Tuesday, April 22, 2014

My First Baptism!!!

¡Oh mi familia!

How are we all?? I hope you all had a good Easter! It`s weird...here they don`t really celebrate Easter. Well in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints they don`t. We didn`t even have a lesson on Christ yesterday which made me a little sad. But what made me the most sad was walking past a church that we live next to. They did the whole reinactment of Christ death. He carried his cross down the street and they raised him up on the cross while all the crowd was crying and screaming. It was really quite horrific...it was not something I want to see again. We celebrate Easter because Christ lives! I know that Christ lives and that through him we can live again also. Through him we can live this life with hope, hope for a better life, hope that we can better ourselves each and everyday, hope that we can conquer whatever mountain we are asked to climb because we have the strength of the Atonement. We are a happy people, because we have this knowledge! I know that my Redeemer lives, what joy this sentence gives!!! I hope you all had a good Easter and the Easter Bunny found you all :)

So as my title states...I HAD MY FIRST BAPTISM THIS WEEK!! Whooooooooooo!!!! Oh wow it was the best thing ever!! We decorated the room with pictures of Christ everywhere and had pretty prelude music playing and made it so special for Jonathan...he is a special man indeed!! Throughout the whole baptism there was a spirit there that was so beautiful and by the end Jonathan was crying...and we all felt so good the rest of the day! I know that baptism is our first step to eternity...without baptism we are unable to progress. I know that Christ set the example for us as he was baptised and that the Chuch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has the authority to do so! How blessed we are to be a part of the church!!

Adventure for the week. It all started last night at 3 in the stinkin´morning!! Me and Hna. Aguirre were sleeping peacefully and deeply as most missionaries do, when we woke up to the delightful screams of Hna. Riedelbach and Hna. Gonzalez. Me and Hna. A jumped out of beds, so confused as to what was going on. All Hna. R could spit out were wimpers. Yeah she had a huge cockroach crawling on here when she woke up and was freaking out. Here`s something you need to understand about the cockroaches here...they`re HUGE and impossible to kill. You can hit them a hundred times and they don`t die!!! It took us ONE HOUR to kill the dang thing!!! My heck I`ve never been so mad :) Also two nights ago...Steven returned right above me on the ceiling (we have a bunk bed and I`m lucky enough to sleep on top) and there was no way I was sleeping with him looking at me. So Hna. A had a genius plan to chase him all around the room with MY running shoe. My shoe was flying every which way for about an hour till she finally hit him...but only his tail fell off..and it kept wiggling around for like 10 minutes after it was detached from the body...it was SO SO SO SO gross. So great, it`s butt is bleeding and blood is spewing everywhere all over our floor...barf!! So Hna. A throws the shoe as hard as she can and finally kills the dang thing. Needless to say...we didn`t have a funeral for Steven...I`m done with that salamander. Oh man we have too many animals running wild and free in our house. Never again will I complain about our vermon. Yuck!

So there you go, my week was filled with spirit and also many deaths! I love my mission and I can`t imagine being anywhere else. Its hard to say but I`m grateful for cockroaches and salamanders! I`m grateful for all of you as well!! Have a great week and keep the faith! Love you all!! XOxoXoxO


Hermana Pasley

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Trust Me On This One!

¡Familia, te amo!

But I dedicate my letter to the cutest girl ever...Rebekah Rose Pasley, my queen!! I want you to know that I am praying my guts out right now for you, I have faith your ACL isn`t torn, you`re too good of soccer player to let that happen!! Stay positive chica!! It all happens for a reason!

When I read the email that you may have torn your ACL, a million feelings came rushing back to me. In that moment, it seemed to be the worst thing that could possibly happen. I had worked and given up a lot to get to the level I did and there was no way that I just literally blew all that I had worked for by tearing my ACL. But I did tear my ACL and right now I couldn`t be more grateful for that trial...it may sound weird, but I am. Had I not torn my ACL I would bet I`d be playing soccer somewhere, not on my mission. I wouldn`t be meeting these wonderful people I am meeting and I wouldn`t be coming to know my Savior as I am now. Take you`re trials and look for the good, don`t stress Heavenly Father has a plan for you!! Know that I know exactly how you feel...well almost, but there is someone who knows your exact pains and your exact sorrows and that is your Savior. Look to him to find comfort, I can testify to you that I have felt his strength as I have gone through my trials. Without him we honestly are nothing, he is our strength. I know I`m a million miles away and I wish I could give you a big hug right now, but I can`t. But the Savior can console you so much better than I can, so trust your big sister on this one and pray to be strengthen through our Savior, I promise you he is there for you even when you don`t realize, put your trust int he Savior and he WILL help you through whatever you are feeling. And the best part is that when we have these trials we come out a better person, these trials aren`t placed in our lives for kicks and giggles, Heavenly Father has a plan for you, he trusts you enough to give you this challenge because he knows you`ll learn the lesson you need to learn. Just trust me on this one okay?? I love you so much and know that I`m praying for you like crazy!!! This is for all of you, whatever trial you may be having in your life, whether it be big or small, your Savior is there for you! He suffered and died for us, he has risen so that we may live again, he is our everything!! Remember this this week as it is Easter!! HAPPY EASTER everyone!! I hope the Easter Bunny leaves you some yummy treats, because he doesn`t visit down here :( So it`s okay to eat some extra chocolate because I`m not eating any here!!

So my miracles for the week...there have been SO many!!

1. WE HAVE JONATHAN`S BAPTISM THIS WEEK!!! He is seriously the easiest investigator of my life...easier than the MTC!!! He has taken every one of our lessons in stride and has received an answer and is so excited for his baptism!! Me and Hna. Aguirre bought him a tie for his baptism to match our dresses for the baptism...if you can`t tell we`re just a little excited :) :)

2. We have an investigator named Lalo who really wants to go to their Youth Conference this week, but his Dad wouldn´t sign his paper. So we have been praying for a way to get the Dad to warm up to the idea. Then one day we had a thought to invite the Bishop to visit with us and guess what...THE BISHOP IS MAGIC...ACTUALLY THE SPIRIT IS, BUT THE DAD SIGNED THE PAPER!!!! and we`re positive this is what Lalo needs to receive his answer if this church is true, I`m so excited!!

3. A lady showed up to church yesterday, came up and talked to us and said that she had attended General Conference this last week and that she thinks this church is the church she is looking for, so she pretty much set up her ouwn appointment with us and is perfect!! We are starting to see so many miracles in this mission!!!!

I know this church is true with all of my heart! I know my Savior lives and he is risen!! Have a great week and a Happy Easter!! I love you all and pray for you always!! xoxo

con muho mucho amor,
Hermana Pasley




Picture: Me and Hna. Aguirre on the fullest Camion(bus) of my life...we were standing on the stairs and it was full of stinky sweaty men...probably one of scariest days of my life!! Oh Mexico is an adventure

Monday, April 7, 2014

Let Your Light So Shine!!!

¡Hola Everyone!

How are we all?? I hope all is well in Utah or where ever you may be in the world! Utah looks so beautiful right now from what I could see from Conference, the flowers were beautiful and it looks like it`s not very hot there...cause there are some days here where I feel like I`m living on the sun!! The heat has come in full force and all at once...I don`t think I`ve ever sweated so much in my life!! It was 109 the other day with about 85% humidity...probably my favorite day on the mission so far!! :) So I pray the hot months will go by fast and that I can just ignore it and keep on trucking!! But Conference was so great right?? I don`t think I`ve ever been so excited for Conference or so sad to see it end! Every session was so inspiring and I heard just what I needed to remotivate me for this coming week!! There was a ringing theme of faith. Our faith must be strong enough that we can face whatever challenge we may face! The world is becoming more and more corrupted every day, so we must become stronger everyday! Easier said than done, but we can do it! My testimony of the Savior has grown so much on this mission and it only continues to grow. I know that without him I could not be serving this mission right now or honestly be doing much of anything! We can do anything because we have the Atonement in our lives! We have the light that will help us down the dark path of life, our path is bright and full of hope because of our Savior!! This light fills us with faith and it only becomes brighter as we develop our faith! With this faith we must act, faith is a principle of action. Our faith is nothing without action, so we must act!! Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven!! Have the faith to let your light shine!!! I`m slowly learning on the mission to not be afraid to share the light within me and every time I do, I only feel the spirit stronger! Try it out this week and see what happens!!

We have 2 baptisms on the 19th! They are both awesome! Our first is Jonathan, he is perfect!! He told us in our last lesson with him on Friday that he has received a strong answer that the Book of Mormon is true that he knows everything about this church is true!! He is so determined to follow every commandment of God and is more than willing to follow the example of Christ. We really haven`t had to do much with him, we teach and he always completes his commitments plus some. I`m SO excited for him and to see what he is going to be able to do for this church, he has such great faith!! We taught him the Word of Wisdom and he promised to follow it and he even has gone as far as to quit eating milk products because it makes him really sick and he wants to keep his body healthy because it is so special to Heavenly Father...honestly how many 24 year old men do you know like him?? He`s the best!! And is already talking about serving a mission, oh man we could totally make a District 3 with him!! Our other baptism is for Maria, she is one of the most humble people in this world. She nannies for a member in our ward and its so great because she has support in the home too to help her keep commitments. She is so willing and trusting with what we teach. She has very little education so somethings are hard for her to understand, so it takes some time and patience to teach her, but she`s so sweet you can`t get frustrated with her at all!! So please keep Maria and Jonathan in your prays!!

I wish I had a crazy adventure to tell you this week, but I don`t have anything to crazy to share...it must be the heat!! I hope you are all doing well and that you found a renewed faith after this General Conference! I am so glad that I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!! I know that this church is true and that Christ lives. I know the Book of Mormon is true and is the word of God. And I love you all so much! Thank you for your letters, packages, and support. I am so blessed to have you all in my lives! Stay strong and keep the faith!!!

Hermana Pasley




The Reyes Family has a bike just like Nacho Libre, and luckily my companion is cultured enough to love Nacho Libre just like me! She´s Nacho and I´m Steven and we´re spreading the word one pedal at a time! NACHOOOOOOO!!!


Hermana Riedelbach and I shoved in the front seat of el Combi with all of our groceries, while our companions are shoved in the back with about 15 other of our fellow Mexicans...its a dream when its 105 degrees outside and your surrounded on every side by a human. The combis are so crazy too...I literally feel like I`m on Indiana Jones!!

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Ups and Downs

¡Hola Everyone!

How is everyone?? I really can´t believe how fast time goes on the mission! Was the Women´s conference not so amazing?? Me and Hermana Riedelbach got to watch it in English in the Stake Presidents office, and every once in a while when someone would say a really good quote, ¨Yep that's gonna be on pinterest tomorrow!¨ And there were like a million of those quotes, so you know it was a good conference! That conference made me so proud to be a woman and the power and influence we have as women! In the wise words of Elastigirl, ¨Leave saving the world to the men, I don´t think so, I don´t think so!¨ That conference made me motivated than ever to work harder and bring more people unto Christ!

This week has been an AWESOME week!!! We have 3 awesome new investigators that are serioulsy straight out of Preach My Gospel. They are progressing so fast and they normally do more than we ask in between visits! Ha this is like missionary heaven right now! 2 of the 3 have committed to 19 of April as their baptism date, so keep them in your prayers!! They both live with members which makes it even easier to get them to church, and knowing they have support while we´re away also. Ah it´s perfect, they´re golden!! The other investigator we met on our way home from lunch one day. Her down syndrome son sat next to me and I started teaching him a few words in sign language because he can´t talk and because he kept flipping everyone off in the bus...ha so I taught him I love you and dog. He was so cute!! As his mom watched she asked where I was from and we began to answer her questions! She has a sister in Vera Cruz who is a member and they went to primary one week and she said it was one of the best classes shes ever seen for her son and wants to start attending church with us! What?? Yeah she´s perfect also! She lives just down the street from us, and sees us walking down the street everyday and has been praying for a chance to talk to us, and she finally got her answer!! After that bus ride we couldn´t help but smile!! Missionary work is the best!!!

Hermana Lulu is struggling, but I honestly believe that Heavenly Father is preparing her to strengthen her faith. We haven´t been able to find her home much for the last week, and its important to visit your investigators often. As we walked up to her house we found her home, but not her usual happy self. She was sitting alone in the dark, and we knew something was wrong. As we walked in and could see her better, we found her with a huge black eye and bruises all over her body. My heart immediately broke and I couldn´t help but cry as I saw her in so much pain! As we gave her a hug, she broke down in sobs...that was the first time I´ve ever seen her cry. We sat and listened to her story. Her ex-husbands girl friends hunted her down and beat her in the middle of the GROCERY STORE...who does that?? That lady is crazy and I felt so bad for Lulu. As we shared a scripture with her, her mood lightened a little and she asked me to say a prayer. I was nervous because I had so many things I wanted to say, but I really didn´t know how to say it. But as I prayed I felt the spirit come into the room and we all were crying by the end, but she told us she knew she needs to be baptized she just needs some time to figure everything out with her ex-husband.

In missionary work there ups and downs just like life. We have our ups and our downs, but whats most important is how we react to our ups and downs! Our attitudes reflect our love for the Savior and the trust we have in our Heavenly Father. When we fall, it is always for our own good if we will just humble ourselves and let Heavenly Father mold us. Easier said than done, but my testimony is growing about this concept everyday in the mission. This mission is stretching me in every way, but if I just have a little faith, I know I´ll only come out stronger! So when the going gets tough, the tough get going!! Keep moving forward!! You have a Heavenly Father who loves you and Christ made it possible for you get through it, so we all can be happy and know we´ll come off conqueror! So for anyone that has fallen, brush yourself off and come back harder! You can do it!! You can do it!!!

I love you all and I pray for you all every night!! Be strong and keep the faith!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!! xoxo

Hermana Pasley