hola

Hola everyone!

Hermana Bland and I set a goal this past week to have the best week ever. To give all we had and to let the Lord do the rest. It was an awesome week!! We found so many new people to teach, we talked with everyone, we gave our whole souls. The Lord has blessed me so much here. 

Marta is doing amazing! She came to church yesterday and read the book of mormon with her kids last week. She has a few things that may prevent her from being baptized on the 12th, but her daughter will be getting baptized on the 12th and I know that Marta will follow shortly! 

Dezi is the coolest searcher ever. By searcher I mean he is truly searching for the truth. We had a church tour with him on saturday and it was amazing! We went to stop by his house so that he could follow us to the church and he was waiting for us out front. And he brought his girlfriend Maria!! They both felt the spirit as we walked through the church and you could see it in their eyes that they knew it was all true. They both committed to be baptized but they will both be leaving for mexico this week until the end of January.

We had a great thanksgiving! We had dinner with Sandy, one of our recent converts! She had never cooked a thanksgiving dinner before but she really wanted to make one for us. It was SO good. We got to go over a little early and help her cook. She is the sweetest.

On friday I had my departing interview with President Ware. Finishing your mission is an interesting experience haha. The talk with President Ware could not have been more inspired. It was an answer to my prayers. I had been worried about things going back to the way they were before, back to who I was before, and for pretty much my whole mission I have been praying and asking if I have done what the Lord needed me to do and become who the Lord needed me to become but I didn't necessarily feel like I had gotten answers to my concerns. President Ware said that many missionaries make a huge amount of growth on their missions and then they just go back to who they were before, he looked me in the eyes and said I know that you won't be that kind of missionary. I don't know if I have felt God's love more powerfully than in that moment. He continued looking me in the eyes and said that If Jesus Christ were in the room, and I truly felt that He was, that he would tell me, well done thou good and faithful servant, and that He was proud of me for who I have become. 

I know that nothing I did on my mission was because of me and that I couldn't have done anything without Him. I am FAR from perfect, I still have SO FAR to go. I feel so humbled and so blessed to have been a part of this great and marvelous work to be an instrument in the Lords hands. THIS IS HIS WORK. I know that Jesus is the Christ, #ASAVIORISBORN He is everything. I love this gospel with my whole heart. I am grateful for everyone that I met and everyone that I taught, they will be a part of me forever. 

Thank you for all of your love and support these past 18 months!!!! I LOVE YOU.

con amor

hermana wortley

hola

Hi everyone!

Today has been so good. We started it off by going to the temple :) And it was snowing!!! Then we went to lunch with Maribel and Yaneth.

​

It was a SUPER busy but SUPER good week. We had three exchanges and zone conference! On tuesday I went to kennewick with hermana vazquez, on thursday I stayed in Pasco with hermana wade and then yesterday I went to a pasco english area with sister emery! I always learn so much from going on exchanges and being with other missionaries.

Marta is doing so great!! She is preparing to be baptized on December 12th. She told us last night that she prayed and got her answer that it is all true. I am so amazed by her faith! 

We are so blessed to be here in Pasco. This place is a a blessed land full of amazing people. Our recent converts are all doing so amazing. It makes my heart happy (for lack of a better phrase haha) to see them progressing in the gospel. I love walking into these new members homes and feeling the spirit and seeing the light in their eyes!

Its hard to believe that this is my last week here in washington. I LOVE MY MISSION. I don't really know what else to say. I have changed so much, looking back to who I was at the beginning of my mission to who I am now, its a dramatic difference! The gospel has changed me and the Atonement has carried me. I will never be who I was before! My mission has eternally impacted my life and I will be forever grateful for the opportunity that I have had to serve the beautiful people of Washington :) 

I love you all and will see you next week! 

con amor
hermana wortley

hola

WOWZERS I am pretty sure someone pushed a fast forward button on my life because time is just disappearing! It was a really great and busy week! 

Awesome moment number one: on tuesday Margarita invited us over for dinner and the food was delicious but aside from that, she told us of an experience she had with the book of mormon. She said that the other day she was trying to go to bed but she just couldn't fall asleep, things are always a little hard in the winter for those that work in the fields and she was thinking about that and wasn't able to fall asleep so she decided to pull out her book of mormon and read. She said that the moment she started reading she just felt so much peace and was no longer worried about anything, she knew that Heavenly Father would take care of her. She was so excited to tell us about that experience because she had a deep personal experience with the book of mormon and she had heard about other people having experiences like that but it was just really special for her to experience it on her own. 

Awesome moment number two: We were able to have a lesson with the second Renteria family and Yaneth and Maribel came with us. Those two oh my goodness, they are just the greatest. They bore their testimonies and cleared up some concerns and doubts that the Renterias had. It was such a blessing to be able to see them bear testimony, I am just amazed every time we are with them to see the growth in each of them.

Awesome moment number three: We were talking about Yaneth and Maribels parents and we felt like we wanted to fast for them on sunday and we thought it would be super cool if Yaneth and Maribel fasted with us. So we called them up and asked if they would like to. They were so excited because neither of them have fasted yet and what better way to start than fasting for your parents. They were so cute they called us saturday night and asked if we could pray together to start our fast. I just can't get over how much light they have in their eyes and how brave they are.

Awesome moment number four: We were invited to the mission home to help plan zone conference and were expecting to have a meeting of some sort, but when we got there they told us that we would be role playing, or practicing teaching. They split us off into groups and we began. It was so great!! We were able to work on teaching people and not just lessons because it seems to be something that all of us struggle with to some extent or another. We had the coolest revelatory experience and hermana bland and I haven't been teaching the same since. It is interesting because sometimes we think we are teaching people and not just lessons but really what we do is just make the lesson about them and not really for them. We are so excited for zone conference this week for all of the missionaries to experience what we were able to experience! 

Awesome moment number 482: The lesson in relief society yesterday was on missionary work. Irma bore her testimony about how much the gospel has blessed her life and how she just wishes everyone could be as happy as she is. Definitely started crying because she is just so amazing!!!!!! 

Awesome moment number 7235: So yesterday we were fasting and before we went to dinner we were talking about how cool it would be if they gave us breakfast food for dinner..... then we walk in and the sister that we were eating with was like I hope you like breakfast for dinner because we scones and honeybutter! Heavenly Father loves us. 

As you can tell it was a pretty awesome week. The church is so true and we are finding amazing people every day. I love you all, thank you for all the love and support you have given me and continue to give me each day :)

con mucho amor

hermana wortley

the picture is the explanation

hola

Hey there!

I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Missionary work is a miracle in itself and then the miracles we have the privilege of seeing while participating in this great work are really just gigantic blessings. We had a week full of the spirit and full of the miracles of missionary work!

Hillary is doing so great!! She is preparing to be baptized on the 21st. Hermana Bland and I just cant get over how deeply we can feel Heavenly Fathers love for her. We see her and the spirit just testifies to us that she is a daughter of God. Its so amazing. She is so great and has really been doing her part in reading and praying. She told us this week that she got her answer that the book of mormon is true. 

On tuesday we went on an exchange with the Prosser hermanas. I stayed in Pasco with hermana Miranda. It was a really great exchange. We saw some huge miracles. One of them is that we had plans to go to a certain neighborhood and knock, but I felt like we should drop off a skirt that we had gotten for Maribel before we started to knock so we headed over to the Renterias house and the parents were the only ones home. She works during the day and he works at night so it is really hard to find them home at the same time but she just happened to have a day off. The spirit truly guided us to their house. We were able to have a great lesson with just the two of them and talk about concerns and doubts that they have. They had been reading so they also had questions about that! It was such a miracle!! 

We had a way cool lesson with the other Renteria family this week as well! We stopped by to have a lesson with them and the first two times we were only able to meet with the parents but this time all of their kids were there as well. When we brought out the book of mormon one of the kids asked what is the book of mormon and the coolest thing ever happened. The parents explained to their kids what is the book of mormon and why we have it. They explained it better than we could have! haha It was so sweet to see that they internalized what we had talked about the lesson before and were then able to share that knowledge with their children. 

MLC was so amazing this week. It was super bold but something that each one of us needed to recognize and remember. The huge focus was on our purpose and really going back to the fundamentals of missionary work. President Ware shared a quote from Elder Oaks that they heard during a mission president conference, he said "We must return to the primary focus of teaching repentance and baptizing converts." That quote kind of speaks for itself. It was my last MLC and I had the privilege of giving a departing testimony, kind of overwhelming! I just feel so humbled that I have had this opportunity to serve!! A scripture that I have been pondering a lot lately is 1 Timothy 1:12 "And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry." I love being a missionary. 

con mucho amor

hermana wortley

​I got to see hermana garcia :)

classic me

HI THERE PEEPS

Hello!!!

It was such a good week. It really was. Monday we had a legit family home evening with Jesus and one of the families in the ward. We talked about the book of mormon and how the book of mormon answers the questions of the soul. We each bore testimony of how the book of mormon has blessed our lives and when we asked Jesus how he feels as he reads in the book of mormon he said that he places himself in the story and tries to imagine it. He said he gets excited about what is happening in the lives of the people in the book of mormon. It was a way cool experience! 

Oh my goodness we found 2 awesome families this week!!! One of them is the Gama family. We found them as we were walking down the street and they were outside just about to leave. Turns out they have friends in mexico that are members of the church and they kind of knew what missions were because their friends have a daughter that is serving a mission right now! They were leaving so we asked if we could come back the next day and they said yes! We had such an awesome lesson with them yesterday!!! Dora, the mom, told us that she can really relate to the story of Joseph Smith because she has also been to a lot of different churches. You could see it in their eyes the desire to know the truth. 

We as well found the Lopez family!! They are SO cool. It is incredible how the Lord prepares people. He truly is aware of each one of us and our needs. 

On tuesday we were able to have a council with President and Sister Ware and the other sister training leaders. We counseled about our calling and about the sisters in the mission. Afterwards we were so excited to start exchanges. We have 6 exchanges this transfer, we had our first one last week! We went on exchanges with the Benton City Hermanas. I stayed in Pasco with Hermana Shumway. This is her first transfer. It was really fun to see her energy and enthusiasm as a new missionary! 

Irma gave away her first book of mormon this week. She is amazing!! We even had dinner with the Obispo this week and he told us how impressed he is with Irma and the faith that she has. This morning I was reading the story of Ammon and Lamoni, Lamonis conversion story. I just imagine how much love Ammon had for Lamoni especially when Lamonis dad tried to kill them. The only thing Ammon wanted from the king was for his brothers to be freed and for Lamoni to keep his kingdom. He truly wanted the best for his recent convert Lamoni. I truly love our recent converts. I am so grateful for each one of them and for their desires to follow Jesus Christ. Maribel also went for the first time this week to do baptisms for the dead :) She is doing so great! I feel so humbled and honored to have been a witness in the conversion of these amazing people. I am grateful for another week to be a missionary, another week to witness the miracles that the Lord has in store for His children. I truly love this work!! 

con mucho amor

hermana wortley

I am going to die in pasco

HELLO!!!

Ok yesterday we had THE BIGGEST MIRACLE EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At church Yaneths sister Maribel came up to us and told us that she wants to get baptized!!!!!!! She will be getting baptized tomorrow! :) We are so excited for her!! Hermana Garcia is getting transferred to Pendelton :( which is why we will be doing the baptism tomorrow so that she can be there! I am going to miss hermana garcia so much. She has made such a huge impact on my mission on my life in everything!! She is a true disciple of Christ and a light for everyone.
​Oh my goodness we are so excited for maribel. She has been reading and praying everyday and she also enrolled in seminary! It is incredible the growth that we have seen in her. Her and Yaneth and their two little siblings Josue and Joseline have started reading together in the scriptures every night, their parents are super busy working but the kids are making such an awesome effort to read together! 

I am excited to spend my last 6 weeks here in Pasco!!! I truly love this place and the people here. I will be training a new sister training leaader, Hermana Bland! She is an awesome missionary. I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with her a few times! 

Margarita got baptized on saturday!!!!! It was a beautiful baptism. She is so great. I can't get over how blessed we have been to teach these sweet humble people. We just love them so much!!!! Margarita also had us over for dinner this week and we ate enchiladas de michoachan ( no idea how to spell that haha) It was the first time either of us had eaten this kind of enchiladas and they were super good! 

Kind of a crazy week we also went on two exchanges! The first exchange I stayed in Pasco with hermana safston. We had the coolest lesson with Jesus (Rodolfos nephew) and Yaneth and her boyfriend came with us! He is seriously such a smart kid and has real intent to learn and act. After the lesson Yaneth asked for his number to invite him to hang out with them, being that he just got here from mexico he doesn't know a lot of people. Yaneth is so awesome she is already doing missionary work!! On thursday I went to kennewick for the day with Hermana Jaccard! We had a great day and talked with a ton of people :) 

We had a lesson with Jesus last night and we taught the plan of salvation. He told us that he felt as if he has heard this plan before. Really cool moment. He is doing great and preparing to be baptized on the 30th, but he will now be in the elders area. We are excited for him though! 

It was truly a miracle filled week!! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. The ponderize scripture that I chose for this week is Alma 26:12 (hermana garcias and my companion scripture :) ) It says "Therefore let us glory, yea we will glory in the Lord; yea we will rejoice for our joy is full; yea we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea who can say too much of His great power, and of His mercy, and of His long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel." 

I LOVE YOU ALL

con amor

hermana wortley

hola

Hello everyone!!

Ok it was such an awesome week! Huge highlight, Yaneth got baptized!! It was such a great baptism. Since she had started going to an english ward with a friend in the beginning she knows a bunch of members in that ward and so a ton of them came and there was also a great turn out from members from our ward as well... and HUGE miracle, we had 9 investigators show up to the baptism! It was in a mix of spanish and english because she chose english and spanish members to speak and it was seriously so cool to see the whole room jam packed. Hermana garcia and I had asked a couple of the members from our ward to share their testimonies about the book of mormon during the time while Yaneth was changing and oh my goodness they both bore the most powerful and humble testimonies. The spirit was so strong and those that came said that their desire to read the book of mormon increased after hearing those testimonies. Yaneths family came to the baptism and said that they felt really good about the decision that Yaneth had made to be baptized! 

This week we also had Elder Johnson from the 70 come to visit the mission! On wednesday we were able to go to a mission leadership council with Elder Johnson and it was incredible. He taught nothing but pure doctrine. He talked a lot about the Godhead and their purpose. He asked the question how long do you spend teaching the first principle from the first lesson? (which is God is our loving heavenly father) All of us realized that we sort of rushed right through that principle and came to the conclusion that they believe that God is our loving heavenly father so we have the same beliefs and we can move on. Elder Johnson said no.. we do not have the same beliefs as them because we believe that Heavenly Father has a body of flesh and bones and that we were literally created in His image. He said that when they come to know that He truly has a body of flesh and bones that we are just like Him, that is when the gospel will make sense to them and they will more fully comprehend the other things that you will teach them. He then challenged us to pray that night and ask a few simple questions.. to ask if Heavenly Father really exists, if He really has a body of flesh and bones, if He really knows us, if He really loves us, and if we are His children.  These seem to be simple questions but they truly bring a deeper understanding of who we are and why we are here and what the role is of our Heavenly Father. I prayed that night and had a truly sacred experience as I conversed with my Father in Heaven. I know that He loves us. I received answers to each of those questions, and I know that you can too! Prayer is a powerful thing and such a huge blessing!! I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father whose only purpose is to bring to pass our eternal life. Everything He does is for us.

We are teaching some incredible people. Margarita is preparing to be baptized this saturday!!!! We are so happy for her and for her family! Her daughter is a member and told us that she has been praying since the day she got baptized that her mom would come to know the truth as well. Such a cool family. Jose is also doing great we were able to have some lessons with him this week as well. Jesus (the nephew of Rodolfo) has also been reading and praying!! The Lord is truly putting prepared people in our path :) Time is going by super fast! This week we we will be getting transfer calls!! I hope you all have a great week!! LOVE YOU!

con amor

hermana wortley

HELLO

HELLO!

Well it was an amazing week! We were so blessed to be able to listen to our prophet this weekend and all of the incredible leaders of the church. I loved every minute of it and am excited to start applying the things that I learned!! I loved all of the questions that were asked and the challenges given! 

We had some awesome things happen this week as well! First off yesterday we had planned to have a church tour with one of our investigators Jose and we invited Irma to come with us as well as Rodolfo. It was such a spiritual and humbling experience to hear the testimonies of these sweet recent converts as they testified of the blessings that they have seen since they have joined the church, as well as their testimonies of the book of mormon! Rodolfo also brought his nephew who just arrived from mexico on saturday and he is now preparing to be baptized on October 30th! Miracles are everywhere!! 

We had a really great lesson with the Renteria family as well. We have been praying so hard for them that they will have the desire to read and pray as their kids have been doing. Yaneth who is preparing to be baptized this friday bore her testimony to her parents about how she received her answer of the truthfulness of the book of mormon. We bore testimony to them as well of eternal families and that baptism truly is just the first step in our eternal journey. They committed to read and pray, and we as well will be praying with all our hearts for them that they can have the joy of the restored gospel in their lives! Maribel the 14 year old has been reading and praying everyday and it is so cool to see how happy she is. She told us that when she reads she feels a lasting happiness. 

We had the chance to go on exchanges this week with the Grandview hermanas! I went to grandview with hermana miranda. It was such a great day! I learned a lot from her about teaching simply and being genuine. I love the chance to go on exchanges to learn from other missionaries as well as to find things that we can both work on throughout the day to become better instruments in the hands of the Lord :)

We had MLC this week as well! MLC is always such an uplifting and inspired revelatory experience. There was a very inspired training given on the book of mormon. Wow let me just tell you how much I LOVE the book of mormon. We are SO blessed to have that book and to be able to learn from it each and every day. My testimony of Christ and the Restored gospel deepens each time I open the book of mormon and I know with my whole heart that it is true. 

We found out this week that they are going to be splitting our area when transfers come or really just taking a big chunk of it and giving it to the elders. It is a little heartbreaking because every one of our investigators that are preparing to be baptized and recent converts are in the chunk that they are taking away. We are going to miss all of them but we know that the Lord is preparing people everywhere and that this change will help us to find the others people who are waiting to receive the restored gospel! I can't believe how fast time is going by!!!! 

I hope that you all have a great week and keep in mind the things that the spirit taught you during conference!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!

con amor

hermana wortley

hola

HELLO!

It was an awesome week! Irma got baptized on saturday and she looked SO happy!! We were able to have some great lessons with her this past week and she truly has so much faith. On friday we got a call from her saying that she had a dream and she knows that everything is true. We went over later that day so that she could tell us more about the dream that she had. She said that in her dream, Christ told her that she was in the right path that she was making our Heavenly Father proud by the decision she was making. During her dream she said that she felt so warm as if someone was hugging her and she knew without a doubt that she was doing what the Lord wants. Her baptism was so sweet and huge miracle that her son, and her daughter and son-in-law came to support her!! Ah I can't even explain how amazing she is. She just has so much trust and confidence in the Lord its incredible.
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On wednesday we had another huge miracle! We had zone meeting, which was awesome, and then we came home to plan exchanges...meanwhile Yaneth (one of the daughters in the Renteria family(the one with the boyfriend who is a member)) was texting us questions that she had about how she would receive an answer and just really deep questions that were hard to answer over a text so we decided to call her. THE most spirit filled phone call I have ever been a part of. She was so concerned about how her answer would come that she hadn't realized that she had already gotten it. Before she came to the conclusion that she had received her answer though, we felt impressed to ask her to explain to us what the book of mormon is for her. She bore a simple but powerful testimony of what she felt the book of mormon is and afterwards she told us that she wants to get baptized. She is preparing for october 2nd!! The rest of the family is preparing for the 17th. We are so happy for her and it was amazing to be a witness of her receiving her testimony of the book of mormon. My love for the book of mormon increases each day and each opportunity we have to share it. 

On thursday we had the coolest service opportunity!! We usually go to 2nd harvest food bank but this time they called and said that a corn truck had tipped over and they were donating all the corn to them so they needed help throwing corn into the truck! So we went and it was super cool!! There was so much corn and they let us take some so we could give it to some of our members and investigators :)

​It was seriously such a great week! We were able to have some great lessons with the Renteria family and some of the other people that we are teaching as well! We are striving each day to become the missionaries that the Lord needs us to be at this time. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY.

con mucho amor

hermana wortley

​to explain this picture... we were knocking doors and a guy answered the door and I went to shake his hand to introduce myself and he was like oh sorry I was eating and he had food on his hands and I said oh thats ok pound it. and then gave him knuckles hahahahaha hermana garcia was laughing so hard because apparently is was really funny the way I said it and he was kind of a gangster! #classicawkwardme #poundit

hola

HELLO

It was an awesome week! On monday and tuesday we were in a trio because of transfers so we had sister Jackson with us! It was the longest trio I have been in and it was super fun! On wednesday we were able to go to the transfer site so that sister Jackson could pick up her companion. It was my first time going to a transfer meeting since my very first transfer meeting! Kind of crazy but it was cool to see all of the new missionaries. There are 29 this transfer! 

We were able to have some awesome lessons with Irma and the Renteria family this week!! Irma is so excited for her baptism this saturday and has been inviting everyone to come. Something super cool that happened was that on friday the missionaries in our ward decided to do an activity at the church with members and investigators. Our plan was to show short videos about Christ in different rooms and do sort of a movie night! The Renterias came and irma and also our investigator miguel! As we showed a video about Christ being baptized and opened the baptismal font so that everyone could see it, Irma told the Renterias that they should get baptized and then she invited them to her baptism! She is already doing missionary work! 

On saturday some of the members of the ward threw a baby shower for Julia, our investigator that just had a baby. Not too many people came, but those who didn't come, dropped off gifts! Julia was so happy and it was a great way for her to get to know more of the members. 

HUGE MIRACLE that happened yesterday. So during sacrament meeting we were sitting with Irma and then when it was over we looked back and you'll never guess who was sitting on the back row!! Jesus!!! He is the one that was about to get baptized and then he dropped us back in July. But he came to church yesterday!! About a week ago we randomly sent him a scripture and yesterday he said that it came just when he needed it the most. We're not sure quite yet if we will be teaching him again but he said that he wants to start coming to church again! SO COOL.

On saturday we had zone leadership council. Hermana Garcia and I had the opportunity to give a training on the Atonement. We shared these scriptures in D&C 19:
15 Therefore I command you to repent—repent, lest I smite you by the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings be sore—how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, yea, how hard to bear you know not.16 For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;17 But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;18 Which sufferingcaused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—19 Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men.

We were really pondering about what we could do to more fully trust in the Lord because as missionaries sometimes we get caught up in all the things we have to do or the people we need to see, we basically stress ourselves out, which can be true for anyone, not just missionaries. But the promise here is that we don't have to suffer, we don't have to stress ourselves out... Christ has already suffered through it, He has been there already. This is something I am really going to be working on this week (and the rest of my life :) ) is to do everything that I can to trust in the Lord. And that is my invitation for each of you this week as well! REMEMBER CHRIST and trust in Him. I know that as we do this that our burdens will be made light and that we can experience true joy. 

Update on hermana garcias brother: so turns out it wasn't brain surgery but it was surgery on his vertebrae because it had broken. He now has two rods in his back and will be in a wheelchair for at least 6 months. He is on his way back to el salvador today. Huge miracle that he is alive!!! but as you can imagine he is pretty depressed because of everything that happened. Thank you so much for keeping him in your prayers!!

I love you all!

con amor

hermana wortley

random zone picture

HOLA

Hey there everyone!

Hermana Garcia and I are staying together another transfer in pasco!!! We are super excited to have 3 transfers together!! Yay we are going to see so many miracles! President Ware told us that he didn't know why but he felt like we needed to stay together here another transfer and then yesterday some of the members came up to us and told us that they had been praying that we would stay! The power of prayer is real! :) We love each other, we love our investigators, we love the members, our area, and above everything else we love Jesus Christ.

We had a really good week! We were able to meet with Irma and she is doing amazing!! She is so excited for her baptism on the 19th ( s/o to cortney cuz its your bday). Every time we go over to her house she just has such a light about her and is so open and ready to listen. She strengthens our testimonies and lifts our spirits with her powerful testimony of Christ. There was a baptism on saturday and she was able to come and also the lesson in sunday school yesterday was on baptism which has really helped her to understand the importance of this step she is going to take. She is the sweetest!! 

We also had an awesome lesson with la familia renteria!! They are the family that came to church last week who were invited by the daughters boyfriend. Anyways they had signed up to feed us dinner on tuesday so we went over and we had a great dinner and were able to teach them the restoration. They are the coolest family and just have the greatest questions and are pretty much already members haha. WE LOVE THEM. On tuesday we were also able to have a really sweet church tour with Kasey! She is so cute. 

Huge miracle that happened this week! We went by to visit a potential investigator who lives in the apartment next to Brenda (our recent convert) and she wasn't home but Brenda was home and we were able to have a really good lesson with her. She has been really overwhelmed and stressed being a single mom and working and she doesn't have her license because they have only been in the states for a few months so it has been hard for her to have to always depend on others to get things done. But yeah we were able to have a great lesson with her about the strength of the Lord. And as we were having our lesson, Margarita walked in which is the mom of one of the members who Brenda lives with, and she told us that she had something to tell us! So we finished up our lesson while Margarita showered quick and when she came out she told us that she wants to be baptized!!! We are so excited for her. The only thing is that she wants her son in law to baptize her and he just had shoulder surgery so she has to wait until he is better. but SHE IS SO COOL. We had such a spirit filled lesson with her last night and she is so excited to make some changes in her life. 

On friday we also had MLC. It was AMAZING. They told us to come dressed in service clothes so we were thinking we were going to be doing a service project or something to start and then we all pile in a big van and they wouldn't tell us where we were going haha but we figured it out as we pulled up along side a mountain.. they took us on a hike!! We had a really cool devotional on the top about perspective and vision. It was such a good refresher and reminder about having an eternal perspective in everything we do. It was so fun and such a great start to MLC. One of the themes I guess you could say for MLC was prayer. They talked a lot about the Sacred Grove and that every day we should create a sacred grove experience in at least one of our prayers, to truly converse with our Heavenly Father. It was incredible and really has changed the way I pray each morning. I love MLC. 

Hey if you could keep hermana garcias brother in your prayers that would be awesome. He is serving his mission in Honduras and had a really bad accident this week and today will be going in for brain surgery. His name is Emerson Soto. He is doing pretty well and has been talking and can move his limbs but he fell about 30 feet hit his head on a tree and they need to relieve some pressure from his brain. Huge miracle that he is alive!! Also her other brother is serving in another mission in honduras and was able to go and be with him until her parents flew in from el salvador. but prayers would be awesome!!!!

I love you all!!! Thank you for everything!!

con amor

hermana wortley 

my fingers can barely type because the library is an icebox

HOLA

It was such a great week! We had a huge miracle (my favorite word :) ) this week!! Yesterday a family came to church!!! The renteria family. They have 4 kids and their oldest daughter is dating a kid in one of the english wards and the way that she met him was that one of her friends had invited her to church and it was the same ward! Then they started dating and then he invited the whole family to church but the parents don't speak english so he brought them to our ward!! And they all came. Then we started talking to them and come to find that they live in our area and that we had talked with the dad before one day when we were walking down their street! And the mom has 3 really good friends that are in the ward that she didn't know were members! It was just miracle after miracle after miracle and the oldest daughter Yanet reads the book of mormon over the phone every night with her boyfriend! We were just dying it was SO cool. After we were talking about how simple invitations become some of the most powerful, that first friend probably had no idea that the whole family would come to church just a few months later! 

Also Irma and Juan came to church yesterday! Well Juan left after sacrament meeting but Irma stayed for the whole thing!! SHE IS SO COOL. Juan doesn't have a baptismal date as of right now because he is facing a lot of opposition from his family and his neighbors but although Irma is facing the same opposition it seems to be making her stronger and more excited to be baptized! She is preparing for the 12th of september and she has truly received her answer that this is what she needs to do. We are just amazed every time we go to see her because she is so full of light and understanding. 

On saturday there was an elotada at the ward! And an elotada is just a made up word for party where you eat a lot of corn hahaha but yeah it was one of the coolest activities I have been to on my mission! It was just out in the parking lot and there was A TON of corn and they had the usual mexican toppings for the corn and pretty much the whole ward came! Juan and Irma also came and they seemed to have a great time! It was way sweet!

We also went on two exchanges this week! I stayed in our area both days. The first exchange I was with hermana safsten. It was a really good day! Our focus for the day was relying on the spirit and we worked a lot on recognizing when we were following the spirit as well. I learned a lot from her about never being satisfied. She is continually looking for more ways to learn and improve, super cool! The next exchange I went on was with hermana cortes! She is an awesome missionary. I was so impressed with how genuine and sincere she is. I was grateful for her example and the things that I learned from the spirit! 

I think time goes by faster and faster each day! We have transfer calls this week! I will most likely stay here but you never know! I am so grateful to be here and for the many people that I have a chance to meet each day! THE CHURCH IS TRUE. THE ATONEMENT IS REAL. I LOVE YOU ALL.

con amor

hermana wortley

s/o to kate for getting married this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOLA

HOLA!

It was a really good week!! Yesterday was so great. So the week before last we were on exchanges and we knocked into a really awesome family that had just moved here from nevada and they told us that we could come back. So we went back this past week and HUGE MIRACLE. Turns out that they were taking the missionary lessons in nevada and the first day that they got here they went and looked for the church! And get this.. that day there was a baptism and president ware and the elders had just walked outside and were able to talk with them for a minute but at this time they didn't have a house or work so they couldn't really have the missionaries over. But it was no coincidence that we knocked into them just a few weeks later!! They are so cool!! We were able to have a great restoration lesson with them on friday and then invite them to stake conference on sunday! The crazy part was that we had sent president ware a text telling him the miracle that we found an awesome family and then he called the next day telling us that he knew who they were! Then it was 10 on sunday and stake conference was just starting and the salazar family hadn't come yet and we kind of started to panic haha but we went outside and called her.. no answer, so we called again, and again no answer so we said a prayer and as we were walking away to go inside I turn around and they were pulling in! Such a miracle! The whole family came to conference and afterwords were able to talk with president ware and also Elder Packer who was the speaker for the conference! Another huge miracle that Irma also came to church!! We have been teaching Irma and her son Juan. Irma is SO sweet and has the biggest heart and testimony of Christ. Juan wasn't home when we stopped by to remind them about church but irma decided she would just come with the little kids! 

On wednesday we had exchanges with the kennewick hermanas! I was able to go to kennewick with hermana vazquez. She is so cool. She has only been a member of the church for a year and a half and has such a solid testimony. I learned a lot from her about being bold. She just says things how they are and that is something I really need to work on! It was such a fun exchange and we had some really powerful moments.

Thursday we had zone conference! Yay for zone conference. One of the big focuses was Charity. Charity truly is the pure love of Christ. I learned so much from the spirit about the little things that I can change that will help me to become a more consecrated missionary. I am so grateful for President and Sister Ware and for all that they do for us. They are so aware of all the needs of the missionaries and the things we need to change to best help those we are serving. 

On Friday night/saturday we went on another exchange! I went to Grandview with hermana Bland. I am so grateful for exchanges, they truly open your eyes to new ways of talking with people and give you a fresh perspective of our purpose as missionaries. It was a great day and we saw some sweet miracles by talking to everyone. 

We had stake conference saturday night and sunday! Elder Packer was the speaker that came. They focused a lot on family history and also on the sabbath day. I have definitely gained a love for meetings on my mission. There is just always something more to be learned!!

I am extremely grateful for my companion hermana garcia. I wasn't really sure why but this transfer I have felt depressed which is super weird for me because I love missionary work more than anything! but yeah I have just been in a rut and I was feeling like I still have so much to learn and improve and change but that there was no way I could do any of that in the amount of time I have left on my mission. My heart just felt heavy and even though we are seeing tons of miracles I just felt so inadequate. Yesterday as we were finishing our weekly planning and setting goals hermana garcia just straight up asked me why I was depressed haha and the thing was that I didn't even realize I was depressed! I don't even know if I remember exactly what was said or the scriptures that she shared with me because it was all by the spirit but my whole attitude changed. My weaknesses no longer mattered because I remembered that in the strength of the Lord I can do all things. I feel SO BLESSED to be a missionary. I know that I don't have to learn everything now or become the best before my mission is over because I have my whole life to continue learning and growing. I am so grateful for the eternal perspective that I can now see clearly! :) 

Thank you so much for everything you do for me! I am truly blessed!!!!

LOVE YOU

con amor 

hermana wortley

Oh yeah and I cut my hair!

estoy vivo

HELLO!

So much happened this past week! First off to explain why I am emailing on a tuesday, we went to the temple today!!! They forgot to let us know before last monday which is why I didn't let you know last week but anyways it was such a good day!!!!!!!! Ah I love the temple. One of the hermanas took us and seriously I just soak up every minute when we get the chance to go to the temple. Such a spirit filled day. 

So for the past probably about 6 months I have had a lot of back issues, which comes with mission life, but I had been doing ok until last monday I was hurting so bad and hermana garcia told me that I should get a blessing but I wasn't sure so we prayed about it and I decided I should ask the elders! It is so convenient that we live in the same apartments as our district leader and our zone leaders haha. So elder Davison, our district leader gave me a blessing. I was super anxious and stressed before, but after I immediately I felt calm. We are serving with such cool missionaries.... fast forward to wednesday... I was SO SICK. It was like a sinus infection on steroids or something, I hadn't felt that sick in a really long time. But we just kept on going because we had places to be and people to see. At 7 that night we went to the church for Rodolfos baptismal interview. The interview went awesome by the way.... but apparently I looked like death and hermana garcia once again told me that she felt like I needed to ask for a blessing. I was like no I am fine because I had just gotten a blessing and I hate being a burden... and she told me that this would be a great opportunity to humble myself. Let me just tell you I am so grateful for hermana garcia, she is always helping me to become the best that I can be even if it means me swallowing my pride and asking for help! I am so grateful for this transfer and the many opportunities that I am having to be more humble! So after the interview I asked Elder Davison if he would give me a blessing before they left. I am so grateful for the priesthood. I seriously feel so blessed to be serving around so many awesome priesthood holders!! And the miracle is that I feel a million times better! I had a nasty cough and I may or may not have used 3 boxes of tissues but I am doing great now. 

On thursday we were able to have a lesson with Rodolfo and we taught him about the priesthood. I was able to testify of how the priesthood has blessed my life and the experiences that I had had earlier that week. Such a cool moment and a huge testimony builder. 

On friday we had MLC. Such a powerful and revelatory meeting. One of the councils that we had was on the doctrine of preparation day. SO COOL. Preparation day has become such a selfish day and we were all feeling the need for a change of heart and attitude. There is always a why for everything we do, and if the why is not Jesus Christ than something is missing. We haven't had much preparation day today because we went to the temple, but I can already feel a difference in my attitude and I am so grateful! One of the counselors in the mission presidency said that the way we treat our preparation day is the way we are going to treat our lives after the mission, those days prepare us to enter into the world back home. So profound and so true! 

On saturday Rodolfo got baptized!!!!! He is so cooooool. We were a little nervous because he got there a little late but HE CAME. It was a really spiritual baptism and rodolfo gave such a great testimony. He looked so happy.

We had some really cool lessons this week and we have a lot of plans this week to find new people to teach!! We sang Soy un hijo de Dios to an abuelito that we met yesterday... probably one of the most spiritual moments I have had talking to someone on the street. We were also at a stop light (we were walking) and we started talking to people in their cars! Blessings come from talking with everyone even if it is awkward :) The more awkward the better!! 

I am so grateful to be here. I love you all!!!!!!!!!!

con amor

hermana wortley

​temple selfie

me when I almost died

I have retired from english

HOLA 

Ok probably one of the most miracle filled weeks yet!!

Probably the biggest miracle of them all though was that Brenda, Adrianna and Julio got baptized!! So we had been teaching Brenda and she was preparing to be baptized on the 1st but her kids Julio and Adrianna didn't really want to be baptized so we were really just focusing on Brenda... then on wednesday Brenda invited us over for dinner and we were planning her baptism when Julio told us that he wanted to get baptized.. and then Adrianna said that she wanted to get baptized too!! We asked them why they wanted to get baptized and they said that before they just didn't feel ready to be baptized and that now they know that baptism is one of the first steps to making Christ a priority in their lives. Brenda was beyond happy. They are THE sweetest kids you will ever meet and so smart and adorable and we just love them so much!!! Since they have been coming to church for 3 months they already knew a ton but there was still some things that we had to teach before they could get baptized. So we made a plan to review everything with them on thursday and then thursday night they would have their interviews with the district leader to see if they were ready. It was one of the most spirit guided lessons and the kids were so in tune with everything being taught! So they had their interview and it went great! Then on saturday the three of them got baptized! :) It was such a great day and they all looked so happy. Brenda bore the sweetest testimony at their baptism and the spirit was so strong! It was a straight up miracle. 

Now for the hilarious thing that happened at the baptism because something always goes wrong or not according to plan. Well we turned the font on so that it would fill up and then we went to make the programs for the baptism in another room and do some weekly planning and it usually takes about an hour and a half to fill up the font but it had only been about an hour when we went to go to the bathroom and decided to check the font. It was on the bridge of overflowing!!!! My first instinct was to run to the other side and turn off the font.. naturally.. but instead of running to the other side, because the womens and mens don't connect, I ran into the mothers room hahahahaha and I thought hermana garcia was going to die laughing because she said I had a panic look on my face and I just ran into the mothers room. Anyways we did some gymnastics over the font and were able to unplug it without getting too wet and we didn't flood the church!! The baptism was so good though and they are the most adorable family! :)

Rodolfo is super excited for his baptism on the 8th! He has been inviting his family and friends and is doing great. We are so excited for him! 

On wednesday we were doing some knocking and we go into this gate with a dog and hermana garcia was like he is going to bite one of us I just know it and he seemed pretty nice so I was like oh we will be fine! We go knock the door, no one answers, and as we start walking away the dog starts flipping out!! He chomped my leg and I just look at hermana garcia and said he bit me! and then my first instinct was to hit the dog with the book of mormon that I was holding but I figured I better not haha so I just held the book by my leg because I knew it would protect me from getting bit again haha and hermana garica did the same. I mean I already had a huge testimony of the book of mormon but that day I gained a testimony of the outside as well. such a powerful book!! It was a miracle that he only bit one of us! 

Transfers were this week and every first week of the transfer the stake puts on a breakfast for all of the missionaries serving in the stake! The wards take turns hosting the breakfast and this time it was our ward that made the breakfast! The hermanas made homemade tortillas for the breakfast burritos it was so good!!! And they gave us a bunch of leftovers. We are seriously serving in the coolest ward ever. The members are amazing!! 

Yesterday was kind of a crazy day, we went with a member to pick up one of our investigators Yerika for church, but the member was super late so we hurried over and they weren't quite ready so we waited for her by this time we were about 10 minutes late for church and we ended up missing Julio's confirmation but we made it for Adrianna and Brenda! But whats important is that they got confirmed haha and also that Yerika came to church :) It was an awesome week!!! The Lord is blessing us with so many miracles and giving us a ton of opportunities to be humble because we know that this is His work and that we are only instruments. I am truly humbled to be a missionary and feel SO BLESSED each day when I have to the chance to help others come unto Christ. Thank you so much for all you do! I love you all!!!!!

con mucho amor
hermana wortley