Goal Setting Works!

Dearest darlingest Mumsy, Popsicle and everyone else, 

This week was an absolute success, and like all other interesting weeks we've had together we decided to tell you about this one with our combined story-telling talent. 

The battle to go through all of the Sarasota potentials we received is still going on. New advancements this week include surrendering our date set to the scheming elders of the the YSA branch, and teaching a Haitian family (we're both really wishing we could speak French right now).

This week our sister training leaders and the mission-wide sister training leaders both wanted to do exchanges with us. It was positively enlightening. We had special training on how to better our planning. It was the best! We were able to receive more revelation than ever before. We never knew that planning could be such a spiritual and fun experience. 

With our renewed testimonies of inspired planning we knew just how important it was to meet all our goals for the week. We had set high goals for the week and by Saturday night we saw how far we still had to go. To reach our weekly goals we needed 3 more "other" lessons, 7 member present lessons, 3 less active/recent convert lessons, and 3 more baptismal dates set! And we only had Sunday to accomplish that. We were tempted to throw in the towel and laugh at the idea of 13 lessons and 3 dates set in a day. Well, we did laugh at it. But, it came down to the fact that either weekly planning was inspired or it wasn't. So, we said a mighty prayer and planned with God how to make it come to pass. And the next day, it did. 

All day, there was not a second to spare. We taught people in the streets to pray and repent, we had lessons back to back to back, and we were bold and fearless! There was never a point we felt confident we could actually pull it off, we just kept charging forward and praying like we never have before!! And we did it. We did it! We reached every single goal this week and we know we couldn't have done it alone. This is His work!

We know God answers prayers and that He lives and that He loves us. We testify that His church has been restored today. We have a prophet to exhort, expound, and clarify the Gospel of Jesus Christ so that one day we can live forever with our eternal and celestial family. This is His work and we invite you to join and enjoy it. 

Con Amor,

Hermanas Mathis & Paulsen

P.S. Our address is 2566 10th Street Sarasota, Florida 34327 for those who have forgotten. Us. #ifyouloveme#feedmysheep#fillmymailbox

For those who did remember us, you letters must have run away because our mailbox is so cold and empty. Please send more. :)

Props to any of you who still read these emails
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One of the Best Weeks of My Life!

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was one of the best weeks of my life! I had so much fun and felt the spirit so strongly! First and foremost, Eduardo got baptized!! Wahoo! It was the perfect baptism (although, ha ha, I suppose any baptism would seem really good next to Pedro's). One dunk that's all it took! And because it was right before the Thanksgiving party EVERYONE came and brought their friends too! 

Eduardo, the first of the Landeros brothers was baptized!

We also had one of our new investigators and his member friend come to check it out. Although he doesn't speak Spanish, he said that he could feel the spirit and that he had a great time.

Eduardo and the Bizzaro family. Haha, I don't know why none of them are smiling.

The Thanksgiving party was a huge success. All the members came and brought their non-member friends that we have been working with. It was great to see them altogether in one room! The food was of course divine. Unlike last year,  this year we had a more traditional Thanksgiving feast with Turkey from 4 different countries, stuffing, mashed potatoes and of course rice. We also had a nice assortment of tres leches.    

Thanksgiving Party - Some of my best friends in the branch

We set 4 dates this past week, two with part member families, and two with potentials we received when we took over the Sarasota ward too. We also have been working with an investigator who announced that he is ready to be baptized but was out of town for the weekend, so we haven't been able to set anything with him yet. In other words, we're keeping pretty busy! 

Adis and Pedro! I absolutely love these two!

For finding this week, we went to a couple soccer games and to swimming practice with one of our members. As a result, we have met several new people. I've decided that going to activities with members is the BEST way to find and don't know why I didn't do it as much in the past. 

When we went to the swimming pool, we didn't even teach our member's friend, but just by being there made a difference. After we left, she began asking her friend questions. By the end of the practice, our member had taught pretty much ALL the lessons and her friend was intrigued. Our member called us later that night with a new fire in her heart. She was so grateful. It was so powerful for me to listen to her testimony. We really are ALL called to serve no matter where we are at in our lives. 

Sister Paulsen (my trainee), Eduardo Landeros, and me

One of the most spiritual experiences for me this week was going to see a 90-year-old potential named Iladio. He's Cuban and pretty much bed-ridden, but he has such desire to be baptized! It touched my heart to talk with him and hear his testimony of how his daughter being a member has helped him have peace in his life. He had received a blessing earlier from the elders and asked us if he could have another. He said that immediately after his blessing he felt healed! Although I can't put it to words. My love for others grew immensely as I listened to him tell stories of his life. I realized that God had put me here to find everyone, old, young, injured and forgotten.

On that note, we also met this really smart 10-year-old girl who is interested in the gospel! We have a less-active that we go to visit from time to time and every time we go by there are 3 little girls that come out and give us hugs. They are the sweetest little children! We've started teaching them along with our less-active. They love it and they learn so fast! It's been a blast teaching them.

Well that's all for now, once again have a great week! 

Con Amor, 

Hermana Mathis

Oh! and one more thing. We went to go meet a referral and they weren't home but they had this bush outside their house with a snake skin in it! Ew!!! Only in Florida. 

Snake Skin Bush

Comments From a Not-So-Perfect Success!

Dearest loved ones,

This week was a blast! Nothing will ever compare. Haha! And because the words of one person couldn't possibly do it justice we have once again decided to pool our brains to bring you another thrilling tale.

Where do we begin??

We'll start at the beginning. Pedro and Adis were married!!! Yay! On Tuesday we made them wedding cupcakes to celebrate. When we went over, Adis was all too excited to show us the gold imprinted and embossed marriage certificate. It was a sweet and private ceremony, sadly in
English, but that's ok because they're married right?

Pedro and Adis with marriage certificate

For Pday we went out to Myakka where we both saw and ate ... Alligators! Yum. It was nice to take a break from the busy city and enjoy some time with the Sarasota sisters before they were transferred.

We climbed a 75 foot tall treehouse and walked up in the canopies of the trees. Florida is beautiful. The day was the perfect temperature with just a slight breeze. Atop the tower we could feel the wind rocking us so we quickly climbed down.

After Myakka we spent some time with the Martinez family at Smacks. That night we visited a part member family and discussed with the father his fears about joining the church, by the end of the lesson he said that he was willing to give the church another try!  P-day was an overall success.

We are continuing to work with the famous Landeros brothers! Things have been moving quite nicely. Juan Eduardo is getting baptized this Saturday!! We're so happy for him and the conversion that has taken place. He told us the other day that he first came to church just to see how bad it was and was shocked to find that he really enjoyed it. He's really been diving into it! His brother is also doing well in overcoming his addictions.

Ok, let's be honest all we really want to talk about is the baptism we had because it was something else...Dun dun dun! Haha!

So we had everything planned perfectly right, wrongo! On Saturday, our Ward mission leader let us know that he would have to work during the baptism, our branch president also had to work and the first counselor had gone to Miami for a funeral. So we were a little short on priesthood but it was still ok. We still maintained the confidence that everything would go off without a hitch.

We arrived early to fill the font and prepare all the little things. Turns out that nobody showed up until literally the last minute. We quickly had Pedro change into his baptismal 70's outfit. This is where it started to get interesting. So unknowingly there were only two jumpsuits in the men's changing room, one was rather large and the other was, well...let's just say for lack of a better words, designed to make a man of Pedro's stature look like a little sausage. Seams straining, we began the service.

The talks were beautiful. Hermana Mathis played the piano and Hermana Paulsen led the music.
Now about the time of the second talk, Hermana Paulsen decided to split with our dear friend, Natalie Garcia, to go check on the font. When they arrived in the font room they were surprised (but not really because something always goes wrong) to find that the font was overflowing! So like a paragon warrior in God's army, Hermana Paulsen pulls up her skirt and descended into the font to let some of the water out. This is where it gets really interesting. We'll go back to the chapel where
everyone sat waiting for the talk to be finished. The final words were given about the Holy Ghost leaving all with the spirit.

We all shuffled into the font room. There we waited anxiously for the baptism. We split again this time Hermana Mathis and Vanessa Garcia went in the woman's side of the font to assure that all was well. To everyone's surprise the font was only half full! So ingeniously Pedro Fernandez, who was baptizing Pedro (confusing right? Don't worry there were two other Pedro's involved as well), decided that it would be ok to do the baptism kneeling down in the font.

This is where the interest meets its highest and greatest level. Pedro had to be dunked 3 times! Our poor dear Pedro! The third time wasn't valid either because his arm didn't go completely under so they decided it was just best to close the font doors and fill the font. (Hermana Mathis speaking) I will never forget the smile on Pedro's face as he laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation. Vanessa and I not knowing what else to do quickly grabbed some buckets and attempted to fill the font with water from the women's bathroom.

Pedros Baptism

Meanwhile Hermana Paulsen and Natalie led the branch in singing some hymns which is a very difficult task without a piano in a Spanish Branch mind you.

After about 10 more minutes they decided to do it again. This time it was a complete success. Fourth times a charm! The rest of the night went pretty smoothly except maybe a 15 minute long welcome into the elders quorum.

On Sunday Pedro was confirmed and the spirit was so strong! Adis was up to the brim with joy to see her now official husband confirmed a member of the church. After the confirmation, Pedro, now Hermano Valdez, sat smiling in the third row with his wife. It was all very sweet.



We hope you all have a magical week! With lots of love from Saraota!

- Hermana Mathis and Hermana Paulsen

Trick or Tracting

Dear Family and Friends,

Here's a quick update on my mission here is Sarasota, FL :

Pedro didn't end up getting baptized this past Saturday, but there is good story behind it! We went over to his house for his interview and after the ZL's had left we were just filling out his BCR when we got to their marriage date. Hermana Paulsen asks, "What's your wedding date?" Adis, his wife, asks, "What's tomorrows date?" Turns out they weren't actually married even though they had told us that Sunday was their anniversary! Her exact words were "We're not 'married, married'" Haha! They weren't married legally.

The next day they went to go get married so he could be baptized on the 1st but the judge told them they had to wait until today. So Pedro and Adis are getting married today and his baptism will be this Saturday. 

Halloween was fun. We taught the most interesting people! We taught an ice cream lady, a man who was baptized forever ago who just happened to be in the neighborhood, and a child-Athiest.  After that we taught a few other investigators, while on an exchange with one of the Port-Charlotte sisters. It was great. Then we did a bit of what I like to call "trick or tracting" and went to go see a couple potentials. We got some candy, so you know, it was kind of a success ;)

The rest of the week was pretty much filled with teaching. We had a trunk or treat on Thursday night which was a complete success. We met several new member-friends and gave away three Book of Mormons.

I almost forgot! We had a specialized training with all the sister missionaries in the mission on Tuesday! It was so great! We went to St. Petersburg beach and talked about a lot of questions that we had been having. We listened to Jorg Klebingat's talk, "Approaching the Throne of God with Confidence." I was so inspired! It's a great talk and I would advise all of you to read/watch it again. We talked a lot about applying the atonement every day. I really just loved it! It was so good to see Sister Holloway too, she's going home this week! Yikes! 

Sunday was the most spiritual for me. As we took the Sacrament I could feel so strongly of God's love for all his children. Sometimes as a missionary you imagine that your most spiritual moments will come in a perfect lesson, or a miraculous blessing, or at a conference, but sometimes they are the small simple moments of your mission. It's those moments that I've come to treasure the most. With all my friends and investigators around me I felt the charity that comes from being a member of Christ's true church. I know that this church is true with all my heart. Also when our investigator had work on Sunday and then said, "God first!" and did everything he could to get it off, that was a good moment too :) 

Con Amor,

Hermana Mathis

Jumper Cables & Speaking Portuguese

Heyo, loved ones.

 This is Hermana Mathis and Paulsen brought to you by: jumper cables!

 Well, no fires this week. Success! Almost... We had an even bigger  uh... happening this week. Let's start with our personal favorite story of the week:

 It all started when Hermana Mathis decided not to charge our phone Saturday night. (Mistake #1) Come Sunday morning, we were pumped and ready for Game Day unaware of the looming conundrum that lay ahead. 

 Things were going great. Great ward council. Great timing. Great member interactions. When, all of the sudden, while making our regular Sunday calls to remind people to come to church, the phone sounded informing us that we had neglected to give it its daily nourishment. Fortunately(?), we had a car charger at hand. So, being the brilliant and wise missionaries we are, we decided to charge our phone in the car and finish our calls. This is where mistake #2 takes place: Hermana Paulsen entrusted the keys to Hermana Mathis.

We charged the phone, woke up some drunk Latinos, and in a small way, edified the world. Remember, all was well. Church went swimmingly. Sunday game day (a day to ask for referrals) has proven to be very helpful.

 After three hours or so of whipping our team (the members) into shape, we slunk to our car exhausted. Mistake #3: Hermana Paulsen THEN asks where the keys are. Befuddled, we dug through our bags only to realize that... ... Here's the killer (literally): we had left the keys in the ignition with the battery on. All is well, verdad?. Wrongo.

We then walked the walk of shame to our missionary leader to ask him to jump our car. With our cheeks a delicate (or not so very delicate) pink, we were forced to explain how we had killed our car to the group of members still in the parking lot. Lesson learned? We shouldn't become casual about the keys we hold. This life is too short and too precious to abuse the time and talents we have been given.



Ok next story, this one and the ones following to be much shorter and much more uplifting.

 On Friday we had planned to do splits. For a couple weeks now a Brazilian member of our branch has been asking us to have family home evening with her and her family but we were never able to get it set up so this week we made a promise to her hat we would. Since she only speaks Portuguese and because Hermana Mathis is the senior companion in our companionship we decided that she would be going to the Portuguese lesson and Hermana Paulsen would go to an English lesson we had set up with another member. 

(Switching to Hermana Mathis voice) When I got to the members house NONE of her friends had shown up. So I just sat with them and talked for a half an hour while wiring for their friend to show up. What I wasn't aware of was that this dear sweet couple had invited every Portuguese speaking person they know to
 come! So by the time they did show up I was the only Spanish-speaking/American-raised person there! And I was expected to bear testimony of a lesson given in pure Portuguese! 

Luckily our members our the best and the lesson went really well. About the time we actually started, Hermana Paulsen and our other member had returned. We watched a seminary video about agency and it was a hit! Everyone participated in the discussion afterwards and they said that they actually could understand everything we had said in Spanish. We feel so humbled. We've also come to the decision that we're are changing our Spanish branch into a Portuguese branch ;)

 We had many adventures, teaching JWs, looking for a new apartment, and teaching random people in the street. We even met three generations of men named Jesus the last being born on Christmas Day. It was lots of fun!

 We had this amazing lesson with one of our investigators, Eduardo. Sergio, a recent convert, came with us. His testimony was perfect! Eduardo who hadn't come to church beforehand came for the first time. He's right on track for baptism. Sergio, who drove him home, said that Eduardo had a really good experience and loved church.

 Life has been an adventure this week. We'd like to end with a testimony that we know that God loves us. All of us. We love you. Got to jet!

 Con Amor de Sarasota,
 Hermana Paulsen and Hermana Mathis

The Importance of Keeping a Journal

Dear Family and Friends,

Sometimes it amazes me that so little and so much can happen all in one week. My first impression of last week was that nothing happened but when I was going through my journal trying to think of what to write I realized that a million things happened! Needless to say I've learned that keeping a journal is quite convenient. 

Here's my week.

Monday-We went out to eat with a couple in our ward as part of P-day. We asked them how they met and it turns out that he had a spiritual impression that she was the one while he was on his mission. When he finished his mission he flew out to her country and married her within 10 days! Yikes! They are the best couple though. 

After that we had family home evening with a less active in our branch and her friends. We played the family flour game, a game where you pack flour into a cup then turn it over and put a penny on top and everyone takes a turn cutting off a piece and saying what can hurt the family until the penny falls and then whoever made it fall has to collect it with their nose. Everyone loved it! 

Our members friends opened up to us and we ended up having a REALLY good lesson with them. After that lesson, our less active texted us and told us that her friends wanted to meet with us again. After that we went finding and talked with some of the local Amish population. 

Tuesday- Spent the day finding and met with a bunch of new potentials. That night we taught the Landeros brothers about the Book of Mormon. The spirit was really strong. We set a date with Eduardo and confirmed Juan's date.  

Wednesday- We had district meeting up in Bradenton, but had to leave early to go to a member-present lesson that we had previously set up. The lesson went great and our new investigator, Pedro accepted the invitation to be baptized and will be baptized on Nov. 1st! He is really excited about it and yesterday at church announced it to almost everyone he talked to. 

That night we had a lesson with one of our male investigators and because we can't go into his house we asked him to come outside. He was really shy and didn't want to. Later we found out that he was scared that we were going to try to force-feed him the sacrament in the parking lot! Haha! We taught him lesson 3 and assured him that we would not force him to do anything. He was so relieved and said he would be coming to church in the near future.

Thursday- taught and planned all day. We taught lesson one to our less-active's friends again and they all accepted the soft-commit to baptism. We started the lesson with the usual (using the pamphlet and whatnot) but we could tell they weren't listening to it so we took a more personal route. By the end,  all three of them were crying because the spirit was so strong. Our member testified and it was beautiful! 

Friday- We taught Pedro lesson two and spent the rest of the day finding and biking around. That night we helped a new senior couple move in to their apartment which is right above ours and got to know them. Their names are Elder and Sister Anscough and they are from Salem, anyone know of them? They are amazing and we are so excited to have them here! 

That night we had a really awful object lesson with one of our other investigators. I was so embarrassed. For all of you missionaries who know of the tea-bag rocket lesson, NEVER do it outside on a windy night. The thing flopped and our investigator was more in shock than in awe... enough said. Luckily we recovered really well and he opened up to us about some things that have been holding him back from joining the church. What do you know, God really does "make weak things become strong unto us" ;) 

Saturday-We were going through our potentials and found this random guy we had never met. We called him up and asked him if we could meet up. He was more than willing to meet up and said, "Bring your Bibles," so we were really skeptical at first. What we found when we got there though was quite the opposite of what we had thought. 

His name is Ronnie and he's actually really interested. He told us all about how much he loves the Bible and how he has read it several times. He says that he just wants to know who Gods real people are because from what he's gathered from the Bible he knows that there was a falling away and that it is supposed to come back. He says he thinks its come back but he's not sure which one it is. As you might  imagine we were MORE than happy to clear some things up for him :) He's quite a talker so we didn't get to finish lesson one, but we left him with a good cliffhanger so our next lesson with him should be really good. 

We also met this really sweet old man walking around who had met the missionaries before and wanted to know more. 

Sunday- We had a really good day at church. We worked with all the youth in the ward to help them see how they could do missionary work. We pulled them out one by one and talked with them. It just so happened that one of our investigators was there that day and when it came his turn we were able to teach him and set a baptismal date. That makes 3 dates set this week! 

After church we had a lesson with our ward mission leader and one of the Landeros brothers. It was spectacular. I've learned that there really just isn't any other way to teach than with members. 

Then after that we went contacting for a bit. We went to this house where we had met three Cuban men before. The last time we had walked by they didn't seem all that interested and we couldn't even remember their names.  I wasn't feeling up to knocking on their door but my sweet little companion insisted so we did. I was so glad. We were able to strike up a conversation and then have a lesson. 

As we taught he gained more interest. I'm so grateful that we have people to help us in our journey through life when we have doubts or fears. 

After that we went to a part-member's home and had a dinner of beans, eggs (my favorite... not) and squid. Add that to the list of new things I've tried on the mission! The lesson was really good, it was one of those lessons where I knew that the spirit helped me to speak because my Spanish was a lot smoother than it normally is.

Monday- We went out to Longboat today to see some of the sights. It was beautiful! The island is super touristy probably due to the gorgeous beaches located nearby, so there's lots to look at. Florida is just starting to cool down and temperatures are perfect. We had so much fun going around and seeing new things. 

So there you have it some bits of my week. I hope you all have a great week! 

Con Amor,

Hermana Mathis  

I'm a Trainer!

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been amazing! I was so sad yesterday when it was over. I wanted it to keep going. 

So for starters I'm training now! It was a crazy turn of events but one morning before transfer meeting President called us and said that he needed Sister Gustafson to go down to Naples (commonly known as the "land of milk and honey") and for me to finish training Sister Paulsen. We packed as fast as we could and then made the switch. 

At first I was a little upset to let Hermana Gustafson go, but I love Sister Paulsen so much already! She has become one of my best friends (as have all of my companions). She is always positive and smiley. Her Spanish is also very good, she knows about as much as I do and she's only been here for 6 weeks! (I'm so blessed to have her as a companion)

Conference was in Jorge's words "grandioso!" It was such a pleasant surprise to listen to talks in other languages. We watched both morning sessions in English and both evening sessions in Spanish. It worked out perfectly that our investigators came to the sessions where people spoke in Spanish! We couldn't help but let out a few cheers ;) 

Aside from the fact that there were a few talks in other languages the conference was just what I needed! I love that every time that I watch conference I feel as though the speakers knew what I was wondering about beforehand. I especially liked Elder Bednar's talk of the final session. I loved that he addressed our investigators. It was interesting to watch their eyes light up as he spoke. 

After the conference I asked one of our investigators (Roman) what he learned, I was shocked when I looked at his paper and saw that all he had written was: read, pray, go to church, family home evening and go to the temple. I had thought for sure that he would have taken notes like me and my companion had, furiously scribbling several thoughts and impressions. I was humbled by the simplicity of what he had learned. Aren't those the most important things to learn anyways? Those are the very things that bring us closer to our Heavenly Father. I'm thankful that he was able to learn and understand those key steps.

We met several of our goals this week and have met several new potentials. I'm so glad to be serving the Lord right now. It is the sweetest experience, I don't ever want it to end. 

I hope you all have a great week. Keep up the good fight! 

Con Amor,

Hermana Mathis