¡Saludos!
Transfer calls came!! I´m going to be staying in Los Angeles, and my new companion will be Hermana De Leon (literally translates to ¨of lion¨) from Mexico. And guess what? Hna. Black is only moving 15 minutes away to the other Sisters' house in the zone to be comps with our Hermana Leader! AND Hna. Flake, my MTC companion, is coming to that house, too! So I´ll get to be with them every single Monday and have daily morning devotionals with my best mission friends!! I can´t believe it, I´m so happy:) I´ve been very blessed to have 4 obedient companions so far, and I don´t take that for granted. Also, I´m feeling very grateful for my mission mom, Hna. Dibble, who is going home this week; she is so amazing, and I´m so glad I got to have a trainer like her.
On Tuesday, Hna. Monks (Hna. Black´s new comp) came to my area to do splits for the day. Her Spanish is so good, she´s super nice, and I love how she teaches; it was a great day. (Btw Randalls, she´s from Meridian, ID!). Thursday, we contacted the coolest lady every in our huge residential area (I was wrong, there are actually about 400 apartment buildings there). Her name is Carol Perez, and she´s a broadcast journalist, just like what I want to be! She´s trying to set me up with her 19-year-old minor league baseball player son who´s living in Arizona right now haha not going to happen, but she came to church yesterday! And she straight-up asked for a Book of Mormon!! Miracle, I´m so excited to teach her:) Maribel came to church, too, but not her daughters; the difference in progression of Maribel and the girls is pretty big right now, so I think they´ll be baptized separately.
The Dominican Republic is a very religious country, and there are a lot of missionaries from other churches who preach here, especially Jehovah´s Witnesses. Their chapel is right by ours, too, so people usually think that I´m a 23-year-old Testigo de Jehovah, and I´m like no, I´m a 19-year-old Mormona from Utah. Nearly everyone here has at least heard of Mormons, so that´s a start:) The ward is starting to work with us a little more, yay! I´d say that this has been a transfer of planting seeds; I´ve talked to a lot of people, but not a ton have really wanted to accept our message, but maybe they´ll listen to other missionaries who come along in the future. I´m hoping we´ll get some really solid investigators this next transfer! Coming to Los Angeles has been such a huge change, but with being in charge of the area and receiving my new companion, my world is about to take a 180 turn. But you know what? It´s going to be okay. President Thomas S. Monson said:
"The Redeemer chose imperfect men to teach the way to perfection. He did so then, and he does so now."
Those words have brought me a lot of comfort this week. God is watching over us, and He can see a lot of things we can't. We can find peace knowing that it'll be alright, and I'm going to have faith in that. Know that I love you guys! Keep it up this week!
Love,
Hermana Melissa Randall
Transfer calls came!! I´m going to be staying in Los Angeles, and my new companion will be Hermana De Leon (literally translates to ¨of lion¨) from Mexico. And guess what? Hna. Black is only moving 15 minutes away to the other Sisters' house in the zone to be comps with our Hermana Leader! AND Hna. Flake, my MTC companion, is coming to that house, too! So I´ll get to be with them every single Monday and have daily morning devotionals with my best mission friends!! I can´t believe it, I´m so happy:) I´ve been very blessed to have 4 obedient companions so far, and I don´t take that for granted. Also, I´m feeling very grateful for my mission mom, Hna. Dibble, who is going home this week; she is so amazing, and I´m so glad I got to have a trainer like her.
On Tuesday, Hna. Monks (Hna. Black´s new comp) came to my area to do splits for the day. Her Spanish is so good, she´s super nice, and I love how she teaches; it was a great day. (Btw Randalls, she´s from Meridian, ID!). Thursday, we contacted the coolest lady every in our huge residential area (I was wrong, there are actually about 400 apartment buildings there). Her name is Carol Perez, and she´s a broadcast journalist, just like what I want to be! She´s trying to set me up with her 19-year-old minor league baseball player son who´s living in Arizona right now haha not going to happen, but she came to church yesterday! And she straight-up asked for a Book of Mormon!! Miracle, I´m so excited to teach her:) Maribel came to church, too, but not her daughters; the difference in progression of Maribel and the girls is pretty big right now, so I think they´ll be baptized separately.
The Dominican Republic is a very religious country, and there are a lot of missionaries from other churches who preach here, especially Jehovah´s Witnesses. Their chapel is right by ours, too, so people usually think that I´m a 23-year-old Testigo de Jehovah, and I´m like no, I´m a 19-year-old Mormona from Utah. Nearly everyone here has at least heard of Mormons, so that´s a start:) The ward is starting to work with us a little more, yay! I´d say that this has been a transfer of planting seeds; I´ve talked to a lot of people, but not a ton have really wanted to accept our message, but maybe they´ll listen to other missionaries who come along in the future. I´m hoping we´ll get some really solid investigators this next transfer! Coming to Los Angeles has been such a huge change, but with being in charge of the area and receiving my new companion, my world is about to take a 180 turn. But you know what? It´s going to be okay. President Thomas S. Monson said:
"The Redeemer chose imperfect men to teach the way to perfection. He did so then, and he does so now."
Those words have brought me a lot of comfort this week. God is watching over us, and He can see a lot of things we can't. We can find peace knowing that it'll be alright, and I'm going to have faith in that. Know that I love you guys! Keep it up this week!
Love,
Hermana Melissa Randall
Splits with my Hermana Leader, Hna. Monks
Our reactivations, la familia Vargas!
Trying to teach my comp how to make a cool face
I just love Hermana Black so darn much!!!