Monday, December 29, 2014

Pancakes, Ping Pong and Parties

Merry Late Christmas and Happy New Year! Wow this week has been crazy and really just flew. After not having talked to my parents for 7 months, it was so weird to see them on Skype for Christmas Day. I feel like the longer you are out on your mission, the less real your family feels, they become more like a dream/memory, but hey I still love them!
 
Throughout this week we did a lot of service at a food pantry, sorting food and helping them organize everything for the start of the New Year. It was a lot of fun, and I feel like service just helps you really feel the Christmas spirit. The people were so thankful for all the work that we do there as missionaries. I think all the missionaries in our zone serve there, so it is a lot of fun! The Stake President and his family were there as well serving, so it was good to talk to them for a little while.
 
Christmas was great! My companion and I woke up early and opened our presents that we had and then we got ready for the Christmas Zone Meeting at the church. We decided to do a pancake breakfast and ping pong tournament, so we all met up at the church at 9 am. It was just so relieving to be around missionaries that are in the same position as you, where they don't have their families so all you have is each other. Our zone leader, we only have one this transfer, did an awesome training and then we acted out the Nativity. Afterwards we all ran home to Skpye our families. It was just so weird! I can't believe that that was my last Skype session with my family on my mission, it seemed like just a few months ago I was doing my first Skype with them.
 
For Christmas night, we went and ate dinner with a family in the ward and then stopped by some less actives. We also wrote thank you cards for the members in our ward and passed them out as well. It was cool to get such a positive reaction from some many members about the thank you cards in church on Sunday. Hispanics love to throw parties, so we were invited to so many and when we knocked on doors even Hispanics that didn't know us invited us in for some food! (Kinda weird but super awesome!) We were knocking on doors and we decided to stop by an old investigator and right when they opened the door, they let us in and gave us a huge plate of Flautas (one of my favorites!) and invited us to watch soccer with them! Hispanic people are just so funny and so welcoming!
 
The rest of the week was pretty normal, except for the fact that on Saturday night our ward mission leader told me that I was to give a 15 minute talk in sacrament meeting, in Spanish, the next day! Oh goodness. It actually turned out pretty well and I got a lot of compliments from the ward members. I love serving in this area, the ward is just so welcoming and they love the missionaries. It is a pretty small ward, but that just means there is a lot to be done! I love you all and I wish you all a Happy New Year!
 
Hermana Cattich

COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT
Us and the Zone "Lord" and his companion making pancakes!

Our Zone on Christmas morning!

Monday, December 22, 2014

Merry Christmas and Feliz Navidad!



Well everyone Christmas is in finally here and with no snow on the ground it feels like any other week but I am so excited to Skype with my family on Christmas! The Christmas season is amazing and the Taylor's (My mission president and his wife) are WONDERFUL! We had a mission party last Tuesday to say goodbye to the Elders and Sisters that were going home the next day and to also celebrate Christmas. They made us all (270 missionaries) breakfast and then we had a Christmas devotional and transfers. We sang Christmas songs and watched Christmas videos, I will attach them to this email so that you can watch them. Saying goodbye to missionaries for transfers is always hard, especially because I have known a lot of them since I have been out. But it is crazy to think that I will see them one day again, whether at school or just in some random place, it will be a happy reunion.

Our whole mission has memorized the "Living Christ", and what a task that has been for me. I honestly think that I have never read the Living Christ all the way through before my mission, but when President Taylor invited us all to memorize it for the Christmas season about a month ago, I was excited for the challenge. The whole mission came together and we filmed us reciting the "Living Christ" so I will attach that as well. I love the Living Christ now and I love the power of the testimonies of the living day prophets and apostles. My voice echoes their testimony of "I know that Jesus is the Living Christ, the immortal Son of God." What an amazing time of year it is to be here and to be a missionary. Representing Jesus Christ and his true church upon the earth. I don't think anything will give me more joy this holiday season! I love my mission and everyone that I have met. I am thankful for the opportunity that I have had to come closer to my Savior, Jesus Christ and to personally see his hand in my life. What an amazing adventure this past year, the year of my mission, has been!

We had a really cool experience this past week as well. We are teaching a family and the dad is really opposed to religion so they have been a work in progress. The mother and daughter have been really sick and so when we taught them on Wednesday night, we told them about priesthood blessings. They willingly accepted and the following night we went by with our ward mission leader and another hermano from the ward. We knocked on the door, but sadly didn't see any lights on in the apartment. Hermana Merrell and I were nervous that they weren't home. After we knocked for a few more minutes, the wife answered the door. Their electricity had been turned off because they couldn't pay the bill. There were only 2 candles lit throughout the apartment. They (the mom and the daughter) were both able to receive blessings, and the spirit was so strong in that little candle lit apartment. It was a very cool experience on my mission.

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas, and know that I love each and everyone of you. Thank you for all your love, prayers and support on my mission. Here is to the last 3 months that I have, I am sure it will be the best 3 months of my life!

1. Texas Dallas Missionaries and the Living Christ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNuP6D9DQVg

2. Probably one of the coolest videos of Christmas EVER!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIEIvi2MuEk

3. An awesome new music video with David Archuletta and the Piano Guys. It was the worlds largest nativity!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrLoWt2tfqg

Hermana Cattich

COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT

Peace out Elder Haskell!
Saying goodbye to these 2...SO WEIRD!

Probably 2 of my favorite elders, at least they haven't left me yet!

Monday, December 15, 2014

"We wish you a Merry Christmas!"



Can you believe it is almost Christmas?!? I guess I can't believe it because it is still 70 degrees and there is no snow on the ground. It is kind of sad actually but I know that this Christmas will be a good one.

This week was great! I was able to go to the temple with my companion on Friday, and then to also go caroling with my zone. Transfer calls were last night and Hermana Merrell and I are staying together! WOOHOO!! We are excited because we love the ward and our investigators are great. The area is really progressing and it is just a fun environment to serve in! The weird thought is that I will most likely end my mission here in Rowlett. CRAZY!

We continue to knock and find people it is amazing and such a testimony builder. Even if we don't get a return appointment with them, it just makes me happy to have the opportunity to testify to everyone about the restored gospel. The "He is the Gift," is working out great. A lot of people have been sharing it with their friends and less active members of the ward. As missionaries in the ward, we decided to do an activity with each of the members so that they can really experience and accept the gift of Jesus Christ this Christmas season. It has been a lot of fun to get close to these members and to feel of their love and to help them have their own missionary experiences!

Tomorrow we are having a mission wide Christmas party/ goodbye party for the missionaries that are leaving! It is going to be a good break from the normal missionary days. We continue to go caroling with our zone and at every door we always try to sing new songs but "We wish you a Merry Christmas" is the only song that ever comes out! Oh well! I love you all so much and good luck with those that have finals this week!
Hermana Cattich

COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT

My Zone here is Heath, Texas!

Monday, December 8, 2014

Lily!!

This week has been quite the ups and downs of emotions, but when is  the mission not! (I really need to get better at starting my emails!) First off, I was able to go back to my old area, Carrollton, for a baptism of Lily Quintana. It was amazing! I was able to help Lily out of the font after Elder James baptized her and she also asked me to speak on the Holy Ghost. It was a great baptismal service, and a ton of missionaries were able to return to see her be baptized!

We are teaching an amazing family right now. We showed them the "He is the Gift" They loved it and then we went back and taught them the Restoration. The husband of the family seemed closed off to us the first few times that we went over, but after we explained the Restoration, he opened up to us. He told us that he had started to feel a peace in his home since we have been stopping by. It was amazing, and his wife wants to come to church so bad, we just have to work out some problems because he works on Sundays, but we are praying for a miracle. They are really impressed with what we do as missionaries. We are also teaching a 22 year old that has been coming to church and he went to the baptism that the elders had last night. It was a really good experience for him and he has a lot of really solid questions. he searches for his answers as well. It's exciting to see someone my age be so excited in the gospel. Hector, our older man with cancer that we are teaching, is going back to El Salvador for 3 weeks so sadly he won't be here over the holiday season. He always makes us laugh, and the members just love it!

I was able to go on exchanges with Hermana Maxfield (like my best friend in the mission) and we just had a great day sharing the gospel, talking and catching up on all that has happened on the mission. We are contacting people now using the "He is the Gift" video and people love it. Hermana Merrell and I were knocking one day and 2 guys that were a little under the influence of drugs answered the door, but Hermana Merrell said that we needed to share the video with everyone so we decided to show it to them. After the video, one of them freaked out saying it was the best video that he has ever seen. It was super fun! It is those little laughs that make it all worth it! I sure love you all and hope that you are having fun getting ready for the holiday season. 

Hermana Cattich

COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT

Say no to drugs!

Hermana Merrell, Hermana Maxfield, Gabby Vigil (my trainer) and Hermana Asay.
Hermana Walton, Lily and I! WE LOVE HER!

Monday, December 1, 2014

#ShareTheGift pt. 2

Well, this week was another great one! I love Rowlett Texas so much! It is the perfect little Texas town and there is just so many nice people here. The ward is amazing and has really caught the vision of sharing the gospel. It is a small ward, really small actually, but they have such strong testimonies of the gospel, it is amazing! Thanksgiving was wonderful on the mission! I can't believe that this is my second Thanksgiving. I remember sitting at last Thanksgiving with my trainer, and thinking to myself that the next year was going to drag on, but just a blink of an eye later, it's Thanksgiving again and I am training. We had a great day though. We got fed a ton and laughed alot too. The members had a "Turkey Cup" to play soccer in the morning and so the missionaries went to go talk with all the ward members and one of the Hermanos just brought out a Turkey and slammed it on the table and began slice up some good pieces of turkey, it was super funny. We were able to eat a lot and enjoy some really good company! I love being a missionary at this time!

We are working with 2 amazing people right now. One is Hector and he is just AMAZING! He has been meeting with the missionaries for a long time now and we finally have a baptismal date with him. His progress has been really rapid in the church but he has lung cancer and he has to get chemo every week so he has missed out on a few lessons and church attendance, so we have had to move more slowly with him. He has come to church every week though since I have been here and he comes to all the church activities. For example, last night the Heath Texas Stake put on a choir concert for the Christmas season and so we all went to that and had a grand ole time! The other awesome person we are working with is David. He is 22 and has so much curiosity in finding the true church. He came to church yesterday and really loved it. It is so cool to see a person that is the same age as me have so much interest in church, you don't really find that now a day. I am excited to work with him, we might try and get him to do to the YSA ward though so he could be with people that are more of his age! We were also given a name of a part member family to work with from the Bishop. The family just moved from California and they are super cool. We stopped by with them on Thanksgiving and we have a Family Home Evening with them tonight! WOOHOO!!

It is so fun to be a missionary right now because I feel like people are more open to listen to a message about Jesus Christ, when this is the season that we need to be making him the center of our lives. We had a zone meeting this week and let me just say the church is amazing! Recently, our church has made a video for Christmas and now all the missionaries are working so hard to share this video with EVERYONE! We are sharing it with people that we meet while contacting, dinner appointments with members, less actives, investigators, just EVERYONE! So I invite you all to check out this video as well and share it on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and just anywhere you can! I will put the link to the video at the end, but it is an amazing short video that can really bring the spirit of Christmas into your home! The church has released this called, "He is the gift" and with it they are going to take over YouTube for a day, on December 7th, and also in Time Square, have billboards for the video. It is so awesome!

I forgot to add that this week one of my old companions came back to the mission and suprised me! It was so good to see Hermana McDaniel! She was here for Thanksgiving with her family. So weird to see an old companion not dressed as a missionary with a tag, but still awesome to see her. I hope everyone has a wonderful week and takes the time to share this video with everyone and watch it as a family for family home evening. I love you all so much!

http://www.mormon.org/christmas

Hermana Cattich

COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT