March Pictures - 2

 Saying good-bye to Herman Mendoza, first companion in Mexico.

 With new companion, Hermana Torres

 Hermanas T-shirts from Hermana Missi

"I"m a Mormon; I know it; I love it; I live it."

March 17, 2014 Letter

Hola familia!

First of all, TRANSFERS! Hermana Mendoza went to Mexicali and my new companion is Hermana Torres. She has about 9 months in the mission. She is from Queretaro, but she also lived in the US, in Georgia, for 11 years and speaks English. It'll be weird having a companion who speaks English, but we're going to keep speaking SPanish most of the time anyway. I miss Hermana Mendoza but I am excited for what this transfer will bring and for the opportunity to learn from another missionary as well. 

 

This week we had a zone training and I really enjoyed it. We talked about our goals and how our zone is going to break records this month. I am excited about that. Our zone leaders are really awesome and I love learning from them. I am always really excited to work harder and more diligently in order to meet our goals and help people know the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

About a week and a half ago we contacted a woman walking in the street and she was super receptive and said we could come visit her. We had a lesson with her on Tuesday and it turns out that her "husband" (not actually married...) is a member and even served a mission, but has been inactive for more than 10 years, but he wants to come back to church. They are really great people and they had also talked before about how they want to be an eternal family. :) I am so excited to teach them and work with them, help them reach their goal of being sealed as a family in the temple! 

 

On Thursday we got a phone call from Hermana Missi (one of my many favorite members here) and asked if we could all ( the four missionaries) be at her house at 8. We went and she had a surprise for us: t-shirts! She made t-shirts for us at a place in California. On the front it has a missionary badge personalized with our names and on back it says, "I'm a Mormon. I know it. I live it. I love it." in Spanish. I love it sooo much! I'll send pictures. 

 

Well I don't have much more time, and it's difficult for me to translate my thoughts into English. haha I love you all! Have an excellent week! Come what may and love it!

Dad- Thanks for the email! I'm pretty sure I'm not going to do anything special for St. Patrick's Day, but who knows. haha. I'm excited that you are doing such great missionary work! You are awesome dad. I love you!

Mom- Thanks so much for the photos!! I love you!

Love, 

Hermana Loveland

March Pictures - 1

 Las Hermanas de Playas

 Carlos' baptism

 Hermana Urbina, Serena's MTC companion

Zone Conference

Miracles!

My lovely family!

How are you? Thanks as always for the letters and updates. I love my family a TON. Thanks for being so great. :) 

So this week has been a week of miracles. But I'll get back to those in a little bit. First of all on Wednesday we had our conference with Presidente Carreon. I loved it. I love learning from our leaders, feeling the spirit and of course being with a bunch of other missionaries. All of the new missionaries and departing missionaries got to share their testimonies, and since we didn't do it in January, that included me too. :) Presidente Carreon talked a lot about the Sabbath Day. That's something lots are struggling with here, is getting investigators to sacrament meeting. We talked about the importance of the Sabbath Day and especially partaking of the sacrament. He talked about the sacrament prayers and how we can apply them in our lives and help our investigators apply them as well. I really enjoyed the conference. It's super cool to be able to be go and learn and feel the spirit and be super excited about missionary work, but the trick is applying it when we get back to our areas. But we can do it! 

I also got some letters that day, which I was very excited about! Just a reminder to use the San Ysidro address, because I get letters a lot faster that way! 

Okay so for the miracles, C was baptized and confirmed this week! Woohoo! The baptismal service was great. I love this ward! C was kinda nervous at first, but he has a lot of faith and knew that it was the right choice. I'm so happy for him! Raul was not baptized this week becuase he didn't feel ready, BUT he has a goal for this Saturday. :) He also has lots of support from the ward here especially the young mens leaders, which is great.

Another miracle: remember A? She recently married a member and she's been going to church for months but wanted to receive her answer and KNOW that the Church is true and this is what God wants for her. On Sunday she came up to us and said she had news for us. She said, "I'm ready to be baptized." Woohoo! We are VERY excited for her. She is going to be baptized on March 18th. We don't know the whole story, but that she received an answer and KNOWS that the Church is true. She is so great. :)

The Lord is truly blessing us here in Playas, and I know that as we work harder and more diligently He will bless us even more.

We haven't been able to visit M this week, but we'll be in contact with her this week and we're hoping she'll be able to come to church next week.

G came to church this week. He is awesome. He really enjoyed being there and learning more. 

A less active famlily we've been working with are S, who is 27 and her two sons, J and D who are 7 and 1 and a half. I love them. They are really funny. A week ago on Sunday we have a family home evening with them and a family in the ward which was really cool and fun. They are always so excited to learn more about the gospel. 

So yesterday with daylight savings time, we forgot to change the clock on Saturday night...oops. But our district leader called us at 6:40 AM to make sure we were awake, which was much appreciated! The attendance in sacrament meeting was down a little, and lots of people showed up late, oh well. haha.

I hope you all have an incredible week! Keep smiling! Also, next week is transfers, so that should be exciting. Most likely Hermana Mendoza will be leaving, though we never know for sure. I'll be sure to let you know!

Come what may and love it!

 

Mom- I'm glad you guys feed the missionaries a lot, that's awesome. Missionaries are pretty cool ;) Thanks for everything Mom! I love you! Also if you could send me some pictures every once in a while of my siblings (and nieces!) so that I can recognize them when I get back, that would be great. I have a feeling they keep growing and growing!

Dad- That youth conference sounds pretty awesome, I wish I could be there! I have lots of fond memories from Youth Conferences in the Oregon City Stake :) I'm excited you get to go to general conference and your mission reunion! Have lots of fun!

Ross, Jeremy, Autumn, and Wesley- I hope you haven't forgotten about your sister on a mission! :P I love you!

Love,Ena :)

Here's my address again in case you need it:

Serena Jane Loveland

Mision Mexico Tijuana

PO Box 439056

PMB 157

San Ysidro, CA 92143-9056

March 3, 2014 letter

I can't believe it's March already!

 

First of all, Happy birthday to my adorable niece, Aoife! I hope you have a great birthday tomorrow. :)

This weekend we had some crazy weather. On Friday it rained like crazy and they actually cancelled our zone conference we were going to have that day. THere was lots of rain and wind and that afternoon was an adventure. We got a little soaked, but it's all good. It was fun. I'll send some photos today.

 

R and C are doing great! Their baptism is this Saturday and they are excited. I am too! 

On Wednesday, we stopped by to visit S and she told us that she'd been talking to her niece who is Christian and was saying that she shouldn't listen to us or go to our church, she doesn't need to change her religion and stuff like that. She told us she didn't like to say it, but she wasn't going to be able to come to church with us. It broke our hearts. :( She did say that we are still her friends and once she get moved in to her new apartment she's going to invite us over. There's still hope but it was very hard to hear. 

But then on Thursday we contacted a woman named M and she is amazing! Turns out she has a brother who lives in Ciudad de Mexico and he's a member of the church, a bishop actually. She is very sweet and excited to learn more and come to church. I love her! We couldn't stop smiling the whole day because of how happy we were. She couldn't come to church this week, but she'll be there next week. :)

 

Also on Thursday we had an activity at the church and a few people just showed up for the first time. They just moved here from Guatemala and had passed by the church before but it was always closed. THey went to church for about a year and listened to the missionaries, but were never baptized. The mom is S and her daughter is E who is 16 or 17. We taught E on Saturday. She is great. :) Since she's heard the lessons before she knows them pretty well and was pracitically reciting the First Vision with me. haha. She says she loves the church and the people and the values and standards, but she wants to be really sure before she is baptized. I hope we can help her know how to gain the testimony she's looking for. :)

 

M is also doing well, and we are teaching her friend G. They are both really wonderful and progressing well. The slight challenge we have with them, and with many is church attendance. It's so important that investigators can come to church. Also here in Mexico they standard from the Area Presidency is that investigators come 5 Sundays before their baptism. This is to help with retention and help them really be converted. But sometimes it's tough. But we'll keep working and doing our part to help them get there. :)

I love you! Have a terrific week!

Dad- Thanks for the portuguese...haha I prefer Spanish :P You are always such a great example of service! And member missionary work! That's the best. :)

Mom- Thanks for the updates and photos! And yeah, I really do have to translate when I write and English is getter harder and harder. haha :) The downstairs looks great! Is it warmer down there now or do you just bundle up to work? 

Love,

Hermana Serena

Feb. 24, 2014 Letter

Hello everyone!

I hope you all are doing well. Thanks again for the letters and updates! 

 

No, S didn't make it to church, though we were really sure she was going to be there! Who knows what happened. But next week they should be living in Playas again so we'll go by and bring them ourselves. :) 

 

Also A came! I guess she didn't end up going out of town and she started a new job instead. We'll have to see when we can visit her again. :)

 

R and C are doing well. And yes, there is a great youth program in this ward! The leaders are awesome and the youth are great too. They aren't a ton of youth, but it's growing. :)

 

On Thursday it was Hermana Mendoza's "cumpleaños" in the mission, as in she's been on her mission for a year now! We ate that day with the Ceron family again and Hermana Ceron bought a cake and put little flags with the amount of time we each have so we could take pictures. :) It was cute. I'll try to send the pictures today.

 

Okay Mom, you said you wanted to know more about my companion. Hermana M is the 6th of 7 kids and the first to go on a mission. Her whole family are members, except her dad. And her older siblings are not active in the church. But she's great! I've learned a lot from her. She is a great missionary and seems to know what she's doing here. :) We get along pretty well. I think sometimes we try each other's patience a little, because when you spend 24/7 with someone there are going to be things you don't understand or like, plus trying to express myself in Spanish was tough at first, but that's gotten better as I've learned more. And it's all part of the missionary experience. :) Our district is really great too. Every companionship right now is a mexicano training a gringo. haha it's pretty fun. 

 

I feel like this letter is really lacking, but I don't know what else to add and I don't have much time. Sorry! Please know that I love you all soooo much! I am loving my time in Mexico serving the Lord. I know I still have a lot to learn and improve, but this is the work of the Lord and I know He will help me. 

 

I love you all! Have a grrrrrrrrreat week! 

 

Come what may and love it!

Mom- Yep, I received the package this week, thanks! I'm glad you are having a great time in California.

Dad- We don't have transfers here until March 17th. That's crazy that your won't have the Y to visit anymore. I think you've been their home teacher forever! Thanks for the updates as always. I love you!

Grandma J- Thanks for the email! I haven't received my Valentine from you yet, but I imagine I'll get it soon. THank you! Thanks for the updates too. I love hearing from you. I love you! (Love, your favorite oldest granddaughter :) )

I love you!

Love,

Hermana Loveland