Jesus Got Baptized!! (Jesus Garcia)‏

(A/N: Hello there everyone! So Hermana Ramos-Escobar actually didn't have time to write an email yesterday and she says she's sorry about that. But I thought that it would be ok to share some things she wrote to me with you guys. :) She had a conference this last Saturday where Elder M. Russell Ballard came and spoke. She got to shake his hand and said that "it was very soft." Ha ha! What a cutie huh? :D  Anyways, here's a little snippet of what she wrote to me. Enjoy!)

Jesus got baptized!! It was the best!! It was soo good to see him so happy after the baptism! It was the best!!

Aly, I love being a missionary. I really have never been happier in my life! I have found so much joy from growing a stronger relationship with my Heavenly Father. I love Him so much. I love Jesus Christ so much. On Saturday, Elder Ballard was telling us that we need to visit the Garden of Gethsemane...We need to remember all that Jesus Christ did for us. There are no words to describe how much I love my Savior.

I finished that book that I was telling you about. The "Believing Christ" and it was talking about how Jesus Christ was tempted. He had to be tempted or else He wouldn't have been able to lead us by example...But even though He didn't fall for the temptation, He felt the guilt of EVERY single sin. Because of us. He had to go through that. Did you know that "Geth" in Hebrews means "Press" and "Semane" means...shoot, something else I forgot...But it relates to olives and grapes...When you press olives and grapes, the juice comes out from every pore. There is no coincidence that Jesus Christ suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane...that He as well bled from every pore...

I know that my Savior lives. I know that He loves me. He loves you. I know He knows exactly what you're going through. I love you so much Aly...But imagine how much your Savior loves YOU!
Stay strong always!

Love, always and forever,

Hermana Ramos-Escobar

Jesus and Angela ( His Girlfriend )

I look like a mess!

President and Sister Clark came. :)

Stay In the Boat and Hold On!

(A/N: HOLY COW!!! AN ACTUAL UPDATE ON A MONDAY?!?!?! Ha ha! Yeah, it's Alejandra again, with an update from my sister on the mission field. Hope you guys had an awesome Monday and an even greater week! :D )

This week has been great! Sister Simonsen and I have been working so well together. We have increased our number of lessons and we've improved in almost everything overall from last week! So that was really exciting! :)

This week we have spent a lot of time teaching Jesus! He's getting baptized on Sunday! :D I'm so excited for him! Ever since I have gotten here to the Echo ward, he has been coming to church almost every Sunday. It wasn't until about 2 months ago that we were told that he wasn't a member. We started going over to visit his girlfriend and started teaching him and he is just so receptive to the Spirit! He wants to keep learning more and he really is prepared! We also started teaching his family this week! His mom wants to learn more and committed herself to read the Book of Mormon! :) His little sister's also came to church and they are the cutest things ever! One of them is 8, she takes her Book of Mormon to school and the other one is 2 and she just like to say "Jeshush" and "That's Jeshush?" She's adorable!

This week we have the great opportunity to have Elder Ballard come speak to us missionaries but also to have him at our Stake Conference. In preparation of him coming, we've been trying to get the members REALLY excited of him coming to OUR stake, therefore we've been sharing his last talk in General Conference.

I really love Elder Ballard...I love all the apostles...But his talk is amazing! He talks about how we need to stay on the boat at all times, that we must have our life jackets on and that we need to hold on with both hands. We compares it to the church. We need to stay in the church at all times. Even when we think that we are doing fine. We need to read our scriptures, our scriptures are our life jackets and our scriptures will teach us what we have to do to stay on at all times!

I invite you all to read his talk! I know that He was called from God. I know that all the apostles are called from God. He knows exactly what we need to hear and He will give us the way to hear His words! I know that without living prophets and apostles we would be completely lost! I love this church and this gospel more than anything!

Thank you for all your support!

Love,

Hermana Ramos-Escobar

Daylight Savings...Ooops!

(A/N: Hello everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful Monday! Hey look! I'm getting better at updating my little sister's blog closer to Monday instead of Friday! :D  Anyways, enjoy this new update from Hermana Ramos-Escobar in the mission field!)

So funny story...

Yesterday Sister Simonsen and I woke up, got ready, went to church and walked into ward council and as soon as we walked in...it felt weird...We weren't quite sure what was going on. The elders arrived about 3 minutes later and same thing...it felt weird...They went over what we needed from the ward and in about 10-15 minutes Ward council was over. We were all really confused that it ended so quick! We were going around the church getting copies of things that we needed when all the sudden we get a text from our District Leader: "Just so that you all know and are on the same page, it's almost 9 right now. Some of the mission phones didn't change." :o What!?! No wonder everything felt so weird in ward council and it ended soo quickly!! We were an hour late!! That's my funny story for the day!

So this week was amazing! We had Zone Conference on Wednesday and it was AMAZING! It was exactly what I needed. A lot of the things that Sister Simonsen and I had talked about doing are things that were mentioned. Even personal goals that I had set for myself were mentioned. It's crazy how the Spirit works! :) I love it!!

Later that day we went to go visit Jesus, our investigator that we have had for a couple of months now. We hadn't been able to see him for about a month because a lot of things were going on in his life. So we finally got to see him on Wednesday and we were able to set a baptismal date with him! He's preparing to get baptized on March 21st! He's such an amazing young man! He's 16 and has been coming to church for months now! He comes with his girlfriend! We're meeting with his family tonight to make sure his mom is on board!

On Thursday, we had District meeting which was also amazing! Elder Patterson is our District Leader and he's great! He gave an amazing training about faith! It really helped me out. Faith is just one of those principles that you're never going to be done learning. It's one thing that you have to learn over and over and over again.

After District meeting, we went to go contact a referral that was given to us by the English Elders. Her name was Chella. We went to go visit her and she is AMAZING! She is really excited to learn about Jesus Christ and wants to involve Him more in her life! We taught her the Restoration and she loved it! She was so receptive to the Spirit and taking everything in so well! She understood the importance of having the priesthood authority. Such a great lesson! We went back on Saturday and taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and again, she took it very well! She saw a picture of Christ being baptized and she asked us about it and invited her to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized. And she accepted! She will be preparing to get baptized on April 18!

This week during my personal study, I have been reading in 3 Nephi when Jesus Christ came to the Americas. And chapter 11 always stands out to me. I circled the word baptism every time it came up in chapter 11. The word "baptize" is said 11 times within the first chapter that Jesus Christ is teaching. The very first thing that he teaches is baptism. Why would he say "baptize" 11 times and why would it be the first thing He teaches if it didn't matter?

I know without a doubt that this church is true.

Love,

Hermana Ramos-Escobar

Crazy Week!‏

(A/N: Hello everyone! Alejandra here with another update from Hermana Ramos-Escobar! Hope everyone is having a good week so far! Be safe out there in this crazy world!)

Well this week was quite an adventure!!

So, Tuesday we went to the temple! That was great!

Wednesday, we had Trainer Trainee! That's when all the trainers and the new missionaries get together again and receive training from other missionaries and such things. Tuesday evening, we got a call from the assistants and they asked us to give a training for Trainer Trainee. Of course if the Lord asks us to do something we do it! Even if it's so last minute! Sister Simonsen and I prepared our training on our "purpose as missionaries" and it went really well!

Trainer Trainee was amazing! I don't know what was different about this meeting but it really spoke to me and I just learned so much! President Clark has been emphasizing using the pamphlets to teach lessons and we have been receiving training on how to use them for the past couple of months. So President Clark decided to ask one of the new missionaries to teach him the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ using the pamphlet, and he asked Sister Simonsen to do it! I was so excited! I knew she could do it! The whole time she was teaching him I couldn't stop smiling!! She did soo good! She did everything that President was expecting! Even President Clark was impressed! I was so proud of her! So ya, Wednesday was really good!

We had stake conference this weekend and it was really good! Elder Acosta was presiding. On Saturday we went to the adult session and I'm telling you, President Clark is really pushing this teaching with the pamphlets thing. He was speaking to the congregation, informing them on what we are doing as missionaries, and he said, "We're going to have a demonstration, I'm going to ask Sister Ramos and Sister Simonsen to come up and teach Brother Mearns!" Oh my goodness!! I about died!! I was so nervous! The whole time we were walking up I was shaking! So we got up there and taught the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Everyone says we did good but I don't feel like I taught to my best capability. I definitely learned a lot from that lesson! But the best part of all of this was that President Clark asked him if the Lord had revealed to him a name of a friend whom needs to hear this message. And he had. He will ask his friend if he will listen to the missionaries and we'll see where it goes from there.

On Sunday after Stake Conference, we had a special meeting as the Echo ward with Elder Acosta and it was AMAZING! He is such an inspired man! There is no doubt that he has been called from God. The spirit that is felt when he is present is incredible! I know that the Lord truly chooses his apostles and all those who are general authorities.

I know this church is a church of order and I know that we have the proper priesthood on this Earth today. I love the Gospel with all my heart and I'm thankful that Heavenly Father has blessed us with the Gospel at this time! I love this gospel with all my heart!

I love you all!
Hermana Ramos-Escobar