Happy Are We! and One Year Older and Wiser Too! 

  From the Pines:

 

Hello Po Family and Friends!!!

 Hope you all had a great week!!!!! Sending you all my love best wishes!!!!! How was your week?? What is new and exciting with you??? 

Well of course Sister Untong and I had a great week here in Dagupan!! It was really hot most days but we were blessed with rain too so we are happy ahaha

We saw many challenges this week. In the lives of those we are teaching and of course in our own but we are ALL happy and growing in conversion everyday!!!!

Getting to know the new area continues to be a challenge but a lot of fun!!! We notice the help from our Heavenly Father everyday!!! Constantly, we are being pulled and stretched but we are always finding that we can handle and do more than what we thought (: 

Not too much again to report. Oh! I went back to Bayambang this past week!!! Did I ever tell you about the Perido Family? Sister Emy is the mothers name...anyway they are getting baptized on the 25!!!! I am so excited for them!!!! Sister Emy and 3 of her daughters are getting baptized!!!! Sister Hansen and I started to teach them towards the end of the transfer back in Aug!! I was so excited to hear that they are progressing!!! The work is awesome!!!!!!!!

Okay well I better go, my hour is almost up if it is not already...haha I love you all so much!!! Please have a great and safe week!!!! I will write again next week!!!!! 

Mahal na Mahal Kita!!!! I'll be home for Christmas!!!!

Mahal,

 Sister Carr

Dagupan Zone

There's a little BBQ stand that I just love and this is the pond where they catch the fish.

Sister Espartero and Sister Carr at the fishing hole

Me and Sister McLain at our investigator Dorie's house. Dorie is amazing we love her tons. And, yeah...I just had to make a silly face for the camera!

I can't get enough of these cute little kids. She's making a fish face for the camera...so adorable!

Hanging with great people from the church

This little guy is so adorable. All smiles and hugs for the camera.

We met these two cute girls on our way home one evening after teaching. 

Me and my current companion Sister Untong. She's totally awesome!!

One of my favorite little BBQ stands where I love to eat.

I told the cute little lady that runs the stand to take a break and that I would cook for her.

My three words

Sister Carr and Untong

Sisters sharing their 3 words

At zone conference they always feed us so well, both spiritually and physically.

Enjoying good food with some great sisters!

Sisters gotta have some sweet treats!

Sister Untong and I share an apartment with these other lovely sisters. We all get along really well.

Sister Gus and me

This picture was taking early on in my mission. I was with Sister Merrill and was just doing what missionaries do, serving.

The city I'm in sits at close to below sea level. Many of its streets get flooded, especially during high tide. We try to stay away from the flood waters as much as we can, but sometimes it's unavoidable.

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From Mexico:  It's been 1 year!!

Some cool street art

Street flooding in our little town. The rains come down hard and flood most of the streets, but don't worry we are always being safe.

I got to go back and visit one of my old areas and got to see some church members there. I loved visiting with them and really miss them.

Visiting with some friends from church

 

My heart burst with the spirit and my testimony was strengthened as I watched this family hug each other at the end of the sealing, all three of them weeping for joy. I know without a doubt that families can be together forever :)  Thank you mom and dad for having been worthy to participate in such a sacred and special ordinance so that we may have an eternal family! 

I got to see this beautiful family be sealed together in the Merida Temple. It was such an amazing experience.

It's always great to get a little "love package" from home! I got this today and as you can see I'm pretty excited!! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Dear Familia,

 I remember the morning I left the house to go to the airport. I remember it perfectly. I can´t believe 365 days have past since that morning. Increíble.....

Time has become an interesting thing to me. Haha. I´m starting understand why we say: ¨This life is but a small moment in comparison to eternity.¨ But let´s not focus too much on that. 

This week was really good. I think I say that about every week just because every week I learn something new. Hermana Ludlam and I have recently been focusing on our ability to teach. This is a hard concept. Trying to understand how we must present the gospel so that the Spirit can enter into the heart of a person a testify of it´s truth is something that requires a little bit of thinking power. But most of all, it requires spiritual power. And that´s even more difficult. I am constantly learning what I must to do have the spirit. It´s not easy. And it´s not just as a missionary, it´s as a person in general. In order to have the spirit with us as a constant companion, we have to read the sciptures everyday, pray constantly, worthily participate in the sacrament each week, and be made pure through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I know you guys are doing these things, right? I definitely encourage you to keep doing them! Or to start doing them if you find you haven´t been doing so. Our Heavenly Father promises us that we will have the spirit to be with us if we do these things. I testify of that promise! 

I am seeing a difference as I put these things in practice for myself. Something that I´ve actually struggled with is trying to be fully guided by the Spirit. Somethings my mind wrestles back and forth between what I feel comfortable doing and what the Spirit tells me to do. It´s not an easy battle, but   I´m trying really really hard to let the Spirit win! Haha. And I can see that Heavenly Father is helping me sooooooooooo much! The other day Hermana Ludlam and I had a lesson with a new investigator named Jasmin. The first lesson we had with her wasn´t awful, but after evaluating, we could see where mistakes were made and what we needed to improve the next time. And Hermana Ludlam and I agreed that we weren´t teaching with the Spirit. The Spirit was present, but we weren´t letting it guide our teaching. So as we went to our second lesson with Jasmin, Hermana Ludlam and I discussed things that we needed to do so that the Spirit could more clearly testify to Jasmin that what we were teaching is true. What a difference! As we applied what we discussed, Hermana Ludlam and I taught in unison and with clarity, we asked questions, and Jasmin accepted a baptismal date! The lesson wasn´t perfect, but we know that Heavenly Father blessed us with revelation to know what to adjust so that we could be better. 

That was a good life lesson. Sometimes things don´t always go the way we want them to. We have to take the time to evaluate what happened and pray to know what we must change to be better. If we do so with faith, Heavenly Father blesses us with the revelation necessary to improve. Sometimes we have to be patient and wait until He knows we´re ready to receive such revelation, but it comes :) I think that´s awesome. 

So I´m sorry that my emails always end up sounding like talks given in sacrament meeting, but I can´t really give what we do each day cause it´s basically the same thing. We teach people about the gospel. Everyday. Sometimes we have random conferences. But that´s about it, haha. Of course we baptize every once in a while too. But I think the more important things are spiritual. So I like sharing that with you guys more. Hope that´s ok :) 

But seriously, the mission is the best. I love it soooo much! And I will always be grateful for my time as a missionary! However, I honestly do look forward to seeing you guys again and HUGGING you guys! I think that´s what I´m most excited about. Just hugging you all! Haha. But we´ve got 6 more months of work to go! I hope you all know how much I love each and every one of you! I will talk to you soon! 

Con Amor, 

Hermana Sarahbeara :) 

PS: Thank you for the package!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Oh, and my ¨mom¨, Hermana Nuñez is standing behind me and tells me to tell you all HOLA!!!!!!!! Haha.