Happy Days!

Hey family!

I hope you had a great week last week! I was definitely thinking of you all during the week. Thank you so much for all of the packages Mom- they made my day! I especially loved the card of you all singing ¨Happy Birthday¨- it was great to hear your voices! My sweet companion also did a lot to make the day special. She had a member help her buy a cake without me knowing and when I woke up on Wednesday morning she had decorated the table with the cake, a card, and the balloons that we had blown up the night before. I opened your packages Mom and wore some of the new clothes you sent (in keeping with tradition (;). And then that night, after planning and teaching records we celebrated a little. My companion sang me the Mexican birthday song, ¨las mañanitas¨ and then shoved my face into the cake, which is the Mexican tradition- no joke! She recorded the whole thing, but unfortunately the attachment´s too big to send over email. But I included pictures of me with the packages, the decorations my companion set up, and the streamers you sent me Mom to decorate our door. It was a fun day (:

I was also thinking about you all on Valentine´s Day. Thanks for the notes and the candy; we shared some of the candy with our investigators. I was also thinking about Valentine´s Day a year ago, when I got to go through the temple for the first time. I´m so grateful for temples and the covenants I made a year ago that offer me protection and guidance in my life. I´m also so grateful for the covenants that allow us to be an eternal family. I am so grateful that God blessed me with such a wonderful family, and that we have the Gospel to strengthen us and keep us together. Here in my mission I´ve met so many families with a lot of problems and have really been able to see first hand how a family built upon the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ has a sure foundation for success. We´ve been using the copies of ¨The Family: A Proclamation to the World¨ that you sent me Mom to teach our investigators about how to strengthen their families. We taught a few investigators about prophets and at the end explained that the prophet and his apostles receive revelation for our day, and gave them the Proclamation to hang in their homes and apply in their lives. I´ve been able to testify a lot about the family this week, and it has re-inforced my testimony that the family is ordained of God, that God reveals to His prophets how to help us strengthen our families, and that ¨success in marriage and family life is most likely to be maintained and acheived when founded upon the teachings of Jesus Christ.¨ I know it´s true!

This week went better for us than the last as far as lessons and investigators go. I feel like by now we´ve gotten a lot more comfortable in the two areas and we were able to work a lot more with the members this week. Yesterday we had a lot of investigators and less-actives come to Church, which was great. But it´s also always a little stressful trying to help them get to church for the first time and helping them to feel comfortable in a new situation that´s so different. We arrived late for sacrament meeting because we were picking people up, and as we stood in the foyer waiting to go into the meeting and trying to help so many people all at once I thought, ¨I feel like a mother with seven children.¨ Ha ha, I started wondering how in the world all of the moms in the ward balance getting everyone to church on time! I really did feel like a mother worrying for her children, especially because all of our investigators/less actives have such different needs. Being a missionary has only reinforced my desire to be a stay at home mom with a large family (in Spanish, they use the term ¨ama de casa¨ to refer to a stay at home mom. It means ¨love of the home¨. Isn´t that sweet?) It really is a very special part of missionary work, the love and concern that you develop for your investigators. I´ve been able to feel a portion of what I imagine our Heavenly Father feels for them as we help them. Being responsable for them is a big responsablility that I imagine is similiar to what parents feel; sometimes it´s a heavy load, but we really get to work with Heavenly Father to help them, and He helps us to be able to bear that load. 

I love you all so much! I know I say that every week, but it´s so true. Yesterday after a crazy Sunday I pulled out the pictures of the family to look at when we had a second, because thinking about you all relaxes me. It reminds me how blessed I am and how much I owe to my Heavenly Father. Serving Him as a missionary is a priviledge, and I hope He allows me to keep serving Him throughout my life.

Love, 

Hermana Southard

Hello from La Rosa!

Hello family and friends!

First of all, thank you so much for all of the birthday wishes! That was so sweet of all of you to send me a little note. I wish I could respond to all of you, but please know that I appreciate all of your kindness! I am super happy that I get to spend my 20th birthday as a missionary. I was thinking last night about how there is literally no where else I would rather be! It is such a blessing and a privledge to be a full time servant of the Lord, and I wish it could last forever.

Sorry about the short letter last week. I was kind of frazzled last week and couldn`t really think of what to write, but this week hopefully I can give you some good information about my new area! 

To answer your questions Dad, yes, I was able to say goodbye to some of the members in Guadalupe before I left. Hermano and Hermana Ruiz took us to the bus station and when I got there I found Hermana Mejia waiting for me, which made my day. I had said goodbye to her the night before because I knew I was probably going to be transferred, but I was able to say goodbye at the last moment. She`s the sister that I`ve told you about, who was my 'mom' there in Durango, so I was really glad I got to say goodbye to her. I also knew transfers were coming, so I kind of said goodbye to other members before hand. One couple who we were really close with, Pepe and Adriana Soriano, are actually planning on coming to Utah this December when I`ll be home, so I got Adri`s Facebook so they can hopefully come and visit us! 

They notified us of transfers Sunday night at about 10:30, so it was a long night of packing everything up and getting ready. And yes, I`m in the actual city of Torreon, about 15 minutes from the center of the city. There was a small pool of investigators when I arrived here, but la Rosa was divided into three areas and in this transfer they closed one, so now there are only two. My companion was is la Rosa 2 before, but now we have la Rosa 2 and la Rosa 3, so we`re opening la Rosa 3. It has been a busy week of getting to know the area and finding the investigators of the other hermanas, but we`ve been doing really well. This area is a lot different than my other area. It`s definitely a lot more well-to-do than my last area, which was kind of a shock at first. But it seems like a really good area, and I`m honestly very excited to work here! Also, Hermana Tuitupou, who was in the MTC with me, is nearby so I`ve gotten to see her, which is awesome. I`m also kind of close to my trainer, Hermana Leiataua. So far Torreon has been great! 

I also love my companion. We are defintiely different but we get along really well and use the different strengths we have to strengthen the companionship. We also teach really well together and are really unified, which is awesome! We`ve been learning a lot from each other and I`ve felt a really strong spirit working with her. 

I love you all and hope you have a great week! Thank you again for all of the support and love I felt this week, and always. 

Love, 

Hermana Southard

Left to right: Hermana Johnson and Hermana Martinez, the Sister Training Leaders, Hermana Tuitupou, Hermana Villegas (my companion!) Hermana Martin, and me!

Greetings from Torreón!

Hola mis queridos!

I feel like I should have so much to say but at the same time, I really don´t know what to tell you all. I was transferred today from Guadalupe 2 in Durango to an area called la Rosa 3 here in Torreón. I got here about 2 hours ago, but from what I can tell the area is pretty. Everyone´s told me that it´s a good area and the ward is great, and I am so excited to be here! I thought it would be hard to leave Guadalupe, but I feel very calm here. I know that we´re sent to every area for a reason and I honestly feel like I did everything I could to help Barrio Guadalupe. Even though as I missionary I am so, so imperfect, this is the perfect work of the Lord and He worked with my weaknesses to strenghthen the area. I truly grew to love the members and my converts, and I hope that I will be able to see them again someday. I feel like Barrio Guadalupe is ¨my ward¨ and I know with time I´ll feel the same way about Barrio de la Rosa. When you give everything you have, heart, mind, and soul, to building up the kingdom of the Lord, He blesses you richly with eternal relationships and the joy that comes from helping others become more converted unto Christ. Of this I testify.

My new companion´s name is Hermana Villagas. She´s 20 years old and from the Mexican state of Coahuila, which is the same state that Torreón is in (the mission only has a tiny piece of Coahuila). I´ve only known her for two hours, but I am so excited to work with her and learn all that I can from her. 

One last thing before I have to go......I want to extend a missionary challenge to you all, and I´m using the fact that it´s my birthday month as an excuse. :) Our mission president has been using the term M&M to teach us to work together as members and missionaries to hasten the work of the Lord. This month, I challenge all of you to work with the missionaries of your ward by accompanying them to an appointment sometime in the month of February. You could also invite them to give a lesson in your house, but no matter what you do to work with the missionaries, I promise the Lord will bless both you and the people who are getting to know the Gospel with increased testimonies of the truthfullness of the doctrine of Christ. 

I love you all and hope you all have a fantastic week! Let me know how working with the missionaries is going. :) I know that this is the work of the Lord, and that we all have a solemn responsability to participate in it. 

Love, 

Hermana Southard

Hola hola!

Hey family!

Thanks so much for all the emails! It sounds like it was a good week. I´m glad you had a happy birthday Mom, and Jenna, holy cow! Your show looks amazing! You have gotten so good and I´m so proud of your dedication!

I feel like I actually have a few interesting things to tell you these week. They´re all kind of random, but hopefully you enjoy reading them. (:

First off, Sabrina, my companion loves your name. Like, absolutely loves it so much she decided she wants to name one of her daughters Carmen Sabrina. And when I got the family Christmas card this week the first thing she asked me was, ¨Which one´s Sabrina?¨ Ha ha she loves you! I tell her all about all of you guys and I feel like she knows all of you. The other day I was telling her a story about us and she said, ¨Wow, you all have such distinct personalities!¨ It´s true! I love telling people about our family and sharing you with them, the people I have come to love so much. 

Also, I cracked myself up this week because my companion and I were talking about how we sometimes have a problem with members or investigators wanting to touch us on the arm or greet us a with hug and kiss on the cheek (which is the cultural norm) and I started singing MC Hammer´s ¨Can´t touch this.¨ My companion was kind of confused but I was dying, because that song should totally be the sister missionary theme song. 

We had interviews with the mission president on Friday and in my interview Presidente and I talked a lot about leadership and how to discipline people by teaching them the doctrine behind the missionary rules or commandments. He said to me, ¨Hermana, you have to learn how to discipline now because some day you´ll have to discipline your kids.¨ I realized that´s true. Presidente is always relating the things we´re learning as missionaries to our future lives. He is always emphasizing having our own families, and I really appreciate that he cares about our lives after the mission too.

After we left interviews, which were in the center of town, we realized that we didn´t have anywhere to eat for lunch, so we got permission to eat at the Subway that´s near the church where we had our interviews. It was Hermana Quispe´s first time, and I loved eating there again! It was a nice treat. 

Another random thought: on Saturday we had a young couple accompany us to a lesson and they gave us a ride in their little old car, which looks like a little redish clown car because it´s so small and square. I realized as we were bumping along in the back that I love old junky cars. They have so much personality, just like Donny. (:

Lastly, yesterday was a really good day. We had eight investigators come to church, which was awesome! It´s been a really good week, actually. We have three investigators with baptismal dates, all scheduled for February 21st. One is Roque, Diana´s husband. Another is a 12 year old boy named Juan whose family has been listening to the missionaries for about a year, and he finally decided that he wasn´t going to wait for his parents to be baptized, so we´re helping him prepare. The other is a 25 year old young man named Leonardo who we found after we contacted his mom. Pray for all of them so that all goes well and they can be baptized on the 21st!

I have to go, but I love you all so much! Thank you for the love and the support you´ve always given me. I am so grateful for the small part I have in the Lord´s great work. I know it´s true and that this is the true Church. I love you and hope you have a great week!

Hermana Southard

I think I was actually called to serve in the Mexico Guadalupe Mission

Dear Family, 

Thanks for all your letters!  I hope you're having a great time at the cabin.  I took a nap today for the first time in 7 1/2 months (I haven´t been able to nap before) and now I´m eating chocolate covered raisins as I write this, so we´ll pretend that I´m getting a little bit of the cabin experience (:

So we had transfers last night and I´m still here in Guadalupe 2. We had a special conference on Wednesday with Elder Benjamín DeHoyos, the Mexico Area President (I´ll write more about that in a minute) and at one point he was talking about how important it is to keep good teaching records because we´ll eventually be transferred from the area and a couple of missionaries in my district were like, ¨Nope, not Hermana Southard!¨ Hermana Ramos heard them and was laughing and told me later that no, Presidente hasn´t forgotten about me here and that I am going to be transferred soon...which was why I thought I would be transferred today (side note: we decided that Presidente doesn´t tell his wife where we´re going to be transferred because if he did, she would totally tell us). But there are transfers at the end of week 4 and week 6 and we just ended week 4, so I think I´ll be transferred in two weeks. Even the landlord asked me last week if I was ever going to leave!

So the conference with Elder DeHoyos was really, really great. We talked all about strengthening recent converts and members in order to reach the Mexico Area´s goals for 2015. The Spirit was so strong and it was really a good experience getting to work with him. 

(Mom, I got the card and the package from Grandma, but still haven´t heard anything about the white envelopes :/)

We also had a special district activity on Saturday to find new investigators that didn´t have as much success as we would have liked. It´s always a bit disappointing when you work so hard and things don´t go as planned, but as I was telling our district leader, I know the Lord will bless us for our efforts. No effort to share the Gospel is ever wasted!

I´m already out of time, but I love you all so much! Thanks for your love and your support. Please pray for me to be able to do all that the Lord would have me do as I finish up here in this area. Pray for me to be able to strengthen my weaknesses, use my strengths, and always rely on the Lord. I´ll be praying for you!

Love, 

Hermana Southard

Les quiero!

Hey family!

Thanks for all your emails this week! I love hearing all the ins and outs of the family life. My companion and I were talking this week about how the Lord takes care of our families while we´re here. I know that things aren´t going to be perfect for you all while I´m gone, but I´ve learned to trust that the Lord will take care of the people I love the most while I´m serving Him. Really, He´ll take better care of you than I could, so I know you´ll be okay (:

This week was a pretty normal one. Actually, it rained a TON for a couple days last week and was super cold! It´s kind of funny because whenever it´s super rainy outside the missionaries are the only ones crazy enough to be out in the streets, ha ha. There were also a couple long days where it seemed like almost no one who we tried to contact was home...in 9 hours we taught three lessons. But we just keep going and hope that tomorrow will be better. I´ve learned that we have to talk to hundreds, thousands, even, of people in order to find the few people who are willing to accept our message. But when they do, everything is worth it. We had a lesson with Diana and her husband Roque yesterday (who is preparing to be baptized on Valentine´s Day) and before we started she shared with us a scripture she had read in D&C 19, when the Lord says that if we don´t repent we´ll suffer as He did in Gethsemane. She bore her testimony to us about the Atonement and how she used to not understand all that Christ did for us, but that now that she does, she wants to share it with everyone. It was the sweetest moment for me, realizing that she´s really had ¨a mighty change of heart¨. I love working with these amazing people!

Even though last week was pretty normal, this week will be pretty exciting. On Wednesday we have a special conference with Elder Dehoyos, and I´m super excited. And if I´m not mistaken, I think that´s who the Sandbergs´ grandparents work for? So I´m hoping I´ll get to see them! And I think I´ll get the packages that the mission office received. And then on Saturday we´re going to have a special activity as a District to try and find new investigators, so I´ll tell you how that goes!

I love you all so much and I hope you have a fantastic week!

Love from Durnango, 

Hermana Southard

Happy 2015!

Hello Family and Friends!

I hope you all had a fun and a safe New Year! I loved seeing the pictures of the Burgess Family Reunion, especially of the mission list! That is so cool. I love thinking about how Grandpa Reid´s influence has been spread all over the world by his descendants who have served missions and served in the Church. And now with Uncle Dean´s new calling (I just found out and am seriously so excited for him and Aunt Anette!! That´s awesome!) missionaries all around the world, and in turn, their investigators, will be influenced by the faith of Reid Burgess. 

You´re right Mom, I definitely got more sleep than any of you on New Year´s Eve! We had to be in the apartment by 6:00, so after planning we ordered a Domino´s pizza and watched ¨Mountain of the Lord¨. We threw the confetti that you sent me at 10; I told my companion we were celebrating New York time, like you always told us when we were little. Then on New Years Day we had a great activity with all of the sisters here in Durango. I realized during the activity how lucky I feel to be here in Durango, and in the Mexico Torreón Mission. There are only about 50 sister missionaries in the mission; 16 of us are here in Durango, and only 3 of us are Americans. (One of the other sister missionaries here, Hermana Holder, is from the Clawson´s home stake in California!) Anyway, during the activity we had a devotional on goal setting that was super powerful, and then a few other sisters and I made pancakes for everyone while the others played a few games. We ended by playing Assasin all together. It was a great day!

We also had companion exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders this week. Everything they taught us reallly helped Hermana Quispe and I set goals and make changes that will help our area. This week we found a few new investigators who are genuinely interested in the Church and we´ll be working with them a lot this week to help them prepare for baptism. I love this work, and I love all that it´s teaching me about how to really help people build a strong testimony. We had a family home evening last night with la familia Bermudez Guereca (Diana and Elvira, two recent converts, and Roque, Diana´s husband) and la familia Soriano Chacón (a young married couple who are members) and we talked about what a testimony is and how we strengthen ours. We read portions from President Uchtdorf´s conference talk from this October and I love that he said that we don´t need to be perfect or have a perfect testimony in order to go to Church. We go to Church to obtain a testimony. I know that we can only obtain a testimony of a principle by living that principle, which is why it´s so important that we read our scriptures, go to Church, pray, keep the commandments, etc. By small and simple things are great things brought to pass!

I love you all so much and hope you have a great week. I know that our Redeemer lives and that He loves us. I am so grateful to be a part of His work!

Love,

Hermana Southard