Letter From Whitney- June 24,2013

HI! So I got transferred this week and it feels like it was forever ago! So I am in El Camino Real, Canoga Park. Its really close to Calabasses if thats how you spell it. Its really pretty and really different. I am on bike still and its been really hot but really fun. My companion is Hermana Higley! She is from Wendover and is so cute and is a Family Consumer Science major which means that she makes me the best food ever and taught me how to make beans and horchata and Jamaica! We lived together my first transfer in North Hollywood and we are good friends so we were so stoked when we got put togther! It was crazy because we were together in the temple when we were talking to our Mission President and he was telling us how he had finished transfer assignments and that he was feeling really good about it. We didn't know then that we were going to be companions but we decided that it must have been a confirmation when we were together in the temple. Its been great because we have been having a ton of success! We got 10 new investigators which has been the most ever in both of our missions.

Yay its so cool and crazy I love it. My last area was so ghetto and this one is so clean and pretty and the people are great. I am so excited to have the support of my ward too! I speak next week in Church and get to share all of my new insights since the broadcast yesterday. It was amazing! What did you think of it?

New letter from Whitney 6/10/2013

Wow what I cool trip and experience. Those places and things are so important to me and must have been so cool to experience first hand. I have been reading in the Book of Mormon about how God said the people that would come to this promised land would be lead by His hand here and have felt so blessed to be a citizen of the country. You should ask my companions I have so much American pride its annoying ha ha. It is so beautiful and am so glad you got to enjoy those things because you deserve it! So I was so expecting my visa to come this week but it turns out that I will finish another transfer here unless it comes this week. I do believe it will come soon though. We had some amazing miracles this week. One was that we recieved a referral from elders in our district and we looked forever for this mans address and gave up and decided to go knock on a door of someone we had contacted before. They weren't home but then we were handing out cards and just outside we asked this mans name and it was the same man we had been looking for and couldn't find! We taught him this week and set a baptismal date with him and he told us that he had given a fake address and number to the Elders and that God really wanted us to teach him because we found him! That was so cool! Then the next day my companion ran over a staple and got a flat tire and we were so annoyed because we had been in the bike shop earlier that week. While we were standing there trying to figure out what to do this woman came up and told us she was a member and that she hasn't been able to come to Church because she has really bad health issues. She told us that she would like us to read some scriptures to us because she can't read and told us that in the morning she had prayed to have some happiness in her day and that we were the answer to her prayers. I just felt so blessed to be guided by the Spirit and to know that Heavenly Father has so many details in His plans ... even flat tires. It was so cool! We also got to take out the youth and do splits and go contacting. It was really fun for me to watch a young woman share her testimony and truly be like my companion! I hope the youth at home can have a chance to do that. Also we have a funny companionship. Its been a great week. We also had a lesson in the park with one of my investigators and he bought me Elote! So good! I will send pics! Anyway that was my week and I know that Heavenly Father needed me to stay here for this week!

New letter 5-30-2013

Okay so what a crazy week! Don't worry mom I feel fine. We just wanted to get it checked before I someday ( I don't know when) I got to Peru because it has been 8 months and Im on a totally different diet and am on bike all day. I'm always tired but that just is what biking in the sun does to you. Man, I did get the drivers liscence stuff but it turned out to be a huge pain in the you know what and I went to the mission office to get help from the office and basically I don't need it until I get home so its okay. I never found my wallet but I was wondering if you could look in my folder of stuff and make sure my social security card is in there I was sure to leave it home but I want to double check. So I have had such a good week with some exciting miracles! New investigators and baptismal dates! I am having so much fun seeing my area grow and learing so much from the people we teach and my crazy fun companions! So out of nowhere uncle john emailed me and said .. oh Im getting married and something about cherries. Random! Send me pics okay! I am sorry I am so behind on letters but Preparation days have been crazy and I have not been able to get stamps but I will get to it this week! Mom I love the people here and its going to break my heart to leave. I am so proud of pat and thought of him all that day. Sister Cropper called after she talked to you and said... your mom just said they had a graduation and I was trying not to cry! Just so proud. What is the status on when he can do his papers?

Pics! 05/06/2013

 

Letter from Whitney 4-22-213

Familia y Amigos mios! I am so happy here in North Hollywood to be a missionary and to be doing the best thing for my life. It has been a good week and am always amazed at the revealation and life-changing experiences I have had in just one week. This week we had Zone Conference where our Mission President Hall trained us on planning and teaching simply. He also told us the changes that will be coming in our mission. We were blown away by how small this mission is going to be with almost double the missionaries we have now. There will be almost 10 missionaries in each ward! WOW! The First Presidency also announced that there will be leadership positions for Sister missionaries too! How neat! Well this week we have been praying really hard to find a way to help our ward have better unity and a stronger conversion to the gospel so that they will have desires to help us in missionary work. Our answer came and it was so wonderful. We had district meeting with the 8 missionaries in our ward on Friday and our Disrict leader told us how he and his companion gave a committment to read the Book of Mormon everyday for 30 days. When they thought about it later they realized that, that is what our ward needed. The Book of Mormon is so powerful and is what we need to help them become converted and united. Hna Zepeda was asked to train us and had called a few days before trying to figure out what to train on. The morning of the meeting she changed her training to be on The Book of Mormon. It was inspired because we didn't know about the challenge until right before she trained us and so it was a confirmation that The Book of Mormon challenge was an answer to our prayers. We had a very Spiritual testimony meeting after that and we have been so excited to be giving this challenge. We'll in my thoughts about the 30 day challenge I felt like I should invite my family and friends to do that also. Just about 10 to 15 mins a day read the Book of Mormon for 30 days, then ponder on the changes that come from those few minutes it took everyday. I know The Book of Mormon has converting power to change peoples lives, no matter how many times you have read it. It has contained many answers to my prayers and many revealations. I know the days that The Book of Mormon hasn't been read are days missing divine, personal, life-changing revealation. So I "exhort" you to not miss a single day. I can promise you many blessings in your home, ward and family from taking those few minutes to do that. Don't miss out on your most needed guidance. I love you all so much and am so grateful for all that you have done for me. As always I wish I could share every moment with you! Stay faithful and Strong! Con Amor, Hermana Sanders

Message From Whit!

Taco truck pics!
So I don't have much time left but I will write you all a letter today. I got your package and Jenny's and Angie! Holy lots of chocolate and goodies! It was great! I love my socks! Thanks so much! How was your week? You look different in your pics. Everything is going great here. I feel like I'm learning more Spanish. I got an email from the visa department at the Church travel ce...nter. And they said that they check on it everyday and they they will let me know when my visa will be granted which means they haven't heard anything yet. Just know that I am happy here and know that I have a purpose here so I am not very worried about it. We believe we will be here for the whole transfer which is the next 5 weeks. I'm okay. We are learning lots. The work is hard here but we are trying and we were happy to see lots of our people at church yesterday . That was the best Easter present. I will write you a letter today! Love you all and take care. Hope you had a wonderful, meaningful Easter!
Hugs and kisses!
Hermana Sanders —

Familia y Amigos

Buenas! Como estan? He tenido una semana que fue muy interesante y bonita. No puedo creer que estoy aqui todavia pero me gusta California mucho. So this week one of the other Hermanas is going home because she is past 18 months. We went out to celebrate with frozen yogurt down our street. While we were eating our yougurts we could see film crews setting up. They came in to sample icecream and asked them what they were doing. They were shooting an episode with of a show with those twins from Disney Channel Tia and Tamara. We left before we got there but that was something interesting. California is so interesting. We have met all walks of life and we can feel the love that Heavenly Father has for all of them.

 

Sabado we had an experience when we went to go see some people that we had been teaching to invite them to Church. Well when we got to the gate a man pulled up and we were going to move our bikes to let him in and he said he was just grabbing things and then was going to leave. So we offered to help him with his things. While moving everything he owns to his car he told us that he was kicked out of the house and that they took his rent money and he had nowhere to go but to live at a park in his car. He is about 65 and is disabled so he cannot work. As we were talking with him he was saying how he wanted to change his life, that before he would normally drink when things were hard but that he didn't want to now.He said that his children won't have anything to do with him and he was at the lowest of lows. We didn't know what we could do for him. But we invited him to change his life by coming to Church with us on Sunday. We didn't promise him any help because he we didn't know what we could do other than bring him the comfort and change he needed in his life through Church. Well he came to Church before us on Sunday and wen't to all three hours. Members got together to see what they could do which wasn't much but they pointed him in the direction of places he could go for addiction recovery. He was great and told us how he felt much better because of going to Church. Later last night he called us and told us that after Church he really wanted to drink but that instead he went to the hospital instead to get help. That was amazing. He also told us again that he wanted to change his life and that he when he gets money he wants to go buy a white shirt and nice pants to go to Church to just feel clean. Also said that he was going to start reading the Book of Mormon. I have just felt that we were there at his house at the same time for a purpose. Heavenly Father has a plan for him. He still has his agency to choose but Heavenly Father has really pointed him in the right path while he is in the lowest he has ever felt. I know he has true intention. That was just one of many miracles we had this week.

I hope you are all doing well and that you know how grateful I am for your support.

 

Yo se que Dios tiene propostio por cada persona. Tenemos la albeduria para escoger el plan de Dios y se que si escogemos Su plan, vamos a tener todos de las cosas que necesitemos. Mediante la Expiacion de Jesucristo podemos cambiar y lleguemos a ser la persona que Dios quiere.

 

Les Amo muchisimo

Con Amor,

Hermana Sanders

New Letter!

Hola de North Hollywood! Its been a crazy week and we have been working lots! I'm working on getting some pictures up and going. So we had an exciting announcement this week that our mission here is changing into 3 missions . So the San Fernando mission will only be here in the Valley and there is a new mission opening up in Bakersfield , Ca and then other parts are going to Ventura Mission. This is amazing because there are so many missionaries coming out that there has to be more missions created. MILAGROSO! So I have some homework for all of you... go to LDS.org and search for the talk called "Do We Really Know What We Have?" by Scott Anderson. It's beautiful. Being here I noticed that there were many times that I have taken the knowledge of the Gospel that I have for granted by not acting the way I should have at times. People here are willing to take on a huge lifestyle change that is totally different than that of their neighbors family, friends and changes relationships they have with people. It's all for the better and they recieve many blessings in their lives for it. But , I have been thinking in Utah we take it for granted because that is almost the culture. So I challenge you to read this talk and think of ways that you can show better appreciation for what you have. Since I have been here I have struggled to speak in Spanish. Church and our lessons are usually in Spanish but everything else that surrounds me is in English. I'm understanding things better but at times I have lacked confidence to speak because I make mistakes. I know that it is prideful for me to be that way that this week I have tried to open my mouth more and listen to the words that God tells me to say. When I was studying the scriptures this week I read in D and C 1:20-24. This was an answer to many of my prayers. It talks about how God calls the weak and simple to teak His Gospel. And that He gives them the ability to teach in their language to help with understanding. Read it because I just gave a really bad summerization of it. But it was beautiful to me. I have been expecting myself to be perfect before I try. Thats not how Heavenly Father works. He wants us to try so that through the enabling power of the Atonement He can perfect us. I love the scriptures and they have been a huge source of revealation to me every day. If you are not reading them everyday you are denying yourself revealation and strength that they provide, I love California and the more I'm here the harder it is to imagine leaving .I still look forward to Peru but I want to have the experiences here that God has in store for me. Love you so much! Cuidense! Con Amor Hermana Sanders