"And I was led by the Spirit..."

Hi!!!

Yes Im alive! I am allll better now, thank you for your prayers. Im blessed to have made it this far without getting sick and luckily it was only for a couple days. Oh man this week! I feel like I'm learning SO much every day! Cant believe how fast time is flying by and its already conference again this week! I pray we may be able to prepare to hear the words of our dear Prophet and his disciples and apply them to our everyday lives.

In our area we always pass a certain house where a ton of people are always hanging out. I always felt a little intimidated to try to contact the house when there were 15 plus people there. We passed by one day and there was only one Hermana hanging out in her hammock, so we took the opportunity to talk to her. She invited us in and we started teaching. Soon another sister came out and started listening, then another, then the Mom and eventually the Dad came home from work and began to listen. Little by little, we ended the lesson with 12 plus people listening to us. To start the lesson I had no idea whether to teach the Plan of Salvation, or the Restoration of the Gospel. I said a prayer to myself and just started talking. It eventually led into the Plan of Salvation which was perfect because we didn't know the entire family would end up listening to us. At the end of the lesson, everyone kept asking really good questions about life after death and we wanted to answer all of their questions and it was so hard to cut off the lesson, but we set an appointment for the next day and finished answering everyone's questions. Sometimes we just have to take a step into the darkness and follow the spirit. 

1 Nephi 4:6

6 And I was ^aled by the Spirit, not ^bknowing beforehand the things which I should do.

Ive learned this and how crucial it is to follow the spirit during our lessons, because Heavenly Father knows His children more than we do and can direct us to the needs of our investigators. Ive also learned that the spirit cant influence you if youre just sitting there. You always need to be pressing forward. 

On Saturday we had a Book of Mormon Marathon activity with the ward. We read and listened to the Book of Mormon ALL day! We tried to finish the whole thing but that didn't really happen, but the important thing is that the members had the chance to read the Book of Mormon. President and Hermana stopped by for a little bit too. I thought it was a success. 

I know I always talk about Santos but he is just so amazing. We got to church and he was standing outside just staring intently at the street. He was waiting for our investigator Roberto who we found in a cafe in La Lima. Eventually Roberto showed up and Santos was at his side helping and answering all of his questions during church. I just love him! The other day he also said,"I may be poor and only eat rice and beans every day, but I have everything because I have peace in my life through the church."

We finally got water in our house after 11 days without it. Then the next day a guy came and cut our power... its a long story but it wasn't our fault. So we didn't have power for 2 nights. It was rough just 2 nights without our lights. We eventually got it all figured out. A couple days later I saw a picture of Christ preaching in the spirit world. Everyone was in the dark and the only light was around Christ. I then realized if I could barely survive 2 nights without lights how I would feel an eternity without it. I am so grateful for the light of Christ I have in my life. I want to live with Him and my Father in Heaven surrounded by their lights and love in Celestial glory for eternity. But not alone, with my family too. And I know we can make it, we just have to work a little harder together and endure. I know Heavenly Father wants us to enjoy all of the blessings He has, thats why he gave us a perfect plan to achieve them. I know that only through our Savior and Redeemer its possible. 

Love,

Hermana Sherman

Moran family, just one of the sisters from the house we contacted this week

Hermana Morales completed a month of her mission, so we celebrated with a tres leches!

A couple of sisters in the ward

Book of Mormon Marathon

Santos!

Hermana Enma (investigator) came to church!

Our Zone

Hermanas of the Pineda Zone!

Animalitos!

Geckos are EVERYWHERE! They churp really loud. They arent as cute here as the one in the Geico commercials.

We found another scorpion

Faith through prayers will bring miracles.

Hey fam, sorry I dont have very much time this week to write. I got hit with the double dragon...  but Im surviving and everything is just dandy. 

One quick experience that happened this week. We found a new family where theres a 21 year old son who has been out of work for over a year. He was really frustrated because if he doesnt have work, he cant pay for travel to his college, so hes been out of school for more than a year too. We asked him to say the closing prayer and he said he doesnt know how to pray. We taught him and told him to pray to find a job, so that by our next appointment with him he could have a new job. We visited him last week and he told us he was going to start his new work the next day. Faith through prayers will bring miracles.

I love you all and hope you guys have a great week! 

Heres a picture of a cow tongue thats a delicacy down here... who knows.

Love,

Lani

Yet another week as flown by!

The sun is OUT! This week we had a lot of great opportunities to contact and find new families to teach. Every week the youth play soccer at night and almost all of them are nonmembers. We were able to talk with them and set up an appointment for the following day. To our surprise 6 - 18 year old boys showed up wanting to learn more about the church. Hermana Morales and I got the opportunity to have a lesson with all of them. They are awesome and were open to asking questions with a desire to learn more. It turns out all 6 live in the area of the other sisters, but we still were able to teach them more about the gospel and feel of the Spirit.

We had stake conference yesterday! The chapel, gym, and stage were full! I got the opportunity to direct the music. About 15 minutes before they were suppose to show the broadcast, the power system caught on fire... We were without lights, fans, and sound. The Stake President talked through a megaphone and they started the meeting as two Hermanos worked on the power. We all said a prayer and 2 minutes after the broadcast started, they got the power up and running. We still didnt have very much air, but it was awesome to see the miracle in Stake Conference. 

We had a lot of opportunities to contact new families this week. The Lord definitely puts people in our paths every day and its so important that we are always looking for those people. Yet another week has flown by! Cant believe Ive been out on my mission for 9 months already. Pretty crazy. I love being a missionary and seeing tender mercies every day. I get reminded a lot here of how blessed I am to have been born in a good country. I never want to take that for granted. 

Heres a scripture I found that made a pretty big impact on me. Disfrutenlo!

1 Corinthians 10:13

There hath no temptation ^ataken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be ^btempted above that ye are able; but will with the ^ctemptation also make a way to ^descape, that ye may be able to ^ebear it.

 

Love,

Hermana Sherman

This week has been awesome...

Hello there! 

This week has been awesome. Hermana Morales is the sweetest and has such a desire to serve others. Its always a little hard for a missionary to adjust to the different weather, food, culture and being away from their family. We have been focusing on the positives and the great blessing of the mission. We were able to attend a baptism yesterday that reminded her of her feelings and emotions when she was baptized, not even two years ago. Hermana Morales has 5 people in her family, and all are members except one of her brothers. Today she got an email from a missionary in her home ward saying that her brother now wants to be baptized! She is now starting to see the blessings pour out towards her family. 
 

I almost forgot it was my birthday on Saturday. Our new district Elder is only 18 and was making old lady jokes all day. I definitely dont look 22, but eventually that will pay off. I received a couple liters of pepsi from members and one family gave me a big banner that says Honduras. Everyone is so sweet here. We also found a couple new families to teach, which was the greatest present of all!

Its certainly starting to heat up here. We are now entering SUMMER. And wooohoooo Honduras is a little toaster oven. We drink lots and lots of H20. They say it gets up to 110 with 90% humidity. Before my mission I prayed to go to a place where theres sun, and i got it!

I hope you are all doing well. Dont forget to do the basic Sunday School answers... Pray, Read your Scriptures & Go to Church. They are so important. There really isnt any excuses why you cant accomplish them, and believe me, ive heard a lot of excuses! The Church is true. The Savior lives and Heavenly Father answers prayers. I know these things to be true.

Love,

Hermana Sherman

The Mini MTC Primary Stake activity!

When two little future missionaries helped us with our appointments

Making dinner with the Pineda family

Gibelli and Osmans dog is pregnant and she likes to spread eagle.

HERMANA MORALES!! (from Bolivia)

Last zone meeting with Hermana Alcequiez!
 (from the Dominican Republic)

One of my besties Hermana Ramirez

Vanessa (Sister Webster) sent me this picture of her companion. She's the sweetest!

Pure happiness!

Hiiiiiiiii!!!!

We had cambios today! My new companion is Hermana Morales!! Wow I cant even explain how awesome she is. She is from Bolivia and has been a member of the church for two years! She wanted a north american to train her and Im the only north american training right now! She also showed me a picture of a sister missionary thats serving in her home ward that shes really close to, and she happens to be from washington and is half Filipino... and we look a lot alike. I think this cambio was definitely inspired. I already can tell this cambio is going to be awesome. She is ready to hit the pavement running! 

I was talking with President Klein earlier today and he was telling me how amazing our new group of missionaries are. One Elder had to wait 5 years to receive his mission call. He filled out and redid his papers 3 times. Every time they were lost when they were ready to be sent in. 

On Saturday we we were asked to go to a primary activity with the whole stake. The activity was called "Mini MTC" Each ward had their own classroom and the kids prepared a lesson to teach real investigators. The investigators traveled room to room with the kids teaching them about the gospel all by themselves. All the kids had little name tags that said Future Missionary. The spirit was strong during their lessons and especially when they sang. This past week the primary president asked if she could go out with us to our appointments and with two kids in primary. They were so excited with their little name tags and backpacks with their scriptures. They read and bore their testimonies during our lesson. The Lord is truly hastening His work and there is no age too young to start doing missionary work. Im amazed at how much the children understand the importance of missionary work. They are already preparing at age 8! 

Last pday we were in la lima and we always go to a cute cafe that sells the best smoothies. The cafe is a part of a hair salon and so we always talk to the workers there, they're all awesome. We met two older men named roberto and mario. We started talking to them about the church. It turns out they both live in our little area! What are the chances! I only had The plan of salvation pamphlets so I gave them those and took down their information. We contacted them both separately this past week. Mario told us his wife had died and people told him that we arent going to remember this life after we die and there is only heaven or hell. We were able to teach him about life after death and the opportunity he has to live with her forever. He said he knows our message is true and that he wants to go to church this sunday. We also went to Robertos house and he told us his son was killed two months ago and that his Dad died two days earlier. We were able to teach him the same lesson. He told us he felt something he couldnt describe. A calm but warm feeling in his chest. We were able to teach him about the Spirit and during the lesson I too was able to feel the spirit testifying the truthfulness of our message. He then accepted to be baptized. We met with his wife the next day and she told us she was never taught how to pray. We were able to teach her and hear her first perfect prayer.

I feel so spoiled sometimes with all of the blessings I have. I love missionary work. Pure happiness! Life is gooood, real gooood. Never forget your potential and great worth. 

Love,

Hermana Sherman