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

Yes, I'm Alive!

Hola everyone!

     Sorry! It's been about five years since I wrote anything! I'm back now though.

     Well, just a quick update because I actually don't know when the last time was that I wrote a blog email. I am currently serving in Newport News/Williamsburg, Virginia. I am in a trio right now. My companions are Hermana Bills, she's from Provo, and Hermana Nyre, and she's from Syracuse:) They are both wonderful missionaries and I love them a lot! We have a grand old time, walking around, speaking Spanish, most of the time in the rain! It rains a lot here... We have fun though:)

     So I'm really bad at writing letters (hence the 0 blog letters lately) so this is how I'm going to split my letters up: Funny thing/s that happened, a miracle and something I learned. Or something like that anyway.

     Our mission has a key indicator called Invite Others. Which means inviting someone that isn't an investigator to do something outside of a lesson, like look at Mormon.org or learn more about the gospel. President Baker wants the whole mission to get 100 every week. We've done it.  But it takes a lot of work, and you have to talk to EVERYONE, so unfortunately we don't always get 100. Well, last week some of the elders in our district got 101 and one of them very kindly told us to "beat it." That was probably the best motivation that anyone has ever given me! and usually our motivation is frozen yogurt on preparation day! Guess how many we got this week? We got 112! Yes, Elder, we beat it. Okay, so that isn't that funny, but I thought it was, haha!

     This week we had an amazing miracle! We have a less-active sister that we meet with and last week when we went over to teach her, she had a friend over and the friend wanted to learn more! So this week we were able to teach her and she just loves it! She's the cutest! For all of you out there, I just want you to know that the best/most interested investigators come from members. SO INVITE YOUR FRIENDS!

     Something that I learned this week is that God catches you when you walk out onto the water. This has been my favorite scripture story throughout my entire mission and this week I really had to put it into practice.

 "25. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.

 26. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.

 27. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.

 28. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.

 29. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.

 30. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.

 31. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" Matthew 31

    This week we had exchanges and the sister that came didn't speak any Spanish. Hermana Bills (AKA my Spanish mouth piece) was the one that left. So it was just Hermana Nyre and I. Hermana Nyre speaks Spanish well but neither of us can speak as well as Hermana Bills. Lately I have really not ended up teaching very much because now there are two other people teaching that can speak  way better than I can and so I fade back a lot of the time. So, needless to say, I was super nervous to teach with just Hermana Nyre and I. But it was just fine! I opened my mouth and words came out! It definitely wasn't perfect, but I was able to communicate my point! The last couple weeks I have definitely, like Peter, let the winds and waves around me waver my faith and I started to sink. The Lord knew what I needed to push me back above that all and He caught me. 

I hope you all have a beautiful week!

Hermana Fields 

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