I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go - September 23, 2013

Wow! I hit my 6 month mark this last week! I can´t believe I’ve been in Spain for 6 months now! That´s crazy! I feel like I just got here last month! It´s true what they say on the mission: weeks feel like days and days feel like weeks. It´s crazy how time works here!

Well, this week was pretty tough but it didn´t get us down. Every appointment that we had cancelled on us so we just spent the entire week knocking on doors and talking to people in the street. No one wanted anything this week but we´re going to find someone this next week! I´m sure of it! This is just a trial of our faith. Satan knows that if he can discourage us in the first few weeks than we won´t be able to get the work going here. We recognize that and we´re not giving up. We´re going to keep looking until we find that special person who the lord has prepared for us. I know that there´s someone here waiting for us and we´re going to find them with the help of the Lord

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This area has really helped me to grow. I´ve learned a lot over the past 3 weeks. One thing I´ve learned is how grateful I am for trials. I can´t imagine where I´d be or what I´d be doing right now if I hadn´t been challenged so much over these past 6 months. Every challenge I have had has helped me develop an important characteristic or attribute that has then helped me face the next challenge. I get a little stronger with each and every challenge and with that added strength comes more miracles. I can honestly say that I have been changed inside and out these past few months. I was torn down to nothing so that the Lord could begin to build me into something great: an instrument in his hands. Sometimes the lord has to bring us down so that he can lift us higher. I have come to be grateful for each and every challenge that I have faced, especially the ones I’m facing right now.

I´m learning how to not be ashamed of the gospel of Christ. I´m learning to be bold and reliant on god and his power. I´m learning to give the savior all of my negative feelings and leave them behind for good. I´m learning to have more patience with others and want what´s best for them. As difficult as each day here is, I wouldn´t trade it for anything. The Lord is still working on me. He´s still refining me because let me tell you, I still have QUITE a few rough edges. 

With everything I’ve experienced and learned over the past 6 months there is one thing that trumps everything else. I have come to find that the Savior truly does walk beside me every day. He has never left me for a single second. Not one second. In those moments when I thought I was alone and abandoned He was there. He has always been there and he will never fail me. So with that, I’ll keep going. I´ll keep opening my mouth and declaring his glorious gospel. One day I’ll see the fruits of my labors. It may not be today, tomorrow, or even next month but I know that one day I’ll be able to look back and see how much I grew. 

The Lord lives, He loves us, and he will never leave us. In the strength of the Lord I can do all things. I know that now.

Love you all!  

Come what may and love it!  

 Hermana Israelsen

COME UNTO ME - September 16, 2013

Something cool that I found out this week is that my companion and I are the first hermanas that have been in this area in over 20 years. Right Now we are the only hermanas in this entire zone of the country. The zone or area of La Mancha has been hermanaless for years and years until now. Who knows why now is the time that hermanas have been sent back to this part of the country but I guess we´re just going to find out what the Lord has planned for us.

 Well, this week was a little slower than most.Well, we just spent the majority of our week trying to talk to people in the street but no one wants anything to do with us. We mostly just get yelled at by people all day but that´s ok because I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. We still haven´t found anyone who wants to listen to a message about Jesus Christ but we´re not giving up. I know that there is someone here who is looking for happiness, peace, answers, and truth in their life right now but they just don´t know where to look. The Lord will guide them to us and us to them. I know it. We´ll find them eventually and I cannot wait for that day. Right now we´re just putting on smiles and going out every day to try to find someone who´s ready to come to Christ.

 One thing I’m learning right now is patience in the Lord´s timing. Yes, I’m being obedient and trying my very best but sometimes the Lord has to hold off on giving us immediate success because His timing is so much better than ours. I know that I need to show the Lord that I will continue to open my mouth and work even though we´re not seeing any success at all right now. It´s a trial of my faith to see if I will continue to have faith in the Lord and give him my all. I know that in time the lord will reward me for my labors. He will reward me in the timing that is best for me though. I won´t ever give up looking for people who need the gospel though because I know just how much it has blessed my life and I can´t bear knowing that someone doesn´t have that as well. I know without a doubt that the Lord will provide miracles as long as we remain faithful and continue moving forward in faith. We walk by faith, not by sight. That´s what I’m doing right now.

Sometimes I wonder if I’m even making a difference out here and then I look at the change that has occurred in me. My mission has made a change in me. Like it talks about in Alma 5 I have had a mighty change of heart. I will never ever regret the decision I made to go on a mission because it has brought me to Christ and has solidified my testimony in such a way that I will never ever deny that this is the true church of god upon the earth. There are so many people out here who are struggling and who need happiness and I just want to fix all of their problems for them but I can´t. One thing I have learned is that sometimes the only thing we can do to help others is bring them unto Christ and let him do the rest. It is only Christ who can heal all wounds. It´s only Him who can heal every broken heart, console every heart ache, and carry us in our times of need.

The invitation of our Savior is: Come unto me all ye heaven laden and I will give ye rest.

Well, I’m off to face another week and to bring God´s children to Christ. Wish me luck! Love you all! Thanks for all of the love and support!

Have a great week and remember to “Come What May and Love It.

Hermana Israelsen

DOUBT NOT FEAR NOT - September 9, 2013

Alright, so here´s the news. I´m training Hermana Heaton!  She´s 19 from Ogden, Utah. Holy cow did I ever hit the jack-pot with this girl! I absolutely adore her and we get along so incredibly well. I can already tell that these next 3 months are going to be great! I think the Lord blessed me with such a good companion because the area of Valdepeñas is extremely difficult. We have literally had to start from nothing.

 We´ve just spent the last few days wandering the streets trying to find people who are interested. No one here really wants anything to do with us. I do know, however, that the Lord has at least one person prepared for the gospel here in Valdepeñas.  We won´t stop working until we find them. There is someone in this pueblo who is looking for happiness and answers but doesn´t know where to look. The Lord will lead them to us and us to them. He´s done it before and he´ll do it again.

We just have to keep looking. The branch here is quite small. Smallest I´ve ever seen actually. On Sunday there were 12 people at church and that includes the missionaries and the babies. My companion and I literally doubled the Relief Society. haha. It´s so different from Elche but I know I´m going to come to love this place just as much as Elche. The members are all so kind and they were so RIDICULOUSLY excited to have hermanas. We were quite surprised by their reactions.  They´ve been so kind to us but they all live pretty far away. There is one family who is about a 30 minute walk from us and then the rest of the members are about a 30 minutes car ride away. The problem is that they don´t have public transportation here so we´re trying to figure out how we´re going to be able to visit the other members. I´m sure we´ll figure something out.

Despite the lack of interest in the gospel here, I am really coming to like it here. It´s more of the old fashioned Spain that I imagined when I first got my mission call. It´s actually pretty cool! There´s so much wine here. We actually arrived just as they were having a wine festival. Every night they would all lean out there windows and throw glasses of wine onto the passerbys below. Lucky us. It was so hard to get home spotless each night.

It looks like we have got a big challenge in front of us but we´re confident that we´re going to see miracles as we work as hard as we can. We´re going to face this challenge together with the help of the Lord. I´m actually really excited for the coming two transfers. They are going to be very hard and even discouraging at times but they are going to increase my faith and reliance on the Lord. The Lord is going to mold me into the person he needs me to be. I have complete faith that we´re going to see miracles here. No matter what challenges lay ahead the Lord will provide a way for you to overcome them. He always does. It all starts with faith.

D&C 6:36 ¨Look unto me in every thought. Doubt not, fear not.¨

Love you all! Thanks for all of the love and support!

Hermana Israelsen

Ok one last thing, I don´t know where on earth the rumor started but I have definitely NOT lost 20 pounds.hahahahaha!!!! Maybe 10 pounds but no more. My companion and I were laughing so hard when we saw that! I got a lot of concerned emails about that. hahahahaha! Just thought I’d set that straight. Don´t worry, I’m not dying out here. :)

MOUNTAINS TO CLIMB - August 26, 2013

Mountains to Climb

Alright well it´s transfer week and I have some news. Drum roll lease.....................I´m training again and I’m opening an area!  It´s a very small pueblo and there´s a branch there of about 20 or so members.  I couldn´t be any more excited to go! The Lord has prepared me for this over the last 4 months. He had me open Elche with my trainer and then he had me train. Now I’m just doing both at the same time. I know exactly what I’m getting myself into so that´s nice. I already know that it´s going to be incredibly hard but I´m so so so excited! Time to get to work!

I had such a tender mercy this week. I got a call from an unknown number a few days ago so I picked it up and guess who it was. Two of my favorite sisters from the MTC!!!!!! They got permission to call me and talk for a few minutes because of all of the transfer changes. That was seriously the BIGGEST tender mercy for me. It was absolutely incredibly to talk to those two for those few short minutes. I honestly can´t describe how much it meant to me to be able to hear their voices because I haven´t seen any of them for a few months now. Man, I miss all of my MTC hermanas so much and getting to talk to two of them was the greatest blessing to me. AH!

Alright well, this next transfer is going to be an adventure.

If you feel like the mountain you´re about to climb in your life is impossible don´t forget that you´re not alone. The lord will always provide a way. I know that because he´s done it for me. A little less than 3 months ago a 20 year old girl was dumped in a foreign country where she barely barely barely communicate with anyone and was not only expected to take care of herself but another girl. Not only was she expected to teach and train another girl but she was expected to take care of an entire city. What the Lord asked me to do was literally an impossible task. I had one HUGE mountain to climb and it started out as a sheer cliff wall.

Looking back I know one thing for sure, the Lord never ever abandoned me. He was there EVERY second of the way. In those moments where I put forth every effort I could, when I did everything that I possibly could and more but it still wasn´t good enough, those were the moments that the Savior carried me. When giving it everything that I possibly had still wasn´t good enough the savior stepped in and made up for the rest. The lord provided a way for me to do an impossible task. I can stand here and testify that the Lord will always provide a way for you to climb that mountain because he did it for me. The lord will never ever abandon you and he will always provide you a way to do what he has asked. When looking at that steep mountain that you have to climb remember this: Fear not, only believe. I love you all! Wish me luck as I start a new adventure.

Come What May and Love It!

Love, Hermana Israelsen