Monday, September 26, 2016

Another week


Hola, amigos! 


This week our air conditioning was fixed so we had to leave the Morgan's house. We were really sad. But, it's good to have our stuff all in one place again!

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This is our friend Michelle. She is from El Salvador. She just got her mission call to Temple Square! (She is gorgeous!!!)
Erick's Party / Family Home Evening (FHE)
This week we found out it was Erick's birthday (we don't teach him anymore but we still love him!) So, we planned an impromptu family home evening/ birthday party within an hour. We made a "cake" out of McDonald's hamburgers. It was fun.


We now teach an English class every week! (Before we were just there to help and to give a spiritual thought at the end.) We are super excited about it! We taught a lesson about how to call work and make excuses for not coming in. We brought coke for everyone so they would love us and we played a lot of games. They all had so much fun! There are only about five people that regularly come, so we are excited to go invite everyone we talk to and build up the class.


This week we have found a lot of success contacting and are excited to teach more lessons next week. Jose is still on track to be baptized next month!


Elder Larry J Echohawk of the Seventy came to speak to our mission on Thursday. He talked to us about the blessings of being obedient to the commandments. President Mortensen also spoke to us. He spoke to us about the story of Joseph in the Old Testament and about how hard things will happen in the lives of people who are doing everything right. I loved hearing both of their talks!


Most of you are familiar with the story of Noah in the Bible. There was a lot of sin and wickedness in the world at this time. But, Noah was a prophet. He could communicate with God face to face, as prophets can (Exodus 33:11.) God told Noah that he needed to go warn the people that they needed to change, but they did not listen. The people made fun of Noah and did not believe in the things he said. They did not think that Noah could communicate with God. When the flood came only eight people were saved. This story shows us how important it is to listen to a prophet of God.


Our world today is much like the world was in the time of Noah. There is a lot of sin. But, we know that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do you think it is possible that God would call a prophet in our day too?


The message that we share as missionaries is that God has called a prophet in our day, just like Noah! We have someone on the Earth that can speak to God and receive revelation for the whole world. His name is Thomas S. Monson. Christ's church also must have twelve apostles. There are twelve apostles on Earth today. This weekend we have the chance to listen to what they have to say! Twice a year there is a conference where the prophet and the apostles speak to us. They share with us the things God wants the world to know. You can watch it on lds.org this Saturday and Sunday at 10am and 2pm. I know that there is a lot of confusion in the world today and I am so excited to listen to them! Heavenly Father loves us!


I hope that you all have a great week!

Con amor,




Hermana Bettridge


Monday, September 19, 2016

Enviado desde mi iPad 😘

Hola, amigos!



This week I had my eight week follow up. All of us trainees and
trainers got together with President Mortensen. Us trainees taught
lessons to the other trainers and they gave us feedback. I had been
super nervous about eight week ever since I got to Texas because I
knew I would have to teach in Spanish by myself. But, I ended up doing
well! The best part of eight week is that I got my iPad! I can now
read my emails throughout the week, so feel free to email me whenever!
😀 I can still only respond on Mondays.



Our investigator, Jose, is still on track to be baptized next month!
We are super excited! His daughter found out she has a tumor this
week, so prayers for their family would be appreciated. The Elders
started teaching Kevin and Erick this week, and they agreed to make a
goal to be baptized October 15th! That made us so happy! This week we
started teaching a part member, Sandra. We are hoping to set a date
with her soon.


 We saw a cool miracle this week, one morning we decided to do our
studies at the church (which we never do!) This random lady pulled up
in the parking lot (we were the only people there) and told us that
she drives by the church every day and she always feels something. She
said she is really going through some hard things in life right now
and that she thought we might be able to help her. We started teaching
her the Restoration right there in the parking lot and she loved it!
Unfortunately, we had to give her over to the English elders, but we
were so happy we were able to be there and make that first contact.
She came to church yesterday and the elders are now teaching the whole
family!

This week the air conditioning in our apartment broke, so we got to
REALLY experience the Texas summer. But, we are living with some of my
favorite people in the ward, the Morgan family, for the week until it
can get fixed. They are white but they go to the Spanish ward because
he served his mission in Mexico and the wife has learned Spanish. I
love staying with them! They are very "Texas" (they have accents and
say all of the stereotypical phrases like "bless you heart") and are
in their 60s. They are the best. I wish we could live with them all of
the time because they have the best house and they make us the best
food!

This week I have been thinking a lot about baptism. We know that in
order to enter the kingdom of God, we have to be baptized. (John 3:5)
But, what about those who never had the opportunity to learn about
Christ? Are they penalized through no fault of their own? 1 Peter 19
tells us where Christ was during the three days between when he died
and when he resurrected:

18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the
unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the
flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;

Christ went to preach to the spirits that were in prison. So, we know
that those who have never heard the gospel have a chance to accept it
after this life. I am so grateful to have the knowledge of a fair,
loving God!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Love,

Hermana Bettridge

My MTC companion, Hermana Taylor, and our trainers at semana ocho

Monday, September 12, 2016

Three Months!

Hello!

I didn't get to email last week because we had no time and no wifi! So, I will try and make up for it this week :) This last week I had my three month birthday in the mission! I am now 1/6 done with my mission.

So I am now part of a new zone, and Hermana Sheirbon is a STL! Now we are in a Spanish district, and it is amazing! And hermanas got put in Navasota so we don't cover Navasota anymore. Now we have our district meetings in Spanish and we can hang out on P days. Last P day we went ice blocking and had a water balloon fight. As you can see in the picture, Hermana Sheirbon and I got matching, ugly water shoes. The second picture is of us at our district meeting in Navasota. As you can tell, there is nothing in Navasota! 




On Wednesday I am going to my "8 week follow up." All of the trainees and trainers are getting together and us trainees have to teach the first three lessons by ourselves! I am really scared! But, I think my Spanish is improving. Last week we had exchanges with the English sisters and I was the one left here in the Spanish area. I was super scared, but I did it! Heavenly Father helped me out! :)

The picture below is of our investigator Jose. We set a date with him! He is going to be baptized on October 1st! He is from Peru. He is super smart and thinks really deeply about things. He is interesting to teach! 

Jose

Dinner at a member's house

We had a lot of miracles finding this week. During contacting time this week we looked at a map and prayed and asked Heavenly Father where we needed to go. We were led to a street. We only had time to knock ten doors. The people at those ten doors all answered and we got return appointments with all of them!

I hope everyone has a great week!


Love,


Hermana Bettridge

This is a temple that we are making out of pictures of different temples on the wall at our apartment