Dudley, Emma

Wow, this has been the craziest, busiest week of my life!! This transfer, I am in a new area with a new companion and have new responsibilities to be able to serve the other missionaries.  From the moment that I dropped off my bags at our apartment, we've been busy. 4 of our Hermanas are training new missionaries, so we were helping all of them get ready, and then we got to pick up the new missionaries and hang out with them before it was time for them to go to the mission home. We've had a lot of meetings this week which has been exhausting, but something that's helped me a ton is thinking about Jesus Christ there sitting next to me in the planning meetings and in the trainings.  We also were able to witness many miracles as our friends made choices to come unto Christ!  We met Brenda and the Cerritos hermanas at the Newport Beach Temple on Friday and were able to watch as Brenda (from my old area) performed baptisms for her grandma and other close family members. It was...

Well this was my last week here in Cerritos.  We witnessed so many miracles this week! The Lord led us to many new people ready to hear his gospel, including Xochitl who was going through many personal trials so she requested missionaries to pray for her and we were able to come and minister to her. We felt joy as Hermana Martinez, Maria, and Darlene came to church to partake of the sacrament. Friends and returning members who we are bringing Home. Then yesterday when we were at the LA Temple Visitor's Center with Brenda's family, we were talking to sweet 9-year-old Jeovani about what happens after we die and he said "I felt the Spirit. Jesus is telling me that I should get baptized. I want to get baptized on my birthday because even though it's my birthday, I want to give a present to Jesus." It was beautiful to see the Lord working miracles in each of these friends and it is said to see my time here come to an end.  It hurts my heart to leave this place I've...

I just love Cerritos so much. And I love Hermana Young so much. God knew exactly what he was doing when he put us here together. We have gone through so much but I know that God has made us stronger and better through it all.  Miracles ☆We had two amazing lessons with Jeovani (Brenda's son) about baptism! He's still not ready, but he came to a little girl from our wards baptism on Saturday!!. ☆On Tuesday for the "car fast," we planned on using the bus to get to our lesson with recent converts in Bellflower. We didn't realize we couldn't use our cards, so the 5 dollars we had in cash between us both got us on the two buses to get to Norma's house, but we were stuck there! Norma fed us the best chicken Alfredo and then we had a lesson on the Plan of Salvation with her mom, Catalina. Thankfully, Brenda came to pick us up and we ended up going to institute with her. It would have been a looooong walk back.  ☆We went to teach our friend Irene who we found last ...

This week has been a testament to me that God is truly in the details of each of our lives.  Our friend Alfredo, who was going to be baptized this coming Sunday, called us last Tuesday and told us he had decided to move back to México in two days. We were so sad.  But we had this amazing lesson right before he left on the Restoration of the gospel. He shared His story with us and it was amazing to hear even more miracles in his life to lead him to this point.  He grew up close to members of our Church, even worked for many years in Mexico for a bakery owned by a member of the Church. This member was always a good friend to him and even helped him move here. Before his wife passed away, she listened to the missionaries and he felt that the missionaries brought her hope and were keeping her alive.  That all prepared him for that day a few months ago when we were passing by him sitting on his chair outside his house and we asked if we could share a message with him abou...

HI everyone! This week has been filled with miracles! ☆We had an amazing lesson with Jeovannie about the 10 commandments. He asked so many questions and was so excited that we talked for an hour! It is so sweet to see this 9 year old get excited about the gospel of Jesus Christ! ☆Mociel was able to get married to her husband and then ended up moving back to México to be with her family when she has her baby. We will miss her. But we are so excited for her that she was finally able to get married!! ☆We have a new mission wide car fast every Tuesday where we have to walk, use public transportation, or get rides from members. Last minute we asked Hermana Luque to drive us to our 2 lessons and she was definitely supposed to be there! She was able to help Mociel with some advice and shared her Conversion story when she came with us to teach La Familia Perez. It was so powerful! She was definitely meant to be there that night.  ☆We gave last minute Talks in Sacrament meeting. Although we...