3 months or 3 days?

Peeps! How are you all doing?

Can I just tell you that you are all the best and that my mailbox is literally flooded with love. I have never had this much mail or love before in my life!! You are all SO awesome!

 So, I have been gone for 3 months already... only 15 months until you all have to deal with me again.. And let me tell you, it is flying!! Maybe because we are so busy!... We just set a baptismal date with a couple,Carmen and Josue and before they get baptized, they also need to be married, so we are planning a wedding as well. They are so humble and awesome! We are constantly finding and teaching people in the most random places that you would not believe! It is awesome. 

  I had a really awesome experience with the Book of Mormon this week. I did my personal study in the morning like always, and later that day we went to go visit an inactive family that we didn't know anything about. To our surprise, they had left the church a long time ago, and now they're Catholic. They said that members of our church don't recognize Mary as being special, or chosen. Right when they said that, I remembered the very verse I had studied that morning in Alma! "....she being a virgin, a precious and chosen vessel, who shall be overshadowed and conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God." --Alma 7:10 I was able to share that with them, and it was so awesome. My institute teacher, Brother G always says that your morning studies in the scriptures are specific to things you need to know that day, and can use that very day, and it is so true! If you want direction in every single day of your life, open the scriptures! I learn every day that nothing is coincidence. My friend told me that my mission would be for other people, but mainly for me, and it's so true. I came here to teach, but every day all I do is learn. 

    Heavenly Father has a plan for each one of us, and all we need to do is trust in Him. We can make sense of all of our trials and problems if we just remember why we are here on this floating ball of Earth.. to learn and grow! Life is awesome, because we have a Savior who makes it so that we don't need to worry. The bands of death are broken. All we need to do is come unto Him. I am so grateful for his birth. Merry Christmas, friends and loved ones. Pictured below... well, there were literally 10 cats originally behind me, but 8 of them ran away when we pulled out the iPad to take a picture.. 

Have a blessed Christmas! I love you all. Thank you so very much for all of your support and love! 

Love always, Hermana Sheirbon

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The Koontz's

Missy & Matt Koontz in TX

If you ever want a real image of what I do here, just basically picture me driving around a jeep, visiting people, teaching them in Spanish, and eating tamales from strangers, spending half the time praying, and repeating this over and over.. Haha, probably not what you expected! Oh my my, this life is crazy! Today is the beginning of my second transfer, and one of my trainers is leaving! These days and weeks just blur together. It has been an amazing journey so far! I already know exactly why I was sent to this mission, and it keeps unfolding before me. 

Something I love, that I am gonna steal from Hermana Winfield is that it doesn't matter how many times you fall, as long as you keep getting back up every time! And that is so true! The atonement of Jesus Christ makes this possible. When we fall, he is the one right there, ready to pick us back up. I was so grateful to see my best friend's awesome parents this week at temple this week. They are the best! Heavenly Father is always mindful of us, individually. He is mindful of you. 

I love you all. Thank you for everything! 

Love always, Hermana Sheirbon

Hermana Renteria and I last night at temple tours! :)

He is the Gift

"That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:" 1 Peter 1:7 

I just want to testify to all of you about the way that the Lord brings us low so he can lift us higher and higher to levels we have never before been. I just invite you to contemplate this verse in the bible, this week, thinking about the ways you have forgotten to trust the Lord, or the times when you have felt uncertain. This week many miracles happened in my life, things I never expected on a mission. I thought I came here to teach others, but the Lord is just teaching me. Isn't that the way it always ends up? I am filled with joy and rejoicing at the coming of the celebration of the birth of the Savior. He is the light and the gift to the world. I love you all so much. 

This world is not easy, but it is beautiful. Thank you for all that you do for me. Thank you for all of the letters and times you have reached out to me. You all bless my life more than I can say. Have an amazing week, and remember how much love the Lord has for each of you. If you search, you will see his hand. 
Love always, Hermana Sheirbon