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

Salt, socks, and dog bones

November 18, 2019

Hi friends!

Another week has gone by, wow they fly! This week was sooo cold. It got down to 32!! I know that doesn't sound cold, but with the wind and rain and lack of winter clothes, it's pretty bad. Anyway, we had an awesome week in Portland! I got to give a talk yesterday in sacrament meeting, we have lots of people we're teaching, and we're just here establishing Zion, its pretty awesome. We're making boxes for all of our members with Book of Mormons and pamphlets and pass along cards, and it's been so cool to see our ward doing missionary work!! They're so awesome :)

On Thursday, we went over to help this lady set up some stuff for a party she was having. It's super funny because we got a referral and it was this lady's address but the person that was referred doesn't actually live there ahaha. But that's okay because we taught them the restoration and gave them a Book of Mormon and now they really like us! Anyway, so we were helping her and I mentioned we had just run out of salt in our apartment for some reason so she ran to her kitchen and gave us an entire can of salt. Then, she looked at our feet and said we must be cold so she ran and got us fuzzy socks! THEN, as we were leaving, she asked us if we knew anyone with dogs, and we said yes so she gave us a grocery bag full of dog bones. Not sure what were gonna do with those...

I'll end with a combination of two awesome scriptures, Mormon 9: 22 and 1 Nephi 13:37

For behold, thus said Jesus Christ, the Son of God, unto his disciples: Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature

And blessed are they who shall seek to bring forth my Zion at that day, for they shall have the gift and the power of the Holy Ghost; and if they endure unto the end they shall be lifted up at the last day, and shall be saved in the everlasting kingdom of the Lamb; and whoso shall publish peace, yea, tidings of great joy, how beautiful upon the mountains shall they be.

We should all be striving to be disciples of Jesus Christ! It’s not just missionaries, but every member of Christ’s church. So I invite EVERYONE to pray this week and ask how you can help someone out or share some hope or love with someone this week!

Love yall!

Hermana Coleman

Week 12

November 11, 2019

Hola todos!

Ohhh my this week was crazy!! First of all transfers are tomorrow, and we found out that we're both staying woohoo! So, this week we had exchanges with the STLs (sister training leaders) so we went over to Corpus Christi and went out with them on Wednesday! It was super cool to be over there and get to watch how a different missionaries work!

Some fun and random things...

1. I got pulled over for the first time woohoo!🤣 I didnt come to a full stop at a stop sign haha but the policeman didn’t give me a ticket so it's okay hahaha

2. This guy named Robert gave us $20 to go get McDonald's which were probably not gonna do, but now we have $40 that we've gotten from the same apartment complex.

3. This lady asked us if wanted to do some drugs with her and we politely said no 😂

4. Sister Yanez made us Beleadas which is Celestial Honduran food...its a flour tortilla with scrambled eggs and avocado and queso fresco and crema and frijoles with garlic and onion and OH it was so good.

This week we've been trying to change how we contact people so we looked for our favorite scriptures about Jesus and marked them in some copies of the Book of Mormon to give out to people! This is one I really like that we marked and shared with some members as well (shout out to one of my MTC teachers, Hermana Silva for showing our class this one❤)

1 Nephi 21: 14-16

“14 But, behold, Zion hath said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me—but he will show that he hath not.

15 For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel.

16 Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me”

I love this scripture, SO much. Even after Jesus died and was resurrected with a perfect body, he still had the nail marks in his hands. We are and forever will be engraved in his palms and he will never forget us.

Have a great week!

Hermana Coleman

Hellloo

October 28, 2019

Hiii!! Sorry I didnt send out an email last week! This week was really good! We got to teach and meet lots of new people! So, for some random highlights...

Peighton was Baptized and confirmed this week!! We are so happy for her, she is such a good example for me and for everyone!! She’s seriously the cutest!

We were in district council on Tuesday and my comp got a text from this guy that the missionaries before got into a little bit of a bible bash with, and he texted us asking what steps he needs to take to join the church!! AHH! So cool. We haven't really been able to contact him but we're praying that we'll be able to find him and teach him!

On Wednesday, we went over to a lady in the ward’s house to make hamburger cookies! They're so cute (see pic)!! We brought them to a nursing home with the Lions Club and got to talk to the residents there! One of their names was Mike and he told us he went to Africa but the other lady next to him kept calling him a liar. It was so sad 🤣🤣

Oohh one of the days, I can’t remember, we went to the nicest lady's house, her name is Ashley, and she has a daughter named Heaven who is literally the cutest child I've seen in my life. We have a rule that we can’t pick up kids, and she kept asking me “pick you up, pick you up!” and I couldn't and then she started crying and I wanted to cry, it was SO sad and cute, oh my. Then she took my bike helmet and put it on and we got a super cute picture with her.

We're teaching this woman named Monique and she’s precious, we love her! We were reading in 3 Nephi 11 with her where Jesus Christ comes to America, and I love these verses:

“14 Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world.

15 And it came to pass that the multitude went forth, and thrust their hands into his side, and did feel the prints of the nails in his hands and in his feet; and this they did do, going forth one by one until they had all gone forth, and did see with their eyes and did feel with their hands, and did know of a surety and did bear record, that it was he, of whom it was written by the prophets, that should come.”

I love that it says each person came to him one by one and touched his wounds. Christ didn’t just sacrifice himself for mankind as a whole, but for each of our pains individually. Sometimes I think about all the most painful times in my life and then think about how He felt all of those things plus everyone else's most painful moments. Christ bore each of our griefs individually, just as he let each of the Nephites come up to him and touch the prints on his body. Jesus Christ loves you all individually, and he is waiting with open arms for you to come unto him! He’s felt everything you have and will ever feel!

I hope y’all have had a great week!

Love,

Hermana Coleman :)

Freezing Temperatures in Portland???

October 14, 2019

It was a wild week again in southern Texas!! We had a cold front this weekend so it was in the 60s which was SO nice I can’t even begin to explain. Everyone here is so funny, they're all getting sick because of the weather haha but I think it's awesome. Two of the members gave us hot chocolate!! In 60 degree weather!

Ryan got baptized yesterday!! It was so awesome!! And his mom and grandma got to be the witnesses, which was super cool! Him and his mom are both so excited and happy to both be members of the church and were so excited for them. Unfortunately, we tried to take a photo and it didn’t work but hopefully we'll get one at his confirmation next week! Peighton is also doing super well, her baptism is next Sunday!

Onto the topic of food, we got fed the best meal I've had in my entire LIFE yesterday. This lady in our ward is from American Samoa and can cook Samoan/Polynesian food really well. She made us rice and Chicken and green beans and this cool salad and the best sauce I've had in my life and to top it all off, chocolate coconut cream pie. Everyone says you gain a lot of weight in my area...I can definitely see why! The members are all just amazing and feed us and help us out a ton! To help them out, were making little “pros boxes” that have Book of Mormons, pamphlets, and pass along cards, because you never know when you'll need them. Member missionaries are SO important!! It’s so much better when people have a friend in the church that just invites them to activities or just sets an example. 

So yesterday, we were walking around this apartment complex and we went to this lady's house who some of the missionaries had gone to previously. We knock and she comes out and tells us about how she’s going to school 11 HOURS A DAY and has kids and is super overwhelmed. So, we said a prayer with her and just asked God to strengthen her and she started crying and gave us big hugs, it was so sweet. Life can get hard and busy, but God is always there for us! We just need to ask him for help!

One thing I've been studying this week is the immediate goodness of God. I was reading in Alma 36 which is where Alma is telling one of his sons about his conversion story. 

17 And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.

18 Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.

19 And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.

20 And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!

I have always really liked this story, but never noticed how immediately when Alma prayed for relief, it was granted to him. Alma was doing some really bad stuff, and had to have an angel come down and strike him! And he was relieved from his guilt and pain right when he thought of Christ! Another scripture that I really like this week that was semi related is in Roman's 8 and it says...

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus Christ loves us INFINITELY. Why else would he give his life for us? And nothing we do can separate us from his love. No sin, temptation, trial, difficulty, guilt, or sadness can ever separate us from that. If you're not feeling the love right now then my suggestion is to pray! Ask for love and look for it in your life and I know you'll find it!:)

Love ya’ll!!

Sister Coleman

Temple in McAllen!

October 7, 2019

Hola!!!! So my first week in the field is coming to a close! It's been so crazy and fun so I'll just get right into it...

We arrived in McAllen at around 8:30 Monday night after some delays and airplane malfunctions and stuff, so we just went straight to Presidents house and had dinner which was SO good- it was just celestial chicken and salad and potatoes. President Ocampo is from Honduras and he is super nice and smiley and we love him. 

Anyway, so on Tuesday, we got our areas and trainers assigned, so I'm In Portland Texas with Sister Yanez!! So. Portland is right north of Corpus Christi, so I'm at the very top of the mission. We're in an English speaking area, and our whole zone is English minus one companionship that covers the whole zone for Spanish. Sister Yanez is amazing, this is her 12th transfer, and she’s staying an extra transfer, so she'll go home after my first 12 weeks of training. She’s from Honduras and speaks fluent Spanish and English which is AWESOME because we've ran into a few people who don’t speak English.

The ward is super awesome, there are about 115 active-ish members. This week has been a lot of getting to know them and helping them out with whatever they need! Unfortunately, because we're so far north, I haven't gotten any Mexican food yet, but it's okay, I've heard there's a ton further south. The members are super generous about feeding us, and honestly they've been feeding us pretty normal food which I was kinda surprised about hahaha. 

A highlight of the week was definitely that they announced a future temple in McAllen at general conference!! We are all so excited about it. It is an amazing miracle for the people here in south Texas. Conference in general was so awesome and had me on the edge of my seat the whole time!! More to come about conference later.

As far as the area goes, it's very unique! Portland is a really small town and everyone is really private...which means lots of tracting wohoo!!  Tracting is going door to door and knocking which is so interesting! I'm not really a people person so it has definitely been an adjustment to knock on random peoples’ doors and talk to them about the gospel 🤣 It's super fun though! We have a car which is great, but the mission is trying to reduce driving miles so we end up biking a lot. It's super fun actually because it's beyond flat here. Literally there's like one hill in the whole town. However, the heat makes up for the lack of hills hahaha. It's a good time. 

Right now, we have two people with baptismal dates, Ryan and Peighton; Ryan is 10 and Peighton is 9. They're both from part -member families so they already know a lot about the church, and they're just so cute. Ryan is gonna get baptized on Sunday and Peighton the next Sunday. Were so excited for them!!:) Right now were working really hard to find people to teach, but we found tons of people that said we could come back so, fingers crossed, we’ll have lots more people to teach this week.

Something I really liked in Conference was from Michelle Craig (I think) who said something to the effect of, you are unique, and God has a specific and unique way for you to accomplish things. The brother of Jared, Nephi, and Moses all had to cross waters and they all did it different ways. God will tailor our errand to our abilities!! I just love that so much because God knows each of us individually and is going to give us a way that we personally can do it. I love you guys, have an awesome week!!:

Hermana Coleman

Calling All Family History Experts

September 28, 2019

Hi everyone!

Less than TWO days left here in the MTC. I'm SO excited to go to McAllen!! It was a super good week though, and I'm gonna miss it here a ton!!

Okay so I guess I'll start with the subject line first. So. I was waiting in line at the store, and I was chatting with some people in front of me and they asked where I was from so I said Connecticut and then we kinda stopped talking. But then, the Elder behind me heard and asked me what part of Connecticut, so I asked him how well he knew Connecticut, and he said he just had family in Darien (which is like an hour from me). So I told him that I lived further north, but then I asked him who his family was and he said it's his cousins the Baxter's. THOSE ARE MY COUSINS TOO. So basically he's my mom's, sister in law's, sister's, son. So, if anyone knows what you call that please let me know. We took a picture together and he looks exactly like my cousins (see picture below). WILD.

A lot of people asked me last week about Hermana Mittens...she lives!! We took lots of pictures with her so that everyone knows she's safe.

So a couple weeks ago, we were teaching Oscar in TRC who we loved, but this week, we taught his identical twin Octavio!! It was super weird at first because they're seriously identical, but their personalities are super different. We also had English TRC with a girl named Jade who's adorable and we love her. Our last TRC was Thursday night, and it was honestly so sad to say goodbye to everyone, especially Oscar and Octavio, but I'm really excited to meet the people in Texas :)

Quick update on my district, we played lots of sand volleyball this week, which was so much fun and made me so happy. Only Hermana Glatt got her Visa though, so everyone else got reassigned state side for at least a transfer! Hermana Parker is going to MASSACHUSETTS BOSTON!!! So Hartford stake, get ready (and maybe hide your cats)!! Just kidding, I love her and she’s going to love it, especially in the fall. Then, two got reassigned to Farmington New Mexico which is mostly reservations, one to Houston, and one to MCALLEN TEXAS! It was so crazy how everything worked out, but were all so excited to serve!

Random Highlight, I got to see Carver on Saturday at the temple!! It may have been slightly solicited, but it was so fun to see him and it made me very happy :)

On Thursday night, we were teaching Octavio about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we had asked him to read 3 Nephi 27 which talks about that. He was confused about the last verse which says,
“And it came to pass that when Jesus had ended these sayings he said unto his disciples: Enter ye in at the strait gate; for strait is the gate, and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it; but wide is the gate, and broad the way which leads to death, and many there be that travel therein, until the night cometh, wherein no man can work.”
So, he was confused about what the gate and the path were. This thought just like popped into my head in Spanish that's probably obvious, but I had never thought of before... Faith is when we turn towards the path, and realize that we're off the path, repentance is when we takes steps towards the path, and eventually find the path. Baptism is when we enter the gate which is Jesus Christ, and the path is to follow Christ. The Holy Ghost is our guide to stay on the path, and we must endure to the end of the path to see God. I dunno, it was a light bulb moment for me that God's way is so simple. Not always easy, but simple. God wants all of his children to return to him, and because of this, he sent his Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die as a perfect sacrifice for us. I'm so grateful for the love of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and I am honored that I have the opportunity to invite God's children to Follow Christ!

Have a great week!!

Hermana Coleman

1 more week!

September 21, 2019

Hola mis amigos!

Another week has come and gone- weeks go by SO fast. I can't believe I'm leaving next week! Our district got our travel plans yesterday which was super exciting and scary and made it seem so real! I'm leaving next Monday (the 30th) at 4 am, woohoo! The flight isn’t too long though, and I'll get to McAllen at a reasonable time which is all good. There are only four other people in my travel group which is crazy because the group going to Madrid has 20! But it's just me and 4 Elders...I thought I always had to have a companion but I guess not haha! Anyway, it’s really bittersweet to leave the MTC because I love my companions and district and teacher and free food, but I'm also really excited to get going! I just wish my whole district were going to Texas but sadly none of them are :( The picture of us all sitting in the bed making scared faces is from yesterday when we got our plans because we were freakin out a little, but we're SO EXCITED!!

This week we switched TRC assignments so we're teaching a woman from Uruguay named Carolina! She's PRECIOUS. We love her. She says all her “y”s like “sh” so it's a little hard to understand, but so cool! I love how Spanish is just like English in that there are so many different accents and ways of saying things. We taught her a lot about faith and prayer, and it was so good! A question she had was about esparanza (hope) and obras (works). She told us that when she has hope, she finds it easy to do good things, but when she doesn't have hope, she doesn't do good things. So, we shared Alma 32 with her and talked about how we need to nourish our faith. When we nourish our faith and do good works, and see God's hand in our life, our faith grows, and it's like a circle. We're not sure if we're teaching her next week, because we're starting Skype calls with members on Monday. But we'll see.

Random things for the week:
1. We FAILED our cleaning check...hopefully they'll let us leave the MTC haha
2. Riley/ Sister Siebers came to the MTC on Wednesday and I love seeing her around, it's like my favorite thing
3. Another cold and rainy day on Friday, but it snowed on the mountains again, yay!!
4. I think Hermana Parker may have killed Hermana Mittens because we haven't seen her all week and last Saturday she fed her ranch dressing...

This week I've been focusing a ton on Christ and Christ-like attributes like patience, diligence, obedience, and charity. I was reading in Jesus the Christ and it had a quote from John 17 that says, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” I love that scripture a ton. The only way that we can progress and become more like Christ is to really know him. It reminded me of a devotional we watched on the first week called Character of Christ by Elder Bednar. The main point of the talk was that Christ’s character is to turn outward and help others while the natural man tends to turn inward and be self-absorbed. Christ is a perfect example to me, and I love learning about Him and all the things He did for the people in His day and for us today. He loves us so much and I strive every day to be more like Him.

Sorry for the short email, love you guys!
Hermana Coleman