Service Project Pictures

Service Project in the CCM!*Note the coats and scarves these girls are wearing in MEXICO. What will they do when they get to Minnesota?????

These pictures came from Hermana Christiansen, serving in the CCM. 

She is our friend, Melissa Fairbanks', mother.

 I truly feel like I have 2 special angels there in Mexico watching over my missionary. 

I will be forever grateful to good people who forward me such fun pictures and information.

 I will miss the connections when she leaves for Minnesota!

Last Week in the CCM

Hola my cute familia!

I can not believe I only have one week left in the CCM it goes by so fast! But I am soooo excited to get out in the mission field. I had the coolest experience this week that made me just want to be out in Minnesota already!

So on Saturday our Maestra brought some of her friends for us to teach and so they were real investigators. It was crazy and nerve racking but it was the best lessons I have taught here so far. The first girl we taught, her name was bety. She belongs to another church and believes she has power from god to work blessings. So a little weird. We taught her the restoration and applied it to her needs. She was really receptive and just awesome. I memorized the first vision in Espanol and so I recited it and bore my testimony and after that her eyes were weled up with tears.There is power in memorized scripture!!!! The spirit was so strong and I felt SO HAPPY. It was the best feeling to know I truly was acting as an instrument in gods hands. We get to teach her once more but she had to drive 6 hours just to come listen! I am so grateful Heavenly Father prepares people for us to teach and gives us these experiences! The other person we taught was Rodrigo and he was awesome too. Right now he is looking for a job so we taught him about prayer and that god loves him and things will be okay even if his situation isnt the best right now! 

This week I had an amazing opportunity to be interviewed for the dedication video for the CCM. I feel so honored they would choose me to represent all the Sister Missionaries here. We had to talk about how we felt about being apart of Gods hastening his work and about how the CCM is making me a better missionary and also our most spiritual experience here. I didnt even cry! It was awesome and after my interview I felt so much spirit and like it was just what Heavenly Father wanted me to say. Right now I don't know whats happening with the video other than that it will be shown a the dedication in front of an apostle and it will be broadcasted through Mexico! But I will give you updates if I find anything else out. AH it was so exciting :)

Last Tuesday night we had a live devotional! Elder Venezuela from the quorum of the 70 came and talked to us. And the best part was that the whole thing was in Spanish!! It was so cool because I could understand pretty much everything he was saying, and I was so focused to try and get what he was saying in spanish that I got a ton of personal revelation. It was one of my favorites so far and I feel like it was a pat on the back from my Heavenly Father saying see your doing a good job. The spanish really is not easy to learn but im speaking it as much as possible and it is coming and I am seeing the Lords hand in my progress and when I teach! 

Every week here I have picked a Christ like attribute to work on and this last week I fasted for the attribute I was working on which was charity and the gift of tongues and some other things. It was such a cool experience and I honestly have felt my charity grow here. I truly am becoming more and more converted to Christ and I am never going back!

The scriptures rock but ive already said that before. The last chapter in the book of nephi is pretty powerful and there are some amazing promises if we are righteous. I want you all to read and study that chapter because I got so much inspiration from it. When you read every time you like something or feel something stop and address it or talk about it. I love studying this way and I think it makes it mean more! 

We listened to a talk from Richard G. Scott. it was really good. He talked about our communication with God. He said sometimes it is better to express out loud. And I love this because I know there is power in praying out loud and not just always keeping it in your thoughts. I also like another thing he said. He said, Take enough time to share your deepest feelings. I am really working on this because I know I always have my Saivor out here even when I have no one else! And it is so important we dont rush such a precious thing as communication with our father in heaven. 

Well Fam, I hope all of you are enjoying the cold because I am enjoying the sun while I have it here. I love you all and am always thinking of you. 

Have a great week and remember what is most important in this life!

I LOVE YOU 

xoxox

Hermana Pentelute

Exciting News!

I got another text today from Jen Hendricks, whose parents are serving in the Mexico MTC.

She says:
      My mom just told me a fun story about your missionary. There is going to be a dedication of the  MTC in February. Elder Oaks and some other General Authorities are coming down. The MTC Presidency is putting together a video to be broadcast all over the world. They asked my mom to pull a sister missionary that is fun and animated and guess who she chose? :) Hermana Pentelute had her interview this morning and is going to be featured in the video the church is making for the dedication. When my mom went to ask her she had her hair in a bun and no makeup on. She was pretty excited when she found out they didn't need her right then. She said, "Oh good, Now I can do my hair!!!" She is a loved sister! The dedication is on February 9 so she's sad that she won't be there but my mom is pretty sure the dedication and video will at least be on lds.org

Such a fun experience for Ivory! I can't wait to see her & most especially, hear her voice! (As a family, we are secretly hoping she'll get a chance to make her dolphin noises, LOL) So grateful to my friend Adrie who connected me with Jen! 

Week 4 Pictures

Trip to the Visitor's Center

     

 District 12

Picture Sent from the Sister serving in the MTC -

 Grateful for kind people all over the world!

Mopping up the Flood - Go Hermanas!

Spiders & Floods

Hello family! 

This week was crazy as usual and the weather was amazing. It is always perfect around 3pm here! I am glad to hear everyone is having so much fun and is so happy :) 

So I am going to start this letter off with some funny stories... so our district boys love scaring me and my companera. Almost every night. So one night this week they kept scaring us and they scared us pretty good. We went home and were kinda on edge already. I was in the bathroom getting ready for bed and all the sudden I hear a scream. So I go out and see my companera is freaking out because there is a HUGE spider in our room. Im talking body as big as a quarter. It was so disgusting and scary haha so of course the first thing we do is take pictures and then all the other girls are in our room by that point. So my hermana has off and she decided to spray it with that but when she did someone turned the lights off and when we turned them back on the spider was gone. So we are all screaming and on chairs as you could imagine it was quite the sight. We did get it and kill it finally but I dont like knowing I live with those things! Then about 5 minutes after that event we hear um sister our room is flooding. So we all run out to go see what else could possibly be going on. Tho and behold the other girls in our casa room was flooding it was a good 3 inches off the floor. It was pretty hilarious though because we all ran to get mops and buckets and no one else could help us. We tried to call the reception but he could not understand what to flood meant and he said he would report the problem but no one was there that could help at the moment. So us missionary girls and our mops just cleaned up the water and it was quite the sight. Something I probably wont forget! :)

I was able to go to the Mexico City temple visitors center today! It was so pretty and amazing! It just opened in November! I am so lucky to be able to go and see things like that. I really felt the spirit and loved being with my district. 

This week as missionary trainer sisters we decided to hold FHE for our zone. It went good!When we sang the opening himno I was overwhelmed by the spirit because all of the missionaries and there power you could just feel it so strong in the room! I talked on a talk from President Monson called "Consider the blessings" I encourage you all to read it, it is amazing. He has some awesome stories about prayer. And I promise you will feel the spirit as you read it and it will really help you to think of all the ways you have been blessed! I know that we can pray in any instance for anything and with the proper faith the lord will bless us! 

We had a live devotional Tuesday night by president Bednar! Well it was broadcast from Provo but we still got to watch it live! It was really awesome one thing I really liked was about fe. (faith) He said "Faith looks to the future" when you have faith you are willing to step into the unknown. I feel like i really took a step of faith by coming here and by doing that I will be blessed and I know you all will be as well. He also said "Act and the power follows" I love this! It is so relevant to me here because I am obeying and studying and asking for blessings and I have to do all these things so the lord can bless me. I know that if we act as if God will bless us he will. We have to act in faith in all things.

We had a class about specific prayer. It was amazing because he shared all these stories about people who prayed for such specific things and they were answered! Even in his own life I will have to share some of the stories with you when I have more time! I have really been focusing on more specific prayers like please have my investigator show me a sign of faith when I teach tuesday. They can be that specific! I prayed one morning that the shower would be warm so I could be on time still and not have to shower in the cold and when I was done the water was warm. Some say those things are coincidences however I know the lord hears each of our prayers and he answers them according to our faith in him. I was so blessed and it helped me have a better day even though it was something so small! I have tender mercies like this happen daily here in the ccm and each time they happen I think of mom because she was the best at recoginizing tender mercies. He also said these miracles of our prayers being answered are like the things that happened in the book of mormon times! We have miracles just like they did we just have to recognize them!

I was reading in 1 Nephi 13 this week and there were several verses that stuck out to me. I truly love the chapters of Nephis vision and I want you all to take a look at them! In verse 37 it talks about how we are bringing forth zion and that they will have the power of the lord! The power of the lord is the holy ghost and I know it is the MOST important to have it with you always!!!!! It was just so cool because the verse pretty much talks all about missionaries :) I also like verse 40 and 42 and in 42 it says the last will be first and the first will be last. God will always win! I love that!

Lastly we heard a talk from President Holland from January of 2013. He talked all about being converted he always does. I love the way he talks about his mission he is so patient and wants us all to have that same experience. He said there is not a more exciting time than now. God is truly hastening his work and I get to be apart of it! Something else that stuck out to me was that the second coming started in the spring of 1820. And we are in the thick of it. We are the chosen generation truly. And this time the gospel will not fail, Jesus Christ will come and it is my prayer that we do everything in our power each day to bring ourselves to him.

Yo se que el evangelio de Jesucristo es verdad. Yo se que Jose smith fue un profeta de Dios y el restaurado el evangelio.Yo se que Thomas S. Monson es un profeta verdad. Yo se que el Libro de Mormon es la palabra de dios y es insiprado. Yo se que Jesucristo es nuestro salvador y muerte en la cruz por nosotros. Yo se que Dios y Jesucristo amor nosotros mucho mucho. Yo se que el evangelio bendiciones me todo dia. 

I LOVE YOU GUYS  and love hearing from you. Thank you for your continual support.

sorry about spelling I didnt have time to edit!

Mucho Amor,

Hermana Pentelute

xoxoxox

Week 3 Pictures - Wearing Eye-black on the mission!

I am assuming the eye-black is for the big kickball game, lol!

Week 3 Letter to Familia

Hola mi familia! I love you guys so much! 

This week has been CRAZY! It has been filled with so much! I will give you an idea of my schedule. 6:30 wake up and get ready 

7:00 study time

7:45 breakfast!

8:25 gym time

9:15 get ready for next activity

9:45 class

12:45 lunch!

1:30 personal study

2:30 language study

3:15 class

6:15 dinner!

7:00 study

7:30 language study

8:00 TALL

9:00 daily planning

9:30 home and prepare for bed

10:30 goodnight!!!

It is pretty packed but I like it. I love being structured and it doesn't really give you time to miss the things back home too terribly bad!

First off! The scriptures are amazing! I love the book of Mormon more than ever! This week was very trying and I had the hardest day on my mission so far. I wont go into details but my district did not really have their priorities straight and there was a lot more goofing off than study. It is frustrating because I am here to serve the lord. So me and my companion tried to address it and it didn't get resolved. It was hard not having someone who truly loved me to care about what I was saying and to hug me haha. BUT I know that every time we go through a trail God will bless us if we press on till the end and we will learn a valuable lesson!!! I prayed to understand why I was given this challenge and to learn what God wanted me to learn from it. So I read through my scriptures and came upon 1 Nephi 2:18 I needed this because it told me I needed to pray for my district and just do my personal best to be an example to them. And then 1 Nephi 3:6-7 I needed to know not to murmur even if my district was and i needed to stay faithful. Also that God ALWAYS prepares a way for us no matter what and I also know whatever he asks he will always promise a blessing. There are hard days here but the Lord carries me through. And it is so awesome to receive so much personal revalation here!!

So some boys in our district Elders Garrison and Jones (elder jones is somehow related to caleb wolthuis) are our really good friends and they shared an awesome experience they had with me and mi companera. They gave a blessing to our first investigator because they felt so prompted to. And then they found out he was really just our teacher and they were all bumbed. So just this Saturday our teacher came up to them and thanked them for that blessing. He told them that his whole family was held at gun point that night and the gun was to his moms head. She told him Hermano Tapia to think of the peace he felt in the blessing earlier that day. He said that peace got him and his family through that terrible time. The priesthood is so amazing. It is so cool to see how the Lord works out here even though we aren't even in the field yet. The spirit really does guide me in everything and I know guided those elders to bless that family. Heavenly Father has a plan!!!!!! 

One sad thing this week. Our BEST friends here in the CCM left for the mission field. We were so excited for them but sad to see them go, you really do grow godly love for those on your mission!

This Sunday we got to listen to a devotional from Elder Holland it was awesome. It was all about the spirit and El Libro de Mormon. I have had so many testimonies of that book this week! It is soooooo important. He said that he doesn't know anyone who has stayed converted who hasn't had an experience with the book of Mormon or began to have one. So I am challenging all of you. If you have not read the book of Mormon and got an answer do it NOW! Elder Holland promised when we read the book we WILL feel the spirit of the Lord. He also said something soo cool! He said missionaries are the biggest symbol of the church! Pressure! haha just kidding :) That makes me want to work harder and be a better example for good. But isn't that not so cool? Also he told us yes everyone expects a lot of you we almost expect perfection but we aren't apologizing because we have confidence in you....how cool. 

GUESS WHAT! Me and my companion are the new missionary training sisters! So exciting we are going to do our best to be the best ones they have ever seen hahahaha! I know this is going to bring me to the lord!

GUESS WHAT ELSE! I gave my first talk in sacrament meeting on the apostasy! It went amazing and I felt the spirit so strong! I do every time I bear testimony in spanish. Everyone told me I did good so hopefully I did as good as I felt haha. What is crazy though is everyone has to prepare a talk every week and then our president gets up after the sacrament and announces who will be speaking! On the spot!

One last thing that happened.... So my district has found a new love for kickball. We played against another district and I was behind home giving all the elders a hard time. One Elder in particular I told him to make sure he kicks the ball and when he went to kick it he missed. It was really funny but when we were up next he got me out so we are even. Haha I also have improved my volleyball skills! Well somewhat. We play almost everyday for  Gym and I love it!

P.s. good job PG CHEER!

Well, sorry this was so long but I just had so many awesome things happen I had to share! I love you all so much and am thinking of you daily. Always thankful for your prayers and support

Te amo ustedes muy mucho! Tienen un bueno semana! 

xoxoxox 

Hermana Pentelute

More Pictures & a Great Text!

A Friend of a Friend (thanks Adrie!) Sent me this text a couple days ago:

"We were just down at the Mexico City MTC and I cannot even tell you how beautiful and safe it is there. The missionaries truly become best friends and the place just glows with the spirit. It is awesome. I talked to my mom, who is serving her mission and asked her to look for Hermana Pentelute. She said ..... oh my gosh! She is my FAVORITE! I see her every day! The most adorable sister ever! She is so happy and doing great! She's going to send me some pics and I'll forward them to you :)" 

Grounds of the CCM:

Welcome to the CCM Hermana!

I just got this picture forwarded to me today from our friend, Adam Fairbanks. These great Senior Missionaries greeted Ivory at the CCM upon her arrival. They are our neighbors, the Fairbanks, parents. It is so comforting to know that it's a small world after all!

1st Pictures!!!!! Makes a Mom So HAPPY

Ivory got to go to the temple before it closed! This is her companion, Hermana Brown

                                   

First Week in the CCM

Ivory sounded so happy! We were so happy to hear from her.

Hola familia!!

How is everyone at home? I miss you all but am having a great time here! I dont even know where to start! P.s. if my grammar is bad its because im on a spanish keyboard and dont know where all the symbols are haha. So the first week has been awesome and hard and scary but fun! I am in district 12 and I love them. We all do the hunger game sign because obviously we are the chosen district. We are constantly laughing. Elder Shurtleff is our district leader and his dad died the second day we were here, so keep his family in your prayers! He has been awesome though and very tough you cant even tell he is going through something that hard. There are 8 boys and then me and my companero. Here name is Hermana Brown! She has blonde hair and blue eyes. She graduated in cosmetology so she is always trying to give me oils and stuff for my hair haha it is awesome. She is super super positive and really like making people laugh. We are learning to love each other. Hermana Laycock is such a blessing. It so nice to have her here to talk to!! The food here is okay haha nothing like home. I feel like all I eat is chicken salad and flan. Most of the time I just dont ask what the food is and eat it if it tastes good. One day what was for lunch was some how turned into our dinner so if that gives you an idea...hah but it is good. On New Years we had hamburgers and fries and a chocolate cookie and it was sooooo yummy! I had been craving american food. Ever since I got here there have been these fireworks going off and they litterally sound like cannons. You can hear them anywhere you are. There is also always sirens going off. The weather here is really nice but in the morning and night its a little chilly. I usually am wearing a sweater over something so I am so glad I have some warm stuff down here! I share a room with four girls and I am on the top bunk. The shower is either burning hot or freezing cold so you pretty much just die either way. I have gotten pretty used to the schedule it isnt so bad. 

The spanish is REALLY hard. I am picking things up and am so so so so greatful for what I did know before I came here. I have been doing pretty good with it it is kinda overwhelming though. It will come all I can say is Oracion Oracion (prayer). I can pray in spanish and bare my testimony in spanish! That is what im best at. 

My y mi companero ensenar un invertigator this week. His name is Josue. He doesnt know any english at all. He is 17 and so sweet. He really wants to know more about the gosple and he said he would be baptized!!!!! When we taught I could feel when the spirit was there and when it left. One funny story....I gave him my escriptos to have him read a scripture and he just kinda sat there for a minute and then  he started to try to read and then I realized I had given him my set of english scriptures. We all started laughing really hard and we forgot our spanish scriptures so that was not very good but you cant win them all. Josue started crying in one of our lessons because he felt the spirit so strong. It was amazing to see him get it to get the gospel and feel our saviors love. 

Today we got to go to the temple because it is closing for a year and a half!! We are so lucky we got here because we are the last group that got to go. It was awesome being there with my district and my companion. I felt really calm and the spirit so strong. It made me miss going with mom every week!  I also went to la tienda zarahemla, it is like connected to the temple and I think I got riped off but I got some cool suviners. The spirit en el CCM is amazing, it is unlike anything. You feel so safe and protected. I love it here and am doing great. Gracias por todo your support and prayers.

I LOVE YOU xoxoxo

Hermana Pentelute.

Testimony:

Yo se que el libro de mormon es verdadero, yo se que Jesucristo es el salvador, yo se que Thomas S. Monson es un profeta verdadero, yo se que Dios ama nosotros, y yo se que el evanjelio es verdadero. En el nombre de Jesucriso Amen.

P.s. my pdays will now be on Tuesday!