BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!! 12/15/14

This week was super great. We were both sick for a day or two but we were able to see a lot of miracles. On Tuesday we had lunch with Sister Cosare and her nonmember friends. They are a very tight nit group of ladies who are best of friends. We have been inducted as honorary "sisters".  We also visited our dear friend Vanessa who made me gluten-free CINNAMON ROLLS!!!!!!!!!!! I was so happy I almost cried.

On Wednesday Sister Balderree made me a yummy breakfast of bacon which we incorporated into TBA sandwiches :) She made a sign and put my presents on the table. She is so thoughtful she puts me to shame :) I was pretty sick that day so she let me nap while she did language studies then she organized a "surprise" birthday lunch with the zone at a place with cheap gluten free pizza. It was super delicious. The Elders got me a tub of popcorn and a squeaky dog toy...

Later that day we had an awesome member present lesson with Andrea who is getting baptized the 31st of December. She remembered it was my birthday and she gave me two Recess peanut butter cups and she made popcorn! She is an incredible young girl. One of the most prepared people I've taught. When we ask her question or commit her to live a principle she thinks about what we've said and repeats the points back to us then either says "yes I can" or "I'll try my best" and she is only 10 years old! If only the old time members where as dedicated and committed as this young girl!

Thursday we had an incredible ZTM. We talked a lot about the importance of having members present at our lessons and how we need to be the kind of missionaries that help the members do their part.

We also got a call to repentance. Over the last couple of weeks the whole mission has gotten a little lazy and lax about rules and procedures. We were invited to recommit ourselves to learn, live, and love the mission culture. I remember how much I loved it when I first came in and EVERYONE was talking about the mission culture. I think I've gotten too caught up with the numbers and the hustle and bustle and exhaustion and forgot about the "why" of missionary work. We are all becoming greenies and getting recertified. JOY!

Saturday was crazy! We had another member present lesson with Andrea and Martina then we went straight to the wedding for the Elders' investigator. She looked beautiful and both were so happy! Bishop Harker spoke about the divinity and sanctity of marriage and it was beautiful. After that we ran around trying to talk to people and setting up for the 2nd ward

Christmas party. Our nonmember friend showed up for the last 5 minutes of the program but I think she had fun.

Yesterday was probably the biggest miracle of all. I think I talked about Debbie and how we found her walking with her grocery bags in the pouring rain? Well we got a call on Saturday night from her friend saying that Debbie wanted to go with us to the Choir and art festival. She is deaf so we asked the ASL elders to come but their car broke down and they couldn't make it. On our way to the church building we were praying and pleading Heavenly Father to please help us find someone who could help us communicate with Debbie. We asked everyone there if they or someone they knew could sign and we found TWO people who were certified ASL translators. One of them was the 3rd ward relief society president who is an INCREDIBLE person. She was able to translate even some of the songs. Debbie couldn't hear the beautiful music but I know that she could feel the sincere love we have for her and the spirit in the chapel because she agreed to come to church with us next Sunday. I know that Heavenly Father looks out for all of his children and it was a testimony to me that the words found in the scriptures are true where they say that everyone will hear the gospel in their own language.

I hope you all have an incredible week!

Lots of love,

Hermana Quintana

12/1/14

We had a very big lunch with some English members of another ward. It was super traditional (except it was at 2 p.m.) with the turkey and the potatoes but then we set off a bomb in the pool. It was cool. Then around 7:30 I had a taco at the Branch talent show and fiesta. They served lots of rice, beans, meat, veggies, and tortillas. They played really loud music which kind of hurt my ears but it was so fun, they are all super cute and the couples did a dance, then the kids did a little thing about vowels, one of the youth danced to "Book of Mormon Style" (Ghangam Style), most of the missionaries in the Livermore Stake came and we sang a Spanglish rendition of Count your Blessings with a ukelele. We sounded horrible but everyone is tone deaf and said we were "so good". Even a member from the Springtown ward came and performed (she is a legit singer), a lot of less active families came and it was really fun to see everyone just uniting and laughing and really fellow shipping eachother.
Irene broke my heart yesterday. We challenged her to pray to know she should be baptized on December 16th but she told us yesterday that she was going to do her first communion in the Catholic church. We are still going to visit her next Wednesday thought. Hopefully hearing the testimony of a youth convert can strengthen the testimony I know she has.
We did have an incredible member present lesson with the relief society president who came to visit our new investigator family. It is a single dad and his 8 year old daughter. Hermana Nava was able to go in and open up her heart and bear her testimony and share her personal experience being a single mom and finding the gospel and just how it can help every aspect our parenting and life in general. The spirit was so strong and I felt so happy I could not have asked for anything more.

I love being a missionary and I am very grateful for the opportunity I have of sharing the gospel to people who are in need of spiritual strength. I know my savior lives and I know that he strengthens me.

Love you all,

Hermana Quintana

11/24/14

This week it rained super hard. It was really cool to see how in just a few days the grounds went from brown dirt to velvety green. 

Last week it was Irene's birthday so we went to drop off a homemade present for her and her mom ended up throwing her an impromptu birthday party. She started making carne asada and she sent her roommate for a cake and we didn't notice until it was all ready to go. I love the Spanish program!

We have been really struggling to have members present at our lessons. Everyone here works one or two jobs and has kids and callings and no one has time but Sister Balderree decided that that is something we needed in order for the work to progress in Livermore so we are trying to get the branch excited about Missionary work and already have one lesson lined up for today. We are praying really hard that everything goes well and no one cancels.

This week we also received news that there is going to be a really cool Christmas video coming out in December and that there is going to be a new website christmas.mormon.org and that we will be taking over the youtube homepage for a whole day. I am so excited for the Holidays! I know that they are an excellent time to remind people about the true meaning of Christmas, as cheesy as that sounds. I really hope I don't get transfered before Christmas but it is really 50/50 at this point.

We have 3 dinners for Thankgiving which makes me feel loved but also makes me feel a little sick. In honor of the Holidays I would like to say that I am so very grateful for my family and the sacrifices they have made to help me be where I am. I am grateful for the missionaries who found my mother and my father at different times. I am grateful for their decision to join the church and raise me in the gospel. I am grateful for the many friends who have been with me through thick and thin, who have always kept me on the path and who have been an example of righteousness to me. Most of all, I am grateful for the Atonement, which is the greatest gift of all. I know that it is because of Jesus Christ, my Savior, that I can be freed from sin and return to live in the presence of my Father in Heaven.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Hermana Quintana

p.s. An Elder accidentally pulled the fire alarm and the fire department came and checked out every room before they would let us back in so we were all super late for District meeting. One for the memory books :)

Halfway Mark 11/17/14

So because there is no transfer in August I am not quite sure when my halfway mark is but my ninth month mark will be this week (CRAZY!!). I am actually not quite sure how I feel about it. I am a little scared by how fast the last nine months have flown by and everyone tells me that the second half goes by twice as fast and I really don't want to believe that because it makes me panic that I have not done enough and I cannot possibly go home until I feel like I have given all I've got. So that is my new resolution. To get rid of all of my excuses and really give 100% of myself every single day!

Things were really quite crazy last week (i think I say that every week but they really were more than normal last week). On Tuesday we took our investigator and two inactive youth to the Oakland temple visitor center. It was really cold and dark so we huddled as we took a tour of the outside of the temple and then we went into the visitor center and saw the presentation of the Cristus statue and the plan of happiness. We also saw a really old movie with no words, just music but it told the story of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem and then in the Americas. A few days after we asked them what their favorite part had been and they said that the old movie with no words. I really like it too. It connected for me the importance of the Book of Mormon and how it shows that God loves us so much that he really did send his son for all of us. So that we could be saved.

On Thursday we decided to go contacting for 2 hours because we were embarrassingly low in contacts and we found two incredible new investigators. He is a single dad who has recently decided he needed to believe in God and his daughter is 8 and has no idea who God or Jesus Christ are but she soon will :)

We also got to go back to Oakland and hear from.... Elder and Sister Bednar!!! It was so great to be in a room with 500+ missionaries and be able to just listen, observe, and learn. Most of what he did for the 3 hours he spoke with us was ask us questions about what we had learned from the 3 talks we had been assigned to read. As we answered he would ask more questions and initiate a deeper conversation about that topic. We all felt the spirit so strongly as we taught one another and shared our testimony of the work we have been called to do.

At the end he asked us what we were going to do with what we had learned that day. I decided that I needed to quit with all of the excuses and just get to work. I love being a missionary and I love all of the people I get to work with here in Livermore and in the San Jose area. I have full confidence that God is directing his work. 

I'll leave you with one of the only direct quotes I was able to jot down form Elder Bednar:

     We are not hastening the work. The Lord is hastening the work and we just have to keep up with it. The Hastening of the work has to do with individual repentance, improving, and moving forward.

I love you all!

Hermana Quintana

11/10/14

Yesterday really was the best day ever. We have been struggling to get investigators to sacrament meeting for forever but yesterday we were able to have 3 solid investigators come and it was perfect because Sister Balderree gave a really great talk about the atonement of Jesus Christ which everyone could relate to. We also had another miracle in that one of the less active families we have been working with showed up for sacrament meeting. We met two weeks ago and set a goal that the whole family was going to come this Sunday. They have been washy washy in the past but they texted us that morning saying they could only come to sacrament (third hour) and we said that was fine. I could have given my right arm to have been able to capture the look of joy in their oldest (active) daughter when she saw her parents and sisters walk in. She started to cry and it made me want to cry. 

Yesterday I also said good bye for now to Sister Bair and Sister Boyd. I am really going to miss those girls. They made such a great impact on my mission that I am kind of wondering what I am going to do without them but they are on to the next phase of life and I know that I will need them when my time comes to remove the black tag... scary!

This week was just a huge reminder that God is a god of miracles. That if He can answer the simple prayer of two sister missionaries he can answer the prayer of a 14 year old boy who wanted to know which church to join. God lives and He cares about each and everyone of his children. I know this church was restored through a prophet of God by his priesthood authority and I know that any honest seeker can come to know the truth of it himself.

This is my challenge I leave you all this week.

Hermana Quintana

Dig, Prune, Nourish 11/3/14

 This week we worked super hard because of our Dig, Prune, Nourish thing. We were super exhausted every single night and made some great progress with a few of our investigators but on Sunday no one showed up... I'll admit I was disappointing and felt like Heavenly Father was letting me down but then I realized I was forcing my wish and my will when I should be accepting His. It was still pretty tough though and I am starting to think I will have some serious trust issues when I get home but it is another week and time to press the reset button "push".

The Elders who cover 3rd ward had a baptism last Saturday of a woman who is a caterer and sometimes gives us some of her left overs. We took one of our investigators to it and I could tell that she felt the spirit really strongly. I almost cried because it was so intense. We walked her home and invited her to pray to know if Heavenly Father wanted her to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized. On Sunday we went to pick her up for church but she would hardly look us in the eye and after trying for 20 minutes to get her to talk to us she said she didn't want to go to church. It was heart breaking and I was kind of numb for most of church. They asked me to lead the music in sacrament meeting and I started singing after the intro but I couldn't hear anyone so I sang louder and then I realized that NO ONE was singing. I looked up and people were looking at me funny and my companion was laughing. I looked back at Sister Adams who was playing the piano and she said "are you ready?" I didn't know that they usually played the whole first verse as an additional intro so I got a surprise solo. The whole branch already thinks I'm "special" because of my diet ... but it made my companion smile so that was probably the best part of the day.

Today we are going to go spend some time in Pleasanton. It is a super cute town next to Livermore. It is a bit more ritzy but we have picked up a few people to work with last week so we will be spending more time there. Their downtown is ADORABLE and if I wasn't doing the budget challenge this month I might try and buy some of their adorable scarfs and things. There is a store called Therapy we pass by on the way to dinner on Saturdays that has a pig's head and I really want to check it out.

This week I'd like to share a quote by Richard G. Scott. I love this quote because I feel like it reflects the lesson Heavenly Father wanted me to learn this last week. I became so preoccupied with the numbers and the lessons and the contacts that I wrote my own agenda and did not allow room for the spirit to work. It is at times hard to be able to distinguish between our own thoughts and the whispering of the spirit but I also know that  Heavenly Father won't let his children suffer because of my hard hardheadedness and stubbornness. I know that as we soften our hearts and allow the Holy Ghost to dwell with us, he will direct and guide us through the tough times and decisions.

“...as you consistently strive to recognize and follow

feelings prompted by the Spirit, your confidence in the

direction you receive from the Holy Ghost will become

stronger... Spirituality yields two fruits. The first is

inspiration to know what to do, the second is power,

or the capacity to do it. Have patience as you are

perfecting your ability to be led by the Spirit. By

careful practice..and by being sensitive to the feelings

that come, you will gain spiritual guidance”

I know that as we soften our hearts and allow the Holy Ghost to dwell with us, he will direct and guide us through the tough times and decisions.

I know that Jesus Christ lives and that He is at the head of this church.

Love you all,

Hermana Quintana

10/28/14

This week we worked like mad women and were able to see miracles. It has been a little discouraging serving in Livermore because people keep breaking my heart. Mainly investigators and less actives who promise to come to church but never actually do. Sister Balderree has been studying Jacob 5 lately and we decided that we would make "Dig, Prune, Nourish" the theme for our week. We have been contacting everyday and specifically asking in prayer to be able to find more people to work with. As part of that we are going to areas of the city we don't normally go to and looking for new people there. We are also pruning or cleaning out our list of investigators and setting aside for a time those who are not yet ready to make and keep commitments. We are focusing our lessons on really helping people understand the doctrine of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end). With these goals in mind we set off to work harder and more intelligently. We spent a whole hour and a half calling people and dropping by their houses to get them to come to church because what is faith without works, right? 

We were super stressed and excited running around like headless chickens but we were blessed to be able to have two investigators and 4 less active families at church. Sorry I ran out of time but I'd like to share with you some pictures from our halloween activity.