Monday, January 25, 2016

Baptism


Hello everyone, 😁

the lord is blessing us with a baptism on
February 7th, his name is Manuel Chavez and he is Sooo ready for baptism. We are so excited, he has been taught in the past but literally couldn't get
baptized in the past 2 times because something terrible would always happen. The last two times when he was taught by old missionaries, his 2 brothers died and he got really discouraged and didn't get baptized and the missionaries dropped him for like 8 months. Nobody contacted him UNTILLLL we found him on December and he told us to come back January, he stated that he loves Mormons Sooo much, said good things about us and he just wants to scream and tell everyone  on the street " HE IS MORMON" after he gets baptized Haha I love him. He is the best and is ready to get baptized. We told him he needs to come 3 times again to church and he was like " I'll do it" and he literally did it, he came yesterday to church and my comp and I were so happy to see him there and he said I will never miss church. Our leaders have been telling us that "We Teach repentance and baptize converts" meaning that we don't baptize just to baptize, we teach repentance so that the person may really convert to the gospel, there are a lot of missionaries that baptized a lot but their investigators don't stay in church and our leaders don’t want us to do that. They want the investigators to understand the atonement and really have that change of heart. I want to work on that. I know as I keep being obedient the lord will bless me with more baptisms and is already doing it. We have to be obedient In order to see the blessings. :) we are working as hard as possible. I love being a missionary especially when you see people change. I know God lives, I know that Jesus is the Christ, our savior and redeemer. I know that only through repentance we can feel Gods love more and we can be cleansed.  I read a talk this week it was by President Russell M. Nelson, it's Sooo good it's called " becoming true millennials" I recommend y'all to read it. Well good luck this week and work hard folks. More blessings are In Store for us from our Heavenly Father if we are obedient.

Love, Hermana Escalante

Monday, January 18, 2016

Sick with a cold!!

So this week I got really sick with a cold my voice changed and now I sound like a MAN. It was hard to work as much but we had to anyway (more blessings right!?). The elders gave me a blessing and hours later I felt kind of better and I told my comp. "man those pills work" she was like " you mean the blessing!?" I was like "yeah that too"  haha it did work though. Anyway, we saw some small miracles this week: our investigator Glenda has a BOYFRIEND, great!! She never told us about him, so now they are living together so that's going to be hard for her to get baptized. We love her so much but she said that they'll get married soon. Hopefully. Also, Yoselin our other investigator is progressing a lot, she told us that she has been reading her scriptures and praying that little by little she's understanding and feeling the SPIRIT, yay. At first she couldn't feel like she was getting an answer, but she happily told us that she is understanding those feelings of the spirit. We love her so much and it's hard now to see her because she's back at school but we’re going to leave her some homework to do during the week that way she doesn't escape from us. :) Well not a ton happened this week so hopefully this new week is better. Have a great one everyone.
Love,

Hermana Escalante (Escy)



Sunday, January 17, 2016

We should all be like Nephi!


Hello everyone!!!

So this week has been crazy we had 16 lessons and that's way good because it has been raining here so I'm happy for that. Not a lot of cool things this week but we had a zone meeting and our mission President wants us to be more obedient. So actually I was reading a talk about obedience, and one of the things it said is “that as missionaries we tend to change our behavior not our nature” and our behavior way of thinking is that you do it because YOU HAVE to wake up at 6:30 am every day or we do it because it's a rule. If we don’t change our behavior we will go home the same person we were before the mission, but when we change our nature we will want to do it because we love the lord. And it becomes part of who we are. Pretty much giving you're all to the lord. I was thinking about that throughout this week and how it's important to do the small and simple things like obey the rules, it's so simple and like he says if we do it the lord blesses us more. I want more blessings. To me is as simple as this "keeping the commandments "the lord tells us simply to keep them. President Monson said God’s commandments or (MISSION RULES) are not given to frustrate us or to become obstacles to our happiness. Just the opposite is true. He who created us and who loves us perfectly knows just how we need to live our lives in order to obtain the greatest happiness possible. He has provided us with guidelines which, if we follow them, will see us safely through this often treacherous mortal journey. And He understands that when we keep the commandments (MISSION RULES) our lives will be happier, more fulfilling, and less complicated. Our challenges and problems will be easier to bear, and we will receive His promised blessings. But while He gives us laws and commandments, He also allows us to choose whether to accept them or to reject them. Our decisions in this regard will determine our destiny. In order to see the baptisms we need to obey the rules and another key that he gives us is faith, without faith we cannot see the help of the lord. We cannot expect the lord to bless us if we don't have faith and act I know as we keep the commandments, the Lords promise is that we will have eternal life and our lives will be better and happier.  We should all be like Nephi when he said. "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them. I know as we do obey the small and simple rules and commandments we will feel Gods love and we will become more like his son Jesus Christ. Have
a great week y'all.

Love,
Sister Escalante
During Christmas

They got their nails done.



Monday, January 4, 2016

Holy cow today is my 10 month mark!


Holy cow so today is my 10 month mark, and is going by so fast but I’m so grateful to be here! So this week we made 4 baptismal dates and we are so excited, 3 baptisms for January and 1 for February. The lord has been blessing us so much and I’m thankful for that. We had transfer calls on Saturday and I stayed one more time here in Fletcher with my companion Hermana Ferguson (same amazing companion) I’m so excited to work even harder this transfer with her. The lord has been blessing us so much and every day we have a miracle, it’s great. One of my goals for these few last months is to be more obedient, I am a pretty obedient missionary now (Not to brag) but I know the lord blesses us when we are more obedient and we forget ourselves and get to work. I know obedience brings blessings and I know heavenly father will bless me even more if I give all that I have to him. I’m so grateful for this gospel, it has blessed me so much and I love being a missionary. I love smiling and bearing my testimony that this is the only true church on earth today and that Joseph Smith restored this gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ back on earth. I love the scriptures, they are my guide and they always help me to be in a good mood and to do better. I know that as we read them we will feel closer to our Father in Heaven and we will know how to prepare to go back to him. In one of our lessons with our investigator Yoselinne, we talked about the plan of salvation (man you could feel the spirit so strong with her) the Lord had been preparing her and she is ready to get baptized she loves to learn and every time I testify of the gospel to her I just want to cry because I know that heavenly father wants us to go back to him and we have to do everything we can to go back to him because we promised him we would. I hope everyone has a great week, and work hard y’all. Read your scriptures, say your prayers, y’all know the rest. Love you all!