Elder Foster's Mission Tour

Hi Y'all!

This week was probably the fastest week on my mission. I swear I blinked and it was Monday again. I hope that means we were working hard! The highlight of it was Elder Foster of the 70 coming for a mission tour on Friday! We traveled down to Charleston on Thursday night with the Buckhannon Sisters and stayed with the South Hills Sisters and all the other Sisters in the Clarksburg and Morgantown Zones. It was such a fun night and we got to know each other better and just relax a little. 

 Slumber party in Charleston:)

Then in the morning we all went to the Charleston Stake Center for the meeting with Elder Foster. It was so full of insight and amazing ideas on how we can become better missionaries and work with the members to advance the mission. I also got to see Sister Condie and other Sisters I had left from the Charleston zone! I loved getting to hear how everyone in Teay's Valley is doing and a little update on the guy who proposed to me a while ago: He's on date to get baptized! Miracles do happen:) 

Mommy <3

We also figured out that Walmart is the place to be on Tuesday afternoons. We had to stop in a get Sister Van Tassell a watch during our lunch break and we saw EVERYONE. There were members and people we knew EVERYWHERE. Maybe that's where we should start looking for people to teach haha

Bull onesies! Walmart for only $5. The hit of the slumberparty #CompUnity

We just started teaching a young family yesterday and I love them already.Their names are Alexis and Brennen (not to be confused with my Sister and Brother-in-law Alex and Brennen) and have a super strong faith in Christ and read the Bible and pray together as a family every night. Brennen was engaged to a member of the church about 13 years ago and she'd introduced him to everything but at the time he didn't feel like it was for him. But he invited us to come back every week for the next couple months and try to sway him otherwise. He is very concerned with his families "souls" and wants to make sure he's doing what's right for them. He also said that if he finds out this is true he'll be the strongest Latter-day Saint ever. We have a big task ahead of us but I know that we just have to help him feel the Spirit and Heavenly Father will take care of the rest. "Angles are continuously preparing the hearts of men".  

I hope y'all have a great Thanksgiving and know that you're all in my prayers,

Sister de la Cruz

John Got Baptized!

Hey Ya'll!

John, the amazingly prepared guy Sister Condie and I taught in Teay's Valley, got baptized last week! I was really disappointed I couldn't attend the baptism because I'm too far away but it still went great and I'm so excited for him! 

Deer Jerky we got from a member we visited

This week our ward mission leader, Bro Richards, left for his mission in Pennsylvania! He'll be there for 3 months and then be reassigned somewhere else in the world. He is truly an example of how the gospel can change you as he was only baptized a little over a year ago. 

We also had a really interesting experience in a cemetery earlier this week. We went down a road that didn't have a place to turn around but there was a cemetery right next to it so we pulled in hoping to turn around on a space that was lined with straw and looked like cars usually parked on it. Well... it had been raining pretty hard and as soon as we pulled up onto it our tires sank into the straw and it turned out to be just a big mud pit. We tried to move but the tires were just spinning in the mud. Sister Van Tassell got out of the car to push and I hopped into the driver's seat. For like 5 minutes we struggled trying to get out of the mud until we remembered that we had 4-wheel drive.. That luckily got us out of it, hopefully not too many people saw us struggling. 

Sis V.T. and I matched again on accident

I love being out here and being a missionary! There are so many adventures I'll never forget and so many people I'll never forget. This gospel changes lives and I'm so glad I get to watch that happen!

Have a great week y'all! I love you!

Sister de la Cruz

Just some normal yard decor

Families Can Be Together Forever

Hi Y'all, 

This week I have learned so much. We had Zone Conference in Clarksburg on Thursday and then immediately after Sister Van Tassell and I went on Exchanges with Sister's Andersen and Wykstra. Sister Wyksta and I didn't get much teaching done but I learned more from this exchange than I ever thought possible. Sister Wyksta's mom passed away unexpectedly on Tuseday, two days before the exchange. We spent a lot of our time together talking with her dad on the phone and Skyping her family to make sure everything worked for when she Skyped in during the Funeral on Saturday. Through all of this I was amazed by the strength of Sister Wyksta and her entire family. Not once did she think about going home. Not once did she say anything negative. She knew that being out here on her mission is exactly where she needs to be. She told me that when she found out her mom had passed away she was studying and looked out the window and just saw all the people who didn't have the knowledge that families can be eternal and had the desire more than ever to share that with them. I am so glad I got the opportunity to be on this exchange with her because I got to see her family come together and talk about all the great memories they had with their mom. I got to see their strong testimonies as they talked about her being around them and how she is working hard in the Spirit World. There was sadness yes, but there was also faith and hope that they were all going to see her again soon. I got the opportunity to teach the lesson on the Plan of Salvation with them over Skype and the Spirit was the strongest I've felt it in a lesson as they shared what it all meant to them. I won't forget those 24 hours I spent with Sister Wykstra for a very, very, long time. 

 Grafton, WV where Mother's Day began (they also had a super creepy statue of "Mother"...)

So for the last couple weeks Sister Van Tassell and I have forgotten to put out our trash... and during the first week I was here we emptied the freezer of meat that had been in there for a really long time. We had put it in the garage and within a couple days realized that it smelt horrible so we set it outside our apartment. Two weeks goes by and it smells absolutely rancid. So we finally remembered to put out our trash last night and tried to lift the bag of rotting meat into another bag, trying not to breath in the toxic fumes. As Sister Van Tassell lifted the bag it ripped and maggots and rotten meat got all over her hands. I almost threw up everywhere. We had to push through and finally got the meat into another bag. We had an appointment immediately after that and quickly ran inside and tried to wash the smell from our hands. It sorta worked but for the rest of the night we had to coat our hands in hand sanitizer to keep them from smelling. 

On our way to district meeting in Buckhannon

The rest of the week went well and we had a good time. Elder Foster of the Seventy is going to be coming to our Mission in a couple weeks so we're going to have to make a trip down to Charleston to meet with him! That should be a great experience to look forward to. 

I hope y'all are doing great and that this next week is amazing!

I love you!

Sister de la Cruz 

Planning Sis Van Tassell's death (T-Minus 4 weeks)

We Moved!

Hey Y'all! 

This week definitely started off slow and seemed like no one was ever home or didn't want to talk to us. It was really frustrating and my patience was definitely tested. We kept pushing through and finally, on Sunday, we got our miracles! We visited a member who hasn't been to church for a very long time and by the end of our lesson she asked us to text her next Sunday to make sure she was up for church and she told us not to give up on her! I know the Lord was guiding us through that lesson because we didn't follow the plan we had made at all. Then we went and visited someone the missionaries met with only a couple times before and that we've been trying to contact but has never been home. We finally were able to see her and taught her fiancé too and they both are on date to be baptized now! They are so awesome and have such pure intentions! 

Ok so we have THE NICEST apartment in the entire mission. We have walk in closets, our own bathrooms, and it's so nice we're not allowed to wear shoes in it. We even have our own garage which is going to make this winter so great with our truck considering it has already started snowing:) But despite all this we are temporarily relocated into an old senior couple missionaries house because the heater broke! The temp quickly dropped to the 50's and the repair man said it wouldn't get fixed until later this week so we packed up and moved! This house is still pretty nice so I have no complaints:)

When you have to wear gloves and a hat to plan, it's time to move

Where we're now staying 

Also, something really funny about my companion is that she loves Mexicans haha. All of her friends back home were Mexicans and I think she might be more cultured than I am. Her greatest dream in
life is to become one. I promised her I'd take her to Mexico when I get off my mission lol. 

Fun times in the Rain!

Something else that I learned this week was that if we want something, we have to be willing to work for it. We can't just pray for something and then hope it's going to happen. We have to do all that we can ourselves and then Heavenly Father will step in and help us. I seemed to get that message in every passage of scripture that I read: Enos 1:12, Alma 32:43, WoM 1:18. I think Heavenly Father needed me to understand that message this week. 

I hope that you all have a great week and have a great Halloween!!

Sister de la Cruz

 When in doubt, bake!

 The Currences Pups!

 Pretty Elkins!

Scenery on our way to District Meeting