Sister Macey Gates // Week Sixty-Two // "FELIZ AND NUEVO!!"

BUENOO!! Guys It was so awesome to talk to you, Im sorry i wasn't very lively, i was so sick haha but i'm slowly getting better! This christmas I really understood how important our Savior is to us. I love him so much, and am so so grateful for everything he did for me. I've realized the times that i really don't feel good that i don't have to worry, cause my savior already took care of it for me and all i have to do is be patient and hope for the best and keep on predicando el evangelio. I LOVE THIS WORK!!!! It the biggest pleasure for me to be able to share my testimony to people everyday, especially my companion. She is still questioning her testimony but its been amazing talking to her and helping her realize that she really does have a testimony. I don't think i've EVER met anyone like this girl, but she is doing good and i'm so proud of her! This week we didn't have much proceliting opportunidades but the ones that we did have were short, but great! Juan and Elizabeth showed up at church with the HUGEST smilies on their faces and were given the spirit. It was amazing:) Gloria has been having a little harder time gaining a stronger testimony, but this week changed. She ALWAYS has questions and concerns, but this week she didn't have any. I know that because she stayed faithful, was baptized and received the spirit things have been making so much more sense to her. I love love love this work!!!!! We honestly are still on the lookout for more people to teach. Thats what we are focusing on this week, but we know we will find these people! For christmas we had an activity with some of our mission, we had a little devotional and got our packages, and then that night we got together as a zone and played soccer, i had the time of my life!!!!! Then on christmas we skyped with you guys:) And then we had nothing to do.... we started stressing out about it haha cause we always are doing something. So we called the missionaries in our zone and got together to play soccer again. This week i learned about the power of choice. Every single day, hour, & second we have the opportunity to follow christ or not. That is hard, so hard, but we have the opportunity to feel the spirit every day to help us and to guide us. But we have to work for it. We have to live worthily, and go to church to partake of the sacrament to have the promise that the spirit will be with us every week. And with the guidance and counsel of the spirit, we have the choice to accept our everyday problems, our challenges, whether big or small and use Christ to get through them or not and suffer.  Its a battle everyday to follow christ, to do as he did, but i know that if we just but try, we can overcome anything. All the Lord asks is that we do our best. I know our Savior loves every single one of us more than we can imagine!!! Don't ever forget that!!

Love you guys!!:)

Hermanita Gates:)

One of our investigators gave us this like tree bamboo thing to eat hahaha it was too bad! 

This is Ruby:) She is the cutest! She ate with me:)

SO much stuff hahaha 

Christmas eve YAY!!

Santoyo came to visit me for a sec... gosh i love that girl!!!!!!! 

We made this for an elder for his birthday haha

Sister Macey Gates // Week Sixty-One // "FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!!!‏"

MERRY MERRRY FELIZ NAVIDAD, como estan?? This week was CRAZY busy stressful amazing. So on wednesday, we had the opportunity to teach the bible class, we did it on Luke 17. Its super hard for me to teach that class cause the bible is harder to understand, and its in spanish, but it was amazing:) Me and Hermana Lindsey definitely had the gift of tongues that night. I felt like words just kept coming to my mind and i was learning new things, and making new connections as i was teaching. The spirit was so strong. So about our Lesbian investigator... she is still in love with her girlfriend, and just super confused about everything and so thats cool. haha i have no idea how to help her not like another girl and live the law of chastity. We just pray for her and try to bring in the spirit the best we can. We had a miracle this week. We were going to visit one of our investigators and she lives in an apartment. So their neighbors thought we were knocking on their door. So this girl comes to the door, looks at us, goes back inside, and then comes back to the door and starts freaking out. In a good way. She told us that some missionaries had taught her before, but she moved and then came back. She said she has been looking for us. So we had a lesson with her. She just barely stopped doing drugs, she said that when she was doing them she forgot about christ. It was really hard for her to tell us that. She wants to be baptized and start again. Saturday we had our ward christmas party, its was so fun:) they did karaoke and danced, we watched:) its sometimes hard being in  a spanish ward cause they dance all the time and it just makes you wanna dance. But we contained ourselves. Sunday was probably the most stressful day of my life. So Gloria still had to be confirmed, her husbands been keeping her away from church so we have been praying she would come. Right as they announced her confirmation she walked in. Miracle number one. She was so happy as she walked back to her seat. She has been faced with lots of opposition this week so we had to get her right back on track. Every time she prays she prays for us and calls us her Mis Hermanas:) Instead of las hermanas which is the Hermanas. Its just so cute!! Then i had to go flip pages for the bishops wife as she played for the choir, she only speaks english and they were singing in spanish so I had to sing it in english where ever they were at in the song so that she could play the piano along with them. We made it through the song haha. Miracle number 2. Then we did a little musical number for the relief society, we had Hermana Lindsey play her violin and Elder Mock play his uke, we sang far far away on Judeas plains and they rest of us sang:) We did it beat too! Miracle number 3. Then we showed up to the stake center for Juan and Elizabeths baptism and nothing was ready. So we have people who get it ready for us, and it takes an hour to fill up the font. The other sisters gave us the wrong people to call so the right people were actually out town. And the baptism was supposed to start in 30 min. I almost started crying haha and before that Hermana Lindsey had a breakdown about authority again so i was stressed out anyway. But we called the zone leaders to open the font for us and they actually started filling up jugs of water in the kitchen to help it go faster. And then the whole family shows up in regular clothes and they were helping out with the program. Then we got in trouble cause the first counselor said they cant help out if they are in regular clothes. But the last miracle did happened.... Juan and Elizabeth got baptized:) They were the happiest couple in the world. And thats all that matters. Yesterday i learned to have so much patience and even when things go wrong, you can look for the good in any situation. I love this work, can you believe its christmas again and i get to talk to you??? And see you??? We had the chance to read and finish the gospels before christmas, Its amazing to me how much love christ had and has for everyone. Never ever forget him!! I love you all so much!!!!!!!!! FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!!!!!!!!! Prospero ano, felicidad( I figured out that it means that we prospered a year hahaha)

Hermanita Gates:)

Sister Macey Gates // Week Sixty // "BUENO!!!!!"

     This week has truly changed my life. It was a stressful week. I went on exchanges on wednesday with Hermana Bowen, i served with her in Lake Elsinore. We had so much fun!! I love that girl! But when I came back Hermana Lindsey had missed a couple of important apts. But there was no need to get mad or bugged by it so we moved on and looked for the good in her day, she did pretty good:) Im super proud of her!! Hermana Lindsey has been struggling a lot with her confidence, when she speaks with people she like whispers and she is super scared. But this week during comp inventory we changed that. She is super comfortable talking with me about her family and everything that has gone in her life and it was cool to help her look at all the good things that happened, learn from it and move on. We both committed to be so confident with everyone we talk to and never be afraid to share our testimonies. That girl has changed. Saturday we had some of the most amazing lessons, and i learned so much from her in those lessons. She is such a strong girl, she has a much stronger testimony than she thought she had. I have never felt the spirit so strong for so long. I love that girl so much!! So we are teaching this girl named Maira. When i was on exchanges with Hermana Bowen, Hermana Lindsey had a law of chastity lesson with her and found out she was a lesbian.  But she wants to change and leave her past behind. On friday she told us that she had no skirt or dress, no car and no money, so we went and bought her a dress and a cardigan to go with it. On sunday she woke up at 6 o' clock to get ready for church, that starts at 11:30am. She was SO excited for church, and loved every minute of it. She told us the last time she went to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints they didn't know where to send her with the guys or with the girls, we all laughed about it. We told her she probs should wear a skirt this time. Juan and Elizabeth are getting baptized next week!!! We are so so excited for them! Sunday was super stressful, Gloria didn't show up again, she still needs to get confirmed,  one of my investigators in Jurupa, Jocelyn, was getting baptized on the 27th but got deported on her way back into the US on saturday, and lots of other things went on.... but i could help but write in my planner all the good things that happened. Many of our LA members that we have been working with came to church, and we had 4 investigators at church. We are so so blessed, and if we just sit back and count our many blessings, we can see how many we really do have. I love this gospel i truly do. I am so excited to talk to all of you!!!! I will probably be skying around 1 your time. I will let you know. I hope you all have the best week ever!!!!!!!!!! 

Hermanita Gates:)

Exchanges with Bowen!

It was so sad to say bye to Hermana Pena, she is moving to Utah. I HATE goodbyes!!

My mom is going home...:(

This is Elder Tchan, he is from Tijiti.

Sister Macey Gates // Week Fifty-Nine // "Feliz Navidad!"

Feliz Navidad!! Its christmas time already?? Its the BEST time of the year!! We have had the opportunity to share the video He is the Gift, its on christmas.mormon.org, to so many people and to see their reactions to it has been amazing. It rained this week quite a bit. We got soaked but people were more willing to let us in. We have this awesome couple we are working with Juan and Elizabeth, all their kids are members, except them. We  have them on date for the 21 so we are so excited! Its been really cool to teach Elizabeth cause she has arthritis so its kinda cool to be able to relate to her a little. They are amazing, they read their scriptures every single night together.  What an example they are! We went and visited a potential sunday after church and he told us he couldn't believe how perfect the timing was when we showed up. His name is Julio, and he said he has made so many bad decisions in his life but he wants to change that and get everything worked out with his wife. He was our miracle this week. So this week Hermana Lindsey taught me how to crochet, i didn't really want to learn but i told her i would do it. Its the funnest thing ever. Every time we get the chance we crochet haha so this saturday we went to get our car fixed and we were in there for 4 hours, so i'm just crocheting away.  The other people that were sitting by us thought it was super cool too( it gave us something to talk about) And of course we end up talking about the gospel. We ended up meeting a LA, he had fallen away from the church. He said he felt like people judged him all the time when he made mistakes. That made me so sad, we need to be examples of christ wherever we go and not judge anyone. But we were able to help him realize that whatever God thinks is really what matters. We were also able to correct a couple of peoples false doctrines about the church.  It was such a fun experience! This weekend, our take put on this awesome program. Members brought over 1000 different nativity sets and they set them all up in the stake center and had choirs come sing while you were looking at all of them. It was something so special, to help people remember truly what the meaning of christmas is. I LOVED the christmas devotional. It was amazing right? I loved when Richard J. Maynes said that in order to understand the true meaning of christmas, we must live the attributes of the family of christ. I know thats true! If we continue to be humble, trusting in the Lord, serving others, we will come to understand the blessing that God gave us of sending his Son Jesus Christ. I know that Christ comprehends all things. I know that its through our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ that we can do all things. I love this gospel more than anything. I am the luckiest girl to be able to serve in this perfect mission, hand in hand with my Savior Jesus Christ. I hope you all enjoy your week and never forget to find those little ways to serve:) Love you!!

Hermana Gates:)

This is Myra, she got baptized at the beginning of this year. I had the chance to hear her conversion story and its amazing. She has like absolutely nothing but is so appreciative of the gospel!

Mr. Rowleys brother, i think he was Tori's math teacher!

Sister Macey Gates // Week Fifty-Eight

Ahh this week was a ride:) It was absolutely amazing!!!!! So for thanksgiving we spent about half of our day helping a less active family made their thanksgiving dinner and then we ate with them. Then we had another dinner and we almost died, I was so sick of food by that point that i never wanted to eat again. But it turns out food is a necessity, weird right? Then we hung out with our zone and played soccer. It was the best thing ever!!!!!!! And the greatest thing that happened this week was that Gloria got baptized!:) So we had this gigantic lesson with her, we asked her how she was feeling about her baptism and she just started crying. She asked us if we had the right to come tell her that everything she has been doing(going to the catholic church) is wrong and that we are right. We said yep! haha nah we explained to her that there is only one true church and that made sense to her. It made sense to her that we don't pray to imagines, and she doesn't like the things that the catholic church has allowed. Then we asked if she knew the BOM to be true and she said no. So we gave her the whole history of the BOM and it turns out Joseph Smith was not Christopher Columbus(thats what she thought) So we got that taken care of. And by the end of that lesson she was doing so good and right on track!! Then it was thanksgiving so we didn't see her and we had an apt. set up for the next day... she called a member telling her she wasn't going to meet with us instead of calling us... in our heads we thought she was just trying to avoid us or something, so we called her and she said she would call us on saturday. Its not good when people say they will call you. So we prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed, i have never prayed so hard in my life. I knew i would have to call her cause she wouldn't call us so i was like role playing to myself in the shower and stuff and finally i decided what i was going to say. We called and told her she had her interview and we wanted to invite her husband to get a priesthood blessing(he has depression) She agreed. So she had her interview and passed! Later that night the elders came over and gave her husband a blessing. He told us it was indescribable. He said that when they put their hands on his head he immediately felt peace. So we talked about it a little and cheered him up. We invited him to church and to Gloria's baptism and he had no idea his wife was getting baptized. My heart dropped. But Gloria was amazing and shared her whole experience with us with him. He told us after he thought we were just coming over to teach her and that was it, but now he knew that we are servants of the lord and we have come to help them come closer to christ. It was amazing to hear Gloria's experience. She told us that she was taught by missionaries a little before but felt weird. Then she called us one morning asking where the church was. She said she's bad at directions and she could either go to her church or with us. She told God that if he wanted her to go with us he would help her find the church and sure enough she found it just fine. She told us she was amazed at the way we taught her. And there was just something different. She thought i was pretty funny too haha idk why but that was fun to hear. We love having fun with our investigators. So any who everything turned out good. Then sunday... she didn't show up at church. We could not sit still. So we called her after and she said her husband was super sick but that she would be at her baptism. That little lady showed up with the biggest smile on her face:) It was the most amazing experience!! I have never felt the spirit so strong at a baptism. So me and my companion are doing awesome. She gets super stressed about everything every day but its such a pleasure to be here for her. I love just listening to her and helping her out. One thing thats been stressing her out is that boys have the priesthood and girls don't, she has this big problem with equality and stuff and we have meetings all the time so i told her basically to get over it cause its never going to change, of course i was nice about it and she agreed. We have so much fun together and its amazing to see how much she really does trust me.  We see miracles every day!! It was such a great week!! I love you all!!:)

Hermanita Gates:)

The elders made us marshmellow shooters

Thanksgiving

This is Luna, she helps all of the missionaries in this mission. She is amazing!!

Sister Macey Gates // Week Fifty-Seven // "5 MONTHS LEFT!!"

This week was amazing again!! We have some solid investigators. I am so blessed to be able to serve here in Moreno valley, and be able to teach all these amazing people. So we have a baptism planned this weekend:) We are so excited! Her name is Gloria, she is so nervous to be baptized because its so different, but she said she feels so good.  She amazes me every time we have a lesson with her. We picked up another former named Maria, she almost got baptized before but her husband didn't want her to and did everything he could to stop her from being baptized. We invited them to our ward potluck and they came!! They loved it. We are really trying to include and work with her husband as well because she is on date and loves the church. So at our ward potluck, they were all dancing and it was so hard not to dance with them. So when we got home we turned on mexican music and tried to dance like them. I think were really good. We had multizones this week, we learned a lot about talking with people and about our savior. One quote that I really liked is "The Savior didn't give up on us, so don't give up on him." We can never ever give up. On sunday morning at ward council, I walked in and Obispo was like "HERMANITA!! You are the person i was looking for!" He told me that the ward pianist called and said she couldn't play cause she was sick so guess what... I had to play in sacrament, and then he continued to say that the ward choir had a special musical number so guess who had to play it... me... I had no time to even practice. I was so so nervous but i went good. I LIVED. We had 6 people come to church yesterday, it was amazing:) We hit standard too! We saw so many amazing miracles and we couldn't have done it without the help of the members.  Then last night we hear all these little hits at the window. The elders made marshmallow guns and attacked us. But the made some for us so its ok. I love this work, I truly do. There is no way I can deny the way i feel is from my Heavenly Father. I cant believe I only have 5 months left.. time has flown by! Also HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!! I will be eating all day long. Have a great week everyone:)

Hermanita Gates:)

Christmas with Hermana Salas:)

So if you were wondering about birth control, you can look it up in the scriptures. 

This guy invited us to his church by playing his guitar and singing to us hahah he was a nice guy!

He invited everyone to church!

Sister Macey Gates // Week Fifty-Six

This week was amazing:) Well at the first of the week, Miguel dropped us, he feels inclined to go to another christian church with the people he is living with. It made us so so sad. But he will be baptized one day! I have no doubts. We are teaching a couple named Elizabeth & Juan, all their kids are members but them. Elizabeth had some dreams and it made her realize that she needed to change her life and be baptized. Its been amazing teaching Elizabeth because she has Arthritis and so i know how she feels. They both accepted baptism and are on date for the 14th:) We are working with Gloria Ortiz, I have never met a woman so determind to know if the church really is true.  With the help of the spirit, and some fellowshippers, she is progressing very well. All of her kids are different religions so she is so confused. BUT I know she will come to know that this is the only true church on the earth. We put a guy named Carlos on date, we found him outside one day as we were walking the streets, taught him the first lesson, and he accepted baptism. I've come to know that all you have to do is teach something simple, testify and ask if they will be baptized. The spirit works in miraculous ways!! This saturday, we went over to visit a less active. They told us they knew without a doubt the church was true, they just had one doubt. How did joseph smith see God and Jesus Christ with his natural eyes when moses said he couldnt see God with his natural eyes, only his spiritual eyes. All we did was think Transfiguration, and looked it up in the index to find a scripture with the answer. We found D&C 67:11. We testified that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. So Joseph Smith must had to have been transfigured. Hno Sanchez started crying. He told us that he has asked people and they havent ever been able to answer it. We taught them that to look for answers, look in the index, topical guide, or bible dictionary. He told us he always knew how special missionaries were.  And then the next day at church he came up to me and said he knew that what we told him was true and that Jesus Christ had to have been special to do everything he did. He told us that finding that answer for him changed his life. It was the most special moment for me, to be able to help in the simple process of bringing them back to church again. Then they told us we needed to spend the whole day of thanksgiving with them haha we got two other dinners too. So this thanksgiving all we will be doing is eating. Im trying to mentally prepare for it. This work is amazing. Ahh I have grown to love the people here so much.  Some things that i have learned this week are :1. God doesn't give us knowledge of the outcome but he gives us strength to overcome our challenges in faith

2. Are we prepared to leave our comfort zones to reach a better place?

Every day i have the opportunity to talk with everyone i see, teach in this language that im still trying to learn, getting rejected, getting accepted, studying the gospel everyday for 4 hours, and lots of other things. I have the chance to be here getting out of my comfort zone everyday to share the gospel. How great is my calling?! I know without a doubt this is the true church. I know that God loves every single one of his children more than they can imagine. Christ is my example. I hope we can all strive to become like him everyday. Because we are all human, we mess up everyday, but we can't ever give up trying. I love you all and hope you have a good week:)

Just enjoying our recliners.

Believe for Britton:)

Our attempts at taking picys hahahha

We got a nice surprise this morning from the elders haha

When i tell you we eat a lot i mean it.