Joyce & Ethan get Baptized

Hey Y'all!

This week was probably my favorite week on my mission! I got to watch 2 people I love enter the waters of baptism on the same day who were across the country from each other. The first one was on Saturday Afternoon in Seattle and the second was Saturday night here in Elkins WV. I am so thankful to my mission president for allowing me to Skype in and for everyone here in Elkins that made all of this possible. It's so cool to see how even though you may be anywhere in the world, the gospel is the same and never changing.

Squad back together for Ethan's Baptism <3

This week I also got the opportunity to go on Exchanges with Sister Maxfield!! It was so great seeing and working with her again. I loved seeing how much we have both grown from the MTC and I'm glad our missions led us back together for a short time:)

Exchanges with Sis Maxfield:)

We started teaching a lady named Carol this week who had requested a Book of Mormon. She just got a new phone number and was getting these text messages of scriptures that were meant for the person who had the phone number before her. Anyways, she looked them up on the internet which eventually led her to Mormon.org where she inquired to learn more and eventually we were sent to her. So we show up and teach her and her daughter the Restoration and make a return appointment for Sunday. When we got there on Sunday she said, "I have to confess something...I tried to call you to cancel because someone told me you were a cult but I couldn't because the phone number you gave me wasn't working" After doing a little investigating we found out that when Sister Neilson had written the phone number the 8 looked like a 0. We assured her that we were in fact not a "cult" and we were able to teach her a great lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. By the end she was asking us about how baptism works and wants to join us for church. It's amazing the ways that the Spirit and Heavenly Father work.

Have a great week everyone:)

Sister de la Cruz

Pics of Joyce's Baptism

LOVE HER

Joyce had to have a picture with Sister Mikesell in it as well:) 

 Such a good day

We had people write notes of encouragement for her while we helped her change. This picture a little boy drew for her cracks me up.

#20

Hey Y'all!

Not a whole lot of exciting things happened this week so this email is probably going to be a little shorter. One thing that did happen though is I turned 20! It was great being out here to celebrate and so many people made it wonderful! Sister Bay made me an amazing pulled bbq pork dinner (which she knows I love) and made a cake for me which we ate at Zone Conference on Friday. I really don't know what we'd do without the Bays. They take care of us everyday <3

Zone Conference Sister Nyborg and my two babies:)

We had Zone Conference this week which was, as usual, mind blowing because of how much President Lindhardt knows as well as a jolt of the spirit because of all the missionaries gathered in one place. I love being around other missionaries so much and we had a treat of a Zone P-Day today! We drove to Clarksburg with the Buckhannon Sisters and played wiffle ball, chair soccer, and basketball with the 4 other sets of missionaries in our Zone. It felt so great to let out some energy and have fun for a bit. 

  Ending Zone P-Day with some Panera

Hike last Monday to Bickles Knob

Joyce came to church on Sunday! It was a little crazy because the members who were supposed to drive her called us 15 minutes before they were supposed to pick her up and told us they couldn't because they had locker their keys in their car. Anyways, after a small panic attack we were able to find someone and everything went great:)

What do you do when you see a deer skeleton on the side of the road? Try to get the hoof 

Love you all! Have a great week!:)

Sister de la Cruz

The Power of Slim Jims

Hey Y'all!

Another great week in Elkins WV! Joyce has been continuing to prepare for her baptism which is still scheduled for this Saturday!! She had a great time at church yesterday and even found out one of her close friends is a member! Her baptismal interview is tonight and we're praying everything continues to go as planned! We are so excited for her and I'm so glad the Lord kept me in Elkins for another transfer so I could be here for her:)

Emailing today with our matching braids

We started teaching one of our members parents and sister last week and they are so awesome! We came back after our first visit and the sister gave us a play by play of like the first 15 chapters of the Book of Mormon! They are so sincere it's been so great getting to teach them. We committed them to pray about baptism during our last visit this week so we're hoping to help them take this next step soon! And then when we met with them on Tuesday the sister's daughter and her daughter's husband joined in and we are now teaching them as well! It's been an interesting experience teaching that many people at once but thank goodness we don't have to do it without the Lord's help!

Relief Society Birthday Party with Joyce and Sister Whipple

We met with a less active member on Saturday night and he had just gotten 5 cans of beer from the store because he said that he was stressed. We have been working with him for a long time trying to break him of this habit. After a pretty intense lesson we told him that he could either give the beer to us or pour it down the sink. Miraculously, he got up and cracked a can open and started to dump it out. We could tell that it was really hard for him and he almost took a sip as he was pouring it out but Sister Neilson told him that for every one he could pour out without sipping he could have two of her slim jims (Sister Neilson always has like 20 slim jims in her bag). He looked at them and took the challenge and when we left he had 10 of them. 

Thank you to everyone for all of the emails and letters! I love hearing from all of you! Just a reminder that the new mission office address is:

WVCM

839 Chestnut Street
South Charleston, WV 25309

Love you all! Have a great week!

Sister de la Cruz