Week 40

5/4/15

Hello family!  Sending you lots of hellos from Lompoc and happy May!  I can't believe that we are already in May.  I feel like just last week was Christmas.  But oh well.  I hope that you are all enjoying all of the blessings that our Heavenly Father has for you.

This week was so good, like always :)

We had exchanges and I got to work with Hermana Costilla this time!  And we stayed in Lompoc.  Well, we went to Solvang for the day and it was so cool to be there again.  Since we live in Lompoc now, we don't get to go there very often.  But we found a family from Honduras that are so cool!  The mother, Berta, was already being taught by some missionaries a year ago, but when they moved, she lost contact with the missionaries.  Her and her children have a great desire to follow Christ and do what He want for them.

We have a less active member, Tomas, that we went to visit and told us that he wants to go back to the Catholic church because he's not sure if he still has a testimony.  We had a really spiritual and good discussion with him about prayer and how our Heavenly Father answers prayers.  We are planning on teaching the discussions again.  We hope that this will help him a lot.

On Sunday, some 8 year old twins got baptized and that was their birthday.  The missionary who baptized their mom 2 years ago, came to baptize the girls.  It was so cool to be there and see how much the members love the missionaries who serve there.  Even 2 years ago.  And also to see the love this brother has for each one of the members.

Okay, to finish, yesterday we went to the Uribe's house and they had their family there.  Hermano Uribe was with the family outside and we were inside with Hermana Uribe, her daughter Lili, and some of the daughter's friends.  We had a really cool discussion about the weaknesses that our Father in Heaven gives us, and about the trials that we face and how we can face them with the help of our Father in Heaven.  It was super cool!

I want to finish with a scripture that our District leader Elder Lee sent us after a really hard day, it is D&C 112:10-11

10 Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers.

 11 I know thy heart, and have heard thy prayers concerning thy brethren. Be not partial towards them in love above many others, but let thy love be for them as for thyself; and let thy love abound unto all men, and unto all who love my name.

He didn't know that it had been a hard day or anything, but I am greatful to have leaders so inspired like him, Presidente Felix, and our Hermanas Trainers.

Thank you for everything thing, and don't forget to call your mothers to tell them thank you for giving you life and for all that they do for you :)  I love you all!

- Hermana Cuevas Da Silva ♥

Me and Hermana Costilla

Our bunk beds and some lips Hermana Zarate made me buy

The District! from left to right, Elder Moreno, Elder Herrera, Elder Lee, Elder Bautista, me and Hermana Zarate

Week 39

4/27/15

Okay family.  I don't have much time, but we'll see how it goes.

We are living in Lompoc and I love it!!  The Spanish group here is so excited to have us and we also have 4 elders as well.  So 6 missionaries for the Spanish group and it's almost a branch now :D  There are so many good things happening here.  The Lord really has been preparing His children and we are so blessed to be able to help them return to Him!

I love my district.  There are only us 6 missionaries for the Group but they are all so good.  I don't have a picture with them, but next week I will send one.  Since we are all missionaries that speak Spanish we have our meetings in Spanish.  This has never happened to me so far, so it felt a little weird, but I love it :)  I just remember that the Gospel is universal and it doesn't matter what language we are speaking, but we can always feel the Spirit.

This week we went with the Uribe family.  There are a couple that we have been teaching for a while but they have not been progressing.  In this last discussion Hermana Uribe said his first prayer!  It was so special and it was a really cool moment for them as well.

Okay, to finish....our district leader asked us to pick a scripture for us to focus on during this transfer.  I picked D&C 68:6 that says:

6 Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come.

I know that our Heavenly Father loves us and that He is always with us.  I am so thankful to be able to have this time that I can tesitify of Him and of His love everyday.  I love you all so much and I hope that you have a great week!

- Hermana Cuevas Da Silva ♥

Look what we found on the streets of Lompoc

Week 38

4/20/15

Good morning family!  Sending you a great big hug!  I hope that our Father in Heaven is taking care of you and blessing you everyday.

Well, to start, TRANSFERS:  I am going to stay in my same areas of Solvang and Lompoc and I am going to stay with Hermana Zarate.  But we are going to change apartments!  My new address is:

401 W. Vine #130

Lompoc, CA 93436

And also, now we're not going to be the the ward in Solvang :( Just with the Spanish group in Lompoc.  I am super excited to be working only in Spanish, but I am also sad to leave the members here in Solvang.  These last 3 months here with them have been so good and I am excited to serve another 6 weeks here.

Well, Blake left for BYU-I!  We are excited for her and we are hoping that everything will turn out and that she can meet lots of people and feel at home.

Ok, so last week we received a message from Presidente Felix letting us know that on April 19th everyone had to go to Ventura for a special mission meeting.  But his didn't tell us why.  We yesterday we drove to Ventura and everyone was there.  It was so cool to see Hermana Shepherd, Hermana Clark, and all of my friends :)  So we were there sitting, just waiting when Presidnete Felix came in with David Archuleta.  It was so weird and so cool!  Turns out that David had to do something in Los Angeles today and he wanted to visit the missionaries first.  So we talked with Presidente Felix and he said it was ok.  We had a devotional and it was such a cool experience.  He sang a few songs and shared some of his experiences from his mission and from his life.  My favorite part of the program was when he shared Alma 37:6-7

6 Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.

 7 And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very smallmeans the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.

It's the little things that we do that make such a big difference.  Sometimes we don't realize but after a while we can look back and see the difference then and now.  After that he sang "Come, Come, Ye Saints" and he was singing in English and then on the third verse he sang it in Spanish and then spirit was so strong there.  I have heard and sung that song many times but when he sang the words, "All is well" I felt in my heart that these words came from our Heavenly Father.  And that He was telling me that everything was going to be alright.  Even when we feel that everything is hard and we feel alone and frustrated, everything is going to be alright.

Here is a video of Daivd singing a song that he sang to us yesterday.

http://www.mormon.org/blog/david-archuleta-glorious-music-video

I love you all so much, have a great week!!

- Hermana Cuevas Da Silva ♥

Blake on her last day

Our ward mission leader Hermano Mathews and his family

Hermana Mathews mother.....Hermana Mathews

Week 37

4/13/15

Hi!!!

Okay, this week was soooo good.  To start, we went on a hike with our zone and it was so fun and it was so good to just go and walk with great people for a while.

Then, on Tuesday we had exchanges.  I got to go to Santa Maria!! And I worked with Hermana Killpack (for the third time)  Oh how I enjoyed to return to my area and see how things have changed!  I also really enjoyed working the Hermana Killpack again.  Since it was our third time working together we say we are companions now.  It was so nice to talk to her about less active members that I remember working with, who are now active and have callings and are working hard to help with the work.  It was a day full of miracles and lots of hugs seeing my friends there.

Then on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday we were in Lompoc.  We saw so many miracles there as well.  Hermana Zarate and I have been working on being completely obedient to all of the mission rules and we have seen the blessings.  We have been able to find many people in Lompoc and all of the people that we have talked to have been so ready to hear the gospel.

Jose came to the sports night and it was so cool to see the members show him how much they love him and have missed him at church.  I feel like little by little he will return and realize how much we need him at church.  Oh, we were also playing futbol and Hermana Zarate and I were the goalies.  We got hit so many times with the ball!  But it was ok because they didn't make any goals!

Then on Saturday after seeing lots of people, we went to eat with Arturo.  He is doing so much better, and he even came to church yesterday with Jackson and Isabel (his children).  But on Saturday after eating (some delicious enchiladas) we were heading to the other room to teach a discussion with Arturo when some of his mom's friends who were also visiting asked us if we were going to share the Word of God (its somthing everyone says here) and Arturo said yes and they asked if they could stay a listen to the discussion as well.  We told them obviously yes that they could!  And we had a really nice discussion!  We shared about the Book of Mormon and about Temples and we showed the video about He Lives.  They loved the video and everything we shared.  They are from Los Angeles so we gave them a copy of the Book of Mormon and then we invited them to go the Temple and to go to the visitors center.

Also yesterday after trying to find somebody at home, we thought about Juana, a less active member.  When we got to her house, come to find out that she was not feeling very good and wanted to give up.  She sang a hymn to her and after talking a little while, she told us how grateful she was and told us that we were the answer to her prayers in that moment.

I love this work and love being an instrument in the Lord's hands.  I know that we didn't do anything except be obedient and be prepared.  The Lord is the one who does the rest.

I love being a missionary and I so thankful for the opportunity that I have to work everyday in the Lord's work and to be part of so many miracles and blessings.  I invite to you to read the Book of Mormon everyday.  This is the other thing that really helped us this week.  I promise you that you will see a change in your lives.

With lots of love!  Have a great week :)

Our P-Day

Exchanges with Hermana Killpack and Hermana Costilla

When we went to the park

Us with Jackson

Week 36

4/6/15

Hi Family!!

I hope that you all enjoyed your weekend full of inspired talks by inspired men and women.  I also hope you all enjoyed Easter with your friends and families.

I really enjoyed every session of conference.  It is so interesting to hear and see what we need at this time.  My favorite talks were from Elder Gerald Causee who spoke about how sometimes we don't appreciate the things closest around us.  It really made me think how much we really should love the gospel.  If our car broke down, would we walk 15 minutes to get to church?  When we really love this gospel and are faithful we would.  We would do everything possible to have the gospel as a part of our lives.

I also really liked the talk by Elder Brent H. Nielson.  It made me think of so many different people who have decided to leave the church and we don't know how to help them.  But I know that sometimes the best thing we can do is let them leave.  And just as Elder Nielson said, we have to observe, wait, and the most important thing...let them know how much we love them.

And Elder Holland.  This man speaks with such power and authority.  I love it.  His story about the boy who was about to fall made me cry.  I know that our Father in Heaven ALWAYS is there waiting for the moment when we are about to fall and rescue us.  He will never let us fail.

Arturo is doing much better, he looks more happy and at peace.  Even though he has so many problems, he knows that he needs to take time for the Lord and He will help him with his problems.

This week we had a discussion with Jose (a less active member) and Hermano Mathews (our missionary leader for the ward) and it was so cool!!  Hermano Mathews is such a good teacher and it was so cool to be able to be there and see him teach Jose with such love and patience.  We are so happy because now we are friends.  Jose also came to church for one session of conference!! It was so cool.  Jose has not come to church in so long and he told us how good it felt to be there again.

Well family, I love you all so much, I pray for you all and I know that when we align our will with the Lord's will He will bless us and we will have so much joy in our lives.

-Hermana Cuevas Da Silva ♥

Week 35

3/30/15

Hi Family! Sending you lots of hugs and greetings again.

I hope that you all have been having a good week :)  And that you have been preparing for General Conference and Easter!!  If you have not watch the videos that the Church has made for Easter you have to watch them right now!

Ingles: http://www.mormon.org/easter

Español:  http://www.mormon.org/spa/pascua

Well, this week was so good for us!

On Tuesdays we have English classes and this week Eric and Jose came.  Eric got baptized one year ago but has not yet receive the Priesthood.  But he comes to church every Sunday and is really good. Jose was baptized 5 years ago and is less active.  He doesn't come to church because he works on a ranch and he has to take care of the animals.  But he has been coming to the English classes and the sports nights....now he just needs to come to church on Sunday.  But since they already know a lot of English we have been reading from the Book of Mormon in English.  We asked them where they wanted to start reading the Eric said he wanted to practice the sacrament prayers since he needs to learn them.  It was really cool because we were able to read and talk about the importance of the Sacrament and of the church.

Then, yesterday at church they announced that Eric is going to receive the Priesthood!!  So after the meeting we will meet with the Bishop and some other members and Eric will get the Priesthood.  You could really see how happy he was and that he knows it is a great responsibility, and that he will be able to bless his family and all those around him.  We are so excited to see his progress.

Okay, Arturo came back home!  We have been able to go see him at home every day with week.  He came back on Tuesday and he was the first person we went to see.  He came back different.  While he was in Colorado, he went through a lot of things and difficulties, and when we saw him, he wasn't the same person as before.  It seems as though he lost the beautiful spirit that he had before.  He is going through a lot and we are trying to help him feel Jesus Christ's and our Heavenly Father's love for him.  We are also trying to help him see how he can be happy again thanks to the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  He already changed once, and we know that he can do it again.

And to finish, we saw the Women's Conference this weekend and during President Eyring I could feel the spirit so strong.  I know that our Heavenly Father never leaves alone.  I could remember difficult times that I have had on my mission and how I have felt totally alone.  But as I remembered those times I could see and remember that I was never really alone.  Our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost have been with me every moment along the way.  I know that the Holy Ghost  is always there.  I know that He takes care of us and that He takes care of me every step of our lives.

Always look for Jesus Christ and His love.  He is always waiting with open arms.

I love you all and hope that this weekend you enjoy General Conference.  Go with questions and I promise you will get answers.

With lots of love,

Hermana Cuevas Da Silva ♥

The sisters from Lompoc came last Monday to see Solvang.

The Elder's investigator (Anthony) drew my name!

Week 34

3/23/15

H family and friends!  Sending you a great big hug from Solvang California :)

Well, this week was a great week!  Ok so, Blake is going to Idaho in two weeks to study at BYU.  And since conference is coming up there isn't a day that she can be baptized.  So we don't think that she will get baptized before she goes to school.  But we know that she is ready to be baptized and that she will be baptized when the Lord wants.

This week they operated on Concha's knee so we wen to visit her.  We asked her if she was reading the Book of Mormon and has been praying to know if it is true.  She stood there looking at us and said, "yes hermanas, I have read it everyday and I know that it comes from God.  I know that it is true" ah, it was super cool!!  She wants to keep learning more and she is SO ready!  The Lord really has been preparing her all this time.  We also went to see Hermana Ballentine (she is the one who told us to visit Concha) and she told us that Concha went to visit her and she couldn't stop saying thank you for sending the Gospel to her life.

We had a discussion with Eric this week.  He was baptized a year ago but never got the Priesthood.  So we are working with him and with the Bishop so that he can get it :)  We are also going to start working on his family history so he can go to the Temple :D

Okay!!  So last Sunday Hermana Speceiro told us that she wanted us to meet one of her friends.  Saturday we went to eat lunch with him and his friend and the friend had SO many questions!!  We were able to teach about how the Gospel blesses our families, we talked about family history, and also about the Book of Mormon.  We gave him a copy and also a DVD that talks about Jesus Christ.  He was so happy and excited to learn more.

And yesterday 4 less active members came to church!! It was so cool to see them enter and talk with the other brothers and sisters and see them feel the love that you can feel being at the church :)

I love you all and I hope that this week is full of opportunities to serve others :)
Always follow Jesus Christ's example ♥

Never forget that our Heavenly Father loves you and listens to you at all times :)

Kisses!! ♥

Hermana Cuevas Da Silva

Enjoying Spring