Week 23: Ups and Downs and Service=Fantastic Mission

 

Side note from Lexie's mom:  Hermana Underly must have not had a lot of time today because there were NO pictures!! Oh, well:)... Here's her letter:

HOWDY FAMILIA

This week was rather interesting and wonderful. I cannot believe that we are heading into the last week of the transfer.

We did a ton of service for people in our ward. actually it was our ward mission leader and his family that were moving. That was sad to say goodbye. We got a new ward mission leader this week and he is just wonderful! His name is Brother Hodson. He is a convert to the church about 4 years and after he was baptized just 3 months later he was called to be in the bishopbric. He is way awesome. He is excited for the work and so are we. 

Our ward is so unique and perfect. Haha the people in our ward have at least 3 callings each and the same 10-15 people do everything. It is funny. We have no ward missionaries and we didn't have a ward mission leader for a while. We sometimes have 150 people show up to church or 15 depends on the weekend and holiday. I am not complaining but it does make the work really interesting and fun.  

I absolutely adore our ward. We are family. I love our little ward so much. We are so unique and we all believe in the same thing. It is perfect. The church is the same everywhere you go. And you always have family around you.

In district meeting this week, Hermana Friend and I gave a training. We had never given a training before....That was interesting for sure.

We are teaching this one man named Alonzo and he is awesome. He asks literally all the perfect questions. And we have all the answers. its great! So if you could all pray for him that would be absolutely fantastic.

Also Juan is doing great. He is 25 and really wants to know the truth. It is just a matter of getting him to church. 

So we were teaching this amazing family and they moved to Truckee Cali this past week and they have 2 kids that will be getting  baptized this week. I am so overjoyed. Angela is 9 and is just an angel and basically my rolemodel and Gio is 14 and he is awesome! I am so excited.

This past Saturday we had a child of record baptism and it was incredible. Though it was spoken in Spanish and English the Spirit was just as strong and tangible. Our most amazing bishop made a few remarks and wow truly inspired. It was so great to see Heavenly Father's children enter into the path back to him.

A recent convert in the ward who just turned 16 blessed the sacrament for the first time yesterday! its the little things that keep us missionaries going. I was so proud of him.

We celebrated Elder Escobar and Baker's birthday with a family in the ward. It was so much fun and we did not have icing on our faces afterwards...

This week was full of ups and downs and that is what makes a mission a mission! Its fantastic :)

So this was our recitation for the transfer and I wanted to share it with all of you or whoever reads this:

"You only get one chance to serve a mission; it is your responsibility, your duty, to use it to the fullest; to give every last ounce of energy until you collapse in exhaustion at the end of it. All the hardships, all the tears, all the hard work will be looked back upon as the best thing you've ever done, not because you enjoyed it, not because you baptized everyone, but because you gave everything you had, even when you didn't think you could, and especially when you didn't want to. Live your mission to your fullest, work harder than you've ever worked before. Let people know that this is the most important thing in the world to you... If you do not run until you have nothing left to give, and then keep going anyway; cry and pray and work and sweat and plead until you are so drained that all you can do is turn to the Lord; if you don't do this, then these people will not come to this joy because of you - their failure to come to Christ will be partially upon your head. Come out of your mission proud of what you've done, and this experience will bless the rest of your life."

~Elder Jeffery R. Holland

Wow does this make me think of what kind of missionary I want to be. I am so grateful for the gospel. It is true. Simple as that.

I love you all so much

Hermana Underly

Week 22: Happy Valentines Day from Hermana Underly

                      Happy Valentine's Day:)

Hello my dear friends and family,

I hope you all had a fabulous week and valentines day!

I sure did!

Thank you SO much for the package for Valentines Day. I loved it so much. I read every single heart that was cut out! There were like 100! My favorite heart was one that said, "Wen are you going to come back" with a sad/crying face. I laughed. Not for at least another 12 months.

It has been such an incredible week here in Lake Tahoe. I really live in the most beautiful place in the world. We had Zone conference this week for the Reno North Zone. It was awesome! Well, I had to speak on the sacrament which was pretty neat I guess. President picks 2 people to speak and I guess he likes me so much that he chose me, haha:)  So that was great. 

We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon. I LOVE the Book of Mormon. I hope you all are reading it. It IS another testament of Jesus Christ. It contains the fullness of the Gospel. I know that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon. And so I know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God. It is the keystone of our religion. It is a promise that you will become closer to God after you read it and ponder about it and pray about it and ask. I love it so much.

Zone conference was an all day event. It was perfect. The next day we had district meeting which was also too great. We talked about Lehi's dream and then we were blindfolded and had to follow a string to get to the Tree of Life. I didn't make it. But we did all end up getting donuts which were delicious.

This week was wonderful and interesting to say the least. We had some great lessons with our investigators. Things are starting to pick up here in Lake Tahoe.

Valentines day was absolutely fabulous. We heart attacked one of the Hermanas door! And we also went to the church to heart attack our wonderful bishops door! It was super great! We had heart shaped pizza (aka best thing ever) and chocolate covered strawberries. So basically this Valentines Day was absolutely perfect.

In church this past Sunday two speakers talked about hastening the work of salvation! I thought in my mind, YES. perfect. It was awesome. This is the greatest work there is. I promise you as you pray to have those opportunities that they will come. Also in church we didn't have any speakers for the Spanish group so our dear bishop called on people from the congregation to bear their testimonies. Yep, I was called. He is such an incredible and inspired man. Sundays are great and exhausting but absolutely wonderful!

Hope you all have a fantastic week! I love you all so dearly

A friend sent this to me this week and I really loved these quotes so I thought I would share them with you.

"He loves us because He is filled with an infinite measure of holy, pure, and indescribable love. We are important to God not because of our résumé but because we are His children"

"We are created in the image of our heavenly parents; we are God’s spirit children. Therefore, we have a vast capacity for love—it is part of our spiritual heritage. "

-Elder Uchtdorf

con amor

Hermana Underly 

Valentines Flower

Yummy Heart Pizza!!

Ahhhh....my Valentines from Home:) 

OK, Kinda Cold!

Girl Scout Cookie Heaven

Zone Conference

Most Beautiful Place ever...Sunset in Tahoe!

Week 21: Hola from Hermana Underly: Miracles:)

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Familia y Amigos!

Como estan?

This week was incredible. I mean it was just full of miracles. My companion Sister Friend, and I are doing great. She is super willing and obedient which I love. Our companionship is wonderful. I can't believe that I am a "mom". haha

Last week, the Stake suggested that we fast for rain and snow. That Monday after we got out of the grocery store it was raining. We immediately called bishop and told him. We had a mini celebration together. The church is true yall. Then later in the week it has snowed and rained non stop. God is still a God of miracles. And fasting and prayer truly truly works. I can testify of that. 

On Tuesday we had a super amazing zone training. One elder spoke on fear and faith which I really enjoyed and learned a ton. My eyes were truly opened and I came to a greater understanding of faith and fear. How we need to replace that fear with faith.

This week was a super successful week here in Incline Village. We had incredible lessons with the people that we are teaching. We had amazing member present lessons too. I mean there is something special when a member testifies of the truthfulness of the gospel. We helped one lady move apartments. We helped a member family pack and clean because they are moving (our ward mission leader and his family is moving). Sad. 

But anyways, this past Sunday we had 4 investigators come to church. It was the greatest thing seeing one of our investigators who has refused to come to church walk through the church doors. He had just finished a soccer game and made his way to church. I was completely overjoyed and filled with happiness. I want to testify to you all that this church is true. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way that we can obtain pure everlasting happiness. 

Something that one of the Elders said this week really struck me. Elder Escobar said that "We are not different, we are more". I know that that is true.

Now go out and have an incredible missionary experience this week. There are people prepared.

With all my love,

Hermana Underly

Chuy:)

Cutie future missionary:)

My Idol-She loves Rapunzel AND Ariel:)

Week 20: Hola from Hermana Underly: Being Obedient While Serving

 

Hey,  Family and Friends!

This week was great. I truly am so humbled that I get to wear this sacred nametag over my heart. I am truly grateful for the incredible opportunity to serve. 

This week we had a great district meeting in Reno. We are here to edify each other and lift each other up in the gospel. Our companionship really grew as we bore our testimonies to each other. Then we went to in n out which is like perfect. 

We had some super great lessons with the people that we are teaching this week. It is truly amazing to watch the progression of people in the gospel. I learned a lot this week. Sometimes things don't go the way that you planned. And that is ok. I know that The Lord can see the whole picture. As we are obedient and willing we will be able to qualify for those miracles and blessings.

 It kind of was hard for me to accept the fact that things are not going to go as planned. Between getting stood up multiple times and finding people not home was at times a bit discouraging. However at the end of the end I am just so grateful to be out here and serving. 

This past   Wednesday   we had dinner with this member who is from france and every time we go over he makes us the BEST crepes. It was great.  

Thursday   we had this huge leadership meeting for all the leaders in the mission. I guess I am a leader because I am a trainer? Idk but I really enjoyed it and learned so much from the training. It was literally 2 days in a row: all day   Thursday  into the night and   Friday . I sat with Hermana Pearson (my beautiful comp from the CCM) while Hermana Friend went on exchanges with some other sisters. That night Hermana Friend and I and some other sisters got to stay at Presidents home! lets just say I was a little excited. 

Before we went to his house, he actually took us to see the temple at night which was just marvelous; the way that the temple was so perfectly placed on a hill and lit up really just shows how it is a beacon to everyone. The feeling of just walking into the temple was incredible.

Friday   we had more trainings on how to be a better missionary which was great. Right after we got to work and taught people about the greatest thing in the whole world. We had dinner with an amazing member family that night. They easily make the best Mexican food in the whole world.  

Saturday   the church was putting on a blood drive and so we volunteered for about 4 hours. We forgot to eat basically the whole day because we were just going and going and teaching and talking haha but don't worry we had dinner that night... a super great meal with a member. 

Then   Sunday . Fast   sunday . We are in a serious drought here in north lake Tahoe. Anyways   sunday   was great. Hermana Friend bore a super strong testimony in the English hour and then I bore mine in Spanish. Then people came up to me and told me that my Spanish was better than they thought...cool! I guess that is a pleasant surprise. After being out here for about 5 months I guess I should be a little bit better. Then we had dinner with another member family and had amazing burgers. Yes I talk about food 

a lot but I love my food. 

Something that I really wanted to mention is the importance of going to church. Why do we go to church. The most important thing is to partake of the sacrament. It is THAT important that we do it EVERY week. We renew those covenants with God and begin a fresh new week. We learn about the gospel and feel the spirit and rejuvenated. GO to church. That is important in the process of conversion and enduring to the end. I love this gospel. I feel incredibly blessed to have this knowledge in my life. I want others to come to this knowledge and happiness. TRUE happiness.

Find happiness in everyday!

Hermana Underly

Training Meeting

Hermana Pearson-Yay!

Training with the sisters

My beautiful companion-Hermana Amiga:)

Loving the In N Out!

Kings Beach

LOVE these sunsets!

Thank you to Lacee and the Davis Family-My first Valentines:)