La Expiación de Jesucristo

Hola familia y amigos!

This week we had a worldwide broadcast and found out there will be changes to our schedule. Basically we get an extra half hour in the morning and at night and our prep day is two hours longer! So I am super excited! We also spread out our studies throughout the day instead of doing everything in the morning. 

Us at the temple with Carol

This week we went to the temple with Carol! She was baptized for her mom and grandmas. Carol is the best! She was called to lead the music in Relief Society and is super cute! We took her to a lesson with us that started to go kind of bad and the lady was telling us why she thought the Book of Mormon was false and Carol testified about how the Book of Mormon has changed her life and brought her peace and how she knows it is the word of God. It was so sweet!

One of my favorite investigators ever, Rose, moved out of our mission this week. I was super sad! She started reading the Book of Mormon and without us even teaching her chastity she told us she knew she had to "stop shacking up with her man." He wanted to get married, but she decided to break up with him and move out. She is super excited to get baptized on February 25th! I am excited for the missionaries in the east mission that are going to work with her now!

We are teaching a newish family, the Gallegos. Their grandma is a member of the church that lives in la fábrica. ("The factory." What the Spanish wards call Utah because most missionaries are from Utah.) We taught them the Restoration and the mom told us she knows Joseph Smith is a prophet. They started reading the Book of Mormon as a family. ❤️

This month I have really been thinking about the atonement. (I mean, missionaries think about the atonement everyday, but I have been thinking about it extra and trying to apply it to my life!) The atonement is when Christ suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He died on the cross, and when He resurrected. Our district leader gave us an assignment to apply the atonement to our lives and we have been talking about it every district meeting this month. Something I have come to realize is that Christ did not live a perfect life. He was perfect and lived perfectly! But, He had to go through so much, every bad thing you can think of! One of my favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon is Alma 7: 11-13

11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

13 Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me.

He went through everything so that He could know how to help us. When we realize our own nothingness and our dependence on Christ we can realize our true potential! I am a product of the atonement of Jesus Christ. I am far from perfect. I make mistakes every day. But, because of what Christ did for me, I can repent and change every day to become more of what He knows I can be! Christ was able to go through it all because He realized who He was, God' son.


Que tengan una buena semana! (Have a good week!)

Love,



Hermana Bettridge


Fotos:

Last p day for our district activity we went and got our eyebrows waxed

Hermana Calderón and I love matching :) 

I saw Hermana Kiser at the broadcast

I saw Hermana Sheirbon

We went to a taco bell/kfc combination for lunch!

Albert got us matching Texas shirts

Elvira went with us to eat tortas with Hermana Nunez 

The district!

More of us

Esta Semana

Hola!

This was a crazy week, but it was awesome! We taught a lot of lessons and found some awesome people!

This week I went on a super fun exchange with Hermana Fernandez. She is from Mexico and just came to the states a month ago. I was nervous because she doesn't speak English, but it was super fun!

Hermana Fernandez and I!

This is Hermana Nunez aka "Hermana Torta" who makes us tortas every Saturday

This week I have been thinking a lot about why we go to church. If you were in the last moments of your life I can imagine you would want to be with the most important people in your lives and would tell them the most important things. We read in Luke 22 that when Christ was in the last moments of His life, He chose to be with His Apostles. He knew He was going to be crucified soon, so He instituted the sacrament so that they could remember Him and what He was going to do for them. 

Christ was crucified, but we know he resurrected three days later. Because of that, one day we will all be resurrected too and we will stand in the presence of God to be judged of what we did in this life. By taking of the sacrament weekly we can accept His sacrifice into our lives and be prepared. By taking of these sacrificial emblems we can be clean, in a way we can push a "reset" button every week. Is there anything you wouldn't do to take advantage of this blessing?

In Acts 20:7 we read that after Christ's resurrection His Apostles met together weekly to partake of the sacrament and to remember Him and to remember that through Him we can be cleansed of sin.

As part of the restoration of Christ's church to the earth, the authority to administer this ordinance has also been restored. Each week we can attend church to be clean again!

I love you all and hope you have a great week and attend church next Sunday to partake of the sacrament!


Love,



Hermana Bettridge

Our friend, the goat, at the zoo last week

Me with the goat 

 Us with some giraffes 

 

Milagros ❤️

Hola!

This was an awesome week full of miracles! I love Hermana Calderon, our area, and the gospel! 

District Meeting! Hermana Calderon and I matched!

Us with our Starbucks! I explained to her that you can get coffee free fraps and her life changed!

Hermana Calderon is a convert. She joined the church about six years ago. She went to the Oakland temple to see the Christmas lights. She was with her brother, and they saw the Cristus statue at the visitor's center. She went over to see what it was, she was Catholic and had only seen statues of Christ on the cross. She talked to some missionaries that said they could come to her house and teach her more. She didn't want to learn more, so she gave them a fake address. But, her brother gave them their real address. Missionaries came by and taught them the lessons while they helped paint her room. Hermana Calderon is awesome and has such a strong testimony! I love being her companion.


We have seen lots of miracles with the people we are teaching. We have these investigators, Artemio and Maria, that want to get baptized but are waiting on the paperwork they need to get married. Their daughter is 16 and was baptized a couple of years ago. She now doesn't believe in God and doesn't want to come in when we are over. But, we saw a miracle with her! She came into our lesson and listened to us. Then she started asking a bunch of questions, like why God would let bad things happen. She was trying to trip us up, but we testified to her of the love God has for her and what He has in store for her life. It ended up really touching her heart and she started crying. She asked if we could come answer more questions she has.


We have an awesome investigator, Rose, that we were able to set a baptismal date with this week. She has had a really rough life, but is trying to turn her life around. She requested a free Bible online and we brought it over and offered to share some more of our message. She loves reading the Book of Mormon and loves the peace it brings!

We went to the zoo today for p day with the district and it was super fun!

Us amongst the children!

I love being a missionary and I love the gospel!

Have a great week!


Love,




Hermana Bettridge

"Si no vive para servir no sirve para vivir" - Hermana Torta

Hola!

Hemos visto muchos milagros esta semana!

(We have seen many miracles this week!)

Carolyn's new companion Herman Calderon

This week I was sad to say goodbye to Hermana Kiser. She went to H10. But, I know they are going to love her there! Hermana Calderon came to me! She is so fun! We came out the same day, so I'm with someone my own "age" for the first time. She was born in Mexico, but moved to California when she was 2.  She goes to BYU. I met her for the first time in the closet at the MTC at 2am when we were both trying to weigh our suitcases and she asked me where I was going and I said Texas Houston Mission and she got really excited because she thought she was going to be alone! (She was in the class for people that already spoke Spanish)

I forgot how different things are here in the ghetto until Hermana Calderon started pointing them out to me, like dead dogs in the street.

So many awesome things have happened this week! The Book of Mormon musical is here and this guy at a gas station thought we were celebrities.

I am really looking forward to this transfer! I love Hermana Calderon! We both work hard but have fun too.

I have been out 7 months now and I can't believe it!!!

I love you all!


Love,



Hermana Bettridge

New members in the district

Happy New Year! 🎉

Happy New Year!

It is crazy to think this time next year I will be home and going back to school! Where has the time gone?

We got transfer news and I will be staying here in H3 and Hermana Kiser is leaving. We are super sad, but we were together three months and she has been here for six. So, we guessed that would happen. I am excited to stay here and a little nervous to get a new companion!


Our main investigators right now are the Salas family. We are teaching the mom, Marci, and her three kids. They are all preparing for baptism at the end of this month! They are awesome! We also started teaching Marci's sister, Melissa, and her three kids. Melissa decided she wants to change and stop drinking. (Funny how people start repenting on their own once they start reading the Book of Mormon!) She wants to turn to God so she can have the guidance she needs for her family. So please keep the Salas and Chavez families in your prayers! They are having a hard time taking that first step to come to church.

Yesterday Hermana Kiser and I were asked to speak in both the English and Spanish ward. We spoke about the Restoration. We just taught it and turned the questions we usually ask into statements. I guess it went pretty well because afterward people came and gave us referrals! I was a little scared to speak in Spanish, but Heavenly Father helped me out!

I hope you all have a great week and a happy new year!



Love,



Hermana Bettridge

CHRISTMAS

Feliz Navidad!

This was a great week because it was CHRISTMAS!!!! I got the best Christmas present of all, to Skype with my family! It was so awesome to get to talk to them. It's hard being away from family at Christmas, but it's great to be a missionary at Christmas time! What better way to celebrate the birth of our Savior than by getting to talk about Him with everyone I see!

skyping with the fam!

We had a great week! Everyone was busy, so it was hard to teach lessons, but we got to be with some awesome members for Christmas Eve and for Christmas! We also had Christmas Conference! The whole mission got together. We had lunch and watched a movie about Christ's birth. We read Luke 2 and President Mortensen talked to us about how we need to be like the shepherds. It was a great day! Hermana Kiser and I, along with three elders in our zone, sang The First Noel/ La Primera Navidad and it went pretty well. 

There is a slideshow on the mission blog at: CLICK HERE

We had a goal as a mission to have 600 convert baptisms this year, which is really high for our mission. We are going to end the year around 550 baptisms (which is still the second highest in the history of the mission.) We came to Christmas Conference a little sad that we hadn't met our goal. President talked to us about the story of Nephi in the Book of Mormon. Nephi thinks he has failed when he goes back to Jerusalem to get the plates. He tries offering his family's wealth to Laban, but Laban takes it and does not give him the plates. He does not obtain the plates in the way he thought he would, he gets the plates because he comes back to find Laban drunk and is able to kill him and put on his clothing. President pointed out to us that Laban was probably drunk because he was celebrating his new wealth. So far this year, 260 of those new converts have taken family names to the temple to perform proxy baptisms. On average each has taken 2.33 names. The new converts did 606 baptisms. 606 people on the other side of the veil have had the opportunity to accept those baptisms. President talked to us about how the work we do here leads to work we cannot see. Those new converts will share the restored gospel with their friends, they will raise their kids in the gospel, they will go on missions, and they will continue to go to the temple. The work will keep moving forward!

Christmas and Christmas Eve were great! We visited a lot of people who all gave us tamales! We had a combined sacrament meeting with both the English and Spanish wards, so that was interesting. It was mostly done in Spanish and there was a translator. People just sang the hymns in whatever language they wanted to.


I love you all and hope you had a merry Christmas and a happy new year! (I get to start off the new year by speaking in both the English and Spanish sacrament meetings)

Love,


Hermana Bettridge

Lots of pics this week!

1. My two companions from the mission, who were companions before I got here! (I got to see all my friends at Christmas Conference!)
2. Hermana Kiser and my friends from College Station!
3. Hermana Kiser and I! (Note the matching shoes!)
4. Hermana Sheirbon and I!
5. My old district! (I miss them a lot!)
6. How we really act!
7. Hermana Taylor, my MTC companion
8. Hna Andreasen, one of my MTC district friends!
9. Hermana Kiser and I found a cool house that made a dragon out of lights
10. The missionaries that meet in my building all jumping after church on Sunday because we got to skype our families!
11. The Sanchez family! One of my favorite families here! They invited us over on Christmas for brunch after church. 

🎄 Feliz Navidad🎄

🎄 Feliz Navidad🎄 

Hello!


No one got baptized this week, but it was still pretty good! ;)

We found some cool new people we are teaching.

Yesterday was even a little cold, and I had to wear a jacket!

(The day it snowed in Oklahoma this week it was in the 80s here!)






We are teaching a couple of different families. We found David, Rosa, and their five kids last week (the ones that came to church) and we started teaching them this week.

David is super familiar with the Bible and was excited to learn about the Book of Mormon.

(They have a daughter named Camora which sounds like the hill Cumorah.)

We also found the Salas family knocking. It is a mom and her four kids.

When we shared the First Vision with her she told us she felt a feeling she hadn't felt before and didn't want it to leave.

We committed her and three of the kids to prepare for baptism on January 21st.

There is this really awesome youth, Jackie, that just got baptized a few months ago.

She always comes out with us. Her dad, Jose, and brother, Juan, have been coming to church for a few weeks.

The dad told us he wants to be baptized, so we gave him a Book of Mormon on Sunday and are going to set the date with him this week.


Carol (our recent convert) is the best and comes to (English) lessons with us! We really love her, and her dedication to the gospel.

She sets aside two hours a day to read the Book of Mormon, has almost finished all of the talks from last conference,

and has started reading Daughters in my Kingdom and the Howard W Hunter book.

She really is a fourth floor, last door situation. We prayed at the beginning of last transfer where we should knock.

We felt like we should knock a street called Wellington, which is really long.

We spent like a week knocking, and Carol lives clear on the end.

We started her family history with her so she can go to the temple to be baptized for her ancestors.



Last P Day we went downtown. We went to the science museum and hung out at a park. (See pics above!)


I hope you all have a great Christmas and find ways to make your Christmas Christ centered! 

Check out Mormon.org for some great ideas.


I love you!

Love,

Hermana Bettridge