"Una Familia Dios Me Dio, La Amo de Verdad"

Hola hola!

This week I was able to feel deeply the love I have for my family and this amazing work, la obra misional.

First, my mom had a baby so I will be going home to another adorable baby brother and I am so excited about that!

Also, I have family in Utah investigating the church that I have been emailing throughout my mission and I got to surprise them along with my grandma from Mexico who is visiting Utah. Their elders Skyped me in on a lesson and I got to share my testimony with them and offer a prayer. We all cried a lot. The second my grandma saw me she cried and I couldn't hold back the tears. The spirit was so strong throughout the Skype. 

On top of all of this I have an aunt in Mexico who I have been emailing and teaching and she agreed to have me send her a Book of Mormon to read it for herself. Two hermanas in Mexico dropped off the Book to her and my aunt expressed the love she had for them and the Book of Mormon. She said when they knocked on her door she felt as if it was me there. She set plans with the hermanas so they can continue to meet and she made plans to go to church with them!

In the Book of Mormon a father named Lehi has a dream where he eats this fruit that is delicious and explains his desire to have his family partake of the fruit.

1 Nephi 8:12 "And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy; wherefore, I began to be desirous that my family should partake of it also; for I knew that it was desirable above all other fruit."

That fruit to me is the love of Christ and the knowledge of his gospel and I can for sure say that, much like Lehi, I have always had the desire to share it with my family. Although I was shy about it because of fear of rejection. My time as a missionary has taught me so much about never giving up an opportunity to share this wonderful message and it has brought so many blessings to my family and me. My aunt and cousins now have plans to be baptized and I can't properly express the joy I have felt from these experiences and the love I have felt for them and I have seen them partake of this fruit.

We had a great FHE with a family I love. They have family visiting from Honduras that are members of other faith and don't have the warmest of feelings towards the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. So half way through our lesson on the restoration one of the family members starts... you could say "bible bashing" us and saying all these negative things and expressing doubts. We were on exchanges so I was with an English sister and she had NO idea what was going on so I was basically on my own. As he concluded I turned to this family's 17 year old daughter and asked her why she thinks this church is true. She bore the most beautiful, sincere testimony that brought everyone to tears. I then invited the other members of the family to bare their testimonies and every single one of them got emotional sharing how they received a personal witness of these things. There was not a single person that didn't cry or feel the spirit. I've learned that with sharing the gospel there really can't be hate or conflict, that drives away the spirit and there's no way we can tell if things are true or not. The second they bore their testimonies the spirit was invited and the negativity from the grandpa was gone. The whole family came to church this Sunday including the grandparents. And we are now teaching a brother that was there because he said he felt something he had never felt before that night.

In Lehi's dream there were a group of people the were angry and rude trying to convince others to not partake of the fruit. Those who listened to them never tried the fruit. But those who avoided them and tried it anyways felt joy and were able to taste of the delicious fruit. PLEASE, do not be scared to share the joy and love you feel with anyone. Even when its nerve wracking, even if you are afraid someone will make fun of you or reject your message. I promise that light is so much more powerful than darkness and love is so much more powerful than contention. I know that the Lord sanctifies our efforts and wants to help us. I really needed to learn this message to be able to properly go home and continue being a missionary to my family. Share this message in your homes, with your family! I also know that families are given to help us learn together and they can be eternal, in fact they are meant to be eternal.

I love you all so much! Share the gospel, ask God if this is His true church, read the Book of Mormon and love your families!!!

Hermana Tapia

"Remember, O Remember"

Hola amigos y familia!

Being a missionary is so cool. Hermana Bertagnolli and I have been focusing on how we can teach with more unity so that the people we teach can really feel the spirit and it has helped so much. I am learning so much about the importance of relying on others and working as a team. Also about the spirit and how it testifies of truth and how we can all feel it

There is a lesson we teach as missionaries called The Plan of Salvation. It basically lets us know where we came from, why we are on earth and what happens after we die. It's so cool and makes so much sense when you really take the time to learn about it. In the plan of salvation its explained that we all lived with God as spirits before coming to earth, this is called the pre-mortal existence. But since we didn't have physical bodies and couldn't make mistakes and learn we couldn't progress or learn very much. So God created The Plan of Salvation. A plan that we would all come to earth, have a physical body, make mistakes, learn, progress, have families and depending on our decisions there we would be able to live with God again. BUT- none of you remember this right? Well, that's because we all went through something called a veil and this was all erased from our memory. Why? So we can really be tested. So we are basically here to try and remember that all and live good lives so we can live with God and our families for eternity.

We are teaching a man I will call Ben who we met last week. We taught him, his sister and girlfriend this week. We taught them the restoration Wednesday, they came to church Sunday and after we had a Plan of Salvation lesson and it was so cool. The girlfriend said she felt like a light bulb went off in her head as we explained the pre-mortal existence and the purpose of our life on earth. I had just explained that we go through a veil when we are born and we forget everything about our life before. And that when we learn about the God's plan on earth and we have comforting feelings it is almost as if our spirits are remembering it all. I realized that maybe that is a way the spirit works, it makes us feel almost as if we are being reminded of something we once knew. I definitely know that when I was learning about the gospel it somehow felt like I had known it all before and was just being reminded. There is so much power in learning about the gospel and paying attention to how you feel when you do so. I seriously believe that every single one of us were face to face with God at one point before coming here and promised to do the best we could to remember Him and remember His plan here on earth. And we all have the potential to live with Him again I don't care who you are or what you have done. Also, his little sister read 8 chapters in 1 Nephi in 2 days! She's only 13! I feel a special connection with her because I was 14 when the elders taught me and loved the Book of Mormon! It's so fun to watch something similar happen to this cute girl that we met just this week!

Here's some more random pictures from the week!

Cow day at Chick-Fil-A was this week so us hermanas went after district meeting on Wednesday to get some free food. 

This investigator has two teenage daughters in Honduras who were recently baptized! We teach her and she told us this week that when she sees us, she sees her daughters preaching to her. Precious. :')

Hermana Bertagnolli is such a great comp and makes really yummy burnt cookies. ;)

Los quiero!!!!

Hermana Tapia

Consider the Lili(es) in the Swamp

Que tal?!

I have come to the conclusion that Virginia is a swamp. There is no better way to explain this place. It is a swamp. This week we reached the 100's and the humidity was crazy. But, I sure do love it!

This week we had a super fun 4th of July with members, investigators, other sister missionaries and lots of good food! Hermana Bertagnolli street contacted in downtown Herndon before the fireworks and met so many interested people! Blessings of working hard even on 4th of July night! We might have snapped a few pictures in between....

This week we were having one particularly REALLY crummy day. All our lessons fell through, no one wanted to hear our message, we were tired of walking around all day. And then we decide to visit a member close by. On our way out of their home we see that their neighbor is getting home from work. We decide to say hi and he immediately opens up and practically begs us to come in and teach him. A little startled now but excited we stay and he quickly opens up about a huge trial he is going through. His wife had been unfaithful to him, he was losing his children, home and job. In that moment I felt this overwhelming feeling that we were where we were most needed in that moment. I found myself feeling inspired to tell him that sometimes trails in our lives are ways Heavenly Father direct us in different paths. Saying that I realized that maybe we were having a crummy day because Heavenly Father was trying to direct us in a different path as well so we could find this man that needed us so desperately. All of us were comforted and it was a very spiritual lesson. It was all so worth it just to talk to that man that was in desperate need of a message of hope and faith in the Savior.

I was asked to give a last minute talk in sacrament yesterday and it was perfect because I desperately needed the topic I spoke on. Pride. One particular quote that I found that I want to share says

"Pride is the opposite of humility, which is a 'willingness to submit to the will of the Lord.' When prideful, we tend to take honor to ourselves rather than giving it to others, including the Lord. Pride is often competitive; it is a tendency to seek to obtain more and presume we are better than others. Pride often results in feelings of anger and hatred; it causes one to hold grudges or to withhold forgiveness. Pride, however, can be swallowed in the Christlike attribute of humility." - Elder Gary E. Stevenson

The best way to avoid pride is by being humble. And that doesn't necessarily mean we can't have confidence, we must learn to direct all the confidence we have towards the Lord. How powerful is that. As we actively strive to overcome pride we will overcome temptation and mindless comparison.

Also! 2 of our investigators that we found just last week have let us know they have gained a personal testimony of the Book of Mormon and wow... This church is so true. As our investigators gain their testimonies it strengthens mine. Nothing tops this full-time missionary service. I love these people and the gospel with all my heart!

Hasta la próxima semana!

Hermana Tapia

New Transfer, New Me

Hola a todos!

A new transfer has begun. I have a new companion and a new ward. Hermana Bertagnolli (Bert-noli) is an amazing companion and I love Spring Lake so much already. Our new president, President Caplin, got here on Friday as well. As much as I will miss President Huntsman it is still so great to meet President Caplin and feel of his love and spirit. I can already tell this is going to be such a good transfer. 

Here are all the hermanas in the mission at transfers.

Funny moment of the week:
I sleep talk SO MUCH! All my companions tell me that sometimes they wake up to me teaching a lesson in my sleep at 2 A.M. and I have no memory of it at all! I forgot to warn Hermana Bertagnolli and one morning I woke up to a cup of water at my bedside. I had no memory of it and just brushed it off. Then Hermana Bertagnolli asked if I felt better after last night and I was confused. Turns out that in my sleep I was panicking and asking for water. This woke up Hermana Bertagnolli and so she ran and got me a cup of water but came back and I was asleep. And I remember absolutely none of it.

The beginning of the transfer always brings great miracles. One day it was so hot. I swear the humidity will be the death of me. And I was so tempted to just go home and rest for a little because the wounds from my surgery started to hurt. But I told myself , "One more person." So we were walking in this neighborhood of town homes and we see these two men working on a yard. They were super nice. We taught them the restoration and I was sweating so bad and was so uncomfortably hot but they were paying such close attention and had heard about the church in Peru. Long story short we ended up setting an appointment, teaching them 2 days later. They came an hour early to church Sunday and we gave them a tour, they stayed all 3 hours and LOVED IT. And are reading the Book of Mormon to pray to know if it is true and feel this is something they have been praying for. This is NOT common here! I am so glad I didn't just quit and decide to go home. I know that when we push ourselves and trust in the Lord He will bless us for our efforts and when we have faith and are willing to sacrifice we will become instruments in His hands.

I know that story makes you all assume that I have not been taking care of myself since my surgery. But I promise I have rested when necessary and continue to make the most of my short time being a full-time missionary for the Lord. There is nothing better I could be doing with my time right now. Amo la obra misional. And I am recovering just fine. :)

I am super excited to spend the 4th of July in D.C. this week! It reminds me that God prepared this Country for the restoration of the gospel and because of religious freedom Joseph Smith was able to restore the gospel of Jesus Christ here. And now it is all over the world. I am so grateful for this and cannot help but feel the spirit as we celebrate the freedom of this great Country.

Hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July and remember the Lord sees your sacrifices and your desires.

Los quiero!

Hermana Tapia