2 Transfers & 20 Pounds Later...

Thankful moment: my family and friends back home. I love you guys so much. You have all been so important to me and I'm grateful for you all. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and remember to have grateful mindsets every other day of the year. I hope your Thanksgiving was filled with lots of food and family. The following pictures perfectly depict what mine was like after 4 dinner/dessert appointments. This is what we felt at the end of each visit:

Dinner #1:

Dinner #2:

Dinner #3:

Dinner #4:

Updates:

• The pregnant hermana from Peru had her baby Friday! Her husband that we are teaching is doing AWESOME! The baby and the mom are happy and healthy and taking care of them was the highlight of my week. I love babies sooooo much. Not being able to hold this baby is torturing me.
• Got lost on our way to a lesson one night and were lost for about half an hour then Hermana Doyle accidentally turned onto an express lane so in other words I experienced the most stressful 30 minutes of my entire life this week.
• DJ is still my favorite person ever and progressing every day. I think has a date with a single woman he met in our ward this week. ;)
• Visited the cutest widows in the whole universe this for Thanksgiving. Here's us with one of my favorite Hermanas ever. Do not lie and say she's isn't the cutest lady you've ever seen. Also, she literally changed into this outfit for this picture, I have picture evidence of her looking through her closet after asking if we could get a picture with her and her tree hahaha! 

For the moment of truth... transfers. 

Okay before I say anything I just want everyone to know that I am truly, internally freaking out and Hermana Doyle is one of the hardest goodbye I've had to make... I love her so much. But... I am staying in Little River!!! And I wish I could tell you who my new companion is but I can't... she's brand new and will be arriving to DC today and I will meet her tomorrow. Yep, I am training a brand new missionary. I almost passed out when I received a call from President Huntsman asking me to train so early in my mission. Missionaries train toward the end of their missions but President is sure and confident that I am ready to train. I pray some of his confidence in this decision rubs off on me. Aside from being nervous I really am so excited to train and the fact that the Lord has called me gives me peace. I am also excited to learn as much as I can from my new Hermana! I love her already! Expect to hear from her next week!

Milagro:
I think this Sunday was the best Sunday of my entire mission. We had 11 investigators at church with their families. Guys! Hard work pays off I pinky promise! They learned so much more about what we have been teaching them and got to know the ward members. The peace felt at church is incomparable and is a way we demonstrate our desire to follow God and learn more about him. They all loved it and I was SO happy. I LOVE my investigators and this ward so much! I'm so glad I get to stay and continue working here.

Despite not being able to listen to the Michael Bublè Christmas album this year... I AM SO EXCITED FOR CHRISTMAS! If you haven't already I invite you all to go here and watch the #lighttheworld videos. Starting the 1st of December the church will have a video and service ideas that we do worldwide everyday leading up to Christmas. This season I invite you all to think of ways to give to those in need. Service on the mission has impacted me so much and has brought many blessings to my life and the lives of others. I know that as we think less about ourselves and our needs and more about others that we will live happier and Christ centered lives. I also invite you to study the life of Jesus Christ who dedicated his life to serving others.

Transfers are always sad but I am grateful for the friendships and experiences of my first two transfers. This was my last week being a trainee. Here's one more picture of our awesome Chinese/Spanish district who will all be separated next transfer, they're some of my greatest friends now. I love being a missionary so much. I love you guys! Hasta la proxima semana! 

Con amor,

Hermana Tapia

The Miracle of the Restoration & My BFFs

Hola Hermanos y Hermanas!

Starting off with the thankful moment: My fav. investigator DJ.

I have to start this week with DJ. I had NO IDEA I would love my investigators as much as I do! Our awesome, 40 year old Bolivian DJ is such a champ. He suffers a lot with depression, anxiety and temptations. But he is working so hard to overcome that rely on the Lord. His baptism is in 2 weeks and he is doing so so well and preparing so much! We had a lesson with him everyday this week and he LOVED church on Sunday. (President Swift, the president of the DC temple came and spoke with his wife. I got to translate for Sister Swift and that was awesome! Everything they said was exactly what DJ needed.) We really just love him and he tells us how much we mean to him and how much he loves us. I am so overwhelmed at how well he is doing and progressing. Our ward just loves him! He in teaching the young men how to DJ and the stake asked him to DJ for a stake dance coming up, he says he finally has friends and he finally has the Lord's true church in his life and how it has brought joy to his life after being so alone for so long. He is the greatest person, I can't tell you guys how much he means to me. Here's us and him taking a #churchselfie.

Go back a couple weeks and you will learn about a cute recent convert from Peru who is pregnant and prayed I would get transferred to Little River. Welllll, we visit her almost every week. And at every visit she would talk about how much she is struggling with her marriage, how her husband suffers with addictions that started as a young boy that he never took care of. It broke my heart. So I made it a goal to teach his husband and we have been for the last 4 weeks and guess what... He has not missed a day of church, their marriage is so much better, he is now overcoming his addictions and changing. This week he said he was ready to be baptized and will be baptized NEXT MONTH!! I love them so so much! They are one of my favorite couples I have gotten to teach. Lessons with them are incredible, I look forward to the one tonight!

I want to take the opportunity to share with you how I teach the restoration of the church of Jesus Christ using these simple cups along with great references from the Bible. Here it is:

1. This is the church Christ established on the earth when He came, the principles, His teachings and His 12 apostles. We know this because of the records of the life of Jesus Christ found in the holy scriptures.

2. Following the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the death of His apostles came the great apostasy that the Bible talks about in Amos 8: 11-12. During this time the fullness of his church was lost, there were no men that held the priesthood, without it ordinances could not be done properly.

3. Although the gospel was no longer found on the earth there were still good people that wanted to follow Christ. So, they all took portions of the Bible and tried to interpret it, took some teachings and started churches of their own. These are some of the many, many churches we have on the earth today. They were started by great people that wanted to follow Christ but simply didn't have the fullness. This is part of the great apostasy found in Amos. 

 

4. But, God loves his children and planned the restoration of the gospel to take place through a prophet by the name of Joseph Smith. Through him we now have the fullness of the gospel that Christ establish when He was on the earth. 12 apostles (There have been changes recently so this isn't up to date), a living prophet, the priesthood (that gives men the proper authority to baptize and act in the name of Jesus Christ himself) and the same principles and commandments Christ taught during His earthly ministry. This leads to the conclusion that there are many great churches that are guided by the Savior's teachings but only one that has been restored by them and has the proper authority and the completed set of scriptures referring to the Bible & Book of Mormon. Because of the many translations and interpretations of the Bible there needed to be a second book mentioned in the Bible in Ezekiel 37: 15-17. As you can see Christ is still at the head of the church but leads and guides us through a living prophet that receives revelation.

 

I really want all of you to know that I believe this, that I have read the Book of Mormon and I have asked Heavenly Father if it is true and THAT is why I know. Not because a friend told me, not because a family member told me or an acquaintance but because my Heavenly Father has let me know through the holy ghost. I encourage you all to get an answer in that way as well. Asking Him and reading the book. I know you will get your answer. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Another highlight of this week:
We had another mission conference Friday with Elder Arnold of the quorum of the 70 and it was amazing. I love him and his wife so much. They were mission presidents in Argentina then lived in Brazil and have gorgeous Spanish/Portuguese. Their training and talks were exactly the council I needed and I grew to love them very much! Here is Hermana Doyle and me with Sister Arnold who is now one of my favorite women ever!

Transfers are this Saturday and if I get transferred right now I will LITERALLY be heartbroken and I will hide in Little River forever. (Hahaha I'm kidding... maybe) But next week I will give you all the big news on transfers, pray lots for me to understand the Lord's will! Love you wonderful people, have a wonderful Thanksgiving, I'm grateful for you and this amazing, restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It has changed my life and it's a blessing to watch it change the lives of my investigators (Almost all of them were at church yesterday it was awesome!). Cuidense, los quiero!

Hermana Tapia

A Surprise Visit from an Apostle!

For the month of November I am going to start every email with one thing I am especially grateful for.

This week: my companions/their families. Our kind, hardworking and beautiful Hermana Johnson went home for personal mental health reasons. This surprised all of us but she knows it is what God has asked of her and she has the faith to follow it. We love her and are grateful for the time spent together. Second, Hermana Doyle. Fun fact: Hermana Doyle and I were friends on Instagram and messaged before our missions. She got here two months before me and we hoped and prayed we would be companions. We were SO EXCITED to be together and guess what, we are staying together here in Little River! Lastly, I am grateful for the Doyle familia. Her family sent Hermana Doyle a package this week that included letters from her family members for ME! (I'm a sucker for handwritten letters) Familia Doyle, if you read my blog I love you all so much and am SOOO grateful for your thoughtful gifts and amazing daughter/sister, Hermana Doyle, I love her very much!

This week was SO great! My investigator from Columbia decided she wants to be baptized ASAP and passed her baptismal interview Thursday night! I met her in Old Town and we have the same Catholic background and just clicked. I love her so much and am excited for her baptism! I also had my first baptism this week and... I got to meet and listen to Elder Neil L. Anderson from the quorum of the 12 apostles, the presiding bishop of the church, Elder Causse, and two members of the quorum of the 70, Elder Neilsen and Elder Calderwood. We weren't notified until 3 days before. It was AMAZING! They came and spoke to my whole mission and guess who was asked to say the closing prayer at this conference? Good ol' Hermana Tapia and in Spanish! After my prayer they all kindly thanked me. I also got to shake all of their hands! I really cannot miss an opportunity to testify to you all that this is the exact same church Christ established on the earth. Just like he had his 12 apostles then, He still has them now, to lead and guide His church and His people. Just being in the same room as these men that are called of God. The spirit testified to me that they truly have been called of God. We took a panoramic mission picture with all of them and I was told it would be emailed to us in the near future so stay tuned in the next few weeks for that. I was on the very front row (I am finally seeing the blessings of being short) right behind President, his wife, & Elder Anderson.

Also here is something crazy: This whole transfer I have been stressing to my companions the importance of working with the youth (when I was baptized the youth program made a huge impact in my conversion, I have a big testimony on this) and the importance of contacting referrals immediately and being organized with them. (I went a little overboard and made a notebook of every single referral we had received this transfer and all their information) These two things really stuck out to me this transfer and I wasn't sure why... it was not my own wisdom but things I felt strongly about every time I prayed for guidance. Elder Anderson decided to shared with us yesterday these two main things:

1. The importance and blessings of working with the youth.
2. Taking referrals seriously and contacting them immediately.

Hermana Doyle looked turned over to me in that moment in shock. "Woah...How did you know?!" She whispered. Hahaha! The truth is I had NO IDEA. I just followed that feeling and did what I knew I needed to do. Sometimes it is really that simple! Just praying for guidance, following it and doing what you already know you need to do. Those two simple things will make a difference in your life. I love that Heavenly Father allows us to all receive personal revelation, that is evidence of his love for us.

Missionary fact: Once a week (usually Fridays) we have to spend hours planning and scheduling appointments for the following week. It is called weekly planning. It can be exhausting and sometimes is hard to enjoy but is very important and helps us stay organized and hardworking! I am very grateful for it so Hermana Doyle and I were thinking of ways to make it more enjoyable. Soooo, this week we made some pumpkin-spice-weekly-plan-cakes to spice things up ;) (The Lili puns don't stop, not even as a missionary) Hahaha! Point is, no matter what we have to do, if we have positive attitudes and try to enjoy them we will be happier people! Christ was so optimistic and so we should strive to be that way as well.

My favorite moments this week:

• Praying at J's baptism and feeling the spirit so strongly 
• Eating my literal favorite hispanic pastry in the world, alfajores. (Only the original Peruvian recipe, like this one here.)
• Praying during the conference with Elder Anderson and hearing him talk about his wife (I cried, I'm not going to lie. He loves her so much it's literally beautiful.) 
• Organizing my Colombian investigator's baptism.
• Having our investigator gasp after our lesson of the restoration and saying, "Oh my gosh... it makes so much sense now!" (He is pure gold)
• The many hugs and kisses of the amazing elderly women in my ward that I ADORE.

Thank you for your love and prayers, can't wait to share more next week! Con mucho amor,

Hermana Tapia 

la Hermanita Mexicana

Dear Everyone,

Yesterday was testimony meeting at church and I decided to go up and bare my testimony to introduce myself to the ward. It is an important part of building their trust when they see how dedicated we are to la obra misional when we are willing to share our testimonies and experiences. It also makes them excited to work with us. I started off my testimony by introducing myself as Hermana Tapia from Utah then went on to say I was Mexican. After sacrament meeting many of the ward members came up to thank me for baring my testimony and almost every single one of them mentioned how excited they were to have a Mexican missionary and how they love Mexicans. It's really refreshing because on the West Coast the majority of Hispanics are Mexican and here they aren't as common and everyone loves us! It's great! Hahaha!  I am now known as "la Hermanita Mexicana" here and will only respond to emails that address me as that from now on. Hahaha! Just kidding!

Miracle Moment:
We received a call from a less-active couple this week that expressed to us their desire to come back to church. We met with them one night this week and it was such a spiritual lesson, yesterday they came to church together for the first time in years. I sat by them and when I was about to go up to bare my testimony I asked them if they wanted to come with me. To my surprise the wife said yes! In her testimony she shared how she had prayed so much that her husband's heart would be softened and that he would go to church with her again and how sitting by him today was an answer to her prayers. Tears were streaming down her husband's face. We scheduled an interview with the bishop for them and we are now working towards getting them sealed in the temple! I love watching how the gospel shapes and changes peoples' lives. God is so mindful of all of his children.





DJ Update: 
Oh we love DJ so so much. He struggles a lot with depression and often times deals with these feelings by doing drugs and partying. We received a random call from him one night where he asked how we were doing and told us about what he had read in the scriptures that day. It was random and unexpected, but we were so excited to receive the surprise. This week he shared with us about how he was really depressed that night and had decided to go to a casino to drink and party. He shared that as he was driving to the casino he stopped and thought about us and all we had taught him and in that moment he made a U-turn, drove back home, read his scriptures and called us to tell us all about it. We teared up. He is the perfect example of striving to overcome addictions and taking it one day at a time. He is one of the strongest people I have ever met and his baptism is coming up! We all have problems and weaknesses, but they do not define us. What does?

Happy November!
This is a little reminder to count your blessing this month. The mission is incredible, but sometimes we get caught in the routine of everything and forget to enjoy every moment and count our blessings. This is much like life back home. As you go on throughout your week keep an eye out for blessings and remember to have an attitude of gratitude. In honor of this month our trio made a "miracle wall" in our apartment. We hung it up this morning and throughout the month will be posting little miracles we saw every day to remind us to be grateful and positive. I invite you all to put up a "miracle wall" in your lives  this week. Whether it be at home or a mental wall. "Miracles happen every single day we just have to look for them and they will be there." -President Huntsman.

Funny moment: 
As you know I love children and dancing. I was teaching ballet to our investigator's daughter one night and it didn't go to well.. here is a gif to explain what I mean. 

This week was a little bit of a harder one for me. All week long we had a lot of investigators asking about life after death and we taught the Plan of Salvation probably 3-4 times a day. We even had a family home evening about it one night with a family. As I bore my testimony that families are eternal I got emotional. I thought about my sick step-grandmother who was dying of cancer back home and in that moment the spirit told me she would be okay and that what I was teaching would get me through the week. The next day I received an email that she had passed away. I knew Heavenly Father was allowing me to teach the Plan of Salvation to remind me what I believed and to prepare me for the news. As I read the email my  own words of the things I had taught and testified ran through my head and I knew they were true. I am grateful to be a missionary at this time and I know my step-grandmother is no longer suffering and that I will see her again. I am so sure of this that I probably would not even be able to express it in words. I really appreciate all of your kind words and am so grateful for the people back home comforting and helping my family at this time, you are an answer to my prayers.

Los quiero mucho, no se les olivde a contar sus bendiciones!

(AKA La Hermanita Mexicana)

Hermana Tapia 

La Semana de Milagros

Lots of great people, food and miracles so I am just gonna get started!

There's a recent convert in Little River that I met when I was in Old Town at a dinner. She shared with me how she was baptized in July after investigating for years and how her daughter was baptized in Peru and that because of her daughter's example she started investigating here in the U.S. Her story made me so happy and hopeful being the only member in my family. She and I talked that whole day and we got so close. She told me she was going to pray that I would be transferred to Little River. She must have a lot of faith because here I am! Hahaha! She was so excited to see me! I now have the opportunity to teach her husband who is investigating the church. They are now one of my absolute favorite families. As we teach him she bares testimony of what we teach, you can feel just how much she loves her family and wants them to be all together in the gospel. It gives me motivation to work hard so she can have her whole family at church together. She is so faithful and a huge example to me. Here is a picture of us cooking AMAZING Peruvian food with her. I'm kind of obsessed with Peruvian food now cause there are so many Peruvians here and I refuse to leave without learning how to cook my favorite dishes. Cooking with her was so fun, she is pregnant and due in 3 weeks, so prepare for baby pics soon! 

Update on my DJ investigator!!! HE IS ON DATE FOR BAPTISM! He is so willing to change his life around and be better for his children. He is a serious, intimidating, bigger man but in our lessons he is so emotional and open. He will come with a question or doubt and once we give him an answer with scripture references he will just be mind blown and say "HERMANITASSS!" Every single time without fail hahahha! This week he found out news about his best friend doing something behind his back. DJ has trust issues because his wife in Bolivia was unfaithful to him and he has a hard time trusting people. When he told us what had happened he was telling us he was done changing and that he was going to stop trusting people and that he just wanted to be alone. We rushed over to his office and he just went on and on about how he was going to be heartless and mean so people would stop using him and how it was his fault he had always been let down because he let people use him and lie to him. He was filled with so much anger and refused to let us speak. He was convinced being a mean person would prevent heartache. In that moment I thought about Christ. The second he stopped talking I said in a soft voice, "Who would you say is the person that was treated the worst on this earth and suffered the most?" DJ said he didn't know. I pulled out a picture of Jesus Christ holding a lamb and I pointed at Christ. DJ covered his mouth with his hand and with tears in his eyes now, he let me speak. We talked about the ministry of Christ. About his example of selfless love, forgiveness and charity. That lesson he decided to set his baptism date and is stronger than ever and willing to be like Christ. I think we have all felt like DJ before, I know I have. But as we strive every day to love those who hurt us and simply be kind no matter what, then we will feel joy in our lives. We should never let other people affect our discipleship or who we are. I am so grateful for Christ and his example and my humble prayer is that we can all strive to be like Him.

Miracle Moment #1: 

Saturday morning our lesson fell through and we didn't know what to do. We decided to go to a neighborhood by our next appointment. We had about an hour and a half until our next appointment so, just as we were going to start knocking doors, we receive a call. It was from the DC temple visitor center. A missionary was calling us about a family that went to the temple Friday night that really wanted the Hermanas to stop by and teach their family. She gives us their address and we check our maps and guess what... We were RIGHT BY THEIR HOUSE!!!! We sprinted to their house and knocked on their door and they are new investigators and an AMAZING family. Those moments remind me this is the Lord's work! He knows where we need to be and who we need to teach. This is not the church of Hermana Tapia but instead the Church of Jesus Christ and He is at the head of this work and this church.

Miracle Moment #2:

Hermana Johnson lost her tablet and we were all worried sick! We had been driving for about 30 minutes looking for it until we decided to drive back home and see if she had left it there. As we parked the car and got out Hermana Doyle says, "Umm.. Hermana... I think I found your tablet." As she points to the back end of the car. Her case literally gripped onto the back of the car and survived the bumps and turns of crazy Virgina streets and traffic! We freaked out! Hahahah! I have picture evidence of this.

Weather Update:

Don't ever come to Virginia at the end of October, the wind will break your windows, tangle your hair, and make you do backflips in the air. Okay, I'm exaggerating! But seriously it is so windy! And it's terrifying when you're as small as me and weigh like 7 pounds! Other than that I can't complain I LOVE Virginia. Just pray the wind won't blow me away... Speaking of weather! It rained a lot this week! If you know me pretty well you probably know I love the rain because it reminds me of my grandfather. Every day he would water his plants. The whole week he died up until his funeral it rained. My aunt mentioned that it was almost as if he was watering the plants one last time. Now it always happens to rain on the hardest days when I am having a rough time. I feel almost as if the rain is my grandfather comforting me, encouraging me to keep going and keep working.

My companions and I are on our way to Burke Lake now so I will talk to you all next week! Can't wait to hear from you and have a safe Halloween! 

Los quiero!

Hermana Tapia