I have goals everyday of finding people to teach!

Hello friends!!!!
Well this week was pretty good, we had one investigator who is doing great I'm not sure if I talked about her last week. But her name is CITA lol so we saw her 3 times this week. The first one we went on Wednesday and we talked about restoration and she had so many questions about church because she went to church Last Sunday and we just answered all of them and they were pretty hard. Haha but she invited us to her house on Thursday because her husband was going to be there I really didn't like him he is a member but very negative. We talked about the Book of Mormon and gave her a copy, we read 3 Nephi 27:1-21 and we talked about baptism and the true church on earth and her husband knew where we were going with it and he told us that she is not going to get baptized any time soon. My companion and I were so mad because that was our plan and he ruined everything. :( But on Saturday we had a tour of the Church with her and it was great :) she said eventually if we keep insisting she may change religions. Anyway, we had zone conference and it was my first one, our mission president talked to us and some missionaries too and our mission president talked about working hard until your last day on your mission. And I want to work hard and find those souls. Also, I have goals everyday of finding people to teach. :) This week was great we found new people and we are still working on the two that have baptismal dates!!! :) pray for us this week our goal is to work harder. :) I'm almost done with training! Ah transfers are in two weeks my companion may leave :( and since 4 new Hermanas are coming in I may be training ah scary well hopefully everyone is doing great love you guys!!!!! Have a great week and do great things. I love this gospel and I love to learn more from the scriptures. I love my mission and my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ they are always there to help me and my companion at finding people.  Go out with the missionaries!!!! And keep sharing the gospel. :)

Love, Hermana Escalante      

This week was AWESOME!!!!!

This week was AWESOME!!!!! We have two baptismal dates!!! Ahhh I'm so excited, one of them is Cesar and he is 14 years old. His parents are members but less actives. And he told us that he had taken a bible class in school and that he had been praying for God to help him with tests and he said God is real and he is there and he told us that he wants to learn more. He is ready and he wants to do good things. We extended the invitation to him to get baptized and he said, yes!!! On June 14th :) hopefully he gets there, I'm praying that he is ready that day. :) The other one is a lady named Soledad, we've been
to her house 3 times and we read the Book of Mormon with her 2 Nephi 31 about baptism and how it's very important and we also extended the invitation for her to get baptized and she said YESSSS!! On June 28th, Haha we love her she is great, we hope she is ready on that day. But I have faith that she will be ready she always tells us that she has to read because she knows we will ask her questions. Lol it was great. Oh this week we went on exchanges and my companion went to another area for a day and I stayed with another sister and I was terrified because I'm still learning the area, I know the main streets but
Ugh I was so nervous about getting lost or not finding anyone, but it went great we actually found new people! This week we did a lot of finding and we actually were walking (like always) or biking and we met this lady that we stopped cause she had the cutest puppy. We always make an  excuse to stop people or just say something random to talk, and share the gospel Told her we are missionaries, she said she has talked to missionaries and invited us to her house!!! She let us share our message with her. :) She told us that her husband is from chile, and he is a member but has been inactive for
like 20 years. She is catholic but not an active one, she has always wanted to earn more about LDS church, her husband always had excuses, busy working and never had time to go with her and they always went to the Catholic church. But we invited them to come to church and she said she would ask her husband and maybe they would come to church.
THEY CAME!!!!!!!! I was so happy, they left early but at least they came to the most important part of church the sacrament! They invited us to come over their house sometime this week because they would like to learn more so we may have another baptismal date?! Aghhhhhh I'm excited oh yeah her name is CITA(which in English it means appointment) she is awesome. Heavenly Father is awesome and he puts people in our way who are ready :)  I invite all of you who are members to please  give referrals to the missionaries cause members need to help us with this work too,it's not easy. It's hard for people sometimes to really be interested. If you have a neighbor that feels that hey they need to hear the gospel I encourage you to give them to the elders or sisters. It would
be wonderful, because we would love to receive a lot of referrals from members but they are lazy. Thanks! And please email me, cause I want to hear from yall too. Lol I know this church is true, I know that as we ask Heavenly Father for something he will help us. I know that he lives, I know the scriptures are true because I always pray for Heavenly Father to help me understand them. I love them and they help be a better person and a
better missionary. I love our prophet Thomas s. Monson and know he is our prophet today  I know that testimonies can change people's lives.Increase your faith like elder Richard g. Scott invited us to do 4things that will strengthen our faith and increase our testimony for
this gospel. 1. Pray 2. Scripture study. 3. FHE. 4. Temple attendance.Go to the temple, the members here have the temple so close here 40 minutes away  and they Dont go!! Ahh I would go every week. The temple is wonderful and it's a way to feel Heavenly Father close to us. I love it. Also remember  this , it was from conference about Latter Day
Saints I love it cause it helps me keep going. "My invitation to all of us is to evaluate our lives, repent, and keep on trying. If we don’t try, we’re just latter-day sinners; if we don’t persevere, we’re latter-day quitters; and if we don’t allow others to try, we’re just
latter-day hypocrites. As we try, persevere, and help others to do the same, we are true Latter-day Saints. As we change, we will find that God indeed cares a lot more about who we are and about who we are becoming than about who we once were. Let us be LATTER DAY SAINTS. I love this quote. Share the gospel with everyone! Well have a great
week everyone!
Love yall,

Hermana Escalante

Yum!

 

They are so happy because they get a car to go shopping.

                                                                    

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Happy late Mother's Day everyone! I got to talk to my Familia and it was awesome I really needed to talk to them! Lol so this week was so cold here in Azusa and it was raining! We found a lot of new people and we have 3 progressing investigators. We found this lady named "Soledad" which in English her name means "loneliness" but she is really not lonely. We taught her the restoration, and then her friend came over and we taught her, so we kinda had 2 lessons at the same time. They both said that they want to come to church. :)
this week we also did a lot of finding and we contacted a lot of people. Everyday is a new adventure. :) I learn more and more. My scripture reading is getting so much better. I always read talks from Liahona or from general conference they Help me  a lot and reading the scriptures too.We found this young lady (Guadalupe) who is now 25 who
got baptized when she was 15 but stopped going because her grandma and mom had died so she didn't go back. We found her and we started talking to her. She opened up to us and told us everything about her life, EVERYTHING :/ but she was very nice and told us that before she didn't believe in God, because he took away her mom who had cancer and
 her grandma.  but she started going to the Catholic Church and she started getting closer to him. And her boyfriend has helped her a lot, because he treats her nice and he wants the best for her. We showed her the video " because of him" and she loved it. She was so happy that we went to her house and she said she felt better. It was a great experience and now she wants to be an  example to her sister who is not doing the right things. Our goal with her is for her to come to church and to feel his love in her life more. :) this week as we went to eat tacos with my companion for dinner I ordered like 5 tacos and I
saw this old man who was poor, he was dirty and didn't smell pretty good but he only had 2 dollars to pay for 1 taco! I literally felt the spirit telling me to go and buy him 2 tacos and I did! My companion saw me doing it, and she was very happy. I felt so much better
afterwards. I knew that I did what Jesus Christ would've done. We should be more like him, in preach my gospel it says how we can apply Christlike attributes and I have been doing that more. I want to be more like Jesus Christ. And I am representing him Because  I have his name close to me from that I know that he is very happy with me for everything I'm doing. :) I invite all of you to be more like Christ. You will see that as you do Christlike attributes you will receive more blessings. :) Our goal for this week is to talk to more people and to at least have 10 contacts a day :) I know that we can do it. I love being a missionary, it's hard at times but the lord is always there with us. The scriptures and praying everyday always helps me know that heavenly is always there. I know that reading the scriptures everyday can help you get closer to God and feel his love for you. This church is true. People every time they see us tell us that they admire us for helping others come unto Christ. They never close the doors to us because they say that we are good people who go around and teach the word of God. Always share your testimony!  Well peeps have a great week. And share the gospel with everyone!!!!! :)

Love yall!
-Hermana Escalante

 

                                                                                   

Share your testimony with Everyone!

Hello amigos!!!!!! Well this week it rained a lot here and literallyt he people here In Cali do need the water haha and it's been cold. One person told us we were crazy because we were biking with skirts and it was raining haha but it's worth it. We contacted 30 PEOPLE it has been a great blessing. I have been praying that Heavenly Father would put people in our way for us to talk to and he did!!! Now it's way easier to stop people on the streets haha sometimes it's hard to say things fast and one of them is the church name in Spanish. "La Iglesia de jesucrito de Los santos de Los ultimos Dias" Gosh it's so hard and
I have to say it fast because some people are in a hurry but we always get their address and number :) this week we also had a baptism, I was asked to give a small talk about the gift of the Holy Ghost and it was awesome. His name is Isauro Gazga and he turned 8 so he decided to get baptized and it was great. My first baptism and it was so cool that I got to teach him about the gospel before his baptism. Also this week almost all of our investigator canceled our lessons. The hardest thing is getting our investigator to go to church. They always cancel but we never give up and we have learned with my companion to be patient and to really work harder to get those people to church. But this week I know it will be better. We also learned this week how to make CHURROS they were so good. But I honestly don't remember the recipe :( sorry haha how's everyone?! I hope you guys are doing great. I'm loving my mission, and I love the people here. It's great to know
that Heavenly Father is always there and if we ask him for things in our prayers, we should, ask with a sincere heart and with real intent and he will help you and answer your prayers. I promise you that because I pray EVERYDAYYY. prayer is so awesome, I literally feel so close to my Heavenly Father every time I pray.  Well, my amigos, Love everyone and go out with the missionaries. And please Share your testimony with Everyone!I have learned that testimonies can change people's lives, every time I'm in a lesson with an investigator I share my testimony. And they love it. I love know this church is true, Without a doubt in my mind. I know Heavenly Father  loves each and everyone of us. I know the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. READ IT. It will change your life. I pray to understand the scriptures and I love the feeling I get when I read them. Pray and read your scriptures Everyday. Your life will be easier and good things will happen if you come unto Christ. One of my favorite scriptures is in D & C 84:88 and it says "And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up". That is his promise and he will always be there with us. Be humble, pray for those in need, love everyone, and come closer to God. I promise you as you keep enduring to the end, he will bless you even more.

Take care amigos.
Love y'all
-Hermana Escalante :)

                                                                              

My name as "caliente"

Hey everyone!

So this week was pretty interesting. The work is getting harder but we don't ever  give up. So on Monday of couse we had p- day which is my favourite Haha. On Tuesday we basically searched for people and we found this lady well she found us her name was Maria Luis she asked us if we were like preachers and we said no " missionaries" haha she
literally told us hey I live right over there you can come any day and visit me I would like to hear from you. We were like heck yeah,people literally don't come up to us and say that they want to hear us haha. But we gave her our number and she asked if we could pray for her and she asked me to pray because she was sick and she felt better afterwards. She was awesome, we may visit her some day. Haha we had a lesson afterwards with an investigator her name is Adrianna and she is nice, but we extended the invitation to be baptized and she said no because she's already baptize, well she said when she was young to the Catholic Church. Ugh I just get frustrated when people tell me this and I just feel like telling them they are wrong but since I'm a missionary I can't and I have be nice sometimes haha but some people are just so ahhh. Haha well we taught her about the Book of Mormon and invited her to read it. Now I know how to give the Book
of Mormon to someone it's so easy. Haha on Wednesday we got invited by this man he is a member. He is pretty weird but I like when he invited us to eat haha we ate tacos! I always get carne Asada and lengua which is cow tongue it's sooo good. I realized that I have gained weight and lost some haha but at least I'm not really fat so far hopefully I don't get there. Well my clothe still fit so I guess I'm still okay. Haha later on that day this sister invited us to eat pizza from Costco and this girl asks if she could sit with us and were like yeah?! And she started talking how she was a Mormon and that she is from Utah but she left the church and left her family when she turned 18. She basically wanted to do whatever she wanted. But she got to some point that everything with her life was
going wrong and she had so many trials in her life and she said that she came to the point where she hated God but one day she said she decided to pray and to get closer to God because she was at some point ready to commit Suicide and she was broke she had no life, no family,work was horrible she hated herself and she started reading the
scriptures and saying her prayers, and read her Patriarchal blessing and she went to church. But she could not find any church meetings in English they were all either Chinese or Spanish. Haha we told her that the one we go to is English and Spanish and we gave her our number. She told us that we were her answer to her prayers that she needed to go back to church because now she knows that Heavenly Father is there and that he is
here to help her. She has learned from her trials. It was a great experience. On Thursday some person thought my name as "caliente" and I said NO it's "Escalante" haha and he said well you're still caliente haha I'm like thank you weird person. We tried to teach him something but he said he already goes to another church. On Friday we had a church tour with one of our investigators his name is Vicente. Everything went great our goal. The goal was to bring our investigators to church to show them the church but only Hermana Bateman and I brought our investigator. Other ward missionaries didn't.Yeah we did good. On Sunday we had a farewell or we call it "despedida" 20 missionaries left. :( I met a lot of other missionaries. And 3 people that I knew left :(  but I didn't get transferred because I'm still In training. But I met some people from Honduras I literally was so happy cause there way to many Mexicans here haha they were so nice. Well this week was great and I hope everyone is doing great! I love it here and I love this gospel. Email me! :)

Love,
Hermana Escalante



I got my BIKEEE!!!

Family and friends!!!

Thank you so much for emailing me. I literally love yall. This week I had my first exchanges and I went to " El Monte" with Hermana Perez she is awesome. I learned from her so much. And we also went to chick fil a it's been a while and we only have one here. Haha oh and the Hermanas in our pad we all went SHOPPING. It felt great. Haha this week also I got my BIKEEE!!! Haha it's awesome. Butt it's so hard to bike with a skirt.  We had a weeding on Saturday and it was awesome,they played Spanish music and I was just so happy. Haha the  lady gets baptized this coming Sunday. It's awesome. For p-day today we went HIKING with the zone to the mountains. My body hurts!!!!! But I feel good. It was so much fun.  Well I'm typing fast cause I still need to email people. Haha take care yall.

Love,

Hermana Escalante 

I have been eating a lot of tacos!!!

Hi friends!
Well this weekend was conference and as a missionary we need to hear from the apostles more. Haha and we need words of wisdom, But conference was great. It helps me keep going with the lords work.  I have been walking a lot because my bike was broken and I didn't really use it was just for a minute and something broke so we asked the elders to help us fix it and they couldn't so we had to take it somewhere else for them to fix it. Hopefully this week I get it back. We have a baptism this Saturday but not our investigator, but she's awesome.  Last week we went to the LA temple and it was huge and beautiful. We did two sessions. But it was awesome.  We have this investigator who has a baptismal date for April 26th her name is Vilma she is doing great but we haven't talked to her lately because she has family that just came from El Salvador so she has been busy.but hopefully she still wants to hear more.  And sorry I haven't been writing a lot. I have been busy but I don't receive emails from anyone so that's another thing I haven't been writing to y'all haha. My companion leaves in 6 months so I'm pretty upset. But we have to keep going. The people here do need the gospel and there are lots of Hispanics here and just imagine I have been eating a lot of tacos!!! They are Great. I've been telling the elders to find me a scale cause I feel fat but my companion says I'm not. Haha so people here when they first see me, the first thing they ask me is “if I'm from Egypt or if I'm Arabic!! Haha or somewhere from the Middle East hahaha it is so funny when I get those questions I'm just like laughing and my companion  says it's true haha. Azusa is very small and RELLLLYYY hot. Everywhere I go I have my umbrella with me to protect my skin from the sun I tell my companion that I don't want to get darker haha so she laughs every time I use the umbrella for the sun. And yes I am more tanner. But it shows that I'm working hard. Missionary work is hard but not  impossible. My testimony has grown so much. And I love this gospel so much. Happy Late Easter! Write me. I have an iPad so I can see the messages but I can't respond you until Monday. Take care amigos! Go out with the missionaries, members do help a whole lot with the work. I love my God and Jesus Christ and the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only true church today on earth. I love our prophet Thomas S. Monson. I do sustain him and when they called them at conference I raised my arm really high because he  is our prophet today  and he is called of God.  Love y'all and take care.

Besos,

Hermana Escalante