Ratones

March 16, 2020

Hola todos!

Okay so to start: No, I don’t have the Coronavirus and no, we're not quarantined. The work continues in McAllen, Texas! Just to get that out of the way 😂

ANOTHER transfer has come and gone ugh! Sister Bainbridge left this morning for Las Vegas which was so sad  😥 I'll miss her a ton. I'm staying in the YSA and I'm gonna be companions with Sister Gilleland who came out with me but went to the Mexico MTC. I'm excited!

This week has been pretty wild with everything that's been happening...one of our member's mom’s showed us like a 15 minute video about the virus then gave us 50 masks and a pack of hand wipes. So, don't worry about us we're all good. We got to take the sacrament at home which was weeeeiiirrdd. We took it out of teaspoon measuring cups and it was just funny. But wow it's crazy that we are all so prepared for it! They literally just instituted a home-centered gospel study and now look how ready we are! I love this quote from President Nelson from his closing remarks in last general conference. He said, “We also know that each home can become a true sanctuary of faith, where peace, love, and the Spirit of the Lord may dwell.” Even through these confusing times, our homes can be a sanctuary for us. I can't remember who said it, but the temple and our homes are the two most holy places in the world!! So, our sacrament can be even holier in the coming weeks!

I hope you are all safe and healthy and thriving.  Love you!

Hermana Coleman

Hi!

March 2, 2020

Hey everyone!!

Yet another crazy week in the YSA! We had an emergency transfer on Monday, so I have a new companion (6 companions in 6 months woohoo)! Her names Sister Bainbridge and she's from Las Vegas. She's super super awesome and we get along really well (:
We had tons of fun activities this week like soccer, volleyball, a scavenger hunt, and institute (scripture study class). It’s honestly just the best. Also, I *almost* made a half-court shot and saved two goals and wrecked the other team in volleyball so I'd say pretty successful 😊 
This week in institute we talked about the Book of Jacob in the Book of Mormon. We focused a lot on Jacob 5, and for those of you who know the Book of Mormon, you know that it's a super long chapter about a guy and his olive trees and how he keeps trying to get them to bear fruit. In reality, it's an allegory for the scattering and gathering of Israel and is about like the 7 seals and stuff in Revelation which was all really cool, BUT we didn't really focus on that. In Jacob 4 it says, “Wherefore, because of their blindness, which blindness came by looking beyond the mark, they must needs fall”. Which is telling us that as we read Jacob 5 we need to focus on the “mark” and not ignore the plainness of it. What we should be focusing on in this story as well as in everything that we do, read, and think about is the atonement of Jesus Christ. Through the atonement of Jesus Christ, we can be made into the best version of ourselves. Jacob 5 says: “I will prune it, and dig about it, and nourish it, that perhaps it may shoot forth young and tender branches, and it perish not.” Everything God does is to help us grow and flourish. Sometimes it hurts because it's like he’s cutting our branches off or digging up our roots or putting fertilizer in our mouths, but it's all because he loves us and sees us for who we truly are and have the potential to become. He came to this earth from his divine throne to suffer literally every pain and sadness and insecurity and anxiety that we all individually feel. His arm will continually reach out to us even if we push it away. I know that Jesus Christ lives. He is my Savior, redeemer, and friend :)

Have an awesome week!
Hermana Coleman

YSA

February 17, 2020

Hi!!! WOW it's been a really crazy past few days// weeks. So I'm officially in the YSA (Young Single Adult – 18-30 years old) branch! The branch covers a HUGE area so we split it with a set of elders and just cover half of the branch. It’s so fun! We have Family Home Evening every Monday where we play games and sports, institute on Thursday, which is like a scripture study class, and Sunday we have church of course! Also just like random little activities. The other day we had a Valentines dance which was so so fun and brought me back to stake dances in high school...yikes. 

I got to have lots of companions this week and stayed in some different apartments and cities so that was pretty fun! For a couple days we were covering a couple areas so we had like 1 hour road trips throughout the day which is kind of the YSA life because we cover so much area. We got lots and lots of new referrals too which is awesome, because knocking doors isn’t super affective and we aren't allowed to contact people on campus :( But we had investigators at FHE, institute, and church which was so awesome!

I really liked this scripture from my personal study the other day...

“6 And he said unto them: Behold, my bowels are filled with compassion towards you.

7 Have ye any that are sick among you? Bring them hither. Have ye any that are lame, or blind, or halt, or maimed, or leprous, or that are withered, or that are deaf, or that are afflicted in any manner? Bring them hither and I will heal them, for I have compassion upon you; my bowels are filled with mercy.”

-3 Nephi 17: 6-7

This just really helped me this week to know that Jesus is always full of compassion for us. He always wants to heal and help us :)

Sorry this is a short email but I just wanted to update y'all 

Have a wonderful week!

Hermana Coleman

Transfers!

February 3, 2020

Hola todos!

Sooo sorry it's been a long time...again. Just wanted to update y'all a little. After 4 months of serving in the lovely Portland Texas, I'll be moving to Hidalgo TX in their YSA ward! I was super shocked because there’s only 1 or 2 YSA wards so I thought I'd never get called there- guess not! Anyway, I'm super excited, but sad to be leaving my beloved Portland family and Sister Darling 🙁

We've gotten to do the Come Follow Me lessons with some families this week, so I just wanna share something from the reading for last week.

1 Nephi 19:9 “And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men.”

This scripture really hit me of how much Jesus suffered for us. There’s this talk by Elder Holland about missionary work, and it says the reason missions are hard is because we have to go through our own VERY mini gethsemane and feel some degree of pain that Christ did in order to fully understand, accept, teach, and apply His sacrifice for us. I think this goes for not only missionaries, but for everyone. Life is hard sometimes, and suffering pain, temptation, and sorrow is inevitable. But because Jesus already felt it all, we have someone- a literal person- who can console us through his all-understanding love.

I hope y'all have an amazing week, I'll try my best to email next week about my new area!

Much love,

Hermana Coleman

Happy New Year

January 6, 2019

Sorry it's been a few weeks! It's been suuper crazy. So first of all, I got a new companion and Sister Yanez went home (cries in Spanish ). My new comps name is Sister Darling and she's super awesome- she's served down in the valley near the border and like every single day she tells me that I'm out of here next transfer. Anyway, we have a lot of fun. 

So first day of the transfer I got the flu...and then this week I dislocated my knee hahaha so I've been in a brace and crutches and stuff so that's fun. It's starting to feel a lot better though so that's good. While we haven’t been at the doctor or calling the mission nurse though, we've been teaching some really cool people and working a ton with the members. We've taught tons and tons of people the plan of salvation these past few weeks which is the BEST because it's just all about how much God loves us and his plan for us. 

One super cool miracle that happened last week was that we were praying for a family of 5 to teach like all day. And then, at like 7pm we get this call from a number in Ohio and it’s this person from the mission office and he said he had a referral for us...and it is a family of 5 Ahhhh!! They're on vacation right now so we haven’t met them yet but were PUMPED. 

I've been reading in the Book of Mormon, in Mosiah, and I just love these verses about gratitude, wow.

21 Yea, and in the valley of Alma they poured out their thanks to God because he had been merciful unto them, and eased their burdens, and had delivered them out of bondage; for they were in bondage, and none could deliver them except it were the Lord their God.

22 And they gave thanks to God, yea, all their men and all their women and all their children that could speak lifted their voices in the praises of their God.

Being grateful can seriously change our entire perspectives on our lives. 10/10 would recommend trying to be more grateful this year. When we focus on the good, the bad tends to blur out and seem less important :)

Love y’all, have a great week!

Sister Coleman

Christmas

December 9, 2019

Happy Holidays!!

While being a missionary during Christmas can be a little sad, it's also the BEST time to be a missionary. Everyone is just so happy and there are lights and everyone that has light or decorations will talk to us about Christmas and Jesus Christ! So that's been pretty cool to see this week.

Christopher got baptized on Sunday!! We love niño baptisms ❤ He is 10 years old and started coming to church with his great-grandma a while back and called us on Tuesday saying he wanted to be baptized on SUNDAY. Needless to say, it was pretty crazy with planning everything for the baptism and teaching him and getting his interview set up, but everything went very smoothly. Honestly, the coolest thing is that we have to make goals every month, and for December, we made a goal of 1 baptism because that's the “standard of excellence”. We didn’t have anyone lined up at all, but we just had faith that somehow heavenly father would make it work. And he did! He works in very mysterious ways haha.

Then I just wanna share this part of a talk from President Utchdorf that I really like.

“God … will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

“‘And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.’” (Rev 21:3-4)

Great-Aunt Rose looked at Eva. Her smile was wide as she whispered, with a slight quiver in her voice, “Isn’t that the most beautiful thing you’ve ever heard?”

It really did sound beautiful, Eva thought.

Aunt Rose turned a few pages and pointed to a verse for Eva to read: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”

“With such a glorious future,” Aunt Rose said, “why get swallowed up in past or present things that don’t go quite the way we planned?”

Eva furrowed her brow. “But wait a minute,” she said. “Are you saying that being happy means just looking forward to happiness in the future? Is all our happiness in eternity? Can’t some of it happen now?”

“Oh, of course it can!” Aunt Rose exclaimed. “Dear child, now is part of eternity. It doesn’t only begin after we die! Faith and hope will open your eyes to the happiness that is placed before you.

“I know a poem that says, ‘Forever—is composed of Nows.’

The gospel of Jesus Christ gives us hope for a better future and helps us see the happiness that we can have now :) Jesus Christ is the gift that never stops giving and we can find peace, joy, comfort, love, and relief in him.

Love y'all, have a fantastic week! 😄

Hermana Coleman

Vengen y Vea

November 25, 2019

Hellooo friends!

So this week was slightly uneventful because Sister Yanez and I have had a wide variety of health issues, but we're all good and ready to go this week! I wasn't gonna send an email but then I thought I'd just share a quick thought about some things I read this week. 

I was reading in some random general conference talk from like 20 years ago and I found this quote that I really like, it says:

“life is good if we live in such a way to make it so” - Benjamín De Hoyos

Okay, so I really like this quote. For most of my life, I've lived in the attitude of “I'll be happy when...” Fun fact, that's not how life works! I'm still trying to figure that out and trying to learn how to be happy in every moment instead of wishing for tomorrow. Any circumstance we go through though can be good. Maybe not happy or exciting, or exactly what you want, but it can be good. Life is never going to be perfect, we're never going to have every little thing the way we want it, but it can still be good, and it can be good NOW. It just depends on how you look at it. Okay so now for a scripture...this is Helaman 3: 34-35

“Now this was a great evil, which did cause the more humble part of the people to suffer great persecutions, and to wade through much affliction.

Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God.”

The children of God went through MUCH affliction. Nevertheless. Through faith, humility, prayer, and fasting, their souls were filled with joy and consolation.

Friends, life will never be what you expect and it will never be easy. But, when we trust in Christ and yield our hearts to God, life can be good (:

Love y'all TONS 

Hermana Coleman