Week 84: im going to Pennsylvania!!

Well well well ! i hope everyone had a wonderful christmas and were able to celebrate it with your family. We had the great opportunity to spend it with some members from the Spanish branch and also a few people we are teaching. one was a super fancy dinner that had the table all set nicely and i had no idea how to eat fancy. I had like two different cups and I didnt know which was which! We were able to have a great talk about the Joy of being a missionary and being in his service. I have been blessed with being able to see the Lord bless the lives of so many of his children and in the process blessing me. 

Another family this week we were able to stop by and read Luke 2. It been read probably 100 times every second but its super good. One missionary pointed out that really jesus birth would be nothing without his death so I tholught that was true. The Savior of the literaly planet was born and Fufilled his mission for why he was sent here. 

Got to take some dope pictures so go check out the link below but we will update yall next week in a different place! Im gtoing to lancaster after serving in hagerstown for about 6 month! hope yall stay safe during the new year!

Love yall,

Elder Espere

Week 16: Christmas is next week!!!

Heyyyy Friends and Family, 

This week has been awesome!!! 

We got Mexican-ed twice in one day... Anytime we go to someone's house they try to give us food and we have to eat it. If you don't eat it then you are like evil and the people think that you hate them or hate their food. We went into a lesson in the morning and had beans, eggs with bacon and toast and then in our next lesson we had I think the hottest tamales 🫔 I have ever eaten. There were so many jalapeño seeds in it. My esophagus hurt so badly and like my stomach. But the food is so good so you can't say no. 

Our ward is so awesome!!! We had such a fun Christmas party with tamales. Apparently people only make Tamales 🫔 during Christmas time so we have been fed soooo many. They are so good but... we know that some members make better ones than others. 

This Saturday and Sunday was sl special. Our friends Danelly (13) and Elizabeth (11) have been praying for a date to get baptized. They asked about Fasting a few weeks ago and we were able to help them understand the power of Fasting and how much it has blessed our lives. They wanted to fast with us this sunday to help them with a date to be baptized. Then yesterday we were able to have dinner with them. They told us that they wanted to get baptized on January 20th!!! We are so happy and so proud of their choice to get baptized!!! ❤️  

Spiritual Thought:

Moroni 7:13 "But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God."

Con Mucho Amor 💓 

Hermana Wait 

P.S. I realized that this year I wasn't going to see everyone's Christmas cards so please send them my way if you have extras!!! 🎄✉️ (or if u wanna send me something 😉)

12130 Pebble Hills Blvd, El Paso, TX 79936 Apt M307

Week 83: The Christmas Partyyy

Well well well, its was the last full week before CHRISTMAS!

I was able to go to Westminster and Frederick for exchanges again. It was my last time there on exchanges probably and got to work hard. The spirit is always with you when you do the work of the Lord. In westminster specifically we were able to watch the christ child with a family. It was awesome. 

We were also able to go to the ward Christmas party where we sang Feluz Navidad and it was super funny because we had no idea what we were doing. A few people were able to come that we invited and they loved it so much. They were even invited to come to the church service the next day and every single one loved it soooo much. On the mission, I have learned the importance and the power that comes from going to church and feeling the spirit. It's like a refresh for your week. 

With Christmas coming up, it's a time to remember the Birth of Jesus Christ. It's also a common day for people to come to church! I invite each of you to celebrate the birth of our Savior and come to church this Sunday. Feel free to let me know and I'll find the church closest to you! Also I'm sure my mother would love for you to come with her,  all my Charlotte friends. :)

All enjoy christmas!! AND I got a link for my photos. 

Love ya, 

Elder Espere 

Week 15: Martha Hernandez is so cool!

Heyyyy,

This week so many things happened and I saw so many miracles✨️!!! 

Martha Hernandez one of our most progressing people accepted our baptism invitation to get baptized on New Years Day!!! I told her it was a special day because it is my grandma's birthday and I was sad because I would be able to celebrate her birthday with her. So Martha said we could celebrate her baptism! And I was so excited to hear that!!!! 

Also I am back in a trio!!!Our new companion is from the DR and is learning English so just the few days I have been here my spanish has improved soooo much 😀 The work is so fun with her! She makes me laugh so hard. Also so sorry for this short email but I wrote it too late and now I don't have much time. :((( 

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Wait 💗💗💗

Week 82: last time in Winchester

BUENAS TARDES A TODOS!!! Hope yall are all enjoying the spirit of the christmas season. It's been so amazing to feel the appreciation for the birth of Jesus. 

This week I was able to go to my old area in Winchester Virginia and work with the Missionaries down there. They are such inspiring guys and have so much love for the people. I was with Elder Elliott for the first night and it was super cool. We were able to share the christ child movie with a family and the spirit was super awesome and they wanted to come experience that spirit at church. We also found a member of the Church that only spoke spanisha ND didn't know where the building for spanish was so another miracle. 

The next day I was able to go with Elders Moore and Stewart. It was a blast. We actually were not able to get in any homes but we had a blast going around trying to share the story of Jesus with everyone we met. We just love the story of his Birth. If there are misionaries like me who knock on your door, please let them in haha. 

Then thursday to Sunday it was Elder Smack and I just having a blast up here. The day we got back we had 6 lesson which were fire. We also were able to help someone set a goal to be baptised. We will be working with them to help them prepare spiritually. 

Just keep loving the Christams spirt. Spread that light #lighttheworld

What things are yall doing to #lighttheworld?

Love, 

Elder Espere

Week 14: Sun, Stars, Angels

Hello people who don't live in El Paso, 

We have had an awesome week!!! So many miracles and so much missionary work!!! We were able to get our car back and having transportation makes missionary work so much better!

On Tuesday we were able to have some incredible lessons with some of our friends. I know this gospel is the gospel of Jesus Christ and as we continue to build our testimony on Jesus Christ we will be able to feel God's love for us and know of him personally! 

We had the most awesome stake Christmas party ever!!!! We had 4 of our friends come which made it even more special because we were able to share the spirit of Christmas 🎄 and introduce them to our friends at church! 

We also had Zone conference this week and we were able to hear from Elder Packer!  He is such an inspired man and has helped me learn so much. He talked a lot about how to improve the work in our area and how to be better missionaries. I know that I have tons of room to improve with my missionary work. He also talked about recognizing promptings from the spirit and that when we receive a prompting we need to act on it. He also spoke on personal revelation and that sometimes it's hard to figure out if the prompting is from Him or from ourselves. Sometimes I struggle with that and trying to know if God is trying to tell me something or if I hope God is trying to tell me something 🙏  He talked a lot about praying and that is one of the best ways we can confirm the feelings from God 🙂

Spiritual Thought:

"If we pray and faith then we will receive answers to our prayers, we will know our revelation comes from God!"

-Elder Perkins 

Con Amor,

Hermana Wait 💗 

Week 81: itS ChRiStMaS TiMe

FELIZ NAVIDAD!!! ITS THAT TIME OF THE YEAR! go spread some Christmas cheer!!  Music all around and trees and light and most importantly Jesus Christ! 

This week we got to pull out the blessing of watching the christ child video. It's called el nino Jesus for if you want to watch it in spanish bit it's a little 15 min video about Christmas back in Bethlehem 2022 years ago. It's super good and we have been sharing it with everyone we meet. It's been so amazing to feel the Christmas spirit and share the joy that Christ's birth brings to all of us!

Anyways who else is excited for Christmas let's get unto the week

(Sorry my photos arnt sending again)

- got to go with THE elder Hale a spiritual beast, he taught me a bunch about following and relying on the spirit. It's was amazing and he introduced me to a family that he used to teach in Martinsburg. West virgina. 

- got a member referral and taught a Spanish Speaking family in the middle of the app mountains. They live an hour and a half from where the church building us and they STILL went to chruch #deducation

- got to go on an exchange with Elder benson!!Benson!!! We go all the way back to Baltimore in our training haha

- got confirmed again pt 3648 that if you ask God and surch his word, you will get an answer from him

- got to watch a bunch of the world cup as we get to know people for the first time

I've been studying about the love of God recently. As we serve others, we become more like Jesus and do what he would do. It's simple but true. In this Christmas season, look yo serve daily!

Love all of you and pray for ya,

Nos vemos, 

Elder Espere

Week 13: Snow in El Paso

Hello Everyone,

El Paso is on a very similar page as North Carolina when it comes to weather. On Thursday it was snowing and then Friday it was so Hot 🔥 But the snow is very similar to north Carolina. It comes down but immediately as it hits the ground it melts. Anyways, on to the missionary work. It's been a slow week lol. First reason being I was sick :(( so we has to take a few days off for my recovery and we contacted a ton of our friends. And we still don't have a car so wr have to ride with members and the other sisters places. It makes missionary work harder but the lord always has a way for his work to get done this is just a little mountain we had to climb this week. 

We had an awesome lesson with our friend Danelly. She desires to be baptized but she feels like she isn't receiving an answer to her prayers. We then prayed with her and she was able to feel the power of the Holy Ghost testify to her that her prayers were heard. It was so powerful to be able to share that experience with her and to help her recognize the holy Ghost! 

Also funny story, so the elders like to make fun of me for being super persistent and determined. So the elders now have a joke when someone doesn't answer the door they say, "let's make like a Hermana and Wait" 🙃 and they will ring the doorbell or knock the door again and wait till someone answers lol. 

My little spiritual thought for today will be the power of prayers. Ever week the missionaries in my area have a prayer call and we pray specifically for our friends and people who we know need extra prayers. I love how amazing it is to pray for others and I know that Hevenly Father listens and hears all of our prayers. I know, "if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost." With that I would love to pray with yall and for people who need prayers. And I will ask yall in return to pray for some of my friends and people I love ❤️ 

Songs I'm missing 

- despacio JB

Prayer list:

- Uncle Danny 

- Haro family 

- Leticia and Liliana 

Love,

Hermana Wait 

Week 12: El Paso is Cold

Hey y'all,

This week has definitely been an interesting one. We had an Hermana go home 😥 it's been super sad but we know that she is doing much better now. But that means we are in a trio!! Hermana Odgen has joined our companionship super fun and I'm so thankful that she is able to join us 🙂  It's been fun but super stressful. We are covering 3 areas. Transfers¹ are next week so hopefully we will be back to just our one area. BUT maybe we will stay in a trio for another transfer. We have had some crazy things happen as well. First off we are sick so it makes missionary work harder to do. And we also had our car break down so we are without a car. BUT good thing the lord blessed with us with a tro. We are using Hermana Odgens car until transfers. (Pray that our far gets fixed before Wednesday 🙏) Anyways the car story is a long but very funny one if you wanna hear it. 

In addition to all the crazy everyone in El Paso is afraid of the cold 🥶 Not sure why... We had a ward party Friday night to celebrate Thanksgiving so we called and texted a bunch of our friends and most of them told us that it was too cold to go out so they could not go to the party 😥 

I haven't been a missionary for very long but covering three areas has been super crazy. I thought we had no time for studies when it was just Hermana Brown and I covering our area but I was so wrong. We visit so many people and have so many lessons every day. I had the opportunity to meet some super cool people who shared their conversion stories. One that stood out to me so strongly was Juan Revera. Such a cool dude with such a strong testimony. Also he has a super cool Book of Mormon that every missionary that comes to teach him signs it. It has so many missionary signatures and the first missionaries to sign it were from 1996 (the first missionaries to knock on his door) He said he first heard about the church watching an TV add to request a book of mormón. That's super hype. Also saw a shooting star and totally made my day. 

Spiritual Thought: 

Focus on what we want to grow 🪴 If we continue to feed all the bad in our life and continue to give all the unfortunate events in our lives attention and extra time then that will be how you feel about life. They will be the only things that  We cannot feel joy if we do not have opposition. That is part of God's plan for us. He has a plan individually for the each of us. He will not let us fail. 

President Nelson, "The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do what the focus of our lives" 

Songs I'm missing 

- universe- Coldplay 

- tear in my heart 

- Ghost town- Benson Boone 

¹ Transfers are every 6 weeks. Missionaries could get new companions or move to a new area. 

Lots of love,

Hermana Wait 

P. S. I love and miss all of you 💗 

Week 79: 18 months

Officially git 18 months on the mission. 

This week was pretty normal. We met a few pretty cool people. We got in contact with some people that had been going to church a while ago too. It's cool to see how people can remember their spiritual experiences that they had a long time ago like 5 10 years. They remember the true peace and confort that only the spirit can bring to them. 

We also got fed 4 times in one day. Saudíes, papusas, sopa, and some chicken sándwiches and chocolate almonds. I'm getting fat haha. The spanish culture here is centered around family and food and it's amazing. 

We had yo day bye to Pedro who moved this week to niceragua and it was pretty sad but we got in contact with the misioneros down there to help him haha. It was a while process but we finally did so hopefully he find the church down there. 

We played Volleyball as a branch with all the people from the church and it was so fun. We had a couple friends that went too and they had a blast. I blocked someone at the net and it went and slacked them in the face and I felt terrible so I might just be on the sidelines for now on haha. 

Lives good. I'm thankful for sooo many things. So many nice people and things we all take granted. I wore some fake glasses for a few days and told people they were my gratitude glasses and that when tou put them on you can see everything your thankful for. A few people wanted to try them on. Think about that for a second. 

Love yall, 

Elder Espere

Thr pics arnt uploadinh. Lo siento. 

Week 11: Do we trust Him?

Hello Everyone,

This week has been amazing!!! 

We went to Agua Dulce this week so it already started off pretty good 🙂 We had dinner with one of our members who we love. Her husband is having lots of health problems so it makes it hard for her to be super involved in the church. So we go over every week to read the scriptures with her and to help her feel loved 💕 She also wanted to feed us lunch one day because the meal calendar was all filled up for the month of November. She didn't go to church the day they passed the calendar around so she didn't get to sign up. Anyways the members are so kind to us and feed us so well. So we went over there for lunch and she kept giving us all this food and I almost like threw up or popped or something. I feel bad for not eating all the food they give us but I don't want to be fat or throw up. That would be so embarrassing if I threw up at a members house. Anyways I love the members and I'm so grateful for how much they feed us 💓  

We have a new friend who we had one lesson with and it went absolutely amazing so we are excited to see her progress. I was able to share the first vision with her and while I was talking she started crying. The Spirit was so strong in her house. 💪 I'm so excited to keep going and keep feeling the spirit that her faith brings. 

We had 3 of our friends go to church for the first time this week!!! They also all had a friend to sit with so that made it extra special. Our friend Vicente walked into church and immediately one of the members recognized him and came up to him. We asked how they knew eacjother and they said they were friends back in Juarez. They both didn't know that they lived there so that's super hype. It's always super cool to have a friend at church and it makes going more appealing 😇 

Spiritual Thought:

Do We Trust Him? Hard Is Good

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2017/10/do-we-trust-him-hard-is-good?lang=eng

Everyone should read this talk. It helped me realize that the hard things in life are the things that make me the strongest and make me humble myself and turn to the Savior. 

Love, 

Hermana Wait 

Week 10: The Wild West

When I was called to the New Mexico, Albuquerque Mission I looked up what the scenery in Albuquerque. Let me tell you the Albuquerque scenery is way more colorful than the El Paso scenery. The sunsets here are absolutely incredible and they never disappoint. Every night you are blessed with a new painted 🌅sky. Another thing about el paso is that there is like nothing... like everything is dead. It's nothing like Arizona it's like desert with dust... actually sorry that described a desert. We have no cactus. It's exactly like the scenery of breaking bad. But... we are teaching someone who lives in a place called Auga Ducle which is basically in the middle of no where. But I love it there because we have a super awesome friend out there. We gave him a book of mormon and read the introduction with him. The Spirit was so strongly in his little RV. (He lives a little breaking bad life without all the drugs and stuff of course) I was able to explain what the book of mormon and how we got it and bore my testimony of the truth of it. All in spanish btw 😄

I also am in a Facebook mission so I am constantly going stuff on Facebook. This week we did the come follow me (we are studding Daniel this week) and I was able to share my thoughts about the topic. Super cool so if yall are ever interested in hearing my thoughts about the come follow me everyweek I will post on my Facebook story 😊  Facebook is such an easy way to share the gospel and anyone can do it! 

On Saturday before english class our primary was having a breakfast party and they made us pancakes!!!! Literally whenever anyone makes or gives us food it makes my day!! I am so grateful  that our fiends and the members are so willing to feed us 💓 

Also another side note, I decided that I wanted my hair to look darker so I dyed it 🙃. Hope yall like it cuz I love it lol. 

Songs I'm missing:

- drivers license by Oliva Rodrigo 

- wasted on you by Morgan Wallen 

Love, 

Hermana Wait 

Please text me on messenger or email me!!! I may not get the chance to respond to everyone but I definitely see it and it makes my day to get updates on yalls lives!!! 

Also sports updates are always welcome and much appreciated 👀

(6 more Months) 81 pics

ENJOY YHE 81 PICS. 

WELL!!!! Sorry about the long break, basically i just lost all of your emails and I just not got it back. so here we go.

The title of the Email is because someone we were teaching named Silvia from Peru blessed her baby at church! She invited a few friends to church and the spirit was super strong. It was amazing to feel the power of the testimonies that were given at church. All were so focused on jesus Christ. It made me feel so close to God's Word.

Got to go on exchanges with Winchester and Frederick who are super fun. Also just have been teaching like crazy and we have been able to see some crazy change in a lot fo the people that we teach. 

Love you all,

Elder Espere

The end is coming near and im getting exhausted but loving it at the same time. Its been great to serve the lord and i love the spirit of the mission. Really comes from the redicusly large amount of prayers we doa and also daily scripture stusy, not just reading but study. be mindful how much you spend listening to what God has to tell you for the day.

Te amo