December 17

Hello Family,
Highlights from this week:
-We have really been trying to step it up with the soft baptismal invitation. More people are telling us they would be baptized if they new that our message was true. However, we also have a lot of appointments that are falling through- I feel like this is helping us find people who have real intent- those who really want to change right now and are looking for that change.
-We have been really trying to sift through those we are teaching- so we can really focus on helping people progress towards baptism. We met some new families this week who we have invited to read and pray- they have accepted and now it is up to us to continue to bring the spirit into the lessons to help them feel that desire to change.
- We did service at the bakery again this week - on Tuesday-and afterwards we went tracting in a trailer park to try and find new people to teach. We had never really knocked there before and we found about 5 new people and set up different times that week to come back and bless their family and home. We were also able to do some following-up with other people we are teaching, and visit some less-actives with a member. We were able to talk to another member about missionary work, and bless her home with the spirit of missionary work.
-Sister Schroeppel and I are really trying to put more of an emphasis on our purpose, we read preach my gospel in some of the car rides so we can try to really find new ways to help the people. It is easy to get stuck in old routines and then you get kinda bored. But when you take new approaches and really focus on that one person, new ideas come and your excitement grow again.
-We met an old investigator at Wal-Mart and she was willing to let us come over and visit her/teach her. She really wants to learn again- from the beginning- she had baptismal date before (when i helped teach her when I was in Homewood) and now she is showing that desire to change. She came to church on Sunday- we met her at the English ward and she was excited to be there and learn. She is opening up and the spirit is touching her heart.
-We had a good lesson with the family who has a baptismal date- we defined more of our role to them, and how we are there to help them progress towards their Savior and baptism. They still want to keep learning to make sure it is something they want to do- so we now need to help them keep on developing their own testimony of the restored gospel. We also had really neat lesson with a recent convert Joaquin. He shared an amazing experience on how is testimony is growing about fasting. I love it when we teach him because that scripture that talks about "Both being edified together"....the teacher and the learner...always comes true. He is an amazing member and will do great things. I am lucky to have my testimony strengthened by them.
We have a god week ahead of us, and are excited for people we have to teach. We are trying to make a lot of changes in this area for the better! It will be a great week.
Love you all!!
Hermana Coleman

Hello Fam!

So this has been a week of following up with lots of people we have met over the last couple weeks. It is interesting to see the difference between those who are really searching for knowledge and realize they need change, and those who are not ready quite yet. It is all shown by action and the time the make to see us. We have learned that it is important to really know peoples intentions- and how we can address  the way THEY learn. Once we know that we can help them and try to help them make commitments the best they can.
We found this family a couple weeks ago and we love spending time with them. The kids have a lot of questions- Evelyn and David and they have two little sisters (who are some of my favorite little girls ever- this past week they giggled super hard as they thought it was the funniest thing to hand feed me marshmallows....haha) we are trying to get more creative with the way that we teach them.
I have learned a lot about hope this week- it is the Christ like attribute I am trying to work on. I find that it is easy to focus on the problems that these people have- instead of the progress they are making- or the fact that they are trying the best they can to learn. But with hope, we can hope for the best in people, believe in them, an they will notice and use that positive support to do things they never thought possible. I am still working on it, but I know it will increase my effectiveness as a missionary if I can be better at it. This is all triggered because I was reading a talk (from General Conference I believe- President Monson's Priesthood session talk) where I think it was President Kimball and he was interviewing one of the missionaries who had the most success on his mission. He asked the missionary why he had had so much success- the missionary told him, " it was because every door I knocked on, I would picture that person dressed in white, ready to be baptized." So from the beginning he believed that the people the Lord was leading him to could be baptized. He had hope! Many things can be accomplished with faith and hope, I am grateful for the opportunity I have to try and grow and increase them each day. Some days it is harder than others, but that is why we are so lucky to learn and try again the next day.
We were able to have a family night with some English members at the mission home last night. We talked about the Holy ghost and also learned a lot from President Holzapfel. Have I mentioned before that I am so lucky to have a President who knows a lot about the scriptures?? Well I am, and he and his wife have a way of teaching and helping you understand the people better. They taught us a lot about Peter last night and helped us to visually picture some of the stories in the New Testament. I am learning a lot more about the life of Christ and his Atonement through the stories of his apostles. It is very neat.
We look forward to another good week- lots of rain today so it should be fun. Love you all!!

Nice and Warm in Alabama!

So the weather still feels like it is September/October-ish. super nice and I am not complaining at all- I love it! I have always been lucky to have a snow-filled Christmas, so I am willing to sacrifice one year of it for very nice weather. We had a fun Monday last week- we walked around a trailer park with one of the members- Elvira- she is one of my favorites, can we have favorites? Anyway, she showed us some investigators that the Sister's from a year ago used to go visit. We taught one lesson with her and it was nice to have someone who could testify who was a recent convert. Super great. We also helped her find some church websites on the computer and ended up showing her pictures of temples..haha I was in heaven. Tuesday we went to the Mission Home for a Holiday luncheon- everything made by Sister Holzapel and her mom- it was delicious!! We also got little mini Preach my Gospels (mine is Spanish) from them - so sweet and we have been using them ever since. We went and taught a family that night (one of the ones we had found last weekend) and taught them- they loved the book of Mormon- it is a mom and her two kids Evelyn(12) and David(9) and she also has two other little ones- 4 and 2 haha it was crazy. at the end of the lesson Evelyn said I feel so go right now, I feel so good inside! we promised her it was the holy ghost and if she read and prayed she would know if the BOM was true. Super neat. We didn't invite them to be baptized because it didn't feel right. The next day President Holzapfel came over to check out the apartment and give us some training. He taught us a lot about the soft approach to the baptismal invitation- and invited us to pray and think about how we could implement it more with all the investigators we have found. He also told us some neat stories from his mission and so we were grateful to have him there- great learning experience. That night we went to the same families house we had taught the night before and read a chapter in the book of Mormon with them. they really liked it and the mom liked that the kids are learning about God. I had been thinking earlier that day on what date we would give them and Jan 5 kept popping into mind- so Sister Schroeppel started bringing up baptism to them and I was able to commit them to that date- it was amazing and we were so happy after- step by step people are getting closer to Christ.
Throughout this week we were able to implement the soft approach to baptism more and now 3 other people who said they would be baptized when they find out these things are true. Through extending the invitation to one of our investigators we found out that she is having marital problems, we promised her if she continues learning and acting upon this message she will receive the help she needs. So neat!
We did some dumpster diving (very lady like) for some cardboard boxes for a elderly lady who is getting ready to move. we found free kids toys (it was at the dollar store) and gave out a mormon.org card- very worth the time. We also had a man this week ask us what church we are from- we told him and he said- "Do ya'll believe in Jesus Christ" we said YES!!! he said wow, I thought ya'll didn't, I would like to learn more about ya'll- so we gave him mormon.org card and got his number to teach him this week. super awesome.
We watched the Christmas Devotional in Spanish at President Bethers house- it was fun and earlier that day we went to an English ward to translate for some of our investigators who couldn't make it to the branch. It was a family and they were able to hear a lot of testimonies so it was great. It is interesting translating from English to Spanish- it is good practice for me though and makes you listen....haha.
Things are good here in Alabama- we have an amazing ward mission leader and us and the Elders are really seeing the work move forward in the Lorna branch. It is a miracle. Also we knew that Alabama won because of much screaming from cars saying "Go BAMA!!!!" haha so that is fun.
I hope everyone has a great week- be safe and talk to you next week!
Hermana Coleman

Fried Turkey for Thanksgivin'

Jessica Coleman	Hello family! So this was a fun past week- we started out by going to early T...	1:15 PM (33 minutes ago)
Hello family! So this was a fun past week- we started out by going to early T...

Jessica Coleman	1:15 PM (33 minutes ago)
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Hello family!
So this was a fun past week- we started out by going to early Thanksgiving dinner at the Bolgar home, it was super delicious and we heard a lot of funny stories and got to know their family better. A set of Elders were there as well, and at the end we shared a Thanksgiving Mormon message and did a fun activity to write down everything your grateful for. They shared it at the end and it went well!
We taught some recent converts on Tuesday and Wednesday, which included eating at a Mexican restaurant and sitting in the back of Joaquin's truck with blankets and teaching him about his new role as the branch mission leader!! We are still super excited about helping him figure out his new calling. He has his own PMG and we are helping him realize he just has to take it step by step, and he is happy and loving helping us so we are very lucky.
Thursday we spent the day doing weekly planning, attempting to make an apple pie...........and going to a members house in the English ward for dinner. We went to help finish setting up, and we walked up to Brother Thompson frying a turkey on the driveway- it was awesome- and delicious. We ate a lot of food- there was 6 missionaries there and their son, and then while we waiting for our stomachs to settle we went around the table and each chose 3 scriptures that we were most grateful for. It was actually really neat and I learned some new references and loved hearing everyone's testimonies. it was neat. Then we ate desert and helped clean while all the elders set up Christmas trees. It was a great thanksgiving!
Friday we taught some more recent converts because some of our appointments fell through. We are helping some with getting Liahona, and learning more about the plan of salvation (through talking it out I actually learned a lot more as well- the spirit totally taught us all, it was really neat) and then I found out that one of the members daughters as the same birthday as me- it was a pretty fun moment.
Saturday and Sunday were really great- we spent time in two of the trailer parks here and were trying to have the spirit guides us to find new people to teach and to bless their families. We found 10 new investigators!!! 3 families- we were super happy and had a great past two days, and I have also found that they are in all of my prayers, because we know that the Lord can help these people, we just have to have the faith. We are trying to work hard and listen to the spirit, and help people come one more step closer to the Savior each day. Sunday I spent all three meetings translating for the Stake Relief Society Presidency- that was fun, they had patience with me, but I got to tote the translation equipment around with me everywhere. There was a funny moment where I did the classic mix-up between "soap" and "soup". Soap= jabon, Soup= sopa. See the confusion?? yes two members were very confused when I was trying to explain to them how they could use their old laundry soap containers as water storage for washing clothes when their is no water. They thought I was saying laundry soup containers- they got a good laugh out of that one.
I am really trying to put more faith in the Lord, and Sister Schroeppel and I are increasing our faith and trying to talk to as many people as possible- and not be scared!!
I hope everyone has a great week- Love you all!!

Hermana Coleman

Voy a quedarme en Lorna otra vez!!

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Yep, I am staying!! 4th transfer now, so it has gotta be good right? Sister Schroeppel is staying as well so we are excited for the new beginning and know that this is our time to make new goals. It is the transfer that includes the end of the year so I look forward to a lot of goal setting with myself and others that we meet everyday!
We worked a lot with less-active and recent-converts again this week. We have a lot of people around us (both Spanish and English) that have recently joined the church so we love going and visiting them and helping them find more ways to strengthen their testimonies. They help us a lot too. One of them has a little baby that was born pre-mature and she just got home from the hospital after being there for 4 months. She is so cute and tiny, the mom has to stay home 24/7with her so we try to go at least once a week to help break it up and take the lesson from church that Sunday.
We are also teaching a family that I am learning a lot from. The dad knows a lot about the Bible and we love to show him restoration scriptures from there. This past week he showed us how he found Ephesians 2:20 which talks about Christ's church being built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets. (Sister Schroeppel and I were just smiling) and then a man came into the restaurant where he works and he overheard him talking about how Mormons don't believe in God/Jesus Christ. He went right up to him and told him all about that scripture how we have apostles and prophets, and how we most definitely believe in Christ. It was amazing to hear that story from him, and how sometimes we don't know what to do to help them, but they are learning little by little, and recognizing the truths that the Church has within it.
We have been teaching Rebecca and Francisco about baptisms and going to the temple, they are excited and very excited about sharing what they know with their family. We are excited to use them to help with less-active members and investigators.
We helped a member with mormon.org this week- She has an amazing testimony (which i got to read as i typed it all up for her :)) and was actually really excited on Sunday when we took a picture of her with her two girls and that it would finally be ready to be published on-line. She is amazing!!
Thursday was a good day- we felt like we needed to be in Alabaster and we were passing out invitations for the party we were going to have on Saturday. I felt really weird about getting into the car, but it was starting to get dark and so I was confused on why. But we were standing out side just looking around and Sister Schroeppel sees someone walking toward our direction, so we went up to invite her, and apparently she has been taught by missionaries before and she would love to have us over, so we set up a return appointment and invited her to the party. then we still felt weird about the car so we walked up one of the streets and found a man and his daughter outside, who had also been taught by missionaries a while back, and we invited them and they said we could come back another day as well. We were super surprised and grateful that the Lord led us to them. We will see what happens!
This week I also learned that being bold, with love is a very good thing.
We had a good lesson in English class about the plan of salvation- and one of the members was talking about the sprit world, judgment and kingdoms of glory and I had just been studying them in the bible the past week, so I was able to whip 'em out and give them to one of the ladies we teach. It felt really good to help show her and teach her that and let her know that is what we believe! Little by little with her as well.
So Saturday was the big party- we got there early and set up, we had multicolored table clothes, made some poster signs that said "Noche de Talentos" and put a bunch of punch out stars all over the front of the gym. It was pretty awesome. One of the investigators brought a huge speaker system and President Bethers brought all the food- we made some too and a lot of people actually came! friends, investigators, members, recent converts, and less-actives, some members from the Altadena branch as well! Each companionship of missionaries there had investigators that came- it was so great! we had a lot of fun, laughing and watching salsa dancing, goofy missionaries and families sing. it was successful night.
Well I hope all his well, have a fabulous Thanksgiving week- sounds like the family has some fun plans. We have a thanksgiving meal tonight and on Thursday so we are being very well taken care of by the members out here. Both of them will be in English members homes so it will be fun!

Feliz Dia de Gracias!!
Hermana Coleman

 

The work is moving forward-as Pres. Holzapfel says :)

So exciting news!!! We had stake conference this week and there was a division that affected 3 wards which means growth is happening! Also they announced the numbers that are changing in the mission..... so keep in mind right now we have 140 missionaries and about 26 of those are sisters. The total number is going to increase to 272 missionaries which they say will happen by this summer- 112 will be Elders, 22 Senior couples, and.........138 sister missionaries!!! That's right 138! What?!? President had to clarify that it wasn't a typo in the text message haha- can you believe it?? It is amazing how many girls are now going and how it will affect a lot of missions around the world. So amazing!! Now all that is coming to mind is the word "Training" haha There are a lot of things I can improve on to help make the new sisters that come out have a great start to their mission and so we can all be effective in the Lord's work.
We had a good week and found some great new people to teach. Still working on finding more people who are ready to hear the gospel. At the beginning of the week we were walking around a trailer park in Alabaster trying to find new people the Lord wanted us to teach. We found  4 new women who all let us come in and teach them, it was amazing, and one wants us to come out to her house in Calera and teach her kids- The Lord really blessed us that day and led us to people that needed Him.
As I am looking back over my planner for the last week I am realizing how many people the Lord is putting us in contact with these past two weeks. Especially with those who are less-active or who are faithful members who hadn't been seen by missionaries in a while. He remembers everyone and when we listen we get to help him touch other peoples lives.  We found a less-active last week, Hector and his wife Marina and he came to church on Sunday!! He was happy to be back and see people he recognized. They love us coming over and now we are going to help the wife start thinking on how to get Sunday's off so they can go through the temple.
One of the young girls we are teaching has been having problems coming to church lately. She has the faith but it seems like everything goes wrong to help her come to church. We are trying to decide what is the next best thing for her.
Rebecca and Francisco are doing really well. They are both excited and can tell a difference and feel so much more peace now that they have the spirit. Francisco is already inviting his family to church and telling them how good he feels. He wants to keep learning more so he can help his family understand why he did what he did. They are going to help a lot of people.
Welp, looking forward to this week- Sister Schroeppel is officially banned from saying the word "transfer"....they are next week and it is not okay. time goes by too quick- I read in  an ensign article this morning by President Uctdorf something that really affected me. He said how he always tells full-time missionaries to act like each day is their last day in the mission (something like that...it was in Spanish...) but how to take it a day at a time- make the most of today!! He quoted Emily Dickenson and I really liked it "Forever is composed of nows." So true.
I love you all, make it a great week and enjoy the snow- we don't have any here!!
Hermana Coleman

Baptism!!!

Buenas Tardes!!
So, the Baptism went really well! They were both very happy and Rebecca had a really neat experience. One of our favorite parts of the service was when their son Frankie said “Wow, now all the bad stuff is gone!”, after Rebecca got baptized. It was cute, she loved it because he understood! I gave the talk and we had all the little primary kids sing "When I am Baptized" It was super cute. They were also confirmed on Sunday, and so we are very happy to see them as members and help them get to the temple!
We did splits this weekend with two 18 year old girls in the English wards. It went pretty well, we really wore Chandler out, but she got to see a lot of aspects of missionary work! We did some studies with them, and helped show them how to plan. We had fun getting to know more people- and we were able to show them that talking to everyone helps us teach more people! We were walking around in a trailer park talking to people outside, and a man was outside of his house so we just went up and started talking to him, he let us sit on his porch and teach him a lesson. We were able to challenge him to take another step towards Christ by saying prayers more often and coming to church.
We spent some time doing service on Halloween, and seeing lots of little kids dressed up at the library. Super cute! We stopped by  a recent converts home to see them and eat some food from their party they were having. We were able to meet some nice people so it was fun!
So we had some good times laughing with the members this week, we went tot he bakery to do service and they were all super tired, so we spent time trying to understand what they were saying to us, and then they started laughing at our Spanish a bit....we got two members practically on the floor dying of laughter, which meant we were dying to because they were laughing so hard. They said we helped them to De-stress...haha If anything we fulfilled our purpose by making people happier, even if it was at our own expense.
We have made some good plans to help members move forward with mormon.org profiles. it will be a fun week!
We are trying to find more people to teach, we discovered two new trailer parks (well new to us) this week and an apartment complex. We look forward to finding out where the Lord wants us to go!
Things are going well, glad to hear everything is going well back home, and in New York! We are really focusing how to remember that we are truly called her as servant of the Lord. He is in every aspect of the work and if we remember him more, we are closer to him and the spirit and we can help so many more people. The CES fireside was super good last night. How are we going to move ourselves into action?? A lot of times distractions, opposition binds us down, but if we have enough will power and ask for the strength of the Lord we can become "unbound" and see miracles happen, and lives change, including our own.
I love you all!
Make it a great week!!
Sister Coleman