St. Petersburg Week 7

Hola! Un ultra marvillosa semana!

I Don't know where to even start... but im going to try!

While tracting on our bikes the other day we went into a neighborhood that looked like it might have a few Hispanic people, but who we found was a little old lady named Jane. I would guess she is about 85 years old or more, blind, but the most adorable thing in the world. We talked to her for a little bit on her porch and we are going to keep returning back to read to her out of the Bible. Her husband just passed away. This will be a great experience. She is only Enlish speaking, but this is such a tender mercy. I am so excited. There are so many different aspects of missionary work, such as just showing kindness to this little old lady.

Remember Eddy? Well, he is on date for DEC 17th!!! Yay!!! We taught him this last week and he really likes how he feels now. I had the privilege of doing a Bible study one on one with his wife (inactive) while Hermana Murray taught Eddy. Well, she felt very comfortable with me and told me some of the struggles her family was having, and there was a lot, some very serious. This is a huge step for Eddy. A huge lifestyle change. But I know that the gospel will bring their family closer then it ever has. I left this lesson a changed person. I have had my struggles with family experiences that I wish I never had while growing up, but listening to her made me so grateful for family. Even more so, for my future family. That I truly can have a home where the spirit dwells and is safe, where the world can stay outside and it doesn't have to brought in. MOSIAH 2... let our homes be facing the temple. Always! Eddy's son Levan was baptized yesterday. :-)

[Note: A few weeks ago, Hilary asked us to send her a few pictures of the Sacred Grove to share with a woman that they were visiting. We visited the Sacred Grove as a family shortly before Hilary left for her mission. As requested, we sent her a couple of photos to share with the woman. Hilary asked the woman if she would paint a her a picture of a “special place”, but didn't tell the woman what the place was. Below is Hilary's report on what has happened since she asked the woman to paint the picture.]

So remember Peggy with the Sacred Grove picture? Well, yesterday Hermana Murray and felt like we should stop by for a visit, so we did. It was amazing. She let us right in with a huge warm smile. She took us back to her painting room and said, "now I don't have it all the way finished, I have a few touch up things to do..." When I walked in to that room, and saw the painting, it felt like I had just walked into the Sacred Grove. Honestly, the spirit was so strong and I was in awe at how much the painting looks exactly like the Sacred Grove. Even more so than the pictures I provided. The way the light goes through the trees is just... awwww, I can't even describe it. the best part was how she was describing how she felt as she was painting it. She has no idea why this place is so significant, I just told her it was a special place to me. She said, "This painting is different to me. I really really enjoyed painting it. It feels so warm, how the light comes through here, it is like God is shining through the trees.” She said more but isn't that amazing? She could feel the spirit. Little did she know that God really did shine through the trees there. I have prayed my heart out that she would feel the spirit of this amazing place, and she has. We spent about 25 minutes talking about religion. She believes everything that we do up to the restoration of the gospel. This is the same lady that didn't want to have anything to do with us at the door step and pretty much told us to bug off. Now she is saying, "You girls remind me of my granddaughters." So sweet! I didn't know I would get "another" grandmother out of this.

We have soooo many amazing potentials right now that are just maybe one lesson away from having a baptism. We visited Li on Friday. It was her daughter's first birthday. We met her husband. He was very nice to us. I'm glad that we met him so he could see that we are normal people, and he will be more likely not to intervene with her baptism. Li has soooo many questions. being a devout Catholic. We have to keep on our toes, which is really good. It's just a little more difficult to try and express your feelings in Spanish the way you want to, but it is great!

We are teaching another man from Guatemala! He is just amazing! Soooo ready for baptism. He is here for two years to work and sends the money home to his family. On our return appointment he was so excited that he had the lawn chairs ready for us outside and was eagerly waiting for us. So cool. We are teaching him tonight. He accepted a soft commitment that when he knows it is true, he will be baptized. He recognizes the spirit so I'm sure it will be soon. He wants to take a picture with us tonight and send it to his family so they can start learning in Guatemala!

The first night I was here we moved the Equiluz family, and this last week they had a house party and the Elders came and blessed the home. Can I just say that the Hispanic culture is so much cooler than we are? Sorry, but it's true. ;-) A lot of their member friends from Tampa came and there was A LOT of food. When we walked in (because we were a little late) they all were like, "Hermanitas!! Yay!!" and all stood up and clapped their hands. They support us sooo much! It is like that every time we come over to one of their homes. I love them sooo much. Every other Monday we have a family home evening, or "Noche de Hogar" with the Spanish group and it is definitely a highlight for the week. They had dancing and everything. It was so hard to not get up and start dancing. especially with the salsa music. I couldn't understand hardly anything the music was saying, so that wasn't a problem, but I have to admit that my feet were sure tapping as I sat on the couch! I cannot wait to come back here and have a fiesta with them after my mission is over.

Hermana Vaughan-Schultz

St. Petersburg Week 6

Hola Familia! Muchisimos gracias por su cartes! siempre! y tambien su "recording" de Noche de hogar! Tuvo bueno sentamientos mientras eschuchando a su testimonios de este obra y deseos. Te querro!

So, this week was amazing like always! I am really really starting to love this work more and more! I really wanted to stay in St. Pete another transfer. I am getting so close with the members here and we have had some amazing progress with the work. We have sooo many people close to baptism it is going to be amazing to see what happens this transfer. So much potential! Got the call Saturday morning and Hermana Murray and I are both staying!!! Yay!

Frank is baptized and confirmed!!! Yay!!!!!!!!! He is happier than I have ever seen him. and I am so excited for the month I come back because they will be sealed in the Salt Lake Temple and I will get to go!!!! Yay!!! :-) I am sooo blessed! Frank and his wife have been through a lot and it is amazing to see how much the Gospel has changed their lives!

Another amazing person we are teaching lives clear up in Palm Harbor! We will be burning a lot of miles this month! Hello bicycle! His name is Eddy Pederosa. He is from Cuba, which has one of the hardest Spanish dialects to understand. They don't pronounce all of the words and it kind of sounds like one run on sentence that is gobbed together, but its fun! Where he is from, they weren't allowed to practice religion of any kind. He always had a desire to but couldn't. Hmmm, reminds me of a story out of the Book of Mormon in Mosiah :-) I'll be sharing that with him tonight :-) So, the only knowledge that he has of Jesus Christ is from reading the Bible in "secret." His testimony is so strong and he is so fluent in the bible. Oh boy, I'm soooo excited to teach him. The Elders are teaching one of his sons and he is being baptized in a week. There is I think 6 in the family. His wife is a member (inactive). She really likes us sisters so she has asked us to come about 45 minutes before his lessons to have scripture study with them. They are a bilingual family. I'm not totally sure on the whole situation, but I know that they were recently married and I don't think that the children are his. He has been reluctant to listen to us, but he seems to have a huge desire to now. He wanted us to come over the next day. he really loves the principles of dispensations and the apostasy, and why there needed to be a restoration. He is just going to love the plan of salvation. I know that if he is baptized his entire family will follow! so exciting!

We missionaries of the St. Pete ward hosted and organized a musical fireside that we had last night, and it was AMAZING! We took the lesson and taught it through song and testimony. I had the privilege of bearing my testimony and teaching about Joseph Smith. Hermana Murray did an amazing job playing the violin. We had about a 100 in attendance. Lots of investigators. That's almost as good as sacrament meeting! The spirit was so strong. I think we will be doing things like this more often. In the South, the people really love music in church, especially gospel music. So it was a really nice change to teach the second lesson in this way. I think more than anything, the members (especially in the last weeks) have gained a lot of trust with us (the missionaries) because they have seen us try to work hard. We had a lot of people participate in the musical fireside and that seemed to help a lot. It is amazing how much serving people can bring you closer together.

I love tracting... I mean, "finding people to baptize." :-) There is no greater feeling than to go to the Father and ask Him in prayer where he would like us to go and where there are people that are prepared to hear the message of the restoration. Then to act on those feelings that you get and trust them. You have to trust them, and when you do act on them, you KNOW you are in the right place. I'm not sure how to describe the feeling, but every time you knock on a door you know you are planting a seed. it truly is amazing. We did this on Saturday. It was a golden street. Plenty of potentials and we had the opportunity to teach on almost every door step. My favorite part was walking back to the car. we were walking next to two little 7 year old girls that were skipping and holding hands while there uncle was walking them to a girls sleep over. They were soo cute. We laughed together as I told them about my experiences I had with sleep overs. Sleeping on the trampoline... they thought that was funny. The best part is that their uncle said to us that they were learning Spanish. I was like, "Oh, well, como esta... como fue su dia... etc." They responded. It was sooo cute. I can't remember what I said, but I didn't pronounce something right, and she said very sternly, pointing her finger at me "Now remember, Z's are like S's!" Oh I about died... so cute and funny. I got put in my place by a 7 year old. :-)

Funny experience yesterday. Hermana Murray really laughed at me. We were "finding people to baptize" and sister Murray was on the phone with the AP's and this old Korean lady riding a big trike came by. So I started to contact her. She kept riding so I walked by her. I said I was a missionary and showed her the card of Christ and she is like "I don't speak English." But she looked at her basket behind her and I thought she wanted me to put it in the back. so I did, and she said "I don't speak English!" Oh it so funny! Just little tender mercies of the Lord to keep your spirits up. The lady later turned around at me and smiled :-)

Love you all!

Hermana Vaughan-Schultz

St. Petersburg Week 5

Oh my goodness! This has been an amazing week! My mouth drops just thinking of all the miracles that I have witnessed. In my personal life it has been hard. I lost my grandmother and it has been difficult, but I feel her close. I feel her love and I know she is helping me in the work. I feel so blessed to know the plan of salvation. To know of God's love for all of His children. That is what has brought me so much comfort in my life. I have had had no greater Joy than to see little Matthew (9) jump out of his seat with excitement when we told him he could be sealed to his family forever in the temple. Hector and Matthew were baptized on Friday. They beamed with the light of Christ. I am soo blessed because I will be able to go with them through the temple in one year and see their family be sealed. They practically already have the date set for it. This is every missionary's dream, and I am so fortunate and blessed to be able to experience it. President Colton (Mission President) came to the Baptism and he said to me with a huge smile and handshake "looks like you will be going to the temple in a year!" :-) Yup!

Carmen was also baptized on Friday. I don't think I have had a chance to talk about him much. but he was a captain of a fishing boat from Nicaragua. he is absolutely amazing! His faith and readiness to be baptized is mind-boggling. He always says "Sista!" with a funny accent. When i called him the day before his baptism, just to go over the things to bring he said out of the blue, "Sista! sista! I'M RRREEEEAAADDDDYYYY!" Oh I laughed so hard and tears came down my face. Carmen is ready! He hurt his knee awhile ago and had troubles with his family, so his brother kicked him out and sold all of his stuff. He is 60. Because his knee is hurt he can't work, so he has to stay in a homeless shelter until it heals. But I tell you, he is probably the happiest person I know, and the light of Christ is soo bright in him. I know Heavenly Father has soo many blessings in store for him. The ward is working hard finding him a job and I think they have one for him now. The ward is also taking him in to care for him. It is just amazing.

Frank has his baptism on the 12th. he is still going strong. The rest of the Velasquez family will be baptized very soon. Joseph and Elaine. Ahhh, sooooo exciting.

Karinas mother from Puerto Rico called right after the baptism on her cell phone. We got to talk to her for about 10 minutes and she just thanked us over and over again. It was hard to understand her through the tears. She told us what a miracle it is for Hector to want to be baptized. She called us angels of God. it was very special! Hector bore his testimony during the baptism, he said "I am a new man. My children don't even recognize me." He is changed. He has taken the name of Christ upon him and stopped running away from the truth. Oh boy, I love this work!

So, i had the best Halloween of my life. We tracted into a women in a trailer park. Can’t remember if I told you about her or not. Her name is Georgia. Her husband is Spanish and doesn’t really speak English and she doesn’t really speak Spanish. Somehow they are really in love and make it work. She said at first, “usually I would slam the door in your face and tell you to go away, but for some reason I feel like I should listen” so we talked to her a little bit, left her some pamphlets and went tracting a little bit more waiting for her husband to get back (this isn’t on Halloween) so we could make a return appointment. When we returned she she looked a little upset, and said pointing to the picture of the Book of Mormon on the pamphlet, “I don’t like this.” I was thinking, "oh well, there goes...". But what surprised me is what she said next, “but I still feel like I should listen to you." So we set up a return appointment. The next day we stopped by and her husband was outside. So we started talking and he wanted us to teach him right there. So we sat down, and we sang to him, “Soy un hijo de Dios” (I am a Child of God) he teared up and asked if he could go inside to change his shirt. He went from wearing a tank top to putting a collared shirt on and got his wife up from a nap. So we taught them. It was great and a lot of fun translating back and forth for them. They didn’t show up for the appointment the next day and it worried us. We were low on miles and tracting clear on the other side of the peninsula (this is Halloween) but Hermana Murray and I both couldn’t get them out of our head, so we said a prayer and decided we needed to go see them. It didn’t make sense because they had said they were busy and couldn’t meet with us, but we went anyways. I am sooooo grateful that we did. This IS the most amazing spiritual experience I have ever had in my life. I am afraid a lot of it is very personal and I cant share it all. But I will share what I can.

So we walked up and they were sitting in lawn chairs in there driveway and they greeted us with smiles and invited us to sit down. I sat to the far left next to Georgia, and Hermana Murray sat on the opposite side next to Braullio. We had two lessons going at once. I asked her how her reading is going (we gave her 3 Nephi Chapter 11). She said she is done with learning. I got a huge pit in my stomach. I asked her what her concerns were. She said she couldn't understand and be okay with the people in America touching the hands and feet of the Savior. It didn’t sit with her right (it is just so different than what people are used to. They are both very literate in the Bible). I said to her, “Well maybe if I give you the history of how the Book of Mormon came about that might help you. So I went through dispensations, Biblical prophets… she said, “That’s great, you are telling me about my book, now I want to hear about yours.” So I started with the time when Lehi was commanded to leave Jerusalem. Because of the wickedness of the people. That he was a prophet just like all of them of old. That just like Noah, he was commanded to build a ship.

Everything that I said I related to something from the bible so we could have a middle ground. It was amazing, as I testified, more and more I could see her open up. Even her body language was sincere. I went through a brief history of the entire Book of Mormon. As I was talking about priesthood authority, I went to my scriptures, and a picture of my grandma Lois that had just passed away fell into my lap (not a coincidence) and I started to tear up. (I can’t explain everything that happened but I know that my grandma is helping me). I looked up at Georgia and testified of the power of the priesthood. How I received a blessing just the other night from a man that holds the priesthood of God, the same as all of the prophets from before, for comfort with the loss of my grandma and worry about my family. I told her of the comfort and love that I felt through that blessing. I testified, through tears, that I know that the three people that were baptized last night, were baptized with the true authority of God. The same authority that Jesus walked 60 miles to find to be baptized by John the Baptist holding that same authority. Jesus Christ knew the importance of this true authority.

She got teared up and so did I. you couldn’t deny that the Holy ghost was there. I then got to the restoration and Joseph Smith. I quoted the first vision to her (it was a little difficult in English haven’t said it in English since the third week in the MTC, I had help) and felt prompted to say something. “ I don’t know why God does things the way that he does. I too was confused and troubled that a 14 year old boy could be called as a prophet. But I know that he is. I know God needed someone that had the Faith of a Child.” She stopped me right when I said that and said, “I just read that this morning in the Bible” she said, “I was completely done learning, but will read the first book (Nephi) and the intro, just because of your sincerity” I was shocked! Oh my!

I would go on and on but I don’t have time. We had dinner with just Georgia last night and it was amazing. I’ll try to write more later, but oh my Miracles! Last night as we left and were getting ready to walk away, she said, “I know you are supposed to be here. I had a dream about this.”

She is the center of the trailer park. Many more will follow in her foot steps.

Love you all!

Hermana Vaughan-Schultz

St. Petersburg Week 4

What a week! It just keeps getting better and better! I don't even know where to start!

We have two more baptisms set. The first is Frank for Nov 12th. He has been a heavy smoker for a long time. and he is working on quitting right now. So far cold turkey and he is doing great! I'm so proud of him. His motivation is his family. They really want to have a baby. His wife Corianne is an inactive member. They got married a little over a year ago. The missionaries have been teaching him for that long, and finally he felt the motivation and faith to be baptized. Soooo cool. he wants to be sealed in the temple. He is soooo amazing! I've been craving hot wings for two weeks now and he got me some so today. When we visit him tonight he is hooking me up! I am soooo taken care of! He loves watching wrestling! He is sooo funny! His family will be life long friends. I'm reallly excited for him, AND I will get to go to the temple on my mission when they get sealed!

AND!!!!! for the Valasquez family that is getting baptized this next weekend they will be going to the temple as well. Yay!!! It is so amazing to see people change! Hector is from Puerto Rico and has been drinking coffee since he was 5. No joke! He just gave it up like it was nothing. Nothing is getting in the way of him going to the temple and having his family sealed to him. He is definitely a future Bishop! Their baptism will be very special!

Our zone has 24 people on date for baptism right now! We are on fire! we had a mission fast the other day and it has brought so many miracles! All we did was change our focus, that we don't tract, we find people to baptize. Every day we sisters go out with the mind set that we are going to find someone to baptize. Ever since we did that, we have! We have another baptism on Friday, but it might have to get moved to Saturday because of his work. Carmen had taken the first lesson like 3 times but wasn't motivated at all. Now he is getting married to a member, and he really really really wants to be baptized!!! he showed up at church yesterday and said, I'm ready to be baptized, when can I be baptized? We were like, “well, we can help you with that” with huge smiles. So we taught him the first half of the second lesson during the third hour of church. It was great. We stole the room where Spanish priesthood is and we just had one big conversation/lesson with about 6 other Spanish members. It was a great lesson. What was really amazing was Bro. Alvarez stopped and kind of got teared up and faced Carmen and us and said, in Spanish "It amazes me the dedication and energy these sisters put into learning Spanish. It humbles me, and it amazes me that i can see the face of Christ as they teach." Well that made my week! We don't have a Spanish branch yet! Yet! But, we do have an amazingly strong group of Spanish members, and it is growing quick!

We've had many miracles while tracting this week, but for lack of time I'm going to focus on two. First, a woman named Esmilda. She lived Honduras and was a very active member in Young Women's and Primary. She is the only member in her family, but when she got married and moved to the states she slipped under the radar. When deciding where to tract, we went to the ward list. There are roughly 750 people on the ward list, but only about 150 attend church. That is sad. :-( But out of that huge list we came to her name, and visited her. We stopped by her house, and found a huge neighborhood of Spanish people. It is a trailer park (we spend a lot of time in trailer parks) but she wasn't home. So we left and note and we had to leave for another lesson.

We were a little early for the appointment so we decided to tract for a while and we found a man from Cuba. His name is Hebereito. He is amazing! Sooo much faith, I was amazed. We talked to him for a half hour about really deep doctrine about the reformers. He knows that things were lost during the apostasy. He is going to love the message of the restoration when we teach him on Wednesday. He reads the bible every day for an hour. He has a doctorate and used to be a veterinarian in Cuba before he got an immigrant visa for the states. he calls his pastor from Guatemala every day to have scripture study. It should be really interesting to teach him. I am soooo excited though! It's a little intimidating to teach someone so fluent in the bible, because i m not, but i felt the spirit soooo strong while talking to him that i know it is going to be good! After this amazing experience we went back to see Esmilda, and she is excited to go back to church. we got her hooked up with the bus route so she can be independent in getting to church on Sundays and for Noche de hogar every other Monday. it is sooo exciting. her children are almost baptism age. Oh, i love this work!!!!!

Something has kind of surprised me. So many people here say they are really strong Catholics, but don't really know the bible. I think it is because so many people that we work with are so poor and don't have much schooling that they can't really understand the bible. They are just so used to going to church because of family traditions, that they really don't know that much of the scriptures. It is hard sometimes. When we give them reading assignments from the Book of Mormon they have a really hard time understanding what it is said. so we have to go over it very slowly. So a lot of the dates we've set have to move back a little bit because of this. It is so humbling to me and I feel so fortunate to have the education that I do.

Not many of the people we teach have phones or cars. We have to rely a lot on our Spanish group for providing rides for our investigators. Just the short while that I have been here has opened my eyes so much. So many people don't have employment. It is sad to see. We try to do what we can for them, but you know what, they are still happy. We have little Spanish kids running all around us when we go into some neighborhoods. They like us to sing "I am a child of God." or "Soy un hijo de Dios". A lot of them don't have shoes, but they are still so happy and their families welcome us with open arms. What makes them so happy when they don't have all of the worldly things that most people think they need to be happy? Well, they have their family, and they have a great faith in Jesus Christ. We give out pass along cards that have a picture of Jesus Christ, and the children love them. On some return appointments we see the pictures on the fridge and one girl put it on her fish tank. So funny! I love the people here so much!

Love you all!

Hermana Vaughan-Schultz

St. Petersburg Week 3

I just want to say, I hate Satan! I hate him with everything that I am! I have had a huge reminder of how much he works on people that are starting to know the truth. I know he sure worked on me.

Wednesday we were going to meet with Frida, and she opened the door and seemed a little reserved and didn't invite us in like usual. She said she had talked to her pastor, and she has been involved with her church for so long that she can't go back on it now. But what is so hard, is that I know that the spirit touched her. I remember how hard it was for me when I was investigating the church. Satan did everything he could to make me scared and not want to learn about the church. It is definitely a battle in heaven! I feel more conviction to bear strong testimony like Elder Holland than I ever have before.

Another heart breaker was yesterday, we stopped at Gemina's house (run away girl) to see when we could teach her again. She had a baptismal date for the 30th. Her family loves us!!! She invited us right in. she said she doesn't feel comfortable attending another church that is different than her family, which I can understand. She is the sweetest 16 year old I have ever met and has a lot of love for her family. They have really grown a lot closer in the last two weeks. She reads the Book of Mormon every day and feels the spirit when she reads it. Her family still wants us to keep stopping by and they really appreciate what we have done for their family and especially for Gemina. Gemina said, “I know I need to have God in my life.” She carries her Book of Mormon to school with her. I can not even tell you how much my heart ached. A lump grew in my throat as I hugged Gemina and especially her mom. Her mom wept and squeezed me really hard and whispered "gracias... por..." in my ear. I know we have planted a huge seed and some day they will be ready. Gemina has a strong testimony of the restoration. She knows what the spirit feels like and her mom has seen that difference in her. I will keep in contact with gemina for now on. I love that girl. I started crying when we went back to the car. I had a weak moment where I was just like, "I hate Satan. This is a war in heaven and so much we desire for the eternal welfare of these people, and we just have to let them go." But I’ll tell you what, these two experiences made my testimony grow. I do testify with more conviction. We have to let everyone know how important our message is. "Till Christ says the good work is done."

The food is interesting at times. IT definitely isn't Mexican. The other day we had pastilles, kind of like tamales. It has ground up bananas. potato things, some other stuff, with a piece of meat in the middle, wrapped in banana leaves and boiled. It just was very interesting. I’m not sure if it is my favorite thing to eat if you know what I mean. I don't want to hurt feelings because it is a huge delicacy in Puerto Rico. I ate some bones in it, and it was REALLY hard to not gag. But you really do have to eat everything on the plate or you will offend them. So I asked for some hot sauce to put on it thinking that that might burn my taste buds so I could get it down. We just really don't get fed that often but everything we do eat I ask how to make it. I have a killer recipe for refried beans and fried plantains! Mmmmm I love fried plantains and beans! It’s soooo good! We get three plantains for a dollar at the Saldivar shop and cook up beans and have it for lunch a lot!

Antonio is on date for baptism for the 14th of November. He has some WOW (word of wisdom) problems, but we're working on that with him. He is hard to understand a lot of the times. Portuguese is weird, but we do our best. He is a really neat guy. At our last lesson when we pulled up, he was dressed all nice and we didn't even get a chance to knock on the door before he was out and ready to go to the church for the lesson. Sooo much fun!

The Valasquez family is being moved back a week. I think Corina is realizing how much of a commitment it is, especially a time commitment. So she only wants us to teach their family on Fridays, so we have to move it back a week. Hector is sooo fired up to be baptized, so is his son Matthew. Even Elain, the 15 year old girl is growing in testimony. Last time we were over there, we gave her the assignment to read Enos, and told her to think about if God answers our prayers. When we saw her again she said she had that feeling that we talked about when she read. yay! She recognized the Holy Ghost! :-) She is awesome!

We have started to change our mighty prayer in order to be more selective in the areas we tract. We cover the whole peninsula pretty much. All of Pinellas county. That is a LOT of area. So whenever we think about the area we want to tract, this is what we do. We will both look at the map lying on the ground, and not say anything to each other. One person will stay there, and it is their job to select the area to tract, while the other person goes into the bed room and offers a vocal prayer for the other to choose the place where some one is prepared to be baptized. It is sooo effective! We have a goal of finding at least one inactive or person to baptize every day and it has worked every time this week! We found Juan and his friend from it... he took the discussions a year ago in Tampa and had to be dropped because of scheduling conflicts. He really loved it and we found him through this process. Also, we found a less active member not even a block from one of the areas I chose that was accidentally put in the Spanish list and would have been lost in it if we didn't go by and visit them. They are English but it is so amazing how you can truly be lead by the spirit so precisely. There are people out there that are ready. The only way to find them is to be lead by the spirit.

Hermana Murray and I are getting really close. I know it is because we work hard and really desire to do our best to find people. We have a lot of fun! Today the zone is going to Sawgrass Park. It is an alligator park! I get to eat alligator! Last week, someone’s dog got off the leash and got too close to the water and got eaten. Oh man! I won’t get that close but, before I come home I AM going to touch an alligator!

The members are amazing! There are three families I have gotten really close with. Friscos, Bangeters, and the Ross's. They take good care of us. The Ross's are Spanish and he is the 2nd counselor in the ward. His wife just had surgery. The Friscos are crazy fun! But mostly crazy! :-) They are so humble and happy. The Bangeters are awesome! Bro. Bangeter tries to give me a hard time, but I dish it back to him. He works for the anti terrorist stuff (don't know the details, probably shouldn't) in South America. He speaks fluent Spanish. So he flips us a lot of stuff. I have made a purpose of memorizing things in Spanish just for him. Just so i can flip him stuff back. His wife picked me up in Tampa when I first got here. So she got to hear my whole story as we were stuck in traffic on the bridges. So they really like me and I like them. They are having us over for dinner this Sunday. 4:00-4:55. :-)

The weather is nice. I like it. The last three days I have felt cold. It’s crazy! I just started to get used to the heat. Last week was warm though! One day all of our appointments had top be rescheduled. So we tracted for 6 and a half hours in 99 degree weather with a 100% humitity. It was the hottest day here yet and we tracted it the most. It was good though. I slept good that night and added to my killer sun tan lines. :-) AND we got 9 potentials from that day! And met an awesome guy that lived in Utah that I think will be taught by the elders!

The lady that we met last week, Anna Cortez whose husband we helped move chairs for, is loving the lessons. She is amazing. We have a soft baptismal commitment with her. We want to set a date with her this week. I know it will happen. She has a really good friend that is a member and that helps a lot.

HELP the missionaries there! They really need it. Fellowshipping is soo important!

I had an interesting experience this week. It was kind of scary. Evil spirits are soo real. We were tracting, and this lady just let us right in to her house and it felt really weird. She asked us to teach her, so we started to, but no matter how hard we tried to bear testimony and invite the spirit, it could not be in that home. I left there feeling disgusting. Something was wrong in that house. As she said a prayer I felt like something was behind me. We both had our back packs in hand so we could leave. She tried to place a lot of doubt and fear in us about the work that we were doing. She looked me in the eyes as we left and asked me, "are you sure you are ok?" I wanted to say "lady are you sure you are ok?!" It was the creepiest experience I have ever had. We quickly left and walked down a back alley and said a prayer. It helped a lot. There are a lot of satanic worshipers here. It’s kind of scary. We are safe with the lord.

I love you... I’ll try to write more if I have time.

Hermana Vaughan-Schultz

Hola de St. Pete!

So we were tracting the day before, down a really impoverished street and a man caught my attention, i started to contact him but he clearly didn't want anything to do with us. We were in the area yesterday for 4 return apts. Just after the apts, I looked over and a man was working on his Camaro. I said, "Hermana Murray, I really want to go to talk cars with this man." So, she said "ok" with a smile. I asked the usual... "What’s under the hood? What have you done to it?" Then the man who first denied us walked up. I talked to this man about cars. He was pretty surprised that I even knew anything. A blonde in a skirt. Well, we started talking about church... to make a long story short, we placed a Book of Mormon. He was so excited to read it. He was prepared and had an open mind. He is taking the discussions and it is looking really well. We find so many great people here. He was so shut off to us at first, but we just had to find that common ground and his wall was broken down and it was amazing! I really feel like he will be baptized!!! Isn't that amazing? It would have been so easy to say he doesn't want to hear and not try again.

Right before this, we experienced another miracle. The day before we tracted into Anna Cortez we taught her quite a bit on the door step and made another appointment. She opened up to us a little bit. We could really tell she was hurting. She told us that she and her husband were having a lot of problems. We felt like we should say a prayer with her. So we did right there, and I could tell she felt better. We promised her that our message could help her family, that faith in Jesus Christ could help her. SO, yesterday, for those appointments I wrote about above, we were running late from church, but as we were walking I saw a man carrying chairs, A LOT of chairs into the back of a trailer and I felt like we should help him carry them, so we did. We carried about 250 chairs for him. Now we were REALLY late for the appointments. but two of them ended up rescheduling. Anyhoo, as we were walking away, we stopped to talk to the man again. It turns out, that he is the husband of Anna. Just from that act of service he opened up to us too. Amazing! It is so important to follow the Spirit in the little things!!! yay! we are so excited to teach their family. I know we were there in the right moment. Heavenly Father is helping us so much!

The success in the area is incredible. We have 8 people that will be baptized in the next month and we started a week and a half ago with no one. We see the Lord's hand in everything we do. We go a lot of time without eating because we are so busy. We had an end of the year goal to have enough people for the Spanish branch to be established but we will have it before the end of the month! Oh how amazing!!!!

I laughed out loud really hard when Dad sent the letter about the gangs in St. Petersburg. OH THEY ARE HERE! That is for sure. We are around it all of the time. I have shook hands with people that have the tear drop tattoos on their eyes but I have felt protected. We've heard gun shots, in fact, there was a shooting outside of the Elder's apartment. They are trying to relocate them now. We don't live in a scary neighborhood, so that’s good. About the scariest place we go is Waterside apartments on the south side of St. Pete. One day, we were tracting there, and as we walked, and I could definitely smell drugs. As we knocked on the door, they opened it and everyone inside was running around because they thought we were the police. Oh funny! The "thugz" actually have a lot of respect for us. They keep us safe. They tell us where not to go and they are always looking out for us. Not sure if you like hearing this, but it is what it is :-). I think these are the reasons why they didn't have sisters here before. I have only felt unsafe once, and we left very quick!

So GEMNINA! what an amzing girl. That is the girl that ran away! She has taken a complete 180 in her life. I can't remember the last I told you about her, but her family loves us, and they are so excited to learn. I think it is because they saw the light in us. We took her on a church tour the other day and she loved it!!! We committed her to baptism for the 24th. However, she didn't make it to church this Sunday so we'll have to push it back a week. She had way too much homework from missing school, so her mom said it would be better for her to do that. Oh I am soooo excited.

I love the people here so much! I get excited to talk to everyone! The ward is amazing! This work would not be possible here without the ward's help. The missionaries need help! Our mission focuses on the members and using them. It has doubled our success. We always make sure in our lessons we have a member present, and I think that is why we are having so much success. So if you are not helping the missionaries, please do so. Also, DON'T let them stay at your house more than a few minutes UNLESS they have an investigator! They need to be out knocking doors! Quick spiritual message, and then kick them out! It will be good for them. We never stay long. I think it builds a lot of trust in the members as well! YAY for missionary work!

So last night we had a church tour with a man named Antonio. We had a lesson on his door step last week and it was my first time saying the first vision. He is from Brazil, so he only really speaks a little bit of Spanish. At the church last night, I felt the spirit so strong, and the Spanish was just coming. I was amazed. I was like, how can I speak like this? Well, only through the help of the Holy Ghost. At the end of the lesson, he said that my Portuguese was really good. Figure that one out! The gift of tongues is sooooo true!

Another ultra amazing investigator is Frida Perez from Peru. Her family is very poor in Peru, but she has organized a non-profit organization. She saw the commercial for our church, and thought it could help the people there... so here we are to share it with her. She loves the doctrine and soaks up everything that we say. She reads and reads. She is a very smart woman. In Sunday School yesterday, she spoke just as much as the members (Spanish Sunday School). I'm really excited. She has a soft commitment for baptism, meaning, when she prays and knows this is true, that she will be baptized. Oh, it is soooo exciting!!!!

I was called a potato yesterday by Hector. I was sharing my story a little bit with their family and talked to them about the temple and the meaning of temple sealing and work for the dead and he stopped me and said, "You are a potato. There are two types of people in this world, potatoes and eggs. If you put them in the boiling water of life or hard things, they either harden up, or they become soft and beautiful. You my friend are a potato." I thought this was amazing and I loved it. Not that he called me a potato, but that it is sooo true of an analogy and I am going to use it!!!

Well, I might get a chance to write more later. The zone is going bowling today! :-) so sorry if everyone doesn't get as many letters today.

So much to write. I can't wait to come home and tell you these stories in person. There is sooo much more to them.

Love you all soooo much!!!
Thank you for the support!

Hermana Vaughan-Schultz

First Week in Florida - St. Petersburg

October 5, 2009

Hola!

Where to even start! :-)

Only send US mail, otherwise it could take a month to get a package.

My companion is Hermana Murray. She is from Bellevue. She lived a couple blocks from the temple! sooo cool! Mom, we want you to go on a temple trip with her mom. Her name is Pam. Isn't that cool? Hermana Murray goes to the University of Oregon, so it will be easy to keep in contact.

My first area is St. Petersburg. I have a lot of love for this area already. They only recently opened it to Spanish missionaries for three transfers, only 18 weeks. That is crazy. It is the last zone in the area that doesn’t have a Spanish branch, and it is not because of a lack of Spanish people. That is for sure!!! We didn't have hardly anyone in our teaching pool when I got here, but some really great and amazing miracles have happened. I thought about this as I sat in the chapel at conference with a family we just put on date for baptism that was sitting in front of us. In general conference when the area seventy talked about how he prayed that missionaries would enter Russia and how his son was a part of that answer to a prayer, well, I felt like I was a part of a lot of prayers. This area has grown so much in just the week that I have been here. I am really excited! When I heard about the area I was really surprised that they would put a greeny like me here when there is so much important work to do!

I don't even know where to start. I think I might just send what I have in my journal home... or I might make you wait.

The first day in the field was work! I LOVE TRACTING! Some missionaries don't like it. But I love it! In fact, the first Spanish door contact we did, and I did it by myself, is taking the lessons right now! They have a daughter that is 14, Juni. She is going to mutual now. It is great. I have a good feeling about it. We plan on committing them to baptism the next time we meet on Wednesday. :-) Yay!!!!!!! They have a family of 6. …but my first Spanish contact! Yay!!!

Next we went to the Saldivar shop. I’m definitely taking you to meet the Saldivars!!! They own one of those mom and pop’s stores on the corner with all of the weird Hispanic food; like pig heads hanging in there and everything. But they are really great to us missionaries. They were inactive before the Spanish missionaries got here, now they are actively participating. WE ARE SOOOO CLOSE to having a Spanish branch! We always stop by and they bring us in the back and we teach them a quick lesson. We laugh a lot. The first day I didn't understand them very well, THEY SPEAK FAST! But we stopped by there the night before last and I was doing really good understanding them. My Spanish has made a lot of improvement! It is amazing. It is completely the Lord helping. I wouldn't be able to do it without Him.

The first night was fun. We moved a family for four hours in the sweltering heat! 96 with 85% humidity! I’m pretty sure I got heat exhaustion. I have been soooo tired since and it hasn't been from lack of sleep.

I've lost 7 pounds since being here! It’s crazy. This is the most disciplined mission I have ever heard of. They don't pass around a dinner sign up at all, because from 5-9 is prime time for doing the work and we shouldn't be in someone’s home unless there is an investigator there. I think that is soooo awesome!!! So we can eat at 4, but usually we are so busy that we don't eat until we get home. I thought the members would be feeding us a lot more, but we are so busy we put them on the bottom of the list. Food is just food anyways :-)

So I know I said the teaching pool wasn't full when I got here, but we have been blessed so much. We have been guided by the Spirit so directly that that has changed A LOT!!! Dozens and dozens of times while tracting my companion and I have felt directly that we needed to contact particular doors and people. One in particular just amazed me! We walked up to the door and it was my turn to do the contacting. It was Spanish and something really amazing happened. I will never forget this for the rest of my life. I felt my heart leap as I knocked on the door. (It was in kind of a rundown area) the spirit hit me so strong that I thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest. A woman answered the door. She looked like she had been crying. I felt prompted to just bear strong testimony of the Savior and the atonement. I didn't even ask for her name or anything. I said (in Spanish… it just came. I haven't said this ever before) "Jesus Christ loves you, and He wanted us to come here because you need help. We are here to help you and to tell you that the Savior loves you. Through prayer and the atonement...” I didn't even get a chance to finish my sentence before she was sobbing in my arms. We were not planning on coming in this area, but we were directed by the spirit. We weren't able to say much to her other than bear testimony to her of how the atonement could help her. She talked to us for 25 minutes without us really getting a word in. Through her tears and speaking so fast I hardly could understand her... So instead as I sat there and looked into her eyes I prayed my heart out to Heavenly Father that the Holy Ghost would tell me the worries of her heart, how we could help her, and that she would see the light of Christ in us... and Heavenly Father blessed me with that. My companion offered for us to leave them with a prayer, and turned to me to offer it. Oh boy! I was nervous, but the spirit helped me. (at this point I didn't know what exactly was going on. I knew her daughter was gone, and had tried to commit suicide a few weeks ago. Can you imagine how scary this might be for a new missionary that has only spoken Spanish for two months!) but the Lord helped me. The spirit was strong when I prayed. I cried through the whole thing and so did everyone else. I prayed for a miracle. I felt prompted to say that that the daughter would return.

I didn't know what exactly happened until my companion and I left. We found out after they had invited us in that there 16 year old daughter had just ran way with her boyfriend. She said she was coming back today but she didn't show up. (this was all on my second day here...) We came to visit two days later, and the daughter was back. The father thanked us so much as he talked to us on the door step. They really want us to teach them I feel really good about the family.

OK! Now, the Valasquez family! So amazing! The mother is an inactive member (Karina), from Puerto Rico. They moved to the states 5 years ago. Hector, was a very stern Catholic. He’s not really active, but very against even thinking about any other religions. The family started looking into other religions. They really desired that their children would have a good faith in God and Jesus Christ. Once Karina’s mom in Puerto Rico found out, she quickly sent a Media referral. A month ago the sisters taught them, and Hector didn't like it. So they weren't able to visit again until last week. As we were going through our area book, we felt prompted to follow up with them. We prayed for a mighty miracle that would soften Hector’s heart. Karina desired to become active again. AND IT SOOO HAPPENED! We went there, and it was amazing! Hector and his son Mathew are on date for Nov 6th, but he is so excited that it will probably happen sooner I’m sure. When we got there he was so ready. He already knew Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, the Bbook of Mormon was true. He even taught us about the Urim Thummin. It reminded me of my first contact with the missionaries. "the teachers become the teachees!" Ya! Totally happened! It was one of the strongest testimonies of prayer I have ever heard. He had never prayed out loud in front of people before, other then scripted prayers, and before we left we wanted to pray. So we asked him who he would like to say the prayer. He said " I will. I need to set the example for my kids." He was so nervous, but he did it! I was soooo darn happy! I didn't even sleep that night.

During our weekly panning we set a very high number of 4 baptisms for this month. We prayed and felt strongly about that goal. They haven't had one baptism in 3 months in this area. Well, we have two right now so far, soon to be four. I talked to the ZL last night, and they said we've broken the glass ceiling on all of the numbers for the last year in just a week. WE WORK HARD! We never let a moment go by! Everything is in the Lords hand’s!

Hector loved general conference! Just after conference he came right out and said, “When can I learn more about prophets?” with a huge smile on his face! Oh man! We do church tours here... the first priority is to have the first lesson in the church building with a fellowshipper (member). The next lesson is at a member’s house, or at the investigator’s house with a fellowshipper. They really know what they are doing here. We only do what works. Bikes are more effective because you get more contacts. So, we bike a lot! It is great!!!

Yesterday we taught a man named Antonio. We gave the whole first lesson on the door step. I said the first vision for the first time. Yay!! The spirit was so strong. I know he felt it. He is from Brazil. I am really excited to teach him again. I just know he will be baptized. You just get this feeling! Yay!

Our teaching pool keeps getting fuller! Trailer parks are our friends! We have been in some REALLY scary areas with drugs and crime. Heard gun shots the other day, but I definitely feel protected and think of Elder Scott’s blessing often that we will be kept safe as we are obedient.

We had two little Spanish girls run out and give us some paper ring chains that said “we love you”. They like to follow us around when contacting. We have really built up a good reputation with some of the areas. I am just amazed on how humble the Spanish people are. I really have learned a lot of life lessons in just my first week. Also, I never realized until now that I have been preparing my whole life for my mission. I love it here. I love the people sooo much. My prayers have never been as meaningful as they are now when I offer a mighty prayer for our investigators and for direction.

I’m already sad to leave the people here!

Love you all

Hermana Vaughan-Schultz