In Which Aly Comes Up With a Cool Title...Not Really...

(A/N: Hey, I get an A in trying to come up with something cool sounding, right? Ha ha! Anyways, hope everyone is doing well! Hope you're having a wonderful Monday! :D )

Things here in Echo are really starting to pick up. I truly believe the first two weeks, the Lord knew that Sister Campos and I were not ready to find people. We were still trying to get used to the area and figure out how to work with each other. So now that we've got everything settled in, we are starting to find people.

We found 2 new investigators this week that seem pretty solid. One is named Maribel, she had gotten an embolea a couple of days before we went to visit with her (she was a referral from a member) and was in the hospital for a couple of days. When we went to visit her we asked her if she would like to receive a blessing from the Elders and she said yes. The Elders came over and gave her the blessing. After the blessing, you could tell the biggest difference in her countenance, she felt and looked so much more calm. Being here on my mission I have really learned to appreciate the Priesthood.

 

The second person we found was named Christella, we found her by knocking doors. Sister Campos is so inspired! We parked our car and she said, "I'm feeling this street down here." The first door we knocked on that street, was Christella's. She mentioned that she was pregnant and that her baby was a miracle baby. She was not supposed to get pregnant but our Heavenly Father blessed her with a baby. We taught her part of the Plan of Salvation and she felt the spirit so strong! She started crying and was so thankful for us. We will be returning on Thursday to teach her!

I'm so thankful for how inspired Sister Campos is and how closely she listens to the Spirit. I am so thankful for our companionship. I know that we will be working so well together and I cannot wait!

The other night we went to go visit one of the investigators the other Elders had. She is a part member, and has a 2 year old baby. When she opened the door to us, little Jay (her baby) stepped out and saw us and he ran to me and put his arms around my leg and just stood there hugging me for about a solid 45-60 seconds.  Then he grabbed my hand and pulled me into the house and sat me down on the couch. When he did that, it warmed my heart soo much. I feel as if he knows that we are the ones that are there to bring his family eternal life.

I absolutely love being a missionary, there is nothing that brings me more happiness. I have learned so much, I have learned to really read and study my scriptures! I really love the gospel with all my heart! 

Love you all, 

Hermana Ramos-Escobar

I'm sorry this e-mail is super short, I get distracted with the Elders!

(A/N: And here are her distracting Elders!)

Elder Garbero and Feltner watching a video upside down!

Elders singing and playing the piano!

Elder Robertson and Elder Perez giving us eggs!

My companion and I!

Week 2 in Fresno!

(A/N: Alejandra here wishing you all a happy Monday! As a present, here is Hermana Ramos-Escobar's weekly email update! :D )

Well this week has been good. It was definitely better than the week before but I know that this next week will be better! The first two weeks I feel like was a lot of trial and error. "Try this...nope that doesn't work...Okay let's try this!  ...Ya that doesn't work either..." So now we have more of an idea of what works in our area. So things will start picking up!

Things are different here in Fresno, but it's all good! It feels good to be in a Spanish ward again!! It's kind of hard sometimes because it makes me think so much of my ward, Windsor 8!! I miss them all so much, but it's really funny to find members here that act almost the same as the members in the ward! Haha! It makes me laugh!

I gave a talk this Sunday that just passed. I realized that I gave a talk my second Sunday in Los Banos too...maybe it will become a tradition...who knows. We'll see. But it was really good, more members were coming up to us and asking us to come over to visit with them! We even got part member families that want us to go teach their families! So it's was really good! I'm thankful for Hermano Guizar that asked me to talk.

Oh ya, and apparently I'm Hermana Romero now...Hermano Guizar had put it wrong in the program and announced it wrong so  all the members that actually know me started joking about that. And of course the Elders too! It's reallly nice to be surrounded by missionaries. I didn't have that in Los Banos. It's so much fun! There are really no words to describe how much I really love my mission!!

We have a lot of new potential investigators and I'm really excited to start teaching them! Hopefully next week, we'll have more news!

I love you all! Sorry it's short, I'm out of time!! 
Love you!!

Love, Hermana Ramos-Escobar 

New Companion, New Area!!‏

(A/N: Hello everyone! Here is an update of Hermana Ramos-Escobar in her new area and new companion! :D )

Well, I got to Fresno on Wednesday, Sister Horan brought me. Her kind soul, she drove from Los Banos to Merced, back to Los Banos and down to Fresno...Mind you it's about an hour each way...There is no doubt she is going to get a lot of blessings!! We had to drive to Los Banos because I forgot my scriptures at home...Haha, ya i don't know how I did that...But it happened!

When I got to Fresno, I was really excited!! I was ready to work here! We had to wait until Thursday to get our trainees though and that's when I started to get nervous. I was nervous maybe for like 10 minutes, but when we finally walked into the chapel and saw them all there I was just filled with excitement again!

There were 3 Spanish sisters and one was native. I was almost positive that they weren't going to put us together; I thought for sure they were going to have me teach someone Spanish. But President Clark called Sister Hopkins (another trainer) and I up, and Sister Campos and Sister Barney were left. I think President saw the excitement in my face and asked me if I knew who it was, and I said I didn't know. Once he told me to pick Hermana Campos, I squealed and basically attacked her! Haha!! I was soo excited!! I love her :) Everyone tells us that we look a like...I honestly don't really see it but who knows.

Anyways, the first few days in the area were a little rough...We knew no one and we can't go visit anyone after dark, therefore we don't have as many hours to work, which really bums us out. But now that we've gone to church we can go visit the members at night and just get to know them.

Fresno is a lot different than Los Banos!! I get on the freeway every 2 minutes it seems like, where as in Los Banos it would take about 45 minutes to get to a freeway!! Being in Los Banos, I thought I was a city girl, ya...I found out I'm not...

There is soo much work to do here!! There are a lot people that need to hear the gospel! I'm ready to work and Hna. Campos is ready to work! We know that we are together because we can accomplish many things and we're going to work our hardest to do everything that the Lord wants and needs us to do. I'm so excited to be here and I absolutely love being a missionary. There is nothing else I would rather be doing. I love being here in Fresno and I love Hna. Campos. I'm so blessed to have her. 

Sorry it's a really short lettter, I ran out of time!! I love you all!!

Love, 

Hermana Ramos-Escobar

(A/N: Even though she wrote a short letter, she sent some cool pictures!)

Left to Right:
Hermana Vogel's daughter Emily, Hermana Vogel, and her granddaughter Jaylynn.

Being silly in the car.

On the road again!

So called City-Girl driving.

I'm Leaving The Bathrooms!‏

(A/N: Alejandra here, wishing you all a happy Monday! Here is an update for Hermana Ramos-Escobar! And just for those of you who may not understand..."Los Banos" translates into "The Bathrooms", so if you didn't understand the joke, there you go. :D )

So first matters first...EVERYONE needs to go watch Meet the Mormons!! It's such a great movie!! We watched it on Friday with all the missionaries in the Northern Zones and it was soo good! It was incredible! Everyone please go watch it!!

Well on Saturday, Sister Roemmich and I were sitting in the chapel waiting for conference to start when all the sudden we get a call from President. We walked outside and I was getting nervous because I knew what was coming, one of us was going to get a calling. Sister Roemmich was finally able to put it on speaker and all I heard was "Trainer." I looked at her and pointed at myself. She then said, "YES you!! Say something!" So I said, "Yes... I  can do that...." Oh my goodness, I was totally shocked!!! I was shaking!! It never crossed my mind that I even had a possibility to be training. I knew the coordinating sisters, and my district leader wanted me to train but I didn't think it was actually going to happen!! I was honestly soo scared at first!  But I am so thankful that we had conference because it calmed me down soo much! The spirit was really my comforter at the time!

Since, I was going to be training, and Sister Roemmich was going to be a Sister Training Leader, we figured that I would be staying and she would be leaving. We spent that night saying bye to some of the families she had gotten close with these past six weeks. It was kind of sad saying bye to everyone but we were all okay, we knew good things were going to come.

So it's around 9:50 at night and we get transfer calls. I was really calm because I knew what was happening. So we start listening to it. They said "Out going missionaries..." and started naming off a handful of elders and sisters, and all the sudden I hear: "Sister Ramos will be going to Fresno, Echo East where she will be training a new missionary." My jaw dropped and I just started crying!!! I really did not think they were going to move me and ask me to train at the same time!! We later got a call from our Sister Training Leader and she said, "YES!!! I told the coordinating sisters that Sister Ramos could handle getting doubled in and training!!" (Ya.. that would have been nice to know, I could have mentally prepared myself! haha but it's okay). Needless to say, I spent most of that night crying. After talking to Sister Roemmich until about 12, I felt so much better.

I know that it is a blessing that I will be going to a new area to train. I'm really excited to be able to teach my new sister everything that I know. I want to be the best trainer I ever can be! I know it will be super challenging, but I know that I will grow from every second of it! And on the bright side, I GET TO GO TO A SPANISH WARD!!!!  I'm soo excited!! I have never missed speaking Spanish soo much!! It's going to be (and it has been) hard to say bye to people. Everyone here has played such a big part in my becoming a missionary. They helped me when I needed it the most. But now I'm ready to love everyone in Fresno! :) I love that this work will always go on! It doesn't matter where I'm at. The work is still hastening!! I love my Heavenly Father and I'm ready for this new challenge :)

The Garcia Family w/o Jaquelina! :/ I love them!! :)

Hernandez Family!! I love them soo much!! She's an amazing cook!!

Bishop Nuno and his wife! I love them!!

Zone after District Meeting!!

The zone after Zone Conference!!