February 24, 2014 -- first Baptism!

Hola Mis Amores!!

This week has been so incredibly fantastic! So many blessing and milagros and just.. it’s been great. 

First of all, we got to go to the temple! Totally don’t want to rub it in anyone’s face, but that makes 8 now ;) It was so amazing. So beautiful. The Spirit was so strong. As always (: The Celestial room was pretty huge.. And so stinking beautiful. I just look forward to July when I get to go back! 

Also, CARLOS WAS BAPTIZED! Okay, this was actually super stressful because it was the first baptism for both Hermana and me. So a lot of things were done pretty last minute. But we were very blessed to have everything work out in the end. We had a great number of ward members who showed up and had 2 discursos about Baptism and the Holy Ghost. Oh my gosh. Carlos is so adorable. He is so sweet. He got up and bore his testimony to us afterwards and I was just in love. He was confirmed a member in sacrament meeting yesterday and his daughter came as well! It was so great. We got to share a little about the gospel with her and the purpose of receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. 

But when we were calling people to see if they could give talks, we called a woman named Sister Bradley who is from Columbia but her husband speaks no English. They were just married a few years ago and she was baptized I think like 15 years ago. But he just got baptized a year ago. Anyway, Sister Bradley's son, Carlos, had just moved in with her from Columbia and her daughter, Ingrid, is visiting until March 8. So last Thursday as we were calling her, she told us she wouldn’t be able to make it but that she wanted us to come teach her children. She told us she wants them to get baptized together before Ingrid leaves and she says, "So how do we go about doing this?" haha We have taught them 3 times and they have both accepted our invitation to be baptized on March 5th!! They are both so ready. Before we even asked, they started talking about baptism. So far they understand the need for prophets and the Book of Mormon and are accepting everything super well. Carlos has a few really good questions but I can tell it’s because he’s interested. So we are way excited for them! 

Really this week was so great. The Lord is really helping us out. I have seen that the harder we strive to be the best examples for His church that we can, we will be blessed. I am so grateful for this incredible opportunity to share the truth and the way we can return to our Father in Heaven :)

I love you all so much! 

Hermana Halverson

P.S. As far as living conditions... My apartment is super nice. And the church takes care of us so well. BUT we had a huge water leak and didn't know about it til the bill came into the church and they had to come down and fix it because our bill was like 9Xs higher than it should have been... And the weather is crazy! Recently we've seen a lot more lightening. And it rains just about every 2 or 3 days here. But I love it. This is the place for me. At least until the rainy season is over.. haha During June/July/August every one talks about how hot it gets and how humid it is.. So things might get a little more difficult. But I'm still excited! What doesn't kill me makes me stronger, right? (:

 At Carlos' baptism.  (Note the tall missionary on the far right.  He's the AP

 (Assistant to the President) and is 6'9"!!)

At the Orlando, Florida temple.

February 17, 2014

I’m so sorry, but there were a few e-mails I wasn't able to get to today. ):

So real quick let me just fill you in on the excitement that my little tiny 4'10” is trying to contain.

1. Carlos is getting baptized this Saturday! Oh my gosh I have never seen anyone so excited for anything in my life. He texts us every day to make sure we remember. He is so stinking adorable. And Native American so we told him about the Lamanites and that he’s their ancestor. He was so adorable. It’s hard to explain that to someone in Spanish so he was pretty confused.

2. I LOVE TO SEE THE TEMPLE! I’m going there... ON FRIDAY!! Yay!!!! I can’t wait! So happy. It’s been so long.. I feel drained! IDK how I’m supposed to wait for 6 months to go again, but I’m grateful to be going at all! Just this year, they started the new rule that missionaries can go twice a year. It used to be they couldn’t go at all, so I got here just in time!!

3. Okay, like this is the craziest thing ever. Elder Nicholls is training Chase. I cannot even describe to you my feelings on this. I’m so happy. I’m so excited. I’m like hysterically laughing. It’s just all the above and more. Not even a coincidence. BUT, forewarning, you either LOVE or HATE your trainer. But I have faith that they will just fall in love!  (Note: Elder Nicholls is a friend of Tara's from Kennewick who is now Chase's first companion/trainer in Peru.)

Really this past week has been so great. Our lessons just keep piling up and it’s the best feeling in the world. We are seeing miracles every day and I wish I could sit here for hours and tell you all about them! Pero, tengo solo una hora. ):

Love you all!

Hermana Halverson

 The way missionaries in Florida park - ha ha

Box of chocolates we revcieved from a Brother in our ward for Valenitnes day

February 10, 2014

Hello my lovelies!

I hope you are all having a fantastic week! I don’t mean to brag but I think mine might have been a teansie bit better ;) "Why?" might you ask? Well, sit on down and put your reading glasses on because this is a good one.

Scene: CARLOS. He’s been taking the missionary discussions for the past couple of weeks. He has a good friend in our ward named Bro. Mathis. He has 3 daughters, but one passed a couple years ago. He’s probably like the sweetest little guy I’ve ever met. He accidentally gave me a hug at church 2 weeks ago... Ha, but yes. He is the best. He has all these different church books including Predicad me Evangelio, so when we go to teach him he ends up teaching us. It’s the best. Also when we asked him about baptism he set his own date! It wasn’t until April 8th though, but still, his enthusiasm is contagious.

So, Carlos. He lives outside of our ward boundaries, but we got permission to teach him because he’s moving at the first of March. The good news is he’s moving right down the street from us! The bad news is that we don’t live in our area either... So, we had to go through our Zone leaders, President Berry, and both Bishops of our ward and the ward that we will be moving into and the final decision was... Dun da da Dunnnnn! We get to keep teaching him! Why? Well, because we have given him a new baptism date of FEB 22!!!!! Like 2 weeks. I am so happy for him. President said that he can be baptized into our ward and hold callings but he needs to be transitioned to the Lake Nona ward by the end of this year. BUT, Bro. Mathis works with houses in some way and said that he’s going to try to find Carlos a house in our ward so he won’t need to worry about transitioning into a new ward! Oh boy. I’m just so excited for him. He started crying. And he is just so sweet. Both his daughters though are JW and so far they haven’t wanted to sit in on any of our lessons, but I have hope! Just a little bit of time (:

So yes. That was so wonderful. Also I went on my first exchange this week! It was the best. I love our STLs. And Sister Collins is just the funniest person ever. One of the pictures I’m sending is when we were departing. I had all my things and wore my helmet and they were all making fun of me at how silly I looked. So yes. That’s a thing... haha 

Also we had a ward fiesta the other day and some kids brought snakes. So I played with those. 

FINALLY. A less active owns a restaurant and always has us come there for dinner. It’s like the only Mexican food I will ever eat while here in FL. It’s just great. 

I seriously just love it here. The people are all so sweet. We've been turned down multiple times but I’ve never encountered a rude person. Granted, I’m still new. But they are all just so sweet. Even after people say they aren’t interested they tell us to be safe. I think even though they have their own religions, we all believe in one God. I think they can tell who we represent without even knowing it. People are awesome. Just in general. I feel so lucky to be here and having the opportunity to serve them all. 

I hope you all have a great week! I love you all! (:

Hermana Halverson

February 3, 2014

So this week was so crazy. The weather, first off all, was off the wall. At the beginning of the week it was freeezzinnggg! Then for 3 days straight it poured, and the last 2 days have been sunny, hot, and humid! So I just have to get used to never being used to it I suppose.

As far as Ruben, we weren’t able to visit him this week ): and his buddy from the nursing home was supposed to come to church with us yesterday but is in the process of moving. We do, however, have an appointment set with him later this week! Sabrina and her mother, Llaniri, unfortunately always seem to have something going on.

BUT, this week was still full of many milagros! It seemed that every time our appointments fell through, our back-up went perfectly! 

We were able to teach a Puerto Rican couple an on the spot Restoration and give them both Libro de Mormones. Also we met with a man named Julian who the hermanas before me contacted a couple months ago but had written down his info wrong. We ran into him in a parking lot and apparently he has been waiting for a call from the missionaries. His sister just passed away in the Dominican Republic so our first lesson, we taught him the Plan de Restauracion. Also he committed to baptism AND came to church with us yesterday. We have a baptismal date set for 15 de Febrero. After church yesterday he told us that he didn’t want to be separated from us because he could feel our spirits. It was so sweet! Also his wife’s son has been baptized in our church! It was such a strange conversation. And it came up so casually too. Like he asked us what church we were from and he was like, "Oh yea, I was baptized in that church in Puerto Rico in like '89". haha Sooo we will have to check up on him as well and see how he’s doing. But so many other milargros this week! Unfortunately, I have no time to share them all ):

Love you all!! 

Hermana Halverson

Hermana Sprite

Email sent from a senior missionary couple who served with Tara in the Mexico City MTC:

My husband and I are Senior Missionaries at the MTC in Mexico City.  I had the wonderful blessing of getting to know and love your sweet daughter.  I called her Hermana Sprite because she reminded me of a bottle of Sprite - when you shake it up, it's all bubbly.  I miss her!!!!

I took some pictures of her while she was here at the MTC.  I thought you would enjoy them.  I think I have some more on my other computer.  I will get them to you soon.  Please give her my love.

Sister Sue Jones