Feliz Ano Nuevo!!!!

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas! We definitely did here!

Last week started out a little rough, because I got sick, but I was in perfect health by Thursday. :) We had our Christmas Conference on Tuesday, and it was the best thing of my life. We got to watch the Muppet Christmas Carol! - One of my all-time favorite movies!!!! Plus, I was missing watching it with my family on Christmas, but I got my wish! After that, we had a devotional. President Baker, Sister Baker and the stake president from the Kinston stake, President Walker, spoke. We also had a ton of musical numbers from the missionaries. It was incredible, the spirit was so strong!

Christmas Eve wasn't the most exciting day, because we weekly planned for a lot of it, but we went caroling as a district that evening and that was super fun. It was so hot, though! It was 75 degrees and HUMID. It did not feel like Christmas eve!

Christmas day was great, we went for a nice Christmas walk for exercise and then came home and opened our presents. :) I just want to say thank you to everyone that sent a little package or a card! You really made me feel so loved!!!  We had a conference call with the whole mission at 7:30 to start off our Christmas, and it was incredible, President and Sister Baker are my absolute heros. They have such strong testimonies and love for the Savior. It really was the perfect start to the day. We had breakfast with an amazing sister in our ward named Sister Basset. She's seriously amazing. And we Skyped our families at her house. Seeing my family was so great. I love them sooo much! So that was pretty much the best. That day was a lot of running around making cookies and then delivering them to people in the ward. :) Oh, and that evening we had a spa night with the Hermanas from Clayton, that was nice, not super long, but nice. :)

So, that was my Christmas. :) I have loved so much that I was really able to focus on the Savior this Christmas. I am so grateful to Him, I can't even imagine what any of our lives would be like if He was never born. I know that He is our Savior with all of my heart and I am so grateful that I get to share the joy that He has brought into my life. I really wouldn't have chosen to spend it in any other way. I'm kinda sad that I only got one Christmas in the mission-field...

Well, until next week. I love you all! Stay safe this week!

Hermana Fields

Feliz Navidad!

Hello Friends!!!!

This was a good week! We found 5 new investigators! We're so excited! I'm pretty sure that was one of Heavenly Father's Christmas presents for us this week:)

We had a really good exchange this week. It was a little different because we had a double exchange because our sister training leaders are over soooo many sisters. So, one of the sisters from Wilson and I went to Goldsboro with Sister Brewer and the other sister training leader and other sister from Wilson went with Hermana Nyre in our area. I learned a TON from Sister Brewer and Sister Young. Sister Brewer is the least trunky, most dedicated missionary I have ever met! I didn't even realize that she only had one more transfer left until someone mentioned it! I want to be like that!

While we were on exchanges we had a super great lesson with a member. We just dropped by to share the Christmas video with her. When we went in the sister told us about her day fbeing full of getting Christmas stuff done and how she was just about to start vacuuming. So immediately Sister Brewer dropped her bag on the chair and said, "Where is your vacuum? We can do it!" and so we vacuumed and dusted! The member was so grateful. After that we showed her the video and had a discussion about the love of God and Christ. It was incredible how strong the spirit was as we all shared our testimonies, and I was so happy to be able to leave that spirit in her home as we left. I really believe that a huge reason why we were able to have such a great, very short and simple lesson, was because Sister Brewer was loving enough to offer that service as soon as we walked in the door.

I feel like the whole theme of that exchange was service. Later on that evening we passed a car with its hazard lights on and a little later down the road, a man walking. Without hesitation, (I was hesitant because it was dark and the middle of nowhere), Sister Brewer pulled over and asked if he needed help. The man's car was stuck in a muddy ditch so we turned around and we were able to help him push it out (and don't worry Mom, we listened to the spirit to make sure it was safe). The man was so grateful.  When we were leaving he said, "I'm going to go back and tell them that out of all the men that past me on this road, it was three itty bitty white ladies that stopped to help me!" It made me so happy that we were able to help him and be an example, that I didn't even care that one of my shoes was covered in mud! It was a great feeling! I want to learn how to better see those service opportunities all the time!

We were also able to help a sister in the ward set up for her Christmas party! It was so fun! We made these cute drink labels while she ran around getting everything else done. It really made me remember how much I want to make cute, crafty decorations for parties all the time and how much I want to do weddings... We'll see where life leads me! Anyway, it was a super awesome, service-y week. :)

Well, I love you all dearly and I hope you have the most wonderful, Christ-centered Christmas you have ever had!!!! Remember that Christ is the reason we celebrate!!!!!!

La iglesia es verdadera!!!!

Les Quiero!!!

Hermana Fields

Transfer!

Hello friends!

Sorry ! My consistent writing skills have been lacking lately. Things have gotten very busy around here! For those of you who don't already know, we closed our area in Virginia Beach, and all 3 of us moved to North Carolina. I moved to Smithfield, Hermana Reed to Clayton (which she opened last year), and Hermana Child is opening an area in Mt. Olive. So, here I am in North Carolina again! With Hermana Nyre again! It's been super weird being companions again. We were only not companions for 12 weeks, but for some reason that was a long time! We're both so different, but the same... It's weird stuff!

The weather here is SUPER different. It was getting pretty cold in Virginia, but here it's still in the 70s and high 60s. It definitely does not feel like Christmas!

This ward is HUGE! Well, maybe it just seems big because I'm so used to tiny Spanish branches... We just have a little Spanish group here in a big English ward, which is super different for me.

That's about all I got for this week.... I love you all! Stay warm and safe!!!!

Feliz Navidad!

Hermana Fields

Virginia Beach Compañeras

Smithfield, NC!

New/Old Compañeras

Going back to North Carolina :)

(One Year)

Hola!

How is everyone doing?! 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Well, it's starting to finally be wintery around here and I finally had to get out my coat!!!  Sorry, it's been a couple of weeks since I have written. Things have been pretty crazy around here, and I've been trying to figure out college stuff. 

This was a good week; we had a miracle! There is a sister that we have been working with for a long time that takes care of her non-member "companion's" (not boyfriend because they are both older people) two grandsons. The older one is 8 and a super sweet little boy. We have been thinking about asking if he would like to be baptized for a couple weeks because he goes to church every week, and he loves it. So, this week we went to teach and right after we walked in the door Lemuel says, "Guess what sisters!? I'm 8 and I'm going to get baptized!" Later on in our lesson he came in so we asked him about why he wanted to get baptized and he said that he had thought about it for a long time. Margie asked him what made him decide to do it and he said, "I thought and I thought and thought. Then one day you asked me grandma, so I knew that I should!" This is a little 8 year old! So we told him that our job was to help people get ready to get baptized and we asked him if we could teach him about it. He told us that he would have to think about it. We told him he could pray, too. So he went upstairs and at the end of the lesson he came back down and said, "I decided. Yes." It was the cutest thing I have ever seen! This little boy made that decision all on his own! We are already seeing blessings from trying to work through members more!

So, I didn't have time to write last week, but we had a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy come do a mission tour this week. It was amazing. It was Elder Mervyn B. Arnold and his wife. He talked a lot about working with members more. He also had a special devotional for our Spanish branch and the branch in Newport News. It was sooo great to see everyone from my old area again! I miss them so much!

Well, I've got to get going, but I hope you all have a wonderfully blessed Thanksgiving!

La iglesia es verdadera!!!

Hermana Fields

"Noche de la Hispanidad"

Hola!

How is everyone doing this week?! 

Things are going really well here. :) I can't believe that I've only been here in Virginia Beach for two weeks. It feels like forever already! I don't mind though, because last transfer went way too fast and I want all the time I can get doing this amazing work!

This week in the ward we had a "Noche de la Hispanidad." It was the funnest. Because there are people from so many different countries in our branch, we had a big dinner where they set up different tables with food from all the different countries. Then later they did some dances from Mexico, Ecuador and Honduras. All the Mexicans, as you can see in the picture, went all out on their table!!!

Afterwards they moved all the tables and everyone just danced! It was super fun to watch! Too bad we're missionaries and can't dance.... And, our investigator came!!! And also, one of Hermana Reed's long lost cousins came, too! 

This week, I have been reading the book Our Heritage. If you don't know what that is, it's a short(ish) history of the church. Those saints in the beginning went through so much!!! Now, I'm just super pumped to keep carrying forth the work they started!!! If you haven't read it, I encourage you to do it. :)

Got to go, but I hope you all have a blessed week!!!!

La iglesia es verdadera!

Hermana Fields

Noche de la Hispanidad - Mexico

Virginia Beach!

Hola friends! I hope you all had a very safe, happy Halloween!

After the longest week of my life, I made it! Here I am, in Virginia Beach. Our area is massive. It covers all of Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake and Portsmouth. Thank heavens we split it with Elders!!! Sometimes when you have been on your mission for almost a year, you start to feel really old, so Heavenly Father gives you a big new area to make you feel dumb again:)

I realized that I forgot to say who my new companions are! Surprise, I'm in a trio! again!  I'm with Hermana Child and Hermana Reed, my MTC companion!!!!!! We're so excited to be spending our 1 year mark together this month:) Can you believe that it's been a whole year?! It's been pretty cool to see how far we have both come in the year since we were companions:)

We didn't do anything for Halloween, we had to be inside by dark so there wasn't much to do. We thought about tracting and seeing if we could get any candy, but we decided against it. Some little girls ran up to us and said, "What are y'all for halloween?" We told them that we are missionaries and they said, "Oh!" Then one of them said, "I do NOT go to a church." And the other one said, "She is NOT my sister if you were thinking that she is. She's not." It was hilarious.

Sorry this is a short email this week! I'll let y'all know more about what's going on here when I get it figured out!

Have a wonderful week!

LA IGLESIA ES VERDADERA!!!!

Hermana Fields

Transfers

Well, 

     It looks like I'm saying goodbye to Newport News this week. After six months, it's definitely hard to say goodbye to all the people that have become your family. But, when God (as in like, you know, that God that created and runs the universe) tells you that you need to be somewhere else, you kinda' have to listen. So, this week I'm packing up and heading to Virginia Beach:)

Well, after that dramatic intro.... We had a good week here! Our mission finished the Book of Mormon this week, which was just the best. I have never read the Book of Mormon that fast and probably won't again. We also had interviews with President Baker this week, which were also just the best, President Baker is soooooooo inspired. He and Sister Baker are just the best.

This week I have decided to "ponderize" Matthew 16:25.
 "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it."
I realized last night that I really don't have that much longer to be out here on my mission and all I want is to learn as much as I possibly can. I don't want to go home even close to the same person. So from now on, I'm going to try my hardest to completely forget my own life and serve God and everyone around me, because I know that if I do, I'll come out of the end of this mission thing exactly the kind of person God wants me to be:)
I hope you all have a blessed week!
LA IGLESIA ES VERDADERA!!!!
Hermana Fields
PS sorry I don't have any pictures, this computer can't find my camera...

Birthday and General Conference

Sorry it's been a little bit!

Things have been going spectacularly, here. :) We had a really good week, working really hard, and Heavenly Father is blessing us a lot!:)

General Conference was, of course, incredible! It amazes me every time how Heavenly Father can answer prayers through those inspired men and women! President Uchtdorf's talk was written for me, just so you know. I also want you all to know that if you ask God, "What lack I yet?" He will answer you. I tried it, and He told me that I need to be more on time for everything. Yup, that's what I'm working on this week!

I had an amazing birthday last week! Thank you so much to all of you for the birthday wishes!!! The amazing relief society presidency planned a surprise dinner for me complete with "Chocoflan" cake. (Chocolate cake with flan in it.) It was pretty dang good. And fun, we got to teach the kids about following the prophet,after ,and it was just the best:

Sorry this is a short email! But, we had a really good week last week, and we found a lot of new potential investigators. And, we were able to meet with a lot of people that we haven't been able to in a while. :)

I hope you all have a fantastic, blessed week! La iglesia es verdadera!!!!

Hermana Fields

Chocoflan Cake from the RS.
(Gracias a Hna. Piggott for sending me this photo. ~Angela)

Happy Birthday from las compañeras

Birthday package from home.

Birthday signs from home. <3

"The cockroaches are coming! The cockroaches are coming!"

This has been a crazy week, people! The good news is:  We made it through and we're all alive!

I guess I should explain my heading.... Our apartment is overrun with nasty little beasts... Not that I'm complaining. I just didn't realize that I would have this problem as a stateside missionary. I guess it just adds to the adventure! We actually had to sleep at our sister training leader's house last night because of it. Hopefully, we can get that fixed soon...

This week we had zone conference, which was incredibly inspiring. However, we got Tiwi's put in our cars at the conference... For all of you who don't know what that is, it's a monitoring device that yells at you if you speed, or go over a bump too fast, or anything like that. Not that that should matter because I'm an amazingly safe driver, it's just kind of obnoxious.... We also got our car inspected, and guess what companionship won cleanest car in the Zone? Yup. We did:)

We also had exchanges and the broadcast of the General Women's Meeting this week. Exchanges were pretty crazy. Hna. Buchanan and I stayed with Sister Carlson. By the time we were done with studies and lunch, every appointment we had had texted us and cancelled... and it just sorta went downhill from there. Since it was such a crazy day, we decided we needed to go to the newly opened Café Rio for dinner. Being in that building is like being in Utah again, people. It's the only one for miles, so it's always full of members. Why do Mormons like Café Rio so much? I have no idea, but it's great. So we were standing in line and we saw a member from one of the wards. He came over and talked to us for a second and then handed us some money and told us to buy our dinner with it. That was the biggest tender mercy of my entire life!!!! And then, to make sure I really knew that God still loved me, He sent TWO more people to offer to buy our meals! Can you believe that?! I was sooooo grateful to those kind souls! It made my entire day! And then, of course, after that we watched Women's conference, which was absolutely amazing!!!! I see a book coming out any day of Pres. Uchdorf's parable.

Anyway, I hope you all have an amazing conference weekend and that you all watch it and learn a lot and feel the spirit:) Have a blessed week!

Hermana Fields

On Being a Trainer

Hola!

 

This has been a crazy week. Driving for the first time in 10 months, leading an area and training is a little scary, but we made it and we are alive! My new companions are Hermana Mardis, like I said last week, and our new missionary is Hermana Buchanan! There is a picture of us below. I just love these two beautiful women so much! They are the best! Hna. Mardis is from Cedar City and Hna. Buchanan is from Layton.

We had a pretty great little miracle happen this week. We have really been struggling in our area to find anyone new to teach, so we went tracting in a trailer park that hasn't been tracted in a long time. On the third trailer we walked up to this man. He comes over and starts talking to us through the screening around his porch. He was kinda being weird and grumpy. He kept saying stuff about how there is only one God, but  we couldn't really understand what he was getting at because his English was kinda broken. So I said, "This is a ramdom question, but, where are you from?" He said that he was from Guatemala. So I said, "Entonces, habla español ?" He nodded, and I said,"Nosotras tambien!" When I said that, he completely changed. There was suddenly a smile on his face and he asked us to come in and if we wanted anything to drink. I had to try not to laugh, he went from grumpy and closed off, to open and super nice in less than a second. We taught him the Restoration lesson and he said he would really think and pray about it. We'll see what happens!

I hope you all have a fantastic week! 

Remember that God loves you!

Love, 

Hermana Fields

 

Hermanas Mardis, Buchanan and Me!

My Hamburger "tostada" - #ThatGlutenFreeLife 

My last district

 

News from the News!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello friends!

Well, another week has come and gone, and today officially marks a new transfer. That probably makes you all wonder (or not) is Hermana Fields moving, or staying in Newport News? Well, I'll tell you. I'm staying! And guess who's coming to be my companion?! Hermana Mardis! And guess who else?! I don't actually know, because she is currently in the MTC! I'm training!!!! Weird, I know. I feel way too young to be a mom.

In other news, we had stake conference this week. It was pretty darn amazing. Our stake president is going to be an apostle one day. He is so darn powerful! Like, almost Elder Holland powerful (I hope that's not sacrilegious to say...).  We were all thoroughly called to repentance in the most loving way I have ever heard. President Hamilton is an amazing example of bold but loving. Here are a few things I learned:

1. A thought from the stake relief society president: God doesn't need our prayers. He wants them and lovingly waits for them, but He doesn't need them. We are the ones that need our prayers. We need to be reminded every morning and evening that we have a loving Heavenly Father that gave us everything and is still giving us all that He can. So, say your prayers morning and evening!

2. Knowledge from President Baker: The quote "Open your mouth and it will be filled" has a twin, "Pick up your pen and you will receive revelation." When we are searching for revelation we need to study and have a pen and paper ready for revelation and write it down, and the,n as President Baker says, "Ask the simple question, 'Is there any more?' There usually is." As we act and write down our promptings God will know that we mean business.

3. Wisdom from the stake president's 11 year old son: "Who needs caffeine when you have family history?" Family History is energizing! This stake has a huge emphasis on family history. They made a goal to submit 10,000 names to the temple this year. As of yesterday, the stake has submitted 11,525 names. How insane is that?! Family history is so important! It provides salvation for our ancestors and protection and help in our homes. That is a promise from God! So all of you need to do it because I can't, yet!

I hope all of that made sense to you all...

I'll have to give you all an update on my little greenie next week.

I hope you all have a beautifully blessed week!

Hermana Fields

Quick Note :)

Hola!

Well, awkwardly it's Tuesday and I already don't remember anything that happened last week.... But I Just wanted to let you know that I'm still alive! And well! Things are going well for us and they are going to be even better this week! 

We went to colonial Yorktown on Monday and so that's where these pictures are from! 

I love you all and I hope that you all have a fantastic week!

Hermana Fields

Us Trying to be Serious

We Are From El Salvador

Yorktown Victory  Monumen

Time Keeps Flying By

Hola!!!!

Another week has passed! And the transfer is, once again, almost over! What the heck, time? Will you just slow down????

Exchanges were this week and I left to go to the Sister Training Leader's area. We saw such a wonderful miracle! We were walking around this big fountain/pond at the huge fancy city center, talking to people. We saw a lady just sitting by herself so we went and gave her a "Because He Lives" card. It was a very short, slightly awkward conversation, and we walked off. Later, Sister Harrison said, "She was having a bad day, we need to go find her and talk to her again." So we found her! We walked towards her and neither of us really knew what to say, all we know was that we needed to talk to her! As soon as we walked up she just looked at us and said, "I want to let you know that I was having a really bad day and you were an answer to my prayer. I have been thinking and praying all weekend and when you handed me that card I looked at the website and I knew that God was there." WHAT? It was crazy! Heavenly Father is so aware of every single one of his children and as missionaries we are so blessed to help Him in this great work.

This morning we were studying Mosiah 1 and 2 (Can you believe that in 3 weeks we are already in Mosiah???). King Benjamin is the best. Here is my scripture of the week! It's from Mosiah chapter 2:41.

" And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it."

What an amazing promise that is! Living with God in a state of never ending happiness? I know I want that! Sometimes keeping the commandments is hard but it is always worth the pain!! Always! Elder Holland once said, "The joy of the gospel is greater than any of the demands it imposes." Amen. I can testify that that is true.

I hope you all have a wonderful, blessed week!

Hermana Fields

PS  -  We went to the beach again this morning and that's what these pix are from. :)

9 Months! (Half-way through)

This is it, on Wednesday, I turn 9 months. What? When did that happen?! Sometimes it feels like I have only been out of training for like a week! And then sometimes it feels like I have been on my mission for 19 years. I'm not on the downward slope though... I'm still on the upward climb toward missionary perfection!

In other news: WE HAD AN INVESTIGATOR AT CHURCH! I have never had an investigator at church since my Greenville days. That was 3 transfers ago! It was an absolute miracle!

My Spanish is coming along. Lately, I have seen a lot of improvement in myself. I led my first lesson in Spanish last week! I had a goal of being able to lead a lesson by the end of last transfer, but that didn't happen... but it finally did! Usually Hermana Nyre teaches more than I do, but we were in a lesson and she had kids climbing all over her, and so I just taught. And it went really well! Heavenly Father takes care of his servants! The gift of tongues is a real thing!

Like I have talked about before, we are reading the Book of Mormon as a mission and I thought I would share some thoughts from what I read today. :)

 23 For behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you that the Lord God worketh not in darkness.
24 He doeth not anything‍ save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth‍ the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all‍ men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.
 25 Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; but he saith: Come‍ unto me all ye ends‍ of the earth, buy‍ milk and honey, without money and without price.
 26 Behold, hath he commanded any that they should depart‍ out of the synagogues, or out of the houses of worship? Behold, I say unto you, Nay.
 27 Hath he commanded any that they should not partake of his salvation? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but he hath given‍ it free for all men; and he hath commanded his people that they should persuade all men to repentance.
 28 Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but all‍ men are privileged the one like‍ unto the other, and none are forbidden.

Christ doesn't care who you are, what you look like, what your circumstances are or what you have done in your life. He loves you, and he just wants you to come to him and repent. It's just our decision to do it.

I hope you all have a fantastic week!
Les quiero!
Hermana Fields

Eating Hispanic Candy That Someone Gave Us :)

Sensitive Plant - Look how big my little plant is! For those of you who don't know, I grew this cute little thing from seeds:) When you touch the leaves they close! It's basically the coolest plant ever.

Stuck Inside While We Were Sick

Enferma :(

Hola!

Well, another week has passed. And it was a very exciting one. OK, it wasn't that exciting. Hermana Nyre got sick on Monday evening and I got sick on Tuesday, and we both stayed that way until we finally called the nurse on Friday and she made us go home, sleep and go on the "BRAT diet" for 24 hours. Apparently everyone knew about the BRAT diet, but not us! A member told us that we only didn't know about it because we aren't moms yet. That explained a lot. The good news is, after two days of sleep, watching The District and diffusing OnGuard, we're all better now:) AND, we got some great bonding time.

Unfortunately, because of that it was a really unproductive week. 

Our Book of Mormon reading has been going really well. We started 2 Nephi today. I literally don't think I have ever learned so much from the Book of Mormon in my life! It's been really cool reading personally, and then sharing with Hermana Nyre, and seeing the different insights that we receive from the same chapters. We had a really great section in district meeting last week where we just shared what we have all learned. It really was amazing to see all the different insights and I feel like it has really helped unify our district.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Les quiero mucho!

Hermana Fields

 

~Editor's Note: I received this photo from a sister in Hna. Fields' branch. It's just too cute not to share. :)

I Cut Off All My Hair...

Okay, just kidding.  I only cut off 6 inches, haha! It was definitely time...

 ¿Cómo están?!

After another crazy week, I'm happy to say that I am still alive! Hmm...
Where should I start?

Well, transfers were last week and things were all crazy and confusing, but long story short, I ended up being companions with our sister training leader from Monday to Wednesday. That was weird. Teaching in English is hard now!

Then on Thursday we had an entire mission conference. So every missionary in the entire mission came up to Chesapeake. That was super great. President Baker is basically the most inspired non-general authority ever. We are reading the Book of Mormon as a mission (we started on Sunday), focusing on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It's pretty amazing already. It was just a super great conference.  And, I got to see everyone from the CCM!

What else happened this week? Nothing really... Because of everything that was going on we weren't able to teach very much this week and, unfortunately, our numbers were just not super great. This is a new week though! I'm super excited about this transfer! It's gonna' be hard, but it's going to be really good! Hermana Nyre and I are gonna' see miracles!

Love you all! Have a blessed week!

Hermana Fields

Las Hermanas from the CCM (Mexico City Missionary Training Center)

Before/Antes

After/Después

"Where I Want to be in Five Years" ;)

Hola! Como estan?!

This was a pretty stressful week - I'm not going to lie. The week of a transfer always is, so I'm not surprised in the slightest. The worst is not knowing what is happening the next week. You could end up anywhere! We did get our calls on Saturday and Hermana Nyre and I are staying and Hermana Bills is off to Clayton, North Carolina to train a little baby missionary! She's only 5 months old, too! That doesn't even surprise me either though, because Hermana Bills is an amazing missionary.

This week I got a letter from none other than one of my favorite Young Women's leaders, Sherry Judd. Enclosed in that letter was a sealed envelope with my name written in my handwriting. That was weird. I read the letter from Sister Judd and it turns out that it was a list of goals of "where I want to be in 5 years"  that I wrote to myself 5 years ago in Mia Maids that I totally forgot about! So I opened it and read it. It went like this.

"where I want to be in 5 years...

Have gone or am going to beauty school," -That's no longer in the plans

"Still taking ballet," -That is not happening either

"Be moved out" -That sorta happened

"Possibly at BYU," -That's not happening

"And have a Volkswagen Jetta (Silver)" -We have the only silver Jetta in all of our mission!!! What a great goal maker I am:) I laughed my head off when I read the part about the Jetta. Only my 14 year-old self would make such a goal and have that silly goal be the only one that actually  happened!

Anyway, we had a super great miracle happen! On Monday we went tracting in an apartment complex and the SECOND door that we knocked on, a woman answered. We introduced ourselves and she kinda nodded, but very obviously had no idea what we were saying, so we asked where she was from and she said Honduras and so we said, "Perfecto! Habla espanol entonces?!" of course, she did and so we asked her if we could share a message and she let us right in:) She is so darn cute! We taught here the Restoration and when we invited her to be baptized she nodded her head excitedly and asked where and when church was! Turns out that she has been looking for a church and she already knows a little about our church because she has a cousin in Honduras that's LDS. She has even already asked her boss for Sundays off so that she can come to church!

Things are going well and I know they will just keep getting better!

Have a blessed week!!!!

Hermana Fields

PS We went to the beach to to watch the sunrise today and that's where these pictures are from. Our last day as a trio!!! :'/

Milagros

Hola!

How is everyone? Did you all have a good Pioneer Day? That doesn't mean anything in Virginia, so it was just a normal day for us. We did celebrate Christmas this week though! We decided that it was going to be Christmas on the 25th and so we listened to Christmas music all day. :) Why? I have absolutely no idea. It was fun though.

This week my miracle, funny story and something that I learned are all the same story. Yesterday was just a day full of miracles.

First Miracle: Our mission has been focusing a lot on how we as missionaries can keep the Sabbath holy and so this week we set some goals for that. Yesterday we were 26 IOs (invite others) off from 100 (which is the standard of excellence in our mission). Normally we would just go to a shopping center parking lot and talk to people there, but we made a goal not to do that on Sundays so people wouldn't think that we had just been shopping on the Sabbath. We tracted for a while to get the IOs, but we weren't having a lot of success. Heavenly Father knew that we were trying hard to keep the Sabbath holy though and he put so many people in out path throughout the day. We were able to get 26 without having to go to a shopping center parking lot!

Second Miracle: Last night at about 7:30 Hermana Bills realized that we were one lesson and one investigator away from the standard of excellence (15 lessons and 2 new investigators). We had planned on going home for dinner at 8:00, but we were definitely not going back to our apartment without reaching that goal. We started trying every potential that we had around that we could teach. We said lots of prayers, but no one would let us in. It was after 8 and we still hadn't found anyone to teach. Then we remembered a potential investigator named P. On the way to his trailer we saw a woman standing on her porch. We decided that if P. wasn't home, we would go talk to her. Well, P. wasn't home so we ran over and introduced ourselves to the woman. And guess what happened? She let us in! I couldn't even believe it! She told us that she was grateful that we had come because she was really sad. She didn't tell us a whole lot, but we were able to teach a very short Restoration lesson and we have a return appointment for next week! She's so humble and prepared to hear the gospel! Then miraculously, we were able to get home on time! Probably the best part of this entire story is when we got home, counted up our numbers, and realized that we hadn't actually met the standard of excellence. We only got 14 lessons. I am not even disappointed at all though because I'm positive that there is a reason that Hermana Bills miscounted our lessons the first time. If she hadn't, we would have just gone home for dinner and we never would have found M. It's really amazing how Heavenly Father works. 

I hope everyone has a marvelous week!

Hermana Fields