I Turn 20 This Week! WHAT?!?

These are scary brownies from elders. But the face they created cracks me up.

Hello family,

So at the end of this week I will turn twenty. This really freaks me out. Basically I'm having an early life crisis. I just can't believe that I'm that old. Plus when I came on my mission I was barely nineteen. And so the fact that I'm turning twenty means that I've almost been out for an entire year. And that makes me want to cry. But all is well. Sister Dobbins will help me get over this early life crisis. No need to worry. 

Thanks so much Dad for the birthday package. That was so sweet. Made my day! This week was another incredible week full of so many miracles. I feel like right now I'm the best I've ever been on my mission. Of course there's still a ton to improve on and so much more to learn but I feel like through the Atonement I'm slowly getting there and I'm becoming a better person. I'm so grateful for my mission. It has seriously changed my life. More than words can even express. I LOVE being a missionary. 

Anyway, on to some of the miracles. Blanca! She's a former investigator that we felt like we should go visit. We got there and she was so sweet. We watched the Because of Him video (probably my favorite thing of all time!) and she loved it. We started discussing the things that are possible in our lives Because of Him. The Spirit was really strong and then we found out that she's been reading the Book of Mormon on her own. She pulled up lds.org and showed us how she's in 2 Nephi. We're going to have a church tour later this week. She's so awesome. Keep her in your prayers, though. She has a lot of family opposition. 

Do you remember Hector? He's amazing. We had two lessons with him this week. He could not be more prepared for the gospel. At the beginning of the week we taught him the Restoration and he had already read the introduction, testimonies and four chapters of 1 Nephi. But he hadn't just read them. He had studied them and had amazing questions. He's so smart and he was teaching us about the angel Moroni visiting Joseph Smith. It was the coolest! Then later this week we watched the movie about Joseph Smith with him and he loved it. He thinks that Joseph Smith is a prophet and wants to learn more. I've never taught someone with so much real desire to learn. He's amazing. Pray for him, too, though. He works every Sunday so he wasn't able to come to church. He's praying to get Sundays off. Will you pray for him too? 

We had a wonderful Zone Conference. I really love President and Sister Choi so much. We talked a lot about obedience and love. Obedience is so important. All Heavenly Father wants us to do is be obedient so He can bless us. He loves us so much and wants us to be happy. When we are obedient we can be truly happy! It's just so simple but for some reason we always like to complicate things. 

Sister Dobbins is so great! I love her so much. I love being her companion. We have so much fun together and just work so well together. She is an answer to prayers. I LOVE her! She was sick throughout this week so we went on a few mini exchanges and I got to be with Sister Nudd too. I think I've mentioned a little about her. She is a convert of two years. She is also so amazing I just always feel like I learn so much when I'm around her. I love being a missionary. I love life! I love this gospel with all of my heart! I know that we have a Father in Heaven who loves us and a Savior who atoned for us and who redeemed us. This gospel is true. This gospel is happiness. I love you all so much! I can't wait to talk to you next week. Love you! CTR!

Love,
Sister Veronica White

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

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

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

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

Last Week of Transfer 7 . . . What?!

Hello family!

So this is the last week of my seventh transfer. I just really can't believe it. I love it though. I love serving as a missionary! 

Sister Salabao was sick this week.. poor sister. So there were a few days where we didn't get to work the whole day. But we still worked hard and saw miracles and luckily she's feeling better now. I guess the one positive of having to stay in is that our oven is sparkling clean. I scrubbed it like it's never been scrubbed. Our entire kitchen is quite lovely right now. I would've rather been out talking to people but since that wasn't an option I did the next best thing. After all, cleanliness is next to godliness. haha. 

This is such a great ward, though. Sweet Brother and Sister Walker.. they really are some of my favorite people in the world. I read Elder Holland's talk about angels this week. No doubt in my mind... Brother and Sister Walker are angels. They are just such great examples to me. I'm so grateful for the people that Heavenly Father places in our lives. There really is something to learn from everyone. Whether it be something from them or something about yourself because of your interactions with them. We just need to take every experience in our lives and use it to make us better. 

We got to go to the Womens Broadcast. Wow. That was so wonderful! I love getting to listen to the words of our leaders. I seriously cannot wait for General Conference. It'll be wonderful. We have this next week to prepare ourselves. Let's all pray that we'll be humble and teachable so we can learn the things we need to from our prophets. Ah, I'M JUST SO EXCITED! 

This week we saw some great miracles. Do you remember me talking about T and Midoni from last week? They were the boys that we talked to on the street. We went by their house this week and met their mother, Nyabuony. They are from South Sudan. She speaks pretty good English and she was so sweet. We didn't get to talk to her for very long. We were in the middle of the First Vision when she told us she had to get ready for work. We were about to extend the baptismal commitment. haha. But all is well, we have a return appointment for later this week. And get this, she has eight kids! We're hoping that we can teach the whole family. They already attend a church, but hopefully we can bring the restored gospel into their lives. 

Another miracle! Jackson. I can't remember if I told you about him or not. We met him weeks ago in the last two minutes of our tracting time. It had just started snowing and we had finished the street we were on but we had two minutes so we decided to try one more house. We walked up to a house and then felt like we needed to try the house that was across the street. So we went over there and met Jackson. He didn't really have time but we left him a pamphlet and said a prayer with him and set up a return appointment. Well we had been trying for weeks to get ahold of him but we could never catch him again. While we were on exchanges Sister Salabao and Sister Bruening finally caught him again and put him on date for baptism. This last week we had the Restoration lesson with him. He is so prepared! He's amazing. Just so open and honest and really seeking for more truth and understanding in his life. He had read the Introduction, Testimonies, and 1 Nephi 1 and had questions. I don't think I've ever had an investigator actually keep their commitments from the first lesson. It's just such a miracle. Anyway, keep him in your prayers. He has some challenges but he's so ready for the blessings of the gospel. We may have to refer him over to the YSA though since he's in his twenties. That would be sad, but whatever happens will be good. Heavenly Father knows and loves Jackson. 

Heavenly Father knows and loves us all. And we can feel that love as we watch General Conference this weekend! So blessed. I know that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet of God. The gospel has been restored. Heavenly Father wants us to be happy and we're happy as we keep our covenants and CTR! I love you all so much!
Love,

Sister Veronica White

So Many Miracles

Hello family! 

This week was so wonderful. We saw a lot of miracles and I'm just so happy. So happy to be here serving as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. So happy to be here in Seattle in the Carkeek Park ward. So happy to serve with my companion, Sister Salabao and to serve alongside so many other incredible missionaries. So happy to feel the Spirit in my life every single day. So happy to work with individuals and share the gospel of Jesus Christ--a message of hope and peace and joy and love. Ah, I am just SO HAPPY! 

We had a good lesson with Andrea this last week and she said that she knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet. We had great fellowship and it just felt so good. One of those lessons that is a confirmation that I am where I should be and that I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. 

I had the opportunity to go on Exchanges this last week. I went with Sister Eaton to her area. She's a Russian speaking missionary so it was lots of fun. They cover the whole mission--well actually they cover a few missions. She is amazing though. I'm grateful for her example and she was just such a blessing to me this last week. She said some things that I know Heavenly Father needed me to hear. We talked about patience. I'm pretty good at having patience for other people but for sure one of my weaknesses is that I'm not patient with myself. Sometimes I expect this level of perfection out of myself that isn't possible to reach and it's actually a way that I let Satan get to me because then I feel down about myself, etc. Anyway, I've been working on that since and I've been studying patience and the Atonement and I'm just so grateful for this gospel. So grateful for the scriptures and the words of prophets and many other wonderful church resources that we have to study the gospel and to set goals and become better as we rely on the grace and Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ to become better individuals. We can't be perfect but we can be faithful. And that is what God has asked of us. I've just felt this huge relief as I've really made a conscious effort to be better and to be more patient with myself. 

We also had some great miracles with inactive members. A lot of the time when we go through the ward list and find names to try the people are fairly rude and it's just heartbreaking to see how hard their heart is. But two different individuals were nice to us and invited us back. Yay for kindness! 

Last night was so amazing. Each month there is a New Member Fireside that President Choi puts on. I've never had the opportunity to go because you have to have a new member to take with you or an investigator and we've never been able to find someone who could come. But last night we were able to attend with Bill and Kazuyo and their family. They're so sweet. They're very active in their own faith and have not really been super interested but they were curious to come to the fireside. It was incredible. It was one of the most spiritual meetings I've ever been to. Fifteen different new members bore their testimonies. Hearing them share their conversion experiences was amazing... how they've completely turned their lives around and turned to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I can't even express how sweet it was. It just filled me with so much hope and an even greater determination to talk with everyone that I see and to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. Sometimes it can be difficult when you meet people who try to tell you that you have no idea what you're talking about because it was just something that you were born into and that's the only reason you believe it. Or when they try to tell you that Joseph Smith was a con man and they refuse to believe anything else. Or they refuse to even look at the Book of Mormon. But all of those difficult times are worth it when you meet someone who is willing to listen to your message and really in need of it. 

Oh, one last miracle. We were doing our Sacred Finding Time and had a goal of handing out fifty pass along cards. We didn't quite make it but it really pushed us and it had already been a wonderful night. We were walking back to where our car was parked so we could head to our 7 o'clock plans. As we were walking we see these two teenage boys coming down the hill on a side street. They were a little ways off but as we were walking past that street I told Sister Salabao that we needed to talk to them. We headed in their direction and started visiting for just a minute. One was fifteen and the other was twelve. They were these really sweet African boys that just needed to be told that God loves them. We said a prayer with them and then we asked if we could come share a message with their family. They gave us their address. It was just a really simple, sweet spiritual experience that reconfirmed to me that Heavenly Father is aware of all of His children and that He loves us all so much. Keep them in your prayers and especially that their parents will be open .We've really been praying to find a family. Their names are T and Midio.
Well, I know that this gospel is true. I believe it with all my heart. I know that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can be healed. I know that Heavenly Father loves us. I love you all so much! Read your scriptures and CTR and get excited for General Conference! 

Love,

Sister Veronica White