A Big Hasta Ver and I Turn 9 Months!

Well family this week, like normal, has been nothing short of great and wonderful! Can I just say I love being a missionary!! This week I hit the magic half way mark or "bump day." As tradition in the mission field, the elders burn ties, pants and shirts but the sisters take a picture with a ballon making them look pregnant to represent 9 months! So this week I had the privilage of taking my "baby bump" picture! On my "nine month birthday" we had our final meeting with President Durrant. He leaves this upcoming week and we get our new president, President Taylor this Saturday. We sang Hasta Ver to him and his wife, and there was not a dry eye in the house.

The training that he gave was amazingI He focused on Jesus Christ and wrote an amazing song and gave it all to us! We were able to just sit in a meeting, cry a little, laugh a lot but most importantly, feel the spirit so strongly. As he and his wife gave their final testimonies, I was just filled with such gratitude to have had these amazing people as my leaders. I am so fortunate to have had the oportunity to be under the guidance of President Durrant for the past 9 months. He is amazing and he has helped change me and who I am as a person. I am so grateful for all that he did and continues to do for the missionaries here. With his love and invitations he helped shape us into missionaries and people that Heavenly Father wants us to be. There was never a day where I didn't feel loved. I truly believe that one of the reasons that I was called to this mission was to be under his guidance. I am excited for the new mission president but also a little scared about what is going to happen! I know that he will be amazing as well, it will just take time for a little adjustment!

Besides the Specialized Training, we knocked a lot but were blessed to find some good people, and then also some people that just wanted to bible bash. I got my first really hard bible question this week, and I didn't know the answer, but we were able to study it out and with a little help from our Zone Leaders we found the answer. Bible bashing is so dumb, but it does help you know the bible better, but really we try and stay away from it! My companion is still amazing, we are a little worried about transfers, but we know that whatever happens, happens!

The boy that came to church last week is doing great. We were able to teach him this week and invite him to be baptized. He accepted a date for mid July, so we are excited to keep working with him. Other than that though we are still in the finding stage of the missionary work, but we see little miracles every day. One miracle (not really having to do with missionary work) was when we were knocking, a lady opened the door. I could smell something really good inside and I asked her what she was cooking and she said paposas, i.e my FAVORITE hispanic food! I told her how much I loved paposas and she went into her little kitchen and came back with 4 paposas! WOOHOO!! They were so good!

The work is moving forward and everyday is a new day! I hope that everyone is enjoying their summer vacations and is staying cool...I am still hoping for that kid to just push me in the pool when ever we walk by! haha Have a great week!

Hermana Cattich

COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT 

DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES???

Well family, this was probably the hardest week of my mission so far. Sometimes you just have those weeks where you loose faith in the whole entire human race, and this was one of them! We knocked a ton this week and everyone we talked to was extremely rude. We had the door slammed in our face, cuss words and to top it off it was just hot. REALLY HOT! Every lesson we had was insane. People just told us bluntly that they didn't want to hear any more of our "nonsense." Their kids were running around naked and screaming and the dogs were going crazy. Our most solid investigators dropped us, but of course with every challenge there are some lessons learned. My companion and I talked about what we learned from this week so we are excited to change our ways a little bit this upcoming week and hopefully see some success.

One lesson that I learned from this week is that Heavenly Father has a sense of humor. All that he does for missionary work never ceases to amaze me! This work really isn't possible without him! I have also learned that when you have had a bad week, he always has a little blessing to give you. So let me give you some back ground on this story/blessing/ miracle.... So a few weeks ago we were on exchanges and Hermana Crosgrove and I found a lady and her son. We taught them the first lesson and while we were talking about the first vision, she just started to cry. We let her just sit there for a few minutes and we let the spirit testify to her. After a few minutes, Hermana Crosgrove asked her and her son to be baptized. They both accepted. We were so excited! Well, for the past few weeks Hermana Enriquez and I have been trying to get a hold of her to go back and teach her but she is always busy. After the really hard week that we had, yesterday morning we decided to call all of our investigators and contacts to invite them to church. We called the lady and she said that she was going to go to her own church. (Not the first time that an investigator has told us that!)

When we got to church, Elder Gardner (my district leader) told us that there was a man here to investigate the church and that he lived in our area. So we went up to meet him. He told us where we lived and who he lived with and it suddenly clicked to me that he was one of the sons of that lady. He then went on to tell us that, " My brother told me that missionaries from this church stopped by to share a message, but I wasn't home!" I was screaming with joy inside. He was a son of the lady that we taught and he was so excited to learn more about the church and he just decided to come and see what it was about. We have a time to go by his house and teach him on Tuesday! How great are the blessings that Heavenly Father has for his missionaries!

This week was hard but I know that we had to get through the hard times to get through to the good stuff. We had a Fathers Day activity on Saturday and of course there was good food and also the World Cup was on, so they were playing a game on the big screen. That is all people do here is sit at home, sleep and watch the World Cup games with a beer in their hand. Seriously every door we knock on we ask them who is playing and what is the score. Its fun though! Life is good!!

Happy Fathers Day to all those wonderful Fathers, especially mine. I am convinced that I have the best dad in the entire world. I am so glad that he supports me on my decision to serve a mission, and I don't know where we would be as a family right now if he hadn't accepted the gospel 18 years ago!

Have a great week!

Que Dios les bendiga! (What everyone tells the missionaries!)

Hermana Cattich

COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT!

"Give me mountains to climb!"

WOW! That is all I can say to describe this week! Wow for how hot it is, wow for how many bug bites I have, wow for all the lessons we taught and wow for all the wonderful people that we met! Life can't get any better than this.

This week we did exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders and it was probably the hottest day ever, but we found 3 amazing people! It totally makes up for all the doors you knock and for all the doors that get slammed in your face. One of the people that we found is a mother and her son. She told us that she felt like she didn't know God and that she wanted to know him and she wants her children to know him too. We shared with them the first lesson and as we were sharing the first vision, she started to cry. We just sat there for a few minutes and the spirit was so strong. We waited for her to talk and Hermana Crosgrove invited her to be baptized right then and there and she accepted. We have a lesson with them tonight so hopefully all goes well.

We also have been working with some less actives and we found the cutest family that was baptized almost 2 years ago. They feed us dinner and we are going to have a family home evening with them on Thursday night! There was a batism in the ward yesterday of the Elders. It is always amazing to see someone step into the waters of baptism and to start a whole new life. It is also cool to see my missionary friends baptize people and excercise their priesthood. Pretty much everything is the mission is amazing!

We also had Zone Meeting this week, and my zone leaders are awesome! They are really on top of missionary work and are really obedient. We had trainings from the district leaders and then we set some zone goals for this next transfer! I cant believe that we are already entering week 3 of this transfer.....time needs to stop. This monthly focus is on Chapter 6 in Preach My Gospel which is developing Christ like attributes! I think the mission is the perfect place to learn love, paticence, dilligence, faith, and charity. We have to write a few talks for the upcoming training in a week and a half!

About the heat and bugs....everytime we pass a pool I just hope that some kid will come up and push me in or that someone will just splash me so I can cool off. We are drinking a ton of water and just pushing through it though. I have so many bug bites on my legs it looks like chicken pocks, but that is okay! My new favoirte food is Papusas (from El Salvador) and my favorite drink is Horchata! I am getting more adventerous with food!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Love,

Hermana Cattich

COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT

Vale la Pena!

WOW WOW WOW!! Family, it is so good to be back to my "mission birthplace." I love this work, I love this gospel, I love my companion, I love my area, and I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!! Sorry that last week was so short, because it was a holiday, we weren't allowed to email for very long! Anyways, there is so much to tell you. So, I was transfered back to Carrollton, which is where I started my mission. At first I wasn't too excited to come back because I wanted to go somewhere else and learn another area, but I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for me here. It was hard to leave the Dallas area after only being there for 6 weeks because I feel like I didn't even make a difference in the area! But, I know that I am supposed to be back here. Saying goodbye to the ward and missionaries was hard but good. It is crazy that you can gain such a close relationship with the ward, its leaders and the missionaries that serve around you in just a short period of time!

Last Tuesday, we all met at Meandering Way and had transferrs. There I said goodbye to missionaries that were going home and also saw some other "old mission friends" I also got my new companion. SHE IS THE BEST! I love her so much. Her name is Hermana Enriquez! She is from Guanajuato, Mexico! Everyday is like 15 hours of straight language study because she doesn't speak English very well, but she is an amazing missionary. She is a convert, so her conversion story is fun to hear and also how she came to America! Ah, I just love her! She has taught me so much and I am so confident with my Spanish, it is great!

We are living with members right now and they are crazy! (In a good way!) It is weird living with members because they just love to talk, but we always don't have a ton of time to talk. Also, they are grandparents, so on Sundays all of their kids and grandkids come over for Sunday dinner, it is really fun! We just have one small room to ourselves, but we are hardly ever there so it doesn't really matter!

Being back in Carrollton is great! Yesterday at church, it was so fun to see some familiar faces like the Boyd's, Beard's, Ruiz, Boltons, Casares Family, and so many others. It was great to get so many hugs and now that I am back here again, I can actually talk with them and understand them. At the begining of my mission, I hardly could so it is fun to be back and to "reedem" myself. I also have the chance to see the Putz family, my first baptism in the mission,so that is cool! We are doing a lot of knocking right now and a lot of just teaching the first lesson, but that is okay! We talk to so many people everyday and I just know that Heavely Father has blessings for us, we just have to get over this little hump of knocking a ton! It is just getting hot here and the bugs are biting like crazy! (My legs are destroyed!) But VALE LA PENA! (It is worth it!)

YO SE QUE CON TODO MI CORAZON QUE ESTE ES LA OBRA DEL SENOR! (I know, with all of my heart, that this is Heavenly Father's work!)Thank you for all of your support, and for the love that I feel! Thank you for everything, and know that I have never been so happy, tired and itchy in my entire life, but I LOVE IT!!

Have a wonderful week,

Hermana Cattich

COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT 

Just another manic Monday!

Wow, week 6 of the transfer is already here and transfer calls are this Saturday! Yesterday I hit 8 months, and my companion goes home in 2, where is the time going? The work is starting to pick up here, but I am scared that all the work will come to an end this next week. Transfer calls are going to be crazy because this is the last transfers that President Durrant will do, so who knows what he has up his sleeve!

We received a referral from the Gladys Knight concert from a boy that recently returned home from his mission, but the rest of his family weren't members. We set up an appointment with them, and we were able to go over and have a very powerful lesson with them. The returned missionary was able to bear his testimony and you could just feel the Spirit so strongly. My companion was testifying of how she knew the Book of Mormon was true and in my mind I was trying to think of the best, most correct Spanish sentences to say, but apparently I looked like I was really tired as I was staring off trying to think really hard, so the dad asked me if I was falling asleep. AWKWARD. All I was trying to do was bear my testimony, but that is okay, we were able to have a really good lesson, and I could tell that they could feel something different.

We have been knocking a lot lately, and sometimes it is really hard because it is so hot and you can just feel the sweat dripping everywhere, but it makes it all worth it when you find that one person who has been waiting to hear your message. One thing that I have noticed a lot recently is that people, when they let you in to their house, are very open with you and don't really hesitate to tell you anything. We end up hearing their whole life story. Sometimes it is good, but other times not so much, but I take it as a compliment that they trust us so much. I think that people realize that there is something different about these 2 girls knocking on their door.

We are visiting a less active that has been in the hospital but no one in the ward knew that she was there. She suffered from a stroke after falling out of bed, and has lost the control of the left side of her body. When we visit her, her speech is usually pretty slow but her brain is still very sharp. We go there almost everyday because she needs help eating. We sing to her different hymns and we read conference talks with her. She has the most amazing testimony I have ever heard. All she says is that she know that she was given this trial for a reason and that she can always feel God's love. Also, when she gets better she wants to just serve all the people that are here in the hospital because she knows how hard it is to be here. She always asks us what we need and wants to serve us. The Elders were able to give her a blessing a few days ago and tears just filled her eyes. We are trying to get ward members to go and visit her, but they often say that they are too busy with their own lives, how sad. I hope that we can start to find some people to visit her, because she really is amazing.

This week I have been super tired, but I think that is just because of the heat, it really wears you out! I think it is funny because the more tired I am, the happier I am. I am a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints! WOOHOO!! Also, I want to give a shout out to Megan ______ for her awesome missionary experience that she shared with me. She is amazing for taking the opportunity to give her friend a Book of Mormon and to answer some questions!

"Everyone is ready to hear the gospel, this isn't the time for planting the seed, this is the time for harvesting!" - Anonymous! Have a great week!

Hermana Cattich

COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT

Mother's Day Miracle!

Oh family what a wonderful time it is to be a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints and to be able to say, without a doubt in my mind, that this is the true church. I was able to return to my "mission home" of Plano and see an old investigator get baptized by the Branch President! It was so rewarding as I was able to receive her from coming out of the font. She had tears in her eyes, and she couldn't stop saying how she was so happy that she could start her life over again! I hugged her for about 5 minutes as we both wouldn't let go, I was soaking wet but I didn't care. It was amazing. She is my age, so that was pretty cool to say that I was able to introduce someone that was my own age to the gospel!

This past week we have be contacting referrals from the Gladys Knight concert and we received a referral of a Spanish speaking family, so my companion and I were pretty excited. We went by and ended up meeting the mom and the oldest daughter. We set up a return appointment for Saturday but they called us and cancelled. As church was about to start on Sunday, we were walking in to the chapel and the whole family was there! All 4 of them, and we didn't do anything to get them there, they came on their own. It was amazing! It made me realize that Heavenly Father does play the biggest part in this work and without him, we wouldn't be able to do anything. Because of this family, we were able to have 6 investigators in church in the Dallas 9th ward and for Mother's Day!

I was also able to talk to my family, especially my mother yesterday! It was so good to see them and crazy to think that I only have one more Skype session and then I will be home, but don't worry I am not thinking about that already! My mom is amazing and I hope she felt special yesterday. I know that I couldn't be here on my mission without the support of my mother and all of my family!

We are still in the finding process but we have been given approval by the mission president to speak both Spanish and English because our area that we share with the elders is so big. So whoever we find, we teach!  Woohoo! I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day and that everyone was able to Skype their missionary!

I love you all!

Hermana Cattich

COME WAHT MAY AND LOVE IT

Gladys Knight and the Pips

Well family, another week has flown by! It is just starting to get hot, I sweat all the time, and the bugs are starting to bite, but all is good because I am doing the Lord's work in the best mission ever! This week was a little slow though but I know that I am just being taught patience. We are really trying to do a lot of reactivation work and it is hard when the members don't want missionaries to come to their house anymore or have hurt feelings because of the people in the ward. Please be nice to everyone! We are all loved children of our Heavenly Father, and this is his church. He wants us to all be here and supporting one another and learning more of him. There are so many people out there that are looking for more truth and this is the church where you can find it. You can also find love, peace and happiness and members that want to act on their faith. How amazing it is to be a member and a missionary of this church. In my area, I just know that there are so many places to knock and so many amazing people to meet! I love Dallas, Texas!

This week, our mission had the honor of having Gladys Knight here for 7 concerts and we were able to bring our investigators, less actives and recent converts. She is a member of our church and she shared her testimony and also had her choir sing some fun songs. It was so great! We were able to bring some less actives and they loved it and we also brought Lily and her boyfriend! I could feel the spirit so strongly and I know that each person that was there could feel it too. It was cool because she was a Christian before she converted to our church and there are a lot of people here in Texas, that know of her because of her gospel music. There was such a good turn out!

We are continuing to work with our investigators and trying to always talk to more people. Before my mission I was so scared to go up to people but know I walk up to random people on the street and bear my testimony. It is crazy what 7.5 months on a mission can do! I know that there is no way that I could do this without Heavenly Father's help. This week I have the awesome opportunity to return back to Plano for a baptism! Woohoo! Plano is seriously my home on the mission. I am so excited to celebrate another one of my investigators coming closer unto Christ. This work is truly amazing!

I hope everyone has a great week and we all remember that we are children of our Heavenly Father!

Hermana Cattich

COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT