Ray of Sunshine

Dear Family and Friends,

Ray got baptized yesterday! It was the perfect baptism. Everything went so smoothly and everyone felt the spirit so strongly that there was hardly a dry eye in the room. The baptism was held right before church and so lots of the members came and so did Ray's family/friends. Ray even bought a white shirt and a tie for the occasion! 

Hermana Mathis, Ray, Hermana Holloway

We got to teach while he was changing so we taught the Restoration. When we finished teaching there was just the right amount of time left to sing Joseph Smith's First Prayer. The spirit was so strong. I was teary eyed the whole time. He received the Holy Ghost right after during Sacrament meeting. He said he felt really good afterward. He said he knew it was what he needed to do.

Rays Baptism

In the Spanish ward that same day we played a piano duet of Called to Serve Him for the branch's first ever missionary farewell. It was great! The missionary (Felix Lopez) and his whole family spoke. Haha his dad had to translate for him, it's kind of become a joke that the first missionary in the Spanish branch doesn't even speak Spanish! It reminded me of my mission farewell and how excited I was to leave. I can't believe that was almost a year ago. 

Our investigator Jose was there and he loved church so much that he told his fellowshipper afterwards and then he called us this morning to tell us AGAIN just how much he loved it.  We also had several non-member friends come to church. What a great day!

This past week we had an interview with President. It was good, I really admire him, he's a good leader. We taught Jose and Ray several times, we also taught a new investigator named Fernando. We gave him a tour of the church. We taught some less-active members this week too. We even taught some members who live out on the beach. That was fun. 

Riding in the Rain

On Friday we had the brilliant idea to ride bikes to save miles. Haha, it rained the whole afternoon! I am so grateful for a nice warm apartment to go home to at night. Haha we just had to laugh, we were like, "didn't we just dry this carpet?! and now we're getting it all wet again!"

Soaked

On Monday we had family home evening with the Arguetas and Jose Garcia. We talked about the life and Atonement of Jesus Christ. No matter how much I study His life I could never feel like I've learned all there is to learn about his amazing sacrifice for us. He truly is the Savior of the world and he really does know us personally, as incomprehensible as that may seem.

I hope you all have a great week!

Con Amor,

Hermana Mathis

Half Way Through - Time is Flying By

Family and Friends,

I've officially been out 9 months! It's amazing how time has flown.

This week we've had the pleasure of having family home evening with several families and investigators. I've really learned the importance of learning the gospel with your family. Those who learn as a family learn at a far more accelerated rate. It's been fun to practice integrating games into our lessons and to teach all the kids.

Look! the leaves here are as big as we are!

We now have a new ward mission leader. He's really amazing, already he has helped us so much. His name is Brother Meyers. It's really sad to see Bro. Amyradakis go but we're happy to have Brother Meyers. Haha I think he was kind of shocked to learn that there were 8 missionaries that he was talking over. We love it though. The more missionaries the better!

Ray is well on his way to baptism. He may be baptized as soon as this weekend! Right now we're just helping him give up coffee, it's been hard but he's committed to doing it. We had an awesome lesson with him in the home of our Relief Society presdient. He's excited to join and has even invited his family who are anxious to see him be "drowned" (not literally). He and his family were moving this week so we were able to help him out with that.

I saw my first aligator! It was just a baby though.

We're teaching a new investigator named Jose Luis De Los Santos. He's a really genuine guy. Haha he tried to give me his violin! I told him I couldn't accept it. He started learning the lessons simply because he was interested in a church that's name was part of his name.(La Iglesia de Jesucristo DE LOS SANTOS de los Ulitmos Dias) Since he has started to pray and feel the holy ghost. We'll be meeting with him again soon, so we'll see how it goes.

Sometimes as a missionary it's hard to see how fast the Lord is Hastening his work but this week we had a zone district meeting and we were shocked to see that the number of baptisms from last month to this month had more than doubled! And that's just within our zone! We are continually making more and more progress. I love being a part of it!

We developed a new ward mission plan that I really like and want to share with you. It's three sentances:

Invite everyone,

invite another one,

and be a better missionary this year than you were last year.

Elder Christofferson said, "Don't be content with being busy." and to add to that Elder Clarke said, "Happy always, content never!"

There is still so much work to be done. I hope you all are taking part in it! It is the most fun and exciting thing that I've done :)

Love,

Hermana Mathis

Haha, we chased down this baby toad because we thought it was so  cute.
Little did we know that it's just the season, they are everywhere

Hermana Holloway with a baby toad.

The Rains Came Down and the Floods Came Up!

Dear Family and Friends,

The song, "The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock" has taken on a whole new meaning to me this past week, haha!

For starters, our apartment flooded. There is water all over, in the closets, in the kitchen, in the living room, pretty much everywhere. The maintenence crew has done all they can to figure out where it was coming from and they think they've figured it out but they are still not 100% sure. They weren't able to work on it over the weekend, so their solution: put in a fan to dry up the water. The first day it was ok, but the fan actually lets off a great deal of heat so when we got home Saturday night our apartment was well about 80 degrees and the floor was still soaking! SO we spent the weekend with the Seminole sisters at their place.   

Ah! Our apartment flooded!!! We put down four layers of towels
(basically all we had) and they were wet within seconds!

On to better, brighter news. We met a couple new people this week who we have started to teach including Elouisa and Juan's neighbor Darwin. Elouisa and the kids came to church on Sunday (Juan had to work) and so did Ray. Ray is still progressing really quickly towards baptism, huzzah! We taught him the Plan of Salvation this last week and he came to our Book of Mormon study group.

Darwin and Elsa, his mom

We taught Elouisa and Juan the first lesson with Darwin and the whole time they were supporting everything we said, it was awesome! I also cut Elouisa's hair for her which was really fun. They are the cutest little family I just can't get enough of them.

I cut off about 9 inches of Elouisa's hair. Needless to say, I conquered her split ends!

We talked with Cindy this week. Everything is pretty much the same for the most part, she's still a buzz trying to get ready for the wedding. We taught her about baptism, it was a really good lesson.

I tried to make some bean dip but the can of beans exploded while I was opening it.
Ha ha, good thing Sister Holloway can cook.

We had the most amazing zone conference on Tuesday! Elder Clarke of the seventy came and we talked about pretty much everything having to do with missionary work. He is a very inspired man and had a lot of good insight for us. I love his motto: "Patience, but hurry." 

One thing I really like that he told us was that if we would just quietly transition from each of our Sunday meetings it would change our whole church experience and we would be able to feel the spirit more abundantly at church. We also talked about planning really effectively and about how to teach new converts. They brought in one of the AP's recent converts and we were able to ask him questions; it was really cool! 

I loved the conference because even though it was all intended for missionary life, he also taught us how it would apply after our missions. We were also surprised when he told us that the way they choose where missionaries will go is not necesarilly dependant on the country or state but rather that they are chosen to serve where they are because of their mission President and his wife. Now looking at my mission I can definetely see how having President and Sister Cusick here to guide me has shaped me into a better person. They are both inspiring and just amazing. Haha, at the conference they were compared to justice and mercy. President is the justice and Sister Cusick is the mercy! President Cusick talked about developing our faith and Sister Cusick talked about prayer. Overall the conference was one of my favorites so far. Haha, we even sang Head Shoulders Knees and Toes in Spanish!

Once upon a time we decided to walk to all our part-member families houses.
Despite all the sunscreen we put on, we still got sun burned.

I also learned a lot about how the gospel of Jesus Christ blesses families this past week. We spent a bit of Father's day with our wonderful bishop, Bishop Patrick and his family and the spirit there was phenonimal. All of the missionaries in our ward were there (there are 8 of us, crazy right?! But then again there are almost 900 members in our ward) and we all sang "Love is Spoken Here" for them and we gave Bishop a tie and Sister Patrick some flowers. We plan on doing something similar for our Spanish Branch president tonight. We really do appreciate all the work that ward leaders put in to help missionary work!

Well that's my week. Make this coming week a good one! Also Happy Father's Day to the best father ever!

Con Amor de un fin de semana en Seminole,

Hermana Mathis

Welcome to Candy Kitchen, where we didn't even buy any candy, ha ha!
The walls all have old candy wrappers on them and people's signatures
in all different colors. We just ended up getting ice cream.

Sister Holloway

  

The pop machine is covered in bottle caps.

Mmm... nothing like ice cream on a P-day!

Florida's biggest jaw breaker. Yikes!

The lovely Sister Holloway outside Candy Kitchen,
located just opposite of the beach on the island where we live.

Dear Family and Friends,

We set a date with Ray this week! He's going to be baptized the 28th of June. We asked him to pray about this date and promised him an answer. On Saturday night he told us he had good news for us, then on Sunday he told us he had received his answer and that he knew that this was the right thing to do. He's been reading the Book of Mormon and is doing really well.

We love contacting in the park in between visits!

We received some good referrals this past week. We're working on contacting them all. We really want to continue with this trend of working tight-knit with members to get referrals. 

We had an amazing family home evening this past week with a family in our Branch. We taught about Jesus Christ's atonement and watched Because of Him and sang Families Can be Together Forever with them. I have a testimony of forever families and I know that having good family home evenings makes a big difference. We discussed with them several of their friends who were potential investigators, we were able to help them think of a family and two friends who they could invite to our upcoming activities and to FHE.

Me and Cindy picking out wedding dresses.

We were also very fortunate to hear from President Cusick and Elder Thompson yesterday for a ward/branch council training meeting. They taught about how ward leaders can help in missionary work. We talked about having good activities and asking members to invite their friends. We're planning an activity in the branch soon on the 18th. It should be really good. When leaders work with the missionaries that's when the action happens. We are super grateful to have good leaders here in Florida. I've been studying priesthood a lot lately, what a good topic! I love the priesthood, we're very fortunate to have it. 

We went on our last exchange as STL's on Tuesday (with the new transfer they decided to give other sisters the chance to serve, so they changed the STLs in both the north and south districts). It was a good exchange. I stayed in Largo with an English sister from Seminole. We had a lot of Spanish lessons planned for the day, so I had to teach most of the lessons. While were finding, she taught me how to start up really good conversations. I love exchanges, I always learn so much.

Our friend Venus is super talented and painted
this on her daughter's bedroom wall.

Hermana Holloway hit her one year mark this week so we celebrated by eating a teensy peanut butter mousse cake from Frita's, a very popular pastry house near by that the English sisters referred us to, it was delightful! Congratulations sister Holloway!

That's it for this week. I hope you all have a good week!

Con Amor,

Hermana Mathis

Homeless guys sandwich (story below)

Haha, this comes from our exchange. So one day we were walking on the street and we met this homeless guy and decided to share a video with him. He said he liked the video but then afterwards just asked us for money. We said we didn't have any cash on us, he asked us if we had any food, we didn't. So I, trying to be nice offer him a sandwich if he will have a lesson with us. Haha, sister Holloway wasn't very happy with me because the guy was kind of creepy. Then we decided to do an exchange so I wasn't even there the day of our lesson with him. Luckily they went to the park during our exchange and he wasn't there so they just ended up eating the sandwich. 

Teaching Ray

Dear Friends and Family,

I'm going to start a little backwards this week. On Sunday Hermana Holloway and I gave talks in the Largo Spanish Branch. Our topic was hastening the work. We both did a great job! Hermana Holloway talked about Ammon and King Lamoni and how when Ammon was teaching Lamoni he was his friend and even was willing to give his life for him when Lamoni's father threatened to kill him. She explained that we need to be friends to everyone so that when they do decide to investigate the church, they have someone to look to. 

We were talking about it and we both realized that we know people back in UTAH who could use the lessons. No matter where we are, we can find people who need to hear the gospel. Her talk reminded me of one of the members of our Stake High Council who said, "Oh, you don't have friends you can share the gospel with? That's ok, you can repent."

For my talk, I talked about using the internet, personal talents and your own personal testimony to do the work. I taught them that everyone is needed. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said, "There is a way for everyone to participate in this great work. We can each find a way to use our own particular talents and interests in support of the great work of filling the world with light and truth."

This week we started working with a new investigator named Ray who's sister is a member. He is very friendly and positive about the gospel. He accepted our challenge to be baptized after our deist lesson and came to church this week. We feel very blessed to have met him, he simply came to the church while we were there teaching the youth the first lesson and asked for the missionaries, how cool is that?!

Teaching Ray

For the most part, we're still teaching in Spanish. According to the branch, I've come eons with my Spanish. I hope it's true! I really want to continue speaking in Spanish throughout my life. I'm so glad God's plan includes growth and progression and not exactly strength and perfection. This week my wonderful aunt Donna sent me this quote and I liked it so much that I decided to share it with you, "It is wise to seek immortality, because time defeats all other ambitions"  (Vernon Howard) 

We also did exchanges this week. It was my turn to leave the area, so I went down to Seminole with Sister Fox. I love going on exchanges because it gives me a chance to learn from all the other sisters and get to know our area better. Sister Fox and I went out contacting and received several emails to put into the new RAIN system that sends insightful church videos out to potential investigators and also members. It was great because we were able to set a specific goal and then reach it. We felt so accomplished. It was the best, and now they have several new people they can teach.

On Wednesday, we taught in district meeting about teaching simply. Our training worked out perfectly with the ZL's training because they taught us how to help people connect the dots. Their training was so inspiring. The gospel is very simple and can be understood by anyone. Everyone can know for themselves.

For Memorial Day we had a Memorial Day breakfast with the Seminole ward. I love getting to know the English members, the saints of Florida are really so amazing! The funny thing is as a Spanish speaking missionary, you kind of forget that you are in the south until you talk with someone in English and they break out into a sweet southern accent, haha! Florida has turned out to be not at all what I thought it would be but ten times better than I could have ever hoped it would be. Sometimes I look back on the last 8 months of my life and think, "Have I really been doing this? Yes I have! Que chèvre!" (Cool)


That's it for the week!  

From Largo with Love On My Birthday

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you all for all the love and support! Thanks to everyone who contributed to my birthday package!!! It's been a great day so far!

Indian Rocks Area

Blustery day on the bridge

I wanted to start this weeks email with something a bit more spiritual because I normally just jump into the week without sharing how much it really means to me to be out here on the mission.

This year in general conference, Elder Neil L. Anderson talked about the nature of the Latter Day Saints. He said:

"In nature, trees that grow up in a windy environment become stronger. As winds whip around a young sapling, forces inside the tree do two things. First, they stimulate the roots to grow faster and spread farther. Second, the forces in the tree start creating cell structures that actually make the trunk and branches thicker and more flexible to the pressure of the wind. These stronger roots and branches protect the tree from winds that are sure to return.⁴  

You are infinitely more precious to God than a tree. You are His son or His daughter. He made your spirit strong and capable of being resilient to the whirlwinds of life."

I am so grateful to have a loving Heavenly Father who created me strong enough to resist evil and carry on during the hardest times. I feel so blessed to see this amazing change taking place in others.

Sick with colds

We had several great lessons this week, despite having colds half the week. We taught Ema about the restoration again and she said that she wanted to come to the English ward (because she lives 5 min. away and can't make it to the Spanish Branch) even though she can't understand it because she wants to feel the spirit. She says she feels it every time we're there.

We found another dolphin!

Elouisa and Juan came to church! Yay!! We're so happy. We had a great lesson with them earlier this week about keeping the Sabbath day holy. I can really see them striving to live God's commandments, it's wonderful.

Last week when we taught them about prayer I told them how when I was younger I put tape on the doorknob to remember to pray before I left the house and then this week as we were leaving I noticed they had tape wrapped around their doorknob... coincidence? I think not!

We're really starting to work with the Seminole ward a bit more. It's exciting and a little strange. I am not used to speaking with members and investigators in English. We went to the Relief Society activity on Wednesday and although we didn't have any of our investigators there, we met a potential and each of the English sisters had investigators there, it was a great success!

Thursday we went to the park because we had a couple hours to do finding and when we get there, we see one of the Seminole sister's investigators. He works at the little kiosk-thing there and told us that if we wanted, we could ride some of the cool 2-people bikes!! "Missionaries ride free." Yup, those are my sisters, creating a good name for the church and missionaries everywhere. He also gave us free cookies and told us to have at it!

Biking in the park is a blast!

We chose the cherry red tandem car. It was a blast! And an excellent way of contacting, I might add. Lot's of people were interested merely because we were two girls in skirts...on a two person bike car.  Funnest day ever! 

Then on that note, we were up in Clearwater walking to our car from a recent converts house and we see this guy we had run into two times before and he gave us free treats from his supply truck because he is the person who stocks all the tiendas. It's amazing how as a missionary sometimes it feels like the world hates you and then other times it's like the whole world adores you! :)

The sweets that our new best friend Roberto gave us!

For my birthday so far, we had a bit of cake for breakfast, I opened my package, cleaned the apartment, went for a run and had Chilis.

I got the package!

Hermana was trying to light the match for my cake and dropped them all over the floor. Haha!

Me cutting my cake...dramatically

For my Birthday, Hermana Holloway took me out to Chilis because she had a gift card. We had lots of fun just talking and eating some yummy food. We were surprised to find that some new inventions have come out while we have been on the mission.

Hope you all enjoy your week!

Love,

Hermana Mathis

With Love From Holiday to Bradington and Back

Dear Family and Friends,

Guess what? It's that time again, one of the two greatest days of the year... MOTHERS DAY!!! I hope you're all as excited as I am, mothers are truly an amazing gift, especially mine. I'll be skyping home around 4:00 MST, just so all of you know.

This week was an adventure, we agreed last night that it feels like we've done nothing and everything all at the same time. It's been a long one so here we go:

Monday- We had a Zone Development Day. So what happens on a ZDD is we all get together for some training and activities. It was a complete success! Everyone had fun. So what we did is the Zone Leaders trained us on committing people to baptism, then we trained on companionship inventory and the other sisters trained on personal study. 

For our training we had 6 companionships link arms and then race to get underneath a table and stand back up again. It was pretty hilarious, and a lot harder than you would think. Then we talked about how we can get through hard lessons if we lean on our companions for support. It was pretty short, but everyone enjoyed it. After that, we all went to the park and had a BBQ and played Ninja and Signs.

With Gloria

Tuesday- We went on exchanges with the Seminole A sisters. I stayed in the area with Sister Wakefield. It was a good day filled with lessons. We taught Elouisa and Juan again, we brought President Lopez and he talked with them about marriage. They are super close...

Wednesday-Our one scheduled appointment fell through, so we decided to do weekly planning instead of on Thursday because we were booked Thursday. Regardless, we were able to have some good lessons. We went to Cindy's and taught the 10 commandments and made cake balls with a kit she had from a member in the ward. We also found out that we are now teaching in mostly English; Largo has been changed to a Zebra area. (Spanish and English)

Pizza at Cindy's

Thursday- More lessons all over the peninsula.

Friday- We went to MLC in Bradington. We were so excited because it was going to be on the beach. We got there and were all huddled underneath a pavilion because it was storming all day. We would have stayed at the beach,  but the hurricane warning went off, so we had to go to a church instead. I love MLC meetings though, because it's great to discuss with all the other leaders of the mission what's going on and how we can resolve problems. News is, some of us are not doing facebook anymore and emails are in full swing. 

Saturday- We had lessons with most of our investigators and a couple members. I got to see Antonia's new baby, he's so cute! 

Sunday- We had the Ft. Lauderdale Temple dedication. Wow! I loved it! Even though we were just watching the transmission, the spirit was SO strong. I realized more than ever how blessed I am to have the opportunity to go to the temple and to be a member of this church. It was so amazingly beautiful. We watched two sessions, one in English and one in Spanish. I can't wait until I can go through the temple again!

So that's it. Hope you all have a great week. 

Con Amor,

   de La Hermana Mathis