So Much Happening!

Hermanas Castillo, Stewart, Lawrence, Jovel, and Jones

Hermana Lawrence's first four companions

Hello everyone! Can't believe it's already been another week!

Valentine's Day

Tuesday was Valentines day (and also my cumplemes!) So we celebrated with a super fancy dinner of tostadas, coke, ice cream, and heart suckers...It was super healthy too. haha 

So If you can remember weeks ago when I told you about Paulino! He has progressed SO much in the past two weeks. It is seriously so amazing! His story is a long one, but I don't have TONS of time...So here's my favorite parts: He was a man who liked his women, beer, smoking and coffee, but when we invited him to church and then he came, little did he know his life he liked was going to change for the better! He is giving up (or already has given up) all of these things so he can be baptized! He told us this week that when he wakes up at 2:00 in the morning and can't go back to sleep he reads his Book of Mormon (tear of happiness). Every time we pass him on the street he has a water in his hand (before it was always a beer). He has a really strong testimony! He is seriously a changed man and is continuing to change. He lives really close to the church and was telling us that for 30 years he has lived in this house and never vistited this church. He told us that the old bishop of this ward was one of his good friends but never talked to him about the gospel because he didn't seem like the kind of guy who would ever accept the gospel. This gave me a testimony to never judge someone by their cover and to never judge who will accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He had an interview with the bishop on friday night and then sunday he had his baptismal interview. There's a couple of things that still need to be worked out, so he has an interview with President Corbitt this week, but if all goes well he will be baptized on Saturday! :) 

We have been teaching a family, the Family Madrina, and they are the cutest ever! They are 5 little girls and ADORABLE. We found them and they told us that they had missionaries before, but one day they just stopped coming. They had a Book of Mormon and everything. They love the hymns (we sing everytime we go) so I gave them a hymn book and in the front, Suleikey, wrote "from hermana Lawrence" so cute! The only problem is they live really far from the church building and their parents won't go to church and no members live by them so It is going to be difficult to get them to church.

Raider is another investigator that had a baptismal interview yesterday. He is 21 years old. So he didn't really know that we were coming with the Elder's (oops) BUT he passed and said that he wants to get baptized! Yay! He is another that had missionaries a long time ago, but they stopped going. He

also has 5 brothers that can get baptized...and his mom and dad...so we have a lot of work to do :) They were showing us pictures that they had with the Hermanas before!

Today for P day we went to SWEET FROG! So when we went to visit Sierra's misison, we went to a Sweet Frog. So when I saw this here in the DR I freaked out! haha funny :)

I tried two new things this week: charamusca in form of a popsicle and chicharon. They are both really yummy! I realized today as I was eating my mangu how normal it is to just eat plantains and rice and beans. Like, I can't even remember what I ate before plantains and rice and beans. What else is there?

Love you all! -Hermana Lawrence

Feliz Lunes! (Happy Monday!)

Hermana Lawrence / a guineo (banana) tree

Feliz Lunes! I hope everyone is doing Splendid!

So last Monday night we were talking to Ambar and she told us that a little calle close to her house lives someone that she would always go visit with the missionaries before but never got baptized. So I wrote that down in my agenda and we went on with our night because we didn't have time to go contact it in that moment. The next morning was SLOW. I feel like it always is super slow when you're having to show a new companion your area and you feel pressure. But, we went to some streets that I haven't been to before to contact and try to find new investigators. We weren't having much luck, so we started heading back to go visit a menos activo. As we were passing Ambar's street, I saw a woman hanging her clothes out to dry. I had the distinct promping to go and help her. I was about to push aside the prompting, but I just couldn't. We helped her hang up her clothes and then started to talk to her about our church. She told us that she wasn't interested, that she had talked to missionaries antes but she wasn't really interested right now. We asked her if she knew anyone else that would like to hear our message and she told us about missionaries going down the SAME little calle that ambar told us about. So of course we went to go down the street. The first house we came to there was a woman taking clothes down from a line. We said "Hola!" and then she told us to wait a minute. She went into her house and came back out. She had been crying a LOT. We started talking to her and she told us that she lost her son 6 months ago. We shared with her a little message and invited her to the Relief Society activity the next day. She said she would come and so we put another cita with her. Fast forward to the day of the activity: we went to go remind Yorlina about the activity, but she wasn't home. Her neighbor, however, Christina, was sitting outside and told us to come talk to her. Yorlina had invited Christina to the activity too! So we shared lessson one with her and then later that night brought them to the activity! It was absolutely wonderful! All the hermanas in the ward were so welcoming and the two of them loved it! Friday we had another lesson with the two of them and a member, Delia. Yorlina and Christina were talking about how they have never gotten baptized because in all the churches they have visited in their life, they never felt that they wanted to get baptized in those churches. The spirit was WAY strong in this lesson. Delia bore her testimony and it was absolutely perfect! Yorlina commented in this lesson "How did you guys find me?" Because that day that we first talked to her she was super sad and then we showed up and made her feel much better. We told her that we were sent by God :) haha We then invited them to be baptized on the 28th of THIS MONTH and they BOTH ACCEPTED. Yorlina told us that she works sundays, but she was going to quit her job and look for a different job just so she could come to church! Her and Christina came and they LOVED IT. Christina told the little kids that were being noisy in sacrament meeting to be quiet because she wanted to listen. This is definitely a milagro and a testimony builder to SIEMPRE listen to the spirit!

Kirsey, Ambar, and Nomar - I love this family!

AYE MI MADRE! Yesterday we went to Kirsey, Ambar and Nomar's house. I had told Nomar that he was going to teach US the first lesson (because he is going to go on a MISSION! YAYYYYYYY!) He brought out five things of his deodorant and a math book and a llama. I was a little bit confused at first. But then he used the 5 things as columnas in the church of Jesus Christ and showed everything in that! and then when it came to the part with Joseph Smith, he used the llama as Joseph Smith and used his cell phone light as the columna de luz and recited the first vision! IT WAS THE BEST THING EVER. I wanted to cry. Nomar has come such a long

ways. I remember when he didn't even want to get baptized and now he can teach the first lesson and he wants to serve a mission. I want to cry tears of JOY! I almost did! Gosh, this kid.

There was a mission reunion in our church building of missionaries from like 30 years ago in this mission. For lunch we went and got food and there were SO MANY WHITE PEOPLE. It was so weird. Everyone spoke english and were from Utah....haha. The mission president came and talked to us and told us that Hermanas are so much better than Elders. He made two of his Hermanas Assistants! Thats how much he likes hermanaS! 

So many other milagros this week! I love missionary work! I LOVE THIS GOSPEL. SE QUE ES VERDADERO. 

LOVE YOU ALL! Hermana Lawrence :)

Investigators with a quote on their house -

"My father is the king of the world, and I am the son of Him"

Hermana Lawrence, Nuris, Samaria, and Isagenie

Ya Febrero?

Wow! I can't believe that it is February already! So we had our transfers this week and my new

companion is Hna Jovel from El Salvador. She has 5 months in the mission (one transfer before me). I am excited to work hard with her in this area and have even more baptisms and bring more almas unto Christ!

Hermana Lawrence & Hermana Jovel

So our misson didn't reach our goal of 300 baptisms in January. Our misson baptized 255 people in January, which is still an amazing number (and it's not all about numbers...). When the misson first opened in 1990, there were 250 baptisms in that month, and up to this point that was the most in one month. We broke a record! Also my zone baptized 19 which is a record breaker also! But we're not giving up! We have the promise from our Heavenly Father that we are going to baptize 300 people in a month and we are going to achieve this! Our things that we have to do are:

1. Have EXCEPTIONAL Faith

2. Be EXACTLY obedient

3. Repent

4. Talk with EVERYONE and ask reference from EVERYONE (even those who reject us)

5. Work with the goals of our wards

We are promised if we do all these five things perfectly, we will be blessed with these 300 almas! 

We had a zone meeting with President Corbitt this past Friday and we recieved good news! ELDER NEIL ANDERSON IS COMING TO OUR MISSION IN MARCH! I am so super excited! CAN'T WAIT! 

LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOOO MUCH! Heavenly Father loves you MUCHO MUCHO!

Hna Lawrence

(The one picture is Yolanda Urena and her kids. She had her baby this past week and I couldn't but help think about my sobrino that is coming THIS MONTH. I'm kind of freaking out that I'm going to be an aunt!)

Answers to Prayers :)

So many awesome, weird, sad and AMAZING things this week! I can't put words to all of it!

So we had one investigator, Denny, who was 19 years old and really wanted to change! He had a baptism date for the begining of this month, but he got sick and so we couldn't go see him very often, so his fecha fell. We went to go see how he was doing at the begining of this week (very first thing we did of the day) and we walked up to his house and I saw candles with his picture next to them and flowers. I immediatly thought "uh oh" his mom was sitting there and so I went up and asked her how he was doing. She only replied two words: "Denny murió." He died two days previous. We could not even believe it! He was only 19 years old! So sad. We don't really know what exactly happened because it was really fresh for us to ask. But yeah. Later in the day while we were contacting a lady invited us into her house and gave us Sancocho and Avocado, so that made the hurt a little better :) It's interesting though, because the mom, Heidi, never was really interested. We only ever taught her one lesson...and that lesson was Plan of Salvation. 

On Thursday something strange happened. Every single cita we had planned was FIJA! Like they were all there when we had them planned. That's a miracle in and of itself!

Friday we had an AMAZING lesson with Rosa and Lucy, two investigators. I can't even begin to describe how happy this lesson made me. So the lesson previous they both accepted the fecha for the 4th of February. We had taught them Plan of Salvation and gave them folletos. In the back of folletos there are questions with scripture references from the book of Mormon and the Bible. Lucy had all the questions answered and things highlighted in the folleto and questions to ask us and her Libro de Mormón highlighted and everything! I have never seen anyone do this before! She was telling us that she was working on this at work and her co-worker told her she couldn't believe she was investigating the "mormon church." Lucy told her that she didn't care what she thought. WHAT? Aye mi madre! Rosa didn't do all that, but in the lesson Friday when she saw that Lucy was doing all that work, she was all like "i want to be better than Lucy" and started on her homework haha  They were waiting all week for us to return too! They had coke and cake for us! People always give us coke to drink! That is one thing I have had to learn to really like! haha

So Samarya told us on Friday that she needed more time to make the decision to get baptized. We told our District leader that in the phone call that night. The next day he called us at 3:00 and said that he and one of our zone leaders was coming to give her a baptism interview RIGHT NOW. We had no knowledge in advance. We were kind of nervous about that, becuase just the day before she had told us she needed more time. Luckily it all went well. The interview lasted TWO HOURS. I'm curious what they talked about, but now she has a fecha for next week. I have faith that it can happen. We were talking to Isagnie in those two hours and she KNOWS the book of mormon. Like she has read a ton of it and knows a lot. She was asking us how Joseph Smith died. We told her and she was like "WHAT? they did that to a prophet of God?" Too bad she is Catholic and crazy and doesn't want to be baptized... Since we already had the elders in our area, we took them to another one of our investigators, Paulino. He was drunk. It was terrible. haha

Anyway, Good week. I read something I really liked this week:

"Why does the Lord allow the evil speaking to chase after the good? One reason is that opposition against the things of God sends seekers of truth to their knees for answers...Spiritual questions deserve spiritual answers from God." -Neal L. Anderson

Don't be afraid to get on your knees and talk with Heavenly Father! He loves you! So do I! :)

Hermana Lawrence

P.S. I tried sugar cane for the first time this week! (see photo) It is good! And the other photos are Ambar and Esmerlyn and the fruit carts that are always around. Dang. I love those fruit carts.

Felize Dia de Duarte!

Okay, so Día de Duarte was on Thursday, but they always celebrate holidays on Mondays, So happy day today! 

But, really. This was one of the most stressful, exhausting, craziest, testimony-building, and rewarding weeks in my mission. I can't even begin to describe everything. Y'ALL DON'T EVEN KNOW! So first things first. Traslados: I am staying in my area and getting a new companion (another that doesn't speak english) Hna Stewart is also staying, but getting a new companion as well. I'm excited for another transfer! Yay! I'm really gonna miss the other two hnas, though. I truely love them!

So Wednesday we had a mission conference and we are having changes in all missions in schedules and Key indicators. I think the thing missionaries are most excited about is an extra two hours for P-day...haha. Wednesday I was thinking we weren't going to have any baptisms for this month. But in the night wed. we went to Smerlyn and I asked her what she was doing on Sunday. She said nothing. I asked her if she wanted to be baptized on sunday. and guess what? SHE SAID YES. If you remember, the begining of my mission she wanted to get baptized and her mom wouldn't give her permission. After that she kind of lost a desire

and started going to a different church. So it is a miracle that she had that desire otra vez. But permission from her mom was still a desafió. Her mom is always working and never home, so we showed up late on Friday night to her house and her mom was there! The elders convinced the mom to let them do a baptismal interview. She passed (of course) and the mom FINALLY gave permission! AHHHHHH It might have taken a little (lot) of persuasion, and we might have bought pica pollo for the mom, but It was all for a good cause. 

Edimar ad her brother, Ediel were our

investigators and we were about to drop them because they were never there for us to teach them, but they loved everything. They loved the church. But we went to them on Friday and they were like "we want to get baptized" so they had their interviews the same day and their mom, Mayri signed the papers! AND THEY got baptized too! SOOOO much went into these 3 baptisms and I am leaving so much out and I can't even tell you all my feelings and everything. AHHHHHHH And Mayri came to church on Sunday and she loved it and now she's going to be our next convert...even though she doesn't know it yet...haha

The other two baptisms that the other Hermanas had were people that Hna Castillo and I found and gave the refrences to them. Maryanyeli is a friend to one of our investigators, Ariagna. We asked her if she wanted missionaries and she said yes, and now she is baptized too! She's the cutest little 11 year old ever!

AND RICHARD. I have always heard stories like this, but I never thought something like this could happen to me! So we got a reference from other missionaries that said: "Richard: Caille Puerto Rico con Caille Costa Rica en frente de un cosa de muebles." and thats it. no phone number. no last name. no exact address. So one day we were trying to find this Richard. It was extremely difficult. We were trying for like an hour asking everyone in the streets, in colmados, EVERYONE. And no one knew anything. Really frustrating. So we decided to ask one more person. He told us to ask this guy that washes cars in our area because he knows everyone. So we went and he was washing this car. We asked him and he didn't know anyone. Ugh. BUT then the guy that was having his car washed was like, "Who are you looking for?" and we told him. and his name was RICHARD. But not the richard on our reference because this Richard lives in a different place. We gave him a pass-along card and invited him to church. Didn't think much of it past that, only that we thought it was funny. (the location of the car wash is in front of a couch (mueble) place....) He came to church that Sunday! The Hnas started to teach him and he was SO good So interested. 9 days after the Hnas started teaching him, He was BAPTIZED (sunday) He was telling us that the day before we talked to him he was feeling that he needed more in his life. And then we talked to him, and now he is a member! To this day, we still have not found the Richard from our reference, but I am convinced that he doesn't exist. This is a referal from God.

WOW. Okay. I feel like those explanations are not sufficient, but we saw SOOOOOOOOOOOOO

many miracles and I can't even describe everthing. But definitly one of the most stressful weeks. A few tears might have been shed(from happiness and stress)....haha!

Today for P-Day we went to Los Tres Ojos. Its a really beautiful cave water thingy. They filmed part of Jurassic Park there too! SUPER pretty (and I got to wear my chacos...always a good day when that happens.)

LOVE YOU ALLLLLLLLLLLLL. LOVE THIS WORKKKK.

Love, Hermana Lawrence

I love being a missionary!

I finally played baseball in República Dominicana! We were walking in the street and 3 boys, Michael, Jaime and Alexnis were playing with make-shift baseballs and a broom handle. We went up to them and said "we want to play!"so they let us try and of course I hit it out of the park ;) haha they were impressed and we talked to them for a while about the church and everything and they have SO much potential. It's definitly the most fun way I've contacted yet! We have a cita with them tomorrow!

Last monday when we were out we were heading back to the house in a hurry and then a guy from his car yelled (in english) "hey! Where are you going?" We kept walking because we thought he was just another freco, but he was pretty persistent and in my mind I thought "hablar con todas"so we went over to him and started talking to him. He would only talk in broken english and I would respond in spanish because I wanted Hna Castillo to understand. He seemed pretty freco, so we just gave him a pass-along card with our names and the direction to the church and invited him to church. Didn't think much of it. Fast forward to Sunday. We were sitting in sacrament meeting and a guy walks in that isn't a member and none of us recognize him. He sits in the very front row and then starts looking around. He turned around and started waving at me. I had no clue who he was! So time went on and sunday was fast and testimony meeting. HE GOT UP TO THE PULPIT. He got up there and said "This is my first week here. I was invited by (and he holds up the card) Hermana Lawrence and Hermana Castillo. Thank you" and then he sat down. Hna castillo and I looked at each other in terror because we could not for the life of us remember who he was. After the meeting we were talking to him and asked him where we talked to him and he said he was the taxista! Ah. So embarassing. But so wierd. Anyway, milagro.We also had many more milagro investigators in the church on Sunday! I am so happy about all of them!

This morning we went and visited a contact and we sat down and started como comenzar ensenar (prepare to start teaching) and everything. I had the prompting to share el plan de salvación. She had no clue that we even existed before this life! I love being a missionary and teaching these amazing gospel principles to people! I love seeing their faces light up! And then when we got to after we die, she started crying. We were talking to her and she shared with us her story. About 3 months ago her husband went missing and then a while later they found him dead. She (obviously) is still really heartbroken. We shared our testimonies (with tears) that she will be able to see her husband again! It was actually difficult to talk through my tears haha The spirit was so strong! I love the message of hope this gospel brings! ❤   

I read a quote this week that I really liked: "That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed, but that our power to DO is increased" -Ralph Waldo Emerson

I hope everyone has the best week ever! I love you all! 

Hermana Lawrence

Feliz Ano Nuevo!

I hope all of you had the happiest of New Years! Mine was incredible. On New years eve (saturday) we had a last minute meeting with President Corbitt and it was AMAZING. I learned so much and it was a great pump-up for us all. We have the promise that our mission will baptize 300 almas in the month of January, which is crazy, but it will happen with our fe excepcional! President Corbitt is really the best. Then in the night we went to a members house for dinner (weirdly enough, we had more invitations for new years eve dinner than we did christmas..) and we got to eat SANCOCHO!!!! AH! I have missed eating this wonderful soup! Then in the night, the other hnas came into our room at midnight and yelled FELIZ ANO NUEVO! and then they watched the crazy fireworks....I didn't hear any of this...so I didn't wake up. So my new years eve was spent sleeping..haha I guess I was tired.

One morning when Hna Castillo and I went out, we saw 7 (Thats right, SEVEN) Jehova's Witnesses within like 5 minutes. They are everywhere! Luckly we have a message that is true so we need not fear!

One thing that we are supposed to do is hablar con todas (talk to everyone). Saturday morning we were walking in the street and decided to talk to this guy because we're supposed to talk to everyone, right. Usually we wouldn't have talked to him because he looked pretty sketchy, but hablar con todas! We invited him to church on sunday. HE CAME! Aye mi madre. Seriously a miracle! He even walked with some members he found on the way! Us 4 hnas gave talks in sacrament meeting about the plan of salvación and after the meeting we talked to him and he said he wanted to learn more! He had never heard of this before and he loved it! MILAGROS!

Sunday Dinner! :-(

Well, LOVE YOU ALL! The picture with popcorn is really funny because we got to the night on

sunday and realized we didn't have any food but popcorn (and a couple of almonds) haha. Luckily we found more food in our cupboards and made a fancy dinner of rice, tuna and hard boiled eggs. Oh, the life of a missonary. It's grand! (But really, i love it) Don't worry though. We went grocery shopping today! :)

Love,
Hermana Lawrence