Hermana Ada Maria Daugs: Miracles!

Large Plates

Life just keeps getting better and better

This week was so so good (surprise surprise).

Also, a side note– as I am writing this I am also listening to the SeaWorld fireworks that we can watch from our study desks. I don't know how to express how amazing this mission is but I hope that gives you a glimpse of it.

Pday was fun! We started off by playing Pickleball with the Welch's, a senior couple that lives in our complex. I love them to pieces. I lost in pickleball, but I still had fun! And I won later in the week so all is well;)

I also got to see some of my family of Pday! Naomi and her cute family were so sweet and took me and Sister Jackson our for lunch. Cutler showed me a lizard he caught! That, combined with his super awesome mullet, pretty much makes him the coolest kid ever. It was so good to see their family. I've only been gone 7 months or so but those kids have grown so much! And of course I love Naomi and Nate, my cliff jumping buddy, so much! If you are reading this, thanks again for lunch!!

Tuesday morning we went to say goodbye to the Gomez family, because they're heading out to Colombia for a vacation for a couple months, and we didn't know if we would be here when they came back. I was especially unsure because transfers are this week and since I've already been in this area 7 months, it was pretty much a given that I would be leaving (more on that later). I was sad to say goodbye to the Gomez family because I just love them so much! Its okay though, they told me I could go on a trip to Columbia with them after my mission:)

We also went to dinner with the Rosarios, some more of my favorite members. I've eaten with them every week of my mission thus far. They are definitely one of my favorite families. We got chinese food and it was super good! I think it's the first time I've had Asian food on the mission because all we eat is Hispanic food haha.

Wednesday was so great! We had a district council in the morning and wow. DC is always so motivating to me. I'm just a very goal-oriented person and it energizes me to see growth. Our district has grown so much this transfer. We've grown in unity, and we've grown into better missionaries. I've really come to love this district and it's been so good to serve around each of them.

We also went over to Liduvi's on Wednesday. She was one of the miracles that we found in my training. We've been holding on to her for a really long time, and we don't really know how to help her. We didn't go into the lesson with much hope but she said she wants to start keeping commitments and getting closer to God! Please pray for her, that she will develop a habit of reading in the Book of Mormon and that she will make coming to church a priority. She knows baptism is the end goal, and she wants to prepare for it. She just isn't very committed yet to establishing the habits required for true conversion.

We had dinner that night with the Pacheco-Ortega's. I love those two so much. They're just absolute sweethearts and my heart is always just so full when I'm around them. The food was delicious and their company is always so fun. Hermano Ortega works for Krispy Kreme so he gave us 4 boxes of donuts to take home!

Thursday was such a busy day! We started off by working at the Storehouse at 7:30 am. We had to leave early so we worked as fast as we could so we got a bunch of work done in about an hour. Working hard like that always gives me more energy though. I don't know what it is, maybe Coldstone messed me up, but I get just as much energy from working hard as I do from a good night's sleep. I said goodbyes to my Storehouse crew in case I got transferred. Elder Holladay was really sad to see me go :((

The reason we had to leave early is because we wanted to visit my best friend Carmen! She got baptized a few months ago but it has been really hard for her to come to church because of work. She has the best faith out of anyone I know, though. She'll be back at church soon. I simply cannot express how much I love her. We brought up transfers to her and we were all scared/sad about me leaving. I wasn't too worried about her though, because she wants to move to Utah. We'll definitely stay in touch. We have an arepa truck to run.

We had a video call lesson with Reyci later that day and he's already loving the Book of Mormon! We talked about what he has read. He had just finished 1 Nephi 8 when we called him so we talked about Lehi's dream and the importance of the covenant path. We ended up inviting him to be baptized!! He still feels like he has a lot of preparing and learning to do, and I'm excited to help him prepare!

That night for dinner we ate with Thais and her family! I wrote about this family a few weeks ago. They are one of the biggest miracles I've had on my mission. Thais called us out of the blue because her uncle, who was a member of the Church, had passed away. She wanted to learn more about the Plan of Salvation! The lesson went well a few weeks ago and they really wanted us to come back, they were just on vacation. The day all of them got back, they reached out and invited us over for dinner! They are neighbors with some of the best members in our ward so the members came too! We had a yummy dinner and got to talking about why we're called Mormons. We explained what the Book of Mormon is and how it came to be and they were all just blown away by how cool it is that Christ visited this continent. It seems like they believed it all right off the bat. Unfortunately, the mission is out of Spanish Book of Mormons so we weren't able to give them one. But they're all coming to church and they want us to come back once we have books to give them their copies! This family has so much potential. They really love their old church, but they have so much faith and they're really good friends with maybe my favorite member in the ward--Anita. I'll keep you guys posted about them!

Okay, that's it for Thursday. I told you it was a lot.

As for Friday, we started off with a Training Recap zoom because Hermana Jackson is finishing her training this week!! That literally flew by so fast. She's an awesome missionary and she's only been out 3 months. We also had a mission devotional over zoom. It was the last one of the transfer, so some of my favorite missionaries gave their departing testimonies: Elder and Sister Cluff, and Elder Jensen. I'm going to miss all 3 of them so much!

Later that day, we sat down to do some weekly planning. We are teaching so many good people right now! Throughout the week, me and Hermana Jackson had come to the conclusion that I would be leaving. I was actually completely unsure if I would be leaving or staying, but I wanted to stay. So, I convinced myself I would be leaving. That way, I would either be right, or pleasantly surprised! As we were planning for the people I was convinced I was leaving, we got the email about transfers. Let's just say I was pleasantly surprised!

I'M STAYING IN BUENA VENTURA!!!

That means I will serve half of my mission in my first area, and I couldn't be more happy about it. I love this ward with all my heart and frankly, I never want to leave it. I also love Sister Jackson so much! She's so fun to serve around and we make a good team. Stay tuned for all the miracles we're going to see next transfer!

That night we went over to the Martinez family's home. They're like family to me. Hermano Martinez reminds me a lot of my uncle Nate for some reason, so that really adds to the effect. They made us super yummy food and I ate so much of it. They also let me and Sister Jackson walk their dog, Coco. He can do a handstand which I think is pretty cool.

Saturday was another crazy busy day. We started off the morning by visiting Wendy and Andres! They haven't been able to come to church because they've been moving but they want to start coming every week! Andres is going to get the Aaronic priesthood so that means he'll get to help pass the sacrament!

We went straight from their house to see Carmencita (Rosario)! She wanted help cleaning out her pantry to prepare for hurricane season. It was so chaotic. I love her so much and I wish we could have stayed with her and helped her clean all day. She was so happy to hear that I would be staying another transfer!

We left her house to go to Rene's baptism!! Rene is a man who the Elders taught and his baptism was so special! It was a little crazy at first because the water pressure in the faucet was about 30% of what it normally is for some reason, so the font was nowhere near as full as it needed to be. When we got there, some of our missionary friends were filling up 5 gallon coolers from the spicket outside of the church building and dumping them in the font. The craziness went away as soon as we started the service, though. It was so spiritual and Rene bore his testimony at the end and he was so happy!

After the baptism we had a pass off lesson with some other hermanas. They were teaching a really awesome guy, who's dad was a member. His dad passed away a little while ago and the son (his name is Richard) wanted to learn more about his dad's church. They gave him a book of Mormon before we met and he had already read 11 chapters before the lesson! He also invited his son and daughter in law and their cute girl to come to the lesson. It was a good lesson and they all seem really interested in the gospel!

Sunday was one of the busiest days of my mission. We set up our first lesson with our friend Lucero before English class. She is the sweetest Colombian lady and was already familiar with the church. Her daughter is a member and she has some friends who were recently baptized into the ward in the stake next to ours. We started talking about her experience with the church and she bore a really powerful testimony about how the Spirit has made her feel like she found the right church. The member we had there was able to converse with her and we all just shared our thoughts and feelings about the Spirit. We ended up asking Lucero to be baptized! She was so happy and she feels really food about her decision. Please keeo her in your prayers as she prepares!

English class was a ton of fun, because the only students were Alba and Lucero, both of which are the sweetest people ever and theyre both going to be baptized on the same day, and Oscar, who was baptized about a month ago. My heart was full.

Church was really great and a lot of the people we are teaching came! They all had a great experience. We also got a new Relief Society presidency and I'm really excited about it. I admire each member of the presidency so much and I'm excited to see the miracles that are going to happen.

After church we went over to a member's house to teach some of their friends. This is the same family & friends as last Sunday! Except this time they had even more friends over! Everyone got there super late which was kind of frustrating, but the small spiritual thought wenwere able to share ended up being super powerful! We talked about prayer and helped teach everyone to pray. It was so incredible to hear one of the people we are teaching offer the closing prayer before we left.

We ended the night at Bishop's house. I've said it before and I'll said it again: I love their family so much. They genuinely feel like my family and I'm so grateful for them. They were all so happy I'm staying another transfer!

Small Plates

Miracles!

I was reading in Moroni this week and I loved these verses:

"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased because Christ hath ascended into heaven, and hath sat down on the right hand of God, to claim of the Father his rights of mercy which he hath upon the children of men?...Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men."

You guys! Our God is a God of miracles!!

Miracles are EVERYWHERE. All we have to do is seek, expect, and recognize them. Our Heavenly Father loves us so much and He wants nothing but to bless us.

There's not much more I can say. Miracles are happening in this area and all over the world. If you're feeling weighed down, this is my one piece of advice: look for a miracle today. Write it down. And thank your Heavenly Father for it. As we recognize more miracles, more miracles enter into our lives. I know it's true. Let Him bless you!