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...