Monday, March 31, 2014

The Return of the Cockroaches

This has been the longest, best, weirdest, most crazy emotional week of my life. But every hard time there was a miracle that followed along with it.

First off, we found an amazing couple who are so prepared to hear the gospel. We have been praying for Heavenly Father to put people in our path that are ready, and one day when we were knocking doors, we found a cute girl and her husband cleaning the car. Turns out they are brand new from Guatemala, and they are super young. The girl is 18 and the man is 23. We set up a return appointment, and we went back and they were there. We taught them what our purpose was as missionaries and the husband was so interested. He wanted us to come back and he even asked us if he could invite some of his friends to listen. It was amazing! We have an appointment with them on Wednesday so please keep in your prayers that all goes well.

Another miracle this week, a few weeks ago an old investigator called us at 2 in the morning, and we didn't pick up and we were kind of mad cause we didn't know who it was. We received a text from them on Thursday saying that they wanted us to come over to share a message, and of course we took the opportunity! Well they are a super solid family and the only reason they couldn't keep listening to the missionaries is because the dad went out of town for like 2 months. So now we are teaching them! We also knocked into a woman whose son is a gold medal champion in the Olympics for Karate. SAY WHAT?!? She is less active, and we want to start working with her.  

One more miracle! Our investigator, Oliva, finally had her baby. We were able to go to the hospital and see her and her new baby just after being about 6 hours old! Now Oliva says that she is more than ready to come to church because she knows that she needs to give her baby a good foundation in Christ. Wow, Heavenly Father works miracles, and I am so thankful to be a recipient of them.

Now things that happened that weren't so good this week....

It took us over an hour and a half to get to District meeting cause we had the wrong address, so we were late and we went over 100 miles that day and we only get 900 miles a month so that wasn't very fun.

We got evacuated from our apartment. Let me just tell you what happened....Ok so we had come back from teaching English class at the church, and we were planning. I was sitting at the table and behind Hermana Ruesch's head I see a cockroach. We spent about 20 minutes trying to capture it and set it free outside. Those things move so fast and they have wings here so they can fly. They are so gross. So after we successfully captured it, we went back to planning. Well just about 5 minutes later I see another cockroach in the kitchen. This time Hermana Ruesch had an idea to grab some Raid so that we could stun it then capture it. Well it worked a little bit and then ran out so she grabbed another chemical. She popped off the lid but she couldn't stop the flow so she decided to spray around the doors and windows thinking that it was going to be like a repellent. Well a minute later, we couldn't breath. We were chocking and coughing and we had to run outside. We called our district leader in a panic because it was already 10:20 at night, to see what we should do. I ran back inside to grab the can of spray and I took it outside. On the warnings it said, "Danger if inhaled" and " Do not spray in enclosed areas. Stay out of contaminated area for 4-6 hours" So we had to leave our apartment and go sleep at the English Sisters house for the night. What a nightmare. We got to bed at midnight. Well when we returned home the next day, we found 6 dead cockroaches throughout our apartment, so the spray did work! But that night as we returned home again to plan, we found another cockroach this one was about 6 inches long with the antennas. Oh goodness. Hermana Ruesch and I were so tired of fighting the roaches that she just smacked it all the wall with a video, it was still alive, but we got it outside.

Out of all of the craziness this week, we were so blessed with the opportunity to watch the Young Women's General Conference Meeting. It was so amazing! We watched it in the Stake Center and there was not a dry eye in the house. My favorite talk was by Sister Burton and how she talked about being disciples of Jesus Christ. I hope that all the women and girls had a chance to watch it and this weekend that people take the time to watch and ponder about conference. Write questions and pray for them to be answered as you watch each session. We are so lucky to have the opportunity to listed to and watch a living day prophet this weekend, I hope that everyone will take time out of their busy schedule to take part in the most amazing conference that has yet to be. I am so excited to watch Conference with some of my investigators, as I know that their testimony will be strengthened and so will mine!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week,

Hermana Cattich

COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT!

Monday, March 24, 2014

"LSHMSFOAIDMT"

Well everyone I know that my title for this email is a little different but it has a purpose I promise! It stands for "Laughed so hard my sombrero fell off and I dropped my taco." One of our investigators showed us this and we were busting up laughing. Oh my, I love being a missionary and working with the Hispanic culture. They know how to have so much fun and make some amazing food. The bean problem still exists, but "poco a poco" or little by little, they will start to be more enjoyable. For the first time this week I ate pig hide. I have learned not to ask what it is that I am eating and just eat it. But hey now I can say that I have eaten pig hide. What is so amazing about serving in a place like Dallas Texas is you meet people from all over; El Salvador, Honduras, Peru, Chile, Argentine, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Mexico and so many other countries and they each have some food that is special to their country, so I have ave been able to try some crazy food! 

This week I have gained a testimony of how Heavenly Father looks out for his missionaries. I had a very scary incidence that could have ended in disaster, but Heavenly Father is watching out for all of his children. After the experience, I was sitting in the car and my companion told me, "Heavenly Father loves us so much." We were analyzing the situation and there is just no way that it was by coincidence that it didn't end up in disaster. My eyes filled with tears as I knew that I was a daughter of my Heavenly Father. Everyday I see His love in this work and I am so blessed to be a recipient of it. I am so blessed to also show the people of Plano, Texas how much their Heavenly Father loves them. It is true love that motivates people to change and brings miracles.

During personal study this week I was studying about the Christ-Like attribute of diligence and what it means to be diligent in all that we do. I found an amazing scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 75:2-5. It talks about how we have given up who we are to be missionaries and work in the vineyard of the lord. It talks about how we should not be idle in our efforts and raise our voice to the sound of a trumpet and if we do this and labor diligently, we will be able to be crowned with glory and have eternal life. I feel like those are some pretty good blessings. In the Branch that I serve in, although there are only about 35-40 active members, they can still all make a difference. We all can make a difference. We are trying  to get them excited about missionary work because we all want to branch to become a ward one day so we will all have to work together.

My week was pretty normal, knocking doors and finding amazing people! The Hispanic culture is so friendly to us as sister missionaries. They always offer for us to come in their house and they give us water. They usually just like to talk to us because they are so amazed that "white" girls know Spanish. Well I hope that everyone has a wonderful week, filled with miracles. Know that Heavenly Father loves you all so much!

Hermana Cattich

COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT

Monday, March 17, 2014

My week of miracles!!

To begin, I had the wonderful opportunity to be at a baptism of my investigators on Saturday! The mother and her son were baptized and the dad is just waiting on a few more things so we are hoping that he won't be too far away from his baptism. The baptism was amazing. You could feel the Spirit so strongly and when they bore their testimonies. The dad and all of the missionaries were crying! The Elders gave a spiritual message while they were changing and one elder has only been out for 2 weeks and as he said the First Vision, and there was not a dry eye in the room. Ahhh, I love this work! How could you not deny that it is true?!?
We were also blessed with another miracle. We were knocking and we found a family of 8. (6 kids all under the age of 8 and one on the way) and they used to live in Mesa. They have visited the Temple Visitors Center many times before. They were so excited for us to be in their home! The dad has a lot of questions, but we are more than willing to answer them. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and they loved it! Teaching them lessons is a little hard because there are so many kids, and they live in a TINY apartment and there is just so much chaos, but you can really tell that they appreciate our help. 

We also had another miracle this week. So on the weeks that you have baptisms you try to reach your "zone standards". It is basically just like goals for the week that you have baptisms and it is just super hard to reach them. This past week cause we knew that we were going to have a baptism so we were working so hard!! In order to reach standards you just have to teach a tons of lessons, have people in church and teach lessons with members present! We had meet all of the other standards but we just needed to have 3 investigators in church. We were praying all week for Heavenly Father to help us meet standards and to help us find investigators to come to church. We knew that we were going to have 2 investigators in church, we just needed one more. On Sunday morning, we had Missionary Council and in the door walks an old investigator that we haven't heard from in a long time. Heavenly Father answered our prayers, it was amazing! Heavenly Father really helps out his missionaries!

Another miracle this morning, we found a HUGE dead cockroach on the floor of our bathroom. It was a miracle that it was dead and not alive! I can't believe that this week I hit my 6 month mark, The time has just flown. It needs to stop. I love being a missionary and all the lessons that I have learned and wonderful people that I have met. Another wonderful person that I have met is Oliva. She is wonderful. She is an investigator that we are working with and she is my age. It is my goal to baptize that is my same age. This past week we were talking about how the world has become numb to the truth and she told us that she knows that this is the exactly path that she needs to take. The obstacle with her is that she is pregnant and she is due any day now. I know that one day she will be baptized and she will be a friend of mine forever. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful week, I know that I will! 

Love you all,

Hermana Cattich

COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT

Monday, March 10, 2014

There is no other place I would rather be!

This has been one of the best weeks of my mission. I have a new companion, Hermana Ruesch and she is amazing! She is really obedient and she loves to work. We have been working so hard and knocking doors and seeing miracles. Even if we aren't setting baptismal dates, we are still helping people have contact with the church. We have a lot of new investigators but what is hard is 9 times out of 10 they won't be home for the return appointment, but I have noticed that when one appointment doesn't go through, Heavenly Father will gives us another teaching opportunity. It is amazing! We are working this area so hard, and we actually have a baptism next week. We might have to move the date to the following Saturday, but we are so excited! 

Our baptism is a woman and her son. They are so cute and love this gospel. We go over there almost every day and she makes us food and she has also bought us missionary clothes! She is so great! The missionaries have been teaching them forever and now we are hoping that once the mom and the son get baptized, the dad will follow! 

My new zone is great and really hard working. My new zone leader is really on top of missionary work and he is a good influence on our zone. I have such a testimony of being a tool in the Lords hands. This truly is the best 18 months! I cant believe that next week I hit 6 months, where is the time going!? It seems like just yesterday I was being dropped off at the MTC starting this wonderful adventure! 

I hope everyone has a great week and know that I know that this gospel is true. It is a gospel of hope, love, happiness and miracles. I am so thankful for the knowledge that I have that my family is a forever family. How cool is it to be on the "front line" of this great battle and bringing others unto Christ.

Love,
Hermana Cattich

COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT

New Transfer!

I am so sorry for not emailing on Monday! There was another ice storm here so my whole zone got stuck at the church all day Monday. We always go to the church at 6 am on Mondays so that we can play sports and study and then email, but at about 8 we all got messages from the Assistants that we are to stay inside all day. We weren't allowed to be out on the streets or anything, so we ordered pizza and played sports all day long. Transfer calls were on Saturday night and it was a shocker to everyone. I love my zone so much and most of them are leaving. No one wants to leave either. I am getting a new companion, her name is Hermana Rusche. I don't know much about her, all I know is that she is not very "old" in the mission. My companion right now, Hermana Munyer, is going to Rowlett. My zone leader is leaving and so is most of the zone. We were all really sad and shocked, but at least we all get to hang out with each other on Monday. It was a fun final Preparation Day all together. 

Our investigators that we have been teaching here for 3 transfers, are finally getting baptized! The mother and one of the sons are getting baptized on March 15th! We are so excited!! We knew that she was going to get baptized some time, but we finally sat down with her and set a date. She told us that she knew that she needed to get baptized to be an example to her husband and her other 2 sons! We are so excited for her and her family. They have been to church every Sunday for the past 4 months! It is amazing that people are being prepared for the missionaries to find them. The Sanchez family recently had an experience, well about 8 months ago, where they knew that they needed to stop drinking alcohol and smoking. Then 3 months later the missionaries found them and then VOILA....here we have a family that will be baptized and take one step closer to becoming a forever family!

Transfers were yesterday, and I am so lucky to be staying in Plano. I LOVE PLANO! My new companion is Hermana Ruesch! She is great and a very diligent, obedient missionary. We have only had one day together, and the first few days with a new companion are always interesting, but I can tell that this is going to be a great transfer! I am so excited for all that we will be doing! I know that we are going to see miracles this transfer, so it should be really good.

I hope everyone is warm and safe and if you have any extra time this week, read Alma 5. I think this is one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon. There are so many questions being asked and it makes you really evaluate yourself. It also talks about the atonement and becoming humble! It is amazing. If there is one thing that I have learned is that I need to humble myself and really focus on the people and on the work.

Have a wonderful week and love you all,

Hermana Cattich

COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT!

Monday, March 3, 2014

In the Texas Dallas Mission, I'M IN HEAVEN!

My goodness family and friends this work is truly the work of Heavenly Father. This week we had the privilege to have Elder Ellis from the Seventy here for a mission tour. We had an 7 hour training by him and his wife, and it was amazing. He really focused on having faith and his wife focused on, "Are we having fun yet?" The mission experience should really be enjoyable!! It shouldn't be "endure to the end", it should be "enjoy to the end!" He also focused on how he is just a messenger, and what he says is inspired by Heavenly Father for our mission. I wish I could just share everything that he said, but I have it all written down in my notes. The missionaries in this mission are wonderful and I have some amazing leaders. Everyday just brings a new experience and although some days are longer than others, I still go to bed every night so tired, but wake up ready to go again.

The weeks are starting to fly by now, and it is not okay! This week we receive transfer calls. I am 99% sure that I am staying here, unless there is something crazy that happens. I hope I stay in Plano for awhile. I feel like I will be here for at least 3 transfers. It is just such an amazing town. I wish I had more to write about, but just know that all is well and that I know this is exactly where I need to be.

Funny story this week, so I was on the phone with some members and I was cleaning the dishes in the kitchen and I picked up a pot and there was about a 4 inch long cockroach inside of it. It was red and ugly. I am not even kidding. I started to freak out a little but I had to keep my cool on the phone. I had never seen one what big. After I hung up the phone my companion and I spent quite awhile trying to trap it and get it outside. This nice man that is our neighbor came over and asked if we needed any help. After we got it outside, Hermana Munyer turns to me and says, " I forgot to tell you that the bugs here are huge when it starts to warm up." So I am excited to see what this Spring season has in store for me.

Love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week!!

Hermana Cattich

COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT