Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Last Week...!!!!!!

Dear Family,

This is the last email that you will recieve from me, because I will be traveling to the city next Monday and there really is no reason to write... because I will see yall on Wednesday. Because this is my last email, I would just like to leave yall with a portion of my testimony:

Mi misión ha sido unas de las mas grandes bendiciones en mi vida. Yo he visto como he cambiado, y como me he acercaba al Señor. Amo el Señor. Yo sé que me ha cuidado, y que me ama, y que me ha fortalecido. Yo he visto tantos milagros en mi misión, no puedo negarlo. Yo sé que ésta es la iglesia verdadera. No hay otra. El Sacerdocio es real, sé que es el poder de Dios. Sé con toda certeza que el Libro de Mormón es verdadero, es tan perfecto. Yo sé que por medio del Evangelio y los templos podemos lograr nuestra Exaltación y vivir juntos para siempre. 

Yo amo a Panamá, amo la misión, amo Jesucristo. Sé que por medio de Él podemos ser limpios de nuestros pecados, y podemos llegar a ser santos.

Les amo! Tengan una buena semana! Nos vemos la proxima :D

Con amor,

Hermana Eardley

Monday, February 1, 2016

FEBRERO.... HACE CALOR!‏

Querido Familia,

Bueno, primero que todo esta semana fue buenísimo! Chuso mi compañera y yo echamos fuego! Esta semana encontramos a 11 personas nuevas y 5 de ellas aceptaron una fecha bautismal, sé que ya no vamos a tener bautismos aquí antes que me voy, pero me siento muy feliz porque en verdad quería dejar este área mejor de cuando lo encontré. 

Esta semana fuimos a Boquete para un p-day de distrito. Fue bien cheveré porque pudimos ver el río y un castillo y también fuimos a la feria de Boquete que es la cosa mas famosa el todo el año. Fue muy bonito todo y ya pude ver el cuidado que las personas tienen que tener para poder hacerlo. 

Bueno, mis zapatos ya finalmente murieron.. mi líder de distrito y mi compañera me mandaron a Payless a comprar nuevos... es que los otros tenían huecos y el calor del pavemiento me quemo los pies casi todos los días. Bueno, ya paso... y tengo nuevos zapatos. 

En el curso de este semana, yo he reflexionado bastante el lo que significa tener una "verdadera intensión". Es muy interesante a ver el "por que" de las cosas. De verdad, el éxito que tenemos en nuestras obras depende de nuestra deseo. Ya voy a escribir en inglés para que pueden entenderme.  When we do things with a sincere heart, and real intent, we are more able to accomplish what we desired, and we can see that our works bring forth good fruit. I have reflected a lot on why I do the things that I do. I have found that it also relates a lot with Charity. I have developed this profound love for the people here, for my companion, for my area. I have gained this grand desire to help them in every way possible. I dont get up every morning, pray, study, work, sweat, get rejected, and eat rice just because it fits my fancy.. honestly I am not a fan, but I love the Lord, and I love to serve Him and my fellow men. I have learned to develop an Internal Motivation: Love. It applies to all of us and our lives, If we have an internal motivation to do something, its almost certain that we will accomplish it... for example if I study the scriptures every day because the prophet tells me to, it probably wont happen, but if I study them because I have a desire to know the word of God, its very likely that I will do it. 

I ran out of time... love yall so much!

Love, Hermana Eardley

Monday, January 25, 2016

Dear Family,

This week, ya, I am doing really good. We had a ton of meetings during the week and we had one of our converts get sick, but I feel good about what we have done and we have seen the fruits of some of our labors. 

Like I mentioned last week, we decided to hike the Cerro Punta mountain... My legs hurt for a few days, but now they are fine and my muscles are hard as rocks. My chest hurt the first day too, but that was for the extremeness in elevation change. Now I am fine.

This last Wednesday we got to be part of the Missionary World Wide Transmission with the First Presidency. The topic was: Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts. It was really wonderful. I loved listening to Elder Bednar talk about the role of the Holy Ghost. It really is essential in the teaching proccess. As missionaries, we arent the teachers. We are the medium the Holy Ghost uses to teach and bring the messege. I loved how well he put that. They talked a lot about declaring repentance as well. That is the thing that changes us and makes us better. If we didnt repent, we wouldnt ever progress. It is so important that we follow the process of repentance and that we have this desire to do it. 

Our Recent Convert, Carlina Miranda, tuvo un derrame (I dont know how to say that in English) but it was her 3rd one and its pretty serious... We have been helping her and members are helping as well, but she lives alone and there is no one to be there to watch after her, so that scares me a bit and makes me a little sad.

Yesterday we had a Rescate which is super cool its when the members get together with the missionaries and we go out to visit less active members. We had some amazingly spiritual experiences and quite a few people cried. We visited one inactive member and she just kept looking at us with this scowl on her face and we finally got her to let us in.. then while we were talking the member started to bear her testimony and she just said that she missed the sister so much and that they mean so much to her and then the inactive changed a lot and she became a lot nicer and asked us to keep visiting her. The spirit was definitely present. 

Today we went to Boquette for our District P-Day. It was so much fun and super beautiful and chilly and there were so many flowers and I totally got burned!!!! Its insane how red I am right now... it doesnt even make sense. 

All in all I am doing well. My companion and I are awesome and working super well together and having a blast.. seriously there isnt one day that goes by without us laughing and having something awesome happen to us. Estoy aprovechando cada momento.

I love you all so much and wish you the best week. Hopefully I will be able to hear from yall next week and hopefully everything is going well. Saludes a todos! Les amo muchísimo!

Con amor, 
Hermana Eardley

Monday, January 18, 2016

Estoy Cansada... zzz...‏

Dear Family,

I realize that the last two weeks you havent recieved much information from me. I am sorry to inform you that this week will be the same... 

I had to travel to Panama this week to recieve a new carnet and we were able to go to the temple which was wonderful, but afterward when we were on the bus ride back the police pulled our bus over, made everyone get out, and checked everyones luggage... I think they recieved a tip that there were drugs or something, but they didnt find anything so no harm done, although that meant that we left at 2pm from panama and got home at 12am... 10 hours... I was ready to fall over.

Today we woke up at 3am, and headed out to Cerro Punta to climb a mountain for a pday with our zone... super chill... but about half way up my legs started to feel like noodles. We got to the top in 1 1/2 hours and it was super beautiful, super high (I sort of couldnt breathe for the altitude), and so very hard, BUT WE DID IT! That is why this is super short and I am not responding to emails today... because I am really tired and my head is pounding from lack of sleep...

Our investigators are good... my companion is amazing. I will send yall photos..

Yeah, okay, I am tired. I will talk to yall next week..

With all my love,

Hermana Eardley

Monday, January 11, 2016

Last transfer

Dear Family,

So, I didnt get transfered, but my companion Hermana Garcia did. She got transfered to Bocas! My new companion (from what I can tell) is the best companion I have had. Her name is Hermana Carias and she is from Honduras!!! She is 20 yrs old, and has a year in the mission. She is the primest :) She talks like a Honduranion and its super funny because she says, "man" a lot... I love her already. 

This week we worked like nuts! We found a ton of new investigators, conatacted more than 100 people, and placed 5 baptism dates... I have never been able to work this hard and I am loving it! With all of my comps I have had to push or drag them... of course I learned a ton and we had success, but this time it isnt like that... we are just motivating eachother. It is the best. I told Pres. Carmack that I wanted my last transfer to be my best, and I count it as a wish fulfilled. 

We are whipping our members into shape and finally they are helping us... right now they are a little hard, but it will get easier and easier.. I want to leave this area in tip top shape. 

I love you all! Sorry for the super shortness... Pres. reduced the time to 1 hour to write, so forgive me if I dont respond to a lot of you... your letters really brighten my week, but sometimes I wont be able to let yall know that.

I wish yall the best and hope you have a fabulous week!

With all my love,

Hermana Eardley