Opposition in All Things

Dearest Family and Friends,

This week was SOOOOO incredible!!!! Really. We were actually able to meet with our investigators this week!!! it was AWESOME!!!!!

We had a member with us when we went to visit Susanna. The lesson was AMAZING!!! The member was PERFECT for Susanna. She really felt the spirit, and even her husband joined in the lesson at the end!! :):):) It was AWESOME!!!! I learned that we truly need members for this work to happen! it was SUCH a cool lesson!!! :):):):)

We also taught Pilar this week. She was really receptive, and agreed to actually read and what not. We're trying to get her to get her husband and kids involved. She is really hesitant. But she agreed to try. Her husband doesn't work Sundays, so it's perfect!!! We are SOOO excited to get the whole family involved!!! :):):):)

So, we sort of lost contact with the Sosa family for a while. They never called us back, never came to church, etc. We went by to visit them and they acted like they weren't home and didn't answer :( Finally one day we decided to stalk the house and wait for her to get home. As soon as she pulled in, we drove by and I basically yelled at her out the window. She said she was busy until today, so hopefully we'll be able to have a lesson with her this week!!!

I learned that to really appreciate an area with lots of work happening, you need to have a period where it's really difficult to do the work. Opposition is real, and we need it! :) I am SOOOOO grateful for the harder times on my mission so that I can truly appreciate the great times!!!! :):):):)

I had a neat experience this week. We went to see a less active, and she was not home. The spirit told me to knock the door across from hers. I was like "uh, no" But the spirit kept telling me. I thought we'd do it later. We were hot and tired, so we just started leaving,t hen the spirit was just like "do it NOW!" So I finally did, and we knocked on the door. Well, a white Buddhist lady answered the door, and wouldn't even pray with us. I thought, 'why did the spirit tell me to knock this door??" Well, my district leader told me that maybe the Lord was just seeing if I would listen to the spirit or not, so that when the time comes when someone really DOES want the missionaries and IS prepared, the Lord knows I WILL follow the promptings. So that was my cool experience this week :)

I love you all SOOOOO much!!!!! I want to wish  a very happy birthday to my Grandma Tanner, and my brother Brandon this Friday! Happy birthday!!! :):):)

Have a great week everyone!!! :):)

Love,
Hermana Bringhurst :)

Rain, Heat and Humidity

Dearest Family and Friends,

Well, I always knew the summer would be bad here, and BOY is it HOT!!! It was in the high 90's a week and a half ago, and with the humidity - it's just death. You sweat like crazy, but it doesn't go away! AH! This week we were blessed with TONS of rain! It rained for 3 days in a row! It's a little less hot right now, but it seems to be bipolar. You never know what the weather will be! :) Haha, I do love it here though! It makes me appreciate the dry heat of Utah! :) haha :)

This week we had an amazing lesson with Viciniev, our golden referral! :) We had the Relief society president coming with us, but sadly she forgot, so we had to go withour her :( But that's okay! We taught Viciniev the Restoration! I wish I had the time to type out the whole lesson, but I will just give the basics! She and her husband are right now looking for a church for their whole family to attend together!! :) She says she needs to pray before she reads the Bible so that she can have the spirit and understand what she's reading. She already believes Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ. Wow. She is GOLDEN!! She talks quite a bit, and sometimes she doesn't really "get" what we're saying, but she is SOOO spiritual, and is a genuine seeker of truth. Whether or not she "gets" it, she is going to be praying with faith to know the answer, and if she gets it, she will accept! She is incredible!!! They have 4 kids, ages 11, 13, 15, and 17. They are golden! We are hoping to bring a family this week to teach their family! Sadly they didn't come to church, but we have faith they will! :) So please pray for the Sosa family! :)

Zone conference was amazing!!!! We learned about the importance of inviting to baptism, read the scriptures, pray, and go to church. We also learned how to be more motivated, etc. It was an amazing conference! I learned SOOOOO very much!!! :):):):) I can't wait to put all this into practice! We were invited to do the 12 week training program starting next transfer, and mark a new BoM. I feel like I have so much I want to read before I go home - and I don't have time! AH! :) haha, that's good though. It's keeping my studies busy! I really did love zone conference. President Foote is SO inspired! :)

Unfortunately we weren't able to meet with any other investigators....which is lame :( we are in contact with all of them, but they just never can meet with us, which is weird. We have appointments with all of them this week, so we know things will be GREAT this week! :)

I hope you all have an amazing week! Thanks for your constant love and support! Even if I have a slow week, and there's not much success, at least I know I can see success within myself, and that's all that matters! :)

Love,
Hermana Bringhurst :)

Happy Independence Day! :)

Dearest Family and Friends,

I hope you had a wonderful 4th of July weekend!!!! I am so grateful to live in a country that allows me to have the freedom I do. I am grateful for all those who sacrificed their lives so I could have this freedom. Aren't we truly blessed to live where we do? Wow. We have endless blessing. God truly loves us :)

This week was a little slow in the area of investigators. We weren't able to meet with ANY of them....like any. It was a bummer. We kept in contact the whole week with them, and encouraged them to keep their commitments and what not...but we'll see what happens this week! :)

We worked a TON with the branch this week. We split the member list with the elders and we are going to teach the 5 member lessons to the whole branch. Remember when I said president asked us to do that? Well, that was forever ago, and the branch never did it...so we will do it now! :) We are SOOO excited to see the miracles come from that!!! :) :) We also called the whole branch roster. We are trying to see whose numbers have changed, who moved, etc. We have been tracking down people like crazy!!! As a result of that, we have found more places to go finding! Woohoo! We are working with a  lot of part member families. We are SO excited to get things organized, and get on the same level with the branch. We KNOW things will be happening here shortly!!

President wants us to go out visiting teaching with the women here. The ideal is to do a split, but if we just accompany them, that's okay too. We went out twice this week! :) WOOHOOO! The members are REALLY excited that we have found less actives. When we make an appointment with one, they are all dying to come see them with us. Hopefully we can keep that excitement, and eventually spread it to investigators!!

We have a couple potentials we found this week that seem really promising! We have SOO much faith that we will see miracles this transfer, and in all the coming transfers. Please keep viciniev in her prayers!! We have a lesson with her this week, and she seems REALLY golden!

Thanks for all your love and support! Hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Hermana Bringhurst :)

Happy One Year! :)

Dearest Family and Friends,

Wow, is time really going by this fast?? I can't believe I will be at ONE YEAR this week. Wow, that's crazy. It really seems like yesterday I said goodbye to my family at the Salt Lake airport, then headed to Mexico. Man. Time is a CRAZY thing!!!! I am SOOO excited that I have 6 more months to be here!!! it will be VERY quick, so I will make the most of it!!! Tomorrow is also my parents' 30th anniversary, so happy anniversary to them!!!! I am so grateful that my parents decided to get married for time and all eternity 30 years ago!!! They are the most amazing parents in the WHOLE world, and I am SOOO grateful for them!!!! :):)

Unfortunately, Gabriela is no longer on date :( She has been super busy, and we haven't been able to meet with her. We still call her all the time, so things are good, but she just is SUPER busy. Hopefully we'll get things going again this week! We do have a lot of new people that we're teaching!!! Hopefully a lot will stick! So I'll just talk about a few of them!! Susanna is AMAZING! We met her knocking, and she said we could come back. Well, at our next lesson, she immediately
came out, and was SOO excited to talk to us. Apparently she's watched stuff about the church before -some good, some bad. But she is super open to hear. She's catholic, but doesn't practice it, so she's not super willing to change, but she's willing to listen, so we'll see how that goes :) Now, the Trujio (true - hee -oh) family. They have 5 kids. One baby girl, and four boys ages 9, 13, 14, and 18. They seemed SO legit when we talked to them. They live right across from a member.
Well, they are SUPER shy. They claim to be catholic, but they don't even really know about God. So we are teaching very simply. They don't talk at ALL in the lessons. So we are going to try and bring a member family, and hopefully get the kids involved in the weekly soccer games our branch does. We know they have SOOO much potential, and we're so excited to have a FAMILY to teach!!! :):):):) Now, Pilar is SO cool! It was like 100 degrees outside, and all our appointments were
cancelling, so we just went knocking. We knocked on Pilar's door, and we were kind of just going through the motions of the door approach. After we told her we represented Jesus Christ and we had a special message, she immediately told her daughter to get chairs, and we sat out on the porch and she wanted to hear our "special message". Wow. Just like preach my gospel says, some people WILL recognize us as the Lord's servants, and we need to have the faith that we'll FIND them! :) We have an appointment with her today, so we hope it all works out!!! :)

We have seen SOO many miracles! We have begun teaching the 5 lessons to 2 member families, and now we have 3 part member families on board as well! SOOOO many great things are happening!!!! :) Thank you for your love and support. I hope you all have an amazing week! :) :)

Love
Hermana Bringhurst :)

Happy Father's Day

Dearest Friends and Family,

Happy Father's Day to all of you wonderful fathers out there! I want to say a special Happy Father's Day to my own wonderful father. I love you so much daddy!!! :):)

Well, this week has been great! We have done LOTS of finding!!!! We have quite a few return appointments, so hopefully we start building up the teaching pool here! That's the goal!!! When I came, we had 0 investigators....that will change!!! We WILL go finding and find those people who are prepared!!!

We also had zone conference this last week with Elder Cardon of theSeventy. Wow. That was amazing! That was one of those meetings where what I learned was not said, but more how I felt. I received all the answers I needed. It is so neat to be in the presence of a Seventy.wow, they are truly  men of God. I was so excited to be there! I learned more about my purpose as a missionary and what I need to be focused on here as a missionary. I love this Gospel! I love being a missionary! :)

Gabriela is still on track for baptism, but we had to move the date back a week because she didn't come to church :( It was Stake Conference, and the stake center is 30 minute away....so for her first time, maybe that was a little difficult. She did invite us to her daughter's birtdhday party though! There is SO much potential! TheYW's president came with us to a lesson this last week, and Gabriela's daughter Alison is SUPER excited about all the activities. She's 15,and SO sweet! :) I love being able to teach this wonderful family! We also found another family to teach through Gabriela. They're all family living there in the same apartment complex! The dream is for all 10 or so of them to get baptized and help build up the Cunningham branch! Woot! :) Haha.

there is SO much potential here, and I am so excited to keep working here. I love being a missionary SOOOOO very much!!! :):):) Have a great week everyone!

Love,
Hermana Bringhurst :)

Hello From Cunningham

Dearest Family and Friends,

Well, it has happened! I am finally ina new area!! I will miss Chamblee SOOO much, but I am SO excited for the new opportunity! Cunningham is one of 4 Spanish areas here, and one of 2 FULL Spanish areas. The other two are half and half. I absolutely LOVE it here. It is just like Chamblee, but the area is smaller. There are TONS of houses, not very many apartments, and there are WAY less Hispanics, so finding is a little bit more difficult. The people are so nice! it's like a cute small town here. I love it! Church is REALLY close to everyone, so that makes it really easy! I am with my trainer Hermana
Gallardo again. I had a feeling we would be companions again :) They played a joke on me my second day here. One of the members pretended to be an investigator. Well, I was getting REALLY into the lesson thinking "she's prepared for me! This is why I'm here!" Then she dropped the bomb that she was a member....well, it was funny, but I will admit I was very disappointed. It was funny though, I guess. The members here are SOOO nice! I feel like it's already like my home! I can't wait to work with everyone more!!

We have been doing TONS of finding!! They haven't really been finding here much before because they mostly work with less actives. They haven't had a baptism here (for sisters) since like September....so that will change! We will find the people who are prepared! I have been asking for referrals from all the members, and they are SOOO willing to help! We have return appointments with like 3 families who live next door to members! I thought that these sisters had already
tried these things, but I guess not! There's lots to do here! I can't wait to find all the people prepared for baptism!!

We do have one miracle of this week. We have 2 investigators...a mother and her 15 year old daughter. We taught Gabriela, the mom, this last week, and she accepted to be baptized on the 2nd of July!!! We are SOOO excited! She will most likely come to an FHE with a member tonight! We are SOOO excited!!! :):):)

There are great things coming our way here in Cunningham! Good news is, I'm still in the same Stake as Chamblee, so when we do activities, I will see them! Yay! have a great week everyone! I love you all so much!

Love,
Hermana Bringhurst

Goodbye Chamblee :(

Dearest Family and Friends,

Well, the time is finally here....I am leaving Chamblee after 10 months here. Wow. I can't even believe it actually happened! I was starting to think they forgot about me! I guess not. I am SOOO sad to be leaving, and I will miss a lot of people...but I know I'm going where the Lord wants me to go, and I have SO many wonderful experiences waiting for me there!! :) :) I am SOOO excited! :)

I wanted to share my testimony this week, and what I learned here in Chamblee. I learned to love. I love these people so much, and I am so grateful for the time I had with them. I know without a doubt I was supposed to serve here for this long. it was hard and tried my faith many times, but I'm glad I stuck it through and learned from the experience. I love Chamblee and the people with all of my heart :) I will never forget Hector and Fermin, and how much they mean to me. They will always have a special place in my heart. I know this is the true church. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I know that we have a loving Heavenly Father who loves each one of us individually. I know He only wants the best for each one of us. I am SOOO grateful for the time I've had here to have my testimony strengthened. I will miss everyone so much, but I will be SOOO excited to go back and visit them :)

I think I forgot to mention last week that we have started a Bible class every week! Woohoo! Only like 2 people come....but that will change!! Chamblee really is growing!!

Also, I wanted to share a neat experience I had this last week. We went to Flor and Rogelio's, and their little 4 year old had run off
and they couldn't find her. We tried to say a prayer with them, but they were too hysterical. My companion and I each said a prayer, then we went out to go and look for her. I prayed the spirit would guide me to her. I had the strongest impression I had to check the leasing office. something was literally pulling me there...however I thought that was dumb and she wouldn't be in there...so I kept walking. Well, moments later, a man came out of the leasing office and said a little girl was in there looking for her mom. I definitely learned my lesson. The spirit guided me there, and I knew it, but did not listen. I have learned to follow EVERY prompting I receive from the spirit.

The area is pretty slow right now, and we don't really have any investigators, BUT we have a lot of potentials, so I see a lot of good things coming to Chamblee really soon!

Thanks for all your love and support! I can't wait to go to a new area and have some new experiences! I love you all! :)

Love,
Hermana Bringhurst

Here are some pictures of people I will miss....