Monday, March 28, 2016

Happy Easter 2016!



Hello Everyone!! HAPPY EASTER!!!!!! Well this week may have been short, but first let me tell ya about our little experience this week with prayer. So as we were biking home we see this man shouting at someone In his car and it happened to be his daughter who was like 2 years old and somehow he had forgotten his key inside and when he was about to get the baby out, the car was locked, and all of the doors along with the baby girl inside. So here we are trying to help this man trying to figure out how to open the doors and he was so worried, and his wife comes and is yelling at him and asking him how everything happened and she was telling the baby girl to pull the door handle from inside and the baby of course didn't know what they were saying so I told the lady have faith, God will help. My comp and I decided to say a prayer and we told them we would say a prayer and they were like " yeah, sure" and as soon as we said amen the baby touched some button that unlocked all of the doors. We were all shocked and happy and the mother stated “all we needed was faith" and they just THANKED us  and they were crying of joy and we hugged the lady and told her that the lord hears and answers our prayers when we have faith, It really works y'all haha. What a great experience! Now with our investigators: Ricardo #1 (the old man) we were teaching about Tithing and he tells us that he doesn't agree with it and that he doesn't have enough money to pay😒 so he may not get baptized this Saturday "Nooooo". But hopefully everything works out this week and he does. Pray he changes his mind about tithing and pays it, that way he can get baptized!!!! Ricardo #2 He’s amazing. So we gave him a date and he told us he is on parole :( so it may take a while until he gets baptized like in May or so but he is so prepared and he just wants to change and be better. He came to church and he likes it and he just said that he wants to surround himself with positive people and good people that will help him be happy, because that's all he wants, just to be happy yay he’s the best! My comp and I just love him and want to help him. We are finding more people and we want to improve in finding more who are wanting to take that step of baptism. And I know Heavenly Father is blessing us little by little. Well this Saturday is transfer calls, so we'll see who leaves or stays. I hope my comp and I stay because I have so much to learn from her. She's da best. She always shows me how to be charitable and that's a Christ like attribute I want to improve on. Okay, take care y'all and have a great week. 🌿Don't forget to pray and read your scriptures every day!!!

Mucho Amor,


Hermana Crystel Escalante
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Monday, March 21, 2016

Another investigator named Ricardo!


HELLO EVERYONE!!! Como estan!??
This week was a busy week as well. Man I never thought we would have so many meetings as a sister training leader. I can honestly say I'm exhausted, but I like staying busy it makes me forget that I go home
in 6 months. That's a good thing right!? Also I got to go on exchanges with my (mission daughter) Hermana Scott. Oh man how much I love that girl and miss her. We pretty much went to their area and helped them and we bused and walked, and it was freaking HOT. It reminded us of the summer days of 109 degrees of sweat and thirst back in Azusa. It was fun though and we talked about the good old days in Azusa. Oh how I miss my first area and the peeps. I'm not sure if I already said this but our investigator (RICARDO) that Hermana Murdock and I found is getting baptized on APRIL 3rd. We are so excited, he is so ready. A really cool miracle happened this week, one of our potential investigator (Jessica) that we visited when I first came, but was not progressing at all called us one night and asked us why we had stopped visiting her and we explained, that she wasn't progressing or keeping her commitments, so she asked us to go to her home, cause she needed us. So we went to her home and she was so happy and she said that she could feel the bad things going away from her home when we went in, lol but she actually introduced us to her brother (Ricardo) lol another Ricardo. And he had tattoos everywhere and looked like he needed help. He talked to us how he went to the Catholic Church and everyone was talking crap about him and stuff and how they just want their money. Lol and he said "I'm looking for a better church" and wants to repent and start over. So we talked about repentance and our purpose as missionaries. He wanted to check our church, so we had a church tour, but when he came he didn't bring another girl with him, and we couldn't proceed with the tour if there wasn't another girl, so he was like "hold up" I'll go bring someone. So he went back home, brought his niece and a baby haha and he came back to church. hahaha he said satisfied!?? Lol oh man he’s a especial one. But we invited him to get baptized and he said yes!!!! And he also came to church on Sunday and I'm not sure if he liked it because some Chinese person from the stake came and spoke really broken English and he was falling asleep so, we will see what happens this week. Haha but his baptismal date is for April 17th and he said that he does want to become a better person. Yay!! This week I know that it will be a better one, little by little we are finding more people who are ready to get baptized. One of the things I want to do better as a missionary is to apply everything I learn in my studies, I feel like every day we study as missionaries but we forget during the day of the things that we studied. So I want to improve on that. This week I want to remember more what Jesus Christ did for me and all of us, he is a special person in my life and I can testify that he lives, and that he stands at the head of this church guiding us. I know that the atonement can help us in our hard times, Jesus Christ is the only one who understands us and can heal us from everything we've done. I invite you all to ponder on the things that the savior has done for you. Have a great week everyone..

CHAO,
Hermana Crystel Escalante
🕊

                                                                 


Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Oh my goodness so many things happened this week!


Hello everyone!

Oh my goodness so many things happened this week. On Tuesday we had exchanges with sister Hobbs and Olsen and they were the cutest. Sister Hobbs is from New Zealand and she has the cutest accent. It was fun doing exchanges with them we found 5 new investigators.
On Wednesday: we had MLC and they broke our legs, so our mission president gave us new rules and we were very surprised and not too happy. The next day we would have to present the new rules to the whole mission in zone meeting. But it was my first MLC and it was amazing!!! Sister Villanueva told us that in order to help the sisters we need to help ourselves first, and that’s something I want to do better in order to help our sisters. On Thursday we had zone meeting, we had to teach in 3 zone meetings and tell them the new rules, and first two took it well we talked about obedience and faith and how we need to be obedient and follow the mission rules. The third meeting our mission president showed up and we taught again, but by the time we said the new rules everyone got really upset and started asking a lot of questions to our president and he got a little mad and was very bold and stated that they need to remember why they are here. Idk but a lot of changes are starting to happen in our mission, we are doing so good that we need to change in order to see miracles. On Friday: we had exchanges with Sister Shaw and Argueta (my old comp) and it was really good. We went to their area and helped them find people, but it was kind of hard to find because it started to RAIN. It was hard to work because we were soaking wet, but I'm happy that I got to spend some time with my old comp she's the best and a really good missionary. On Saturday: Elder Hamula came and we had another MLC!!!!! He talked to us the leaders and he pretty much broke our Legs too, he told us how we need to be converted to the gospel and stop being prideful and to change and repent. He's awesome!! Sunday: CHURCH, our investigator came (Ricardo) he is progressing and has a baptism date for April 3rd he is so excited! Sister Murdock and I found him. We had 20 lessons! It was a really busy week and I'm soooooo tired, my body hurts but I'm so happy to feel this way because I want to work hard. Something I read this week that my father asked me to read was the talk "bearing our burdens with ease" it says how we need to have loads in our life in order to be happy" I love that, because the lord gives me trials but I always learn from them because I know he already went through them, and in him I can find strength. Have a great week everyone!!!!


CHAO.
                                                                   


The dog wanted to meet her.
           

Sunday, March 13, 2016

ISAAC GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!


Hello everyone!!!

This week was awesome, first of all ISAAC GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!! A lot of things happened this week, we've been so busy with exchanges, lessons, meetings etc… Life as a sister training leader can be hard but I'm so happy to be working in this area, and with the sisters. We are working so hard and we have someone on a date and progressing. But a lot of cool things happened this week first one on Tuesday we received a call that we needed to exchange our car, so as we park at the mission office we see this beautiful silver 2016 Corolla and our faces light up
😳 so as we go in, they tell us how would you like to exchange your car to a 2016 Corolla!? Um, YES PLEASE. We got a brand new car with only 22 miles on it, we were so excited. We rolled the windows down, singing as loud as we could "I'm a child of God" haha showing off our brand new car. Lol fun times! Wednesday my old comp (Her. Ferguson) calls me saying that I can go to Isaacs’s baptism, that our mission president gave me permission to go. Isaac was a referral from the arroyo area sisters, Hermana Ferguson and I taught him until I left and Isaac was so ready for baptism, and the date was for March 4th but I left the area and I was so sad but Hermana Ferguson told me that Isaac went up to our mission president during stake conference and told him that he wanted me to go to the baptism on Friday. So president Villanueva gave me special permission and I went on Friday to Glendale to his baptism and I got to see him and I also got to give a talk about the Holy Ghost and it was a very spiritual  moment, Isaac was so happy to see me and I was so happy he finally got baptized. This is baptism #2 for me. I'm so happy that heavenly father blessed me with a baptism. Another funny thing that happened Friday was that I made my year mark!!!!!!! It was very cool to have hit my year mark and have my investigator get baptized on that same day.  Best gift ever!! I have 6 MONTHS LEFT, that's scary. I'm so thankful for this gospel and how much the lord is blessing me every day. My faith is growing little by little and the love I have for my savior. Also, we got to go on exchanges with the Arcadia sisters (Dunn, and Barney) I was with sister Barney and she's such a great missionary, I learned how to always have charity, and just love everyone no matter what. My goal this week is to study more of "humility" I feel like little by little I've become more humble and it's pretty much a Christ like attribute I want to achieve. Also on Saturday all of the missionaries in our mission got together because "Gladys knight" is coming to our mission and they said it's probably going to be one of the best firesides presentations ever. Gladys knight is the one who leads the choir and she will bear her testimony of why she become a Mormon, even though she grew up Baptist. We are so excited for that and to be able to take our investigators. It was so good seeing all of the other missionaries that I know, we hardly ever get together as a mission so Saturday was a good day. This week is going to be soo busy we have MLC twice and zone meeting and exchanges. I hope everyone has a great week, GO VISIT PEOPLE WITH THE MISSIONARIES.

Love,
🌬Hermana Crystel Escalante

                                                                                


Isaac got baptized.

They got a new car.