Kimberly's Getting Baptized!!!‏

Well, it's been a crazy week with trying to e-mail...We went on Monday to the church to play volleyball and we were going to e-mail after, but then it turns out that just one of the computers was working. So we had to split the time. Sister McArthur wrote for half her time and I wrote for like half an hour. And then we were going to go early to a meeting on Tuesday so we could e-mail at the stake center, but then it was locked and we didn't have a key...So we came early to our zone meeting today and they gave us a key so we could e-mail! So that's what we did!

This week has been such a good week!! Kimberly is getting baptized on Saturday!! I'm soo excited!! She has her interview on Thursday with Elder Davis, our district leader, and then Saturday it is!! She's such an amazing person! She gave up smoking and hasn't had a craving at all! She was texting us this morning and she spent like her whole morning watching videos on MormonChannel.org! AND she's on Jacob chapter 2!! She's amazing!!! And whenever she has questions, she finds the answers before we can even get back to her!! She's soo AMAZING!! I'm so excited for her! :D :D 

 

Yesterday, we also went to visit Noemi! She's soo cute! She was telling us that she wants to be in this church and she wants to be part of it because it feels right. But she wants her husband to do it with her. So yesterday, when we went, we were planning her husband to be there...and he was!! They were asking us all these questions and we were able to answer them! They were kind of easy questions, but they were the very important questions! The spirit helped us answer all of them! It was really cool because at the end, they both said that they like how prepared we are. That we have our answers and we can show them where they are in the Bible or the Book of Mormon.

 

Honestly, I never felt prepared, sometimes I still don't. I was kinda confused on what they were talking about. But, I realized that Heavenly Father has prepared me for the investigators I have right now. Even though I am not as prepared as I want to be, I am prepared enough for those that need me right now. I'm going to keep learning and I'm going to be more prepared later on, but that's just because I will need to be more prepared later on. 

 

I am soo happy to be here and to see all these miracles happen! I love being a missionary and I love helping people that need the gospel in their life! I am so thankful for Hermana Salazar and Hermana Villareal (the missionaries) that taught me. A lot of the times when we're teaching Izzy, I feel like I'm re-living my lessons. Honestly, 5 years ago I would have never thought that I'd be where I am today. But I am so happy that I am. I have never been happier in my life. I love how close I am with my Heavenly Father and I can't wait to get even closer with him. I love this church with all my heart and I will do anything the Lord asks of me!

Thank you all for supporting me! I love receiving letters and e-mails from everyone. Thank you to the Young Women for writing me! I love you all!! 

Love Always, 

Hermana Ramos-Escobar

I GET TO GO TO THE TEMPLE!! YAY!!!‏

Well, I wasn't able to write the huge long e-mail yesterday and I have about 12 minutes to write one right now before I have to go to District meeting...so it will be really fast!!

 

This week was really good! We were able to get a lot accomplished! We met almost all of our goals for the week, which was really good! The beginning of the week was filled with lessons! Within two days, we had about 15 lessons which was crazy! We were packed with lessons, back-to-back, which was really cool because I had never really seen that...Usually we have it packed but a couple of them fall through. But the first couple of days, all of our appointments actually went through. The third day was a little rough, all of our appointments fell through (got cancelled). I knew it was going to happen because, of course, there's opposition in the world. But I was kinda bummed that not even one appointment went through, but it was okay. We just rubbed it off and kept working.

 

The next day...k, I don't know if it was the next day or not, but on Friday we went on our daily run in the morning and when we were coming back we saw one of the less active members in the ward.They were putting up signs for a yard sale so we went over to help her out. They are moving and so they have to sell EVERYTHING! We helped them move stuff out of their house and onto the lawn. I learned while I was there that Sister McArthur and I are absolutely horrible at putting prices to things. We don't know how much anything is. Oh well, we'll learn...haha! But after being there for a couple of hours, we went back to do our studies and then we got a phone call that there was going to be a new family moving into the ward. They told us that they would arrive in about an hour and they asked us to go help move them in! So, we got our work clothes back on and went to help the family move in. After about an hour of that, we were on the way back home and the family that was doing the yard sale started putting things back into the house and they asked us to help again! So we stayed there another about 2 hours and helped them with that! So ya, it was a lot of service! But our lessons were also very good!

 

One of our investigators, Kimberly has a date for her baptism! Her date is set for August 2nd!! She's so excited and soo ready to get baptized! She was the one that had a friend that would take her to church. The night that we asked her to get baptized, she texted us and asked us if she could invite her friend, what was the churches address, what time it would be at...and she just started planning her whole baptism!! It was really cool to see how excited and how set she is to get baptized! She is so ready! The only thing that is holding her back is smoking, but she said that she could give it up with no problem! Today we are going to go over to show her a stop smoking program that would help her. So far, she has been doing really good with not smoking, even without the program! She's golden!

 

I absolutely love being a missionary! Whenever we go to people's houses, everyone just tells us EVERYTHING that is going on in their lives! But I know it's because we are representatives of Jesus Christ, and if Jesus Christ was there they know that he would help them. I have really been able to internalize this week that we really are representatives of Jesus Christ. We are here to represent him and that everything we do, has his name on it! I love being a missionary and I love being here!!
I love you all and thank you soo much for all the support!

Oh my gosh and I get to go the temple on Thursday!!! I'm so excited!! The whole week I was telling Sister McArthur how much I wanted to go temple this week, and then on Saturday we received the call that we get to go on Thursday!! I have never been so excited to go!! I miss the temple soo much and I realize how much of a blessing it is to have several temples within 15 minutes...Don't take it for granted!

Love,

Hermana Ramos-Escobar

I've Never Been So Tired After Church!!‏

Well, it was a really good week!! Sister McArthur and I had 20 lessons this week. Which is a whole lot, but it's pretty good...Well it's really good in our area and in the rest of the district too! So that was good! And we saw a huge miracle this week!! We had 8 investigators at church!! And it was just in one ward! It was a record! The Bishop came up to us and told us that they had never had so many investigators at church! We had the Espinoza family, where the dad is not a member but he came to church. Then we had the Ramos family there. The mom in the Espinoza family and the dad in the Ramos family are siblings (The Ramos Family is Izzy's family). They all came to church including their dad. So there's five right there! And then we had Kimberly and her kids. Six. And then Noemi. Seven. And Davian makes 8. Talk about crazy!! Ya, I really have never been so tired after church!!

 

Kimberly and Davian did their normal thing. Davian always comes to church with his grandma so he knows what to do, and Kimberly had been to church before multiple times in San Jose, so she knew what to do. With Noemi, we had Hermana Vogel take her to church and she showed her around. So then we were left with the Espinoza family and Ramos family!! I forget what I write in these e-mails...so sorry if I repeat myself.

 

K, so with the Espinoza's they are all members except for the dad. The mom and one of the daughters are recent converts. The Ramos family, is 4 kids, and the dad (Izzy is in this family). She's the one that asked US when she could get baptized.

 

By the way, sacrament was AMAZING! We had a missionary from the ward come back and he literally talked about all the worries and concerns each one of our investigators had! Anyways, so after sacrament we went with the families to the Gospel Principles class. Turns out there was no teacher. So...we became the teachers! We talked about sacrifice and it was such a beautiful lesson. Hermana Espinoza shared how much of an amazing she feeling she had when she saw that her family filled up a whole bench.  When Hna Espinoza was talking, I looked over at Javier (the dad from the Ramos family) and he was teary eyed. He was almost crying. I asked him what kind of sacrifices he has had to make and he couldn't really speak. He was really touched and felt the spirit. It was such a great lesson!

 

Then we went to Relief Society and we came back into contact with Noemi. Noemi is roommates with another one of our investigators named Chelsea. She asked us to teach her English, so we've been going over for that. We taught her once, then the second time she had forgotten and wasn't able to do the lesson. We had an appointment for Saturday as well, but she called us earlier that day and told us she had to cancel. We were about to hang up, but we asked her if there was anything we could do for her and she said that she wanted to go to church but didn't have a ride. Needless to say, we found her a ride and got her to church. During RS she was just blooming!! She asked questions! She asked opinions! We were talking about how kids don't have to get baptized until they turn 8 because their innocent and she was like, "Ya...that makes sense. I never understood why they would have to baptize them before!" Sis. McArthur and I were just so shocked of how involved she was!! It was AMAZING! That night, Hna Volgel told us that Noemi said she really liked church and wants to keep going!! We're soo excited to work with her!! She's golden!!

I know that Heavenly Father has blessed us! I know this church is true! There is no way that would have happened without prayers! I love you all! Gotta run! I'm out of time! Love you!! Thank you for your support and your prayers It really makes all the difference!

Love,

Hermana Ramos-Escobar

 

That's the Horan Family. That's when we went to Yosemite.

A picture of my leg with all the mosquito bites I got... :P

A picture with my District!

Sister Horan got me a Captain America shirt! :) :)

 

Fourth of July

I always leave this big massive email last and I really shouldn't. I only have 17 minutes to write it...I can do it...Challenge accepted!

So let me just tell you, Fourth of July was amazing!! I finally got to eat carne asada (grilled steak)!! It was soo good!! Hermana Hernandez is an amazing cook!! It was delicious!! She made homemade salsa and it was really good!! I want to learn how to make salsa!! Oooh and I got to cook the carne!! Father be proud of me!! :D For dessert we had smores and it was SOO good!!! But I got super messy! Oh well! :P We then ran home 'cuz we had to have the car parked by 6. Sister Sittman came to pick us up to go to the Laguna family's block party! They close of their street (it's only their family that lives on their street) and just have like a huge party! It was fun!! But ya, it was a really good 4th of July! I had fun!!

Update on Investigators:

TONY 

Apparently has a problem with the Word of Wisdom... :(  He had just barely *boughten a new thing of coffee and beer but he said that he wasn't going to buy anymore. He was doing really good at not drinking coffee, but yesterday we went to his house and he had just barely *drunken some!! Darn Satan!! He's so sneaky! UGH!! But Tony is working hard! 

IZZY

We met with her yesterday and with her dad!! Oh my goodness!! We had an amazing lesson!! We talked about how we can feel the Holy Ghost. It was a super good lesson!! At the end, we were about to close, but I asked Izzy about getting baptized. Her dad stepped in and said that he wanted her to know more before she got baptized. I told him, "Brother Ramos, before I got baptized I had the same problem. I felt like I didn't know enough about the gospel, but the sister missionary told me, 'I was born in the church and I still don't know everything I want to know. I don't know everything I should know. I'm still learning every single day.' Then she bore her testimony and I felt the spirit soo much that I couldn't deny it! Because of that I know that this is the true church." I then bore my testimony. and at the end, he said, "No, I know that your church is true..." and then he kept talking. Hallelujah!! He knows the church is true!!! But then, Sister McArthur asked why he hadn't gotten baptized and he said it was just about selfish reasons...Basically because of tradition. His whole family is Catholic and that's how he grew up.

It really stinks that there are soo many people that know that this church is true but don't want to take that first step and get baptized. It kills me to know that they have felt the spirit soo strong and they still deny it! I don't understand how people can feel the spirit and just deny it! I want to yell at them and just say, "GOD IS TELLING YOU TO GET BAPTIZED!! WHY WON'T YOU DO IT?!?!?!" UGH!! It's so frustrating...But I know that God is teaching me patience. It's hard but it's going to be worth it. 

I know this church is true. I know that the spirit is what testifies the truth and I know that if we all pay attention to the spirit we can really truly know the truths of all things! Please pay attention to the spirit and to those thoughts that tell you to do good! I love you all!

I gotta go, we have an activity with the youth! I get to play volleyball! Yay!!

Thanks for the support!!
 Love you!!

-Hermana Ramos-Escobar

(*A/N: Gabby sometimes thinks saying "en" at the end of a verb means it's in the past. So instead of saying "I already ate", she'd say "I have already ate-en." Thus why she put "boughten" and "drunken" instead of "bought" and "drank." Just some funny little quirks that make her adorable!)