Día del Acción de Gracias 🦃

¡Hola!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I had a great week and had many things to be grateful for!

   

Back to the yellow shirt on Thanksgiving for service!

I got to go back to Canyon Lakes for two baptisms this week! Remember Juan Carlos? He finally got baptized! He told us about two months ago that he was going to get baptized on November 21st, but we had to keep it a secret! Here is what I said in my Facebook post: “Today was one of the best days of my mission! Juan Carlos has had contact with the Church ever since he met his wife over twenty years ago. His wife raised their kids in the Church, and one of their daughters is currently in Paraguay serving a mission. Before I got to Canyon Lakes he started going to church every week and staying the whole time. Megan Peña and I would go over every week to eat dinner and share a message. Juan Carlos told us he would get baptized one day, but he wasn’t ready yet. One night Maleny Calderon and I were driving home after going over to their house when he texted us and told us he was ready to get baptized! He told us he wanted it to be a secret because he wanted to get baptized on his wife’s birthday and surprise her! His wife serves in Young Women’s, so she was told she needed to be at the stake center at 7 for an interview. Meanwhile, the whole ward got there at 6 to wait. She walked in and realized she was at her husband’s baptism! There wasn’t a dry eye! In a year his daughter will be back from her mission and the family will go to the temple to be sealed together for time and all eternity! ❤️ “ (You can go on my Facebook to watch the video of her reaction!)

Juan Carlos’ baptism!

In addition, I got to go back on Saturday for the baptism of Julian and his sister Natalia! Julian is 10, and Natalia is 8. They are super cute kids, and they were so excited to finally get baptized! (Missionaries have been working with them for awhile now, but they don’t have very stable lives and kept moving into different wards!) 

Julian and Natalia’s baptism!

We had a good Thanksgiving! We spent most of the day doing service at a center for the homeless. We helped set up for the Thanksgiving meal, sort through clothes, and sort food boxes. Then we served food and helped pass out the clothing. Later we went and ate Thanksgiving dinner with some members. It was really good!

I also got to attend my first quinceañera on Saturday! (It was technically a Sweet 16, but it had the elements of a quinceañera! She just wanted to wait until she was 16 to have the big party.) It was so fun! We went to help set up everything the morning of. It was super nice! Probably nicer than my wedding will be! 😂 I love Hispanics and their parties!

 Barrera Quinceañera/Sweet 16!

We had some good luck with investigators this week as well! At the beginning of the week we started visiting people in the ward directory we don’t know (there are a lot of them!) We went to visit this one lady who lived way out in the middle of nowhere. At one point our GPS took us on an unpaved road. Eventually we came to a dead end in the road, but we really felt like we needed to see this lady! So we looked at a map and found a different route. Eventually we got there, and the lady was sitting outside in her driveway. She was happy to see us and immediately got us some chairs and invited us to share a message. She said she hasn’t been to church in about five years. Her ten year old son, Edgar, came to join us. He never got baptized, but remembers that he loved going to church! He loves to pray, and he said a really sweet closing prayer when we left. We are excited to work with their family again so they can all come back to church and Edgar can get baptized!

We had met a lady named Lidia (my middle name!) while knocking doors a couple weeks ago. She had gone out of town, but we were finally able to get in with her. She is so cool! She just moved here from Honduras and has a new baby. She is scared for her kids to grow up with all of the bad stuff happening in the world, and she has been looking for a church to raise them in. We know we were lead to her, and we are excited to continue teaching her!

Our other investigator, Yesenia, invited us over so we could learn how to make Honduran flour tortillas! She has been reading in the Book of Mormon a little bit, and she came to church with her two kids yesterday! Our other investigator, Laura, came to church for the third time yesterday! So, we are hoping to set some baptismal dates this week! I love the mission! (But I do hate that when you come to love an area you get taken out!)

Those of you who knew me before the mission know how close I am to my family, especially to my mom. Many people (including myself) weren’t sure about how I was going to leave without getting to communicate with my mom in the same way (in high school we would hang out all the time, even at school because she was my choir teacher! When I moved to Utah for school I would still call her almost every day!) The night before I left for the Mission Training Center  (MTC) I told my family we were going to say goodbye and get all of our tears out that night so I wouldn’t cry at the airport the next day and my makeup would still be nice when I got to the MTC! The next day we got up really early and they drove me to the airport. We hugged goodbye, and I went off to go through security with no tears! My parents told me I was going to do a great job and that they loved me. I was terrified because I really didn’t have any idea what was going to happen, but I knew I was going to have a great experience that would change my eternity. I went on a mission because I had prayed about it and knew it was part of Heavenly Father’s plan for me. I was excited for the experiences I was going to have.

This week in district meeting our district leader asked us to ponder about what Heavenly Father might have said to us before we came to Earth. While I don’t know exactly what He said, I can imagine He probably told me that He loved me and knew I was going to do good things. I was probably scared because I didn’t know what was going to happen, and I was used to being in my Heavenly Parents’ presence every day, but I was excited! We read in Job that we shouted for joy! I was happy for the chance to progress and excited for the experiences I was going to have.

Then I came to Earth! On Earth we have ways to grow and develop that we hadn’t had before. We prove ourselves, choose to come unto Christ, and prepare for eternity. My mission has been one of those opportunities for me! While we aren’t in the presence of God anymore, we can still communicate with Him through prayer. Prayer has saved me on the mission! I have learned to rely on prayer in a way I was never able to before. 

In 9 days I will get off the plane and will run and get to hug my family again (and there will be a lot of tears!) I know the happiness and joy I will feel in 9 days won’t even compare to what I will feel in the reunion with my family and friends, including my Heavenly Parents, when I have departed from this mortal life and return to my heavenly home.

The mission is like a mini life experience. Life, like the mission, can be really hard sometimes! We have to keep an eternal perspective. This life is so short! We need to have faith and make the best of every moment! I love all of you! I am so grateful for the love, prayers, and support I have received these past 18 months. I am going to go into this last week of my mission with faith, and I will make the best of every moment! I look forward to what is to come!

Love,

Hermana Bettridge

P.S. go watch this years’ #LightTheWorld videos on mormon.org !

Fotos:

Bowling with Kyonee and Oscar last p day!

Thanksgiving dinner with the familia Vasquez! (And their cat, Simba!)

Una semana de fiestas y servicio 🎉

Hola hola!

This week we went to a lot of fiestas and did a lot of service!

Hermana Morales and I were sorting the Christmas toys at the shelter and we found Barbies that are friends and look like us!

We volunteer at a women’s shelter for a couple of hours a week. We normally sort the donations. But, this week we spent more time there because they needed our help sorting Christmas toys for the kids! So fun! On Saturday we participated in a big service project with other missionaries and with a YSA ward. We did some deep cleaning at the shelter, and then we took apart a bunch of beds and set up new ones. It was really tiring, but they were so grateful for all of our help!


The other weekly service we do is teach English class. We have been putting up a lot of posters and inviting everyone we talk to. We had ten new students come, so that was awesome! This week two of our (nonmember) English class students invited us over for their sister’s baby shower. I was super excited because they were inviting us over to their house of nonmember, hispanic friends, and because I had never been to a hispanic baby shower before. It was super fun! It was basically a normal, hispanic party. (So a lot of food and loud music!) The pregnant lady wore a really fancy dress, and I decided I want to wear a fancy dress to my baby shower 😂

We also had our ward Thanksgiving party! SO MANY people came and brought their friends! It ended up being really fun! There was some interesting food, one hermana make mole turkey. (Mole is not my favorite!) But, there was some really good stuff too! One of the white hermanas brought funeral potatoes that were SO GOOD! I hadn’t had them my entire mission.

Other than that, we basically just visited people! I went to my last zone conference 😢 President talked to us about the importance of teaching with the Spirit, #LIGHTtheWORLD, and using Facebook more.

As I am getting to the end of my mission (16 days left) I have been thinking a lot about going home. I am excited to see everyone, go to back to school, and move forward in life but I can also get sad thinking about not being a full time missionary anymore. It’s something I have been praying about a lot recently. But, yesterday Heavenly Father helped me see that everything is going to be okay!

These four cute primary girls that just got baptized come to church alone every week. (There dad drops them off and leaves, we are working on that.) They love sitting with us misioneras and coloring during sacrament meeting. This other primary girl came to sit with us and showed me her talk. It was called “Puedo elegir ser una misionera ahora.” (I can choose to be a missionary now.) It was all about the little things she does everyday to share the gospel. I thought, “Wow! If this 10 year old can be a missionary so can I!”😂

We (all the missionaries here) also watched the Face to Face event last night with Elder Oaks and Elder Ballard. They talked about a lot of really great things I had questions about! One of the things they talked about was adjusting to “normal” life after the mission. They told us to keep doing the things we do as missionaries! It’s all about using agency correctly. In the mission we are told what time to wake up, when to study, where to work etc. At home we still wake up and go out to get stuff done, but we choose what time. At home I will still study the scriptures, but I decide when and for how long etc.

This week I also remembered way back when I was at the end of my time in the MTC. Our teacher shared an experience he had with us. He was getting close to the end of his mission when he had to go home suddenly for health problems. His mission President shared Doctrine and Covenants 138:57 with him, which reads:

I beheld that the faithful elders of this dispensation, when they depart from mortal life, continue their labors in the preaching of the gospel of repentance and redemption, through the sacrifice of the Only Begotten Son of God, among those who are in darkness and under the bondage of sin in the great world of the spirits of the dead.

Nothing, not even death, will stop me from sharing the gospel! The gospel of Jesus Christ has changed my life. The things I have learned in my mission have forever changed me. I can look forward to this next chapter in my life because I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for me!

I hope everyone has an amazing week! Eat a lot of turkey, and don’t forget to go on mormon.org this Friday and check out the Church’s Christmas video and service initiative! 😊


Love,


Hermana Bettridge

Fotos:

 

Hermana Jones (my sister and STL companion) and I at Zone Conference! (I kind of have crying eyes because I had just given my dying(last) testimony 😢)

 

The cute primary kids doing a presentation about the first Thanksgiving at our ward party 🍁

Cleaning at the women’s shelter

 

Us at another fiesta! A member was having a party and asked us to come serve food. (That’s a mechanical bull behind us!)

The biggest tender mercy of the week, I got to see mi hermanita y mejor amiga at the YSA broadcast! 💕 (She was sad because we were leaving each other again, but I will see her this week!)

🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 (almost)

Hola a todos!!!

This week I got to go back for Luz’ baptism! It was such a special day! She was so happy! 

Here is what I wrote on Facebook because it sums it up pretty well:
“Four months ago Megan Peña and I were new in a ward that hadn’t had a baptism in almost a year and a half. Feeling completely discouraged I fasted and prayed that Heavenly Father would lead us to find those who were ready to accept the Restored Gospel. In the middle of my fast we were sitting in church when a woman approached us and asked if she could purchase a copy of the Book of Mormon in Spanish. The English elders had knocked on her door and told her what time the Spanish services were, and she showed up on her own! We began teaching Luz while the English elders taught her husband, Charlie. They read the Book of Mormon, pondered the message in their hearts, and asked God if it was true. Today they were baptized, and in one year they will enter the temple to be sealed together for time and all eternity! God answers prayers. This is why I left everyone I love for a year and a half, so others can be with those they love for all eternity! ❤️ “


In other happy news, CHRISTMAS IS COMING! This week at MLC President showed us the Christmas Initiative this year. Remember #LIGHTtheWORLD last year? It’s really similar this year. The church is releasing a little service advent. Every day in December there is a scripture and a mini service project. I am super excited! It will be available on mormon.org the day after Thanksgiving.

Most of our investigators are not wanting to keep commitments, but we did have two newer investigators come to church on Sunday! We have been doing a lot of finding. (With not a ton of immediate success, but it’s all good! We’ll find them 😉) One night this week a youth recent convert, Dennise, asked us if she could come knock doors with us. That was super fun!

There are a lot of members I really love in this ward. We started teaching Kyonee her new member lessons! She is so amazing and loves learning everything she can about the gospel!

This week I was reviewing the General Conference talks, and I reread on of my favorites! I really loved Elder Rasband’s talk. In the talk he quoted Neal A Maxwell who said that “none of us ever fully utilizes the people-opportunities allocated to us within our circles of friendship. You and I may call these intersectings ‘coincidence.’ This word is understandable for mortals to use, but coincidence is not an appropriate word to describe the workings of an omniscient God. He does not do things by ‘coincidence’ but … by ‘divine design.’”

He goes on to talk about how we can see Heavenly Father’s hand in our lives when we look back on everything that has happened. As I read that I reflected on everything that has happened on my mission. I know Heavenly Father always put me in the places I needed to be in order to learn what He wanted me to. Every ward I was in, every companion I had, and every investigator I worked with was not by chance. Heavenly Father loves us so much! On my mission my testimony of how much He cares about us as individuals has grown SO much.

I hope everyone has an amazing week!

Love,
Hermana Bettridge

Fotos:

The day has come! I am on the board of departing missionaries 😱 (see all those? 7 hermanas are going home! That’s like half of us!)

My pals at MLC ❤️ (I got to see Calderón twice this week #milagros)

A member made us these really good gorditas 👍 

This is Dennise! She went contacting with us 😃 Conroe is getting ready for Christmas!🎄 

I officially became a Conroe 3rd missionary at the Barreras 😂

👰🏻💦➕(Boda Bap and Pupusas)

Hola, hola!

This was a great week! So many awesome things are happening in Conroe!

Kyonee at her wedding 💕 

The best part was that Kyonee got married and baptized! Her family drove down from Utah so they could be here! She was so happy! She was crying the whole time. We had the wedding in the Relief Society room, then she changed and we went right into the baptism. Then we had the reception in the gym. It was fun! She loved everything!

Yesterday we had a regional Stake Conference. So, we got together as a Stake and watched a broadcast from Salt Lake. We got to hear from some amazing talks, including a talk by Elder Christofferson. It was really good! It was like a mini General Conference! In addition to the awesome talks I got to see my favorite people because Canyon Lakes was there! I got to see Luz (who passed her baptismal interview and is getting baptized this Saturday!) Hermana Calderon told me that when she and Charlie (her husband) came out of their interviews he was crying and hugged her and said “just one more year and then we can go to the temple and be together forever.” ❤️

Halloween wasn’t that eventful. We just visited some people, then we had to be in our apartments by 6:30. So, we did our companionship study at night, ate dinner, and then we played cards. A few days later we had our ward Halloween party (but it was a Fall Festival because it was November.) Hermana Morales and I dressed up like the Elders. We all did face painting.

We didn’t have a ton of luck finding new people to teach this week. But, we had a little miracle last night! We went to visit a referral, and she turned out to be really cool! Her name is Rosa. She has two little kids. She is really interested in reading the Book of Mormon and learning more. Her mom, Gabi, was there too and wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon. So we are excited to teach them more. Milagros! Heavenly Father always puts people in our path.

My favorite hispanic food is a pupusa. If you don’t know what that is, it’s from El Salvador and it’s kind of like a pancake stuffed with meat and cheese. Super good! So, I’ve always wanted to learn how to make them. But, my entire mission people have said that it’s REALLY hard and you have to be from El Salvador to do it right. WRONG! Last night we went to a member’s house for dinner. She lives with this old lady (non member) who makes pupusas. The old lady taught us how to make pupusas! And it wasn’t that hard! So, now Hermana Morales and I are pupusa experts. And the old lady thinks we’re cool, so we will go baptize her. (She invited us over again to learn how to make tortillas de harina! 😊)

Before the regional broadcast on Sunday the Stake President, President Call, talked to us about the importance of saying prayers of faith. He quoted James 2 and talked about how faith without works is dead. He talked about the importance of showing faith when we pray; we must pray with the intent on acting. We have to remember that our faith can’t change other’s agency or Heavenly Father’s will. But, we pray to align our will with His. When we pray with faith we don’t pray that the missionaries can find people to teach. Instead we pray that people will be put in our path to talk to, that we will have the right words, and that we can introduce them to the missionaries. I loved that! He invited us to say a prayer of faith for each member of our family ever day.

That’s about it! We are planning on going out this week and finding a bunch of cool people to teach! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,


Hermana Bettridge

Fotos:

For the Halloween party we dressed up like the Elders

Our face painting stand (decorated with stuff from our apartment)

This member has this ugly dog, but her toenails were painted 

(it’s hard to tell, but they are pink!)

I got to see Hermana Cervantes my “Canyon Lakes mom” at the Conference

We made the Relief Society room look nice(r) for the wedding 

(the runner is paper from the library we stapled to carpet and put flowers over the staples)

The gym is what we were even prouder of! The Relief Society Hermanas were supposed to show up with decorations and we were just going to help decorate. Well, no one showed up. So we frantically ran around and found string, lights, and tulle in a closet. So we decorated the stage curtain and put down tablecloths 😆 Looks decent! (They did eventually show up with food and a cake, so that’s what’s really important!)

Kyonee’s baptism ❤️ 

PUPUSAS!!! Made by us 😘