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.

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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