've been in the field I've had 1 week where I haven't been training or been trained. Just with the way the mission worked out and the spacing of the hermanas that came in, I'm now one of the 3 oldest spanish sisters, which is funny because I still feel like I'm a newby. Anyways, it's fun. There's alot that's been required of us, but it's good because it makes us learn faster. I got to talk to my companion from the MTC. She's so sweet, it was really fun to talk to get to talk to her. She's serving in an area close to my first area in Tujunga.

This week, we were walking down the street from an appointment, and ended up stopping to talk to a couple Latino men sitting outside (drinking beer...ALWAYS). One of them, Hector, ended up being a less active from the DR who just moved to LA 3 months ago from Spain. He's awesome, we set up an appointment to meet with him and when we went over there it got even better. We met a woman that he lives with (still not sure if they're "together", I don't think so) and she said that she had been wanting to go to a Mormon church for a long time. She was even looking up online where the chapels were close by. She talked to Hector about it and he told her that we would be coming over later that week. Her name is Lucy, she's really sweet and is really open to everything.

We've been trying to meet with a family of investigators all week and they never were home. But! 2 of them came to church yesterday. It was crazy, they're ride wouldn't pick up so they called us to tell us they couldn't find a ride. Sacrament meeting had just barely started when they called us. One of the members pulled up right then and we asked her if she wouldn't mind picking them up. she said yes, so we called Josefina back and told her we'd be there to pick her and her hija (aka her boyfriend's hija) up. We found out later that Yadira (the hija, she's like 14) told her that they needed to pray to find a ride. Right after they finished praying, we called them back to tell them that we were on our way!

This area has so much going for it. The members are also amazing. We talked to this one woman, she's a recent convert, like a year or 2 ago. She told us her conversion story and it's so cool. She said that she had seem the missionaries walking down the street and always wanted to talk to them, but she thought they only spoke english. So, she started learning english just so she could talk to them. When we finally did, she realized that they also spoke spanish! she was so surprised! I think she said she was baptized like 2 or 3 weeks later. She's gold- she has made it her goal and purpose in life to make sure that everyone in her family has the gospel. And everyone else she knows! While we're talking to her if she see's someone she knows, she'll chase them down and have them come and talk to us. The other day we were teaching a man that lives in the same trailer park as her and she came over, grabbed a chair and just started bearing testimony of what we were teaching. Amazing. We also went to a wedding reception on Saturday of a couple who had just gotten sealed in the temple that morning. They wanted us us to be there so that we could introduce ourselves to their friends. We were able to pick up a potential investigator and a really good referral for the elders I served with in my last area in Rimgrove.

I also got to go back to Rimgrove yesterday for Juan's baptism! He asked me to speak. It was one of the best days of my life. He has changed so so much. After his baptism, he told me that he had called a family meeting kind of to talk to his family about his baptism and to bear his testimony to them. His whole life has changed from where it was 2 months ago. He's a totally different person. He told me that he's stopped working so much because he realizes now how there is so much more to life than just working. He wants a family so badly (his favorite general conference talk was the one about the principles of having a good marriage). I am amazed! I would have been shocked to hear him say those words 2 months ago. He's on fire!

I was able to see one of my other investigators there as well who is also doing really well! Hopefully, we'll be able to go back next week for his baptism as well. I'm so excited!

I love you all and hope all is going well.

Love and miss you,

Hermana LaPierre

:0

Hello family,

 

Sorry, this letter is going to be super short. I spent most of my time writing a letter to my mission president about some concerns I have (ps- I'm fine).

 

Anyways, this week has been good. Today we got to go to the temple. We didn't have a ride there until like 9:45 last night and the poor elders had to take the bus the whole way! It was incredible though. I have missed that place so much. I didn't realize how much until I was there. We've been teaching and finding lots of people this week. It's been incredible everything that's happening in the area. I've been learning alot. I got a call from my old companion the other night asking if I could speak at my investigator's baptism! I couldn't sleep that night I was so excited!

 

The Gospel is real. Never let anything distract you from that. That's something I've learned this week. There's nothing more important than serving the Lord and being an actively righteous disciple. Nothing. If we want the very best out of life and most happiness we can have, we'll put Him first. Always.

 

I love it. and I love you all.

 

Have a great week!

 

Hermana LaPierre

Hello dear family,

Today has been very exciting. We spent the majority of our day driving to different libraries to try to use a computer for e-mailing. we didn't find one so we ended up driving to the mission office to use the computers there. plus, my companion, Hna. Ward, was asked to come to assemble on of the bikes here- she's a bike mechanic! so we finally found a computer!

This week has been very exciting. We're just barely starting to get our minds around the area and the work here in Pomona. It's a great area with tons of potential. On Tuesday we headed to the chapel to visit the bishop and he is incredible! This ward is super organized (comparatively speaking) and were really helpful. The zone leaders have also been really helpful. They took us around on Wednesday to a bunch of people's houses that we can start working with- less actives, investigators, etc. unfortunately, none of them were actually home, but we have a good list of addresses and people to start with. The first few days were not terribly efficient, but we're getting better and busier. 

We started teaching this woman and her boyfriend's teenage daughters. She really wants to get baptized but she can't because she can't marry her boyfriend because he's married to a woman who lives in Mexico (a very common problem among Latinos). We're working on her. Her boyfriend has no interest in the church, but she really likes it. Her son is a member and she see's how much it's changed his life. 

Hermana Ward is my new companion- another 19 year old! She's a Utahn and is really nice. She's a bike mechanic and a bike racer. She's a good missionary. I'm excited to work with her. She teaches with the Spirit and alot of emotion and she feels the Spirit really strongly when she teaches, which is great, especially when I'm a little less emotional in general. It really moves them. 

General Conference was amazing! So much to learn about missionary work and what I can do to improve myself as a missionary. I love it. We went to the stake center to watch conference and I got to see my investigator Juan from Rimgrove!! He is amazing! In between sessions he was calling a friend to tell them to come to conference. The change in him since we first met him is incredible. He's becoming a very different man. He truly is converting to the Gospel and to our Savior. He is teaching himself things that we haven't even taught him! He was talking about tithing and how great it is and I know the other hermanas have not taught him that since I left! 

So....I also had the unfortunate event of experiencing my biggest fear on the mission. Latino woman love to give us hugs and kisses. I was hugging a woman in the ward the other day and went to kiss her cheek and almost kissed her lips!!!!! AWKWARD!! that's an interesting welcome to the ward.... ugh, i still squirm thinking about it. that's been my fear since day 1 on the mission. anyways, after several sessions of therapy, i'm doing ok :)

how are all of you doing? Love you!!

love and miss you, 

Hermana Laree LaPierre