Hermana Elise Joyner: Miracles Are Real (Sept. 14, 2015)

This week was so great! We've had so many little miracles like everyday this week!

First, ALEX! I'm not gonna lie, I laughed a little when I found out that you broke your hand. Still got it buddy! DL! How fun is that! I'm glad that you are enjoying the MTC. I legit loved the CCM. It's such a special place where the spirit just dwells so strongly!

SO, my new companion is Hermana Zambrano. She is from Columbia and is a convert of 2 years. When she came to the mission, she was the only member of the family. Her mom got baptized last November. Talk about blessings! Anyway, she is the cutest person ever! She has the biggest heart and automatically loves EVERYONE! She is such an awesome missionary too. She teaches straight by the spirit and the people just open up. And she laughs at like everything I say which makes me feel better because sometimes I feel like I don't have a personality in Spanish. But she is awesome! And it made me realize how trunky my last companion was. I didn't know because I didn't know any better, but now it's like real time to be a missionary and learn everything that I didn't learn last time. Although, like Guelet, Hermana Zambrano is on her last transfer too. I just keep killin' off my companions! So this means that I will be here in San Juan until at least December.

Hermana Zambrano

Look Out!

One thing that we have been doing this past week is getting to know the members around here. I didn't really have the chance to do this last transfer, but we are now. And it is awesome! The members here are so great and have awesome conversion stories!

So pensionista! I talked Hermana Tapia (the Ward mission leader's wife and the pension of the other hermanas) into cooking for us too! BEST EVER! We give her money twice a month and she takes care of everything from there. THe money comes from the 650 soles we get each month. We go to her house to eat. She always starts each month with a giant bowl of soup and then for the meal a mountain of food. LITERALLY A MOUNTAIN!!!!! If I didn't go running every morning, I would be in trouble by the time I leave here.

It's starting to get hotter here. No me gusta. But it's fine. I even had to break out the sunscreen one day.

In our zone, we got two more gringas. YASSS!!!!!! I love the latinas but it is nice to have hermanas that I can talk to and be myself because there isn't a language barrier. One has been out for 11 months and the other is a NEWBIE! I'm not the absolute baby anymore! Even though I still kinda am. It's just so neat to see her and where she is and know that that is where I started and to see how far I have come with spanish and just being a missionary.

Dad, I forgot to answer your question last week. I printed off the 4th Missionary and am on pg 17. It's a little long and I don't have a lot of time to read it but it is so good! And I'll say more when I'm done with it, but it is definitely changing the way I'm thinking about my mission.

So, Magaly and Cristian. I don't remember all that I have told you about them. Anyway, they are our investigators. They've been meeting with the missionaries since February. They had a bapt date for the 29th of August but it fell through. We were in our lesson on Friday and just laid it out there for them. Like ya gotta get baptized. Well, Magaly flat out said the church is true. HUZZAH!!! It was legit. BUT, Cristian wasn't convinced. So we had everyone bear there testimonies. The spirit was soooo strong! When I bore my testimony, I just had the truth reconfirmed to me so strongly. I KNOW IT IS TRUE! EVERYTHING! The church is true, the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith was a prophet, and everything that came from that moment in history is true! We have another lesson with them tonight, so hopefully we can set a date for the 26th of Sept. (next Saturday). I'm praying really hard for this!

I'm out of time now, but hopefully this email was a little better than last week's.

LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!

Hermana Elise Joyner

¡Yo sé que vive mi Señor!