18 February 2014

This week has honestly been a BLURR. I have no idea what happened or when it happened or IF anything happened at all....

 

We had 2 back-to-back exchanges plus 2 meetings so I'm not quite sure what happened. I was out of my area for both exchanges so it made it difficult to keep up with what's going on here. All I know is that my boss of a companion killed it in all of our appointments--love her. We apparently have a couple new investigators... so that's good!

 

On exchanges I spent a lot of time planning and helping organize a disaster of an area book and just other things.. sigh. Also, sleeping in other people's beds=not getting any rest.. I missed my bed!!

 

Good news, Manuel is going to get baptized!!! in like a year... haha. He was able to have his interview about his probation and passed it with flying colors, he was going to have to wait a while to get permission but it was probable that it was going to be soon... THEN CAME THE NEWS of illegal drug addiction... nice. But he is so prepared it's ridiculous. He is way eager to work on overcoming it and he was at church on sunday. What a great guy. So excited for him.

 

This week was definitely a bonding experience for my companion and I. It was a hard week but definitely worth it. It's amazing how God puts people in your path to help you through things. Not to mention prayer heals everything. I PROMISE. It's amazing. and the priesthood power is real. Just throwing that out there.

 

Here are some pictures from last Monday's FHE/service project. We were in charge of putting different types of seeds into bags to ship off to Africa, gosh our ward is so service oriented. I just love them. the FHEs are starting to grow, slowly but surely. Last night we had 2 extra people that hadn't come before. So cool. I love our Branchita. Its precious.

 

I wish I had more to share but I don't have time or the memory to do so.. sorry! This week is going to be great so hopefully next week's email will be a little better. We have exchanges every week until March... Bring it.

 

I love you all, the church is true!

 

Hermana Calero

27 January 2014

Wow, this week was a little hectic. I don't even know where to begin. A lot of really hard things as well as a lot of spiritual things happened, funny how things work like that....

 

This week we had exchanges with the sisters in Malta. I was able to spend the day here in Rupert with Hna. Martinez! Oh it felt like the good old days, we laughed way too much but we saw some really awesome people. Remember our investigator Daisy? well, after a month we were finally able to meet with her and have an awesome lesson. Her daughter was really sick the past couple weeks so we talked about prayers, miracles, and introduced the priesthood. We had quite the moment when I pointed out her little decal on her wall that said "families are forever". I asked her where she got it from and if she knew that it was kind of what our church was known for... she started crying, it's what she's been looking for... AWESOME!

 

The rest of the week was really slow. We had goals to find 4 new investigators and did EVERYTHING within our power to find them. We contacted all our referrals (no one opened) we went contacting/tracting for hours (either no one opened or they didn't want us)... it was really hard. We started to question ourselves, wanting to know if we were doing something wrong... No matter what we did we couldn't get anyone to open.

 

Later in the week we found out why. In the middle of a hard day we get a call from some sisters that we are over. One of the sisters was crying and the only thing she got out was "I want to go home". After Hna. Rex talked to her for a about an hour we found out that one of their investigators had given them a DVD about missionaries that she wanted them to watch.. well, it ended up being some anti-Mormon stuff and it really got to this poor missionary. The next day we drove an hour and a half  to get to their place and spent a few hours talking and trying to come down to a solution. I wish I had the time/words to explain how much my testimony grew in those two days.... I have a testimony that this is GOD'S WORK. That no matter how hard Satan tries to fight against it, even if he targets the BEST MISSIONARIES out there, nothing will stop the work. We are called as representatives of Jesus Christ. We have the power to overcome evil. We have the right to call down blessings from heaven. A piece of plastic--man's creation-- will not halt this work. The church is true and nothing will stop it.

 

This testimony carried us through the rest of the week. Although our numbers do not reflect our efforts, I know that discouragement is Satan's tool as well. We held our heads high and found that everything works on the LORD'S TIME, not ours, not our investigators. Something that one of the sisters said really hit me, she said "I have a really solid testimony of certain things, but about the rest I simply have faith". We may never understand some things, in all reality--we DON'T HAVE TO. We are here to show our faith and our willingness to obey, not to discover answers to all of God's mysteries. I love this work. Although I don't understand it sometimes, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

 

I saw proof that everything works in His time when the Malta sisters had a baptism this weekend. Zack was baptized on Saturday. I cannot express how excited I was for him! He was ready for this, the Deter family is incredible and prepared him so well. It's amazing to see the miracles that happen when sharing the gospel turns from an obligation to a pure love for others. I am so grateful to have had the privilege to work with Zack and the Deters, CONGRATS!

 

Well, we will see what this week brings. I'm starting yet another week anxious to work and to put my faith to the test. I seriously could not be happier, even though the work is hard the miracles I see every day make it worth it!

 

Love,

 

Hna. Calero

 

Pictures:

1. THE COOLEST DOG EVER! I named him Frankie.. Thanks for the scarf mom!

2. Pictures from Zack's Baptism 

21 January 2014

..... It messed with our emailing schedule. Sorry mom for not letting you know, but I'm glad President let you know I was alive... haha how embarrassing. love you mom!

 

So last week we had Zone Conference, which was AWESOME. We learned a lot about having the faith to find. It has been an interesting week, we haven't found as many new investigators as we had hoped but we did teach a lot of lessons. The week was nice to us and it provided with lots of warm days so we were able to get out of the car and walk for a couple days--we talked to a lot more people than we would have if we would have just driven around. There were lots of families outside so it was easy to start up conversations.. unfortunately we didn't see many results BUT we did some exercise so that was good! Man, missionary work is hard!

 

... And a little disappointing. So remember good ol manuel? well, he didn't show up to church and he canceled our appointments this week.. yeah... bummer. We don't really know what's going on, but hopefully we can see him this week. I will keep you updated.

 

So... I feel bad I don't have much to write about... I made you guys wait until Tuesday and I don't have anything good to share.

 

OHHHH So funny story. So we went to the DI yesterday in search for some cool treasures and guess what I found?!?! This super old Libro de Mormon from like 1980... but that's not the cool part. Guess where it came from?! COLOMBIA!! Yup. Awesome.

 

So today in District Meeting I had to give a little training on "finding". Talk about humbling. I compared it to the parable of the Wheat and the Tares in Matthew 13 (13:24-30). When the enemy planted the tares in the midst of the wheat it was almost impossible to tell which was which until they both grew to maturity. It's the same in our missionary work. We can't ever tell who is ready and who is not ready for the gospel, only heaven knows. As we rely on the spirit and have the PATIENCE to wait for these individuals to grow to see what the results will be THAT is when we are going to find success. Interesting how that applies in so many aspects of life. Sometimes we have to make decisions that affect either our finances or our family life... When we make these decisions based on prayer and as we follow the guidance of the spirit we will always be able to tell the difference between the wheat and the tares.

 

....Food for thought....

 

ANYWHO. I'm sure I will have much more for you next week.

 

I love you all, hope you have a wonderful week.

 

Love,

 

Hermana Calero

Pictures:

1. Some members heard that I like Candy Canes...

2. What we call Hoar Frost... happens when the frost combines with the crazy wind out here.. sticks to everything! (yes, my nails are Pepto-Pink... Long story...)

3. Sister Rex and I yesterday. It was so sunny!!

13 January 2014

I don't even know where to begin. This week was INSANE. I'm so exhausted...

 

Let's start with something funny... EVERYONE GETS MY NAME WRONG! haha. Seriously. No one has ever heard of the last name Calero before so it goes through the most interesting variations... Valero, Valerio, Calorie (yes.... NICE.), Clair..... and so many more.. SERIOUSLY!?!?! I guess my last name is a lot harder  than I thought. Good times.

 

This week we had, for the first time EVER, a Spanish Missionary Meeting. It was legit! It was from 8-3 of 100% Spanish--so fun! The part that wasn't so fun was that as STLs we had to give a 30 minute training on Chapter 10 in PMG. Talk about nerve-wracking! Hna. Rex and I giving a training to like a million Spanish missionaries in SPANISH?? It went really well though, we prayed so much and prepared as best as we could. We ended up receiving a lot of personal revelation as well as comfort and strength for our own area, it was SO cool!

 

Despite this week being really slow... it was really faith-building. like REALLY faith building... So Sunday (yesterday) was... interesting... None of the counselors from the Branch Presidency were there, which means we didn't have their wives who were the ONLY ones who played piano. We didn't have anyone to translate, and we didn't have anyone to lead the music... The Elders were blessing/passing the sacrament and hna Rex was sitting with our legit investigator Manuel. so OBVIOUSLY I was the only option for all of them! Golly. I lead the music (acapela mind you...), Translated, and prayed during sacrament meeting. The longest meeting of my life. BUT the Elders did a great job with the Gospel Principles class so Manuel learned a lot! which was good considering sacrament meeting was a disaster. Good Times #2

 

So the other highlight of the week was teaching a less active family. They are SO amazing. We had an FHE  with them this week and we taught them about the Plan of Salvation. It was so cool to see the dad open up and start remembering things from when he was young and went to church. He hasn't been in probably 20 years, which is super sad but they are such an amazing family! We had them make their own Plan of Salvation picture to put up in their house, it was super cute. They attended church Sunday so that was awesome!

 

I found a really cool quote the other day... I'll include a picture.

 

Hna Rex and I are doing a new type of language study, where she reads out of the Liahona  and I write everything she says.... My spelling is getting better, and those stupid "tildes" are driving me up the wall! Hna Rex's grammar is like impeccable. it's perfect! I don't understand it! So she teaches me how to write and I teach her how to be patient with me cause I don't get it..

 

Oh, it snowed this week. We went around shoveling random people's walks, it was really fun! Hna. Rex had never shoveled snow before so naturally she did 80% of the work because she just thought it was so fun and she hogged the shovel...

 

Sorry it's so short, I wish I had more cool things to talk about. Our Zone is going sledding today.. but we're not cause we are running low on miles and knowing me I would probably break something...

 

Love you all, hope  you have a good week!

 

Hna. Calero

6 January 2014

So I heard a quote that describes everything that I have felt this week:

 

"you can count the seeds from an apple but you can't count the apples that will come from a single seed".... hmm. how profound. but really. Story of a missionary's life.

 

I don't even know where to begin, It's going to take me all day to do this... well let's start with our investigator Manuel... I told you guys a little bit about him. he was the super prepared referral that we thought was sketchy for a while because he's a single guy BUT we repented. So we had THE MOST AMAZING lesson with him this week. We had been praying and fasting that we would be receptive to the Book of Mormon. From our first lesson he said he didn't think there could be another true book of scripture like the bible... well, we taught him about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon... The spirit was so strong and by the end of the lesson we had him telling us that he Knew Joseph Smith was a true prophet, that the Book of Mormon was true, and that he would be baptized at the end of the month... ALL WITHIN AN HOUR SPAN... Man, is this church  true or what?! So yesterday he comes to church. Fast Sundays always terrify me because I worry about what members are going to say to chase our investigators away... well, I also repented about that. How much wrong can be said with 20 members... Well with 5 minutes to spare Manuel turns to us and is like "can I go up there?", we were like "yeahhh!", and then we looked at each other in a panic. He gets up there and says (yes, we did write it down cause it was EPIC): "No creia en el Libro de Mormon... Gracias a las Hnas que me abrieron mis ojos. No mas quiero decir que mi testimonio es: ESTA IGLESIA ES VERDADERA" so yea.. for those of you who don't sprechenzie, he bore testimony that the church was true. oh man. He walks off the podium like a boss, all smiley and stuff... oh the spirit was strong.

 

so yeah, I  guess that was a highlight. haha.

 

So remember the Juarez family from Raft River? THEY GOT BAPTIZED (insert cheesy apple seed quote here...). Sister Rex and I had the wonderful opportunity to go to their baptism with an investigator  and had the time of my life. So I don't know who all I told or if I even mentioned it but bro. Juarez had decided to be baptized like a month ago but he didn't tell his family! (hence why he isn't dressed in white in the picture). So as the program started everyone in the whole ward except for the Malta sisters and I, oh and the bishop, were starting to freak out because they couldn't find Bro Juarez. Well, two minutes later in he comes dressed in white!!!! You should have seen the look on everyone's face. PRICELESS. Sister Juarez started crying and the boys had HUGE smiles on their faces. super cute. Another highlight... :)

 

So we have a 16 yr old investigator that we took to the baptism... she is in desperate need of a life-change. She has so much emotional hurt that it makes me way sad. She has depression, she's bipolar and she has tried to commit suicide 3x in the past 4 months... so sad. We have been teaching her and this week we found out she might have to go to juvie for 18 months.. When we got to the baptism we made it there a little early and we took  her to see the font be filled up. While she was there she told us that she hadn't ever felt so much peace and that she would love to be baptized. She told us that she loves the Mormon church because it fills her in ways that the catholic church never had before. She has to go to court on Thursday of this week to find out if she will end up going to juvie or not.. oh and did I mention she might be pregnant... oy.... Such a sad story. We hope that everything will work out, please keep her in  your prayers.

 

So i'm pretty sure I have devoured Jesus the Christ. I have learned so much. This morning I was studying in Luke 12 where Christ talks to the Disciples about their calling. It applied with what I had been thinking all week long. Christ tells them not to worry about temporal things, that all will be taken care of. He teaches that as we look for the Kingdom of God all these temporal things will be ADDED on. Such a tender mercy. It's amazing to know that when our priorities are in order nothing else matters. As we look for the kingdom of God first (loving, serving, teaching, praying, reading, etc...) the rest will be provided for (families, food, money, faith, health, etc..) I am so thankful for the wonderful opportunity I have to be on my mission and be ACTIVELY seeking for the Kingdom of God. I know that as I move forward and make this a permanent change or a habit to seek Him first, the rest will fall into place.

 

I love this work. I love that I have the priviledge to witness miracles every single day! I'm so grateful for this week and all the wonderful things that have come with the new year. I love my savior and I love my calling! I hope you all have a wonderful week!

 

Love,

 

Hna Katherine Calero

Happy New Year's Week!

Wow, what a crazy week. Seriously. It feels as if Christmas was like 2 weeks ago... It was so fun to talk to you all! I missed you guys so much. Skype is heaven-sent...

 

So despite Christmas being this week we had a ton going on. I don't even know where to begin...

 

Manuel came to church yesterday!! he cried, the spirit was felt, it was AWESOME.

 

Remember  the lady that cut our hair?? Well she is the sister to one of our investigators that blew us off like 2 weeks ago. This week we decided to go back (after a hearing a life-changing talk about being a "challenging and testifying missionary"... more about that some other time...) and GUESS WHAT?!?! Well, she still didn't want us. BUT her daughter was there and she did! Turns out that she grew up with a ton of LDS friends and had a boss that has been inviting her to church for the longest time and she finally felt like it was her time to find out what was going... and then we show up. SUPER COOL. She had questions about the Book of Mormon and that she "heard that Christ came to the Americas... that makes sense, is it true"... well let us show you! it was awesome. p.s. if you haven't noticed, everyone is related out here.. one way or another...

 

Our second cool experience happened at a dinner. We have dinner with the members of the English wards every night except Sundays (when we eat with members from the Branch). We had dinner at one particular family's house this week, they have an awesome story. So sister Homer is a convert to the church of about 14 years--she grew up in a COMPLTELY anti home. Like when they would drive by the temple the mom would tell them to shut their eyes or they would go blind... yeah.... But she eventually grew up and received the missionaries (for like 2 years) and married an LDS guy. They have a wonderful family with 1 RM and 1 on a mission. Well, 3 years ago her oldest put on facebook that he got his mission call and his grandma (the anti-lady) saw it and FLIPPED. for 11 years she didn't know that they were members and now she won't even talk to them. In the past 3 years she hasn't even called to say hello... so sad. Well sister Homer has a sister named Mandy, she is the only one out of 6 that still talks to her. They are like best friends--it's way cute. Well, sister Homer invited Mandy over for dinner--at the same time as us! She didn't tell her until like 5 minutes before we came over... She was so nervous but as she was able to see us in a different environment (not to mention we told her she could relax because she lived out of our area--out of our MISSION-- any ways so we couldn't teach her). You know how goofy I can be, after a while of making her laugh and seeing that we were completely normal she began to open up and ask some questions. apparently that was the first time in her whole life she had met with missionaries. It was so amazing to see how much the Lord trusts us with these people. He prepares them and puts them in our path... After we shared a message that night we could see the wheels turning in her head--she may not accept this year, but I know we touched her heart. I love this work.

 

So one last thing... I found a cool scripture this week as we were teaching about baptism. We have an investigator that wont commit because they "don't know it all yet...". REally?? come on... So I was studying for them and I found the scripture in 2 Ne 32:5... ".. if ye will enter in by the way (baptism) and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things that ye should do." INTERESTING!!! The way we learn is by the Holy Ghost, it is the one that teaches and makes manifest the things that are true...

 

[GIANT SIDENOTE: The talk that we read talks about how we are here to call people to repentance. When we do not extend baptismal commitments or ask people to keep other commitments we are not inviting them to repent. As we are bold (but not overbearing) and make it clear to investigators why were are there... the spirit will bear witness to them that we are truly called of God. As we ask and commit, whether they say yes or no, they will receive witness that what we teach is true. (idk if that made sense but just trust me)]

 

...you don't need to know everything before you are baptized, you just need to know you love God, our Savior, and are willing to do ANYTHING for them...

 

Man, I love this whole mission thing. It's pretty cool :)

 

Love you all, have a wonderful New years. Make sure and set good goals!

 

Hna. Calero

23 December 2013

Yay! Christmas is here! I am so excited to be able to see you guys in just a couple days! I'm way WAY nervous but I'm excited.

This week has been crazy. We had a few really, really awesome experiences and some not so good ones. It's funny how Satan knows our weaknesses, he knows how much to push our buttons to make us break.

On Tuesday we went to the library to work on finishing translating the Christmas program we had on Sunday (which went really well by the way!) and the lady at the library said she had a referral for us. So she "hacked" into the data base of the library (which may or may not be illegal, haha) and got us the information from this guy named Manuel that is at the library all the time. She had shared her testimony and he was interested in knowing more. So right after we were done we went over to his house and guess what?!?!?! He's SOOOOO prepared. Turns out that he is the son of one of our previous investigators that were super anti, they are catholic "through and through". Well to make a super long story short, we taught him the message of the restoration. He accepted all of it all the way up until the Book of Mormon... he didn't shoot it down but he said he wants to read from it himself and ask God if it's true. He's looking for a better life, he wants to know what it is he needs to do to follow God... Well, let me tell you.. THIS IS THE PLACE! It was so cool! he even texted us in the middle of the week because we left him with a "Jesus card" with our number and on the back it offered a free "finding faith in Christ" dvd. he wanted to know if he could have one. So funny. this guy is amazing. We are so excited to keep teaching him. He got sick so he couldn't come to church yesterday but we are going to go and see him tonight.

Also, we had a KILLER lesson with Daisy. she is our other "super prepared" investigator. We went to her house and were finally able to teach her about the Restoration. She just understood everything. Everything made sense to her! When we asked her to pray at the end of the lesson and to ask if this is what she has been looking for she started to cry--we told her that she had felt the spirit, she agreed and is excited to learn more. It's so cool the way the spirit works. I have a growing testimony each day that it's definitely not us that teaches. There is no way that we as kids could come into a home and help others feel the love our Heavenly Father has for them. NO WAY.

So you ready for the funny story of the week? Well, here goes! We have an investigator named Jorge (who we call George) who is so awesome. He is seriously like THE nicest guy I have ever met. He is having struggles committing to a baptismal date because he wants his wife to agree and there is NO WAY she will. His wife has seen us at the door, opened it, said "oh it looks like no one is here", shut the door, and walks away. This lady is MEAN! Well, this week we went to see if Jorge was home, and he wasn't. So here come his wife Dianna.... she opens the door and tells us Jorge isn't home. We ask her if we can share a message with her and she's like "uh... NO." but she didn't say it that nice. So then ME AND MY BIG FAT MOUTH asks her how much she charges for haircuts... yes... HAIRCUTS.... I knew she ran a little salon in her house so I decided to use the excuse that we were going to Skype our families this week and we needed a trim.... LOOOOONG story short. We got a hair cut on Saturday. It was CRAZY fast cause this lady was N.E.R.V.O.U.S.! of a couple kids?? goes to show how strong the spirit works. But she did a good job. On the wall she had a "certificate of ministry", apparently she's a certified minister. No wonder she doesn't want to hear from us. The moment I saw that I thought of the Scripture Mastery scripture "Oh they that are learned that think they are wise...". She went to school to be a minister, she is versed in the bible but "harkens not to the councils of God". Its so amazing what the spirit will do to a person that knows she is turning down the true church. She was so nervous but she did a really good job on our hair. Just last night we stopped by to see her. She had asked if we knew any places where she could go cut hair and help people out... we told her we would come back with the address for the homeless shelter and the Sr. Center. and we did. AND GUESS WHAT?!?! SHE WAS NICE! She even told us to stay warm and to have a good Christmas.

You know, all it takes is to be friends with people. Have sincere interest in their lives. Yes we want to change their lives but we have to be careful how we do it. First we need to get to know them. As we get to know their needs and their hopes and dreams we can know how the gospel will help them. We learned that Dianna was looking for ways to help others, now we can talk to her about how the church is so service oriented. So cool. Conversion is a process and we have learned that maybe we weren't sent there to visit Jorge, but to soften his wife's heart. something that OBVIOUSLY no one has ever been able to do before. This, however, is a result of several things. First, OUR OBEDIENCE. As we strive to be better each day, as we plan better for our investigators, as we are obedient in the little things it makes the spirit so much more willing to help us out in lessons. There is NO WAY that we could have done any of these lessons on our own. There is no way we could be worthy to teach these super prepared people without showing our HF that we are worthy of it.

It honestly doesn't feel like it's Christmas--the snow melted! But we had a wonderful mission conference full of talent and... not so talented talent shows. haha. It was hilarious, and such a good time. I don't have pictures but I will just have to tell you about it some other time--I did get a couple videos though. We had an awesome testimony meeting at the end. The spirit was so strong in that room, I cried like a child. I love this work, I hope you all know that. There is nowhere that I would rather be right now than serving my Savior, spreading His gospel. I love this Christmas season and the chance we get to take time to think of Him. Please PLEASE don't forget what Christmas is all about. One of the apostles once said something like: yes, presents are important, even the wise men brought gifts to celebrate the birth of Christ, but that came MUCH later. the first people to adore him were shepherds and Mary and Joseph. Gifts are fun but they are not the center of this holiday. I love you all and hope that you have a wonderful Christmas! Thank you all for the letters and gifts I have received, I cant' thank you enough for your love and support.

Love,

Hermana Calero