October 11, 2016 One Week until she returns!!!

I hope you had a good week. I am looking forward to seeing you soon!
This week has been a crazy one and I have been learning sooo much
these past few weeks. I am so grateful for the hard times, the good
times, the normal times, all the times the Lord has given me to teach
me!

Roberto has been the most difficult person I have ever taught and has
taught me sooo much. He was confirmed this week and what a special
experience that was for all of us. He has been through so much and it
will help him so much to have the Holy Ghost. He brought his wife (Who
we didn't know existed, they were separated) to sacrament meeting. She
lives in Riverside and she was very cordial and we were soooooo
confused. the lesson in Sunday school was about Matrimonio Eterno and
so that was just weird because they are in the middle of a divorce and
are apparently going to get back together.
Fastfoward to yesterday, we get a phone call from Roberto saying that
he is going to move to Lake Tahoe and he wants to say good-bye....so
confused still, but we go say good-bye,
Fastfoward to this morning, Roberto  calls us and tells us he is in
Riverside with his wife. WHAT?? So then he puts Cecilia on the phone
and we are just sooo confused and scared shes going to like yell at us
or something, but then she thanks us for being there for Roberto and
helping him find something spiritual to fill his life. she thanked us
for all our work and said the missionaries can visit themm and wanted
to know which building they should go to (btw they live like a block
away from the church). What a crazy experience! I know that families
can be together forever and that the Lord's timing is so real! I have
learned so much from this experience, I can't even explain it all
through email.

this week we also set our investigator, Dora with a date. She is so
cool and is now best friends with her fellowshipper. She is looking
for the truth and light and already shares it with her family. She has
invited a couple of her kids to listen to the misisonaries (they said
they were too busy). She also came to church on Sunday and sat with
her fellowshipper and they were just so cute together! She said her
husband isnt really down with her doing this, but then we went to her
house yesterday and had a lesson and made small talk with her husband
and now he says "Mi casa es su casa" to us! He really liked us and is
okay with us sharing our message with him as well during the next
lesson. He is this really old man that is just so funny! She is so
cute as well, she always starts her prayers now saying "senor
Celestial" becuase we say padre celestial.

Well, this is my last email, so I want to share how much I love being
a missionary . I love it. It has completely changed my life and formed
and shaped me into the person that I am today. I know I am different.
I can feel it, I know that my mind has been focused on our purpose to
Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored
gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, Repentance,
Baptism, Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the end.
I know that this purpose is my life's purpose and if I keep focusing
on it, I will never lose my way. I love this gospel and I just want to
share it with everyone because it has blessed my life and I have seen
it change the hearts of so many people. I know it is the true gospel
and that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. I am grateful for
the experiences I have had and the people that I have met. They are
near and dear to my heart and this place is sacred to me. its going to
be really hard to leave it all, but I know Heavenly Father has a
purpose for me and that He knows where I need to be and When and He
will guide me as long as I ask Him and always try to do His will. And
I will never stop being a missionary!

See you soon!
Love, Hermana Lapp

October 4, 2016

exchanges! We met this crazy old lady from guam that said everyone
thinks she is chinese....but shes not chinese

My week was really good. We went on exchanges again and I went with
Hermana Tuia. She is from Samoa (I go on lots of foreign exchanges
haha ) and we had a lot of fun and we worked hard! She is really great
at talking with everyone and always says the most interesting things,
it really catches their attention. We taught their investigator who I
really judged at first by his appearance, but then I was hit in the
face with the spirit when he started talking about how much he has
changed since he has started meeting with the scriptures and getting
closer to God. It was a really cool experience to see how much he
loves the change that he is making in his life and I felt super bad
for pre judging him. I am always learning new things like that.

This week our new investigator, Dora, came to a members house for
dinner. they are both these little old ladies. Well, they both have
smartphones and we thought it would be perfect to have a facebook
video chat lesson  with Dora while she is out of town this week so we
showed her and hna herrera how to use the video chat.  They were soooo
funny! They had no idea that was on there and they were acting like
two little kids, it was so cute! We had a wonderful lesson as well
that evening. we invited Dora to be baptized. It was really cool
because she took the Book of Mormon a lot more seriously when we
invite her to be baptized. She really understood that she needs to
know that Book is true so that she can change her life and be born
again. The spirit was strong because we were also in a members Home
and it was really cool to have Hna. Herrera also testify of the Book
of Mormon. The spirit was so strong, it just filled the room.

Yesterday we were supposed to have the Facebook lesson with Dora, but
of course she didnt answer so we called one of our oher investigators
and we got to have a lesson with her over the facebook video chat! It
was really cool because she goes to Rosarito a lot and so we got to
see a little bit of Mexico as well! She is really cool and she even
has started reading in the Book of Mormon. She is also a little older,
so she wasnt sure where to hold the camera! We got a screen shot of it
because the camera was just super close to her face the whole time! It
was really cool to spread the gospel by using technology, I can see
how much it willl help the future missionaries.

We also had MLC yesterday! We talked a lot about the new technology
that we are using. I gave my testimony on our purpose and one of the
other missionaries that is going home (we all did one these things,
those of us that are going home this transfer) she gave a short 3
minute talk and she said that our testimonies give us power and
authority to teach and that we need to keep that strong. I really
loved that she said that because its true. I may not have exactly tthe
same power and authority that I have as a set apart missionary, but I
will for sure still have my testimony. Sister schmitt also promised
that we will see a might change of heart wrought in our friends and
family. that will be really cool to see the conversion that people
have passed through.

General Conference was soooo good! I learned so much and the spirit
was just so strong. We are really focusing on the talk given in womens
conference, Fourth Floor, last door, by President Uchtdorf, as a
mission. Overall, conference was just really good and I felt like it
was super missionary based this time. One thing I learned that was
really impactful was from Elder Eyring's talk about gratitude. I was
thinking a lot about if I just have a grateful heart then feelings and
thoughts that Satan tempts with (overwhelming guilt or shame or
feeling inadequate) will go away. Gratitude makes us humble because we
realize everything that The Lord has done for us and all that He will
do for us. We stop trusting in ourselves and start trusting in Him. I
loved the quote he used, "Be of good cheer, I will lead you along". It
was also really cool because my companion had a lot of questions
concerning joy and Everyone talked about Joy, but especially Elder
Nelson, his talk was soooo good! I  was really just so cool to see
them talk so much about having joy. I really need to be happy about
everything that happens to me in this life!

Have a great weeek!
Love,
Hermana Lapp

September 27, 2016

We went on Exchanges and the exchange went great! I went with sister
Exposito. We had a really awesome day and taught some less actives which
was good because they have been suuuper hard to find these past. couple of
transfers. She is a super awesome missionary and really good at talking to
people. Shes from Temple square and Im convinced she'll be the assistant to
the president when she goes back to temple square! (Sisters do the Elders
job in Temple Square ) either that or she'll definitely be a zone leader!
She is just really an awesome missionary and knows how o do hard things!
One thing She said was
to be patient with people by always focusing on the good in them and the
good around you. Instead of thinking they did this to me, think what did
they do for others today? If something really bad happens and something
kind of good happens, you should always focus on the kind of good thing
that happened and ignore the big bad thing that happened. Positivity always
takes first place no matter how great the negativity is. I really learned a
lot from that exchange.

This weekend Roberto was baptized his baptism was really awesome and he was
really happy, but then he didn't come to church to be confirmed. I was
really sad and kind of angry that morning and I think it was because I was
thinking more about myself than him. I felt really bad that night though.
We called him and he was crying on the phone and said we could meet with
him on Monday. When we hung up I felt we should go to his house and so we
prayed and I still felt the same. Well, He wasn't there so we wrote a note
and right as we were walking away, he walked up. It was such a miracle and
I saw the Lords hand that all this was supposed to happen for a reason. He
told us he felt horrible about not coming, but that day was the 9 month
mark of the death of his son and he spent the whole day at his grave. He
was in no shape to be going anywhere. He will be getting confirmed soon. I
shar e this experience because I learned so much that night.  two examples
were (1) Trust in the Lord and His timing by being humble (2) Always follow
the spirit.

Womens conference on Saturday was soooo good! The stake wasnt really sure
what was going on so we showed up late to watch it because they started it
early, but I learned so much from what I saw! It really applied to a lot of
the things that I was thinking about for my investigators and the other
people that we work with. They said, * Do what is reasonable to help them
and then leave this burden at the feet of the savior because you cannot
give them complete healing. Their healing may be a long process!

I know that the only person who can heal us is Jesus Christ. This week I
really learned that we should not be ashamed of our past sins---it is no
longer who we are. We may not literally forget it, but when we repent it
wasnt us that did it, it was someone else, the person that we were. I read
a talk this morning from Oct. 2000 conference by elder oaks called "The
Challenge to become" and it talks about how if we really live and feel the
gospel then we can become the people that the Lord wants us to be---we can
fill our full potential. I also learned that as we overcome that person who
we were or the things that we did, Our Heavenly Father is sooo proud of us
for overcoming that obstacle and he will never love us any less.

I love this quote that we shared with Roberto Yesterday by Elder Holland
(Another great talk, The Grandeur of God, one of my favorites) that says
"In that sense Jesus did not come to improve God’s view of man nearly so
much as He came to improve man’s view of God and to plead with them to love
their Heavenly Father as He has always and will always love them". I have
really learned how much Our Heavenly Father loves us because I have felt
the healing and enabling powers of the Atonement. I know He died for us but
I also know that He lives!

I hope you get a chance to watch some of conference this weekend! Its going
to be a great one, I can feel it!

Love,
Hermana Lapp

September 20, 2016

My week was pretty great!

We had zone conference on Wednesday and it was basically same thing we
learned in MLC about Facebook, so that was fun! I learned a lot of
cool new stuff though about really following the spirit when using
Facebook. Its a really neat thing to be able to see how this all
works. That night was the craziest. Zone Conference went longer than
we had planned and so we got back late and our dinner wasn't there. We
knocked on the door and no answer, so we went to Church's Chicken
tenders get a 5:30 our dinner called us because they were waiting. I
guess they didn't hear us knock 5 times!!! Of course she is also less
active, so we went back at 7 and she gave us the food----really hard
sopes because she cooked them twice.....when we were supposed to go
and when we went. We had already eaten church's chicken and it wasn't
very good and then we ate 3 sopes...it was just a crazy night. It was
super funny though because we were about to throw up from being so
full, so while she was doing something elsse we hid one in our bags:(
it was the first and last time ive ever done that but....we were going
to die from all the food we had eaten.

On Friday I went on exchanges with Sister Sego From Texas. She is a
really amazing missionary and has no fear of talking with everyone! It
was really just amazing to see her do that because she is very new
with her Spanish.

On Saturday we werent really sure where to go, but then my companion
thought we should go visit this lessactive who is usually in Mexicali
(super far away) on saturdays. Well, we went anyway and found her son
named Antonio! He was super cool and has been reading in the Book of
Mormon a lot and has a great testimony of the church. As he bore his
testimony of the Book of Mormon I really saw him in white in the
temple and as a missionary. It was a really cool experience for me
especially since we have been focusing on a talk called "Begin with
the end mind" as a mission, which talks about that very thing. I felt
the spirit so strong testifying to me that he is going to do great
things in his life!

We had a mission president devotional on Sunday and i sang and my
companion played the piano....our Investigator came as well! Roberto
is going to get baptized this Saturday, so that is super exciting! He
really felt the spirit in that devotional so that was really awesome.
after the devotional we didnt have a lot of time, but we decided to
try to make it in time to see one of our investigators, mostly so we
could be obedient :) well, we made it there at 8:55 and ran into
another one of our investigators! We havent been able to contact her
and so that was a huge miracle that we happned to see her outside! The
spirit really works!!!! We taught her a super short lesson aaaand made
it home in time! That was a super huge Miracle.

Last night we went on splits with the bishops wife and her daughter.
One of the members of the ward was there as well and he was super
weirded out that my companion was there without me! He prayed for me
that I would be protected and safe! haha hes so cute, 10 years old,
got baptized in June with his family, and he says the most sincere
prayers I have ever heard.

I love being a missionary. I dont know how many times I can say it.
this is just the best thing that anyone can do with 18 months of their
lives. Thats a huge commitment, but its never a sacrifice. I Have
sacrificed nothing because Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have
already done everything. I love them and I know that they live. I know
this is their church on the earth and that they love every single one
of us. I have loved every minute of preaching this gospel and I will
keep doing it always. This is going to a good week this next week I
can feel it! We are going to see many miracles.

Until next week,

Love,
Hermana Lapp

September 13, 2016

So....I'm sure you've seen me on Facebook....yes, it was different at
first. I thought I was never going to have to use it, it is my last
transfer so I was like, no way.  But then....missionary leadership
council.....online proselyting training....we had to be the first ones
to get Facebook this week and by Friday everyone in our mission will
be allowed to be on Facebook. This week I have been trying to make my
prayers more meaningful and more focused on others so that I can have
that prayer in my mind and in my heart. It has helped me to constantly
be thinking about our investigators. It's also helped me stay focused
as we have been cleaning up our Facebooks! Doing that could have been
so distracting, but I said a lot of prayers asking the Lord how I
could stay focused and not pay attention to the things that I needed
to hide. He helped me so much to find different ways to stay focused
on my purpose and receive revelation for our investigators, He really
needs to be included in the process, in every phase of missionary
work. This experience actually really helped my testimony of prayer
increase and helped me to see how focused I really am on my purpose.
Sometimes I dont really realize how into I am, but this was an
eyeopener for me and really helped me to increase my relationship with
him because I couldnt do it on my own . its just a similitude for me
that we cant do any of this on our own

I locked the keys inside....only the second time on my mission!
Luckily our screen was already broken from other missionaries who
locked themselves out....

We had a great week this week and have our investigator, Roberto,
preparing for his baptism the 24th of September <x-apple-data-detectors://1>.
He really wanted t
get baptized, but I feared man and didn't set him with a date because
he struggles with his testimony of Jesus Christ, which is super
important. Well, our first lesson Sister Summers and I set a date with
him and ever since then his testimony of Jesus Christ has been
strengthened so much! This week he even said he  knows that he has a
savior. It has been amazing to see the Atonement change his life. I
have really grown to love him, even with his stubbornness! Things have
been hard for him since his son died a year ago (the day after
christmas...so sad) and has really chosen this time to come closer to
christ. It has really strengthened my testimony that if someone really
has the desire to change, they really can change by ten fold! He has
become more and more humble every time we see him. One day he wanted
us to teach him in English and he was speaking very broken english to
us and me di cuenta that he really is becoming humble....it really
hurts your pride speaking a language you hardly know! That was a
really special lesson with him and he even bore his testimony about
Jesus Christ.

My companion and I have really been trying to always be in the right
place at the right time. I mean, as missionaries we always try to do
that, but in planning and going and doing sometimes I feel it gets
lost in all the busyness. The other night we didn't really feel very
good about our plans so we prayed and felt that we should go to one of
our backup plans from earlier in the day. It was a less active that I
really didnt know who they were (And it turns out on sunday that ward
council doesnt know them either). They are sealed in the temple and
all of their family is lessactive. They are super old, so thats why
they havent really been coming, he works on Sunday and she has some
health problems. I told her what happened, how we prayed and felt that
we should be there and she said "Sisters, you were following the Holy
Ghost because I really needed this visit today". I felt soooo good to
hear that because in that moment I knew that we were in the right
place at the right time.

Can I just tell you that I love this ward??? The members are so
amazing, we find lots of members that are willing to come out with us.
One of the ward missionaries is this little old lady from Guatemala.
She is the coolest missionary and has the most amazing story. At
dinner on Sunday <x-apple-data-detectors://5> she shared an experience
about when she lost her son.
We have been having such amazing short lessons at dinners with members
and we have been really blessed to have them sign up. We have been
able to give them commitments that really apply to their specific
needs. I felt on Hermana needed to hear a quote from the of my
favorite talks called"waiting for the prodigal" so we planned on that
because I knew she had some people in her family that had not been as
active as she woud have liked. The first things she talked about was
her grandson who recently lost his dad and is going through a really
rough time and how much she wishes that he had the gospel in his life.
The quote we had picked beforehand was soooo perfect and she
absolutely loved it and chocked up again reading the words that were
promised to her that if she loves, watches, and waits, he will find
that hope in his life. We have a lot of members inviting their friends
and family to the mission presidents devotional this sunday and they
are just really getting involved in the work which is just such a
blessing o see.

I have just been doing so good and I truly truly love being a
missionary. It was the best decision of my life to come out here and
serve these wonderful people.

Love,
Hermana Lapp

September 6, 2016

I got a new companion! We are already friends.....its Sister Summers
from the valley! She helped me out so much when I was in the valley
and now I get to be companions with her. Today we had transfers AND we
went to the temple because she hadn't been since January, SO, I really
don't have a lot of time. But the temple was wonderful as always, I
felt so happy there :) we've already had such a great Pday. Anyway,
She is such a great example to me and we've already set goals to work
super hard this transfer! She is from South Jordan, UT (Utah companion
#2)

Last night we taught the familia we found last week. We had planned
that if they didn't read, we were going to tell them we couldn't move
on to the next lesson, we have to read with them and just be super
bold because that's what the seventy told us to do when he came. Well,
when it came down to it, they hadn't read and we really didn't do it
the way we planned and I was kind of disappointed in myself. But the
dad was the on.y one who read and at the end of the lesson, he told
his family what we had planned on and role played to tell them! It was
super inspired and his family was really listening to him, because it
was their dad. Please pray for Benjamin, Maria, Brenda, Luis, Samuel,
and Israel. They are such a great family and I already love them so
much!

On Sunday it was fast and testimony meeting and 3 people went up to
talk about going out with the sisters....it was a super big miracle
for us because that always gets the other members pumped to do
missionary work, but the funny thing was that all 3 talked about how
we kept getting rejected! Haha it's true! The first people we talked
to yesterday told us "retirense. Me están molestando", But to be
honest, their not rejecting me, their rejecting the savior and I will
get rejected for Him any day because He has done a lot more for me. I
love being His representative!



Love,

Hermana Lapp