New Years Miracles

January 4, 2016

I wanted to share with you all some amazing miracles we have seen here!

This week was pretty great. We are truly being blessed to find so many
people that are extremely prepared. The work with members is booming.
We received a member referral named Pedro this week. We called him and

he was very happy to accept us. We had with us a Sister from the
branch who then invited her husband to the appointment after church on
Sunday. Then, the member who referred Pedro to us, also showed up. It
was a wonderful lesson, full of the spirit. Pedro opened up greatly to
us and told us all his needs and desires. He desires to make a serious
change and is ready to really commit himself to God. The member,
Brother Garcia, was able to happily testify of the joy this gospel
brings us and how he wanted to share that same joy with his friend.
Pedro was almost in tears as we shared the story of Alma the younger
with him and bore testimony of the power of repentance and change that
comes through Jesus Christ. My testimony has grown so strong of
working with the members. The lesson would not have gone so well if we
had simply knocked on his door and taught without members testimonies.

We also went searching for a former investigator named Walter that we
felt inspired to look for. When we knocked on his door, people began
yelling inside, "It's the missionaries!" They opened the door and told
us that Walter had actually moved just two days before hand and just
last night (New Years eve) they had moved in. The woman was extremely
ready to receive us and we have an appointment with her tonight!

We were able to contact two difficult less active families that I had
been trying since November. It was amazing because we planned to see
them at those times, and they opened the door and let us right in!
Blanca was one of those members, and she informed us that she needed a
ride to church. We organized everything and she and her three young
boys came to church on Sunday. Blanca was received with hugs and tears
by one of the members, and there was a special moment as they were
reunited. It strengthened my testimony of member fellowship before
baptism. Blanca had a Sister in the gospel who rejoiced when she had
returned.

We have a baptism coming up! On January 24th, Jonothan will be
baptized. After fasting on Sunday for our other investigator, he told
us after church that he is thinking of being baptized on that day with
Jonothan. So many miracles!!

The work is great, we are exhausted from working hard, but I don't
think I've ever been happier.

Have a great week everyone! Work hard, pray hard, and faith harder.

Con amor,
Sister Abram

Sent from my heart

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Merry Christmas from Georgia

December 21, 2015

Friends and family,

This week has brought a lot of moments of introspection and prayer. I will give you one example taken from my journal on December 19th:

"At the branch activity tonight, we were able to do an activity with the members of the branch. We bought 72 donuts for the party. Every single person in the room received a donut and they had to choose whether or not to eat it. Regardless of their decision, Elder Child did 5 push-ups for each person in the room to have the opportunity to eat the donut. It was fine at first, but they began to get frustrated as they saw how much he was beginning to struggle. Elder Child began shaking and sweating and after a while it was evident how much he was struggling. There was so much symbolism. At one point, Brother Martinez accepted the donut on the condition that he could sit on top of Elder Child while he did the push-ups. We had Eric, a struggling youth, get right up in his face and watch him cry and sweat. Alex Paguay and Israel Hernandez sat on either side of him and asked if they could help him. I told them no, he had to do it alone, to which they responded by bringing him water and a towel and sitting at his side. Finally, Sister Bailey handed me a donut, which caught me completely off guard, and into the microphone I sadly asked, "Elder Child, could you do 5 more for me please?" I tried to explain the significance of the activity, but he kept going. Finally, I told all the members to stop and watch him. There was silence for at least two minutes and everyone in the gym was sobbing. I asked him, "Ya terminó?" To which he responded, "No." He endured to the very end. The members were saying to me, "No more." But I just shrugged with tears in my eyes because Elder Child chose to do over 250 push-ups because he loved these people. When he finally finished, Presidente Ramirez wrapped his arms around him, pulled him up, and held him tight. The whole room clapped and I closed with my testimony. The room was silent. I couldn't even eat the doughnut given to me. Elder Child was our hero. 

I love my Savior. I am grateful beyond explanation to Him." 

Here is a quote from Elder Holland: 

 "The path you say you cannot walk, you walk. The load you say you cannot bear, you bear. The sorrow that you say you can't handle, you handle. You are stronger than you think you are. You are more divine than you know. How can we even know that without the trials and the refiner’s fire? There is no other way for that to be revealed without difficulty and a broken heart. We have to go through hard things so we can see what we are capable of. Christ knows everything that you are going through because of His Atonement.  How he knows, I don't know. But he knows."

Estoy sumamente agradecida por mi Salvador Jesucristo. Le agradezco por esta oportunidad de representarlo y compartir mi testimonio. Gracias a Él, tengo tanta dirección y gozo en mi vida. Él vive. Él nació con el propósito de rescatarnos. E igual como esta actividad, todos tenemos la opción de aceptar o rechazar su Expiación. Les testifico que es su Salvador y que les ama mucho. 

F E L I Z N A V I D A D

Hermana Abram

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Birthdays, bikes, transfer calls, and Elder Holland

December 14, 2015

Thank you thank you THANK YOU for all the birthday love! Seriously, this was the most amazing birthday yet, and I will tell you why momentarily! First, I wanted to share that it still has not yet hit me that I am 20 but that's okay. I will now give you a play by play of my week: 

Monday: everything fell through and we found no one to teach. But oh man we were excited to work tomorrow. 

Tuesday: we started using bikes!! We biked lots of miles on Tuesday and then on our way to an appointment with a new family to teach, we locked our keys in the car while putting the bikes on the rack. Oh man, it was insane. We biked all over Buford looking for phones to borrow and a way to get a spare car key. But the Dixons came to our rescue and we were able to get back into our car and apartment before 9pm. 

Wednesday: I got reeeeally sick this day and we tried so hard to go out and it was not working. The assistants called this day, as well. Turns out I am training again! Round 2! My new companions name will be Sister Bailey from Utah and I am quite excited! I will definitely miss Sister Ray, though. It has been an amazing transfer with her. 

Thursday: after receiving a priesthood blessing, my body quickly recovered and we hopped back on our bikes and biked Gainesville! Oh man, it was so fun. We met so many people. I also learned that being on bike teaches you many lessons about life-- like how to rely on the Lord for strength, perseverance, and humility. 

Friday: Elder Holland came to visit the women in 9 stakes in greater Atlanta, our stake included! We watched the broadcast and man I learned so much. Elder Holland is such a wonderful speaker and very full of the spirit. I wish I could share all I learned. Here are some things: 

God loves broken things. He asks that we come to Him with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. So sometimes we have to sacrifice and it's very painful. But the amazing thing about the gospel of Jesus Christ, is that everything will be made right and given back to us in a restored form as we sacrifice for the Lord. Elder Holland said, "whatever you are worried about, it's already fixed. You just have to wait." How beautiful is that! If we have faith, repent, make covenants like baptism by the proper authority and rely on the Holy Spirit for the remainder of our lives, every single little thing will be made right. And that's why I'm on my mission! Because, these people need to be found!!

I learned many other things from Elder Holland, but I may have to just share them in tidbits as the weeks go on. 

Saturday: Elder Holland came to meet the missionaries! Holy cow, how cool was this! A living apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ looked me in the eye and shook my hand. Here are some things I learned from him then: 

Don't miss a moment. Sometimes we think that this is something we can just check off our list. But this is real life. This is preparing us for eternity. He explained that when we are converted and when we have the gospel of Jesus Christ in the marrow of our bones, that's when we teach with power and authority. That's when Heaven comes down and touches these hearts. That's when lives are changed. He challenged us to thrive from these "apostolic moments of your life." 

Ah! I wish I could express all I learned from him, but all I can say is that that meeting changed my mission. Maybe even my life. I am so privileged that he came to visit The GANM. 

Sunday: I got to give a talk on my birthday! I loved it. We were able to eat dinner with members who I cherish dearly, the Underwoods, and attend the Christmas concert by the Sugar Hill Stake. It was a wonderful day. Many personal, special moments happened to me yesterday that really showed me that my Heavenly Father loves me and He wants me here. 

This week has been the most insane week of my mission. From biking 32 miles, to being extremely sick. From having all our appointments fall through, to having tender moments with families. From Elder Holland visiting to training a new missionary this Wednesday. I don't know all the Lord has in store for this area or for me or for these people. But my heart has been extremely comforted all week, despite all the setbacks. 

Thank you again for the birthday messages. They mean so much to me! I am truly grateful to have all of you in my life. Thanks for making 19 the best, and now here comes 20! 

Con mucho amor, 

Hermana Abram 

Sent from my heart

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Weekly Spiritual Thought

December 7, 2015

I don't have much time to write today, but I wanted to share a
spiritual thought I had this week.

Sometimes in life we feel like we are stuck in tunnels, like we can't

see the light at the end, nor can we see the beginning so far behind
us. We feel like we are wandering around in the dark, never sure how
to get out. But last night at the Christmas Devotional, Elder Bednar
reminded us that Christ calls himself "the light." He is the light in
our tunnel. That doesn't necessarily mean He is just waiting for us at
the end of the tunnel, though. But He is standing by our side, guiding
us through, and never abandoning us. Our tunnels do end but that's not
what matters-- what matters is that we lean in Him to guide us to that
end.

I love my Savior, and I love sharing His love with everyone!

Have a fantastic week!

Love,
Sister Abram
Sent from my heart

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Milagros con miembros

30 November 2015

Feliz diciembre (almost) a todos! Durante esta semana, vimos tantos
milagros y el Señor nos bendijo en muchísimas formas :)


On Saturday, we visited the Martinez family. I told you last week
about the story with Elvia, how we found her sitting outside the
Martinez home and we began to speak with her about the gospel.
Although we had set up an appointment, she was not home. But the
Martinez family was not dismayed! They then gave us a referral for the
second time— their cousin Kevin who lived close by. They encouraged us
to visit him that day, but not before they gave us another referral

named Lorena. Then, they began talking amongst themselves and made the
decision to take us to visit Lorena, and asked us to visit Kevin while
they got the family ready. We happily sped on over to Kevin's home,
whom we had met the week beforehand. We told him that our message is
for everyone and we realized we hadn't shared it with him. I have
truly never seen someone receive the gospel so enthusiastically as I
saw with Kevin. His whole countenance changed as we shared about the
Book of Mormon, and he genuinely accepted us back to visit him next
week. We then happily returned to the Martinez family, who began to
cry when they heard the news. They had prayed once we left that he
would accept us, but they doubted he would. They then gathered
everyone together and drove us to Lorena's house.

We got to Lorena's home, but she wasn't there. Although discouraged,

their spirits were high. We thought they were taking us back to our
car, but they actually took us to visit two other friends in their
homes— Claudia and Concepcion. The Spirit was so strong as we taught
them, along with the testimonies of their friends, about Christ and
His Atonement. They accepted a return visit for next Saturday as well.
At the end of the visit, they ended up driving us to visit a less
active sister we had been trying to visit, and continuing to serve
with us.

I think this was the most miraculous day of my mission! I could not
believe how blessed we were. This is coming from a family who as their
own struggles, a father and husband who had almost lost his life to
cancer just months beforehand. How important are members in missionary

work!

The attitude towards missionary work is changing drastically in this
branch, and it is so exciting to watch and experience. I am gaining
such a strong testimony of the extreme importance of members in this
work. It reminded me of Mosiah 18 in the Book of Mormon when we are

told in verse 21 that the followers of Christ had "hearts [that were]
knitted together in unity and love for each other (rough translation
from Spanish)."

My faith is increasing so much and I truly am so grateful to be out
here serving the Lord. Also, Christmas is coming up! Check out
Mormon.org/Christmas.

Con mi amor,

Hermana Abram

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Sister Abram 2.0

November 23, 2015

Halfway through! Many mixed feelings, I'm excited that I've made it halfway, sad to only have half left, and I still don't think it's hit me yet!

So we went to the temple this week. It was AMAZING. I love the temple so so much. While I was there, I felt so much of the spirit. I analyzed my growth over the last 6 months, and I realized that I truly have become someone different, yet someone so much closer to the Lord. 

We saw some amazing miracles this week! After stake conference on Sunday, we were eating dinner with our Branch President, a very active family, and a semi less active family. While we were there, President Ramirez began to encourage the members to invite their friends over and allow us to come teach them. He shared his testimony of the power of their homes. Then, we were invited back over to teach the nephew of the semi less active family who we had accidentally met just a few hours before by knocking on the wrong door. As we left the apartment, we saw a woman sitting outside on the balcony alone. The spirit was whisper-yelling at me to go up to her, so we awkwardly began conversation. Her name was Elvia and she began to share with us all about her struggles with her wayward daughter. Tears filled her eyes and you could feel her pain. We testified to her of the healing power of the atonement of Jesus Christ. We shared with her that we have a glad message that will heal those wounds she hides from the world, in a way that only the Savior can. She accepted us back to visit with her, on the condition that her semi-less active neighbors (who we had just visited) participate in the lesson. This, to me, is an evidence of the reality of my call. Here we are, 20 year old strangers who really don't know much about life or the world, yet this woman felt the spirit confirm to her that we were trustworthy and that she could share the feelings and thoughts of her heart.

The last miracle of the night was with a former investigator. He is part of a part member, returning less active family that we have been counseled to focus on. We stopped in to check up on the family. We spent time discussing the principle of faith with the husband who believes he doesn't have faith. We defined faith as the desire to believe in something you can't see. He agreed that he has that desire, to which we testified that that means he does have faith. The next thing we knew he began to say, "You know why I don't want to get baptized?" and then he proceeded to explain all the reasons why he didn't want to be baptized. It was miraculous because he finally told us of his preoccupations, and we were able to focus on the foundation of his testimony-- God is our Heavenly Father, and how we can have faith in Him. 

As I mentioned earlier, stake conference was this weekend, and it was full of revelation for Sister Abram. I went to the temple on Friday with a question/concern for the Lord. While I sat in the temple, I did not receive any direct answer or inspiration, but I knew He was listening. I was content with that and I had the faith that He would answer me. Then while I sat at Stake conference, I received an explicitly direct answer to my question that was as though the Lord was standing right at that microphone answering me. It was an incredible tender mercy. 

As a final note, I would like to share something from the Saturday evening session of Stake Conference (which everyone must go to). One thought shared was a story from Pres Eyring: 

"When we render any service in the kingdom--be it teaching a … lesson or dry pack canning at Welfare Square--it will be of much less value to us if we only see it as a ‘To Do’ item. … But if we visualize ourselves laying on the altar to God our talents or our time commitment, such as in attending an inconvenient church meeting, then our sacrifice becomes personal and devotional to Him.”

A story shared by our beloved associate, Elder Henry B. Eyring, illustrates this principle of commitment still further. This story is about his father, the great scientist Henry Eyring, who served on the Bonneville Stake high council. He was responsible for the welfare farm, which included a field of onions that needed to be weeded. At that time, he was nearly 80 and suffering from painful bone cancer. He assigned himself to do weeding even though the pain was so great that he pulled himself along on his stomach with his elbows. The pain was too great for him to kneel. Yet he smiled, laughed, and talked happily with the others who were there that day weeding that field of onions. I now quote what Elder Eyring said of this incident:

   “After all the work was finished and the onions were all weeded, someone [said to] him, ‘Henry, good heavens! You didn’t pull those weeds, did you? Those weeds were sprayed two days ago, and they were going to die anyway.’

 “Dad just roared. He thought that was the funniest thing. He thought it was a great joke on himself. He had worked through the day in the wrong weeds. They had been sprayed and would have died anyway.

 “… I [asked] him, ‘Dad how could you make a joke out of that?’ …

   “He said something to me that I will never forget. … He said, ‘Hal, I wasn’t there for the weeds.’”

We accomplish great things by doing them for the Savior. As Thanksgiving approaches, I invite all of you to focus on the things you are asked to do in your individual lives and reflect on all that was done for you by our Savior Jesus Christ. 

¡Que pasen bien y espero que disfruten su día de acción de gracias! 

Con mucho amor, 

Hermana Abram 

Sent from my heart

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Life in Lainer

November 16, 2015

Buenas tardes a todos :)

This week has been so amazing. Being transferred was definitely the great fresh start I was looking for. I can say I am so happy, and everything just looks so bright and inviting. I got to finally start strong somewhere, and I'm starting running.

First of all, I love my companion Hna Ray. She is also from Colorado, and really, we are so different but we get along so well. She and I see eye to eye on many things and she is relatively new to the area as well, so we both have this white wash kind of fire inside of us. There are
things she has wanted to turn around and things I learned how to do that we are totally going to start rocking here. I'm really grateful for the time I was able to spend in Cumorah, because it taught me incredible things. Cumorah gave me the habits and the skills and the confidence I think I needed to come to Lanier and be the best Sister Abram for these people.

My first full day here, we were knocking on doors, and this woman named Maria opened. She gave us a funny look, but let us into her home. We began to talk with her and get to know her. The rest is a blur, but at some point, I felt inspired to ask her if she knew she was a daughter of God. Tears began to flow down her face and she poured her heart out to us. The most amazing part was being able to testify of the love Heavenly Father has for her, and truly feeling a connection with her. We have an appointment with her tonight, where we will teach her more about her Savior and His role in her life.

Honestly, the biggest thing to report is that I'm happy. Learning the language with your companion, not knowing the area or any of the people, and wanting to be able to work miracles really pushes you down to your knees so you can pray to find the guidance necessary. And somehow He always solves the things you can't seem to do on your own.

I have finally moved to the South! This was the Georgia I was expecting, the Georgia I didn't see while living in Roswell! There are so many trees, the sky is amazing, and everything is so beautiful. The Church members are shocked I speak Spanish and they cook really well :)

Love you all! Have a wonderful week, and don't forget to pray :)

  

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....Blog now resuming after a slight delay....

So, Hermana Abram has continued to faithfully write letters and notes each week. 
  
I, on the other hand, have not been as diligent in posting those to this blog.

So, over the next few days, you can expect to see lots of activity as I do my best to catch up on nearly six months of  her weekly writings.

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