Feliz Cumpleaños a Mi! 🎉

Hola!

This week was awesome because I turned 20! Everyone here made sure I felt very loved. The birthday celebration started last Friday at district meeting. We had cupcakes and played pin the tail on the donkey. On Saturday night Hermana Black and I went to Chilis. Then on Sunday she gave me breakfast in bed and sang to me! 

Then we went to church and our investigators came! And I got to take the sacrament on my birthday! I walked into Relief Society and they started singing to me and had a cake for me! They are the best!

They got me a cake in Relief Society!

After Church I was led into the kitchen and Albert had organized a surprise party with the missionaries! He had gotten me lunch and a giant cake with my face on it. Then we went over to eat with the Juarez family for dinner, and they are one of my favorite families here! They made us tacos and then brought out little fruit tarts from La Madeleine, my favorite! And then they brought out an oreo ice cream cake and sang to me! So, it was basically one of my favorite birthdays ever!

Surprise party after church with Albert!

My cake from Albert

My birthday dinner.
Birthday tacos

Juarez family! (I changed into comfy, tracting clothes after church!)

We have some cool investigators we are working with now. Our main investigators are Martin, Karen, and Miriam/Marlon. Martin is an old investigator that decided he wants to learn again and be baptized in May! He came to church on Sunday and liked it. Karen lives with her mom, who is a member. She has two cute, little kids. She came to church with them on Sunday, but they wouldn't let her leave nursery because they started crying! But she hung out with them in there. She will hopefully be getting baptized soon. Miriam and Marlon are a couple and are friends with people in the ward. They are cool, and we could be setting a date with them soon!

We started teaching an English class in a library this week, so we will see how that goes! Other than that it's basically teaching English class at church, volunteering at the elementary school, and visiting people in the ward.

This week I decided I want to know the Book of Mormon the best I can. So, I started copying it down by hand. If I do a page per day I can finish in a year and a half! I only have around five pages done, but I have learned so much already by focusing on each individual word.

I decided to work chronologically, so I started in the Book of Ether. I love the phrase that is found in Ether 1:43, "This long time ye have cried unto me." The Lord tells the brother of Jared that all of these blessings were going to come because of the way they were exercising their faith and praying.

Prayer is two way communication. Prayer takes more than just speaking, for prayer to be effective we must know how to listen to receive a response. In Revelation 3:20 the Savior teaches us, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."

I know that Heavenly Father loves us, and that He truly hears and answers our prayers. Sometimes the answer may not come in the way we expect it to or as fast as we want it to, but, I have never had a prayer go unanswered. I know that the purpose of prayer is to align our will with Heavenly Father's; as we allow Him to guide our lives He can make more out of us than we could ever make out of ourselves.




Thank you for all of the birthday notes! I hope you all have a great week!




Love,




Hermana Bettridge