Independence Day in Photos

Editor's note:

If a picture is worth a thousand words, than this is one long post! Hermana Fields didn't send a blog to post, but it's great seeing her beautiful smiling face. ~Angela

Hermanas Fields, Bills and Camps (I don't know when this photo was taken. )

Las Compañeras: Hermanas Fields, Bills y Nyre

Rain and Hastening the Work

Hola!

I hope everyone is doing well!  We made it through another week in the News! It rained a lot this week.  We got to go tracting in the rain and now I feel like a real missionary!  That was fun for a while, until my umbrella started soaking through, and no one answered their doors.  Actually, last week we were walking down the street in a our favorite trailer park, Christian Street, and it started pouring so we went and got in our car.  But, there was another person that we wanted to see so we ran as fast as we could to their front porch and a woman answered.  She looked so surprised to see two random girls on her porch in the pouring rain, and then she just said, ¡Pasen adelante! So we went in and taught her about the Book of Mormon. :)  We actually just went back and taught her and her husband, yesterday, and it went really well. :)  Tracting in the rain works well sometimes!

This last week we have been learning a new way of teaching, and it is pretty different, but super great.  We are teaching very short, very simple lessons: really focusing on using the pamphlets, especially using the pictures in the pamphlets.  Someone from the Missionary Department in SLC came and did a 2-day training on it for all the Sister Training Leaders, District Leaders, and Zone Leaders.  Apparently, we are the only mission on the East Coast doing this.  It's really hard.  We have been trying to get our Restoration lessons down to 10 minutes. The lesson needs to be sooooo simple! We just teach an overview now, and then the investigators use their agency and read the pamphlets for themselves outside the lesson.  It's crazy, but it's super good because, honestly, no one wants to meet with us for 45 minutes or an hour.  The guy from Salt Lake talked about how this is part of the hastening of the work. So that's been really interesting, this week!

We had exchanges this week. One of our Sister Training Leaders actually is a Spanish Sister and just left my area after being here for a year, so it was super nice being on exchanges with her. She knows everyone and is really good at Spanish.  It's actually Hermana Camps! She trained my MTC companion, Hermana Reed, and was companions with Hermana Bills last transfer.  Everyone calls her Hermana Campos, so on exchanges we were "Hermana Campos y Hermana Campos!"  It was great. :)

I sure hope everyone has a wonderful week!
I love you all!
Hermana Fields

1/3 Down!

Hola!

How is everyone doing? I hope fantastic:)

I made it through six months of being a missionary! On Saturday Hermana Fletcher and I realized that one year from that day we will be going to the mission home! It was weird. What happened? I still have a whole year to enjoy anyway. :) 

Another crazy week has gone by in Newport News. Missionaries told me before I came, that Newport News would be crazy, but now I know! It's just an adventure everyday. We do A LOT of tracting as Spanish missionaries and we meet so many very different kinds of people. I have definitely learned that you can't judge a single person! We were having a lesson with an investigator on her porch this week and at about the end of the lesson this other man that also lives in that trailer walked up and started listening in. I had never really met him, but I knew that other people had said that he was kinda' creepy. So anyway, we went on with our lesson and at the end we invited M. to come to church.  And then, Hermana Bills also invited the other man as well. Turns out that he has been listening to us teach some lessons at their trailer (we have two other investigators that live there too) and he is very interested and wants to come to church! And he is also a very nice person! Moral of the story: don't judge anyone! God is preparing people! 

Another lesson learned by Hermana Fields this week: I have been working on reading the Old Testament all the way through, and this week I was reading in Exodus 4. Verses 10-12 say:  

10 And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.

 11 And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord?

 12 Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.

I relate to this so much. Spanish has been the absolute biggest struggle for me my entire mission. I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue! It takes me 20 minutes just to form a sentence! These verses were a real comfort to me. The Lord has chosen me for this work and He will help me. Spanish is still hard, but I have seen moments where I have opened my mouth and it has been filled.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! 

Hermana Fields 

Call Me Hermana

Hola from The News!

This area is absolutely incredible! It is gorgeous (Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown settlement are in our area!) and I just love the people here!...Even though I can't really understand what they are saying to me! I am now in one of only two totally Spanish branches in our entire mission. Everyone around here just calls it "The Branch."  It cracks me up.

Mi nueva compañera is Hermana Bills. She is an amazing missionary! She's only been out for three months, but she's basically fluent in Spanish and is just amazing. She's from Provo, so it's really nice that we both know the same places. We have some struggles with our names, though. When Hispanic people say Fields or Bills, it sounds almost exactly the same. So I'm probably going to end up being Hermana Campos. The only problem with that, is that the missionary that I replaced was named Camps and went by Campos! Maybe I'll be Hermana Fieles (faithful, sorta). We'll see what happens:)

My Spanish is pretty terrible.  But I'm slowly, but surely, improving. I know that this is where the Lord wants me to be and that He is right next to me, helping me learn this language. People get pretty confused though when my cute, blond companion can speak Spanish and the little Mexican next to her can't. That's alright though! I'll be able to just pretend I have always spoken Spanish one day!  

I hope you all have a blessed week!

Hermana Fields/Campos/Fieles

I'm Finally Going to be a Spanish Speaking Missionary!!!

Hello everyone! 

I'm back! Sorry, I'm so flaky about writing my blog letters. I have good news!!! I'm finally going to be a Spanish speaking missionary!!! I'm transferring to Newport News, VA on Wednesday!!! It will be a real adventure because I think I have only been out a transfer longer than my new companion! But I have heard that she is really good at Spanish, and I'm excited nonetheless:) Sister Glaser and I always joke about how I'm a less-active hermana, but I won't be anymore! I'm being re-activated! 

Not a lot else happened this week, besides being in a tropical storm. Its name is Amarinth. The weather people will tell you that its name is Anna, but it's not. It's Amarinth. No one told us for a while what its name was so we made one up. 

Have a blessed week! 

Hermana Fields

On Miracles and Diligence (21 weeks out)

You know you're a missionary when you go back to get blood work done at the doctor's office, and when you come back your companion is teaching someone about the Restoration of the gospel in the waiting room. 

Hello everyone!
     I hope you all had a marvelous week!  We had a crazy week here in Greenville, but that's actually just normal. :) 
     We have been working really hard to try and make sure that "Miracle May" can happen. Which I know will!  It actually has been pretty remarkable.  As we have been been praying and fasting, so much has started happening!  We had a really great miracle happen just the other day.  We were at the doctor's office and after my appointment we were waiting to get my blood work done, and a lady across the room started talking to us and complaining about health care and politics.  As missionaries, we really didn't know how to respond to politics, but we felt prompted to go over and ask her about religion.  So, we did, and it turns out that she had met with the missionaries about 15 years ago. And, she asked us to come over!  Miracles are happening!  Lots of little things happen every day and it is so exciting to see. :)
     Something that I learned this week in my scripture study is that God doesn't bless you because you are "successful."  He blesses you because you are diligent.  I was reading in Alma chapter 21.  Poor Aaron and Muloki just had such awful luck!  Everyone was so mean to them, and no one listened.  And then, they were cast into prison for who knows how long.  As soon as they were rescued and fed and clothed, they went straight back to work!  After that, they were able to bring "many to the knowledge of the truth."  
     The Lord blessed them because, after everything they went through, they were still diligent in preaching the gospel to the Lamanites. Those were some incredible missionaries!  Even though sometimes in this work things get really hard (though probably never as bad as Aaron and Muloki had it) and you don't feel like your work is doing anything, be patient and diligent!  Things can, and will, start to happen!  I really think that this principle can apply to  a lot of other things in life as well.  I couldn't tell you what, though, because all I currently know is missionary work.
     I hope everyone has one blessed week. Remember to read your scriptures and say your prayers!

Love,
Hermana Fields

This is what happens to trees when they get struck by lightning.

Transfers - New Companion Sis Glaser

Hello friends!

Sorry it has been so long! A lot has happened! Well transfers happened two weeks ago and I am still in Greenville, English speaking. My new companion is Sister Glaser. She's from Tooele! and also my first companion from Utah! 

We got some crazy news this week, in zone conference they announced what we are calling Miracle May. President Baker received revelation that every companionship in our mission can get at least one baptism in May. That will take A LOT of work, but I know it can happen if we put in our effort and do everything we can to make it happen! Our teaching pool is pretty small right now, but I have faith that as we continue to pray and search, Heavenly Father will put us into the path of those that are prepared to hear the gospel!

It's getting pretty green out here in Greenville! Lot's of gorgeous blossoms:) It's crazy though because all this huge pine trees put off a ton of pollen! We drove into the church parking lot last week and the whole thing looked yellow because of all the pollen! It really is so gorgeous and really green out here! In Utah it's pretty green, but only where people have planted green things. Here green things grow wherever they possible can! 

I hope everyone has a blessed week!

Hermana Fields 

Editor's note: SORRY!!!! I forgot to press "Publish" last week when I worked on this. :(

Sis. Glaser and Hermana Fields :)

Dogwood trees

:)