Temple
Elena Duran (she is SO funny!)
Dinner with La Familia Sandoval
Hermana Beltran
Los Jaco
La familia Reyes
The cutest drawing from Melissa Reyes! :)
Calgary
Monday, October 17, 2016
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
10/11/16 Group Email
Hey fam!
This week was awesome! A lot of changes, but it's been good! I said goodbye to Hermana Ratliff :( it was sad. I'm now training Hermana Vera and she is a doll! She's so happy to be here and we get along great. The best part of the week was on Sunday when the Familia Reyes got confirmed! Hermano Fernando did it and oh my gosh, it was incredible. I took some notes afterward and here were some of the things that stood out..
Junior : You are a son of God and he loves you, always kneel down and pray, you will be an example to your wife, you will be a worthy Priesthood holder.
Lorena : You are an example to your husband and your children, you will be an example to the society, you will bring the gospel into many people's lives, always pray, you will be sealed to your family in the temple.
Melissa : You will be a light to the friends that you hang out with, you will be strong enough to do all the things that the Lord would have you do, you will have a firm testimony of this gospel.
Junior : Even at your young age, you will understand the scriptures as you study them, you will be able to fulfill the commandment to serve a mission one day :), you will bring the gospel to many.
Then afterward, Obispo got up and said some things and asked everyone to show their support and welcome by raising their right hand and oh man, that was the best moment ever. As the room went quiet and everyone raised their right hand, I was looking over at them and Lorena looked SO HAPPY. She was glowing and looked like she was almost in tears. Junior as well. It was the best feeling ever and they have so many beautiful blessings in store for them!
Everything is going good! I'm so happy to be here. I really love the missionaries that we are serving around.. we have FIVE hermanas in el Barrio, so it's been tons of fun. We spend a lot of time together. The work is going so good! Thanks for all your love! Love you! HAPPY THANKSGIVING
Love,
Hermana Dean
10/11/16 Pictures
This giant "world traveling" truck randomly got parked at our neighbor's house, so it's the first thing we see every day and the last thing ever night!
P day
A box in front of a Latino's house haha
Hermana Ratliff
Hermana Vera
Hermana Dardon came to an appointment with us
All day Saturday we felt like we were in a cloud! I have never seen so much fog
Thanksgiving dinner with Hermana Martinez
Monday, October 3, 2016
10/03/16 Group Email
Soooo this was the best week ever, because our family got baptized!!!
The story of the Familia Reyes -
Once upon a time, Junior Reyes from the Republica Dominicana was looking for somebody who had a Christian belief to come work for him. He was tired of his workers drinking and smoking so he prayed to have a worker who believed in God. Rene Fernando lost his job so he wasn't here legally anymore and had to go back to Mexico. He got a call from his nuera and said that she found a job from a guy named Junior. So he calls him, they set it up and he moves back to Canada! yay! The first time they met each other, Rene noticed that he had some Christian music in his car, so they start talking about that and Rene starts telling him about the Mormon church. Fast forward one month, Hermano Fernando tells Hermana Ratliff that he has a family that is WAY interested in having the missionaries go over. Hermana Ratliff sets up the appointment for the FIRST NIGHT that I was back up here. So that transfer day, she picks me up and we go and have a lesson with the family Reyes and the Fernandos. We weren't too sure on how they took it because Lorena was pretty quiet... she looked pretty bored and not too interested (come to find out she really was pondering on all her life's decisions and how she had to change!) they shocked us and come to church that weekend! As we were sitting with her in Relief Society, she turns and looks and us and just starts weeping and says how she needs to change. How she wants to become like us and she wants to be happy. So we went back a bunch of times and taught their cute little family with different members and we set the date of 2nd of October to be baptized and they said yes!!! Everything worked out PERFECTLY and yesterday Junior, Lorena, Melissa and Junior Reyes were all baptized! It was the mos amazing day. Best day of my mission and one of the best days of my life. There were so many members! So much support. The program worked out perfectly. I was able to play a special musical number on the piano and the spirit was so strong right before they got baptized. Hermano Fernando baptized them all and the baptisms all were perfect. They all came up out the water sooo beautifully, espeically Lorena who covered her face right as she came out and started weeping. Afterward, all the quorums were able to welcome them into the ward! The spirit was sooo strong. As I sat there front row, with my arm around Cristian (the 6 year old) I felt so much JOY (just like the talk by President Nelson) I had never been so happy. So much prayers and hard work and love had gone into teaching them and they were so ready! They actually had the missionaries knock on their door 9 years ago and Junior listened to them for a little bit, but then they never came back. It took them 9 years until they were ready to have the missionaries again. We have been talking a lot about how they want all their kids to serve missions one day, which has been so amazing. Ah words can't describe how perfectly everything went and how happy everyone was. That moment made everything sooo worth it. So everything went well and it couldn't have gone better. Last night while Sister Ratliff was up at the front of the room teaching ESL, the phone rings and it's Hermano Fernando. He said "oiga! (haha he always starts the convo off with that, because he always has good news!) I just talked to Junior and he said as he was watching Melissa come up out of the water he heard a clear voice tell him : This is my will. (Esto es mi voluntad) and it made tears roll down his cheeks" ahhhh that was the coolest thing ever!!! When he told me that I got the biggest chills! God talked to him! It was so amazing. Best day ever. So thankful to have had the opporunity to help this family come back to where they need to be!
Another story that happened this week.. we were on exchanges and we were going to sing to this old man. There were three elders and then Sister Longson and I. We walk in and oh my he was the cutest old man ever!! We sang a couple of hymns and the spirit was really strong. Then we shared John 3:16 and after a little bit, he started opening up about how if God loved him, why did he take his wife. He, at first, came off angry.. but slowly he changed and he was so heart broken. His wife had passed away in January and he was alone. They had been married for tons of years and her passing had been really really hard on him. He then starts crying and oh man, old people have such a soft spot in my heart! So I'm having this inner battle with myself saying "I will not cry.. I will not cry. There are FOUR young missinoaries here and they are going to be so freaked out if I start crying" well right then, I just lose it! Now I have only "lost it" in one other lesson durign my mission.. I mean, big old alligator tears were rolling down my cheeks and I couldn't breath and I had to use my sleeve to wipe my face. And then HE starts crying even more. and bless these other missionary's hearts... they just all go dead silent and they had no clue what to do with themselves hahaha. But it was the coolest thing ever because I was able to look him in the eye and I PROMISED him and he would see his wife again. He kept saying "I'm trying to believe that, but my son says she's in a better place. But she's not with me, so how can she be in a better place?" And ah he just looked so heart broken. He explained how nobody else knows how he feels, how this pain he's been feeling for sooo many months hasn't gone away and that it won't. And goodness, it was so sad! It was breaking my heart! I told him that his wife missed him and that she was in a better place, but she was missing him just as much as he missed her. It was quite the powerful moment.. It's very amazing to be able to give that type of knowledge to somebody who doesn't know it. My heart was so full of gratitude as I left, knowing that I was able to promise him that he would see his sweetheart again. and then my head hurt the rest of the day because I had been crying so hard hahah
Man I love this work! I love being a missionary. The work is so great and I have so much joy serving the Lord. Thanks for your love and support!!
Love
Hermana Dean
The story of the Familia Reyes -
Once upon a time, Junior Reyes from the Republica Dominicana was looking for somebody who had a Christian belief to come work for him. He was tired of his workers drinking and smoking so he prayed to have a worker who believed in God. Rene Fernando lost his job so he wasn't here legally anymore and had to go back to Mexico. He got a call from his nuera and said that she found a job from a guy named Junior. So he calls him, they set it up and he moves back to Canada! yay! The first time they met each other, Rene noticed that he had some Christian music in his car, so they start talking about that and Rene starts telling him about the Mormon church. Fast forward one month, Hermano Fernando tells Hermana Ratliff that he has a family that is WAY interested in having the missionaries go over. Hermana Ratliff sets up the appointment for the FIRST NIGHT that I was back up here. So that transfer day, she picks me up and we go and have a lesson with the family Reyes and the Fernandos. We weren't too sure on how they took it because Lorena was pretty quiet... she looked pretty bored and not too interested (come to find out she really was pondering on all her life's decisions and how she had to change!) they shocked us and come to church that weekend! As we were sitting with her in Relief Society, she turns and looks and us and just starts weeping and says how she needs to change. How she wants to become like us and she wants to be happy. So we went back a bunch of times and taught their cute little family with different members and we set the date of 2nd of October to be baptized and they said yes!!! Everything worked out PERFECTLY and yesterday Junior, Lorena, Melissa and Junior Reyes were all baptized! It was the mos amazing day. Best day of my mission and one of the best days of my life. There were so many members! So much support. The program worked out perfectly. I was able to play a special musical number on the piano and the spirit was so strong right before they got baptized. Hermano Fernando baptized them all and the baptisms all were perfect. They all came up out the water sooo beautifully, espeically Lorena who covered her face right as she came out and started weeping. Afterward, all the quorums were able to welcome them into the ward! The spirit was sooo strong. As I sat there front row, with my arm around Cristian (the 6 year old) I felt so much JOY (just like the talk by President Nelson) I had never been so happy. So much prayers and hard work and love had gone into teaching them and they were so ready! They actually had the missionaries knock on their door 9 years ago and Junior listened to them for a little bit, but then they never came back. It took them 9 years until they were ready to have the missionaries again. We have been talking a lot about how they want all their kids to serve missions one day, which has been so amazing. Ah words can't describe how perfectly everything went and how happy everyone was. That moment made everything sooo worth it. So everything went well and it couldn't have gone better. Last night while Sister Ratliff was up at the front of the room teaching ESL, the phone rings and it's Hermano Fernando. He said "oiga! (haha he always starts the convo off with that, because he always has good news!) I just talked to Junior and he said as he was watching Melissa come up out of the water he heard a clear voice tell him : This is my will. (Esto es mi voluntad) and it made tears roll down his cheeks" ahhhh that was the coolest thing ever!!! When he told me that I got the biggest chills! God talked to him! It was so amazing. Best day ever. So thankful to have had the opporunity to help this family come back to where they need to be!
Another story that happened this week.. we were on exchanges and we were going to sing to this old man. There were three elders and then Sister Longson and I. We walk in and oh my he was the cutest old man ever!! We sang a couple of hymns and the spirit was really strong. Then we shared John 3:16 and after a little bit, he started opening up about how if God loved him, why did he take his wife. He, at first, came off angry.. but slowly he changed and he was so heart broken. His wife had passed away in January and he was alone. They had been married for tons of years and her passing had been really really hard on him. He then starts crying and oh man, old people have such a soft spot in my heart! So I'm having this inner battle with myself saying "I will not cry.. I will not cry. There are FOUR young missinoaries here and they are going to be so freaked out if I start crying" well right then, I just lose it! Now I have only "lost it" in one other lesson durign my mission.. I mean, big old alligator tears were rolling down my cheeks and I couldn't breath and I had to use my sleeve to wipe my face. And then HE starts crying even more. and bless these other missionary's hearts... they just all go dead silent and they had no clue what to do with themselves hahaha. But it was the coolest thing ever because I was able to look him in the eye and I PROMISED him and he would see his wife again. He kept saying "I'm trying to believe that, but my son says she's in a better place. But she's not with me, so how can she be in a better place?" And ah he just looked so heart broken. He explained how nobody else knows how he feels, how this pain he's been feeling for sooo many months hasn't gone away and that it won't. And goodness, it was so sad! It was breaking my heart! I told him that his wife missed him and that she was in a better place, but she was missing him just as much as he missed her. It was quite the powerful moment.. It's very amazing to be able to give that type of knowledge to somebody who doesn't know it. My heart was so full of gratitude as I left, knowing that I was able to promise him that he would see his sweetheart again. and then my head hurt the rest of the day because I had been crying so hard hahah
Man I love this work! I love being a missionary. The work is so great and I have so much joy serving the Lord. Thanks for your love and support!!
Love
Hermana Dean
10/03/16 Pictures
exchanges with Sister (libby) longson
Peter's overlooking the Calgary view between conference sessions
La familia Perez! It was hermano's birthday so we went and sang
BAUTISMO DE LA FAMILIA REYES
Hermano Rene Fernando baptized them
President and Sister Miles came! Along with my favorite mission office couple, The Thorley's
The family Carter
The family Mejia
Hermana Moreno.. we ate 10 tacos at her house hahaha they were so good but we had to roll out of her house we were so full
thanks for the package Mommm
Monday, September 26, 2016
09/26/16 Group Email
Hey fam!
Tons of miracles that we saw this week!!
First off, I don't know if remember the story of the less active member that Hermana ALlphin and I stopped by.. I had a random prompting to stop by her and when we did, we found that she'd been in bed for 15 days and was really depressed and I just held her and cried.. well I saw her for the first time since then yesterday at church! She got up out of her seat and literally RAN to me and grabbed me and held me and just started sobbing... It was the most tender moment ever. She kept saying she was so happy to see me and she just held me for a solid minute as she cried. It really struck me because you never know who's lives you are touching. I went to say hi to her husband and he just took my hand and held it and said "gracias" and man it was amazing. I love these people. Another awesome thing that happened at church, was we were walking out and Obispo called us over and brought us into his office and three of us sat down and he just started crying. And he looked at us and sooo sincerely he said "hermanas, I am so proud of you" those words right there, make every hard moment WORTH IT! He told us that he has seen how pure we are and as we go about doing the work, our words are so powerful. He said a lot of things but man it was incredible. Hermana Ratliff and I walked out and we just wanted to cry, it made our day! I love Obispo Gonzalez!
We were finishing up eating dinner with a less active and start sharing our message about the Book of Mormon when out of nowhere the words "diezmo" cross my mind... I was like oh man, here we go. So I tell her "you know what, we gotta be paying our tithing" my comp was pretty shocked when I dropped that haha but she backed me up and we taught her tithing and she ended up telling us that she hadn't been paying it and that she is going to start. I left the lesson feeling so good! It was scary to get that prompting, because it's tough to talk about tithing with people, but it ended up so good and I know that that was really what she needed to hear in that moment!
As we were walking along the riverside last week, we were about to get into our car but we decided to go chat with this man sitting on the bench. We invited ourselves to sit by him (you can basically do anything as a missionary haha) and we slowly started talking. He was nice, not too much into the convo. But we slowly started opening up and he told us that he was down in that part of town because his wife was in a cancer support group. She had been diagnosed with cancer 9 years ago and things were starting to go down. They'd been married for 50 years. So we testified of Christ and gave him a plan of salvation pamphlet a book of mormon. But it was really cool, we had no idea that he was struggling with that, but you could tell he really listened to what we had to say. Another thing with cancer... we were eating lunch with a member in our ward that we don't know too well. As we finished the message, i asked if there was anything she needed and she just started weeping and told us how her daughter had just been diagnosed with cancer, along with her grandson. She told us how her father was killed and her mom died of cancer as well, and how she was so scared to lose a child with cancer. It was heartbreaking! It made me cry! I didn't really know what to tell her, or how to comfort her, but I really felt the Savior there with us as I held her hand and just let her cry. It's tough being a missionary, you get a looooot of sad stories and you have to hold up a lot of people, and sometimes I think "how the heck am I suppose to hold up all of these people? I'm not strong enough!" but lately, I really have felt the Savior with me, lifting me up as I lift others up.
Our Family Reyes,, they are doing SO GOOD! They are loving life and more importantly, loving the gospel! They are the most incredible people I've ever met. Seriously, they are soooo amazing. We had a loong chat with Lorena yesterday as we were at a party, and she is just in love with the gospel. She is so excited to have her children live with the morals that we live with. The ward is being so supportive and everyone wants to talk to them at church. The baptism, if everything goes well, will be on Sunday after the last general conference session, so keep them in your prayers!
Everything is going so good! We have seen soooo many miracles lately. Love you all!
Amor,
Hermana Dean
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