Tuesday, June 24, 2014

I Took the Road Less Traveled By

Family!!!

How are we all?? I just want to say how much I love you all!!! This mission has made my love for you guys grow stronger than it has ever been, which is saying something because I loved you guys a whole lot!!! So I LOVE YOU!!!! And I know I shouldn´t be worrying about this on my mission...but how is the World Cup??? I can´t escape Mundial (world cup) here in Mexico. As I´m writing right now, I can hear that Mexico just scored because there is screaming down every street, and anytime anyone scores in any game of the world cup, someone in town shoots off a cannon....they get pretty into soccer here...and I love it!!!!! But I really want to know how the US is doing and Mexico :)

So I am loving my new area more and more everyday. These people have so much faith and humility. And guess what?? Our district has EIGHT baptisms this Saturday. We have 2 baptisms this weekend and I couldn´t be more excited. They are a couple, whose daughter was baptized about 2 months ago, and have been working through lots of things in their lives to be able to be baptized. They are amazing and have so much faith, they are truly inspiring to my faith! I love Marino and Olga!

I want to share an experience I had with them this week. We went to teach them...and you have to understand that this couple can talk FOREVER!!! So as we climbed up the mountain they live on, I was praying that we could somehow get a lesson in. And we had such a spiritual experience! Olga shared with us a dream she had the other night. She had a dream that she was in a field and it had 2 paths. One was really dirty and filled with trash, but it looked like more people had traveled on this road, and the other was clean, perfect and beautiful, but she was scared to go on this path because she was dirty. So she chose the dirty road. She said after she made the choice and walked down the dirty path, an overwhelming feeling of evil came over her body and she woke up. She said she couldn´t sleep the rest of the night because she felt so awful for taking this path and she wishes she could have taken the clean path. As she finished, my heart was so full of happiness. She realized the pain that the filth of the world brings into our world. As I explained this to her and told her that the clean path is the gospel of Jesus Christ and through that path she can feel the exact opposite feeling if she takes the clean, perfect, beautiful path. By the end we were all full of the spirit and it rung true in our heart. It reminded me Lehi´s dream, so we´ve prepared a lesson to teach them the Gospel of Jesus Christ through his dream and I´m so excited!! They are AMAZING and I´m so excited for their baptism this week!! This family and I have already bonded and I love them so much!! I am completely in love with Zapata and the people here!! It is such a blessing to be here :) I´m so excited to work in this area. I´m pumped and ready to share the Gospel with EVERYONE in Zapata!!!

I know that the path of the gospel is hard, its the exact opposite of what everyone is telling you to do, and it is narrow. But it is clean perfect and beautiful, and if we take this path we will find a fullness of joy and we will be able to partake of the love of God. Take the road less traveled by and it will make all the difference :)

I love you family and I pray for you everyday! Stay strong and keep the faith!!

Hermana Pasley

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

What is Love?

Family!!

Long time, no chat!! Transfers were long and we didn´t get time to email this last week. But everything is SO great in Zapata :) I´m in LOVE with my new area. It is beautiful and the ward is great!! My companion is Hermana Rodriguez. She is from Hildago and only has 3 months left in the mission. She´s very quiet but very humble and she has a great love for the work. I´m excited to work with her! We get along really well and enjoy working with each other! She´s such a sweetheart!!! Zapata is REALLY hot and REALLY humid. We don´t get the breezes we got in Carmen, so I´m sweating like crazy, but everything is so beautiful to look at, that I don´t really care if I´m sweating!! All the buildings are old, but kept up pretty well and are so beautiful to look at! Because of the humidity everything has moss all over it, but it makes it so much more beautiful and green!! The town in built on hills, so we walk up and down a gazillion hills everyday, so I´m going to be in good shape by the time I leave this place! Whoo!! The ward is great and they all are very involved in the work! We only have about 75 active members, but about 300 members in town. So we work a lot with less and non actives. I´m so excited to get involved with this ward here!! I get along really well with everyone here...MY LIFE IS SO GOOD!!!

So...Happy Father´s Day Dad and Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!!! I wish I could be there to celebrate, but know I thought of you guys often this last week! As I was studying in the Bible I came across this scripture and something clicked in my head as to why I have such a great family. The scripture is in 1 John 4:

7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

As I read this, I became so grateful for my Heavenly Father and my earthly father. I both relate them with love. I have come to love God, because my Father and Mother have raised me with love, but a true love, the love of God. My family is one of my greatest blessings I have. I have realized this more and more throughout my mission. This is why I miss my family so much! It´s a blessing that I miss my family. I have been raised in a home, where the priesthood was always present, in a home with a loving Mom who taught me who I was, I´m a daughter of God. Thank you so much Dad and Mom, for everything you have sacrificed to make my life so great. Thank you for the unconditional love I have felt and for helping me come to love my Heavenly Father. I pray every day that I may be able to share this love with the people around me. God is love, and I´m so glad to feel that love. Dad, thank you for your example each and everyday. Thank you for being a worthy priesthood holder. Thank you loving me, no matter what I did, whether it was a goal or a missed goal scoring opportunity, by the end I always felt your love! Thank you Mom and Dad for showing me what a happy eternal marriage looks like! I love you guys and am so thankful that I miss you like crazy! Stay strong and keep the faith!! Love you so much!!

Hermana Pasley

P.S. Sorry, but the computers here are ancient and I can´t send photos. We´ll try to find a better place next week!! I got all my birthday packages and cards! Thank you so much family!! I felt so loved :) Thanks family, Pasley cousins, and Aunt Sonja for the packages! Thanks Grandma Joan, Grandpa John, Grandma Pat and Mildenhall family for the letters! I love you all so much. Our writing time has been cut down to 1 hour, so if I can´t respond I´m sorry! Know I still love you :)

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Happy Birthday Me!

¡Hola Familia!

Buenas tardes, ¿comò han estado? Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes, I felt so loved :) To be honest, my birthday didn`t feel too much like my birthday...we just worked as usual (but that`s what I`m here to do right??) We went to teach the Madrazo Family, a less active family whose 9 year old daughter is preparing to get baptized. We taught a quick lesson on tithing, then stood up ready to leave and...their birthday song "Las Mañanitas" (if you want to look it up...it`s awesome!) and the dad comes out of the kitchen with a cute little cake just for me!! I felt so loved and it was such a surprise!! We then went to Hermana Iris house and we ate pizza and Diana (our recent convert) surprised me with more cake. But it was cake from DQ, so I felt right at home:) That ended the night off well and I left feeling happy and loved! Thank you for the money I received, i bought some fabric because a lady in our ward offered to make me a dress for free if I bought the fabric, so I`m excited to see how it turns out. With the left over money...I`m looking for a bien padre jersey for the World Cup. I`m so sad I can`t get into the world cup here, because everyone is decorating everything here...I`m stoked and I don`t even know what`s going on!! I`m telling everyone I`m rooting for Mexico this year, but the US will always have my heart!! GO USA!!!!!

The weather is finally starting to cool down, but humidity is getting worse. I think I`m sweating worse than in the heat. But it`s not like a normal sweat, it`s literally like water dripping down your face. I feel like I just stepped out of the shower...so we`ll see how much I like rainy season! This is our last week before transfers, so I`m trying to enjoy Carmen, because I`m thinking this will be my last transfer in Carmen, but you never know!! We`ll just have to see :)

As for the progress of our investigators...we have none. Ha we`ve hit a dry phase and aren`t having too much luck with people progressing. But I want to bear my testimony about fasting. Fasting really does work!! This last fast Sunday, we fasted to find new people to teach. Saturday night as we planned for the next day, we had the idea to just go down the list of people in our phone and call EVERYONE!! Half of them had been disconnected or didn`t answer. But one of the old investigators from the Elders before us (Hugo) answered, thanked us for the invitation, then hung up. We were pretty sure going to church yesterday, that we were going to have another Sunday without investigators. But Hugo showed up!!!! Woooohoooo!!!!!!!!! It was a fasting miracle!! We also found a lady we contacted on the street who was really interested and has family members who are members. We were so excited to go visit her, but she gave us bad directions to her house, so it was impossible to find her. But we passed her on the street and she greeted us with "oh mi vida" and a great big hug. She told us she`s been waiting for us to stop by her house. We have an appointment with her this week, so pray that her heart is open and she will accept the message we have to share! I know that prayers are answered and if we take the time to think it out, ponder and meditate on the problem, an answer will come. I saw this miracle work right before my eyes!! So I encourage everyone to fast this next fast Sunday, but fast with a purpose. Meditate on it and have the faith that you`ll receive an answer and you will! Just believe!! God never leaves us alone, we always can find something amazing he has put in our path, we just take the time to look through his eyes! It`s times like this in the mission that are hard, but it`s through these times that we become stronger and more dependent on the Lord and his timing.

The mission in great. Life is good. I love it here. I miss you all. I love you all. Stay strong. Keep the faith!

Hermana Pasley