Words from Elder Eli Frazier in Peru

On Mon, Feb 1, 2016

Hey all!

February already starts! This is the month of ¨´Carnavales´´ here in Peru! where you have to be careful cuz whatever person will soak you with water walking down the street! hahaha its awesome. Cuz i as a missionary walking all day you sweat. And being white, everybody 

We will have a marriage comin up real soon of Gustavo, who is a less active, and Antonella, who is an investigator! They have their eyes set on the temple to get sealed. Antonella is preapring and is way exxcited for her baptism also. They have now assisted 3 Sundays in a row! With their little boy Santiago who is just turned 1. 

Today i will travel to Lima and sleep in Chorrillos, because tomorrow we ahve a leaders meeting at 8 in the morning, these meetings are always filled with the spirit and i love them! 

Elder Frazier

Heres a picture of an exchange i had with the Elder Barrera from Utah this past week and also a picture of the service we did, me wearing my gpa fraziers hat and a member wearing an old ladys hat ahhaha

On Mon, Jan 25, 2016

Hope everyone had a great week like I did:)

Had a ton of lesosns this past and found lots of new people to teach:) We are teaching a family, Cesar, Rosa and their 8year old boy Jordin. 

The dad Cesar has been recovering from some of the problems he had and is changing. We had a lesson with them the other night and when we got there, they had been fighting and said they couldnt attend us. So we hjust asked how they were doin, and they said more or less. All we did then was just invite, we just invited them tocontinue to read and pray, and that Satan is working right now in this moment so that your family isnt eternal.  They agreed, the folowing day beingsunday, they came to church early and were back to normal and happy:) The scritptures and prayer are so powerful and are there in times of need. I couldnt be more greatful for them! 

i love you all and hope that you guys continue reading and praying everyday, even in the problems and challenges that arise!

Elder Frazier

tghe past week we were able to visit an old slave house and it was way cool! And here was one of the old churches. And the zone of Chincha:)

On Mon, Jan 18, 2016

Another awesome week!

 I have learned this past week a lot about the importance of trusting your companion. We had a family home evening and it went great. I feel like my companion dominated a lot of the lesson though and i learned an important lesson from that. Which is trust! WE have to be in tune with the spirit and be able to trust that our companion is following the spirit when he is teaching. And in this way we can trust that he will teach only what is necessary for the investigator in that specific moment. Instead of just trying to cover to whole lesson and get it done. But to be able to do that we have to be in unity and in tune with the spirit. 

We also had a young family come to church yesterday, Sister Anthonella and brother Gustavo. He is a less active and she is an investigator . And they both have dates of rescue and baptism! and their minds are comppletely set on the temple and the blessings that are in it. It was great to see their repentance as they show it going to church and reading the chapters in the book of mormon we leave them. They understand that putting God first in their lives will bless them with the things they need temporally and spiritually. I love this work and i especially love these people! 

Elder Frazier

Peruvian Pizza!! jajaja:)

On Tue, Jan 12, 2016

Smiles:)

I was able to see a personal miracle this week when iwoke up sick!  I woke up feeling very ill and weak but i continued doing the things normal like my Dad taught me to do when i get sick. Did exercises and ate as much as i could for breakfast and studied. But after we left the house i got way weaker and was way light headed. And i just kept pressing on with a prayer in my mind and praying that my God would help me because we had very important lessons and things to do. And yes it was really hard throughout the whole day, but as we visited the people, I regained my strength. Or in other words, when we taught, i had strength. But when we left and started walking i lost it again. But it happened in every lesson! and i coulnt help but have a smile on my face seeing the miracles that were happening as i put my trust and diligence in Christ. In this day we also put a baptism with brother Marco Napa, who is reading praying and asissting early every Sunday. I gained a testimony of Diligence this day! 

Elder Frazier

Im way excited for this new transfer and to be here helping the people of Chincha.

On Mon, Jan 4, 2016

An awesonme Christmas and New Years!!

This past Sunday we were able to have Cesar and Rosa come to church early! They are a family with whom we recently put baptismal dates. Cesar doesnt know how to read, but it is so awesome to be able to see how they read as a family and can all learn together. Also they have a little 8 year old boy named Jordin who is just a little ball of energy! They are headed for the waters of baptism and then we well keep our minds focused on making them an eternal family in the temple.

We also had an investigator Marco Napa come to church early and tell us that he doesnt want to live a sad life anymore and that he can see other families be happy so why not him? And its so true! He told us he wants to get baptized and start keeping the commandments. Wha t a miracle it was to hear and see him there! The Lord is working in every moment! 

Love you all! Have a great week!

This is whjat they eat here! Chocoton and Paneton for Christmas!

Love you!

On Mon, Dec 28, 2015

Christmas and New Year!

We had a baptism that completed the family Puma. The daughter Nicol was way excited as she got to do this covenant with God. It was great to hear her testimony throughout this whole process. When we first started she didnt know if it was the true church. Then she said she was started to believe and she read and prayed everyday. Then finally as she shared her testimony after her baptism we could hear her say that she knew it was the true church. 

Missionary Work is the best thing in this world! 

Love you all! Look like you all had an awesome Christmas passing it with the family! Until next wek:) Heres a pic with the baptism service and also the christmas with the zone! One of the sweetest christmass ive had!!

Love Elder Frazier

On Mon, Dec 21, 2015

Feliz Navidad desde Papa Noel en PERU!

We had an awesome mission night activity with a whole lot of recent converts, less actives, and investigators from all over Chincha! We were able to see three of the videos about Christ and Christmas and then we watched the talk by Elder Bednar from the Christmas devotional. And with a few recent converts and less actives sharing their testimonies in between the videos it was way powerful! Then we were able to have everybody interact playing the flour game that you showed us! We had 6 tables out and everybody was having a great time playing the game. Then we did a little skit of the King and the Begger which also want well! Then to finish we sang as a zone Regocijad, Jesus Nacio. And then the people enjoyed some paneton and hot chocolate! It was an awesome activity with a whole lot of interacting of the missionaries and members putting it all together!

I will teach you all  the flour game another day:) Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a loving and charitable one:)

Love you all!

Elder Frazier

Heres a pic from my room on the fourth floor and also my christmas tree made by mom!!

Words from Samuel Isaacson in Argentina

well i hit my 6th month mark last friday!! and so we opened my bag of reeses pieces to celabrate for the victory!!1 haha

this past week has been pretty good nothing exciting has happened or anything funny! but we did talk to all of our investigators!! 

Edwardo: he is doing good he still reads all the time he has come to church twice so now we are planning on baptizing him this saturday!!(PRAY) well we were talking to our other investigatores and edwardos mom pasted us so we waved and they asked how we knew her and we told her that we were teaching her son. then they started making gay jokes so we asked them cause that was our worry that he was gay. and they said yeah he is flaming gay!! cause i guess she is cousins with him and yeah he is gay!! but we said we asked him straight and he said that he isnt gay!! so well i guess we ask him again and see whhat he says if he says no we just have to trust him!! (SO PRAY)

Javier Y Gabi:so we were visting with these guy yestureday and they had just tole us that Edwardo was guy! so my comp trys to make the situation better by saying people have problems with drugs and alcohol people have problems with porn. and when he said that Gabi looked at javier and said he does!! and then he said she has one worse!! then everybody started to laugh so hard!!! so yeah my comp trying to help the situation turned out to being making it worse!!! haha but its right everyone has their problems and satan knows what they are and will use them!!

umm i dont really know what else happened this past week! nothing really more exciting then that!! 

well we had to clean the fount  for the sister missionaries cause they had a baptism! and the drain doesnt work so yeah we had to use buckets and get water out that way!! haha so yeah it was way fun!!!

really sorry for the short letter!! i promise to do better next week!! ill remember the days better and not let them blend together!!

thanks to everyone tht wrote me!! i love you all!!!

Words from Elder Chandon Herring in Washinton DC

Ahhhh!!! Time is going too fast! Help! I do not like how time flies
when you are having a good time. This week there were several
experiences that made me reflect on my mission and how I feel so
comfortable feeling that I finally know how to do missionary work and
I have like less than 5 months left. But it means I get to work like
crazy and effectively for these next five!

So this week was a good one. We did have to spend quite a bit of time
preparing for this coming transfer this week because they have changed the way we do things now. So we are having fun juggling that. But we
had several really good teaching opportunities and experiences. The
first during the week was with Sis Bruce. (They have been working with her since Oct.  She is a "returning member" as Chan puts it😉)  She is making such good
progress. We read with her in the Book of Mormon because she feels
like she is struggling to understand what is going on. We helped her
understand who people were and she instantly was relating their
experiences to her own life! It was incredible. She was saying things
like, "So when this happened to Nephi he did this so I could do it
like this." It was a good time. She related a lot of it to her and is
absorbing so much more now. We got her a calendar that has temple
pictures that she can use to help remind her of when the next temple day
is that we are aiming for her to go to. She is taking things one bite
at a time and doing well.

Another awesome visit we had this week was again shoveling snow. We
were called by a member who said his wife needed some help. We showed
up and she was out trying to get the snow out of her driveway and we
finished it for her. She is a great missionary and agreed to help us
service tract to find more people. We found Tom. He let us dig out a
car and he wanted to pay us. It is so fun to watch people so
bewildered that we don't accept any payment. We invited him to a few
Ward activities because he turned down a 5-20 minute visit. But one
more touch. The member is so good. She introduced us to several
people.

The last awesome experience i will share was Saturday night. We had
been told our Ward had an activity that night and we convinced a less
active family to come. They have not been to church since I have been
here in Rockville. We get to the church and it was cancelled! No one
was there! And right behind us was them! Darn it! We still went inside
with them because they had brought food and why not teach them when
you are with them. We had a great talk and played soccer with them.
Their names are Andrew, the Dad, and Ben, the 11 year old incredible
soccer player. We played in the gym and it was a blast. It was just
what they needed! It helped their relationship and helped us
understand it better since the parents are divorced and we got to
become Better friends that they trust. It was a great experience. The lord
works in many ways.

So life is good. Transfers are coming but we are still teaching! Elder
Ord and I have changed a lot of things about being in this area and it
is helping a lot. I hope you all have a great week. I love you all and
remember to choose the right! It may not be easy but is ALWAYS worth
it. Have a great week!

-Elder Herring

Words from Sister Brittany Platt in Colorado

Olo everybody!

So, this e-mail's going to be short, but I wanted to tell you two stories from this past week! 

The first one is about getting rejected by a cat! It was hilarious. The other day we were knocking doors at a trailor park and a cat answered the door! It was the funniest thing ever. It kept meowing at us like it was having a conversation, and when we asked if it wanted to learn about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, it sounded like it meowed "no" and then walked away! We totally got rejected by a cat! Haha. #missionmomentsofpureawesomeness

The second one, is we met with a young man named Treavor at the library to teach lesson 3 - the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He's 24 and a bit physically disabled, but one of the sweetest, most wonderful young men I've met! He truly is searching for truth. He'd met with missionaries before, and he asked us for an Institute BOM study guide as well as one of the R.S. Teachings from the Living Prophets books. We brought both of those to him as well as a Gospel Principles book. He had some really great scriptural and doctrinal questions. Questions that at the beginning of my mission would have totally stumped me! But it was incredible as I felt the Spirit work through to answer his questions based on the scriptures and the doctrine that I've learned over the past year and a half. By the end of the lesson he accepted baptism and a baptismal date!! We were so excited. But we have to pass him off to the YSA sisters! Man, I was so bummed. But, I know that if he sincerely wants to know, he will receive the answer that this church is the true church of Jesus Christ once again on the earth! I'm just excited to find out what happens with him.

Well, things here are still great! We got our license plate stolen so that was fun. BUT, the police are working on it and hopefully we'll get another one soon. We love it here so much and we love the people! We had so many non-members and less-actives at church on Sunday! It was amazing!

Have a wonderful week and keep going! Especially when the going gets tough. If you're feeling down, go out and serve. Service brings joy more than anything else! Especially serving the Lord! Love you all and God bless you!

Love, Sister Platt

#Godisgood

#501

Words from Elder Levi Crosby in Tennessee

Hello everyone! How is everyone doing?? I heard its getting cold over
there?? Here in TN it's been in the 60s and man it's been nice..
Anyways last week was exciting. On Wednesday we had our normal
district meeting and this time it was down in Jasper, TN. Which is
right on the southern border. Anyways after that we got to go to
Georgia! Because there is one town in Georgie that is still in our
mission(don't worry I didn't leave my mission mom) it was pretty cool
because I have never been there before. On Friday we had Zone
Conference. Our mission president only has like 4 months left so it
was good to see him there. We were trained on the 3 pillars of
missionary work. Which is faith, patience, and diligence. When we
talked about faith he mentioned the scripture in Ether 12:6, which
talks about how we receive a witness only after the trial of your
faith. And my mission president said a really cool quote. He said "You
don't know how strong the anchor is, until after the storm." And that
really hit me. It's so true. We only see how loving and caring God is
after the trials he gives us. Because he knows when we overcome those
trials we will become more like him and that's our purpose on this
earth. So always remember that. He also mentioned the story about
Winston Churchill and how he never gave up in world war ll. So never
ever give up. There is your motivation for the week. Anyways enough
preaching from me. I hope you all stay warm! I heard about the intense
wrestling match! It gave me the goosebumps just thinking about it! Go
redskins! Haha I love you all and take care!

This is my new motto. "The kingdom of God or Nothing" - President
Gordon B. Hinckley

- Elder Levi Crosby

Words from Sister Abbie Waite in Texas

The greatest miracle in time and eternity is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. 

For it is expedient that an atonement should be made; for according to the great plan of the Eternal God there must be an atonement made, or else all mankind must unavoidably perish; yea, all are hardened; yea, all are fallen and are lost, and must perish except it be through the atonement which it is expedient should be made. (Alma 34:9)

We are not responsible for the Fall of Adam and Eve, but we are responsible for our own sins. We are taught in the scriptures that God cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance, and sin prevents us from living in His presence. 

Nephi teaches us that if our works have been filthiness, then we ourselves are filthy and "... the kingdom of God is not filthy, and there cannot any unclean thing enter into the kingdom of God (1 Nephi 15:34)." 

Because we are fallen human beings, we "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)." 

None of us are perfect. None of us are clean enough to enter the kingdom of God on our own. 

In the ultimate act of mercy, Heavenly Father sent His Son to atone for our sins. 

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

"For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved (John 3:16-17)."

Christ paid the penalty for our sins. He alone was able to do so because He was perfectly clean. 

"Though He suffered beyond comprehension-so much so that He bled from every pore and asked whether it were possible that this burden be lifted from Him-He submitted to the Father's will in a supreme expression of love for His Father and for us (Preach My Gospel, pg. 52)."

"Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered (2 Nephi 2:7)." 

The triumph of Jesus Christ over sin through His suffering and over physical death by His Resurrection is called the Atonement. This is the greatest miracle of all time and eternity. 

Through the Atonement we become worthy to enter the presence of our Heavenly Father permanently. We grow. We change. We become clean. 

As a missionary, I have had many, many, many opportunities to see the Atonement work in people's lives. 

I have watched people I have taught apply the Atonement in their lives and it brings me such joy to see the change it has made in them. 

I have been a witness to missionaries around me growing and changing into powerful servants of the Lord.

I have seen my friends and family grow through living the gospel and accepting the Atonement of Jesus Christ more fully in their lives. 

I, myself, have experienced a mighty change of heart. I am not who I was one year ago. I am not who I was three months ago. I am not even who I was yesterday. 

This week has been one full of growth and change and love. I love my companion and I thank God every day that I was given the opportunity to finish her training, as unexpected as it was. I am grateful for the trust the Lord has in me. I am grateful for all of the companions I have had who have helped shape me. I am grateful for the opportunity to have been a mission historian for the last two transfers, and a sister training leader for the next. The change that has taken place in me over the last 13 months would not have taken place had I not been called to serve the Lord. I cannot adequately express the joy that is in my heart because of the gospel I have the privilege to declare to these wonderful people of Texas. 

"Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel. 

"Who could have supposed that our God would have been so merciful as to have snatched us from our awful, sinful, and polluted state (Alma 26:16-17)?"

"And now, beloved, marvel not that I tell you these things; for why not speak of the atonement of Christ, and attain to a perfect knowledge of him... (Jacob 4:12)"

The miracle of the Atonement is real. It has worked in my life. It will work in yours. 

And it works wonderfully! 

Love, 

Sister Waite

Words from Sister Hannah Platt in Honduras

Dear friends and family,

First off, i just want to wish a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my beautiful mother!!!! Call her up and send her lots of love!! Cuz she is pretty dang great.. just the greatest mother in the whole world!

Well another week has passed.. and its febrero?! Que???? I am soo amazed. Well happy Febuary!! I hope its a pretty great first day of the month. THis week was pretty dang good. We started it off by going to a multizone conference.. and let me just tell you that it pretty much changed my entire life... One of our assistants, Elder Duncan, talked about how Satan works. He said that he uses the exact same tools that we, as God`s servants, use. He preaches, he works diligently, he searches a lot to find people, he has hope, and a bunch of other tactics.. then he said that with those same tactics that we use, he is winning! He coninces us that we are not good enough, he puts doubts in our minds. And he works sooo hard. But, we have a secret weapon, and that is the Spirit! Its a weapon that Satan does not have and won`t ever be able to have! And we have the gift of the Holy Ghost which mean s taht we have the constant right to its company. But, we, as humans, do a lot of things that drive the spirit away. We have negative thoughts, we talk bad of others, we are disobedient, etc. SO he gave us a challenge and its a challenge that is changing my life and i want to share it with you!! He told us to make a list of things that could possibly be stopping us from having the spirit. Then, you do a 40 day fast from every single one of those things! you start it with a regular fast, (for 24 hours) and then for 40 days you tyry your hardest to avoid doing every single one of the things that drives the spirit away. My companion and i started it this week! And i have already noticed a difference!! But, satan will work hard as well!!!! He will put the things on your list even more in your way! We have sure seen that this week. BUt God has given us soo much strength and i have felt the spirit soo much more. So my challenge is for each of you to do the 40 day fast from the things that are stopping you form having the spirit. And i promise you will see a difference! You will feel the spirit in your life! And you will be happier. 

Things are great here in Comayagua!!! MIracles are still happeneing. I am sooo happy and greateful to be here!!!! God is soo good! We have a girl of 12 years that is preaparing for baptism and we are teaching her mom and sister as well. They are amazing! Our families are progressing slowlly but surely. I am just soo grateaful for thise gospel!!! 

I sure love you all ! Have the most incredible week!!!

Love,

Hermana Platt