May 31, 2016

Driving To San Diego to meet
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland!

The group of Sisters here in the valley after our trip to San Diego.

I learned so many things from Elder Holland this past Friday. I
learned that my mission is the perfect mission for me, that all the
things I have gone through, all the hardships, the miracles, the good
times, the fun times, the failures, the successes, all of it was what
The Lord has planned for me. I hope that I can feel that as I go
through the rest of my mission. Even though it may feel like I haven't
grown or I am suffering, it is all for The Lord, I am doing my best,
and I can know that 50 years from now I will have thought about my
mission every day of my life. As for my investigators, I think I
learned the same thing. Their plan is perfect as well. The Lord has
His timing for them and they need to understand that they need to
always be pleading with the Father to know His will for them, not just
what they want. Elder Holland is so inspiring and even yelled at us a
bit about how we should never go back to our former lives. He did a
question and answer and talked a little about love, how we can feel
our love for others grow when we realize Heavenly Father loves us and
that we are His CHildren. He truly is an Apostle of the Lord. Oh
that's the other thing, he said as missionaries we are apostles with a
little a because our apostleship ends and he is an Apostle with a
capital A because he is going to be doing it for the rest of his life,
so he told us to live up our only chance to be an apostle. He is just
so bold and inspiring and you can truly feel the love that he has for
each and everyone of us. Anyway, I just wish you could've been there
to hear it all!

This Sunday we had a devotional here in the valley with our mission
president. There were 2 of them, one in English and one in Spanish. 2
hrs of singing. Really brought me back to choir days, let me tell you!
My companion and I sang a musical number with one of the other sisters
and sister summers was on the piano (She is soooo good at piano, she
just plays her own arrangement with the hymn book....like, so
talented). It felt good to be bearing my testimony through song again.
We sang I need thee every hour (Te necesito, si in Spanish). Also, I
sang soprano which I always avoid doing, but I had to this time. The
devotional was good and I hope it touched the hearts of all those that
were there.

Today for Pday we went and made pies with some members. Some of the
members here just have stolen my heart and the sister from today
reminds me of aunt Rachie so much! This Ward truly has some special
people and I am honored to serve in their area and to serve them. I
feel that I have met so many inspiration people on my mission, members
and non-members alike. I love being a missionary and having this
opportunity to serve the Lord and Children of God like these people!

Well, this week was pretty normal other than Elder Holland coming,
that definitely wasn't normal. this week we are being visited by Elder
Hamula of the 70! ITs a surprise visit, I guess. 

I'll explain the handshake with Elder Holland before I stop writing. We got to shake
his hand and I've heard that when he shakes your hand he stares into
your soul, but I forgot. As I shook his hand he just stared at me and
I felt weird. It was only after the fact that Irealized he was staring
into my soul! When he got up to the pulpit he told us that the
apostles conduct interviews through their handshakes and so basically
he was getting to knkow us and receiving revelation of our lives as he
was shaking our hands. Long ago he shook hands with President Schmitt
when he was a missionary and knew that he was going to be a mission
president . Anyway, it was crazy !

Love,
Hermana Lapp

From making pies with members on Pday :)

I met a tortoise!!  His name is Tyson and he is not full size yet...

Nasty little dog.....playing with toilet paper....
We see so many gross little dogs around here.

May 24, 2016

This Lady is one of the funniest people I've ever met!

My companion says I'm 5 years old and this
just goes to prove it ;)

....I guess some things never change.

My week was pretty good! On Wednesday our investigator, Jose, went to
mutual and we had a church tour with him. One of the counselors in the
ym gave him a ride and Jose really liked him and connected with him.
He had a smile on his face the whole time. Late that week we had a
lesson with him and his family and he said that the Book of Mormon has
already helped him to find answers and comfort to his problems and
that he finds it to be very complimentary to the bible. So that was a
pretty good day in our week. He didn't go to church though so that was
super disappointing. It was cool though to hear him basically share
his own small testimony on the Book of Mormon.

Yesterday we had MTEs so I went on exchanges with sister summers
again. My companion and one of the sister in the zone saw some super
cool miracles on their exchange here in Calexico and I went to el
Centro. We saw this super awesome girl named Cassandra in a members
home and she was pretty excited. She read everything before the visit
and is just wanting to know more and is beginning to recognize the
Holy Ghost. It was a super cool miracle because we got to set her with
a date and she accepted it! I always learn so much from the sisters so
it was really awesome to go on this exchange.

For MTEs we have been talking a lot about inviting people to act and
then following up. I was really thinking about how I extend
commitments and how the Savior was always inviting people to repent
and come unto him. I was pondering about our invitations as
missionaries and how the investigators portray them; Are they my
commitments or the Savior's commitments? As I have been thinking about
that, I've been trying more and more to make it clear to them and
myself that this invitation is not our own. This week I really want to
work on that. But as I was thinking about it this past week, it has
really helped me to turn outward instead of inward. I think what I've
been doing wrong is not remembering that this commitment is not mine,
it completely has nothing to do with me and if they don't want to
follow through, they need to know they aren't keeping their
commitments to The Lord, not to the missionary. I've been able to see
people keep their commitments as we follow up and I am excited to see
it happen more and more as I become more focused in my purpose in
extending commitments.

Just want to let you know that I miss you and that I love you.

We have a busy day getting ready for elder holland so that's all I
have today! We have to do a bunch of stuff and there's an audition for
a devotional this weekend that we have to go to, so peace, I'm out!

Love,
Hermana Lapp

After she dumped water on my head she tried to take selfies.

It got REALLY hot today.......

May 17, 2016

My Cooking skills just keep getting better. I made up my own recipe for broccoli salad. 

As a mission, we are supposed to be "sanctifying ourselves" before
Elder Holland comes to speak with us in a week. This week to sanctify
myself I have been trying to act more faithful and positive. Just
being more positive towards situations that aren't the best or people
who maybe aren't as nice as I would like them to be, to have a lot
more charity. Much like the consecrated missionary talk, I want to put
my negativity on the altar of sacrifice. Even though I wasn't perfect
at it, I still feel that some days were really good even though things
maybe didn't go as well. As I do that, I think it sanctifies me, makes
me more positive towards being obedient and following the Lords will.
It is key to Accept the fact that whatever happened that day is the
Lords will and I should learn something from it and become better
tomorrow. The Lord's plan is perfect, we shouldn't get down on
ourselves, but give all of our heart, might, mind and strength to
repent, change, and become better servants of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I don't know why this happens a lot, but sometimes on my mission the
area gets really really good, we have a lot of people that are looking
to be baptized and then all of a sudden things happen that we really
have no control over, just agency. It's been really frustrating, but
obviously the Lord has something for me to learn from it, I'm just not
sure what it is yet. Sometimes I wonder "What am I doing wrong?" And
then I go looking for errors in myself and try to improve, which is
good to some extent. But lately I've been realizing that even though
I'm making mistakes, I'm trying my hardest and The Lord makes up the
rest and these people have their agency.

Something cool that happened this week happened on Thursday. For power
hour (an hour of going and talking to everyone) we decided to go pray
for power hour with a member in the area and ask for referrals. We
were supposed to go the day before be we had something going on and it
messed it up. Well the member before we even asked said, "sisters, I
had a prompting this morning that you should go to my friends house,
but I forgot to tell you. Will you go visit her for me, she just lives
down the street?" We went and at first she didn't seem interested, but
as soon as she realized we weren't Jehovah's Witness, she lightened
right up and told us she was looking for a church. She shared her
experience and how she feels she needs to come closer to Jesus Christ.
That was the big miracle from this week and a perfect example of The
Lord's timing.

I went on an exchange with Sister Summers this week. She was an
amazing example to me and it was just good to hear her advice and
learn from her. Exchanges are good because you can learn a lot from
others, they can tell you things that can help, and sometimes you can
vent haha :) we taught lots of people and got rejected a few times
(daily thing) but it was fun!

Anyway, sorry it's not as long as last week, but I'll try to make next
week better :)

Love,

Hermana Lapp

Sister Summers is mean and put my childhood stuffed bunny,
Jellybean, in the freezer.  I found it this morning.

May 10, 2016

My apologies for not posting anything for a while.  I was having some issues with my laptop.  It's all fixed now so here is the first post to catch up.  Thank You for your patience!  ~Becka

Well, my week was good. We took some hard blows this week in our area.
A family we had been teaching dropped us because things were happening
in her family due to her meeting with us. We texted her on Sunday
because there was no other way of contacted her, we've tried for 2
weeks. We basically gave her an ultimatum text haha no we were just
bold and told her that we are here for her and just want to know what
is going on. She told us that her motherinlaw got to her husband when
her daughter's told her they are meeting with us and now there are a
bunch of issues, so we have to wait for her to let us know. So we
aren't teaching them right now, but I know that someday they will be
baptized!

It was pretty devastating, but we did add one of our investigators
daughters and her mom is a less-active. They both came to church on
Sunday and we taught them yesterday! The mom and dad are super into
it, but the daughter is more apprehensive. It was one of the
experiences I had with charity this week because she did NOT want to
talk to us. But then as we tried to talk to her and get to know her at
church, she softened. When we went to visit, she had a smile on her
face and really wanted to talk to us! It was crazy because as we Erie
planning for her lesson that morning and arriving at her house that
evening, we were so nervous because she wasn't very interested in
anything at the church, but it was so weird when we got there and she
was smiling and super nice. She is a singer and sings at a music
school in Mexicali and plays the guitar. So we bonded over that too.

Our investigator alma didn't come to church again!we were so upset!
She is such a funny old lady and such a sweet heart. She doesn't
really know how to use her phone that well so it's really hard to
contact her as well. Pray for her! The phone thing is funny because
she will answer the phone, but then she always some how hangs up the
phone with her face! It makes for a good laugh every time we call her.
Last time we met with her, she said she knows the church is true, she
just wants to go to church more and read more in the Book of Mormon.
We were like, "well, yeah! That's exactly what you need to do!" It was
jus funny because we were talking about her baptism at this point and
those were the reasons she said that she doesn't feel prepared to be
baptized.

We had a 5 de mayo party this weekend as well. Before we went to the 5
de mayo party we ran into a former investigator who sometimes goes to
our church just because it's near by. She doesn't like he Book of
Mormon and always makes fun of my companions Spanish. She basically
sis my Spanish was good and then looked at my companion and said "y
tu, Güera??" Which basically means "and you, blondie?" Haha she's just
kind of a mean old lady and so we bumped into her and tried to ask her
if she was going to the party and then she got all upset and yelled at
us that 5 de mayo means nothing in Mexico and even if it did, we don't
celebrate I right....yadayadayada.....then she showed up at the party.
I know this sounds likes complaining story, but actually it was just a
funny story because she is just soooo old and sooo mean. The party was
a success. There were more no members than members, mostly because
some of our members invited a group of folklorico (Mexican dance)
dancers to the party. It was pretty cool to see all those people there
and talk to some of them! This Ward is so awesome and they are getting
so excited about missionary work, it's really cool to see. They also
have a scouts program that brings a lot of non members. It's amazing.

Anyway, I am doing good! My companion and I get along and are always
teasing each other. It makes for a fun time :)

Love,
Hermana Lapp

May 3, 2016

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This week was a pretty good one.

My companion made me run for realsies ( I run real slow) one morning (she
was in BYU track for all 4 years of college) then that evening we didn't
have any appointments and all of our investigators were MIA, so we decided
to ride the bikes to find some people. We spend way to much time in the car
going from potential to potential, why not bike and talk to everyone if we
have no where to be? I was dying the next day.

This week president Schmitt asked us in his weekly email,  "Is your mission
changing your heart and your life?" I thought I would share what I said.
Yes, I believe my mission is changing my heart and life. Not only has my
testimony and faith grown, but my desire to progress. During the course of
my mission, I have found a constant desire to always be changing and be
better. That is something I think I struggled with before my mission. I was
good, obedient, had a lot of faith, but I don't know if I was progressing.
I have noticed that as I have focused on improving my teaching skills to
help others, I've also had a desire to improve many attributes about myself
for them to be more Christlike, to treat them as Christ would. And not just
for them, but for Him. I want to change for Him. That is something I never
want to let go of.

I noticed a huge change in our area that week we fasted as a mission about
goals. I had also made it a personal goal to pray in every prayer about our
goals because I have never been very good at that. The past couple of weeks
haven't been as successful since then because we didn't really have goals
like the ones a couple of weeks ago. I noticed the correlation as I was
thinking "what went different that week?" I thought that this might be the
best way to redouble our works---setting goals that redouble our works and
sticking with them. This week our goals were: (1) Have 3 lessons with every
one of our current investigators this week (2) Add 5 new investigators (3)
Find a non-member to take to the family history center in Calexico (Our
bishop will be there every tues. and thurs. We want to improve our
relationship with him and feel we have received revelation that this would
be a perfect way because he is really excited about family History work.)
We have been praying about that since Friday. Yesterday we went to see a 17
year old potential. He had went on Mormon.org and said he wasn't interested
in organized religion, but he is interested in our genealogy efforts. He
agreed to come to the FHC this Thursday. My companion and I were blown away
by this direct answer to our prayers and hope that this will soften his
heart as well. We have also been teaching short, powerful lessons and I
feel much better coming out of them. As I studied the Book of Mormon in
Preach my Gospel, I found a quote that said, "Investigators must resolve
for themselves their concerns and objections. You can help as you focus
them on what will strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ—reading and
praying about the Book of Mormon. When they strengthen their testimony of
the Restoration, they will have the strength to overcome their objections
and concerns." It hit me that the longer lessons didn't allow the
investigators the opportunity to learn something for themselves and answer
their own doubts/concerns using prayer and the Book of Mormon because we
were answering them.

Yesterday we had a lesson with a man we met while we were riding the bikes.
He is 48 and has had 3 Heart Attacks, so he is in a wheel chair. He is also
divorced and alone. It was really sad and I wanted to cry the entire time
he was telling us, but he told us that he wants to open his heart to Jesus
Christ, because he hasn't really done that before. We shared the
restoration and talked about how the priesthood is restored so that he can
be baptized, the best way to open our hearts and accept Jesus Christ. He is
going to change his life with the gospel!

We also have been teaching a family we found when we fasted. Yesterday the
mom didn't want to come out (we think she might have depression) and we
talked to her 15 year old son. He seems hurt by a lot of the things that
are going on in his family and that was really sad. We taught him and he
said he used to be very into religion and Jesus Christ and all, but now it
has fizzled out and he's "not 100% there" in his own terms. He wants to
find peace. we found them because my companion and her last companion had
felt impressed to knock on the door months ago during power hour. The lady
that lived there at the time let them in. Well we went back to follow up
the other day and he answered the door. His mom set up an appointment with
us. He told us that he told his mom that the minute we step foot in their
house, everything is going to change. He has been praying every day since
we came and he told us that for him, everything is changing. I don't know
if his parents are changing, but I know he said that he his happier and
things are getting better for him, I know that it only is going that way
because he is doing the things that we invited him to do.

That's it for this week!
Hermana Lapp

April 26, 2016

His Name is Gunther.....He is a turtle....

This week I went on an exchange with the sister training leaders

because my companion went on an exchange. Her best friend is in our
mission and they got to go on an exchange before the sister goes home
next week. SO that was a weird 2 days because my companion had to go
all the way to San Diego so she was basically gone for a day. We had a
lot of fun though and I held a tortuga.

Our week was a little slow, ESPECIALLY with the surprise exchange
(president called the morning of to tell my comp she is leaving in 2
hrs). I was super nervous about how everything was going to end up,
but then Sunday came. We had 6 investigators come to church, plus a
random person that showed up and the niece of one of our
investigators. They are reading and praying and we had a lesson with
one yesterday who told us she knows that Joseph smith is a prophet. I
have never seen an area grow this fast. I think as we have both been
working on ourselves and having a good attitude about the ward, we
have been able to see so many miracles. There's not a lot of members,
but that doesn't matter because they are on fire and that fire grew
when they saw all those investigators at church. It was crazy to see
how excited they were, how much their testimonies grew and how much
they wanted to help us.

Yesterday we had a lesson with our investigator named alma. She was
super apprehensive about her baptismal date when we first set it.
Well, she read in the Book of Mormon, came to church, and prayed
during sacrament meeting about Joseph smith. She is older, so we
weren't sure what she would remember, but she is a smart lady and
remembers lots of things! She feels good about her baptismal date and
she's the one who told us she believes that Joseph smith was a
prophet! Praying for the 14th of May for her baptism. It was amazing
to see how much she changed. She expressed a desire to have faith. She
learned something at church about being faithful and told us she
doesn't want to be the type of person who lacks faith anymore.

We are still teaching Ana and we had the opportunity to teach her 2
daughters Jessica (9) and Janelle (8). They don't know a lot about
Heavenly Father or Jesus Christ, but they have so much faith and are
ready to learn. They loved church and want to go back. They are so
cute and they understand a lot. It was amazing to see how my companion
and I could take the gospel and share it with them so simply. They did
their homework and read in the Book of Mormon and prayed.

Arturo also came to church and he still has a desire to get baptized.
He really enjoyed church. Right now he is working on his doctorite and
he wants to use something from the teachings of Howard w. Hunter in
his thesis! Haha he's a funny guy and everyone liked him at church.
Today we are taking the "valley tour" with the senior couple that live
out here in the valley. 3 sets of sisters=elder Rielly rented a 15
passenger van. Pictures to follow.
Well....that's it

Love,
Hermana Lapp

Best Exchange.  We had so much fun and I love my godmother, Sister Sanders.
(She is in the middle)

Hopefully this wasn't our last exchange.

Yay Exchange

P-Day Adventures!
The Reillys bought us hats at the swap meet.

Slab City....... Everything here is free and people go here
to live in trailers.

The Border......
I stuck my finger into Mexico!

Salvation Rock......
Some guy painted on a moutain

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World's Tallest Flagpole

April 19, 2016

Our president asked last Sunday for us to specifically fast to find a family and to set 3 baptismal dates. We have been praying so hard about those goals and my email will explain how that came to pass...

I hit my year mark this week and that was sad/weird

The day of my year mark was actually an amazing day full of miracles. We had 2 lessons in the first part of the day in a members home and set both of them with baptismal dates on the first lesson. Oh and they were both member referrals.One is named Alma and she is a little apprehensive, but doesnt really have a religion. she is older and doesn't really know what church is true, she has been looking all her life. She said she would read and pray and prepare for that day. 

 the other is  named Ana and she is just so confused right now about religion. She cried when we showed her the picture of Jesus holding the lamb on the front cover of the restoration pamphlet and told her she could be that lamb. The spirit was soooo strong and she cried when she said the closing prayer because she hasn't prayed in a long time. The member that referred her to us is her aunt and the lesson was in her home. She set it up and everything. AND she is a recent convert. AND she has been praying about who she could share the gospel. She cried when she bore her testimony and how she had been praying to find someone and she said "Ana, you came to me". Oh, I feel like I haven't had a lesson like that in a while. We were so drained though after that and the day had just begun. 

We went to an appointment with a member, it was the first time teaching them. They were a family, all the kids over 8 and we added them.hey are also super lost, just moved here 2 weeks ago, and are looking for a church. We talked to another investigator about baptism and she promised she would pray about the date on Sunday. She goes to Mexicali a lot but she said she would go to the church there. Mexicali is the border of here. Its in Mexico. We still need to see if she went, we can only email her because she owns a Mexico phone which costs a lot of money for us to call her. We saw our other investigator Rosie and She is more seriously investigating the church now. Before we started teaching her we were teaching her family and she stole her daughters Book of Mormon. She is now in Jacob. It was just the craziest most amazing day!

Then Saturday came a long and we added a single mom and her child who also are not super religious and looking to find truth. She wanted us to give her other daughter who wasn't present for the lesson a pamphlet. She is ten and instantly started reading the pamphlet. It was so awesome! So we FOUND 2 FAMILIES!!!!!!!!!

Then SUNDAY! Ana and Rosie came to church!!!!!!! 

In my companionship, It has been really amazing to see that we can both help each other so much. One thing that Sister Shields and I have been talking about is that I need to focus a little more on the here and now, not living in the past. I've been trying to help her have a little more faith in what people are capable to achieve with the Love and help of Christ. Our area experienced miracles last week and it was so great to see people have a desire to learn about the gospel! We have so many investigators now with the greatest potential, truly prepared. 

Anyway, its been a good week

Love,

Hermana Lapp