I NEED THEE EVERY HOUR - August 26, 2013

I Need Thee Every Hour

One thing, I’m most likely leaving Elche next week so any letters sent after today most likely won´t make it to me but I’ll send you my address as soon as I get it!

By the way, when people talk about how they ¨killed off their companion¨ it means that their companion finished their mission and went home. There´s a lot of funny vocab in the mission. When you enter the field you are ¨born¨ so I was born four months ago here in Elche. When you go home from your mission you ¨die¨. So if you are the companion of someone who is going home you are ¨killing them off¨. Hahaha. Really strange but it´s what it is. Ha-ha.

My sweet friend who we've been teaching WAS BAPTIZED LAST NIGHT!!!! Wow! My first baptism here in Spain!!! It was really hard to plan for because I had never planned a baptism before. The Lord made up for all of my weaknesses though and everything worked out. 

I will never forget his face as he came up out of the water! I will never forget it as long as I live!!! It was as if he were seeing the light for the first time. He was the happiest that I’ve ever seen him. I could literally see the change that baptism brought to his life. He was a completely new and happier man. WOW! He brought his entire family to come see his baptism (none of them are members). Apparently he´s told his family all about us so when we met them they treated us like family! It was such a sweet experience!!! They have watched the change that the gospel has brought to his life and they told us that they´d like to meet and receive some of the lessons. WHAT?!?!?!?!?! Miracle. Nothing short of a miracle.  I can honestly say that this man has become like one of my very best friends out here. It´s going to KILLLLLLLLLL ME to leave him next week. I never thought I’d get this close to anyone on my mission. He´s absolutely incredible! He´s like my uncle or something. I love this man with all of my heart!

This last week was FULL of miracles. The Lord truly did put people who were prepared for the gospel in our path. One example was that we showed up at the door of one of our citas but she cancelled on us. We remembered the promise that the Lord had given us about how someone in the area was prepared so we started our search for this person in faith and prayer. We literally talked to every single person on the street around the piso but no one was even slightly interested. We tried tocing the doors near-by but no one was interested. We were about to give up and move onto our next cita when we both felt that there was in fact someone who was ready near-by.

We were walking down the street when a door literally opened on its own for us so we took that as a sign and walked right in. We went to the top of the building and the first door we tried was a girl who thought that all faiths were the same. After a little bit of testifying to her she finally let us in. We then talked about the Book of Mormon and she was extremely receptive. It was absolutely amazing!!!! That was such a humbling moment for me to know that this is the Lord´s work and not mine. He is truly preparing people for the amazing gift of the gospel. WOW!!!!

This week I learned a lot about humility. I literally cannot do ANYTHING without the Lord. I made so many mistakes this week like leaving our phone at the church, forgetting to assign prayers for the baptism, taking the wrong bus and missing an appointment, and the list goes on and on. I learned so much about the atonement this week and it became so much more personal to me. With every single mistake I made the Savior was there to pick up the pieces. He was there to pick me up, dust me off, and get me back on track. I put forth my VERY BEST effort this week but it literally wasn´t enough. I did everything I possibly could to serve the Lord but it wasn´t enough. That´s where my Savior stepped in.  He made it enough. He made up the difference and made everything I did enough. HE made it enough. He did. The atonement is not only for our sins and pains but also for making up the difference when we do all we can do and it´s still not enough. It´s through him, and only him, that it is enough. In fact, through him it is more than enough. I have a deeper and more personal love and understanding of the atonement than ever before.  I was made very aware of all of my faults and weaknesses this week but through the savior he helped me fulfill the things I needed to do. 

I love the Savior and I will never ever go through another day without begging him for his help. Remember that you need the lord every day. Don´t ever think that you can do it alone. Why do it alone when you don´t have to? He´s there, just waiting. Open the door and let him in. Love you all!!

Come what may and love it!

Hermana Israelsen

The Miracle of Prayer - August 19, 2013

Below is a short email Jess sent me this morning that I wanted to share with all of you.  Thank you again for your prayers for our sweet Jess.  We all witnessed a sweet miracle. 

Thank you sooooo much mom!!! You´re the best! Seriously! There is no doubt that all of those prayers were the cause of the miracle I saw this last week. I’ll talk more about that miracle in the big email. Thanks so much! I’m doing great again! I’m not sick anymore thanks to all of those prayers. Yay!! Thank you" love you!

Now for Jess’ email this week

THE MIRACLE OF PRAYER

I had real milk for the first time this week since leaving the U.S... I repeat real milk! It was the greatest tasting thing ever. I felt like I was drinking a cloud! They have this milk here that is made to have a very long shelf life without refrigeration so that´s kind of sketchy. We try to avoid the milk here if we have the choice but we finally found cheap real milk. I was so excited because I have missed milk so much! Yay! Tender mercy!

This last week in Elche was something called Nit de Alba (it´s Valenciano and means Night of Alba). I don´t have time to explain what it is but feel free to google it. Basically the entire city shuts down for the week to celebrate. I´m not kidding you when I say that everything shuts down for the week. The only stores that were open this week were a few grocery stores. This last week was like the 4th of July, Pioneer day, and the Disneyland firework show on steroids. It was incredible! On the 13th of August they have this MASSIVE firework show across the entire city. We got to go up on top of one of the member´s roofs and watched a little bit of it. I can honestly say that I have never ever seen anything even remotely close to how cool this firework show was. Almost every building in the city was shooting fireworks into the sky. Absolutely incredible! Another thing that they do is they have firework wars...as in they actually shoot fireworks at each other for entertainment. You heard me. They SHOOT fireworks at each other. Haha. Let´s just say that we had a lot of protecting angels with us this week.

Speaking of everything shutting down. So for those of you who may not have known I was pretty sick last week. We´re still not sure what exactly happened but I got some kind of infection that just took down my immune system. I was so sick last week that I couldn´t even stand up without passing out and my fevers were so high that they literally burned the inside of my mouth and throat. I still can´t really taste anything hahaha. Our mission nurse came up to Elche to help out and we tried going to a doctor but just my luck, EVERYTHING was closed....including every doctor in the city. Yup. haha. Just my luck. Luckily the Lord knew that and he blessed me with a complete miracle. There is no other way to describe it than divine intervention because the infection left on its own and my foot is almost completely better.  They said I’m going to have a nice scar but other than that it´ll be good. The mission nurse told me to thank all of you, especially my family, for your prayers because I should NOT have been able to get better on my own without a doctor and medication. Yay!! Thank you sooooo much for your prayers. I have no doubt that it was because of all of the prayers from home that I saw a miracle this week. I’m doing fantastic again and I’m back to work :)

Cool experience of the week. I was reminded this week of the power of going to church. They´re not kidding when they say going to church is a great way to receive personal revelation. Sometimes we fall into the groove of just going to church and attempting to stay awake for all three hours. Let´s be honest, we´ve all had those Sundays. 

 

As missionaries we teach others that they can receive revelation through church attendance. This week I was really having a difficult time with....well, I won´t say who or what but I was praying to the Lord for help on what to do and how I can become a better instrument in his hands. Boy, did I ever receive an answer. I got to church and Relief Society was on charity. Sunday school was on charity. In sacrament meeting, every single talk was about charity and loving those around you. I actually started laughing a little as soon as the last speaker in sacrament meeting started talking about charity because it was SO obvious that the Lord was trying to tell me something. In my head I though ¨alright heavenly father! Message received. Loud and clear.¨ hahahaha. It was actually such an incredible experience for me. It is amazing to me how many prayers are answered just in those three hours of church. The lord truly inspires the people who teach or talk on Sunday to answer people´s prayers. The thing is that if you don´t go to church how are you going to receive those answers. How many times has someone else said something in church that is THE EXACT answer to your prayer. It´s no coincidence. The church is a dedicated building and for that the Lord inspires the people inside. Go to church next Sunday with a question in mind or a problem that you´re trying to overcome. Pray about this question or problem before you go to church and while you are there and I promise you that you will hear something or feel something that is a direct answer to prayer. Try it. I promise you that if you do it prayerfully and with faith that the lord will answer you.

Well I hope this email makes up for some of the shorter ones I’ve been sending off lately. I love you all! Thank you so much for the miracle you gave me thanks to all of your prayers. I love this work and I love my Savior.

Come what may and love it!

Hermana Israelsen

The Gospel Blesses Every Aspect of Our Lives - August 12, 2013

The Gospel Blesses Every Aspect of our Lives

This week was full of more miracles. We were led to a family who has been prepared to receive the blessings of the gospel. We found them while knocking doors. At first they were not interested and slammed the door in our face. As we began to walk away, I got a distinct impression that we shouldn´t give up. We turned right back around and rang their doorbell again. They opened the door again and tried to slam it in our face but somehow, through the help of the Lord, we were able to talk to them and they even invited us inside. We got to teach them a lesson and it went incredibly well. They are very very interested and invited us back this week. We´re super excited to teach them! 

One of our investigators told us a story that really hit me hard. She told us how her life has been really really heard. Her dad died when she was young and her family fell apart because of it. They don´t even keep in contact now.  She said that she´s been looking for happiness for a long time. She wasn´t exactly sure what she was looking for but she knew she was looking for something. One day she found a Book of Mormon in her apartment. She had never heard of the church before so she did some research on the computer. She found out that there was a chapel near where she lived so she passed by quite a few times but it was always closed. One time she passed by she saw that it was open and went in to find some members of the church cleaning it. They invited her to church the next day and she came. The second my companion and I saw her we knew that she had been prepared by the Lord. We talked with her and shortly after began to teach her. Last week she told us that she had finally found what she had been looking for. She said that she finally felt full, that there was nothing missing. She said that she finally found the truth and happiness that she had always been looking for. That was absolutely incredible to me! My heart was so full! 

The Lord is truly preparing the hearts of people to receive his gospel. To receive all of the happiness, blessings, and joy that comes with the gospel. It has been such an incredible experience to watch people´s lives change because of the gospel. We´ll meet someone who has become bitter because of what has happened in their life but we´ll see them open up their hearts because of the gospel. We get to watch a light and joy come into their eyes and see how the gospel truly does bring us more happiness than anything else in this world can possibly hope to provide. I bear solemn testimony that this church is true, that this gospel truly does bring a happiness and peace that we cannot hope to find anywhere else in the world. The gospel blesses families. The gospel blesses every aspect of our lives. 

I absolutely love what I’m doing. It´s hard. So so hard but I wouldn´t change a single second of it. The joy of watching someone truly come to Christ is greater than any reward I could possible ask for. Thanks for all of the love and support! You´re all amazing! The storms will come but come what may and love it.

Love, Hermana Israelsen

"LOOK FOR THE MIRACLES" - August 5, 2013

LOOK FOR THE MIRACLES

Wow. First of all, I am so sorry that my email last week was so lame! I´ll try to make up for it today!

There is a man that I met my very first week in Elche. He didn´t want anything to do with the missionaries or the church.  Little by little we got him to get to know us and listen to parts of our message and eventually he became an investigator. I have had the incredible opportunity of watching this man change every aspect of his life to come to Christ. I have truly witnessed with my own eyes the change that the atonement can make in our lives and the light and happiness that it can bring.

 

The work is really progressing! We´ve picked up quite a few new investigators in the past few weeks and one of them, wants to get baptized so we invited her to a fecha in September because she still has a few things to sort out before her baptism. She´s praying about it right now.  MIRACLES!!!

I can truly say that the Lord is preparing people for the gospel. Every day of the past 2 weeks we have had experiences where the Lord has placed someone who is ready for the gospel into our path.  It has been amazing to see.  As a result we´ve had a lot of work to do and a lot of people to visit. This last week we were literally running from appointment to appointment. Haha. I loved it!

I absolutely LOVE this work. I LOVE being a missionary! I completely LOVE what i do every day and I wouldn´t trade it for anything in the world. It´s so hard but I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I love it because I have the opportunity to watch the atonement of Christ in action. I get to be a mere instrument in the hands of the Lord as he works wonders. I honestly cannot take any credit for the success that we have had in the last two weeks because it has all been from the Lord. There is no doubt about that. Everything that we have seen lately has been a miracle. I am incredibly happy despite the refiner´s fire that burns in my life right now. The struggles haven´t left but neither has my joy. I wake up smiling knowing that I´m going to be able to bear witness of the Savior that day. The work of the Lord is incredible and he truly works in mysterious ways. He has worked with me in very mysterious ways but I have truly seen a change in myself since coming out here on the mission. That has been the most surprising change that I have seen out here: the change that this work has made in me. Keep working each day to be a little more like Christ. Try a little harder to be a little better. I love this gospel and the purpose and joy that it brings into my life! Thank you all for the prayers, the love, and the support. I can definitely see it out here. Thank you!

“It’s better to look up!”  Look for the miracles!

Love,

Hermana Israelsen

"IT'S BETTER TO LOOK UP!" - July 29, 2013

Things are going incredibly well here in Elche. We have been finding a lot of new investigators lately and guess what OUR INVESTIGATOR IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!! He is our investigator we found 3 months ago who didn´t want anything to do with us or the gospel.  Little by little we worked with him and this man is absolutely INCREDIBLE! I’ll have to tell you more about it next week! He´s getting baptized. We´re so excited! I can´t deny that we had the help of angels the night he chose to be baptized. Miracle miracle miracle.

Well I just want to say how incredibly much I love this work!  

Next week my email will be so much better! I’m so sorry! Just know that I’m doing great and we´re seeing miracles! The work is hard but you have to go through hard things in order to appreciate the good! My motto this week is “It´s better to look up!”

Well sorry this was so short!

Love you all! I’ll write a better email next week!  Remember "It's better to look up!"  Come what may and love it.

Love,

Hermana Israelsen

"Finding the Joy in the Journey" - July 22, 2012

“FINDING THE JOY IN THE JOURNEY”

Transfer week. We didn´t get a call from President this week so that means it´s still my hija and I here in Elche. I´m really happy about that! I’m not quite ready to leave Elche yet. I LOVE ELCHE! We got some other news though that made me scream.....dum dum dum......ELCHE IS GETTING MORE HERMANAS!!!! Another companionship of hermanas are coming to serve in the other ward here. AH! That was such a tender mercy for me! After 3 months of isolation I’m finally going to have more hermanas!!!! They´ll come on Wednesday and even better news. Guess who´s coming? One of my MTC hermanas,  I love love love this hermana! She´s rock solid and we were tight in the MTC. She´s one of the 3 other sisters who had to train after 6 weeks in the field. We have actually talked about how awesome it´d be to be companions and now look! We may not be companions but now we live within 15 minutes of each other! So that made my week! 

A few cool things. I´m learning Spanish sign language! There are a few deaf people here in Elche that we want to communicate with so a member in Alicante is teaching us Spanish sign language! It´s pretty simple next to learning Spanish so we´re picking it up very quickly! I can teach a mini lesson in sign language now! It´s so tight! I think sign language is so smooth! 

Another thing. In the past 3 months I’ve been trying to figure out why I can´t understand some people out here in Elche and then I figured it out this week. It´s because they´re speaking Valenciano not Castillano (what I’m speaking).Hhaha! I feel so much better knowing that the only reason I can´t completely understand them is because it´s a different dialect! Valenciano is hard and doesn´t really make any sense to me. Maybe after another 6 weeks here in Elche I’ll be able to pick it up a little. Who knows? 

Well, this week was pretty crazy. My companion had to go to Malaga to get her residency card so I went on exchanges with a hermana in Alicante for the weekend. My companion missed her train back so she had to wait another day to come back to Elche which meant that I had to stay another day in Alicante. That means that we didn´t get to teach a single lesson in Elche for 4 entire days!!! Wow, it´s good to be back and teaching again! 

I really do love Elche. Elche has truly become my home! I absolutely love love love Elche. I love the people, the area, the palm trees, the missionaries, the members, and about every other thing about Elche but none of those are the reasons why Elche will always have a special place in my heart. Elche will always hold my heart because it was here that I truly found God. Elche has truly been my refiner´s fire. The past 3 months have been the hardest three months in my life but I wouldn´t trade them for anything in the entire world. It was here that I learned to completely and fully rely on the Lord and let him carry me. It was here that I learned for myself that I could do hard things. It was here that I learned to truly love people from all different backgrounds. Most importantly, it was here that I started to become the person that the Lord has always wanted me to be. 

I have never before felt so close to my Savior nor understood the magnitude of the Atonement. I have an unwavering testimony of 1 Nephi 3:7. "I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them."   

The Lord WILL always provide a way if we but let him guide us. The Lord has provided a way for me to do something that to me seemed absolutely impossible. Sometimes we have to walk in the dark for a time but I promise you that there is always light at the end of the tunnel. I have experienced that for myself. I am so incredibly grateful for everything the Lord has put me through these past 4 1/2 months. I can now look back and see how important each and every one of those trials were for my development and testimony.

I absolutely love what I´m doing right now. It´s ridiculously difficult but I love it none the less. Not a day goes by that I don´t feel overwhelmed with gratitude for all the Lord has done for me. I´m stronger than ever thanks to the Lord and I´m looking forward to the next 6 weeks here in Elche. I can already feel that we´re going to see miracles! Thanks for all of the love, prayers, and support!

Sometimes life is about finding joy in the journey. Go out and look for it. It´s there
I LOVE THIS WORK!!!

Love,
Hermana Israelsen

"Not My Will But Thine Be Done" -July 15, 2013

"NOT MY WILL BUT THINE BE DONE" 

Well, this week was interesting to say the least. Some complete miracles and some huge obstacles.

We miraculously found some old investigators that had disappeared off of the face of the earth and began teaching them again. The Lord truly placed them in our path. So cool! Sad news. Our two sweet investigators both had to have their baptismal dates pushed back a few weeks because of some trials.

It has taken me a little while but after hours of prayer, study, pondering, and a few cool experiences I can honestly kneel down in prayer and say ¨Not my will but thine be done.¨ It took me quite a while to get to this point though. When I first heard I was training I tried to put on the brakes. I begged my heavenly father for any possible way to get out of this situation. I was really putting on the brakes and having a hard time moving forward. It has taken a lot of prayer and dozens of humbling moments to get me to the point where I have finally accepted my situation and the will of the lord for me. The Lord has called me to go through this trial and if he were to give me a way out of it I would never learn the things he needs me to learn.

I have been thinking a lot about the story that Elder Christofferson gave in a general conference talk about the current bush. There was a farmer who found this current bush which had been growing for a few years but it wasn´t growing in a way that a current bush was supposed to grow. For that the farmer pruned the current bush down to a stump so that it could start again and he could help it grow into what he needed it to be. The current bush began to cry and ask why the farmer cut him down but then the farmer explained why. at the end the current bush said, ¨thank you for loving me enough to cut me down.¨ I don´t have enough time to tell the rest of the story but I encourage you to go read it for yourself on lds.org,

Go to link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDrhvm9EnJ4 and www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/04/​as-many-as-i-love-i-rebuke

because it´s awesome! Anyways, I´ve been thinking about that story again and again this week.

As I kneeled in prayer last night I poured my soul out to the Lord. At the end of my prayer I had this incredible feeling of gratitude and a greater perspective on the trials I am facing at the moment. I sincerely said,  “Father, thank you for loving me enough to cut me down.¨  The Lord doesn´t enjoy watching us suffer and he doesn´t just say, I know it hurts right now but I promise you that it will get better." He hurts when we suffer. He takes no joy in seeing us in pain but he understands how necessary it is. That´s why we have the atonement. The atonement makes it so that Christ can know exactly what to do to succor or help us in our trials. Prayer has been my saving grace this week. I have truly come to understand prayer a lot more. Prayer is the action by which the will of the father and the child are brought into correspondence. As we come to change our prayers from asking for things that we think that we need to ask for things that the Lord wants then we will find greater power. Prayer is truly a supernal gift from our heavenly father. I love this gospel and I will never be the same again.

Thank you all for the love and support! You´re all keeping me going! I love this work, no matter how difficult it may be. Not my will but the Lord´s will be done.

Love,

Hermana Israelsen