Snow and Saints

COLUMBIA, Md. — Happy day for Hermana Newman!  I woke up Sunday morning to white stuff all over the ground... yep- SNOW! :) WAHOOOOOOOO 

I have missed it so much. It is stinkin' cold here, but the snow makes it worth it, indeed. Funny story about Maryland: they freak out when it snows. Seriously, I about died laughing. The mission grounded our cars for the day (which was understandable), so we were on foot the whole day, which was interesting considering I cover the entire stake. But hey, what an adventure. Out of 21 years, I can only remember church being canceled once and that is because the bishopric got stuck in the snow driving to church. Well, we got to church yesterday. Sang a song, prayed, took the sacrament and then went home. Yep... they canceled church, and we woke up this morning to find out school was canceled and most of the libraries didn’t open until noon. In the words of my branch mission leader, "Yeah Hermanas, it's the end of the world when it snows here."

Yesterday was quite the adventure. I wish I could send videos home but they are too big. We were told we needed to still proselyte, but no cars. Which is just fine by me but definitely interesting because my area is HUGE and we live near the freeway. Missionaries crossing the freeway is probably not the best idea, so we started our journey walking to the nearest area with members and investigators. What we thought would take us about 30 minutes ended up taking 2 hours in the snow to walk. I was just laughing and grinning the whole way. Life is good! 

I was thinking about the pioneers a lot as I was walking and how amazing they are. They had it WAY worse then having to walk a couple hours in a snowy day. They are amazing! It made me think of the hymn of course:
 

Come, come, ye saints, no toil nor labor fear;
But with joy wend your way.
Though hard to you this journey may appear,
Grace shall be as your day.
Tis better far for us to strive
Our useless cares from us to drive;
Do this, and joy your hearts will swell -
All is well! All is well!

Why should we mourn or think our lot is hard?
'Tis not so; all is right.
Why should we think to earn a great reward
If we now shun the fight?
Gird up your loins; fresh courage take.
Our God will never us forsake;
And soon we'll have this tale to tell-
All is well! All is well!

We'll find the place which God for us prepared,
Far away, in the West,
Where none shall come to hurt or make afraid;
There the saints, will be blessed.
We'll make the air, with music ring,
Shout praises to our God and King;
Above the rest these words we'll tell -
All is well! All is well!

And should we die before our journey's through,
Happy day! All is well!
We then are free from toil and sorrow, too;
With the just we shall dwell!
But if our lives are spared again
To see the Saints their rest obtain,
Oh, how we'll make this chorus swell-
All is well! All is well!

All is well! All is well! How true that is! We are SO very blessed :) I am thankful for the pioneers and all they did for what they knew to be true. I hope we can be a little more like them and stand up for what we know to be true. Stand up for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The pioneers had it hard, but they endured the trials they had and made the best of it all. I definitely look up to those pioneers!

On another note, we had another great week here in Maryland. The snow has got my attention, so I am having a hard time thinking about what else went on this week. 

Oh! Soila! We had a great experience this week with her. We went over to her house to visit and see how she was doing. We planned on watching The Restoration video with her and reading the scriptures. This woman absolutely LOVES The Book of Mormon. It is quite the humbling experience to me because she only has a 3rd grade education from Honduras, yet she loves to read The Book of Mormon and has a big smile on her face every time she reads. She is amazing to say the least! A

During the video, she kept looking back at me and smiling. At the end she had a big grin and the first words that came out of her mouth was, "Que Bonita." (Beautiful) My favorite part of the night was when we gave her a card and invited her to the temple lights. She looked at the building and asked if she could go inside. I told her that she wasn’t able to right now but that she could someday. She looked at me and said, "Hermana Newman, I want to go there. I will go there after I am baptized." 

Yes! Yes Yes! Slowly but surely she will get there. She knows this is what she wants and needs in her life and I absolutely love watching her makes changes and use the Gospel. I have the best calling in the world: full time missionary! :)

The work is great and moving forward every day. Thanks for letting me be part of this great work and supporting me. I know you all are being great missionaries back at home too! Keep up the work and keep praying for those opportunities! I love you all!

Con Amor,

Hermana Newman :)

Like unto Moroni

COLUMBIA, Md. — Well hello :) How are you lovely people? As I am sitting here in the library thinking of what to say this week, I can’t help but just have a big grin on my face. I have the best family ever! :) Boy am I so lucky! Thanks for all you do. I really miss you a lot — but in a good way, no worries ;) Not home sick, I just know my family is stinkin' awesome! I hope you are all doing well. You are in my prayers daily! Know that I am thinking of you and love you lots!

Another great week here in Maryland. It’s finally starting to cool down and be autumn. I love the weather of autumn, mostly because it is not as hot and the humidity is bearable. And it helps that it is gorgeous here! The weeks are starting to mesh all together in my brain, so I am not sure what happened this week and what happened before. If I repeat something — sorry in advance :)

Studying outside of a McDonalds

I honestly cannot think of what happened this week. I do remember it was pretty stressful, but that’s okay, nothing prayer and some Oreos can't fix!

We had three member presents in our lessons this week. Members totally make the difference. Lessons are WAY better when members are with us. I love it. We are going to try and keep getting the members to come out with us. It was another great week visiting both less actives and investigators. It’s amazing what a little bit of love can do. We had 3 investigators at church and between us and the elders, 13 less actives again at church.

Solve life's problems with prayer and Oreos, Sara says.

We sure are seeing miracles in this little branch. This branch has grown to be my family. I really love the people here, and I think they kind of maybe like me too. Who knows? Sorry I don’t have any specific stories this week for you, but I would like to share a thought I had this week during personal study.

Right now, I am reading in the Book of Mormon in Alma. I have read in Alma lots before, but something stood out to me this week was in Chapter 44 in the first few verses. Moroni is talking to Zerahemnah, who is being a stinker and wants to fight the Nephites and have power of the land.

"Ye are angry with us because of our religion.

But now, ye behold that the Lord is with us; and ye behold that he has delivered you into our hands. And now I would that ye should understand that this is done unto us because of our religion and our faith in Christ. And now ye see that ye cannot destroy this our faith.

 Now ye see that this is the true faith of God; yea, ye see that God will support, and keep, and preserve us, so long as we are faithful unto him, and unto our faith, and our religion; and never will the Lord suffer that we shall be destroyed except we should fall into transgression and deny our faith." (Alma 44:3-4)

 
(Gotta love seminary videos, right?) 
 

I love this promise. And I know that it is true! If we are faithful in our religion — faithful to God and Jesus Christ — our faith will not be destroyed and we have the promise that God will SUPPORT, KEEP, AND PERSERVE us.

We live in an interesting world, for sure. There is a lot going on. I get to see a lot every day both good and bad. There are a lot of people who will hate us simply because we are LDS, but that is okay. As long as we stand firm and keep living as we need to be, all will work out. We need to fear God and not man. As it was said in last General Conference. We are Mormon... We KNOW IT, LIVE IT and we LOVE IT! Make sure you remember whom you represent. You are never alone and God will be your strength. Rely on the Lord and he will never let you down.

I still don’t know a lot. But my testimony of this Gospel keeps growing every day! When it all comes down to it, I KNOW that this Gospel is true and that it has been restored through Joseph Smith. I know that it is Jesus Christ’s original church restored to the Earth today. The Book of Mormon is evidence of this and I love that book! I still have lots to learn, but I cannot deny that the Book of Mormon is from God. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and He lives. I know that Heavenly Father loves each of us and knows us individually. He knows us by name and cares what we are doing in life. He wants nothing more than to see us return back to him again. He has given us the tools we need and I know if we use them, we can have everything He has promised.

 I don’t care who you are, what you have done or what you are doing. The gospel of Jesus Christ is for everyone and will change your life! I feel so blessed to be sharing His message with people from all over the world!

This message is simple, it is true and it is for everyone. Don’t be shy. Share what you know to be true!

Have a great week and remember how blessed you are. Make the changes you need to make, keep doing what you are supposed to. Be that person God needs you to be. Don’t stress too much, He will help you every step of the way. Smile and don’t forget to laugh. Have fun, life is good. The gospel is exciting!

Con Amor,

Hermana Newman

This means, "um, well" in Spanish. Sara thought it was funny.