#ShareTheGift

Okay, so pretty much this is awesome and is totally going to be an amazing opportunity for people to talk and hear about the gospel. The church has released a video called, "He is the Gift." Our mission president has asked us to share it with EVERYONE! Post in on FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, Pintrest, anyway you can! He wants us to talk to people about Christ and remember the true meaning of Christmas. It is easy to talk about Christ, during this time of year.

As the Christmas spirit is in full blow, it is important to remember who we are really celebrating for. Keep the Christ in Christmas and help others feel it as well. Discover the gift, embrace the gift and then share the gift. My invitation to all is to watch the video and to share it with everyone! EVERYONE!

"Christmas is a time of reflection on what we can become because of God’s sacred gift. As we discover the gift, we learn of the immeasurable love of God and our absolute need for a Savior. As we embrace the gift, we strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ and our desire to become more like Him. As we share the gift, we follow in the Master’s footsteps, who invited all to hear His message.

May we find greater holiness in our own lives and share the gift with others this Christmas season."

      -Russell M. Nelson

Here is the link to the video:

http://www.mormon.org/christmas

#ShareTheGift

Hopefully you all can experience miracles by discovering the gift, embracing it, and then sharing it!

"In the end the man who wins is the man who thinks he can!"

Well family, (I don't know how to start off these emails anymore) but this week was great! It just flew! I feel like we had so much to do that we just lost ourselves in the work. We were able to have a Zone Conference in Allen with 4 of the zones here in the mission. It was such an uplifting meeting. One of the topics that was discussed was the topic of grace. President Taylor said that, "By recognizing your weaknesses, you are actually coming unto Christ." That was interesting for me. But really when we do recognize our weaknesses, we become humble and we want to be better and strengthen our faults so then we go to Christ and our Heavenly Father and ask for help. I loved hearing that! So many times on your mission, I feel like your weaknesses are just brought to the "front burner" and you just feel so inadequate, but really Heavenly Father just wants you to realize that you need his help to over come them.

Our ward had a great Thanksgiving dinner and our investigator Hector was able to go and bring his wife. This ward is tiny, but they are super loving and they love to have a great time. The ward party was also a dance party, it is so hard with the mission rule of not being able to dance. Hector is amazing! He is just so ready to hear and accept this gospel and he comes to church every Sunday! We have set a baptismal date with him and I am excited to keep working with him. He loves the missionaries, he has been taught by so many. The ward loves him and really wants to see him progress in the gospel. He has lung cancer and is the only one really interested in his family, but he is amazing. He has such great faith and confidence in Heavenly Fathers plan for him. He loves church and all the activities!

This Thanksgiving I am excited to be a missionary. There are so many things that I am thankful for, I couldn't even begin to list them all off. Some of the key ones are my family, the gospel, the scriptures, the friends that I have made on my mission, the car that we have to drive here in Texas, and the opportunity that I have to serve right now it Rowlett! The holiday season is so fun to be a missionary because you can really just loose yourself and serve others. My companion and I are making 7 dozen cookies this week for the Heath Texas Stake Christmas activity next Sunday! WOOHOO! The times just keep getting better!

Hope everyone has a great week! Look up this talk if you get the chance it is SO good! It has totally changed my mission and how I look at grace!

http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=1966

A new motto that I have is,

"Life's battles don't always go to the faster or stronger man,

but in the end the man who wins is the man who thinks he can!"

Hermana Cattich

COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT

Third time is a charm....RIGHT!?!

Well family, I don't even think that I can begin to explain this past week. Just a week ago I was sitting with all my buddies of the Carrollton Zone, and now I am in a completely different world it feels like. This past week has been quite a roller coaster and I guess you could say that I am still trying to "catch on and enjoy the ride." Don't worry I won't have a pity party in this letter/email but I will just try to describe my last week for you all.

So last Monday was preparation day and I was with all the missionaries of the Carrollton Zone playing sports and having a great preparation day. No one knew that everything was literally going to change that night. At about 7:30pm, our zone leader Elder Day called Hermana Walton and I and told us that we were both getting doubled out of Carrollton so we both needed to be packed up and ready to leave by 8 am the next morning. We started to cry instantly and ran around trying to say goodbye to everyone before our 9pm curfew. It turns out that most of our Zone got transferred and that everyone was going to be changing! It was crazy! Tuesday morning we jammed all of our stuff into our little car and headed out to the transfer meeting in Dallas. There we all went into the chapel and no one had any idea what was going on. The assistants came in with President Taylor and they started saying the new companionships and areas. My old Zone Leader Elder Day was made assistant, so we were all happy for him. They went through all the zones and I felt like mine was the last one, I was transferred to the Heath Zone. I have been doubled in and I am back up training a new missionary, Hermana Merrell! I was not expecting this at all, and this is my 3 time being doubled in on my mission, so I knew what we were getting into.

Well the first few days were SUPER stressful, trying to figure everything out and learn about the members, investigators, recent converts and less actives. I felt like I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off and that I could never collect my thoughts. I have had to pray more this past week than ever in my life, I just needed to really understand that Heavenly Father answers prayers and that everything is going to be alright.

We had a great week trying to figure everything out. Hermana Merrell and I are just trying to laugh through all the awkward moments and moments of frustration because there is literally nothing we cant do about it. Getting doubled in makes you feel like you are just going into a darkened room with a blindfold on, at least her and I are in this together. Through all the craziness this week, we were able to set a baptismal date. This man has been an investigator for ever and we were able to be firm with him and he finally chose a date that he wants to be baptized. He is a very humble and gentle old man that is battling cancer, but he is wonderful and came to church yesterday. Oh, the tender mercies of Heavenly Father because even after all of the craziness we were able to have 3 investigators at church! WOOHOO!!

Well family I sure love you all lots, and I hope that everyone is enjoying this FREEZING cold weather.....I know that I'm not! Well everyday is a great day to be a missionary and Heavenly Father really does love all of us! Have a great week!

Hermana Cattich

COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT

Lights will guide you home!

Well family, this week there was a HUGE curveball in the mission. We are no longer getting transfer calls on Saturday nights. Instead they will call us Monday night between 9:00pm and 10:00pm and tell us whether or not we are getting transfered. If we are, we have to be packed up by the next morning and be at a transfer meeting at 8:00 in Dallas to be told where we will be going and who will be our new companions. No one likes this change! It is stressing a lot of people out. I am nervous to find out what is going to happen to us, but we won't know until tonight! President Taylor changed it so that missionaries wouldn't spend 2 days saying goodbye to people (Sunday and Monday) instead of working, so we will see how this goes tonight! Part of me thinks that I will stay here in Carrollton, which would be interesting, but whatever the Lord wants me to do, I will do it!

 

This week, other than that, was pretty great! We had our last zone meeting and talked about our "Vision." Not just for the mission, but for our life. Where we see ourselves in 5, 10, 20 years and for the eternities. It was a really good training by Elder James and Elder Day! President Taylor wants every missionary to have a vision, and to clearly set goals, and that was good for me to evaluate my time on the mission and the time I have left. I am going to mission this zone so much. My Zone Leaders are awesome and all of the missionaries in it are just so much fun, literally my second family!

 

We also were able to have a Sisters Conference in the mission, where all the sisters got together and talked about how we can become better misssionaries, women, and futuer mothers. Of course we talked about personal worth, and not being to hard on ourselves. There were tears shed and laughs that we had! It was a great uplifting meeting. My old companion, Hermana Ruesch, was incharge of it and she did an awesome job! She goes home in 2 days! It is SO WEIRD to watch your missionary friends and companions go home, and then when they are home to hear from them.

 

We are teaching an amazing family right now, and we had a lesson with them Thursday night. We brought one of the Mia Maid teachers with us and it turned out that her little sister is best friends with the family's daughter. Weird how that all works out. They were super excited to see that they knew members in our church. That was just a reminder to me that ANYONE can be interested in the church, take every opportunity to talk about it and just be an example of who you are.

 

We had the primary program yesterday in church, and of course, it was the best sacrament meeting of the year! We had dinner with the Larsens, an english family that I have become super close with, and they wanted to feed us before we got transfered. I am scared for what is going to happen, but it will all be okay. This ward is so great! There are so many people and they are just so kind to all the missionaries. I will tell you all what happens next week for transfers! Know that I love each and everyone of you, and I hope that everyone enjoys getting ready for the holiday season!

 

Hermana Cattich

 

COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT

Hermana Ruesch and all of her companions that are left on the mission.

All of the Sisters in our Zone! WOOHOO!

All Jokes Aside...

Happy Late Halloween! Oh my goodness, this was probably the best holiday that I have had on my mission. But before I talk about Friday night, I would just like to tell you about a funny story that happened this past week that brought a little laughter, hopefully it makes sense.

 

So on Thursday night, we were going to have a lesson with Jacob at the apartment of a single lady member. We decided to invite our ward mission leader, Hermano Cardoso. We called him up a few days before and he said that he had something going on that night, but that he would try and reschedule it so that he could come out with us. A little while later he got back to us and said that he could come! We were excited because we knew that Jacob just needed some good solid men to be friends with in church. So on Thursday night, we go to the lesson and Hermano Cardoso is laughing the whole time. I didn't understand why, but I just decided to let it go and just keep teaching. All of a sudden, about 10 minutes into the lesson, there was a knock on the door. The lady went and opened her door and then all of a sudden we could hear the laugh of one of the other elders that serves in our ward. Hermana Walton and I looked at eachother and I could tell she was thinking the exact same thing I was, "What are Elder Vang and Elder Nebeker doing here?" Well they walk in and they have the bishops son with them. We all make eye contact and all 4 of us are wondering the same thing, why is the other companionship here. Hermano Cardoso, the ward mission leader, is just laughing. Well we try to bring back the spirit into the lesson and we were just all super confused the whole time. Hermana Walton and I taught the whole lesson infront of the Elders and the bishops son, and they were just laughing at us the whole time. After the lesson, I wanted to know what in the world they were doing there! It turns out that the thing that Hermano Cardoso had to do that night was home teaching and because he wanted to go out with us he had to find a replacement to go with his companion, the bishops son. His replacement was the Elders. It turned out that he was supposed to home teach the Hermana that was letting us have the lesson in her apartment. There was just a big mix up of confusion and communication. It ended up being quite the laugh!

Us and our Zone Leaders!

 

Okay, so for Halloween. We had a normal working day and then our mission president didn't want us out on Halloween night so he let all of zones get together to have a zone party/meeting. Well it started at 6 and let me just say, I have the BEST zone leaders. We had to have 45 minutes of spiritualness and then we could play sports or do whatever we wanted to do. So to start off, our zone leaders let us have a fireside with a "campfire" in the Relief Society room. We all talked about why we were on missions and our testimonies. We talked about who we are as people and what our purpose and potential is in this life. The spirit was super strong, and everyone was crying. I loved hearing some of the other stories of why people were missionaries, and what their purpose was for being here. After the spiritual part, our zone leaders asked us to bring clothes that we wouldn't mind getting dirty in. They had set up a bunch of minute-to-win-it games and we were all split into teams. The winning team got to smash pies in the Zone Leaders faces! There was a bunch of little events and then there was a big relay race. Everyone was laughing and having a ton of fun. My companions team won the challenge, so afterwards we all went out to the parking lot and watched the zone leaders get pied in the face. My companion was the last person to pie them in the face and instead of throwing it at our zone leaders she decided to pie me right in the face. This triggered a zone food fight, and the rest is history. Everyone was laughing and having so much fun. I think it was a great break from the work. All of the companionships have been struggling with the work this past transfer and you could tell that the stress was all getting to us, but to have that night to just laugh and spend time together as a zone was great!

Patricio at his baptism!

 

Another miracle this week. So some of you may remember my first baptism in the mission, the Putz family. Well yesterday I was able to watch Hermano Putz baptize his 8 year old son, Patricio. It was so cool! This family is amazing and it was so rewarding to watch one of my converts exercise his priesthood and baptize his son! Ah, missionary work, there is just no work that compares to it! They also asked me to sing with my companion. If anyone has ever heard me sing, I can't sing, but the members told us that they could feel the spirit and that is all that matters. I love being out here more and more every week Transfer calls are coming up this week and I am a little nervous as to where I might go but I am excited for another adventure! I hope everyone has a great week and knows that I love them all so very much.

 

Hermana Cattich

 

COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT