Monday, April 28, 2014

Miracles!

Hermana Boley and me.

Well this week was incredible! We saw so many miracles. Oh my goodness. I don't even know where to begin. 

Basically as a sister training leader I feel like I'm going on exchanges all the time! But this week I was able to go on exchanges with Hermana Boley. She is just the sweetest. We had so much fun. Exchanges are always really fun, just so exhausting. I'm tired all the time. But first let me tell you about a miracle we had while on exchanges. We were trying to visit a less active member of our ward but she wasn't home so we decided that we would tract the rest of the building while we were there. So we start and it's just kind of regular tracting. Well the very last door that we knock on we meet a girl named Alicia. She opens the door and tells us that she's Catholic and she just really does not want to talk to us. She's getting ready to close the door but we said something that stopped her. 

Honestly I don't even remember what we said. But she started making small talk with us. I come to find out that she's the sister of someone who is marrying a Samoan member's daughter. The Samoan member is named Pepe. Her daughter is not married but had two kids with this guy. She was not living a good lifestyle at all. When I was serving in Samoa we would occasionally stop by and visit Pepe and help her to stay hopeful and positive since it was so hard to be the only member in her immediate family. Well her daughter and boyfriend are getting married! And the boyfriend is Alicia's brother. (I hope that story made sense... sorry) Basically though, because we were able to make that connection Alicia opened up to us more. She thought it was really cool that I had served in the Samoan ward and knew them. Because we had that connection she opened up to us and talked about how when she was younger she had gone to a few mutual activities and that she was actually curious to "look more into the Mormon church." She even accepted the baptismal commitment if she found out these things were true. It was amazing how much her heart softened. And it amazed me because six or seven months ago I was with Sister Smalley and we both realized that we didn't know much about Pepe and we felt like we should visit her. Six months ago Heavenly Father was preparing the way for Alicia to be more open. It really strengthened my testimony of how aware Heavenly Father is of His children. He knows all of us so perfectly and loves us so much. I hope that story made sense. I'm sorry if it's confusing. 

Sister Dobbins and I went to Mission Leadership Council this week and President Choi is just amazing. It was really good. And then we had Zone Meeting this week and Sister Dobbins and I had the opportunity to participate in the training of our zone. I was kind of nervous about it but it actually went really well and the Spirit definitely guided us for what we needed to prepare and train on. It was perfect for our zone. We talked about love and obedience. How we should be obedient out of our love for our Father in Heaven. That is why the Savior performed the Atonement... love for us, but also love for our Father. He knew that this was the only way for us to be able to return to live with Them someday and Christ knew how important it was to Heavenly Father that all His children have the opportunity to come back. If Christ hadn't been obedient we would all be lost. It made me think of how important it is that I be obedient. Who would benefit from my obedience. And who could maybe become lost as a lack of my obedience. Then we also talked about doing things with the right attitude. Laman and Lemuel were obedient in the beginning of the scriptures. They did the same things as Nephi. But they complained the whole time. It is so important for us to not murmur about being obedient or doing good. That way Heavenly Father can bless us even more. I love 1 Nephi 3:6. 

One last miracle. It was five minutes before our ward coordination meeting and we were getting out of the car to go inside and make copies of our progress record when we saw this man walking on the street in front of the church. We knew we had to talk to him. We invited him to come on a church tour for that Friday. We invite a lot of people to do this and a lot of people fall through. But Hector did not. He came that Friday and it was incredible. The Spirit was so strong. He is so prepared for the gospel. He is so excited to read the Book of Mormon. He is on date for baptism May 31! Heavenly Father blesses us when we work hard. I know this to be true. Mikal came to church this week! I love Sister Dobbins with all my heart! It was just such a good week and Heavenly Father is so aware and loves us. I love you all so much! Thanks for your support. You're in my prayers. CTR! 
Love,
Sister Veronica White

Monday, April 21, 2014

I Love Being a Missionary!


 So Sister Dobbins and I call ourselves the icky sisters. The one day we both wore make up and tried to look good we forgot to take a picture... So yeah. haha. 
I'd like to think the reason I look so hideous in this photo is because I only got three and a half hours of sleep. But I love Sister Nudd!

Hello familia!

This week was great. Lots of fun. I just love being a missionary so much. I absolutely love my comp, Sister Dobbins. She is so funny. We get along so great and we laugh all the time and in a lot of ways we have the same personality. She hates Alex Boye too.. so you know we have a solid foundation to build our friendship on. We're sad we have to go on so many exchanges. But all is well. I love the sisters I get to serve with too. 

So let me just share some highlight miracles of the week. Last Monday evening we met Donovan out street contacting. Then we were able to have a church tour with him later in the week. He's had a really rough life but he felt the Spirit and he has a desire to change his life. He's so sweet. He accepted the baptismal invitation but he'll be leaving to work on the boat up in Alaska at the end of this month and he'll be gone for three months. Lame! Another miracle.. I'm just really trying to get better this transfer about following the promptings of the Holy Ghost. We were visiting this potential investigator who wasn't home. But I felt there was a reason we were in that place.

So we decide to knock on a few doors and we met Cornell. He's awesome! And his last name is Whiten which makes me laugh. He's a Christian but he hasn't been to church in a while. He accepted the Book of Mormon and invited us to come back this next week. It was just a simple thing but it really strengthened my testimony of trusting in the Lord's timing and placement. Also, we met Sherry last night. Wow, She's amazing! We had been tracting for a while and no one was really interested. She was the last door we tried and there was loud rap music playing through the windows. Sister Dobbins was hesitant but I said we should just try it anyway. Sherry is the sweetest girl. She's almost 24 and she's so funny! She kept adding "gurl" to the end of every sentence when she'd address us. She's so prepared for the gospel though, it's crazy. She has good values and she understands that partying doesn't bring happiness, but that a personal relationship with the Lord is what will bring lasting happiness. She's looking for a church home. Ah, she was just so incredible! We didn't get a chance to talk for too long because she was cooking Easter dinner but she asked us if we would come back and she's going to invite her neighbor friend who really needs to get back into going to church. Such a miracle! I love how the Lord works, though. He tests our patience. She was the very last person we tried. After a long time of no success. But we knew that we couldn't get discouraged. We just had to keep moving forward and the Lord would bless us. And that's exactly what He did!

Wow, I feel like there's so much more to say, but I don't even know where to start. Just know that I KNOW that this is the work of the Lord. God loves all of His children so much and He is mindful of us. The Book of Mormon is powerful. Please read it everyday! There are so many blessings that Heavenly Father wants to bless us with but we have to be obedient and keep the commandments. As we do this we will be happier. I'm so grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ. I love Him. I know that He lives. I know that He was indeed resurrected. Because of Him we can all have the opportunity to have eternal life. To live in their presence forever! Wow! So much happiness! Mosiah 2:41. I love this Easter season. We can live again Because of Him. Which, by the way, if you have not watched the video the church put out called Because of Him, look it up! It's so, so good! Share it on facebook. I know that this gospel is true. I love being a missionary so much! I will forever be grateful for this opportunity. I love serving! I love you! CTR!
Love,
Sister Veronica White

Monday, April 14, 2014

I'm Back In Burien!

Well hello family!

 I hope you had a good week. This week was just lovely. So, so busy. Oh my goodness. Crazy. But so good. 

Okay, where to start. I love Burien. I'm back in the ghetto! Sister Dobbins, my companion, is hilarious. We get along so well. We have so much fun together and she's a really good missionary. She only has two transfers left after this one. This is the first time since I was being trained that I've had someone older than me in the mission as a companion. I love it, though. She really wants to work, too. This is just going to be such a good transfer. Tons of miracles. My goal this transfer is to be more bold. That is always something that I've struggled a little bit with. Naturally I'm just more reserved and shy so sometimes it scares me to be bold. But I'm going to do it! Overcome my fear. We've already seen tons of miracles in our work so far and I know we will continue to see miracles as we work hard and "fun with the Spirit." I'm so grateful that we get along so well because we are serving five companionships of sisters. And oh my goodness. It's a little bit crazy at times, let me tell you. We have to go on five exchanges this transfer. That is so many! That's why I'm grateful we click so well because if our companionship was struggling I think going on five exchanges would really take its toll. You know what's funny? Three of the ten sisters that I'm over I've been companions with. Sister Whetten, Sister Batton (MTC) and Sister Smalley (my daughter!). We went on exchanges this week with Myers Way--the Tongan sisters. I was with Sister Nudd in the Tongan ward. It was lots of fun. I LOVE Sister Nudd. She is amazing. She's been through so much and she's only been a member for two years. She has no family support. But she's so strong and so happy and I just love her to death. I'm so grateful for the people I meet and become friends with as a missionary. It's just swell. I am so tired! We are supposed to have daily contact with our sisters.. I literally never have any free time. But all is well. I'm so grateful to be here and to be with Sister Dobbins. This was probably one of the funnest weeks I've had on my mission so far. I am just so happy! 

Yesterday I got to see a lot of my Samoans in passing at the church. Oh my goodness. It made me so happy giving them all hugs. And the best part was that they all seemed so happy too. They were so excited to see me and some of them got so excited because they thought I was back. It was nice to know that they loved me. Because I LOVE them. 

We are working with an amazing investigator named Mikal. He LOVES the Book of Mormon. He's read through 1 and 2 Nephi three times already. He's so sincere. Pray for him, though. He has some concerns with women and the priesthood, etc. and all this stuff that's been on the news lately. He's a bit of a feminist... And he doesn't think that we had genders before, etc. But he's so awesome.
Last night our stake had an Interfaith Easter Celebration. Oh my. It was so great! There was this black church preacher and choir and there were a lot of "Amens" and "Halleluiahs" and clapping. Then there were speakers from our church and musical numbers from our church that were a lot more reverent. haha. I wish you all could have been there. It was so funny. You would have enjoyed it. It was very entertaining. It felt like I was at a concert, though. It didn't speak to my heart. It was actually really good to be able to contrast the difference between the two and realize that the Holy Ghost is a still and quiet voice and can only speak to us as we listen.

Well I feel like there's so much more to say but I don't have any time left. I love you all! CTR! The church is true!
Love,
Sister Veronica White

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

April 8, 2014

Hello my dear family!

Oh, how I love you! I was thinking about you this weekend as I watched conference. All I have to say about conference is... wow! I am so grateful to be a member of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ where we have leaders that speak to us every six months and tell us exactly what God wants us to hear. There were some really powerful talks given. I loved them all. Elder Uchtdorf's talk about gratitude was really great. It's a good reminder. We have so many reasons to be grateful. We need to count our blessings everyday. And just as he said let's make it a part of who we are. Have gratitude imprinted on our souls. President and Sister Choi asked all of the missionaries to pray and ponder and then listen to the General Conference and receive revelation about how we can be happier as missionaries. President Uchtdorf's talk really stood out to me. If we are grateful we will be happy. Despite difficult things that we may be facing if we recognize all the tender mercies in our lives and the gifts that God gives to us each day there's no way not to be happy. Also, I really felt that to be more happy I need to recognize the Lord's hand in my life each day. Recognize the miracles that He blesses us with. There are miracles everyday but if we don't open our eyes to see them and recognize them we will lose out on blessings. Also, I loved how so many people talked about LOVE. President Monson said something about how we can't love our neighbor without loving God and we can't love God without loving our neighbor. I really loved that. That's something that I've come to learn on my mission... LOVE! Missionary work isn't possible without love. I think life isn't possible without love. If we pray for the gift to be able to love I know that God blesses us with an added measure of the ability to love. I've seen it in my mission. 

My heart has grown so much. Sometimes I feel as though my heart would just burst because it is so full and yet, still I can add to it. When I left my Samoans I had so much love for them and I didn't know if I could love my new area as much as I loved them. Well Heavenly Father showed me that I can. I love the people of the Carkeek Park ward. My dear Bishop and his family, the Walkers, some of the investigators that we were working with. I just love them all so much. I love Sister Salabao. I learned so much from her. She helped me to grow and become a better missionary and I will forever be grateful for her. I love Seattle. I love this gospel. I love the missionaries that I get to serve with. I love the Book of Mormon. I love General Conference and getting to hear the words of prophets. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ, and my Heavenly Father more than words can express. I am so grateful that they love me as well. Even though I am so imperfect.. I make mistakes everyday, I struggle, and I am weak, they love me. And because of that love I can receive strength to go forth everyday and preach the gospel. 

So I'm on transfer eight. Wow. I am in shock. Sister Salabao and I were both transferred from Carkeek Park. They shut the sisters down in that area because of the new senior couple. I am here in Burien. Back in the Seattle Zone! I spent the first seven months of my mission in Burien. It's a wonderful area. There are so many people to talk to, so much work to be done. I really could not be more excited. I am with Sister Dobbins. She was Sister Salabao's trainer. I think we are going to get along great. I am so ready to go and work harder than I ever have before. I'm ready to find, teach, and baptize! I know that Heavenly Father has a plan and I'm excited for what is in store. I love this Seattle Zone! Also, I'm a sister training leader now. I'm a little nervous. I feel like I'm very inadequate for this. But really the truth is, I am. But through the Atonement of Jesus Christ I can receive strength. This is going to be a transfer of miracles. All is well!

Just in case you couldn't tell from this letter, I really LOVE being here in Seattle. I love this gospel with all of my heart. Time to go and share it with everyone out there. Love you all! CTR and you'll be happy!
Love,
Sister Veronica White