I'm Home!

Well Hello my dear family!

 

How are you all? I love you all so much!!! I am so grateful for all the support you give me and the prayers as well. Thank you! So last week I know I testified a lot! I loved hearing about your lives and i wanted to comment on all of it :)

Jonathan your history teaching venture just sounds exciting! i am so glad that you are pursuing something that you love. Doing what you love is really important. How are you nataly? I hope all is well and swell in the far distant lands of Lehi! I am sure you are all doing as well as ever, family home evening and scripture study still underway and saviing the day! I am so grateful that I am able to testify about how family prayer and scripture study and really LIVING the gospel has changed and blessed my life. Thank you family for nurturing my testimony and really for nurturing me as a child of God! I see why Heavenly Father places us in families, they well YOu really do shape us into who we are.

 

So SNOW SNOW SNOW! We had an ice day, and I hope dad you are driving safely or not driving at all :). be safe!

This week has been really fast and really wonderful. Giving your heart and mind to the Lord is wonderful. We've been able to teach to many people. Its been wonderful calling Peru, Mexico, Guatemala and MONGOLIA! We have some investigators there and it is so neat just sitting in the teaching center and listening to all of these testimonies in different languages, and working in unity with my companion. We are both doing great, as happy and healthy as ever and really enjoying being companions.

 

So coming up! (Mom put on your seatbelt!) On March 15th the temple square sisters are doing a cultural performance in the Assembly Hall here on Temple Square! I am helping put some things together with that, i am glad and grateful I get to be involved. Mom i was actually wondering if you could send me an arrangement of Amazing Grace, maybe even the one ganae and i did!  i think i am gonna do a solo/duet for that...and then they were also asking me to put a group of hispanic sisters together to come up with a musical number...any ideas for that one? I am wracking my brain for that one--would love your help. I haven't asked if you would be allowed to sneek in to watch the performance...im so sorry i know I KNOW you are wanting to come...I will tell you what! i shall see what i can do, as long as i don't see you. :) so don't worry no te preocupes!!!

 

This week we contacted a lot of people, and my companion and I are finding  a lot of peace and happiness! Its a lot of work---there is this quote from this missionary on these missionary DVDs, he says, "I am so tired! But i am so happy! I don't understand!" ha, my companion and i joke about that a lot. Its so hard to describe how you feel sometimes---and that sentence sometimes captures it! We are so happy. This week as i was getting ready for bed, i realized, i really felt like i was at home. It just felt like home! My apartment, my companion, my roomates, the schedule, its home now.

We are praying for our investigators with baptismal dates, some of them are hard to get a hold of. Last night I spoke with a man on the phone and it was such a wonderful conversation---we talked about the gospel and the Holy Ghost and we prayed. We will be calling and following up with him, and helping him transition to missionaries soon. And today as i was on the phone i was speaking with a member--and i was like," ah my mind isn't working can we speak in spanish" (i knew she spoke spanish originally) and the phonecall went much better! Ha! Dad---i am SO grateful for that language! And i am so grateful for your testimony, i remember how everytime you bear your testimony you always say, "I know the Book of Mormon has the power to convert." That has really stuck with me and i pondered that this morning, and shared your testimony with my companion this morning about the converting power of the Book of Mormon.

 

So i am still taking steps to give my heart and mind completly to the Lord, and i am so happy. That really helped me to hand it all over, like I talked about last week.

 

So Becca was supposed to have her baby this week! I LOVE YOU BECCA! i am praying for her and i hope everything went well!!!---i guess we can all keep her and her family in our prayers eh familia? she is a wonderful person and a great example.

 

Mom, Dad, Ganae, Jeshua, Jonnyboy, natnat, mitas and abuelo, and of course grandpa and grandma wortham: I love you all! I think about each of you (while focusing of course) and i want you to know that I love you. I know the gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives and as we embrace it, we are happy, we can have peace, we can really changed. i'm at home, I walk outside of the Lord's house everyday and I love the Lord with all my heart. I will continue to love Him and I hope to help each of you come one step closer to Him. You are dear to me!

 

Until next time my dear family!!!!!

Sister Osorio!

 

p.s.--siblings---you are wonderful, keep your testimony strong! i love you ganay-nay!!! we shall all be like the sons of mosiah what a life.

D+C 4 - The Sun Will Shine

OH FAMILIA!!!

Hello, hello! HELLO!

It has been wonderful hearing from of course. I am so grateful for the letters, emails, and mom, that pop-up elder package was muy fubloso! I ate way to many cookies. THANK YOU! and the snacks are PERFECT, seriously, at the end of the month you are always running a little low on monies, so thank you. I feel your love and support and i am happy to hear about all the different activities. Sledding looked way fun kiddos! Jeshua you look so handsome! You too ganae, very sly! hehe. And thank you for such a wonderful fhe activity. really lifts us up doesn't it! I have named the "pop up elder" Obediente! So everytime i see him, i go OBEDIENTE! to help us be 100% obedient. And the little stuffed animal in my stocking from christmas is named STEADFAST. So i sleep with steadfast and obediente every night---i am well taken care of.  I am well taken care of by the Lord as well.

Family I could hardly wait to write you this week because i had an epiphany---and it will change the course of my mission, and the rest of life. Its changed everything. :) I am so happy to tell you all about it. 

Most of the things i learned came from the talk "The Fourth Missionary"--so if anything i say sounds super inspiring, know that it came from that talk and that teacher. 

In D&C 4 verse 2:

 2 Therefore, O ye that embark in the ^aservice of God, see that ye^bserve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand ^cblameless before God at the last day.

you know how the last few weeks had been rough? I kept trying to work harder, be more obedient, and just keep going---and it just wasn't working! It wasn't clicking! I prayed and i felt reminded to read this talk that this sister gave me in my first transfer. It was like 24 pages and I had tried reading it and it never stuck. But when i read it this time, i felt so taught!

I had been serving God with all my MIGHT, and with all my STRENGTH.  I was working, I was doing what needed to be done, I was truly performing  my duty---and all was going well. But I had not been serving him with ALL my HEART and MIND. My heart and mind have often times been in the work, but they have often times been at home, or in the future or even in the past. I often thought, I wonder if so and so will still be home after my mission? Or I am going to learn how to paint, and become yoga instructor, or MY FAMILY IS SO CLOSE! I can't wait to see them again, i can't wait to take them on a tour, its gonna be wonderful to be a return missionary! I can't wait to be a mom! When I'm a mom i am gonna do this this and this :) and how i have really felt the affect of not having voice lessons, singing and music yada yada! All of these wonderful righteous desires, but do you see how my mind and my heart often trailed elsewhere? I was doing what i was supposed to be doing, but there was a part of me that just wanted to get through it, so that i could get about doing what i wanted to do. My heart and my mind was in conflict with what God wanted for me. I was giving Him everything, but He already had all of that. My talents and time---He gave me those, with every breath, its a blessing, every talent and gift, He gave me. Everything was already His---except one thing, my will. My heart and mind are unique, and He respects that, and the only thing I can give Him is my will (my agency per say), my heart, my mind, my thoughts. And He will make SO MUCH more of me.  I can only make something human, He can make something Godly. I am learning how to give Him all of me, everything, I can't have one foot at home and one foot in the mission. And when my desire became NOT to be a great missionary, but to be a SERVANT of the Lord, something changed. I was happy, but i was peaceful, I felt the Holy Ghost burning inside my heart, I felt heaven's approval. This is what He needed, He needed me to give Him what He didn't have---because you can't change or mold, or BLESS something that you don't have. Now He is blessing my very heart and my very mind, not just my strength and might. Now He has my heart, and my mind, my thoughts, and I feel so humble and blessed. 

In the talk it says, "Elder Holland teaches that great swimmer once said when asked his secret of success, "I kick when I don't want to kick, and I stroke when I don't want to stroke."...The difference between the third and fourth missionary is that the third missionary  will kick and stroke because it is his duty, because that is what is expected of him and he will hate and resent it., while the Fourth Missionary will kick and stroke because he knows that it is the only intelligent thing to do."

The glory of God is intelligence isn't it? So be intelligent, be glorious. 

So now, I am kicking, I am stroking, and i'm not fighting anything inside that is wanting to do something else, I am kicking and stroking as much as i can because this is how Christ can help me, and this is how I can help others. It has made all the difference to know what I am witholding and knowing what I need to give. "Your world is in your head. Get your head right and your heart will follow, and you will be right." Honestly, it has made me FEEL like gold, I feel golden-ness around us when we walk and talk because I have finally been able to surrender myself to heaven's hand, to not just do it because its right, and i love missionary work: but to do it, to serve because its the glory of God, and I love Him. I love the Lord.

To offer heaven's hand to others, to reach and see and listen to them, and discern where "in their quiet heart is hidden, sorrow that the eye cannot see" but then to see it and feel it with heaven's guide, and then love them has been a blessing far beyond measure. To be on the errand of angels, or declaring the terms of repentance---if declaring how through faith and consistency on the path brings the joy and peace of heaven into our very mortal lives has made all the difference on Temple Square. To let go, and be His servant is all i want. 

We are here, planting seeds, alongside heaven's hand, and the Sun will Shine. The Son will bless those with faith, and how He can make us grow. The Sun Will Shine, thus, I will sow. With ALL my mind, with ALL my very might! with ALL my strength, and with all my heart. May He chasten my soul till I shall be in perfect harmony with Him, and His ways. 

I LOVE YOU AND I HOPE YOU KNOW IT!!! 

Love

Sister Osorio

Press Forward Saints

Hello Family!

Oh thanks so much for the bundle full of letters last week! It was SO GREAT! SO SO SO GREAT.

Mom thanks again for all of the christmas gifts, i wear my spectacular watch everyday and i really like it. every now and then i will press the light up button for fun, hehe. AND also mom, i listen to the CD's you sent, the Lamb of God, and We must Sing, THEY MAKE MY DAY! i hope i don't overplay em, but they are really being put to good use. thank you!!!

It has been super cold, but we are doing very well! I know last week was rough, but its gotten better! We actually got a LOT of work done this week, and plan on working just as hard next week. On thursday we had a surprise snowday! the president ordered all of us to be home by 2pm because of all the snow. So guess what i did? at first i just stood there and went, wo, what do i do? we haven't planned for any of the next few hours..wah! is this what it will feel like when i go home? oh boy.... but then... I PAINTED MY NAILS. be proud ganae, be proud, the first time in like 7-8 months no joke. It was fun, we went into Sister Freitas and Sister Schill's apartment, (both are in my district) and it was Sister Freitas' birthday so we just celebrated. And then A NAP! and then, it was so cute, we heard all this cheering down the hall, and my companion and i went down to check it out and we walked in and everyone just said," OH now MONGOLIAN, now mongolian dance!!!" So we showed them some mongolian dance, (my companion had taught me earlier), everyone was just cheering, it was so cute. "OH NOW COLOMBIA COLOMBIA!" So i got a long skirt and attempted that...hehe. it was fun. It was such a neat experience, all of us, sitting and cheering for all the dances, hawaii, tonga, australia, germany, usa, all kinds.

Anyways that was a very unique day! And so was yesterday actually, I had the special opportunity to do temple service. Some of the sister missionaries get to go help clean the temple. It was really neat, we moved some of the chairs out of the celestial room, and then we got to clean the sealing rooms. It was so beautiful. I just wanted to stay in it all day long, its amazing how bright those rooms are. i thought about how jonathan was married in one of these rooms recently, and it just felt like such an honor to be able to clean the Lord's house. I loved it, because it felt like i was literally serving the Lord in a way where i could see and feel like i was helping----ya know how relief society will sometimes go clean peoples homes? It felt like i got to do that for the Lord---and i was so happy to do that, and i felt a really special peace and love for it. Even if i don't understand everything about the temple, when i was in that sealing room, it was the only place i wanted to be.

Mom you will be working with the youth! My dream! Just love them, and help them reach their potential! See them as how God sees them...I know you know that, but it makes a difference. With ANYBODY, with our companion, friends, investigators, guests on the square, visitors, members---if we could learn to see a person as God saw them, we would love them so much more, and we would be willing to do whatever it took to help them see themselves that way, and reach their potential. i am grateful for the opportunity to be spiritually minded--for that is life eternal 2 nephi 9:39. Those young women, are very lucky to have you!

I really learned a lot about diligence and dedication this week. With the struggles and hard times, it was an opportunity to cling to my testimony and let it convert me more. Conversion comes with daily keeping the commandments, and I realized while reading the general conference talk from Elder Bednar about testimony and conversion, that i really need to be using the atonement to help cure me of doubt---i don't have to struggle with the same thing for forever, i truly believe the atonement can CHANGE me, and now its about accessing that, and being willing to change, and be fully converted. its hard to let go of some things, but the atonement can change us. I suppose i will work more on that this week! Thanks for letting me throw my thoughts out there.

So my companion wanted me to let you know that I dreamed about batman again this week. kinda odd, but ah well! she thinks its just soooo funny. it was actually just jeshua and i gonna watch the new batman movie---thanks for saving me a seat jeshua ;) knew i could count on yoU!  Don't worry, i am trying to fill my thoughts with my investigators more than batman!  oh and i also dreamed that for my outbound missionary experience they sent me to serve with SISTER PONO FOR 2 MONTHS. boy do i miss that best friend of mine. i love her so much. she is amazing, going so far away. i really admire her.

Please tell the Reeds that I say hello. I think about them a lot actually and i want what is best for them. I hope they are happy and strong! Lizzie and Savannah are my sunshines and true anchors in the world, good people, good friends, and hope they are well. Will you let them know that I think about them and pray for them too---I love them.

Oh and dad, don't worry! I wasnt in the COB at all last week! so crazy! you are such a brave, strong man! it must be kinda hard to have me so close to you. For me its a comfort. i am glad we are close.

I love being a missionary. It really is such a wonderful time, and i feel the blessings of your prayers. i really do feel that strength. There are moments in my day where i just feel such support, so thank you for your prayers, i feel them and i hold onto them. I am grateful for the privelage and blessing of working on temple square! Thank you so much for supporting me family. Sister B from Russia told me a little bit of her story, but her mom wouldn't even say goodbye to her before her mission because she was so upset she was serving a mission and joined the church. I cannot forget how blessed i am to have a family like you, and friends who write and support me too---i am so grateful, and i will do all i can to serve heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ---i am loyal to Him, and to you! Thank you so much!

I best go write a letter to President. But I love you with all my big CORAZON!!!

LOVE LOVE LOVE

Sister Osorio

p.s.--pray for some of the people we are teaching, some have transitioned to local missionaries, and we know they need encouragment and support! please pray for them!!! This is such a mighty work----Press forward my dear saints!!!!

Happy New Year and Time to Live

Helloooo Family!!!!!

Wow! I just read your christmas email from last week and also the one you sent this morning mom, thanks! wonderful to hear from you all. HAPPY NEW YEAR!  Talking to you all on Christmas was wonderful---you all sound great, and look great to! The celebrations of the year have been wonderful for us as well as missionaries. Its been fun, festive, filling and I cannot believe how blessed we are. It sounded like you all had wonderful wonderful family time! so glad.

Remember the atonement is real, do everything we can to repent, trust in the atonement and move on, be compassionate with yourself, we are so compassionate with others--be compassionate with yourself. THIS is one of the biggest lessons i am learning on my mission.

SO MANY COOL EXPERIENCES THIS WEEK:

Transfer Conference yesterday! I was so like argh at the beginning, because i will do anything ANYTHING the Lord wants me to--I just love my companion loads and was sad at the thought of a new one, and then guess what happened? Sister Moldogalii and I will be staying together again! We will be working in the BEEHIVE HOUSE for much of the week, and our new assignment is SPORTS COORDINATORS, which means putting together some good exercise activies in the early mornings for the sisters. We are excited! And I was a little concerned with getting to comfortable---but we are determined to be diligent, work hard, and enjoy the calling of being missionaries yet again together! What a blessing. We are so happy! Our p-day will be on WEDNESDAY from now on I believe, so be sure to write next week for that. I don't think we will be allowed to check email again tomorrow, just once a week according to white handbook so we will OBEDIENTE POR SU PUESTO!!!

dad--i met a young man this week who came to the square. We took him on a spanish tour as he is from Mexico. Daddy his story is so similar to yours it seems. He came to orem on faith, planning to do ESL before going to UVU, and came to temple square to feel the spirit and receive guidance. He said at the end he felt so determined and inspired, which is definitely what we want our visitors to feel. he is staying with a missionary companion for the next two weeks, and is working on the next few steps of his life. I told him your story and he smiled and said, "I came with a little more than your dad, I at least brought $200..." See how similar he is? I was amazed! We will be praying for him and his life won't we! I am grateful that the gospel of Jesus Christ brings hope.

oh and the teasing from the sisters about page 56 in the ensign is hilarious. 

Family, I am so happy that you all are sounding good. I am so grateful for the letters and gifts and support I receive from all of you. It buoys me up . For the first time on my mission, I cried about missing you family---after the phone call. My companion started it, because she started like sobbing as she listened to you all sing What Child is This. So shes all crying, so i looked at her after the phone call, and said, Wow. And she just looked at me crying and said something that still rings in my heart, "You get to be with them... for forever." Thats when i smiled and nodded and cried, "Yes, yes I do." So i cried! bah! Sorry! But it makes sense to miss you all for a bit. But then I looked back at my companion and said, "I miss them. But I have to remember why I am here. Why would I leave them, why would i leave that? Because I want everyone to have this blessing, I am here to help everyone learn how they can be with their family for forever. That is why I am here." Family, friends, may we live our lives worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven. Keep the commandments, have faith, repent, make covenants with God, and remember those covenants with the sacrament, and change. Please! Let us not settle for less, because really do not have to. My family, I love you. I am doing best, I promise, I hope to be diligent, to keep working hard---jonathan, how did you find success in your ministry in hawaii?

I am proud of my family, I am honored to be a member of your family Daddy, and I am honored and blessed to be a missionary. Its a new year, but its really just a time to live, and love the Lord. enjoy it!

I love you! I have plenty of pictures to send home but I forgot my camera, so next time!!!

I can't wait to hear from you all soon. 

Love,

Sister Osorio