Monday, August 25, 2014

I'm So Happy!

 Me and Sister Nelson after the Member and Missionary fireside last night. We look a little washed out. But Dad will be so happy. You can't tell in this photo but I got a haircut. 
Windows from a little Mexican shop around the corner from our apartment.

Dear Family,

I am just so happy. I feel so blessed to be a missionary. I LOVE it! Sister Nelson is wonderful. I love being with her. She is a great missionary and I feel like we're really helping each other to reach our potential. We are working so hard! 

I love being a STL. I'm exhausted. But it's the best kind of exhausted. I love each one of our sisters and I feel very humbled to be able to help them in any way I can. 

Do you remember me telling you about Brandon last week? He's the kid we met in our last ten minutes? We taught him the Restoration last week and at the end we asked him if he had any questions. He said he wanted to be sure he understood it so he started teaching it back to us. It was so awesome. He's such a good kid. He loved church on Sunday! Keep him in your prayers, please. He's so great. We didn't meet with Gina this week. Pray for her too. She's been really busy lately but hopefully we'll be able to meet with her this coming week. I feel like I pour my heart out to Heavenly Father every evening for Gina. I know that everything will work out according to God's will. She's so good at identifying the Holy Ghost and she just loved everything we taught her. This trial will just make her stronger. Me too.

 I am so grateful for prayer. I know Heavenly Father hears us. He loves us and wants us to pray. The other night I decided to just say a prayer of gratitude. I went through every family member, Sister Nelson, President and Sister Choi, each one of my sisters, and my investigators and expressed how grateful I was for them and things I've learned from them. Wow. It was a neat experience. I'm convinced I'm one of the most blessed people to have ever lived. I have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ in my life and I get to be out here in Seattle sharing my testimony with others everyday. There is nothing better.

I love this gospel. I love the Book of Mormon. Read it. Everyday. So many blessings come from daily study. (I just finished reading PMG Ch. 2--Effective Study. So good! You all should read it.) Studying the gospel is so important. It is a commandment from God. And with every commandment He gives us there are so many blessings He gives us for keeping it. (Mosiah 2:24). I know that obedience really does bring blessings. I love being a missionary! I can't say it enough. I love you all so much.

Love,
Sister Veronica White

Monday, August 18, 2014

What a Week!

Hello family!

 I don't even know where to begin to tell you about all of the miracles we've seen this week. I can't even remember them all. Ah, where to start?

I absolutely love Sister Nelson. She is a great missionary. Really enthusiastic about the work and about being a Sister Training Leader. She is so cute and so much fun. I'm so excited to be her companion. This transfer is going to be incredible. We worked so hard this week. Harder than either of us have ever worked before. Every night come 10:30 we just fall into our beds, completely exhausted. But it's a good kind of exhausted. We are serving five companionships again this transfer but two sets are in the Seattle North zone and one set is in the Bellevue zone, so that'll be fun. We're trying to be really organized and top of things, which we all know I love! haha. 

On Wednesday we had a really good Zone Conference where we talked about how we need to be inviting EVERYONE to be baptized. I'm good at talking with everyone I see but I realized I could be a lot better at making our conversations effective and inviting them to be baptized. So ever since Thursday we've been talking to everyone about baptism. It's been so incredible to see the results. God has just poured down blessings on us! Let me tell you about just a few. 

We are teaching Melissa now. She has three boys--6, 8, 13. She is very sincere. We had a good church tour with her too. We have a family to teach! I'm so happy. Her boys were kind of in and out the first lesson but she's on date for the thirteenth of September for baptism and hopefully we can help her boys have that goal too. Please keep her in your prayers. She just lost her job and she's going through a rough time.

We finally saw Gina again! Her family and close friend had said some really negative things to her about the church and she got nervous because she felt like she couldn't really defend her new faith. She didn't know what to say. The last couple weeks have been really hard for her and we were able to help her identify that the last time she remembers being really happy and at peace was her church tour and her last lesson with us where Bishop's wife came with us. Gina loves the Book of Mormon, but had stopped studying it. It was a good reminder to me about the importance of reading the Book of Mormon everyday. It's what gives us the strength to face everyday and to be happy. Gina got a promotion at work so she'll now be working every other weekend. That's too bad... But she wants to start having lessons again. We watched "Lord, I Believe" with her by Elder Holland. It was so powerful and perfect for her. Watch that talk. So good! All of our prayers and fasting on her behalf are working. Keep praying, please. I love her so much! 

And the last miracle I want to share. We were driving home and it was 8:50 when we got there. We had ten more minutes so we decided to walk out to the street and street contact. On our way out of the parking lot we met Brandon. He told us he had been walking around for no reason. He just felt like he should go walk outside. We were able to testify of the Book of Mormon and he wants to get baptized on the thirteenth. We're meeting with him tomorrow. His family previously had talked to missionaries before but they weren't interested anymore. But he is. Wow! Such a miracle! It would have been so easy for us to go inside a few minutes early that night. We were so tired and had already worked so hard and seen a lot of blessings. But we knew if we were obedient, the Lord would bless us. And He did. And now Brandon has the opportunity to accept the restored gospel of Jesus Christ in his life. 

Miracles are real! The Atonement is real. We can be healed through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Our burdens can be lifted. We are never alone. I know this is true. God is aware of every singe one of us and He loves us. I love serving Him everyday. I know that the gospel is for everyone. Pray everyday. Read your scriptures. Look for opportunities to serve. Go to the temple. We are all commanded to help in the hastening of the work of salvation. The church is true! CTR! I love you!

Love,
Sister Veronica White

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Another Transfer!

Hello family! 

Hope you're doing well. I feel like I have so much to tell you. I'll start with my sickness. I went to the doctor last week and he said it's probably bronchitis. But they put me on an antibiotic. I still felt pretty sick most of last week but today I'm feeling good. 

Sister Dobbins and I gave a training for our Zone in Zone Meeting this last week. It's cool to see how much I've grown. The first time I ever gave training I was terrified but I'm building more confidence which is a good thing. I know that it's because Heavenly Father is helping me. He's helped me so much on my mission but especially I've felt it the last few transfers as a STL. He's always helped me but I think I feel it more lately because my relationship with Heavenly Father is getting better and better. I still have so much work and I want to make it stronger but I love Heavenly Father so much. I KNOW that He is aware of us, our needs, our trials, our strengths and weaknesses. He loves us. (Alma 26:37) It was kinda embarrassing, though. During our training I had a cough attack and it sounded like I was dying. I finally got control but then it would just keep coming back. Yeah, gross. 

This week had some sadness. I was so sad to send Sister Dobbins off. I really love her. She is such a good friend and I learned so much from her. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father let us serve together. The other sad thing. Please pray for Gina. Our Zone theme I guess you could say this transfer is to pray unceasingly. I've been doing that for Gina. Two Sundays she wasn't able to come to church because of a wedding. Then we completely lost contact for a few days. We left her a sticky note (Miracle! She lives in a locked complex but we got in) and then that night she called us. She sounded like she was about to cry. She thanked us for the fellowship but said she wasn't expecting this to be so life-changing. The no coffee thing threw her. She also mentioned some things that peers had said that caused some questions. Basically she's receiving a LOT of opposition from her friends and Satan is really working on her. Stupid Satan. I've been praying and fasting for her. I've prayed so much. I trust Heavenly Father and  I believe that she will be able to come out of this with an even stronger testimony if she can overcome this trial and the temptations of Satan. She said that she would continue to read and pray she just needed some time to think. We haven't had contact with her since then, though. So please, please keep her in your prayers.

Thanks for all your prayers. Keep praying for Hector and Blanca. Hector has been to four or five baptisms now. He just can't get to church. But after the summer his work is supposed to slow down. He listens to the Book of Mormon now on his phone and he loves it.
Yesterday I got to spend the day with the hermanas after I dropped off Sister Dobbins. It was so fun. I love them so much. I'm so grateful for the people I've met on my mission.

I am so unbelievably excited for this upcoming transfer. I'm with Sister Nelson. She's absolutely adorable. She's from Utah. She was just called as a STL. I'm grateful we'll be together. I've wanted to be her comp since Shoreline. I don't really know her that well but I am so happy to be with her. I think we're going to get along great. The Lord is really blessing us and our area. I am so happy to be a missionary. I love this gospel so much. I love the Lord! We are all asked to help in hastening the work of salvation. Be a good example, go to the temple, read your scriptures, pray, smile! I love you all. CTR~

Sister Veronica White

Monday, August 4, 2014

Sickness is No Fun!

Hello family!

Hope you're doing well. This week was pretty good. Sister Dobbins and I were both sick most of the week. In fact I'm still pretty sick. But at least we're out working now. We were inside for the majority of the week which is no fun. I've actually learned a lot this week though. I've been very humbled and I'm learning how to grow when I mess up and don't do things as well as I should. It can be a hard lesson to learn, but I'm so grateful for church each week. That we get to go and partake of the Sacrament and repent. I am so grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ and all that He's done for us. I love Him so much. 

We had a lot of miracles this weekend. Hector came to a baptism Saturday and Sunday night and then he came to the fireside that the stake was putting on. It was so wonderful about learning the language of the Holy Ghost. It was good to see Hector, too because it's been a long time. He's been working so much but he downloaded the Gospel Library app on his phone yesterday and he was really excited about that. I had the most people I've ever had at church yesterday. We had some LA families that we've been working with and lots of gators. We got a new gator too who is now living with a member and wants to learn more. We taught Gina the Word of Wisdom this last weekend. It is going to be very difficult for her to give up coffee but she is determined to do it. Please pray for her, though. She loves coffee and works at a bakery where she is surrounded by it all the time. So keep her in your prayers. And Marzaila (our new gator). 

Thank you for all your prayers. I really do feel them. I love you all so much and miss you. This gospel is true. The Book of Mormon is AMAZING! Read it everyday. It brings us the peace and spiritual strength we need in our life. Love you! 

Love,
Sister Veronica White