Blanca could never be whiter

Dear Family,

BAPTISM!!! YAY!!!! Like I said, Blanca could never be whiter- clean from EVERY error or stain she has ever had in her life. CLEAN. 

I think my memorycard has a virus or something because even though I can see the pictures in my camera they don't show up on the computer. DAD?!?!

Anywho, you will have to imagine the baptism without pictures.

It was a powerful baptism. Blanca's son Victor is an investigador in another ward and doesn't want to be baptized. But when he gave his talk about baptism, you could tell that he knew that it is necessary that he gets baptized. We will have to see when he takes a step of faith and hopefully it's soon! After, her daughter in law gave a talk about faith and WOW. For being a convert of four or five months, she has a strong testimony and she doesn't lie. But although the talks were powerful that isn0t what I am trying to get at. Blanca felt the spirit so strong that she began to cry. She doesn't cry. Hardly ever. I had the wonderful blessing to lead the hymns and see her face and see that she really knew what she was doing and that she had found and FOLLOWED the truth of God.  

Even though her water was FREEZING and she had to wear a suit instead of a dress, it was clear that she felt the power of Heaven confirming and rejoicing in her decision to be baptized. 

As for Evelyn y Renata, they are doing really well. They understand everything we teach them and they are preparing with all their strength for their baptism. Evelyn is ready to be baptized any time now, but Renata wants her parents to be present at her baptism, but with difficulties that their family is passing for right now her parents probably wont be able to return home until March at the soonest. Outward forces are creating problems for their family and the two of them live with their Gma Mercedes. We are going to keep preparing the both of them with prayer and fasting and we have high hopes that all will turn out well for the Villafuerte sisters :)

I wanted to share with you something that my mission president, President Mejorada taught me this week in our conference with him this past week.  Sometimes we find ourselves with the question in ourselves if we have faith like Nefi or cualquier prophet in the scriptures or of our times. Well, I am going to tell you  what Pres. Mejorada said,

"If you have to ask yourself if you have faith like Nefi YOU DON'T. If you have faith like Nefi you don't have to ask yourself, you simply know you have to act according to the faith you have."

If you want faith like Nefi, don't ask yourself if you have it- WORK FOR IT. Faith without action is dead. 

I hope your week is SUPER FANTÁSTICO,

Hermana Beardall

U N O.

Dear Family,

This week has been amazingly crazy! Let me tell you a little about it.

E. Y R.: We started teaching them this week and WOW I can't believe the ways the Lord is preparing his children to hear the gospel. They prayed to know that Joseph Smith is a prophet and all that we are teaching is true. They said they couldn't express their feelings perfectly but that they had felt a little tap of the heart confirming again that what we taught is true. They will be baptized Feburary 14th yay!

B.: here comes the week of trials. Just like with her grandaughter K., we are heading into the week of trials. We have already started with one BIG HUNKIN PROBLEM. The baptism was all planned and everything and then our bishop tells us that we are going to have stake conference the same day as B's baptism. This caused problems because her son who is a member is coming from far away to baptize her can only come Saturday. The bishop said that we are NOT going to postpone her baptism one week more and now (after many phone calls and lots of thinking) are going to have her baptism in the morning on Saturday. I hope all goes well! Promised photos and story coming next week.

Hermana Leonora gave us a reference to visit her daughter. They have had some rough spots in their relationship and she hasn't seen her daughter in over a year. We went to visit G and she asked us all confused who sent us.  Luckily we brought with us a member who lived close to Hna Leonora and knew G when she was little. She helped saved the day (because Leonora doesn't want her to know that she sent us... :) She accepted to hear our message and we put an appointment to return this week. We'll see how it goes!

We went to San Miguel de Allende (again) to help our fellow companions. It was good to see some familiar faces and to talk to a few members. They are pretty impressed that I can finally speak spanish :)

I honestly can't believe that I almost have one year as a missionary. To tell you the honest truth, this has been the hardest but most rewarding year of my life. I can't think of anything more to say but I know that the church is true.

Living the gospel brings happiness into your life that fills your spirit. There is no need to go back to our Heavenly Home hungry when we have the gospel to fill us. To be honest, there are days when I lay my head on my pillow at night and while I reflect on my day I feel like I have eaten way to much (spiritual food) but the magic of it all is that my stomach doesn't hurt :) The magical thing is that I could keep on eating. A year full of days like this eating like I do (we are still talking about sprititual food) I should be extremely fat, but the magic of it all is that it only makes our spiritual light shine bigger and  brighter. 

The mission really is magical.

I hope that you can take this opportunity of a new year to reflect on your obedience to the gospel. I hope you haven't decided to go on a spiritual diet but that you live a thanksgiving feast every day, that you feast upon the words of Christ. I hope that you can sleep at night feeling full but the capacity to keep on eating. 

THERE IS NO NEED TO GO BACK TO OUR HEAVENLY HOME HUNGRY.

Eat and be full,

Hermana Beardall

your proud and happy full-time missionary

MIRACLES.

Dear Family,

This week we saw a miracle. We are working really hard these weeks so that we can have baptisms in Februrary. For a long while we were struggling to find new people and helping those we had progress. 

But God gives his servants miracles.

On Sunday, we recieved the same reference of a family THREE TIMES. This week we went to visit them and seriously they are golden. E and R are sisters and came in contact with the church through E's boyfriend. They have gone to church and love it and practically asked us when they could be baptized. We haven't even taught them yet and they are already progressing a TON!!!!! Tonight, after I finish writing we are going to teach them. 

I have been pretty sick with a horrible head cold all week. I wanted to stay home one day I felt so horrible but with a lot of prayer and help and excitement of my companion I was able to have the energy to work that day. 

On Sunday, I lost my voice and was asked to give a talk on missionary work. 

God gives his servants miracles. 

I feel better and was able to express what I wanted to say in my talk and all turned out well. 

God is a God of miracles.

Headin' out to the white field,

Hermana Beardall

Theme 2015: Embark in the Service of God

Dear Family,

I am sorry but this week I can't send pictures. For some reason the computer doesn't read my memory card.

With these festive holidays it has been really hard to teach people. But in a week full of trials, God didn't leave us without His miracles. Normally we struggle immensely to have lessons with members but this week we had almost triple lessons with members than we did without. I gained a stronger testimony of the importance of the members in missionary work.

I hope you all know that you have a major responsibility as a member of the true restored church of Jesus Christ in the work of God- Missionary work. When Jesus Christ established his church, he gave his apostles his authority to PREACH the gospel. All of His ministry was pure missionary work, helping all of his brothers and sisters have the pure word of God. The last thing he invited his apostles to do was to feed his sheep, or in other words to preach the gospel, to be a missionary. It is the same for us, all of us have the same responsibility to be a witness of Christ and spread His word to all those who don't have the blessing to know His restored gospel.

I invite you to reflect on your year of 2014 and how you feel about sharing the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. This might sound harsh to those who are failing to share their testimony, but here is the truth- be humble, repent, and share the gospel.

In this almost year I have serving full time, teaching full time I have never found more joy more satisfaction in this life. Service is what brings pure joy to the servants of the Lord.

Open your mouth and share your testimony. I don't care if you live in Utah and all of your neighbors are members- look for those who need the gospel just as much as you do. 

This is your year. This is your time to be a missionary. Your testimony, no matter the size, is POWERFUL. The simple thoughts of your heart are sufficient to help people recieve endless blessings from our Heavenly Father. 

I am praying for my missionaries at home- family, friends, acquaintances, etc.

Now is the time to embark in the service of God.

With lots of love,

Hermana Beardall