January 19, 2016

I got the bag! Its super cute!! I love it. Since it is new, it squeaks sometimes and its kind of funny. It fits everything though and I love it!

I have a good story from this week. The other day we parked in a
parking lot near a Denny's to go see some potentials and there was this
crazy lady screaming. she was yelling at everyone and throwing things.
We really felt like we should be there so we stayed in the car for a few minutes watching this crazy lady. She tried to get in the back of someones truck and everything. then she started dancing
inappropriately and so we just looked down at our feet. And then she
left. 

The Miracle was that we found one of our investigators that we
have not been able to see. If we had left and gone somewhere else we
wouldnt have found her. We had an awesome lesson and she told us that
she "identifies" more with our church than the church she was attending before! It was such a great lesson. The spirit is always so strong with her because she is just such a peaceful person.

I went on exchanges this last week and I went with Sister Howell. It was a pretty good day and we did a lot of hard work. We street contacted this old lady and we tried to set up an appointment with her
but then she just started singing some weird Mexican song and started
walking away. It was actually pretty funny.

Right now we are studying the fundamentals from Preach My gospel as a mission and this week was About the Holy Ghost. From that, I think this week I learned a lot about helping people recognize the workings of the spirit. I think I learned that I really need to help them recognize that the spirit is speaking to them. The other day we had a
lesson with Alida one of our investigators and we just asked a bunch of inspired questions to help her recognize that she has recieved an answer. Now we just need to help her act on that answer, which we areworking on.

SOrry this email isnt very long. I ate some bad food and I dont feel
very good. I will be better tomorrow. Dont worry, I will drink some
water.

Love,
Hermana Lapp

January 12 Another week of the missionary life in Chula!

We got to go with our investigator to the Mormon Batallion! She loved
it and felt the spirit so much. It was great to hear her talk about
how much she loved it and is loving the church already. They take
pictures at the end...

It has been super spiritual and full of miracles! We have been so blessed!

We had interviews with president this week.........and I had A LOT of
questions....haha but it went well and when I asked about working with
the members, he said I know how to do it, I did it in Ramona....so
obviously I need to step it up haha. But he gave some great advice for
that as well. I always get super nervous for interviews, but then I
end up loving talking to president. I am so grateful to have him and
Sister Schmitt! They are the best!

This week I have really been thinking about my purpose as a missionary
and really focusing in on it especially about keeping and dropping
investigators. As we have been doing that, we have been able to see
many miracles. This week we had an investigator who has not been
fulfilling any of her commitments. We went in thinking we would teach
her the plan of Salvation, but the spirit hit me that we need to focus
in on our purpose. We reset expectations and on Sunday she came to all
3 hours of church. She said she felt bad that we weren't fulfilling
our purpose with her because she knows we are servants of the Lord.
Que Bendición!

We had a super awesome miracle this past week! One of the members in
our area wanted us to teach his girlfriend. We were a little confused
about it because it happened all of a sudden. We went and he had been
talking to her about our religion. She came super prepared and she is
from Cuba so she didn't hear a lot about religion until recently. She
accepted a baptismal date in the first lesson and keeps talking about
that day. I was so grateful that we set the date with her. We just
planned on asking her to be baptized, but the spirit led us to setting
her with a date!

Our area is doing better! It has been full of miracles. I stopped
thinking about the quantity of lessons and started thinking about the
quality. The quality of our lessons lately have been so good, better
than they have been in my entire mission! The spirit is so strong, I
am understanding the people a lot better, and they are keeping their
commitments! It has been an amazing week though and the ward was super
excited to see 5 investigators at church for us and 5 investigators
for the elders. I could see Obispo perk up a little when he saw it. I
saw the fire starting.

Love Hermana Lapp

FELIZ AñO!

It is 2016 and what a great year it is to be a missionary!

We found a bottle of sparkling cider in,our apartment! That's what I call luck. 

Caroling with the district! I'm the one behind the tree.

My goals for this year are,

1. Finish the Book of Mormon in Spanish 4 times.

2. Become even more focused and completely lose myself in the work. ( I think I'm doing pretty well, but there is always room for improvement.

3. Learn to love and earn the trust of members.

Things are going great! We are going to dinners with members now and gaining their trust. Honestly as missionaries its not the food that matters, but getting to know the members! They dont mind feeding us, we just have to ask them at chruch to sign up on the calendar! Then they do it.

Templo!

We went to the temple today and it was the best as usual. It was my companions first time going to the San Diego temple and it was POURING RAIN, so the pictures werent very good. Its okay though, a picture is a picture. I also got really scared when we were driving back because I was driving (and you know how I am), but we made it back to Chula Vista in safety!

Car selfie
Because we lack pictures 

This past week was a pretty good one. We had some really funny situations and a lot of elderly men were trying to flirt with me. It was funny. We have some investigators that are preparing for baptism that will hopefully get baptized soon. We have had some really spiritual lessons where they just really opened up to us. 

I have a sad story. We have this investigator who told us she was going to get married. Well we went to see her after the wedding was supposed to be and she told us that the church is no longer a church. I think she forgot to book the place and when they went, they found out it wasnt a church anymore. I thought that was some crazy story you don't hear anywhere else but on a mission.

Somone called el niño (look it up on google) and he came to town. It has been raining so hard. 

The other morning I didn't want to ruin my shoes because it was raining pretty hard so we made a little obstacle course where we ran from the bedroom out to the porch and back again. It finally stopped raining so we got to go on our run.

I read presidents email that our mission goal for this year is 1,000 convert baptisms! It is definitely going to be a good year because goals are inspired. I said a little prayer becuase president told us to tell him our own personal goal for the year and I told him 20 (Thats 2 baptisms a month, not shabby.) It is the greatest to be able to be a part of this mission and to push ourselves to talk to everyone. This week for district meeting we talked about street contacts and this really helped me and my companion! We have been talking with so many people and it gets us some great stories as well that I just do not have time to type. But it has been great to just plant a seed with people in the street and share just a little bit of the gospel with them. 

I have just seen the change in myself and it has been amazing to see the change in my companion! I feel very privleged to be able to train another missionary and to see her grow. I have been able to see so many miracles these past few weeks as well. 

Well, my time is running out! Keep on keeping on and don't forget to pray!

Love,

Hermana Lapp